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Episode 32: New Changes, Lone Star Open, and Pierogis!
85 Plays13 days ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba, Nick Sperry, and Samuel Graebner, discuss the recent changes to scenarios and scoring, as well as the Lone Star Open and Pierogi Conquest!
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 Topics Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody. You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Kuba. I'm Nick Sperry. And I'm Samuel Gravener.
Pierogi Conquest Updates and New Scenario
00:00:13
Speaker
So we are going to be talking ah but briefly about the Pierogi Conquest. We have some exciting new updates with new points and rules changes with a brand new scenario.
00:00:24
Speaker
And then later, we're going to check in with Nick and see how the Lone Star Open went in Texas.
Pierogi Conquest Tournament Highlights
00:00:30
Speaker
Without further ado, Nick, you were running the Pirogia Conquest. How'd it go? Yeah, like this this conquest, ah it went it went very well as a tournament, and I will say it was an incredible challenge for me to not ah pass out from exhaustion. This was a a bigger challenge than the Crumpet Conquest, which I woke up around the same time, but for some reason, there was a ah ah greater rejection of my energy levels for this one. So it was a great challenge for me and I was something that i ah was able to fight through. um But the games were great.
00:01:02
Speaker
The turnout ended up being pretty solid. This was one that I was actually a little bit worried about ah because the last minute we had ah like less than 20 people signed up and we actually ended up with, if you include drops, about almost 42 people.
00:01:15
Speaker
So that was a nice little late push there. a lot of people from the U.S. getting up really, really early in the morning or just pulling an all-nighter, like in my case, to play X-Wing. And then, of course, our European players.
00:01:28
Speaker
um But yeah, overall, it was a solid events. um we ah We had two players from the same state in the U.S., from Washington State, playing the final, ah Republic versus First Order.
Impact of Scenario and Rules on Faction Performance
00:01:41
Speaker
and obi-wan beating art vandalay which is a play on the seinfeld george sustanza character uh which is hilarious uh obi-wan taking the championship plaque um you know and both players getting their invites as well so want to give obi-wan a shout out he wasn't able to make it today um but because of the changes that happened shortly after ah we kind of agreed we wanted to talk about pierogi but we we wouldn't really be able to do as much of a conversation around it given that uh this was before the new scenario and rules changes ah scoring changes took place so we'll definitely get to that yeah uh but yeah um you know i i sent you guys the insights for pierogi just to take a look and uh yet again a different spread of top three factions but scum continues to kind of sit there in the top three or four overall in all of these events that we've been hosting uh rebels actually kind of
00:02:30
Speaker
shooting up to to number one again just to reiterate to folks at home this was before ah any changes to the scenarios so just kind of keep that in mind i actually don't expect i'm curious what your guys's thoughts are on this but i don't expect the meta to completely change uh it will shift though right i i think the the same factions will continue to be popular um in terms of their performance ah it remains to be seen how these new changes affect them but yeah what do you guys think of uh kind of the breakdown of of a performance and and factions in this one.
Analysis of Andrew's First Order List
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I was going to say it's a nice to see first order, ah breaking through into, but I mean, to make it all the way to the final table. yeah i mean i definitely i i can definitely uh talk about a list that uh that andrew aka art vandalay has played a lot it's nice to see two bombers fo bombers in a five ship uh first order list um you know it's you get a you get a kind of lean uh silencer kylo um for the uh we got the six point version with ion missile sensor scramblers and malice
00:03:37
Speaker
And then you have Commander Malaris, the four-pointer there with the ultra-efficient ability, double mods, essentially, for defense and offense, especially for offense. Shield upgrade, concussion missiles, fire control system. And then you've got those two bombers, Breach with delayed fuses, proton bombs, plasma torpedoes, feedback ping, and Proud Tradition.
00:03:55
Speaker
along with jewel jergerod who has a bomb with generator ion missiles and feedback ping feedback ping is a huge part of this list agent terex provides the sensor buoy suites and proud tradition so essentially because of uh the buoys uh you you can a lot of opportunities combined with feedback ping to get locks start an engagement or when ships enemy ships move into range um of the bomblets etc so uh pretty nasty and can really focus fire and kill box out of nowhere I mean, you guys hear that?
Versatility of Republic Lists
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. yeah is that the jets? Yes. All right. It's the air and water show today while recording. So, um, you Andrew might have to end up doing a little editing with the Thunderbird flies over. Hopefully when I'm not talking.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. ah fear Yeah, for me, too. So you might you might get to catch some of the air and water show for sure. ah Yeah, I mean, this is just like this is what FO does. Just that that classic list being, you know taking taking those free passive mods and.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, just all around good. Yeah. um Sam, do you want to break down ah the winning list? Obi-Wan's Republic list for me is also kind of fun because you get two Adas in there. Yeah, absolutely. So this is ah but Republic with Anakin Skywalker in the Eta-2 with a heavy laser cannon.
00:05:09
Speaker
Obi-Wan Kenobi also in the Eta-2 with ion cannon and targeting computer. got Plo Koon with patience, compassion, and calibrated laser targeting in the Delta-7. Rick Olay with fire control system, plasma torpedoes, and R2C4. Pretty classic Rick loadout.
00:05:25
Speaker
And 212th Battalion pilot in the LAT with agile gunner and sync console. pretty Pretty synergistic list here. We got we got a lot of ah like helping out each other and and some surprisingly like punchy ships for being as fragile as they are.
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's I just want to talk about Plo Koon real quick. This is something that I think a lot of us have became very, very aware, especially at four points. You know, the way he's been priced in the past over the last two iterations of the game is is fluctuated. He's always been a little pricier.
00:06:04
Speaker
um But he is a four pointer and, in you know, the 2.5 point structure, and he has arguably one of the greatest support abilities in the game of X-Wing, his ability to pass green tokens, green, ah you know, to focus evade tokens. He can take either um himself and pass it up to range two.
00:06:24
Speaker
by spending a force which he has two of um to a friendly ship or and I've seen this done against me and I laughed out loud and said that's awesome is ah when you decide to reload like Anakin reloading a plaza torpedo in the Y-Wing for example I know we're not in this list but and for example he could be like hey Annie I'll just take that disarm for you I'm not shooting anyways so he can take orange tokens back up to range two same range band requirement and so 2.0 when he was getting played in a lot of three ship republic lists people you his ability was just almost a non-factor barely used ah and now he has become ah fantastic agile support piece that can still punch hard um with clt at i5 double reposition capabilities you know he is such a great part of what makes good republic players good with good republic lists
00:07:20
Speaker
um super fun to watch that ability get played yeah also you really don't want to shoot at him either because he's very evasive yeah yeah it's one of those things where you should you don't you you choose to shoot up low it's because you've got a couple of shots and two or three in into him right um yeah if you can get him off the board in the first couple of rounds uh you know you're in you're in really good shape because the adas also need that extra support um if they're evading the whole time they're not going to be doing as much damage um granted it the the lat will provide a fire convergence rerolls at times but um it's really fun to see uh really riding on the the razor's edge and being pretty bold is is obi-wan here uh taking two adas and flow the squishiest and most fragile possible but yet potentially incredibly evasive
00:08:14
Speaker
ships it just depends on how uh how average your green dice can be um but a really cool matchup right because yeah you just see such diversity across archetypes across within you know uh each list um you get to see so a little bit of support you get to see the fo being very thematic to themselves and and being supportive but in an ah ah and an aggressive way ah to to try to kill box and get double modded missile shots off right so it was really cool to see um this play out on stream and um Juan ended up having a really great game and and kind of taking it away and pulling away at the end the thing I like about this list and what I like about most Republic in this kind of like post AMG XWA era
00:09:00
Speaker
is how versatile the list is, especially at playing objectives along with like, like it's, it's fragile, but it's, it's, it's got the ability to play a multiple roles.
