X Wing Musings

Pew pew from the peanut gallery…

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I’m Dave, an avid X Wing Miniatures player. If you’re reading this, you probably are too! I play in events all around the UK and on TTS. I’ve been playing for over 10 years… you’d think I would know better by now!

  • The Road to Sith Taker Open… weeks 4 and 5

    Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a LOT of X-wing! We’ve seen the winding down of all 3 TTS leagues I was signed up to and in person event in Bromley, not to mention club nights – in total 13 games of X-wing! Over this period, I have been sticking to Scum and mostly tinkering with my Norwich Winning list – Fenn (AaD), Dengar (AaD), Mando (AaD) and Kanan (with Gamut Key)… with mixed results!

    • I found that, despite the chonk of 9 hull with 2 greens, Dengar dies pretty easily. He’s not very maneuverable and has a pretty duff dial – if you start on the left of the board, you have to move to the right and carefully plan when you’re going to turn… which can be pretty predictable. Alternatively, if you start on the right, you have to ensure you are going you have enough room to turn back again. As such TURN 0 IS VITAL!!!
      • Rocks – set up in the middle on the opponents side as much as possible.
      • Placement – Make sure you aren’t setting up to joust on the right… or if you are, make sure there will be enough room to sloop 2-3 turns in.
      • Support – try to get Kanan positioned so that he can stay behind Dengar and have him in arc at all times.
    • Also, Dengar AND Fenn have a big problem if blocked. Dengar has a 2 dice printed attack, so range 0 is not great for Dengar. Also, Fenn doesn’t get Concordia at Range 0. As such, blocking is not great.
    • Kanan is pretty decent. But Gamut Key is tricky to get right! If you have a token AND charges on Gamut, great, but I found this rarely comes together at the right time OR you do it once on turn 3… More recently I have been trying Greef Karga instead, for the easier co-ordinate.
    • This makes Dengar SO MUCH BETTER, as it allows a pre-move Barrel Roll and a blue move to clear the stress. The downside is that it makes Kanan much squishier (only having his force as a mod and being stressed most of the time). However, it does allow for the Greef target lock trick later in the game (if Kanan has a turn to grab a lock at some stage).
    • And as ever, Mandolorian is “bang or bust”! He’s either MVP or he’s useless. Probably the best value 11 points in Scum… but very tough to get right every game. Over the last 2 weeks, I tried swapping him out… initially for Leema Kai with Pro-torps, turret and R4 astromech. Leema wasn’t great in this list, being too flimsy and slow. I had some other ideas, but more on that later.

    In general, I found that a few list types were very tough to beat with this:

    • Power Jedis + LAAT – their strong repositioning makes it very tough to get a win, and they can easily block.
    • BYO Boba + 2 other ships – BYO Boba is basically Fenn’s kryptonite! He will push in for the block whilst getting all the benefits of rerolls… plus he has rear arcs to keep stronger time on target.
    • RAC / Vader / Whisper – might just be one guy, but one player at my club has a list with these three and easily beats the list because the Decimator is set up to frustrate Range 0/1 stress. This is because he uses 7th Sister and 000 to great effect! At the start of the turn, 000 offers stress or calculate: if the opponent takes stress, 7th Sister turns it to Jam and runs your day! For Fenn, I have to guess correctly where RAC is going to be so he doesn’t have to reposition and take the all-important Focus! It’s a tough one.

    So after a few goes online and warm-ups at the club, I made some changes to remove SOME of the weaker parts of the list:

    Holy cow! You can get all these in a list?!!

    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

    The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (11)
    Outmaneuver (0)
    The Child (AaD) (0)
    Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
    Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Guri – StarViper-class Attack Platform (13)
    Predator (3)
    Advanced Sensors (8)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 2

    Durge – Rogue-class Starfighter (11)
    Elusive (4)
    Proton Cannons (5)
    Contraband Cybernetics (4)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZsZ50Z719X121W608W445Y713X126W594W595W200Y147X127W111WWWWY611X119WW470W92WWW&sn=Holy%20Cow!%20You%20can%20fit%20all%20this%20in%20a%20list%20nowadays%3F%3F%3F!&obs=

    Objectively, this is a GREAT list! All the elements can work very well independently. All the elements are high initiative and are the kind of thing you can’t leave alone. All the ships are fun to fly and are just tanky enough to ensure you don’t die in one shot. Very cool! Most notably, back in the day, it used to be barely possible to fit Fenn and Guri in a list at all – now you can and with 2 GREAT BACKUP SHIPS AS WELL!!! It’s practically inflation busting…

    Battle over Bromley

    I took this to the Troll Trader in Bromley casual STO warmup to give it a whirl. The main idea was to decide which was better – Durge or Mando (as I was still musing what to do with the last 11 points – as per the above). It was a 4 round affair, and, again, gave me mixed results!

    Round 1: vs Ian “X-Wing Jesus” Wardle! Scramble the Transmissions

    Never great to be flying into your own team on Round 1, but it is what it is! Ian and I fly against each other a lot, and we are usually pretty well matched… I think he has the slight edge in tournament play, though (robbed me of a ticket to worlds a few years ago, for example!). He was flying:

    Starter Box Vader

    Countess Ryad – Outmaneuever

    Colonel Vessery – Proton Cannons, Juke

    That’s it. 5 cards, lots of pain!

    I assumed that me having higher initiative would have put me in good stead (especially in Scramble), but actually, it helped him! His defenders were dynamite and the Proton Cannon (topped with Vader’s lock sharing for Vessary) found their target a good couple of times before he was taken off the board. Ryad finished the game untouched (due to having all the tokens, all the time) and Vader was half pointed, but would not die. On my side, Guri, Mando, and Durge took a pummeling and the last turn of the game saw Fenn blank out to Vader at range 2 from behind, to take 3 hits and die (the X-Wing Dice Stats Calculator saying a 5% shot… but never tell me the odds).

    35-53 Loss

    Not a great start, and nether Mando or Durge did anything “great”.

    Round 2: vs Phil Pond. Salvage Mission

    Phil is from the Firestorm team towards Reading / Basingstoke (I think!) and I’ve never played vs him before… although I have had him help me out when Nick and him used to stream live events via Firecast streaming (halcyon days!). He was flying another Scummy list:

    Ketsu Onyo Lancer-class Pursuit Craft (16) (Fearless + Qi’ra + Contraband Cybernetics + Beskar Reinforced Plating + Shadow Caster)

    Talonbane Cobra Kihraxz Fighter (12) (Predator + Deadman’s Switch + Afterburners)

    Durge Rogue-class Starfighter (11) (Elusive + Proton Cannons + Contraband Cybernetics)

    Kavil BTL-A4 Y-wing (11) (Dorsal Turret + Concussion Missiles + R3 Astromech + Proton Bombs)

    Interesting that Phil was looking at a Y wing, when I had worked out they aren’t great the week before, but when we were talking about it, he pointed out that Kavil basically guaranteed 3 dice in most directions, so quite good for area denial.

    Phil mostly set up on the right, except Ketsu who set up on the left. I set up in the middle and then started to head left to face Ketsu. In turn 2, Fenn managed to sidle up to range 1, out of her arc, and blast 5 dice in… where she blanked out, giving me an instant 8 point advantage. Plus Mando was able to pick up a box, giving me 12-0! Over the next couple of turns, his Durge and Talbonbane rushed left to support Ketsu, but it was a little too late as both she and Kavil ended up taking heat from Mado, Guri and Fenn. My Durge was left to limp off after an initial flurry of attacks (that earned him a Panicked Pilot, getting him to 3 stress!) and took 3 turns to recover and grab a box. The other 3, though, spent a few turns finishing up, getting to 50 points pretty quickly and only losing half of Fenn and half of Guri in the process…

    50-21 Win.

    Again, hard to say which of Durge or Mando did better, since Durge took an early stress bath and Mando was carrying a box the whole game so wasn’t really able to do his thing.

    Round 3: vs Peter Mancktelow. Change Engagement

    Peter was the host of the event and clearly no slouch. His list was… baffling!

    Ketsu Onyo Lancer-class Pursuit Craft (16) (Shadow Caster + Fearless + Contraband Cybernetics + Overtuned Modulators + Qi’ra + Mandalorian Optics)

    Zuckuss G-1A Starfighter (11) (Mist Hunter + Trick Shot + IG-11 + Deadman’s Switch)

    Constable Zuvio Quadrijet Transfer Spacetug (10) (Proximity Mines + Debris Gambit + Delayed Fuses + 0-0-0 + Deadman’s Switch)

    Guri StarViper-class Attack Platform (13) (Predator + Advanced Sensors)

    I have not seen the good Constable or Zuckass on the table for a good long time and honestly, I made a huge mistake with Range 0 rock placement! Pro tip: if you’re flying vs Ketsu, don’t make a “rock donut”… she will just fly over the rocks and laugh at you!

    I set up on the left, Peter set up on the right mainly, except Zuckass, who set up on the left. Zuckass proceeding to run away, getting Mando and Durge to chase him. Guri and Fenn started heading towards Ketsu. Ketsu basically zoomed in and flew over rocks to get to range 1… and then it all went wrong! Durge and Mando started realising that Zuckass is a pain at any range, chucking out extra dice and NOT DYING. The Good Counstable was a terror for the points, throwing out mines and forcing tractors on my ships. Rock placement gave me nowhere to go… I managed to get half points on most of his ships, but I lost Guri very cheaply and made a stupid mistake of trying to engage at R1 to ships that were set up to make R1 a bad place to be! If you see this list coming… run away!

    30-51 Loss

    One positive! It would appear that I definitely appear to prefer BOTH Durge and Mando to Guri, who seems to keep dying on me!

    Round 4: vs Paul Schaller. Ancient Knowledge

    Paul was flying a 5 ship list!

    Biggs Darklighter T-65 X-wing (10)(Ion Torpedoes + “Chopper” + Servomotor S-foils)

    Leevan Tenza T-65 X-wing (10)(Notorious + Contraband Cybernetics + Servomotor S-foils)

    Kendy Idele (BoE) T-65 X-wing (10)

    Thane Kyrell T-65 X-wing (11)(Snap Shot + Servomotor S-foils)

    Horton Salm BTL-A4 Y-wing (9)(Selfless + Ion Cannon Turret + R4 Astromech)

    Had no-one told him that 5 ships are so passé! His ships were not a great match for mine, since I had the higher initiative and some big guns. I was able to melt at least 3 of his ships before he had halved even one of mine. Whilst it’s scary to face off against, unfortunately, his attack dice would not find much paint, leaving my slightly more dangerous team to make the most of it. He recovered slightly towards the end, but by the end of the game, he had lost 3 ships and taken damage to the 2 remaining and I had only lost Durge and some points from Guri (I think!).

