Baby Blues, Too (2.0)

[theBitterFig 11,598]

Just now, Wildonion said:

True, but the original suggestion I made was to drop the astromechs from two of the rookies so that all 4 were identical, which frees up points for Pava to take some kind of secondary weapon.

Bah, I missed the context.

My bad.

[Wildonion 28]

I am wondering if running the T-70s a bit like a Tie swarm might not be a fun approach. Just leverage the innate strengths on the platform and get a high initiative leader with Swarm Tactics. Something like...

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Ello Asty - 59
    •Ello Asty - Born to Ill (56)
        Swarm Tactics (3)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

Total: 197/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

[Old Sarge 239]

I ran 2 games using 4 Blues with HLC.  Here are my observations:

1.  28 Hull/shield behind 2 agility is very survivable.

2.  That HLC can be crazy good, and makes your squad even better at jousting.

3.  There is an old article on the finger 4 formation that could give folks great ideas on how to fly them.  https://www.backtodials.com/a-wing-ace-the-finger-four-formation-by-jonathan-scott/.

4.  Try to get your enemy to fly through narrow rock formations so you know where to aim that HLC.

5.  I played IG88 A and C with two quads.  I flew badly and still won a close game.  Try to set up jousts where you block an IG and get 3 4-die shots. It’s easier than you may think.

6. I played a Redline, Whisper, Echo list and got destroyed.  On the first round of combat I lost a ship before it could fire.  On the second round I lost another ship.  That result convinced me that XXXX has real limitations against the power curve in extended.  It probably does better in the Hyperspace format.

[MasterShake2 5,184]

On 12/20/2018 at 10:31 AM, Wildonion said:

I am wondering if running the T-70s a bit like a Tie swarm might not be a fun approach. Just leverage the innate strengths on the platform and get a high initiative leader with Swarm Tactics. Something like...

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Ello Asty - 59
    •Ello Asty - Born to Ill (56)
        Swarm Tactics (3)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

Total: 197/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

 

Trash Ello and you have enough for Jess and Bastian, both of which combo well in a 4x ship

[Wildonion 28]

5 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

 

Trash Ello and you have enough for Jess and Bastian, both of which combo well in a 4x ship

Not sure how much I like Bastian's ability without giving him proton torpedoes, though he could get an R3 to double lock. Then Jess could grab any of the five point, 2-charge droids to fuel her ability.

[MasterShake2 5,184]

1 hour ago, Wildonion said:

Not sure how much I like Bastian's ability without giving him proton torpedoes, though he could get an R3 to double lock. Then Jess could grab any of the five point, 2-charge droids to fuel her ability.

 

You really don't need a torp.  He's 2pts more than a generic.  Getting free locks for that is just crazy good.

[Wildonion 28]

In light of MasterShake2's excellent suggestions, I think I will give the following a whirl when I throw down with friends tomorrow. R3 seems like a no-brainer for Bastian and I like the R5 for keeping Jess flying just a little longer. Though I also really like the R5-X8.

 

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Lieutenant Bastian - 51
    •Lieutenant Bastian - Optimistic Analyst (48)
        R3 Astromech (3)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Jessika Pava - 57
    •Jessika Pava - The Great Destroyer (52)
        R5 Astromech (5)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

[Old Sarge 239]

48 minutes ago, Wildonion said:

In light of MasterShake2's excellent suggestions, I think I will give the following a whirl when I throw down with friends tomorrow. R3 seems like a no-brainer for Bastian and I like the R5 for keeping Jess flying just a little longer. Though I also really like the R5-X8.

 

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - Blue Squadron Rookie - 46
    Blue Squadron Rookie - (46)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Lieutenant Bastian - 51
    •Lieutenant Bastian - Optimistic Analyst (48)
        R3 Astromech (3)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

T-70 X-wing - •Jessika Pava - 57
    •Jessika Pava - The Great Destroyer (52)
        R5 Astromech (5)
        Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

This won’t work as well as you might be thinking.  R3 only gives you an extra lock following a lock action, and Bastian’s free lock doesn’t involve a lock action, so R3 doesn’t work with his ability.

I don’t like R5 on Jess either.  Her rerolls only make her focus tokens more valuable, so sacrificing an action for a regen won’t be useful that often.

[Wildonion 28]

Just now, Old Sarge said:

This won’t work as well as you might be thinking.  R3 only gives you an extra lock following a lock action, and Bastian’s free lock doesn’t involve a lock action, so R3 doesn’t work with his ability.

I don’t like R5 on Jess either.  Her rerolls only make her focus tokens more valuable, so sacrificing an action for a regen won’t be useful that often.

You're totally right on R3. Read through that one a little too quickly on that one. I don't intend to use R5 primarily for his ability. I just wanted a droid with charge tokens for Jess' ability. It just seemed like a nice back up between the choices I had at the five-point level.

