Limbo, Doldrums, Malaise are all words that describe what many people who enjoy competitive X-Wing have felt about the game over the last few weeks. The points are changing on Monday the 28th, whatever you’ve been flying may or may not be the same after that happens. I know some very committed players who have taken the opportunity for a bit of a break during the last few weeks.

Will the points change all that?

Well, yes.

List writing becomes meaningful again, experimenting with things previously untried. There’s the dichotomy excitement of messing about with new options and being sad that the lynch pin of your list is gone, both valid. It will change the dynamics of the game dramatically. There’s loads of expectation about what will and won’t go up and down. Should X be more expensive? 2 points more? 5 points more? We’ll find out on Monday.

What I anticipate is a balancing of the game modes. Currently Extented (EX) has all the toys, everything available to you, which means that people have been able to write lists that theoretically flatten a Hyperspace (HS) list due to the added efficiency EX is able to offer. I suspect that this is not going to be the case going forward, I suspect come Tuesday morning when we look at the points with fresh eyes we’ll see that a good HS list can compete with a good EX list.

If people want to play one list in both Game Modes then I think that will be an option.

To give an example of this: The TIE Swarm. In HS it’s a beast, but due to the cost efficiency of Redline and Deathrain with Trajectory Simulators the TIE swarm has been unfeasible in EX. If however the combination of those ships, Trajsim and other standard upgrades (like Proton Torps) on those two goes up then will people be able to realistically field them with a third potent ship (as we have seen done with Whisper)?

I suspect choices are going to have to be made. No more will you just be able to sling on whatever upgrades catch your fancy and throw a list together. “That build is just obvious” is a comment you hear quite often in regard to top performing lists that become “netlists”.

I think there are going to be decision points in list writing that haven’t been there. Decision points are good, they make you think more about what you’re flying and how you’re flying. Games where you are making lots of decisions all the time are more fun than ones where you can fly on autopilot. List writing where you have a genuine debate over what option is the best rather than having everything is also a more fun and interesting process.

Want a bid? Well, you have to review your super efficient build. Speaking of bids, I don’t think they’re a thing of the past, I5 and I6 are still hugely significant in both game modes. What I think will happen is that there will be a genuine compromise on build in order to get the bid.

Looking back at the Boba Guri list I ran for the first few months of 2.0 is a really good example of this. For those who have blotted it from their memory the list was 185 points and looked like this:

Guri: Advanced Sensors, Virago, Shield Upgrade, Hull Upgrade.

Boba: Marauder, Han Solo gunner, 0-0-0

I loved this list, it’s good, but I expect it to go up fairly significantly on Monday, at least to 200 points – and I’m really glad it is. I won far more games than I lost with that list. I took on 200 point lists and DIDN’T feel under-powered for those 15 points difference. I looked at a lot of them and thought “this list match up is in my favour”.

Look at what I left out: No Talents. Boba has no munitions, no bombs, no modification, only 3 upgrades, and for 90 points he is a match for anything in the game. Sure you can add those things with the points spare but the point is that I didn’t need to. I never sat there thinking “outmaneuvre on Guri would have made all the difference there” or wishing I’d put a shield upgrade on Boba. I didn’t miss those 15 points. If you chose to run under-points then you should feel that you’ve sacrificed something to get that bid.

Making a decision to control initiative SHOULD be a compromise.

I suspect bids are going to get smaller. I suspect 15+ point bids are going to be a thing of the past. A few people will run 11-14, but they will be the exception. 10 points will be the new 15 points and we’ll probably see less than 5 points being standard.

All of which brings me to my current list, that I have been loving for the last few weeks. Poe, Nien and Ello. I run this list as stripped down as I dare. 189 points. I think I could get away with dropping the three copies of Heroic in the list but every time I do it triggers and save me! 186 points would be very low and I genuinely don’t believe any benefit I would get from it would be worth while. The only other upgrade in the list (bar S-Foils) are an R4 on Poe and a Pattern Analyser on Nien, both of which radically improve the ships they are on, as far as I’m concerned they are a part of Pilot Card.

I had a great treat Wednesday, firstly the S-Foils tokens that I ordered from Buy The Same Token arrive, and Chris (the man who makes it all) kindly included a fourth token for me for free. Then Dale Cromwell, the legend that he is, commissioned Lee Dalton of Pro Tech Models to do a custom paint job on three T70s for me. My first ever magnetised ships! I was much excited!

This weekend is a 12 man tournament at Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke. A mix of some of the usual suspects, but a couple of visitors too. Nic Harris of the Firestorm Firecast has lugged over his computer and recording equipment to record a game from each round. They’re not uploaded to YouTube yet, but should be sometime this week.

My first opponent is Chris Morrel, the man whose games a few weeks ago inspired me to take a good look at heroic.

Chris was a few minutes late in getting to the tournament. Top tip, get to tournaments with enough time to get your stuff out, relax, go to the loo, grab a drink, have a chat – whatever. It helps you get your head in the right place for the the games, and I think Chris was negatively affected by having to get in the door, get his stuff on the table and start rolling dice without a chance to relax first.

The First Order had a strong presence in the room with a fair few Upsilon Shuttles about. Chris had Tavson (who we will see again during the day), Null, Scorch and Black out.

