The intro…
Well hello! Welcome to this week’s blog!
In case anyone’s interested in the redecorating which (no exaggeration) has dominated my life the last 3 weeks. We are basically done but need to change some décor (light fitting, curtains, rug, etc). Overall though, we’re SUPER happy with how it’s turned out. I just wish it hadn’t taken us so long!
What do we have in the way of news? Well, there’s been a GT in the UK!
The Hemel Hempstead GT happened this past weekend with 24 players in attendance. With this being an official OP event it was obviously using the newer AMG points (as of September) and while it’s maybe unsurprising that Rebel and Empire were the most popular factions it was also interesting that nobody took CIS while in AMG points they are very popular and performing well.
Congratulations to Dave Hammond for taking his Rebel list to the win and an honourable mention to Ian Wardle for getting the the final with a VCX!
In case you’re interested, you can see lists and results on the Roll Better page but remember, they’re AMG points!
And lastly on the tournament front this is THE FINAL CALL FOR NEWPORT! Yes, the tournament that’s felt like it’s AGES away since we planned a date is now upon us! If you can make it to Newport on Saturday the 23rd of November then you are invited to join us at Sin City Comics & Games in Newport Retail Park!
Doors open at 9:30 for a 10:30 1st round with 4 rounds of swiss (and no cut).
I’ll be posting some pictures of prizes (including some lovely things sent by Dwight Lindsay from Lock N Roll!) in the Facebook event page which, incidentally, is also how you can book your ticket! Sadly Sin City’s website is undergoing an overhaul so tickets can be booked by messaging me or commenting on the FB event page and paying by Paypal.
We can’t wait to see you there!
Other than that it’s been fairly quiet in X-Wing land of late.
I do have a quick XWA update for you though, we are very close to having the Wave 0 tournament kits ready to go so if you’ve had an email or Discord DM from me then please remember to reply so I’ve got all your information ready when we’re good to go.
Lastly, yes, that’s another AI generated picture at the top. AI is doing some very weird stuff!
The batrep(s)… (JARGON ALERT!!)
Ok, so last week’s title (as with this week’s) indicated I played two games. The only problem was, I only had time to write about one of them
The irony is, this week I played 1 game but I’m planning (hoping!) to write about the second of the first two games and then the game from this past week.
Does that make sense?
Ok, to avoid confusion (too late!) I’ll just get started.
My list is the same as it has been for a while now.
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=
The aim is to throw lots of red dice and see what sticks. Fun when it works out.
As usual when covering multiple games they won’t be quite as ‘turn by turn’ as a single game is (otherwise we’d be here until 2025!).
Alrighty then, let’s get started!
Game 1 – Steve Boulton
Having tried out Sam Cooper’s Cornish Nationals winning CIS list against me in the previous game, Steve now switch over to Chris Burnett’s finalist list
Rey – Scavenged YT-1300 (7)
Compassion (1)
Heroic (2)
Rose Tico (9)
Finn (9)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (21/21) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Poe Dameron (HoH) – T-70 X-wing (5)
Heroic (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Heavy Laser Cannon (5)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Zorii Bliss – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (4)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Wartime Loadout (0)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Pammich Nerro Goode – Resistance Transport (4)
Synced Laser Cannons (6)
Leia Organa (Resistance) (10)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (16/17) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
Hmm… High initiative, heavy hitting and reasonable amount of health to chew through. This is not a good match up for me…
Let’s look at the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Chance Engagement
Target/Objective Priority – Maybe Rey? With most of my ships moving first I don’t know that I’ll get a huge say in what pops up in front of me!
Obstacles – A tight cluster to help Leebo get the ‘Juke’
Deployment – Together as before so that Miranda can activate Wulf’s ability.
We place the objective, obstacles and ships and we’re good to go!
Where I seem to be falling down with this list is in turn 0. I had initially planned to send Leebo straight but with all of Steve’s ships being so far, now changed my mind and hard turned him in to thread the needle through the middle.
The result? A self bomb turn 1. Again.
With hindsight it’s VERY clear that Leebo should have gone straight and not just because of the bomb.
Steve played out of his corner slower than I expected and while that scored me 2 bonus points as he was too far out of the middle, it meant that I would be leaving the middle as he arrived
As Leebo took a turn getting out of the middle, Rey and Zorii just about got arc on Miranda and took half of her heath for nothing in return.
She survived by zooming into Zorii’s face and then SLAMming past to arc dodge but that left the Auzituck exposed.
Poor old Wulfwarro bit the dust but not before getting in this absolute banger of a shot….
Sometimes it’s just not your day is it!
