My first X-Wing tournament

Last weekend, I attended my first X-Wing tournament at Fanboy Three in Manchester. Driving down with a friend, I brought a slightly modified version of the list I’d originally intended to use at a tournament last year (which in the end I couldn’t make it to, sadly). It features my favourite ship, the IG-2000, with matching upgrades to minimise chances of me forgetting anything(!).

IG-88B (36)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Fire Control System (2)
IG2000 title (0)
Black Market Slicer Tools (1)
Autothrusters (2)

IG-88C (36)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Fire Control System (2)
IG2000 title (0)
Black Market Slicer Tools (1)
Autothrusters (2)

My first game pitted me against another scum player, with a beautifully-repainted Firespray piloted by Kath Scarlett and a Shadow Caster with Asaaj Ventress. For the first half of the game my green dice were perfect, with both IG’s dodging all fire like they were teflon-coated! I managed to put down Kath with some focused heavy laser cannon fire, but lost IG-88B shortly afterwards to the Shadow Caster, and IG-88C took some heavy damage that left him without shields and only one hull left. I quickly realised that I couldn’t afford to turn my remaining shieldless IG-2000 around with a K-turn or Sengor’s Loop as I wouldn’t be able to chew through her remaining hull before she took me down with the return fire, and so kept boosting away to try and reach the end of the time limit – at which point the game would be decided by a final salvo, where the odds were slightly better for me. By this point we were reaching the end of the round, and time was called on my opponent’s turn. He completed his last manoeuvre, took his last shot – and, with a roll of blanks that balanced out my epic rolling earlier, IG-88C was shot out of the sky.

And so game one begins…

My first kill of the day! Kath Scarlett is focused down by my two assassin droids.

Amusingly, my second game was against my regular opponent who had come down with me! He was running the Millennium Falcon piloted by Han Solo, with Corran Horn in his E-Wing. I managed to get IG-88B behind the Falcon with his S-loop, while IG-88C turned around to flank Han. Unfortunately the Falcon then had a couple of bad turns where it hit asteroids, preventing it from firing back and allowing the assassin droids to take it down with sustained heavy laser cannon fire. Corran Horn swung back into the fight, but wasn’t able to face off against both IG’s at once, and went down to their guns in short order for a 100-0 victory. I felt quite bad about this one, as it could have been very different if the Falcon hadn’t hit those asteroids two turns in a row!

My third game was against the might of the Empire, featuring the Inquisitor in his TIE Advanced, Colonel Vessery and Omega Leader. Most of our ships deployed down one side of the board, with the Inquisitor on the opposite side. The first few turns were filled with jousting as both my IG’s and my opponent’s TIE/fo & Defender K-turning repeatedly. IG-88B was hammered by Vessery and taken down to his last hull point before I managed to finish off Omega Leader. IG-88B fell soon after as the Inquisitor raced into the fight, leaving IG-88C alone again. Not for long, though, as the combined firepower of the Imperial aces cut him down. Chatting with my opponent after the game, he confided that my mistake was going after Omega Leader – seeing his pilot ability and considering my usual reliance on the target locks from Fire Control System, I’d assumed that he should be my priority target – but he advised that I should’ve gone for one of the damage-dealers and left the TIE/fo for last. Lesson learned!

I try to joust against Vessery and Omega Leader.

IG-88C swings around with a Sengor’s Loop as IG-88B flees with one hull left!

My final game put me up against the Imperials again – Rear Admiral Chinnerau with Darth Vader and a Gunner on board, and a TIE Phantom piloted by Whisper. I like using the Phantom myself but haven’t really been on the receiving end, so was wary of the decloak shenanigans that she can pull. Once again in a moment of deja vu IG-88B was the first to be shot down, leaving his fellow brobot alone. I put Whisper down with a burst of range 1 firepower, leaving each of us with just one ship left. It was at this point that I realised how deadly his crew combination was, as Chinnerau doesn’t actually need to even hit in order to trigger Vader – so, thanks to his Gunner, he was able to potentially trigger Vader twice a turn. We finally ended up facing each other down, IG-88C on three hull points with a focus token, and Chinnerau on five hull. He attacked, rolling one hit, and I rolled three eyeballs for my defence. Considering the earlier turns where I’d managed to evade Chinnerau’s shots only to be hit twice by Vader, I opted to take the hit in the hopes of being able to return fire and finish off Chinnerau. He chose to use Vader’s ability…. and I flipped a direct hit from my deck, finishing off IG-88C. A very close game in the end!

