Flying casual and just generally thinking about gaming "stuff"

So, looking like I’ll go to the “Fly Casual” league event at Titan this Sunday…  Looking at flying this Squadron:

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Proximity Mines	3
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Hired Gun — Y-Wing	20
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Hired Gun — Y-Wing	20
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0

Pretty simple, the “Warthog” Y-Wings fly using their Green 3’s and a Boost action to get as close as they can, hoping for Range 1.  Range 1 they have the 3 Dice Primary Weapon attack and the 2 Dice Auto Blaster…  Now, the AB cannot be dodged by anything, so this is a VERY nice one to track down some of the difficult to hit TIEs and the like…  Emon bombs things and Stress tokens all around…  Fun list, but I suspect it will not be one of the “top tier” lists…  But it will surprise a lot of folks who ignore the slow, poorly armed Y-Wings…

Other gaming…  Well, playing D&D Attack Wing and STAW it looks like…  Liking the Dragons, and they fixed most all of the issues I had with STAW, but too late I fear to save the game locally…  Shame, it is a fun one with reasonable players…   X-Wing has a large group playing locally, hopefully more of the Gopher folks will get (back) into the game… 

40K actually looks to be making a small comeback with leagues and the like at the Gopher…  Still can’t say I have any particular interest though.  Sorry, for the cost of the latest Codex for one army and the DLC/Supplemental Codices I have a pretty solid X-Wing force already.  The pace of releases is SLOW for X-Wing by comparison as well.  Good in some ways, but it does lead to the possibility of stagnation I guess.  With a new third Faction, there seems to be a LOT of new life in the game and of course there are those movies coming up…  But back to 40K…  New armies that have not really existed before are hitting the shelves.  Ad Mech (Adepticus Mechanicus) is the latest…  Looks like it has potential and with the obvious tie in to the Forgeworld Horus Heresy stuff that is EXTREMELY popular…  Not my cup of team, mind, but nice models I guess.  Shame, there were a few now former locals who used to REALLY want to play Ad Mech, but they left the area and/or the game.  I am still finding more stuff in the basement and I am not thrilled with how much 40K stuff I have to be honest…  Heck, between that and the firearms I’d like to get rid of, I could easily afford a nice new(er) bike…  Well once I sell the Magna and then the Silverwing I guess…  Eh, LONG term plans I guess.  Will have to look into an online “garage sale” to sell off things, but as I am not in a hurry, not really looking to just dump them…  Well, except for the Magna…  That I want gone ASAP, but need to get the title straightened out still…

AAR for the Titan Games Store Championship (X-Wing)

So, AAR for the Store Championship at Titan Games…

I ran :

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Proximity Mines	3
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Unhinged Astromech	1
N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter	17
Lone Wolf	2
Cluster Missiles	4
Munitions Failsafe	1

Record wise?  Yeah, not so good…  But got in 5 great games, and the first big loss was one I might well have had a good chance at winning.  Played Tyler, an excellent player who won several SCs and he fielded a decked out Soonter Fel and 5 TIE fighters.  Killed off the Interceptor, but then promptly messed up and flew my Firespray INTO his TIE swarm rather than away as I thought I was doing…  Doh.  Went down fighting and got MOST of his stuff before dying, but that kind of set the tone for the day.  Don’t get me wrong, had a great time, played against a lot of friendly and excellent players, so this was NOT like my experience playing MtG or even 40K in tournaments.  I understand that there were some issues with people measuring movement with their hands, etc. at some of the top tables, but being down in the middle I did not see that of course.  All around a great tournament from my perspective but per usual, YMMV and I am sure other perspectives felt differently about it.

Now, I define things a bit differently I guess than a lot of other folks, so I should probably go over that a bit.  Swarm or “Swarmish” is what I refer to as a build that has 5+ ships in it.  Now, to get 5 or more ships in at 100 points of course you are talking TIE Fighters, Z-95’s, M-3’s and maybe Y-Wings I guess for the most part.  So, a bunch of cheap, low quality ships to fit into the philosophy of “Quantity has a Quality all its own”.  In general I do not buy into this, being brought up a product of the American military I tend to go the other way and like to have smaller, better forces.  Not perhaps the true top of the line, but that is not out of the question by any means of course. 

