X-Wing Store Championship

A big thank you to everyone that attended our 2016 Store Championship for X-Wing which was held on Sunday 13th March at the Scout Hut in Vale Park...

After 4 great rounds we had our winner. Everyone played exceptionally well and it was a very friendly tournament. In the end it all came down to the very last dice roll!

Well done to all the players and congratulations to our winner...

Mark Threakall

who gets the trophy and a first round bye for a regional tournament of his choice.

Our next X-Wing event will be in a few months time and then it will be a premier event .. CONQUEST 3 in Shoreham. Hopefully see you all again at one or BOTH of these events.

KD Games X-Wing Store Championship

On Sunday 13th at the Scout Hut in Vale Park we will be holding another X-Wing Tournament. This one will be the X-Wing Store Championship...

What is a Store Championship
Championship events are the start of the path of competitive tournaments that start on a local scale and grow all the way into the pinnacle of international play (World Championships) over the course of each year. With each successive event the competition becomes fiercer, the prize pool becomes larger, and the tournaments become bigger. Store Championships are the event that kicks it all off and all stores are invited to apply.

Unlike our previous event, the Championship feeds into the following event. The winner of the Store Championship receives a first-round bye at the Regional Championship of their choice...

What Does Competitive Level Mean?
This is an event where player competing to a Regional Bye and we will be using The X-Wing tournament rules:

While many players will come to X-Wing Store Championships to compete for the Regional Championship bye awarded to the winner, there are other exclusive prizes up for grabs. We have enough to cater for prizes for the top 32 players.

• Champion: The winner receives a Store Championship plaque and a card granting one first-round bye at a Regional Championship of the player’s choice.
• Top Four: The top four players each receive one challenge coin (plus one for the judge).
• Top Eight: The top eight players each receive one acrylic range ruler (plus one for the judge).
• Top Thirty-Two: The top thirty-two players each receive one C-3PO alternate art card (plus one for the judge). (not pictured)

The entry price for this event will be just £5 per player. Doors will open at 10am and the event will start promptly at 10:30. The amount of rounds will depend on the amount of players that enter. Further details will be on the Gambit Facebook Page.

Sign Up Today

X-Wing Tournament

Tomorrow at Gambit Games we are holding a smalll -Wing Tournament.

It will consist of 3 rounds of 'swiss' play starting at 10am.

Players need to have a 100 point list and we will be using the old damage rules on this occasion as this is what most players are used to,

There will be no additional fee for this event other than the usual entrance of £4. Prizes will be from the 2015 Winter Tournament kit ...

X Wing Tournament Result

A big thank you from Gambit Games to everyone that attended our first X-Wing (dog fight) tournament.

It was great to see 14 players from various clubs including A&B Gaming, 1066 and Brighton Warlords competing in five rounds of closely contested games. Here are a few pictures of the day ...

 

  

  

  

 

All games were played in great spirit and many of them were very close. In the end there was just 50 points between the top two players both of whom will receive a first round bye for our X-Wing Tournament at CONQUEST in September along with some nice prizes to take home. The final standings were ...

NAME                       1st Matt Colwell	SCORE 20	MoV 792	SoS 80	Match Record 4 / 1 / 0	Byes 0
2nd Danny Strahl	20	742	68	4 / 1 / 0	0
3rd Jamie Lloyd	20	619	61	4 / 1 / 0	0
4th David Hunt	15	596	71	3 / 2 / 0	0
5th Roy Gawn	15	534	69	3 / 2 / 0	0
6th Ben Vere	13	589	51	3 / 2 / 0	0
7th Mark Plowman	13	453	55	3 / 2 / 0	0
8th John Barber	11	393	58	3 / 2 / 0	0
9th Greg Strutt	10	451	48	2 / 3 / 0	0
10th Breccan Kendall	10	420	70	2 / 3 / 0	0
11th Oliver Carden	5	516	54	1 / 4 / 0	0
12th Matthew Hardy	5	392	59	1 / 4 / 0	0
13th Elliott Weights	5	319	38	1 / 4 / 0	0
14th Jamie Booker	5	184	53	1 / 4 / 0	0

Congratulations to Matt Colwell our event winner and hope that everyone that played had a great day. We look forward to seeing you all at CONQUEST in September when someone will become the 2015 X Wing Champion.

