Monday, May 29, 2017

X-Wing League AAR, what to change for SCs?


Mkay, played in the League with the Firesprays and…  Well, true to form the local meta had almost nothing in common with the rest of the world.  SO many Imperials after almost none in the last one.  The TIE SF has certainly come into its own with 3 Shields, 3 Hull and effectively 3 Agility…  Omega Leader is insanely good against my list especially…  Turns out that a LOT of the things in my list are things that got lumped in the FAQ as things that you cannot do against Omega Leader like adding dice for Fearlessness or rerolls and Focus conversion….  That was game one for me…  Mind, the player was one of the Bloomington crew and a really good player and a lot of fun to play against, so it was a fun game…  But not a successful one for me.  I got in a good shot on Quickdraw, almost took it out, but not quite…  Then Omega Leader went to work.  Kath was pretty much helpless against that ship the way I have her kitted out.  Fett did better, but those TIE /SFs are really pretty tough little ships.  Game 2 was against Chris’ S&V jank list.  The Tug kitted out with a Proton Bomb so it could throw bombs out the front if it goes backwards was pretty interesting, but it dies pretty quick when I decided to kill it.  Ventress in the Lancer was good, but the Firesprays are actually pretty decent against that ship.  N’Dru with the Cluster missiles…  Well, he rolled the 2 evades to avoid the Homing Missile taking out out…  Hurt Kath as they are the same PS.  Ended up that way as Fett was undamaged and Kath was below half.  Game 3 was against Allan’s Imperial list.  The hardest thing was the absurdly huge Upsilon Shuttle…  I kept bumping it, not expecting it to be almost a foot off the table J…  I erased his TIE Striker then the shuttle but he had Fel who was able to get Fett on a PS kill as we lined up for the final Joust with only a few Hull each…


What to change?  Not sure…  I am considering replacing Fearlessness with VI on Fett…  PS 10 just to get above the 9’s I was seeing.  The Homing Missiles might go to Concussion Missiles and give me a point to throw on Kath for Inertial Dampers or Cargo Chute…  Just not seeing enough of the Aces relying on the Evade/Focus that the Homing Missile hits hard against… Dunno, I felt I flew fairly well and was never totally outclassed...

Plus side, I got my ancient Silverwing back on the road and got in another test ride tonight as I tweak the minor things on it like adjusting the brakes, etc...  Great ancient bike and a lot of fun to ride...

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Titan X-Wing League this weekend and Store Championships coming up...



Not sure how many of the Store Championships I will go to…  Bloomington for sure on 29 July, Titan in Champaign for sure as it is my local one.  Probably Springfield as well as Nick got me started in the game.  So, 3 or 4 of them.  At least one I will have to fly my S&V Aces list.  Signed up for the Peoria one on 10 June, so I will be going to 3 of them…  I hope.  Champaign still has not set their date and I REALLY hope they are not in conflict with the other Titan store (Peoria) or the wedding I have to go to on 3 June…  But we’ll see I guess.  Tentatively down for the 3…

Gearing up to fly in the League this weekend and trying out the latest iteration of my Firespray list. 

BobaKath2 (100)
Boba Fett (Scum) — Firespray-31
39
Fearlessness
1
Seismic Charges
2
4-LOM
1
Homing Missiles
5
Burnout SLAM
1
Extra Munitions
2
Guidance Chips
0
Slave I
0
Ship Total: 51

Kath Scarlet (Scum) — Firespray-31
38
Expertise
4
Dengar
3
Engine Upgrade
4
Ship Total: 49


SO many upgrades on Fett’s Firespray…  Kind of going for the “Swiss Army Knife” approach with Fearlessness for the Range 1 terror, Homing Missiles/Guidance Chips/4-LOM for the Ace hunting and the Burnout Slam to GTFO when things are looking bad.  The Bombs seem like they are useful, and this fits thematically with the movie version of the ship when they were hunting Obi Wan Kenobi’s fighter.  I had to get rid of the HLC on Kath’s ship, but to be honest it was 7 points for a shot, maybe 2.  Ideally I want to have them chase her so she can get the 5 Dice attacks with modification.  The Engine Upgrade is WAY more useful to me overall I think as it is kind of hard to keep things in the arcs without repositioning of some sort.
Will see how this list does in the League to see if it is what I bring to the SC events…  I suspect at least one I will.  Is a more “fun” list, and frankly a bit more durable than my S&V Ace list.  Guessing what I will face with the Ace list I am fairly confident it will surprise a few folks, but it depends on Green Dice which are notoriously fickle…  When they roll average or better it does REALLY well.  If not?  Well, it is a short game J


Monday, May 8, 2017

X-Wing, watched Worlds, prepping for the next local stuff...

