The Greatest Game I Ever Lost. Sunny v. Paul Heaver, Round of 8

[sunny ravencourt 197]

This is a transcript made by Ben Chee of the greatest match I ever lost.  James "Sunny" McDonald versus Paul Heaver in the Worlds 2014 Elimination round of 8.  I will remember this game forever because Paul is a world class Xwing player and a world class person. There was a significant crowd watching this and it was as exciting a game as I'll ever play.  I was thrilled to see Paul win his second championship.  I nearly had him, and I'll be looking to get him next year! 

 

~Sunny

 

WORLDS 2014.  ROUND OF 8.

Lists:

Sunny has initiative.                                                             

Sunny:

Whipser:  FCS, Gunner, VI, ACD

Soontir Fel: PTL

Omicron Group Pilot: Darth Vader

 

Paul Heaver:

Han: C3PO, R2D2 (crew) Predator, Millennium Falcon title, Engine Upgrade.  3 Tala Z-95's.

 

Deployment: Asteroids are in a 4 cluster on Sunny’s side of the board, and two off on Paul’s side of the board.

 

Paul deployed his Tala’s opposite of Shuttle (in opposite corners)

Sunny deployed Whisper and Soontir are deployed opposite of Tala’s (almost directly in line for Joust, but off by about 3 ship bases)

Paul Deployed Han at an angle facing his board edge in contact with one of his Tala’s.

 

T1:

Note: Paul does NOT keep his Templates organized.

Sunny’s Shuttle moves forward 3

Paul’s Tala’s move forward 4 and 3 in formation, 3rd tala pulls in behind with a hard 2 turn.

Whisper moves forward 2 and cloaks.

Soontir Fel moves forward 4, boosts 1, and mini turtles.

Han moves 1 bank and is in formation with Talas.

T2:

Shuttle moves forward 3 into Asteroid field.

Tala: rear moves forward and takes place of lead, the two lead take hard 2’s and move towards center.

Soontir makes a 2 bank towards enemy ships (now mid field) and barrel rolls left to dodge the arc of one of the Tala’s. Mini Turtles.

Whisper Decloaks left and moves forward 2. Evades.

Falcon moves forward four forward, takes a focus.

Soontir attacks a Tala at Range 2. Hit and crit. Comes up one focus, spends focus, takes a shield.

Whisper will attack same Tala at Range 2. Tala is destroyed (3 damage, no evades)

Han attacks whisper, spends focus to do 3 damage, whisper rolls natural 3 evades. No Damage. (No Gunner, has R2D2 instead)

Talas do no damage.

T3:

Shuttle pulls red 1 bank to get arc on falcon. Focuses.

Lead tala goes 4 forward and focuses, rear Tala pulls right hard turn to optimize arcs, pulls focus.

Soontir Fel pulls a green 4 forward and boosts forward and to the right, and turtles.

Whisper decloaks right, and moves 2 forward and evades.

Han moves 1 forward. And focuses.

Whisper shoots Tala at Range 1. 2 hits, 1 crit. Paul rolls 2 focuses, spends token, takes 1 shield.

Han shoots whisper at range 1. 2 hits, 2 focus, spends: 4 hits. Rolls 2 focus, 1 evade. Spends focus and evade, taking 1 damage.

Tala shoots shuttle at Range 1, does 3 shields on the Shuttle.

Other Tala shoots Whisper, 3 damage rolled natural, defense  roll is 1 evade and 2 focus, 2 damage goes through. (Whisper at 1 HP)

Shuttle shoots and kills damaged Tala.

 

 

T4:

Shuttle moves 1 left bank, green action to chase Falcon.

Tala 3 K’s. Stresses.

Whisper decloaks forward (through shuttle) and executes a 1 hard towards Tala. Evades.

Soontir Fel takes a 2 hard back towards the center of the board, boosts one forward towards the center of the board, and mini turtles.

Han hard 1’s and is directly in front of an asteroid, but still in range of Whisper. Focuses.

Soontir fires first, Range 3 at Tala with stress, scores 2 hits. Paul Evades both.

Whisper fires range 2 at whisper, scores 2 hits, hit and a crit, both shields are lost on a focus and blank evade roll.

Han fires at shuttle, 4 dice, focuses, 3 hits and a crit, shields lost, shields down, one hit, and one crit. (one extra shield is forgotten)

Tala fires at shuttle, one more damage goes through.

T5:

Shuttle stays stationary, stresses.

Tala moves hard 3 to right, remains stressed.

Decloak forward is declared, Paul allows reconsideration. Decloak is still performed, and hard 1 is executed facing opposite of Tala. Recloaks.

Soontir executes a 2 hard turn towards center of board, has no option for barrel roll backwards due to asteroid. Chooses to turtle instead.

