Green Rookie’s Playbook: Zen and the Art of Spaceship Maintenance

In this article, I will be exploring how to cope with failure and what to do next. I will also be looking at how to plan and execute opening engagements that put you at an advantage.

There were some surprising responses to my last article that explored the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The first comment said that I should stop being a ‘try hard’; whereas others identified that the game was ‘broken’ and to fix it before September’s big fix would be futile.

There is the overwhelming urge to to simply go with jank for the next four months, fly what you like and stick a torp up the ventilator shaft of anyone who questions you. That’s all well and good for funsies, but Euros is coming up and then Nationals. We’re living in a competitive limbo, where there really appears to be nothing on the horizon that will shake up the meta, but our heads and hearts are in different places. There is a real sense of cognitive dissonance, 1.0 may well have the remainder of Q1 kits, Store Champs, Euros and even Nationals in August but, really, what’s the point now?

New toys are on the horizon and, better yet, the chance to make old toys more consistent (I might even get to run my Misthunter) and all I want to do is get to Tosche Station pick up my power converters and then stare wistfully into the sunsets, longing for when I might be able to join the Rebellion and fight the Empire.

I went to the first Store Champs of this season last weekend at Firestorm Cards in Basingstoke and can only hang my head in shame. I won one game out of five. That’s with running Friends Don’t Let Friends Run OP3 (Or Generic Netlist #5)

What was the reason for the explosions? They weren’t minor ones — I was tabled four times. The worst of losses. Like Ello Asty in The Force Awakens.

Remember him?

Thankfully, the one thing I can recommend that really does improve your game is being part of a group that helps you evaluate your play.

You might want to end the tournament and be like

Everything’s perfectly alright now…

But what you really need is a little distance, a little perspective and a healthy dose of evaluation. Though it might be uncomfortable, there are some benefits to having a firm friend who is willing to talk you through your performance, the decisions you made and how to salvage them.

I seriously doubt it’s the list

Although some lists are better than others, whether in cost efficiency or damage output, you cannot (and must not) remove the player from the equation. My last article ended with a focus on the active voice and taking responsibility for your play — when I play well, it’s on me. When I don’t play well, it’s also on me.

When I look at the lists I lost to…wait...when I look at the players I lost to…wait, better:

When I look at the games I lost

When I look at the games I lost (I have agency in this), there are some components to break down.

I could well say

I lost to (Top 16th in the World ©) Alex Birt, Dom Flannigan, Janus F Avivson and Tom Duncan (Those last two are like Kryptonite)

or I could simply say

I need to learn to make better decisions.

To git good. That’s turn to turn, target priority, rock placement, ya know — the basics.

What makes a good first engagement?

You can have a look back at my thoughts on List Building, Obstacle Placement and Doing the Maths. Getting that first engagement right is a crucial part to success. It’s something my peers in Sparkle Motion have a much greater understanding of than me. For them, it’s almost zen — the contest for each and every tournament, and even practice session, is to take a photo of the opening engagement. Like Aikido, the emphasis is on this initial engagment, as if the TO were to declare a winner by looking at that snap-shot of the match.

There are some factors to consider here

1) Concentration of Force

Through careful planning, how will you arrange it so that you have shots on your foe at the same time as keeping your ships at the optimum position to mitigate damage? How will you gain an engagement where you are able to focus your fire on your desired target(s) whilst your own ships are at minimal risk. Will you move in formation? Will you have some bait and flank whilst the rest of your squad moves in for the pews?

2) Speed of Engagement

Looking at your oponent’s list in comparison to your own, will you bide your time or simply joust? Do each of you have a component like Rey crew where taking advantage of a slow opening allows your resources to be at full capacity? What about ordinance such as Cruise Missiles, where you will want a slow build up to allow a run in and push with a five forward?

3) Where will the action take place?

Where do you want to fight? This goes right back to Turn Zero and your rock placement. Did you bring rocks or debris? Why? Do you want a big open area, or to get in amongst the obstacles? Does your list rely on formation flying? Does your opponent have two large bases and can you make life hard for them by placing a big ol’ rock right in the centre?

