Feel like knocking the dust off your Citadel paints? Yeah, me too. Might just have to do something about that this weekend...
Check out the full article and get inspired!
Thursday, October 10, 2013
X-Wing Miniatures Re-Paints Showcase on BoLS
I got an email from Larry at BoLS earlier that brought to my attention some really amazing re-paints a guy named Ratty has done. I'm not going to re-post them all because I want y'all to patronize Larry's site, but here's an appetizer-
TheMetalBikini.com's 200th post!
Good Lord, I can't believe I'm still doing this. As I've mentioned before, this thing just kinda started out as a way to get a couple of my friends up to speed quicker on how to play X-Wing Miniatures.
Now 200 posts and 400 some-odd thousand pageviews later, it's this like, crazy thing where I have people from all over the world stopping by the bar to give me their unique takes on this fun little miniatures game and read my highly suspect and decidedly goofy commentary.
Awesome.
Thanks again, guys. It really is fun writing for y'all. Hopefully after this launch at work things slow down for me a bit around December or January and I can get back to more regular updates on here. Thanks for sticking around and putting up with my erratic posting these days.
Peace!
Now 200 posts and 400 some-odd thousand pageviews later, it's this like, crazy thing where I have people from all over the world stopping by the bar to give me their unique takes on this fun little miniatures game and read my highly suspect and decidedly goofy commentary.
Awesome.
Thanks again, guys. It really is fun writing for y'all. Hopefully after this launch at work things slow down for me a bit around December or January and I can get back to more regular updates on here. Thanks for sticking around and putting up with my erratic posting these days.
Peace!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Crew Members- Darth Vader
This post regarding Crew Members is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Darth Vader, Crew Member (3)
Card Text: Galactic Empire Only After you perform an attack against an enemy ship, you may suffer 2 damage to cause that ship to suffer 1 critical damage
Usage in game: When you need an <unfilled explosion result> by any means necessary.
Action?: No
Breakdown: I've been turning it around in my head how to approach talking about this card and while I'm not nuts about it, the best way I can think of is explaining what this card doesn't do. Normally, this is something I don't do- tell you what not to do. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine, as a matter of fact. Most of the time, anybody can tell you what not to do- it's telling you what you should do that's much more difficult.
It's like a couple of weeks ago, I read an article that showed up in my Twitter feed about how not to get an (literary) agent (recall that I do write more than just on this blog and all). I'm sitting there thinking, "This is stupid- I already know how to not get a friggin' agent, y'know? I have the 33 rejection emails to prove it. What would be infinitely more useful to a wannabe fiction-writer would an article on, well, you know- how to actually get an agent." The fact that it's borderline insulting to anyone with a brain (what? You mean I shouldn't harass the piss out of my agent with endless phone calls? Whew! Glad I read this article!) doesn't help either.
Again- whether or not you've realized it yet, pretty much anybody can tell you how to not do something. I mean, I've never played pro football, flown an airplane, or designed a skyscraper, but I'm pretty sure I could come up with a list of stuff not to do on any of those topics and a thousand others I also know absolutely jack shit about.
Sorry, I'll put away the soapbox now, just accept my apology for a moment that I'm going to tell you how Vader, Crew member doesn't work for a little bit.
You may have noticed in the comments for Proton Bomb, bikini aficionado +Davyd Atwood calling me out for not being completely clear on the fact that Proton Bomb's card text is fairly unique in that it actually gives the victim a face-up damage card, period.
I bring this up, of course because this card does not do that.
Note the card text- "... to cause that ship to suffer 1 critical damage." When a ship "suffers a critical damage", that's essentially the same thing as you attacking it and throwing an unfilled explosion result (or crit, in the local parlance) on one of your red dies- in other words, and this is the TL;DR part you were waiting for- yeah, shields can mitigate the effect of Darth Vader, Crew Member if they're still protecting the target ship.
Did you notice I said "essentially" the same thing? I threw that in there for a reason. It's not 100% just like it- for example, Draw Their Fire can't be used to move that critical damage because it isn't a result.
Ok, if you were like all hot to trot on the idea of sticking Vader, Crew Member in your shuttle, you're probably a little bit bummed out about this card right now because I've told you what it can't do, so let's cover what it can and what it's good for.
First, note the start of the card text- "After you perform an attack against an enemy ship,...". Sounds a little like Gunner, right? Major difference though that some folks seem to have missed on initial read-throughs: you don't have to miss to trigger Vader, Crew Member.
The cool thing here, obviously is you get to decide when you trigger this card. You attack, roll the red dice, your victim rolls his greens, modifications get made, damage gets dealt (I'm simplifying this, I know- if you want the detailed version click here), and that's it. So after all that stuff gets said and done, if the guy you really, really, really want dead still has 1 hull point left, you can decide to suffer those two damage and make him dust.