Falcon drives 3 over rock in order to continue shooting. Takes one shield for flying over (normal damage rolled)

Whisper and Soontir are both out of range of the Falcon. Instead, Paul fires at Whisper through a rock at range 3 while turtled. Whisper rolls 6 evade and scores 3 evades. No damage.

T6:

Shuttle executes a 2 bank and remains stressed.

Tala executes 2 hard turn away from Sunny.

Whisper decloaks

Soontir Fel Moves forward 2 and boosts. Mini turtles.

Whisper decloaks to the right and backwards, executes a hard 1 to the right to run from Han and try to engage the Tala. Chooses to Re-Cloak.

Han moves 2 bank to the left and maneuvers through the asteroids without bumping or overlapping. Takes an evade.

Han fires at Whisper range 3 through a rock, uses a laser, checks. Judge is called. Obstructed shot. Rolls 2 hits and a crit natural.

Whisper rolls 3 evades exactly.

 

T7:

Shuttle maneuvers 1 green to avoid asteroid, clears stress, takes a TL on Han.

Tala moves 2 forward green and focuses.

Soontir moves a 2 hard to become parallel with Falcon.

Whisper decloaks forward (away from Han) and pulls 1 hard maneuver towards Tala.

Han turns 2 and bumps Soontir.

Whisper kills Tala with 3 hits.

Han is out of range and cannot engage Soontir.

 

T8:

Shuttle pulls 2 hard turn and stresses.

Soontir pulls a 2 left hard, clears stress, and barrel rolls left to block a hard 2 from Falcon. Turtles.

Whisper decloaks right, and pulls a hard 1 towards the Falcon. Evades.

Han pulls a 1 right bank, focuses.

Whisper shoots at Han, makes evade, gunner triggers, takes shot again, 4 hits. Guesses 1 gets it and takes 1 damage by spending focus to turn one of the zeros.

Falcon shoots 3 shots at Whisper at Range 3. 2 hits. Evade roll has 3 evades. Han recovers a shield.

 

T9:

Shuttle moves 3 forward white and maintains a stress. Hits a rock, and takes a damage. (Asteroids do not concern me – Vader)

Soontir moves 2 hard turn ,and barrel rolls left to block a hard turn by Han.

Whisper decloaks left and moved forward 2, almost bumps Soontir.

Han moves 2 hard left and does not bump. Han attempts boost. Calls Judge. Paul takes back boost declaration- HUGE Kudos to Sunny. Chooses focus.

Soontir fires 4 dice and blanks on all 4.

Whisper scores 1 hit. TL gives 3 hits and a crit scores 1 evade with 3PO. Two hits and a crit go through. Takes a minor explosion. Takes 1 more damage, face down. Whisper re-cloaks and focuses.

Han fires 4 dice at Whisper, uses Han, scores 3 hits with focus. Whisper evades 4 dice scores 2 evades, spends token and survives.

R2D2 flips up a minor explosion again, and receives another damage, losing  the recovered shield.

 

EDIT: Sozin captured a pic of the EXACT Moment of the debate. Nice job! 

 

T10:

Shuttle moves one soft to the left and clears stress, focuses.

Soontir runs through with a 3 flying through the falcon, boosts, back towards board and turtles.

Whisper stays cloaked and goes 4 forward and takes an evade.

Falcon moves 4 forward and focuses.

Han has the only shot and fires at Whisper at range 3.

Scores 2 hits, predators last die ,and spends it, hit and 2 Crits. One evade is rolled on 6 dice whisper is destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

T11:

Shuttle moves two hard to the left and stresses.

Soontir Fel pulls a 2 hard back towards the center of the board and boosts 1 forwardand barrel rolls to the right.

Han moves forward 1 bank.

NO SHOTS.

T12:

Shuttle moves two forward to clear stress and takes focus

Soontir moves 2 hard towards Falcon, boosts 1 forward, and turtles.

Han moves 1 bank and focuses. Fires Range 2 at Shuttle. Fires 3 shots, 3 damage goes through, shuttle is destroyed.

Soontir has no shot.

T13:

Soontir moves two bank towards falcon and makes it in range with a boost and a turtle.

Han takes a 3 bank, takes a boost of 1 to avoid arc. Successfully dodges arc.

Han fires range 2 at Soontir, 1 hit, Hans it, 2 hits, Soontir evades.

T14:

Soontir hard 2’s back in, barrel rolls and turtles.

Han executes a 1 hard and ends range 1 to Soontir Fel. Takes Evade.

Soontir fires and does 3 damage.  Han guesses zero, spends token and takes a crit which makes hard maneuvers red

Han shoots back and scores 4 hits including 2 Crits and puts a pair of Crits on Soontir. Soontir gets no red maneuvers, all turns are red maneuvers.

R2D2 activates and gets a direct hit,  which puts Han at 2 health.

Game is conceded to Paul.

Paul Wins.

Game End.

