Green Wookie: Trusting Your Instincts
Exploring the merits of flying what you know vs flying what you love vs flying something competitive.
I think I’m a little bit in love.
Asa Graf of Back to Dials posted his two store championship wins recently. What was in there? A-Wings. Snap. Crack. Popping A-Wings. Who’d a thunk?
The list is here:
There’s a running joke on the Sparkle Motion Squadron group chat that my nickname is Eternal List Panic. I’m lucky enough to be able to play in a tournament a month and I’ve been playing two lists pretty solidly, Rey and X (whether X is Poe or Miranda) and 100 point Miranda (Miranda, Fenn and Lowhhrick). Though these ships have been somewhat constant, their upgrades have not, especially when it comes to Lowhhrick and Fenn. I’ve teetered and tinkled, swapping Rey crew for Wookie Commandoes and Tactician and back again, swapping VI for Adaptability and R3-A2 for Flight Assist Astromech (lord and saviour of the T-65).
One possible argument that could be made is that with the ongoing changes to my lists, this forms a distraction where I do not know my interactions and triggers well enough, therefore causing me to make misplays at crucial moments. I’ve come second in tournaments, but never made the top cut. I’ve made it this year’s goal to consistently improve. One (nameless) member of Sparkle Motion holds me to account at the end of each tournament and forces me to evaluate my play. This is an invaluable process and, though it isn’t one that I feel comfortable with, it is something that I would recommend to all.
I am relatively lucky that when I go to my regular practice night, I have two 2018 regional champions in front of me. When I go to a tournament in London, I know there is a good chance that I will be pitted against either one of the following:
- European Champion Ben Lee
- SOS Winner Martyn Chivers
- SOS finalist Tom Forstner
- London and South East Regional champs Lloyd or Full-On (often both)
- Sheffield Regional Champ Sim Pone
- Norwich Regional champ James Finlayson
- UK Nationals champ Jesper Hills
- Alex Birt (He came top 16 at Worlds, you know?)
- Phil GC of X-Wing Hipster Fame
So yeah (Gulp), the competition is high. Though I am sick of K-Wing face (don’t tell me you don’t know K-Wing face, the face your opponent pulls when Miranda does her nasties to them), I feel a little justified in playing 100 point Miranda (mostly).
With the countdown to 2.0, there’s been a spate of blogs that have surfaced that explore ‘the meta’ (whatever that doesn’t mean). Oli Pocknell’s post Should you fly what you love? No, Fly what you know inspired me to evaluate why I was flying 100 point Miranda and how I might potentially be handicapping myself for 2.0
Where have I come from? Where am I going?
Many posts ago, in a blog far, far away I began earnestly writing about A-Wings in Searching For That List. My first real instructional article was Cracking Formation Flying, and I had a lot of fun with Phoenix Squadron, giving my different ships names and personalities.
When the /X7 ‘fix’ happened, I could no longer play A-Wings, even with the release of Snap-Shot, the chihuahuas were no longer able to make a bite.
Appearance Vs Reality
The renaissance caused by 2.0 revelations and speculations seems to have taken all cards off of the table and brought back some old ones. The tactical brain power required to really master the mechanics of X-Wing makes it such a compelling game, but the addition of Star Wars as a thematic base really elevates it. So get a load of this:
and now look at this:
I mean the top one is clearly more appealing, right?
Playing ships that you actually recognise from the big screen brings in so much more pew pew fun. It seems to be alleviating the tension at premier events such as Store Champs.
Of the five Store Champs I’ve been able to attend so far, there has been a notable shift in my feelings about the game (subjective) and my achievement (objective).
I have 37 games under my belt with 100 Point Miranda with a win/loss ratio of 21/16.
I have 15 games in with Xnap Xhot (not too keen on the connotations of Asa’s title of Crack Dealers), with a win/loss ratio of 9/6.
For those maths bods out there, that’s a 57% win rate with 100 point Miranda vs 60% win rate with Xnap Xhot.
If I wanted to be more specific, I might look at just the tournament games over this current store champs season.
100 Point Miranda
Firestorm (Basingstoke) 1 and 4 — my worst tournament performance in a long while.
Athena Games (Norwich) 3 and 2, coming 12th out of 32 and winning the TO range rulers in the raffle.
Ace Comics (Colchester) 3 and 2, coming 11th out of 28.
That’s 15 games, with a win/loss ratio of 7/8. That’s 47%.
For those of you interested in pointless infographics. here is a summary of my findings:
Xnap Xhot
Ibuywargames (Woking) 4 and 2, coming 16th out of 50.
Dice and Destiny (Canterbury) 2 and 2, coming 7th out of 16, securing and actually earning the 2018 range rulers.
That’s 10 games with a 6/4 win/loss ratio.
Boom! Rockin the donut in a way Dash never could:
I don’t even need my calculator to work out that 60% is better than 47%.
60 is clearly bigger, right?
Maths is fun and all, but it musn’t be forgotten that reality can often be summed up in the immortal words of Kras and Xyler
Playing Xnap Xhot and the satisfaction that comes from a win with a list that is unusual, as well as thoroughly preparing me for 2.0 is so fun. Mentally, I’m drained by game four, but my stamina is building.
Saw’s Renegades has achieved what looked like the impossible at the beginning of last year — the X-wings are back! Have a look at the top 10 from Meta Wing this morning — that has happened in the space of month.
Go to a tournament and you will see them floating around (not actually floating, y’understand?). Taking Xnap Xhot allows me to feel as though I might just have the edge over 5 X-Wings or 4 X-Wings and a Z-95, though I’m yet to really work out the maths on that.
This photo came from game three at Colchester against Dale Cromwell. It was the second round of engagement and I took out Pure Sabacc and Vader in the same turn. I shit you not.
If you would like a break down of how Asa feels about the list, there is no better place than his report, that you can find here. For me, I know what I will be taking to Nationals this year.
I can’t wait to see you across from me at the tables. I will be playing at the Dice Saloon Store Champs in Brighton next weekend.
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You can also read some of my older posts at https://itsgettinghothinhere.wordpress.com
