Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Grand Champion
0 Plays2 seconds ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba and Nick Sperry are joined by the new Conquest Grand Champion, Eric Kingery, to discuss his Global Conquest victory, as well as the recent Studebaker System Open! The trio dives into a look at the forming meta before and after the XWA made minor updates to its points system.
312 is streaming WORLDS! Keep an eye out for upcoming key dates: https://www.adepticon.org/2025/07/09/adepticon-2026-key-dates-announced/
Watch back the XWA Discord Stage on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H2IFCMResqI?si=v2SQ4EfhbiHUcEZa
Studebaker Open Breakdown
event link: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2215
Insights: https://www.pattern-analyzer.app/tournament/rollbetter/2215
Global Conquest Breakdown:
Event link: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2509
insights: https://www.pattern-analyzer.app/tournament/rollbetter/2509
The 312 Conquest Series is an online qualifier series, one tournament a month, across various timezones. Top 8 players from each event win an invite to the Global Conquest in December!
New XWA content has arrived and 312 has exclusive cards and MORE for them! Become the ultimate supporter of 312 Squadron and get awesome perks! Including quarterly rewards like tokens and cards, unedited recording sessions of the podcast with early access, and MORE! Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/312Squadron
Check out our Merch store: https://streamlabs.com/312_squadron/merch
XWA Site: https://www.xwing.life
Visit the 2.5 Edition Server: https://discord.gg/x-wing
FAQ Link: https://discord.com/channels/627648261456527371/1262114191972503624
Support our partner StrataStrike by using this link and checking out with code “312Squadron” for 15% off store-wide! https://www.etsy.com/shop/stratastrike/?etsrc=sdt
Hey, join the conversation, hop into our Discord! https://discord.gg/xknEegJw67
You can follow us live for weekly content on our Twitch channel: http://twitch.tv/312_Squadron
Like our page on Facebook for updates on future and current things: https://www.facebook.com/Squadron312/
Catch replays and edited content on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@312squadronChicago
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Overview of Topics
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast. My name is Andrew Kuba. My name is Nick Sperry. My name is Eric Kingery. And we are here to talk about two very exciting tournaments and a points tweak that came up as well. So we had the Studebaker Open in South Bend. Then we had a points tweak right before the global conquest series, which is the culmination of our conquest
The Studebaker Open: An In-Person Tournament
00:00:28
Speaker
series. And we are here today with the winner of the whole shebang.
00:00:33
Speaker
But before we go into the points tweak and the conquest, Nick, you had an incredible run at the Studebaker Open. And this is one of those rare in-person X-Wing tournaments that ah drew over 40, like about 40 people, which was pretty big enough too. so Let's kick it off with like starting there. What was your experience in that tournament?
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah know that was that was a really fun event. that was The Studio Baker Open was the largest system open in the United States. It had over 42 people. i think it was 43 people playing um in South Bend, Indiana, hosted by Joel Springle and his crew. They call themselves the Michiana Marauders.
00:01:16
Speaker
They got a good crew, steady crew of players over there. And yeah, it was, uh, it
Challenges and Strategies with Three-Ship Lists
00:01:22
Speaker
was a blast. I, I brought, uh, three ship Imperial aces, including Vader defender, standard loadout whisper and, uh, standard loadout soon tier. And, uh,
00:01:33
Speaker
basically mopped mopped up a few of my games with that list it was pretty filthy a lot of fun ah high stress in terms of just like your margin for error is pretty much you know relies on decision making and mostly just dice like if you get shot at are you blanking out or are you rolling like an ace and That was on my side. yeah But ah I 4-0 dropped. There was five rounds that day. But Matt and I, we had plans and needed wanted to be we didn't feel like staying the whole weekend.
00:02:04
Speaker
No offense to Indiana, but we just we didn't want to lose a whole weekend. So we ah we just wanted to play four rounds no matter what happens. And so a lot of people messaged me like, oh the 4-0 drop with a chat. It was like, well, it was kind of funny. No matter what, I was going to leave after four rounds. But I I tried to win my games and it worked out for sure. Yeah, i was going to say what a what a maneuver. ah Everybody saw that. um Yeah, I brought a three ship list to the Alamo conquest and I feel you like whenever you're flying three ships, I'm happy that we're at a point where it can be viable, but you are living on a nice edge every turn. I love that aspect of X-Wing. I've always been like a masochist when it comes to, but I also own it. Like I'm not over here like, oh, like why can't I roll? Like, like what was me? And you know, the tilt I think is more when you're, when you're blanking out and and rolling some, know, poorly.
00:02:59
Speaker
yeah I think there might be more tilt, but you know, I asked for it. It's the list that I built, the list that you built for that. Yeah, for
Impact of Points Tweak and Resurgence of Swarms
00:03:06
Speaker
sure. It's a good challenge for sure. it can be hard.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. i mean, and also, I mean, taking those like, you know, the SL student tiered whisper, like while it's possible, you got some ah some protection there at least. Yeah, it's you know, it's interesting. There's going to be some similarities here.
00:03:24
Speaker
Pre points, light points tweak versus post between student Baker and global that I want to talk about when it comes to list building. Um, but you know, I think the narrative, just a little spoiler to what we're going to talk about in a moment, the narrative that aces are not just back, but they're, they're going to be a problem and they're going to dominate, i think might be a little too far fetched.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. Aces are, um, viable again and can be really good. But, uh, the, the data and the insights from these two events alone kind of paint a different picture.
00:04:01
Speaker
than the, oh, you're just going to see just three and four ship lists just be all over the place in the top top cut and top performers. Yeah, I agree. Because you see in the top like in the top eight, i it looks like generic swarms are back on the table, which has not really been a thing in 2.5 yet. Yeah, I mean, it's there there are two gauntlet lists with a ton of TIE Fighters that finish top eight at Studebaker.
00:04:31
Speaker
um you know, which is fascinating to me. A gauntlet plus a swarm, I don't think it ever been an archetype that anyone really considered. Maybe early 2.5 people tried like four ships in a gauntlet. There was the Sloan. It was the the Sloan in the gauntlet and then Rack Sloan as well with all the TIE fighters. don't even remember that.
00:04:54
Speaker
this Sloan was a it was a playable
Sloan's Role and Ban in X-Wing Gameplay
00:04:57
Speaker
in 2.5. Yeah. Yeah. That was a a three month ah window before Sloan was like effectively point point basically banned. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah. Got it. Right. That was when the game was really mushy and kind of like undeveloped or developing still. Right. Like really early on. No, no. This was around. This is when you and I went to LVO in 2023.