X-Wing Tournament

This weekend its is the X-Wing Tournament so if your playing or thinking of playing then please make sure you have a look at the rules pack, which can be found here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3wNL6YTcSR1cHExZkNXbG4zQTg/edit?usp=sharing

Details of each round will not be given until the event begins, but players are asked to give in there army list in advance.

In addition to the point detailed in the rules pack additional points will be issued on the day which will include a bonus for any player that come in appropriate costume!!!

X-Wing Miniatures Game: YT-1300 and Firespray-31

Whats up everyone, Pete back once again for some more X-Wing goodness for you all.

By now, you've probably eyed up the new wave three ships and may have even had a chance to read Dan's article on this very page about the black sheep of the X-Wing family, the HWK-290. You can also read a review by Gary over on the Kids Dreams page here.

We'll be getting round to our own overview of the HWK-290 a little later in this series, but for now, it's the first two 'big ships' in the X-Wing range: the YT-1300 freighter and the Firespray-31.

"What?" I hear (some of) you cry! Well, you'll recognize the most famous ships of those types as the Millennium Falcon and Slave I, respectively. However, in the interest of providing players with more playing options, these ships are packaged under the manufacturers model names.

So what do they bring to the game?

The first really noticeable difference over the regular ships is the size of the base and this in itself brings a lot of new considerations to players. I've had a few close calls flying smaller craft near table edges, but generally manage to avoid 'bugging out' by some skin-of-the-teeth barrel rolling or boosting away. If you venture away from the safety of the middle of the table with one of these, beware! I was caught off guard in my first few missions with the larger ships as I hadn't appreciated exactly how much further they travel using the same movement set as the smaller starfighters.

And I don't mind admitting that some of my wins have come at the expense of my opponents making the same misjudgments. But not too many!!

So how do these big boys shape up?

Arguably the most recognizable and loved ship in the Star Wars universe is the Millennium Falcon and the YT-1300 freighter's popularity in the X-Wing game is on a par with it's silver screen counterpart. In game terms, it's offers up three primary attack dice, one agility die, eight hull points and five shields as standard. And remember, you can only start stripping those away if you can land scoring shots (more on that coming up...)

<<CRAZY GRAPHIC WARNING>> so, this is undoubtedly the most complex diagram you'll see all week...

OK, so it all gets lost in the blur, but for consistency, I thought I'd throw it in there anyways....

The YT's movement dial offers a solid range of options and makes it quick enough to keep pace with X-Wings if you opt to use it in a squadron, or can more than hold its own as a standalone ship. The only red moves on the dial are the k-turns, which it can execute at either speed three or four. 

But that's not all it has to offer. The real ace in the hole is it's 360 degree arc of fire with it's primary weapon. And that, my friends, makes the YT such a nightmare prospect to play against. Regardless of the pilot flying the ship and even the player skill, lining up against the YT-1300 immediately makes you the underdog.

The available pilot options at your disposal are:

• Outer Rim Smuggler - Skill 1, 2x crew upgrade slots - 27pts (yes folks, that means you can potentially take three of these with upgrades for your 100pts....)
• *Chewbacca - Skill 5, 2x crew, 1x missile and 1x pilot upgrade slots, When you are dealt a faceup damage card, immediately flip it facedown without resolving its ability - 42pts
• *Lando Calrissian - Skill 7, 2x crew, 1x missile and 1x pilot upgrade slots, After you execute a green manuever, chose one other friendly ship at range one. That ship may perform one free action shown in its action bar - 44pts
• *Han Solo - Skill 9, 2x crew, 1x missile and 1x pilot upgrade slots, When attacking you may reroll all of your dice. If you chose to do so, you must reroll as many of your dice as possible - 46pts

As if these ships weren't tough enough, three of the four available pilots bring some really powerful abilities to the table and all four can take focus and target lock actions. If you're the opponent, you may as well just cut your losses and concede the game. The YT-1300 is the real deal.

