The intro…
Hello! Welcome to this week’s blog post!
First off, my apologies. Despite taking a week off and theoretically having plenty of time, this post is late. Again. Sorry about that.
To be fair, the week off was to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary which my wife and I did my sneaking off to Marrakech without the kids. It was hot, it was beautiful, it was epic.
So, what’s been happening in the meantime in the world of X-Wing? Well, a fair bit it seems!
First of all, Worlds is back! Or was it ever really gone at all?!
In possibly one of the most confusing periods ever (and let’s be honest, that’s saying quite a lot!), AMG appeared to firstly announce that Worlds was done and that the Grand Tournaments (GT’s) would be the new ‘pinnacle’ of X-Wing’s Organised Play.
I covered this in the last blog so there’s no need to go into deep detail again.
Then, just 10 days later (and while I was away!) AMG then go on to release an article announcing that at Adepticon 2025 there’s going to be the World Open Championships for five of their gaming systems.
Wow. Ok.
To be fair, AMG never categorically said that Worlds was gone forever (but also didn’t respond, that I saw, to any of the ‘oh wow, such a shame no worlds any more’ comments on the post). It was, however, a very easy conclusion to jump to given the phrasing of the first announcement and therefore the second announcement came as somewhat of a shock.
The big difference appears to be the use of the word ‘open’. The invite system is gone and now basically your opportunity to partake in Worlds will come down simply to whether you want to go and you’re fast enough to get a ticket. It looks like there will be 2 qualifying heats (Thursday and Friday presumably) with the ‘top cut’ (which I guess will be determined by how many players turn up) qualifying for the Finals which will run Saturday and Sunday.
It’s an interesting move.
I don’t dislike it and I’m actually really glad that there’s still an event that is marketed as the top event and that the winner is the world champion.
Probably the worst thing about it was the way that it was announced, or rather, that it was seemingly scrapped and then re-instated – although I’d wager that never actually happened.
Coupled with Adepticon’s move from Schaumber to Milwaukee it’s a big change from the last 2 years. Personally I doubt I’ll make it to this one but never say never I guess!
Staying on the topic of AMG’s slightly bumbling approach to announcing, well, pretty much anything that isn’t Shatterpoint, news dropped earlier today that the UK Games Expo (UKGE) will, in fact be a GT event!
What does this mean? Well, that’s actually still not very clear. All we know for sure is that it’s an officially supported organised play event. No indication of prizes or anything like that. And we’re just about 3 1/2 weeks away from it.
Nice one.
That does lead me on nicely to talk about the Welsh Open though!
With the announcement of GT events a few weeks ago I did, in fact, put in an application for the Welsh Open 2024 to be a GT event. I’m yet to hear back but you never know, we could get sent a box of goodies to hand out!
Being honest, ticket sales are going a little slower than I’d have liked which is making it VERY difficult to plan for prizing BUT work on the winner’s trophy is well under way…
We will, of course also have participation prizes, top cut prizes, top in faction prizes and a HUGE bounty table on offer!
Food for Saturday from the on site café is included in the ticket price and so is table time on the Friday night if you can make it down for some practice and socialising!
There will also be a day 2 event for anyone who doesn’t make the top cut so there will be PLENTY to do!
If you like to know more you can check out the Facebook event page or if you just want to skip to buying a ticket then you can do that right here!
Last year’s event was loads of fun so why not clear out the 6th and 7th of July and come on down to Cardiff!
Is that all for now? I think it probably is. Time to move on….
Patreon Update…
Last one of these for a couple of months! Thanks to the new supporters and welcome to the club!
Congratulations to XXXXXXXXXXX who won the giveaway which is a beautiful pair of sparkly Worlds dice! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Thanks again to all my Patreon supporters, you are all genuinely incredible people who I appreciate SO SO MUCH!
If you’d like to join up then check out the page here!
The pre-amble…
Ok, well, finally we’re getting to some proper X-Wing!
It’s over a month since Wrolds now but there’s STILL so much to talk about and this week it’s the second side event – the doubles tournament. I’d picked up a ticket for this when they were released because, well, I was pretty sure I wasn’t making day 2 of the event. I’d made no plans really and was slightly surprised to find that the event itself wasn’t starting until midday on the Saturday.
I was up early, partly because of jetlag and partly because my roommate Mark Packer-Hughes had made the day 2 cut. Rather spontaneously I decided to take this opportunity to do the tourist thing, however limited my time would be.
I ended up getting an Uber to Ohio Street Beach by around 7:15am, picked up a McDonalds breakfast on Navy Pier, walked along the river and then over to Millennium Park to see ‘The Bean’ (though it was surrounded by a fence! Boooo!).
