"Ready, are you. What know you ready" - Adventures with Turrets & Bombs at Nationals

A couple of blogs ago I left a thread dangling when I committed to flying a bombing Ghost/Nym combination at UK Nationals, and I've never formally recounted what happened.  Let me tie that loose end up especially as it now leads on to where I may be playing next!

So, this is the blog I wrote, and here is the squad as it was when I set out on that journey.

Practice Makes Perfect

I knew that time commitments meant I would have very few chances to play the squad before UK Nationals so I would steal any half chance I could get to put the ships onto the table.  My first playtest session was fairly casual among a group of guys who were also prepping for Nationals but didn't expect to do too well.

I went 6-1 with the list on the day and the defeat was my first game of the day when I only lost to a poorly-timed Blinded Pilot crit seconds before I would have killed Dengar and won the game.  At the end of my blog I'd said that barring catastrophe this was my list, and this first playtest session at least told me that it wasn't a catastrophe!

I made one key change to the squad during the day: it took about one and a half turns of my first game for me to rip the Synced Turret off the Ghost and replace it with Dorsal Turret.  My god, Synced Turret is awful, especially in this list!

• Turn One: roll forwards and prepare to joust Dengar
• Turn Two: SURPRISE!  5 k-turn in front of Dengar and drop some Cluster Mines on him.  Don't have an action for a target lock.  Can't fire my turret.  Can't get a target lock with Fire Control System to give me a target lock for next turn.
• Turn Three: 1-forwards and drop more Cluster Mines.  Still don't have a target lock.  Still can't fire my turret.  Still can't get a target lock for next turn.  Tear Synced Turret upgrade card into pieces.

So anyway, Dorsal Turret came in for my second game and stayed there for the rest of the day, with the extra point being used to upgrade the Ghost's Plasma Torpedo to a Proton Torpedo (for a free focus mod if I've used my action to drop bombs).  Dorsal Turret has a really bad reputation which I don't think it deserved, it's certainly unspectacular but it's reliable and in a meta with relatively little Agility around it contributes decent damage.

For the rest of the day my Dorsal-powered squad did me proud, even if I was definitely flying it pretty badly at times.  My best move was jamming the Ghost up into Rey's face for a joust, then next turn using a 2-turn to drop Cluster Mines right across her sloop path then pooped a Proton Torpedo out at her for good measure.  Cue fireworks and a toasty Falcon!

Rey eats Honey Nut Proton Clusters for breakfast!

My second playtest session was a few more games against casual opponents but it all helped me to get used to the movements of this big ship.  I won all these games again and was really enjoying flying the squad.

After this second session I made some significant changes.  So far having Hera Syndulla as my Ghost pilot had achieved precisely nothing - all of my opponents had been a higher PS bar one, and I'd crushed that opponent so decisively that Hera had never needed to change her dials.  There were points to be saved here and I used the saving from downgrading Hera to the basic Lothal Rebel to upgrade my offensive output by fitting a Twin Laser Turret to the Ghost, and loading Nym up differently with a Cruise Missile and an Ion Turret, taking away his Engine Upgrade.

Although by this point I was 9-1 with the list I was very aware that I hadn't been seeking out Nationals-level opposition.  With the Dorsal Turret and Autoblaster Turret equipped alongside my bombs I felt that my squad was very one-dimensional - I had to get close to die trying.  I didn't want to have to go into a game against a strong opponent with only one game plan because they'd identify that and just fly rings round me.

Switching to Twin Laser Turret and Ion Turret expanded the range of fire of both my ships, while adding the Cruise Missile to Captain Nym gave my opponent another big threat they had to worry about, and Ion is potentially a killer threat against the Mirandas and Nyms of this world.  It all meant that I was asking a few more questions of my opponent, giving them more of the table they couldn't safely sit in.

One last little playtest session with these changes equipped made me happy, and I rolled into Nationals with an 12-1 record behind me against casual opponents.  I knew full well that my squad wasn't about to repeat that sort of performance at Nationals, but with a following wind I thought I'd be able to achieve my goal of at least going 50-50 with it.

UK Nationals Recap

My Nationals box of hope & dreams

And the short version is that I did go 50-50... although that's because I dropped out after four rounds with a 2-2 record.  My fourth round game had ended really quickly and I didn't want to hang around for another 4 or 5 hours just to play two more meaningless games of X-Wing.  Especially when I was playing like a total spanner.

Four rounds played.  Four Captain Nyms practically handed to my opponent as a 45pt head start because I was playing like I was asleep.  I was getting really frustrated with myself and decided to knock it on the head early and go home.

The longer version:

Round One - Kester Smith (Kenkirk/Vader)

I lost this one but made a couple of half-asleep plays that make me think I should really have won it.  

On the initial engage I bust a gut to repeat that 5k maneuver I'd used on Dengar and scatter Cluster Mines in front of Kenkirk.  It worked, but that only gave Kester an extra agility and his Evade from Ysanne Isard so there was some false economy at work as he just made half of that damage back by repelling my Cruise Missile.  Kester's Vader swept around the flank and closed in behind Nym to punishing effect and I made my second mistake by not dropping a bomb behind Nym because it would have destroyed him, when it was clear that Nym was about to die anyway.  The bomb would have had a good chance of destroying Vader as well as Nym, leaving the Ghost 1-on-1 with a wounded Kenkirk but as it was Vader escaped and the Ghost went down against two opponents.