4) What Next?

Do you know what your next move will be? If you’ve taken Corran Horn and you need an escape route after the double tap, do you have it? Are there rocks there that will give you that little bit of extra shielding? If you’ve taken a ship with a 180 degree arc, how will you make the most of your turns before your opponent has figured out how to get behind you? Ultimately, have you planned a scenario where you have more options than your opponent?

Although our emphasis in on that opening engagment, the game does not end here.

5) Stay on Target

Knowing which of the ships to target is key. Last weekend, Whilst playing Alex Birt (Top 16th X-Wing player in the world ©), I asked Alex how much his ships cost, it broke down to 31 for the Inquisitor, 32 for Captain Yorr and 37 for QuickDraw. Having had a poor experience with Palp at the Wayland Regional, I wanted to take out Yorr first. This would stop Palp mitigating damage where I needed to break through. Not only this, the logic of killing the Lambda Shuttle seemed sound as it was worth more than the Inquisitor, although not as much as QuickDraw. I figured I could survive the joust and went for the shuttle.

I traded Lowhhrick for the shuttle and felt as thought things would be fine. I was up on points after all (32 vs 30). The problem was then securing a kill on QuickDraw whilst also keeping Fenn or Miranda alive. I didn’t manage this. Had I concentrated on QuickDraw first, his threat of the native ability would have likely been neutralised.

Not only this, but had I set up in the diagonal corner away from Yorr, this would have meant that perhaps Alex would need to bring his ships to me rather than trading off in a joust and potentially limping away.

When choosing your target priority:
1) Which ship is the biggest threat?
2) Which ship is the most expensive?
3) Which ship would make a horrible end game for you?

The answer to the three above is often the same thing (although not always). The more you know your list, the better informed you will be to make the decision as to which ship will cause you trouble, or which you should avoid whilst pulling your pew pews into the right place. Is there a lynch-pin in their list? Do they have one ship which is the biggest threat, or that enables other ships to be more dangerous? Palp Shuttles, Stress Hogs, HWKs, are all ships that might not be the number one target, but will irritate you for as long as they’re about. Fenn Rau, QuickDraw, Dash are all big damage dealers that might need to be at the top of your list, but only you will know what you’re most scared of.

4) Which is the most difficult to kill? Can you afford to leave it until later, or maybe ignore it entirely if you’re confident you’ll have more points on the board at the end of your 75 mins? Is the ship’s resilience due to regen? If so, can you make a dent, and will you be able to keep guns on target to keep up the pressure? If you can, it’s probably worth going for that first, but don’t underestimate how difficult this can be. Those regen ships can often be the trap your opponent wants you to fall into.

5) Can you get a kill in your first engagement? Your opponent might have a Z-95 that is really easy to kill and will get you up on points, but if you nuke that, will you be falling into a trap where you leave yourself vulnerable? What if you have used your ordinance on this ship and then you don’t have enough punch left to take out the real threat? How might your opponent mitigate some of your damage output? Is there a ship that will shut down your agency to take modifiers, or is there simply a damage sponge that keeps their end game ship alive?

How does this all work in practice?

I want to spend the final third of this article analysing three games from Worlds in depth, looking at the rounds leading up to the initial engagements and exploring the decisions made by the players. Massive thanks to Dion at the Gold Squadron Podcast for allowing me to take screenshots once again. You can watch the videos in full by clicking on the links introducing each game (or the first image — your choice).

Day 1C: Round 6 — Nathan Eide Vs Darryl McMillon

So here is the boardstate just after round Zero. Both players have set their rocks, both have set their ships.

Giving turn zero some more context, here is an annotated image of what order the rocks were placed and where the ships are in relation to range. Note, Darryl has initiative and placed the first rock.

Each of the rocks is 1 range away from the other. Nahan has placed his ships in a line, just off centre, whilst Darryl has chosen to separate his, putting Nym in the centre and Wedge and Airen to the right of the mat.

