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Episode 34: California System Open and Mr. Two Time!
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A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba and Nick Sperry are joined by returning guest, Andrew Oehler, to discuss his second Conquest victory, as well as the recent California System Open! The trio dives into an overview on the 50 point landscape, and look back to older events.
Take a look at the changes here: https://www.xwing.life/organized-play
312 is streaming WORLDS! Keep an eye out for upcoming key dates: https://www.adepticon.org/2025/07/09/adepticon-2026-key-dates-announced/
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Conquest Breakdowns:
Empanada: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2329 (event link) https://www.pattern-analyzer.app/tournament/rollbetter/2329 (insights)
Alamo: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2391 (event link) https://www.pattern-analyzer.app/tournament/rollbetter/239 (insights)
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!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
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 Andrew Oler. And we have some tournaments to talk about, including the California system open, which we streamed as well as the final conquest, the Alamo conquest. Andrew Ola returns as a two time conquest champion to discuss his win.
00:00:27
Speaker
Let's go. o Which, yeah. Welcome. Thank you so much for coming back on. Awful. Come on, Andrew. We can't ask him to cheer for himself. Come on. That's crazy. We got to cheer for him. We
Podcast Timing and Release
00:00:39
Speaker
got to be.
00:00:40
Speaker
yeah the ones to to add the applause in. Yeah. Thanks for coming back, Andrew. I know this was, ah it wasn't the only time that Andrew and I would be able to record this, but before the holidays, if we wanted to get this out in a in a meaningful or meaningful a good run amount of time, we needed to do it today. So thank you for, for making the time. Yeah, norris yeah we appreciate it.
00:01:02
Speaker
Sorry, the the the the problem with having two Andrews on the podcast, too, is... Yeah, I'll just try to say Oler. Yeah, or Kuba, yeah.
X-Wing Alliance Changes
00:01:10
Speaker
We could go by do by the last names. And I should be Andy anyway with the Andrew Bov rules, since ah Andrew retains top Andrew.
00:01:20
Speaker
So and it's also good just to to get everything out now, just because we do have a backlog and it feels like an X-Wing. Things are just happening all the time. ah We've had new like a whole new meta, lots of tournaments going on. honest honestly this is honestly felt the most active that X-Wing has been in a while, at least for me. Yeah, I mean, i'm I'm not on the front lines like Oler is winning multiple championships and and and building the most degenerate list that actually make me want to cry watching from a commentator perspective. But I agree with that. I'm i'm feeling so much pressure a good way. you know I thought we were kind of winding things down until we wound them back up again. And I'm here just trying to find some time to breathe.
00:02:07
Speaker
um But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think for the X-Wing community, that's a good position for me to be in, for us to be in. um Yeah, I mean, yes. Super exciting. LDR, yes.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah. sure So speaking of all the new lists that were we're on display in these last two tournaments, I just kind of wanted to go around and just kind of kick off this episode with an impression on what you feel the new XWA changes are, because they are fundamentally, I think, a pretty big change in the game. So I was going to kick it over to our guest on what your impression has been.
00:02:46
Speaker
um it's It's interesting. It's been kind of a different world, a different beast, you know. Um, list building feels both more open and more restrictive, um, in that like, it's, I feel like you have way more options now in combinations of things. It's not just like a, you know, four, four, four, four.
00:03:09
Speaker
uh they've toned down the power level again so it it really feels like lists are missing something almost from 20 point land um and objectives feel a little less important but they did matter they still matter enough that um they're worth playing around they're worth playing it's not it's not just you can ignore them um i don't know it's interesting it's kind of
Impact on Gameplay and Strategy
00:03:33
Speaker
adjusting to a new world it feels similar but a little odd you know to to transfer over from 20 in a good way though i think yeah i mean just to i can jump in real quick i've been pretty confident in summarizing the changes as the x-wing alliance wanting to see over the span of ah an average game of x-wing more total destruction uh occur on the board
00:03:58
Speaker
um And so the changes have been made to kind of emphasize i destruction. You know, it may be before, let's say your average game, you had three ships taken off the board, maybe four. You're more likely to have a player or or both players lose half their list over the span of a game, especially if they're evenly matched and all of those things, you know, average on average kind of thing.
00:04:22
Speaker
um which is a little bit of a deviation from, I think, what, at least as someone who's streamed and has watched so many games of X-Wing, I feel like I can speak to this, a little bit of a deviation from what we had been seeing before, where people were kind of, from the get-go, opting in on ah a strategy of, I'm going to play 60% 70% objective focus and supplement my victory points with a ship or two. And now it's, I'm going to, now you need to do so to focus on trying to get 60 to 70% of your points via destruction and supplement your victory points with objectives. So the weight balance, the weight of things have changed. And it's definitely, I think, shocking for those who really mastered objective play. I mean, I've said it many times at Worlds this year. i scored 18 salvage points and I killed Sabine. And that's how I won a game against a very good opponent in day two. So like I felt confident and comfortable playing that kind of game of way of X-Wing. But it doesn't mean that it was my favorite way of playing X-Wing.
00:05:26
Speaker
I also think x since XWA took over and introduced half points on everything, i think the game, this is kind of the intended direction they wanted the game to go in with 20 and half points and scenarios.
00:05:40
Speaker
I felt games escalated a little too quickly and were actually a little too fast. I felt that you just, the a points added up too quickly and games would be unresolved. When it was 20 points?
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. I agree with that. I think that if you're going to do like the half point on ships, the 50 points is is where it wants to be. i i was going to say this feels the most like 2.0.
00:06:07
Speaker
I've felt playing 2.5 as far as the game pacing goes. Yes. And even the the way that lists are built, like i'm I'm just, I felt myself constantly when I've been playing, like getting flashbacks of like,
00:06:21
Speaker
the 2.0 days strategy wise i also am wondering if that's because maybe objectives were nerfed a little bit too much like i feel like we're on the cusp of like something really amazing with with x-wing and i think if maybe there might be some room for some of the objectives to come back a little bit like not make them to where they were as important as they were before xwa took over but even just like i think there's just some little tweaking that needs to be done yeah absolutely i'm always a fan of uh over correct and then adjust then under correct and then scramble no pun intended i i is just again i don't think anyone thinks i'm here trying to bash anybody but we can harken back to the very first iteration of 2.5 at Adepticon before it was Worlds. yeah And it felt half-baked, like it was a beta. And and they acknowledged that it we they needed to collect a lot of data from the players at that event to like see how good or bad things were. But it was it was it
Community and Tournament Challenges
00:07:27
Speaker
was very strange. It was wacky. it was It was wacky. It didn't feel tested. it felt half-baked. It just wasn't ready. And so instead of them kind of really taking it away and and giving us something that felt more polished or like we're going to have you guys be our play testers. And, you know, I'm not a huge fan of that personally. I think it's any developer or organization XWA now. It's their responsibility to run through the testing enough to feel confident in what they're delivering is like, here you go. Play this and see how it goes.
