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…?”.
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