The intro…
Well hello, welcome to this week’s blog!
I feel the need to make a small apology for last week, my brain was so fried after an awesome weekend of X-Wing that I missed out one or two things that I had intended so I’ll take this opportunity to set that right.
First up – the XWA gave a first spoiler for new content!
Now you may or may not have seen the XWA release from last week. In the build up to STO I hadn’t actually seen it until a few days after it had gone up…
No you can accuse me of being biased if you want but while SL cards aren’t my favourite thing about the game (mainly because of how hard they are to get the points right), having the first content be SLs makes sense in terms of not accidentally producing something that breaks the game. It vastly reduces the number of other things that need to be factored in.
In between games on day 1 of the STO one of the cards was shown on the Firecast Focus stream and XWA design lead Paul Heaver jumped on to give a brief interview about it.
So it’s Silencer Kylo with THREE force and some pretty nasty tools at his disposal. He’s going to be expensive at 7 points but looking at what he can do, that seems pretty balanced.
If you want to watch the reveal then you can check out the day 1 stream here and head to around 05:10 on the video.
And then, after I’d already written this part there was ANOTHER spoiler! This one was quite exciting!
Yes, after various fan made efforts following this ship in the TV show we now have an ‘official’ (XWA official) version of Mando’s N-1!
I think this marks a pretty exciting development in terms of what the XWA is doing for the future of the game. The biggest concern I’ve heard about AMG ending development was about the lack of new content and while you obviously won’t be able to just go to a store and buy ships now, knowing that there’s still content being designed to shake things up keeps interest going and that is a great thing.
Getting back to speaking of the Firecast Focus, the guys announced a few weeks ago that the stream would be coming to an end and that the Sith Taker Open would be their last event.
Over the past few years Nic, Dom and (Phil) Pond have become a mainstay of UK X-Wing, driving many miles and investing in equipment to bring live streamed X-Wing to the masses.
Guys, you are all incredible people and your games, insight and expertise will be sorely missed by the X-Wing community worldwide. I know you’ll still be playing locally (and maybe internationally, who knows!?) and those of us relatively local will still see you but from the bottom of all our collective hearts as a community – thank you for everything you’ve put into this over the last 4 years.
Right, here’s the part that I missed out last week that I DON’T regret leaving out. Pressure from certain people is forcing me to share the tale. At least I get to share it on my own terms by doing it here….
Time for a little story.
My job is different now than it used to be. I used to drive to different places and fix computers for different companies and my day was usually very flexible. Then 2 years ago I was placed onto a contract that meant that I generally have to be in an office from 9 to 5ish and sometimes it’s very busy.
When the STO 2025 ticket release date was announced I asked one of my squad mates – Mark Beor – to book my ticket for me. He did and that was fine. No problem.
The down side of not booking your own ticket? You don’t get event emails which remind you to do things. I think I got to September before I realised that I didn’t have a room booked after discussing sharing a room with Chris Fear.
Chris offered to sort this out and said he’d got a room sorted at the Alma Inn, 5 mins walk down the road from Element Games.
Perfect.
But…. well…. can you notice it?
Yeah, you can see it can’t you.
Right there.
‘Romantic Package Bottle Prosecco and Chocolate’
A bit of banter was had at the time of booking but I have to admit, when we arrived I was NOT expecting nor prepared for what we found….
Needless to say, this was a point of MUCH hilarity for many people over the course of the weekend. It was also very much insisted that I put it in the blog.
I hasten to add that it was a TRIPLE room (which makes the romantic package option all the more questionable, right?!) and so there was a separate bed.
What’s my learn from all of this? Make. Your. Own. Bookings.
Aaaaalrighty, moving on from that bombshell, let’s talk about the event, shall we?
The pre-amble…
So after months of build up, weeks of prep and hours of travel, we had finally made it to Element Games for the Sith Taker Open 2025.
After toying with the idea of changing the list I’d been flying up a little bit, I had decided that I was very comfortable flying it as it was and, short of a little points buff (which was wishful thinking!) I wasn’t going to be able to improve on what I was bringing.
