The big news is the unboxing of the faction upgrade kits… hopefully you’ve all seen it by now, but SHINY doesn’t cover it! I was set on running this before the list from this week before the stream went live, and had written most of the blog too, and now I feel entirely smug about it. Maybe it’s a few months early for that, but as Kath steps down from being queen of my heart (her new ability means that Boba Kath probably won’t be a thing in 2.0) the Viper looks like it’s going to happily fill the void.

Only one tournament this weekend, the second Store Champs of the season at the Game Shop in Aldershot. On Sunday I’m of to Warboar to hang out with a few of my fellow 186th to get some practice in for Euros.

As mentioned last week I’m going to flying what I love. It’s going to get wrecked by all the top tier lists, it’s going to require some serious flying. I’ll lose heart, get frustrated, have the inevitable dice rage moments, but you know what, at the end of the day I’ll sit content that the Rule of Cool has been sufficiently met! The 67% is likely going to fade into a pipe dream but a Firespray and a Star Viper are going to have a good go trying to keep the dream alive.

So I have written a list that takes a bunch of my favourite upgrades and puts them on the two ships I love the most and to hell with the consequences.

Starting with the big boy, the ship that I would get a tattoo of if I didn’t spend all my money on going to play X-Wing. Boba Fett in the Firespray. Come 2.0 he’s going to be everywhere and I can’t wait.

Elite Pilot Talent. Boba is all about getting up close and personal, and my favourite EPT on him is Fearlessness. Sure Veteran Instincts makes him a monster ace hunter, expertise makes him hugely consistent, but that moment where you get him into your targets face and roll four dice plus one takes some beating! Other things might be better, but they’re not as fun.

Dengar crew… Boba’s a scum ship with a crew slot, so Dengar is the first option, re-rolls help. Glitterstim: because I only vaguely remember a time when I considered other illicit options as valid on Boba. The Engine Upgrade is there to get him into range one and triggering his ability as fast as possible.

The BIG concession is the Andrasta title over Slave 1, the bomblet is too useful not to take. The Ion Cannon is equally useful and was actually Boba’s secondary weapon of choice in the stories.

No missiles because the spray lacks the action economy to make them reliable. I take a lock and spend it, without another modifier that’s not enough to see them hit home consistently.

55 Points seems pretty reasonable looking at his potential for inflicting damage. If I can get it to work.

Since the release of Guns for Hire the Star Viper has gone from being an oddity which I quite like, to the ship that rivals the Firespray for being my favourite in the game. It’s quirky, different to fly and gets killed really easily, but it is so much fun. Of all the Viper pilots one stands head and shoulders above all the others: Guri. Now brace yourself, she’d going to get VERY expensive for 5 health at pilot skill 5.

Intensity: it’s brilliant on Poe. I think Guri is the only other pilot it belongs on because her ability to get a second token. It also keeps her unstressed so those brilliant hard ones are available. I ran intensity Guri over Christmas last year and she was a star, I got distracted by how good Push the Limit is on Star Vipers (and across three of them it is most entertaining) but in this build intensity is the answer.

Autothrusters, Star Viper MK2 and Virago – well obviously.

Then a Fire Control System so she can keep having the attacking mods and keep the pressure on her target.

Advanced Proton Torpedoes – why not… she’s a range one ship, they’re a range one weapon. With the free lock and focus they should be fairly easy to get firing. And finally a Scavenger crane – because a second lot of APTs is too good to turn down.

She’s 42 points of joy to fly.

Boba Fett Guri Fearlessness Intensity Ion Cannon Star Viper MK2 Andrasta Virago Bomblet Generator Advanced Proton Torpedoes Dengar Scavenger Crane Glitterstim Autothrusters Engine Upgrade 97 points

The lists trial run was against Martyn Chivers running a PS1 Tie FO blocker, and a fully tooled up Quickdraw and Kylo Ren. Martyn was subbing in the blocker from his usual choice of Epsilon Ace to see how it works.

What we discovered is that the TIE FO is allergic to Advanced Proton Torps. Quickdraw is not a fan of the Ion Cannon. As mobile as he is, dodging a Bomblet and 3 firing arcs isn’t easy for Kylo. My Scum nonsense managed to win the game 100-27. Even if I had lost the game horribly I’d still be set on using the list. I’m under no illusions of what tier this list is, and just how badly the big bads in the meta will smash it. but there is more to this game than winning.

So off to Aldershot, breakfast before hand with plenty of talk about 2.0 and the spoilers from last night, my contribution largely being the word “Guri”. Quality players all over the room again, but I’m resigned to not competing with the likes of Alex Birt, Oli Pocknell, Sim Pone and Calum Brown today. I’m here to fly some ships, hopefully have some fun and maybe squeak a positive win differential if the pairings aren’t too unkind! My main objective though is to try and get Boba being fearless and Guri firing her APTs into the same target in the same turn!

2 games won! Objective for the day achieved, with 2 to go. An entirely unexpected scenario.

Weirdly I played 3 people who I played last week, and all the results were reversed!

My Final game was against another fellow 186th, Janus Avivson, running a very similar list to Eds. I deployed wrong and misjudged the opening engagement. The wookiee died, so did Boba, Guri was plucky but Norra too consistent at covering my primary target, Fenn for her to do the damage I needed to get points up. Photo’s were totally not taken as we were HOT and beginning to flag a bit, so totally forgot. He won pretty comfortably.

All in all 3-2 was better than I thought I was going to do, and Guri was REALLY good. I will definitely be running this list again in the next few weeks, and when 2.0 get here I imagine this will be the first list I latch on to. I loved it, loved flying it, and was really pleased by how well it performed. Sure it’s never going to be top tier (in 1.0) and there is much that will wreck it. But hell, fun was had! I finished ninth for the day. Target priority needs to be worked on.

I came 9th out of 32 players with a pleasingly good MOV, really happy at the end of the day. A big thank you to Lee Donovan for running the event, it’s always a pleasure to see you dude!

Tomorrow I’m off to Warboar in Bromley with a few other 186th members to get some practice in for Euros in a couple of weeks. So I may as well post this tonight rather than waiting around!

Overall not a terrible day for the tracker either. Sure the 67% win ratio is a bit far away right now, but I can’t work out a way to quantify a fun tracker….

Tournament Games Played 108 Win Ratio 61% +/- 0

Finally a massive thank you again to everyone who voted for me in the Gold Squadron “Goldies” awards. I can’t express how much receiving this from you guys means to me.

Next Time: ONE WEEK TO EUROS!

If you’re looking for tournaments to play in head to the 186th Tournament Calendar

117 days until 2.0