Tuesday, August 29, 2017

X-Wing for the upcoming Season and Political Hysteria :-)

So, thinking about what to fly next…  Current list is:


My Dengar Nym build is absolutely solid, but not what I would think of as being “fun” to fly against I think.  It is REALLY good but it requires a bit of skill to actually fly.  Counters?  I guess…  If I fly it smart though there are not many I am concerned about honestly.  I can arc dodge fairly well with both of my ships and the unlimited bombs are a thing that just erases fragile Aces.  Might swap the Plasma Torps and Cruise Missiles for TLT or something...  Dunno, people MIGHT figure out how to deal with the ABT version of Nym at some point...  

Looking at the “Hired Guns” expansion and the additional silliness that will ensue I think there…  My Kihraxz fighters get a HUGE boost and the Harpoon Missiles just look stupidly good.  Wave 12 is kind of spoiled as well and some things look interesting.  Frankly concerned about the Epic actions coming into the game with coordinate being on the new version of the Phantom Shuttle.  14 points seems pretty light for the action boosting potential.  The Rebels already have a number of points fortresses that would benefit greatly by having another Free Action at the end of Activation, so I am waiting and seeing with this one I think.  Might take some time, but I am confident someone out there will find a silly and broken combo to make this thing way too good for the cost.  The Reload action on the other 2 we have seen so far is another one, especially with more complicated Ordinance like the Harpoon Missile hitting at about the same time.  Having an effectively unlimited supply seems like it might be a bit too good.  And with the Harpoon especially, formation flying might well be a thing of the past.

Eh, wait and see…  Next event is in a few weeks so I’ll have to get in and preorder the Hired Guns stuff, maybe it will be here by then, else Dengar/Nym hits the table for me.

Started on Tanks by GF9…  Uses the 15mm WWII models that Battlefront uses for Flames of War, and I have a few of them around.  NOT really all that many frankly, I had a Platoon of M-3 Lee/Grant tanks in the mostly assembled/base coated US OD Green…  Quick repaint and turret swap for the British Grant tank gets me a LONG way to fielding the swarm of cheap tanks…  The typical game is 100 points and the basic Grant is 14 points, so I COULD field 7 of the bastards…  I have one coming along with my order of the base game through the Gopher gets me 6 and I secured an OP kit with I think 10 cards to field them if I need to…  So, I’ll have my first force in the game ready to go pretty darn quickly.  My main FoW force was American Airborne, so useless in this game I suppose, I’ll have to see what else I actually have as it has been a LONG time since I played that game.  1st and 2nd edition were kind of broken if you actually knew how Artillery worked and used it correctly.  American Artillery was the worst offender by far, and I felt kind of bad fielding such a broken force…  Well, usually, there were a few times I was proving a point and taking down someone annoying with what they felt was their uber force….   My Infantry was stubborn as Hell, armed to the teeth with every Bazooka they could “find” and backed by Artillery on the field.  I never had to move in most cases, just range the shots in, call for fire…  Then just keep calling for fire/FFE on the same target until it broke and/or died.  Tanks looks to be a VERY much simpler game, almost to the “beer and pretzels” level, but I think X-Wing has gotten more complicated and in depth, this makes for a nice break. 

And it got me out to the new Gopher for the first time to see Ken demo/have their first tournament.  The place is nice, big play area.  Not a LOT of product on the shelves, but I think it is starting out nicely.  Inside the mall, so limited in some ways, but again something to start out with and test the waters I guess.  CU seems like it works well with 2 good game shops, and I’m happy to see what looks like another nice place starting up.

Had another fair bit written up about politics and the like…  Lost it apparently, but going from memory:  Nazis?  I cannot believe that there are actual Nazis marching on the streets.  I remember watching the “Blues Brothers” when I was a kid and thinking “OK, they needed something bizarre and outlandish as the ‘bad guys’ for the film, so Nazis made sense for that”.  Now here we are 30+ years later and there are actual Nazis out marching.  Well, when I say “actual” perhaps I am stretching things…  They CALL themselves Nazis, but I suspect they are not actual National Socialists, just silly racists putting on airs.  In the other corner we get “Antifada”…  So, another continuation/throwback to the 1920’s/30’s in Germany…  The originals were the militant wing of the Communist Party supported by the Stalinists in Russia.  They were fighting in the streets against the original Nazis to determine what “flavor” of Socialism would rule in Germany.  They lost.  Thing is, I am not convinced the current iteration is NOT actually Communist.  They claim to be “Anarchists”, but once you actually look at what they are saying and wanting it all looks familiar to those of us who studied history and understand what Communism actually was.  Now it is appearing to those of us in the center that both extremist groups are willing to use/promote violence to achieve their ends, just that one group shares a great deal of ideology with most in the main stream media, so they do tend to either get NO coverage or coverage slanted to make them appear not so bad. 


