Battle report : Fat Chewie VS double Defenders

I'm terribly sorry about all this. After all, he's only a Wookiee!

Having been on the wrong side of the Fat Chewie stick much to often I decided to try it for once against one of my regular opponents Lanyssa. 

You can read his debrief in French on his blog : http://escadronsabre.over-blog.com/2014/08/name-code-2dhlc.html with more pictures from his side of the table.

His list was the classic : how can I fit 2 HLC with Jonus for rerolls?

Jonus, 2 flechette torpedoes

Defender Delta, HLC

Defender Delta, HLC

I was playing:

Chewie, C3P0, Millenium Falcon title, Gunner 51

Biggs 25

2 Bandit squadron Z95 24

I really like the combination of fat Chewie +Biggs, because Chewie is really tough to get in the end game, and Biggs helps him to get there (see Paul Heaver list at the US National). The 2 Z95 are there as fillers being reasonably tough for their points.

Deployment looked like this:

He deployed in triangle formation, to benefit from Jonus reroll. I deployed in 2 groups, with Biggs ready to slide toward Chewie and behind the middle asteroid.

There I made my first mistake, moving Chewie 3 forward in the 1st turn, while the rest advanced only 2. Of course Lanyssa closed as fast as possible with a 5 forward.

Turn 1 picture shamelessly taken from Lanyssa blog:

The 3 forward allowed both Defenders to fire on Chewie, taking a combined 7 hits, while I only took one shield of the defender on my left. I remember thinking clearly : he can move 5 forward, so you have to move strictly less than 3 to stay out of range, not sure why I put a 3 instead of a 2 forward. 

Oh well, mistakes happen.

 

I also made a mistake for Chewie shot on a range 3 defender. I took focus as an action, as I would be rolling 3 evade dices and 3 or 6 attack dices. I rolled hit, eye, eye with Chewie first shot.

Now in this position would you use Chewie focus or not, knowing that you have gunner?

I'm looking forward to your reasoning in the comments.

I did not. He promptly rolled 4 blanks and took a shield and I did not roll a single eye in defense (odds of rolling at least an eye with 3 dices are only 37/64) .

Next turn he banked 2 toward Chewie, while the 2 Z flew 4 forward, Biggs hid behind the asteroid and Chewie advanced 1.

Sadly I misjudged the distance a little bit, and one of my Z could not fire on the left Defender. The rest of my ships did 4 damages, dropping it to 1 hull. In response his 2 defenders reduced Biggs to 1 hull (asteroid power!) and Jonus added another 2 damages to Chewie with a flechette (Chewie is now down to 4 hull).

Close up shot of the action (love the Defender at this angle):

No picture of turn 3, it was basicly a huge pile up of ships, with biggs banking one left, the 2 Z turning 2 left, Chewie doing a one forward. The damaged Defender bomber 5 forward to escape the action, while is wingman turned hard right 1. Jonus bumped into Chewie.

Fire was inconsequential : Chewie failed to finish the damaged defender, and Biggs survived the actionless shots of Jonus and the defender.

Turn 4, he K-Turned the damaged Delta to return to the fight, and bumped with the other one. Jonus took the place of Chewie who flew through the 2 asteroids in front of him. The 2 Z bumped to get firearcs on Jonus.

Jonus died to the combined firepower of my ships while dealing an additional damage to Chewie, and the defender killed Biggs.

Turn 5, Chewie turned right to evade the returning defender, while the Z turn to face it.

The front Z destroyed the damaged defender and lost 2 shields to the other Delta.

Turn 6 and 7 : Chewie maneuvers to get back into the fight, while the 2 Z dogfight with the defender:

Turn 8 : Lanyssa made a mistake and K-Turned behind the lead Z, putting it at range of Chewie and my 3 ships.

The combined fire took it down before it could fire.

The game was much closer than it should have been I think, mainly due to my first mistake with Chewie. Biggs really helped there to put me back in the game. If I had taken another 2 Zs, Chewie would have died on turn 2, and the game would have been much different.

I also think that Lanyssa list would be better with PS 3 defenders, or maybe one PS3 and swarm tactics on Jonus to get a PS advantage against filler ships.

Looking forward to see your choices for using tokens on a first gunner shot in the comment (with a small explanation if possible).