    54-36 win

    In this game, Mando was on fire! He managed to lure Peter’s swarm into a bad position and run away, thereafter getting behind them to outmaneuver them to death!

    So I went 2-2, but still made it to 5th place out of 14 people due to a fairly decent points tally. Ian (my round 1 opt and Mandos team captain!) also went on to win – and I was the only person to take a ship off him all day, so I claim a moral victory!

    But who did I prefer? Mando or Durge…? Well… probably Mando. Durge is a bigger threat, but he also seems to deliver less in a pinch. Mando has force and a useful pilot ability (if you can remember it) which keeps him alive for an extra turn or two. And his cheeky SLAM – lock ability is really worth the points in itself. I think they both did really well and I am considering keeping them both and dropping Fenn for… reasons. What reasons? Well… it seems that the XWA are listening. A side chat with Oli P at the event suggested there are things coming that will maybe put SL Fenn up in points in the near future (GOOD!!!) so time to start thinking of other options.

    A newer hope?

    After Bromley, I started thinking about another option… dropping Mando and Dengar for Boba. Not BYO Boba, but AaD Boba. In one online game, I was surprised about how lethal he was! So, for club night, I tried something completely (ish) different:

    Boba Fett (AaD) – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (18)
    Homing Beacon (AaD) (0)
    Fennec Shand (AaD) (0)
    Seismic Charges (0)
    Slave I (Separatist) (0)

    Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 5

    N’dru Suhlak – Z-95-AF4 Headhunter (8)
    Lone Wolf (3)
    Overtuned Modulators (3)
    Afterburners (8)

    Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Kanan Jarrus – HWK-290 Light Freighter (9)
    Greef Karga (5)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    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

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZbZ50Z712X592W593W71W370Y156X124WW411W105Y457XW458WWWY719X121W608W445&sn=Stud%20Wall&obs=

    Simple premise: Boba can lock and reduce attacks by 1. Kanan can reduce by another. IF PEOPLE ARE SHOOTING AT BOBA, THEY AREN’T GOING TO GET VERY FAR!!! If they don’t shoot at Boba, Boba can shoot them twice! It’s a win win, surely!

    Well… never tell me the odds. Kanan with Greef and Boba is a great combo, but it’s tricky trying to keep them all lined up over the course of a game. Firesprays move very fast, so often it feels like Kanan has his work cut out keeping up pace! Plus Kanan is perma-stressed if you’re using him to give Boba actions. But on the flip side, a Firespray hangs around 2 tuns longer than you want, even at the best of times!

    Also in the list is N’Dru, who might actually be the best value 8 points in Scum right now. Bring able to add Lone Wolf and Afterburners makes him pretty useful if you can keep him all alone.

    I got to fly Ian trying a slight tweak to his 2 defenders and Vader list and won! Only just, but it was a win.

    I also played against Dave “Darth Sparkles” Potin and his Decemator / Vader / Whisper list and also won!

    It’s not the second coming, but I think it’s worth a few more reps to work it out. Could be a real contender!

    Twist!!!

    So there’s just one week to go! I’m basically there with my list ideas, I’m coming out the traps strong, and even have a bye for round 1! Nothing can stop me now!!!

    Oh… except a minor issue… I am now not able to go to STO due to some family issues. Massive shame, but life comes first. I hope I’ll get to watch it on stream all next weekend, and if a scum list featuring SL Fenn and Dengar wins, I will probably sulk for a week 😉

    More next time!

  • The Road to Sith Taker Open… weeks 2 and 3

    Doing a double as for the last 2 weeks something odd has happened: people were busy!!! In the online leagues I’m in, a few people couldn’t play me in time and conceded. Nothing like a free win! But not terribly helpful when I’m practicing for a big event. As such out of the 9 scheduled games in the last 2 weeks, I’ve only played about half of them. That said, you could probably make a case that so many online games are probably not terribly healthy…

    Ignoring the “Bring them in cold” league (where I am locked into playing a specific Empire list and have been regretting it somewhat…), I have been sticking to my Scum list, much to the horror of my club chums the Mandos! It’s not a fun list to fly against, and if you have even average dice, it’s a handful to deal with. However, it can be beaten! It’s currently been beaten in 3 out of 10 games… in each case down to “Pilot error”. However, there’s still nearly 3 weeks to go – plenty of time to get the reps in.

    The Power of Chonk

    One thing that has got me thinking recently is the “Power of Chonk!”. This came from going against a very scary list that doesn’t look it to start with:

    Kazuda Xiono – Fireball (10)
    Notorious (6)
    R1-J5 (5)
    Overtuned Modulators (3)
    Targeting Computer (1)
    Kaz’s Fireball (0)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Lando Calrissian – Scavenged YT-1300 (18)
    Perceptive Copilot (8)
    Veteran Turret Gunner (6)
    Paige Tico (6)
    Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)

    Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 5

    Finn – Resistance Transport Pod (10)
    Heroic (2)
    Advanced Optics (5)
    Perceptive Copilot (8)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Jessika Pava – T-70 X-wing (12)
    M9-G8 (7)
    Spare Parts Canisters (3)
    Integrated S-Foils (0)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Resistance&d=v10ZsZ50Z378X455WW312W411WW249W315Y605XWW54WW90W189WWWW193Y350X172W186W54W249Y296X197WW215W175W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    On paper it’s not that dangerous – 3 ships under I5, and the new Resistance Hotness. However, let’s look at the ships:

    Kaz, who’s basically a 3 dice attack and defence beast for most of the game. But wait! He also wants to deter you from shooting him, and at I4, that is tough – since most lists are still padded out with I5 (or higher) shooters. AND he’s got a neat trick – he can use Bucket to fix a damage card outright… which is pretty interesting.

    Finn, who is now in his FINAL FORM!!! He basically guarantees 3 or 4 hits if he’s got 2 focusses… which (thanks to Perceptive Copilot) he usually is. Add to that Heroic, so even if he fluffs his defensive roll, he has options, and he’s on the table to stay for a long time…

    Jess, who’s unkillability is well documented, as long as she’s got friends nearby (for example, slow moving Finn…) and also has a way of ditching target locks (thanks to Spare Parts Canister). Plus, she’s shooting lower down in the order, so can probably shoot after focus and evades have been used.

    All of these are made Even Better by Lando, who has a habit of dropping bonus actions on the team when it suits him… which doesn’t even cover his Big Trick of double tapping with Paige / VTG.

    So the Power of Chonk is really a way of mitigating damage, or the impact of damage. Usually this is down to having loads of hull, but with a list like this, you don’t even care if you’re getting shot, since it’s pretty unlikely the damage is going to land. The current game is almost entire based on ensuring that each precious attack in a game is impactful – when you think about it, most games have between 20 – 30 attacks in total. If any attack fails, that’s a wasted opportunity. Ways to ensure they land usually include precision (multiple mods), power (Big shots!! 4 or 5 dice attacks) or volume (lots of tiny ships attacking with 2 or 3 dice attacks (aka a swarm)).

    So, whilst this is a very decent example of damage mitigation, it’s still vulnerable: Lando only has 1 evade, so can be burned down quickly. Jess and Finn are only rolling 2 evades, so the are susceptible to big attacks or volumes of shots. But even so, for every turn they are still on the table, it’s probably worse for the opponent!

    What else is out there that can laugh off damage? Decimators are well known for annoying the crowds with their reinforce, as well as the Ghost (or any VCX-100s). General Grievous is also known to be close to unkillable. There was a recent list where lots of cheap resistance Y-Wings were equipped with Angled Deflectors… meaning they did just lined up and shot loads, and the opponent had to focus down each ship in turn… which is pretty annoying.

    The big question is, though, is it worth it? And in honesty… maybe? This list beat me last week, and a Decimator list beat me the week before – the common denominator being the damage mitigation that stopped my list in its tracks! However, that’s very specific and a really small sample size (i.e. 2 ships vs my list happening to win!). I think the fact that we don’t see more damage mitigators out there in the top tables says that maybe Offence is the best Defense, but who’s to say with X-wing! We might suddenly see an upswing…

    Hopefully more games not being cancelled means I’ll have a quicker update next week, so with 3 weeks to go, let’s see what happens next!

  • The Road to the Sith Taker Open… Week 1

    New Year, new plan! After dallying with FO for most of Q4 last year, change was long overdue. I’m signed up to a number of leagues online and in most cases I’ve been using it as an excuse to try out something completely different.

    In 3 events, I’ve been trying out:

    Soontir Fel (BoE) – TIE/in Interceptor (14)
    Apex Predator (BoE) (0)
    No Escape (BoE) (0)
    Blank Signature (BoE) (0)
    Feedback Emitter (BoE) (0)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 1

    “Whisper” – TIE/ph Phantom (14)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Fifth Brother (12)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    Darth Vader – TIE Advanced x1 (15)
    Brilliant Evasion (2)
    Passive Sensors (5)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Wampa” (BoY) – TIE/ln Fighter (7)
    Elusive (0)
    Vengeful (BoY) (0)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z668X515W508W512W513Y199XW113W82W249Y173X199WW240WWY568X119W482&sn=Imp%20Wins&obs=

    I’ve been very impressed with Imperial Aces for a long time (it was my “Go To” for much of V1 and the early part of V2) so I’ve had history with all the set pieces before. I’ve also been meaning to try out SuperSoontir for some time. Vader is… well, Vader! Lots of force and a decent ability makes him very easy to use. Whisper is really interesting with force on board and BoY Wampa is probably the best value 7 point ship in the game! He can chuck 3 or 4 red dice with alarming regularity, has Elusive tagged in and has 4 (not 3) hull!!! Best of all, if you’re shooting at Wampa, you’re not shooting at the much more expensive aces. On paper it’s great!

    In practice though… it’s a very high skill list. Whisper can easily be ganged up on, Soontir only has 3 hull, and Vader lacks evades, so is often quite squishy… basically you need to be very conservative and have some very lucky dice!!! So far I’ve flown it 3 times and I’m 1-2, but I HAVE to play it in Liam Bakers “Bring them in cold” team event, so I will report more as the season progresses.

