Sith Taker Open 2023 – The Main Event

The intro…

Hello! Welcome to this week’s blog!

We’re still firmly in what I would consider the aftermath of this year’s Sith Taker Open (or STO from here on out because I’m lazy!). It’s been just over a week since it finished and there have been Facebook posts, podcasts and blogs talking about lists, games and about just generally having an amazing time. As did I!

As I was involved in a car accident on the way home (I’m ok!) and just generally had a pretty busy few days after the event it has taken me until now to get time to get all my games covered. Sorry about that!

That’s enough small talk, let’s go!

The batrep(s)… (JARGON ALERT!!)

So, you might already know that STO was pretty big. Not UK System Open big perhaps but definitely the biggest single event in the UK (maybe Europe? Maybe the world?!) since, well, the last STO I guess.

Not only was it pretty big but there were some VERY good players in the room. I mean, not many people would travel from abroad if they weren’t planning to give winning it a really good go and there were a good few people who had boarded planes to get there. Special shout out for Travis Williamson who was over from the USA! Crazy!!

So, with all this in mind I referred myself to my tournament expectations:

  • My primary goal in a tournament is to have fun.
  • My minimum expectation of myself is to be a good opponent.
  • My hope is to break even.
  • My dream is to make the cut (or, with no cut, win?!)

Since there were going to be 5 rounds of swiss (JARGON ALERT!!), breaking even is not a thing so I adjusted my hope to winning 2 games. Not too ambitious I know but there’s a reason why I’m not super optimistic.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been flying a list that I’d seen played (and played against) in Cardiff back in early December. If you’ve been reading my posts over the last few months then you’ll know that it’s a list with Kallus in the Ghost, Luke, Fenn and Cracken. After some adjustments for my play style I’d got some reps in with it and had some good results but more recently I’d been struggling to do as well.

Four losses on the bounce had me really doubting it and so, just 3 days before STO I started making alternative plans. I wanted a palate cleanser just to fly something different for a day. I put together a list with some of the same pieces and some different ones. I played two test games with it and won both. The first one by a whisker, the second by some margin.

So now there was a decision to make. I wondered, I pondered, I discussed and I reasoned.

I packed both lists into my case for the drive up to Stockport and, arriving at Element Games on the Friday night, I unpacked the new list for another test game.

I lost that game but I found that I actually enjoyed it more than the original list and so, despite being unsure on exactly how some of it worked (I’m looking at you, sideslips!), I went for it. I mean, what is there to lose?

Alexsandr Kallus (7)
Dorsal Turret (2)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Veteran Turret Gunner (5)

Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7

Ezra Bridger (Gauntlet Fighter) (7)
Notorious (5)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Veteran Tail Gunner (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Nightbrother (0)
Swivel Wing (0)
Hera Syndulla (4)

Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5

Airen Cracken (3)
Elusive (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2

Keo Venzee (3)
Elusive (2)
Concussion Missiles (5)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2

Total: 20

View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v9ZhZ20Z392XWWW137W58WWW90WY520XW455W23W89WWW92WWW448W449W35Y54X119WW234WY597X119W99W&sn=STO%202023%20option%202&obs=

Same face punching Kallus, same Plasma Torping, action passing Cracken, that’s all fine. When putting this together I actually started with the Gauntlet and the Ghost, thinking it would be cool to have two big ships. That left me with 6 points left over and while I initially thought about keeping the same Luke as I’d been using before, when I’d been flying 3 ship Scum before Christmas I’d found that I struggled on some scenarios with claiming objectives and so I decided to split Luke down to two 3 pointers – Cracken and Keo. If I’d had an extra point available I’d have definitely tried Tycho. Maybe next time…

Keo was interesting because I really wanted to see how sideslipping would work out. I also thought that having a Force charge (even if it didn’t recharge as normal) might help on defence if I opted to take a scenario action with him.

