NOVA Squadron Radio – Episode 41: News and Force Awakens Part II
Welcome to NOVA Squadron Radio! We are back on a short break to help catch us up for the holidays. Chad is back, not really, he’s back and not going anywhere, and we cover the G1-A and finish up our thoughts on the Force Awakens! 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

Here are the show notes from Episode 41:

[0:00 – 1:35] Show Opening
[1:35 –1:05:10] Flight Deck
[1:05:10 – 2:07:30] News:
Capa Cup 2016 http://www.capacup.net/

Tricks, Traps, and Tractor Beams - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/1/12/tricks-traps-and-tractor-beams/

Monday Night X-Wing: http://www.twitch.tv/sentrybox

[2:07:30 – 3:32:00] Main Topic: Force Awakened Movie Review Part 2
[3:32:00 – 3:36:50] 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/

Audio Editing & Mixing by Podcast Masters www.podcastmasters.net

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

Here is the direct link: http://novasquadronradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/1/NOVA_Squadron_Radio_Episode_41_final.mp3

www.novasquadronradio.com

Just finished the previous one, so good timing!

Still.....I gotta say.......it's MAULER MITHEL.....not MITHRIL!!! You can't make a suit of armor out of him!

Just finished the previous one, so good timing!

Still.....I gotta say.......it's MAULER MITHEL.....not MITHRIL!!! You can't make a suit of armor out of him!

LOL! Yeah, mentally I know that but years of table top RPGs has me trained otherwise!

Bless me! Mithel! You're full of suprises Mauler Baggins.

Nice!

Sooo much listening to do... guess I should gain spousal faction and do the dishes while listening! Mucho bonus points doing dishes!

Sooo much listening to do... guess I should gain spousal faction and do the dishes while listening! Mucho bonus points doing dishes!

I had to get blue tooth headphones due to dishes. The cord kept getting caught on the little cabinet doors and yanking off my head...and breaking. I've gone through so many headphones that way.

Work commute is also a good way.

Sooo much listening to do... guess I should gain spousal faction and do the dishes while listening! Mucho bonus points doing dishes!

I had to get blue tooth headphones due to dishes. The cord kept getting caught on the little cabinet doors and yanking off my head...and breaking. I've gone through so many headphones that way.

Work commute is also a good way.

I do the exact same thing!!! I listen while at work and when at home when I am doing dishes or cooking dinner, this is what I do!

Mad bonus points for dinner and dish duty!

Sooo much listening to do... guess I should gain spousal faction and do the dishes while listening! Mucho bonus points doing dishes!

Work commute is also a good way.

This is one aspect of my life that I quite enjoy... I work on the same street I live on and it is 1.15 miles walking. If I walked every day, I'm not sure I could listen enough to keep up with the 4 hour podcasts... if I ride my bike, I could get through the intro... when I drive, yeah... takes longer to turn it on than it does to get to work... lol... and that includes the stop sign.

I have not listened yet as I have been editing videos but I think this could be one of the best shows we have done, so much fun!

Hope it translates in to good listening and can't wait for some Armada talk next time!!!

Kris

Minor errata at 2:01:05.

Re: comparing Corran Horn to the Inquisitor:

"Corran Horn + FCS + R2-D2 + PtL + EU ... if you just pretend that R2-D2 is worth 3 points"

should have said "is worth 3 shields".

Arguing bout turn-a-stinks... always this crap.

So unnecessary.

I have just finished the segment on scoring and while it did get slightly heated I think it was a topic well worth discussing.

However...I think MajorJuggler has it backwards. He sort of got there in the end, but in his effort to champion the cause for his (thankfully long dead) partial points crusade he missed sight of the fact that the second option (changing the points scoring) was the one that would got him into the top cut. It is also the simplest and Occam's X-wing dictates that is the best change. I'm glad Kris was there to play devil's advocate because he echoed the exact same arguments I would have made. Changing the MoV scoring again to a more complicated system causes more issues than it fixes (if it even does that). If you have 1 game in a hundred that would change as a result, but have 5 games out of 100 where scores are entered incorrectly you have a serious problem. If we were playing a computer game with no human error component then MajorJuggler's MoV system might have an advantage, but we aren't.