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Tutorial : Pimp my base the return in colorvision!

Quite a few people have asked me how I did my X-Wing bases, so here it is.

The idea is not originaly mine but taken (again!) from Rodent Mastermind.

For this tutorial, you will need:

- ultramarine blue, fuchsia, crimson red and white airbrush paint

- Citadel white scar layer

- your trusty airbrush

- an old toothbrush

- a black primed x-wing base

1) Using white paint with the airbrush at low pressure (1.5 bar), spray random patterns on the side of the base, trying to create roughly parallel lines and going back over some areas to get something from grey to pure white. The low pressure should create  a pattern of very small points, instead of the usual smooth airbrush transitions.

2) Go back to regular pressure, and spray your fuchsia color over some or close to the white patterns you have made, leaving white in places.

3) Spray the blue where the fuchsia color is weak, still leaving some white to show through.

4) Using the crimson red, go back over some of the fuchsia, reinforcing the color in places.

At this stage don't worry to much about cleanliness, the next step should correct any mistakes.

5) Dip the toothbrush in the white scar pot, then using your thumb, spray a pattern of dots on a test surface. When satisfied with the size of the dots, spray some on the base.

Just remember, at this stage, less is more, a few white dots will contrast strongly with the colored background, hiding the mistakes you may have made earlier.

6) Using a black marker, color in black the edge of the cardboard pilot inserts.

I hope you find this tutorial useful.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Showcase : Obiwan Jedi Interceptor

My first model from Shapeways!

This is an ETA-2 Actis class light interceptor, as seen in Revenge of the Sith piloted by Obiwan Kenobi.

The ship is to xwing scale (1/270), but the size of the actual craft is about half that of an X-Wing, which means that the model is 20mm long. Due to process limitations it came pretty bare in term of details, but it's a good base for painting. Thanks to Mel_Miniatures for designing this model!

You can find it on shapeways under the name lledi interceptor (2 ls for some reason instead of the J): http://www.shapeways.com/model/984898/interceptor-lledi-1-270.html

Here is a side by side comparison with the raw (cleaned and undercoated) model, as you can see most of the details where free handed.

I tried a new technique on this model : the plastic engine exhaust as proposed by:
http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/_/afm-articles/add-some-bling-to-your-a-wing-r161

Hope you like it. As usual you can click on the pictures for bigger shots, just keep in mind that the model is 20mm long!

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Top 4 : Defeating the 2013 Champion

 "I got your promise. Not a scratch."

"Would you get going, you pirate?"

After Chewie and Han, time for the last pilot of the Millenium Falcon to show up : Lando Calrissian!

My opponent was none other than Jabba, the 2013 French Champion. He was playing his usual double falcon list:

Lando - 44
Gunner 5
Expert Handling 2

Nien Nub 1

Chewbacca - 42

Gunner 5
Veteran Instincts 1

He deployed his asteroids fairly spread out on my side, while I deployed mine closer together on his side to prevent the falcons from forming up in the middle.

As usual, I deployed my ties in 2 groups on either side of the central asteroid. He deployed side by side close to my right edge (on the side of the obsidians).

Turn 1, I advanced the academies 5 to pass the asteroid, while the obsidians did a 3 forward. He advanced both falcons, and barrel rolled Lando behind Chewie.

Turn 2, my academies turned to right (3) and my obsidians banked to face the advancing falcons.
He kept hugging the edge.

Turn 2 picture before shooting.

Facing Lando+Chewie, I decided to focus fire on Lando as he is more vulnerable to crits and thus easier to destroy. This would be the fastest way to reduce his firepower.

In the 2 following turns, Lando + Chewie destroyed  Jet 2 and the combined fire of the 7  ties dealt 10 damages to Lando.

Turn 5 before maneuvers (you can notice tha Jet1 the lone Tie at the bottom of the previous picture has moved to block Lando):

At this point Lando was pretty much a gonner, so about all  Ties turned to face Chewie and the probable position of Lando.

He destroyed Jet4, loosing Lando in return.

Turn 6 before maneuvers:

I have 6 Ties, to Chewie with almost full health (with no title and no C3P0). Unless I fly really badly, I cannot loose here.

A tail chase is a long chase as they say, and following some curious decisions on my part, it took me about 6 or 7 turns  to finish him off.

