This weeks X-Wing comes from Warboar Games in Bromley, one of my personal favourite places in the gaming world.

My first store championships was here, under the guidance of Pete Wood and Chris Millhouse. It’s where I met Alex Birt for the first time, where Andrew Pattison laughed at me for bringing A-Wings to a tournment, then he laughed even harder when I somehow beat Alex who was running Dash Miranda…

I met my good friend Alex Krysta over the tables here, he was running Boba onto rocks that day. Since then we have gone on to play X-Wing on Christmas Day together!

Mark Canty and I also became friends through playing here and have been mates in regular contact ever since.

Andy Brazier schooled me a couple of times, but one of those losses (with my firesprays) led to a list tweak that won me two games at the Euro’s last year.

I played James Finlayson for the first time in a titanic game, his YT-2400 winning out on Final Salvo against my A-Wings, almost every game we have played since has been awesome…

I guess the point I’m somewhat labouring is that I have met and made a lot of friends through X-Wing, and the memories from these tournaments that feel so very long ago still bring a smile to my face. That is why I still play this game and go to event after event.

The game is in a bit of a crazy place at the moment, there seems to be rules arguments everywhere but I worry about the well-being of the community, there’s a fair bit of animosity at the moment which makes me sad.

Fantasy Flight have a responsibility of stewardship to this game they have created. Certain things are causing people to divide and argue, and they are the only ones who are in a place to clear it up. Please can we have an FAQ?

But we, as a community are, for the most part, adults, people with jobs, families… the tone of some of the comments made over a GAME has been just disappointing and we need to take responsibility for how we behave towards each other or else it is OUR community that suffers.

We are all here because Once Upon a Time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away we saw Luke blow up the Death Star and something in our heads went “ooooooh”. So the next time a contentious topic come up please remember that what we actually do is move some ships, roll some dice and make pew pew noises.

But enough of that, like I say, plenty of grown ups here. Let’s talk toy space ships!

They’re back! Oh yes they’re still making me happier than anything else ever and I’m not making any changes to the list. I played 3 Vassal games during the week against Martyn Chivers, and now he doesn’t like Star Vipers…. So lets see how I can get by at a venue that never fails to bring in some top players.

Last week the list had fun at the regional in Firestorm Games in Cardiff, and I see no reason to change it. I really feel like I should have gone 4-2 for the day rather than 3-3 but dice spikes are an arse and can ruin your day once in a while. Like I said I think this is a relatively high skill list to fly, and while I can’t practice rolling dice I can practice barrel-rolling and boosting. The journey to learning a to fly something well takes more than a few games. Here’s a reminder of the list :

Guri Dalan Oberos Prince Xizor Push the Limit Push the Limit Push the Limit Autothrusters Autothrusters Autothrusters Star Viper MKII Star Viper MKII Star Viper MKII Virago Fire Control System

Twenty two players, four rounds, and not one person running a certain combination of a certain Feeorin pilot with his female human wingman (they were off winning Regionals in Spain and Sweden this weekend). The event is labelled as regional practice, but the atmosphere in genial and relaxed.

I’ve only played against Rho boats and Kylo once before, a couple of weeks ago at Incom Gaming in Cheltenham. That version had Push the Limit and Advanced Sensors and whilst the gun boats did very little in that game Kylo was able to carve my Vipers apart on his own. Bernardo’s version is much more palatable for my list, with Fire Control System and Veteran Instincts being the upgrades of choice, his extra points are spend on upgrading the Rhos to have the missile title.

The Rho’s never got to shoot. The agile Vipers dancing around them and into flanks then hitting them with lots of dice. Kylo is a harder ship to pin down, but with Dalan and Xizor chasing him down he was on the backfoot for the rest of the game. Bernardo blanked out on a defensive role, burned the title only to unluckily blank out again, and Kylo dropped.

Variations of this list are a genuine contender at the moment so I was pleased to get the 100-32 win.

If the pairing for game one made me nervous then game two was more so. I think this is one of the best lists going, and Alex is a top pilot. The win condition for me against this list is very simple: Quickdraw must die, and I could lose a maximum of one ship in the process.

We circled around for a bit, then went in for the kill, Alex landing some really good blocks, but that curved barrel roll again made the difference and when Quickdraw dropped to a barrage of fire from Dalan and Guri, Alex extended his hand and conceded, all to aware of how the three Nu’s would fare against the Star Vipers. 100-0 win.

Bombs, bombs, bombs. Adam had a good day of it, his tanky list just absorbing damage and pushing out bombs left right and centre. The Star Vipers started incredibly strongly, then they literally hit a wall of health.

Adam flew well, and I made mistakes. If this had been at a store champs or a higher tier event I would have disengaged after getting the damage I needed in and left the less agile ships chasing ghosts for the remaining 50 minutes of the match (This is know as “Doing a Pocknell”). However I turned in for the kill and it went wrong.

Big base blockers, bombs and Sabine did their thing, as did the tactician on Lowhhrick. It was a really good learning experience for me. Vipers are great at darting in and doing damage but in a sustained slug fest with an array of auto-damage options they lack the health to keep up a sustained fight. 100-33 loss.

It started so well. The Vipers pounced on Leebo, and absolutely ruined him. He only got to shoot once, his heavy laser cannon putting two damage on Dalan. Then Miranda and the most reliable TLT in history kicked in. Chirag got this right, the conner nets made life utterly miserable for the Push the Limit Vipers and bomblets followed, just too much autodamage.

I’m not really a fan of Miranda, I think she is probably the best ship in the game (maybe a little too good), it feels like a very long time ago that she took that mantle from Soontir Fel. She combines many aspects of the game that I am “less of a fan of” in one place: Regen, TLT, Bombs. Watching her carve through 13 hull points of Star Viper essentially taking no damage in the process did little to change my opinion of her.

After dropping Leebo I should have scattered to the winds and trusted that Miranda couldn’t hunt down all three in the remaining time of the match, but again, fun event… no need to fly like you’re in the final of a regional when you’re not in the final of a regional.

I finished top of the 2-2s coming 8th over all. Simran Singh won it, with a massive MoV of 764 out of a possible 800 flying Imperial Aces. 4 games and losing one ship is no mean feat, well done Sim.

So what did I learn? The list is sound, I fly it well, but I am going to have to fly against my instincts at times if I want to take myself to the next level of gaming. I’m going to need to better assess the game state and accept that sometimes disengaging to earn the win is the right call. This is especially true at the upcoming System Opens where Winning is the thing that gets you through rounds, and the significance of MoV has been much reduced.

It’s not my nature as a competitor to play this way, but if I want do better in competitions maybe I should…

THE STAR VIPERS WILL RETURN!

If you’re looking for tournaments to go to head over the the 186th Tournament Calendar