UK Xwing Nationals Tournament Part 1 - Darksun 27

Here it is! Part 1 in all its Glory :) Which of course, means that there will be a part 2! coming hopefully later this week! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more vlogging goodness here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9yiSXV2P-tTpPb1b2n30PQ

X-wing Spring Kit Tourney Report - Wild Ways Newark. Darksun 26

So i went to Wild Ways at newark last weekend, and (spoilers) finally managed to get my hands on a spring kit challenge coin. I put together the video footage and its here for your viewing pleasure, just click the image of my face above :)

Jumpmaster repaints - Finished!

I've started, so I'll finish

Good day to you dear readers! Whilst the nerf bat has in some small way fallen on the Jumpmaster 5000 combo, I was in fact half way through finishing my third repaint. So in the best mastermind tradition I decided I was going to finish what I'd started and get my third Jumpmaster finished. 

 

Here it is, in all its glory! I'm a really big fan of the chequerboard, it gives it a retro feel. It's mostly down with my new bff, masking tape. But the smaller pattern is all free hand. So it's a nice mix of both. It's definately very striking compared to the previous 2 jumpmasters. The effects on the other 2 are much more muted than this. Ironically it's probably the easiest of the 3 (because of the masking tape) and the one that will catch the eye from a distance because of the colour contrast.

 

I highlighted the black as best I could (hopefully it shows up in this photo) as it draws your eye to the squares and tricks it into thinking the paint job is super good. At least, that's the idea!

 

The engines came out well again.  I think I've got this down, which sounds simple but actually isn't because of the 3 different planes on which the engine glow needs to appear the same. The first time I was constantly putting the paint in the wrong place because I couldn't get my forth perception right!

 

The hull is my trademark foam dusted paint effect, which has turned out quite nicely. Pick and pluck foam has been a revelation with these guys. I've used it on all three and it ties in really well. Here they are flying in formation:

 

And again, u-boating off into the distance. 

 

So there we are! If you wanna see how to magnetise like this, go here! Otherwise, tune in soon for more hobby related shenanigans! 

YV-666 Repaint - Darksun 25

Screw your meta

So, in less than 12 months this ship has gone from being the laughing stock of the meta to something that many Scum players value. It's a pretty tough ship, with many options that have certainly seen play in our local area. Thanks in no small part to Shane :) I've repainted mine, and completed the following vlog for all to see :) I hope you enjoy it!

Sanctuary Games Tournament Battle Report - Darksun 24

Watch Out - Imperial Veterans is out!

Another weekend goes by, another vlog of me moving toy spaceships around a 3x3 mat. Back at Sanctuary Games in Sutton-in-Ashfield for this one, great fun as ever. Thanks to all my opponents, and to Richard for hosting us. Looking forwards to going back there soon!

Darksun tease

Just a little tease of what I'll be Vlogging on over the next couple of days... What do you think?  

How to: Magnetize X-wing bases

Dear readers! This is what I've been working on for the last few days. A suprise project that makes my ships look great! Magnetised flying bases. This one in particular is for large base ships. I'm still working on the small base ships, that'll follow in the future. I can't take any credit for the idea, I pretty much got step by step instructions from a good friend (George), even to the point of checking I was buying the right things on Amazon! Here is a suitably dynamic pose of the two jumpmasters I've done so far!

 

Whilst I've been doing a lot of Vlogging recently, I wanted to go a bit old fashioned with this and write a blog instead! Plus, it was so quick I didn't have time to think about recording it! So I've got a few steps written down here for you to follow. 

To complete this hobby adventure you will need the following:

• 10mm steel ball bearings (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TIG8JNW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Z2Sqxb7WMGBK2 ) 
• 10mm countersunk rare earth magnets. (They basically have a dip in them to allow the ball bearing to rest on them snugly).(https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007UOXRY0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_y4Sqxb6E8TH7A )
• 10mm metal tube. I picked up some aluminium admonished tube from wickes. (Top tip, straight copper tube doesn't seem to available in that size)
• Some way of cutting said metal tube
• Green stuff (other cheaper vareities are available)
• Hobby clippers 
• Some files
• Decent super glue
• Black spray paint
• A loving and understanding spouse who will be impressed that you have magnetised it correctly

Step 1 - the prep work

Select the length of tube you want, and cut to size. I wouldn't go above 6 inches if I were you (but that's for another time). File off the ends to make sure they are smooth. Then using your hobby clippers cut away the two smaller squarish bits on the large ship base. If you're unsure which bits I mean, look at the shape of the peg hole relative to the bits I've cut off. In the end, I didn't take the peg triangle out btw. 

