SITH TAKER OPEN 2021 - Top-16 with Rebel Aces

A very unusual thing happened this weekend: I played an X-Wing tournament.  

Even more unusually I played an X-Wing tournament with actual X-Wings!

THE SITH TAKER OPEN

The Sith Taker Open was held at Element Games in Stockport featuring actual real life human beings pushing actual plastic spaceships around an actual table.  Just like you've seen on the popular video game 'Tabletop Simulator' but only it was really real and in 3D and everything.  Before I get into all the hilarious jokes and phenomenal strategic insights that I'm renowned for there's a couple of things I want to touch on.

Firstly, a Sith Takers event can usually handle around 120+ players in the games space.  The STO was first booked in a long time ago when we had strict social distancing measures in place in the UK so the decision was made to space everybody out a lot more and limit capacity at 64.  In the end the event had 46 players which first of all made it, I think, the biggest post-lockdown event we've had in England (somebody will fact-check me on that if I'm wrong, I'm sure), and second of all shocked me a little bit that we only got that many.  I played against people who had travelled the length and breadth of the UK to make it to the STO, I think it pulled people in from hundreds and hundreds of miles away... and despite a catchment area that stretched from Land's End to John O' Groats we still only got 46.  

There was whole chunks of people I'd normally expect to see at a Sith Takers event who weren't there.  They were missed and their absence was a sobering reminder that times are still uncertain or hard for many many people.

Secondly, as I was walking up to the venue I fell in step with Martyn Purves and after saying "Hi" to each other I said that it was good to back after 18 months but that I was sure it would all feel very normal very soon.  Somehow it never did.  I've played X-Wing a few times since lockdown ended and each time it had seemed very natural to be back doing normal things, but somehow this weekend with that many people in that small a space was just a bigger step than I realised it was going to be... and that was with only 46 people not 120.  When games were underway everything fell away and I was fine but in between rounds I spent the whole two days feeling nervous and uncomfortable.  One minute I'd be fitfully putting a mask on my face then taking it off seconds later, feeling like wearing one between rounds but not during games was probably just pointless.  Bleh.  Did not like it.

But what I *can* tell you and want to double underline is I had a great time anyway.  The games were great, seeing people I've not seen in the flesh for 18 months was great, meeting new people I'd never met before was great, putting faces to names I'd come to know during lockdown was great, the venue and the organisation was their ever-reliably great selves.  I was really surprised that I felt the way I did and I wish I'd been more comfortable being there but that's on me not anybody else.

THE SQUAD

I played something I've literally never played before: triple Rebel Aces.  I've played triple aces of the Imperial variety once in 2016 and the experience was so traumatic that I dropped out after two rounds and never played aces again for 3 more years, when I'd manage to fly two aces so long as they were supported by a bunch of grunts or something.  Triple aces... never.  And certainly not Rebel aces.  

This was my list:

    XXA Rebel Aces

• Wedge Antilles - T-65 X-Wing - Servomotor S-Foils
• Luke Skywalker - T-65 X-Wing - Servomotor S-Foils, Proton Torpedoes, R2 Astromech, Shield Upgrade
• Ahsoka Tano - RZ-1 A-Wing - Concussion Missiles
  (193)

I'd spent the week leading up to the tournament oscillating between taking this Wedge or a 'Hatchetman'-style Miranda Doni with Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Diamond Boron Missiles, Thermal Detonators and Jyn Erso.  I really like that build and with Ahsoka to help Miranda get her Target Locks and double mod her big attacks it has real potential.  I *wanted* to want to play Miranda but as the deadline for list submission loomed closer I couldn't ignore how much sense it made to play 6-5-5 initiatives instead of 5-5-4 and shut the door on all those Poe/Vader/Soontir/Jangos who would move after Luke & Ahsoka.  