00:07:58
Speaker
And so there's been an overcorrection with a little bit, I wouldn't say anything drastic, but with power level, uh, when it comes to objectives, um, by a small percentage, you know, we're not talking about any sort of massive issue, but, um, know, when we talk about the California system open, I'm looking at the results across the rounds and how few of them hit 50 points. And that's like, that's a data point or a thing we should pay attention to,
00:08:27
Speaker
if games aren't are evolving so much but still not hitting 50 points um that means that yeah the the objective play weight is a little down from maybe where it should be but here's the thing how do you fix that it's not that easy because then math gets really weird and bizarre if we stop doing the two to one kind of ratio or two oh or one to one scoring um you know do you double it like it's just people are not good at math so it's just there there is some room to change but i'm not sure what those changes would be we xwa have to figure that out yeah i mean we we talked about on the the last episode that uh maybe like a two five split could be something that we could look at but yeah i mean that we i mean there's lots of people have ideas and and that's what we're here to talk about on this uh podcast
00:09:15
Speaker
I was going to say, speaking of the California system open, if we wanted to start getting into some of that data, Nick, you were just there. Yeah. Let's take a ah dive into that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the second event that we have traveled, that I've traveled with our gear, about 130 pounds worth of baggage to cases, to hard shell cases, a backpack with a computer and batteries and a duffel bag, and which was easy easy peasy on the way there, not so easy peasy on the way back. and We'll talk about that in a moment. But yeah, um I want to give a shout out to the shaken pilots. They're guys that have traveled really well and played X-Wing at all the conventions, all the tournaments. Michael Moshba was the one who hosted me. He's one of the the core members of that group. He literally opened up his doors and gave me a bedroom.
00:10:03
Speaker
and let me crash at his gorgeous apartment overlooking san francisco from the hills we were literally on a slope like a deep incline um or decline depending which way you're driving um it was the most bay area thing ever he has an amazing apartment just a really great guy and he did an awesome job running this event um with joshua miles So I just want to give them a shout out, the Shaken Pilots, and also Dan Fowler, who helped set up and organize that event as well.
00:10:33
Speaker
um This event was the first system open that was using the new points. So a lot of intrigue around this event, really felt proud to be able to bring the the event to coverage like to for people to be able to watch it A lot of people, especially from XWA, we all all wanted to see you know how this would go.
00:10:56
Speaker
And it it went it went great. um you know One thing I want to note
Tournament Insights and Scoring
00:11:01
Speaker
is that turnout for U.S. events has been, um i mean, I'll be candid, as as a former PR lead and still a member of the of the group, a little underwhelming. It's been a slower growth than what we've seen overseas. A lot of people were...
00:11:17
Speaker
just waiting to come back to play X-Wing in Canada and especially in Europe. And here in the US, we're dealing with almost a little bit of an opposite where a lot of people have decided, you know what, I don't think I want to play this game right now or in a lot of cases anymore. And so ah we're seeing the literal effects of that with turnout in the US, especially LVO had 16 people.
00:11:41
Speaker
However, with that event, it was twice in one year. i think that's incredibly unfair. to look at that data and be like x-wing's not doing well in the united states lvo is a bit of ah of an an an exception because of the fact that it was in january and october um but we had 23 people at this one at the california system open um so you know i think we're hoping for over 30 23 i think is perfectly acceptable and we appreciate everybody especially those who traveled from lower california which is like six seven eight hours away
00:12:14
Speaker
uh you know we had people from orange county um we also had folks like jorge from washington and a portland area obi-wan and john witherspoon made that trip from the pnw so we got really good variety on the west coast on that that coast coming and playing at this event which is really cool yeah it's incredible yeah yeah and if you guys want to indulge me if you click into roll better for this event and you just go to click round one if you go to rounds um And I'll read off some of the scores for you guys just talking about 50 points.
00:12:46
Speaker
You know, we had 18 31, 46, 18, 25 to 22, 56 to to to to And i just counting down, we have two games that hit plus.
00:12:59
Speaker
round two i'm not going to read all these out again but we had one two games and round two that went to fifty plus Round three, one game. So there's a bit of a trend. You have 11 tables, and only one table is hitting a victor with 50-plus points. so I mean, table three's got 49, 45. Right. some Some that were in the but because people are playing more rounds now, which is a good thing. Uh, so they're playing more rounds. They're hitting time, but they're hitting time before they're scoring that they're getting to that threshold around four. See, people seem to start getting the hang of it, or they just decided to joust because they were tired because we had a lot more hit 50 plus in the the final round.
00:13:43
Speaker
Um, But yeah, it was just I thought that was really interesting. um The games on our stream, only the last one hit 50. It was basically a theme of i playing to time and just you know trying to get to 40. So...
00:14:01
Speaker
so you know it's It's a small sample and it's kind of way too early, but I think we all agree and and ah that there is a little bit of of of wiggle room to work with here and and and balancing. But again, like I said, overcorrecting adjust later is is always better and safer to do.
00:14:20
Speaker
For sure. um Day one, we played Foundry and Lux. Sorry, i I'll wrap this up, yeah which was a beautiful restaurant. This is a venue that I played at the last Golden State Games.
00:14:31
Speaker
the the The shaken pilots know the manager there, so they were able to play at this ah beautiful restaurant. ah right near the water not too far from the water and this little uh downtown office complex area with some nice restaurants and then day two was at their game store gamescape in uh the actual like san francisco proper ah where they play their their game store so we had to set up and tear down and then set up and tear down again which was it was an exhausting trip and then i got stranded in oakland because my flight was canceled because of the snow in Chicago. So that was a sad end to a fun, really fun trip and successful trip. had a 5 a.m. flight the next morning and had to book a hotel and stay there. And Southwest didn't caught me for anything. So thank you to the patrons for giving me a hotel room.
00:15:20
Speaker
I appreciate that. not that I would have been homeless or whatever without without that help but it it helped make me feel less bad so for sure anyways that's enough of me rambling about this event but I do want to shout out Dominic to Carlo for winning it we can we can talk about top cut in a second but I want to throw it over to you guys about anything that you notice just looking at the insights and and the overview for this event
Resistance and Scum Lists Analysis
00:15:43
Speaker
in particular lot of Republic in the top top half I think four of the top eight are Republic so that's interesting
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um Now you have some really notable Republic players with like Jorge and Obi-Wan. I've never heard of them. Never heard of them. Most of the lists on the top are four ship lists.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, four. So, i you know, that's probably something that we're going to more accustomed to seeing is is expecting four ship, but not being surprised when someone brings a five ship list.
00:16:17
Speaker
e um Although at number 12, there seems to be a glitch because Hitman has like a 28 ship list. ship list though but uh it's funny that's just a glitch so i was just curious though like i'm just trying to think when like how soon after new points did this come out like the the system open was on the 8th it was 10 days ago so this is so new points have been around for what maybe two weeks at this point think it was two weeks yeah yeah because so yeah this is the first major tournament yes that sounds right i'm like going back to la la la was on yeah the third
00:16:56
Speaker
Oh, wait, November 3rd? ah The stage was... Oh, I'm sorry. That was a follow-up to that the post. It was the 26th of October. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, so it's been it's been about about two weeks then. Because I was like, that would have been crazy if it's five days. Crazy, yep. Yeah, so this is what everybody is kind of you know first trying to to figure out what's going on two with their lists. But, yeah, 56% the feel, brought lists.
00:17:22
Speaker
and then uh 30 at five and i think that that's what we've seen with these new points not only is like the power level gone down the average ship count i think was now to back to four instead of being five yeah i mean how do you feel about that i as a streamer i love having less to having to keep track of less on the board it's easier for me to be able to provide like what feels like a more comfortable stream and commentary um eight ships on the board versus 10 to 12 at once is more manageable now and people are gonna be like well let's talk about the game not about what the streamer likes like yeah i get that but i think i think from a player perspective too it's it's probably i would think that a lot of people enjoy the fact that they can feel more comfortable bringing a four ship or even a three ship list that we've seen you know a bunch of people bring now but that's just my opinion i don't know about you guys how do you feel about i think it's ship count dropping I think it's also easier on the players remembering triggers for both players, your opponent and you.
