Epic X-wing Battle Report - First Outing for my Tantive IV

As you may know, I received a Tantive IV set for my birthday last April but it's taken me nine months to actually get a game in with it! This would also be the inaugural gaming session in my new Gaming Garage(TM). The work on the garage won't be finished until this weekend (update to follow) but it was at least habitable a couple of weeks back for this game. Sorry it's taken so long to write up but most of my free time has been spent working on the garage.

Scott and I would be running Rebels with the following list:

298pts of Rebels
CR90 (fore) - Han Solo, Sensor Team, Single Turbolasers, Quad Laser Cannons
CR90 (aft) - Weapons Engineer, Engineering Team, Tibanna Gas Supplies, Quad Laser Cannons
Lieutenant Blount (Z95) - Veteran Instincts, XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
5x Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z95s) - Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips
3x Dagger Squadron Pilot (B-wings)

Matt and Sam were running:

299pts of Empire
Raide-Class (fore) - Single Turbolasers
Raider-Class (aft) - Engineering Team, 2x Ion Cannon Battery, Optimized Generators, Instigator (title), Tibanna Gas Supplies, Shield Technician, Rebel Captive.
Gozanti-Class - Dual Laser Turret, Emperor Palpatine, Docking Clamps
Lieutenant Colzet (TIE Advanced) - Adv. Targeting Computer, TIE/x1
Darth Vader (TIE Advanced) - Adaptability, Adv. Targeting Computer, Stealth Device, TIE/x1
4x Academy Pilot (TIE Fighter)

Our strategy was simple. Get the Z95s into firing position, fire off the tracers and then hit one of the huge ships with a volley of missiles that would hopefully bring it down. That would take a big chunk out of their forces and in the meantime should act as a distraction to let the CR90 pick off their support craft.

Battle Report
Matt and Sam set their huge ships in the back left corner so we matched their angles with the CR90. On reflection we should've travelled along the edge of our deployment zone rather than trying to meet them head on as the CR90s guns are best in broadsides. Anyway, Their measly two support craft (the TIE advanced) set up in opposite corners. We arrayed the Z95s opposite their huge ships and the Bs in support of the CR90.

The Z95s blasted forwards to close range on the huge ships quickly before they were reduced in number. That brought them into the range of the raider but thanks to some jammy dice only one fell. The early speed cost us though as one of the Z-95s was run over by the Raider. Shame to lose one so cheaply but it highlights our inexperience against huge ships. Meanwhile the Gozanti dropped off a couple of TIEs to help stop the headhunters. They unloaded their missiles into the Gozanti but because they'd been depleted in number it wasn't enough to destroy it outright in one turn. That meant it was able to deploy the remaining TIEs before the Zs closed to finish it off with help from the B-wings.

Whilst all this was going Darth was closing in on the CR90 but his attempts to damage it were short-lived as the quad laser cannons tore him apart. The B-wings got frustrated with the TIEs who slowly chipped away at them. It wasn't long before two fell to their fire (with considerable help from the Raider) all this was distracting the Raider from firing at the CR90 who had been slowly damaging the Raider instead. Thanks the upgrades Matt was using the Raider seemed to have near limitless energy meaning it could repair its shields quickly and keep firing. The CR90 on the other hand was being forced to divert energy from its guns just to stay alive.

With time winding down on the game (we'd set a time limit to stop it going on all day), the aft section of the CR90 was wrecked at around the same time as the fore section of the raider. The difference though was that the Raider barely needs the fore section whilst the CR90 was pretty much unable to generate energy without the aft section. We called an end to it at this point but basically the Raider was pretty healthy so it wouldn't have been long until the CR90 was destroyed completely.

When we totalled up the points the Empire had taken a narrow victory but that definitely felt irrelevant when we'd all had a great game.

Conclusion
This was the first Epic game we've had (we've played two before) where I actually enjoyed myself. The other times it felt like the Raider was near invincible and it was just a matter of time before we lost all of our ships. This time I think if a couple of things had gone differently we could've destroyed both of the Imperial huge ships.

One thing we all learned was that taking expensive support craft is hard to justify. Darth and Colzet were 57pts in total which would've bought nearly 5 academy pilots. Of course they're not particularly devastating but by bumping our support craft and generally being a nuisance I think they'd be more useful. In smaller games the likes of Darth shine but here he didn't feel particularly special. Our only named pilot was Blount but he had a very specific role to play.

Speaking of which, the Z95s advanced too quickly. We should've barely moved them in the first turn then blasted into range in the second. That would've kept them further away from the Raider's guns and maybe more would've survived. We should've also gone right into the corner in a tighter formation to try and get some shots on the Raider's aft section. Mind you, Matt would've probably turned towards us so it's difficult to know if it would've made much difference. I still think it's a fun tactic to have some glass cannon Z95s to lay a crippling blow. If a couple more had been alive they'd have been enough to kill the Gozanti on their own I think.

The B-wings did a reasonable job of either distracting the Raider or damaging the Gozanti but I think we'd have been better with 4-5 A-wings instead. Easy to say these things in hindsight I suppose. There's definitely a lot to think about before our next big game which I hope will be much sooner.

Hobby Resolutions for 2017

Not sure why I keep doing this to myself since clearly my resolve is lacking and I never seem to stick to them. Still, it's a tradition now so let's get on with it starting, as ever, with a look back over last year's resolutions.

