Had an interesting 123 point game: Old Skool Wave 1 vs Wave 2.1

I had 4 X wings:

Wedge, Swarm Tactics, R2D2, Proton Torpedo

Garven Dreis, Proton Torpedo

2 x Red Squadron each with Proton Torpedoes

This was up against:

"Kath" in Firespray with gunner, proton torpedo, assault missile, Deadeye

Turr Phennir + Veteran Instincts

Dark Curse

Backstabber

Academy Pilot

At the start I felt I was under pressure, being outnumbered and only having Wedge shoot first before virtually all the Imperials. I paired off Garven and Wedge with a wingman on either side of the field with Wedge opposing the Firespray + Backstabber. I tried to swing wide and get target locks early on while staying out of the fire arc of the Firespray. Most ships did a "head on attack" and Garven suffered a critical hit to leave it dangerous to do any red moves. Wedge managed to "Backstab" Backstabber and destroyed him in one pass. Wedge got hit by the TIE interceptor and another critical caused him to lose his ability and medal. He coasted on greens to build up his shields. More impressive was a proton fired by a Red pilot vs the Academy TIE, without a focus I rolled 3 hits and a critical and all defence dice missed except one so it was the first time I had seen a proton "one shot" a fully healthy TIE on focus!

"Kath" was maneuvering around a asteroid and had collected 2 target locks. Turr Phennir then fell victim to Wedge and the Firespray used deadeye to fire a proton at an X wing (not what I was expecting) and did 2 hits. Then she got outmaneuvered and crashed into a stalling X wing which was fortunate as if she had a focus she could have fired an assault missile and could have hit 3 of my ships. Instead she collected two protons and took heavy damage. Wedge dealt with Dark Curse even without his ability. The wounded Firespray managed to destroy one Red X wing before finally getting destroyed itself.

The game was fun and furious with a very high proportion of criticals that had dramatic effect, most of the TIE crits were 2 damage which helped. It was also unusual for the great success the proton torpedoes had. Old Skool rulez!

123pts eh? if i had that number of points and i wa splaying imperials id run something like…

Soontir Fel + Swarm Tactics (29)

Bounty Hunter + Gunner (38)

Academy Pilot (12)

Howlrunner (18)

It was my opponent's choice for points value and he was using an electronic squad generator or at least a quick way of tabulating points. I then randomly chose to play Rebels. I have always ran at least one Y wing in my Rebels because I have a weakness for them. However I decided to try something different with 4 X wings. A pretty simple squad of 4 with protons fitted the bill. Only selecting Wave 1 upgrades was just to "prove a point".

In general I try to always play a different squad from last time and randomly determing a points total is a good way of making this happen. I can get a little bored of the same Pilot + Upgrade combo just because it "fits like a glove". I was thinking of having an Outer Rim Smuggler but as yet I don't have much luck or skill handling the large ships and have usually done more damage to myself than to the opponent.

Your list looks solid enough. Even when I had Wedge I was technically shooting second as Turr Phennir + Vet Instincts shot first with Pilot Skills tied.

Anyway I think you are from Hamilton (does anyone still call it Hamiltron;0). Hi there, I live in P-Town (PN).

Nice report. Hadn't thought of Deadeye on a Firespray, but it looks like it worked out alright for your opponent. Well, not too alright, because obviously you were the victor.

I tried to "prove something" as well by taking a purely Wave 1 squad to the Team Covenant Vassal tournament. I got 3 wins, 1 loss, which may not even be enough to land me in the top 8. It's a tough crowd with lots of excellent players. I'm waiting to see how strength of schedule shakes out, but things aren't looking good for me.

DB Draft said:

hey DB! its really cool to find another kiwi on the forums here. yes i am in hamltron, u r from palmy? (should have guessed from ur handle u were from nz)

i play once per fortnight at the Immortals gaming group that meet on monday nights in hamilton. (really strong club, mostly wargamers). have only been a member since start of this yr. played a few times last year there when i moved over to tron from tauranga.

iv recently started an x-wing club in tauranga that meets the last sunday of each month.

auckland has some regular players but its hard to get us all together in one place for an event. i would love there to be a regionals for x-wing here in nz. its still very much the new kid on the block in terms of tabletop games (lots of 40k and fantasy players out there) but i have a feeling there is a niche for us x-wing junkies here too. im hoping to get some regular competition going between hamilton and tauranga - at the moment there r only 3 of us from each city that meet once per month for 100pt games. i really wish fantasy flight had more influence here in nz and there was some regular competitive play organised. how many regular players r there in palmy?

I belong to the "Manawatu Duelist's Society" in Palmy and pretty much I am the only guy with X wing…. I have enough models for 2 players (probably 3 or 4 players actually!) Flames of war is pretty strong here (I play this as well) but I have always loved air combat. I have WW1 aircraft (1/144 scale) and WW2 aircraft (1/300 scale). X wing is my first foray into "pre painted" models and certainly appreciate the "open the box and play" element.

I mostly have games at home and X wing is certainly getting a good workout this year. I visit Hamilton semi-regularly and it was great to actually see "X wing" core sets and expansion packs on the shelf at Mark One earlier this year. Nothing like that is available locally so I get my fix from seriously board.

I am not too sure about tournament play myself, I usually do one FOW tournament a year and that is a big challenge to get through and thoroughly exhausting. It is always good to see familiar "friends" and tabletop "foes" however!

DB Draft said:

i started off with wings of war ww1, then made the switch to x-wing last yr at boardgames by the bay in tauranga when the game was released here. id alred,ay heard about it from the manager at Mark1 on hamilton a few wks ealrier but its release was delayed. when i saw it being demo-ed i was totally sold and bought two starter sets off the bat.

the squad building rules are very balanced and i enjoy playing both factions. i really like how u can customise ur sqd to ur personal play style… if A-Wings arent ur thing or u dont rate the y-wings, play something else. while some combinations of ships and upgrades work especially well together its possible to win with almost any type of squad (the dice are always a leveler for new players to trump a more experienced player and you will always have bad nights with the dice allowing a decent luck element to play its part but in general the more experienced player has the advantage)

id love to see this game piggy back other more established wargame events to increase its exposure and grow its popularity. at the games club in hamilton where i play regularly with another x-wing fan we usually get a few very interested observers wander by. visually its a cool game and as u know after playing it a few times its easy to get hooked. i enjoy the challenge of trying to come up with the best possible squad for each faction, tweeking combinations and testing them out versus good players.

id seriously consider a trip to auckland to play in a competitive x-wing event if there was one. at this stage in its development i think it would be cnsidered a large tournament if we got 8-10 players together here in nz.