[Old Sarge 239]

Oh, I didn’t see that interaction with Jess.  I withdraw my objection!

[Wildonion 28]

All righty, so I ran my above list (just swapping the R3 for an R4 on Bastian) and it was a lot of fun! The extra durability and the integrated S-foils are great; it'll be hard going back to the old T-65 after having those. However, I found that there wasn't much I could do in the way of tricky flying when I was trying to stay in formation. It might be lack of practice with close formation flying, though. The baby blues are definitely a great place to start for a beginner, since the platform is durable and pretty forgiving of mistakes, but I think it struggles against some of the things that a good ace can pull. I feel like the three-ship version will be a better option when the more costly pilots all have special maneuverability options and don't need to stay within range one of one another. That or taking the Reds with Heroic or R4 astromechs and flying them in pairs? It bears some investigation.

The list I flew against was a pair of FO Ties (Static and Commander Mal) and Kylo Ren. My opponent has a lot of practice with Imperials, but the list had some dead weight that we chopped while revising his list post-game. Things like primed thrusters on Mal or predictive shot on Kylo. I make mention of this because I still got trounced by Kylo in the end, which I think says something about what that guy can do when in the hands of a competent flier! I found that gunning down the ties was a breeze, but I just couldn't keep Kylo in a place where I could get a good shot off at him. I lost one of the rookies in the first engagement, but bagged Mal in the process, so I figured it was a good trade. I shot down Static on the next turn when I jammed up the space between two debris piles, but I took a good bit of damage on Bastian and the remaining rookie in the process and Kylo slipped on by me. It was all downhill after that. I tried keeping the trio together for a few rounds, but Kylo is damned maneuverable and I eventually had Bastian break off from the other two in order to try and lure Kylo into their arcs by making the damaged ship a more tempting target. It let me take off his shields, as Bastian got Kylo to bump him one round and dropped double evades on two others, but I just got too banged up early on while simultaneously being unable to land any damaging hits. Eventually, the injured fighters went down and Jess was left undamaged and on her lonesome. It ended a little while after that, as Kylo just kept dodging around and setting up shots as he pleased, and I never even put a damage card on him. Which is frustrating, to say the least.

[Cgriffith 886]

6 hours ago, Wildonion said:

I make mention of this because I still got trounced by Kylo in the end, which I think says something about what that guy can do when in the hands of a competent flier! I found that gunning down the ties was a breeze, but I just couldn't keep Kylo in a place where I could get a good shot off at him. I lost one of the rookies in the first engagement....

Eventually, the injured fighters went down and Jess was left undamaged and on her lonesome. It ended a little while after that, as Kylo just kept dodging around and setting up shots as he pleased, and I never even put a damage card on him. Which is frustrating, to say the least.

Kylo is simply magnificent. Supernatural Kylo is a force wrecking machine. How many times did your opponent cripple you with the ISYTDS?? I love seeing Kylo dominate.

[Rich P 907]

I think flying baby blues in formation is a trap. I played 4 games with Jess & 3 Rookiees and struggled to get to 1-2 flying formation. I then switched to flying them split apart and dominated the last game. Jess gets rerolls because you are setting up kill boxes so someone is usually in R1 of her even then you could fly Jess +1 as a pair and let the other two flank. 

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

On 12/21/2018 at 6:43 PM, Old Sarge said:

.  Try to get your enemy to fly through narrow rock formations so you know where to aim that HLC.

That's a good point. X-wings generally don't  (or didn't) want tight-packed obstacles, but with a combination of roll/link/focus (with closed S-Foils) and heavy laser fire to throw into narrow gaps, they become much more imposing.

 

[Wildonion 28]

19 hours ago, Cgriffith said:

Kylo is simply magnificent. Supernatural Kylo is a force wrecking machine. How many times did your opponent cripple you with the ISYTDS?? I love seeing Kylo dominate.

It never came up. My opponent beat up the T-70s with the ties early on, so they were pretty easy to kill on just direct hits. Poor Jess got smoked in two turns when I flubbed a move and Kylo shot her from behind at R1; I didn't dodge anything, but it was all hits and no crits. That said, the whole time I am waiting for that damned card to get dropped on me. ISYTDS definitely has a psychological impact when you are trying to make choices and what to shoot and how much damage you can put out and where. (My opponent made up for it on his next game against a friend of ours, though. Practically every shot had a crit!)

[Cgriffith 886]

20 minutes ago, Wildonion said:

It never came up. My opponent beat up the T-70s with the ties early on, so they were pretty easy to kill on just direct hits. Poor Jess got smoked in two turns when I flubbed a move and Kylo shot her from behind at R1; I didn't dodge anything, but it was all hits and no crits. That said, the whole time I am waiting for that damned card to get dropped on me. ISYTDS definitely has a psychological impact when you are trying to make choices and what to shoot and how much damage you can put out and where. (My opponent made up for it on his next game against a friend of ours, though. Practically every shot had a crit!)