00:18:20
Speaker
Ship count drops, you have a little less padding. Yeah. I would think that that's also why we're seeing the games are going to more rounds that are happening too. Correct. Yeah. It's less setup time even. of that adds to a...
00:18:37
Speaker
a snappier game a lot less for both players to keep track of too and you know more space on the board less time thinking about your maneuver setting dials and crashing into yourself hopefully yeah for sure it's um it's also just clutter became such a big part of x-wing for extent for a while for years with more with scenarios and more ships on the board there's just more tokens there's more there's more clutter um and I think having to to mark an extra two or three ships when you need to check a firing arc, like all of those things add up to like the mental toll or the physical toll that it takes on you over over an event, especially playing, i mean, in person mainly. and so, yeah, I think it's just, it's just,
00:19:24
Speaker
nice there's there's more open space that you have different theaters of combat happening you have a a one a one-on-one like two aces going at it at the bottom of the board and then you have two ships on each side or a formation you know coming at each other in the middle and it's i feel like there's less clashing of towards the middle of just everything kind of being thrown together now granted This isn't a blanket statement.
Conquest Series Overview
00:19:47
Speaker
You see very different types of engagements every game of X-Wing. But now with with the average ship count being four, I think there's a little bit more of ah like a tactical mindset that people take with where they set up and delaying an engagement or ah trying to to catch a ship off guard and really being more aggressive. So kind of the inverse of that. it's kind of a brave new world of like let me try things and see what sticks what what what does my play style look like now how is it how does it change how does it adapt to this new system um i'll tell you one thing that i really love about about this again referring to what i see when i'm watching games and what i want to see when i'm streaming games
00:20:31
Speaker
is that the pendulum effect is more real. Someone can score, you know, 12 points and the other player scores 15. It's no longer a all right, they got the five point ship that the other player got the five point ship and now they're tied again like different ships being valued differently allows for things to swing in a unique way and for there to be maybe more swinging back and forth between players which is exciting it's like oh you could you know a comeback we saw a comeback in the alamo conquest the player was down by a lot and came back in the last two rounds and won And i I mean, that's good for the game. That's competitive. And and so not everything being priced at the same value ah is is good. that's
00:21:17
Speaker
That's a really good thing. Yeah, I agree. And I think half points have a lot to do with that, too, which I think that's probably one of the best changes that they put back in. Yeah, it was one that was speculated to be not as popular as it ended up being because when you when we would ask, I mean, I asked this question to people at LVO like years ago, like, what if we added half points in It's like, well, how's that even going to work with scenarios? And in like, where's the balance?
00:21:42
Speaker
you know i think xwa has proven that there's a way to make this work and we found something that isn't perfect but that is certainly getting people excited and that feels good enough ah put together you know as a full game to get to the 50 point threshold to win your game um and yeah i agree half points you can actually consider shooting at something that is worth a lot of points and has maybe a decent amount of health or is just hard to hit because you get rewarded for trying uh whereas before you probably wouldn't yeah um chiming in does anything surprise you oler about the squads or the faction distribution i mean for a california system open a republic like you said had 20 it was about a quarter of the field yeah yeah that that's the number one number uh scum's always been a popular faction and scum will always be a popular faction in tournaments uh
00:22:36
Speaker
inversely cis is always the least usually the least or the second least popular um and they always do well um republic being the top dog is surprising over like empire or scum or rebels though in terms of both cut percentage and yeah and overall field percentage so yeah that's just i think republic's awesome but that's just rick has was taken in five different instances it seems like rick ali is uh probably one of the best value pieces especially at i5 with the ability to roll additional dice go fast get free of aids yeah for sure
00:23:11
Speaker
I wonder if we're looking at a snapshot of that. This is people trying to make, cause i'm looking at some of the compositions here and it feels like people are trying to make their old lists work in the new, in the new meta.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that'll be what people gravitate to, especially early events like this and Alamo and stuff. Exactly. More experiment more as time goes on.
00:23:37
Speaker
Now, what was really cool about ah Dominic's list, he won the event. um He had a resistance list. And I don't I can't think of too many times where resistance is like one a large event. ah Resistance has always been steady, but it's it's neat to see it.
00:23:55
Speaker
triumph like this especially a list that featured talking about throwing back to 2.0 that features Greer Sonnell which no one's going to be excited about but maybe the three of us so it feels like that way because Greer's just like nothing he's just efficient and he's ah he's a really good solid piece free rotate after he fully executes a maneuver um But you get three RZ2 A-Wings and a five-ship resistance list. Lulo is heroic, starboard, slash, and advanced optics. Finn has heroic pattern analyzer, perceptive, co-pilot, and targeting computer. Greer has just heroic and advanced optics.
00:24:29
Speaker
ZZ is heroic, prockets, advanced optics. And then Kaz has notorious R1J5, overtune modulators, targeting computer, and his fireball title.
00:24:39
Speaker
um Very 2.0-y to me, but with five ships. Yep. Yeah, I think it's a sweet list. Super cool list. You're right, Resistance is always the bridesmaid.
00:24:51
Speaker
They're consistently in cut, they're always doing well events, but they rarely, rarely win. So funny enough, Resistance also won the Bay Area Conquest.
Empire's Dominance and Meta Shifts
00:25:01
Speaker
So I think they just do well in California.
00:25:03
Speaker
There you go. yeah thats That might be it. That might just be it. yeah um Delta 7B Anakin had become a lot of very, very good in the twenty the last 20-point iteration that XWA gave us. And then he continues to see play um in a dominant way.
00:25:21
Speaker
uh now so small sample but anakin 7b anakin is so dangerous in the right hands he is so good and so fun to watch good for the game that he's a factor again he had been jailed for a while and it was nice to see him start to get played more the last year roughly a little less um more stub getting played ah but why don't you talk talk to me about uh the scum list here number four across andrew as some very interesting pieces this is john's list do you see it the scum list oh we got baby fan uh with predator marksmanship and we got dirge with auto blasters which is something you don't see very often marksmanship contraband
00:26:13
Speaker
You have the Mandalorian in the Razorcrest with the Razorcrest. Electronic Baffle, Overtune Modulators, and Jabba the Hutt. So he's getting those calculates for five turns in a row, baby.
00:26:27
Speaker
And then Dalen Obrose with the Predator and Tracking Fob, which is an upgrade you you do not see often. Yeah. Dude, this is sick. I mean, Razor Crest Mando.
00:26:38
Speaker
he joe john John won by a single evade result in his game on our stream for Top Cut. um his top The Top 8 game. Like his opponent had almost come back where he had, why he had, he needed like three hits in a Mando and Mando had an evade and was able to spend it to take one less needed for half to swing the game, the other direction, very exciting finish.
00:27:03
Speaker
Um, But Razorcrest on the board, another chassis that has basically been jailed for whether because people didn't want to play it or that it was too expensive or awkward with loadout or both or all all of whatever.
00:27:18
Speaker
Love it. Dale and Oberos and the Star Viper. Turns out that guys, remember, there are other pilots in Star Viper besides Murray. Yeah, it's just just super good.
00:27:29
Speaker
Funny enough, we're not ah we're not talking about this event in the show notes, but there was also a big event in Poland this weekend, last weekend, and this exact same Mando build won the event.
00:27:41
Speaker
Very different list, but this same Mando build. So I think it's something to keep your eye on. Yeah, it'd be nice to I'd love to pull out the Razor Crest again. Yeah, let's do it.
