kyber cup 5

Kyber Cup, saison 5, round 6 ! Et cette fois un rapport de bataille en français, car cette ultime ronde suisse du tournoi m’a opposé à un compatriote, à savoir le très sympathique Skymyj. Et comme nous en étions tous deux à quatre victoires et une défaite, c’était une place dans le cut qui se disputait (un top 64, vu le très grand nombre de participants à cet événement – plus de 400, rappelons-le) !

Skymyj jouait la liste suivante de l’Alliance Rebelle :

Y-Wing BTL-A4 – •« Dutch » Vander – 58

•« Dutch » Vander – Gold Leader (40)

Bombes à concussion (4)

Torpilles à protons (12)

Tourelle dorsale (2)

Canonnière Auzituck – •Wullffwarro – 57

•Wullffwarro – Chef wookie (53)

Boucliers améliorés (4)

X-Wing T-65 – •Garven Dreis – 46

•Garven Dreis – Red Leader (46)

Servomoteur S-Foils (0)

A-Wing RZ-1 – •Jake Farrell – 39

•Jake Farrell – Instructeur avisé (34)

Roquettes à protons (5)

Total : 200/200

Quant à moi, je jouais ma liste du Premier Ordre, ma version d’une nuée Malarus de TIE/fo :

Navette légère de classe Xi – •Commandant Malarus – 58

•Commandant Malarus – Maître d’œuvre vindicatif (45)

•Agent Terex (7)

•Hondo Ohnaka (6)

Chasseur TIE/fo – •« Scorch » – 33

•« Scorch » – Leader Zeta (33)

Chasseur TIE/fo – •« Longshot » – 31

•« Longshot » – As Zeta (31)

Chasseur TIE/fo – Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon – 26

Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon (25)

Ciblage prioritaire automatisé (1)

Chasseur TIE/fo – Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon – 26

Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon (25)

Ciblage prioritaire automatisé (1)

Chasseur TIE/fo – Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon – 26

Cadet de l’Escadron Epsilon (25)

Ciblage prioritaire automatisé (1)

Total : 200/200

ATTENTION : APRÈS L’IMAGE QUI SUIT, JE RÉVÈLE LA CONCLUSION DE LA PARTIE (ET FAIS LE BILAN DU TOURNOI). ALORS SI VOUS PRÉFÉREZ NE PAS VOUS SPOILER TOUT ÇA, N’EN LISEZ PAS DAVANTAGE ET REGARDEZ D’ABORD LA VIDÉO !

Défaite pour le Premier Ordre, 81-174... Et c’est donc Skymyj qui a atteint le cut : bien joué, et bonne chance pour la suite !

Le matchup était intéressant, et... un peu indécis ? En fait, quand les gens de chez RookieOneFun ont présenté nos listes lors d’un stream consacré à tous les affrontements de la ronde 6 opposant des 4-1, aussi bien les commentateurs que les abonnés dans le chat se sont partagés, la moitié pensant que j’avais l’avantage (nombre, agilité, modifications passives, possibilité de bloquer), l’autre moitié pensant que c’était Skymyj qui avait l’avantage (plein de moyens de me fumer au moins un vaisseau par tour). Vous vous en doutez, je pensais quant à moi que mon adversaire était mieux placé pour l’emporter... Parce que je suis à peu près toujours comme ça. Aussi parce que je pensais que le blocage atteindrait vite ses limites, ici.

Mais la partie s’était plutôt bien engagée pour moi. Après que « Dutch » Vander et Wullffwarro ont fait leur truc, qui rendait le wookie redoutable dès le départ (malin, cette utilisation des Bombes à concussion, je ne connaissais pas !), j’ai bougé assez prudemment, en m’assurant autant que possible d’avoir un couloir pour la majeure partie de ma nuée, mais en prenant bien soin de garder « Longshot » et « Scorch » sous ce couloir, de sorte qu’ils seraient bien dans l’aura de Malarus, mais aussi en mesure d’intercepter ce petit filou de Jake Farrell, que je voyais venir avec ses Roquettes à protons (qui avaient clairement le nom de Malarus écrit dessus)... Malgré une mauvaise estimation des portées (quand j’ai coordonné « Scorch » avec Hondo Ohnaka, je croyais qu’il avait le A-Wing dans son arc, bien sûr, mais ça n’était en fait pas le cas), j’ai au moins pu contraindre Jake à se réorienter, ce qui l’a un peu tenu à l’écart de la partie pendant quelque temps : c’est toujours bon à prendre.

