The intro…
Hello there! Welcome to this week’s blog!
Before I get in to anything, I have to admit, I’m in a weird place with X-Wing at the moment.
Life is busy at the best of times but this garden project I’ve taken on has taken more of my free time (and my headspace) than I expected. Maybe I should have expected it, since, y’know, it’s something that people charge good money to do and I’ve got no skills or experience in that area. Maybe it’s just a guy thing ‘hey, I can do that!’ but anyway, I’m approaching the end stages of it now. I hope.
And then there’s family time. Given that my kids are no longer kids it’s becoming even more important to me that we spend time together where possible and scheduling things in, while tricky, is definitely needed as they both fill up their social calendars.
Next up is the XWA work. There are times that it’s like a full time job and at the moment there’s over 250 emails in the inbox. There are delays that are somewhat outside of my control and recently there have been issues with a couple of packages which, while understandable given how much we’ve sent out, take time to deal with.
I’m also aware that planning for Worlds needs to begin and the first seeds of that have been sown, despite it still being around 7 months away.
And so last week there was no blog.
There was no advance notice and it was an unplanned miss of a week (without being caught up later) since I started way back in 2019. There are plenty of reasons, all of the above plus work was VERY busy and my work schedule got swapped around a bit. I also missed out on playing X-Wing last week due to that swap.
So I’m saying all of that to say, well, I’m not quite sure actually. An opportunity has arisen for us (my family, that is) to take a short notice week off (which itself has taken a good amount of time and headspace to plan!) and so there won’t be a blog next week nor probably the week after since I won’t have played a game.
Reading back, I feel like this seems like I’m on a little bit of a downer. I’m not, I promise. Life is good, actually and while it’s busy, I’m happy with how things are and the way they’re heading. XWA work feels like a lot right now but by it’s nature it goes in peaks and troughs and once we get some things that we’ve ordered back into stock then some of that stress and pressure will alleviate.
I think it just helps me to just speak this stuff out (well, type it out but you know what I mean). I tend to internalise things a lot and, similar to how I’ve tried to improve my X-Wing play by going over things and writing them out, the same can apply to general life stuff too.
I never intended to turn this into a mental health thing when I started but here I am!
Anyway, tangent aside, I’m planning for normal service to resume in a few weeks!
Patreon update…
Just a really quick one this week – packages are in the post! W00p! I got a free afternoon last week where I did the giveaway draw, sorted, packed and addressed all the goodies and spent 20 minutes hogging the Post Office counter getting everything out.
Thanks again to everyone who supports the blog. You are heroes!
The batrep… (JARGON ALERT!!)
Ok, so while I didn’t get a game in last week, the week before that I DID get to play!
This was a game against Josh and since it’s still quite new and shiny we decided to play Ancient Knowledge.
I was still rocking the beefy Rebel list that it seems is doing the rounds at the moment:
Luke Skywalker – T-65 X-wing (5)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Wedge Antilles – RZ-1 A-wing (3)
Hopeful (1)
Predator (3)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Evaan Verlaine – BTL-A4 Y-wing (3)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Concussion Bombs (5)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 4
Wullffwarro – Auzituck Gunship (4)
Trick Shot (4)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Saw Gerrera – UT-60D U-wing (5)
The Child (7)
Tactical Officer (3)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 20
Josh, meanwhile, had brought his Scum list:
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (4)
Outmaneuver (0)
The Child (AaD) (0)
Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (0) 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
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
Total: 20
This is a VERY nasty list if you let it get to range 1. Token stripping, extra dice, passive dice mods. Yuk.
Shall we take a quick look at Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Ancient Knowledge
Target/Objective Priority – Kill one of the big hitters – Fenn or Talonbane. Or Old T
Obstacles – I need space for my slower ships so a reasonable spread works
Deployment – Evaan, Wulf and Saw have to stick together, I’ll stick Wedge out to one side and Luke the other. Ideally.
We got ourselves set up and ready to go!
Turn 1
So you can see that ‘stick Wedge out to one side and Luke the other’ thing already didn’t work out. With the potential for objective scoring on the left side and the nice big space for my lumbering ships I went left and put Luke and Wedge up the middle.
I am HYPER aware that Josh’s Fangs want to engage me close and quickly so range control will be important. I could stop but I feel that going 1/2 straight and then stopping (or going fast) makes them harder to predict.