The Kylo player assigns the condition card after he becomes the defender. Kylo never had to defend, or after you were assigned the card he never rolled a critical damage that wasn’t canceled?

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by Cgriffith

[Wildonion 28]

13 minutes ago, Cgriffith said:

The Kylo player assigns the condition card after he becomes the defender. Kylo never had to defend, or after you were assigned the card he never rolled a critical damage that wasn’t canceled?

 

He had the card ready to go after I took my first shot at him, but he just didn't get a crit after that. So he sat on the pilot card he picked for the bulk of the game. The only times he got crit results, following the destruction of the Ties, I had shields up. Didn't stop him from burning me down, though! Oh, this feels like a good time to ask. So the first guy who got the ISYTDS card was blow up before he suffered a crit, so does the chosen crit card stay on the ISYTDS card? Or does it get discarded when the condition is removed? We just played it where the chosen crit card sat on the ISYTDS card and both were passed to the next ship that shot at Kylo.

[Cgriffith 886]

45 minutes ago, Wildonion said:

He had the card ready to go after I took my first shot at him, but he just didn't get a crit after that. So he sat on the pilot card he picked for the bulk of the game. The only times he got crit results, following the destruction of the Ties, I had shields up. Didn't stop him from burning me down, though! Oh, this feels like a good time to ask. So the first guy who got the ISYTDS card was blow up before he suffered a crit, so does the chosen crit card stay on the ISYTDS card? Or does it get discarded when the condition is removed? We just played it where the chosen crit card sat on the ISYTDS card and both were passed to the next ship that shot at Kylo.

ISYTDS goes through shields. All that needs to occur AFTER its assigned is a uncanceled critical damage, it bypasses shields. A critical damage is still receiving a critical, whether there’s shields or not. 

@ficklegreendice explains the mechanics eloquently.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by Cgriffith

[Wildonion 28]

O rly? Looks like my buddy is getting another Christmas gift this year when I tell him this is how ISYTDS actually works. Thanks for the clarification, @Cgriffith! With that part handled, I would revise my original question. If any crits were rolled and not canceled, then the selected card is clearly applied, even if it is overkill, but what about if my opponent had the abysmal luck of just not rolling any crits before the ship afflicted with ISYTDS was destroyed? For example, the ship only has one hull left and the shot that takes it out just results in regular hits. Does the crit card stay in play, attached to the ISYTDS card, waiting for the next for sap to get hit with the condition? Or does it go away when the ISYTDS card is removed?

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

"When this card is assigned, if there is no faceup damage card on it, the player who assigned it searches the damage deck for 1 Pilot damage card and places it faceup on this card. Then shuffle the damage deck."

Implies the potential for a face-up damage card to be attached at the point it is assigned. Once selected, the card stays until assigned or the game ends, even if the condition moves ship.

[theBitterFig 11,598]

A few fun new variants have popped up, with the reduction of droid costs.

• 4x Blue with R2 Astromech.  This seems like it could be potent.  I played against an R2-equipped squad of T-65s once, and it seemed decent.  There were often times when a ship could slip away, gain back extra health.  I think I'd like R2 more than R5, since there are probably more likely to be out-of-arc turns than turns where you want to give up actions.
• 4x Blue with BB-Astromech, +3 points.  Now we're talking.  With the variable pricing on the new BB-Unit droid, a... sorry, I have to do it... "Blue Balls" list is now valid.  Homing Missiles have gone up to 5 points (alas, Ion Missiles didn't come down), so that's out, but Tractor Beams are 2 points.  That's a nifty amount of added mobility and control.

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

Also every ship with nothing else in the hardpoint receives a Jamming Beam. Not enormously amazing, but worth remembering if confronted with a Reinforced Ghost or Decimator, or this latest Triple-Upsilon-with-a-million-tokens rubbish.

I think the R2s are a good call. 4 x T-70s is an impressive amount of solid meat to chew through, and what is (essentially) two shield upgrades on each is an awesome deal - you're quite correct that a 4-ship swarm can afford to have one ship break off and run far more than smaller forces, and losing a T-70 entirely in a single turn is (hopefully) unlikely now massed torpedoes are detectably more expensive.

BB Astromechs & massed Tractor Beams just sound like comedy gold. I get a barrel roll! You get a barrel roll! EVERYONE GETS A BARREL ROLL!

 

Alternatively, 3 Rookies with BB Astromechs and Jamming Beams and Jessika Pava with BB-8 and a Tractor Beam.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Magnus Grendel

[theBitterFig 11,598]

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

BB Astromechs & massed Tractor Beams just sound like comedy gold. I get a barrel roll! You get a barrel roll! EVERYONE GETS A BARREL ROLL!

Blue balls just tugging everything around.

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

17 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Blue balls just tugging everything around.

[theBitterFig 11,598]

4 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Yeah... I've suddenly become 14 years old in this thread.