(If you're wondering how exactly I've come to this conclusion, note that in the rulebook on page 10, the very top left, it says-
During this phase, each ship may perform one attack
against one enemy ship that is inside its firing arc
and within range. Starting with the ship with the
highest pilot skill, players resolve the following
combat steps in order:
So to me, Peforming an Attack is resolving the Combat Phase for the ship that attacked. My usual "but I could be wrong" disclaimer applies as always, but I don't really see how else this could work because...)
You don't have to hit to trigger Vader, Crew Member either. So long as you attacked somebody, you can opt to suffer the 2 damage and stick 1 critical damage on that ship.
So how does this interact with Gunner and similar cards? The same way, basically. Gunner happens during the Combat Phase, so all that stuff would resolve before Vader, Crew Member. This does bring up an interesting question though- what if you go after two ships using your attack then gunner roll? Remember that it's possible in some circumstances to generate attacks at two different targets. At this point, I'd say you could Vader either of them as you technically did attack both of them.
Wow. Ok, so now you're probably not quite as bummed about Vader, Crew Member, right? I mean, yeah, the two damage is definitely a downside, and 3 points isn't super cheap, but you're more or less buying the ability to make somebody suffer a critical damage almost anytime you want; assuming you can get into at least Range 3 of them. That's nothing to dismiss.
It may kind of seem like it doesn't matter, but since this damage is happening after all the steps in the Combat Phase, it's kinda like taking the usual "cancel <filled explosion results> before <unfilled explosion results> a step further here. Unless you rolled horribly, horribly badly, you probably bled an Evade or Focus or both off your target in the initial resolution (Christ- I almost typed "resolvement"; I gotta get to bed soon) so you really are going to be pretty likely to stick them with an actual crit when you play Vader, Crew Member. Of course if you did roll terrible or they still have a shield left or whatever, you can always choose to not turn on the ability- it's not like you're forced to do it.
All that being said, there are only two ships that can take this Crew Member- the Lambda and the Firespray. The Lambda is perhaps a safer bet because it has two Crew seats, but the Firespray is just so much more maneuverable and dangerous in my opinion. Maybe it's because I have more experience flying it, but well... that means you do too. Not saying it doesn't work on a Lambda, but I think it works easier on the Firespray. I know it'd be totally overkill, but imagine stinging somebody with Trelix flying Slave I, launching Advanced Proton Torpedoes with a Focus Token, then triggering the Vader, CM text too. That's gotta hurt.
This is a tough card for me to 100% get behind as I'm a fairly conservative player at my core and the idea of purposely taking damage is something of anathema to my mindset, but it does afford the owning player a predictable outcome (for a price) 100% of the time which is worth a lot even to somebody like me. If you've analyzed your game and concluded you're losing because you're not inflicting enough damage, give Vader a fly and see if your luck changes some.
Card Text: Galactic Empire Only After you perform an attack against an enemy ship, you may suffer 2 damage to cause that ship to suffer 1 critical damage
Usage in game: When you need an <unfilled explosion result> by any means necessary.
Action?: No
Breakdown: I've been turning it around in my head how to approach talking about this card and while I'm not nuts about it, the best way I can think of is explaining what this card doesn't do. Normally, this is something I don't do- tell you what not to do. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine, as a matter of fact. Most of the time, anybody can tell you what not to do- it's telling you what you should do that's much more difficult.
It's like a couple of weeks ago, I read an article that showed up in my Twitter feed about how not to get an (literary) agent (recall that I do write more than just on this blog and all). I'm sitting there thinking, "This is stupid- I already know how to not get a friggin' agent, y'know? I have the 33 rejection emails to prove it. What would be infinitely more useful to a wannabe fiction-writer would an article on, well, you know- how to actually get an agent." The fact that it's borderline insulting to anyone with a brain (what? You mean I shouldn't harass the piss out of my agent with endless phone calls? Whew! Glad I read this article!) doesn't help either.
Again- whether or not you've realized it yet, pretty much anybody can tell you how to not do something. I mean, I've never played pro football, flown an airplane, or designed a skyscraper, but I'm pretty sure I could come up with a list of stuff not to do on any of those topics and a thousand others I also know absolutely jack shit about.
Sorry, I'll put away the soapbox now, just accept my apology for a moment that I'm going to tell you how Vader, Crew member doesn't work for a little bit.
You may have noticed in the comments for Proton Bomb, bikini aficionado +Davyd Atwood calling me out for not being completely clear on the fact that Proton Bomb's card text is fairly unique in that it actually gives the victim a face-up damage card, period.
I bring this up, of course because this card does not do that.
