Hastatior
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Posts posted by Hastatior
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10 hours ago, Crabbok said:Wave 6 SHOULD have been in stores next week, but now that seems impossible. Probably 1st week of July perhaps?
First week of July virtually impossible.
I have first hand knowledge of how FFG release cycles work and the info I have from my contact puts this wave in a point in the cycle where 1 month is an average turn over. In other words if all goes well we are looking at second week of July (13th). Things rarely go well. A pessimistic projection is the very last Thursday in July. The 20th is a reasonable expectation that is not likely to disappoint and the 6th would be a Christmas Miracle! (in July)
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Lets just say that early July would be "optimistic"
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Just got some bad news about this one. I hope it's not true, but don't expect this wave in June. Sorry.
My source is quite good.
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I'm hopeful for the 29th but for that to happen it has to switch to shipping now in the next couple of days AND a lot of stuff needs to go well.
From my previous experience, however, the "upcoming" tab isn't always the best indicator of where the stuff actually IS. For all we know the wave is already sitting in distribution and they are just waiting for FFG release date. Also it sometimes happens that they don't update the tab...
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I love that it's possible to have a good time and spend more time theorycrafting lists than actually playing the game.
I love the mechanics and the models.
I love the theme.
I love the fact that you can use the base rules and all the things to play any kind of game you want to play (different point totals, custom campaigns) meaning that if FFG canceled development of the game tomorrow I know I can be playing it and having fun 20 years from now with it.
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19 minutes ago, jorgen_cab said:Squadron balls are not very effective once you know how to deal with them. I think that the reason why they are so effective in some environments are because people rely too much on Aces thereby have too few squadrons to block and tie down such poor use of squadrons.
I have seen people use up 100-130p in like six-seven squadrons and move them in one big heap. That is easy to pin down with a more bare bones squadrons and some ship flak. Intel will not do the trick because they rarely have more than ONE Intel in such a ball.
I don't think we need area of effect weapons, we need to develop better squadron tactics in general.
Sweetheart, I know from squadron tactics.
Where this is useful is when you are facing one of those Reeikan relay death contingents. the squads need to be at range 1 to shoot you, they need to be distance 3 of a relay to continue getting commands from transports that are running away from everything, they like to be distance 3 of Toryn Farr and they like to be in range of Bomber command. Having to check off all those boxes and still be far enough apart from each other to make triggering an AOE counter not worth it is a much more interesting proposition. As for going toe to toe with squadrons against this set up, go ahead and try it. Enjoy wasting your time with zombie escorts tying YOU down. With their relay their squads are more responsive and they activate almost every squad every round with almost no balancing downside (3 transports plus yavaris all of whom can be sitting in a corner away from all your stuff), this is why aceholes vs aceholes is like watching paint dry in slow motion. Its like watching 2 pillows have a pillow fight. You will find it so effective to try and kill something only to have a fighter activated to your spot, shoot you, adar taloned, activated by yavaris next activation, shoot you twice and look at that you aren't tying anything up because you are dead and all you managed to do was delay 1 xwing ace 1 round. Good investment.
MandalorianMoose reacted to this -
13 hours ago, ouzel said:but it will have to cost as much as the attack your stopping. the fighters the relay craft and the fighter command cost from the ship. to be remotely fair.
Thats not how a counter works lol. You aren't forced to take the counter any more than you are forced to take what its countering. A meta is a meta specifically because some choices are more efficient than others in a probability space. In other words, the very existence of a hard counter devalues the efficiency of what it is hard countering. If a 5 point upgrade that nerfs relay existed even if you don't take it makes relay dependant fleets less attractive in the meta. If you are building an entire archetype around having fragile ships that don't ever want to be in combat range and this is propped up by them being able to still have 100% effectiveness via relay but you know there is a 5 point upgrade that can crumble this entire set up, you no longer have an "auto-win" fleet as is currently the case. For example, the existence of XI7s means you never see advanced projectors even though XI7 is not seen that often anymore...
13 hours ago, scipio83 said:Yes, because a 5-point upgrades that could conceivably kill 3-5 squadrons in a single go is reasonable.
It's ok to hate squadrons, but this is ridiculous.Only kills 3-5 squadrons if you are stupid enough to attack in a ball. Remember cluster bombs are a counter. It's a deterrent. It says if you want to hit this ship you better not do it all clumped up and in range of your stupid relay! It just makes it more difficult to utilize a swarm of squadrons to destroy anything and everything and makes you think a little more about how you are going to keep everything in range of relay. It also acts to devalue massed squadrons in the meta. It also makes it easier for a modest squadron screen to potentially be able to strategically delay same squadron ball.
Blail Blerg reacted to this -
Come to think of it. An offensive upgrade, "Jamming Transmitter" or something that stops any enemy squad in range 5 from relaying a lot of this jank gets nerfed.
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I'm thinking even a modification that adds an AA die would be a massive help. Or one that works similar to cluster bombs but has AOE. They key is AOE and Counter threat. If you have a one shot squadron killy beam that stands a solid chance of crippling or killing a key squad (read: stupid, ill considered relay) it changes the game significantly.