Impact of New Points and Rules Changes
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's, ah and I'm always a big fan of those types of lists that can, that aren't one dimensional. Yes. Absolutely. You know? Yeah. And this also still works with the new points.
00:09:27
Speaker
it does yeah it does it's well yeah it's i believe the new points happened just a day or two before this but with it still works in terms of viability as uh competitive lists go for with the new changes like to the rules for scenarios as well so that's another thing some people some people's lists now that they have to again spoiler alert have to deal with taking half points potentially some lists might not be as good as they used to be but It is certainly get a little little bit more fragile with half points on every scenario I can I can imagine. But ah yeah.
Introduction of Ancient Knowledge Scenario
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah. And I want to give a there's a two shout outs I want to give before we kind of move on here. And of course, I'll give you guys any last thoughts you have for for pierogi, but. ah Oscar Ice, ah he's ah he's in he lives in Poland.
00:10:15
Speaker
This is the Parogi Conquest based in Warsaw, which is fun to see him make number three overall with a four ship scum list. Talon Bane in the list. Captain Nim in the list, which is also like kind of rare. to Captain Nim is a tough one to do it, you know.
00:10:29
Speaker
to so to win games with in a four ship list. But he he did very well with Captain Nim. um Lots of a loadout for him. Proton bombs, VTG, R4B11, Dorsal Turret, Fearless, et etc.
00:10:42
Speaker
Ketsu Onyo with the fearless perceptive copilot combo and Fen Rao, the five pointer with fearless and the thing. um So shout out to him bringing a ah cool list and doing well with it. Playing scum.
00:10:56
Speaker
um Personally, one more shout out to think this is all area of Andrew Oller, who has who won the Gotham City conquest, I believe it was Gotham that he won.
00:11:08
Speaker
correct He brought a four-ship rebel list we got to see on stream ah during Swiss, a ah Dash Rendar list ah we with trickshot, perceptive copilot, contraband cybernetics, overtune modulators, ablative plating, and outrider.
00:11:25
Speaker
Paired with moldy crow Jan ors, of course, that's the only thing she can take as a title. So pumping up his, uh, his obstructed shots to up to six attack dice, the limit that the rules allow, ah horrible, horrible feeling to have to take a shot like that. It was scary. I was scared watching the dice get rolled.
00:11:42
Speaker
Um, cause he would just move, take a target lock. Jan would give him the extra dice and he would be able to, uh, he'd have over tuned. Um, you know, he'd have the mods that he needed.
00:11:53
Speaker
um which is so good. And then AP five would just coordinate them AP five in that list as well. So almost a three and a half ship list with Jenner. So allowing him to take an evade if needed, or a Jan or to take an evade to keep her alive longer.
00:12:07
Speaker
Luke and that is rounding it out with plasmas, which is a newer change. Luke finally being to take a little bit more loadout. You can take a torpedo plasma torps. It is seems to be the choice. Any other thoughts on pierogi before we kind of jump into the exciting new changes that have occurred Yes, ah one one shout out, I guess, here, and and kind of ah a little little bit of a look forward to LSO, but one-armed Billy piloting a five-ship Rebel list, top-aided Pierogi, with slightly different changes, and then went on to, spoilers, win LSO.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, spoilers indeed. Just a preview of things to come, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Rob is ah ra ah ran a ah a British man living in Texas. Yeah, cool list.
00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah, Andrew, anything else about pierogi? ah No, I think I'm ready to to move on to the new
Metagame Shifts and List Building Strategies
00:13:00
Speaker
changes. It's exciting. Congrats again to my boy Obi Wan. Wan and I, I've known Wan for since pre-COVID, six years now, roughly. um that I only met him in person when we incidentally got paired up at a top cut at Golden State Games, and I realized he was that Wan. I'm like, oh my God, you're Obi Wan. And we had a, yeah, it was just crazy tight game, like 20 to 19. Yeah. yeah.
00:13:24
Speaker
yeah so um yeah Dude, great player. Yeah. Juan was my team captain for the Nickel City X-Wing League. so Can't ask for a better better dude to run X-Wing League.
00:13:37
Speaker
No, and incredible. and Was a great captain as well. He did not pay me to say any of this, by the way. Not this time. All right, guys. Well, let's di let's dive into ah to the new changes. um I'll give a quick kind of overview and then we can go into maybe the the more detailed outlook and and conversation about these changes. But essentially, TLDR, for those of you that just want to hear a soundbite and dip, don't you know listen to the whole podcast. But if you have to, the changes that have been made to the scenarios, there is a new scenario called ancient knowledge, but all scenarios
00:14:12
Speaker
Now have a system where half points will be scored when ships are reached half damage, rounded down still. And ah if your opponents, i or or let's say if you have more objectives than your opponents, let's say we're playing salvage mission, you have four crates and your opponent has one, you score two points and a maximum of only two and your opponent would score one for having an objective.
00:14:39
Speaker
If they didn't have any and you had more than your opponent, one plus, you'd get still two points. You'd get zero. So ah that's a big change, guys. It's I call the anti snowball rule.
00:14:51
Speaker
There are certain scenarios where lists would just absolutely snowball and score so many objective points that you couldn't keep up in the damage race. You had no chance. CIS. But ah what do you guys think?
00:15:03
Speaker
of Of the, there's the Thunderbird. What do you guys what do you guys think of these changes um overall? ah And ah yeah, let's start with that. Yeah, so i've I've had a chance to play a couple games with the the new scenarios and the new way the points are done, and I think it's been change for the better, for sure.
00:15:21
Speaker
ah The games feel, the ones that I play at least, feel a lot closer, and it does tone down the objectives a little bit, but you still can't ignore them.
00:15:33
Speaker
So the objectives are still important, but it does make you feel like you're also scoring, constantly scoring points throughout the turns as well. Yeah, when I saw the the changes, I was super excited to play and um very, very curious how it would play out with ah positioning and reprioritizing dogfighting.
00:15:59
Speaker
And so far, it's ah it's been... extremely um like rewarding to play, the the half points being everywhere and the the the fact that you just like you can't just get buried as as quickly as you could before makes games a lot more, don't want to say bearable, but like there's there's a lot less feel bad where like you you feel like you can claw back at any point.
00:16:26
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's it it. The weight of dogfighting has shifted. You know, this is something that XWA has wanted to kind of move, move the needle back towards leaning more for it feeling like a dogfighting game first and then scenarios as supplement.
00:16:43
Speaker
supplementary way to to pad your points and score more. um Still a system where you can win by playing the scenario. It's not like scenarios don't matter, ah but you can't really win by only playing the scenario now.
00:16:58
Speaker
um you know it's and that's that's important i i i do think that there have been games where we've been on this the winning side of it or on the losing side of it where the most optimal move was to just run away and take evades and and not engage for two three four rounds with with most of or some of your list and it just felt a little bit counterintuitive to the type of game that we were playing um It's tactically the most sound way to win.