 

Once you're happy that both these bits are smooth, get some green stuff and fill the holes in the flying base. 

Step 2: the flying stand

In addition to filling in the holes with green stuff,  I added enough that when I put the tube in the green stuff supports it on either side. So about level with the remaining raised circular bits. 

 

Using the tube, gently create a groove for it to sit into the green stuff. Then remove the tube, add a decent amount of superglue and re-apply the tube. This step is really important, make sure that the tube is at the correct angle (dead straight). Once you've done this leave it to one side an let it dry. 

 

Step 3: the ship

Get whichever large base ship you are using and  either remove the peg insert by pulling it out, or clipping it off. Either way, in the same spot where you just removed the peg, make sure you've got a nice flat surface corresponding to the approximate size of the countersunk magnet. It's important that it's in the same spot as the old peg insert because that's where the ship is designed to balance from. (Note: I think the ghost may be different due to its size, you may need to mess around with where you put the magnet).

When you're happy with the place where you are going to put the magnet, superglue it in place. You may need a tiny bit of greenstuff to give it a good surface to bond onto, but use that sparingly. 

Step 4: spray paint and ball bearings

Whilst the superglue for the magnet is drying, take a can of black spray paint and spray the base that you've made. Once the spray paint is dry, spray some varnish ontop of it to make sure that the paint doesn't chip off. 

 

When this is dry, get your ball bearings and superglue them to the top of the tube. With that, you're done! The really handy thing is hat you'll only need to make a handful of bases for standard play. More will be required for epic play or flying swarms of ships of course. I'll leave you with a couple of shots of the jumpmasters flying at fancy angles!

 

 

Milton Keynes regionals today!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week guys! Please forgive my sins on that count. I've been practicing hard for the biggest X-wing event i have ever been too. If I've timed this right, it should come out on Sunday afternoon, whilst I'm flying toy spaceships and making pew pew noises. 

 

I've spent the last couple of weeks practicing hard for this event. I'd really like to finish top half, maybe even top 32 at a push. My stretch goal would be to make the cut, and then get some dice. Obviously my aim is to win the whole thing, but there are around 127 other people there and I'm sure at least one of them might have something to say about all of these things!

 

I've decided to go with jumpmasters, although as I write this on Friday I can't decide between 2.5 fully loaded jumpmasters, or 2 fully loaded ones with a Bumpmaster and feedback arrays. It's a tight call, I've not had any practice with the Bumpmaster list but I think it's a better counter to imperial aces, and I think they'll be a lot of them. It also has adaptability ensuring my ps2 bump, and putting the R4 agromech on both other the ships with torpedoes. 

I think, on reflection I probably prefer the extra set of torpedoes. They're just too good. So I think that's what I'll roll with! Hopefully they'll be a vlog soon after with the results! Wish me luck!

Tournament Performance Review - X-wing Spring Tourney at Weekend Warlords

Good day to you dear readers (imagine I'm saying that in a very British accent). Following on from my last post I thought I’d review the Jumpmasters. In the previous post I declared that I was taking them for three reasons. They were to see if:

A/. I could fly them

B/. If they were any good

C/. If I liked flying them

 

the real jumpmaster 5000 that everyones raving about

I'm going to review at least at first on those broad categories. So here goes.

A/. If I could fly them

Well, the short answer is I was a lot better at flying them by 6pm on Sunday than I was at 9am! That’s not the reasons solely for my defeats, but I was managing to get more sets of torpedoes of by the end of the day. I think that’s part of what makes a good xwing player a great xwing player, is that you can plan 2-3 turns ahead. So you know where you need to be to do the next thing, based on what you assumption about your oppenant is.

So I think I can fly them ok, but the natural turrets make them quite forgiving. You don't always need arc or your enemy that way. One game I only got off two sets of torps, but the others it was usually at least 3. 

The other measure that I'd use for that is bumping. Making a strong initative bid meant that I could use my intelligence agent to look at an opposing ships dial right before I moved. This was really helpful in allowing more blocks. Having said this, one of the games I lost was lost before the blocking really began. I am considering a fully fledged Bumpmaster, but it does lower my damage output. 

