NOVA Squadron Radio – Episode 38: 2016 Meta Preview Show

Welcome to NOVA Squadron Radio! This week we joined by Paul Heaver and Richard Hsu as we break down what the meta is going to look like in the early part of 2016 and Store Championships. We cover the new TIEs and of course the new Ghost preview! All of that and a LOT more…

NOVA Squadron Radio is:
Ed Horne – Host
Chad Brown – Co-Host/Editor
Sean Dorcy – Co-host
Bob Randall – Co-host
Kris Sherriff – Co-host
Richard Hsu – Special Guest
Paul Heaver – Special Guest

Here are the show notes from Episode 38:

[0:00 – 1:56] Show Opening
[1:56 – 26:43] Flight Deck
[26:43 – 1:22:22] News:
Capa Cup 2016 http://www.capacup.net/
Swarm Tactics: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/11/27/swarm-tactics/
Lothal Rebels – Part One https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/4/lothal-rebels-part-one/

[1:22:22 – 2:29:11] Main Topic: 2016 Meta Preview
[2:29:11 – 2:38:45] 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/2015/12/NOVA_Squadron_Radio_Episode_38_final.mp3

www.novasquadronradio.com

Woot! Something to listen to for the car ride home besides the radio! Keep up the good work guys.

Thanks man! Will do!

Cool! thanks for sharing!

You guys act like this Paul Heaver guy knows what he's talking about or something...

Killing me on Kallus guys! No love for Kallus on a phantom. Put him on Whisper and then target an enemy ship that is a higher PS than you. Evade as an action and now, even though you only have 2 evade dice, you have a guaranteed evade and a mini focus. Or if they have a turreted ship (any phantom's nightmare), target it to help on defense and offense.

If you have the Emperor, Kallus on Whisper, and an evade token with Whisper, you have a strong chance to get 3 evades against Kallus' target shooting you before you cloak.

Well if you listened, Paul said he doesn't know the rules to this game... which was really funny!

I'm curious about Expose Youngster with academy pilots.

So, assuming an action less 3/2/3/0 ship for 12 points, what would be the jousting efficiency of the set up? How many would you need to make up the Youngster tax?

How much does Howlrunner add?

Oooo... good point! I am going to have to play-test that!

I think a 2-point autoblaster on Ezra is totally worth it. He will be facing closers after he pops out of of a heavily-damaged(and probably soon-to-be-destroyed) Ghost.

Closers are good at out-maneuvering their opponents. It's a turret.

Closers are hard to hit. Autoblaster don't care.

Also the turret allows him to guarantee shots that will always hit on generics while going to places they just can't point or cover.

Ptl/Chewie crew as well, IMO.

I'm curious about Expose Youngster with academy pilots.

So, assuming an action less 3/2/3/0 ship for 12 points, what would be the jousting efficiency of the set up? How many would you need to make up the Youngster tax?

How much does Howlrunner add?

It's never good to expose yourself to youngsters. Just saying.

Ooooohhhhhhh....I got called out by Paul

I do need to pull that list out again, haven't done Fel and 5 Ties for a long while (like way before autothrusters). The trouble is I have this phobia of rolling all red blanks all the time with that list.

Killing me on Kallus guys! No love for Kallus on a phantom. Put him on Whisper and then target an enemy ship that is a higher PS than you. Evade as an action and now, even though you only have 2 evade dice, you have a guaranteed evade and a mini focus. Or if they have a turreted ship (any phantom's nightmare), target it to help on defense and offense.

If you have the Emperor, Kallus on Whisper, and an evade token with Whisper, you have a strong chance to get 3 evades against Kallus' target shooting you before you cloak.

As soon as I saw Kallus I thought he would be good on Echo.

Given we will be seeing a lot of Ghosts soon things like Kallus and Omega leader who can specifically hurt/neuter/hinder single ships they will be having some fun.

I'm curious about Expose Youngster with academy pilots.

So, assuming an action less 3/2/3/0 ship for 12 points, what would be the jousting efficiency of the set up? How many would you need to make up the Youngster tax?

How much does Howlrunner add?

A TIE Fighter with Expose is worse than a TIE Fighter without Expose. The attack is ~109% of a standard TIE, but the durability is only ~78.2%.

Normalized to a 2/2/2/2 Z-95:

• A TIE Fighter is worth 11.9 points of raw dice
• A TIE Fighter with Howlrunner reroll is worth 14 points of raw dice
• A TIE Fighter + Expose is worth 11.0 points of raw dice.
• A TIE Fighter + Expose with Howlrunner is worth 13.5 points of raw dice

If Expose forced you to take the Expose action every round, it could cost -1 points and still not be worth taking*.

* Unless of course you are a VT-49 with Experimental Interface.

Ooooohhhhhhh....I got called out by Paul

I do need to pull that list out again, haven't done Fel and 5 Ties for a long while (like way before autothrusters). The trouble is I have this phobia of rolling all red blanks all the time with that list.

I feel ya man! TIEs without Howlrunner feel like they are not doing their job!

Killing me on Kallus guys! No love for Kallus on a phantom. Put him on Whisper and then target an enemy ship that is a higher PS than you. Evade as an action and now, even though you only have 2 evade dice, you have a guaranteed evade and a mini focus. Or if they have a turreted ship (any phantom's nightmare), target it to help on defense and offense.

