Thursday, November 19, 2015

STAW Monday then Month 4 of the League for X-Wing in a few weeks...

So, another STAW event coming up Monday at the Gopher and X-Wing in a few weeks for the final event of the Fall League at Titan… 

Will probably run Federation or Romulan in STAW, guess I’ll pick up the Romulan fighters…  For Romulans,
List Name

Resource: Fleet Captain Independent (Dominion) (5)

Scimitar (38)
Salatrel (3)
Interphase Generator (2)
Polarized Hull Plating (1)
Ship SP: 44

I.R.W. Avatar of Tomed (34)
Mirok (2)
FleetCaptain (0)
Cloaked Mines (2)
Ship SP: 38

Scorpion 4 (24)
Cloaked Fighters (4)
Hidden Formation (5)
Ship SP: 33

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

Just need to pick the free Elite Talent I guess…

Feds I am not done with:
List Name

U.S.S Thunderchild (28)
Jean-Luc Picard - Tech (5)
William T. Riker (3)
System Upgrade (2)
Multi-Adaptive Shields (5)
Ship SP: 43

U.S.S Excelsior (26)
Mr. Spock (4)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Dmitri Valtane (3)
Quantum Torpedoes (6)
Ship SP: 44

Fighter Squadron 6 (24)
Ship SP: 24

Total Build SP: 111

Generated by STAW Builder

So, a few more things to add…  Systems upgrades and the like I guess… 

Have to admit that the more I play them both, the more I like X-Wing over STAW.  STAW does allow a LOT more mixing and matching, has a LOT more cards, factions  and ships…  All of which can for the most part be deployed ala carte and you can play your all-stars or “dream team”.  The problems I have with that and the game itself is that there is absolutely NO balancing of abilities to point cost.  Jean Luc Picard’s first card in the base set the standard for the most OP CPT card giving an awesome ability to whatever ship he is deployed on, free action (extra action) to get a Battle Station, Target Lock, Evade or Scan whether or not the ship to which he is deployed can actually DO any of those actions.  And for the same cost as any other skill 9 CPT…  So, at their heyday, there were a LOT of Borg ships being captained by JLP, getting around the lack of several of the actions he provided, more actions to their uber ships and a skill 9 CPT…  For +1 point over deploying it to a Federation ship?  Silly NOT to take it if you have the points…  The ship points are the same way, the formula is simply: add all of the stat numbers and multiply by 2.  For most ships, the “named” version has +1 shield, so is 2 points more expensive than the generic one.  Gets abilities and usually additional upgrade slots for free.  Mind, in a lot of cases, the abilities are “meh” at best, but comparing the iconic Galaxy Class Federation cruiser to the Enterprise-D?  The Enterprise gets a 360° firing arc (limited to range 2, and starting at 3 Dice).  The Excelsior gets a free Scan action (if there are no enemy ships at Range 1)…  So, again, kind of silly NOT to take the named versions if you have the points…  Exception for me being the Klingons with their ships being cloaked a lot, so the extra Shield is useless and a lot of the abilities there are less useful overall.  Typically my Klingon fleets are maximum attack dice on fragile ships for the “win big or die in battle”…  Then you get to some of the silliness like Fighters and Cloaked mines…  So many long rants out there, so I’ll not add another.  Just say that the best point to damage ratio I have used in about any game is the Cloaked Mines at 3 points.  And with the right resources, even less…  I typically use the “Fleet Captain” to add slots to ships and reduce the point costs.  Silly, but… 

