This article is A LONG time coming. I played this event last weekend, on Saturday, so a full 8 days ago as of this writing. Most of the reason is because, with the move and checking into my new job, I’ve been too busy to even really thin about X-Wing, let alone write about it.

The other reason is a little more insidious – I was having a lot of doubt about my ability or desire to continue in the competitive game after the Annapolis HST. I got tilted in game 5, and I feel like I took it out on my game 5 and 6 opponents. I didn’t fly as well as I have in the past, and I let it affect how I acted and flew, leading me to make more mistakes. I don’t really know what I was doing with Fel, in any of the games, and gave him up easily at least three times.

To add to it, there is little or no X-Wing community in my new city. There are a couple of guys who get together occasionally (I’m hoping to meet them on Monday,) but for the most part, there’s no tables to fly on here. Legion, instead, is the popular game, and I may be shifting over to it more than X-Wing in the near future. Still playing Imperial though!

I do intend to get Tabletop Simulator up and running, to continue to play my preferred game there, and will still be travelling to Gardener, MA for their HST next weekend. I’ll be flying the Circus once again, and hopefully not for the last time, at that event. In the meantime, you don’t read these to hear me complain, you read them to hear about some X-Wing! As a reminder, The Circus:



Going into this event, I was 18-3 with this list. I felt extremely confident with it, being able to trace my losses to mistakes that I made and (more importantly,) could prevent in the future. We had 42 players, which was just over the threshold for 6 full rounds, which meant we lost our lunch break! Luckily, I brought snacks.

Game 1: Kristoff Sote

I came into this game with an aggressive approach, which was greatly aided by L’ulo taking the long way around some obstacles and being completely out of the fight at the beginning. Some killer rolls on both parts resulted in 2 dead ships, but since Bastian is worth quite a bit more than one of my bombers, I was out ahead.

Snap was my next target, but he survived this and proved to be quite annoying with his Composure trick. Kristoff nuked one of my TIEs off the table, but I brought down L’ulo in exchange, putting me firmly in the lead, since both X-Wings were hurt (Snap was on 1 or 2 hull) while one of my bombers had a scratch. Snap went down in trade for another TIE a round or 2 after the A-Wing fell.

After half-pointing the remaining bomber, Jess succumbed to the might of the Empire. I came away with the win 200-102, with 2 dead TIEs, a dead bomber, and a half-pointed bomber. Shaking off the first-round nerves with a win felt great, and had me full of confidence going into Game 2.

Game 2: Jeff Brown

The dreaded Sinker Swarm. To my recollection, I haven’t ever actually faced it with any list, but felt like I should approach it like a Howlrunner swarm – kill whatever is presented. Sinkers ability doesn’t do anything if there aren’t any more ships to re-roll dice, and then Sinker can get die whenever it’s convenient. Especially with the hull upgrade, I didn’t want to pour shots into Sinker early on. A round 2 pot-shot did a shield to the 104th, so I poured everything I had into it, wiping it off the table. Unfortunately, I lost 2 TIEs in the process, putting me slightly behind. A terrible move with Fel bumped him into my own TIE, leaving him out to dry in front of the entire swarm with only his innate Focus, so he naturally died. So did my other TIE. In exchange, I did a couple of damage to a Torrent. Needless to say, I was in trouble. My bombers turned it on, doing damage to a couple torrents before I realized what I should have done from the beginning – Kill Sinker!

After losing a bomber, Sinker finally went down. My bomber flew like a banshee, dodging arcs like crazy, but still only managed to half-point another Torrent before he also went down, giving me a 147-200 loss. I definitely learned my lesson against the Sinker Swarm here – kill that fat ARC as soon as possible, those re-rolls hurt!

Game 3: Brian Walling

I have seen the videos of this style of list storming the Extended format, so I figured that I was in for a rough time against it. However, I have a pretty good track record against Decimators with the Circus, and with one of the Inquisitors down on the flank and out of the fight, I felt good about the engagement. After the opening shots, Fel zipped behind RAC and stared down an Inquisitor, trading shots for no damage on either side. Meanwhile, everything else created what could best be described as a mess in the center of the board.

My bombers started pouring shots into the Decimator while the TIEs harassed the V1s, which were doing their part in wearing down my bombers. I don’t think Brian was expecting me to commit the bombers so heavily to chasing RAC, but I definitely wasn’t expecting Fel to bump into 3 V1s in a row, resulting in his early demise. He did his part on the way out, however, taking 2 Inquisitors off the table while I continued to wear down the Decimator with the swarm.