LOSS: 0-1

Round Two - Jesper Hills (Ion Brobots)

After losing my first round I expected an easier time than having to play former UK Champ Jesper Hills!  Unfortunately we only worked out after the match that the TOs had incorrectly entered my first round result as me winning, so I was in the winner's bracket while Kester had been sent down to the naughty step in my place.  

I underestimated how fast Jesper's Aggressors were going to close in and by trying to play it cute with Nym and hug just outside range 3 he just wound up being Ioned into the ground and dying for almost no effect - another 45pts given away.

Unfortunately for Jesper this woke me up for maybe the one time in the whole day when I actually started to play properly, and from that disastrous opening my Ghost actually managed to rapidly solo both his IG-88s!  There were two key moments in making this happen, the first was that I think Jesper didn't quite understand how good Chopper was so he decided to hit me with a Rigged Cargo Chute rather than an Ion Bomb.  I was terrified of his Ion threat but could cope with the stress and I simply barrelled through the Cargo Chute as though it wasn't there.  

The second key moment was that as I chased down his lead IG I correctly called where his second one was going to sweep in behind me - he hit all three Cluster Mines I dropped on his route and some unfortunate red dice meant he suffered 6 damage and exploded.

WIN: 1-1

Round Three - I forgot his name even though it was a really distinctive Scandinavian-sounded one, sorry!  (Nym/Asajj)

He was bringing a really unconventional Scum Nym with Minefield Mapper and Cluster Mines, hoping to build a fortress of bomb tokens then hide behind them and TLT me to death.  I once again executed my traditional sacrifice of Nym to terrible play, leaving the Ghost to finish up the job against both opponents.

Asajj went down quickly but his Nym was proving a tricky opponent to pin down, nevertheless I thought I would have the upper hand in a TLT-vs-TLT duel as I had much more hull to burn.  That changed when he finally completed his fortress with a last set of Cluster Mines - if he was going to keep adding Evades every time I shot at him I would lose that race after all!  I had no choice but to delibately smash my way over an asteroid onto three Cluster Mines just to break inside his fortress and get a kill shot.

7 red dice.  No damage.

That shouldn't have happened, and to be honest I didn't really need it to go quite that freakishly well, but it's a good story to tell your grand children.  That made it two games that the Lothal Rebel had bailed me out!

WIN: 2-1

Round Four - A Swiss Guy I also forgot the name of (Dash/Miranda)

When I'd been worrying about my Dorsal/Autoblaster turrets the list I'd had in mind as my bogey was this one, and even with TLT/Ion turrets I knew this was going to be a really really tough matchup as they would probably just circle away at range 3 and my bombs & ion cannon would never get to be useful.

So did I knuckle down in the face of adversity and play well, or did I throw my Nym away for a fourth time?  

If you answered "you threw Nym away for a fourth time" then you win a prize!

It's turn two and after moving I think Nym is just out of range of my opponent's Miranda, which I target locked with Long Range Scanner last turn.  I could barrel roll into range though and take a shot.  Cue one of those discussions like in old cartoons when the angel and devil appear on the hero's shoulder...

Devil: do a barrel roll!

Angel: but if you get into range you won't be focused because action was to barrel roll

Devil: do a barrel roll!

Angel: and you didn't go full speed so it's only a four dice attack anyway, with no focus.  That's rubbish.

Devil: do a barrel roll!

Angel: and it's against Miranda, so she'll dodge half the damage then regen the rest, and she'll TLT you back and you'll just lose two shields for nothing

Devil: do a barrel roll!

Angel: you should just switch your target lock to Dash.  He has to turn away next turn and a 4 forward from here will mean you get to hammer him with the Ghost and the Cruise Missile from Nym next turn

Devil: do a barrel roll!

Angel: so for all those reasons you definitely shouldn't do a barrel roll.  Just switch target lock.

I did a barrel roll.  My cruise missile shot got 2 hits, Miranda took 1 damage, regenerated it and dealt me 2 damage back.  I would have been in perfect place to batter Dash the next turn, instead Miranda and Dash smashed Nym up.  Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and if I'd not done the barrel roll it would have been a different game.  I think I conceded in frustration on turn 4 when Nym died and my Lothal Rebel got a Blinded Pilot as he was about to unload his torpedo on Dash.

LOSS: 2-2

Time to go home.

Back To The Future

I like the list a lot still.  I played like a donkey at Nationals and managed to go 50-50, and on another day I think I could easily have been on 3-1 after those four rounds.  Moreover it was the Ghost part that was experimental but it was the Ghost that ultimately delivered the goods so that's another tick against it being a pretty good squad!  I'd happily play it again, though maybe I'd tinker back with the Nym loadout and the Cruise Missile I added never really did enough... a second TLT would be amazing on Nym if I could find a way to get that on alongside Engine Upgrade.

What's also on my plate, though, is that I enjoyed the Ghost so much that I wouldn't mind double-Ghosting it a bit, so I went out and picked up a second VCX-100.  I'm busily painting it up in Sabine's colours (as above, not finished yet) so I've not had chance to put it onto the table yet, but I've got two different squad ideas to give a try...

Kanan & Sabine (Bombs ahoy!)

Kanan & Finn (6 dice primary PEW PEW PEW!)

These both bring me something interesting alongside the solid Kanan Jarrus model, and I look forward to trying them both out!