I am super glad this is getting some air time because it is one of the worst aspects of current tournament game (in my opinion). Of course the reason I champion changing the points scoring is because I got screwed at some point (I don't deny it). When you go 5-1 at a Nationals and finish 27th it leaves a fairly sour taste in the mouth, but to be fair I was a dice roll away from 12th. I had 3 modified wins that day and in general the advice was play faster. Hmm, that doesn't always work. Have you ever tried to finish a Super Corran versus Miranda TLT match? It is just a stalemate. As the game gets more and more defensive I see more games going to time. Bear in mind I have no problem with games going to time, only that you effectively get penalised for playing a close match that could go either way as is often the case with Modified Wins.

Anyway I personally think the 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 system is probably the best option. It gets rid of the poor points break down (i.e. a win in name only) which the modified win used to incur and gives players a reward for coming in a close loss. Though rare it gives draws better representation but doesn't entice players to play for one.

I am not a fan of adopting the Armada system that was discussed. If you extrapolate, the Armada system is just MoV divided 20 to get a scored ranging from 10-0. Working backwards it scales perfectly with MoV so essentially you are just using the sum of MoV and may as well not even bother dividing it. This works for Armada since you need better granularity in the scoring without playoffs. essential Warhammer Fantasy used that system for years and 40k probably also did. In X-wing it would tend to promote big wins, it puts more emphasis back on 200-0 scores as that is what gets you the most points, and possibly leads to runaway winners who can't be caught. I will admit an advantage of that approach is that you could get rid of playoffs completely and just play more rounds, but I'm not sure that would be to everyone's tastes. I think MajorJuggler was on the right track, having games that can be won or lost on a dice roll is one of the great things about X-wing. If that dice roll changes the score from 10-10 to 11-9 I don't think it has the same resonance. In some ways we want some fluky luck element in the game.

As I said, glad to hear you guys talk about the hard hitting subjects. More hard hitting journalism from Nova Squadron Radio. Next up, homeless orphans play X-wing on the mean streets.

A big thank you for all who are involved with producing this podcast. You all have very insightful ideas. I can't remember who mentioned it but Bossk with the Mist Hunter crew and a mangler cannon was brought up. I think Bossk with calculation, outlaw tech, Zuckuss, and 4-Lom is a better option as it works well with the dial and mangler restricts your crits to your primary arch.

I'm glad to hear you are all as excited as I am for the defender titles and for the Inquisitor. I like the idea of Ruthlessness on the Colonel. One of your members mentioned that if you equipped that card on him your opponent would simply not fly in a formation so as to not let it trigger. That alone would make me equip that card every time. So many squads are built on formation flying and to make your opponent spread out like that and decrease their ability to focus fire makes ruthlessness worth every point.

Off topic but I hope we see the new Fett card soon. I think it will be a bigger game changer then people are expecting for two reasons. Firstly the Scum faction needs their own mind blowing faction specific card like the rebels got with 3po and the Empire got with the emperor. The second reason is that in my opinion they had two chance to make Fett awesome and failed both times. His is not very good in the empire faction and only slightly better in the scum faction. I think this will lead FFG to make his crew card a no brainer to take in your lists.

A big thank you for all who are involved with producing this podcast. You all have very insightful ideas. I can't remember who mentioned it but Bossk with the Mist Hunter crew and a mangler cannon was brought up. I think Bossk with calculation, outlaw tech, Zuckuss, and 4-Lom is a better option as it works well with the dial and mangler restricts your crits to your primary arch.

