List Building:
I had some trouble coming up with a list for this tournament, I played in two X-wing tournaments when I was away at university with some success and played rebels both times as they are the largest collections and the ships I am most comfortable with. In the first tournament I played Poe with Push the limit, R2-D2 and integrated astromech, two B-Wings and a Z-95 and came in 6th I think, which I felt pretty good about at the time. In the second tournament I ran a rebel swarm of sorts with a Blue T-70 with R2-D2 and integrated astromech, two TLT Y-Wings and two Z-95 headhunters and came in 4th I think. So with that history in mind I decided I wanted a list with Poe in it despite my last lists relative success, and was very sold on TLT Y-Wings. I first tried building a double regen list with a stresshog Y-wing for control but found if the dice fell wrong I could be down to Poe alone in no time. The answer in the end was not an original one but since I had no idea what the local meta was as I only found out about the store the week before. I ended up bringing 3 time world champion Paul Heaver's winning list from two years prior with R2-D2 VI and autothrusters, a TLT-Y-Wing a stresshog and a Z-95, all ships I was very familiar with and all tried and true builds. I also felt that regardless of the meta at the store this list would be flexible enough to at least have a chance against anything I flew against.
The Tournament:
When I arrived the day of I had a look around at other people’s lists and talked to some people and found that there were lots of TLT Y-wings, tonnes of Tie Defender Countess Ryads, Tonnes of tractor beams and a surprisingly large number of large base rebel ships. I got a little nervous and plunged into the tournament.
Round 1:
In round 1 I was paired against another rebel player, this one had pilot skill 9 Poe with R2-D2 and Rey with Finn. I knew this was a good match for me and it turned out this was my opponent’s first tournament so I helped him with the rules a bit and we got started. I set up first with everything but Poe and set up in the middle of the board with a clear attack route to either side and he took the right corner. I accelerated forward bumping a bit but not when actions were needed. We jousted and he got very poor luck with rey in arc at range one rolling all but one blank, I focused everything on Rey and took away her shields as well as stressing her with the Hog. I blocked Rey with the Z-95 and kept her where she was to fire with the rest of the team the next turn and in another turn after that Poe finished her off, the opponents Poe took off my TLT Y-Wing which was almost dead and took my Z-95 to 1 health before I took him off. The game ended with 100-24.
Round 2:
I was pretty confident after how well my first game went right up until I saw my opponents list, he was one of the few players running scum and I had seen him annihilate his last opponent while losing only a Z-95 as he was on the table one over. He was running two TLT Y-wings with unhinged astromech, two Z-95s with slicer tools Serissu to boost all his ships defense with a tractor beam. After a lot of maneuvering through the asteroids my opponent out flew me and got shots with his whole squad on my Z-95 annihilating it, he then tractored my stresshog onto a rock so it missed its shot, in the next few rounds I killed Serissu but lost my stresshog in the process. I killed a Z-95 with my TLT Y-wing and but that too fell soon after, poe managed to get a TLT Y-Wing to 2 hull and then got 2 range 1 shots on it but had only focus and rolled all blanks and all blanks and a focus which did not do it, the game went to time although me and my opponent agreed if there had been another round the TLT would have been off and with counting the points we would have tied! Match ended with 36-62 (I think).
Round 3:
I came up against a list running the ghost with phantom and Biggs with R2-D2 and IA to make me fire at him. The ghost had Kanan a recon specialist and Rey to make for a great combo of double focus, focus storing and attack die reducing every turn (VERY annoying). We did some feinting through the asteroids at each other before engaging, in the opening shots I took Biggs down to 1 health and just barely dodged the main arc of the Ghost by boosting behind an asteroid with Poe. I also double stressed Biggs with the Hog, he fired Biggs at unfocussed Poe through the asteroid as well as 4 TLT shots from the ghost at Poe who just barely pulled through with 2 health. The next round Biggs regened Poe regened and focused this time and my Z-95 charged through an asteroid to range one, Poe killed Biggs, the ghost took off my Z-95 with its primary arc and the end of round TLTs missed focused Poe completely. Although my TLT Y-Wing did some damage my stresshog was out of arc and so couldn’t stress the ghost. The next few turns I pounded away with Poe and the TLT y-wing but he focused on the Y-wing and killed it but at this point the ghost was at 6 health and my Poe had regened everything but the hull. My stresshog finally got turned around on the same turn he decided to launch the phantom, at this point he began focusing on Poe again and got him to two hull again, my Y-wing stressed the phantom and Poe (with reduced attack as it had been every turn hit the phantom only a bit and would have likely been cleared of a bystander hadn’t noticed that the second TLT shots were only when the phantom was docked. Poe and my stresshog pursued the ghost ignoring the phantom as it was going to take time to turn around with the stress. Poe moved in going to 1 hull but taking off the ghost! Time was almost out so Poe 3 greened forward regened a shield and focused against the phantoms shot which he blocked. Match ended in 78-36.
Aftermath:
I was frankly shocked when they announced I’d come in third as I thought I had done much worse but was happy none the less and got a few alternate art cards some tokens and a little store credit! In retrospect I made a lot of mistakes especially in my 2nd game but felt that being as rusty as I am I did pretty well. I found my opponents friendly and the games fun if nerve wracking and I’ll definitely be going back!