00:17:24
Speaker
<unk> We're playing competitively. um Let's say we're at a tournament or whatever. But you know would you prefer to have been able to destroy a couple of ships or at least done you know played more dogfight? I think that's the most fun aspect of this dogfighting game is being able to to trade shots and try to out position and out maneuver your opponent.
00:17:44
Speaker
and So now the balance has moved back more towards needing to score more points of ship points.
00:17:53
Speaker
um The other thing, guys, is like ah list like like ah Fortressing the type of like kind of ah ah points Fortressing that existed in like trigger happy fly boy Django exam, etc.
Objective Scoring Changes and Game Balance
00:18:05
Speaker
Where you just were like, Why bother man, I have five or six rounds to try to win this game, I'm going to play the objective here and then supplement my chances of winning or my win condition by identifying one to two ships, you know, maybe three that I can more easily approach and take off the board.
00:18:20
Speaker
And so those those large those harder to pin down or healthier uh expensive ships unless they you know they hit a rock and then got kill boxed it just didn't really bother too often and now it's like hey no it's worth those three or four shields you got into that fire spray take one more shot you might get half points to get four points might get three points like you know it's and so it means that everything's on the table so that players can't just throw this expensive piece in the middle of the board and know that there's not going to be an ultimate consequence as long as the ship doesn't die, ah that pilot isn't removed from the game. And so I also think that's a really great way to kind of bring things more to the mean.
00:18:58
Speaker
and it comes to list building and your opponent having opportunities to score points uh in ah and a more fair way that makes sense yeah absolutely what i was gonna say is it's an interesting dichotomy then that raises in ship list building where i there i feel like there's two schools of thought that i mean probably more than that but at least Like, you've you've got ah the hyper-efficient, everything's got to be cheap and um pack as many ships in as you possibly can, sort of, like, hyper-objective play from the previous iteration of the game before this change. And then also the points fortressing that you were talking about. And I i really wonder if the if we'll see...
00:19:47
Speaker
That's sort of like, okay, here's a five ship list, but I can spread it out over six ships if I take a slightly more efficient, cheaper ship ah just to play objectives choice being taken.
00:19:59
Speaker
Or if we'll see people like play play more lower ship count lists that are a little bit more well-rounded at playing dogfighting and objectives moving forward.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think we saw that with the last shipbuilding meta. I agree with that. I think that there was lot of lists that were out there that ah were points fortressing, but you're trying to bring in just the beefiest ships that you can because you know that you're really only going to lose one of those in a game.
00:20:30
Speaker
ah And now I think we're going to start, because half points are coming back too, we might start seeing just more ships that have the capability of having that offensive output be be more of a a consideration when building lists and flying them yeah i i was just gonna say that and this just at least opens the door wider for people who really want to bring a lower ship count list to be able to do it and not feel super bad about it like oh my gosh like what am i doing you know i think now you know you can take a box you can take like let's say one crate for playing salvage mission and be like i don't need to
00:21:03
Speaker
to take anymore i score a point i'm keeping pace with my opponent enough that i not you're not going to run away with the game because your opponent now is like you know instead of going after trying to get four or five crates or all three scramble points they know that the most that they can score is two so uh which is still a lot of points but it's just not and enough where you know you can slam the door in someone's face and they can't do anything about it and also Let's be real RNG plays a huge role in how you score scenario points with salvage its current generation.
Ancient Knowledge Scenario Mechanics
00:21:34
Speaker
um You know, with with scramble its road. But if you have a lot of overlapping initiative, you kind of might be so well for a turn if you're moving first and trying to play the objective. And, um you know, chances is almost purely based on, you know, damage is based on your attacks and defense, which is based on dice, right? and Yeah.
00:21:54
Speaker
you know that so that there's that positioning always matters by the way when i'm talking about this stuff it's not that it doesn't um but uh and then you have uh assault which is uh not so much rng based but is is also based it's more so based on your opponent bring medium and large bases and how are you dealing with that um are they bringing a three large base scum list that's kind of janky but also is somehow farming objectives from you every round and you can't score anything like you know and so it's just it just kind of it it basically puts a cap on how crazy you can get with with scoring objective points and and and then because of that it still lets people uh bring those four ship lists that we've already started to see a little bit more of i think we'll see even more of that now uh given this change and that's that's good that is objectively good uh a good thing no pun intended when i say objectively but yeah grown um
00:22:49
Speaker
yeah i've grown um Yeah, I think this is ah that this was clearly tested a lot. If you guys go to xwing.live slash news slash announcements, there you'll see the breakdown with visual examples of these changes and and how scoring is done and um really, really cool kind of layout that the design team did that I was able to work with them on.
00:23:11
Speaker
to post this to make it very clear how all of these changes work. um And they created a simple flowchart. It's like, do you control any objectives? If the answer is no, you get no points. If the answer is yes, well, do you control more than your opponent?
00:23:23
Speaker
If the answer is no, you get one point. But if the answer is yes, you get two. i And so I love that simple kind of flowcharts like that. It's like, oh yeah. um yeah Greg from Nickel City X-Wing also made several videos demonstrating these changes, including a showcase game with the new scenario Ancient Knowledge.
00:23:42
Speaker
and then We have now have five scenarios. um A lot of people asking, is XWA going to change the scenarios? The answer is yes. and x Is XWA going to add any scenarios? The answer is yes. Here we are. um Ancient Knowledge is interesting. it's ah It basically, ah you know, one complaint, I was thinking about this as I was leaving LSO,
00:24:00
Speaker
ah One complaint that people have had, ah let's say with Scramble, um is that, man, I take the objective action. And no matter what happens after that, I spent my action to take the objective.
00:24:11
Speaker
And I don't have any tokens, right? Or sometimes I just, yeah and that's a that's a sacrifice. And sometimes it feels bad ah at times. um And now Ancient Knowledge kind of into introduces this mechanic where if you play the objective, you have an opportunity to to to discard the condition that you get for playing the objective to modify your dice.
00:24:33
Speaker
And so it's like it kind of mitigates, and it's still your choice to do that, but it mitigates that sort of feels bad i kind of compromise you have to make, that sacrifice you have to make to play the objective.
00:24:47
Speaker
um This one is like scramble, you get three objective markers. And each turn you can transmit, same objective rules as all the others, zero to one, it's an action, to ah flip a charge on the objective, ah like claim it.
00:25:01
Speaker
And when you do that, you can put one condition, limited to just one per ship, of ancient knowledge. And Ancient Knowledge allows you to spend, if you'd like to, to discard the objective on your on your pilot, to change one result on attack or defense to an evade or to a hit result.
00:25:21
Speaker
um which also this benefits lower initiative ships as well because they can take the ancient knowledge first, ah which is pretty neat. um At the end of each round, the charges on each objective flip back up to active ah and whoever has more ancient knowledge than the other player ah has to discard one.
00:25:39
Speaker
They to choose a ship and discard one. So a lot kind of a lot of moving parts, but it is ultimately kind of simple and easy to follow once you you play a game of it. um What do you guys think of this one, this new scenario?
00:25:52
Speaker
I am a huge fan. i i the The two times I played it it, it's been really fun. It really allows you to make some interesting decisions.
