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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