Dano is like the Pope of Armada. His words create the truth. So he is always right.
And Shepherds we shall be For thee, my Lord. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be.
In Nomeni Patri..Et Fili...Spiritus Sancti.
Tchk tchk...BOOM!
I'm a fan.
Alright boys, let's lay it out there. Favorite ship of Wave 2?
It's the ISD for me. I don't necessarily think it's BETTER than MC80 pound for pound in a ship on ship engagement... but man it just feels exactly like what I wanted for the Empire. Plus, it's so iconic, that seeing it on the board now makes Armada feel complete.
Dano is like the Pope of Armada. His words create the truth. So he is always right.
Gah! My eyes! Burning!
Recording this episode and talking about the R&V packs so much - I even convinced myself to preorder two more sets. All lists will be firesprayed!
You can all line up for your apologies loving up on the mighty MC80 when the wave 2 really sinks in. There's no way that thing can adapt to every situation is going to face. Sure, it can pewpew one target really well. If the game devolves into whomsoever musters the most dice in one shot shalt inherit the galaxy then we'll all be out. (I don't believe that hairball, by the way, hence the MC80 hate.)
Best ship? I'm going to be lame and say the ISD as well. Just break out the SW pompoms for me because my movie fan tables needed the presence of an ISD.
(I'm most looking forward to the rogue bombers, though. Believe the hype. DT loves squadrons.)
Dano is like the Pope of Armada. His words create the truth. So he is always right.
Gah! My eyes! Burning!
Recording this episode and talking about the R&V packs so much - I even convinced myself to preorder two more sets. All lists will be firesprayed!
You can all line up for your apologies loving up on the mighty MC80 when the wave 2 really sinks in. There's no way that thing can adapt to every situation is going to face. Sure, it can pewpew one target really well. If the game devolves into whomsoever musters the most dice in one shot shalt inherit the galaxy then we'll all be out. (I don't believe that hairball, by the way, hence the MC80 hate.)
I'm a fan of the SHOW, of course ... this includes you as well, Drunk Master Tarkin 
Yea it is a bad habit. . . I usually post on their Facebook page but I get more comments and thoughts here
So. . . 2x H-6's has 4 Battery dice vs 3x Y-Wings with only 3 Battery. . .
Are you commenting while hearing the episode?
Aka **cough** attention ** cough** what I didn't say anything.
I think Brikhause thought I was mad cause I mentioned it on our Facebook page. So... thanks for the shout-out, dude, but I ain't even mad.
You know it man! Your post was about the stars aligning and the "MC30 that could" doing a tremendous effort to take down an ISD. That's cool! Jud was still poo-pooing the thought of big ships and things getting one shotted 'cause he hasn't seen what we've seen man.
Any offense taken by anyone about that convo is mis-placed!
Alright I retract my comments then since Ardaedhel Is not upset with it. I just didn't like a fellow friend a player in my community being made fun of for his post, but that is not what it sound like it meant to be. Still a fan gentlemen keep it up!! Great show!
Ok essay time. As usual, good episode.
This is mostly about the squadrons.
It still isn't talked about but Rieekan also keeps Aces alive. That may actually be more important than the ships depending on how the meta shakes out. especially if you are protecting Gallant Haven with some more beef. Now those aces become almost impossible to kill.
All the new squadrons are very expensive. I play imps so I am used to my 8-11pt squadrons and strength in numbers is the imperial MO. for rebel players I can see these are being the norm. I look at some of these squadrons and go, well I can just take 2 of X instead. While they may not be better per-say, they have 2x the number of activations and are harder to kill since they have 2x3 Hull points instead of 6 hull points. This won't really be proven until its applied and then it still comes down to good play and decision making.
Intel. Its really only good IF your opponent brought squadrons. Maybe squadrons will become all the rage and it will be better but right now, based on what I see locally, I am typically the only one running squadrons consistantly.
As Dano said, Jan Orr's strength may lie with other aces. I have to look up the rules and timing but if your opponent can not accuracy her defensive countermeasures it makes keeping wedge and tycho alive that much easier.
Nym....Nym Nym Nym Nym Nym. Where to start. Nym has a great IF effect. While, unreliable the threat of Nym may be his biggest advantage. I can see running Nym solo in an all ship build, or sending him off with some escorts on a bombing run. His bark outweighs his bite. Your opponent has to pick, do I deal with Nym and risk the chance of losing a token, or do I deal with Nym and ignore something a little more pressing like a group of Y-Wings. More decisions = more mistakes. To me that is Nym's biggest strength, his potential is too good to ignore. If you take advantage of that fact, you will be in a good spot.
