A quick update and more BFG: Armada!

At least they got the aesthetics right.

Just to let you folks know, that I've been playing BFG: Armada a ton in the last month or so.  I've become a pretty solid player of all the factions, and I've been giving a lot of balance-related feedback.  Of course, there's always going to be some haters out there, but I want to take a brief moment to post on top-down feedback.

First, let me direct you to the topic at hand.  You don't need to read the entire thing, but I'll post my response below here:

Imperator5 wrote:
I do not think top to down balancing is a good idea actually, even if I agree with Hero about pulsars.

Games have to appeal to more than one segment of the population. If new players are not presented with a game they can play without reading up for weeks on elite forums and watching replays, they will just not play it at all.

My response:
This is exactly the kind of mentality that I completely, and utterly disagree with. Let me educate you why, in all sincerity.

It's not about a game's appeal man, it's about what your actual focus is. Balance, when done correctly, is done precisely and target specific gameplay-related issues.

The casual playerbase will not and does not notice balance when it is done correctly. There is simply too many other things they care about, because MP is not their primary focus and the reason they purchased the game. They care about playing the game for its aesthetics, the sound, the lore, the SP experience, the building the empire, the fun of just gaming with friends, and the immersion of being in gigantic space ships in the 40K universe with Tac Cog on. These are your painters, your hobbyists, your casual once a month playgroupers, and your campaign-driven 40K leaguers. These are the majority of your playerbase, but they are not focused on the delicacies of how multiplayer PvP plays out. This is not why they purchased the game, nor is that their reason to continue playing the game.

The competitive playerbase is the group that cares about the things that the casual player does not. They care about the balance, the numbers, the how much DPS is this ship doing vs. that ship, the viable strategies, the tactics, all the skills and abilities and how all these things equate to one thing: How they can justify the effort they are putting in the game, and if they are being rewarded for their efforts. They focus on the intricacies of gameplay, in a multiplayer environment, in player vs. player, because they are competitive in nature and focus on this very narrow and niche gaming perspective. When balance goes awry and when player unrewarded efforts and frustrations become painfully apparent, they leave the game, and the online community suffers. Their reason to play is no longer being rewarded.

The one thing that most people think, such as GW for example, and where amateur and indie companies fail, is that they think the two camps bleed and fight against each other. This is a very common fallacy. The competitive player simply does not focus on the same things the casual player focuses on, and it is not why they purchased the game, nor do they share the same reasons for playing the game. So other successful gaming companies started thinking from this exact perspective (EA, Ensemble, Relic, Blizzard..etc), and why they went to great lengths to consul with the best players of their games to collect feedback and balance suggestions from these players, to address their game to provide a better online, PvP, multiplayer experience. They understand the value of concurrency, that it wasn't just their goal to sell you the game, but to keep you there so you can continue to Twitch (like I am now), and to provide not only brand/company loyalty, but as a form of free marketing for their future products.

Simply put, it NEVER hurts to balance the game from the top-down. The two main crowds are not effected by either change! If the Pulsars all of a sudden turn into blue rainbows like from DoW vs. the purple-lavender ones we have now, do you think the competitive player will really care? Likewise, if the Pulsar damage was increased by 5s cooldown and their damage was reduced by 5 per, do you think the casual player will even notice?

Therefore, top-down balance is exactly what you need to make the best game possible. That is, of course, if you even care about the online aspect at all. If you didn't care, you wouldn't waste the development resources to make all these features in the first place. If you have already built a community around the fans and the immersion of giant 40K spaceships, that is great. But please Tindalos, do not fall in the camp that neglects the competitive player because it will, destroy your other playerbase.

+++

As you can see here, this is the same kind of attitude I have with GW, and why things like the Skull Cannon, Wraithknight and other ridiculous crap gets added to the game.  I don't think GW can tell the difference between what kind of feedback is given.  Oh well, at least I get to play BFG on a computer finally!

If you guys haven't caught me yet, you can see me playing on my Twitch channel.  They just added the Eldar to the game and they're freaking bonkers.  Not what I wanted to see personally, but the devs are hopefully going to work out the kinks.  Since I started the stream, I'm up to 400 followers now!

Been playing a ton of BFG lately

Beta is nice and all, but where the F are my Eldar?!