I owe a lot of thanks to Tom Reed for doing most of the legwork and playtesting with Miranda when I couldn't get the games in myself, and his feedback that Miranda was surprisingly good but hard work really helped cement the decision to leave her on the sidelines for the Sith Taker Open.  I'll keep Miranda for my FLGS adventures but I'm 100% sure Wedge was the right move from a 'trying to win as many games as possible' perspective.

That I even wound up on Rebel Aces at all was the end result of a playtest session that systematically eliminated every good bad idea I had, leaving me only with bad good ideas.  I've been playing generic ship spam for longer than I care to remember and I was right at the forefront of that in early 2020 with Scyks and Sloane Swarms.  I was sure I was going to play something like that at the STO but a lengthy day getting repeatedly smashed in the face by Tom playing either Jango/Zam or Asajj/Bossk/Lando and all their dice mods conclusively persuaded me that I was no longer exploring the cutting edge of deck construction.  I might have led the pack 18 months ago when the points had just changed but during lockdown the Peloton had caught up to my generic efficiency breakway and reeled me back in.  

Accepting that I didn't have a good list of my own I was trying to choose which meme-ey fun list to accept going 3-3 with when for no good reason my brain decided to push Rebel Aces at me, which I'd never even thought about before.  I don't really have good explanation for why I chose them even though I had basically zero games of practice with ahead of Round One.

Speaking of which...

THE GAMES

Round One - Martin Purves
Resistance Kinda Beefy Kinda Thingy - Jarek Yeager, Rose, some generic T-70s

I'd met Martin as we arrived and now he was my first opponent of the day.  I felt broadly positive about the matchup as instead of investing in T-70s with built-in dice mods like Jess or Nimi, Martin had spent his points on some Swarm Tactics plans to fire at I4 and I5 which weren't actually going to matter much against my squad of higher initiatives.  His T-70s wouldn't go down quickly but so long as I could avoid getting killboxed I had a good chance to gradually pick them off and not give Martin too many good shots.

We deployed in opposite corners and I raced Luke forwards with 4-straight-boosts while Wedge and Ahsoka meandered around in my corner waiting to see what Martin would do.  Martin started to turn his formation to follow Luke, but I kept him skirting around the outside until Luke he basically a big 'L' up the table and across the whole of Martin’s deployment zone to emerge in the corner Martin had deployed in.  The threat I was presenting was to try and pick Yeager off the back of Martin’s formation with Luke's Proton Torpedoes and unfortunately for Martin I think the cardboard rust of not actually playing on a real table for so long caught up to him - he wanted Yeager to SLAM away from Luke but he actually bumped onto the back of Rose and ate a Proton Torpedo, then a second SLAM attempt got blocked the next turn and Yeager was gone.

This second bump ensured Jarek couldn't SLAM clear of Luke's killshot

It turned into a real dogfight from there, but one where my team always moved last with full knowledge of where Martin had moved to.  I played it safe and kept Martin from firing most of the time, with Ahsoka able to throw reposition actions to Wedge to avoid him being trapped.  

Luke got a little cooked but then slipped away to recover his shields and get back full points, so even though Martin had got half points on Wedge and Ahsoka by the time the end of the round was called his efforts in chasing Luke had been fruitless and I was well ahead on points.

WIN
155-54

Round Two - Sean Milligan
Rey, Zizi, Poe

This was a much more 'meta' opponent in Sean's squad, but once again my deep bid of 193 secured that my ships would be moving after his and put me in a strong position - so long as Wedge could keep Poe in check then Luke and Ahsoka were free to go hunting.  I decided to really lean into my strong 'alpha strike' and lined my three aces up as a block and simply went hell-for-leather across the table into Sean's ships, which were trying to play for position a bit on his side of the table.

I think the speed and aggression of my charge may have surprised Sean and then the dreaded cardboard rust struck him too - he dropped Rey onto an asteroid as she tried to get away and I sensed blood in the water.  All three of my ships pounced on her and the Falcon never really got back into the game as Luke & Ahsoka hounded Rey and finished her off.  While that was happening Wedge had swept back out to keep Zizi from flanking in behind me and she found herself my next victim - trading shots with Wedge was unlikely to work out well for the A-Wing and so it proved.  