EXTRA CREDIT: Turrets & Bombs Are Fun To Play.  In A Bad Way.

So I decided to play the Ghost and Nym because I wanted to really see how the other half lived having spent so much time playing jousters.  What I can report back is that playing with these powerful turrets and bombs is a completely different experience, emotionally.  Even though I was inexperienced with turrets & bombs and playing the ships badly I was enjoying it because the nature of these ships is that they make you feel powerful, they make you feel clever and like you're outflying your opponent.

Playing my Imperial Aces was a nervous experience, every dial set & revealed made me nervous that I'd be left unable to fire, or unable to take the action that I need to survive.  I won far more games than I lost, but even winnning comfortably could leave me a nervous wreck at times. 

When I switched to turrets and bombs that emotional journey flipped entirely and I was relishing setting dials for what I was going to do to my opponent, I was watching their moves then barrel-rolling to be out of arc and get my turret shot, I was dropping Cluster Mines right in front of them and relishing rolling those red dice and add Sabine damage to it.  I felt like I was running rings round my opponents. 

The truth is that I was playing my turrets and bombs quite badly because I'm new to that style of play, but it felt like I was being the greatest tactical genius and winning because of my own brilliance.  

When I ran into the better players at Nationals my mistakes and inexperience with the playstyle were exposed, but in all my other matches against more average quality opponents I think that I was benefiting from some big advantages in the capabilities of my ships which covered over the majority of my play mistakes.

I understand a bit more now why people like playing fat barrel-rolling turrets, and it's because it's so easy to get hooked on something that both makes life easier and makes you feel good about yourself into the bargain.  If that option is there for you then... why not take it?

Metawing Metagame Update - September 2017

These are the Meta-Wing ranking tables for the calendar month of September 2017, which has included the results of several major National Championships.

If you don't know what Meta-Wing is then please read my blog introducing it here.

It's worth repeating some of the provisos about Meta-Wing, just to head off some of the people who get cranky about this sort of thing.

• Not every tournament is entered in Listjuggler.  You're not seeing a complete picture from every X-Wing tournament being played, and indeed it might be weighted towards certain regions, stores or TOs that run tournaments more frequently, or are more rigorous in entering their results on Listjuggler.
  
• When a tournament is entered in Listjuggler it's rare for every squad to be entered.  Most commonly you'll get TOs entering only the Top 4 or Top 8 squads and this means you're not seeing every squad or ship that's being played, even from the tournaments that are entered.  Even at the World Championships, for instance, only the Day Two lists were entered and even then it wasn't quite all of them.
  
• Meta-wing doesn't add or amend the Listjuggler data at all.  If it's entered wrong in Listjuggler then it's wrong in Meta-wing. Errors are rare but they do happen, and when you start aggregating data up those errors become difficult to spot (thought fortunately they also become a small part of a larger sample size).

SUMMARY

The Concord Dawn/Attani Mindlink connection is finally done.  Fenn/Teroch/Inaldra all take big drops in the pilots chart, while Paratanni & Sick Fang Man drop out of the top squads.  The Protectorate Starfighter has been a solid fixture at the top of the ship rankings as the only 'ace' really able to hold its own in the bombs meta, but this month it plummets from being #1 ship in August to the #12 spot!

The meta drifts slightly more towards Rebel dominance.  Rebel Nym is now ranked ahead of Scum Nym, and the big growth in squads is coming in Miranda/Dash/Nym combinations, while Poe's brief moment in the sun appears to be over.

SQUADS

• One of the big stories of the month is the rise in four different Rebel squads using variations of Miranda, Nym and Dash.  Almost 1 in 10 of all players on Listjuggler switched their squads to either Nymranda, Mirandash, Nymble Dash and 'OP Cubed' last month.

• The other big story is the sudden resurgence of Triple Jumps, which won the UK National Championships under the steady piloting of Faan Langelaan.  This has caught a lot of people by surprise but perhaps it shouldn't have done, as Faan had already placed a marker down when he used them to take down his Store Championship in July.   The Contracted Scout is looking just as dangerous as ever, but the question really is: where did it go?

TRIPLE JUMPS - SEPT 2017 (Winner UK National Championships)

• I think the answer is that Wave 9 just gave players better options for Mindlink so you saw the Contracted Scouts being replaced by either one or two Protectorate Starfighters (in Rauboats and Old Man Fenn, respectively), and of course there was the distraction of Paratanni.  Captain Nym has reversed all that though and brought the Contracted Scout racing back to the top of the charts.  On one hand the bombs have scared away the Protectorate Starfighters which had replaced the Scouts, and on the other hand the large hull of the Contracted Scout is good against bombs and it's small turret likes that there's not a lot of Agility around at present.  Getting access to Rigged Cargo Chute to mess with Miranda and Nym is just gravy.

"OP CUBED" (Runner-Up UK National Championships)

OP Cubed is an important squad to discuss in more depth as it's an interesting hybrid of Fair Ship Rebels and Nymranda, replacing Jess Pava and Captain Rex with the durable Miranda threat.  

Given the rise of arc-dodging turrets this seems a pretty strong move as the damage output from Jess and Rex is a lot less reliable that you can keep them on-arc of their target.  Another thing that occurs to me about OP Cubed is how much it reminds me of Paul Heaver's list that he used to win the Naboo Open earlier this year, which was Miranda/Biggs/Stressbot.  The structure then was that you had to deal with the Stressbot and Biggs then had Miranda waiting for you in the endgame, and OP Cubed is very similar except that it's Biggs & Lowhhrick you need to deal with before you get to your boss battle against the K-Wing.