I learn first-hand how deadly Darth Vader is!

After all that, the day was great fun and I certainly learnt some lessons on X-Wing tacticsa and strategies. All of my opponents were really nice people, and all the games were really enjoyable. It was nice that two of the three losses were rather close games that could have gone either way. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye open for any other X-Wing tournaments near me in the future.

Take care,

Ben

Scum v Scum – X-Wing battle report

Since I’ll be attending my first X-Wing tournament in just a few weeks, I thought I’d better get some practice in. Despite having been to many Malifaux tournaments before, I’ve never attended an X-Wing one, so I’m oddly nervous. Luckily, a friend who’s a bit more au fait with the tournament scene was kind enough to let me play a couple of games last week.

The first game started off with his Firespray and M3-A Interceptors deployed in one corner, with the Interceptors facing along his board edge. I opted for the simpler deployment of both my IG’s facing straight forward, with a decent bit of a gap between them. The game started with his Firespray turning towards the centre of the board, while the Interceptors raced along his deployment zone and my IG’s moved forwards. A few shots were traded, with IG-88B losing a couple of shields and taking Kath Scarlett’s shields down in response. Next turn, his Firespray moved to the middle of the board while the Interceptors swung around to face the IG2000’s. I revealed what I thought was a rather clever K-turn with IG-88B, which I thought would place him neatly on the other side of Kath Scarlett and ready to attack at range one. However, I’d misjudged the distance by a little bit and, rather than the graceful manoeuvre I had imagined, IG-88B ploughed straight into the side of the Firespray, becoming a sitting duck for the Interceptors whose heavy laser cannons promptly tore him apart. Facing three enemy ships by himself, IG-88C didn’t last long before the relentless barrage of heavy laser cannon fire took him down too. Lesson learnt – make sure to target the biggest threat in your opponent’s list first, rather than assuming you can just leave the little three-hull ships ’til last!

We played a rematch, and this time his Interceptors were placed on the far side of the board, with Kath facing the same way next to them. I set IG-88B up at the edge of my deployment zone, with IG-88C at a jaunty angle so he could follow in behind him this time. Both Aggressors moved forward, while the Interceptors moved forward at full speed and barrel-rolled to move away from the edge of the board. Kath, on the other hand, swung around to move diagonally towards my ships. IG-88B and C proceeded to conga line across the board, taking out an Interceptor early on. A mix of luck and the boost action kept them out of Kath’s firing arcs for three turns, giving them time to put down the other Interceptor. Two ships against one now – the odds seemed far more in my favour this time. Kath danced around, laying down some more damage and stripping the shields from IG-88B before I managed to get them both positioned behind her, revealing IG-88C’s dial first so that his fellow assassin droid bumped into the back of him rather than Kath – no action, but it meant both Aggressors could shoot the Firespray. And, in a final volley, my IG’s managed to finish off Kath and secure a victory.

So, I definitely need to work on my target priority. I think part of this is just that I don’t play X-Wing as frequently as Malifaux. Still, I’ll hopefully be getting a few more practice games in before the event itself!

Take care,

Ben

Planning for my first X-Wing tournament

I’ve recently bitten the proverbial bullet and signed myself up to an X-Wing tournament. Despite attending various Malifaux tournaments whenever I can, I’ve never been to an X-Wing tournament before. I’m not entirely sure what to expect, so to counter-balance this I’ve decided on a favourite simple list. At least this way, I won’t have to remember too much about my own ships!