A-Wing go zoom zoom slide slide

Ezra was the slight wildcard. I REALLY enjoyed playing Maul in the Gauntlet last year but how much of that was down to the Super Commandos? Still, this build has lots of tricks up it’s sleeve. Stopping forever, double taps and passive rerolls with Notorious just to name a few.

The Friday night test game took us FOREVER as familiar faces passed by and said hello and new faces looked on with interest. We ordered a pizza to the table as we sat and chatted about life, X-Wing and everything in between. The whole weekend was amazing but this might have been one of my favourite parts.

And so, after a pretty reasonable night’s sleep, we arrived at Element, registered and prepped for the first of five rounds…

Game 1 – Mark Packer-Hughes

And so in the first round I get drawn against a name I’ve heard of! I’ve never met Mark but I’ve seen his name in tournament results and I’m aware that he likes to fly Resistance. With tournament rounds being quite tight for time normally, we get set up as quick as we can as I try to digest what’s in his list.

Poe Dameron (7)
Heroic (2)
R4 Astromech (3)
Ferrosphere Paint (3)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (8)
Overdrive Thruster (5)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Black One (0)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (4)

Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (25/25) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

Rey (8)
Heroic (2)
Rose Tico (9)
Novice Technician (2)
Finn (9)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)

Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (25/25) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 5

Temmin Wexley (5)
Heroic (2)
R6-D8 (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Heavy Laser Cannon (4)

Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (10/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3

Total: 20

View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Resistance&d=v9ZhZ20Z231X172W5W198W134W345WW175W171W311Y244XW172WW173W53W174WW107W193Y297X172WW359WWW175W10&sn=Hallowed%20be%20thy%20squad&obs=coreasteroid0,core2asteroid0,core2asteroid2

Oh boy. On the plus side, it’s just 3 ships. On the negative side, it’s Rey who punches HARD and Poe who can do what he wants (or more to the point, be where he wants). Time for some quick Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Assault at the Satellite Array
Target/Objective Priority – I’ve got numerical advantage for scoring points here and, if I can take down Temmin plus one other, I’ve got a chance.
Obstacles – lanes are important for me so big spaces and wide lanes.
Deployment – this is the tricky part. In fact, I’ll cover this separately.

So here’s my first real dilemma with the list. How do I deploy? I want the two big ships to be not too far apart in terms of covering space with firing arcs but the general thought going in on this list was to force my opponent to make a choice. You’ve probably only got time to take one of these ships out, which one are you going for?

On this occasion I actually deployed fairly close together since Temmin went down before Kallus and I’d already placed Ezra.

Oh, by the way, in case you’ve not caught a full tournament repot from me before, these will be quick-ish summaries, not full batreps.

The early game goes well as I manage to catch Temmin at range 3 with Kallus to take a couple of shields. I go to follow it up with a block but ROAD says otherwise and I end up bumping the Ghost into the back of the T-70.

Meanwhile Poe has jumped in after Keo who himself has taken the slightly risky task of blocking Rey. On the plus side, I get the block, on the negative side, I’ve blocked her in such a way she’s scoring two objectives. Oops.

Poe goes for a single modded APT (JARGON ALERT!!) (which is single modded because Ezra jumped in and forced a boost for Poe to dodge arc) and Keo gets away with it.

Temmin isn’t so lucky and he limps away, refusing to just die. How frustrating.

Rey turns in and starts punching but Ezra can take it. For now. Temmin takes a Panicked Pilot but lives on 1 hull while Ezra and Kallus pile into Rey. Poe has taken some damage too though and I’m faced with a choice – chase Rey or Poe?

I go for Poe as he’s isolated himself and my big ships can move pretty fast when they want to. Plus Rey has to turn around.

Cracken splits off to chase down Temmin while Rey comes in behind Ezra to inflict some pain.

Up until now Mark has been ahead, always picking up some objectives but with time almost up, I pull a bold move out. I 4-K Kallus right in front of Poe (just in case he dives over the top) while Ezra 4 straights right over the rock. I bump into the back of Kallus but it’s worth it as it forces Poe to bump the back of Kallus.

