NOVA Squadron Radio – Episode 27 “Epic and the GR-75!”

Welcome to NOVA Squadron Radio! This week we start out three part series on Epic! We start with a review of the Hound’s Tooth reveal, we cover Worlds and its super-fast sell out, and in the main topic, and we discuss the rules to Epic and review the GR-75 Rebel Transport. All of that and a lot more!

NOVA Squadron Radio is:
Ed Horne – Host
Kris Soehnlin – Co-Host and NOVA Squadron founding member
Ronald Brannan – Co-Host and NOVA Squadron founding member
Chad Brown – Co-Host/Editor
Sean Dorcy – Co-host
Bob Randall – Co-host
Kris Sherriff – Co-host

Here are the show notes from Episode 27:

[0:00 – 2:03] Show Opening

[2:03 – 53:05] The Flightdeck: What we have been flying lately and local tournament talk

[53:05 –2:06:25] The News:
News: NOVA Open 2015: Registration is open! http://www.novaopen.com/
-September 3-6 at the Hyatt Regency NOVA Open 2015 Star Wars X-Wing™ Narrative Campaign: "Ascent of the Dark Side"
Any Means Necessary https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/6/15/any-methods-necessary/

[2:06:25 – 2:55:15] Main Topic 1: Epic and the GR-75

[2:55:15 – 2:58:13] Show Closing!


Musical Credits go out to the band ‘Insane Ride’ and their songs ‘Sound of Rock and Roll’ and ‘Wrong or Right’ found on the Free Music Archive at http://freemusicarchive.org/

Thanks for listening, and talk to you again in two weeks!

Here is the direct link: http://novasquadronradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NOVA_Squadron_Radio_Episode_27_final.mp3

www.novasquadronradio.com

Yay, new podcast to listen to.

Cool. With Regionals out of the way, I was going to play some Epic this week. I made a space station and was going to use that for my Imperial Epic.

I like Bossk crew just for the mental image:

Bossk and some crazy Wookie are riding in some slaver ship.

The pilot target locks Soontir Fel who flies around behind them.

Wookie shoots at some poor academy sap.

Academy pro dodges the shot.

Wookie(gunner) and Bossk GO APE ****.

Bossk rages out completely, stressing out the pilot. He even drops the lock on Fel like like a psycho because he just can't let this Academy SCRUB do that.

Bossk focuses sensors and target locks the poor sap.

Wookie(still screaming) dusts him like a pro.

Trandoshan/wookie high fives all around.

2:30:00

The EM Emitter is cargo

For the Rebel Transport the worst damage cards are from the fore deck so using the Expanded Cargo hold would be best to always pull rear.

The CR-90 though has the worse cards in the rear section making that the weak section.

Just realized that Bossk will be brutal on an S&V huge ship with multiple weapons. Neither the stress nor focus matter, but it will guarantee you get to fire at a target with a target lock until you hit it. For two points it isn't bad.

You really need to get some epic play in, guys. Lots of fun -more than standard to be honest- and some neat ideas. I really want to try cr-90 + dash with an EM Emitter transport running interference. With the changes to long range this is much more workable than it was.

You really need to get some epic play in, guys.

Definitely need to get that on my list after Pittsburgh Regionals is over! I'm not going to Nationals or Worlds so I get to be non-competitive and goof off until next year.

I still don't totally agree with MJ that the Nashpup isn't worth the 6 pts. You get a completely healthy ship (that with PS would be worth 12-16 pts) to use. Of course it isn't going to get to fire in the beginning rounds of combat, but it is 4 more hp with at least 2 attack dice that can be used as clean-up in late game. 3 or 4 points would be way under-costed on the named ships.

Most late-game ships are made to be impossible for a 2-dice ship to "clean up".

I'm thinking the Pup should be more about getting a consolation prize when a super-offensive build of the Hound's Tooth is fielded. If someone figures out a Tooth that can generate near-Palob levels of hate in opponents, or at least be the favored target to destroy, the Pup will more likely be worthwhile. Either the opponent will go after less favorable targets and the Tooth survives longer, or they'll go after the Tooth early and you get a discount Z. We'll have to see when the rest of the cards are known, but Latts Razzi seems like a good possibility, because the ability is good even on a Z.

