Sorry to say, there’s no frilly images or insightful pondering happing currently. But, I do have time for a small update.
So, while I am chipping away at finishing the upcoming TIE Interceptor article featuring the new pilots from the Skystrike Academy expansion and rewriting how those upgrades may effect older pilots, I am also working on figuring out the other new expansions FFG/AMG have released that I don’t yet have access to.
Added to that, I am slowly building a Galactic Republic Legion force up a unit at a time, learning how to play Keyforge (tonight at 4tK in Colchester), and preparing myself for a new adventure at a game store opening in my home town soon, where I have secured a position, and taken the daunting step towards trying to expand X-Wing right here at home! That said, I can see myself still travelling to Colchester, work and funds permitting, because they are a great group to play with!
So, that’s where I am currently, I’m hoping to finish what needs finishing soon though. Take care of yourself, and Fly Casual!
The B-Wing’s Stabilised S-Foils were first released in the Hotshots and Aces upgrade pack and later added to the Phoenix Cell expansion pack. The S-Foils give the B-Wing a Barrel Roll linked to Red Lock action when open, or a Reload and Barrel Roll linked Red Evade when Closed. The limitations are in play if you are critically damaged, but otherwise give you some great additional effects when open, by allowing you to spend your lock after your initial attack to perform a bonus attack with an unfired Cannon upgrade.
The Limited B6 Blade Wing Prototype Title upgrade for the A/SF-01 B-Wing gives you the ability to add a Gunner upgrade to a single B-Wing in play. Rather useful for some interesting shenanigans and gives you the opportunity to recreate some of the Rebels mischief for fun.
Kicking off the A/SF-01 B-Wing article is the Blue Squadron Pilot. At initiative 2, the Blue Squadron Pilot would benefit from the Stabilised S-Foils configuration, by allowing it to barrel roll into a lock if you have either a cannon or special weapon like Torpedoes equipped. With 8 total health, the Blue Squadron Pilot may tend to stick around longer than other low-initiative pilots in other ships, meaning they should get the chance to use their secondary weapons.
Next up, we have the Blade Squadron Veteran. Slightly more expensive, but with a Talent slot, to either drive damage home or increase your defenses slightly.
When you add in the S-Foils, the Blade Squadron Veteran opens up some interesting shenanigans, but still suffers somewhat from its relatively low initiative. With that in mind, if you need a tanky distraction piece that puts out some respectable damage there are worse choices unless you allow your opponent to focus their fire on it.
Netrem Pollard has a very interesting ability with a niche situational timing. the ability to perform, in essence, a barrel roll K-turn while passing the stress to an unstressed friendly ship at Range 0-1 could allow Netrem to get around in very peculiar ways. Though, on a ship that can Tallon Roll on a 1 template or even K-Turn on a 2 template, I wonder how much use that ability will get. Though, saying that, it comes to mind that being able to roll, flip direction, lock, and fire some torpedoes up the back end of an enemy who isn’t expecting it could change the game, but, that’s a lot of points to invest in somebody with low initiative, and a single defensive die.
Braylen Stramm, as one of the original B-Wing pilots, needs little introduction. The addition of the S-Foils gives him more opportunities to gain the stress he like for his attack modification. It is important to remember that he doesn’t spend the stress, but, needs it to be on him for his ability.
I can see two different roles for Braylen Stramm in a list. Firstly, he’s a hunter, potentially equipped with Outmanoeuvre and making use of the ability to stress and reroll while attacking from out of arc. Secondly, he could be used to control opponents for lower-initiative squamates depending on equipped weapons. Either way, Bralyen is likely to be a medium to high priority target for your opponent.
Ten Numb is another B-Wing pilot who loves to be stressed going into the engagement phase. Spending Stress as though it’s a Focus Token. Can’t argue with that. Especially if using a default Focus/Barrel Roll action.
Like with Braylen Stramm, Ten Numb has two options, hunting targets from behind or firing out a combination of torpedoes and cannon shots. Again, the addition of S-Foils really gives Ten Numb some excellent options which will increase his output while making him a higher priority target.
