Should you fly what you love? No, fly what you know
So 1.0 is Ending…What now?
With the demise of the first edition of the X-Wing Miniatures Game looming, many people have taken this as an opportunity to fly whatever they want. Those ships that have been sitting in a box for the last two years, slowly gathering dust, are being brought out to see the light of day. Tournaments across the land, even normally competitive Store Champs, are seeing an influx of so called fun lists appearing at all stages of the competition.
What this means for the meta-game is an incredibly varied amount of lists hitting the tables. Combined with the arrival of wave 14, there has been a massive increase in the types of lists that we are seeing. It is an uncertain time for the universe.
So What Does That Mean for Me?
As far as I can see, the end of 1.0 has spawned two separate schools of thought.
‘The world is ending, we can do what we want!’
Many people have decided to fly whatever they like and to hell with the consequences.
Tie swarm? why not? Five U-Wings? Don’t mind if I do! (This last one is better than you might think as proved by Martyn Chivers at the recent Firestorm Store Champs).
You can find my good friend Phil GC Firmly in this camp. His most recent blog was aimed at taking three A-Wings to the same store champs. He did pretty well too!
‘I still want to win things and work out what’s good’
This is the camp that I fall into. There are still some big events left for 1.0 and I intend to be there, attempting to win things. That’s my nature, I’m in X-Wing for the competition, as well as the friends that come with it.
What the present environment means for the competitive game is uncertainty. An unstable meta-game means that it’s incredibly hard to make decisions about what you need to counter. Normally before a tournament I would break down the strongest lists, work out how to kill them and build something accordingly. Similar to the process that I talked about in my previous article on list building.
With the future being so vague, what do you turn to? While the previous group of people have resorted to ‘Fly what you love’, I would caution this with an addendum: fly what you love, sure, but you should also ‘Fly what you know’.
A Touch of Familiarity
So let’s follow my own advice, I am going to build one list for each faction. While I do that we are going to ask three questions of each list.
- Can it deal with Nymanda?
- Can it deal with 5 X-Wings
- Can it deal with Reapers?
These are my three predictions for nationals. The two new ‘hot picks’ and the old faithful that has extremely few weaknesses. The weaknesses that Nymanda has (Ghosts and Decimators) are going to be swiftly airlocked when they come up against the 5x, so I’m predicting a resurgence in the two ship monstrosity.
As I build these lists I am going to try and stick with what I know, keeping to my comfort zone. My most successful lists over the years have all included a high PS repositioning ace combined with a tank that has reliable firepower.
A New Hope
For the Rebels, my immediate thought was A-Wings. I love the ship, it’s my favourite in the star wars universe, but it isn’t very good.
Following on from this, I went for the closest ship to Jake Farrel: Poe Dameron in his Black one X-Wing. Finishing off the list with a new twist on some old Rogues, pun absolutely intended.
This list would be absolutely unthinkable a few months back. With the addition of Flight-Assist Astromech and Renegade Refit Wedge and Wes become brutally efficient, weighing in at only 28 points each. Poe is almost impossible to catch in this build with the ability to gain tokens, even when he’s stressed and provides the flying ability to take on any swarm.
Don’t Fear the Reaper
With the Tie Reaper being the new hotness for the imperials, my old Kylo build has gained backup. While this version gives up the double punch of QuickDraw, it gains an even bigger hammer in Pure Sabacc. Couple this with the speed of the Ailerons and you have a list that is incredibly hard to tie down, pun also intended.
This is a small adaption of the list I have been flying recently but one that I imagine flies very differently. Palpatine will certainly help with the amount of Jam being thrown around (if you’re wondering, it’s raspberry).
Go Out with a Bang?
For the Scum selection, I fall back to two ships that I’ve flown before. Advanced Sensors Nym and Push the Limit Fenn Rau are both hard to catch and each hit like a truck. This is combined with Sunny Bounder toting an ion cannon to neuter other bombers and hopefully take some of the heat away from the two kingpins of the Scum faction.
Time will tell if Nym is better off with Trajectory Simulator and a second harpoon instead of Advanced Sensors. But with so many things out there that can pick on 1 agility ships I figure not getting shot is a better defence.
Choices, Choices…
So at the end of all this, what have I achieved? Not knowing exactly what to counter I have made three separate lists that I believe fit my style. Time will tell which is the most effective but, with semi-competent flying, each one has all the tools needed to win a tournament right now.
Looking forward to UK nationals at the end of August, it is time to hit the practice tables. I can’t control what everyone else will chose to fly but I can certainly make sure that take a leaf out of the Mynock Squadron’s play-book.
Fly better than the guy on the other side of the table.
Fly my way.
