Mustache Report - Worlds Day 1a

By BiggsIRL, in Star Wars: Armada

Weather, Biggs and Tokra, what an amazing service ! You're part of what makes this community special.

8 hours ago, SkyCake said:

Whether or not some people signed up for armada just to drop and enter non armada side events to play or farm tickets is not the issue.... The issue is that it is even possible to do so in the first place! Can't tell you how disheartening it is to think that your worlds tournament may have been hijacked by chiselers, sneak thieves, and fiddling bens seeking to cash in at the expense of armada hardcores.

@SkyCake you win the internet for the day by using the Gangs of New York reference...awesome! ?

Gonna open up a new thread for 1b. Anyone is allowed to participate by posting in it.

12 hours ago, Fanfan said:

First, huge thanks Biggs (and Tokra) for doing that. I actually can't believe there is just nothing available to get info about Xwing day1A, despite the much bigger size of the community.

Yet, I am feeling a bit uncomfortable with the format: 4 rounds seems way too small for World Championships. And of course it combines with the number of applications they rejected. I don't know what their acceptance rate is, but just from Boston, both PT106 did not get lucky to get a spot, and we were really motivated to train well for it. (OK, I could have attended Regionals to attempt to save a spot, but it was not needed on previous years to get there - I would have tried harder had I predicted it would be different this year. I think PT106 finished 2nd of our local regional).

Rent a large room, make a single flight of (all applying) players. Have them play like 7-8 swiss rounds on two days. Cut the top 4. This is really almost nothing to ask for. And the tournament would look so much more important, selective and intense.

The game is amazing, but not exactly the most popular, so why turn away people who really wanted to fly for it ? (and would arguably make the competition broader)

4 rounds just feels so little ... luck of the first two pairings and favorable match-up pairings become sooo important. The weight of a single mistake or dice roll gets so big too. Just imagine if it was 7 or 8 rounds of swiss split between two days. The selection would be so much sharper. With 8 swiss rounds against people with the same current scores, the selection process, dice and pairing luck get much better mitigated. And making the cut would feel even more rewarding.

And if people fly for the occasion, I guess they really would not mind playing over two days instead of 1.

It's nice that JJ made the cut as he's considered as the very best Armada player, so it helps my point that it is really not about who made or did not make the cut.

I just feel the tournament could be much more epic, with a lower luck factor and a broader base, with a very minimal effort.

I wonder with X-Wing getting their own separate Worlds that FFG will be able to accommodate more players of the other SW games for their Worlds, including a change to the tournament structure (something more like what you describe)? I would really like to go again but I'm a regular not top tier player...

5 minutes ago, Ken-Obi said:

I wonder with X-Wing getting their own separate Worlds that FFG will be able to accommodate more players of the other SW games for their Worlds, including a change to the tournament structure (something more like what you describe)? I would really like to go again but I'm a regular not top tier player...

I think it may significantly decrease (if not outright eliminate) a zombie problem.

19 minutes ago, PT106 said:

I think it may significantly decrease (if not outright eliminate) a zombie problem.

I hope that is the case. I would love to attend, but I am not able to regional hop like 2016 in order to get the golden ticket. I will do what it takes in order to attend 2019 though. This includes stowing away in @CaribbeanNinja's suitcase if need be.....

26 minutes ago, PT106 said:

I think it may significantly decrease (if not outright eliminate) a zombie problem.

I dont understand why Rieekan would be eliminated.

20 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

I dont understand why Rieekan would be eliminated.

The FAQ, Obviously it affects attendance zombies as well. Read the fine print.....

?

5 hours ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

From the reports, I have not heard anyone talking about double Cymoon. I kind of wonder if they were afraid of the Raddus build? I'm not as familiar with the match up.

K, not (necessarily) double Cymoons, but FFG organized play posted a graph showing the breakdown of what's there:

DcOKaWIUQAA8WSf.jpg

I'd guess it's because people presume twin Cymoons/ISDs can't withstand a missile-toting MC75 dropping into combat range instantly with a friend - yet long range superlaser builds would be Kristjan's worst matchup.... unless he has a plan against that, which I'm curious about.

@Norsehound very little can stand up to the Raddus 75megaton bomb, while also holding ground to other archetypes. We in our local area had been testing for worlds for a little over a month. None of us had tickets, but we wanted to see at least how close we could get. We had been evolving around the Canadian Nationals list of Raddus and we failed to find effective counters. The best we could do was go for narrow losses and there was a CHANCE of taking it out with Sloan and dictors, but like I said nothing consistent. The gentleman running the list for that entire period never dropped a game. Even mirror matches become next to useless round three explosive ends. Our final assesment meeting on Monday ended with this list as our predictions. We're pretty proud of how close we were to at least JJ's list.

