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..

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:

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

Or

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
Gold Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	18
Twin Laser Turret	6
R3-A2	2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
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...

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 15^th 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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kihraxz Fighters for X-Wing

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

So, keeping the Squadron markings consistent...

October X-Wing League AAR

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

KAT70 (100)

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

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

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

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

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

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