For the ultimate YT list, I'm going to lean to my bud Dan from Hobby Before I Die. If one YT wasn't enough to shake you up, imagine the prospect of facing up to TWO of them, flying in formation, side-by-side and piloted by Han Solo and Chewbacca...

Coming in at a combined 53pts, Han's core ability to re-roll his attack dice if the first roll stinks is augmented by the Gunner's ability to subsequently re-roll if none of these attacks hit home. Which in turn can be re-rolled by Han... Clearly, the odds are stacked in Han's favor and along with the fact that he'll usually be shooting first with his pilot skill of 9 with a 360 degree firing arc, will mean most targets are in for a rough ride.

And whilst the first part of this combo isn't unique, as we'll see next with Chewbacca, this list is primarily all about flying the two ships in close formation at all times, specifically within range band 1. This ensures the Swarm Tactics ability confers Han's pilot skill of 9 to Chewbacca and helps to maintain that punishing fire superiority...

Coming in at 46pts, Chewbacca's core ability of never feeling the effects of a critical hit is partnered with Draw Their Fire. Ensuring that as long as the lads stay within that crucial range band 1, Chewbacca can soak up the crits Han may receive... Assuming the enemy has already successfully chewed through the Falcon's five shields...

The Weapons Engineer upgrade enables Chewbacca to maintain two target locks for every one target lock spent. Granted, at 3pts, Marksmanship would probably provide a more potent attacking capability but would also mean sacrificing Draw Their Fire in that all important elite pilot skills slot. What Weapons Engineer does do is enable Chewbacca to keep up the target lock re-roll pressure by 'dominoing' this effect across multiple targets and thus into subsequent game phases. And with large swarm / large number of attack dice enemy formations potentially being the counter to this list, this ability will certainly help to ensure enemy ships begin to be as wary of Chewbacca's sustained attacking capability as they will be of Han's deadly accurate fire...

Squaring up to the YT is the go-to ship choice of bounty hunters galaxywide, the Firespray-31. Initially conceived by Kuat Systems Engineering as a prisoner transport and patrol ship, the Firespray has garnered a fearsome reputation. 

In the Star Wars universe, six Firespray-31s were manufactured and all stationed on the asteroid prison Oovo IV. While on the hunt for a Dark Jedi, Jango Fett got tangled up in a struggle with another bounty hunter who used a Firespray class ship to destroy Jango's own vessel Jaster's Legacy. After fighting through a prison riot, Jango stole a Firespray of his own, with the help of Zam Wesell and turned it's guns on the hangar, destroying the remaining Firesprays to prevent being pursued. It was not until Kuat Systems Engineering reintroduced the Firespray line several decades later that other examples of the class would again be seen.

Many years later, after Boba Fett's escape from the Sarlacc, he recaptured Slave I from the rebels and refitted it, favouring it over it's somewhat temporary replacement, Slave II.

Offering a move set comparable to the YT, the Firespray is certainly no slouch on the battlefield. It offers three primary attack dice and, as it's a little nippier than the YT, two agility, six hull and four shield dice.

Whilst it doesn't have the 360 degree arc of fire, it does have front and rear arcs, so has 50% of the angles covered. All four pilots can take the focus and target lock actions but, in addition, they can also utilise the evade action, giving the player one guaranteed evade result in combat.

