So, first off, you’ll notice this is my first post since last Tuesday, meaning I missed or skipped the end-of-week post last week. This was somewhat intentional, as my schedule has gotten crazy, and unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut back on my playing of X-Wing a bit, as well as my blog posting. Until further notice, I’ll be posting just once a week, unless I somehow manage to play on 2 separate nights.

Anyway, on Sunday, I dropped by Battlegrounds Cafe again to play in another modified 2E event. These are slightly different from a standard 2E, which allows only ships and cards from newly released Second Edition product. At the Cafe, their format allows only plastic ships from the newly released boxes, but cards from the conversion kits. This allows for more squad-building options for veteran pilots while limiting the ships to what their newer players can field. It’s a rather ingenious solution, which has the side effects of doubling the number of U-Wing pilots, and allowing the Scum to field the Y-Wing and Rebels to field a YT-1300 (Sorry Imperials!)

I really liked the idea of the all-Selfless list last time around, and although it only got to fly 1 sortie, and didn’t really use Selfless, I wanted to give it another go. Additionally, the tournament format didn’t allow my other recent list, and I’m not super interested in 2E Imperials (much preferring 2X.) Scum was right out. The other change I wanted to make was removing the droids. So far, I hadn’t (to my recollection) used the blue 2-hard turns in a single game, and those 8 points could much better have been served elsewhere.

I got to talking to Bryan again, and he brought up the idea of upgrading a Red Vet to Thane Kyrell. His ability and initiative values are worth quite a bit against certain builds, and he fit in with Selfless and kept the list around 200 points. Bryan’s version of the list used an R4 Astromech and Crackshot on Wedge, Selfless on Thane and a Red Vet, and Biggs with nothing (other than the auto-included Servomotors, of course.) I wanted to spread the Selfless love around even further, and ended up with a new version of (Not) Red Squadron:

Unfortunately, we only had 5 players, so someone ended up having a bye each round. Luckily for me, I never had it (spoilers for game 1, I guess…) We had 3 Rebel players, 1 Scum, and 1 Imperial. The Imperial brought a Reaper and 2 TIE Advanced (Vader and Maarek,) and the Scum player had Boba, Fenn, and L3-37. The Rebels… brought X-Wings. I had 4, Bryan was there with his version of the list (with 4 more) and the final player had 3 (Wedge, Thane, and Jek.) More than 2 X-Wings per player at the event… has to be some sort of record, yeah?

Game 1: Aaron Elmstrom

Aaron has only a few games of X-Wing under his belt, and was talking before the event about how he wants to swap out Jek for another pilot. His list beat mine on the bid, and he granted me the opportunity (heh) to go first. I placed in a relatively tight formation in one of my corners, while Aaron’s list set up diagonally across his back field, spread out in an attempt to avoid the joust.

Turn 2 saw the initial shots, but it was entirely in my favor as Aaron had tried to dodge out of the way completely. He could have made it if Jek hadn’t skirted too closely to an asteroid , and ended up landing on it (though he dodged the damage.) This prevented his boosting away, leaving all 4 of my arcs on him, so when the dust settled, Jek Porkins couldn’t hold it and went down.

The previous turn had Aaron severely behind, as none of my ships had taken a single point of damage when he was already down 1 ship. My squadron immediately K-Turned in the lane they were flying down, while his Wedge and Thane boogied down the field and avoided staying in range. The following turn, as my guys leap-frogged over one another to regain the fight, his ships regrouped to attempt to come in. Sadly, his ships were in range of my front line (now consisting of Wedge and Thane,) but were unable to return fire. For that, Thane lost his shields. My Initiative 3 pilots pull a 4 straight, allowing the more skilled aces to slide in behind them with 1-straights as his pilots turn into the swarm. Aaron’s Wedge opens fire, rolling 4 dice into one of my ships that result in 4 focus results. Unfortunately, Wedge had slammed into the back of Thane, leaving him without the focus needed to pull Biggs’ shields off! Thane drops Biggs’ shields, but goes down to my own named pilots, while the Red Vet puts a damage into Wedge.

Stuck with nowhere really to go, his Wedge turns to the left to head up the table and escape, but the 3-Troll to the right my Wedge and Thane performed put him still in Range 1, and the Initiative 3 K-Turns also granted me some pot-shots. This turn, however, Aaron’s defensive dice turned on, and Wedge dodged every single incoming shot, keeping his 2 remaining shields moving into what would be the final round. Not one to shy from a fight, Aaron’s Wedge 4-Ks, leaving him stressed at Range 1 of my aces and range 3 from the lower Initiative pilots. Both Wedges strip the others shields, but the rest of my list finishes his off, resulting in a 200-0 win for me.

