The intro…
Well hello there! Welcome to this week’s blog post!
The big news this week is that the Sith Taker Open 2024 happened!
The biggest community run event in world X-Wing returned with 113 players slugging it out in Element Games in Stockport.
Plenty travelled with players from all corners of the UK as well as France, Ireland, Poland, Germany and (apparently!) someone from the USA!
I spent the whole weekend nursing my FOMO and dipping into live streams to follow what was going on with relative local (Wales adjacent) Tim Greenaway getting all the way to top 4 and losing out on a place in the final by a blank out of 4 green dice!
Well done to Correnin Roux for winning the event in style – not losing a single game(!) – and taking home the INCREDIBLE trophy/tournament box created by Ryan Coyle (iksentrik). If you’re interested you can check out the full event results here.
On behalf of those I know that went and the X-Wing community in general I want to say a huge thank you to the Sith Takers for putting on such an awesome event. Large scale X-Wing is amazing fun and the buzz it creates around the community is something that can’t be quantified.
I was very disappointed to not be able to go but trust me, once tickets up for 2025, I’m jumping on it.
Speaking of large scale X-Wing events….
OF COURSE I’m going to plug the Welsh Open again!
You can get your ticket from here and you can find additional info or ask questions in the Facebook event group. Another thank you to the Sith Takers for plugging it on the podcast last week. We appreciate it!
Alight, I think that’s about enough intro-ing for now.
The batrep… (JARGON ALERT!!)
So, as the title of the post might indicate, this post is going to be a bit more of the same as some previous blogs – testing my Resistance list for Worlds.
Now, in true ‘approaching a large tournament’ style, I have had my head turned by a list that Ben Saunders has been testing out. I’ve promised not to go public with details since he is considering it for Worlds (not that everyone going to Worlds will read my blog, of course!) but I had the list packed when heading to casual night last week.
Why didn’t I play it? Well, actually, I so very nearly did but I’d left the Infinite Arenas sheet in the car and didn’t fancy walking back for it. Does that make me lazy? Absolutely. Is there any shame in it? Eh, there probably should be but I’m not feeling it.
Anyway, since I’d spent a fair amount of time agonising over whether I should be packing Predator or Lone Wolf it’s only right that I actually give Lone Wolf a run out, right? With that in mind, here’s my list:
L’ulo L’ampar (4)
Lone Wolf (3)
Heroic (2)
Advanced Optics (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Jessika Pava (4)
R2-D2 (Resistance) (6)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (6/6) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Temmin Wexley (4)
Heroic (2)
Ferrosphere Paint (3)
R6-D8 (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Ello Asty (4)
Swarm Tactics (5)
Heroic (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Jamming Beam (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Zorii Bliss (4)
R4 Astromech (2)
Wartime Loadout (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
It’s all fairly self explanatory. Point and shoot. Ok, it’s a bit more nuanced than that but not much.
This week I was playing against Josh Hall who was prepping to go to the Sith Taker Open.
He’s still running the 7 ship Republic that he’s been using pretty much since the last major points change so almost a year I guess? He knows it well and it’s a pain to go against.
“Contrail” (3)
Elusive (4)
R7-A7 (5)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Kickback” (SoC) (3)
Diamond-Boron Missiles (0)
Munitions Failsafe (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 3
“Slider” (2)
Dedicated (3)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Boost” (2)
Dedicated (3)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Odd Ball” (V-wing) (3)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
R4-P Astromech (2)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Klick” (3)
Dedicated (3)
R3 Astromech (3)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Padmé Amidala (4)
Elusive (4)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Lots of ships, the easiest targets are so cheap they’re almost not worth shooting at, Padme can stop me from putting in decent damage and the Synchronised Console means that a chunk of munitions can be coming my way.
Let’s hit those Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Salvage Mission
Target/Objective Priority – Honestly, there’s not a good one. Padme is the one stopping me from converting multiple eyeballs but she’ll likely have an evade and Elusive AND can benefit from the clone shenanigans.
Obstacles – Josh’s list loves formation flying so anything I can do to disrupt is good.
Deployment – Zorii and T-70’s in a block while Lulo will zoom to flank.
We place objectives, obstacles and ships and we’re ready to go!
Turn 1
I immediately don’t like my positioning and it’s 100% my own stupid fault.
- I’ve deployed too close to the little rock in the middle. I’d need to go fast with my block to be able to clear it with a bank in a few turns time and by then Josh’s ships will be in position.
- Lulo is too close to make any use of Lone Wolf. Idiot.
I toy with the idea of sending Jess (front right) to the right to pick up the box but honestly it feels a bit too kamikaze and I formulate a recovery plan – roll left for a better approach angle.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
I immediately regret this choice too. I set everyone a 2 straight and that is NOT how this works. Jess goes 2 straight but can’t roll left because Temmin will bump her. She goes straight and focuses.
Temmin goes 2 straight, takes his free boost straight and focuses too. Ello moves up behind and boosts to keep up while Zorii then takes the 2 straight and rolls left (creating more issues for future me). Lulo goes 5 straight and boosts.
