Next weekend is a really exciting one, I’m off to Norway for the Trondheim Regional with squad mates Oli Pocknell and Ben Lee, which should be an utterly awesome time. It’s my first regional of the season and is in a country I’ve never visited before. International X-Wing is so good, if you’ve not tried it I highly recommend it. With the UK Open selling out in a night (rumours of more tickets abound) then check out the pages for Poland, Germany and Italy (plus a couple of others still to be announced) 2018 could be the year to give international pew pew a go.

I have two lists auditioning for the flight to Norway and two tournaments this weekend, which is convenient.

First up “That’s Nuts” (97)

Boba Fett Fenn Rau Harpoon Missiles Proton Torpedoes Veteran Instincts Push the Limit Dengar Concord Dawn Protector Bomblet Generator Autothrusters Glitterstim Andrasta Ion Cannon Engine Upgrade

I think this is the weaker of the two lists auditioning but it is so much fun to fly and totally suits how I play the game. It’s a guarantee that Saturdays event at Ibuywargames is going to be a test of it. Some of the best pilots in the South East of the UK are going to be there, the field is so strong we dubbed it the “Woking Masters”. Twenty Three players, 4 rounds of Swiss and a top four cut.

I’ve played a couple of games in practice with this list with mixed results. It is a really unforgiving list. If my opponent makes a mistake it goes very wrong for them very quickly, if I make a mistake the same happens to me. And a room full of people not known for making mistakes playing X-Wing is a daunting prospect.

My four games (spoiler alert – I didn’t make the cut or win) were a mix bag and I finished rather confused but those dice things. These two ships can absolutely batter things in the right circumstances, the trick is engineering those right circumstances.

In game one the obvious threat of their damage output caused Luke Berry of the Womprats to make a wrong turn with Fenn Rau, leaving him relatively unprotected against the opening salvo of munitions from my ships. Fenn did his best to dodge but even the hero of the Concord Dawn can’t handle suffering two crits and a hit. After that the Mandalorians went into mop up duty. The fragile nature of the firespray came to the fore though as Luke was able to get Boba down to one hull before his last ship went boom.

Next up Calum Brown, who would go on to win the whole thing, with Miranda, Lowhhrick and a bargain basement hawk with the Crow title and a TLT. I made one mistake in the game, chosing a primary attack on Miranda over an ion cannon attack. Had I Ioned Miranda would have been stuffed the following turn, rather than able to drop a bomblet and zoom off. The opening exchange went badly, the green dice decided to punish me for the rest of the game as Boba dropped and despite his best efforts Fenn can’t handle two TLTs.

At 1-1 I moved on to play Sim Singh, our games are always monumental. The opening engagement went to plan, Quickdraw Exploded, Fenn took a pasting but survived one more turn. Then Sim flew Vessery off the table, and the X-7 did it’s stupid thing of making defenders unkillable, as a PS 1 defender on 2 hull took down Boba on 8 hull. Negating 3 hits every turn without fail… I just couldn’t get that 4 dice hit on him to make his dice go away. At the end of the game Sim was kissing his X-7 and I… I wasn’t angry with Boba… I was just disappointed.

Last game and playing for pride. Zombie Squadrons Tim Farmer with double IGs. Tim and I have played many times, the games are always close but he has a tendency to edge them. IGs are such strong ships, they take so much killing and toward the end of the game Tim was very much in the driving seat, but Boba had other ideas. The IG was running it’s luck a bit chasing the firespray around, taking bomblet after bomblet without suffering any damage. Then he rolled the hot dice I needed and shield, crit Harpoon, damage game on. Boba swung in for a range one attack, perfect dice for me. With an evade token the IG had the chance to tank it with equally perfect dice. Perfect dice didn’t happen and that bomblet won me the game.

Finishing 2-2 and coming 11th out of the 23 there was a good result considering the field but I can’t help feeling disappointed by my mistakes that led to losses, or the fact that the list, whilst being great fun, does have huge vulnerabilities. The lack of consistency did get to me a bit by the end of the day, but Sunday at Warboar gives the other list an opportunity to strut its stuff.

My list for day two is LowRey. It’s the list I took to GvC and did pretty well with, and which I think is more consistent than Boba Fenn. It lacks the threat and mobility, but it better defensively and the damage it does, whilst being less intimidating, is more reliable.

LowRey MK III (100)

Rey Lowhhrick Expertise Selflessness Kanan Jarrus C3PO Finn Jan Ors Millennium Falcon (HotR) Hull Upgrade Smuggling Compartment Counter Measures Scavenger Crane

Another strong field and a crowd of almost 30 players descended on Warboar for a Sunday spent playing with toy spaceships.

5 Rounds to play, after 3 rounds I was 3-0 up, and looking at the top four pairing options thinking “please not Calum again”… it was Calum again. Calum running his list of Miranda, HWK and Lowhhrick that had been so frustrating on Saturday for Boba Fenn. He won (again), but it was great to get a direct comparison. LowRey did better, where the Mandalorians were unable to get through the huge amount of damage mitigation Calum’s list has the Rebels were more successful, dropping his Wookie and with a final throw of dying dice killing Miranda as well.

My final game was against Ben Lee was one to learn from. By the narrowest of margins I dropped Rey onto a rock in the opening engagement and the die was cast. Ben’s Palp aces dished out a bucket load of punishment and as so often happens: when you make a stupid mistake, the dice punish you for it too. Rey couldn’t dodge anything coming in despite countermeasures, a rock, Finn and having all incoming fire being in arc. A turn later she was finished and there’s no way the wookie was going to do anything.

I finished 10th, which considering my cataclysmic mistake in the final game was a result I’ll happily take.

Two hours drive home, a stop for the biggest kebab I have ever seen and some time to reflect on a great weekend with some great people for company. Which list gets to go overseas?

3-2 for the day, 5-4 for the weekend. Nine games played and a decision to make. Painful only from an emotional point of view…

LOWREY WILL RETURN!

If you’re looking for local tournaments then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar and see what’s around.