MATCHUPS

The comparison of specific matchups is a lot sketchier because that information isn't always stored in Listjuggler, so from 100+ examples of players using Denym you only get a handful of specific 'Denym vs Mirandash' results, for instance.  So keep a punch of salt on hand for some of this.

• Contracted Scouts beat the two-ship lists, but struggle against the Biggs/Lowhhrick lists.  This makes good sense as Fair Ship Rebels first proved itself by being able to soak Dengar's alpha strikes.

• Fair Ship Rebels really doesn't like the bombs, with a rotten record against anything with Nym in.

PILOTS

• It's a second consecutive month without an Imperial pilot cracking the Top10, although Quickdraw holds his position in the 11th spot, so the top Imperial Aces pilots are very close.  

• It's a very good month if you're a Rebel pilot with access to a turret.  Miranda, Nym, Dash, Gold Squadron Pilot, Kanan and Zeb are all climbing places this month and overall the Rebels have now locked up 12 of the Top-20 pilot spots.  It's a level of faction dominance only occasionally seen since Wave 6 added the Scum & Villainy faction to the game. 

• It's a very bad month if you're an agile starfighter trying to use your primary firing arc, and even Fenn Rau finally takes a dive due to the ever-increasing level of bombs.  Fenn drops from 2nd to 12th, while Omega Leader, Inaldra and Old Teroch drop out of the Top-20 entirely.

• Rebel Nym has now climbed ahead of Scum Nym.  Partly he's just got better wingmen in the Rebel faction (Miranda & Dash, and Sabine Wren crew) but more and more players are finding that the Rebel Nym's pilot ability is just as strong as the Scum version, and arguably better once you get used to how to use it.

UPGRADES

Half of the top 20 upgrades are dedicated to secondary weapons, either the weapons themselves (Bomblet Generator, Twin Laser Turret, Plasma Torpedoes) or to making them work (Sabine Wren, Guidance Chips, Advanced SLAM).

There's two things here that I want to give a particular call out to:

• Burnout SLAM.  Sitting in at the #13th best Upgrade in the game, this is the one card that has given me the most 'WTF' in the upgrades table so I did a bit of digging into the squads it's appearing in. 
  
  There's two broad camps: YT-1300/YT-2400s who are just including the Burnout SLAM as a 'Get Out Of Jail' card with a spare point, and Jumpmaster 5000's who are pairing it with Cikatro Vizago and using it to switch in Rigged Cargo Chutes or Black Market Slicer Tools against unsuspecting opponents. 
  
  
  
• Autothrusters.  Dropping back from 16th spot in August to 38th in Septembr, with the weakest percentile performance of any of those cards in the table above, Autothrusters aren't doing very well.  This is well worth pointing out because the main trend we saw in the Squads and Pilots is that turreted ships are on the rise, so you'd expect Autothrusters to be turning up to counter them.  It appears the opposite it true though, which could well be that the nimble ships who would use Autothrusters (like Fenn Rau, or The Inquisitor) are struggling too much against the Bombs.

SHIPS

Finally, the full ships power level breakdown suggests that Guns For Hire can't bring buffs fast enough for the KIhraxz or Starviper!  Languishing down at the bottom of the tables Scum ace pilots have to hope that there's some serious power boosts in Guns For Hire, or all they'll succeed in doing is being pushed up into the mid-table.  That's what happened to the TIE Bomber when Imperial Veterans landed, and it remains to be seen if the likes of Thweek are more like Countess Ryad or Deathfire in power level.

Squadbuilding Trial And Error with Stridaneau

To be honest this blog has been 90% complete and sitting in my drafts for ages and the arrival of Captain Nym has changed the metagame a lot since this was first written.  

To set the scene: back then I was tilting off my Nettling Imp squads just hitting a brick wall against Dengar/Tel and Dengar/Fenn, and I was looking for something that would kill Dengar.  You're about to read me discard Decimator/Vader as a squad, when in the current metagame I probably wouldn't hesitate to make a PS11 Darth Vader my wingman because of his decent game against Captain Nym.  Take this blog for what it is - a slice of how I'd gone about tinkering with a squad to solve a problem - and if you're a fan of the Upsilon Shuttle then there might be something good in here for you.

That's enough preamble so let's hop in the time machine and travel back a month or two, to a strange and unfamiliar world...

The Dengar Killer - Rear Admiral Chiraneau

Results from World and Euros suggested that the Kylo Ren Decimator had come of age, and as I love Kylo Ren as a character it was something I wanted to give a try.  In theory this seemed like it would be a good answer to Dengar, as moving/shooting at PS10 would allow me to dodge his arc for the revenge shot a lot of the time, scoot into Range 1 away from any torpedoes, and I could use Kylo Ren tactically to support a wingman while I got the job done.  The squads that had done well at Worlds and Euros had Emperor Palpatine on board but in my push to nail Dengar to the wall I wanted to change that up and bring Rebel Captive to mess with his Expertise, with Gunner for helping to push damage onto the likes of Fenn Rau.

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau - Veteran Instincts, Kylo Ren, Rebel Captive, Gunner, Engine Upgrade (62)

My Decimator loadout was pretty firmly set I just needed a wingman and I tried a couple of options out.  A friend of mine, whose opinion I trusted, had given Whisper a run but felt it failed the Dengar test unless you could bid at least 3 points (with Dengar/Tel at 98pts) so I looked elsewhere.

