The intro…
Welcome to this week’s blog! There is a lot to cover this week and I mean a LOT.
Alright, let’s get started.
First of all WORLDS HAPPENED!
I was jealous from well before the event began as I started seeing posts about what people were taking (in terms of swag to give out) and then the airport and dinner posts started. People from various different corners of the world meeting up, eating amazing looking food and having a great time together.
Then the event started. And it was glorious.
Now, I’m sure at some point we all actually wondered whether Worlds would ever even happen again. I know I did. The game switching to AMG who (at the time) had no OP for their existing game raised some interesting (and worrying) questions.
But last year we got the confirmation and now, all of sudden it’s been and gone!
Now I won’t go too deep into results or lists or whatever (except to say that TWO Rebel lists made it to the top 4!) because I’m very sure that podcasts and blogs and posts in various places will cover it all and that’s fine. I do want to say a HUGE congratulations to Niklas God for winning such a huge event and becoming the world champ! I think sales of dice cups will soar in the coming weeks!
I want to give a very special mention to Gold Squadron Podcast for streaming the whole event and viewing figures of over 1400 during the final shows that interest in X-Wing is still very much alive and well!
I’ve spoken to Steve Boulton who attended and he and his son Alex had a FANTASTIC time and would highly recommend going. I hope to squeeze more details from him over the next few weeks!
I also want to post this little gem that came through our group chat on Wednesday evening:
The whole things looked from afar like it was amazing and it’s got me thinking that next year maybe I could try and go. That would be EPIC!
In the mean time, to scratch my big tournament itch I’ll have to settle on the Welsh Open (subtle segue, right?!)!
Tickets are available here if you want to come along!
Alright, moving on to the next topic – NEW PRODUCTS!
Now, I have to admit, I have been very close recently to drafting some sort of open letter blog post directed at AMG. I understand development timescales and the like but in all honesty, getting new content out has been far too slow and, in my area at least, that has been affecting potential growth for the game. Our store hasn’t had a core set for well over 2 years and the X-Wing section has been getting smaller and been moved somewhere more obscure than when I first started playing.
Now, I get it from the store’s point of view. No new product and the same people attending all the time to play equals less sales so give the prime space to popular things.]
That’s why the new faction starter sets were VITAL if AMG were going to follow through on the comments made over a year ago when they said they wanted the game to be around for another 10 years and more.
And finally, following a leak, we got the news…
Honestly, I can’t describe the relief that I feel now that these are announced. The release date is the end of May too so it isn’t all that long to wait.
The big question I had was about the contents and namely, will they design the packs in a way that existing players will want to buy them. I was torn over this as on the one hand I don’t need more models (far from it!), dice, rulers or any of the other stuff in the box and if I can avoid buying them that’s great for my pocket.
On the other hand? Well AMG are a company who are there to make money. The more successful they are, the longer they will commit to developing the game and if I can contribute towards that by buying one of these then I will have to accept that.
That question has been answered, first by the reveal of some standardised loadout cards that aren’t found in the Battle of Yavin packs and also by the inclusion of the TIE Bomber in the Imperial box which has never had an official black box 2.0 release!
I don’t look forward to spending out but I will do it for the reason I gave above, my continuing to spend money on this game will help it live longer.
I’m also looking forward to these packs lining up on shelves in Firestorm Games and attracting some new players to our store!
But wait…
AMG held a panel during the Sunday of Adepticon where yet more stuff was announced! Info on the Store Championship kits, mention of Regionals, a new Scenario pack – Children of Mandalore – as well as the (apparently?!) already announced sequel faction scenario (Starkiller Base something or other) there was talk of the Battle over Endor pack to celebrate the 40th anniversary.
Wow!
AND I’M STILL NOT DONE!
There are also 2.0 black box releases coming this year for the TIE Bomber and for….
THAT’S RIGHT!!!! Yes, the ability is nerfed (pretty hard, actually!) but it will be amazing to get the YT-2400 back on the table. As a bonus, it’ll also be available in the Scum faction too!
There was a cheeky little slide right at the end of the presentation with images of the Alpha Class Star Wing. Draw your own conclusions there!
All in all it’s a big relief that there’s finally some ‘new’ content announced. I get that some people are disappointed that there’s not brand new ships. I feel it too. But in the grand scheme of things what X-Wing needs is a new way to get new players in before it bulking out into brand new content. New players first, the rest will follow.