Gina Moonsong, introduced in the Hotshots and Aces upgrade pack, doesn’t like to be stressed at all. She MUST transfer any stress tokens to a friendly ship at range 0-2. Great if you are Ten Numb… not so great for others depending on your plans.
With that in mind, she could benefit from being a Lone Wolf, and dealing with her own stress, or as a feeder for pilots such as Ten Numb or Braylen Stramm. At Initiative 5, Gina can tangle with most foes on an equal footing, and the addition of S-Foils could be beneficial for lower initiative squadmates, again, depending on loadout.
Should read: “…defends or performs an attack, during a Modify Dice step, you may transfer…”
(Replaced “…defends or performs an attack you may transfer…”).
Atomic Mass Games (effective 04 May 2021
With Hera in a B-Wing (finally), and her ability to pass around Focus, Evade or Lock tokens as required, she is a great support piece for allied ships.
With the support in mind, Hera can also act as a good source of damage, and passes whatever tokens she may have around after her attack(s) have been resolved.
The A/SF-01 B-Wing (or B6 Blade Wing Prototype) has received some decent upgrades and additional pilots since the beginning of X-Wing 2.0, and feels like a much more viable ship to fly.
In a recent (at time of writing) game, I had great fun flying two of them with a pair of A-Wings. They kinda folded, but, that was on me making a mistake and my opponent capitalising. Still, I learned a lot from that.
With current events as they are, and a huge lack of in-person gaming going on, I’m going to attempt to compile a list of retailers associated with the hobby, and how you can buy from them or at the very least, follow them.
If you have a store you frequent or can absolutely recommend, feel free to either leave their name in comments or get in touch on Facebook. This will be an evolving post as and when I get store details from the community.
As all who follow the X-Wing scene will know, aside from the official accessories offered by Fantasy Flight Games for X-Wing, either for purchase or through Organised Play kits available to stores or event organisers, through to being sold by FFG themselves, there are a large number of Third Party suppliers of tokens, templates, organisational solutions, template trays, and many other things. If you can think it, somebody, somewhere will either already make it, or be able to work with you to make your idea a reality.
One of those Third Party suppliers is Buy The Same Token. I’ve linked the X-Wing 2.0 section of their store, but they do cover other games as well. Some may remember I have mentioned them before either in a fairly short post or just as a shout out after receiving some supplies. Now, however, I’m going into a bit more detail, showcase a lot of what I have received, and tie in how not only this company, but these products have helped to improve a game system I really enjoy.
Templates and Trays:
Template Trays from Buy The Same Token come in two sizes. The first are designed to fit in KR Mulitcase storage/transport solutions, and consist of a single (double thickness) layer template tray with topper/lid, while the second size fits into a Feldherr case the size of one of their half-size trays, and consists of two (double thickness) layers to hold templates and range rulers and has space for a selection of tokens, with a topper/lid (single thickness). Sold separately is a dedicated layer for storing/transporting tokens to a game night or event, cutting down on what you need to carry with you.
One of the first products I chose was a Rebel Alliance template set and trays to organise them.
Being happy with how these turned out, I had aspirations to collect a template tray for each faction I play, as I love being able to correctly coordinate what I’m using on the table with accessories on and off the table. Therefore, I set to saving for a set to match my Republic Faction. Seeing as Mace Windu is my favourite Jedi, I set my sights on Purple to represent the faction, with gold highlights because it stands out nicely.
Next on my purchase list, will be the TIE Pilot templates and tray for my Empire faction, which rounds things out nicely.
My daughter was desperate for her own, unique template set, and, after a lot of back and forth, including much help from the guys there, as you can see, her dream became a reality. While her trays are a different colour to her templates, she wanted the pink to really pop while they were stored instead of blending in.
Damage Deck Holders:
Buy The Same Token produce two different sizes of Damage Deck Holder to account for the original Promotional full-size damage deck available with a pre-order of the new 2.0 core set, as well as a Standard size holder for the mini-sized cards included. The great thing about the Promotional size deck holder is that it also fits the faction specific decks Fantasy Flight Games released.
