I’m somewhat amazed that this post has actually arrived. I mean, I know it’s inevitable that numbers go up and if you go to enough events you’ll hit some pretty crazy figures. This is my 100th tournament since I started the blog on the 23rd of February 2017. That’s an average of 1.25 tournaments a week for the last 82 weeks. I won 10 of those tournaments. A total of 482 tournament games, I’ve won 265 of those, giving me a win margin of 55% over all, which considering what I’ve been running most of the time I’m actually pretty happy with.

So to the venue of my 100th blog tournament, The Consulting Gamer in Ashford, Kent. It’s their store champs and only their second event, last time I was here I won the event with some vile Harpoon concoction. I’m not expecting a repeat performance of that this time. It’s great to have stores stepping up to play a part in our community and the community getting their events to sell out in return. Diana Parker, the store manager is deliberately moving away from having computer games in stock. She’s taking on more board games, and making space for more organised play, which is fantastic for the gaming community in general and goes to show how strong the current market for board games in general is. If you’re local to Ashford, get in and support her!

As it’s a bit of a special occasion, being the 100th blog tournament and all there is only one list that I can go to, and it’s the list where this whole journey started: Boba Kath.

Boba Fett Kath Scarlet Fearlessness Expertise 4-Lom Dengar Glitterstim Black Market Slicer Tools Engine Upgrade Heavy Laser Cannon Slave 1

I’ve mixed the list up a bit from it’s original format with the Cluster Missiles coming off Boba . Putting the Engine on instead helps get him to the relative safety of range one that bit quicker. As painful as it is losing the potential 8 damage he can put out with the clusters it’s probably more beneficial for him to have the engine in the long run, plus he can still 5 dice with fearlessness more often with the engine than he can without.

It’s not subtle, I’m pretty sure it’s not even very good these days. But I love it, and with only this event and UK Nationals before the end of 1.0 I had to give it one more fly out. With her ability changing so much in a few weeks, Boba and Kath will be forever torn asunder come 2.0, which does genuinely make me a little sad. Game plan is simple, Boba runs forward and starts throwing a lot of dice, Kath sits back and provides covering fire.

I’ve said before that these ships changed my life and they really have. It’s kind of hard to explain, but without them the adventures I have enjoyed in X-Wing over the last 18 months, the friendships I have made, would probably never have happened. Saying goodbye to them is a bit emotional. So one last trip down memory lane, and a fond goodbye to Kath, Dengar, Expertise and her ridiculously consistent Heavy Laser Cannon.

With 17 players the format is 4 rounds and a cut to top four, I’m aiming for 2-2 and a good shot at those top eight templates, looking around the room there are plenty of X-Wings, plenty of U-Wings and a fair amount of things that can be described as “wholesome”, then there’s Tom Duncan with double reapers and Inquisitor….

My first match up was against Mark Gibbon, running one of the lists I really don’t want to see. Nymanda.

This match up is one of the hardest going for the Firesprays. Nym and Miranda have a good shot at harpooning one off the table in the opening engagement. When Mark split his ships I was able to pick a target and go for it, and I went for Miranda. Boy did I go for Miranda. She took 8 damage in the opening exchange, Fearlessness Boba and Kath’s HLC tearing chunks out of her. Had Mark not rolled an evade against Kath then Miranda would have died in the engagement.

Some what reeling from the damage Mark put up a valiant fight, but having only managed to take two shields of each of my ships with harpoons in the opening he was on the back foot. The big guns on the Firesprays continued to fire, Miranda’s last health dropping a couple of turns later. Nym against one firespray wins comfortably, against two he was able to half point them both before my guns did their work. An unexpected win for round won, 100-49.

Game 2 against Michael Ormiston, running Wes, Wedge and Nym. After a fortuitous opening round in which Boba traded two shields against putting 5 damage into Wes I thought I might have enough to win this one, but against Michaels two Remaining PS10 ships it was going to be an uphill struggle. Kath was able to drop Wedge before Nym got her, then in a final Gambit, with both our Boba and Nym on 3 hull, and fearless shot coming his way Michael did the only thing he could do and throw the Hail Mary 4 dice shot into Boba, it worked, sadly my Hail Mary evades did not respond in kind and Boba blew up before he could execute the bounty on the Scurrg. It was a great game! 57-100 loss.

With a 1-1 record and 2 to play I knew I was still well in with a shot of the 2-2 for templates, I just wanted to win the next one to make it look likely.

My Third game was against Adam Topping. Adam has been running Ghost Fenn all season, but now he has won all the stuff in the store champs kit he has decided to fly some jank, I for one am glad of this! In it’s place is Saw, Heff and a regening Y-Wing with Chopper. Adam set up for the joust, and naturally I reciprocated, only for me to nope out when Heff went for the block. Again the firesprays big guns did their thing, tearing Heff apart in a couple of turns of shooting. The key blocker gone Boba took Adam’s ships on a chase, while Kath got in behind them. Boba turned back in and Saw took a full Fearless hit from Boba and the HLC from Kath. The plucky Y-Wing made a valiant effort, but next to incoming fire from two Sprays it never really had a chance, and as the HLC spat one last time it died in a dazzling ball of flame. 100-0 win.