So in any case I saw a LOT of Swarmish builds there.  Typically either a big ship like a YT or Firespray and a bunch of Z-95’s, or an Ace and friends…  There was one lad who brought a dual TIE Phantom list with the named Pilots to get in one more run before “nerfing” with the recently released FAQ.  Good player, but honestly I am thrilled that FFG made that change to those things.  Stark contrast to GW and the Wave Serpent, but I digress J…  In any case, I saw only a single Decimator and I think only 2 YT-2400’s.  A few Aggressors, several other Firespray builds (they were quite popular) but the top tables were dominated by the YT-1300’s.  At least 2 guys up there had dual YT-1300’s fully decked out “Fat Han” style.  So, things easily almost guaranteeing 3 Evades/shot and loads of Hull/Shields with a good Turret.  Pretty sure I would not have done so well against that sort of build.  Almost need something to completely shut down their actions via Stress, blocking or the like…  But seems to be the current build to beat in the “larger than local” meta as it were.  Amusing I guess as no one local plays that sort of ship that I had seen, certainly NOT a pair of them.  To be fair, I DID consider seriously bringing the Falcon with Chewie along with Dash, so close but…  Lacking a few of the things that make “Fat Han” what it is, I think it would have been good, but not nearly so good as those builds.

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Seismic Charges	2
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Fire-Control System	2
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autoblaster	5
Inertial Dampeners	1
Autothrusters	2

This is what I am looking at as my “current” build I guess.  That or 3 B-Wings, 2 of them with HLC/Fire Control and the third with Ten Numb, Mangler Cannon and FC.  Lots of heavy accurate fire, and should be able to cover each other as they slowly move across the board to shoot up the enemy…

Final list for the Store Championship, and the bike...

So, I've gotten more test games and this is the list I've sent along to the TO...  The Die is cast as it were.

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Proximity Mines	3
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Unhinged Astromech	1
N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter	17
Lone Wolf	2
Cluster Missiles	4
Munitions Failsafe	1

Pretty simple list all things considered...  I can run the Z-95 either starting behind the other two ships, or clear on the other side of the board.  NEED to keep him range 2+ from everyone else to get the bonuses (+1 Attack Dice, Re-Rolls on Attack and Defense).  The Cluster Missiles are short ranged, but potential 8 Dice with built in re-rolls...  Should put a big dent in most things.  Kavil on the Y-Wing just flies around doing hard 3's (Green with the Droid) shooting 4 Dice Ion attacks.  His fighter is fairly tankish (and flies like it too), so not really worried about losing him o any single attack...  Emon in the Firespray causes Stress and drops Bombs/Mines...  With the ability to drop them using the Straight 1, Straight 3 or the 3 Turn template, it really opens up a big chunk of the board as potential targets for his munitions...  And he still gets a shot out of front or rear arc...  If he catches something at Range 2, they get a Stress, whether he hits or not :-)...

We'll see how they do in the big field at Titan Games...  More than 20 have already pre-registered and with a hard cap of 32, might well be how many get in.  This is the last day for it to be run, so folks coming in from quite a distance.  I already won my Focus tokens at the Gopher, so not really stressing about the tournament itself to be honest.  Figure that my list is a fairly good one, and is fun to play...  Not a lot I simply cannot beat, can really only think of a few definite hard counters.  Even those are not really hard counters, just bad match-ups that I'll have to play better and get lucky to win.  Still a dice game, so...

So, got the bike completely fixed and out for a bit...  And then the weather went back to crap.  I'm telling you, this has happened EVERY time I get my bike ready, I should get the farmers here to kick in and buy me a nice new(er) bike that I can't ride much so that their crops would get the guaranteed amount of rain :-)  Maybe Sunday will be clear enough for me to ride out to the Tournament...

More practice for Store Championship builds (X-Wing) and bike stuff...

So, tested my previous builds and here is the adjustments I think will help...

