Gimme a Few...

Hey y'all- made it into Cincinnati (well, Florence, actually) at like 2am local time. I gotta get some Z's before my training stuff tomorrow. I'll try and update at lunch, but no guarantee. I'll have something up for tomorrow though, I promise. 

More Wave 3 Reveals- Lambda Shuttle Part 2

Originally, this wasn't really meant to be a multi-part set of articles, but I got really sidetracked on what became Part 1, so here's Part 2. 

Aiight then, let's talk about another Lambda Shuttle Pilot, the middle Pilot Skill version, Colonel Jendon. First thing that jumps out at me? He's only one point less than our ould (wow- is that a typo or like some ye olde school Scottish Auld Lang Syne type shit? Still very tired, apparently) sorry- old pal Major Kagi. Kagi, as you'll recall had a PS of 8, and as they have the same icons in their upgrade bar, we better be looking at a better card text ability, right? 

The ability is interesting. Especially since Lambda Shuttles can't even take Torpedoes or Missiles. As I'm sure you'll recall, lots of Imperial ships can't. Target Lock is as standard as power windows and locks on Rebel ships, but only half of the (current) Imperial ships have the option. 

Thinking about this made me remember a thread on the rules section of the FFG X-Wing forums. The question, at the time, was could Dutch Vander pass on a Target Lock to a ship that couldn't normally take a Target Lock Action. I have no idea how the question even came up- I guess maybe folks were speculating that the A-Wing wouldn't have Target Lock or something. I remember thinking at the time, "Christ. We really have nothing to talk about if people are arguing over stuff that's not even likely to effin' happen." 

Color me wrong. Lols. 

So I guess Colonel Jendon answers that question, or maybe not- I don't know. I guess he could pass along a TL to a TIE Fighter or Interceptor if they're friendly and they don't have a blue TL, right? I don't see why not really, and I can't remember what the line of thinking was in that rules debate for why Vander couldn't pass his along now. 

Anyhizzle, ok, so obviously Jendon's meant to be used with the forthcoming TIE Bombers, which seems fairly scary at a glance. The wording on Jendon's card is a little different than Dutch's text- Dutch passes along what is effectively an additional TL, and by additional I mean Dutch still retains his, while Jendon actually gives his away. Jendon's also happens later than Dutch's and at a different range- Dutch at the time he acquires his (i.e. the Activation phase) and 1-2, Jendon at the start of the Combat Phase, Range 1 only. Is that significant? I don't know, kinda, yeah. The range thing for obvious reasons, the timing because you could conceivably have a higher PS ship too far away from Jendon to get the lock during Jedon's activation phase, but then have it close enough at the start of the combat phase to benefit. Is that a big deal? I don't know- if you're talking about a ship that can Boost or Daredevil into Range 1, I guess it could be, sure. It's also worth noting that the way the text reads, Jendon's actually giving away one of his blue TL tokens to the other ship. What I mean by that is it doesn't let the ship make a TL of its own- it gets whatever enemy ship was TLed by Jendon for it's Target Lock. 

The best way to utilize this off the top of my head would be to roll a Weapons Engineer as a Crew Member in Jendon's ride. That way you've always got a TL to dish, and yet you've also got the option of keeping one for Jendon to use if the opportunity presents itself. Of course, if you can pass that TL to a Bomber, especially a Bomber that Focused (preferably with Deadeye as an Elite Pilot Skill if any of them can take Elite Pilot Skills), you can bet you're going to put the maximum hurt on somebody. 

Another option would be installing a Fire Control System as Jendon could then use his Action as contextually appropriate (i.e. not always TLing to pass it along). Fire Control Systems- it ain't just for B-Wings anymore. 

So we said yesterday that Kagi debatably works better as more of a hang back support ship than one that's actively trying to smoke fools off the board. I think Jendon could work in either role. I mean, with all those shields and hull, you could make a case for him playing a little offensively to get those ships in TL range, and with his middle of the road Pilot Skill, I think you could make a strong case for Anti-Pursuit Lasers. 

Another card you could perhaps make a case for use with Jendon in a more offensive role would be that Recon Specialist Crew Member chick. 

Jendon can't give away the Focus tokens or anything, but if you think you're going to get shot at by several ships in the Combat round, it could be pretty handy to have a couple of Focus tokens lying around to try and mitigate that lousy 1 Defense. 

Any big ship that might be getting up close and personal with the enemy would also do well to consider another card I didn't really touch on yesterday- the Saboteur Crew Member. 

