X Wing Musings

Flying Casual since 2014…

recent posts

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!

  • What I did in the summer holidays…

    So much to my shock, the summer is over! It’s been a while since I’ve dropped a new post, so probably a good time to review what’s happened since the last one, as it’s been a very busy summer of Xwing!

    Just about the time of the last post, season 9 of the Nickle City X-wing event was winding down. I was in KDB (as I had been a few times over the years) and we did… OK! We got to the Semi Finals, with me playing mostly Fen, Han Solo, Kanan and a couple of cheap Tie Fighters, and it did OK – 7-3 over the season. Unfortunately the list got hit by a points bump in August (see below) so isn’t really viable any more, but was a lot of fun at the time!

    The league was ultimately won by the Trash Pandas, so well done them, but I can’t stress enough how much fun the league is. Season 10 is signing up right now – if you haven’t already, give it a go!

    The Mandos Summer Championship happened on the 18th July. 16 players rocked up to Milton Keynes for a 4 round rumble and a good day was had by all. I was desperately trying out Resistance for the first time in about a year, in order to practice for an event in Belgium I had signed up to (more on that in a mo), and settled on this :

    Aftab Ackbar – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (7)
    Burst Laser Turret (4)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Engine Upgrade (3)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

    C’ai Threnalli – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (7)
    Burst Laser Turret (4)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Engine Upgrade (3)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

    Cova Nell – Resistance Transport (11)
    Heroic (2)
    Jamming Beam (1)
    Leia Organa (Resistance) (10)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 4

    L’ulo L’ampar – RZ-2 A-wing (9)
    Lone Wolf (3)
    Heroic (2)

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

    Poe Dameron (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (16)
    Heroic (0)
    BB-8 (EoD) (0)
    Primed Overdrive Thrusters (EoD) (0)
    Black One (EoD) (0)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 51

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Resistance&d=v10ZbZ50Z482XW641WWW249WY484XWWWWW249WY351X172WW12WWW244WWWY239X124W172WWWY702X172W578W579W580&sn=Resistance%20isn’t%20futile&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,core2asteroid4

    It was a fun list, but ultimately, Cova was a poor choice – not too expensive, but very limited to doing red moves, or if you want to co-ordinate, you lose your red moves, so roll less dice! The Y wings were fun, but ended up dying (as you would expect), as did L’ulo. Poe often had to do a lot of heavy lifting, and with a lot of high PS ships out there, it was a tough time to try this. I dropped it immediately after flying it!

    Over the day, I went 2-2, which was about right, but it was good to see our captain Ian “XWing Jesus” Wardle win… again! I think his run of winning Mandos events is somewhat unbroken since last year!

    Just as the Mandos event was finishing up, the online 312 league was finishing up. In this league, I was playing in the Happy Accidents as an independent player shoved into the team. Once again, I ended up in the Scum track, so once again, I mostly played Fenn, Han, Kanan and 2 ties. Once again, I did OK, winning 5-3 games in the season and both my games in the playoff (so 7-3 overall… again). The Happy Accidents did a little better overall than KDB in the NCX league, winning the Competitive league outright! Great success! Looking forward to taking part in the next one, although my list is no longer viable…

    At the end of August, on a whim I signed up with a few stragglers to go to the World Team Championship in Mechelen (Belgium). It was the first time I had attended, and really it was about sizing the event up, because I’d heard so much about it! The concept is simple – assemble as many 5 player teams of X-wing in a gigantic space to duke it out over 2 days. The first day is “sorting” to work out which of three leagues (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) folks will compete in for day 2.

    Our team of 5 was Me (Resistance), Steve Boulton (Republic), Kobe Paridaens (CIS), Patrick “Crusader” (Rebels), and our Captain – Phil Pond (Scum). A pretty international team (3 Brits, 2 Belgians), so we chose a completely appropriate name for a team thrown together about 3 weeks before the event – The Yub Yubs.

    The Yub Yubs taking on the World! Left to right – Stevie B, Me, Kobe, Patrick, and Phil (at the front).

    So we rocked up to Mechelen on what seemed to the the HOTTEST FREAKING DAY OF ALL TIME to play in the Nekkerhal, which, to all intents and purposes, appeared to be a giant concrete pizza oven!

    My list was a little different to the one from the Mandos event… less Y, more X!

    C’ai Threnalli (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (11)
    For The Cause (EoD) (0)
    Heroic (0)
    BB Astromech (0)
    Repulsorlift Engines (EoD) (0)

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

    Zizi Tlo – RZ-2 A-wing (10)
    Heroic (2)
    Concussion Missiles (6)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    L’ulo L’ampar – RZ-2 A-wing (9)
    Heroic (2)
    Ion Missiles (3)

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

    Aftab Ackbar – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (8)
    Burst Laser Turret (5)
    Ion Bombs (4)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

    Stomeroni Starck (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (13)
    For The Cause (EoD) (0)
    Accelerated Sensor Array (EoD) (0)
    R5-X3 (0)

    Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3

    Total: 51

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Resistance&d=v10ZbZ50Z705X581W172W196W584Y387X172WW99WWWY239X172WW101WWY482XW641WW317WWY704X581W583W205&sn=Resistance%20better%20not%20be%20futile&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,core2asteroid4

    In the time between the Mandos event and WTC, I got to really enjoy flying Stromeroni Starck, who ended up being my MVP for the weekend. C’ai also is very good value for money! The A wings… well, they’re cheap, as is (was!) Aftab. Basically, it’s a pure efficiency list, but I didn’t really get much time to practice (I flew it twice before setting off to Belgium).

    Day 1, for sorting was OK. I went 3-5, but unfortunately, the rest of the team didn’t quite do as well… so overall, we won 2-5 rounds, putting us in the Bronze league. Day 2, though, was much tougher! I won 0 games all day, and as a team we only won 3 games out of 20! Turns out it was a tough room! I think we came last or second last (depending on how you read the scores), but it just goes to show how you really need to prepare for the event… 3 weeks just doesn’t cut it!

    Overall, the Germans won and in a tough room that’s very impressive indeed. Considering the event attracted the very cream of X-wing players from all around the world (albeit mostly Europe!), it’s now definitely on my calendar to attend next year. Also worth noting that Mechelen is one of the prettiest towns I think I’ve ever seen, so even if high octane X-wing isn’t your thing, there’s plenty to see and do in the area…

    Just as WTC was closing (like… literally! During the last round!), XWA dropped a points update!!! This was billed as more a “quality of life” update to reduce the power levels of certain elements (i.e. nerf Burst Laser Turrets and Resistance Y wings…). There wasn’t much to cheer about – most changes seem to increase points for various upgrades and any bonus loadout was given to the chassis that really rely on them to be useful – e.g. IG-88s given 2 bonus loadout due to Synced Laser Cannons going up. I’m still working through list ideas after this change, but I am thinking Rebels look really strong now, as do certain chassis in the FO stable… more on that next time!

    So, as we go back to school and work, we can reflect on the fact that it was the hottest summer on record (at least in the UK) and the X-Wingiest summer on record! Next week, I’ve got the Mandos Autumn Championship to look forward to… It’s not too late to signup if you’re nearby. No doubt updates to follow! Until next time.

  • Gittin Gudder

    Been a few weeks since my last post, because “real life” sometimes has to take priority, and it has been (as they say) “Bastard Hot” in the UK. However, it has given me plenty of time to muse on things. One of the things that’s been on my mind lately can be boiled down to one question “how can you actually get better at Xwing?”. Whilst I’m in a dangerous position claiming to be actually “Good”, there’s a bunch of ideas I’d like to share that might help you improve your game – feel free to use them!

    Know the fundamentals

    There’s a load of materials out there from the last 10 years that can give you some great foundations. Some examples are include The “Rule of Eleven”, “Turn 0”, and Formation Flying. There’s a ton of ideas in the old FFG “Flight Academy” section that still hold up today. I’m not going to go into detail in this post, but I will say that if you read through these articles, I guarantee you will find something that you either forgot or didn’t even know (for me today, it was that the Rule of 11 becomes the Rule of 14 if they are at the back of the deployment zone. Who knew?).

    Anticipation

    The most important thing to consider is probably anticipating your opponent. It helps to know more or less what every dial looks like, but when in planning, work our what your opponent is likely to do, it means you can plan to intercept or block (depending on your strategy). One of my first “aha!” moments in Xwing was when I stopped trying to plan to position my ships in a nice place for me and tried to place then in a bad place for my opponent. One of Xwings’ best features is the poker-like mechanics of hiding your dials, so it really helps to focus on what your opponent is likely to do. The only downside to this is that they are probably doing the same to you! Sometimes you have to double bluff to throw them off the scent (although if you only play the same people, they can get wise to this over time).

    Also, remember Time on Target – you probably won’t ever destroy enemy ships if you don’t shoot them, so being able to maximise the turns you can shoot at them is really key. Things such as turrets are really useful for this.

    Learn your list

    What does your list actually do? Aces? Big Bases? Bombs? Swarms? Each of these has a valid place in the game, but each is treated differently. When you are building an Aces list, for example, you will likely have less ships but higher initiative. You need to keep them alive and avoid exposing them to too much firepower, for example. Swarms just want to fly in a straight line in a block and roll as many red dice as they can! There’s never a “perfect” list, but I will say that for most events, having options is key – it really helps to have some ships that do more than 1 thing (e.g. one or two aces with a mini swarm, or a big ship with a load of bombers, etc). With the current state of the game focused on objectives, passive mods and repositioning is massive to allow you to keep up pace with your opponent.

    The Ion Price

    Things that stop the opponent doing what they need to are really useful, so Ion as a mechanic is a huge tool to have. I was recently having a discussion around what the most powerful bomb in the game is and the Ion Bomb scored surprisingly high as it allows you to stop an opponent from doing any action other than focus AND stops them from moving more than a 1 template the next turn, making them very predictable. It’s also pretty cheap. Having a way of ionizing ships is a pretty decent way to turn things to your advantage.