N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter	17
Lone Wolf	2
Cluster Missiles	4
Munitions Failsafe	1
Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Seismic Charges	2
Tactician	2
Proximity Mines	3
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Ion Cannon Turret	5
Unhinged Astromech	1
or: Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31 36 Seismic Charges 2 Intelligence Agent 1 Proximity Mines 3 Proximity Mines 3 Andrasta 0 IG-88B — Aggressor 36 Push the Limit 3 Fire-Control System 2 Autoblaster 5 Heavy Laser Cannon 7 Autothrusters 2 Played a few games with the other builds and other than the generic Y-Wing essentially ending up in the worst possible position (bumping the Firespray and within Range 2 of the Z-95), I think that list had potential.  The Auto Blasters were "less useful" on the Firespray and as a Turret on the Y-Wing, so those are gone...  I did REALLY like the Proximity mines and the bombs actually worked out well...  Except that the 3-hard turn template still keeps the bomb in Range 1 of you if you say, get bumped and do not actually move...  Was worth it to put the extra hit on an essentially impossible to hit ship though. Looking I think for a Tactician.  Unfortunately only came in the TIE Phantom set though.  Having the passive abilities on the Firespray and Aggressor is huge, and since "in your arc" includes the main and secondary arcs, the Tactician will be nice...  The Aggressor flew in an interesting fashion...  Was nice, but REALLY had a hard time in asteroids, and not putting on an Elite Talent was bad for me.  That Emon has NO Elite Talent slot is pretty annoying as well, but it is certainly a fun ship to fly... And then there is the bike...  Working GREAT.  Wound up replacing the battery as the arcing issue probably killed it.  Well, that and it is 3 years old...  Rode in to Campus today, and remembered WHY i stick to the back roads when riding the old bike...  But it was REALLY nice getting in a ride like that.  My amazing wife does not particularly like the whole "bike" thing, but I think she is very understanding about it...  Something to keep my balance in a lot of ways...

And the Silverwing lives again... Also testing X-Wing Squadrons for the next event...

Traced down the Electrical issue I guess...  Major cleaning of some of the corroded electrical connections and fuses and the old bike fired up...  Some of those connections were pretty badly corroded, but for a 30+ year old bike, nothing unexpected.  Checked oil and air levels and got in a few quick rides...  Made it as far as Philo, keeping to the back roads and all...  Debating taking the trunk off and seeing if the rack/back rest from the Magna will fit on the Wing.  Frankly the trunk is JUST a little too small to actually be useful as a helmet will not fit in it, and the backpack solution I have that fits over the back rest can fit in a LOT of cargo.  Though, the saddlebags are also just a bit small for a 15" laptop or tackle-box for X-Wing (or any other "Wing" game), so not really ideal in any case, but it is what it is and it is what I have to work with...

Speaking of X-Wing though I am looking at running the following at the Titan Games SC later in the Month...

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31	36
Autoblaster	5
Seismic Charges	2
Intelligence Agent	1
Inertial Dampeners	1
Proximity Mines	3
Proximity Mines	3
Andrasta	0
IG-88B — Aggressor	36
Fire-Control System	2
Autoblaster	5
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Autothrusters	2

Or perhaps something like this:

N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter 17

Lone Wolf 2

Cluster Missiles 4

Munitions Failsafe 1

 

Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing 18

Autoblaster Turret 2

Unhinged Astromech 1

 

Emon Azzameen — Firespray-31 36

Autoblaster 5

Seismic Charges 2

Intelligence Agent 1

Inertial Dampeners 1

Proximity Mines 3

Proximity Mines 3

Engine Upgrade 4

Andrasta 0

 

REALLY liking the Firespray with mines like that...  The ability to throw out the mines in so many directions and distances will be something that a fair number of folks will not be expecting.  Would really like to have the HLC in the first one on the Aggressor replacing the Mangler, but point levels being what they are...  Or drop the Cannon altogether and take another Pilot for a different ability and  perhaps upgrading the ships in some way...  Second one, I can see finding the 6 points to make the Y-Wing Kavil instead of a Generic Pilot...  3 Dice attacks that cannot be dodged are just THAT good when facing the things that cannot otherwise be hit...  And the Y-Wing with the Droid is surprisingly maneuverable...  N'Dru is frankly just bait for the most part.  Yes, he COULD put down the big 8 hits in a single turn, but really it is still just a Z-95, so one of the more fragile Fighters out there...

Motorcycles and X-Wing... No real connection, but...