Note the card text- "... to cause that ship to suffer 1 critical damage." When a ship "suffers a critical damage", that's essentially the same thing as you attacking it and throwing an unfilled explosion result (or crit, in the local parlance) on one of your red dies- in other words, and this is the TL;DR part you were waiting for- yeah, shields can mitigate the effect of Darth Vader, Crew Member if they're still protecting the target ship.
Did you notice I said "essentially" the same thing? I threw that in there for a reason. It's not 100% just like it- for example, Draw Their Fire can't be used to move that critical damage because it isn't a result.
Ok, if you were like all hot to trot on the idea of sticking Vader, Crew Member in your shuttle, you're probably a little bit bummed out about this card right now because I've told you what it can't do, so let's cover what it can and what it's good for.
First, note the start of the card text- "After you perform an attack against an enemy ship,...". Sounds a little like Gunner, right? Major difference though that some folks seem to have missed on initial read-throughs: you don't have to miss to trigger Vader, Crew Member.
The cool thing here, obviously is you get to decide when you trigger this card. You attack, roll the red dice, your victim rolls his greens, modifications get made, damage gets dealt (I'm simplifying this, I know- if you want the detailed version click here), and that's it. So after all that stuff gets said and done, if the guy you really, really, really want dead still has 1 hull point left, you can decide to suffer those two damage and make him dust.
(If you're wondering how exactly I've come to this conclusion, note that in the rulebook on page 10, the very top left, it says-
During this phase, each ship may perform one attack
against one enemy ship that is inside its firing arc
and within range. Starting with the ship with the
highest pilot skill, players resolve the following
combat steps in order:
So to me, Peforming an Attack is resolving the Combat Phase for the ship that attacked. My usual "but I could be wrong" disclaimer applies as always, but I don't really see how else this could work because...)
You don't have to hit to trigger Vader, Crew Member either. So long as you attacked somebody, you can opt to suffer the 2 damage and stick 1 critical damage on that ship.
So how does this interact with Gunner and similar cards? The same way, basically. Gunner happens during the Combat Phase, so all that stuff would resolve before Vader, Crew Member. This does bring up an interesting question though- what if you go after two ships using your attack then gunner roll? Remember that it's possible in some circumstances to generate attacks at two different targets. At this point, I'd say you could Vader either of them as you technically did attack both of them.
Wow. Ok, so now you're probably not quite as bummed about Vader, Crew Member, right? I mean, yeah, the two damage is definitely a downside, and 3 points isn't super cheap, but you're more or less buying the ability to make somebody suffer a critical damage almost anytime you want; assuming you can get into at least Range 3 of them. That's nothing to dismiss.
It may kind of seem like it doesn't matter, but since this damage is happening after all the steps in the Combat Phase, it's kinda like taking the usual "cancel <filled explosion results> before <unfilled explosion results> a step further here. Unless you rolled horribly, horribly badly, you probably bled an Evade or Focus or both off your target in the initial resolution (Christ- I almost typed "resolvement"; I gotta get to bed soon) so you really are going to be pretty likely to stick them with an actual crit when you play Vader, Crew Member. Of course if you did roll terrible or they still have a shield left or whatever, you can always choose to not turn on the ability- it's not like you're forced to do it.
All that being said, there are only two ships that can take this Crew Member- the Lambda and the Firespray. The Lambda is perhaps a safer bet because it has two Crew seats, but the Firespray is just so much more maneuverable and dangerous in my opinion. Maybe it's because I have more experience flying it, but well... that means you do too. Not saying it doesn't work on a Lambda, but I think it works easier on the Firespray. I know it'd be totally overkill, but imagine stinging somebody with Trelix flying Slave I, launching Advanced Proton Torpedoes with a Focus Token, then triggering the Vader, CM text too. That's gotta hurt.
This is a tough card for me to 100% get behind as I'm a fairly conservative player at my core and the idea of purposely taking damage is something of anathema to my mindset, but it does afford the owning player a predictable outcome (for a price) 100% of the time which is worth a lot even to somebody like me. If you've analyzed your game and concluded you're losing because you're not inflicting enough damage, give Vader a fly and see if your luck changes some.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Titles- Moldy Crow and ST-321
This post regarding Titles is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Moldy Crow (3)
Card Text: HWK-290 only. During the End phase, do not remove unused Focus tokens from your ship.
Usage in game: Making the Blaster Turret and/ or HWK-290 worthwhile.
Breakdown: So look, everybody knows about Katarn + Recon Specialist + Moldy. The advantages are obvious and well, if I talk about it here, I won't have much to talk about in the Katarn article, so we're just going to leave that alone for now.
So not talking about that, is there any other use for the Moldy Crow title?
Well, sure. Sure there is. And no, I'm not going to make some wise ass remark because I'm a hater- there really are some pretty good uses for it.