    The New Hotness

    One thing I have noticed is a particular list type showing up an awful lot, at least in online… I’ve faced it several times and not done too well in any of them:

    Zorii Bliss – BTA-NR2-W Y-wing (12)
    Deadeye Shot (1)
    Proton Torpedoes (14)
    Dorsal Turret (3)
    R4 Astromech (2)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4

    R1-J5 – Fireball (6)
    PZ-4CO (4)
    Targeting Computer (1)
    Kaz’s Fireball (0)

    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

    Lando Calrissian – Scavenged YT-1300 (18)
    Perceptive Copilot (8)
    Paige Tico (6)
    Veteran Turret Gunner (6)
    Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)

    Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 5

    Poe Dameron (HoH) – T-70 X-wing (14)
    Heroic (2)
    R4 Astromech (2)
    Integrated S-Foils (0)
    Plasma Torpedoes (7)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Resistance&d=v10ZsZ50Z722X343WWW136W137W5WWWWY379XW246WW249W315Y605XWW54WW189W90WWWW193Y442XW172W5WWWW175W234&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    There are variations on a theme (rather than Perceptive Co-Pilot on Lando, C3PO and Hotshot Tail Blaster, or Vi Moradi instead of Bucket), but the constant is definitely Lando…

    The trick is with Paige and Veteran Turret Gunner – effectively this gives a Bistan-like ability for only 11 loadout points… and no need to focus! In essence, you can shoot, rotate, and shoot something else in a different arc… or the same ship if you can line up your target off your front or rear corner (which is surprisingly easy with a big fat large base!). This is all before you look at Lando’s native ability to hand out extra actions when he’s stressed, which is a very strong talent indeed.

    Beyond that, Zori is INSANELY GOOD VALUE for 12 points. Pro-Torps (on a chassis that can reload) and a strong likelihood (if she hangs around with Poe) of getting double mods by fair means or foul. Poe as well is pretty well set up to double mod, and there is a filler ship that, well, fills! Usually the filler has PC-4CO, which allows calculates or focus to be tossed out to the most needy ship. All this goodness is on a bunch of ships that are hard to put down. Basically, it’s a super strong list and will probably be coming to a table near you soon.

    Can it be beat? Maybe. The soft spot is Lando – for all his damage output, he is still a bit of a glass cannon. If he can be cornered, he’s 11 hull and only 1 green dice, which can result in crispy fried falcon in a couple of turns… providing you don’t get tagged by the torpedoes. Lando is also 18 points of ship too, so really should be your prime target. But it’s a risky approach!

    In the three games I’ve faced it, I’ve taken out Lando twice, but then eaten a full plate of torpedoes. Notably, my new Imperial list is the WORST list to try and take this on! Most of the “big hitters” aren’t very nimble and are a bit flimsy vs heavy hitters like this, so it’s probably not a list I will be persevering with for long! Speaking of heavy hitters, here’s some theory for you…

    Here for a good time and a long time…

    I had a long drive on Saturday on the way to Norwich with my fellow Mando, Sam Churms (Hi Sam!). We talked a LOT about the state of the X-wing nation and came to a few conclusions:

    Theory no. 1 – Games are lasting more rounds these days.

    Makes sense! Less ships on the table means less shots per turn, meaning ships are alive longer. Coupled to this, objective play is worth less points (proportionately) because whereas a scenario like Assault or Salvage could have scored up to 5 points a turn (i.e. 25% of a win condition) before, now it’s maxed at 4 (8%). Even if you add ship damage to that, it still means that most games are going to take at least a few rounds longer to get to a win.

    Theory no. 2 – Non-recurring charges aren’t so hot.

    Let’s face it, if there are more turns per game, abilities that can only be used X times per game are a little less good. Sure, some are still very pokey (hello Crack Shot) but others mean you’re carrying a used card / ability for more of the game for no benefit. e.g. ships that can’t reload taking munitions. or one shot bombs.

    Theory no. 3 – This means some factions are set to loose.

    Yes, I would look at the glass half empty, but FO in particular is struggling. Recent analysis of the last NCX league event by Obi Win shows this in all it’s glory. Why is this? Well…

    • FO are inherently more expensive than most other factions. Mostly because their ships have shields (e.g. Epsilon Squadron Cadet in the Tie FO is 1 point more than all other factions TIEs and limited… so priced out of any Tie Swarm ideas).
    • The most affordable ships all have limited charges. Captain Malarus has 2 charges. Kylo in the Whisper usually takes Concussion Missiles… 3 charges (he has no reload). This means they are good… for a short time.
    • Their I6 ships all have terrible abilities! There are 3, pretty affordable I6 ships, but let’s have a quick check:
      • Vonreg has an ability that almost never means anything as it happens in the system phase – you give out a negative token and someone does a blue move. I think I’ve seen it actually make a difference to the game state once since V2 was launched.
      • Quickdraw rewards failure! If he takes damage (which, as he only has 2 green dice, WILL happen) he gets to shoot back. Compare to Dengar who does it for chuckles either way! Also, it’s pretty rare that QD ever just takes ONE damage… usually 2 or three…
      • Midnight is… OK, I guess. However, he has to find a way of getting a green token on top of a lock, which is possible, but then has to keep the lock to get any value and is exposed vs other ships. I don’t thing anyone is scared when they see Midnight coming at them.
    • Although the meta is the least PS sensitive now than it has been in some time, having I6 ships in a faction that aren’t great is pretty frustrating.
    • They have the least chassis available of any faction. With Resistance Y wings splitting into 2 flavours, FO are now the bottom of the bunch.

    Theory no. 4 – Scum is “Easy Mode”

    We all know it! Scum has never had it so good! More chassis types than any other faction, a large variety of affordable list types (Bomb list! Ace List! Beef List!) and some (actually quite a few!) standout pilots and faction specific cards mean there is more goodness in Scum than any other faction right now. As such, it’s a wildly popular faction and doing disproportionately well (again, as proven in the Obi Win analysis mentioned earlier). Most 3 ship lists involve Boba and 2 other ships (Razor Crest Mando and Guri! Rook Kast and RC Mando! Fen and Dengar! etc) and they do surprisingly well.

    So to sum it all up… I did a thing…

    Actual In Person Play!!!

    Due to a variety of life related things, I hadn’t actually played in person since November (shocker!) so last Saturday, Sam and I went to the Athena Games Store Champs for a game of high stakes X wing. Athena games is a great day out (it would have to be for the 3 hour drive!) and our host Phil Pursglove was, as ever, most congenial! I COMPLETELY COPPED OUT of taking my new Imperial list and instead spent about 30 seconds making a list that required the least amount of fishing-cards-out-of-a-box… I got it down to 3 SL cards, Kanan and Gamut… so 5 cards:

    5 Card Studs

    Dengar (AaD) – JumpMaster 5000 (15)
    R2-G8 (AaD) (0)
    Synchronized Handling (AaD) (0)
    Starboard Thrusters (AaD) (0)
    Punishing One (0)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 4

    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

    The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (11)
    Outmaneuver (0)
    The Child (AaD) (0)
    Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
    Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Kanan Jarrus – HWK-290 Light Freighter (9)
    Gamut Key (5)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZbZ50Z716X601W602W603W159Y719X121W608W445Y713X126W594W595W200Y457XW386WWW&sn=5%20Card%20Studs&obs=

    If you can’t beat ’em, join em!

    It was a pretty standard 4 round affair and I was delighted to see several players I had played before and highly admired were in attendance. Over the course of the day, I was very impressed with a few things:

    • SL Dengar had nearly passed me by until I saw his R2G8 ability – a bonus, regenerating (providing you go left!) calculate token. Used in conjunction with Gamut Key, this was actually pretty cool (potentially allowing you to have 2 focuses and 2 calculates for at least 1 turn a game), solving the “I’ve got a bonus shot and no mods” issue Dengar usually has.
    • Kanan is very, very good with his red dice shutdown ability that he can use ON HIMSELF as well as others (better than Rebel Kanan). Additionally, Gamut crew is almost as good as a co-ordinate if you get your positioning right.
    • Fenn be Fenn. I lost him 0 times on the day.
    • Mando, as ever, is the “fly or die” hero. If he stays alive long enough, he is a menace in the late game. Big “if” though, as he usually attracts quite a bit of attention.

    So it’s a decent list. I flew against some very stiff competition:

    Round 1 vs Michael

    Michael was just coming back into X wing after a dropping at the end of V1 but had a beefy Rebel list. Lots of punch and lock / token sharing.

    Round 2 vs Sam. I brought Sam along so we had chatted in the car about each others’ lists (as mentioned above). However, it’s a little different tackling his list in practice than in theory! Sam was flying the only FO list of the day, but that didn’t make MurderKylo any less scary!

    Round 3 vs Robin Farndon’s Many Butterflies (5x I2 Starvipers with Collision Detectors). This was an amazing list and Robin is an absolute gentleman pilot. Their bendy barrel rolls lead to an interesting flight style, as he initially would fly 1 forward with all of them in formation, then barrel roll and end up moving like Space Invaders in the 1980s. It’s actually quite scary when you face it as they may be single modded, but that’s a lot of red dice coming at you.

    Round 4 vs Ben Lee. Ben is a great player (I seem to remember a UK champ in V1), although it’s the first time I’ve seen him (normally an Imperial player) fly a Scum list. He was flying BYO Fenn, BYO Boba and SL Dengar… very similar to my list!

    At the end of it, I won all 4 games and scored that all-important Bye token for a future System Open. With STO on the horizon, it couldn’t come at a better time! Thanks to everyone that showed, my opponents and Phil in particular! Even if you ignore winning the event, it was great to once again be playing in person and it’s only renewed my enthusiasm to get back to a table! STO can’t come soon enough.

    More next week!

  • Back to the start

    What happened? One minute I was musing about what FO can do and the next minute… well, I had to travel for work, then for a short holiday, then pre-christmas stuff, then Christmas… and here we are! 4 weeks later. Doesn’t time fly!

    In x-wing terms, I played a bunch of games, all online. In every case I played the same list:

    Kylo Ren – TIE/vn Silencer (16)
    Brilliant Evasion (2)
    Sensor Scramblers (1)
    Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    Commander Malarus – TIE/fo Fighter (10)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Concussion Missiles (6)
    Deuterium Power Cells (7)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    First Order Test Pilot – TIE/vn Silencer (12)
    Predator (3)
    Sensor Scramblers (1)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (4/5) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3

    First Order Test Pilot – TIE/vn Silencer (12)
    Predator (3)
    Sensor Scramblers (1)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (4/5) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZsZ50Z236X199W415WW311WWY266XW113W99W318WWY287X127W415WWWWY287X127W415WWWW&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    I think this is the cumulation of all the learnings over the last 10 weeks:

    • Lots of containment – all ships are able to take multiple actions or (in the case of Malarus and Kylo) make sure that there are extra mods available.
    • Tanky. Most ships have a very respectable stat-line to ensure less chance of being one-shotted.
    • Cheap and cheerful! Most ships are very respectably priced (Malarus at 10 is very good value, and the test pilots are very decent at 12).

    It’s also a list I felt really comfortable with – lots of ace-y style flying and things to surprise at the last minute.

