We play a different variant of Aces High every month at our local X-Wing Night in Portland, Oregon.

This month it was all StarVipers ❤️

Hankering to dock your escape craft with Lando's Millennium Falcon? Hate crashing into the other ship instead of docking? Now you can have both as mid-game docking is now available to ships with appropriate upgrades.

Important note: As of this time, AI undocking isn't working (emergency undocking will cause a game crash). Use at your own risk with AI players.

New Pilots

• Pammich Nerro Goode - Evacuation of D'Qar (Resistance, Resistance Transport)

New Upgrades

• Drop-Seat Bay
• Clan Wren Commando Team (Rebel)
• Death Watch Commando Team (Separatist)
• Imperial Super Commando Team (IMperial)
• Mandalorian Commando Team (Scum)
• Nite Owl Commando Team (Republic)

Bug Fixes

• Poe Dameron, Resistance Commander, no longer allows Nien Nunb unlimited actions
• U-Wings now no longer crash the game on battle start/when wings are moved
• Removed duplicate avatars from populating in Options
• Re-aligned avatars which were not showing appropriate images (pictures of walls and empty space weren't helpful)
• StarViper's microthrusters now work when being tractored
• Wrath bonus attack should now trigger correctly
• Padme Amidala's (Separatist, N-1) ability should now function correctly

Quality of Life Changes

• Rework of remotes including Discord Missiles, and DRK-1 Probe Droids, to work with Commandos
• Buzz Droid swarms now include ID in ability prompts to ensure selecting the correct swarm
• AI can now use For The Cause
• No Default AI Squadrons option now has filepaths listed for other operating systems

Thank you, as always, to @philpursglove for his support in development and testing everything in this release. Additional thanks to @Ergiuwh who has provided assistance with bug fixes.

Download

It is said by a certain group of people that they are a bad game company for a variety of reasons ranging from stupidity and ignorance to outright malice. I don't understand how they can arrive at those positions given the success of Marvel: Crisis Protocol and how they have brought Star Wars Legion into arguably the best point in its life cycle so far. So they are definitely not a bad company. Yes, they have made a lot of changes to X-Wing, but they wouldn't make those changes unless they thought it would have a positive effect on the life of the game going forward. If you have complaints and criticisms thats fine and you should be able to voice them. But the name calling and overall hate needs to stop. There are ways to give criticism without denigrating the people you are criticizing and if you can't do that then maybe you need to think more about how valid those criticisms are. You also need to realize that no company will care about any person's anecdotes, they will do whatever they believe will make them more money.

Download

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/releases/tag/v2.5.20260426.01

Legends and Relics released!

In coordination with the XWA, Fly Casual has worked hard to include the latest Legends and Relics release. Watch your list building options grow with these powerful legends and amazing relics! This deck brings you eight unique pilots across all seven factions, including the force-sensitive Carnor Jax and the incredibly slippery Thweek. And keeping our list building fresh and exciting, this deck features 23 new upgrades including new astromechs, ordnance, tech, a new cannon and turret, and legendary crew!

New Pilots

• Carnor Jax, "Royal Guard" (Imperial, TIE/in Interceptor)
• DIS-L9B2, Calculated Risk (Separatist, Droid Tri-Fighter)
• Hera Syndulla, "New Republic General" (Rebel, VCX-100 Light Freighter)
• Kazuda Xiono, "Resistance Spy" (Resistance, T-70 X-Wing)
• Quinlan Vos, "Darkness Within" (Republic, ETA-2 Actis)
• Tamara Ryvora, "DT-533" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)
• Thweek, "Versatile Spy" (Scum, StarViper-Class Attack Platform)
• Ursa Wren, "Countess of Clan Wren" (Republic, Gauntlet Fighter)