    Learn to deal with Pressure

    This probably really only applies to tournament play, but sometimes, pressure can get the better of you. I was recently at an event for work and saw a presentation from Sir Clive Woodward, which really resonates on this topic. If you’re not familiar, Sir Clive was the manager for the England Rugy squad the last time they won the Rugby World Cup (in 2003). He was also the program manager for the UK Olympic team in 2012 (when we last hosted the Olympics). Beyond that, he was a very well respected rugby player in his own right, playing for the national team on many occasions.

    He had some great ideas on how to deliver at any event, including his TCUP premise – Thinking Correctly Under Pressure. The theory with this is that stress can cause a huge dip in performance so you need to train your brain to avoid distractions and focus on the task in hand – almost like muscle memory. Part of how you would do this is plan for every possible outcome and learn how to accommodate it, because having a prepared play for every situation gives you the right tools for any challenge.

    So how do we apply this to Xwing, as opposed to international sports? Well, in a similar way:

    • Get your reps in. If you know your list, you know what you can do in various situations. You will have better answers for any given situation. If nothing else, it will help you judge distances better, which is very helpful for, say, avoiding praking on a rock! How many times, when you are playing a new list, do you find yourself being surprised at where your dialled maneuver takes you? That’s why you need to practice.
    • Break your game into strategic chunks – pre engagement, engagement, and endgame. You know for 1-2 turns, you are going to be getting into an engagement position with the opponent. Then there will be shooting. Then either you’ll have to turn around and do it all over again, or you have to run off to reload. When time is low, or if there aren’t many ships left (!), that’s your endgame. When you are looking at your list, consider what you are trying to achieve – does it help you to slow roll in so engagement is on turn 3 rather than 2? Or do you want to get straight to it and start shooting turn 1? What are your ships primed for? Stick to “Plan A” and you won’t have so much to think about, allowing you to make the right decisions.
    • Trust your gut. After a while, you will notice that your first instinct is quite often correct! Before placing dials, it’s quite common to change your dials a few times… but do you need to? I have found over the years that changing your dial is a response to stress and actually the first dialled move would have been better (especially for things like tight turns in front of rocks…). Obviously, if you forgot something and have new information, that’s fine to change, but you’ll be surprised how often your instinct is right!
    • Don’t Panic! Ships will explode. That’s the game. Dice can be bad sometimes. That’s also the game. If you let these things bother you, you will lose sight of your win condition. I’ve had a real journey to really understand this (a very long journey indeed!) but only look to control the things you can control and try not to worry about things you can’t, as this gives you a higher chance of missing things in the gamestate (e.g. triggers).
    • Be nice! Always try to be a good player to your opponent, because if you’re generating bad vibes, your opponent may generate bad vibes too, meaning you both have a crappy time and get even more stressed (and then miss more triggers etc). Again, this is something I’ve had a bit of a personal journey on over the years, and it can take time to get this right.

    By preparing for as many eventualities as you can, ensure a better outcome even if you are having a bad day on round 3!

    Finally…

    Remember your win condition. Don’t forget that you need to score more points than the opponent, so work out how you can do this every turn. Is it objectives you need to grab? Is it ships you need to kill? Or is it just not getting killed you need to focus on! If you’re just playing on vibes, you’re probably not planning for your endgame.

    Hope this is of some use! I’ll be putting some of this into practice next week at the Mandos Summer Slam in Newport Pagnell. Maybe I’ll see you there?

  • Expo Wars

    The end of May / Early June heralds a stalwart in the gaming calendar – the UK Games Expo at the NEC. It’s the 20th year of the event running, and probably the 11th or 12th year where there is an Xwing presence there. I always try to attend just for the Xwing and usually do OK (top 8 in the last 2 years).

    The event was being set up by Tim King with the inimitable Nicki Burnett in support, and as a special treat, Kris Mitchell was brought off the bench to help with judging duties! Better still, 56 brave pilots showed up to test their mettle in Hall 1 of the NEC – a very decent turnout.

    The field was very interesting too – there was a decent number of junior pilots, largely down to the work of Markus Wilson, bringing his “Stag Squadron” to probably their biggest event. If you don’t know, Markus runs a school club for young pilots (aged between 10 and 13), and the best of them were brought along to play against the grown ups! I love that Markus does this to bring through a whole new generation, and that most of the time he’s playing off his own ships (so the kids can really only play whatever ships are free on games night!). I am reliably informed, though, that Markus will gladly take donations of anything Xwing related to support the club – contact mgw@sprattonhall.com if you have anything worth donating!

    Generally, the standard of players was very strong – many veterans and experts in the game were in attendance to compete. Although there was no prestigious title or trophy on the line, the caliber of players meant it would not be an easy day out, especially since this was a 5 round event! With most players used to 4 rounds, that extra round is a bit tricky!

    I was flying the same old list I have been fielding for a while now – basically, Fenn and Han with Kanan and some Ties in support. It’s been testing well (especially on TTS) but does rely very heavily on positioning and lucky dice. I was hoping to do very well!

    So with Kris calling out “Xwing Playerrrrs…” we were off!

    Round 1 vs Markus Wilson – Chance Engagement

    Oh look – it’s Stag Leader himself! Markus was flying a pretty standard Resistance Xwing list and by his own admission was a bit rusty, having not had the time to play in a while! That said, Markus and I have played many times over the years and I would consider us both, on a good day, to be a strong match.

    I hoofed my TIE fighters into blocking positions and kited Han through the middle with Fenn rushing the left flank to get behind the pack. Markus tried to fill out of the right of the board. Unfortunately for Markus, my Tie managed to block his pack limiting his shots and Kanan was able to reduce the damage into my Tie, allowing him to live. Unfortunately for Markus, a turn later, one of his XWings was taken off the board by an insanely lucky obstructed shot on a stressed Xwing by Han (4 hits and a Crit, with no evades rolled and a herioc roll into… no evades. Crit was Direct Hit!). The next turn, another was taken off. And the next turn… another. Lucky dice for me, and at the cost of a Tie, Kanan and half points on Han.

    Result: 50-24 Win

    Lucky dice coasted me through round 1! Hopefully a sign of things to come.

    Round 2 vs Matthew Carter – Salvage Mission

    Matthew is a fairly new player, but has been forged in the fires of Steel City! His list was completely… perplexing! An imperial list with the highest initiative being 4?!?!? This does not compute!

    It’s a LONG TIME since anyone flew Gunboats at me, let along 2, and it’s probably the first time I’ve ever seen SL Karsabi flown, so I was initially confused. This plus the turn 1 target lock via Jendon really intimidated me! As such I flew pretty defensively to start with and tried to get behind the shuttle. However, a combination of poor planning and being somewhat stunned that Karsabi could drop his disarm token when he engages meant that Han ended up being the brunt of the first few rounds. That and some pretty unlucky Fenn dice in the early game (on most range 1 attacks he got 1 or 2 actual hits) left me without Han, without a Tie and quite far behind! However, I pulled back a bit by taking out Deathrain, halving Jendon and Karsabi to bring us nearly level. In the last turn, I had a choice of taking on a halved Karsabi or taking a swing at Vynder who was 1 point from half. I elected to go for Vynder, failing to realise that he’s only worth 11 points! I did half him, but that got me 5 points, wereas if I had gone for Karsabi, it would have been 7 points, tying the game. As it was, time was called and I was slightly behind…

    Result: 42-44 Loss!

    Matthew, despite being failry new, is a great player and (spoiler warning) came 3rd overall! Looks like I wasn’t the only one caught out by his list. This game also got me thinking about gunboats generally… they are pretty much ignored at the moment due to having a “fussy” dial and being reasonably expensive compared to other ships Empire has. However, with the recent cards, there’s a lot of goodness in them, especially with the new, cheap cannon (Precision-Tuned Cannons), Seeker Missiles, and Automatic Loaders being a thing now. I’m surprised we’re not seeing more of them!

    Round 3 vs Joaquin Gonzalez – Scramble the transmissions

    Fresh after lunch, I’m paired against a familiar face, and fellow Mando, J! Despite us playing most weeks at the same club, I’ve not played J in a while. However, he knows exactly what my list is and seemed to have brough the worst list to fly against! Most of the damage from my list comes with Fenn being at range one, and most of his ships have Deadmans Switch… coupled to the fact all his ships are high agility and have 3 dice attacks, it’s not great news.

    Issues start in turn 2, where I mis-dialled where Kanan was going, so had to commit to a line of attack I wasn’t initially planning on. Then Han ended up in the wrong position. By turn 3, my ships had started taking serious fire and were in a really bad spot, hemmed in a nasty killbox. By the end of turn 4, I had lost 2 ships, was badly positioned and had lost half points on Fenn from a R0 attack!!! My dice luck had abandoned me (I blanked out on 5 consecutive green dice rolls, and had barely scratched any of J’s ships because my reds were also… lacking). At this stage, with little option, I called it and conceded. I very, very rarely do this, but J and I know each other well enough and there was no point in continuing. Sad times!

    Result: 04-50 Loss.

    So my hopes of a big finish, or even submarining were shot. This did take the pressure off, though, and meant I could enjoy the rest of my games. And what better way to do this than with the Bad Boy of Xwing himself…

    Round 4 vs Steve Theobold – Ancient Knowledge

    Steve and I have played many times over the last few years and he never fails to disappoint with his creative lists. This time was no exception – a list that delivers passive damage via bombs and Torani’s rather brutal ability! Couple that with Snap Shot and Jostero and this was a really nasty list to fly against!

    Probably the most intense game of the day (my fitness tracker watch warned me my pulse rate was up a few times over the course of 75+ mins!) we swung back and forth doing each other damage. Han started taking an early beating, but Nym also took a pounding. Han eventually fell, and Fenn was one away from Half Points, but Sol and Torani both took a pounding. Somehow, the proximity bombs were dropped and DIDN’T HIT ANYONE, but Fenn was left dancing through the minefield… it was a brutal game.

    So brutal, in fact, that we didn’t hear time called and we probably played a few rounds longer than we should have! There was only 1 point in it at the end, but it was impossible to tell who was in the lead with time was called, so we had to go with where we stood.

    Result: 40-39 Win!

    A really great game, but I feel we need a proper rematch to keep us honest!

