Cheese sandwiches without pickle of some description are a crime against humanity and should be referred to the The Hague.

15 hours ago, player3691565 said:

It actually is according to improvement science.

The quality of the output of any production process is determined by the level of common cause variation within the system. A higher “quality” system has low common cause variation, a system with a higher level of common cause variation will produce a poorer level of quality. The product in this case is consistent damage output.

The concept comes from quality improvement science in which the fundamental aim is to reduce variation, the basic premiss being its better to know you will get 2-5 damage ( Lando using a defence token ) than hope you will max out with a head hunters 0-6 damage. Remembering the concept mainly comes from sectors in which variation can be very bad news ( Such as health:).if optimal door to needle time for a life saving treatment is within 20 mins your aim is to create a system with a common cause variation of between 10 to 20 mins door to needle time ( a high quality system ) if your system had a common cause variation of between 5 to 25 mins, you may get faster treatment that the high quality system ( higher reward in getting treatment earlier to some, but then their is a risk in that you may just kill someone) this is a low quality system because of the high level of common cause variation.

You can use this concept in armada, treat your lists as systems that deliver a product ( your win ) deciding what outputs you require to get the product ( specific damage etc) then designing in reduced common cause variation ( increase consistency) to make a high quality system.

I'm not sure this really applies. For one thing, the low variance is often desired in systems because too much variance is inherently detrimental. A bolt that deviates too much won't work with the proper nut, for instance. However, in these cases, unlike dice, deviations in both directions are undesirable.

Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that an more variable system will have a much higher reward than the less variable system in your examples. There, it's a contrast of low-risk, moderate reward vs high-risk, moderate reward. In contrast, the dice do actually offer a tradeoff between risk and reward.

I'd also point out that Lando can only use his greater consistency twice per game, and costs more than 3 Z-95s. That's not to say Lando's not good, but it's not really fair to make a 1-to-1 comparison.

50 minutes ago, player3691565 said:

Cheese sandwiches without pickle of some description are a crime against humanity and should be referred to the The Hague.

So many variables - the kind of bread, the kind of cheese, the kind of pickle...

A goat cheese, for example, needs a dark bread and a sweet pickle ( such as apple, or rhubarb). A strong cheddar works fine with white or brown, and pairs happily with your basic brown pickle.

1 hour ago, flatpackhamster said:

A strong cheddar works fine with white or brown, and pairs happily with your basic brown pickle.

?

4 hours ago, player3691565 said:

The sandwich comment made me laugh, improvement science is actual about trying to understand and reduce variation within complex systems. It has worked for some of the most complex systems ever created by humanity, in which variation always plays a part. It’s a very well evidenced and known that reducing common cause variation improves your chances of getting the outcome you want. So to think you can’t use a concept in a game which improves the chance of an airliner landing or a multiple trauma victim surviving misses that fact that a simple game is no more that a basic set of processes with some inserted variation.

So the outcome in armada is Wining with the highest possible number of tournament points. This is actually the fundamental aim. Damage and killing ships are part of the outputs of system components, other outputs include damage reduction, ability to ensure components are in a usable state ( in the right place and alive etc). If you break down your system ( list and game style) you can look at what level of common clause variation is acceptable for each output and if you can change the level of variation....then you test it to see if it works or not.

now this is a rational argument, however it leads to Fire Lanes and Sensor Net. Take the dice out of the equation altogether.

I counter the 'reduction of variance' arguement, with...

CHAOS

I dont know what can happen, and neither do you. Isnt that fun?!

13 hours ago, JJ48 said:

?

You know, like a Ploughman's pickle. It uses malt vinegar instead of a cider or wine vinegar which gives it the dark colour and sourness.

And 'working with white or brown' was referring to the kind of loaf. Seedy, nutty, a standard white bloomer, a sourdough, doesn't matter, a good cheddar carries it all.

You should have it with an apple though, and not one of those godawful green balls they sell in the supermarket in the fruit section. A proper apple with flavour.

19 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

now this is a rational argument, however it leads to Fire Lanes and Sensor Net. Take the dice out of the equation altogether.

I utterly love these, my favourites

Woah. Forum bans incoming for anyone who suggested a cheese sandwich with anything other than Cheddar. I have reported you for unfriendly behaviour.

And then you need mustard to finish your cheese sandwich. A cheese sandwich without mustard... mon dieu!

17 hours ago, Ling27 said:

I counter the 'reduction of variance' arguement, with...

CHAOS

I dont know what can happen, and neither do you. Isnt that fun?!

Ummmmm No!!!!!! Lol. I have work and children for that.....I’d much prefer to know I was going to win every tournament I dragged my sorry overworked **** too...predictably and borningness ( I don’t care if that’s not a word) is my very favourite thing...chaos and excitement is well overrated.

To further muddy the waters. If you need to do 1 dmg use Maarek steele, if you need to do 6 dmg use 4 tie phantoms. Reliability in dice is only as good as the circumstance. There is just as much certainty in an infinite number of red dice as there is in an infinite number of blue, its just red dice do more damage.

Absolutely. You can smooth out the randomness by adding more dice. Quantity has a quality all of it's own.

I came here to find info and stories woth Z95's and ended with cheese sandwiches.

Certainly better than they were what with Reserver Hangar Bay. The Z now stands for zombie

I like Z-95s because sometimes they are mistaken for X-wings with s-foils locked down and some basic Tie's run away at first sight,

well, thats the main plan when using them.

On 10/6/2019 at 12:40 PM, flatpackhamster said:

A strong cheddar works fine with white or brown, and pairs happily with your basic brown pickle.

No “brown pickle” I ever saw looked like it would pair well with anything.

Mmm. Z95s with Lt. Blount, Toryn Farr, and Flight Controllers. RRRB with 3 rerolls

If you are running a fleet that has some extra squadron commanding ability (say, an Ackbar assault frigate list), then you can build an SFC out of them that works. I've run 3x X-wings and 3X Z-95's pretty well as a punch-forward alternative to Shara, Tycho and 2x A-wings. Its also more punchy than Biggs and 3x X-Wings.

For the low, low cost of only 5 more points, you get +1 deployment, +4 hull, and 9 more attack dice on your turn. Where the A-wing crew works around the periphery to slow the enemy down and gum up the works, the XZ crew try to hit and kill one or two linchpin enemies, while sticking around long enough to slow down a non-Intel blob.

I personally find that the next upgrade for this particular SFC should be to upgrade an X-Wing to Biggs, and not a Z-95 to Blount. Blount's cost includes his defense tokens, which aren't going to help. By the time the escorts are dead, the wing had better have already done its job. Also, Blount's second re-roll only applies to his neighbors, not to himself. So while Biggs ends up aiding everyone by making the X-wings better escorts, Blount only really aids 2 of his companions.