Hobby Chaos & New Horizons – This Week in Hating Dice (Week 8, 2025)
Hey all,
In something of a return to what this series was intended as, I am breaking away from the Necromunda Deep Dive to get back to what I have been up to this week!
Yes, there was Necromunda, but I also did some hobby work on some Legions Imperialis stuff too!
📦 Moving Milestones & Necromunda Updates
I won’t post spoilers, as I am going to make the Necromunda stuff its own series, and don’t want to ruin it for people who are reading along, but I got my Challenge in for Week 5 of the YYC Underhive War, which is the first week of the Take Over phase of the campaign.
With only two weeks left, the campaign has been a blast, and I’m thrilled to have all my Necromunda stuff packed. It’s been a great experience, and I can’t wait to unpack it all in the UK and see if I can onboard some people in to a campaign of my own.
Meanwhile, the reality of moving hit this week as all of our shipping boxes left for their transatlantic journey. It’s a relief to finally have them on their way—it’s one of the big milestones for the move, giving us all some much-needed breathing space.
A close-up of Shamash, a fearsome Nacht-Ghul from The Dark City Dogs Delaque gang in Necromunda. The model’s intricate metallic claws and sinister hooded design reflect its deadly battlefield presence.
The Dark City Dogs have been a blast to play. Since this is my third run with a Delaque gang, I had a much clearer idea of my upgrade path this time around. That said, it’s been fun noticing all the little changes in the Necromunda: Core Rulebook (2023) that I had missed—things like XP for Seriously Injuring a fighter instead of just taking them Out of Action, the tweaks to Missions and Scenarios, and the updates to how Psykers work
Starting to work on content again has also started to form some ridges in my smooth brain, each time I play a new scenario, I consider how the new rules impact it and what tweaks might improve balance and enjoyment. Heck even writing that last sentence had my brain rebelling that not every scenario needs to be balanced, and that Necromunda needs to have access to unbalanced scenarios to account for large differential in Gang Rating…
I am starting to go back through Uncle Mike’s articles on Arbitrating a campaign and updating them to a more digestible format, more suited to the website than the old Wordpress Blog we originally made them for, but I think I will get to work on something of my own as well.
Hopefully I can convince Mike to do some new Crusty Brushes content, but if not, I already feel like it’s a great resource for aspirant arbitrators.
But all of that is getting a little ahead of myself, as the week actually opened in something of a bitter sweet moment.
🎲 Running My Final X-Wing Tournament in Calgary
10 People came out for the monthly event this month and it was great to fill the Mezzanine at the Sentry Box with X-Wing again!
I hosted what will be my final X-Wing tournament in Calgary. Chinook Squadron has been a refuge for me over the last few years, fitting my wants for X-Wing perfectly. There have been players looking to improve and get more consistent results, but overall the tone of the group always put both players enjoyment first, and while last year I had a final push to see how competitive I could be, I went in to this weeks event unsure of how I wanted to take it, and with very little actual practice, ok, no practice at all. I had never played my list before and had not played a game since the monthly event in January…
But when I arrived we had 10 players, including two new players to the group, which instantly made me happy as even with me leaving, Chinook Squadron is still growing, and I know that I am leaving it in good hands.
The universe conspired to pair me against one of the new players Jess for Round One, and he was running a fun Boba Fett list and we ended up on Chance Engagement for the scenario, so we took our time, and I explained how scenarios worked as he had not played since 2019. We had a great back and forth game, with me a point or two ahead for most of the battle, until the last shot of the game, his Auto-Pilot Drone that had blocked Anakin Landed two hits and I blanked out on defense giving him the two points he needed to win 13 to 12.
I was genuinely happy with the game which surprised me as I felt more like myself, rather than the competitive gremlin that had been showing during my 2024 push, but I think that talk likely needs its own post.
My Round Two game was against Jackson who was the other new person to the group. He had an interesting Emon Azzamine List with both Boba Fett Crew and Tobius Becket allowing him to do some interesting Turn 0 stuff with the rocks and deployment, but I was ready for that style of play and used my deployment to push him back in to not being able to wreck me automatically with bombs. This time we were assaulting the Satellite Array, which my 6 Ship Republic list was well suited for and I managed to get a decent win whilst also having a fun game where Jackson said he learned a lot, which is always nice to hear!
