Did y'all see that a Vynder with advanced proton torpedoes list won a French regional? I played around with the combo last night (PTL/advanced SLAM/APT) and it's really fun.
XG-1 "Star Wing" Assault Gunboat Thread
33 minutes ago, horsepire said:Did y'all see that a Vynder with advanced proton torpedoes list won a French regional? I played around with the combo last night (PTL/advanced SLAM/APT) and it's really fun.
It looks like a fun combo. PtL, SLAM & OS-1 title gives you some serious repositioning options letting you set up that brutal range one shot. I flew APTs on Dengar at Nationals (nowhere near as successfully), when it comes off it's hilarious, especially if your opponent hasn't seen them in action before...
Edited by FTS Gecko9 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:It looks like a fun combo. PtL, SLAM & OS-1 title gives you some serious repositioning options letting you set up that brutal range one shot. I flew APTs on Dengar at Nationals (nowhere near as successfully), when it comes off it's hilarious, especially if your opponent hasn't seen them in action before...
Yeah what I'm trying to figure out is whether PTL/slam/OS-1 moves APT from the "hilarious" column to the "hilariously effective" column...
9 minutes ago, horsepire said:Yeah what I'm trying to figure out is whether PTL/slam/OS-1 moves APT from the "hilarious" column to the "hilariously effective" column...
Well, the winner of the French regional certainly managed to leverage it successfully enough. Whether that result gets repeated or not is a different matter. PS is a big factor here it seems to me, Vynder should be able to reliably hit lower PS ships for big damage (probably after his wingmates strip shields as well). Of course, having Cruise Missiles on top means he's a threat at all ranges..
Did anyone else see that we can't fly 12 GUNBOATS in Epic anymore?
We must purge this heresy.
2 hours ago, Kieransi said:Did anyone else see that we can't fly 12 GUNBOATS in Epic anymore?
We must purge this heresy.
8+lambda+gozanti
Can still rep Cygnus spaceworks well enough. Problem is picking goog guns for all 8
Does anyone else think the Gunboat was a missed opportunity to introduce something like the Heavy Ion Cannon. Still only does one damage, cost 4-5 points, but causes two Ion tokens instead of one to give X Wing form of Ion big ships would actually worry about that wasn't one time use for most ships?
22 minutes ago, Deimos said:Does anyone else think the Gunboat was a missed opportunity to introduce something like the Heavy Ion Cannon. Still only does one damage, cost 4-5 points, but causes two Ion tokens instead of one to give X Wing form of Ion big ships would actually worry about that wasn't one time use for most ships?
I’ve been advocating the Heavy Ion Cannon for years, even suggesting two Cannon upgrade slots to equip. It worked for GUNBOAT but nothing yet for HIC. Maybe the Skipray will bring it home.
The developers once said: "You don't want an X-Wing game where ions or tractors are actually good."
When I started playing this game, I wanted to fly my favorite rebel ships above anything else, so I played with 2 b-wings with ion cannon and tactician, and a y-wing with ion turret and R3-A2 (no BTL-A4 title, it was before wave 6).
The list wasn't broken at all. It dealt very little damage, and people never felt intimidated by it, only by the huge amount of hitpoints it involved (for the standard back then).
However, every single opponent I played always got pissed of mid game with me. To the point of not really enjoying the game at all. I almost made my brother want to stop playing the game forever.
Ions remove 1/3 of the game from the victim's hands: dial and maneuvers. If mixed with stress, or if they bump into other ships or obstacles (I had a filler Z-95 for blocking), they also lose another 1/3 of the game: actions.
The game becomes really really unfun with ions. That they are so underwhelming in damage and kind of countered by large ships is what keeps them under control.
Large ships are especially sensible to being ionized since the 1 forward moves the ship forward more total distance than a small ship so they are easier to drive out of the table, and their larger base makes them more prone to overlapping stuff.
If you make a heavy ion cannon that makes it easier to ionize large ships, people will bring more ions to the table and this will scare people away from using large ships, that isn't really healthy for the game.
...or you can just equip the OS-1 title and Ion Pulse Missiles, and wreck everybody's day.
Yep. IPM on a gunboat effectively is the HIC
Equipping IPM could be hilarious against certain lists
I think I'll try this the next game
[Major Vynder(26), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)][
[Rho Squadron Veteran(21), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)]
[Rho Squadron Veteran(21), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)]
21 hours ago, Dabirdisdaword said:Yep. IPM on a gunboat effectively is the HIC
Oh, well ok then, I’m good now.
GUNBOAT!
6 hours ago, RogueLeader42 said:I think I'll try this the next game
[Major Vynder(26), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)][
[Rho Squadron Veteran(21), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)]
[Rho Squadron Veteran(21), Push The Limit(3), Ion Pulse Missiles(3), Advanced SLAM(2), Os-1 Arsenal Loadout(2)]
I only fly casually, so help me with the rules here. In what order would you perform your actions/maneuvers with the above^ loadout? Perform maneuver, focus, use PTL to Adv SLAM (receive stress and weapons disabled token), use Adv SLAM to target lock as a free action, dump Ion torps/missiles or APT's to ruin opponents day, point finger at said opponent and laugh?
How does the above^ work when you want to use a reload action?
Edited by Thrawn867 hours ago, Thrawn86 said:I only fly casually, so help me with the rules here. In what order would you perform your actions/maneuvers with the above^ loadout? Perform maneuver, focus, use PTL to Adv SLAM (receive stress and weapons disabled token), use Adv SLAM to target lock as a free action, dump Ion torps/missiles or APT's to ruin opponents day, point finger at said opponent and laugh?
How does the above^ work when you want to use a reload action?
You cannot SLAM as the free action of Push the Limit.
