{"id":3654,"date":"2015-12-27T15:28:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=3654"},"modified":"2021-02-17T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T22:29:52","slug":"redcaps-x-mas-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2015\/12\/redcaps-x-mas-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"First X-Wing Tournament: Redcap&#8217;s X-Mas Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3661\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/rebel-alliance-icon.png\" alt=\"rebel-alliance-icon\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/rebel-alliance-icon.png 100w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/rebel-alliance-icon-60x60.png 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>After resisting for years, a couple weeks ago\u00a0I finally caved and started playing <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyflightgames.com\/en\/products\/x-wing\/\">X-Wing Miniatures<\/a><\/em>. Yesterday I entered\u00a0my first tournament,\u00a0<em>X-Mas Wing\u00a0<\/em>at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.redcapscorner.com\/\">Redcap&#8217;s Corner<\/a>. Fourteen players were there\u00a0for some fun, low-key Boxing Day dogfighting. This is my very first <em>X-Wing<\/em> battle report!<\/p>\n<p>Just a few more pictures than those here are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/albums\/72157662155577849\">gallery<\/a>. Unfortunately, one downside of <em>X-Wing<\/em> having essentially no downtime is that it&#8217;s near impossible to go grab pics of other games.<\/p>\n<h2>Tournaments<\/h2>\n<p>Going in\u00a0I only had two &#8220;real&#8221;\u00a0games under my belt, a few more against\u00a0a fellow brand new player, and\u00a0a couple solitaire games against myself (I won!).\u00a0Put that way it sounds a bit ridiculous to enter a tournament, but as long as you&#8217;re solid enough on rules to not impair your opponents&#8217; experiences,\u00a0and prepared to\u00a0lose terribly, I think tournaments offer a couple things to\u00a0a new player:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;re guaranteed a couple games in rapid fire fashion, no pick-up night downtime\u00a0and immediate opportunity to apply and test new lessons;<\/li>\n<li>Assuming\u00a0the pairings are done correctly, by the end of the event you&#8217;re guaranteed to be playing with opponents of similar ability;<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s no better way to learn rules and strategies than playing with strangers;<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s no better way to connect with new people and groups for your game.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As an organizer of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pagegaming.com\/index.php?n=Warhammer40k.Warhammer40k\">substantial number of (<em>40k<\/em>) events<\/a>, these are observations I wish more people would realize and give tournaments and other organized play a try. Although perhaps less true for some other game systems and the very occasional less-friendly\u00a0community, I&#8217;ve hardly ever found miniatures players\u00a0to be anything but excited to have a newcomer out and ready to teach them the ropes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3659\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3659\" class=\"wp-image-3659 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o-1024x710.jpg\" alt=\"Pew pew pew!\" width=\"530\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o-1024x710.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o-768x532.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o-60x42.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23978938316_9de4fc4f05_o.jpg 1515w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pew pew pew!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Squadron<\/h2>\n<p>Given my inexperience, I\u00a0kept\u00a0my squadron list really\u00a0simple:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Chewbacca (50)<br \/>\nYT-1300 (42), Marksmanship (3), Gunner (5)<\/p>\n<p>Gray Squadron Pilot (26)<br \/>\nY-Wing (20), Twin Laser Turret (6)<\/p>\n<p>Gray Squadron Pilot (24)<br \/>\nY-Wing (20), Blaster Turret (4)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_3663\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3663\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3663\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3663\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Gray Squadron.\" width=\"530\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972-60x40.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1972.jpg 1448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gray Squadron.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I had been playing with Chewie + two plain Rookie X-Wings but switched to these\u00a0Y-Wing escorts\u00a0just before the event.\u00a0The X-Wing list is\u00a0more fun to fly, but arguably more demanding to fly. My\u00a0theory was that this triple turret setup could hug the board edges to hamper my opponents&#8217; maneuvering while I\u00a0would be\u00a0able to put shots on all around\u00a0with no\u00a0fancy flying needed.\u00a0The\u00a0Blaster Turret is perhaps a weaker weapon, but the idea was\u00a0that its range 1&#8211;2 would complement the range 2&#8211;3 of the Twin Laser Turret, ensuring I always\u00a0have range\u00a0from at least one Y-Wing as\u00a0all three\u00a0fly\u00a0around in a block.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0key underlying theme is to keep it simple\u00a0&amp; robust. There are no fancy abilities and few actions that need to be remembered and\u00a0applied tactically, just some simple weapons and straightforward\u00a0buffs.\u00a0The squad\u00a0is\u00a0also robust, with a lot of hull points and shields plus Chewie&#8217;s ability to ignore critical damage. To that, the other reason I switched is\u00a0I believe the Y-Wings are more survivable than X-Wings, though I haven&#8217;t done or looked up the math on hull points versus\u00a0agility.<\/p>\n<p>There are definitely huge weaknesses with this squad&#8212;autothrusters immediately come to mind. It&#8217;s not for no reason that the\u00a02014 World Championships featured a YT-1300 in 25% of the Rebel lists, while in 2015 it was in 0% of the <a href=\"https:\/\/community.fantasyflightgames.com\/topic\/192577-2015-worlds-results\/\">top lists<\/a>. Similarly, the board edge strategy likely\u00a0wouldn&#8217;t\u00a0really hamper better players. But\u00a0with this effort\u00a0I&#8217;m hoping just to stay in the tough games long enough to learn something and not lose embarrassingly, and to beat the other new and lesser-experienced players who overburden themselves with overly fancy lists or tactics. So I stuck with my tried and true\u00a0strategy for any new miniatures game: Keep it simple &amp;\u00a0forgiving.