Drop Down Menus CSS Drop Down Menu Pure CSS Dropdown Menu

Tuesday 20 June 2017

How to Tweak a List

There are numerous blog posts on list-building as a subject in general, even on the FFG main page ( Assemble your Squad), but I'd like to take a moment to discuss list tweaking/adjusting.

The process of tweaking comes after play-testing. The fact is you're never going to nail the fine details of a list from the get-go. You put it on the table and see how it fares. At the end of each game, you should be able to see which upgrades performed well, which were unnecessary and see what could be better. This requires good critical ability, you have to be able to differentiate from losses due to mistakes, the list underperforming or just dice outliers (notice I don't say bad dice).

I like to start with a single list and start categorizing the cards in the list. In general, I like to place pilots and upgrades in a list in four different categories, according to their role in the list:
  • Must-haves (red): These are cards I have designed the list around or just things I want to fly. These should remain in the list no matter what. (e.g. Soontir with Push the Limit)
  • Need-to-haves (orange): Cards that are not mandatory, but I would only give up on them if I really need the points for something else. These are usually utility cards that go well on ships but are not "glued" to them (e.g. Stealth Device on Soontir).
  • Toolbox cards (yellow): Cards that provide utility in my list but are not a mandatory or obvious pick (e.g. a Proton Rocket on the Inquisitor)
  • Filler cards (green): Cards that provide minor utility and are easily interchanged between versions of the build (e.g. 0pt EPTs).
This is not an indication of actual upgrade strength, but of the importance in the list and the rigidness of allocation of points (i.e. if I'm short on points I would never take out Palpatine in this list, but I would take out Fire-Control Systems if need be).



I'm going to break down my Euros list (write up and short explanation of the list here) to demonstrate the technique of adjusting and show how I've reached this final version. Let's first take a look at the final list and its cards:
  • Must-haves are an Upsilon shuttle with Palpatine (pulpsilon?), Sabacc with Title/Lightweight Frame, Backdraft with Title/Lightweight Frame. The pilots themselves are what I wanted to fly, that's why they are fixed. I could have included an upgrade to the Duchess, but the truth is I like Sabacc a lot, so it's a must-have
  • Need-to-haves are Fire-Control Systems. FCS is good on a TIE/sf because you can expect your previous target to be in one of the two arcs. It happens often that you are shooting at the same target and it helps a lot with offense. On the Upsilon it's equally important because there's 4 dice involved. If you use the FCS Target Lock once or twice per game I think it's enough. There are plenty of moments where the upsilon has no actions (stop, hard 1 turn, coordinate), so action economy on a 42-pts ship is pretty important.
  • Toolbox cards are Kylo Shuttle title and Snap Shot. Snap Shot is a very strong card, but it was not vital on the first list-building attempt. The shuttle title brings down Attanni lists, so it's a utility card that's tailored to the current meta.
  • Adaptability and Primed Thrusters are nice cards, but not at all important for this build. I could have easily replaced them with other  upgrades. I also marked the Starkiller Base Pilot as green because I would have upgraded him in a heartbeat if I could spare the points.


Now let's go through the process of tweaking the list. If we start with all the red cards, we have about 9pts to spare, 5pts without the orange cards. Here's a pool of cards that I have considered for this list with their importance.

For the Upsilon:
  • a 2pt ugrade to Major Stridan purely for PS, PS4 being above the Contracted Scouts. Also works pretty well for coordinate. In play-testing I have found that the shuttle doesn't go down as easily, and definitely not in the first round against Scouts, so it doesn't matter as much as I thought.
  • Electronic Baffle instead of FCS: good only if I really need the points, baffle allows multiple stops and is really good for maneuverability
  • Hyperwave Comm Scanner allows me to place the shuttle at PS12, my first deploy being Sabacc at PS6
  • Pattern Analyzer is similar in effect to baffle, I can stop and take an action, but I can't do it the following round as well.
  • Kylo Ren's shuttle takes down Attanni lists and jousters with bad greens (Defenders that are not Ryad)
  • Ion Projector locks down certain ships into an eternal bump with the shuttle
I started with Ion Projector, FCS and title on the shuttle, but dropped the Ion Projector because it was difficult to trigger, I wanted the shuttle to shoot most of the time rather than block as I would do with a lambda.