B/. If they were any good

Yes. They are good. I think everybody knows that by now. That I managed to lick half a ghost with two of them is proof enough for me. It's also a reasonably forgiving ship to fly in some respects, with a turret and two evade dice. 

The crux is that you only go green in one direction, so stress isn't good for you. It's one of the reasons I don't like the overclocked agromech, its just got the potential to leave you wide open positionally. The thing that I like is that they can just about do what you want with a standard build, but that if you want anything fancy or different you have to compromise elsewhere. So I had an Intel agent, but I sacrificed my 3rd set of extra munitions for example. 

C/. If I liked flying them

Hmmm. A tough one. There are aspects I really do like. These would include blocking your oppenants ships (probly my face thing in the whole game), causing grievously large amounts of damage, and the dial. The moves that they have available make them really fun to fly. They were reasonably fun to fly, but have a triple list with plasmas is a bit jousty, and I can't decide if I like it or not. In fairness, the main time I didn't like it was when I was flying against jumpmasters. Not because I was bothered by the powerful nature of them, just that it's a bit boring to look at! We all turn up to make pew pew noises and it's nice to see variety. But I am definitely partly to blame for that I suppose!

I'm debating dropping the torpedoes on one to have a ship fully devoted to bumping. My other option my be to trade one out for YV-666, and use that to bump with. However, I don't know if that's as powerful. I think in the end I may well fly them at regionals, if only because I haven't time to practice with anything else! 

Come back next time, when I'll be reviewing my hobby process so far this year, and looking at what I might need to paint for the double trouble 40k tourney. 

Steele open X-wing Mat raffle!

Some of you may be aware of the Steele open. Run by Aaron Utley, it's a fantastic event in the USA for X-wing and armada and some other bits and bobs. 

Aaron was recently on the 

Nova Squadron Radio podcast talking about the Steele open and all things related to it. This included the swag and prizes! One thing that caught my ear was the custom X-wing mats that are event exclusive. And then it really caught my eye when I saw it!

It's Jakku! A commission piece of art, there was no way to get this mat short of flying to America and going to the event. Which, for me made it a very expensive mat. I mean it's nice, but it's not £1500 nice. 

Until now! Aaron has been overwhelmed with people wanting this thing, and has agreed to raffle 2. You can 

buy your raffle tickets here, and for a 1 in 500 chance, $2 isn't too bad. If he sells all 1000 tickets, he will raffle a third. The proceeds go to the event, and considering the effort he's putting in I don't mind shelling out a few beans. It is open internationally as well, which is a massive plus for me. 

Id love to win it! There is nothing wrong with the mat I have, (something that's kept me from buying another one!) but to have one that relates to Jakku, now that would be cool. I doubt I'll get one, but I can dream! 

Punishing 1 repaint part 1

Good Friday good morning! Or afternoon! Whatever :) I've decided that the next ship I'm gonna repaint is the jumpmaster 5000! I've seen a lot of cool repaints flying around on Facebook and forums and stuff, and I wanted to take my own spin on it. Even if I haven't learnt how to fly it yet!

(This is my dengar taking 7 out of 8 hit points off y-wing in one turn!)

I decided that the best thing to do was to try some concept sketches as to what I thought would work. So I broke into my wife's colouring pens and did a bit of drawing:

Here's the first offering. I'm really taken by the purple, and I've seen a lot of repaints where the crescent is repainted a spot colour (red, blue etc) with the rest of the hull a normal colour. I thought about adding some detail through a stripe or double stripe, and splashing some white in there as well. All the time desperately trying to avoid the cockpit looking phallic. 

I scribbled down some names as well, I was thinking about something to do with purple, or royalty. I think I've probably settled on the "Royal Court Cartel" if I use this a purple colour scheme. I think I would go for more shading along the crescent, and transition of from quite a light purple to a darker purple. 

My other attempt was inspired by reading copious amounts of wookiepedia. The Crimson Nova were one of the most powerful bounty hunter guilds, and specialised in collecting bounties on Jedi. I went through a few ideas here, trying to get the shockwave of a supernova expressed on the crescent of the ship. 

