X-Wing in Mattoon this weekend, and motorcycles?

Well, did the “retro” event with the Rey/Horton build…  First game got stomped by dice variance.  Would likely have still lost I think, but it would NOT have been the 0-100 pasting.  The Y-Wing died in a single round of shooting between a Harpoon Missile that hit for maximum damage then the TIE Defender, also hitting for 2 hits and a Critical…  Down to just the Falcon, and while it tried to do damage, my opponent had the hottest Dice I’ve ever seen, shrugging off the 4-5 Hits I can throw out and hitting back just as hard against my 1 Agility…  So, quick game and convinced me even more that the Y-Wing is just completely outclassed by the more modern ships.

Game 2, Bye..  Technically a “win”, but boring…  So watched a lot of the games…  Some interesting builds, but it was a LOT of TIE Defenders and Palpatine in a lot of the Imperial builds.  Guessing that I am in the minority thinking that the TIE/D’s are still pretty powerful and that the Emperor is still overpowered even after the nerf.

Game 3 put me back into the 1-1 tables against Chris flying an extremely odd 2 HWK and Y-wing list…  I ended up winning 100-0, but really it was a LOT closer than the score would have you believe.  First time Chopper actually did work for me.  Regenerated 4 Shields keeping the Y-Wing alive on 1 Hull (and the -1 Agility Critical) and the Falcon was at 7 Hull remaining JUST above the 50% mark with it being an odd number on the YT-1300’s…  Fun game, and the Sloop title did what it was supposed to. 

Down side, it convinced me that I will NOT be playing a Falcon during SC season.  Just not something I really enjoy flying.  I’ll probably give the Wookies another shot, but I suspect they’ll be in the same “Not Fun” category for me.

Up side, I got an awesome 3-D printed Proton Bomb that Stu made… 

Looking at a few odd test lists for Mattoon this weekend…  First one brings to mind the following quote:

KyloVynder "Bring me EVERTHING… (97)

Kylo Ren (TIE Silencer) — TIE Silencer	35
Push the Limit	3
Advanced Sensors	3
Advanced Optics	2
Autothrusters	2
First Order Vanguard	2
Ship Total: 47
Major Vynder — Alpha-class Star Wing	26
Push the Limit	3
Proton Torpedoes	4
Harpoon Missiles	4
Advanced Proton Torpedoes	6
Ion Pulse Missiles	3
Advanced SLAM	2
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout	2
Ship Total: 50

 

It has a ludicrous amount of Ordnance and could actually use the “Swiss Army Knife” approach for throwing whatever is the best for any given instance down range…  And since he can SLAM, Reload, PTL for a Focus/TL (assuming he did not use one that does not burn the Lock like Harpoon or Ion), if I can keep far enough away…  2 or 3 Turn followed by the SLAM of the same type does get me 180 degrees around and ready to fire again…  Silly, but Kylo is pretty good on his own and this Gunship just has the missiles to be a PITA for a lot of things…  Like a Ghost where I can really Ion Pulse it EVERY turn…  Doubt it will be something longer term, but looks fun.

Otherwise the Kylo/Whisper list I flew before is a LOT of fun…  Very “Ace” build with 2 things that would rather not be shot at…  Whisper still hits like a truck and when you DO shoot at her in my build, assuming I remember all of the triggers, you gain a Stress for declaring her a target (turning off Expertise immediately), I can change a Hit to a Focus which cannot be re-rolled and then I SHOULD have 4+ Agility if my Cloak is up…  Fun at least, and not really in any way overpowered…

Otherwise might go with a S&V build:

FennThweekBumpmaster (97)

Fenn Rau — Protectorate Starfighter	28
Push the Limit	3
Autothrusters	2
Concord Dawn Protector	1
Ship Total: 34
Thweek — StarViper	28
Advanced Sensors	3
Inertial Dampeners	1
Autothrusters	2
StarViper Mk. II	-3
Virago	1
Ship Total: 32
Contracted Scout — JumpMaster 5000	25
Snap Shot	2
Intelligence Agent	1
Rigged Cargo Chute	1
Ion Projector	2
Ship Total: 31

Interesting build I think…  The Bumpmaster is pretty solid, and anything that gets multiple shots in a turn is far better than its points would lead you to believe.  The Viper is a decent Arc Dodger and Fenn is…  Well, Fenn.  Solid, if extremely fragile.  So, I have to be aggressive and agile to do well with this list. 

