The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
This last week has been rather hectic with a good few things going on and sadly, none of them X-Wing related. Ok, well that’s not quite true, I have had some XWA things to look at but since it didn’t involve playing an actual game it doesn’t quite count in the same way.
Anyway, before I get into things, let me just spam you (again!) with The Welsh Open!
Yes, I know it’s still a few months away but I honestly CANNOT stress enough just how important it is that we have a good understanding of how many people are coming as early as possible. Several of the prize ranges need to be manufactured ahead of time and the better idea we have of what our attendance will be, the better we can budget for prizes!
I’d always assumed that it went without saying that Mark and I aren’t making any money off this but let me be very clear – our ‘share’ (i.e. what Firestorm give us) of the ticket sales ALL goes back in to prizes. All of it.
Anyway, in case you do need a reminder, it’s on the 19th and 20th of July at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. Hot lunch is included on both days and there will be SO many prizes on offer no matter where you finish! We will have a day 2 side event going for anyone not in the top cut as well.
So what are you waiting for? Get your ticket here!!
In other news, that was somewhat of a whirlwind sequence of events with the UK Games Expo. TO extraordinaire Kris Mitchell went from mooting X-Wing at UKGE to confirming the event, publishing tickets and the event being SOLD OUT at 64 players in all of about 3 days! Quite incredible really!
X-Wing really is alive and well in the UK and people are turning up to events to prove it. What a special community this is!
Alright, let’s move on…
XWA Update…
I mentioned earlier that I’d been doing XWA work but this isn’t it!
On the Gold Squadron Podcast last week there was yet another reveal of a new Standard Loadout card and this one is a doozy!
Yes, THE MANDALORIAN! IN AN N-1!
It’s worth a listen to the GPS episode (376 if you’re interested) as Ryan goes into some detail of why it’s designed the way it is.
Just looking at it there are a few interesting things to note. The Force isn’t recurring, The Child’s ability doesn’t have the second part of the text (perfect for Steve Boulton!) so doesn’t require a condition card and it doesn’t have the free evade from going fast!
Anyway, it looks like a really cool ship. Maybe I’ll need to get some more ships 3-D printed to give out to Patrons! Maybe dials too…
As for my XWA work this week? Well, it’s still secret. For now. Not too long to wait though, I promise.
The batreps… (JARGON ALERT!!)
Alrighty then, let’s get back to the Sith Taker Open!
I’ve talked about the main event but what about the day 2 side event? Well, there were actually 2 on offer. There was a doubles event (with VERY little in the way of rules/restrictions!) but there was also an official AMG GT event happening too.
Being totally undecided about what to do I prepared for both. I figured that I could use any two of the 4 ships in my XWA list to make up the 10 points needed and tailor which ones based on who I would be playing with.
For the GT I looked ay my existing list and kept what I could of it while adjusting for AMG points and swapping Jan in the HWK out and replacing her with Keo in an A-Wing and Sabine in a TIE because, let’s face it, 2 point Sabine is hard to not include and 5 ships is better for objectives.
It was only on the Saturday night that I eventually decided to play in the GT. The main reason was to get hold of some more of the official prizing that I could then use on the bounty table at the Welsh Open.
So, I registered for the event and submitted my list…
Luke Skywalker (BoY) – T-65 X-wing (5)
Instinctive Aim (0)
Attack Speed (BoY) (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-D2 (BoY) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Wedge Antilles (BoE) – T-65 X-wing (5)
It’s A Trap! (BoE) (0)
Predator (0)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-A3 (BoE) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Hera Syndulla – A/SF-01 B-wing (5)
Hopeful (1)
Proton Cannons (4)
Stabilized S-Foils (0)
B6 Blade Wing Prototype (0)
Ezra Bridger (9)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Sabine Wren – TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Keo Venzee – RZ-1 A-wing (3)
Lone Wolf (3)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (4)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Now while I know how to fly a few of these ships individually, how to deploy them together based on objective play would be a slightly different matter. Would I be able to pull it together? I was about to find out!
Day 2 at Element was almost more chaotic than day with THREE events now happening simultaneously. Pairings went up and we got under way!
Game 1 – Salvage Mission – Matt Coggins
Mr Coggins is a name from the South West that I’ve known for a while and we know each others faces but I don’t think we’d ever actually played before!
If you’ve heard of Matt before then it’ll be no surprise to you that he was running a Resistance list with Rey in it:
Rey – Scavenged YT-1300 (7)
Heightened Perception (3)
Heroic (2)
Novice Technician (2)
Rose Tico (9)
Finn (9)
Rey’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (25/25) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Poe Dameron – T-70 X-wing (7)
Heroic (2)
R4 Astromech (2)
Ferrosphere Paint (3)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
Overdrive Thruster (5)
Spare Parts Canisters (3)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Black One (0)
Concussion Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (25/25) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Corus Kapellim – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (3)
Dorsal Turret (2)
Concussion Bombs (4)
Wartime Loadout (2)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 4
Shasa Zaro – BTA-NR2 Y-wing (3)
Dorsal Turret (2)
Concussion Bombs (4)
Delayed Fuses (1)
Wartime Loadout (2)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
Two big hitters and two tanky cheap ships for objective business. Oh, and the Concussion Bombs. Oof.