I decided to consciously fly the T70s in a far less aggressive manner than I normally do, I want to develop as a pilot and the only way to do that is to try things you’re not comfortable with. My usual game plan is to get a fast engage and stay engaged, rolling as many red dice as possible every turn. This tournaments I didn’t, I looked for where my opponent might lay blocks, where a ship could be vulnerable and avoided those moves as much as possible. The result in this game was that I got a great opening after 4 or turns of positional play.

The T70s went for the TIEs first. No point giving Tavson the opportunity to give them extra actions. Backdraft as the biggest threat went first, then Null then Scorch then the shuttle. a 200-29 win to me (Ello took half damage) in a game that ran nearly to time.

Next up Calum Brown with his beautifully painted first order. Obviously the red silencer is a heavy repainted, but the touch up work he has done on his ships look incredible, they really pop. Quickdraw (Fanatical), Tavson (Phasma) and Blackout (Fanatical).

Calum and I played this one a few weeks ago and despite him getting a superb early block that messed with all my ships I was able to win the game. This match up was recorded for the Firecast so will be on YouTube sometime this week (I’ll post a link in the next blog) so I won’t go into it too much because it’ll be there to watch in its entirety.

The story of the game was that both of us rolled really good green dice, even Heroic worked for me, but Calum’s red dice were less potent than mine. I got the win 200-31 (Half of Nien).

Game 3 against Nic Harris with Tavson, Quickdraw, Scorch and Muse… I see a pattern here. An early barrel roll away from some debris by Nic allowed Nien to make a daring arc dodge, had Nic not done that roll then a blocked Nien would have had 4 dice from Scorch and five dice from Tavson coming his way. Instead what happened was the T70s got in behind him.

I know Quickdraw is not nearly as scary as she was in First Edition, but I still think there is nothing as satisfying as taking shields of her when she can’t get a revenge shot off. Two blocks by Ello saw Quickdraw die at the hands of Nien, then the same turn saw Scorch get taken apart by Poe and Ello, two ships gone and I had lost 4 shields in total. With Muse and the Shuttle on the board, but all three T70s behind him Nic conceded. 200-0 win to me.

Game 4, and back being recorded. This time against Jim Fyrth. Outmanoeuvre everywhere! Thane, Wedge and Corran. This was a really good game to look at just how different the T65 is to the T70. The T65 pilot abilities are almost all about the shooting phase of the game, where the T70 abilities are more about the movement phase of the game. It’s why I love the 70 but don’t really like the 65. You can watch it on YouTube later this week (will link the game in next weeks blog), but this game was all about Nien and Ello out-dancing Jim’s ships.

200-29 win for me, and Jim went off to buy a Resistance Update pack from the shop.

After four games my record was 4-0 without losing a ship. I think I’ve managed that once before but it was a good feeling. The different approach to flying felt natural by the end of the day and I was even more in love with the ships than I had been previously. I think Guri Nien might be my dream list, shame it will never happen.

So reflecting on my earlier arguments about how things “should” be pointed, this list is now 18-4 over 5 tournaments (81% win ratio), of which I have won 2. It’s a strong list, but is it under-pointed? Quite possibly. But where would I increase the points?

Heroic? – no, it is not likely to trigger enough to warrant going up in points, it can save you it can do nothing, it’s an insurance policy.

R4? – It’s amazing on Poe, I would say essential, the benefit that it gives him is far more significant than the benefit it gives anyone else who can take it because of his ability, but can you make it more expensive for him and not everyone else?

Pattern Analyser? – At 5 points this is excellent value for money, but because of Nien’s ability it feel worth so much more. However we come to the same quadary that we had with the R4, can you make it more expensive because of the potency it has on Nien, and then see other ships struggling to get the most out of it as a result?

Nien? – He’s really good, I think the best ship in the list. At 55 points he’s good value, but personally this is where I would add points to the list, you can’t go up too much because then you have to look at re-pointing Poe but 56 or 57 points base doesn’t seem a bad place for him to be. Old Teroch is 56 base as a very strong i5 ship.

Ello? – Again, maybe a point up makes sense, Ello is currently 56, but then I don’t think his ability is as good as Nien’s, so maybe leave him here and bump Nien up a couple?

Poe? – He is good, very good, at 68 points base he compares to Fenn Rau. I think Fenn is brilliantly pointed. Fearless Fenn is 71 and this Poe is 71. Fenn’s ability means he has the bigger gun and more evade dice, Concordia Face off and inbuilt mods when attacking. Poe has shields, and the ability to double re-position. I think they’re actually really well balanced against one another. Maybe that extra health could see Poe go up a point, but I doubt it.

My 2.0 record is looking pretty healthy, as you have probably worked out by now I keep a record of every tournament I attend on an Excel sheet, it does maths for me and lets me see how I doing week on week, the 67% I was on about last year is still a valid aim and in 2.0 I’m current 80-35 which puts me on a 70% win ratio over all in the 26 tournaments I have attended since it launched.

Next weekend it’s of to Ibuywargames in Woking, for what will no doubt be a proper tough event. Looking at the attendance list so far there are some really good players going, so it should be great fun, and of course could feature a whole lot of new points.

Next Time: X-Wing 2.12?

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