00:27:52
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, great first kind of foyer for the US and the first system open with the new points as well. Thank you again to Michael and the shaken pilots. for hosting 312 and um you know it feels good to be able to do right on our promise to cover more x-wing events in person and travel with our gear we're really proud of the stream that we we put together and where the channel is gone and so it was really awesome to kind of flex that and and and show some some important xwa x-wing to uh the world to anyone who wanted to watch so any last thoughts for california system open before we move on over to conquest
00:28:32
Speaker
Jorge almost did it. He almost did the three-peat. Yeah, yeah, and he has already won LVO twice this year. so and in one year yeah the canadian system open i was at just a couple weeks before wow so i didn't realize jorge only had just started playing in during covid wow um yeah yeah good good for them i was gonna say do we create a triple crown for x-wing i think we kind of have to do that at this point might have to do that yeah we start getting i can't think of a sweeter guy to win something like that oh for sure and then jorge
00:29:05
Speaker
um jorge is probably the model type of player that i'm hoping you and well i'm gonna give you guys i'm gonna butter you up really quick older you and jorge both are two people who have just been optimistic enough and played continued to play and show up in every way possible and um had a really good attitude about all of the things that have been going on with this game and and being uh receptive to what x the xwa has been trying to do and we honestly i hope that that rubs off on more people um i appreciate it very deep like very much so i just you know uh from a player perspective people always say hey thanks for streaming really thanks for everything you do for the community but there is the type of player that you guys are that you and jorge are um is is equally as important to the sustainability of of this game at this point so i just want to give you guys that shout out No, thank you.
00:29:59
Speaker
I just like X-Wing. I'll keep playing it. I roll dice. I play ships. Yeah. yeah I'll keep playing it whatever form people want to play it in. I just happen to really like the form it's in now. So.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we're I think we're on to something. i um I had felt really burnt out from playing and I was taking an extended break and I just didn't feel like playing the 20 point system anymore. i was just like, I just don't. And it was it had nothing to do with the quality of what you could play. I just didn't feel like it. And then this happened and it's just like, you know what?
Future Trends and Evolution of Gameplay
00:30:30
Speaker
I feel rejuvenated and optimistic about um um about the game more than I have felt in a while. It's because you got to put Defender Vader on the table. Well, i you know, I had never played Defender Vader. And then Rincey with it. Well, I asked to play Chance Engagement, so I think I kind of beat you by just choosing Chance Engagement. Look, that's what you needed.
00:30:51
Speaker
I know, well, I lose any other scenario. I'm i'm pretty pretty sure of that. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Well, can we play chance? He's like, don't know. That's incriminating, man. And no one needs to know I'm playing defender Vader. now like you know No one respects me anymore. no I'm happy you got your spark back. No, that's good. Yeah. I you i got to play defender Vader.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah. I will say defender. We got to talk about defender Vader and Alamo. by the We're about to, because all of a sudden, In the history of the game of X-Wing, we have events where there's not just one Defender Vader list. There's like on one hand, I can count with almost all my fingers Defender Vader lists. So really crazy.
00:31:29
Speaker
It was funny. I mean, this is a good segue, I guess, into into Alamo. and It is. my Yeah, my experience with it was when they announced Defender Vader, everyone read the card and was like, well, this has to be um ah like a million points because this is way too crazy of a ship. And when it came out, it was...
00:31:49
Speaker
it was already priced out of being worth it to play. So I think the new meta has made it the perfect meta for Defender Vader. Like I've never seen more Defender Vader at a tournament, I think since they even released the ship.
00:32:05
Speaker
you're Right, it's crazy. mean, this is a unicorn. Like Defender Vader is like a cheat code unicorn that like, you don't have the balls to take, that's half your list. In 2.0, he like 115 points.
00:32:19
Speaker
So, I mean, he was beefy. He was beefy boy. That's one of the biggest changes we see going from the system open to the Alamo Conquest is the number of three-ship lists. Before, we had 57% of the field was four lists. There was one person who brought a three-ship list. Now we have 15% of the field at the Alamo Conquest is three-ship lists.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah, and and before we really dive into I just want to preface, you know, for those that maybe aren't familiar, the Conquest series was a circuit of of monthly tournaments and across different time zones with an invitational system for a top 64 Conquest in December. So we started in April with the Windy City Conquest and the different themed Conquests through November. And we just finished this last one, the Alamo Conquest, that we're about to really do a deeper dive into. And I do want to read out the names of all of our winners, including our two time champion guest, Mr. Andrew Oller here, but several winning the inaugural number one first Windy City conquest with ah a pretty brutal field about 60 players, many of of whom ended up winning a conquest that was in this event.
00:33:38
Speaker
We also had ah Tom Veal winning the Crumpet conquest. We had a bloody Brit. take that one home um we had obi-wan win the pierogi conquest we had you know people in the u.s including one playing at midnight uh through the early mornings that is dedication snaggletooth mr joel springle winning the bay area conquest and then josh kalamuni playing the beating uh everyone out for the champion of the Middle Earth Conquest, the one that I had the most fun with. You guys got to watch those back. it's the The overlay names are quite hilarious. We also had Bay Knight, Taylor Jacobs win the Empanada Conquest.
00:34:22
Speaker
I'm going to give him a shout out. That's not one that we ended up having a podcast episode on, but he did win with resistance. um So just to say that that it is possible. that We've seen it now a couple of times. And lastly, Mr. Andrew Oler, didn't mention Gotham, but you you won Gotham and you won the Alamo Conquest. So congratulations on the two time. You clinched the number one seed in the brackets for winning two of these.
00:34:48
Speaker
And I have another customs form to fill out. Yeah, and unfortunately shipping to Canada is a nightmare right now. so It is, yeah. Yeah, shout out to David and Desi, the two people in Canada who for some reason, out of all the other people in Canada that I ship to, their stuff always gets sent back to me saying it needs a customs form.
00:35:08
Speaker
Shout out to those two. I feel bad for them. They have to wait so long to get their stuff. um but yeah so let's do a deeper dive i love that that call out andrew the 15 percent uh of the field for alamo final qualifier and also actually you know what pause shout out to andrew for playing his tail off and sneaking in with the final invite for uh the the global conquest uh you deserve it you really did even though you went two and two but i thought you played really well uh like all this conquest you played in so i think you deserve it Thanks. I know appreciate it. I mean, honestly, that's a more a testament to just sticking in there. If you show up, it might eventually roll down to you.
00:35:47
Speaker
Exactly. Don't drop. Don't drop, especially at the end. You're playing with You got to play. Yeah, you got to play it out. i know. Three ship lists, though. How many Vader Defender lists? Can we figure that one? Actually, in Pattern Analyzer, there were three Vader Defender lists. Yeah, there were three Vader Defenders. However, also interesting, ah no list was ever repeated.
00:36:07
Speaker
so Yeah. in the entire There's so many choices in X-Men. Yeah, in the entire... the the like The combination of ships. Yeah, no one repeated the same combination of ships. That's cool. They they were all unique. actually Which is...
00:36:21
Speaker
oh wait no i take that back there's uh two people that have a uh two resistance players brought the same list but other than that everybody else is uh has the same has a different uh combination of ships so i'm looking at uh ship count so empire 25 percent of the field and then rebels is 20 and then fo is 17 and a half and then republic at 15.
00:36:48
Speaker
Yeah, oh big, big little. Yeah, I mean, we're probably going to see serious differences and discrepancies between online events and in-person events, U.S. based. And then and then same sort of thing across ah seas with the Europe folks as well, the European folks. But I just want to give a call out Iden Versio Battle of Yavin TIE Interceptor. Yes.
