The intro…
Hello and welcome to this week’s blog!
I do have a game to talk about this week but first, some other stuff!
I’ll start with the good stuff. Events are coming!
It’s now just over a week until our event in Newport at new venue The Arena. We’ve played some casual games there, it’s a lovely space with big tables (lots of room for your templates and cards!). There’s plenty of parking space, a Greggs around the corner (for breakfast and coffee!) and a burger van not far outside (for a bit of lunch!).
As per usual we’ll have goodies galore to give out as well as having a good, fun, full day of X-Wing! It’s an XWA Squad Championship event so there will be official prizing and also a bounty puck for the winner which gets them a bye in round 1 of an XWA System Open event!
Tickets are £12.50 and you can get your name down by commenting on the Facebook event page or by contacting me directly if Facebook’s not your thing!
Next up? Yes, you probably guessed it, it’s THE WELSH OPEN 2025!!
Once again being held in the majestic venue that is Firestorm Games Cardiff, we’ll have more swag than we can reasonably carry, bounties and spot prizes and of course it’s an XWA System Open event, the very first one in fact! There will be a full range of prizes from participation right up to the winner!
Tickets are £37.50 and will include lunch on BOTH days! If you haven’t done so already (and why not?!?!) then you can get yours here at The Battlefields website.
Right, that’s the fun stuff, time for the bad news I guess.
XWA Update…
Heading up OP Prizing has been, at times, pretty stressful. While dealing with the Wave 0 kit things like getting payments, sorting addresses, dealing with planning, all that sort of stuff was the nitty gritty of getting OP sorted that I’d not really factored in.
That’s been nothing compared to working on the 2025/26 season kits.
Progress on the kits hasn’t gone as well as we’d have liked. We’ve faced more delays than anticipated and actually haven’t yet received all of the components for the Squad Champ kits in order to start shipping them out. The OP season started 2 weekends ago.
Sadly that’s meant that some events haven’t had prizes to hand out and for that we are (and I personally am) very, very sorry.
We are working very hard to get this sorted out as quickly as we can but the truth of it is that I do feel like we’ve let the community down on this.
On the plus side we now have to put focus on to the System Open kits to make sure those events get what’s needed in time. Also on the positive, I sent an update out to applicants last week and not a single person has expressed anger or frustration to me over this. I mean, they might (and most likely do) feel it but they’ve not taken it out on me, which I appreciate.
We’ve now had almost 160 applications for Squad Champ kits and the number of approved System Open events is growing too. Demand for events and the kits to support them has been overwhelming and while it’s tempting to wallow in the missing of deadlines, the truth is that the passion to see the game continue is very much still there. And that’s something to be proud of and hold on to.
Right, enough of the mea culpa, let’s get to some proper X-Wing content, shall we?
The batrep… (JARGON ALERT!!)
While this might sound a bit ridiculous, the upcoming Newport event (that I’m part of planning, and booked the date for) has somewhat crept up on me.
I know, stupid.
The release of new content plus dealing with prize kits and so on has actually somewhat detracted from the fact that, as of time of publishing, I’ll probably only get two more games of X-Wing in before the day.
If you’ve been reading these blogs for a while you’ll likely know that I need reps with a list in order to be even a little bit competent with it. Understanding of how things should (or don’t) work happens for me in real time as I make mistakes on the table.
More reps = more mistakes = more opportunities to learn.
Sure, good players often see these things coming and their experience tells them what to do or what to avoid. I tend to have to make those mistakes.
Anyway, as a result, I guess that probably means I’m already locked in on what my list is for Newport. I’ve enjoyed using some of the new Scum pieces and while my initial feeling of the list below was that it had potential to be good but I messed it up, a few reps later and it’s actually doing better in my hands now.
Han Solo (AaD) – Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter (6)
Chewbacca (AaD) (0)
L3-37 (AaD) (0)
Tobias Beckett (AaD) (0)
Lando’s Millennium Falcon (AaD) (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 6
Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (6)
Fearless (0)
Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
Dengar (AaD) – JumpMaster 5000 (6)
R2-G8 (AaD) (0)
Synchronized Handling (AaD) (0)
Starboard Thrusters (AaD) (0)
Punishing One (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 4
Mining Guild Surveyor – Modified TIE/ln Fighter (2)
Ship Cost: 2 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 1
Total: 20
Three i6 ships plus an objective monkey. Double taps from Dengar, big hits from Fenn and a Scum Han that’s as beefy as Rebel Han plus some tricks up his sleeve.
