So the dust has settled on the Sith Taker Open, which seems to have been the largest and most successful event of the year. 140 showed up to play and my spies in the room say it was a great weekend! Obviously, I couldn’t attend (as I mentioned last time) but there’s a LOT to digest on what happened over the weekend!
List distribution was mostly as expected, i.e. very Scum Heavy (30%) but every faction was represented, although CIS was at the bottom of the pack, with only 7 pilots (5%) in attendence.
Win rates, though, tell an interesting story. Obi Win has done an interesting breakdown using longshanks data, revealing some curious nuggets:
- Scum (the most popular faction) had a middling win rate (51%).
- CIS (the least popular faction) had the strongest win rate (57%).
- Rebels had the lowest win rate (34%). This is really interesting, since Rebels have some strong pieces and are usually pretty solid.
- FO also had a pretty poor win rate (40%). This isn’t a huge surprise, as I’ve detailed in some of my previous posts (during my “FO era”) – there’s lots to like about FO, but compared to other factions, they aren’t quite as competitive.
Looking at ship representation, there are some other nuggets to glean:
- The most popular ship present was the good old TiE LN Fighter, with 35 present!
- Second was the T70 X wing with 20. Curiously the spread of pilots for the chassis were quite diverse (although 4 of these were a form of Poe Dameron).
- Scum Fenn Rau was in 18 lists. That’s 13% of the field, and nearly half of the Scum lists present.
- 3 people flew Battle over Endor Lando! That’s wild – he’s barely seen in play for ages, and then (like buses) 3 show up all at once! A cynical person might also point to this being a reason for Rebels’ low win rate…
In the final reckoning, after 2 days and 10 rounds, Niels Vos won the overall event with a very interesting list:
Imperial Super Commando – Gauntlet Fighter (15)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Drop-Seat Bay (0)
Swivel Wing (0)
Gar Saxon (6)
Grand Moff Tarkin (3)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 50
Yes, it’s an honest to goodness Tie Swarm! More than that, for the first time in many, many years, a list with only generic ships has won a major X-wing event!!! I genuinely can’t remember the last time this happened… maybe the horrific 8x Nantex lists of early V2, which would be 6-7 years ago!?!?!
There’s nothing particularly special about this list, other than the shock and awe of seeing so many ships on a table. There are some synergies between Grand Moff Tarkin and Mandalorian Optics, allowing all the ships to potentially lock a single ship, but the trick mostly seems to be in keeping the ships alive long enough to shoot. The addition of the Precision Ion Engines was pretty inspired, as well – giving TIE fighters more options to turn is really important when you are flying a swarm.
Some of my playgroup commented that he got very lucky with dice on the day (sometimes Tie Fighters pop all the time, sometimes they don’t!) but I think (having seen some of his games on stream) he did a great job in blocking the opponent (check out the final to see how he stopped Liam from engaging with Fenn AND Han for most of the game!). The key to flying a swarm is to block and limit enemy ships’ action selection, giving a huge advantage in objective play in 3 out of 5 scenarios (everything except Change Engagement and Assault at the Satellite Array). Pretty good skills, then, so well done Niels for the win!
Mystic Dave
A few weeks before STO, Rich Polley popped this on the Facebook X-Wing UK and Ireland Group:
At the time, I answered with this:
So… how did I do?
Point 1 was pretty accurate. Maybe less Mando than expected (only 8 lists!), but SL Fenn was pretty much everywhere – even in the runner up list.
Point 2 was… nearly right. Imperial list, YES. Sooty Soontir and Vader… NO.
Point 3 also happened. There were at least five scavenged YT-1300 freighters, all with Paige and Veteran Turret Gunner. 2 made it to the top 12! However, Poe and Zori were in short supply!
Point 4… well, it’s a bit of a cop-out answer. However, would you consider an 8 ship TIE swarm of generics something wacky? I would say so!
Point 5 was pretty right as well. Although there were only 13 Republic lists, pretty much all of them had aces and LAATs in them… although Nic Firecast (best performing Republic player over the weekend) dropped the LAAT for a second Arc.
As to my last comments… FO did not do terribly well, so yes. CIS, though, did pretty well… although only 5% of players flew separatists.
So I think my crystal ball is in the post! Obviously, I didn’t see Rebels doing so poorly, but I’m OK with that. I think I’ll try the lottery this weekend!
What now?
So with STO done, it’s a short wait until Worlds, and hopefully just after that we will see some new points and new content! However, until then, it’s time to try some wacky lists to make the best of the points as they are give something new a try. I have already taken “inspiration” from STO to try this out…
Kath Scarlet – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (15)
Gamut Key (5)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Andrasta (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5
Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (15)
Fearless (0)
Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 50
Yes, it’s not quite a big swarm, but Fenn, a Firespray and 4 filler ships sounds pretty cool! It’s currently 2 out of 2 wins, so more news as I test it.
Other than that, with no in person events scheduled until April and only 1 TTS league underway currently, it’s a bit of a waiting game for new things. Here’s hoping they come soon!
X Wing Musings 
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