This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. In my travels I have been lucky enough to meet some icons of our game, and even luckier to now get to call them friends. Hopefully this will be the first in a semi-regular series of posts.

The first of these pilots I’m chatting with has become synonymous with one ship, possibly even more than I am tied to the Firespray. A few weeks ago someone else flew his list and did pretty well it them too.

I’ve been talking to my squad mate and friend Mr Jesper Hills about the Aggressor, also know as the IG, the Brobots and most recently the 2018 World Championship winning Control Bots.

How did you get into X-Wing?

I started playing X-Wing back in the summer of 2014. Alex (Birt) had just bought the Core Set. We were looking for something new to play because we had reminisced about Battlefleet Gothic and this game was about Star Wars, so it was just a matter of time really.

This was a few months before Wave 4 dropped. We then both joined the X-Wing league at Dark Sphere in London that autumn. This was my first introduction to competitive play and I was hooked. Few months after that, we started 186th Squadron.

What initially attracted you to the IGs?

It’s such a flexible chassis. Very customisable, very adaptable to different preferences. I favour quite an aggressive approach in X-Wing and so this ship was perfect for my own playstyle. Brobots is honestly one of those squads that more than anything I feel rewards experience, judgement, and practice. It’s just two PS6 ships with firing arcs. You win or lose based on your flying.

It’s a rewarding and satisfying squad to use. Coupled with that, the faction (Scum & Villainy) was brand new. Until that point I hadn’t really settled on a list yet. It was an opportunity to get ahead of the curve for once and I picked the Double Aggressor squad up immediately on release.

How have you evolved the list over time?

First configuration I tried was Stay On Target with Advanced Sensors. I had previously played B-Wings with Advanced Sensors and while this build was fun to use, it wasn’t exactly effective. Bear in mind that we were in the midst of the TIE Phantom meta at the time.

Push the Limit and Fire Control System was next. It’s an absolute powerhouse (Craig Reed was using this effectively at the time) but severely limits the usefulness of red moves on the dial.

Eventually, I settled on a compromise between the two: Push the Limit with Advanced Sensors. It’s a best-of-both scenario with the downside being that you cannot afford Heavy Laser Cannons on both. This was the start of the “asymmetrical” builds with one ship carrying the HLC, the other carrying a Mangler Cannon.

IG-B IG-C Push the Limit Push the Limit Mangler Cannon Heavy Laser Cannon Advanced Sensors Advanced Sensors Autothrusters Autothrusters IG-2000 IG-2000

This was the squad I won 2015 UK Nationals with and used constantly for well over a year. After some time away from the IG-2000 (played around with Attanni Mindlink a whole bunch), I came back in 2017 and decided to test how the chassis could be pushed in other directions.

We were just beginning to transition from the Parattani meta into the Nym/Miranda meta. Control seemed the obvious answer, with the variety of options now available. Started off with 2 x Ion Cannon, 2 x Ion Bomb and 2 x Rigged Cargo Chute. This won me a Store Championship. And when the Nym phenomenon really took off, I dropped one Ion Bomb for a Tractor Beam on each ship to take advantage of the higher number of small-base ships entering the top tier of competitive lists. This was the build I started my competitive run in 2018 with.

IG-B IG-C Push the Limit Push the Limit Ion Cannon Ion Cannon Tractor Beam Tractor Beam Advanced Sensors Advanced Sensors Autothrusters Autothrusters IG-2000 IG-2000 Rigged Cargo Chute Rigged Cargo Chute Ion Bomb

What are you best memories of IGs in 1.0?

Won the 2015 UK Nationals. It was almost exactly one year after we started playing. I’d just absolutely hammered the practice during the regional season. Played my fellow 186th member Dominic Wai in an incredible final.

Then, just a couple of months afterwards, I took 3rd at the 2015 Nordic Nationals alongside fellow 186th members Mike Dennis (runner-up) and Oliver Pocknell (winner), which was just awesome.

