My First Scum Run!

So today marked my first chance to get to use the new Scum and Villainy faction. It was at a small gathering that some friends put on every once in a while in the youth room at their church. It's usually enough to have 2-3 games going on and just a fun time with friends, practicing the essence of Fly Casual! I also look forward getting to meet new people and most of the time there is at least one new person learning the ropes. This is awesome as we can grow the hobby of X-wing in our area. It was a lot of fun as usual.

I only got to play one full game and just start in a second before I had to leave. The first game I brought my new Scum squad aptly named "Pirate's Booty". As you can maybe guess it was Kath Scarlet, she had a Heavy Laser Cannon, Recon Specialist, Inertial Dampeners, and Veteran Instincts. The idea here was to have her rolling at least 4 dice no matter where she was shooting. Her wingmen were 2x naked Binayre Pirates, and a Syndicate thug. The thug had BTL-A4 title, Autoblaster turret, bomb loadout, Seismic charge, and Engine Upgrade. I really wanted to try some of the new Y-wing upgrades since I've never really flown the Y-wing much as it never fit my playstyle. The Y-wing was just hard to maneuver, I missed being able to barrel roll or boost and still get another action with PTL. When I did have a range one shot with the thug, those two attacks, one being from the autoblaster did put out decent damage. The 2x Z-95s were ok, mostly filler ships, nothing stood out with them, especially being naked.

I love her new ability, too bad I never got to use it....

My opponent who was also teaching a new player as he went, was flying a mostly old school build of Biggs, Tarn Mison, and 2x Blues. Biggs had a shield upgrade and R2-D2, just to be extra annoying ha. He flew his ships in a pretty good formation and ended up focus firing on Kath right of the bat and killed her in two or three rounds of shooting. I'm so used to flying flankers that it was just not natural to fly straight at the enemy, this was my ultimate demise. I tried to use the two Zs and the Y-wing to come in beside the Rebel box formation but was too late to do any good and lost Kath before I even got to use her new Scum ability! Very disappointing but I also learned a lot about my playstyle and what doesn't work for me.

Lots of up close fighting and bumping in the asteroid field! This is also Kath's last stand.

I will admit that I haven't played much recently and wanted to try new things with the new faction but got a little too ambitious. I haven't completely gave up on Kath yet but I miss her having two Interceptors to flank with. All excuses aside my opponent flew his list well and proved again how balanced this game is. He took some of the oldest ships in the game and taught me a lot with a swift 0-100 loss. I commend him and was reminded that I tend to learn a lot more by losing as opposed to winning!

My Kath Scarlet repaint, also my first repaint period.

 We actually got to start another game and I played the new player while the other guy mostly helped answer questions. He did pretty good with maneuvering and we just got a couple rounds of shooting in with Kath doing much better on damage output. It was too early to tell who would have won but it did reassure me that my list wasn't as bad as I originally thought, I just needed to fly better. This definitely takes practice and I seem too short on time these days. Hopefully this will change and I can get some more games in, try some other Scum builds (I have tons already built!) and pick one that works with my more flanky, arc-dodging playstyle.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, thanks for my lessons learned, and thanks for flying casual!

The Other Interceptor, the M3-A "Scyk"

So FFG has spoiled more Scum, and I happen to be very excited about this ship. I love my agile ships such as the A-wing and TIE Interceptor. The other Interceptor, the M3-A "Scyk" Interceptor or just "Scyk", is the Scum answer to these two ships. With two attack, three defense, two hull, and 1 shield, it's similar enough to other ships in other factions but has enough potential to play very differently!  The "Scyk" itself was used heavily by the Hutt Cartels as it was a cheap ship with decent firepower. Perfect for the greedy Hutts! In X-wing you get a cheaper ship with a huge potential for different roles in a Scum squad.

Are we already on GG target locks! lol

Their is not a ton of stuff for this expansion pack but what we do get is awesome! By awesome I mean new cannons. Two to be exact and another Ion Cannon if you didn't have enough before. We will also be getting another Stealth Device modification card which is always good for the A-wings and TIEs we already have. Finally we get a new title for the "Scyk", the "Heavy Scyk". You may have been wondering why this little fighter was getting so many cannon upgrade cards and here is why!

Cannons, torpedoes, and rockets, oh my!

The "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor title is obviously exclusive to the "Scyk" and for just two points let you add a Rockets, Torpedo, or Cannon. This opens the door for all kinds of unique builds and truly allows the "Scyk" to be a heavy weapons platform for a small price. With a ase price of 14 points for the PS 2 ship, added title, and a Heavy Laser Cannon, you can now field an agile gunship, the ultimate glass cannon for a mere 23 points! Yes that means that you can now, for the first time field four HLCs and have eight points to spare for other upgrades. The thing to keep in mind here is that yo will only have a total of 12 hit points (eight hull and 4 shield) before additional upgrades. That's a very offensive minded build, could be fun though!