<\/p>\n<h2>Game 1: Swarm<\/h2>\n<p>First up was Troy and his 6-strong TIE swarm, using several of the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyflightgames.com\/en\/products\/x-wing\/products\/imperial-assault-carrier\/\"><em>Gozanti<\/em> carrier<\/a> pilots. I stuck\u00a0to my strategy here of hugging the board edges. Unfortunately I stuck to it too hard, misgauging distance\u00a0and flying\u00a0a full-strength TLT Y-Wing right off the board when I blew the turn in the far corner by literally millimeters&#8230; Meanwhile, the TIE fighters are so agile that they did not seem\u00a0extraordinarily hampered by the board edge. Ultimately I got tabled and only eliminated two of Troy&#8217;s ships, but without that error\u00a0I should\u00a0have been able to finish off\u00a0a couple more and at least put up a halfway\u00a0respectable showing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3667\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3667\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3667\" class=\"wp-image-3667 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Troy starts moving his new swarm.\" width=\"530\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1970.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3667\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Troy starts moving his new swarm.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3668\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3668\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3668\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3668\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Stay in formation!\" width=\"530\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1971.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3668\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stay in formation!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3670\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3670\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3670\" class=\"wp-image-3670 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The swarm arrives!\" width=\"530\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1973.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3670\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The swarm arrives!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Game 2: Brobots<\/h2>\n<p>Next was\u00a0Adam and his tricked out double Aggressors. He came straight at me, and I quickly abandoned my edge hugging strategy. I was worried his primary weapons would rip me apart while he bounced\u00a0back and forth\u00a0over me k-turning and using his abilities to largely ignore the stress. So I fled in fear like a coward&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately my formation\u00a0was too tightly packed, particularly with an asteroid right in the way, and I suffered for several turns with poor flying as I bumped into myself, asteroids, everything. Once things opened up though I was able to move better and do some damage. This wound up an extremely tight game, with Adam eventually prevailing at 75 points over my 74 (and him starting at 98 points versus my 100). Key to this was concentrating my shooting as much as possible on a single Aggressor until it was eliminated, halving Adam&#8217;s\u00a0firepower, rather than spreading damage\u00a0across both of them and taking all his shots\u00a0the whole time. The YT&#8217;s maneuverability was also critical, as I was able to get it out of arc and unshot on several turns, and Gunner was really useful to partially counter Adam&#8217;s significant defense&#8212;he was frequently rolling 4 or even 5 defensive dice in this match.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3671\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3671\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3671\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3671\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112-1024x766.jpg\" alt=\"Adam does the robot.\" width=\"530\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1359112-60x45.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3671\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adam does the robot.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3672\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3672\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3672\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3672\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Around and around we go!\" width=\"530\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1984.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3672\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Around and around we go!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Game 3: Scum<\/h2>\n<p>Last for me was TJ\u00a0flying Boba Fett, Talonbane, and a Z-95. A few of the abilities here caught me off guard, and the Talonbane did a scary\u00a0amount of damage in a couple turns. TJ setup spread out across the board though while I turtled up along the board edge following my pre-game plan.\u00a0That prevented him from bringing enough firepower to bear early in the match to do sufficient\u00a0damage.\u00a0I eventually lost a Y-Wing, but &#8220;safely&#8221; absorbed most\u00a0of the damage throughout the match on the YT, leveraging Chewbacca&#8217;s ability, and winning 100&#8211;49.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3678\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3678\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3678\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3678\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"TJ just wants to know what the bounty is.\" width=\"530\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985-60x80.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1985.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3678\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TJ just wants to know what the bounty is.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3679\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3679\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3679\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3679\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Boba stands guard.\" width=\"530\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999-60x80.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1999.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boba stands guard.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3680\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3680\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3680\" class=\"wp-image-3680 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042-1024x766.jpg\" alt=\"Chewie dogfights Boba while Gray Squadron intercepts.\" width=\"530\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_1542042-60x45.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3680\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chewie dogfights Boba while Gray Squadron intercepts.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Outcome &amp; Analysis<\/h2>\n<p>I wound up 8th of 14, which felt\u00a0like a reasonable\u00a0showing in the circumstances.