http://teamcovenant.com/scumandvillainy/2014/05/16/scum-and-villainy-returns-for-another-episode/

It's all my fault guys. I'm sorry.

Yes you guys rock.

Haha on the same time table as Ben

The other podcast is on our lunar calendar.

Listening now.

Great show guys.

I wanted to add to your points on R5-P9. I don't think you hit on one of my favorite parts of it, and that is that is makes your focus more effective. With R5-P9, there are fewer situations where you need to decide to spend a focus to avoid a single damage. Lets say you are under focus fire with R5-P9 and you have focus, one eyeball and are looking at a hit. With R5-P9, you just eat the hit and save the focus. If you don't need it later, you get your shield back. If you do need it, it might mitigate 2 or more damage later. It lets you "focus your focus" where it is most effective. I like it a lot.

Is there a RSS feed for this podcast? I use DoggCatcher, and I can't get the Podcast to update regularly.

You and the Brits X wing podcast with a day of one another. X-mas in May!!!!!

Now we just need the TX boys to release one tomorrow.

Is there a RSS feed for this podcast? I use DoggCatcher, and I can't get the Podcast to update regularly.

I believe we're on Itunes, you can RSS that right? I'm not the technical one, Just the good at Xwing one...

Is there a RSS feed for this podcast? I use DoggCatcher, and I can't get the Podcast to update regularly.

I believe we're on Itunes, you can RSS that right? I'm not the technical one, Just the good at Xwing one...

I figured it out. FYI, you might want to add the following link on the Podcast webpage for those of use that don't use iTunes for subscribing to Podcasts:

http://teamcovenant.com/scumandvillainy/feed/podcast

Is there a RSS feed for this podcast? I use DoggCatcher, and I can't get the Podcast to update regularly.

I believe we're on Itunes, you can RSS that right? I'm not the technical one, Just the good at Xwing one...

I figured it out. FYI, you might want to add the following link on the Podcast webpage for those of use that don't use iTunes for subscribing to Podcasts:

http://teamcovenant.com/scumandvillainy/feed/podcast

Thank you! Will do!

There... are.... FOUR podcasts!

Will have to give it a listen this weekend.

There... are.... FOUR podcasts!

Will have to give it a listen this weekend.

the joke is we recorded a full podcast but my inability to notice I wasn't recording caused the 5th episode to be the 4th.

Reference to Star Trek the Next Generation.

I was going to go with the old Calculus joke. 2 + 2 = 5 (For extremely large Podcasts)

Reference to Star Trek the Next Generation.

I should have known this... great episode.

Awesome! I really enjoy these. Keep up the good work!

In the episode I asked if a z-95 or tie interceptor lived longer, technically I meant tie fighter but the agi and hull are the same.

Great episode guys. I decided to go to Gencon (my first), so hopefully when I'm getting my face mauled by real players, I'll have time after my ignominious defeats to chat with you briefly.

Great episode guys. I decided to go to Gencon (my first), so hopefully when I'm getting my face mauled by real players, I'll have time after my ignominious defeats to chat with you briefly.

Now I want to go to Gen con...

Major, did you ever run the numbers on survive ability of a tie vs z-95?

Major, did you ever run the numbers on survive ability of a tie vs z-95?

Well as with anything there is a short answer, and there is a long answer.

The long answer is: "it depends", based on range, what is attacking you, and what actions the various ships have. There are so many combinations that to look at all of them individually would take too long, so I'll just avoid this entirely. I doubt I'll have the time to do a comprehensive analysis of this anytime soon.

The "short" answer is: "about the same". I actually did the (approximate) math on this a while back in my Lanchester's thread. First you have to figure out how much more durability you get from having 3 defense dice vs 2 defense dice. I did this by calculating a weighted average of all the different ranges (1-3), being attacked from different ships (2 and 3 attack dice), and with different action economies (mainly focus being present on the attacker and/or defender). What I came up with, is that 2 defense dice are about 71% as effective as having 3 defense dice. What this means, is that the TIE Fighter will receive, on average, 71% of the damage that a Z-95 will receive. That number is off the top of my head - I would have to dig up the thread and double check or pull out my spreadsheets / Matlab scripts at home. Regardless, there is an error range on that estimate, since I make some assumptions about how often you're in what range bin, and what the action economy looks like, and how many base attack dice the ships are shooting at you with. The "actual" average, if there is such a thing, could be +/- 4%.

Next you need to consider how much durability you get from shields vs. hull. I have generally been using shields as being worth 1.25x hull, but that number is not exact. I would have to do a more detailed analysis into the frequency of crits, and their net effect on the ship. Anything other than double damage crits are hard to numerically compute though. So lets just use 1.25 for now.

So if we assume that 2 defense dice is worth 71% of 3 defense dice, and shields are worth 1.25x hull, then the normalized durabilities are:

Z-95: 0.71*(1.25*2 + 2) = 3.195 (6.5% more)

TIE Fighter: 1*3 = 3

So, on paper, the Z-95 should be just a little bit more durable than the TIE Fighter, but not by much. If my numbers are off then they could be almost exactly equal, or the Z-95 could get a slightly larger advantage.

To put this in perspective, you can do a similar thing with the X-wing and B-wing. Think of the B-wing as the Z-95 and the X-wing as the TIE Fighter, in this analogy.

B-Wing: 0.51*(1.25*5 + 3) = 4.7175 (20% higher)

X-wing: 0.71*(1.25*2 + 3) = 3.905

My math predicts that the B-wing should be about 20% more durable than the X-wing. I think this is pretty close to the general consensus that we see from real world play. This is, by the way, the main reason that B-wings have such a great performance / cost ratio: getting 20% more durability for 1 point is almost a no-brainer, and we still haven't talked about its Barrel Roll and Systems Upgrade slot. But I digress...

TL;DR: I'm very confident in stating that the Z-95 durability will be about the same, or even slightly higher, than the TIE Fighter. For costing the same but getting +1 PS, that's a pretty good deal. Rebels don't get Howlrunner, but because of the +1PS, in my opinion the ship itself is a slightly better value than the Imperial TIE Fighter.

[edit: typo: First you have to figure out how much more durability you get from having 3 defense dice vs 2 defense dice.]

Thanks MajorJuggler, that's exactly the kind of analysis we were looking for.

Spread the word to the galactic holonet!

I agree with them. Chardaan PLUS A-wing Test Pilot seem a little much. It will be interesting to see if we'll see A-wing(s) in every list after Reb aces.