September 2019 – Yes, More X-Wing

September 20, 2019

In-depth Look BTL-B Y-Wing

With Wave V now available, it’s time to take a look at the BTL-B Y-Wing for the Grand Army of the Republic. The basic shp ability of changing a [CRITICAL] damage for a [HIT] damage, while you have no face up damage cards can protect you from naturally rolled [Critical] damage, but not modified [CRITICAL] Damage.

The Initiative 2 Red Squadron Bomber is the first of the non-Limited pilots available for the BTL-B Y-Wing. At release, the upgrade slots are the same* as the BTL-A4 Y-Wing for the Rebel Alliance and Scum and Villainy. While the points are still reasonable, a squadron of these gives the Republic their first access to Devices, somewhat perfect for taking out swarms of Seperatist Droids.

“Goji” is a great pilot if you are taking a lot of devices in a BTL-B Y-Wing squadron, as youo get bonus defensive rolls if you are close to yoour devices, which means Proximity Mines, Conner Nets, and the upcoming (currently) Cluster Mines will be good chices to deploy, and force your opponent to engage on your terms. Throwing an occasional Proton Bomb may very well surprise your opponent too, especially if you add a fuse to it.

R2-D2 is where teh upgrade slots change slightly on the BTL-B Y-Wing. Instead of having an Astromech slot, you lose that and gain a Crew slot. When you use R2-D2, you have the potential to gain up to 3 Calculate tokens before engagement begins, because if you equip C-3PO and have an enemy in your [Rear] firing arc, whether yoou have a turret or not, you gain 2 bonus Calculate tokens. R2-D2 is decently priced in points terms, and should definitely be cnsidered, depending on your battle plans.

“Broadside” is a useful pilot in certain engagements, especially if you don’t have a lock, and are engaging through your Turret. Switching a [BLANK] result to a [FOCUS] result, with a Focus token can increase your odds of pushing damage through, or ionising your target, depending on which turret you take.

The Shadow Squadron Veteran is nicely situated if you want a dedicated squadron of BTL-B Y-Wings, or as a support ship for a squadron of ARC-170s or V-19 Torrents. The ways it can be upgraded can maximise the efforts of your other ships, while still holding its own with some form of Gunner and/or Turret upgrade. At Initiative 3, it will generally keep pace with other ships that can match the speeds and manoeuvres available.

“Matchstick” gives you a great synergy with squadmates who will generally be using the Focus/Calculate/Evade actions. You Lock him in the first turn, and leave him Locked as he engages. Added in with a Turret and Veteran Turret Gunner, I predict that “Matchstick” will become a staple in Republic lists that include a lot of ships where having a Lock action is generally unused. Priced reasonably, and as versatile as the other BTL-B Y-Wings, “Matchstick” gives great action economy, in that he only really needs his own Lock to fire Torpedoes, but can keep that Lock available while firing them, provided he has enough Red tokens available to him.

“Odd Ball” puts in his third appreaance to date, and with a printing error on his card. According to the Fantasy Flight X-Wing Squad Builder, the word “fully” has been omitted in regards to executing a manoeuvre. This omission has caused speculation that the ability may have been tweaked after a general lack of use in OP, but with the correct version appearing on the Squad Builder, this is unlikely. As with the other ships, “Odd Ball” will generally struggle to see the table, as there are better pilots costed reasonably that can perfom the same job, just slightly later in the engagement phase.

Anakin appears for the third time here, or second time as a Jedi Knight, depending on how you view things. His ability is identical to the Delta-7 Aethersprite, and his points cost is simiilarly high, especially considering the shortcomings of a BTL-B Y-Wing compared to either the N1 or Aethersprite. That aside, he could be a solid choice for an elite squadron, providing some solid support for Jedi in Aethersprites or even the N1 pilots.

