Tournament Results for the Titan event 20 October, no commentary

So, just a quick post for the event we had on Sunday (20 October) to have it in a “nice” format for folks to review if they’d like…

Tony:

(39) Chertek [Nantex-class Starfighter]
(10) Ensnare
Points: 49

(44) General Grievous [Belbullab-22 Starfighter]
(4) Impervium Plating
(6) Outmaneuver
(6) Soulless One
Points: 60

(30) DBS-404 [Hyena-class Droid Bomber]
(1) Landing Struts
(6) Afterburners
(6) Adv. Proton Torpedoes
Points: 43

(38) Petranaki Arena Ace [Nantex-class Starfighter]
(10) Ensnare
Points: 48

Total points: 200

Chris:

              Anakin, 7B

              Obi-Wan, 7B

              Plo Koon, 7B

              196

Paul:

Boba Krassis (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Ion Cannon	5
IG-88D	3
Ship Total: 84
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

Patrick:

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]ARC-170 Starfighter - •“Sinker” - 54[/b]
•“Sinker” - [i]Wolfpack Veteran[/i] (54)

[b]BTL-B Y-wing - Shadow Squadron Veteran - 48[/b]
Shadow Squadron Veteran - [i][/i] (35)
Dorsal Turret (3)
R4 Astromech (2)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

[b]Total: 198/200
[/b]
[url="https://squadbuilder.fantasyflightgames.com/.../c07ed652..."]View in the X-Wing Squad Builder[/url]

Brody ran:

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Ship total: 77 Half Points: 39 Threshold: 3

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Ship total: 69 Half Points: 35 Threshold: 3

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)

Ship total: 46 Half Points: 23 Threshold: 3

Total: 192

Round 1

1: Chris Wilson VS Chad Billman - Match Results: Chad Billman is the winner 119 to 132

2: Tony Hillen VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Tony Hillen is the winner 200 to 109

3: Paul Chappell VS Patrick Shaw - Match Results: Paul Chappell is the winner 200 to 58

Round 2

1: Chad Billman VS Tony Hillen - Match Results: Chad Billman is the winner 200 to 145

2: Paul Chappell VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Brody Walworth is the winner 35 to 84

3: Patrick Shaw VS Chris Wilson - Match Results: Patrick Shaw is the winner 200 to 72

Round 3

1: Chad Billman VS Brody Walworth - Match Results: Brody Walworth is the winner 0 to 200

2: Tony Hillen VS Patrick Shaw - Match Results: Patrick Shaw is the winner 123 to 200

3: Paul Chappell VS Chris Wilson - Match Results: Paul Chappell is the winner 200 to 142

Rankings

Rank	Name	Faction	Score	MoV	SoS
1	Brody Walworth		2	758	0.56
2	Paul Chappell	SCUM	2	751	0.44
3	Patrick Shaw		2	663	0.33
4	Chad Billman		2	468	0.33
5	Tony Hillen		1	559	0.67
6	Chris Wilson		0	401	0.67

So, a quick and fairly casual event to get things started back up, hopefully this is the beginning of an upward trend to get folks back out playing more regularly :-)

Springfield Finals and this weekend's X-Wing event...

So, played in the Hyperspace in Springfield…  Day one was in the previous post and so I made the cut for Day 2…  Got paired up against an excellent player out of the Chicago area, he did the video editing for Gold Squadron’s YouTube streams, so he recognized my name J…  He had Fenn, Fett and Sevor in his list.  Fairly even match, but I played more aggressively and was able to dodge the TIE’s Arc and drop a Proximity Mine on it to kill him the following turn before he could Activate.  His other ships took a bit longer, but IIRC the Snap Shot was brutal again and I found myself wishing I had the Ion Cannon in place of the Auto-Blaster here…  With Krassis and his ability to re-roll and fire out of both Arcs it is the better choice overall I think.  I wound up getting the win decisively, though I think he halved Krassis…  I think, nothing was posted and I was mostly just shocked to be there and making it to top 8…  So, won the Range Ruler and Dice for making Day 2 and Top 4 secured the Templates…  Neat, but I do prefer my Curled Paw ones honestly…  Green and with the Jedi symbol on it, so definitely mine…

