Sacramento Regional Report

Sacramento Regional Report: 

The Most Fun I Have Ever Had Playing X-Wing

I recently went to the Sacramento Regional X-Wing Tournament at Great Escape Games. Normally, I am a huge fan of Palp+Echo+Ace lists; but, my Echo has been getting wrecked by all the alpha strikes that are in the meta right now. More than that, I had gotten a little salty playing the same thing while everything around me changed. It's hard watching a good list start to fade as the meta changes. I realized that by doing so, I was just going to keep getting more and more bitter as the game and meta moved on without me. I think there is life for Echo in wave X, but it is still just theory crafting until everything is released. 

Meanwhile at a local game store in Vacaville

Over the past couple months, I had been playing against mindlink OldManFenn (186 special). What I noticed about the list was that my buddy was almost laughing every game at the sheer amount of fun he was having. I decided to give it a couple tries and was completely sold on the fun. 

Manaroo: 27

Attani Mindlink: 1

Plasma Torpedoes: 3

K4 Security Droid: 3

R5-P8: 3

Guidance Chips:0

Ship Total: 37

Fenn Rau: 28

Attani Mindlink: 1

Auto thrusters: 2

Concord Dawn Protector: 1

Ship Total: 32

Old Teroch: 26

Attani Mindlink: 1

Auto thrusters: 2

Concord Dawn Protector: 1

Ship Total: 30

List Total: 99

In hindsight, I wouldn't have put plasma torps on Manaroo because it bled my MOV and wasn't always getting fired off before she died. R5-P8, on the other hand, was a great call and just further added to the hilarious-ness of this list. 

My main reason for focusing on a fun list was that my brother was visiting from out of state, and is still very new to the game. We built a VI triple defender list and sent him on his way to being a tanky menace. 

Since I didn't have that many matches with this list (maybe 5), I wanted to come up with one opening. Basically, I slow roll and decide to move to the right on turn 3 or straight up the map on the left side on turn 4. It works by having the aces do 1 hards and barrel rolls. Man just does a 1 straight. 

1) My first match was against Matt and his Asajj + two thugs. I felt good about the match up. My plan was to take range three shots at Asajj and stay out of arc of the thugs. If Asajj wanted to come in for a r2 shot and get the stress, I would plan on boosting in with Old T and Fenn to try and blow up Asajj right then and there.

The match went pretty much that way as well. Matt flew well, and was able to get damage onto Fenn early, but Autothrusters and up to 3 focus tokens per Ace per turn is really hard to get 4 damage in 75 minutes. Matt also had extremely cold Dice. I was able to get multiple damage through at range 3 against Asajj multiple times, and his Thugs never rolled paint I don't think.

There was one point where he was able to bring Asajj around and start stressing Fenn and Old T, but she has low enough to have to spend her modifications on evades, so the tractor beams weren't landing.

Still a fun match, and we talked a few more times throughout the day.

Match won 100-0

2) By far my favorite tournament match I have ever played. Spartacus was playing this crazy Tie/D Vessery, Lightweight Frame Backdraft, + PTL Inquisitor. I felt that he had the advantage to keep R2 (where protectorates hate to be) and do all the terrible things. My plan was to get some board advantage and blow up the Inquisitor because I did not think I would be able to catch and kill him the later the game went.

We set up on opposite corners of the board, and both slow played the ever loving crap out of each other. But, it wasn't to be jerks or anything, we were more like slowly circling around the board looking for an opening to dive in. It more intents than camping or circus fires.

Eventually, we engaged as he sent all of his squad up the side of the board at Manaroo while Fenn and Old T flanked in. I think we both did what we wanted, but his positioning was better. I got damage onto Inq, and he got a lot of damage onto Manaroo. Vessery throwing out super accurate shots and giving tractor beams makes Man burn down faster than a shuttle. I wanted to trade Man for Inq, but Inq survived with 1 health (R5-P8 rolls become very interesting on 4 health ships). He escaped and left to the other side of the board. Spartacus then proceeded to outfly me and wreck my shit while I chased after Inq/did what damage I could.

the whole match was really intense, and Spartacus kept shouting about his heart. Hindsight, I think I would have approached the same way, but focused more on getting a plasma on Vessery or Backdraft and just ignore Inquisitor.

Match lost 0-100

3) I was completely drained after that last match, and I really just wanted to joust and eat lunch. My next opponent was Thomas flying Kanan+Biggs. Sadly, this list counters mine pretty hard. My Aces really want R1 to blow stuff up and survive, but autoblasters makes that a bad call. He also passed me initiative, so Rey crew would proc after Old T. Staying at R3 plinking at Biggs would take forever because of the red dice control Kanan has.

In my idiocy I decided to be unpredictable and trade an Ace for Biggs early. It worked, but the Ghost proceeded to do terrible things to me. Thomas was a strong opponent, and his list was solid.

Match loss 50-100

I was pretty spent at this point, and so was my brother. We ate some sandwiches and talked to some players to get excited about playing three more rounds.

 4) My closest match of the whole day. Dan was running Vader + RAC. I was nervous going in because he PS killed both of my ships. My goal was to burn down Race and hopefully have 2 ships left to try and take on Vader.

I traded RAC for Man, but RAC got a sweet Damaged Engine Crit off on Old T. It was terrible because I had the choice to stress my whole list or let Old T take a billion turns to turn around. I still was able to corner Vader, but some really good decisions and rolls let him limp away and take down Old T. I felt that Fenn was strong enough to close the game because of the Crits left on Vader, but time in the round was called.

Dan was an awesome guy to play with. We talked mainly about the deleted scene that had just been released of Chewie ripping off Unkar Plutt's arm and how to build lists to have fun while still competing.

Never have I been so upset that I took Plasma Torps before.

Match loss 65-67

The worst part about the whole thing is that my rookie brother played next to me and got a win, putting him just above me in the rankings. If you have a sibling who is already just a better person than you in every other way, then you know my pain.

5) My next match was against Ed and his IG-B + Bossk list. I am really glad I read about this list because it was a little tricky figuring out which attack was happening at which time 4 rounds into a tournament. I knew that if Bossk was allowed two shots against any of my Aces, that it would be over. My plan was to try and split them up, and make the alpha not as bad. I set up in the left corner, and Bossk came around the entire board to flank. While navigating the asteroids, IG-B came slightly too fast and I rushed Fenn and Old T in to get some damage off. IG lost his shields and had to bug out as Bossk came in. Bossk got a crit on Fenn, but wasn't able to kill him.

Ed and I talked a lot about MOV and points as we played out the rest of the match. It was a fun match that I think favored Ed if he was able to get that alpha off with both of his ships.


Match won 100-50

6) My last match was against Nick and his Poe, Stress-Arc, + Biggs. It is a really good list, and one that especially can mess up my mindlink. I think skill wise, Nick and I are at the exact same level, because we flew exactly the same. He played aggressive with stress and Biggs while keeping Poe safe, and I flew aggressive with Old T and Man while Fenn stayed safe. I wanted Man to take all of the stress possible, and just relied on Old T to get my focuses for everyone.

Nick's list is really strong with it's control, but it definitely struggles getting a lot of damage out. We eventually traded Biggs + Stress for Man. Old T's ability made Poe hunting him down pretty challenging. We traded Old T for some damage on Poe. Eventually we just k-turned and went for a joust to end the game. Fenn at range 1 is an absolute monster that cannot be underestimated. he was able to close out the game.

Nick was a great guy to play against. He conceded that he should have just ran and regened with Poe, but that doing so would have taken a long time and not even been a guarantee. He also said that since it was the end of the tournament, it was the most fun to try and do something you wouldn't normally do.

Match won 100-57


I ended the day 3-3. I didn't reach my goal of 4-2, but I had an absolute blast and can't recommend this list enough to try out.

Most importantly, I beat my brother.

Thanks for reading!