So, with the newest Grand Army of the Republic ship reviewed, it’s time to take a look at the rest of the blog. I have made the decision to update previous articles as and when I can, trimming articles that are repeated, and ensuring they stay updated. I won’t be looking at factions I am not collecting, purely because the time commitment here would be enormous, and I am not really in the position to start collecting new factions now, with 3 to keep updated.

This will mean that previous articles will be unpublished while they are worked on, then republished as they are updated.

With that in mind, totally new releases for the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, and Grand Army of the Republic will be reviewed, Scum and Villainy may be featured when totally new content arrives becuse my daughter collects that faction.

Anything I’ve missed or overlooked in this article? Get in touch through the Facebook page or leave a comment.

September 16, 2019September 19, 2019

Invasion Colchester Charity X-Wing Tournament 2019

Initially, I was going to give you a round-by-round account of performace and some results, followed by a breakdown of the event. However, several things have made me reconsider that.

So, it’s an unseasonably warm Sunday in mid September that also happened to be my daughter’s birthday, which happened to coincide with the annual Invasion Colchester Charity event. Some conversation with the TO and a little while later we had organised, what I had thought to be, a quick Birthday mention, perhaps a little cake, and an extra alt-art in her goodie bag.

The day arrives, everybody registers, and we end up with 31 players, including myself, my daughter, and my son, with my wife supporting, and later helping out with a few things.

The first two rounds are played, with Lunch following. Once we are all back from Lunch, the TO gathers everybody in the biggest gaming room, where an amazing R2-D2 cake is presented to my daughter, and you then have over 30 people singing “Happy Birthday” to her. She was extremely happy and excited with the cake, and even gifted our TO with a hug for thanks. An important point to note, in that it was his significant other who had baked and decorrated this impressive treat, and of a size to make over 40 generous portions!

Rounds 3-5 proceed, and the event starts to draw to a close. Now, we arrived at Ace Gaming Center in Colchester at 9am, and it was getting on for 6pm, and my (newly) 8 year-old daughter has jsut completed 5 games of X-Wing, against a huge variety of players, and scoring some extremely close games. The closest she got to dropping came just before lunch, and in her final game, which was against her brother.

Throughout the afternoon raffle tickets were being sold, as well as the opportunity to win the local legendary ship via a Jar Jar in a Jam Jar game around guessing Focus and Jam token numbers in a jar. Was incredibly fun.

With many thanks to a huge number of people for both prize and raffle support, including, but not limited to Buy the Same Token, Cog ‘O’ Two, Kei, Mark Fairbrother, and more, we had some great things on offer.

Both kids (and I) had at least one raffle win, and we started to wind down and begin the process of getting 4 exhasuted people and a massive amount of gear, loot, cake, and birthday presents back to the car.

Invasion Colchester 2019 participants and organisers

Once we arrived home, the message came thrugh that we had raised somewhere in the region of £870 for Invasion Colchester… An absolutely staggering amount, in which I am proud to have contributed the little myself and my kids could through both entry and raffle tickets. As soon as I can find a picture of the cake and Birthday girl, I will add it to the post here.

On a personal note, I could not, and still can’t, thank everybody enough for the amazing way my daughter was treated on her birthday, as well as the opponents of my children, who always treated them with the respect they would give an adult player.

The thanks don’t stop there though, as my daughter was also presented, between rounds, with a cuddly pegasus which was bigger than she is, by one of the Ace Gaming Center staff members, who has been her friend since the first time I set foot in there, incidentally, for Invasion Colchester 2018.

Yes, it was a charity event, and our fundraising was amazing. But, for one little girl, it was a birthday party that she will never, ever forget, and, I honestly nearly started bawling several times at the generosity of everybody both for the charity, and when they were gifting unneeded prizes or passing raffle wins to her because it was her birthday.

If we’ve heard it once, we”ve said it a million times, the X-Wing community goes beyond simple community, and strays into the realms of being just one, huge, extended family. Nothing drove that home like Sunday just gone.

Thank you everybody!