00:05:20
Speaker
So I'd say like mid like this is right in the middle of of 2.5. Because I guess 2.5 came out in 2022, right? yeah Yeah, I feel that. Yeah, 2022. Eric, do you remember Sloan ever being like like when or when Sloan was the menace for a little bit?
00:05:36
Speaker
No, I actually started playing in April of 23. No way. ah it's Good for you, man. Yeah, seriously. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, so after Sloan.
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. my way to the post slow yeah Yeah. you you it's i actually i actually really like when I hear stories like Jorge Castaneda is like, oh, I started playing X-Wing during COVID.
00:06:00
Speaker
Eric's like, i I started playing in 2023. Yeah. i think those are time periods where X-Wing was in like ah a much more comfortable place to enter and to like bypass some of the things that were just really dumb about the game. I mean, Sloan was a thing, obviously, in 2020, but um just certain it kind of goes beyond NPE because I think people like use that as a, you know, people don't take that word seriously, but it's basically a mechanic that.
00:06:28
Speaker
ah That makes the game just not really feel like both players
Analysis of Top Lists at Studebaker Open
00:06:34
Speaker
are involved the way that they're supposed to be. And um yeah, Sloan was definitely one of those like, hey, congrats, you're playing the game well, while you're getting ultra punished and I'm getting all of the benefits.
00:06:45
Speaker
I mean, that's honestly what it was. It's ah it's a mechanic that punishes your your opponent for playing the game, like, as is. And for those of you that don't know, whenever you destroy a ship ah that's on Sloan's side, or like an Imperial ship. Zero to three of Sloan, I think, yeah. Yeah, zero to three of Sloan, you gain a stress token.
00:07:06
Speaker
tooth too stressed or too stressed okay and right and your her opponent can reroll an attack die when when you're stressed yeah it doesn't have to be too stressed just anytime you have a stress so it's just it's like oh that's like probably the most powerful crew in the game i mean i would yeah handing out albatines up there but yeah handing out panicked pilots uh for for destroying a ship is pretty bad yeah and and and amg kind of foresaw oh this is going to be really really unfair with objectives like even worse than it already is so oh that's kind of why she uh got the the ban treatment the uh points ban treatment for sure but hey um
00:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we we can ah let's talk about maybe just like the top few lists. If you want to if you want to read out the winning list, N-A-E-S, N-A-S, N-A-S, N-A-S, let's just say N-A-S, ah with a four ship scum list. What did what did he bring?
00:08:04
Speaker
Naz came first and brought Fenrau, Hanan, Talonbane Cobra, and Dengar. Custom custom
Nick's Tournament Experience and Excitement
00:08:12
Speaker
Dengar. income Yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
Custom Fen, Clan Training Fearless, Gamut Key on Kanan. That's, hey, keep, you know, like, let me... ah let you keep your tokens also reduce your attack dice coming Talonbane with burners is really nice. Finally, he can boost. He's not just sitting there hoping he gets a good shot lined up.
00:08:35
Speaker
yeah Over two to dead man's. Say that again? Sorry. Yeah, before 50 points, he's just locked out of ever taking burns, if I think. Yeah, exactly. and him hit That ship being on the engine upgrade card has always been so amusing to me. It's been such a meme.
00:08:52
Speaker
it doesn't even have a boost. So that ship being on the engine upgrade always crack me up. Yeah. Our Dengar and R5 P8, which is basically, um, ah free rerolls. And if you roll a
Eric Kingery: Global Conquest Series Winner Interview
00:09:05
Speaker
crit, you suffer a crit, uh, punishing one, uh, of course, a blade of plating contraband, grito and notorious.
00:09:13
Speaker
That is just such a mean platform to deal with. Yeah. I could see that, that basically that, that list, um, you know, you, you pick your poison town Bane's probably the easiest to get off the board. Canaan, if you drain his force, he only got he only has one.
00:09:29
Speaker
And yeah, we've been seeing a lot of talent Bane, uh, since the, the new points have been out and even after the, the points tweak. So, but, um, yeah. And let's, let's, uh, why don't you do the the next list, the runner up, um, bringing, uh, that gauntlet list.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, so this is a Aaron Fernstahl's list. And hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. i But this is two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Wait, no, one, two, three, four, five, six. Yep, seven Obsidian Squadron pilots with ah precision ion engines. And then this is a gauntlet fighter, just the Imperial Super Commando. So just the generic, all generic ah pilots all the way down. with ah Grand Moff Tarkin in the crew, Mandalorian Optics, ah Gar Saxon, Perceptive Copilot, and a Dropseat Bay with, ah and then just the regular Swivel Wing. I think Dropseat Bay and Swivel Wing are now just auto included.
00:10:31
Speaker
However, yeah, so i just all generics and a TIE Swarm. But grand Marf talking Tarkin allows a friendly ships to acquire a lock on a ship that you have locked so that I gives a lot more punch to to this tie swarm, essentially kind of acting as a how a runner with like those re rolls.
00:10:52
Speaker
and And then also Gary Saxon, a friendly unit at range 1-3 with an initiative of four large forms an attack against the defender you have locked, you can change one of your eyeball results to a hit result. So that way you can use that on offense even if you spend you have to spend your focus token on defense, giving it a lot of survivability as well.
00:11:14
Speaker
So just a really cool design all around just from those two crews. I would have loved to have gone up against this list with mine. It would have been so interesting.
00:11:26
Speaker
Oh, for sure. it would just, I just, the challenge, there's so many bodies, but the HLC, the suit tears ability, the, the, the, with the whispers cloaking ability would have been, it would have basically been a dice race to see if I could get paper cut to death or if I could blow a ship up each one or two ships, a turn up.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's really what you're banking on. hope that way. Right, right. Yeah. Oh, I got to read out number three. I believe this is Doug Kenny, who's the first world champion of X-Wing. i got It was good to see him again Studebaker.
00:12:03
Speaker
Doug, I played him first round of Worlds this year. He also was the one that brought that amazing LEGO Mos Eisley. it Mos Espa? or Or is it Eisley? It's Espa, isn't it?
00:12:17
Speaker
in Phantom Menace where they do the pod racer. Anyways, he brought that mock for the pod racing um but kind of mini game that excellent players. Most as well.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, was most as well. Okay. um But he brought a Sabine with Thread Tracers in the A-Wing. And then I think it's 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 generic Bandit Squadron Pilot Z-95s with cluster missiles.
