The intro…
Yes! I’m back! Ok, well, maybe that should be ‘we’re back’?
You see, this week is another blog by the wonderful Mr Steve Boulton
So with no further ado, let’s get cracking!
The main bit…
Hello and welcome to this week’s Blog. Dylan has let the lunatics out in the asylum again lol.
So why is the title ‘Steve and Ben the X-Wing Men. Well for readers outside the U.K. or for anyone under 40, there used to be a children’s program called ‘Bill & Ben the Flower Pot Men’. At Saturday’s event we had 16 players, of which four were called Steve and three were Ben lol. Hence the tital.
Last week I was discussing my preparation for the upcoming WTC X-Wing Team Event ( wtc-belgium.com ) and my Galactic Republic list and learning from mistakes.
This week is a little different as it’s about my trip to The Games Bunker in Weston Super Mare.
I have a decision to make. I’ve signed up for the European Continental System Open which runs on the Thursday and Friday ( if you make cut ) before the WTC on Saturday and Sunday.
Do I run the same list, or will I be burnt out before Saturday?
I have to make a decision, so I decided to try out the First Order list that Faan Langelaan ( lovely man ) used to win the Welsh Open.
The ‘Seaside Social’ X-Wing event was organised by Richard Greenaway ( the heart and soul of South West X-Wing) and TO’d by Tim Greenaway, his son ( and an excellent X-Wing player ).
One of my favourite things about going to events is the banter with friends on the way there and back. In the car today was myself, Alex my son, Ben Saunders and …….. Dexter, my Cocker Spaniel.
My wife Sally was in Cardiff seeing a show so Jim, the owner at the Games Bunker kindly let me bring Dexter ( our community is so amazing) and all the players made a huge fuss of him.
So, onto the list
It’s great fun flying Kylo and Vonreg, with the double reposition I spent the day avoiding firing arcs.
Midnight is different. With one reposition it’s not what I would call a true ‘ace’ but it is very, very powerful.
But Midnight is not immortal as you’ll see later and definitely needs some forward planning to make sure you don’t get Midnight killed.
Round 1
So onto Game One and I’m paired with Steve Theobald ( one half of the dynamic due who produce The Blue Army podcast which I recommend. The other half is Sam Webb, who also produces excellent printed ( and painted ) X-Wing ships at very reasonable prices ).
These two crazy men drove three hours from Coventry to play.
Steve is running a Scum list.
The scenario was Ancient Knowledge.
I’ve not seen this list before, and Steve is an excellent player, so I’m honestly worried he’s going to catch me out with his normal flying prowess and some dirty scum tricks.
I decide to use Vonreg and the Shuttle to Ancient Knowledge the objective closest to me as the shuttle is slow and Vonreg is going to slow roll anyway to give Steve’s ships something to worry about as Kylo and Midnight charge up the right flank.
Assage decides she doesn’t want to joust Kylo and Midnight, but Zuckuss turns in towards my right flank, so I decide that is my first target.
Between Midnight and Kylo I’m able to halve Zuckuss.
As Zuckuss will have to go around the rock, rather than trying to go for the kill I decide to send my ships into the centre. This proved the correct decision as Zuckuss was out of the game while I attacked the rest of Steve’s squad.
By the end of turn six I was up 40-24 and all my ships were closing in on Asajj when time is called.
Steve is an excellent opponent, and the score doesn’t reflect his ability. But I do think it reflects how strong the FO list is
Or is it just an amazing pilot? Well Game Two quickly disproves that idea lol.
Win 40 – 24 to me
Round 2
My next opponent is Ben Scriven. I’m not sure if we’ve have played before but this game was great fun and Ben went onto to 2nd place overall.
Now along with four Steve’s, three Ben’s we also had three Gauntlet’s causing havoc today. All in Republic lists and all in the top six.
We were playing Scramble which on the face of it gives me an advantage with two i6 ships and an i5 and after winning Game One I was feeling confident.
Oh, how things were about to change.
Vonreg set up to play with eta Ani ( after playing against an eta I can tell you they give the opponent a headache lol, where is he going to be? ) while Midnight and Kylo set up on the left flank.
With so much beef and fire power on Ben’s side I didn’t feel confident in grabbing an objective early, so I went for damage.
Unfortunately, that left Midnight and Kylo jousting two arcs and a gauntlet. The early damage into the Squad Seven Veteran wasn’t going to be enough.
I went back and forth on who to co-ordinate and decided on Kylo, thinking Midnight would jump the SSV arc.
What I should have done is barrel rolled midnight and then done the sloop. I would have avoided an arc and had lock focus on oddball.
Ben moved the gauntlet with a two bank as he was worried the one bank would hit the rock which stopped the five forward from Midnight and now Midnight was in three firing arcs and died giving Ben 11 points, ouch. He also picked up another 6 ship points and 2 objective points! A 19 point swing that round for him.
Things were looking grim but I had two range one shot’s into Ben’s Ani, result? Zero damage.
I’m now 23 -8 behind and a ship down. I need to start damaging the big ships as I probably don’t get that sort of opportunity with Ani again.