September 6, 2019September 7, 2019

Faction Upgrades – Galactic Empire

After facing some particularly difficult Galactic Empire lists, and dabbling with an Empire list that is rather interesting to fly, I’ve decided it’s time to take a look at the Faction Upgrades available to the Galactic Empire, as there are some interesting ideas floating around at the moment.

Configuration

The OS-1 Arsenal Loadout for the Alpha-Class Star Wing gives an extra Torpedo and Missile upgrade slot, as well as the ability to fire those types of secondary weapon with exactly 1 Disarm token. There are two ways to gain that token, by using the SLAM action or reloading your secondary weapon. Coupling this upgrade with Advanced SLAM gives you a very fast ship, capable of unloading unliimited ordanance every turn, with the right actions and support ships. A very scary prospect for low-Initiative pilots to face.

As well as being able to fire a Cannon upgrade while being Disarmed, the XG-1 Assault Configuration adds that Cannon upgrade to the Alpha-Class Star Wing. The only downside to this is that you cannot roll more than 3 attack dice, regardless of the source. Now, that rules out range bonuses as well as the 4th attack die from the Heavy Laser Cannon. But, using this to reduce the evasion of a target ship with a Tractor Beam, or remove Locks/Green tokens with the (free) Jamming Beam. For board control, you can equip the Ion Cannon, not too mention the damage output available from Autoblasters.

While the options are far more limited for the Cannon slot, and damage output is far less guaranteed, there are still a lot of options available for the higher Initiative Major Vynder, if you are running lower initiative pilots with him.

Crew

While 0-0-0 is only available in squads where you include Darth Vader, the droid does have some uses, depending on which ships you choose. Forcing an opponent to choose between receiving Stress or giving you a Calculate token can be rather large benefit to you, either you get to have a bonus modification or you get to shut down an opponent and potentially benefit through other upgrade interactions.

Admiral Sloane has two benefits for you, firstly, if you lose friendly ships close by, the ship that destroyed them gains 2 Stress tokens, secondly, when friendly ships attack stressed ships, you get to reroll an attack die. The largest bonus comes from the fact this can happen in an extremely large bubble, or range 0-3. this is a particularly strong build facing Rebel Alliance lists that include a lot of B-Wings, due to their high number of Red Manoeuvres, coupled with the Stress-loving mechanic of thier named pilots. Working alongside 0-0-0 as well, and you have quite a nasty combination.

I’ve posted an In-depth Look article on Agent Kallus before but it appears the article didn’t survive the revamp. The Hunted Condition allows you to treat attacks against the assigned enemy ship as a permanent Calculate token. The uses for this are fairly obvious and a fairly reasonable points cost. The added bonus with the Hunted condition is that it is transferred once the trget ship is edstroyed.

Ciena Ree has a rather interesting effect, based around the Co-ordinate action. Boosts or Barrel Rolls can gain a stress for a 90º turn. As direction isn’t specified, this could be a real game-changer at the right moment, it must just be my flying, as I have yet to take full advantage of this ability, either the time has never appeared or I’ve tried to use it n too-high an Initiative pilot. Best locations appear to be the Decimator or Lambda-Class Shuttle with slower moving lists, or the Reaper for faster moving lists.

Darth Vader is quite possibly one of the most useful crew cards, and one that has me split as to the worth of the upgrade, and the effect on other ships. Those that know me know that I was quite annoyed after the January points change, and the massive nerf that Vader caused to the TIE/ph Phantom. Now? I still believe that Vader should be a 2 Crew slot upgrade, especially as every other ship that can carry him is either better in terms of exposure and has two or three crew slots available.

Anyway, alll that aside, currently itting at 14 points, it takes some serious self-justification for including Vader in your squads now. One ship that is often talked about for carrying Vader is the VT-49 Decimator. The reason being that the dual fire arcs give him twice the opportunity to trigger, and little point in preserving the Focus token for defense, seeing as how you will rarely be rolling any dice.