On a vite vu que les vaisseaux de Skymyj pouvaient vraiment taper comme des sourds... mais aussi bien que les miens étaient en mesure d’esquiver pas mal de choses – ainsi de ce premier tir de Wullffwarro à quatre dés contre mon Cadet bleu, qui avait cinq dés en défense : quatre touches... mais cinq esquives grâce à un nuage de gaz et un marqueur de concentration ! Puis Jake s’en est pris au même, avec deux dés seulement certes – j’en avais quatre, mais plus de modifications... et j’ai obtenu quatre esquives ! De bons dés, clairement... De la bonne grosse chance, oui !

Une tendance qui s’est clairement prolongée au tour suivant, avec des attaques très brutales de Wullffwarro et Garven Dreis contre « Scorch » qui n’ont absolument rien donné malgré de bons dés rouges, tandis que « Longshot » ne perdait que son bouclier face à une première Torpille à protons de « Dutch » à quatre touches. Mes attaques étaient bien plus molles... mais ont néanmoins ôté ses boucliers au Y-Wing !

Le tour suivant, j’ai lancé mon Cadet bleu en avant en espérant bloquer un ou deux vaisseaux de Skymyj, ce qui n’a fonctionné que pour Garven Dreis, mais a tout de même eu pour effet secondaire d’empêcher une accélération de Jake. Mais Malarus et « Longshot » n’étaient pas dans la meilleure des postures... Pour la première, je pensais être à portée 1 de « Dutch », ce qui l’aurait empêché d’utiliser sa deuxième Torpille à protons sur ma Navette légère de classe Xi, mais j’étais en fait à portée 2 ! Cependant, avec Malarus et « Scorch », j’ai pu faire en sorte qu’il ne reste plus qu’un seul point de coque au Y-Wing... qui n’en a pas moins survécu à ce tour. Skymyj a quant à lui réussi à sortir « Longshot »... mais en y consacrant beaucoup de ressources, trois de ses attaques à ce tour, alors qu’une Torpille à protons était déjà passée au tour précédent ! Mais la deuxième torpille, destinée à Malarus... n’est parvenue à lui ôter que ses boucliers. Je m’en sortais très bien.

En fait, à ce stade, même si j’avais perdu un vaisseau et pas Skymyj, la partie était plutôt bien engagée pour moi. Je menais aux points, la menace des Torpilles à protons était grosso merdo évacuée, et les vaisseaux de Skymyj, hors Wullffwarro, n’étaient pas idéalement placés.

Et puis la partie a basculé. Parce que je me suis très mal positionné au tour suivant, je me suis infligé un handicap que je ne parviendrais plus à rattraper d’ici à la fin de la partie...

Ceci essentiellement à cause de ce satané « Dutch » Vander qui avait survécu avec un point de coque. D’une part, alors que j’étais relativement bien placé avec mes TIE/fo, je me suis mis à psychoter, et beaucoup trop, sur l’effet des Bombes à concussion dont était muni le Y-Wing. J’ai cherché à éviter ces dégâts automatiques, ce qui ne paraît pas forcément déconnant dit comme ça, mais de mauvaises estimations s’y ajoutant, non seulement je me suis malgré tout payé l’explosion avec deux de mes vaisseaux, mais en outre j’ai privé trop de mes chasseurs d’opportunités d’attaque, nécessaires à ce stade – tout spécialement, ici, mes Cadets vert et marron ne pouvait clairement pas s’en prendre à Wullffwarro comme je le souhaitais très naïvement...

