A weekend with no tournaments, it’s a rarity. The brilliant Infinity Wars, laundry and catching up on Netflix has been most welcome. Since the Copenhagen Open 10 weeks ago I have played in 16 tournaments… that’s quite a a lot of travel and games!

This week has been all about Boba Kath. I’ve been wanting to go back to them for an age, but have some real reservations due to some of the more prominent lists in the game at the moment. The Firespray can melt in the face of the TLT, they’re not overly keen on bombs and they don’t really like taking more than one lot of munitions in a game. Miranda Doni having all these things makes her one of my less favourite things…

But they do have the answers to a lot of things at the moment. It was my visit to the Warlords a couple of weeks ago that has convinced me to give them another go. Then last week going 5-5 with my beloved Boba Fenn and realising that in many of those match ups Boba and Kath would have as much chance of winning those games clinched the deal.

Some people like to think that dice aren’t a significant part of X-Wing. Try telling that to Oli Pocknell, who after topping swiss in the German Open, was unable to clear a Damaged Sensor Array for 7 consecutive turns on his Kylo in the first round of the cut, that’s dice. Or to Martyn Chivers when I fired a single harpoon into his Kylo Ren, and he exploded, that’s dice. Dice don’t care how well you fly, how good you are, if you think you can go through life in X-Wing without there being a game changing dice roll once in a while then you’re somewhat deluded. Sure it’s not the norm but it does happen.

There are certain things that you can do to mitigate dice as much as possible (chief of which is to only have to roll them when the odds favour you) but luck is a part of any dice game.

Rolling a red dice you have a 50% chance of rolling a side that does damage. If you have a focus token then that jumps up to a 75% chance of hitting your opponent.

Rolling a green die you have a 37.5% chance of rolling a natural evade. If you have a focus token that jumps in probability to a 62.5% chance of rolling an evade.

These base factors in the game are the building blocks of X-Wing. It is geared more towards causing damage in it’s core mechanic than it is to negating damage. Therefore the actual value of things that increase the odds of avoiding damage are worth significantly more than things that increase damage. Provided you meet the conditions of Autothrusters triggering one of your green dice has a 75% chance of Evading, that dice is twice as good as your other green dice, it’s better than an unmodified attack dice.

Other things like Concord Dawn Protector adding a full evade when it’s conditions are met make its cost of one point seem incredible value. And we won’t even consider the massive value you get from something like Reinforce, simply the BEST action in the game. But no matter what upgrades you take to mitigate damage, because of the way the dice are built, damage dice are even more potent.

If we go to the red side of the process and look at attack modifiers maths says that re-rolls and modifiers are even more effective. Dengar is the king of scum crew because he re-rolls multiple attack dice. Expertise makes all your red dice have a 75% chance of hitting so long as you aren’t stressed. The more red dice you are rolling the more valuable it becomes as an upgrade, if you throw in munitions with Guidance Chips then red dice can be insanely consistent.

After Reinforce the most valuable action you can take in the game is to Evade. A green Focus result has a 25% chance of appearing, but for that to be any use you need a focus token. If you have to chose between a Focus and an Evade when defending the Evade is statistically the best option going.

But why am I looking at this in relationship to Firesprays?

The Firespray has a unique load out, like every ship in the game. It has it’s own personality defined by its upgrade slots and dial. This is me making a case for the greatness of the ship without the emotive appeal of it being Slave 1. The Firespray can’t take Autothrusters, or Concord Dawn Protector.

But it CAN take Expertise, Dengar, the K4 Security Droid, Cannons, Munitions and everything else that make things hittier. The right combination of these things mean that the ship can be free to take that invaluable Evade token every turn. Optimising it’s red dice means it can hit harder than almost anything else in the game. Lone Wolf Dash, FCS Quickdraw… they have to push themselves to keep up with a Firespray when it’s in the mood. The only ship that scares me in a direct joust is a fully decked out Rey in the Falcon, but she’s a comes in as more expensive.

