Hey guys, this is just a continuation of the Weekly tournament and list chat thread since that one was quite long after 6 months.
Hey guys, this is just a continuation of the Weekly tournament and list chat thread since that one was quite long after 6 months.
Haha, nice. Quite the initiative bid, then. :) And it makes your victory more impressive, since you were down a helper.
I just got lucky, and learned from my previous game against him, where it was over in three turns
I haven't been reporting my battles lately, sorry 'bout that. Last week I played my Nera-Jan-Lowhhrick fleet and had a lot of fun. Then we played a 30-point King of the Hill match and I brought an Expertise Auzituck. In King of the Hill you get 1 point at the end of the round if you're within range 1 (or maybe 1-2?) of the hill token, or 3 points if you're the only ship in range. When you kill a foe you steal a point from them, if they have a point to steal. When you die you lose a point (if no one steals it, it just goes away) and return next round.
I ended up winning (barely) despite the K-Wing player rushing in with a SLAM and grapping 3 points in the first round, a devious move that put him ahead for most of the game. It helps that I was able to fly in and more or less circle the hill token like shark around a lifeboat, gaining a point on most rounds and occasionally a kill, and I didn't die. The k-wing player did die and missed out on some points because he was the logical target to focus-fire. :D Even then, it was close! Another player was flying a Scurrg and came pretty close, and the Kihraxz would have been up in score if he hadn't taken a lot of hits.
My Wednesday X-Wing group seems to have disappeared entirely for now -- two weeks ago no one was there (after 45 minutes of waiting I went home), and this week I didn't even go because no one answered when I asked on Facebook if anyone would be there. It's a 40 minute drive so I'm not keen on going if I'm just going to sit around. It may revive later in the year, but I'm not willing to count on it -- the core players that held the community together left because of the Jumpmaster nerf, Auzitucks, Harpoons, and other frustrations about the state of the meta.
The Thursday group (where I played King of the Hill) is fantastic though. Great people, more casual atmosphere (which I prefer -- more interesting fleets are possible in a casual setting), and a reasonably large group. Unfortunately my 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month is anime night so I won't be able to go every week, but I plan to head over there a lot more often. The two or three or so times I've gone have been worth it.
Today I played with my Friday group, and we did a Heroes of the Aturi Cluster mission. As always, we got brutally stomped, though there was a ghost of a chance of finishing the mission if we were really lucky (and had another couple of hours, hah). This group has lost basically every mission they've been on, and as the missions have gotten harder, the Rebels haven't scaled because the losses tend to extract a price (less xp, lost upgrades, etc). And it's amazing how the dice will go crazy on them, killing them off with long odds while making their own sure shots deal almost no damage. Today we rolled frequent crits in ion clouds while the TIE swarms rarely did; we actually lost a couple of ships to ion clouds. And TIE Phantoms are murder-monsters in HOTAC. The whole group is cursed and we know it. :D
I've played with them once before and they chose me as squad leader both times, and I think the main problem is splitting up. We did quite well when the entire team worked together and focus-fired, eliminating threats (especially Phantoms) and lowering the firepower focused on us. But today as soon as two x-wings split off to try to cover some objectives (figuring the rest of us could finish off the two TIE Phantoms that were left), things quickly fell apart. That may be the main problem the group has been facing, all amazement about dice luck aside. That said, it really felt like the odds were heavily against us. Too many ships, and a lot of bad luck in when ships spawned or how they rolled attack/defense, so it could be a fluke.
When we play again, we've decided we'll play some of the earlier missions since we're so underpowered. If you keep losing upgrades and ships in the early missions, the game will just steamroll you. We think if we start back on earlier missions we can get everyone up to the power level that's expected, and with the right strategy, maybe start a not-losing streak. ;)
I just finished Campaign Against Cancer. I had a fun time, and in the raffle I won a gorgeous metallic-painted Scurrg from our local expert painter, Jonathan Craft.
I'll post more info when the squad lists are posted to facebook, since I'm sleepy and remember little. ;) There were certainly more meta lists this year than last year. My first battle was against Kylo (silencer) + Quickdraw + Omega Ace, and I almost didn't pull it off. I'm proud I managed it! (that player's third opponent scooped midway, expressing frustration that this meta list was completely trampling his list in what was supposed to be casual games; I felt for him). I know the guy who flew this list and I don't want to be too hard on him because he loves flying it, but it does feel overtly too meta for the format. I suspect he just didn't get the memo, or thought bringing jank wasn't a big deal.