The pilots on offer for the Firespray are:

• Bounty Hunter - Skill 3, 1x missile, 1x crew, 1x bomb & 1x cannon upgrade slot, 33pts
• *Krassis Trelix - Skill 5, 1x missile, 1x crew, 1x bomb & 1x cannon upgrade slot, When attacking with a secondary weapon, you may reroll one attack die - 36pts
• *Kath Scarlet - Skill 7, 1x missile, 1x crew, 1x bomb, 1x cannon and 1x pilot upgrade slot, When attacking, the defender receives one stress token if they cancel at least one critical hit result - 38pts
• *Boba Fett - Skill 9, 1x missile, 1x crew, 1x bomb, 1x cannon and 1x pilot upgrade slot, When you reveal a bank manuever, you may rotate your dial to the other bank manuever of the same speed - 39pts

Whilst on the face of it, the YT appears to be the favourite in a direct comparison, don't count the Firespray out. It has a lot to offer!
  

  

True to the film counterparts, the Firesprays in the game have some nasty surprises at their disposal in the form of bombs. Included with the Firespray are Seismic Charges and Proximity Mines and the new wave three TIE Bomber expansion brings a further option of Proton Bombs. The player opts to deploy a bomb either when their manuever dial is revealed (Seismic Charge and Proton Bomb) or as an action (Proximity Mine) and is placed behind the Firespray using the speed one straight move template to position the bomb marker.

• Seismic charges detonate at the end of the activation phase and each ship in range band one of the token suffers one damage card.
• Similarly, Proton Bombs also detonate at the end of the activation phase, but deal one faceup damage card to each ship at range one instead.
• Proximity mines are a little different in that they are deployed as an action, rather than before the ship has moved, so allow a little extra time to consider deployment, depending on the relative pilots skills involved. Unlike the other two bomb types, the proximity mine marker stays on the table until a ship moves through or overlaps the token. That ship then rolls three red dice and suffers all hit and critical hit results rolled. 

I'm a firm believer in playing the ships to their strengths and Firespray players should consider taking any one of the available bomb options when they're kitting out their ship. Added to that, even the lowest skilled generic pilot can take a bucket of upgrades, and the higher rated pilots have some really nice abilities to bring to the battle.

 

Krassis Trelix offers the ability to reroll one attack die when using a secondary weapon system. This means that he is a good fit for taking a cannon upgrade and teaming him with the Gunner crew upgrade. The Ion and Heavy Laser Cannon come with the Firespray in the box and the new B-Wing also offers up the Autoblaster upgrade. 

We previously covered off the Ion Cannon in the Y-Wing post and it certainly has it's benefits. However, from experience, the Ion Cannon seems to be a better fit on a dedicated fighter.

The Heavy Laser Cannon puts out four dice at range two-to-three, but will only inflict normal hits. It's a reasonable trade off, particularly against lighter, less well armoured ships. With Krassis' reroll ability coming into play here you have a decent chance of scoring hits on the target.

The Autoblaster only hits at range one, but any normal hits that land cannot be cancelled by defense dice. Critical hits can be cancelled before regular hits, but the defender will have to rely on shields and evade tokens to soak up the punishment.

For a little extra poke, take the Gunner crew upgrade. This allows you to make an attack with your primary weapon if the secondary weapon fails to hit the target.

Kath Scarlet can really lay the hurt on you in battle as a defending player receives one stress token if they cancel at least one critical hit dealt by Kath in that round of combat. Any of the missile options are a viable upgrade for Scarlet, but the Cluster Missiles upgrade allows you to perform the attack twice, giving the most opportunities for rolling those critical hits.

Another option if to take the Slave I title upgrade (0pts) for Kath's ship and this adds the torpedo upgrade option to the ship. When attacking with Proton Torpedoes, you may change one focus result on the attack dice to a critical hit, which triggers Scarlet's ability to deny the opponent the opportunity to cancel at least one.

If the online forums are anything to go by, Boba Fett's popularity has increased even further, with the release of the wave three ships. The Imperial Shuttle comes packaged with a new upgrade card  called 'Navigator' and has lead to a combo known on the tubes as 'Fettigator'.

