NOVA Squadron Radio – Episode 46: Wave 8 w/Alex, Frank and Paul

Welcome to NOVA Squadron Radio! This week we are joined by three very Special Guests, Alex Davy and Frank Brooks, FFG games developers and three-time World Champion Paul Heaver! We discuss more Store Championship results, some big FAQ and Tournament Changes, and of course our big breakdown of the Scum side of Wave 8. Then, we take time to talk to Alex and Frank and discuss the awesomeness that is Wave 8! 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
Paul Heaver – Special Guest
Alex Davy– Special Guest
Frank Brooks – Special Guest

Here are the show notes from Episode 46:

[0:00 – 1:55] Show Opening
[1:55 –41:20] Flight Deck
[41:20– 56:45] News:
NOVA Open 2016 - http://www.novaopen.com/
Muse on Minis Con www.museonminis.com
Stele Open 2016 – http://steleopen.com/
The Vassal X-Wing League - https://www.reddit.com/r/xwingonline/comments/4a13il/new_player_signups_for_the_xwing_vassal_league/
Regionals Kits have been announced https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/16/prizes-worth-fighting-for/
System Open Series Voting is Open https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/18/influence-the-vote/
New FAQs and Tournament Rules: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/a7/9c/a79ced72-1da1-466a-97d7-5bd573457afd/x-wing_tournament_regulations_v10_high_res.pdf
Star Wars Podcast Awards: http://www.starwarspodcastawards.com/#!CollectingGaming-Voting-is-Now-Open/cqzu0/56ca28670cf25df93722a3f0

[56:45– 2:12:25] Main Topic: 1 – Wave 8
[2:12:25– 3:13:15] Tactical Readouts: Alex Davy and Frank Brooks
[3:13:15– 3:16:15] 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/2016/03/NOVA_Squadron_Radio_Episode_46_final.mp3

www.novasquadronradio.com

Awesome.

Looking forward to listening to this one.

Was disappointed I had to miss it but getting my Regional Bye for Imperial Assault was worth it.

Kris

Looking forward to listening to this one.

Was disappointed I had to miss it but getting my Regional Bye for Imperial Assault was worth it.

Kris

We were disappointed you couldn't be there man!

Great listen! Thanks, guys..

I've looked online but cannot find it - can someone post the list Paul referenced in the beginning? It included Omega Leader, Wampa, the Inquisitor, and Palp-Shuttle.

Juggler you have way more patience than I do. That TO would have had to kick me out. I've never heard of such a silly ruling. Just because you are a TO doesn't mean you can just make rules up.

Edit: Did they actually FAQ Gonk? I thought that was just an email ruling?

Great podcast!

There is one interesting interaction I've been looking at with Attani mindlink, overcharged R4 (OR4), and the zuckuss crew that you may be interested in.

On any jumpmaster, you can have Attani, OR4, and Zuckuss. If you have another mindlinked ship that can consistently feed the jumpmaster a focus token every turn, and clear at least 1 stress per turn, you can maintain a continuous OR4 focus chain reaction akin to a glitterstim effect every turn on the jumpmaster. Expecting that this jumpmaster is going to be heavily stressed from OR4 anyway, throwing in Zuckuss crew for 1 point is a no-brainer - the cost of the Zuckuss trigger is more stress, and if you have a pile of stress anyway, who cares about a larger pile of stress?

In case that wasn't clear here's a breakdown of the chain reaction -

1: Jumpmaster is fed focus via Attani

2: Jumpmaster triggers OR4 to regenerate focus after use

3: Jumpmaster and feeder ship are stressed (feeder ship gets max 1 stress)

4: Jumpmaster triggers Zuckuss during its attack, adding stress

5: Feeder ship sheds its one stress by a green maneuver or via some other effect (4LOM, etc.)

(repeat)

I tested this build out a little bit, and generally speaking the weak link is the feeder ship(s). If the feeder ship goes down, the jumpmaster loses their OR4 chain reaction capability. The jumpmaster's OR4 chain reaction is also not incredibly powerful unless it is the primary target; because you want to have multiple opportunities to trigger OR4.