A perfect upgrade partner to Admiral Sloane, or less so, 0-0-0. Death Troopers prevent enemies at Range 0-1 from removing stress tokens, regardless of the source of the removal, for exmple, Cassian Andor (pilot), Nien Numb (Resistance pilot), Anakin Skywalker, Kanan Jaruus, etc. At 6 points, their only questioning ability is whether you can easily sacrifice two crew slots while getting the correct interactions.

Director Krennic is a dual-use upgrade for the Galactic Empire, in that he grants a Lock action to a ship he is a passenger on, and he can add a Thane Kyrell-like effect to another friendly ship, where by you spend a [Focus]. [Hit], or [Critical] result in order to ensure a target either loses a shield or, more importantly, flips a face down damage card, potentially benefitting that shot. All that for, currently, 4 points. It’s partly that that is making me consider swapping Admiral Sloane out on my upcoming event list, and swaing Krennic in. It would make a great boost to either the Grand Inquisitor or Rexler Brath (who can expose 2 damage cards under the right conditions then).

As the second Crew upgrade to take up two crew slots, Emperor Palpatine has seen a somewhat radical transformation from his 1.0 appearance. Here’s the important part to remember. Palpatine doesn”t have a range limitation, so he can use his ability for any friendly ship. Here’s the catch. Palpatine doesn’t actually modify any dice uness you are defending the ship palpatine is on. The way his ability works tells us that it is the ship that is defending that modifies its dice, as if it had a Force token itself. This is important, as there has been some issues surrounding the interaction between Palpatine and Padmé Amidala’s V arc ability. This means that, if your ship is in Padmé’s V arc, and you roll 2 or 3 (or however many) Focus results, you can still only modify a single Focus result. Other than that interaction, Ppalpatine can help out an ally in a pinch as feely as Force availability lasts.

The Grand Inquisitor could be rather useful on a couple of ships, namely the Decimator, or the TIE Reaper. How? Simply, when you are dancing close with the enemy, he gives you an action, out of sequence, which potentially opens up a secondary action, or gives your ship an action after an (un)intentional bump in the scrum, with the stress cleared. The added bonus for the TIE Reaper is that, with that pre-move stress, you shut down your ailerons, if that’s what you need to do. Granted, at a Vader-esque 14 points currently, he is an upgrade where you have to think hard about whether to include him in your list as a passenger or pilot.

At a paltry 6 points, Grand Moff Tarkin gives you an ability many Galactic Empire players are struggling to findon the base frames for their squads. Now, for two out of the three crew carriers, you need to double Tarkin up with Director Krennic, however, being able to not only to perform a Lock with a Lambda or TIE Reaper, but in the following System Phase, every other friendy ship, you open up some serious options for the rest of your squad, while being able to redeploy some points elsewhere. For some perspective, Initiative 4 Major Vermeil is 59 points (currently) with both Krennic and Tarkin. Now, imagine that leading a squadron of I2 bombers armed with Torpedoes or missiles, and your opponent starts having serious target priority issues. That, or a warm of TIE/ln Fighters, all managing to have both a Lock and Focus. Certainly Tarkin is worth putting on teh table soon, and may well make it there once I’ve had my coming event.

Ah, the humble ISB Slicer. Coupled with these, and a low initative Defender, Lambda Shuttle, or Alpha Class Star Wing with a Jamming Beam, and your opponent starts to worry about where their dice mods are going to be coming from. Granted, they are a very situatioonal upgrade, and there may be other considerations to take into account, such as whether you are going to go Ion-Control or heavy damage dealing to take advantage of a lack of locks/focus/evade tokens the enemy has. Honestly, I’m yet to take them to the table, but it may be worth looking in to in the future.

