"They hate this ship!" - Junkyard Falcon @ Element Games - 29/9/18

This past weekend I returned to my local battleground of Element Games in Stockport, UK for the second wave of their launch celebration events.  There's no prizes as such on offer other than bragging rights from another early opportunity to butt heads with some tough opponents as the standard in the store is pretty high with several of their local team the Sith Takers having some international X-Wing success as well as domestic.

I was still playing my Junkyard Falcons list but had, in fact, not played a single game with them since the last time I was at Element just a couple of days after release.  I'd made a couple of minor tweaks since then by dropping the Rigged Cargo Chute from Han Solo to add in 4-LOM crew and a Crack Shot on Captain Nym.  My squad looked like this...

Junkyard Falcon

• Han Solo - Trick Shot, 0-0-0, 4-LOM, Greedo, Lando's Millenium Falcon
• Captain Nym - Crack Shot, Dorsal Turret, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Trajectory Simulator, Genius, Havoc, Hull Upgrade
• Palob Godalhi - Elusive, L3-37, Moldy Crow
  (200)

The two cards that came in to replace Rigged Cargo Chute had the following logic:

4-LOM - Han spends a fair bit of time looking for a big 4-5 dice attack to really punish the opponent, but when he's throwing lots of dice it's frequently the case that the opponent is throwing a lot of green dice as well as the shot is obstructed and often R3.  4-LOM allows me to turn off some of the dice mods on those green dice and push more damage through when the opportunity comes up.

Crack Shot - there's no logic for Crack Shot, it's probably awful and I should just have upgraded Nym's Hull Upgrade to a Shield Upgrade.  Unfortunately you only get 9 shield tokens between the Core Set and Lando's Falcon and a Shield Upgrade would mean I have 10 shields in my squad.  So screw it, I'll try Crack Shot out even though I'm pretty sure Traj Sim means most people are staying well away from sitting directly in front of Nym anyway.  

Otherwise the list is unchanged as my main lesson from last time out was that I just needed to stick to the plan and not waste Han on some damn fool idealistic crusade.  I really wanted to prove that this was better than a 3-2 squad!  

My big concern, though, was that the rest of the Element guys would have been getting in plenty of game time and the metagame would have stepped up while my list was essentially unchanged.  I'd been fortunate enough to play against a bunch of aces on my first day there but if they'd moved on to bigger and tougher ships then my bombs would be devalued and it would be a lot tougher going.

ROUND ONE - Jack Mooney

(Whisper, Captain Jonus & 2x Scimitar Bombers)

Well if I wanted a tough start to the day it couldn't get much tougher than facing Jack Mooney, who was top 4 at Worlds a couple of years ago and routinely goes very deep into massive X-Wing tournaments.  That habit of being very good at X-Wing includes the System Open that saw Jack qualify for Coruscant and he was at Element for some last minute practice before he flew out to FFG HQ.  Jack had been talking to Tom Reed to prep for Coruscant and I recognised this list as what Tom had played against me on release day, so I knew it was a tough opponent.

My main objective in approaching Jack's squad was to use the threat of Nym's bombs and Palob's focus-stripping to neuter the Bomber's joust, and to be honest that worked absolutely perfectly.  I hurled Nym forward and tossed a bomb out the front, then slow-rolled and threatened to send a second bomb into Jack's formation if he continued his joust and actually engaged.

That threat was too much for Jack and he banked away to head down the flank, but I'd called that play too and Nym rolled right in behind the fleeing bombers.  Meanwhile over the other side of the table Han had sucked Whisper into an engagement then left her in his dust.  For the time being both Han and Whisper would have to work hard to get back into the fight than that left Jack's bomber formation exposed.

The only thing that had really gone wrong for me was that Palob was now stuck following Nym around the battle and so he kept bumping, which meant his front arc never got into the game and he was always plinking away with his Dorsal turret.  That made actually killing the TIE Bombers really slow going, but as they were trapped like fish in a barrel down the flank I at least had time on my side.  Captain Jonus went down first, then as time was ticking down on the round I had one Scimitar Squadron Pilot with 1 hull left and one with half damage on him.

That was the good news, the bad news was that Whisper had caught Han in his sights as he tried to come round into the fight and the Falcon was now badly limping too.  In the final round of combat the Falcon exploded to the very first Barrage Rocket I'd let Jack get off all game, while I was unable to peck an extra damage point onto either of the Scimitars in return.

It had been a game that we both agreed Nym had bullied the entire time and yet as we counted MOV up it turned out I'd lost!  Killing Jonus and only getting half points on one Bomber wasn't enough to offset the loss of the Falcon as all of Jack's points were tied up in his really expensive Whisper, who was still in pristine condition.