MUCH more my speed than the Falcon builds.  Still have the Wookies and the Firestorm ready to go…  Both seem like they have extremely good match-ups and could well get me to a cut, but neither I think will win any of the larger SCs…

Otherwise?  Have an interview tomorrow…  Not likely to take it even if I get an offer, but looking at it as good practice.  Guess that is where I am with my job search, practice and hone the interview skills since that is where I failed the last few times.  Go slow, get it right next time.

Bike is running well, just the weather has been crazy…  Got in a great ride Saturday and then Sunday it snowed again…  Will likely be 70 by Thursday, so JUST a bit odd…  Have the application to join the “Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association”, filling that out now that I have a working bike I am confident I can ride distances on…  JUST a bit different than the  Tres Hombres I ran with in the old days, especially since there is an application and it states several times “We are NOT a Motorcycle Club”…  With the Hombres it was a bit different J…  The old days were interesting at least, or so I am told…

X-Wing the next 2 weeks...

Looking like I’ll have a few X-Wing events coming up in the next few weeks.  This weekend is at Titan here in Champaign, and is the “Back to Basics” event: https://www.facebook.com/events/152085798844972/

Then another League starts in Mattoon the next week…

Looking like I will NOT run the triple Star Viper list again.  I was really disappointed how poorly that one performed.  Well, to be fair how poorly I performed WITH that list.  It is not really in my nature to avoid a conflict, so with that list requiring a lot more dancing around than actually getting in and shooting things I think it is not a list for me.

So, either the BAY list or the Rey/Horton one…  Though Tony did point out that my Firesprays list from last year would actually still be legal…  Dammit J… So, thinking about that one, have a fair bit of experience with it…  It is “OK”, certainly nothing really OP.  BAY is “fun”, Rey/Horton is somewhat more competitive…  The REAL list would be Rey/Lowrick or Miranda (or Poe I suppose). 

The REAL version of the Rey list is one reason I do think that my Firestorm list will be viable for SC season…  I think that it just dies to the FS if I fly it correctly.  I have the higher PS, can adjust to get in or out of Arc as needed, at least a little with the Barrel Roll.  Throwing the Proton Bombs and following up with the Harpoon Missile and automagic Critical from the Mangler should erase a K-Wing on the approach.  Only cripples the YT-1300 most likely, but leaving the Falcon with no Shields and 4-5 Hull remaining from the first exchange should work out well for me.  Imp Aces is probably a 70/30 or 60/40 split…  A LOT depends on whether they have seen what my list can do and correctly react to it.  Not many will, this list gets dismissed as a “meme” list and so few will play it or even bother to try and figure out what to do against it.  RACLo builds are probably the mirror of that with me looking at the 30/70 split I think.  I CAN beat it, but it will take luck.  Since I KNOW Tyler Tippet will be at several of my SC runs, I am likely to run into at least one run by someone who knows VERY well how to run it…  Tilting my odds to “even worse than that”…  OTOH, I always have good games against Tyler and Will, so…  At least I’ll have fun dying…

Other builds I am looking at: 

Control Brobots…  Solid, but another one that is both exhausting to play and not entirely my style…  Have to be willing to run, snipe in at range and avoid a lot of combat until you have worn them down completely.  The old SFB “Klingon Saber Dance”.  So, a solid one I have painted up and ready, but…

