The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
There’s a LOT going on right now so I guess we’d better just jump straight in!
Patreon Update…
Yep, I’m still banging on about this!
It’s coming up to the end of quarter 4 of 2023 and I’ve still got some things to show you!
So I’ve already shown the alt arts, 3 straight templates and S-foil tokens, next up are the krayts! No, sorry, I mean crates!
I’ve had these made by Exile Squadron’s very own Josh Hall and I use them to show which ships are carrying crates in Salvage Mission. There’s a few different shapes and sizes and Commanders will get 2 and Legends will get 4!
If you’d like some of these or any of the other swag I’m putting together or if you’d just like to support the blog in general then you can sign up to be a supporter here. It would be MASSIVELY appreciated!
That’s enough self promotion for now, let’s move on!
XTC Update…
YES! XTC is now in full swing and week 1 of group games has been completed.
With our very last minute change in roster I stepped in to play our Rebel list in what turned out timing wise to be our very first game.
Here’s our Rebel list in case you’re wondering….
Han Solo (7)
Trick Shot (4)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Bistan (8)
Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 6
Luke Skywalker (BoY) (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 (A-Wing) (3)
Crack Shot (4)
Marksmanship (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Keo Venzee (3)
Lone Wolf (3)
Concussion Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Sabine Wren (TIE Fighter) (2)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (3)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
I was playing against Christos Mantis who was flying Separatists.
Durge (Separatist) (4)
Marksmanship (1)
Proton Cannons (4)
Xanadu Blood (0)
Jango Fett (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Haor Chall Prototype (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (4)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Haor Chall Prototype (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (4)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
The Iron Assembler (2)
Discord Missiles (2)
Targeting Computer (1)
Electronic Baffle (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
DBS-32C (4)
Fire-Control System (2)
TA-175 (6)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Landing Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
DFS-081 (2)
Energy-Shell Charges (4)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (4/7) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Separatist Drone (2)
Discord Missiles (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Separatist Drone (2)
Discord Missiles (2)
Grappling Struts (0)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (2/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
Now, if this had been my only game of last week then I 100% would have fully batrepped (JARGON ALERT!!) this game as I very rarely go up against droid swarms.
As it is though, I’ve got 5 more games to get through so you’ll just be getting a summary!
I had the initiative advantage and made the assumption that once a couple of the vultures were down, the rest would complete the swarm block as usual.
My intention was to basically cut across the field with Han, making sure he didn’t get nailed by too many shots in one go while then approaching with my other ships.
Chritos made a mistake with Durge, not turning away and while Han took a could of peppered shots, my other ships took Durge out. Sort of.
Durge regenned 2 more health after discarding cards but after I turned Han away, I finished him off before turning my attention to the droids.
Han was out of the fight but my other ships didn’t seem to care as droid after droid exploded.
With Luke and Wedge precariously low on health, I disengaged and jumped on objectives to get over the line without losing a ship.
Final score: 20 – 3 win
Mini Conclusion…
Wow! Not bad! I hadn’t managed to get a proper game in with the list before this but I’d flown enough of each ship to know what I was doing. Christos admitted that Durge’s positioning was a mistake and my SUPER hot dice made sure it didn’t go unpunished. With slightly less weird dice swings I should certainly have lost Luke and probably Wedge too but that wouldn’t have changed the end result.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ended for Team Wales. Rebecca Westwood managed a win with Imperials into FO but our other games didn’t go the same way and Hellas ended up taking the round with a 3 games to 2 victory.
https://www.longshanks.org/event/11045/
Never mind, we have a break/bye next week and then we face Columbia in week 3!
The pre-amble…
Ok, on to the real life games!
The Firestorm Games Newport Store Championship was almost upon us and, having successfully played the Rebel list in XTC I have to say I was tempted to swap my list.
But I didn’t.
I’d put in some reps with Team Wales’ Resistance list and was feeling really good about it so decided it was worth sticking with. Unless I had a disaster at casual night…
So I rocked up to Newport with this:
L’ulo L’ampar (4)
Marksmanship (1)
Predator (3)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Jessika Pava (4)
M9-G8 (5)
Electronic Baffle (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Temmin Wexley (4)
Heroic (2)
Ferrosphere Paint (3)
R6-D8 (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Ello Asty (4)
Swarm Tactics (5)
Heroic (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Jamming Beam (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Zorii Bliss (4)
Dorsal Turret (2)
R4 Astromech (2)
Wartime Loadout (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
Now there are some things that I needed to remember that I managed to keep forgetting with alarming regularity:
- Swarm Tactics on Ello. I can swarm either Jess or Temmin up to a 5 and that could prove VERY important.
