The Battle of Yavin: With Added Hat
Greetings fellow pilots, as a first for me I’m going to break down my experience over the Yavin open. It was great to see so many of the friends that I have made in the community, as well as making some new ones. The feeling you get from going to one of these big tourneys is the reason I play X-Wing and I’d recommend it to anyone. A big shout out to the organisers Alex Watkins and Alec Thorne and the man who makes it run on the day with his fantastic team Vince Kingston.
The List
The list I was flying was an evolution of my love affair with some form of interceptor. I have been trying to get the fang fighter to work for me for quite a while now and I will be writing some more about how I got to this point soon. In the meantime…
Fenn Rau (28)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Autothrusters (2)
Old Teroch (26)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Autothrusters (2)
Asajj Ventress (37)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Latts Razzi (2)
TOTAL 100
Before I start I am going to give some advice to anyone and everyone going to a big x wing tourney. Snacks and drink are essential! Seven games of swiss in a single day is a marathon on your brain, legs and back and nothing cheers you up better than a little food.
As I reach into my bag for my ships I find I’ve lost my template holder somewhere along the line, and Latts Razzi crew card is nowhere to be seen!
Poor organisational skills — 1
Oli — 0
Thankfully absolute gent Seb Brady had a spare and pulled me out of my predicament. Not the best start to the weekend but it can only go up from here!
It begins…
Game 1: Lian Smith — Phoenix Squadron
Full List
Lian was a very nice man and put up with me waxing lyrical about how cool his list was. Having just started Rebels season 2 it was nice to see it all in the table.
I knew that my Autothrusters would put me in a good position, provided I could catch the Ghost. It’s Engine Upgrade meant that if Ahsoka could help the Ghost boost at the start of the combat phase. Either dodging my shots, or lining me up for the 5-dice primary. Scary!
After some jockeying for position we rolled into combat. My auto thrusters doing a good job of bouncing 4 TLT shots per turn and Asajj trying to stress the Ghost (As I had initiative this prevented it from boosting in the combat phase). After taking serious damage, the Ghost pooped out a very angry Ezra into the path of Fenn, hoping to take his last point of hull. That plan went south and he was summarily executed by the Mandalorian in a single shot! Fenn paid for his crimes and crumpled to TLT fire but the Ghost and lone Tie Fighter were chased down by Terry for the win.
Win 100–31
Game 2: Andrew Christian — Expertise Rexler, Expertise Duchess, Palpatine
I’ve seen Andrew around before but I don’t think I’ve ever played him. To be fair to him, he did not fly his best this game. Looking across the table to see Asajj in the second round made him quite sad as it was a direct counter to the 8 points of Expertise he was running.
Asajj did her best to turn off Expertise all game using her pilot ability, teaming up with Fenn to successfully murderize Duchess at range one. From there, it was a matter of chasing down Palpatine before I turned on the Defender. Rex did his best and put some serious pain into Asajj before he went down, managing half health on the Shadow Caster.
Win 100–20
Game 3: Sam Abbot — Dual Firespray
This game started with me drooling over Sam’s Kath repaint. I promptly got given the initiative and prepared to play the guessing game with both Sprays moving after me. With Homing Missiles and chips on Boba, one wrong move meant a dead fang.
Having said that, Fenn proceeded to ignore my good advice and be cheeky. Placing himself behind an asteroid with two focus tokens (to negate the inevitable 4-Lom), he set himself up as bait. The ploy worked and he found himself facing three hits and a crit… OOPS! He then proceeded to prove me wrong a second time and dodge all four hits. Thank you Autothrusters.
Everything fur-balled in the middle with all five ships crashing in for two turns of close range destruction. When the dust had cleared, Kath was severely mauled and Terry had taken a direct hit. Fenn and Asajj tailed Boba as he proceeded to fire his second missile… so much for no disintegrations. Terry got blasted into space dust but the Firesprays had split up. Allowing them to be ground down by his vengeful Mandalorian brother and Sith comrade.