Top 4 game was against Patrick out of Peoria (I think?  We play a LOT in these semi local events, fun opponent and great player)…  He had Vader and 3 Inquisitors with Foresight….  ROUGH list.  Sadly, Krassis died to a critical cascade with Hull Breach and direct hits piling in a LOT of damage.  I was counting on even if it went badly I would have had him one more round to finish off Vader and likely another Inquisitor…  Even with that, I ALMOST caught him, it came down to the Range 3 shot into Vader who was without mods to get him to half and me the win…  No J… The 3 Agility did not betray him or they betrayed me, depending on your perspective I suppose…

So, on to the event this weekend…  Extended so I will change my list a little:

Boba Krassis (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Ion Cannon	5
IG-88D	3
Ship Total: 84
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

No major changes, Ion in place of the Auto Blaster and IG-88D as the Crew there for the double Calculate action.  Snap is solid here…  Only minor debate is swapping the Stealth Device off of Boba to put Proximity Mines on Krassis perhaps…  Maybe, but when my luck holds with the Stealth, that ship is just immune to Damage for far longer than most people are prepared for…  Still, a fun list and nothing that should cause people to rage quit I hope… 

The Nantex OTOH….  Watching the Worlds streaming and seeing a LOT of them.  And a LOT of CIS swarms.  Both absolutely solid things and for the MOST part my Firesprays do well against them.  Just outright ignoring the Tractor silliness…

Springfield, Day 1

Spoiler, I made the cut...  No streams, but the event is up on the Tabletop.to... 

I ran:

Boba Krassis 2 (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Jamming Beam	0
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Autoblasters	2
Qi’ra	2
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 83
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

Turns out that the Swarms and Aces REALLY do not like seeing this list…  Also turns out that the Jedi are really a hard counter to this list J…  At least the way I played it…  Since I am almost certain to run into Jedi Sunday in the cut, I will have to adjust how I set up and play the game…  In any case, I finally won Regionals Dice J… 

Game one was against Republic Beef, Mark Tippet ran 3 ARCs and 2 Y-Wings...  It did not go well for the Republic.  Bombs and Snap Shot were rough and Boba was amazing...  Did lose shields on him, but cleared the Beef...  Eventually.  It was a great game to start the event against a great player to play against and us old folks have to stick together :-)...

Game 2 was against a Vader/Steele/TIE Reaper list...  Turns out, Aces HATE Snap Shot and Bombs...  Vader took 2 from Snap and then a Hit/Crit from a Proximity Mine...  Died the next turn...  Steele was the same thing, more or less...  4 Dice shot from the Auto Blaster finished him off...  The Reaper died early because it was the easier target...

3-4 were against Jedi lists...  :-)  And that was where I stumbled and JUST barely made the cut...

Last day before the Springfield HS...

Coming up on the crunch time it seems…  Thursday now and I leave for Springfield early Friday morning after I get in my run I hope…  Weather dependent I suppose.  That DID kill the potential to ride the ancient motorcycle over there…  I do have the correct cruiser type to hit the Interstate and just roll on as it is I-72 which while technically an “Interstate” highway seems to only go between Champaign, IL and Springfield, IL…  If this were not Illinois one might wonder how that happened, but as it IS Illinois one could make educated guesses I suppose J… 

Submitted my list and so the die is cast it seems...  Finally decided to fly:

Boba Krassis 2 (199)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Jamming Beam	0
Maul	12
Proximity Mines	6
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 116
Half Points: 58 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Autoblasters	2
Qi’ra	2
Seismic Charges	3
Ship Total: 83
Half Points: 42 Threshold: 5

On reflection while I am NOT 100% sure I will face a Nantex, it is a concern...  And I think this list matches well there and against Swarms in general...  Aces will be a PITA, but Snap Shot should make a difference...  Will see I suppose

So, Firesprays it is for Springfield next week?