    I flew this list in 7 games, and the result was… middling – I won 3 and lost 4. Unfortunately, the one thing that stops this list cold in its tracks is high initiative aces. More specifically Fenn Rau: I ran into him in at least 3 games and in each, this list doesn’t really have an answer to him. In 3 separate games, Fenn managed to 1 shot a “Malarus Modded” Malarus. In all the Scum games, I was roundly thrashed with Fenn being the biggest issue, but also Mando and

    However, in the games where I wasn’t against Fenn it went pretty well!

    So at the risk of being “that guy”, I have to say that Fenn Rau (SL) is a bit of a problem. He’s really good value and a massively dangerous piece on the board. I think 15 is about 2 points too cheap in the current climate – with most lists gravitating to 4 (maybe 5) ships, the ability to consistently put out 5 dice with mods with complimentary damage prevention (the concordia effect and 4 dice at range 1) is a really dangerous combination. If you compare him to other “top dogs” per faction, he really comes out well because he’s such a focused package. Other than the force, there’s nothing he doesn’t have! Yes, he is slightly susceptible to being ganged up on outside of range 1, but that’s why being I6 helps! Obviously, though, having been at the receiving end of things recently, I probably would say this…

    So at the end of the year, it being a time for reflection, it’s time to make a difficult choice! My original plan was to stick with FO until the other side of Sith Taker Open in the hope that I could find something I got on with and something that would help me win. After 10 weeks (tied to the Nickle City league), I’ve tried all the things I can think of that I’d like, and yet the results were, at best, middling. As such, I think it’s time for a change. With the new year basically upon us, I’m going to try another faction to try and take it through to STO (and maybe beyond). More on this next time!

    So, a short and sweet post this week, but I wish you a Happy New Year and see you around in 2026!

  • Contain your enthusiasm

    This week I played 4 games of X Wing… 2 in person and 2 via TTS. Over these, I have come to a few conclusions about containment and value, and once again changed my preferred list from the one I THOUGHT was really good last week to one that’s already 2 games in this week and doing… OK?

    But that’s enough executive summary. Let’s get down to details:

    At the end of last week, I had settled on what I thought was a Very Good List:

    “Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
    Fanatical (2)
    Primed Thrusters (5)
    Plasma Torpedoes (7)
    Concussion Bombs (5)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Rush” – TIE/vn Silencer (13)
    Sensor Scramblers (1)
    Adv. Proton Torpedoes (7)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Muse” – TIE/fo Fighter (8)
    Squad Leader (5)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Automated Target Priority (1)
    Precision Ion Engines (1) Precision Ion Engines (which he can’t use but you have to use every point, right?).

    Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Kylo Ren (EoD) – TIE/vn Silencer (18)
    Determination (EoD) (0)
    Malice (0)
    Proton Torpedoes (0)

    Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZbZ50Z493X181W178W234WWW355WWY386X415W134WWWY235X131W113W348W338Y692X573W418W136&sn=FO%20The%20Order&obs=,

    The “trick” is to drop a concussion bomb on turn one near Rush and make him I6 in the first turn. This is easy enough to do, but means you effectively give your opponent 2.167 points immediately. Then the rest of the game is flying around shooting things.

    In my first game back sunday week ago, I was flying against Larry Leach, who was both a new player and recovering from a virus. His list was:

    Captain Jonus (SSP) – TIE/sa Bomber (10)
    Feedback Ping (0)
    Plasma Torpedoes (0)
    Proton Bombs (0)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Tomax Bren – TIE/sa Bomber (10)
    Enduring (3)
    Ion Torpedoes (5)
    Cluster Missiles (5)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Maarek Stele – TIE Advanced x1 (11)
    Crack Shot (5)
    Cluster Missiles (5)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Nu Squadron Pilot – Alpha-Class Star Wing (9)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Xg-1 Assault Configuration (0)
    Ion Cannon (6)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Pure Sabacc” – TIE/sk Striker (10)
    Marksmanship (2)
    Hull Upgrade (9)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z632X421W234W69Y205X456W135W98WWWY174X116WWW98WY164X113WWW144W11Y210X125WWW164W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    A non-meta Imperial list with lots of munitions, but not many way of getting double mods.

    We were playing Assualt (which gave Larry the advantage with more ships). In essence, I did “the Trick” which gave me my I6 Rush and slow played to the middle of the board. Larry got his guys to the middle too and then we basically had a showdown… The Gunboat was destroyed before he could shoot giving me an early lead, but then Breach got a bit greedy and flew into the arcs of 3 ships getting vapourised. Over the next couple of turns, Kylo and Rush were able to eat their way through Tomax and Captain Jonus (the worst Jonus Brother) and Pure Sabaac unfortunately parked himself onto a rock losing his specialness. At the end of the game, Sabaac had 1 hull left and was ionised and Maarek Steel was in good shape but far behind all the ships.

    Final score: 50-27 to me.

    So I was feeling pretty good about my new list. Very good indeed! There’s something very powerful about MurderKylo and genuinely any list with 2x high initiative Silencers (probably the FO’s best ships!) is very cool indeed. That said, I made 1 change – Advanced Proton Torpedoes on Rush for Plasma Torpedoes, as they are decent against most shielded opponents.

    Having suffered at the hands of Ian “X Wing Jesus” Wardle and a bunch of Defenders last week, I was delighted to be showing up to Thursday Night club again with a new list that felt… Right. .

    Ian was flying:

    Norra Wexley – ARC-170 Starfighter (13)
    Ezra Bridger (9)
    Veteran Tail Gunner (5)
    Ablative Plating (2)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4

    Braylen Stramm – A/SF-01 B-wing (12)
    Enduring (3)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Proton Cannons (5)
    Stabilized S-Foils (0)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4

    Lowhhrick – Auzituck Gunship (12)
    Enduring (3)
    Kanan Jarrus (10)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4

    Magva Yarro – UT-60D U-wing (13)
    Selfless (3)
    Tactical Officer (3)
    Ursa Wren (8)
    Hotshot Tail Blaster (1)
    Ablative Plating (2)
    Pivot Wing (0)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v10ZbZ50Z77XWWW81W89W103Y73X456W113W470WWWWW313Y59X456W41WWY34X130WW61W439W463W103W140&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    So of all the lists in all the world, Ian brings one that basically shuts down lock-based munitions. Yay.

    Just breaking this down:

    • Magva stops you rerolling more than 1 dice when attacking
    • Norra gets extra evade results when at Range 0-1 of anyone
    • Lowrick can give an extra evade result in a pinch
    • They nearly all have force
    • Braylen does… Braylen things.

    We played 2 games, and in both cases, it was very hard to pin down anything with Magva in range. In the first game I was able to do some nasty damage to Norra who flew too far away from the pack, but wasn’t able to finish the job. The combination of Lowrick, Magva, and my fairly rubbish dice in a clutch meant Ian won both games BUT by a much lower margin than last week (49-51 and 43-51), so there’s progress there.

    Afterwards, we talked about both lists. Ian was fairly convinced Braylen wasn’t pulling his weight and I was thinking Muse wasn’t pulling hers. In both cases, it was all about containment…

    Muse is the cheapest co-ordinator FO can field. At 8 points with 9 loadout, she is well set up to take Squad Leader, and can also ditch the inevitable stress at the start of the engagement phase. However, 2 big issues:

    1. She only has 2 dice to attack with
    2. She is usually unmodded (or at best has a calculate token due to ATP).

    This limits her effectiveness and also makes her a soft target (I mean… do you want to shoot at MurderKylo, or an unmodded ship that hasn’t probably shot yet!). In most games, even if she runs away, she is one of the first targets to go down because she lacks containment. Yes, she’s cheap, but her very rational for being in the list makes her easy prey.

    In a similar way, Braylen loves being stressed, but this really limits his time on target. B-Wings don’t have the best dial (although in the best case could borrow the use of Kanan on Lowrick – although this means Low won’t have any mods) but that still limits what he can do (Blue or white moves and he then has to get stressed again to allow rerolls). Braylen is a solid piece but by doing what he’s supposed to do, his movement and time on target is very limited.

    So let’s consider what a contained piece should have:

    • Does their ability or chasis allow them to do something useful?
    • Does their dial support what they are trying to do?
    • Do they operate independently without needing to be around other ships?
    • Can they get multiple mods or actions a turn?
    • Are they cheap OR cost effective?

    if the answer is “yes” to all of these, you probably have a self-contained ship.

    For my list, both Muse and Breach are suspect: Muse for reasons given, and Breach because the dial is iffy and chances of double mods are limited (good selection of actions, but not all supportive of the pilot ability).

    So I took another hard look at what ships in FO can do this and found the following:

    Kylo Ren – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (15)
    Instinctive Aim (2)
    Brilliant Evasion (2)
    Concussion Missiles (6)
    Advanced Optics (5)
    Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Holo” – TIE/ba Interceptor (13)
    Elusive (4)
    Daredevil (4)
    Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 2

    Commander Malarus – TIE/fo Fighter (10)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Cluster Missiles (5)
    Afterburners (8)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZsZ50Z487X73W199W99WW186WW413Y269XY269XY382X119W117WW311WWY266XW113W98WW105W&sn=Another%20trial&obs=

    Kylo is expensive but is very self-contained. He has passive mods with the force, he can jam, and this version has a very high probability of getting maximum attack dice on any attack if he has a focus due to Advanced Optics. A great start.

    Commander Malarus is again a great choice as he can double mod (for 2 turns) and with Clusters can THEORETICALLY do 2 super-modded attacks.

    Holo is again very handy. His ability is a double edged sword, since if you aren’t careful you could end up passing off a useful mod, but if you can find a low value donor, you can basically be double modded most of the game.

    And Epsilon Squadron Cadets… hear me out here… they are really strong. I’m sure you can recall tales of TIE Fighters that just won’t die, and these guys are slightly tougher! The extra shield vs their Imperial / Scum cousins make them just that bit hardier and their dial is also so much better. Just as a bonus, they have native target lock. For 6 points (barely 1 point more than other Ties) they are really good value. They are so cheap they allow for a 5 ship list which. When you consider the other 3 ships are all I5 and pretty self contained (except Holo, but more on that later…), isn’t bad.

    So another new list and 2 games to try it out this week!

    The first game was my weekly NCX League game against DJ McNeillis, also flying FO.

