Stay On Target | An X-Wing Podcast

That's Jedi for farewell. Recording what is probably the last episode of Stay On Target, the boys discuss the announcement of X-Wing's cancellation and what the future might hold for the game.

...or not. Well, maybe. We don't know. Mikhail has won two Store Championships and still has no idea if he's punched his ticket yet or not and shares his thoughts. There's also the inevitable meta discussion and even more inevitable whining about the Steelers afterwards.

Ryan Staniszewski of Gold Squadron Podcast begged us for a new episode because he is addicted to X-Wing. Fine, here you go Ryan, but be careful what you wish for. (What Ryan doesn't know is that we nearly talk more about bourbon and the Pittsburgh Steelers than we do about little plastic spaceships)

A new X-Wing season is upon us! Ushered in with the Store Championships, brand new Starter Kits, and everyone's favorite: a new points update. It's an exciting time to be an X-Wing player and things are looking up. Or not...Gordon is worried.

Let's dispense with the silly memes and focus instead on what's important: X-Wing is finally getting updated Starter Kits! A new season is about to start next month and with it some brand new four-ship starter packs for the Rebel and Imperial factions. Combine this with Store Championships happening again at a game shop near you means everything is in place to restore X-Wing to its former glory!

Look at all the new ships! You'd think that would make for a great reason to record an episode, wouldn't it? Nope! We simply felt like it and had the time.

After 100 minutes of recording, Gordon's Zoom client locks up and the entire episode is lost. Or not. The latest lists doing well in the competitive scene are discussed as well as Gordon and Mikhail's continuing efforts to grow/revitalize X-Wing communities where they live.

This episode was originally going to be titled "Pillow Talk" -- you'll get the reference if you listen towards the end -- but when we realized it was our 66th podcast, we really had no choice what to name it. Highlights include our reactions to the new rules changes and points update, as well as two of the hosts sharing their experiences in trying to build new X-Wing communities.

Gordon summarizes his experiences at Adepticon and reveals a conclusion he's now formed. Franch has finally played some 2.5 games in real life...with real people! Mikhail is moving. Again. Stay On Target After Dark offers up some truly bad Dad jokes.

Talk about a great disturbance in the Force! X-Wing 2.5 is finally here and we have thoughts about the two biggest reveals: New list building rules, and five new scenarios that introduce another way to score points.

AMG drops a bombshell of a new rule where even SOT can't just sit idly by without recording an episode. Will this be the final form of Random Player Order? Or will a very vocal minority influence AMG via social media to make a change? Disclaimer: Franch and Mikhail sound great on their new mics while Gordon had the wrong settings and clips like crazy with too hot of a mic. Try to ignore him if you can...

Gordon just wanted to test a Zoom remote session to see what it was like -- because not getting together in person is new for us -- when Mikhail suddenly says "Just hit the record button...go!" The discussion is what you'd expect: A little points update reactions here, a little AMG major game change reactions there. Steelers talk at about the 1:27:00 mark if you're a masochist.

You might not know this, but it's been just over a year since we last recorded. Lies you say? It's true...all of it (insert Han Solo meme here). Gordon finally felt safe enough to come out of his Covid cave, Mikhail's grown a beard to look more like Gordon, Camden got tired of not podcasting so he started his own show, and Franch welcomed baby Magnolia to his family! Proud Papa indeed!! The gang recaps the past year's worth of X-Wing happenings and whines about the lack of a promised points update.

Fine, he probably doesn't, but we thought we saw him licking his iPad and iPads are made in China, so our logic is infallible. Topics mostly revolved around recent Store Championships and the current Hyperspace meta, and some discussion about new players getting involved in their first competitive games. And some brief Steelers talk. 00:11:15 - WAR STORIES | 01:07:20 - FLIGHT PREP | 01:31:00 - STOLEN PLANS | 01:35:10 - STEELERS TALK

Let's face it -- when the points change in X-Wing every six months, it's just the best. Not much got nerfed this time around, but a LOT of generic ships were lowered in cost. We're excited, and you should be too!

With the new year comes the hope and promise of X-Wing resolutions! Mikhail wants to attend a specific tournament that he's never played in before. Franch vows to be more faction diverse. And Gordon....well, Gordon is already a hot mess, getting stuck trying to live up to his X-Wing promise on the very first day he makes the attempt!

...P-O-D-C-A-S-T(ING). Even though Mikhail was unavailable, Gordon and Franch felt like recording anyway.

