The intro…
Hello! Welcome to this week’s blog!
I feel like I’m saying this a lot recently but this week’s post is not the usual fare. Before we get started though there’s a couple of things to cover off.
Firstly, I want to say thank you. Several people reached out or commented about the content of last week’s post. You are all very kind and I will say again that anyone who wants to talk about the loss of a baby during pregnancy or at birth, I cam happy to chat.
On that note, the Mariposa Ball was this past Saturday and it was (as it always is!) absolutely spectacular!
A great time was had by all and a great amount of money raised for the charity to continue the amazing work of supporting people through their loss and campaigning for change.
Getting back to X-Wing, there was also a tournament at Board in Brum! Congrats to Andy Cameron for going 4 – 0 with CIS. If you’re interested, here’s the Longshanks link for you to check out results and lists.
That’s about it for the intro except for me to introduce the next section. Think of me as a host this week, introducing my special guest! Yes, this week’s blog is brought to you by the one and only Mr Steve Boulton!
Steve approached me a while ago and said he had an idea for a post and what did I think about posting it on my blog. I took him up on it of course and here we are! So with no further ado, let’s get into it!
The main bit…
Steve Boulton ‘StevieB’ is an average X-Wing player who sometimes reads the rules, well part of the rules!
Claim to fame: Officially lost the first game of version two in Europe lol.
Hello and welcome to an article on making the cut at X-Wing competitions.
My name’s Steve and I’ve been playing since version one and have hit the highs and lows of competition but never been a ‘top tier’ player. The thing that’s always fascinated me is what’s the difference between a ‘top tier’ player who consistently makes cuts and a really good player who doesn’t?
How do they think about scenarios, different squad types. When they see their opponents list how do they plan to beat it?
Well, I’ve been very lucky in meeting top tier players from around the world and they are all lovely open people, so I decided to ask them.
My hope is to pull out those little pieces of gold that separate the cut and non-cut players.
Why? Hopefully so everyone (including me) who wants to improve can.
It’s not that anything is secret, it’s just some of us don’t figure it out.
I remember listening to a podcast and a player talking about why a meta beast hadn’t done well at a recent large competition, “well, we’ve all figured out how to counter it” and I remember thinking “Well I haven’t!!”
How do you even start to figure it out? HELP!!
I’ve always found players really happy to help when at the end of the game I’ve asked “what did I do wrong? How could I have played better?”
I’ve never had anyone not want to help.
So, I messaged a bunch of these players and asked a few questions
- What do players you beat do wrong most often?
2) What skills do top tier players master?
3) How do you analyse an opponent’s list when you first see it?
4) If you were coaching a player who’s just missing cut what would you concentrate on?
5) During the game, what questions are you asking in your head?
The response from these players was amazing, they really want to help others to improve and grow the game we love.
Now the original plan was to list these questions and the answers the top tier players gave, and you could just read it and pick out the nuggets that were helpful.
But….
It quickly became apparent that the same answers kept popping up ……
Turn Zero
Strategy
Win Condition
———————————————————————————————————-
Oli Pocknell, 2019 World Champion and all-round nice guy.
They fail to identify their win condition. Closely followed by turn zero.
Tom Reed, System Open Winner, National Champion and part of the legendary Reed family.
A big one I see recently is not working out how they’re going to win. Losing sight of the objective or the fight or getting caught between the two therefore doing neither effectively. Lack of a turn 0 plan can also be evident.
Chris Burnett, 2024 WTC winner, 2nd place 2024 Cornish Nationals & Welsh Open
Poor Turn Zero or mission strategy. Not having a plan before placing anything onto the mat and then reacting to their own decisions without thorough thought and strategy.
Cam Murray, GSP Galaxies Champion, placed 11th at Worlds 2023.
Most commonly players do not understand turn 0
Tom Candlin, Team England player and 2024 UKGE GT winner.
Common themes are not deploying well in turn zero, wrong target priority (win condition) when it comes to the closing stages of the game
Dan Athey, Steel City X-Wing, Yorkshire WTC Team Captain.
I think understanding win conditions is also important, do I need to win the fight, or can I get enough objective points?
Crispy ( Chris Patrick ), 2021 Nova Winner, Winner of multiple Hexiled and GSP events, 9th at Worlds 2022
Turn 0 preparation begins before going to the table. Each ‘meta’ match up should be thought through and tested beforehand.
Dale Cromwell, National Champion and made every cut at the System Open series.
Target priority, either chasing not enough points or spending to long for not enough reward, or worse to the exclusion of objectives. (Strategy)
———————————————————————————————————-
but if you’re not already doing these things (or need to improve) where do you start. What does a great ‘Turn Zero’ look like?
