Chewie Awards, Wave 2

The days of wave 2 have winded to a close, and so it is once again time to start doling out the Chewie Awards! Named as such because it’s seemingly the only the big fuzzball gets to be included in Armada. Clon had asked me to get this done before he left, but I didn’t because I’m lazy. But he did send me his picks, which I weighted heavily. The end call was mine though, because I wrote it and I bribed the judges.

Before I launch into it, I am disqualifying anything that won a Chewie in wave 1, so if I don’t mention an upgrade from wave 1 and you are wondering why, check out this thread here https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/194068-the-chewie-awards/?hl=chewie+awards . I don’t want to be handing Demolisher the Best Title Chewie in perpetuity. So I won’t. All other upgrades/ships/squadrons from waves 1 and 2 are eligible. Additionally, I will be diversifying some categories, as well as adding a few new ones. As before, awards are based on efficiency, efficacy, their role in common synergies and commonality of use during wave 2. How certain ships or upgrades may fare in the future, or even the Wave 3-4 Meta, is not weighted.

1. Best Retrofit Upgrade (Upgrades which slot into either the offensive or defensive retrofit slot)
Winner - Electronic Countermeasures. With the advent of large based ships and increased lethality across the board, E.C.M.’s were a must take to protect the point investment on pretty much every ISD-2 or Mon Cal Cruiser that hit the table. Honorable mention again to Expanded Hanger Bays and Boosted Comms. I wish this category had enough viable options to split offensive and defensive, because I freaking loved Boosted Comms, and anyone who wants to say it should have won here will get no argument from me.

2. Best Officer Upgrade- (General)
Winner - Intel Officer. Just an overall great card, and a key component of the dreaded Clonisher loadout. I think there was some Dodonna list that might have used it also. Since the early days of the game, this card has found its way to the table consistently in a wide variety of lists, and is an easy choice for the first General Officer Chewie. Honorable mentions to Vet Captain, Wing Commander.

3. Best Officer Upgrade- (Faction Specific)
Winner - Lando Calrissian . Landmonition anyone? How many ships has this guy saved? Some rolls just need that Billy Dee. Good on anything, special on MC30’s. Honorable Mention to Raymus Antilles who is almost always the bridesmaid. Apologies to Captain Needa.

4. Best Weapons Team Upgrade-
Winner - Ordinance Experts . No brainer. Honorable mentions to freaking nothing. You’ve all been outclassed, you worthless nerf-herding slime. Or I guess maybe Flight Controllers. But really, no. Just the Ordinance Sexperts, servicing your missiles all night long.

5. Best Support Team Upgrade-
Winner- Engine Techs . We all tried to make Projection Experts work at some time or another, but Engine Techs are the stars of the category. Again, a key component of making Demo sing, as well as providing much needed mobility to the Mon Cal cruiser. When you need speed, Engine Techs can do it Captain! They have the power!

6. Best Ion Cannon Upgrade-
Winner- Leading Shots . Dice modification is always valuable, and at 4 points Leading shots found its way onto a great deal of ISD’s and Mon Cal’s as a method of mitigating the whimsy of those dastardly red dice. Super fun to include on an Ackbar’d Defiance. Honorable Mentions to SW7’s.

7. Best Turbolaser Upgrade-
Winner- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits . Has anyone played a CR90A without these? What were you smoking? Also extremely fun to drop onto MC30 Scouts, Nebs, AFMK-II’s or even a Needa’d Star Destroyer. Look, anything that tosses red dice and has an evade wants to use this. Strong honorable mention to Xi7’s, who will be drinking with Raymus after the show and cursing my name.

8. Best Ordinance Upgrade-
Winner- Assault Proton Torpedoes . The default option for anything chucking black dice. Sure the other options got some play, because ordinance has several fine options, but at 5 points this baby not just cost effective, it’s Super Effective! APT’s, I choose you! Honorable Mention to Expanded Launchers for their role on the Clonisher.

9. Best Squadron Upgrade- (Generic)
Winner- YT-2400 . The 2400 does it all. She’s fast, she requires no fleet investment or command investment to make her work, she menaces squadrons, and she can menace ships. And she has 6 hull. 16 points isn’t cheap, but she’s well worth it. No special modifications needed. Honorable Mention to the Firespray, whose Rogue/Bomber double blue, 6 hull and underrated dogfighting utility made her a close contender.