00:12:47
Speaker
So again, banking on the another way to bank on double mods. And Thread Tracer is really effective when you're shooting at a lower initiative because odds are maybe some of those tokens have been used up.
00:12:59
Speaker
by your opponent by the time you get shot. Also, you just have the potential for like a double tap there with the cluster missiles too if they get in close enough. That's pretty gnarly. It's it's pretty funny.
00:13:12
Speaker
yeah Yeah. i mean oh So far, these top three lists are probably not what anybody would have expected. i feel like someone would have been like, you know would have maybe we would have maybe expected to see an Imperial list here.
00:13:27
Speaker
an aces list. i wouldn't I certainly wouldn't call that scum list an ace list, even though it has a few high initiatives. It's not an ace-y list. was going to say, we were close if you didn't do your drop.
00:13:39
Speaker
so yeah yeah right i'd like to believe yeah i felt like i could have gone undefeated that day um who knows you never know with cut but yeah i was i was rolling dude i was it was it was uh like oh this is what it feels like to be duncan i was like it was like you know you seen limitless that movie limitless it is yeah it's like everything i'm doing like oh yeah like yeah i got it i figured out was just luck luck had my side that day it was is uh it's kind of funny i hadn't really played in much at all the last several months and to kind of just jump back in like i've i've played this game so many times it just felt really good to not only get back in there but i wasn't that rusty um which was which was nice like i just muscle memory kind of kicks in i guess after a while and that's the first time i've ever played the that ah sl whisper oh so much fun quite crazy for sure
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely one of, I mean, honestly, the Essel Soontir and Essel Whisper are two of my favorite ships to fly in the game, just ah how fun they are to move around the board.
00:14:43
Speaker
The free boost is really, really nice. Yeah. it' I always kind of feel like it's a gotcha because I forget I have it and I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to boost. Like, it's it's so good.
00:14:54
Speaker
Oh, man. ah Dr. Dajaran will do our last read. Eric, if you want to read her top four finisher. yeah Yeah, Dr. Djarin brought a triple arc list, Wolf with Ayala Secura, Sinker with C-3PO, Jag with Wolfpack, SL Click, and Stub with Prockets, Dedicated and Munitions Failsafe.
00:15:21
Speaker
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but it's becoming pretty apparent that ah that wolf um is his duty is to ah focus, coordinate or vice versa with a list occurs.
00:15:33
Speaker
A card ability. Basically, you get to focus purple coordinate. So he is a self-sufficient support piece now with it with a ah really good ability and still a
Eric's In-Game Decisions and Final Match Recap
00:15:46
Speaker
great platform three attack rear arc, et cetera, et cetera.
00:15:50
Speaker
So, you know, I don't love that for like, it's, it's just gonna, the the meta is the meta. And and that's going to be a thing that is at least for now, we're going to stick with is list occur on wolf. It's kind of seems like that's the only bill that you should have on him.
00:16:07
Speaker
Um, I just, I don't love an arc one 70 to being able to do something like that personally, especially like if it was like a sinker Jack that did that. Okay. But a wolf is like, i don't know.
00:16:18
Speaker
Um, he gets that free reroll and just, it's, it's a little goofy to me, but, uh, yeah, that's a thing. It's a thing that we will have for a while. And it seems to be pretty good.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We've, I think we still, including me and I say we, as if I'm speaking for all of you, but, uh, The ARC-178 is still very real because we were we had to deal with it for quite a long time.
00:16:41
Speaker
And it was just the the three ARC, six ship Republic lists were just all over the place for quite a while. So I think now that they're that they're costed appropriately, i think there's just some jadedness that I have and probably a lot of other people that comes to those things. But at least you're going to see less of the Siege of Coruscant stuff and just more custom.
00:17:01
Speaker
I believe all three of these, yeah they are all the custom ones. They are. So that's that's good. The other point I wanted to make before we move over to Global Conquest is that Click, Siege of Coruscant Click, is cheaper than Custom Click, but he gets an extra shield. He gets R3 Precision 9 engines in ESC, so he doesn't get the best configuration.
00:17:23
Speaker
But this is another thing to keep an eye out for in the future, not to say this maybe would change before Worlds, um maybe after. But personally, i don't I don't know if it makes a lot of sense that the one with the extra shield is is cheaper. Yeah, they gave the custom click three more loadout with the points tweak.
00:17:41
Speaker
I still like the cheaper one more. Yeah, well, I mean, how much is shield upgrade, right? How many? in Eight, nine? I'm trying to remember. Ten. Holy, nine. Ten. give click give the other Click eight or nine more loadout, and we could have a conversation about it. But he's got to be at the cheaper ones got a shield upgrade. And Click is just such a ah really interesting, well-designed pilot in the game of X-Wing. It's really, really strong support ability.
00:18:08
Speaker
But yeah, just I just find it interesting that the cheaper one is is objectively better with more health. Yeah, you want a bomb, you can take the... i one our cost one I don't know if I want to pay an extra point for that rather than put it into other ships. Wouldn't you rather have the extra health and pay less?
00:18:28
Speaker
I would. yeah that's just maybe his I think a lot of us would probably be in agreement about that. But yeah, so overall, I just again, shout out to Joel. Joel usually plays in almost every event he can possibly play in, and it was he did a great job as TO and as judge.
00:18:45
Speaker
um Had a bunch of judge calls, and he he's he's all over the place, but he did a really good job of of just running the event. They even made Studebaker cookies, which were delicious, like sugar, frosted cookies with the Studebaker open logo, which I thought was a really nice touch.
00:19:01
Speaker
Oh, that's always fun. So overall, just a ah great event. um I think... something to build off of for sure. it was good to, to, to catch up with some folks that I, you know, the Midwest crew that I run into that come to our events sometimes and hang out with, with some friends.
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And it's also just good to have in-person large X-Wing
Reflections on Streaming and Global Conquest Series
00:19:21
Speaker
tournaments coming back. I mean, that's, you know, one thing that I always look forward to, you know, especially with with Worlds. But if we can just have like, you know, more in-person opens. We have ah one in Chicago that's coming up in January, too. Like, as as much as i I love like the online tournaments getting to play all the time, I really have been missing those like in-person tournaments this year.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's an important, it's probably going to be the most challenging, but also a very important part of the game to uphold and to to try to nurture. Yeah, absolutely. The access to in-person play is just so much more obviously challenging than playing online, but it always feels a lot better when you like,
00:20:01
Speaker
when you you drive to your store local store, you drive across state lines or whatever to go to event, you play, like, just feel like you're really doing something, going out and and spending some time in a social setting playing this game that we all love.