Keo has also turned in and I’ve got 2 guns on a poorly, blocked Poe and manage to finish him off.

Rey takes a shot into Ezra but fails to take him out but Cracken finishes the job on Temmin for a last minute massive swing in score.

Result: 21 – 9 win

Mini conclusion…

A win! Yay! Mark’s a good player and while I think the game went well I need to remember that my list probably had the advantage in terms of scenario for this one. I didn’t lose a ship, though which is pretty cool. A win in round 1 of a big tournament is pretty uncharted territory. I wonder who I’ll get in round 2…

Game 2 – Oliver Pocknell

So this is what happens when you win your first game then eh? Now, while I wouldn’t say I was defeated before I even got to the table, I certainly had an internal dialogue about realistic expectations. In case you don’t know, Oli’s good. Like, really good. We’ve played twice before and while I’m yet to beat him, I came suuuuuper close when he came to Newport last year. Now, what was he bringing…

Major Vermeil (5)
Ion Limiter Override (2)
Captain Hark (3)
Seventh Sister (9)
Targeting Computer (1)

Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (15/16) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4

Soontir Fel (6)
Predator (2)
Crack Shot (3)
Shield Upgrade (8)

Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (13/15) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2

Darth Vader (BoY) (6)
Marksmanship (0)
Hate (0)
Afterburners (0)

Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

Moff Gideon (3)
Elusive (2)
Cloaking Device (3)
Overtuned Modulators (3)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1

Total: 20

View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v9ZhZ20Z183X330W427W60W249Y179X127W116W165WY564X125W204W105Y503X119WW91W411W&sn=Unsaved%20Squadron&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid4,core2asteroid5

Wait, Soontir Fel?!!?

He’s certainly fallen off the radar in 2.5 but if anyone can put an expensive, fragile ace to good use in scenario based X-Wing, it’s a world champion. Couple that with Vader, an 8 health Reaper and a TIE designed not to die then I’ll have to really go some to get this.

Let’s get some of those Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Scramble the Transmission
Target/Objective Priority – I mean, it’s more a case of who will Oli let me shoot, really. I could do with getting the Reaper off the table and one of either Vader or Soontir.
Obstacles – again, big spaces and wide lanes are my friend here.
Deployment – Now, this is interesting. It’s harder to learn from a win than from a loss and while the previous positive result is good (obviously!), I’m still working this out. Oli’s high initiative ships will make this tricky for me, especially as I ‘win’ the ROAD roll and will set up first.

I deploy close again and once we get going I slow roll with Kallus to threaten the turn in on Soontir but in all honesty, I was always planning to gun him up the middle and turn around the central rock.

We start chipping damage into each other but once we engage in the middle it’s Kallus who takes the biggest hits. A trade with the Reaper leaves it frustratingly on 1 hull while Kallus lives on a couple but Soontir is approaching his flank.

Cracken initiative kills Vermeil but takes a hammering in return while Ezra cruises into the middle.

I steal Oli’s top right objective but he claims back from me elsewhere. He’s bee outscoring me 2-1 the whole game and after we trade reaper for VCX he’s 13-8 up.

I grab another objective to get a turn of 2 points to 1 myself and with Ezra in position, it’s time for some stopping shenanigans.

I get the block on Soontir and hits from Ezra and Keo leave him on 1 health. One.

It’s 16-11 to Oli and while I think it’s over and we go back to planning, time is called (and it’s lunch break next so we’re not holding anyone up). We’re having one more turn. I look the board over.

IF I can kill Soontir and IF I can claim an extra objective, I’ll score 8 points.

IF none of my ships die and IF Oli can keep or reclaim to have 2 objectives, he’ll be on 18.

Could I nick this? Surely not. I’ll try though. I just need to work out where Soontir can go.

I decide to go 3 straight with Keo to cover the left while Ezra will stop and rotate 180 to put his front arc towards the top of the board. That sounds really simple now I look back but I took a LONG time deliberating this.