If the President were to actually put down the cell phone and get off of Twitter for a bit…  Or better yet, just get someone ELSE to actually write posts and not seem so silly, reactionary and childish, perhaps the press/Left (not a lot of difference, I know) could relax a bit and calm down.  Not likely, and working where I do…  Well, being what I would consider a “fiscal conservative” / Heinlein style Libertarian I am seen as pretty far to the Right here…  I see myself being somewhere in the middle, I am not a Republican and cannot see any reason for the Government to involve itself in many of the “big platform items” that the party seems to care about…  Certainly not a Democrat, I grew up near Chicago and here in Illinois where the running joke is the sheer corruption that party stands for.  Wish it were just a joke, I get to see it firsthand a lot…


So, I keep to the old Army rule of “No Politics On Post” and just do my job to the best of my ability.  The hysteria levels HAVE dropped over the last months locally, and with the State doing its level best to destroy the economy in Illinois, there have been far more valid local concerns to deal with.  Glad on one level, sucks overall of course.

Eh, plus side a new Semester has begun and I have a LOT more to deal with so I can safely ignore that hysteria :-)...

Monday, July 31, 2017

X-Wing SC (Red Raccoon) AAR...

So, went to the Red Raccoon Store Championship Saturday…  I decided to run with:

New Squadron (100)
Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Veteran Instincts
1
Autoblaster Turret
2
Cruise Missiles
3
Bomblet Generator
3
Advanced Sensors
3
"Genius"
0
Long-Range Scanners
0
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 42

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000
33
Lone Wolf
2
Plasma Torpedoes
3
Extra Munitions
2
K4 Security Droid
3
Unhinged Astromech
1
Glitterstim
2
Guidance Chips
0
Punishing One
12
Ship Total: 58


Pretty simple list not a lot of subtlety here.  I was NOT the only one running this list, or at least a variation of this list.  I was certainly the most successful I think.  The way I tended to run it was “Arc Dodge For the Win”.   I wound up facing at least 3 TIE based lists.  I do think that as things stand now my list is a hard counter for the TIEs.  The highlight was having Nym chase down a loaded up Vader in a TIE Advanced.  Now, that’s just wrong in my opinion.  Having a heavy bomber chase down one of the most agile Fighters in the game, but there it was.  

Game one I was banished to the basement.  Should explain a bit.  There were 32 players in the event, so tables 10-16 were in the basement area.  Played a newer player who had Carnor Jax, COL Vessery and an Omega Specialist.  I wasn’t sure what the Specialist was, never saw one played.  But loaded out TIE/SF like what I was used to seeing, just without the Pilot Abilities.  Since my list relies heavily on dice modification and the whole Carnor Jax experience from before I was hunting him.  I DID start the game saying “Sorry, this will probably go badly for that list”.  Dengar hunted down Jax with the Plasma Torpedo doing most of the damage on the first hit.  Nym killed the TIE/SF easily with Bombs and the Autoblaster then the TIE Defender was next… 

Game 2 brought me up to the top tables, I think 8…  Played against another Champaign player (I do not remember his name) who had another Imperial list.  Vader in the TIE Advanced, Quickdraw and Countess Ryad perhaps?  I won the Initiative roll, so I would move AFTER his Quickdraw and Vader.  Started split with Nym more than 2 away and then rolled right at him…  Well, slowly.  He HAD Cruise Missiles on the ADV and SF, so I was not going to just joust.  He split off the SF and Defender so I chased with Dengar.  The ADV was being chased by Nym.  Was bad.  The fastest, most advanced fighter (supposedly) in the Imperial arsenal being run to ground by a Heavy Bomber.  But Barrel Roll is insane, especially if I can do it BEFORE I move and then drop a bomb either at the beginning or end of my move.  He DID finally get half through the JM5K for the 29 MoV points, but I swept him eventually.  I dodged arcs REALLY well there and Quickdraw was only able to plink in enough to strip shields eventually before I could finish it off.  Good game, fun opponent even though he was pretty frustrated by my ability to dodge his arcs. 