Win 100–29
It turned out this was Sam’s first tourney. I wouldn’t have noticed as his flying all game was excellent. He also scalped a certain Rasta in round two! Keep at it Sam and hope to see you around soon!
Game 4: João Alberquerque Vaz — Parattani
Now over the halfway point and lunch eaten I was feeling pretty good. Right up until I got a little tap on the shoulder from Simon Green. For those of you that don’t know him, he’s probably the best X-Wing streamer in the world (thanks Carlsberg), and was in the building filming as many games as possible. Simon always tries to get high quality games on his stream so I knew whoever my opponent was, it wasn’t going to be easy!
Arriving at the stream table I say hello to João, a very friendly man who has flown over from Portugal just to play in the open. We had a good chat about how x wing was in Portugal (a lot smaller scene than the UK) and how he was not sure just how they ranked with everyone else around Europe (spoilers, he ended 16th so pretty well!).
You can check out the video of the game here, as well as the other fantastic videos of the weekend.
It was a great game and João flew like a champ. I managed to catch him out at couple of key moments but I’ll leave you to watch it. I managed to carry the game to make it four wins in a row. Target lock acquired!
Win 60–0
Game 5: Vincent Savory — Rey and Jan Ors.
Right, serious business now. Three games to go and only one win needed to guarantee a spot in the second day.
I had heard about this list from Ian O’Connell, (‘The Colossal’ on Vassal if any of you know him), the previous day. Different iterations of it had been cleaning up over in Ireland and he had warned me to be careful and not underestimate it. Both ships being PS 10 was going to be a problem for the fangs, but if I was careful and put as much early firepower into Rey as possible, I should be fine. This is once again one of those times where I ignore my own advice…
I started off by making a big mistake and catching the central asteroid by a millimetre with Asajj. Not wanting to make an idiot of myself twice I took the long way around meaning the Shadowcaster was out of the game for much too long. Asajj needed to be in the fight and when she finally did get involved she did a good job, taking Rey to half before going down.
To cut a long story short, both of my fangs got summarily executed while I was trying to kill the HWK (target priority is important kiddies!). Turns out six dice at range one really, really sting — especially when you remove the Concord Dawn title.
Strangely I really enjoyed this game, which is at odds to what usually happens when I make silly mistakes. Full credit to Vincent for putting up with the inane chatter and giving back as good as he got. I wished him the best of luck with his day and reminded myself to fly even better. At least I got half off Rey.
Loss 27–100
Game 6: Rob Reed — Miranda and Chopper
Looking across the table and seeing bombs was not really what I wanted after losing my fangs so easily in the last round. We started off the game with some cagey openings. My fangs did not want to get caught by Miranda and she didn’t want to take the combined firepower of my entire list.
Miranda finally committed to bombing Fenn and he just managed to avoid the cluster mines placed in his way. With the ghost now split from Miranda all three went to work trying to kill it before she could SLAM back around. In the process, I completely forgot about the Ion Bombs the Ghost was carrying and Asajj spent two turns surrounded by blue flashes and slightly confused as to why her engines weren’t working. Thankfully I managed to avoid the board edge and took the Ghost to half.
Rob realised he needs to do something fast to get me off his tail. With no Ion Bombs left to keep the fangs at bay he roared into a gutsy 5k over a debris cloud, putting some space in between us and bringing his primary weapon into the fight. He then successfully lands himself a crit result, ‘Major Hull Breach’, meaning all damage cards were going to be face up next turn. And two stress. We know what happens next…
Terry takes his opportunity, rolls into range and hits the Ghost with three hits. These turn into three direct hit results leaving Chop with a single hull remaining and no shot on the sneaky fang fighter. Poor ghostie (I apologised. A lot). After this point the fight went out of Rob and I managed to chase down Miranda without catching a bomb to the face.