00:20:15
Speaker
um You know, it's it it could be, it could feel a little bit more fulfilling than I think playing, going through a slog of games online is, but there's no discrediting to the quality and importance of online play.
00:20:28
Speaker
It just, it just, you're not really moving around. You're not as active physically. So. Right. Of course. Yeah. Not, not to knock any, any other one, but I'm just saying that it's nice to have this large of an open. Yeah. In person.
00:20:42
Speaker
So for all you listening, if you are considering going to an in-person event, you should do it. If you can try, try to, to make it happen. And we'd love to see you worlds, especially.
00:20:54
Speaker
That would be awesome. But hey, let's talk about our champion here. We do have our champion joining us for this episode. Eric, you you got your invite at the end, ah kind of in the the eleventh hour.
00:21:10
Speaker
And I kind of love this. i i When I say this, I mean it with respect. I felt like you were a little bit of an underdog in that master bracket. And i just thought it was awesome the way that you blew through.
00:21:24
Speaker
and I mean, and pretty much even at the end, kind of dominated um with that list.
Meta Developments and Player Strategies
00:21:30
Speaker
So um before we ask you about everything, you know, I do want to congratulate you again.
00:21:37
Speaker
um I'm going to let everyone know and remind folks about Conquest, what that was in a very quick spiel. This is our inaugural Conquest series this year. We basically wanted to host an online tournament every month from April to December with an invite system.
00:21:54
Speaker
um Plaques would go to the winners of each qualifier. We had across different time zones, and then we had a single elimination online event with those invitees, and Eric was the one who won it all.
00:22:09
Speaker
Eric, what was it like? winning Winning this thing is super impressive, man. It's ah quite a field you have to play through. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I went up against half my opponents had buys in the first round.
00:22:24
Speaker
Had to, yeah, a lot of tough opponents to go through. Yeah, for sure. Just fighting the best of the best, like the entire way down. Were you nervous at all? Like, did you like, I mean, you don't have to walk me through every single emotion that you were feeling, but like, did you feel confident in your, with with your list and everything? Or, you know, did you have any sort of outlook when you started playing?
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, I felt I had plenty of practice with my list. I know that I could, I had the potential to make the top tables in went out and of course it there's also a lot of luck six round turn yeah would you say that your uh your dice are pretty are pretty good or did you not does that was it not like a parents enough where you're like oh like that was a really like wow This is really, it was really nice for me. Yeah. i watch Your game's on stream. You, you were, you were really doing a lot of damage. Yeah.
00:23:16
Speaker
Those last two rounds, I really had hot dice. I feel round two absorbed all my bad dice luck. Oh yeah. Yeah. I had minus eight. My don't have plus four in round two. Wow. And you still pulled out the win. Like that's impressive. Well, I mean, we're talking about your list. What, why you tell us what your list was? Yeah. Why did you, why did you bring these pieces? What'd you like about them? Et cetera. Yeah, I brought Custom Soontir with Crackshot and Predator, Boy ID, Mouse Moner, Faroff with Targeting Computer and PALP, and Obsidian Squadron Pilot with Pi. So triple interceptor list with Faroff for PALP support, and then a small objective runner, pot shotter.
00:24:00
Speaker
I really like this list for its maneuverability and being able to get places opponents can't predict with those pre-move repositions, especially the overdrive one on mouse. Oh, yeah.
00:24:13
Speaker
I always forget about outmaneuver. i i mean, when I've played them, I don't often get it off, but like, wow, what a bonus. Yeah. Also, this is your your list is the one that I copied into the same tournament as well. Another aspect that I love about this list is its ability to mitigate damage.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah, three very defensive interceptors with palp can be very frustrating for opponents to get into. I'm thinking about Faroff, and for a long time, Faroff wasn't allowed to be the palp carrier. It was Vizier if he wanted...
00:24:48
Speaker
the the worst ability, but to get Palpatine, he took Vizier. um Now, you know, Faroff having Palpatine is, you know, it's really, it's interesting to me because when XWA first started its beta points push, it was kind of behind the idea that Palpatine should be in larger ships like Decimators and Shuttles, Imperial Shuttles.
00:25:12
Speaker
And here we are kind of back to the the Reapers taking Palpatine. but Fairoff is a dream come true for a Palpatine carrier because of his defensive ability.
00:25:24
Speaker
Do you feel like when you're flying Fairoff in your lists that you just peel him and dis away and disengage him for a couple of rounds, Eric? Because I noticed on your games on stream, you were more willing to have him kind of in the fight. But Andrew, on the other hand, it's Andrew would kind of have him re-engage but start disengaged.
00:25:43
Speaker
What was your thought process with how you would fly your palp carrier? It kind varied from game to game. um Like if the opponent set up heavy across from Faroff, I'd usually run away for a round or two and then come back in.
00:25:57
Speaker
You don't want to lose Faroff too early, but you also don't want to leave the gun out of fight too long. So you often want to try to bring Faroff in while they're starting to turn away from Faroff and chase after your other ships if you can.
00:26:11
Speaker
And like you said, with Faroff and Palp, that's one of the first things I saw with the 50 points. I saw Faroff could fit Palp and started building around that. Yeah, so I'm curious too, because i the reason why I took your list was I flew against it in the Alamo conquest, and I was just really impressed with how it worked. And that was the one where you know I was bringing my three ace list, but after i failed to to do really any damage to the first engagement, couldn't find a way to come back in um just because of how defensive like this this list was.
00:26:46
Speaker
you said that fair off was the first piece to build around. How did you come across then all the other pieces? I started out with ah the first list I came up with in 50 points. what had fairoff customer assume ti juneno in riyad I I did like a test game or two. Didn't look kind of like how Riyadh wasn't feeling she like he did enough.
00:27:12
Speaker
And I went around searching around for options to split it into. And I saw Mouse at 11. I already liked mouse before 50 points. and And I think on the initial pass of my first way through the points, I didn't notice 11 point Aiden.
00:27:29
Speaker
But I tried out. Then I switched to Juno and Riyad for mouse, Aiden, and Ty. And I started really liking how the list flew. Yeah, for sure. And it took you all the way to the championship. Just absolutely incredible. I'd say it worked out, if you ask me. Yeah.