Admittedly, it doesn't appear to be the easiest card in the world to use, and it's almost exclusively going to be worthwhile only against other big ships (and who knows if the current big ship meta will stick around as prominently as it is now post-Wave 3), but as I've been saying on here for several months, the easiest way to try and deal with a big ship is to throw some d's on that bitch, I mean, throw some crits on that bitch. Saboteur does that and does it well, not to mention does it in the Activation phase rather than the Combat Phase, which is just icing on a tasty cake. Not the easiest cake to bake, if I can mix the metaphor, but for only 2 points, I think it's certainly worthwhile to at least consider. 

I kinda mixed up my Crew Members and System Upgrades there, and while the above reads fairly coherently, we still should talk about funky raygun and the remaining Crew Members. Sorry for being a little scattered with this, but bear with me and we'll get through this together. 

So remaining stuff that work better than usual with Jendon? To be honest, nothing else really jumps out at me. As usual, if I'm planning on hanging out in the backfield and passing along TLs to a couple of Bombers while my other ships mix it up, I'd go HLC, with the Mercenary Copilot Crew Member. If I were wanting to get a little closer, Ion Cannon with Gunner. Assuming of course I've got points to burn and I want to use the shuttle in an offensive role. 

That said, I think you can get away with relatively few upgrades on Jendon and still have him be worthwhile. If you could find the points, having him fly around with Kath Scarlet could be pretty nasty, as she could Focus or use Marksmanship for her Action, then get a TL from Jendon, and get pretty mean in the Combat Phase with none of that really requiring much forethought or planning. In other words, you could likely do it just about every round you wanted to. You could save a couple of points and use it with Trelix in a similar fashion, but I think it's almost overkill with him considering his built-in card text. Of course, he could always select Evade for his Action instead too. Either way, you've got a couple of high HP ships flying around both with Attack 3 primaries which can't be ignored by the enemy very long. I've talked about dual Firespray lists before, this setup would be kind of similar except of course you're looking at a much cheaper Firespray type ship in the Lambda Shuttle, so you'd have more points to play with than usual. Or you could get really silly and go 2 Bounty Hunters with Jendon instead of 3 Bounty Hunters and end up with 7 more points left to spend on upgrades, but with similar staying power and improved functionality. That could be interesting. 

What's good Cinci?

I have no idea if I'll actually have time to really even do anything, but just kind of a tentative heads-up, my work is sending me to Cincinnati, OH later this week for corporate training. I'll be in late Tuesday night, then coming back home Friday at noon. I haven't gotten an itinerary from my work yet, so I don't know if there's those mandatory team-buildling dinners every night or I'll actually have time to play, but I'm packing some X-Wing stuff and Android: Netrunner decks and taking them with me on the off-chance I get to play a bit while I'm gone. 

If any of y'all are from around there and want to try and get a game, leave me a comment or bust me off an email and we'll try and make something happen. 

More Wave 3 Reveals!- Lambda Shuttle, Part 1

I figure most of y'all have already seen the new Wave 3 Reveals on the FFG site (I was notified by Bikini Aficionado Daniel Valenta back on Thursday via email), but now that we know much more than what we did previously, but still not quite enough for me to give her the full-on, traditional, TheMetalBikini.com breakdown treatment, we'd spend a little time today talking about the Lambda, her pilots, and some of her upgrade cards in light of the new info. 

Pilots

Captain Kagi has the highest Pilot Skill of the named Lambda shuttle pilots and has a Biggsish special ability to pull Target Locks to himself instead of his pals. Note I said, "Biggsish"- it's not exactly like Biggs' ability, but it's kinda similar in that it forces the opposing player into changing his gameplan in regard to target priority when Kagi's floating around the board. 

So, again, I can't do a for reals breakdown yet since not all of the Wave 3 cards have been revealed, but I can tell you a couple of things that jump out at me. 

First off, note the way that text is worded- there's no Range associations like there is with Biggs' ability- just if somebody could lock onto you, they have to instead of another ship. Remember, this is a big base ship we're talking about here- think back to that picture I ran with the Falcon, Range ruler in that "Han Shoots First- Why Is It So Good?" article a little while back? 

So, that's basically the area you can have your ships flying around without having them Target Locked. Scary, huh? I'm sure there's much deeper strategy than this, but flying Kagi with a couple of named pilot Interceptors as wingmen seems even harder to shoot down than usual. 

Looking at the upgrades, you see perhaps a bit of why the ship is relatively cheap- no Elite Pilot Skills. Still though, two crew members, the funky raygun, and the System Upgrade icons shouldn't be dismissed. It just means you can't pack on Elusiveness or Draw Their Fire or whatever. 