Very nice. Something to pass the time driving to ILL-annoy later this week for the Hoth open.

Great listen! Thanks, guys..

I've looked online but cannot find it - can someone post the list Paul referenced in the beginning? It included Omega Leader, Wampa, the Inquisitor, and Palp-Shuttle.

There's really only one way to build it out. With the bare essentials for each pilot it comes out to 100 exactly:

Iniqusitor + PtL + title + Autothrusters (31)

Omega Leader + Juke + Comm Relay (26)

Wampa (14)

Omicron Group Pilot + Palpatine (29)

Juggler you have way more patience than I do. That TO would have had to kick me out. I've never heard of such a silly ruling. Just because you are a TO doesn't mean you can just make rules up.

True. But I got to continue my streak of not losing any games in Swiss this year at tournaments!* And not winning an elimination match since, uh.... NOVA Open?

*semi-weekly game store night excluded

Now THIS will make my week better! Here I thought I was going to be stuck backstage at my wife's Steel Magnolias play in a dry dusty X-Wing desert! Woot!

Juggler you have way more patience than I do. That TO would have had to kick me out. I've never heard of such a silly ruling. Just because you are a TO doesn't mean you can just make rules up.

True. But I got to continue my streak of not losing any games in Swiss this year at tournaments!* And not winning an elimination match since, uh.... NOVA Open?

*semi-weekly game store night excluded

I've gotta say this was a funny and disturbing anecdote at the same time. On one hand the ruling is a hilariously weird rules interpretation, and one that could so obviously be gamed to 'accidentally' execute white stall maneuvers with your ships at will, for the cost of skipping your action - sort of like an Inertial Dampeners effect without the stress. On the other hand this is the sort of rules lawyering that was a major buzzkill in warhammer 40k and drove many players away from the game.

Panic? THATS ME surprised no one snarkily joked about "what does Kagi do?"

Scum aces starviper and syck confirmed.

He did say that Scum should be caught up to the other factions or close to it in wave 9. Sounds like 2 scum ships and 1 for Rebels/Imps.

I really want to try the Rando Calrissian tournamemt format now...

I'm amused by the system open voting.

I'm not sure exactly what they are expecting or how the voting will be weighted (if it is), but I'm expecting to see loads of imperial firesprays, rebel Hwks and scum 3hp fighters I can't even remember the name of.

I don't know much, but I know the Internet will troll any online vote. And will do so gleefully.

Panic? THATS ME surprised no one snarkily joked about "what does Kagi do?"

Juggler that keyan rage build was also me. It was our game two when you ran torp boats

Great podcast, thanks again for the awesome discussion.

What interested me the most was the "timing flow chart" you and Sean were discussing, as I was already developing something similar for my local league. As the game gets more complex there needs to be another document that has all these timing windows listed so everyone knows the right order for triggers that might not be explicitly detailed in the FAQ.

I have a document with all the steps in between Planning Phase and End Phase, if you guys want to take a peek and use it for your flow chart let me know!

Great podcast, thanks again for the awesome discussion.

What interested me the most was the "timing flow chart" you and Sean were discussing, as I was already developing something similar for my local league. As the game gets more complex there needs to be another document that has all these timing windows listed so everyone knows the right order for triggers that might not be explicitly detailed in the FAQ.

I have a document with all the steps in between Planning Phase and End Phase, if you guys want to take a peek and use it for your flow chart let me know!

Mind posting it somewhere? Would love to see it.

Great podcast, thanks again for the awesome discussion.

What interested me the most was the "timing flow chart" you and Sean were discussing, as I was already developing something similar for my local league. As the game gets more complex there needs to be another document that has all these timing windows listed so everyone knows the right order for triggers that might not be explicitly detailed in the FAQ.

I have a document with all the steps in between Planning Phase and End Phase, if you guys want to take a peek and use it for your flow chart let me know!

Mind posting it somewhere? Would love to see it.