Still, it’s Salvage and with an extra ship over Matt’s list and a few that aren’t bothered about repositioning, I might be in with a shot?
Matt starts Rey and Poe on opposite sides. If I’ve got to pick one of them to kill, it’ll be Rey. I’ll take some punches on the way but when Poe’s got the title AND Overdrive Thrusters he’s way harder to pin down.
Matt starts out strong, calling my bluff with Sabine as she boosts, hard turns and picks up a box. Oops.
I’ve got 2 other boxes to Matt’s one though so I’m only 1 point behind.
The next turn nobody picks up any extra boxes and while Luke tanks a haymaker from Rey, she’s right in Hera’s arc and takes heat from Wedge as well.
The next turn ends up being our last (only 4 of them?!? How!??) but it’s a REALY nail biter.
Luke K-turns (JARGON ALERT!!), taking a Concussion bomb but opting to take the strain in case the card is a Direct Hit. Keo hard turns and ALSO takes the bomb and makes the same choice.
Hera’s 1 bank clips the rock. Nooooooo!!!!
Poe makes his way back in and smashes some damage in to Hera. Wedge puts a double modded shot into Rey and she’s heavily damaged but not dead.
Hera’s rock move didn’t cause Rey to bump so Rey winds up for another big shot into Hera and wipes her off the board. Ouch.
Luke takes a shot into Rey and it’s enough to take her out. Just!
We tot up points as time is called and that kill shot on Rey (and Luke not dying from the bombs!) means I just about nick the win.
Result: 13 – 11 win
Mini conclusion…
That was a weird game. Having lost Sabine so early (and cheaply!) I felt behind the whole time. I was pretty sure I’d get Rey in the end but landing Hera on the rock threw it into so much doubt that I’d definitely have to call this a lucky win in the end.
Matt was a great opponent, so fun to play against and happy and smiling even after the scores were totalled up. I will also add that as prizes were being handed out, he gave me all the cards he wasn’t interested in (i.e. everything except the Resistance one!) so that I had more to give out at the Welsh Open. What a superstar!
Right, so that’s 1 – 0. On to the next!
Game 2 – Scramble – David Hammond
Game 2 paired me into David who:
1: I’ve never met before (always a bonus!) and
2: was flying a VERY similar list to me. Well, in chassis anyway.
Wedge Antilles (BoE) – T-65 X-wing (5)
It’s A Trap! (BoE) (0)
Predator (0)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-A3 (BoE) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Luke Skywalker (BoY) – T-65 X-wing (5)
Instinctive Aim (0)
Attack Speed (BoY) (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-D2 (BoY) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Corran Horn – T-65 X-wing (4)
Predator (3)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (4)
R4 Astromech (2)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Ahsoka Tano – RZ-1 A-wing (4)
Heightened Perception (3)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (4)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Sabine Wren – TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
Sabine? Check. A-Wing? Check. T-65’s? Check.
Digging a little deeper though the differences were going to make an interesting difference.
This game turned out to be quite the dramatic tale, hanging completely on mistakes, big calls and dice.
We start out with David’s Wedge flanking away from his main group while I send my big hitters up the middle.
Risking a full flank from Wedge, I decide to turn on Ahsoka, Corran and Luke and boy does it pay off.
In consecutive turns I take Luke, then Corran and then Ahsoka off the table without losing a ship.
Wow.
The down side? Well, my first mistake was not spotting a stress on my Sabine, meaning the the completely unnecessary 3 hard turn (when a blue 2 hard would have done) meant I failed to tag an objective. Over the course of those turns it now meant that Dave was holding 3 objectives and me none.
The next mistake was my forgetting that Luke had R2-D2 and could have regenerated his shields. He died when he could likely have lasted at least another turn or 2.
As Luke burned down we look at the score. 17 – 17.
I look at the table. Hera, Wedge and Keo are all close to objectives, 2 objectives. Sabine is in front of me. If I either claim both objectives OR kill Sabine then I win and there’s nothing Dave can do about it.
The question is, where can Sabine go? My Keo is basically useless as an unnecessary boost a turn earlier had left him stressed and the only blue move that would get him in range to claim would land him on a rock and kill him.
So it’s down to Hera to 1 straight (giving no arc on Sabine) and claim and Wedge to just stay near the middle and claim. Sabine couldn’t kill him and he wasn’t stressed.
It’s a win, right? 1 straight to victory!
Except, no.
Sabine boosts at activation and zooms right in at Wedge. Hera moves and claims, Wedge goes 1 straight and… bumps into Sabine, denying him the claim and only giving a range 0 shot.
Sabine is only on 1 health but she neatly evades Wedge’s unmoddable shot and right at the death David claims victory.
Result: 18 – 19 loss.
