I'm casting games today on vassal if anyone is interested: https://www.twitch.tv/brettpkelly

If there is enough interest I'll try to make this a regular thing.

Broadcast is over! had a good time casting some games. I didn't know you had to check "save past broadcasts" to re-upload, so you can't rewatch the stream, but I'll re-upload next time.

Also I might have been using my webcam mic the whole time so that's why the levels were so bad. Should be better next time.

I missed it, but would love to see this down the road. Ironically, I was at the Game Shoppe in Omaha playing a skirmish as tournament prep for Regionals in MN ...

Definitely be glad to see recorded videos!

So I can’t go back and watch that one? Noooo! Haha I was looking forward to it and just assumed next time!

9 hours ago, Masterchiefspiff said:

So I can’t go back and watch that one? Noooo! Haha I was looking forward to it and just assumed next time!

Still working out the kinks, but hopefully I'll get it together next time. Still wondering how you get comments to pop up on the main screen.

This is a cool idea. Thanks.

I'm going into withdrawal as I had to bail out of a tournament today. The roads are way too snowy and slippery. General Weiss and his e-Jets will have to wait.

Stream is Live. I'll remember to record it this time

The videos are up on twitch. I streamed 2 half games. Sorry for the low energy today, I have a bad cold.

I love that you’re doing this and can’t wait to watch some of these in the future. Can you stream audio from discord? That would be an opportunity to help add some context to the games if the players were using that and willing to be on.

59 minutes ago, Fightwookies said:

I love that you’re doing this and can’t wait to watch some of these in the future. Can you stream audio from discord? That would be an opportunity to help add some context to the games if the players were using that and willing to be on.

I can, but it's distracting for the players to have my commentary on top of their conversation. I suppose i can mute my discord mic. I'll experiment with it if people want to volunteer to be casted.

14 hours ago, brettpkelly said:

I can, but it's distracting for the players to have my commentary on top of their conversation. I suppose i can mute my discord mic. I'll experiment with it if people want to volunteer to be casted.

If both sides are being casted, then you guys can basically both comment about what's going on while it's happening. It would be cool to hear both sides perspective during a match. Additionally, that would enable you to have really good breakdowns after the game.

I really appreciate watching the Vassal games.

Just saw Masterchiefspiff (2 x ERiots, 2x EJets, Palp, Officer, Zillo) vs Wannabepudge (Han, Drokatta, ERangers, Gideon, 3p0, 2 x Smuggler) on Nal Hutta.

I'm curious if there's a total game strategy someone would play against the Imperial list with? Would it make sense to try to remove the Jets and play around the ERiots? Or manage activation economy on round one to try to wipe out a full ERiots unit? It seems to me that after the ERiots move up and pocket themselves, there's an opportunity to stall until the other Imperial units move, then use the ERangers to clear a whole deployment.

Hindsight's 20/20 and all, but this was an interesting puzzle to me. I'll have to give some thought of how to deal with this in my usual builds.

11 hours ago, GottaBadFeelingAboutThis said:

Would it make sense to try to remove the Jets and play around the ERiots?

Having now played that list twice, I would agree. In that stream I was trying to wipe out a full deployment and failed only to have him reinforce. I managed it the second game, but that ended up leaving Drokkatta exposed for the Emperor to lightening. If and when I get a third try, I'll be going after the jets for sure. My main reason for going after the riots was to prevent stash control (2nd match up), but it still blew up in my face. The Emperor's Force Lightening and Grenadier have been a real gut punch.

Its a tough list to play and I'm not sure I have an answer for the list, but I'm beginning to think the Rebels don't necessarily have the tools to beat it regularly, but that is more of a hunch at the moment. jLuke might be able to SoS his way through that list.

Just now, wannabepudge said:

Its a tough list to play and I'm not sure I have an answer for the list, but I'm beginning to think the Rebels don't necessarily have the tools to beat it regularly, but that is more of a hunch at the moment. jLuke might be able to SoS his way through that list.

He certainly can. I played this list against a Jedi Luke list last night and he sliced through the troopers like butter, though I was able to hold out long enough to kill him.

I took it to regionals later that week, got matched up first round against @wannabepudge ...felt bad we had to play again. It didn't go so hot for him, though I don't think it was his fault at all, I was able to get really good cards and map matchup.

Second round, I played JK Luke and Han list on Jawa drop of crates mission. I lost...barely...but Han dodged three attacks (finally died) and Luke dodged at least two and survived the game with two health. If any of those attacks had not been dodges I'd have had more power left alive and Luke's death would have been the win.