“A Wookie Mistake” is my 3 Gunship build…  Expertise and Tactician on all three.  Courier Droids on the PS 3 generics and Lowrick gets Rey to build up Focus…  Solid build…  Another “Gatekeeper” build though I suspect.  There will be some lists that this is a hard counter to, some it is a good match and a few REALLY bad ones.  But easier to fly over the long day…

S&V “Aces”…  Fenn Rau, Kulda and ?  Likely a Kihraxz of some sort…  So, 3 higher PS ships that hit hard and likely have a few tricks.  Third ship could be a Bumpmaster, that is a solid build.  Likely to be a “Gatekeeper” build as the Birmingham Barons I their Episode 41 (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/bhambaronsxwing/episodes/2018-03-28T08_04_29-07_00) put it…  I THINK I could do well enough to stay in the top half certainly and maybe even be close to a cut…  Not likely at all to win though.

Other than that?  A few 4 Ship builds for pretty much all 3 Factions…  Kind of wanting to avoid the “OP” Rebel combos…  Well, until towards the end and then I switch to “Try Hard” mode like last year. 

We got one preview so far for the next wave, but nothing else.  Waiting on FAQ and the next wave to hit at this point.  We are in a decent place I think, but there is a VERY clear line between the “Top Tier” lists and the rest.  I think there are maybe 5-6 top tier lists at this point.  A number of other ones that are close, so tier 2…  I put the Firestorm in there, so “Gatekeepers”.  And then there are a bunch that are essentially unplayable.  Well, playable, but no realistic chance of winning.  This would be why I think they absolutely need to change to keep the game healthy.  Too many things that make unhealthy combos that break the game.  Just my opinion of course, so YMMV….

Picking up the base set for Legion…  Turns out I had some gift certificates, etc. to spend, so…  Will see, but even if it flops, I should have some decent shelf minis…

X-Wing at Mattoon this weekend...

Anyway, back to X-Wing it seems.  Played “Tanks” this weekend.  Beer & Pretzels WWII tank combat.  Fairly simple game, but fun.  The German Puma was actually pretty darn solid for me.  I was surprised, but then I did a fair bit of the whole Armored Cav thing in the old days, so am fairly familiar with how that works.  So perhaps a few more to hit the tables for me.  and motivating me to get my American M-3's built...  

Looking like I’m playing either my BAY list or a Rey/(Y-Wing or B-Wing) list in Mattoon.  Not so much that I am going easy, but I think I need to practice with these things:

ReySalm2 (99)

Rey — YT-1300	45
Expertise	4
Finn	5
Kanan Jarrus	3
Engine Upgrade	4
Millennium Falcon (TFA)	1
Ship Total: 62
Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
Extra Munitions	2
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Thermal Detonators	3
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 37

Now this one is amusing…  Horton on the Y-Wing can chuck a BUNCH of the upgrades through Chopper to regenerate Shields.  The wording on the Extra Munitions card adds an EM token to every bomb, missile and torpedo upgrade.  Combine that with the fact that the EM card and Bomb Loadout both would then technically gain tokens that could be discarded to add Shields.  So, more shields than I should ever be able to regenerate during a normal game at least.  Rey's ship I have 2 basic builds...  Kanan or C3-P0 and the new vs. the old title.  C3-P0/old title is a tanky build that can realistically just completely evade a HLC or Harpoon Missile.  The Kanan/TFA title is maneuverable and I think more fun...  So, likely what I'll play here.

Other potential build is the BAY build:

BAY (100)

Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 32
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Veteran Instincts	1
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 28
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Collision Detector	0
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Operations Specialist	3
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 40

This one is a LOT more fun...  The A-Wing is slippery, but still just a 2 Dice Attack.  Ten Numb is amusing and Horton is pretty solid...  Just dies against a higher end "Meta" list, but fun to fly and another contender for the Titan event with the wave restrictions...  This or the Star Viper list with three of the bastards...

