The intro…
Hello, welcome to this week’s blog!
Time is short (well, for me to write this. You might have loads of time to read it, who knows?!) and there’s quite a bit to cover so I’ll keep this intro fairly brief.
I will, though, obviously mention the upcoming XWA System Open event – The Welsh Open 2025!
I’m REALLY close to being able to publish the contents of the System Open prize kits but until then you’ll just have to believe me that they are going to be AMAZING (I mean, I’m biased but I’m right)!. We will also have tons of other prizes from various community sources and our own Welsh Open bits and bobs as well!
The ticket price includes lunch for BOTH days from the on site café (saving you around £14 of additional cost!) and it promises to be a very awesome weekend of rolling dice and hanging out with friends.
Tickets are on sale here so don’t wait, get yours now!!
Alrighty then, lets get into it!
The batreps… (JARGON ALERT!!)
So, it was finally here, the official XWA Squad Championship event we’d been planning for, well, quite a while now!
If you’ve been reading recently I’ve been running a 4 ship Scum list using 3 of the new SL cards plus a 2 point TIE fighter. My results have been, well, pretty mixed. A few heavy losses early on put me off it but a mix up with packing my bag got me back onto it with unexpectedly good results.
Since then I’ve put more thought into my initial setup and what I’m trying to do with the list and things had been looking pretty decent.
Until last Wednesday.
Josh Hall and I played twice in a row and I lost both games. One of them quite convincingly. Not an ideal way to warm up for a tournament eh?
Still, it was FAR too short notice to change my list (even though I’d heard some lists on the Sith Takers podcast that I liked the sound of) and so I decided to set my expectations accordingly and decided I was going to have a great, fun day no matter what happened to my ships.
Han Solo (AaD) – Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter (6)
Chewbacca (AaD) (0)
L3-37 (AaD) (0)
Tobias Beckett (AaD) (0)
Lando’s Millennium Falcon (AaD) (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 6
Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (6)
Fearless (0)
Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
Dengar (AaD) – JumpMaster 5000 (6)
R2-G8 (AaD) (0)
Synchronized Handling (AaD) (0)
Starboard Thrusters (AaD) (0)
Punishing One (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 4
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
The high initiative is very nice but big base ships tend to get heavily targeted and my TIE has a tendency to either live forever or die immediately with no in between. The main thing is to have a plan and while I had a general idea, I definitely wasn’t prepared for all eventualities.
Still, with no notice I was locked in and it was time to go!
The pre-game
Now, if you read last week’s blog you will already know that there have been delays with getting the Squad Championship kits out. We are even now still missing one set of components that we will have to ship out later. That said, I asked for a few to be sent out without the acrylic base tiles to see if they might arrive in time.
Somehow (and I’m still not really sure how), I got notified that my kit that had been posted from Hong Kong on the Wednesday (well, my Wednesday, early Thursday for HK) was expected to be delivered to my house on the Saturday. The DAY OF THE EVENT.
I went into the delivery details and asked for it to be sent to a delivery depot just 5 minutes away from the venue, planning to drop in on the way to the event and pick it up.
When I called in at 8:30 on the Saturday morning I was met with disappointment. My package wasn’t there. I got in my car and headed on to the venue, rather disappointed.
As I unpacked my case and chatted with the guys I got an email. My package was in!
Even though we had paired and were setting up, I jumped in the car and raced over to collect.
We had it in time!!
Alright then, drama over with, let’s get to the games!
Game 1 – Mark Packer-Hughes
Round 1 and I’d been drawn against my room mate from Worlds 2024! Mark was flying Resistance (no surprise to anyone who knows him!) and had included one of the new and shiny SL pilots recently released by the XWA
Poe Dameron (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (6)
Heroic (0)
BB-8 (EoD) (0)
Primed Overdrive Thrusters (EoD) (0)
Black One (EoD) (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Nien Nunb – T-70 X-wing (5)
Heroic (2)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
BB Astromech (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Stomeroni Starck (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (5)
For The Cause (EoD) (0)
Accelerated Sensor Array (EoD) (0)
R5-X3 (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
C’ai Threnalli (EoD) – T-70 X-wing (4)
For The Cause (EoD) (0)
Heroic (0)
BB Astromech (0)
Repulsorlift Engines (EoD) (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
A mix of initiatives and some potentially punchy shots coming in at me. And that X-Wing that uses an A-Wing dial. Tricksy. Mark had decided to customise a model to sue for Stomeroni which I absolutely love
Despite a slow-ish start we eventually got into a bit of a melee in the middle of the board. Fenn got blocked but didn’t especially mind since he could focus and was range of a couple of ships. Poe had blocked Dengar (which would be a recurring theme over the course of a few turns) which hurt my damage output a little.
