The intro…
Hello there! Welcome to this week’s blog!
Before I get into games this is where I normally talk about any news. Has there been news? Well, actually yes! But what I can’t quite decide is how to portion out the percentages of interesting, ironic, annoying, puzzling and hilarious it is.
I am of course talking about the AMG points update.
Yes, that’s right.
For anyone who missed it (and I’m really not sure how you could have if you found this blog, it’s been all over the usual spots), last Friday AMG posted this:
Just as a reminder, this comes just about a week shy of THREE MONTHS after the announcement that the game was no longer in development.
Much hilarity ensued as people clicked on the points document only to find even older versions (first was the existing Feb 24, then the Aug 23) of the points but this was eventually fixed.
So, what’s changed? Well the main thing would be that the standard loadout cards that leaked earlier this year for TIE Phantoms and Alpha Class Starwings (aka Gunboats) have had cards, bases and dials added to the ‘print and play’ section.
To their credit, I think this is, in principle, a really cool move. The cards are designed, the work is done. Since they’ll never get printed, why not throw them out into the wild?
In practice? Eeeeh, it’s complicated. For one, with the ‘valid from’ date being the 6th of September and all pilots marked as ‘yes’, these cards will all be valid for the remaining GT tournaments. And Worlds. Since these ships haven’t been in print since 1.0 they were already VERY difficult to get hold of but since they’re priced at just 5 points each and the SL’s have some very tasty abilities they might be about to get a LOT more expensive. Especially when you recall that official GT events don’t allow proxies.
There were ALSO points changes for several pilots, crucially including such meta stalwarts as SL Braylen, SL Odd Ball, Gemmer Sojan and more.
While many will be asking why, Iguess the biggest question to ask has to be – why now?
The why is fairly obvious. The meta is (for the most part) over 18 months old at this point, people are bored of it and certain things are very popular and/or oppressive. Choices are obvious in many factions and on many ships and that’s not great for the game.
So, why now? AMG certainly aren’t going to answer that question so here’s the main theories that people are throwing around from the innocent through to the uh, least:
- GT attendance – GTs are scheduled right through until May next year with a couple happening after Worlds in March. You might think that declining attendance in a (officially) ‘dead game’ doesn’t matter but AMG still have several games with organised play and how they appear to be doing in the eyes of the big conventions could be a factor.
- Why not? – The points were clearly done and likely well before the June announcement. It’s my understanding that lots of changes have to be approved by LFL (Lucasfilm) and were probably in the pipeline when AMG dropped the hammer. The end was announced and the approval came though after. Releasing them would literally take 15 minutes of someone’s time (unless they screwed it up, then maybe 30).
- The XWA – yes, I went there. Full tin-foil hat mode. The very first set of community points were released just 5 days before AMG did this. Maybe it upset AMG. Maybe it just reminded them that these points were in the bottom drawer waiting for release. Maybe it’s some sinister plot to sabotage this secret cabal of X-Wing rebels and teach them a lesson. But probably not. I like this quote that was posted up in response to that theory:
Whatever the reason and whyever the timing, these are now points that we have and you know what? Not an awful lot of people seem to care.
There’s definitely not been the usual buzz of ‘yay they nerfed X’ or ‘now I can fit Y in a list with Z’ or ‘oh man, they all the loadout from Ello!’. That in itself I think says more about where the communities head is at when it comes to points. It may be confusing now that we have new AMG points AND new XWA points (as well as 2.0 points!) but these aren’t an overhaul, just a few hotfixes and while they might be well needed ones in the 6 month run up to the last ever official Worlds, they’re not a long term look supported by a group that’s invested in the long term.
I’m interested to know what you think about the new points so remember to comment afterwards and let me know what you think, AMG or XWA!
That was a VERY long chunk of news. Shall we move on?
XTC Update…
Maybe we shouldn’t…..
Yes, round 1 of the XTC group stage is done and we…. got our butts handed to us unfortunately….
We went down 1 – 6 to France although we did have some games that, while the final score may not have looked very close, swung very wildly, very quickly.
Well done to Aurelien and his team who now take on Poland.
I have to say, the feeling of watching a stream or sitting and waiting, knowing that a game is happening and there’s NOTHING you can do about it is more stressful than I remember from last year!
As for Team Wales, we are now facing the US Islands team led by Mike ‘Maui’ Thompson. Maui and I had a nice chat over pairings and we’re all lined up to play this week. Come back next week to see how we did!
The batrep… sort of…(JARGON ALERT!!)
In a slight change from the norm, while I’m going to talk about a game, it isn’t one that I played in.
Weird, right?
The reason for this is two-fold.
Firstly, while I did play a game, it was a practice game for XTC where I played Corentin’s list against Steve Boulton. I will be honest, I didn’t fly it well and while that in itself is actually a reason for covering the game, that match is now done and it’s using the old AMG points (as all of XTC is) so I don’t feel there’s much value in going back over it.
