Wednesday, January 27, 2016

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….

Sunday, January 10, 2016

TIE Fighters everywhere :-)

So MANY TIEs....  Holy crap, I have never seen so many TIE fighters...  :-)  We played out the Escalation tournament today, wound up 5th of the 14 in a VERY long day.  When my list worked, it worked REALLY well.  The parts of it that did not work failed hard.  I played my Rebel list with Poe, Jake, Horton, Tala and a Grey Squadron.  The biggest fail was the Tala Squadron Z-95.  Got to fire off the Assault Missile twice and missed both times.  Had the Z-95 been LT Blount it would have been 2 instances of massed damage...  One TIE swarm with 7 (!) ships at R1 of the bloody target that would have stripped all of the Shields and put through a few damage to the old style TIEs in there...  Next game not nearly so bad, but 4 Z-95's in the blast area...  So, next time, that is a definite "bring". 

The Bombs...  I had a few of them on my Y-Wings that I just kind of threw on there to hopefully cover up the R1 hole in the TLT...  It worked, and quite well with SO many ships out there.  Really looking forward to Sabine Wren out there for me...  Thinking that there will be a LOT more bombs for my Squadrons when she hits the field...  Hoping that Wave 8 is fully out before the Store Championships hit in the next few Months...  So far the Gophers is set, and the Titan in Springfield...  Hoping for the Champaign Titan is on a day I can attend as well... 

Like I said, I was surprised there were SO many Tie Swarms...  Got smacked around by Allan's swarm which used a lot of the TIE/fo with Weapons Guidance...  Would have been different had the Assault Missile hit I think :-)  But it was a good build and there are SO many TIEs out there now...  I think they are going to become a very real thing during the Store Championships.  Crack Shot is rough, but I found Juke on the A-Wing to be hugely powerful...  Especially with a Stress Hog out there...  If they can't Focus, they lose one dodge result...  Even on a 2 Attack Fighter, I pushed through several Damage chasing down TIEs and Z-95's...


So, something to think about building for the next few Tournaments...

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

X-Wing Escalation Tournament this weekend...

Something very different...  The Escalation tournament is going to be a 4 round event, starting at 60 points and increasing 30 points each round.  I've never played anything over 100 points, so the 120 and 150 point rounds are going to be interesting...  Bouncing two ideas around...

First is the Rebel list:




I REALLY wanted to get in a YT-2400 piloted by Eaden Vril in there, but it just doesn't seem like it fits.  2 Damage primary is just not enough to justify the point sink there at this level.  Poe's T-70 and Jake's A-Wing are both solid Aces and good choices I think.  I have had excellent luck with Horton's Y-Wing as an Ace hunter, but that is JUST over 30 points.  So, I fly short in Round 1 to fit it in to Round 2.  Round 3 I just bring in a cheap missile boat to fill in points on the other 3 ships...  Not sure how well it will work, but the Z-95 with an Assault Missile should at least make people flying swarms think about it a bit...  Last round is just bringing in a "Stress Hog" Y-Wing to fill out the points...  Aces who rely on actions who get shot at by this have to scramble for a few turns to clear those Stress and hopefully I can line up a few shots...  Seems solid, but...

Other choice is something very different from the Scum and Villainy (S&V) faction...



Start simple with Kavil and a TLT backed up by the Black Sun Ace in the Kihraxz with Cluster Missiles and Predator...  Round 2 adds the second Kihraxz same as the first...  The Y-Wing circles and shoots a 4 dice attack, hopefully doing the 2 Damage/turn while the K's are threats with the Cluster Missiles having the potential to do 6 Damage in one burst...  Things go well, I can erase a B/Y-Wing in a single turn with the Y and K shooting...  Gets easier when I add another Y-Wing for round 3 (120 points) and I fill in the Glitterstem on the K's...  That makes their burst damage MUCH more reliable allowing them re-rolls and conversion of all Focus to Hits (and Focus to Evades on Defense)...  Against the PS 2 things I get full conversions and the ability to re-roll 2 Dice/Attack for each Attack...  Odds are excellent that I get the full 6 Hits/Critical Hits in there.  So, this is my defense against the big, slow ships that I expect to see a few of, but more importantly they can quickly erase the expected Y-Wings with TLT that will undoubtedly be a heavy presence here...  I say as I field 3 of them in this build :-)...  Good ships, this build however lacks the staying power I like for my Rebel builds with their annoying Regenerate abilities...

