Wednesday, March 26, 2014
X-Wing Regionals 2014 - Practice Game Battle Report
My buddy Chad and are fiercely tiring to nail down the list he will be taking to Regionals in May, and here is a video battle report of our last game.
Please, let me know of any feedback you might have, and enjoy!
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Preparing for X-Wing Regionals 2014: The List
 |
| Attack of the Tie Swarm! |
When Fantasy Flight Games announced the times and locations
for this year’s X-Wing Regional tournaments, I was ecstatic to learn that the nearest
location for my region was less than 20 minutes away from my house! This all but secured the fact that I would be
attending the event this year. So with
the date quickly approaching, May 3rd, I need to prepare myself for
this big time event.
Background
First, some background information on me and my X-Wing experience. I have none, not really. I am, or was, primarily a Warhammer 40K player. But as that game slowly but surely descends into the bowels of chaos with more and more broken rules and a company who clearly doesn’t care about their game (I have a good rant on that topic), I decided it was time to go and pick up a new game to play competitively. I had a copy of the Core Set for a while and had added a few new ships here and there for fun, but had not really taken the game all too seriously.
As I starting playing the game more regularly it clicked with me how simple the rule set was, but how deep the tactical aspect of the game were. Flying ships around the board is just good clean fun, but doing it with a purpose was very fascinating to me. I started to add to my X-Wing collection, and with each new ship, each new upgrade or modification, I was finding new and better ways to play the game. I am officially hooked! And I started playing X-Wing full time! So being the competitive guy that I am, my next step is to test the waters of the tournament scene. This will be my first jump into the competitive pool and I want to do well while I am there.
I have no delusions of bringing home the win. With this being one of only two Regionals in a seven state area, I expect to see some really good player there. With far more experience than I have. But I look forward to the challenge and hopefully will make some new contacts in the local X-Wing community. A few wins there wouldn’t hurt the ego either.
So, what to fly at your first big event? The lists that don’t make the cut…
Currently I have three lists that I really like at the competitive level. First is the three X-Wing build with Wedge, Luke, Biggs, some shields, R-2, Draw their Fire and whatnot. It is a fairly popular build on the interwebs, which I’ll admit I stole from those now famous Team Covenant YouTube videos of the National and World Championships. If you have not seen these by the way, check them out, there is so much to learn from them. However, my buddy’s son happens to really like that list and is far better with it then most of the guys in our gaming groups. So, since everyone is borrowing ships from me to play in the event (I mentioned I’m hooked on this game and now have a ton of ships, right?) I can’t run that list.
The second list that appealed to me was the two X-Wing, 2B-Wing list with advanced sensors on the B-Wings and Biggs. This list (well rather the player Paul Heaver, congrats man!) won the first ever X-Wing World Championships back in November. So it has to be good, right? Well, it is, in fact it is really good and I really like the way it flies and the severe damage output it is capable of. However this list does have one flaw that I have found in that I can’t seem to fly it correctly no matter how hard I try. My B-Wings, as much as I love them, evade like a heavy loaded garbage truck and end up in the dead pile awfully quick.
So, with that in mind…
It’s not rocket science, is a TIE swarm!
When I first started doing any kind of serious research into this game, one thing became overtly obvious to me. TIE Swarm is king of the battlefield! It has been since Wave 1 and sill is to this day. TIE Swarms won nationals in 2012, TIE Swarm dominated Regionals in 2013, TIE Swarm won Nationals 2013, and Paul Heaver played against a TIE Swarm on the final table at Worlds 2013, and nearly lost that game. My point should be very clear, while there are a lot of good players out there, and a lot of fun, imaginative lists, it all still boils down to the tried and true Wave 1 TIE Swarm. So that is what I have chosen to take to Regionals.
Background
First, some background information on me and my X-Wing experience. I have none, not really. I am, or was, primarily a Warhammer 40K player. But as that game slowly but surely descends into the bowels of chaos with more and more broken rules and a company who clearly doesn’t care about their game (I have a good rant on that topic), I decided it was time to go and pick up a new game to play competitively. I had a copy of the Core Set for a while and had added a few new ships here and there for fun, but had not really taken the game all too seriously.