We rolled for ROAD. It’s set now.

Ezra stops, rotates and takes a damage to use Chopper and claim the objective.

Keo 3 straights and, in an attempt to block Soontir stays where he is an takes a focus.

Moff Gideon just hard turns where he is and focuses.

Cracken continues his escape on 1 hull.

Soontir…. goes 4 straight. Oli looks at the board. There’s no way for the interceptor can dodge Ezra’s arc. I can’t remember what he does exactly but it involves a boost. Maybe a roll as well but perhaps a token?

Oh my gosh. Can I do this?

Vader banks in. Now, I can’t remember the exact sequence of events here but I think it involved an Afterburners boost as he gets into range 1 of Keo.

After some thinking, Oli knows Soontir could die and his only shot to definitely stay ahead is to kill Keo.

Vader rolls his dice and it’s a full string, 2 hits and 2 crits. Because of course it is.

I roll my 3 green dice and I get one single evade. HE LIVES!

HE LIVES?

I take the 2 shields and get ready for the crit. I pull it and….

Ezra does kill Soontir but it’s too late, I can’t catch him.

Result: 19 – 20 loss

Mini conclusion…

HO-LEEE COW

That was INSANE. Like, actual insanity. If I draw literally ANY other card out of the damage deck, I win this. ANY OTHER CARD.

If I’m remembering this right, after I drew the card someone who was watching said ‘oof, better to be lucky than good’.

In the middle of the next game I thought to myself ‘OH NOOOOO!!!! ELUSIVE ON KEO?!?!’ but Oli then reminded me that he’d Moff Gideon’d so I couldn’t use ANY mods anyway.

Still, `by the skin of some variance, I lose and it’s on tot he next round!

Game 3 – Niels Vos

Thankfully I had lunch to recover from that game (and tell anyone who’d listen about the ridiculous turn of events!) and in round 3 I was drawn against Niels Vos, XTC Netherlands player. Man this is a tough room.

Niels is flying Vader and the BoYs. I’m aware that it’s a thing but it’s not something I’ve faced before in person.

Darth Vader (BoY) (6)
Marksmanship (0)
Hate (0)
Afterburners (0)

Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3

“Mauler” Mithel (BoY) (3)
Predator (0)
Afterburners (0)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2

Iden Versio (3)
Elusive (2)
Ion Cannon (6)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1

“Backstabber” (BoY) (4)
Crack Shot (0)
Disciplined (0)
Afterburners (0)

Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2

“Howlrunner” (4)
Shield Upgrade (8)

Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2

Total: 20

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Eesh. Let’s get straight to those Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Salvage Mission
Target/Objective Priority – Tricky. Picking up objectives is going to leave me short on actions meanwhile Niels also has more ships than me. I have to try though!
Obstacles – I want a nice big spread again. Lots of space for my big ships.
Deployment – Big ships close together again but Niels’ ships are mostly higher agility than mine so I don’t have much agency here.

Keo chickens out of the joust with Vader but I miscall it and Vader ends up RIGHT behind him. Meanwhile I chip some damage into the approaching TIE swarm.

My Ghost placement isn’t great though as it means the big gun is just aimless in the middle.

Keo survives Vader’s flanking thankfully but drops his box as Vader lands a crit.

I send the Gauntlet into the TIE’s path, causing a bit of a bump fest but I fail to push through enough damage.

Next turn Ezra stays still while the Ghost advances and I finally kill a TIE but lose Cracken. Meanwhile Niels is racking up points from objectives and I am not.

I continue to fail to destroy any of Niels’ ships while he picks up another box and finally kills Keo.

Result: 3 – 15 loss

Mini conclusion…

A bit of a come down following how close I took a World Champ but I played this wrong from the off. I didn’t get the Ghost on target fast enough and while Keo getting caught by Vader so early was a 50/50 call, I just didn’t get enough damage in fast enough to get this close. A deserved loss in the end.

Still, I’m 1-2 so far and in all honesty that’s probably where I’d like to be at the end of round 3 anyway. It just doesn’t feel great to get two losses on the bounce like this!

