I was lucky enough to be home over the weekend when my local gaming store was having an X-wing tournament.  Eagerly I registered myself, my son and then hassled wingman Scott to enter as well.  11 players registered and the first round of four rounds was drawn but first a little bit of history.

Of course the major question on every players mind when it comes to any event is what squad to take.

Recently I've been running the Dual Firespray's that took out the Spanish Regionals however due to my uniquely poor piloting ability or just the simple inability to run them as well as the Spanish champion did (mainly due to Dan smashing me twice in a row with his TIE Swarm....battle reports to come) I had to change to something which suited my play style a little better.

I love the Firespray and in particular Kath Scarlet's extra dice out the rear arc so I wanted to keep that besides all of this time invested in Firespray's wasn't going to go to waste yet at least anyway so set to finding some inspiration and found this treasure in the FFG forums commanded by SgtSmithy.

My version only added in Glitterstim onto Kath adding some much needed resistance to getting smashed apart in a single turn and also increase the damage output when I really needed it or had lined up the perfect range 1 shot out the back and didn't have a target lock as an example.  She couldn't be ignored and with Push the Limit it meant you could sometimes be going into combat with a target lock, focus and evade token which makes like a little easier.

I haven't had much experience using Bossk and the only thing I could compare it to is using the Lambda Class Shuttle, whilst its dial is pretty similar in some ways its ability to line its decks with awesome crew options and Bossk's pilot ability as well is something I've certainly come to love.  I managed to have a practice game with my son late in the week and it was only then that I realised how powerful the combination of 4-LOM and Zuckuss is and this became even more apparent over the course of the store tournament.

Gavin was a nice local guy running Chopper with Zeb, Sabine docked in the Phantom and Dutch cruising around in a Y-wing.  Immediately we started commenting about competitions for amount of blank green dice we could roll.  His list from memory was:

Chopper - Zeb, Lando, Advanced Sensors, Ghost
Sabine - Ion Cannon Turret, Phantom
Dutch Vander - R2 Astromech, Dorsal Turret, Flechette Torpedoes 

With the higher pilot skill I set up both of my ships in order to harass Dutch early on whilst Chopper had to then take a bit of time to get into position.  Both ships screamed forward 4 straight and with a boost Kath immediately removed Dutch's shields.  Once Bossk joined in the fight Dutch turned to dust.  By this stage Chopper had got back into the fight and started to focus onto Bossk putting some early damage onto him.

Both of my ships were fairly consistent with damage and by the time Bossk went down Chopper was cruising around on a single hit point and Sabine took off in her shuttle to bring some more hurt on Kath but after a rear shot removed Chopper it was only a matter of time and Sabine wandered into the rear arc of a slow moving Kath to chalk up the first win.

100 - 50 ​

Lachlan gave my son a text book bro bot lesson in round 1 so I'd had my young intelligence agent give me a heads up on what the bots were carrying and it was a really cool list Lachlan was running as I'd never seen the mindlink used before on them.  Lachlan's list from memory was:

IG88B - Attanni Mindlink, Heavy Laser Cannon, Auththrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Fire Control System, Title
IG88C - Attanni Mindlink, Heavy Laser Cannon, Auththrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Fire Control System, Title

Brobots have never really been a problem for me,  I think they can be fairly predictable and as long as you get the jump on them and don't fall into the trap of switching targets they can be dealt with.  The higher pilot skill really contributed here for me allowing me to deploy Kath and Bossk on a flank and roll them up to get early shots onto Bravo for little damaging return fire.  By the time Charlie got in to help his other half he'd been destroyed.

Bossk got in and 4-LOM'ed a token here and there for extra damage onto Charlie and me forgetting to use Glitterstim meant I lost Kath when I really shouldn't have.  Bossk slow rolled around the map to eventually setup the final kill shot onto Charlie netting me another victory.

​100 - 50

Here is what I was hoping I would come across at some stage of the day.  The new and improved TIE Defenders to see how Bossk would go with.  I'm a huge TIE Defender fan so a little part of me was dying on the inside by shooting at my favourite ship in the game but it had to be done.  I'd faced Ronan previously at one of the stores league nights and I can remember him being a very quiet and composed player.  No doubt analysing every single detail which in turn makes him a great player.  He was running a triple ace variant:

Colonel Vessery - TIE/x7, Adaptability, Stealth Device
Countess Ryad - TIE/x7, Push The Limit, Stealth Device
Omega Leader - Juke, Comm Relay

The game started as normal.  I deployed the two big ships together but anticipated Ronan would scream forward at me so I opened with a 4K turn with Kath to get some early opening shots however my gambit failed.  He banked his forces away there were facing me to re-deploy them away and attack from another angle.  Whilst I was  getting Kath back into the fight after a few turns Bossk got into a solid position and in a single volley removed Omega Leader as Ronan's greens blanked out.

