We Buy Kevlar, They Buy Armor-Piercing Rounds - An Escalation Tournament Battle Report

                Hello! Today I am breaking the normal weekly posting cycle to bring you a battle report. This may come as a surprise to some since I gave forewarning of the last tournament and talked strategy beforehand. This time however, I wanted to keep secret the strategies I was going to run. A blog is a dangerous tool, we do not know who else may be watching. But in the end it doesn't matter because I don't play this game to just win. And I don't go to tournaments to win prizes. The main reason I play competitively is so I can put my money where my mouth is. It is easy for me to get online and start preaching about how things work in the X-wing Miniatures world. But until I get out there and play other people, my words are not yet proved. So prepare to receive proof! I didn't win this Escalation tournament, but I was able to successfully run some of the strategies that I write about. And most importantly, I had fun. Final score for me was 2/2. Let's get into the details.

Round 1 - Win
Squad - 60 Points
X-wing w/ Luke - 28 Points
YT-2400 w/ Eaden - 32 Points

                I finally got around to getting myself an Outrider and I've been having a great time learning to fly it. It is my typical nature to not go with the most popular right off the bat and so the first pilot I tested was Eaden. I really loved what he could do so I decided to fly him in my list. Because I am working on an article dedicated just to him I will only say here that I picked him in order to punish self-stressing ship builds. I also wanted Luke in my squad and picking him left me at a tidy 60 points. I would be a bit naked on upgrades but I wasn't too worried about the first round.
                Opponent 1 flew Darth Vader, Dark Curse, and Night Beast. And as you would expect he put the two Ties up front and flew with Vader behind. I knew that if I tried to break Dark Curse first I would be wasting a lot of shots and actions. So in a risky move I flew right to point blank range and gunned for Vader. My thought process was to get rid of the double action and higher pilot skill ship and then I should be fine. My opponent went full offensive with Vader and shot at Luke with a Target Lock and an focus. Thankfully he didn't have the new Advanced Targeting Computer and Luke survived. I had taken a risk and it had paid off and my two ships were able to eat through most of Vader's no-mod defense.
                The next turn Vader tried to escape but I was able to guess where he would move. Once he was destroyed it was a simple matter to chase and clean up the Tie Fighters. Even though Eaden didn't get to use his ability, he was crucial to the fight. Never underestimate the power of 2 attack dice, especially a turret. If you play your choices right and ride the variance of the dice, you can easily have 2 dice break better defenses. (One reason I am excited for the K-wing) I love this game because it is more about skill than it is luck. A good player can diminish how much the luck of dice will affect the game. I was more skilled than my opponent and had control of the match. From asteroid placement to the alpha strike to the end game I felt like I knew what was going on and how to react. And when a player is in that type of flow they are more relaxed and less likely to make mistakes.

Round 2 - Loss
Squad - 90 Points
X-wing w/ Luke -32 Points
                Veteran Instincts
                R7-T1
YT-2400 w/ Eaden - 35 Points
                Recon Specialist
B-wing w/ Blue - 22 Points

                However, round 2 was the opposite story. I knew I was facing a better player right from the start. I couldn't guess why he placed obstacles the way he did or how he would fly his ships based off his formation. Therefore I wasn't in control of the game. My choices were accompanied by a hint of doubt and I couldn't plan counters to his moves in advance. It is interesting to compare the feeling right then to the feeling I had the first round. My opponent was flying Dark Curse with a Stealth Device, Vader with Swarm Tactics, and Whisper with an Advanced Cloaking Device. We set up for our alpha strike and that is where I made my first mistake. I had set my B-wing on the far end of my formation and I bumped him in the second turn of flying. If he had been on the inside of the formation, the side facing the enemy, he could've recovered. But because he was so far out he couldn't get back into position with his bad dial and missed the alpha strike.
                Just as I described in my Droid analysis, R7-T1's power grows exponentially based on the Pilot Skill you use him with. So I placed him on a PS 10 Luke and the combo worked perfectly. My opponent realized this and knew he had no option but to take the hit in the alpha strike. Whisper flew in from the side and didn't even try to move away from Luke. This was the first of three crucial moments where Luke's performance determined the tide of the game. I easily nestled right into range 1 of the Phantom and dealt two damage. It would've been nice if he had one-shot Whisper but no worries. My opponent tried to focus down Eaden but I had designed him to be a tank and tank he did. The Recon Specialist made sure that the enemy didn't break through his shields. And of course my B-wing had a crappy shot out at range 3.
                The next turn I flew Eaden on a fast 4 forward to shoot past the enemy ships and make use of his turret. With that my opponent opted to go for my stranded B-wing. Let me just say that I really dislike bare B-wings. Everyone says they are the best for their price but most players knows how they fly. So they can easily be countered if the enemy has control of the board. What good is the ship when you can't evade a Phantom no matter where you barrel roll and lose all your shields in one broadsided outmaneuver? However, points dictated that I had to take a naked B-wing now so that I could have it upgraded in the next round. Then came the second game-changing use of Luke. I had to take a turn move to stay in the battle but I deliberated what speed to pick. I played too greedy and took the turn at a sharp 2 to try and stay in range 1. And I ended up bumping into Dark Curse, losing both my action and my chance to shoot at him. If I had done the 3 turn it would have put me in a much better position.
                I tried to have the B-wing flee to save it but it still got shot down. And I am still getting used to how the Outrider flies and so I ended up running it through a debris cloud and stressing it out. And lastly, Luke had a great shot on an injured Vader that had K-turned but the dice didn't go in my favor. I ended up forfeiting the game because I knew I had been bested and there was no chance of me catching up. My opponent pinned my loss on bad dice rolls. But that is an easy excuse. Despite the dice, I still had been out-flown and had made too many errors.

