And now we come to the biggest tournament of all time. The 2018 UK system open has 500 players, an array of some of the best in Europe are going to be here. After last weeks painful result there were seeds of doubt sown. 1-3 was the worst result I’d had with Boba Fenn having done well in the previous 4 events that I’d flown them at. Then I went for an evening gaming on Wednesday with the the guys from Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke, and lost 4 games on the trot. Cue a massive crisis in confidence.

1-7 is a worrying run of results. It was hard to find a significant fault with my flying but the words that kept coming up were “if only Fenn had lasted one more turn.” Sure Boba has a turn of being utterly unkillable, with his stimms, evade and re-rolls, but after that the actions taken tends to turn to boost, boost, boost, oh an evade, boost, boost, boost. All of which means the only aggressive dice modification is the inbuilt re-rolls from Dengar. Basically relying on dice to work for you, and as I’ve been saying a lot lately (largely to re-enforce the point to me) “if you’re relying on dice then you’ve done something wrong“. And in this instance that means the list.

A mid-week chat with Ian Courtney of Zombie Squadron had bought up the possibility of expertise as an option on Boba, which I DO like, however my concern is in the current world there are many lists that are able to take huge advantage of the big side blind spots on the Firespray, and doesn’t solve the issue of Fenn dying first and fast.

The Open is one of my highlights of the year, an event I have been looking forward to since, well, the last one. It’s where I decided to start writing the blog, it’s where I first began to fall in love with the Firespray, and I want to do well at the event. I want to make the second phase at least, hopefully go further. Part of me says “Fly the Firespray or you’ll regret it” the other part says “If you fly the Firespray you’ll regret it.” and after a run of games like I have just had the second of those two feels more likely.

We’re all investing a chunk of time and money in going to the Open. I’m sure I don’t want the memories of that experience to be laced with salt. I’ve had the warning that the list might not be able to cut it, so I have to take that seriously. Boba Fenn is a lot of fun but I really don’t want to make the mistake of taking the wrong list and having less fun cause I get stomped… like I did at nationals when I took Boba Kath. That day I had too many bad match ups, and there is a distinct possibility of that happening again if the Mandalorians come out to play.

Again while chatting with Ian he pointed out that in recent posts I have done very well against lists outside the “meta” but have struggled against the more mainstream lists. If the Open was going to be full of other snowflake lists then it would be a case of “my snowflake stomps your snowflake” but it’s not. The big lists are going to be there and I am not utterly convinced that Boba Fenn can cut it. It’s a good list, but it’s not a great list.

So on the Thursday in the week I went back to Firestorm and took the reserve list, Dash and Poe. (so good that 17/20 Weekend Warlords recommend it). Fortunately I’m not looking at jumping into this list blind having had a couple of fairly successful run outs with it before. Practiced with a proven list vs experienced with an unproven list is almost like a coin toss. A coin toss is a bit like a dice roll. I’m trying not to rely on dice rolls… so a reasoned choice needs to be made.

Poe Dameron Dash Rendar Intensity Lone Wolf Black One Outrider BB-8 Rey Autothrusters Engine Upgrade Primed Thrusters Heavy Laser Cannon

After 3 tough games at Firestorm Cards, winning two and narrowly losing one, I had to side with Dash Poe as a list. I play it more carefully that the more aggressive lists I’m used to flying. I trust myself with it and I trust it with me. At the end of the evening I felt far more confident than I had with Boba Fenn the day before. So it is with heavy heart that the Firespray and Protectorate get bumped down the pecking order for the main event, it’s not the easy thing to do but it is the right thing.

For those that haven’t been to the UK open it looks like this:

Alex Watkins from Asmodee and his team continue to put on events of staggering quality around Europe. The ticket sales on this one alone show just how much the X-Wing community has taken to the event. 400 sold in 12 hours, then an astronomical waiting list kicked in, capacity increased to 508 and there are still people on the waiting list!