Josh’s ships mostly go 3 straight while Kickback hard turns to sidle in behind.
No shots (but many regrets) and so back to dials we go!
Turn 2
I’ve got choices to make here and in all honesty, I don’t like the options I’ve left myself.
Jess will have to go straight. Hard turning right is an option but she loses her ability and probably misses arc on anything. I can’t waste the opportunity to shoot.
Temmin banking in feels right but is it suicidal? Maybe. I’ve got to bite the bullet and go straight with all 4 of these ships to keep a decent position for next turn. Lulo will bank in, NOT pick up (because I’ve made that mistake too many times!) and get ready to flank.
ROAD 1st player – me
Annoyingly, I forgot to take a picture of this turn but what I remember is that for the most part, Josh banked in fast except for Slider who sideslipped to his right.
Unfortunately (for Josh, that is), Odd Ball and Kickback’s bases were slightly misaligned and they bumped into the back of the formation.
The upshot? No lock for Odd Ball and no Synchronised Console torps from anyone.
I shuffled up the board and found the next problem with my initial barrel roll. With Zorii at the back, when Ello moves, he’s too far away to trigger Zorii’s ability.
Balls.
No double modded Plasma Torps for me today then I guess! Leaning into the fail, she picks up a crate and ponders her mistakes.
Lulo’s 3 bank goes further than expected (should have done the 2!!) and he lands in front of the rock. Focus into a failed red boost gives the extra attack die but next turn is looking a little ropey.
Clearly there will be some shots this turn!
Lulo is perfectly placed to fire into Slider and strips shields and gets a crit onto the hull despite (oh the irony!), being too close to Temmin to use Lone Wolf.
Between all three shots with varying degrees of modification I take 2 shields from Boost before Temmin finishes off poor Slider.
Josh’s response it to hammer into Temmin and if Josh had been able to fire that Proton Torp from Padme he would have been toast. As it was, he lives on 2 hull but is carrying a fuel leak.
End of turn score: 3 (me) – 0 (Josh)
Turn 3
It’s quite likely that Temmin dies here so I need to try and be careful with him if I can. The thing is, with him and Klick being i4, ROAD will have a part to play. I set him a 2 bank.
Jess will 3 bank to get right in the mix. If I can cause some more bumps and prevent locks then I definitely improve Temmin’s chance of survival.
Ello and Zorii will slowly bank in but what about Lulo?
Poor old Lulo. I look and I look and I look at the position. I’m convinced that a1 hard clips the rock. I figure since I’m hitting it I might as well 2 hard and clear the stress while I’m at it and allow him to pick up a focus, right?
ROAD 1st Player – Josh
Iiiiiiiinteresting…..
Klick comes forwards, right at Temmin but does NOT bump. Could be big.
Jess banks right into Josh’s formation and DOES NOT bump. Wow. She takes a focus.
Klick comes forwards and bumps the back of Boost. Ouch. He takes a damage and misses out on an action.
Padme bumps into Jess and takes a red focus but the important thing is she doesn’t have her free evade.
Temmin banks in to a lovely empty space but my plan is thwarted. I’d wanted to free boost left to get out of some arcs and focus but it’s juuuuuust a little too close to a rock. Oops. He focuses and stays put.
Josh’s i5’s come in and thanks to Jess it’s bumpsville all the way. Contrail clips Jess and takes a red focus but Odd Ball and Kickback bump chain Padme and can’t take any actions. Both take a damage too. Harsh.
My i5’s now and Josh has inadvertently done me a favour here. Ello banks in, bumps Boost and takes a red focus, allowing Zorii to take a red focus too with her ability. Zorii then 1 banks in, clears the stress and takes a lock onto Padme. Nice.
I reveal the 2 hard turn for Lulo but fist check the 1 hard…
IT WOULD HAVE MADE IT!!!!
I take the 2 hard over the rock, lose a shield, roll for another damage… and take it. Doh!
Focus and failed boost for a stress and we’re ready to shoot.
With Temmin likely to die, he gets swarmed up to i5.
Kickback has missed arc on Temmin so goes at Ello and takes a shield. Odd Ball has missed too and goes in at Ello, and takes another. Contrail tries his hand at taking Temmin out but misses. Crikey
My turn at i5 now. Zorri and then Temmin and then Lulo go in on Padme but her ability plus Josh’s Born for this ships are keeping her healthy and she loses just 1 shield. What a waste of shots!
I change tack with Ello and he strips shields from Klick at range 1.
Padme goes in at Temmin but she can’t hurt him either and so with his last 2 shots goes in on Ello and does 2 more damage, taking him down to 3 hull.
Jess goes last and sticks a brutal range 1 shot into Odd Ball and wipes him out.
End of turn score: 4 – 0
Total score: 7 – 0
Turn 4
I can’t quite believe Temmin is still alive! What do I do with him now?