00:27:47
Speaker
took me to top 16 not to you know toot my own horn but yeah yeah i was i was gonna say eric which just wasn't hitting obstacles oh god i mean yeah i don't need to dwell on it too much but uh the so my first two games were yeah you had a great run you deserve a shout out for that by the way i'm sorry that we didn't shout you out No, no, fair enough. No, it's all good. The the game on stream was by the second most embarrassing stream game I think I've ever had. So to everyone else out there, if you're if if you're ever worried about being on stream, it's okay. Even experienced players can have just atrocious games in front of everybody.
00:28:25
Speaker
and Did you feel like the stream affected your choices? Or like were you worried about playing on stream? Because I'm always, as a streamer, Sorry, I'm adjusting my microphone real quick. um As the streamer, i sometimes hear, oh like, you know, like about people's um psychology behind them feeling pressured or just overthinking everything when they play on stream.
00:28:51
Speaker
um Did you was that in your head a little bit that, oh, like people are watching me or or anything like that? um Yeah, I mean, i think I think it was a compounding effect after the first bump. And I was like, oh, great. Everybody, you know, like saw that. um Honestly, I don't think it was just for me being on stream. It was more going up against like Joel's list and Joel himself because he's a really good player. And I think I just put extra pressure on me to like be on points. And I just wasn't like thinking through my my moves as well as I could have.
00:29:22
Speaker
And Joel's list is, I think it's a tougher list for interceptor list to go up against you with five dice from Ben and Boba and Dengar being able to reduce screens with notorious and Boba.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was a, that that, that was a tough matchup that, that kind of reminds me of the list that I brought to studio Baker, just in terms of how mean it is. Like it, it also has a lot of, you know, punch you really hard and you're going feel bad kind of potential.
00:29:51
Speaker
Um, It's less maneuverable, but it's also like, well, i don't who cares if I need to be maneuverable if I can just blow you up real quick. So that sure that's kind of the vibe of that list. And he he blew you up.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah. and And also to yeah like picking a ship and and being in, you know, saying, hey, you roll one less defense and offensive dice. I reached out to Eric when, cause he then had to face Joel right after me. So Joel played the exact same list twice.
00:30:17
Speaker
And so I reached immediately reached out to, to you, Eric, to be like, Hey, like, how did you, how did you tackle it? How did you beat it? So I, yeah, I guess when you come up against like a list like that, if you wouldn't mind sharing like some of that feedback, cause it was super insightful for me.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah, I told you. I think that my game against Joel really came down to blocks on his ships to reduce damage output. And also getting a few jams off with Faroth.
00:30:48
Speaker
Like block on Dengar. He only had shots against a block ship, so that's just two dice rather than four. Yeah, the punishing one, none of that works at range zero. its always Yeah.
00:31:03
Speaker
really handy to get that block in for sure. Yeah. joel Joel had a great run. We had our top four, which is you know this Global Conquest. We had people from all around the world in the top four.
00:31:15
Speaker
We had a Polish player, Eric, you're to the States. We had a Brazilian player and then we had a Canadian player as as well um in our top four. And I, you know, I think that's a really, really cool. I mean, that's the goal is to try to, even though our time zone wasn't the most accommodating, um the commitment.
00:31:40
Speaker
from people like Oscar, Oscar Ice, who was a runner-up, is commendable for sure. ah Felipe as well. And of course, you know the easier time zone to deal with. Andrew Oler, our two-time champion, suffered at the hands of Eric,
00:32:00
Speaker
And probably one of the most whiplash type swings that I've ever witnessed. I, we had what felt like tonally Andrew with a slight advantage. And then all of a sudden the the bottom, it was like the the floor was made of glass and it just shattered and he just fell. And you scored, i think 21 points.
00:32:23
Speaker
in the second to last round, um, he conceded. I mean, it was really remarkable. You able, you were able to get a really crucial block, um, on his, uh, his Gideon.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. with Multiple two turns in a row with fair off. Um, and it just i feel like it all fell apart for him from there um walk me through playing against uh older because you had it's it started off a little hairy right because uh mouse was kind of just yeah left mo because i didn't think he would turn so many ships through towards those through those um Obstacles, which he yeah ended up, I think, getting punished for because the next round, two of his ships were sitting on rocks.
00:33:06
Speaker
And then the following rounds, Gideon was just sitting on the cloud gas cloud. Yeah, he had shown a willingness to to eat the obstacles. And then it ended up kind of working against him as well as he were able to block him.
00:33:21
Speaker
Kind of talking out of order here, but Andrew, would you would you break down Oscar's list? He was the runner-up who played against Eric in our final table. ah Really yeah talk about another swarm, interesting swarm generic list rebels.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And like I said, know, Oscar making it all the way to to second place with these really fun generic swarm lists. I think we can say that. First, we have Arvil Krinn or Seerind? Krinnid? I say Krinnid. I say Krinnid. Yeah, I guess. Arvil Krinnid. In the A-Wing, and it's the SSP one, the intro kit. So it just has Predator and Afterburners. Afterburners on A-Wing, always fun. And then after that, we have six Grey Squadron bombers with Dorsal Turret and an R4 Astromech.
00:34:14
Speaker
So he did amazingly well with this list. Mm-hmm. It was not a friendly matchup for him ah going up against Eric's list, but the biggest thing was turn zero.
00:34:28
Speaker
He was setting up his bombers first before the I3s on Eric's side, and he left three of them on the other side of the board, opposite side of the rest of his list.
00:34:39
Speaker
And Eric just went full blat like but full blast i you know into those Y-wings and hit them really, really hard. and And Oscar couldn't really respond. And the game kind of so continued to slowly slip away from him.
00:34:56
Speaker
Despite his good objective play, he was just taking mountains of damage. Eric, at one point you did, i think, 16 unanswered points of damage. Like he didn't, it took him like, it took 17 damage for it before he did one to you. That's pretty remarkable and really bad if you're on the the the receiving end of that kind of luck.
00:35:20
Speaker
But walk me through your thought process. You saw him place those three ships. Was it pretty clear right away? Oh, I need to bow as fast as possible and and kind of ah yeah i want to suffocate Yeah, wanted to rush one side before he could join up and get more fire concentrated on my interceptors.
00:35:38
Speaker
Did you feel like you had that game, like that that this was your game to lose from the get-go, like it felt for us watching? Or obviously you never take anything for granted, but...
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah, once I got that first bomber down, i kind of felt that way. What did you think about the matchup? Did that list, was this a list that scared you at all? Obviously, it's a lot of ships. um But, you know, is this, when it comes to the potential to face one of the other lists that could have made it instead of him, did you have a preference? Did you even think about that at the time? Yeah, all those 180 degree arcs can be pretty scary if you start blacking out on your greens.