Guess I am leaning toward the S&V build a bit just as something different...  The Store Championships are coming up in the next few Months and I have a few Rebel builds that I like for that...  Should be interesting at least :-)

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Armada League play and an Escalation X-Wing tournament coming up...

Trying something new this week most likely...  I was REALLY impressed with the Wave 2 Fighters on the field...  Joel's Firesprays were rough to face, and my own YT-2400's were almost equally brutal against David's TIEs....  My own X-Wings and Y-Wings took too long to get into position, the Rouge keyword was simply too good at allowing the rapid engagement of the fighter screens or actual Capitol ships...

Ackbar was REALLY good.  The Raider was unimpressive I think, but then it did end up at Medium Range of the MC-80's Broadsides...  And evaporated in a single volley.  The ISD took 2 volleys, but it died as well...  My Assault Frigates are I think slightly better than the Victory Class Star Destroyers normally, Ackbar pushes them up to be almost the equals of the Imperial class in terms of outgoing firepower at least...  NOT nearly so durable of course, but...

Chappell week 2 mk2 
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 399/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush 
Navigation Objective: Minefields 
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Salvation  ( 7  points) 
-  Slaved Turrets  ( 6  points) 
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Leia Organa  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 
[ 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) 
Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
YT-2400s ( 48 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Or something with fewer ships and more Fighters...  
Chappell Week 2 Mk 3 
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault 
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions 
Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gallant Haven  ( 8  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Defiance  ( 5  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
YT-2400s ( 48 points) 
Nym ( 21 points) 
X-Wing Squadron ( 13 points) 
Y-Wing Squadron ( 10 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Or the one from game 2 last week...  Pretty happy with that one's performance honestly.  List one here gives me a load of ships (4) and at least a fighter screen that requires no Squadron commands to perform...  The Escort Nebulon-B's for the better Anti Fighter attacks if needed, and I suspect they will be...  Too many people are figuring out that the new Fighters are REALLY good...

Other than this, gearing up for the Escalation Tournament over at Titan next weekend...  Have a few lists I am kicking around, and REALLY liking the YT-2400 and Poe's T-70 as a basis...  Beyond this, it gets fuzzy...  Jake Farrel's A-Wing is a great, cheap Ace for this I think...  Not unbeatable by any means, but for 24 points?  Not bad by any stretch of the imagination.  Ello Antsy's T-70 is amusing as well...  The standard Stresshog Y-Wing is always a solid choice of course, but...

Guessing I will face at least one or two TIE swarms with Crack Shots...  Not a lot I can field will do well against that, but some of my Regenerating things can at least go the distance, coming down to a matter of luck...  I'll take those odds :-)...

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Armada League starting next week...

Armada league coming up...


Chappell League 1 
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault 
Navigation Objective: Minefields 
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 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) 
-  Leia Organa  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 
Han Solo ( 26 points) 
Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords
Looking at playing this to start off...  Not a lot of folks playing the large numbers of fighters yet, so the almost complete lack of fighter cover is not as big a deal...  The Assault Cruiser is the heavy hitter of course.  I have the 400 points exactly kind of assuming I'll be Player 2.  With this list, I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to give me "Advanced Gunnery" as a mission..  So, that is mostly there as a "Molon Labe" sort of challenge...  "Hyperspace Assault" would have my  Assault Frigate and the Fighters trying for the quick close up hit, HOPEFULLY from an arc that is not going to be really bad for me...  Han can of course shoot first per usual, and I can have him move and fire at a different target if needed or just try to open up a hole in the shield facing...  So far it has been Minefields that gets chosen, probably wisely, but it's been quite a good list for me locally at least.  Jaina's Light is a good "safety" (yeah, I played a bit of football in my younger days, not well, but...) so she allows me to change dials and hits shockingly hard when push comes to shove.  

Solid list, just saw Mike's "fighter heavy" list, and with that he was doing fairly well...  Mind, it had only Nebulons and CR-90s as the ships...  I'm fairly convinced that they will not be able to kill off ships quickly and keep moving fast enough not to get bogged down too badly...  Well, that's the plan...  Seeing Hero's blog posting (http://lkhero.blogspot.com/2015/11/armada-imperial-squadron-dream-team.html) about the Imperial one...  So if I see that I guess I start fielding something like this:
Chappell League Mk 6 
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Minefields 
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 
Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gallant Haven  ( 8  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
"Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 
X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords
Essentially, keep a mass of Fighters near the Gallant Haven to screen and stay alive annoyingly long (hopefully) while the main ships present broadsides and hit hard...  The MC-80 behind the AF to bat cleanup...  Have not flown this yet, honestly have not seen the need for much of a defensive screen here yet...  Will I am sure though eventually, so best to be prepared...  Only the 2 ships means I'll be activating WAY too quickly I think, but it is simple...

