Hardened Bulkheads added to Offensive Retrofits

Continuing to slowly but surely update articles to wave 7 by adding Hardened Bulkheads to the offensive retrofits article:

Raider-II section updated to include Heavy Ion Emplacements

Heavy Ion Emplacements make a huge difference to Raider-IIs and that is now reflected in the Raider article. Later on I'll be updating the VSD(-II) and Interdictor build sections of their articles to mention HIEs, but likely won't make too much noise about it. It bears mentioning for the Raider-II, though. Here's the relevant section:

Heavy Ion Emplacements

John and I are getting around to updating older articles due to wave 7 (the list is very long). As it was in wave 6, we're trying to thread the needle between "getting new information up as soon as possible" and "actually having some experience with what we're discussing," so don't be too surprised if earlier impressions are later updated in light of a greater depth of experience later on.

For now, I've updated the ion cannons article - there was a bit of editing but primarily I updated the article with a section on Heavy Ion Emplacements:

Scruffy-looking nerf herders: the search for a fix to flotilla-spam

Let me get this out of the way early: this is likely to be a somewhat controversial article. In short, there has been a lot of talk online lately about flotillas and Relay and their effects on the competitive scene. I wanted to catch folks up who might be unaware of the discussion and give my own thoughts on the matter.

Overall, John and I are pretty positive about the game and we like to keep negativity to a minimum on the blog (for example, I don't personally think an Interdictor is the sort of thing I would currently bring to a competitive event, but I think they're fun in casual play and can be used well enough under the right circumstances and that's what I try to focus on in their write-up). That said, there are going to be some negative sentiments expressed a bit further in, so buckle up and get ready for some turbulence.

C3PO still has time for bicep curls in an asteroid field. That's dedication to arm day, right there.

Monster Truck Madness!

Highlight of my second computer, guys.  This and/or Age of Empires. Wololololol.....

With wave 7 dropping Thursday here in America, Eric and I figured it was time to mention the new and amazing format we helped to craft for its arrival.  The rules of MONSTER TRUX are simple:

1) 800 point fleets, 200 points of squadrons maximum
2) Your Commander must ride on a Large based ship
3) No small bases allowed.

That's it, that's the rules.  So no flotillas, no CR90s, no MC30s with the Admonition title, no Demolisher.  You're taking those Medium and Large based ships and smashing them together like Monster Trucks in a dirt stadium.  It's insane, it's dumb, and it's the best format ever.

Our friend Matt in Atlanta is working on creating a Vassal tournament for this all, but we're more excited to try this out in real life with whatever we have.  Imagine: a format where Konstantine isn't terrible! Where Garm can hand out 15-16 tokens turn 1!  Where you can field 4 named ISDs of all different flavors!  Where Sato and Nym can show up with an MC75 Ordnance Cruiser, where Thrawn can command the REAL 7th fleet!


Put your large bases on the table this THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY!  Choose Blockade Run and get into the insanity faster! You'll pay for the whole Large Base but you'll only need THE EDGE!!!!!!

This Quasar tastes delicious!

Happy birthday to us!

Cannot Get Your Ship Out turned 1 today, and my wife surprised me and John at our local Armada night at Fair Game with a cake, which was shared by all!

It's got Yoda, it's got an X-Wing stuck in a swamp, it's got an upside-down troop transport, it's glorious.

I'm already bigger than John, but when I'm closer to the camera, I look HUGE compared to him

I think I can speak for John and me in saying it's been a fun year! I'm impressed at how much we've written so far in one year and I'm looking forward to continuing to work on the blog into the future, covering new topics and refining older articles to keep everything relevant as the game continues to develop. Thanks for reading!

Eric's Indianapolis 2018 recap

All right, so I'm a little bit behind John's quite lengthy summary, and mine is going to be a bit shorter. I too went to the Indianapolis Regional and I had a good time there - Family Time Games held a good event and the complimentary food was quite nice and not something I'd seen before at an event like that. I ended up getting 7th out of 38 people (with 28 tournament points), which got me my goal of some fancy acrylic scatter tokens and I also picked up some of the fancy new Regionals dice too!

John's 2018 Indy Recap!

So, Eric and I went to Indianapolis. This post gets long, and somewhat more blathery than usual for me, so let's hit the jump for a lot here.  Explanation of why I brought what I brought, short writeups on my matches and the tournament itself, thoughts on my list, what I learned/didn't, and where I'm going from here.

Pic related and stolen from Reddit. <Waves>

John's Indy Regionals Fleet!

Here's what I'm bringing today.  It's indie, so it's pretty far underground, you probably haven't heard of it.

Man, I wish I wasn't 8 in 1994 so I could have seen this.

Commander: Leia Organa

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Flight Commander  ( 3  points)
-  Fighter Coordination Team  ( 3  points)
= 68 total ship cost

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
= 42 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 40 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
-  Task Force Organa  ( 1  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 40 total ship cost

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Leia Organa  ( 38  points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
= 91 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Toryn Farr  ( 7  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 33 total ship cost

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points)
1 B-Wing Squadron ( 14 points)
1 Gold Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Dagger Squadron ( 15 points)

Updates with how it went, why I took this, and what I hoped to do/learn from this at some point this weekend (Sunday, the answer is probably Sunday).

Eric's Indianapolis fleet list

More commentary later on, but this is what I'm running at the regional today! No objectives on this one, but I'll provide more detail later.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 386/400

Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Skilled First Officer  ( 1  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Proton Torpedoes  ( 5  points)
= 84 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Admiral Ozzel  ( 20  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  External Racks  ( 3  points)
= 71 total ship cost

4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)

Headed to Indianapolis!

A quick note to announce that John and I will be in Indianapolis tomorrow for their Regional. If anyone is there looking for us to say hi, John will be in a sweater and tie and I plan to wear a ridiculous Freeport Pretzels t-shirt (hometown represent!). We'll also have a few (I believe 4) of our Fair Game buddies coming with us.

They're saying prepare for 5 rounds at worst so if you're coming out, prepare for some intense brain burn. I'm expecting at least one ship will be needlessly lost to in large part due to "my brain hurts," haha. They also put out the call for mats, so bring spare mats if you have them. Registration is at 10 (Indiana time*) and play begins at 11. We hope to see a few of you there!

*Remember that Indianapolis is in the Eastern time zone because Indiana is weird, so it's an hour ahead of Illinois (or other Central time zone) time.

Fighting Fleets: Admonishing Admonition!

So today's the day I give it all away: the secret to fighting MC30s. All the Rebel players are going to look at me betrayed because of what I'm doing, but this is for the health of the game.

I could be talking about ANY specific title on this ship!

Fighting Fleets: Annulling Avenger Boarding Troopers

WITH AVENGER GETTING SERIOUSLY NERFED IN 1.5, THIS IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE. I'VE DE-LINKED THIS ARTICLE BUT LET IT REMAIN FOR ANYONE LOOKING FOR A VIEW INTO THE PAST.

There's a bit of a boogeyman haunting certain communities nowadays and it takes the form of an Avenger Boarding Troopers ISD (hereafter referred to by its much-shortened online initialization, ABT). Let's have a short talk about that and what you can do about it.

Obvious combo is obvious, but also pretty mean.

MC75 HOT TAKES!

Fresh fish! Get your fresh, fishly takes here!

I say we preview! - Admiral Raddus, if he was a blogger

With MULTIPLE Apologies to Clement Moore

'Twas the month before release date, when all through the pad

No one used Isard, because she is bad;

Yeah, we're going there.  Enjoy the ride, kids!