This is my writeup of the Dice Saloon event - aka "Fight For Not-Bottom"
Having ony realised the tournament was occuring on Thursday, I decided to take the Brobots again as I knew that I'd have fun with them, they are probably the least 'Jono' list that I fly so can be fairly effective in different situations, and having 2 ships is less taxing on the brain over multiple games.
IG88B, ManglerCannon, PushTheLimit, AdvancedSensors, ProximityMine, Autothrusters, Title
IG88C, HeavyLaserCannon, FireControlSys, Calculation, InertialDampeners, Autothrusters, Title
18 players showed up for 4 rounds of Swiss, and there were 17 Rebel VI cards to be won (the TO put in his one as well - an example of how cool he was).
Game 1 - John H - Imperial Aces (Soontir, Carnor, Turr)
I think this classic Imp Aces list is one of the better matchups for my Brobots. As long as I took my time and controlled the pace of the engagement, I felt that he didn't really have any super-hard-hitters that could punch down an IG in one go. My guns were bigger, didn't allow him range bonus, and I made sure I never full on jousted him. He therefore had to keep using up his action economy to get out of range one etc, and he never had all three ships concentrating on one IG in a single turn. I therefore had enough tokens etc to constantly survive.
He started by charging at me, in order to get Carnor in quick. I danced around and he k-turned all three ships for another pass.
I then did this to him:
"...You, like your father, are now mine(d).."
Carnor recieved a hit and a crit (Pilot Skill zero) to the face and this seemed to discombobulate my opponent - after we had done the mine damage he forgot to do any actions with Carnor. As he was moving Soontir I reminded him and allowed him to barrel roll away from that asteroid he was pointing at. Because I am an awesome fellow.
By not allowing him to concentrate fire I was able to chase him around the board and plink off damage. With 10 mins to go I had actally only killed Carnor, and although Turr only had one damage left I was technically loosing because all my shields had gone. However, I just seemed to have a lot of confidence and eventially I killed them all.
100-50 Win. Fun game, bit of a slog at the end to get Soontir but I feel my tactics were correct, I was judging distances and guessing his manouvers correctly and really pleased about the mine drop. Things had started well...
Game 2 - James K - Double Jumpmasters
Table 3 - James spend the first 3 turns doing an intricate set of bumping manouvers in order to stay in the corner of his deployment zone, while I cautiously approached. He only had torpedoes on Dengar, so I knew he would be looking to get into that range 2 band on the first engagement. My blue IG charged to get him to bump me instead and I was able to get some HLC love into him, however I was never able to concentrate fire from both IGs as I had to keep one bumping and getting in the way. Another perfect mine hit, but only 2 hits off which stripped the shields of Tel but not enough to get half damage.
As soon as he managed one turn where the torpedoes could fire, it was game over for the blue IG. After that, the yellow one only survived for another 3 turns and I couldn't get a shot off that would sufficiently damage either Jump.
0-100 Loss. This game was a bit annoying because I felt that I had played really well in the opening turns and won the manouver battle, but I just couldn't convert that into any significant damage. As soon as he managed to get some space it was all over. The score does not reflect the game - I did a Mike and could only draw direct hits. One more damage off either ship and I would have got half points. However, I feel that without blockers, it is difficult to both block and concentrate fire. Jumpmasters were, as expected, a hard matchup for me.
James would go on to win the tournament.
Game 3 - Jamie B - Imperial Aces (no-autothrusters Inq, Soontir, Vader)
After lunch I went into this round thinking I had a good chance. Looking at the list, I thought it was weaker than my game 1 opponent, and Simran's Aces list is far stronger with the autothrusters on Inq and Soontir. Without Autothrusters, I reconned I was guarenteed to get 1 damage through when I shot my tokened up HLC. His intial deployment increased my confidence, as he bunched up and came at me straight down one edge. I therefore had a lot of space to create a pincer attack, and could predict when he would turn in so I could block and deliver a killer strike.
Disaster.
I misjudged by 1 mm and landed on a rock. This meant I had no tokens, range 1-2 shots went in and I rolled average, which was enough to see BlueIG off the board. Annoying, because I would have been perfectly set up for mining the Inq the next turn.
I managed to kill the Inquisitor, and get Soontir down to 1 hit, but my one ship couldn't hold out forever and eventially went down.
A really annoying 32-100 loss. Even more annoying (and a definite lesson for me), the Inq was his cheapest ship. I should have followed my instinct and gunned for Vader at the start.
Game 4 - Matt B - Rebel Ghost Shenanigans
With a small event and both me and Matt on 1-2, it was likely we would face off. At least it would be a casual game to end the day. Annoyingly, I realised it was now mathmatically likely that Matt would smash me and therefore knock me to the bottom, and I wouldn't even get the participation VI card. I therefore desperately needed something other than a 0-100 defeat.
Matt aproached slowly down the side, and I tried to get around him in a pincer move. I feel this worked ok, as he turned in to engage and Biggs was out of position for max effect. My tiredness and annoyance over the last game was showing slightly, and therefore I was having trouble judging my manouvers as well as first games. Also, I found I wasn't confident predicting where the Ghost was trying to move, so I found myself either blocked or doing a conservative move that didn't get me into good positions to concentrate fire. I spent about 4 turns mid game trying to set up a killer mine-drop on Wes, and failing. Eventially I just wasted it on the Ghost as I knew Blue was likely to die soon.
I killed Biggs and started dancing around to try to kill Wes. I thought if I could get Wes down, then the Ghost would not be too dificult to manouver around and kill, and it's lack of Ag meant I could save my tokens for my defence.
I basically played like it was a club game, and when Matt won, we realised if I had plinked one more hull off the Ghost I would have got half points for it.
26-100 Loss.
Final Result - 1-3 - 17th/18, achieved "Not-Bottom" and got a rebel VI card (just).
I felt I played well on my first 2 games, and it was only a small amount of bad luck on damage card draws that denied me a 50-100 loss in the second game. I feel next time this could go my way, so I am overall happy with that.
The games after lunch I don't think I did well in. The third game I got overconfident and rocked myself, and the list just doesn't work with only 1 IG on the board. It is too difficult to both block and consistently fire enough shots to come back from that.
Looking back at my 4th game (vs Matt) I really wasn't playing a tournament game, I was playing a club game. To improve, I really need to work on target priority more. That extra shot at the Ghost to get half points could have been done several times, but I wasn't thinking like a tournament participant and it shows.
However, if I had done that then Matt may have come 9th not 8th, so wouldn't have got the Ion Tokens.
Overall I had a great time, the venue was suprisingly nice (verses the Fallujah inspired exterior building) and only 5 mins from the station. Timing went well and the TO was offering to play if there was uneven numbers, so no byes. And he donated his VI card to the prize pool, which is the one I won. And the event was only £5.
10/10 would definitely go again.
P.S - When me and Matt realised we had been drawn together in the final round, we thought it would be funny to update the Watsapp group pretending we had Intentionally Drawn, and then pretend that we had been run out of town by a mob of angry x-wingers.
Joke was on us - we got upset when it seemed everyone thought that was what actually happened. Matt then got doubly-upset when only I was mentioned in Sam's comment "..out of character for Jono and his hatred of byes..."