A bit more painting X-Wing stuff and...

So, just a bit of painting done while I recover...  Not a lot of mobility still and REALLY going a bit stir crazy while I heal.  Off to the specialist tomorrow and will see how that goes and whether or not the bone is actually broken in any meaningful fashion...

Going in a more Centuri (Babylon 5) direction on the Hawk...  The Y-Wing and K-Wing I am putting the "Soviet" style colors on, so that's the first coating...

Have my next X-Wing build set and ready, but the next Tournament I think is 15 Nov unless one hits the schedule over at the Armored Gopher before then...  Made top 4 last time in both so I think I have a fair handle on the game and my next build is pretty darn solid...

Armada play is started...  Played against Joel's Imperial build, and learned a lot...    I flew a build with 2 Assault Frigates and a Nebulon B with just a pair of Fighters...  Lost one AF due to bad flying...  Need to just skirt the field a bit...  And I had a bad combo with Paragon and Gunnery Teams that do not work together...  Think I will need to adjust the build quite a bit...  300 points is a bit tight, so will see I guess...  Think I will max out the Squadrons and see how that works...  I DID find the B-Wings to be REALLY good, if a little slow...  So, more will hit the field I guess...

A bit more painting... Oh, and broken bones I guess...

So, a wee bit of painting...  Broke my foot it seems last week, so loads of things not being done...  Left foot, so riding the motorcycle is right out.  Movement is difficult, so work is somewhat difficult, but can do a fair bit of it remotely.  Glad I just replaced my rapidly failing laptop and so actually have a new and more importantly fully functional machine to work remotely with...  

Lugh decided he had to help me of course...

Kihraxz Fighters for X-Wing

So, got in a little painting this evening...  Looking at my next build, and I am thinking that the (now) pair of them I have my next build set...

So, keeping the Squadron markings consistent...

October X-Wing League AAR

So, played in the Titan Games League, month 2…  I played my KAT70 list, and it did quite well… 

KAT70 (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing  31
Predator          3
R5-P9              3
Autothrusters  2 Ship Total 39
Miranda Doni — K-Wing    29
Twin Laser Turret  6 Ship Total 35
Jake Farrell — A-Wing  24
Lone Wolf            2
Chardaan Refit   -2
Autothrusters      2 Ship Total 26

Wound up in the top 4, so played a fourth game after the main tournament.  First two games I cleared the board, third game was against Tyler…  He flew Darth Vader loaded out and 3 TIE Advanced with Accuracy Correctors…  Well, different result J…  I DID get one kill the first game before time expired…  Jake was still alive…  With a single Hull left and flying as fast as an A-Wing could go…  So, slightly faster than a TIE Advanced….  He would have run me to ground if he had a few more turns, but…  Wound up playing the same thing again in the top four…  Went about as well…  But won a Kihraxz Fighter, so I have a pair of them now… Need a second Cluster Missile for the build I am planning next time…  Not sure it would do better, but there is a MUCH better chance of doing well against the things I have had difficulty against thus far.  But have a few weeks I think before I play that one I think...

The builds themselves were fairly interesting.  Tyler’s build was clearly the strongest, and being flown by one of the best players in the world…  Like I said, I was happy that he at least knew he was in a fight against my build J…  But, saw a few Dash builds either supported by Z-95’s or other small base fighters…  Only one sort of “Swarm” build with the TIE/FOs, I think 5-6 of them mixed in with at least one older TIE, likely Howlrunner…  Not sure, I did not actually face it.  Would have been a hard fight, but pretty sure my Rebel Regenerators would have been able to handle it.  Not enough to completely overwhelm me, I am fairly sure the 7-8 TIEs are needed for that.  NO 4 Y’s with TLT either.  A LOT of us built specifically to deal with that as that was the strongest new build last Month…  One “Brobots” build at least with paired IG-88’s, but it lost big against Tyler.  Still a VERY strong build though.  Saw a fair number of “fun” builds as people are getting used to the new stuff from Wave 7 and the new box set.  Han was still out and about, but with the scoring change I know at least people were aware that half dead is half points for those big based (and point cost) ships and saw a LOT more smaller ships overall. 