What can I say?  I've played over 30 hours of the game already and the beta came out last Thursday.  I won't write out a full review, but let's just say that I think the game is absolutely fantastic, minus the fact that I crash 9/10 times when trying to play multiplayer.  Yes, it's really that bad, the multiplayer in the game is extremely unstable.  Solo skirmish however, is completely fine.  This leads me to believe that there's something dreadfully wrong with the netcode.  Whatever it is, they better figure this shit out quick because the game comes out in 2 weeks.

The only downside with the game for me right now is that when ships die in multiplayer, they go under cooldown, meaning you can't use them again.  It's something like 2 games for a destroyed ship and 1 day for a heavily damaged one.  Then afterwards, another turn where you don't get crew exp, and sometimes your ship even gets lost in the warp so it can be delayed up to 3 games.  I think this mechanic is dreadfully stupid for multiplayer, but a very cool and fluffy mechanic for single-player.

Check out some of my gameplay videoes here.  I updated my Twitch channel is it's all Eldared out:
https://www.twitch.tv/lkhero

And of course, some cool highlights:
Let the galaxy burn!
One battleship vs. 3 cruisers
Exploring the AI and teaching how to play

Make sure to follow me on Twitch!  This is probably the only game I'll be playing for quite some time.

BFG: Armada MP Beta starts Thursday

I have made Admiral Ackbar proud this season.

The title says it all gents.  BFG: Armada, here we come!  I don't know exactly when they plan on releasing the MP Beta phase, but it's supposed to happen Thursday at GMT+1.  That should mean anywhere between 4pm and 12am my time?  Vague, I know.  What does this mean for you folks that have been looking forward to playing it as well?  Well, you can follow my Twitch channel since I will be streaming the hell out of it.  My Eldar is going to be pretty bloodthirsty, so I plan on playing a few skirmish games to get a clue of the commands and then send the fleet immediately into battle online for some good times.

On another note, last week I had a Armada Store Tournament.  I'm happy to say that I scored 28 out of 30 possible tournament points with a 9-1 win, 10-0 and 9-1 win with the following list..

ACKBAR1
Author: HERO
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

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

4 YT-2400s ( 64 points)

I played against Rebels in all 3 of my games because the meta was insane.  In my first tournament this season, I saw a good mix of Imperials and Rebels, but in this last one it was 10/12 Rebel players.  My first game was vs. an Ackbar Defiance MC80 with 2x TRC90s and a bunch of squadrons, my second game was vs. dual MC30c torps, MC80 with Dodonna and a MKII, and my last game was vs. this crazy 3x MKII (one was Galant Haven) build with Dodonna and 10x Ys with a HWK.  That one was really tough, but I just got right up in the middle of the pack and Ackbar slashed with my MC80 Battleship.  I was able to slash in every single one of my games thanks to Engine Techs and that was devastating for all my opponents.

Does my list look familiar?  It's pretty much the list that I perfected over Wave 2 and the list I'm most familiar with.  This marks the second 1st place showing this season for Armada with the same list, so I'm pretty happy.  I was going to try for 3/3, but with BFG needing my full attention, I'm going to bail on this weekend's tournament.

Anyways, catch me on Twitch if you like BFG or just want to see a new game.  I'm going to giving this game my full attention for quite a long time so come hang out on my channel.

Some updates and Battlefleet Gothic Armada

Getting pumped!

Sorry I've been a bit busy folks.  It was been quite a hectic turn of events lately with real life, work, and only one lousy X-Wing tournament where I came in 11/40 running Brobots.  Can you believe it?  I was the only Brobots player at the whole event.  I ran the variant codenamed Tricky Crabs and it was B/C with Crack Shot with Advanced Sensors with HLCs.  There were some games where the dice spiked really wildy like the first game vs. PalpAces, to a point where I think my opponent rolled 21/21 hits on red dice without mods.  He was kind enough to apologize for that craziness, so props to him.

I'm going to an Armada Store Championship this weekend AND next weekend, and I'm probably going to bring my MC80/MKII/TRC90 list with 4x YTs to both events.  I haven't played in a while though, so I might be a little rusty to say the least.  No worries though, the events by me are fairly casual and we're still trying to build a community here and that's the most important part.  I would much rather grow the community than show up super competitive, stomp on some newbies and then drive them away from playing the game ever again.

