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Post by simran on Jun 5, 2016 13:25:23 GMT
Guys, just wanted to give you all a heads up about this. www.esdeviumgames.com/news-item/esdevium-to-host-ffg-nationals-in-2016/I have checked Esdevium's facebook and twitter and they both say that the tickets will go on sale towards the end of June with announcements just before then. It will be at the ICC in Birmingham. I noticed the nearest hotel is the Hyatt Regency which is linked to the ICC.
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Post by deathwingmatt on Jun 5, 2016 13:36:07 GMT
Looks good. Atm I'm down as a maybe for this
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Post by smurfwedge on Jun 6, 2016 11:53:14 GMT
Sounds good....ill probably be doing Armada though
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Post by Eryst on Jun 6, 2016 22:18:12 GMT
Oh well, I just bought non changeable nor refundable tickets to Canada getting back on the 15th. Gutted.
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Post by deathwingmatt on Jun 15, 2016 19:44:32 GMT
Looks like I may just be able to do this now...
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Post by jonob on Jun 20, 2016 22:50:49 GMT
I've just booked myself a room at the Hyatt for Friday and Sat, same as Simran. Apparently there were other hotels in Birmingham, but they all looked scabby or charged extortionate prices.
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Post by deathwingmatt on Jul 8, 2016 8:45:54 GMT
So, tickets went on sale last night for the FFG UK Nationals and there are still plenty left for all systems. Jono, Sim and I have tickets for the X-Wing Nationals. I think Steve was interested too. Marc is likely to go for Armada. There should be a good group of us going so anyone who's interested get a ticket and let us know you're coming along! Links for the tickets are below: - FFG Nationals Tickets - Miniatures GamesFFG Nationals Tickets - Card Games
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Post by deathwingmatt on Jul 19, 2016 17:32:15 GMT
A number of side events have been announced for all of the gaming systems. Might be worth sticking around for a few games on the Sunday before we head back to London (assuming we don't make the top cut)... Side events
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Post by simran on Aug 9, 2016 22:15:18 GMT
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Post by simran on Aug 16, 2016 17:24:23 GMT
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Post by deathwingmatt on Aug 16, 2016 19:52:08 GMT
For those interested, I thought I'd put together a write up of my Nationals.
Prep for the weekend
When I first decided that I'd go to Nationals this year I decided that I was going to buck the trend and take a Rebel list (Super Dash and the Ghost) after having a decent outting with it in Stevenage and trying to prove that Rebels can still be competitive.
After game after game against Imperials I started to lose the faith - whilst many match ups against less agile ships were pretty straightforward, others were extremely difficult. Against agile ships with 3 evade dice, multiple focus/evade tokens, autothrusters and/or Palpatine backing them up I found I just couldn't punch the required damage through as I was spending actions trying to keep ships out of range 1 instead of focusing and target locking. As I was expecting to face a lot of Imperial lists I decided to go with a 3 ship Scum list of:
- Trandoshan Slaver with Zuckuss, 4-Lom and Dengar as crew (34pts)
- Contracted Scout with Deadeye, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Overclocked R4, Guidance Chips and Boba Fett (34pts); and
- Contracted Scout with Deadeye, Plasma Torps, Extra Munitions, Overclocked R4, Guidance Chips (32pts).
In the week running up to the Tournament I managed to get 5 practice games in against a range of lists (Palp Aces, A-Wing Aces, Triple Aces and Decimator builds), winning 3 and losing 2.
With less practice than other players going to the event and the fact I thought I'd be up against some very strong players and top tier lists, I set myself a target of 2 wins and 4 losses over 6 rounds of Swiss and the aim to avoid the bottom 25% of players.
The Venue
The event itself was held in the ICC. Whilst it couldn't have been cheap to rent the venue was plenty big enough and spacious. The temperature was well regulated too which is really important in the middle of summer. There were also a few vendors there to pick up some goodies (I got some custom dice and a couple of bits from Cog O'Two) which was also good.