00:26:04
Speaker
like i You are choosing whether or not you want to spend it you know spend that token, and it's been really cool. It seems like it's even more overpowered with like i force ships that use the force as well, um but you know, having that evade token for ships also that like necessarily wouldn't have it is also pretty nice.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, i this new scenario is super exciting. um The I really enjoy the ability to like feel like you are getting a use out of your action when you're taking a scenario action that is progressing the game forward that is not solely scoring points.
00:26:46
Speaker
And it it gives a it gives it a really rewarding feel. like It's a decision point, basically. like Because you are you are creating a decision point, it gives you more ownership over the game in a game that we have already established has a lot of variance to it. ah So it allows you to feel like you are playing the game um a lot more like optimally, but also ah like under your control. love...
00:27:13
Speaker
i i love I love the the fact that you like you can you can make the mistake to spend it if it's incorrect, and like you can um you can you you can get you don't get punished for ah like trying to keep your ship alive, and but you don't get punished for taking your scenario action. like you get You just get to interact with the game more, which is very cool.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, I was just going to say, um i haven't had a chance to play this. I actually haven't had a chance to play a game with the, you know, just any of the these changes here. um But i I am looking forward to to being able to, I really want to play Ancient Knowledge. I think this will be the first time in a long time where no matter where what I bring and what happens, I'm going to have a really great time, um you know, and and just...
00:28:05
Speaker
the also the idea the strategy behind like okay well you didn't use any of this turn you got three on your ships you got to get rid of one kind of thing you know right this sort of maybe hypothetical situation you could end up in and um which it which also just kind of protects against somebody's staff you're just stacking them they're across your whole list and then just just being all of a sudden the most offensive or tanky thing because they took these insane insurance policies out it's like nope like you gotta you gotta every turn gotta get rid of one you gotta whittle it down until you're ah even with your opponent or have less And it's clearly this was very well thought out. And um this was, I know this was one of a few scenarios just at on the early stages. I'm kind of revealing some information here on the inside of that was tested a lot. And and play testers really loved this one ah the most.
00:28:51
Speaker
And I'm really proud of the system and process in which we kind of, we took to get this to playability and and and the reception has been really good when i was at lso people were messaging you know messaging in the chat every round like did i miss the ancient knowledge turn did i miss the ancient knowledge turn you know i just really wanted to see it in action and um yeah it's it's it makes sense to have five scenarios a lot of events have five rounds of swiss in a day and um and And this one is definitely, you know, by far the most quote unquote complicated, but it's really it's it's really one of those things where it's still a complimentary addition that doesn't sidetrack or distract ah or or introduce any sort of rules, especially turn zero, that will make you forget everything and not be able to vote. Like this one, this is still just like think of Scramble.
00:29:43
Speaker
right it's it's just a little different than that you know and condition cards are introduced and i actually think this explores the type of design space long term that is really good for the game uh you know objectives don't just have to be a i'll take an objective action and i'll put a thing next to my ship and that's it you know it could be much more than that and and ancient knowledge flirts with that and introduces some new mechanics
Insights from the Lone Star Open
00:30:03
Speaker
that are uh you know palatable and fun yeah uh anecdotally nick out of From LSO, I guess just LSO with the new scenarios, how how did game length feel?
00:30:18
Speaker
did it did Did it feel like we were playing longer games or shorter games? Yeah, it was ah the games went by fast, but they were also like they were overall ah probably average of five rounds.
00:30:32
Speaker
Five rounds. So shorter overall. Yeah. Which, you know, I i i did mention they were at XWAs asking me some quest for some feedback on what I noticed and what players were saying. And I gave them I can read from what I said here.
00:30:45
Speaker
I said a lot of our stream games went to five rounds, but also didn't feel super slow. If anything, a few games hit 20 when it felt like the game wasn't really quote unquote over half points plus two potential objective points a turn might add up faster than we realize.
00:30:58
Speaker
So like hypothetically, if you have Zam and a Geo prototype and Sun Fak in a round, which, you know, is possible um and you have a couple of crates more than your opponent, that's 10 points in one round.
00:31:09
Speaker
um sure so you know uh so what was happening more often was scoring 30 to 40 percent of the points needed to win was happening and in a single round um which you know you could say okay well if you kill the fire spray and you scored you know three crate points that's 10 points it's certainly you know before these changes possible to score that many points in one round um but there is a lot of points being racked up by players now based on half points and and if one person's able to kind of uh whittle down and focus fire more efficiently than the other um you can see games end in four or five rounds so yeah i mean ah from a streamer's perspective i like the action i like games not dragging on for another rat round or two where it's like everyone knows this game's over but we're playing two more rounds you know that isn't happening anymore which makes me happy because like man what's is it is there anything worse than watching a stream game where you're watching chance engagement
00:32:01
Speaker
there's 30 minutes left in the game and the score is you know, 14 to eight or 16 to 10. You're like, yeah, like this game's over, you know? Yeah. So ah i bet that's what I noticed. I definitely think that um ah team league stats and data will also kind of shed a lot. There's a lot of data to be gathered from that. And then draft league will start in a little bit as well. We can look at draft league as well, and even more players um to to see how these games are evolving. But ah yeah, I mean, before I think a lot of people were we're trying really hard to get to seven plus rounds.
00:32:35
Speaker
And now I think it's actually really easy, no matter to the pace of play, to end games in five. Yeah, anecdotally, that's what I've found is that the gameplay feels a lot more action packed, but um the games themselves aren't aren't like round wise shorter.
00:32:51
Speaker
I think that's that's what I've experienced.
00:32:56
Speaker
Andrew, what have you noticed? ah Yeah, I mean, i i would I would echo the same sentiment that that's that's where I'm at as well. Um, yeah, so I mean, we can this is a good opportunity to segue into the Lone Star Open, if you guys would like. I mean, and yeah, continue to talk about this as we talk about LSO. They they tie together seamlessly in my eyes because LSO was the first system open in North America.
00:33:21
Speaker
in Allen, Texas. And a really big deal for us guys because we were there streaming two days of X-Wing all day Saturday, all day Sunday. And the first time that 312 has ever traveled onto a plane across the country with their gear and streamed.
00:33:38
Speaker
And so it went really well. ah One of my bags weighed 49 pounds on the way there. The limit is 50 before you pay an insane over oversized bag fee. And on the way back to Chicago, one of them clocked in at exactly 50 pounds. Nice. So yeah, shout out to my little Amazon luggage weight that I bought to be able to check this stuff before getting to the airport.
00:34:02
Speaker
But, um, and, and not shout out to Southwest airlines for getting rid of their two free bags policy. I would have been able to check both yeah for free, but alas, as a credit card holder, I can get one free bag each way. So not as bad as for other people have to deal with, but.
00:34:17
Speaker
um Super just to to give you guys some context and background on on being there and from our perspective. um Really, but this is the reason why I bought 4K transmitters to be able to cut down on cables, but to be able to do events like this, to to compactly pack everything we need, all four cameras, all of our gear, you know, tripods, chargers, batteries, ah stream gear, our laptop, monitors, all of it, and be able to to just...
00:34:45
Speaker
hop on a plane and grab it a baggage claim and then get to the turn the convention set up and get going. And um it went really well from that perspective. um It was ah long it was long weekend, but you know, a good kind of long weekend just just tiring having to lug 120 pounds worth of equipment around with a 30 pound backpack on my back.