On the PC gaming front, this month will be pretty exciting.  News on the street says Battlefleet Gothic Armada will be releasing, and I have already pre-ordered the game so I'm going to be in the multiplayer beta that will hopefully be in the next week or two.  Since I have such a huge hard on for  BFG and RTS games in general, this is going to be life-consuming.  I'm thinking about doing full coverage using the blog, the gaming channel AND streaming through Twitch.  The idea behind that will just be to play the game as much as possible and see how I like it.  Hopefully the game will be good; with solid gameplay mechanics, good balance and rewarding depth.  I'm really hoping that it will be good, but I'm keeping a very close eye on For Honor and Total War: Warhammer too in the next couple of months.  Both of those should be coming out for PC and both should be purchase-worthy for me.

Once BFG:A hits beta, I'll start spamming links all over the blog, complete with strategy guides on how to play.  I'll probably play a lot of Eldar since that's what I played back in the day, but I'm also intrigued on what the Chaos fleet has to offer.  Stay tuned!

Here is a blurb about what I had to say about how Eldar could play in BFG:A compared to the TT:

Eldar on TT are as follows:
>They are extremely maneuverable and fast with the right sun facing.
>Their ships are rather specialized and cost more than other races.
>Their ships are more fragile and can take critical much easier.
>They have more accurate torpedoes and gunnery.
>Their torpedoes and aircraft are much harder to hit while being superior.
>Their Pulsars are essentially rapid fire lances.
>Their ships are protected by Holo-fields; which makes them very difficult to hit, but no turrets.
>Their ships' weapons are generally shorter ranged and prow-focused.

In short, they use speed and maneuverability to get in close, hit extremely hard, while slipping away from return fire due to their Holo-fields. If they do suffer hits (generally due to AoEs, celestial phenoms, and/or saturation of fire), they will take greater amounts of damage due to the lower hull values on their ships and being more susceptible to crits.

How they will translate on the PC remains to be seen, but I think all of the above can be translated quite easily as long as the damage formula incorporates hit chance. I believe there is hit chance because looking at some of the gameplay videos and tutorials, it's pretty clear that ships can actually miss shots. This means that roughly 83% of conventional weapons will miss the Eldar, but once they do hit, they will hit for significant damage and increased crit chance.

With his playstyle in mind, it's going to be quite clear that Eldar are going to be extremely micro-intensive compared to the other factions. It's just how their ships are designed to play.

DE: Dreaming about Dark Eldar design

It's been a long time my friend.

Now bear with me folks.  This might be a tough pill to swallow, but honest to God I haven't touched my DE for almost a year now.  In fact, I haven't done much 40K in general.  This isn't because I don't like the game, or the setting, it's just because I have been doing other hobbies and time is finite.  The complete and utter destruction of WHFB also made me deeply depressed from a hobby perspective.

I think every time I look at someone else's homebrew, or want to put on my designer hat on, I know that I'll be disappointed that no matter what down the road.  GW will just disappoint again.  Not to sound completely down, but it's been that way for the 14 or so years I've played this army and it's not going to change.  As a more positive spin on things, seeing CW Eldar and Corsairs in 7th actually give me quite a bit of hope for Dark Eldar in the next book.  There is quite a bit of changes in there in terms of prices and new mechanics that makes me think the next DE book might turn out OK.

The biggest, and I mean absolute biggest riddle, is that GW can't really solve how to convey the notion that DE is supposed to be lightning fast (when there's tons of armies that move as fast), hit extremely hard (they don't really hit that hard), and die to a swift breeze (this they got right) onto the table-top.  I went to bed thinking about this last night and thought about something I might try for fun.  Keep in mind that I do have quite a bit of professional design experience, so I thought why not, what's the harm of thinking about this a little bit more?

Too bad that most of the thinking hit me at 1am in the morning while I'm lying in bed, thinking about where my DE army actually is.  As in physically, it's somewhere in the garage.  About an hour later, I decided that if I was going to do anything I was going to start from the beginning.  I wanted to capture the glass cannon army that DE actually is without changing any of the units just yet.  For me, the first couple of rules that an army book presents sets the tone for the rest of the book.  That's why the first three must define the overall character, feel and justification for having such an army in the first place.