Next X-Wing list testing and "stuff"

So, on to a more “friendly” build for Mattoon and next Month at Titan I think…  J  Seems like I go through cycles of playing silly “because I feel like it” lists that have no real chance of taking an event then come back to the hard corp power list to remind myself that I am actually pretty good at the game...  In any case the “Firestorm” list has been called a “meme” list…  Amusing, but I can throw out a LOT of damage against someone not prepared for it…  So, one I will look at flying again in the Store Championship season.

On to the next list:

BAY (100)

Horton Salm — Y-Wing	25
Twin Laser Turret	6
Bomb Loadout	0
"Chopper" (Astromech)	1
Guidance Chips	0
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 32
Jake Farrell — A-Wing	24
Push the Limit	3
Chardaan Refit	-2
Veteran Instincts	1
Autothrusters	2
A-Wing Test Pilot	0
Ship Total: 28
Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Operations Specialist	3
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 40

So “BAY”, at least in the firing order, so might be what I call it.  Ten Numb was actually pretty solid, especially against the stupid high Defenses I am seeing these days…  4 Agility, Palp and an Evade Token?  Whatever, take a Critical.  Jake is slippery and with the possibility of setting up for Arc Dodging and such when he gets assigned a Focus…  Just have to NOT be Stressed when it happens I guess.  But still, move fast, dodge Arcs and try to throw in a Damage or two on the way…  Horton is…  Different.  Set up to Joust the first run through.  Ideally, Range 2-3 so I get Rerolls.  Then as I take Damage, I can shed upgrades to get Shields back.  The BTL-A4 upgrade locking my Turret to the Front Arc being likely the first to go so I can move him to a TLT carrier mid to late game.  But the Y-Wing can actually throw out a bit of Damage in the BTL configuration…  So, I dare them to shoot me and let me release the TLT.  Still, it is just a Y-Wing at the end of the day, and so another Agility 1 ship that has a “less than good” dial.

But the list is looking like fun.  The Firesprays I flew last SC season were fun too, but woefully underpowered.  Same thing here I suspect, but not gunning for the top spot anymore, proved my point last time…

X-Wing podcasts this week are pretty much all "battle reports" for the Regionals, etc. they are playing in.  So, pretty boring frankly as I have seen a number of the games on streams and I frankly have little interest in hearing about a play by play of the event.  Disappointed that there were people giving the Krayts a hard time about their "Player 4" cast.  I thought it was excellent work, a lot of higher level game theory and math going into it and kept my interest all the way through, and I go back to reference it still...  Guess I just do not understand some people, and that is fine.

Work is a lot of Security changes coming...  Getting good at presenting the case, but really sort of getting tired of having to repeat the answers to "Why can't I just keep doing things the way I am used to?"...  A lot of the Faculty are brilliant...  In their fields.  But experience dealing with teenage children has come in quite nicely, as has my extreme patience and ability to (appear) remain completely calm no matter what is going on around me is serving me quite well.  Still in the active job search mode, met with a "Recruiter" for a bit and I guess we'll see what comes of that.  In the old days, we called them Headhunters and they got me a number of good jobs.  I am of course going to be a LOT more selective these days, and would prefer to remain at the University, but am not seeing anything opening nor am I hearing anything on the ones I have applied for.  Good and bad, per usual...  No "Thanks for playing" mail, but nothing at all after a few Months...  So, work on my Resume and practice interviewing again.  We'll see I suppose.

