I'm back from Nordics - and it was even better than last year!
I ALMOST managed to become the Armada champ again, but alas, despite going 4-0 there was another guy I didn't play that was ahead in points. I'm surprised I'm not disappointed, but I guess I feel I did as well as I could and that the rest was out of my hands. Plus I did both win my games and have great opponents, so there is no source of salt to be found.
I ALMOST managed to become the Armada champ again, but alas, despite going 4-0 there was another guy I didn't play that was ahead in points. I'm surprised I'm not disappointed, but I guess I feel I did as well as I could and that the rest was out of my hands. Plus I did both win my games and have great opponents, so there is no source of salt to be found.
Anyway. Well done Thomas - but I would have totally tabled you if we met :-P Next time!
Before I get down and dirty with the batreps, let's talk about X-wing. I got into X-wing when 2.0 was released, never played it before (except one intro game back in 2012). So I can't really comment on the quality of 1.0, but 2.0 is a BLAST. Really good game. It scratches a very different itch from Armada - one I didn't even know I had.
Nordics 2018 is the reason I wanted to try X-wing. Flying down to Stockholm for just the 4 games of Armada felt a bit empty. I did that last year for Nordics, and this time I just wanted more play time compared to travel time/expenses.
Plus we lack a strong Armada community locally. I basically have to drive for 3 hours to attend tourneys in Østersund, Sweden. For everything else I have to take a plane. But there is a nice group of X-wing here, so if I started with X-wing I could get to play like real games!
So I ordered a Core, 1 X-wing and 1 Y-wing, plus the Rebel Conversion kit (no ships to convert, but I needed some upgrades to start with). That allowed me to field a simple Rebel list of Luke, Wedge and Dutch. I loaded them with some thematic upgrades, torpedoes and droids, shields and talents. Too many really, but I didn't know that then.
Nordics 2018 is the reason I wanted to try X-wing. Flying down to Stockholm for just the 4 games of Armada felt a bit empty. I did that last year for Nordics, and this time I just wanted more play time compared to travel time/expenses.
Plus we lack a strong Armada community locally. I basically have to drive for 3 hours to attend tourneys in Østersund, Sweden. For everything else I have to take a plane. But there is a nice group of X-wing here, so if I started with X-wing I could get to play like real games!
So I ordered a Core, 1 X-wing and 1 Y-wing, plus the Rebel Conversion kit (no ships to convert, but I needed some upgrades to start with). That allowed me to field a simple Rebel list of Luke, Wedge and Dutch. I loaded them with some thematic upgrades, torpedoes and droids, shields and talents. Too many really, but I didn't know that then.
Then I went online.
I used to dev the Armada module, so I was familiar with Vassal, but not the X-wing module)
I had 9 games on Vassal, enough to know the rules, make a more reasonable list and not be a total baby seal. My first win came in my 5th game, and although I only won 1 more game after that, I felt I was starting to know what I was doing.
Tweaking. The first thing I noticed was that Dutch was considered a low target priority, so he was left for last - and then he lacked the ability to kill anything on his own. So I ditched him in favor of an ARC, selecting Garven for his focus-passing ability and giving Wedge Swarm. It was a better list.
Then I got into my car (or actually a rental as my brakes decided to get shifty) and drove 3 hours to Østersund. This was my first Store Champ. My first time with real minis - I actually unpacked my fleet right before that first RL game :-D
I went 2-3 at that tourney, which was very good by my standards (also won the Armada SC the day after). I learned a LOT, and got some new ideas for tweaking list. The Garven/Swarm thing hadn't really worked much. Either he didn't get to focus or he simply didn't roll any eyes, so the number of times he passed a focus token... very low indeed.
I used to dev the Armada module, so I was familiar with Vassal, but not the X-wing module)
I had 9 games on Vassal, enough to know the rules, make a more reasonable list and not be a total baby seal. My first win came in my 5th game, and although I only won 1 more game after that, I felt I was starting to know what I was doing.
Tweaking. The first thing I noticed was that Dutch was considered a low target priority, so he was left for last - and then he lacked the ability to kill anything on his own. So I ditched him in favor of an ARC, selecting Garven for his focus-passing ability and giving Wedge Swarm. It was a better list.
Then I got into my car (or actually a rental as my brakes decided to get shifty) and drove 3 hours to Østersund. This was my first Store Champ. My first time with real minis - I actually unpacked my fleet right before that first RL game :-D
I went 2-3 at that tourney, which was very good by my standards (also won the Armada SC the day after). I learned a LOT, and got some new ideas for tweaking list. The Garven/Swarm thing hadn't really worked much. Either he didn't get to focus or he simply didn't roll any eyes, so the number of times he passed a focus token... very low indeed.