    Round 5 vs Peter Mancktelow – Assault the Satellite Array

    Peter and I have played before in the February Bromley event (Peter runs the show down there) and he sumarily decimated me with scummy bomb and Ketsu antics. Whilst it was great to see him again, his list, once again, filled me with confusion! There’s… an exploding shuttle! Just ready to explode! And Brobots! and Eamonn!!! Lots of exploding things and 3 dice guns did not fill me with hope.

    I set up with Han in the middle this time, with his brobots on the right and Eamonn on the left. His fabulous exploding shuttle in the middle. Fenn was on the left with the Ties and Kanan slightly right of centre. Turn 2 I made a huge mistake and parked Han on a rock (where he took the damage), exposed to Eamonn and at least 1 brobot (kanan having blocked one of them from coming to the centre). He took a bit of a beating! Fenn meanwhile was having to be very careful about where he positioned himself as Eamonn kept slinging bombs all over the place! Whilst Fenn didn’t take any heat, the Ties ended up in tatters, especially with the Exploding Shuttle… exploded! Quite annoying.

    I pulled it back by eventually taking out Eamonn, but the bobrots were virtually unkillable. Kanan rolled in 2-3 red dice over the course of 5 turns and only took 1 shield off Bot B. Han, on the other hand, was in a bad way having taken a grand tour of the board and was on only a couple of hull. Fenn was also out of position. In the final turn of the game, if I could do 1 damage to a brobot, I would halve him, but I would need not to take any damage back on Han (who would be dead!). However, Han was parked at R1 of a bot and his attack did… nothing. Plus Fenn had no shot… The bots did bot things, and Han was taken off, giving peter the win with another 7 points. His was a very curious list and just goes to show, brobots are still cool, baby!

    Result: 45-54 loss!

    At the end, then, I didn’t perform as well as I was maybe expecting to. A big shame, but still a great day out, and got to chat to lots of awesome Xwing players. Lots to consider as well!

    • Triple check all your dials before you commit!
    • Bombs… they are still a thing!
    • Beware Gunboats!!! They do Gunboat things!!!

    Next event I’m attending in person is likely to be the (very nearly sold out) Welsh Open Event – nearly 40 players, so exciting to see!

    Between now and then, I’ll probably be looking at list theorycrafting to mull over the obvious question – “how many Burst Laser Turrets is too many Burst Laser Turrets…?”.

  • What happens in Bromley…

    So now the excitement of new points and a new expansion has settled down a bit, I can finally tell you what happened in Bromley at the start of the month! Yes, it’s 3 weeks ago now, but it was the first event I went to after the PAPA Points change (for most of those there, it was probably the first as well, given the points update happened less than a week before).

    TNX hold regular events in the Troll Trader store about once a quarter, which is one of the home bases for the 186 Squadron, so the standard of play there is automatically quite high – lots of players there are in the “Competitive” bracket. In total, 19 players attended (which is a pretty good turnout) and, as ever, there was a wide variety of lists present.

    Given we all have busy lives, I took something I was pretty comfortable with, and basically a re-hash of the list that lead to me winning in Norwich back in January:

    Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (17)
    Fearless (0)
    Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
    Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)

    Ship Cost: 17 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 2

    The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (10)
    Outmaneuver (0)
    The Child (AaD) (0)
    Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
    Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)

    Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2

    Kanan Jarrus – HWK-290 Light Freighter (9)
    IG-11 (4)
    Engine Upgrade (3)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    Han Solo – Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter (14)
    Trick Shot (5)
    Maul (Mandalore) (10)
    BT-1 (1)
    Lando’s Millennium Falcon (0)

    Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZbZ50Z719X121W608W445Y713X126W594W595W200Y457XW457WWW107Y89X133WW440WW79WWWW152W&sn=Points%20update%3F%20What%20points%20update%3F&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,core2asteroid4

    The only real difference here is that AAD Dengar is now Han Solo, but that’s cool – both are chunky guys at I6, so it’s not a big difference… although the “base damage” of Dengar is a little more consistent than Han’s gamey 2 dice, or 3 if they are stressed, or up to 5 if they are obstructed. However, there’s also a slight change on Kanan – IG11 vs Gamut Key. This was added to give some protection from crits in Salvage… which I then found out in Game 1 doesn’t work (you still suffer the crit, but then get rid of it much like with Impervious Plating on Belballub fighters, or Beskar Reinforced Plating on Fang fighters). But that said, considering Kanan is quite flimsy, it could end up being like an extra 2 hull!

    Round 1 vs Chris Warren: Salvage Mission

    I’d never plaid vs Chris before, and he had an imposing CIS list. Jango was separated from most of his ships so he could leverage Lone Wolf, but ended up being forced into the mix by Han and Fenn rushing in hard. Most of the vultures got hoovered up and the Tri Fighter was left chasing Kanan around my half of the board without much success. Ultimately, I seem to remember that dice were the enemy in this game, where most of Chris’s clutch attacks rolled more blanks than would have been ideal. He was a great sport, though and a lovely guy to play.

    Result: 49 – 15 WIN

    Round 2 vs Sam Webb: Assault at the Satellite Array

    Sam is from the “Bad Boys of Xwing” that are the Tie Blue Army. We’ve played quite a bit over the years – most recently at our very own Mandos Spring Event in April (which you can see here – a game so tense, we didn’t even know who won until after time ended!). He’s also a top notch painter, so feel free to check out his stuff on Etsy if you want.

    Anyway, back to the game. Sam was flying a Resistance efficiency list with 3 Y wings, Chewie and Lulo. Things started quite well for me, with one of his Y-wings (Teza?) picking up some early damage from Fenn and Han in round 2. On round 3, Fenn was able to thread between 2 Y-wings to be in R1, in arc and unstressed. Good for his shot (which finished off the already damaged Y-Wing) but then bad news when Lulo managed to squeak in a hit+crit out of Fenn’s arc at R3 obstructed and for Fenn to blank out, picking up a Weapons Failure. But on the flip, Chewie AND Han both managed to spend turn 3 stuck on a rock. After that R3 engage, Fenn was halved, with a weapons failure, and a need to get out of arc!

    The next could of turns, Han and Chewie both managed to get off their rocks and back in the fight and Mando starting doing something. I’m pretty sure Han was destroyed and possibly Kanan too. I’m also pretty sure at least another Y wing was killed off and Chewie started taking damage to half points. But the deciding point came when Fenn, with now 1 hull left, was able to Talon Roll into R1 behind Lulo (with no mods and stressed from doing a barrel roll and boost to get into a better position) to do “Fenn Things” to blow her up. We talked about the move after and Sam didn’t expect the Adaptable Power System sneak attack… which is fair, since it’s the most powerful and forgotten trick in SL’s book.

    Result: 52-43 WIN

    Round 3 vs Elisha Lee: Scramble the Transmissions

    Elisha is a junior player, but has been coached by his dad, the awesome Ben Lee and, up to this point in the day, was at 2-0, so clearly more than capable! His list was very interesting – the first evidence of Seeker Missile Abuse I had seen to this point. However, my list was fine once it got to Range 1 and his list still had Vader!

    Unfortunately, Elisha slightly messed up the approach and forget to engage Jendon’s ability, meaning none of his ships had a lock for an initial engagement. Vader took a very early bath and in a pretty brutal turn, Fenn also went to half points. Elisha came back very well, but not well enough to cover the deficit of losing Vader early.

    Result: 51-35 WIN

    Round 4 vs Ben Lee: Chance Engagement.

    After facing Elisha in Round 3, it turns out my Final Boss was… his dad! I entered the final round with one thing on my mind… This is going to be interesting. Ben’s list is, at heart, the same as mine, but with Dengar rather than Han and Gamut Key in the HWK vs Kanan in mine. He’s been flying Fenn and Dengar since at least January (we faced off in Norwich). So really, we’re creatures of habit!

    Ben was able to get the best of Round 0, as the rock distribution made it very tough to get Han to deliver much value and I COMPLETELY FORGOT Jumpmasters really want to turn left, so the rocks (that were well set to support a left turn from his side of the board) were very much in his favour. Oh well.

    Things progressed well, with my Han and Fenn making early headway into his Fenn – taking him off the board on turn 4. However, my Fenn also started to take a little bit of a pounding to half points. Meanwhile, his Dengar, Gamut and Mando seemed to be immune to damage! Shots just didn’t land and Han ended up out of position, continually blocked by Gamut. Shot were traded, but ultimately the game was decided by my Mando popping on the last turn giving Ben a 1 point lead as time was called.

    That’s right, 1 point in it!!!

    Result: 32-33 LOSS

    So, 2 very similar lists, and only 1 point in it… it feels like Fenn is still very competitive, despite being very expensive and Scum generally are in an extremely strong position.

    Well done to Ben for a great win and thanks to Peter Mancktelow for hosting! There are more TNX events in Bromley coming soon if you want to come along, including their first Regional in December – not to be missed!

    More next time – probably with an update from the UKGE big event next weekend (50+ people likely to show!!!).

  • P.A.P.A. Spray

    Last time we looked at the Legends and Relics pack, this week were looking at the Post Adepticon Points Adjustment (PAPA). Points updates are always like Xwing Christmas, and this update feels like a long time coming! Arriving 4 weeks after Adepticon, and only 5 months the last “points patch” (50p 1.1), expectations are high that this one would deliver some balance… specifically to Scum, who have been riding high as “XWing Easy Mode” for most of the latter part of the year.

    Lots has been said elsewhere on what the latest adjustment has to offer, so here’s a (quick) breakdown of things that have caught my eye, by faction!

    Scum

    It makes sense to look at Scum first, as they have been the faction that has been most popular, and at a glance, it looks like… well, they’re still pretty solid!