*******LAST MINUTE EDIT!!*******
I’ve just become aware of this message posted out on the Carloina Krayts Discord server:
Hey @X-Wing what an amazing worlds! I know that you all are probably pretty X-winged out, but Launch Bay Next is looking for help with server costs. I have attached the message that he sent out below. I know that there are a lot of us that use it pretty regularly and Andre has provided a pretty great service for us. If you can, please donate to help him keep the app and website running. You can support him at his Patreon or Paypal below https://www.patreon.com/andrelind https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/launchbaynext
Community built squad builders are ESSENTIAL for keeping the game going (I mean, nobody wants to scour PDF’s to build lists do they?!) so if you are able, can I join the voices asking to give some support to LBN? I know I will be.
Right, I think (hope?!) that’s it for the intro. Time for some games, right?
The batrep(s)… (JARGON ALERT!!)
‘What’s that?’ You ask? Plural? Multiple games?!
Yes, with my STO posts taking a few weeks I now have 2 games with the same list that I’ve played and want to talk about. As a result these (probably) won’t be full blow by blow accounts but I won’t promise that. Let’s see how we go!
Following my, err, average (below average, technically) showing at STO Iw as ready to move on from the Ghost Rebel list. It was really fun and could punch things REALLY hard but the Ghost burns quickly, Fenn offers little to no damage output and Cracken is a bit hit and miss.
I was all ready to move on to a different faction and try something totally new. Then I looked at the ONLY Rebel list to make the top 16 at STO flown by Chris Bobby:
Ezra Bridger (Gauntlet Fighter) (7)
Compassion (1)
Hopeful (1)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Veteran Tail Gunner (3)
Nightbrother (0)
Swivel Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (6/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Arvel Crynyd (3)
Predator (2)
Crack Shot (3)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Magva Yarro (5)
Leia Organa (7)
The Child (7)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Saw Gerrera (5)
Hopeful (1)
Kanan Jarrus (12)
Jyn Erso (5)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (18/18) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
Tw U-Wings?!? Crazy. The more I looked, the more I liked the idea. The Ezra build is different to what I’d been running but to add two medium base ships was very cool and fits in with my play style.
Now, my initial thought was to replace Saw with Cassian to a) make them all i3 and b) remove stress from Ezra with no damage penalty.
However, when pulling components together I wasn’t able to find my Cassian base plate and so I stuck with Saw.
Not only that but I’ve been enjoying the Keo experiment and still feel I’ve got more to learn there so kept him instead of taking Arvel.
After these tweaks (plu a few more), this is what I had:
Ezra Bridger (Gauntlet Fighter) (7)
Notorious (5)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Veteran Tail Gunner (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Nightbrother (0)
Swivel Wing (0)
Hera Syndulla (4)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Magva Yarro (5)
Jyn Erso (5)
Ursa Wren (6)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Saw Gerrera (5)
Hopeful (1)
The Child (7)
Leia Organa (7)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (18/18) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Keo Venzee (3)
Crack Shot (3)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (4)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Now, could I make it work without having watched a stream of it?
Game 1 – Steve Boulton
With his Worlds prep in full flow I lined up against Steve on a Wednesday night. Right before we played each other in the team event at the STO he told me that every time we’d played each other over the last few months I’d won each time. It’s weird because I hadn’t caught that at all but I guess we don’t when we’re on that side of it? I could tell you several people who I’ve never beaten.
Anyway, Steve is a lovely bloke and and a good player and I couldn’t begrudge him winning at all.
What’s he rocking? Well, it’s FO nonsense:
“Midnight” (4)
Elusive (2)
Swarm Tactics (5)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Whirlwind” (4)
Fanatical (1)
Elusive (2)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Advanced Optics (5)
Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Commander Malarus (3)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Scorch” (3)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Lieutenant Galek (3)
Elusive (2)
Ion Cannon (6)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
DT-798 (3)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
So that’s a bunch of low cost, high efficiency, high agility ships which can roll more dice than they should a fair amount of the time.
Nasty.
Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Assault at the Satellite Array
Target/Objective Priority – My medium & large ships will give me an advantage on claiming provided I can put them in the right places. I want to blow things up too but high agility will likely make that tricky.
Obstacles – Spread wide would be ideal. If I can park ships where they can claim two objectives then that would be perfect but it’s not likely- I’ll get that.