Who has the greater options here?

Here’s that same image, but now I’ve marked the different pathways open to each player in yellow. Both players have made the centre of the board a no go area, leaving the sides for the joust. By placing his ships in the centre, Nathan has made his path ambiguous. Darryl is at the same advantage, however, as he may choose to take Nym through the asteroids, or simply make efficient use of the Trajectory Simulator.

What is clear from this, is that Darryl is likely offering Nym as bait, but Nathan will want to avoid a straight joust where he might have bombs or harpoons flung at him.

Let’s Look at the end of Round one to see what decisions each player made.

Nathan has begun to flank; Nym has launched a bomb and turned away; Wedge and Airen have begun to advance up the side lane. Why?

Neither player really wants the joust from this game, which may explain the rock formation in the centre. If Nathan jousts straight on, there is the possibility he might suffer a bomblet going in and out of the engagement. What about the rest of the ordinance? Well, you have harpoons on Nym and Airen, as well as Proton Torps on Wedge. Without Deadeye on these ships, Nathan has to be sure that he’s careful to avoid target lock range on his big hitter. The real problem for Nathan, if he moves in for a target lock first at PS8: all three of Darryl’s ships will be able to target lock him and push in the damage. Range control here is key.

Darryl has the difficulty that Lowhhrick might well help spread the damage. Without Selflessness or Draw Their Fire, Nathan’s Corran is at more risk than most other 100point Rebel Aces. There’s also the risk of a range one double tap from Corran.

By the end of round three, we can see that Nathan has continued to pursue the board edge and his Corran is at a 45 degree angle. This is actually something he has engineered throughout. Take a look at the video in full, it’s rare that Corran is not at an angle at the end of each round. Why? He wants to avoid that bomblet straight on, giving himself an opportunity to run or boost around when needed. What about Darryl? He has now begun to turn his ships around, realising that he must take his ships to Nathan.

The first engagement does not happen until round six. Corran has a range three target lock on Nym and with some careful work from Fenn coordinating an action, Nathan was able to move Corran last, target lock Nym and risk only a range three shot from Airen WITHOUT the target lock. Nym has no arc and Wedge is out of range. No lock = no ordinance.

As a trade of fire, Nathan has won the Zen X-Wing, suffering nothing, not risking the harpoons as he was originally out of range when Darryl checked for target locks. Nym loses two shields, Corran loses nothing and has a target lock for the next turn should he want it.

How does this work for the next round? Nathan must then put Corran at the point where he will be at minimal risk, but also maximise his own approach and attack. This is not easy. Have a look at how he does this.

Remember that the order of movement is Lowhhrick, Corran, all of the 10s and then Fenn. After moving Lowhrick into a position where he is at an angle to best optimise the next turn with the 180 degree arc, Corran comes in with a two forward and then a boost to the right, leaving the Darryl with the difficult decision of which sequence to move his ships in order to make the best of his ships that will now all be without mods. when the second engagment begins, Corran is only at risk from a range one unmodded shot from Wedge. By the end of this round, Wedge is dead.

Day Two : Top 16— Jelte De Boer vs Alex Birt

This is a really interesting game for me for a number of reasons. As a near mirror match, we can see see how the two players have approached turn zero differently. From a personal point of view, Alex has always been supportive of my blog and play and I’m yet to beat him in a tournament but to see him at top 16 of Worlds, I couldn’t feel more proud.

Above is the board at the end of the set up phase. Below, is my annotated version.

Alex was given initiative, so he placed the first rock. It was pretty much bang in the centre. No measurement given, nothing like that. Thanks Alex. The debris fields placed by Jelte were measured at range one of each other. Jelte’s final piece of debris in the corner was measured by Alex as being 2 x 2. What does this rock formation serve? It puts a possible halt to flying the shuttle dead down the centre of the board. By having the tight formation in the middle, it’s also difficult to maintain any formation around this area.

