Euro’s are coming soon, in 19 days, and I hadn’t really given much though to what to fly. Then they showed the swag that the winner will get and I would really like some 2.0 compatible templates. (although I think we have all realised by now I’m only really going to get them when I buy my new core set)

After coming in second last weekend at Ibuywargames with Rey and Lowhhrick I had to put them on the table again. I enjoyed the list more than I thought I would. My one premptive niggle had been: “Lowhhrick is boring” actually finding itself disproved. Encouragement from several friends to keep flying the Falcon and it’s wookiee companion has paid off. Lowhhrick’s not actually that boring, he just offers a different kind of challenge to the small base ships I usually fly.

My game last week against Tim Farmer of Zombie Squadron really showed me what the angry Wookiee can get away with! Formation flying large and small base ships is fiddly, I’m looking forward to 2.0 and trying to keep 3 different base sizes in some kind of formation!

Rey Lowhhrick Kanan Jarrus C3PO Finn Tactician Engine Upgrade Expertise Sloopy Title Expertise 99 points

This weekend afforded me two days to put them on the table and see how I get on. Firstly the earliest Store Champs of the season at Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke. Sure we don’t even know what is in the kit yet and to my knowledge they’re not even in the country yet… but looking at all the prize support from Worlds and Euros I’m quietly confident that they’re going to have 2.0 compatible stuff in. That would be an understandable reason why they haven’t arrived with stores yet.

Breakfast at a local cafe round the corner, as is becoming a tradition at Firestorm cards. Once again the South East of the UK provides some real quality opponents, including several of my squad mates from the 186th. Last year I came second at two store championships (the Dice Saloon in Brighton and Eclectic Games in Reading), this year I’d like to try and finish one place better, looking at this crowd I’m not sure that’s possible. Well done to everyone for not bringing Nymanda or Ghost Fenn!

The day panned out alright. I played fellow 186th member Tom Duncan (Imperial Alpha) in round one. We killed each other a lot. It was good fun, all the red dice worked, none of the green dice did. Vader went pop, then Rey got flattened.

Round Two Was Ryan O’Doherty running a wholesome RAC with no Kylo. There was much jubilation in the rebel camp when RAC went to PS0 from a lucky crit.

Then the next turn when Rey took one in return there was much amusement.

Quickdraws Harpoons did nothing and we both winced a bit, I know it was a game changing moment in my favour but it’s happened to me so often I know how awful that feeling it. Then the SF died slowly, so painfully slowly, one health at a time. It came down to the Wookiee and the Decimator to turn in and try to kill each other. The Wookiee won because in the early game Rey had soaked up so much damage leaving Lowhhrick largely unscathed.

Game 3 was against Ed Gold for Firestorm Squadron, running a list that borrows heavily from James Findlayson’s Norra/Fenn/Lowhhrick. Try as I might Rey just couldn’t hurt the ARC-170, those five dice attacks are all well and good, but they NEVER delivered the big hit in this game. It was a cracking match up and despite the frustration of Rey missing way more than she should I couldn’t help but grin through the entire game. That Norra, she’s a beast! I got the opening engagement wrong, Ed got it right, that defined the rest of the game and is what made me have to rely on dice. I think that is the first game I’ve ever played where my flying can only be described as “not aggressive enough”.

The fourth game of the day was against the recently returned (literally a few hours ago) from Worlds hero of the 186th, Alex Birt. And he smashed me. Sure the 3 natural crits from inquisitor and one evade on 10 green dice from Rey didn’t help my cause but I didn’t care particularly. Even when one of those crits turned into a major explosion that promptly killed her I was having too much fun playing Alex. I had lost the game, so it was only a matter of whether the wookiee could take the shuttle as compensation. The answer to that question was a resounding no. Alex is always a joy to play, win or lose he is one of the most gracious pilots in the game, even when somewhat over-tired.

My round five was my first ever mirror match with the list. I lost the dice roll and moved first, which meant I got to do blocking, and shutting of expertise first too. Nicolas Purnell pushed hard but once his Wookiee went and mine remained the outcome was on the cards. I know how it feels to get a blinded pilot on Rey, so when he pulled that card after my Falcon had hammered his I had empathy, and a hint of relief.

My tournament was done, and I finished 11th out of a tough 31, all in all I was quite happy with that.

The cut consisted of three 186th and one member of Firestorm Squadron. Jesper Hills (running control bots, you might have seen they did “ok” in a little tournament in America last week) and Andrew Pattison (flying 4 wookiees for the first time ever) made up the first pairing. They played one another in the last round of swiss and their angst at having to play each other again made for some quality banter. Andrew got it the opening wrong, Jesper won.