Came 22nd at the World Championships shortly after that. Still haven’t beaten that result despite attending Worlds four times!

I won the coveted first ever London Regionals in 2016. Felt great to secure a win for the 186th on our “home turf” at Warboar Games, who were given the opportunity of hosting it.

Having the excellent run at the 2018 System Open series. It really felt like this was the moment to put my money where my mouth was, with regards to the control build, and it paid off. I won two Coruscant invites with the only Hyperspace win (6-0) in Copenhagen and a Top 4 finish in Birmingham (losing to eventual winner Martyn Chivers in the semi-final). Gaining recognition for this with the “Best Performance with a Non Meta List” at the 2018 Goldies Awards was just brilliant and did my existing ego absolutely no favours.

Of all your achievements in the game, what are you most proud of?

I mean it has to be the 2015 UK Nationals, right? Such a profoundly formative experience. It was my first deep dive into the wider community. It introduced me to many of the known names in the game, many of which I still maintain close contact with. I was introduced to Alex Davy, Vince Kingston, and dozens of others.

I’m still looking back on that weekend fondly. It was the moment I realised that this was a game and a community I wanted to take seriously. At the same time, this was the first ever National Championship win for the Scum & Villainy faction worldwide. The game has moved on quite a bit since then, of course, but it still feels like such an achievement.

Tell me about Sim winning worlds with your list?

Truly, I’m very happy for him. Lots of people might not know, but he’s flown IGs almost just as much as I have. We have a great relationship and see each other often on the tournament circuit. He’s a brilliant player and I’m proud of him for rightfully securing his place in the game’s history.

At the same time, it’s difficult. People develop a relationship with their squads over time and particularly if they’ve put so much time into developing them. Of course, it’s nonsense to claim that you “own” a list – nobody does – but it’s such a niche build that it’s hard to feel like this one wasn’t “mine”. Came with the right squad, at the right time, with hundreds of reps behind me, and it was probably the best shot at the title that I’d ever have. But it just wasn’t my day. And that’s okay.

There’s absolutely a sense of achievement that a squad developed and popularised by me won the World Championship, however it would also be dishonest to suggest that there isn’t an element of jealousy there too. I’m not proud to admit that. But I think it’s a normal thing to feel at this level of competition. It can be a bitter pill to swallow. But that’s life, you move on.

What are your hopes for the ship in 2.0?

I think it’s great to see them differentiate the various droid pilots with the Calculate action. It’s a nice touch and opens some doors to combo with stuff like 4-LOM and Guri. I’m personally hoping that the Double Aggressor archetype will still exist as a viable competitive option, with flexibility in their usage. I think it’s important for the Scum faction to have that.

It’ll also be interesting to see how the survivability of the ship chassis is impacted by the changes to balance in the game. Defensive upgrades and abilities have been dramatically reduced in scope, so the ship will likely no longer be able to switch between hyper-defense and hyper-aggression so easily. That’s probably a good thing, but time will tell. Regardless, the IG-2000 has stuck with me for so long, it wouldn’t feel right to abandon it now. I’ll always come back.

Jesper is a regular on the award winning 186th Podcast and one of the moderators of the largest X-Wing Facebook group in the world!

Post publishing Jesper sent me a message asking me to add this: I forgot, I probably shouldn’t have, firstly I wouldn’t be able to do this without the on going support of my wife Kate, so a big thank you to her. Secondly to Alex Birt and the rest of the guys in the 186th, thank you for being the best bunch of dudes on the planet.

I’m going to be taking the Control Bots to a charity event at Warboar Games this Saturday and seeing how I get on with them. Unlike Jesper I don’t have hundreds of hours of experience with them, nor do I have time to get that experience, so this weekends blog will probably talk about me losing a lot!

Next Time: IGs ARE EASY, RIGHT?

If you’re looking for X-Wing events head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.