/swg/ - Odd Man Out Edition

Oh, right, I forgot about Australian gun laws. 90% Aussie, then.

I'm not sure. The article doesn't say anything in particular actually, Hrm. Thought there was a difference other than aesthetics

well, I looked and it turns out I statted the damn thing about two and a half years ago:

here they are, if you think there should be some adjustments, let me know and I'll try that

Rogue Shadow

Silhouette: 4
Speed: 6
Handling: +2
Def: 2/2
Armor: 4
HT threshold: 28
SS threshold: 28

Hull Type/Class: Custom assault ship/ Rogue Shadow
Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards Shadow Works
Hyperdrive: Primary: Class 0.5 , Backup: Class 3
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Medium
Ship's compliment: One Pilot
Encumberence Capacity: 200
Passenger Capacity: Eight Passengers
Consumables: One Year
Cost/Rarity: 200,000,000/15
Customization Hardpoints: 0(2)
Weapons:
Foreward mounted Twin Heavy Laser Cannon (Fire Arc All; Range
[Close]; Damage 7 ; Critical 3 ; Linked 1 ).

also, what've you got in mind for this thing? I assume it's devious/PC-terrorizing

>more expensive than an ISD
Jesus, that is some fancy tech.

Not entirely sure yet. We're picking back up at a major fleet action, with the party's Venator as the rebel flagship, I've added Kota and Eclipse as part of the Rebellion so I wanted to have the thing on hand.

I've got other terrors for the party other than super sneaky stealth ship

well, it's a one-off skunkworks prototype built with the most cutting-edge shit, some of which was probably developed just for it. that tends to end up being absurdly expensive
>I've got other terrors for the party other than super sneaky stealth ship
oh, good. hopefully ones that can't be missiled to death

Depends on 'what' you need the weapons for. By most people's standards I own quite a few guns as I have a farm and licence to do pest destruction, plus once a month I do some 'charity' work helping people get pistol licences by instructing them how to use them.
Mind you, its never been the same as the US even pre-1997, much different gun culture.

Course, it sucks that you need to do a mountain of paperwork and have a rather specific set of requirements- but short of full automatic weapons and SMG's its generally ok
I do kind of miss the old MP5 from the army days, I fucking loved that gun. Don't miss being shot at though or being practice for some 3rd world attempts at artillery trajectories

Do you prefer Warrior: Starfighter Ace or Ace: Pilot or on the outside Ace: Hotshot?

I'm trying to decide how to multi-class my Agility-centric Jedi and since I've decided against Blasters and taming ridable animals requires FR 4, fighter piloting is about all that's left. Each of the three main options has merits, so I'm having trouble picking, but I'm leaning toward Pilot. I think the set of Improved Dead to Rights, Supreme Full Throttle, Master Pilot and Brilliant Evasion is better than the signature stuff the other two offer. Am I wrong?

>bro is exclusively Texan/midwestern

I will always associate that word with fratbros from Southern California, what the hell.

Is your group running with starfighter house rules? Take all three.

Is your group running RAW starfighter combat? Congratulations, you're playing on Ace of Aces difficulty unless you decide to fly a freighter instead and take all three anyway.

The modern Empire has more than you think unless you read all the pissy little canon in places like the Star Wars Insider short stories. What makes these folk true minorities is they're Ground-Hogs, Imperial Army TIE pilots doing atmospheric sorties in support of ground troops. They hate Navy TIE pilots and vice versa.

Oh and Delian Mors in Lords of the Sith is a lesbian Moff overseeing Ryloth with a sexy green twi'lek harem. Not quiet as hot as it sounds since after her waifu died she fell to pieces and became a fat lazy sack of shit. She gets better.

I'm guessing this happens a lot when Army and Navy TIEs get their landing locations mixed up.

Tally marks on a TIE fighter is definitely not regulation, though. Somebody is getting a paddling.

In the short story it was because they were in a mixed Army/Navy bar. Army pilots started signing their anthem and then it was on, bitch. Got broken up when they learned about the Death Star exploding.

