X-Wing: Some Rebel lists with Poe

I can be your hero baby.

Having seen what the new T-70 X-Wing can do, I'm really excited to try the newest Rebel Ace to join the meta.  When you think about how much better the T-70 is over the stock X-Wing, I don't know if you can ever go back to the old thing even with the droid discard for a pseudo shield.  It's really hard to say right now.  The T-70 comes with a better dial, the Tallon Roll, the Boost action, and an extra shield, I can't even begin to describe just how good this is over the 21 point Rookie Pilot in the T-65.  The Boost and Shield alone is a +8 point upgrade on the stock fighter, and the better maneuverability just puts this way over the top compared the upgrades to the TIE/fo.  By now, I'm not even surprised that FFG has a hard on for those poor poor Rebels, who with all their Fat Han/Dash builds, 3CPO and 22 point B-Wings, still desperately need the help.

Anyways, let's take a closer look at Poe.  Poe Dameron is a PS8 pilot with a pretty ridiculous pilot ability that reads: While attacking or defending, if you have a focus token, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Hit or Evade result.  This ability looks like Luke's ability on the defensive and a watered down version of Chiraneau.  With the Focus token requirement, there's simply no better Elite Pilot slot than Push the Limit for action efficiency.  You will almost always want a Focus in there at all times, even after boosting or triggering off of BB-8's barrel roll.  Speaking of which, it's important that you pay close attention to the wording on BB-8 and how it interacts with PTL.  BB-8 says that when you reveal a green maneuver, you may perform a free barrel roll action.  On this free action, you can then PTL off of it for say a Boost action, acquire the stress token, and then shed the stress once you actually execute the green maneuver.  Once that's done, you're free to take another action in your action phase, so you can Focus on top of it, potentially giving you 3 actions a turn, stress free.  Of course this is vulnerable to stuff like debris and what not, but that's why having both the ability to free barrel roll and boost is amazing.  Just keep in mind that you cannot use BB-8 if you're stressed at the beginning of your movement.  The ability triggers immediately upon reveal and you clear stress after you complete the green.

I don't know about you guys, but that is absolutely ridiculous.  The fact that you can have so much maneuverability and action efficiency on a 6 effective HP ship with 3 attack dice shooting at PS8 is beyond me.  Poe might be the best thing the Rebels have received in a long, long time in the small ship department.  At least for me and how I like to fly Rebels.

Let's examine some of the lists:

The new Rebel Aces.

678 (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31
Push the Limit 3
BB-8 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 38
 
Jake Farrell — A-Wing 24
Push the Limit 3
Chardaan Refit -2
Wired 1
Autothrusters 2
A-Wing Test Pilot 0
Ship Total: 28
 
Ibtisam — B-Wing 28
Push the Limit 3
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 34

The first list here is a play on my Imperial 789 (Turr, Juno, Fel) with the Rebel Aces 678.  Sure, the PS skill might be lower across the board, but you're flying with some pretty mean ships and some very capable pilots.  All of the pilots here have quite a few tricks up their sleeves when dealing with stress mechanics.  As touched upon earlier in the article, Poe has crazy maneuverability and action efficiency due to BB-8, PTL and having Boost on the T-70.  Just having a Focus on him also makes him an incredible damage dealer and he can always choose to spend it for burst damage or evades.  Jake Farrell is just super good for 28 points IMO.  He's also another pilot that can pull off crazy moves because of the A-Wings ridiculous dial, and his pilot ability allows him to really min-max his actions as well.  Autothrusters go on him for free while Wired allows him to keep on ticking since he should be stressed every round.  Lastly, we have Ibtisam.  She works best when she's stressed as it's almost like having a Lone Wolf that ignores range restrictions.  In addition, PTL with Advanced Sensors allows you to do some of the most ridiculous combos in the game.  Such examples include: Focus + TL before you move and 1 green to clear the stress, Barrel Roll + Focus before you move and hard 2 to keep the stress and power up Ibtisam, or even a simple Focus + 2 K-turn to activate Ibtisam's ability while flying green 1 next turn to PTL like normal.  There's a reason why people think B-Wings are ridiculous, and being able to pre-action due to Advanced Sensors before movement makes them one of the most unpredictable ships in the game.