Et, ensuite, il y a eu le cas de Malarus. Skymyj s’est étonné après coup de ce que je n’aie pas fait de vol stationnaire à ce moment de la partie – ce qui m’aurait permis d’achever « Dutch » et de ne plus avoir à redouter ses Bombes à concussion. Rétrospectivement, ça se tient, mais voilà : de mon côté, sur le moment, je pensais franchement que « Dutch » ne tournerait pas, ici, mais préférerait dépasser Malarus, ce qui lui permettrait de la bombarder copieusement sans avoir à craindre de tirs en retour. Même si c’est spécialement à son intention que j’avais placé « Scorch » de la sorte. Mais non, il a tourné à gauche, et la manœuvre de Malarus, destinée à lui permettre de recourir à Hondo Ohnaka pour aider mes vaisseaux, n’est pas passée : elle a du coup bumpé sur « Dutch »... ce qui faisait encore une opportunité de tir en moins, et même deux puisque « Scorch » ne voyait du coup personne, ce qui assurait que le Y-Wing survivrait encore un tour, avec ses maudites bombes...

Ce mauvais positionnement m’a fait perdre la partie – comme souvent, quand je commets une boulette, je commets bien plus d’erreurs en essayant de la rattraper que si j’adoptais une posture plus stoïque, et ça n’a pas manqué ici.

L’explosion de la première Bombe à concussion m’a permis de marquer la moitié des points pour Garven Dreis, mais deux de mes TIE/fo ont subi le dégât automatique également – dont « Scorch », qui se retrouvait avec deux marqueurs de contrainte après être passé sur un nuage de gaz...

Puis Wullffwarro a fait très, très mal à Malarus, Garven Dreis a tombé « Scorch », et, pour ne rien arranger, j’avais aussi comme qui dirait oublié Jake Farrell et ses Roquettes à protons, qui a réduit mon TIE bleu à un seul point de coque... Tandis que je ne faisais aucun dégât de mon côté. Un tour catastrophique !

La partie était perdue à ce stade. Malarus ne pouvait qu’être détruite par la deuxième Bombe à concussion de « Dutch »... Ne me restait plus que mes trois Cadets de l’Escadron Epsilon, mal en point, sans relances... Garven a tombé la moitié du TIE marron, mais « Dutch » n’a pas réussi à l’achever ; Wullffwarro, cependant, a achevé le TIE vert. Le bleu a enlevé le dernier bouclier du wookie, mais ça n’était pas suffisant pour lui prendre la moitié des points (il aurait fallu un dégât supplémentaire, qu'il ne pouvait pas obtenir). Mon Cadet marron a sauvé l’honneur en sortant enfin « Dutch », mais c’était la fin de la partie...

Défaite, donc – mais une partie que j’ai trouvée assez intéressante, en fait !

Bravo à Skymyj, bien joué ! Et bonne chance pour le cut !

Le tournoi s’arrête donc ici pour moi, au terme des six rondes suisses. Je suis passé à deux doigts du cut, du coup, et ça n’était vraiment pas quelque chose que j’envisageais en me lançant dans cette affaire ! Récapitulons :

Ronde 1 : victoire face à Filip Djordjevic (Premier Ordre, Serbie), 167-77.

Ronde 2 : victoire face à Jax (Alliance Rebelle, États-Unis ?), 163-133.

Ronde 3 : victoire face à Druid (Séparatistes, Autriche), 88-70.

Ronde 4 : défaite face à Tharlin (Empire Galactique, Allemagne), 34-167.

Ronde 5 : victoire face à James Jones (Séparatistes, États-Unis), 149-59.

Ronde 6 : défaite face à Skymyj (Alliance Rebelle, France), 81-174.

Quatre victoires et deux défaites, donc – ce qui est bien mieux que tout ce que j’osais espérer. Si je l’avais emporté contre Skymyj, j’aurais intégré le top 64, chose très invraisemblable... Je ne peux donc vraiment pas me plaindre !

(À noter, parmi mes adversaires, outre Skymyj, Tharlin et Jax ont également intégré le cut, le premier invaincu à la troisième place des rondes suisses – j’ai cru comprendre qu’il avait remporté la précédente édition du tournoi ? –, le second n’ayant perdu que contre moi pour arriver à la 17^e place des rondes suisses. Bien joué à tous deux, et bonne chance pour la suite !)