LOSS 59-68 (Dead Han)

Except, of course, I'd actually won.  We messed up counting the MOV and I should have scored half points on both the remaining TIE Bombers instead of just one of them, which would have made the score 76-68 in my favour.  I didn't think of that until two days later. Doh!

As it was I headed down into the loser's bracket, although I was still very happy with how I'd played and felt like a little bit of better luck would have seen me win the game clean by taking off one of the Scimitars.

ROUND TWO - Kris Main

(BBB & Kyle Katarn)

So remember how at the top of the day I said I was worried about running into ships with lots of hull?  Well here's three B-Wings with Hull Upgrades.  Well, this was a steak that was going to take a lot of chewing.

Fortunately for me I think Kris wasn't quite up to speed on Second Edition squadbuilding and he'd made a few mistakes, most notably loading his B-Wings up with Predator and Tractor Beams instead of giving Kyle Katarn his vital Moldy Crow title.  He also seemed inordinately scared of my bombs considering he was running big chunky B-Wings and Nym was able to split his formation in two by pinning a Seismic Charge between a couple of asteroids.  That made life a lot easier and I was able to chew through a couple of B-Wings before the other two ships really made it back into the fight.

Even so, it was taking a good long while to actually kill all these things and it was only in the last rolls of the day that I managed to clear the third B-Wing off, then fell 1 damage short of killing Kyle to make it a clean sweep.

WIN - 178-28 (Half Palob)

ROUND THREE - James Clark

(Howlswarm & Sloanebus)

The Sloanebus (Admiral Sloane on a Lambda Shuttle) grabbed a lot of people's imagination after it did so well at the Gold Squadron Classic last weekend so there was a couple of players here running variants on this idea, with James preferring to bring a couple of Crack Shot TIEs instead of a third named TIE like Gideon Hask (my preferred version).  After the very carb-heavy meal of B-Wings in my last round I was happy to have a bit of a TIE salad as a palette-cleanser and this played very squarely into the bracket of 'things I should be able to beat'.

It was a third game on the bounce that was decided by Captain Nym forcing my opponent into abandoning a joust.  James' TIEs turned away from an initial joust to scoot along his back line, leaving Sloane's shuttle without fighter escort.  That played nicely into Nym's hands and he planted a Seismic Charge between two rocks to discourage the TIEs from turning in on his flank, then turned to rip into the Lambda shuttle with help from Palob.

With her TIE escort k-turning themselves into a mess as they tried to adapt to Nym's switch in direction Sloane's shuttle melted in two turns of fire and I was well ahead.  

As Howlrunner and her TIEs finally scrambled back into the fight I was waiting and began to pick them off.  I was so comfortably in charge that I was able to count coup a little bit and took the opportunity to show off by damaging a third TIE to just one hull left rather than killing Howlrunner.  James was surprised by my play but I did it knowing full well that I could wrap up 3 damaged TIEs with one Genius-placed Proton Bomb on the next turn.

Captain Nym beats TIE Swarms.

WIN - 200-37 (Half Nym)

ROUND FOUR - Mike Wilson

(BBK & Kyle Katarn)

This was like watching evolution in action as pretty much the same squad I had beaten in Round Two came back around in an improved form in Round Four.  Gone were the wasted points on unneccessary upgrades that I'd seen earlier, and in their place came the fantastic Moldy Crow title and a crafty Warden Squadron Pilot with Barrage Rockets, bombs and Sabine Wren crew.  This would be another test of my squad's ability to eat through a lot of tough ships before they could bring my team down.

It turned out that also gone this time around with that Kris' reluctance to just plow on into my bombs had been replaced by Mike being prepared to just take it all on the chin with his B-Wings and wade into a fierce brawl.  This was a new experience for me as most of my opponents have chosen to duck away from Nym's bombs but fortunately I had planned ahead for this and was ready to take advantage.  Han Solo had spent most of today watching from the sidelines as Nym and Palob cleaned up but in this game Mike's play brought Han right into the mix as he scooted in close to the melee to hurl all his red dice into the B-Wings through the rocks.

There had briefly been some B-Wings down at the bottom of this picture...

That added concentration of firepower on my part made all the difference to how quickly the B-Wings went down.  When other opponents have ducked away from Nym's bombs it's also meant them ducking away from focused firepower and it's created slower games where I get a strong tactical position but have to whittle targets of opportunity down as I can.  By heading on through the bombs Mike took away that tactical advantage I had been enjoying, but unfortunately just replaced it with some face-melting red dice from Palob and Han to add to Nym's bomb threat.

