And the repaints begin... I guess Eldar are next...

Starting to repaint some of my X-Wing minis...  The first is my Star Viper and a pair of Z-95's...  Going for a more WWII feel on the Z-95's, so an OD Green base coat, not sure what next but probably nose a different color, etc...  Thinking they'll look like old P-47's or 51's...  Nose will go red and I'll likely go with the "Flying Tiger" shark mouth for them...

This is NOT mine, but what I'm working toward... Initial ship on the left of course...

Got the Star Viper base coated, more or less, and it does look a LOT better than that bad photo of mine would seem...  I've only flown it a few times, it is interesting, but not even a little OP I think.  Turrets hate them with the Autothrusters and agility, but they do not have a lot of HP nor do they do all that much damage...  About on par with an X-Wing really...  A bit more survivable and more in line with a correct points cost I think...  Plus they are interesting to fly...  The S-Loop is its only Red maneuver and takes some getting used to, but can easily get you places you need to be to line up a shot or avoid incoming fire...  A bit on the expensive side though really for competitive play.  I would be surprised to see many out on the tables even locally, though I suspect in some of my builds I will fly them...  Well, the one I have :-)...

Really liking the Y-Wings, Firesprays and B-wings I have been flying recently...  Not sure what I'll bring to my next events, but they are a while off I think...  Aggressor loaded out with a pair of Y-Wing or a Y-Wing and 2 Z-95's seems like a good build for me.  Or stick with Firesprays, maybe Boba Fett's...  :-)  Dunno, but looking forward to next event(s).

STAW is coming back a bit locally, that is great!  I won one of the Romulan D-Dedrix/Borg ships ("Avatar of Tomed"), and looking very much forward to flying that against the Dominion next Month.  Able to regenerate when it cloaks...  Pretty darn good.  Still a fun game locally, but unfortunately the glaring design flaws still exist outside of our "house rules" environment...  We play mostly Faction or at least Ship pure, so the "Borg All Stars" lists are just not seen here.  Not a lot that can be done against those things really.  Looking over the guy who won the latest big STAW event (Worlds?) list...  Big surprise, a Borg ship with CPT Picard (at a bloody discount, not even paying the cross faction penalty...) supported by an Admiral and Fighters...  So, the collection of the most broken and under costed things wins again.  Meh...  I can see why the game is dying all over the place if those builds are allowed to linger.  Contrast with X-Wing where the annoyingly OP "Phantom" builds just got neutered or at least "adjusted" a bit.  Nothing in X-Wing is completely over the top dominant in the way the things in STAW are.  Just doesn't happen, and when it starts to go that way, i gets adjusted.  Wishing Wizkids would get their act together on STAW.  Oddly, D&D Attack Wing (DnDAW) IS really well balanced and a lot of fun to play...  I am currently running a pair of Good Dragons with Dragon Riders as my force...  Not hugely effective against everything, but nothing that I cannot at least compete against.

On to Eldar hitting this weekend...  Some folks have the book now so "rumors" are not really rumors as such...  Well, crap.  My hope that they would be reined in like every other force thus far seems to be in vain.  Do they lose things?  Yes, the Wave Serpent loses the Shield shot every damn turn they get at the moment...  Assault, 2d6 shots, ONE USE...  So, the days of them driving up and using the WS to shoot armies off the table are gone at least.  But they gained a LOT more.  Jet Bikes now can mount Scatter Lasers in place of the Shuriken Catapult.  ALL OF THEM!!!!  So, a unit of up to 10 of the bastards brings out 40 Str 6 shots at 48" range on a platform that has a jink, 3+ Armor save and can move shoot move?  Well, fuck.  Oh, they are Troops too?  So, GW has decided that this game too must die.  Kind of annoying looking over at my Wood Elves army, knowing that I can re-shelf them without bothering to strip and repaint them.  Maybe Mantic's "Kings of War" game will take off locally..  I happen to have "a few" Fantasy type armies I could play...

Meh, X-wing is going REALLY strong locally, and glad a few others are ramping up a bit...

X-Wing builds evolving...

So, Emon was fun and I like the idea…  Just not sure the Firespray has enough to actually either a) do enough damage to justify the point cost (45-46 points) or b) can survive well enough to actually keep my in the running with “Margin of Victory” becoming a big thing now…  Wound up doing fairly well over the weekend at the “Top Guns” event with the build of Emon in his Firespray and a pair of Hired Guns in Y-Wings (Warthogs with Engine Upgrades).  Wound up 2-1 but with the Firespray dying in every game, my MoV was not so great, putting me to the middle.  Flew well against Alan’s Imperial list, and Emon’s Firespray REALLY does a number against the TIE Interceptor.  Double Stressed Soonter Fel usually dies the next turn, so the Push The Limit (PTL) card that he loves so much is a weak spot with Tactician on the field.  The Firespray usually does no damage with the 3 Dice attack, but the Stress still hits…  And those Y-Wings hit HARD when they get in close.  Game 2 was against a pair of YT-1300’s…  Chewbacca in the Falcon and Lando in another.  I flew pretty poorly against this.  I split up, meeting in the middle while the YT’s simply flew around the edge of the board knowing they had 360° arc, could cover each other and have a ridiculous number of Shields and Hull to punch through.  I should have simply lined up, chosen one and run right at it, incoming fire be damned…  I’d take some damage to be sure, but one YT to deal with is a LOT easier…  Game three was against another Imperial, close game.  Faced a Tie Defender, Decimator and a TIE Advanced I think…  Know it came down to the Decimator with its huge Hull against my last Y-Wing with 2 Hull left…  Got in behind as it flew into the Asteroids and got the kill before it could free itself…  Great game, came down to the last few Hull on each of our last ships… 

Which does point out that the Emon build does REALLY well against “Aces” builds with the few high quality small ships which are otherwise  difficult to deal with…  He simply does not survive well though.  The Firespray is not quite maneuverable or survivable enough to go toe to toe with the other big ships.  Lacking any EPT, I cannot easily modify the movement with PTL or Expert Handling.  Nor does it really put out THAT much damage with only the basic 3 Dice Attack…  Decent, but not great Arcs.  STAW and the Turrets here spoiled me for this…  The Excelsior with essentially a 270° Arc?  Yes, please…  Or Dash with a Mangler?  But an unmodified attack like this is just not enough to threaten either of the big threats…  Unlikely to hit the agile Auto Thruster equipped things nor will it do enough to the really big ships…  Assuming it even hits the Falcon when it is flown with things like C3-P0, Lando, Evade tokens everywhere, etc…  The Y’s are nice, but can be avoided and even set up like this are still flying tanks, and they turn like them…  So, thinking of switching for a bit to an Aggressor…

Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Autoblaster Turret	2
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
IG-88C — Aggressor	36
Expert Handling	2
Advanced Sensors	3
Heavy Laser Cannon	7
Autothrusters	2

If I am reading it right the timing for Expert Handling and the Advanced Sensors works out such that I can take the Barrel Roll, get the Stress token, then do a Green maneuver (which is almost the whole dial really), and clear the Stress…  Or of course a Boost, free Evade, then even something like an S-Turn to bring the HLC to bear…  With the Autothrusters it should be REALLY survivable against things like the Turrets and even Swarms if I can keep my distance…  So, either the pair of Y-Wings or?  Something else for 50 points…

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...