The big events are coming thick and fast at the moment. Whilst I’ve still not been able to attend a Hyperspace Trial as of yet, we’re not long removed from the System Open, and this past weekend was the excellent UKTC.

Playing as a team makes for a very different day, and a very enjoyable one at that. No longer do I have to worry about Steve Boulton’s infuriatingly-good L’ulo skills or Lian Smith’s Rebel Beef (or maybe that should be gammon after what I saw him eat the night before…). Now they’re playing with me and not against me. Yep, this weekend saw us reform the 3PO(o)s over in Milton Keynes for the day. Last year we’d reached the giddy heights of 6th overall (no thanks to me) so could we get anywhere close to that this time?

I stick with my now-trusted Anakin, Luminara and 2 Torrents list. It’s so much fun to fly. Plus I literally haven’t flown anything else since the System Open. Steve is flying (cheating with) Resistance, and Lian has brought Rebels. Good guys assemble!

The day certainly started off with a tough challenge, being matched up with the 186th Crazy team of Phil GC, Martyn Chivers, and Dale Cromwell. Phil’s individual bid matched our entire team bid (23 points), so that was a bit of an arse! I get paired into Martyn and his First Order (Kylo, Quickdraw, Muse), and pull out the win mostly thanks to Martyn running Kylo into a predictable alley and allowing me to killbox him, and then finish the job with Anakin on the next turn. I lose a Torrent and give up half of the other and half of Luminara. 200-70. Sadly my two teammates are defeated and we lose the round 2-1. The submarine is on!

Round 2 sees us paired up against the Cloud City Underdogs, and a game against Rob who’s flying Wedge and 3 A-wings (Jake, Arvel and a generic). I get the generic A-wing off the board quick, and Wedge follows not long after. However, Rob masterfully piloted his two remaining A-wings, leading me on a wild chase all over the board, and one that didn’t end until the final shot of the game. This one ended 200-91, as I lost both Torrents this time and half on Anakin. Steve and Lian both won also, giving us a 3-0 win and levelling us at 1-1 overall.

After lunch it’s on to face D20 Squadron, and a Clone Wars-esque game against Chris’ Separatists – a droid swarm supported by Watt Tambor. Somehow this one got away from me in the midgame after what had seemed a decent opening. I think I got a bit greedy with the Jedi and tried to knife fight for too long when I should have disengaged as both Jedi died with all their R2 charges unused. That was dumb. Old habits die hard I guess, but I make a mental note to check my aggression going forwards. 125-200 is the score, and sadly we lose the round 2-1 despite Lian winning on an 81-81 tie followed by a re-rolled final salvo!

At 1-2, we now couldn’t match our 4-1 result at last year’s event. A bit of a bummer, but it’s all good fun. We didn’t come with the idea we could win this thing, we’re just here to enjoy playing spaceships with great friends and have a laugh.

So it’s onto game 4 against Zombies Baby, and I get my first game against a Han Solo since he became the ‘in-thing’. Han, Jake, and Arc Norra, so not quite the full-fat Han, but he still has Dampeners, Kanan, R2-D2, Trick Shot. I manage to tag Jake early after Stephen, my opponent, unfortunately forgot he had a Damaged Sensor Array from the previous turn, leaving Jake unable to boost to safety. I mostly ignore Norra and focus on taking down Han, managing to catch him in a nice 3-way killbox that burns a significant amount of health. Once Han goes down it’s just a case of not being silly with the Jedi and regenning their shields so they give up no points. 142-50 with just the loss of the Torrents. Steve and Lian complete our second 3-0 victory.

Final matchup of the day, and at 2-2 we should get a nice easy game to round things off, right? No, how about fate deals us the defending champion Weekend Warlords! Fantastic guys (as was everyone to be fair) but certainly an intimidating matchup on paper. We have the bid and pair me into Tim’s Resistance A-wings as that’s by far my best matchup. My main force slowly advances in the middle testing to see where Tim will commit whilst Anakin mirrors Tallie and L’ulo opposite him, waiting for an opening. Thankfully this is not Steve’s seemingly-indestructible L’ulo I’m dealing with, and Anakin munches on him in two turns once in range. The A-wings struggle to put damage into me, especially the Jedi who shrug off almost every attack that comes their way and Luminara keeps helping with the Torrent’s survival. Until the final round that is, when Luminara has a fright and is suddenly reduced to one hull. But all I’ve lost is a single Torrent aside from that and I take the game 123-57. As it turns out, we all win again and take the round 3-0. Also, Rasta does a great West Country impression.

So weirdly every round we either lost 2-1 or won 3-0. Which ends up making us the very top team of those on 3-2 and squeaks us into the top 10 again in 9th place (out of 40). And with as many individual wins as the top 3 teams – not too shabby at all! Thanks to everyone we played, it was both a pleasure and a privilege. And hats off to the organisers too for putting on a great day of pew pew.

I suppose the only downside was spending half an hour wandering around Milton Keynes afterwards trying to find where I’d parked the car. It all looks the bloody same!