2018: The Year in Tiny Spaceships

* Blows Dust off The Thing* 

Hello? 

So reading around the X-Wing Community, there are a lot of fun, thoughtful and helpful blogs around, and so I thought to myself "hey, didn't you used to have one of them?". Indeed I did, and appropriately, with one exception, the last post on it was me talking about the IQ Games Regional of November 2016, which means I've been playing competitive X-Wing for just over two years. Gosh. You'd think I'd be better at it by now. But one feature of this year that has been fun is the email exchanges with a friend detailing tournament experiences, and so I guess that helped scratch the blogging itch, but maybe...just maybe...it's time to go public. 

So without further ado, here is a quick summary of my 2018 X-Wing experience by way of my favorite lists. 

Ah, the Chuckleheads. Norra Wexley (ARC-170), Heff Tobber (U-Wing) and Ezra Bridger (Sheathipede), a list that started as a quixotic quest to fly a U-Wing when it was the "worst ship in the game that wasn't a TIE Punisher" and ended up probably my most successful list. I loved it, still do, I think. It slipped into a Regional Cut by going 5-1 at Element Games at the start of the year, went 4-2 at the Yavin Open to make the top 70 out of 500 players. I can't think of a better advert for "Fly What You Love". I retired them after Yavin, fearing otherwise I would just fly them forever. 

I always loved Assault Gunboats in the old X-Wing PC games so I was so keen to get these guys on the table. Sadly no matter how pretty I painted them, and how broken Harpoons were, I still struggled to make them work. They did herald an early summer of mad experimentation as I tried to fly as many different ships as I could before 2.0 hit.

My last "competitive" list of 1.0 - Darth Vader (TIE Advanced), Quickdraw (TIE SF) and Mr Scarif B. Pilot (TIE Reaper) with, of course, Director Krennic. Unashamedly taking advantage of some of the late 1.0 cheese (Jam, Krennic, Quickdraw generally) I scored some decent success, including the above loot haul from Harlequins in Preston, which was probably the closest I've ever got to walking out of an event unbeaten. Maybe one day, eh? 

And then, the great 2.0 change happened, and everything, um, changed. I... struggled, to be honest. I think the game has changed for the better, but because I am old and slow (so I'm told) I lost a LOT of games, pretty much all of them, actually, for a couple of months before finding a list that I could make work. Fenn (Fang Fighter), Old Teroch (Fang Fighter) and Torani Kulda (Kimogila) make a pretty meaty team and they're great fun to barrel around in absolute terror of the new crit deck. They've been my "go to" since November, including a great weekend at Nerf Herder. 

So that's the ships. 

On a personal note, if you've ran into me you've probably also ran into "The Teenager", with whom I've played at many of the larger clubs across the North in the past year; Element Games, Harlequins, IQ Games, Beanie Games, and of course my home store of Travelling Man Leeds. It's been an eventful year for us - we moved house, Ewan's had his GCSEs and started 6th Form, as well as ongoing health issues, and X-Wing has been a mix of escape, stress relief and (gulp) father-son bonding for both of us. I think the bugger is still ahead in our personal match-ups too, so I'll have to see about that in the new year. 

But importantly everywhere has been welcoming, everywhere has been fun. I've been around the block enough that that isn't a given in communities like this, and it takes effort from everyone from the top table players to the TOs to the store managers and everyone who attends. It means that as move into 2019, Resistance (me) and First Order (him) Conversion Kits in hand, its more than just the game we get to look forward to. 

Anyway, that the post. Thanks for reading!