<\/p>\n<h3>Gray Squadron<\/h3>\n<p>For my current level of play this squad\u00a0and board-hugging strategy seemed\u00a0ok. I&#8217;m sure there are lists and players that would cut it apart trivially, but I think it&#8217;s solid against players of similar caliber.\u00a0The big downside\u00a0at the moment is just that it&#8217;s a fairly boring approach. The core draw of the game for me is just the simple pleasure of X-Wings and TIE fighters swooping in and out around each other. So\u00a0I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;ll use that strategy\u00a0or list\u00a0again.<\/p>\n<p>However, I was pleased\u00a0with their performance this\u00a0day. The\u00a0basic meta-approach of eliminating fancy abilities and playing a simple, straightforward list with a lot of tolerance for taking damage and surviving mistakes without requiring me to track too many things or remember too many unique abilities was born out once more.<\/p>\n<h3>Brobot Scoring<\/h3>\n<p>In some sense I was just 2 points away from winning the game with Adam and going a much better 2-1 for the day. That&#8217;s true, but actually not\u00a0possible.<\/p>\n<p>A setup like his\u00a0double-Aggressor, consisting solely of large ships, just doesn&#8217;t give up points easily.\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">With how points\u00a0are awarded (full points for destroyed ships, half points for half-destroyed large ships), for me to\u00a0have won this match I would have had to eliminate the second\u00a0large ship as well. There&#8217;s no easy way I could have scored just a few more points, I would have\u00a0had to win completely to win at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Looking deeper,\u00a0if Adam had\u00a0brought just 1 or 2\u00a0points more (depending on rounding rules), we would have drawn for the round. A lot of Brobot lists seem to tally up to 98 points, but I&#8217;ve only seen people talk about that in terms of taking the initiative.\u00a0Synergizing with the scoring properties of large ships and tipping the match result in your favor seems like at least\u00a0as important a reason to not take a full 100 points on these kinds of lists consisting of\u00a0just large ships.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Epic!<\/h2>\n<p>One sidenote I found amusing about the whole affair\u00a0is the vast\u00a0difference in rolling up to this versus a <em>40k<\/em> event. To be fair, I am often\u00a0running those events and thus bring a lot of extra items (laptop, papercutter, etc.). But still, even for 1000 point games I&#8217;m bringing a sports bag, small duffel bag, and another bag of books. In contrast my entire, fairly substantial, X-Wing\u00a0collection fits in one backpack&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately I did\u00a0have\u00a0my whole collection with me!\u00a0Most of the <a href=\"http:\/\/pagegaming.com\/\">PAGE<\/a> contingent was hanging around afterward and wound up playing a 300 point, 5 player battle. It was definitely too late to start that sort of thing, but\u00a0was a good battle. I&#8217;d have to say that the surprising MVP was\u00a0Darth Vader, who deployed all on his own in a corner doing his\u00a0Lone Wolf thing and proceeded to tie up and\/or destroy several ships. Imperials and Rebels eventually played down to a draw when we called time.<\/p>\n<p>In general this felt a bit like <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/tag\/apocalypse\/\">40k Apocalypse<\/a><\/em>, though at a smaller scale. A fair bit of downtime, and some loss in tactical precision\u00a0just\u00a0given the number of things going on across the board. But still a lot of\u00a0tactics and strategy in a sprawling, fun game. A great way to cap off my\u00a0month of <em>X-Wing<\/em>. More to come in the future!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3690\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3690\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3690\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3690\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k-1024x766.jpg\" alt=\"Everything finally laid out.\" width=\"530\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/23896783642_95f778030d_k.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3690\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Everything finally laid out.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3691\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3691\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3691\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3691\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937-1024x564.jpg\" alt=\"My expanded fleet.\" width=\"530\" height=\"292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937-1024x564.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937-768x423.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_194937-60x33.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3691\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My expanded fleet.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3692\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3692\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3692\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3692\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Hope you Rebels brought your stress tokens!\" width=\"530\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008-60x45.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2008.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3692\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hope you Rebels brought your stress tokens!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3693\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3693\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3693\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3693\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536-1024x766.jpg\" alt=\"Swirling melee at table center.\" width=\"530\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_20151226_222536-60x45.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3693\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swirling melee at table center.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After resisting for years, a couple weeks ago\u00a0I finally caved and started playing X-Wing Miniatures. Yesterday I entered\u00a0my first tournament,\u00a0X-Mas Wing\u00a0at\u00a0Redcap&#8217;s Corner. Fourteen players were there\u00a0for some fun, low-key Boxing Day dogfighting. This is my very first X-Wing battle report! Just a few more pictures than those here are in the gallery. Unfortunately, one downside &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2015\/12\/redcaps-x-mas-wing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[257,274,45,325,307,308],"class_list":["post-3654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-reports","tag-featured","tag-miniatures","tag-redcaps","tag-tournament","tag-x-wing","tag-x-wing-epic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3654"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3736,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654\/revisions\/3736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}