Game 4 – Kayleigh Oakley

So on to round 4! This time I was flying against Tin Squadron member and wife of podcaster Sean (from the Tin Squadron Out of the Mines podcast), Kayleigh Oakley!

Like me, Kayleigh was 1-2 and the list she was flying was pretty interesting:

Han Solo (BoY) (7)
Chewbacca (BoY) (0)
Rigged Cargo Chute (0)
Millennium Falcon (0)
L3-37’s Programming (BoY) (0)

Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 6

Wedge Antilles (BoY) (5)
Attack Speed (BoY) (0)
Marksmanship (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-A3 (BoY) (0)

Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3

Lando Calrissian (8)
Nien Nunb (5)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Bistan (8)

Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (21/21) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 6

Total: 20

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Double tapping Lando, rerolling/coordinating/focus & evading Han and BoY Wedge packing Proton Torps. This list is trying to hit big and since this is Chance Engagement, this could be interesting.

Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Chance Engagement
Target/Objective Priority – Take something off the board FAST. Try and at least half point the rest and DO NOT leave the range 2 bubble.
Obstacles – I think we both want wide lanes here.
Deployment – Kayleigh’s ships are high initiative so I’m deploying my big ships more central to be able to pick my targets after we start while Cracken will go left or right of that depending where Lando deploys since Kayleigh is first player.

We straight up joust here. No messing about.

I have to judge the range control just right because someone is getting torped by Wedge here and there’s no way to dodge that.

We get in close and I unleash everything into Lando. I’d like to take out Wedge, of course, but Lando is the one shooting twice so he’s got to go.

The first volley gets him halved and I take little damage in return. Not bad. I can’t finish him off though. I line up a 4-k (JARGON ALERT!!) with Kallus and my word it’s close.

This feels…. wrong.

Meanwhile Han has dived in towards Ezra (who stopped) and that’s pretty close too…

Wow.

The Falcon makes a dash for it but Wedge has landed in a slightly fortuitous (for me) killbox and I manage to wipe him out in one turn of fire with some SUPER hot red dice. Nice.

I lose half of Ezra before he goes though and while I’ve taken a ship off and still have all mine, the score is 11 – 5. Not as convincing as I’d like.

The next turn is BONKERS. The not quite dead Lando hits two of my ships, Killing Cracken and halving Keo while Han knocks Kallus down to half as well.

In response I finish off Lando and somehow, despite having 3 ships on the board to Kayleigh’s 1, I’m only up by 3 points. It all feels rather precarious.

Ezra goes into blocking mode and just sits there while Kallus tries to line up shots into the remaining YT-1300 and Keo, down to 1 hull, simply runs away.

Another turn of blocking means that I can chip half of Han while not losing any more points myself and I eventually tick over 20 point threshold.

Result: 21 – 15 win

Mini conclusion…

This game was all about two things – close calls and good dice. I came out on top in both those things thankfully.

Normally in 2.5 games can feel close even though the score isn’t (see game 1 from earlier!) but this one felt like the opposite. I took out 2/3 of the ships on the board but giving away half points on everything meant it was actually pretty close. A good result in the end and gets me to my 2 win target. What does round 5 bring?

Game 5 – Tom Candlin

Now, I don’t know Tom but, like with Mark, his name is one I’ve heard before (which is normally an indication of being a good player!). He’s playing a CIS list. Yuck…

General Grievous (5)
Outmaneuver (12)
Impervium Plating (0)
Soulless One (0)

Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3

Durge (Separatist) (4)
Treacherous (2)
Proton Cannons (4)
Xanadu Blood (0)
Proton Bombs (4)

Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3

DBS-404 (SoC) (3)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (0)
Contingency Protocol (SoC) (0)
Strut-Lock Override (SoC) (0)

Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2

Jango Fett (8)
Treacherous (2)
Jamming Beam (0)
Savage Opress (10)
Proton Bombs (4)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
False Transponder Codes (3)
Delayed Fuses (1)
Slave I (Separatist) (0)
Veteran Tail Gunner (3)

Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (26/27) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 5

Total: 20

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I don’t especially like facing Firesprays but I’ve also heard good (well, bad for me in this case) about this list. Good pieces that can push damage while good at dodging it.