    Highlights:

    • Fenn Rau (BYO and SL) – up 2 points. The worst kept secret and the least surprising update. Fenn is overpowered and overused, so this update means that Scum pilots really have to commit to keep him on the team. BYO Fenn does benefit from 5 extra loadout, giving him the benefit of basically all the Scum goodies (Beskar Armour, Mandolorian Optics, Clan Tactics, Fearless), so you could almost say BYO Fenn is as good as SL Fenn for 1 point more… but that extra hull point and stress busting Adaptable Power Systems (soooo good!) is well worth the extra point, even at 17!
    • Lancers all get a points drop (Asajj, Ketsu and Sabine all down 1 squad point) with a fairly trivial points reduction. “Peak Ketsu” (Fearless, Mando optics, Qi’ra, Contraband Cybernetics, title) is still on the table (although other options are available!), and it’s now possible to fly 3 lancers and a Tie Fighter or Z95, if that’s your jam.
    • Firesprays get some buffs. Some of the pilots (not Boba) are a bit cheaper, get some more loadout, and get the title slot back (Koshka Frost, Krassis Trelix, Hondo Ohnaka, Emon Azzameen). More shockingly, BYO Boba is… untouched. He keeps his crew slot and his loadout. Considering he’s been everywhere, this is… surprising! However, he can be defeated and he is a dumpster full of points.
    • The Mandalorian (N1 Naboo Fighter) GOES DOWN in points to 10. Yes, it’s a 1 point drop, but this is insane. He was great value at 11, but at 10… he should see a LOT of play now.
    • Jabba The Hutt Crew goes up to 14. This makes sense as he has been exploiting a loopholes in Overtuned Modulators for a while now. Curiously, though The Child (who has also been everywhere) stays at 9 points.
    • BYO Bossk goes up a point, but gains 3 loadout. Possibly because of the Jabba price hike above… it means he’s just about the only ship that can make use of Jabba now.
    • Brobots are back? All 4 IG-88s are down a point, making 3 and a TIE Fighter viable again. Brobots have not been massively competitive lately and the fact that Synced Laser Cannons have gone up recently makes they slightly less compelling.
    • Khiraxz have more loadout. As do some Starvipers. But, neither got a new configuration… which is a bit of a shame. Khiraxz in particular are still missing something to make them compelling… although they can all carry Seeker Missiles now…
    • Palob Godalhi drops in price! He’s now the same price as Dace Bonearm (with both able to take the Moldy Crow title) but has a far better ability. 11 points is pretty good for either of them.

    In essence, Scum took a bit of a beating, but all the good stuff is still very good and very competitive. The fact that Mando and some Firesprays actually went down in price is very good news for Scum flyers and I have a great 5 ship Scum list with 5x 10 point solid Scum ships that’s been testing very well. Scum are still in a very good place.

    Rebels

    The perennial goodies already have lots to cheer about, with some great new additions in the Legends and Relics pack (I mentioned Ahsoka last time and I didn’t even mention the Modified R4-P Unit or R7-T1 astromechs, which look great!) including a “new” I6 Ghost (alright, it’s just Hera again, but I6 is good!). The points, though, are really interesting:

    • All ARCs get a Crew slot back. This is great news for Arc lovers, as Rebels have a lot of very good Crew options and Arcs are missing something to put them apart from Xwings or B wings. This definitely helps some of the Arcs that rarely see play – e.g. Ibtisam could field K2SO now to allow him to flip around and not take stress.
    • Most Millennium Falcons go down a smidge – Han, Lando, and Chewie all go down a point. There are a few loadout reductions, but nothing major.
    • Dash and Leebo are cheaper! And get a Gunner Slot at last! The YT-2400s have seen precious little play at all since release, mainly due to the sheer cost of them and without a Gunner slot, they are lacking a lot of utility. SL Leebo is now 15 points which is pretty competitive, and SL Dash is 16… but the BYO versions are a little more. The old V2 build of Dash, Trick Shot and Bistan is a distant memory, but this new development means that Dash and Leebo might see some play at last. However…
    • Bistan is now firmly in Points Jail. I guess by making falcons and Dash cheaper, the tradeoff is that the thing that made them the most dangerous (an extra attack each turn) is now basically out of reach at 50 (!) loadout points (a 34 point increase).
    • X-wings are cheaper than ever! Luke and Wedge are down in price (BoY Wedge down 2!!!). Corran Horn in the X-wing does go up slightly to 13, but the generic I2 Xwings are now ONLY 9 POINTS!!! That’s crazy good… although you can’t unlock a 6 ship list with Xwings, since the cheapest ship Rebels can field is 6 points. The Red Squadron Experts are only 10 with 10 loadout, allowing you to fly 5 X-wings with extra shields if you want.

    In all, Rebels should be in a very strong position now. They have been somewhat maligned lately due to the fact that other factions have better value options, but Rebels now really have great value everywhere.

    Empire

    Empire are one of the most popular and competitive factions, so it’s not a huge surprise that there’s only a few notable changes in their points. However, they are big changes for Ace fans… and not in a good way!

    • BYO Darth Vader UP to 16 points… but with more loadout. The cheapest Dark Lord of the Sith is not so cheap, being in a similar spot to Fenn Rau – only 1 point off the top version, but with enough loadout to now get his best toys (Afterburners and Fire Control System).
    • Soontir Fel UP to 13 points (BYO) and 15 (BoE SL). Budget Soontir has had a very busy time in the last year, going up and down and up again in value. He now has a decent chonk of loadout (up 2 to 10)… but TBH, he really only NEEDS Predator to make the most of his bullseye. I’ve been running him with Predator, Elusive and Targeting Computer, and other than that one turn when he inevitably blanks out, he’s very solid! Adding a few extra loadout does give Outmaneuver and Targeting Computer as an option, but that feels very flimsy! And Unkillable BoE Soontir is probably a little overcosted at 15, but he’s very popular and tends to last well on the table… until he inevitably blanks out…
    • Defenders are DOWN!!! I’m more excited about this than anything in Empire! You can now easily fly 3 Defenders, or 3 Defenders and a Tie Fighter! Notable heroes are Vult Skerris for only 15 points (very good value, even with a paltry 6 loadout) and Captain Dobbs, also at 15 points (with a Juke-affording 7 loadout). These are pretty much insta-buys for an Imperial list and are so much fun to fly. Vult is an I5 as well, so a bona fide Ace in a Defender chassis is not to be sneezed at. 6 loadout can get you Predator and Lone Wolf, if you want, or can get you Pattern Analyzer and Interloper Turn… hear me our here – it will make it near impossible to predict where he’s going to be, and allowing him to do 1 hard turns or 2 K turns and still get an action is very interesting! You can run Dobbs, Skerris, and Colonel Jendon for a truly scary list, and I can confirm, a lot of fun! Also of note, Colonel Vessery and Captain Yorr are also down to a very reasonable 16 points – both very good pieces to have in your squad.
    • Some other fun-but-not-seen-much-because there’s-cheaper-out-there heroes get a price buff: Major Vermeil in the TIE Reaper, Second Sister in the TIE Interceptor, Redline in the TIE Punisher, Captain Jonus (TIE Bomber SL), Captain Oicunn in the Decimator and Rampage in the TIE Heavy all go down a point, for… reasons? The price drop is welcome, but most come with a loadout drop. Will be interesting to see if we’ll see more of Redline and Vermeil in particular, as they are both pretty decent but have been in “points jail” for a while now.
    • Some underused chassis get a loadout buff: Gunboats get a few extra points, as do TIE Strikers and most of the (non-Vader) TIE Advanced X1s. Great to see, but I suspect it will need to take a bit more to get Strikers back on the table (as they don’t have many slots to use the points on!). I think Gunboats are ripe for the using, especially with Seeker Missiles and Automatic Loaders being a thing. In fact, even the humble Rho Squadron Pilot can now take Proton Torpedoes and Automatic Loaders for 3x Protorps in rapid succession (assuming they survive the first pass!
    • For some reason Dark Curse (TIE L/N Fighter) goes up 1 point to 10 (must have been caught fiddling his taxes).
    • To approximately no-one’s surprise (since the list has been doing so well at major events) Imperial Super Commando Gauntlets and Obsidian Squadron pilots get a loadout trim (no Precision Ion Engines for you!). This is coupled to Grand Moff Tarkin going up a couple of points (one of the key ingredients in the STO winning list). To be honest, if you’re into flying the 7 TIE ship swarm plus Gauntlet list, it’s not too bad. You can still field the same number of ships and still have most of their tricks. The downside is that the TIE fighters are more predictable when they turn, but that’s not the worst outcome. Pretty fair tweaking, all in all.
    • Honorable mentions also go to TIE Phantoms, who are unchanged in pricing, but all (like TIE Defenders) get a Tech slot. I’m not sure exactly how useful this will be, but giving them Pattern Analyzer could take some of the sting of the turn whey they have to turn around.

    So Empire are in a funny spot – their favorites take a hit, but there are lots of options to field vast swarms of cheap ships to great effect. I think, like Scum with Fenn, you’ll still see a lot of Vader and Soontir, but there may be some surprises – Inquisitors in the TIE Advanced V1s seem primed to exploit Seeker Missiles in particular (especially with Instinctive Aim as an option), as do Gunboats. Aggressors could do a lot with Burst Laser Turrets. Strikers are… ready to strike. There are… Options!!!

    Resistance

    Resistance seems to be relatively unchanged with only a few minor tweaks:

    • Starfortresses gain a smidge of loadout extra, EoD Vinnie goes up a point and Finch Dallow goes down 2 points. Considering only Vinnie has been seen on the boards lately, this seems a little unfair, but the Bombers have all got a LOT of loadout now – Paige Tico with 24 (!) loadout at only 16 points and Vinnie with 28 (!!!!!!) loadout at 17 seem a bit of a steal now.
    • Some key favourites get a price bump for… reasons. Zorii Bliss in the regular flavoured Y-wing and Kaz in the Fireball both go up one (although both get more loadout… which isn’t a bad thing). A little mystified about this – Kaz was good value at 10, but wasn’t game breaking and if people took Zorii, they usually took the Wartime version. However, with Burst Turrets in the world, I can understand the need to scale back high initiative Y-wings, because they could be very efficient.
    • If anything, Resistance A Wings are probably the winners here. Some popular pilots get a slight buff, most notably L’ulo L’ampar (the budget Xwing!) who is now a trivial 9 points! Whilst loadout is down to 5, that’s still plenty enough for Heroic and Predator or Lone Wolf. Seftin and Zizi are also 9 and 10 points respectively, so it’s definitely the case you can build a list of high initiative A Wings again.
    • A few T-70s are back to affordable now – Ello Atsy (who was overcosted at 14) comes back to 13, as does Stomeroni Starck. Even the top level Flyboy Poe Dameron comes down to a “mere” 17 (with 20 loadout). Black Squadron Aces come down to 12 points, but that’s not great. Also, Kaz gets a new ability and a new T-70 to fly around in…
    • Looks like a nice ship and with a decent chunk of loadout (13), will do well, even at a slightly steep 12 points. Overall, T70s still look like the meat and bones of Resistance.
    • Finally, a few other ships have a slight points drop – Chewie and Lando in the Falcon go down a point… but all Falcons lose their second gunner slot (so no more Paige Tico / Veteran Turret Gunner nonsense). More importantly Cova Nell also goes down to 11 – arguably the best Resistance Transport (or “sofa” to their chums) who has up until now been pretty much in points jail. Cova can carry Leia around and effectively be a proxy Xwing when doing red moves (which fly as white if you spend Leia’s force).