• Rexler Brath - Veteran Instincts, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine MkII (37)

or

• Darth Vader - Lone Wolf, TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Engine Upgrade (36)

What these two options shared was that they both came in at high enough PS to worry Dengar (Brax at PS10, Vader at PS9 but matching the Dengar/Tel bid and beating the other Dengar bids), they could both token up to defend themselves, and they could both push crits to help trigger I'll Show You The Dark Side.  

I managed to get a few games in with both options against Dengar and ultimately found them both wanting.  Vader proved to be the stronger of the two ships thanks to Lone Wolf rerolling his dice, but ultimately I felt like they both seemed to be weak spots in the list rather than strengths.  Instead of my fighters bringing more offense to the list I was spending most of my time working to keep them alive!  To be honest I probably would have persevered with Vader and just tried to make it work better, but I was hitting another problem at the same time...

My Dengar killer wasn't killing Dengar.

It didn't seem to matter than RAC was moving after Dengar.  It didn't seem to matter that I could blind him.  It didn't seem to matter than I had Rebel Captive to shut down Expertise.  The simple fact was that, 1-on-1, Dengar was still able to out-trade the Decimator in a fight.  Yes Expertise was out of the equation but the Jumpmaster still got target locks from K4 Security Droid and a Focus token from his action.  Yes I could blind Dengar and dodge his arcs, but because I couldn't do both at the same time he would still be shooting at me once per turn, and he'd still be winning the damage race.

I needed to be able to boost out of Dengar's arc AND blind him at the same time.  But I couldn't equip Push The Limit or Experimental Interface to get an extra action without losing an essential upgrade and either dropping to a lower PS or losing my boost.  Where could that extra action come from?

STRIDANEAU (100)

• Rear Admiral Chiraneau - Veteran Instincts, Kylo Ren, Rebel Captive, Gunner, Engine Upgrade (62)
• Major Stridan - Fire Control System, Agent Kallus, Pattern Analyser (38)

The Upsilon Shuttle hasn't really found a definite place in the competitive metagame yet (although it did win a couple of Store Championships recently), but all the feedback I'd received was that the Coordinate action was a lot better than anybody expected.  Could that be the source of the extra action I needed for RAC?

Plus... it's the Upsilon Shuttle.  Kylo Ren's ride.  And it looks amazing. 

I loaded the shuttle up entirely with the Coordinate action in mind - Major Stridan to extend the range to R1-3, Pattern Analyser to use Coordinate when stressed, Fire Control System and Agent Kallus to modify my shuttle's dice 'hands free' on the assumption that my action would be dedicated to the Decimator a lot of the time.

And it works.  It's actually pretty good.  Coordinate is excellent for the list - it's not just the benefit of a second action on the Decimator, but also a second action that can't be bumped, and a Boost action before you reveal your dial that makes your Decimator's moves much harder to predict.  The shuttle also provides a decent pivot point for the Decimator to rotate around, holding a point on the table with its big gun while the Decimator sweeps around behind the enemy.  

I immediately felt like the shuttle was better than any of my fighter options and although I was pretty unfamiliar with running a pair of big ships I stuck with it for maybe a dozen games, probably winning more than I lost along the way despite facing some tough opposition. 

Unfortunately I must report that I ultimately dropped the list from my rotation.  Fun as it was the shuttle became a liability in too many games, especially on occasions where a bad turn for the Decimator would see it soak up too much damage and be the first ship out of the game.  I never EVER won a game where the shuttle was left to mop up the enemy after the Rear Admiral had gone.  It was just too easy for the opponent to move into the shuttle's huge blind spot and stay there.

Upsilon Shuttle Learnings

Trial & error doesn't always lead to success.  Sometimes it just leads to you boxing off a dead end and moving on to something new, and that's what I'm going to do from here (true - I was about to go and play the Ghost instead) but even when trial & error doesn't provide a pot of gold it can provide new wisdom, and I feel like I learnt a whole lot about how the Upsilon Shuttle works...

1. Fire Control System is rotten.  When you first build an Upsilon Shuttle probably the first upgrade you glue onto the ship is Fire Control System, a super-solid bit of action economy to make those 4 red dice really hurt your opponent.  The trouble is... it's garbage on the Upsilon because the ship's big base and sluggish dial makes it pretty rare that you're going to fire on the same thing twice.  In maybe a dozen games with the Upsilon I got to use the Fire Control System's target lock maybe just two or three times.

This isn't just my finding, though.  Meta-Wing tells me that it's been repeated wherever people are using Upsilon Shuttles.  In fact, not only is Fire Control System not the best System upgrade for the shuttle, it turns out to be the worst!

Metawing Results - System Slot Upgrades on Upsilon since Wave 10

• Collision Detector - 76 squads, 34.1% percentile performance
• Electronic Baffle - 22 squads, 29.0% percentile performance
• Advanced Sensors - 27 squads, 28.6% percentile performance
• Fire Control System - 147 squads, 26.1% percentile performance

So what do you do instead?  Well I already had Agent Kallus on board, and I like that option.  A local players suggested another option I hadn't considered, though, and which has won me over a bit.

