Transcript
Speaker: You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. And I'm Andrew Kuba. And we are we're back to record another episode. We have a points update. We back. We've got a points update. We've got Nova coming up at the time of this recording. That's just a few days, a couple days away.
Speaker: And more exciting news on some upcoming events. Andrew, how have you been? It's been a while. We haven't caught up. We can take a few minutes to catch up on how things are going in our lives. How's the new job? How's it all going?
Speaker: The new job is going so well. I get to work for ah pet resorts all over the country and doing some marketing for them. So yeah, just like love the people I work with, love the actual job itself. And i get to look at cute pictures of puppies like all day, which is great when I'm not looking at Excel spreadsheets. Is it puppies, ah p pet resorts for puppies specifically, or does it include feline friends as well? It does include our feline friends as well. Actually, I know you're almost definitely allergic. but Maybe we don't mention them first. Yeah, no, that's that's cool. I don't know much about I'm going to have to do some digging. Just look up. That's fascinating. That's that's awesome. I'm happy for you, man.
Speaker: Yeah, I actually have a job interview tomorrow. Congratulations. That's that. That's very exciting. Wish me luck there. Yeah. I know that you've had to navigate ah kind of a a ah frustrating and, you know, market, right? I think it has been that way for a lot of people. Oh, for sure. But yeah, it's it's definitely one of those things where you never know the way things are nowadays. If you'll if your job, how secure your job is So if I'm glad you're able to find something that works for you. Yeah, me too. I mean, this one too is a referral. So I mean, definitely, you know, hitting up your network is is a big help. I feel very fortunate to have gotten the job, you know, like when I did as well. So if you're still looking out there, yeah, good luck to you. It's tough. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. What else is going on? ah Sandra moved in with me. and My girlfriend moved in with me few weeks ago. So we're living together, which has been fun. You've lived with your partner for a while. It's just something to get used to, right? Yeah. It's been great. I've been really enjoying each other's company. And we did some artwork shopping. We bought some prints and stuff to put on the walls. That's lovely. Yeah, which which is a nice thing to do together. went to the Cubs game yesterday. They beat the Brewers 17 to three. What a great game.
Speaker: uh zoe and i ended up catching it yeah we were walking to our seats and there was the first two run home run and then then there was another home run and then i was just like there was seven more home runs after that for the cubs and they set a record in one game and the brewers pitched a position player in the seventh inning and folded early and it was it was quite a quite a night out despite how swampy and gross we felt it was so it is so so hot this week yes it's disgusting it is awful walking outside you're just sweating immediately National heat advisory.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and it's In September. I mean, you know, I know most pools like aren't the pool at my building gears closing on Labor Day weekend, but it might stay super hot a couple weeks into after that. Who knows? It could be. Could get stormy. We don't really know what to expect, but we've had plenty of rain as well.
Speaker: awful lot of moisture in here in Chicago. Right, right. i know And we could have our own podcast just talking about Chicago moisture in the Midwestern moisture ratings, but we will talk about X-Wing. You know, we we did, ah the XWA did its thing and updated its points.
Speaker: Yes. You know, as a member of the council, I also have some kind of want to give people kind of a state of play and an update on what what you know what's going on and and how things are going you know from the inside. and what i can Obviously, I'm not going to tell you about absolutely everything, but happy to share about you know what ah what the experience has been like and how the organization is doing as we look for to host another Worlds in Adepticon in April.
Speaker: So you know I feel like we could start with that, Andrew, and then we can jump into our you know the breakdown and and our thoughts on the new points. I think that's a great place to start, yeah. Yeah, so most of y'all know I was elected to council a few months ago, I believe it was in May, is when we transitioned over and myself, Ken Cho from District Foundry, most of y'all remember Ken from, he still plays X-Wing, a big part of the community still, but he used to print.
Speaker: your gaming cases and acrylic components. So working with him and David Hammond based in the UK, the three of us have been kind of helping lead the charge and keeping things going.