Not nearly so intense as last league, seems the split with Springfield cut the attendance from 20+ to 14 this week and while the level of play was quite high, I did NOT get the same feeling of high stress/intensity that seemed prevalent last time.   Could be just a few folks not being there or what I am hoping is a shift in the “feel” of the game there…  I had 4 EXTREMELY pleasant games yesterday, albeit 2 against the same opponent of course, but like I said overall the most fun I have had at least on the higher tables there…  I tended to play on the “middle” tables a lot more where the folks were playing for fun more or less and not really in competition for “the big prizes”.  I’d like to think I am a good opponent to lay against, and try to be as low pressure and helpful as possible of course…  But since my build and one of the other top 4 builds were pretty similar guess I’ve figured out some of the better builds in the system as it stands now.

Have to say, continuing to really like the X-Wing stuff…  They (FFG) steer away from stupidly overpowered stuff, do not release stuff very quickly at all compared to say, WizKids and they are not at all afraid to reel back some things that may have become overpowered…  So, I almost never feel completely outclassed at this point…  Mind, there are a fair number of ships that simply do not fit my play style, so I’ll not use them, but… 

  Armada starts next week and I have my 2 basic builds set now…  Not really a clue how they’ll actually do, but it should be fun…

X-Wing this weekend and Armada in a few weeks...

Well, another tournament coming up this weekend at Titan…  Time to apply the lessons I learned at the Gopher I guess J…  I think I was fixated on dealing with the Ace builds, and my build did that VERY well.  Just could not deal well with the mirror match or someone bringing 4 TLTs…

DashYY (100)

Dash Rendar — YT-2400	36
Predator	3
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Outrider	5
Ship Total: 48
Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 26
Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 26

Fairly simple, stripped down and probably built too much to focus on the “mirror match” of the 4 TLTs… Higher PS to fire first, Dash is maneuverable and with the 360° arc for the Mangler Cannon…  Hopefully I’ll be able to focus fire and deal with the Gold Squadron/S&V equivalent before they get to fire too many times…  Variations being with Gold Pilots on the Y’s, R3-A2 for Stress and a 2 point Crew like a Merc Copilot for more Crits…  But that leaves me with 2 Pilots at PS 2, so I think that is going to be bad against the 4 TLT builds barring some creative maneuvers on my part...

KAT70 (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Predator	3
R5-P9	3
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 39
Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 35
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Lone Wolf	2
Chardaan Refit	-2
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 26

This one or with a Grey Squadron TLT replacing the A-Wing…  Basically, harder to hit, hitting harder and regenerating…  Poe being a Focus monster gives me a lot of options and Miranda is pretty efficient herself…  NEED to remember the ability to burn a Shield for +1 Attack…  Gives me a 4 Dice Turret shot at R1 if I REALLY need it…  More of a standard build, not overloading the turrets, but should be a decent one overall…

Armada is really picking up as well I think…  Joe has our first League starting the 19^th, and going over 300 point builds for that.  We’ll play “Season One” out at 300 points, so need to figure out what Objectives to bring…  For the Rebels I use the Advanced Gunnery seems a no brainer…  The Assault Frigate LOVES getting more Dice and or the ability to shoot with the same broadsides…  Not so sure on the others frankly…  Likely to play either Nebulon-B and 2 Assault Frigates (with a handful of Fighters)or Assault Frigate, 2 Nebulon-B’s and a Corvette with no Fighters…  The learning curve for making Fighters useful is fairly steep, and frankly unless I sell out and bring only 200 points of Ships for the 100 points of Fighters, it is fairly easy for Capitol Ships to simply run away from the Fighters for the few turns they are going to be a threat.  At 400 points I think the broader builds will become a reality, but the really focused ones at 300 points have a good chance to never encounter the hard counters…

X-Wing Day @ Gopher AAR

All in all, an excellent day….  Only minor negative was the late start, and the post tournament chat I think it was decided that the earlier start time would be the one going forward…  Not getting started until almost 5:30 meant that with 75 minute rounds, it was getting late after 3 rounds.  Now, had they been 3 “highly contentious” rounds, I would have likely not had a good day in terms of enjoying the tournament…  NOT the case at all, ran against 3 excellent opponents, and enjoyable games at least for me…  I wound up running my KYY list with Miranda’s K-Wing, Horton’s Y and a Gold Squadron Y both with TLT and a Seismic Charge (Horton had the R2 unit for the Elite Talent and Marksmanship).  Solid, nothing flashy.

What did I take from this?  Well, I was right that a mirror match or close to it was going to be a hard one to win, and whoever got in the first better than average shot/round of shooting was going to win.  Horton’s Y-Wing loaded out with the Marksmanship was an Ace killer.  No two ways about it.  They vaporized a VERY well put together Soonter Fel in a single round of shooting between the Y and Miranda’s K-Wing.  The Decimator fell shortly after to the consistent 6 points/turn damage the list throws out.