The second reason is that I think that I’m missing a trick in how I watch X-Wing.
In my opinion X-Wing is a very watchable game. That isn’t the case for all games. I’ve seen people streaming Pokemon for example and while I now get how some strategy could be learned from it, I think that X-Wing is far more enjoyable as an independent viewer.
First you’ve got the models. They’re gorgeous. It got pointed out a little while back that you technically don’t need the models in order to play the game, just the bases and dials. But man it would be MUCH less interesting to look at without them.
Secondly, the environment. It’s a 3 foot square board, normally on a starfield mat with space obstacles to navigate around. It looks cool.
Thirdly, it’s got variety. Even if you took the same two players with the same two lists and they played 5 games against each other back to back, no two games would be the same. The obstacles, deployment, engagements and dice results would all vary significantly and make each game different and interesting in its own right.
Lastly, and more in terms of streaming, the way that the phases play out mean that commentators and viewers (in a chat normally), have time to analyse what’s just happened, what mistakes may have been made and what could happen next. It’s like half time analysis of a football (or soccer for the non-Europeans) but for each play.
The thing is, when watching a game of X-Wing, am I actually learning anything? Am I taking in where a player deploys and asking myself whether I think that’s good or bad? Am I looking at the decisions made when selecting an action for a ship and wondering if I’d have done the same or something different?
Sure, in the moment I might think ‘ooo, that’s a mistake’ but do I later go back to it and, in the wider context of a final result, evaluate it again?
The answer, mostly, is no. I don’t. Just like an armchair football fan who screams at the TV when a player tries to shoot when there was someone he could have passed to with a much better opportunity, it’s so very easy to pass judgement in the moment and then later have someone else’s analysis tell me what I should think.
So, in the interests of challenging myself to grow and learn how to better take things away from a game I’m watching, I’m going to try it out right now!
Last Wednesday we had an odd number of players and so I sat out when we arrived and Josh Hall and Steve Boulton played a game which I (mostly) watched.
Another reason for covering this game is that they were using the new XWA points! Wooo!
Josh was flying First Order:
“Blackout” – TIE/vn Silencer (6)
Predator (3)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Kylo Ren – TIE/vn Silencer (6)
Brilliant Evasion (2)
Predator (3)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Major Vonreg – TIE/ba Interceptor (5)
Predator (3)
Marksmanship (2)
Proton Rockets (6)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
“Static” – TIE/fo Fighter (3)
Marksmanship (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (5)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
And Steve had Scum:
Ketsu Onyo – Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft (6)
False Transponder Codes (5)
Overtuned Modulators (3)
Mandalorian Optics (3)
Shadow Caster (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Asajj Ventress – Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft (7)
Malice (4)
Notorious (6)
0-0-0 (5)
False Transponder Codes (5)
Overtuned Modulators (3)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (23/23) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 5
Leema Kai – BTL-A4 Y-wing (4)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Proton Torpedoes (14)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
N’dru Suhlak – Z-95-AF4 Headhunter (3)
Lone Wolf (3)
Diamond-Boron Missiles (5)
Overtuned Modulators (3)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Both very interesting lists. Steve leaned into the return of ships not seen in a long time while Josh took advantage of Kylo’s points drop and wanted to get in close with the Proton Rockets and roll lots of dice.
They were playing Chance Encounter and got ready to kick things off!
At this point Steve’s Z-95 looks awfully isolated while Josh’s ships are quite tightly grouped. My initial thought here is that Steve might struggle to get both big ships into relevant positions.
Josh then surprised us both with a SUPER aggressive turn 1, decloaking Blackout for the extra 2 speed boost and then going full speed with boosts where possible from everyone else, angling directly in at N’dru.
Steve’s Lancers chugged forwards while Leema just hard turned in behind.
At this point it seems as though Josh’s positioning might give an advantage. He could reasonably take out N’dru with little drawback and then turn on the Lancers before Steve can get both into the positions where they can do damage.
What can Steve do here? N’dru is in trouble for sure. The question is, do you turn in and try to get a shot at teh risk of being initiative killed? Or try and run? Is it even possible to get away from ships that fast when at a lower initiataive?
If, then N’dru is lost, how do you counter that?
As the next turn played out, three important things happened.
First (and most obviously), N’dru died. It was pretty massive overkill in the end as Vonreg and then one of the Silencers (i forget which, probably Blackout) wiped him out. That left (probably) Kylo with no shot. Making certain of a kill and not simply hoping or leaning on ‘what the average should be’ is important but on this occasion it’s left Josh a little out there.