The B-Wings went down fast and hard, then Kyle followed the turn after that to leave the K-Wing alone against my whole team.

WIN - 200-37 (Half Nym)

After four rounds Colm Browne had gone 4-0 with his version of the Sloaneswarm that I'd met in Round Three, while I was in second place with the best MOV of the 3-1 players (and technically should have been on 4-0 myself, although the whole day would have been different if I'd gone into the winner's bracket after Round One so could just as easily have been on 1-3).  

The tournament semi-officially ended at that point as a bunch of people took the opportunity to head off early, while half the room stayed on for one last round.

ROUND FIVE - Vlad Bogdanov

(Wedge, Luke & Thane)

As many of the more successful players bowed out and gone home I was paired up against Vlad as we were among the last 3-1 players still in the room.  

This game was up on the stream and you can watch it on Twitch!

The short form version of the story is that it doesn't go very well for Vlad at all.  He suffers the same problem most of my opponents had in having Nym wreck their engagement plan and then pretty much losing the game before he can come up with a Plan B.  His X-Wings turn away from having to fly into a engagement where they'd lose all their shields to a couple of Seismic Charges and be fired upon by my whole squad, but my team fell in behind them and quickly took the X-Wings apart anyway.

WIN - 200-37 (Half Nym)

Well, it turned out to be a bit of an odd day for the scoreboard but I'm pretty sure I won.  

Maybe?  Like... I think so?  

I played five games and I won them all to finish second with a 3-1 record before an extra round was played after half the room went home and I was sitting on top of the scoreboard with 4-1.  Having still won all five games but accidentally recording that I'd lost one when we added the MoV up wrong.  Like I said... it was an odd day.

So was I 5-0?  Was I 4-1?  Was I 3-1 and the last round didn't count?  Did I win?  Was I second?

Whatever was true about the standings didn't really matter a whole lot as there were no prizes on the line.  What mattered was I was a lot happier with the outcome than I was when I finished 3-2 last time, and I was certainly much much happier with how I had played during the day.

I came into the day worried that my lack of table time would see the Junkyard Falcons fall behind the development curve, and also worried that I had only found success first time out against aces and wouldn't be able to handle tougher ships with lots of hull.  Both those things turned out to be untrue and in fact I feel like I learned a ton about why the Junkyard Falcon is good, the problem it causes for the opponent, the reasons it wins, and also what opponents are likely to do to try and counter it.

And it's still a TON of fun.

4-LOM was ok, nothing special, think I used it twice because a lot of the story of today was Han being a long way from the fight due to opponents turning away from my engage.  Crack Shot was garbage, as expected, I think it got used once all day.  I'd really like to try Dengar in the Falcon gunner slot but I'm a point short (Greedo + 4-LOM + Crack Shot = 5) and I don't see much fat to trim elsewhere so I'm sticking with what I've got for now and will just wait for somebody to push me into changing it by laying in some heavy defeats.

And finally, because more people seem to be starting to track this sort of thing after the clean break to Second Edition, my rolling Win/Loss records:

• Junkyard Falcon Tournament Record: 8-2 (80% win rate)
• Junkyard Falcon Total Record: 19-2 (90% win rate)

So far so good!

"The Spark That Lights The Fire" - Second Edition Launch Celebration Tournament Report

Well... how was it for you?

Thursday was the day that X-Wing Second Edition was released and hopefully most of us have had the chance to indulge ourselves with the new game.  Personally I've had two days to froth wildly about X-Wing, having taken Thursday itself to spend the day playing X-Wing as much as humanly possible at Element Games in Stockport, UK before returning to the store 36 hours later for their Launch Celebration tournament.

We were going to be playing 5 rounds of swiss and, although I'd spent the last couple of weeks posting Ten Squads in Ten Days there was was really only one ship I wanted to fly...

JUNKYARD FALCON

• Han Solo - Trick Shot, 0-0-0, Rigged Cargo Chute, Lando's Millenium Falcon
• Captain Nym - Dorsal Turret, Trajectory Simulator, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Genius, Hull Upgrade, Havoc
• Palob Godalhi - Elusive, L3-37, Moldy Crow
  (200)

The Junkyard Falcon was probably the one of the Ten Squads in Ten Days that I got most excited about when writing my blog about it, but if you paying real close attention you'd have noticed that I did say that I hadn't actually shared my latest version.  This is my latest version, trading the Trandoshan Slaver for Captain Nym.  In truth the Slaver's never done anything wrong and hadn't dropped a game but I just love playing with Rebel Nym and his bombs, and they certainly have proven a huge help in games against both Aces and Swarms.  The amount of board that Nym can control with a single Seismic Charge is enormous, especially as he now has the old Rebel Nym ability to delay when they detonate.