• Double Trouble - this is at least one I can tick off. I was really pleased with how the event went and how well people embraced the spirit of it. I'm really looking forward to the next one.
• Get the scenery done - I'm looking at last year's resolutions post and Siph's comment "I'll believe it when I see it Alex" is haunting me. I made some progress on my scenery but nothing finished all year. 
• Clear out the crap - I ended up with more crap if anything - fail! Needs to happen in 2017 though before the move into the garage. Watch this space! 
• Paint all my knights - well partial credit here surely? Two of my four knights are "finished". Be nice to get my original knight up to the same standard and work on my freeblade too though.
• Finish some Tau/SW units - nope!
• Blogging - more hobby posts was the aim. Well, I barely posted about my hobby in the past so this was a somewhat meagre goal but with all of the knight stuff I think I did reasonably well.
• Torunaments - think I managed my lofty goal of "the odd one here and there". Go me!

What about this year then?

• Scenery - this is getting to be a bit of a joke/farce but I really really really want to get my scenery done. Doesn't help that I can't remember playing more than a couple of games on my own table all of 2016 though! Perhaps I should forget about the idea of having an alternate set of desert terrain and just worry about getting my winter stuff done. Still, it really doesn't take long to produce so there shouldn't be any excuse. Right Jamie and Siph, hit me with your sarcasm.
• Clear Out The Crap - I've changed my mind about the Dark Angels. Seems a shame to get rid of another army that I've put work into (like I did with my Eldar a while ago). I think I just need to rationalise my collection though. The same goes for all my armies to a greater or lesser extent. There'll be a decent amount of space in my garage but I really want things to be better organised in there.
• Painting - As I posted about at some point in 2016, I've given up on the idea of setting myself targets to keep to get my armies done. Instead I'm just going to go with the flow. Since I posted about this I haven't actually finished anything but again, hopefully the garage will change that.
• Blogging - I've found my motivation lacking of late but hopefully I'll find some inspiration again when I start playing more games again
• Tournaments - I'll be attending at least one event this year, Double Trouble 2 but who knows if I'll be playing in it. Outside of that I'd like to attend some 40K, X-wing and Blood Bowl events.
• Double Trouble 2 - obviously I want this to be bigger and better than DT2. At least the venue will be better so I'm already winning!

So, essentially what I'm doing here is avoiding setting specific goals so I can feel better about myself next year! I'm putting a lot of hope into the garage conversion spurring me to new heights of hobby production but we'll have to wait and see I guess. 

As I said in my review post. We've got a big game coming up at the end of Jan so I need to get some Orks ready for that so there'll likely be my first order of business. What I'd really like to do though is get my new Human Blood Bowl team painted. I can't promise I won't be distracted and paint them instead. Clearing out the crap has to come before anything else though as it's a necessary part of the garage move. 

So, hands up who thinks I'll get any scenery finished in the next 12 months....

Obligatory End of Year Review Post!

It's that time of year again when I look back over the last twelve months and remember how little hobby progress I've made once again! This will shortly be followed by interminably optimistic new year's hobby resolutions post where I list out a load of fictitious scenarios where I actually get something done! Still, shame to break tradition. Here goes...

The Year in Review
I started off the year in fine style with a trip to WHW for GW's anniversary celebrations. We played an awesome game of Orks vs The Imperium to celebrate and my greenskins triumphed. It was an excellent way to kick off. Incidentally, we've booked some tables at the Sanctuary at the end of January for another big game between the Imperium and the Orks but this time I'll be joined by some of Nurgle's cronies.

It was around this time that I put the Double Trouble tickets on sale and started the discussion about how the event would run. I'll talk more about DT later but suffice to say DT2 tickets will be on sale very early in the new year.

Over the first quarter of the year I spent my time building/magnetising my two new Imperial Knights followed by several airbrush sessions. It wasn't until March until I declared them "finished" just in time for them to help Matt and I to victory at an Outpost doubles event. 

I then went into full time Double Trouble build up with plenty of shots of your progress getting your armies ready for the event. I'd like to do this again for DT2 but I'll let you know how you can submit your photos soon. It's a great excuse to start a new army or get a 750pt chunk of one of your existing armies painted up. My attempts to get my DE ready for the event resulted in a massive failure but at least some progress was made. I'd be very surprised if my DE get any love this coming year though. If anything I'll be culling their numbers with some eBay auctions.

Double Trouble was the mid point of the year and, venue issues aside, I thought it was a great success for the first event in a new format. I'm looking forward to DT2 and who knows, maybe I'll run two in 2017.

My blogging dropped off dramatically in the second half of the year. I posted 45 times in the first six months (mostly DT build up I'll grant you) but I've only posted 14 times since the start of July (including this post!). I didn't post in October at all!!! There were a multitude of reasons for this but hopefully my posting will be more consistent next year.

The latter half of the year also saw me playing very little 40K and instead I participated in some X-wing events. This was a nice change of pace and I'm looking forward to more X-wing in the coming year. I will say that X-wing is in danger of becoming over complex though as more and more releases hit. More on that another time.

The last major gaming of the year was Fluffaggedon for which I returned to my faithful Space Wolves. Not a stellar performance on my part but I thought Matt did an excellent job in running his first event. Hopefully he'll run more in 2017, I'll obviously keep you posted.