00:35:05
Speaker
Oh, for sure.
00:35:09
Speaker
Oh, man. um But yeah, LSO was the first system open North America, like I said. um Shout out to tournament organizer Levi Schott, who's been a longtime member of our online community.
00:35:22
Speaker
um Very committed, dedicated X-Wing player. ah Just welcomed his fifth child into his family as well, like days before this event. And he was um somehow able to get the the wife points to and be able to continue to run the event.
00:35:35
Speaker
Wow. He did an amazing job. Yeah, congrats to Levi on on on the the new baby girl. He has four boys. Now he's got his first girl. um And really well done running the event. i Really great energy from the players.
00:35:54
Speaker
We had about, think it was 28 people. So a few less ah from ah last year's ah LSO, which was an AMG-sanctioned event. Now, ah what what good news was is I'm personally as like the PR lead and just an X-Wing player. It's a little worried about turnout for North America events right now. We're seeing Europe like resurge at amazing levels with great turnout.
00:36:17
Speaker
North America, not as much, not as quickly in terms of growth. And that makes sense. We're, We're in this world now where we're no longer officially supported. You cannot expect to have the exact same number or more people show up to all of these tournaments.
00:36:30
Speaker
um You just need enough. And we did. We got plenty of people to show up and it was a great time. ah We had awesome games on stream. A lot of nail biters, a ton of different lists, different factions being played. All seven factions played on our stream on day one of Swiss, which is super cool. I think we hit that number by like the third or fourth round, not even by the end.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. yeah and uh you know got some great co-commentary help as well um we we demoed and and and really debuted our our new dice are the ones that you see on our tts streams the blue and white engraved uh evade dice and then our white with red engraved attack dice yeah cool um so Yeah, that was really cool. People were screaming and demanding for them. You know, and I told people my DMS are closed for the dice. We are not selling these dice and Matt Carey shout out to him for as a surprise gift having them made and these guys if you guys pick these up they wait. i I weighed them. They're the exact same weight as official normal dice.
00:37:31
Speaker
Wow. And they are polished and have the same exact feel as official normal X wing dice. So ah people are super excited to play on stream to use them and um Yeah, that that was that was a lot of fun.
00:37:44
Speaker
So overall, just really exciting opportunity for us and the tournament and itself went really well. We can ah dive into um kind of what we've noticed in terms of insights and talk about ah Rob Pettit or One-Armed Billy's winning list.
00:38:01
Speaker
uh winning lso for the third time in four years or five years he's three-time champion now ah he even made this cool holocron trophy and brought it for the winner only to have to take it home and he said my wife wants me to get rid of this thing so i guess i'll just give it to somebody to raffle off like she wanted to dig that out of her sight so i cannot bring this back i'll bring this back home but so that was amusing yeah yeah it's amusing um Yeah, guys, I mean, let's let's talk about ah what we've noticed. I'm going throw it over to you because I've just yapped a lot about the event, but.
00:38:35
Speaker
um Yeah. How do you guys want to talk about? do you want to talk about the ah overall, like maybe what you've looked at impressions wise from Swiss? Or do you want to just talk about our top cut? ah Where should we go with this?
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, we can. Yeah, oh ah I was going to say, yeah, we can we can talk about just some general um insights ah in Swiss first. I mean, it's always exciting whenever you have these big tournaments that happen right before.
00:38:59
Speaker
after a rules change because that's when you're going to see really the most like creative lists and so i think it wasn't an accident that you know all the factions were ah represented and pretty decently represented in that top cut too uh sort of um the the empires being the most of the faction distribution and then not making top cut is a little interesting yeah Yeah, that is Fire's been on on struggle bus, is my understanding. I don't have, like, every scientific data point to back it up, but I've seen enough to be like, ooh, this is, they're struggling more than they they've been used to.
00:39:36
Speaker
anecdotally i I experienced the same thing I was gonna say that too yeah I I played Empire in the draft league so yeah we have Samuel and I have a lot of anecdotal yeah and I I played it in the Windy City Trials and uh what I was saying is that the uh there is a uh Empire list in seventh uh just missing the top six cuts uh pretty interesting Empire list um but uh did we did fail to see a conversion into top cut for empire yeah you mentioned a top six cut just to interject really quick and people are like what the hell is that um it's uh so cut is based on x and one now which the good news about x and one is uh you win four you go you go four and one or better you go undefeated you know you're making cuts
00:40:21
Speaker
There's no more nonsense about me getting enough points that that you you theoretically should make cut, but for everyone ID and then now you miss cut like I did it LVO. Still felt bad. Everyone congratulated me. Everyone and their dogs and their moms messaging me being like, congrats on making LVO top cut, dude. Only for me drop down to fifth and miss top four.
00:40:40
Speaker
because of a bunch of IDs. And so, you know, now because there are no draws anymore, you know, you go X and one or better and you make top cut, but based on the player size, there were only six people who, who hit that, or sorry, there were only, wait, I'm looking at pierogi.
Finals of the Lone Star Open Analysis
00:40:59
Speaker
Sorry. I'm like, that doesn't, that doesn't look right.
00:41:01
Speaker
um Let me take a look at the breakdown here. Pull up, pull us again. So for Swiss,
00:41:10
Speaker
ah There were only yeah, I mean, obviously six people who went four and one or better. No three and twos made it. You had to go X and one and the top two players got to buy. So you had like a wild card round, like a play in almost on day two.
00:41:24
Speaker
And then you had the top four, which introduced the top two players that a buy they started playing and then they won their games and they would make it to top table. So ah Rob ah and ah Thomas ah got their got their buys.
00:41:41
Speaker
um And it's it's actually ah funny to see Thomas listed as six and oh. but on his Swiss breakdown here and Rob at four and one, but that's just, I think just a glitch maybe. Yeah.
00:41:54
Speaker
yeah but By by math and all that stuff. I was wondering about that. The math doesn't track there. It doesn't necessarily add up. Yeah. I think it's the buy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah The buy kind of adds a little bit of a wrench in the, the way that all displays, I guess.
00:42:09
Speaker
But yeah, you so you mentioned Empire 21%, then most taken, but just missing cut. Nobody, no Empire represented a top cut. um But we got some really cool Empire lists i got ah I got to have on stream, including one with a gauntlet. um a Palpatine gauntlet with with the child. So three Palpatine charges turn.
00:42:28
Speaker
incredible oh boy that was crazy is that legal yeah my thoughts when i saw that i'm like is that really that's a thing yes it's legal rebels again though 17.86 percent uh in terms of the breakdown here uh with rebel lists we had two um kevin shout out to kevin who was my roommate um at lso um ah He had a ah a five ship medium base Rebel list, two arcs, two U-wings, and a K-wing.
00:43:01
Speaker
Kind of neat. And then, of course, Rob Pettit with a nice five ship versatile kind of salad type list featuring my boy, Gavin Darklighter. So um Rebels looking good with their turnout. And then it goes to Scum.
00:43:17
Speaker
ah And Scum had not did not make cut. ah The factions, I'll just make this easier for everyone. The factions that did, Rebels, Resistance, First Order, Republic, CIS.
00:43:31
Speaker
So no Empire and no Scum. And Scum actually was at number 11, the closest to getting in, finished in 11th place, Maurice, who we had on stream, who flew all the way from Florida to Texas to play, which real big shout out to him.
