@BiggsIRL if you want to stay in I’m happy to submit a list and take Neb B’s place?

9 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Nailed fleet patrol also. Enjoying the extra blue die out the side of wave heaven. And added advanced projectors! Big testing going on of the new toys.

Edit- I take it back. Most of the fleet patrol have failed to enjoy the new toys. Its like they think its a world cup...

Eh, I think the subtle difference s are the most interesting and important ones long term. I also was thinking I'd end up playing off against a lot more Raid tokens, so I'd be constantly having to sacrifice tokens to keep commanding.

That said, at least I'm not running the bog standard Gallant Haven/Yavaris Rieekan Aceholes with no Wave 7 upgrades at all. Right, @themightyhedgehog? (/kidding)

1 minute ago, thecactusman17 said:

Eh, I think the subtle difference s are the most interesting and important ones long term. I also was thinking I'd end up playing off against a lot more Raid tokens, so I'd be constantly having to sacrifice tokens to keep commanding.

That said, at least I'm not running the bog standard Gallant Haven/Yavaris Rieekan Aceholes with no Wave 7 upgrades at all. Right, @themightyhedgehog? (/kidding)

I actually wanted to run it against raid and EWS to see how hard a hit it takes... But I see so few of those...

3 minutes ago, themightyhedgehog said:

I actually wanted to run it against raid and EWS to see how hard a hit it takes... But I see so few of those...

Mine.

1 hour ago, thecactusman17 said:

Eh, I think the subtle difference s are the most interesting and important ones long term. I also was thinking I'd end up playing off against a lot more Raid tokens, so I'd be constantly having to sacrifice tokens to keep commanding.

That said, at least I'm not running the bog standard Gallant Haven/Yavaris Rieekan Aceholes with no Wave 7 upgrades at all. Right, @themightyhedgehog? (/kidding)

I should have gone with the the Vader Kuat FCT HIE ACM build I am dying to try out...

Irish/rasproteus just got rolling a few minutes ago when I finally got off the phone.

6 hours ago, Dr alex said:

@BiggsIRL if you want to stay in I’m happy to submit a list and take Neb B’s place?

PM me a list and play me instead. Schedules have already been reset.

Hey. Anyone streaming games? Wanna watch some but alas cannot install vassal on my lab PCs

3 minutes ago, Onca said:

Hey. Anyone streaming games? Wanna watch some but alas cannot install vassal on my lab PCs

I will try to do so in the elimination rounds, schedule pending.

New to this while vassal thing.

1) Are there any tutorials on how to use it?

2) Anyway that ww can watch vieods of these matches?

3) All hail our new cymoon overlords.

Biggs, as I am going out, any chance you could post my wonderful "about me" anyway? I put effort into that!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Ys-1q8d55HNF3l1qbiGaQ

31 minutes ago, Dirgepiper said:

New to this while vassal thing.

1) Are there any tutorials on how to use it?

2) Anyway that ww can watch vieods of these matches?

3) All hail our new cymoon overlords.

Such a lovely voice...

When will we get this FAQ? Or do we have it and I missed the link? As a Raddus fleet I'm wondering about his interaction with objectives, something I didn't even think about while fleet building, so it could have a significant impact on my fleet... All the more reason for allowing some fleet changes before elims...

1 minute ago, JJs Juggernaut said:

When will we get this FAQ? Or do we have it and I missed the link? As a Raddus fleet I'm wondering about his interaction with objectives, something I didn't even think about while fleet building, so it could have a significant impact on my fleet... All the more reason for allowing some fleet changes before elims...

As soon as possible... As it was, I had asked for questions - one was asked, answered, and overridden...

I am at work right now, will be for the next 5 hours... at which point I head to my second “job” and will be there 12 hours... that leaves me at 6:30pm, and I start my overnight shift at 11:00... so some of that 4 hours will be working on an faq, but most will be trying to sleep...

(and the schedule repeats Thur night too)

My apologies for not having more done in advance. ?

Stop dragging your collective feetses and PLAY!

Since @BiggsIRL said he didn't have time for more previews (feel free to ignore the whole thing - it's only my opinion):

POD#7 Preview

Since BiggsIRL and Co are busy with RL, I’ll do this for them.

Starting with POD#7 because… just because.

Click here to head to the home page for the tournament!

Here's the POD#7 Lists.

In Their Own My Words:

Captain Weather: Experienced Aussie player. Haven’t seen him too much on Vassal, but it’s mostly a time zone thing I think. Did really well in one of our Freshman tourneys in 2017.

Admiral Theia: A new player, at least on Vassal. Don’t know too much about her.

Thecactusman17: An old Vassal hand. The grandfather of the Devastator/Demo combo.

Maturin: Another Vassal veteran. I’ve had the pleasure of playing him several times. A solid player.