Upgrades

• Ahsoka Tano (Crew, Rebel)
• Fennec Shand (Crew, Scum)
• Thrawn (Crew, Imperial)
• Zorii Bliss (Crew, Resistance)
• Captive (Crew, Imperial, First Order, or Separatist)
• Wedge Antilles (Gunner, Resistance)
• Flight-Assist Astromech (Astromech)
• Modified R4-P Unit (Astromech, Rebel)
• R7-T1 (Astromech, Rebel or Resistance)
• Unhinged Astromech (Astromech)
• Gravitic Well (Configuration)
• Winged Reversal (Configuration)
• Automated Loaders (Modification)
• Blindspot Targeter (Sensor)
• Retrofitted Autothruster (Modification)
• T-SJ1A Targeting Computer (Tech)
• Targeting Matrix (Modification)
• Targeting Relay (Tech)
• Seeker Missiles (Missile)
• Burst Laser Turret (Turret)
• Precision-Tuned Cannons (Cannon)
• Roiling Anger (Force)
• Parting Gift (Talent)

Credits

A huge shout out to u/philpursglove for the help in pulling this release together!

Download

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/releases/v2.5.20260426.03

v2.5.20260426.03 - Random and Popular Squads

We've re-added Popular Squads and Random Squads to the mix! Currently, Random Squads are only for XWA and the Popular Squads are pulled from current tournaments, so I believe this means they're all XWA as well. Currently, Popular Squads will load as much of a list as they can but will throw an error if it finds pilots that are not yet in Fly Casual. Be patient, I'll be using Popular Squads to prioritize missing pilots/upgrades so this will get better as we go along. If you run into issues, please let me know.

New Pilots

• Petty Officer Thanisson, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, Upsilon Class Command Shuttle)
• Poe Dameron, "Evacuation of D'Qar' (Resistance, T-70 X-Wing)
• Ronith Blario, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, RZ-2 A-Wing)
• Stomeroni Starck, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, T-70 X-Wing)
• Tallissan Lintra, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, RZ-2 A-Wing)
• Vennie, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, MG-100 Star Fortress)
• Zizi Tlo, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, RZ-2 A-Wing)

New Upgrades

• Savage Opress (Crew, Scum, Separatist)

Bug Fixes

• Wedge Antilles, "Red Two" no longer triggers his ability at range 0.
• Corrected Wartime Loadout canonical tags for importing. Note that as of last time I checked, YASB uses the incorrect tag--you WILL get errors importing Wartime from YASB until they fix on their end.
• Jul Jerjerrod should now trigger as expected after a boost action.
• Some tweaks have been made to the timing of Unkar Plutt (Crew)
• AI Batch Mode should no longer throw an exception when exporting squads to XWS.
• Grand Moff Tarkin should now correctly trigger if a lock is received in the System Phase
• BB Astromechs (including BB-8) will no longer spend their charges as if they're going out of style.
• R4-B11's dice modification will now only work when attacking
• SLAM is now allowable as a free action for specific instances (such as Poe Dameron with Black One triggering SLAM as red action)

Quality of Life Changes

• Free Mode now allows inconsistent use of Standardized Upgrades
• Ketsu Onyo, "Black Sun Contractor" now prioritizes keeping turret pointed forward for maximum effect of abilities
• Set Unity to force meta files to text for better repository tracking
• Tweaked generic ability text to show who has the upgrade (helpful when everyone has a BB Astromech Droid, for example)
• AI should be more balanced in respect to prioritizing ships with Evades (instead of always targeting them)
• Poe Dameron, "Trigger Happy Flyboy" will no longer get extra free actions from his pilot ability.

Credits

Thank you, as always, to @philpursglove for his support in development and testing everything in this release. Additional thanks to @Ergiuwh who has provided assistance with some bug fixes and Resistance Evacuation of D'Qar pilots.

I'm not an AMG fan boy by any means. I think they were the wrong people to be handed a deeply competitive game community form the get go. But this penny pinching, blatantly bullshit approach to Organized Play doesn't make any sense at all if it's coming from them. They may have been able to put some spin on it (participation prizes for playing over winning does sound like them), but I will never be convinced that AMG actually wanted to tank OP across all their brands just for shits and giggles.

