Space Confiture

So I was hoping to have been writing this on the Eurostar on my way back from the Paris System Open (assuming I'd had a result I was prepared to share...). For obvious reasons, that hasn't happened with the Open currently being put back to the end of August. But there was another round of GSP's Space Jam series this weekend, which I played in.

After last time's escapades in which the TIE v1 demonstrated how squishy it can be, I've changed things up a little bit and swapped in a TIE x1, so my new list becomes:

Imperial 5s

Rexler Brath

 - Juke

 - FCS

Maarek Stele

 - Marksmanship

 - FCS

 - Afterburners

Grand Inquisitor

 - FCS

Having completely forgotten the existence of Foresight for the whole of the last tournament, I've dropped it from the Inquisitor. I've played Maarek a lot in the last 12 months, and Marksmanship let him double-dip his ability. Afterburners - well, 192 points is probably too deep a bid for my taste, and I've just watched this episode of Veteran Instincts so I'm hoping to use it as a get-out-of-jail card.

Game 1 - William Herbert

Lieutenant Bastian
 - Integrated S-foils
Temmin Wexley
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils
Jessika Pava
 - BB Astromech

 - Integrated S-foils
Red Squadron Expert
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils

William set up in a block of four, so I set up with Maarek and the Inquisitor going for a joust with Rexler moving up the middle of the table to turn in and flank. In the first turn of shooting, Maarek was perfectly lined up to get a crit in on Bastian with Marksmanship; however the Inquisitor and Rexler both missed their shots so when Maarek hit, all he was able to do was strip Bastian's shields. A big opportunity missed to get an early kill. Next turn I went for a risky K-turn with Rexler and subsequently got blocked, leaving him both without a shot and slightly closer to the board edge than I like to be, but the Inquisitor and Maarek both made shots on Bastian and he died, however Temmin took the Inquisitor's shields. With Bastian down I picked out Jess as the next target and started directing fire her way, however with pointing the wrong way I only got a couple of hits on Jess and one on the Red Squadron Vet. In the final turn, Temmin ran away, but I finally had all my ships lined up and Jess died.

Win 101-27.

Game 2 - Illy

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Hull Upgrade
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper

As we started this game, I picked out Anakin as the one to kill, then allowing me to PS-kill the Torrents. We got partway through moving ships in turn 2, when disaster struck and Illy lost his internet! I hopped over to speak to the judges and find out what to do, and they advised me to give him ten minutes to get back on. I had a great chat with Dee from the judging team while we waited (and I want to give a big shout out to the judges here after I learned Dee was judging from LA in the middle of his night), and fortunately Illy was able to reconnect about 30 seconds before he would have forfeited the game. And he then proceeded to absolutely school me. My local meta doesn't have many (read: any) Torrents, and it showed, as they ripped me up. As consolation, I got two of them in the end so didn't get completely whitewashed, but I felt comprehensively outplayed and having the extra ten minutes of the game would have made no difference.

Loss 68-200.

Game 3 - Matthew Johnson

Fifth Brother
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Grand Inquisitor
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Darth Vader
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Afterburners

I prioritised Fifth Brother so as not to face the hit-crit combination from his ability, but it took me longer than it should have to kill him and in the meantime I took a beating from Vader and his Inquisitor. Once I'd killed Fifth Brother, however, I was left with a good position on Vader, and something strange happened; Vader blanked out on his defence dice. Twice. No more Vader, but it proved to be too late and my remaining ships were killed by the Inquisitor.

Loss 127-200.

Game 4 - Chris Warren

Chewbacca
 - Heroic

 - Rose Tico

 - Finn

 - Deadman's Switch

 - Rey's Millennium Falcon
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch

Chris' Fireballs came at me first with the Falcon trailing, and as we went into the first tun of shooting I was conscious that I wanted/needed to take out at least one of them before any of them could fire back. And once again my plans came to nothing, I left one Fireball with one health but not dead. And in return my Inquisitor was reduced to one hull. I ran my Inquisitor away and began putting hits into the Falcon from Rexler and Maarek. Two turns later, I was in a position where I could zoom forward with Rexler to get a great shot on the Falcon, but I had to take range 1 fire from all the Fireballs. I figured with three green dice I'd be OK, and I reduced the Falcon to one hull remaining; and Rexler was also reduced to one hull. The next turn Rexler K-turned, giving him a range 1 shot on Chewbacca, which I took, having completely forgotten about the Deadman's Switch. So Rexler died, and so did the one-health Fireball, which in a chain reaction then took out Maarek. So I was left with a one-health Inquisitor to close out the game. I played cagey for a couple of turns, as I did so I spotted I had a target lock on one of the remaining Fireballs that I'd forgotten about, and it only needed one hit for me to get half points on it. I wasn't sure what the points status was, but I knew that half points was potentially important. I slooped in behind the locked Fireball, and got three hits on it leaving it on one hull. So not only half  points but a good chance at full points. Going into the last turn, the Fireball slooped to point its' guns towards me, and I banked to follow it; I fired and killed it, and I was outside range 1 so avoided the Deadman's Switch damage; I then evaded incoming fire. Which left us on 171 points each and going into Final Salvo, a first for me. And with two Fireballs left on the board, this meant my two dice facing Chris' four dice; Chris rolled a hit and a focus, and I rolled ... two hits to get the win!