    In all, 11 points seems to be the sweet spot for the most popular Resistance ships. Above that, you’re looking at a deluxe ship, but below that, there are lots of A wings to slap into a list! It feels like Resistance are pretty solid

    First Order

    In contrast to Resistance, FO get a lot of cool price cuts to their most popular pilots!

    • VonReg and Holo in the Interceptor both drop a point, making them much more competitive. Both have to eat a 3 point loadout drop, though, which isn’t great, but both still have loadout points in double digits giving plenty of options. I imagine Mag Pulse Missiles and Deuterium Power Cells on VonReg in particular could be popular.
    • A few Tie SFs are back in the mix – Backdraft, BYO LeHeuse and EoD Theta 3 are all down a point (11, 12, and 10 points respectively). LeHuse is still a little pricey at 12 points, but has 20 loadout to chew through, making him a decent bet now.
    • In the Silencers, MurderKylo is down from 18 to 17. This is big news indeed – expect to see a lot of him! Recoil is also down a point to 13, but sneaking in under the radar, First Order Test Pilots get a loadout bump (up 2 to 7). This is REALLY interesting as I still think these are being somewhat slept on as some of the best value ships in the game. This allows Fanatic and Advanced Optics… which could be a great combo (especially if there’s 3-4 of you). Or, Predator and Targeting Relay… good options! The fact that all Silencers get AT LEAST +2 loadout this round (including BYO Kylo) is a really interesting thing.
    • In the TIE Whispers, Kylo goes down to 14 – expect to see a lot of him! He does only have 12 loadout now, though (down 3) but Kylo is Kylo – always good value. Wrath also drops a point to 12 with 14 loadout, so maybe he’ll see some more play, but most TIE Whispers other than Kylo are tough things to fly.
    • Batwings are… better? Nearly all named Upsilons are down 1 point, making them… not massively overcosted. It’s not quite enough in my mind, since the cheapest is still 15 points (which is a lot for an I1 dumptruck) but the sheer terror of seeing 3 of these on a table is still something of a cautionary tale of the past. I can understand why they aren’t being made too cheap!
    • TIE FO Fighters are untouched, other than the addition of Tamara Ryvora.
    • Basically, an FO ship with the Resistance Astromech M9-G8’s ability baked in. Very solid, reasonably priced at 9 points and with a decent amount of loadout, this looks pretty decent.
    • Curiously, FO Bombers are completely untouched. You might expect that after winning Worlds, they would be clipped somewhat… but as the Points team said in the launch QA, just because one person is good at a list, doesn’t mean everyone else should be punished. TIE FO Bombers are still very much a skill ship to get right.

    FO will probably do quite well this season!

    Republic

    Despite Republic being one of the more popular factions, there’s a lot of buffs going on here. Most chassis have a few ships with points reduced or loadout increased and some chassis are absolutely bargain basement!

    • Clone Z95s are all getting more loadout. This is great news as they are generally lacking something, but they are still flimsy ships and 7 or 8 points feels like a lot for a ship that might not survive to shoot! They can just about all (except Killer and Slider) take Seeker missiles, though, which sounds pretty terrifying if you’re facing 5 or 6 of them!
    • Naboo N1 fighters also get a pleasing loadout bump – most pilots getting 2 extra, except the Naboo Handmaidens and Bravo Flight officers, who just get discounted a point instead. They also all get a Tech slot. These guys are looking to be pretty amazing value now – Anakin in the N1 is only 9!!! That’s hot! I guess the only 2 issues are that the don’t have much in the way of attack (with only 2 red dice) and the ships themselves are pretty hard to find (being amongst the rarest of ships in real life).
    • ETAs see a few core pilots discounted (BYO Obi Wan and Shaak Ti) to 11 and most other pilots getting 3 extra loadout. There’s also a new pilot joining the fray:
    • Nice ability, decent cost (11), shame about the I4. But Quinlan can use Dark Side force powers, so Malice is on the table! Could be good!
    • Quite a few Aethersprite 7Bs get discounted, with Barriss Offee going as low as 11 points! Adi Galia looks pretty solid at 13 points (due to her high initiative, nice ability and she didn’t suffer a loadout decrease) but Ahsoka and Luminara going to 12 points is also pretty compelling… it will be interesting to see if they see play now.
    • Other than that, a few pilots across the faction saw a points drop – Anakin in the Y-Wing is a very affordable 12 points, slightly more at 13 in the Aethersprite. Contrail is 8 in BYO and 9 in SoC, and Wilhuff Tarkin is only 7 in the V-Wing. Finally SoC Oddball is down to 12 in the Arc – the only Arc impacted in this update at all.
    • Last thing to mention is Urse Wren, ANOTHER new Republic pilot. She has a really interesting ability:
    • With Mandalorian Optics and Synchronized Console, she could potentially get 3 Reinforce Tokens running at the same time in a turn! It’s a bit of a stunt (Mando Optics only has 2 charges) but sounds really interesting and means she could be crazy tanky AND she’s only 15 points. Really curious to see her in action.

    Overall, Republic probably got the most buffs of any faction and I’ll be very surprised if they don’t start showing up in force!

    CIS

    The Seperatists, compared to the Republic have barely been touched. This probably reflects their status as a high efficiency faction that are not used so much, but generally win by those that know how. However, the few changes that have been made open doors…

    A couple of the named SoC SL Tri Fighters have had cost reductions (DIS-347 and DIS-T81 to 9 and 10 points respectively). DIS-T81 is pretty good value at 10, as he rerolls for days and has Outmaneuver… but of course, like all Tri fighters, only has 3 hull so might not stay around too long. Volan Dras and BYO DIS-T81 also get a couple of extra loadout… nothing amazing so far.

    Jango Fett and Sam Wessel in the Firesprays are a point cheaper. This is big, as it allows 2 ace Firesprays and… something else (General Grievous? Sun Fac?) in a list. Apparently, this is quite strong!

    HMP Gunships (“Roombas!”) are all down slightly – they’re all now 9 or 10 points each, which allows for 5 in a list with ease. They have less loadout now, but enough to carry Kraken (for example) or enough to make a nuisance of themselves. Genosian Prototypes have 13 loadout – more than enough to buy a cannon upgrade and maybe a bomb?

    Sith Infiltrators continue to race to the bottom – most getting another discount to make them attractive. O-66 is now only 12 points! That’s very good value for a big base ship AND can still take the Scimitar title! Count Dooku also goes down to 14 (BYO) or 15 (SoC SL) which, again, feels good value.

    Finally, for the Vulture Droids, the Iron Assembler drops a point and the entry level Trade Federation Drone gets exactly enough loadout to equip Energy Shell Charges… however they are now restricted to 4 in a list (so no evil murdery bot swarms any more. Phew!).

    CIS probably came out of this the least changed, but the loadout buff on the Vultures alone will make them very dangerous this season.

    Wow. That’s a lot! I initially wanted to just bash out a quick review, but to write the above has taken me several sittings. Clearly there’s a lot to talk about this season! My gut feels for this Post Points World are:

    • Scum are still going to be everywhere. Probably even more so as there have been some great discounted options this time around.
    • Republic did very well – almost too well! They were already pretty strong, but this should give a load more options for them – especially with ETAs and Aethersprites.
    • I really like Rebels as a faction and I would love for them to do better, but I strongly suspect that even with their new buffs, we won’t see Dash out to play much. I love the bargain Xwings that are available now though – BoY Wedge in particular is a steal!
    • I think Imperial generics with Targeting Matrix could be a real thing this season. We’ve already seen a Gauntlet and Swarm list perform really well in several big events, but maybe something like Aggressors or Gunboats will get a turn now?
    • It feels like Resistance might be the losers in this update. Some of their cheap mainstays got more expensive for no reason and only L’ulo L’ampar and Cova Nell fell out of points jail. I’m not convinced that T70 Kaz will see much play, either, since other, similar ships are at a lower price point.

    What about Mystic Dave?

    Well, let’s look at how my predictions faired…

    When will the points land?

    • Mystic Dave said: 31st March
    • Actual Date: 26th April

    Mystic-omiter: 0/10.

    Yeah, that’s a big swing and a miss!

    Thweek:

    • Mystic Dave said: his ability might be to do with changing his initiative.
    • Actual ability: Tractor token shennanigans.

    Mystic-omiter: 0/10

    Not really anything like the same.

    Carnor Jax:

    • Mystic Dave Said: his ability might be charge based and in his arc at range 1
    • Actual Ability: Force Charge based and in his arc at range 0-1

    Mystic-omiter: 8/10

    Pretty close! Just the Force to mention!

    Hotshots and Aces V3

    • Mystic Dave predicts: That’s the name of the expansion
    • Actual Expansion: Legends and Relics

    Mystic-omiter: 5/10

    Successfully predicted it’s not a movie-themed expansion. Wrong title, though, and no Resistance Racers.

    General thoughts:

    Mystic Dave predicts: Excessively good value pilots reigned in. Some mid-tier pilots buffed. All we are saying is give Batwings a chance…

    Actual expansion: Fenn Rau, Soontir Fel and Vader up in points. Check. Mid tier pilots (especially Republic!) buffed. Check. Batwings reduced in price. Check.

    Mystic-omiter: 8/10

    Although, to be fair, this is a pretty generic description of most points updates… except the Batwings!

