Barely have my feet touched the ground from the team event in Woking on Saturday and it's off to Big Orbit in Evesham for a Q3 kit on Sunday, then it's back to Woking and ibuywargames on Monday for the now traditional bank holiday tournament.

They're back, the two dragons that I love so much. Last time I flew them I wasn't feeling it particularly, but we're now very much in countdown mode for Nationals, and despite trying with the X-Wing idea, I just couldn't make it work for me, certain ships match a certain mentality and whilst I found I have a real affinity with Poe I can't quite find a way to build a list around him with other X-Wings.

So it's back to what I know best, these five remaining events before the big one should give me enough practice with them in the Wave 11 Meta that will inevitably be rife at Nationals (go buy a ticket!).

Nationals could well end up being some crazy number of games so I want something I can fly well, not over complicate and more importantly not lose my brain flying! The Sprays have done me proud time and again and I trust them against nearly all comers. I've said it before and I still think it stands true, they really don't have many bad match ups and unlike some lists I've flown recently they don't have any match ups "unwinnable".

An added bonus is that game time tends to be fairly short as one way or another hull disappears when they turn up!

Boba Fett Kath Scarlett Fearlessness Expertise 4-Lom Dengar Concussion Missiles Heavy Laser Cannon Guidance Chips Black Market Slicer Tools Glitterstim Slave One (pointless and obligatory)


I was having a chat the other day with Alex, James and Mike from the 186th about Firesprays and jank in general. We talked about practice, list development and "getting betterer" at flying things. One of the points raised was about twin Shadow-Casters being a more effective version of the Firesprays which they probably are, but are they as cool?

In terms of lists I enjoy flying as much the only other real option is my triple Protectorate list but unfortunately there are just too many things that make them cry at the moment, and I really don't want to go through the next few blogs just getting annoyed by Nym and Miranda. I mean that could well happen anyway but I don't want to start writing about prepping for a major event KNOWING that it's going to happen…

Evesham is a long drive from where I live so I have stayed a friends house on the way, much appreciated Captain Conor McNama. I'm hoping to visit more places around the country in the coming months because I love seeing X-Wing EVERYWHERE and visiting people is cool.

It's my first visit to Big Orbit and a small 8 man tournament seems a good place to start my re-adjustment to the sprays.

It's only three rounds and I won the first two games pretty quickly (in less than 40 minutes combined) losing only half points on Boba in both games. Then in the final I play Martin Wilks with his brilliantly devised 3 Scurrgs and 2 Z95s list. Thirty-eight health on five small based ships is no joke, the opening engagement sees me drop one of the Scurggs to one health, but when the crit flipped over it wasn't a double damage, so the bugger survived.

Had that ship died then I might have been able to swing the game in my favour. The trade of damage was too much and he used his Boba crew to take Kath's expertise. He flew it very well and it was great to see a Scurgg's that I didn't want to smash with a hammer straight away!

On the drive back I got to thinking about the list and ways I can further maximise it's potential. I think as two sprays go I have it as refined as I can make it. So it might be worth playing around with other options to see if I can get to the next level. James Dowdall's thoughts about the Lancer came into the conversation Conor and I had. We played a couple of VERY quick games and I decided I had to try it out against some other competition to see if I can get it working.

So for the tournament on Monday this will be my list:

Ketsu Onyo Kath Scarlett Fearlessness Expertise K4 Security Droid Dengar Gyroscopic Targetting Heavy Laser Cannon Rigged Cargo Shute ShadowCaster

At range one Ketsu is dishing out just as much damage as Boba, she might not have the survivability of the Fett at range one with all his re-rolls and the glitterstim but she can double tractor beam things which