10. Best Ace Squadron- (NSFW)
Winner - Jan Orrs . Jan Whorr’s Sex-wings swing games, baby. Let her fly with her sexcort of XXX-Wings and enjoy penetrating your enemy’s defenses. Don’t get caught with your pants down by the gift that keeps on giving, at 19 points she lets your generic squads stand up and take a licking. For 58 points you can have her and three indomitable x-wings, but for 11 more you can add an A-Wing and really set yourself up in a good position. Don’t get tied down by an engagement you don’t want, Jan keeps you flying free with all the juicy intel you need. When it comes to Jan, know that wave 2 was all about dat Ace. Honorable Mentions to Dengar, IG-88, Mauler Mithel and Hand Solo.

11. Best Ship-
Winner- Imperial Class Star Destroyer . Yes, it’s expensive. But it does everything. It can command squadrons. It can take a hit. It can push your hull in. And it’s the most iconic ship in Star Wars not called “The Millennium Falcon”. FFG really nailed this bad boy down. It’s also the only Imperial ship that can take a defensive retrofit, which is nice. Not weighted but worth noting, it still looks great on the table, even seven months later I get a little thrill from fielding one. Honorable Mentions to the Glad-1, and MC30.

12. Best Title- (Imperial)
Winner- Relentless . Something about making an ISD a 2 command ship for only 3 points that really rubs me the right way. Oh, right, its freaking awesome. Honorable Mentions to Avenger, Impetuous. And yes, Demo would totally have won this category again.

13. Best Title- (Rebel)
Winner- Admonition . Practically a must-take on the MC30. Super aggravating if you are facing one while fielding a Rhymer ball, or you know, anything. Brings tremendous survivability to a ship that desperately needs it, and allows the MC30 to get in there and trade punches with the big boys. Honorable mention to Yavaris, who will also be joining Raymus and Xi7’s at the bar, but will be drinking twice as much.

14. Best Commander- (Imperial)
Winner- Motti . Ugh, I hate typing this, because he’s so boring. But honestly, when I didn’t see Screed this was generally the fellow I saw, or leaned on in my own lists. Not much to write about here with him. He makes your ships shippier. Ship big, no go boom-boom, much hp. Shooty-shooty live-live. Motti win! Honorable mentions to Darth Vader and Rick Moranis.

15. Best Commander- (Rebel)
Winner- General RIeekan . When the incoming fire gets too Hoth to handle, Rieekan does not GAF. A little tricky to master, the Zombie Lord was one of the first counters in the Rebel war on Demolisher, and can make a fighter Ace list sing. Honorable Mentions to Mon Mothma and the Snackbar.

16. The Jar-Jar Award, a WTF Were They Thinking Moment-
“Winner”- Cluster Bombs . Why yes, I would love to waste my defensive retrofit slot and five points on a one-time effect that may or may not ever even come into play and has no guarantee of even actually doing damage when it does. Although I guess the odds are pretty stacked it will. I will say Clon wanted to give this award to Slave Turrets, because “people actually used Slaved Turrets and regretted it. Cluster bombs was so terrible it was largely ignored”. Spend your points LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE.

Hope you all enjoyed this.

Pretty much agreed, however, I'd say best ship would probably be the Raider for finding its own niche, having multiples uses instead of being "worthless". Anyone remember that thread?

Motti - they live just a little longer.

Expanded Launchers OE - Brutal smashers way above their class, and really makes the multiple small units fitted to maximum combat efficiency idea sing.

APT OE - cheaper moderate damage

OE only - cheap, good AA. Good filler in lists that need filler.

Instigator - WOW. Amazing title.

In a pinch, gives squadron commands to tie up opportunistic squadrons.

Definitely the Raider.

The ISD to me is still a bit underwhelming.

Sensor teams were in hibernation. They claim wave III hands down.

Sensor teams were in hibernation. They claim wave III hands down.

Definitely not as useful in wave 2. =) We will see in wave3. But there's plenty of other ways to kill flotes.

Love it! Want to point out again though that a demo with an ordinance upgrade and ETs has been around long before you all CJ'd to clone's list. Throwing OE on it not only didn't make you a genius it wasn't even unique. Rant over.