Was going to take tomorrow (Friday) off, but am required to come in…  Guess early next week I stay home to deal with some home repair issues and just “not be in the office” for a bit.  Want to work on my motorcycle, the garage lights and the basement drainage issues…  So, will be busy at least, and the bike being the only thing I WANT to be working on of course, but needs being what they are…

X-Wing, Titan League 1, 2018 AAR

So, AAR for the Titan League event…  I did “poorly” the last time I showed up, so I started at the bottom tables… 

Played my Dash/Poe list against Stuart’s 2 TIE Defender and TIE Striker list…  Was a pretty good game, but even the TIE Defender melts against the 4 Dice Attacks…  Helped that he rolled 0 Evades on the 2 Attacks that melted him, but…  Took a bit more to deal with the other ships, but a 100-26 win since he was able to strip the Shields off of the YT-2400…

Game 2 was against Allan’s RAC (with the Emperor)/Whisper list…  My Firestorm Special is pretty much a hard counter to the Ace builds though…  Lined up against the Decimator and did the “Pile Damage in for the Win” move…  Had to bank, so not able to just bomb him, but the Harpoon Missile for 4 stripped the shields for Ten Numb to throw in a hit and a Crit…  The Weapons Malfunction Crit made the return fire less effective.  Whisper had to bug out, or she would have just died…  By the next turn I dropped a bomb where the Decimator would most likely go, but held it in place because Allan did something unexpected and went the other direction…  Failed to clear the Crit, and forgot that Nym had TLTs…  So he conceded.  Ten Numb shot Whisper for the unavoidable Critical and 2 more into the Decimator from the TLT showed pretty well that the game would be over in another turn or two in any case with the hard counter doing what hard counters do…  I assumed he had Kylo Ren on the Decimator, THAT would have made this a MUCH harder fight, but since we were both PS 10 and I had Imitative I would shoot first…  Would have been the same result in this case since he would not have stopped me from firing my Missile and then just being able to bomb him out of the game…

Game 3 was against Tim’s Imp Ace list…  Inquisitor, Quickdraw and the Palp Shuttle… Played against Tony’s build during practice last week, so knew pretty well how to deal with it and it was another 70/30 split I think…  Killed Quickdraw, leaving a Shield on the ship with the thrown Proton Bomb hitting for 2 Hull and then the Harpooned Condition doing a Face Down card when it went off…  His revenge shot sucked, removed all of Nym’s shields between the two shots, but it did what needed to be done…  Ten Numb was in trouble and lost shields quickly to the Inquisitor…  With Palpatine backing the Inquisitor, it is almost impossible to NORMALLY punch a Damage through, but Ten Numb was doing his thing…  And the Protons had about a 40% chance to just kill the ship…  So he had to be VERY careful approaching.   Holding a Proton bomb to block an approach meant that the Shuttle ate that and died soon after as I was able to dodge arcs and just throw damage onto that ship at will...  The TIE Adv Prototype was a LOT harder to catch, but after the Shuttle was gone, without Palpatine to give Evades...  He had to be careful of the TLT on CPT Nym...  So, while he was avoiding Ten Numb and keeping inside of the Range 1 bubble on Nym, he failed to account for the Thermal Detonators I could drop...  Double Stressed Inquisitor is a LOT easier to catch for the last Damage...

Kind of the secret I think to the list, so many “No Fly” zones and tricks that I can put in there to deal with pretty much anything on the other side of the table…  So, successful list.  And now on to something else I think…  Might bring this back out during SC season as this is exactly suited to my play style… 

So, Store Credit and a neat card or two...  More interested in the Alt Art stuff, and getting an Alt Art Guri was neat...  Will probably see the table in Mattoon and maybe next Month at Titan...

X-Wing, Hanger Bay at Titan this weekend...

Well, got in some practice games with the “Firestorm Special”:

Firestorm Special (99)

Ten Numb — B-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
Trajectory Simulator	1
"Mangler" Cannon	4
Extra Munitions	2
Sabine Wren	2
Proton Bombs	5
B-Wing/E2	1
Ship Total: 47
Captain Nym (Rebel) — Scurrg H-6 Bomber	30
Veteran Instincts	1
Twin Laser Turret	6
Extra Munitions	2
Harpoon Missiles	4
Thermal Detonators	3
Proton Bombs	5
Trajectory Simulator	1
"Genius"	0
Long-Range Scanners	0
Havoc	0
Ship Total: 52

