Looking ahead at the upcoming schedule I
have an Armada Store Championship (SC) coming up at the Gopher on the 20th of
February followed by the first of the X-Wing SC at Titan the following weekend
on the 28th. The Gopher is running their
X-Wing SC on the 19th of March with Titan Springfield on the 26th. Will definitely be going to the first ones of
that, only the Springfield trip being one I am unsure of. We'll see I guess how burned out I am with an
almost weekly pace. Ideally, I'll have a
better motorcycle by then, but I have far less hope there... With it looking like the rest of Wave 8
arriving as early as next week, it promises to be another interesting
season. Last year there was a Wave
released just before and it shook things up greatly. From the looks of the things coming, I
suspect it will be the same. Not at all
sure what I'll be flying honestly, I have a few builds with my current stuff,
but the news that there will be more out there might make it a VERY different
build for me.
So far I have a variant of the one I
flew last 100 point tournament with the YT-2400, Stress Hog and Poe... Solid build.
Did quite well for me against a LOT of things, but it has a really hard
time against anything that can bring 3 Green Dice en masse... Like, say, a TIE swarm. Or even a build that has more than 3 of the
TIE variants in it... SO MANY TIE
fighters now, and even the TIE Advanced is really good with the new
"oops" class upgrade with essentially a negative point value and
additional slot. Many of the new TIE
Aces are actually quite good and make for a much more interesting meta, at
least locally... I have no clue how
people are playing elsewhere, guessing that the FFG Forums are very limited in
their audience providing a somewhat distorted view of the state of
things... In any case, I have a few
other builds based around the "Regen" aspect that the Rebels have, so
a pair of T-70 X-Wings with R2-D2 and R5-P9 along with a Y-Wing and R5-P8 to
discard Damage cards on the TLT platform...
IF they survive the initial joust or just fly to the flanks, it seems
like an annoyingly long lived build where at the very least, you are less
likely to die without any of your ships left on the board.
With the rest of Wave 8 though, there
are some VERY interesting builds... The
Guidance Chips, new Crew and Cloaking for S&V? Looking VERY interesting. I am less likely to risk a cloaked ship here,
while I fly them a LOT in STAW, the mechanics are so different that it is
nothing alike. Guidance Chips though... 0 points and it guarantees a hit for
Ordinance... Liking my odds with some of
the Missiles and Torpedoes now. The
Z-95's are an obvious choice, and some of the K-Wings might work out
well... Liking the new Ships as
well, I suspect the Ghost will be too
expensive for this, but... Geared up
with the right stuff like Anti Pursuit Lasers and Hera at the helm? Oh, and one combo that I think might be
interesting...
What happens with Accuracy Correctors
AND the Auto Blaster Turrets? The way I
am reading it, 2 Hits that CANNOT be cancelled by any means with a 360⁰ arc. Yes, R1, so they have to get close... But with a 5 K-Turn? That large base is going to be MOVING and I
suspect that there will be some Aces not expecting to be hit… Combined with the APL for additional hilarity
if they bump into you… Not sure if the
Zeb crew card will be worth it, but the additional ability to shoot in BtB? Of course they can shoot as well, assuming
they are in arc… The Phantom Attack
Shuttle OTOH… With the title and docked
you get an additional attack with your Turret at the end of the turn… So, unless I am reading it incorrectly, then
I can attack with the Turret, then in the end phase attack again for
essentially 4 unavoidable Damage… That
should take down almost any TIE I catch at R1…
The Advanced has I think 2 shields and 3 Hull, so it will live for a bit… Maybe J… But those annoying
Interceptors? Nope.
With Armada… Currently leading the League which ends next
week… But that is a function more of I
have more games played, need only one more, and so I’ll be trying to schedule
with Tom as he is the one player I have not played so far. Looking like the SC are coming up as well,
and my list is fairly well tweaked and I have most of the “gotchas” worked out…. One thing I could have sworn that was in the
rules was a limit on the Squadrons. I was under the impression that you could
not bring more stands than you had “Squadron” numbers on your Ship cards in
total. Not apparently the case. So, a few of my other builds will be getting
reworked slightly to allow for a larger Squadron presence… The 4 YT-2400’s I have are good and make
excellent “Linebackers” for me, but against a dedicated Squadron list like Mike
brought last time, they simply get overwhelmed.
But lacking more Rogue stands, I am not sure I will fly them as well… Points are pretty tight and I’ve even been
running stripped down Cruisers (MC-80) and Corvettes (CR-90) just to have
actual firepower out there… So looking
like at least one more game before the SC hits next month….