Luke and Wedge will go fast though. Mando wants to flank me so I either face him off or go fast enough that he isn’t relevant for a while.
ROAD 1st Player – me
Once Evaan has dropped her (thanks Patrick for the correction!) bomb, Josh’s TIE starts us off by shuffling up to sit on a rock.
Now ALL of my ships move before Josh. Evaan hard turns and reloads her bomb, Saw and Wulf shuffle forwards and focus, Wedge goes 5 straight, focus, boost left and Luke closes foils and goes 4 straight with a boost left.
Mando goes 5 straight up the board edge and boosts in while Talonbane and the Fangs go speed 3/4.
Wedge and the TIE trade shots but nobody’s hurt.
No scoring so back to dials we go!
Turn 2
I am wary of a few things here. First, Mando is going to be catching me up from the left. Second, I don’t think I moved my ships very well and Josh will be able to get his Fangs into range 1. Ugh,
I will need to make my shots count when they happen. I set Saw a 1 straight and Wulf a 2 straight to catch him up a bit. Evaan will also go straight to clear the stress from the reload. I want to turn Luke in to the middle of the board while Wedge…hmmm… I look at the angles and I think a straight clears the rock. I’ll go straight and claim the middle and if Talonbane goes slow maybe I’ll catch his flank.
Spoilers – Talonbane did NOT go slow.
ROAD 1st Player – me
No bomb for me this time so the TIE moves first with a 4 straight and roll to his left. Evaan goes 1 straight and focuses before Saw and Wulf do the same (yes, I know….). Wedge goes4 (or 5?) straight, flips the middle objective and then red boosts left (SO great not carrying a crate!).
Then it’s Luke to move. He goes 1 straight and it just barely doesn’t bump the TIE. He locks Talonbane.
Josh follows up by bringing Mando in to the middle and boosting to almost but not quite get bullseye on Luke.
Talonbane goes 4 straight and just when I thought things were ok, he rolls left to catch Luke in arc.
First Old T and then Fenn go fast and straight and then boost into a linked red focus towards Saw. Oh boy.
Like the numpty that I am, I now realise that Saw’s focus is toast as Old T knocks it off. Balls. The ONLY saving grace here is that Fenn is range 2 of Saw and outside of arc. No billions of dice, no Fearless. Phew. Evann spends her focus to give Saw an extra green for the round.
Josh has a bit of a mare here as first Fenn does a single damage to saw and so does Old T.
Luke’s shot into Talonbane is a real haymaker. 4 dice with lock and 2 Force is a full string of paint and Talonbane blanks out with his greens. That’s harsh.
Talonbane fires before dying but even between his 5 dice range 1 shot AND Mando’s range 2 AND the TIE’s range 1, Luke loses his shields and takes 1 damage card. He’s halved but very much alive.
At i4 Saw shoots into Old T but that was a mistake as the Fang brushes it all off so I fire Wulf’s shot at Talonbane and finish him off.
Evaan takes a shot at Fenn but with no mods and Concordia in play does no damage.
The big thing here is that Josh did NOT claim any objectives.
End of turn score: 6 (me) – 2 (Josh)
Turn 3
Ok, a few things to think about here. Luke is half dead. I need to try and stop him being taken out. Saw has taken some damage but isn’t too bad. Still, if I can shift the focus to Wulf instead maybe I can cycle them in/out.
I’ve scored 2 points so I now need to drop the objective. Wedge is facing a rock so needs to hard turn. I can probably claim again once he does.
Evaan…. well, she doesn’t provide a huge amount of attacking value but maybe can be annoying?
ROAD 1st player – Josh
No bomb for me so Josh’s TIE hard turns into the middle and rolls to it’s right (which turns out to be important). Evaan also hard turns and focuses (a mistake, I’ll get back to that). My 4’s start with Saw screaming a 3 bank left over the Fangs and claiming the objective. Wedge hard turns in and takes a focus into banked boost (mainly to make room for Luke). Wulf a banks left which, had the TIE not rolled, would have bumped. He takes a focus.
Hampered by Luke moving second, Mando bumps into the T-65 and takes a red focus while Old T turns and bumps into the Auzituck.