The year was rounded out with the start of my work on the garage conversion. The re-release of Blood Bowl was awesome and although little has changed I'm hoping the new set will boost it's popularity and hopefully I can get myself into some league play. I managed to get in a couple of games with my brother-in-law and a friend from work which certainly rekindled my love for the game.

My final gaming of the year was an X-wing session with Matt and despite losing both games I enjoyed myself and particularly liked smashing both of Matt's heroes in Gorechosen to end the night.

Blog Stats
Another dip in views this year from 340,000 last year to 250,000 this year. Doesn't sound so bad until you realise that a big chunk of those views have come from Russian bots of some description. Seems to have been an issue affecting a lot of blogs but makes it very difficult to tell how many people are actually viewing the site. I suspect a pretty large proportion of those views are coming from Russia though. I mean, assuming I've never had a view from Russia before (which isn't the case) there's 50,000 views from there in my blog's history. Still, the drop in views is hardly surprising when I've posted just under 60 times compared to 80 last year. Last month's views (16,300) were even lower than September last year which was the lowest since Feb 2013.

Like I say every year. I'd love there to be more hobby content on here next year but that obviously depends on how much I do. Maybe the new surroundings in the garage will inspire me?

Hobby Progress
Extremely little outside of my knights. I'm struggling to think of anything else I actually "finished" this year. The less said about this the better.

Tournaments
Unless I'm forgetting something I only played in three 40K events this year with a further two X-wing events. Didn't help that the WHW events didn't fall on great weekends for me but it's becoming increasingly difficult to commit to events. My hobby is so often motivated by needing to get things ready for an event so it's no surprise that I haven't achieved much.

Conclusion
Probably my worst year to date in terms of hobby progress, tournaments and blogging. I can't really put my finger on why. Total War: Warhammer certainly took a big chunk out of my free time but I just haven't been motivated. A lot of the problem has been the disorganisation in my gaming room. Maybe when the garage is done and everything is in a sensible place I'll feel more relaxed. Being able to watch TV shows on my PC whilst painting will make a big difference I think.

A bit of a forlorn feeling to this post for which I apologise. The solution is naive optimism for the year ahead so look forward to that in the next post!

Where Have I Been for A Month?

Woah it's been a long time since I posted. Been struggling to motivate myself to blog recently. I've had trouble finding inspiration before but not normally for this long. Here's a quick round up of what I've been up to.

Blood Bowl
The biggest thing recently was the re-release of Blood Bowl. I've loved this game for years and in fact it was the first GW game I played back when I was in primary school so must've been early 90s. I was excited for the re-release but didn't intend to pick up a copy. Trouble is, at Fluffageddon the Outpost had an open copy and I was suckered in by the pretty new pitch, templates and models. I always intended to paint my human team from the old box but never got round to it. I'm planning on painting the new ones though for my Nuln Oilers team. I've picked up an extra sprue from eBay because we all know I'll need some reserves!

The problem I've always had with Blood Bowl is that it's much better if you can get a league going. I've toyed with joined various club leagues but never have done because I can't commit to a regular night. That's meant trying to organise mini-leagues amongst my friends. We had a fun day in a pub once playing a mini-cup and managed a couple of sessions of a 4-man league but whilst Matt and I were still keen the others lost interest. We're hoping to try again though with two different people. We'll start with a 4-team league and then maybe get a second team each if the new guys are more bothered.

I've already had a few games with just the core set. My sister-in-law's boyfriend was over from Ireland for my son's birthday so we got a game in before he left. He really enjoyed it and picked it up quickly (and beat me 2-1) but obviously I'm not going to get regular games in with him for geographical reasons! I also played my colleague Steve a week a go and he seems interested. I've told him to pick up a copy of the PC game to learn the rules and see what he thinks.

I really hope we can get something going. I think Matt and I will resort to just having three teams each if we can't get others involved but it'd be a shame.

X-wing
I'm still in love with this game and finally got around to getting some games in with Matt this week. I tried out a new squadron with Corran, Poe and a bandit with some new upgrade from the Heroes of the Resistance set. Trouble was, Matt was playing an Imperial Aces list (Darth, Ryad & Delta) that had high PS and cost lest than my list so he gave me initiative making my arc-dodging tricky. His first roll against Poe was lucky too stripping all his shields before I'd even gotten a shot off. In the second game I tried my first Scum list using mostly stuff from the Most Wanted box and the Starviper (yes, I bought it for Autothrusters like everyone else). He was running a Palp Aces list and I simply didn't have luck on my side. Was a bit stupid with my Y-wing and ended up in too close to use the TLT but was pretty one sided anyway.

That's the trouble I have with X-wing. Since we moved into the realms of competitive play I want to try out lots of different lists but I simply don't get enough games in. I'd like to play more tournaments to get a feel for how good my lists actually are. It's the same as with 40K, Matt runs strong lists and plays them well but they aren't necessarily representative of what I'd play in actual events. It'll probably be in my resolutions to play more X-wing (I think it was last year mind you, I suck at keeping my resolutions).

Gorechosen
After our games of X-wing Matt and I had a quick game of Gorechosen to round out the evening. Matt managed to get a painted set from eBay for a reasonable price so we took two heroes each and set to it. After my X-wing losses I was pleased to kill both of his champions before losing either of mine (the second one died to a decapitation). I then fought mine to the death of course!

It's a fun little game and makes a nice break from playing other stuff. It'd be good with four people and the mechanic is well thought out. GW can really make some excellent standalone games when they set their mind to it. I wish they wouldn't churn so many out instead of fixing 40K but still, they're enjoyable nonetheless.