00:37:13
Speaker
uh starting to see some play especially at a cheap cost she's insane 11 points she is a serious ship now yeah which is great multiple times uh restrict damage not cancel it but i would i would rather play a ship that has recurring charges that allows me to a few times a game restrict or limit damage versus a one-time charge like a tie. They're different, of course, in different uses, but tie interceptor. I didn't, uh, as soon as, as the product of battle of Yavin hit the shelves, she was DOA unless you're playing the scenario. Yeah. so uh we're seeing that with captain yore captain yore has gotten i've seen at both california system open and the alamo conquest here countess riot the defenders when we're talking about ah empire lots of defense is a theme tie defenders jendon getting a couple of uh of games um including our first game on stream was defenders versus defenders which was pretty epic um can we all still agree that the tie defender elite configuration is generally pretty bad it's it's garbage unfortunately because that was what that was the theme of the game in game one
00:38:26
Speaker
Was TIE Defender Elite Vader versus the non-TIE Defender Elite? Like, ah it was Gendin and X1 Vader. But we saw that the the fact that Fultz Scaris and Vader Defender had been limited by this configuration cost them the game.
00:38:46
Speaker
ah because they couldn't be defensive enough. They just took a ton of damage. And, you know, it's just like, I can't think of a configuration that is worse for a chassis than the TIE Defender Elite config. I actually am so confident in saying that I think it's the number one worst configuration in the game for what it does to a ship.
00:39:05
Speaker
It makes it so much worse. I don't care if it can double tap. It canno it cannot have a white 4K and it cannot full throttle. I don't know about that. Yeah, i think i think I mean, losing losing the full throttle is most damaging part of it.
00:39:18
Speaker
yeah. Losing the white 4K is a huge deal, though, too. Like, I don't know why they felt that was necessary as well. I can understand removing full throttle, but I agree, right? Like, why did you have to also still remove the 4K? Like, it was overcorrecting because they thought the double tap was that dangerous. And it really only is super, super good with Vader, or can be, with Vader and maybe Vessary. Maybe. Vessary, yeah. But it has to be, you have really line something up.
00:39:45
Speaker
which does intrigue me a little bit. I don't know if it's good, but it does does pique my interest. That's interesting.
00:39:55
Speaker
well and then Also, Jendin has it, but the rest of Jendin is just so good that it doesn't really matter. Gets around. Yeah. Yeah, Jendon still can do the white 4K, but he gets the free target lock, so he gets that like he's like in the middle. like Oh, he can do the white 4K. Yeah, he gets the the dial is unchanged for Colonel Jendon. He just can't ah full throttle evade. He can full throttle, quote-unquote, full throttle target locks.
00:40:20
Speaker
Right, so so that's the that's the compromise. is yeah you You lose full throttle, but you get the target lock 4K, and that's still pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I think that this is i a, I'm just talking about, I guess, the defenders in general, now that we're just on Empire. I think that this may be a symptom of just the power level coming down. And so it's allowing these like big damage dealing pieces to emerge like again. Absolutely.
00:40:50
Speaker
this This data point doesn't necessarily mean too much, but um I mean, so look at the pilot initiative distribution. I think this is, at well, it's still interesting if you go across. So we're sitting at four, um between three and four for the most pilots combined than any other combination of two. So, which is...
00:41:12
Speaker
ah sorry, actually, there we have 32 I6s, so I stand corrected. But there you have more threes and fours than we ever dreamed of, like over a year ago.
00:41:23
Speaker
um xw did a good job of starting to reintroduce lower initiative as a playable feature and option and list building they did a really good job with that but 29 instances of i3 41 of i four and then we have 42 and 32 for i5s and i6s so the alamo conquest uh dominated by the fours through sixes really yeah very you know talking about 2.0 to when i think of 2.0 and the kind of player i was aces i was a big ace player uh let me look at california system opens uh insights and just see if we had a similar trend with number of pilots taken at those initiatives i4s and i5s were the most taken and then not as many i6s 16 instances so yeah what does that say about the i1s i2s i mean how many great i1 i2 choices are there finn comes to mind i mean what else can you guys think of that's like truly
00:42:21
Speaker
lot of the generics. I think a lot of the generics are more playable than people are probably giving them credit for. yeah TIE Fighters. is The red what what FO has the Zealot. the in the Yeah, the Red Fury Zealot. yeah We'll talk about them soon, but Rex?
00:42:41
Speaker
Oh my god, yeah. wampa Wampa gets a lot of play. And I think it's still a pretty good value. Yeah. Let's ah let's talk about what what performed well well leading up to Andrew's list. We got ah we got a cool spread of the the top four had a combination of three ship. We had five ship. We had we had six ship CIS four ship FO.
00:43:07
Speaker
That is cool that that our top four players not one ship count was the same. Yeah. I want to shout out. ah Felipe, who had a great comeback on our stream. That'll be up on YouTube. you can watch the VOD back if you're subscribed our Twitch channel as well as soon as you want to.
00:43:26
Speaker
um Against Liam Lee, another great game. Great run for him as well, by the way. Shout out to Liam. Yeah, and his dad Brack. Cool folks. um But a Watt Tambor General Grievous son fact list accompanied by three Discord missile carrying Trade Federation drones. Yeah, undefeated with that list. I was his round three win. How did you feel going up against that list? Because Wat Tambor was incredible in in the game on stream.
00:43:55
Speaker
Wat Tambor was incredible in my game, too. I mean, you know, you couldn't ask for a better Kraken carrier that can, you know, even do damage. I was trying to to catch him with, a you know, Soontir Fel. And i he was able to sit in the middle of the the board where I didn't want to be and took a chunk out of my decimator. And I just like wasn't able to to fully destroy him. But I mean, it's a lot of of ships to to chew through with this list.
00:44:23
Speaker
Our game was trying to think. I think it was salvage mission to six ships against my three ship list on salvage was also pretty, pretty tough. But no, absolutely solid list.
00:44:36
Speaker
I'm personally very happy. i mean, I'm happy for Felipe. He had an awesome run. I'm very happy that I got to play Tharland in the final because I think Felipe run the bones on me. Yeah. I think that matchup is way worse for me than the three-ship Empire.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a good segue into Tharlin bringing Colonel Jendon and the defender BOE Jendon there, the standardized whisper, um basically able to to to acquire target locks, cloak, recloak after shooting. Really good. Very, very, very good and also really cheap. and and you can't lock it yeah can't lock it's you know maybe a little too cheap and then uh just a simple x1 vader reminds me of 2.0 just having hate and fire control system and that's it that's all super efficient though does what he needs to be super efficient um his matchup against you was was difficult because of what your list is able to do and we're about to get to that but it was really hard to watch for me because he was just splitting fire
00:45:39
Speaker
He did not shoot bigs. He was allergic to shooting bigs. Yeah, exactly. He ended up back. He actually was in positions where I thought he was going to really eat it. And then he didn't. And I was like, oh, you got to take advantage of this. Like you you didn't suffer the consequences like we thought you would. And then he you know couldn't take advantage. But your list puts a lot of pressure uh on on ah on players there's a lot of synergies it's it's it's good like talk to me about your list you had five ship list yeah modica bigs kyle and captain rex walk us through it yeah uh it's kind of a 2.0 fair ship rebel bullshit again
00:46:18
Speaker
Sorry. sure um um yeah you could We swear all the time. i you're good no no um It was initially built around Boudicca, Biggs, because I think that they're very good, efficient pieces in Rebels right now.
00:46:35
Speaker
Boudicca being 12 points and getting pretty much everything she can dream of. And Biggs just sitting beside her and being 10 points and being able to keep her alive. We played around with some pieces. me and Kaylin Wong built this list together.
00:46:50
Speaker
And we kind of discovered that Rex is really good for how cheap he is. He's criminally cheap. And has and has a talent which I think he's only had ever in XWA land.
