A Truly International Event: X-Wing European championships 2017
Welcome back everybody, here is a report of my experience at the X-wing European championships.
You should totally check out my squad mate Janus’ report as well
To say that it was anything other than an international event would be a disservice. I played more opponents from other countries than the UK. Every single opponent I came up against was terrifyingly proficient in this little tabletop game. It seems that our little world has become a big one…
Intro and preparation
Going into the Euros I was feeling fairly confident. I had put in a good showing at Yavin with exactly the same list, as well as hitting the cuts of most regional and store championship competitions I have entered this year. You can see how I came to be flying it in my previous blog.
For those of you that are lazy, here it is:
Having practised with the list for around six months there is very little I haven’t seen across the table from me and that puts you in such a good position when it comes to deciding what to kill first and how to engage. The most important thing to remember was the back of the T shirt: Don’t be overconfident, treat each game with the respect it deserves.
Using this knowledge, I went fully prepared and with a good night’s sleep.
Game 1: Off Jenkins (Poland)
List: Captain Rex, Miranda Doni, Warden Squadron Pilot
So, round one is up and I am paired up against what is probably the worst match-up I can think of: K-wing Bombers flown by my good friend Off.
Knowing that Off knows exactly how to use the bombers gave me some serious first round jitters but I kept confidence in the fact that I had the firepower to take down one of the K-wings very fast if he put it in the wrong place. This would be a game of positioning.
We proceeded to circle the central rocks for most of the game, the first engagement trading two shields on Asajj for two hull on Rex. At this point I was trying to use Asajj as a large speed bump. Positioning the Fangs behind her meant if I needed to slow them down by self bumping I could. Her large base is also harder to SLAM over, keeping them safer from bombs.
Having lost two shields on the Lancer I was painfully aware that one more turn of TLT fire could see me 20 points down and chasing the win. Playing slightly more conservatively with Asajj, she skirted the bottom of the board. Trying to corral Captain Rex back into range of her side arc so she could finish the job.
The circle continued, with Miranda and the warden trying to strip hull points from Fenn with their TLT. I am doing my best to hide the Fangs behind rocks to prevent this. A few turns later Off finally caught up with my Fangs, planting a Connor Net squarely on the head of Old Teroch and stripping half of his hull away. In the same turn, Fenn reduced Rex to a pile of smoking ash, leaving me up on points.
The key play here was that both Asajj and Fenn were set up to threaten the Warden when he came in to bomb Teroch. This forced Off to take the careful play and not SLAM into the centre of the board, which would have allowed him to easily finish Teroch next turn. If he had, then the Warden could have easily died in a single turn of combined Range One firepower.
Now the chase really began, with Teroch toast if he caught another bomb and with half an hour of the match to go the pressure was on. Off had to catch my Fang without risking his K-wings and I could continue to present the broadside of Asajj as an effective, stressful deterrent. We put in some hard thinking culminating in a nail biting final turn where Teroch had to dodge both of Miranda’s TLT shots as she caught him R2 in arc. I had made a mistake here, thinking that she would SLAM to try and bomb him, instead both our ships went slowly and she took a target lock.
With the table set, it now came down to dice. I had no way of killing Miranda, all that remained to be seen was if she could take the remaining two hull from Teroch. Spending his target lock on the first shot, I blanked out and Teroch had a single hull point remaining. Off spent a shield to get another two hits with the second shot. I roll two symbols on the green dice and Teroch survived for the victory.
Too close…
Win: 14–0
Game 2: Ben Lee (186th Squadron)
List: Parattani (Fenn, Asajj, Manaroo)
So after the first round with such a tough match-up I’m due a break right?
Wrong…
Being paired against Ben is always a tough game and this time is no exception. Flying standard Parattanni we matched up very well against each other and had played this game a few times before. Crucially I won the initiative roll, putting pressure on his Fenn to guess where I was going.
This game was decided by a large bump fest in the centre of the board. Both Ventress clones facing off against each other with the fangs behind them. Crucially, Ben’s Manaroo was unable to turn right with the stress assigned by Ventress. In the end he decided to do a 1 forward and focus. Forcing her over an asteroid next turn and denying the other ships a crucial focus action.
Unfortunately for Ben I reduced his Asajj to half health in a single turn. The rest of the game was decided by chance with my attack dice ruining Ben’s day and placing a damaged sensor crit on Asajj, meaning she could not move her mobile arc for two turns. Taking both of Ben’s ships down to half health the game ended there. With Ben accepting defeat and retreating to conserve MOV.
Win: 34–0
Game 3: Mike Dennis (186th Squadron)
List: Rau Boats (Fenn and 2x torpedo boats with Ops Spec and Unhinged)
So it’s like that is it? At this point I’m starting to think that Vince Kingston and his judging team has it in for me. My first three games have been against good friends and seriously high level opponents. I was now starting to understand the true meaning of the European Championships. There are no easy games here…
In my game with Mike I used a strategy that I perfected in the previous week against Faan Langalang on Vassal. Faan is an incredible Jumpmaster pilot and it was great to get some practice against him before the Euros (this will become relevant later). Trapping Mike’s Jumps between a rock and a stress giver proved to be Mike’s undoing as my good attack rolls compounded the problem. The two Jumpmasters went down in quick succession with Fenn running away to conserve MOV.
Win 68–0
Game 4: Marton Kenessey (Hungary)
List: Triple Jumps (4 lom Boba intel aggromech)
Finally someone new! As I said hello to a very friendly Marton, he told me he was from Hungary. Turns out he’s friends with one of the other people I have met on Vassal, Benjamin Toth. I met Benjamin for the first time at Yavin and it was an honor to play one of his colleagues. After a little more conversation I found out that Marton had just beaten my team mate Janus Avison. With him also sitting on 3 straight wins I knew this was an opponent not to be underestimated.
The game started very cagey, my rock setup and deployment meaning Marton could not come straight at me. This was good news for me as the Jumpmasters would be going around the board the opposite way they wanted to, with their green turns taking them off the board and not into the centre. This is key when trying to beat the triple scouts while stressed.
Being sensible Marton did not fly through the asteroids, rather spending 15 minutes taking the long way around until there were only two in between us. In the opening engagement, Marton was defensive as Asajj went about stressing his list. He gained the target locks he needed from the agromechs and it was clear he wanted to kill Fenn.
A few rounds later the Jumpmasters executed their trap, with Fenn being trapped at range 2, I had a hard choice. Take a boost or a second focus. The boost would allow me to get behind the asteroid and also activate auto-thrusters. It would also leave 4-Lom the option to deny me using the focus at all on the defense roll. Or I could stay put, hope to roll well and weather the storm.
Using an asteroid for cover, Fenn survived the torpedo shot, taking three damage in the process. The combined firepower of Fenn and Asajj managed to take one of the boats down to half health.
The dogfighting continued with Marton swapping out his damaged Jumpmasters and trying to get good shots on the darting Protectorates. The game ended with all six ships on the board. Fenn was still running on a single hull point but Marton had taken half damage on all three of his Jumpmasters. The game was won!
Win: 48–0
I had played four incredibly tough opponents and managed to end up on 4 wins. Giving away no points all day was fantastic but my wins were close. The pressure was on for day two as my MOV was very poor. This meant if I wanted to hit the cut, I could only afford to drop a single game. Here’s hoping for some easier match ups!
Stay Tuned for part two of my Euros report!
You can also read the final journey of the fire-sprays by Phil GC over here!
