NOVA Squadron Radio – Episode 42: Wave 7 Part I

Welcome to NOVA Squadron Radio! This week we are joined by very Special Guest Wade Piche from Fantasy Flight Games and three time World Champion Paul Heaver! We discuss the new FFG Systems Open events as well as finally take a tactical look at Wave 7 and all it brought to the table. 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 – Co-host
Wade Piche – Special Guest
Paul Heaver – Special Guest

Here are the show notes from Episode 42:

[0:00 – 2:10] Show Opening
[2:10 –57:00] Flight Deck
[57:00 – 1:23: 50] News:
NOVA Open 2016 - http://www.novaopen.com/
Bring the Galaxy to Life: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/1/15/bring-the-galaxy-to-life/
FFG Suspension Policy - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/spolicy/
X-Wing System Open https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/x-wing-open/
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/1/27/system-open-spoils/

[1:23:50 – 2:45:50] Main Topic: Wave 7 Part I
[2:45:50 – 2:49:40] 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/2016/02/NOVA_Squadron_Radio_Episode_42_final.mp3

www.novasquadronradio.com

Confirmed: Bob's 13 minute 20 second soliloquy rant on TLT.

Confirmed: Bob's 13 minute 20 second soliloquy rant on TLT.

You have no idea how happy I was that we didn't lose the first take...

Bob, I am actually going to try the Redline or Deathrain build out tomorrow, just can't decide which to get on the table fist

I enjoyed revisiting the wave now that it has been around for a while as I am sure we as good as wrote off the K-Wing when we reviewed it and now I now we all love it on the show.

Makes me wonder if We can unlock a little more potential in the Punisher than we are seeing.

Kris

It took some magic on my part but I was able to safe most of our recording despite a snafu with the software.

Bob, I am actually going to try the Redline or Deathrain build out tomorrow, just can't decide which to get on the table fist

I enjoyed revisiting the wave now that it has been around for a while as I am sure we as good as wrote off the K-Wing when we reviewed it and now I now we all love it on the show.

Makes me wonder if We can unlock a little more potential in the Punisher than we are seeing.

Kris

Oh very nice! Some guys in my local league are trying out guidance chimps and they seem to be a pretty fair addition to ordinance. Looking forward to seeing them in play.

im sure i'm in the minority here, but i feel like EU on vader makes me want to play him a bit safer because of cost. Personally i'm looking forward to Chimps on a Procket Crackshot Vader.

something like this

Edit: also do you think that the temporary effect of something like Expose can effect what you can change the result to using chimps?

From wave 7, I really want Conner Net to be a reliable strategy. Here is my attempt.. I'm hoping to fly it this evening.

"Deathrain" (26)
Enhanced Scopes (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Conner Net (4)
Conner Net (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Crack Shot (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

im sure i'm in the minority here, but i feel like EU on vader makes me want to play him a bit safer because of cost. Personally i'm looking forward to Chimps on a Procket Crackshot Vader.

something like this

Edit: also do you think that the temporary effect of something like Expose can effect what you can change the result to using chimps?

Had this same conversation at game night this week. I really like the generics with chimps and prockets as well!

From wave 7, I really want Conner Net to be a reliable strategy. Here is my attempt.. I'm hoping to fly it this evening.

"Deathrain" (26)

Enhanced Scopes (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Conner Net (4)

Conner Net (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Crack Shot (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Really love Howl with Black-Crack Squads, SOOOooooo good! I want to run a similar squad with the Inquisitor when he becomes available!

When MJ runs the numbers on Drea, he should also run them with R4-B11.

When MJ runs the numbers on Drea, he should also run them with R4-B11.

I need to add some more lines of code to accommodate the Clown Droid -- forcing defensive rerolls.

After giving some pretty harsh criticism to your last podcast, I have to say this one was a big improvement. The overall tone was so much more positive, and I personally enjoyed Bob's "13 minute 20 second soliloquy rant on TLT." Although I did have a good chuckle when Kris said "people on the forums told me I can't disagree with Bob" because he is still missing the point as he often does when responding to Bob. I don't think anyone minds when he provides an opposing view point, but he could soften his word choice and attempt to provide at least a tiny bit of analytical justification for his disagreement apart from "TLT's are not 1 point over-costed because fly better."

Keep up the great (and much improved) work!

Your current and future fan...

After giving some pretty harsh criticism to your last podcast, I have to say this one was a big improvement. The overall tone was so much more positive, and I personally enjoyed Bob's "13 minute 20 second soliloquy rant on TLT." Although I did have a good chuckle when Kris said "people on the forums told me I can't disagree with Bob" because he is still missing the point as he often does when responding to Bob. I don't think anyone minds when he provides an opposing view point, but he could soften his word choice and attempt to provide at least a tiny bit of analytical justification for his disagreement apart from "TLT's are not 1 point over-costed because fly better."

Keep up the great (and much improved) work!

Your current and future fan...

Happy to hear! This was more the norm for us and we should stick with this for the foreseeable future.

