The intro…
Hello there! Welcome to this week’s blog!
This is a SUPER short one today because, well…
THE SITH TAKERS OPEN 2026 HAPPENED!
And I am exhausted both physically and mentally and there’s just NO time.
Before I get to that I do need to make an official correction and a formal apology.
Last week I spoke about Andrew Lippens and the podcast that he and Greg Kashmanian have recently started.
In my rush to get the blog finished I said that the podcast was…
Well. Balls.
That’s clearly a typo and it is the NCX (Nickel City X-Wing Podcast).
And when did I hear about this typo? Was it when I saw Andrew at STO several times over? Absolutely not.
It’s when I was mercilessly (and quite rightly) ribbed for it on the latest podcast episode which, as I was on holiday, I didn’t hear until AFTER I got home from STO.
So I will go on the record here, not only to very sincerely apologise for my egregious typo AND failure in proof reading but to say that you should definitely listen to the NCX podcast. It’s great!
To their great credit, not only did they make fun of both themselves AND me in that section but they also mentioned the Welsh Open 2026 which is on the 4th and 5th of July. To be clear it’s in the CITY of Newport (in Wales, UK) in a venue called THE ARENA
Tickets are £30 per person and while we are still waiting for full news on XWA’s 2026/27 OP season, I can say that it will be an official event at some level with some great prize support (even I say so myself!).
You can get your name down for tickets via the Facebook event page or, if social media isn’t your thing, just contact me and I’ll sort it out for you!
While still (kind of) on the subject of Mr Lippens, he hadn’t realised that I was going to post the pics that he’d sent me of the ships he was painting and lamented not sending me the ‘glamour shots’ (his phrasing, not mine!) before I got too excited and posted what I already had.
So in honour of those, here they are!
I’m sure you can agree they are BEAUTIFUL and I’m really grateful for the work he put in at short notice to get them done for me. Check him out in on Instagram!
The main bit…
Yes, this past weekend I was at the STO which, if you’ve never heard of it (where have you nee hiding!??!) is a large scale premier level X-Wing event hosted by the Sith Takers at Element Games in Stockport, UK
This year there were 140 players booked in and, I believe that everyone showed up, no drops!
I’ve not had time since getting home to start working on details of my games so today’s blog is essentially just a ‘oh wow, this was a GREAT weekend!’ and, while I can’t exactly call it a photo dump because I am terrible with getting pictures of things or with people, I do have a couple of them.
I realised late on Saturday that we actually had TEN players in the room that have represented Wales at XTC over the past couple of years so I did manage to organise getting that taken (although it was a bit like herding cats!).
All in all I had a really fantastic time this weekend but given how STO (or most X-Wing events actually) normally goes, that’s not really a big surprise. It was great to see so many familiar and friendly faces as well as meeting some lovely new people. I actually had games with lots of people I’ve not played before and each of those was a fantastic opportunity to get to know someone and spend some time rolling dice.
The conclusion…
There’s not much to say here except that if you’ve not been to STO before it really is well worth trying to go. It’s an excellent event with a beautiful blend of top level competitive X-Wing but with such a friendly and ‘fly casual’ feel about it.
If it isn’t STO then I’d highly recommend making the effort to go to a larger scale X-Wing event somewhere closer to you. These kinds of tournaments are not only part of the life-blood of this gaming community but it really is a great way to meet new players outside of your local area and get to know new people!
The game is great but spending time with others in the community, well that’s even better.
That’s it from me for today, hopefully by next week I’ll have had some time to get my games written about!
The outro…
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! If you’d like to support me in continuing my X-Wing blogging adventure there are a few ways you can do that.
You can follow my social media accounts for updates
If you’re looking to buy some gaming ‘stuff’ and don’t have a local gaming store, you can use my affiliate link for Firestorm games. They’re great!
If you would like to directly support the blog then please consider becoming a Patron! I would be forever grateful!
A MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful Patrons for their ongoing support for the blog and enabling me to give away shiny things!
Exile Rookies:
Opi-Wan Kenobi
Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes, Eric Gordon
Exile Commanders:
David Bryan, Ben Kennedy, Richard Goulart
Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Sean Oakley , Steve Boulton, Richard Goulart
You are all amazing humans!