This list I'm exceptionally proud of, for probably no good reason:

I don't think you're ready for this.

XBBZ (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31
Push the Limit 3
BB-8 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 38
 
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25
 
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25
 
Bandit Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 12
Ship Total: 12

What can I say?  It just has a ton of staying power and strong elements all around.  The pilot skills are not very high at all, but you have 6+8+8+4 for 26 effective HP and 11 dice on the alpha, all of them on ships that can move like UFOs minus the poor Bandit.  Let's be quite honest here:  The Bandit is a great chump blocker and if ignored, can just tail someone and throw dice at them until some damage sneaks in.  The primary damage dealers here are the T-70 and the dual B-Wings, especially when you consider that they can move really well and still deliver results.  This list is also exceptional at jousting because you can always Focus + 2 K-turn on the initial turn while Poe himself dances around with the Tallon Roll.  The list delivers a lot of firepower, a lot of staying power and can very well be a tournament-winning list.  Is Poe better than two Bs from the popular BBBBZ list?  I think it all depends on how well you can fly him in this case.

Let me know what you think of the lists.  I think they'll work out great!

X-Wing: There has been an awakening

Back in the saddle.

Having spaced out for a couple of months on minis has actually given me a fresh perspective on the meta.  The big dog running around right now are Unhinged Y-Wings with Twin Laser Turrets apparently.  Nasty?  No doubt.  However, I'm not so worried when it comes to flying against the majority of the lists out there because I'm so used to Fat turret lists running up and down the field since Han Solo came out so many years ago.  No matter what changes really, I'm always flying the same thing.  The only difference comes in knowing when to strike and how to move; something that experienced Elite Interceptor pilots do very well.

Alright, let's talk about lists.  What do I want to throw out on the battlefield that seems like it'll bring some enjoyment into my life?  The classic 789 list that I used to fly was Turr, Jax and Fel.  Now that the Imperial Raider is out and the TIE/x1's gotten a new lease on life, I figure its time to change things up a bit.

The new 789 looks something like this:

The dream team is back!

789 (100)

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 35

 

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor 25

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 33

 

Juno Eclipse — TIE Advanced 28

Push the Limit 3

Advanced Targeting Computer 1

TIE/x1 0

Ship Total: 32

What you have here are two tried and true ships that always deliver with one new addition.  Juno Eclipse just has what it takes to make back her points.  Her dial makes it so that she's a great candidate for Push the Limit because of all the additional greens that she has to play with.  Sure, they're not the same hard turns as the Interceptor, but the adjustments to speed on the fly according to battlefield conditions, in addition to PTL'ing a barrel roll into something operational is exactly what you should be looking for.  When it comes to Imperial ships, the more action economy you have the better.  What I mean by this is really quite simple guys:  The more actions you have, the more you want to maximize on using as many of them per turn as possible.  The ATC already delivers consistent results on a Target Locked ship, so having the ability to PTL Focus/TL/Evade/barrel beats all other combinations IMO.  What you want is consistency, and so far to date, nothing delivers consistency to Imperial ships as much as the vaulted PTL.  Just remember guys:  The Elite 789 list is about being able to dance and manuver around the battlefield while setting up the winning scenario.  The winning scenario for an elite list means that you're putting out damage while receiving none in return.  If this means that you have to adjust speeds and just get out of firing arc with Juno, that's exactly what you do.  Getting out of arc and re-acquiring TL on a new target is a perfectly good strategy.  The same applies to the Interceptors here.  Never forget that the 5-straight and 4-green is there for you to re-position and re-engage in an more opportune fashion.

Bonus Round: You can also sub out Juno with Tetran Cowall with PTL, AT, RGT and SD for a perfect switch if you want to rock the 101st theme.  Having played around with Tetran some more, I'm really warming up to him; especially since his ability plays really nicely with Autothrusters.

