Sunday; less drizzle than Saturday as I walk from 8th and Market St station to the Philadelphia Convention Centre, waiting for the inevitable imposter syndrome to kick in. This is my second big event I’ve made Day 2 of, and I’m wondering if I’ve just gotten lucky or maybe I’m better at the game than I give myself credit for. Probably more than a little of both. As I wait for entry to the event, I ponder the people I’m likely to face – regular opponents Brett and Kristoff both made cut, so did Sam Page, and of course Paul Heaver and Jeremy Chambliss are both there as well (though they have a first round bye).
Suffice it to say, I expected to crash out of Top 12 and be home by lunch.
Top 12 Game: Assault at the Satellite Array vs Kristoff – Teza Nasz, Shasa Zaro, Lega Fossang, Zay Versio, L’ulo Lampar
So allegedly, Y-Wings at 4pts aren’t as dead as people thought. Personally, I’m a fan of the theory that they should have had their LV slashed and stayed at 3pts to give Resistance more options in the 3pt area that aren’t Fireballs or Pods, but apparently they’re still capable of making cut at 4pts. Good to know!
While there was no one ship in this list that scared me, I’ve played Kristoff enough that I know he knows what he’s doing. I have an advantage in red dice and green dice so long as I engage on my terms rather than his, so I just have to be careful. The first engagement goes about as well as anyone could hope for: my Zay puts a Fuel Leak and a Direct Hit into his, putting me 4pts and one ship up early on in the game.
The next turn wasn’t exactly an exercise in strategic brilliance as I put Jarek at range one of three Y-Wings, and he suffers for it the next turn; limping away from the frankly-silly number of Thermal Detonators on dangerously low health. Zay, Merl and Temmin turned in on the Y-Wings and take Teza out (though I also lost Zay in the process). Temmin continued to pursue the Y-Wings, putting through damage but sandwiched between them and L’ulo – not somewhere he’d ever survive being, and he was brought down (possibly for Shasa, I forget).
As we entered the last turn, I was ahead on points and orbiting three objectives. L’ulo was hurt, so I could have pursued with Nien and gone for the kill, but memories of trying to “win harder” the previous day came back and I decided to just take the three and get to 20 in the safest manner.
So, out of the Top 12 and into the Top 8. Officially a new record if you don’t count the Highlander Hyperspace Trial in 2019 where I made Top 8 but could not attend for Day 2. I’m feeling nervous but good, and then I see who I’m paired up against.
Top 8: Scramble The Transmissions vs Sam (Again)
Sam was sick, so I thought I might just have a chance this time. If I could kill Feroph and stop his Second Sister shenanigans, Nien might actually be able to do Nien things! Of course, the Vader/Backstabber/Mauler trio of doom with Iden providing cheap support weren’t going to be easy to beat.
Long story short, I didn’t.
Merl tried to block Feroph, failed, and rolled three blanks and a focus against Vader’s Range 3 two hits and a crit. The crit that went through? Direct Hit! This is fine!
Jarek got blocked by Iden, leaving him easy pickings for her bigger and meaner friends. Then Iden decided her daughter’s rebellious ways needed to come to an end. I did manage to get Feroph, but by the time he’d rolled enough blank green dice for it to matter, I was already so far behind I might as well have been going backwards (Feroph might legitimately be a better choice than Palp Vizier if you’re in for longevity, I’m not sure).
Heroic as they might be, there was no way Nien and Temmin would survive a two vs four against these specific friends. When the game finally finished, with one or the other being gunned down (maybe both), the score was 25-9 – quite possibly the worst defeat I’ve had since 2.5, and against someone who wasn’t sure whether he was going to be sick or not.
So I’m out, it’s time to head home, have a nap, and play with my son before my first day back at work the following Monday. A record of 5-2 over the weekend is pretty good, and while exhausted, I’m happy with how I did (8th place overall). Apparently five-ship Resistance works for me, as between PAX, NoVA, and 2019’s Highlander Hyperspace Trial, I’ve made cut with it 3 times – is that something that more “professional” players will see as a good rate? Probably not, but it means I have it within me to do well when I fly something good.
Makes me think of something 186th member Alex Birt once said to PhilGC:
Pretty sure something similar has been said to me by local players on both sides of the pond, especially during my “Two-Ship Paul” phase (I miss that guy sometimes!) I’m beginning to find that “fun” and “competitive” don’t have to be mutually-exclusive, although sacrifices do sometimes have to be made if you want one over the other.
I think I’ll have to investigate other “salad” lists; probably not going into any other factions beyond Resistance and Rebels (and even then my devotion to the Resistance means the Rebels might only come out for special occasions), but there’s nothing wrong with theorycrafting and I might even find something I enjoy along the way.
Overall, it was a fun weekend of games, but I came away with a few “hot takes” that I want to share, if only to generate a torrent of ridicule being hurled my direction:
- Scenario Pack pilots should be for scenarios only. Thanks to the printed stats, some carry upgrades that are on the ban list (looking at you Yavin TIEs), and most of them are significantly better than their stock counterparts for equal or less squad cost (basically any of the Siege of Coruscant pilots).
The cynic in me says this was done to sell packs because AMG knows nobody would buy the scenario packs otherwise, and once sales figures drop, the points will go up. - Draws suck. So does the current way of resolving them. Much as I loathe Final Salvo, it’s a much better tiebreaker than just ROAD – if you’ve got more ships left because your opponent spent all of their time going for objectives, you should have an advantage in breaking the tie. Alternatively; if time is called and it’s a draw, you play a sudden death round: no objective points, just try and kill something. Much as I hate so say it, and this isn’t a slight on anyone, but people shouldn’t be getting into cut or progressing through cut based on a three-dice ROAD roll at the end of a game.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an issue that is easily fixed, because it’s always going to have players that don’t like it. Perhaps bringing back half-points in all scenarios will affect the scoring to a degree when draws become a rarity again?
I’m not sure when I’ll be hitting a tournament again as this really was my last “all day” event for a while; wee man is getting bigger, which means my wife needs my help more around the house and I simply can’t waltz off to play plastic spaceships for 8-12 hours a day (much as I deserve it, doing the job I do). Hopefully my local store will be open for gaming again sometime soon (allegedly the gaming room officially opens on Saturday), which means I’ll have places where I can dabble with lists and try new things out.
And I can always embarrass myself on Hexiled Gaming from the comfort of my own home!
Having been re-reading PhilGC’s blog for grins, I have a crazu urge to fly Guri… I don’t know what that means for me, I guess we’ll see! I’ve also got a buttload of Aeronautica Imperialis stuff to build and paint on the off-chance a community grows locally, I can hope, right?
Ramblings of a Wargamer 