Titan League starting the 10th...

Well, new league starting up at Titan next weekend…  I’ll be running some S&V it looks like…  Kind of an odd one I think, not quite the “U-Boats” that won the Hoth event up at Adepticon this weekend, but something I will have fun flying..

Contracted Scout — JumpMaster 5000	25
Deadeye	1
Proton Torpedoes	4
Extra Munitions	2
R4 Agromech	2
Guidance Chips	0
Ship Total: 34
Contracted Scout — JumpMaster 5000	25
Deadeye	1
Proton Torpedoes	4
Extra Munitions	2
R4 Agromech	2
Guidance Chips	0
Ship Total: 34
Kavil — Y-Wing	24
Crack Shot	1
Twin Laser Turret	6
Unhinged Astromech	1
Ship Total: 32
Talonbane Cobra — Kihraxz Fighter	28
Cloaking Device	2
Stygium Particle Accelerator	2
Ship Total: 32

So, either Kavil on his Y-Wing w/TLT for the 4 Dice side shot and likely sneaking one into something like Soonter Fel with Crack Shot or Talonbane Cobra in the Cloaking Kihraxz fighter…  REALLY want the Predator there, but points are tight and the whole point of the list is putting Proton Torpedoes on target…  Might have to drop down to Plasma Torpedoes at 3 points each to get at least 2 extra points out there.  I REALLY like having at least one “Ace” class fighter out there, and with either of them I could do well I think…  The “Palpmobile” of the Imperial Shuttle with the Emperor on it is a concern of course, but with Proton Torpedoes (or Plasma), it should not last long…  The remaining arc dodging Imperial Aces are still going to be a MAJOR PITA, but at least I’ll have a shot…  Picking up a second Jumpmaster-5000, so that will be a thing…

Plan is to paint them up a lot like my Rebel fleet in Armada, I am really liking the Crimson and Grey scheme… 

League starting the 10th, should be something relaxing before my major interview the 11th...  NOT holding out much hope for it frankly, but if it happens, it will be awesome, and a validation of a LOT of hard work I've been putting in over the last several years...  If not?  Well, at least I was a finalist for an Associate Director role, it has been a LONG time since I last had an interview, I did not get called for a number of jobs I was very likely qualified for, but this one is outside of the local politics...  We'll see I guess.

X-Wing Prep for the next League...

Have more than a week before the next event, this time at Titan for the first monthly league event there…  Not 100% sure what I’ll be flying, but I am looking pretty closely at:

ScoutCobraK (100)

Black Sun Ace — Kihraxz Fighter	23
Predator	3
Cluster Missiles	4
Glitterstim	2
Guidance Chips	0
Ship Total: 32
Talonbane Cobra — Kihraxz Fighter	28
Predator	3
Cloaking Device	2
Stygium Particle Accelerator	2
Ship Total: 35
Contracted Scout — JumpMaster 5000	25
Deadeye	1
Plasma Torpedoes	3
Extra Munitions	2
R4 Agromech	2
Guidance Chips	0
Ship Total: 33

So, the Kihraxz class fighters both get upgrades of a sort…  Talonbane gets the Cloaking Device and the Stygium Particle Accelerator…  The Accelerator was one I considered a dead card as it previously could only be used on the TIE Phantom with that being the ONLY ship with Cloak at all…  Now most of the S&V small based ships at least can get it…  Comes to 4 points for a potentially very fragile card…  But when it works?  Talonbane’s fighter was missing that extra action and the potential movement and survivability boost is going to be potentially great…  With my luck, probably 4 points for a single turn of cloak and thus an extra move…  But for that turn?  I could be looking at a 6 Green Dice Defense roll if I am being shot at in Range 3 with a Primary Weapon…  Oh, and an Evade.  Even against Secondary Weapons, I have 4 Dice and an Evade token.  Long term, luck always loses to skill, but this fighter is not meant for the long game…  Go fast, hit hard and hopefully win by being the only one left…  The BSA just gets the free Guidance Chips to turn a Dice to a Crit on the Missile Attack…  So, one shot like the missiles, but it IS free…  And firing after Cobra, hoping that the Crits go to the Hull…  Hell, even with it being the only ship firing, I should get Crits through….  Looking at hitting low Agility ships, but even TIEs cannot shed 3 hits twice in a turn often.

The Contracted Scout…  This replaces the Y-Wing for me…  Pretty direct replacement I think.  The Y-Wing has the better Turret with the TLT, but the JM has a far better dial…  With Deadeye/Torpedoes/R4 Agro/GC, I should have some really accurate Torpedoes…  Would love to have Proton rather than Plasma, but points are tight…  But even without that extra dice conversion, I have an added hit (ala “Breen Aide” from STAW), the R4 gives me a Target Lock when I spend the Focus to fire the Torpedo which should allow me to get some more hits via re-roll…  Might have to run it with Proton Torps and dropping the R4 Agro…  Does leave me 1 point for a Crew or Droid I guess…

League is running at Titan, trying to gauge the interest of another one running at the Gopher...  With the likely death of STAW/D&D AW, I will have a bit more gaming "free time" I guess...  We'll see..