As for the other two named HWK pilots, going Moldy is never a bad idea, per se, but it doesn't like synergize particularly effectively with Roark Garnet. Again- it's not bad on him, but it's nothing out of the ordinary special really either. It is kind of nice for Jan Ors since she generates Stress and if you've got a way of holding onto a Focus token past the End phase, you don't necessarily have to pull a green to get rid of that Stress token next turn to still be effective. In other words, while you still wouldn't get to complete your Perform Action step, you'd still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus token or two lying around from a previous turn (or two, or three) so you'd still have the benefit of an Action without actually having to perform one. Of course, you can't use her card text if you're Stressed, but if you were worried your opponent was going to guess your move because you kinda had to pull a green, ah whatever. You know what I'm saying. I'm kinda talking in circles now.
I actually kind of like this card on the Rebel Operative too. For 21 points, you could roll a Rebel Operative with the Moldy title and Saboteur and just fly around Focusing your defense rolls to stay out of harm's way while trying to sabotage anybody the rest of your ships are pounding. That's not horrible. Or for only 20, you could have a Rebel Operative in the Moldy flying around with an Intelligence Agent also Focusing your green dice so you can keep on looking at your opponent's maneuver early. Also not horrible.
I think it's borderline too expensive for what it's actually bringing to the table, but a RO flying Moldy with a Blaster Turret is only 23 points and look- that first turn you never get to really use your Action Token anyway, why not bank it with the Moldy title, then when you do finally get to shoot at somebody, you can fire the turret but still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus token lying around for emergency defense use or to modify your Blaster Turret attack roll.
ST-321 (3)
Card Text: Lambda Shuttle only. When acquiring a target lock, you may lock onto any ship in the play area.
Usage in game: When Range 1-3 just isn't enough...
Breakdown: Much like the Katarn + Moldy + Recon combo is obvious to the point of discomfort, the Colonel Jendon + ST-321 combo is too. Also like the Katarn combo, it's the main thing to talk about with Jendon, so I'll save the finer points for his article. Suffice it to say though, it works and it works pretty effectively as lots of your ships can conceivably be within Range 1 of Jendon's big ass base.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about ST-321 with Yorr (YORR... YORRRRR!!!) or Kagi, but like Moldy, it's always handy to be able to dish off a Target Lock, so if you do spring for it on one of those guys, it's unlikely to be the stupidest thing you've done all day. Ditto for the Omicron Group Pilot.
There are some other cards this title works well with though- Weapons Engineer being a no-brainer, but consider the Recon Specialist here too. The damn Shuttle has bad moves and a 1 Defense, so if you're TLing from way out then picking Focus when you're going to actually get into range and shoot, you still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus Token or two to use on defense. Or take a Mercenary Copilot and use that ability as kind of a light Marksmanship Action you don't have to actually declare while you Target Lock stuff.
I think the real advantage of ST-321 is pretty subtle to the point a lot of people might not see the value in it, especially on a lower Pilot Skill variant of the Shuttle.
Range 3 is a pretty big slice of the board, but if you're sitting there, just out of range of a high PS pilot (like Wedge for example), you may not get another shot at him next turn with that restrictive Shuttle wheel because he's going to move into range with you after you've declared your Action then probably go blowing right by you in the next Activation Phase. With ST-321 though, you can TL him, then after (hopefully, possibly) surviving his initial attack on you, you hit him when it gets to be your Shuttle's turn to shoot with that Attack 3 primary and use the Target Lock folks didn't expect you to have to really make it count.
Card Text: HWK-290 only. During the End phase, do not remove unused Focus tokens from your ship.
Usage in game: Making the Blaster Turret and/ or HWK-290 worthwhile.
Breakdown: So look, everybody knows about Katarn + Recon Specialist + Moldy. The advantages are obvious and well, if I talk about it here, I won't have much to talk about in the Katarn article, so we're just going to leave that alone for now.
So not talking about that, is there any other use for the Moldy Crow title?
Well, sure. Sure there is. And no, I'm not going to make some wise ass remark because I'm a hater- there really are some pretty good uses for it.
As for the other two named HWK pilots, going Moldy is never a bad idea, per se, but it doesn't like synergize particularly effectively with Roark Garnet. Again- it's not bad on him, but it's nothing out of the ordinary special really either. It is kind of nice for Jan Ors since she generates Stress and if you've got a way of holding onto a Focus token past the End phase, you don't necessarily have to pull a green to get rid of that Stress token next turn to still be effective. In other words, while you still wouldn't get to complete your Perform Action step, you'd still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus token or two lying around from a previous turn (or two, or three) so you'd still have the benefit of an Action without actually having to perform one. Of course, you can't use her card text if you're Stressed, but if you were worried your opponent was going to guess your move because you kinda had to pull a green, ah whatever. You know what I'm saying. I'm kinda talking in circles now.