Speaker: I've done a lot of work on prizing just because that was ah a part of the XWA team that was really light and needed more help. I'm excited to... ah Say that the, you know, despite the stress, there's been a lot of stress, a lot of kind of 11th hour decisions and, you know, will will it show up, won't it show up, stuff in production. we have a ah had a really successful run of of prizes this year for Squad Champs, shout out to our sponsor, Infinite Arenas, for selling those awesome Squad Champ kits. The regional kits and the system open kits have been a huge, huge success. The acrylic base plates and and plaques and the tokens, the cards, everything. it's It's really seeing that in person at the Denver Regional.
Speaker: Really, really cool to see a part of your work, the fruits of it, and you know tangibly in front of you in your hand. Super cool. So I'm really, really happy about the way the prizes have turned out. Same. Yeah. What have you, have you played in um an XWA sanctioned like squad champ regional or anything yet? I know there's a bunch of events still coming, including the student Baker open.
Speaker: and We have our own coming in October. Yeah, and I'm going to be playing in that one. But no, I have not made it to any of them yet. But it's something that I'm really looking forward to. Most of most of my play has been at the local game shop and online.
Speaker: However, I will say, though, I have been seeing the acrylic base plates. I think honestly, like this has kind of been the best prizing that it's really ever been.
Speaker: not to, I know there's a lot of work that goes to do it and not to like, yeah, to Nick's horn any more than needs to be. But I will say that the swag has always kind of been a pride for three, one, two. And I'm, I mean, I'm not going lie. Like Louie had, had, you know, great prizes too, but just seeing what every, everyone in the community has created and,
Speaker: Now having that become like official prizes, it just they just are cool. Yeah, thank you. I mean, it's it's been a team effort for sure. And i want want to talk about it's a little boring to talk about logistics, but we created an entire distribution network for sending players and to their kits.
Speaker: We have four distributors. I want to give them all the proper shout outs. You know, we have our OP lead, Dwight, who is also acted as our Canadian distributor for events in Canada. We had our former prize lead, Dylan, Dylan Jones, being the UK distributor.
Speaker: Casual Dad Games, you know, you know, how it be known as Casual Dad Games has helped. be the the eu distributor that's a real big one um and if we've had a lot of stress with with uh with uh deliveries in the eu just because things are kind of wonky over there uh and then we have michael bird from the new jersey x-wing crew um as our america us distributor yeah shout out to those four they've really kind of been this unsung heroes literal heroes of making sure these events are are being run with prizes Yeah, it's a really heroic undertaking by the whole community.
Speaker: i also just wanted to give a quick shout out to Casual Dad Games. Yeah, he's great. He's such he's he's first of all a handsome dude. Second of all, he's ah is's just a great part of the community. I love the coverage. He gives the XWA and other games. it's It's a great YouTube channel. andll We'll definitely link to his channel. and Yeah, definitely check him out. In the description. um Yeah, Noah's been a huge help, and we're we're we're grateful to have him be a part of this org Um, and yeah, so I, that the distribution network has, has been a huge for us. And one thing, Andrew, that I think no one expected to be maybe as big of a thorn in our side is the, the duties, fees, and tariffs that we've had to deal with. Yeah. Um, we, you know, we're, we've had to pay over a thousand dollars and just getting people to receive their packages, like the distributors to receive their packages. Um,
Speaker: we're, you know, Curled Paw Creatives is, you know, deserves a real proper shout out because, you know, Andrew Knuckles has been at the core of producing almost all of the prize support um outside of the cards. You know, he's taken on the task of producing thousands and thousands of round pieces of acrylic for the tokens. He's produced the base plates. He's sourced and produced the plaques for the champions, the dials, the dial covers. um All of those things have been because of his help.
Speaker: And, um you know, we've, we've, us we've, easy enough to send to you know michael in the us but once you're sending to to canada to the uk to europe uh and you mark it as you know you give it its value the the dollar signs and the the red dollar signs start to pop up you know just a friendly reminder to anyone who does go go to any system opens regionals um you know squad champs if the tos are doing any sort of fundraising raffle for extra prizes and you're able to it's a huge lift for us because one thing that we're not able to account for in the kits when we want the kits to be affordable for TOs is that, you know, we don't account for import fees and duties.
