Quick Build Card oddities...

By GoblynByte, in X-Wing

I thought it would be fun to see how the quick builds stack up in point costs, so I started toying with duplicating them in the squad builder. Yes, I know they're not supposed to follow the standard point-buy standards, but I was curious. In doing this, I noticed something odd. Many of the quick builds allow for a number of talents or modifications greater than what that pilot should be able to accommodate per the upgrade slots shown on the Point Cost PDFs provided on the game's web site.

For example, the Quick Build for "Night Beast" lists Predator talent, and the Hull and Shield upgrades. But, according to the Point Cost PDF, "Night Beast" can only have a single upgrade and no talents.

Disparity in point costs makes sense, but having "illegal" upgrades and talents on the cards seems odd to me. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

28 minutes ago, GoblynByte said:

I thought it would be fun to see how the quick builds stack up in point costs, so I started toying with duplicating them in the squad builder. Yes, I know they're not supposed to follow the standard point-buy standards, but I was curious. In doing this, I noticed something odd. Many of the quick builds allow for a number of talents or modifications greater than what that pilot should be able to accommodate per the upgrade slots shown on the Point Cost PDFs provided on the game's web site.

For example, the Quick Build for "Night Beast" lists Predator talent, and the Hull and Shield upgrades. But, according to the Point Cost PDF, "Night Beast" can only have a single upgrade and no talents.

Disparity in point costs makes sense, but having "illegal" upgrades and talents on the cards seems odd to me. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I think it’s fine for the sake of match like threat levels. What upset me about the quick build cards was that as a Rebel player I only have quick builds for x-wings and y-wings. I bought the Rebel conversion kit and was hoping to have quick builds for all the ships available in the conversion kit.

Edited by Pooleman
3 minutes ago, Pooleman said:

I think it’s fine for the sake of match like threat levels. What upset me about the quick build cards was that as a Rebel player I only have quick builds for x-wings and y-wings. I bought the Rebel conversion kit and was hoping to have quick builds for all the ships available in the conversion kit.

Just in case you haven’t seen yet, FFG put up quick builds for all pilots in a pdf. :)

8 minutes ago, intoxicatedALF said:

Just in case you haven’t seen yet, FFG put up quick builds for all pilots in a pdf. :)

Huh. Rebels and Scum get what appear to be Threat-Level six builds, while Imperials don't even have a single TL5. (I was really hoping for a truly epic Colonel Jendon!)

((Technically, Scum don't have a TL5 either, but having two TL6s sort of makes up for that...))

Edited by JJ48
7 minutes ago, intoxicatedALF said:

Just in case you haven’t seen yet, FFG put up quick builds for all pilots in a pdf. :)

Yeah, but they put dagger squadron in there. We don’t have have dagger squadron (yet), we have blade squadron.

1 hour ago, intoxicatedALF said:

Just in case you haven’t seen yet, FFG put up quick builds for all pilots in a pdf. :)

At first it was only the Wave 1 builds,

1 hour ago, FlyingAnchors said:

Yeah, but they put dagger squadron in there. We don’t have have dagger squadron (yet), we have blade squadron.

They fixed it now in one of their many stealth updates .

Yeah quick build (aka prebuild) is a different format from free-build, as for balancing you don't have to worry about broken pilot/upgrade combos, but you don't build a squad from scratch you build a squad from pilots and each pilot has their own kit. So the search is for efficient pilots and pilot synergy. A better example of a level playing field, Imagine Whisper only having Stygium and Echo was the one with ACD in 1st edition. Whisper might still be a higher threat but it wouldn't be the meta dominating threat level 7 that it was in Wave 4(1.0).

So when you take a look at quick builds don't look at what the pilots have and how much it costs, just look at what the pilots bring and how much threat, and also look for other pilots that can fit with those. I can imagine Quick build meta taking somewhat of a dynamic duo approach where you find 2 pilots that work great together and a generic that can fill the rest of the 8 threat if you haven't already. I guess you could also go High Threat 5 and throw in 2 or 3 filler ships but I doubt it will be that much better.

2 hours ago, GoblynByte said:

I thought it would be fun to see how the quick builds stack up in point costs, so I started toying with duplicating them in the squad builder. Yes, I know they're not supposed to follow the standard point-buy standards, but I was curious. In doing this, I noticed something odd. Many of the quick builds allow for a number of talents or modifications greater than what that pilot should be able to accommodate per the upgrade slots shown on the Point Cost PDFs provided on the game's web site.

For example, the Quick Build for "Night Beast" lists Predator talent, and the Hull and Shield upgrades. But, according to the Point Cost PDF, "Night Beast" can only have a single upgrade and no talents.

Disparity in point costs makes sense, but having "illegal" upgrades and talents on the cards seems odd to me. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Yeah FFG flat out stated that QuickBuilds don’t follow the normal squad building rules, so don’t worry about it too much.

And besides, the examples you listed are nothing. Alpha Squadron interceptor quick builds come with Ablative Plating, which is medium-large based only. Also, go check out the super fluffy but super illegal (in normal games) Millenium Falcon build in the Rebel PDF. ;)

56 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Yeah quick build (aka prebuild) is a different format from free-build, as for balancing you don't have to worry about broken pilot/upgrade combos, but you don't build a squad from scratch you build a squad from pilots and each pilot has their own kit. So the search is for efficient pilots and pilot synergy. A better example of a level playing field, Imagine Whisper only having Stygium and Echo was the one with ACD in 1st edition. Whisper might still be a higher threat but it wouldn't be the meta dominating threat level 7 that it was in Wave 4(1.0).

So when you take a look at quick builds don't look at what the pilots have and how much it costs, just look at what the pilots bring and how much threat, and also look for other pilots that can fit with those. I can imagine Quick build meta taking somewhat of a dynamic duo approach where you find 2 pilots that work great together and a generic that can fill the rest of the 8 threat if you haven't already. I guess you could also go High Threat 5 and throw in 2 or 3 filler ships but I doubt it will be that much better.

And, honestly, I like this mode very much. I don't really have the stomach for meta, so cutting that down to a minimum (without killing it all together) is taking the game in a direction I appreciate. I very much appreciate that they are ostensibly attempting to both preserve and "fix" meta for the tournament side. But I also appreciate that they're providing a way to encourage a less meta method of play.

Since I often play with my 9-year old, the quick builds are the perfect method. Not because he has trouble adding the point values, but because he just wants to have fun and pick the ships he likes over worrying about what the most efficient build might be. Quick builds allows him to do this without getting immediately and mathematically crushed by a cheesed out squad.

9 hours ago, intoxicatedALF said:

Just in case you haven’t seen yet, FFG put up quick builds for all pilots in a pdf. :)

Reeeeeeeealy? Do you have a link?

14 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Huh. Rebels and Scum get what appear to be Threat-Level six builds, while Imperials don't even have a single TL5. (I was really hoping for a truly epic Colonel Jendon !)

((Technically, Scum don't have a TL5 either, but having two TL6s sort of makes up for that...))

They do have 2 TL 5 builds, they're just not on the PDF. Han and L3-37. They came in the Lando's Falcon pack.

12 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

Yeah FFG flat out stated that QuickBuilds don’t follow the normal squad building rules, so don’t worry about it too much.

And besides, the examples you listed are nothing. Alpha Squadron interceptor quick builds come with Ablative Plating, which is medium-large based only. Also, go check out the super fluffy but super illegal (in normal games) Millenium Falcon build in the Rebel PDF. ;)

Oh dear lord I just checked out of the Chewie quick build and you are not kidding. If I play using quick builds that might be the first one i try lol

Is it me or is the TIE fighter missing a card. Also mauler isn't listed.

11 hours ago, TallGiraffe said:

Is it me or is the TIE fighter missing a card. Also mauler isn't listed.

The components list for the TIE expansion states 3 cards, but I can't find any evidence that a 3rd card exists. So I think the components list is a typo.

I for one can't wait to find out what threat level Midnight is.

6 hours ago, nexttwelveexits said:

I for one can't wait to find out what threat level Midnight is.

Mr Scott?

2 minutes ago, drunkensith said:

Mr Scott?

The name's Scarn. Agent Scarn.