My first two games with it were pretty disastrous as I failed to properly consider how to fly Dengar and put Han on rocks. So many rocks.
Still, I worked out a few things and the next 2 games went a little better as I won one and narrowly lost the other.
With my bag still not re-packed (but actually still overpacked, technically) I was ready to give it another go, this time against Josh.
Josh has been flying a Scum salad list for a good while now and it’s got some quite nasty things in there.
Fenn Rau – Fang Fighter (5)
Fearless (3)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (3/3) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Old Teroch – Fang Fighter (5)
Daredevil (4)
Fearless (3)
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)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Babu Frik (5)
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
Big dice from Fenn and Talonbane, Proton cannons (and the ship ability) from Cad and Old T stealing tokens. Yuck.
Right, let’s get the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Salvage Mission
Target/Objective Priority – take out a big hitter ASAP. My ships give upa lot of points when they explode
Obstacles – Lanes are good. Clusters, less good.
Deployment – Depends on obstacle placement but being mostly i6 helps with being reactive.
We place objectives, obstacles and ships and we’re ready to get going!
Now, I did miss a photo for deployment but I think it’s pretty easy to see where we started out…
Now, I feel like I made a mistake here. I think if Han had been 1 ship base further forward I’ve have been happier that a 3 bank right would have fit.
My aim (as Josh had gone first) was to send him out into the space on the right when Josh’s Fenn comes screaming in at me. My Fenn would move similarly to avoid being trapped by the ships approaching on my left while Dengar would turn in.
My little TIE was planning to hard turn in, pick up that crate and stay away from EVERYTHING.
Will it work? Who knows.
Turn 2
Right, so what to do from this position here? Han dials in a 3 straight since I can’t be sure the 3 bank right fits (I check before he moves. It does. Annoying.). Dengar will bank in and pick up, the TIE will hard turn and pick up and Fenn? Tricky. I decide to stay neutral and go straight.
ROAD 1st player – me
So, things go mostly to plan and actually, my going first is a good thing.
The TIE turns and picks up. Josh’s TIE does similar. Cad goes 2 straight and chooses violence, boosting in and taking the red focus.
Talonbane goes straight rather than the turn in that I expected. Old T does the same but doubles down, taking a focus & boost to get range 1 of my poor little TIE. Eesh.
Dengar banks in and picks up. Han goes straight and then boosts right. Fenn’s 4 straight takes him RIGHT up to the rock and while a roll right to shoot Josh’s Fenn is tempting, I decide to roll left instead and play the long game.
The shots this turn are…interesting.
My Fenn shoots at the TIE but misses. Dengar shoots at Fenn and misses. Han shoots at Cad and gets 2 shields.
Josh’s Fenn takes a shield from Han at range 0 before his i5’s BOTH fire single modded shots at my TIE. The result? I take one damage. ONE. ONE!! Could definitely have been worse.
Nothing died and I’ve got 2 boxes to Josh’s 1.
End of turn score: 2 (me) – 1 (Josh)
Turn 3
Right, my TIE lived and I’ve got 2 boxes but Fenn isn’t in a great position, Han is now heading away from the fight and the TIE is WAY too close to Old T and Talonbane.
I decide to hard turn my TIE on to the rock. Old T is stressed so can’t turn that way and Cad opted not to put his stress onto Babu Frick so I don’t think he can either. Fenn wants to get back in but I (again) can’t guarantee that a hard 3 won’t clip the rock (I check before he moves, it doesn’t. Annoying) so a 2 bank it is.
Han will 1 bank left (since I want to keep the stress for the mod from Tobias Beckett)while Dengar will bank in slowly too since I’m expecting Josh to focus him down since he can’t easily run.
ROAD 1st player – Me
I get things started by turning my TIE onto the rock and taking an evade. Josh’s TIE heads to my right flank and takes a focus. Cad, somewhat surprisingly, goes straight to clear his stress and cloaks. Old T 3 banks right (couldn’t risk clipping the rock with a straight move) and then Daredevil boosts left while Talonbane 1 hard turns in and locks my TIE Again.
