Last weekend we had the small matter of the two biggest X-Wing tournaments in history, tough act to follow. The event that gets the dubious honour of following up is the Sheffield Regional hosted by Patriot Games. It’s the last regional of the year in the UK in what has been a crazy busy few weeks. I’m making the 210 mile trip north on Good Friday and have a bed for the night with Sean from Patriot games, heading back down on Sunday (if I do well enough to need to stay a second night!), not too keen all that driving in one day!

I’m sticking with Dash Poe, and probably will for the next few weeks, at least until the Italian Open towards the end of April. Every event is practice for the next event after all.

Poe Dameron Dash Rendar Black One Outrider Intensity Lone Wolf Autothrusters Engine Upgrade BB-8 Rey Primed Thrusters Heavy Laser Cannon

The way you can tell if a list has become loved or not is how much painting has been done on it. I booked Monday off after the Open cause experience says “don’t even try it…” and I bought into a colour scheme I’ve seen a fair few times on the YT-2400.

It also matches the colour scheme I painted my Corran Horn in for the ETC last year, which makes Dash my Black 3.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I used to think Dash was purely X-Wing on easy mode, and compared to many ships in the game he’s definitely not hard mode. Him and rocks is ridiculous but there are so many things in the game that trump him at the moment. The skill in flying him is getting range control right WHILST dodging arcs AND maintaining your action economy.

It’s more than I had thought about before picking him up. Against lower pilot skill ships this isn’t difficult but against the abundance of higher pilot skill ships we’re currently seeing out there it’s not that easy. I have a whole list of things that I need to learn how to manage with him.

When I was practicing at Firestorm Cards before the open Nic Harris commented that I need to slow down when playing him. Anyone who has played me will know that I am quick at this game, my dials go down fast, I make my decision fast and I rarely go to time. It’s my play style.

With the likes of Rey, Boba, Fenn the thought process is always “where can my firing arc do the most damage?” and generally there are one or two optimal moves so you just pick the one you think gets you into the most damaging position. It’s a very direct and often high risk approach. If you simply pick the optimal move every time with Dash every time he becomes to easy to read, and dies.

You have to anticipate where your opponent is likely to be going the next turn in response to your move, and the move you’re going to do the turn after that to evade that. With multiple ships on the table you have to work out which one of them you are happiest to take shots from and then how to make sure that only that ship will have the option of doing so. Preferably keeping obstacles between you and as many enemy ships as possible, and having two focus tokens, and not being at range one of any of them, and at least keeping his wing-man at range three to trigger Lone Wolf.

Well that’s how good Dash pilots fly him. I still have a long way to go to getting that stuff right all the time!

Patriot have put on a good show and there are 110 people here. Quantity and quality. Looking around the room there’s a bunch of Weekend Warlords, some of the Harlequins boys have come across for it. Plenty of other top players, James Finlayson and Alex Bruce, OJ Hemmings (who have all had very impressive regional seasons) have made the trip meanwhile a solitary 186th has made the long journey north. (me…)

Every game has a story to tell, and every game has lessons to learn, The Full Monty title of this blog is obviously a reference to the film of the same name set in Sheffield. It is also a saying for when something has everything (the saying came before the film) and this tournament did exactly that.

Round 1 Sean Milligan – The Favourable Match

Sean was running Ventress and a Contracted Scout, which is a list that I like, but Poe and Dash like it more. The Rebels have plenty of game in this pairing as they are able to range control every turn. I felt confident that I could win the game so long as I remained at range three (predominantly with Dash) and and use the Heavy Laser Cannon to my advantage.

Sean’s list had consistent Damage output, with the Punishing One title, Dengar crew and Expertise on the Scout meaning that getting close to it was not an option. He came in very hard and fast with Ventress, committing probably a little to early and splitting his ships up allowing me strip the shields off the Shadow Caster in the opening engagement. Had he bough both his ships in with a co-ordinated opening attack this game could have gone very differently.

I won the game 100-28, the HLC and Lone Wolf did their thing keeping damage consistency up and three green dice with Lone Wolf kept the return damage manageable. This was a tough round one pairing for Sean.

Round 2 Lee Russel – The Almost Mirror Match

Lee had two slight differences in his list to mine. No Engine on his Dash and Plasma Torps on his Poe. Still he had a better initiative bid than me so elected to make me move and shoot first. Not ideal but I’ve played it before and will no doubt (shortly) play it again. I was able to isolate Lee’s Poe and drop him (in exchange for my Poe dropping to PS0 cause of a a damaged cockpit) which while frustrating still mean I had the 2-1 advantage in guns firing.

Both my ships were moving first he had to be careful to not get the wrong trade off. My Dash was more expensive than his also meant that as the YT-2400s hammered each other with the HLCs the points were always in my favour so he had to come for me, which suited my list down to the ground. I won the game 100-28, and all the things I did right in this game I promptly did wrong in the next…

Round 3 Rasta Maice – The Perfect Mirror Match

I’ve wanted to play George for ages, he’s one of the top pilots in the UK, and we get on really well. I’m using his list. He’s flown it a lot more than me. He won the initiative roll. I got the opening wrong, he got it right. My Dash was a millimeter away from having a shot on his Poe in the opening engagement, his Dash was not. A Blinded Pilot on my Dash at really unhelpful time, and it was essentially game over. He knew both his ships could close in and take advantage the following turn, which they duly did.

I was able to take his Dash out as a consolation, and I lost he game 56-100, but I was really happy with how I flew and know that had the initiative roll gone the other way the game could have been very different. This game was easily the highlight of the day, I’m looking forward to the next one!