Round 3 - Win
Squad - 120 Points
X-wing w/ Luke -32 Points
                Veteran Instincts
                R7-T1
YT-2400 w/ Eaden - 35 Points
                Recon Specialist
B-wing w/ Blue - 28 Points
                Advanced Sensors
                Ion Cannon            
Y-wing w/ Gold - 25 Points
                Ion Turret
                R7 Astromech

                That's right, PGP fans. The B-wing came back with the Advanced Ion Strafe! Though I have tested the AIS in many causal games this is the first time I have taken it in competition. And boy did it shine! Also note that I included an Ion Y-wing with the R7 astromech. I was contemplating taking a Warthog with the R2 astromech but I decided to stick to the ships I solidly know. Opponent 3 was flying an AABB list. He had two aces: Keyan with PtL and Tycho with Swarm Tactics. They both had other upgrades as well but these didn't help much during the match and ended up making his ships far too expensive. The other ships were generics, a Blue B-wing with an Ion Cannon (note no Advanced Sensors) and a Prototype A-wing with a Stealth Device. We had the same squad points so we rolled for initiative. I won and this helped me gain victory.
                The map was created with the giant asteroid right in the middle. The rest were off to the sides and so there were two lanes created, one on either side of the big rock. He placed his squad in the left lane (from my perspective) while I split my forces up. My Y-wing and Eaden took the left lane with the Gold pilot flying point. My B-wing took the right lane and Luke took a wide sweeping flanking vector on the right. I could tell my opponent was somewhat confused by my split but didn't think much of it and barreled down on my Y-wing. With only Eaden to protect him, the Gold pilot should go down pretty quick, right? My trap was set.
                I moved my Gold up and took a target lock on the enemy Blue since he was the only one in range. And then I performed my Blue's advanced strafe. I barrel rolled away from the big asteroid and then did a 1 turn right towards it, angling my firing arc right on top of the left lane. My previously unthreatening B-wing now had a shot as Keyan moved right into range.
                Keyan and Tycho put 5 damage on my Y and I was able to shoot back with my Ion turret and ionize his Blue. Then his B-wing shot back with a primary attack of 2 hits and a miss. This is where it got interesting. He was going to reroll the blank but I legally interrupted him with R7 and spent my target lock. I asked him to reroll all his dice and the result was 3 misses that couldn't be rerolled. Haha, it felt so deliciously great that it somewhat felt like I was cheating. My Y-wing survived! I love this droid. If you've never used him you really need to! Field a whole stinking squad of them.
                My plan also worked with my AIS and Keyan got ionized. Now was the time to capitalize on the upperhand I recieved. Eaden flew in to block Keyan and prevented his crazy 3 action combo. I launched my Y-wing up to block his ionized Blue and took a target lock on Keyan, thus giving me protection from 6 of the enemy attack dice. My AIS calmly barrel rolled away and moved back forward, putting me in almost an identical position. And not wanting to miss this round, Luke finished his flank for a clean shot on the side of the blocked, action-less Keyan. Tycho did two more damage to my Y-wing which left it with 1 hull. Keyan then shot at range 1 and got two hits. But I again used R7! Keyan rerolled his two hits and got a blank and focus. Oh man, I was freaking out but strived keep a calm and professional composure. My Y-wing shot back at Keyan and dished out 3 primary hits to Keyan's hull and killed him. And that is why I love Y-wings. My AIS then ionized his Blue and we went to the next turn.
                It was a quick game after that. Tycho tried to flee by K-turning through a Debris field. But Eaden blocked him so the poor A-wing couldn't finish its turn. Normally that isn't bad for Tycho but things went downhill for him. He rolled a Critical while passing through the debris and lost use of his action bar. That's what I call juxtaposition, lol. But it was worse because Tycho was now a prime target for Eaden. I was able to keep my Outrider close to him and rolled 4 attack dice on my pathetically cheap, large-base turret. His Prototype chased my Gold but I was able to dodge well and I used R7 once again to great effect. And his Blue? It was ionized the rest of the game as my AIS B-wing danced around its blind spots. I did fly Luke a little too aggressively and he ended up dying. But at that point I was so far ahead that I could absorb the loss. Overall, it was another game where I felt in control and knew what was going on. And most importantly I was able to use my outside-the-box Poor Grey Pilot strategies to pull a fast one against another player in a tournament! That made my whole day.