Win 100–0
Game 7: Darren Grainger — Commonwealth Defenders.
Darren was another who I’d seen around but never played against. So where better to do it than the seventh round of swiss looking for a good placing in day two. No pressure eh!
I won the initiative and took it so I could block Vessery with Asajj, we set up in opposite corners and got around to wasting time. Both of us wanting to get the other to move and split up his ships. After a couple of turns I realised that Darren was just as patient as I, so slowly crept Teroch and Asajj up one side of the table and Fenn up the other.
I got lucky as we approached and Darren made a mistake, crashing Vessery into Palpatine. Meaning he couldn’t K turn or he was flying off the board edge. Instead he screamed around the corner and brought all three ships to bear on Fenn. Darren successfully gives me the ‘Benn Rau’ treatment and makes Fenn PS 0 for the remainder of the game. Not good!
Thankfully I managed to pull it back, putting good damage into Palp and grinding him down for the kill. In the ensuing fur ball Fenn attempted to slip away with Vessery hard on his tail. Terry did his job and managed to get in front of Ryad, stripping her tokens and leaving her wide open for Asajj to sneak the R1 kill shot. Darren’s Green dice betraying him when they were needed most.
Win 65–0
End of Day 1 and I’m 6–1, sitting in fifth position with the second Highest MOV. (This will be important later). Fantastic! There’s a fair few of my squad mates on at least five wins and we’re all excited to see what the second day will hold. Massive shout out to Pete Wood for finishing day one Undefeated. One of only three people to do so. Roll on day 2!
Game 8: Andy Brazier — Tel Ketsu
The dreaded 186th off. Andy had beaten me with a similar version of this list at the London Regional and I was looking for revenge here. Sadly, this would not be the day. I made some positional errors at the start of the game and decided to get caught up in the rocks.
Terry received a tractor token in the first engagement and ended up at range one of Tel, who blew him to bits. Unfortunately, the killing blow also gave him a stress, and as I’m Mindlinked, everyone else got one too. Later, I forgot that I moved my Shadow Caster first. Getting no action, no stress control and a range one Fearless BLAT for my troubles. This left Asajj limping away on a couple of hull before she went down. Tel finished the job, killing off both Fenn and himself with R5-P8, rolling 4/5 damage from it all game! Not bad at all.
Feeling well and truly Andy’d I gave myself a shake down and prepared for the next round. With two losses, I would be relying on MOV to get me into the cut. But first I had to succeed in my next two games.
Loss 51–100
Game 9: Jack Mooney — Jake Han
Well this is interesting… Jack (who I was staying with), had also just lost his second game and was flying the list he took to top 4 at Worlds. As any of my squad mates can tell you, I have something of a love affair with Jake Farrell. I flew this exact list for a solid year (still not as much as Jack), and won the Nordic Nationals with it in 2015.
Neither myself or Jack really wanted this match up but it had happened so we had to get on with it. He was also feeling terrible and had some nasty chest pain which can’t have helped his flying.
The start was cagey, not wanting to let either of his ships behind me I skirted the asteroids trying to catch up to Han. Forcing Jake to take the long way around I managed to trap the Falcon down on my side of the board. Still no stress on it as Jack was doing a great job of staying at range three of Asajj.
After a stellar round of shooting I take the Falcon to half health. This time it was Terry who got the Benn Rau treatment and a PS 0 Crit, his evade dice saving him from the other three hits that came with it.
At this point things went downhill for Jack as his attack dice refused to roll a hit. Fenn got caught at range one of Han twice with no return shot, only taking a single point of damage. All the while Asajj wass picking at the Falcon and finally took it down with around 15 minutes to go.
With Han gone and all three of my ships still on the board Jack decided to concede the game. A sad ending to what looked to be a great fight, but he really was feeling terrible. Thankfully, Jack decided not to drop in the end and was vindicated. He won his third game of the swiss and got some shields to boot! Thanks for the game man. Always a pleasure.
