Tuesday Night: X-Wing (A day late)

​This should have been posted last evening but due to a knee injury, long hours, and the fact that I am plain tired it did not happen.  Tonight, you get the blog for last night.  Let's start with the turnout, it was great.  James made it out, as usual.  Josh was there as well which is awesome; especially since I needed to play him for my league game... excuse me, lose to him for my league game.  Chris showed up and I got my league game for last week in with him.  Now, I'm down to James for that.  Brandon was able to show for a short while but, alas, not enough time to play a game.  Cody was there and he got to play against someone who hasn't been out in a while.  That someone would Justin and his son.  So we had a full room last night.  Cody and Justin had a pretty good game from the looks of it but I didn't get to pay to much attention as I was in the middle of two league games.

We'll start with my guaranteed loss.  Josh showed up with a new set.  This was a full out tie swarm.  7 Ties in total and all I will say here is that he had Howlrunner which is, of course, a requirement for any swarm.  I don't want to say anything beyond that because I don't want to reveal antyhing for others that he might not want known until they come up against him.  Next in line is my list.  After my astounding battle against Ronnie Shaffer, I took a bit of advice and made some changes to my Hawk list.  (We'll get to Ronnie's game shortly.  It was a loss to but I felt I did well.)  I switched Hawks to Kyle Katarn with Jan as crew, stuck to Moldy Crow with TLT and Adaptability to drop his PS skill to 5.  Next was Biggs with Targeting Astromech, Integrated Astromech, and Plasma Torps.  (There's a change coming to that part and I'll explain soon)  Last was Etahn in an eWing with FCS, R2 Astromech, and Plasma  Torps and Guidance Chips (More changes here).  Remember this list as I flew it against Chris and we'll talk about that too.  I started off slow rolling against the swarm because I wanted to bild up tokens and try to at least survive the first onslaught of shooting.  Well three rounds later, I did just that and that was all she wrote.  At round 6, I ceded the game to Josh because all I had left was my hawk and he hadn't been touched.  No way was I winning that match with a full swarm and nothing but the shitty hawk.

Going backwards a bit, my previous Jan list was ran against Ronnie with his Ghost/Wedge build.  Remember, Jan with Nien, Moldy, TLT, and Adaptability with Keyan with Plasma Torps, FCS, PTL, and Extra Munitions, and Gemer with Prockets and VI.  Both He and Keyan had Guidance Chips.  That list flew (and survived) against Ghost and Biggs.  Of course, I had to KeyanSMASH Biggs with Plasma Torps to get anywhere but over all, that game went quite well.  I was proud of myself for getting the shuttle down to 1 hull and ghost down to 3 hull (I think).  He suggested Biggs as a swapout for Gemer.  That lead to the list above.

My second match of last night was to Chris Watts.  He ran a Mirada bWing list that was definitely different.  Now, for those that don't know, Chris is getting frustrated.  He is in the slump I was in a couple months back.  I feel for him and I hope he doesn't give it up to the ghost.  It's a fun game but I know how frustrating it can be to constantly lose.  I know, as well, because the suck is strong with me.  I am fighting for last place with Chris.  Anyway, we played our game and did not get to finish because of time constraints.  He managed to pop my Hawk and I managed to take out his two bWings which was a 32 point to 51 point game.  I won but only marginally and I just hope that he understands that he flew pretty well for a first time list.  

As a word of advice and this goes to more than just Chris: Rule Number 1 is to always play or run what you like.  It's no fun playing a list that you don't really like, I know.  That said, Rule Number 2 is that, as I have learned the hard way, you have to fly a list a few times to determine if you like it.  If you like something, even if you lose you still have fun.  On the other side of that, if you fly something you like you will get good at it and that makes all the difference.  I flew several lists and some I flew more than once or twice but most I only flew once but it was enough to tell me that I didn't have enough experience with it to like it or to run it.  I have a few lists that I truly like.  I am constantly buiding lists in my head and then putting it on paper.  Rule Number 3 is never be afraid to lose.  Yes, it can be frustrating but in the end you have to remember that if you are losing then you are learning something.  Rule Number 4 is that when you hit that frustration level; stop and take a step back.  Take a deep breath and let it out.  It's just a game and it is not the end of the world.

Now, I mentioned changes.  I made some modifications to the list.  Kyle doesn't change but Biggs will have R2D2 with Integrated Astromech.  Gives him a little more staying power.  Etahn will have PTL.  The new final list looks like this:
Kyle Katarn with Adaptability, TLT, Moldy Crow, and Jan Orse.  Biggs Dark Lighter with R2-D2 and Integrated Astromech.  Etahn A'baht with PTL, R2 Astromech, and FCS.  It's a 99 point list but I think it's well worth the trade out.  Hopefully I'll get to find out this Saturday.  We'll be at Mulligan's from at least noon to five.