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…

Armada Store Championships next Week,,,

So, sick most of the week…  Still recovering.  Actually missed a few days of work which does not happen often…  But gave me time to think while I was awake of course…

Running into some issues with several Intel wireless cards on Windows 10…  Have my brand new one back with Dell to have them look it over.  Great machine otherwise, but without wireless working correctly, well…  So, we’ll see how this shakes out, but seeing more of them hitting and since I’m typing on a backup machine with the same issue…  Well, maybe a driver update will deal with it…

Got into a discussion about open carry vs concealed carry…  I’m generally OK with either, but honestly if you see me walking down the street with a rifle best perhaps to take cover because if it has not already hit the fan, it is about to.  I’m not one to pull a weapon of make a threat until I am already acting to deal with the threat.  So, were I to carry legally of course I would do so concealed.  Mind, if I am EXPECTING trouble, I load for bear and use a rifle not a pistol…  But I have never understood the desire to carry an AR into a restaurant…   Carried the M-16/203 for years, so I might have burned out on that “carry a rifle” in public thing…

Gearing up for the Store Championship next Saturday at the Gopher...  Have a few tweaks to my list I think...  Tempting to fly something completely different, but this list gets me wins, so...  Nothing special, really just a 3 ship list with fewer upgrades than I like and some YT-2400s to play linebackers for the MC-80 and Assault Frigate to do the heavy hitting...  The Corvette is actually a real threat as well, i have taken down Gladiators and Raiders easily enough with it...  And even the Imperial Star Destroyers ignore it at their own peril...  I'm worried about the mass fighter lists and to a lesser extent the "Christmas Tree " list with only a few really big beefy ships that I cannot take down without losing my own fleet...  My mission selection is pretty good and guarantees that I can get extra points for the margin of victory...  This will be what makes the winner, win/loss record is NOT the way it works. In this system. ...  And the 10-0 win is almost impossible. You can get a 5-5 win and lose the event to someone else who wins bigger, even if they are 2-1 on the day and you are 3-0...  So picking the ones that are either a sucker bet for the other guy to give me like Advanced Gunnery or the ones to give me extra points for doing what I was going to do anyway…  Fire Lanes and Dangerous Territory are good for the extra points here…

SC 1   
Author: pchappel

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

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) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

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

1 Han Solo ( 26 points) 
3 YT-2400s ( 48 points) 
1 X-Wing Squadron ( 13 points) 
1 Y-Wing Squadron ( 10 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Or something like that J…  It is next Saturday so…

Work, Armada SC prep and...

  

LONG week at work.  Waiting on the paperwork to catch up, but looking like my promotion will be happening.  It IS a lot more work, but it appears that I have the whole Department’s IT now, so we’ll see.  With the complete lack of a State budget, no raise associated with what is actually quite a large jump, so someday maybe…  But at least we’re in a MUCH better position than Eastern Illinois University…  30 day notices for Layoffs go out this week, and looking like Furlough days are coming for the survivors…  Civil Service looks like they got their contracts along with raises and back pay, so things are really not so bad here I think. 

Gaming wise, the Armada league is wrapping up…  I got my 5 games in and am the current leader of the league…  But that is really just a function of having gotten in the 5 games.  I lost only one, but most of the rest were close games, so given the Margin of Victory rules (https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/24/cf/24cf453e-70a0-431f-8611-be47d52eb07b/armada_tournament_rules_v202_high_res.pdf) that would require getting 130 or more points above the opponent to get the 8-2 victory…  Since it is a 400 point game this puts you in the position of having to kill off a LOT more than you lose for a clear victory…  Not impossible strictly speaking of course, but if one plays cautiously…  Well, my “Broadsides Gun Line” fleet is one that I can kill a ship or two while minimizing my own losses….  Need a better defense against an overload of Fighters, but so far I’ve been mostly able to simply outrun them while focusing on their Capitol Ships…

SC 1 

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)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Leia Organa  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
3 YT-2400s ( 48 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

So, a 3 ship list is what I am looking at bringing…  The Assault Frigate being the Flagship rather than the MC-80 Assault Cruiser…  The MC-80 simply draws too much fire and it too slow…  Mind, it does a LOT of damage, and so it IS my heaviest hitter…  Just keep the AF a bit back and let it snipe away the Defense Tokens to open things up for the main shot…  The Corvette is the fast flanker, and to be honest with Ackbar she puts out more firepower than a Gladiator certainly, and at long range as much as a Victory Class Star Destroyer…  Surprises a LOT of people, and as I ignore terrain AND blocking while shooting, I can tuck it in behind things and keep myself alive while pumping out the damage…  TLC for the dice fixing is HUGE.  Honestly, the Corvette is the ship that usually gets at least my first kill…  And has kept me alive in the League…

Other stuff?  Busy, need to get back to cleaning the Basement of Doom ™, getting the Magna out of here and likely a bunch of other game stuff and firearms…  The Silverwing is still a great bike, but better for in town and awesome for folks getting into (or back into) biking…  I need something a bit larger to stretch my legs and get out on the highway…  So, anyone wanting some neat old gaming stuff including Forgeworld stuff like say a Spartan Class tank…  A Lugar, bunch of ammo and other firearms…  LMK…

SC setup for Armada and X-Wing... Testing builds...

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….