Its also worth noting that at least some sources, including recent ones that take the new canon into account, have implied if not outright stated that the Empire deliberately didn't have a lot of consistency in its ideology or institutions, just like they had a hierarchy in both the military and the government that was easy to muddy. Keeping everyone off-balance and at each other's throats helped the Emperor control everything. Palpy sitting on his throne going "Yeah, we have this human male supremacist ideology, but I'm making this alien a Grand Admiral and this woman head of Imperial Intelligence, deal with it you fucking nerds," makes plenty of sense if his goal is to create a civilization which rests on an unsteady bedrock and is therefore much easier for him to push around.

That was how he designed the Clone Wars as well, eternal churn where nobody can get anywhere so the problem is impossible to see, let alone solve, leaving him free to nudge it any way he likes to further his overall plots.

Eh, when you're stationed out here on the ass end of the Rim, with only your squad mates, pirates, and TIE exhaust to keep you warm, regulations slip a little. It's a one-way post for dead end military careers, so the Admiral ignores that which doesn't hurt him, and we express ourselves just enough to keep our sanity.

Expressing yourselves? Sounds like rebel talk to me, trooper!

Something on the subject of skin color in Star Wars, apparently your skin can "adapt" to UV light. Presumably to explain why Rey was living on Jakku most of her life and hadn't tanned in the desert.

Taken to extreme it might explain why there could be so many white people in that galaxy if that "adaptation" was widespread enough. Frankly it's kind of curious given that in the real world increasing melanin in your skin, i.e. tanning, or even having high levels of melanin as a standard, i.e. naturally dark skin, is how we adapt to UV.

This is a pretty batshit topic, honestly, at least when taken in context of comparing a galaxy a long time ago and far far away with the real world, which is really not a good idea overall. In context with their galaxy a mutation that resists UV without melanin - somehow through some unknown mechanism - could be a useful evolutionary adaptation on worlds orbiting high UV suns. Anyone with that adaptation would have no evolutionary pressure for dark skin and otherwise couldn't tan (well, Jersey Shore style spray tans excepted).

It's probably a removable sticker.

Possibly an actual treatment of some sort.

Hey folks noobie here looking to get into star wars armada.

Can I get the pros and cons of the system as whole? Like for instance how are the rules for a noobie player that has never touched a ship battle game? Also what's the barrier to entry cost wise?

Looking at some other ship battle games and wanted to ask you guys. Anyway the other games I'm looking at.

>Firestorm Armada
>Dystopian Wars
>Dropfleet Commander
>Halo Fleet Battles

>Possibly an actual treatment of some sort.
I haven't seen it mentioned in awhile but I recall a time when this was declared by certain people as proof positive that she's a Skywalker because, you know, white people on Tatooine who don't tan are the only way she could have had this genetic trait naturally passed on to her as only Skywalkers can be white Force sensitive desert dwelling folk.

This. Man, Obi-Wan was on Tatooine for how fucking long and didn't tan either?

Midi-Chlorians are natural SPF5000! Who knew?!

Clearly they eat UV and shit force - this is why the Skywalkers were so powerful.

I mean, I can swear that at least one of the older books described a black character as being "clearly a native of a high-UV world", so there's that

Some planets could simply have a really thick ozone layer and soak up a fair bit
Failing that, cover everything like most people do in desert environments

They probably don't rely on the covering up bit because it seems unlikely that she'd remained covered up so often that she'd never have tanned in all the years she's lived on the planet.

Jakku also provides a different reason to cover up: it's supposed to be a cold desert.

Armada is pretty simple to get into. The rules aren't that complicated, and you can pick up the gist of it in a few games. I personally enjoy the hell out of it.

The biggest thing about it is that you always shoot and then move. This makes setup and how fast you move your ships of absolute paramount importance. Come in too hot and you get shot to pieces.

Objectives are also a core part of fleet building, and can radically change the setup of a given match. One match you are fighting over a space station, the next you are fighting to pick up pieces of intel. The Corellian conflict, which should drop in a month or so, is going to make this even more bonkers.