The end of the game was extremely tense, as my remaining TIE went down, both bombers were on half, and the Inquisitors and Bombers both cost the same. When the dust settled at the end of time, I scraped by with a 163-162 win, only because I had a bid. What a ludicrously close game!

Game 4: Tom Zych

Finally, an Ace list! I love playing against Aces, as I feel my list preys on them pretty hard. I obviously lose the bidding way, but that means my Fel can act as a blocker against the enemy I6s. Both Fels did their thing early game, acting as flankers against the opposing lists. I took an early pot-shot at Vader, which managed to strip his shields, while my bombers set up to nuke Duchess off the board – a relatively default opening against this style of list for me. I started to show my fatigue here, as the red bomber is sitting pretty on that rock with no shot on Fel.

My bombers swing up and get excellent shots against a blocked Vader, so rather than take down Duchess, I instead removed the Sith Lord from the board. The Fels take long-range pot-shots, and mine would have gotten the kill if it weren’t for the Shield Upgrade. Both survive at a single hull remaining while Duchess trades with the Academys. Duchess tears off after my Fel, who flees down the board in an attempt to get away from her. This leaves Tom’s Fel to lay into my swarm, and he carves a swath of destruction through it, killing a bomber and 2 TIEs before coming out the other end.

Both Fels survive this exchange as well, but while his turns in to help the Striker, mine S-Loops over and lines up right on him, bringing his doppelganger down. The following turn leaves both Fel and the remaining bomber at Range 1 of a 1-hull Striker, which spells her doom and gives me the 200-153 win.

Game 5: Stephen Michel

This list scared me more than a little. The SFs have a ton of health, there were a lot of attack dice and arcs to worry about, and Kylo is a monster to try to follow, let alone attack. I still feel like I got a decent engagement off, but left my initial target alive. That target (the I1 Epsilon) then K-turned in front of my bombers and caused chaos for my best ships.

Fel slammed straight into Kylo, and then my own Academy, then another different Academy, then my box of ships on the side of the table, and did absolutely nothing the entire game. I murdered the FOs first, just to get guns off the table, but any shot I had on Kylo, I took. The whiny Sith wannabe evaded a ton of damage, but still lost his shields. I was never able to put another damage on him.

Eventually, the rear guns of the SFs proved to be just as effective as their front, and wore down my ships enough for Kylo to pounce. In rapid succession, he eliminated each of my remaining TIEs and the bomber, without me getting much in return. Just like Game 2, one of my bombers survived FAR longer than it should have, and even managed to kill one of the SFs, but it was too little, too late, and I fell with a 108-200 loss.

Game 6: Rowan Erb

I was a little tilted from my play the previous game, having left my favorite ship out to dry and failing to deal any damage to the Silencer. I went into this game knowing that I had to win to have a chance at the cut, but feeling like I had already thrown it away entirely. The opening potshots went poorly for me, putting the lead bomber on half for a single Seastriker shield.

Getting into the scrum, Fel took a shield or 2 off of Poe, and my ships fired into Joph, trying to taking him down quickly, but failing. Rowan flew like an absolute pro, slipping out of my arcs and forcing target switches while tearing apart my list piecemeal. I managed to strip shields from both other X-Wings, and kept putting up traps, but each time, the target would slip right through.

I was so out of it, I completely forgot that Poe would be left drifting after this turn, with Fel and a TIE in a great position to zip in and secure a kill, but I completely botched it. Half of Joph and Nein later, I walk away with the 83-200 loss and my hopes of the top cut dashed.

I really can’t say enough great things about the event, outside of my record. The venue was huge, awesome, and had a great parking area. They provided bagels for everyone for breakfast. The event was run by tabletop.to, which means the overall records are still view-able here. 24th out of 42 puts me soundly in the bottom half, though it was still decent enough to get evade tokens to match my focus tokens from Seattle. I got a couple of awesome promo cards from some of my opponents, which I am still grateful for.

I don’t want to end my journey of X-Wing, and have no intention of dropping the game. I am going to start working to get more players in the Groton / New London area of Connecticut, the same way I did years ago in St. Marys, Georgia. For now though, I’ve got to re-evaluate my play-time. For my question of the day, How many readers play Legion? What about one of the other FFG Star Wars games, like Destiny or Armada? Would Legion reports be something anyone would be interested in? Let me know!

Next time: Hyperspace Trials continue!