Event Types – What’s Attractive?

So, with Wave 2 firmly released now, even if there are still issues with the FFG App, we can see a large number of alternate formats for designing events, adding flavour to casual games, and generally fiddling with the methods of list building to constrain, limit, and eliminate some of the most popular ships and pilots around.  While not always a bad idea, sometimes, these limits can leave a format rather boring to try and engage with.  At least, in my opinion.

We have, as you can see:

• Extended
• Hyperspace
• No Glory
• Playing Favourites v2
• Battle of Yavin
• Season of Giving
• Evacuation of D’qar

Extended:

Long-time collectors, with conversion kits, can use almost every ship they possess, with every upgrade available for the new edition, and is constantly up to date with each new wave released.

Hyperspace:

Hyperspace gives you selected ships, pilots, and upgrades, all of which can be found in either the FFG Squad Builder app/website, or here in the Points PDF files at the bottom of the page.

No Glory:

No Glory gives you access to non-limited pilots only, basically, anything without a name.  This carries over into upgrades as well.  If it’s a character, then it won’t be present.

Playing Favourites v2:

Playing Favourites gives you a certain pilot for every ship, but, it appears to have unrestricted access to upgrades.

Battle of Yavin:

Battle of Yavin restricts you to those characters who appeared at the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope.  Which, for Scum and Villainy players, leaves them out in the cold with nothing.

Season of Giving:

Season of Giving, again, restricts you to certain pilots in, it looks like, all available ships for a given faction.  Crew upgrades appear to be restricted as well.

Evacuation of D’Qar:

the Evacuation of D’Qar, like Battle of Yavin, restricts you to factions and pilots seen during that scene in The Last Jedi.

So, we have a list of game-modes that are available to use.  I have an event at Ace in Colchester in January that has chosen the Playing Favourites v2 format.  So, I need to pick a faction and what I want to take with me.  200 points is the standard limit here, so, let’s take a look at my favourite ships to use, and whether any of my preferred pilots/upgrades are available.

Rebel Alliance:

T-65 X-Wing – Luke Skywalker, Heightened Perception, R3 Astromech, Munitions Failsafe, Servomotor S-Foils.  79 points.

Modified YT-1300 – Chewbacca, Selfless, Perceptive Copilot, Jyn Erso, Hull Upgrade, Hotshot Gunner, Millennium Falcon.  115 points.

Total: 194/200

Total Health: 20.

A two ship list hasn’t done as well as it used to since the new edition release, but, maybe this list has enough teeth to get the job done.  This is option 1, and the only Rebel list I feel comfortable is potentially flying, seeing as I am missing out on Wedge Antilies, Gavin Darklighter, and Jek Porkins.

Galactic Empire:

TIE/d Defender – Onyx Squadron Ace, Juke, Fire-Control System.  85 Points.

TIE Advanced x1 – Maarek Stele, Outmanoeuvre, Fire-Control System, Cluster Missiles.  64 Points.

TIE/sa Bomber – Captain Jonus, Trick Shot, Proton Torpedoes, Proton Bombs.  51 Points.

Total 200/200

Total Health 18.

Without a Phantom that can take a Talent upgrade, and the vanishing of Vader, the Galactic Empire seem to be at a huge disadvantage.  However, maybe Jonus can help bolster Maarek, while the Defender goes around doing its thing, and perhaps targeting ships after Maarek and Jonus have stripped their tokens.  One thing is fairly clear though, the Bomber will be the most vulnerable ship here, while the Defender and TIE Advanced x1 will have to slow themselves down a bit in order to keep the bomber effective.

I haven’t decided which list to take to Ace yet, but, maybe some ideas will come to me as to the effectiveness of each list.  I can’t say, honestly, that I was excited for the event once I saw the restrictions, but, maybe that will change as it approaches and I potentially get some more practice in.

What is your experience of using alternate formats?  Are you looking forward to the restrictions placed on the upcoming Hyperspace Trials?

As always, leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Quick Build Party 30/11/2018

So, after a fairly hectic day, I collected the wife from work, and, daughter in tow, I headed off to Colchester for the Ace Gaming Quick Build Party.  After plenty of umming and ahing, I decided to take my new Galactic Empire conversion kit for a spin, and looked at the myriad of available options, and quickly began to ignore builds for ships I don’t own yet.