Next on the list is another 3 ship list, but it plays completely different than the one above:

I have you now.

Vader (100)

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced 29

Lone Wolf 2

Advanced Targeting Computer 1

Engine Upgrade 4

TIE/x1 0

Ship Total: 36

 

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 35

 

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle 21

Emperor Palpatine 8

Ship Total: 29

With the Imperial Raider coming into the meta, two things have improved greatly:  The firepower expressed by the TIE/x1, and the Emperor riding in the stock Lambda; also known as the Palpmobile.  I've seen builds where Vader would switch out Lone Wolf for Calculation and that's a perfectly viable strategy as well, considering the fact that it can potentially deliver 4 criticals to someone in Range 1 is absurd.  The Emperor is there to fly slow and away from the rest of your party while acting as a giant magnet to draw in the flies.  That's when your tigers can use their superior maneuverability and speed to setup the kill shots while constantly using the Emperor's ability to turn engagements in your favor.  When you read the Emperor's ability, you should probably just replace the text with:  Turn 1 dice into a Crit or Evade in each one of your turns.  He's the Fateweaver of the Star Wars universe and that means his fat space cow shuttle should be dropping 1s all over the place just so he can squeeze out a few shots.  Depending on deployment, you might want to tuck him into a corner and just hard stop first turn while your other ships setup a wider flank.

Lastly, we have something a little less conventional:

No pain, no gain.

Turr (100)

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor 25

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 33

 

"Zeta Ace" — TIE/fo Fighter 18

Push the Limit 3

Ship Total: 21

 

Zeta Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 16

Ship Total: 16

 

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

 

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

You can tell I'm really creative with the list names.  Seriously though, I'm saving points just so I can run PTL on Zeta and having Turr lead the pack instead of Fel.  TIE/fos are actually really good when you think about just how much they've gained for 3 points over your old TIE Fighter.  They gained a better dial, the ability to Segnor's Loop on left and right 2s, Target Lock, and gained a Shield upgrade (which costs 4 points by itself normally).  The Rebel counterpart gained similar traits, but since they're Rebel scum we'll skip them for this article and talk to them in the next.  Either way, I'm just excited to try out some of these new TIE/fos and see how they perform on the battlefield.  I could run the standard Fel-led Howlrunner + 3x TIE/fos, but I figure this is more exciting because you won't be tempted to stay together but rather use your extra maneuverability to hopefully outfly your opponents.  I swear, Zeta Ace has to be one of the best ships in the new set.  For 21 points with PTL, the ship can do some pretty crazy stuff considering he can choose to use either the 2 or the 1 when performing a barrel roll.  Compare that to Echo or Phantoms in general where you MUST use a certain template and you have all kinds of movement shenanigans for a bargain price.  The firepower is a little lower than most people would like with 2 dice each, but if they're not shooting at you while you're rolling more dice, it's only a matter of time.

Next article will feature a list that I've been working on for Rebels featuring Poe Dameron.  Stay tuned!

It's been a long time

Best score was 36-0 in a TIE Fighter.  Forgot to screenshot gg.

Hi guys, sorry it's been such a long time, but I've had the driest of spells in terms of minis games.  I think the whole Age of Sigmar stuff bummed me out to a point where I didn't want anything to do with Games Workshop for a while, but it turned out that it spilled over to all of my minis stuff.  Don't worry though, that's about to change big time in the next couple of weeks.

To start off, I'd like to say that I think I'll be switching over to playing X-Wing for quite some time.  I just think FFG does everything a hundred times better than GW and honestly, having played Netrunner, Warhammer Conquest and X-Wing, I must say that they are straight up better games.  Since I'm a gamer first and foremost, I'll be getting back into X-Wing in a big way.  I already have 3 of the new Force Awaken sets and I can't wait to get some of my new toys on the field.  As some of you guys might know, I'm an elite Interceptor player at heart.  That's how I started the hobby and that's the direction I want to continue in.  However, it's hard to beat having multiple TIE F/Os on the field because they're so damn good for the points.  Sure, some might think 15 points min is a little steep, but the improved dial and the extra shield for 3 more points is a damn good bargain.  The same could be said about the T-70, especially since it's pretty much a flat out better version of the T-65 but you gain the boost ability and a shield for almost no points over the stock T-65.