Garage Conversion
I'll post separately about this on Sunday but work continues apace on my gaming garage project. I'm really looking forward to it being finished now which should hopefully happen in the new year. I'd hoped it'd be done by Christmas but since I'm working this weekend and then in Ireland for Christmas week that isn't going to happen. Anyway, as I say, I'll post more about it on Sunday.

Clearout
When I dismantled my old gaming table I realised just how much stuff I'd been hiding under there and around my spare room. I'm determined to sort through everything before I move into the garage. That means getting rid of some stuff too. There's tons of bits still on their sprues that I'd like to trim off and sort though. Maybe I'll stick some of them on eBay. I'm also having a debate with myself about my DE army. I really struggle to want to play with them with how useless they are right now. Sure, there's lists that work but they really aren't much fun at the moment. It'd be a shame to get rid completely. There are still days when I lament selling my Eldar army and I've put a lot of work into some of the units. Maybe slimming down the army is the way to go.

Right, that'll do for tonight, I've got presents to wrap whilst the missus is out. I'll post again over the weekend about the garage but hopefully I can find the time and inspiration to post more again over Christmas. I've at least got to write the obligatory review of the year and hobby resolutions but that'll be pretty depressing affair I think! Roll on 2017!

First Attempt at a Scum List for X-wing

I've been tempted to pick up some Scum stuff for X-wing since it first came out. Back then I was still trying to collect all the Rebel stuff though but I knew I'd cave eventually. Sure enough, after the singles event I decided I needed Autothrusters in my life and decided to grab a StarViper expansion. I thought it seemed daft just to get a single Scum ship that I couldn't use with anything else. Obviously I'd get the cards but most of the stuff in the box would be a waste. I decided it was only sensible to pick up Most Wanted too.

I thought I'd post to see what I can come up with from ships/cards I own. I don't own a Firespray. Matt does but I want to try and stick to stuff I have. May as well try to use the StarViper since that started me down this path. The Most Wanted pack gives me two Z-95s and a Y-wing. I already own a Rebel Y-wing and two more Zs. You also get pilots for the HWK which I own. So in total I've got four Z-95s, two Y-wings, a HWK and the StarViper. Obviously there are better Scum ships out there but I'd rather not go too mad at this point. I don't get to play often enough to justify buying much more at the moment. Maybe if I start going to more events I will.

So here's what I'm thinking and why:

Guri (30), Predator (3), Autothrusters (2), Virago (1), Advanced Sensors (3), Inertial Dampeners (1)

I see Guri as a pretty good arc-dodger. Having Boost and Barrel Roll already is a nice combo and although she's only got 1 shield and 4 hull the 3 evades will mean she's pretty durable. Most of the time you should be able to avoid arcs and having Advanced Sensors and Inertial Dampeners means her moves should be pretty unpredictable. The main issue with her arc-dodging though is that she's not got very high PS. Still Autothrusters should help quite a bit.

Palob (20), Opportunist (4), Blaster Turret (4), K4 Security Droid (3), Moldy Crow (3)

Being able to steal a Focus token and then use Opportunist seemed like too good of an opportunity (pun intended) to pass up. This combines well with K4 as a green will needed to remove stress from Opportunist. By focusing in the early turns, and holding onto them with Moldy Crow, Palob will have plenty of focus for attack and defence. That makes Blaster Turret a viable option and it's range complements the pilot ability.

Syndicate Thug (18), Twin Laser Turret (6), R4 Agromech (2)

Nothing complicated here. Try to stay at range 2-3 and keep chipping away at things. The R4 means you can spend Focus on the first shot and then use Target Lock for the second. Should do damage pretty reliably.

Thoughts
With the possible exception of the Y-wing, these ships aren't particularly durable. Guri would be pretty durable if she had a higher PS but it should still be possible to avoid arcs simply by being unpredictable.

All of the ships have decent damage potential. I'm not going to be one-shotting anything but I can hopefully build up enough damage to take things down pretty quickly. Palob probably has be biggest damage potential but it's a little situational.

I'm looking forward to giving it a go and tweaking it though. If only I got to play this game more to test things out. Still, I'm pretty happy with this list in theory. I own all the cards I need for it except Opportunist which Matt has and since it'll most likely be him I play that's fine. It'd be nice to get Kavil or even Drea in there but I'd struggle to drop anything.

Inertial Dampeners was a last minute addition as it came in a 99pts. I know that it's tempting to keep at 99 and make a call on initiative but with relatively low pilot skill it's unlikely to matter and would be no use if my opponent was 99 too.

What do you guys think?