The gang spends their Halloween recording a show, which is what happens when you don't have children. Highlights include Mikhail sharing stories from his recent World's experience, Franch leading them through a "buy or sell" segment about various ships and upgrades, and Gordon pondering how he was labeled a virus while away in Scotland. In other words, two of the hosts contribute something useful about X-Wing.

Franch and Mikhail attempt to host the show on their own without their fearless leader, Gordon. But don't worry, they are joined by Mark Moriarity from Hangar 19 to discuss the hyperspace trial that happened this past weekend in Louisville where Franch proved no practice is the best practice. The guys also talk about the hyperspace meta and then some general world championship info to get listeners prepped and ready for what they should expect. No timestamps this episode, so stick around (or don't) towards the end for some football talk.

Gordon, Mikhail, and guest Ryan Fleming discuss the typical things you'd expect on a show that's about X-Wing, but we all know why Ryan is there, right? You'll know when it's time to stop listening if you don't care about the inevitable Pittsburgh Steelers sportsball talk. Sorry, no timestamps either. Failing to write down the timestamps is what happens when Franch isn't there, so blame him, not Gordon. In fact, that's sage advice for just about everything: blame Franch.

GOOOOOOD MORNING X-WING!!!! Hey, this is....wait, wrong show. Sorry. The whole gang is finally back together again as Mikhail resumes his co-hosting responsibilities once more after being extradited to Kentucky from Florida. Obviously, that's not true, but this is what happens when they let Gordon write the preview copy. So listen in on some War Stories (what they played recently), some Flight Prep (GenCon predictions), and everyone's favorite segment: Steelers Talk (Steelers Talk!!!). 09:30 - WAR STORIES | 31:15 - FLIGHT PREP | 1:39:30 - STEELERS TALK

Louisville Hyperspace Trial winner Joe Konopa and local Louisville player Rebel Mike join a Mikhail-less cast to discuss the recent tourney that was held in the Bluegrass state. The cast then attempts to host a trail of their own -- of the legal variety -- in which Rebel Beef stands accused. Yes...funnier in concept than execution. 00:00 - INTRO & WAR STORIES | 40:00 - SOT COURT | 01:50:45 - FLIGHT PREP | 1:56:30 - STOLEN PLANS

The title is an Easter Egg. Go find it. 1:41:30 - STEELERS TALK

You're not alone, Gordon didn't know what that meant either. Tune in to find out! Oh look, it's Episode 50. That's right...Stay On Target, where half the amount of content produced takes twice as long! This week's show is mostly the past month's FFG news and discussions about the emerging meta in both formats. Yes, we discuss the elephant in the room. 51:00 - HYPERSPACE | 1:17:00 - EXTENDED

Original Stay On Target host and creator Cory "CooMasterCoo" Cooley joins the gang to discuss his return to X-Wing and reflect on the recent Hyperspace Trial that was held in Murray, KY.

Gordon and Mikhail are joined this week by special guest Ryan Staniszewski of the OCX podcast to discuss their recent experience at the Hyperspace Trial that was held in Springfield, Ohio. In fact, one of them won the tournament! You'll never guess who!! Listen to find out!!! Okay, fine, the title of the episode has a hint!!!!

Mostly about dice, less about men. "Getting diced" sure has come up as a topic a lot lately, so the Stay on Target crew thought they'd chime in as well by compiling amazing amounts of statistical research alongside copious amounts of insight. And then Asa from Back to Dials publishes an article on the day we record that summarizes it all better than we ever could. What a jerk. So we have him on as a guest during his lunch break. 05:30 - WAR STORIES | 35:30 - HYPERSPACE TRIAL PREDICTIONS | 50:45 - INTERVIEW WITH ASA AND FLIGHT PREP | 1:30:30 - HYPERSPACE TRIALS ADVICE | 1:43:00 - RESOURCES | 1:53:40 - FFG Beef | 2:00:00 - QUICKBUILDS

As promised, FFG published the points and ship configuration updates on schedule. It certainly made for some easy-to-write show notes: "Discuss points changes." 12:00 - GENERICS AND REBELS | 55:30 - EMPIRE | 1:20:00 - SCUM | 1:57:30 - RESISTANCE | 2:03:30 - FIRST ORDER | 2:20:00 - PROUD PAPA

Was there meta-talk? Of course. Speculation about the upcoming point changes? You betcha. A detailed analysis about the Separatist Alliance preview? Eh, not so much. But there was a lot of talk about the recent Outryder Cup VIII event that was recently held in Indianapolis. The crew shares their Outryder experiences, and then Gordon drops an unexpected bombshell. 2:45 - WAR STORIES | 1:05:30 - FLIGHT PREP | 01:41:40 - STOLEN PLANS | 01:50:00 - STEELERS TALK