In terms of gaming, I've been playing a lot of computer games over the last couple of weeks.  I've gotten back into Wargame: Red Dragon, started playing World of Warships in my German Battleship Tirpitz, and recently finished playing 24 hours of the Star Wars Battlefront beta.  If you haven't played the beta, I'm sorry, but it's probably the best beta I've ever played.  The immersion is amazing; the size of the world, the feel of the battlefield, the sounds, the rich atmospherics, and the beautiful graphics is just sublime.  It's hard to describe it entirely, but its something I think every serious Star Wars fan or even gamer needs to get their hands on it when it comes out on November 17th.  I already pre-ordered the game not because I had a great time, but also because it was surprisingly smooth with very minor glitches and network issues.  Balance issues aside, the game is looking to be one hell of a game.  I literally spent 22 of those 24 hours in the cockpit of a TIE Fighter or X-Wing, and my KDR towards the end was insane.  I rarely died and had numerous games where I was 25+ kills to zero deaths.  Hold onto your seat boys, the ace of aces is coming to get you in Squadron Battles.  Oh, and if you want to talk about flying some more, just let me know in the comments and I'll explain the best I can!

Speaking of which, once Battlefront releases, I'm thinking about starting a gaming channel on Youtube.  I think it will have a lot of Battlefront stuff on it, but I'm also thinking about increasing the production value on some of the minis games that I play, namely X-Wing or whatever else I get my hands on.  My wife is a brilliant editor and she already said she can help me with the footage that I'll shoot during gaming.  That's pretty damn awesome.

Alright, that's all I got for now boys.  Stay cool and keep doing what you're doing, which is being awesome.

Just got into Netrunner

Netrunner is on!

Yup, nothing more than what needs to be said.  Right now, I'm enjoying Corp a lot more because I like the feeling of building up defenses and resources.  Running is OK, but I think I like the fantasy of playing big conspiracy-level bad guys a lot better.  I'm currently piloting Near-Earth Hub, Blue Sun, Replicating Perfection, and Engineering the Future.  I would say out of those, Near-Earth Hub (butchershop variant) and Blue Sun (another butchershop) is my most favorite, although Engineering the Future is starting to grow on me.  Replicating Perfection I feel, is too dicey at times due to the weaker ICE and rolling dice.  As for runners, I'm leaning towards Leela, Hayley and Noise.

Do any of you guys play?  We should find a time to play on OCTGN.  I only started playing 3 days ago but that's been taking up the majority of my gaming time.

Designing a ruleset for Age of Sigmar

Random DE poster from way back when.

OK here we go:

I noticed there are 4 distinct categories for units in the game. Since there are no points in the game, I still think it COULD be possible to lightly balance the game with some very minor work. Instead of re-writing point values for every unit, we might be able to pull something off by limiting certain models based on numbers.

Just so you guys can follow me, here are 4 categories that I've noticed for units:

• 1w models - Most infantry, or rather, Core (or rather, what was core before) in the game 
• 2-4w models - Some Cavalry in the game, most Ogres or Monstrous Infantry
• 5+w models - Most Heroes in the game, or beefy elite units that we would consider "Special/Rare" before
• 10w+ models - Most Monsters in the game, some other weird stuff like the Bell and what not

So instead of writing points up for these guys, I've chose to do this. For now, I'm just going to call it Core, Special, Rare and Elite for sanity sakes.