I then took another Uber over to S Blue Island Avenue. If you’ve never heard of it, I don’t blame you. My wife and I watch the Chicago TV show (Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med). After a little research I found that that Engine 18 is the location used for Firehouse 51 in the shows and, being the nerd that I am, I headed over.
While loitering auspiciously I spotted another guy who appeared to be doing the same. I stayed slightly awkwardly away like the introverted geek that I am but after a few minutes he came over to me.
‘Do you watch the show?’ he asked in a strong Australian accent.
‘Yeah, I do’ I replied.
‘I hear they let people in, want to go knock?’
Now, I am NOT the sort of person to do this sort of thing but I did, in fact, find myself tagging along as he walked up to the door and rang the buzzer.
The lieutenant opened the door, invited us in and gave us a tour!
Given how rubbish some of my results had been the day before this was a massive pick-me-up and I left feeling buoyant as I headed back to Schaumberg to play some more X-Wing!
The batrep(s)… (JARGON ALERT!!)
So, on to the games!
When I arrived (almost late thanks to my Uber picking up two extra people on the way!!) some people already had partners, others had paid but had no partner and some hadn’t paid and didn’t have a partner.
It was somewhat of a logistical nightmare and I take my hats off to Kris Sherriff who someone managed to get things organised.
When I arrived, as I’d already got a ticket and registered, I needed to pick a partner. As I was making my way to a table I spotted Brian Lindamood who was also looking and I asked if he’d be interested in joining me and he agreed!
Now, I have to say here, the organisation for this was very, uh, informal, shall we say. There’s no Roll Better page for it and even if there was I don’t know that I could remember our team name anyway!
Basically each person would bring 9 points of ships, making 18 points in total. Each player would bring 2 obstacles , making 8 in total, and 6 would be placed with 2 left over.
I had opted to bring the two new Endor B-Wings, Gina and Bralyen. Partly because it was just 1 card of each ship and partly because I’d heard good things about them and figured this would be a fun, low pressure way to work out how they actually work.
Brian was bringing Scum and opted for Fenn Rau for 6 points and Leema Kai to round out the other 3.
We planned to joust with the B-Wings and then flank with Brian’s ships and see what happens.
Game 1 – Paul & Mo
The first scenario was chance engagement and Paul & Mo (whose surnames I tragically forgot to write down!) had brought the Endor B-Wings and Boba Fett. Nice.
Our B-Wing approaches were pretty similar (i.e. get to the middle & joust) and early on we traded shots fairly evenly
Boba jumped in quick and caught us out with Fenn and Leema too far out to do all that much.
We took out each other’s Gina’s and Paul & Mo halved our Y-Wing to inch ahead.
Then the bombs came.
Boba had run but Leema fell and Fenn was halved as Paul & Mo increased their lead.
We got half of Boba the next turn it cost us half of Braylen and there was no catching up as Paul and Mo saw out the next turn to hit the points needed.
Result: 16 – 20 loss
Mini conclusion…
A loss, yes but I had a VERY interesting time finding my way through flying the B-Wings. A ridiculous number of triggers in different phases but I could see the potential for some huge damage output if I could get it right.
Brian, rather frustrated with how he’d flown decided to jack in the Fenn/Leema combo and change it.
Were we allowed? Who knows. Did anyone care? Being that it was a casual side event and we’d lost the first game, almost certainly not. I didn’t even know there were medals for the winners until I saw them posted online later. The TO’s had much more important things to deal with than a janky side event and if Brian wasn’t having fun then who was I to stop him finding something enjoyable?
Game 2 – Brian Waller (?!) & Michael Turner
Now, first of all, I need to say that while I wrote down surnames this time, I wrote them very badly so if I’ve got names wrong PLEASE let me know and I’ll update them!
Brian and Michael had a mix of Rebel and Resistance with two T-70’s (Ello & Nien) with a T-65 (Corran) and B-Wing (Hera).
Brian Lindamood had switched up COMPLETELY and had gone and BOUGHT a YV-666 tp have the right dial to fly Moralo Eval in the YV-666 (with The Child among other upgrades) and Bossk in the Z-95. Our plan? Use Moralo to clog up the board then bust through and flee while the B-Wings follow and Bossk cleans up objectives/takes pot shots.
Did it work? Well, sort of. Maybe. We we playing Scramble the Transmission, by the way.
Corran strayed a little too close to the danger zone and got cleaned out in turn 3. Moralo was doing an ok at soaking up shots in the same turn but got left a little too low and died in turn 4, failing to make it to the board edge.
We were behind for a couple of turns until we picked up a second objective which Bossk made sure we kept. Meanwhile by B-Wings turned in on Hera to put us in front and Brian and Michael failed to put any fatal damage on in the final turn to claw it back.