Like a Boss(k). He is only amazing if he has taken damage. Well guess what. Counter exits. I beleive Jud asked, who would just blink him for one? No one if they are smart. What you can do is send him into interceptors/a-wings take the 1 damage and then its on like donkey kong. It is easy enough to reliably trigger. It does suffer from Intels weakness which is if they don't have squadrons, you have a lot of dead points.
Villains are better because good is dumb. In all seriousness I think its balance. Look at the Core + Wave 1 Aces. Rebels got Red Barons. Loads of Dog fighters. The rebel aces lineup until now is Star Wars Top Gun. The Imperial Aces outside of mostly Vader are "clerics". Howlrunner, augments her swarm. Rhymer augments his swarm. Mauler maybe the weakest honestly, and Soontir Helps with soaking attacks to protect your swarm. He is just too easy to mitigate because of pre-measuring. The Rogues seem a bit more clerical. Obviously jan, but they are not necessarily dog fighters as they are enablers. The Villains however are the Iceman to the rebels Maverick. They have the same offensive capabilities as the core and wave 1 rebel aces. I think this was simply down to try and give both factions close to the same options for squadrons.
Dengar. Hes like Intel and Bossk. If your opponent doesn't have squadrons he is straight dead points. Howlrunner falls into this category as well. Howlrunner however augments the imperial offense as TIEs are not meant to have solid defenses on their squadrons. If you are running an Aces High list or the Rhymer + Bombers ball then dengar has some serious potential. I think there are just better ways to spend those points on squadrons for the imperials. Dengar does for the Rhymer + bomber balls what Rhymer does for the howlrunner swarm balls. Point wise its cheaper and more effecient to add Rhymer to a tie swarm than it is to add dengar to a Rhymer Bomber Ball (RBB). Thats my feeling. He is not unplayable by any means, I personally think he is a bit too inefficient for me.
If its not obvious, I am a big Fett fan boy. That being said. Hes too expensive. Will i play him, yes, hes Fett. Will i take him to tournaments, no. Hes very inefficient for what he does and at 26pts (thats more than some of our admirals), hes easy to kill. Thats 4 TIEs worth of Stands. He has bomber with blue/black which average is like 2-3 damage. 4 TIEs average is 2-3 damage as well. You get 4x the activations, better dogfighting potential and more wounds.
Firesprays. They are good, they are very very good. And customizing them to look like the imperials have hired Mandaloreans is gonna be the ****. They are expensive. The imperials, as i have said, have strength in numbers and I can not see taking more than 1 or 2 in my current lists. Probably 2 because I am an even numbers kinda of guy. These will be taken for me if I get to a point where I have extra points to spend and not sure if i want any more ship upgrades.
Rogue might be a trap without Rieekan. This is probably the most controversial thing of those post. its Squadashian level. If your hang up with squadrons is "they can only move or shoot without support" then rogue is a godsend. My issue is this. If you have been playing squadrons you know they have to have support. If your plan is to not support your squadrons because they have rogue, and your opponent is choosing to support his. You will lose the air war. Your squadrons will continuously be (you've been) ALPHA STRUCK! Rogue will do no good there as your opponent is setting lines of engagement. Interceptors + Howlrunner with flight controls coming in rolling 6 blue dice will make short work of even these new aces. For a squadron command your getting howlrunner + 4-5 more squadrons (token depending) in on 2 R+V they will explode. Sure you are committing more points to it than you are taking but the build for this example is the one I run with 12 stands of squadrons. So if you took 4 firesprays and I take 2, you take at most 2 more squadrons and my second carry goes in and finishes them off. Turn 2 you've lost the squadron war and some serious amount of points. Rieekan can obvious counter this to a degree. I do think relying on rogue to make your squadrons behave more like you want them too will lead to disappointment. I find the strength of Rogue is when you bring 12 squadrons, and your ships can only activate 10. so you save your 2 Rogues until the squadron phase and they get to act normally. If you dont support your squadrons with squadron commands, even if they have rogue, you are setting your squadrons up to fail in the dogfights. This is the hardest thing for people to grasp, as it takes away from "my ships being awesome"
Just my thoughts on the topics you discussed. I do feel that Akbar like Tarkin benefits from more ships and I am interested to see how the rebel lists shake out. My gut reaction has been the rebels "won" wave 2, but it is definitely not a landslide and I have not played with the raider yet.
4 TIEs average is 2-3 damage as well. You get 4x the activations, better dogfighting potential and more wounds.
Small point of order 
Yes, it is more wounds... But the number of attacks it takes to destroy all of those wounds changes when you go from Fighter Attacks to Ship Anti-Squadron attacks...