 

Edited November 11, 2014 by sunny ravencourt

[MajorJuggler 7,752]

This is definitely getting linked in the Battle Reports section of my Worlds 2014 thread, thanks!

Edited November 10, 2014 by MajorJuggler

[Kelvan 1,896]

Sunny allowed Paul to essentially not boost off the board. I still don't know if I'd have done the same.

[alemondemon 54]

Sunny allowed Paul to essentially not boost off the board. I still don't know if I'd have done the same.

 

On the same note, Sonny's previous game Sonny declared a focus action with whisper. The beginning of the following turn he realized he was not in a favorable position because he didn't get a shot at the Falcon to cloak. He asked his opponent if he could cloak (this is the beginning of the following turn) and his opponent let him change his previous turn's focus into a cloak, which cost his opponent the game - sonny was able to decloak out of the e-wings arc of fire and out of range 1 from the falcon and win the game. I believe the game is meant to be played in such a sportsman like fashion.

Edited November 10, 2014 by alemondemon

[InstantAequitas 678]

This is a great read. Thanks for posting this up!

[sunny ravencourt 197]

 

Sunny allowed Paul to essentially not boost off the board. I still don't know if I'd have done the same.

 

On the same note, Sonny's previous game Sonny declared a focus action with whisper. The beginning of the following turn he realized he was not in a favorable position because he didn't get a shot at the Falcon to cloak. He asked his opponent if he could cloak (this is the beginning of the following turn) and his opponent let him change his previous turn's focus into a cloak, which cost his opponent the game - sonny was able to decloak out of the e-wings arc of fire and out of range 1 from the falcon and win the game. I believe the game is meant to be played in such a sportsman like fashion.

 

well, this is not entirely true.  The cloak/decloak came on turn 4. The phantom was on the opposite side of the board.  I forgot to cloak. He said I could.  It wasn't a crucial moment, and the phantom didn't shoot, or anyone at it, but the point remains that my opponent, Mr. Hans I believe, was extremely gracious and he deserves to have Fly Casual credit.  I met a LOT of people that are great human beings and it would be ridiculous for me to not reciprocate.  This doesn't have to be a community that can only climb up by stepping on others, as was evidenced by nearly all of my opponents.  I'm certainly not special in this regard.

 

Clarification. So the falcon was extremely close to soontir who was in front of Whisper. Paul declared boost to the right. We put the template down and it was DAMNED close to soontir. That was the reason that I called the judge. I didn’t honestly think he even COULD boost that direction. Sean Dorcy came over and was ready to make a ruling and asked if we could work it out ourselves.

It was at around that point I think we all realized that if he did it, he’d fly off the board. I still didn’t think he could make the boost, so I gave Paul the choice. I said, “if you insist on boosting, I’m going to call a judge to make sure that can can even pull it off in the first place, but I’m not going to make you boost there if you don’t want to.” Paul elected to focus.

Now, I didn’t put this match up so I could get some sort of kudos and say, “I should have won”. It honestly was a FABULOUS game. Tactically, I think we both played as tight and clean in a game as I’ve ever been involved with. And to be honest, I really thought I was going to win. Soontir had a range 1 with a focus, Whisper had a range 1 with a focus. Soontir blanked, whisper did okay. The next turn after that was even more crushing because I honestly was in an even better position to run and hide, but I could roll 2 evades out of 5 or six die in order to live.

At the end the match was conceded because we were in our last turn for time and Soontir was wholly screwed facing an asteroid field. It was over.

Paul played a GREAT match and I had the time of my life. No regrets whatsoever.

Edited November 10, 2014 by sunny ravencourt

[sunny ravencourt 197]

It should also be noted that Paul was absolutely willing to be bound by whatever I wanted as well.  Class act.

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

It's a great write-up, but I have trouble following the spatial arrangements of the ships. How many times did you have Han in arcs and not shoot at him? I love those 3I shuttle lists!

[sunny ravencourt 197]

I took initiative, so I don't think there was a single time I didn't shoot at Han when I could, unless there was a tala, in which case I killed the tala.

[The_Brown_Bomber 573]

This is a great read. Thanks for posting this up!

what HE said.

[Hexis 1,776]

Just the title sounds like my top 8 match up with him at Nationals this year. Best game I ever lost. A very close 2nd, a top 8 knockout against Doug Kinney at Regionals 2013 at FFG.

I can't seem to beat World Champs for some reason.

[sunny ravencourt 197]

I KNOW Hexis!  What's up with that, right? 

[Hexis 1,776]

I beat Jake in an Escalation game, and Rick at Nationals (and have lost to both too). So I have it in me to win against National Champs. Those **** World Champs!

[YwingAce 2,546]

It should be noted that Paul's list is missing.

[sunny ravencourt 197]

I'll fix that.

[sunny ravencourt 197]

I edited the post because Sozin captured a pic of the EXACT Moment of the debate on turn 9.

Edited November 11, 2014 by sunny ravencourt