Final result: 18 – 14 win
Mini conclusion…
A win! Having had a tough time the day before a win here felt really good. The B-Wings performed well and while we did lose the YV despite it’s tankiness, it bought my B-Wings time to damage elsewhere and balanced out.
Our hastily constructed deployment had tucked the B-Wings in behind and it had worked pretty well we think!
On to the next!
Game 3 – Tim Dursler(?!) & John Compton
Once again, the handwriting lets me down! Shaaaaaaaame!
Tim and John were flying a mix of Rebel and FO with Han & Sabine with Kylo and, uh, some other Whisper (Whirlwind probably?). The bases weren’t right but hey, what did we care?!
This time were playing Salvage Mission and our plan was the same as the last game. The thing is, neither B-Wing really wants to pick up boxes since it shuts down the shenanigans so I’d have to be sensible with my actions.
We started off with the same plan but Han’s positioning made us change things up with Brian sending Moralo around a gas cloud while the rest cut inside.
We figured this would force Han to make a choice – turn in and fight or go wide through the obstacles. The 1 straight that followed telegraphed his following move as the latter and while the Whispers jumped in at the B-Wings, Whirlwind overshot slightly.
Bossk and Moralo had both picked up boxes but while Moralo’s was knocked off, we took Han off the board the next turn as the B-Wings chased him down.
Then came the bombs.
Braylen caught Kylo with a Proton Bomb out of the side arc and teh following turn Kylo took both a Proton AND Ion dropped from the back.
As Moralo chugged casually around the outside, the B-Wings jumped into the mix, one picking up a crate while both took shots into the opposition.
Gina, Braylen AND Bossk all repeatedly failed to land enough damage to finish off either FO ship but eventually Sabine went down and we had enough boxes to get us over the line.
Final result: 22 – 10 win
Mini conclusion…
Another win! I think that managing to get concentrated fire onto Han early combined with Bombs scaring off the FO ships are what got us the win here. Brian flew Moralo really well and while our red dice may have been hot at times, I think we did enough right to warrant the result in the end.
Game 4 – ???
So, at this point it’s around 6pm and another round is going to put the finish time to 8pm at the earliest. With several people from my group leaving (i.e. my car buddies) and dinner having been quite late the night before AND the round ticket being given out at the end of the previous round by the TO’s I grudgingly decided to call it a day.
I was torn because I was definitely having a great time but I wanted to make sure I had the chance to do some more socialising too.
And so, we dropped. Sorry Brian!
The conclusion…
First of all, I found the doubles tournament the most interesting and enjoyable X-Wing of the whole trip.
Being able to discuss each turn with someone else, someone with their own ships to fly but a common goal, someone with different experiences and expertise and play style than yourself was absolutely fascinating.
I loved it.
Getting another person’s perspective on what to do and maybe offering an alternative or suggesting why something would or wouldn’t work gave me extra insight into the game, made me view it a different way.
The other thing that’s really interesting is that despite what I’d have expected, chatting the planning phase through with my partner didn’t slow the pace of the game. In fact, of my 5 games from day 1 of Worlds my turn counts were: 7, 6, 5, 3 (which doesn’t really count!) and 5. In the doubles? First game was 8 turns, then 7, then 7 again.
I mean, being able to move 2 ships simultaneously when the initiatives match certainly helps, as does the reduced overall points count (i.e. 36 points ont he board, not 40) but I think of all the things about the doubles, this surprised me most. And in a good way.
I liked it so much that I’m strongly considering this being the format for the day 2 event at the Welsh Open (barring any silly Jank Mark Hall comes up with the meantime!).
I want to thank Brian Lindamood for being such an excellent partner. I had a blast playing alongside you!
Ian Franklin has said many times over the years in comments on my posts – co-operative X-Wing is the best X-Wing and who am I to disagee?
The second thing to mention I suppose would be the B-Wings.
The triggers are rather tricky to remember AND get right consistently (when receiving stress, start of engagement, oh, and don’t forget systems phase for the bombs!) but when you can get it working they are quite formidable.
I’ve had a good few games with them since the doubles, taking them to a store tournament in Newport a few weeks ago and feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it.
Socially, we went to Webber Grill for dinner and it was AMAZING
The brisket was sadly out of stock but the pork was delicious, well worth the visit!
Does that conclude my worlds trip? Nope! Not quite! There’s still the Sunday Swiss to cover with something a bit experimental which I’ll talk about next week.
That’s it from me for now though. Thanks for reading and don’t forget, pick up your Welsh Open ticket!
See you next week!
The outro…
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