I took a bit of inspiration from this picture for the third design on this page. And I think that's the one I'm going to use! I'm gonna have a white-ish hull and then paint a shockwave onto it. So this jumpmaster will be flown by a crimson nova bounty hunter. For the second one (if I buy a second!) I might go with the royal Court Cartell, but equally I might do something with the colour green. I have a lot of shades of green paint, where as I don't really own any purple! Stay tuned for updates on the first one soon :)

Darksun Life 14 - Store Champs Vlog report

A vlog! you can watch it here! just click on my face above :) if you'd like to read the blog version of this video, its available here

Sanctuary Games X-wing Store Championship Battle Reports

Dear reader, please accept my humble apologies for the delay in the compilation of this set of battle reports. I have been, and still am struck down with a virus that has made all forms of narcissism such as blogging and vlogging difficult.

Anyways… on the 5^th of March I attended the Sanctuary Games X-wing Store Championships in Sutton in Ashfield. And on this jaunt I had a driving buddy! Shane from Weekend Warlords in Loughborough was along for the ride, with his triple YV-666 list, which drew a lot of admiring looks (plus a sizeable amount of wins) over the course of the day. The Sanctuary “store” is actually a reasonably sized de-commissioned church, lovingly kitted out with a lot of gaming tables (there were 16 games of x-wing going on, and we weren’t using more than a ¼ of the space!), a kitchen to buy coffee and pizza, and some decent toilets. Being a Christian, it is not unusual for me to spend hours in a church praying, but attending a tournament there would require a weirdly different kind of prayers. I would deffo recommend the venue, it’s got a certain sense of grandeur. 

formation flying!

For this second store championships in succession I took my 4 Scum Y-Wings with Twin Laser Turrets (TLTs) and Unhinged Astromechs (all speed 3 moves are green). This is partly because I really like flying the list, but there were a couple of other serious reasons. Firstly, whilst I’m sure wave 8 will shake up the meta I may well take some version of this list to regionals in May so I wanted more practice against different lists. Secondly, with only 1 game night in-between to prepare I would have effectively been flying a new list cold at a tournament.

My first game was against a very friendly chap called Paul who was flying the following:

Commander Alozen (free target locks at range 1)

Lieutentant Colzet (spend a target lock to flip a damage card face up)

PS4 Tie Advanced

(these three all had the title, and the advanced targeting computer which allows you add a crit if you have a target lock)

Omega Leader with Juke and Comm relay for un-blockable shots

I have to confess, I completely underestimated this list. Nothing special I thought. I mean I know Omega Leader is a pain, but even so I thought “this should be a walked in the park”. What a n00b I was. And more importantly, what a disservice I did to my opponent. I deployed in the bottom right, with Paul in the top left. I went straight up the flank, and we engaged ¾ of the way up the star field.  In the first engagement, I think managed to maul one of the Tie Advanced’s, but in return one of the y-wings started to eat crits, and became ps0. I then completely forgot that this meant he’d be moving first, and this poor chap bumped, instead of masterfully dodging out the way. Then Paul burnt him down.

We then had a very close range dogfight in the top right hand corner of the map, where I tried to get cute and double or even triple guess my opponent. This worked about 50% of the time, but trying to block with the y-wings means that they don’t really get shots. I eventually ran for it, with my 2 remaining ships, hotly pursed by Omega Leader and Alozen. I traded Omega Leader for a y-wing, but began triple or quadruple guessing myself in an effort to take the last point of health off Alozen. So much so, that instead of head on jousting with him I turned towards the board edge, and left myself with nothing to do but fly off the edge of the board. This of course, cost me the game.

Result: Loss 74 – 100

they do not have 1 sharp turns.

My second opponent was a chap called Alex, fielding my favourite B-wing Keyan Farlander and Han Solo, both fairly heavily tricked out. This time I went bottom left hand corner, and he went opposite in the top right. I sped up the flank, not wanting to get caught in the side by his heavy firepower, and he swooped in, boosting with both ships. We engaged ¾ of the way up the board, with his targeting computers locking onto the engine glow of my y-wings. The combination of a B-Wing and a Millennium Falcon at short range began to make short work of my fleet. However! They both only have 1 evade dice, so my turrets sliced through the b-wing in just over a turn, leaving me with a very angry Han Solo against 3 y-wings.

this is Alex, wondering why the hell im taking a video of him

I have to confess, I got somewhat lucky here as I correctly guessed so of Alex’s moves and was able to block the Falcon with the y-wing he was trying to kill (if they’re touching they can’t shoot each other). That meant he couldn’t focus his fire down, and I was able to keep chipping away at him. After a few turns of this, Alex tried to break out of my trap, and it nearly left him in a perfect position to even the odds somewhat, but the dice failed him. I wrapped this one up with a win.