Jan Ors – HWK-290 Light Freighter (5)
Moldy Crow (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Fenn Rau – Fang Fighter (5)
Marksmanship (2)
Debris Gambit (3)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Wedge Antilles – T-65 X-wing (5)
Predator (3)
Afterburners (8)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Hera Syndulla – A/SF-01 B-wing (5)
Proton Cannons (5)
Stabilized S-Foils (0)
B6 Blade Wing Prototype (0)
Ezra Bridger (9)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
The main feature is that it’s high initiative. There is some synergy with Hera’s token sharing and of course Jan buffing other ship’s shots but on the whole one of the things I like about it is that it doesn’t all hinge on one single piece. If I lose any one ship, the other three can still keep going. There’s soft double mods by way of Predator on Wedge, Mando optics on Fenn (when I remembered it!) and the Force on Hera (which is the sole reason for Ezra’s inclusion).
Jan’s ability to hold focus tokens means that she’s a prime candidate for scenario actions and when she bumps up a shot, it can hit really REALLY hard (imagine Wedge reducing your ability and then hitting you with 5 dice at range 1 with a focus and Hera’s lock…).
We arrived at Element quite early on Friday which gave me time to sort out some Patreon goodies for those who were present before I started looking for some pickup games.
Just as I was packing all that up a conversation started behind where I was sat where a game had just ended. Someone had played with an Empire list and was still undecided as to whether they should fly that or a Republic list they had brought with them. I fancied a game and so I offered to play so they could weigh it up and decide.
It was a tricky game with his 7B Anakin getting LOTS of bullseyes, leading to lots of nonsense. I did manage to do a lot of damage though and even though I made absolutely no record of details, I did get a win there. I asked my opponent if that had helped with the list decision and the answer was yes, he was going with Republic (despite losing to me) because it was more fun. An excellent choice!
I later found out that my win was no mean feat as I’d been playing Jonas from the German XTC team who then went on to finish 10th in swiss and make the top 8 in cut!
I then played a game against Steve Boulton, fresh from playing a big (and rather bloody!) game of Zombicide with a bunch of our locals. He wanted to try out his list properly (and for the first time in person) before the main event.
Again I didn’t record details but again I managed a win with my heavy hitting Rebels putting out more damage than Steve’s Republic list could handle.
What was happening here? Is my list good? Am I…. good?!
Well, I went and played another game and got a very big reality check. Jonny Hall had brought some Scum nonsense and was prepping to step in if there were odd numbers on the day of the event.
Two Scurrgs, a Firespray and a Tugboat. Surely no match for my awesome Rebels, right? Wrong. Having not faced a Tug for a LONG time I very much misjudged how to engage it and my ships got tractored to and fro as Jon proceeded to ruin my day in the most friendly way possible. It was totally deserved and I take some comfort in the fact that he went on to finish 40th in the main event. Not bad considering he almost didn’t play!
So, expectations tempered somewhat, I packed up my stuff and went to get some sleep before the big day.
The batreps… (JARGON ALERT!!)
Before I get started I feel like it’s important to bring back the ol’ Tournamet 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?!)
Now with this being a very large event with a 5 day swiss arrangement then my hope for the day was to get 2 wins, particularly given just how many great players were in the room.
We got ourselves fed at breakfast and headed over to Element Games which was even more packed than it had been the night before!
After greeting some people who I’d not seen in a while (shout out to Brendon Osmann-Deyman all teh way over from Canada who I’d not seen since Worlds!) I got unpacked and we eagerly waiting for the round 1 draw. Always a bit of a lottery in a room like this, round 1 was likely to dictate how my day was gong to go…
Round 1 – Salvage Mission – Louis Leong
Straight into the deep end with the legendary Loius Leong! A long time member of the infamous 186th Squadron I’ve played only Louie once before in a side event on day of of my last STO where he quite casually put me firmly in my place with a very convincing win.
I’ve spoken to Louie an awful lot more since then as he is one of the three ‘Jedi Council’ members of the XWA who make the big decisions about how X-Wing is going to look after official support ends.
Louie stated he had a big of a meme list but in my experience in this game, the unknown can be just as hard to prevail against as what’s known as being good.