I still don't totally agree with MJ that the Nashpup isn't worth the 6 pts. You get a completely healthy ship (that with PS would be worth 12-16 pts) to use. Of course it isn't going to get to fire in the beginning rounds of combat, but it is 4 more hp with at least 2 attack dice that can be used as clean-up in late game. 3 or 4 points would be way under-costed on the named ships.

That's the trick -- not having the ship at the start of the game makes a huge difference. Due to the snowball effect, a ship that only appears at the end of the game is worth significantly less than a ship that is present at the start of the game. I'll publish the more rigorous proof eventually.

Still bummed that I can't make it to worlds, was looking forward to seeing all of you. I really hope FFG gets the message that this year's worlds is messed up.

I just went back and listened to Team Covenant's interview with Steve Horvath posted back in May. It looks like demand significantly outpaced their expectations. That, and he said that there were "several ways to get into a tournament" if you really wanted -- i.e. win at Regionals or Top 4 at a Nationals. Unfortunately his statement/hope/opinion that people that really want to go will be able to go (loosely translated) is fundamentally incompatible with reality when you have ~256 seats available and demand is likely well north of 500.

Do they not look at their sales of X-wing? It has to be their best selling game by far.

I really like the idea of pairing Latts with Kath or a IG-88B with HLC.

Maybe something like:

Latts + Ion Cannon + Greedo + Outlaw Tech + Weapons Engineer + EU

Kath + VI + HLC + K4 Sec. + ID + EU

Latts Ion's a target setting Kath up so she can land a devastating attack. She also de-buffs it by reducing its agility. Looks good on paper to me.

I'm really curious to see what the maneuvering fins do.

What's the email to write to FFg?

What's the email to write to FFg?

Here's the email to write to

[email protected]

I hope that more people write to them about this year's worlds event.

Email sent.

Here's what I wrote:

Dear Organized Play,

I'd first like to thank you for such great events with excellent prizes. I've enjoyed every event I've been to and love every alternate art card I've gotten. The other part of organized play that I've enjoyed is the great community that X-Wing has. From my first tournament playing away from the safety of my kitchen table to every tournament since, I've consistently met the nicest players who challenged me to play my best and still have an enjoyable time.

My X-Wing experience is peaking this year when I attend Worlds. I know that this will most likely be the one chance I get to travel thousands of miles to a frigid state to play the highest level of X-wing possible against the best players possible. I have reasonable expectations, and while I have every intention of winning, getting to know the community over those few days is what I'm looking forward to the most.

Because of this, I'm disappointed that so many people that I've gotten to know in real life, online, and because of this game, are not going to be able to attend this event despite their willingness and intention to come. I hope that you reconsider the cap of players and allow more of this great community to play in this tournament. I know that running a large tournament can be a strain but this community really is the greatest and would be able to help in whatever capacity as needed. Over the next 131 days, I hope you reconsider the cap on X-Wing attendance.

Thank you,

Aaron

Just realized that Bossk will be brutal on an S&V huge ship with multiple weapons. Neither the stress nor focus matter, but it will guarantee you get to fire at a target with a target lock until you hit it. For two points it isn't bad.

You really need to get some epic play in, guys. Lots of fun -more than standard to be honest- and some neat ideas. I really want to try cr-90 + dash with an EM Emitter transport running interference. With the changes to long range this is much more workable than it was.

Working on a stop gap conversion for the GR-75 Rebel transport to include titles that give it a firing arc (base already posted and ready to print) and some weapons. Something to fill the gap between the Raider release and when FFG finally releases a proper Epic ship for Scum.

You can find the thread HERE

You really need to get some epic play in, guys.

Definitely need to get that on my list after Pittsburgh Regionals is over! I'm not going to Nationals or Worlds so I get to be non-competitive and goof off until next year.

I will say read everything again and be ready to miss the rules and forget that certain actions you cannot take. I know of players in their first epic make mistakes such as putting frequency jammers on a CR-90. Just to let everyone know that is akin to putting gunner on outrider (only with no chance of being able to use that upgrade)

I think one of the biggest problems that epic ships have is that they have no way of converting focus results on dice. Only the single turbolaser (which is like a weaker but longer range proton torpedo) can change a single focus results ans since huge ships cannot gain or spend focus tokens those focus results are the worst blanks ever. So that is a thing to consider as well. Still since the current rebel GR-75 can't attack so it has no target lock action. Also to note that it is the only ship with the jam action. So don't put frequency jammer on raider or the CR-90.