00:43:46
Speaker
was e He says the only chances he gets to play is at these sort of things, and he shows up. That's awesome. That is awesome. And I think you'll'll you'll see that with the new... um When you see, like, the... the points change right before an event too is people are just going to fly maybe something similar to what they've like flown before right yeah that's that's totally fair um yeah so you rebels empire scum making up a smattering of the top three in a different order between the two pierogi and and this and then you have uh fo and resistance swapping so resistance being fourth represented um
00:44:23
Speaker
instead of third like uh or sorry fourth represented ah ed pierogi third uh sorry fifth represented fourth at lso i can't speak yeah there's like resistance always in the in the conversation in the middle of the pack right yeah yeah in the pierogi contest there was like you know uh 16 uh the players took fo and then lso 15 of the players took resistance so yeah yeah Yeah, they kind of flip. Yes. ah Rob. So Rob Pettit winning winning LSO.
00:44:55
Speaker
um We'll talk about him and and Rob. So it was the Rob versus Rob matchup. I told them the loser had to change their name to Seymour. So Seymour Goodhue versus Rob Pettit. um but ah rob bringing a list with uh gina moonsong isegi to ketu gavin dark lighter corin horn in the x-wing and then ezra bridger um if i go to squads i can break down the upgrades gina had the foils proton cannons and fcs corin horn you know his ability if you have him locked and he shoots at a defender who he has locked he can uh transfer one of those locks um friendly locks over to the defender he's got r3 astromech ion missiles and predator gavin dark glider with the uh classic r3 fcs pattern analyzer just cannot go wrong that is the objective build on him
00:45:44
Speaker
ah And then Ezra Bridger had targeting computer Hondo Onaka and brilliant evasion. Hondo is ah such a big X factor when it comes to the coordinate because if you can imagine a range three up to range three coordinate is pretty crazy.
00:45:58
Speaker
um he can charge He can coordinate all the way up to range three. ah He also had brilliant evasion on there as well. So ideally you take a ton of locks early on and when you need to jam one friendly ship and coordinate the other, you can easily do that.
00:46:13
Speaker
And then Asegi had advanced slam and perceptive copilot. Asegi's job is to live for a couple of rounds and just let people use his focus tokens. Yeah, he's the focus bank.
00:46:24
Speaker
He is the caddy for the focuses. Yeah. So ah Rob ah doing he he recently got his invited and conquest as well. um Again, three times. He has now won the Lone Star Open. He won last year as well. So back to back for him.
00:46:41
Speaker
um Congrats. Who wants to break down ah Rob Goodhue's list, though, because this is like a very fun, like kind of 2.0 type list. I loved seeing him do well with this. It was super fun to have that on stream a couple of times.
00:46:54
Speaker
This is the number two place list? Yeah. Yeah. I'll break it down. Resistance. We got a six ship list. um Poe Dameron.
00:47:07
Speaker
This is Commander Poe with plasma torpedoes and his S-foils. Three Green Squadron experts with advanced optics on each of them. Zeri Bangle with advanced optics and Merle Coben with advanced optics.
00:47:22
Speaker
So five A-wings and an X-wing. Very, very 2.0.
00:47:30
Speaker
and And to see that many generics, I don't think it's it's been a long time. Yeah, I think they are the only... Oh, no, we've got Genosian prototypes in the cut. But ah other than that, they are they are the only generics in the cut.
00:47:45
Speaker
ah But, I mean, it makes sense. They're an efficient ship. Yeah. well yeah with optics too i mean it's yeah you fill out that list being able to take more optics carriers and rz2a wing with advanced optics was one of the most patented classic 2.0 builds for resistance yeah super efficient yeah you can chase them all you want and they're just gonna shoot you back at you yep and probably almost always get two hits especially they hold onto their focus token and the only bad role is the uh ah in this case no heroic so blank blank or eyeball blank is probably the worst but not as not as common that is that going to happen more often you're going to get eyeball eyeball hit blank hit hit etc where you can use optics to guarantee the two hits um but what we what we found in this game is that uh was was that
00:48:35
Speaker
yeah He was able to focus fire ah Poe ah pretty pretty quickly. is how it was. Get Poe off the board. yeah Yep. And once you get Poe, you can kind of just start to to to pick which A-Wing is the juiciest and closest to you. And because they're lower initiative, you can there's a lot of initiative killing potential in Rob's list. you have three ships that at I-5 slash I-4.
00:48:58
Speaker
um and then otherwise a lot of i3s the only overlap of um is uh the threes ezra and a segi and ezra is really hard to take off the board and say he's got a lot of a lot of points uh or sorry a lot of uh like a lot of health health yeah a lot hole and can slam around and make it a little bit more difficult to to pin down what uh what scenario was the final table Final table was salvage mission, I believe.
00:49:27
Speaker
Interesting. we do a quick double check here. The final was
Republic and Scum Lists Strategies
00:49:31
Speaker
salvage. Does traditionally favor the Gavin Darklighter build. Yeah, you know, and it...
00:49:38
Speaker
It wasn't as much of a factor, and this is I think, a byproduct of the points, or sorry, the rules changes, is that yeah a neither player was really, was was at a time that maybe one of them would take one box, but and those those ships were never, it seemed to be in Gavin's kind of path.
00:49:53
Speaker
um so uh otherwise traditionally if you're playing like rob would have a huge advantage if he was taking two or three or four crates because he felt he needed to and should now he doesn't feel like he needs to or should um yeah it would be even more miserable didn't end up being as big of a factor believe it or not that i thought it would be yeah yeah gavin you love to see gavin when you're bringing playing salvage you're pretty good yeah it is Yeah, any other lists stand out to you guys? I mean, I give a shout out to Carlo who brought a four ship list that featured ah Django, ah two geo prototypes and Cad Bane.
00:50:27
Speaker
um And you usually you don't see HMPs in a ship count list of four or less. And yet, Here we we go with one that did very well. ah One of them has crack had Kraken.
00:50:39
Speaker
ah You got synced lasers, cluster missiles on one of the Geos that didn't have Kraken. ah Cad Bane and Django are the heavy lifters. And what we found that slowed Carlo down was when he played against Goodhue, that A-Wingless and Poe.
00:50:54
Speaker
He didn't have enough ships and or that could do damage to to to counter and deal with the the amount of ad agile volume. that good hue brought yeah that seems like a hard matchup for the separatists yeah yeah um other you know we got uh fo making uh making the cut here top six with uh major von reg having proton rockets which i haven't seen before um but you know that's gonna be pretty scary considering he can find ways to double mod his shots uh pretty easily
00:51:32
Speaker
uh midnight had proton rockets um you know that with fcs crack shot at elusive need if midnight can target lock uh you know worst case you get a double mod of rocket best case you don't have to spend the lock and they're your opponent's miserable uh quick draw with special forces gunner fcs proud tradition and deuterium power cells and then we've got agent terex with the contraband overtune modulators compose your bioxpress codes and terex can give his illicit upgrades to other ships other tie fo or sfs in his list which is fun and jewel jared jirard rented out the list with a homing torp bomblet generator build
00:52:09
Speaker
um We saw ah this was the other player who got the buy, did very well in Swiss. um And so he played against Rob in top four, which Rob, ah Rob Pettit, the winner, Rob Pettit, who played his rebel list. And we found that he was able to ah basically just put enough pressure on and split up the FO list that they couldn't recover.