I also fought a 98-point Ghost that had Ezra + Maul + Sensor Jammer + TLT etc, and it wrecked me. I think that was my least favorite battle of all. My fleet is not built to fight that level of meta power (even without Fenn Rau backing it up), since I was aiming for more casual. A lot of people were aiming for casual, and this was one of the fleets that just picked us all apart. But in the Ghost player's defense, his gimmick was he was flying a single ship (with a docked TLT sabine wren); he added the Sensor Jammer + Ezra + Maul to keep it from dying trivially fast or lacking teeth, and he wasn't expecting it to be quite this powerful. But yea, given how dangerous it was, I can understand why Ghost Fenn has been haunting the meta and making players build their lists and strategies to respond. The Ezra+Maul combo is awful to fight, and Sensor Cluster made landing hits really difficult (and I rolled terribly that game; I still think I could have pulled it off if I'd been rolling more than 1 or 2 damage with all my attacks).
There was also a player who seemed to have cheated me directly. I watched him (at least seemingly?) "accidentally" nudge both and fidget his ship and mine until he'd turned a clear boxed-in-can't-barrel-roll situation into a gamewinning killbox by moving stuff until he could barrel roll. I lost Jan that round as a result, and I'm still sore about it. It's possible he did it on accident from being nervous, but I still should have rebuked him and told him no. But I was in the casual spirit even on the expert tables... and I quickly regretted being too nice about it. It felt like blatant cheating, man, and I could have won that fight if I hadn't let him get away with that. But oh well.
My favorite fight was against Quickdraw and Oicunn (with Palpatine, Intimidation, Anti-Pursuit Lasers). He had a really cool bump-monster list, and it looked fun to fly. On a whim I'd replaced Breach Specialist with Zeb crew last night, and though it didn't contribute much today and certainly made my list more casual (breach would have helped a lot), it came into play in this fight. Lowhhrick bumped Oicunn, Jan Squad Leadered a reinforce for him, and all three of my ships laid damage into the decimator. With the torpedo from last round, that left the decimator at a single hull, so sadly he got to shoot back. Had Lowhhrick not botched his roll and only gotten one hit, that would have been it. But it was a fantastic exchange and I was delighted to get to use Zeb's ability. It set me up to finish the decimator next round, and then start chasing Quickdraw down.
I ended the day at 4 - 2. Winning my first three games put me in the top players pod, and this is where I met a lot of difficult lists. Maybe I'd have preferred losing so I'd get to stay in the fun ships groups, instead of fighting all the serious lists. Though the Kylo + Quickdraw player is convinced my list is extremely powerful, so maybe the fun-list players wouldn't want me in their pod. ;)
I had a fun time and met a lot of cool players. There's a lot of good will since it's a charity event and the lists are mostly casual and geared for fun. And lots of people donated some fantastic prizes. I'm still surprised & delighted I actually won one of the beautifully painted ships -- I normally don't win anything good at raffles. And what a prize! This is my third Scurrg (and 2nd painted one), so now I plan to ponder some fun ways to field 3 Scurrgs. ^_^ A friend suggested Deadeye + Synced Turret, which I find appealing.
All 5 of those painted prize ships are gorgeous, but I think I'm most jealous of the lady who won the green HWK. Kinda makes me want to pull out my paints and experiment again. The only ship of my own that I've painted was an A-Wing that I gave as a gift, and it turned out alright (but I have a ways to go). If I had the time I'd love to customize a bunch of my ships; right now all the painted stuff I own is other peoples' work (which is why it looks good, hah!). Hmm...