I think you missed a bit with the Dutyfree title, it's AMAZING

There's definitely different build archtypes for the huge ships - when it comes to the transport, I find the stress build very powerful, and very cheap... Jam leaves a ship double stressed, and for 2 points, increasing the range to 3 is fairly massive, as that's a lot of extra area around a huge based ship. - For 36 points, you can run frequency Jammer, allowing you to add a further stress to another ship - (hitting a bit farther than range 4, (of the range 1 chain from the target, if it's a large ship you can actually Jam into range 5 here....) When you hit Soontir or an IG with double stress, things can go fairly bad pretty quickly for those ships. This transport needs nothing else to function well. - if you want you can toss on a comms booster and further affect the action economy of the game.

There is always Han crew to convert eyeballs instead of using a TL, but we'll get to that covering the CR-90. Hopefully I get all the math done before then!

Finally got around to finishing this episode:

Regarding the value of combat retrofit. It makes a big difference in a way the math has trouble reflecting much in the same way that a hull or shield upgrade on Corran is hard to model. The retrofit allows a ship with really, really good regeneration to make it through a lot of combat phases that should have ended it. Next combat phase maybe you're at full shields. Very hard to model, but fairly effective(for an epic ship).

Finally got around to finishing this episode:

Regarding the value of combat retrofit. It makes a big difference in a way the math has trouble reflecting much in the same way that a hull or shield upgrade on Corran is hard to model. The retrofit allows a ship with really, really good regeneration to make it through a lot of combat phases that should have ended it. Next combat phase maybe you're at full shields. Very hard to model, but fairly effective(for an epic ship).

Good point! I'll take a closer look at that. There is a break-even point that will depend on how much the ship is worth, and how much extra durability the ship gets from regenerating shields.

Regarding the YV-666, do you guys think there's some merit to using Feedback Array to cover the rear? At the very least, it would keep Soontir-types from pulling in to get the extra close-range shot.

Also, I think there's some interesting utility with Latts Razzi because it uses Target Lock. For example, if you roll well, you don't need your TL to boost your attack, so you can use it for something else (dropping AGI for an ally). Likewise, if you roll no hits, against someone with high AGI, it's probably not worth re-rolling all your dice, so you save the TL to make a lower PS pilot hit even harder.

Slaver w/ K4: 32 x2 = 64 (normally Focus + green move for Focus/TL each shot)

Latts Razzi with K4: 36

I don't know. Maybe something there.

2:30:00

The EM Emitter is cargo

For the Rebel Transport the worst damage cards are from the fore deck so using the Expanded Cargo hold would be best to always pull rear.

The CR-90 though has the worse cards in the rear section making that the weak section.

Yes - I was curious about that too - what on earth made you think that EM Emitter and Frequency Jammer weren't cargo? Old internet images? EDIT: OH, I see. It was a false internet image. The actual Frequency Jammer does not use the Space Balls art and does have the Cargo Icon in it. The first Google Search result is not the actual card.

I think Bob's point about the energy for the Shield Projector was spot on. Sean responded by going back to the 4 points. But it's really hard to have 3 energy just sitting around in the combat phase unless you've intentionally built the ship for this purpose. I could see maybe running it in some sort of escort mission where the huge ship was escorting some other ship. But as a general rule, you're going to have a lot better uses for your movement and/or energy than moving 1-forward and sitting on 3 energy so you can potentially draw fire off a wounded partner.

I highly recommend playing through the campaigns in the two books for the CR-90 and GR-75. They give you a really good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the ships, and force you to be economical in your builds. I think you'll be better at Epic play once you've run through them. And, the campaigns are a lot of fun, to boot!

I think one of the biggest problems that epic ships have is that they have no way of converting focus results on dice. Only the single turbolaser (which is like a weaker but longer range proton torpedo) can change a single focus results ans since huge ships cannot gain or spend focus tokens those focus results are the worst blanks ever.

Technically not "no way" to convert focus...

Just not as efficient as small ships. Basically, you get a Target Lock, then if you get a lot of blanks, you re-roll, and if you get a lot of eyeballs, you Han Solo.