Three special rules, that's all I'm going to talk about for now.  I want it to be consistent with GW design, but at the same time, clearly define what Dark Eldar is supposed to resemble on the table top.  This is the biggest challenge that GW has, and continuously over the  years, I have yet to see them capture this to my liking.  These three special rules are supposed to represent what the Dark Eldar are from a fantasy perspective.  By that, I mean how you envision the army in your imagination while closing your eyes, and the difficult part of this is how would you actually write rules for it on the tabletop.  These rules would represent how the army is supposed to fight, how it behaves, and how it interacts with the other army across the table.  Truth be told:  This upcoming part is a total out of body experience.  I need you to imagine what I'm seeing in my head on your minis table.  Hopefully, the next couple of hastily written paragraphs will get you there.

The first of these rules is: Power from Pain

The fantasy:  Dark Eldar are tyrannical, ruthless killers who literally feed on the souls of their victims.  As Phil Kelly presented in the 5th Ed. book, they literally become imbued with supernatural might and resilience, eventually turning into uncontrollable killing machines.  As the carnage intensifies, so does the Dark Eldar's barbarity and vitality.

The design: Battle in this game is waged through game turns.  It not only represents the flow of time, but the course the battle as well.  The GW design team has already showcased that with a chart in the current book.  I've decided to keep the current system while increasing the effects on the first and last turn.  My reasoning for this is that the game starts on Turn 1, where the bullets start flying and men start dying.  This should already be a very arousing time for most Dark City inhabitants.

T1 - FNP (6+)
T2 - FNP
T3 - FNP, Furious Charge
T4 - FNP, Furious Charge, Fearless,
T5 - FNP, Furious Charge, Fearless, Rage
T6 - FNP (4+), Furious Charge, Fearless, Rage

The second army USR is: Aerial Assault (Name WIP)

The fantasy:  The Dark Eldar value speed above all else.  They are extremely fast, opportunistic and unfair to the lesser species in the galaxy.  Dark Eldar will strike fast, strike hard, and strike from the most unseen places to inflict the maximum amount of terror and death before the harvest can begin.

The design: Vehicles can shoot one more weapon than normally allowed before or after moving flat out.  Essentially, this allows the army to always move and shoot; solving the Ravager issue completely while subtly increasing the overall power of the entire army.  All of a sudden you can DS to fire for full, flat out and shoot at the same time, giving you maximum value out of a single Lance on a Raider, or attacking from an angle that would be impossible from any other race.  This increases the value of all of our heavy weapons without actually buffing them directly.  This is purposely designed this way so that Dark Eldar will never have to trade offense with defense.

The last USR is: Soul Harvest (name WIP)

The fantasy: Dark Eldar are unlike any of their Eldar brethen in terms of battlefield tactics.  CW Eldar are disciplined and flexible, Corsairs are selfish and aloof, and Dark Eldar are a mix of these traits.  The forces of the Dark Eldar desire pain and suffering from their foes above all else, and whatever means to that end is tactically appropriate.

The design: Battle Focus but with a catch:  You can run-shoot, or shoot-run, but you have to move closer to the enemy.  This plays off the bloodthirsty nature that is Dark Eldar design.  It mixes design elements of CW Eldar and Corsairs to make something meaningful for Dark Eldar.  This ability plays nicely for bringing your close combat elements closer to the enemy, as well as allowing your Rapid Fire weapons to do the most work.  The design purposely benefits both the close-ranged nature of the army, as well as the various close-combat components of the army book.

So there you have it.

It's missing the technical jargon that will form the three into actual rules, but this is where I would start.  This would make me pretty happy as a player of the army as it fulfills my criteria in having the glass cannon army transition appropriately from fantasy to table-top.  I think it would also all of the current archetypes of the army very happy, since it will benefit Kabal/Haemonculi and mixed army players equally.

UPDATE! 1/22/16
Follow the thread here.

OK.  Here's what I have as my first run-through with the Codex tonight.  Keep in mind that this is designed to play with my PfP, Aerial Assault and Soul Harvest army-wide USRs.

Once again, those rules are:
Power from Pain:
T1 - FNP (6+)
T2 - FNP
T3 - FNP, Furious Charge
T4 - FNP, Furious Charge, Fearless,
T5 - FNP, Furious Charge, Fearless, Rage
T6 - FNP (4+), Furious Charge, Fearless, Rage

Aerial Assault (UPDATED) - DE units may fire even after moving Flat Out.  In addition, they treat vehicles moving Flat Out as Cruising Speed, and moving at Cruising Speed as Combat Speed.  This allows the Ravager to move 12" and shoot all three lances, or a Raider to flat out and then shoot a lance, or a unit of Warriors from the inside shoot with full effect after the Raider moves 12".

