X-Wing: Escalation Tournament: ComicReaders Downtown: Saturday, August 27, 2016

[ChadBoudreau]

X-Wing Escalation Tournament


DESCRIPTION
Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful Rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, the X-Wing Miniatures Game recreates exciting Star Wars space combat throughout its several included scenarios. Select your crew, plan your maneuvers, and complete your mission!

Escalation tournaments are held in a series of four tournament rounds. The first round is 50 minutes, the second round is 70 minutes, the third round is 90 minutes, and the fourth round is 120 minutes.
Each new tournament round, players field a larger pre-built squad (following the Escalation squad building rules below), and players will score tournament points after each round based on the result of their game. After four tournament rounds the tournament ends and prizes are given out based on player record. The X-Wing Summer OP Kit will be used for prizes.

Each player may choose to field a Rebel, Imperial, or Scum & Villainy squad, as tournament seeding ignores the player's faction. Each of the squads fielded must be from the same faction. You may not have more than eight small ships of the same ship type (TIE fighter, A-Wing, etc.) in any squad. You may not have more than four large ships of the same ship type in any squad.

The maximum squad points for each player's first squad is 60 points. A squad cannot exceed 60 points, though it may contain fewer than 60 points. Each player must field at least two ships.

On subsequent rounds, the maximum squad points for each player's squad increases to 90 for the second round, 120 for the third round, and 150 for the fourth. During each round, each squad must contain all ships and upgrade cards from the previous squad. Ships from the previous round must keep all equipped upgrade cards, and these cards may not be "transferred" to a different ship. However, new upgrade cards may be added to ships from the previous squad.

The complete, official Escalation Tournament rules as provided by Fantasy Flight Games can be read here. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that players familiarise themselves with the tournament rules BEFORE the tournament.

DATE & TIME
Saturday, August 27, 2016
10am - 5:45pm

LOCATION
Venue Information: Click Here

COST
$5

EVENT ORGANIZER
RobSven

EVENT ATTENDANCE LIMITS
There is no seating limit for this event.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
If you have questions, respond to this thread.
Pre-registration is NOT required.

[Tempest]

Strategy/list-building question for people who have played/made escalation lists before... do you typically start from the 60 point list and work your way up, or do you start with your final team and work your way down? I made a list comprised mostly of ships I'm familiar with, but I'm curious if there is an optimal way to make a list.

[RobSven]

I haven't built for escalation either ... So this may not be the best advice. 
Personally after trying to find a squad starting with 60 points and going up was tough.  I ended up making what I thought would be good at 150 points, and then seperate what I thought would give me the best chance to win first game from that list.  From there it was easy to add pilots / upgrades from the 150 point list as I went to fill the 90 and 120 sizes.

[Tempest]

Yeah, after doing it, I think I might make a second list and start from the top and work my way down. I'm also curious if aces is the way to go, or if it might be better to use low-mid PS pilots and try and squeeze in more stuff each tier.

[RobSven]

I'd like to give a bit thanks to comic readers for hosting this tournament and bringing in the kit!  It was a pretty good turn out, 7 of us able to make it.  I think everyone had a good time, and pretty competitive.  Everyone ended up 2-2!

[ChadBoudreau]

Excellent, Rob. I'm glad to hear turnout was good and that the format was a lot of fun. If anyone would like to share, I'd be curious to read what kind of squads people built. I had never heard of the escalation format for X-Wing until Rob told me he wanted to run this tournament.

[RobSven]

There was a pretty solid mixture of squads it seemed.  I ran a fairly basic Soontir Fel with Valen Rudor and just the adv. prototype title for the first round .. Coming in at 53 points.  I played short for the first round to save room for Vessery in a defender for the second.  I brought the Tie/D title and tractor beam with Vessery. For the third round I brought in the inquisitor with title and then added stealth device and auto thrusters to Soontir Fel to make him a bit more of an ace.  Final round I just added upgrades to the last 3 ships.  I added assault missles and guidance chips to both adv. prototypes and the defender for some ae damage assuming I'd come up against some sort of swarm.  And then last upgrade in that round I brought ruthlessness for more ae damage shenanigans from vessery.

After flying escalation id bring a little different stuff.  I wouldn't have focused so much on ae damage and brought another ship or two instead.  And I would have tried to stay as close to max points as possible for each tier .. I definitely felt like holding out points for a next round more expensive ship ended up making my first squad seem underpowered.

[Tempest]

I knew from the get-go that I really wanted to bring in the Decimator; I felt like it would be really strong in the opening rounds, even without upgrades. My first list was actually all aces, no decimator, but I didn't feel happy with it. So, the night before I re-evaluated my ships and decided what I wanted was the Decimator with some TIEs. As it turns out, I was able to make a small swarm with Crackshot Ties. The first round was the Decimator plus one TIE, the next round added two (they're 15 points each) then the last two rounds involved me bringing in higher level TIEs (Howlrunner and then Epsilon Leader) and upgrading the Decimator. I definitely needed to tweak a few things, but I was ultimately pleased with how the list played out. Given the chance, I'd definitely run a similar list again.

In any case, the event was a blast, and I definitely love doing stuff that's different than your standard 100-point skirmishes. Those are fine, and have their place, but I personally enjoy alternative playstyles better.

[Rogue2]

I loved the new escalation style! I figured with the way the points worked, that I would be seeing a lot of aces on the table so I brought out my top two ace killers, Poe Dameron and Wedge Antilles. And it seemed to work, though I was certainly lucky to end up 4-0. I think in these ace offs, being able to regen is huge, and I loved how two of my games ended in one on one showdowns. I look forward to doing something like this again!

[ChadBoudreau]

The next Prairie Game Expo is on Saturday, October 1. 9am - 9pm.
Would some folks be interested in an Escalation tournament at that event? If so, I need a volunteer to take the reins and run it at the event.
Let me know.