Win 171-171.

Game 5 - Jesper Winström

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Spare Parts Canisters
Obi-Wan Kenobi
 - Calibrated Laser Targeting
Ahsoka Tano
 - C1-10P

 - Calibrated Laser Targeting

After my game with Illy earlier, my heart sank a little bit on seeing Anakin again, especially accompanied by two more Jedi as I find them incredibly frustrating to play against. In the absence, frankly, of a better idea I decided to go for Anakin again with the hope of bringing him down and trying to PS-kill the other two. Setting about this, I signally failed to realise what Chopper brings to the list, being the ability to give out jam tokens, which meant Rexler was unable to get his free Evades. So partway through I turned my fire on Ahsoka, and fortunately for me she died fairly quickly. However all through this I was getting chipped away by the other two. In the end I had Anakin down to half points three times and then he regenned back up, and when time was called Ahsoka was the only points I scored. (I did however have some great chat with Jesper all the way through this game, thanks Jesper!)

Loss 171-53.

Learning Points - was I wrong to focus on Anakin in games 2 and 5? Right now, I don't think so, and I think I'd make the same decision again. What I should have done, however, was appreciate what the other ships brought to the table, both the Torrents and Chopper. It comes under the heading of 'know your enemy'... Similarly, forgetting about Deadman's Switch in game 3 was a basic mistake that I kicked myself for, although I doubt I'm the only one that's been suckered that way. Managing to take it to Final Salvo and then winning was luck, pure and simple, but if I'd kept more of an eye on points and victory conditions maybe I'd have made some different and more informed decisions. And with hindsight, dropping after game 5 was a mistake; I should have played on and gone for a 3-3 result. 

All glory to the Emperor!

I Believe I Can Fly!

Like everyone else in these strange times, I'm missing playing XWing at a FLGS with my mates. So when I saw Gold Squadron Podcast's Space Jam Tournament, I thought what the hell, and signed up. And I spent a certain amount of time after that thinking 'I'm going to get my arse kicked'. 

Still, rebellions are built on hope. I'd had two whole practice games to learn TTS (which as it turned out was two more than one of my opponents...). And I have a certain amount of faith in my list; as part of my best-ever showing at the UK Open I won my first two games with it on the Sunday, plus one of my TTS practice games with my friends from the Moldy Crows last week. So it is:

Take The Fifth
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - FCS
Grand Inquisitor
 - Foresight
 - FCS
Fifth Brother
 - Mag Pulse Warheads
 - FCS

The Defender is my favourite ship in the whole game and with most of the year to date being focused on Hyperspace lists it hasn't been seen very much (plus, you know, the whole 'massively expensive' thing...), and Rex's ability can be a game winner. The TIE v1 I like because its blue 1-speed turns and banks make it such a great knife fighter, even if it is a bit, um, fragile when it does get hit. The theory of this list, then, is that Rex and Inqy come in and strip the shields off a target, and then Fifth Bro follows up with a crit from the Mag Pulse and a second crit from his ability. So how did it work out...

Game 1 - HumanReason (Chicago)
Fenn Rau
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Advanced Sensors
Black Sun Assassin
 - Crack Shot

I started out really hopefully in this game. I set up on the right-hand side of the board and moved forward, then left-turned to come into the middle to engage. Coming into the first turn of shooting HumanReason had made a mistake with Guri that left her without a shot and facing a rock, and I was able to catch Fenn in the open and halve him; unfortunately for me, Fifth had to use his Force just to secure the hit so I couldn't add an extra crit. In the next turn Fenn died, but those were the only points I was going to score. I spent the rest of the game chasing the two Vipers round the board, but I found them so slippery that I struggled to keep them in my gunsights and in the end I couldn't even make half points on either of them, and in return I lost the Inquisitor and half of Fifth.

