A few weeks ago I played in and won my first X-Wing tournament! It took place at
All the Kings Men in Pitman, NJ where I have been playing on Monday nights as of late.
You can see the list I ran
here.
My overall strategy was to keep the Lambda class back as far as possible and stay close to the edge of the map limiting the directions that opponents could attack me from. My Tie fighters deployed opposite and engaged the opposing ships, generally taking evade actions to maximize their longevity. When my opponent went for my lambda class I would try to cause as many ship collisions as possible to maximize the use of my anti-pursuit lasers and give my Tie fighters time to chip away at my opponents hulls.
During the day I faced a 3 large ship list and 2 seven tie swarms. My first match against the three large ships I managed to get them entangled with my ties and hammered away with the heavy laser cannon. Once I got behind the opposing lambdas they were pretty much goners.
Game 2 was against my brothers tie swarm. This the match up I had crafted my list to handle and It went mostly how I had planned it to go. My five fighters raced ahead to meet his seven while the lambda hung back and devoured ships from afar. Things went mostly according to plan and I got done in time to go up stairs, get a soda, and relax a bit before the final round.
The final match of the day was against one of my friend, Joe, who I had infected with a love for the game a few weeks prior to the tournament. Joe is the epitome of a power gamer. He makes strong lists and plays them well in every system we play. Every game against him is always a challenge and i knew this game wouldn't be any different.
His list was similar to the one I faced in game 2 with a horde of seven ties including Howlrunner and some other named pilots. We placed the asteroid markers mostly to my right of the map and I deployed within them to cover my approach. Joe deployed in the adjacent corner and had a clear path down to my end.
The big difference in this match was in the way my opponent maneuvered. Each of his seven ties maintained a massed formation 3/4 of the way down the map where I decided to turtle in my corner. I hit asteroids and bumped my own ships trying to stay back as far as possible from his organized assault. Finally once he split his forces into two groups I sent bait ties forward as far as possible to keep his forces from rallying around Howlrunner and create some chaos for my lambda to take advantage of. At this point many game turns had taken place and when we finally joined battle I was already in my survival mode mindset. Tragedy struck when a lucky critical card took the heavy laser cannon of my lambda. With my most powerful weapon lost I began to think I had already lost the match at this point. We had been playing for quite a while and most of our ships had taken some damage. Looking at my ships most had been damaged while I had managed to focus fire on just a few of my opponents ties.
Final fantasy seven had just released on steam that weekend, and the battle arena flashed through my mind as I told my opponent the brave do not fear the grave. I placed a focus token on my tie who had a long range shot lined up at his most damaged ship. Against all odds that brave tie pilot shot right through his four evade dice and got the kill! Exalted by my small victory in the face of impending defeat I glanced over my remaining ships. One tie down and everything else I had was heavily damaged. One more hit could have ended any of them. My opponents remaining ships, on the other hand, were barely scratched. We began the next turn, and after maneuvers had been made we began firing shots. A few inconsequential rolls into the phase the TO called dice down and came over to tally points.
After 75 minutes of intense maneuvering, counter maneuvering and rolls of the dice the final tally was my heavy laser cannon upgrade and one tie lost versus my opponents two academy ties. (19 points destroyed vs. 24 points destroyed) Still not believing the scores the TO congratulated me on my modified victory and proceeded to announce the prizes.
I have to say I have really been enjoying playing this game more than any other I have picked up. The rule set is simple yet complete and a game can be so complex with all of the planning and prediction involved. I can play a fun game with my five year old and have a match like the one i just described above where every maneuver and roll counts. I would strongly encourage you to give the game a try if you can!
We have an average of 6-8 guys show up every week to play a few games. If you live in the area stop on by from 6:30-9pm and join us for a game!