Mini conclusion…
Outwardly I was pleased for Dave and could see the relief and disbelief on his face. Inwardly I was pretty furious with myself. If I had just considered the 2 hard turn with Wedge instead of being greedy with the 1 straight for the kill AND claim. Or if I’d used Luke’s R2 charges. OR noticed the stress on Sabine. ANY ONE of those decisions changes the result of the game.
It was at this point that I found out the David had won a GT last year and is actually rather good at the game. That made me feel a bit better.
Game 3 ?
Now, I’ve got a bit of a confession here. Having lost that game and my (very slim) chance to get a top end finish for some more shiny things, I decided to drop out. I wanted some lunch, I wanted to chat with some people and we had the opportunity to start the long trek home a little early.
Not really a bad thing in itself, I was far from being the only one to do it, too. No, the bad part is that I totally forgot to actually see a TO and drop out.
Oops!
I ended up being paired with Joaquin Gonzalez but didn’t even twig that I should have been at a table and set up to play when the round was announced. I walked up to the table and offered my concession. A shame as I’d have liked to play but my stuff was packed and I needed to find the mat that I’d brought up so we could start the journey home.
Only, it turned out that my mat was being used on one of the top 4 tables int he main event. Or so I thought!
After watching the conclusion of perhaps THE most intense and close game of X-Wing I’ve ever seen and then allowing a few minutes for the players to start packing up, I found that it wasn’t my mat at all. Mine was on the table behind where Oli Pocknell and Andy Cameron were playing out the deciding game in the doubles event! 20 minutes later (and some nagging from Mark ‘I thought you were ready to go!’ Hall), the game was done and I got my mat back.
I could have played that game against Joaquin after all!
Anyway, I then proceeded to pack up and say goodbyes whilst STILL forgetting to drop. Double oops!
If you’d like to check out the tournament info then you can see it here:
https://www.longshanks.org/event/22440
Quite hilariously I still managed to finish 37th out of 57 players but ironically would probably have finished higher had I actually dropped as there were 1-1 players as high as 30th!
We bundled ourselves into the car and watched the STO main event final on Firecast Focus’ Twitch stream on our phones as we made our way back down to Wales at the end of a quite amazing weekend of X-Wing and socialising.
It has been pointed out that I may or may not have mentioned this in previous posts about the STO but a MASSIVE congratulations to Dom Flannigan for going undefeated the entire weekend in a room packed with ludicrously good players.
You are an absolute superstar and fully deserve it!
The conclusion…
I feel like there’s a bit to cover here.
First of all the list. Well, actually the list doesn’t matter. This was good, I liked it, I like Hera as an option in there with the high initiative and token sharing. But it’s an AMG points list and I’m now officially done with those. XWA only from here on out!
No, the main thing to cover is about me.
I know I’m not a great player. I’m quite realistic about my ability and in truth, while doing this blog has definitely improved me over the years, I’ve never gone to the lengths or made the commitment that many others have (in terms of practicing specific things, playing multiple games a week, etc) which is what has pushed them from good to great.
And that’s ok. I understand and accept that.
What was interesting about that last game is that I saw it. I saw it too late (the Sabine move from David) and played a little bit too loosely (not seeing Sabine’s stress) but I did actually see it.
It would be very easy for me to sit here and be mad with myself about what happened but where does that get me? This blog is for reflection, introspection, honesty (brutal if needed) and improvement. I more than held my own in that game. Against someone who is demonstrably (in terms of big tournament results) better than I am at X-Wing. And it wasn’t the first time, even that weekend. I have had good results against excellent players and while I suddenly feel like I’m going full ego trip and blowing my own trumpet here, that’s not the purpose of what I’m saying.
No, what I’m saying is this:
We play a dice game. Chance and unpredictability is a large factor in results. But player skill is by FAR a greater factor than luck. The fact that we see the same names at the top of tournament results proves that. Just look at Corentin Roux, for example. Winner of STO in 2024 (with 120-ish players) and finalist in 2025 (136 players). Just once might be luck but to be consistently at the sharp end in large tournaments with excellent players? That is skill.
A long time ago I once mooted that some people just seem to be naturally good at this game. Whether it’s because of being able to eyeball angles and distances or calculate probabilities on the fly or just having a more strategic mind. A part of me wondered back then whether it would ever be possible for some scrub who only gets to play every few weeks or so to get anywhere near these legends of X-Wing.
I guess where my introspection leads me to after almost 6 years on the blogging journey is that yes, maybe it is possible.
After what feels like AGES talking about STO it’s time to start looking ahead. I am involved in an online event at the moment but I’m also about to go away for a few days which means no blog next week I’m afraid!
Maybe console yourself with the fact that by the time the next blog comes out there might be some cool news for me to share!
I’ll see you then!
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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A MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful Patrons for their ongoing support for the blog and enabling me to give away shiny things!
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, Eric Gordon
Exile Commanders:
David Bryan
Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley , Steve Boulton, Kyle Chalpan, Slawomir Stojanowski
You are all amazing humans!
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