Loss 83-68

Game 2 - DukeOfHobbies (Pittsburgh)
Wedge Antilles
 - Crack Shot
 - R4 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Cassian Andor
 - Crack Shot
 - K-2SO
 - Pivot Wing
Ten Numb
 - Crack Shot
 - Stabilized S-foils
Lieutenant Blount

 - Crack Shot

I set up for a joust in this game, planning to focus on Wedge as the biggest threat, and to give myself some credit I halved him fairly early on. And then I got tunnel-visioned into killing Wedge at the expense of everyone else, and I was duly killed by everyone else. In my defence, Wedge should have died three times, three times I had killing hits on him and he rolled all the evades he needed. C'est la guerre... Remember how I said the TIE v1 can be a bit fragile? I lost Fifth in the first turn of shooting. So in the end half of Wedge and half of Ten was all I scored, but on the plus side we were finished early which meant I was right on time for the dinner my wife had cooked. Small victories...

Loss 55-200

Game 3- Trevor Gait (British Columbia)
Ten Numb
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Braylen Stramm
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Garven Dreis
 - Selfless
 - R5 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Jake Farrell

I'm not sure what it says about me that I had my best result once I'd started drinking... I set up to come up the middle and then bank round the rocks, I was fortunate that as I came in to engage Trevor made a mistake and clipped a debris field with Garven leaving him with no tokens; I took both shields and a couple of hull off the X-Wing (Fifth got to use his ability!). Garven went down in the next turn and I set to on the B-Wings. I got some early hits on Braylen, but once again I lost Fifth. We chased down to my end of the board and under fire from both my ships Braylen went down. With limited time left I didn't think I'd be able to take out Ten, so I focused on Jake as we went back up the board. I got one hit through on him with a couple of minutes to go and Trevor told me that left him on one hull - I'd completely missed that someone (Inqy I think) had already stripped his shields. Into the last turn, and lack of a 1-forward left Inqy without a shot, but a K-turning Rex had Jake right in his sights and blew him away.

Win 95-147

Game 4 - Jaime Sinclair (Brazil)
Graz
 - Crack Shot
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Afterburners
Sabine Wren
 - 4-LOM 
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Shadow Caster
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Virago

I'm not going to lie that my heart sank a bit on seeing another Guri, and this was also the first time in 2.0 I'd faced a Lancer. I'd totally forgotten how fast they are, which meant I got blocked a few times, denying Rex those sweet free evades. I was very conscious of Graz approaching down the flank, and having played him in one of my TTS practice games I kept thinking 'don't let him get behind you'. So there was a point where I made a hard-1 turn with Fifth that left me a hairs breadth from a rock that Graz was on the other side of - I swear if it had been on a real table I'd have caught the rock (Guri made a similar move a couple of turns later). Rex put hits onto Graz, followed by Fifth who used his ability to put a Direct Hit on the Khiraxz leaving him on one hull; I was slightly confused by this until I realised Khiraxzes gained a hull point in 2.0 compared to their 1.0 chassis. I finished off Graz in the next turn and turned my attention to the Shadow Caster. I had it halved at the cost of Fifth, having already lost Inqy, leaving it all for Rex to do, but as time was called it was left on two hull and I just couldn't get the hits I needed on it.

Loss 88-109

At 2315 and 1-3 down I, um, staged a tactical withdrawal. I'd really hoped to make Top 8 in faction to get a Grand Inquisitor alt card, but it wasn't to be.

Learning points - in game 2 I probably shouldn't have got so caught up with taking out Wedge, maybe the B-Wing and Z-95 would have been easier kills. For the TIE v1s, I probably should think more about using their linked actions to arc dodge instead of focusing on getting the target locks to use FCS. I'm a lot more confident with TTS now too, one of my big worries going into this would be that I would be hosting a game and TTS would crash on my laptop, so I was really pleased that didn't happen.

It was, however, great just to be on a table and pushing (virtual) plastic spaceships around again. My thanks go to Dion and everyone at Gold Squadron Podcast for organising the tournament, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

All glory to the Emperor!