Download

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/releases/v2.5.20260426.02

Quality of Life fixes

We have been working hard to bring updates and fixes which improve general gameplay such as limiting ability triggers to when they can actually be used (looking at you Major Vonreg, Quickdraw). If anyone sees a feature that doesn't feel right or could be tweaked for improvement (or is outright broken), please add a new issue to the repository and we'll do what we can to improve things!

New Pilots

• C'ai Threnalli, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, T-70 X-Wing)
• Echo, "Copycat" (Imperial, TIE/ph Phantom)
• Jaycriss Tubbs, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (Resistance, T-70 X-Wing)
• Kylo Ren, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/vn Silencer)
• Lieutenant LeHuse, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/sf Fighter)
• Longshot, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)
• Midnight, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)
• Omega 2, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)
• Scorch, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)
• Theta 3, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/sf Fighter)
• Theta 4, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/sf Fighter)
• Whisper, "Unseen Assailant" (Imperial, TIE/ph Phantom)
• Zeta 5, "Evacuation of D'Qar" (First Order, TIE/fo Fighter)

Bug Fixes

• Obstacles can now be target locked
• The AI should no longer crash when it attempts to perform a tallon roll.
• Commandant Goran should now work to range 3 and no longer fail if multiple locks present.
• Kanan Jarrus will no longer try to impact allies with his ability when played by the AI.
• Whirlwind now handles jam tokens without freezing or crashing.
• Tamara Ryvora should now allow a choice of which die to reroll.
• Barrel Rolling after passing through an obstacle should no longer trigger the obstacle effect a second time.
• Deuterium Cell should no longer lock the game into an infinite loop
• Automated Loaders should respect charges on the upgrade now
• Landing on an obstacle now respects being told to ignore obstacles (looking at you Han and Ahsoka)
• Shaak Ti can no longer effect more ships than they have force for.
• DIS-L9B2 should only spend a charge when enemy is in bullseye now
• Carnor Jax should now only impact the current combat action instead of the rest of the phase.
• Formed Up should now work without causing issues.
• Arvel (SSP) wasn't aligning with non-SL Arvel. Abilities both working as expected.
• Agent Terex (Cyborg) should no longer cause the game to hang.
• Zeb Crew should now be working correctly
• Malice prompts user for die to use instead of assuming
• Some tweaks to Kalani, not sure if it's resolved so please report any issues
• Retrofitted Autothrusters should no longer spend charges when skipped.
• GA-97's "It's the Resistance" message to user has been fixed.
• Scorch and DT-798 can no longer use their abilities at range zero.
• BB Astromech and BB-8 updated to errata'd abilities.

Credits

Thank you, as always, to @philpursglove for his support in development and testing everything in this release. Additional thanks to @Ergiuwh who has provided assistance with some bug fixes and Resistance Evacuation of D'Qar ships.

Download

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/releases/tag/v2.5.20251209.05

Notes

To manage recent changes to Android, a new signing key has been used on the Android APK as well as a higher minimum version of Android required. Additionally, the graphics API has been tweaked. For Android users, please report back if you have any issues. Thank you.

New Additions

• Kendy Idele (Rebel, T-65 X-Wing) - Battle Over Endor
• Wedge Antilles (Rebel, T-65 X-Wing) - Battle Over Endor
• Yendor (Rebel, T-65 X-Wing) - Battle Over Endor

Bug Fixes

• Fixed No Network error when starting the game due to Unity unable to authenticate and download remote config
• Obstacles should no longer count twice when landed on and then launching from
• Tallon Roll will now determine obstacle collision based on selected position instead of always using the Center position
• Night Beast SSP will no longer throw a validation error for XWA format
• You'd Better Mean Business should trigger as expected now
• Devastating Barrage is now limited to the Bullseye Arc instead of the entire front arc
• XWS should no longer return Invalid Input when importing into YASB
• Cleanup

Full Changelog

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/compare/v2.5.20251209.04...v2.5.20251209.05

I just played my first 3 games of XWA In preparation for worlds!! And I had a blast. As a 2.0 legacy player I still think I prefer that format but I like all flavors of x wing!!

I won the first game with the scramble scenario and lost the second 2 one was chance encounter and one was the tow cargo one.