Eat Concussion Missile, flyboy!

Poe dealt with Wedge in revenge for killing Zizi but Luke and Ahsoka combined to finish the trigger-happy flyboy off not long after.

WIN
200-54

Round Three - Chris Burnett
Rey & Vennie

What the hell had I done to upset the Resistance so much?!?  It was now three Resistance squads back to back for me, and after facing 'skinny' Rey in the game against Sean I was now facing a fully-loaded version alongside the surprisingly dangerous Vennie.

I'll be completely honest with you, I can barely remember this game.  It came after we had taken a break for lunch and I think I was a little bit carbohydrate-drunk for this one.  Being so unfamiliar with Rebel aces and T-65s I'd come into the day expecting to make loads of mistakes and forget S-Foils and things but in the first two games I had been dialled-in and playing really tight X-Wing.  Not so in this game where I just couldn't get my head into the right place and missed a few trigger and important decisions (like dialling in a red maneuver when Luke was already stressed... very uncharacteristic rookie mistake).  Something clearly wasn't right as I also have zero memory of anything else that happened in this game right up to the fateful moment when I screwed up and handed Chris the win.

I remember that bit with complete clarity, unfortunately.

We had traded blow for blow in the early game and now it was down to Luke (who had regenerated to 1 shield and not quite half points) vs Vennie (who had a little bit of damage on but wasn't quite on half points).  We got caught in a tight little duel between the two as Luke tried to find a safe way to engage Vennie's dangerous double-tap arcs, while Chris couldn't really press for the kill on his side because Vennie had Blinded Pilot he needed to clear.  

The fateful turn saw Vennie drop a Proton Bomb behind her then 2-turn to her left and take an action to clear her Blinded Pilot.  Luke 1-banked into a position right by the rear-left corner of Vennie - I was in both her side and rear arc so he'd get to double tap AND I was range 1 of the Proton Bomb, but he also had no focus tokens so the shots were unmodded while I had 2 Force stacked.  I looked at boosting but decided it only made things worse, so I took a Target Lock and decided to use the turn to really lay in  the hurt on Vennie thinking I could tank the unmodded incoming shots with my Force.

1. The Proton Bomb exploded.  Luke went down to 4 hull.  
2. Chris rolled Hit-Hit-Crit, I rolled Blank-Eyeball and spent a Force.  Down to 2 hull.  
3. Chris rolled Hit-Hit-Crit, I rolled Blank-Eyeball and spent a Force.  Luke was dead.

And it was only THEN that the words 'Barrel Roll' finally decided to wake up from their food coma and make it into my brain.  Luke could have barrel rolled in behind Vennie as his action...out of range of the bomb and out of arc of Vennie so I wouldn't get shot at all.  I'd spent so many turns boosting Luke around that Barrel Rolling him had literally not even begun to enter my brain as an option.  Yes, Chris got lucky on his dice roll but I'd been a total chump and handed him the opportunity to get lucky.

Poo bum.

LOSS
146-200

Round Four - Tim Greenaway
Gideon Swarm

This game was *desperately* close, but before it got to that stage it was also a game that swung enormously from one player to the other on the back of dice rolls.

A swarm of TIE/fo is possibly the single thing I least want to see with this squad - they're so good at blocking up space that my aces can't easily plot safe escape routes, and with 3 Agility and a focus token they're surprisingly tough to kill when you're bringing as few guns as I am.  Basically, Tim was playing pretty much the squad that I'd spent the last 18 months believing made a triple aces squad unviable.  I was glad he was bringing Gideon not Malarus, but otherwise this was pretty much my nightmare match and I had to try and handle them with extreme care.