The release of two new factions makes for a great excuse to get together and record a new episode, right? You would think so, so we decided to do this at the last minute -- apparently Franch doesn't do "last minute." That's okay, Mikhail has an opinion about everything and carries the show because he actually plays the game of X-Wing (whereas Gordon has played just *once* since the last episode). We also spend time with our producer David Cottingham, who shares with us how his X-Wing 2.0 experience has been so far. 14:00 - X-WING | 1:13:00 - PRODUCER DAVE

Eeeew. It had been a month since the last episode and the Steelers just lost another game, so we had no choice but to record a new show and asked Ryan Fleming to once again join us. It's strictly pure coincidence that Ryan also earned his World's ticket at the recent System Open in Philadelphia, but this let us talk actual X-Wing for a while, thereby keeping the whining about the Steelers to a relative minimum at the end. 11:45 - WAR STORIES | 45:00 - FLIGHT PREP | 01:15:00 - STOLEN PLANS | 1:31:00 - STEELERS TALK

This episode was recorded on Gordon's 52nd birthday. As tempting as it might have been to make the entire discussion about just him -- which would have been really great, mind you -- special guest Mark Moriarty joined the crew to talk about actual X-Wing content. Even Gordon couldn't ignore something as rare as that on this show. Listen in as Mark discusses the Fundamentals of List Building that sometimes eludes newer and older players alike. 6:40 - WAR STORIES | 27:45 - META TALK | 41:10 - FUNDAMENTALS OF LIST BUILDING | 1:56:00 - CLOSING

Getting us together to record these days is basically a miracle. Almost didn't happen again! But record we did. There's some brief discussion of a Second Edition tourney Mikhail and Franch attended and then some discussion about more X-Wing stuff. Don't really remember what it was all supposed to be about because Gordon just couldn't get past Franch being, well, Franch. Regardless, Steelers talk was kept to a minimum at the end of the show. You're welcome.

At least Franch wrote up our show notes, so not a complete loss. With our little tricycle of a podcast still missing its third wheel, Gordon and Mikhail try to pedal along by talking about the recent lists they've flown before eventually asking Ryan Fleming to hop on and save us. After all, Coruscant is this weekend, so who better to talk Coruscant with than Ryan? Turns out Ryan agreed to join us only if he was allowed to complain about the Steelers. After Ryan's rant, we washed his mouth out with soap. 4:00 - WAR STORIES | 26:00 - META ANALYSIS | 1:05:00 - OUTRYDER CUP VIII | 1:21:00 - STOLEN PLANS | 1:27:00 = STEELERS TALK (WHINING) | 2:00:00 - MORE X-WING TALK!

We know you already knew that, but he's a super-idiot this episode. He might know what a Luddite is, but he still doesn't know how Iden Versio works. We apologize in advance. 12:30 - SHIRTS! | 18:15 - PLAYER'S PATH | 1:21:20 - TOURNEY TALK | 1:33:50 - STEELERS TALK

Gordon would have preferred to have had the episode titled "You must unlearn what you have learned", said in his best Yoda voice no less, but Mikhail was inclined to go with the quote by a whiny, murderous brat. Having not recorded for almost two months, it was finally time to get together again to share their thoughts on the sunset that was X-Wing First Edition and the dawn of a new era that begins this week with the launch of X-Wing Second Edition. Non-football fans (or just non-Steelers fans) might want to skip forward to the 11:00 minute mark. Also, parents take note -- a word is in the Steelers segment you might not want to have to explain. 03:15 - STEELERS RANT | 11:00 - WAR STORIES | 45:10 - FLIGHT PREP | 1:30:00 - STOLEN PLANS

We mean that sort of literally. We spoke with Andrew Savoie, who happens to be an actual M.D. What does that have to do with X-Wing? Absolutely nothing, but we're still impressed. Turns out Andrew used to play X-Wing years ago. Now that he's done with his residency, he has more free time and thought he'd give X-Wing another go. Has he heard the good news? Does he know about X-Wing 2.0? We interview him to find out.

