So I’ve been a little quiet since my last post on my Q4 kit tournament back in November which went really well for me. Since then we’ve had Christmas etc and just really been building out my collection expanding into Scum and Rebels as well as playing with the not-so-new-anymore Silencer and Gunboat.
FAQ and meta drama aside- because I really have nothing else to add that hasn’t already been said on every podcast, blog and reddit post- I’d been playing with new options in Boba/ Asajj, Palp/ Kylo/ Sabacc and triple x/7 Defenders through January on some game nights down at Dark Sphere, London. Seeing the meta begin to take shape domestically and overseas as my first Regional approaching I must have had 20 lists on my list builder- all stuff I wanted to try. One week off work sick and having moved house and..
BOOM. WARBOAR REGIONAL IS HERE.
I must have panicked. I ran (100pts)
PS11 Quickdraw: VI, FCS, Advanced Optics, Harpoon, title and LWF [40pts]
PS8 Colonel Vessery: VI, Ion Cannon and TIE D title [39pts]
PS2 Sienar Test Pilot (TIE Advanced Prototype): Harpoon, GC and title [21pts]
And it was a disaster. I went 1-5. But I really like the expression that losing is learning- and there was a lot of that!! This isn’t going to be an in-depth battle report because honestly I’d rather not talk about it. And I’ve written these posts previously the night after events just to help me learn but this.. oh this one I’ve slept on all week and wondered if I should write this or just let it pass by but I hope that my quick summary will help others learn from my mistakes.
First round everyone crowds the match-up sheets and between heads I see I’m paired against 186th member Paul Full-on and I couldn’t help but laugh. I faced Paul previously in our last league at Dark Sphere and he really knows his stuff and also really enjoys a good post-match analysis (great for learning)! Across the room he’s ready to go putting Nymranda on the table- do I turn and go home? Is pre-round 1 too early to drop? (Paul went on to be top of swiss over both days.)
To toot my own horn this was a closer game than 100-0 would seem. The pic above shows Nym about to be Ioned twice and reduced to 2 hull before escaping for the remainder of the game. It was a good one!
But then it fell to pieces. Game 2 against a mate and practice buddy Ben Barber running Thweek, Intensity Guri and Fenn was a good one but oh boy did I struggle against his bendy-barrel rolling shennanigans. And proc’ing my harpoons at R1 of my own ships- disaster!
Then a game against David running Dash Poe and a very dubious focus added from Rey crew to Dash half way into the combat round- which in all fairness I allowed but will now for ever be a stickler for ‘missed opportunities’- meant Dash’s hit eye blank blank + target lock into hit, eye, eye, eye and I blanked on green dice causing a 4 damage death blow to Vessery right before a damaged Poe took an Ion cannon and range 1 shot to the face. Game changer.
My day can be entirely blamed on one thing- that my girlfriend insisted I moved in the day before a regional. THATS A JOKE OMGIMSOSORRY.
I lacked practice. Every picture I took that day would suggest I flew 2 ships, not 3. My Sienar Test Pilot was constantly out of range but having never flown the ship before I don’t know what I expected. I hadn’t practiced with harpoons and I flew TIE D like I flew TIEx/7 Vessery- into the face of danger only for him to melt. Green dice may have been horrible but when my head was down all I could see was the extra punishment the dice were laying on top of this heaped mess.
I accept I need to practice my lists- I need to fly better. I need to play what I know. But looking back I did enjoy the day. I enjoyed being surrounded by everyone having an amazing time. I saw guys from previous tournaments and got to chat about what they were running. I got to chat to Justin who was running the event and owns Warboar and he’s a real standup guy. The regional was a charity fundraiser for the local Children’s Cancer unit which we raised over £2000 for in raffle tickets as well as donations from many of the teams that attended. I enjoyed going down there with practice buddies Ben and Christian and they smashed it each going 3-3. And I enjoyed playing the last game casual with a beer. Thanks to all my opponents- Paul, Ben, David, Azad, Chris and Mark. This is what regionals is all about, now I just want to win some games.
Squadron! Squadron 