The categories here are: Hero, Core, Special, Rare, Elite. This is defined as:

• Hero - Max of 1 model
• Core - Max of 20 models if small base (unless warscroll says you can take bigger), max of 10 anything bigger
• Special - Max of 10 if small base, max of 5 anything larger
• Rare - Max of 5 if small base, max of 3 anything larger
• Elite - Max of 1 model

When applied to High Elves, it looks something like..
Tyrion - Hero
Teclis - Hero
Eltharion on stormwing - Hero, Elite
Prince Imrik, Dragonlord - Hero, Elite
Prince Althran - Hero
High Elf Prince - Hero
High Elf Prince on Griffon - Hero, Elite
High Elf Prince on Dragon - Hero, Elite
High Elf Archmage on Dragon - Hero, Elite
High Elf Mage - Hero
Dragon Mage - Hero, Elite
High Elf Spearmen - Core
High Elf Archers - Core
Silver Helms - Core
Ellyrian Reavers - Core
Dragon Princes of Caledor - Special
Tiranoc Chariots - Special
High Elf RBT - Special
Great Eagles - Rare
Alith Anar, the Shadow King - Hero
Shadow Warriors - Special
Alarielle the Radiant - Hero
Handmaiden of the Everqueen - Hero
Sisters of Avelorn - Special
Caradryan - Hero
Anointed of Asuryan - Hero
Phoenix Guard - Special
Flamespyre Phoenix - Elite
Frostheart Phoenix - Elite
Loremaster of Hoeth - Hero
High Elf Swordmasters - Special
Korhil - Hero
White Lions of Chrace - Special
White Lion Chariots - Special
Lothern Sea Helm - Hero
Lothern Sea Helm on Skycutter - Hero, Special
Lothern Sea Guard - Core
Lothern Skycutters - Special

So using the above classification, if we're going to play a test game, it will look something like this:
1-2 Heroes
1-3 Core
0-2 Specials
0-1 Rare
0-1 Elite

Sample list:
Heroes: Archmage on Foot, Prince on Dragon
Core: 20 Archers, 20 Spearmen, 10 Silver Helms
Special: 5 Dragon Princes, 10 Phoenix Guard
Rare: 3 Eagles
Elite: (the Prince on Dragon counts as Elite, see above)

The original framework was done using categories to separate the unit by wounds. However, the problem with that is that you run into situations where a unit might have 5 wounds, which would technically classify them as Rare, but they're not good enough to be limited to 0-1 in most cases (e.g. Tiranoc Chariot). Then you have situations where you have Chaos Warriors, which were core in the last edition of Warhammer and what people are used to now, but are actually the elite of Chaos. That's why I don't see a super huge deal if Special is appropriate for them (max of 10 models, takes a Special slot), but like you said, putting them in Core as well is also appropriate. The same applies for Ogres. These are the times where exceptions have to be made, and the only way these exceptions make sense is if they are applied army by army, unit by unit. Otherwise, there's just no way to balance wounds without point costs.

This might not be perfect, but its a clear way to lightly balance the game around some generic modifications to army restrictions proportional to army size, without actually putting point costs in it.  You're essentially limiting the powerful stuff that you can take, reducing the amount of ridiculous presence on the field, while still being able to freestyle for the majority of the lists.

For example, let's just call the above a small game.  For a medium-sized game, you add +1 Hero, Core, Special, Rare, but keep the Elite at 0-1.  For a larger game, you do 1-4 Heroes, 1-4 Core, 0-4 Special, 0-3 Rare, 0-2 Elite.

While we're doing that, let's add some other generic rules for quality of life reasons:

• LoS works the same as 7th Ed. 40K (including characters joining units, large models cannot)
• Infantry-sized heroes can get LoS on 2+
• Cavalry or MI heroes can get LoS on 4+
• Soft cover is -1, Hard cover is -2 to shooting
• Shooting units cannot shoot if they're in melee
• All melee is base to base
• All stupid ass rules that make you cluck or do something else equally retarded resolve as if you preformed the required action

What do you think?  I'm looking for feedback first and foremost, and I need expert opinions on people with army specific knowledge.  I am pretty fluid in everything except for Brets, Beastsman, Warriors, Lizards, Orcs, and Tomb Kings.  If you can make a list of units from the Age of Sigmar books following my restrictions, please post them in the comments so we can discuss.