Love it! Want to point out again though that a demo with an ordinance upgrade and ETs has been around long before you all CJ'd to clone's list. Throwing OE on it not only didn't make you a genius it wasn't even unique. Rant over.

Who said that Clon was the first to put OE on a Demolisher?

Love it! Want to point out again though that a demo with an ordinance upgrade and ETs has been around long before you all CJ'd to clone's list. Throwing OE on it not only didn't make you a genius it wasn't even unique. Rant over.

Lol something I've said before. But its one of those things you know? He didn't invent it, but he did "popularize" it. Trust me, no one hates that list more than I do, for all the love I have for Clon.

Love it! Want to point out again though that a demo with an ordinance upgrade and ETs has been around long before you all CJ'd to clone's list. Throwing OE on it not only didn't make you a genius it wasn't even unique. Rant over.

Who said that Clon was the first to put OE on a Demolisher?

Really its the expanded launcher, intel thing. But even that was seen before, by plenty.

Not saying anyone said that just the way the community collectively peed itself over an extremely common build was amazing to some of us.

Not saying anyone said that just the way the community collectively peed itself over an extremely common build was amazing to some of us.

At the time, we'd all seen the Demolisher kitted the way it was... That wasn't anyhting new at all...

Picking it with 4 Raiders, and outfitting those raiders with certain upgrades, and aiming for a massive bid....

He did it on Vassal, because it was hideously expensive and counter-intuitive to do in the Real World.... THAT'S why it was so "popular" (infamous)... It went from "Relative, Expensive Obscurity", to "HOLY HELL DID YOU SEE THAT?!"

Not saying anyone said that just the way the community collectively peed itself over an extremely common build was amazing to some of us.

At the time, we'd all seen the Demolisher kitted the way it was... That wasn't anyhting new at all...

Picking it with 4 Raiders, and outfitting those raiders with certain upgrades, and aiming for a massive bid....

He did it on Vassal, because it was hideously expensive and counter-intuitive to do in the Real World.... THAT'S why it was so "popular" (infamous)... It went from "Relative, Expensive Obscurity", to "HOLY HELL DID YOU SEE THAT?!"

Meh

I think when most people say clonisher they mean the shop not the build. Anyway sorry mag didn't mean to derail your truely awesome thread. I'm done

I think when most people say clonisher they mean the shop not the build.

To Quote Clon himself, the Ship is only the Ship when its part of the Build

... I should know, I painted the **** thing

Not saying anyone said that just the way the community collectively peed itself over an extremely common build was amazing to some of us.

At the time, we'd all seen the Demolisher kitted the way it was... That wasn't anyhting new at all...

Picking it with 4 Raiders, and outfitting those raiders with certain upgrades, and aiming for a massive bid....

He did it on Vassal, because it was hideously expensive and counter-intuitive to do in the Real World.... THAT'S why it was so "popular" (infamous)... It went from "Relative, Expensive Obscurity", to "HOLY HELL DID YOU SEE THAT?!"

Meh

I think when most people say clonisher they mean the shop not the build. Anyway sorry mag didn't mean to derail your truely awesome thread. I'm done

No worries.

On Topic, I totally agree with all Bar One...

But agian, its a meta thing. NEVER see Relentless.. But AVENGER has jumped something fierce... So switch those two and I'd be on bar with EVERYTHING.

On Topic, I totally agree with all Bar One...

But agian, its a meta thing. NEVER see Relentless.. But AVENGER has jumped something fierce... So switch those two and I'd be on bar with EVERYTHING.

I suppose 15/16 ain't bad

Pretty much agreed, however, I'd say best ship would probably be the Raider for finding its own niche, having multiples uses instead of being "worthless". Anyone remember that thread?

Motti - they live just a little longer.

Expanded Launchers OE - Brutal smashers way above their class, and really makes the multiple small units fitted to maximum combat efficiency idea sing.

APT OE - cheaper moderate damage

OE only - cheap, good AA. Good filler in lists that need filler.

Instigator - WOW. Amazing title.

In a pinch, gives squadron commands to tie up opportunistic squadrons.

Definitely the Raider.

The ISD to me is still a bit underwhelming.