Fear The Reaper (Again)

I took my Reaper list to 4tk last week and went 3-1 with it, and then  I took it to Ace today but tweaked it. I swapped out the Inquisitor for Pure Sabaac:

Maarek Steele
 - Fire Control System
 - Marksmanship
Pure Sabaac
 - Shield Upgrade
 - Marksmanship
Major Vermeil
 - Darth Vader
 - Agent Kallus
 - Angled Deflectors
Academy Pilot
197 points

Game 1 - Stephen Cooke
Howlrunner
Mauler Mithel
Iden Versio
Seyn Marana
Wampa
Academy Pilot

I made a number of bad decisions in this game, only the first of which was that in the first round of engagement Maarek didn't have a shot. I then went on to take bad positions with Sabaac and Vermeil that led to me losing them. In the last round Maarek did take out Howlrunner but it was too little, too late.
Loss 70 - 200

Game 2 - John Cooves
Emon Ezzameen
 - Proximity Mines
Guri
 - Advanced Sensors

I managed to distract Guri with the Academy Pilot while my other three ships went to work on Emon. I knocked the Firespray's shields off but left myself in a position where a bomb would have hurt at least one of my ships. But fortunately for me, Emon didn't drop a bomb. And then Maarek put three crits into him. Which with Maarek's ability to pick them meant Emon suffered a Fuel Leak, followed by another Fuel Leak, followed by a Direct Hit. One shot, three crits, six damage cards and one dead Firespray. And then I could just mop up Guri...
Win 200-51

Game 3 - Austen Green
Dutch Vander 
 - Ion Cannon Turret
Garven Dreis
Benthic Two-Tubes
Edrio Two-Tubes

I made a mistake with my approach here that meant that both Maarek and Academy Pilot ended up making their first engagements through a gas cloud and then having to move through it. I was able to take out Garven, but a combination of Maarek getting ionned by Dutch, the U-wing's stop and a limited set of available maneuvers meant we spent two turns in what I can only describe as a massive shamozzle. I should have punched out the U-wing with Sabaac, but the dice let me down... When we broke out of our traffic jam, I was able - eventually - to destroy the U-wing, and get half points on Dutch and Edrio, but I lost Vermeil and the TIE Fighter, and with time called I really wasn't sure I'd done enough. One of the closest results I've ever had.
Win 152 - 149

Game 4 - Paul Dane
Kylo Ren
Lieutenant Tavson
Starkiller Base Pilot

My problem in this game was not appreciating that getting in front of an Upsilon is a massive, massive problem... And maybe I should have picked the Upsilons as the biggest threat and not Kylo. In the first turn of shooting, Kylo not only broke Sabaac's ability but to add insult to injury put a Weapons Failure crit on him too. But I wiped out the Silencer and was able to start on the Upsilons. Paul transferred the Hunted condition from Kylo to the Starkiller Base Pilot, making him my second target. I was, as I mentioned, in front of the Upsilons, and although I killed the Starkiller pilot it was at the cost of all my ships except for the Academy Pilot. As my TIE Fighter ran away from Tavson's guns, he took two hits. So, a one-health TIE Fighter versus a full health Upsilon, with 30 minutes to go. I had to run... for a couple more turns, until I could engineer a way to get behind the shuttle. Once I was behind it, I was able to chip away at the shuttle, chasing it all round the board until it died, appropriately with me putting two crits into it.
Win 200 - 188

So where does this leave me and the Reaper? I've now played three tournaments with these two lists and gone 8-4, or 66%. Not earth-shattering, but in terms of my results since 2.0 came out, it feels like a significant step forward. I do think I'm going to revert to the Grand Inquisitor as I really like him as a knife-fighter (I just wish he had an extra point of hull or Force though...)

All glory to the Emperor!

(Don't) Fear The Reaper?

The TIE Reaper was a mainstay of my game in the late-1.0 timeframe, but Lightweight Frame was an essential upgrade for it. So when Lightweight Frame ceased to be a Thing in 2.0, I tried the Reaper once but found with only 1 Agility it died far too quickly. 
But now in Wave 4, Angled Deflectors gives the Reaper access to the Reinforce action  - can this make the Reaper more viable? Handily, there was a tournament this weekend at Alpha Games for me to try it out, so I put a list together and took it along.