Just bought into Warhammer 40K: Conquest

I'm so excited, I just can't hide it!

I made the leap yesterday and placed an order for 3x core sets and all of the existing warpacks (6 of them).  This should mean that I'll have at least 3x of every card and 6x of every core set card.  I've done a lot of research into the game lately and it looks like serious fun to play.  My plan is to get my local gaming group into the game and start up something that can add to the local meta.  I believe there's already a playgroup that goes to the local tournaments around here, so I'll hopefully add onto that with a few players.

The biggest drawback right now is I only have 2 playsets (6x cards total, 3x is the playset) of some really popular cards.  I'm talking about Rogue Trader, Void Pirate and Promotion.  While some decks don't have those because they have their own ridiculously good cards, a lot of other decks do because they lack those options.  I mean, that's OK for now since I can just move those cards around from the decks I plan to build, but once more players think about playing seriously, they'll have to buy their own 2x starer sets and whatever else.

Right now, I plan on building the following decks:
Eldorath/DE
Baharroth/Tau
Kith/Eldar
Zarathur/Ork
Cato/Tau
Ragnar/AM
Aunshi/Eldar

One of the best things about this game has to be the fact that I can swap some cards around and all of a sudden, I have a new deck.  Throw a few things around from Eldorath and replace some warlord specific cards here and there and I have a Baharroth deck.  Do the same with Cato and you have a Ragnar deck.  All of these guys play radically different and that's what I love about the game system thus far.  Sure, I don't like seeing Rogue Traders and Void Pirates everywhere, but that's only because the game is still relatively new and there's no faction specific cards out for them yet.  Hopefully with the upcoming deluxe expansion we'll see some replacements.

Have any of you guys gotten into this game?  It looks incredible.  Some of the new art too, absolutely incredible.  For 150 bucks, I have every army in the game, all of which are competitive because the rules are well-written and there's direct tournament support.  Wow.

Thanks for the good times WHFB

With each new beginning, there is an end.

Probably one of the saddest days for me in the hobby so far.

I'm not interested in the direction that Age of Sigmar is taking the hobby and I've decided to liquidate everything that I have.  For those of you that might be interested, please check the Bartertown link here.  Thanks for all the good years and support, know that these funds will be poured directly into 40K, which in its current form, still has what I look for in the hobby.

For those of you that might think this is me overreacting and jumping shark, it's really not.  I'm simply not interested in what Age of Sigmar has to offer.  I already have enough skirmish-level games that I can play such as X-Wing and Warmahordes, and both game systems still have what I enjoy the most about the gaming aspect of playing table-top.  These three things are: army design, army customization, and doing so within a points limit.  On top of that, FFG and PP also cares deeply about the community, customer retention, tournaments, and competitive game balance.  I mean, have you seen some of these Warscrolls?  What the fuck man.

I am a gamer first and foremost, more than anything else.  When I'm not gaming, I'm building models so I can get them on the table to play.  This is why ever since I sold off all my painted miniatures, I never bothered to paint them again.  I'm that much of a gamer that I look back at all the time I've spent painting and I want them back so I can play more.  Playing games gives me fun and fulfillment.  It also inspires me to write on this blog so I can share my ideas, strategies and battle reports with you guys so you can continue to enjoy the game along side me.  I don't see Age of Sigmar doing that for me, so I don't want to pollute this blog with any more god damn negativity.  You gotta cut the negative stuff out of your life you know?

Regardless, this is going to be my last Warhammer Fantasy post.  It has been 14 years since I started WHFB and today, that all comes to an end.  I'm not interested in fan-supported 8th Edition, or ETC or anything else less than official because for me, I've been down that road with BFG and Epic and I'm not willing to do that again.  If Age of Sigmar ever decides to bring back the things I enjoy the most about the hobby, I'll think about joining in again.  For now though, it's goodbye.