Ghost and X-Wing Batrep

 So its been a quiet due to many reasons, but here we are with an X-Wing Battle Report. 100 pts, Rebels versus Rebels! Gav hadn't played for a while and wanted to give a K-Wing a go, and having painted up a B-Wing I just had to use it in a batrep. Heres my list!

Keyan Farlander, no upgrades.

2x Blue Squadron B-Wings with Fire Control Systems

Gemma Sojan with Chaardon Refit, and Lone Wold (I'd also taken the card that allows me to take an elite pilot talent)

Gav had taken Wedge in his X-Wing, Dutch Vander in a Y-Wing, and Esege Tuketu in the K-Wing. I forget the upgrades he chose, but there was a blaster turret and recon on the K, wedge had decoy, and I think the Ywing had a droid that gave him a free target lock when he did red moves and some photon torpedoes.

First turn we were both pretty cautious, but soon we were locked in action. 

Wedge got into range one of Keyan, and took four shields off with a torrent of fire. The K-Wing took another shield off and gave me a crit, a direct hit. Gav however rolled two blanks with Dutch and thankfully Keyan lived on for a round... but not for long. I stripped the shields of the K-Wing but no other damage. 

The next turn was just about getting out of the way ready to make another pass, although Wedge did a K-turn and finished Farlander off. Boo!

 

After a couple more K-turns and my B-Wings taking some damage the A-wing and a B-Wing took out the K-wing, then the B's swept in and took out Wedge. Needless to say with the Y-Wing out of position and three ships looking to gun him down, Gav conceded. 

So what did I think of the list? Keyan didn't get much use and its the first time I used him, my preferred B-Wing elite pilot is Ten Numb, Mangler cannon and a couple other upgrades so it maximises his ability to get those crits through. I do love Blue Squadron B-Wings though, even at pilot skill 2 they survive fire and then dish it back out, and Gemma with Lone Wolf also works well. Being in range one rerolling one blank with an extra evade dice is useful and helps her attack get some reliability too. I'm not sure what to make of the K-Wing and I'm unsure as to whether I'd get one, but they do get raved abotu so perhaps one day. 

Also, Gav being the darling that he is, picked this up for me from Firestorm Games who are based in Cardiff. I'm hoping to do an unboxing post soon, possibly in video! The cards look great though and I can't wait to use this, not only is it massive but with a native 4 firepower its gonna do some damage!

Epic Play - X-Wing Thoughts

Xwing at club has been a little underloved, so to bring the new year in our first club night of 2016 consisted of our first game of Epic. Josh and Bam both had big ships, the Raider and the Assault Carrier, and were eager to use them in a game so myself and Scott, of the Crow Valley Crusaders, took 200 points of small ships to counter this Empire threat. Scott went for quite a competitive list, 3 Bwings and lots of Headhunters,whereas I went for ships I wanted to use because I love using them. 3 prototype pilots, Han with engine upgrade, a couple of B's and an Xwing. Josh took his Raider with one of the Slave one pilots and a ti fighter, and Bam took the Assault Carrier, several tie fighters and a decimator.

First things first, I don't remember many details on the game but I want to talk more about 'Epic Play'. As we got more and more through the game it became more apparent that Bam and Josh were a little underwhlemed with the larger ships. Its possibly because myself and Scott didnt take any, although if I had one I'd have been tempted. Bam also didn't realise one of the rules which may have changed a few things but it was still an odd yet interesting game. Josh's Raider didn't seem to do much, and I think he needed to fly it more aggresively towards my ships and just try to take them out by ramming them. His weapons didn't seem to do that much either, so it would be interesting to try again and see if it was down to the dice or if Epic ships just aren't that great against a lot of smaller ships.

Playing with Scott was an eye opener too, seeing how his mind works when taking a list was intriguing as I'm not the most competitive when it comes to playing. I'm hoping a few of us will be looking towards playing a tourney or two this year so will be speaking to scott about what lists are in and doing something very different while trying to win a game or two!

The game itself went pretty much mine and Scotts way, with Scott hammer away at the ties, decimator and assault carrier where I took on the raider and its attention. Han flew up the middle, got shot at by the raider then swept back in towards the bounty hunter, giving Han the engine upgrade is just an absolute joy, especially with push the limit and the millenium falcon tile so he can get an evade every turn too. Tie fighters are jerks, the swarm still works incredibly well and I think if Bam had taken 200 points worth of them we'd have had a lot of trouble! I also still think the Slave One is a great alround ship. Throws out some good firepower, moves well too and is quite resilient.

We ended the game with the Imperials not having much left, both big ships out while we still had a decent amount of ships, but not without our own losses. Epic play is something I want to try again, and myself and my nephew Josh are going to switch sides so I can try a big ship in the near future while he gets to try rebels for the first time. 

Future releases are exciting too, I cannot wait to get the Ghost expansion, being a fan of the Rebels series. If you've not seen, THEN GO! The Inquisitors Advanced Prototype looks deadly too, Bam has mentioned his excitement for getting his grubby mitts on the ship. 

