Hello, and welcome back to another blog on "Conversations I have with The Teenager in the Car". It's a thing now, clearly. This weekend was a big one for us on the X-Wing front, as we hit not one but two tournements with new shiny lists we didn't know how to fly. It went about as well as you'd expect (more on that in a moment) but it also brought up an interesting conversation. You see, back when we started out playing somewhere other than the kitchen table, one of the things were told about was "Serious Players". Oddly, Element Games' Sith Takers were held up as "Serious Players", a dark place beyond the Pennines "Serious Games" were played with "Serious Lists". But there is an assumption behind this, if you think about it, about the old Casual/Serious split, and so that's really what I'm thinking about now.
Casual vs Hardcore is one of those arguments the internet seems to love, like Pirates vs Ninjas, Kirk vs Picard and Star Wars Fans vs Other Star Wars Fans. Its one loaded all sorts of preconceptions about what one or the other is, and what that means for the health of any given game. You see it everywhere - not just wargaming but computer games, boardgames, sports fans, whatever. There is a probably a small corner of Reddit where some fans of Lego bemoan that instructions are too complex and cater too much to Master Builders and others that bewail the rise of specialist pieces in new colours that attract too many newbies.
This is of course really dumb.
I would describe myself as a casual player. I have a regular club night, a massive stack of toy spaceships, and I went to two tournaments this weekend. I would suspect many of my friends would view this statement with some suspicion, but I stand by it - I'm a causal player. X-Wing wouldn't make my Top 5 most important things in my life and would struggle to make the Top 10. I'm not prepared to drop other things to do it more, to sacrifice other parts of my life to get better at it. So whislt I play it a hell of a lot, I consider myself a casual player.
I would describe myself as a serious player. I have a regular club night, a massive stack of toy spaceships, and I went to two tournaments this weekend. I suspect many of my opponents would view this statement with some suspicion, but I stand by it - I'm a Serious Player. I spend part of Saturday Night refining my list for Sunday, so it would perform better, I've reviewed my performance both days and configured appropriately. I've got rock placement and opening movements refined; tactical approaches reconsidered. I don't get to play as much I would sometimes like, but I'm a serious player.
Both these statements are true, for most of us, some of the time.
Where I ultimately come down on the casual side is that I believe the divide is more a state of mind and I'm happier on the casual end. I don't want to beat myself up when I underperform, and I don't want to be anxious walking through that door at the start of the day. I don't want to set that behaviour example to the Teenager either, which is more a parenting thing, but still a factor here. I'm going to take each game seriously, but I'm also going to walk away the end and not let it burn at me. And ultimately, that will limit how good I get at the game, and I'm happy with that.
After Action Report: IQ Games and Element Games
So with all that said, how did it go? I'm trying to work up a Hyperspace list that I'm happy with to head into March, and I'm sticking with Resistance. The broad idea is Tallie, Poe and Ello Asty, which should give me a lot of dogfighting power and some decent action economy, with the ability to hold up against a wide variety of options. If i can "fly it good" of course.
IQ Games in Huddersfield was a crowded and tough room, and my total lack of experience with the T-70 really shone. I just let them get too exposed, too often, for that 2-agility to survive for long, and I found myself lacking punch when I needed it. It's hard to assess a list when you're getting the basics of it wrong, but I walked away with two main conclusions. The first is that RZ2 A-Wings are immensely fun to fly and really great for their points. Tallie was consistently my best performing ship and I think no matter when I end up with stay in most of my Resistance lists. The other was that Ello and Poe, despite being in the same ship, need radically different playstyles, and I was slow on the update with that, trying to keep them together far too much, in an echo of more successful Fenn/Teroch lists I've run. 2-3 on the day. So tweaks, a good nights sleep, and off out again.
Element Games is, despite what I was told as a long-ago newbie, a lovely store and filled with lovely players, and I'm still slightly annoyed I was put off visiting earlier than my first trip there last year. Now I ended up going 1-3 here, but I'm much more positive about it. Generally, I think I flew better, and I think the list was better. Tallie gained Proton Rockets overnight, which gave her better hitting power, and with a refined setup and opening the list felt more solid throughout. Still needs some changes - I very rarely used the HLCs which I drop for other things, and I probably don't need as deep a bid. So as of this morning, I'm landing somewhere like this:
RZ-2 A-wing - •Tallissan Lintra - 50
•Tallissan Lintra - Deadly Approach (35)
Predator (2)
Heroic (1)
Proton Rockets (7)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
T-70 X-wing - •Poe Dameron - 82
•Poe Dameron - Trigger-Happy Flyboy (68)
Heroic (1)
R4 Astromech (2)
Afterburners (6)
Integrated S-foils (Closed) (0)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
T-70 X-wing - •Ello Asty - 65
•Ello Asty - Born to Ill (56)
Heroic (1)
R4 Astromech (2)
Afterburners (6)
Integrated S-foils (Closed) (0)
Total: 197/200
So we'll see how that goes!