The point I’m making here is an old one that I have mentioned before. X-Wing is essentially a damage race and red dice are easier to modify than green dice are. The Firespray is designed to do red dice well, far more effectively than it is to do green dice. If I do what I can to maximise the consistency of my red dice then I force my opponent’s green dice to have to work for them, and hopefully take the pressure off my green dice. The only problem is that there are a lot of things in the game at the moment that can maximise their red dice too.

So I’m setting about building as effective a damage machine as I can. A big thank you to fellow 186th member and statistical wizard Tom Duncan for helping me do some maths!

Kath is set. Her build is the Dengar, Expertise, Heavy Laser Cannon that I totally stole from Julian Rincon. She comes in at a hefty 52 points leaving 48 points to play with on Boba. That puts her on a consistent 77% chance of four hits.

Previously I’ve always gone straight for the throat with Boba, get in really fast, pop glitterstim and trust in re-rolls, but that might not always be the best approach. Dishing out as much damage as possible on the way in could well be worth a look.

So here is the Boba that I have come up with:

Adaptability – If I want to go up PS (for the likes of Rey, the Inquisitor and Miranda) then I can. If I’m moving before you anyway then I can drop to PS7, which means that I can have the harpoons fire AFTER Kath fires the Heavy Laser Cannon. More chance of getting that crit through from the Guidance Ghips.

Harpoon Missiles – They’re the best ordinance in the game. Simple. So I’m taking them.

Extra Munitions – They give me a second lot of Harpoons missiles. Seems to make sense.

Guidance chips – a guaranteed crit when I fire my munitions, well, that sounds good.

Slave 1 – Not only does it mean Boba is flying his own ship properly but it’s the upgrade that lets me take Extra Munitions.

K4 Security Droid – The lynch pin in the build, it give Boba the free lock that lets him unleash his Missiles and means that he can still take a focus or evade as sees fit.

With his harpoons he’s even more consistent that Kath.

So my 100 points look like this:

Boba Fett Kath Scarlett Adaptability Expertise K4 Security Droid Dengar Harpoon Missiles Heavy Laser Cannon Slave One Guidance Chips Extra Munitions

The list has vulnerabilities. Any lists with heavy damage mitigation are going to be an issue. Going with maths there are certain configurations of lists that are going to cause it some real problems, rebel Fenn, Lowhhrick. Basically any rebel list that can shut down the damage output is going to be a pain to fly against, OP3 lists particularly (but then that style of list is the hard counter to pretty much anything I write).

It’s not subtle, but it is efficient. It’s first run out at Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke on Wednesday night saw it go 4-1 for the evening so it definitely deserves further exploration. Any list that expects a 77%+ chance of 8 hits a turn has my attention. Hitting first isn’t the key, hitting hardest is.

I did have a somewhat surreal moment during the week, seeing this come up in the UK/IRL Facebook group:

Two top players on Vassal both took my Boba Fenn list, submitted it for their league match and found out that they were going to play a mirror match. Of course, I had to watch the game.

Never have I looked forward to sitting in front of my lap top for a virtual game of X-Wing as much.

I was a great game to watch, both players fly way less aggressively than I do. And they both pulled off some very clever moves in the in the match-up. Ola Juhlin(obi wan ola) got the win.

I found it really interesting to see the different approaches that they took to how I would have played it. Their game went to time, I don’t know if I’ve ever done that with a firespray. Well played gents, if you have a rematch I want to watch it!

Next weekend is a bank holiday in the UK and I’ve got three events to go to. I’ll be at Firestorm Cards on Saturday, on Sunday at Warboar for the ETC qualifying event, and Monday it’s a trip to Ibuywargames… that’s a lot of games to be had! Between now and then I’m going to be glued to twitch watching Worlds (when not at work).

Good luck to everyone heading over, especially my squad mates Jesper Hills, Andy Brazier, Alex Birt, Ben Lee, Dale Cromwell and Mishary Al-Faris. However, if none of them win it, Julian Rincon is going to be flying Boba Kath so I’d really like him to.

Whatever wins it, I really hope it doesn’t have a TLT….

Next Week: DOES THEORY WORK?

If you’re looking for X-Wing Tournaments then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar