

You remember the stories John use to tell us about the the three chinamen playing Fantan? This guy runs up to them and says, “Hey, the world’s coming to an end!” and the first one says, “Well, I best go to the mission and pray,” and the second one says, “Well, hell, I’m gonna go and buy me a case of Mezcal and six whores,” and the third one says “Well, I’m gonna finish the game.” I shall finish the game, Doc. William H. Bonney. Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory

This is my favourite quote from one of my absolute favourite movies of all time. It was one of the first movies rated 12a (that’s 12 but must have an adult in attendance to see it for those who don’t know the rating) It was the first movie with that certificate that I saw at the cinema as a 12 year old with childlike infatuation for the Old West. And it made me love cowboys more, great movie, amazing soundtrack and was my first encounter with actors who have felt like a part of my life ever since.

The above quote resonates with me on a deep level and it has become a part of my psyche to want to “finish the game”. 2018 is rapidly coming to a close, and it’s been an incredible year for me personally both inside and outside of X-Wing. But this isn’t a blog about my job or anything else, it’s about X-wing and the ships that have shaped that year are, as you all know by now, Boba and Guri. But their time is coming to an end.

We know a points change is coming in January and when it does the game will change. I will be moving onto a list that is easier to transition into hyperspace, maybe even try out some new faction things. With new toys landing in the shape of the First Order and the Resistance the temptation to start messing about with them has been massive. But with only four tournaments left of the year I have decided to stay resolute and “finish the game” with the list I love the most so I don’t look back and think of opportunities missed in flying it.

And so to the first of the 4 goodbye tournaments. Ibuywargames, 25 players, 5 rounds and some quality pilots on show, including Coruscant Champion Tom Forstner, and other top tier players like Simran Pone, Ross Pearson and Julian Hood. I’m coming into this event off the back of the best run I think I’ve ever had but that can change in a dice roll in this game.

WHAT A FILM!

My first opponent was Vid Cleal, running at 185 points with Soontir, Redline and Whisper… who runs at 185 points these days?

Oh yeah, me.

Vid and I have been around long enough to know that certain games are made significantly easier if you’re moving second, and a prime example of that is Whisper/Redline vs Boba/Guri. We both knew that whoever won the initiative choice was likely to win the match up. Sure enough, I lost the initiative roll and got put into moving first. Vid got the opportunity to get the opening engage he wanted, stripping shields of Boba, then he sent his ships after Guri, who obligingly melted in front of 3 modified attacks. Fortunately it was over quickly, I bagged the 61 points for Redline while Vid took the 200 points for killing both my ships.

This is not Guri in her happy place….

But that is the way of things sometimes in X-Wing, had I won that roll initiative roll Vid would have been in the situation of an uphill battle as the game would have started in my favour. Just look at the Mynock open results involving this particular Imperial list when it ran into mirrors, he who had the bid won. Every time.

My next game was against Nick Coventry running Rey and Poe. Finally a chance to have a look at the Resistance’s finest across the table. Nick had a pretty fat poe, BB8, outmanoeuvre, primed thrusters, black one… and Rey with Finn and the tile. My first objective was stay out of Reys arc, second: burn Poe’s BB-8 tokens while I still had two ships on the board and try to engineer a Poe Guri end game. It went to plan, mostly. In her dying moments Rey put five dice into Boba, who proceeded to loose all his shields and take a crit from it. Guri had been halved by Poe at this point but significantly both BB-8 tokens were gone.

This is not Poe in his happy place

As Rey died Poe was stressed, and Guri was able to get behind him. Boba ran from Poe, Poe chased Boba, Guri chased Poe. Poe died, both my ships half pointed, but the win was there. Getting caught in Rey’s front arc again is definitely not on my to do list!

Which takes us onto the obligitary: it was horrifically tight and I didn’t take a photo game against Conor McNama with his tasty Wedge, Thane, Jan, AP-5 list. Had it not been for that teeny bit of give you get between the nubs Boba would have died leaving Guri having 4 ships to chase down. But that tiny wiggle room was enough for Boba to get the block on wedge, not be blocked by Jan so Wedge could unload a second volley of torps into him. Literally a fraction of a millimetre between a Boba and not a Boba.