Boba's core ability allows his player to effectively change their mind when his movement dial is flipped to reveal a bank manuever. The pilot can opt to change Fett's movement to the banked turn in the opposite direction, but at the same speed. Navigator then lets you change the speed of that move to any other with the same bearing. This effectively gives the player the option of changing a banked turn to one of five alternatives. Fett's pilot skill can be increased by two by taking the Veteran Instincts pilot upgrade to ensure you have the movement advantage over the opposition and the often-crucial first turn of shooting.

So, there you have it.

Next up we'll be looking at the first ships from wave three. Remember, the Gambit Games UK X-Wing Tournament is just a couple of weeks away, so get in touch to book your ticket if you've not already done so.

Until next time!

X-Wing Miniatures Game: A-Wing and TIE Interceptor

Hey everyone,

Pete here once again with another shot of X-Wing goodness for you. It's a great time to be involved in the game, with the recent release of the wave three ships (more on those to come!) and the upcoming releases of the 'Imperial Aces' expansion and the capital class ships. If you've missed the previous articles in this series you can find them here:

Introduction and gameplay overview
X-Wing & TIE Fighter
Y-Wing & TIE Advanced

In this post, we'll be looking at the first two ships from wave two: the Rebel's A-Wing starfighter and the Imperial TIE Interceptor.

The first thing you'll probably notice about the A-Wing, is it's higher speed over it's X and Y-Wing counterparts. To date, it is the only Rebel ship offering speed five manuevers, with the flexibility to k-turn at speed three too. The A-Wing's high speed and agility is certainly it's strong point and in play, has proven to be a match pace-wise for the normally quickly and nimbler imperial TIE Fighters and their variants.

A-Wings offer two primary attack dice, three agility dice and have two hull points and two shields as standard. All A-Wing pilots can choose between the focus, target lock, evade and turbo actions as well as having the option for a missile upgrade (even at the lowest pilot skill level), meaning there is a wide range of options available for a variety of battlefield situations.

Our graphic demonstrates the A-Wing's greater speed range and also shows the added distance available if you take the turbo action. This means that you can make an additional forward or banked move at speed one, after your main movement has been completed. This has often been a crucial move in order to navigate asteroid fields and evade enemy firing arcs, to protect it's fragile two hull points.

The A-Wing pilots on offer are:

• Prototype Pilot - Skill 1, 1x missile upgrade - 17pts
• Green Squadron Pilot - Skill 3, 1x missile and 1x pilot upgrade - 19pts
• *Arvel Crynyd - Skill 6, 1x missile upgrade, You may declare an enemy ship inside your firing arc that you are touching as the target of your attack - 23pts
• *Tycho Celchu - Skill 8, 1x missile and 1x pilot upgrade, You may perform actions even while you have stress tokens - 26pts

With an average base cost of 21pts, you can build a decent squadron with upgrades, for your 100 squad points and hold your own. I've seen a number of players fielding A-Wings singularly with so-so results, just because that's what they had in their collection. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that and as long as you have an enjoyable game, that's great. But, to get the best out of these ships, I'd recommend taking them in a unit of at least three ships, and if you can shoehorn an extra one in for good measure, all the better.

A-Wings are noted as playing particularly pivotal roles in the Battle of Endor, by crippling Star Destroyers and their ability across the board to take the missile upgrade, along with their agility is the reason for their success. A-Wings are able to utilise the target lock/focus combo we have previously discussed in these posts and can close with the enemy at a greater speed to add that extra primary attack die at range one.

The A-Wing expansion pack includes the upgrade card 'Push the Limit' and this is growing increasingly popular in our games. This card is a pilot upgrade costing 3pts and allows you to perform two actions in exchange for taking a stress token and has been used on a number of occasions to devastating effect. Pilot Tycho Celchu may perform actions even whilst the ship has stress tokens and Arvel Crynyd can target ships he is touching, so is in a great position to risk extra boost actions to get in close to the target. 

