The intro…
Hello there and welcome to this week’s blog!
It’s a bit of an unusual one this week so strap in and lets get started!
First up, events!
Well, actually, no let me do something else first…
XWA Update…
Last Friday the XWA made its first announcement about Organised Play!
So, yes, first bit of exciting news (that I’ve been sitting on for AGES!!!!) is that The Welsh Open 2025 will be the VERY FIRST XWA SYSTEM OPEN!
In case you didn’t already know, tickets are currently available and include hot food on both days of the event!
As for the contents of the System Open kits, they’re still in the design phase at the moment but we will be sharing news on that when it’s available.
Ok, on to the next part – my part!
So yes, Squad Championship kits are now available for you to register interest for! You can check out the Google Doc info page here which includes a link to the order form if you’re interested in getting one for your local group.
Putting these kits together has been a really great (and challenging!) experience. Striking the balance between including as much cool stuff as possible and keeping the kits affordable enough for TO’s to buy has been one of the biggest hurdles to clear but, while I know I’m biased, I personally think we’ve done a decent job of it! There will be multiple participation items as well as useful, usable game components (some made of acrylic, some from metal!).
As Tim mentions in his announcement, the plan will be to provide a wave 2 kit for the season with different alt art cards in order to keep people interested in attending multiple events across the year.
I have to say that it feels GREAT to finally have these details out in the open. The last thing that we’re working on for the Squad Champ kits is finalising orders so we can work out pricing, at which point I’ll start contacting people who have applied for kits to look at payment.
I have almost 50 applications for Squad Champs so far and that’s after just 4 days of the form being live! Also we’ve now had over 100 orders for the Wave 0 packs (requesting 150 kits!) which is pretty nuts.
It’s a very exciting (and busy!) time!
With all that in mind, while I know it’s a bit of a way out yet, I CAN confirm that the Exile Squadron Championship on the 24th of May WILL BE AN OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED XWA EVENT!
This means that the winner will get a bye which can be used in a System Open event (the Welsh Open, for example…)
If you’re interested in coming then check out the Facebook event page for details and get yourself booked! If you don’t have Facebook then contact me directly and I’ll sort it out with you!
Ok, so is that it for XWA news?
NOPE!
There have been more spoilers from the upcoming SL pack, this time from Resistance!
Crikey!
I’m not one for giving deep analysis of new stuff (mostly because I’m not great at it!) so I’ll be leaving that for others to do but that aside, it’s great to see new things coming out!
NOW is that it for XWA news?
Yeah, I think so.
The main bit…
Most of you will know that I took the week off last week as I was away with my family.
In case you’re interested , we had a great time going on walks, playing games and spending time with out friends. It was awesome!
Normally a week like that means I didn’t play any X-Wing and haven’t had time to write the blog. Is this week any different?
Ehh, not really?
That said, since I last blogged I have played 5 (FIVE!!) games. Two in person and 3 online.
The two in person games were quite mixed in their results. Literally. One win, one loss.
The loss was to Josh Hall who was flying a rather nasty Scum concoction with Fenn Rau. Scum Fenn only ever does one of two things. He either dies stupidly easily having been ineffective OR he refuses to die and rolls 5 dice haymakers and ruins your day. Guess which one he did to me…. Well, yes, ok I did actually kill him but not before it was too late!
The win was against Steve Boulton. He was flying Ketsu, Durge and teo Scurrgs – Sol Sixxa and Captain Nym.
Having had my backside handed to me by Jonny Hall a few weeks ago using a list with tractoring nonsense and some Scurrgs, I decided to go all in on killing the Scurrgs first. This worked out pretty well as I dropped Nym before he fired. I got an opportune (and slightly accidental) killbox on Durge and he went next. I managed to finish off Ketsu to avoid losing Wedge and seal the game.
It sort of worked out in his favour though as he then changed the list to this:
Ketsu Onyo – Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft (6)
Fearless (3)
Qi’ra (2)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Shadow Caster (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Fenn Rau – Fang Fighter (5)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Talonbane Cobra – Kihraxz Fighter (4)
Composure (1)
Overtuned Modulators (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
N’dru Suhlak – Z-95-AF4 Headhunter (3)
Fearless (3)
Proton Rockets (6)
Deadman’s Switch (2)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
He then proceeded to go 3-1 with it and finish in 4th place (out of 22 players!), losing only to Dan Athey who himself was one of 3 players to go 4 – 0! Good showing Steve, and you’re welcome! If you’re interested you can check out the event here.
As for my online games? Online play had sort of fallen off for me with local play being so regular and my dedicating time to XWA and the blog. In order to challenge myself though I signed up for a Tauntaun server event. It’s a shark tank of an event so I had zero expectation going in.
The first game was a deserved loss to Joe Churchman. The score of 6 – 22 was somewhat flattering to Joe but not as much as I’d like to claim. In fact, 4 of my points came as a consolation in the final turn as I FINALLY blew up an FO Bomber while the other 3 of them plus an Upsilon systematically wiped me out.
Ouch.
The second was against Ed Gold and while his list was somewhat experimental, mine is relatively tried and tested (although not popular!). His entire droid list was lower initiative than mine and the tone was set when Wedge one-shotted a vulture at range 3 in the first engagement.
I proceeded to take out a ship a turn for the next 3 turns as well and picked up crates along the way to seal a pretty short-lived 20-6 victory.
My reward for going 1-1? A match with ‘Old Jester’ which we played this past Sunday evening.
I started out strong, taking out one of his Clan Wren Volunteer Fangs before it fired but my ships then started getting halved without putting up much of a fight as we both took points from each other.
I got his Lando 2 turns from the end but a MASSIVE mistake put my Fenn on a rock. He just took 1 hit but losing the shot was decisive as Lando lived to fire that turn, taking out Hera before Jan finished the Falcon off.
I also forgot Fenn’s pilot trigger twice when it would have been a huge benefit.
Wedge limped away on 1 hull but Gavin Darklighter’s E-Wing caught him up eventually and in my final turn I once again mis-played Fenn, bumping him into Jan meaning that I missed a chance to shoot the not quite half dead second Fang.
Having survived probably twice as long as he should have, Fenn finally bit the dust making the final score 17 – 23 in what had been a VERY Close match.
So I’m not doing amazing in the event itself but I was never going to be a top finisher in an event with so many amazing players. Spending time with people in Discord chat and challenging myself against top players was the motivation for playing and in that respect I’m definitely achieving my goals!
So 3 losses and 2 wins in my last 5 isn’t exactly a fantastic record. My list certainly has weaknesses (like melting quite quickly under focused fire!) but also some good strengths (high initiative and hits hard).
It does lead me to ask myself – should I look for a new lists?
I mean, I’m not bored of this one. While it isn’t some people’s cup of tea (typical Rebel 1 straight to victory!) I enjoy it. I can’t help but think there is something else I could be looking at, I’ve just no idea what it is.
So I guess what I’m saying here is – anyone got any lists I could try? Not CIS or FO (I don’t own those factions) but anything else maybe? A lot of people have been playing Scum of late which might be interesting but anything from the 5 factions I’ve got would be cool.
The conclusion…
Not a lot to conclude today I guess?
Other than X-Wing is still very much alive and kicking of course! If you’ve applied for a 25/26 season Squad Championship kit then I’ll be getting in touch over the coming weeks to arrange details with you. I’m REALLY pumped to get these kits out in the wild and put the prizes into people’s hands!
So that’s it for today, bit of a short-ish one. Come back next week and we’ll see what’s happened eh?
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.
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