A lot of games are decided on turn 0, because you chose an objective that your list just couldn't win against your opponent, or you fucked up in setup and now you're going to get steamrolled unless the dice gods absolutely love you. You need to plan for all six turns in your head while you are placing your ships at startup.

It's also quite brutal. I don't really know most of those other games, I got to Armada from playing X-wing, but ships can die and fast. Accidentally park a small ship in front of an ISD? It's dead. Defense plays second fiddle to offense; there's only so many ways to mitigate damage in Armada.

Also there's very few "dud" ships. I went to an 18-man regional and literally every ship and squadron was represented barring one generic squadron type.

Barrier to entry is pretty low I'd say. You don't need paints or tools unless you absolutely want to paint them, because the ships come pre-painted. FFG does a pretty good job of it too; their Armada models are goddamn gorgeous. It's a game that always looks great on the tabletop.

Right now $400-500 would probably get you everything you could want. You only need one core, but then I'd absolutely pick up more dice and another movement ruler to make a speed 1-2 one.

(comment went too long)

I probably should have talked about first and second player more. First player chooses from the second players objectives, which dictates the whole course of the game. These are designed to give second player an advantage to make up for the fact that first player gets to choose a ship to activate first. Who is first or second is determined by the player with the lowest point total in their fleet.

Pros: lots of depth to relatively simple base concepts. How you move ships and squadrons and attack is simple, but what you do with that movement is what makes the whole game. I don't think it's a hard concept to get for a newbie, but I also had TT experience before I got into Armada.

Lots of variety in list building, you can build many different types of fleets and if you know how to use them you can win.

Cons: A pretty steep learning curve to actually get competent. It is a very demanding and exact game, and if you don't know how to game that system it will butcher you in quick order.

Expect to lose a lot when you first start out. I did, even when starting on release. It took me almost a year of playing, but now I just ended up 5th at my regional.

It can also sadly be hard to find games. There's only one smallish community where I live, and I live in a major city. I only get to play Armada once, maybe twice a month.

I'm going to bed soon, but I can answer more questions if you have them in the morning.

...

stars can have different radiation outputs.
Jakkus star may simply be relatively dim in the UV.

Just play Dropfleet Commander, Armada is not only dead but also awful.

X-Wing nerds!
Should I buy the old Millennium Falcon kit or the new, Heroes of the Resistance kit? Either way, I need cards from both for the build I'm looking to toy with. How's the new Poe Dameron?

Honestly, a lot of this is just at the feet of Lucas not really thinking about anything other than white and male as being "default", particularly when it came to military organizations.

Note how many women there were in the Rebellion scenes/assemblages? Leia. Mon Mothma. Who were princesses and diplotmats and politicians.

I think that was it, off-hand, except for that one (or was it two?) cut female Rebellion pilots in ROTJ.

And how many non-white Rebellion personnel were there? More than the Empire, but only BARELY so, though it got a bit better in ROTJ with the only asian in the OT, but still.

I wish you were my friend! That's so cool.

Armada is certainly fun. As the other user said, it does require a lot of forethought and anticipation, but it can create some awesome moments.

My friend and I were playing a game, and were close in victory token count, when Major Rhymer's bombing run finished off their intel gatherer and won me the game.

Part of this game is creating your fleet in a way where each ship has a role to play that supports the others, but in a way that your fleet won't be crippled if you lose that ship. Maneuvering is key, as getting into the right position can make the difference between obliterating the opponent's ship or letting it live to fire back at you. Starfighters are a little more forgiving in how you maneuver them, but you need to escort bombers or they will get shredded by interceptors.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

The new kit has Rey and Finn, all the new T-70 pilots plus G8 and the new Tech Cards which are all pretty good.

On the other hand, Old Chewie is still used and Engine Upgrade is (according to miniranker, which these days I've begun to suspect somebody has been fiddling with) the second most used Modification after Guidance Chips, and with good reason.