At the last open I went to in Copenhagen I went a total of 6-6, which wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. The tournament itself has to be treated as a series of mini tournaments (covering a total of 12 games) other wise it becomes a little overwhelming. This is how I break it down which make it less overwhelming (for those that haven’t been to one). To make the cut the 67% won’t cut it, you gotta hit 81%.

I’m really not going to go into game by game details the week, there is simply too much else I want to have a look at, but in summary:

Games 1-3

You have to go 2-1 here to get to the next phase, ideally 3-0 so that you can afford to lose one in the next tier of the competition. I managed to go 3-0 here. Better than Copenhagen and a good start. Thank you to Jack Warner, Shaun Riley and Gavin Kirby for some really good games. The game for 3-0 with Gavin was one of the most entertaining games I can remember playing in recent months. Having Rasta flying the same list on the table next to me, and having him tidying up my templates as we played was quite amusing.

These results alone vindicated my choice of Dash and Poe as the list to take. Better results than Copenhagen already.

Games 3-6

Now things step up a level, and I needed to go 2-1 here. A loss to fellow 186th and Twin IG wielding legend Jesper Hills was no surprise, I did my best but those things really don’t want to die sometimes. Jesper’s continuing success with the list is proof that spending 3 years largely flying one style of list (advanced Sensors, Push the Limit IGs) makes you pretty good with it. It’s safe to say that he is the best IG player in the world. In only my 4th tournament with Dash Poe vs that level of experience wasn’t a shame to lose.

The next game was against fellow member of Team Wales from the European Team Championships, Stephen Gage, running Nym, Jostero and Torani. A PS10 alpha strike list is not what I wanted to see in the game that would decide whether or not my final game of the day had any meaning. Stephen is a top player and this was one of the the hardest games I’ve ever managed to get a win from, but I got it, just. Which took me to a 4-1 play off for a space in the cut. With the 67% secured I really wanted that 81%.

And got paired into the list that Dash Poe probably wants to see less than any other. RAClo (Rear Admiral Chiraneu with Kylo Ren Crew) and Pilot Skill 11 Quickdraw. My “love” of both these ships is… erm… well documented. Gary Colton is as lovely a guy as you will ever meet on the tables, but his list is about the most soul destroying in the game for me.

Euros 2017. My heaviest loss of that event was from running into RAClo where I lost by 2 hull with twin Sprays. That game essentially took away my chance of making the cut.

UK Nationals 2017. Ran into RAClo twice… Blinded Pilot did it’s thing and I lost those essentially taking away any chance I had of progressing in that tournament.

A few weeks back I looked at the three criteria I think you need to have a good tournament:

Good Match Ups A bit of luck on the Dice Good Flying.

To beat Gary’s list I would need numbers 2 and 3 to really help me out, cause number 1 was already off the table. At the end game a nearly full health RAC was chasing after my 7 heath Dash, no surprises that Poe and Quickdraw were the first ships to drop. I got it down to Dash on one hull vs RAC on 2. And all I was asking from my 4 dice with a re-roll was a statistically average roll.

I think this was the toughest loss to take I’ve had ever. Dice happen. I had done everything right and had pulled back such a significant deficit to give myself a chance of winning the word “gutted” doesn’t quite cover it. I don’t think any of the 15 people or so watching could believe it either.

I crashed out 4-2. One hit away from 5-1. Sometimes there is nothing else you can do other than be sad about dice. I wasn’t after a Hail Mary to save my bacon, just an average dice roll. There isn’t anything I could have done differently. The huge positive for me is that the ONLY thing stopping me from making the 5-1 and getting into the second day was a single dice roll at the end of the final game.

This is not contrary to my earlier statements about not relying on dice. Relying on dice is when you park yourself in a place you are going to get shot to pieces and need 3 evades, but take a target lock for you action cause you irrationally think those greens will save you. Or it’s when you need 4 hits to win a game and you’re rolling 4 unmodified dice… Expecting an average roll is not unrealistic, it’s a calculated choice not blind hope.