    He was flying:

    Zeta 5 (EoD) – TIE/fo Fighter (9)
    Determination (EoD) (0)
    Pattern Analyzer (0)
    Targeting Matrix (BoE) (0)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Static” – TIE/fo Fighter (8)
    Proud Tradition (2)
    Pattern Analyzer (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Kylo Ren – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (15)
    Extreme Maneuvers (3)
    Malice (5)
    Concussion Missiles (6)
    Biohexacrypt Codes (1)
    Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    Lieutenant Rivas – TIE/fo Fighter (7)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Targeting Synchronizer (3)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
    Primed Thrusters (5)
    Proton Torpedoes (14)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZsZ50Z696X573W206W514Y264X319WW206W338Y487X341W418W99WW202WW413Y265X113W177WY493XW178W136WWWWW&sn=New%20Squadron&obs=

    So some very interesting ideas! The core of it was Lt Rivas… the cheeky TIE FO can acquire locks easily and share them via Targeting Synchronizer, allowing Breach and Kylo to fire rockets without much of a care. Zeta 5 is already famous for being “that Tie Fighter than can do 5 damage attacks” and Static is a cheap crit dealer. The only issue with it is that most of the list doesn’t reposition easily… but that’s still a fair bit of firepower on Breach and Kylo alone!

    As it transpired, Breach go separated from the main pack to be brutally harassed and killed by Kylo and Malarus. However, one of my squaddies and Holo also got bushwhacked… but not before Static got taken off the board. My Kylo got halved and so did his, but in the last turn Zeta 5 clipped a rock and died.

    Final score 58-44 to me, although that doesn’t really say how close it was – after I got an early lead, DJ did well to bring it back.

    So a first win, but possible a little premature to start celebrating. Against 5 ships, the Cadets struggled a little and in one case died outright before they could shoot. But against 4 ships I was confident this would be fine. So on to the next game…

    Late Sunday evening saw me fly vs the very excellent James Humphreys. This game was for TTS Top Gun league which I had yet to score on yet, so I really wanted a win. However, James is a very good player and we’ve flown against each other IRL a few times over the years. I was expecting him to fly FO, since that’s mostly what I’d seen him fly…

    Except James flew something like this:

    Lieutenant Karsabi – Alpha-Class Star Wing (10)
    Marksmanship (2)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Advanced SLAM (3)
    Xg-1 Assault Configuration (0)
    Ion Cannon (6)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Lieutenant Sai – Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle (10)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Novice Technician (2)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 5

    Zertik Strom – TIE Advanced x1 (10)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Hull Upgrade (9)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Commandant Goran – TIE/in Interceptor (10)
    Elusive (4)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 1

    “Vizier” – TIE Reaper (10)
    Minister Tua (4)
    Captain Hark (3)
    Ablative Plating (2)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 4

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z162X125W113WW104W144W11Y166X113WW53WW249Y176X113WW164Y465X119WWY185X49W427W103&sn=New%20Squadron&obs=

    (Note – I can’t remember the exact loadout for Vizier or Sai… but honestly, I don’t think it mattered).

    There’s a lot to like about this list:

    • All ships are 10 points
    • All are self-contained, but can work better together.
    • Although they are all low initiative, Goran is here, as dick-ish as ever.
    • At least 3 are very fast if they want to be
    • Lots of co-ordinate

    So although it’s off meta, it’s a really strong list.

    The mission was Scramble the Transmissions (which should have given me an advantage due to higher PS). However, I made a very crucial mistake in turn 0. I set up a wall of rocks on the right of the board to scare off the big ships and placed an objective in there. I then set 2 of my I5 ships up to lock it down and scare off Kasabi. By doing this, I effectively cut off 2 of my biggest ships from the main action on the left and overcommitted to chasing a ship that could (and did) SLAM away. Awkward!

    I lost one Cadet cheaply and by a foolish mistake that half pointed Kylo on a rock (first time I’d done that in a while). A good recovery saw Goran get halved but NOT DIE to 2 attacks due to… Elusive. In a “you had to see it to believe it”, he initially self bumped a damage into the back of Vizier, leaving him tokenless, and then rolled 1 evade to my 3 hits… only to re-roll a second evade due to Elusive. That, in itself, is pretty rare. The next turn, he slooped (again, no mod) and Kylo rear shot a concussion missile for 1 hit. Goran rolled no evades, but having recharged his Elusive rolled it again… and converted!!! Never tell me the odds, I guess… As punishment, because Kylo rotated his arc and didn’t Jam Stromm, Stromm used his “burn the target lock to flip a damage card” on Kylo and found… Direct Hit killing him.

    (In other news, if James is playing the lottery next week. Expect big news from him around Tuesday…)

    Losing Kylo and the 2 Cadets was bad. In return, I killed Goran eventually, and halved Vizier, and Stromm. Ultimately, though, 2 vs 4 ships meant the objectives all swung towards James quickly and there’s only so much 2 ships can do.

    Final score: 41-55 loss… not as bad as it could have been, but I learned an important lesson about containing the engagement – don’t overcommit to the lesser threat.

    So once again, I leave the week in deficit, but with a smile on my face – all my losses were into the 40s this week, suggesting an improvement in something!

    So what have we learned this week:

    This week was brought to you by the word “Containment”

    1. When it comes to list construction, look for ships that can operate independently AND are good value.
    2. Again, a lesson from week 2 resurfaced: 10 points is probably the sweet spot to look at for ship costs, since there are lots of 10 point ship around that can do a lot for any list.
    3. Don’t overcommit to face off the lesser evil. Pick off the main targets first.
    4. Slap Elusive on everything… apparently.

    More next week, where I will report on this new list more and promise (pinky swear) not to change list for at least a week!

  • The Magic Number (or “How I learned a lot in a week by losing”)

    When I closed out last weeks blog, I was sure I was going to talk through some more Hux Abuse I had been thinking about:

    Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

    Commander Malarus – Xi-class Light Shuttle (10)
    Tactical Officer (3)
    General Hux (6)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
    Primed Thrusters (5)
    Proton Torpedoes (14)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Lieutenant LeHuse (EoD) – TIE/sf Fighter (11)
    Determination (EoD) (0)
    Concussion Missiles (0)
    First Order Ordnance Tech (EoD) (0)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZbZ50Z269XY269XY269XY404XWWW61W180W249Y493XW178W136WWWWWY698X573W99W614&sn=More%20Hux%20abuse&obs=

    On paper this looks pretty decent! 3 I5 ships with some big hits and 3 little blockers that can be thoroughly abused by Hux.

    Then I tried it…

    I was flying vs fellow Mando Sam (Hi Sam!) on TTS who was trying Imperials for the first time in probably ever. He was flying:

    Soontir Fel (BoE) – TIE/in Interceptor (14)
    Apex Predator (BoE) (0)
    No Escape (BoE) (0)
    Blank Signature (BoE) (0)
    Feedback Emitter (BoE) (0)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 1

    “Whisper” (SL) – TIE/ph Phantom (15)
    Without A Trace (SL) (0)
    Relay System (SL) (0)
    Stygium Reserve (SL) (0)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    Darth Vader – TIE Advanced x1 (15)
    Malice (5)
    Fire-Control System (2)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Wampa” – TIE/ln Fighter (6)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 1

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZbZ50Z668X515W508W512W513Y677X525W526W527Y173XW418W113WWY221X338&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    Sam flew very cautiously, I flew in full speed, prepared to block and shoot anything that got in the way and follow up with munitions from the I5 rocket jockeys. Great in theory!

    What actually happened was that Soontir did Soontir things (taking no damage all game), Whisper snuck around the side, Vader tanked any and all damage and only poor Wampa suffered on Sam’s side (being taken out fairly quickly). On my side, the TIEs were still standing at the end, but Breach was halved, and Malarus and LeHuse (“Les Hughes”) were destroyed. A convincing win for Sam, but it started me thinking…

    The core of Sam’s Imperial list is basically 3 ships. Wampa is just a cheap tack-on (you could potentially run the same list with a deluxe Vader for 47 points and drop Wampa altogether, or add a Defender like Jendon instead). It feels that the core elements of the list are really strong point fortresses that are self contained and can survive pretty well against most things.

    By comparison, all of my ships are pretty flimsy and need some support to be “good”… Breach, for example, is quite useful with Proton Torpedoes, but needs help getting double mods. Les Hughes (EoQ) is an I5, but is pretty awful as far as it goes – he has less native red dice compared to his “Original Flavour”, and even his ability is less good (you have to bust the lock at the start of the attack phase, where previously you did it when you attacked… stopping things like Quickdraw using FCS on his attack). You can see why he’s a lot cheaper! Aside from the list, though, flying full speed at Soontir is a terrible idea… His high PS means he can always get out of trouble easily.

    Later on in the week, I had some in person games vs Ian “XWing Jesus” Wardle (Hi Ian!). In response to my poor efforts earlier in the week, I tried something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

    Major Vonreg – TIE/ba Interceptor (14)
    Predator (3)
    Deuterium Power Cells (7)
    Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Midnight” – TIE/fo Fighter (11)
    Swarm Tactics (7)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Concussion Missiles (6)
    Targeting Synchronizer (3)
    Munitions Failsafe (1)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    “Quickdraw” – TIE/sf Fighter (14)
    Proud Tradition (2)
    Fanatical (2)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Deuterium Power Cells (7)
    Special Forces Gunner (9)
    Electronic Baffle (2)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (24/24) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Whirlwind” – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (11)
    Cluster Missiles (5)
    Advanced Optics (5)
    Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZbZ50Z381X127WW318W311WWY233X132W113W99W177W108WY243X319W181W113W318WW182W106WY490XW98WWW186WW413&sn=Chimp%20stuff&obs=

    The idea here being “Let’s see if we can out-PS the opposition”.

    Ian was trying Imperials for the first time in probably ever, and had never really flow Defenders at all. He was flying:

    Darth Vader (SSP) – TIE Advanced x1 (17)
    Hate (0)
    Ion Missiles (0)
    Afterburners (0)

    Ship Cost: 17 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    Countess Ryad – TIE/d Defender (16)
    Hull Upgrade (9)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 4

    Colonel Vessery – TIE/d Defender (17)
    Juke (7)
    Proton Cannons (5)

    Ship Cost: 17 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZbZ50Z630X204W101W105Y195XWWWW164WWY194X123WW470WWWW&sn=New%20Squadron&obs=

    We played 2 games, and ignoring dice (which weren’t great for me), Ian soundly thrashed my list both times. The closest I came to killing even 1 ship was getting Countess Ryad down to 1 hull in one game. Otherwise, both games I was soundly outflown… none of my ships were able to manage to get any decent shots and even if we did, the Defenders just tanked it off with double mods and a ton of health. Ryad in particular having 8 health is A PROBLEM. For 16 points (just over 6 points in old money), she is an insane package – with 9 loadout and a mod slot, she has options for days… Afterburners, Outmaneuver, Juke and FCS, Collision Detector… etc etc etc. To my mind, she is pretty much an instant-include in any imperial list.