    So, Mystic Dave won’t be rushing to do the lottery this week, but some fairly accurate predicting there.

    Next time: A well overdue report on the recent (ish) Bromley event I went to less than a week after the points were announced!

  • Newie Newness!

    The points are dead, long live the points! Last week’s XWA Post Adeptacon Points Adjustment has landed and the excitement is palpable! Not only do we have changes to the points of existing ships, but the Legends and Relics expansion is offering a load of new content, including (for the first time in a while) “build your own” ships for all factions and new upgrades. It’s XWing Christmas! So let’s work out who gets the orange and who gets the coal in their stocking…

    Scanning across the expansion, there’s a lot to take in: 8 new pilots and 25 new cards, including crew cards, secondary weapons, modifications, tech and system cards. There’s even a couple of new configs, which is a pretty rare treat. Let’s start by taking a look at the ones that are catching my eye:

    New Hotness

    Ahsoka Tano.

    Yes, it’s not like Rebels need another force crew, but this is new and amazing. For 10 points, it’s not just that she gives a force charge, but being able to be almost a permanent Collision Detector is very good. What’s even crazier is that she also gives a bonus target lock if you line it up right – giving a target lock to a ship at R1 in your front arc! Really solid and would especially suit Dash Rendar, since he can shoot even if you still end up on the rock! I think she’d also be really good on a HWK, since it’s better odds they would benefit from the target lock buff… and maybe add Marg Sabi Closure to seal the deal? The only downside is that only Roark Garnet has the loadout to load for this… but that’s not a bad thing. I think she might see some play in any given Rebel list… if we see many of them out there (more on this later).

    Fennec Shand

    A different ability to the slot seen on Standard Loadout Boba Fett, but still looks pretty decent. The ability to grab a target lock and strain a target is strong… but there are a few caveats! First, she needs to go on a high PS pilot… otherwise there is a strong chance the opposing ship could do a blue move away, binning the strain. Also, there are only 2 charges – sounds like you really need to make the 2 chances count! At 6 loadout points, this feels a little pricey, but could potentially go really well on a Friespray, Mando in the Razor Crest (especially with the barrel roll) or on Cad Bane in the Rogue / Xanadu Blood. Whilst Mando has the higher PS, Cad Bane has the best options, being able to boost as well. The big issue is that for 6 points, there are maybe better options in Scum out there – Gamut Key, for example, is seeing play (locally at least) and nearly gives a very strong effect for 1 point less. I think given the 2 charge limit, 5 points would make sense… but that’s for the next points adjustment!

    Targeting Matrix

    This is a card that sounds dangerous! Effectively it rewards failure… if you don’t land a shot and need to save your focus (or don’t have one), you can drop a Strain token on your opponent. The only issue being that to make the best of it, the next shot has to hit. It’s 4 points, but that’s not bad – lots of ships (especially generics) have 4 points of loadout. I think this will definitely make swarm lists (or at least lists with multiple generics) a little spicier, and will combo really nicely with certain upgrades in Scum (Notorious! Gar Saxon! R4-B11!)… in fact, if you can squeeze it onto Captain Nym with Veteran Turret Gunner, it sounds really strong! I think this will see a lot of play and it might well end up being on the restricted list soon…

    …and speaking of the restricted list…

    Seeker Missiles

    These look genuinely powerful. The ability to mod a 3 dice attack at ranges 2/3 OR have 4 bites of the cherry when currently the best is 3 (Concussion Missiles) is strong. The fact that they are NOT limited (yet!) is a mystery – I guess making them 10 loadout points is a barrier to entry, but just look at how many pilots or chassis can take them! They will go well everywhere, but most notably on imperial generics (and if you consider the Colonel Jendon in the Lamba is on their side, that’s a scary option) – in fact I faced a list with them yesterday… more on that later! I think these missiles will really spice things up in the near future.

    So now onto the… less useful.

    The Also Rans…

    T-SJ1A Targeting Computer

    So… this is really niche. It’s for FO. It costs 4 points. It only has 1 non-recurring charge. It requires that the opponent has no green tokens. It requires you to have rolled a crit. It only works on Tuesdays. It only works if your first name begins with “K” and your last name begins with “G”… etc etc.

    I think for the cost, you’d be better loading up with a Targeting Matrix (you might hear this a lot…). For me, this is a 1 or 2 point upgrade, so at 4 points it’s DOA. There’s going to be a lot better options out there.

    Captive

    On paper, this is pretty cool. Very useful for mitigating damage on a big ship with low greens (hint hint.. Decimators, Upsilons). It only takes a single crew slot and allows you to dish out a deplete once per turn. Nice!

    But then you see the cost. 8 points. For the same, you can get so many other better upgrades – Commandoes! Jerjerrod! Hux! Phasma! Even Perceptive Co-pilot! All very desirable and at the same cost or less. This feels a little to little for the cost – maybe this is a 4-5 point upgrade, but not 8 points.

    Thweek

    Considering this was spoiled and that Thweek was GREAT in X-Wing V1, it’s a real shame that this version of events is so…. meh. At 12 squad points, this is very expensive compared to, well, virtually any other Scum ace out there – same points as Old Teroch… 2 points more than the Mandolorian in the N1 (more on that later!). There’s virtually no reason to fly Thweek considering that there are such better options – even just looking at Dalen Oberon in the Starviper (same chassis, same initiative), Thweek comes off second best. The ability to be able to move all over the board is fun and all, but Thweek should have been a higher initiative to allow a chance at getting rid of the Tractor Token (which is balanced by having the Deplete part of the ability) or be at least 2 squad point cheaper. I think we might see Thweek out there for a few weeks as a trial, but I’ll be surprised if anyone takes it until she comes down in price.

    Finally, here’s some that might not be as good as you think…

    DIS-L9B2

    An I6 Tri Fighter! Nice!!!

    Oh… bit it doesn’t stay I6 unless it keeps an enemy ship out of bullseye. That’s not good – it locks out a number of upgrades you might want to use (e.g. Predator! Marksmanship! Deadeye Shot!). Plus it’s 11 points of ship… when there’s up to 2 alternates at I5 for a point less WITHOUT the “become I1” restriction. Also, the Networked Calculation ability isn’t great for an I6 arc dodger… you tend to be out on your own a lot. Independent Calculations can help, but with only 11 loadout, that eats into an already limited budget. CIS are not the most popular faction, and this feels like a token I6 Tri Fighter like this shouldn’t really be limited by such an annoying restriction.

    Carnor Jax

    Wow! A TIE Interceptor with Force! Sign me up!

    Oh wait… Carnor only has 4 loadout… and is 12 points. Empire currently has a LOT of good options at 12 points and with 4 loadout, you can’t buy in additional health (Hull / Shield upgrade) and because there’s no talent slot, you can’t even buy in useful upgrades like Elusive, Predator, or Lone Wolf. You CAN buy in Targeting Matrix, but that’s about it. The Carnor ability is very strong, but very limited – one use per turn and the interceptor chassis is flimsy – I think it’s more likely players trying Carnor will just be evading the whole game, which impacts the damage output and usability of an I5 Interceptor. Force is strong, but Vult Skerris and Ciena Rae are both cheaper and have more loadout. Soontir is 1 point more and more consistent. I think Carnor will see some play to start with, but might fade quite quickly unless he gets more loadout!

    Unhinged Astromech

    I think this is a good card, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like it’s slightly overcosted. It’s a card that seems to have come back from V1, but I’m struggling to see any major advantage to it. There are a lot of ships that could benefit from this (Arcs! YWings! XWings! KWings! Kimogilas! Scurrgs! N1s! Even Jumpmasters! But adding blues (or dropping reds to whites) to the speed 3 line means you have to run fast to get rid of stress. In some ways, R4s are a better bet, although R4s are limited to small ships, but the Unhinged is 3 points. I think there’s very few situations where you would want to pay 3 points for a slightly better dial for speed 3 maneuvers. 2, maybe, but 3 is a bit too much.

    Next time I’m going to cover the points for existing ships and I have a tournament report. Until next time…!

  • Things to do at the end of times

    We are at the end of days! Well… sort of… despite some terribly enthusiastic hoping on my part, we are still about a week away from the next points update / expansion. This update feels like a reeeeally long time coming, especially since we’ve had STO and Worlds already, so we’re really in the “quiet season”, so there’s been lots of time to twiddle thumbs and plan for what comes next. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been taking the opportunity to tidy up a few loose ends, try out a few new things and place my bets on what the new hotness will be.

    Before looking ahead, though, I’ve persisted with my pet list that I’ve been using as much as possible, in order to make the most out of a few set pieces… well, mostly SL Fenn Rau. I fully expect him to go up quite a lot in points very soon, so time to make hay whilst the sun shines… and the sun has been shining a LOT:

    • The first few times I flew the list was at my local playgroup, which clued me into how it worked pretty well.
    • Then I took it with me on holiday to play vs Chris Burnett at a Tin Squadron club night in Truro (at the Piranha Cafe – Thursdays from 6pm). Incidentally, the Piranha cafe is a great place to check out (reminiscent of the Crystal Maze, with various themed zones around the place) – well worth it if you’re in the area!
    • I played in the Top Gun league – 8 games on TTS, across a similarly skilled group of players
    • I took part in the Windy City Conquest – a 4 round TTS event based on Chicago time.
    • and finally, I took part in the Mandos Spring Championship – my local club’s big spring blowout!

    That’s a lot of games! Let’s break that down:

    In principle, it’s really just getting a lot of ships on the board and picking away at anything it can shoot at. Kath is only there as a very cheap Firespray. You could easily use SL Dengar, or Bossk, or even just 3 more Ties (if you have them!), but Kath is very good value – Firesprays are probably the best ship chassis in the game, and to get one with enough loadout to make a difference for 15 points is very solid – I elected to add the Andrasta title (to allow Bomblet Generator) and Gamut Key (for the occasional focus retention – almost as good as a double action every other turn!). Plus, if you can get a block with the Ties, Kath can add a red dice when she shoots – not too shabby! Oh yeah, and there’s Fenn…

    To be honest, the biggest point of the list is to keep the opponent distracted with Kath and the Ties so that Fenn can swing in and mess things up. I’ve talked in several posts about how strong Fenn is, and although he has his weaknesses, he’s probably the strongest ship in the game.