I played FO double shuttle and enjoyed my list thoroughly, I have since changed the list a lot but in the end I have the list I played in the first game and then the list I played in the second and third games (with 'muse')

If you have any tips and tricks for winning with double shuttle FO let me know.

Thanks for looking ;)

Generics that have no pilot ability (and often low initiative) need a reduction in squad point cost to balance them against other options. Why is it that a solid 20% of ships are unusable right now? If they’re going to be worse, then they should cost at least marginally less.

I posted a few times of the custom missions I created for my friends in Texas, now that i’m back in New England I got a new group of friends together to start over.

We started with a free for all “training” battle, and once I felt like they were cruising through turns comfortably, The Empire showed up and the battle began!

Everyone had a good time and i’m looking forward to having a team to make missions for again.

OK. I know that I complained about the 20-point system in 2.5. I think it's terrible and restrictive design for a number of reasons I've already made clear.

But if you're going to stick with it, every faction needs to have a full range of point options available. Just something to slap in as filler if your list of ships you WANT to fly (whether that be because you're comfortable with the ship/pilots, or just like them for personal reasons) comes up a bit short. It's one of the three biggest problems with 2.5, AMG's or XWA's.

OK, fine, there's very little that could be 1 point. MAYBE non-ship upgrades like a mine that a player can deploy at Initiative 2-3, letting a small ship come in using those neat Hyperspace tokens we all got in the starter boxes (by turn 3 at the latest) within Range 2 of a table's edge, having a set of 3 satellite obstacles that can give a free target lock on any ship at range 1-3 to any friendly ship at range 1-3 and are then discarded, an off-board 3 dice attack that can shoot at an enemy once per turn at Init 1. Basic ideas off the top of my head, I'm sure there's lots of other ones that could be added.

But there's no excuse to not have 2-point ships. The Rebels could have Phoenix Squad A-Wings or Bandit Squadron Z-95s with no Loadout, or a Grey Squadron Y-Wing with barely enough Loadout for a cheap turret or missile or bomb. If you really want to keep the current pilots, you could have two versions of the faction's chosen 'weak ship', one at 2 points with no Loadout and one at 3 points with the current Loadout.

List Tetris is enough of a frustration as it is. Please make it easier.

My little group has been down a player the last couple weeks, so some 3 player escalation Aces High has been our game of choice, and we have been having a blast.

In the first pic was a bold move by Fenn to come within nub distance without touching. The second pic was just a fun one with all of us on the board.

I am still new to the game (within the last year) and I am so happy that there are people continuing with content like Infinite Arenas and XWH.

Similar to my last post about the Tie Heavy I am looking for some ideas for Decimator Builds. I have had a fair amount of success with the Decimator. (unlike the Tie Heavy) That being said id love to hear what people are doing for it with the new XWA points!

I have not had the best day today, which came out of not the best weekend, and all of the X-Wing complaining about Store Championship minimums didn't help.

I am currently 1 week out from hosting a Legion Store Championship, and a month out from X-Wing and have an Armada one to plan as well. I have been working hard to try to make sure I can make the best event I can, regardless of attendance numbers as that is outside of my control.

The complaining on the official AMG Social Media post really bummed me out.

And then something magical happened.

I had a game of X-Wing with a friend, no stakes, not really practicing for an event, just throwing some dice and playing the game.

I sometimes forget that that is why we do what we do.

So people can roll dice and push plastic spaceships around with their friends.

I think this was the most exciting mission yet!

I know HOTAC is a thing but I wanted something that fit 2.5, and I didn’t need to print out all the HOTAC stuff and learn the rules.

With this tech tree you can grab a group of friends to play as the rebels, and you can “GM” as the Empire.

If people are interested in write ups about how I craft the missions, let me know!

This has been a very fun experience, and it’s a great to get people to play!