Fear The Reaper
Maarek Steele
 - FCS
 - Marksmanship
Grand Inquisitor
 - FCS
Major Vermeil
 - Darth Vader
 - Agent Kallus
 - Angled Deflectors
Academy Pilot
200 pts

Game 1 - James Ritter
Ric Olie
Sinker
104th Battalion
Gold Squadron Trooper x 2

Yes, you're right - that is a lot of health I need to burn through... And ultimately I didn't manage it, though I did take down both ARC-170s - I wanted to take down Sinker first to stop his re-rolls but James holding him back meant the 104th was the first one in my gunsights. I stripped Ric's shields but couldn't get a hit to get half points on him. Had I realised that the Torrents have no shields, I'd have turned my fire on one of them instead. Lesson learned - what you don't know can hurt you; know what your opponent's ships stats are. I got a lot of good mileage out of Maarek's ability before he died - James told me after the game that I burned through over half his damage deck just on the two ARCs. And the Academy Pilot shone - three times James had three hits on him, and three times I rolled three natural Evades. (Those who've played against me previously will attest that that's more Evades than I've rolled in some whole tournaments...)
Loss 102 - 177

Game 2 - Declan Stephens
Thane Kyrell 
 - Swarm Tactics
Garven Dreis
Cassian Andor

 - Baze Malbus 
Arvel Crynyd

 - Intimidation
Thane having Swarm Tactics made him the early target (although I'd put Hunted on Cassian) and a pair of K-turns from Maarek and the Inquisitor dropped them neatly behind him. Scratch one X-wing. However the Reaper was stuck on a debris cloud where I'd misjudged making a bank with the ailerons. With the Reaper moving into position, I was able to take down Garven and Cassian at the cost of Maarek and the Inquisitor. And so it came down to Arvel Crynyd, and I thought I had him cracked when he bumped my Academy Pilot - until I remembered his ability (although as Philip Boyes pointed out, canonically he should only be able to attack at Range 0 once...). And he had Intimidation. But once again, the high-quality flight training of the Imperial Academy paid off and the TIE survived, leaving the Reaper to finish off the A-wing.
Win 200 - 135

Game 3 - Shaun Riley
Han Solo
 - Greedo
 - Lando's Millennium Falcon

 - 0-0-0
Old Teroch
Fenn Rau

Academy Pilot FTW! In the first turn of shooting, the TIE Fighter put two hits on Fenn Rau! Maarek set Old Teroch's flight console alight, leaving him to die a fiery death the next turn. Han was coming in on my left flank as I engaged Fenn, ending up trading him for Maarek. I knocked the shields down on the Falcon but this left Academy Pilot out of position. Next turn the Falcon took 2 hits from the Inquisitor and 4 from the Reaper, then did a 3-speed hard right turn which meant the Inquisitor had no shot. But the Reaper finished the game out for me and left me at 2-1 going into the final game.

Win 200 - 88

Game 4 - Robin Farndon

Poe Dameron

Nien Numb

Cova Nell

 - Leia
I've never played against Resistance Leia but I've played against Rebel Leia enough times to know that if you can take her down it limits your opponent a bit, so I put Hunted on Cova. We set up for a joust down the left-hand side of the board with me bringing the Reaper and TIE Fighter in from the centre. After the first turn of shooting in which Cova lost her shields and one hull point and I lost Maarek, I did a neat little sloop with the Reaper which gave it a Range 1 shot on Cova. In one fiery turn of shooting Nien Nunb and the Inquisitor killed each other, and then Vermeil killed Cova, leaving me with the Academy TIE and a slightly-damaged Vermeil to kill Poe. Between them they put one damage on Poe before the Academy Pilot's luck finally ran out and it was down to one ship apiece. What followed was twenty minutes of some of the most intense flying I've ever done, trying to get Poe in arc. One good shot from the Reaper would finish him, but the double-reposition of the T-70 was too much to cope with and ultimately Vermeil got whittled away. 
Loss 165 - 200

So 2-2 in the end, which is about my best competitive showing for ages... Academy Pilot was, I think, my MVP, which isn't a sentence I expected to write. I want to try something else in place of the Inquisitor, possibly a Striker, but otherwise I like this list a lot.

What do I think of the Reaper now? With Reinforce it becomes much more survivable into the late game, it's definitely a much more viable ship (Robin told me after our game that when it's Reinforced, that actually has a deterrent effect on whether to attack it or not, which is something I hadn't expected). So much so that I'm now considering getting a second one! Fear the Reaper meta!

All glory to the Emperor!

Tournament Checklist

Something I thought might be a useful resource for new (and not so new!) players is the checklist I use when packing my gear to go to a tournament. You don't want to be the person who turns up without the thing that might enable you to win! So here it is with a few explanatory comments, at the bottom there's a PDF you can print and tick off as you pack.