As I starting playing the game more regularly it clicked with me how simple the rule set was, but how deep the tactical aspect of the game were. Flying ships around the board is just good clean fun, but doing it with a purpose was very fascinating to me. I started to add to my X-Wing collection, and with each new ship, each new upgrade or modification, I was finding new and better ways to play the game. I am officially hooked! And I started playing X-Wing full time! So being the competitive guy that I am, my next step is to test the waters of the tournament scene. This will be my first jump into the competitive pool and I want to do well while I am there.
I have no delusions of bringing home the win. With this being one of only two Regionals in a seven state area, I expect to see some really good player there. With far more experience than I have. But I look forward to the challenge and hopefully will make some new contacts in the local X-Wing community. A few wins there wouldn’t hurt the ego either.
So, what to fly at your first big event? The lists that don’t make the cut…
Currently I have three lists that I really like at the competitive level. First is the three X-Wing build with Wedge, Luke, Biggs, some shields, R-2, Draw their Fire and whatnot. It is a fairly popular build on the interwebs, which I’ll admit I stole from those now famous Team Covenant YouTube videos of the National and World Championships. If you have not seen these by the way, check them out, there is so much to learn from them. However, my buddy’s son happens to really like that list and is far better with it then most of the guys in our gaming groups. So, since everyone is borrowing ships from me to play in the event (I mentioned I’m hooked on this game and now have a ton of ships, right?) I can’t run that list.
The second list that appealed to me was the two X-Wing, 2B-Wing list with advanced sensors on the B-Wings and Biggs. This list (well rather the player Paul Heaver, congrats man!) won the first ever X-Wing World Championships back in November. So it has to be good, right? Well, it is, in fact it is really good and I really like the way it flies and the severe damage output it is capable of. However this list does have one flaw that I have found in that I can’t seem to fly it correctly no matter how hard I try. My B-Wings, as much as I love them, evade like a heavy loaded garbage truck and end up in the dead pile awfully quick.
So, with that in mind…
It’s not rocket science, is a TIE swarm!
When I first started doing any kind of serious research into this game, one thing became overtly obvious to me. TIE Swarm is king of the battlefield! It has been since Wave 1 and sill is to this day. TIE Swarms won nationals in 2012, TIE Swarm dominated Regionals in 2013, TIE Swarm won Nationals 2013, and Paul Heaver played against a TIE Swarm on the final table at Worlds 2013, and nearly lost that game. My point should be very clear, while there are a lot of good players out there, and a lot of fun, imaginative lists, it all still boils down to the tried and true Wave 1 TIE Swarm. So that is what I have chosen to take to Regionals.
Put Howlrunner in the mists of 5-6 other TIE fighters, make
one of those 5-6 another named pilot, say Dark Curse or Backstabber, sprinkle in
a variety of pilot skills to your taste, either more PS1s for blocking or more
PS3s for shooting first, and Voila! A
Championship caliber list is born! Now, can the guy flying these ship be up for the challenge???
PROS:
For starters, the 7 TIEs in a list have a lot of versatility and is able to suffer losses and still be effective. They can weather the storm and win the battle of attrition, as usually they out number their opponent 2-1 to start off with. Losing a single TIE is not nearly as bad when you realize it is only 14% (there about) of your squads overall points and you still have 6 more to pick up the slack. Builds with less ships, say 3-4 suffer greatly when they lose a single ship, basically 25% of their force. They can’t target as many ships and therefore cannot destroy most of your squad. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
CONS:
The first big one here is FLYING 7 SHIPS! For a TIE swarm to be effective, it usually involves Howlrunner and her ability to have ships in range 1 re-roll an attack die. This drastically increases the damage output (basically giving them 2.5 attack dice at range 2-3 and 3.5 at range 1) of a single PS1 TIE! However, for that to happen, one has to fly in a formation that will keep as many TIEs in range 1 of Howlrunner as possible. Not always an easy feat, what with asteroids and other ships to worry about. Not to mention the 'lunkhead' rotating the dials.