The good news - I think I got my initial approach and engagement almost perfect, slipped his trap and got my ships into a great position.

The bad news - this is when it turned into a dice game.  Tim responded to how agile and hard-to-catch my ships were by throwing a lot of s-loops and k-turns to get as many guns on target as he could.  Even though Tim's ships were stressed and had no focus tokens I just could not deal damage to them - I think at one point we'd counted something like 14 natural evades on 16 green dice from his TIE/fos.  And at the same time Wedge could not roll a wiggle to save his life... which was exactly why he needed them, so Wedge exploded instead.

I kept trying to eke a way back into it with Luke & Ahsoka but the run of Tim's amazing green dice luck continued so long that I basically gave up any hope of taking back initiative in the game  I stopped trying to carefully plan my turns and get great shots and instead I just turned around and bumped and rolled some dice and waited for Tim to inevitably finish me off.

The good news - the dice luck now flip-flopped back in my favour.  Tim poured blaster fire into Luke but Luke ate it all with his Force tokens and went back to ask for more.  It was like replaying the Core Set game all over again as Luke did the things Luke does to TIE Fighters.  Then I killed a TIE Fighter. Then I killed another TIE Fighter.

Time was called as we were setting dials for one last turn.  I was pretty sure I was ahead on points and I just needed to stay there - I set Luke to close his S-Foils and run away to regenerate a shield, then I set Ahsoka to stay at range and Evade as I figured Tim would throw another lot of S-Loops and try scrabble a killshot onto her and snatch the win.

Tim revealed his first dial... it wasn't the S-Loop I expected, it was a 3 turn away from me and an Evade action... Tim thought *he* was ahead on points!  All our ships flew away from each other and it was time to get out the calculators.

WIN
98-82

Cripes.

ROUND FIVE - Ben Saunders

Dash, Ahsoka, Baby Wedge w/Outmaneuver

I don't think Ben would be upset by my saying that this matchup hugely favoured my squad - the advantage I got from having every ship moving after Dash was too great.  Ben knew that he was facing an uphill struggle so he tried something a bit daring to give himself a puncher's chance - as my forces raced across the table he feinted to run Wedge across his back line away from me, then 1-turned back towards me in the hope that I would overshoot him in a hurry to get after Dash and let the A-Wing get Outmaneuver online.  Unfortunately for Ben I'd covered my bases and Baby Wedge went down before he could roll a red dice in anger.

An uphill battle had became a mountain for Ben to climb.  What's worse is that I still hate 1.0 Dash enough to take playing against 2.0 Dash extremely seriously and make zero mistakes.  I paid Dash every bit of the respect he deserves in waiting for the right time to pounce and take him down.

WIN

200-54

ROUND SIX - Tom Reed

Double CIS Firesprays

I've namechecked Tom a couple of times already for all the help he gave me in actually getting my list into shape for the tournament, but for those who are reading this and don't immediately recognise his name: Tom is basically the end game boss for X-Wing in northern England.  Among his many achievements he's a System Open champion, a National champion, he's been in Top-8 at Worlds and he's also the reigning Sith Taker Open champion.  While my long playtest session with Tom had been incredibly helpful in smashing all my existing lists to pieces and pointing me to Rebel Aces, Tom had also found it useful in cementing his choice to play Double Firesprays - the list fit him like a glove and he was unsurprisingly unbeaten with it thus far.  

That my Rebel Aces were bidding to 193 was entirely down to the fact that I knew Tom's Firesprays were at 194 - not specifically targeting Tom himself, but using his list as the benchmark for where I needed to be against anyone else bringing Firesprays.  It did, incidentally, also make me perhaps the apex predator in the room as the squad most likely to be able to take a game off Tom.

With nothing on the line for either of us - we'd both already made cut to the generous Top-16 on Sunday - this game probably isn't a great indicator of how I could expect it to go every time, but I was very happy with how clear my margin of victory was.  Tom lined up his Firesprays across the table from me and we jousted it out, but my extra bid was vital in dodging his arcs and I managed to limit Zam Wessel to only firing once until I'd removed Jango from the game.