00:47:05
Speaker
So him being able to get snapshot, which like snapshot is kind of a meme card. You never expect it to do anything ever, but being able to snap something and suppress a fire it is extremely annoying.
00:47:17
Speaker
Rex is just an absolute nuisance to deal with. Can you walk us through the condition card? Like what what happens when when he shoots, like how you remove it, why it's good? Essentially, all it is is if Rex shoots you, he applies a condition card to you, which essentially says if you shoot anybody but Captain Rex, you roll one less attack die.
00:47:34
Speaker
And it goes away if Rex is shot at by anybody. So you can shoot at him with another friendly ship and clear the suppressive fire. Or if Rex, well, dies.
00:47:44
Speaker
But also if Rex does not shoot, it goes away. But in a list with Biggs and Boudica, where Boudica, if you don't shoot her, she she shoots you back. Biggs takes damage for friendly ships and splits damage really well.
00:48:00
Speaker
You add in this other like wrinkle of Captain Rex that just is a little nuisance who harasses your big guns and tells them, shoot me, right?
00:48:11
Speaker
yeah i mean dude there were moments in this game where he was range one of bodica and had the most impossible choice to make like do i shoot at this ship that has beskar and concordia or do i shoot at the ship that i need to shoot at and get boned because i'm already gonna get shot at range one one time hits i make it twice very hard Yeah, and you have best scar optics and clan training and predator, which is kind of the the creme de la creme build for these Fang fighters. It's just chef's kiss. That's kind of everything you want. You get you get the defensiveness, you get the free locks. You get the the bonus focus with clan training, and you get the reroll, the double mods potential with Predator. i mean And then you get her bonus attack ability. And at I-4, which has become more prevalent in the game, I-4s, she's not as likely to get picked off by a higher initiative in this landscape.
00:49:05
Speaker
So just a huge wrinkle for especially an aces player playing three ships like Tharlin. Tharlin had a great run. He is that final game. ah he it his list collapsed on him. I mean, it it literally it it could have happened faster, but it was a nasty game to watch. I mean, you scored 62 points by the end of that game. 62 to 13. He didn't kill. He didn't end up killing a ship.
00:49:35
Speaker
Yeah. He did like four damage or five damage, including the regen from Biggs with Chopper, which is also freaking annoying, dude, that you can do that. So annoying. Yeah, regen Biggs is also a choice. Regen Biggs is just disgusting and dumb. Like, come on, man. Over the tournament, though, the real winner of the list, despite being built around Bodica Biggs, the real winner of the list is Fenrao Sheethope.
00:50:04
Speaker
The ship has been in jail pretty much since 2.5. And I think, including me, we all just forgot how good he is. Oh, dude, I remember playing him with Hera.
00:50:16
Speaker
Especially with the ship count coming down, Fen being able to just neuter and attack... at will and being an i six coordinate, like those two things alone are so incredibly valuable.
00:50:30
Speaker
It makes him, i don't know, he's probably not gonna be staying at 10 points. if you're building a rebel list you don't have to play the the bs i was on but i would um highly recommend taking a look at fen at 10 points yeah yeah there would be a moment where like oh fen's finally dead and then you would spend a force i'm like he's got the child like i'd forget about that yes and the child you that list is so silly for like how cheap it's stuff you like regen and a child on all these cheap chips Yeah, Fen'Ral the last addition to the list we came up with, and he ended up being yeah probably the best part of the list. The I6 coordinate is so powerful. I i remember um just like i just like the power of a jam at I6. Like when I was playing Han, Luke, and Wedge years ago, being able to roll up to somebody at I6, be the last to move in full, everything has evolved in the board in front of you and you're just like, this is what I'm going to do. I see everything that I need to do in front of me. coordinate here jam or whatever you could do at i6 any either of those two things they're so potent at the highest initiative it completely changes the dynamic of a game you can barrel roll people out of arcs that moved at i2 or three i mean it's crazy mm-hmm Fen having the Force really means that I'm leaning into coordinating every single turn with him if possible. Yeah.
00:51:51
Speaker
And it could be everything from as simple as giving my Rex, who's in the middle of the big fire, an evade token, to barrel rolling Big Zerbotika out of our two, just taking a lock with someone so that the crackback really hurts. Or my favorite trick, which happened twice on the fighting table, you coordinate the jam to Kyle Katarn at I6.
00:52:15
Speaker
no yeah it got a lot of people yeah yeah uh or just kyle even just uh even just a lock rotate you know what was really interesting was the game that you had against riley one of your former teammates or current or something order 66 yeah he's also a local of mine so yeah and he uh and i played him at worlds it's a good guy uh but I so could have sworn I thought he was going to win that game. And you just you just yeeted the entire rug from underneath him so fast. I mean, like all of a sudden, all of his hawks were dead and he was dead man switching himself and it was snowballing so hard. And it made, you know, if if people tuned in 20 or 30 minutes into the game, they would have had no idea that it looked like you might have been on the ropes for an engagement. and that things were going to tilt in his favor. I'm not sure if you felt that way as as a player in that game. No, I was pretty worried about that game.
00:53:09
Speaker
That game came down to two big things. One, the other piece the list haven't talked Kyle Katarn with just Kyle Katarn's ability to be able to perfect information through focuses.
00:53:20
Speaker
So I had a second player, so he was able to pay lob tokens. away from me and then i was able to throw them with kyle which was a big deal so i could guarantee a token that paylob couldn't take and the i6 coordinate i was able to bodica got bumped into paylob was able to coordinate the barrel roll off of paylob so she was range one yeah and then i clamped training before paylob engaged so he couldn't steal that focus There's that that game against Riley.
00:53:49
Speaker
You had ah Fen had so friendly bumps and didn't have arc on any of the ships that had arc on your ships. Right. And you couldn't do that i absolutely screwed up. and And so that's where I was like, oh, my God, like, I think this is kind of I think scum is going to win this game. And I'm sure everyone thought that. But you recovered. And that's another thing about that list is there's a lot of Rube Goldberg, like Rebels list that if you like bump one time where you, so you know, you miss the coordinate at the first round or like one thing goes wrong. you can't recover, like it's over. And this list has serious recovery potential, or at least you demonstrated it. Do you agree with that? Is that, is that would you agree with that overall, that that list and the general nature of those types of lists can be like that?
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah, i the Rube Goldberg lists, it's funny because i've I've been known to fly quite a few of them, but I actually typically don't like them because exactly that happens. One thing goes wrong or one ship dies and the whole list just fizzles. So,
00:54:46
Speaker
um This and Heratani, the other list from way ages ago that I like flew and I guess popularized, are very similar in that they're very defensive oriented lists that just tank stupid amounts of damage. But they are a lot harder to shut off because of their defensive capability.
00:55:09
Speaker
If you can crack the nut you can and get ahead, you will probably tear this list apart, but that is not easy to do in a lot of situations um was gonna say there's a lot of redundancy built in yeah a lot of redundancy everything yeah does its job really well and helps do the job of other what other ships wanted so yep you are once again the architect of of what what's going to give people serious heartburn and and ptsd and then be like wait a minute my casual games aren't going always be a like this right you know those sorts of thoughts No, and I will say don't fly this list to casuals, casual nights, if you want friends.
00:55:49
Speaker
This is not a fun one. It is a list that the agency is entirely on your opponent for most of the game, and it is not fun to play against.