Third round, I played a 4 act Vader, AT-DP, Sorin, Emperor list on shielded nal hutta. That sucked! He had range and vader to deal with me running up there. I basically decided I had to kill Vader (and score points from objectives) though I could have probably played super passive and ran away to the far side of the map and given up the middle. I won by like two points after finally killing Vader (I think it was like 7-8 attacks from riots/jets/and a force lightning and saber from Emperor). And then putting like 12 damage on his emperor, he force jumped back into his deployment zone and around the corner to save his points. Very tough and close match. I definitely didn't like that matchup.

Fourth round, I played @seef1033 with vader/ejets/ejets/eriots/officers on Jawa control points. This was a chess match and felt like constantly calculating things and it was exhausting. I don't think either of us had fun. He ended up winning after I made it kind of close (closer than I thought I was going to be able to) - I also made the mistake of going through the whole first round thinking the control points were 4 points each instead of 2 - which led me to make some bad positioning and overextending. He didn't kill an almost dead riot end of round, so I didn't get to reinforce it round two and have a fresh new beat stick out there...that sucked. Then he finished that set off in round two.

Fifth round, after miraculously making it into the top 8 at 2-2, I got matched up against @Matsu Robun . Running Iggy scum on Jabba's grab crates mission. I set up in the labryinth. Lost an E Riot mid round, then he stepped Iggy up to take the other E Riot from the other side. So whole deployment gone. It went downhill fast after that. I think I killed a couple of his figs in the end but he basically just had to sit in his base and make me come to him. I'm sure I made some big mistakes in here, but I definitely didn't enjoy this game at all and I over thought a lot and slowed way down. I think I might have had a chance if I'd gone directly through the top and just ran one E Riot of each deployment out just far enough to make a wall to block los into the base then move the other riot from each group into the halls, then move E Jets up some for round two. And as long as my E Riot groups stayed with one each and I didn't lose any E Jet's round 1 I might have a chance to bum rush in and take out a couple of his fire power figs and be able to turn the tide. Had grenadier and reinforcements so it could have been a different game that way. But I was too worried about his door being open and sniping. I think this list needs to get in someone's face as fast as possible without losing a full set of E Riots to then be able to oppressively pull ahead.

25 minutes ago, Masterchiefspiff said:

I took it to regionals later that week, got matched up first round against @wannabepudge ...felt bad we had to play again. It didn't go so hot for him, though I don't think it was his fault at all, I was able to get really good cards and map matchup.

Second round, I played JK Luke and Han list on Jawa drop of crates mission. I lost...barely...but Han dodged three attacks (finally died) and Luke dodged at least two and survived the game with two health. If any of those attacks had not been dodges I'd have had more power left alive and Luke's death would have been the win.

Third round, I played a 4 act Vader, AT-DP, Sorin, Emperor list on shielded nal hutta. That sucked! He had range and vader to deal with me running up there. I basically decided I had to kill Vader (and score points from objectives) though I could have probably played super passive and ran away to the far side of the map and given up the middle. I won by like two points after finally killing Vader (I think it was like 7-8 attacks from riots/jets/and a force lightning and saber from Emperor). And then putting like 12 damage on his emperor, he force jumped back into his deployment zone and around the corner to save his points. Very tough and close match. I definitely didn't like that matchup.

Fourth round, I played @seef1033 with vader/ejets/ejets/eriots/officers on Jawa control points. This was a chess match and felt like constantly calculating things and it was exhausting. I don't think either of us had fun. He ended up winning after I made it kind of close (closer than I thought I was going to be able to) - I also made the mistake of going through the whole first round thinking the control points were 4 points each instead of 2 - which led me to make some bad positioning and overextending. He didn't kill an almost dead riot end of round, so I didn't get to reinforce it round two and have a fresh new beat stick out there...that sucked. Then he finished that set off in round two.

Fifth round, after miraculously making it into the top 8 at 2-2, I got matched up against @Matsu Robun . Running Iggy scum on Jabba's grab crates mission. I set up in the labryinth. Lost an E Riot mid round, then he stepped Iggy up to take the other E Riot from the other side. So whole deployment gone. It went downhill fast after that. I think I killed a couple of his figs in the end but he basically just had to sit in his base and make me come to him. I'm sure I made some big mistakes in here, but I definitely didn't enjoy this game at all and I over thought a lot and slowed way down. I think I might have had a chance if I'd gone directly through the top and just ran one E Riot of each deployment out just far enough to make a wall to block los into the base then move the other riot from each group into the halls, then move E Jets up some for round two. And as long as my E Riot groups stayed with one each and I didn't lose any E Jet's round 1 I might have a chance to bum rush in and take out a couple of his fire power figs and be able to turn the tide. Had grenadier and reinforcements so it could have been a different game that way. But I was too worried about his door being open and sniping. I think this list needs to get in someone's face as fast as possible without losing a full set of E Riots to then be able to oppressively pull ahead.