So, 2-0 and great MoV put me up against Will…  He ran CPT Nym, pretty much EXACTLY like mine and 4 Z-95’s loaded out with “Dead Man’s Switch” so they would blow up and do a damage to EVERYTHING in Range 1 when they died…  I was able to outmaneuver a bit and Dengar killed 2 Z’s and damaged the other 2 badly before they could get close, I jousted Nyms and had him damaged, thinking I could trade them easily enough.  Worked well until I killed the last 2 of his Z’s with Dengar in range to take a bit of damage then it all fell apart.  Will did something I did not expect and ended up Range 1 of BOTH my ships…  We Bombed each other…  He of course rolled 2 blanks for his.  I rolled 2 hits on Dengar and hit/Crit for Nym…  Nym got the PS 0 crit, dooming him and Dengar ate the Range 1 Skurrg shot for an additional 4 Damage killing him…  J  Ah well, still haven’t beat him, but at least this was a really bad statistical anomaly to lose it, and I actually flew it fairly well.

2-1, needed to win to stay in the top…  Got paired against another TIE based list.  Quoickdraw, COL Vessary and Omega Leader.  Fairly standard build.  I started in my now standard split setup, ran Nym up along the right edge of the board while Dengar moved slowly to the center.  Turned Nym to line up the Cruise Missile shot while Dengar annihilated Omega Leader.  Plasma Torpedo and another random shot the next turn before he could acquire the Target Lock.  His Quickdraw did the “run over a rock to damage myself” trick to get in an early shot against Nym, hurt, but with 5 Shields, not a big deal…  My counter of ramming into him, hitting the SF AND the Defender with my bomb and plinking the Defender for more with the ABT was not what he expected.  Since I bumped him, no Quickdraw shooting and no Arc for the TIE/D.  Nym finished QD then peeled off while Dengar arc dodged like a madman and finished the TIE Defender.  100-0 win.  Yes, the small based ships SHOULD count for half points if you get them to 50%, or they need to drop the 50% thing on the large based ships.  The score was NOT reflective of the game I think, he DID a fair bit of damage to me, was into Hull on Nym and had most if not all the Shields on Dengar, but nothing hit that magic number to get points…

Final game of Swiss was against a fairly creative Asajji build with 3 Z-95’s.  2 with Cluster Missiles and one with Tracers.  Lots of Glitterstim out there too…  Was built I think more to deal with the Mindlink silliness of the previous meta…  He killed my Nym with Clusters…  But in return I damaged all of his Z’s and put a total of 6 Damage on Asajji’s ship on the way out.  5 Red Dice from the Cruise Missile hits HARD, and bombing on the end of the move is just silly, but horribly effective.  Dengar had to do a bit of dancing, but I was able to finish him off quickly.

So, that left me at 4-1 with REALLY good MoV.  Got Second in the Swiss.  So, with the cut I played Kevin’s Kanan/Biggs list.  Good, solid list played by an excellent player.  Long story short, I did a fair bit of Damage, but died pretty quick.  Missed an Arc Dodge for the first time of the day J…  Was at the end, more or less anyway, so it wouldn’t have turned the game around for me.  I realized after the game on the way home that the way my list wins would be to slow roll in with Dengar, Fire Plasma and then come in screaming fast with Nym…  Ah well, I was done for the day, got my top 4 placement at a big event…  Well, big for me J…  Nice “Top 4” Mat, loads of loot including the FFG range ruler set.  All around a really fun day, if a lot longer than I expected…


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

X-Wing, Red Raccoon SC this weekend, build testing...

So, big SC coming up on Saturday.  I’d like to be in the top half there as they are giving out some really neat mats as prizes for the top 16.  Limit of 32 for the venue, and it is a pretty nice place…  Least as far as I could tell the few times I’ve actually been there.

Narrowed it down to 2 potential builds with the outside possibility of maybe something else…  CPT Nym is the key to the 2 most probable builds, one Rebel and one S&V.

