Another double header weekend, this time a hangar bay style event (with tweaks) at Eclectic Games in Reading, and a Q3 kit at Incom Gaming in Cheltenham, two venues I have visited before and had a lot of fun at.

The Tournament at Eclectic is a 40th Anniversary event (I suspect my last one of the year, surely everyone has run them now!) and to celebrate the rules of the event are that ships must have featured in the original trilogy. You can take whatever upgrades you want but ship selection is limited. That’s ok, I can take the Firesprays.

Boba Fett Kath Scarlet Fearlessness Expertise 4-Lom Dengar Glitterstim Black Market Slicer Tools Concussion Missiles Heavy Laser Cannon Guidance Chips Slave One

The second provisio is that the event is a twist on Hangar Bay. Whichever player has the lowers ranking chooses which list their opponent uses, however they cannot fly a list of the same faction against it. I really like the format.

So I need a second list, ideally one that people won’t choose so I can practice with the sprays. Why hello there Palp Aces… No one likes flying against them do they! (Well that’s my theory, I’m taking them with the express hope that no one makes me play with them!)

I’ve never flown Palpatine before, and would kind of like to avoid it if possible, but in an event like this Soontir could be king again! I used to fly Soontir and Carnor a lot, first with Omega Leader and then with the Inquisitor (cause whichever way you look at it Omega Leader is a Dick) so getting my Ace on again as a special event sounds fun.

Soontir Fel Carnor Jax Omicron Group Pilot Push The Limit Push The Limit Emperor Palpatine Royal Guard Tie Royal Guard Tie Stealth Device Stealth Device Autothrusters Autothrusters

When we were unpacking our ships in the morning it was quite an interesting experience. I don’t think I have ever seen so many YT-1300s in my life. 19 players and many of them had bought two Falcons. Two friends had bought my Firesprays with them, Darth Vader and a host of the old guard of Imperial list were there.

Game one was ropey with the Firesprays scraping past Luke and Han with a 100-76 win, but from there the day got smoother. It was such a fun event and was a stark reminder of how the meta has change with the addition of bombs and a host of other elements to the game that FFG have bought in. However… Soontir OMG he was amazing! He probably did need to be a bit less potent (maybe not as impotent as he has become) because in the meta at this event he was monstrous.





I flew the Sprays twice and the Imperials three times, resulting in a grand total of 5 wins to top the event and win the fantastic top prize of copy of Guns For Hire that the awesome guys from Eclectic had bought over from Gencon! The plan had been to fly the Sprays as often as possible, but in the meta of the event the aces were irresistible. If anyone out there is running events and wants to use a truly enjoyable format then I would highly recommend this one.

And that was Saturday! For Incom on Sunday distractions happened during the week:

My adventure with Ketsu a couple of weeks back has stuck in my mind and I’ve wanted to give the Shadow-Caster another spin ever since. So I got distracted… again… The meta has moved on, it’s not like Ventress and Ketsu are everywhere nowadays. I go to a lot of tournaments and I don’t see them nearly as much as I used to!

My first port of call for looking at them as a list was Tom Reed, he did do rather well with them at worlds in recent history (top 16) so figured his opinion on the matter is worth asking. Tom is a defensively minded player, I am more aggressive. We could take identical lists and fly them totally differently.

Tom’s Worlds List (99)

Asajj Ventress Ketsu Onyo Push the Limit Push the Limit Glitterstim Glitterstim Latts Razzi Dengar Gyroscopic Targetting Engine Upgrade Shadow-Caster

Tom flew this list when Aces and Defenders were big parts of the meta and ran me through how he used to approach games with it, and everything in the list makes perfect sense.

The one point initiative bid was worth it in the meta Tom was flying in as the pilot skills he was running up against were very similar and having a point bid would at least have given him the potential for a dice off for initiative. But now the meta is somewhat different with PS8 and 9 actually being relatively low, and more and more PS10 and 11 based lists emerging. PS6 and 7 just don’t need a bid of any kind anymore.

I tired Fearlessness last time out, it was super strong when being aggressive especially with multiple firing arcs, and I am very familiar with the brilliance of Expertise, but the consistency of Push the Limit means it is still among the best elite pilot talents on offer. I can’t find a reason that it isn’t the best option available to me. The dial has as much green as you could wish for on a big ship and the ship wants to be doing multiple actions a turn. Being able to take a focus and evade every turn just works! It works on everything and makes the ship stronger both in attack and defense.

I can’t really fault the crew choices either. Dengar I know and love from my time with Kath and having played against Latts countless times I know just how stupidly useful she is. I think everyone knows! If I wanted to be more aggressive then a K4 Security Droid would be a great shout but I know how fast 10 health 2 agility ships can melt under focussed fire. If only they could have two crew… and be three points cheaper.

The gyroscopic is brilliant, it might give an indicator of where you’re going next turn but in regards to action economy you can’t not take it. Again I can’t take issue Tom’s use of engine upgrade, Ketsu is less likely to be moving her mobile arc, and I found out when flying her that the boost option would have come in handy multiple times. The Shadow-Caster title is in the right place too, put it on the ship that shoots first!