I guess you could do like this, instead:
- Maneuver
- SLAM -> Maneuver
- Advanced SLAM (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
- Push the limit (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
If you bump a ship or a rock as part of the SLAM maneuver, then you can still do like this
- Maneuver
- SLAM -> Maneuver that bumps (so no Advanced SLAM action)
- Push the limit (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
On 1/20/2018 at 5:31 PM, Azrapse said:You cannot SLAM as the free action of Push the Limit.
I guess you could do like this, instead:
- Maneuver
- SLAM -> Maneuver
- Advanced SLAM (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
- Push the limit (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
If you bump a ship or a rock as part of the SLAM maneuver, then you can still do like this
- Maneuver
- SLAM -> Maneuver that bumps (so no Advanced SLAM action)
- Push the limit (Target Lock, Reload, Focus)
Yup, that's exactly how you do it. You end up with one stress token for using Push the Limit but in exchange you get to move twice and hopefully unload with a focus-modified advanced proton torpedo. Since APT lets you change up to three blanks to eyes, you're looking at a minimum of three hits. According to an X-Wing odds calculator I googled (which may or may not be accurate), you have a 99% of at least four hits, and a 98% chance of five hits (before defense dice are rolled). Nasty.
3 minutes ago, horsepire said:Yup, that's exactly how you do it. You end up with one stress token for using Push the Limit but in exchange you get to move twice and hopefully unload with a focus-modified advanced proton torpedo. Since APT lets you change up to three blanks to eyes, you're looking at a minimum of three hits. According to an X-Wing odds calculator I googled (which may or may not be accurate), you have a 99% of at least four hits, and a 98% chance of five hits (before defense dice are rolled). Nasty.
I understand this works well the first time, right?
Since you have Advanced SLAM equipped, you cannot get this target lock from the beginning with Long Range Scanners, so you need to get close to range 1 in the first round of combat, and acquire both the target lock and the focus token. Am I right?
This makes Vynder effective versus anyone below his PS, but not so effective against people that move after him, unless you manage to block them with someone else.
After the first attack, if you survive the combat, you would need at least 2 rounds to repeat the feat, if I am not mistaken, since you need to reload, target lock again, and focus.
PtL leaves you stressed, so Vynder is quite predictable the round after his attack, only being able to do 4 different maneuvers to get rid of the stress if he wants to SLAM away.
Has anyone managed to do this twice before blowing up? Perhaps Extra Munitions would be worth to skip having to reload every time?
27 minutes ago, Azrapse said:I understand this works well the first time, right?
Since you have Advanced SLAM equipped, you cannot get this target lock from the beginning with Long Range Scanners, so you need to get close to range 1 in the first round of combat, and acquire both the target lock and the focus token. Am I right?
This makes Vynder effective versus anyone below his PS, but not so effective against people that move after him, unless you manage to block them with someone else.
After the first attack, if you survive the combat, you would need at least 2 rounds to repeat the feat, if I am not mistaken, since you need to reload, target lock again, and focus.
PtL leaves you stressed, so Vynder is quite predictable the round after his attack, only being able to do 4 different maneuvers to get rid of the stress if he wants to SLAM away.Has anyone managed to do this twice before blowing up? Perhaps Extra Munitions would be worth to skip having to reload every time?
All good points! The way I have seen and used the list, you give Vynder something else, like cruise missiles, so that he can at least deliver on the alpha strike without having to close to range 1. But you're right, it can be somewhat tough to land the hit on a ship with a higher PS. And even though you CAN reload APTs, the odds of you hitting with them twice in one game are low.
I think it's probably more a fun thing to try rather than a really competitive loadout, but it did win a regional!
47 minutes ago, Azrapse said:Perhaps Extra Munitions would be worth to skip having to reload every time?
Thats a thing I also considered.
19 minutes ago, RogueLeader42 said:Thats a thing I also considered.
Just as I was typing that I was thinking that adding extra points on a ship only makes it more prone to be blown up earlier on (unless those points are somehow adding mitigation or arcdodging abilities, and Extra Munitions don't).
44 minutes ago, Azrapse said:Just as I was typing that I was thinking that adding extra points on a ship only makes it more prone to be blown up earlier on (unless those points are somehow adding mitigation or arcdodging abilities, and Extra Munitions don't).
Maybe giving it to one of the Rho Pilots to make Vynder a little bit less tempting as a target.
3 hours ago, RogueLeader42 said:Maybe giving it to one of the Rho Pilots to make Vynder a little bit less tempting as a target.
As Ficklegreendice said after the preview article, Major Vynder's ability is being PS 7. That allows him to arc dodge and move later to get some shots.
Rhos cannot do that and will be out flown more easily.
Edited by AzrapseJust a random GUNBOAT tangent - what is Major Vynder's gender?
From the article:
"Where Lieutenant Karsabi aims to shed his weapons disabled tokens, Major Vynder embraces them. So long as the Major has a weapons disabled token, she gets to roll an extra defense die. Accordingly, the Major might make gratuitous use of her ship's SLAM action, darting about the board with her Advanced SLAM, her Veteran Instincts , and an OS-1 Arsenal Loadout full of Unguided Rockets to find the best possible shot round after round—up to as many as eight ship lengths away from his original position."
Vynder's pronouns there are "she", "her", "her", and then "his". FFG messes up their articles so bad that it's hard to tell (they did the same thing with Echo). Community consensus that she's female? Trying to figure this out for the sake of creating alt-arts, talking about this pilot, etc.
Isn't "she" also the pronoun used when you aren't sure about someone's gender? (Along with "they")
Perhaps Vynder is a female. Or perhaps her gender hasn't been defined and they use a default pronoun meanwhile someone at Lucasfilm makes their mind.