I'm glad to hear you are all as excited as I am for the defender titles and for the Inquisitor. I like the idea of Ruthlessness on the Colonel. One of your members mentioned that if you equipped that card on him your opponent would simply not fly in a formation so as to not let it trigger. That alone would make me equip that card every time. So many squads are built on formation flying and to make your opponent spread out like that and decrease their ability to focus fire makes ruthlessness worth every point.

Off topic but I hope we see the new Fett card soon. I think it will be a bigger game changer then people are expecting for two reasons. Firstly the Scum faction needs their own mind blowing faction specific card like the rebels got with 3po and the Empire got with the emperor. The second reason is that in my opinion they had two chance to make Fett awesome and failed both times. His is not very good in the empire faction and only slightly better in the scum faction. I think this will lead FFG to make his crew card a no brainer to take in your lists.

I am actually really surprised Fett hasn't made an appearance as a crew card yet. Will be interesting to see if they go down that road!

I have just finished the segment on scoring and while it did get slightly heated I think it was a topic well worth discussing.

However...I think MajorJuggler has it backwards. He sort of got there in the end, but in his effort to champion the cause for his (thankfully long dead) partial points crusade he missed sight of the fact that the second option (changing the points scoring) was the one that would got him into the top cut. It is also the simplest and Occam's X-wing dictates that is the best change. I'm glad Kris was there to play devil's advocate because he echoed the exact same arguments I would have made. Changing the MoV scoring again to a more complicated system causes more issues than it fixes (if it even does that). If you have 1 game in a hundred that would change as a result, but have 5 games out of 100 where scores are entered incorrectly you have a serious problem. If we were playing a computer game with no human error component then MajorJuggler's MoV system might have an advantage, but we aren't.

I am super glad this is getting some air time because it is one of the worst aspects of current tournament game (in my opinion). Of course the reason I champion changing the points scoring is because I got screwed at some point (I don't deny it). When you go 5-1 at a Nationals and finish 27th it leaves a fairly sour taste in the mouth, but to be fair I was a dice roll away from 12th. I had 3 modified wins that day and in general the advice was play faster. Hmm, that doesn't always work. Have you ever tried to finish a Super Corran versus Miranda TLT match? It is just a stalemate. As the game gets more and more defensive I see more games going to time. Bear in mind I have no problem with games going to time, only that you effectively get penalised for playing a close match that could go either way as is often the case with Modified Wins.

Anyway I personally think the 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 system is probably the best option. It gets rid of the poor points break down (i.e. a win in name only) which the modified win used to incur and gives players a reward for coming in a close loss. Though rare it gives draws better representation but doesn't entice players to play for one.

I am not a fan of adopting the Armada system that was discussed. If you extrapolate, the Armada system is just MoV divided 20 to get a scored ranging from 10-0. Working backwards it scales perfectly with MoV so essentially you are just using the sum of MoV and may as well not even bother dividing it. This works for Armada since you need better granularity in the scoring without playoffs. essential Warhammer Fantasy used that system for years and 40k probably also did. In X-wing it would tend to promote big wins, it puts more emphasis back on 200-0 scores as that is what gets you the most points, and possibly leads to runaway winners who can't be caught. I will admit an advantage of that approach is that you could get rid of playoffs completely and just play more rounds, but I'm not sure that would be to everyone's tastes. I think MajorJuggler was on the right track, having games that can be won or lost on a dice roll is one of the great things about X-wing. If that dice roll changes the score from 10-10 to 11-9 I don't think it has the same resonance. In some ways we want some fluky luck element in the game.

As I said, glad to hear you guys talk about the hard hitting subjects. More hard hitting journalism from Nova Squadron Radio. Next up, homeless orphans play X-wing on the mean streets.

I agree. I did debate trimming down this discussion but felt that it had merit and was worth talking about.

I am an old vet at miniatures games, so I have seen some wonky scoring systems over the years. It is truly difficult to determine a winner of a timed game. All too often in 40K I would experience games that did not go full length due to time restrictions and the outcome was sewed by the time allotted. However... When going to an event that has to be completed by a certain time due to venue restrictions... these are things you accept in mini war gaming. And no one like breaking out a calculator to determine scores and holding up an already long enough day.

