New toys, new points, new lease of life. I know I’m not the only one who felt somewhat jaded by the Rebel Beef phase of the game we’ve endure for the past few months, and I’m not alone in being glad to see a meta shift. I get why people liked it, I just found it dull. Everyone has the things that they like in x-wing, I like independent aces, other people don’t, they like highly synergistic squads… I appreciate my cup of tea can be as a torrid experience to fly against as other things out there but for X-Wing about engaging in fast-paced, high-stakes space combat.

I had planned to fly Resistance this weekend at Warboar Games but realised as I went to get my stuff together that I had lent it out to a friend. So Guri Fenn return as the default option. It’s always interesting to see how a list translates to new toys, and 5 rounds was also a welcome return to getting some table time in.

Last Fridays adventure with the boys on the Firecast really hammered home how important table time is if you want to keep your eye in and decision making in check. Those three games are on YouTube now, so if you want to see me flying terribly head over and have a look.

Game 1 vs Dom flying aces. 2 vs Phill Pond with Scum. 3 vs Nic with his Maul/Droids

Dice weren’t great but having watched it back stupid mistakes make you a victim of variance way more often than when you don’t put your ships in a dumbass place. Despite winning 2 of the 3 these games aren’t great examples of how to fly these ships and you learn more from mistakes than you do getting it right.

25 players out for the TNX Open. It’s not a System Open but the prize support is amazing. Store vouchers, Hyperspace Trial dice and templates, alt arts from old kits. It’s a big pile of stuff.

The whole tournament is on Tabletop TO so you can go check the event out there.

My first game was against TNXer Dan Bouckley flying Miranda, Luke and Sabine. It’s a match up he didn’t want to see having run afoul of aces in practice, and Guri starting a game with initiative supremacy is always problematic. Miranda took an early hammering and had to withdraw, a bit, meaning both my ships turned their guns on Luke. All the force in the world doesn’t help with one agility vs four and five dice attacks. With the threat of Luke’s Proton Torps gone the scum went fully aggressive and when Miranda died Dan offered his hand in concession… 200-0 win

Access to LensFX again means I cnan make ships go boom in photos!

Game two against Pete Burmis flying Vader, Marek and Vynder. Pete over committed in the opening engage, allowing Fenn that outmanoeuvre shot with five dice AND Guri a range two shot in the Dark Lord of the Sith. Vader went down to one with a panicked pilot. Marek got a two dice range three shot at Fenn, which did nothing. With Vader double stressed Guri made a bee line for him while Fenn went after Marek. Fenn rolling 4 hits and a crit into Marek, with only one evade turning up meant that of course a double damage was coming. Guri took two turns to put the final point of damage through to kill Vader but with both ships untouched the Gunboat was never going to last long. 200-0 win.

The third match up was against Jonathan Sharpling with a Ric Oli in a Naboo, Obi-Wan and Mace. Jon is back playing X-Wing after a while out, but his MoV was also the max 800 so he’s clearly no slouch. The problem he had though was that he’s never encountered Adsense Guri and while Fenn threatened and corralled Guri got mean. The Naboo ran away to regen shields. Obi-Wan fell foul of Fenn, then Mace got caught, the Scum had pushed their way to a third consecutive 200-0 win and the glimmer of hope of “the perfect tournament” reared it’s head and said “oooooooh”

Then promptly went away because Finn happened. Fellow 186th Andy Brazier is a great list writer and pilot, and he put together a list I didn’t fancy playing against….

Scavenged YT-1300: Chewbacca (68 + 14)

+ Rey (14)

Transport Pod: Finn (29 + 5)

+ Heroic (1)

+ Advanced Optics (4)

RZ-2 A-Wing: L’ulo L’ampar (43 + 1)

+ Heroic (1)

RZ-2 A-Wing: Zari Bangel (35 + 5)

+ Heroic (1)

+ Advanced Optics (4)

A-Wings… not a problem. Chewie and Finn though. Arses. Chewie against a 2 ship list as effective at killing stuff as these two is an issue… I got my target priority wrong. I should have thrown everything at the Falcon and hoped I would have enough left to kill the other stuff. But I went for Finn, thinking “he looks like he’ll die fast” well. I was wrong. And he jammed Guri, she died. Fenn died. I killed L’ulo and Fenn for 78 points but Andy got 200… so the perfect tournament dream died nearly as fast as it was born… but it’s an aspiration tucked away now.

3-1 after several weeks without a tournament was good. Knowing I would leave as at least a good 3-2 was a nice feeling. There was another list I really wanted to play against, and I got my chance. Kevin (who has a surname but I don’t know it) is running Fearless Fenn, Guri and Seevor. He’s traded Guri’s durability for a third ship, so I’m interested to see how that goes. I give him the outmanoeuvre shot on my Guri to get one on his with my Fenn. His Guri takes 4, spending the focus in defence. Meaning my Guri only loses 2 shields. Seevor gets hit for 2. A turn later it’s my Fenn and Guri vs his Fenn, initiative is so important here and as my Fenn dives in for the kill shot we both know the match is over and Kevin is thinking about dropping the third ship. 200-0 win.

I finished up second, earned myself some Hyperspace Dice, a £30 store voucher (which went straight to buying a Resistance transport) and a cluster of Alt arts. More importantly I found my enthusiasm for the game refreshed, hung out with some excellent people and had fun. I may not have flown the perfect tournament (came as close as I ever have), x-wing might not be quite the perfect game (it’s great until the next big bad turns up), but I did have a pretty perfect day.

There are a couple of things I want to try out. And with it looking likely that next weekend be a double header I might try them both… if I get my resistance stuff back that I lent out….

Next Time: A RETURN TO THE EAGLES NEST

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