So that result pretty much assured me the top 8, with good points taken from my first two games my MoV was healthy enough that I knew anything other than 100-0 loss should be fine. 2-2 was in the bag! So when my next opponent put down Vermeil, Quickdraw and Yorr I was pretty glad of the fact I only really had to kill one ship.

A great block early game by Andy Lewis kept Vermiel safe from Boba’s big shot, then Quickdraw only took one shield from Kaths HLC. I was a little worried. Sure Quickdraw didn’t do much in return, but Quickdraw having two shields when Palp is on the table always concerns me. The following turn Andy mis-read my move, so his Quickdraw slammed into the back of Kath with a sloop, which meant that there was no focus, and more importantly her lock was on the wrong ship. Fortuitously she was sitting in front of Boba with Fearlessness firing on all cylinders. Quickdraw lost her shields.

Meanwhile Kath had Black Market Slicered Vermeil then got the perfect role from the HLC into the Reaper. So with two ships on Fire against two health Sprays Andy’s situation was looking ropey. A turn later it was looking untenable, as both Quickdraw and Vermeil died leaving Boba and Kath vs a full health shuttle. After a few turns of re-positioning, Andy did the only option he had and turned into the joust, allowing me to engineer the picture you can see in the picture above. A 6 health shuttle cannot take 5 from Boba and then 5 from Kath. 100-23 win and 3-1 for the day, more importantly enough MoV that the cut looked likely! And so to the waiting game to see if that would be the case…

4th in Swiss! I made my first cut of the Store Champs season and would have to play fellow 186th Tom Duncan with his Reapers. Except, Ben, who finished second in Swiss had to leave early, which obviously changed he pairings somewhat. Moving up to third I would go against the other undefeated player of the day, Fred Bettsworth. Our last game at Dice and Destiny in Canterbury a few weeks ago had been an absolute nail biter with Fred’s Dengar Assaj coming out on top. Fred is 2-1 on me in tournaments, and I was looking to settle the score.

Welcome to the fastest game of X-Wing I have ever played.

15 minutes of sheer brutality, two big ship lists, with big guns hammering each other. Dengar went first. I know that either of my ships can handle Ventress in this end game, as Fred cautiously came in with Ventress and went for the flank with Dengar all my guns got turned on the Punishing One. I was surprised that Fred didn’t take the joust on with Dengar, but as Kath ripped his shield off in one shot I wasn’t going to complain. With Kath blocking him in front and Boba behind it wasn’t long until the Jumpmaster went away. And Ventress had limited options available.

It was then Ventress’s turn to have Kath in front, and Boba behind this is the ideal situation for me. Forcing Fred to block Boba and reduce shots from him allowed Kath’s perfect rear arc to hammer Ventress, until Boba was able to trigger Fearlessness into Assaj’s rear and she dropped. 6 Turns, 15 minutes played and a 100-23 win to see me into the top 2, well above my expectations for the day! Could the fairy tale happen, could I win my first store champs in my 100th blog tournament blog with my one of my favourite lists…

Reapers and Inquisitor in the final, 186th vs 186th, Tom Duncan had seen off my round 2 opponent Michael Ormiston. Tom won the Ibuywargames store champ earlier in the season with this list, and as stupid good as Vermeil and co are I knew I had a good shot at this one, my mods don’t need tokens. Plus, Tom already has a regional bye for the Hyperspace Qualifiers, and the rules say you can’t have two, so that means I was at least guaranteed that, I’ve never had a bye before!

I didn’t take a photo of this one, it was a super fun game, and I was somewhat paying attention to it. The reapers are mobile little buggers and the inquisitor is a pain in the arse. The key turn came when Tom landed a block on Kath, stopping her from Slicing the Inquisitor. Had that not happened I think I could have won this one, but unfortunately that move ruined my positioning options for the rest of the game with Kath and the game was lost. Boba did kill Vermeil in return but too little to late, and Tom limped away with a 3 health Inquisitor and a 3 health Palp Reaper to collect his second store champs of the season.

The conflicting emotions between disappointment for not getting the win, and the satisfaction of vastly exceeding my expectations kept me company in the two hour drive home. All in all I think the tournament was a great summary of the “story of the blog”. I took ships I loved, they performed well above expectation, but not quite enough to get me over the finish line. But it does leave me in a quandry. Next weekend is UK Nationals, and is likely to be my last tournament using the 1.0 rules and cards, what do I run for that?

Next Time: UK NATIONALS

If you’re looking for X-Wing events then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.