00:52:32
Speaker
um you know just quick draw ended up in a weird spot we saw a fun interaction that I think that we all realized man maybe a lot of players have accidentally been cheating for years and years because oh we had we had quick draw do the action rotate to set up a double tap front to back range one range one and then got shot at and tried to bonus attack after doing the double tap with you cannot bonus attack more than once with each ship each round you and so a lot of people are like i feel like a lot of people have been playing that wrong oh no you know so we don't see the special forces gunner double tap happening a lot but it does happen you know sometimes um so yeah that was fun and deteriorating power cells allowing quick try to get a little bit more potential mileage out of the ability shields go down
00:53:18
Speaker
um Yeah, ah any any other lists stand out? Andrew, do you want to maybe break down this cool ah Republic list? the i The fourth place one?
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah, Ultra. Yeah, Ultra, sure. Yeah, this one we have ah Rick Olly with the passive sensors and plasma torpedoes. Ahsoka Tano with patience R4 P17 and calibrated laser targeting.
00:53:47
Speaker
We Anakin Skywalker in the Y-Wing. We've seen a lot of Anakin Skywalker Y-Wings with ion cannon turret, plasma torpedoes, veteran turret gunner, R4P astromech as well.
00:53:59
Speaker
And then we have the Siege of Coruscant axe that comes with that dead eye shot and barrage rockets. And then we have oddball, i which is elusive proton torpedoes and homing missiles.
00:54:12
Speaker
And...
00:54:15
Speaker
And that oddball is in the the torrent. Yeah. SoC Axe is one of my... ah When I'm playing Republic, he's one of my I-can't-get-this-out-of-my-list ships. He's good.
00:54:30
Speaker
He's very good. um Not quite a must-take in every Republic list, but ah he's just so efficient that he he really appeals to me.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh, for sure. And then Ahsoka Tano is also yeah just great, making sure that Axor Abol can get like those double mods. It's also great with Anakin. and then And then Rick Ali, even in the last points, we've been seeing a lot of him just an excellent flanker. So just all around solid, just a solid build.
00:55:00
Speaker
Yeah, very cool. I love Torrance. Torrance are all my favorite ships. Yeah, it' to it's nice to see Torrance get played um just in general. it's a Everyone loves Clone Wars, too. Torrance, of course, being very, very popular in that show. Yeah, being seeing a lot of them.
00:55:15
Speaker
um Yeah, another Anakin Yannick and Y-Wing build, Anakin and the Y-Wing had been DOA for so long. I mean, so long. And so XWA has made him ah more than viable. he's He's been a great contributor in a lot of winning Republic
Tournament Insights and Community Support
00:55:32
Speaker
lists. Yeah, actively a very good card. No one disagrees with three-fourths and, you know, on your on flat on torpedoes, double-modded torpedoes, but what people didn't like was just his cost, the cost sink into taking the worst Anakin, arguably, because he was easy enough to kill, and now he's cheap enough, at least, right, that you can still do some damage with him, but when you lose him, just so you're not over here like, oh, that's game.
00:55:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's a perfect trading piece. And it's also nice that now we're seeing different Anakin builds in Republic as well. Well, and and different Anakin in different ships, right? yeah that Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah. yeah Because it's not just always in the Ada.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:18
Speaker
ah Plenty tired of Siege of Coruscant, Anakin. Yeah, he got a lot of play. ah Kevin mentioned his five ship medium base rebel list. So much health.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yeah. With Ibbotsdam. Sorry, Garvin Drace with R3 Astromech. Ibisdom with hopeful veteran tail gunner. That's the an ARC 170 pilot. Bodhi Rook in the U-Wing with ah pivot wing, fire control, and Harrison Dula. He's the cheaper U-Wing. I believe it's four points.
00:56:44
Speaker
ah Pivot wing, sorry, K2SO with pivot wing, FCS, and ablative plating. and then a Segi 2katu again with the perceptive advanced slam. So a lot of tokens being passed around, focuses, coordinating, ah just in a lot of health. So much health for your enemies to choose. So much health, for sure. This is a lot for a list.
00:57:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. ah Yeah, I mean, and then let me take a look at the spread here again on roll better. um If anything else really stands out to me, Luke, just missing top cut, had a Imperialist ah with a seven-point Vader.
00:57:29
Speaker
ah This is, I believe, this this is, yeah, SSP Vader. ah Custom Soontir without any points for loadout. ah You got Lieutenant Psy with Hark. You got Karsabi with the Ion Cannon ah loadout, Advanced Slam, and then a Academy-type pilot with the Precision Ion Engines.
00:57:47
Speaker
ah he also went he went three and two so played pretty well with that list and i feel like uh you know it's nice to not see uble in a list i feel like imperial players have gotten too comfy with using uble and i'm not sold on uble i know uble's cheap enough to to work into lists um but you know bonus attacks i can't argue with that either but i just i just something about just needing people just needing uble in their imperial lists i'm like man what's what is isn't mal monaire four points like why not play him i'm a big fan of mal but that was good yeah yeah i think we are seeing more more of that um especially with the new points because uble just uh is so easy to take off the board i think that you know we'll probably just see a little bit less of uble but you know double tapping is always real good
00:58:35
Speaker
Yeah, first damage, first crit through and what's behind the curtain, whole breach. Congratulations, Uble. Oh, God. No, this just ah the crit sponge sort of effect, not even not having shields. It can it can snowball or or you you you shoot at Uble and you land a blinded pilot or a weapons failure. there's Just so many credits where Uble's like, hey, you know, the reason why you brought this thing, you can't do it anymore. Sorry. Yeah, it's not it's not going to work.
00:58:59
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah. ah But, oh, go ahead, Sam. I was just go to say, not in cut, but performing pretty well, both going three and two. we got two Galactic Empire lists that each have a gauntlet in them.
00:59:12
Speaker
Yeah. um And anecdotally, like, I think the gauntlet's got some play to it in these new points.
00:59:22
Speaker
There are... ah lot of play. yeah there's there's some There's some legs here, finally, with gauntlets. You have never seen their place. would expect to be seeing a lot more of them.
00:59:34
Speaker
I was going haven't had a chance to get the new ah the new SL Bo-Katan ah yeah for the gauntlet, too, on the table. I really want to do that. She seems great. Sure.
00:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think got Saxon we got gar saxon and Well, yeah, but so Gar Saxon, well, there's a ah ah Rook cast a little bit, Gar Saxon, Bo-Katan, the SL XWA Bo-Katan, seeing some play as well.
01:00:06
Speaker
um Trying to think of ah Ezra Bridger, of course, Ezra. Actually, and of all the gauntlets, i you know, ah who have seen play before XWA points and and when AMG was still running events, it was Ezra Bridger.
01:00:20
Speaker
He was the one. Yep. Who was getting play.
01:00:27
Speaker
yeah um seeing more commandos people are bringing commandos which i don't know how feel about that yeah i was gonna say how do you feel about that they're great online on tabletop simulator they are uh very tedious in person for sure i watched at least one stream game where the commandos were giant pain Yeah, it's and they just stick up so far off the board. And, you know, it's like if they were this like thin, like, a you know, pat if they if the ah the the official gaming component ones were like ah cardstock.