Maintenant, ma liste ne m’a pas permis d’avoir une marge de victoire véritablement signifiante, c'était un peu dans l'ordre des choses... À partir du moment où j’avais perdu cette sixième ronde, je ne pouvais que reculer drastiquement dans le classement... Le cut ayant débuté (et c’est la raison pour laquelle je n’ai pas publié ce rapport de bataille plus tôt), je crois que mon classement est désormais définitif. Je finis donc à la 128^e place, sur 413 joueurs inscrits – en gros vers la fin du premier tiers, quoi.

Et je me suis beaucoup amusé avec cette liste, vraiment.

De manière plus générale, ç’a été un très, très chouette tournoi. Je remercie les organisateurs, et tous les participants. J’ai hâte de renouveler l’expérience !

Kyber Cup, season 5, round 5! 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!

For this fifth round, I have been paired with James, a very nice player from the USA, who brought the following Separatist Alliance list:

Firespray-class Patrol Craft – •Jango Fett – 97

•Jango Fett – Simple Man (79)

•Count Dooku (10)

•Lone Wolf (5)

Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Belbullab-22 Starfighter – •General Grievous – 60

•General Grievous – Ambitious Cyborg (44)

•Soulless One (6)

Impervium Plating (4)

Outmaneuver (6)

HMP Droid Gunship – •DGS-047 – 40

•DGS-047 – Adaptive Intelligence (35)

•Diamond-Boron Missiles (5)

Total: 197/200

As for myself, I brought my First Order list, 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: 149-59! But I must say that the game was… pretty much unbalanced? For several reasons, not only dices.

As for many previous games, I didn’t know what to think of the matchup. Both lists had their strong points: I had the numbers for me, obviously, the agility once again, and many options to modify dice rolls, although on the other side Jango Fett at least had about as many with Lone Wolf and Count Dooku, and Grievous could also benefit from such advantages if he managed to strike me from behind, which is all the asthmatic cyborg is about. James, with both these pilots, had two very frightening heavy hitters, and pretty agile ones actually, and he had far more health points on each of his ships than me on mine (Soulless One and Impervium Plating seriously increasing the Belbullab-22 Starfighter's survivability; well, theoretically…); DGS-047 didn’t worry me as much as those two, but I certainly was aware that his Diamond-Boron Missiles could be dangerous for my swarm.

One key decision from the beginning of the game, on my side, was to choose a priority target. I had to commit on one of those ships, spreading my swarm wasn’t an option. And James perfectly knew that. I could go after Grievous, or after Jango; whatever the case, James would flee with the designated target, and hit me in the back with the other one. When I discovered James’ list, my first thought was to go after Jango: after all, the Firespray represented half of the whole list just by himself! But a training game (thanks again, pal!) made me change my mind: the fact is I couldn’t ignore Grievous; he mustn’t manage to go behind me. Plus chasing an evading Jango would be pretty much as dangerous as confronting him head on, because of his rear arc. So from the beginning of the game my primary objective was clear: I had to take down Grievous.

And that was the beginning of troubles for James. He was incredibly unlucky with Grievous: he lost his two shields on a random downtown attack from an Epsilon Squadron Cadet, which was quite unexpected, then suffered very early on a crippling critical damage, a dangerous gas cloud prevented him from boosting away from my swarm, then he suffered an even worse critical damage (Panicked Pilot on a Belbullab has so often been a death sentence in my own games that I totally felt bad for James here), and, yes, those were two pilot damage cards, so Impervium Plating didn’t apply… An awfully bad luck.

Although the Belbullab wasn’t actually the first of James’ ships to disappear from the board: that dubious honour belonged to DGS-047, who wasn’t my priority target, but those of my ships who couldn’t move so as to attack Grievous had good shots against the droid. Of course, agility 1 is an issue, but, even so, those eight health points melted faster than I (and James, obviously) hoped they would.

Statistics in the end showed that my red dices were good, very good even. James’ green dices were the issue: not the worst, but probably not as many evades as he should have had.

And then it was Jango vs the whole world, which is fitting in a way. A great pilot on a great ship, and pretty much unscathed at that time. He had already destroyed one of my Cadets, one-shot, and “Scorch”, whose mission was to end Grievous’ misery but who was therefore sandwiched between those two heavy hitters, only miraculously survived with one hull left.