    Once again, self contained, efficient ships were able to outperform a bunch of useful ships that need assistance – Midnight is a little exposed without green mods to go with a lock… Quickdraw too. Von Reg is good, but has to take some negative tokens to get double actions. Whirlwind was there to try and exploit a technicality (i.e. get focusses at the start of shooting… but against only 3 ships, it’s a bit redundant). In essence, all 4 ships are OK, but lack a lot of the independence that the 3 Imperial ships do. I know the answer is to try and block them (so they don’t get their evade mod at least) but with less ships on the board, and with less maneuverability for the ships, that’s not so easy.

    Over the weekend, it was back to TTS to play my first round in the Top Gun league, organised by Obi Win X-Wing. I’m in the Sorting League since it’s my first time out, and having learned from the other games this week, I thought I’d try something COMPLELTELY DIFFERENT:

    Kylo Ren – TIE/vn Silencer (16)
    Brilliant Evasion (2)
    Sensor Scramblers (1)
    Adv. Proton Torpedoes (7)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
    Primed Thrusters (5)
    Proton Torpedoes (14)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Blackout” – TIE/vn Silencer (15)
    Proton Torpedoes (14)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Muse” – TIE/fo Fighter (8)
    Squad Leader (5)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Automated Target Priority (1)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZbZ50Z236X199W415W134WWWY493XW178W136WWWWWY237XWW136WWWY235X131W113W348W338&sn=Al-FO%20strike&obs=

    Having learned from my first 2 games, I decided that Silencers were the way to go, offering a more solid, self contained chassis and a generally great stat line. I was flying against Beto Diaz from Brazil, who was a great guy and flying:

    Captain Nym – Scurrg H-6 Bomber (14)
    Fearless (3)
    Dorsal Turret (3)
    Veteran Turret Gunner (6)
    Bomblet Generator (3)
    Ablative Plating (2)
    Havoc (0)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    R4-B11 (3)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (22/22) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5

    Boba Fett – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (20)
    Fearless (3)
    Maul (12)
    Marauder (0)
    Veteran Tail Gunner (5)

    Ship Cost: 20 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 10 Damage Threshold: 5

    Koshka Frost – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (16)
    Notorious (6)
    Jamming Beam (1)
    0-0-0 (4)
    Rigged Cargo Chute (2)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 5

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZbZ50Z144X121W137WW90W67WW103W149W113W389Y103X121WWW48WWWWW153W89Y106X455W12WW63WW96W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    So… a 3 ship list, and the ships all were pretty self contained… I have to say Koshka vs Silencers was pretty strong (because she can get rerolls vs stressed ships) and look! Full Fat Boba! A really decent, and quite intimidating list.

    Once again, I got soundly thrashed. I thought I had a decent engagement, but Koshka with both her ability and Notorious (and shooting after most of my list) was a far bigger problem than I expected. Props to Beto for using their native Reinforce to great effect… Koshka managed to shrug off both a Proton Torpedo and an Advanced Proton Torpedo and only take 3 shields! It wasn’t just Koshka, though. Boba is the real deal and when it gets to a knife fight at range one, there’s very little competition (except maybe Fenn).

    Firesprays in general are a problem because they are very tanky, quite maneuverable, and have multiple arcs. I would say that right now, they are again probably undercosted slightly (they start at 14 points or 15 for Kath Scarlett, who doesn’t have a ton of loadout, but is very decent) or have slightly more loadout than is fair. You can have 3 in a list, which you could just about have previously, but now you can have good ones, and since the average ship count is going down (allegedly) they are a bigger threat.

    And I guess this is my key learning for the week – more expensive, tougher ships seem to be the way forward. Defenders and Firesprays are prime examples of ships that are suddenly massively more popular because they represent solid value, loads of loadout, and are typically self contained. Anything that has action efficiency, can survive a couple of rounds of attacks, and can hit back with 3+ dice is worth bringing to the table. Others to add to the list include Silencers (as mentioned already), force wielders (e.g. Luke, Rey, Vader, most Aethersprites…) and specific pilots like General Grievous or Poe. Yes, they are more expensive, but in the current climate, it just makes sense.

    Also, this leaves FO in a bit of a spot. You can probably tell I am trying FO out a lot, and it feels there are some big gaps in their ranks. Silencers are pretty good, and quite expensive… but not expensive enough to make up a decent value 3 ship high initiative list. You can get Kylo and Blackout in a list, but that third ship… best case you can get Avenger or Recoil, but that’s leaving between 3 and 5 points on the table, depending which version of Kylo you use (which you can’t fill since the cheapest FO ship is 6 points). Alternatively, you can look at up to 4 lower initiative Silencers… you can do a lot with generics (either 4x I1 Siener Janus Engineers with enough points for an extra Epsilon Squadron Cadet TIE FO) or 4x First Order Test Pilots (leaving 2 points on the table). OR 3x First Order Test Pilots and something else (e.g. Quickdraw! Von Reg! Avenger!). The problem with all of this is 2 things: first, they have low initiative, so can easily get bushwhacked before they even shoot, and second being generics, they have a pretty poor loadout stash (5 points).

    Anyway, I have a few ideas where to go, and was able to prove out them working on my 5th game of the week. I’m not going to go into too much detail this week, on this since it was a game against an opponent who was new to the game and recovering from the flu, but all my learnings for the week have been incorporated into what I think is a very decent list. More on that next week!

    So what have we learned this week…?

    1. Well, there is a temptation to say that I suck at Xwing… but I would say this is my Testing Era. Lots to try, and FO has a lot of options. I don’t mind losing a few games, but probably need to change my approach a little…
    2. The meta seems to be shifting towards Imperials slightly. Recent events have shown a strong Empire bias and some of my own team that have not shown any interest in Imperials for years are suddenly heading to the dark side. It’s easy to see why – some of their ships are tough and independent (and possibly undercosted…). Defenders in particular and Countess Ryad specifically is a problem…
    3. 3 ship squads are very competitive right now. Just as I write this, I see another 3 ship list both topped swiss and won overall at a 32 player event in Spain this weekend. Scum are really well set up to do well in this meta (having more ship chassis to choose from, including Firesprays…) as are Imperials, CIS (Firesprays again) and Resistance. Rebels, Republic, and FO… maybe less so.

    Next week I’ll be reporting on at least 2 TTS games (Thanksgiving permitting!) and hopefully telling you how well my new preferred list is performing! See you then.

  • Remember the Alamo…

    So the Joy of Xwing comes in may formats, and a very convenient format for bringing the community together is online play (“Pornwing” as it’s known in our local group) via TableTop Simulator (TTS). It’s a great mod and is pretty gosh darned realistic… also comes with the benefit of allowing you to play lists you would never normally play if you don’t have the ships (which are now very very hard to find) – more on that later!

    This weekend saw part of the excellent Conquest Series run by the even more excellent 312 Squadron. These have really done a great job in getting the Xwing community back together… and it’s sure as hell a lot cheaper than a bunch of plane tickets! The event in question was the Alamo Conquest – the last of the open events and played at US Central time. For me, that’s about 6 hours behind, but actually really good news as I got to have a mosey and a muse in the morning, and spend the afternoon on pewpew. This event was effectively a 4 round swiss event with a final 5th game for the top 2.

    In my last post, we took apart some other events that had been going on worldwide, and I promised some discussion around strategy, but what better way to discuss than looking at the field! My working hypothesis was that squads with less ships were making a comeback, so we could consider how to compensate for that, but the average squad size for this event was 4.275 – a smidge less than averages before the point change, but still not lower than 4, so not truly conclusive. 40 players signed up, which was a big number for an event like this, and factions were a complete counter to the events seen last week: 10 Imperial, 8 Rebel, 7 FO, 6 Republic, 4 Resistance, 3 Scum, 2 CIS. Imperials dominating with 25% of the field! Interestingly, CIS once again barely there… but still one of the 2 lists made top 8. Curiously, one of each faction (except Republic) made the top 8 with Rebels and Imperials boasting 2 lists each in the cut (and indeed Rebels and Imps made the 5th game).

    What does this tell us? Well… there’s still not meta list just yet. There’s a healthy spread of lists, from 3 ship ace squads to 6 ship swarm squads, which is great news. The fact that CIS have barely been present in the last few events probably shows the impact of the price hike for Energy Shell charges (you can’t spam cheap 3 dice attacks any more). But in general, CIS is a high-skill faction – most of their ships have some good qualities, but need some real expertise to get the best out of them. Maybe people are taking the easier route and trying out new things in other factions now they are better value?

    So with the high level analysis out of the way, I set myself up. My performance on the 2 events I have entered so far has been less than stellar (2-2 and 0-2 with a swift drop because I was massively hungover and thought discretion was the better part of valour) so really, I’d settle for at least evens… or dare to dream… a top 8 finish! Having looked at likely lists over the last week, I was assuming that there would be less ships and even a rise in 3 ship lists. So I did the obvious thing: spam a load of generics. I present to you THE FURIOUS FIVE!!!!

    5x Red Fury Zealots with Cluster Missles

    Captain Malarus (Xi shuttle) – Tictac (Tactical Officer), General Hux, Targeting Computer.

    It’s a terribly simple, but potentially scary list:

    1. Zealots get into range and take focuses (and / or rotate arcs to suit)
    2. Malarus lopes up behind and engages Hux Abuse! Coordinate 3 ships (not 1, not 2, but 3!) with a target lock.
    3. Either ships go wild with Cluster Missiles (using the lock for rerolls in the first attack to save the focus for the second attack) OR if there’s a better shot (e.g. Bullseye 4 dice at R1) go nuts, getting the Hux reroll for a strain.

    IN THEORY this is great. I2 Ships rarely care about strain, as they usually shoot last, and the Whisper chassis is great because it can shoot out the rear if it flies over the top of the target.

    IN PRACTICE… well, Zealots shoot last, so getting the engagement right is tough as they have to not get killed in the first pass. There are 5, so you can afford to lose one or two over the course of the game, but there is no jamming suite, so they only roll 2 evades. They have 5 health, so are only 1 hull more than a Z95 (which is interesting as they are basically priced the same as named Z95s and have a few more tricks). In practice, it’s a tricky list, it seems!

    It’s also virtually impossible to play in real life since FO Whispers are only found in the Fury of the First Order packs which are not easy to come by… Whilst not rocking horse s**t rare, they are still trading at over £45 a pack (on eBay), so 5 of these, and a Xi shuttle, would set you back about £200… If you can find the stock! So TTS (Pornwing) allows you to try out stupid lists like this with no money down!

    I tried it out twice over the week and won both games, so was feeling pretty good about trying it out in a big event. Lets see how we did!