The death of Wedge, Boba and AP-5 the following turn saw Guri having to take on Thane and Jan on her own. She lost 5 health in one turn of shooting, which was uncomfortable, but in doing so was able to drop Thane. Then the long winded chasing down of the HWK began, with Conor flying brilliantly erratically to make Guri really work for her arc dodges. It was only a matter of time though, that end game favours Guri so heavily it was only a matter of time before the red dice swung it in my favour. 200-138 point win.

Round four saw me paired down. Alex Fletcher is a hero, he was flying a Decimator and Whisper, well a hero for the Decimator bit. I’ve not seen one on the table in 2.0 It is safe to say that while it is not terrible, it is not as good as it once was. Target number one was Whisper. Literally just ignored the Rear Admiral until the Phantom was dead, then the arc dodging began. Boba took a bad hit in one shot from RAC: Panicked Pilot, Hull breach and a Weapons Failure is not a great combination to receive, especially when you’re already stressed!

This is not Boba in his happy place….

Fortunately RAC and Boba were flying away from each other at the time so he was able to repair the damage before turning around, meanwhile Guri danced around the Deci chipping away a bit at a time. Alex was very kind and totally ignored a rock in the planning phase, then parked on it in the activation. I took full advantage and the following turn the Decimator exploded. 200-45 win.

At this stage on the day the pairings meant that only one player was on 4-0, Ben Barber, with several 3-1s someone was going to get paired up, and to balance my previous round I got to be the one to try and dent Ben’s perfect record for the day. Kavil, Guri and Palob awaited. First Palob died. Then my Guri got ioned once, ioned twice and then blown up… Boba took probably 2 turns too many to kill Kavil leaving an end game of 7 health Boba vs 5 health Guri. Moving second won this game for me, had Ben’s Viper been moving after my Spray I would probably have never got another shot on her, Ben’s really good with Guri. As it was Boba was able to dictate the terms of the engagement and eventually that 4 dice range one shot did her in, ending Ben’s illustrious run.

This IS Boba in a happy place…

4-1 having started with a loss was nice, coming in third behind Julian, Simran and finishing 11 MoV above Ben was a good way to end the day.

Sunday meant a visit to Firestorm Cards for one of their wonderfully relaxed 4 round events. Lost round one against Phill Pond who was flying two Arcs and AP-5. I guessed wrong, he guessed right, the torps wrecked Boba, Guri tried hard to pull it back, dropping the Sheathipede and halving one of the Arcs but the damage was done and when she had to chose between getting hit fully modded at range one, or getting hit by a fully moddded torp at range three I dove into range one and it went badly.

Game two was against Chris Morrell with Quickdraw, Backdraft and Stridan. My first look at the First Order in 2.0 and there is some potential there. QD is no where near as terrifying as she used to be, but we already knew that, and the Upsilon shuttle isn’t built to handle Guri, but we already knew that. I got the win here.

Game three against Alex Birt with Rey and 3 A-Wings. The plan was simple, Trade Boba for Rey and then Guri cleans up. I parked Boba in a place where he couldn’t not fly off the table, but it gave me the kill shot on Rey. Guri lucked out with 4 evades when Rey took the shot before Boba killed her. At which point Alex conceded because the A-Wing vs an almost full health Guri was going to be a long and slow game that Guri wins on points.

The final game of the weekend was against Mark Feldschreiber with Soontir, Vader and Vynder. Not the match up I wanted with two I6s. But a cunning sloop from Guri saw a quick end to an already injured Vader, then Gunboat then finally Soontir running from two ships went pop. Leaving me 3-1 and 3rd of the ten players for the day.

7-2 overall this weekend which means that in 2.0 I’m now 85 tournament games played, have won 56 of them giving me a win percentage of 66%. Two tournaments left with Boba Guri, but I’ve got a few ideas of where I’m headed afterwards, but more on that when it’s time.

In other Organised Play related news, a big shout out to Alex Watkins who has become the head of OP Worldwide. I’m lucky to count him as a friend and to have got to know him over the last couple of years. I will miss him when he jets off to FFG HQ but I really believe we’ve lucked out having such a conscientious and dedicated individual forging the future of not only X-Wing OP but every other system that comes out of Asmodee North America.

Tickets are on sale for the Italian and UK system opens (I’m going to both). It looks like the UK is going to once again break all records for the biggest event ever with over 500 of the 674 tickets selling in less that 24 hours! The first Australian Open has already sold out, I would love to have been able to go to that one… maybe next year.

Next Time: TO PORTSMOUTH!

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