Greenie Pie’s Analysis:

What a POD… three very experienced players, and one relative newcomer thrown into the pool with the big, hungry sharks. Very nice of you Biggs

Captain Weather is running a familiar admiral, Dodonna, but with an MC75. JL TRC90 and 3 GR75s make this a 2+3 list. His squads are a tough bunch, 4 Ys, Gold, 2 HWKs, 2 YTs, and Dutch. In between those squadrons and TF boosted blue flak (2 of the GRs are COMBAT RETROS!) he should decimate the rest of the pod in the squad war. The MC75 offers a stiff spine to the list, one that isn’t easily flanked or taken off the table. Jaina will flirt the edges, taking shots at anything that tries to sneak up on the flagship. GRs will run the squads. At 5 activations and 10 drops this list has a lot of flexibility. It has no bid but should be plenty confortable going second, even without Strategic shenanigans.

Admiral Theia is running a Sloane ISD+Quasar+Gozanti list. Three activations is very bad, and her 9 squads give her a total of 7 drops, which is pretty middling. Only a 1 pt bid, BUT she has Pryce on the ISD, which CAN be powerful. But has she had time to learn how to leverage Pryce properly? I doubt it, but I could be wrong. The ISD is a Kuat, which is a bit strange for a Sloane fleet, even with a dedicated carrier. Still, Sloane fleets often lack in ship-killing power, but Theia’s sure has. 125 pts in squads is good, and the QF-I is built to throw 6-squad alphas, with Vector in support. She does, however, have only 4 scatter aces, no bombing power, and some squishy squints and eyeballs. The latter are good for alphas, but die quickly to return fire and AAA.

thecactusman is running a 6-activation all-ship build with ZERO squads. Six drops, which is ok. And six activations, which is very good. And an INSANE 42 pt bid. It was intended to be “only” 34, but ET is missing from Demo. This WILL affect Demo’s performance, especially since this is also the flagship. Demo is a squishy thing, and cannot easily ounce or run wo ET. I find that a bit sad, since it wasn’t an intentional omission. Cactus has also dropped his usual Devastator to go with Kuat Avenger instead. He has excellent close-in kill capability, but he loses some of the reach he had before. The list rounds out with 2 comms net and 2 slicer flotillas. This is an effective combo I’ve played against myself, and cactus really knows how to use ‘em. I think overall this is a less effective list than the old Devastator version, but we’ll see.

Maturin is running a 3+1 list with Sato as his commander. AF with OE and ECM, Landomonition, FCT ESCORT Salvation, TF on BH, and a mix of squads that include 2xVCX, 2xZ-95, 2xHWK, Gold, and Tycho. The list has no bid, 8 drops (good), and 4 activations (very bad). It isn’t going to win any major squadron wars (UNLESS his opponent comes to play in the TF Blue **** Zone), but might well have the ability to sustain the Sato effect for a few crucial rounds. Unfortunately the list has no defence token mitigation, other than black dice overload. Not sure that will be good enough. It does however, play the Strategic objective game well, so that’s a plus.

Greenie Pie’s Bet:

I think Weather will take this PDO home. He’s got a powerful, flexible fleet, and the skills to run it effectively. He’ll win the squadron war against both Theia and Maturin, and his superior firepower will carry the day. Against cactus he could end up with a real struggle, but I think the Kuat and the missing Demo ET will be too much of a hindrance to cactus to get a big win out of this. Speaking of which, I expect cactus to take down both his other opponents, neither of which has relay-spam or the ability to spread out sufficiently to frustrated the ISD/Demo combo.

Winner: Captain Weather

Runnerup: thecactusman17

POD#3 Preview

Since BiggsIRL and Co are busy with RL, I’ll do this for them.

POD#3 up next because… just because.

Click here to head to the home page for the tournament!

Here's the POD#3 Lists.

In Their Own My Words:

CaribbeanNinja: Our own Ninja. This guy is SOLID. One of the better players on Vassal – and a great guy too! He’s also on the Vassal dev team.

themightyhedgehog: I’ve seen him around, but have we actually played any games? I can’t recall any, but we might have. Basically a big unknown for me.

Dupy: Dupy has been on Vassal for a while. We’ve met on occasion and he seems competent (I mean that in the RL superlative way, not the snarky internet way). Seems to like Imps, gladiators and rogues.

GiledPallaeon: Another long-time Vassal bro. If rumors are to be believed he’s also a FFG Armada playtester, so you might expect a certain skill level. He’s also on the Vassal dev team.

Greenie Pie’s Analysis:

This is Ninja’s POD. Unless he does something really strange – or his opponents proves much tougher than expected – he’s taking this 3-0, and with good MoVs. Leaving the remaining three fleets to fight tooth and nail over the 2nd spot!