    Game 1, vs Liam Lee – Chance Engagement

    He flew:

    Luke Skywalker T-65 X-wing (11) Servomotor S-foils + Plasma Torpedoes + Shattering Shot

    Gina Moonsong A/SF-01 B-wing (14) Stabilized S-foils + Proton Cannons + Fire-Control System + Marksmanship

    Norra Wexley ARC-170 Starfighter (11) Ezra Bridger + Veteran Tail Gunner + Expert Handling

    Miranda Doni BTL-S8 K-wing (13) The Child + Concussion Missiles

    So, chonky Rebel Beef with lots of tricks. I was initially hopeful the low evade count on 3/4 of the list would allow me to chip into him heavily, but made a fatal mistake of chasing after Miranda. She’s worth a lot of points, but was able to SLAM past me and leave my whole list cornered in a bad spot, ready to be rushed by Norra, Gina, and Luke. Over the course of 3-4 turns, I lost a lot of ships (well… 5/6 actually) and only just got half points on Gina.

    Oh dear.

    Final score: 14-52 Loss.

    Well… I learned not to commit to early. Let’s not do that again, eh? Things can only get better…

    Game 2 vs Sebastian Demers – Scramble the Transmissions

    He flew:

    Wedge Antilles T-65 X-wing (11) Servomotor S-foils + Electronic Baffle + R4 Astromech + Swarm Tactics

    Luke Skywalker T-65 X-wing (14) Servomotor S-foils + Plasma Torpedoes + Shattering Shot

    Thane Kyrell T-65 X-wing (14) Servomotor S-foils + Adv. Proton Torpedoes + Composure

    Garven Dreis T-65 X-wing (11) Servomotor S-foils + R4 Astromech + Ion Torpedoes + Marksmanship

    Oh look! Rebel X-wings with lots of tricks…

    This time I flew a little more circumspect, spreading rocks out as best I could to allow multiple channels to get around. Effectively I moseyed up the side of the board and turned in to face him. Sebastian didn’t appreciate they had Cluster Missiles until I was able to unleash hell on his list… in one turn, I lost one Fury, but traded out for Thane and Wedge. Malarus picked up a Panicked Pilot, and Thane (on the way out) was able to double it with his ability (allowing him to flip a damage card for a focus result), leaving Malarus with 5 stress… so he spent the rest of the game as a blocker. Garvin then took a face full of paint and somehow my I2s were able to pick up all the switches, so I was scoring 4 points a turn. Pretty sure this was the game I won ROAD virtually every turn as well… In the end, it was a textbook “how to” for the mighty Furies!

    Final Score: 54-23 Win

    I was worried about Chance and Scramble, so this was great as I felt like I was coming out ahead!

    Game 3 vs Taylor “Bainite” Jacobs. – Salvage Mission

    He flew:

    Yendor (BoE) T-65 X-wing (12)

    Gina Moonsong (BoE) A/SF-01 B-wing (16)

    Braylen Stramm (BoE) A/SF-01 B-wing (13)

    Gemmer Sojan (BoE) RZ-1 A-wing (9)

    Oh look! Rebel Beef. Again. Interestingly, I thought these B wings had “gone away” since everyone had worked out how stupidly broken they were… but no, they’re back (although not cheap). Props for bringing all BoE ships to a showdown. More props for flying Yendor! He was expensive before, but is now cheaper than Luke and arguable better value. It’s a really decent list.

    Just as we’re setting up, we get tapped to go on stream. Yay! You can watch it back on Twitch if you look up 312 Squadron. Much as before, I was trying to manage range control as well as I could, but made 2 really small but terrible flying mistakes:

    • Turn 2, I tried to co-ordinate a barrel roll on to one of the furies that was all locked up about a turn earlier than expected. I thought there was room, but there wasn’t (basically nubs blocking it). As a result, he got the full force of 3 ships shooting and was taken off the board after rolling 2 evades out of 6 green dice vs 10 double modded red dice. Yay.
    • Turn 3, I tried to boost in 3 ships to Range 2 for Clusters on Gina and one was too close to a rock. As a result, I threw 10 dice at Gina, got 5 hits, and she evaded 2 for 3 damage. That was the 1 turn I had to really drill as the next turn Malarus died and it all went to hell.

    So yeah, it wasn’t a great showing and again I lost most of my list and took 0 enemy ships off the board. All with the world watching. Oh dear.

    Final Score: 16-50 Loss

    So, no chance of a top 8 win… just hanging in for honour and glory and stuff…

    Game 4, vs Jacob Morningstar – Assault on the Satellite Array

    He flew:

    Lieutenant Tavson Upsilon-class command shuttle (17) GNK “Gonk” Droid + Commander Malarus + Novice Technician + Advanced Sensors + Electronic Baffle

    First Order Provocateur TIE/ba Interceptor (9) Elusive + Automated Target Priority

    Captain Phasma TIE/sf Fighter (10) Pattern Analyzer + Special Forces Gunner + Angled Deflectors

    “Quickdraw” TIE/sf Fighter (14) Predator + Proud Tradition + Fire-Control System + Pattern Analyzer + Ion Missiles + Special Forces Gunner

    NOT A REBEL LIST!!! HALLELUJAH!

    Once again, I set up as far away as possible from his big scary ships and tried to get to the objectives I had helpfully set up in an asteroid field. This time I also tried not using Hux so much as I figured his stress was actually a pain for the ships to manage since their blues are great for getting away, but not so good for sharp turns. Both tricks worked quite well as Tavson came in hot, and got bushwacked by the Full Furious Force, taking his shields in turn 2 and hull in turn 3. Props to Jacob, though, as he did use a cute trick: Using GNK to charge up early and then using Electronic Baffle, Tavson, and GNK to effectively get rid of stress for a net 0 result. That’s really good!

    After getting Tavson off the table, Phasma and Quickdraw showed up. They were able to take off 3 Furys between them, leaving us very close to equals. Then Jacob unfortunately slooped his provocateur onto a rock halfing him, and parking him R1 from Malarus, who had nothing better to do than shoot. In the same (last) turn, my fury was able to shoot Phasma clearing the shields, but forcing a final shield damage onto Quickdraw (with no shots) getting half points on both. Between that and the points for objectives, it pushed the score up to quite a lot…

    Final score: 64-45 win!

    So overall 2-2… 19th of 40… no worse than my best performance at a conquest to date, and a moral victory for a somewhat stupid list I’m still learning.

    What did we learn???

    • Don’t over Hux yourself!
    • Give rocks a much wider berth
    • Rebel Beef sucks!

    I have a new idea to try over the week that might even be stupider – more next time!

    As far as the event went, Andrew Oehler won with a really interesting list with ships that have barely been seen since V1…

    Fenn Rau Sheathipede-class Shuttle (11) Targeting Computer + R4 Astromech + The Child

    Bodica Venj Fang Fighter (10) Beskar Reinforced Plating + Mandalorian Optics + Clan Training + Predator

    Biggs Darklighter T-65 X-wing (12) Servomotor S-foils + “Chopper” + Ion Torpedoes

    Kyle Katarn HWK-290 Light Freighter (10) Moldy Crow + Jyn Erso + Elusive

    Captain Rex TIE/ln Fighter (11) Precision Ion Engines + Targeting Computer + Snap Shot

    You know what I was saying last week about 10 point ships? It looks like there’s one I missed… Fenn Rau in the shuttle. Yes, it’s a shuttle, so really flimsy, but he’s I6! He’s got force! He’s got an annoying ability! Really, he’s a 10 pointer who will be doing the rounds a lot. His list basically won by confounding the opposition and stopping them from doing damage: Biggs soaks up the hits and can regen, Kyle can hand out goodies, Bodica keeps the damage train going, and Rex gives out a sort-of perma-deplete condition! Lots of moving parts, but all very useful and efficient. Expect to see more of this at a table near you soon.

    Well done Andrew! If nothing else, designing this horror show of a list is impressive, but not as impressive as him winning now 2 of these events.

    More musings next week!

  • And the winner is…

    Having established last time that all factions seem to be relatively equally placed in this Brave New World, there were 2 big events worldwide over the weekend: the Cornish Nationals and the Californian Open. Great timing for someone just starting a blog, as it gives real content to analyse!

    Starting with the Cornish Nationals, 22 players attended in Truro which is pretty decent. There was no stream to watch, but just looking at the lists, something jumps out – Scum and Resistance are both pretty popular! 5 lists from each faction and (spoiler warning) 5 of these 10 made the top cut. FO and Republic were also well represented (4 and 3 respectively), Rebels and Empire were there (both 2 players) but CIS was on its lonesome with a single player representing (Sam Cooper).

    Just looking at some of the lists, it seems that size doesn’t matter… there’s no clear pattern to effective list size! 3 ship lists are showing strong again, with four showing up to play and two of these making top cut. On the flip of this, there are a few volume lists – two Republic weenie swarm lists and one Resistance list all with 6 ships (and again, two making the cut). Considering the rest of the field (except one bold CIS player with a 5 ship list) flew 4 ship lists, it’s interesting that there’s no clear trend. This is pretty annoying because I was all set to start shouting the 3 ship lists are back in a big way, but it’s not as simple… statistically, the top cut contained 4.25 ships… which I guess is less than the 4.5 ships that were seen before the points change, but isn’t conclusive. It’s probably worth mentioning that Chris Burnett won with a 3 ship Resistance list (Rey, Poe, Vinnie), which is in itself impressive (well done Chris!), so Resistance chalk up their first scalp of the weekend.

    On to the Californian Open, where 23 players attended. There was a stream (thanks to 312 Squadron) and it was good to see what was going on (some games were extremely close and great viewing!). It was a very different story to the Cornish event… 6 Republic lists, 5 Scum, 4 Resistance, 4 Imperial, 2 Rebel, and 1 each for FO and CIS. So again, Scum is very popular and CIS is not…

    Size wise, there was pretty much a full spread of lists, including one 7 and one 8 ship squad. Average ship count for the event was 4.78 (so going in the opposite direction). One point of interest was that only 2 players took large based ships at all (in both cases their respective lists had both a Jumpmaster and a YV-666)… one made the cut, the other came dead last.

    In the top cut, 4 players were Republic, 3 were Scum and 1 was Resistance. All except 2 were 4 ship lists. Wouldn’t you know it, Resistance won (with a 5 ship list) in what turned out to be a gripping final (well done Mobius!).

    Two big events… both won by Resistance! So does this mean they are the new hotness???

