Vault 14 – Doncaster – 03-04-16

So, my first post then…

*** Disclaimer ***

I am the epitome of a mid table player! I have only played in 4 tournaments so far, in my first, I placed 7^th out of 16. My second; 14^th of 18. Third; 17^th of 34 and fourth; 9^th of 18.

In case you missed that, 75% of the tourney’s I’ve played in, I have ended up directly in the middle of the table. Therefore, I am not professing to be any kind of authority on this game (or very good at it for that matter!) but these posts might be interesting to players in a similar position to myself or people just getting into the game.

So, with that out of the way, on to my list!

Vader

VI / Engine / ATC / Title

Omega Leader

Juke / Comm Relay

Redline

FCS / Guidance Chips / Extra Munitions / Cluster Missiles / Plasma Torpedoes

Most of that is fairly self-explanatory, Vader to arc dodge at PS11 (it’s worth noting that the list comes in at 99 points so there’s a little initiative bid in the to make sure Vader is moving almost all the time) and Omega Leader to make all my opponents say “Argghhh! I hate Omega Leader!!!”

Where the list is a bit different from the usual Imp lists you see is the inclusion of Redline.

Redline has obviously improved with Guidance Chips, for those that don’t know, the order of hurt goes thus:

1)   Redline acquires a target lock (which, because of his ability means 2 target locks)

2)   Redline shoots ordinance (let’s just say it’s Plasma  Torps) using up one target lock.

3)   Redline modifies his dice with his second target lock

4)   If there are still any dice with useless results, Redline uses Guidance Chips to make one of them a hit!

5)   Redline reacquires his two target locks with FCS

Many pains!

… IF Redline has his target in arc… and that’s the challenge! Many people would say that spending 38 points on a ship with 1 AGI and a mediocre dial which really relies on getting and using target locks is too much! I, however, am sticking with it because, along with the pain it brings, it has 9 hit points and whilst everyone is zerging the Punisher down, it leaves the other two to flank. (that’s the idea, anyway)

OK then, on to the day!

Wake up at 6:30, feel bad.

Leave home at 7, still feel bad.

Arrive in Doncaster at 9.30, feel better.

Realise that the start time was not 10am (as I originally thought) but 11am, feel bad again.

So Vault 14 is a nice place, friendly staff, quite small but (from what I could tell) well laid out with an excellent selection of X-Wing ships. I think the Tantive was the only thing missing from stock! The shop is pretty new as well so hopefully we'll see more good stuff happening here.

*** Round One aka God Damn Gary the TIE ***

Vs. John McGinty

Vader (or cosplay Kylo Ren)

The Inquisitor

3 x Academy TIEs

You know people say “You should never underestimate the lowly TIE fighter.” and you always think, yea yea yea, what can a tiny TIE really do?

I’d like to introduce you to Gary, he’s currently only an academy pilot (although I think he is getting promoted after this match) he’s the TIE fighter on the right in the picture with a number 3. I hate Gary!

After a few combat rounds, Omega Leader is off the board, two TIEs are off the board and I’m thinking, this game seems to be going my way, I’ll take out that last TIE and then move onto the rest…

30 minutes later

It’s carnage! All my ships are bleeding health badly and Gary is still skipping around the board, rolling triple evades and double hits. I guess fair mention should go to Vader and The Inquisitor who also got some hits in but Gary… Gary was man of the match. I hate Gary!

Anyway, I took out his Inquisitor before I lost!

Loss! 53-100

(PS. I heard a rumor that on his way home, Gary flew over a debris field, rolled a crit, got a Major Explosion, rolled a hit then got a Direct Hit… good riddance!)

*** Round two aka The Final Dice Roll ***

Vs. Phil Taylor

Lt. Colzet

Redline

Bounty Hunter

This was a nice list, the Bounty Hunter had Kallus (which was used against my Redline and iirc had little or no effect in this game)  and Redline had a mixture of torps and bombs (and let me tell you, Proton Bombs hurt)

I was quite excited to see what someone else would do with Redline (as you don’t see him very often) and there was at least one point where there was an actual ‘Punisher-off’. It was at range one and my Punisher has ordinance covered from 1-3 and Phil’s had accuracy corrector to make his primary attacks hit that bit harder. I THINK my Redline came out on top that time.

Anyway, many pew pews later, time was called. I had Redline still alive, Phil had Colzet still alive. Colzet was worth 24 points against my 38 point Redline. Redline had 4 hull left so I was feeling pretty good, just had to stay out of arc, or at least range one. So after we’d both moved, Redline was in his arc at range 1… not good! To be fair though, he’d have to roll 3 hits, then use his ATC to add a crit and I would have to roll a blank, or an eye… So he proceeded to roll 3 hits, add a crit with ATC and I rolled an eye… bye bye Redline.

This was a great game and although the last result was totally down to dice, Phil flew the rest of the match really well. I can honestly say that was one of my favourite games of X-Wing I’ve ever played!

Loss! 76-100

*** Round three aka Bad Dice ***

Vs. Hayden "MrTape" Watt

Juno

Echo

The Inquisitor

Great! A Juno list! I’ve wanted to see Juno played by someone else for ages! See, the thing is, I think Juno’s ability is one of the best in the game, I’m just too ham-fisted to be able to leverage it properly.

Unfortunately though, this was not Hayden’s day and I took Juno off the board three turns in so he didn’t get a chance to show me how she worked properly. Aiden’s dice were cold. I flew fairly well but he rolled many triple blanks. This resulted in a 100-0 win to me. I felt slightly bad but I guess that’s the luck of the dice!

Win! 100-0

The results were called and true to form, I came 9^th out of 16 (pretty much slap, bang in the middle). The frustrating thing about all these mid table results is that I always seem to just miss out on the next prize tier… oh well, those acrylic ion tokens will be mine one day (when I buy them off eBay in a few months!)

So, off I set on the two and a half hour drive home during which I came up with a fantastic list idea centred around a TIE swarm with Attani Mindlink…

Wow, literally, I’m going to wipe the floor with this list!

Bye bye mid table, hello first place!

I’m finally going get that elusive Store Championship win!

I’m going to beat Paul Heaver with it!

I’M GOING TO WIN WORLDS!!!

…of course, I latter realised that Attani Mindlink is Scum only. Damn!

Link to Vault 14 https://www.facebook.com/vault14/