Any suggestions on how to stat the U-Wing for the FFG RPG?

Just finished painting some more stuff for Imperial Assault. As far as beasts go, I still have two Wampas to paint in the canonical arctic color scheme and one Nexu that I'm not sure how I want to paint yet. I'm thinking really dark fur, almost black.

Did Vader get along withguess storm troopers? Would you play as the 501st?

I see the Sienar Test pilot is mingling with the troopers.

Depends on the source and stormies in question. Legends Vader was bros with the remaining Fett clones and took great pains to keep them together under the 501st banner. He and the 501st were bros for life. Non-clone stormies weren't treated as well, but Vader was definitely capable of being civil with competent officers and enlisted. TFU Vader's stormie-friendliness depended on the player.

Nucanon Vader was a bit meaner to the old Fett clone who fucked up a landing in Lords of the Sith, IIRC.

>Would you play as the 501st
Fuck yes, I would.

IIRC, Vaders tendency to fight on the frontlines alongside the troops earned him both respect from the troops and a fair bit of contempt from the officers.

This actually got acknowledged in canon?

Those look pretty good.

Yes, but on a WAY smaller scale then most people say it would have been.

>Would you play as the 501st?
Yes, I do have Battlefront II installed.

"Star Wars" has kinda become the official theme of christmas this year among me and my siblings. Especially since I and both my brothers all started playing X-wing this year.

Its debunked in universe, in that very story.

Didn't the Guide to Warfare rebunk that tho?

What mod is that? Alliance?

Some mandalorian thingie.

Also had AT-ARs and slightly changed AT-STs.

Help me /swg/ I can't tell if FFG are mad or geniuses.

Full link

fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/12/5/a-swift-and-vigilant-defense/

Lightweight Frame is a 2pt mod which gives you an extra green dice when you are defending against an attack with more red dice than your greens - TIEs with 2 Evade or less only.

Interestingly that includes the Phantom, but I don't think that's better than the Stygium, and that only leaves this or the Bomber, and the latter will probably be having either Guidance Chimps if a Bomber or Mk2 Engines if a Systems Officer shuttle.
So, really, at this point it's only the TIE Striker it's going to get used with.

Names pilots are "Countdown" and "Pure Sabacc" the first get's to ignore all results of an attack when defending if he's not stressed, he then takes 1 damage and a stress.
The other get's a bonus attack dice until he's got more than 1 damage card.

I think this is basically all of wave 10 spoiled with a couple of strategic exceptions.

I got the Armada core set when it first came out, but it was tough to find games for a long time. Now several more people are starting to get into it, which I am thrilled for. I'm playing a full practice/learning game today with someone interested in it.

Pros:
>As said, the ships look great.
>So much about the game rewards planning multiple rounds ahead, from the shoot-then-move system, to command dials and tokens.
>Even with a relatively small number of ships compared to X-Wing so far, you can customize your fleet so much. Your commander goes a long way in determining how your fleet plays, and even the most basic ships have four slots for upgrades.
>It really feels like Star Wars capital ship combat should. Your big, heavy ships move bigly and heavily, while your small ships are nimble at low speeds and can zoom across the map at high speeds. Your big, heavy ships hit like it, too; you do not want to be in Home One's broadside at medium range, and you do not want to be in a VSD's front arc at close range. Smaller ships either want to snipe or get right in and go for broke with black dice, hoping to cripple you before you can return fire.
>The objective system adds a really strategic element to Armada, both in fleet building and on the table. What objectives do you bring to the table? How many points do you save for an initiative bid? How much do you commit to the objective vs. fighting the opposing fleet?
>It is getting a team campaign mode when The Corellian Conflict comes out soon.

Cons:
>Even with the six-round limit, games run long compared to FFG's other Star Wars games
>Squadrons are unpainted and have little detail to them.

I haven't played enough to be able to say about other cons.

Thanks, m8. I can tell I've made a lot of improvement as a painter, but I'm still not where I'd like to be with really fine details and highlights, and I'm mostly following tutorials.