I actually kind of like this card on the Rebel Operative too. For 21 points, you could roll a Rebel Operative with the Moldy title and Saboteur and just fly around Focusing your defense rolls to stay out of harm's way while trying to sabotage anybody the rest of your ships are pounding. That's not horrible. Or for only 20, you could have a Rebel Operative in the Moldy flying around with an Intelligence Agent also Focusing your green dice so you can keep on looking at your opponent's maneuver early. Also not horrible.
I think it's borderline too expensive for what it's actually bringing to the table, but a RO flying Moldy with a Blaster Turret is only 23 points and look- that first turn you never get to really use your Action Token anyway, why not bank it with the Moldy title, then when you do finally get to shoot at somebody, you can fire the turret but still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus token lying around for emergency defense use or to modify your Blaster Turret attack roll.
ST-321 (3)
Card Text: Lambda Shuttle only. When acquiring a target lock, you may lock onto any ship in the play area.
Usage in game: When Range 1-3 just isn't enough...
Breakdown: Much like the Katarn + Moldy + Recon combo is obvious to the point of discomfort, the Colonel Jendon + ST-321 combo is too. Also like the Katarn combo, it's the main thing to talk about with Jendon, so I'll save the finer points for his article. Suffice it to say though, it works and it works pretty effectively as lots of your ships can conceivably be within Range 1 of Jendon's big ass base.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about ST-321 with Yorr (YORR... YORRRRR!!!) or Kagi, but like Moldy, it's always handy to be able to dish off a Target Lock, so if you do spring for it on one of those guys, it's unlikely to be the stupidest thing you've done all day. Ditto for the Omicron Group Pilot.
There are some other cards this title works well with though- Weapons Engineer being a no-brainer, but consider the Recon Specialist here too. The damn Shuttle has bad moves and a 1 Defense, so if you're TLing from way out then picking Focus when you're going to actually get into range and shoot, you still (hopefully, possibly) have a Focus Token or two to use on defense. Or take a Mercenary Copilot and use that ability as kind of a light Marksmanship Action you don't have to actually declare while you Target Lock stuff.
I think the real advantage of ST-321 is pretty subtle to the point a lot of people might not see the value in it, especially on a lower Pilot Skill variant of the Shuttle.
Range 3 is a pretty big slice of the board, but if you're sitting there, just out of range of a high PS pilot (like Wedge for example), you may not get another shot at him next turn with that restrictive Shuttle wheel because he's going to move into range with you after you've declared your Action then probably go blowing right by you in the next Activation Phase. With ST-321 though, you can TL him, then after (hopefully, possibly) surviving his initial attack on you, you hit him when it gets to be your Shuttle's turn to shoot with that Attack 3 primary and use the Target Lock folks didn't expect you to have to really make it count.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Modifications- Anti-Pursuit Laser
This post regarding Modifications is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)
Card Text: Large Ship Only. After an enemy ship executes a maneuver that causes it to overlap your ship, roll 1 attack die. On a <filled explosion symbol> or <unfilled explosion symbol> result, the enemy ship suffers 1 damage.
Usage in game: Making folks with spatial awareness issues pay for their transgressions.
Breakdown: So this is another one of those cards that I think people will at one end of the spectrum on or the other- either you can scarcely imagine flying a big ship without Anti-Pursuit Lasers, or you'll never ever use it. Which one are you?
As mentioned, this thing can only go on a big ship, so we're only talking about three potential candidates to start with- the YT-1300, the Firespray, or the Lambda Shuttle, so that's the first selection criteria. If you rarely use big ships in your game, then you'll even more rarely use Anti-Pursuit Lasers. Assuming you do use one fairly regularly, it'll still depend on how you use, or don't use, those ships, but first I gotta spend a couple of paragraphs getting sidetracked about random pop culture references and/ or soccer and at some point actually talking about how it works.
Right. So it's fairly straightforward, but there's some potential for folks to shorten the rule and get it wrong, so let's talk about exactly what's happening here. It kicks on when your opponent bonks into you. That's pretty much it. When it kicks on, you immediately roll an Attack die, and if you roll a hit or a crit, your opponent immediately earns 1 damage for his lack of vision, er, lack of maneuvering prowess.
So you might be wondering, "Jesus- how can somebody get that wrong in their head?" Main thing? It doesn't work when you bonk into somebody else, just when somebody else bonks into you.
Ah. Changes things a bit, doesn't it? Putting this on Solo or even Fett? Kagi? Probably not the smartest idea you've had all day. Yes, I'm sure there are instances where you could still make it work, but they'll be fewer than the instances generated by a Bounty Hunter or an Outer Rim Smuggler, smarty pants.
