The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
Before we start – can we take a moment for the image for this week’s blog? I asked for an AI generated image. Weird but I ran with it anyway!
It’s definitely been a funny old week this week.
First up – the decorating. No, it isn’t finished (not quite anyway). This has meant several evenings of getting home after work, cooking dinner, immediately getting to work on the room until around 11pm and then going to bed. I’m exhausted and sick of it.
The room, however, is starting to look great.
We’ve gone from this:
To this:
To this so far:
There’s been tons of hurdles along the way but we’re really pleased with how it looks.
Anyway, this isn’t the content you’re here for! Let’s get to some X-Wing!
First up I’ll mention XTC. I know I’ve been quiet about it since the group stage finished (and Wales was no longer involved!). It’s long been known that it’s quite hard to keep up to date with what’s happening in XTC if you’re not directly involved and this has definitely been a strange year with two sets of points now available to use.
In previous years the finals were held over a single weekend with 10 teams playing 9 games in simultaneous rounds. It was exciting and was great for streaming and you would know the outcome by the end of the weekend. However, with teams from VERY extreme time zones playing it became very challenging to schedule with player in the Americas starting Friday night and playing overnight while Oceania based player would start Saturday afternoon and be playing into work time on the Monday.
To combat this the finals were changed to play similar to the group stage but slightly truncated. For each round you’d have 3/4 days to complete. With 8 teams in the finals this time it meant that finals would take 3 1/2 weeks instead of 2 days but would be MUCH less disruptive to life/work/sleep schedules for players involved.
So the finals started in October and (after MUCH discussion) stuck with the AMG points. The result? Well, after each team played each other the eventual winners are:
TEAM FRANCE!
Congratulations to Aurelian and his team, deserved world champions of team X-Wing!
If you’d like to see lists and result breakdowns you can see those here.
Coming a bit closer to home we are holding a tournament soon!
On Saturday the 23rd of November at Sin City Comics & Gaming we’re holding a 4 round store tournament!
Tickets have been tricky as the shop’s website has been down for the last week. I’m hoping it’ll be back up soon, I’ll be spamming the ticket link all over the usual places as soon as it’s back!
Lastly in news for this week, in my role as OP Prize Lead in the XWA I have some exciting news! The first batch of wave 0 tournament kits is almost ready to start sending out!
If you have filled out a form to apply for a kit then you should have received an email in the last few days outlining what’s happening next. If you haven’t had that email (but did fill out a form) then please reach out to me directly.
If you haven’t yet filled out the form but would like to get your hands on this lovely set of cards then please check out the image below and scan the QR code!
Alright, I’m pretty sure that’s it for now, let’s get to the game!
The batrep… (JARGON ALERT!!)
As you may have guessed from the title, this past week I managed to get to Sin City to play X-Wing. In all honesty it’s been a little while and I was so glad to be able to get down to play.
The only other person able to come was the legend that is Steve Boulton. He was, however, able to get there early enough for us to sneak 2 games in. Excellent! Today I’ll be covering the first game and do the second game next week.
So, a quick recap on what I’m flying:
Wullffwarro – Auzituck Gunship (4)
Bo-Katan Kryze (Rebel/Scum) (4)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Miranda Doni – BTL-S8 K-wing (5)
Bistan (12)
Concussion Bombs (5)
Advanced SLAM (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Jan Ors – HWK-290 Light Freighter (5)
Moldy Crow (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Leebo” (YLF) – YT-2400 Light Freighter (6)
C-3PO (7)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Total: 20
View in YASB: https://yasb.app/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v9ZbZ20Z58XW426WY17XWW77WW355WW104Y46XWWWWWW156Y651XWW18WWW&sn=Unsaved%20Squadron&obs=
It’s somewhat slow and lumbering (sort of) but when you get it right it can pack a mean punch. It isn’t great but it’s great fun!
Steve had decided to steal two lists from the recent Cornish Nationals, namely the two lists that made the finals.
First up he was flying Sam Cooper’s CIS droid swarm list:
Geonosian Prototype – HMP Droid Gunship (3)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Kraken (6)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 4
Geonosian Prototype – HMP Droid Gunship (3)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Synced Laser Cannons (6)
Repulsorlift Stabilizers (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 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
Haor Chall Prototype – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/2) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Haor Chall Prototype – 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
Cad Bane – Rogue-class Starfighter (4)
Proton Cannons (5)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Xanadu Blood (0)
DRK-1 Probe Droids (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
I haven’t faced a droid swarm in, well, I’m not sure how long actually. A pretty long time. Years at least. That said, I do listen to Tin Squadron’s Out of the Mines podcast and have heard Sam talking about this list. Obviously that doesn’t mean that I actually know what I’m doing against it but it can’t hurt, right?
