The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
Before I get going I want to give a shout out to Noah Hallett (Casual Dad Games) for the shout outs on his review of Worlds last week. I appreciate it!
There’s a LOT to talk about today (again!) so I’ll jump straight in!
Patreon Update…
So, week 2 of spoiling Patreon gift details and this week I’m showing off some lovely new crit tokens!
These will be for Legend tier supporters only so if you’d like to join up and get some (or upgrade your tier to jump on these!) then get on over to my Patreon page and sign up! You can also, if you like, join as a free member and just get updates on what’s happening and when blogs are posted. Just thought that worth a mention!
Right, I’ll keep that short and sweet for today as there’s some news to get to!
XWA Update…
IT HAPPENED!
After weeks of teasers and months of planning, the brand new SL cards by the XWA were released! Wooooo!
All in all there are 30 (THIRTY!!) new SL cards with 10 each for First Order, Resistance and Scum. Points have also been released and are now live on YASB and Launch Bay Next.
The design panel were interview on a Discord Stage event on Sunday around an hour after points went live where some of the design choices and themes we explained and people could submit questions. I think there may be a plan to get this uploaded to YouTube or somewhere at some point but I’m not 100% sure on that. If it does happen then I’ll post a link when I can.
There’s also art for all ships so that physical print & play can be done for those who want to use them and they’re all available both with and without art (cheaper on the ink!)
This is a really exciting step for the XWA. To be able to introduce some new content to the existing meta is a pretty big deal and signifies a first step towards what could be achieved in the longer term. It’s a baby step, sure, nothing too risky or revolutionary but I think that’s wise. We’re all finding our feet here and while it is possible that something broken got past the playtesters, SL cards being self contained makes it less likely. Besides, Mando in an N-1 and a T-70 with an A-Wing dial are still pretty exciting, right?!
If you want to take a look then check out the XWA website for the full PDFs!
Just in case it wasn’t clear, this is the ‘something new’ from the title.
The batrep(s)…(JARGON ALERT!!)
This week we got our first games in the new venue which we are looking at using moving forward: The Arena
It’s a lovely big space with great height tables and, once they’re fully up and running, will have some food and drink options. We’re looking forward to getting more games in here and, of course, running some events here! It’s worth making a little mention of the upcoming XWA official OP event we’re holding on the 24th of May. Get onto the Facebook event page (or contact me directly!) to get your ticket!
Anyway, getting back to the point, Steve Boulton, Josh and I were able to go and get some games in.
Josh and Steve had already played when I arrived so I took on Josh for my first game. As a quick note, as I’m covering more than one game they won’t be full turn by turn batreps.
Also, as the ‘something old’ I am STILL running my 4 ship Rebel list:
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
Game 1 – Josh – Scramble The Transmission
Josh had brought a list that he’s been running variations of over the last few weeks now.
Fenn Rau – Fang Fighter (5)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Old Teroch – Fang Fighter (5)
Fearless (3)
Daredevil (4)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (10/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Talonbane Cobra – Kihraxz Fighter (4)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (3/4) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Cad Bane – Rogue-class Starfighter (4)
Proton Cannons (5)
Babu Frik (5)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Xanadu Blood (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
A nasty combo of hard hitting, tricky to kill and decent modifications.
We place everything down and are ready to start.
Josh had been first player so it was my choice to put my Fenn opposite his and dissuade the full flank. Maybe. I’d definitely committed to sending my slower ships through a very specific lane and I think that was possibly a bad idea.
We shuffle forwards and while I put a cheeky damage into his Fenn for no returned hits, it’s the second turn that really gets things going.
Now, first things first, I didn’t take ROAD into consideration here and it screwed me a bit. That said, I could (should) have done better with Fenn too.
Josh went first and Wedge bumped into him instead of clearing past Old T.
I didn’t lose any ships but Hera and Wedge both took 3 hits and Jan went down to 1 hull. What did I get in return? Old T down to 1 hull. Ugh.
Jan of course died the next turn but did so in exchange for Cad. Not a bad trade I guess but that’s not what did me in. Old T escaped and Josh’s Fenn casually left and tagged my objective. Cad had tagged the middle before dying and now Josh was getting 3 points a turn.
I then annihilated the TIE and sent Fenn to get Old T but, being a Fang, Old T lived. Balls. Worse than that, Old T softened up Wedge and Talonbane finished him off at range 0. And then objectives.
That made the score 7 – 17 in Josh’s favour and while I could maybe have claimed one objective back to prevent Josh winning next tun, there was no realistic way for me to prevent 1 more point the following turn.
Given that Steve was waiting in the wings for a game, I called it there.
Result: 7 – 17 loss
Mini conclusion…
Ugh. Ok, I made mistakes here. Big ones. ROAD may have screwed me on the first meaningful engagement (in terms of Wedge’s position) but still, I allowed Josh to get everything decent shots into several of my ships. Sure, dice played a part but I made it far too easy and came out of that engagement with 3 limping ships while Josh had just 1 which had a good route to disengage.
This was all about the turn 0 setup and objective play I, the first of which I screwed up and the second got outplayed on.
Overall it was a fair result. It also underlines my feelings on this list. When it works, it’s great. Deleting ships and tanking damage. When I get something a bit wrong, it all feels a little bit too fragile or underpowered.
Still, there was another game still to play!
Game 2 – Steve – Chance Engagement
After a brief dalliance with Scum, Steve was back to playing FO and had brought a 4 ship list with a good bit of punch.