Win 100–0
Game 10: Dominic Flannigan — Bortlink (Fangaroo)
One more win and I have a chance of getting into the top 8, but it needs to be a big one. When the match ups are announced, I see my name and I’m playing Dom Flannigan. Only the man who came top of the swiss on day one. Gulp. Not the nice easy final round I was hoping for.
Turns out Dominic is a really nice guy and he’s actually pretty new to X-Wing. This being his first big X-Wing tourney. He also lost his last two games so he’s having a real rollercoaster ride, the first of these being on the stream vs my squad mate Pete which you can see here.
We set up in the corners and end up jousting in the centre of the board. Our Fenn’s are JUST in range two, this turns out to be important… As I have initiative I shoot first, laying two hits and a crit into Dom’s Fenn. He then proceeds to roll a single eyeball and take a Direct Hit! Not good! After an ineffectual shot back, the same thing happens and Terry sneaks the last hit through for the kill. Not a good start for Dom.
I chase Manaroo hard, removing Dom’s focus efficiency and killing her a few turns later. All that’s left is for Dom’s Teroch to heroically joust my entire list, just to get wiped out by a range one shot from Fenn. It was as shame to have such a promising game get ruined by dice variance but that’s the nature of the beast sometimes.
Win 100–0
The Results
So this is it. I know my MOV is good but just how good is it? (Told you MOV was going to be important). Turns out it was awesome and I end up in 5th spot once again! If you want to see the full standings from the swiss and the cut, then check out List Juggler. Andrew Pattison tirelessly uploaded all the lists that made it to the second day, what a gent.
The Top 8
1 Faan Langelaan SCUM
2 Luke Townsend SCUM
3 Pete Wood SCUM
4 George Dellapina SCUM
5 Oliver Pocknell SCUM
0 (D#11)Krzysztof Piszcz REBEL
6 Cal Jones REBEL
7 Wojciech Szafalowicz SCUM
8 Mishary Al-Faris SCUM
Unfortunately, Krzysztof had to drop out to catch a flight home to Poland. Which echoed my own situation at the Naboo open last year. (At least his flight wasn’t cancelled!) Mishary slipped into 8th spot for a chance at the title. After a short break, I was informed that my game vs George Dellapina was going to be streamed. Bring on the Rasta!
Top 8: George Dellapina (Rasta) — Parattani
There isn’t much to be said about my top 8 game other than you should watch it here. You also get to hear the dulcet tones of the 186th Squadron Podcast hosts, James Dowdall and Mike Dennis. It was one of the best games of X-Wing I’ve played and came down to a real nail biter of a finish. Rasta as always was a great opponent and was a little nervous to be on camera. I also learned that his hair is almost as old as I am!
At the end of the game I realised that I could have kept my Asajj alive by leaving the stress on Fenn Rau. This would have left him unable to turn around and so long as I killed Manaroo I would have won the game. As ever hindsight is 20/20 and I didn’t want to risk putting all my hope on killing her as dice can be fickle. Had I not drawn a Direct Hit!, I would have been above half health and able to survive the next turn.
Both myself and Pete were knocked out in the top 8, leaving Mishary Al Faris to claim the title of Yavin Open Champion. Well done to Mishary and I wish you all the best in the Coruscant invitational.
Commiserations to George, Fishy, Cal and Faan as well. Especially Cal’s special snowflake Rebel list (soon to be seen cloned around the galaxy I’m sure)
I had an absolute blast at the event and even picked up some shiny templates to boot so I’m sure you won’t begrudge me the swag photo too much.
All that remains to be said is a big old thank you to you, the reader. Without all of you this wonderful game wouldn’t be a thing and we couldn’t all spend our weekend flying tiny plastic space ships around making ‘Pew Pew’ noises.
Make sure to check out the 186th Tournament Page for any other opportunities in the near future. Hopefully I’ll see you there!
Fly Casual!
Oli Pocknell