Round Three, I was paired against Jonathan, who was on a bit of a hot streak for events, having won 3 or 4 in a row, and had been the one to beat me in my last few pushes for victory in 2024, so the grudge match was on!
It was Scramble the Transmissions and Jonathan was running Scum with a Nym Bombing List, again with Boba Fett Crew to allow for some interesting deployment options.
I pressured Nym hard and used the R2-D2 Charges on Anakin to stop his bombs from having any meaningful effect on the game, and I managed to keep most of my list out of Arc of Dengar so that he wasn’t getting any extra value from his revenge shots, the game got out of hand fairly quickly, with my winning 21-3.
I wasn’t closing out my X-Wing career in Calgary on a win, but it still felt like a high note. A few of us capped off the night with beer and pizza—what better way to wrap things up than with the best part of X-Wing?
The Best Part of X-Wing…
🏆 Judging X-Wing Worlds One Last Time
Ending my Calgary TO Career is one thing, but this wasn’t just about running events or playing games. Chinook Squadron gave me a space to connect, to grow as a player and a judge, and to shape my experience in a game that has been such a big part of my life. It’s bittersweet to step away, but knowing the community is still growing makes it easier.
I also am finally able to confirm that I will be Judging at the last official X-Wing World Championships, this marks 3 years in a row where I have been invited to attend as a part of the judging team, and every year I am honoured to be involved. It means a lot to be able to give back to the community that gave me so much, and I can honestly say, without X-Wing, I would not be sitting here writing this article now.
I have never tried to push myself to the forefront of the community, or be X-Wing Famous, but it really is an honour to meet people each year and laugh and talk about the game with everyone. I am ever thankful for Chris Allan’s faith and trust in just letting me get on with “Enforcing Fun” in the side events and trying to get the most people I can to have as much Pew Pew as possible each year.
Honestly, I have no idea where I’ll land with the game once I’m in the UK. I don’t think Wigan has an established community, and I’m not sure I have it in me to build one from scratch. But hey, I’ll have my ships—so never say never.
The judging Dream Team from 2024
⚔️ Shifting Focus – Legions Imperialis & a New Gaming Scene
While I’m unsure about my X-Wing future, I do know one thing—I’m excited to dive into Legions Imperialis once I settle in. That brings me to the final part of the article, and Legions Imperialis. I am looking forward to meeting the people at Wigan Tabletop Games Club, and hopefully will be able to hit the ground running.
My hobby time has been neutered of late, with the move, and I am slowly running out of tables to build and paint at as we sell more and more furniture before we leave, but I did manage to assemble the last few pieces for my Knight Household list, and threw together something else to try.
I need to get some paint on these guys, hopefully now that Gillian has finished work I will be able to make the time!
I will hopefully get a game in next week against Dayna’s Titan Legion, and as long as I don’t face off against too many Belicosa Volcano Cannons I think I have a chance. Regardless, it’s been very interesting trying to figure out a pure Knight list and there is an article in the works for that as well.
My current list involved trying out a 3rd Acastus Knight and swapping out some Knight Lancers for Cerastus with Casticator Bolt Cannons to add a little bit of range to my Vanguard Lance.
It does drop my Formations down to 3, which I feel is the minimum I would want to play at 3000 points, just to try to have some options in deployment, but they also have better break points than when I was trying to force 4 formations to work, and on top of that, the list comes out to 3000 points, which feels like an achievement of its own!
3000 Points, on the nose!
Between birthday parties, tax returns, moving logistics, and a bit of family chaos, this week was a lot. But with so much changing, there’s still plenty more to come—next week should be just as packed, and hopefully, I’ll carve out time to push some more articles out!
That’s it for this week in Hating Dice! Between X-Wing farewells, Necromunda tactics, and Legions Imperialis hobbying, it’s been a busy one—but there’s still plenty more to come.
What are you working on this week? Have you ever had to say goodbye to a local gaming scene before a big move? Let me know in the comments!
🚀 Stay connected:
Next week, I’ll be diving into more Legions Imperialis, wrapping up the YYC Underhive War, and getting ready for Adepticon—stay tuned!