Soul Harvest (UPDATED) - DE units can Run and then Shoot, and/or Run and then Assault.  This increases the threat range of virtually all Dark Eldar units.

If the unit is not mentioned or called out in some way in the changelog, then it remained the same.  The + represents additions whereas the arrows represent change.

General:
>Combat Drugs aligned with Eldar Corsairs
>Disallow Court to be taken without the Archon.

Armory:
Agonizer: Decereased to 20 pts
Blaster: Decreased to 10 pts
Dark Lance: Decreased to 15 pts
Webway Portal: Changed to IA11 2015, Decreased to 25 pts
Shadowfield: Decreased to 25 pts
Agonizer: Decreased to 20 pts
Blast Pistol: Decreased to 10 pts
Huskblade: +Rending
Archite Glaive: Double-handed, +2S, Single-handed, +1S
Venom Blade: +Lethal Dose
Implosion Missile: +Instant Death
Necrotoxin: +Pinning
Ossefactor: Assault D3
Phantom Grenade Launcher: +Offensive/Defensive grenades
Void Lance: S9 AP2 Lance --> S9 AP1 Lance
Void Mine: S9 AP2 Lance --> Strength D
Cruicible of Malediction: Psykers immediately suffer a Perils instead of S6
Night Shields: A vehicle with Night Shields has the Stealth special rule.  Enemy units beyond 24" counts the vehicle as Shrouded instead.

Archon:
Increased to 70 pts
+Clone Field
+Labynthine Cunning: The Dark Eldar player can re-roll the dice when they attempt to Seize the Initaitive, determine if the Night Fighting rules are in effect, and when they make Reserve Rolls.
+Hellion Skyboard: +10 pts
+Reaver Jetbike: +15 pts

Succubus:
Increased to 80 pts
+Rending
+Quicksilver Dodge: Fight sub-phase --> Assault Phase
+Hellion Skyboard: +10 pts
+Reaver Jetbike: +15 pts

Lelith:
Decreased to 140 pts
+Rending
A League Apart: Re-rolls all hits and wounds

Wyches:
+Rending
Bloodbride: WS4 --> WS5
Dodge: Fight sub-phase --> Assault Phase

Incubi:
54 pts, 18ppm

Mandrakes:
36 pts, 12ppm

Raider:
Decreased to 50 pts
Replace Dark Lance: Free

Venom:
Decreased to 50 pts

Reavers:
May include up to 9 --> 6 additional Reavers (9 total)
Every three --> Every model may replace

Hellions:
Decreased to 60 pts, 12ppm

Razorwing:
+Strafing Run
+Vector Dancer
Replace Dark Lances: Free

Talos:
Wounds: 3 --> 4

Cronos:
Wounds: 3 --> 4

Ravager:
Unit Composition: 1-3
Replace Dark Lances: Free
+Special Rule: Shadow Hunters
If a Ravager squadron contains three models, all mdoels in the squadron gain the Tank Hunters special rule.

Voidraven Bomber:
+Strafing Run
+Vector Dancer
+Special Rule: Chasing Shadows
The opposing player cannot use the Interceptor special rule when the Voidraven Bomber enters the battlefield.

I have not touched the majority of these garbage Artefacts of Cruelty yet, as most books tend to suck pretty bad so it's consistent.

Overall, there are some very minor point adjustments (to align them with CWE and Corsairs), but just more teeth throughout the entire army.  I've basically taken the DE design direction that GW have already set out, but just made the army more lethal while increasing their threat range, presence and devilry (Rending and Instant Death).

The "big" changes:
>More prominent heavy weapons and AP2 throughout the entire army
>Every Archon now has Labyrinthine Cunning, so let that soak in for a second
>PGL to give back Offensive and Defensive Grenades on top of Soulfright
>Void Lance is now S9 AP1, Void Mine is now Strength D
>A few new special rules added for Voidraven Bomber, Ravagers and the Archon
>Wyches now do Rending, Bloodbrides WS5, Dodge in Assault Phase
>Reavers can now be upgraded with heavy weapons on every model, unit comp changed
>Night Shields have Stealth, but provide Shrouded if enemy is more than 24" away

I plan on showing off some formations tomorrow, but a taste of what to come is a re-vamped Realspace Raiders formation (not detachment).  This formation will allow you to play the army exactly as you imagine it does in the fluff.