Major Vonreg – TIE/ba Interceptor (5)
Proud Tradition (2)
Fanatical (2)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Quickdraw” – TIE/sf Fighter (5)
Swarm Tactics (7)
Predator (3)
Special Forces Gunner (0)
Fire-Control System (2)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Kylo Ren – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (6)
Heightened Perception (5)
Instinctive Aim (2)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
Commander Malarus – TIE/fo Fighter (4)
Fanatical (2)
Proud Tradition (2)
Fire-Control System (2)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
I was first player in setup so I’d be determining where Jan would go and placing my aces with little information. Not ideal.
With the rock placements as they were, I decided to put Wedge and Hera in the middle and go quick to get pas the rocks and near the objective
I knew that Vonreg would be coming in for the flank on my right and also wanted to watch for Kylo on my left. I decided to ty and scare him off with Fenn.
Alas, it didn’t quite work out as Kylo went a bit slower than expected, leaving Fenn with a LOT of choices in what to do next.
Given that the options were far too many, I opted not to bother and turned him in, leaving Kylo with only Jan at range 3 to shoot at. With Wedge going fast (and using Afterburners) to dodge Vonreg (who had locked him), I got what I thought was a reasonably favourable engagement. The down side? My main target was Malarus who had switched on her ability. That never goes well for me.
And I was right. Kind of.
I got Mal down to 1 hull. In exchange Hera went down to 2 hull. Ugh. Not great.
We forgot to do half points that turn but the following turn was rather interesting.
Wedge failed to finish off Malarus (because, of course!) while Hera and Fenn turned on Vonreg and Jan cruised in on Kylo.
Hera died (obviously) but I got Vonreg down to 1 hull and Jan put 3 hits into Kylo.
With all of Steve’s ships still on the board, Hera gone and Wedge and Jan both taking a little damage I felt that the game was slipping away from me. Until we finally counted up half scores.
I’d lost Hera, yes, but had halved Malarus (2 points), Vonreg (2 points) AND Kylo (3 points) which actually put me ahead!
I took out Malarus and Kylo the following turn which put me 15 – 8 up and, in my mind, I was going to be ok!
And then Quickdraw flew into Jan’s face, rolled 4 hits our of hand an Jan blanked out and died.
I was rather desperate not to allow QD any double taps so we got through turns quite quickly as I slowly ticked up towards 20 points.
However, Steve getting a hit into Wedge scored him another 2 points and now we were tied. Just like last week!
Fenn took an obstructed shot with a lock into Vonreg which should have finished him off but alas….
I rolled hit crit blank, rerolled the blank into another blank but it didn’t matter since Steve rolled 4 natural evades. Cheeky!
I was now having to take very calculated moves to prevent the untouched Quickdraw killing Wedge. Fenn, facing the wrong way, now needed to turn around and while Wedge could have taken a rather obvious looking 4-k (JARGON ALERT!!), I was still feeling a little nervous following the hammer blow from QD into Jan a few turns earlier.
If I went first, Vonreg could arc dodge and QD could move and either reposition for a shot on Wedge or just take a mod. Worst case there, Wedge dies and Vonreg lives – I lose the middle and the game.
I decide instead to try and bump Wedge into QD, minimising the risk of losing him while Fenn turns around with the 2 Talon roll (JARGON ALERT!!). Wedge might still die but it’s less likely. Whether we draw or not then depends on Fenn’s single modded shot into Vonreg.
Steve moves first (bad for him). Vonreg boosts and takes a deplete (fine because he’s not shooting) and an evade. QD hard turns and focuses.
Wedge 1 banks and bumps into the side of QD (good for me) at an angle which gives QD arc on him (bad for me). I opt against the red focus for future positioning reasons based on where he is from teh middle, however I quickly regret it since QD might roll natties and still kill him.
Fenn still has a lock from a previous Mando Optics usage and talon rolls.
QD rolls the range 0 into Wedge and gets nothing. Phew!
Wedge declines the shot into QD *which could give him a second shot) after finding Vonreg agonisingly out of arc.
It’s all on Fenn.
I roll 3 dice. Get hit, eyeball, blank. Not ideal. Spend the lock on 2 of them and get hit blank. That’s 2 hits total.
Steve rolls…
Steve rolls 2 eyes and 2 blanks. The single evade isn’t enough and Vonreg dies.
1 point each for the middle and I get 3 for Vonreg.
Final result: 23 – 20 win
Mini conclusion…
Crikey that was tight! That final turn really have gone either way with so many variables. I got lucky (or Steve got unlucky?) and that’s kind of down to how I played the list in the early game – not great.
The conclusion…
So, 1 – 1, not bad. As it turned out, Steve had beaten Josh so all 3 of us won one and lost one!
I am (almost) definitely moving on from this list after this week. Not because I don’t like it (I do) or because it’s awful (it isn’t) but because there’s more out there to explore and I’m basically just being lazy with my list choice. We’re around 6 or 7 weeks away from the Newport tournament. It’s time to start looking at my options for that!
Speaking of which, just a little reminder that if you’re free on the 24th of May and would like to come to Newport and play in a Squad Championship event then get on over to the Facebook event page and get your name down (or message me directly if you’re not on Facebook!). We’ll have official prizes and Exile prizes and maybe some other lovely things as well! It’ll be a great day out in our new venue and we’d love to see you there!
I’ll also shout out the Welsh Open 2025 which is on the 19th and 20th of July at Firestorm games in Cardiff. It will be an XWA System Open event (with the winner getting a Worlds 2026 1st round bye!) and we will have some EPIC prizes on top of the System Open kit, some of which will be the kind you can roll!
Tickets are on sale now, go on, get yours IMMEDIATELY!!
I’m already late posting and I’m a bit exhausted so I’ll leave it here for now. I’m away next week so no blog (probably?) but I’ll be back soon enough!
The outro…
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