VWC Elimination Round - MandolorianMoose vs Roquax

MandolorianMoose - 400 Bid

Onager Testbed (96)
• General Romodi (20)
• Admiral Ozzel (2)
• Veteran Gunners (5)
• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)
• Medical Team (1)
• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)
• Cataclysm (5)
= 140 Points

Quarter-Final Preview - Tokra vs Aresius

Here's the final Quarter-Final matchup.  Not a lot of games left to play.  Let's check out Tokra, one of the best European players and the top German competitor and his matchup against Aresius, a top Italian player and the third place finisher at European Continentals to Tokra's second place.  I'm not sure if they've personally played one another before, but they have certainly been in the same tournament.

Only one moves on to the final four.  Will it be Tokra, or will Aresius show that he's able to finish on the big stage?

Quarter-Final Round - Dupy vs Roquax

Onward to the Quarter-Final round.  Here, we stop caring what players did in the distant past - they are here for a reason!  Now "Intangibles" will be looking at what it took for the player to get to this point in the tournament, and what kind of tournament they are having.

Elimination Round- Captain Weather vs Karneck

Only two more previews left.  Truthiness was supposed to write this one but he's been slacking, so this is Biggs writing on his behalf.

Elimination Round - Tokra vs themightyhedgehog

We are still waiting for the final game of POD#7, which should take place tonight.  Here's the last of the previews before that game takes place - Tokra vs themightyhedgehog!

Elimination Round- Aresius vs BMcDonald7

Today's highlighted match up is the Winner of Pod #5, Aresius, against the Runner-up of Pod #4, BMcDonald7.

Elimination Round - Dupy vs GhostofNobodyInParticular

Oooo!  POD#3 just finished!  Let's look at Dupy and how he matches up with GhostofNobodyInParticular.

Match-up of the Week - You Come at the King, You'd Better Not Miss.

Truthiness must have been very disappointed to have missed the World Champions, because he's decided to take it up with our World Champion himself.

The battle will take place Sunday at 1pm EST on Vassal.  I am working until 3pm.

Stop scheduling things like this!  I can't stream unless I am off!

Matchup of the Week - Maturin vs emfrank72 (World Cup Qualifier)

Today we are going to look at our first World Cup Qualifier matchup of the week.  Per the rule, this game is worth +1 points to each player for being chosen as the matchup of the week.  Congratulations to both of them.  That means the game could theoretically end in a 7 / 6 split, which isn't particularly bad for either party, but that if one wins big, it could be big indeed.

Maturin's goal

Fun With Wave 3&4 - After Action Report

We had our first local tournament this weekend since Wave 3 & 4 were released.  Summer 2016 kit - XI7s cards for everyone!  In honor of the new tournament I decided to see exactly what the Wave 3 & 4 rebels were truly capable of.

I also had been working nights all week, so the 11 am start time made things a bit confusing.  I woke up the previous day at 3pm, worked 7pm - 7am, then went to the tournament.  By the final round I was awake for 24 hours.  I've since had a nap.

After Action Report: Martinsburg, WV Regional Championship

Here is a writeup that is way overdue.  Back in the end of May, I went to the second and final Store Championship I would be reasonably able to go to.  Martinsburg, WV is about 4 hours from home (Pittsburgh), and me, "Howlrunner", Chris, and his Fiancé decided to make a 2 day vacation of it.  Chris and I (and Dan, who was traveling separately) would be playing in the tournament the first day, an then we would all head down to Washington DC the next day.

Here is how I got runner up - I cannot remember the specifics of the games that I played now, so tactical discussions might be a bit light.

Obstacle Placement - Part 1 - Standard Obstacle Placement Objectives

By request, today we are going to discuss a frequently overlooked and honestly quite difficult topic - obstacle placement.  Now, we're just going to talk about normal obstacle placement, and not dive into more complicated obstacle based objectives like Minefields, Dangerous Territory, or Contested Outpost.  Hell, it doesn't even consider non-obstacle specific objectives like Hyperspace Assault or Firing Lanes.  Just where you want to place your obstacles to maximize your potential deployment and spoil your opponents.

What we will be working with.

Armada Commanders Wave 1 - Rebel

Previously, we talked about Imperial Commanders - what they did and when to use them.  Now we are going to discuss their Rebel counterparts.  As before, the Commanders represent the Flagship officers of your list.  You can only chose one, and by chosing one you are locked out of utilizing any others.

General Dodonna

Dodonna is the lowest costed commander, for either side - coming in at 20 points.  His fleet-wide ability is that if an enemy ship is dealt a faceup damage card, you get to look at the top 4 cards of their deck and select which one the critical hit will be.  

If you want the most out of General Dodonna, you need to plan ways of dealing critical hits and faceup damage cards - more than you normally would.  The obvious synergy is with Dodonna's Pride, the Corvette Title that allows you a faceup damage card in exchange for cancelling all other damage. Luke Skywalker is another - being able to ignore shields, and bomber lets you drop crits directly onto the hull.  With that said Dodonna doesn't descriminate between ships and squadrons - any build so long as it can land criticals will be improved by him.

Garm Bel Iblis

For just 5 points more than Dodonna (25 points total), Garm fills up your fleet's command tokens to full on the start of the first round and the start of the fifth.  Unlike Dodonna, his ability is better the more high command ships you have to fill up with tokens.  Corvettes would only get one, but Assault Frigates would fill up 3 tokens each.  This gives you a significant action boost in the early game and the mop-up portion, and competes directly with Tarkin for number of tokens handed out.

The drawback is that because you can't have multiples of tokens, you can wind up with more than you need.  How many of you bank your command on turn one?  Can't really do that if Iblis has already maxed out your token supply.  On turn 5, are you really going to use all the tokens that just popped up?  Do you already have some banked from Turn 4?  Oh well, don't get all your tokens. Took a Corvette?  Too bad!

Mon Mothma

Mon Mothma is the most expensive of the Rebel Commanders, coming in a 30 total points, and 10 more than Dodonna.  However, with that in mind, she takes the Rebel's biggest defensive token, the Evade, and makes it significantly better.  All evade tokens can be used at medium range to cancel one die (normally long range only) and can be used at short range / distance 1 to force a reroll (normally medium range only).  This is big, as every rebel ship out at this point has at least one evade token (the Corvette has two) and the Imperials really love to get into medium / close range for their shots. Being able to force a Screeded die to reroll a hit/crit is huge, as is straight up cancelling a mid-range hit/hit from red dice.  It means all your ships can be that much more survivable.

The drawback is that you are giving up a full 10% of your list (4% or so if you count Dodonna as the baseline) for this defense boost.  And you are turning away a lot of free tokens / critical effect boost. And anyone with an Intelligence Agent on their ship can neuter your expensive commander for a mere 7 points.

Well, that's it for the rebel high command.  Feel free to comment to let me know what you'd like to see me cover next.  Until then, fly casual!