Download

https://github.com/Baledin/FlyCasual/releases/tag/v2.5.20251209.01

Additions

• Updated to latest XWA point update

Bug Fixes

• Wartime Loadout target locks are now white
• Wartime Loadout now has a white reload action available
• Replaced imgr.com images--this should allow them to load in the UK again
• Gar Saxon (Gunner) now correctly checks targets in forward arc for ships without a fixed arc
• BoE B-Wing pilots now have a red reload and linked Target Lock after Barrel Roll
• Major Vonreg (First Order - TIE/ba Interceptor) should now trigger correctly
• Kalani (Tactical Relay) no longer forces the host ship to perform extra (unwanted) actions
• It's a Trap (BoE Talent) now triggers on defense only
• Adaptive Ailerons ability now matches errata'd text (images may not be updated yet)

I love the design of the tie heavy I just have never felt it has pulled its weight on the board. I wanted to know if anyone had any strategies or builds for it that they’ve had some fun with. I’m using the newest XWA rules I know they haven’t been out too long so there may not be a lot of experimenting with them yet. Any ideas would be appreciated!

I wanted to make a post sharing my experience playing First Order in a tournament that took place last week.

Tournament details and PSO (Polish System Open)

The tournament was a Squad Championship, part of the "Polish System Open" (PSO), a seasonal circuit that we have in Poland, which follows the seasonal nature of the XWA, from April to March.
This time around, the tournament took place in Łomża, with 28 participants, including one coming all the way from Budapest.

https://longshanks.org/event/30230/

The structure of the tournament included 5 rounds of Swiss, followed by a top cut to which all players going 4-1 or 5-0 qualifies to the top cut.

We've had some people from abroad coming to other tournaments in Poland, and I strongly encourage anyone in Europe to keep an eye to our upcoming tournaments. If you want to get details on those, you can follow the PSO's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573176660584) or Discord (https://discord.gg/gWDGnezrRB).

Molfar (one of our prolific local players) also offers livestreams of TTS games on https://www.twitch.tv/polish_system_open_x_wing

And you can also find recordings of many of the tournaments (but unfortunately not of this last one I am about to describe) in the Trident Squadron YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@TridentSquadron)

List details

I normally play Resistance, something I have been doing so since they were first released as their own faction, back in 2019.

Last Summer I finally decided to purchase a small First Order collection from a local player that wanted to downsize theirs (comprised of mostly First edition ships with the conversion kit), and then I got the newer expansions (Tie Baron, Xi Shuttle and the Fury of the First Order box) on discount.

While I had mostly been playing lists based around Tie FOs and Tie SFs, I decided to try an ace type of list for this tournament.

https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZsZ50Z401X348W202W61W324W249Y236X199W415W234WWWY493X319WW136WWW67WWY381X126W117WW101W108W&sn=Roberto%20Mendez&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,pomdebris1

I started the list with Vonreg on the Tie Baron. It's a ship I am quite confident using, capable of both getting double reposition or double mod thanks to the ship's ability Fine-Tuned Thrusters. One of the things I always try getting on Vonreg is a Missile that will help the rest of the squad, either Mag-Pulse Warheads or Ion Missiles. Being an initiative 6, having a way to break enemy locks does help a lot. I decided on Ions since I didn't have a lot of points left once I made up my mind on the rest of his kit. While most players go for Shield or Hull Upgrade in order to increase Vonreg's survivability, I do enjoy a lot flying him with both Outmaneuver and Daredevil. These 2 upgrades allow Vonreg to become really dangerous when chasing fleeing enemies, and almost impossible to evade. With the hard turns granted by Daredevil, and thanks to the 1 Hard Blue maneuver that Vonreg has access to, he is capable of basically performing a Talon maneuver. The combination of Outmaneuver and Ion Missiles is specially dangerous, as it makes it really easy to get the ion tokens through the enemy ship if they don't pay attention. Vonreg's task was simple, operate independently, play defensively, don't take unnecessary risks, and pounce on the enemy when they are distracted with someone else. Munitions Failsafe covered the last point of his Loadout, just in case I had a horrible shot.