I like this, a lot.

The first of the new Cannons is my personal favorite. The "Mangler" Cannon, aptly named allows you to change a Hit result to a Crit result, it also uses three attack dice at all ranges. Being a secondary weapon the enemy gets no range three bonus for range either, making this normally two red dice ship into a three red dice ship, you will have to decide if six points total is worth the upgrade. Also Ten Numb anybody?

Eh, not my favorite...

 Lastly is the Flechette Cannon. I know the current trends tend to favor giving stress as many ways as possible and this can surely do this but it has similar wording to the Ion Cannon, with canceling all dice results. Giving out stress is great but killing an enemy outright is a whole lot better to me and dealing one damage a turn is not my cup of tea. Also considering that the ship only gets stress if it already doesn't have it, so no stress stacking, is not great either. Maybe it's just me though!

Now to the pilots! First as previously mentioned we get a PS 2 generic for 14 points, decent, a little more expensive than the cheapest Rebel and Empire options but I don't field the Z-95 or the TIE fighter much anyway, though I know some will be disappointed with the higher price. The next generic is PS 5 but we don't know points cost yet, most likely 16 or 17. On to the named pilots!

Slippery when wet...er when dodging?

First, at PS 6 and 18 squad points we have Laetin A'shera, a very slippery pilot, assuming it can dodge those initial strikes. This is a cool ability that has potential to make this one of the hardest ships to hit in the game. Gaining an evade token every time he completely dodges an attack will be great against TIE swarms, especially with the addition on Stealth Device!

Helping her fellow pilot, how nice of this Scum.

The last pilot is Serissu, at PS 8 and 20 squad points, apparently she is one Scum pilot who actually helps her fellow fighters, by allowing them to reroll a defense dice if they are in range one. This is sort of a mirror to Howlrunner, and encourages flying in formation...will be interesting to see how this works out with so many "lone wolf" type pilots in Scum. I'd play here with a small swarm of other "Scyks" if it were me. Also worth noting is the fact she does have an Elite Pilot slot, I'm thinking Predator or maybe even PTL with an Engine upgrade? Really wish they had boost too, although I do like Target lock, even though it's kind of a given...

Well I personally can't for this ship to hit with the rest of Wave 6 in Q1 2015, hopefully! I feel like the "Scyk" will be a great wingmen (women) for one of the new Firespray pilots. This ship will be great for Scum fillers as well even if you do miss out on some of the coolest upgrades. Anyway, stay tuned to my blog to hear, well more of my opinions and if you in Southwest Va. or the surrounding area, check out my X-wing group on FB at Docking Bay 94. Fly Casual!

Fixing the TIE Advanced?!

So, you all remember that ship that Darth Vader flew in A New Hope? You know, the one he chased Red Squadron through the trenches of the Death Star, ultimately failing to stop Luke from destroying the ultimate weapon? Well get ready to have your mind blown, they actually made this ship all the way back in wave 1 of X-wing! I know, I know, where has this ship been? Darth Vader should be good enough to be in every Imperial Squad, right? No? Hmm, yeah chances are if you've played X-wing long enough to even know this ship does in fact exist, you most likely haven't used it much, at least not competitively.

The famous trench run!

I'm sure a few would like to argue and say how awesome Darth Vader's ability to take two actions without getting stress from Push the Limit is, but I would agree. The simple fact is that the Tie Advanced, no matter what pilot you use (don't forget Maarek Stele), what upgrade you add, they just seem to be overpriced. Fantasy Flight has been aware of this problem, even stating in an interview that this was the number one ship they wanted to see get more play time. They then teased us all mentioning that something coming out soon would help get the Advanced more playtime. Some thought it was Proton Rockets that came with Rebel Aces and the YT-2400 were it but FFG had even more up their sleeves!

This missile upgrade released to mixed results and wasn't the ultimate fix for the Tie Advanced.

With the latest article from FFG, spoiling the awesome new huge ship for the Imperials that I discussed here, they also spoiled the new repainted Tie Advanced, complete with new pilots and new exclusive upgrades! Are these the upgrades you've been looking for?

I can think of a few great builds with this!

