Armada SC Saturday, X-Wing next week...

So…  Armada Sunday at Titan.  Looking forward to playing, but as I am not going to Regionals and have the Range Rulers I wanted…  Is “fun”…  I have been doing a bit of painting, mostly just putting on the crimson base coat, grey trim here and there…  Painting on a coat of Minwax then finishing with hairspray…  OK, it is “Chessex Matte Varnish” or something of the sort…  But growing up in the 80’s around a lot of heavy metal types, and being cursed with an excellent sense of smell I know hairspray J…  So, they DO look very different on the table, and I’ll at least have them ready to go for that.

Playing:

Titan SC2 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Most Wanted 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory 

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Admonition  ( 8  points) 
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Foresight  ( 8  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

2 A-Wing Squadrons ( 22 points) 
1 YT-2400 ( 16 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The Corvette is my flanker to zip about and make itself a nuisance…  Though if people ignore it, with Ackbar it DOES hit almost as hard as one of the Frigates…  Briefly.  If anyone gets a shot at it, it melts quickly, but with all the other targets out there posing far more obvious threats, I’ve yet to have anyone actually go after it seriously…  Don’t blame them, the MC-30 hits VERY hard, and if you were silly enough to let it get close…  Well, the game will be short.  Speaking of the MC-30’s, with the titles, they are a bit more survivable, but honestly I do NOT expect them to survive the battle.  The WILL let the other player know they were in a fight, and very likely go out swinging, but…  The key of course is to do more damage than they absorb.  Admonition is there as the early hitter…  She flies in front of the Assault Frigate letting the AF activate first and tempt them to use things like Brace and Redirects or eat the 5-6 Red Dice of an Ackbar broadside…  Discard Defense Tokens as needed, just stay alive to get in the shot…  With 4 ships I should be able to force them to move to me, potentially giving me an opportunity to “double tap” moving the MC-30 last on one turn then first the next to get in two rounds of shooting as close range (hopefully) and then move away sharply as I (again hopefully) avoid the bulk of their counter fire…  Foresight is more of a Linebacker for me…  Stay back until the right time to tackle something breaking my line or on a quick Blitz to get in close to use all those Black Dice…  NOT as well as Admonition in this setup though.  Admonition will kill Redirects with the XI7’s, and the Blacks getting a re-roll do make for some impressive Damage output…  Well, once J…  Don’t count on surviving long up close and personal with an ISD for instance…

Need to remember to get in touch with Dave over at the Gopher to re-order the Vallejo paints I use for…  Well, everything I paint red.  Consistency is nice and since that is the same color my ancient beret was, I like using it…  Guessing that there is another equivalent color, but… 

For X-Wing, Wave 8 hits…  Well, BY next week, hoping ASAP of course…  I’ve ordered a few through Dave over at the Gopher…  Since I won the “big prize ship” at one of the Titan Leagues and deferred not wanting the Imperial Raider…  Well, I essentially won the Ghost, just with a LONG delay.  Nice ship, and in contrast to STAW, there are good things on EVERY expansion ship.  Of course, playing 2 of the Factions (there are only 3), I do tend to have a fair number of ships… 

Have been playtesting a few of the variations, but having the Range Ruler for this kit and pretty much certain to get the C3-P0 card…  MUCH more casual than I was over at Titan…  And to be honest THAT was pretty darn casual, going with a weird build I never expected to do well with…  That so many of the players were unfamiliar with the Kihraxz class fighter probably helped a LOT more than anything. AM looking at the “Guidance Chips” as they do present me with a way to make Ordinance work in this game.  I can combine it with the TLT on the ancient Y-Wing to make a pretty darn terrifying weapons platform.  Gets expensive, but in true American military fashion, we have excellent weapons for every potential target, and there is NOT such thing as TOO much firepower to bring to bear…  We’ll see…  One more week, and then THAT hits over at the Gopher…

Titan Armada SC in 2 weeks, Gopher X-Wing SC in 3...

Looking ahead a few weeks for the Titan Armada SC I think I will be fielding something “odd”…

SC Titan 1 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Opening Salvo 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory 

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Admonition  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 YT-2400 ( 16 points) 
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1 A-Wing Squadron ( 11 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Not a lot to it really, 4 smaller ships, sticking with the “Shoot Early and Often”.  Weak against a well-run Squadron heavy list, but unless they are Firesprays I think I’ll be able to outrun them…  I already have the range rulers, and more Alt Art Imperial Raider cards is of little interest to me, so, “just for fun” it is…  If I were I interested in going to the Regionals over in Indiana I would probably bring a FAR more dangerous list like this:

SC Nasty 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 399/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory 

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

2 YT-2400s ( 32 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

So, nothing at ALL subtle, just fly presenting broadsides and circle…  If people do not understand things like Fire Lanes and HAVE to run right at me…  Accuracies all around, Intel Officers to strip Defense Tokens and a metric crapton of Red Dice for me…  Yes, I lack ANY Black Dice, but really, not a lot lives long if I can get 2-3 ships in arc as I slow walk in a circle…  So, less “fun”, but REALLY effective…