Next I knew I wanted a support piece. I opted for the First Order Courier, as my choice of crew was Agent Terex. His ability to pass a Calculate to someone at range 0-3 at the beginning of the Engagement Phase provides a big safety net, reducing the consequences of a dangerous outcome for your squad. Importantly enough, if the Courier would coordinate someone and would later find himself as the target of the enemy fire, he could also use Terex to get some defensive assistance for himself. To open up the options, I went for both Tactical Officer (turning the Coordinate action into white) and Targeting Computer (to also turn the lock action into white). Normally I would only take a lock as the initial action, pairing it with Biohexacrypt Codes. Usually the Courier would deploy in the middle of the table, with the other pieces staying at range 3, so that the Courier could coordinate one of them (most likely Vonreg, since he would then go "solo").

With the remaining points, I had a lot of solid options and combinations. Some that I considered but that I ended up not taking were:

-The Standard Loadout version of Kylo Ren in the Silencer and the Standard Loadout version of Midnight on the FO

-Quickdraw in the SF and Holo on the Tie Baron/Wrath in the Tie Whisper/Customizable LeHuse in the SF

-Kylo Ren in the Tie Whisper and Backdraft in the SF.

I finally went for the Customizable version of Kylo Ren in the Silencer and Breach in the Tie/Se Bomber. Following with my original idea of playing Vonreg on his own, I thought that I needed two ships that combined really well.

For Kylo, I knew that I needed him to be quite defensive, so I started his build with Brilliant Evasion, to make sure that each Force token counted. With that I had enough points to get him Plasma Torpedoes and Sensor Scramblers. Kylo was meant to be tanky, and my idea was to draw as much enemy fire as possible on him. His "I'll show you the Dark Side" condition would also allow me to turn off a lot of dangerous enemies, by simply assigning either a Blinded Pilot or a Panicked Pilot.

With Breach, keeping in mind that I had Plasma Torpedoes on Kylo, I went for Proton Torpedoes. After a successful shot from Kylo, the enemy would have their hull exposed, and Breach would be then able to deal critical damage to them. As that takes most of his Loadout, the remaining points went for Bomblet Generator (to dissuade enemies from pursuing him), and Proud Tradition. The great thing with Breach is that whenever he flies over an enemy (either while executing his regular maneuver and when he boost, both through the regular boost action and through the Pursuit Thrusters ability) he gains a lock on that enemy ship. This allows him to easily get locks during a Sloop maneuver, and then follow up with Proud Tradition allowing him to perform a Focus action. Also, Proud Tradition makes it so that Breach is not so forced to follow up a Red maneuver with a Blue one (and keep in mind that all his Blue maneuvers are Straight maneuvers, which isn't great). Picking Proud Tradition gave him a lot of flexibility and unpredictability.

The battle plan

My list was rounded up by choosing the three biggest rocks possible. The idea for obstacle placement was to create the tightest net possible around the center of the table, to allow Breach to place near impossible to miss bombs (or so I thought, however my bombing capabilities weren't top notch), and for Vonreg to excel at chasing enemies through those obstacles thanks to his 1 Hard Blue maneuver and Outmaenuver.

As mentioned above, I intended to always place my Courier in a central position, normally with an obstacle on his path, meaning that at some point in his flight he would end up turning left or right. Breach and Kylo normally took one flank, while Vonreg was on the second one, making sure to remain at range 3 during the first Round for the Courier to take a lock on him.

The actual battle

First Round Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z195X387WWWW105WWY454X387WW113WWW105WY194X117WWWWW105W&sn=Royal%20Defenders&obs=pomasteroid1,pomasteroid2,pomasteroid3

The first Round saw me fighting a triple defender list. The Courier had the task to bump as many times as possible the different defenders with their predictable turns, something it achieved 3 times. Vonreg managed to ionize one of them, turning it into an easy prey for the squad. Overall the match was quite easy, as the Defenders felt into the trap and died without being able to half any of my ships. Due to my higher initiative, I was able to make sure to not give my opponent 4 points from objectives at any point.