S&V:
Dengar Nym (100)
Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Veteran Instincts
1
Autoblaster Turret
2
Bomblet Generator
3
Advanced Sensors
3
"Genius"
0
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 39

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000
33
Push the Limit
3
Extra Munitions
2
Cad Bane
2
Unhinged Astromech
1
Cluster Mines
4
Engine Upgrade
4
Punishing One
12
Ship Total: 61


The S&V one is more exciting I think…  More my play style, but it does face some VERY hard matchups against the Fairship Rebels and Triple Skurrg builds…  I have to go in fast, hit hard and dodge arcs.  A possible change would be to drop the Cluster Mines and Cad Bane for a K-4 Security Droid on Dengar (free Target Locks) and swap PTL for Expertise for the conversion of Focus on attacks.  Makes him annoyingly accurate, with 2 potential shots/turn.  4 points left over for EU on Nym or Proton Torpedoes perhaps for Dengar?  Makes for a decent Range 3 first hit…  Well, against everything but the Rebel silliness… Maybe upgrade the ABT to TLT for Nym?

Rebel:
Nym Miranda 1 (100)
Captain Nym (Rebel) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Veteran Instincts
1
Twin Laser Turret
6
Bomblet Generator
3
Accuracy Corrector
3
R5-P8
3
Long-Range Scanners
0
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 46

Miranda Doni — K-Wing
29
Twin Laser Turret
6
Extra Munitions
2
Assault Missiles
5
Sabine Wren
2
Cluster Mines
4
Conner Net
4
Advanced SLAM
2
Ship Total: 54


The Rebel one is solid…  Boring in a lot of ways because it really is just “Follow me while I snipe you with TLTs”.  Miranda can swoop in and bomb something and punish folks who insist on flying in formations like say, Rebel Fairship builds.  High PS Imperial builds will also be “less happy” to see this since I can do the dual bombing run with the K-Wing and Skurrg to really have a great chance to off a few of the more fragile Imperial ships quickly.  Then it is just back to the “Chase Me” with TLTs and Miranda Regenerating and Nym punishing you for daring to shoot him…

Off chance I fly something else really odd like an “Ace Type” list with Nym, Kavill and N’Dru perhaps…  Amusing, but since this is a SC with decent prizes (money on the table), doubt I’ll fly something fun/amusing when I have the option for the FAR more competitive list here…

I know a lot of people were lamenting the fact that the Rebel Wookie/Biggs(/Rex) combo makes for a list that simply will not die…  Having faced it now a few times I’d agree it is difficult if you joust it.  I’ve had good luck dancing on the edge of Range 3 or rolling into it and bumping with S&V Nym in “Fuck All Y’All” bombing mode…  Hit them in a flank, drop the bomb then you’ll likely either have your ABT or Primary weapon to shoot…  4 Dice Primary or 2 Dice unblockable, so not bad in either case…  But the chance to roll in, hit with the Bomb, usually getting 2-3 of their ships in the radius then shooting from the limited selection you have…  MIGHT be Biggs in any case, but still, every little bit counts there.  With my Rebel Nym list I brought the Assault Missiles just for that…  Well, that and a lot of the other things that are flying in tight formations these days. Damage all around is nice and even if they shift the Damage, the Missile still hits and so everyone in Range 1 still takes a Damage the way I read it…  But even then, Arc or Range control to pick off the outside of the Formation to mess up their silly combo…  NOT easy by any means of course, but possible.  Getting in the one kill then skating away is perhaps not the most “fun” way to play, but again with money on the table and facing a list like this?  Do what you have to in order to get the win I guess…  Fun lists are for “fun” events J


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

X-Wing builds for the next events... MK II

So, ran the Dengay/Nym build #1 and it was successful against a triple Skurrg list.  Both of us testing things though so pretty sure that Tony figured out that particular problem and will I think not be doing that again…  My lads both had PTL.  Dengar used it a LOT, but the JM5K is a stupidly good ship with an amazing dial.  That build WAS over 50 points, but with a 3 Dice PWT and the Salvaged Astromech making all of the 3 moves Green for the Boost and Barrel Roll to dodge arcs on a Large Based ship?  Also the Pilot ability allowing me to just line up a Joust and dare them to shoot so I can shoot back…  It IS a damage race, and with both of my ships having multiple chances to cause Damage each turn I think I am positioned quite well in the race.