Got in a few more X-Wing games and have actually downloaded the Vassal stuff so that I can get more games in…  Well, in theory…  Assuming that I actually have that time.  In any case, the S&V Ace list is performing quite well.  Learning the ins and outs of the ships.  N’Dru on the Z-95 is surprisingly good.  I mean REALLY good, especially against certain builds I expect to face.  The good potential for an 8 hit strike in there AND the recovery of those missiles to potentially do it again.  Now, good players will see this and understand how serious a threat he really is, but with Ordinance deployed on ALL of my ships, there is really nothing that can be safely ignored at either short OR long range.  Also, 2 PS 9 Ships is massive overkill in one respect, but it gives me a number of good options.  There ARE in fact Pilots that are higher Skill, but not seeing them as often.  RAC with VI does come out to play locally at times, but honestly not as concerned with the Decimator.  Well, with this list at least.  Line up, volley the Missiles/Torpedoes and then close to Range 1 for the 5 Dice Attacks on my Aces.  Bombers are going to be an issue, but I have to be careful in much the same way as I need to against the Uber-Jouster lists.  Stand off, volley Missiles/Torpedoes and try to thin the other Squadron a bit before closing to finish.  Shoot early and often, just like voting in Chicago.  And the Bomber effectiveness drops drastically as their numbers do, so being able to kill off one K-Wing before we engage closely is going to be key.

Not really sure what else I might run into frankly.  TIE swarms, TIE Defenders and maybe TIE Phantoms for the Imperials…  Aces are of course likely there, but I suspect my own are better…  Rebel Regen is a big thing, but I think I can overload it and kill them easily enough.  Scum?  Well, I bet a LOT of Mindlink will be there.  Fenn vs Fenn, but I have Cobrabane to back my Fenn.  Contracted Scouts are a bit of a pain, but should be beatable.

So, since I started writing this one I got to watch the excellent Gold Squadron Podcast’s Twitch streaming of the X-Wing Worlds tournament over the weekend (well, Friday it started, but…) and got to see a number of REALLY good games there.  Got to watch one of the local(ish, he’s from Peoria, but he plays here pretty frequently) absolutely destroy a list like I was flying previously with his Whisper/RAC list.  Simple, brutal and efficient.  Not so sure my old list would have done any better, in fact I am fairly sure I would have done worse.  My current one?  Dunno, volleying the Ordnance is the make or break moment in that one.  If I can get a few good hits in early, I might be able to take his Decimator off the field.  If I fail to do so?  Well, at least it will be a short game I suspect.  Whisper is still quite good, and the combo of Palpitine and Kylo Ren on the Decimator that has Critical conversion already?  Pretty darn powerful on its own.

DID see one list that I REALLY like and might just steal:
BobaKath (100)
Boba Fett (Scum) — Firespray-31
39
Fearlessness
1
4-LOM
1
Homing Missiles
5
Extra Munitions
2
Guidance Chips
0
Slave I
0
Ship Total: 48

Kath Scarlet (Scum) — Firespray-31
38
Expertise
4
Heavy Laser Cannon
7
Dengar
3
Ship Total: 52




Just two loaded out Firesprays…  But the combination of Boba Fett’s Homing Missiles and 4-LOM mean that I can throw out a VERY accurate Missile that I can prevent them from using their Evade or Focus tokens on, so just raw dice.  Only change one I might make there, I like the Salvage crane over the Extra Munitions, but it IS a bit more risky.  More shots possible but HAVE to destroy something to get the Missile back.  Kath is just a modified 4 Dice Attack, pretty much no matter what…  Well, 5 Dice at Range one out the Rear Arc…  With Dice modification and Rerolls, this allows me to use the Evade action a lot more.  Bad part being that the ship has such a Craptastic dial.  And of course it is seemingly over costed, but only in comparison to the Jumpmasters…  Of course, almost EVERYTHING is over costed compared to them, so it is really just an exercise in taking an option NOT obviously the most efficient.

SO Many Jumpmasters at Worlds…  Kind of shining that spotlight on the ship that a LOT of us feel is just too good for its point cost.  SO many good things packed into the efficient package there and it is so customizable.  This allows you to build it out to fill a very large number of roles in the Squadron from straight out Torpedo Boat to Bumpmaster or Ace…  I am not sure what if anything will be on the next errata, but it seems obvious that SOMETHIN needs to be adjusted WRT this ship.  I know a lot of people were also complaining about the Mindlink, but this one I think is FAR less a problem.  With the resurgence of Stress and the built in disadvantage I am not really seeing this as the major problem in the game at the moment.  Yes, it IS efficient and I DO use it in a list, albeit without the JK5K.  But is it on the order of the JM5K?  No.  My list is certainly beatable, and frankly easily so since it is just 3 Aces (well, 2 and a good “almost ACE”) dependent on Agility to survive.  A bad roll or two and that’s game.


Looking like I take a day or two off next week to get my bike back on the road.  Maybe the rain will stop someday.  Really missing the ancient bike, it is something to get my thoughts in order riding on the back roads out here.  Still have an overabundance of sick and vacation time, so might as well use some.