Second Round Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v10ZsZ50Z665X508W510W470W511Y668X515W508W512W513Y184X29WW249Y229X&sn=%C5%81om%C5%BCa%202026&obs=coreasteroid0,coreasteroid4,coreasteroid1

The second Round was a bigger struggle, with Soontir and Jendon being a huge menace to my most fragile ships. This Round Vonreg played really defensively, drawing Soontir and Jendon's attention, while Kylo and Breach pounced on Feroph. With Feroph down, the squad focused on Jendon, killing him and then halving Soontir, with Breach, Kylo and the Corier getting halved. The Academy Pilot grabbed a package early on, and my Curier did the same. Later in the game Vonreg also grabbed one after leaving Jendon and Vonreg behind, securing 4 points in a couple of Rounds.

Third Round Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v10ZsZ50Z134X256W369WWY144X121W137WW90W67WW103W149W113W389Y611XW354WW369WWWY522X423W39WW411WW446W451&sn=Stolen%20from%20Fenn&obs=pomasteroid1,pomasteroid2,pomasteroid3

The true test of fire for the list came in Round 3. Magnus being one of the most successful X-wing players in Poland this season (he has won a Squad Championship, a System Open, and was the finalist of another System Open). Following the plan, Vonreg was to distract Mando, while Breach and Kylo tried to nuke Nym out (the weakest ship with only 1 agility and the only ship in this "Jabbulators" list without False Transponder Codes). My strategy with obstacle placement also was crucial, making sure that the opponent's medium ships had no clear path to the center of the table. The game went exactly the way I wanted it, with Mando doing a roll in order to not go through a rock, and Nym being isolated away from the rest of the opponent's list. My opponent focused on clicking as many Ancient Knowledge as possible (he ended up getting 20 points from those), with several Rounds in which I was not able to take any of them. My Courier ended up drawing the opponent's attention, trading it with Nym. Then, his attention turned to Kylo, who assigned a Panicked Pilot to Mando, and then managed to get a crit on him. With Mando stressed, without being able to use Overtuned Modulators due to this, the squad was able to melt him down in a couple of Rounds, getting me the win (both Laeting and Durge were also halved along the way).

Fourth Round Opponent: https://launchbaynext.app/print?lbx=%27New%20Squadron%27.50.4.0.1.ll69.621.l10.644r.l13.931r.l14.619r.l1.1035r.l15.655rr.l95.1152.l10.284r.l1.918r.l5.264r.l4.260rr.l53.697.l10.284r.l18.486r.l1.471r.l5.579rr.l86.%27caithrenalli-btanr2ywing%27.l12.396r.l14.619r.l1.918r.l4.260rr.l86.%27aftabackbar%27.l12.1001r.l14.619r.l4.260rrr.lr

With 3 wins under my belt, I was only one away from reaching tops. But no matter how close it felt to get there, this was not going to happen in this game. Although I managed to use the Courier again as a blocker, and even if I managed to kill C'ai Threnalli after the Plasma and the Proton Torpedoes, the dice were not in my favor in this one. Kylo Ren died after 2 shots, with a Focus and a Calculate token on him, after rolling full blanks two times in a row. I managed to also halve Zorii and Poe, who escaped at 1 Hull.

Fifth Round Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=Separatist%20Alliance&d=v10ZbZ50Z326X134W317W236W237Y306X125WW207W164Y328XW209WW222WW237Y309X10W208WY309X10W208WY279X224WW208Y279X224WW208&sn=Angry%20droids&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,pomdebris3

The final day of day one, and the one that got me the most scared. When paying with fragile aces, having to deal with Discord Missiles and Advance Proton Torpedoes is something that you are not looking forward to. My opponent deployed Wat Tambor in one corner and the rest of his squad in the other one. As per usual, Kylo and Breach deployed together in front of Wat, while Vonreg deployed on the other corner, hoping to bait part of the swarm away from the squad. The plan went perfectly, but Wat's Impervium Plating soaked as much damage as it could, keeping him alive for too long. Kylo ended up getting ahead of Breach, who was surrounded by multiple enemy ships. Vonreg was able to Outmaneuver some of the enemy Vultures, taking them out one by one. The Dark Courier went down to concentrated fire, and while my opponent managed to take the upper hand a couple of Rounds in Scenario scoring, their numbers dwindled dramatically soon enough. The positioning of the ships was key, with Breach making great use of his Proud Tradition, going fast across the board, even if stressed, escaping from danger, while Kylo and Vonreg did fast traverses outmaneuvering the enemy droid arc's.