Speaker: it's It's just, we if we did, we would be asking for a lot from people ah for their kits and we don't want to put people in that position. But that's just the reality. you know We're not here to make ah you know a profit. and we we We won't. But yeah, the the Conquest series, we do a joint fundraiser for XWA. And there's a lot of other TOs that are helping out. And that money really helps us kind of offset the costs of of being able to ship to people. Just keep that in mind.
Speaker: like Not to get too off topic, but then when you hear that there all of a sudden there's a new like trade war with Canada, you're just like, oh, how's that going to affect... us getting prizes. I think we should rename Lake Ontario Lake X-Wing.
Speaker: We should have our own mosquito fleet to see if we can just bring them over ourselves. Yeah, man. It's just ah yeah every day it's a new nightmare. yeah Over here the States, for sure. But yeah, exactly, right? You just don't... It's so volatile that the distribution network and finding one manufacturer this year in kind of a bridge year for the prize team was really... It was crucial because we had things coming from China. And and the quality was great. you know I think people still associate things coming from China, what the the most advanced civilization now, is as cheap. But the prices that we had from the kits...
Speaker: were mainly sourced from a like a high, a high quality manufacturer over there. But because of the situation with tariffs and stuff. Yeah, I was gonna say that's just like the reason why board games have gone up in general, like all the components are made in China.
Speaker: Yeah, and they weren't even the components themselves weren't necessarily even cheap, right? Like the base plates, for example, were actually one of the more expensive items, whereas the metal tokens you'd think would be the most expensive items were one of the cheapest in the kits last year. Um, so it was just kind of, I was, when I joined the prize team and learning a lot of this was really fascinating. Yeah. A lot of the, a lot of the things, stereotypes and things that you would think, oh, this must be a lot more expensive. This must be cheap. Like, you know, we're not true. was just, uh,
Speaker: You're getting a crash course in supply chain economics. Yeah, exactly. And so we are ah we are looking for a new prize lead to take over next year to help continue to facilitate standard setting prizes for all of our events. And so um if you are interested in that, we can also, in the description, we'll have a link to the application if you'd like to take a look at that. I will say it's not for the faint of heart and it's not easy. You do have to have some extra time to be able to to debt it, to donate, to help the cause. it's Being a prize lead is is so important and it is a lot of managing management of things that goes on.
Speaker: But did want to to mention that. And otherwise, just to to kind of tie this up before we go over to to talking about points, you know we're we're working on a few other things. We've mentioned Continentals, but we are looking at um Continentals next year in Poland. that would basically be equivalent to worlds but in the continent of europe pretty central as well so that would be that'll be exciting that we'll give have more news on that but that's going to be a big deal for us as we you know we acknowledge the importance and really the dedication to player base of x-wing um beyond the the borders of the u.s yeah canada the uk and europe up especially it is such a big part of x-wing absolutely
Speaker: And speaking of X-Wing, well, I hear there's new points. Your favorite X-Wing pilot might cost something else now. Andrew, have ah have you have you gotten a chance to build any lists or get any you know any games in online or in person with the new points?
Speaker: So I haven't gotten a game in yet, but I've been doing lots of list building and theory crafting. We'll get to it later, but I'm kind of interested just like in Karnor Jax and seeing you know some of the Empire stuff that's ah that's changed.
Speaker: I also have built a few lists I've i've gotten. i don't think I've gotten a game in quite yet. I've really been unable to to do much, much outside of anything besides work right now. yeah I'm hoping that changes. um Ironically, I've missed a lot of game store days, but the one time I built a new list, packed it and was ready to play. Uh, this past week, it was the day that no one else was able to go. I just find that deeply ironic because I'm usually the one that has been missing days. Um, so it was my turn to, to pay for that.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm excited. I built a new rebel list. talk Oh, awesome. Yeah. Uh, rebels had a lot of, has a lot of interesting changes as well. Yeah, I can take just the the pat like the patch notes and then then we we want to drive into it because there are some things that I do want to call out. One, that we have a little change going forward in the points team. Ali Pachnell, as you'll see in the patch notes too, is the outgoing points lead. They're stepping away to spend some more time with their family.