00:56:00
Speaker
I will say the list is harder to fly than you think it is. Engage is really easy because you kind of just unga bunga block joust with it. But because everything's like weird matching initiatives and different dials and stuff, it does get pretty messy. And I find it fun, but um'm messy and weird. And you have to really fly by the of your pants in the mid game to try to keep everything tethered. And like Boudicca has a very different dial than Biggs, who has a very different dial than Rex. If you can withstand the Boudicca shot, I think you have to sink everything into Kyle. like i You kill Biggs or Kyle. That's the secret right now. I'll tell everybody. you have to eat the Boudica shot once or twice, and you just have to kill Biggs.
00:56:43
Speaker
Yep. For sure. And and like this is a list, too, where everything's got to kind of stay close together. like Correct. yeah You cannot position it. yeah I did really mean things to Jorge, who was dancing around me, but that was mostly at the cost of Fenn being able to perfect information reposition ships around his I-5 Cloakoon.
00:57:07
Speaker
e And then an early target lock I took with Biggs being able to clip an ion torpedo. Like one of the two times I shot it. The ion torpedoes are just there for chopper most of the time. But I did shoot it and ionized his Anakin. It's amazing how ion torpedoes serves more of a purpose for cats, for... ah is it It's not Cat Solis, it's ah who who's the Joy Rekhoff, and now for Big's and chopper, than it has ever served as actual weapon. And it's a good weapon, but it's just funny that it serves like great card purposes more than it gets used as a weapon.
00:57:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's situationally good. It is four dice. I think against Riley, I shot it just because it's four dice is better than three dice. And he had a one hull left on a ship, and then I shot it against 4A, and those are the only two times I shot it.
00:57:55
Speaker
For sure. um I included a link to the Windy City Trials, which just seems random, but just curious from like all the way where you are now versus all the way then back in in April. And just a couple of things stand out to me that are actually worth mentioning. One is that uh back in april for the windy city trials nearly 50 or sorry uh nearly uh 60 57 and a half and 0.6 uh were running five ship lists so of the field more than half were five ship lists and uh 25 were four ship and then now at the alamo conquest
00:58:33
Speaker
you had 47.5% running four shipless and 32.5% running five. So what does that say? Is that five ships is still something that you should expect to see, but four ships is going to be probably the common commonplace now moving forward. Alfred's system opens similar with those metrics as well.
00:58:55
Speaker
This part of the reason my list did as well as it did at this event, was that the ship count did come down from 5 to 4 average. um That matters a lot. A, being the higher ship count on average, means that I have a little bit more objective pressure than normally a list that flies in a block on one side of the board does.
00:59:15
Speaker
And B, it means that all my defensive stacking matters infinitely more the less guns there are on the other side of the table, right? Yeah, I mean, the I6 coordinate force, token sharing, all of those things, jamming, like, you can be flexible um to play objectives, too, and you did that with Ancient Knowledge. You were easily able to play the objective.
00:59:36
Speaker
Your opponent, I mean, the less ships you have, the more pressure is on you when your opponent decides to play the objective. You're like, I have to respond and I can't afford to versus you are like, I can apply pressure and afford to do, to do, to do that, you know, and and that's a luxury. And then in ah and a, in a five ship count list and this meta is going to help, help allow you to do that.
00:59:57
Speaker
um the other thing, Windy City Trials had ah the three factions, top three, Resistance, Scum, and Rebels, and then Alamo, we have Empire, Rebels, FO,
01:00:10
Speaker
republic and then you hit resistance and then you hit scum so small sample again i just think these are this is interesting to see how people are feeling when these these new points drop and there's an event where they can kind of flex this is the list i want to try or i want to play so what are people kind of for the first time what impression do they want to leave or what are they trying to go with first and so you're seeing a bit of an inverse with with what people ah brought for Alamo versus what they, what they brought for a Windy City in terms of the faction representation as well, which is interesting to me.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what are let's talk about, we we'll be wrapping up here soon. we got We'll talk about Adapticon briefly, but what are some overall, we've talked about ship count. Where do you see um other trends for this game going?
01:01:01
Speaker
um Or even even if it's not necessarily informed purely by data, because we don't have a ton of it, but maybe a prediction? Or or what what are your thoughts in that regard moving forward?
01:01:14
Speaker
It's kind of hard to say. I've been looking at list builder and stuff a lot and trying to find out what's good. I think there's a lot of... I think of like aces and an ace archetype are definitely more viable than they have been like just pure aces in a while. Sure. Yeah. That's a good but are pure aces versus featuring an ice right before. Yeah. It's supposed to like featuring an ice. I think you have a little more time to turtle around the board and, and, um,
01:01:47
Speaker
dodge out of shots instead of you know taking a turn to double reposition and not get shot at, and then losing all three objectives and losing the game. um I think you have a little more time to do that. I think generics are something definitely interesting to look at. i don't know how much of a toll they'll make, especially at least in the filler slots.
01:02:08
Speaker
A lot of them are very, very cheap. And they can they can take load out in a lot of cases too. yeah And they're worth looking at. Compared to 2.5 even the start of XWA land generics have not been particularly good or desirable to take in any fashion.
01:02:25
Speaker
Where now they, I think they're worth looking at, especially in certain chassis. Yeah, i would I would agree with that. yeah Like I said, this is kind of, to me, it feels very 2.0-y plus objectives, which I feel like it is striking kind of a good balance. I do think with the the lower ship counts, I feel that we're going to be moving into a high initiative meta again.
01:02:53
Speaker
I fear that as well. don't I don't know if it's a fear, but I definitely think like I'm going to take four high initiative good ships over like two or three of them, and then my two glub shadows, right?
01:03:07
Speaker
Yeah. just found yeah i mean When Whisper is 15 points and Aiden feels like an ace too. i mean a Yeah, that's for sure. It's going to be a theme. Yeah, I will say, I guess I didn't i didn't really mean to say, i didn't I don't fear that is as much either. um and Unless, like I just hope that it just gets to a point where it doesn't feel too samey, where everything kind of homogenizes around, you know, just kind of like the same archetypes that you'll see over and over and over again. yeah.
01:03:39
Speaker
I also think like lower initiative jousting efficiency stuff is back on the table again. um And less of these mix-armed, mix-arms kind of lists and more like, you know, you can just build a, I'm going to, you know, joust you and hit you really hard in the face.
01:03:58
Speaker
<unk> i I would also say that I do feel because... Objectives have been nerfed a little bit. I think that's what is leading people to this not joust-y kind of format where if you are... I experience this more just heuristically, I think, like as an ace player that...
01:04:19
Speaker
there is a lot more time to dirtle, especially i would say with the lower ship count that we can now go to later and later rounds that we don't have to finish this game or get our points by rounds five or six, but we're going to really see them in round seven and nine that we can spend the first three turns setting up and, and trying to outmaneuver your opponents a little bit more than just do the straight jow. So to me, that's been actually a breath of fresh air with this, ah this new point system.
01:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. You don't have to try to force an engagement turn two like you had to in 2-5. And half points keeps you honest in that regard. you know If you're going to make a commitment, you're you're committing more. There's a higher stakes to that that decision. Absolutely. Oh, well, I'll just out double mod and alpha my opponent before they can kill my ship so I win out because I won't lose any points and they'll I'll get all their points. you know Not the same dynamic.
01:05:16
Speaker
I think it's really interesting. Yeah, I agree with everything you guys are saying, though. I believe that the door has been opened for pure as you said, pure aceless to become a thing again. And and that's going to that we might see a little bit more of a a skill ceiling being maybe being raised or or just being people reaching for it if they're going to challenge themselves with aces.
01:05:45
Speaker
Especially some, like, again, Whisper, standardized Whisper is is very cheap right now. So there are there are some things that we probably will see end up getting adjusted um before or right after Worlds.
