My FLGS, Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs, is running a month-long X-Wing tournament during October on Thursday nights. The basic setup: you have to choose one faction and stick with that through the whole tournament, although you can change the squad composition. Max squad value is 100 points. Participants have to play in at least 4 games, and the store staff provides a different scenario each week. I went with Rebels, and my first game was last night.
Last night's scenario was a straight up "slayer" mission, with the tournament 75-minute rule in effect. My squad was composed as follows (pilot ranks are in parentheses):
Dagger Squadron Pilot (4), B-wing (with Autoblaster upgrade)
Luke Skywalker (eight), X-wing (with R2-D2 and Advanced Proton Torpedo upgrades)
Wedge Antilles (9), X-wing (with R5-D8 upgrade)
My opponent:
Colonel Jendon (6),
Lambda-class shuttle (with ST-321 title card upgrade)
Major Rhymer (7), TIE bomber (with Adrenaline Rush, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Cluster Missiles, and Proton Bombs upgrades)
Soontir Fel (9), TIE interceptor (with Swarm Tactics)
I left my space battle mat at home, so we had to use one of the plain black store mats.
After placing the asteroids, here were the initial ship placements:
Turn one saw a couple of long-range shots between Soontir and Wedge, with no hits scored.
Soontir was using a target lock given him by Colonel Jendon--the ST-321 upgrade allows the shuttle to lock any enemy target in range, and then give the target lock to any friendly vessel (which really helps TIE interceptors and fighters, since they don't have that ability).
In turn two, Wedge and Soontir collided. Soontir fired on Luke (aka the Farmboy from Tattooine), knocking off one shield point. Wedge fired on Major Rhymer and missed, while Rhymer returned fire with Advanced Proton Torpedoes, knocking off both of Wedge's shield points and a hull point. Colonel Jendon also fired on Wedge, but he was able to evade both hits. Luke and the B-wing both had no targets.
In turn three, Luke managed to fly into an asteroid, and due to maneuvering no pilots on either side had targets. Ironically, Luke had the shuttle in range and in his firing arc, but his collision with the asteroid prevented him from firing.
In turn four, Luke fired on Major Rhymer, causing two hull points of damage. The B-Wing fired on Soontir, causing a critical hit (Console Fire). Wedge used his R5-D8 astromech to regain a hull point, bringing him back to full hull strength (with R5-D8, Wedge can use his one free action to roll an evade die--on a roll of "evade" or "focus", he can discard one facedown damage card).
Wedge met his maker in turn five. Soontir fired on him and missed, and then Major Rhymer fired his cluster missiles, which Wedge was not able to avoid. Rhymer scored three hits, and Wedge had no shields left. I swear, whenever I use Wedge, he always ends up being the first to get shot down. Colonel Jendon and the B-wing went nose-to-nose, with Jendon scoring two hits and the B-wing scoring three.
Due to the close proximity of Luke with Major Rhymer and Soontir, Rhymer dropped a proton bomb in turn six right before he moved. This is akin to farting in an enclosed room and then leaving. The proton bomb is dropped when the equipped starfighter reveals its movement dial, and it detonates at the end of the turn. Any ship within range one of the bomb suffers a critical hit, regardless of whether or not it still has shield points. Luke couldn't get far enough away, and received the "Blinded Pilot" crit. Soontir fired on the B-wing, but missed.
Soontir and Rhymer both fired on Luke in turn seven, with no hits. The B-wing got the drop on Colonel Jendon but was unable to capitalize, only scoring one hit.
Luke waxed Soontir at the beginning of turn eight. Rhymer hit Luke, knocking off a shield point. Luckily, R2-D2 allows Luke to regain shield points every time he performs a green maneuver.
At this point, with time on the clock winding down and the shuttle out of range (and still having lots of shield points and full hull point health), I decided to focus on the TIE bomber. I figured he wouldn't be as much of a threat as he had expended all of his secondary munitions, and was down to his normal laser cannons.
Luke scored three hits on Major Rhymer in turn nine, and the B-wing fired on Rhymer as well but with no hits.
And finally, in turn ten, the B-wing destroyed Major Rhymer with the Autoblaster. With the Autoblaster, I can roll three attack dice, and the defender cannot evade standard hits--any "evades" that he rolls on his evasion dice only apply to critical hits. I rolled three standard hits, which polished off the TIE bomber.
So the final point total: Rebels 73, Imperials 32.
I like this squad build, and I think I'll keep it for the next scenario as well. Will post a report after the next battle.
Thanks for reading!