That consistent damage is also the weakest point I think.  It is pretty much the MAXIMUM damage the list can do, barring something REALLY odd like them hitting my bombs and somehow ending up at R1 of one or more ships for me to potentially roll a single 3 Dice attack and MAYBE do more…  Possible, but unlikely in the extreme.  Facing off against Patrick’s K-Wing, Horton and Biggs list I found myself not being able to focus fire quickly enough before taking a loss…  Then it was just a matter of time.  I NEED to be able to throw down a lot more than just 2 Damage/Turn to deal with this sort of thing.

Looking at a S&V list with an Aggressor that can dodge the TLTs AND do 4 Damage/turn combined with 2 of the Y’s with TLT…  That or an Aggressor with the Y’s…  Think I’ll have a hard time dealing with the Ace builds with either.  Looking over some Rebel builds, likely need to have Ordinance I think, and frankly, even with the Extra Munitions card still not convinced that Ord is worth it…  Discard on most everything makes for a really hard sell for me.  Dunno, maybe Miranda’s K-Wing, Horton and…  Poe is the obvious choice for me, fun to fly and potentially deadly…  B-Wings are always viable…  Think with the Tournament Scoring change, the YTs are going to be difficult.  Frankly not all that hard to kill off a 2400, and the 1300 dies to the TLT I think… 

Anyway, heading out tonight to get in either X-Wing or Armada games…  Will see, hopefully the ancient bike is still working well and at the least I’ll get in some good riding time…

X-Wing and Armada....

Looking at the upcoming X-Wing tournament…  Not at all sure what will be played there, but looking at narrowing the field of what I’ll be bringing to some variation of the following:

KYY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Dash Rendar	2
Ship Total: 37
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 26
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2-D6	1
Marksmanship	3
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 37

With this one, I’ll field the asteroids, and not be overly concerned about silly things like firing arcs for the most part….  Only 3 ships and with the TLTs on all of them…  Horton’s loadout allows him to convert all focus results to hits and with him able to re-roll blanks he should be hitting with all 3 dice each shot, and with Marksmanship on both shots…  Well, it should burn through pretty much any Defense out there consistently.  Not sure I have a good answer for an actual swarm, but I think with the bombs on the Y’s it does allow me to threaten the standard Swarm tactic of piling into my few ships and bumping to prevent me from doing what I need to do…  And of course the TLT is only Range 2-3 I need to keep them a bit further out…  Plays a bit slow, but should be able to handle the 1-2 big ships and the Ace builds pretty well.

YKX70 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 35
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
R5-D8	3
Ship Total: 34
"Blue Ace" — T-70 X-Wing	27
BB-8	2
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 31

This one is a bit different…  Horton kitted out for a bit better survivability, and the T-70 being set as a fast flanker with some very interesting movement options…  Ideally I’d like Poe as the pilot, but points are just too tight… to have both the Autothrusters and the BB-8 on it to allow me to present a Green maneuver, do the Barrel Roll, move then still have an Action…  Is like the pre-nerf TIE Phantom with so many moves…  Not sure, might be fun to fly though.  The first one might be the safer choice, but the T-70 is something new and completely unexpected, so that might work well…

Still toying with the idea of the new S&V ship, but honestly not sure about that…  Thinking that with the new changes to the scoring I am concerned that the YV being fairly easy to burn through and give up that many points…  Once they kill my YV, I have 2 Y’s with TLTs and just not sure they can do enough damage…despite

Other than that, well…  I traded off a small stack of ancient Magic cards and picked up yet another FFG game, Star Wars: Armada…  Joe is picking up the “TO” role at the Gopher, and the pre-release events are at Titan…  Unfortunately, the X-Wing thing at Gopher and Celtic Woman playing Sunday…  Taking Maggie there with that Anniversary thing coming up, this is something we’ve both wanted to see, so…  But in any case, the game itself is REALLY good.  And being able to trade off the Imperial side of the base box, I have a fairly complete Rebel fleet now…    Ready to get to playing, and it looks like we start the 19^th at the Gopher with our League…  FFG has interesting prizes, but nothing like WizKids with their exclusive stuff…  Alternate art cards and new counters, neat, but nothing that is NEEDED…  The game itself is pretty well balanced and despite only playing a few games I am liking how it works so far…