Minister Tua is one upgrade that fans of Decimators are looking forward to the Hyperspace rotation. Seeing as a Decimator is guaranteed to take damage, a red Reinforce action at the start of the Engagement Phase is too good to ignore. Minister Tua could also be of some use on the sip that likes to get stuck in, the TIE Reaper. With the aileron moves getting you closer than you may expect, having a red Reinforce to both counter the next aileron move and reduce incoming damage could be something worthwhile to consider.

Moff Jerjerrod gives all your ships a Red Boost action in the System Phase, using all the same template. There are many times this could come in handy, especially when you are planning a Blue manoeuvre anyway. At 8 points, he does require some thinking about when considering who to take in those limited Crew slots, the fact he requires a Co-Ordinate action is small issue at the moment, as every crew-carrying ship has that action available to it.

Seventh Sister has a rather fun ability that can mess with an opponent’s planning or push ships out of action in other ways, depending on the source of the required Stress token. Spending Force to assign either a Tractor or Jam token instead of the stress could be of benefit, even if it opens the possibility of granting a ship an action it otherwise would have had to avoid. Breaking Locks or removing held green tokens through the Jam token can reduce effectiveness while Tractoring can push ships out of arcs, onto obstacles, or closer to board edges. At 9 points for her, it will quickly add up if you include other Force users on the same ship to maximise her potential, but, once a round could make the difference between one of your ships surviving without being targeted or facing a dangerous opponent.

Force

While not solely for the Galactic Empire, Hate can be used by four out of seven factions natively, with the Rebels gaining it through Maul being a crew member. Hate is a rather interesting upgrade in that, the more damage you suffer, the faster you regenerate Force charges. This is fairly obalaced out by being based on ship size rather than Initiative. The two obvious choices for Hate are Darth Vader (pilot) and the Grand Inquisitor (pilot), with the latter being slightly more fragile due to lower health.

Gunner

Fifth Brother is the only, currently, Galactic Empire Gunner upgrade. While 9 points isn’t a huge investment, it’s one to watch for if you are equipping multiple upgrades on a ship, as the cost can spiral quickly. His ability is useful in combination with other pilots that can take advantage of the extra Critical Hit if it lands.

BT-1, like 0-0-0, is unlocked for the Empire if you have Darth Vader in your squadron, either as a pilot or crew member. At only 2 points for the ability to switch a Hit to a Critical for every Stress token the target has, if you have Vader and a ship with a Gunner slot on it, you may be mad in not adding BT-1 to your squad. Pushing more Criticals through at key moments could win you the game.

Talent

The Imperial Talent upgrade is the direct opposite of the Rebel Alliance version, it doles out hits if you assign a hit to a friendly ship, rather than pulling critical hits away from friendlies. This can be quite useful if you are running a Sloane Swarm list, as you make it easier for your opponent to destroy your lower Initiative ships. However, there can be key moments in games where an extra hit assigned to an opponent can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Title

Dauntless is a fantastic Title for the ponderous VT-49 Decimator. Allowing an action, even if it is treated as Red, after bumping is something special. There is, usually, only one pilot who can take full advantage of this title, Captain Oicunn, as the Captain can perform primary attacks against targets at Range 0, doing so, with an action is far more beneficial.

At 4 points, ST-321 is a good way of gaining some action economy on the Lambda-Class Shuttle. Not only can you Co-Ordinate, but you then get to take a Lock, ignoring range restrictions once you have found a target at Range 0-3 of the allied ship you Co-Ordinated. Simple, cheap, and fairly worthwhile, if you were considering taking a Lambda-Class Shuttle.

There we have it. The main reason this has taken longer than expected to write is because I was discovering new ideas that I might be able to implement in my upcoming tournament. Hopefully it might spark new ideas for more experienced players, or you have suggestions that may work out with plenty of trial.

The next post is going to be about the Invasion Colchester event, which happens the following week, which also happens to be my daughter’s birthday, so there should be plenty to write about. With any luck, I will also remember to take some pictures of my games, and have some positive results to present, which would be a first.