Ships

Bases and Pegs

Pilot and Upgrade Cards

Movement templates
Range Rulers

Dice

Dials

Damage Deck

 - Sure, these all seem obvious, but people do turn up without them...
Id / Number tokens

Obstacle tokens

Tokens:

• Focus
• Evade
• Target Lock
• Force
• Shields
• Stress
• Strain
• Deplete
• Crit
• Charge
• Ion
• Disarm
• Tractor
• Jam
• Bomb
• Cloak
• Turret Indicators

 - You might need some or all of these depending on your list, but these can also depend on your opponents lists and the crits you pull. My advice: take the lot. NB: Under Bombs I also count other droppable items like Mines, Rigged Cargo Chutes and remotes e.g. Buzz Droids.

2 printed copies of your list

 - One to hand in to the TO, one for your opponents to read.

Pen

 - For writing down your results. Actually, bring two pens because someone will inevitably borrow yours and then walk off with it...

Laser line

 - For checking arcs. Most people seem to use the Army Painter one which you can pick up at any good FLGS.

Tray

 - Just to make it easier to move all your kit between tables. I use one of these.

Other Games Modes
For other game modes, you might need extra tokens.

Aces High:

• Victory tokens
• Hyperspace markers

Optional (but useful)

Printed copy of the Rules Reference and Tournament Regs

Spare Bases and Pegs

Glue / Blu tack / Tape

 - For running repairs on your ships.

Tournament Checklist

All glory to the Emperor!

Quick! Build!

I went to two Quickbuild Parties last week, and had a great time! I've really liked the format, and it's encouraged me to fly a couple of combinations that I normally wouldn't think of.

Wednesday - Athena Games, Norwich
My first trip to Athena was in February this year for their Regional. Athena's a nice gaming store, they have plenty of space, and for me it has the distinction of being one of the few places that it's easier for me to get to on the train than to drive...

I played all my games against Shaun, one of my semi-regular sparring partners and frequent visitor this side of the border.

Game 1 - TL4
(Phil)
Lt Karsabi
 - HLC
 - Advanced SLAM
 - Outmaneuver
 - Xg-1 Assault configuration
Academy Pilot
vs
(Shaun)
2 x Red Squadron Veteran
 - R5 Astromech
 - Predator
 - Servomotor S-foils

Mostly, I lost this in the second turn. I sent Karsabi down the left flank but SLAMmed him too far which meant in the first turn of engagement he didn't have a shot. He took hits from both the X-Wings, losing his shields, while my Academy Pilot was able to plink a shield off one X-Wing in return. The X-Wings split to chase both my ships, while I tried to focus on one of them, however my appallingly bad dice meant the Starwing exploded soon after. My Academy Pilot chipped a couple more shields off the X-Wings, but their combined firepower and more bad dice for me meant he died quickly.

Game 2 - TL4
(Phil)
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - Cluster Missiles
 - Collision Detector
vs
2 x Red Squadron Veteran as above

So after that, I decided to pull out the big gun. Rexler is TL4 on his own, and this game was to demonstrate why...

Rexler set to work immediately, chipping shields off both the X-Wings and generally dodging arcs. I got some value out of the Cluster Missiles, which isn't something I would normally think to put on Rex. Embarrassingly, the first time he got a hit through the shields I forgot to use his ability, but one X-Wing died shortly thereafter, taking it down to one on one. And like a Bruce Lee film, one on one  combat is the hardest. The remaining X-Wing led me a merry dance around the board until I was able to put a Damaged Power Regulator crit onto it. Knowing where it was going to be, I dialled in a 2-speed K-turn, stressing myself in return for a Range 1 shot, where I rolled a mighty one hit. Which was dodged, my stress preventing me from having the Evade token I needed to Juke it. And then I re-learned how hard it is to unstress a Defender - there were two rounds of what the snooker commentators call 'positional play' until I could get round to where I had a shot and I wasn't stressed. A crit and two hits later and it was all over.

Game 3 - TL2
(Phil)
Pure Sabacc
 - Stealth Device
vs
Red Squadron Veteran
 - R5 Astromech
 - Predator
 - Servomotor S-foils

Running slightly short of time, we decided to play a quick TL2 game, so I picked Pure Sabacc. My rule for Stealth Device in 1.0 was not to put it on a ship with less than 3 agility, so I was unconvinced about its' value on the Striker. I set up to come down the right-hand side of the table and then turn in through the obstacles. Turn 3 saw the first shooting, and what do you know, the Stealth Device paid off after all. Next turn I slooped, stressing myself to take a shot through a rock, and chipped a shield away. The turn after that, the X-Wing dialled in a T-roll, putting him in a great spot to blast the Striker at Range 1 - except because the Striker was stressed, the ailerons didn't kick in, meaning I just did a 1-speed bank to put me in front of the X-Wing, clearing my stress and leaving me free to barrel roll and turn the tables. Now I had the Range 1 shot, which with Sabacc's ability meant I was rolling five dice - for a total of one hit... Disappointing, but all hits count, or so I told myself. And from there I was able to keep chasing the X-Wing down until it died.