So make no mistake: even if James had lost two of his three ships, and I had lost only one and a half of my six, the game was still on, James could win. He took a bit later half of “Longshot”, but the key point was that I had been a bit reckless with Malarus, and he almost took half of her. I had to flee with my commander, because her destruction would have actually meant that James would have taken the lead. My shuttle survived by running away as fast as she… by executing a dignified and strategically sound retreat, and then I took half of Jango on other lucky rolls (well, lucky for some). Then it was game; but I must say I sweat a little bit during those last turns.

(One thing here: because I’m an idiot, I’ve lost uncounted games by not running away, or too late. So maybe I’ve finally learnt something after all: thank you, Brave Sir Robin!)

But I was lucky, for sure. Not only with dices, I had some crazy maneuvers, not bumping when I was almost certain I would. But I must admit that I didn’t rely very much on Malarus’ rerolls, because I had most often than not painted dices. Which was great: not too much to worry regarding those strain tokens… because I didn’t have them. Actually, I didn’t rely too much on Automated Target Priority neither, during the whole game: I didn’t need to!

Nevertheless, if I had to choose one card from my list that was really effective, it would most certainly be Hondo Ohnaka. That crew is GREAT. And probably undercosted. Coordinating and jamming range 3 is simply insane. And even at a closer range, for instance when I jammed DGS-047, depriving him of the lock he needed to launch his Diamond-Boron Missiles, well, that was something.

Luck was on my side, clearly. Well played nonetheless, James, thank you for the game, and I wish you better luck for the remainder of the tournament and beyond!

...

So, this is weird: I have now four victories and only one defeat. Which must be some kind of error.

There is a final Swiss round before the cut, so see you next week for round 6…

Kyber Cup, season 5, round 4! And a new battle report in English. Well… Actually, only this blog this time, as we had to play without audio, a first for me, and quite disturbing (there has been some confusion at least one time, entirely my fault).

For this fourth round, I have been paired with Tharlin, a German player, and this video comes from his Twitch channel (I thank him again for granting me the permission to upload it here); he brought the following Galactic Empire list:

TIE/ph Phantom – •”Whisper” – 85

•”Whisper” – Soft-Spoken Slayer (60)

•Fifth Brother (12)

Stealth Device (6)

Juke (7)

TIE Advanced x1 – •Darth Vader – 68

•Darth Vader – Black Leader (66)

Fire-Control System (2)

TIE/sk Striker – •”Duchess” – 44

•”Duchess” – Urban Ace (44)

Total: 197/200

As for myself, I brought my First Order list, 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!

Defeat for the First Order: 34-167… My first (and probably not last) defeat during this tournament, and, to be honest, the fact that I had three victories until then was clearly some kind of anomaly… And I was utterly destroyed this time. Well played, Tharlin, and I wish you good luck for the remainder of the tournament.

So, Imperial aces. No Emperor Palpatine here, no need, just straightforward aces: a fat “Whisper”, of the kind I like to play myself (although I’ve not used Stealth Device on her or actually any ship since a very long time, but this modification seems to make a comeback recently, and I’ve struggled with uncatchable stealthy Actis a few times those last weeks); a classical Darth Vader with only Fire-Control System (and therefore no Afterburners); and a naked “Duchess”, as she comes.

What about the matchup? I would say… it was fair? I had the numbers for me, and actually a better global agility, weirdly enough. Catching aces is of course the main difficulty, but, as acy as those aces were, it must be pointed out, I guess, that none of them here had double repositioning abilities, Vader being deprived of Afterburners, and the two others relying on special abilities to arc-dodge, namely cloaking and Adaptative Ailerons; they still had more options than me, and their superior initiative meant they could react more easily at my moves, my swarm being quite monolithic (although probably not as much as many swarms).

But it was very soon a nightmare for me. Everything went wrong, and, although the dices were not in my favour (except for one very special roll…), I must blame my poor strategy in the first place. I did many mistakes, and was logically crushed.

