“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”Sun Tzu,The Art of War
Why
not start your second X-Wing blog post with a bit of classic Sun Tzu!! As
mentioned previously I fly in a casual weekly get-to-gather. Most of
us don't day dream about list building and don't rehearse flying our
squadrons on the online simulators, and that is fine. Fly Casual
right. But then, according to Sun Tzu, we should not be surprised if
we succumb in every battle.
Last
weekend I flew my new favorite squad “Soontir Fel's Flying Circus”
After last Monday I will have flown about 3 real games and 6 games on
the fly casual simulator with it and I think I know it. Of course
knowing a squad comes easier if you have flown lots of other similar
squads before. Many years ago I read a blogger who said that his
magic number was 6. After 6 times with a new squad he could “skate
with his head up”. He wasn't worried about forgetting his rules or
knowing his dials and more than that he had a plan!!
Anyway,
the so called circus looks like this;
- Soontir Fel (obviously) with Juke
- 2 x Alpha Squadron Interceptors
- 1 x Scimitar Sqn Bomber whit Barrage Rockets and Seismic Charges, and
- 1 x Scimitar Sqn Bomber whit Barrage Rockets and Proton Bombs.
The
6 rehearsal games were flown on Sandrem's Fly Casual
simulator. If you don't know what it is google it, the AI does not
follow all the rules of XWing, the computer sometimes gets to focus
when you wouldn't and sometimes doesn't get stressed when you would.
But it is all done to increase the difficulty and overall the
simulator is great for learning your ships.
What
I learned was that sometimes my interceptors won the game and
sometimes my bombers did (seems obvious right). But looking more
closely, when I flew my Alphas aggressively and they bumped enemy
higher PS ships then in the engagement phase I would have green
tokens and the enemy wouldn't. With the bombers, If I got my rockets
off at long range and then if I got the bomb/K-Turn timing just right
I could do massive damage with them as well. And Soontir, well when
he dies it makes me sad so I would just try to keep him around
looking menacing.
My
last two real games looked like this.
First
game was against a scum list with the Kimogila, star viper and
Kihraxz. All his ships were PS 4-5, and his Kimogila could strip
green tokens in his bulls-eye. The plan was simple, bump with the
interceptors, hang back and blast whit the bombers and since Soontir
went last he could just lurk, make conservative moves and use his
boost barrel roll to get out of arc of an enemy that had already
moved.
The
opening, to
to..
this,
oh and Soontir, top left, isn't bumping, And finally
The
second game against Rebels (Luke, Wedge and a U Wing) went in a
similar fashion.
To
Shortly
after this picture was taken the U-Wing and Luke (bottom right) were
destroyed.
So....
in both games the interceptors bumped and denied green tokens while
the bombers did reliable damage with rockets from long range and
bombs on the K-Turn. I am not saying I am the next Red Baron and the
dice certainly had their moments, poor Luke poor poor Luke not as
strong with the force as we all thought. But, In both games my
opponent excepted a joust he could not win. I had 15 red dice to his
9 and my average agility was 3 and his was 2. I believe when you
don't know your list you will joust with it by default. I also believe
that X Wing always has its ebbs and flows of luck. The trick is to
make the best move you can every time so the bad luck gets mitigated
and the good luck gets emphasized. This is only possible when you
know your list first and hopefully have enough experience to know
your opponents as well.
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