So…  It got warm this week.  And I have not one but two broken motorcycles…  Woo hoo.  Only one has a Title/plates, and of course that one has an electrical issue.  Weird one, I can charge the battery, then hook it up with the engine kill switch on and the key removed only to have the bike try to fire up.  Sounding like a short/bad ground, so I picked up the electrical contact cleaner and will tear the ancient Silverwing apart again this weekend…  Or sooner if I decide I’ve had enough…  Have to take the luggage and seat off to get to the master ground there, so it will be something of a project.  Will of course be checking the fuses, etc. first and having the nice digital multi meter should be able to track down the short…  HOPING for a simple thing like a corroded fuse, but given how that is the quick and easy fix so probably not.  But in any case, REALLY wanting to get back out and ride again, and the ancient Silverwing is the bike I have for that…  500cc engine, so NOT something I can really take out to an Interstate or on a longer trip…  But I really do miss riding in to work, hitting the back roads and unwinding.  Simple old bike, nothing flashy or fast but being one of those silly “biker” types…  It has been a VERY long time since last I rode…

Gaming…  Well, I played in the D&D Attack Wing event this week…  Won one of the Ancient Brass Dragons, so was fun and having more Dragons, especially the Good Dragons around is nice.  Picked up another X-Wing ship, the Aggressor class ship for the “Scum And Villainy” faction…  Another one that flies kind of weird, and it seems like you get rewarded for bringing multiples of this ship, which I am less likely to.  It STARTS at 36 points with nothing on it, decked out it is almost half of your points in any case so 2 at most for the “standard build size” of 100 points.  REALLY looking forward to the Firespray “reprints” hitting…  Boba Fett’s ship, gets new cards and stats to play as a Neutral (S&V), and a bunch of new Pilots and abilities.  Does not have the 360° arc, but it does have forward and rear 90° arcs along with some neat abilities…  Doubtful I can come up with something to defeat the current top of the meta ships, but I’m having fun flying what I enjoy and have been doing quite well competitively…  And Dave says the Gopher gets some in tomorrow so I will be picking one up, excellent!  Looking at playing in the bigger event at Gen Con, and with the pace of new releases from FFG being glacial when compared to WizKids and their Star Trek Attack Wing game, I may well be looking at pretty much what will be available at that time.  Looking like the big Imperial Epic ship will hit bringing much needed fixes to the TIE Advanced, but not a lot else has been rumored as near as I can tell…  So, for the most part, dealing with the things that are at the top end of the current curve will still be the things to deal with in a few months (Late July/start of Aug)… 

Liking the following build:

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Advanced Sensors	3
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Corran Horn — E-Wing	35
Push the Limit	3
Fire-Control System	2
R2-D2	4
Engine Upgrade	4
Tala Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter	13

MAYBE swap the Advanced Sensors for a Fire-Control System and/or the Engine Upgrade for a Shield Upgrade…  Dunno, Horn with the Boost action is annoyingly difficult to catch, and regenerating Shields are REALLY annoyingly hard to take down.  Yes, have lost him, but the effort required and the fact that it usually takes a mistake on my part in there…  Ten is just there for the “I hit with a Crit” no matter what.  Another option is Ten with a pair of B-Wings of course for a slow and deadly force that just stays back, likely at range 2 and pot shots things out of existence…  Not horribly exciting, and hard to keep some of the top end arc dodgers in arc, but solid against a lot of things…

Wait, one connection...  The X-Wing game is one I can easily fit into the saddlebags on the ancient Silverwing...

Mostly X-Wing stuff... And almost time to get the motorcycle out again...

So, first big event for the X-Wing game under the belt…  I think I did fairly well coming in 3-1 with my Dash/Corran Horn list.  Tried to fly too fancy in my last game and I was simply not prepared for the TIE swarm played by someone who knows how to REALLY well.  So, a few things I need to change up for the next one later this Month I think.

Got in a few games last night…  First one was an odd “Scum” list I was going over… 

Star Viper (Xizor, Expert Handling, Virago, Auto Thrusters and Accuracy Corrector)

Z-95 ( N’Dru, Cluster Missiles, Lone Wolf, Hot Shot Blaster)

Y-Wing (Kavil, Ion Turret, Unhinged Astromech, Hull Upgrade)