Round 4 – Kester Smith – The “What is That?” Match

Kester had standard issue Vader and a Decimator, but it wasn’t Oicunn or RAC. Which totally confused me, and threw off my game! I love seeing things that aren’t normal on the table and this Deci ticks that box.

I think I have the list right:

Commander Kenkirk Darth Vader Lone Wolf Veteran Instincts Rebel Captive Engine Upgrade Ysanne Isard Tie X/1 Agent Kallus Advanced Targetting Computer Thermal Detonator Extra Muntions Engine Upgrade

I have never seen a decimator that mitigates damage before, and the Rebel Captive really ruins Dash’s day. Between me not really knowing how to hand the Deci (I think I called it RAC for 95% of the game) and Kester flying the list with clearly a lot of practice I lost this one.

As so often is the case good flying is rewarded by good dice, and Poe getting his second Damaged Cockpit of the day really didn’t help. At the key turn his Decimator would have had no choice but to bump into Black One and sit exposed to shots from both ships the following turn, only for Poe to suddenly be moving first and that not to happen.

Then excellent flying from Kester saw a permanently stressed Dash (thanks to both Rebel Captive and a Loose Stabilizer crit on the YT) hunted down. Keeping the Decimator coming in fast to put the pressure on while sitting back and biding his time with Vader meant Dash was not in a happy place. If it hadn’t been for that particular crit Dash could have probably done more, but unfortunately… 32-100 loss.

This is one of the strengths of a list like Kester’s. People don’t see it coming, every other ship I played against today I have flown, I know what it can and can’t do, but I’ve never seen a Decimator that mitigates 2 damage every turn. Well played sir.

Round 5 – Mark Ruthven – The “I got Greedy” Match

Mark was flying Ventress (time warp) and Dengar, and killed Dash Fast. He played it well and I was left with a two health Poe was left to face a one health Ventress and a nearly full health Punishing one. But bloody hell Poe did a good job! I wanted to try and kill his Ventress but wisely Mark disengaged with her and you just can’t ignore expertise Dengar, so Poe stayed and danced with the Punishing one for a very long time.

I had to use Intensity to take Focus and Evade at every possible opportunity, slowly but surely whittling away at Dengar, until he dropped after Mark took a wrong turn and gave me the range one shot out of arc. Dengar gone but Poe on one health.

Then I got greedy. Winning on points but wanting the kill shot. What Poe should have done was keep his distance, keep the tokens and play for a bit of time, maybe even disengage. But running away isn’t how X-Wing should be played… however making a bad call about when to take the engagement on shouldn’t happen either.

I misjudged where a barrel roll would put me and landed on debris taking a stress, at which point my 3 hits at range one were avoided because of the stress and a tokenless Poe died to the return fire from Ventress. It had been a thrilling game though so I couldn’t really complain and the fact that Poe had done SO much leg work on his own was very pleasing, it’s been a while since he was the saviour in the list not Dash. Had I not been greedy I would have won that game, but c’est la vie… 76-100 loss.

Round 6 – Stephen Bottomley – The “And that’s why I changed my list” Match

Stephen’s list was beautiful, oh my, it made me smile just to see it on the table. Fenn Rau, Old Terroch and Thweek. How can I not love that list? At 96 points I was moving first again, and suitably worried.

The Scum came in hard and fast and then reminded me why I had to put Fenn down a few weeks ago… Dash’s opening shot of the game resulted in three hits and a crit on Old Terry, Stephen promptly blanked out and pulled a double damage. One shot one kill. Stephen did nothing wrong, the dice just totally bailed on him and it was a stark reminder to me of why I had to drop Boba Fenn. When variance goes a bit squewey the protectorate really suffers.

Poe then caught Thweek at range 2, 2 natural crits against a tokenless Star Viper and another double damage went through. Fenn started to Push the Limit which restricts his dial so much, the three forward isn’t enough for dealing with stress, especially against Dash, and I cashed in the 100-0 to finish the day 3-3.

Variance might not balance out in a game (Kester’s red dice were superb in game 4 and mine were woeful) but they do balance out over the course of 6 games (my dice in game 6 were on point, and Stephen’s were not), it’s one of the joys and frustrations of X-Wing.

Of course I was disappointed not to do better on the day, but I came 41st out of 110 pilots, near the top of the 3-3s, learned some lessons, played some great games but most of all had fun! The 8 hour round trip was entirely worth it.

But my favourite story of the day isn’t about me, it’s about one of my mates! This is from my blog a couple of weeks ago:

The winner of the day was Sim Pone, another quality showing from a pilot who just keeps getting better. Today he was flying the Polish Aces list (Quickdraw, the Inquisitor and Yorr) and won 6 games out of 6. He’s also on the journey of flying a list that you love and trying to perform increasingly consistently, and he’s doing a great job.

On Wednesday I got this message from Sim:

Of course my response was to come and play X-Wing! So last minute Sim booked a ticket and a hotel and then this happened:

He only went and won the bloody thing! His first cut at a big tournament in two years and he does it. Making the cut by beating Ghost Fenn, making the final by beating Ghost Fenn… Well done buddy, I wouldn’t be happier if I’d won it… well maybe I would, but I dunno! Have to wait until next year now…

So that’s a few more games to add to the tracker. Current Assessment: Must do better.

Total Tournament Games Played 50 Win Ratio 64% +/- -2%

Now that Regional season is done it’s onto Store Champs season and they’re already beginning to get booked in. Just because they are smaller events doesn’t mean they are any less tough. I finished second at two last year, it’d be nice to try and do better than that this year.

Next Time: A WEEKEND WITH THE WARLORDS

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