X-Wing Doubles Tournament Report - Sanctuary Gaming

IX-wing tournament which was also at the Sanctuary. Once again Darren and Andy were in attendance and with Dave Ellis (who used to work at the Outpost) running the event it felt like a pretty friendly atmosphere from the off. As ever I took along Matt as my partner. We've played a lot of doubles events in 40K over the years so we know we work well together and were hoping this would transfer into X-wing. The tournament required each player to bring 100pts each (i.e. not just 200 for the team). We'd had some practice games pitting his best Imperial list against my best Rebel list and we decided that his list gave us the best chance:
t'd only been a week since my last

200pt Imperial Aces
Commander Oicunn (42), Expose (4), Experimental Interface (3), Ysanne Isard (4), Emperor Palpatine (8)
Whisper (32), Veteran Instincts (1), Advanced Cloaking Device (4), Tactician (2)

Darth Vader (29), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1), TIE/x1 (0), Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
Countess Ryad (34), Push The Limit (3), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1), TIE/x7 (-2)
Delta Squadron Pilot (30), Ion Cannon (3), TIE/D (0)

The general idea was to try and have ships that put out a lot of damage for their points. Oicunn can be brutal with Expose and Target Lock at range 1. Whisper is, well, Whisper but with Tactician for a bit of stress. Darth has the ATC so that he's nearly always adding a crit. Ryad and the other Defender are generally good for being able to white K-turn to keep damage coming and the Delta's ion cannon helps with that or might help something bump into Oicunn if the situation arises.

Game 1 vs. 4 Jumps and Palob

We'd been worried about facing Scum lists because we've only ever played them at tournaments and that was well over a year ago. Neither of us have ever faced Jumpmasters but I knew from reading Luke's blog that they're pretty tasty. Our first game gave us a baptism of fire then with four of the things. One half was what is apparently called Dengaroo and the other had a Scout. Tel and Palob in the Moldy Crow with TLT. Our lack of knowledge of most of their list was a bit of a worry going into this!

One thing I did know was that they prefer to turn left so we sent the Decimator blasting up the field to try and get behind them and force them to be making right turns to engage us. We'd baited them with our PS1 Defender on the opposite side. Sadly he was the first to be targeted by Dengar who scored four hits. We were fairly confident we wouldn't take much damage until Matt completely blanked on the green dice! Meanwhile we took Palob into structure early on but my first rolls with Whisper and Oicunn were poor so he clung on which would prove to haunt us.

Our opponents had clearly prioritised the Decimator so started piling hits onto it. With the first damage card being dealt face up they decided to take away the Emperor with Boba Fett too! Ouch! Thinking about it now that was probably pretty decisive. Anyway, it wasn't long before we lost the Delta but by now the Scout and Tel had some damage. Dengar was keeping his distance which suited us fine. We weren't interesting in shooting him at this point anyway. It wasn't long before Oicunn and Ryad finished off the Scout but I'd put Whisper into Dengar's range (I was frankly still getting used to using her at this point having been reminded several times to Cloak/Recloak when I'd forgotten).

I made this mistake of evading near Palob just before I was going to shoot him (her?) and therefore caused less damage than I'd have liked. In the next turn Palob had already bolted so I was set up to finish off Manaroo with a range 1 Expose shot but Dengar had other ideas. He managed to cause to take Oicunn down to just two hull remaining (the guy controlling him hadn't rolled anything but hits/crits so far - seriously!?!). Palob's TLT then took the remaining hull destroying Oicunn before he could fire.

We were now way behind so our best shot was to try and finish off the two damaged Jumps and continue to ignore Dengar. Darth took on Tel whilst Ryad went after Manaroo. Both succeeded but we were now running out of time in the round (mostly thanks to us not knowing what we're doing). We hadn't kept a track of current points so didn't realise we could win if we killed Palob. In fact, we thought were were already in the lead but didn't know how much Dengar was! We therefore bolted with both Darth and Ryad and by the time we realised we needed to hit Palob he was out of range and time ran out. Frustratingly we lost the game 111-133.

Game 2 vs. Imperial Aces
We were both pleased to be facing Andy Lane and his partner Chris. We've known Andy a while through 40K so it was good to be playing him (I don't think I ever did in 40K though?!?). Anyway, their list featured Ryad, Vessery, Darth, Inquisitor, Soontir and an Omega. No Palp though!

They deployed a lot of their stuff sideways so that they could respond to what we did (apparently anyway, we thought it seemed like nonsense). Still, we ended up with a pile up in the middle of the board pretty quickly. Apologies for the lack of pictures, I forgot for the first few rounds. They ganged up on Darth from the start but We'd put some heavy damage on the Inquisitor but they blasted him away as soon as possible. We drove Oicunn into Vessery leaving him with a single hull point. We followed up with an ion hit that meant he'd definitely die next turn if we could bump again which we did. We also managed to finish off the Inquisitor with the Defenders. Unfortunately, all that staying still had left the Decimator exposed to fire from Ryad and the Omega Leader which was eventually enough to finish him off.

We then managed to line up Soontir with both defenders and Whisper. Somehow he managed to surive the onslaught but at the expense of his cloak and shield. He was stressed too so we lined him up again and finished him off. We thought we now had a slim lead so we wanted to kill off another ship to make sure. With time running out we'd managed to line their Ryad up with a shot from Whisper and the Delta. Whisper's attack bounced off his triple evade roll but the defender could still do it. The ion cannon failed to hit though and the main guns couldn't then finish the job. The timer ran out and to our surprise we found out we'd actually won 101-92.

Game 3 vs. Double Brobots

We'd both played Brobots in a singles event early last year but feared we might come up against all four in this event. I was surprised it happened in the last round though as we expected to be near the bottom. If we'd won this game our MOV meant we could've placed in the top 3 if we got a decent enough win. Can't say we felt especially confident given what we were facing but I'd played both of our opponents in the last event separately and beaten one of them so I thought it was at least possible.

We deployed in diagonally opposite corners. We'd planned on heading towards the opposite edge to get behind them but a combination of asteroids and poor move planning meant we ended up meeting them nearly head on which didn't do Darth any favours. Again, I haven't got many photos of the early parts of this battle. Darth limped through but it wasn't long until he became the first casualty.