My next project is going to involve painting about half of my Stormtrooper Corps: 9 Stormtroopers, 4 Heavy Stormtroopers, 2 E-Web Engineers, and a unique commander. It will probably grow to include Jet Troopers and a Dewback Rider or two when the Jabba's Realm expansion arrives. Fuck, I hate painting white.

I think FFG have found Sienar's secret stash of the good stuff. The Striker looks like an awfully fun ship.

The real star of this is Swarm Leader though. That brings back Wedge, it brings back A-Wing swarms, it brings back TIE swarms (to an extent) it provides a buff to X7 Defender lists. Anything with cheap Evade capable chaff (like the Scyk for instance) can use it for a buff.

Sober counterpoints:
>Other than activation movement is relatively dull
>Larger ships require a player to predict half a game in order for function correctly
>limited ship to ship support/interaction so people usually just take the most efficient bruisers
>Limited faction growth
>Most ships don't accurately reflect the flavor or power of the factions they represent (Rebs are better bruisers and Imps have better squadrons...wtf?)
>ships themselves have little variety and many come with manditory upgrades or worthless alternate cards
>squadron restrictions placed on your total points value limits variety even more
>turn limit happens 2-3 turns too quickly which leads is probably because of the next problem:
>2-3 turns of dead movement when you are just inching forward and stacking tokens
>An the biggest problem is that the combat system is too volatile, with common upgrades they completely strip ships of the few defensive options that they do have and little to no interaction or method to comeback from a mistake no matter how well you play

TLDR save your money and find a different system, many have done it before and most do it better.

The sheer idea of being able to do that free boost, sharp turns on 1 and then do a roll is insane. You can basically just turn around mid-fight, without receiving stress from a K-turn. And these fuckers have 2 speed K-turns, that's just nuts.

I am so gonna enjoy this crazy ship.

+1

I suspected it would be when I first saw Adaptive Ailerons, the dial just fucking confirms it.

Oh yeah, now non-heavy scyks might see play.

We still have to see the Space Koala and the U-Wing EPT

>Rebs are better bruisers and Imps have better squadrons...wtf?
Jesus, you clearly have no clue what you are talking about.

...do you?
mc30c isn't an Imperial ship is it?

How about making the MC80 into a ISD just because rebels wanted a ship with a strong front arc?

Rebel broadsides are literally the single best offensive tool in this game and you can lie to yourself all you want but everyone with a brain knows the truth

>Larger ships require a player to predict half a game in order for function correctly
Is this supposed to be a downside?
>2-3 turns of dead movement when you are just inching forward and stacking tokens
BRB, getting all of the objective points while you inch forward and stack tokens.

Don't listen to this guy. He clearly has no idea about Armada.

>mc30c isn't an Imperial ship is it?
>4 hull
>bruiser

sunk cost kicking in?

Can we get some concrete examples here?

>Don't listen to this guy. He clearly has no idea about Armada.

This. I'd respond in detail, but I doubt it would be worth it.

It is however true that Armada is very unlike other fleet combat games. This throws a lot of people off and so they go and say it's a bad game.

Also another con that you may or may not care about: the scale is pretty big. You're not going to be taking lots and lots of ISDs and recreating the Battle of Endor.

>How about making the MC80 into a ISD just because rebels wanted a ship with a strong front arc?

The Liberty isn't an ISD. It has a similar front arc and that's it. It can't begin to perform with the variety that an ISD can, and it can't stand up to punishment the same way an ISD can. Also Rebels don't have Motti.

>Rebel broadsides are literally the single best offensive tool in this game and you can lie to yourself all you want but everyone with a brain knows the truth

I ripped a two Rebel large ship list to pieces with a bunch of squadrons and small ships for an 8-3 the other day. Yavaris B-wings are goddamn nasty and rip everything to pieces.

You're a moron.

I know when I'm enjoying something. Do you?

That ship is efficient as fuck, just give it torps and it will end and ISD for pennies on the dollar.