Luke takes a 4-k (JARGON ALERT!!) before Fenn’s hard turn now bumps into the back of Old T.
Told you that barrel roll was important!
Fenn kicks things off with rolling 5 dice at Wulf which does a little damage. Old T takes the range 0 and Wulf is now halved. Mando shoots at Luke but misses.
This is where things get messy. I can’t remember the exact combination of shots but by the time I’m finished rolling dice, Wulf has effectively 1-shot Fenn and the TIE is also gone.
When you factor in that I’m holding an objective and Josh isn’t, things are getting out of hand.
End of turn score: 9 – 2
Total score: 15 – 4
Turn 4
Ok, so several of my ships are now on fire BUT all are alive and this is important.
It’s going to be a bit of a melee here so let’s see how I can minimise the negative impact on myself for that.
Saw will stop and rotate. Easy. Evaan can bump into Old T and stay where she is. Wulf… Ah screw it, Wulf can hard turn in. I’ll send Wedge towards the central objective to get out of the way but maybe also block Mando and then I’ll move Luke fast enough that if he does bump, it’s not a friendly one.
ROAD 1st player – me
No bombs so Evaan starts by bumping into Old T and taking a red focus. Saw stops and rotates and (using Contraband), picks up an objective. Wulf hard turns and, just for the chaos factor, barrel rolls right. Wedge banks left and takes a focus.
Luke bumps into the back of Wulfwarro. Oops. No damage from the friendly bump thankfully!
Mando banks in and bumps into Wedge while Old T bumps into Wulf and takes a red focus.
It IS chaos!
Wulf is only on 2 hull so Mando shoots the Wookiee and finishes him off. Old T tries the same at Luke but can only manage 1 hit, leaving the X-Wing on 2 hull.
Luke, Saw and Evaan all fire at Old T and between them it’s 2 hits and a Loose Stabiliser crit. And he’s facing a rock…
Josh picks up 2 points for finishing Wulf while I get 2 for the objective and 2 for half of Old T
End of turn score: 4 – 2
Total score: 19 – 6
Turn 5
This game really isn’t going Josh’s way. There’s no way out for Old T and while Mando is undamaged, I only need 1 point to win.
I bug out with Luke, setting a 3 hard turn. Wedge will Sloop (JARGON ALERT!!) while Saw and Evaan will converge on the middle. Can I trap Mando?
ROAD 1st player – me
No, I can’t. Evaan and Saw bank to the middle and red focus as they both bump Old T. Wedge sloops to get arc on Old T and after Luke turns over the top of the U-Wing he picks up the objective.
Josh, knowing that Old T is toast, denies me the pleasure of finishing the Fang myself by going 5 straight over the rock while Mando banks over the top of everyone and claims an objective.
Evaan and Wedge have shots into Mando but they do nothing at all and with that, the game is over!
End of turn score: 3 – 1
Final result: 22 – 7 win
The conclusion…
This was an interesting game but mostly because of the different strategies at play.
Once I’d noticed that Josh wasn’t looking at objectives, I only needed 1 action per turn dedicated to picking up in order to gain a 2 point advantage. I only got 7 of my points from objectives in the end but that’s more because Josh’s dice were very uncooperative at all the wrong times, giving me a high number of points from ships.
It’s very interesting how the new scoring rules (half points in all scenarios) are affecting the game. It’s a choice that, as far as I can tell, has been broadly accepted and approved of. That feeling of a ship getting away on 1 hull is just horrible, especially if it’s a 7 point Poe or something like that.
The change in objective scoring is to prevent snowballing of scores (like when someone dives in and picks up 4 crates) and yet in this game it did feel like I was just getting further ahead with each turn.
Maybe it’s down to Josh’s decision to go for murder and not boxes and, had he killed Saw AND one other (Luke or Wulf) as he was probably statistically likely to do then the rest of the game plays out VERY differently.
I like the new rules. I also like the new scenario. Both together are offering a significant twist on what we’ve been playing over the past few years and I think there’s going to be an adjustment period while we figure out the best way to play the game for the list we’re flying.
And that’s cool.
That’s it from me for this week. Thank you VERY much for reading! Just a little reminder that I’m NOT back the next 2 weeks while I take a little break and (hopefully!) get XWA things sorted out.
The outro…
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