- M9-G8 on Jess. For goodness sake DO THE LOCK ON TURN 1!!!
- Ferroshpere Paint on Temmin. Last week’s loss against Josh could have been different if I had just remembered this.
- Moving order. I’ve recently been moving Zorii before Ello which generally means that Zorii ends the turn with a stress rather than moving Ello, taking the stress from Zorii’s ability and then blue moving to clear it. R4 astromech means this isn’t a huge deal unless Ello then moves first the following turn and Zorii can’t take the action as she’s already stressed.
It didn’t feel like much but now I’ve written it down, I can understand why I kept missing bits!
When I tuned up at casual night I ended up flying against Josh again. Which was good, I wanted a rematch on this to see if I’d learned anything.
“Contrail” (3)
Elusive (4)
R7-A7 (5)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Kickback” (SoC) (3)
Diamond-Boron Missiles (0)
Munitions Failsafe (0)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 3
“Slider” (2)
Dedicated (3)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Boost” (2)
Dedicated (3)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Odd Ball” (V-wing) (3)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
R4-P Astromech (2)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
“Klick” (3)
Dedicated (3)
R3 Astromech (3)
Synchronized Console (1)
Alpha-3B “Besh” (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Padmé Amidala (4)
Elusive (4)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
R4-P Astromech (2)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (18/18) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
Josh had won a Store Champs with this just the other week and I’d failed to range control correctly in order to be able to put in as much damage as I’d needed.
Time to try again!
This time, rather than straight up joust with Lulo going around the edge, I decided to split things up a little bit, even though that’s not what my list wants to do.
Clearly things we’re going as well as they could have here. Three shots into a Z-95 yielded precisely ONE lost shield on Josh’s part while Temmin took an absolute battering. He didn’t die though. Plus I remembered to trigger Ferroshpere. So that’s something I guess?
It was turn 3 where things started to come together though as Josh’s formation broke up.
I plinked damage into several ships while aso racking up objective points while forcing some decent bumps as well.
Some late kills and more objective tapping meant that I managed to get over the line.
Result: 22 – 14 win
Mini conclusion…
My list’s strength is front loaded passively modified damage at i5 and this game was as much an experiment to see if I could fly it another way as it was a test of overcoming a list and player that’s recently beaten me.
Yes, my list works best when Zorii is stripping shields and the others are double modding juicy shots at i5 but there’s some play in spreading out too which is good to know.
Onwards, to the Store Champs!
The batreps…
Going into the day I’d had a fair amount of very mixed feelings.
I’m going to worlds. That’s already established. Birthday and Christmas funds are directed that way and the time has already been negotiated with my wife (but not work yet!). I’ve held off booking any tickets or anything though. Why? Well, I already feel a bit bad about going on holiday without my family. They’re cool with it, it just still feels a bit weird. Speaking to others who had already booked, it was looking, if I booked the same flights, like I’d need 6 days off work. Given that I’m already stretching with the financial spend, taking that many days when it directly means that we (meaning my family) would have less days together as a result doesn’t feel great.
I’d already looked at flying on the Wednesday instead of Tuesday and maybe late on the Wednesday to avoid taking that day off as well but in my mind I’d resolved to at least try and win an invite and not have to play the Last Chance Qualifier to minimise costs and time off work.
This is the main reason I’d now gone with the Resistance instead of the Rebel list that I’d previously been using. The Resistance is good, the Rebels were maybe a little bit more fun. With real financial implications on the line, good trumps fun on this occasion. Just once.
So, what does that mean for my usual tournament 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?!)
All in all, not a lot actually!
My primary goal and minimum expectation were unchanged. Have fun and don’t be a jerk. My hope though was slightly different.
In our last tournament at Newport I’d come REALLY close to getting a win, just about losing out to Rebecca Westwood in the final game. This time I had an arguably stronger list and so I felt that perhaps it wasn’t unreasonable to hope for a 3-1 record.