I spent Thursday playing a sample of different squads but everything I played that wasn't the Junkyard Falcon just felt flat to me.  This is what I was pining to play the whole time and so as Saturday morning rolled around there was no real decisions to make ahead of the Launch Celebration event.  All I had to do was pack up my stuff and head over to join the party!

I don't really believe in doing tournament reports but as we're all trying to gobble up every bit of Second Edition information I'm afraid you'll have to indulge me this time...

ROUND ONE - Simon Fullalove

(Rear Admiral Chiraneau & two Sienar Specialists)

The TIE Aggressor is pretty low on my list of things I like in 2nd Edition but as we were setting up Simon told me that he'd run four of them in 1st Edition so it's obviously pretty comfortable territory for him to be in.  His full list looked like this...

Chiraneau had Focus mods for days, with Vader, Kallus, Fifth Brother all sitting on top of RAC's own pilot ability.  It felt like a lot of overkill to me but there was no doubt that I didn't much want to be getting caught in Chiraneau's way too often because the crits would be flying.  I didn't really have much gameplan for this one, and mainly I was just curious to see if Simon had found something in the TIE Aggressors that I hadn't even though to look for.

Unfortunately for Simon I think the answer probably turned out to be 'no' and the focused firepower of my list was too much for the Aggressors to take.  Simon got a couple of Cluster Missile shots off, but without any real dice mods behind them they only served to scratch a bit of paint before the pair exploded on back-to-back turns.  Each time I was 1 damage short of killing them, but then had a bomb handy the next turn to finish the job.

That left Rear Admiral Chiraneau in his command ship and my fleet swarmed in on him. Two things happened of note: first of all I completely forgot about Vader and decided to leave Palob on 1 health without a Focus token... duh!  The second thing was that an early Hull Breach and Fuel Leak on the Decimator led to it's sudden and unexpected demise as Han dealt him EIGHT damage with one shot!

This is an all-new thing for 2nd Edition in how Hull Breach interacts with cards like Direct Hit and Fuel Leak to stack more and more crits, which are now capable of being another Direct Hit or another Fuel Leak!  In poor RAC's case a Fuel Leak sparked a catastrophic chain reaction...

WIN: 200-93 (Palob dead, half Nym)

ROUND TWO - Lee Duncan

(Whisper, Rexlar, Duchess)

All the fives, Lee was bringing a trio of Imperial Aces at Initiative 5...  

Unfortunately for Lee I think my squad is really well matched against aces and as his ships hared down the flank at top speed a single Trajectory Simulated Seismic Charge created all sorts of problems that I don't think he ever recovered from.  Both Whisper and Duchess cut their attack runs short to avoid getting into range of the asteroids if my Seismic Charge went off and that meant Rexlar got separated, with the TIE Defender eating fire from all my ships and losing his shields.

One Seismic Charge turned this...

From this point Nym was just able to control the flow of the game with his bombs as he pinned the Seismic Charge in place for several turns, forcing Whisper and Duchess to split up and leave the fight, while Rexlar ate a Proton Bomb on his way out of the back of the battle.  It all meant that Lee's forces were now spread all over the map and I was able to pick them off one by one.  Whisper went first after Palob drained her tokens away then Duchess made a brief escape bid before Han reeled her in.

...into this!

By the time Rexlar found his way back into the fight he was 1v3 and no match for all my anti-ace trickery.  Between Nym's area control, Palob's token stripping and Han's ability to overwhelm green dice with big hits I think my squad is just really good against aces.  I've also got 180 degree arcs on my ships so there's a lot to try and arc-dodge, which also meant his Outmaneuver talents weren't ever doing anything against me.

WIN: 200-36 (Half Nym)

ROUND THREE - Will Pintar

(Boba, Palob, Quadjumper, Autopilot Drone)

I'm going to spoil the outcome of this game right off the bat by saying that Will went on to finish the day as winner with an unbeaten 5-0 record.  I'm telling you that because I want to talk about his squad a bit and I want you to have the information that it's proven to work really well.

• Boba Fett - Fearless, Marauder, Han Solo, Perceptive Co-Pilot, Seismic Charges
• Palob Godalhi - Elusive, L3-37, Moldy Crow
• Jakku Gunrunner
• Autopilot Drone

Even setting up against it I could tell this was by a distance the best squad I've had to play against in Second Edition, with very few glaring weak points for me to expose.  His Boba Fett has rerolls, double Focus tokens, can boost AND have double Focus tokens (thanks to Han Gunner), and even finds room for bombs - he's a really tough cookie.  Will had poached my own very successful Palob build after I wrote about it last week and I knew firsthand just how tough that was to kill, and his investment in a Jakku Gunrunner and Autopilot Drone were both things that I had to think carefully about how I approached and jousted.