So there's only been a couple of Systems Upgrade cards revealed, right? I wonder if any of those dovetail with Kagi? 

Sensor Jammer works pretty well with Kagi's ability. With all those Target Locks he's pulling, somebody's bound to snap off a torpedo or missile at him, right? Well, the long story short version of this is if your target doesn't have a Focus-type ability/ Action declared, you get to change a hit result to the eyeball. 

I confused myself on the original write-up of this paragraph, so let me put it more simply for hopefully both of our benefits, but if nothing else, at least my own. 

From the BBB-"The Combat Phase Explained!" article- 

3. Modify Attack Dice
This is where you can spend action tokens and resolve abilities that re-roll or otherwise modify attack dice results. I don't think it could happen in Wave 1, but in Wave 2, there are some defender abilities that resolve against the attack dice. If you're in a situation where both the attacker and defender have abilities that modify the attack dice, the defender resolves his modifications first, then the attacker resolves his.
So yeah, unless they've got a Focus-type ability kicked on, this actually does kind of neuter stuff as lots of people fire off shots with just a Target Lock instead of a Target Lock + Focus/ Marksmanship. The way this would go down is: 

1. Attacker rolls attack dice. 
2. Kagi changes 1 <filled explosion> to a <eyeball>
3. Attacker modifies results, but can't re-roll the die changed by Kagi due to card text on Sensor Jammer. 

Fire Control is a more offensive ship type System Upgrade, so I'm not immediately a fan of that on Kagi. As usual, not saying it can't work, just saying it doesn't work particularly well. 

Moving on to Crew Members, I don't see anything obviously beneficial between Kagi and the Wave 2 guys, but we have seen a few of the Wave 3 Crew Members.

If I'm the Rebel player going against a Kagi Lambda, I'd probably just bite the bullet and try to get him off the table as quickly as possible like I would with Biggs. This Rebel Captive card makes that a much less appealing option. Oh sure, you might have Tycho Celchu buzzing around in which case it's not that big of a deal, but if you don't, it does put a hitch in your giddy up. 

The 2-for-1 Focus Tokens from a Recon Specialist is going to help anybody able to take a Crew Member in post-release Wave 3, and it could help keep Kagi alive a little longer to offset that 1 Defense, so that's always an option too. 

There were a couple of other Crew Members revealed in this same FFG article too- 

Yup, ol' Annie himself is now available as a Crew Member. At first glance, it seems a fairly steep trade-off, but dig on the fact that it explicitly says, "Suffer 1 critical damage." Maybe I'm crazy, but to me, that goes through shields even. Note: I'm probably crazy. That said, it's still pretty doggone nasty. Would also work even if another ship in range of the intended target had Draw Their Fire. Still doesn't let you stick a crit to a Chewie Falcon or Determination though. It also wouldn't kill a Stealth Device if you're wondering. Also note that it doesn't say anything about that attack actually hitting the friggin' target. Hoo boy- that card's only 3 points? Thank God it's dotted.

I'm not nuts about him on Kagi, though because there's this guy- 

So that's pretty cool, right? Again, big base ship so that Range 1-2 is pretty significant really. Kinda pales in regard to Vader, but I think on Kagi, you might get more use out of Intelligence Agent. Especially if the other side is flying Han, Wedge, or some other high Pilot Skill pilot and you pair Kagi with- 

Blocking big ships with some dipshit Academy or Gray (Grey? I think it's Gray in X-Wing) isn't going to be quite as valid anymore. Yeah, admittedly, it's a modification, so you wouldn't be able to take the other usual suspect Mods (Stealth Device and Shield Upgrade, of course), but on a big ship with low Pilot Skill (read that first sentence closely), this 2-point modification could be a massive game-changer in the current meta (oh my God, y'all- remember that 3-ship Outer Rim Smuggler list I mentioned before? Holy friggin' mackerel!). Note again, we have a card that's doing direct damage- similar to the way Assault Missiles works, so defense rolls and Evade tokens need not apply!

Wow, so originally I was going to talk about all the different pilots for the Lambda, but that got a lot more in-depth than I'd planned. I'll talk about the other pilots tomorrow, and who knows, maybe even the next day if those articles go long too- they might, they might not. We'll just have to see. 

We're Open For Business (Again)!

Hey y'all, 

Thanks for your condolences and your understanding. The hippest pilot bar in the galaxy is once again serving up fine malt tactics, so pull up a stool and dig on the knowledge!

Doors open at the usual time- in about 4 hours. 

Peace! 

Clint