Armada SC Saturday, X-Wing next week...

So…  Armada Sunday at Titan.  Looking forward to playing, but as I am not going to Regionals and have the Range Rulers I wanted…  Is “fun”…  I have been doing a bit of painting, mostly just putting on the crimson base coat, grey trim here and there…  Painting on a coat of Minwax then finishing with hairspray…  OK, it is “Chessex Matte Varnish” or something of the sort…  But growing up in the 80’s around a lot of heavy metal types, and being cursed with an excellent sense of smell I know hairspray J…  So, they DO look very different on the table, and I’ll at least have them ready to go for that.

Playing:

Titan SC2 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Most Wanted 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory 

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Admonition  ( 8  points) 
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Foresight  ( 8  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points) 
1 YT-2400 ( 16 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The Corvette is my flanker to zip about and make itself a nuisance…  Though if people ignore it, with Ackbar it DOES hit almost as hard as one of the Frigates…  Briefly.  If anyone gets a shot at it, it melts quickly, but with all the other targets out there posing far more obvious threats, I’ve yet to have anyone actually go after it seriously…  Don’t blame them, the MC-30 hits VERY hard, and if you were silly enough to let it get close…  Well, the game will be short.  Speaking of the MC-30’s, with the titles, they are a bit more survivable, but honestly I do NOT expect them to survive the battle.  The WILL let the other player know they were in a fight, and very likely go out swinging, but…  The key of course is to do more damage than they absorb.  Admonition is there as the early hitter…  She flies in front of the Assault Frigate letting the AF activate first and tempt them to use things like Brace and Redirects or eat the 5-6 Red Dice of an Ackbar broadside…  Discard Defense Tokens as needed, just stay alive to get in the shot…  With 4 ships I should be able to force them to move to me, potentially giving me an opportunity to “double tap” moving the MC-30 last on one turn then first the next to get in two rounds of shooting as close range (hopefully) and then move away sharply as I (again hopefully) avoid the bulk of their counter fire…  Foresight is more of a Linebacker for me…  Stay back until the right time to tackle something breaking my line or on a quick Blitz to get in close to use all those Black Dice…  NOT as well as Admonition in this setup though.  Admonition will kill Redirects with the XI7’s, and the Blacks getting a re-roll do make for some impressive Damage output…  Well, once J…  Don’t count on surviving long up close and personal with an ISD for instance…

Need to remember to get in touch with Dave over at the Gopher to re-order the Vallejo paints I use for…  Well, everything I paint red.  Consistency is nice and since that is the same color my ancient beret was, I like using it…  Guessing that there is another equivalent color, but… 

For X-Wing, Wave 8 hits…  Well, BY next week, hoping ASAP of course…  I’ve ordered a few through Dave over at the Gopher…  Since I won the “big prize ship” at one of the Titan Leagues and deferred not wanting the Imperial Raider…  Well, I essentially won the Ghost, just with a LONG delay.  Nice ship, and in contrast to STAW, there are good things on EVERY expansion ship.  Of course, playing 2 of the Factions (there are only 3), I do tend to have a fair number of ships… 

Have been playtesting a few of the variations, but having the Range Ruler for this kit and pretty much certain to get the C3-P0 card…  MUCH more casual than I was over at Titan…  And to be honest THAT was pretty darn casual, going with a weird build I never expected to do well with…  That so many of the players were unfamiliar with the Kihraxz class fighter probably helped a LOT more than anything. AM looking at the “Guidance Chips” as they do present me with a way to make Ordinance work in this game.  I can combine it with the TLT on the ancient Y-Wing to make a pretty darn terrifying weapons platform.  Gets expensive, but in true American military fashion, we have excellent weapons for every potential target, and there is NOT such thing as TOO much firepower to bring to bear…  We’ll see…  One more week, and then THAT hits over at the Gopher…