00:36:18
Speaker
um i'm glad i didn't have to pay uh play against uh the fourth place uh cis list with sun fact though yeah we saw that on stream too yeah i mean i'll just i'll just really quickly um read off the uh um those other two finishers and then andrew i'll have you chime in as well but um You know, we talked about Andrew Oller. placed number three.
00:36:44
Speaker
He had ah two Zy Shuttles. This is very 2.0-y, Andrew had mentioned. yesterday ah Was it yesterday that we we streamed? Two days ago? Two days ago. No, yes, two days ago.
00:36:55
Speaker
Mentioned that this it feels like a 2.0 list. He's had two Zy Shuttles. Malorus with Agent Teryx, Biohex Crypt, and Fanatical. Gideon Hask with the Zy with the Target Computer, Phasma, and Fanatical. A lot of control and then forced rerolls for the Epsilon Squadron Cadets, in which there were four of them, as well as Lieutenant Rivas with Pattern Analyzer.
00:37:17
Speaker
So basically, you just send everybody into a block. Everyone gets double mods, higher agility, decent amount of health. Not easy to beat. But on paper, it seems super scary. Like, it's all that's a lot of ships, but like, there's no Kylo.
00:37:34
Speaker
There's no Von Reg. There's no, you know, there's no quick draw. There's none of these like usual suspects that I think a lot of people have like been trained to deal with and fear. Instead, this list is like, let me just like slash it, like just kind of slash away at you. a little paper cut, little paper cut.
00:37:50
Speaker
And these are the grunts. yeah This is the first order. Yeah. Yeah. Andrew, what do you think of this list? Oh, no, I mean, I, I, as someone who flew, ah generic swarms in 2.0, uh, I am really happy to see that they're coming back.
00:38:09
Speaker
Uh, I think it's just been a it is such a core part of the X-Wing game. This is something that we like, usually you see like one Zai shuttle, the C2 in there is fun. And I think that, you know, even on stream, we saw the, the power that just having generic that can reroll dice can be.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, ah the the list used to be called Malware. That was the type of archetype. it was ah It was just one Zai Shuttle with like five generic TIE Fighters.
00:38:38
Speaker
um Or maybe it was six. I think it was five. I can't remember. But that was generally, it was Malrus and a bunch of TIEs. Get all the rerolls, um So kind of cool. I do enjoy kind of these little like nostalgia trips that are like coming back here and this developing meta that are good.
00:38:58
Speaker
ah You know, it's like, ah I feel like we're getting a little bit, we're getting a little bit of the quote unquote best of both worlds with like some, some 2.0 vibe type lists and some 2.5. And then this like XWA middle ground that has been birthed, has been created, which is cool.
00:39:16
Speaker
We have a ah five ship CIS list that finished fourth. This is Felipe's list. ah Sun FAC with elusive a predator and ensnare.
00:39:27
Speaker
grievous is outmaneuver impervium plating and solace one dbs 404 with plaza torpedoes proton bombs landing struts dbs 32c another hyena droid bomber with energy shell charges kraken keep those calculates around you got to have the kraken carriers somewhere struts and then dfs 311 to pass the calculates with discord missiles independent calculations and grappling struts yeah that would have been a really fascinating matchup for you eric um sunfack and grievous really keep you honest versus the gray squadron bombers the way they keep you honest is just if you're getting shot at four or five times that's just law of averages would keep you honest but um you know i think that would have been a ah definitely more difficult matchup probably for your list just because sunfack is uh throws wrench into a lot of things yeah i don't like so flying in sunfack with that
00:40:21
Speaker
fact because uh yeah he's he's tough to deal with least he can't get thrown onto obstacles anymore that was what made him even worse uh you know i know some people really want to see that come back i don't know why like tractor is good enough no the uh the move let me tractor you on obstacles yeah that's what the nantex worms did no i don't think anyone wants to see that come back yeah well people who like people who like doing it okay i hand a small handful of people for sure yeah yeah see yeah exactly exactly uh but it's just tractor's just so strong and so on it's just it just feels so bad when you get tractor it's like not only do you get moved out of position but then you're rolling a one less defense die too yeah yeah brutal maybe they don't even move you and you're still just rolling one less defense like that's enough you don't need to throw me on an obstacle too you know for sure and
00:41:11
Speaker
Trend-wise here, ah early trends, you know, at Rebels, Empire, and Republic make up the top three. That is basically what ah what Worlds was like, similar just in terms of his top three being the most popular.
00:41:26
Speaker
um So I think that's kind of, you know, not unsurprising. There's have always been good factions. Yeah. ah re Rebels, I think, maybe is the biggest surprise only because There was a lot of chatter, or the way too early reactions from people being like, oh, I don't think rebels are in that very good of a place. um But a lot of people brought them ah for the global conquest. They clearly felt confident enough with that faction to bring it for a really important event, a very competitive one.
00:41:53
Speaker
And ah rebels in terms of performance were right there. middle of the pack. But squad size, five shipless, 31%, four shipless, 49% of the field.
00:42:07
Speaker
And then we had six ship and seven shipless making up just to combine like 7%. But like we saw in Studebaker and like we're seeing here, the top performers are all larger ship count lists or consist of a decent amount of those types of lists.
00:42:26
Speaker
Eric, of course, brought, yeah he brought a ah five ship. um But yeah, I mean, Studebaker had a bunch of seven or eight ship lists in the top cut. And we saw,
00:42:40
Speaker
a little bit of variety here for the global conquest but the number two number three one two three four five six seven and then yeah two seven shipless yeah for sure also we're we're seeing a convergence around i5 i5 seems to be kind of where the initiative just the initiative distribution is shout out Yeah, so I'm sorry interrupt. I want to shout out Isaac Kenny, who was number eight, who brought an empire list with Duchess.
00:43:13
Speaker
I like love that. Atari computer, Tiber Saxon, and Outmaneuver. um that i miss duchess i used to play duchess a lot in 2.0 uh kind of a fragile platform for a more expensive i5 but uh clearly it worked for him um he played really well he had karsabi jendin death rain and duchess and a four ship imperial list uh eric how did you feel about the conquest series overall did you played in a few of them right and we appreciate you you participating
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, I played in three. yeah they had tough competition. Of course, the three I played in that weren't global, I faced several of all three times.