So, getting a very few games…  With the release of the Nantex I have to admit it pushed me to the edge where I do not believe that my Jedi list will do nearly so well at the Hyperspace event.  Boba Fett is a wrecking ball and surprisingly difficult to kill while he DOES a lot of damage…  Krassis is sneaky good.  The Snap Shot out both Arcs is huge.  I have run him with Qi’ra crew to lock onto a big obstacle and ignore it while moving and shooting.  Ideally it will be a big rock or Debris cloud to gain all of the advantages while shooting back at incoming enemy ships.  Snap fired 4-5 times actually doing a fair bit of damage for me and the Seismic Charges did a bit more and discouraged pursuit…  As a former “demo” guy I am quite familiar with that at least…  The Nantex or at least Sun is super scary for my Ace type list.  Yes, I can “just play better” and maybe avoid getting killed trivially by it, but enough people have figured out how to play against my Republic Ace list by now and Sun is just the final nail I think in that coffin.  At the end of the day, I have A-Wings (or an X-Wing if I use the 7B variant) and they will just die eventually.  Obi-Wan is incredibly difficult to block (or keep me from blocking) in his current configuration (CLT, Sense and R2-A6 to change the dial if needed)…  Fun, and probably on the broken good side.  But at the end of the day he is still just an A-Wing and even his Force and Luck will eventually run out. 

So, back to my Dual Firesprays it seems.  2 Ships and not a WHOLE lot of thought required as I am not really going to be trying to anticipate Arc Dodges or desperately trying to do so myself…  Big, heavy ships that I am going to be pointing at the enemy and running at them…  NOT a line up and Joust list, so I will be flanking, overrunning their positions and firing out the Rear Arc (and leaving a Bomb/Mine as a special gift on the way out).  Krassis getting the extra shots and having the Autoblaster to have the Ace killing threat if I can ignore their Evades is amusing and potentially something that can keep him alive in the end game. 
Borrowing the AB from a buddy here as I have no Resistance stuff for 2nd edition…  The down side of the new stuff only coming out in specific Ship packs for the moment is a thing…  Yes, the card packs that are coming “soon” will alleviate this in the longer run but of course this does nothing for the “right now”.  Overall I am still quite happy with 2nd edition…  The recent Tractor stuff is a fairly big negative, but nothing that is unbeatable.

Legion stuff coming along as well, I have a decent 500/800 point list set up I think for the next event locally…  500 point, and just straight kill units to score points…  Not a whole lot of strategy there and now that I actually have a basic understanding of the rules I suspect that I will do fairly well…  Things like knowing that Jedi like Luke can do the Evade action to allow the “Push” (Focus result in this game) to not only convert to a Dodge, but also cause an automatic wound to the shooting Unit…  Would have been brutal in my first Event as he did end up getting shot down eventually…  Had he the extra Dodges and ability to cause damage to the Attacking Unit?  Well, still PROBABLY would have died when he did, just would have taken a lot more of them with him…  And figuring out the ranking of the Dice colors (White -> Black -> Red) with the Red dice being SO much better than anything?  Well, the Heavy Weapon choices for my Gropos units has certainly changed from the Rotary Blaster to the Ion…  Honestly not even sure what the Ion effect does to Vehicles.  Just knowing that 2 Red 8 sided Dice are far better than 6 White 8 sided Dice :-) …

Job hunt continues, I am taking ITIL certification training to get that merit badge for my resume as well…  Unfortunately everything in Education seems to move at the speed of “Committee” and so it definitely takes a LOT longer than one might expect in the real world.  Even dug up my CS diploma and supporting documentation :-)  Amazing what you find from the ancient times.  I had honestly thought these things lost in the old house on Clark Street here or the other place I lived during that time frame…  But no, scanned in and now have the Transcripts ready should they become relevant for any of the positions I have or will apply for…  “Neat”, but as my old Platoon SGT would have said: “That and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee”…  So, nothing really THAT important, I think my experience and track record is far more important, but I suppose having the piece of paper saying “I did things” is good as well…

Legion and X-Wing for the Springfield HS event...