Not sure what I’ll run at the Gopher for the SC in a few weeks…  Wave 8 is shipping now and I am REALLY looking forward to playing some of that stuff… 

SC 4 pre Rebellion (100)

Hera Syndulla — VCX-100	40
Accuracy Corrector	3
Autoblaster Turret	2
Intelligence Agent	1
Nien Nunb	1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Ghost	0
Ship Total: 49
"Zeb" Orrelios — Attack Shuttle	18
Phantom	0
Ship Total: 18
Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
Extra Munitions	2
Proton Torpedoes	4
R4-D6	1
Guidance Chips	0
Ship Total: 33

Looking at bringing some Proton Torpedoes J for a change…  On the Y-Wing I convert one Dice to a Hit and one Focus to a Critical…  2 shots from that and then back to the TLT…  The Ghost is the same as before with the “Bowling Ball of Doom™” just going out to roll into stuff as fast as she can…  Zeb rides on the Ghost really, if I EVER have it hit the field it will be an odd situation…  I have the Range Ruler here as well, so mostly just playing for fun…  The Regional is pretty soon up near Chicago, so doubt I’d be able to make it in any case…  

Titan SC AAR...

So, went random, more or less…  One of the guys at Titan saw me trying to decide which list I should play and he pointed at one list and he said I should play that one…  So, thanks Will!  I never played this list before and it REALLY did quite well…

KavilKCobra (100)

Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Engine Upgrade	4
Ship Total: 35
Black Sun Ace — Kihraxz Fighter	23
Predator	3
Cluster Missiles	4
Glitterstim	2
Ship Total: 32
Talonbane Cobra — Kihraxz Fighter	28
Predator	3
Glitterstim	2
Ship Total: 33

There were 25 players at the start of the event, so would be 5 rounds…  A LONG day, and there were a number of other lads from the University IT crowd there…  Tony made it to the end I know, but I lost track of Palmer and Stu at some point…  Honestly, by the 5^th game I was making stupid mistakes and felt like my brain was melted…  I ended up going 3-2 over the day, and even my losses were not total, so it was a surprisingly good day for the Kihraxz Fighters…  Talonbane Cobra was a beast in several of my wins…  Getting a 5 Dice attack at Range one makes it REALLY powerful, and Glitterstem at the right point along with Predator for re-rolls…  Very accurate fire, and at PS 9 going pretty close to the first ships each turn…. 

My first game was against a new player…  She flew fairly well, but my list was designed to take down big ships and hurt low PS ships…  Unfortunately for her my list was the hard counter for hers.  I killed Boba Fett quickly and then hunted down the 4 PS 1 TIEs in short order. 

Game two was against a really good player running Super Dash and 4 Z-95’s….  I knew my only real chance was to run at his YT-2400 and try to burn it down quickly…  So, on turn 2 I had Cobra in Range one and the Black Sun Ace at Range 2 with a Target Lock on Dash…  All 3 of my ships hit him hard, and his Defense Dice were not with him…  My Black Sun Ace died soon after to the Z-95’s…  Well worth it in the trade for me…  Talonbane and Kavil were able to fairly easily hunt down the 4 Z-95’s and so a good win keeping me at Table one… 

Then I faced Fred’s list…  Emperor in a Shuttle, Vader in the TIE Advanced and Soonter Fel I think…  NOT so good for my list.  I DID kill off the Shuttle, but he forced a bump with BOTH of my K’s at a critical moment which killed the Ace and that was pretty much it…  Frankly my list would never have beaten the Aces I think, but I might have actually killed a second one without that error on my part… 

Game 4 was against a very similar list, Palpmobile, Vader and Whisper…  This time I used what I learned in the previous game and it went a LOT better…  I did lose the Ace and Kavil eventually, but the Shuttle got killed QUICKLY as nothing much stands in the way of the 5 Dice attack of the Cobra…  Then it came to an Ace duel between Whisper and the Cobra…  I was really worried, but the 5 K-turn was REALLY useful and it got me behind her, allowed me to pop Glitterstem and get the 5 Hits/Crits to kill her…  Put me back at the top tables…

Last game was against an interesting build with Kath on her Firespray and a loaded out YB-666…  Here is where I made my stupid errors and got hit by a BAD critical  that killed the Ace before it shot…  His YV was where I messed up the worst…  He hit me for two, I rolled an Evade and Focus…  I should have just taken the one hit, forgetting he had Gunner and Bossk there to shoot again if he missed…  Second shot was with Target Lock and Focus so it hit a LOT harder…  I wound up killing it, but the almost untouched Firespray got me…  Have to say I was pretty much done by then though…  Wound up winning one of the Range Rulers, so thrilled…  

Some painting, test scheme for Armada and X-Wing

So, painting a bit of my stuff...



Going to try a Red/Crimson and Grey fleet for Armada...  2 ships base coated...  I'm looking at 2 different fleets for the next SC over at Titan in a few weeks, and so I should have the whole fleet done easily by then...

X-Wing SC tomorrow at Titan, the X-70 X-Wing is at least base coated and will look different on the board...  Now I just need to figure out what I am fielding of course...