So what would I change? Nothing, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but I would add something. I have a point free, and and two illicit slots available. So I can only fill one of them. The options are:

Inertial Dampners: I’ll probably be running stressed thanks to push the limit, so not moving, losing actions and getting a second stress probably aren’t the best options.

Rigged Cargo Chute: I love it, it’s hugely useful and at low PS can be totally brilliant. But I don’t think I want clutter on the table, fast moving big ships don’t really enjoy obstacles, and ultimately it would just help Dash… who seems to be everywhere at the moment.

Black Market Slicer Tools: I love them. They remove a stress, cause a damage and are a huge deterrent to ships with push the limit from pushing the limit, but Latts wants people stressed to keep Ventress alive so removing it,while damaging might not always be the best idea.

Burnout Slam: The final option. The greatest strength of the Lancer is that is is fast, but it is also fairly predictable, something that can make it faster and less predictable is an improvement on the ship, even it if is only one use only.

If I could I’d have double glitterstim on both of them because it is my favourite illicit upgrade by miles. Alas I can’t crowbar more in, so a burnout slam gets given to Ventress. Ketsu already has the facility to boost so is fast enough already.

All in all this makes my “different play style” list not exactly different to Tom’s original design. I just don’t need a bid in this meta.

Asajj Ventress Ketsu Onyo Push the Limit Push the Limit Glitterstim Glitterstim Latts Razzi Dengar Gyroscopic Targetting Engine Upgrade Burnout Slam Shadow-Caster

On the Sunday morning with an hour before needing to get in the car and go I was torn between whether to fly the Sprays or give the ShadowCasters a proper run and see if I can love them. Both options were in the case but my connection with Firespray 31, not only as a gaming piece but emotionally really made it a tough call on what to fly. I get that the ShadowCaster could well be the better ship in the current game state, and if you read regularly you’ll know that I am a big fan of all things from the cartoon Rebels…

But they’re not Firesprays!

The seed of doubt thrown in was would one tournament be enough practice for nationals with expectation to actually do well? (clearly not, I’m no Pete Wood, that’s the kind of thing he does) But the more important questions was what makes me happier to fly? What do I love more? I imagine you can guess the answer to that question, it is after all why I started writing in the first place.

I play to win, but winning and not flying something I love seems hollow. My concern with the Firesprays is the inevitable FSR (which I have no time for as a list, it seems to be anti-X-wing X-wing) and how they would handle it. The ShadowCasters have a lot more tricks for dealing with it, but if I let the need to win dictate how I approach the game then I have missed the point of X-Wing.

I have long held the opinion that just as both players are responsible for maintaining the game state, both players are responsible for making sure that their opponent is enjoying the game. There are certain things in the game that have detracted from my enjoyment of the game, ergo I will not use them. You’ll never see me running Genius Nym, Biggs, Kylo Crew, TLTs… Which doesn’t mean I don’t want to win every game 100-0.

So it was that the Firesprays came out of the case when we arrived in Cheltenham.

It didn’t start well, my first match was against one of the things I find most frustrating in the game. RAC with Kylo, but in fairness to Toby we was trying something interesting with it, most important among which was Kath Scarlet of the Imperial persuasion so that was a thumbs up straight away. The issue I have had and will always have with Kylo crew when flying two ships is that the second that first crit lands it’s just a matter of time before the game end in defeat. Toby is very good at rolling crits, despite his list being designed to push through crits, he didn’t really have any need to use his modification. However in his later games in the day his great crit rolling did continue as he critted himself on a debris field in each subsequent game! When you’re hot you’re hot!

The next three games in the tournament went considerable better, game two against my travelling companion Conor. His twin YT-1300s and my twin Sprays have run into each other many times before, and to say the mutual damage output is ridiculous doesn’t cover it. I got the key damage through on Chewie and once it was two Firesprays against Rey it was a big ask for Conor to turn it round, in searching for that miracle Rey edged herself of the table, giving me a somewhat fortuitous win by more MOV than I deserved. Had he landed the sloop then I have little doubt that mutual destruction and final salvo would have been the outcome.

My last two games were against Chris Chivers and Palp Defender and a gent who’s name eludes me at the moment. Chris and I tore chunks out of each other, but when defenders want to joust Firesprays the damage vs health leans in favour of the bounty hunters. The final game was a hunt for three low PS scum ships, (Zuckuss, Cavil and a basic Scurgg) and once again the consistent damage output of the Firesprays did the job with ruthless efficiency.

I finished up 3-1 and coming third and having a rather enjoyable day all round. The burritos they get in for events at Incom really do help.

For the weekend I went 8-1. Admittedly most of the lists I flew against weren’t what you’d consider top table Meta lists, but there were some really good pilots among my opponents. I’ll dose my achievements with a heavy load of realism, but it was a great weekend of gaming with some quality people.

So now it really is the count down to Nationals, and I cannot wait!

THE FIRESPRAYS WILL RETURN!

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