    So let’s see how it did:

    Up until starting the Top Gun league, it was undefeated. All the friendly games had gone really well in my favour and I had some great fun games. But the Top Gun league is a different level, with some very strong players. I unfortunately lost 2 of the 8 games… But that’s still 6/2, though, and not to be sniffed at!

    In the Windy City event, it was less good – going 2-2. This was, again, TTS (which always seems to give me duff dice when I least need it!). But 19/46 isn’t tragic.

    And finally, in the Mandos Spring event, it did… OK! 3-1 and 4th overall (and the highest placed Scum list… whatever Longshanks says!).

    In total, since February, I played 20 games with it, winning 15 – a 75% success rate. That’s pretty good! However, it’s now going to be retired as I’m now down to play Empire for the next NCX season (Go KDB!), so Fenn Rau will go flying off into the sunset as I work out what to fly.

    I’ve played 2 games so far with 2 lists:

    Game 1 vs Chris Molley – Chance Engagement

    I flew:

    Major Vynder – Alpha-Class Star Wing (11)
    Deadeye Shot (1)
    Fire-Control System (2)
    Diamond-Boron Missiles (5)
    Advanced SLAM (3)
    Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (0)
    Ion Torpedoes (5)

    Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3

    Soontir Fel – TIE/in Interceptor (12)
    Elusive (4)
    Predator (3)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 1

    “Double Edge” – TIE/ag Aggressor (9)
    Ion Cannon Turret (6)
    Barrage Rockets (8)
    Migs Mayfeld (3)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2

    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

    Magna Tolvan – TIE/ln Fighter (8)
    Squad Leader (5)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (6/9) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 1

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZbZ50Z161X343W113W238W104W139W135WY179X119W127W249WY188XW138W97WW461WY632X421W234W69Y602X131W249&sn=Interesting&obs=

    He flew

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

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

    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)
    Juke (7)
    Afterburners (8)

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

    “Night Beast” (SSP) – TIE/ln Fighter (7)
    Disciplined (0)
    Predator (0)

    Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 1

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZbZ50Z173XW418W113WWY668X515W508W512W513Y199X123WWW105Y635X381W127&sn=New%20Squadron&obs=

    I was EXPECTING 7 Ties and a Gauntlet (it being the week after Worlds) and tried a list that offered lots of ships and even ways of getting nearly bonus attacks… Oh, and there’s also Soontir. Unfortunately, the match I got was 3 aces (and filler). Not ideal! But still, I had a Soontir too, so was hoping to maybe take one ace out…

    … until on turn 2, Soontir got cornered by Whisper and his Soontir, blanked out and died. Then I fluffed a trigger and ended up shooting the wrong target with Double Edge, messing up a great double attack.

    From turn 3 onwards, I lost a ship a turn and barely damaged anything, only scoring half points on Whisper.

    End result: 15-50 LOSS

    Not a great start!

    Last night I played my second game vs Rory Wilson – a fine fellow (and in the same timezone!) who I last played at STO 3 years ago. This time, expecting republic, I flew…

    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

    Soontir Fel – TIE/in Interceptor (12)
    Predator (3)
    Elusive (4)
    Targeting Computer (1)

    Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 1

    Grand Inquisitor – TIE Advanced v1 (13)
    Malice (5)
    Shield Upgrade (10)

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

    “Night Beast” – TIE/ln Fighter (8)
    Hull Upgrade (9)

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

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZbZ50Z630X204W101W105Y179X127W119W249WY169XW418WWW165Y226X164&sn=New%20Squadron&obs=

    He flew

    “Kickback” (SoC) – V-19 Torrent Starfighter (9)
    Diamond-Boron Missiles (0)
    Munitions Failsafe (0)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 3

    “Axe” (SoC) – V-19 Torrent Starfighter (9)
    Deadeye Shot (0)
    Barrage Rockets (0)

    Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 3

    Anakin Skywalker – Delta-7b Aethersprite (16)
    Extreme Maneuvers (3)
    Hull Upgrade (9)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3

    Bo-Katan Kryze – Gauntlet Fighter (16)
    Clan Training (1)
    Ahsoka Tano (Crew) (10)
    Mandalorian Optics (3)
    Gauntlet (0)
    Swivel Wing (0)
    C-3PO (Republic) (6)

    Ship Cost: 16 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 5

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Republic&d=v10ZbZ50Z582X238W108Y583X343W97Y528X341WWW164Y510X423W424WWWWW446W447W449W254&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    This time it was Scramble the Transmissions, and was on stream. Oh yeah… it was also the final game of a tied week – the winner bringing the victory home!

    Rory set up in a block, except Ani left out as a ranger. I set up more or less to joust Ani with Vader, Inquisitor and Night Beast. Soontir was my ranger.

    We lurched ahead and I grabbed 2 objectives. Rory grabbed 1. Ani flew full speed at my ships and overshot them, dodging all their arcs and parking right behind Night Beast. Fortunately on the first pass, no-one took any damage, but that left his Gauntlet and Torrents to take position in the centre of the board and Ani to flip the objective so that all three objectives were his. Then the shooting started… Vader did no damage to anything. Night Beast down to 1 hull. and Inquisitor and Soontir were out of position, so couldn’t shoot.

    Over the next few turns, Vader finally put some damage into Kickback, but ended up parked at range 1 of Kickback for the return shot… and blanked. Dead Kickback, but half points on Vader. This left Vader somewhat exposed and running, as Rory’s squad turned and started chasing Vader again. By turn 5, Ani had lined up and took a shot at Vader to deliver the killing blow. On the same turn, Soontir did that thing again, where he blanked out too. Not quite half points, but Weapons Failured and pinned in a corner. Not ideal! However, with Vader dead and the objective race somewhat lost, the game ended.

    End result: 39-51 loss.

    It’s easy to blame it on dice (I kinda did…) but Rory’s list is a masterpiece of defensive optimisation. Even before you consider his SoC Torrents are tankier than average with 6 hull, they are well positioned to just keep rolling with their token sharing. Plus Bo Katan can do wonders in giving them extra focuses and target locks. Plus Ani is the most annoying ship in the game! If you can actually catch him, his 7 health makes him a slog to kill. Plus he flew it very well – well done Rory!

    So, yeah, 0-2 so far… AND with another points update on the way, it’s possible certain high value empire ships might become more expensive (*cough cough* Soontir *cough cough*). Going to be an interesting league for sure!

    See you after the points update!

  • “Mystic Dave” Rides Again!

    With STO done and Adepticon / Worlds on the horizon, I’m in a bit of a funk. I’m not going to Worlds, so the next “Big” event in my diary is the UK Games Expo at the end of May. Before then, there’s a few store events (including the Mandos Spring Event on the 18th April!) but more importantly there is likely to be a points update! Since I did so well in predicting what would happen at the STO (*cough cough*), it might be fun to predict what’s coming up!

    Just to preface this, I have no solid information about what’s coming. I’m not involved with the XWA. I don’t hang out with any of the XWA on a regular basis. All of this is pure speculation – I might have heard things around and about, but nothing recently (I’ve not been to an in-person event since early February), so this is all Just For Fun! So without further ado, here’s what I think is coming!

    Mystic Dave’s Points Update Prediction (Q1 2026)

    • When will the new points land?
      • All we’ve been told for definite is that they will land “sometime after Worlds”. However I suspect that it will be pretty soon after Worlds. There’s been more that enough time to gather data over the last 6 months and STO alone was a Data Goldmine!
      • Things I heard in February suggested that things were pretty far along, so I would be hopeful that they could land within a week of worlds.
      • If I was the XWA, I’d probably play on the fact that 1st April is on the week after worlds and drop a spoof points drop as an April Fools gag! e.g. ” We thing Vader has been underperforming, so he’s coming down to 13 points…”.
      • However, funnies aside, It’s likely to be that week – maybe even earlier!

    MYSTIC DAVE PREDICTS: 31st March

    • What new stuff is coming?
      • So far, we’ve had 2 teases:
        • Carnor Jax (TIE Interceptor)
        • Thweek (Starviper)
      • However, we’ve not seen the “V2” version of these pilots, only the V1 versions, which are STUPIDLY POWERFUL. Remember these?
      • Tweek is insane as his power allowed him to copy an ability (“Mimicked) or copy an Initiative (“Shadowed”) of an enemy ship. This potentially allowed for an I9 (or even up to an I11 if the opponent had Veteran Instincts!) Starviper… or just the ability to copy the most powerful ability on the table (e.g. Fenn Rau’s 5 dice at Range 1!!!). It’s possible that a V2 version of Thweek could be charge based e.g. during the system phase, spend a charge and copy a pilot initiative. We’ve seen the initiative changing ability twice already (Nom Numb in the Rogue fighter and BoE Lando in the Falcon) and it’s a decent ability, although rarely game breaking.
      • Carnor Jax effectively blocked the most popular defensive mods in the game. That’s huge, especially since he’s a pretty high initiative pilot. And it doesn’t have to be when he attacks – just if he’s near! There are worse abilities out there (e.g. Old Teroch just removes the green tokens altogether… but only from 1 ship), however, it’s still very powerful. I wonder if we see it slightly reduced… either by making it charge based, or make it so that it has to be in his arc at range one.
      • We also know that some new cards are coming. These would be completely new cards that could be used with the existing “BYO” ships.
        • Personally, I would LOVE to see some new cannons. The current selection is OK, but there’s room to do more in this space.
        • Also, how about some cheaper Tech cards. There’s a lot from V1 that didn’t make it over… e.g.
          • Comm Relay (which allowed a ship to hold over an evade token),
          • Sensor Cluster (allowed a ship to convert a blank to an evade for the cost of a focus token),
          • Threat Tracker (allowed a small ship to spend a lock on a ship that moves into your ark at R1-2 to perform a boost or barrel roll).
        • What I would love the most is some new configuration cards for the unloved ships out there… E-Wings, Kihraxz, or M3As. These are in dire need of some love due to poor V1 to V2 transition logic (e.g. most ships got linked actions, these guys either didn’t or got the crappiest action options!). I have a feeling this might not be on the cards, but a guy can dream!
      • In addition, there have long been rumours that there are some new Resistance Ships coming. These could be the Racer ships from the Resistance cartoon show. I’d be really excited to see these in the game, but finding models for them might be interesting!
      • The curious thing here is that there has already been a LOT of new Scum stuff and Resistance stuff recently, and there is already tonnes of Imperial stuff out there. It’s actually Republic and CIS that probably need more content, and Rebels have been struggling lately. However, if you are looking at a “theme” to hang all this on, I would guess we’re going to see “Hotshots and Aces V3”

    MYSTIC DAVE PREDICTS: Hotshots and Aces V3, with some top tier pilots for all factions, some additional extra upgrade cards (including Cannons, Tech and Sensor cards) and maybe even Resistance Racers!