BB-8 – Resistance Transport Pod (3)
Ferrosphere Paint (4)
C-3PO (Resistance) (7)
Electronic Baffle (2)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (13/14) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Chewbacca – Scavenged YT-1300 (6)
Trick Shot (4)
Heroic (2)
GA-97 (5)
Novice Technician (2)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Poe Dameron – T-70 X-wing (7)
Heroic (2)
R4 Astromech (2)
Ferrosphere Paint (4)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Overdrive Thruster (5)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Black One (0)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (26/26) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Zizi Tlo – RZ-2 A-wing (4)
Marksmanship (2)
Heroic (2)
Proton Rockets (6)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
The big unknown here for me was GA-97, better known as the ‘IT’S THE RESISTANCE’ droid which allows you to keep a ship in reserve until turn 3.
Louie kept Zizi in reserve which left me a new question – do I go for Poe or Chewie?
I actually think I made a mistake in deployment here as I should possibly have gone for more of a joust into Chewie. I now give Poe the opportunity to leave but then turn back in once I start angling in to the middle. And that’s partly what happened.
Chewie went WAY faster than I expected and ended up getting some trick shots into my ships and then getting in behind me.
Then Louie made a mistake. He brought Zizi in on my right hand side and her 2 straight and banked boost landed her right into Hera’s bullseye and range 1 of Wedge with Jan not too far behind. One Proton Cannon and Wedge shot later, Zizi was gone without having shot. Pretty harsh.
Fenn had scared Poe off to my left and it was taking Louie altogether too long to get him back in the fight. The following turn Wedge smashed BB-8 (Louie’s only box carrier so far) off the board and my other ships chipped damage into Chewie.
One turn later and Chewie goes down too, leaving only Poe and none of Louie’s ships at range 2 of the middle. Louie conceded at this point and I got my first win of the day!
Final result: 20 – 4 win
Mini conclusion…
A good, strong start. My list can really hit when I put it in the right place. I just need to keep doing it! On to the next!
Game 2 – Chance Engagement – Rob Smith
Round 2 got me paired into Rob who, last year, had gone undefeated through swiss with the VERY unfancied Scum faction. We spent some time together at Worlds last year but had never played. That was about to change!
Anakin Skywalker – BTL-B Y-wing (5)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Proton Torpedoes (14)
Weapons Systems Officer (5)
R4 Astromech (2)
Synchronized Console (1)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (25/25) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Plo Koon – Delta-7 Aethersprite (4)
Predator (3)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Ric Olié – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (4)
Juke (7)
Fire-Control System (2)
R3 Astromech (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Jag” (SoC) – ARC-170 Starfighter (4)
Veteran Tail Gunner (0)
R4-P Astromech (0)
Synchronized Console (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
“Tucker” – V-19 Torrent Starfighter (3)
Intimidation (7)
Diamond-Boron Missiles (5)
Synchronized Console (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Hmmmm… On the face of it this feels like a good matchup for me. Mostly lower initiative and some low agility ships I can try and wipe out.
We set up and I’m slightly undecided on how to approach this. In the end I deploy generally in the middle and we get to the first engagement and I’m not entirely unhappy with it.
It starts well as I take Plo-Koon off at i6 before he shoots and put some damage into Jag (but don’t halve him). Then Rob shoots back. Ric and Anakin are too far out but it doesn’t matter as hero of the Republic Tucker does his thing. He launches a Diamond-Boron at Fenn and the Fang, typically, blanks out. Fenn takes 3 hits to his hull. The Rob instructs me to roll a die for damage for every ship at range 0-1 of Fenn. Fenn rolls a hit and dies. Jan and Wedge also roll hits and Jag’s earlier shot into Wedge means that he’s now halved.
Balls.
That puts Rob 8 – 5 up, we’ve both lost a ship but one of mine is halved. Not ideal.
Rob brings Ric and Ani in to the middle but makes a mistake and lands Ric onto the rock. Wedge and Hera have angled out towards Anakin and they start chipping away at the Y-Wing. In the middle though Tucker got a block onto Jan and Jag dives in.
Jan goes from having lost 1 shield to, well, this:
I get half of Anakin but Rob is now 14 – 8 up and I’m down to just 2 ships left. I isn’t looking good.