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2 hours ago, scipio83 said:I'm of the opinion that, rather than being insufficiently effective, they haven't been effectively *employed* (if at all). When was the last time you saw anyone use *any* of the above listed upgrades, in spite of the "ZOMG SQUADS OP" rhetoric that we keep seeing?
Because the above listed upgrades are over-costed low effectiveness garbage.
For 5 points discard Cluster bombs should roll that many dice at all squadrons at a 1 distance of the initial target or some such AOE. Think about how much ten numb costs above a standard B-wing with a AOE effect that you don't discard.
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32 minutes ago, PT106 said:Not really. They exist but aren't effective enough against wave5 squadron synergy (I speak from a position of a person that used ship-based answers for squadron threat for some time).
And Ruthless Strategists is combined arms AS, not ship-based AS.
P.S. Btw, you forgot Point-Defence Reroute (troll face).
Nice!! My thought about a current all-ship list that can counter Rieekan is Motti ISD1, 5 Raiders and gozanti. Still need to try it though.
That sounds like fun to fly. My Aceholes opponent did say that the only thing he fears is a tanky ISD rushing on all cylinders and popping a couple flots. Speed 3 all the way. With a bunch of Raiders to flank and Harry at high speed that sounds like a fun-as-heck list I would love to try. Anyways, I wanted to take an all ship list in a squad heavy meta and on top of that, build around the most maligned (wrongly) ship in the Imperial Arsenal. Everyone thinks VSD1s are crap until my spinal VSD 1 with a CF is unloading a double Arc into them at close range. So much fun!
cynanbloodbane and clanofwolves reacted to this -
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More Anecdotal fun:
I took 4th in a 9 player and quite competitive store champs with an all-ship list. 2 Victory, 2 Raider, Demo and lifeboat using Jerry
I tabled 2 carrier fleets and only lost to the worlds list (flown by a guy that went to worlds with same list).
In one of those I bum-rushed a flotilla with demo on turn 2 and rolled an expanded launchers shot with an accuracy and 4 damage
Splat!
Anyways, the best and easiest to implement suggestion I've seen to fix a lot of this is to not let flotillas count towards not being tabled. Simple. If you face a reikaan aceholes list you actually stand a solid chance of killing Yavaris and Gallant haven before the Bomber span Jank takes you down. A big part of the problem facing those lists now is that thanks to relay the opponent can simply run his flotiallas to opposite corners and you can't both concentrate your firepower to take down the carriers and chase them down, and in the meantime they keep activating all the squads. Another fix is to make you spend all the squadron activations through 1 relay (i.e. you can't spread 2 points to 2 different relays) significantly reducing the efficiency of the relay and putting Yavaris in danger again (the balance with Yavaris ALWAYS used to be that yes it's powerfull but its also fragile, so if you want to push those squads you have to put this fragile Neb B in danger, now you can speed zero yavaris in a corner and get full value from its ability (which is BS)
And as has been said before, ship-based anti-squad needs to be a thing. Especially it needs to be a thing that doesn't require nerfing your fleet or paying out the nose in points to implement. An AS upgrade that is relatively cheap in a relatively available slot that adds either a lot of repeatable burst for single target focusing or an AOE effect to punish clumps.
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2 hours ago, Undeadguy said:I'm not sure if it will be a straight counter to Rieekan aces, but it could be effective. Rieekan HH would allow you to save your titles until you really need them, since they will stay on the board. FT will be great for Rebels to have.
If a Rieekan HH swarm would be the counter to Rieekan aces, then that list could define the meta. Instead of threads on beating Rieekan aces, it becomes Rieekan HH. So the problem isn't fixed, but rather shifted to a new fleet.
It is also possible a HH swarm beats carrier fleets, but GT ISD beats HHs because they are bunched together for the synergy. And then carrier fleets beats the GT ISD. But then we are playing rock paper scissors which is not what I want Armada to be.
Hard to tell what the actual impact of wave 6 will be.
Fair enough but rock paper scissors > blobby, boring Aceholes or bloby boring Aceholes. I did a store champs the other day and one of the only reasons the guy who brought aceholes didn't win the whole thing is that he faced me in the second round and I deliberately took second to deny him his guaranteed points objectives and deliberately used 2/3 of my fleet sacrificially to threaten while the other third ran away. My whole goal was to deny him MOV for bringing that list. I had no way to win anyway so I wanted to make sure he got the least possible points from me. (he ended second and I ended 4th).
From what I have heard from him the only thing that threatens the Aceholes is basically a very aggressive ISD tank list with delay squadrons. If the ISD charges in at speed 3 and manages to pick off a transport and either Gallant Haven or Yavaris while delay squadrons hold off the bombers for at least 2 turns you can "win" maybe 6-5 or 7-4
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Disposable capacitor Spinal VSD2s will be HH snipers for sure.