As you can see, I have linked the Acrylic colour with my Faction and Sleeve colours (all full-sized cards use Dragon Shield sleeves, for reference). I have also attempted to tie the faction-specific symbols and paint schemes with the current/future damage decks. This is my Republic holder.
My Rebel Alliance holder matches the template colours perfectly and compliments the sleeve colour in a perfect manner too.
As mentioned previously, this is the TIE Pilot holder for my Empire faction. I need to source some Black sleeves for my Empire, in order to complete the look, these are the matte Petrol colour currently. It takes nearly two boxes of 100 for each faction.
In order to keep things together, my daughter received this Damage Deck Holder for her birthday, and she was beyond thrilled with the fact it is not only “her” unicorn, but matches her templates too.
Arc ID Markers, Ship ID Markers, Lock Tokens:
After releasing a small range of varying sized Arc/Ship ID markers and tokens, and a separate set of Lock Tokens, Buy The Same Token released a complete set of 8/4 Arc/Ship ID tokens and markers, which included a matching set of Lock tokens
As you can see, these are my Republic markers and tokens. Cut from the same Acrylic colour as my templates, tray lid, and Deck holder, the colour matches perfectly. Currently, I’ve found the best way to keep these organised and stored is in the small baggies they arrived in, or, in the short term, those in use stay o the ship bases they are being used with.
Yes, you’ve guessed it, as part of her birthday present, my daughter received a set of these too. So far, she has only taken the backing film off the ones she has used, and, as games are few and far between currently, mainly due to my health issues, and partly wider health concerns, the majority of hers still have the protective layers on them.
Tokens:
The mainstay of many X-Wing players, tokens for various actions, abilities, game-states, and even changeable configurations. Tokens are varied, with several different types or series (words, transparent, black, “Love Hearts”), whatever your token preference, if they don’t stock it, they may be able to work with you to get what you are after.
Part of the “Love Hearts” range, these Shield tokens have a standard Shield logo on one side and a movie quote, in red, on the other.
Part of the Transparent range, these Charges show active and inactive on either side.
And finally, a selection of other tokens available from Buy The Same Token, as an idea of what you can get. One great thing about using a single company for your accessory needs is you are more likely to, not only retain a consistency of colour amongst your accessories, but, they are far more likely to interact with each other in a beneficial way, such as storing tokens in a template tray for a specific list/event.
There we have an overview of one of the companies offering a very comprehensive range of products to enhance and organise your X-Wing experience. Don’t just take my word for it. I’ve negotiated a very generous 10% limited time discount code for you to use on their Etsy site. TYDIRIUM, valid until 11:59pm on December 31st 2020 on all X-Wing Acrylic. Just to mention, this isn’t a commission deal, I don’t earn through referrals. I am a firm believer in spreading the word when a company stands out as excellent, even more if it is a small business.
Like many others, I coveted acrylic accessories because they are far more durable than their cardboard counterparts, no matter how well made. Yet, acrylic is also light enough to transport well, so not adding more to your burden. I will add that I didn’t purchase my first set until The Second Edition of X-Wing had been released, which ensured I could get maximum usage out of my purchases.
One thing I really like about using acrylic tokens is their thickness compared to their cardboard counterparts. Another aspect is that they are, for me, far more noticeable than the card ones, they are less likely to get lost on the game mat, especially using the transparent series and their coloured acrylic. A final improvement on acrylic over cardboard is customisation. A browse of the Buy The Same Token Etsy store (linked above) will show all the small, but fun customisations they have come up with.
Like the rest of the X-Wing community, I’ve been really missing the occasional times where I could get to a gaming store either for a pickup game or an arranged game. That said, I was overjoyed to have somebody reach out for a game, and one was duly arranged. Oliver is fairly local to 4tK so booked a table through their current system.
Now, I forgot to get the first turns’ worth of photos, but it was pretty standard early game movement.
Instead of giving a turn-by-turn account, I will explain the game-state of the images I have managed to remember to get. This is partially because I am not great when it comes to writing detailed and interesting battle reports, and partly because there are other bloggers who do write great battle reports.
End of Turn Two
At the end of turn two, there was some long range sniping with little effect other than the occasional shield lost, aside from poor Jessika Pava being focused down hard and losing her ship, but positions were gained ready for a larger engagement.