00:43:57
Speaker
Lost them twice, beat them once. Yeah, I mean, several is he's really good. We've had him on the show before. He was the the champion of the first one. the First one. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah. That was the other thing is that we we had like Illy and Sevwell were two people on Jorge with that. had it. earlier exits in this um it just goes to show i'm i'm always personally a big fan of unpredictability when it comes to these things you know if if if all of the people who advance is like oh that's not a surprise that's not a surprise like it's it doesn't create as much of a story i'm not cheering against people like sev wall or older or or jorge but it's just like i just thought it was really cool that it was oscar ice who is probably the best player in poland There's a lot of people in the US just don't know as much about those player communities as they know their own.
00:44:52
Speaker
And Eric. um Eric and Oscar, neither of them won a conquest. And Andrew Oller was in in the top four is the only one. I think even the top eight, it was the only one that had won a conquest period that had made it that far.
00:45:07
Speaker
So I'm a fan of that just from a content perspective and just entertainment that we we got some upsets pulled. We got some unpredictability in the bracket. And Eric, we did a bracket challenge. 48 people entered it who'd have the the closest to perfect bracket.
00:45:23
Speaker
And not only did you win the global conquest, but you also won bracket challenge which was just i just shipped all your stuff today was just really amused by that and betting on yourself yeah i made it easier to ship i'm like i'll just put everything in one package there you go but i just i i just the odds of that happening it's just it's just really it's just very funny to me just the way that happens so congratulations on that as well thank you always good to bet on yourself though yeah well uh
00:45:55
Speaker
Honestly, couldn't have asked for ah better event. um I'm tired. i'm I'm happy that everything went as smoothly as it did as from from a TO and streaming perspective. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
it was It was pretty easy, surprisingly. Not a lot of issues. um you know I had my my soapbox about some of the turnout for some of the events, but um you know we're we're ah making some adjustments to try to meet the demands where it is and but still offer these sorts of high-level and fun you know online tournaments because I think it's really important that we continue to do that. The leagues are really great, but they don't really scratch that itch. They're just so different than this sort of vibe. So yeah you want to we're glad that we were the ones that were able to offer that, and we're going to do it again.
00:46:45
Speaker
We're just going to do it ah four times, including a global. We will have a global. I said we won't, but I've changed my mind. We will have a global conquest. We'll five conquests, including that next year.
00:46:56
Speaker
Oh, that's exciting. I was going to say, yeah, I didn't do anything to help out with the conquest except for just play in it and then talk about it on this podcast. But ah Nick, yeah thank you so much for putting it together. I know it's ah a ton of work and effort. And also, I want to give a shout out to Stephen for also helping out and stepping in.
00:47:19
Speaker
He did an incredible job and then also did a great job with commentary, too. yeah steven's been a godsend he was ah especially for this he helped set up the role better with me did the challenge bracket you know he loves doing that stuff and it was incredibly valuable help so thank you steven for everything that you do and uh what a ah bright part of the community that he has been and continues to be we're lucky to call him a local as well we get to play with him at our game store um Matt Carey and kind of an unsung hero behind getting those trophies made. He took the initiative to just get that done.
00:47:55
Speaker
And he's like, Hey, just send me these assets and I'll, I'll take care of it. And so he works with Andrew knuckles to make those beautiful conquest champion plaques. Kester Smith from XWA helped provide the art assets to, to get those put on the acrylic.
00:48:14
Speaker
So, I also want to give those two shout outs as well. I think having that hardware that you can send people when they win. And Eric's got the most valuable one.
00:48:25
Speaker
um Suck it, Andrew Oler and everyone else But like, you know, I think that just adds so much more to the quote unquote, like legitimacy of these sorts of things, because you know There's a small entry fee. We're raising money.
00:48:40
Speaker
but and We're doing some cool paint jobs and stuff. The themed paint jobs are fun. But it's still like it's still feel like you got to have some sort of tangible thing for the winner. And those those trophies were i remember walking around with them at World showing them off and everyone's like, oh, ah, like they were they're beautiful. They're gorgeous. I'm excited to get those made again for next year.
00:49:00
Speaker
Really nice, like nice, like lucider, like glass, like plaques. And yeah, no, they look really pretty. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I, I gotta rig one of these or find a way to keep, well, I i want one of those, you know, like, man, best tournament organizer. Yeah, yeah exactly. Exactly. i I'll put, it's like the ah Obama meme and putting the metal on Obama. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. A hundred percent. I win the FIFA, uh, conquest peace prize perhaps too soon, too soon. But yeah, I mean, that's, uh, yeah, it's, it, it was, uh,
00:49:35
Speaker
I was always like, you know that they're nice when you're like, man, I kind of want that. And I'm the one that had these made and I'm sending them out and running this. I'm like, I want one. So Eric, you've, uh, you've played, you've played in team league for multiple seasons. You've played in draft league for multiple seasons. You play, you played in conquest for multiple conquests.
00:49:56
Speaker
Um, you but we met and you had the unfortunate kind of situation where you had to stay with me and and and and deal with my driving and and it'd be there at our airbnb during worlds uh we we met in person for the first time this earlier this year you know what is your what are your thoughts do you do you usually play any in-person x-wing um consistently or was worlds kind of a special circumstance for you to have that opportunity Sadly, there isn't that much in-person X-Wing in my area. I live in a kind of rural area in Pennsylvania.
00:50:30
Speaker
Yeah, there's one other X-Wing player like 15 minutes away, and then the next closest ones are over an hour away. So kind of good don't get in-person much.
00:50:43
Speaker
did it Does it feel like you you did pretty well at Worlds, but did it did it feel difficult to transition from like you because you just kind of have no choice but to play a lot of online to now playing in person at like high level event? and was Did that feel difficult to make that transition?
00:50:58
Speaker
I don't think it was that difficult. replie That's good. I feel like for me it would be it would take ah it take a while to get used to the differences.
00:51:09
Speaker
Maybe it's easier if you go from online to in-person, but going from predominantly in-person to online, it took me a while. Same. Yeah. Yeah. It can be, it can be hard.
00:51:21
Speaker
I will say though, I am happy I did it because I believe that is definitely made me a much better player in person. It's, uh, I haven't played on tabletop simulator in quite a while, but it is, uh, such a, uh,
00:51:35
Speaker
a valuable tool for players, but for us to continue to give content to, to the community for, for games. Um, I mean, we can't setting up an in-person stream is so laborious. It just, it's not something we can do all the time.
00:51:48
Speaker
Um, and so it's very nice that we get to have tabletop and and to be able to do online X-Wing. It's so normalized. It looks good. It's like, uh, Second nature. It's like X-Wing exists in this realm of ah of in-person and online all at once, all at the same time, and we do both. And like i ah I appreciate that.