IG-88B (36)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Advanced Sensors (3)
IG2000 title (0)
Black Market Slicer Tools (1)
Autothrusters (2)

IG-88D (36)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Advanced Sensors (3)
IG2000 title (0)
Black Market Slicer Tools (1)
Autothrusters (2)

(C) Fantasy Flight Games

IG-88 is my favourite pilot to fly in X-Wing – aside from being a cool character, I love his unique ability to share his pilot talent with his fellow brobots, and the concept of a large-based ship that flies like a small-base fighter really appeals to me. Both ships are fundamentally identical in-game as they have the exact same upgrades, and the IG2000 title lets them share pilot abilities too. Hopefully it’s a fairly well-rounded list – the Heavy Laser Cannon is always good for damage, while the Black Market Slicer Tools are there to deal with (or at least discourage) any enemy ships that decide to stress themselves. The Autothrusters should help IG-88 against any out-of-arc attacks, while the Advanced Sensors will let me take an action before revealing a red manoeuvre such a S-loop, for example. They’re a particular favourite of mine with IG-88D, since he opens up even more options for sneaky turns with his pilot ability.

(C) Lucasfilm

On the subject of pilot abilities, IG-88B and D tend to be my two go-two pilots. A’s pilot ability, while great, is really situational – it’s perfect against a TIE swarm, but not so great against a two-ship list. IG-88B seems to be everyone’s favourite, and it’s not hard to see why. His ability is one that will almost always be helpful at least once per game, especially given the IG2000’s double cannon slots. I do really like IG-88C’s ability, since action economy is always a good thing. However, of the two, IG-88D wins out by a millimetre with his extra S-loop options. I love being able to alter the dial after it’s been revealed, so his ability is right up my street. Of course, in an ideal world I’ll be playing a 200pt game or epic so I can take all four, but for this tournament I’ve decided to go with B and D.

To be honest, the main reason I’ve signed up is to meet other players, play against new lists and just have a fun day of X-Wing games. I don’t feel like I get to play quite enough games of X-Wing, so this’ll be a great way to get my fix. Plus, it’s during peak rush period at work, so a day off playing Star Wars sounds like a perfect way to relax.

I’ll do my best to write a report of how the day goes, and on the exploits of my brobots. Wish me luck!

Take care,

Ben

Painter’s block

As you may have guessed from the lack of recent posts, I’ve had a bit of what I suppose we should call painter’s block over the past few weeks. I can’t attribute it to a lack of time, or indeed models to paint given that I’ve a sizeable Frostgrave crew sitting on my table. Instead, I’ve been struggling to find the motivation to pick up a brush and start painting, and have instead been falling back on games that don’t require painting such as X-Wing and Magic: The Gathering. The EU Referendum hasn’t helped, either, but I shall avoid talking about that as this blog is meant to be about wargaming, not my political stance.

I did force myself to sit down on Sunday evening, planning both assembly (a Johan model I won at a tournament a while ago) and painting (my old metal Rasputina model, and Kirai – I don’t play Ressers, but she’s a lovely model and I have had a paint scheme in mind for ages now). I have repainted an A-Wing for Fantasy Flight’s X-Wing Miniatures Game in the last couple of days, however, which was great fun. I’d consider X-Wing to be my second game – it’s fast-paced, fun and, rather crucially, straightforward in terms of mechanics. The phrase, ‘Easy to learn, difficult to master’ has never been so true!

I started off X-Wing playing just the Empire – mainly because they could hire Boba Fett while the Rebels couldn’t. This was back in the early days before Scum & Villainy were a faction, of course. However, as of late (and due in no small part to the co-operative X-Wing campaign I’ve been playing in), I’ve begun to emulate my favourite TIE pilot, Soontir Fel, and started to defect to the Rebellion. This was brought about by the A-Wing in particular – the nippy little ship with its incredible dial chock-full of fast, green manoeuvres won me over. To me, they’re such fun to fly and encapsulate what drew me into X-Wing in the first place (well, alongside Boba Fett and the fact it’s Star Wars. I mean, come on – it’s Star Wars!) – the fast ships. I love the high-speed dogfights as ships vie and jockey for position, dancing around one another as they attempt to lock the other pilot in their sights while avoiding their enemy doing the same. Sure, I enjoy flying the slower or larger ships such as the TIE Bomber too, but ships like the A-Wing and the TIE Interceptor are what X-Wing is all about to me.