So a Question to the Xwing players out there, how competitive are you guys and how does this affect your ship choice? What are you guys looking forwarf too and anything on your wishlist of things for new expansions? I was surprised a couple more new ships weren't featured in The Force Awakens, so if we'll see many new ships is unlikely. Fingers are crossed!

Incoming updates will depend whats played over the next few weeks, but I'm pretty sure Spartacus will be featured (we had an amazing game last week of this as Morgan picked it up) and also the start of our look at Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. We have a group of between 6-8 players and we're having our first regular night on Saturday. Exciting times!

Scum and Villainy Progress

'This blog post is a wretched hive for scum and villainy. We must be cautious'

 Ah the Scum and Villany, the third faction for Xwing came out a little while ago yet failed to post my progress so far. I hadn't intended to add any weathering to the models but they looked to flat and as my highlighting skills aren't great weathering is a great way to add some edging to models... so out came the silver!

Let it be known, I'd pay plenty of Galactic Credits for some Scyk Interceptors. I didn't fancy these when I first saw the stats, but playing them they're so much fun. You can make them heavy therefore adding cannons, they're quite survivable especially if you take Serissu, who is the opposite of Howlrunner in which nearby ships get to reroll an evade dice and I just love flying them around the board. I've gone for a purple and light grey scheme, but I'm undecided yet whether I like the yellow for the canopies. I'm kinda tempted to go for a cherryish red.....

Heres the Starviper, a ship I've only run once but it didn't seem too bad. The only grey I've added on here was for the weapons and engine, I quite like the panels/wings plain as the metal contrasts nicely with the purple. 

And finally the IG. This ship is also incredibly fun to fly, and whiles its a big ship, you can't fly it like one, its just not quite as durable as the Slave, Falcon or certainly the Decimator. But it can do so many good things. I'd love to get another to try out some of the awesome combos that A, B, C and D can do, plus they look awesome. Its a cross between Galactus and Cyclonus. Don't know em? Google!

So thats how Scum looks so far, little touch ups and whether to redo the canopies and they'll be finished. I don't plan on adding much more as I can use a lot of my rebel ships with them if I wanted to play a big game but another IG might be nice.

Love Your Gaming

So last weekend was that time of the year everyone gets a little soppy and loved up, and for me it was no different. One of our fellow Welsh clubs, the Crow Valley Crusaders, once again had another Longest Night event. open for 30 hours people could come in and out as they like to game, or be mental and stay the entire time.

As a wee tribute to Valentines day however I made a nice wee heart, despite the terrible luck I have with them I still love rolling dice!

Obviously a couple games of Xwing was on the cards, and once again myself and Gav did battle. 150pts say 4 large ships, including 3 YT-2400s and a Falcon do battle. Fair play the game looks so much better played on a proper mat! I managed to edge Gav in this game, and so he sought revenge.

In the rematch I wondered what else I could fit into 150 points. Xwings... oh five rookies come in at 105 points... that leaves enough room for... an Ewing! I gave it a few upgrades and we got into the battle. The first turn we could fire one of my Xwings was destroyed but in retaliation all my other ships fired at Keyan Farlander in his Bwing and blew him up. Gave struggled a little from there on although he did kill Corran Horn and a couple more Xwings before I wiped him out. I really had fun with this list and can see myself trying it out again!

Some of the guys at CVC were busy building their purchases from the Heresy Weekender, Chris painting up this lovely Iron Warriors Deredeo Dreadnought. I'm still unsure if I like the model, but it is growing on me. Chris also got the event model which I'll get some pics of soon and some of the other stuff I saw being built/painted was awesome.

 

To finish our visit off myself, Gav and CVC Chairman Byron sat down for a game of Catan. This was about my 5th or 6th game and I'd yet to do well, so didn't expect much but a good old laugh. Yet, I actually won! I'm not entirely sure how but I pulled it off, and happily agreed to another game. At which point Byron absolutely brutalised me and Gav! I don't think I came fourth and there was only three of us playing! All in all though a great visit to the Crow Valley Crusaders, if you're about the Cwmbran area they're well worth a visit, especially when the pizza order goes in!

Back to Monday and it saw myself and Bam playing a 150 game with as many ships we could fit in. Dirty bastard got a shuttle in there! My dice rolling was terrible in this one and a rare smile on Bams face made an appearence as I gave up after losing 4 ships and only killing one of his. Eugh!

I also played against Louis who was using Scum and Villiany (from what we knew of the rules anyway) and I edged him for a win. I think when the proper cards are available (which is hopefully out by this time next week) Lou will pick it up more and be a lot more deadly. 

After that game of Xwing me and Louis had a go at a game I'd have for about a year or so and not really tried except for once, Evil Baby Orphanage. Its recommended for 3+ players but as there was just me and Louis available (Bam and Gav were having a really good game of Xwing, ended up just two hull points in it!) but we thought we'd have a go just to get a grasp for when we would play it with more players.