Speaker: And i think that's wonderful. I want to give a huge shout out and salute to everything that Ali has done going forward so far. Incredible work. Yeah, definitely enjoy your your well-deserved family time.
Speaker: Congrats to his youngling. He has a new youngling. Left in the very capable hands of Catherine Nick Sarah, who is going to be a co-lead with Liam Baker. So they were the entire points team for this notes change was Ali Pocknell, Catherine Nick Sarah, Liam Baker, Josh Calmooney and Michael Vargas.
Speaker: Going forward, still excellent team. I trust these people with my X-Wing life. No problem. We also have Paul Heaver, Roberto Mendez and Ryan Staniszewski as design leads and same like could not ah feel that X-Wing cannot be placed in more capable hands as far as points and design goes.
Speaker: Yeah, it's's it's it's it's great to have a couple new members of the points team with Josh and and ah Michael as well. Yeah, they have ah a good cohesive group over there. Yeah, um which is which is awesome.
Speaker: Lots of friends of the pod. So you can go back, listen to our episodes. Yeah. Friends everywhere, you know, as as they say in Andor. So, yeah, if you want to listen to previous episodes we've done with Ryan and Josh, you can get some of ideas on, you know, what their thought process was. Yeah, absolutely. We know we've had Catherine on in the past as well. We've had everybody on, I feel like. Yeah, honestly, that's true. Yeah, almost everybody on this list. And maybe one day we'll we'll be able to yeah get everybody on. That's the dream. Everybody everywhere all at once. Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm just going to kind of go on a broad scope and and just talk about what needed to really change it with the XWA points, kind of what direction they had been going and what we've been seeing in tournaments. the The two big changes that really needed to be made was you had...
Speaker: really efficient y wings with burst laser turrets and especially in the resistance faction yeah people hated those yeah i understand was kind of everywhere but probably the most efficient like list that you could build you know for the point value so that's something that changes with these points the other thing was we had talked in our previous episode i was concerned that republic beef was going to be a thing, but that was it turned out it was Republic Jedi, Regen Jedi that was kind of another boogeyman that was surfacing. So putting four high-initiative Jedi in in your list and built around Anakin in the 7B was an archetype that also kind of gets changed a bit with this list as well.
Speaker: They also made some big changes to The generic upgrades and a couple of Republic upgrades get changed as well. Most notably the Seventh Fleet Gunner, which if you sat across from Republic lists in that lat, you're kind of happy that the Seventh Fleet Gunner has gone up a point.
Speaker: and it's harder to take. So the big thing that kind of screams out to me with this points update, though, is we're really taking a ah step back from some of the high initiative ships, and we're going more into i four And we'll see a lot of changes to those i four ships. Another big thing that we'll see is that a lot of the new pilots that had come out, weren't really seeing a lot of play. So we're going to see a lot of changes to in like loadout values and point values to like,
Speaker: karnor jacks and to lorick so yeah i think that's my broad coverage on what changes with these new points but now let's dive into the nitty-gritty unless yeah nick you have any comments you'd like yeah it's just ah it's i i think for those who have been ah complaining or or criticizing so far which is always when whenever anything changes you know it's there's always that kind of back and forth about like i'm not sure i feel about this the things i've been enjoying or i've been playing got hit with the points update you know and then things start to settle the dust starts to settle and people find something else that they like and and then you move on and then you just complain about other things right because x-wing players like every other game you know gamer you know will complain about things right myself included unless you complained about seeker missiles then your calls have been answered
Speaker: Yeah, right. Which is probably, we know, it was for for the best. Yeah. You know, built in double mods are especially on a force carrier. Soko Otano comes to mind, you know, in the A-Wing. but You don't even have to use the extra charges because you got force, right? You know, it's just so good.