On another note, I'm thinking an honest to goodness HH reikaan or mothma swarm might be the answer we are looking for VS the annoying worlds list. You can cram a lot of these buggers into a list and basically charge them at carriers, threatening all of them at once. It will take some mastery and practice but could be a workable all-comers list that is also a hard counter to Aceholes
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15 minutes ago, Snipafist said:Alliance has a habit of picking up exclusive distribution rights (everything Catan and Carcassonne comes through them, for example) and for the life of me I couldn't tell you how. As a company they're subpar and our orders from them are regularly missing something or have a damaged item or two.
I'm not peeing myself over it, we're just going to deal with it and move on. If I had to guess as to why Asmodee went that route, I'd guess Destiny had something to do with it. With various different distributors trying to get inadequate Destiny supplies to different game stores, you got a very uneven distribution that was fairly ad hoc, as many game stores use more than one distributor and so all of them were trying to max out their Destiny allotment from every distributor they used. It created have and have-not stores and stores with no idea if they could fulfill their preorders until the day of. Very confusing and frustrating. With just a single company handling distribution, it seems like we may have a more even Destiny distribution in the future instead of the raw chaos of how it has been. Maybe. I still don't like Alliance, but we'll see.This is all about Asmodees business model.
The ultimate goal here is not "highest customer satisfaction" or "fairness" the ultimate goal is Vertical Integration they want to own everything from publisher down to store so they can control the entire market. They started by buying many major publishers, then they embarked on a strategy of consolidating exclusives to those products in a distributor they want to buy, recently they have been buying distributors. Basically what they do is pick a crap distributor and get them "addicted" to exclusives and then vigorously encourage them to sell. They completed this strategy in Canada with F2Z (now known as Asmodee Canada).
The next step in their plan, once they get stores buying all their stuff from distributors they own, is to force stores to stock a particular number of Asmodee group owned titles or be cut off. For a lot of stores this might represent a stomach-churning amount of their shelf space/inventory. Then they do the same thing as with the distributors. Don't be surprised to see Asmodee branded LGSs in the next few years. Vertical integration is a powerful tool in the homogenization and monopolization of an industry. They want to do this and then jack up prices to make their stock really attractive when they IPO.
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4 hours ago, Valca said:A mix of Lambdas and YVs would be better if you're going that route. The YV-666 does have superior firepower.
lambda has superior relay, and superior not-suck. if you want firepower brind defenders
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1 hour ago, thecactusman17 said:But if your goal is to tie up enemy squads, the Defenders are much better at doing the same job. They launch out at 2+5, and pre-position so that Valen sits in the cage where he can't be flanked from any direction. They trade one point of health and cost one extra to lose heavy and get all the speed, plus bomber.
That said, if you don't care about heavy, your better option still is Valen and 3 Lambdas. The Lambdas pull quadruple duty as ablative hull for Valen, decent anti squadron with their black dice, relay to ensure Valen is never left deactivated, and strategic to make token objectives a nightmare for your opponent.
Nice, never considered the Lambda spam. Yet another reason the YV will likely never leave the box
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1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:Probably mixed up with YT-1300s which are also speed 2.
Probably. YT-1300s are great, with escort and no heavy they are like having a fat dude that can't punch sitting on you. So annoying if your intel is focused down or elsewhere. YVs need help from Valen and instantly are less point efficient for the same effect.
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18 hours ago, Marinealver said:No idea why you would post a video of a rebel v rebel match when we are discussing YV-666s...
JJs Juggernaut reacted to this -
YVs are too slow and have heavy. I have never seen YVs run in a serious list for being over-costed and useless as a fighter screen.
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got a chance to try my printed bases today and frankly they kick ***. nothing like being able to pick up a bunch of squadrons to clear the way for a movement tool and not having to worry about marking them. then when measuring you can pop the squad piece off and measure from the base, move the base and pop the squad back on it after. Works a treat.
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I tried out a Z-95 swarm (5 of them) and totally forgot about swarm. I found exactly what the data suggests: Swingy cannons. In my alpha strike my first Z-95 rolled 5 natural damage and none of the others rolled lower than 3. They decimated all the escorts and the intel from the enemy rhymer ball and my opponent thought he was done for and that z-95s were WAY OP for the cost, then the dice turned on me and I don't think those buggers managed more than 1 damage each attack the rest of the game lol. Wish I had remembered the swarm...
I was trying something goofy with 5 Zs, 2 VCX, Bigs and a YT and Jan, a transport, a cr90 and 2 MC30s under mothma. The whole idea was to bank squad tokens on everything and relay commands for an alpha strike. CR90 with squad dial/token, transport with token, mc30s each with a token = 7 activations Bigs and YT there to soak for the fragile Zs
Frankly it worked quite well for the alpha and quite garbage for every turn after haha! it did manage to kill or scatter his rhymerball and I think he got 1 bomber shot off the whole game
GhostofNobodyInParticular reacted to this
Article Predictions. Mostly General Discussion. But there's definately some Predictions scattered throughout.
in Star Wars: Armada
Posted
Guys, sorry, if you didn't see the release date prediction thread, I have it on very very good information that June is not going to happen. In fact third or 4th week of July for release is not off the table, second week is optimistic and first week would be a happy miracle.