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…

X-Wing AAR and motorcycles I guess...

So, another League has begun over at Titan...  Not quite as many folks there for it, 16 or 17 IIRC.  Still, the first run for Wave 7 stuff...  The builds were all quite a bit different for the most part...  A few players still had the same builds as last League.  But not many.  I only saw one or two playing "Brobots" (2 IG-88) and only a handful of Dash builds.  No TIE swarms at all.  Actually, no real swarms at all.  2 players brought 5 of the new S&V fighter (Kyrgiz?), one brought a K-Wing and 4 Z-95's IIRC...  So 5 ships at most. 

I brought my KYY list:

KYY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 39
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 27
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 34

Except I swapped Ion Bombs for the Seismic Charges…  DUMB!  I read the description on the “Yet Another Builder” site, and the Ion there does a Damage and 2 Ion tokens…  Yeah, it only does the Ion Tokens.  Not horrible, but I want damage more…  Overall a decent build I think.  With the ruling on the K-Wing/SLAM action, I think Miranda is the only viable K-Wing at the moment.  Even she is just a Heavy Fighter really…  She tends to live annoyingly long barring something overwhelming (9+damage in a single turn)…  But the K’s just get so expensive when you start kitting out with Torpedoes, Missiles and Bombs…  I’ll likely still try it as I own 2 of the damn things now, but a Warden Squadron K-Wing with Extra Munitions, Flechette Torpedoes, Assault Missiles and Seismic Charges is 34 points leaving me with a stripped down Miranda and Horton in a Y-wing with just TLTs for both to get 100 points…

Won the first match easily against a decent build of a Decimator and TIE Bomber...  The low  agility ships just eat damage against the TLTs...  And I outnumbered him...  Helped that my Gold Squadron Y-Wing made something like 7 dodge rolls to start the game...  100-0 win.  Then I faced Tyler and Will, both of whom are REALLY good players.  Lost those, but 30-100 and 50-100, so at least I got kills before dying...  And learned a lot...  My own “low agility” ships cannot just line up and trade fire with other TLTs.  Well, not successfully and win J…   Tyler’s build was a Shuttle, one of the new TIE Advanced form the Raider and Jax in a TIE Interceptor.  Jax does not allow you to use a Focus action or spend Focus tokens if he is in Range 1.  Storm (the TIE Adv) does not allow Range bonuses if she is in Range 1…  Oh, and the Shuttle required you to Target Lock on it if you could…  So, a lot of action denial, and if my build depended on those things I would have been in (more) trouble…  Frankly, he flew his stuff a lot better than I did.  I should have locked up and flew in a tight formation to focus fire onto one of his ships each turn for the up to 6 Damage…  Focused on the TIE Advanced just because I got in a few lucky hits early.  The Interceptor was damaged, but those things are crazy maneuverable…  He was able to dodge arcs and more importantly keep in Range 1 for a LONG time.  The Shuttle I think I mostly ignored.  Was at least a fun game for me…  And pointed out that I need to bring the normal rocks for my terrain contribution I think…  With the small based ships I am far less likely to land on one, and I know hit Shuttle wound up on them for several turns in a row…  Even if just keeping the shooting down a bit, I think it is the direction I need to move.

The last match was against Will (I think, sorry if I got the name wrong!).  Another top notch player, running the S&V version of the TLT builds.  3 Y-Wings with TLT and the Unhinged Astromechs (PS 2 version) and N’Dru in his Z-95 with Cluster Missiles, Lone Wolf and Glitterstem.  THAT is a rough build for that one turn the Glitterstem pops (turns ALL Focus symbols to either Hits or Dodges for the turn).  The Cluster Missiles for 2 x 4 Dice Attacks were brutal against low Agility ships, pretty much brought down Miranda in that turn…  I think she lasted a bit longer, but those Y-Wings are annoyingly consistent with damage against anything low agility…  Except for N’Dru, his build was all PS 2 though…  Wasn’t a problem against my stuff, his Defense rolls were spot on when I almost burned N’Dru down before he fired his missiles with my pair of PS 8 Pilots…  After that, well I killed 2 of his ships (all were 25 points J)…

Looking at flying S&V next again…  Probably one of these 2 builds:

YV-YY (100)

Bossk — YV-666	35
Stay On Target	2
Outlaw Tech	2
K4 Security Droid	3
Dead Man's Switch	2
Hound's Tooth	6
Ship Total: 50
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ship Total: 25
N'Dru Suhlak — Z-95 Headhunter	17
Lone Wolf	2
Cluster Missiles	4
Glitterstim	2
Ship Total: 25

YV-YY2 (100)

Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Veteran Instincts	1
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ship Total: 32
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ship Total: 25
Latts Razzi — YV-666	33
K4 Security Droid	3
Weapons Engineer	3
Tactician	2
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Ship Total: 43

With the first, Bossk and the Hound’s Tooth fly right in aggressively.  Green Maneuvers get me a free Target Lock, and Reds get me a free Focus.  When he dies, everything in Range 1 takes a damage and the Z-95 comes out…  N’Dru or another Y-Wing with TLT/Mech…  Depends I guess show I want to go.  N’Dru is a one shot wonder.  If he hits it is HARD, but he is still only a Z-95 and 4 Damage kills him…  I worry about vulnerability to the TLT builds with this a bit as I can take out 1/turn if I am lucky, but that means eating potentially 8 Damage that first turn in the more likely event that I do NOT kill one before they fire.  Not likely to kill the YV of course, but could be BAD if the target a Y-Wing…  In any case, looking like a fun build that might surprise a few folks…  Stay On Target or APLs…  Like the ability to switch my maneuver (and gat a Focus), but the potential Damage for them bumping into me is another one looking pretty good, especially if I fly right at them, and the Full Stop on the dial allows me to stand still for a turn…

