Stop the meta complaints: just go to friendly events instead of too competitive ones :)

I've been reading a lot lately about how the game (and the meta-game) is in a poor state, with Nym as the more recent broken (and/or NPE) pilot.
To balance those comments, I thought I'd do a quick battle report on a less competitive event and hopefully remind some that the game is just a game and can be appreciated without playing the same ships/lists ad nauseum 

So: I went on Monday to a mini-event run by The Games Bunker in Weston-Super-Mare. It's not a top tournament and definitively more friendly games than competitive.
As for my list, to go there, I wanted something fun to play, with no turrets bombs, etc: just ships that need to keep their arcs on their enemies 
I decided to play ships I haven't played before (or maybe once or twice, but can't remember....): the Starviper and Kihraxz Fighter (before they get any brand new upgrades in hired guns):

3 SCUM ACES
97 points
Fenn Rau (32) Protectorate Starfighter (28), Attanni Mindlink (1), Concord Dawn Protector (1), Autothrusters (2)
Guri (36) StarViper (30), Attanni Mindlink (1), Virago (1), Autothrusters (2), Fire-Control System (2), Inertial Dampeners (1)
Talonbane Cobra (29) Kihraxz Fighter (28), Attanni Mindlink (1)
View: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/745784/3-scum-aces

Game 1 vs Grace and her Ray+Nym list

Game 1 was against Rey (standard with Expertise + Finn etc) + Nym (with Genius+Bomblet+Autoblaster).
Guri went straight in the middle. When Rey got placed in a corner, I decided to put Fenn straight opposite and Talonbane next to Guri.

I wanted to either make Rey and Nym split their forces or get them to go for one of my two groups, leaving the other to harass them. The plan initially was to go on hit strikes and regroup, in order to minimize the potential damage from nasty-Nym.

So I slow rolled (hard one) with Fenn, while the others got into position.

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First combat saw all my ships in position to fire on Rey (with not too bad a return fire) while blocking most of her best moves for the next turn with the help of the asteroids. And Nym didn't have a shot.

The way Nym was oriented gave me an opportunity to try a kill box on Rey without having to worry too much about Nym's bombs. Rey tried a S-loop which ended on a rock. Fenn bumped into her (as I wasn't expected her to go this far), but Nym still wasn't in the game and Guri and Talonbane put loads of damage on Rey.

Rey died just after and it was easy for my ships to chase down and finish Nym while disengaging when necessary to make sure I stayed as far away as possible.

A really nice game, but would have been way more tense if I didn’t have some luck in getting Rey killed so early…

Game 2 vs Rupert and a nice Fett and Zukkus list (with an added Z)

Boba Fett (VI / HLC /EU) + Zukuss (Title/TB/4-Lom/Expose) + Z-95 (I'm probably missing some upgrades?)

This game was played a bit strangely, because my opponent and I weren’t used to Expose and 4-Lom; and he used Expose as a combat effect he could use just before shooting instead of as an action (so he always decided to use it during combat phase and while stressed or after having bumped or after having done another action). I only realised we got it wrong when I thought that this card was too good to be true! (which is the case: this way, it’s just too bloody good!). Also, he used 4-Lom after I rolled my defence dice which, again, makes the card way better than it should be!

Once again, I set Guri in the middle, facing his Z-95. Zukuss then also went in the middle, so I decided to separate all my ships and put Talonbane on my left and Fenn on my right. He then put his Fett facing Talonbane.

I had already decided I wanted his firespray out as soon as possible. The plan was to go with Guri and Talonbane on Fett and have Fenn come quickly from my right. Either Zukkuss and the Z would turn to face Fenn or would go for Guri, which was fine by me.

First round of shooting, Fett put some severe damage on Tablonbane, but he was the only one, as the Z didn’t have a shot and Zukkus was cloacked… in range 1 of Fenn.
So Guri and Talonbane put loads of damage on the Firespray, blinding Fett for no shooting next turn, while Fenn removed 2 or 3 shields of Zukkus.

Next turn, I swapped Talonbane and Fenn who went after Fett. Fenn and Guri managed to finish Fett quickly after that.

After the firespray died, I managed to lose Fenn to a ferocious Zukkus attack (who mis-used both Expose and 4-Lom for the kill), but I still managed to kill both Zukuss and the Z for the win.

A really nice, friendly and enjoyable game, which was closer than it would have been with the proper use of the cards 

Game 3 vs Marcin with Kannan and a T-70

Classic Kannan with attack shuttle + Snap

Nice build which changes from the classic Kanan+Biggs.

Both his ships went on his left side and I put Talonbane just opposite, with Fenn and Guri at the middle of the board.

The idea was to give Talonbane as the best target (and maybe keep him at range 1 to avoid TLT shots), as I wanted to keep the guys with ATs the longest if possible.

Guri and Fenn moved very quickly and managed to get some shootings on the very first round, stripping two shields from Snap, without losing anything on the return fire thanks to AT (and Kana being out of range).

Next turn, Snap surprised me with a 4K-turn through a rock that gave him a range 1 shot on Guri and made Fenn bumped. But the real issue came from the primary fire of the ghost. With a natural hit/hit/crit that Talonbane didn’t manage to evade at all, it went like this: major explosion / roll hit / direct hit. Talonbane got 1 shot with an unmodified shot from the ghost. Meanwhile, Guri managed to blank out his range one shot on the ghost (having spent his focus on defense to avoid snap’s attack). At this point, things are looking pretty grim…

Fortunately, Snap was then out of the fight for a couple of turns where I was able to point both my remaining guns on the Ghost, trying to be at range 1 and out of arc if possible. I managed to get him down to 3 hull, while Fenn was limping with only one hull remaining and a Loose Stabiliser.

Next round, the shuttle was released, and Fenn PS killed the ghost who didn’t get a shot.

Fenn then needed a couple of turns to come back in the fight as he was in a bad spot and constrained to green manoeuvre (his action being to focus for Guri).

Guri still managed to kill the shuttle, while mostly avoiding snap’s arc by moving slowly in front of him or guessing a couple of his moves. Even when he was shot at, he always had a token (and often AT) and only took one damage I think by blanking out 4 green dice at some point.

The last action was snap on 3 hull + integrated astromech facing a 1 hull Fenn at range 1. Fenn got a nice 2 hits + 2 crits (using his only focus) which killed Snap and won the game.

This was a very close game. We both had tremendous fun and really played in to the strength of the game: guessing one’s opponent intentions and trying to anticipate his every moves.
The dice were there to give even more fun with some crazy shots 

All in all, a really enjoyable evening of X-Wing which, wave 11 or not, is what the game is for as far as I'm concerned: having fun!