The speed bump? Well, there’s some very good players playing. Not only that but while most people had no intention of travelling to Worlds and several (five, actually) already had invites, there were four of us (Ryan Coyle, Phil Pond, Mark Beor and myself) who were intending to go to Chicago and definitely chasing the golden ticket.
With that many invite already in play a roll down was possible but head to head and SoS (JARGON ALERT!!) could have an impact.
It’s worth mentioning too that due to the store’s opening hours that we’d be having four rounds of swiss and no cut. Having sold 20 tickets we technically should have had a top 4 cut but the store’s hours are what they are and all the players knew in advance how it was going to work.
Still, having fun is the main objective here and so after meeting a few of the guys for a hearty breakfast at Toby Carvery we headed off to Firestorm and got ourselves organised!
Who would I be paired up with first…?
Game 1 – Scramble the Transmission – Ryan Coyle
Of course it’s someone else who wants the invite! Of course it is!
Thankfully Ryan’s a lovely bloke and we’ve never played each other before so there was plenty to look forward to.
Ryan was lining up with his beautifully painted and modded ships with this list:
Han Solo (7)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Bistan (8)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 6
Wedge Antilles (A-Wing) (3)
Predator (3)
Marksmanship (1)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (4/5) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Keo Venzee (3)
Juke (7)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (7/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Kanan Jarrus (7)
Heightened Perception (3)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Magva Yarro (5)
Hera Syndulla (4)
Veteran Turret Gunner (3)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (20/20) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7
Total: 20
Crikey. Two big hitters and two objective runners. Two things would be very important here. Turn 0 rocks for determining where Kanan would go and trying to only take shots from one of the big ships in a turn.
Things started off ok as Kanan sailed up a lane while Han skirted the outside.
The next activation phase was… mixed. I won ROAD (JARGON ALERT!!) and pushed Jess right up onto the central objective, intending to block a turn in from Kanan. My other ships followed and while I had initially set Lulo a 3 straight, I decided to go all in and banked him in to target the Ghost.
It almost worked.
Dammit!
Lulo loses a shield but not a second but worse than either is the fact he isn’t shooting this turn. Balls.
Ryan uses Heightened Perception to let Kanan take a huge swing at something while I simultaneously forget Swarm Tactics. Not great.
By shooting before me, Kanan doesn’t get a Magva lock and the shot does some damage but it’s not as bad as it could have been.
My response, though, is devastating.
Four shots from my ships that can fire (except stupid Lulo on the stupid rock) take Kanan off the board in one round of fire.
Holy cow.
A shot move by Jess next turn forces some bumps for Sabine and Wedge and Jess’ range 1 shot into tokenless Wedge one-shots him.
Ryan is being diced.
We play out the rest of the game with Ryan already knowing the result but I’m not allowing myself to take my foot off the gas. I’ve lost too many games from winning positions before and I’m determined not to let it happen here.
I focus Han down and my hot dice (and Ryan’s stone cold ones) mean that Han is just a fistful of hull from death.
There’s some late game objective tagging as Han runs but I don’t chase as just 1 more point is needed for the win and I don’t want to give up any of my own.
Result: 20 – 12 win
Mini conclusion…
Phew! I’d been thinking about this game in the lead up to the day. I didn’t know exactly which list Ryan would be bringing but given that he was also chasing the invite I had to expect we’d play at some point. I hadn’t expected round 1, granted, but I’m glad we played. Ryan’s a lovely bloke and facing those beautiful ships is an honour too.
So, a decent start, then. Who’s up next?
Game 2 – Chance Engagement – Jamie Howard
Game two is against Jamie from Wye Squadron. He’s one of my Patrons so I know he’s read the blog which, given that I’m actually being a bit of a sweaty try-hard here might work out to my disadvantage.
What’s he flying?
Kazuda Xiono (4)
Heroic (2)
R4 Astromech (2)
Deadman’s Switch (2)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Ello Asty (4)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Kare Kun (4)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Venisa Doza (4)
Heroic (2)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Temmin Wexley (4)
Heroic (2)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
It bears some resemblance to my list with a smattering of T-70’s but with Kaz in there and some shield upgrades thrown in too.
We place obstacles and ships and it becomes apparent very quickly that we’re going to just straight up joust.
The thing is, I think I’ve got an advantage here. My higher initiative plus Swarm Tactics means I might be able to take one of his ships out before firing, specifically Temmin with the Targeting Synchroniser who could pass off a lock.
As we approach, two things happen.