Mkay, this build is brutal…  I honestly did not expect it to be as good as it is.  I think it is almost a hard counter to an Ace build, specifically an Imperial Ace build…  The Proton Bombs doing the Critical under the Shields (if any) means that the 2 Hull ships like the Inquisitor or Whisper have about a 40% chance to just die in the Movement phase.  And Nym especially has SO many options for his bombs… 5 forward, 1 out the back or 1 out the back AFTER you move…  Note, you WILL be hit (most likely) by the bomb you drop after movement, but that is something I am willing to do.  Or I can hold a Bomb in place…  This area denial is pretty key.  Assuming you CAN hit with the Harpoon, Ten Numb with his un-blockable Critical to set the Harpooned Condition off…  Seems like a decent way to deal with lower Agility things, but it also does a number on the Aces…  Assuming of course the initial Harpoon actually hits.  Pro tip, the Inquisitor backed by the Emperor CAN just completely dodge a 4 Hit Missile pretty regularly, so likely NOT the one you want to target if you HAVE a choice…  I think anything else might well just be in trouble.  Quickdraw melted nicely and quickly, I suspect Vader and Poe would go even quicker…  

Still, a 2 ship list with both of them being 1 Agility…  Is a race to do Damage, and a list like Tyler Tippett’s RACLo list would likely be…  Difficult.  Still, guessing it will be a race with the sheer amount of damage I can throw out quickly…  Maybe.  He can simply Blind one of my ships (Nym likely) then not worry about the Harpoon…  But fortunately, no one locally flies that build…  Let me rephrase, no one locally flies it nearly so well as he does.

Other build?  Dash/Poe or the Control Brobots I think…  The IG-88’s are just annoying as Hell and while tough to fly…  They have some interesting matchups and since I CAN Token Stack on the 3 Agility Autothruster ship…  They are surprisingly tough to hit…

Long weekend...

So, got word that 2 people I knew in the ancient times passed over the last few days…  One was a guy I haven’t seen since we graduated High School together.  He had a party after, we had a few beers and chatted briefly, but never did see him again after that as I came down here to school then was off playing Army.  Never went back to Plainfield after that.  But he was a good guy. 

The other was someone I met while I was off playing Army.  He was from a country in Africa that no longer exists.  He taught me a fair bit about how to do things in the Field as a Light Infantryman/(insert term here)…  He was Rhodesian SAS and was probably one of the most dangerous individuals I have ever met.  To this day, I carry my rifle the same way he taught me to…  Looks kind of odd, but slung with the barrel down.  Slide your right hand along the stock and bring the weapon up and into action.  Hell of a lot faster than most people actually realize it is even possible.  That and he showed me a LOT about field craft.  Yes, I was a Boy Scout and camped a lot as a kid, but I was still a city kid.  Even today I can easily navigate anywhere in the world and probably survive.  There were some REALLY nasty tricks he showed me and I got to hear a lot of stories.  Not mine to tell, so they die with him, but with that perspective I know that even the shitshow my second tour turned into…  Frankly it was not all that bad.  This one always reminded me of him:

Playing a “Hanger Bay” event next weekend, so need to get some more practice games in…  Played one and promptly flew my Super Dash right off the bloody board.  Need to actually get used to that again and NOT fly close to the edge.  “Wookie Mistake” is ready to go, have a few proxy cards printed up to fill it out, nothing really major, just not wanting to buy another U-wing for a third Expertise or another Rebel Shuttle for another Courier Droid…

Other than that, building 15mm tanks…  StuGs and PZKfW IV and VI’s…  Last one is of course the Tiger.  Dunkel Gelb base coat on and getting ready to get the camo paint on them…  Interesting painting them up, taking a break from the American tanks I am building, and since I have a Btty of M-7 Priests ready to build…  Loads of Shermans, a few M-3 Stuarts to be Cav Scouts for me…