New Year, new plan! After dallying with FO for most of Q4 last year, change was long overdue. I’m signed up to a number of leagues online and in most cases I’ve been using it as an excuse to try out something completely different.
In 3 events, I’ve been trying out:
Soontir Fel (BoE) – TIE/in Interceptor (14)
Apex Predator (BoE) (0)
No Escape (BoE) (0)
Blank Signature (BoE) (0)
Feedback Emitter (BoE) (0)
Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 1
“Whisper” – TIE/ph Phantom (14)
Fire-Control System (2)
Fifth Brother (12)
Targeting Computer (1)
Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
Darth Vader – TIE Advanced x1 (15)
Brilliant Evasion (2)
Passive Sensors (5)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
“Wampa” (BoY) – TIE/ln Fighter (7)
Elusive (0)
Vengeful (BoY) (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 50
I’ve been very impressed with Imperial Aces for a long time (it was my “Go To” for much of V1 and the early part of V2) so I’ve had history with all the set pieces before. I’ve also been meaning to try out SuperSoontir for some time. Vader is… well, Vader! Lots of force and a decent ability makes him very easy to use. Whisper is really interesting with force on board and BoY Wampa is probably the best value 7 point ship in the game! He can chuck 3 or 4 red dice with alarming regularity, has Elusive tagged in and has 4 (not 3) hull!!! Best of all, if you’re shooting at Wampa, you’re not shooting at the much more expensive aces. On paper it’s great!
In practice though… it’s a very high skill list. Whisper can easily be ganged up on, Soontir only has 3 hull, and Vader lacks evades, so is often quite squishy… basically you need to be very conservative and have some very lucky dice!!! So far I’ve flown it 3 times and I’m 1-2, but I HAVE to play it in Liam Bakers “Bring them in cold” team event, so I will report more as the season progresses.
The New Hotness
One thing I have noticed is a particular list type showing up an awful lot, at least in online… I’ve faced it several times and not done too well in any of them:
Zorii Bliss – BTA-NR2-W Y-wing (12)
Deadeye Shot (1)
Proton Torpedoes (14)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4
R1-J5 – Fireball (6)
PZ-4CO (4)
Targeting Computer (1)
Kaz’s Fireball (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Lando Calrissian – Scavenged YT-1300 (18)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Paige Tico (6)
Veteran Turret Gunner (6)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 5
Poe Dameron (HoH) – T-70 X-wing (14)
Heroic (2)
R4 Astromech (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 50
There are variations on a theme (rather than Perceptive Co-Pilot on Lando, C3PO and Hotshot Tail Blaster, or Vi Moradi instead of Bucket), but the constant is definitely Lando…
The trick is with Paige and Veteran Turret Gunner – effectively this gives a Bistan-like ability for only 11 loadout points… and no need to focus! In essence, you can shoot, rotate, and shoot something else in a different arc… or the same ship if you can line up your target off your front or rear corner (which is surprisingly easy with a big fat large base!). This is all before you look at Lando’s native ability to hand out extra actions when he’s stressed, which is a very strong talent indeed.
Beyond that, Zori is INSANELY GOOD VALUE for 12 points. Pro-Torps (on a chassis that can reload) and a strong likelihood (if she hangs around with Poe) of getting double mods by fair means or foul. Poe as well is pretty well set up to double mod, and there is a filler ship that, well, fills! Usually the filler has PC-4CO, which allows calculates or focus to be tossed out to the most needy ship. All this goodness is on a bunch of ships that are hard to put down. Basically, it’s a super strong list and will probably be coming to a table near you soon.
Can it be beat? Maybe. The soft spot is Lando – for all his damage output, he is still a bit of a glass cannon. If he can be cornered, he’s 11 hull and only 1 green dice, which can result in crispy fried falcon in a couple of turns… providing you don’t get tagged by the torpedoes. Lando is also 18 points of ship too, so really should be your prime target. But it’s a risky approach!
In the three games I’ve faced it, I’ve taken out Lando twice, but then eaten a full plate of torpedoes. Notably, my new Imperial list is the WORST list to try and take this on! Most of the “big hitters” aren’t very nimble and are a bit flimsy vs heavy hitters like this, so it’s probably not a list I will be persevering with for long! Speaking of heavy hitters, here’s some theory for you…
Here for a good time and a long time…
I had a long drive on Saturday on the way to Norwich with my fellow Mando, Sam Churms (Hi Sam!). We talked a LOT about the state of the X-wing nation and came to a few conclusions:
Theory no. 1 – Games are lasting more rounds these days.
Makes sense! Less ships on the table means less shots per turn, meaning ships are alive longer. Coupled to this, objective play is worth less points (proportionately) because whereas a scenario like Assault or Salvage could have scored up to 5 points a turn (i.e. 25% of a win condition) before, now it’s maxed at 4 (8%). Even if you add ship damage to that, it still means that most games are going to take at least a few rounds longer to get to a win.
Theory no. 2 – Non-recurring charges aren’t so hot.
Let’s face it, if there are more turns per game, abilities that can only be used X times per game are a little less good. Sure, some are still very pokey (hello Crack Shot) but others mean you’re carrying a used card / ability for more of the game for no benefit. e.g. ships that can’t reload taking munitions. or one shot bombs.
Theory no. 3 – This means some factions are set to loose.
