Tuesday, November 24, 2015

STAW vs. X-Wing, not really a contest anymore...

So, another STAW event in the books…  Went 2-1 and lost the last game due to “TKO”…  I had the only actual ship kill, but due to the incredibly poorly written scenario rules and the other player bringing a build to reap the benefit of that…  No ill will there, the other guy had a completely legal list, and had we more time my bog standard Romulan list would have cleared the field.  But this really highlights why I have moved almost completely to FFG’s systems (X-Wing and Armada).  The eternal Weyoun discard CPT allowing him to use a card with “discard to do ’X’” every turn is just silly.  Ideally, Wizkids would errata the card to say “disable to prevent the discard of a Dominion Crew card”, but as it stands of course, it disables to prevent ANY Crew cards discard…  So a lot of fairly expensive one use things get to be used every turn.  As I’ve always said, having things in a game that break the basic rules of the game will always begin to unbalance it.  Individual things may be small and inconsequential, but bigger problems always seem to start off that way.   The precedent has been set, so this thing breaking the basic framework of the game is really not that different than that last thing, etc…   Yes, in my younger days I was a min/max player (Champions/ Hero system rules) and a game tester for a number of systems…  I am really good at math and can see a lot of the combinations that have better than expected presence in the game…  I say younger days as I think I tend to avoid the obviously OP things these days, and why I do not play certain things anymore (Circle In Hordes or Eldar in 40K for example)…  For the most part, it is just boring to me.  As it happens I am fairly good at small unit tactics and the like, so the “Easy Button” stuff is just insulting to me.  But that’s just me I guess J…  For a long time in Warmachine there was the mantra of “everything is broken, so nothing really is”.  On one level, true, however…  Not everything was equally broken, there were some things that were REALLY broken (over the top over powered) like Khador’s Cdr Sorsha and Cygnar’s CPT Haley that just made the game completely un-fun to play on both sides.  Then MK2 hit and things were good…  For a while it seems.  I am not 100% sure, have not played for a while myself and playing a somewhat silly fringe faction that has very little “new” coming out I don’t really keep as much up with the stuff as I should I guess, but…  The power players are using a VERY small subset of armies and pieces again, so like Hagrid said “it feels like last time”….  Yes, I have Ogres (Ogrun) in my faction as for whatever reason the Ogres and Dwarves get along quite well…

So, mostly just a touch frustrating trying to play a game with such huge gaping holes in it…  In contrast, X-Wing is MUCH tighter as a rule set, and FFG actually answers questions, makes revisions as needed, etc.  With another Worlds in the books and some almost 300 players travelling to Minnesota in November…  Given the size disparity between the STAW and X-Wing Worlds fields (fewer than 12 for STAW IIRC?), and watching the continued ability for FFG to simply print money by releasing more and more of their stuff….  And seeing a fair bit of STAW still sitting on shelves…  Though some of the more recent things are being bought, so it is NOT dead…  Just not so focused I think…  SO many factions and so many completely useless ships/cards vs the now 3 factions in X-Wing and pretty much none of them being useless…  Yes, some are seldom seen (TIE Defender, M3-A Interceptor, TIE Bomber maybe?) but a lot of that has to do with the ordnance rules and/or slightly less useful pilots…  But overall, there are SO many different builds that are actually viable that it goes well beyond a rock/paper/scissors thing…

Looking like I’ll play this on the 6th of December when Titan closes out the Fall League:
EadenYPoe (100)
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing
31
Veteran Instincts
1
R5-P9
3
Autothrusters
2
Ship Total: 37

Eaden Vrill — YT-2400
32
Intelligence Agent
1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers
2
Ship Total: 35

Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing
20
Twin Laser Turret
6
R3-A2
2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing
0
Ship Total: 28
Simple enough, the T-70 is my Ace with Regeneration to actually dogfight and close in for kills.  The Grey Y-Wing is the Stress Hog piling up Stress and maybe even a little damage, especially to low Agility targets.  Vrill in the YT-2400 is there to shoot Stressed things and with the Intel Agent/APL combo and Barrel Rolls on a maneuverable ship to block and potentially cause damage without attacking…  Swarms being a thing, and of course a number of the Ace types need to be a Range 1 to cause their effects to go off…  No problem, I am fine daring them to close on me and working in close like that.  Low PS, so I will move before a lot of the things I am worried about and I’ve always been comfortable with close in work J…  Akido and Ju Jitsu being what I studied in my youth and all… 

Mind, I have no illusions of winning it all, but this list should at least be competitive with pretty much anything out there…  Lacks a bit on raw damage output, but it WILL be fun to fly…  Besides, I’m moving up from the middle of the pack in the league…  But overall the league has lost a bit of the harder/competitive edge it had last league, so it has been MUCH more fun, almost the same vibe as the last tournament run by Bill over at the Gopher…  So fun competition rather than high stress… 


Ankle is almost back, I can walk for a bit and starting my “prison workout” again…  Getting stronger by the day, is good to see the slight changes as my shirts get tighter in the arms and looser across the gut…

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