I mvoe Han first, the 1 bank being close to but not bumping Josh’s TIE. Dengar moves into the now empty space and takes a lock on Josh’s Fenn. My Fenn 2 banks in and takes a boost right and red focus.
Josh’s Fenn hard turns in, facing down Dengar at range 1 and focuses.
I have to say, being first player REALLY helped me here. Dengar shoots Fenn first, putting on 1 hit and putting a strain on him. Han follows up but at range 2 while Fenn isn’t stressed it’s now 2 red vs 2 green dice. Fenn blanks but Josh, forgetting about Dengar’s upcoming double tap, declines to spend his focus and takes the 2 crits. It’s a Structural Damage and, quite importantly, a Weapons Failure. Nice.
My Fenn shoots at Josh’s TIE but fails to land any damage.
Now Josh’s Fenn shoots at Dengar and it’s 4 paint which Josh happily spends his focus on. I blank. 3 shields and a crit which forces him to drop the box. Balls.
Dengar shoots back with his revenge shot but this time my dice aren’t as good and Fenn will live on 1 hull. Annoying.
But not, as it turns out, as annoying as my TIE who again effortlessly tanks Talonbane’s shot.
End of turn score: 1 – 1
Total score: 3 – 2
Turn 4
Ok. I’m now in a position to turn my Fenn at Josh’s Fenn but Dengar isn’t brilliantly placed and Han is now really heading out of the fight.
I set my TIE a 3 banks left (get where Talonbane can’t go), Han a 2 bank left (clear that stress) and Fenn a 2 hard turn (clear stress and chase down other Fenn). But what about Dengar? I decide to go for a long bank. Josh’s Fenn is clearly running away so I might as well try and chase down Cad somehow.
ROAD 1st player – me
My TIE kicks the turn off by taking the 3 bank and evading. Josh’s TIE turns away from the middle and evades too. Cad fails his decloak and then, unfortunately for Josh, bumps his Talon roll (JARGON ALERT!!) into Old T. He doesn’t take a damage.
Old T turns in towards Dengar while Talonbane also turns in but, opting for long term gain, doesn’t barrel roll away from the rock he’s now facing, picking up the middle objective instead.
Dengar goes for the bank but is now blocked by Old T so stays basically where he is. Han’s 2 banks now looks like he’s going WAAAAAY out. Oops. Fenn hard turns and thankfully doesn’t bump into Dengar (who I didn’t think would be there). Rolls left and takes a focus.
Josh’s Fenn blazes past Dengar and boosts into a red focus away.
Not an awful lot happened this turn but what did happen was significant. Han put 1 damage on the TIE. Dengar put 1 damage on to Old T. Talonbane put 2 more hits into Dengar. But my Fenn took out Josh’s Fenn.
End of turn score: 6 – 2
Total score: 9 – 4
Turn 5
Ok, next moves. Dengar is bleeding and should try and get out before dying. That said, I can send him semi-after Cad and send Fenn in that general direction too.
Han needs to hard turn in before he’s committed to going ALL the way around the outside rock. My TIE will continue to score his point and not play the game.
ROAD 1st player – Josh
Josh’s TIE hard turns and focuses before mine 3 abnks again, this time tot the right and, you guessed it, evades.
Cad (with no stress becuase of Babu) does a Talon again while Old T turns right towards Dengar. Talonbane, accepting the rock, unfortunately then flies into the back of Old T. He takes the auto damage from the rock and then rolls 2 hits to take a further 2 from the rock and the self bump. Big ouch.
Dengar then sails over the both of them, facing down Cad. Fenn 2 abnks right and focus/boosts in at the Rogue class as well. Han hard turns in and then does a fous/rotate to still get a shot.
Long story short here – Cad dies, Dengar takes a hit from a Console Fire and Talonbane takes one more damage from Han, leaving him on 2 hull.
End of turn score: 5 – 2
Total score: 14 – 6
Turn 6
Han’s position isn’t great here but he’s at almost full health so I risk the bank into the narrow lane between the rocks. Dengar will use his Synchronized Handling charge to make the 2 hard turn blue and repair the Console Fire while Fenn will hard turn right to clear stress. My TIE will, well, you know what he’s going to do.