So, version 2:
Dengar Nym (100)
Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Veteran Instincts
1
Autoblaster Turret
2
Bomblet Generator
3
Advanced Sensors
3
"Genius"
0
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 39

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000
33
Push the Limit
3
Extra Munitions
2
Cad Bane
2
Unhinged Astromech
1
Cluster Mines
4
Engine Upgrade
4
Punishing One
12
Ship Total: 61


Dengar gets even more expensive…  But it seemed a shame to completely ignore CPT Nym’s secondary Pilot ability.  Throwing out Cluster Mines to give me free Evades?  Yes please.  And of course I have effectively added “Target Locks” to the Mines/Bombs to force in even more damage.  It should do quite well against a lot of the Ace types like say, Fenn Rau…  Fenn might live through a single hit, in fact it is incredibly unlikely that a single Bomb would take him out…  But 2 have a pretty decent chance to do so.  And of course after the single Bomb, he HAS to be cautious.  Nym with the Advanced Sensors is going to be tricky.  Getting to Barrel Roll before moving should make Bombing Runs a normally hitting thing.  Especially going at PS 10 and frankly going “Zero Foxtrots” on the Bombs thanks to Genius and his own Pilot Ability.  Bump?  Fine, I still hit the Ship I bump into.  Not like I have a bunch of Friendlies in the area to be worried about, so there should be Bombs hitting EVERY turn. 

No Regen here, so it really IS a Damage Race.  I have to go in, hit hard and fast.  Hopefully killing them off faster than they can kill me of course J.  A LOT different than any build with Miranda/Poe/etc… 


Not sure what else I could pair with Nym on the S&V side.  The Lancers look interesting of course…  Fenn and either a JM5K Bumpmaster or maybe a Kihraxz when that upgrade hits…  Dunno.  Dengar is working REALLY well, so likely will be going with this for the next events…

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

X-Wing testing for League and Bloomington SC...

So, testing for the next 2 weeks events and the initial test was…  A good learning opportunity.  Ran the Rebel Nym and Miranda.  But I set them both up…  Badly.  Miranda was set as a missile boat with a bunch of bombs.  Nym was set as a TLT platform…  With bombs.  Ran him right into the triple Skurrg and unsurprisingly he melted immediately.  Miranda blew past them and…  IF she had equipped the Advanced SLAM she would have bombed the whole line…  But no…  Nym needed to be either the TLT platform skirting the edge or a knife fighter just bull rushing in.  And Miranda needs to be either a bomber or a missile boat.  I tried to “Swiss Army Knife” it and it worked as well as the Swiss Army Knife usually does… 

So, Version 2 will be something completely different:
Dengar Nym (100)
Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Veteran Instincts
1
Autoblaster Turret
2
Bomblet Generator
3
Accuracy Corrector
3
"Genius"
0
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 39

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000
33
Push the Limit
3
Extra Munitions
2
Cad Bane
2
Unhinged Astromech
1
Cluster Mines
4
Engine Upgrade
4
Punishing One
12
Ship Total: 61

So, S&V Nym set up as a brawler to hunt and kill Aces like say, Fenn Rau…  Dengar is Dengar with Cad Bane for some bombs…  Taking advantage of the Nym ability to set up the Bombs to interdict incoming fire.  Not 100% sure on this, can take PTL/EU in place of VI and drop the EM/Clusters on Dengar…  PTL on the Skurrg is risky, not a LOT of Green on the dial, but PTL/EU/Barrel Roll makes it insanely maneuverable…  Once.  Then I have to be careful if I want actions again.  But really not having Actions is not TOO horrible…
Dengar Nym 2 (100)
Captain Nym (Scum) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber
30
Push the Limit
3
Autoblaster Turret
2
Bomblet Generator
3
Accuracy Corrector
3
"Genius"
0
Engine Upgrade
4
Havoc
0
Ship Total: 45

Dengar — JumpMaster 5000
33
Push the Limit
3
Cad Bane
2
Unhinged Astromech
1
Engine Upgrade
4
Punishing One
12
Ship Total: 55



So, something to test…