Okay, so today I had my first casual outing at a new store. These guys have been playing Warhammer, X-Wing, Armada (which has died off completely), and a few others. I brought my whole fleet for X-wing with me since I didn't know who, if any, would be playing. One guy brought a few ships and I beat him both times. Taught a kid and his dad how to play and I lost... in my defense, I was flying two naked TIE Fighters and the kid flew Luke's X-Wing with Vectored thrusters and R2-D2... and... yeah, I just flew like crap, but it made the kid feel good about himself, don't judge.

What REALLY threw me was my final game. One of the local hot shots brought his X-Wing trio list with him. The guy, to put it bluntly, is a COMPLETE *** to everyone, so when he asked to play a round, I brought out the Ghost, Phantom, and an A-Wing. I learned two VERY interesting things. First was that I REALLY need to tweak this list. Second thing, as the title of this thread says, NO ONE has encountered ion weapons before. You know, that silly little turret that's been around since the friggin Y-Wing came out? Yep! I had to explain what they did and affected his ship that I kept forcing into rocks with the Ghost. It wasn't just him though, other guys that play the game were ignorant about them. I just needed to share this because it boggled my mind. They knew about the upcoming bullseye arc on the Kimogila. They were discussing the harpoon missiles. How could they know ALL about newish and upcoming mechanics but not know about friggin ionization that's been around since wave one?!

7 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Second thing, as the title of this thread says, NO ONE has encountered ion weapons before. You know, that silly little turret that's been around since the friggin Y-Wing came out? Yep! I had to explain what they did and affected his ship that I kept forcing into rocks with the Ghost. It wasn't just him though, other guys that play the game were ignorant about them. I just needed to share this because it boggled my mind. They knew about the upcoming bullseye arc on the Kimogila. They were discussing the harpoon missiles. How could they know ALL about newish and upcoming mechanics but not know about friggin ionization that's been around since wave one?!

Because some people only play "The Meta"* and don't mess around with random lists for the fun of it, I guess. People with turrets have been using Twin Laser Turrets as their go-to weapon pretty much since it came out (with the odd smattering of autoblaster turrets), and the Ion Cannon has pretty much languished on the shelf.

Which, as you note, is silly - especially with agility 1 small based ships (Miranda Doni, Nym, Norra Wexley) being a big part of the threat board these days, you'd think Ion Cannons would be something they'd come across more often!

I keep wondering if breaking out 4 BTL-A4 Ion Cannon Y-wings might be fun....certainly when looking at trying a Z-95 swarm, I was looking at Cruise Missiles, but actually with a swarm behind it I strongly suspect that ion pulse missiles will be the more dangerous option.

* All hail the great god "The Meta"...

Control elements are somewhat of a lost art in the game atm, particularly ion. If you really want to mess with people, try this list:

32 Delta w/ TractorB, Mk2, TIE/D.
68 (2x) Delta w/ IonC, Mk2, TIE/D.

Enjoy your opponent's salty tears as Miranda/Nym spend their short days 1-forwarding onto rocks.

I like to fly two defenders/D ion cannons along with vessery. It really throws people off and until bomblet generator, it was a real nightmare for most.

Considering the amount of ways you can apply Ion effects (not just the Wave 1 turret and Wave 3 cannon, but a metric crapton of ordnance, upgrades, abilities etc), I'm assuming the other player must have been being awkward.

Like the player who said to me that I couldn't use the TIE/D title because he thought I said I was firing my "Main Cannon" on the first shot (I didn't, I said "Ion Cannon". Obviously).

I think, OP, you might have been seriously trolled. Then again, my player base is adamant that the Auzituck has a rear 180 degree firing arc, so we've all got our community quirks.

11 minutes ago, Astech said:

we've all got our community quirks.

It's true. My community is almost exclusively made up of Ferrets.

13 minutes ago, Astech said:

I think, OP, you might have been seriously trolled. Then again, my player base is adamant that the Auzituck has a rear 180 degree firing arc, so we've all got our community quirks.

Hey can my YV-666 have a rear 180 as well? If so, then Moralo Eval just became my fav pilot!

1 minute ago, GrimmyV said:

Hey can my YV-666 have a rear 180 as well? If so, then Moralo Eval just became my fav pilot!

I know, it's insanity. And the TIE/sf, by the same logic, has no primary firing arc.

2 minutes ago, Astech said:

I know, it's insanity. And the TIE/sf, by the same logic, has no primary firing arc.

I believe your local community folks require an immediate professional treatment. Either from ENT or Neurologist.

23 minutes ago, Astech said:

my player base is adamant that the Auzituck has a rear 180 degree firing arc

?Que?

Oh, wait. I've seen this thing before at my store. I ended up having to get a couple of the various aux arc reference cards (YV-666 manual, ARC-170, and Auzituck) to demonstrate.

The Auzituck's auxiliary firing arc card has a shaded out bit 90' forwards and 180 degree aft, and some people think that's the directions it can shoot in.

It's not. The bits which aren't shaded out are the auxiliary firing arc, which is what the card is the rules for.

6 minutes ago, Astech said:

I know, it's insanity. And the TIE/sf, by the same logic, has no primary firing arc.

True, but a 270 degree auxiliary arc whose only blind spot is backwards.

Which means backdraft can fire a 2-dice attack from his primary arc, not add a dice, add a crit (because you're also in his auxiliary arc), then use special ops training to fire again from his auxiliary arc at the same target, and add a crit.

Or maybe, just maybe, the non-greyed-out bit of the picture on the auxiliary arc rules card is the freaking auxiliary arc.

I suspect I may not have been as patient with such cretins as I suspect from the context you have been.

6 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I suspect I may not have been as patient with such cretins as I suspect from the context you have been.