Result: Win 100 – 25

following game 1, i couldnt believe this

Game three then. And I end facing the guy that Alex travelled with, called Joseph. He had the other B-wing Pilot (Ten Numb) with a Mangler cannon, Blount with Ion Pulse missiles and Corran Horn with all the normal stuff. This game was a matter of honour for Joseph, who wanted to prove that he had the better b-wing than Alex. I set up in the bottom right, and he chose to joust me. So I immediately ran away, and in his haste to catch me, the angle meant that his ships got drawn into a line and when we did engage in the bottom centre Ten Numb was out of range for the first round of shooting.

This meant that I lit Corran Horn up like the Death Star on a Friday night. However, he’s a tricksy one and came through, with one or two hull left. At least for that turn. I sent him downtown the next turn, but this had allowed Ten Numb to close and prove his worth, whilst Blount had used his auto hitting Ion Missiles to stall a y-wing in the middle of my line astern formation. So I starbursted, flying my y-wings every-which-way in an effort to land his remaining pilots in a kill box. They helpfully obliged and whilst unblockable Critical Hits were very painful, being in the middle of TLT kill box was a deciding factor. I rolled of the winner.

Result: Win 100 – 50 (giving Joseph bragging rights over Alex)

 

thats me! left middle, with Shane next one down

In my 4^th game of Swiss, I played a friendly chap called Richard. (on reflection I noticed that he was the one who gave me parking advice, so thanks!). Richard had two Tie Phantoms - Echo and Whisper and a named Tie Fighter (im really sorry but I cant remember which one!) The most significant thing on the Phantoms was sensor jammer over fire control system. This was actually a bit of pain for me tactically speaking because I was shooting twice with each ship, but only had 1 focus. So I had to think really smart about that.

I tried to position the rocks to make it hard for him to hit me in the flank as I came up the left side of the board, and I think It probably did a bit. Crucially, I bottled trying to block echo’s decloak quite early on, Id forgotten how manoeuvrable phantoms were! Instead of protecting the other 3 wings, I allowed both phantoms into range  1 and they started having a lot of fun. So I sped up, turned back into the board and starbursted. In the process I took the Tie Fighter out, and also got rid of Echo. This left me with 2 y-wings against Whisper. I was winning on modified points, but knew that wouldn’t be good enough to make the cut, not with a loss first round. So I turned around near my board edge and came back for another pass. I decided to bank right, on the assumption that was the unpredictable thing to do. Whisper then decloaked in the same direction and I was gutted, I assumed id blown it. I moved my ships, and then Richard revealed a hard 1 away from my y-wing, meaning he didn’t have a shot! Despair turned to elation, and I was fortunate enough to take Whisper down that turn.

Result: Win 100 – 50

Shane's YV-666 conga line of doom

In the final game of Swiss I faced a double Scum Firespray list, Kath Scarlet and Boba Fett run by Jamie (I think, only name I forgot to write down sorry!). I set up on the left, and he jousted me with Kath, whilst sending Boba to flank me. I remembered my rule of 11 here, and blocked Kath out in the second engagement, meaning she had no actions and she died that turn. Boba was more of a problem, and he chased me around a bit. I starbursted to try and make sure I was always getting 1 shot, and this helped a great deal. In what was to be the last turn, I actually blocked Boba and would have forced him off the board if it wasn’t for inertial dampeners. I was still able to just shoot him with another y-wing, killing him and winning me the game.

Result: Win 100 – 25.

my y-wings hunting down and blocking boba fett

Top 4 Cut

I squeaked into the top 4 in 4^th place, getting another challenge coin (man I love those!) and facing Darren, who had gone 5-0. Happily, Shane also made the top 4 cut. That meant that neither of us was waiting around for the other person, or at least not yet! Darren was playing a list that had a YV-666 (bossk crew, tactician and Gunner), 3x ps1 Binayre Pirates in z-95s,  and a ps2 scum y-wing with a TLT and unhinged astromech. Id noticed Darren from across the tables as he had a very cunning fortress that meant he set up in a corner. I think people had been having trouble because it forced them into a joust, and he could just sit there as long as he wanted. Shane had faced him in the final round of swiss and lost, and shared some wisdom with me.

it was something like this. although not completely like this.