00:52:07
Speaker
It's not just an in-person tabletop game anymore. Well, anybody have anything else to say about either of these events? I'm just going to say it was an absolute pleasure playing in the the ones that I did. And it's been an exceptional experience for me. So and it's been so much fun talking with Eric and all of the other champions too throughout this entire process. So thank you everyone who I've had a chance to talk to or play with throughout any of these tournaments. And I'm looking forward to seeing y'all back out there in the team leagues and in more tournaments as well.
00:52:40
Speaker
Eric, anything from you, my friend? Yeah, I had a lot of fun playing in the Conquest that I was able to attend. Yeah, i think thank you and congratulations again for a great run all the way to the top.
00:52:53
Speaker
Yeah, I hope I can make Worlds. So it's looking like scheduling issues with work might make it difficult. Well, yeah, we hope you you can make it. um the ah The event previews just went live on Adepticon. You can take a look at what the X-Wing events are going to look like.
00:53:07
Speaker
We already kind of spoiled what they are. No no snow shocks or surprises there, but pretty soon. ah you're going to be able to register and pick your events.
00:53:19
Speaker
We will, of course, at XWA, we'll remind everyone of that. um a little A little later than I'm used to Adepticon doing it, though, I find that it to be interesting that it's you know all of this is happening later than they usually offer in terms of registration.
00:53:34
Speaker
But I think that's why people were unsure what we were going to be doing at Worlds, just because Adepticon hadn't said anything about any of their events. But no, that's coming. So keep your eyes peeled for that.
00:53:46
Speaker
In other news, I just I'm going to put you on the spot, Andrew. um ah you had a kind of a big moment happen um for your life. Exciting if you want to talk about it. and and yeah you know And then people can only speculate if you say no. But um what what what happened yesterday?
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, thank you so much. So I got engaged. And yeah, to to my partner. And we've been together for eight years. And I got to propose to her at the bus stop where we met.
00:54:20
Speaker
And so we had her best friend come down from Madison to take pictures. And her sister, one of her sisters was there. She was absolutely surprised, which was great. And then we had a nice dinner with her family. which she was also surprised by too. So yeah, I am now a fiance.
00:54:39
Speaker
Have you guys already started calling each other fiance? Are you ready for that? Yeah, no, we nature we definitely have. Nice. That's exciting. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.
00:54:51
Speaker
Well, I'm excited. to Thank you. I'm not engaged.
00:54:57
Speaker
Just kidding. Well, once you're with once once you're with your partner for eight years, then you can start thinking, hey, maybe this is serious. Yeah, you guys, I think you guys, you could argue that you maybe got to know each other. Right. Yeah. So I'm, you know, um I think we're pretty sure that this is this is where we're going. right Yeah. Yeah. yeah and we've lived with we've lived with each other each other, too. So we're like, okay, like, I, you know.
00:55:21
Speaker
we've been with each other for all of our moments now that we can cohabitate so yeah i'm feeling pretty good about this yeah yeah for sure another thing that i feel compelled to mention that's not to to kill the mood and also a little unrelated but um i'm very saddened about uh rob reiner passing away you know so you know watch Princess Bride when you get the chance, pour one out for him and, you know, his family and um his wife. It's just, you know, awful what happened the other day. But a lot of, you know, I think ah overall, Andrew and I in 2026 with the podcast are going to look to expand on talking about X-Wing, but maybe have some one-off episodes where he kind of just,
00:56:05
Speaker
talk about stuff um so i think that would be ah a cool thing to do not all the time but you know i think here and there we have enough to talk about when i think enough people might be interested in a few minutes of that that we might explore that yeah that's another thing just looking ahead that i'm looking forward to doing is uh maybe expanding our podcast just a little bit not going too crazy or anything yeah for sure well gentlemen um that's gonna conclude uh this year's uh finally the final podcast of the year as ah this is our holiday episode um whatever you guys are celebrating whether it's Hanukkah whether it's Christmas if you're not celebrating anything if it's Kwanzaa etc happy holidays get yourself a Starbucks red cup um angrily tweet about it if you want to you know stay warm stay cool if you're in a tropical setting but it is cold here in Chicago I will be celebrating Christmas in Sonoma California though so
00:57:04
Speaker
at least things will be warming up. Eric, I assume in, in Pennsylvania, it's really cold as well. Right. Yeah. About 16 Fahrenheit right now. Yeah. That's yeah. Yeah. It's time. It's going to be stay indoors time. yeah.
00:57:18
Speaker
yeah To all of our friends, south of the equator as well. Stay cool. Hopefully it's not yeah heating up too much then. Yeah, yeah exactly. i know all the climate's all over. um but, uh, yeah, it's, it's been, uh, this is our 35th episode.
00:57:33
Speaker
um over two years of doing the podcast, Andrew, you've done an awesome job, uh, kind of keeping this together and managing it and producing it. You've done an awesome job with all of the community engagement that you do.
00:57:47
Speaker
thank you. No, I appreciate it. It's a, yeah, it's, it's, we are, uh, an important part of the excellent community. I think just being honest with ourselves, it's, you know, I take that seriously. And, um,
00:58:01
Speaker
I've I casual dad gaming. I want to give him a shout out because he gave us a really nice shout out about being able to stream worlds and how much he loves our podcast. Andrew, but meaning you to send, send you that video that he made. But the beginning of the video is him just talking about us and how much he enjoys the podcast.
00:58:20
Speaker
So I thought that was really sweet. So you guys should check out his YouTube channel. He does really good X-Wing coverage. um at a time where we just don't have as many people doing X-Wing coverage anymore.
00:58:32
Speaker
So definitely give him some love as well.
00:58:37
Speaker
For sure, thank you so much. yeah if you're listening, I really appreciate yeah Yeah, i'll I'll send that with you. um Lastly, thank you to all of those who support us on Patreon.
00:58:49
Speaker
We've grown our Patreon immensely. It's been a humbling and really incredible experience to see so many people jump on. and support us and believe in the mission that we have for the game of X-Wing.
00:59:02
Speaker
If you want to support us over there and get some cool swag, we're about to send out some really awesome stuff in the mail. You can, we appreciate it. But thank you all so much for listening to 35 episodes of the 312 Squadron podcast.
00:59:16
Speaker
We're super hyped to continue making more, and we hope you have a great holiday season. My name is Nick Sperry. I'm Andrew Kuba. and I'm Eric Henry. And we are signing off 2025 over and out. Happy holidays.
00:59:30
Speaker
holidays. And happy new year.