Armored Gopher SC AAR

 Well, 20 players, so pretty darn good turnout, not to capacity as predicted from the sign ups, but still pretty crowded.  I wound up going 2-2…  My wins were huge, usually in 15 minutes or so of the 75 minutes for the round…  The losses?  Not so much so J  But still a lot quicker…  I played:

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

Now, knowing how the rules for the Docked Attack Shuttle work now, I would make a few changes…  But my plan was overall, bull rush in, hit them hard and fast and then hopefully coast to the win…

Played Allan first, he had a dual YV-666 build meant to fortress up in the corner by having one move the Red “0”, the second bumping but with “Wingman”, pull off the Stress.  Meant I had to come to him, and he kept the lane clear to do so…  I am not sure he was prepared for just how much firepower my list brings to bear, and with my dice rolling VERY well, I erased his blocker before it got a second shot off between Proton Torpedoes and the base 4 Attack from the Ghost…  And his second ship wound up taking the brunt of the Ghost on Turn 3 as he came out to pursue…  5 Dice Rear Arc shot to the face, followed by the now reloaded Proton Torpedo and then the Ghost’s Turret to finish it at the end of the turn…  Nothing much survives that, and certainly NOT a low Agility ship like the YV-666…

Game 2 was against Joel’s Super Dash and Ghost (the only other Ghost in the Tournament)…  NOT good for me with him winning initiative and thus seeing where I went before deciding on his stuff…  Dash with the HLC was able to do enough damage to the Y-Wing early that I didn’t have much a chance there…  Hurt his Ghost badly, but in the end, and not realizing that the Shuttle DOES drop out after the Ghost is destroyed…  Well, it was quick. 

Game 3 was against Jake…  TIE swarm with Crack Shot…  I lost, but I had him down to his last Ace, and I had it damaged…  The Ghost simply melts against so much firepower…  Mind, the Auto Blaster Turret and Accuracy Corrector was AMAZING here…  Killed a TIE a turn while I lived at least…  This was one of the Hard Counters I expected, and I actually did a lot better than I thought I would have… 

Game 4 was against someone not local…  He brought Bossk and Boba Fett in their YV-666 and Firespray-31’s…  Neat build and if I was NOT running the build specifically designed to deal loads of Damage quickly, I would have been in for a fight…  Unfortunately, he wound up pinging my Y-Wing and then the Ghost a bit before I destroyed both of his ships…  Quickly.  So 2-2 on the day, lessons learned and a few tweaks to be made…  Assuming I fly this list again of course…

The eventual winner was a S&V 4 x Y-Wing with TLT build…  Unfortunate, I know I could have taken that one, but… 

Have to say the weird Astromech I’d never tried before was actually the MVP for at least 3 of the games…  Damage Mitigation was HUGE, changing a 4 Damage hit into a 2 Damage and 2 Stress hit allowed me to get my Proton Torpedoes into play, and with the Guidance Chips, they are almost “Dominion” (from STAW) in their accuracy and power…  Every time I fired, I got at least 3 Hits/Crits, most of the time it was 4…  And going after the Ghost I was hitting Hull for the Crits…

Armored Gopher X-Wing SC and actual interviews!

So, have the Armored Gopher X-Wing Store Championship in a few hours…  And Wave 8 arrived just in time J …  So I’ll be going with the following:

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

Technically 3 ships, but in practice only 2.  The Ghost and Phantom will likely spend their time docked allowing for the second Turret shot and the rear arc on the base 4 Dice Primary…  The Y-Wing has the 2 shots with the Proton Torpedoes and the TLT to keep him annoying until he dies.  R4-D6 is just the “I had an extra point” and figured that might be amusing to stop big Damage from hitting.  I intend to play it hyper aggressively per usual, and with Hera’s ability to change her Dial on reveal combined with the Intel Agent and Nien Numb to get more Green on the dial should allow me to avoid a fair number of Swarm blockers and maybe put myself into a good position to mess up Aces…  For them I also have the guaranteed 4 Damage if I can get to Range 1 at least…  Figure I can even try for the maximum damage of 7 against other Large Based ships…  But in any case, I’ll be flying a pair of my favorite ships in an event that I’m just out to have fun in J  Already have the Range Ruler prize…  So if I do well, great, else I’ll get in a bunch of games with a mellow and fun group…  Assuming it stays true to form at the Gopher…  Tends to be a LOT more mellow there.  Not that the heavier competition is a BAD thing mind, just different mindset required.

On the job front…  Well, I apparently was wrong when I thought I was  applying for a job I was not perhaps qualified for…  I have an interview coming up…   Well, it’s next Month, so nothing immediate.  Not really getting my hopes up too much of course, but since this one involves the interview followed by a lunch meeting with the “Executive Director” types in the place I am interviewing…  Oh, and as part of their “would you like an interview?” mail they let me know the starting salary…  It is quite a bit higher than my current one, so it would be REALLY nice getting that of course…  Especially with my current level of frustration in the organization I am currently working.  OK, so that might not be completely true…  I am REALLY liking the recent change to “IT Director” in Psych…  THAT part is going well and that is definitely the direction I am wanting my career to continue.  Waiting on that to become official before commenting further J…  If it does, that being the major point of annoyance for me.  There are a few above me in the Org Chart who have voiced opposition to promoting ANYONE in the current organization, so I am suspecting that they might well derail a lot of folks career paths before a bunch of us actually leave.  With the budget impasse in the State, there has been almost no movement which has allowed behavior like that to continue without causing irreparable harm to the organization, but it might just be on the surface.  I KNOW several of the folks who left did so because of the above behavior, and the recent exit interviews have apparently been fairly negative.  I guess we’ll see if anything changes or if it goes on like this…  If that is the case, I suspect that the Budget clearing up will look like a dam bursting with a group of the younger IT Staff moving to new jobs elsewhere in the University…  Ideally of course I’ll be watching from my new position of Associate Director that other organization J…

Armada Fleet ready for tomorrow...

So, the ships themselves will at least be painted...

The Nebulon-B will NOT be joining the fight in my list, but was simple to paint up and as I have a few of them...

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…