On the other table Dom Flannigan was busy smashing Alex Birt with his PS10 rebel craziness. Dom has been running it for a while, ironically the original build was suggested by Alex, but Dom has refined it to the point of agony. The intense lack of sleep, 5 coffee’s and 2 cans of coke may have caught up to Mr Birt though as he put up less fight than he normally does. Dom vs Jesper in the Final.

What a game! Two top players using heavy control lists that no one wants to play against but that put on a really interesting match to watch. Ships painted by Rasta and Jesper on the table were ever so pretty to look at, a nice bonus. So much Ion happened it was hard to keep up, but Jesper did what he does so well: Bumped stuff to death.

Dom has the best Autoblaster turret in the world. When it comes to rolling crits that turret is second to none… Eventually two limping IGs were able to put the kill shots into Nym, but it had been a crazy affair and a great game to watch. Jesper claimed his first store champs of the season, but I’m expecting Dom to do well over the last few months of 1.0.

Sunday is another trip to Ibuywargames in Woking, this time there is no update pack up for grabs this time. Right now I’m after table time more than anything else. Ibuy always provides some real quality opposition and that is worth the entrance fee alone. As I’ve said before, in my head there is no such thing as a casual game of X-Wing. Every thing is practice for the next tournament, so I treat tournaments as practice. Yesterday was practice for today, today is practice for next Saturdays Store Championship in Aldershot.

Great day, great atmosphere, godawful dice variance in the last two games. My opponents for the day were all class.

Dan Flewitt flying double sprays made me feel like I was missing out on flying my baby.

Richard Tompsett with his triple ace T65s had me grinning cause he was flying what he loves, and I’m so excited for how much better his list will be in a few short weeks.

James Ledda with his RAClo got his revenge after last week.

Nick “you’ve never seen dice this hot” Tregunna with his entertaining First Order list of an Upsilon and the two SFs.

And finally Calum Brown with his defender and two Silencers, a ship he seems to fall more in love with every time he doesn’t have to play against a TLT.

Thank you all for the games. The wins, the loses: all great opponents.

But my drive home after going 2-3 (and deciding that my regional dice are going to go and sit on the naughty step for a bit) got me thinking.

X-Wing 1.0 is dying, and all the things that we moan about and dislike are probably going to go away too. Rey Low is fun, I do enjoy flying it, it suits how I play and I understand it as a list, but it’s not me. I don’t feel them, I don’t care about their heroics or their defeats.

Of all the “meta” list out there Rey Low is probably the closest to what I want, but it’s not what I want, so I gotta change it. The dying months of 1.0 are going to be full of TLTs, Sabine fueled bombs, being shown the darkside and everything else that grinds our gears. And that’s all well and good, fly what you love and enjoy it. What I love isn’t very good in the game state right now, but I’ve decided I don’t care. I’d rather lose flying what I love for the next few months, than win flying what I “kinda like”.

Euros, Nationals, they’re big social events that I can’t wait for. I can play against Nymanda and Ghost Fenn on the top tables, or I can go play against T65s and quadjumpers on the bottom tables, and looking at it that way, the bottom tables actually sound quite fun. Of course I’d like to go to the top tables, but what I love doesn’t belong there at the moment. My good friend Joel North wrote an excellent piece on the “prisoners dilema” and how it will affect what you fly in the coming months. I chose his option 4.

So next week at the Aldershot store champs Boba is coming back, and he’s bringing my favourite blonde with him. If I do well, great, if I don’t I’ll still be flying Boba…

2.0 is coming, how we see out 1.0 is personal choice. I’m going to see it out with a Firespray, plenty of quiet prayers to the dice gods and a whole bunch more games.

After this weekend the Tracker now looks like this:

Tournament Games Played 103 With Ratio 61 +/- -1%

That’s the 100 games mark for the year passed (blog years start on the 23rd of Feb)! In the first 12 months on the blog I managed 281 games at 58 tournaments in 52 weeks, an average of 5.4 tournament games a week.

In the 14 weeks of year two of the blog that number is 103 games in 22 tournaments, and average of 7.4 tournament games a week. If that average stays the same that will put me on 385 or so games this year, 104 more than last year. I think I need a hobby.

Next time: CAN LOVE CONQUER ALL?

If you’re looking for X-Wing tournaments to go to then head to the 186th Tournament Calendar

123 days until 2.0