I did not know how to engage combat. I tried something weird, and that was a very bad idea; actually, had I been more brutal, the outcome could have been very different… I didn’t know where to engage, actually, that was the first issue. Tharlin’s aces could easily flank me: that’s what aces do. Therefore I probably should have gone against one of them with all my swarm, to try and get rid of one as soon as possible. Probably not “Whisper”, who kept her distances as Phantoms do, but Darth Vader and “Duchess” could have been submerged by my swarm.

But I thought I could be in a better position by making an early global K-turn, playing it slow, letting the enemy come at me, and that was not the right thing to do, especially as Commander Malarus, unable to K-turn, went way too far: her re-roll aura didn’t cover all my TIE/fo, therefore, and she made a logical primary target since. Maybe a red stop could have prevented some of these issues, but, actually, flying straight towards the enemy would in hindsight have been the better choice.

And all went wrong. I’ve lost two TIE/fo very soon, and there was some bad luck here, but my maneuvering was awful and my attacks were poor.

Well, one wasn’t: I certainly did not think I would inflict four damages on Vader on a very lucky roll! But that was the best I could do, and I wasn’t able to get rid of the Sith Lord anyway. Beyond that, I think “Duchess” lost one hull, and that was it.

In the mean time, I did many mistakes, not anticipating my opponent’s moves. The worst blunder (well, after those meaningless K-turns) was when I got tricked by “Duchess”’ Adaptative Ailerons, bumping on the TIE/fo I thought to have positioned especially with her in mind, and then slooping just past them. What a jerk I was…

There’s not much more to say, I’m afraid. I’ve flown very badly, Tharlin was way more accurate, and he logically destroyed most of my ships. Well played!

As for me, let’s hope round 5 will be better…

Kyber Cup, season 5, round 3! 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!

For this third round, I have been paired with Alex aka Druid, from Austria, who brought the following Separatist Alliance list:

HMP Droid Gunship – •DGS-047 – 53

•DGS-047 – Adaptive Intelligence (35)

Repulsorlift Stabilizers (3)

•Kraken (11)

Thermal Detonators (3)

Delayed Fuses (1)

Hyena-class Droid Bomber – Techno Union Bomber – 33

Techno Union Bomber (25)

Landing Struts (1)

Plasma Torpedoes (7)

Hyena-class Droid Bomber – Techno Union Bomber – 33

Techno Union Bomber (25)

Landing Struts (1)

Plasma Torpedoes (7)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter – •DFS-311 – 28

•DFS-311 – Scouting Drone (23)

Grappling Struts (1)

•••Discord Missiles (4)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter – ••Haor Chall Prototype – 26

••Haor Chall Prototype – Xi Char Offering (21)

Grappling Struts (1)

•••Discord Missiles (4)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter – ••Haor Chall Prototype – 26

••Haor Chall Prototype – Xi Char Offering (21)

Grappling Struts (1)

•••Discord Missiles (4)

Total: 199/200

As for myself, I decided to keep the same First Order list as in the first rounds, 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! 88-70. That was close… Up until the end. The issue could have been very different on many occasions. A good game therefore, and a fun one. Many thanks to Alex, he’s a very nice player!

I didn’t really know what to think of the matchup. Swarm against swarm, six ships vs six ships…

I clearly had the upper hand as far as agility was concerned, and that was something; weirdly, my ships were a bit more resilient as well, for they all had one shield, and Commander Malarus two. Finally I had access to “free” dice modifications, with Agent Terex and Automated Target Priority, and Malarus rerolls as well… also those could be an inconvenience, because all my ships would engage before all of Alex’s, which meant he could benefit from the strain tokens more than most lists. But, hey! That’s First Order, baby! And that kept me the ability to block, which could be useful.

On the other hand, Alex benefited from several tricks: Network Calculations, as always with droids, Kraken and DFS-311 to capitalize on them, Struts on almost everybody, Plasma Torpedoes, and, as Alex himself put it, those Discord Missiles which everybody likes. Plus I had never played with or against HMP Droid Gunships, with the ability to do sideslips, and DGS-047 had Thermal Detonators as well.

So I think the matchup was... fair and balanced? Feel free to comment and argue about this assumption!