Deployment – With this being a new list this will be down to experimentation. I do NOT want bumping. I DO want places I can claim and stay still. This will depend pretty highly on objective and obstacle placement.
We put down objective, obstacles and ships and we’re ready to start.
Turn 1
With Steve’s ships all bunched up in a corner and a nice big space on the left hand side of the board I want to get up into position quickly. It’s 4 straights for Ezra and Saw and a 3 for Magva. Keo will 5 straight and roll away.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Like I said, we’re going short mode here today. No shooting and no scoring but this is how we lined up ready for turn 2:
Turn 2
Now, I find this really interesting because when I look at this picture and I think back to what I did, I have NO idea why I did it. Well, with one ship at least.
The Gauntlet and 2 U’s bank in at various speeds, looking to converge for the following turn but Keo….
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
I can only think it was to block Steve (which, looking back, there was no chance) or maybe stake a cheeky claim on that middle objective but, well, I launched Keo forwards with abandon.
With the exception of Galek, Steve brought all his ships in towards where Keo had ended up…
This goes EXACTLY how you’re already expecting it to go – Keo dies.
BUT it takes all of Steve’s shots to do it and Keo survives to i3 to take a shot himself. He chips a damage onto DT and Magva nicks a shield from Whirlwind. Not a great trade but at least I did something.
We get two objectives each but Steve has bagged himself an extra 3 points for taking out Keo.
End of turn score: 2 (me) – 5 (Steve)
Turn 3
Now my real guns are in the fight though. I bank in with Ezra, go 1 straight with Saw and stop with Magva. I’ve got to catch something in this killbox, right?
ROAD 1st Player – Me
We’ve both committed to the joust as Steve steers most of his ships in front of mine with the excepting of Galek who is going all in on the flank on Ezra.
The onslaught of damage from higher initiative ships definitely had me worried. Thankfully Ezra’s reinforce saved him from an early death but he lost shields AND took 6 damage cards. Big ow.
The return fire was BRUTAL though as shenanigans from Magva’s ability, Saw’s ability ADN Ezra’s all came into play at various points in the round. When you add in Ursa Wren, a sneaky Contraband focus for Magva and Notorious on Ezra it all culminated in Steve losing DT AND Scorch.
Redemption.
We still scored 2 objective each meaning…
End of turn score: 8 – 2
Total score: 10 – 7
Turn 4
A decent swing! Now all I had to do was keep my ships alive….
Steve still had 3 full health ships and was 1 shield down on Whirlwind while Ezra was limping but the U-Wings were ok.
It was time for some nonsense and to leverage my low initiative.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Ezra ploughed forwards, cleared his stress and took a reinforce to front. Saw and Magva both stopped (with a Leia trigger).
Galek approached where Ezra had been but still had him in arc. Whirlwind bugged out but rotated their turret (I forgot about those!!) while Malarus bumped and Midnight closed into range 1.
Now, there is no reasonable way that what happened next should have happened. Not a chance.
Somehow, somehow, Ezra survives this. Just.
Midnight does 2 damage and the reinforce cancels one. Malarus’ range 0 shot whiffs (JARGON ALERT!!) and Galek rolls ok at range 1 but that Gauntlet’s 2 agility helps out and takes a crit….. Fuel Leak. He lives!
Whirlwind goes for the killer blow with the turret shot but totally blanks out.
I should not have survived that.
I can’t recall exactly how the damage came about but we finish the turn with Midnight halved, Galek halved and Malarus down her shield.
Definitely favourable for me, that turn.
End of turn score: 1 – 0
Total score: 11 – 7
Turn 5
This game is still on a knife edge despite my slight advantage. Ezra is in real trouble of dying and giving up a chunk of points. That said, Steve’s positioning isn’t great. Maybe I can get away?
I set Ezra a 3 straight. Time is low and I’m not likely to go off the board. It’s time to push the objective play so I throw Saw forwards and hard turn Magva.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve (yes, that’s every turn except one PLUS setup).
Whirlwind hard turns and boosts, clearly going for the objective. Ezra goes 3 straight and since it’s not blue, takes a Nightbrother evade.- Magva’s hard turn lands neatly between the rocks AND two objectives. Lovely.
Saw’s straight move sits him in front of Midnight.
Galek turns for the top left while Malarus turns in the middle before Midnight bumps into Saw.
There’s some limited shooting but nothing dies here. I manage to pick up 3 objectives to Steve’s 2 and the game is done.