The second is pretty similar with Latts ability to burn a Target Lock on a Defender to force it to roll one fewer Dice while Defending…  The Weapons Engineer allows me to take 2 Locks when I do so and the K4 allows me to do this for free on a Green maneuver…  The AP Lasers are really just to allow me to bull rush in and dare them to close while hopefully keeping my Y’s free to fire their TLTs, hopefully with TL/Focus and -1 Defense if needed…  Should make even the vaunted TIE Interceptors/A-Wings think seriously about staying back.  Not so sure about this build honestly…  A lot of synergy, but I tend to play a bit more aggressively so it might end up backfiring on me.  12 Damage to kill the YV is frankly not that hard to come up with.. 

Rebel build looks like the KKY above (in the text, the second K kitted out as a Bomber)…  Not so sure about that.  Just not really enough Damage output.  Steady Damage overall, but depending on a PS 2 Missile boat?  Not so sure about that…  Kind of looking forward to the T70 X-Wings and the Ghost coming out…  Miranda is solid, and Horton in his Y-wing likewise…  Just that they are good, not overwhelming against most things…  Guess we’ll see J

Motorcycle wise?  New Windshield ordered and en route…  REALLY missing that I find.  The way the old Wing is built it seems to route the air flow right at my head without the shield.  Not a problem I’d had on bikes without the fairing in the old days…  Well, to be fair, that was back in the late 80’s and I am given to understand that I drank…  A LOT, even for a Scot (by descent J  Born in Joliet).  So, could be that I just didn’t notice when I was running with the Tres and guys from the old neighborhood…  In any case…  Ready to talk to an attorney about filing a claim against the Magna’s previous owner to kick free the damn title so I can be rid of it, if anyone know someone or a firm that might have done something like this in the past, LMK…  Then I can pretty easily sell the Silverwing I think to get a Goldwing in the same age range…  For the near to mid-term at least…  Needing something a bit bigger to stretch my legs while riding, and the hard saddlebags/fairing are good…  Likely take the trunk off for a luggage rack for the ruck on longer trips if I ever do one…  Eventually, I’ll likely get one of the big American bikes, but not really a priority for me.  The shaft drive Hondas are rock solid, and while I am OK turning wrenches, NOT something I enjoy doing…  And a lot of my Harley riding friends have their bikes in the shop as often as not, so…  J  Yes, I grew up in the 70’s/80’s when HD technically made bikes…  They were just terrible bikes…  They make expensive bikes now.  Seem a lot better quality, but still….  A lot of recalls/warranty repair work and the like I keep hearing about…  Anyway, LONG term, guessing the girls will be out of college by then...

X-Wing this weekend: the "Y Bother" lists...

So gearing up for a big X-wing tournament this weekend...  Getting my mind off work is a good idea at this point. 

Not sure how the local TO will interpret the Slam rules for the K-Wing so a bit up in the air...  I have several lists I have been kicking around.  The Twin Laser Turret (TLT) is going to be what I use.  Not much damage all at once, but two shots each time should get me steady damage over time.

So, the S&V version is “Y Bother”:

Y Bother (100)

Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Predator	3
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ion Bombs	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 40
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Seismic Charges	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 30
Syndicate Thug — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Ion Bombs	2
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 30

Basically instead of the 4 Y-Wings all with TLT and likely a Droid, I have 3 with Engine Upgrades and bombs to hopefully punish anyone wanting to get in close to take advantage of the range 2-3 limitation.  Kavil being the Ace here, rolling 4 Dice for each attack outside of his arc, should put damage on even the hardest to hit targets…  The other two are really just there to soak up hits and throw out more damage…

The Rebels have some more interesting options with the K-wing itself…  Now, the FFG article describing the ship and the SLAM action indicated that you ARE revealing a new maneuver and so can drop bombs at the midpoint of your movement…  Is somewhat unclear though as technically the rules for SLAM do not actually SAY to reveal a maneuver dial.  Waiting on FAQ I guess, but as it has been published by the company, I’d say my interpretation is a fairly good one.  So, I have 2 Rebel lists I am looking at:

KYY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 39
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Ion Bombs	2
Ship Total: 27
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
R2 Astromech	1
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 34

And:

KKY1 (100)

Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 35
Warden Squadron Pilot — K-Wing	23
Extra Munitions	2
Bombardier	1
Proton Bombs	5
Seismic Charges	2
Ship Total: 33
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
R2 Astromech	1
Ship Total: 32

For both of those, Horton has the ability to re-roll blanks at range 2-3, so more or less a built in Target Lock for the TLT…  Miranda has the ability to destroy one of her Shields to gain +1 Dice on an Attack or roll 1 fewer to regenerate one Shield…  For me, it will of course be the regenerate to last longer in the fight, especially as typically she’ll be firing twice, so not really much of a reduced impact on the field I think…  One has a K-Wing set up as a straight up Bomber.  Will have to look at replacing the Seismic Charges with Ion Bombs, same cost with the Ion effect…  Might be annoying enough, though with my luck I’ll wind up hitting my own ships too, so… 

So, some interesting builds I think…  Did pick up the S&V big ship as well, but not sure how best to use it at this point, so perhaps next run…