First, I get range control right and I’ve got Temmin in my sights. Secondly, Kaz just barely clips a rock, taking one of his guns out of the equation.
Jamie’s Temmin gets wiped out at i5 but not only that, Lulo puts Kaz down to 2 hull (who took 2 damage on the rock) and then Jess mercilessly finishes him off.
That’s 2 ships down in 1 engagement. Absolutley brutal.
Jamie pulls some unpredictable moves out of the bag to prevent me focusing down any more ships the following turn but it puts them outside of range 2 of the objective and I rack up some more points.
A couple of ships burn down on both sides but my early lead takes me over the line.
Result: 24 – 10 win
Mini conclusion…
When we started Jamie said that whichever way it went it would be over quickly and he wasn’t wrong! I think I may have had this one at the list building stage with initiative advantage and the amount of passive mods my list can produce.
The result always helps but I did have a great, relaxed game with Jamie. He’s a great guy (though I’m obviously biased since he’s a Patreon supporter!) and a lovely opponent.
So, that’s me with 2 wins! One more and I think I’m in with a shot. It’s a this point that I start to get in my own head a bit, especially with a lunch break to overthink but I grabbed some food, handed out some Patreon gifts to the supporters that were there and soon enough it was time for round 3.
Game 3 – Assault at the Satellite Array – Simon Greenaway
Now I have to admit, when I was drawn with Simon I had no idea what he was flying but what I did know is that while he’d been given a bye for round 1 (since we had an odd number at that point), he’d then gone on to play Phil Pond and beaten him 20-15.
Interesting.
When I looked, he was flying Rebels and they looked dangerous.
“Chopper” (6)
Dorsal Turret (2)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Veteran Turret Gunner (3)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7
Corran Horn (X-Wing) (4)
Swarm Tactics (5)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (4)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Luke Skywalker (BoY) (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 (BoY) (5)
Attack Speed (BoY) (0)
Marksmanship (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
R2-A3 (BoY) (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
Plenty of torps there plus double tapping Chopper with Saw. Could be pretty nasty. In terms of objectives I’ve got a ship advantage but clearly the Ghost counting double could casue problems.
Chopper goes down first and I opt to stay as far away as possible.
The thing is, I don’t have an obvious approach angle that allows me to keep my ships together. Maybe splitting them up won’t be so bad, I mean, it worked out on Wednesday, right?
We both make mistakes in approach angles and while I should have just accepted going over a rock with Jess, she bugs out, leaving Temmin, Ello and Zorii to pile into the Ghost wile Lulo looks for the flank.
Chopper takes some hits but survives. The thing is, he takes a Blinded Pilot, switching off Saw’s ability and seriously hampering his damage output. He also takes a Loose Stabiliser but banks left and takes the hit.
Meanwhile Jess is trying to get back in but Lulo is now fully in the fight and throwing haymakers.
I’ve racked up some objectives when I pick off Luke and Chopper follows immediately after. With a couple of objectives now mine as well I pick up 13 points in one brutal turn and the game is suddenly over.
Result: 20 – 10 win
Mini conclusion…
Wow. What is happening?! Aside from a dodgy moment where Simon rather expertly put Wedge right behind me and gave one of my ships a good whack, I think that I was relatively in control of this game.
Simon’s mistake in approach denied Corran a target lock when it would have mattered and put Luke a little too far out for the first engagement. Wile I regretted turning Jess out instead of just taking the rock, it turned out that it allowed her to put some good hits into Chopper so it all worked out!
Simon was a great opponent and we had a good fun game.
So, here I am, three wins in and one game to go! I couldn’t, could I?!
Game 4 – Salvage Mission – Richard Otton
At this point in the day there were just two 3-0 players and so it was fairly simple to work out who would be playing who.
Richard and I have played a good few times. He’s Cardiff based but comes to all (or at least most) of our tournaments and, work permitting, some casual nights on Wednesdays.
He’s a very good player and in all the times we’ve played I’ve only beaten him once and it was at the last Newport tournament earlier this year.
He’s been doing very well today with a list he’s still flying from all those months ago.