The location was good - being near Broad Street with its restaurants and bars meant there were places to get a reasonably priced breakfast as well as dinner and drinks after the event. Jono booked us a hotel across the road from the venue (there is even a bridge adjoining the two) so everything we needed was conveniently on our doorstep.
Game 1 - Tim - Dengaroo - 100 - 87 Win
The draw for Round 1 had to be done twice. In the first draw I'd been put up against some Y-Wings and some other bits that I felt was quite a favourable match up. The revised draw put me up against a Dengaroo list! This is one of the power lists out there atm and I'd not faced it before.
Taking onboard the advice Sim gave me before the tournament, I knew I had to deal with Manaroo quickly. I managed to do this (taking quite a lot of damage in the process) and then turned on Dengar. The key I was finding is knowing when not to shoot at him. At the end of the game I had the party bus left on 2 damage and one u-boat left on half strength. The final act of the game saw Dengar miss his shot against the Party Bus for the Bus to then finish him off. Dengar got his revenge attack killing the bus as he went down.
I was really pleased with this result. Tim is a very good player having come in 21st place in Swiss with the second highest MoV of those who finished day 1 with 4 wins. It was also the first time I'd played Dengaroo and the advice I'd had from Sim before (go for Manaroo first) really helped.
Game 2 - John - Bossk and 2 Gand Findsmen - 100-33 Win
Quite a favourable match up for me in round 2. The U-Boats are great at dealing with the Findsmen and Bossk and the party buss can chip in too. After a slightly cagey start we ended up engaging and having a furball in the left hand corner on my side with plenty of tactical bumping. John flew better than me but given the match up and dice going my way I soon got a breakthrough and ended up winning.
Game 3 - Tom Reed - Triple U-Boats - 33-100 Loss
After winning my first couple of games I knew that I'd be likely to come up against one of the top players at the event. When I saw the draw I knew I'd be in for a very tough game. Tom regularly does very well at tournaments (he'd won multiple regionals this year) and was very practiced at using triple U-Boats, again something I'd not faced.
Tom controlled the ranges well and having a PS4 Uboat was definiately useful in controlling firing. I expected to get torpedoed off the board quickly but fortunately I held on, losing my final ship 8 minutes from time.
Tom ended up going 5-1 and ranked 6th in Swiss. There's definately no shame in losing to him and I was pleased I'd managed to score 33 points.
Game 4 - Stuart - Poe, Corran and A-Wing regen list - 100-17 Win
I have to apologise to my opponent for this one. Lunch fell inbetween games 3 and 4 and to my discredit I turned up a couple of mintues late for the game, only for Stuart to see that my list was a really bad matchup for his.
After setting up in a rush we had a bit of a cagey start. His ships didn't want to engage head on and tried to tempt me through an asteroid field to get to him. I avoided this and we ended up having the first engagement in the corner to the side of the field. Poe and Corran went down very quickly to torps, just leaving the A-Wing. The A-Wing had a slight resurgence, avoiding a number of shots and clearing asteroids before finally going down leaving the party bus with a handfull of hull points left.
Stuart ended up finishing 42nd, three places behind me and was the 4th highest Rebel player at the event.
Game 5 - George - Triple U-Boats - 50-100 Loss
My second loss of the day also was at the hands of triple U-Boats. George plays with the Weekend Warlords in Derby who attend a lot of tournaments. He flew his list in a slightly different way to Tom did - going from side to side to draw me into the middle instead of stalling and controlled the ranges well. The party bus did a bit of blocking to buy me a bit of time but ultimately the game was his.
George is a very experienced player with his boats, having done well at the Yavin Open (amongst other Tournaments). He finished 18th in Swiss and I believe he made it to the final 16 of Swiss. A true gent and we ended up talking about a range of things post game - I was really pleased to see him progress far in the event.
Game 6 - Michael - Fat Han and Jake - 100-32 Win
Entering this round Jono, Sim and I all had 3 wins to 2 losses and each of us had an outside chance of making the top 32 cut. This was the first time I'd been to an event and had the possibility to qualify in the final round.