I've just started flying hard counters to Auzitucks. Ghosts, TLTs, etc. Slowly but surely people are dropping them from lists. I think it's better to have no Auzitucks then **** stupid auzitucks.

2 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Second thing, as the title of this thread says, NO ONE has encountered ion weapons before. You know, that silly little turret that's been around since the friggin Y-Wing came out? Yep! I had to explain what they did and affected his ship that I kept forcing into rocks with the Ghost.

You know, not as clumsy or random as a blaster... I don't think ion weapons are silly or little, the ion cannon costs 3 squad points, and the turret raises that to 5 points, so I don't find them 'little'. And also not silly: They do 1 damage on impact, and you get an ion token on top. Nevertheless, I see what you mean, most people like to play what's popular or 'hot'.

Ah, I have fond memories of walking a Lambda off the board using an HWK and a B-Wing in my first tournament. This is where ions problem is, though: You need two ships that dish it out, else the first large base you meet (say, Dengar) is your last. The ion rule for large bases was a mistake in my opinion.

Imagine how great a single ion Delta would be for imperial lists if you didn't need an ion partner for it.

57 minutes ago, Astech said:

I've just started flying hard counters to Auzitucks. Ghosts, TLTs, etc. Slowly but surely people are dropping them from lists. I think it's better to have no Auzitucks then **** stupid auzitucks.

The thing is, I've encountered similar things to this with other issues.

• One person has apparently suggested that the new ruling on Feedback Array means that only one ship in your squad per turn can use one (not "if you have two on a lancer, you can't use both at once"
• We've had someone maintaining adamantly that accuracy corrector's 'you may not modify this attack further' means you can't use it on both shots of a cluster missile - whilst using it on both shots of a twin laser turret (I don't mind the opinion on the rule but not not realising that it's the exact same rule)
• Someone thinking when the FAQ for vessery first came out that his ability had basically been changed to a fire control system (i.e. you didn't get to use it during that attack itself).

13 minutes ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

Ah, I have fond memories of walking a Lambda off the board using an HWK and a B-Wing in my first tournament. This is where ions problem is, though: You need two ships that dish it out, else the first large base you meet (say, Dengar) is your last. The ion rule for large bases was a mistake in my opinion.

Imagine how great a single ion Delta would be for imperial lists if you didn't need an ion partner for it.

Its why I'm such a fan of the Ion Pulse Missile Z-95. 15 points of glorious tazering.

14 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The thing is, I've encountered similar things to this with other issues.

• One person has apparently suggested that the new ruling on Feedback Array means that only one ship in your squad per turn can use one (not "if you have two on a lancer, you can't use both at once"
• We've had someone maintaining adamantly that accuracy corrector's 'you may not modify this attack further' means you can't use it on both shots of a cluster missile - whilst using it on both shots of a twin laser turret (I don't mind the opinion on the rule but not not realising that it's the exact same rule)
• Someone thinking when the FAQ for vessery first came out that his ability had basically been changed to a fire control system (i.e. you didn't get to use it during that attack itself).

I swear the reading and comprehension skills of some people are between a stapler and a poodle.

1 minute ago, Astech said:

I swear the reading and comprehension skills of some people are between a stapler and a poodle.

I made the experience that some of this is learned behaviour from playing 40k in times of bad rulebooks, where they had to make up half of the rules themselves because those written down were contradictory and incomplete. So these players just stopped bothering to read any rules text properly to just go with "what they feel is right", which is bogus most of the time.

3 hours ago, Astech said:

I think, OP, you might have been seriously trolled. Then again, my player base is adamant that the Auzituck has a rear 180 degree firing arc, so we've all got our community quirks.

This.

Don't underestimate your fellow man's capacity to be a total D.

I had a game against a very experienced player a while back who insisted that if you are ioned you lose your action. I instinctively knew he was wrong but didn't want to be "that guy" rules lawyering.

Now I'm not shy about it. I carry the rules reference cards in my kit, as well as PDF of the rules and FAQ on my phone. If someone tries some $&$@ with me, and I know I'm right, I insist they show the rule that supports their understanding.

Even last night on Vassal someone tried some BS, I was like "show me where in the rules it says this". It works every time.

Major Vynder (26)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Ion Pulse Missiles (3)
Tractor Beam (1)
Guidance Chips (0)
XG-1 Assault Configuration (1)

Total: 32

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Speaking of ion, this could be a potent control-piece, the only question being wether its not just better to Harpoon for damage and if jamming beam is a better cannon than tractor.

Quit telling everyone about how awesome Ion is in the meta! How am I going to win any tournaments if the whole internet knows my strategy! lol

4 hours ago, Astech said:

I swear the reading and comprehension skills of some people are between a stapler and a poodle.

You're being unkind to poodles. They're toward the top in dog smarts.

2 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

Major Vynder (26)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Ion Pulse Missiles (3)
Tractor Beam (1)
Guidance Chips (0)
XG-1 Assault Configuration (1)

Total: 32

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Speaking of ion, this could be a potent control-piece, the only question being wether its not just better to Harpoon for damage and if jamming beam is a better cannon than tractor.

No Ion Cannon on the Gunboat? How are you going to accomplish your Bonus Objectives that require craft to be captured?!

Be that as it may, I still find poodles to be among the most frustrating opponents to play against.

1 hour ago, AngryAlbatross said:

Quit telling everyone about how awesome Ion is in the meta! How am I going to win any tournaments if the whole internet knows my strategy! lol

Ions are great... What you're putting them on probably isn't. That's the problem. FFG could make ion turret r3 and solve a bunch of problems.

I've been in a few stores where folks just aren't aware of the rules, or at least not rules changes which happened after the original core set. Like, folks being unsure of who got initiative if there was a Scum player. Folks being unaware of how Ion works... I can believe that.