X-Wing: Leaning towards Brobots

Does not compute.

After thinking about taking Boba Fett with the IG-88, I've decided to just roll with Brobots in the upcoming tournament season.  The reason why is really quite simple:  3 agility and Autothrusters.  Even with 6 hull and 4 shields, I don't think the Firespray is in a really strong position right now in the meta.  He's basically a larger X-Wing in terms of defenses, and concentrated fire will bring him down in no time.  With the IG-2000, you have a larger assortment of different manueverbility options and plenty of ways to clear off inflicted stress while staying outside of danger.  The Firespray?  Not so much.  I've played a couple of Vassal games to warm up for the season so far with both Broba and Brobots, and I think I'm convinced that in the current meta, Brobots will be stronger.  When you examine the world's results as well, I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

This basically brings me to two potential lists.  The first one being..

100 - Tricky Crabs

IG-88B — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Advanced Sensors 3
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Inertial Dampeners 1
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
IG-88C — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Advanced Sensors 3
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Inertial Dampeners 1
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
Keep a sharp eye on this list right here because it has Advanced Sensors and Inertial Dampeners.  I personally have a hard on for Advanced Sensors because I think its the best System Upgrade in the game.  There's just so much you can do with it.

The next list is this..

100 - Shooty Crabs

IG-88B — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Fire-Control System 2
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Glitterstim 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
IG-88C — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Fire-Control System 2
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Glitterstim 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50

Look familiar?  That's because you also saw the list in Worlds.  It's not the first time I've seen it played, but it's definitely got a lot more popular since then.  This list sports the same upgrades and layout with double Crack Shot, HLCs and ATs, but it comes with FCS and Glitterstim.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, let's talk about the similarities first.  Both lists have B and C as their IG-88 variant because B offers a free Gunner to each ship for fire consistency, and C offers the free Evade action off the boost.  I've decided against the D variant for the breakneck 3-hard S-loop, mainly because I found myself doing standard S-loops and 4-Ks instead in most of my matches.  ATs are pretty much a no-brainer and is arguably the best upgrade in the game for the points.  It just negates so much damage and offers an insane amount of value for such a cheap upgrade.  Crack Shot is the upgrade that everyone is excited about these days and for good reason:  It offers you burst potential, and gives you a sure way to push damage.  This can mean the difference between a dead ship, or a ship that can get away next turn and/or put damage onto you.  It also allows you to pick off Stealth Devices from the likes of Fel and other aces.  If there's anything minis games have taught me over the years is that a sure kill is the best kind of kill.  Then there's HLCs, but we don't really need to go into that.

Here comes the fun part:  Advanced Sensors + Inertial Dampeners vs. Fire-Control System and Glitterstim.  Let's check out the pros and cons really quick:

Adv. Sensors + Inertial Dampeners
Greater movement potential (boost + evade, then move)
Greater defensive potential (being able to move out of arc and being able to action before being blocked)
Weaker vs. stress elements (action before movement is still an action)
2x Inertial Dampeners (for area denial or being able to stay at range 3)

FCS + Glitterstim
More consistent damage (big damage boost)
Have no defensive benefits
Ignores stress elements (since the target lock requires no actions)
2x Glitterstim (huge burst in damage and defenses, for one round)

So pretty much:  FCS offers big damage and burst potential at the expense of defense and movement, but Adv. Sensors + ID gives you greater control on how you move on the battlefield.  Both give you block immunity because one can Focus before move while the other just rips into targets in front of them with re-rolls on re-rolls.  Focus can obviously be used defensively, while FCS and no actions, so that basically means the IG-88 is stuck there shooting at whatever he can get his crabby hands on.

