Playing the System

Hello people,

It's all been a bit overly X-Wing recently with an escalation league at the club and a third Regional and the Yavin Open up at Games Expo in Birmingham next weekend. Add in a bit of life and anything else has taken a definite back seat.

As such I went looking for some Netrunner yesterday to get me back into the game properly. As is so often the case there were clashing Spring Kit events at Dark Sphere and Lost Ark. In honesty Dark Sphere was always gong to be the bigger more competitive field but I just needed some games and I always enjoy Lost Ark. A slightly improved chance of coming hone with some alt art was also a factor ;) It also turned out that I had rail replacement on my line. Hindsight justification ;)

Rocking up it turned out I was half of the field for the day. Not an issue say I, more than happy to sit and play some games for the day. Unfortunately my opponent wasn't so keen. He was playing Teir 1 decks and didn't have too much issue seeing me off. After that he was more bothered about his swag and didn't fancy sticking around. To me that's all sorts of wrong in all sorts of way, at best pretty disrespectful to all involved,especially Lost Ark.

Picking up a couple of datapacks I chipped off with an alt art Leela and Political Operative. I don't buy alt art but I hardly feel like I "won" these. Sorting out various piles if cards I'm going to put together a Gang Sign / Leela deck I've seen about to kick myself back into action.

Positivity from negativity.....

Crossing the Streams

Hello people,

Just a quick one. After a long week at work I made the ,as minute decision to head up to Lost Ark today with Alex for some casual Pew Pew action. A dozen of us turned out for four rounds. Other than one TLT spam and a Hilbots everyone was playing nicely and I took the opportunity to run something a bit different in 3 Khiraz, 2 Mangler Skyc aka 20 Second Squadron.

I've run it a couple of times and wanted to try the tactic of hugging a board edge to draw in my opponent before turning in on them to choose engagement. I also wanted to keep them all together as much as possible to maximise firepower and use their 5 K-Turns.

In short it, and I, performed better than I expected taking four strong wins to place second. The loss was against Super Poe Swarm which went undefeated when my otherwise hot dice went cold and I made the mistake of chasing Poe. Otherwise I flew well, especially against the TLT spam which was rather pleasing.

For my prize I chose a Netrunner Data Pack, The Universe of Tomorrow, as I'm pretty happy with the list. The Khiraz, not sure of the plural, have been undercoated and promoted to the head of the painting queue.

Result 😊

Permission to Land

Hello people,

Just back from a day of casual flying up at Lost Ark. Five of us in the car made a good day out and half the field. I'd decided to give Project Lambda a proper run out and flew the ollowing;

Omicron Group Pilot - Heavy Laser Cannon - Fire Control System - Anti Pursuit Lasers

Omicron Group Pilot - Heavy Laser Cannon - Fire Control System - Anti Pursuit Lasers

Soonir Fel - Push the Limit - Royal Gaurd TIE - Stealth Device - Autothrusters

In short I won two of four games, most of which were pretty tight affairs........except the first one against Mr C's triple TIE Interceptor list. I honestly thought it would be the worst list I could face but he engaged me head on, lost Carnor Jax, and then ran off. After a while I hunted him down and his Soontir flew of the table.

Second game Dave T gave me another good game, and thrashing, though the score on the doors didn't really relect how the game went. Running a Decimator / Doomshuttle / Interceptor I dithered and then got clobbered by our regular dice bias. The final two games of the day were both hard fought, tense affairs, one of which edged my way, one the other.

Overall another good day out and I feel that running a pair of shuttles can be a decent, valid list. No-one expects it and the shock value goes a long way. Manouvre is crucial, get a bogey on your tail and it's all over. Soonitr works as well to tie ships up as much as shoot them down and is a huge amount of fun to fly well. Autothrusters used right are FECKING AWESOME.

Next week I'll be running the spectrum in the other direction and running an 8 TIE swarm.....

A New Hope?

Hello people,

Another pretty standard week in Oddleg land with a good few games of X-Wing at Enfield Gamers on Tuesday and Dark Sphere on Thursday.

Yesterday was a trip up to Lost Ark for Dave T's latest Attack Wing event. Three good, hard and fairly fought, games with my Klingons which went a long way to restoring my faith in how good the game CAN be.

I also picked up my pre-ordered Scum & Villainy "investment". Basically it's two of everything to go with the pair of Firesprays and Hawks thst I've already painted up.

Having spent a strangely enjoyable afternoon unboxing everything the plan is to release a few bits to the tabletop as I complete a few other projects that have been gathering dust for a while. I've got plenty to play with and it will make me take the time to give new lists a decent play-test. 

In honesty I've been in a bit of a gaming rut recently, as has been Enfield Gamers.

As such we've updated things a bit and moved away from the club website and forums onto the club facebook page. We're also going to be concentrating on X-Wing, Bolt Action and To The Strongest for the next few months. The X-Wing league will be Scum themed culminating in a Tourney at the end of April with full  FFG prize support.

So Tuesday Club Night myself and Shaun will be running through To The Strongest and before I get my first lump of Scum I need to sort out the 40 sets of shoulder patch transfers for the Commandos thst have been sat around for too long. Then they need to find a table! 