Taking Zam down proved to be a much tougher task - that girl can really hit! - and despite my big head start in the game Tom punched his way right back into the game and I thought it was going to slip away.  I won with Ahsoka untouched but both my X-Wings had been scrapped by Zam before she gave up the fight.  I knew any rematch in Sunday's Top-16 would be a much tougher affair, too.

WIN
200-138

Well, wowsers.  I finished the Swiss portion on a 5-1 record, coming 3rd in the standings and winning the prize for being the highest place Rebel player.  I expected none of that at the start of the day when I was pitching a brand new squad in an archetype I'd never played before and a faction I don't particularly like!  Finishing top of the Rebels earned me yet another RZ-1 A-Wing, this time a Hera Syndulla painted by local painting deity Jason Denton of Enigma Wargaming, who'd painted all the faction prizes.

All that remained was to go home and get some sleep so I could come back and do it all again on Sunday in the Top-16!

==== DAY TWO ====

Top-16 - Adam Freeman
AAAAX - Hera, Jake, Wedge, Arvel, Kulbee (R4/FTC)

Kulbee Sperado is an unusual choice as the T-65 pilot in this new archetype - it's usually Garven - but it's one that I quite like.  Kullbee brings two things to the table: his illicit slot for False Transponder Codes, and that with his pilot ability and R4 Astromech he's able to focus-boost around and keep up with the A-Wings without sacrificing his 3rd red dice.  Garven skews your T-65 choice towards extra defensive focus tokens, while Kullbee's speed and FTC skews it more offensively.  It's definitely a decent option.

I stopped taking photos but this is the turn before the engagement

The Top-16 took place on Sunday morning after many of the Sith Taker Open competitors had been celebrating being reunited with a few drinks on Saturday night.  Adam had been one of those players and he was certainly the worse for it, I think our game was coming a little bit too soon for Adam and he was ready to be back in bed.  His hungover state was probably the reason why Adam made a big mistake with Kulbee and boosted him forwards into a bad spot - Wedge, Luke and Ahsoka focused their fire and destroyed the T-65 in an alpha strike to rapidly put me ahead in the game.

I created a firing line and nuked Kullbee when he overextended.

I now had a tricky decision to make, though.  The first turn of firing had been fantastic but I was now in prime danger of Arvel throwing down his blocking tricks and using Intimidation to swing the combat maths in Adam's favour.  Unable to predict where Arvel was going to wind up and which of my three ships he could choose to block I decided to duck all his shots entirely.  Luke swung off to the left flank, Wedge swung off to the right, and Ahsoka blasted right through the middle with a 5-straight and boost.  Adam hadn't seen that coming and all my guys got away with barely a scratch on them.  I was up a ship, I'd escaped the bad bump turn, Adam himself looked about to collapse... everything was going great.

Can't catch me!  I successfully evade the bumps.

Except, in hindsight, I'd made a big mistake.  All my ships were clear of danger but they were also all heading in completely different directions.  Wedge was isolated, then bumped and quickly surrounded by angry A-Wings while Luke and Ahsoka were half a galaxy away... he went down in two turns with nothing to show for it.

Well... shit.

And after his one mistake with Kullbee I think Adam came back to life and his A-Wing play was perfect - constantly blocking in the right place and making the right moves.  My decision to break off had given him an opening and he seized it with really great play.  I've played with and against Arvel many times and this was by far the most destructive I've ever seen the little guy be, his Jake was everywhere passing tokens to everyone, Wedge was always on hand to deal the damage and Hera was always providing Evade token overwatch to ensure his ships took no damage.  The teamwork was exceptional and I simply fed him one ship at a time in the mincer.  

It was a well-deserved win for Adam.