End of Turn Three
Turn three saw damage cards applied to both sides, with Arc number 3 coming off worst but hanging in there. Luck would have it that Kaz in his Fireball landed on an Asteroid, avoided damage but, lost his chance to shoot.
Engagement Phase Turn Four
The turn four engagement phase sees disaster for Wolffe as he is hit with a Blinded Pilot, then rolls three focus results. Thanks Cova!
End of Turn Four
At the end of turn four, we have one of the Squad Seven Veterans down, finally, more shields lost, and preparations made for the next turn with each player trying to predict what the manoeuvres will be. However, Lieutenant Bastian falls to the guns of the Republict his round and Kaz succumbs to his damage too.
End of Turn Five
Turn five sees Cova either evade a huge amount of incoming fire or failures on the part of the Republic gunners, while continuing to punish Wolffe, who comes out of this engagement one health above half points.
End of Turn Six
The end of turn six sees Wolffe preserve his health with a cheeky, desperate barrel roll and Plo loses his shield with no damage in return.
As the end of the game arrived, we had an extremely close (even if the points don’t indicate it) game that could have gone any way a number of times. Plo rolling three natural evades at key times, the Arcs actually being able to avoid incoming fire was surprising, proving the adage that, if you roll enough dice, some of them will eventually be good. If T-70’s hadn’t gone down when they had (man, they can take some serious punishment) the result would have been very different!
Over all, an incredible real life match after a break that was far too long, versus a wonderful opponent who gave as great a game as I could hope he received!
On a final note, with some new releases on the horizon, I do hope to get back to analysing these ships for the factions I collect, and there is potential to have a guest writer cover, at the very least, the Resistance, once I have asked him about it.
To round out the factions I have access to, I’m going to take a look at the Scum and Villainy, and see where their strengths lie in Hyperspace.
List One:
This first list I settled on is one that is a glass cannon in operation, yet can pack enough of a punch to deal with most Hyperspace situations you may come across.
The idea is pretty simple. Hit hard, hit fast, and hit from the front. In an ideal situation, you will be Initiative killing swarms, and mitigating damage Aces put out if you stay at Range 1. Possible deployment options include flying in pairs to ensure killing a target the first time around or a block that is more vulnerable to being outmanoeuvred by higher Initiative pilots.
List Two:
This second list came as something of a surprise to me, not in the least that you could get a fairly large number of 2 attack 3 defend ships in a list at 200 points where Critical Damage cannot be countered.
Having six Tansarii Point Veterans with Autoblasters gives you exactly that. With the 8 points left over, you could potentially jiggle the pilots around a bit, or add a talent or two depending on your personal preference. The list struck me as something that could potentially face off against TIE/ln or Droid swarms, while being quite devilish to aces with the ability to push critical damage through regardless of evade dice/defense boosts.
While the desire for natural rolls of Critical Hits is there, it’s great to remember that you can still use primary weapons if you aren’t quite lined up correctly, and for every defense die to force an opponent to roll, to more chances you make for them to fail.
List Three:
The final list in this series is one that really should work out well, but perhaps won’t. However, to counter some of the weak points, perhaps an upgrade can help.
Ideally, Dengar would begin on the Right edge of the deployment zone, meaning any turns would be to the left, and thus favoured, but, the addition of Contraband Cybernetics should help mitigate that issue.
Running Boba too gives you hit utility and survivability while seismic charges can make things easier for Dengar/more dangerous for obstacle-hugging enemies.
As with the other factions, it appears that low-initiative, high numbers of non-limted pilots could be the way to go. While the JumpMaster 5,000 is a far cry from the powerhouse is used to be, I believe there is still a place for it in Scum and Villainy squadrons, but finding the load-out is going to be the key.
What do you think? Can the JumpMaster 5,000 find a place? Do you have a preferred Scum and Villainy Hyperspace squadron? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Going forward, as new ships are released for the factions I cover, I will write articles based on those, or as new things enter X-Wing I will endeavour to take a look. I’m in two minds over expansions like the card packs, but will have a think. Is there any content not covered elsewhere you would like in Blog-form? Once again, get in touch. I’d like to provide what the community is after.