I did at least 2 big mistakes that I remember which dragged the game to the 75 minutes mark.
First in one turn, I moved my Ties in the wrong order, turning a perfect kill box using self bumping into a really bad position. Next I decided to round the corner left asteroid with Jet 8 instead of going through. This left him out of position for the rest of the game (you can see it alone at the bottom of the screen on the previous picture).

Due to my bad flying, this game was tense to the end, but once more the list matchup carried the day, Tie Swarm FTW!

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Tutorial : Millenium Falcon lighting and magnetisation

Pic heavy tutorial of my YT-1300 lighting mod.

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself.

For this tutorial, you will need 

 - a YT-1300 model

 - a glue gun with 2 glue sticks

 - superglue

 - plasticard

 - 2 blue leds and corresponding circuitry

 - 2 magnets 3 mm in diameter and 2mm high

 - 2 magnets 3 mm in diameter and 1mm high

 - hand drill with 3mm drill bit

 - an X-Acto

 - a scriber (can be replaced with the X-Acto):

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/74091scriber2/index.htm

1) The smuggling compartiment

You will need to cut open the beast:

Here the scriber tool is really usefull as it created a kind of groove in the plastic, larger than what you would get with an X-Acto,  which really helps with the cut, especially in a circular shape.

2) The diffuser
We need something to diffuse the light from the 2 leds, otherwise we only have 2 beams of light.
Cut one of your 2 glue gun sticks in a square beam 4mm on a side and 8 cm long with the X-Acto, this will act as the light diffuser. Dry fit and cut to length:

Heat the glue beam with your glue gun on one side and  press to the model to glue the diffuser to the model.

3) Structural reinforcement
We need something for the cut piece of hull to rest on.
Draw the shape of the hull cut  on plasticard, using the cut piece of hull.

Now draw a rough shape around your line about 4mm on either side.

Cut the shape and dry fit to the model. You should have something like this.

Using the X-Acto or a pair of scissors, reduce the shape till it fits in the hole.

Glue the shape to the model:

4) Magnetization:
Drill 2 3mm holes in the hull cover on either side to place the 2 3mm * 1mm magnets.
Using the heated glue gun (or a soldering iron), create 2 holes in the diffuser on each side opposite the 2 holes on the cover and place the 2 3mm*2mm magnets (it will be easier to proceed one by one).

5) The electrical circuit

Mine is made with 2 blue leds in parallel, soldered to the switch on one side and the battery on the other with a resistor.

After testing everything a few times I cut a hole in the plasticard shape for the light switch, drilled a hole in the hull cover opposite and glued switch to the model. I then used additional glue from the glue gun to hold the leds in place and act as light conduit to the diffuser.

When closed you should end up with this:

Follow me on twitter for blog updates! https://twitter.com/Icareane37

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Showcase : Millenium Falcon Repaint

You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!

When I started repainting my X-Wing models, it was all in preparation for this : the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy! The level of details on the YT-1300 is nothing short of amazing for such a small model (on the top side anyway) and it was big enough for an engine light mod.

The repaint took me about 2 weeks from stripping to converting to the last varnish. I used all the techniques developped on Luke X-Wing and then some, with most of the weathering done with oils.

The engine light is made with the classic leds+ hot glue diffuser, with a switch hidden on the belly of the ship. I should post a couple of tutorials soon, for the engine lights and for the oil weathering, I also changed the magnet joint for the Falcon as the weight of the model and the size made a ball joint unusable.

I'm really happy about how the ship turned out, hope you like it!

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Ica

Dear FFG, our wallets cannot repel firepower of that magnitude!

It's good to be a Star Wars fan right now!

Star Wars Armada!

X-Wing Scum and Villainy Third Faction!

Compared to some other companies Fantasy Flight Games has really been open about what's in the pipe, which really helps with creating player support.

With the announcement of wave 6 at Gencon, my plastic crack addiction is now secure for a few more months:

 - Rebel Aces

 - Wave 5 (Decimator and YT-2400)

 -  X-Wing third faction update for the Firespray and HWK-290 

 - Wave 6 (Most Wanted ace style pack re-release of the Y-Wing and Z-95)

Relly looking forward to the next few months!

Time to reload,
Ica