So, the lonely Autopilot Drone without a Falcon... what's the point in that?  You just run across the back edge until it blows up and take the free 12 points advantage, right?  Well, maybe... but with 3 Banks & Barrel Rolls that thing IS fast so you'll need to run into one corner of the map or the other to be sure to avoid it.  Do you want to start the game on turn 3 boxed into a corner with your opponent able to maneuver at will into position around you?  I know I don't.

I spent most of my deployment time worrying about how best to deal with the Autopilot Drone (at which point, of course, it's already disrupted me enough to justify the spot in Will's team) and decided to just go right ahead and blow it out of the sky before it got to me.  This was partly based on bad information I got from the other gentleman in the room who told me that if I shoot the Drone it won't blow up and deal splash damage (Will informed me of my error a couple of turns in, as I destroyed it).

To be honest, even though I didn't really have a concrete plan for this matchup when I deployed one rapidly formed in the way Will played his Gunrunner and Palob by slow-rolling them across his own back line of the table.  With Boba flanking fast and hard it gave me the opportunity to speed into the middle of the table, despatch the Autopilot Drone, then head right out the other side and chase Palob and the Quadjumper while Boba was stranded on an empty side of the table.

To be honest it all worked pretty well at first and by turn 3 the Drone was toast and I was nicely positioned in the middle of the table and ready to put Boba in my rear view mirror.  Then it unravelled rapidly.  I misjudged Will's intentions and instead of turning his Palob to engage my Nym & Palob he banked & boosted in on Han to double-team the Falcon with Boba's rear arc.  I compounded that mistake by firing off a pointless Proton Bomb with Nym to where I thought Palob was going to be, and then made a bad call to blow my Seismic Charge up that had been cover for Han against Boba, dealing a damage to Han in the process.

That sheer avalanche of self-inflicted bad times meant Han went from hero to zero in no time and the Falcon was off the board!

I had a bad feeling about this.

I wrapped up he Quadjumper no problem but now it was a wounded Nym and wounded Palob vs Will's wounded Palob and full health Boba.  I was well behind.  Nym went down then Will's Palob followed and now it was Palob v Boba, man to man, one ship each (except his ship cost double my ship and had 9 health while mine only had 2 hull left).

I had a really bad feeling about this.

And yet... and yet... Palob began to claw his way back in.  A red stop first put Palob in Boba's blind spot and then got him into place behind Slave I. The plucky HWK was able to strip Boba's shields and start shipping damage cards in return for just 1 damage back.  Better yet, Boba was heading towards a corner of the board and would have to spend a turn swinging around, once again exposing his side-arc blind spot.  I just needed to survive a turn and I could pounce so I dialled another red stop (to recharge Elusive)... but was still millimetres inside R3 of Boba as Will dialled a 1 Forward into the corner.

Boba sniped Palob's last hull point away and the dream died.  

LOSS: 98-200

I tell you want, though, start that duel again with Boba and Palob both on full health and I think Palob has the tools to take Boba down despite the fact he only costs half as much!

ROUND FOUR - Justin Read

(Wedge, Luke, Ten Numb)

Justin was one of my first opponents on Thursday morning when Second Edition was still being madly unboxed by the players around us.  I won those two games pretty comfortably but Justin took the defeats on the chin, learned his lessons, and returned today with an improved version of the list.  

• Luke Skywalker - Instinctive Aim, R2-D2, Proton Torpedoes, Servomotor S-Foils
• Wedge Antilles - Swarm Tactics, Proton Torpedoes, Servomotor S-Foils
• Ten Numb - Heavy Laser Cannon

What has changed since we first met is that Justin took an R5 repair mech off Wedge to fund upgrading his Advanced Proton Torpedoes to Proton Torpedoes.  That makes his list punch that much harder and was definitely an improvement on what he played on Thursday, but I was still confident that I was going to be able to sweep him up.

The opening engagement went almost perfectly for me, with Han putting a ton of hurt onto Wedge while Nym and Palob pounced on Luke.  Both X-Wings were immediately hurting and in a ton of trouble and nearly dead, although closing their S-Foils they were both able to slip away to fight another day, with Luke using R2-D2 to regenerate his shields.

That left Ten Numb isolated and vulnerable but I made a couple of bad decisions with Han that really hurt me - first K-Turning without thinking that my arc wouldn't be facing forwards, then giving Ten Numb a second stress token with 0-0-0 that he just used as fuel for his dice mods. It was a couple of facepalm moments that meant the game was still live by the time Wedge and Luke rejoined the fray and my early advantage had disappeared in a run of slightly iffy dice rolls.