Rebel players like to play victim because "oh look how little hull my poor little ship has!" and proceed to roll over you with black dice.

You whiners are the reason why the game is still broken.

Well, she's not as go fast as we thought, but the Striker is a hell of a knife-fighter. With 1 and 2 turns, a 2 k and 2 sloops and the mandatory boost. Nimble as hell.

I like Lightweight Frame, does what people thought. It'll be good for strikers, /SF and some Punisher builds. I also like the way Swarm Leader works.

>I know when I'm enjoying something. Do you?

I know that the playerbase in my local has dried up and people are still playing x-wing on the daily.

If I really liked armada it might be time to fight someone on the internet to reinforce my delusional decisions

>If I really liked armada it might be time to fight someone on the internet to reinforce my delusional decisions

Not that user, and I'm not here to say who's wrong or right, but this part alone makes you sound like a fucking ass-munching douchebag regardless of any arguement you might bring to any table.

>Yavaris
I keep hearing Yavaris is good, but I just can't bring myself to try it. The side arcs on a Nebulon-B are so wide and so fragile. I've toyed around with the idea of Salvation with Slaved Circuits to snipe out the front arc, but there's always something I'd rather put in.

Yea, Swarm Leader is probably gonna bring a whole lot of things to the meta, and I am looking forward to seeing what crazy builds come up from that.

>Actively telling people to not play a game that I personally enjoy, and they might enjoy too, with baseless criticism that proves you've never played more than a dozen games.

You realize what site you're on, right? I mean, do I have to explain Veeky Forums to you like you're fucking 12?

Then try it? You will never know until you do. Take Rieekan if you are scared of it blowing up.

Yeah, it's definitely efficient as hell. Its broadsides hit really hard at close range, and it's a lot tougher than the 4 hull suggest (why did they think it needed 4 defense tokens?). But "bruiser" suggests a level of durability it doesn't really have. And in my experience, it's harder to use those black dice than one would expect.

(It's also my favorite sculpt of the Rebel ships, and the only one that comes close is the Assault Frigate. I also like the look of the Gladiator-class for Imperials.)

>do I have to explain Veeky Forums to you like you're fucking 12?

I could ask you the same fucking thing newfag.
This is a Laotian cave painting site and you expect your opinions to be valued or appreciated?

Pick a fucking side, we're at war faggot.

>baseless criticism
>immediately acknowledges that the guy has at least some experience.

Not even interested in the conversation, just chiming in to tell you how rhetoric works.

Gladiators are best escort ships. They have enough versatility to do whatever you fleet needs at the moment, and they can equip APT. Crit through shields is the best.

And those Gozantis are great for Major Rhymer and his bomber group.

sorry I used bruiser in accurately, would brawler work better for you?

Except I talk about people coming in, playing a few games and then deciding it's bad without getting into the meat of the game, and then go and shit up Star Wars threads every goddamn time someone asks about Armada. I've seen this happen dozens of times now.

Maybe if people stopped say "dead game" every time people asked about it we'd have more players?

>you expect your opinions to be valued or appreciated?

I mean, you keep responding, so yes, eat up more of your life raging.

Also, the people asking for advice on Armada would like advice from real players. Funny how that works.

My sister and I have designed Star Wars themed gingerbread projects for two years now. This was this year's.

Fuck forgot pic

>Gladiators are best escort ships. They have enough versatility to do whatever you fleet needs at the moment, and they can equip APT. Crit through shields is the best.
The Demolisher title is so good, too. To the extent that I worry it's kind of broken and will have to be nerfed. For 10 points, it had better be good, but it's pushing the limit.

>Maybe if people stopped say "dead game" every time people asked about it we'd have more players?

Ah, the true crux of the matter, at last.

And to be fair to you I've sunk $400 bucks into this turd sandwich. Tried to get my friends to play and they all ran screaming.
So I do feel your pain.

Perhaps aim for gingerbread falcon or gingerbread AT-AT next year?

Gingerbread ties or gingerbread star destroyer?