Tomax Bren (3)
Saturation Salvo (2)
Barrage Rockets (6)
Bomblet Generator (2)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 3
Captain Jonus (4)
Saturation Salvo (2)
Barrage Rockets (6)
Bomblet Generator (2)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Major Rhymer (3)
Saturation Salvo (2)
Barrage Rockets (6)
Concussion Bombs (4)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 3
Darth Vader (BoY) (6)
Marksmanship (0)
Hate (0)
Afterburners (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Fifth Brother (4)
Disciplined (2)
Homing Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 20
I’ve played into this list a few weeks ago and I managed a win there. the question is, will Richard play this the same way as Rebecca did?
The answer is immediately no as Richard sets up Vader and Fifth very close to the bombers.
After placing Jess I abandon my usual block deployment because while I think I can take a bomber down before it shoots, Vader and Fifth definitely mean it’ll cost me.
I deploy my other ships off to the right and look at how to bring them in to converge.
I immediately don’t like this. I feel like I’ve deviated from my normal game and it’s putting me at a disadvantage while Richard’s ships can approach through the huge open space in the middle.
I then botch getting Jess out in front of Zorii and Ello and then I bump Zorii into the back of Ello.
Here we go, my overthinking finally caught up with me.
Vader turns in and locks Temmin and when I do actually remember Ferrosphere, he’s in bullseye so it doesn’t matter. Typical.
Vader fails to do any damage to Temmin though and everything seems to be ok until one of the bombers fires Barrage Rockets at Lulo who promptly blanks out and loses all 3 shields.
Balls.
At this point I decide it’s time to get aggressive. Jess hangs back while the others jump in fast and as I won the ROAD roll I get to trigger some blocks.
I take out Jonus while keeping all my ships but Richard then drops a rather devastating round of bombs.
Those plus my misjudgement of a 4-K (JARGON ALERT!!) costs me Temmin.
Balls.
I’m not finished yet though. Lulo ducks out, now on 1 hull, and picks up a crate.
Ello, Zorii and Jess are still fully operational and while a few shots into Vader do absolutely nothing, pouring fire into the bombers provides much better results and with the clock counting down Richard takes out Zorii.
It’s now Vader and Fifth (both pretty healthy) against 1 hull Lulo (carrying a box), almost full health Ello (carrying a box) and shieldless Jess (carrying a box).
I take a moment to compose myself and work out that even if, no, when, not if, Lulo dies and I drop the box, Richard will only have Vader against a full health Ello. I’m sure I can hit 20.
Pretty sure.
Richard turns with Fifth and picks up a box while Vader comes in at Ello. Jess is fully running away to get me that last point that I need while Ello, in a moment of misjudgement I 1 bank Ello where I should have done, well, anything else really.
Vader absolutely smashes Ello but he lives on 1 hull. He does drop the box though…
It’s fine as Jess holding the box ticks my score up that last prescious point and teh game is over.
Result: 20 – 14 win.
The conclusion…
I WON! I WON IT!!! I WON THE INVITE!!!!!
Oh. My. Word.
At time of writing this is a few days ago now and I still can’t quite believe it. I have to admit that I did want this, for the worlds invite. I got close to a tournament win a few months back at Newport’s last event but fell short right at the end.
Something was different this time though. I can’t put my finger on it exactly but I felt relaxed all day. Was it hat I knew the list was good? Was it that I felt like I knew what I was doing with it? Was it that everyone was so friendly and happy while playing? Who knows. But I enjoyed myself and feel that I would have regardless of the result.
I want to say a huge thank you to Mark Hall for TO’ing the event despite feeling a bit rough and to everyone who made the journey to play. It’s easy to forget how much time and effort people put in to attend these tournaments when I live just 10 minutes down the road but some people travelled hours and hours to come and play and we really, really appreciate it.
If you’re interested in seeing lists and whatnot then you can check out the Longshanks page for details.
It’s late and I’ve already gone on for WAAAAAY too long here so I’m not going to talk about the pros and cons of the list or anything. It’s good and I like it and it suits me. It jousts well but also, as proven here, has some utility in other styles too. Also, these ships were painted by my friend Dan Lines and it’s amazing to finally get them on the table. Maybe I should have used them earlier eh Dan?
So there we have it! I’m definitely going to Chicago. Maybe I’ll see you there!
The outro…
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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 Initiates:
Douglas Thomson
Exile Rookies:
Ben Kennedy
Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Steve Boulton, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes
Exile Commanders:
Kevin Larsen, HasNolo, David Bryan
Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley, James Humphery, Opi-Wan Kenobi
You are all amazing humans!