Before we go any further, let's look at the meta really quick:
Dash + Bs/Ys
4 YTLTs
Poe - Heaver's list
R3-A2 Stress Hog
Imperial Aces + Palpshuttle
Chirpy + Whisper/Fel
Howl + Crackswarm
Howl + regular Swarm
Other Brobots
..etc

Out of all of these lists, only the stress induced ones give the Adv. Sensors a lot of problems.  Not being able to take actions will mess you up regardless, and will pretty much negate your 3 point upgrade.  That's also one of the reasons I decided against PTL, and that's because it's better 3 points be negated than 6 points.  Anyways, damage is almost always welcome, and that's probably why you saw the FCS variant in Worlds.  However, the movement opportunities offered by Adv. Sensors and being able to Focus or move out of arc can be seriously good against almost all the lists here.  For example, if you can boost + evade (through IG-88C) and then do a 3-sloop, you can get some serious HLC time on target while taking almost no damage in exchange.  The FCS variant will be forced to K-turn if S-loop options are blocked, or just 3-straight because it's the furthest they can go.  However, against the likes of Crackswarm, Glitterstim is pretty amazing when they want to go hard on that one good turn and you just say no.

I don't know, I'm in a pickle.  Both setups are really good and they have their pluses and minuses, so I'm going to do some more research and analyze the lists in respect to the meta a little harder.  This is a pretty difficult decision to make for sure.

Armada: Spring 2016 Tournament Prep

Trolling the Empire before it was cool.

Just like X-Wing, it's time to start prepping for the store tournaments coming up in SoCal for Armada.  There's not as many of them as X-Wing, so I'll have to adjust my playtime accordingly, but I'm excited to go to all the events that I can.  I think I'm pretty set on taking Rebels to the tournament because I've had the most experience playing them in the last couple of months.  I've tried an epic asston of lists and I think I'm set on 3 of them.  I'll need your help to decide which one I'm eventually going to take.

Here are the lists that I'm pondering, all of which have Ackbar as the Admiral.

ACKBAR1

Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance 

Points: 390/400 

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 

Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)

-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 

-  Home One  ( 7  points) 

-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 

-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 

-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 

-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)

-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 

-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 

-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

4 YT-2400s ( 64 points) 

This is the first list that I'm thinking and arguably the one with the most playtime under my belt.  I went from a MC80 + 2x MKII no squadron, pure damage and control list to this beauty that you see here today.  This list is the epitome of my list design for Ackbar and will probably be the list that I'm going to take.  Unlike X-Wing, I don't think I'm going to write off difficult choices because there doesn't seem to be any for me here.  The only other one that I can think off immediately off the top of my head is replacing Gunnery Teams with Flight Controllers so I can get a better alpha, but I think I like everything where it is right now.  The YT-2400s will be the mainstay in my Rebel fleets as long as I'm running nav-heavy MC80s with Engine Techs and I'm happy with how they're performing.

ACKBAR2

Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance 

Points: 390/400 

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 

Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)

-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 

-  Defiance  ( 5  points) 

-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 

-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 

-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 

-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 

2 YT-2400s ( 32 points) 

This one is another list I've been toying around lately and I think it has the highest damage output out of any of the lists here.  It has an insane amount of damage coming from 3x of the TRC90s, and the change from Home One to Defiance allows me to put out even greater damage from the MC80 itself.  The secret forumla here is the 4-ship activation with a 390 bid, giving me an incredible first player and last activation advantage.  Dash and the 2x YTs will do what they can to keep Fireballs at bay, but by that time I'm looking for game over with the complete and utter destruction of the enemy fleet.  The other alternative would be to replace Defiance with Home One, what say you?

ACKBAR3

Author: HERO

Faction: Rebel Alliance 

Points: 391/400 

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Most Wanted 

Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 

Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

[ flagship ] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)

-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 

-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 

-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 

-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 

-  Heavy Turbolaser Turrets  ( 6  points) 

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)

-  Foresight  ( 8  points) 

-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points) 

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)

-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

4 YT-2400s ( 64 points) 

Lastly, the MKII fleet that you see here is a list that's currently being worked out and fine-tuned, but I think its in a good enough place that it's tournament-worthy.  The 391 bid with a 4-ship list is still really solid in giving me activation advantage, and the 4x YT-2400s gives me a solid baseline for decent squadron support.  The damage output here is almost as impressive as the MC80 list featured above, but the biggest difference comes from the MKII's Gunnery Teams that can put out 2x the amount of long-range firepower, and the damage spike potential offered by the MC30c.  Overall, this is a very solid list, but has the least amount of playtime compared to the others.  Is that worth the risk?

Well, there you have it folks.  All of these fleets are tournament ready, I just need to get in a few more practice games but I think it's as good as it's going to get.