Ello and Zorii will have to embrace the scrum. Boost is going to k-turn (JARGON ALERT!!) over their heads but there’s very little I can do about it. Jess will k-turn herself while Lulo will blast through the middle with a 5 straight.
I decide Temmin will 2 hard into the middle. The best thing he can do now it pick up a crate and get out.
ROAD 1st Player – Josh
Off we go then! Boost does k-turn over Ello and Zorii before Jess does the same. Klick hard turns into the back of Temmin and Padme bumps into the back of Klick (and takes a damage for it). Temmin then hard turns into empty space, takes a free boost and (somewhat riskily) picks up a crate, desperately hoping not to be shot.
Josh’s two remaining i5’s glide in at Ello and Zorii with no bumps this time. Ello and Zorii pull the bump focuses nonsense again before Zorii picks up a lock on Kickback.
No swarming for me this time and it’s Josh to fire first. Kickback can’t resist the range 1 into Lulo but only gets a single hit through, leaving the A-Wing on 1 hull. Phew! Contrail and then Padme put some big hits into Ello and, sensing where this is headed, I opt not to spend the focus on defence. Ello, Lulo and Zorii combine to bring Kickback down to 1 hull before Boost puts the nail in Ello’s coffin and the T-70 explodes.
Avenging her squad mate Jess takes a totally unmodded range 2 shot at Kickback and returns the favour, taking the Torrent out.
End of turn score: 5 – 4
Total score: 12 – 4
Turn 5
With time running down and 2 boxes in hand, while I’m not sure that ‘comfortable’ is exactly the right word, I’m feeling that the game is heading in my direction. I feel like I can get 1 more ship dead and possibly pick up another box to seal this.
I send Lulo 3 straight with the intention of picking up the bottom box. Temmin will just 4 straight out of the way.
Jess will 1 bank right, targeting Klick while Zorii will also turn that way, hoping they can take those last 2 hull.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Jess banks, clears her stress and takes a focus.
Boost banks right. Huh. And takes a focus on Lulo. Oooooohhh…..
uTemmin 4 straights and focuses before Klick takes a very interesting 2-k. Doesn’t hit the rock but stays in range of where I’m going to be pointing things.
Padme, rather boldly, talon rolls (JARGON ALERT!!) right over the rock, taking a damage but (possibly for the first time this game!) Josh’s roll for damage blanks and she’s ok.
Lulo goes 3 straight, clears stress and picks up the box. A little riskier now than when I planned it but it’s just a Z-95, right?
Zorii hard turns and locks Klick, hoping that someone close by will take a focus to trigger her ability.
Contrail is the last to move and, to my surprise, k-turns onto the rock.
Wow.
Lulo#s arc is rotated to the rear so takes a shot at Boost but does nothing. Zorii, who couldn’t get a focus in the end, fires at Klick range 1, spends the lock and takes him out. Nice.
Contrail can’t fire and Temmin doesn’t have a target so Padme is next, going range 2 into Zorii but misses.
Jess fires at Padme but it’s range 3 AND obstructed and while she’s got no tokens left, she manages to survive on 1 hull.
The last shor belongs to Boost who roll his 2 dice at range 3 in Lulo’s direction. The lock is spent and it’s 2 hits.
Should ok, right?
Lulo dodges 1, takes 1 and dies, dropping the box in the process. 5 points given up. Poop.
With that the game is done!
End of turn score: 5 – 4
Final score: 17 – 8 win
The conclusion…
A good, solid win here although, and I’m sure he’d admit it, helped along the way by Josh damaging his own ships with bumps WAY more than he should.
I definitely made mistakes on deployment, probably even before that with obstacle placement and reaped what I sowed with heavy damage into Temmin and Ello.
I’m quite pleased with how most of the other aspects of the game went. Jess did decent damage and put some crucial blocks in. Temmin lived and score some objective points.
Shooting Padme when I did was a mistake and, had I focused fire elsewhere I’d have likely managed tog et another ship off.
The biggest point though? I didn’t trigger Lone Wolf. Not even once. Not even at the very end (yes, Temmin was in range!).
It makes me question if it’s the right choice even after all the debating last week. It’s far easier to change an upgrade than change the way I fly a ship and even accidentally I’d manage to trigger Predator maybe once or twice.
Then given what happened at the end I wonder if Heroic and Shield would actually be the right choice. Can Lulo put out enough damage with that combo though?
It’s hard to say. I don’t know if I’ll get a game this week (since it’s my son’s birthday on casual night!) but it’ll certainly be on my mind to figure out this last piece of the puzzle.
I feel like I’m mostly there with triggers and, quite importantly, I can recover from deployment mistakes too.
That’s about it for this week. Whether I end up playing a game or not, next week will be something a little bit different so be sure to come back and take a look!
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 Initiates:
Douglas Thomson
Exile Rookies:
Ben Kennedy
Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Steve Boulton, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean
Exile Commanders:
Kevin Larsen, HasNolo, David Bryan
Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley, James Humphery, Opi-Wan Kenobi
You are all amazing humans!