Bossk then using his 0 manoeuvre and then Inertial Dampeners was able to get some consistent combat phases in and put the hurt on Colonel Vessery who was limping around with an unhealthy 1-2 hull points.  Zuckuss was getting put to good use here often forcing Ronan to re-roll 3-4 evade results due to his stealth device.  By this stage Kath was back in the fight getting some rear arc action on the Colonel removing him from the game.  It was now down to chasing a 2 shielded Ryad around the board which wasn't easy with her short K-turns.  She eventually nabbed Bossk (I think....) and then Kath eventually closed in for the kill.

100 - 50

This game for me was probably the highlight for the squad because it was such a hard counter for Ronan and unfortunately almost custom built to take out the new titled TIE Defenders.

The final round was in and I was playing Bryan who I've played in the past and he's a regular around the Brisbane circuit and the last time I played him last year I walked away with a loss so I was keen to improve my record against him.  He was running Scum and brought the following from memory but I am missing some information:

Dengar - Punishing One, Push The Limit, Unhinged Astromech, K4 Security Droid,
Latts - 4-LOM, K4 Security Droid

Same tactic as usual, I deployed my ships close together and was lucky enough to catch Latts early.  I didn't take the bait and shoot at Dengar early to avoid getting double tapped and Latts just nicked an asteroid and was taken down.

The rest of the game was spent trying to get angles onto Dengar without getting smashed apart and eventually Bossk was limping around on a single hit point when he got into a range 3 conflict with Dengar.  The Mangler cannon worked it's magic and took out Dengar but not before his return fire also turned Bossk and the party bus into space dust netting Bryan some points.

100 - 50

I'd said to Scott I'd be happy to have one or two wins under my belt seeing as I was using a list I wasn't overly familiar with but luckily it didn't really have a steep learning curve and the dice were very good to me on the day granting me first place in the store tournament.  My son won his last game as well so he was chuffed and my spoils of war looked like the following:

I want to thank all my opponents for the great games and of course Ben at Collective Gaming for putting on the event.  No doubt I'll chat about this event in an upcoming podcast but until then thank you very much for reading and shout out to SgtSmithy on the FFG forums and representing his party bus in Australia.

Managed to upload the first podcast a few days ago however I've been hesitant to post it purely because I'm having some technical issues getting it up onto iTunes as I don't think Weebly and the way they automatically create RSS feeds is helping the cause so my apologies in advance for that.

Thanks for checking it out as per usual and if you've any comments please feel free to unload.

Link here.

One tournament that's been on my calendar since Gav from Irresistaible Force mentioned it at the Regional event is 'Aces High'.

At times the mundane dogfighting of 100 point battles over and over again can certainly become a drag to all of us and Aces High is a great way to break that monotony of gaming in that way.  With its unique set of tournament rules that put a real fun spin on the game the event will undoubtedly sell out fast just as it did last year.

​The key difference for this X-wing event is players take a 125 point squad which opens up a lot of new opportunities for nasty combinations and builds previously unseen.  All players must select an 'Ace' which must be a named pilot.  It is this Ace that will record every shield and hull damage it does over the course of the day along with regular tournament scoring allowing bragging rights on two fronts.

I think this is a fantastic idea and such a good way to shake up the tournament scene and I'm very much looking forward to attending and have already secured my ticket.  If you're into X-wing and you're in the Brisbane area then support the local scene and be sure to buy a ticket.

The next part is putting together a fun 125 point squad that proves to be semi effective.  If you had 125 points to spend on a squad I'd be very keen to hear what would be your must takes and who do you think would be the best ace?  Would it be classics such as Poe Dameron or the Inquisitor or because of the expanded points would you explore some of the lesser known pilots?

Thanks for reading.

​The gaming climate hasn't really changed and the conclusion is one that I still stand by that is has never been a better time to get into X-wing.  The latest wave does nothing to weaken this approach to the game if anything it only does the opposite.

​The pretty little TIE/SF adds a very interesting dynamic to the Empire's fleet in the form of a small ship with an auxiliary firing arc.  This follows the theme for this wave as all but one of the vessels has some form of auxiliary arc available to it.