But it's not only the Rebels who benefit from Push the Limit...

The imperial TIE Interceptor built by Sienar Fleet Systems has long been my favourite ship from the Star Wars Universe, even before the release of this great game. The model offers three primary attack dice, three agility dice and three hull points. The one thing it doesn't have (despite apparently having all the best bits of it's predecessors...) is a shielding system, which can leave it open. However, your enemy needs to close with you in order to bring the pain and that can be quite a challenge.

In my opinion, the TIE Interceptor has the best range of movement in the game, bar none. It can k-turn at speed three and five, use the barrel roll manuever of the standard and advanced-model TIE Fighters as well as being able to use the turbo action that the A-Wing uses. 

Quite simply, these things can be anywhere fast. In a recent game, they navigated across an asteroid-strewn 4'x4' gameplay area in four turns to engage the enemy that was making speed one and two moves. What happened when they got there is another story for another time, but they remain my go-to ships of choice. I have a success rate of approximately 75% with the Interceptors, which is impressive, given my somewhat kamikaze playing style and unnerving ability to draw the fearsome 'direct hit' (counts as two hits) critical damage cards. Every single game. Guaranteed.

Stepping up to the plate for the empire, we have:

• Alpha Squadron Pilot - Skill 1 - 18pts
• Avenger Squadron Pilot - Skill 3 - 20pts
• Saber Squadron Pilot - Skill 4, 1x pilot upgrade slot - 21pts
• *Fel's Wrath - Skill 5, when the number of damage cards assigned to the ship squals or exceeds the hull value, the ship is not destroyed until the end of the combat phase - 23pts
• *Turr Phennir - Skill 7, 1x pilot upgrade slot, after you perform an attack, you may perform a free boost or barel roll action - 25pts
• *Soontir Fel - Skill 9, 1x pilot upgrade slot, when the ship receives a stress token, you may assign one focus token to the ship - 27pts

The Interceptors have an average base cost of 22pts and fill the gap between the swarm and elite list types. 

I've already said that I love these ships and the narrative of Soontir Fel's Saber Squadron with their blood stripe markings on the sides of their ships got me hooked. My squad list normally comprises of:

• Soontir Fel with Push the Limit - 30pts
• 3x Saber Squadron Pilots with Veteran Instincts (+2 pilot skill) - 22pts each

 

This list has worked pretty nicely for me, including winning all 1-on-1 games in the last tournament I played it in. However, in practice, the Veteran Instincts upgrade wasn't such a great use of points as, in most Rebel lists I've faced, the opposition tend to be of a higher pilot skill than Saber Squadron, even after the +2 buff. 

The maths fans out there will, I'm sure, point out that I may as well put all the points into five Avenger Squadron pilots and still move first and shoot last. But, I'm a fan of Saber Squadron and was really pleased to open one of the wave three ships and find this...

Adrenalin Rush! This is a single-use card, but it can be discarded to allow you to perform red move as if it were a white one, ignoring any stress tokens that the ship may already have assigned. Veteran Instincts are no more and the three squadron pilots are now upgraded with Adrenalin Rush.

This list is survivable enough to allow me to fly en-masse or to split into two flanks and take the enemy down hammer and anvil style. Soontir Fel's ability triggers every time you use Push the Limit and can normally move last, shoot first and take three actions (including one focus!) so is great at making some last minute manuevers to get the perfect shots away.

Sadly, Saber Squadron isn't without it's losses and the most brutal came at the hands of this twin YT-1300 Freighter list, fielded by Dan over at Hobby Before I Die...

Next time, we'll be taking a more in-depth look at the YT-1300 freighters and the last of the wave two ships; the Firespray-31. 

Remember, the Gambit Games UK X-Wing Tournament is happening on Sunday 27th October in Portslade and there are still some places available. For more information, contact Gary at Kids Dreams or see the Gambit Games UK Facebook Page.

Pete of Team Gambit.