LOSS

My run with Rebel Aces had come to an early end at the start of Sunday, but I was still very pleased with how well I'd done and I really like the squad.  The best thing about it is the balance between the three pieces.  The fat Luke is a big-hitting threat but with his shield regen he's very hard to even get half points from - you have to deal 6 damage to even get half from him if he can spend his R2 charges.  To do that you have to really go in hard on Luke, but that means ignoring Ahsoka and Wedge who can do a ton of damage if you ignore them.  Most players feel compelled to hit Wedge first as he's the biggest cannon, but Wedge is also the ship I'm happiest to lose as it puts both my force users into midgame.

The synergy between Ahsoka and Wedge is good too, with Ahsoka able to help Wedge preposition out of a lot of the traps opponents set for him.  Overall it was a fun squad and I really liked the blend of speed, defensive resilience and hard-hitting alpha strikes.  It's something I'm going to keep in my back pocked and keep playing, I think, although maybe with Miranda a lot of the time just to try and work her out.

Around here I should probably say congratulation YET AGAIN to Tom Reed for winning YET ANOTHER Sith Taker Open title.  He won the grudge match final against his father, Craig, on the last throws of the dice as time was called on the match.  You can watch the final here and there's a bunch of other games from the weekend that were all streamed by the Firestorm Squadron Firecast.

End game boss doing end game boss things.

THE HYPERSPACE SIDE EVENT

After dropping out of the Top-16 I moved into a Hyperspace format side event (awarded a first round bye as I was playing in the Top-16 of the main event).  I don't want to spend too long talking about this because I've probably overstayed my welcome already but didn't want to ignore it completely as I had three really great games and a ridiculously close final match.

I played 4x Disciplined Black Sqd TIE Strikers (2 with Thermal Detonators), then Wampa and a TIE/v1 with Thread Tracers.  Basically I wanted an antidote from playing so much aces and went back to my Imperial swarm comfort zone.

First game, against Jonathan Hall's HMP Gunships & Wat Tamor, was really interesting as we both had ships that refused to move normally and that made it a very different game.  I think what ultimately decided it for me was the power of my Adaptive Ailerons when everything Jonathan had was moving before me - they really helped me respond to the HMP Gunship's unpredictable flight patterns and gave me the edge I needed.

Second game, against Gary McDowell's Delta-7B Jedi Knights & Ric Olie was the opposite and with a little bid all his ships were moving after my Strikers.  That made a real difference and now the tables were turned with his Fine-Tuned Controls able to respond to what my TIE Strikers were doing.  We traded blows pretty evenly but I didn't even begin to make any headway into Ric Olie and Gary scooted away into endgame with enough points safely protected on the Naboo Starfighter.

My third and final game was an utter classic against Stevie B from the Vanguard Squadron, who was flying the dangerous Bossk/Joy/Genesis/Lando Escape Craft list.  All his ships were Initiative 4 and with unshielded TIE Strikers running around I knew that Genesis Red was going to tear me a new one.  I think I won this game in how quickly I removed Joy Rekoff's Fang Fighter - I managed to surge a TIE Striker forwards to bump her and lay three damage in, then on the next turn Stevie forgot about my Thermal Detonators and k-turned her in a bad spot.  I really needed that kind of luck because elsewhere Genesis Red and Bossk were indeed deleting TIE Strikers at will.  We crowded Bossk down but it left us playing a really tight little endgame match as Wampa and my Baron tried to outmaneuver Genesis Red and the coordinate trickery of Lando Calrissian.  I won it.  Just.  By a score of 200-185 which is about as close as they come - I had 2 health left on my Baron when I finally finished Lando off, and after two days of X-Wing I think Stevie and I were equally emotionally and physically exhausted by the battle. 

A great way to finish a great weekend of gaming!

My only concern is that, after 18 months cooped up at home, spending two days standing up to play X-Wing may have made me pregnant...

So I've got that to look forwards to at least.