Re: Clonisher
It was the combination of Intel Officer, Engine Techs, Expanded Launchers, and Ordnance Experts used aggressively with Screed. Every one of those pieces was available in Mk1 except for the extremely important Ordnance Experts which make the whole package much more reliable for only 4 points.

The build itself was also enabled by Raiders pretty substantially and NOT just due to extra activations but also due to how the Raider itself functions well as a support/picket ship. I think it's important to be very clear about why this became such a big deal in the early-mid period of wave 2.

So many rebuttles but I won't detail this awesome thread

Defensive and Retro should be split. Boosted Comms is far to impactful to throw in with a different category.

Disagree with Jan as best hero. Mauler would be above her but picking no.1 is pretty hard when they are so good.

Instigator should be mentioned!

I've seen Slaved turrets used around here in the Bay area, mounted one even on an ISD-II when all I wanted to do was maximize the one shot I had. Didn't last long, I see it more often on Nebulon-Bs. I'd expect to still see them on gun Nebulon-Bs saving points when downgrading from Spinal Turrets to keep their evades.

I am offended that Independence and Yavaris are not in this discussion (was Yavaris a wave one Chewie?). For every winning list with Admonition in it and I can show you one with those two beautiful titles. I claim umbrage good sir! UMBRAGE!

@Intel Officer being discovered in Clonisher lol

That's literally the first upgrade I bought just for the card. Same with XI7s. Good thing both come in the Neb.

http://lkhero.blogspot.com/2015/11/armada-ackbar-control.html

Also, 11/10/2015 was the date of this article.

Things I've learned from this forum so far: People catch on pretty **** late in this game (i.e. Intel Officer, TRCs, XI7s, ECM, Fireball). While I understand that certain things need more testing before they can be vetted, I just can't wrap my head around how long it takes for it to become obvious for a lot of people.

Even in my Spring tournament season this year, people were still questioning some of these really powerful upgrades.

So let me ask you guys really quick: Do you think its a local meta thing, the lack of exposure to popular builds, or people not visiting the forum, or a mix of all of these? Given, I'm a spike-tuner archetype competitive player, but the week I bought into Armada, I bought 3x Nebs without a second thought.

@Intel Officer being discovered in Clonisher lol

That's literally the first upgrade I bought just for the card. Same with XI7s. Good thing both come in the Neb.

http://lkhero.blogspot.com/2015/11/armada-ackbar-control.html

Also, 11/10/2015 was the date of this article.

Things I've learned from this forum so far: People catch on pretty **** late in this game (i.e. Intel Officer, TRCs, XI7s, ECM, Fireball). While I understand that certain things need more testing before they can be vetted, I just can't wrap my head around how long it takes for it to become obvious for a lot of people.

Even in my Spring tournament season this year, people were still questioning some of these really powerful upgrades.

So let me ask you guys really quick: Do you think its a local meta thing, the lack of exposure to popular builds, or people not visiting the forum, or a mix of all of these? Given, I'm a spike-tuner archetype competitive player, but the week I bought into Armada, I bought 3x Nebs without a second thought.

Intel officer wasnt discovered in Clon's list, and no one has intimated that it was.

I am offended that Independence and Yavaris are not in this discussion (was Yavaris a wave one Chewie?). For every winning list with Admonition in it and I can show you one with those two beautiful titles. I claim umbrage good sir! UMBRAGE!

Yavaris got an honorable mention! (In both waves) And I cry shenanigans as far as your stats go.

Defensive and Retro should be split. Boosted Comms is far to impactful to throw in with a different category.

Disagree with Jan as best hero. Mauler would be above her but picking no.1 is pretty hard when they are so good.

Instigator should be mentioned!

Yeah I mean, I said my piece on Boosted Comms, so you know I luvs it. But I felt like there were only three cards even remotely in contention as a combined category, and that just wasn't enough. But yeah, I do love Boosted Comms.

Far as Mithel, I mean, yeah ok. Could legit see giving it to him, because I think he's the best 15 points in antisquad there is, assuming you have a little bit more ball there to support him. But he doesn't do anything antiship at all. Really though, I went with Jan for the same reason I went with Rhymer in wave 1, which is that she makes the rest of the points you invested into fighters better for her inclusion. Also because I really wanted to write that paragraph, because at 33 I've finally reached the mental development of a relatively slow middle-schooler.