We were doing fine, slowly putting damage onto a couple of the IGs but then we had probably the worst turn of X-wing either of us has ever had. We'd planned our moves but then questioned whether we'd bump. We switched the dial on the Decimator but didn't then readjust the Defender dials to compensate. This resulted in bumps for both of them (and the Decimator but that was intentional). Worse still, I'd misjudged Whisper's decloak meaning she actually couldn't at all. Wouldn't have been a problem but I hadn't planned for it so she piled straight into a debris fielding causing stress, no focus and leaving her in arc of two of the IGs. She'd already taken heavy damage in the turn before so this sounded the death knell. The Delta wasn't far behind leaving us two ships to take on all four of theirs. Killing our ships also gave a shield back to one of the IGs.

All wasn't quite lost yet though. The combination of Oicunn and Ryad was worth a chunk of points so if we could keep Oicunn from going below half and destroy two of the IGs (or some combination of destroying/half damaging). Wouldn't be enough to make the top 3 but at least we go out with a winning record. The dice just weren't on our side though. We kept bumping with Oicunn but sadly not on the one we'd have like to hit. We struggled to line both ships up on one target since there were a lot of bumps going on. Eventually Ryad bought it and the game was out of our reach. Oicunn simple couldn't avoid the damage. He took down an IG but his death was inevitable.

At this point I should've simply flown off the board but I'm not prepared to do that when it doesn't really matter. This meant one of the IGs got a shield back from killing Oicunn, pushing it above half and costing us 25pts on our MOV. Our opponents found this pretty funny but we really didn't care.

That gave us a 50-200 loss and, by my reckoning an MOV of -163. I think that equated to 7th out of ten teams. Bit of a disappointment when we could've placed but we'd done better than we expected.

Conclusion
Well, the first game was easily our favourite. We quickly found our feet and it basically came down to a single roll of the dice not going our way early on. If Palob had gone down we'd have most likely won sooner. It was helped by Manaroo bumping on about three turns in a row but one of our opponents only started rolling anything but hits on the last turn or two. Granted when it came it was a four blank roll but it was long overdue by then. Just one poor roll earlier on and Oicunn would've been alive to finish off Palob or Manaroo. No point dwelling on what if though. The key problems were that I hadn't gotten used to placing Whisper meaning she died prematurely and that we hadn't realised how close the scores were.

The second game could've been a lot more fun than it ended up being. In our opinion at least, our opponents were over discussing everything. I don't mean this in a horrible way and I've known Andy a while so I mean him no disrespect. It just meant that the game felt like it was dragging and it took ages to get any ships off the board. We played it pretty well though and kept them guessing with some of our moves. I don't think we'd thought about Oicunn bumping or else got to a point where they couldn't avoid it. Granted we basically traded Oicunn for Vessery in the end but it was an opportunity for guaranteed damage we couldn't pass up. Always nice to win a close game though and gave us the win we'd hoped for at the start of the day.

The last game was a pretty dull affair to be honest. Obviously losing is never fun but we felt like we didn't know the list well enough to know how to pick it apart. I think it basically game down to the one horrendous round we had as well which doesn't help. If Whisper had been decloaked we'd have probably taken an IG down sooner and therefore turned the tables a bit. Ultimately I need to learn to think a couple of turns ahead with her but I'll probably not play with her again for months now. I've never actually used an Empire list barring the odd time with the starter set so Whisper and Oicunn were deemed to be the easiest to use by Matt. My lack of practice with them was probably an issue throughout.

We were pretty happy with our list. I reckon Oicunn could've been loaded out slightly better to make more use of the ramming and Darth needed Adaptability really (we don't actually own the card though). We'll have hopefully played some more before the next event and I'll own more sets so we should have all the cards we need.

One final thing, the organisers were running a background competition to win the coin which meant each individual player chose a named pilot and kept track of their kills. The pilot with the most points destroyed won. Oicunn only got me 85pts and Matt chose Darth. Not sure how many points he got but I know that Ryad got significantly more. Still, we both got an alternative art Predator card which was a nice bonus. We may not have enjoyed the final game but at least we got to learn more about Scum. I'll be collecting them anyway but it's good to play against them. No more tournaments planned for now but we'll be on the look out!

X-Wing Weekender Tournament Report (Saturday) - Sanctuary Gaming

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been to the Saturday of Sanctuary's X-Wing Weekender events. This event required two 100pt squadrons. You had to use them at least once in each game and got to choose at the start of each round which list to use having seen your opponents' lists. This I struggled with right from the start because I don't know the game well enough to really understand what a list is capable of. Anyway, here are my two:

Corran Horn, Push The Limit, Fire Control System, R2-D2, Engine Upgrade
Miranda Doni, Extra Munitions, Flechette Torpedoes, Twin Laser Turret, Thermal Detonators, Conner Net, Ion Bombs, Advanced SLAM, Sabine Wren

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice this is slightly different to what I posted yesterday. I dropped C-3PO in favour of Sabine which gives me better bomb damage and an extra slot where the Ion Bombs go. I had to swap the Torps but I think it's a good trade. I wanted to use Miranda as a bomb and flee the scene kind of pilot so Torps are just a points filler anyway.