Alex deployed his ships in two groups of three. The Vultures were in a position to flank me and sow chaos in my formation with their Discord Missiles. Facing me, the Techno Union Bombers could easily sit on a big rock with their Landing Struts to launch their Plasma Torpedoes from a safe spot (and that was partly my fault, as I didn’t think about that during setup, and gave Alex options by placing all three rocks close to his deployment zone, silly me). Then DGS-047 would be in a good position to sideslip around my squadron to my right.

I had to pick one of these two groups and chose the Vultures. They wouldn’t bring me many victory points, but they were the easiest to kill, I needed to get rid of enemy ships as fast as possible, and I could hope to destroy one or more before they could launch their Discord Missiles, which I dreaded especially on Commander Malarus. Then, my reasoning was that it would be easier to turn right against Alex’s left flank, whereas the opposite wold not realistically be doable.

As it happened, I didn’t do much damage on those Vultures… especially when I realized my three Epsilon Squadron Cadets were compelled to shoot at the Buzz Droids Swarm because of Automated Target Priority! You know, that thing that might happen, but almost never does? Well, it did… So I lost three attacks on the first engagement, and that made me quite uncomfortable to say the least.

(Some note here: I attacked with all three of my Cadets on the Buzz Droids Swarm, even if it had been destroyed by the first one. I wasn’t obliged to shoot with the remaining two. I did anyway, hoping to gain some calculate tokens for Automated Target Priority, which failed, no big surprise here, and that was probably a bad idea nevertheless, since it meant that they could gain strain through Malarus automatic rerolls. Luckily, as it happened, those strain tokens didn’t really have consequences, I think.)

In a weird way, I had some luck regarding those nasty Discord Missiles. The next turn, Alex did hit one of my ships with them, but, at this point, I chose to shoot at them with Malarus (a range three shot with her wouldn’t have been that useful, and they were range one). On one hand, I lost one more attack on enemy ships that way, but I destroyed once again the Buzz Droids before they could harm me; it was necessary, I think, because automatic damage is always bad, plus Malarus would probably pass through them the next turn, and the Xi-class Light Shuttle would be in a very bad situation then.

Then, even if I didn't manage to kill all the Vultures, I could turn my attention to the second group of enemy ships. Those Techno Union Bombers were fearsome with their Plasma Torpedoes, and it was impossible for me to arc-dodge them. All I could do was going range one so they couldn’t shoot with them, even if it meant three dice attacks on their part anyway (at least, there wasn’t the “free shield lost”). Then I could go behind them, and I would be in a much better position.

But I had to get there, and at this point DGS-047 protected them efficiently… At the same time, it was Alex’s most costly ship, with only one green dice (but way more health points than all the others): I could hope to take half of him, which would probably pay off for any lost TIE/fo on my side. So most of my ships turned against him in the end.

As it turned out, we didn’t play that many turns in this game: we both played swarms, after all, and I must say it’s been some time since I played one (let’s say more than five ships, I usually run three or four), and I was a bit slow… I hope it didn’t bother Alex.

Whatever the case, the bell rang before I could take half of DGS-047, especially considering that all my ships attacking it rolled awfully, and I could place only one of my TIE/fo behind the Bombers. Luckily, it didn’t matter that much at this point. I had a very small lead, and it wasn’t impossible for Alex to catch up and take the lead again, but he needed an almost perfect turn.

And so: victory. But with a very, very small MoV: only 18 points! Yeah, that was close. And fun! Good game. Thanks to Alex, and good luck to him for the remainder or the tournament!

Speaking about that, I have now three victories, zero defeats. Which must be a mistake, I certainly wasn’t hoping for that… My MoV is poor, obviously with such a list, so I am currently in the lower part of the ladder for those who achieved 3-0. Anyway, I’m really happy with that, as you can guess. Now, as Swiss rounds go, I’m really not optimistic for what will happen next… Well, we’ll see, I guess: round 4 soon…

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!

It will be a first on the Random Academy Pilot YouTube channel: a battle report in English! And I guess that this blog article presenting the lists with some comments must be in English as well. Of course, I’m French, so I’m genetically designed to speak and write an awful English. Please be kind!

So it’s Kyber Cup, season 5! Some huge X-Wing tournament to say the least: actually, with 413 registered players from all over the world, it is the biggest X-Wing tournament on Tabletop Simulator ever (which was unexpected for sure).