(I don't like to complain about dice rolls, and my lesson for this game isn't "I rolled bad dice" but that I flew Han very badly.  Even so, a bit of average dice variance would have meant I was still far enough ahead to close it out).

Wedge and Ten Numb traded for Nym and Palob and we were down to a Han vs Luke showdown.  Han had the superior Initiative and more remaining Hull so I felt I had the boss of the engagement... but it didn't work out that way.  As we re-engaged I was able to read Luke's arc well enough to boost into a Range 3 shot that was out of his arc, but to no effect, then on the next turn luke closed in and barrel-rolled to stop me boosting by him.  

It was all coming down to a bunch of dice and with Luke's force mods I was now behind in the game - Han did no damage then Luke rolled Hit/Hit/Crit/Crit to take Han down and complete Justin's revenge!

LOSS: 159-200

ROUND FIVE - Jacob Kalnins

(Soontir/Deathrain/Sai)

Jacob had the sort of squad that I was really hot on when I first started squadbuilding for 2nd Edition but today I have no faith in whatsoever - the metagame seems to be far too brutal and bruising for this sort of delicate synergy to make an impact.  After meeting Justin for a return leg I had also previously played Jacob on Thursday and utterly annihilated his squad, so I had to be careful I wasn't in for a revenge double bill.

• Soontir Fel - Juke, Stealth Device, Afterburners
• Deathrain - Barrage Rockets, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Trajectory Simulator, Ablative Plating
• Lieutenant Sai - Director Krennic, ST-321

Unfortunately for Jacob it was another slaughter as Nym and Palob proved once again just how destructive they are to aces.  

As Soontir Fel flanked in from the far side of the table Nym hurled a Seismic Charge into the middle of the table then held it there while Palob ducked around the other side of an asteroid to cut off Fel's escape route, with a lucky long range shot sniping away the Stealth Device.  

Blocked in by Palob on one side and Sai's shuttle on the other Soontir had no choice but to just fly onwards into the waiting Seismic Charge with grim acceptance of his fate... only small pieces of his Interceptor came spiralling out on the far side.

While this had been going on in the centre of the table Han Solo had swung the Millenium Falcon around on a long arc and was now hurling red dice into Deathrain with wild abandon from the far side of a debris field.  The Punisher was badly injured and fell on the next turn, although not before he and Sai had left Captain Nym clinging to life on just his Hull Upgrade- that switch from Ablative Plating proved it's worth right here!

The game was over as a competition but Jacob wanted to see if he could at least bag the MOV from Nym before his Lambda exploded.  But with a Tallon Roll, then on the next turn a slow bank and Barrel Roll, Captain Nym showed he had just enough piloting chops to stay out of trouble and join in the killing frenzy instead.

WIN: 200-36 (Half Nym)

WHAT I LEARNED

So I finish on 3-2, although with the best MOV of the 3-2 players as both my defeats were close while my victories were very comfortable.  I'm happy.  More importantly there's a clear trend in the win-loss record that I think I can address: in two of the games I tried something new with Han and I lost both games while in the other three games I played Han the way he's supposed to be played and won them all with room to spare.

Mental note: stick to the plan!

I still love this squad, there's still nothing else I've seen that I want to play instead and it's a ton of fun.  After 20-odd games my record is now X-2 with the two defeats today being my only losses with any iteration of Junkyard Falcon so I believe in it... I've got my forever squad (for now).  

The only change I think I want to make is to drop the Rigged Cargo Chute from Han.  In those 20+ games I've only dropped it a handful of times and it's always turned out to be a bad idea... it's just never what I want to spend my action on.  What I spend those 4 points on I don't know, and the Greedo point is up for grabs too.  So that's 5 points... a Talent for Nym?  Proton Bombs for Palob?  Cluster Missiles for Han?  4-LOM crew on the Falcon?  Find another point somewhere and bring Dengar gunner?  All options to explore but I feel like I'm going to be playing enough games with this squad to at least give them all a try.

One of the Ten Squads in Ten Days that I blogged about was the Quad K-Wings with an array of bombs and Barrage Rockets.  That list made it to 4-1, only losing to eventual winner Will Pintar.  When I wrote about the squad I said I wasn't sure if it was good or not.  Seeing it on the table... it's good.  It's damn good.

Ten Squads in Ten Days - Part 10) Scum Swarm

Well, we're all here together on the X-Wing equivalent of Christmas Eve and I've only got one of my Ten Squads in Ten Days left to share.