Compare this to X-Wing….  Everything is well balanced, Pilots are limited to the ships they fly…  Yes, Crew cards can go to the ships that HAVE crew slots within their own Faction, but there is no crossing that line.  I have heard the game described somewhat despairingly as “Yahtzee in Space”, but do not agree in any way…  Yes, this year’s World Championship game hinged on a single turn where the #2 player rolled 5 blanks for his Defense roll and lost his ship to that damage combined with the killing blow late in the turn.  The contention was I think that it all hinged on that one roll…  Of course, STAW has the same thing magnified with the ability to trivially get 10+ Dice attacks with loads of quality (fixing, either via conversions or rerolls, etc.) where the Defense roll is “less relevant”.  Joe’s Dominion fleet usually has at least one BB, BC or heavy cruiser set to come in and alpha strike for the say 8-10 guaranteed hits.  My cloaked Klingon ship can roll its 4-7 Defense dice, but no shields while cloaked usually means that at least 4-6 are going through no matter what I roll.  With Romulans I can buy time with some tricky cards like Interphase Generator to just take 1 Damage…  Once.  Then I’d best have that ship dead before he lines up another shot because Joe’s setup is NOT a one-time thing.  So, not Yahtzee but a game won in the build with certain things just being THAT much more powerful and unbalanced.  X-Wing does have the “rock-paper-scissors effect” with a few powerful build types, but there is not one that beats everything else.

J  Kind of why I am in the “paint my army” mode for Warmachine…  my current main force is Rhullic, so Dwarves and Ogres…  Amusing, but definitely NOT OP in any way.  Yes, still have Cygnar and Circle armies, but looking at those I am more concerned that they are a lot more powerful and easily OP in some builds/ways…  I’d much rather lose a fun game than win with an overpowering list…  Why I stopped playing Circle in 1st edition.  Had a squad of Wolf Riders who were able to ignore coherency, could attack, kill something then move and attack again…  Stopping only when they failed to kill something.  So this small squad with a few buffs and bonuses could table an opponent in a single turn if they brought Light Infantry which was a fairly common thing back then…  Was unlikely to kill the other Caster which ends the game immediately, but they usually cleared 50-75% of the force in one turn setting up the killing attack…  Yes, these things don’t happen in 2nd edition, but it left a very bad impression for me, so I’ve avoided that force since.  “Rumor” has them working on the 3rd edition of the game, and as I see the things played, it is looking a lot like it was at the end of 1st edition…  So, I’ll just get my lads painted up I guess and see what happens in a few months…

Looking at running this for X-Wing:
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


So, Stress will be a thing for me to throw out there…  Not 100% sold on the Intel Agent and APL on the YT-2400, but it is amusing to get in among things and see what bumps me for immediate damage…  360° firing arc, large base and a maneuverable ship…  Likely to die of course, but should do damage on the way.  The Grey Squadron over the Gold for PS 4 and shooting before the mass of PS 1-2 stuff people are bringing, and to be less vulnerable to Predator and the like…  Poe, either keep as is or swap the VI and R5-P9 for R2-D2 and get the Regeneration effect on the reveal of a Green, so even if bumped or the Stress is piled on, I can still get Shields back…  Limits it a lot though, I REALLY like the focus on him in any case, so…  Amusingly staying with the Y-Wing, my favorite ship from the early Star Wars stuff, the YT-2400, the first ship my wife got me last year and an X-Wing…  Not what I thought I’d end up with, but it might work at least against the things I expect to see…

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Month 3 AAR (X-Wing) and Armada

AAR for the Month 3 Tournament…  We came, we saw and we got our asses kicked J…  Wound up playing the Poe/Miranda/Stress Hog list:
KYT70 2 (100)
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing
31
Veteran Instincts
1
R5-P9
3
Autothrusters
2
Ship Total: 37

Miranda Doni — K-Wing
29
Twin Laser Turret
6
Tactician
2
Ship Total: 37

Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing
18
Twin Laser Turret
6
R3-A2
2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing
0
Ship Total: 26

And I ran up against the one of the top 4 first (Will) running a REALLY well balanced “Brobots” list with a pair of IG-88’s, B and C.  Found where this list struggles mightily, it is the 3+ Defense dice with tokens.  Had both of his ships with a pile of Stress (at least 4 each at one point), got into Range 1 with Poe and pot shotted with the other two…  Poe blanked out on a 4 Dice attack…  It went downhill from there J…    Miranda was disappointing as she died first and I think without causing a single damage in the maybe 2 turns she was alive…  HLC hitting for 4 and no Defense dice rolling for me meant no shields then the second cannon hit (Mangler IIRC) for 3 including at least one Critical…  So, 37 points of “Meh”.  Poe was a rock star with his T-70, and easily the best ship I’ve flown in quite some time…