As you can see, I had given myself a nice and varied selection of Imperial ships, however, health conditions prevented me from getting more than a single game in.  This means I have 2 lists left to try.  So, what did I take?

My highest Initiative ship, “Whisper” with Agent Kallus, Advanced Sensors, Juke, and Stealth Device.  “Whisper played an absolute blinder, even more so when I remembered to actually use Agent Kallus, instead of the Focus token, especially on a single Eye result… grumble, grumble, grumble.

“Echo” did a fair amount of work this evening, though, there was a moment where a miscalculation on my part would have seen this great ship fly straight off my own edge of the table.  Must remember to watch that in the future.

Turr Phennir was the final member of my 8 Threat squad that I flew, intending to swap out throughout the evening.  Can’t, honestly, say that I was impressed, though, that might have been due to my flying.

For what I thought would be my first game out of three, I was facing the Rexlar Brath Defender Quick Build, 2 Planetary Sentinals with Conner Nets, and an Academy Pilot, flown by Phil.

During setup, I assigned Rexlar the Hunted condition from Agent Kallus, knowing that, when it came to it, was going to be difficult to push damage through on the 4 shield, 3 hull, 3 evade Defender.  I was also given First Player by my opponent, due to him wanting to see where I could go with “Whisper” before Rexlar manoeuvred.

They opening turns were somewhat of an eye-opener for me.  There’s nothing quite lite getting ships onto the table for seeing how things pan out.  The bendy decloak of “Echo” is rather fun, and can cover an enormous amount of table space, while the actual moves “Whisper” can make are fairly shocking too.

Turr Phennir was the first of my ships to go down, somewhat understandably considering the way I flew him.  He got greedy and tried to get stuck in before the Phantoms could support him.  The Phantoms then proceeded to dispose of the Strikers in a fairly workmanlike manner, taking full advantage of Juke on “Whisper” while “Echo” was fairly consistent due to the Perceptive Copilot.  No Conner Nets managed to get dropped due to my focus-firing them off the table.  Both Phantoms proceeded to lose their Stealth Devices along with a single shield, as the Academy Pilot went down.  That left me with two fairly healthy ships, against a full strength Defender.  I was moving first, but, also shooting first.  However, I could still see the many ways this could go wrong.

As we entered the end game, with time running down, I decided that I needed to try and bracket Rexlar as quickly as possible, otherwise I was going to lose my ships.  Finally, we ended up with “Whisper” Advacned Sensoring a Focus before a K-Turn, “Echo” getting a decent line into where Rexlar was at the time, in preparation for following next turn…  Rexlar revealed his dial into a 1 hard right, right into the firing arc of “Whisper” and a Range 2 of “Echo” and I couldn’t be happier.  “Whisper” did what “Whisper” does, and made use of Agent Kallus, while losing a single shield in return, and “Echo” makes the kill shot, securing the game in a rather surprising way for the pair of us.

I managed to secure all three challenges during that game, Spending 3 Charges, 2 Stealth Devices and a Lone Wolf, Destroy a Ship, that was the first Planetary Sentinal, and Play a game with a Threat Level of at least 5, as our Threat Levels were 8, that was covered.  So, 3 Large, metal Charge tokens as well as the trio of Quick Build cards featuring Iden Versio, a Skull Squadron Pilot, and Thane Kyrell.

Once the game was over, I was feeling the effects of the day as well as the mounting tension of the endgame from my match, and elected to sit a game out with a view to recovering some strength to play a final game.  However, it turned out that things weren’t going to go the way I needed them to, and had to leave early.

So, while disappointing in that I couldn’t continue the evening, this was the first event I managed to open with a win, and the game was full of emotion where I thought I had made a mistake, which would see me go down hard, to managing to recover well enough to correct quickly.

Phil was a great opponent, and I’d be more than happy to play him any time we chance to meet across the table.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of a Quick Build game, I highly recommend you do so, you can get some unexpected effects in your games, while using upgrades you may not usually consider.