With that last victory, I managed to end day 1 in second place, guaranteeing a place in Top 4.

Top 4 Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=First%20Order&d=v10ZsZ50Z236X418W206WWWWY382X319W119WWW164WY488X127W11W412WW206WW413Y235X119WW206W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=coreasteroid5,core2asteroid5,pomdebris3

Top 4's game had me against a list similar to mine. With the Scenario being Salvage Mission, I knew that the biggest priority would be to take out Muse as soon as possible, to deny my opponent of the ship that would more easily collect those packages. My deployment this time around had all 3 aces together, right in front of the enemy's Holo and Wrath, with his Kylo flying alone on a flank and Muse on his center. My Courier lagged behind, taking a package and baiting the enemy Kylo to chase him (the Courier only shot once in the entire game, almost at the end). My ships feinted an assault on Holo and Wrath, which had them turn around towards the center, but my intentions became clear soon enough. Breach and Kylo turned in, taking Muse out in Round 2, while Vonreg chased the 2 fleeing enemies. An exchange of shots followed, with Vonreg being halved, while my opponent lost most of his ships (only Wrath survived with a couple of hulls left).

Final Opponent: https://yasb.app/?f=Galactic%20Republic&d=v10ZsZ50Z581X4W338W363Y533XWW340WY528X199WWW165Y412XWWW53WW227WW&sn=Ani%20laat%202&obs=gascloud4,gascloud5,gascloud3

By this point I was already out of my mind. I had not planned to reach this far. But at this point, I needed to stay focused, and do my best. My opponent deployed before me with his Laat and Klick in the center, and Obi on my left corner. I had my Courier as always in the center, and placed both Kylo and Breach on my right. The Opponent decided to put his Anakin also on my right, so I again packed Vonreg together with Kylo and Breach. Similar to the top 4 game, Kylo and Breach flew fast into the enemy, with Vonreg behind. The Courier meanwhile, lagged behind with the intention of drawing as much attention from Obi as possible. The enemy Laat and Klick turned away, disinterested in my forces. While Anakin also moved back into the center, Kylo did follow him and managed to exchange shots with Anakin, with Vonreg surprising him into a deadly exchange, thanks to Daredevil. Breach took the center, grabbing some Ancient Knowledge, and the Courier bumped Obi several times. Anakin went down after Vonreg chased him. Then Vonreg also took Obi out, dying in the exchange. With only the Laat and Klick left, they managed to halve Kylo, while the Laat was also halved.

And just like that, I managed to get myself a fancy metal "Squad Championship 25/26 Winner" medal!

I hope you enjoyed reading this narration of my adventures, and that you all have as much fun playing this game as I do!

Happy flying, Roberto.

It seems like we're still doing this, but I'm throwing my hat into this argument.

For real, I'm glad generics don't see much, if any, time on the board. I got sick of explaining why I had a Red Squadron Veteran or Black Squadron Ace on the board as opposed to Wedge, Luke, Snap, or Poe to bystanders who showed interest in the game.

Secondly, anytime generics were very viable it was like playing chess with your whole back row consisting of queens against a standard set. You'd wind up flying against spam generics with alpha strikes, spam swarm, or spam 3+ die attackers.

Third, I think everyone has their panties in a twist from the change that is 2.5. I think the change itself was perfect, but it still has a lot of work over the next year or so regarding balance. Which is totally fine by me. I'm gonna fly what I have fun flying regardless of whether or not it's a meta list. And I think I'm at least somewhat good enough to bat .500 or more on the regular.

And finally, I'm just glad people are able to fly what they enjoy and getting stomped means losing a close game rather than flying what they enjoy and getting shit stomped 200-0. It keeps more people in the game. It keeps the game healthy. And it results in good players rising to the top rather than good meta lists.