01:05:58
Speaker
I have talked to XWA about their plans for making adjustments before worlds there will not be any sort of comprehensive points change before worlds but there might probably will maybe be some some some tweaks to things that uh would be concerning for you know the ultimate competitive event of the year of the season just a heads up for anybody worrying that xwa would would would change a bunch of things again you know we all agree it's time to kind of sit with this for a while yeah Let's talk about Adepticon as we just start to wrap this up.
01:06:30
Speaker
Adepticon, aka Worlds, for X-Wing in 2026, is happening in Milwaukee, here in the U.S. s That's in Wisconsin, um from March 25th to the 29th.
01:06:41
Speaker
That's Wednesday through Friday. Or, sorry, Sunday. Wednesday through Sunday, March 25th to the 29th. 312 Squadron is streaming Worlds. they made that formal announcements that's the biggest milestone we've could ever hit as a channel is streaming worlds that's exciting so incredible really hyped to to to be there with everybody and to to show off what we've been able to accomplish and our channel and and our standards and in front of a global audience so you're saying we have a chance to win now because you're not playing right nick
01:07:14
Speaker
I don't know if I've ever been that much of a threat to people like to to people like you, Oler, but ah I'm not too bad at this game. So sure. Let's go with that. Thanks for blowing up my ego a little bit. Yeah, I mean, it's going feel weird not to play for sure, but I'm OK with it. You know, I can kind of the longer I've done this, the more I can understand where Dion drifted into. I'm just going to stream like like.
01:07:36
Speaker
Like, you know, obviously I'm not saying I'm drifting into I'm not going to stream at all. But just that that mindset. It's like that. This is like my obligation, first and foremost, is to stream the event. And I care more about the community and social aspect than I do about pushing ships around all day and exhausting myself. I think I'll be stressed out enough doing the streaming. So other things to to now be stressed about. But it'll be a great time.
01:08:00
Speaker
A couple of reminders for folks who are who are thinking about or planning to go to Worlds. First of all, I hope you can go. And if you can't, you should tune in to watch the four days of X-Wing. the The event cart preview, which is like the events for Adepticon, all the games, all the things you can do, that doesn't go live until December 15th.
01:08:18
Speaker
So a lot of people were like saying, I didn't even think X-Wing at Worlds was happening. That same logic, no no games are happening Adepticon right now because you can't, there's no information on any of that available on Adepticon's official site yet. So just be patient. It is happening 100% guaranteed. We have literally been looking at the floor the floor plan for where we will be playing and streaming. So like it's happening. And there will be an and announcement but for XWA regarding that those details soon.
01:08:46
Speaker
But remember, December 15th is the preview. And then event registration will be open january eleventh um i don't know about you guys but this seems a lot later than i'm used to um it's happening later in march but to be able to register happening just a a couple of three months beforehand uh seems different than what i'm used to maybe i'm just crazy i think it opened in november december before yes yeah yeah this is a quicker turnaround so yeah for sure um but this is where you get the inside scoop
01:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, this is this is I'm basically leaking this. I don't think I'm going to get into too much trouble, but there will be I'm stealing this from the XWA group, too, as well. But the plan right now, again, subject to change, but but very much likely pretty much close to being finalized is having a heat on Thursday, 26th.
01:09:37
Speaker
And a heat on Friday, a different heat, heat two on Friday, the 27th. And then there would be a Saturday day two, similar format as last year in all regards. And a final slash top cut day on Sunday, the 29th. So the quote unquote competitive events start Thursday, the 26th, then run through the 29th to final table on Sunday. There will be pods on ah and side events.
01:10:05
Speaker
on all of the days and there will be doubles events as well and maybe be even more um we are securing the space for people to be able to play casually as well we're working on incredible prizes i just dove into that chat and took a look at some things that almost made me faint so there's a lot to look forward to um just keep in mind uh i you will have lots of opportunity to play X-Wing with XWA and your crew and your friends at Worlds. That's exciting.
01:10:33
Speaker
That's so exciting. I'm so excited. I'm so i'm hoping this here hoping to make it. I hope so, man. Hope to see you there. Yeah. Yeah. i Again, anyone that's able to make it, this is ah this is an important transition year, 2026, a transition and growth year. There's been growing pains so far.
01:10:52
Speaker
ever it It just it happens with what with what a game goes through when it isn't officially supported anymore. And the response from XWA and the community has been better than most games have received when they've gone through the same thing. So ah just, you know, if you, there will be a lot of people going and there's, you know, unless you're looking for a reason not to play, you should go if you're able to. It's just so much fun.
01:11:19
Speaker
It is. And I totally understand cost. Yeah, I get that. I totally it. That's um the most valid reason not to show up. If you can't afford it, no, if you've been to Adepticon, you know, when it when it was in Schaumburg, Schaumburg is great. But this last year, that now this is Milwaukee, it was just so nice to have, like, so much to do around the convention center. It was so accessible. Um, and for people flying into, I thought maybe it might be a little more difficult getting from the airport, but they were like, no, there's like shuttles that go like right there. People could take the train like right there. So, um, like even that wasn't as much a concern.
01:11:55
Speaker
And, uh, it was just, I don't know also if it's because the weather decided to be like 80 and sunny for the, for like that first day that we were there too, but it was just like a wonderful time.
01:12:06
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately i missed last year. So I haven't had the Milwaukee experience. So I'm excited. <unk> Got to come to the MKE. Yes, sir. Yep. It's a, it's, it's a easier area to navigate. Like Andrew said, more to do.
01:12:22
Speaker
ah just feels more like you're a part of a, of an ecosystem of of a city uh an actual city yeah then yeah schaumburg and chicago are far apart they are not remotely close um 45 minute drive with traffic's not too bad yeah all the restaurants aren't chains yeah exactly yeah people saying i can't wait to go to chicago for worlds like ah hu mean maybe chicago o'hare but that's about it um All right. Well, guys, um thank you so much for jumping on. Mr. Oler, congrats on your two-time Conquest Championship. Yeah, big time. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
01:13:00
Speaker
appreciate you playing in them. Yeah, it was a blast. I tried to play in as many as I could. so And congrats to the other Andrew, Mr. Andrew Kuba, for getting his invite to play alongside Oler. The Drew Bowl will continue in December for the Global Conquest.
01:13:18
Speaker
That's right. All right. Well, thank you everyone so much for listening to this episode. This is episode 34. Thank you for continuing to support 312 Squadron of we use as we have finally hit the milestone of streaming the X-Wing World Championship at Adapticon in 2026.
01:13:36
Speaker
We would not have been able to do it without the resilience of the community, the support you all have given us, whether it was just following and liking our posts on Facebook, watching, commenting on our or videos on YouTube, tuning in for a live stream, subcriing gifting a sub subscription to a friend, supporting us on Patreon in the most generous way you can.
01:13:55
Speaker
All of those things, and listening to our podcasts, of course, ah and in our Discord and playing in our leagues and tournaments and all the things that could go on and on and on. Those all have contributed to to making this channel and this game continue to to to move forward and grow and exist.
01:14:11
Speaker
So i just a big heartfelt thank you as we head into the end of the year. There's a lot to reflect on and a lot to be excited about. If you aren't following us on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook, you should. You can check out the links in the description.
01:14:24
Speaker
And we are super hyped to continue to support XWA through our Patreon reward efforts. We are creating incredible custom commission cards. base plates stickers uh everything you could need to be able to show off and create serious fomo for the people who are not a part of our patreon so if you want to get in on that action check out our patreon tiers it will be worth it and you will keep us going well that's going to do it for this one my name is nick sperry and i'm andrew kuba and i'm andrew roller we're signing off good night