So this weekend is a double header of vaguely local tournaments and I’m taking a break from Guri and Fenn. Probably not that long a break as that is what I plan on taking to worlds in October and as was hammered home the other day, practice really makes a difference. I’ve run Guri Fenn at the last 10 tournaments I’ve been to in a row and managed a solid 77% win ratio with them. But you have to mix it up a bit and fly something different once in a while.

New toys and new cards is the perfect excuse to change it up, the Resistance are very much my second favourite faction, and they have things I want to try out.

Back in 1st Ed I had a hate/love relationship with Rey. First off I hated her, she was just so consistent. Then I flew her and I loved her. She was a great fun. I just found the combination of her and Lowhhrick ultimately quite dull. She was super fun, just a shame the Wookiee didn’t measure up, and that nothing else really fit with her.

Along came second edition and the Resistance Falcon felt a bit of a let down. Rey wasn’t as super (Expertise Rey was a bit bust though….) and the ship took a hammering. However that was before the advent of the latest wave and Leia rocking up. Suddenly those sloops can be white again, and she can turn and shoot with relative impunity and a boat load of force. If only she could have hate….

So here’s what I’ve come up with for a twin Falcon List, and it’s what I’m going to run for Saturday’s event at the home of Eagle Squadron, the Spread Eagle in Wandsworth.

So why do I think it could work? Well, high Initiative co-ordination has always been a bit bust, see Ghost Fenn for the historical accuracy of this. So getting Rey an Initiative 6 re-position, lock, arc rotation is going to be solid. The fact that co-ordinating Rey gives Han a calculate token is double welcome. She’s the star of the show no doubt but having the other Falcon stay around a bit longer is going to be useful.

Three force, stress mitigation, the ability to modify blank dice, big guns and high initiative mean that this list can do all kinds of tricks. It’s worth noting that not only can Han co-ordinate Rey but thanks to Leia, Rey can co-ordinate Han right back. As much action economy as possible is always a good thing. It’s not the most subtle of lists, I have no idea how to fly it or make the most of it, but if you don’t put it on the table you never learn. Four rounds against some top players should give me an idea of whether this list has any potential or not, reagrdless of how well or badly I fly it.

The only think I can think of that gives me hope I might be able to fly this is that I used to fly double Sprays in 1st edition a lot quite successfully, and the Resistance Falcon isn’t all that different to one of those with the bow tie being similar to the front and rear arcs. However I am WAY out of practice with large base ships.

Game 1 was against Ed Gold of Firestorm Squadron, 2 arcs, Obi-Wan sense and an informant. So he’s going yo know everything I’m going to do when it counts. Despite starting 20 minutes late cause Ed was a little behind schedule we managed to be the 4th game to finish… Ed smashed the crap out of me 200-30 and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that maybe me and Falcons weren’t going to be good friends.

That’s not really Sabine, it’s Ventress… but Ventress and Ketsu are printed on the back of each other.

Second game was against Phill Pond, again of Firestorm Squadron. We play so often there is a ongoing battle for the name Phil. Currently Mr. Pond is at -4 or I am at +4. Twin casters have some tricks and Phill loves them, but this is a game the Falcons want to see. Rey was a monster and pilled damage into the Scum. Ketsu died first, then Han, then Ventress. Leaving Rey on 3 health feeling all smug and “big-gunny” 200-145 win! And my only thought “well, I’m not finishing bottom…” not exactly a stirring cry of the confident.

It started so well against Pablo Molina. Rey made mince meat of his T65s. Her gun reigning death on the Rebels. But one and a half B-Wings killed Han, leaving a 1 health Rey vs a 4 health Ten. Time meant that Rey was going to take one shot as she ducked and ran, but 3 dice and a focus were not enough to shrug off the two hits that came her way. With 5 minutes to I fell to 1-2 for the day with a 200-175 loss.

Last game of the day against Sam Ledwich, running RAC and Rexlar. Yeah… my one agility ships are going to love that… tired of Falcons I thought I might as well use Han’s ability once. I did. It went terribly. He died to a traumatic flow of crits, I got half of Rexlar but the inability of the Falcon to not take damage from Rexlar thanks to juke meant it was a short lived adventure. Sam didn’t need his dice to go hot, but I was kind of relieved when they did cause it meant I could pack the Falcons away sooner. They are not for me. 200-47 loss.

1-3 for the day, 16th out of 20 and a moment to reflect on why I didn’t like this list.

YT-1300 go pop. They die really fast and with a not great dial and somewhat restrictive action options it doesn’t feel like you can really do much about it.

Rey has basically 2 turns a game where she is a BEAST. She shoots things they die, but losing those extra 2 shield when compared to the Rebels variant means she dies faster. She also eats force tokens faster than I’d like. And then takes ages of running away to reboot them. Gawd I missed old Rey as she just died.

Han’s ability… just “why?” I think Chewie or a pioneer would have been better

I just don’t like big ships. The play style is alien to me, they don’t make me want to play my best, and I think the ship isn’t strong enough for my best to be good enough.

I’m not writing off the Resistance Falcon (well I am for me) but I don’t think twin YTs are going to cut it in the game. I hope the ship gets used in the faction, but I think that aside from Chewie it doesn’t really cut the mustard. Which is a shame, because it’s SO iconic. Maybe someone better at the game than me can make Rey great, cause I won’t be me trying.

The second day of this double header see’s a return of Twin T70s, much closer to my comfort zone. They did great for me at the Aldershot Hyperspace Trial and were the first Two Fat Aces list I tried. But with the new toys have come new options that make we want to try new things, so gone is heroic and we say hello to Debris Gambit and Daredevil.

So let’s run through this, why I think it’s good/silly/funny/dumb.