Weapons Guidance gives you a new way to deal with those pesky blank red dice when you attack, and unlike Fire Control System it works every time you fire at something.  To really shine you need to pair Weapons Guidance with something else to mod your focus results, such as Recon Specialist, Agent Kallus, or A Score To Settle/Expertise if you've got Kylo Ren's EPT slot to play with.  The combination of Weapons Guidance and Recon Specialist, for instance, delivers 4 hits 73% of the time.

The main downside of the Weapons Guidance plan is that stacking the focus tokens competes for your actions with Coordinate.  But that's ok because...

2. Coordinate is great, but it's easy to overuse it.  It's so tempting to stand there with your dials at the start of a turn and get really drawn into all the fantastic options that Coordinate is giving you for your other ships to Boost/Barrel Roll before they reveal their dial.  Sometimes those options are far too good to ignore, but a lot of time I think it's a trap to be avoided.  You've spent 35-40 points on your Upsilon Shuttle, at least, and that sort of investment really demands that you get something from it.  If all you're really using it for is an extra action for another ship you're potentially selling short 40% of your squad.

Think of it this way: most of the time you'll be playing the Upsilon along other ships that had always been perfectly competent without the option to Coordinate an action to them.  Let them look after themselves as much as possible and save Coordinate for when it really matters... the less you use Coordinate the more likely you are to surprise your opponent when you finally make it count!

3.  The Upsilon Must Die.  The Upsilon Shuttle is not your engame piece.  You can stick Engine Upgrade on and really kit it out if you like, but it still won't be your endgame piece because 1-on-1 it will lose to almost anything thanks to the crappy dial & defences.  Making the Upsilon effective is, in my view, a delicate dance of ensuring you make it annoying enough that the enemy has to deal with it first, but not overloading it to make that happen or allowing it to die too quickly.

The Upsilon is going to work best when you can make your opponent shoot at it for a few turns, and then capitalise on the Upsilon's ability to distract the enemy by taking that time to remove a ship or two, or by sneaking a big threat into endgame like a TIE Phantom or Omega Leader.  It's a lot like how last year's Dash/Lothal lists just used the VCX-100 as a big distraction to ensure Dash could mop things up in the endgame.

4. Kylo Ren is the best Upsilon pilot.  In my Decimator list I turned to Major Stridan for the specific reason of wanting to Coordinate as much as possible.  Although the Range 3 Coordinate is a nice thing to have, the Elite Pilot Talent and I'll Show You The Dark Side of Kylo Ren are definitely a lot nicer, especially when you come to the conclusion that The Upsilon Must Die.  As you know I'm a fan of using Metawing to support my squadbuilding and I don't think it's any coincidence that Kylo Ren is the only Upsilon pilot to really make any waves or win any tournaments.

My trial and error with Rear Admiral Chiraneau wound up forking my squad development.  My interest in flying turrets switched from the Decimator to the Ghost and ultimately became the Ghost/Nym list that I wrote about last time.  The other branch span off into a jousting squad to keep plugging away with the Upsilon Shuttle, like a hybrid with my old Nettling Imps and that looks like this...

SETTLE WHAT YOU SCORED (100)

• Kylo Ren & A Score To Settle is a really nice combination that synergises both ways - A Score To Settle will draw fire and attention onto the shuttle to trigger Kylo Ren's ability, then it helps to push out crits for I'll Show You Dark Side.  

• Last pieces are to play with the target priority the opponent has for the shuttle.  I have never won a game where the shuttle is the last thing on the table as it's just too easy to get into the blind spot and stay there.  Electronic Baffle allows me to play the shuttle aggressively and keep Focusing for damage output - if the opponent follows the self-damage to kill the shuttle then he's doing what I want, and if he doesn't then I benefit from fixing all the red on the shuttle's dial with the Baffle.  The Kylo Ren's Shuttle also reaches out and disrupts the opponents ships, forcing them to pick on the shuttle.  Remember... The Upsilon Must Die.
• Playing with I'll Show You The Dark Side encourages you to play solid sources of critical hits, so Darth Vader comes in as the ace to partner the shuttle.  Nothing special or glamorous here, just the stock 35pts Engine Vader, bringing his Advanced Targeting Computer for the steady supply of crits.
   
• That leaves 26 points, which is almost always best-served as Omega Leader in an Imperial squad. Handily Omega Leader fits here quite nicely as a great endgame ship once the opponent has been distracted by the shuttle.

"A New Hope"

My last blog was probably a bit more obtuse and/or self-indulgent than most X-Wing blogs would manage.  I was quite proud of it at the time because I thought it worked on many layers and levels, but given how many times I had to explain to people that it wasn't a 'grrr turrets suck' blog means that all those layers and levels obviously weren't quite as transparent as I thought it was!

Rather than an anti-turret blog it was, if anything, the opposite.

The blog was about a rider (myself) who chose a path (jousters) because unable to tell which was the better route he chose the one he would like riding down.  The rider then stuck to that path despite repeated opportunities to change direction because the pressure of reaching the castle as quickly as possible (prepare for a competition) meant that he ignored options that would broaden his experience but slow him down in the short term.

It was a blog about how those short term decisions accumulated to leave the rider feeling trapped on a path that had become difficult and uncertain.  It was about the rider was angry then came to realise that his predicament was in large part the result of his own decisions.  When the rider decided to head back to the East it was because he (yours truly) had realised he had to give up on his immediate dreams of winning the tourney at the castle, choose a different route and widen his experiences.