So, I decided to go back to the players for more detail. The issue is ‘how do you answer this’. It depends on scenario, rocks, your list, opponents list.
The way you play salvage against an ace list is different to a jousting list.
So, I went back and gave the players one set scenario and two different lists and said ‘If you were playing one against the other what’s your strategy, what’s your Turn Zero.
Guess what? Once again, they spent a large amount of time explaining in detail how they would approach this (thanks guys, your awesome).
I decided to use a ‘Joust’ list that Tom Reed had gone 4&0 with at Bristol recently and a ‘Flanking’ list that Dan Athey had also gone 4&0 with at Bristol (beating me in the last round, rude).
The scenario was ‘Assault on the Satellite Array’
Dan’s List
Dan’s list: I actually played against Dan in the 4th round in Bristol and he flanked with Ric, Plo and Oddball while the LAAT and Ani came up the middle. Although there is a little bit of jousting I think it’s different enough to Tom’s list to pull out different insights
Tom’s List
I spoke to Tom about this list, he was trying to see what Rebels can field after recent point changes. As he put it, “yes I’m going to joust you and kill a ship a turn, you now have a problem to figure out”
Now I’ll be honest, I have no idea how to approach these lists so I’m as interested as you are (hopefully if you’ve read this far you’re still interested lol). So, let’s start by hearing from the actual pilots themselves, Dan and Tom.
Then I’ve put the answers from the other players. It’s fascinating stuff and I hope it gives you a feel for how a Top Tier player approaches an opponents list. Enjoy
Dan
So, I spent a lot of time on that day thinking about exactly this match up.
Whilst Tom’s list is a jousting list, I decided I could likely win a joust.
Rock wise I’m looking to just get them out of the way for my list.
Tom’s list is all about the alpha strike. Between the Korkie Kyrze (crew, allows you to pass a green token to a ship that’s defending) re-enforce pass, any of my ships should be able to survive his I6 alpha, maybe even the Luke follow up.
I like my odds even more if I can force a bump on Wedge or Hera, stopping them from getting their Target Lock.I know Tom’s list is much weaker following the alpha. I also know Luke isn’t worth the effort killing, so my target priority becomes Wedge. I can hunt the less maneuverable Hera and Esege down later with my considerably faster list.
Tom
OK so against a flanking list using my list on Assault.
Few things enter my head…
I start down on objectives here, which forces me to be more aggressive, I need the fight to start sooner rather than later.
I need to offer some threat to the flanking piece in combat turn 1 to ensure I don’t give up board position.
Opponent will expect the straight joust into Ani, so can I leverage that to my advantage somehow?
I need to find a spot to fight in where I can win two objectives for as long as possible, so I don’t fall too heavily behind.
Set up is rock dependent, no real right or wrong but it’s about being able to visualise where the fight happens and then playing to force that plan.
My list is surprisingly decent on the turns ( k or talon ) as the shared focuses mean I can often get decent shots off. Wedges pilot ability is gonna make him public enemy number 1, so he’ll play more defensively, and Luke can play aggressive in the early turns.
So, what follows is the answers from the other players, now there are differences, but this probably comes down to play style, Tom Reed for instance is a ‘risk adverse’ player. He says, “what’s the worst thing that could happen” as well as “What does my opponent want/need to do” and he’ll then engineer his moves to deny his opponents desired outcomes whilst limiting any potential downside to his ships.
Tom Candlin
Against Dan’s list (Flanking)
With this flanking list try to set up wide rocks at about range 4 of their edge.
This can force them to either take the long route or turn in earlier than they would like.
I can also deploy something on their flank to hold up their flanker.
My main focus is to separate their flanker from the rest of the list to either pick it off or do significant damage to the rest of their list before it arrives.
Against Tom’s list (Jousting)
With the jousting list, split my list and make them choose where to go (preferably through a tight obstacle field).
Then flank with the other part of my list.
This list is all about range control. I don’t want to be engaging at range 3 unless I have equivalent munitions. You should know how fast/slow you can go to avoid the range 3 engagement.
Oli Pocknell
Tom’s list (Jousting)
The win condition here is to take things out quickly. While Ani is a threat, the actual problem in the late game is going to be Plo and Ric because they can kill Hera and Esege.
For first choice targets, Ani is an option, but you won’t be able to guarantee the move order…so it’s risky.
A much easier pick is one of the I5’s or the LAAT. Hera and Wedge into Ric or Plo should be a kill shot with the Plasma and Proton, so take that opportunity and run with it.