I finished 81st out of 500. I can’t really complain too much about that.

Hyperspace

So over to day 2 and the second biggest X-Wing tournament in history with 416 players. Again I want to mention Alex Watkins and his organising team, and also give a big mention to Vince Kingston and his judges. The work that goes into making events like this happen is staggering and these guys do it with a (public at least) smile on their face the whole way. Running the two biggest X-Wing tournaments ever back to back is not simply and impressive feat. The community owes these guys a huge debt of gratitude for the work they do.

I went 2-2 here and dropped, there were things going on that were more important for me than trying to sustain the 67%. I had to go watch my friends in the cut. Thank you though to Cameron McArthur, Matt Button, Jon Vicary and David McCurdy for some thoroughly enjoyable matches.

All this leaves the tracker looking like this. (despite not finishing the Hyperspace I’ve included the results because those are the rules!)

Tournament Games Played 44 Overall Win Ratio 66% +/- -2%

The People Who Made Day 2

A slight change of tact for a moment. As you know I play a lot of X-Wing and will happily travel around and play as much as possible. The stores I have visited most often are iBuywargames, Warboar and Firestorm Cards, and if we throw in The Dice Saloon we get 4 stores in the South East of England that all have incredibly strong X-Wing communities.

Of the 55 people who made the second phase 15 of them are people who I know through playing at these four stores. (27%) The 186th managed to get 7 of our 16 pilots at the event through to the top 55 (13%).

As you whittle it down to the top 8 that proportion jumped up to a whopping 75%, with 6 of the players being local to iBuy, Warboar or Firestorm. The top four continued this, with Jesper Hills (fellow 186th), Tom Forstner (former Zombie Squadron team-mate) and Martyn Chivers (gets mentioned in this blog a fair bit) all making it to the pinnacle of the competition. Three people I am happy to count as friends. These guys all at a Qkit at Ibuywargames is a fairly common occurrence! #wokingmeta

This isn’t to say the the South East of England has the best players in the UK, that would be dumb. But there are several players in the region who can more than cut it at premier events like this. And they all get the opportunity to play each other a lot.

The point I want to make here is that X-Wing is a thriving community full of great people, and the South East of England is one of the most competitive places to be playing. If you want to come and play some top level opponents without having to go to a regional scale event then please come and visit us. I have got better at this game over the last year because of playing people who can compete at this level.

Jesper vs Martyn in the semi-final was a great spectacle. The IGs were losing pretty heavily to Martyn’s Imperial aces in front of a fairly sizable crowd. For those who haven’t seen Jesper on the top tables a big event like this you’ve missed out. I don’t think there are many other gamers who are as good at putting on a show with their attitude and banter across the table as Mr Hills. It was a credit to him that as one IG dropped and the other was on only 2 hull that he flipped a dial that flew his ship off the table with a smile on his face. Rather than prolong the inevitable he wanted to congratulate Martyn on a fantastic victory.

Which took us to the final, of Martyn Chivers vs Tom Forstner (who played the same game a couple of weeks back at Ibuywargames). The game will soon be up on First Earth’s Twitch, with Simeon Dellapina and me commentating alongside Simon Green. If you are so inclined please do support Simon through his Patreon thingy, he does so much for the European X-Wing community, all out of his own pocket, and it’s not cheap.

It was a horribly one sided affair, unfortunately for Tom, as Martyn’s Imperials tore Rey and Lowhhrick apart in about half an hour. Here’s his list:

Kylo Ren Quickdraw Epsilon Ace First Order Vanguard Special Ops Training Push the Limit Veteran Instincts Autothrusters Light Weight Frame Advanced Sensors Fire Control System Advanced Optics Advanced Optics

After an amazing weekend of X-Wing, only bettered by the company, I got to drive the winner of the biggest X-Wing Tournament ever home.

So proud of my friend.

Next Time: THE LAST REGIONAL (of 2018)

If you’re looking for tournaments to attend then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.