As mentioned in tons of other articles on TMB, I love cards that deal damage outside of the Combat Phase and as Anti-Pursuit Lasers is another one of those, I am automatically fondly attracted to the card. I'm not quite to the point where I'm in a crush situation, but I'm getting there. This goes without saying to you bikini aficionados out there. What makes this card a little extra intriguing is the fact that it's not a Secondary Weapon System or even an Other Weapon System- it's a Modification which brings up the second part of the selection criteria regarding whether or not you'll get some use out of this card. It's also awesome because you're still invoking all the normally crappy things that happen when somebody runs into you- namely the fact that they lose an Action. Talk about insult to injury, right?
If you're like me, most of the time when it comes to Modifications, you're looking at either Stealth Device or Shield Upgrade. This isn't to say I'd never take Engine Upgrade or it sucks or whatever, I just usually don't take it because I prefer the more tangible benefit of Stealth Device or Shield Upgrade over the fact that I don't really Boost all that effectively. Again Boost Action- it's not you, it's me. While those old standbys are especially great for regular ships, I find for whatever reason I rarely take them on the big ships. Maybe it's just me. Assuming it's not though, here's the place to consider the Anti-Pursuit Laser if you haven't already.
Maybe the last selection criteria I'd mention to you in making this Mod work for you is how you use that large base ship. If you like having it stay on the backline and lob in shots from a Heavy Laser Cannon, for example, APLs might not be a great investment for you. My experience with the Shuttle so far is that it's tough to maneuver anywhere but the deck of a friggin' aircraft carrier, so while the card is included with the Shuttle, I'm not especially likely to use it on one because my Shuttle usually stays the hell outta the way. On a Trelix Firespray with an Autoblaster though? Sure! Or a Chewie Falcon? Hells yeah, why not? On either one of those guys we're well past crush and into lightly obsessed territory.
Long story short, if you like to use large ships, get them into the action, don't make much use of the existing Mods, and find yourself flying low to medium PS pilots you're going to fall in lust with Anti-Pursuit Lasers. If you don't? Well, you'll likely wonder what all the fuss is about.
Long story really, really short- do you find most of your games have at least one pretty good pileup in the middle of the board? If so, then take APLs and bear in mind that card text isn't limited to a single ship- if two (or more) enemies bonk into you, you'd roll for both of them, dig? For two points, how can you not love that?
Card Text: Large Ship Only. After an enemy ship executes a maneuver that causes it to overlap your ship, roll 1 attack die. On a <filled explosion symbol> or <unfilled explosion symbol> result, the enemy ship suffers 1 damage.
Usage in game: Making folks with spatial awareness issues pay for their transgressions.
Breakdown: So this is another one of those cards that I think people will at one end of the spectrum on or the other- either you can scarcely imagine flying a big ship without Anti-Pursuit Lasers, or you'll never ever use it. Which one are you?
As mentioned, this thing can only go on a big ship, so we're only talking about three potential candidates to start with- the YT-1300, the Firespray, or the Lambda Shuttle, so that's the first selection criteria. If you rarely use big ships in your game, then you'll even more rarely use Anti-Pursuit Lasers. Assuming you do use one fairly regularly, it'll still depend on how you use, or don't use, those ships, but first I gotta spend a couple of paragraphs getting sidetracked about random pop culture references and/ or soccer and at some point actually talking about how it works.
Right. So it's fairly straightforward, but there's some potential for folks to shorten the rule and get it wrong, so let's talk about exactly what's happening here. It kicks on when your opponent bonks into you. That's pretty much it. When it kicks on, you immediately roll an Attack die, and if you roll a hit or a crit, your opponent immediately earns 1 damage for his lack of vision, er, lack of maneuvering prowess.
So you might be wondering, "Jesus- how can somebody get that wrong in their head?" Main thing? It doesn't work when you bonk into somebody else, just when somebody else bonks into you.
Ah. Changes things a bit, doesn't it? Putting this on Solo or even Fett? Kagi? Probably not the smartest idea you've had all day. Yes, I'm sure there are instances where you could still make it work, but they'll be fewer than the instances generated by a Bounty Hunter or an Outer Rim Smuggler, smarty pants.
As mentioned in tons of other articles on TMB, I love cards that deal damage outside of the Combat Phase and as Anti-Pursuit Lasers is another one of those, I am automatically fondly attracted to the card. I'm not quite to the point where I'm in a crush situation, but I'm getting there. This goes without saying to you bikini aficionados out there. What makes this card a little extra intriguing is the fact that it's not a Secondary Weapon System or even an Other Weapon System- it's a Modification which brings up the second part of the selection criteria regarding whether or not you'll get some use out of this card. It's also awesome because you're still invoking all the normally crappy things that happen when somebody runs into you- namely the fact that they lose an Action. Talk about insult to injury, right?