After the game, I showed Aaron a wedge formation he could have tried to use to focus his firepower. Part of what killed him was letting me have a jousting lane, then being unable to escape from it when I leapt into the fight with 3 and 4 straight maneuvers on turn 2 after boosting into place turn 1. HE also never got any ordnance off, which is a death sentence for torpedo aces against a list with more primary firepower. Still, he was recovering well, but the dice wouldn’t allow him the opportunity to catch up.

Game 2: Bryan McNiel

The Mirror Match. I apparently was destined to face every single X-Wing other than my own at the event, and this game was poised to be exceptionally difficult. Bryan had dropped the R4 Astromech from Wedge, meaning he also won Initiative and allowed me to go first. This meant my advantage would be blocking, but his would be the ability to reposition after my movement. We both set in 2×2 blocks, but had obstacles in the direct path between us, making the first engagement particularly important.

On the initial turn, I moved my guys far too far forward, placing them right where a huge rock wouldn’t allow them to turn in the following turn. Bryan pounced on it, leaving his S-Foils closed but boosting into a position where he had shots and I did not, and was rewarded for it by taking one of Biggs’ shields (in an effort to protect the Red Vet. This would later prove to be a game-defining mistake.) I identified the opportunity to block his list, potentially causing a huge, action-denying pile-up, and quickly took it, performing 3-turns with my Initiative 3s and following it up with banks from my higher-tiered pilots. This ended up backfiring massively, as his Biggs bumped my Red Vet (meaning I couldn’t get all 4 guns on him) and Bryan’s list moved too slowly to clump up, leaving him with 4 shots (3 with focus, a different 3 at Range 1) at Biggs while I did not. I had also already weakened my Biggs for virtually no reason.

Shots are fired, and I make my second mistake of the game: I target everything into Thane, and manage to do 2 shields of damage to him, while Biggs and his Vet each tale one for him. Meanwhile, my Biggs goes down. I am now VERY behind, and am mentally scrambling for some way to recover from this debacle. I imagine Bryan is going to press his advantage, and so I set up a 4-K on the Red, a blocking 3-straight on Thane, and a 1-Bank with Wedge, hoping to trap and finish Thane off.

What actually happens is Bryan disengaged completely. He saw that he didn’t have a lot of options for the follow-on turns if he remained in the fight, and turned away, hoping to flip around on a following turn while my ships were out of position. This caused Wedge to have a shot on Thane, and my Red to have a shot on Biggs, but nobody else had anything. Wedge delivers a single card to Thane, and the Vet puts 2 damage on Biggs. The following maneuver phase goes exceptionally badly for Bryan, who misjudged a K-Turn with his Red Vet that lands him squarely outside the play area, having lost only a single shield. This puts me back in the game, and although his Wedge had T-Rolled back into the fight, Biggs and Thane had no choice but to continue their flight. My Thane and Red bring Biggs down to 1 while Wedge whiffs horrendously against his Thane, and his Wedge attempts to put some damage on my list (which results in a single Crit, putting me down a shield on the Red Vet.) Now somewhat ahead (though my Wedge can’t his the broad side of a Lambda,) I anticipate Thane’s escape route and give chase with everyone, leaving Thane somewhat back to act as a foil to Wedge. Bryan’s Wedge bumps mine, leaving him a beautiful Range 1 shot my Vet that takes him below half points. My list remains incapable of putting the final damage onto Thane, but my Thane unloads on Wedge, dropping his shields and putting a damage card on him.

My ships turn to continue the chase, while his Wedge banks in for a shot at mine and his Biggs K-Turns to re-engage. my Wedge FINALLY kills Thane, and my Thane drops his Biggs, leaving Bryan down to just Wedge, who fires into my Vet in an attempt to get another kill. This leaves the Vet limping alive on 1 hull, and causes him to close S-Foils, turn, and boost out of the fight the following turn. My Wedge and Thane both K-Turn to pressure Wedge, who banks over and rolls to his right to avoid my Wedge’s line of fire. Bryan fires first, and puts Thane down into half health, but my Thane lands 3 hits in on Wedge, which ends the game in my favor, 200-97. I was SO far behind after turn 2 that I thought I was going to have to scramble for some kind of advantage to get back into the game. Bryan said several time after round 4 that he had given me the game, and I agree. Losing that nearly full-health Red Vet put Bryan on the backfoot, and his ships mostly dis-engaging that turn meant he needed the extra fire-power to stay even with me. The game would have been VERY different had Bryan’s Vet been half of an inch further to the left on that fateful turn!

Game 3: Jeff Raiford

Jeff is always a scary opponent, especially so when he places Fenn Rau on the table across from you. He set up in a somewhat clear attempt to draw me into his side of the board, and I figured that if I could get an early advantage by gunning down L3, I would be more than willing to accept his bait. My block set up in my corner, his Fett facing the side of the board I was on, and his Fenn on the opposite side of the mat from my list.