Yes, I would look at the glass half empty, but FO in particular is struggling. Recent analysis of the last NCX league event by Obi Win shows this in all it’s glory. Why is this? Well…
- FO are inherently more expensive than most other factions. Mostly because their ships have shields (e.g. Epsilon Squadron Cadet in the Tie FO is 1 point more than all other factions TIEs and limited… so priced out of any Tie Swarm ideas).
- The most affordable ships all have limited charges. Captain Malarus has 2 charges. Kylo in the Whisper usually takes Concussion Missiles… 3 charges (he has no reload). This means they are good… for a short time.
- Their I6 ships all have terrible abilities! There are 3, pretty affordable I6 ships, but let’s have a quick check:
- Vonreg has an ability that almost never means anything as it happens in the system phase – you give out a negative token and someone does a blue move. I think I’ve seen it actually make a difference to the game state once since V2 was launched.
- Quickdraw rewards failure! If he takes damage (which, as he only has 2 green dice, WILL happen) he gets to shoot back. Compare to Dengar who does it for chuckles either way! Also, it’s pretty rare that QD ever just takes ONE damage… usually 2 or three…
- Midnight is… OK, I guess. However, he has to find a way of getting a green token on top of a lock, which is possible, but then has to keep the lock to get any value and is exposed vs other ships. I don’t thing anyone is scared when they see Midnight coming at them.
- Although the meta is the least PS sensitive now than it has been in some time, having I6 ships in a faction that aren’t great is pretty frustrating.
- They have the least chassis available of any faction. With Resistance Y wings splitting into 2 flavours, FO are now the bottom of the bunch.
Theory no. 4 – Scum is “Easy Mode”
We all know it! Scum has never had it so good! More chassis types than any other faction, a large variety of affordable list types (Bomb list! Ace List! Beef List!) and some (actually quite a few!) standout pilots and faction specific cards mean there is more goodness in Scum than any other faction right now. As such, it’s a wildly popular faction and doing disproportionately well (again, as proven in the Obi Win analysis mentioned earlier). Most 3 ship lists involve Boba and 2 other ships (Razor Crest Mando and Guri! Rook Kast and RC Mando! Fen and Dengar! etc) and they do surprisingly well.
So to sum it all up… I did a thing…
Actual In Person Play!!!
Due to a variety of life related things, I hadn’t actually played in person since November (shocker!) so last Saturday, Sam and I went to the Athena Games Store Champs for a game of high stakes X wing. Athena games is a great day out (it would have to be for the 3 hour drive!) and our host Phil Pursglove was, as ever, most congenial! I COMPLETELY COPPED OUT of taking my new Imperial list and instead spent about 30 seconds making a list that required the least amount of fishing-cards-out-of-a-box… I got it down to 3 SL cards, Kanan and Gamut… so 5 cards:
5 Card Studs
Dengar (AaD) – JumpMaster 5000 (15)
R2-G8 (AaD) (0)
Synchronized Handling (AaD) (0)
Starboard Thrusters (AaD) (0)
Punishing One (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 4
Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (15)
Fearless (0)
Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (11)
Outmaneuver (0)
The Child (AaD) (0)
Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2
Kanan Jarrus – HWK-290 Light Freighter (9)
Gamut Key (5)
Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 50
If you can’t beat ’em, join em!
It was a pretty standard 4 round affair and I was delighted to players I had played before and highly admired. I was very impressed with a few things:
- SL Dengar had nearly passed me by until I saw his R2G8 ability – a bonus, regenerating (providing you go left!) calculate token. Used in conjunction with Gamut Key, this was actually pretty cool (potentially allowing you to have 2 focuses and 2 calculates for at least 1 turn a game), solving the “I’ve got a bonus shot and no mods” issue Dengar usually has.
- Kanan is very, very good with his red dice shutdown ability that he can use ON HIMSELF as well as others (better than Rebel Kanan). Additionally, Gamut crew is almost as good as a co-ordinate if you get your positioning right.
- Fenn be Fenn. I lost him 0 times on the day.
- Mando, as ever, is the “fly or die” hero. If he stays alive long enough, he is a menace in the late game. Big “if” though, as he usually attracts quite a bit of attention.
So it’s a decent list. I flew against some very stiff competition:
Round 1 vs Michael
Michael was just coming back into X wing after a dropping at the end of V1 but had a beefy Rebel list. Lots of punch and lock / token sharing.
Round 2 vs Sam. I brought Sam along so we had chatted in the car about each others’ lists (as mentioned above). However, it’s a little different tackling his list in practice than in theory! Sam was flying the only FO list of the day, but that didn’t make MurderKylo any less scary!
Round 3 vs Robin Farndon’s Many Butterflies (5x I2 Starvipers with Collision Detectors). This was an amazing list and Robin is an absolute gentleman pilot. Their bendy barrel rolls lead to an interesting flight style, as he initially would fly 1 forward with all of them in formation, then barrel roll and end up moving like Space Invaders in the 1980s. It’s actually quite scary when you face it as they may be single modded, but that’s a lot of red dice coming at you.
Round 4 vs Ben Lee. Ben is a great player (I seem to remember a UK champ in V1), although it’s the first time I’ve seen him (normally an Imperial player) fly a Scum list. He was flying BYO Fenn, BYO Boba and SL Dengar… very similar to my list!
At the end of it, I won all 4 games and scored that all-important Bye token for a future System Open. With STO on the horizon, it couldn’t come at a better time! Thanks to everyone that showed, my opponents and Phil in particular! Even if you ignore winning the event, it was great to once again be playing in person and it’s only renewed my enthusiasm to get back to a table! STO can’t come soon enough.
More next week!
X Wing Musings 
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