Back on tangent (stay on target…), here’s the repainted Green Squadron A-Wing. I started by dulling the model with a wash of Nuln Oil, giving some more depth to the detailing on the fuselage. The red parts were then painted in P3’s green, before being highlighted in a mix of Loren Green and P3 green. This was then washed with . Finally, I picked out the lines on the engine and the cockpit in a mix of Army Painter matt white and GW Astronomicon Grey, and repainted the missile tips in Cygnar blue base. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out, and am really looking forward to using it in this week’s campaign game. I’ve been informed that we’ll be dogfighting planetside this week as opposed to in space, so I’ll have to try and get some pictures…

Take care,

Ben

X-Wing narrative campaign update

First off, apologies for my silence over the last couple of weeks. It’s been a busy fortnight, compounded by running Malifaux demos all day at our local ComicCon which, if I’m honest, was pretty tiring and burnt me out somewhat by the end of the weekend! In between pulling overtime at the office and working out at the gym, I haven’t really had much time to do any modelling, so sadly things like my Frostgrave warband haven’t progressed at all.

However, at my local club, I’ve been participating in a narrative X-Wing campaign a friend is running. Each player has one ship to pilot, and we all fly as one squad against GM-controlled Imperial forces through various story missions. It’s great fun, and you can see all the rules here if you want. I started off with an X-Wing, managing to upgrade it with an Engine Upgrade and BB8… before an opportunistic TIE Fighter pilot shot me out of the sky. My pilot survived, but the X-Wing (and its upgrades) were totalled.

A-wing concept art by Ralph McQuarrie.

Time to purchase a new ship for my pilot so she could fly in the next mission. I toyed with going for an X-Wing again, but finally made the decision to fly an A-Wing instead – I’ve always played the Empire in regular games of X-Wing, and hoped the speed and agility of the A-Wing might be close enough to my beloved TIE Interceptors that I’d feel more at home piloting it!

The result, after the next game, was yes – A-Wings are so much fun to fly and fit my preferences far more than any other rebel ship! By the end of the game, my little A-Wing had clocked up an impressive kill-count of three TIE Interceptors (over 33% of my total kill count over the whole campaign so far!), as well as hounding a Lambda Shuttle for a good half of the game and stripping away most of its shields. I really enjoyed flying it, so my current challenge is to create an A-Wing centric squadron for use in regular games. I’ve also got ideas to repaint at least one of my A-Wing models, so hopefully that will kick-start my painting mojo once more.

Take care,

Ben

Looking back, looking forward: end of 2015 and the start of a new year

Like many of us, each year I like to take a little look back at the year, and try to plan some of the upcoming one. 2015’s been a pretty good year, I suppose, all told. The stand-out parts for me have to be the Malifaux doubles tournament at Element Games, as well as the charity swim I organised and completed, and raised over £700 for the Samaritans. To be honest, I’d consider that one of my most positive experiences in my life so far and one of the things I’m most proud of, especially since it was such a personal issue for me.

In 2016, I’d love to do something similar again, a triathlon perhaps, to raise more money for charities such as the Samaritans – I think it’s so important that people feel like there’s someone they can talk to, and that suicide isn’t the only option or the only way out.

On a lighter gaming-related note, I’m also aiming  to up my Malifaux tournament attendance – in an ideal world I’d love to attend at least one a month. Unfortunately my location means that most tournaments require substantial travelling, often with an overnight stay. I’m not averse to staying in a Premier Inn or the like – truth be told I kind of enjoy it actually! – but the costs do rack up fairly quickly. Still, I’m going to try and attend as many as I think I can, so we’ll see how far the limited budget stretches.