I had rolled some shots into Zorii and brough her down to 1 health but with one of my ships already gone and another bleeding Steve sensibly disengaged with the Y-Wing and focused down his next target.
Jan was the next ships to evaporate in one round of fire as I desperately failed to do anything of significance in reply.
In practice it was 6 points (me) to 8 going in to that turn but even swiping half points on Pammich couldn’t really compensate for going 8 – 15 down.
The next turn I failed to get a ship in range 2 of the middle, giving up 2 more points, and then losing half points on Leebo as Poe and Rey pincered a killbox sealed my fate
Result: 9 – 21 loss
Mini conclusion…
Given Steve’s higher initiative and identical ship count, this wasn’t really a matchup that I felt I could win. My list is rather dependant on dice variance going my way at the best of times and in this game it didn’t really happen for me.
I definitely could have done better and of course bombing Leebo was really not the best way to kick things off.
Still, on to the next game eh?
Game 2 – Josh Hall
Josh was freshly off the back of making the top cut at Cornish Nationals himself (which, to be honest, has made me feel better about not being ablet o beat him with my list!).
Kylo Ren – TIE/vn Silencer (6)
Brilliant Evasion (2)
Predator (3)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (6/8) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
“Blackout” – TIE/vn Silencer (6)
Daredevil (4)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (16/17) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
“Recoil” – TIE/vn Silencer (5)
Marksmanship (2)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
“Static” – TIE/fo Fighter (3)
Marksmanship (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (5)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
I know what Josh wants to do with this list – annihilate something in turn 1 – but can I actually stop him from doing it? Let’s hit the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Assault at the Satellite Array
Target/Objective Priority – Kill Silencers. Preferably Kyo.
Obstacles – A tight cluster for the Leebo effect. Though I later changed my mind.
Deployment – Same as before but again, I later change my mind.
We sort out turn 0 and are ready to get going
Yes, the Silencers had already decloaked with Sensor Scramblers when I took the pic!
Now, my initial thoughts following my last game against Josh was to use the rocks to my advantage. After all, he can’t rush me turn 1 with a 5 straight if it puts him over a rock, right?
Well, clearly that doesn’t work when you the cluster said rocks.
Bearing in mind that the last time we played it was just a point or two in it, I was hoping that the benefit of hindsight might help me out here.
Spoilers – it didn’t.
Once again, Leebo took the bomb meant ONLY for Wulfwarro. That’s 3 games in a row people. Three. Games.
Once again I SLAMmed Miranda because once again I wanted to put Jan into the space the Miranda had already taken. The result? Same as the last time, Miranda ended up being targeted and unable to shoot because of the disarm
Now in a way, my plan here actually worked. Josh was only able to get 2 shots off in the initial engagement and Miranda didn’t die. the problem was that I followed this up with some very poor judgement.
Miranda banked left and then SLAMmed to get out of the way but ended up on the top middle rock (although she arc dodged so….) meanwhile Leebo managed a block onto the Silencer furthest right (Recoil I think?) but that was rather balanced by my opting to stop with Jan when Miranda hadn’t reloaded her bomb.
A further bomb follow by a poorly judged bank by Jan meant that HWK actually died with both shields intact. Never seen that before!
Jan was dead, Miranda and Wulfwarro were bleeding. What had I done in reply? I’d halved Kylo.
Wulfwarro bit the dust next while Josh tried hunting down Miranda and I got Kylo down to 1 hull.
This was where Static took out 2 hull Miranda (because of course I rolled blanks at range 3 from a 2 dice shot!) and Josh, out of pity I think, rolled his 1 health Kylo into Leebo’s range and obliginly died to give the score a little more respoectability.
Final result: 12 – 20 loss
The conclusion…
Two games, across 2 weeks and 2 losses.
When you look at what both opposing lists have in common you’ll notice:
- The ship count is the same as my list
- The initiative is almost exclusively higher than my list
- The damage output is roughly equivalent to my list over the course of the game
So what’s the conclusion here?
Well, it’s that my list, while fun, isn’t all that competitive.
Do I care?
Maybe a little bit? After all, getting bashed for 4 games in a row this coming Saturday is probably not all that fun. Then again, if I can get a win or two with it, isn’t there some sense of achievement with a list that’s probably quite disadvantaged against what other people are likely flying?
On the whole whether I change or not will come down to two main things.
- Can I find something that looks good?
- Can I find the time to re-pack my case?
Two big questions considering that at time of writing the Newport tournament is 5 days away and I’ve maybe got 1 game to test with.
What do you think I should do?
That’s all from me for today. I will be back next week with a report from our tournament. Remember, if you’d like to come and play then drop me a message or comment in the Facebook event page and I’ll get your name added!
The outro…
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