Appendix A: An Update Although the most recent post to this blog could have been construed as the cathartic ending to a quest to win a final of a decently-sized tournament, it wasn’t meant to be like that. And no, I’m not experiencing burnout towards X-Wing. I’ve just been rather busy, and it looks I will be for some time. I’ve earlier mentioned that it’ll be some time before I can partake in a single-day tournament and that seems to be largely true. I did manage to squeeze in a somewhat unfortunate in-person 3 round tournament without having to leave before it finished, so a batrep for that w ..read more

Granular listbuilding is fun! There are enough upgrades, slots, and pilots such that the ability to curate a squad particular to each player’s playstyle within the limits of a budget offers an endless sea of exploration, shockingly even when metas are allegedly solved. This in turn makes leagues focused on listbuilding challenges themselves engaging and rewarding puzzles. The familiarity of what’s good or fits a playstyle gains a new dimension when a gimmicky rule (gimmicks can be good if well-implemented!) is universally applied. Opportunity Cost is reshifted as the game is remixed, as all pl ..read more

*Before I adopt character and begin this April Fools’ post, I’d like to warn that the following content is pretty salty; it’s what happens when sardonicism tries to reconcile a discrepancy between what was promised and what came to pass. If you find this sort of content repulsive or you are a ride-or-die fan of X-Wing 3.0, you might want to click off.* Edit: Also, if you come across this post from Reddit, I don’t have a Reddit account. I lurk the X-Wing Reddit. Some rando just linked this post to the page. I’m assuming benevolent intentions as that’s the most likely outcome, but with 0 words a ..read more

The tournament depicted happened a month ago and for nearly as long, this post was a draft with photos and notes from the games. A lot has happened in that month, and although none of it changes the perspective of these games, what had happened in that month deserves altering the introduction to this post. Let’s start with how the predetermined title now gains an additional meaning. For this casual 3-round tournament at Epic Loot, I planned on flying the extended version of the Blackout Alpha I mentioned in my batrep for Megasilver’s 2.25 tournament. (Here is the list, by the way: “Blackout ..read more

So where’s the content? The last post was regarding a tournament that ended late January, and here it is, almost March. I should have had more than enough incentive to post sooner since then, given winning a casual local 2.0 tournament, performing rather well at the last considerably-sized 2.25 tournament, and currently 2-1 in an ongoing 2.0 tournament. I do plan on writing batreps illustrated by the accompanying photographs and screenshots in the future, but I don’t think I can ignore the elephant in the room much longer. For better or worse, the Netflix Adaptation of X-Wing, X-Wing 3.0, is h ..read more

No development/announcement in the game of X-Wing in 2021 was nearly as cataclysmic as the announcement of ROAD. More correctly speaking, no development/announcement in X-Wing of 2021 was as chaotic and unappealing as the resulting discord by the community regarding the announcement of ROAD. Although I’m in favor of ROAD and can appreciate the reasons many present against it, I certainly wasn’t in favor of the reactions from many of the “conversation”‘s participants. There were, however, rather productive contributions towards the conversation. For example, The Forever Worldchamp, Oli186, crea ..read more

Quickbuilds are interesting. Due to each ship and pilot to have a quickbuild receiving only one un-errata’d quickbuild, the locked-in price and ability of each quickbuild tends to age horribly. On one hand, you have grossly overcosted IG-88 droids, perhaps operating on the expectations they set in first edition, and on the other hand you have the equivalent of 50 point Starkiller Base Pilots, also perhaps operating on the expectations set in first edition. True, quickbuilds as of more recent waves tend to be less extreme in their costing or loadouts, but they still follow the general trend of ..read more

A list I have been enjoying recently consists of Kylo, Blackout, and Breach. With some form of System Phase shenaniganry across each ship, it’s quite adaptable to non-constant player order dynamics. This typically means ROAD/ROBD, as well as for the Alternating Player Order tournament I’m currently in, whose first round required pilots of a minimum initiative of 5. It’s rather straightforward, with three solid pieces able to pose their own vector of threat while having some utility, be that crit manipulation and a disincentive to shoot, making obstacles one-sided, or jamming things up with cha ..read more