When MJ runs the numbers on Drea, he should also run them with R4-B11.

I need to add some more lines of code to accommodate the Clown Droid -- forcing defensive rerolls.

Seems worth it for a unique mechanic of a rarely used card.

When MJ runs the numbers on Drea, he should also run them with R4-B11.

I need to add some more lines of code to accommodate the Clown Droid -- forcing defensive rerolls.

Seems worth it for a unique mechanic of a rarely used card.

I need to add the general case to handle Zuckuss as well. I already have hooks for a defensive reroll, but only at the defender's choice.

When MJ runs the numbers on Drea, he should also run them with R4-B11.

I need to add some more lines of code to accommodate the Clown Droid -- forcing defensive rerolls.

Seems worth it for a unique mechanic of a rarely used card.

Currently R4-B11 is really good on Drea Renthal as it actually enables her ability even more.

Drea suffers in that her ability is stress inducing and once she kills her target she struggles to shed the stress to re-aquire a target lock to let her ability start functioning again.

R4-B11 lets her spend the lock after you have seen the defenders Defence Dice result and chose to spend it then and re-aquire a lock on to a different ship. Note that you don't have to force the opponent to re-roll any dice after you have spent the lock so if you get the kill shot you can move it across to someone new which you would not normally be able to do without risking a lucky evade roll from the defender meaning your lock was then on the wrong target.

At 31 points she is a potent TLT caddy who will have a modified shot on every attack and be able to fore defence dice re-rolls against those attacks. All for the lack of the ability to do hard 3's or K-Turn.

I would rank her as good as TLT Kavil with VI and Unhinged if you can latch on to a target and focus it down. Cavil however comes out with a better PS bid and is more versatile in target selection.

Other than Drea R4-B11 suffers from his high points cost and lack of a platform currently.

Maybe if the Punishing One has a droid slot than there could be some fun new places for him there but 3 points is a large investment on a Y-Wing were you are hoping to not have to spend your target lock.

Kris

I really wish TLT disabled your primary like the Outrider title. That way there is a significant donut hole to exploit. The Y-wings donut hole is not that large and the K-wing doesn't have one at all.

I ran the Drea build Kris mentioned above in a tournament with the BTL-A4 title. Terrific Firepower, but terrible at turning around. I sort of wasn't paying attention when I made the build. I had planned on running Kavil and two BTL-A4 Hired Guns, but realized late that Kavil has one of the Guns on his flip side, so I subbed in Drea and R4-B11 for one of the Guns. Absent-mindedly didn't take out the title for Drea. I realized my mistake about the second turn of the first game.

I ran the Drea build Kris mentioned above in a tournament with the BTL-A4 title. Terrific Firepower, but terrible at turning around. I sort of wasn't paying attention when I made the build. I had planned on running Kavil and two BTL-A4 Hired Guns, but realized late that Kavil has one of the Guns on his flip side, so I subbed in Drea and R4-B11 for one of the Guns. Absent-mindedly didn't take out the title for Drea. I realized my mistake about the second turn of the first game.

LoL, finding out that BTL'ed Drea doesn't work the hard way

I ran the Drea build Kris mentioned above in a tournament with the BTL-A4 title. Terrific Firepower, but terrible at turning around. I sort of wasn't paying attention when I made the build. I had planned on running Kavil and two BTL-A4 Hired Guns, but realized late that Kavil has one of the Guns on his flip side, so I subbed in Drea and R4-B11 for one of the Guns. Absent-mindedly didn't take out the title for Drea. I realized my mistake about the second turn of the first game.

LoL, finding out that BTL'ed Drea doesn't work the hard way

Oh, it works great! Once. Maybe twice.

I love Drea+R4-B11, I try to shoehorn her into every Scum build I have.

A few weeks back, a Soontir was trying to be tricky and jumped into my R1 to avoid her TLT and she one-shotted him with her primary thanks to R4 turning all of his evades into blanks.

I love Drea+R4-B11, I try to shoehorn her into every Scum build I have.

A few weeks back, a Soontir was trying to be tricky and jumped into my R1 to avoid her TLT and she one-shotted him with her primary thanks to R4 turning all of his evades into blanks.

That is awesome!!!

Bob said that double stressing something at range 2-3 is worth about 10 points, and he did a good job explaining how he got to that number and I agree with it, the geometry and cumulative effect of stress is obvious, but then he said that the stresshog is getting those 10 points of utility for just a 2 point upgrade, ie the stresshog is undercosted by ~8 points,which would explain its ubiquity. But is that taking into account the 6 point cost of the TLT and its reduced utility from the title? Nobody is doing well with BTL+TLT Ys without the stressbot which tells me the title alone makes the TLT less efficient, so the stressbot is making up for a loss of utility via synergy.

Meaning wouldn't it be more accurate to say the stresshog is getting 10-12 points of utility, depending on context, from 8 points of upgrades (TLT+R3A2+BTL) and therefore only ~2-4 points undercosted? 8 points under seems pretty busted, although we are definitely reaching a saturation point.