If you have the Emperor, Kallus on Whisper, and an evade token with Whisper, you have a strong chance to get 3 evades against Kallus' target shooting you before you cloak.

Yeah, that one slipped past me. And it is a VERY good idea! I am going to have to try that one!

Kallus on the phantom was my first thought. I think he can help the Phantom with the ships that it struggles against.

I also like the idea of running Scourge with Decoy and Wampa. Swap PS so Scourge shoots after Wampa and hopefully wampa will trigger Scourges ability.

I'll take the blame for missing the Phantom on Kallus. Because the more I look at it, the more that should have just jumped off the show notes at me.

We will re-visit that once the full cast is back in 2016.

Looking forward to OutRyder Cup 3 right now!

I'll take the blame for missing the Phantom on Kallus. Because the more I look at it, the more that should have just jumped off the show notes at me.

We will re-visit that once the full cast is back in 2016.

Looking forward to OutRyder Cup 3 right now!

in defense of the podcast (if i remember correctly) as soon as Kallus was spoiled "SOMEBODY" (truly not sure who) did say can be a force on phantoms.

I'm curious about Expose Youngster with academy pilots.

So, assuming an action less 3/2/3/0 ship for 12 points, what would be the jousting efficiency of the set up? How many would you need to make up the Youngster tax?

How much does Howlrunner add?

A TIE Fighter with Expose is worse than a TIE Fighter without Expose. The attack is ~109% of a standard TIE, but the durability is only ~78.2%.

Normalized to a 2/2/2/2 Z-95:

• A TIE Fighter is worth 11.9 points of raw dice
• A TIE Fighter with Howlrunner reroll is worth 14 points of raw dice
• A TIE Fighter + Expose is worth 11.0 points of raw dice.
• A TIE Fighter + Expose with Howlrunner is worth 13.5 points of raw dice

If Expose forced you to take the Expose action every round, it could cost -1 points and still not be worth taking*.

* Unless of course you are a VT-49 with Experimental Interface.

I've been trying to tell my friends this (without the actual numbers), so very helpful

The only counter argument I know of, is with youngster you can choose to use it on TIEs that you think won't be shot at (or that you WANT them to shoot at), the trick is a swarm is low ps, so it's a bit of a guessing game then.

You guys were talking about what Imps have to look forward to and what they have going for them. In my eyes, Imps have had and will get more quality filler. We've already heard a lot of discussion about crack shot swarms. With all the new low point unique TIEs, there will be ample synergy and difficult enemy target priority. The trick is how does this list style fair with MoV. Ace + elite mini swarm has been a more successful Imperial archtype than for other factions.

Also. Omega Leader with Comm relay and Juke is going to be awesome. Get the evade 1st turn. Lock on 2nd and you have a scary little bugger. All in one expansion too, so new players can jump right in with it.

A TIE Fighter with a Focus token is going to average 1.5 hits at range 2-3 (max 2) and 2.25 hits at range 1 (max 3).

A TIE Fighter who uses Expose instead of focusing will still average 1.5 hits at range 2-3 (max 3), and only 2.0 hits at range 1 (but with a potential max of 4). It will also only have two unmodified evade dice and no focus tokens to spend while defending.

You're drastically reducing your ability to survive without actually increasing your damage output. It's just a terrible idea. The only action EPT that may remotely be worth taking on Youngster at the moment is probably Expert Handling, and that's only if you really have to worry about Target Locks.

Also, one nit I had on the show: you guys talked about how you wouldn't want to use Zeb crew against someone like Soontir Fel. However, he seems like he'd be exactly who you'd want to use Zeb on. You're moving at PS7 and get an action. Soontir's moving at PS9 and would get none. Yeah, he's shooting 4 unmodified dice at you, but you get 5 modified dice back at him, plus a potential second attack from your turret. If you run Paul Heaver's suggested Autoblaster Turret/Accuracy Correcter combo, then Soontir is probably going to be wiped off the board by the end of the round.

That is going to be a disgusting combo for the Ghost at only 5 points, since it also frees you to take Evade actions every turn.

Also, one nit I had on the show: you guys talked about how you wouldn't want to use Zeb crew against someone like Soontir Fel. However, he seems like he'd be exactly who you'd want to use Zeb on.

I think you might have heard that backwards. If I recall, we pointed out (it might have been Paul, I can't remember), that Soontir Fel does NOT want to be caught in that scenario. So actually that would be a good use of Zeb -- assuming you can get him to bump in-arc.

Also, one nit I had on the show: you guys talked about how you wouldn't want to use Zeb crew against someone like Soontir Fel. However, he seems like he'd be exactly who you'd want to use Zeb on.

I think you might have heard that backwards. If I recall, we pointed out (it might have been Paul, I can't remember), that Soontir Fel does NOT want to be caught in that scenario. So actually that would be a good use of Zeb -- assuming you can get him to bump in-arc.

Yeah, going back, I think I misinterpreted Sable's comment about how "You definitely wouldn't want Soontir Fel touching this ship." I had interpreted that statement to be "you" as the Ghost player, not "you" as the Soontir player.

But man, now I really want to try this scenario!