X-Wing Tournament Report : La boite à Chimère (Rouen) - part2

This is part 2 of my debrief, you can find part 1 : here.

Apparently my win at the French X-Wing Nationals inspired some people, so I got a taste of my own medicine!

Game 3, PurpleBoy and a 4 academies, 4 obsidians swarm :

He deployed in 2 groups while I deployed in a loose group on the left side of the board. His obsidians are left, and the academies hug the edge.

Since he split in 2 groups I decided to defeat him piecemeal, and concentrated on the academies, closing aggressively with ties. The shuttle started a stately turn to face the obsidians. With most of my firepower at range 1, and his obsidians farther away in turn 2 and 3 I took down 2 academies and 1 obsidian, losing a single academy plus some damages.

We played a couple more turns, I think, with me trying to keep the shuttle alive and finished on 4 ties on each side, with the shuttle still alive:

At that point, I think I was not too good if the game had continued, as the shuttle is mostly out of the action for at least 3 turns and his firepower is more concentrated than mine, but due to the time limit, his split deployment cost him the game with the screen of asteroids in between.

Game 4, Ptit Pierre and another 4 academies and 4 obsidians swarm:

Ptit Pierre is a young player, but really impressed me with his knowledge of the game and skill. That game was really interesting and engrossing, which of course means that I did not take pictures as I should have...

Basically he deployed in a big lump on my left side, took a beeline to the lambda, and destroyed it, loosing 3 ties in the process to my flanking force. I then kept that 1 tie advantage to the endgame where we finished with 4 ties left on my side to his 3, giving me a modified win.

However, I think I had the weaker start. As you can see in the deployement picture I had 4 Ties deployed really far from the shuttle and decided to go forward fast to reach the board center and then flank him. That was a mistake. It meant that when our forces joined, half my force was still at range 3 diminishing my firepower. Thankfully he also made a mistake, attacking in 2 columns of 4 ties, meaning that the back ties were at least a range band behind the front ones.

Game 5, Cahal and his anti-swarm list:
Roark, recon specialist, blaster turret
Blount, assault missile, squad leader
2 Green squadron pilots, assault missile, adrenaline rush

Most of this game hinged on wether I would be able to spread my ships enough to prevent to much splash damage.

I deployed spread out, in 4 columns. He of course deployed grouped to benefit from roark and squad leader.

The leftmost A-wing, using boost and a squad leader lock, took a couple of shield off the lambda, but the Ties were too far.

Blount got to fire his missile in turn 2, but only dealt a couple of damage due to my spreading out.

I took down Blount and Roark in return (turn 2 and 3)

His adrenaline A wings K-turned and launched the remaining assault missile but it was too late by then.

3 assault missiles are no laughing matter for a swarm, but with 3 2 attack dices ships and a blaster turret, it really hinges on dealing good splash damage and even then the ships struggle to land hits on Ties.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Tournament Report : La boite à Chimère (Rouen) - part1

A bit late in my reporting! Last month I played in a small tournament at La Boite à Chimère in Rouen. The shop is  nice, with lots of parking and really awesome tables painted by Hert:

You can click on the following images for bigger pictures:

     

 

I decided to bring my usual swarm but with a twist : I replaced 2 Ties with a buzzsaw shuttle:
6 Academies 72
OGP, Fire Control System,  Gunner 28

I won't do a turn by turn report of all 4 games but only give you the highlights:

Game 1 :

Crevette and a pretty atypical list with :
Shadow squadron pilot, advanced cloacking device +?
Bounty hunter
Dark curse
Alpha squadron pilot

Deployment:

I deployed my ties in 2 groups ready to cross the first asteroid on my left, and deployed the shuttle in front of his interceptor. He then deployed the rest of his ships.

Pedal to the metal I closed the distance as fast as possible, taking down the alpha squadron on turn 2 with I think a lucky shot with the shuttle and some help from the lead Ties.

Turn 3 was brutal for him :

The shadow squadron got caught in the furball at range 1 of the shuttle and with the added firepower of a couple of ties exploded:

After that the game turned to hunt the Bounty Hunter.

His list was not really optimized, but against my low PS swarm a shadow squadron PS5 is not really a problem, so it's actually not that bad. He lost the game when the Phantom entered the furball.

The buzzsaw was nice in this game, mostly for its firepower at all range even when blocked.

Game 2 : 

Yann is the owner of the shop and runs a pretty tight ship.

He was playing: 

Etahn A'Baht, advanced sensors, R2D2

5 bandit squadron

A list that I was really interested to face as it's crit generation could pose a big problem to my Ties.

Turn 1, at PS2:

The only thing I knew was that I did not want to get caught byt the Z95 at range 1 while in the sights of Etahn so I spread my swarm in a big line to force some choices on his part.

He decided to go for the shuttle with Etahn so my Ties were free to run havoc in his lines. The shuttle lost some shields, but with 6 ties + shuttle to his 5 Z firepower I managed to destroy 3 Z95 while only loosing 1 Tie ( blocking with damaged Ties allowed me to spread his firepower, so it was not that loopsided  in damage dealt but it left me with 6 guns to his 3.

I then mopped up the rest of his forces:

Here I think Yann made a mistake and should have kept Etahn on the Ties, allowing him to accumulate crits and reduce my firepower faster. However, I did roll above average with my defense dice so it was really hard for his 2 attack ships to land hits and I'm not sure it would have turned the game around but it would have been probably closer.

Expect part 2 soon.

Time to reload,
Ica