What I decided to was head towards him on that flank, and see if he’d take the bait and come out of his fortress. Either way, I wasn’t going to let myself get blocked up, id just turn into the board regardless of whether he followed me or not. If he didn’t, id circle back around and try again. And then again. Thankfully, he took the bait. I think he knew that I didn’t need to face him conventionally what with my turrets and all. On my first pass, after id turned in just outside range 3 of his fortress, he broke the following turn and came after me.

However, the way he broke from the formation meant that I was able to chew off the ps1 corners of his fleet, bringing the entirety of my firepower to bear against half his fleet on more than one occasion. He was very unlucky to land the yv-666 on a rock (one of the big ones that id brought I think!) on a turn when it was in range one of a nearly dead y-wing, which helped me out, and im not convinced that his yv-666 dodged anything I threw at it, so I definitely had my fair share of luck. It ended up with me taking down his y-wing with 3 of mine, sealing me a place in the final.

Result: Win 100-25

Final

And in the final I faced Shane! Which was good for both of us in a way, as neither of us would be hanging around for the other person. However, I was sure to make several thinly (read not at all) veiled threats about his lift home. He didn’t listen to those, in fact he was way to busy getting completely inside my head for the first 30 minutes of our game, and it nearly ruined me! I had to start ignoring him completely. I felt a bit rude, but I couldn’t handle it at all! It was like the whole of basketball in a 3^rd of the time. As a reminder, Shane had the following:  3x ps2 YV-666, all with ion projectors and feedback arrays. This loadout also gave him a small initiative bid.

 

great film. great film.

As per my standard tactics, I set up some rocks to cover 1 flank, giving me the option to creep up my left if I felt like it. I knew that Shane’s list was designed to try and trap you, slapping ion tokens on you every which way and not allowing you to break away. For some reason, I did nothing to stop this happening. I let him box me into a corner, ioning 3 of my ships over various turns. I eventually broke away with 2 y-wings, leaving the other 2 hulks behind. I had by this point killed 1 and a half of his ships, and wasn’t fancying my chances. I regrouped on my top right and this time skirted the top corner of his ships as they came back around, managing to trade a y-wing for a yv-666.

No you idiot! dont get trapped there!

I was suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic. Pulling around back down my left flank, having him chase me meant that he couldn’t trap me, and I was able to keep chipping away at the final YV-666 until it blew up. And with that, I won my second store championships!

Some, from a situation 2 weeks ago where I’d never won a wargames tourney, I’ve now won 2 x-wing store championships in 2 weeks! Sanctuary Games is a really amazing location, being in an old church gives it a grand, imposing atmosphere. The facilities are great, and the staff really friendly. It does get a bit chilly, so make sure you take a jumper and a coat though! 

Do come back later in the week, as i'm hoping to have vlogged this experience. I've got it all ready, i've just been way to ill to do any post production. 

with a fancy glass trophy

X-wing wave 8 musings

With wave 8 imminent, I've been played around with what I think I want to try out when the new ships come out. I thought I'd pour out my thoughts onto a blog post! 

get ready wallet!

There's a couple of lists I'd like to think about, and this is the first: 

Ghosting around (98)

"Chopper" (47) - VCX-100

Enhanced Scopes (1), Extra Munitions (2), Sabine Wren (2), Bombardier (1), Ghost (0), Ion Projector (2), Ion Bombs (2)

Ezra Bridger (28) - Attack Shuttle

Push The Limit (3), Ion Cannon Turret (5), Phantom (0)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) - Z-95 Headhunter

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) - Z-95 Headhunter

It's not perfect by any means, but it's working off the idea that the Ghost is a big old ship that's likely to get in the way! With a 4 straight move on a large base ship, you are guarenteed to be able to reach your oppenant quickly. And by reach I mean bump. Or get him to bump you! And that's where the fun begins. 

You've got enhanced scopes, which means if you choose, you can be PS0 in the activation phase. You then move first and jump right in where you think they'll be. If they hit you, they may get ion'ed. they will defo get a stress from choppers ability. Then you shoot something that isn't touching you, but may have got stacked up behind. Then you ion that because you can shoot the attack shuttles' turret! Hopefully if you're facing something in formation, you've really ruined thier day. Potentially, if you play your cards right you can block 3 ships, with maybe only 1 shooting you. 