For Sabacc:
  • Snapshot increases the offense of Sabacc from potentially 5 dice to 8 (5+3). I found in play-testing that I could consistently get at least two triggers per game. A good snapshot at the right time can mean game over for the opponent.
  • Trick Shot increases offense to 6 dice max. In practice this is more difficult to trigger, especially the 6 dice range 1 shot.

For Backdraft:
  • 0-1pt EPTs, because I knew I wouldn't have the points for something more expensive. I took adaptability to take him over Dash and on par with Miranda.
  • FCS, no contender
  • A tech upgrade: Targeting Synchronizer allows Sabacc to fire a TL+focus shot, potentially keeping that TL for the shuttle as well. Pattern Analyzer allows a lot of shenanigans like 3-sloop focus so I can aim the rear arc at incoming ships.
In the end I went with Adaptability and Primed thrusters, but now I would choose Veteran Instincts. Primed Thrusters was useful in 2 games out of 9, and it wasn't game changing. Having PS9 would have helped a lot more.

So, in summary, these are the steps I would take from a pre-existing list to tweak it:
  1. Take the core of the list, mark it as red
  2. Generate a pool of interesting cards for the rest of the unoccupied slots (you can start with those from the first list), mark them as orange if they're needed a lot, yellow if they're useful and green if they're just around to fill up points.
  3. Play-test a few combinations and choose based on what works and what doesn't
So, is this the end? You could end up with a "final" list that you won't modify for months to come, but you're also likely to come up against a shifting meta. In that case, see if there are any toolbox cards that you can quickly swap out to account for that! 



Tuesday 13 June 2017

European Championships Write-up


If I was going to make it to one foreign X-wing tournament, it would be the European Championships. Being more busy than usual, I was unable to make it to the Yavin System Open (where we had 415 players last year), but I was instead able to make it to the Euros, taking place at the same location at roughly the same time as Yavin in 2016!

As a list I took what I was most familiar with, Upsilon with TIE s/f and Striker. I had been flying TIE s/f's with great success before lightweight frame, so I was both confident in their ability and in me flying them. I was also investigating a Tomax + Backdraft + extra list, but in tests it underperformed massively in the initial engagement and it collapsed afterwards. 

When taking an Upsilon Palp and a TIE s/f, you're left with about ~30 points for a 3rd ship, which could very well be Omega Leader (as the Mynocks fly it). Omega Leader is nice, but in this meta you have to be much more aggressive and attack-oriented. Pure sabacc does this by having 4 dice in the beginning of the game. Snap shot came about instead of my previous Ion projector and Trickshot, I think it was an extraordinary addition.



Let's do a quick breakdown of the list: I took Palpatine because he's still super good, I can easily tell when I'll be able to use him effectively. He saves Sabacc sometimes, he can get extend Backdraft's life or just provide extra firepower on the shuttle. In practice I've had one Palpatine miss every 2-3 games, at the Euros I was at 1 per game. Kylo Ren's Shuttle is one of the most important upgrades in the list, it decimates Attanni lists and also impedes jousters. Fire-Control System is mandatory for the shuttle, it's a pity not to get a dice modification for free on 4 dice. It's also at 1-2 uses per game, but I lost a game because I forgot it, so I know it's worth it. Lightweight Frame is a ridiculously good card, although it interferes a bit with Palpatine use. Primed Thrusters, for 1pt, allows you to 1-turn/3-sloop and barrel roll, or barrel-roll with stress via Coordinate.  Adaptability brings Backdraft to PS8, where there's a lot of action currently (mainly Miranda, good against Dash too). Snap Shot is the dark horse in this list, that gives it its name: Potential 8 dice coming from Sabacc in a single round. 3 dice with Palpatine against few modifiers (Attani helps here) and another range 1 shot. The Striker is maneuverable enough to make this work, as it can both cover great distances, do very tight turns, or just go over formations.



