The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
This is going to be a weird one because I’ve got LOTS to talk about and NO time to get it all written down in time so I apologise now.
First of all…
I’M FINALLY MOVING HOUSE!!!!!
Yes, after months and months of living in limbo, we actually have a date and can plan our lives again.
The catch?
It’s this week. THIS. WEEK.
So we have just 4 days to finalise packing and do all the grown up boring admin nonsense that takes up loads of time.
That said, it could have been worse. We’re moving exactly 1 week before the Welsh Open and it could have been the case that we got the keys the day before it and there would have been a very awkward conversation about what to do.
But, that’s not an issue now.
That of course leads me on very nicely to talking about the Welsh Open (again!).
We are now at over 50 players and have just 8 tickets left as of time of publishing.
With less than 2 weeks to go I feel that maybe I should give you a little peek at the trophy….
It’s still being worked on so will look a little bit different on the day but this is what the winner of the main event will be taking home with them! Plus the Worlds 2024 invite, of course!
On top of this will be a truck load of acrylic, alt art cards, Mando head tokens, dial covers… the list goes on!
We’re in the home stretch now and we would love to see as many people there as possible as it promises to be a really fun weekend of rolling dice, pushing plastic space ships and hanging out with cool people.
If you DON’T have a ticket yet you can find them on The Battlefields website and if you’d like to keep up with updates or have any questions ahead of the event you can check out the Facebook event page!
As you can probably imagine, between moving house and sorting out the event I’ve got plenty on my plate right now but what would life be without some interesting twists and turns eh?
Over the last week or so Mark Hall, who has been organising the Welsh Open with me and will be running the event on the day, has been telling me that he’s perfectly happy to run the event solo and been trying to convince me that I should play so that I can blog about it.
And you know what? I think he’s managed to talk me into it….
So yes, on top of all this I’ll now be playing on the day!
I’m happy, of course, I love playing. Will I be distracted while thinking about all the things that should be happening? Probably but X-Wing is fun and whatever happens I really can’t wait for the Welsh Open weekend!
I want to give a quick mention to the store tournament at Atlas Games in Gloucester this past weekend. Steve Boulton did a great job pulling it together and well done to Mark Hall for stepping in to TO to allow steve to get some reps for the Welsh Open!
Congratulations to Ben Saunders for winning the event, he’s written a great blog about it too!
Alright, I think that’s it for intro-y stuff. Let’s hit some games!
The batrep(s)…?
So, with a tournament semi-unexpectedly coming up, I should be thinking about a list, right?
Well, weighing up options I’ve got two main choices:
- pick a top UK Games Expo list and learn how to fly it
- stick with what I’ve been flying
Yes, I know, the answer is pretty obvious. Learning something new and expecting to do even semi ok with it is NOT something that I can reasonably expect.
That said, I’m not really going into this with any sort of expectation anyway. I hadn’t been expecting to play and the list I’ve been using lately is, as it’s been pointed out to me, not exactly at the peak of the power curve given the last points change.
Still, it’s fun to play and I’ve always found that you’re better off having a list you like and know well than you are picking up something new. Well, for me, at least!
And so last Wednesday I took the list to Firestorm Games in Newport and managed to get two games in.
So, before I get any further I should tell you what I flew, right?
Ezra Bridger (Gauntlet Fighter) (6)
Shattering Shot (3)
Trick Shot (4)
Hera Syndulla (4)
Nightbrother (0)
Swivel Wing (0)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Magva Yarro (5)
Fire-Control System (2)
Ursa Wren (6)
Tactical Officer (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Saw Gerrera (5)
Hopeful (1)
Leia Organa (7)
Jyn Erso (7)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (18/18) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Bodica Venj (4)
Marksmanship (1)
Clan Training (1)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (3)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
From previous weeks I’ve tweaked Magva’s loadout, dropping Enduring and opting for Fire Control and Tactical Officer instead.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, my time has been squeezed pretty tightly this week and so I won’t be doing anything even close to a full batrep for each game (even though I did take pics). I’m basically just doing some quick reviews so I can assess the upgrade changes but also think about whether I’m flying it optimally.
Game 1 – Alex Jensterle
I manage to get there early and so Alex and I got a game in before anyone else had arrived.