4 TIE fighters have 12 combined wounds... But if they're in the same arc, it only takes 3 "Hits" to kill them...
The situation is definately in your favour when you're talking about fighters shooting at you, though...
Small point: "Like a Boss(k). He is only amazing if he has taken damage. Well guess what. Counter exits."
Triggering counter is optional for the defender. "... you *may* attack that squadron..."
Great show Lads.....firesprays,YV666,YT 2400,Nym, and Jan........will rule the fighter game....in vanilla multiples or not...imho.... 
4 TIEs average is 2-3 damage as well. You get 4x the activations, better dogfighting potential and more wounds.
Small point of order
Yes, it is more wounds... But the number of attacks it takes to destroy all of those wounds changes when you go from Fighter Attacks to Ship Anti-Squadron attacks...
4 TIE fighters have 12 combined wounds... But if they're in the same arc, it only takes 3 "Hits" to kill them...
The situation is definately in your favour when you're talking about fighters shooting at you, though...
In this case I was. The R+V may be better against ship attacks but if ships are attacking my squadrons, and not my ships, I am winning anyway. Put your squadrons in the same zones your opponent will be using to target your ships. Even if they opt to take anti squadron attacks instead of long range red dice attacks, you are making out like a bandit.
Small point: "Like a Boss(k). He is only amazing if he has taken damage. Well guess what. Counter exits."
Triggering counter is optional for the defender. "... you *may* attack that squadron..."
I figured this was the case. I am at work and couldn't fact check it easily. If Boss(k) is killing counter equipped squadrons and they are not taking advantage of counter.....you're still winning.
Edited by BergerFettOn the one hand I'm agreeing with you, Berger, that leaving the R&V unsupported by big ships will leave them at a disadvantage if the opponent is supporting his or her squadrons with a big ship. That said - we're always trying to focus fire in these games. I'm not anticipating Rogue-Bombers will be off on their own, chasing a lone GSD around the map. They're going to be helping kill that ISD/MC80 everyone is bringing and hanging all the ornaments on. Or whatever priority target you choose. I think the difference will come in whether or not "natural" squadrons are potent enough with commands to take them down. I'm not sure yet that they are. Yet. Certainly not without an anti-squadron focus in the list build.
On the one hand I'm agreeing with you, Berger, that leaving the R&V unsupported by big ships will leave them at a disadvantage if the opponent is supporting his or her squadrons with a big ship. That said - we're always trying to focus fire in these games. I'm not anticipating Rogue-Bombers will be off on their own, chasing a lone GSD around the map. They're going to be helping kill that ISD/MC80 everyone is bringing and hanging all the ornaments on. Or whatever priority target you choose. I think the difference will come in whether or not "natural" squadrons are potent enough with commands to take them down. I'm not sure yet that they are. Yet. Certainly not without an anti-squadron focus in the list build.
Oh my thoughts are purely theory and more of a "If my opponent brings X or Y, how do I counter" and then sharing my thoughts. I am not sure how the rebels will deal with the beefier squadrons coming out. Imperials can run Howlrunner flight controllers and Interceptors and just toss 6blue dice at a time and try and power through.
Imperials will also continue to have rhymer who can sit back in a cloud of ties (so IG-88 can not get to him due to placement) and harass enemy ships at medium range to draw out there fighters. Its a very interesting Mini-game withing armada. I know the WM/H players that got into armada locally (so 3 of us) think squadrons are extremely import.
Having listened to the rest, I'd agree Dengar with some TIE Fighters is a pretty **** effective setup. Although if you love multi mission capable ships and don't mind blowing a hundred points in a blink, the Firespray is a winner too. (It's just not my cup of tea at the moment)
I'm definitely a 2400 fan... It's a tough call between 3 A's vs 2 2400's. That durability and Rogue may offset the lack of Counter.
Keep up the good work. The IFF podcast is breathing life into the forums while we have these lulls in official FFG material.
Sittin' on the dock of the bay...
Once again, an excellent podcast. However, I have to note that Eric and Danno are still having periods where they turn away from the mic or something and their volume dips drastically. Judson and Steve are doing fine, bu it makes Eric especially hard to here when I'm driving or on the train to work.
For what it's worth, I think the hype on the XI-7 ruling is going to die down before too long. They're only available in one expansion and the appearance of Heavy Turbolaser Turrets and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits are going to very quickly give players an option for increasing damage and messing with other defense tokens. We'll see both Advanced Projectors and ECMs making their way back onto ships once players realise that not every floating rock on the board is toting XI-7s, but that nearly everyone is starting to take a hard look at Intel Officers, NK-7s, etc.