Right, time to look at the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Assault at the Satellite Array
Target/Objective Priority – Ummm…. maybe the Kraken carrying HMP? Reducing the ship count is pretty important though.
Obstacles – Tricky. A tight cluster is what I want but in this scenario in particular, I feel this favours the droids. Let’s see how that pans out.
Deployment – Ugh, my biggest issue with my list. I want to bomb Wulfwarro to switch on his ability but getting it right is my issue.
We place objectives, obstacles and ships and we’re ready to go!
Turn 1
Ok, I’ve already messed this up I think. I wasn’t fully paying attention. My thought was to flank to the right with Leebo but I didn’t notice until ships were placed that the droids are all facing to my right, NOT towards me. Idiot. Had I realised that then I’d have placed Leebo to the left of Miranda instead. Still, can’t change it now.
I can’t risk Leebo being shelled to death by droids so he will hard turn left. Miranda will hard turn right and reload, Wulfwarro stay still to take the bomb and Jan bank 1 left to slot in behind Leebo.
ROAD 1st player – me
Miranda drops a bomb and immediately I see an issue. Is Leebo taking the bomb? Eesh. Leebo moves, and will, in fact, take the bomb. Balls.
Wulfwarro stops, Miranda hard turns (and reloads), Jan banks left.
311 hard turns right but surprisingly, the rest of the droids go straight and calculate. Cad goes straight to stay out to my left flank.
Wulfwarro and Leebo take the bomb and also a strain to keep it face down. There’s no shooting so back to dials we go.
Turn 2
Interesting. I’d expected a hard turn in from the droids so I guess we’ll have another turn before engaging. Since objectives are live I want to make sure I’m tagging at least 2. Jan will bank right to get in range of the bottom right one while Miranda will go straight for the bottom left and get in position to turn into the middle the next turn. Leebo will go straight while Wulfwarro will do the same to start getting into the middle.
ROAD 1st player – Steve
This time the droids do turn in. Kraken has allowed a few to now be double calculating. 311 hard turns to land on the rock which he will now call home.
Leebo slides up to Miranda (but doesn’t bump!) and calculates. Cad slowly banks in towards the middle before Miranda and Wulfwarro go forwards. Jan then banks right and focuses.
No shots again this turn (unusual for 2.5!) and while I’ve got 2 objectives, Steve is just short of claiming the top right one.
End of turn score: 2 (me) – 1 (Steve)
Turn 3
I don’t want Jan t get smashed up so she’ll hard turn in to the middle. Wulfwarro and Miranda will move in closer while Leebo wi ll bank right (slowly) to try and keep range 3 and kite around the outside.
ROAD 1st player – me
Steve’s droids now split into 2 groups with 3 vultures angling in towards Jan while and other vulture and the 2 HMPs bank right. DFS stays on the rock. Rather a lot of locks are taken with the probe droids that Car has been throwing out.
Leebo banks right and calculates and then Miranda banks in and focuses. Wulfwarro goes straight and while I contemplate the reinforce he focuses.
Cad banks right and rolls into a focus to get bullseye on Miranda. Jan hard turns and focuses into a red rotate which I immediately regret as it means I can’t use her ability. Oops.
Jan just about has range on Cad and it looks like I’ll have 4 shots into him so I decide to go for it. It doesn’t go too well as Car lives on 2 hull.
In response Steve fires 5 shots into Miranda and the K-Wing dies. Not ideal. As a result Steve gets the central objective too.
End of turn score: 2 – 8
Total score: 4 – 9
Turn 4
Ok, when facing a swarm it’s normal for the swarm to lose ships easily, not the other way around!
Leebo is rather locked in to the flank while both my other ships will go straight.
ROAD 1st player – me
Steve’s right hand group tries to swing in but the back right vulture bumps and takes a damage. One vulture dives into the middle while the two HMPs hang back a little. Cad also comes in to the middle.
Leebo banks right to even up his angle and (of course) calculates. Wulfwarro continues straight and again focuses while Jan goes over the top of the Auzituck and focuses.