I absolutely adore the art style of this game, the babies being well illustrated and every time new babies would come into the time stream me and Lou would laugh at the new additions. Gmae mechanics it seems ok, it didn't take long to pick up and seems to play quickly which is a benefit. Hopefully we'll get a proper game in soon and will write about it then in much more detail. 

So this next week will hopefully see Scum and Villiany appear, and I know a of the Gwent Reavers are looking to pick some ships up, so should be interesting to see a new faction join the Rebels and Imperials. Thats it for now anyways, hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!

2015 And A Huge Catch Up!

So its 2015, which means I get to say, Happy New Year! Its been a hectic time lately for me, where I thought I'd be blogging every week and posting lots of interesting things, I've been busy working and when I've got some gaming time I've been too busy enjoying it to take pictures and write up about my experiences. But heres to a catch up!

 Xmas at the Gwent Reavers means some of the uni lads are back and we get some more gaming in. Alun came back for some 40k, a 1500 pt game between my marines and his guard that we played in less than two hours and resulted in a reasonably empty board and a win for me. 

 

Some Sons of Anarchy has been played, with a ridiculoulsy close game between myself, Gav and Bam just monday. Gav had $55k, Bam had $54, and I managed to get to $52. Such a good game! My obvious highlight is visiting Caracara Studios... Ahem...

On Xmas eve I'd been looking at getting Game of Thrones on the Xbox. I'd had a go of the trial, and thought seeing as the first episode was only £4 I'd get that and perhaps the season pass. I turn the xbox on, it slowly loads and I notice a sale. GoT first episode £2 and the season pass for almost half price. Snapped that up! The games pretty fun too.

By Telltale games, its an adventure game that follows in the same veins as many of their previous games, like Sam and Max, Back to the Future etc, where choices and reactions are gameplay and the story keeps you engrossed. You follow a new factin, the Forresters that become embroiled in a brutal situation and you get to converse with characters from the show and books, all voiced by the actual actors which helps submerse you into the setting. A good pickup and I'm looking forward to more episodes!

One club day, Gav excitedly came upto the studio with Pathfinder, Rise of the Runelods. Myself and Morgan were intrigued so we set it up and randomly had a go at a scenario. ROTR is a card adventure/roleplay game, where you choose a character and begin an adventure. Our test scenario was ill advised and we were thumped. Morg read a little more into it and we'd realised what we'd done so began again but this time, from the start. Cue a couple of full days soley playing this.

I chose Seoni, a rather wild looking sorcereress whose cleavage reminded me enough of Marg Tyrell that I didn't care about her stats or any advancements. Judge the book by the cover though, cause shes been awesome to play. Her spells have kicked some ass, and shes been the reason we've completed a couple of the harder scenarios. The last one we did, beating Mammy Graug was a nightmare but somehow I managed to roll just enough on a bazillion dice to beat the mother ogres insane boosted combat stat. It really felt like an achievement too, and its made me want to play a lot more of this type of game in the future.  

Did I mention that myself and Morg love a bit of Scrabble? Not as much as I like doing this kind of thing... But we did get a few games in and I managed to pip him to the post in a couple of close games while he destroyed me in another. I did give him a beating in another so the thrashing hurt a lot less, but sometimes you just get shit letters!

Oh X-Wing, I do love you so.

As you can see, I've been doing some customising, including the Rebels YT-2400 and three A-Wings I've got too. The grey and orange has been expanded upon with Thunderhawk Blue, which has added a little of variety without getting in the way of the main scheme. 

Oh, and this finally happened.

I've been tempted for a while, but over Xmas I finally spoiled myself (partly because my 4 Forward had disappeared) when I saw these Darksun templates from http://www.cogotwo.com/ and knew I needed them in my grasp. Delivery was quick, they're already masked off for you to paint and with some Thunderhawk Blue sploshed on they looked absolutely stunning. I cannot recommend getting some of these enough if you're into Xwing!

Lastly, we played a rather large game of Xwing between 5 players. Louis using a few headhunters from Scum and Villiany (we said he could have a go as hes hoping to get some of them when they're released so used the stats that FFG have shared) along with Bam and Josh using Imperial forces against myself and Gav with Rebels. I think there was 350 points on each side, including two YT-2400s, the Falcon, and three decimators. It turned out to be a brutal game, and came down to one Awing and a Decimator as the final two ships... pretty damn close when you consider how much was on the board! The Imperials edged it, bloody swines! Those decimators are big buggers fair play, but they're certainly not invincible! I also played a game against my nephew on Xmas day that he won, I did take a couple of pictures of the forces we used but havent got them to upload, but they are on my instagram which can be found right here!

I think thats most of whats been happening blogged about anyway, hopefully I can get back to being more regular with these posts, I want to do a more in depth look at Pathfinder, some more Xwing posts perhaps some tactics and batreps, some Necromunda things that may happen in the future and also any other games we get to play... And I'll also have to chat about Resistance.... 

But for now thanks for reading and I hope your 2015 is a cracker!