Friday - Ace Comics, Colchester

Game 1 - TL8
(Phil)
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - Cluster Missiles

 - Collision Detector

2 x Planetary Sentinel

 - Conner Net

Academy Pilot

vs
Damien

Turr Phennir

 - Daredevil

 - Electronic Baffle

Whisper

 - Juke

 - Agent Kallus

 - Advanced Sensors

 - Stealth Device

Echo

 - Lone Wolf

 - Collision Detector

 - Perceptive Copilot

 - Stealth Device

Okay, so I didn't really expect to be playing TL8, so I was badly prepared for this. Also I'd planned to Lt Kestal but I forgot to pick up my turret indicators... I did remember to pack my bombs though, whilst I'm not usually a bomber player I did want to try the TIE Strikers with Conner nets.  
Damien came down the right-hand side, while I sent my Academy Pilot to joust and the others to come in from the middle. In Turn 3 I had a Striker in a beautiful position to drop a Conner net in the next System phase and catch Whisper - if the Striker had lived long enough to do it it would have been great... Damien however was a little too aggressive with Turr Phennir and I caught him in a kill box. That was my only kill, however, from there I struggled for the rest of the game - Damien had initiative, and his Juke on Whisper kept taking away my Evade on Rexler and preventing Rexler from both Juking and using his ability, and although I had shields off both the Phantoms I couldn't get any serious hits in. And for the record, both Strikers died without dropping their Conner nets :-(

Game 2 - TL8

As above

vs
Nick

Norra Wexley

 - Expert Handling

 - Seasoned Navigator

 - R3 Astromech

 - Ablative Plating

 - Veteran Tail Gunner

 - Hull Upgrade

Jan Ors

 - Trick Shot

 - Perceptive Copilot

 - Seismic Charges

 - Cloaking Device

 - Engine Upgrade

 - Moldy Crow

Arvel Crynyd

 - Proton Rockets

 - Intimidation

 - Hull Upgrade

So, knowing from last time I faced her that Norra is a PITA, I went in with a plan of hitting her first with all the firepower I could muster. Which, had my dice co-operated and rolled more than two hits at a time, might have worked - as it was, between her ability and her agaility dice, I barely landed a hit on her. I did get to drop a Conner net right in her path - yay! Which her Seasoned Navigator let her dodge - boo! And the next turn I was forced to make a hard turn so that Academy Pilot wasn't caught in it... Two turns later Academy Pilot fell to the turret of the HWK, which weirdly was the only kill of the whole game.

So, a few takeaways from this that can apply to regular games:
 - HLC on the Starwing doesn't work all that well unless you're amazing at predicting your opponent's moves. The lack of repositioning makes it really hard to get the enemy in the bullseye arc.
 - Stealth Device on a 2-dice agility ship might not be the points sink that I'm used to it being from 1.0.
 - When you've had three and a half years of avoiding obstacles, it's hard to change your mindset to think 'Oh, I have a Collision Detector, I can dial in a move that goes across this rock and not worry about it'
 - If you have Juke and your opponent also has Juke, make sure you're the one firing first...

I did really like Quickbuild as a format for X-Wing and I'd like to play more of it especially at some of the lower Threat Levels where you can have a quick punchy game!

All glory to the Emperor!

The Road To Yavin

So the dates for Yavin next year have been revealed, even if the 2019 System Open series hasn't been formally announced yet, and it's not too early to start thinking about your list [NOTE: I started writing this last week before Monday's announcements...]. Which for me right now means I'll be taking Imperials. (I'll be interested to see what the First Order conversion kit brings to the table, but based on previous experiences I have little confidence in FFG's ability to get the kits out this side of Christmas, and I'd like my Yavin list pretty much locked in for the start of the new year). And that in turn currently means I'll be taking a named Defender, an ordnance carrier and, um, something else yet to be determined...

So with that in mind I headed off to Alpha Games today for a Season Kit tournament armed with my TIE Interceptor socks and the following list:
Nothing Rymes With Soontir
Soontir Fel
 - Outmaneuver
 - Stealth Device
Countess Ryad
 - Juke
Major Rhymer
 - Marksmanship
 - Cluster Missiles

Ryad's the only named Defender pilot I haven't flown yet, with Juke because I'm more and more coming to the opinion that Juke should be stapled to all the Defender pilots. I played a couple of practice games with Fel in the week (thanks Adam and Steve!) and he seems really strong especially in the endgame; I'm a bit torn right now between Predator and Outmaneuver so I'm trying the latter. I also haven't tried the TIE Bomber yet, and I'm hoping to get some value out of Rhymer's ability allowing him to use Cluster Missiles at any range.

