Ok, so the last few weeks have been full on competitive mode. Yes it’s been a lot of fun but Hyperspace Trials, System Opens, the UKTC… these are all events when it feels like there is something to play for. Yes, it is fair to say I have an addiction to this years seasonal dice, I like them, with all their hard to read red and dark greyness. But this Saturday was a chance to play a casual 15 person event at Eclectic Games in Reading. The new alt arts on offer aren’t enough to kick my brain into the acrylic fuelled competitiveness that the Hyperspace Trials have, so four games of fun with some good friends present was a welcome break from aiming for the cut.

Guri Fenn Rau Outmanoeuvre Outmanoeuvre Virago Shield Upgrade Afterburners Advanced Sensors

Guri Fenn has basically been living in my case for the last few weeks, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon I think. I just enjoy flying Guri so much, the dance is everything.

I love the little kick adrenaline of picking up Fenn’s dice when your opponent has rolled hit, hit, crit and that moment you hold your breath as the dice bounce seemingly endlessly across the table… then the ensuing relief or frustration as Fenn is Fenn and they are either all paint or all blanks. The list just makes me happier than anything else out there, and it has game. It’s been so cool having people from around the world get in touch about it as a list over the last few weeks, to hear about people enjoying flying it and having fun with it.

Some really good friends at the event today, Martyn Chivers has taken my Kylo QD list I ran in Brighton a few weeks ago. Conor McNama is running some Jedi/Torrent shenanigans. Simran Pone has rolled back the years on Vader and is now making references to barrel rolls with Anakin, and Alex Birt running similar. Calum Brown and Phill Pond have both bought Shadowcasters with them. But we start off the day with a proper aces off: Mark Feldschrieber with Vader, Soontir and Duchess.

Mark moves first, we both know it, at 177 Guri Fenn is fairly safe in the choosing initative stakes. Duchess had a prox mine, I’m not a fan of having that land on me so she died first, she’s also the easiest to kill. Vader took a beating from Guri as she danced around his flank and puts enough red dice in to him to put him out of the game. Meanwhile Fenn and Soontir had been spinning around one another, each trying to force the other to make a mistake, but with Guri free to join the fray Mark’s Soontir soon ran out of ways to dodge the firing arcs and Fenn did Fenn’s thing (the good thing not the bad one). 200-89 win to me.

Game Two was against Pete Agg with Darth Maul and 5 energy shell totting droids. I’ve played against variants of this list enough to be pretty confident against it, but I am acutely aware that a single mistake against it and a good turn of dice can make either of my aces vanish. Previously I’ve taken out the droids first, then turned the guns on the Scimitar, so I tried the other way to see what would happen. The answer is Guri makes Darth Maul melt. Pete did his best to cover lots of arcs and try to get some shots off. But once the Viper is in, what Pete aptly called a “focus rich environment” she just relentlessly pushes hurt onto her targets. Fenn fired two or three times all game, Guri did the rest. 200-0 win.

9 of us went to lunch together, chatted nonsense and ate together. The more relaxed tempo of casual play allowing for that bit of community spirit to come through that events with a more punishing schedule sometimes just can’t facilitate.

The third match up of the day was an absolute barnstormer of a game, Calum Brown with his take on the legendary Parattanni from first edition, Calum and I haven’t played for ages so it was good to get a game in against him. Fenn with Crackshot, Ventress with hate and Manaroo with 0-0-0. The game started very well, I halved his Calum’s Fenn, deleted Manaroo, but then came a key decision point. Guri had to choose between spending her calculate to push through a kill shot on Fenn, or keep it for the range three shot she was going to take from Ventress…. with one health… I went for the kill, I got the kill, but so did Ventress.

So a duel between the full health Ventress and the two health Fenn began, Fenn picked up his second blinded pilot of the game in the contest, but the tenacious Mandalorian took the Sith Assassin to one hull in the process. With time moments from being called I had a choice for the last turn. Turn Fenn away from the fight, Play it safe, guarantee the win on points. OR play in the spirit of the game, turn in, over a Gas Cloud, and go for that final kill shot in a blaze of glory! No dice on the line…. turn in… whiff the dice…. die… lose the game. But grin and laugh because it was such a great match. 200-161 loss.

The final day of the game against Neil Donnison was a rapid affair. Neil had Whisper and two fat Phantoms, Whisper died in turn two as Both Guri and Fenn put range one outmanoeuvre shots into her. On reflection Neil thought he may have been too aggressive in the opening, I think he was probably right. Fenn died, he doesn’t really like getting Juked, but against two Phantoms Guri is a monster, whatever traps they try to set for her she can respond and avoid. It took some wriggling and some squirrely moments for her to get the shots she wanted, just cause she CAN take a hit with her three shields doesn’t mean she should. But after 30 minutes the Imperials had been driven away from Black Sun space and a 200-74 win was enough to put me second for the day over all. Martyn Chivers having lost his first match up with Kylo QD grumbled that “two ships wasn’t for him” went on to go 3-1 and come third…

Well done to Nathan for topping a pretty tough field with Gavin Darklighter in the list!

I’m really looking forward to heading to Firestorm Cards next Sunday for their event and hoping for more of the same. X-Wing is fun, the people are great. As much as I love the bigger events and the chance to catch up with friends there, it is these smaller events that made those people friends in the first place.

Next Time: TO BASINGSTOKE!

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