An Article on Preparation by 2014 North American Champion Rick Sidebotham

Today, we continue Rick’s Gen Con 2014 tournament report and hear what squads and situations he ran up against on his way to becoming Champion. If you missed yesterday’s article, be sure to read it first!

The Finals

After barely making it through the preliminary round, I was hoping for some better success in the Finals. As fate would have it, I was able to go 5-0, earning the top seed after five rounds of Swiss, and finish on top in each of my three single-elimination games. Here’s the list of the archetypes I faced during the Finals:

• Round 1: Double YT-1300 (Han Solo & Chewbacca)
• Round 2: TIE Swarm (Howlrunner with empty TIE Bombers)
• Round 3: Soontir Fel, Vessery, Lambda-Class Shuttle with Vader Crew
• Round 4: TIE Swarm (Howlrunner with TIE Fighters)
• Round 5: 3 Lambda-Class Shuttles with Bounty Hunter
• Top 8: 3 Lambda-Class Shuttles with Bounty Hunter
• Top 4: TIE Swarm (Howlrunner with TIE Fighters)
• Finals: Double YT-1300 (Lando & Chewbacca)

When looking back at these matchups, the first thing that jumps out at me is that I prepared fairly well for almost all of the archetypes represented. Every player I faced in the Finals was extremely talented, so again, I credit my preparation for much of the success I had.

Three of the eight games were against Howlrunner TIE Fighter or TIE Bomber swarms. During my playtesting, I found the pincer to be very effective against these types of swarms. Additionally, I was able to develop a pretty reliable approach path with Whisper that put my opponents in a difficult position. They have to decide to either turn and face him or head toward one of my other two ships. If they turn to face him, I can usually skirt around the edge at range 2-3 with 4 agility, 1 focus, and 1 evade token (very difficult to penetrate with multiple 2-dice attacks) while Yorr and Soontir inflict heavy damage from the flank. If they decide to ignore Whisper, he can easily get to within range 1 of Howlrunner while being outside of most, if not all, enemy arcs. All three of those games went pretty much according to plan.

I also had to play two games, back-to-back, against the same opponent fielding 3 Shuttles with a Bounty Hunter. This is a very deadly list in the hands of someone who knows how to use it (which my opponent, Dominic Cairo, definitely did); however, there was one thing I noticed about the list during tournament preparation. The shuttles need to get into proper position early in the game in order to control the board and dominate. Since they typically have a low Pilot Skill and deploy early, multi-Shuttle players learn how to deploy in ways that allow them to react to their opponents’ deployment and early moves so they can gain that critical positioning.

After realizing this, I developed a plan for asteroid placement that I feel greatly limits their ability to do so. I used this same asteroid placement in both my games, and I believe it was key in keeping my opponent from positioning his ships as he wanted early in the games. Our first game was very close, with me needing to eliminate a ship on the last turn of the game to get the win. In the second game, I altered some of my in-game tactics, allowing for a slightly greater margin of victory. But again, both games were very close, and I feel that without the asteroid placement I had developed during my preparation I could have been in big trouble.

While I didn’t practice against anything too similar to the squadron fielded by my round 3 opponent, it looked familiar. His shuttle and my Soontir chased each other around the board while our other ships mixed it up. I had some really hot attack dice early that limited what my opponent could do with Vessery. On a critical turn, I was able to pull a Koigran turn with Whisper (and Yorr taking the stress) that put him in position to eliminate my opponent’s Soontir. The game was pretty much over from there.

My first and last games of the day were both against double YT-1300 builds. They definitely had their differences, with the first one being offensive and the second being defensive, but during my playtesting I was able to come up with some pretty simple conclusions that greatly helped me in how I deal with double YT-1300 builds.

Both Whisper (with a focus and an evade token) and Soontir (with two focus and one evade) can on average take two three-dice attacks a turn and typically come out unscathed. It doesn’t matter if those sets come from two different ships or one of the ships with Luke or Gunner, as long as the three-dice attacks don’t become four dice at range 1 or grow into three or four attacks by taking shots from both ships with at least one having Luke or Gunner. There are going to be times when I roll more blanks than normal, but with no opportunity to dodge arcs against turreted ships, I just try to put my ships in the best position I can based on the math. That math pretty much held up in both games.

In the first game, I made a mistake that may have ended up helping me in the long run. I had put Whisper within range 1 of Chewbacca and range 2 of Han with Gunner and Marksmanship, but also barely overlapped Yorr with Soontir leaving Soontir without any focus or evade tokens. It took both Han and Chewbacca to kill a defenseless Soontir, but this allowed Whisper to remain safe even though he was too close. The next turn, Chewbacca went down and Han followed a few turns later.

In the last match of the day, I didn’t have Gunner/Luke to contend with so I was comfortable getting a lot closer. Once close in, I was able to use a tactic learned in my preparation that involves intentionally bumping Whisper into one of the YT-1300’s so long as I had a shot at the second YT-1300. This tactic works out great as it actually denies my opponent one four-dice attack in exchange for my action (which is typically evade.) I’ll take that trade any day.

Looking at the rest of the top 8 finishers, there were definitely some pretty tough lists I didn’t have to face. Any squadron that includes Han Solo with Veteran Instincts is a very tough matchup for my squadron. However, as I went through playtesting, I really felt like these lists could struggle in matchups where using the Elite Pilot Talent (EPT) slot on Veteran Instincts was a waste. By not taking Predator, Push the Limit, Draw Their Fire, or any of the other great EPTs out there I hoped the field would help me weed out all the Pilot Skill 11 Han Solo lists, and it did!

Thinking Outside of the Box

While this article focused mostly on my tournament preparation and the North American Championship, I want to close with this final thought: When deciding what to bring to your next tournament, think outside the box.

Most players put in some level of preparation prior to participating in a tournament. The bigger the tournament the greater amount of overall preparation put in by the participants. Out of the 14 games I played at the Championship only two of them were against lists that I hadn’t prepared for, and I lost both of them.
The rest of the top 4 consisted of:

• Jeff Berling’s synergetic and defensive double YT-1300 build with Chewbacca and Lando. Creative, unexpected, and very effective in timed tournament games.
• Nick Jones’ classic Wave 1 Howlrunner with TIE Fighter Swarm. With many believing that this and similar builds are no longer effective, Nick was able to show the ability to adapt to and overcome new releases and tactics.
• Paul Heaver’s Han with Veteran Instincts, Biggs, and Tala Squadron Pilot. Successfully combining two squad archetypes and brutal on-the-table tactics to be able to take on just about anything.

I think each of these players fielded squadrons that were outside of what many other participants expected to see, and that, to at least some extent, contributed to their success. I wonder how many participants had prepared to face a squadron consisting of Whisper, Soontir Fel, and Yorr?

Thanks for reading. Fly-casual, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box!

Thanks, Rick!

That wraps up our look back at the X-Wing™ 2014 North American Championship. We hope to see you at next year’s Gen Con for the 2015 North American Championship or early next year for our Store Championships!

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