Poe Dameron, Push The Limit, BB-8, Weapons Guidance
Han Solo, Push The Limit, Engine Upgrade, C-3PO, Gunner, Millenium Falcon

Game 1
Well, I failed completely here. We're playing in a doubles event at Sanctuary next Saturday which starts at 10 am. I'd got this time in my head so got to Sanctuary at 9.20 which I thought was nice and early. Sadly, the event started at 9 but since there were 11 players I'd just given myself the first round bye by default! Onto Game 2.

Game 2
This was my first competitive X-wing game in about 18 months and I've barely played casually in between so I was somewhat rusty. I chose to use Corran/Miranda against my opponent's Corran, Wes Janson & Sabine in a shuttle. Two PS8 pilots so I failed straight away when I decided to take the Initiative (having won the roll). That gave my opponent the chance to see what I'd done and boost away etc. Something I really should've been doing myself. Ah well. Lesson learned.

Miranda was the first to go down. Corran had done quite a nice double-tap on the Shuttle and taken it to a single hullpoint but leaving it alive meant it could do a nice block on Miranda and prevent her from SLAMing past Poe and dropping a Conner Net on him. With the benefit of hindsight I'm not sure the shuttle was actually at range two when he looked at my dial but I could be wrong and didn't know that at the time anyway. Sadly I wasn't taking photos at this point so we'll never know. Anyway, this left Miranda unable to do an action and hence stranded in front of his two X-wings having already taken some damage. I wished I still had 3PO at this point but nevermind.

With Miranda gone Corran had too much to do. He took down the shuttle but despite playing keep away for quite a while I could never get into a position where I felt safe to turn and shoot without losing him. I probably should've taken a gamble at some point but it was good practice at arc-dodging. Basically I ended up barrel rolling into trouble and paid for it. 100-29 loss.

Game 3

I didn't have to move tables at least. This time I deliberately chose Han and Poe to give me a go at using them. My opponent used three T-70s with Ello Asty, Blue Ace and Blue Novice all of which had Autothrusters which was frustrating (I'll come to that in the conclusion).

I played aggressively hoping to get behind him and take advantage of Han's turret and evasion. During the first salvo I managed to get Ello Asty down to a single hull but Han took some serious damage as I'd inadvertently put him at range 1 of two T-70s. In the next pass Poe did some decent damage on the Novice leaving him with two hull with help from Han. I just couldn't get into a position to finish off Asty though. Han ended up being in way too close and having been already damaged my opponent focused on him and with the help of a Direct Hit took him out over the next few rounds.

Poe now had A LOT to do on his own. However, in my favour was the fact that two of his ships could be fairly easily one-shotted if I could line them up. After taking some damage I was able to get a final blow on Ello Asty to improve his odds. Just as I was about to roll some dice my opponent rolled for his critical damage that he'd forgotten to repair and destroyed himself!

With time running down though I went for broke. I turned straight for him and tried to kill the Blue Ace. I'd have needed a Direct Hit but it was just about my only chance. I managed to get him into hull but I'd left myself exposed at the return Range 1 was enough to finish Poe off giving me a similar score to the last game, something like 100-37 I think.

Game 4
I'd come into the day hoping for at least one win. Technically I'd got one from the bye but I wanted to win properly. At least I'd killed ships in the first two games I played (OK so one took himself out but it counts as far as I'm concerned). I decided to go with Corran and Miranda because I really wanted to see what Miranda could do and have another go at arc dodging with Corran. I also felt that Miranda gave me the best chance against Whisper & Echo which were in one of the lists. He chose the other in the end anyway which was Maarek, Rexler and a TIE/fo with a Zeta pilot. He'd got tractors on both the defenders which I soon learned to fear!

I again played too aggressively with Miranda and accidentally dropped her in range three of one of the defenders with a SLAM. I got tractor beamed onto an asteroid causing damage and then was shot again. I then was in range of the other two ships and was hit hard. I think I was into hull straight in round 1! He'd positioned me well so that I would still go over the asteroid and therefore miss an action. This left me right in front of all three of his ships who were shooting first thanks to Initiative and the Adaptability boost. Once again, I never got to drop a single bomb and wished for 3PO!

Meanwhile, Corran had managed to barrel roll his way into range one of Maarek Stele and a swift double tap scored 5 damage leaving him on a single hull. Corran was totally undamaged at this point which helped a ton. I then spent a LONG time managing to dodge most arcs or just taking single shield and repairing with R2. My opponent started to get pretty unlucky though. He killed off Maarek going over an asteroid and the Zeta pilot took two criticals over some debris. The double stress limited his ability to add damage to his rolls too. I managed to get Corran into a position where I could K-turn and finish off the TIE/fo meaning I'd swung it from a loss to a win.

At this point I could've easily turned tail and ran to keep Corran alive and secure the win but with literally nothing to play for (or so I thought - there was a KitKat Chunky for last place!) I decided to see if I could finish off Rexler who'd lost two shields by this point. I barrel rolled into range one to see if I could double tap him down but he was behind an asteroid. That saved me nicely though as I rolled 3 evades on 4 dice to avoid the tractor beam and then three evades and a focus versus his shooting and spent a focus token to cancel all incoming damage. In response I couldn't quite finish him. I then had to try to get away going straight over the asteroid. I took some damage but he couldn't hurt me enough to destroy me and time was called giving me a 69-62 win (or something like that).

