This past weekend, I went to my third System Open in Birmingham. It's the only event I go to that's larger than a store tournament, because I'm really not a competitive player. I just like playing some fun games and getting cool swag (the alt art bounty hunters and Mandalore mat being the real draw this year.)

Last year, I had a miserable time in the main event. I took a vaguely meta-ish list and didn't enjoy flying it. So I decided that for the next year, I was going to choose ships I enjoy flying and focus on learning to fly them as well as I could.

Friends, I chose the StarViper.

I've loved the ship since Shadows of the Empire. I've loved it in X-Wing since Scum were released. I actually flew Prince Xisor in my squadron at the 2016 Yavin Open (going 4/2 on day one), as well as a Top 8 finish with him in a Store Championship. So I practised with StarVipers, achieving a roughly 50/50 win rate with them prior to the release of Hired Guns, and slightly higher afterwards. I tried countless variations on a list, using all sorts of combinations of pilots and upgrades. Eventually, I settled on a simple list to take to the Open:

Thweek – StarViper Mk. II, Virago, Advanced Sensors, Pulsed Ray Shield, Ion Dischargers

3x Black Sun Enforcer – StarViper Mk. II

That's right – no Autothrusters. The way I fly the Vipers – aggressively and up close – they very rarely come into play except against turrets, so I decided to spend the points on making Thweek a bit more annoying.

To cut a long story short, the main event was a washout, with 3 losses – which was pretty much what I expected to happen. However, none of the games was an easy win for my opponent – and none lasted less than an hour. I played a Poe/Dash list where Poe went down hard and Dash danced around rolling ungodly numbers of evades. Another game that I'm pretty sure involved Kylo Ren, but my brain seems to have deleted the relevant details, other than that his wingmates were blasted out of the sky by the might of the Black Sun. And finally, an old friend from the store I used to frequent, whose three YV-666s put up a tough challenge. Two of them survived, but none were unscathed.

Satisfied with the fact that I'd had three hugely enjoyable games, and confident that my opponents could say the same, I skipped the Hangar Bay in favour of a good sleep. (Travelling down from the wilds of Scotland was tiring…).

Refreshed, I entered the same list into the Hyperspace Qualifier on Sunday. I played four games before exhaustion claimed me once again, garnering two wins and two losses. The losses were both to Rebel lists. One was bomb-heavy, with Nym causing mischief. I struggle against bombs, because I rarely have the opportunity to practise against them, so simply surviving that one for an hour was a small victory for me, even if the game wasn't. The other loss came at the hands of a Ghost/Phantom/Phantom II list. It just TLTd me to oblivion, though the Phantom II went down first, and the Ghost was heavily damaged.

The first winning game saw me paired up against another quirky list – Chaser, Lieutenant Colzet and a generic TIE Defender and Bomber. The game was close, with a number of manoeuvres and dice rolls that rested on a knife edge, but great flying (even if I do say so myself) and relentless focus on keeping Thweek alive saw the game go to time with three Vipers still on the board, and just the Bomber left on the Imperial side.

My other winning game was a massive surprise – Kylo Ren and two TIE Aggressors with TLTs seemed to be a surefire loss for me. But my flying remained on point, and the two Aggressors went down in fairly short order. I kept Thweek and two more Vipers alive long enough for the game to be a win. The highlight of that game was actually twice being in a position to make Kylo have to choose whether to take the ion token from the Pulsed Ray Shield/Ion Dischargers combo. He elected not to both times.

So, two wins out of seven games. Hardly a success story by the numbers. But you know what? I played seven great games of X-Wing – and I think my opponents would agree. I flew a list that I wanted to fly, rather than bending to the winds of the meta, and as a result had probably the most fun I've had at any event I've played in, and I feel that I flew well and didn't embarrass myself (apart from one or two notable mistakes near the start of my last game of day 2).

Thank you to all my opponents – every one of you was marvellous. And thanks to Alex, Vince and the rest of the team – you once again put on a fantastic event. See you all next year.

Good report. It's true, the win-loss rate doesn't always paint the full picture. Vipers made a big name for themselves here in the U.S. when a guy took three of them to the top 8 in the Indiana Regionals. They are tricky ships.

2 minutes ago, BDrafty said:

Good work report. It's true, the win-loss rate doesn't always paint the full picture. Vipers made a big name for themselves here in the U.S. when a guy took three of them to the top 8 in the Indiana Regionals. They are tricky ships.

They are indeed. They're not something you can fly on autopilot, which is why I like them. Every move matters, and you really have to be sharp to not be wiped off the table in short order – especially in a turret- and bomb-filled environment. I am genuinely delighted that none of my games were easy for my opponents, and in several cases, different dice rolls could have changed the results. It's something to build on.

I ran 3 SVs for 6 games in my local Regional tourney and had a blast. It is interesting to see you run 4 without any ATs. I also found that they don't trigger as much as I would like, but I found the times it does trigger can make a significant impact. I kind of bugs me that the ship does not have the evade action. I LOVE the bendy BR, but I do wish MK2 would have tacked on an evade action or an illicit slot (so Virago'd SVs would have 2 illicits!)