Second regional of the season, a somewhat larger event that the pre-Christmas event in Norway. Firestorm Games in Cardiff is one hell of a venue, I’ve been here once before, last year when qualifying for the Welsh ETC Team. That day my Firesprays did me proud and came in second, today my new favourite ship is going to have it’s biggest challenge, 132 people all hoping to play a lot of X-Wing.

The day is going to be awesome! So many friends made over the last couple of years since getting into the game and a lot of them are here. Even if I wasn’t flying I’d want to be in attendance just for that, but I am flying so even better! Hopefully I get to play against some new opponents because travelling all this way to play the same people is a tear your hair out moment, not that I have a lot left to tear.

I’m running the Vipers again, with a slight tweak from last week. Xizor is getting the Virago title and the Fire Control System for the following reasons:

His higher PS means against lists with PS6s and below in he’s really good, just need and giving him the FCS makes his damage output much more consistent

Guri has her bonus from the free focus if she’s going her job right, so spreading the love around the list gives me two ships with a bit more consistency rather than one with all the consistency.

So the list looks like this:

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

If you want to go more into why I’m loving these things then I’d recommend reading last weeks post because it’s why this list is hitting the table at such a prestigious event. In short: Star Vipers are way better than I thought they were going to be, and so they’re having another go!

There’s so much to talk about from the regional, so let’s crack on with that!

Chris had never flown against MKII Star Vipers before and the mobility of Black Sun ships was a fairly large surprise to him. The consistency of the four TLT shots a turn from the Ghost was going to chew through something and Xizor dropped, but not before Nora was gone and the ghost was utterly crippled. As Zeb ejected from the Ghost Guri turned on him and Dalan finished the big fella. 100-36 point win.

Tom’s a bit good at this game, and if you give someone as good as him a list as strong as this then that’s one heck of a challenge! Tom and I hadn’t played previously but I have now played all three of the illustrious Reed Family once, and lost to them all! But every game has been thoroughly enjoyable and a learning experience. Tom was flying a variant of the Kanan Fenn list that has did well at the Chicago Regional recently.

Kanan Jarrus Fenn Rau Zeb Aurelios Ghost Hotshot Co-Pilot Phantom Jyn Erso Flight Assisted Astromech Chopper Rey Veteran Instincts Sensor Jammer Engine Upgrade Twin Laser Turret

Tom was keen to emphasize that the adjustments from the Chicago list were not all his own, and that he had input from other people, so the team that came up with this list put together something very special. I was able to drop Fenn really quickly but the this lists ability to mitigate incoming damage on the Ghost is incredible. Tom’s target priority was spot on, taking out Guri and Xizor first. I had to use all of Dalan’s actions to try and get to the safe spots in the flanks of the ghost, which meant I didn’t have any dice modifications.

This is what happens to the four red dice I roll… Kanan’s ability using a stored focus from Rey takes one away. One is negated by the evade action he took. One gets flipped to a focus from the Sensor Jammer and the final dice wasn’t a hit in the first place… the only way to put one damage on a 0 agility ship is to roll three natural hits… right….

Dalan put up a good fight, the ghost wasn’t able to land a shot on him for a good few turns, but as you can deduce from the paragraph above I couldn’t hurt him either. I lost the game 100-26. I suspect Tom would have gone on to win the whole event with this list if he’s had a different top 16 pairing, but more on that later.

The Star Vipers did Star Vipery things and Vader died first, he really doesn’t like not having tokens, and Xizor and Dalan took full advantage of it. Against three higher PS ships my flying had to be on point and hope my opponent made a mistake or two.

As has happened many times in the events I’ve played this list at people over-think and second guess themselves horribly and make mistakes, and I think David fell into that trap, when it came down to Omega Leader vs three Star Vipers the writing was on the wall and I got a much needed 100-0 win.

This game started terribly! Dom’s early red dice were burning hot, and Guri just evaporated. Next up Dom executed Dalan Oberos. Leaving Xizor against a badly wounded wookie, T70 and a full health ARC-170.

Fortunately his ships were fairly spread out and I was able to hunt the wookie down. Nein was forced to take a rock, which killed him and then Xizor began the process of whittling down the Arc. It was a really tough game, and proved to me that I was totally correct in my decision to more the Fire Control System over to Xizor. 100-64 win was a close one, but a win is a win right!

At 3-1 in a regional with Star Vipers I was optimistic of getting that positive result, and with two games to go I had a shot at making it happend.

Piers and I both represented Wales at the ETC last year, and he is and entirely brilliant person to play games against. Including apologising for the list he was flying as soon as our lists hit the table!

He would then go on to apologise as Poe’s green dice rolled symbol after symbol after symbol whilst on one health and being shot by multiple Vipers! This was one of those 100-0 loses that felt like it should have been 100-99. Had Poe rolled a single blank in any of those dice rolls I could possibly have gone on to get rid of first Fenn then Nym, but alas it was not to be. Despite losing 100-0 I took a lot of positives from this game. On my Instagram page there were a few questions about Piers’s list (and much appreciation for the lovely paint job) so here’s the list in full.