01:00:58
Speaker
Sure. he Just much better, but. then they would stick to bases maybe i don't know what the solution is but definitely you know the cardboard ones it's so much marking so much time being taken off to to do that and yeah um but uh but i will say uh patrick stinson shout out to patrick who uh did some commentary with me before losing his voice to some allergies unfortunately ah during top cut no he uh played on our stream uh turn one and was able to kill uh i believe it was zam wessel with a commando shot Sweet. To win the game.
01:01:29
Speaker
ah Yeah, to finish his game off. So that was I was like, OK, there's your value for something that I've never seen. Like, I'm like, OK, maybe they do one damage an entire game. I've never really been sold on their capabilities.
01:01:40
Speaker
there There you go. You know, humbled me a little bit with my my stigma against ah their value and what they're able to do. So that was that was cool to see. um But yeah, I mean, overall, LSO, would I would chalk it up to being uh from an xwa perspective being a good step in the right direction uh from a to perspective from oliva i think he was very happy with the final turnout the numbers uh it went from like 14 people to 28 just in the last few days which again those late put those late signups you can never count on it but you just hope for it and it seems to happen a lot so you know i'm over here just being like you know it's
01:02:17
Speaker
you never really know what the final number is until the morning of um and and so i do appreciate everyone who uh made the the trip uh to to be there um i appreciate the invite and the support from the community to raise some money to be able to support getting airfare and and and checking bags and ubers and all the things to to logistically make it possible uh isophane donated 500 alone uh to the the gofundme and minutes after launching it to be able to support this and then gifted like 25 twenty five or 50 sub is like one of the two i know those are two drastically different numbers but it was a lot there was a lot going on i'm trying to remember every little detail but yeah just being just beyond generous lambolo as well and and a bunch of other people who supported us we had almost 80 people watching concurrently as well which is close to our all-time uh
01:03:04
Speaker
uh in terms of viewer count and yeah i mean there's just uh besides little minor technical issues here and there including like my computer crashing uh one one time in between rounds thank god another at the uh during the end of the top four game which we were able to reboot within a couple minutes but uh besides that uh you know it was it all went really well i didn't love to go back um you know i had some good barbecue and had a good got to see we went and saw the naked gun for the second time ah the the new naked gun movie is uh just fills my soul with joy it is hilarious uh so if you guys like stupid comedies it's probably out for another week or two you should go go check that out and yeah back to lso it was great it was great we're not gonna talk about the naked gun for the last of the episode i'd like to
01:03:56
Speaker
but yeah that's awesome Well, it sounds like it was a ah roaring success.
Future Streaming Prospects and Podcast's Community Engagement
01:04:02
Speaker
It was. And, you know, I'm going to I'm going to tease this. um i am. There is a very good chance that that three one two is streaming worlds.
01:04:11
Speaker
So I'm working on that right now. Let's go. so yeah, that is which is, you know, I say with with like a giddy smile on my face is literally the mile, the ultimate milestone. We cannot peek or go beyond that.
01:04:26
Speaker
For this channel. That is number one. So, um you know, there's that is that is something that isn't been finalized yet. But um because Adepticon, we have to work with Adepticon on logistics with streaming and stuff. But you that that is that is looking good.
01:04:40
Speaker
ah So far, I've talked to GSPA and Dion about that and um Yeah, I'm really excited for the potential opportunity, fingers crossed, that we can cross all our T's and get that over the finish line. But we're in that position.
01:04:52
Speaker
And yeah, it would be really awesome to be able to show off our stream to the entire world. um Like we've we've been able to do that at this point, but but with Worlds, everyone that can will tune in, right? It will be a much bigger audience because it's Worlds.
01:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. No, and it's just an honor to to be able to ah do that level of commentary for Worlds. Absolutely. yeah Very cool. Yeah, well, guys, I mean, any any last little comments about anything that we've talked about? um don't want to shut this down before you guys get your last words in, but I think we're kind of getting to the end here.
01:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, um just on on a personal note, like, the the changes came at a really good time for me. I was... um the scenario changes i mean like the end changes to how points are scored and everything to do with the game um i was i was flagging a little bit i'm not gonna lie um draft league was great and and but but draining and then um i traveled for the windy city trials which was great but draining um and so i was i was a little i was i was a little
01:06:01
Speaker
on the outs with X-Wing. little burnt out. A little burnt out. Yeah, exactly. um But this reinvigorated my, my desire to play the game. I am, I am fully on board, locked in.
01:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, this was such a great refresh. Yeah, really came at a perfect time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, man. it's ah and There's a lot to be excited about. And from a content creation perspective, there's just ah more exciting things to be able to watch and upload to YouTube. and ah You know, new stuff is is and change is and it can be hard for people. But these are the sorts of changes that um I've seen pretty much the community that's playing X-Wing right now. you know, they're rallying around and really, really amped up about.
01:06:44
Speaker
And for those who were really kind of thinking about just putting the game away for a while or walking away, this has brought a lot of people back in. um And some people I've heard who have stopped playing X-Wing have come back. So that's what we need.
01:06:56
Speaker
Sustain and grow the community. It's the goal moving forward. Yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, I and I'm happy that it's it's been going so well. um I always had a feeling that X-Wing was going to be a better game when it's run by the community. And I'm really happy to have been proven right.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. ah Are we are we coming up on a year of XWA points and ah stewardship soon? Yeah. Stewardship. Yes. um Technically, yes. A little about a year now.
01:07:27
Speaker
little over points wise with the beta points, I think, started in the the fall so we're getting really close that's on the answer yes yeah yeah yeah but it's been a good year yeah yeah absolutely yeah started small and and we've we've kind of done the right thing and and kind of easing and ramping up to bigger changes we need that time so shout out to those who have been patient and and kind of now they're getting rewarded with that patience now all right you guys well it's been an amazing episode thank you sam uh and uh andrew of course both you guys for joining um
01:07:58
Speaker
Please, if you ever talk to Andrew in our Discord, he's on the Team League, but just give him a thank you for all the hard work that he does to to produce and edit this podcast. It's a huge help for me and but just much appreciated, including him editing one of our our recent last episode in Greece while he was on a trip. he He's that dedicated. I think he's a little insane, but I am too.
01:08:16
Speaker
but um You know, if it's just the type of insanity we need around here. um Also, a big shout out our patrons. um we We gained a ton of them after announcing our Q3 rewards.
01:08:27
Speaker
If you guys want to support us and get some awesome stuff in the mail every few months, you can go over to our Patreon. A link will be in the description. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for all of the replays and videos that we post there.
01:08:39
Speaker
We have like 500 plus videos on our YouTube channel now. It's an insane catalog of X-Wing, recent and older you can go back and really pretty much get a good look at any meta the last several years on our YouTube channel and join our discord, be a part of our conversation there.
01:08:56
Speaker
ah Just again, thank you all for supporting us at this point. I'm super excited for this year. As promised, we expected this year to be big for us and we've already kind of hit some big milestones with bigger ones ahead potentially or so.
01:09:07
Speaker
Lots to look forward to. i Talk to you guys very soon. See you on the map. See you online. See you in person. um Thank you for being here. My name is Nick Sperry.
01:09:18
Speaker
I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Samuel Graibner. And we are signing off. Goodbye, everyone. Out.