Here it is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLvnYHZWbxAb3BERGRmeWtwbmc/view?usp=sharing

I threw in some examples of abilities that trigger in the different windows.

I don't know if it's 100% right or complete, but I tried going through all the upgrade/pilot abilities.

Great podcast, thanks again for the awesome discussion.

What interested me the most was the "timing flow chart" you and Sean were discussing, as I was already developing something similar for my local league. As the game gets more complex there needs to be another document that has all these timing windows listed so everyone knows the right order for triggers that might not be explicitly detailed in the FAQ.

I have a document with all the steps in between Planning Phase and End Phase, if you guys want to take a peek and use it for your flow chart let me know!

Mind posting it somewhere? Would love to see it.

Here it is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLvnYHZWbxAcVMycl9ZN3NhNEk/view?usp=sharing

I threw in some examples of abilities that trigger in the different windows.

I don't know if it's 100% right or complete, but I tried going through all the upgrade/pilot abilities.

after "check pilot stress" you could throw in Lightning Reflexes (not that anyone uses it)

Great podcast, thanks again for the awesome discussion.

What interested me the most was the "timing flow chart" you and Sean were discussing, as I was already developing something similar for my local league. As the game gets more complex there needs to be another document that has all these timing windows listed so everyone knows the right order for triggers that might not be explicitly detailed in the FAQ.

I have a document with all the steps in between Planning Phase and End Phase, if you guys want to take a peek and use it for your flow chart let me know!

Mind posting it somewhere? Would love to see it.

Here it is:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLvnYHZWbxAcVMycl9ZN3NhNEk/view?usp=sharing

I threw in some examples of abilities that trigger in the different windows.

I don't know if it's 100% right or complete, but I tried going through all the upgrade/pilot abilities.

after "check pilot stress" you could throw in Lightning Reflexes (not that anyone uses it)

Yea at first I had all upgrades and abilities but I trimmed it down to those that might be more common.

Also the language of Lightning Reflexes will make it fall under the "After executing a maneuver" with Kanan crew, APL, and Dauntless.

I specifically out Dauntless there, even though it's cleared by the FAQ, to show WHY you keep the stress, as the check pilot stress for green maneuvers happens before the Dauntless title triggers.

Listened to the first part of the podcast last night.

I feel for you about the tourney incident and think you got the short end of the stick.

The first thing that is coming up is this didn't happen until later in the game. Clearly your opponent had already consented the first round or two of this happening. He agreed to let you do this by not correcting you the first time you did it. By not communicating your opponent consented to your play style. Heck even Paul Heaver at worlds last year moved his pilot skill 2 ships before putting out focus tokens.

This objection should have only happened on turn 1 or the first time this happens and not several rounds into it.

The TO also handled it poorly from the sound of it and should have allowed the action to occur as they had previous rounds (using the previous rounds as precedent that it was ok with the opponent then) and ruled that all further moves should be done ship by ship.

My thoughts on the situation.

Listened to the first part of the podcast last night.

I feel for you about the tourney incident and think you got the short end of the stick.

The first thing that is coming up is this didn't happen until later in the game. Clearly your opponent had already consented the first round or two of this happening. He agreed to let you do this by not correcting you the first time you did it. By not communicating your opponent consented to your play style. Heck even Paul Heaver at worlds last year moved his pilot skill 2 ships before putting out focus tokens.

This objection should have only happened on turn 1 or the first time this happens and not several rounds into it.

The TO also handled it poorly from the sound of it and should have allowed the action to occur as they had previous rounds (using the previous rounds as precedent that it was ok with the opponent then) and ruled that all further moves should be done ship by ship.

My thoughts on the situation.

My other thought on this was the TO basically allowed a free stop anytime someone wanted.

an easy argument to the TO (who sounds like a bit of an ass) is OK... Then whenever I want to dial in a stop... even though the ships dont have it... will be to skip the dial... sure I dont get an action... but stopping at the right time is even more powerful. There is a reason a stop is a red maneuver.