At this point I have to give complete credit to a friend (Shane hibbard) who showed me who devastating the ion projectors really are. Shoving it into the middle of somebody's formation is horrible!

If not, and they can break away, then you've got ion bombs that can go and speed two away from you. Both the ion projectors and chopper trigger every turn. So you could keep a ship there for a few turns, piling up its stress. When you eventually pull away, you can choose to drop the ion bomb before you move (screwing them again) and then parachute Ezra out if you as well, staying behind them and picking off what's left. The ion bombs help with this because they keep things going slow that extra turn. 

The z95s are useful filler. I'd debated a bwing with a tractor beam, but it's a slower ship and one less ship.  I'll see thou. I do love b-wings!I'm looking forward to trying it out on the tabletop. Do you have X-wing? What are you looking forwards to about wave 8?

Titan Games Battle Reports: Store Championship

So, this is a write up of last weeks store championships that I attended at Titan Games in Lichfield, with the review of Sanctuary following in the next week. If you'd rather watch the Vlog, go here.

As a reminder, I ran 4 Scum Y-wings with Twin Laser Turrets (TLT) and Unhinged Astromechs. The Twin Laser Turrets shoot twice a turn (at ranges 2-3), but can only cause 1 damage per shot, and the Astromechs make all my 3 speed manoeuvres green. For thems that don’t know, these cards pair really well because it means you can keep your speed up to keep out of range 1 to allow you to shoot twice, and also gives you a whole bunch of different ways to clear stress.

In my first game at Titan, I played Josh, who was fielding 4 tie fighters (two of which were First Order Ties) and Whisper with a whole bag of tricks. I placed my rocks centrally, and deployed on my left. He deployed slightly of centre with the ties and then put whisper on my right. I sped up the board, winning the first engagement and taking a Tie fighter off. At this point, Whisper was avoiding my 4 turrets and coming the long way around. The phantom didn’t get into the fight until quite late on, and by that point I’d chewed up most of the Tie fighters. Whilst I wasn’t very good at dodging Whisper’s de-cloaks, the three remaining Y-wings were too many shots for the Phantom to deal with.

Result: Win 100-25

My second game was against Oliver, who had Soontir Fel, Omega Leader and Vader. They all had lots of tricks and I was a little worried about this match up. I think my lists strengths and weaknesses are magnified against aces. This time I went to the right and swooped up the flank to take Soontir head on as the other two came round the back. Soontir actually dodged a whole round of shooting from me, which was frustrating. However, because rocks, his green manoeuvers were predictable, and I blocked his escape as I knew he needed to clear his stress. That meant that I was able to kill him with primary weapon attacks that turn. Vader followed a couple of turns after, and then Omega Leader shortly after.

Result: Win 100-0

My third game was against Brian. Ah yes. This was, and remains one of the best games of X-wing I’ve ever played. Brian had Kavil in a Y-wing with a TLT, a YV-666 with Boba crew, Gunner, tactician and the Nashta Pup (free z-95), and a Scum TLT y-wing like mine. I got good asteroid placement this game, limiting where he was able to approach me. Brian had initiative, and placed in the top right. I placed in the bottom left and sped up my left flank. I then faked a little at going straight to but actually turned into the board, leaving the YV-666 to face a broadside from all 4 Y-wings. Second round of engagement I burned the YV-666 down, for no loss and was feeling confident. I now only had 2 Y-wings and z-95 to deal with.

We both regrouped, and the re-engaged across the bottom of the map. After the dust had settle, I had 2 Y-wings left against just a z-95. The following turn, my Y-wing with 5 hull left got one shotted by the z-95 and I started to get concerned. I was even more concerned when the z-95 started pursuing my y-wing and dodging most of my shots. I managed to break out from his pursuit, and regrouped. We were both now on one hull. Somehow id traded 7 hit points for 3. I could have played for time, but there was a lot of time and that wasn’t what I wanted to do. We came in for a final joust, he hit me once, I rolled an eyeball and burned my focus. I fired back with the TLT and killed his z-95! I was elated. And drained! Great game, Brian really made me work for it and taught me that you shouldn’t just give up.