End of turn score: 3 – 2
Final score: 14 – 9 win
Mini conclusion…
You know, for a new list with unfamiliar triggers against a good player and known good ships, that’s pretty good!
Losing Keo early was a bit silly (and needless) but it’s not something I’m going to be tempted into again.
I perhaps need to make some adjustments to trigger order (and remembering Ursa Wren!) but on the whole, me likey!
Game 2 – Alex Jensterle
So with my bag already packed and a successful outing already, I decided to keep things the same for the next casual night.
This week I was flying against Alex. We’ve played each other A LOT in the past few months as we prepped for STO and I’ve come off second best every. Single. Time.
Now that’s no surprise to me for two main reasons. First, Alex is a very good player. He’s fallen short of doing well in a few tournaments recently by VERY fine margins. At the STO he lost a mirror match by dice which put him to 3-2. A win would have maybe put him in cut. At Gloucester he went 4-0 but came second on SoS and a few weeks ago in Cardiff he was 3-0 and made one ingle mistake with Anakin which lost the deciding game.
Secondly, he knows his list. He ONLY owns Republic and knows how to fly every ship and every pilot inside out and upside down. His Jedi play is amazing, always knowing where to go and seems to dodge arcs more effectively than I ever could.
When you add in that he’s a really nice bloke (unless you ask Mark Hall that is. He hasn’t gotten over Alex blocking his full health Boba Fett off the board in Cardiff….) it’s always a great game against Alex.
This time he’d changed up his list, dropping the ARCs that he’s been using and having a go with Faan Langelan’s winning STO list.
Anakin Skywalker (Delta-7b) (7)
Crack Shot (3)
R4-P17 (SoC) (0)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (11/15) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Obi-Wan Kenobi (5)
Elusive (2)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Contrail” (3)
Crack Shot (3)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Hawk” (5)
Dedicated (1)
Seventh Fleet Gunner (8)
Agile Gunner (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 5
Total: 20
View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Republic&d=v9ZhZ20Z528XWW116W490W165Y278XWW119WW200W165WY434X116WW165W337WY415X210WWWWW227W76W&sn=Faans&obs=
So that’s TWO high initiative Jedi to look out for now. Catching either of them with lower agility ships is going to be REALLY hard. I’d best take a look at the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Salvage Mission
Target/Objective Priority – Poor past experience has warned me against focusing down LAAT but Anakin is slippery and the other two are 3 agility so the LAAT is my best shot. Aside from that I need to try and leverage points from objectives. Not a strength of mine really.
Obstacles – Wide spread is good for me.
Deployment – I change it up a little this time, thinking more about objectives since all my ships go down first.
We place objectives, obstacles and ships and we’re ready to start.
Turn 1
I want to get up the board, past the bottom right objective to threaten the turn in. Keo will bank in. I want to claim that bottom left objective turn 2 and then turn in to use the Tracers. Obi-Wan’s presence there makes no difference to me really. If he thinks I’m threatening he can disappear or just take his time and then come in when I’ve turned in. There’s little I can do to stop it and I’m not going to send 3 ships in at him and ignore the others. Flippin Jedi….
ROAD 1st Player – Alex
Keo banks in while the other ships saunter forwards. Alex surprises me a bit with a fast approach from Hawk and even faster from Contrail. That angle towards Keo especially. Ani comes in straight while Obi unsurprisingly hard turns and rolls away.
No shots but interesting choices for turn 2…
Turn 2
Hmmm…… Let’s start with the easy ones. Ezra will 2 bank in and Magva (next to Ezra, sorry for the swapping of models between games!) will 1 straight and claim. Keo’s 2 straight and claim isn’t as clear now that Contrail might come in. After debating that move A LOT, I decide that discretion is the better part of valour and dial in a hard turn left instead.
I’m torn on Saw too. I can’t decide who Anakin is going to target and debate a stop but in the end go with a 1 straight.
ROAD 1st Player – Alex
Ezra banks in and reinforces to front, Magva 1 straights and picks up while Keo hard turns and picks up too.
Alex banks Hawk away and picks up the middle crate. Interesting.
Saw goes 1 straight but, seeing that Hawk’s turret is to the side, takes his focus as an evade thanks to Jyn crew.
Contrail hard turns left, boosts and links to a lock (which triggers Ursa on Magva, allowing him to take a lock on Anakin) before Obi hard turns left and rolls even further left way down in his corner.
