Kyber Cup, season 5, round 2: Jax (Rebel Alliance) vs Nébal (First Order) (battle report in English)

Kyber Cup, season 5, round 2! And a new battle report in English. Of course, I’m French, so I’m genetically designed to speak and write an awful English… Please be kind!

(The quality of the video is a bit crappy, I’m afraid, although viewable I hope. My bad, I did a mistake with OBS, it shouldn’t happen anymore…)

For this second round, I have been paired with Jax, who brought the following Rebel Alliance list:

T-65 X-Wing – Red Squadron Veteran – 42

Red Squadron Veteran (40)

Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Selfless (2)

T-65 X-Wing – Red Squadron Veteran – 42

Red Squadron Veteran (40)

Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Selfless (2)

T-65 X-Wing – Red Squadron Veteran – 42

Red Squadron Veteran (40)

Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Selfless (2)

T-65 X-Wing – Red Squadron Veteran – 42

Red Squadron Veteran (40)

Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Selfless (2)

RZ-1 A-Wing – Green Squadron Pilot – 32

Green Squadron Pilot (30)

••XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (2)

Total: 200/200

As for myself, I had to bring the First Order list you’ve seen in round 1, my take on a Malarus TIE/fo swarm:

Xi-class Light Shuttle – •Commander Malarus – 58

•Commander Malarus – Vindictive Taskmaster (45)

•Agent Terex (7)

•Hondo Ohnaka (6)

TIE/fo Fighter – “Scorch” – 33

•“Scorch” – Zeta Leader (33)

TIE/fo Fighter – “Longshot” – 31

•“Longshot” – Zeta Ace (31)

TIE/fo Fighter – Epsilon Squadron Cadet – 26

Epsilon Squadron Cadet (25)

Automated Target Priority (1)

TIE/fo Fighter – Epsilon Squadron Cadet – 26

Epsilon Squadron Cadet (25)

Automated Target Priority (1)

TIE/fo Fighter – Epsilon Squadron Cadet – 26

Epsilon Squadron Cadet (25)

Automated Target Priority (1)

Total: 200/200

BEWARE: RIGHT AFTER THIS OMINOUS DARTH VADER PICTURE, I WILL REVEAL HOW THE GAME TURNED OUT. IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS, WATCH THE VIDEO BEFORE READING FURTHER!

Victory for the First Order! 163-133. And that was quite tense, very close until the last turn, and we regularly alternated to take the lead. A good game therefore, but an exhausting one as well I must say! Many thanks to Jax, who was a very nice opponent.

Funny though how X-Wing players can have very different perspectives before the game. As often, I guess, I was quite afraid by Jax’s list: five ships meant my numerical advantage wasn’t really big; four T-65 X-Wing, that was a lot of three dices attacks and a lot of health points to chew as well; Selfless could be an issue, spreading the wounds in the most efficient way so that I couldn’t get half points or full points on decisive actions; finally, the A-Wing was carrying XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, and I knew Commander Malarus would be the ideal target for them… I wasn’t very confident, to say the least.

But Jax had a different point of view. When we talked about our matchup before the game began, he said he thought the odds were actually slightly in my favour (55/45, as he put it). I did have one more ship, good maneuvers, dice modifications with Commander Malarus rerolls and calculate tokens from Agent Terex and Automated Target Priority, and more green dices, whereas his list was mostly based on low agility ships. As it turned out, he was right, and for the whole game: having “won” the first decisive engagements by removing one of his ships first, I most often than not had just a slight advantage in victory points, although he regularly took the lead for some minutes and we kept alternating from that point. The final results, I guess, are furthermore confirmation that his prognosis was the most accurate.

Nevertheless, it was a very close and tense game all along. Of course, we both knew that, in order to win, he had to get rid of Commander Malarus as soon as possible. That was the A-Wing’s job to hit her with XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, so that the Red Squadron Veterans could attack her with double modified shots. I had really good green dices though, and Malarus stayed alive for one more turn. She was doomed after that nonetheless, and that was an issue: I really missed those rerolls…

I had terrible red dices the whole game. But my green dices were good, maybe even very good, and they clearly won me the game. My ships appeared to be more resilient than I thought, whereas Jax’s X-Wing, with their lower agility, were slowly chewed, bit by bit. Plus Selfless never did anything during the whole game, and that was a relief for me.

I did several mistakes though. My worst blunder of the game, I think, was when two of my Epsilon Squadron Cadets K-turned too early. I was hoping for Jax’s X-Wing to go faster and thought I could then hit them from behind. But only one of them did; and as for the three others, only one bumped in my TIE/fo Fighters; which meant the two others could focus and hit me hard! But in the end they didn’t. That was lucky…

But then I had another issue: T-65 X-Wing had the one straight maneuver, and I didn’t, so they could stay behind my Cadets without necessarily bumping on them. It turned well in the end, but that was some more luck for me. Actually, a bit later in the game, it was I who could use that tactics, especially with my blue TIE/fo Fighter, who kept deliberately bumping in Jax’s Red Squadron Veterans, so he could shoot them in the back without never having to get shot at.

Another big mistake… turned out to be good. That was when I thought “Longshot” was range 0 of the Red Squadron Veteran who had only one hull left, so I shot another one instead. Now, even if he had destroyed him, Jax’s ship, being the same initiative value, could shoot no matter what. But he was critically damaged: he rolled for Console Fire… and the X-Wing blew up! He had his final shot, but was dead at the end of the turn, despite having not been targeted by “Longshot” range 1. That was lucky…

Finally, there was that moment when I had forgotten that one of my TIE/fo Fighters suffered from Damaged Engines, so he got one stress after making a 1 hard turn. He was a good target, but survived anyway.

As he did during the last turn, against all odds. And that last turn was brutal. In my favour. All went bad for Jax, all went good for me.

Great game. Exhausting, but cool. I thank Jax once again for the game, and wish him good luck for the rest of the tournament.

Now before round 3, next week, all participants will have the possibility to change their list for the remainder of the tournament. But I don’t think I will do that: my list seems to work, and it is fun to play... So my Malarus swarm will probably stay for the whole tournament.

Anyhow, round 3 next week: See you soon!