I've always played jousters.  I've dabbled with the odd big turret now and then but never really felt comfortable and always run back to the security of the familiar - small jousters, rewarding being aggressive, lots of green dice, live by your wits.  Admirable traits?  Perhaps, but if they're all I know how to play then it's limiting me as a player and when the metagame doesn't really suit those sorts of ships it's likely feeding into my sense of unhappiness with 'the state of the game'.

So I'm going to play turrets for a bit.  I don't want to be a narrow 'single issue' player who can only succeed if the metagame conditions are perfect.  Time to find out what's down the other road.

So... at time of writing UK National Championships are 3 week away and (barring complete disaster) this is the squad I'm going to play...


Tentacular Spectacular

• Captain Nym - Scurrg - Veteran Instincts, Advanced Sensors, "Genius", Autoblaster Turret, Engine Upgrade, Havoc, Bomblet Generator

• Captain Syndulla - VCX-100 - Fire Control System, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Cluster Mines, "Ghost", "Chopper", Sabine Wren, Guidance Chips, Synced Turret

I might play around with it a little, in particular I've got versions for the Ghost with pretty much every turret from Autoblaster to TLT, but basically this is it.

Why this squad?

A bunch of reasons.  In a lot of ways it's the opposite of what I've been playing recently - you can't get much further from the hyper-tokened jousting, and strong green dice defences of Quickdraw, Vessery and Vader than by taking a 0 agility Ghost!  It's also bringing lots of bomb shenanigans for me to worry about, so I'm really jumping in at the deep end with mechanics I've not really played very much.

In other ways, though, it still lets me transfer some of the skills I've developed from my time with nimble fighters.  With Advanced Sensors and barrel/boost options on Captain Nym and Hera's ability to switch her dial I still get to play around with repositioning.  Maybe with Hera at the controls even a big dumb ship like the Ghost can have a few tricks in her.

I also like that the Ghost is a little pocket battleship that threatens in a bunch of different ways - big main gun, turrets, cluster mines, and torpedoes from the auxiliary arc.  There's a lot for the opponent to worry about (as well a lot for me to worry about in using it properly!)

Finally, it lets me pair my repainted Scurrg up with the ship that inspired the paint scheme...

Is the squad any good?

I've no idea!  In fact I've not even put it into the table yet!  That's not really the point, though, because my last blog was about realising that I should go back to the fork in the road and start again down a different road.

I'm sure I'll do worse at Nationals with this squad than I would with my trusty Imperials, but there's a 99.9% chance I won't win whatever I take.  I'm abandoning the short term imperative of being competitive for the long term goal of becoming a more balanced player.

I've got three weeks to put this list onto the table as much as possible, figure out half an idea of what the hell I'm supposed to do with it, and then throw it into the field at Nationals.  If I go 50-50 with it I'll be happy.

Where did the squad come from?

Although it's different in a lot of ways, the obvious jumping off point for this squad's existence is the "Kel Special" created by Kelrien.  The central principle of the Chopper/Sabine/Clusters combination on the Ghost comes from there and that's probably the defining thing.  What's I've changed is that Captain Nym comes in cheaper than the Miranda Doni used in the Kel Special, and that's meant I can scrape the points together to use Hera Syndulla instead of Lothal Rebel.

I always liked the Kel Special but never got around to playing it (because it wasn't a jousting list) and Captain Nym's arrival is a good opportunity to give it a new twist.

But still, the big tip of the hat for original inspiration goes to Kelrien.

I'm in your hands, ladies!

A Fork In The Road

After a few day's hard ride from your village it's late in the afternoon when you arrive at a fork in the road.  Unsure immediately of which route to take you stop for a while to eat and drink before continuing, leaving your horse a moment to rest.  

As you chew your bread and sip your water you're pondering the paths in front of you when a voice startles you:

"A way you must choose"

You spin to find an old man standing beside you on the verge, watching you with steady eyes that belie his obvious great age.  You pause and take a moment to swallow your food before replying.

"I'm travelling to the castle.  I intend to fight in the great tourney and prove my valour, and be made a great knight of the realm.  Which road will take me to the castle?"

The old man turns to survey the fork for a few seconds

"West of here the castle lies, and both these paths head west"

"Which is the best way?"

"Best?" the man coughs, or was it a chuckle?  "What is best for one may not be best for another.  What is best?  If I say chicken is best and you say beef is best, which of us is right?"

"Well, how do I choose?" you ask, "do you know anything of the roads ahead?"

"I've seen a little of both.  The road on the right is open and wide, it heads west over the plains as straight as an arrow flies for as far as my old eyes can see."

"And on the left?"

"The forest road, the path to the left leads you through the woods.  It's a narrower path, but the forest can be quite beautiful in the autumn, which is upon us"

"Is either path quicker?  I can't be late for the royal tournament" you ask.  

"Quicker?" the old man sighs sadly, "I do not know as I have never visited the castle though I've seen many others pass this way, like you.  They have gone either way."

"Others have come this way already?" you blurt, and begin rapidly gathering up your belongings to depart, "I can't lose time, I must get to the castle as soon as possible!  Tell me old man, which way should I go?"

"The choice is yours.  Though perhaps if you do not know which is fastest, you should at least choose the path that will mean you like the journey?  Whether you make it to the castle in time or not, at least you will have enjoyed the ride"

"Hmm, as good advice as any!" you exclaim as you quickly mount your horse once more, taking one final appraisal of your options.  "And you say plains road is wide and open, but the forest road is winding but beautiful?"

