Italy, apparently the home of the noble Wookiees, thank you Nicolo for the advanced warning! At some point or another the Mandalorians have been at war with everyone in a galaxy far, far away. But invading the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk is probably not something even the most fiery Scion of Mandalore would contemplate.

Until this weekend.

When I was up visiting the Weekend Warlords a couple of weeks back I made a video with Rasta and Ash about flying Firesprays. The video has gone live and it is all about how I approach the ship and a couple of different builds to the list, including the list I am flying this weekend.

After last weekends surprisingly good results Boba Fett and Fenn Rau were the only choice for taking to the event. Three Star Vipers may have snuck into the case too, just cause they like coming along for the ride. In the blog about the UK Open I went through the format of the Open Series in depth, so if you want to know how it works then it’s worth a look.

At the UK Open I managed to go 3-0 in phase one, then unfortunately went 1-2 in the second phase, narrowly missing out on the cut. This is probably my last open of the year, there is only France left. Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time should know by now how much I love Boba and how much I want those templates. I have to go at least one game better at this one to have the chance of getting them this time. I’m feeling the pressure a bit, far more than Copenhagen or Birmingham.

My travelling companion for this weekend is the illustrious Dale Cromwell, one of the most consistent Imperial players you’re ever likely to meet, and in my opinion the funniest man in X-Wing. In an ideal world I’m here for templates, and Dale is here for Coruscant. He’s more than capabale of getting there having made the cut at the previous 2 opens he has attended.

Our trip out here and been encouraged and supported by Filippo and Anna Bossi, who are quite simply two of the most fantastic people involved in the X-Wing world. R’n’B has Beyonce and Jay-Z, trashy pop culture has Kim and Kanye, us X-Wingers are lucky enough to have Anna and Filippo who represent everything good that the X-Wing community has to offer and aspires to be.

There are a few other 186th going, Lloyd Boman, Matt Button and Simon Tourney will all be joining us out there, as well as Mishary Al-Faris and Dale Cromwell wearing the T-Shirt.

I think as a squadron we’re developing a taste for international X-Wing. As with all the European Opens there are top pilots coming from all over the place to play. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you’ve not experienced international X-Wing then you owe yourself a trip!

Once again I cannot praise the work of Alex Watkins enough in finding venues, putting on events and encouraging a standard of community and sportsmanship that I don’t think any other gaming group can rival. His judging team, led by Vince Kingston, have rightfully earned the respect and loyalty of players across the continent.

The whole event is being streamed by Simon Green on his First Earth Twitch Channel, so there will be games aplenty to watch on the channel and on YouYube in the coming days. In my mind he’s a vital part of growing the European X-Wing Community. If you enjoy Simon’s work please support him through his Patreon.

There are 3 ingredients to winning a tournament:

Good Match Ups

Good Flying

A Little bit of Luck

My Mandalorians will need a little bit of everything. Italy promises to bring on yet another great weekend.

Boba Fett Fenn Rau Veteran Instincts Push the Limit Andrasta Concord Dawn Protector Engine Upgrade Auto Thrusters Harpoon Missiles Proton Torpedoes Glitterstim Dengar Ion Cannon Bomlet Generator 97 points

I’m not going to go into any of my games this weekend, cause that’s not important, you guys don’t want to read about how I got knocked out of the main event in the second phase by the most inconveniently timed blinded pilot ever, or how my chances of doing well in Hyperspace were slaughtered by Boba taking 7 damage in one turn from Quickdraw despite have glitterstim and 2 re-rolls (3-5 maybe – 7 is nonsense…) and I don’t want to relive those moments! But I do want to thank everyone that I played this weekend for being incredible opponents and playing the game in the spirit that we should expect it to be played in.

So thank you to: Nicola Panizzieri, Francesco Tiselli, Ramon Cifuentes Garcia, Gianluca Targhin, Marco Carone, Radu-Cristian Puhalsch, Fabio Tiraboschi, Bob Dee, Stephan Müller.

My disappointment of not doing nearly as well as I had hoped was entirely mitigated by the pleasure of playing these superb people. I will give the game with Bob a teeny mention… never has such unsubtle X-Wing been played. I am sure he will be putting up one of his usual blogs about the event soon.

The top four had 4 different lists and 4 different nations represented, which just goes to show that these events are as diverse as they are fun.

A huge shout of to Bartosz Wójcicki from Poland for taking the event with Rey Lowhhrick, he had to beat some seriously good players to get there and he did so with a great attitude the whole way through.

I got to meet some seriously cool people, and got to know some fellow travelers a bit better. Phil “the other Phil” Blackmore, Adam “how do I fly this?” Shipley and THE Jack Mooney (The “THE” is now officially part of his name) and a load of other top people made the weekend incredible.

I mentioned earlier that you should try international X-Wing and this is why: We spoke about it at some length over dinner on Saturday night. In the UK player will grab lunch together, then once the tournament ends disperse on our various journeys home. When you’re playing for the weekend in another country you don’t need to do this, you can take your time, wander down to a restaurant at 10pm with 12 people from a couple of countries and chat about life, X-Wing and X-Wing life.

The experience of meeting people from all across Europe and enjoying spending time with them is an extension of the sense of community that is felt in your local X-Wing scene. In this case involving the best Pizza, Pasta and Ice Cream I have ever had. The added bonus is that you get to play some fantastic games of X-Wing!

All this adds 10 games to the tracker:

Tournament Games Played 79 Win Ratio 65% +/- -2%

My big reflection on the event though is that I’m pretty sure had I bought Kath and Boba instead my match ups might not have been any more or any less favourable. So I’m thinking that the Twins may well be finding their way back onto the tables soon to see if I am right. As much as I love Fenn… he’s no Kath Scarlett.

I want to plug a couple of events coming up. The European Team Championships (ETC) is happening in August. It’s going to be in Croatia this year, and if last year is anything to go by it will be a weekend to remember. The UK is sending more teams this year than it did last, with Scotland (Captained by Ed Holmes) Wales (Captained by Stephen Gage) and England (Captained by Oli Pocknell) all representing. I believe there is an Irish team going too, which means our fair Isles will be sending 4 teams to the event.

There are qualifying/fund raising events beginning to happen around the UK for these, so if you want to stake your claim on a spot then show support and get involved. Even if you can’t go to Croatia this summer you’re guaranteed some great games of X-Wing on the day so come along. Click on the links to find out more.

Team England is having one at Warboar Games in London on the 6th of May.

Team Wales is having an event at Firestorm Games in Cardiff on the 12th of May.

Team Scotland will be having one at Knightly Gaming, but they don’t have a date yet.

If you are from a country anywhere in the world that DOESN’T have a team but think you could put one together then get in touch with the ETC guys through the website I’ve linked above. Last year there were teams from all over the world competing in the various game systems, not just from Europe, there were shirts from as far a field

Argentina and Australia!

I’m going to keep plugging this one cause I think it’s great for the game and for the people who go play. It’s one hell of an experience representing your country, even if it is just moving tiny space ships around!

Next Time: I MAY HAVE A WEEKEND OFF?

(It’s a Magic the Gathering release weekend so sensibly stores are running events for that not for X-Wing)

If you’re looking for tournaments to go play then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar and see what going on.