Pretty much my second resolution for 2016.

Another Malifaux-related goal for 2016 is going to be ‘Marcus Month’. As a full-time Arcanist player I generally think I’m pretty good at varying my masters so they all see time on the table – except Marcus. He’s quite different to the rest of them what with his focus on Beasts rather than Constructs and / or M&SU models, and I just haven’t used him enough to really be confident with him as I am with, say, Colette or Ironsides. So, this year I intend to make sure that changes by having a whole four weeks dedicated to Marcus. I’ll be writing about him, using him in every game, and picking up any Beast models still missing from my collection.

I think those are the main personal goals for next year – I’m happy with my regular gym routine and physical fitness, and my painting backlog is fairly minimal. I am getting back into X-Wing as well, so who knows, that may make an appearance or two over the coming year.

And, of course, thank you to all my readers for sticking with me another year :) I really do enjoy writing this blog, so it means a lot to me.

Take care, and all the best for 2016 to you all,

Ben

(Not such a) long time ago, on a gaming table far, far away…

I haven’t talked about this before here, but I’ve really gotten into Fantasy Flight’s X-Wing game. The original Star Wars trilogy was such a big part of my childhood, and watching the iconic beginning of A New Hope is a major memory for me. I still love the films today (well, the original three at least!), and my old LEGO Slave I is still perched on top of my bookcase, so I suppose it was inevitable that I’d give Fantasy Flight’s game a go sooner or later.

The game is great fun, and very different to other space or aerial combat games I’ve played – particularly the movement system. Both players use movement dials to secretly select a manoeuvre for each ship, placing it face-down and then revealing them at the same time. Ships move in order of pilot value, but are locked into the manoeuvre they’ve chosen. You not only have to try and guess what your opponent’s ships will be doing, but you also need to be good at guessing – since you can’t pre-measure anything, I’ve found it’s all too easy to manoeuvre too sharply and plough straight through an asteroid! Additional abilities called Actions can be performed after each ship moves, from acquiring a target lock to doing a barrel roll, and help add an extra level of thought to the game.

The combat is quite fast-paced too, meaning that there’s little ‘down time’ for each player as the action quickly moves around and players will find themselves alternately blasting away at the opponent and trying to dodge the return fire. The combat system is based on a unique D8 and each ship’s individual stats. Ships only really have four statistics each – damage, evasion, hull points and shields – so it’s a nice, fluid system. As one player attempts to damage a ship the other attempts to evade the incoming fire, so it’s nice to have both players doing something rather than one player standing around while another rolls seemingly-endless buckets of dice. The guys over at Will Wheaton’s Tabletop series do a good job of explaining the basic game in their video, so if you’re interested and want to see a game in action I’d recommend them and have put the video below.

 

The models are also absolutely gorgeous, and incredibly well-detailed. Fantasy Flight were actually given access by LucasArts to the original TIE Fighter models used in Episode IV, so they are particularly true to form! They come pre-painted, which seems to divide some people. Personally I’m happy – it means less painting to do and more time to paint my Wood Elves – and I understand that they’re fairly easy to repaint. I intend to pick up a second Firespray at some point to repaint in Jango Fett’s Episode II colours, so will do a post here with the results when I do eventually find the time to get another.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found any easy way to see the stats for each ship before buying them. There’s no codex equivalent, or (as far as I know) any official way to download PDF’s of ship stats a lá first edition Malifaux. It’s a shame, as while a good 50% of my wargaming purchases is me liking the model, the remaining 50% is influenced by how it’ll play and work in-game. Still, this hasn’t stopped me from amassing a good-sized Imperial fleet so far, and at least a quick Google search tends to bring up at least the basic stats for each ship.

Overall the game seems pretty balanced so far, and I’m really enjoying it. I’d certainly recommend it if you’re a Star Wars fan, or if you want a new aerial assault game to play as the rules are pretty fluid and well-written. If you already play it let me know what you think of it in the comments! :)

Take care,

Ben