Admittedly, the Hull Upgrade and Expert Handling was mostly because I could only find the one Hot Shot Blaster…  The EH worked REALLY well though on Xizor though.  I tend to do a fair number of Barrel Rolls in any case and the ability to shunt Target Locks is really nice, and especially nice if facing low skilled Missile boats.  The Star Viper is just fun to fly.  A bit on the fragile end I think though with only one Shield and four Hull.  As it happened, my Defense dice were hot and mine lived while killing off his virtual mirror.  N’Dru was a beast, but faced off against his mirror…  Like I said, my Defense Dice were hot, so I lived through the Cluster Missiles and he did not.  I am rather looking forward to see what a single Z-95 can do to some of the Large based ships like the Decimator.  The essentially 8 Dice attack for that one turn is huge and while it will not likely take down a Large ship, it should take down most Fighters…  The Y was just amusing flying with Green 3 maneuvers and the four Dice attacks from the Ion Cannon…

But that does bring me to what my second game showed.  Faced off against 3 TIEs, 2 Interceptors and one Phantom.  So:

Turr Phennir (VI, Auto Thrusters)

Soontir Fel (AT, PTL)

Whisper (VI, FCS, Stygian, Intel Agent)

And pretty sure there was one more point in there somewhere…  But I flew my Rebel Squadron that I am looking at for the next Store Championships run…  I already have the acrylic Focus markers, so not really all that interested in fielding something that is overpowering…  And I say that like I actually could J…  But with the Auto Thrusters on things like the TIE Interceptor and the A-Wing…  You can get to a point where the 2 Dice attacks essentially have no chance to actually do any damage, and even decent 3 Dice attacks are a very real long shot.  Thinking that these are hard counters to the Swarms hitting the field these days, assuming that you can keep from bumping before thinning the Swarm enough.  And since they have 4-5 Dice Attacks at Range 1, I am not thinking it will be an issue…  In any case I flew:

Ten Numb (B-Wing, Mangler Cannon, VI)

Biggs Darklighter (Shield Upgrade, R2-D2)

Horton Salm (Y-Wing, Ion Turret, R2)

Plan was to keep Biggs near Ten to draw fire, move slow and ping things with Critical Hits that cannot be avoided by any means…  On the unshielded TIES, this is a BIG deal.  But against a lot of the “hard to hit” things that one unavoidable Damage (especially as it is a Critical) is still quite good, so I wanted to give this a run.  Either a mini Swarm with 2 A-Wings and 2 Z-95s, a 3 Ship “Aces” list or paired with one of the YTs…  Was pretty happy with Biggs actually.  The X-Wing itself is fairly “Meh” lacking…  Well, something.  It cannot Boost, Barrel Roll, Evade or do much interesting on its own.  It is not particularly maneuverable nor is it particularly robust or even powerful on Offence…  So, not really sure how much I’ll fly the “poster boy” for the game itself…  I am probably just spoiled with the other ships I actually learned the game on like the B-Wing and E-Wing and seeing the Imperial things that are really just “better” in about every way for about the same point cost…  The Y-Wing was “OK”, but CLEARLY outclassed by the extremely advanced TIE fighters.  They were flying circles around him, and while he lived a while, he was completely ineffective for his 31 points.  Soontir Fel and Turr Phennir were 32 and 28 points respectively and completely outclassed the poor Y-Wing.  Felt like a Sherman up against a Panther really…  So, Ten worked like a charm, though I need to find some better things to outfit him with I think…  I DID actually completely whiff twice, both would have been Kill shots on a TIE Interceptor, so likely the Fire Control System upgrade or perhaps something to get more Green on the dial…

So, long story short:  Happy with Ten Numb, and that will be flown again…  Not sure what with though…  Fortunately, next Championship is in a few weeks, so some time…

40K is restarting at the Gopher I guess…  I wish them well.  Have to say, less interest in playing that game now, but I also know that at SOME point in the future the cycle will turn and I’ll likely go back to playing…  Maybe if the rumored Horus Heresy things actually happens.  I have a bunch of that stuff, and if I’m honest, that era interests me a LOT more than the current 40K setting where it seems that the storyline is essentially “The Empire is screwed, EVERYONE else is just better than the Marines” and the game is just throwing buckets of dice, most of which simply ignore Marine class armor, or glance Vehicles…  J  But I’m just one of those bitter old school gamers I guess, and not one throwing money at GW (Sorry Gopher!), so surprisingly GW did not ask my opinion about the system…

REALLY looking forward to the possibility next week and beyond of actually getting my ancient motorcycle out on the road…  Need to fix the electrical fault on the Silverwing, but I suspect that is just a ground issue, so hopefully simple enough…  And then I’ll get to ride again.  Been a LONG winter, and I want to ride again…