A summary of the "bag of tricks" of this list:
  • Snapshot with 3 dice and Palpatine, catches everyone by surprise
  • Kylo stress
  • Coordinate with shuttle
  • Coordinate a barrel roll while stressed on the TIE s/f
  • Using Palpatine on the lightweight frame extra dice, as a last resort if the rest of the roll went really badly
The plan generally is to tank with the shuttle a couple of shots while Sabacc flanks and Backdraft brings in the rear.  Sabacc hops around, the shuttle exits and comes back for another round, Backdraft turns to point his rear-arc where it needs to be.

One problem I've had with it is that I still don't master Sabacc as well as I should. I've had about 30-40 games with Striker variations, but it still feels like I'm driving with no brakes. I am unable to stall with him, I should have practiced some maneuvers for this. As such, I was forced to never stall with the shuttle in the opening maneuvers, I had to get everything right with minimal information from my opponent. I did mitigate this by deploying in an obvious "I'm going to bump the first round" formation, but I always 2-banked or 3-banked out of it. 


Overall I'm pretty proud of how the list performed. My losses could be attributed entirely to user error (getting Sabacc killed too early), which could have been avoided with more training. I would consider it an A-level list, one of the good things the Empire can offer at the moment.

Round 1 - Alban Trinchero (Switzerland)

"Quickdraw" (29)
Expertise (4)
Fire-Control System (2)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Crack Shot (1)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

Total: 100

My first round opponent was a good player (system opens, nationals goodies), placed very closely to me in the end. He began by slow-rolling Quickdraw and Vessery and drawing me to the obstacles in the center. Sabacc was not only too early but also clipped a debris field (sloppy play on my part, but it's hard to visualize 1-forward then 2-bank at a millimeter level). Sabacc died the following turn, after getting a snap shot on Omega Leader. The rest of my list focused on Vessery and managed to get it off the table. Unfortunately, I spent a focus too aggressively and didn't leave room for defense on Backdraft, losing 3 shields because of this. Backdraft went down quickly, but the shuttle outmaneuvered and bumped everyone. In the end, it was the shuttle against Omega Leader on 1 hull and Quickdraw on 2. Failing to get a FCS, I was tied between a full stop with no modifiers against Quickdraw versus a 1-forward with focus. The shuttle was playing a game of chicken with Quickdraw, with Omega Leader out of sight. I calculated there was no way he could evade my front arc so I did the 1-forward. Quickdraw was barely able to 3-bank and barrel roll out of arc and so ended any chance of my winning this game.

35-100 loss, which I almost avoided using only the shuttle!

Round 2 - Hey that's my fish!


Just kidding - there were significant delays so we played a few games of hey that's my fish!

Round 2 - Mikkel Lars Knudsen (Denmark)


Shara Bey (28)
Adaptability (0)
Jan Ors (2)
R2-D2 (4)
Alliance Overhaul (0)

Norra Wexley (29)
Push the Limit (3)
Kyle Katarn (3)
BB-8 (2)
Alliance Overhaul (0)

Jess Pava (25)
R3-A2 (2)
Primed Thrusters (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

Round 2 started at about 16:30, people were already tired. This list was played in formation, with Norra supposedly exiting the formation at the last possible moment with BB-8 to flank. I was able to block Norra with my flanking Sabacc and get great shots on Jess Pava. Took out Jess and Norra, barely escaping with the shuttle. Then Shara was somehow activated and turned into a monster. It took a potshot at the shuttle, destroying it. It then entered Sabacc's range 1, received a snap shot and a range 1 shot with very little damage. What followed was two rounds of Sabacc getting snap shot and range 1 shots, but with very little damage, instead taking weapons failure (snapshot down to 1!). With Sabacc dieing horribly, Shara 2 pts more expensive than backdraft, I was on my way to my second loss. Backdraft couldn't do more than one damage per turn because of R2-D2 + Jan evade.  I disengaged, got around, then surprised him with a hard turn that got me 1 rit + 3dice with TL and focus on a 2 shield 1 hull Shara. 

100-68 win, definitely not as well as it should have gone after the initial exchanges, but a win.