Over the next few rounds, I do manage to kill the halved arc but Ben kills the shuttle and it’s 40 – 16
Is there a win condition? Yes, it’s unlikely but yes, limit his objective points and start halving/killing the bigger ships.
I manage to hold him to 2 objective points to my 4 for three rounds and eventually get half on a big ship but time is called and he wins 46 – 34
Ben’s a great player and finished 2nd but if I’d kept Midnight alive the margin is one point and the extra firepower probably helps to bring in those missing ship points I needed.
Congrats Ben.
Round 3
Everybody is back from lunch and ready to play and I get paired into my second Ben of the day. Luckily, it’s not my car buddy, Ben Saunders lol.
Ben Gilham is another player I don’t think I’ve played before and turns out to be yet another amazing opponent.
He has a dirty Scum list with Emon, Guri, Jostero and Padric.
Luckily I’ve played against and with Emon and know he can chuck bombs into some crazy places. I’ve also played Jostero and it’s fairly obvious that Ben is going to dry to do horrible things to me with bombs that Jostero can then get a bonus attack from.
Looking at his list I decide the Y-Wing ( Padric ) is the softest target, followed by Jostero ( let’s get rid of the bonus attack ). Then it’s whatever presents itself.
I set up Midnight and Kylo to go after the Y-Wing with Vonreg on the left flank to give Ben something to think about.
Much to both our surprise, the Y-Wing blows up to hot dice from Midnight and Kylo in turn two. Having been a ship down in the last game I synthesise with Ben. On the plus side I didn’t have a ship in range, so Ben picks up 4 points for the centre. This is important as two turns later Kylo gets halved and Ben is in the lead by 2 points ( 16 – 14 ) although being a ship down he tells me he ‘ doesn’t feel in the lead’.
Now unfortunately things got very tense for the next few rounds as I was being super careful in planning as I didn’t want to get bombed to death, so I forgot to take pictures ( sorry Dylan ).
But my aces went into murder mode, and I picked up 28 points in ship points over turn 6-8 to win the game 52 – 32
Round 4
My final round is against Blaze who tells me he hasn’t played since the last Cornish Nationals.
But he’s 2&1 and we’ve played before, so I know he’s a very good player.
Blaze has brought another Guantlet, two Y-Wings, a torrent ( I hate Torrent’s, they always have one more health and live!! ) and Tarkin. I remember something about Tarkin and target locks.
I read his Pilot and Upgrade cards and there’s a lot of triggers, I really don’t understand everything that’s about to happen. Combine that with a great pilot and as you’ll see I was behind the whole game.
Blaze spreads his ships across the board. It’s ‘Assault’ so I set up to be close to two objectives whilst picking on a Y-Wing. Sadly, Blaze’s Y-Wings refuse to simply blow up and in return clock up a lot of objective points while chipping away at my ships.
By the end of Turn Three Blaze has halved my shuttle and is up 8 – 6. I’m arc dodging like crazy with my aces but I’m losing the damage race. The shuttle explodes in Turn Four and Blaze is up 17 – 13 after I finally start getting some ship points.
Turn Five is more of the same and we end at 21 – 18 to Blaze.
I’m conscious that time will be called soon and arc dodging is not winning me this game, so I commit to an all-out attack into the Gauntlet.
I manage to kill it picking up 15 ship points which completely flips the game and I win 35 – 23.
The end score in no way reflects how tense this game was. Blaze is an amazing player and a fantastic opponent.
Conclusion
I flew against this list twice at the Welsh Open, won one and lost one. Had a few practice games against it with my sparring partner Simeon Arnold who bullied me with it and then one game flying it before this event.
It’s very very good. In the hands of a skilled pilot, I can see why it’s doing well.
I’m definitely not in that category but going 3&1 with one practice game and most importantly having fun flying it makes it a strong option for the singles event in Belgium. To paraphrase one of my favourite human beings, Levi Schadt “It’s all about having a fun game”.
So, I’m going to carry on flying my GAR list ready for the team event with the occasional FO game, so I have an option for the singles.
Alex, Ben and myself all went 3&1 with Alex having the bragging rights as he came in 3rd. Dexter was fussed over all day by the other players and crashed out on the sofa all evening after a hard day being adored.
Finally, we had players from Coventry, Yeovil and Basingstoke drive to Weston to support this event which was amazing.
At my last two events I’ve heard gamers as they’ve walked by say “oh, I thought X-Wing was dead!”
No, it’s far from dead, in my opinion it’s never been better BUT we need gamers to see it’s still active. So please, please, if someone is hosting an event please show your support and attend.
X-Wing needs to be visible if we are going to build it back up so please support your local community and please support the streamers who support our community with their coverage.
Thanks for reading
Pew Pew
StevieB
The conclusion…
Well that looked like a brilliant day of X-Wing!
Events like this really are the heart and soul of X-Wing, giving opportunity for new players and veterans alike to travel and meet new people and old friends. It’s great to see it sold out too!
Thanks again to Steve for writing this up, I’m looking forward to more in future!
Oh, and a special mention for Conor who loves being dramatic about mentions in the blog!
I’m away next week so no blog but maybe, possible, there ight be one the week after…?
The outro…
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