I start to chase down the lumbering Y-Wing to get those extra 3 points when I make a MASSIVE error with Hera. I intend to set a 1 Talon roll (JARGON ALERT!!) to the right but instead I set just a 1 hard turn, leaving me in this position
Had I set it correctly Jag would be taking a soft modded Proton Cannon shot and while he may not have died, I’ve basically lost an entire turn of shooting which costs me dearly. Not only that but she’s just barely in Tucker’s arc so takes shots from the Torrent and from Jag. Big sigh.
Anakin is slowly getting chipped away though and despite tryint to get away, a turn later I manage to pick him off, meaning that Rob has no ships in the middle.
There’s time for 1 more turn but this time it’s Rob who gets the kill shot as I take out Jag but lose Wedge right at the end.
Final result: 18 – 22 loss
Mini conclusion…
Back to earth with a bump! The game swung on two major moments, losing Fenn to the Diamond Boron (my fault for putting him there I suppose!) and mis-dialling the talon roll with Hera. Taking Jag off the board a turn or so earlier could have made the difference here. Although given how the early game went it did end up much closer than I’d expected.
So that’s me at 1 – 1. I’m still 50% of the way to my goal for the day!
Game 3 – Assault – Ewart Williams
Ewart and I have never played each other before so it’s always a lovely experience to play someone for the first time at an event like this. He was flying an interesting CIS list:
Zam Wesell – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (8)
Notorious (6)
Bo-Katan Kryze (Republic/Separatist) (6)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Ablative Plating (2)
Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 5
Aurra Sing – Firespray-class Patrol Craft (7)
Proximity Mines (9)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Angled Deflectors (1)
Slave I (Separatist) (0)
Skilled Bombardier (2)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 4
The Iron Assembler – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (3)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Shield Upgrade (10)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
DFS-311 – Vulture-class Droid Fighter (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/2) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
When I first rocked up to the table I was fearing Jango and Zam as the Firesprays were hiding one of the vultures. Looking at the full list I felt a little better as Jango’s high initiative could have been an issue.
Now, I’ve got to be honest, I felt a bit bad about this as this game was a little bit of a washout.
I managed to get a really good kill box on Zam early on and after stripping shields without reply at long range, I managed to finish her off without allowing a revenge shot.
Not only that but Hera got a very nice Proton Cannon shot into Aurra which then set me up for a kill on her the next turn. I did lose Fenn in return but the next turn I took the Iron Assembler out and got the claim on 2 objectives to end the game.
Final result: 24 – 10 win
Mini conclusion…
I did feel a bit bad for Ewart here, my dice were pretty good and I got the breaks when I needed them. I was quite proud of the kill move on Zam where Fenn rolled left into a red focus to just barely get into Jan’s arc (allowing a 5 dice shot) having already picked up a lock with Mando Optics and then dodge Zam’s arc to ensure no revenge shot.
That put me at 2 – 1 going in to lunch which I was quite pleased with. Targets had been met, could I go any further?
Game 4 – Scramble – Chris Burnett
So, things are getting serious then! Not only is Chris a very good player (having made the final at last year’s Welsh Open among other results!) but the list I’m flying is essentially his creation. I may have iterated it a bit (namely removing the slightly gimmicky Trajectory Simulator) but he certainly knows what it can do. He’s also been reading the blog for a LONG time!
He was flying a strong Resistance list:
Poe Dameron (HoH) – T-70 X-wing (5)
Heroic (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Heavy Laser Cannon (5)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Rey – Scavenged YT-1300 (7)
Compassion (1)
Heroic (2)
Rose Tico (9)
Finn (9)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (21/21) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Zizi Tlo – RZ-2 A-wing (4)
Heroic (2)
Marksmanship (2)
Proton Rockets (6)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Kazuda Xiono – Fireball (4)
Heroic (2)
R5 Astromech (7)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Targeting Computer (1)
Kaz’s Fireball (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
The big question I always ask when facing a list like this is – what can I actually kill? I’m never too sure of getting Poe but this cheaper Poe might be a bit easier to pin down. Maybe.
We set up and Chris did something I don’t normally see with Rey/Poe lists which is to fly them together. I sent my ships up the middle and then angled out towards his main force but then something ridiculous happened which set the course for the game.