Round 3 - Luis  A. Lozano Garcia (Spain)


 Wedge Antilles (29)
Swarm Tactics (2)
BB-8 (2)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Biggs Darklighter (25)
R4-D6 (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Captain Rex (14)

Jess Pava (25)
R2-D6 (1)
Crack Shot (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

My opponent set his formation up to joust me, and we engaged with my perfect setup, Sabacc flanking with a good position to snap shot Jess Pava the following round. I was able to kill Biggs in the first round at range 3, which my opponent attributed to incredible dice.  The fact that I was shooting 11 dice with focus at a 6HP ship was not as relevant. 4 dice with focus + Palp, 3 dice focus and 4 dice with focus at range 3 against 3 dice with R4-D6 at range 3 is 5.15 average damage. Add to that a focus for one of the defense rolls, add that Palpatine counters R4-D6 and above average dice and Biggs goes poof. 

The next round I focused on Jess Pava, almost taking her out, while he put a lot of damage on backdraft. What followed was the best snapshot of the tournament. He had stressed captain Rex by 4k-ing into my blocking shuttle, so I thought he might bump Captain Rex again or at least I could get into a favourable position to snap shot Wedge by 2-slooping behind Rex. He 2-banked, which never fits if you're so close to a large base ship. 3 dice snapshot with Palpatine was Hit-Hit-Crit and he came up empty.


In the end it was a 100-21 win, he got half the shuttle. I think my opponent got flustered after his initial loss of Biggs, but I still consider that my list out-jousted his by a fair amount.

Round 4 - Adam Townsend (UK)


Asajj Ventress (37)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Latts Razzi (2)
Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Concord Dawn Veteran (22)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Autothrusters (2)
Concord Dawn Protector (1)

Fenn Rau (28)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Autothrusters (2)
Concord Dawn Protector (1)

Total: 99

My first Scum opponent of the tournament, and with an Attanni list at that! He didn't seem worried about the stress that much, but he came in for the joust and was surprised when it became difficult to escape with only green maneuvers! I lost the shuttle, but it fired twice pretty well. Sabacc was a monster and took out Assajj on his own, always flying behind her and getting a 5-dice range 1 shot.

100-42 win

Round 5 - Charlie ter Horst (Netherlands)


Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Intelligence Agent (1)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
4-LOM (1)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Intelligence Agent (1)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

As day 2 began, I was there 2 hours early and my smile dropped as I saw the pairings. Charlie is a friend from the Netherlands, I was there when he started playing, I did video commentary with him on a few dutch games, but recently he's taken it to the next level by going to Worlds 2016 and getting top 16! He's an extremely difficult opponent and he was flying a beast of a list, triple jumpmasters.   

We had already talked about my list, so he knew not to joust. He feigned a joust, but was able to get all the jumpmasters out of arc of the shuttle to get target locks. The last one did a 4 straight and a barrel roll, terribly close to Backdraft and to the edge. Seeing an opportunity, I barrel rolled closer and realised I had him pegged against the board edge!


I was pretty sure that he was going to go off the board, but having no better shots and an asteroid on the other side, I decided to turn the shuttle in its direction. The bump was incredibly close, we called a judge over to be sure (as none of us wanted to perform this delicate operation). It was in by less than 1mm!


Backdraft turned away and got some shots on the jumpmaster, but with little damage. As I was putting down dials, I noticed that the 2-hard turn was very likely to finally get his ship off the board if it cleared Backdraft. I squinted and I squinted and I went for it!


 Success!


With one ship off the board and very little damage taken (the lack of joust meant no torpedoes were fired), I was in a good spot points-wise but in a terrible position. Thankfully I was able to get enough points.

51-47 win, with a crux roll of 0 on 3 dice with TL saving a 1 hull Jumpmaster at the end. We were scrapping for time because of the lengthy bump-off-the-table-situation. A very atypical game, but I was able to squeeze this win!

Round 6 - Juan Riera Arriaga (Spain)


Miranda Doni (29)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Extra Munitions (2)
Sabine Wren (2)
Thermal Detonators (3)
Cluster Mines (4)
Advanced SLAM (2)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
R3-A2 (2)
BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Biggs Darklighter (25)
R4-D6 (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

My first Miranda matchup! As Bogdan, my sparring partner, mostly played Miranda, I was extremely confident in how to approach this game, especially since Miranda had no Homing missiles, only bombs. After a successful feint, the board looked like this:


Sabacc was out of arc of Biggs and the Stresshog, range 1 of TLT Miranda. Perfect! Biggs took a lot of damage, then died the following round when he 1-forwarded right into snapshot range.