Second game was against something Tyler ran last Month, 4 TIE Advanced.  Slight difference, the 3 with the free Accuracy Corrector (21 point ships) and a Skill 10 pilot (Juno with VI) who had the Advanced Targeting Computer…  Not bad, I at least killed 2 of his ships, but it highlighted the real deficiency of the TLT…  It has a REALLY hard time dealing with solid ships throwing 3 Defense Dice…  Miranda did almost nothing again…  The Stress Hog killed Juno more or less on its own due more to dice flukes (hot Red dice, cold Greens).  Poe was dogfighting with the remaining 3 then 2…  He was full health due to regeneration of course..

After this, not a lot, had a Bye round 3, so got to watch the other games…  Watched a 4 Y-Wing (TLT, Unhinged mech) get tabled by Poe…  Yes, the rest of the Squadron died, but Poe was unharmed at the end, highlighting the TLT weakness against agile high PS fighters…  Brobots were a thing, at least 3 sets of them.  My Stresshog was one thing that should have dealt with them, but of course, lacking the quality dice J…  There was not as much variety as I expected honestly.  Poe was on a BUNCH of tables one side or the other, the YT-1300 was still popular.  One or two Scum Firesprays, a few hordes of Z-95’s and the TIE swarm or two… 

Going forward, Poe is a keeper if I fly Rebels 6 December…  S&V is a bit more open, I suspect the KavillKK build might be fun…  Or maybe I bring back a bomber Firespray…  Ordinance is probably something to look at, but needing to do steady damage to things that can dodge well will be the key I think.  Something to think about…  But I suspect the K-Wing will not be in the Squadron in any case…

Got in an Armada game last night as well…  Played against Mike running a pretty good Rebel list with 2 Nebulon-B’s and a Corvette backed by 5 Fighter stands…  Named B-Wing, Named X-Wing and a few generics.  He used the title that allows you to fire twice if you give a Squadron command, was pretty decent, but not going toe to toe with my Assault Frigates…  I had “Gallant Haven”, Weapons Liason, Gunnery Team and X17 Turbolasers on the Flagship.  Enhanced Armaments, Gunnery Team, ECM, and Intel Officer were on the other ship.  5 Fighter stands including Dutch (Y-Wing), Wedge (X-Wing, was also in Mike’s list) and Tycho (A-Wing).  Mission was one I had, but will never use again for this list I think, “Superior Positions”…  I guess I could get it, but the AFs are more or less built to circle the area and shoot broadsides at the enemy with no real thought about trying to go fast and get behind them…  If I bring more A-Wings, perhaps, but the Gallant with a Fighter screen was pretty darn good.  Kept my own Squadrons alive a LOT longer than they should have been, guessing he would have wiped most of them by turn 3 otherwise…  Instead, it became something of a draw on that with each of us having 2 Squadrons survive the fight I think.  The Corvette got killed early coming too close to the AFs, getting into range of both and ramming with its last hull point to do damage on the way out… 


Asteroids in this game are BRUTAL…  Hit one, got the double damage card and with the ram, the ship was half dead…  But I had planned for damage control, and with Garm Bel Iblis as Admiral, had extra tokens to perform good damage control over a few turns to get out of danger…  So getting the hang of the game I think, and Wave 2 should be shipping next week we are told…  This will eat up the last of my store credit at the Gopher, but well worth it…  Got rid of ancient Magic Cards and got an entire new game that I am really enjoying…

Thursday, November 12, 2015

X-Wing tournament this weekend... Month 3 of the League


Have an X-Wing tournament coming up this weekend at Titan, so need to break out the lists for it…  Finished about the middle in Month one, top 4 in Month two, so I’d like to stay in at least the top quarter to give myself a chance for the real prizes at the end… 