That's a great write-up for the list. Seems to me that being able to keep all 5 matches close in a broad meta with pretty distinct maps is a sign of strength. Thanks for talking through how it played! I'm going to MN Regionals this weekend, and haven't had the chance to play against this build yet!

Brett, quick suggestion?

I'd love to play on Vassal, but it's a bit intimidating to go through all the hotkeys. You seem to have plenty of "dead air" time when you screen a match; any chance you could spend some of that talking through how they're actually manipulating the interface?

Like "Spiff just readied all his command cards end of round -- that hotkey is _____."

Or "Pudge cleared the dice. There's a button for that by the dice tray, or you can hit ____ on the keyboard."

I think if you just did it once and labeled it "X vs X - Recommended Vassal Training Video," it would be a real gift to me, and I imagine a number of others!

11 minutes ago, GottaBadFeelingAboutThis said:

Brett, quick suggestion?

I'd love to play on Vassal, but it's a bit intimidating to go through all the hotkeys. You seem to have plenty of "dead air" time when you screen a match; any chance you could spend some of that talking through how they're actually manipulating the interface?

Like "Spiff just readied all his command cards end of round -- that hotkey is _____."

Or "Pudge cleared the dice. There's a button for that by the dice tray, or you can hit ____ on the keyboard."

I think if you just did it once and labeled it "X vs X - Recommended Vassal Training Video," it would be a real gift to me, and I imagine a number of others!

Just get on and play. I'll play you with a mic and tell you all the secrets to playing quickly on Vassal.

That is a good suggestion though.

16 minutes ago, GottaBadFeelingAboutThis said:

Brett, quick suggestion?

I'd love to play on Vassal, but it's a bit intimidating to go through all the hotkeys. You seem to have plenty of "dead air" time when you screen a match; any chance you could spend some of that talking through how they're actually manipulating the interface?

Like "Spiff just readied all his command cards end of round -- that hotkey is _____."

Or "Pudge cleared the dice. There's a button for that by the dice tray, or you can hit ____ on the keyboard."

I think if you just did it once and labeled it "X vs X - Recommended Vassal Training Video," it would be a real gift to me, and I imagine a number of others!

I'll try to incorporate that into my next video. Should be streaming another VIASL tournament quarterfinal game on Friday.

34 minutes ago, DTDanix said:

Just get on and play. I'll play you with a mic and tell you all the secrets to playing quickly on Vassal.

That is a good suggestion though.

And he can show you how that list is supposed to be played

18 hours ago, GottaBadFeelingAboutThis said:

Brett, quick suggestion?

I'd love to play on Vassal, but it's a bit intimidating to go through all the hotkeys. You seem to have plenty of "dead air" time when you screen a match; any chance you could spend some of that talking through how they're actually manipulating the interface?

Like "Spiff just readied all his command cards end of round -- that hotkey is _____."

Or "Pudge cleared the dice. There's a button for that by the dice tray, or you can hit ____ on the keyboard."

I think if you just did it once and labeled it "X vs X - Recommended Vassal Training Video," it would be a real gift to me, and I imagine a number of others!

@GottaBadFeelingAboutThis I actually don't use any of the hotkeys as I can't ever remember them haha. Just about all on map things can be done in the right menu, and the other screens have some short cut buttons along the top. Overall the interface is pretty user friendly.

Is there a tips and tricks article anywhere? For instance I just learned that the numbers pad can be used to move your figures. Its nice to see the figure actually moving rather than it just appearing 4-5 spaces away when clicked and dragged.

As @DTDanix said, just get on and play. No one is going to care if you use the shortcuts or right click menu options.

My best advice is to have your lists saved ahead of time if you can. Putting the lists together is my biggest annoyance because its a little tedious.

You can also follow this BBG page for updates: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1308588/vassal-imperial-assault-skirmish/page/1 (there also seems to be a video tutorial for the skirmish mode). Briefly watching, it looks pretty old so a few of the functions are no longer there, but I think its a solid starting point.

Stream will be live tonight around 8 PM EST for VIASL 003 Semifinals Ryan Jamal vs Robert Stanley: Twitch.tv/brettpkelly

I'm interested in getting some feedback on what lists everyone would like to see played on stream this weekend. I created a poll here: https://strawpoll.com/4wz2gk83

I've been focusing mostly on top tier meta lists in preparation for worlds, but I could always branch out to other stuff as well.

The streams go live at http://www.twitch.tv/brettpkelly. I'll probably do some streaming Friday night again and maybe Sunday as well.

Past streams have been uploaded to youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaei-Dn1YAGx5qnNjfRGAHw

30 minutes ago, brettpkelly said:

I'm interested in getting some feedback on what lists everyone would like to see played on stream this weekend. I created a poll here:

Is it sexist to force Drokkatta into the ‘Other’ category? Asking for a friend...