The LAAT isn’t going to be a 1 round shot but it will go down to sustained firepower. You must assume competence from your opponent so they should take the re-enforce if they think you’re gunning for it.
So general target priority is Plo/Ric, then Anakin, then the LAAT.
If you do that, objectives don’t matter because you have 14 points, and you should be winning by then.
However, you need to ensure that you are keeping Hera alive. She’s the squishy thing and Anakin will try to pick on her, you want them to go for Esege here, but not in the first engagement, so you need to bear all those things in mind for your deployment.
For Turn Zero you’re likely setting up a refused flank. You want the objectives on your side to have little asteroids around them. So, shove all the rocks to their side of the board, ideally in one corner.
The opponent is going to set up a ‘bait’ piece directly opposite you to try and draw your squad in, so you play into that and scare it off either in deployment or with your turn one moves.
You should go 4 straight and boost with all your ships that can on turn one to secure the middle left of the board and scare off the flanker. Then you turn into the middle and collapse into Ani and the LAAT.
Apart from that, pick targets, be careful and ALWAYS keep a couple of objectives scoring to you, you can’t let your opponent run away on points, so you need to hold back a ship a little to ensure you’re keeping the first two objectives for a couple of turns and bank some points.
Chris Burnett
Dan’s list (Flanking)
So, if I’m facing the Rebel list, I’d know it’s trying to murder and smash my ships at high initiative.
Realistically they are all relatively fragile and Wedge, Hera and Esage should die the easiest if I can pin them down. And Wedge is the biggest threat to leave alive as the game goes on.
First step is assessing what his list wants to do and is likely to set up. Hera and Wedge are likely to set up together, while Luke could set up independently. Esege is likely to be near the I6’s as he enables them both to have double mods.
Okey, so Mission specifics, Assault favours the K-Wing if the objectives are too close, though due to presumably wanting to set up and then stay together the list is vulnerable to not scoring mission points.
Bearing that in mind, I would deploy the mission marker as close to the opponent’s edge as possible to force a choice of hanging back to score or moving forwards to engage.
This is a win/win situation. Either my opponent delays the engage, splits their forces or leaves a ship back making the alpha less effective and more vulnerable.
Assuming we both bring large rocks as they interfere with the most list types, the aim would be a large in the middle blocking the centre mission marker and then likely an obstacle around R2 from the sides and within the R3 band from the opponent’s edge. This prevents turning in effectively to the centre and limits engagement lanes.
Tom’s list (Jousting)
Republic list, I’d want to apply similar tactics regarding rock and mission markers.
Although the list has five ships and has better coverage, the less you need to face at a time the better your odds of getting through the phase.
Ric and Anakin are the biggest threats, though they all pack a punch and the LAAT enables it all.
Anakin and the LAAT are the easiest in theory to kill. Ric has to feel threatened or otherwise he will flank and cause all sorts of issues.
The other ships will be focused if the opportunity arises but are theoretically the hardest to kill and are fast enough to get away.
Liam Baker, 2021,22&23 STO Top 4 finisher
The Rebel list is built to joust and to murder. So how does it do that, three ships murder, Esage enables.
I always give myself two targets in a list. Then when it’s obvious that I’m going for one and my opponent tries to protect that ship (running, behind rocks) I can pivot onto the second target hopefully catching my opponent out.
I don’t set rocks up to help me, I set them up to cause my opponent issues. The Rebels are likely to set up in a corner, move forward and turn in. So, I’d set rocks up 7 bases from the deployment zone to stop the Rebels going 4 forward and turning in next turn, I want to force them to turn in on turn 3 or break their formation if they do turn in on turn two.
I would also dangle bait to make my opponent over commit. If I can put a ship behind a rock that my opponent waste shots on or over commits on position, it’s a win.
I try to give my opponent so many choices that it increases the chances of them making a mistake.
I’d score as many points as possible by killing and score a few objectives. My targets are Hera (squishy) and Luke because he’s self-sufficient.
For the engage I’d engineer it so that I could bump and stop them taking Locks to limit their alpha.
Cam Murray
Tom’s list (Jousting)
First things to note:
A LOT of high initiative overlap, this means that ROAD rolls will matter more. I will have to either target the I5’s with my I6’s or hope to get lucky a bit with initiative.
A lot of ‘aces’, 3 agility things that REALLY don’t want to be where my big guns are pointing.
Yanakin – this piece is by far the easiest Anakin to take down and depending on Turn 0 will be the target of my initial alpha strike.