Does the opening set up leave options for each player? Jelte has manipulated a bump via QD and Yorr, which means that the shuttle can stay still at the beginning of the game without having to take the stress from the red stop manoeuver. This opens up the dial that little bit more for turn two. Alex, on the other hand, will need to perform a green move on round two if he has used the stop.

Each player has chosen to have QuickDraw close to the shuttle with the Inquisitor at some distance away. Why? The Inquisitor can take two fewer hits than QuickDraw and has Autothrusters. With the Inquisitor’s ability that allows all shots to be regarded as range one, what would your reason be for getting unnecessarily close?

Where does each player want the action to happen? This depends on what they perceive as their most vulnerable ship and their biggest threat. If either loses QuickDraw early, it creates complications for them. It’s understandable that each player might begin the game in a somewhat reactive manner. We’ve already established that the action is unlikely to happen in the middle, therefore, the side gulleys are likely to offer a clear engagement with ample opportuntiy to continue the fight and seek escape routes when needed.

The other factor that I initially overlooked here, is how much the clustered rock formation might offer an obstruction when defending.

After writing my first draft, I asked Alex to take a look and see what insight he could offer. With this match, Alex thought that he had lost the game in the list building process. This was something that James Finlayson shared with me about my own list, that the construction of components might well put me at a disadvantage from the outset (You can read about it here). Jelte’s list has a one point initiative bid and has QuickDraw at PS11 with Advanced Optics. Though Alex’s QuickDraw has the passive modifier of Expertise, he won’t be getting the simultaneous fire if the final kill comes from Jelte’s QuickDraw.

By the end of round four, each player has carefully taken their time, using barrel rolls from back to front to control range, whilst also keeping guns pointed at their opponent. Jelte has engineered his aces to come in from his right, opting to go through the debris, perhaps making the most of QuickDraw’s ability, and planning to lose a shield flying over a rock to facilitate an early double tap. Jelte’s aces will easily have a shot on Alex’s QuickDraw within the next round, and it appears that Alex is aiming to do the same. You’ll also note that there is a clear line of engagement between each shuttle.

The first round of engagement occurs in round five (below).

Have a look at that again with an emphasis on which ships have each other in arc.

Here’s that zen moment. Who would win based on the first engagement?

I’ve used yellow arrows to show Alex’s opportunities to fire and green to show Jelte’s. Alex’s QuickDraw has a shot on the shuttle, QuickDraw or The Inquisitor. Alex’s Inquisitor has a shot only on Jelte’s Inquisitor. Alex’s Lambda has no shots.

All three of Jelte’s ships have a shot on QuickDraw. In the world of Zen X-Wing, Jelte has a more favourable opening engagement. Statistically, Alex’s QuickDraw should come away from this worse than Jelte’s QuickDraw.

What happened in the game?

• Jelte’s QuickDraw fires first, Alex loses a shield, triggering Quickdraw’s ability.
• Alex’s QuickDraw fires using his ability/revenge shot and Jelte’s QuickDraw loses 2 shields.
• Jelte fires his QuickDraw once more (using the revenge shot) and Alex’s Quick Draw loses another shield.
• Alex’s QuickDraw takes his actual shot and takes one more shield from Jelte’s QuickDraw. (Confused yet?).

All other shots on Alex’s QuickDraw are evaded, it is a dice game after all. the round ends with Jelte’s QuickDraw having lost all shields and Alex still having one shield remaining. Wow.

What happened next?

It looks like this. Both QuickDraws have a range one of each other, but interestingly, Jelte’s also has a range two on Yorr. Alex’s Inquisitor has no shots, but Jelte’s has a clear shot on Alex’s shuttle. Both shuttles have a shot on each other. Alex’s shuttle also has a shot on Jelte’s QuickDraw.

Jelte’s ships all fire on the shuttle, ending the round with half points, whereas Alex gets one more damage on Jelte’s QuickDraw. No half points for Alex.

Interestingly, via our established rules of Zen X-Wing, Jelte would come away with the win, but only actually come away more favorably in the second round of engagement.