It was good to see another great turnout, with 16 players competing.

Game 1 - Michael Maggs

Deathrain

 - Trajectory simulator

 - Proton torpedoes

 - Ablative plating

 - Proton bombs

 - Seismic charges

Redline

 - Trajectory simulator

 - Proton torpedoes

 - Ablative plating

 - Proton bombs

Echo

 - Juke

 - Darth Vader

Michael set up his Punishers to come down the right-hand side towards me with Echo on the left side. I set up to joust the Punishers with all my ships; with hindsight I should have gone for Echo first, but we'll come to that in a second. 

In the initial engagement I got my cluster missiles off on both the Punishers whilst avoiding proton bombs. And then in came Echo, and Darth Vader started stripping Evade tokens from the Countess. Rhymer got his second load of Cluster Missiles off before he died, but Soontir was in a position where he Slooped - right onto a Proton Bomb which gave him a Loose Stabiliser. Soontir finished off Deathrain but died shortly after, and Ryad put hits on Redline but picked up Panicked Pilot and had to run away. Two turns later I had a great position to knock out Redline, but I still had one stress token, so no greens, and Darth Vader killed me.
(Only after the game did I realise I'd completely forgotten to use Autothrusters the whole game)

Game 2 - James Ritter

Ten Numb

 - Ion cannon

 - Outmaneuver

Luke Skywalker

 - R2 astromech

 - Servomotor S-foils

Norra Wexley

 - Elusive

 - R2 astromech

 - Novice technician

Recalling my winning tactic from last time, I set up with Rhymer on my right and Fel and Ryad on my left, while James set up to joust Rhymer. Which meant while Rhymer was shooting missiles at Luke and Norra I was able to swoop around on my left and come in behind Ten Numb, taking him down quickly. I lost Rhymer but he'd already done his job, however a combination of Norra's ability, Luke's Force-assisted evasion and the shield regen of the R2's meant I ended up chasing Luke all over the bottom of the board before I could get into a position where both Fel and Ryad had regular good shots on him. With time called, Luke died with the last shot of the game.

Game 3 - Chris Neal

Luke Skywalker

 - Supernatural Reflexes

 - Servomotor S-foils

Jan Ors

 - Jyn Erso

 - Moldy Crow

Sabine Wren

Lieutenant Blount

I have a tactic that I'm reasonably happy with, so clearly I'm going to keep doing it. Until I cock it up, of course...

I set out to do the same thing, except Ryad spent the first couple of turns picking her way through a few obstacles. And that meant that while Rhymer got his first load of missiles off, Chris' ships had time to deal with Rhymer and then get turned around to face Fel/Ryad. A couple of turns later, Ryad was head-to-head with Lt Blount, and Chris and I both said 'Well, I'd prefer to be in the Defender in that situation'. Ah, the commentator's kiss of death. Blount at Range 1 and with a friendly ship close by, got to roll 4 dice, 2 hits and 2 crits, and with the timing they've become famous for, my green dice blanked out and Ryad lost all her shields in one shot. To a Z-95. Frankly, I was ashamed for her.

"This isn't going to go the way you think..."

Game 4 - Chris Wilding

Ten Numb

 - Juke

 - Shield upgrade

Thane Kyrell

 - Predator

 - R5 astromech

 - Servomotor S-foils

Cassian Andor

 - Lando Calrissian

 - Pivot wing

AP-5

 - Jyn Erso

I set Ryad and Fel up on the right-hand side this time - after all I don't want to get predictable when I can play this tactic any of two different ways! It did however mean that Fel ended up behind Ryad. I was able to take out AP-5, but a combination of Ten and Thane was too much for my tired dice.

This week's takeaways...

• Remember to use your ship's abilities...
• Norra is a PITA to kill, go for her early in the game
• Crew Vader is also a PITA needing to go down quickly
• When you have a tactic, don't mess it up...

I need more practice with Soontir and getting the best out of him, but I think he's strong enough that I'll want him in my Yavin list - I still want more experimentation with Predator vs Outmaneuver though. The other two I'm less convinced by, but there's still more ships to try yet...

All glory to the Emperor!