I did some decent damage but it was spread over a few ships. Thankfully Mark’s shots into Fenn mostly bounded off with the help of extra dice and Concordia. The down side? Mark was carrying more crates than I was.
With each turn Mark crept a little further ahead and then my TIE suddenly (I won’t say unexpectedly) exploded. Thankfully, the damage was still going in to Mark’s ships and the same turn I managed to pick off Nien.
Mark was still ahead for the moment but 2 turns later I took out Poe and the next Stomeroni while also picking up extra boxes to get me over the line.
Result: 23 – 14 win
Mini conclusion…
Ok, maybe my list isn’t all that bad? It definitely likes lower agility targets. Let’s see how the next game goes…
Game 2 – Andy Cameron
I’ve not played Andy much before, just once, in fact, around 6 months ago. Then he was flying something with a Gauntlet. Today he was flying droids. Eugh.
DGS-047 – HMP Droid Gunship (4)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (4)
Kraken (6)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
DFS-311 – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/2) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Trade Federation Drone – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Trade Federation Drone – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Trade Federation Drone – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Trade Federation Drone – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Trade Federation Drone – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
General Grievous – Belbullab-22 Starfighter (4)
Impervium Plating (2)
Soulless One (9)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
I have two issues with this list. Firstly, I do not know how to fly against droids, generally. Higher initiative is good and all that but realistically I’d need to be taking off at least 2 ships in the opening engagement (before they fire) in order to be making any headway.
Secondly, having large base, lower agility ships going against droids with energy shells is just really bad for me. Really bad.
And so, that is how it played out.
We placed obstacles and looked at each other. I thought it had gone ok for me. Andy KNEW that it had gone very well for him.
Oops.
I made a silly mistake with Han – boosting to get a shot but putting him in shell range of 2 droids – which then compounded into a futher mistake the following turn when I prioritised shooting with him when I should have used the SLAM ability to dodge some shots and have a chance to get out the following turn.
When I tried for the SLAM the following turn Andy simply put Grievous in the way to prevent it and wiped Han out.
It didn’t help that this was Chance Engagement either, meaning that Andy was ticking up points with alarming regularity while I was struggling to get sufficient damage past the billions of calculate tokens that were everywhere.
When time was called I’d lost Han, Fenn and half of Dengar in exchange for 2 and a half droids.
Result: 9 – 19 loss
Mini conclusion…
This blog is all about learning and boy was I given a lesson here. Very well played by Andy and while I certainly contributed to my own demise, you can’t take away the fact that he REALLY knows what he’s doing with the droids.
Oh well, onwards and upwards!
Game 3 – Josh Hall
Argghh noooo! The matchup I didn’t want!!!
I’ve actually lost count of the number of times Josh and I have played over the last 2-3 months but the most recent were the most significant because, as I mentioned back at the start, he beat me twice just 3 days earlier.
The scenario was Assault which, with 2 big base ships, possibly favoured me but the nonsense that Josh’s list can do is just daft
Fenn Rau – Fang Fighter (5)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Old Teroch – Fang Fighter (5)
Daredevil (4)
Fearless (3)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (10/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Talonbane Cobra – Kihraxz Fighter (4)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (3/4) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Cad Bane – Rogue-class Starfighter (4)
Proton Cannons (5)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Babu Frik (5)
Xanadu Blood (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
Things started out relatively ok as Josh went all in with his ships to kill my TIE.
I felt this was ok by me as it pulled his ships out of position and allowed me to get some points on the board from objectives.
When my TIE didn’t die but actually blocked his Fenn onto the rock I was feeling quite positive about things. I sent Han the long way around a rock to make sure I was claiming 3 objectives and could then threaten his TIE while all his other ships turned around.
When his Fenn came around to face off with mine, I fired first and took out his Fenn. Cool
Where things started to swing back the other way was Old T blocking Dengar onto a rock. The rock did 2 damage, Old T’s range 0 shot did three and then Talonbane’s range 1 single modded shot managed finish off the previously untouched Dengar. He never even fired.
On top of that, Cad Bane then took out my TIE, putting me 2 points behind.
Wow.