Titan X-Wing SC this weekend....

The Titan X-Wing Store Championships are coming up this weekend, and as it is looking VERY much like the Wave 8 stuff will not be here in time…  So I have a few other lists built:

KavilKCobra (100)

Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ship Total: 31
Black Sun Ace — Kihraxz Fighter	23
Predator	3
Cluster Missiles	4
Glitterstim	2
Ship Total: 32
Talonbane Cobra — Kihraxz Fighter	28
Predator	3
Cluster Missiles	4
Glitterstim	2
Ship Total: 37
	The first is all about offence, hit hard and fast…  The K’s are decent ships, nothing REALLY all that special, but the burst damage they could throw out should rip up any Y-Wing TLT lists or anything based around a big ship with log Agility dice…  It will I think struggle against a TIE swarm, less so against a Z-95 swarm and I suspect a well build Ace list will be a good fight, but I think I’m on the losing end of that one…  Not impossible, the list simply does NOT synergize or have any real tricks.

SC 1 Jake Ello Poe (100)

Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Juke	2
Chardaan Refit	-2
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 26
Ello Asty — T-70 X-Wing	30
Crack Shot	1
R5-P9	3
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 34
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Predator	3
R2-D2	4
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 40

SC 2 Rebel Regen (100)

Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
R5-D8	3
Ship Total: 29
Miranda Doni — K-Wing	29
Twin Laser Turret	6
Ship Total: 35
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
R2-D2	4
Integrated Astromech	0
Ship Total: 36

Or:

VrillPoeGrey (100)

Eaden Vrill — YT-2400	32
Intelligence Agent	1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Ship Total: 35
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Cool Hand	1
R5-P9	3
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 37
Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
R3-A2	2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 28

The Rebel lists all have Poe in…  Good solid ship, and annoyingly resilient if it is not focused on.  Mind, most folks know this now, so I tend to use it as a bait ship more than anything.  It works, but I am hoping it will live long enough to actually do something of course J  Or at least that it gets my other ships into position and does enough on the way down to get me a win…  Rebel Regen I might swap out R5-P9 for the R5-D8, I think that was a relic of a list where I had Ello Asty with that Droid, which might make a good swap for Miranda’s K-Wing…  But the list is based around just outlasting the other side…  Do enough to get in a few kills and survive the fight.  Bring big rocks and break up the Swarms…  Fun list, but not likely to get me a win against a top tier player with a good list.  VrillPoeGrey is just weird enough that it does well for me…  Fun to fly and one of the ones I REALLY like.  Swarms are a hard counter, but they WILL know they were in a fight.  Aces HATE this list, I designed it to take down those and it works frighteningly well there… 

Choices, choices….  Thinking my first or last one will be what I use…  I am most interested in the participation prize which they should have some 32 of, I am pretty confident I’ll be in the top 32…   And I have another month or so until the SC at the Gopher…  REALLY want to fly the Ghost there, but we’ll see…

Armored Gopher Armada Store Championship this weekend...

Well, the build is almost set…

SC 1   
Author: pchappel

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 398/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory 

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

1 Han Solo ( 26 points) 
3 YT-2400s ( 48 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Though looking at swapping the ECM on the Corvette for Engine Techs on the MC-80…  Getting that extra movement on the normally SLOW Cruiser is pretty huge. Brings me to 399/400 if I do that...

It looks like our interpretation of the rules for the Fire Lanes mission is correct, and I CAN deploy all 3 right on top of each other…  My Opponent can move them range ruler 1-2, so at most 3-4” from their starting position, but even so…  Set up broadsides to bear on them and I am guessing I’ll have at a minimum 2, more likely 4 turns before anything serious can be brought to bear on my ships to try and take me off the Fire Lanes…  and scooping up 15 points/marker and 3/turn…  That gives me 45 points/turn to just sit back and smile as I collect it…  And if they want to do anything but just lose, they HAVE to move quickly to engage me on my terms, which is not a fight I’d be wanting to get into knowing the sheer amount of firepower these ships throw out…  Also, if they go slow or have ships like the Victory Class Star Destroyer with only Speed 2…  Even the ISD has a Speed 3 option, but driving up into my guns like that?  I’m likely to get off at least 2 rounds of shooting, and without Redirects to spread that damage around, even the mighty ISD falls pretty quickly, and likely before it gets to its Black dice range…  Other MC-80’s?  Same thing, though usually limited to Speed 2 and REALLY wanting to present broadsides…  So, if they just come toward the firing line, I think they lose that one even quicker than the ISD.  AF/Gladiator might be tricky, but they tend to die quickly, though I suspect they’ll do damage on the way down…  But my several turn head start should carry the game for me…  The light ships like the Raiders and Corvettes?  With Gunnery Teams giving me at least 3 good broadsides/turn I think that they simply evaporate too quickly…  And even if they DO get in close, I still win the tokens with volume of dice as they evaporate under fire…

Frankly, if I am player 2 and get my own missions, the ONLY one that is closer to a wash is the Dangerous Territory one, and I gain the ability to land on the rocks/debris without effect…  So, likely the one I’ll end up having to play J…