Given that we were coming to the end of a long day I was beginning to feel tired, as was my opponent. He caught me off guard bum-rushing the U-Boats to enable Jake to get his prockets off quickly, crippling one of the U-Boats. My squad returned fire, quickly taking out Jake. The crippled U-boat went down the following turn to Han's shooting whilst the remaining U-Boat and Party Bus gave chase. The Falcon cornered itself before getting shot down as it landed on a rock.
I had a convincing win in the final round but unfortunately it wasn't enough to qualify as I missed out by an MoV of 25pts over 6 games! Despite this I ended the tournament very happy with my performance: -
a) 4-2 is the best record I've had at any tournament I'd been to and to be in the mix in the final round of Swiss was great - I typically win 40% to 50% of my games at tournaments.
b) I'd had a very difficult strength of schedule with some very good opponents. 5 of the 6 made the top 59 in Swiss, with 3 of them making the top 32 cut.
c) Albeit with some good fortune with matchups (I didn't face Imperials once) I only lost to triple U-Boat players both of which were very experienced and made the top 32.
d) I beat a Dengaroo at the first time of asking!
Overall, I faced 6 great opponents and had 6 great games. I'd definately recommend Nationals as it wasn't as 'stuffy' as I feared beforehand. It was great to go along with some other members of Eagle Squadron and see us do well.
I genuinely thought I'd be a bit X-Winged out but am already beginning to look ahead to Team Nationals in October.
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stevo
Junior Member
Posts: 66
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Post by stevo on Aug 17, 2016 10:29:28 GMT
Great report Matt... Sounds like you had a blast and a great result to match!
I'm only ever going to be a casual X-Wing player but it's great knowing that there are good local players at the club to test myself against in the future!!!
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Post by Eryst on Aug 17, 2016 11:16:53 GMT
Top write up Matt, you missed the overseas coaching notes from your prep section (just joking). Great result, glad you had fun.
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Post by smurfwedge on Aug 17, 2016 11:32:03 GMT
Nice write up Matt and good going for you guys. Pity you and Jono just missed the cut....was so close!! Good job by Sim on getting through
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Post by simran on Aug 17, 2016 15:19:06 GMT
Top 34 Lists www.186th.org/news/uk-nationals-2016-top-32#30I also found my top 32 opponent's battle report of our game. community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/227899-uk-nationals-recap-mini-swarm/This was Paul Hughes who finished 5th in Swiss. He said: Now let me preface this by saying my opponent was an absolute pleasure to play against, and an incredibly skilled player. Not having been in the game long this was his first ever cut and he was visibly excited and having a great time and that kind of enthusiasm is almost always contagious. Therefore know it is no reflection on my opponent when I say that was the most frustratingly unenjoyable game of X-wing I have ever played. Every roll of the dice brought new disappointment and the damage deck had suddenly decided to nail me to the cross.
Do you think I should get a tshirt with "The most frustratingly unenjoyable game of X-Wing you will ever play?" In all seriousness, I suspect he may have been annoyed as he thought he was going to do better than eliminated in the top 32. 1. He was 5th in Swiss vs 30th, so the Seeded player. 2. He was very confident of the matchup. He mentions in the report being pleased to get Palp Aces instead of Dengaroo or Uboats. And he had beaten Palp Aces earlier in the tournament. 3. I had told him, whilst we were waiting 10 mins for the round to start, that I had started playing in mid-Jan and that this was my 1st cut. Perhaps, he assumed that as I was inexperienced, it would be relatively easy. I am certain that he was a lot more experienced than me, particularly at playing in cuts. 4. I also think he may have had some false expectations of dice results. He mentions me evading with the Shuttle during 1 of the early rounds. He only got a few ships shooting due to being out of range. I had 1 evade + range 3 evade. And a focus as my boost was blocked by Soontir otherwise he would have had no shots at all! Add 1 for Palp and you get tough nut to crack given he was only rolling 2 attack dice. (Soontir and Inq weren't engaged yet so had no need to spend Palp on anything else.) Very pleased that my opponent thought I was an "absolute pleasure" to play against. Just trying to understand some of the frustration.
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