Overall I really feel that FFG and the OP team has it pretty close. If i had my way, they would eliminate the modified win altogether and do partial points across the board. While not a perfect system, it is far better then most I have played in.

However...I think MajorJuggler has it backwards. He sort of got there in the end, but in his effort to champion the cause for his (thankfully long dead) partial points crusade he missed sight of the fact that the second option (changing the points scoring) was the one that would got him into the top cut. It is also the simplest and Occam's X-wing dictates that is the best change. I'm glad Kris was there to play devil's advocate because he echoed the exact same arguments I would have made. Changing the MoV scoring again to a more complicated system causes more issues than it fixes (if it even does that). If you have 1 game in a hundred that would change as a result, but have 5 games out of 100 where scores are entered incorrectly you have a serious problem. If we were playing a computer game with no human error component then MajorJuggler's MoV system might have an advantage, but we aren't.

I don't think Scoring is the problem but MJs squad. Control lists aren't known for their damage output. You will have more games go to time.

My perspective is you know you have 75 minutes and as MJ (I think it was him) said your goal is to destroy/remove your opponents squad from the table. You should bring a list to do that in 75 minutes. I've learned to do that in my tournaments. I rarely have a game now that goes over 45 minutes of play. I've had one 75 minute game go to time in tournament and one 60 min game (and now I don't play a bunch of A wings). You have to plan for 75 mins and if your games are going to time, in general it's your squad your bringing. Now you can build a squad that is designed to hold onto points and win on them, or you can bring a squad that can mop up your opponent quickly.

For instance at Boise regionals last year I was flying HLC Outrider Dash and HLC Vrill. Every single one of my games finished in about 30-45 mins except my games against Rekkon. He brought a Soontir Decimator list. Our first meetup took about 60 mins and our final table game took almost 2 hours and he was weaving in and out to get good shots while I tried to play my ranges right.

Again to beat a dead horse, when list building people consider what lists are working right now (meta). You also need to consider the time limit.

I am actually really surprised Fett hasn't made an appearance as a crew card yet. Will be interesting to see if they go down that road!

He is in the Punishing One.

I am actually really surprised Fett hasn't made an appearance as a crew card yet. Will be interesting to see if they go down that road!

He is in the Punishing One.

Wow! I missed that!

I am actually really surprised Fett hasn't made an appearance as a crew card yet. Will be interesting to see if they go down that road!

He is in the Punishing One.

Wow! I missed that!

to be fair its not confirmed... as far as we all know it might be Bob Fett. as "Bob" is the only bit of text visable in the fan of the cards.

Sorry I thought everyone assumed that was his card in the Punishing One.

No worries, I just missed that all together! My blindness I assume..lol

_{I'm trying to find the source but someone made a strong case that it was in fact the Fett and that it was designed by Paul Heaver from his last Worlds win. His new card was supposed to come in wave 8 and the "Bob..." upgrade really is only one in three cards yet to be spoiled besides actual pilots and such in that expansion.}

_{Hopefully we get a new reveal article soon for the Punishing One. I forget sometimes that the Punishing One has a white 2 S-loop}

I agree with Ed on scoring. I'm an old 40k player, and the problem with too granular a scoring system is the above-mentioned runaway leads. Some armies in 40k just had a really hard time winning tournaments (not winning games) because they tended to win close. I love X-wing's playoff system for that reason. You have to play well enough to make the cut, then you just have to win. You always have a shot to win it all, even if you're never on the top table.

As far as MJ's tournament result. He seems to keep getting screwed by really uncommon occurances. It was a pretty low firepower squad that reduces the enemy squad's firepower through stress, so going to time and the ensuing modified wins should probably be expected.

Well we don't record until next week, so it'll be next Friday. lol.