Ani goes 2 straight, boosts straight to dodge Ezra’s arc and takes a focus for his action.
Saw might be in a spot of bother….
Anakin, Contrail and Hawk all fire at Saw but oh my word does it not work out for Alex. Magva prevents him rerolling more than 1 die on any given shot and after spending a Force from the Child and the evade (plus Hawk’s shot whiffing horribly), Saw loses just TWO SHIELDS from this engagement. That. Is. Mental.
Elsewhere Obi has caught Ezra and nicks a shield off the Gauntlet.
Anakin might have dodged Ezra and Magva but Saw smashes him in the face, taking 3 shields from him. Nasty.
Obi has managed to dodge Ezra but the Gauntlet does have the LAAT in arc and takes his shields off.
Overall, a SIGNIFICANTLY better turn for me than Alex.
End of turn score: 2 (me) – 1 (Alex)
Turn 3
An unexpectedly unbalanced turn in terms of damage output there. Quite how Saw tanked those three shots is beyond me.
So what now? Well, with Leia primed I’ve got plenty of options.
I decide to take a 2 turn left with Ezra. I might bump Anakin, I might not but either way, I think I’m ok with it.
Both U-Wings will stop and rotate. I’m totally not expecting to catch Anakin but I at least want to make him spend Force and actions to get out of it and if I can’t get him at least I can get the LAAT.
Lacking his reposition (due to the crate), Keo will hard turn and start threatening those tracers.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
I trigger Leia at the start of activation and Alex knows what’s coming. Keo hard turns around the rock and focuses. Magva stops and rotates, taking a focus. I’m annoyed at myself for not remembering Ezra is stressed and so I spend Contraband. He hard turns in and it seems Alex did NOT see that coming. It doesn’t bump and- after a little deliberation I get greedy (stupidly, more on that in a minute) and take a lock on Hawk.
Saw stops, closes wings and rotates towards Hawk, taking a focus as he does so.
Hawk obligingly banks in (having taken a deplete in the system phase to recharge Seventh Fleet Gunner) and takes a reinforce to the front.
Contrail banks past Saw and, not wanting to sit in arc of Ezra AND Magva, boosts right and takes a linked lock on Magva.
Obi streaks in with a 5 straight, boosts straight with Fine Tuned and takes a focus. Now the nonsense.
Anakin does a 5-K, lands with Saw in front arc at range 1 so loses the stress, rolls right with Fine Tuned and takes a lock on Saw.
******NG ANAKIN!!!!!!
Now, slight spoilers, this turn does NOT go as well for me as the last one.
Anakin launches into Saw but Magva doesn’t matter this time as Anakin rolls fire, putting 3 damage cards on, leaving Saw on 2 hull.
Contrail and Obi pour fire into Magva whose agility is reduced because of the closed wings. Magva loses 3 shields and takes 3 damage to hull, leaving her on 2 hull as well. Ouch.
Hawk can’t fire so it’s Saw to go next, firing at Hawk and putting 1 hit on. Keo goes next and I fire Tracers and immediately remember that Ezra took a lock. What a waste. Idiot.
It hits and Saw and Magva get locks too.
Ezra and Magva focus fire into Hawk and get him down to 4 hull left. Not great but it’s something I guess. Crucially there’s a crit (Weapons Failure) so while Magva kept hers, Alex now isn’t carrying any.
End of turn score: 2 – 0
Total score: 4 – 1
Turn 4
Right, time to think. What do I need to do here. I need to finish Hawk off. I’d like to hit Anakin some more but can I catch him? Moer to the point, will either U-Wing survive this round?
I set Keo a hard turn that I’m fairly certain doesn’t land on the rock. Everyone else stops. Saw and Magva can spend Contraband but Ezra can do it with Hera crew. Man, I love this build!
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Keo takes his hard turn and, well, I’ll show you.
Not bad eh? Keo takes a focus.
Magva stops and rotates again, pointing back at Obi-Wan. Ezra stops and rotates to point at Magva. Saw stops but does NOT rotate, still pointing at Hawk.
Hawk obligingly goes 2 straight at Saw but doesn’t bump and takes a red reinforce to REAR (expecting Ezra I think).
Contrail hard turns away from Magva and just about manages to reach the objective and picks it up. Cheeky.
Obi-Wan banks in at my ships and then barrel rolls right to not only dodge Ezra’s arc completely but line up a very tasty bullseye shot.