Secondly, Josh went slowly with Static. Perhaps that’s not a massive deal at this point but given how fsat the other three ships want to go it means that either the FO is going to be isolated or it’s going to have to do some real fast moves to keep up.
Thirdly, and most crucially, Kylo (the back Silencer) is in some firing arcs. He escapes getting tractored by Ketsu’s shot but loses 2 shields from Assaj’s range 1 mobile arc shot.
Both players are range 2 of the middle so it’s 4 – 1 to Josh at the end of turn 2.
Looking at the positioning now, Josh maybe went too hard in on the Z-95. The Lancers are almost on him and Leema is ready to fire a Proton Torp. Blackout and Kylo are both facing the board edge and while the Silencer dial is a great one, there’s only so many places you want to try and end up in that position, especially with both ships stressed.
Steve uses Leema to go full ‘disruptor’ and manages to block Blackout while Kylo gets away. Vonreg has come in to chase while Static has now turned in to the middle.
Steve has k-turned (JARGON ALERT!!) Assaj to allow Ketsu the space to come in to the fight and start making use of the title to hand out tractor tokens.
Vonreg fails to take full advantage of the position here and between his shot and Blackout’s range 0 shot Leema only loses 2 shields. It could have been far worse.
On the other end of that pendulum swing, Leema’s Dorsal shot and Ketsu’s range 3 primary manage to take Vonreg down to a single hull. Big ouch.
The worst part for Josh? He’s got no ships at range 2 of the middle and Steve picks up 2 points to being it to 4 – 3 in Josh’s favour.
Josh might be ahead in points but Vonreg’s health and the Silencer positions mean that Josh is very much in an uphill battle now.
The next turn is the one that really seals the deal.
Firstly, Josh makes a misjudgement in speed and Vonreg self bumps and rolls a hit to finish him off.
Secondly, Static strays into the wrong place and Assaj brutally one-shots him.
Sadly for Josh, he’s struggling to get arc on the chasing Lancer and has had to turn his attention from Leema. By the end of the turn Ketsu’s lost 2 shields while Josh lost 2 ships. Oh, and Josh still isn’t close enough to the middle.
Big. Ouch.
That’s now 13 – 4 in Steve’s favour.
Over the next few turns Josh finally manages to put some hurt in on Steve’s ships, enough to score half points on Assaj and Leema but Steve’s lead is unassailable as both Silencers give up half their points.
Final score: 23 – 11 win for Steve
The conclusion…
Here’s the part I find a little difficult with other people’s games. Once you hit a fork in the road of decision making and would change what you did vs what the player actually did, it’s impossible to know how different the outcome would be.
All I can do really is look at the decisions made that led (either immediately or eventually) to bad consequences and figure out how much of those consequences were down to those choices.
For example, Static hanging back from the main group and then angling in at Assaj and dying not long after looks on the surface like a poor choice. But honestly, how often does a 3 agility ship simply brush off attack after attack? I think the answer is ‘when its my ship, not often’ but we’ve all seen occasions when TIE fighters last WAY longer than they should have.
Overall I think Josh’s turn 0 was better than Steve’s. The potential to stagger speeds and draw Assaj into a killbox from multiple angles was there but N’dru was there as a distraction and Josh took the bait.
That meant that the whole game he was chasing from a worse board position. It was compounded by some poor dice rolls and unfortunate ‘just in range’ shots for sure and without these it would certainly have been a closer end result.
While I think the turn 0 for Steve wasn’t ideal, the in game dial decisions seemed to be much better. Cycling Assaj out of the way with a k-turn while Ketsu pressed the attack and using Leema to threaten Proton Tops and/or dive in to disrupt Josh’s ships worked really well. Josh was certainly unlucky to lose Static in the manner he did but it was Steve’s choice to put Assaj in that position that made that luck possible. AS they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Looking at the process, I guess the easy part is making the judgements of ‘X was wrong’, ‘Y was right’ in each decision point. What’s hard is to look at why that decision was made and to jstuify why a different one would have been better. And what’s harder again is to retain that information and then apply it in a game.
Some choices are relatively straightforward. Don’t do this because of that direct consequence. Some choices are a lot more subjective though and are often informed by our past experiences, whether those experiences be accurate or laced with a certain amount of confirmation bias (it’s fine, Malarus ALWAYS rolls paint when the ability is active!).
In amongst all this it can be easy to forget that we play a game with a rather large slice of variance in it. Who goes first, how much damage is done, how much time we have, it’s all decided on dice rolls and those fickle chunks of plastic hold more power than we’d like to admit.
That said, you can’t argue with the face that certain players seem to always end up towards the top of tournaments and, random elements or not, there’s an awful lot of skill involved.
Right, I’ve just about hit my limit here today, this is far more than I’d expected to write and its time for bed! Thanks for taking the time to read and I’ll be back next week with some more!
The outro…
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