Poe Dameron (PS8) Fenn Rau Captain Nym Veteran Instincts Adaptabilty Veteran Instincts Integrated Astromech Sabine Wren Autoblaster Turret BB-8 M9-G8 Bomblet Generator Advanced Optics Havoc Black One Long Range Scanners Trajectory Simulator Genius

This game started so well! The Vipers got into horrid places and started doing bad things, Lee getting frustrated as they flew in and got into really threatening positions. Then Poe rolled three hits and a crit… sure he had the lock and focus against Guri, but obviously didn’t need them. Guri then blanked utterly and the crit flipped to a double damage. Flying A-Wings a lot has taught me to take blanking out and losing a ship instantly, but this one was so frustrating because it swung the game hugely.

My dice balanced out over the game… I mean when Lee rolled one hit I rolled 3 evades, when he rolled four hits I rolled none… cause y’know, probability and variance are fun right?

As soon as Guri dropped it was essentially game over and try as they might Xizor and Dalan were only able to hunt down the wookie. It’s frustrating when a heavy dice variance kicks you in the nuts like that, and whilst Lee was obviously pleased to get the 100-34 win he was enough of a good sport to admit just how big a part dice played in the result.

I finished 3-3 for the day, but enjoyed every game, and know that I can do better, just as well there are more opportunities in the next few weeks.

Here’s what I now know about the Triple Star Vipers after 3 tournaments with them:

They’re more of a headache to fly against than to fly with. People aren’t used to dealing with this level of mobility. They’re a high skill list, when they work they work well, but a mistake really see’s one of them getting punished. This means that they’re intensive flying. They don’t do quick games. Compared to my average game time of 20 minutes when flying the twin Firesprays there is a lot more stamina involved in flying these. They are very susceptible to dice variance. They are STILL more fun to fly than anything else in the game, so I’m sticking with them.

The Event Itself

First up, a huge thank you and massive applause to the guys at Firestorm Games, Cardiff. They put on a spectacular event. Huge shout out to the hero in the Kitchen who single handedly catered for 132 pilots (plus other customers). Thank you Tris Moran for overseeing the whole thing, TOing 132 people is no mean feat.

The day was brilliant, the atmosphere was superb and it was fantastic to meet up with friends from other parts of the country that I haven’t seen for a while. Thanks to Dom Flannigan and the guys from Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke for the road trip!

This was the first UK Regional of the season and it has set the standard high, and boy did we learn something about the meta:

The top 16 was made up of 14 Rebels and 2 Imperials. Scum a total no show.

Of those 14 Rebel lists 9 of them (from what I can work out) yes 9 were Nym and Miranda… Had Tom Reed not been paired against Ben Lee’s Imperials in the top 16 I think his Kanan Fenn list could have gone on to with the event because that list is a tough one for Nymanda to chew through whilst it takes a consistent 4 damage a turn to one of it’s 1 agility ships.

The top 8 had Ben Lee and 7 Nymandas in it.

The top 4 had 4 identical lists in it. (well, Ronan Eales dropped the protons to thermals and had no extra munitions on Miranda, but the other three were all the same)

If this isn’t perceived as an issue in then I don’t know what will be.

I first ran into this version of the list when Nic Harris of Firestorm Squadron and I played a practice game a couple of weeks back, he took Nymanda to the top 32 of nationals with it and has spend the last 6 months modifying it and tweaking it, and the arrival of the Trajectory Simulator has become very much the missing piece of the puzzle. I’ve had plenty of practice against it! But if you’re going in blind against it I’m not surprised how much of a shock to the system it is to play against.

Captain Nym Miranda Done Veteran Instincts Twin Laser Turret Extra Munitions Extra Munition Proton Bombs Sabine Wren Long Range Scanners Bomblet Generator Genius Harpoon Missiles Twin Laser Turret Long Range Scanners Harpoon Missiles Thermal Detonators Havoc Trajectory Simulator

Trajectory Simulator Nym with Genius hurling bombs about (Projectile Bombiting) is massively powerful and is going to be a huge player unless something changes it for some reason. (FAQ Please) if you want to do well at regionals you’re going to have to learn to deal with it… or fly it. Even people flying it are calling it stupid, but rules is rules and the list works.

If you outright tech to beat it (I’ve not been able to come up with a hard counter of any description) then you risk getting ruined by other things, the best advice I can give is understand it, learn how it works and get around it with good flying. It’s not easy but it is possible.

I think the Quickdraw and three Nu Alpha-Classes are very effective against it, but then they run into a Black One Poe and have a ruinously bad day… Mr Alex Birt of the 186th Podcast has made a polite request that everyone stop flying Poe and then the Nu’s can get rid of Nymanda, in order to make the world a more interesting place.

It’s a savage list, and if it’s being used by players of the caliber of event winner Ashok Hemmings then you can expect it to be a very dominant force. Well done Ashok, beating a lot of top players all using top lists is a real achievement.

THE STARVIPERS WILL RETURN!

Head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar to find events going on.