    Well… no. What was evident from the games I saw over the weekend was that most of the games were very close (at least to a point) – there wasn’t anything so overpowered it was broken. Resistance, though, do have a few, reasonably priced, strong set pieces:

    10 points gets you Kaz or Finn – both very strong and now with enough loadout to make them useful. 10 points also gets you L’ulo L’ampar or Seftin Vanik in A-wings, with enough loadout to be dangerous. Whilst not the strongest A-wings, they are both I5 and good to go. 10 ALSO gets you a Aftab Akbar or C’ai Threnalli in the Wartime Y-wings (another new feature of the game is that the Resistance Y-wing now comes in 2 flavours – cheap, flimsy Y-wings or more expensive Wartime Y-Wings with the Wartime Loadout baked in). This is all before you start looking at Xwings, of which there are a few… So 10 is the magic number.

    10 points is the new 4 points. If you can find a list with a bunch of decent 10 pointers, you have a shot, and this is (nearly) what Mobius did with his list (Finn, Kaz, L’ulo, Zizi Tlo and Greer Sonnel in an A-wing heavy list!). It seems, as well, like every faction has at least a couple of decent 10 point ships:

    • FO has Captain Malarus or Captian Phasma
    • Republic has “Captain Obvious” Ric Ole, Hound in the LAAT, Jag in the Arc or Aksoka in the Aethersprite (although, as mentioned before, they have a huge number of very cheap Z95s and Torrents to pad out any list!).
    • Empire has Lieutenant Sai, plus loads of very decent TIE Interceptors and TIE LNs.
    • Scum has Dalen Oberon in the Starvipers or Viktor Hel in the Khiraxz (both very underutilised over the last few seasons).
    • CIS has Volen Das and Wat Tambor / Captain Sear
    • Rebels have… well… a mixed bag! Jake Farrell (SSP), Arvel Crynyd (BOE – AKA “Captain Suicide”), Keo Venzee in A-wings and Dutch Vander / Hol Okand / “Pops Krail” (BOY versions) in Y-wings.

    Of course, if you flex up to 11 or 12 points, the world is your oyster – every faction has some top tier talent around this point. So really, it’s about how many solid shooters you feel comfortable about squeezing in.

    This argument does fall over when you look at what Chris flew at the Cornish Nationals – 3 chunky ships. However, when you think about it, all 3 of those ships (Rey! Poe! Vinnie!) hit very hard and don’t die easily – you have to commit to taking one off the board before moving on, and with nearly 30 hull and a lot of defensive mods, they aren’t going down easy!

    So for now, we just have to concede that Resistance are stealing the march on things, but there’s no new secret sauce just yet. There’s still plenty to think about and things to try.

    Next time… Strategy! How the new paradigm could change the way you play…

  • Welcome to the Wild Wild West!

    Jumping straight in to the recent news that X WING HAS CHANGED IN A BIG WAY, there’s been a couple of weeks to consider what lists to build. Just to recap, here’s what’s happened:

    The squad point limit for lists have gone up to 50. Yay!

    Unfortunately, the squad point cost of all ships has increased in line with this new threshold. Booo!

    • Most ships have gone up 2.5x. So 3 is now 8, 4 is now 10, 5 is now… errrr… 12.5…
    • Yeah, this is where it gets interesting! Anything that was an odd number has been rounded up or down…
    • Well… mostly up! The points team have admitted that they have been looking to reduce the power levels of the game. This means lists that were 20 points before aren’t quite 50 now (I’ve seen some of my old favourites jump to 58 in this new era!)
    • For example, 4x 5 point ships in “old money” are probably 13 points (or more) in the new world… which would be 52 in “new money”.
    • Loadout as a concept has been relatively unchanged (each non-Standard Loadout ship has a budget attached to each ship)… although there are lots of changes in points.
    • The points team have also reigned in individuality… most chassis have the same slots now as opposed to the more “custom approach” that have been doing the rounds over the last few years.
    • Most importantly, there’s now a “Restricted list” to ensure certain ships or talents aren’t spammed. As if we would!!! (spoiler warning – we would).

    So… a lot has happened! What has caught my eye the most though…

    Lots of changes to points on various upgrades:

    Missiles! Both Cluster Missiles and Concussion Missiles have had a slight points reduction (5 down from 6 and 6 down from 7 respectively) making them affordable again! Great news for ships that were struggling to land damage! However, Energy Shell Charges are up a smidge… making it a bit tougher for the cheapest CIS vultures to be as dangerous (although some would say that’s a good thing).

    Tech! Not a lot of change except Primed Thrusters and Deuterium Power Cells both dropping a point, making them affordable again! Notably, most of the (good) non-faction Tech cards are now 5 points! This is a mixed blessing… they are cheaper, but still quite pricey and difficult to attach more than one per ship (even if a ship has multiple Tech slots).

    Gunners! A few minor changes, (Greedo now 2, BT-1 now 1…) but the most notable (for FO at least!) is that Special Forces Gunner now costs a whopping 9 points!

    Talents! Apart from a few aforementioned restrictions on some old classics (Snap Shot? No more than 3 for you! Intimidation? That’s functionally unique now! Juke? only 2 for you…) Enduring feels like a steal at 3 points! However Trick Shot is now 5 points!?!? Those with a long (V1) memory might recall it was originally 0 points when it was released… now it’s almost premium rates!

    Cannons! Bad news for Rogue fighters… Synced Laser Cannons are up 33% to 8 points! Yikes! Good news for people that like dicking around with other players ships, Tractor beam is down to 4! That said, I can’t think of a time where Tractor Beam has been used effectively since it was launched, soooo…

    Pilots!

    This is probably a whole post in itself, but as a really short summary…

    • Generics are BACK baybee! Whereas previously they were overpriced and underpowered (limited slots), now they are generally the same (or less) as their named equivalent. Some notable examples are most of the Clone Army! Z95 generics are 7 points… that’s Lower than 3 points in old money! Gold Squadron Troopers are 6 points… that’s nearly 2 points in old money! Bravo Flight Officers are only 8 (exactly 3 points in old money… with enough loadout for Ion Torps!). In fact, a Generic Heavy Republic list just made the cut at a decent sized UK event this weekend!
    • Boba Fett has his crew slot back, making him a viable threat again… although he’s very expensive at 20 points (although that’s still 8 points in old money… which is pretty much where he was).
    • Talonbane Cobra is back! He’s a very reasonable 12 points and has enough loadout to get useful stuff (like Afterburners).
    • VCX-100s are now cheap enough to have 3 in a list (!)… which is just nuts.
    • Darth Vader is now a deluxe option! The “cheap” BYO version comes in at 15 points… but has a criminally low loadout value (7!). SL versions are 17 (which is basically 7 points in old money).

    There’s a LOT to take in and there’s a new gold rush to find the new meta lists. Before we can even get to that there’s an even more critical question to answer first: What faction to play now???

    Big point swings mean big opportunity swings. What was dominant last season might not be good this season… So what’s hot and what’s not? Let’s take a peek!

    Rebels are… fairly unchanged. Other than the general points increase that effects all factions, Rebels are still able to field a decent enough list of either mid to high initiative ships, or a load of really cheap ships. Most notably, E Wings are still able to rock around with Pro Torps for days… I’m sure that won’t cause problems.

    Empire seem at a first glance to have been somewhat neutered. All the cheap winners (Captain Karsabi, Double Edge, Scimitar 1… all up a little) seem to be more expensive. But then you get to the Defenders… Whilst they still aren’t what you can call “cheap”, there’s gold in them thar hills! Countess Ryad at 16 points is very good value (6 points in old money) and even Colonel Vessary and Vult Skerris are 17 (6-and-a-bit) vs the 7 points they were. You can field a spicy 3 ship Defender list (Ryad, Vessary, Yorr) with the 2 BYO ships having Outmaneuver!!! That’s pretty scary.

    Scum are very competitive. Given the fact that they have the most chassis of any other faction, this is not a surprise. I’ve already mentioned TB Cobra esquire, but the sheer variety of ships in Scum mean there’s always something there. Unbelievably, SL Fenn Rau is priced at 15 points (bang on 6 in old money). I personally think this is undercosting him quite a bit since whenever he shows up on the board, he is a problem. Considering the price of his peers (Poe, Vader, Anakin, Wedge) all going upwards, this seems very cheap.

    Resistance is evergreen. Lots of options and the pricing is broadly the same… SL Cai and Stomeroni have both nudged up slightly, which is understandable but odd. Stomeroni is a great piece but suffers from being I4. I was expecting him to be “4.5 points”, so 11 or 12 points. Cai felt a little cheap at 4 (old) / 10 (new) points, so 11 is OK I guess. The interesting news is that a few Sofas (Resistance Transports) are now really cheap (8 or 9 points) – basically 3 points in old money. The downside being they lose the cannon slot, so they really become support ships only. However, keep an eye on Kaz… he’s very reasonable at 10 points now.

    FO are looking fairly strong. Some key set pieces have been unfairly bumped (Von Reg and Quickdraw both 14 points which is a bit above the 5-points-in-old-money they used to be). However, like Shirley Bassey, they have the range, darling… Lots of cheap generics and some big loadouts on some old favourites (Blackout, Whisper Kylo Ren). One of the good news stories in fact is that WhyLo now has the points to get Advanced Optics, Concussion Missiles, and Instinctive Aim… something he was missing in the last round of points. He’s 15 points, though, so firmly 6-points-in-old-money territory.

    Republic are a similar story. There’s a lot they can do cheaply now, with bargain basement generics and Aces for days. I have to admit, of all the factions they are the one I’ve looked at probably the least for reasons I will probably go into later, but Anakin in the Y wing looks dangerous with enough points to equip Proton Torpedoes if you want…

    CIS are still as controversial as ever. Whilst the hike in Energy Shell Charges is bad for the cheapest ships, they are still viable on Hyenas and HMP Gunships. However, all their Aces are still relatively unaffected. General Grievous is still very good value (12 points… just under 5 in old money) and has the loadout for Outmaneuver as well as all his usual toys. Jango Fett is an eye watering 20 points… but that’s only 8 in old money. Sun Fac is ready to go at 13 points (just over 5 in old money). Even Volan Das is 10 points, which is very good value. CIS is an acquired taste, so will be interesting to see how they show up.

    So in all, it’s a pretty balanced affair. The points team have done a great job in ensuring that there’s something for everyone, so that’s a big plus. At this early stage, it’s hard to pick out an obviously overpowered faction… I guess time will tell.

    Me personally? Well, I’m playing in the NCX Team League at the moment (Go Mawlers!) as an FO pilot, so am just continuing that for the time being. I’ve been really pleased to see a huge number of lists available to me and looking forward to trying them out.

    So that’s enough for now. Next time I hope to be looking at the impact of the new 50 point meta and review a few tournaments that have been happening this weekend.

    See ya next time, cowboys!