Got extremely lucky last league and won the big ($90) prize on essentially a raffle as they drew the name out of a hat for the people who did not already win a prize…  The Imperial Raider, and if I played Imperials, it would have been awesome…  I do not.  So, store credit it was.  Have to say, while my wife has been VERY understanding about my gaming over the years, the fact that I have it mostly self-sustaining at this point and have even gotten rid of some things has I think made her a lot happier about it…  Magic the Gathering cards paid for my Armada fleet, and with this I think the things I really want out of Wave 8 for X-Wing are covered.  The “Ghost” from “Rebels” (the cartoon) and…  Honestly that was about all I am looking forward to.  The S&V ships perhaps, but…  Overall “Eh” is about all I am feeling about them.  Maybe something I’ll see in the previews or when they are released will change my mind… 

So, planning on bringing one of a fairly short list to the event:

KYT70 (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

Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing
18
Twin Laser Turret
6
R3-A2
2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing
0
Ship Total: 26


This is my primary Rebel list at the moment. Two high skill Aces with the ability to regenerate their Shields and the Y-Wing set up to Stress things into submission…  Might well swap the Predator on Poe for VI and use those 2 points to put the Tactician on Miranda’s K-Wing for even more potential Stress shenanigans… 

Or the S&V “We Hit Hard” list:

KavilKK (100)
Kavil — Y-Wing
24
Veteran Instincts
1
Twin Laser Turret
6
Unhinged Astromech
1
Engine Upgrade
4
Ship Total: 36

Black Sun Ace — Kihraxz Fighter
23
Predator
3
Cluster Missiles
4
Glitterstim
2
Ship Total: 32

Black Sun Ace — Kihraxz Fighter
23
Predator
3
Cluster Missiles
4
Glitterstim
2
Ship Total: 32

This one is based around the theory that I can move in quick, hit for a big burst of Damage and likely take down at least one 8 HP ship/turn for each of the first two turns…  Yes, HAS to be a low agility ship like say, a Y-Wing, but the likelihood of burning one down before they get to fire at PS 2 means that I could easily have the 4 TLT Y-Wings down to 2 before any of my ships are themselves in serious jeopardy…  I think it could also easily take down almost any of the Large ships quickly, so the “Palpmobile” with Emperor Palpitine in a Shuttle should be something easy enough to deal with…  The builds based around 3+ Defense and especially the Aces in those ships…  So, if I run into Tyler’s build with the 4 x TIE Advanced, I may well be in trouble with this.  5 HP and 3 Defense Dice mean that even with my 2  Attacks each and re-rolls/Focus conversion I might not get the kills quick enough…  He was set up to have each of his ships do at least 2 hits/turn and my Defense is “not good”.  I know he had a hard time killing my A-Wing last time with the 3+ Defense, so I suspect he will not bring it again with it having a hard time dealing with TIE Swarms and the like…

Those or something in an Ordinance build maybe?  Not sure, I have a few others here and there that might fly well enough…  Ord is one of those things I WANT to like and use, just is not really quite there in my opinion…  The “discard” of all of those things hurts a LOT, and they just do not do enough damage usually… Hard to take Torpedoes over a Cannon or Turret these days…  I HAVE 4 Y-Wings so I could run the 4 Y’s with TLT or 4 B-Wings…  Kind of boring though…

Armada builds are coming along nicely, think I have a pretty decent handle on the game so far…  Just in time for Wave 2 to hit J…  We’ll see how much is really changing…


Broken ankle mostly healed at this point, just getting back to working out and I actually rode my motorcycle a few times this week…  So, that was good..

Friday, November 6, 2015

X-Wings Worlds, evolving meta and boots...

Well, spent the last 2 days watching the streamed X-Wing Worlds being played out up in Minnesota...  A LOT of really interesting builds, and spoiler alert the same guy won for the third year straight...  VERY different build this year though.  Gone are the 2 big ship builds for the most part, and even the winning build last year with the "Fat Han" was not seen in the top 16 that I could tell...  The "Palp-mobile" with the Emperor riding a Shuttle was there for the Imperials, looking like the Shuttle and a pair of really good Imperial Ace pilots.  Quite strong, but clearly beatable.  Good news for me as I do NOT play Imperials of course :-)...