CaribbeanNinja is running the Ackbar Super-pickle*, flotilla edition. That means one MC80 Defiance, loaded for bear and packing all sorts of defensive upgrades. 9 drops, 6 activations, and a 14 pt bid gives this fleet a LOT of options. The core idea is to make it almost impossible to take down the MC80 without punishing Ackbar volleys to the face. All the while the VCXs will be milking those Strategic objectives like crazy. This is somewhat different from the all-ship super-pickle in how it plays. It’s not impossible to take down the MC80, just very difficult. And can you do it fast enough not to lose on points anyway? Or dare you go the path of Advanced Gunnery!?

* watch out if he has both XI7 and QBT - that's a KILLER combo

themightyhedgehog is, despite his name, nothing to joke about. His fleet is fleetingly similar to Captain Weather’s, Dodonna on MC75, but he’s got 2 TRCs, and just 2 flotillas. He’s got a lot of VCXs, Adar Tallon and FCT on the corvettes. So yeah, we’re talking Strategic here. Jan and a couple of 2440s round out his squads. I must say this is one of the more interesting and innovative takes on Doddy D I’ve seen in a while. Since I have no(?) experience with Mr. Hedgehog, I’ve no idea if he can use it well or not, but it is a good fleet, so the potential is there. 5 activations, 8 drops, 6 pt bid.

Dupy’s fleet is unconventional. Four small ships, 2 glads, 1 raider and a gozanti. A big ball of bombers, including Maarek and 2 Firesprays, plus Jendon. Add Bossk and Zetrik for some escort and anti-scatter ace tech. In the old days this build would have had Rhymer and be called a Fireball. But postnerf it takes Jonus instead, thinking to couple him with Demo-II for some dual arc auto-acc tricks. 4 point bid, 7 drops and 4 activations. I can see that a lot of thought and love has been put into this list, but I’m uncertain if it will hold up against the other fleets in the POD. My guess is not, but I’m not entirely sure.

GiledPallaeon loooves dual big ship builds. This time he tries with 2 ISD-Is, rather than his usual Liberty cruisers. Both are fitted the same: IO, OE, H9, and Hi-Cap Turbines. Meaning they hit plenty hard, especially on a double arc. Classic last-first build on both ships. One is the Chimaera, starting with Entrapment, but it can be switched as needed. The flagship has Relentless (crutch) and Jerry. Three Gozanti round out the fleet. Bid is fairly serious at 16 pts, but with only 5 activations he’s not going to be able to fully manipulate board state, even with EF! and 1st player. No squads is a weakness, as are the 5 drops. The short range of both ISDs are guaranteed to be a problem too.

Greenie Pie’s Bet:

I’m very sure Ninja will take this POD. His list (or Admiral Yor’s if you want to give him credit for it), is a thing of beauty. None of the other fleets have the squads needed to stop the Strategic shenanigans, and only GP has the firepower needed to take down the Whale – but unfortunately he’s got no range on those ISDs. For runnerup I’d normally say GP, but seeing as he’s already lost his game vs themightyhedgehog 8 – 3, I have to say Mr Hedgehog as runnerup.

Winner: CaribbeanNinja

Runnerup: themightyhedgehog

2 hours ago, Green Knight said:

GiledPallaeon: Another long-time Vassal bro. If rumors are to be believed he’s also a FFG Armada playtester, so you might expect a certain skill level. He’s also on the Vassal dev team.

I got no idea where you pulled this from, but if you want to go inflating my reputation, who am I to stop you? I like scared opponents, they make bad choices. You also left off my magnum opus.

5 minutes ago, GiledPallaeon said:

I got no idea where you pulled this from, but if you want to go inflating my reputation, who am I to stop you? I like scared opponents, they make bad choices. You also let off my magnum opus.

I've no idea either! But I think it's a very good rumor! ?

3 hours ago, Green Knight said:

themightyhedgehog: I’ve seen him around, but have we actually played any games? I can’t recall any, but we might have. Basically a big unknown for me.

Thanks for the write up! No we haven't played yet. I am very new to Vassal. I have only played IRL until this tournament. Would love to get a game in sometime with you though!

On 1/19/2018 at 10:49 PM, Viktor Tanek said:

And ended quickly. JJ went first, chose my advanced gunnery and tabled me. 510-33.

Great game, great opponent.

Ouch. I wouldnt have wanted to play JJ off a loss.

Just now, Madaghmire said:

Ouch. I wouldnt have wanted to play JJ off a loss.

Yeah, it takes me a few months to get decent with a list. It took him 2 games to get good lol. I haven't been tabled in a long time, but it was a good learning experience.

On 1/22/2018 at 10:08 AM, thecactusman17 said:

Gladiator-1 Star Destroyer - 56

• Admiral Motti - 24
• Intel Officer -7
• Ordnance Experts - 4
• Engine Techs - 8
• Assault Proton Torpedoes - 5
• Demolisher - 10

Got the ET on there this time!!!

I think @Captain Weather and I have a game tonight. 9pm Pacific Standard maybe.