And I may just have saved the best until last.

• Day 1) Guns n Ammo 2.0
• Day 2) Pancake & Eggs
• Day 3) Aces of Legend
• Day 4) AC-D3
• Day 5) KKKK
• Day 6) Rho Rho Rho Your Boat
• Day 7) Junkyard Falcon
• Day 8) Rebel Salad
• Day 9) Close Quarters Combat

All of the lists I've shared over the last nine days have had some good ideas behind them and they've all got a plan for how to approach the game and win.  Hopefully along the way I've managed to showcase some unexpected ships as well and offer up some food for thought for your own squadbuilding.  Parents aren't supposed to have favourites among their children but I have to admit that I believe in some of them more than others... and then sometimes you have the child that maybe you're kind of a bit afraid of.

10) SCUM SWARM

I don't know if any of my Ten Squads in Ten Days are going to be among the ones that set where the competitive bar rests in early Second Edition play.  I know I like most of them and that I like a few of them A LOT.  But if any of them are then it's going to be 'the best squad in 2.0' then my money would be on this one, and it all started out with a very simple idea...

About ten minutes later I had this, and it's never changed since.

Scum Swarm

• Drea Renthal - Dorsal Turret (44)
• Jakku Gunrunner (28)
• Jakku Gunrunner (28)
• Binayre Pirate (24)
• Binayre Pirate (24)
• Binayre Pirate (24)
• Binayre Pirate (24)
  (196)

If you're looking at this and thinking 'I don't get it' then allow me run down some of the applications key features...

1. The same firepower as a TIE Swarm (14 red dice, rerolls & focus on all)
2. 90% **NINETY PERCENT!** more Health than a TIE Swarm (34 vs 18 for a 6-TIE Swarm)
3. Shields for immunity to Proton Bombs
4. No requirement to fly in formation
5. Tractor Beams for tactical flexibility vs aces (and now able to move Medium/Large ships)

The image that most readily comes to mind when I think of what this squad represents is Auntie from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome leading her army of scavengers on a rampage across the post-apocalyptic outback, with Drea Renthal obviously in the Tina Turner role.

Who wouldn't want to fly these guys?

Confession: I've not actually played the Jakku Swarm yet because I'm kind of scared of what I'll find.  Either it will not live up to what it looks like on paper, which will be disappointing, or worse yet it WILL live up to its promise and that'll be terrifying.  I do know people who have given it a try, though, and the feedback they've given to me on how those games went sound a bit like the X-Wing equivalent of Vader's corridor scene in Rogue One.

TIE Swarms are being talked about as the competitive touchstone of the new 2nd Edition metagame because of their raw firepower and jousting efficiency, but with 90% more hitpoints this squad leaves the TIEs in the dust.  People talk about TIE Swarms being hard to fly and easy to outmaneuver because they have to stay in tight formation to benefit from Howlrunner, but this squad doesn't have any such requirement.  People are bringing Proton Bombs as their preferred answer to the TIE Swarms that fly in tight formation without any shields, but this swarm doesn't fly in formation and has shields on 5 out of 7 ships.  And tractor beams.  Tractor beams to disrupt enemy formations, to throw people onto rocks (and in bullseye arcs, even Medium ships onto rocks) and make the opponent fear rocks as a defense against the swarm instead of running towards them.

This is a very scary proposition.  Yes, that's right, Quadjumpers are scary now... the post-apocalyptic future is a strange place.

The one thing this squad really gives up on vs the TIE Swarm is a bit of speed.  A TIE has a 5 forward and a white barrel roll so, in the immortal words of Poe Dameron "it can really move".  A Z-95 has a 4 forward and a red barrel roll so it's more limited (although, hey, a Z-95 has a barrel roll?  that's awesome!).  Worse yet, the Quadjumper's fastest move is a 3 so the Jakku swarm has to be more methodical in chasing targets down than the TIEs are.  This lack of speed means the Jakku swarm doesn't get a completely clean sweep of ticks against the TIE Swarm and it has a new weakness to expose, but on balance I still think it's well ahead of the TIEs - not least in having a lot of natural strengths against the things that people are bringing to kill TIE Swarms, like Proton Bombs.

I haven't put the Scum Swarm onto the table yet but I will, when I'm done tinkering around with all the new kit and want to start properly trying to win games this is likely to be my first stop.

=========================

And that's it for my Ten Squads in Ten Days.  I hope you've enjoyed them and that I've been able to show you some new ideas for how to get set up in this Second Edition of X-Wing.  This time tomorrow I won't be posting another blog but will, in a refreshing change of pace, be setting a dial and trying to play as much X-Wing as humanly possible.