That's right, the Stay On Target crew find themselves excited about X-Wing 1.0 again. Thanks Wave 14! 02:00 - WAR STORIES | 30:30 - WAVE 14

Mikhail and Franch share Worlds stories from their recent trip to Minnesota, but it becomes clear soon enough that the crew wanted to talk more about the recently announced X-Wing 2nd Edition. 00:30 - WORLDS | 50:00 - X-WING 2.0

Those who listen to OCX get the reference, and Stay On Target now owns said reference. We won the right to say so and explain why at the end of the show. But don't try to skip ahead, because we'll know and then you'll be in trouble. Mikhail and Franch speculate about what will show up at World's in two weeks, but Gordon doesn't care (because he's not going). Gordon instead prefers to ponder about the overall state of the competitive game and speculate about X-Wing 2.0. 00:30 - WORLDS TALK | 57:00 - STATE OF THE GAME | 01:38:00 PROUG PAPA | 01:45:00 - EVENTS

The new Q1 2018 X-wing kit is being described as a "Stay on Target" tournament. Clearly inspired by our podcast, of course. After all, it's not like the phrase "Stay on Target" is used elsewhere. You're welcome, FFG. Michigan Regional semi-finalist Tommy Adams joins Gordon, Mikhail, and Franch to discuss his four-ship rebel list. 03:30 - WAR STORIES | 01:01:40 - FLIGHT PREP | 01:20:00 - STOLEN PLANS

Dreams do come true! Who cares if it took a different Gordon than the show's host to climb the mountain top? Suffer with Mikhail and Franch in their dismay, having to listen to Gordon and guest sycophant Camden go on and on about the achievement of his namesake - Gordon Pinkerton - who won the Portland System Open. Oh yeah, and obligatory meta talk -- in all its Fenn/Ghost glory. 05:30 - WAR STORIES | 39:00 - FLIGHT PREP | 01:00:00 - STOLEN PLANS

Gordon and Mikhail think they have the show all to themselves, but Franch crashes the party. Then DHaus of all people shows up to brag about being in another Organized Play promo pic. There's also talk about the Indy Regional.

It was almost a perfect weekend: X-wing streams everywhere and the Steelers (Big Ben, Brown, and Bell) advancing to the AFC Championship. Ugh, the Steelers! Fine, at least Jeff Berling joins us for some meta-analysis. Nevermind, he's not available. Okay, well, congrats to the Birmingham Barons podcast member Joel Killingsworth for going 15-0 across two events at PAX South? 3:40 - OPENING AND STEELERS RANT | 10:00 - WAR STORIES | 21:10 - FLIGHT PREP | 1:19:30 - STOLEN PLANS | 1:27:30 - CLOSING

I think we're a collective 0-4 against Duncan. This now forces us to prevent him from attending all future tournaments, it's our only remaining option. Or maybe we play better...not sure about that one. In addition to discussing the emerging meta, we speculate about the TIE Silencer, which got its own article right *after* we recorded. Figures! 2:00 - IN THE HANGAR | 21:45 - WAR STORIES | 53:15 - OUTRYDER CUT VII

Literally. Deroche, Franch and Mikhail eat cookies while recording, all very professional. And they discuss the recent FAQ - in between bites.

Gordon, Mikhail, Franch, and party crasher Jon Bruns (from Hornet Squadron Radio) discuss all manner of X-Wing topics: Recent tournaments and alternate formats, listener feedback, FFG's silence, and speculate about a possible System Open event at PAX East (which ends up no longer being speculation an hour after they record....figures). 8:30 - WAR STORIES | 43:30 - STOLEN PLANS | 1:41:00 - FLIGHT PREP | 1:44:30 - CLOSING

Gordon, Mikhail, and Franch are joined by special guest Mark Moriarty to discuss Mark's amazing alt-art cards, Gen-Con, and the local game stores in which they play. Also highlighted are the upcoming Bluegrass Open and Crossroads Classic tournaments. 12:30 - WAR STORIES | 30:30 - STOLEN PLANS | 52:30 - STOLEN PLANS II | 1:07:00 - WAVE 12 | 1:24:00 - ASSORTED TOPICS

The Stay On Target crew is back after a slew of Store Championships post-Wave 11. Find out how they did and what their thoughts are on the FAQ 'leak' (not much given how it's been beaten to death already). Gordon tries to find out if Wave 11's impact on the game is either bad, good or just different. 2:22 - WAR STORIES | 27:30 - STOLEN PLANS | 1:02:00 - WAVE 11

In an attempt to bring about the end of the world, the Stay On Target crew record episodes in back-to-back weeks! Franch, Gordon, and Mikhail speak with special guest Phil Horny about his current thoughts on the Imperial faction, and how it might fare in the soon-to-be-released Wave 11 meta. 2:40 - WAR STORIES | 12:40 - STOLEN PLANS | 50:50 - WAVE 11