For the first round, I have been paired with Filip Djordjevic, a very nice X-Wing player from Serbia. He brought the following First Order list:

Upsilon-class Command Shuttle – •Lieutenant Dormitz – 68

•Lieutenant Dormitz – Hypercomms Specialist (66)

Hyperspace Tracking Data (2)

TIE/vn Silencer – •“Blackout” – 68

•“Blackout” – Ill-Fated Test Pilot (63)

Proton Rockets (5)

TIE/ba Interceptor – •Major Vonreg – 62

•Major Vonreg – Red Baron (55)

Daredevil (2)

Proton Rockets (5)

Total: 198/200

As for myself, I also brought a First Order list (I guess it was some kind of a drill), although a very different one, 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! Well, I mean, for my First Order list: 167-77. A very fun game with a very nice opponent!

Now, before commenting the game, I must confess I did one big mistake (well, at least one), which I wasn’t aware of before watching this recording: the TIE/fo Fighter who killed “Blackout” couldn’t in fact shoot at him, because Lieutenant Dormitz was closer; Automated Target Priority should have compelled my Epsilon Squadron Cadet to target the Upsilon-class Command Shuttle instead of the Silencer. I’m very sorry for this error and apologize, to Filip first, and also to you viewers.

But it sure was a fun game. When I discovered Filip’s list, I must say I was very afraid. It has some serious alpha strike potential, with Lieutenant Dormitz sending his two aces companions very fast and modded, both of those being equipped with Proton Rockets; and, well, I’ve played Lieutenant Tavson enough to know that the Upsilon­-class Command Shuttle can hit really hard. To be honest, I was thinking: “OK, I’ll lose two of my ships during the first engagement or so, and maybe Commander Malarus could be one of those, which would be very bad news for me...” As it turned out, my evading TIE/fo Fighters did well enough in defence to sustain those brutal attacks – that is, except for “Longshot”, obviously...

But the game was on. Koiogran turns, Segnor loops and voluntary bumps were crucial to me, and they paid. One main force of my list, I guess, is that I don’t care that much about not having actions (because of stress, gas clouds, and so on): Malarus’ rerolls paired with Agent Terex’s calculate tokens, and sometimes Automated Target Priority’s calculate tokens as well, mean that I most often have dice modifications with all of my squadron one way or the other, even if I usually don’t roll many dices. These maneuvers, rerolls and calculate tokens allowed me to kill “Blackout” pretty soon (but, yes, too soon, and I’m very, very sorry about that...), and then Lieutenant Dormitz was doomed. When the Upsilon-class Command Shuttle blew up, Major Vonreg was alone to fight most of my ships, and even killing all three of my Epsilon Squadron Cadets (Commander Malarus being too far away) would not have brought him enough victory points to take the lead.

Although it could have turned the other way many times. My worst blunder happened right after “Blackout”’s untimely death: I knew Lieutenant Dormitz would do a red stop at this point, and hoped to multiply bumps so as to expose as few of my ships as possible to his devastating five dices, range one attack. Sadly I terribly miscalculated my fist maneuver of the turn, which meant my ships went too far away, most of them bumping precisely in front of the shuttle! And that included the fragile Commander Malarus herself: I wanted her to bump on Dormitz by going as fast as possible, but it failed miserably. It could have been very painful, but I survived well better than I expected. Actually, my ships having not bumped in Dormitz, they could then concentrate their attacks on the dreaded Upsilon-class Command Shuttle, and remove it from the game!

But one great thing about this whole game, as Filip himself said, was that we both had good dices, red and green. Mine were probably a bit better, I think (we haven’t checked for statistics at the end of the game), but there were very impressive dice rolls on both sides of the game mat. Which meant suspense and really epic moments, as is fit for Star Wars.

It was therefore a very entertaining game, I think, Filip and I having great fun regardless of the conclusion. I hope you’ll feel the same, and don’t hesitate to comment!

(And blame me for my terrible English, I guess.)

I thank Filip once again for the game, and wish him good luck for the rest of the tournament. Round 2 next week... See you soon!