This engagement turns out to be tricky. Jan fires her turret into the i1 Vulture (since Cad’s used his Proton Cannon shot and is a 2 dice gun this turn) and does 1 damage. Wulfwarro can’t be powered up by Jan so shoots range 2 into Cad and leaves him on 1 hull.
Cad fires at the Auzituck and takes 1 shield. Not terrible. Leebo really wants to kill Cad but I figure that the vulture could do more damage to Jan than I’d like so it’s a 5 dice shot (3 primary, add 1 for the title, add 1 but stressing Jan) into the 2 health vulture with a Juke effect from the title and the vulture dies. Nice.
Steve only has one other shot which is obstructed into Wulfwarro and it misses.
Crucially, both Jan AND Wulf are in range 1 of the middle objective so with the droid dead, that’s my point, along with Leebo’s.
End of turn score: 4 – 2
Total score: 8 – 11
Turn 5
That was a decent bit of catching up. I just need to make sure I keep up on objectives and keep killing droids.
Leebo will go fast this time to hopefully dodge some incoming fire. Jan will go straight to clear the stress while Wulfwarro will stop because I think there could be some droids incoming.
ROAD 1st player – Steve
Steve decides to go objective hunting. One of the right hadn droids swings out to the bottom right while the one parked on a rock stays put (as does 311 in the top left). The HMPs both head in Leebo’s direction while Cad takes a 5-k (JARGON ALERT!! over the top of Wulfwarro.
Of course, that 5-k looks all the more impressive when Wulfwarro doesn’t move. Jan moves and while I don’t want to rotate, I have to try and shoot the Rogue class.
Leebo’s 4 straight puts him out of 311’s arc but the 2 gunships both have him.
Here we go then. Jan takes the 2 dice range 3 shot into Cad. It’s 2 paint and I spend the focus. Cad rolls…..blanks! And dies! An initiative kill that swings the game pretty hard.
Wulfwarro rolls 5 dice into the droid in front of him and one-shots it despite the lack of tokens. Ouch.
The two HMP’s put shots into Leebo but the YT-2400’s absolutely nonsense abilities (namely C-3PO) mean Steve does just 1 damage.
Leebo then fires range 1 into 311 and does one damage. It’s 2-2 on objectives again but my ship destruction has now put me ahead.
End of turn score: 8 – 2
Total score: 16 – 13
Turn 6
Ok, how to get over the line here? Leebo is still pretty healthy. He will bank right to keep getting shots into 311 and claim (or contest) the top right objective. Wulfwarro will gun for the parked vulture top right.
Jan isn’t especilly useful where she is except to claim the objective but given the score, that’s useful enough.
ROAD 1st player – me
Steve’s bottom right vulture will just continue to claim the bottom right objective. Top right stays on the rock to do the same and so does 311.
Leebo banks and calculates while the HMPs now shift target, chasing Jan.
Wulfwarro leaps forwards and focuses before Jan banks gently right and does the same.
Jan takes a rear arc pot shot at one of the HMPs (though I can’t remember which) and does nothing. Wulfwarro takes a swing at the vulture and deals 2 damage to it. The HMP’s both roll at Jan and do 2 damage, leaving her on 2.
There are 2 vultures with shots into Wulfwarro and each one takes 1 shield.
Nothing dies but with Wulfwarro now in range to contest the top right objective and us both claiming two, the result is pretty much set and Steve calls it.
End of turn score: 2 – 2
Final Result: 18 – 15 win
The conclusion…
This was a very interesting game.
Despite going behind early (and in ship count as well as points), my high damage output brought it back fairly quickly. Once Steve’s energy shells had been fired his ships failed to do enough damage to the rest of my list and got punished for it.
I also find it interesting that Steve’s list being very low initiative meant that my usual initiative disadvantage was now flipped to be an asset with 2 ships being destroyed before they were able to take what could have been decent shots into my ships.
Now granted, Steve was flying a pretty new list to him while I’ve had a few reps with mine now (we won’t mention the self-bombing of Leebo right now….) but clearly had a plan with the deployment and has flown these ships before.
Overall it was a very enjoyable game and while I did get away with a few mistakes, it was really fun to play and performed as it has the potential to.
I’m pretty short on time and the blog is already late so I’ll leave it here for now.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again next week!
The outro…
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