 |
| Todays List Building Challenge is How to Get the List From the Cat |
Casual vs Hardcore is one of those arguments the internet seems to love, like Pirates vs Ninjas, Kirk vs Picard and Star Wars Fans vs Other Star Wars Fans. Its one loaded all sorts of preconceptions about what one or the other is, and what that means for the health of any given game. You see it everywhere - not just wargaming but computer games, boardgames, sports fans, whatever. There is a probably a small corner of Reddit where some fans of Lego bemoan that instructions are too complex and cater too much to Master Builders and others that bewail the rise of specialist pieces in new colours that attract too many newbies.
This is of course really dumb.
I would describe myself as a casual player. I have a regular club night, a massive stack of toy spaceships, and I went to two tournaments this weekend. I would suspect many of my friends would view this statement with some suspicion, but I stand by it - I'm a causal player. X-Wing wouldn't make my Top 5 most important things in my life and would struggle to make the Top 10. I'm not prepared to drop other things to do it more, to sacrifice other parts of my life to get better at it. So whislt I play it a hell of a lot, I consider myself a casual player.
 |
| Another Typical Day at the Office |
I would describe myself as a serious player. I have a regular club night, a massive stack of toy spaceships, and I went to two tournaments this weekend. I suspect many of my opponents would view this statement with some suspicion, but I stand by it - I'm a Serious Player. I spend part of Saturday Night refining my list for Sunday, so it would perform better, I've reviewed my performance both days and configured appropriately. I've got rock placement and opening movements refined; tactical approaches reconsidered. I don't get to play as much I would sometimes like, but I'm a serious player.
Both these statements are true, for most of us, some of the time.
Where I ultimately come down on the casual side is that I believe the divide is more a state of mind and I'm happier on the casual end. I don't want to beat myself up when I underperform, and I don't want to be anxious walking through that door at the start of the day. I don't want to set that behaviour example to the Teenager either, which is more a parenting thing, but still a factor here. I'm going to take each game seriously, but I'm also going to walk away the end and not let it burn at me. And ultimately, that will limit how good I get at the game, and I'm happy with that.
After Action Report: IQ Games and Element Games
So with all that said, how did it go? I'm trying to work up a Hyperspace list that I'm happy with to head into March, and I'm sticking with Resistance. The broad idea is Tallie, Poe and Ello Asty, which should give me a lot of dogfighting power and some decent action economy, with the ability to hold up against a wide variety of options. If i can "fly it good" of course.
 |
| Me trying to "fly good" |
IQ Games in Huddersfield was a crowded and tough room, and my total lack of experience with the T-70 really shone. I just let them get too exposed, too often, for that 2-agility to survive for long, and I found myself lacking punch when I needed it. It's hard to assess a list when you're getting the basics of it wrong, but I walked away with two main conclusions. The first is that RZ2 A-Wings are immensely fun to fly and really great for their points. Tallie was consistently my best performing ship and I think no matter when I end up with stay in most of my Resistance lists. The other was that Ello and Poe, despite being in the same ship, need radically different playstyles, and I was slow on the update with that, trying to keep them together far too much, in an echo of more successful Fenn/Teroch lists I've run. 2-3 on the day. So tweaks, a good nights sleep, and off out again.
 |
| The Teenager beat me with this, so at least he was happy. |
Element Games is, despite what I was told as a long-ago newbie, a lovely store and filled with lovely players, and I'm still slightly annoyed I was put off visiting earlier than my first trip there last year. Now I ended up going 1-3 here, but I'm much more positive about it. Generally, I think I flew better, and I think the list was better. Tallie gained Proton Rockets overnight, which gave her better hitting power, and with a refined setup and opening the list felt more solid throughout. Still needs some changes - I very rarely used the HLCs which I drop for other things, and I probably don't need as deep a bid. So as of this morning, I'm landing somewhere like this:
RZ-2 A-wing - •Tallissan Lintra - 50
•Tallissan Lintra - Deadly Approach (35)
Predator (2)
Heroic (1)
Proton Rockets (7)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
T-70 X-wing - •Poe Dameron - 82
•Poe Dameron - Trigger-Happy Flyboy (68)
Heroic (1)
R4 Astromech (2)
Afterburners (6)
Integrated S-foils (Closed) (0)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
T-70 X-wing - •Ello Asty - 65
•Ello Asty - Born to Ill (56)
Heroic (1)
R4 Astromech (2)
Afterburners (6)
Integrated S-foils (Closed) (0)
Total: 197/200
So we'll see how that goes!
No comments:
Post a Comment