I was going to do more Vassal games in between the SC and Nordics, but it turned out my Armada-fu was... a bit rusty, so I had to prioritize that. Plus Armada was... really fun again. In no small part thanks to Broba's Thrawn 2-ship. But more about that later.
So... for Nordics I ran Wedge w/R3 & Protons, Luke with IA & Protons and ARC-Norra with Intimidation/Zeb & Tail Gunner. A simple, yet flexible list, and not too punishing vs mistakes.
Nordics 2018 R3 (200)
Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing 52
Proton Torpedoes 9
R3 Astromech 3
Servomotor S-foils 0
Ship Total: 64
Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62
Instinctive Aim 2
Proton Torpedoes 9
Servomotor S-foils 0
Ship Total: 73
Norra Wexley — ARC-170 Starfighter 55
Intimidation 3
“Zeb” Orrelios 1
Veteran Tail Gunner 4
Ship Total: 63
The list has a strong opening, which IMO is important to a newbie with poor dogfighting skills. So basically my list, my setup and my opening moves are aimed at doing a lot more damage to you at long range than u do to me. No bid, bc I don't know what to do with it...
When we get close, I'm ahead and your ships start dying before mine and it snowballs to victory. Also, if u try that clever shit with blocking and bumping that I don't fully master, Norra is in the middle of it, with bonus Evades and the ability to shoot back and front, even at range 0. You die.
I'm not going to claim prodigal status, but this is me after a total of 8 real life X-wing games (plus 9 simulated). I'm in 2nd place after 3 rounds at Nordics. I'm sure luck was involved. Pairings. Dice. Whatever. But I must have done something right...
In my 4th game I met a veteran Polish player (the guy just below me in r3). He went on to win the Swiss, 6-0 with a good MoV, and our game was the closes he came to a loss. I did the same as in the other games, and lo and behold, his Guri and Old Teroch are both dead, and I have 3 ships left.
But that's when the skill disparity kicked in: he was in close, 2nd player and I6, dodging all my good shots. Wedge and Luke went down without me being able to focus Fenn Rau down.
Then we had 1 ship left each, and chased back and forth between the asteroids, but Norra can't really catch Fenn Rau, and my increasingly desperate attempts at scoring half points on Rau came to nothing. And Fenn cost 8 more than Norra, so loss.
The best game of the 6. I was on my toes for 75 minutes straight. Man was my coffee cold after! :-D
But that's when the skill disparity kicked in: he was in close, 2nd player and I6, dodging all my good shots. Wedge and Luke went down without me being able to focus Fenn Rau down.
Then we had 1 ship left each, and chased back and forth between the asteroids, but Norra can't really catch Fenn Rau, and my increasingly desperate attempts at scoring half points on Rau came to nothing. And Fenn cost 8 more than Norra, so loss.
The best game of the 6. I was on my toes for 75 minutes straight. Man was my coffee cold after! :-D
Last two games were wins also. So 5-1 for me, and 5th in Swiss of about 100 players. Highest ranking Norwegian, only one to make the cut actually. Not too shabby for a baby seal!
And yeah, I'm pretty pleased with that achievement. No, I'm totally blown away. I almost can't believe it. Wow!
Tempting as it was to play the Top 16 Cut on Sunday, my hearts is with Armada, so I had to drop. It kind of sucked, but it didn't. Maybe if I didn't have a title to defend I might have done it? But... I think not. Four guaranteed games of Armada over maybe (big maybe) more than 1 game of X-wing?
Fun fact: I know the guy who came 17th, so by dropping he got into the cut. He was very happy with that. He also paired against the Polish buy who beat me... and defeated him. VENGEANCE! :D he went on to reach the top 4 before being knocked out. I'm pretty sure I would have lost a second game against my "nemesis", so everything worked out fine I think.
Fun fact: I know the guy who came 17th, so by dropping he got into the cut. He was very happy with that. He also paired against the Polish buy who beat me... and defeated him. VENGEANCE! :D he went on to reach the top 4 before being knocked out. I'm pretty sure I would have lost a second game against my "nemesis", so everything worked out fine I think.
But too bad there was an overlap at all. It would have been so cool to see if I could make top 8... top 4... top 2... top ;-) Maybe next year? :-P
How does this relate to Armada? Not a lot, but a little. X-wing is guaranteed hard to master, but the rules are simple to learn, and the game itself much less complex than Armada. A LOT less complex. There are usually 3-4 ships to a side (more with swarms, but they are moving as one), no turn limit, no objectives, no command stacks. There are (as of wave 1) not too many ship types or upgrades or OP combos.
For Armada players that's nothing. We juggle so many more variables and our early decisions echo deep into our games. In that regard X-wing is a bit more forgiving. So even if the games are not much alike, I do think my experience with Armada helped me learn very quickly and to juggle variables easily and plan ahead several turns. I also found a good setup and flexible opening gambit, which are so important also in Armada.
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