ROAD 1st player – me
Josh and I move our largely irrelevant TIEs before Josh turns Old T after Han and Talonbane after Dengar. Han’s bank does NOT clip the rock (yay!) and he boosts to 1) dodge Old T and 2) get range on Talonbane.
I immediately regret Fenn’s hard turn as I’m now facing Han while Dengar is still in a bit of danger from TB.
Not many shots here but Han fails to kill TB and TB fails to kill Dengar.
Points are ticking up
End of turn score: 1 – 2
Total score: 15 – 8
Turn 7
I’m ahead by what feels like a lot but i’m HYPER aware that losing Dengar is both significant and imminent. I decide to hedge my bets a little. Fenn will go straight and pick up a box. Han will go over the top of him and try to get TB. Dengar will…. ummm. Go fast I think. 3 bank.
ROAD 1st player – Josh
Josh’s TIE is desperately trying to become relevant as it turns in and focuses. With less ships ont he board Josh can’t afford to not have him shoot. My TIE stays away.
Talonbane banks towards where Dengar is heading but, disastrously for Josh, clips the rock. He doesn’t roll a second damage so live on 1 hull. Close one.
Old T turns to chase Han down. Except Han doesn’t stay there. Fenn goes 3 straight and picks up the box before Han goes over the top and does another focus/rotate to try and kill that pesky Khiraxz. Dengar banks and, in safety from TB’s gun, takes a lock.
No shots for Fenn or Dengar and Han once again fails to make it count, failing to kill TB. Old T fires at Fenn but can’t make is stick.
End of turn score: 2 – 2
Total score: 17 – 10
Turn 8
The times goes during planning here so we know it’s the last turn. I’m ahead but is it by enough? Is there anything Josh can do to make up the difference? I don’t think so unless something completely outrageous happens (Fenn being one-shotted or, even worse, finished off by the TIE!)
I can’t stop Dengar being shot. I opt to go for the 4-k (JARGON ALERT!!) so he cna at least shoot. Han will follow up to try and init kill TB. Fenn, meanwhile? Well, Old T can’t go slow so if I turn in towards him it should deny a shot.
ROAD 1st player – Josh
Josh’s TIE turns but this time at my TIE. How rude! My TIE turns to skirt the board edge and, of course, evades.
Old T turns out towards my TIE as well while TB banks toawrds Dengar and focuses.
Dengar does his 4-k whlie Han sweeps in behind the rock to take aim at Talonbane, picking up an objective, just in case.
Fenn hard turns right and finds himself with a 2 health TIE at range 1. Lovely!
Han and then Dengar shoot at TB but he just will not die. Fenn fires range 1 into Josh’s TIE and obliterates it. Score.
TB fires at Dengar and finishes him off. Balls. Maybe Dengar’s revenge shot will.. ah, never mind. Missed again and TB lives.
Old T shoots at my seemigly invincible TIE and also misses and the game is done.
End of turn score: 5 – 6
Final result: 22 – 17 win
The conclusion…
It’s always interesting when writing these blogs, going through the turns and seeing things again, this time with the benefit of hindsight.
At the time I felt this to be a quite convincing and pleasing win. I felt confident about the list, how it works and what I was doing.
Looking back now, I think I got quite lucky.
Statistics (if I had them) would likely say that my TIE should have died. If he’d rolled any more paint he could have called himself a decorator. That TIE scored me 7 points.
Josh got a ship on a rock when it could have killed Dengar and also had multiple turns where at least 1 ship of his had no shot. I should have taken more damage.
So, having felt quite good initially, I think that writing this blog today has been a bit of a wake up call.
This list has strengths, yes. Initiative killing, big hits, double tap, mods, get out of jail card. It’s got options. But getting some or all of it into play is that tricky part. I think my turn 0 needs to be better in terms of rock placement AND ship placement. Salvage isn’t a terrible scenario for me but certainly isn’t as good as Scramble (where my high init ships can claim) or Assault (where my big bases count double).
Time is short and I’m almost definitely too late to pick something drastically different to play at the Newport event but I’m certainly not going to be thinking that this list is going to carry me to a victory based on a couple of pretty fortunate results in the last few weeks.
Well, that’s it for today. Please remember to pick up tickets for Newport and Cardiff and I’ll see you back here next week!
The outro…
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