    • What points changes will we see?
      • XWA have had a while to play around with the system. We’ve seen 50 points become the new squad standard and this will be the second update since the shift. I think we should see some fairly comprehensive changes to existing points to achieve a bit more balance. Don’t get me wrong – things are generally in a really good place right now – but there is a staleness creeping in, as certain pilots are appearing a LOT and very few archetypes are making an appearance… most lists seem to be Ace-y, or Ace Heavy. A few folk are still flying Bomb lists or Beef lists, but Ace seems to be the most popular… although a generic swarm did just win STO…
      • Straight off the bat, Scum Fenn Rau is going up. Both “BYO” and SL are going to head up because he’s just too damn good. I suspect BYO will go to 15 (maybe with a point or two more loadout) and SL to likely 17. SL Fenn has effectively 6 hull with great damage mitigation at range 1 and huge damage output. Plus has a means of turning without taking stress. He is probably the most popular ship in the game right now, and is distorting the game in favour of Scum.
      • Scum in general have too many really efficient, high initiative ships. There’s 6 I5 aces available at 12 points or less (4 are actually 11!). Rebels and Imperials similarly have a lot (mostly due to the volume of printed sets over the years), but over factions aren’t so lucky – CIS barely has 3! I fully expect we might see a shift in this next update to reduce the number of big hitting aces and force choices elsewhere – either a point or two up for some very popular pilots, or a reduction in loadout.
      • First Order have been struggling a lot lately due to the “Chassis Tax” we see on their faction. Because their ships are very good (being solid Imperial ships but with shields), they are typically 1 or 2 points higher than their Imperial cousins. This limits build options a lot, since you can’t spam a load of “cheap” ships, as they aren’t “cheap”… giving you a lower number of space for ships. At the top end, their ace pilots generally all have poor abilities – the best being Quickdraw, who’s ability (getting a bonus attack if you lose a shield) effectively rewards failure! If you compare this to Soontir, or Vader… there is no comparison. They also have a “Kylo Problem” – their best pilot is found 3 times in ships and has a crew card which is great… but he can only appear once in a list… and he’s not cheap in any version. I think we need to see a point or two drop from some of their key ships, but ideally let’s see some lesser used ships getting a discount… especially Upsilons! They are so rarely seen… it would be great to see some Batwings on the table.
      • In general, there is a still an issue where we see mostly the same pilots appear in lists and have done for a while… Han, Wedge, Fenn, Luke, Vader, Anikin, Obi Wan, Soontir, Sun Fac, Boba, Mando… All generally high initiative and efficient. What we aren’t seeing much of is the lower initiative ships… Graz the Hunter, Biggs, Luminara, Jay Versio… all those mid-tier pilots are getting very little love now. It would be great to see them on the table, but players need to be incentivised by having more loadout or a cheaper base to chose from. I’d love to see some tweaking in this space.
      • On the flip of this, some ships are very, very good value. TIE Fighters start at 5 points are are silly good for the points. I think we need to see either a limit (as per TIE FOs) or a slight dampening of Loadout (e.g. Obsidian Squadrons have 2… Academy Pilots have 0…. maybe that should be reversed?). Not saying that we’re seeing a lot of them around, but compared to Vulture Droids, they are the same price and are notably better (more green dice!). I don’t think we should see swarms blocked, because they are a great archetype to fly and see flown, but they just need to be tweaked a little maybe to stop abuse?

    MYSTIC DAVE PREDICTS: Excessively good value pilots reigned in. Some mid-tier pilots buffed. All we are saying is give Batwings a chance…

    So, that’s about it. I’m sure there’s a load of other things that might be happening, so feel free to drop me a message if you think I’ve missed something. I’m really excited to see what shows up in a few weeks, and hoping you are too! Until next time…

  • Sith Taker Open – Didn’t they do well?

    So the dust has settled on the Sith Taker Open, which seems to have been the largest and most successful event of the year. 140 showed up to play and my spies in the room say it was a great weekend! Obviously, I couldn’t attend (as I mentioned last time) but there’s a LOT to digest on what happened over the weekend!

    List distribution was mostly as expected, i.e. very Scum Heavy (30%) but every faction was represented, although CIS was at the bottom of the pack, with only 7 pilots (5%) in attendence.

    Win rates, though, tell an interesting story. Obi Win has done an interesting breakdown using longshanks data, revealing some curious nuggets:

    • Scum (the most popular faction) had a middling win rate (51%).
    • CIS (the least popular faction) had the strongest win rate (57%).
    • Rebels had the lowest win rate (34%). This is really interesting, since Rebels have some strong pieces and are usually pretty solid.
    • FO also had a pretty poor win rate (40%). This isn’t a huge surprise, as I’ve detailed in some of my previous posts (during my “FO era”) – there’s lots to like about FO, but compared to other factions, they aren’t quite as competitive.

    Looking at ship representation, there are some other nuggets to glean:

    • The most popular ship present was the good old TiE LN Fighter, with 35 present!
    • Second was the T70 X wing with 20. Curiously the spread of pilots for the chassis were quite diverse (although 4 of these were a form of Poe Dameron).
    • Scum Fenn Rau was in 18 lists. That’s 13% of the field, and nearly half of the Scum lists present.
    • 3 people flew Battle over Endor Lando! That’s wild – he’s barely seen in play for ages, and then (like buses) 3 show up all at once! A cynical person might also point to this being a reason for Rebels’ low win rate…

    In the final reckoning, after 2 days and 10 rounds, Niels Vos won the overall event with a very interesting list:

    Imperial Super Commando – Gauntlet Fighter (15)
    Perceptive Copilot (8)
    Mandalorian Optics (3)
    Drop-Seat Bay (0)
    Swivel Wing (0)
    Gar Saxon (6)
    Grand Moff Tarkin (3)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Obsidian Squadron Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/2) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z516X54WWWW446W465W449W429W34Y228X338Y228X338Y228X338Y228X338Y228X338Y228X338Y228X338&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    Yes, it’s an honest to goodness Tie Swarm! More than that, for the first time in many, many years, a list with only generic ships has won a major X-wing event!!! I genuinely can’t remember the last time this happened… maybe the horrific 8x Nantex lists of early V2, which would be 6-7 years ago!?!?!

    There’s nothing particularly special about this list, other than the shock and awe of seeing so many ships on a table. There are some synergies between Grand Moff Tarkin and Mandalorian Optics, allowing all the ships to potentially lock a single ship, but the trick mostly seems to be in keeping the ships alive long enough to shoot. The addition of the Precision Ion Engines was pretty inspired, as well – giving TIE fighters more options to turn is really important when you are flying a swarm.

    Some of my playgroup commented that he got very lucky with dice on the day (sometimes Tie Fighters pop all the time, sometimes they don’t!) but I think (having seen some of his games on stream) he did a great job in blocking the opponent (check out the final to see how he stopped Liam from engaging with Fenn AND Han for most of the game!). The key to flying a swarm is to block and limit enemy ships’ action selection, giving a huge advantage in objective play in 3 out of 5 scenarios (everything except Chance Engagement and Assault at the Satellite Array). Pretty good skills, then, so well done Niels for the win!

    Mystic Dave

    A few weeks before STO, Rich Polley popped this on the Facebook X-Wing UK and Ireland Group:

    At the time, I answered with this:

    So… how did I do?

    Point 1 was pretty accurate. Maybe less Mando than expected (only 8 lists!), but SL Fenn was pretty much everywhere – even in the runner up list.

    Point 2 was… nearly right. Imperial list, YES. Sooty Soontir and Vader… NO.

    Point 3 also happened. There were at least five scavenged YT-1300 freighters, all with Paige and Veteran Turret Gunner. 2 made it to the top 12! However, Poe and Zori were in short supply!

    Point 4… well, it’s a bit of a cop-out answer. However, would you consider an 8 ship TIE swarm of generics something wacky? I would say so!

    Point 5 was pretty right as well. Although there were only 13 Republic lists, pretty much all of them had aces and LAATs in them… although Nic Firecast (best performing Republic player over the weekend) dropped the LAAT for a second Arc.

    As to my last comments… FO did not do terribly well, so yes. CIS, though, did pretty well… although only 5% of players flew separatists.

    So I think my crystal ball is in the post! Obviously, I didn’t see Rebels doing so poorly, but I’m OK with that. I think I’ll try the lottery this weekend!

    What now?

    So with STO done, it’s a short wait until Worlds, and hopefully just after that we will see some new points and new content! However, until then, it’s time to try some wacky lists to make the best of the points as they are give something new a try. I have already taken “inspiration” from STO to try this out…

    Kath Scarlet – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (15)
    Gamut Key (5)
    Bomblet Generator (3)
    Andrasta (0)

    Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5

    Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Mining Guild Sentry – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (5)
    Precision Ion Engines (1)

    Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (1/1) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1

    Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (15)
    Fearless (0)
    Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
    Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)

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

    Total: 50

    View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZsZ50Z105XWWW386W67WWW146WY304XW338Y304X338WY304X338WY304X338WY719X121W608W445&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=

    Yes, it’s not quite a big swarm, but Fenn, a Firespray and 4 filler ships sounds pretty cool! It’s currently 2 out of 2 wins, so more news as I test it.

    Other than that, with no in person events scheduled until April and only 1 TTS league underway currently, it’s a bit of a waiting game for new things. Here’s hoping they come soon!

  • 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!