Whilst FFG have packed this release to the gills with great pilots, interesting upgrades and a huge amount of combinations possible in existing squads I'm left scratching my head wondering if it's all worth it?

Firstly the characteristic values of the ship are pretty buff for a TIE and their shield and hull values match that of a TIE Defender however they fall short in the attack and defence department with a value of 2 in each.  The attack value can be somewhat mitigated however with the following title 'Special Ops Training' which is free:

All of a sudden the small based ship just got a little more dangerous.  Not only can you opt to take an extra red die for attacking in the primary arc but you can instead opt to take attacks from both arcs.  This is a benefit in just about any scenario I can think of and for zero points it will be on every TIE/SF in service.   This allows the ship to have greater flexibility in the attacking department but also applies a bit more pressure to the opponent in order to get out of two firing arcs as opposed to just one.  There are plenty of nasty combinations to be used with the named pilots which I'll cover later.

A system upgrade, missiles and a tech slot are also available to the TIE/SF and you start to get a feel for the expense of this ship and it will continue to rise putting it into the territory of a TIE Punisher that fills such a specialised role that it ends up costing a hefty investment and it turns out it doesn't do it that well, is that a fair comparison however?

The system upgrade I can see being very good for the usual Fire Control System especially when shooting twice a turn so that way at least you're sticking 'accurate' fire onto one target and more 'harassing' fire onto another.  Advanced sensors will be amazing and possibly the premium choice.  Barrel rolling before pulling a Segnor's loop to bid for better positioning and to gain two targets of opportunity instead of one sounds like a great deal but at the same time I'm left thinking will that 'train' players into placing the TIE/SF into more vulnerable positions for a pay off that may simply not be worth it?

A quick 26 point filler could be something like this:

Zeta Specialist (23) - Accuracy Corrector (3), Special Ops Training (0)

Allowing for the TIE/SF to spit out accurate fire all the time and the only real decisions that need to be made are somewhere in range 1 of an enemy when throwing a 3rd/4th attack dice depending on the circumstances.​

The manoeuvre dial that comes with the TIE/SF looks horrible.  One thing that ships with auxiliary arcs need is a lot of flexibility when it comes to moving and this just doesn't support it.  Modifications like the TIE MKII engines will mitigate this somewhat adding another 4 green manoeuvres to the dial already clogged with 6 red ones.  Also a point to note is no K-turn.  I'm a little confused personally how a TIE Punisher can perform a K-turn with all of those chunky ordnance chutes however this ship cannot.  Of course it can be argued that it perhaps doesn't need it simply because of the access to the Segnor's Loops however the difference between these two manoeuvres in a game can simply mean losing a ship or not.

One of the most exciting aspects to look at with any expansion is what new pilots come with the expansion and what abilities they bring to the table.

Honestly who didn't think of the movie starring Patrick Swayze back in the 90's when they saw this pilot?

Anyway moving along.  Backdraft adds a significant advantage when shooting out the back arc and it's very similar to the Scum Kath however this is a guaranteed critical hit which is something I'm liking.  It's basically an Advanced Targeting Computer that doesn't require a target lock.  If you managed to get into range 1 of a target with the rear arc then you can basically heavy laser cannon away with the 3 primary dice and add the critical and with an elite pilot talent available to Backdraft there is plenty of nasty combinations to hit the opponent with.  

A cheap crack shot of course will hurt at the right time and the usual 'go to's' such as Predator are always welcomed additions to the offensive value of any ship but they start pushing the ship into the 30+ points area which is a concern for me.  Wired is possibly another EPT worth looking at as of course is Outmanoeuvre on a 2 dice attack ship with dual arcs.

Quickdraw at first glance has a really cool pilot skill but again I don't think I'd be keen to go running into asteroids just at a chance to shoot off at the enemy as they'll be doing that for you.  You can only use this ability 3 times in the game assuming you're lucky enough to only have a single shield removed each encounter which is probably being generous.  If only Reinforced Deflectors was for small ships as well.....

Electronic Baffle however does make a strong case for Quickdraw.  Pull a red manoeuvre, suffer the damage to remove a shield and then make an attack.  You still face the problem of only have 3 shields however and chances are by the time you've made the initial joust with the enemy then you will be lucky to have a single shield remaining depending of course what else makes up your squad.

Great concept on the TIE/SF however the jury is still out for me and I think perhaps they're a little expensive for what they bring to the table.  Time will tell of course and as per usual I'm sure I join the ranks of thousands who can't wait to get their grubby mitts onto a box or two of them.

​Thanks for reading. ​