Let’s hit those Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Salvage Mission
Target/Objective Priority – Try to pick things up, probably. None of these targets are especially easy to kill though. Jango has 10 health, Grievous can throw away crits, Durge dies, then lives again. And the last ship is only 3 points. Yuck.
Obstacles – Wide and lanes, you know the drill by now.
Deployment – there’s more crossover on initiative here than in a good number of my games and Tom is 1st player. Keep the big ships close-ish and batter something.

I make a HUGE mistake in turn zero but it takes me until turn 2 to see it as Tom picks up FOUR, yes FOUR crates.

Wow.

I get one but it’s super hard to recover. I kill Durge Then I kill him again to finally get points but it’s now 10-6 to Tom, the Hyena bonber is just running away to score points and Grievous is trying to do the same.

Tom pulls of the call of the century as he puts Grievous, who has lost shields, spend both his Impervium plating charges AND taken a couple of damage cards in the ONLY spot I can’t shoot him.

Also, yes, I bumped Kallus into Keo and should have made a different call.

Grievous annoyingly refuses to die in two subsequent turns while I lose Cracken. With the writing on the wall, I send Keo 5 straight off the board to claim myself a bounty at the end of the day.

Result: 6 – 23 loss

Mini conclusion…

Putting boxes where Tom could get them in turn 2 was silly. Had I followed up with my ship positioning to threaten the areas they were placed then maybe I’d have killed more and sooner but I slow rolled and it cost me.

Grievous not dying cost me but in all honesty the game was lost well before that. A tired to a long but great day.

The conclusion…

What a day!

I’ll get to the results in a minute but the biggest thing for me was the experience of the weekend. It was AMAZING being in a room with over 100 X-Wing nerds as we all pushed plastic around and rolled dice. The buzz in the room was palpable from start to finish.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to the Sith Takers for hosting this annual event. I’ll give special shout outs to Rich Polley for organising it and for Sean Milligan and Jonny Hall for TO’ing. An often tricky and criminally underappreciated job. You guys are awesome and the efforts you all put in are massively appreciated, not just by me but by all the players and the community as a whole.

Now the results. In all honesty, while a 2-3 finish (putting me 63rd overall) isn’t exactly a stellar performance, I’m happy with how the day played out.

I won a couple of games, pushed the world champ SUPER close and I learned a lot about what not to do against certain lists.

I really enjoyed playing this list. Having two big ships to cruise down the board feels really good and when Kallus punches, he really punches. Ezra was the star of the show though. He didn’t die once, stopped and refused to move and was able to do unpredictable things. He didn’t deal as much damage as Kallus but I mean, who does? Except Vader I guess…

Keo is fun but I’m still getting my head around the sideslip thing. Cracken is… fine. A bit boring but there’s not much else I can do with 3 points.

I’m still tempted to try this with Luke instead of the two 3 pointers but I suspect it may not be as good. I’ll still give it a go though.

I’m realising I really REALLY like the Gauntlet. It’s fast when it wants to be, tanky and can have several different bags of tricks depending on the faction and build. Whatever list I go to next, I’m reasonably sure it’ll have one in.

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to all my opponents. All my games were great fun and even when things were SUPER tense (I’m looking at you Mr Pocknell!) it was still both fun and enjoyable.

A massive thank you to Mark, Oli, Niels, Kayleigh and Tom, you all played a huge part in me having a great weekend!

So, no cut for me meant I’d be looking at the team tournament for day 2. Maybe that might go better?

The outro…

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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, Opi-Wan Kenobi

Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes

Exile Commanders:
Kevin Larsen, HasNolo, David Bryan

Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley , Steve Boulton

You are all amazing humans!

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