Anakin 1 banks at Magva (NOT what I expected) and takes a lock.
Now, here is where things don’t go as a I quite expected.
Anakin fires at Magva and whiffs AGAIN. The pilot ability prevents him making full use of the lock and he does just 1 damage. ONE. Magva lives! But drops the box as it’s a crit. Ah well.
Alex debates whether to shoot Ezra or Saw with Obi but greed gets the better of him, he can’t pass up the 5 dice shot (2 dice primary, + 1 for range 1, +1 for 7th fleet then add the eyeball with CLT).
In the end he gets 4 results and Ezra’s reduced agility and lack of reinforce means he takes them all. Shields down and 3 damage cards it is.
With Contrail facing away and Hawk weapons disabled, it’s my turn.
Saw goes first and absolutely smashes Hawk with 4 paint out of hand, spends the focus for 4. Alex blanks and the LAAT is dead. Nice.
I decide to go with Keo next with a pot shot Tracer shot at Anakin but it doesn’t hit. Ezra tries as well and does a little better as he takes Ani’s last shield. Magva’s shot is into Contrail (maybe I’ll crit him?!) and takes a shield but it isn’t a crit.
End of turn score: 6 – 1
Total score: 10 – 2
Turn 5
Ok, time to look at this. How do I win? Basically, don’t lose more than one ship, I think. So how do I achieve that?
I’ll set Ezra to stop again. I think Saw is looking a little vulnerable potentially but he’s only got Obi to hit him with realistically. The chances of him getting a shot into Ezra that does 6 damage is very, VERY slim. The chances of him doing 2 damage to Saw though? Pretty good, actually.
I set Keo a 3 hard turn, hoping to block Obi as he comes over Ezra. After looking for AGES, I think a 3 bank will clear over the top of Keo’s 3 hard. Will it be enough?
I’ll 1 bank Magva left. If Obi-Wan has turned in that way then it should block it.
And what about Ezra? Hmmm…. Another stop I think. Will I rotate though? probably not. I’m unlikely to kill Obi, Anakin is my best shot I think.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Ok then, here we go!
Magva banks at Obi and focuses, taking it as an evade with Jyn.
Keo 3 hards over the top of Saw and takes an evade.
Ezra stops. I can’t remember if there was an action or not but I’m pretty sure I just took a damage with Hera and no action.
Saw 3 banks over the top of Keo and takes a focus as an evade too. Is it enough?
Contrail takes a 3-K.
Obi-Wan goes for the 5 straight to chase Saw. Now, it’s good in that Keo gets the block but actually, it’s REALLY good because with a clear 5 straight he could possibly have repositioned and got the CLT and taken a lock. Maybe. He takes the red focus.
Anakin 5-k’s (again!!), removes the stress and spends a force to roll, getting out of Ezra’s arc.
Anakin shoots first and straight up murders Magva. 5 points down.
Now, I missed a trigger here but I’ll get back to that in a minute.
Contrail doesn’t have a shot any more but Obi-Wan takes his shot into Saw. It’s terrible though and, with the help of that evade, he lives!
No more damage is done and the game is over.
End of turn score: 1 – 6
Total score: 11 – 8 win
Mini conclusion…
So first of all, I beat Alex!
Wooooo!
The trigger that I missed is that when Magva died I could have boosted Saw using Hopeful. How bad would I have felt about that has Saw died?!? Still, I think I did ok overall although rotating the U-Wings and reducing their agility feels pretty bad when punished as hard as they were here.
It was a great game though!
The conclusion…
Ok, so having looked at changing faction and maybe looking at Scum or Imperial or maybe even getting my head around Republic a bit more, this list that was just supposed to be a little experiment has actually hooked me.
There’s very little chance of losing all three of the bigger ships given the usual turn count of games at the moment which helps me give up less points and three 3 dice guns can be pretty decent for dishing out damage.
This is fun, can be tanky, works well on objectives and can push out some decent damage (once I get my triggers in the right order!). I think I might keep this for a little while!
I’m still a little undecided on whether to swap out Saw for Cassian. Partly because having one higher initiative is nice but partly because Saw’s ability is offensive which balances Magva’s defensive one. Then again, with free locks for Magva AND Tracers in the mix, do I really need Saw’s rerolls? Also Cassian’s loadout is lower and so I’d have to look at what upgrades to drop. Some stuff to ponder there I think.
I’ve definitely wittered on for far too long already this week. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next time!
The outro…
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