Until then...

Ten Squads in Ten Days - Part 9) Close Quarters Combat

Tuesday morning means it's Christmas Eve Eve, can you believe it?

• Day 1) Guns n Ammo 2.0
• Day 2) Pancake & Eggs
• Day 3) Aces of Legend
• Day 4) AC-D3
• Day 5) KKKK
• Day 6) Rho Rho Rho Your Boat
• Day 7) Junkyard Falcon
• Day 8) Rebel Salad

I'm going to be bowing out with a festival of Scum & Villainy squadiness.  As I wrote in my Junkyard Falcon squad I'm having a ton of fun making Scum lists right now and so today we're going to have some fun because I end it all on something a bit more killer tomorrow.  For now though, it's time to start throwing some Ion control around...

9) CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT

The first thing to say about this squad is that there's so much great stuff for a 3-man Scum squad that you're really spoiled for choice which ones you actually go with.  This could easily be Talonbane/4-LOM/Fenn, or Palob/Boba/Kavil, or Teroch/Nym/4-LOM... there's so many really solid builds you can throw together and just have fun with what you want to fly.  I'm showing you this version because I want to showcase two pilots who been quietly and subtly buffed a lot from their 1st Edition versions: Kavil and 4-LOM.

Close Quarters Combat

• Kavil - Expert Handling, R4 Astromech, Ion Cannon Turret, Han Solo, Advanced Proton Torpedoes (62)
• 4-LOM - Advanced Sensors,0-0-0, Mist Hunter (62)
• Fenn Rau - Predator (70)
  (194)

Kavil first, in his trusty and rusty old Y-Wing.  So how has Kavil been buffed?

• Cost - Base 42 points is 6pts less than his old 24pts would justify.  On top of that the old Ion Cannon Turret would have been 10pts, and the old Advanced Proton Torpedoes would have been 12pts.  Kavil with Turret and Torps costs 54pts, a hefty saving vs the equivalent of 70pts that this would all have cost in 1st Edition!
• R1 Turret Buff - turrets now get an extra dice at Range 1, which they didn't get in 1st Edition
• Kavil's ability rewording - the new wording of Kavil's ability separates the front arc primary away from the turret, but DOES mean that Kavil's extra red dice does work in the front arc if you're using a rotating turret weapon.  If your Ion Cannon is facing forwards then Kavil can take that extra dice.
• Gunner slot - and not just any gunner slot but a Scum gunner slot ready to use the new Han crew!
• Reload action - just in case somebody is foolish enough to let Kavil reload his Advanced Proton Torps

Trusty and rusty old Kavil, then, comes to the table hitting harder than in 1st Edition (throwing as many as 5 red dice with his Ion Turret at Range 1!) and also costing a whole heap less.  He's here fully loaded with Advanced Proton Torpedoes for just 62 points!

4-LOM: my goodness the old G1-A starfighter was a rare sight on the table in 1st Edition, as it arrived in the game as Scum's answer to a question that nobody was asking any more.  I always had a personal soft spot for 4-LOM but he never quite made the cut whenever I was making a squad.  How's he got better in 2nd Edition?

• Cost - at 49 points 4-LOM comes in 5pts less than he did in 1st Edition.  It's not quite the bargain you get from Kavil but it all helps!
• Pilot Ability - 4-LOM gains a whole new side to his ability that reflects just how much he is going to be using his red maneuvers.  He now gets a free Calculate token whenever he performs a red maneuver and that's a massive help.
• Medium Base - a new Medium base helps 4-LOM out in two ways.  First of all he's faster across the table to get onto Range 1 of his targets and stress them, and secondly it means his Range 0-1 bubble is that little bit larger and covers more of the map.

It's just a lovely extra bonus that 4-LOM is such a great partner for the super value of 0-0-0, and also how well he works with Advanced Sensors.  With Advanced Sensors on board 4-LOM can take an action before he moves, perform a red maneuver and get a free Calculate token, then shed the stress onto his opponent.  Hell, with a new 0 Stop maneuver on his dial 4-LOM doesn't even have to move forward, he can either park in space forever, or sidle crab-like across the table with barrel rolls.

The combination of Kavil and 4-LOM is a potent duo of control effects that can leave any opposing ship driftly helplessly through space, ionised and stressed.  Helpless and a sitting duck for Fenn Rau to finish off, or for Kavil to pepper with his Advanced Proton Torpedoes.  It's not just control effects here for control's sake, there's plenty of teeth to finish the enemy off once they've been weakened!

But as I said at the top, all the cool stuff on display here really only goes to show how many great options there are in Scum at present.  Go play Scum!