LAAT – this support ship is BS and should be the second major target unless my opponent offers me one of the aces or Yanakin.
Overall, my targeting should be Anakin > Oddball > LAAT > Ric > Plo.
My reasoning here is to remove the biggest most consistent guns early. Ric and Plo are too squirrely to pin down and as such I likely won’t bother trying to.
Next let’s look at objective placements.
If I am player 1 my first placement can be 1 of 2 places
If I don’t think my opponent will block the formation of a range 2 ( r2 ) triangle I will place the objective at r2 of centre and slightly into my own side.
If I do believe my opponent will block the formation of a triangle I will place it in the gutter.
My goal as the jousting squad is to make this formation.
This lets me pressure the majority of the objectives with my jousting block.
If my opponent blocks that my next best option is something like this
This forces my opponent to bury the last objective in my zone.
However, this does spread the objectives which is what my opponent wants to do.
The other thing it does though is allow me to begin to create a lane for my jousting block to travel down that will pass 2-3 objectives.
Assuming you can form the triangle as first player you need to immediately prevent your opponent from placing a rock in the middle of it. This is done by placing an obstacle inside the triangle offset from the middle.
With the triangle secured I’m aiming for a formation of obstacles that looks something like this
Where I can place my forces in the lower right corner bullying my opponent from placing across from me without eating a face full of torpedoes. It also mostly denies a centre placement due to the inner cloud blocking one of the flanking angles.
If my opponent denies the triangle, I will attempt to get a similar obstacle setup though this one is less powerful to me.
This still allows me to bully one full corner and threaten almost every vector of approach while still holding 1-2 objectives.
Wow, what amazing answer from these very generous Top Tier players.
The Conclusion…
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the explanations from these amazing players. For me it was very clear that they home in on Turn Zero and having a strategy to win.
The strategy is different player to player, but they have one that they have thought about and will have practiced into the meta squads.
Different strategies are fine, we all have different strengths. I recently watched a program about Patton and Montgomery, two of the greatest World War Two generals that the Allies had.
Their strategies for invading Europe to overturn the German army were different but you wouldn’t argue that either were wrong, they just played to each general’s strengths.
The players also talk about win condition and this changes as the game progresses. But it’s not just “what is my win condition?”, it’s also “what is my opponents win condition?”.
I have to admit that I’ve gone all in to kill that 3-point ship and win the game only to have my opponent kill my 5-point ship and win by a point. If I’d been thinking about my opponents win condition I could have run with the 5-point ship.
As worlds comes to an end and XWA points and pilot releases establish a new meta I will certainly be working on my Turn Zero, Strategy and Win Conditions. Finding a buddy to test into and asking lots of questions of Top Tier players “what do you do against this list?” to improve my game.
As Corentin Roux – 2023 Worlds Top 8 and double finalist at STO ( 2024 Winner, 2025 2nd ) says “Master yourself, master your opponent, in every situation ask, what is your opponents perfect move? Slow, Fast? What would you do? If you can think like this, you can predict every move of your opponent, it is far more simple if you know where your opponent’s ships will be.”
Apply this way of thinking to Turn Zero and at the start of each turn. I’m certain it will improve my win rate, hopefully it will help yours as well.
Have you found something useful in the insights these players shared, I know I have. Please message me with any constructive feedback, good or bad, I’m not a journalist and the players aren’t teachers, we all just want this amazing community to grow and if this has been useful, I will look at another scenario to ask them about.
Thank you to all the players who gave up their time to answer all the questions and clarifications I asked in writing this article.
Lastly thank you to Dylan for letting me piggyback on his most excellent blog.
Hopefully we will meet on a table and go Pew Pew in the future my friends.
Epilogue…
I want to say a HUGE thank you to Steve for all the work he put into this post. It’s certainly something that fits part of the brief that I set out to do when I originally started the blog which was to look at ways to improve. Playing against and talking about the game with top level players is just about the best way to get better at the game (provided you take their views on board of course!) and as Steve has shown here, so many are very willing to share their thoughts and experiences.
I’ll just give a quick mention of the upcoming Newport Squad Championship (and official XWA OP event!). Check out the Facebook event page and get your tickets NOW!!
I also want to mention the Welsh Open which is coming up in July. It’s also going to be an official XWA OP event but this one will be a System Open – the VERY FIRST ONE, INTERNATIONALLY! Exciting times! Get your tickets here!
If you’re interested in what the XWA prize kits will look like, well, I’m jsut saying you should keep your eyes on the various X-Wing social media hot spots over the next week or so…
Thanks for reading and I will see you back here next week!
The outro…
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