The new T-70 X-Wing was in both of the top 2 lists, built more or less how I fly it with Poe, a regenerate Droid and Autothrusters...  There was a build with 3 K-Wings, Miranda and 2 Warden Squadrons, all with TLT and a Tactician to pile Stress up if they catch you at Range 2 and in Arc of course, but watched it destroy Ace based lists...  Ironically, the Miranda, TLT and Tactician is one thing in my probably builds for the next Event locally...  Regenerating, potential Stress and steady damage output...  Works well, and the 2 points I had left were either Dash Rendar crew for always clear shots (and shooting from an Asteroid if/when I land on one) or Tactician...  Given how much I liked the Tactician on the Firespray class ships, that was where I was going anyway :-)...  Nice to see my theory craft validated by one of the top finishers there though.

Still think my build is narrowed down to a S&V build:
Or
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing31
Predator3
R5-P93
Autothrusters2
Ship Total: 39
 
Miranda Doni — K-Wing29
Twin Laser Turret6
Ship Total: 35
 
Jake Farrell — A-Wing24
Lone Wolf2
Chardaan Refit-2
Autothrusters2
Ship Total: 26
 
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing18
Twin Laser Turret6
R3-A22
BTL-A4 Y-Wing0
Ship Total: 26
With either the A-Wing Ace, a reduced cost A-Wing and boosts to the other ships, probably a Tactician for Miranda and maybe bombs?  Or the BTL-A4 Y-Wing stress Droid...

Need to have something to deal with Swarms, Ace Builds, Big ships and mirror Match.  The S&V has the answers to a fair number of them, but I REALLY like flying the Rebels...


A bit of painting done...  Expanding the squadron with the same markings...

Picked up some more Rhulic minis...  Ogres this time, so my Dwarves will hit the field with the equivalent of Light Warbeasts to go with the Heavy in the Bear, and of course the actual Warjacks :-)  We'll see if they are effective at all, but I bet they will be...


Thursday, October 29, 2015

So, do the 40K minis go?

So, thinking very seriously about selling off my 40K stuff…  Since I have a LOT of stuff, this might take a while, assuming I actually do it.  A lot of stuff dating back to the late 80’s including Armorcast stuff…  Might keep some of the stuff just to have it in the display cabinets…  The Praetorian IG are fairly unique, and I have a LOT of them…  I really like the Cataphract Terminator Armor from Forge World is amazing…   Shame as plaing pieces for 40K they are overpriced and useless…  In Heresy Era games they are pretty good though and there are a bunch of really nice Heresy (30K) era things coming out now in plastic and resin.  New Imperial Knight, Forge World Spartan completely unassembled…  Something over 100 Terminators, a dozen or so Dreadnaughts.  Oh, and Eldar.  A LOT of Eldar J…      Haven't played in 2 editions and it seems unlikely that I will ever go back so...

Between that going away, probably most of the WFB and Confrontation stuff going…  I want to be rid of my current motorcycles as well…  Plans for the money?  Well, different bike, but the ones I am looking at are in the $1000-2000 range, so frankly, I can get that from the current bikes.  So, clearing the Basement of Doom™ out to start finishing it I guess…   

Broken ankle sucks…  Wandering around with a giant boot and motorcycle free for a month or so…   Waiting on the next X-Wing tournament, need to run my test squadron…  But AFAIK the next one is on the 15th of November at Titan…  Not sure when the “Winter Kits” go live, but the C3-P0 cards in there are going to be sought after…  It is the “participation” prize more or less…  So there are something like a dozen of them in the kits, so everyone should get them… 


Armada Monday at the Gopher it is looking like, and having learned several important lessons last time I have some very different ideas set up.   Different things, and we’ll see if they work…

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

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...

Sunday, October 18, 2015

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...

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

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...

Monday, October 12, 2015

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…

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

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 19th, 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…

Monday, October 5, 2015

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…