Monday 4 May 2015

Strap in....it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Hello people,

Bit of a busy week culminating with the X-Wing Regional tourney at Milton Keynes run by the rock solid guys at Guardians of Tyr.

I have to admit that I wasn't expecting too much from this one in terms of results. This was mainly because I was doing a Tough Mudder the day before (11 mile cross-country assault course) and expected to be suffering......I was not wrong!

As such I went with a new list, one close to my geeky heart....... the man, the legend BOBA FETT!!

I'd played around with a few lists and come up a Chunky Boba / Swarm list I liked;

Firespray - Boba Fett - Vet Instincts, Gunner, Engine Upgrade, Inertial Dampeners
Z95 - Binyare Soldier x 4 

In theory the Zs run interferance whilst Boba flanks to swoop in close and make best use of his re-rolls. Gunner gets him an extra bite of the cherry and keep his action Boosts. As his ability is positional VI allows him to move last with Boosts and a one-off full stop.

As we all know theory isn't practise and  Firesprays aren't the easiest to get the best from. In short I lost my first three games, drew the fourth and won the fifth. Rarely did my opponent give me a flanking opportunity and at times I struggled to create one. Once in broken field I flew much better.

First up was a super doom Shuttle, Soontir and Carnor. I took the shuttle down quickly but struggled with the stealth / autothruster interceptors who had hot green dice. In honestly I got Boba out of position and didn't turn him round quickly enough in an attempt to keep my options open. Mediocre flying and dice cost me a very close game.

Second was thirty-six shades of grey (Decimator, Firespray, Shuttle) which set up wide to reduce my options. I took the right option of steaming into the Shuttle opposite my Zs to create the flank. Boba took fire early as I splatted the Shuttle and then chased down the Decimator. Boba fell to the Firespray who couldn't roll a wrong dice and eventually finished me off. Right options, wrong dice!

Third was a quintuplet of TIE Bombers. As it was the game after lunch I worked out my best options and then flew the worst. Somehow I made a game of it and knocked down three Bombers to go ahead on points with a heavily smoking Boba. With 4 minutes left on the game he bought the galactic farm. A fair result really.


Penultimate round was against a Chewy / Lando road-train which is a net-list I was aware of but hadn't played against. Knowing I had to target Chewy I blocked the road-train into a corner with the Zs and brought Boba to bear. Eventually Chewy bought it and Lando broke out o the corner. At that point I'd lost two Zs and felt the win was coming. Unfortunately it didn't quite go that way as the Zs got slotted and Boba took a battering for a draw. Right options, wrong dice #2!

Finishing up was a Kath / Oicunn combo that split up allowing me to jump all over Oicunn before rounding on Kath who was toting an interesting Tactician / Mangler combo. Right options, right dice, just one Z lost!

At the beginning of the day I was just looking to take home an alternative Boba card. Thankfully it was the participation prize! I also managed to pick up a second alternative TIE Push the Limit card which was a bonus.

Mr C had a similar day to mine with his Interceptor list, going 2-3 to finish two spots above me. Nigel G meanwhile took his Dash / Dual B list to eighth and the knockout rounds, a major achievement! Big ships dominated the top eight, especially IG-2000s with Autothrusters and Nigel replayed one of them with a four Z95 swarm which had been his only loss of the day. Unfortunately Lady Luck turned it into a one sided affair to the IG. Watching the game it was something of a masterclass as the Z95 swarm forced the engagement and the IG lurked.

So all in all another good day out and a bit more learnt than usual. I need to put more flying time into my lists and working out the first few turns all the way from asteroid placement to opening moves.

Next up is Enfield Gamers' Scum & Villany Event Day. Boba will fly again! :)


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