In this position while most of the action was in trading shots with Rey, Zizi took a spurious range 3 obstructed shot at Fenn and rolled hit, crit. Fenn rolled his FIVE green dice and rolled… one single evade and 4 blanks. The crit went through and was a panicked pilot. Well. Balls.
The pain continued as bumps started and Kaz decided to go full ‘beast mode’, dealing more damage than Poe could manage. Rey rolled in and took aim at Jan and, well, did the thing again…
I still had 3 ships to fire with but some clever play by Chris kept Rey alive for 1 turn longer than expected and while she did burn down I was being out-scored on objectives now too. Fenn eventually recovered from the double stress as I started pouring fire into Poe but I fell 2 damage short of taking him out as time was called and Wedge fell just at the last.
Final result: 11 – 22 loss
Mini conclusion…
This felt a bit closer than the score indicates. Had Fenn not taken the panicked pilot so early he’d have come in on Rey’s flank rather than running from Zizi (and that Procket!) for a few turns. If Rey goes down a little earlier then maybe Poe follows suit. Still, Chris is a top player (who went on to make the top cut) so there’s no shame in this loss.
So that’s 2 – 2 and on to the last game of the day!
Game 5 – Scramble – Shaun Whittaker
Another new person! With both of us being at 2 – 2 there wasn’t all that much to play for but we were both keen to end the day strong. Shaun had brought an imperial list which had a slightly familiar look about it.
Captain Kagi – Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle (5)
Advanced Sensors (8)
Freelance Slicer (3)
ISB Slicer (1)
ST-321 (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 5
Juno Eclipse – TIE Advanced x1 (4)
Fire-Control System (2)
Proton Rockets (6)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Maarek Stele – TIE Advanced x1 (4)
Fire-Control System (2)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Academy Pilot – TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (1/4) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Soontir Fel (BoE) – TIE/in Interceptor (5)
Apex Predator (BoE) (0)
No Escape (BoE) (0)
Blank Signature (BoE) (0)
Feedback Emitter (BoE) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
Not all that different from what I put together for Cai to fly just after Christmas, this has similar chassis but some different pilots.
Despite how it went against Cai (i.e. VERY badly), I sort of opted in to the joust, thinking I’d be able to take down at least one Advanced before it fires. Hopefully.
Thankfully I did manage to with Juno burning down quickly enough to allow me to put some damage into Kagi the same turn.
I was VERY aware of Soontir screaming around the back of my list but Kagi then went down which gave me some breathing space.
Points ticked up slowly over the next 2 turns before a flurry of late activity as I lost Hera but managed to take Soontir out as time was called.
Final result: 19 – 13 win
The conclusion…
Well well well, I got a positive record! Given the strength of the room and the sheer volume of people playing I’m very happy with how it went overall. My wins were good wins and my losses were, well, perhaps not REALLY close but close enough that I challenged.
Given that I was one of just SEVEN people flying Rebels and that literally nobody else was flying anything close to the same list as me (namely, not a meta list) then I’m actually really happy with how it all went.
Sadly my strength of schedule wasn’t that great so even though the 3-2 bracket started at 26th place I finished 59th overall. That’s above half way in a 136 player event, I’ll take that. Slightly frustratingly I was only 0.24 SoS away from being the top Rebel player although local Welshie Andrew Robinson had managed that feat with a VCX, K-Wing, E-Wing and T-65 combo. Nice work Andrew!
If you’re interested in final standings or browsing for lists then here’s the Longshanks link for the event.
If you know ANYTHING about the STO then you’ll likely already know that it is an absolutely incredible event. Always fun, full of great people, spectacularly well run and a vibe that’s seriously competitive at the top end while simultaneously causal and fun throughout.
Well done to the Sith Taker team – Rich, Sean, Ben (as well as Tim and Jonathan even though you played!) as well as to the Firecast Focus guys Nic, Phil and Dom and also Nicki Burnett for the work on the stream.
All in all I had an absolute blast at this event but that’s no surprise because I always do and I’m already looking forward to next year!
It’s already been a SUPER long post so I’ll wrap it up here but I’ll just mention again that Welsh Open tickets are available and it would be amazing to see you there!
The outro…
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