Conclusion
I finished 9th out of 11 which is hardly a stellar return to the X-wing tournament scene but I'm still pleased with the result. I learned a HUGE amount and was really proud of how I played Corran in the last round. I don't think I made many mistakes at all and was able to punish the ones my opponent made. He was certainly unlucky with the obstacles but I wasn't making him fly over them! I think he probably got too confidence when he killed Miranda so easily.

I really enjoyed using both Poe and Corran. In fact I'm going to try and come up with a list featuring both of them. There's something awesome about arc dodging that I find really addictive. I really need to get myself some Autothrusters though as they'd have definitely kept Poe alive much longer in my second game. I just don't want to start buying Scum ships (although I'm sure Matt would love it if I did).

Miranda is really frustrating. I know I used her totally incorrectly by getting her into the thick of it too soon but I think having the bombs on there makes you too tempted to do that. I should probably have been more patient and dropped some Conner Nets to hopefully lure my opponents into. I do think C-3PO would be better in this situation too. I've had some great fun with Miranda in casual games but I think she'll spend a good while on the shelf when I attend tournaments.

Ultimately, if I'm going to get better at this game I need to play A LOT more but if I can persuade Matt and/or Scott to play from time to time and attend more events I could see myself getting totally hooked. It's still refreshing compared to 40K. It's interesting how many people there had given up on 40K tournaments completely and were just playing X-wing. I can totally see why too. Outside of the events I run, I find it difficult to motivate myself to attend any more 40K events. It was nice to see some faces who I've met through 40K. Darren and Andy have been totally hooked on X-wing recently and their enthusiasm was infectious.

X-Wing Weekender Tomorrow

I'm heading down to the X-wing Weekender at the Sanctuary in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Well, that isn't strictly true. Obviously, as the name suggests it's a weekender so they're probably wrapping up the Friday night portion of the event as I write this. It was my sister's birthday tonight though so I couldn't make that. I had considered going to both the Saturday and Sunday but I've got too much on my (non-hobby) to do list for that. I settled on just attending the Saturday event.

This will only be my second ever X-wing tournament. There first being a Store Championship where I finished 12th of 24 players with a BBBYY list which I thought was pretty respectable given my lack of experience. Not sure how many players there'll be tomorrow but I'm aiming for top half again. I'm not optimistic though, this may be my second event but it's been nearly 18 months in between. I had no clue about Scum back then and there's a crapload more stuff out now for all three factions.

We've been doing some testing for the upcoming X-wing doubles event at the Sanctuary next weekend. That's the first X-wing we've played in month's though so we were a little rusty. Nevertheless the doubles requires two 100pt lists from the same faction so I wrote some Rebel list and Matt wrote some Empire ones. I won't go into what Matt came up with because that's what we're using in the end but my favourite Rebel lists consisted of these two:

Poe Dameron, Push The Limit, BB-8, Weapons Guidance
Han Solo, Push The Limit, Engine Upgrade, C-3PO, Gunner, Millenium Falcon

Now bear in mind a couple of things. Firstly I'm limited in the cards available to me. Luke Fogg generously offered to lend me any I didn't have but I wanted to see what I could do from my collection. Things like Autothrusters would've been good on Poe for example but I don't have the card and I'm not prepared to buy a Scum ship just for a card. Weapons Guidance is useful enough for the same points.

I like the triple action without stress from Poe though. Takes a bit of getting used to the positions you end up in but having that hard to predict move is good I reckon. He could do with a bit more firepower though. Han Solo is pretty damn durable though, it does make Poe a target earlier on though as he's comparatively easier to take down.

Corran Horn, Push The Limit, Fire Control System, R2-D2, Engine Upgrade
Miranda Doni, Extra Munitions, Plasma Torpedoes, Twin Laser Turret, Thermal Detonators, Conner Net, Advanced SLAM, C-3PO

This list is a lot more of my own invention. Now that I've done some googling it seems like a pretty standard loadout for Corran but that's reassuring if anything. I hadn't tried Corran out before the testing for the doubles and as soon as I tried him I was in love. That manoeuvre dial coupled with Engine Upgrade and the double-tap is awesome fun. The Fire Control System seems like a must.

Miranda isn't devastatingly powerful but unpredictable movement coupled with an array of munitions is a lot of fun to use. I love dropping a Conner Net on someone so that they know they're getting hit by it straight away. I used it to great effect in games against Matt. I'm not naive enough to think people won't be more used to coming up against it than Matt is but still, I don't get the impression it's that common so it might catch people off guard. I do worry again that Corran will be the obvious target.

Conclusion
Well, the tournament requires you to write two 100pts lists and pick one each round having seen your opponents' lists. I'm not going to pretend that I think these lists are brutally powerful or anything. They're good for what I want from this event though. Here's the key things for me:

• Not too many ships - I know this will probably be a disadvantage at times but I'm not hugely confident with the game yet so less is more
• High pilot skill - I should be moving last and shooting first against a lot of things and that again helps out with my inexperience. Less likely to make stupid positioning mistakes etc
• Reasonably forgiving - the second list has regen capability and both lists have arc-dodging so I should be able to minimise damage
• Fun - final and most important thing. I want to have fun at the event. I know these lists aren't the best I can come up with. They're also not the easiest to use. They're fun though and that's the difference in my philosophy compared to others in the 40K scene. It's why I don't win many events in 40K frankly.

Anyway, I hope this is the first of many X-wing events in the near future. I will, of course, let you know how I get on. Wish me luck!