X Wing Musings

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

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

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

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

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

5x Red Fury Zealots with Cluster Missles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game 1, vs Liam Lee – Chance Engagement

He flew:

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

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

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

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

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

Oh dear.

Final score: 14-52 Loss.

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

Game 2 vs Sebastian Demers – Scramble the Transmissions

He flew:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Score: 54-23 Win

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

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

He flew:

Yendor (BoE) T-65 X-wing (12)

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

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

Gemmer Sojan (BoE) RZ-1 A-wing (9)

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

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

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

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

Final Score: 16-50 Loss

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

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

He flew:

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

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

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

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

NOT A REBEL LIST!!! HALLELUJAH!

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

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

Final score: 64-45 win!

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

What did we learn???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More musings next week!