Plans.....contact with the enemy. We'll see :)

Big Ships Rarely Tire

Hello people,

Yesterday myslef, Mr C, Dave T and Hadrian T rocked up at Lost Ark for thier X-Wing Store Championship.

I'm a big fan of Lost Ark and have always had a good day out with them. With a field of 24 it was a more laid back event with a number of well known friendly faces.

As such I was running a more laid back list which kind of bits and pieces;
Decimator - Patrol Leader - Darth Vader
Firespray - Kath Scarlet - Rebel Captive
TIE Fighter - Backstabber 

In short across four rounds I went 2-2 to finish a respectable 11th.

First up young Flint gave me my best game of the day with a unique Chewbacca build just taking the win. Second game was against five A-Wings which was always going to be a struggle and my opponent made it worse. Best forgotten for many reasons.

Two losses saw me up against Mr C who was running the same Rebel swarm list that had done so well for him at Dark Sphere. It was a very close game but I took it at the last. This is what I love about X-Wing, many lists can do well on thier day. My final game against Luke, Wedge, Biggs and a Tala was a bit of a cakewalk. 

There were plenty of big ships and 360s in attendence so it was good to see a TIE swarm take the title. Huge kudos to Dave T who ran a Patrol Leader and two Sigmas to finish first after four rounds, only to go out at the first eliminator.

Generally speaking I was happy that I flew pretty well on the day. Backstabber was fun but the list lacked much synergy, which was no great surprise. For myself I've decided to concentrate on running a supported mini swarm for a while. It's flexible, seems to suit my style and still gives plenty of options. I may need to ween myself away from Howlrunner :)

On that note I've recently finished up my Boba repaint, 3 PPs, and I'm very, very pleased with him. My own version I've squeezed in a bit of check to fit with my Scum while keeping to his classic scheme.

Furthering that note I pre-ordered two of everything from Lost Ark as we're back up there next Saturday for Attack Wing. Ironic?

I've told myself that I'm going to have to control myself with it all.  Hmmmm.......;)

Flying High

Hello people,

Following my mini rant I've spent the weekend playing X-Wing. Five games yesterday at our event for Teens Unite and a further two today up at Lost Ark. I enjoyed every last one of them to the point where I feel more and more positive about the game as a whole.

Yesterday I ran Boba with twin Royal Gaurd TIEs. First two games my Evade dice were awful and cost me dear. After lunch things picked up and I went into my final game 2-2. Coming up against chunky Han plus two B-Wings I just couldn't chew through the sheer weight of 29 combined Shield and Hull.Plenty of big 360 arc lists but the day's victory went to five Avenger TIE Interceptors.

An excellent day's gaming and one that found me playing around with an alternative Vessery list for Lost Ark. Working something out I needed to pick up a Lambda Shuttle and a TIE first thing....which is exactly what I did :)

With five of us playing I picked up the first round bye as the event was once again dominated by big 360 arc beasts, two Decimator and one Falcon list. Toting a pair of Heavy Laser Cannons I took down a Decimator, for the win, and the Falcon, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fairly stable dice today and the list worked pretty well, with a bit of room for polishing. A few bit s more learnt but I'm really beginning to click with the game now. The shuttle also picked up it's unofficial title, the "Lazy Sow" as it flies like a bit of pig, which I'll somehow work into the paint scheme.

I take it as a measure of a game as to how many games I can play before my head begins to swim. Seven for the weekend and I could easily have played a few more.

Do or Do Not, there is No Try!

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Sunday just gone myself and Mr C made our way up to Lost Ark Games in Stevenage for some games of STAW and came away having discovered more than we had expected.

First off, Lost Ark Games;

Personally I'd been up to them once before for my fledgling X-Wing tourney. At that time they had a stall in the indoor market, which was also where we played. Initially a bit wary, and possibly a bit snobby about that one, I soon forgot that and had a great day.

They've since moved.....into a small office unit.......and it really works incredibly well! The open plan area is given over to a dozen 4×3 tables which perfectly suit STAW,  X-Wing, card and board games which seems to be their core business. The shop itself is in the boss' office with the meeting room given over to a couple of full-time 6x4s. Being an office there's a decent sized kitchen and adequate "facilities". 

Not the easiest place to find first time round but otherwise a stroke of genius with parking and scoff a plenty. Check out their Facebook Page, it's a literal gem of a place and well worth supporting.

Second up, STAW;

Dave T, an old gaming bud and former customer, had done the legwork to set the event up as a positive reaction to the increasingly negative OP meta. In other words rather than whinging he's set his own event up, writing a custom scenario and getting the word out.Good stuff mate, all too rare!

With a couple of dropouts it was five of us, who all know each other. With no OP prize to worry about we just played three rounds for fun with a three way to get us all some games. Turns out the scenario worked better as multi player which was a bonus.

More to the point we were all playing STAW to play STAW reminding ourselves of what a good game it is away from the OP Meta influence. Quite possibly the game as it was designed to be played! On the way out we were even discussing a club escalation campaign.

Doesn't get much better than that really :)