The second point is that Howlrunner is the linchpin to the squad. Take her out and the effectiveness of the swarm drops off dramatically. While the swarm can survive the loss of Howlrunner, it really starts to lose the war when she is gone and has to depend of the TIEs maneuverability to survive. So protecting her while keeping her in range to help the fight is a difficult trick to pull off.
The List
Nothing too special here, but here is the list I plan to practice and run at Regionals this year!
(21) “Howlrunner” + Stealth Device
(16) “Backstabber”
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(12) Academy Pilot
(12) Academy Pilot
I’ll give you guys some weekly updates on my progress and a full battle report from the event upcoming!
Ed
PROS:
For starters, the 7 TIEs in a list have a lot of versatility and is able to suffer losses and still be effective. They can weather the storm and win the battle of attrition, as usually they out number their opponent 2-1 to start off with. Losing a single TIE is not nearly as bad when you realize it is only 14% (there about) of your squads overall points and you still have 6 more to pick up the slack. Builds with less ships, say 3-4 suffer greatly when they lose a single ship, basically 25% of their force. They can’t target as many ships and therefore cannot destroy most of your squad. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
CONS:
The first big one here is FLYING 7 SHIPS! For a TIE swarm to be effective, it usually involves Howlrunner and her ability to have ships in range 1 re-roll an attack die. This drastically increases the damage output (basically giving them 2.5 attack dice at range 2-3 and 3.5 at range 1) of a single PS1 TIE! However, for that to happen, one has to fly in a formation that will keep as many TIEs in range 1 of Howlrunner as possible. Not always an easy feat, what with asteroids and other ships to worry about. Not to mention the 'lunkhead' rotating the dials.
The second point is that Howlrunner is the linchpin to the squad. Take her out and the effectiveness of the swarm drops off dramatically. While the swarm can survive the loss of Howlrunner, it really starts to lose the war when she is gone and has to depend of the TIEs maneuverability to survive. So protecting her while keeping her in range to help the fight is a difficult trick to pull off.
The List
Nothing too special here, but here is the list I plan to practice and run at Regionals this year!
(21) “Howlrunner” + Stealth Device
(16) “Backstabber”
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(13) Obsidian Squadron Pilot
(12) Academy Pilot
(12) Academy Pilot
I’ll give you guys some weekly updates on my progress and a full battle report from the event upcoming!
Ed
Fantasy Flight Games Announces Dates for X-Wing Regionals!
This one hit Facebook last night but I wanted to make sure you all knew:
http://tools.fantasyflightgames.com/iwp/2014-star-wars-x-wing-regional-championships
I, myself will be attending the one at Mr. Niceguy's in Monroeville, PA on May 3rd!
Now, on to training for this big event!
Ed
Monday, March 3, 2014
Fantany Flight Games Spoils the Tantive IV!
So in case you weren't paying attention over the weekend, Fantasy Flight Games completely spoiled the upcoming release of the Tantive IV!
Here is the link to the official press release: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4663
I want to absorb some of this material and we will talk later about the impact on the game. But here are some of my first reactions to this release:
With the fore and the aft piece, it is a 90 point model stock with no upgrades! What point level will Epic Game play start at? Will the table size increase to afford these new massive models?
C-3P0 finally make an appears as a crew members, and R2-D2 gets another showing as a crew member, all of which are good things! Really looking forward to that!
Range 3-5??? We are increasing the range ruler? Will we get an extension piece? Will Fighter have to endure a round of shooting before they are even in range to fire back?
How does energy work exactly? Sounds like a cool new mechanic to the game!
Total review is coming, I want to take this all in before writing up a full review.
Thanks for reading guys!
EvilEd
How does energy work exactly? Sounds like a cool new mechanic to the game!
Total review is coming, I want to take this all in before writing up a full review.
Thanks for reading guys!
EvilEd
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