I had the CAC this Saturday as well and flew my resistance bomber and two T-70s list, and finished the day 5-1 in the second best pod
First game: Ashley, first time her and I have ever faced each other in a tournament, something we’ve always joked about is never facing each other in tournaments...probably cause she only flies imperial, lol
Her list:
"Countdown" + Adaptive Ailerons
"Quickdraw" + Special Ops Training + Lightweight Frame +Fire-Control System + Expertise
Test Pilot "Blackout" + Push the Limit + Advanced Optics + Autothrusters + Advanced Sensors + First Order Vanguard
Her forces were placed split up for fear of my bomber, little did QuickDraw know, she should fear the blue squad novice, his first, and only shot of the game, range three at QuickDraw, he shot all three shields off her, the blue taking five damage total, but was so worth it, then the bomber drew blackout away from Poe so Poe could kill the striker slowly but surely, the bomber died, and a one hull Poe vs a one hull black out, I got behind the silencer and it was all over
Win 100-63
Round two:
I...don’t remember this game, I just remember I got tabled
Round three:
Opponent’s list
Lowhhrick + Wookiee Commandos + Trick Shot
Kanan Jarrus + Sensor Jammer + Twin Laser Turret + Rey (Crew) + Recon Specialist + Ghost
"Zeb" Orrelios + "Chopper" (Crew) + Phantom
This game...didn’t go well for my opponent, he forgot kannan’s ability, landed on a rock, got all white maneuvers stress, no actions except actions on damage cards, and console fire...only thing I lost was baby blue
Win: 100-25
Then there was a lunch break and I won a jyn erso figure from the raffle, and the boba fett damage deck from x-wingo
Round 4: my poor opponent was accidentally hard countered by my list
"Whisper" + Veteran Instincts + FCS + Advanced Cloaking Device
He flew whisper off the board because he forgot to decloak and then it was just my bomber running to prevent half points as bombs and x-wings shot the TIEs down
Win: 100-0
Round 5: strezza and tactical wookiees (don’t reme what list was, just saying what it would do)
So....Poe and bomber were incredibly stressed, but he was just looking for a finished bingo sheet, he purposely killed Ezra on a bomb, got a bingo, and chased my bomber too late as my bomber did the most anti-climactic chase on a Wookiee ever
Win: 47~48-43
Round 6:
List
Asajj Ventress + Lone Wolf + Latts Razzi (Crew) + Glitterstim x 2 + Shadow Caster + Countermeasures
Bossk + Adaptability + "Mangler" Cannon + Dengar (Crew) + Jabba The Hutt + glittersim
THE HUTT LIMO....WITH ALL THE DRUGS!
I killed bossk first on a bomb,then my bomber just bombed ventress to death, I seriously had to kill ventress to win, he had both x-wings dead and half the bomber
Win (barely): 100-82
I had so much fun at the tournament and got first place of my pod, had two very close games, one of which I should not have won, but my bomber loves ventress
Haha, that sounds great! Congrats man.
Good job! I couldn't join our CAC, as I was in Sofia, but the TO had allowed huge ships. That could've been so much fun. And the loot pool was spectacular.
I was really looking forward to Saw's Renegades because of the opportunity to fly 5(!) x-wings and they didn't disappoint.
First the list:
Rookie Pilot: Flight-Assist Astromech, Integrated Astromech, Renegade Refit and Servomoter S-Foils x5
So far I've played 8 games and won 7. It wasn't against heavy meta-lists, but in most cases the enemy pilots had a high PS than my rookies. I one game, Vader never got to shoot; I was behind after the first engagement and then he tried to outrun 3-4 x-wings. And with FAA that's nearly impossible. They really like getting behind the enemy, because they get full use of their astromech. They can maneuver just past an enemy ship and then barrel roll right in front of it, possibly blocking it or being right behind it.
They're hardy! After first engagement one rookie might be severely damaged, but usually that ship will block most of the enemy ships and they will have to switch targets, so damage is spread between my ships. And will have many options in the combat phase, as their FAA and barrel roll allow for easy fan formation, usually getting one or two rookies behind the enemy one or two on the flank and one or two in front of them. And so far most of the first combat was at range 3, which is a huge boon to the x-wings. The only issue is remembering to flip the s-foils but I'll get plenty of opportunities to practice.
If you have 5 x-wings, you should definitely try it out. I'm pretty sure this is going to be my Store Championships list, because it's fun to fly and really effective when flown well.
I look forward to 5 x-wings. Maybe that should be my list for tonight.
I think I have 7 or 8 T-65s, 3 T-70s, and 5 B-Wings, so I can also ruin lives in Epic. ^_^
Lately I've flown Whisper with Optimized Prototype (which did terribly -- Whisper still doesn't survive in the current meta, especially against the Jam action). Twice now I've played Jan + Nera + Biggs with Saw and Advanced Proton Torpedoes on Nera Dantels. I call it One Punch Dan(tels), and it's amazing when it lands. ^_^ The APTs make it clearly casual only -- I'm sure any meta list will wipe it off the table trivially -- but it's been a lot of fun.