Raddus/B (377/400)
=================
MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100 + 26)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ Electronic Countermeasures (7)
+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
+ External Racks (3)
+ Profundity (7)
CR90 Corvette A (44 + 43)
+ Admiral Raddus (26)
+ Engine Techs (8)
+ Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
+ Jaina's Light (2)
Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 + 11)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ External Racks (3)
+ Garel's Honor (4)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

Shara Bey (17)
3 x YT-2400 (3 x 16)
Tycho Celchu (16)

Most Wanted
Hyperspace assault
Solar Corona

@ForceSensitive, how do you think Kristjan's list holds up against this? Between the VSD and Demo he's got to withstand whatever the 75 can throw at him. He's got a brace certainly on-deck, and with that much ordnance being thrown (with no XI7s) he can use his Redirects. His VSD, and to an extent his GSD, are powerhouses at short range, while his ARQ is pretty definitely built to fly clear of the fray and contribute damage at long range. He's got all aces in the fighter build, probably commanded out of the VSD, but more importantly Jonus is in there to give accuracy to the VSD and ARQ if the 75 shows up on his doorstep.

When the VSD Opens up at close range he's got 9 dice and Veteran Gunners to back him up, with Demo in the sidecar, fighters, and ARQ.
Jerjerrod is there to help the GSD and VSD swing to face wherever he anticipates the 75 is going to drop.

The problem I see with this build is what I see being a powerful Imperial build: Twin Cymoons designed to annihilate targets at long range. Raddus nesting dolls gets around this by deploying at long-medium range to suddenly get into close range, where the Cymoons don't have the chance to whittle down a target on the approach. The Cymoons don't have this problem against Kristjan's list- approaching at slow speeds where the only threat to them is the ARQ.

I want to be thrilled a VSD has made it this far, really! But then I get critical because I'm a pessimist and hear myself saying, "Surely there's a catch"- because the poor VSD can't catch a break. I think that catch is he's built his list to combat Raddus drops- not all comers. Once he's confronted with a list he can't contend with, it's over, and depends entirely on randomized matchups.

I can see Kristjan's list failing because, between the CR-90 and the GR-75s, Raddus has three potential ships to drop from. Raddus will approach from different directions to spoil Kristjan's positioning, then pick one to drop the 75 and Raddus into the worst possible position.

@Norsehound Well to be honest, I agree, I don't think Kris has a prayer outside of a terrible play from his opponent. The highest props to him for getting to the top four with that build, he obviously knows what he's doing. But against Raddus drops, it really doesn't matter what ships you have or what's on them. It's all about position. And that becomes increasingly more prevalent in higher tier play which we'll see tomorrow. And Raddus. Will. Have. The. Best. Position. Again barring some terrible mistake. It's what makes the list so dominating and why we have seen so much of it at this worlds. It's a perfect setup mechanism to delete any ship on the board while leaving yourself in prime position to do more. It's why it cracked the meta in Canada with THREE activations against the fish farms.

I think the deployment will likely go similar to what we had in our testing. Rebels put Floats on the to corners, 90 in the middle, Squads to match Kris if the opportunity arises. Kris will hug one corner and try to swerve in, positioning round one to not get too close and hope to knock out the float in his corner on two, as well as, and send demo after the 90 and try to stage a Raddus kill on turn two and of course victory via new table rule. I'm pretty confident that's his best hope. JJ knows this I'm guessing, so will probably have to settle for a little early deployment of the bomb, dropping it off the float that Kris guns for, HH out of that to take the flank into the swerving Victory and then run along the back. Squads will duke it out, demo will probably take the 90 and then start trying to haul back in to the fight. Scoring will be whether or not Kris suits manage to take down the 75 in time before it and/or the HH run away enough to prevent table conditions. Which will be tough. That's my read on it. But obviously I'm in an arm chair, not at Worlds.

Hey guys, my thinking against Raddus builds was that my 3 ships were all around the same point cost. I figured I was going to lose whatever ship got jumped on. As for double Cymoons/ISDs, those builds don't have any protection from my squadrons as they are so heavily invested in ships. My build was designed to crush Sloane lists or give me a fighting chance against Reeikan Aces.

I ended up playing 3 Raddus lists, the one I lost was tough as I had my Victory with Jonus in perfect position, but ... took the crit from APTs that I can't attack obstructed targets and he was sitting on the station. There was no way for either or us to move without bumping and I had no engineering lined up. My final Raddus game was against @BrobaFett. This was one I should have lost but we were tied at time. I can't use my flechette torps against generic YTs and that hurt.

I agree with @ForceSensitive, @Kristjanhas no chance against Carlo, the reigning Canadian National Champion.

As we say here in East York:

Carlo is "Beast York"

Kristjan is "Yeast York"

7 hours ago, Roquax said:

I agree with @ForceSensitive, @Kristjanhas no chance against Carlo, the reigning Canadian National Champion. 

It's ok bud. If I got tabled in round 4 before most people even finished deploying, I'd be salty too.

59 minutes ago, Kristjan said:

It's ok bud. If I got tabled in round 4 before most people even finished deploying, I'd be salty too.

Was that against another Torontonian?

5 minutes ago, Captain Weather said:

Was that against another Torontonian?

No a brit. radus list

I haven't seen the videos, but I'm not sure how you got out of it. In our area, the best playersb running Riekan lists have been getting eaten alive by even a few beginner Raddus plays. We tried everything. It will be an interesting tournament season. I'm curious to see where we are in six months. In the meantime, I have to eat my words. I'll admit it.

9 hours ago, Mogrok said:

No a brit. radus list

Good job @Jimble They Dont Like It Up Em