Personally, I think the upgrades are currently looking more dependant on the ships they can appear on. ECMS on the ISD and MC80, and also maybe the AF2. Advanced Projectors on the CR90 and MC30 and similar smaller ships where even a Braced attack can still blast straight through one arc of flimsy shields and hull.
Once again, an excellent podcast. However, I have to note that Eric and Danno are still having periods where they turn away from the mic or something and their volume dips drastically. Judson and Steve are doing fine, bu it makes Eric especially hard to here when I'm driving or on the train to work.
For what it's worth, I think the hype on the XI-7 ruling is going to die down before too long. They're only available in one expansion and the appearance of Heavy Turbolaser Turrets and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits are going to very quickly give players an option for increasing damage and messing with other defense tokens. We'll see both Advanced Projectors and ECMs making their way back onto ships once players realise that not every floating rock on the board is toting XI-7s, but that nearly everyone is starting to take a hard look at Intel Officers, NK-7s, etc.
Personally, I think the upgrades are currently looking more dependant on the ships they can appear on. ECMS on the ISD and MC80, and also maybe the AF2. Advanced Projectors on the CR90 and MC30 and similar smaller ships where even a Braced attack can still blast straight through one arc of flimsy shields and hull.
Holy crap! Are you reading my mind?!? Everything you stated is something I've thought.
I'm thinking the MC30 is still a perfect fit for AP, and most of my builds I'm working on are squeezing IO on them somewhere. Shame I won't have time to fly this weekend. Home projects win this time!
Definitely going to get maneuvers in today and I will be seeing the MC80 again. I think I'm too excited to avoid proxying Firesprays. I just have to see if squadrons are really finally here. If they are, and including the XI7 change, this is absolutely a new game for me.
Definitely going to get maneuvers in today and I will be seeing the MC80 again. I think I'm too excited to avoid proxying Firesprays. I just have to see if squadrons are really finally here. If they are, and including the XI7 change, this is absolutely a new game for me.
Now Rieekan. . . He is the one I want to test but it is not that easy. . . You need a gimmicky list of fragile ships and aces. . .
While I agree that this is probably the primary use for which he was intended (hint, he's included in the MC-30 expansion), I can still see plenty of use for Rieekan where other ships are at play. For example, a Neb can be difficult to take down with double-braces and five hull. It's possible to one-shot them if you roll tons of dice and roll hot, but usually it's a 2-3 shot affair. An extra activation for something like Yavaris or Salvation is not an insignificant thing, especially if you plan your positioning and approach in advance of their demise. For more beefy ships like the AFII and MC-80, which can be hard to take down anyway, the task is just that much more daunting (if you don't finish him within a turn, he gets another full round of everything). Multiply that by two or three or four AFIIs, and you have a definite edge in any war of attrition.
Having listened to the rest, I'd agree Dengar with some TIE Fighters is a pretty **** effective setup. Although if you love multi mission capable ships and don't mind blowing a hundred points in a blink, the Firespray is a winner too. (It's just not my cup of tea at the moment)
I'm definitely a 2400 fan... It's a tough call between 3 A's vs 2 2400's. That durability and Rogue may offset the lack of Counter.
Keep up the good work. The IFF podcast is breathing life into the forums while we have these lulls in official FFG material.
I like the firespray, though I'm excited about 10-12 squadron builds with lots of TIEs and Dengar. Just one idea:
355 points. Season to taste with upgrades. Against squadrons, with proper placing, TIE fighters and Dengar shoot 4 blues, counter 2 (from Howlrunner); TIE advanced/Vader/Howlrunner/Rhymer have counter 1; and there's intel. If there are no squadrons, that's 11 dice at medium range against ships (four black, seven blue, one bomber plus crits counting as hits with Vader). It's not optimized against ships (most crits aren't counting), but in terms of raw amounts of dice, its firepower and range is as good or better than what you'll get out of most non-Devastator ISDs, and far more maneuverable. Plenty of room for upgrades, too: ordnance experts/ACMs/APTs/Expanded Launchers/titles on the two Raiders (or to convert one to a Raider II with overload pulse; or to convert one Raider to Demolisher), expanded hangers + boosted comms on the ISD, officer upgrades, etc. Or add another Raider I for a total of four ship activations and 11 squadrons (399 points total).
With Rieekan you want to have the jump on activations. If you have less you run the risk of losing a ship after it activates.
Guys, guys, guys...Dano was wrong on teh internets.. You CAN fit the large bases at any angle in the deployment zone. You run no risk of being out of the Set Up area. Whew!