Round 4 - Loss
Squad - 150
X-wing w/ Luke -32 Points
                Veteran Instincts
                R7-T1
YT-2400 w/ Eaden - 35 Points
                Recon Specialist
B-wing w/ Blue - 28 Points
                 Advanced Sensors
                Ion Cannon
Y-wing w/ Gold - 25 Points
                Ion Turret
                R7 Astromech
A-wing w/ Prototype - 15 Points
A-wing w/ Prototype - 15 Points

                So you would expect the last round to be the most epic of the whole tournament. But that's not how it turned out for me. According to the Tournament Officiator, the randomized opponent-selecting program gave a repeat pairing. The TO tried to fix it but found out there was a problem. If he manually changed it then the two players would be facing lower tier opponents and have an unfair advantage. So the TO left it alone and it turned out that those two players were me and Opponent 2. Sigh. It was in that moment that yours-truly literally became the Poor Grey Pilot. Instead of being given a slight advantage, I was put up against someone I'd already lost to and had a slightly bigger disadvantage. The TO told me that I had a chance because both of our squads had progressed and it was therefore not a repeat match. But then I found out that I was up against a list with the brand new Advanced Targeting Computers and the Emperor himself. I had absolutely no idea how to counter that. And honestly, I knew from our first match that he was much better player and that I really needed to turn the tides to win.
                The first ray of hope was my new and improved B-wing. It was sweet revenge when my opponent tried to sucker punch it again. Instead of my B-wing being broadsided, it lithely danced circles around his Phantom. Sadly, Whisper was always able to shoot at my other ships and so had the ACD. Because of this my B's ion cannon wasn't able to hit hard to ever get through. Yet all that mattered to me was that I was on the same playing field and was able to put up a good fight. And my B-wing wasn't even scratched the whole game. The Gold Y-wing also did a pretty good job. He again survived the alpha strike and actually held his own against Darth Vader. Neither ship was able to get the upper hand over the other. I used R7 twice; the first time didn't change the dice results and the other turned all the hits to focuses which forced Vader to waste his focus token. So the results were not as good as last round but still not bad at all. Such a great droid.
                For this squad's escalation I opted to add 2 prototype A-wings. I did this because I suspected that people would use their 150 points to build massive swarms. Not only would 2 A-wings protect me from this, they are hardy and fast enough to be versatile. And they did a good job against my opponent. But I wasn't used to flying them with the Outrider and I ended up blocking Eaden's path. He got stuck in the open with no actions and so fell pretty fast.
                At this point I noticed we were actually the only players who had not yet finished their match. So I guess I'm not as under-skilled as I thought. I went head-to-head with this guy and didn't get wasted horribly. In order to not prolong the inevitable, and to save everyone time, I forfeited the game. But I was happy with it and how I did.

                All in all, I had a good experience and reached my goals. I proved the worth of a several of my PGP builds and now you got no excuse to not try them! lol. I had lots of fun and got some sweet participation prizes. It is also impressive to me that I didn't suffer from any battle fatigue or beginner mistakes in this tournament. That means I am learning and progressing. As a side bonus I received several gasps, curses, and "What!?"s from my opponents because of my squad composition, how I played the risk on the dice, and how I flew. If nothing else I know how to shake things up. I hope you enjoyed reading and learned something new. Feel free to leave comments and questions, I would love to hear your input. PGP out.