The first 2 turns, Fett 1-harded into a circle, boosting the second time to present his rear arc on my list, but remaining out of range for shots. Fenn used the time to zoom down the board and turn in, coming at me from my own side of the table (just like I did with Fel the last time we played.) L3, however, was parked behind some scrap but in otherwise clear view of my swarm. The droid revolutionary did not survive, and my list came away from the encounter none the worse for wear.

Considering the Proton Bombs Fett was carrying, and knowing that I would prefer not to have Fenn Rau on my tail, I decide to turn into the middle of the table. Fett, for his part, had banked away and started boosting around the scrap in the corner to re-face my list, and Fenn, having called my play perfectly, dodged out of the way completely. 3 of my ships had shots, but nothing connected against the squirrely Fang Fighter.

That having not worked, and worried about Fett getting to play wildly against my list, I then turned back to the right to face the Firespray. This was exactly what Jeff wanted me to do, as both his ships turned in on my list, sandwiching them in the middle of the board. Scum players, is there anything more beautiful than a pack of wild X-Wings caught between the obstacles with your ships gunning down on them? No? Didn’t think so.

Shots are fired, and Jeff focused on Wedge, dropping his shields (and 1 of Biggs’) and putting a card on my ace in exchange for… 1 shield off of Boba. Hoo boy, this was about to get rough!

Ships go EVERYWHERE as I see that Fenn really, REALLY is going to want to remain engaged. I flip Thane around with a 4-K, Wedge boogies to his right, and Biggs and the Vet trap Fett at Range 1 against the board edge. All of this goes pretty much according to plan, except that Fenn lands a shot on Wedge, dropping him to 1 hull remaining. Meanwhile, Fett absolutely wrecks Thane (putting him down into hull as well) and escapes having taken no additional damage and Fenn dodges Thane’s potshot.

Biggs T-Rolls, the Red K-Turns, and Wedge T-Rolls as Thane comes in to block Fenn’s perfect shot against Wedge, as well as his escape route. Fett takes off down the field, exposing my ships to that terrible rear arc of his, especially gleeful that my ships are all token-less. Fenn STILL manages to get a shot on Wedge, who dies but gives Fenn a pair of damage cards as a parting gift, while the rest of my list shoots ineffectively at the Fang ace and Fett starts picking away at the Vets shields.

Fett drops his first bomb and takes off while my Vet goes for a bump on Fenn, Biggs banks down to start chasing the Firespray, and Thane T-Rolls to try to get a killshot on Fenn. I figure if I can flip a single damage card, I have a decent chance of it being something that will cripple the Fang and allow me to claw my way back into the game. Instead, Jeff dodges the block from the Red, and rolls out of the X-Wings arc… directly into range of the Proton Bomb! Fenn takes the only damage his bomb gives out, which flips to a Direct Hit and a dead Fang Fighter! Considering I still have 3 X-Wings (though Thane is living on a prayer and the Red and Biggs are both scratched,) I might actually be able to pull this out!

My hopes are dashed nearly immediately, as Thane trades fire with Fett, doing no damage to the Bounty Hunter before being removed from the table. Biggs and the Vet manage to take down his shields, but through some frankly amazing piloting from Jeff, I just can’t ever manage to get enough damage through to even half-point Boba before he has killed both my remaining ships and given me my first loss with this archetype, 92-200. I am not going to go through the turn-by-turn, but the collages below should paint the picture pretty well.



It is positively baffling how efficient this version of Fett is. Having the Proton Bomb is just icing on the cake, as it only did 1 shield of damage to the Red Vet, 1 Disabled Power Regulator on Biggs, and actually cost him his own Fenn Rau. However, the 3 green tokens and Range 1 re-rolls Fett is capable of nearly every turn simply doesn’t allow the big man the opportunity to take damage unless you’ve got some serious firepower gunning for him. As soon as he’s alone against ships with lower initiative than himself, he is very likely to win the game outright if flown well, and Jeff certainly knows how to do it!

One of the consistent problems I saw was that Wedge simply didn’t do enough for me or my opponents in any game. Against Bryan, it took him 4 or 5 rounds to chase down and kill a 1-hull X-Wing with a lower initiative value than himself. Without Proton Torpedoes or a Coordinate action to give him double modifications, he seems to struggle to deal damage to nearly anything. However, both of those options steer players away from the sort of brutally efficient jousting lists I enjoy playing in the Rebel faction.



All told, my tournament record is now 12-6. placing me squarely at 66.6% win ratio. With my schedule picking up quite a bit in the coming months, I hope I can get in enough game time to adequately prepare for the system open that is coming to my neck of the woods next Spring. That said, I don’t honestly know what my day-to-day in X-Wing holds.

As always, let me know what I can do to improve, either as a Blogger, a Player, or a List Designer!

Next time: Who knows!