Day Two: Top 8 — Jelte De Boer Vs Marc de Scordilli

I’d very quickly like to end by comparing Jelte’s turn zero and initial engagement on his next game with the previous analysis.

Jelte placed obstacles 2, 4 and 6, again, giving his opponent initiative. Interestingly, he has placed rocks 2 and 6 in very similar positions to his previous game, and his ships look to be in somewhat identical places too.

Marco is playing a variant of the Rebel Stress Bunker with Ezra and Lowhhrick each being able to hand out stress, particularly if you manage to end up within Ezra’s Snap Shot. Jelte might well be wary of the bomblet and Harpoons from Miranda. By keeping his ships in formation, Marco offers himself the most damage mitigation via Lowhhrick, 3PO and Selflessness.

The rocks leave lots of open space in the centre. This allows each player to stick to formation if needed. Honestly, I’m unsure what other advantage it offers.

Here is the board at the end of round two. What will each player want? Yorr will be moving first, so may well want to block Ezra. Miranda will want a clear shot on QuickDraw, where it seems the Inquisitor will be taking a pot shot. Jelte may well want to take down Lowhhrick first as this will mean he is clear to attack Miranda without any further spreading of the damage.

This is what happens next

Here it is again with a clearer indication of which ships have each other in arc.

Jelte is able to get all ships firing on Miranda.

Miranda and Ezra can fire on QuickDraw, but Lowhrick has bumped and can only fire on the shuttle.

Remembering that this is a dice game, and variance is key, the engagment breaks down as follows:

• Ezra’s Snap Shot is triggered on QuickDraw, he loses a shield.
• This triggers QuickDraw’s ability, she then fires on Miranda, who uses 3PO and Lowhhrick’s Reinforce token to mitigate the damage. QuickDraw acquires a target lock through Fire Control Systems.
• QuickDraw now takes her actual attack and takes three shields from Miranda.
• Miranda drops a shield to fire a five dice harpoon into QuickDraw. Jelte uses Palpatine to gain an evade and Lightweight Frames gives him an extra focus. When this is over, QuickDraw and Miranda are both without shields.
• The Inquisitor fires on Miranda and gets through a crit.
• Lowhhrick fires on the shuttle and it loses 4 shields.
• The shuttle then fires on Miranda and she suffers a Major Hull Breach.

Let’s stop to look at the game state now:

• Miranda has three hull remaining.
• QuickDraw has three hull.
• The shuttle has 1 shield and five hull, not yet on half points

In layman’s terms, Miranda is bleeding and Jelte has come off more favourably becuase he had the better engagement. He was able to move Yorr first and blocked Ezra.

Some final thoughts. All lists are not equal. The game is not balanced. Four legs good, two legs bad, or something like that.

Having friends help me evaluate my game has been an invaluable source of accountability, thank you again Sparkle Motion.

When watching a game online, or even taking photos of your own play, why not ask the following of your engagment:

• How did your turn zero have an impact upon this round? Did you set it up consciously planning where the two of your forces would meet, or did you simply try to make things more difficult for the other person?
• Were all guns on your opponent, better yet, were they on your desired target?
• How did you you choose your target priority? Did you simply point and shoot at the thing with the most points, or the thing that would cause you the most aggro? Was it both?
• Was this the right time? Would you have been better with a joust, did you need to approach at an angle to avoid a heavy burst of ordinance?
• Were you able to see your next move clearly? Did you have an escape route if you needed it?

This blog was brought to you by the word engagement, it has been a difficult one to write. There was so much I wanted to say but there are also only so many times that you can use the word engagement without sounding monotonous.

I haven’t even begun to write about what is really exciting me about 2.0, especially now the unboxing has happened. You can have a look at the highlights from the video here if you missed it. If you missed it. Snigger.

Fly casual y’all!

This article would not have been possible without help from Matt Button, Sparkle Motion, Alex Birt, Gold Squadron Podcast and X-Wing Junkies. You’re all awesome.

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You can also read some of my older posts at https://itsgettinghothinhere.wordpress.com