As the community continues to search for decent Organised Play software that reduces the amount of time Tournament Organisers need to spend on administrating their events, one website offers a great solution that allows players to pre-register and upload their lists, and input their results, which are only saved once their opponent agrees the score.
Today, I’ll show you how to use this website, if you have never used it before, feel free to experiment yourself with the example event I have created in order to familiarise yourself with it.
Registration:
The initial step is to register on the site itself, which is really easy, and allows you to use either a screen name or your real name. Just head to www.tabletop.to and click the Sign Up tab.
Event Registration:
When a store advertises an event that uses Tabletop.to they will usually include an event link on their post on Social Media for you to register for their event, it will usually appear like so:
This then gives you the option to sign up for the event like so:
Signing up for a Tabletop.to event
Submitting Lists:
Once you have signed up, you can submit a list you are happy with. (Note – most events will hide either the lists , the ladder, or both until the the event starts or ends. For this example, I have left both visible to you for reference.)
Preparing to add a list
Once you are ready, you will have clicked the button, and will see the following screen:
How many squad-builders can this handle?
As you can see, Tabletop.to can handle a great variety of list building tools, and even allows you to preselect your obstacles. We have an Image, like a screen shot, Text/HTML, if you threw a list together using something like Notepad, XWS Import, if you are using a web-based builder or an older squad building app, the FFG Official Squadbuilder (does anybody use that still?), Launch Bay Next for Mobile users, and YASB 2.0 URL submission. So, if you are registering from your mobile device or a computer of any sort, you can still submit your list quickly and easily.
As I’m writing on a laptop, I’ll show a YASB 2.0 example, but the process is just as simple for all.
So, we have our List, and we’ve clicked the YASB 2.0 URL tab, and we have the following:
List is ready to populateObstacles have been chosen
(Note, the Software has yet to be updated to include the Never Tell Me The Odds gas clouds as of yet, but YASB2.0 does include these).
Once you have submitted, you can return to the event.
Progression:
Ready to attend
Once you have submitted your list, you are ready to attend your event. It’s important to note that, as you become familiar with Tabletop.to, the process of pre-registering for events that use it becomes ever faster, as you don’t need to register for the site every time, and you can show your team affiliation at every event through your profile (which I’ll let you explore on your own).
While Tabletop.to may allow you to submit results from the table as you finish, some Tournament Organisers will prefer to submit the results themselves, so it is worth getting in touch before hand so they can make their wishes known.
Miscellaneous:
Here, you will see an example of a completed event, so you can have an explore of what Tabletop.to has to offer.
Tournament Organisers can export list details to List Fortress if they desire to, can make events part of a series, and could potentially run a league.
While there are plenty of event management sites and software packages around, personally, I prefer Tabletop.to, as it is very user friendly, and can allow first-time users to both run events and/or participate really easily.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I’ll do my best, although the FAQ pages on Tabletop.to might be more useful.
In a change to advertised postings, the guys at Tin Squadron have created a great video answering that very question. You can visit their Facebook page by clicking the link above.
X-Wing Second Edition: Is it for you?
The video is aimed towards those who haven’t had the exposure to X-Wing at all. It’s a great summation of the game, that leaves you wanting to know more and keen to try the game.
New to X-Wing yourself? The best advice I can currently give you is that there are many Facebook groups covering the X-Wing hobby. Each region will usually have a group, and some stores will have their own pages or groups as well, however if you are in East Anglia, I can recommend Alpha Games, Stanton, near Bury St Edmunds, Athena Games, Norwich, 4tK and Ace Gaming Centre both in Colchester.
Once a year we run a team tournament to raise money for our local charity – an air ambulance that saves lives along our expanse of coastline, and we try not to take it too seriously (the Tin Cup, for one thing, has never been won by Tin Squadron!)
Tin Squadron talking about one of their annual events.
If you’d like to read some more by Tin Squadron, you can right here.
My thanks to Tin Squadron for both permission to use their video, and the information on their home and annual event for charity.