The League starts Monday it looks like, looking forward to getting in some more games...  We'll see how many folks actually get out and play.  5 games, The Gopher has a few of the kits, so at least everyone should bet some nice alt art cards...  

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Armada night Monday and upcoming X-Wing...

Armada Monday…  Have a few builds set up, but It mostly comes down to either a 2 or 3 ship build.  With the 2 ships, it is 2 big heavy ships outfitted with pretty much everything possible to do what they have to.  3 ships, I have the Heavy Cruiser, a Frigate and a Corvette…  More ships to activate, more maneuver and probably a better chance to do most of the missions…  The Heavy Cruiser/Assault Frigate build is very unsubtle…  Move up, shoot like you are voting in Chicago, early, often and hopefully for the same targets… 

So, here’s the 2 ship build:
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points:
 400/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective:
 Hyperspace Assault 
Navigation Objective:
 Intel Sweep 
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points)
 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
 
-  Enhanced Armament  ( 10  points)
 
Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
 Gallant Haven  ( 8  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
 
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1
 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
2
 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points) 
1
 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
1
 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords


And here’s the 3 ship build:
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points:
 400/400   
Commander: Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective:
 Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective:
 Intel Sweep 
[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points)
 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
 
-  Enhanced Armament  ( 10  points)
 
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 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 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 
1
 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
1
 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1
 YT-2400 ( 16 points) 
Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The 3 ships does provide some more flexability with Jaina’s Light and Leia being a flanker to hide in behind the Heavy Cruiser or terrain and take pot shots…  Though with Ackbar, the side shooting it almost as good as an Assault Frigate…  And being able to set Dice to either the 2 Hits or Critical face at the cost of an Evade…  Might be a gamble, or she might well not be getting shot at in any case…  Guess I’ll choose when I get there per usual…

Otherwise, looking like an Escalation tournament coming up at Titan in Jan…  Format is odd, 4 games, but different point values in each game: 60, 90, 120 and 150.  And it is a build up, so you keep everything through the games and cannot swap out cards, etc…  Guessing I’ll run a variant of what I ran in the last event with Vrill’s YT-2400, Poe’s T70, a few Y-Wings and likely a Z-95 to fill in points…  A few weeks out and then that…  Store Championships will be coming up as well…  Supposed to be in the 1 January to 31 March range, no clue when they’ll hit here…    Thinking my current build will get modified when Wave 8 hits…  Wound up with some credit at Titan, so the Ghost will be coming home from there.  NOT playing Imperials, winning the Imperial Raider was about how my luck goes  Get the big prize, but it is not really what I was expecting/wanting J…  But I’m patient and so that win translates to the Rebel ship for me, albeit a few months later…


All in all, the FFG games are looking like they’re here for a longer run and are still quite fun…  Getting in a small bit of painting on my Warmachine stuff, but overall not a lot happening there.

Monday, December 7, 2015

League final AAR

So, had the last part of the League at Titan today…  Did fairly well, went 2-1 and apparently the loss was not so bad of one and I wound up in the top 4 somehow…  Weird, I had my stuff all packed up because I assumed that lacking a 3-0 I would have missed the cut, but apparently Poe living during my one loss kept the MOV low enough to pull a 3rd place…  The list did really well, flew:

VrillPoeGrey (100)
Eaden Vrill — YT-2400
32
Intelligence Agent
1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers
2
Ship Total: 35

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing
31
Veteran Instincts
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


Eaden Vrill was REALLY good…  I forgot how annoyingly maneuverable the YT-2400 really is…  The 1 hard turn and barrel roll or the bumps to put that big base in the way for the APLs to do a bit of damage here and there, especially to the TIE Interceptors I faced…  So, thinking this will likely be the Store Championship list for the next go around…

First game was against 2 B-wings and Poe...  Shot down the B's first then chased down Poe...  

Game two was Joel who played  a Shuttle with Emperor, Vader in TIE advanced and a TIE Phantom...  Killed the shuttle early, he got my 2400 and Y...  I had his ships damaged, but not quite dead...  Loss, but not a complete one...

Game 3 was against 4 TIE Interceptors...  Fel, another Ace and a pair of PS 1 ships... This one is the list mine was the best against...  The 2400 was a rock star and Poe of course was good... Lost the Y, so not a complete victory...  But enough to get me in...

Great tournament, 18 players and fun...  Very laid back.