If you're like me, most of the time when it comes to Modifications, you're looking at either Stealth Device or Shield Upgrade. This isn't to say I'd never take Engine Upgrade or it sucks or whatever, I just usually don't take it because I prefer the more tangible benefit of Stealth Device or Shield Upgrade over the fact that I don't really Boost all that effectively. Again Boost Action- it's not you, it's me. While those old standbys are especially great for regular ships, I find for whatever reason I rarely take them on the big ships. Maybe it's just me. Assuming it's not though, here's the place to consider the Anti-Pursuit Laser if you haven't already.
Maybe the last selection criteria I'd mention to you in making this Mod work for you is how you use that large base ship. If you like having it stay on the backline and lob in shots from a Heavy Laser Cannon, for example, APLs might not be a great investment for you. My experience with the Shuttle so far is that it's tough to maneuver anywhere but the deck of a friggin' aircraft carrier, so while the card is included with the Shuttle, I'm not especially likely to use it on one because my Shuttle usually stays the hell outta the way. On a Trelix Firespray with an Autoblaster though? Sure! Or a Chewie Falcon? Hells yeah, why not? On either one of those guys we're well past crush and into lightly obsessed territory.
Long story short, if you like to use large ships, get them into the action, don't make much use of the existing Mods, and find yourself flying low to medium PS pilots you're going to fall in lust with Anti-Pursuit Lasers. If you don't? Well, you'll likely wonder what all the fuss is about.
Long story really, really short- do you find most of your games have at least one pretty good pileup in the middle of the board? If so, then take APLs and bear in mind that card text isn't limited to a single ship- if two (or more) enemies bonk into you, you'd roll for both of them, dig? For two points, how can you not love that?
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
DakkaDakka.com's X-Wing Forums
Remember last week when I was all, "My bad!" about Geordan's listbuilder?
Well, I have another apology to make.
I got an email all the way back in July from a guy by the handle of MajorTom11 who is a mod over at DakkaDakka.com. Turns out they've got a pretty sweet X-Wing Forum and he wanted to make me aware of it. I figured I'd talk a little about it on here after things slowed down for me in real life- at the time, we were gearing up for summer shutdown at the plant and when I finally came up for air afterwards, I just completely forgot about Tom's email.
So apologies Tom, and if you guys have some time to kill today, stop on by DakkaDakka and check out the X-Wing Forum Tom and the boys have going over there. Looks to be lots of varied topics and active threads. I think I'm a member over there from my 40k days- I'll stop by and say hi as well if I can knock the dust off my login. :)
Peace!
Other Weapon Systems- Proton Bomb
This post regarding Other Weapon Systems is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Proton Bomb (5)
Attack Value: N/A
Range: 1
Card Text: When you reveal your maneuver dial, you may discard this card to drop 1 proton bomb token. This token detonates at the end of the Activation phase.
Usage: If you've been playing X-Wing Miniatures for awhile (read: since Wave 2) and you already have a firm and hearty grasp on how Bombs work, then by all means, skip down a few paragraphs. For those of y'all who just started playing recently, never made extensive use of Bombs in the past, or have forgotten how exactly they work, please continue on.
Bombs are misunderstood by a lot of folks because the rules for them are sort of spread out across two or three different cards. That's kinda unusual in this game, so don't get too pissy about it if somebody's not totally comfortable with the rules the first few times they run or run into bombs. The good news is though the rules for Bombs are fairly straightforward once you get all the cards out in front of you. For the most part anyway.
Ok, so just like Seismic Charges and Proximity Mines back in the day, Proton Bombs are not technically Secondary Weapon Systems. I had to group them somewhere, so this is where I've done it, but make no mistake- Bombs do not meet the criteria of a Secondary Weapon; they do not say, "ATTACK: blah, blah, blah", so they're not.
Right on, now that we have that straight, there's two things to concern yourself when using a Bomb- Proton or otherwise: how it deploys, how it explodes, what happens when it explodes. Ok, that's three things. Nevermind about the two business- there's three things you need to concern yourself with.
First, Proton Bombs deploy with the same verbiage as the Seismic Charges. This means that before you even reveal your maneuver dial for the turn, you can drop this dude. To drop it, you place the 1 Straight template behind your ship, align the guides, and place the token. Since it's just like Seismic Charges and I'm lazy, I'm going to recycle the pic rather than make a new one with the Proton Bomb token. Same thing though. Same Bomb, different day, amirite?
Attack Value: N/A
Range: 1
Card Text: When you reveal your maneuver dial, you may discard this card to drop 1 proton bomb token. This token detonates at the end of the Activation phase.
