I wasn’t originally going to be attending this year’s Nerf Herder event. I missed the initial announcement of tickets, and when I finally got my arse in gear about the whole thing they’d all been snapped up. Luckily, less than a week before the event I managed to pick one up – big thanks to Martyn Chivers for putting me in touch with Lloyd Boman who was no longer able to go. I was able to hitch a ride up with fellow Vagabonds Steve Boulton and Anthony Yeates as well, and as an added bonus the hotel they were staying in still had a room free too. It was all coming together!

In terms of lists, I ended up taking my current 4-ship Scum build that I’d been playing for the previous couple of weeks:

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4-LOM (62)

0-0-0, Advanced Sensors, Mist Hunter

Zuckuss (53)

Collision Detector, Trick Shot

Palob Godhali (55)

Debris Gambit, Moldy Crow, Engine Upgrade

Jakku Gunrunner (30)

Tobias Beckett

Total Points: 200

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I’d ditched Guri from the list and replaced her with a second G-1A, and a quadjumper – let’s face it, those things are incredibly good for their points cost. I’m sure they’re getting a bump in January.

We got up to Element on the Friday night, hoping to get a couple of cheeky practice games in. Steve blatted me with more obscene dice, I swear he holds some power over the dice gods when we play. Also managed to get in a game with Charles ‘Deathrain’ Berkhold, which was super cool. Been talking about how we needed to have a Mist Hunter-Punisher face-off for a while now. I lost that one too!

Saturday rolled around, and after an excellent breakfast at the hotel (and Anthony eating them out of beans) it was time for things to kick off. I was hoping to go a respectable 3-3 for the day, since I’ve not fared too well in the Second Edition events I’ve been to so far. But mostly I just wanted to have a fun day of pew pew! And the day definitely did not disappoint.

First up I was paired against Matt, running Luke, Wedge and Cassian. Interesting little list, and it turned out to be a fun game. Unfortunately for Matt he wasn’t overly familiar with what 4-LOM can do to you if you let him, and Luke found himself kill-boxed early on and wiped from the board. This left Matt playing catch-up, and I was able to keep the pressure on and clean up the board. So a decent start to the day, can’t complain.

For round two I was suddenly up on table one. Nose bleed time, haha! And I was going to be playing Twiggy – no easy game here that’s for sure! He was also playing a Scum list, I forget the exact breakdown but it was Boba with a bunch of Z’s and Quadjumpers I think, and L3 in the escape craft. After the initial engagement Boba was forced away from the fight for a bit which let me focus down the other ships. Didn’t manage to kill the Firespray once it got back in the fight, but a big range one shot from Zuckuss pushed the Mandolorian past half health which was enough to secure me a points victory when time expired. Another fun game, played in a great atmosphere I thought.

After lunch it was on to game three versus Alain running a Lambda and a bunch of bombers. We had a particularly brutal opening exchange, with Zuckuss going down in flames, along with at least one of the bombers. The Quadjumper took 5 stress in one turn at one point, and ended up flying off the board as his turns had also been made red. The endgame consisted of a 2-hull Palob versus a 2 hull bomber and an almost full health Jendon. At this point Alain remarked “That token-stealing bastard is going to win this, isn’t he.” He was right. After disposing of the bomber, the Hawk was able to disengage to restock his tokens and come back for the final duel, arc dodging the Lambda several times in the process – Engine Upgrade literally won me this game.

So 3-0 at the halfway point, which means I can’t not achieve my goal of 3-3, happy days. Anthony is also 3-0 as was Ross (our other Vagabond at the event). Sadly Steve was somewhere down in the salt mines – presumably having used up all his disgusting dice against me the previous evening.

On to game four, and a matchup with Jason and his fantastically painted Maul VCX. I’d seen pictures of it online before, but it’s even more impressive in person. I threw away Palob in the first few rounds, I have no idea what I was thinking, and that should have been it. Until I got mega-lucky when Jason’s Wedge totally fluffed a range 1 kill shot on 4-LOM even with a target lock, and then 4-LOM promptly killed the VCX before it could fire that turn. Meanwhile Zuckuss killed off Thane and suddenly a triple stressed Wedge was facing the wrong way against both Mist Hunters. I had no right to win that one.

So 4-0 now. One game win away from making day two, but at this point in the day I was starting to flag mentally (and thus forgot to take any more pictures). Game five, against Geoff, got away from me early on as I tried to box in his Boba only for him to do the one move that would slip the trap. On top of that, his Palob utterly refused to die, which gave his two quadjumpers enough time to cause havoc with my moves and despite almost still managing to take the game to time I succumbed to the inevitable.

Last game of the day was against Colm, with his Kimogila-Drea list. Having faced Drea before I knew she needed to die quickly. And on this occasion the dice gods stuck a big finger up to my strategy as I managed to get all my ships firing on the Y-wing, and do only 2 or 3 damage in total. That matchup wasn’t particularly great, but I felt I played the opening about as well as I could, but sometimes you can put your ships in all the right places and it just doesn’t happen for you. That’s X-Wing, folks!

Still, finishing 4-2 I wasnt too unhappy. I’d played six games against six awesome opponents, and that was the main thing. Anthony totally crushed it, going 6-0 and topping the Swiss, Ross making the cut also. Steve recovered to 3-3, so a good day all round for the team.

Our dinner plans went awry as apparently the Cambodian restaurant we decided to go to stopped serving 30 minutes before we arrived, despite still being open for another hour and a half. Weird. Pizza it is then!

Sunday started with another feast at breakfast. Hotel had somehow restocked the beans despite Anthony’s best efforts.

Me and Steve played some Keyforge whilst the others took their place in the cut. I have to admit, I wasn’t that bothered about the game when it was announced and such, but having played a few games now I am hooked. I played some demo games with one of the Hull guys (apologies, I’ve completely forgotten your name). After swapping over decks we decided the one I was using wasn’t great. Promptly hand the deck to Ross from Asmodee who was teaching us and he crushes me and says it’s a deck he really likes. Shows how much I know then, haha! Picked up a few decks of my own since, unfortunately no dodgily named ones. Sad times.

Alas, Ross and Anthony both lost in the first round of the cut, so not too long afterwards we head home. I did also win a quadjumper in the raffle, but passed it on to Steve as I already have three. I have to say, I’ve never been to an event with so much potential swag available, kudos for everyone involved in everything behind the scenes. It was a fantastic event, and I believe we ended up raising some £4000. That’s not bad for a bunch of nerds and their spaceships is it!

I’ll definitely be back for next year’s event, as long as I don’t miss out on the ticket announcement again! Definitely one of the most fun weekends I’ve had playing X-wing, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going in the future. Kudos to Carl, and all the guys at Element Games for putting on such a great event. Until next year!

Happy hunting!