Result: Win 100-75

My final game of swiss was against Mike, who had Wes Janson, Biggs and Keyan Farlander (Fire contral system, opporuntist, Heavy laser cannon). Keyan and Wes combined to give a 5 dice target locked and focused attack from Keyan. This meant one of my Y-wings didn’t even get to shoot before it died. That woke me up a bit! However, I got good shots back at Biggs, taking him down to his last hull with the three remaining Y-wings. After Biggs died, I realised that whilst Keyan was scary his 1 agility was no match for my TLTs and took him out. 

Result: Win 100-50

This meant that I was 4-0 and top player after Swiss (they only did four rounds, which I didn't mind, I mean we all have homes to go to!)

I don't know if you can see from this picture, but my MOV was 650. Comfortingly, I didn't just scrape through. But there were a couple of times when I was trying to avoid getting shot to save points. Thats something I've really learnt in the last few months actually. 

So I headed into the top 4 cut, playing a really great guy called Anthony. He had Kath scarlet in a firespray, with a mangler cannon and IG-88A, with HLC, advanced sensors and some other stuff. If the third game of the day was the most exciting, this was the toughest. I did not fly very well at all here. I got a decent rock placement, but just went straight up my right hand side and let him crash into my left flank, getting inside range 1 and everything. After the first engagement, I had two y-wings slightly dinged up vs IG-88A, who was mostly ok. Regenerating shields for fun as he killed me. 

As we swooped around and I tried to get a two vs one engagement, I went for a really dumb block attempt with one of the y-wings. Just read the board and game totally wrong. He just did a super obvious move and killed me. Which left me a half dead Y-wing against a half dead IG. I ran away thru the asteroids, and was left on one hull. I was facing towards the board edge and only had one option, turning into to the left. He was in a reasonable position to turn and catch me in arc, killing me. 

However! This was not what happened. Anthony had to go they an asteroid to get me, which took him down to 1 hull and then he had chosen to sloop with his ship, meaning I wasn't in his arc. But I was able to TLT him, and duly killed him. Winning the game on 1 hull and progressing to the final. 

Result: Win 100-75

Which meant I made the final! I faced Mike from round 4. I got a reasonable deployment of rocks, and set up on the left. Mike set up to joust with me, so I decided that I probably shouldn't joust with him! I broke to the right, and made him follow me thought the rocks. This really benefitted me, because his fleet went from flying next to each other to conga lining through asteroids towards my ships. 

I timed my starburst just right to catch all four TLTs at the correct range, removing Wes and Keyan without loosing a ship. This meant that Biggs was faced with having to deal with all four by himself, and at that point Mike called it. 

Result: Win the store championship!

So I rolled out winner for the whole day, which was a nice suprise. The first time I've ever won a wargames tournament! A really enjoyable day, thank you to all my opponents and to Titan for hosting a great, smoothly run event. Hopefully at some point in the next week I'll do a report on yesterday's store championship as well. Thanks for reading!

Achievement double unlocked: win another tournament

I may have won another X-wing store championships over the weekend.....

Here's a picture from my round one game (which I actually lost!). More information to follow, but I basically didn't loose again all day! 

Darksun Life Vol 12: Xwing Store Championship Vlog Report

Here it is! A new vlog for a new year. Can't believe it's taken me until March to do one. But at least it's a cracker! Enjoy :) 

The blog write ups of my games will follow sometime in the next few days. For now, you'll have to make do with the soothing sound of my voice. 

Achievement unlocked: win a tournament

You may be able to geuss what this blog post is about due to the title. Whilst it's not a goal on my hobby resolutions, it's been an overarching goal for some time. Indeed, on the "mr & Mrs" video that my wife and I did for when we got married, it was one of my stated aims, instead of things like kids and the like. One thing at a time I say!

In summary, yesterday I went to an X-wing store championships at Titan games in Lichfield. I ran the 4 scum ywings with tlt and unhinged astromech. For this that don't know, that means each ship has a turret that fires twice a turn, as well as being making the ships much more manoeuvrable. 

I went undefeated in Swiss, (despite having 1 z95 take out 2.5  ywings on its own!) and then went all the way after the cut. In my semi final/ top 4 game I was very fortunate, and got the drop on my oppenant, who should have had me dead to rights. And then in the final, I played a Biggs/wes/keyan build that is beaten in round 4, and successfully managed to broadside them one at a time. 

Further in depth reports will follow as well as a vlog, but I couldn't contain my excitement and had to blog about it!