Alex is still figuring out exactly what sort of Republic list to fly. He’s iterated with his list as I had done the week before and he’s now got Padme in the Naboo N-1 in there along with Klick, Boost, Wolffe and 7B Anakin.
We set up (playing Scramble the Transmission) and we’re sort of locked into a bit of a joust.
I stop with the bigger ships but shoot forwards with Bodica to attempt a block or get into range 1 for some Concordia fun.
It works but it probably shouldn’t have.
Bodica lands range 1 of Klick but doesn’t proc her ability as Klick and Anakin both target her. I manage to kill Klick in exchange for half of Bodica but there’s every chance she could have died.
I then send her in to try and block Anakin but she fails. Thankfully, my choice to dive in with Ezra forces Anakin to reposition and while she doesn’t get a shot, she isn’t being shot either and I’ve forced Alex into making some hard positional choices.
Then, frankly, I dice him
In fairly short order I manage to take out Boost and Padme and while Alex has been racking up objective points faster than me, I’m in a decent position and he’s only got Anakin and Wolffe left and Wolffe has to disengage.
With time running out I yeet Ezra over the rock to claim the middle while Bodica (now on 1 hull) dives out of the way.
Anakin is the only enemy ship that can shoot and he can’t finish either U-Wing. Nobody else dies, time is up and the game is over.
Final result: 14 – 11 win
Mini conclusion…
There’s definitely a case to be made here that I was very lucky that Bodica didn’t die. If she dies, the Z-95 lives at least 1 more turn and things are a bit different. My Fang play was probably a little bit careless and I got away with it.
The unpredictability of my big ships are mostly what gave Alex problems here. He was expecting more stops when I threw Ezra forwards which bumped his ARC and N1 and Wolffe never really fully recovered from failing the K-turn he tried there.
Game 2 – Josh Hall
So I dive straight into a second game and Josh is also flying Republic today! He’s running Cormac Higgins’ UKGE 7 ship Clones list and we’re playing Chance Engagement.
Now, immediately I feel like he’s got an advantage in this scenario because of the higher ship count. Halving my ships won’t be too tricky when you’ve got lots of shots happening. And that’s before I twigged what was happening with Targeting Synchroniser…
Again we semi-joust as I park up my 3 bigger ships just within the range 2 bubble of the central objective. Bodica is a bit of a puzzle again. Not learning my lesson from last time, I launch her forwards from this position, 5 straight boost into red focus. I’m looking for a bump onto Odd-Ball.
I don’t get it.
Josh moves his ships slower than I expect and Bodica lands herself in 3 ship arcs….
Fangs being Fangs though, she survives, losing just 2 hull (after spending BOTH my Beskar Refinforced Plating to ditch a crit!) and putting some damage into Padme. It was only a turn later that I remembered that I hadn’t used Concordia! Idiot…
After chipping a little bit of damage through my ships then went full beast mode with Ezra getting the dream Trick Shot/Shattering Shot for a full spread of 5 hits. Even with the obstruction the Torrent rolled 3 eyeballs with no focus and died.
He was quickly followed by Klick after Bodica gets a bonus shot triggered here:
Haemorrhaging ships and horribly out of position, I take 2 objective points the following turn and even if time wasn’t almost up, the writing is on the wall.
Result: 16 – 9 win
The Conclusion…
Two games, two wins. Not bad!
Granted, Alex is still searching for his perfect fit following the points update and Josh was experimenting with some new ships so I’m taking the actual results with a very large pinch of salt.
One thing that became quite apparent in both games is a flaw in how I’m playing Bodica.
She ended up going face to face with multiple ships in both games and while Concordia helps to swing that in my favour (y’know, when I actually remember to trigger it…), it really doesn’t combo well with her ability when she becomes the target people focus on.
I think I need to be more flanker and less jouster with her and while that sounds straightforward, the fact that my list is relatively low initiative in an increasingly higher initiative meta, she’s usually locked into her position from turn 0, often without knowing the position of most (or all?) of my opponent’s ships.
I’ll have to figure a way around that because if I keep flying her the way that I am, I’m going to come quite spectacularly unstuck at some point.
Unfortunately I have totally run out of time now and boxes need to be packed!
With the impending house move it’s likely that I won’t get to casual night this week nor have time for a full blog post next week. That means my next proper blog will be AFTER the Welsh Open!
I might still throw a little something up next week though, who knows?
Anyway, thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon!
The outro…
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