The first upgrade card spoiled is the Tie Advanced only, title card. This is the title of Darth Vader's Tie Advanced (more of a special edition) but in this case it is not a unique title. Being able to fit this on any Advanced for zero squad points is great if you get the wild idea to field more than one. Anyway, this card allows you to use Systems Upgrade cards for the Advanced. I feel like this would have been on from the beginning had this upgrade been a thing in wave 1. So the first thing that came to mind was the fire-control system so you can make sure you can get rid of those rockets. The next is the unreleased Accuracy Corrector, this allows you to cancel all dice results and add two hit results! This is great for the player that has a hard time rolling dice, or the one that always blames his losses on the dice alone, no more! The next is a new card coming with the Raider.

Too expensive for an already overpriced ship? Only time will tell!

Wow! This is a great Systems Upgrade card, exclusive to the Tie Advanced! For a whopping five points, you can ADD a Critical hit to your other two dice results as long as you have a Target Lock. This is a great way to alleviate some of the frustrations that come with a two dice attack. This is also another way to just guarantee a hit. Just don't let Wes near you and you can turn your Tie Advanced into a Crit machine, I feel Critical hits are making a comeback with large ships like the Decimator and it's 12 hull.

Well I hope you're as excited about the new upgrades as I am coming for the long forgotten Tie Advanced. I'm looking for some crazy combos for Darth Vader in the future, I'm thinking Darth Vader, X1 title, Adv. Targeting Computer, Proton Rockets, Engine Upgrade, and Outmaneuver. Yeah this will be expensive coming in at 44 points but it could be fun! Oh and I hope everyone got want the wanted for Christmas!

Also left out the new paint scheme of the Tie Advanced, SHAME ON ME!

The Imperial Raider, Coming to a Galaxy Near You!

Hey X-wing fans, I'm glad you found my little blog about this game I love. I hope you enjoy the article and stick around for the next blog which will be more of an introduction to me, as a player. For the first blog I want to jump right in with the newest X-wing release from Fantasy Flight Games, Here Comes the Imperial Raider.

Beautiful packaging as always!

First I just want to say that I was shocked that this came out at all but much more so in the midst of so many other big Star Wars game releases. I for one have so many games and additions on my radar that are coming out in the next couple months I am going to have to get choosy! This is a good problem to have I guess, right?

Anyway, the Imperial Raider model looks amazing, their is no mistaking which side of the war this ship is fighting for. It's of Classic Imperial design with the triangular build and even has large Interceptor style solar panels on the sides. You may be asking yourself, as I did before I read the article, where did this ship come from? Well it's definitely not in the movies, maybe it's in a EU book I've never read? Nope, FFG teamed up with Lucasfilm Ltd. to create a ship specifically for X-wing! This isn't the first time a Star Wars licensed tabletop game has created something for their game, West End Games first wrote of an Imperial Inquisitor in a sourcebook for a Star Wars RPG. 27 years later and the Inquisitor is official Star Wars canon in Rebels. Hope for the future?

The classic Imperial triangle design, also some odd firing arcs!

Looks aside, this thing will give any Rebel huge ship a run for it's money. Boasting what I can assume will be a primary weapon similar in power to the Corvette's (4x attack dice range 3-5), Single Turbolasers, and the new Ion Cannon Batteries, this ship should easily fulfill the Empire's need for a mix between a fighter and a Star Destroyer. The main difference between the Raider and the Corvette are the printed firing arcs. The Corvette has 4 separate arcs that overlap on the side and have blind spots in the front and rear. The Raider seems to fair better with all angles being covered except the aft. I say printed as the Corvette has a 360 degree firing arc but I cannot confirm the Raider has the same. From the small pilot card seen below, I honestly do not see the red circle around the primary weapon logo on the pilot card. 

The full package, we'll talk about the Tie Advanced later!

As do the other huge ships, the Raider comes with two damage decks, one for the fore end, the other for the aft. The box also comes with almost 40 upgrade cards most of which will probably be for the Raider. It's also worth noting that the aft section works similarly to the way the Corvette's did, using energy and having hardpoints for weapon attachments. Other items to ponder are the third type of obstacle tokens on the left side and all the mission tokens to bring the Raider right into the mix of the Galactic Civil War!

The introduction of the Raider should make plenty of fans happy, that often complained about the lack of Imperial love in the epic format. This release should bring more attention to this often overlooked style of play. I'm extremely excited for this to release in Q1 2015, which for FFG means first half of the year for sure! As excited as this article has made me, it raises a few questions too no doubt. Will their be a similar imperial card to C3-PO that force strict 100pt dogfighters to spend $60-90 just for one card? What's the special rules for the large new obstacles? Just how similar will the Raider be to the Corvette, will their be an obvious winner between the two? You can probably think of more but we'll just have to wait and see! As for the new Tie Advanced, we'll get to that later:)