So, got in a few games of Star Wars Legion over the weekend and I have to say I am impressed by the system so far…  Quick, simple and a fair bit of fun to play.  Turns out the Jedi are absolute wrecking balls…  Or at least Luke Skywalker with the Rebels is.  Turns out I did not know some of the rules and he would have been far better than he played out as with the ability to redirect shots back at those shooting at him.  Fast and the Charge ability is quite powerful with his Lightsaber.  Even missing out on those defensive abilities he murdered a LOT of things in the 2 games I won.  One was somewhat thematic with him taking down the Imperial Walker singlehandedly…  So, back to painting the lads up.  Have one of the AT-RT walkers magnetized so that I can swap out the weapon loadout, need to get the second one set up.  Those were amazingly good.  The Infantry rotary blaster on the other hand?  Meh.  Yes, it IS a 6 Dice shot, but turns out the White 8 siders are probably the worst WRT hit percentage.  The Walker (AT-RT) has the same weapon, but it fires the 6 Black Dice which makes its output better than a full squad of the basic Riflemen (they also fire a single Black 8 sider, but 1 each and max of 5 in a Squad)…  Glad the initial event was a low point value one…  While I COULD field an 800 point force, it would be a stretch and having no clue the actual game rules before hand (well, a LITTLE bit, I read the rule book, just had never played) I would have made some truly poor choices on Army Building…  Well, MORE poor choices.  I had 3 basic Squads of Rebels maxed out with the Rotary Blaster in each Squad.  I think I would have been better off with the Ion or even just another basic Rifleman (though not an option)…  I have the Speeder painted up, just need to put a magnet on the Flight Stand to have that fully ready…  Ordered a second set of the Dice as FFG sends ~ half the Dice needed in a game with the Starter set.  Should do for the near term.  Republic and Separatists are coming out (some were released at Gen Con), so there will be 4 Factions.  While I like the Jedi, I really have no interest in the Clones.  Especially as I know how that story turns out and I have…  Issues with the whole fanatically loyal troops suddenly turning on and betraying their allies… 

For X-Wing?  Well, have the 2 basic lists built I think…  My Jedi:

Anakin Obi-Wan Ric 4 (194)

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Delta-7 Aethersprite	47
Sense	5
R2-A6	6
Calibrated Laser Targeting	4
Ship Total: 62
Half Points: 31 Threshold: 2
Anakin Skywalker — Delta-7 Aethersprite	62
Brilliant Evasion	3
C1-10P	7
Calibrated Laser Targeting	5
Ship Total: 77
Half Points: 39 Threshold: 2
Ric Olié — Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter	42
Juke	7
Fire-Control System	2
R2 Astromech	4
Ship Total: 55
Half Points: 28 Threshold: 3

With the Jedi it is a variation on the standard “Jedi + Ric” list I’ve been flying for a bit…  Anakin drops down to the CLT and Chopper…  Or I just keep an R2 in there and take the Shields back when he does get damaged…  3 Agility and Brilliant Evasion should keep him alive longer, am slightly concerned that the loss of the 3rd Attack Dice will be a killer…  Though with CLT, it does even out if I get a Bullseye shot off.  Ric with Juke and FCS just hits HARD…  Completely ignoring one Evade if they have no Focus, FCS for a re-roll, the Evade is free to activate Juke…  Yes, predictable in general, but OK…  I run and gun, hitting WAY harder than they have come to expect from the version of Ric being played elsewhere.  Fun and completely my style…

And my Firesprays:

Boba Krassis 1 (200)

Boba Fett — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	85
Lone Wolf	5
Jamming Beam	0
Perceptive Copilot	8
Proximity Mines	6
Deadman’s Switch	2
Stealth Device	6
Slave I	2
Ship Total: 114
Half Points: 57 Threshold: 5
Krassis Trelix — Firespray-class Patrol Craft	68
Snap Shot	8
Autoblasters	2
Qi’ra	2
Proximity Mines	6
Ship Total: 86
Half Points: 43 Threshold: 5

This one I am far less sure on.  It might be the thing I field next Month at the local kit event.  And still working on the last few points here and there…  Mostly just the current version of what I flew toward the end of v1…  Krassis is amusing with Snap and Autoblasters being able to fire out of BOTH Arcs making approaching him an issue for anything fragile…  Medium Bases so less concern about the silliness of Tractor Beams.  Fett is still a wrecking ball…