Usage: If you've been playing X-Wing Miniatures for awhile (read: since Wave 2) and you already have a firm and hearty grasp on how Bombs work, then by all means, skip down a few paragraphs. For those of y'all who just started playing recently, never made extensive use of Bombs in the past, or have forgotten how exactly they work, please continue on.
Bombs are misunderstood by a lot of folks because the rules for them are sort of spread out across two or three different cards. That's kinda unusual in this game, so don't get too pissy about it if somebody's not totally comfortable with the rules the first few times they run or run into bombs. The good news is though the rules for Bombs are fairly straightforward once you get all the cards out in front of you. For the most part anyway.
Ok, so just like Seismic Charges and Proximity Mines back in the day, Proton Bombs are not technically Secondary Weapon Systems. I had to group them somewhere, so this is where I've done it, but make no mistake- Bombs do not meet the criteria of a Secondary Weapon; they do not say, "ATTACK: blah, blah, blah", so they're not.
Right on, now that we have that straight, there's two things to concern yourself when using a Bomb- Proton or otherwise: how it deploys, how it explodes, what happens when it explodes. Ok, that's three things. Nevermind about the two business- there's three things you need to concern yourself with.
First, Proton Bombs deploy with the same verbiage as the Seismic Charges. This means that before you even reveal your maneuver dial for the turn, you can drop this dude. To drop it, you place the 1 Straight template behind your ship, align the guides, and place the token. Since it's just like Seismic Charges and I'm lazy, I'm going to recycle the pic rather than make a new one with the Proton Bomb token. Same thing though. Same Bomb, different day, amirite?
So after you drop the token, you reveal your maneuver dial and everything continues on as normal- i.e. you move your ship, hit your Perform Action step if you've not done anything to screw yourself out of it, etc. Dropping a Bomb isn't an Action unless the card specifically says it's an Action (it's not for Proton Bomb).
It's also not an Attack, as again, Bombs aren't actually Secondary Weapon Systems, so you're perfectly free to drop your bomb, reveal a K-Turn, then shoot the poor sucker that was caught in the blast radius.
Before I get too far ahead of myself here, second point being how the Proton Bomb is triggered, the card says it detonates at the end of the Activation Phase. Long time readers of TMB will know what's coming next- I love cards that deal damage outside of the combat phase (where of course, damage is usually dealt).
I also love this card because since it isn't an Attack and it doesn't happen in the Combat Phase, your victim not only takes damage in the Movement Phase, but they also take damage that is very rarely (Falcon pilot Chewie only? I think that's right) mitigated. The target can't try and roll their way out of the damage, and card texts that help to mitigate/ modify Attack roles don't work here.
The third point about Proton Bombs concerns what exactly happens when it goes off. Again, kinda like Seismic Charges, but where SC did one damage automatically, Proton Bombs does one face up damage card automatically. Yeah- in the local parlance, you attach a crit to anyone and everyone caught up in the blast radius. Cool, huh?
What is the blast radius by the way? If you said Range 1 in all directions, you said it right!
Now, I only used the Seismic Charges and Proximity Mines a handful of times with Slave I, but with the Bomber I could see using them much more often. It wouldn't exactly be what you'd call cheap, but having a low Pilot Skill TIE Bomber kitted with a missile or torpedo and a Proton Bomb (or for that matter, either of the other two as well) is effective and scary for longer than a TIE Bomber just carrying the ballistic warhead, but it's still cheaper than a Firespray.
You'll notice I said a low PS Bomber- main reason I say that is just to keep the overall cost down. There are definitely debates to be made for Proton Bombs on high Pilot Skill pilots as well. Recall that the card text says the Proton Bomb goes off at the end of the Activation Phase, then also recall that if you're going to drop the PB, you have to do it before you reveal your maneuver. If you're confident some folks are going to come crashing into you, but then at the last moment it turns out they don't, you don't have to use the Bomb.
This is much easier to do with a pilot going later in the turn than with a low-PS pilot going early, so TL;DR version- this upgrade works on either low or high skill pilots, but for two different reasons- high because it's easier to guess when to drop the bomb, low because you're moving earlier and your opponent may "waste" an Action Boosting or Barrel Rolling away from your bomb. It may not hurt them, but if you cheat them out of a Focus when they're going to be staring down the business end of your guns, it may have a similar overall effect.
I mentioned in my initial impressions article that I wished I'd have found points for a bomb because Sean and I ended up in a bit of a knot in the middle of the table- I still really like that idea. Dig the following list I just made up off the top of my head-
With those threatening Bombs and a couple of TIE pilots who benefit from being close or being outside of enemy firing arcs, with a little practice and planning, you can really make life tough for your opponent with a list like that.
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