"It can be, aye.  From what I've seen of it."

"Thankyou sir, to the forest road it is!  Perhaps I'll find some deer or boar in there that I can deliver to the king for his favour" and then with one final wave backward to the old man you kick your horse forward down the left branch of the fork, heading into the trees.

==========

The forest rapidly closes in around you as you ride down the path, but true to the old man's word the roadway through the forest continues well enough and you make good progress.  Also true to the man's word the forest is indeed beautiful in autumn, with the leaves falling golden yellow and rich red to the forest floor... the way ahead at times seems paved with gold itself.  Although the path switches back and forth through the trees you can keep a view of the sun and know you're always heading west, and the castle must be drawing ever nearer.

After only a day's ride you come to another fork in the road with one lane branching off to the north, presumably to join the road across the plains that must be running parallel to your own route.  You spend only a moment considering the option before continuing westward through the forest - the forest road has served you well thus far and it could cost you half a day's travel northwards, just to join a road that may be no faster!  

You spur your horse on Westwards, towards the castle and glory.

========== 

It doesn't happen immediately but the forest path gradually begins to narrow and narrow again, and the trees gather in closer and closer around you.  At times it becomes difficult to see through the thick branches to find the sun, and as the forest road continues to meander through the trees it's harder and harder to judge how quickly you're progressing westwards.  

Pausing by a stream to refill your water bottles, you think hard.  The tournament was due to begin in a matter of just a week or two's time by the time you spoke to the old man at the fork in the road.  At the rate the forest road was taking it was no longer certain you would arrive in time.  And yet to cut back now to the plains road would mean riding Eastwards for a day at least- the wrong direction!  

No.   There's still a week.  You have to trust that the forest road will get you to the castle in time.

==========

Somewhere along the road autumn appears to have passed into winter.  Leaves that were once a golden trail beneath your horse's hooves are now a slippery danger.  The roadway that at first had been so well maintained and travelled became a path, which became a trail, which became little more than a faint outline that others have passed this way before.  Twice you lose the trail entirely and have to double back to find it once more.  Any sign of the sun comes only occasionally, although reassuringly it tells you that you're still heading west.  Progress has slowed, though.

Still, what choice do you have?  The castle lies west of you, and west you are going.  Turning back now would make it almost impossible to arrive in time for the tournament, you may as well return home to your village in defeat.  No, you picked the forest path, and you must see it through.  

The castle must surely be close!

==========

Brambles whip at your face as you hack your way through the forest, fighting step by step.  The trail had vanished abruptly the day before.  You rode in circles for hours trying to pick it back up but to no avail, and finally you had to let your horse loose and proceed on foot.  Hack.  Slash.  Hack.  Slash.  Your arms grow weary at thrashing a path through the underbrush with your sword.

Finally, you stop.  Exhausted.  Hungry.  Despairing.  The forest path is no path.  It promised much, but it has long since become clear that nobody has tended to this route for some time except yourself, fighting a losing battle against the forest.

Slumping to the ground, you can go no further.  Despair rapidly turns to anger, but anger with no aim.  Anger at the old man for not warning you?  He didn't know and said as much.  Anger at yourself, for picking this path?  You'd chosen the path you thought you would enjoy.  Anger at the people who left the path unfinished?  Perhaps the path had gone where it was always intended to go, and no further?  Anger at the forest, for being a forest?  Why not be angry at the dawn, the moon, and the sky at the same time.  Madness.

Despair turns to anger, then anger turns to resignation.  The tournament will be passed, now, or if not you'll never be there in time.  Whether you press on through the brambles or turn back is now a moot question, as either is defeat.  One, at least, holds the certain promise of reaching the castle eventually.  You could stay out here in the wilds so long you become a crazed bushman lunatic, a tale to scare young children to stay indoors.  Or you could turn back.  Accept that you had chosen poorly all along.  Recover your horse.  Ride back to the fork, and take the other path.

Slowly you force your tired body to rise once more.  You turn, putting the sun to your right hand side.
You begin the long walk back to the East.

==========

When I played my very first tournament with triple T-70 X-Wings the average firing arc of the ships in my squad was 90 degrees.

When I played Slaughterhouse TIE Swarm last year at UK Nationals the average firing arc of the ships in my squad was 90 degrees.

When I played Commonwealth Defenders at the UK Team Championships the average firing arc of the ships in my squad was 90 degrees.

When I returned to explore more T-70 X-Wings after Heroes of the Resistance came out the average firing arc of the ships in my squad was 90 degrees.

When I had fun with Snap Shot A-Wings in Phoenix Squadron the average firing arc of the ships in my squad was 90 degrees.

While I have been playing Nettling Imps - Vader, Vessery, Quickdraw - the average firing arc of the ships in my squad has been 120 degrees (though tbh I didn't use that rear arc on the TIE/SF that much anyway).

My favourite ships I've been trying in vain to make work for me, like the Upsilon Shuttle, the TIE Phantom, Deathfire in his TIE Bomber, have an average furing arc of 90 degrees.

In the Top-16  of the North American Continental Championships at Gencon, this past weekend, the average firing arc of the 43 ships that made the Top-16 cut was 236 degrees.  

The average firing arc of those 43 ships.  Was 236 degrees.

It's time to head East.