Nien first cause he’s very similar to the build I previously ran. The only change is I’ve dropped Heroic for Daredevil because let’s face it, finding more ways or Nien to shed stress is just fun and slightly obnoxious. I’m a big advocate of heroic, it has saved my ass many times in many games but lets face it, reveal a 3 forward, do a 90 degree boost, clear the stress with the green, talon roll off the slam, pattern a barrel roll and focus, pass the ion token with the static discharge vanes, keep the weapons disabled token but have no stress for doing any of that nonsense.

One of the reason I love Nien so much is that he really doesn’t care about initiative, move before other 5s he has more anchors to use to trigger his ability, moving second he can arc dodge, and those 2 BB-8 charges just enhance his mobility. The APTs mean that his ability to jump behind a target, lock focus and put 5 dice into them is pretty sweet.

Nien has BB8 and Black One because as far as I’m concerned they are better on him than they are on Poe. They let him be more aggressive and unpredictable. Poe wants the blue moves to clear his stress.

But now onto the ship with the most changes. Previously this Poe had a shield upgrade and heroic. Those are gone replaced by debris Gambit and Angled Deflectors. That means that Poe has the following actions at his disposal:

Boost

Roll

Focus

Evade

Lock

Reinforce

and he can do any two of them a turn! With Primed Thrusters he can even boost and roll when stressed, which means that his reliance on clearing stress to avoid danger isn’t always a thing. It makes him that bit more unpredictable, which can keep him alive that bit longer.

The real trick he has though is that he can be tanky as anything. The ability to reinforce and evade every turn means that should he need to go turtling he can do so better than most things in the game.

Throw in the proton torps, that Poe is so adept at delivering, double actions and everything else I think this list looks really entertaining and for the first time in ages I can’t wait to get something different on the tables and see what it can do. Plus I am always partial to a list that comes in at 186 points.

So why don’t I think this list works? Well, 13 health, 2 agility isn’t great. One bad round see’s either ship evaporate. It can be blocked to death easily by all the swarms out there, and it doesn’t have a Guri in it to mess with peoples heads of where she could end up. Yet I think this list could beat Guri Fenn. All it takes is Nien passing off that Ion token to either Fenn or Guri and that ship probably dies next turn. Neither ship has the end game prowess of Guri, but then neither ship has the fragility of Fenn.

The Gaming Den in Basingstoke enjoyed it’s first tournament this weekend, now that Firestorm Cards has stopped hosting events (for entirely understandable reasons) it’s great to have a new shop covering the local are. Run by Dan Flewitt I can only describe it as one of the nicest stores I’ve ever visited. I hope it goes from strength to strength.

Game one against familiar opponent and friend Richard Smith. Started really well but as the game went longer those consistent 2 hits took their toll. The T70s did a good job of arc dodging things, but the endless plinking away proved too much, and as time was called Poe went in for a Hail Mary to half one of the last 3 A2s. Sadly he didn’t do enough and the A-wing did the 3 hits Richard needed to clear the Resistance ace off the table. A 138-200 loss, but an absolute thriller of a game.

Game 2 against new comer Jonny Low with a fun Rebel list. I got to try Evade/Reinforce on Poe. 10 red dice took 2 shields. I did like that. What I didn’t like was the utter disaster that followed and the 200-0 loss in 30 minutes. We reset the board and went again, 45 minutes left on the round, and game 2 was done with 15 minutes to spare. I won that won, sadly it didn’t count. But it did demonstrate my approach had been terrible in game one and how important the munitions in the list working are, if they don’t trigger and the T70s get behind in the damage race they find it very hard to catch up. If they get ahead and can keep the pressure on they (particularly Poe) can be absolute monsters. Big thumbs up for Reinforce on Poe.

My Round Three opponent was Simon Bedford with Black-Out and some fanatical Silencers. 2 fully modded proton torps into black out took 2 shields. That was disappointing, the APT from Nien finished him off though…. but at the cost of Nien getting toasted by the generics. Poe VS two should have been ok, but silencers are hard to pin down and those extra hits from optics just pushed through damage fast enough that he lost the damage race. 200-103 Win to Simon, a disgruntled 0-3 for the day for me.

The final game of the weekend was against Vid Cleal running imp Aces. Nien died. Poe vs 3 became Poe vs 2 when a sub par proton torp killed Soontir, then an on point proton torp killed Duchess… leaving Vader and Poe to dance. This was the most enjoyable bit of x-wing of the weekend for me. 2 aces dancing for supremacy. Poe moving second made a massive difference and after Vader suffered a panicked pilot we both knew Vid was in trouble. But Poe was ruthless and I avoided a total white wash for the day with a 200-86 win.

So, 8 games without my beloved and the message is quite simple for me:

Not gonna be going it again anytime soon…. But the question I find myself asking is “why?”

The Falcons are obviously not me, their play style doesn’t make sense to how I fly and I wasn’t expecting to do well with them, but I was really disappointed by how the T70s fared. Positionally I was generally good for the day but I think they just take on damage too fast. 2 hits coming their way are problematic, three is guaranteed pain. I now genuinely think that Guri Fenn are actually more durable ships despite having less health as a list. I am a fan of Poe though, I think debris gambit is overkill and I’d put heroic back on him, I loved reinforcing him though…. maybe with a couple of A2s instead of Nien?

So have I turned myself into a very limited player? A specialist who is good with one thing but limited in what else they can use? Maybe… I know I am above average with my scummy pair, and had I taken them this weekend would not have been surprised to go 6-2 rather than 2-6… the next question that raises is “is that a bad thing?”

Next Time: THE WORLDS COUNTDOWN BEGINS

If you’re looking for events then head over to the 186th tournament tracker.