After this 100-0 win, I was 5-1 and looking pretty good!

Round 7 - Harrison Sharp (UK)



Darth Vader (29)
Adaptability (0)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
TIE/x1 (0)

"Backdraft" (27)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Decoy (2)
Tractor Beam (1)
TIE/D (0)

Total: 100

After hurrying up with lunch and trying to see the expo in the 1h break, I got to the table a bit drowsy, having had no time to get coffee.

I got the idea of the list, he was flying it in formation, I made the error of believing he would not go for sabacc. He went after sabacc, tractored him into range 1 and killed him.  I then exchanged the shuttle for his Backdraft. With some clever maneuvering, primed thrusters and good dice I was able to destroy Vessery, but when Vader finally got in my back I had no chance to evade him.

70-100 loss clearly brought down by my misuse of Sabacc.

Round 8 - Pierre Buffiene (France)


Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Intelligence Agent (1)
Feedback Array (2)
Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)

Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Boba Fett (1)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

A list similar to Charlie's, one that now I at least had a game against. I set up in a similar fashion and I was surprised to see he came in for the joust. The debris you see in the picture right next to the jumpmasters is mine, it  was meant to prevent him from escaping the shuttle if he came in jousting.

I got a good first engagement, good dice and, most important, the shuttle got a repeat shot on the outside jumpmaster when he was passing by. It was a 1mm in shot that we had to call the judge for, but it spelled disaster for my opponent.


100-21 win.

 Round 9 - Jonathan Kok (Netherlands)


Jan Ors (25)
Wired (1)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Chewbacca (4)

Rey (45)
Expertise (4)
Finn (5)
Kanan Jarrus (3)
Scavenger Crane (2)
Smuggling Compartment (0)
Countermeasures (3)
Millennium Falcon (TFA) (1)

Total: 99

This was a matchup I was not particularly worried about, as I had played against Rey before, but not Expertise Rey. 

He slow-rolled it, so Sabacc came in a bit too early. I then thought he would 4-straight over the debris and moved the shuttle in, but he instead did a 1-turn to the left that landed him in range 1 of Backdraft. With Sabacc and Backdraft hurting, I misjudged a Sabacc maneuver and he clipped a debris field. With 2 hull remaining, he took a Direct Hit. 


36-100 loss, this game went south pretty quickly.

 

Hangar Bay

This was a more relaxed environment, and for the 3rd day I was not exactly focused on my game anymore. I had two wins and a spectacular loss to Carlo Tozzi, the Italian who won the Greek nationals last year. I was not only not expecting his list to hit so hard, but again I found myself with Sabacc not being where I needed him to be. I guess the skill ceiling for my list is higher.

 

Conclusion

After 9 rounds, I was 6-3 and 52nd. Not the best score, but not the worst either! Consider how tough the competition was (all the best players from Europe) and how little I was prepared compared to last year at Yavin, it went great!

I had great opponents, from all around Europe (3 UK, 3 Dutch, 2 Spaniards, 1 Swiss, 1 Danish, 1 French and 1 Italian counting the Hangar Bay), this was incredible! Thanks to all of my opponents for great games, looking forward to next year! Sorry to Charlie, the onus was on me to make it further in the tournament after stealing that win from you.

Thanks to all the guys and gals organizing this event,  despite a few bumps it was very well put together and it was a joy to participate!

I was super happy to fly my list, it was super fun to play for 3 days in a row. I'm not the best painter, but I had my dials matching the ships, I was pleased about that too. I got in a spectacular snap shot, a bump off the table and losses that I could easily explain with clear mistakes on my part. Not much more I could ask for.

Obligatory photo of the loot. Left hand side is the won loot: participation coin, Han Solo, Omega Ace and bump tokens, then there's stuff I received from my opponents (Han Solo, swarm tactics in spanish and a Danish bump token), on the right there's stuff I bought: template holder, Armada distance rulers, damage deck holders, 4 fantastic foil cards bought from the Italians.