Never normally one to ask for this but, if you think you know somebody who might be interested in X-Wing, please, send them to this post, or direct to the video on YouTube for Tin Squadron.
As with the other factions I don’t play or collect, I’ll do my best to have a look at them, and will avoid trying to write an list for them, as my lack of experience and understanding will be more detrimental than anything.
The MG-100 Star Fortress sees a new pilot in Paige Tico with an added Talent slot, and points being reduced for all existing pilots.
The RZ-2 A-Wing sees two new pilots in Zizi Tio and Ronnith Blario, with drops in points for the Green Squadron Expert and Blue Squadron Recruit.
The Scavenged YT-1300 Sees points dropped for all pilots.
The T-70 X-Wing sees a whole raft of points reductions for Ello Asty, Temmin Wexley, Kare Kun, Jaycris Tubbs, Lieutenant Bastian, Black Squadron Ace, Red Squadron Expert, and Blue Squadron Rookie. Interestingly enough, Fantasy Flight stopped short of allowing five T-70s to fly together, unlike their Rebel Alliance T-65 counterparts.
On the upgrades front, Amilyn Holdo, GA-97, Han Solo (Crew), Leia Organa, and Rey’s Millennium Falcon all see a points reduction.
Where the points are concerned, the Resistance seems to have been luckier than other factions who saw things rise in cost.
Hyperspace:
The new Fireball is Hyperspace legal in this rotation.
Leaving Hyperspace is L’ulo L’ampar in the RZ-2 A-Wing, as do all the MG-100 Star Fortress pilots.
The Scavenged YT-1300 leaves in this rotation.
Ello Asty in the T-70 X-Wing leaves this rotation.
The Logistics Division Pilot and Finn leave in the Resistance Transport and Resistance Transport Pod respectively.
In Upgrades, the BB Astromech and M9-G8 along with C-3PO, Chewbacca, GA-97, Han Solo (Crew), Rose Tico, Finn (Gunner), Rey (Gunner), Paige Tico (Gunner), and Rey’s Millennium Falcon all leave, with Amilyn Holdo and Kaz’s Fireball alongside R1-J5 are added.
The Resistance seems to be in a fairly safe place when it comes to the Hyperspace changes, as with the other factions, returning to player skill instead of funky interactions between pilots and upgrades.
While some of the toys and the large ships have been removed, there is still plenty to choose from for Hyperspace. On the points front, the changes seem fairly positive, and again, look towards building up squads around a lone named pilot and some generics, compared to a few gimmicky pilots.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and start a discussion.
In an effort to provide a sense of completion, I will take a look at the Separatist Alliance changes, however, I won’t provide a squadron list, as I am fairly unfamiliar with the Separatist Alliance faction as I don’t play or collect them. If any of my observations are wildly out of kilter with the faction, please, forgive me.
The Belbullab-22 Starfighter sees drops for the Skakoan Ace and Feethan Ottraw Autopilot, and a rise for Captain Sear.
The Hyena-class Droid Bomber sees drops for DBS-32C, Bombardment Drone, Separatist Bomber and Techno Union Bomber.
The Nantex-class Starfighter doesn’t see any points changes, but does see Gorgol receive a Modification upgrade slot.
In the Sith Infiltrator, Darth Maul and 0-66 both see points drops, with 0-66 receiving a Talent upgrade slot.
On the upgrade front, TA-175 sees a rise in points, as does Ensnare.
Hyperspace:
The first Hyperspace change sees the Belbullab-22 Starfighter completely removed from the rotation.
The Dark Courier is removed from Hyperspace.
Upgrades removed from Hyperspace for the Separatist Alliance include Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, Energy Shell Charges, Imperivum Plating, Ensnare, and Soulless One.
With one of the, perhaps, key upgrades removed from the Nantex-class Starfighter in Ensnare, are we likely to see large numbers of these in Hyperspace, or are we going to continue to see swarms of droids with struts walking around Asteroids?
In my area, Separatists are a fairly low player count faction, so I don’t have a huge amount of experience or conversation to draw from. Perhaps, for the Separatists, Droid swarms over gimmicks is the way to play.
Yes, More X-Wing 
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