The next few turns were pretty intense as I managed to take out Cad but not anyone else as we zoomed around the board trying to claim objectives.
Han was bleeding but a SLAM got him out of trouble and into range of an objective while a bank and boost the following turn did the same again.
I seemed unable to land enough damage onto any particular ship to get close to killing one and then right in the last turn I thought I’d landed Fenn in front of Josh’s TIE at range 1 only to narrowly miss the arc.
We counted and re-counted objectives in our last turn. Unbelieveably, it was a draw!
Result: 19 – 19 draw
Mini conclusion…
That was a heck of a game. At various points each of us thought were sufficiently ahead in terms of damage to go on to win. When you’re playing a game against a player and list you’ve faced so many times you’re always second guessing what they may do and this contributed towards the tension and intensity of this game. Very enjoyable!
On to the final round then!
Game 4 – Andrew Robinson
Now I can’t 100% remember if Andrew and I have played before, I don’t think we have but if we did it was rather a long time ago!
He’d brought the same Rebel list he’d taken to the Sith Taker Open this year with Hera in the Ghost as the feature piece of the list. Eesh.
Hera Syndulla – VCX-100 Light Freighter (7)
Marksmanship (2)
Fire-Control System (2)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Veteran Turret Gunner (4)
Tactical Scrambler (2)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (22/22) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7
Thane Kyrell – T-65 X-wing (4)
Cluster Missiles (6)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (6/6) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Gavin Darklighter – E-wing (5)
Marksmanship (2)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Fire-Control System (2)
R3 Astromech (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Esege Tuketu – BTL-S8 K-wing (4)
Ion Missiles (3)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
The scenario this time was Scramble and while we were both flying 4 ships, I felt like my higher initiative overall would be very useful.
I used turn 0 to avoid Hera at all costs with my expensive ships and try to toe the line with the TIE of being annoying and not dying.
IT worked initially as the TIE dived in behind Hera and claimed the two left hand objectives across turns 2 and 3. Meanwhile My i6’s opted against turning in on Gavin and Thane, instead blowing past to focus on Esege.
It paid off as the K-Wing exploded, just before Hera dealt the same fate to my poor little TIE fighter.
Still, I was up on points and still held the objectives.
A poorly timed Diabled Power Regulator on Thane meant that he landed range 1 of Dengar while already half dead while Han used his one free SLAM action to get out of range 1 of Hera’s arc of death. I was back to 1-2 down on objectives but Andrew now only had 2 ships left and Gavin had lost his shields.
Fenn was sporting a rather annoying Damaged Sensor Array which meant that while he was agonisingly close to the middle objective, he couldn’t claim it. Yet
The following turn Gavin succumbed to Dengar’s shot while Han continued to play keep away from Hera.
As we went into the final turn I picked up a second objective with Dengar while Fenn turned in on Hera who herself was advancing on Han.
Hera dealt some damage but failed to kill the Falcon and while Hera also survived, I’d picked up enough points to complete the game.
Result: 21 – 10 win
The conclusion…
So a final record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss with the loss coming to the eventual winner, Mr Andy Cameron!
Well done to Andy who absolutely ran the tables with the droid swarm on the day.
My record got me 3rd place which I felt wasn’t too bad! Looking at it, if I’d won my draw against Josh I still wouldn’t have placed any higher as Richard Greenaway’s 3-1 record had him 2nd with a higher number of victory points than me anyway.
It was really interesting to test this list out against a wider variety of the lists I’ve been facing over the last few months. I’ve been on and off the fence about whether this list is actually any good and while I’m not the best player, I think that an overall postitive record here shows that maybe it does have a future.
That said, I do want to fly The Mandalorian a bit more now…
If you’re interested in checking out lists and the like then take a look at the Longshanks link – https://www.longshanks.org/event/26010
All in all it was a great day of X-Wing. Dice were rolled, food was eaten and fun was had. Big thanks to everyone who came and also to Mark Hall for running it. A special shout out to Mark Beor as well who, although he didn’t play, still came down for a bit to hang out and see us.
I got my hands on some of the swag I’ve been organising for events and I have to say, I’m really pleased with the results!
That’s about it from me at the moment. I’ve got rather a lot of XWA work to catch up on in order to get things ready for System Open events AND I’ve not played this past week so I will be taking a week off next week. I’ll be back the week after, hopefully with some news! Until then, don’t forget to pick up your Welsh Open ticket!!!
See you next time!
The outro…
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Exile Rookies:
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Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes, Eric Gordon
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