Speaker: Yeah, but yeah, I mean, so one thing that really stands out to me just going back to scum, it seems like scum is a pretty big winner here early on, like the way too early impressions, mainly because ah the IGS they were they were getting played a lot and they were doing well, you know, at my confirmation bias, the games that I would watch and see how they play. Yeah, they got loadout increases, which is so interesting to me.
Speaker: They're you're kind of getting an endorsement from the points team. Like, yes, we we we like that they are getting played more. and you know, here's a ah little bit. you Maybe you have an extra toy or two to mix around with your your two or three IG lists because you can fit four ships in a triple IG list if you include the mining guild century in there as well. Super good. Yeah, IGs. IGs get a big bump.
Speaker: The rest of the faction kind of gets a weird soft nerf. A little bit. Yeah. Like so like the Mandalorian in the end one, you know, that's an XWA design team creation. Really, you know, when he came out at four points and then we moved up to the 50 point scale and he sat at a 10 for a while and now he's up to 11. So just not as much maybe as an auto of an auto include. Yeah, think we'll we'll dive in in more to it, too. But we have some of like the big pieces like, you know, Ketsu going up a point. Yeah, Katsu. Yeah, ahead. Oh, was going to say, yeah. Do we want to kick it off from the top and talk about the rebellion?
Speaker: sure so yeah rebels um rebels have been kind of up and down i'd say the the lat they've always been know kind of middle of the pack i feel like uh a faction that especially the end of the amg days was gifted some really incredible tools yeah and you know they've still stayed competitive i have a rebel player in my team league channel who is is not happy but he has his own flavor of of rebel lists that he likes to build Um, Lorik one that got a bit of a boost. So he went down pilot value cost. He down from 12 to 11. Yeah. His ability, essentially a friendly ship is zero to one. Um, while they defend, if he has a reinforce, he can, he can, or before they defend, he can spend his reinforced token and give it a VAT token. to that friendly ship. It's not really something that you can abuse or like spam in it, you know, for a faction that continues to be about support. Yeah, about, you know, passing tokens and sharing things, sharing is caring for the rebel Alliance. I think Loric and that platform might get a little bit more of an opportunity, though he lost a ton of loadout, he lost six loadout when he dropped down to 11 points with a he has a talent accru and two modifications. Yeah, I was going to say, so some people who stuck around for 1.0 might be having flashbacks from some of the 1.0 days and they bring it up in the patch notes. But it definitely feels like Loric was a product of his time. And the fact that like in 1.0, you could just jam so many of the, yeah, the Wookiees into
Speaker: ah into a list that really made them deadly but it feels like in this new era like Lorik's ability isn't broken broken no yeah I wouldn't think so I'm trying to think of like what you could do now that would like give you ideas of like oh this could be really really strong but I'm failing to see it you know well then just honestly like the biggest thing is just 11 points for that 180 degree arc that throws like it's just the chassis is just good yeah for sure uh dutch vander also get a couple loadout which i love dutch in the y-wing i'm not exactly i'm trying to this is gold leader dutch so it looks like this is the custom dutch with uh a bunch of tools so 20 loadout for dutch at 11 points is pretty good especially because i feel like he's just such an easy target Yep. I mean, honestly, that's like to make Y wings good. They should have a lot of load, like a lot of loadout. This is kind of where we're also seeing that I for getting ah getting a bit of a buff. What else stands out to you? I see one of the rogue squadrons got a little cheaper and the rogue squadron escort for the E wing.
Speaker: um what else stands out to you and yeah i mean well gray squadron bomber at seven points they lose a loadout value so they can't take the burst laser turrets anymore that's kind of oh the blts yeah well i mean if you take it away from resistance this kind of becomes the next thing that could abuse that so this kind of feel like that covers smart yeah they didn't they didn't want to deal with that but the other the other part that like really stood out for me is if we wanted to talk about like Han Solo, he goes up a point. Yeah. Punished again. 21 points. I think it's as much as Vader defender.
Speaker: Yeah, still in is still in um is still invader defender territory, but he goes up for eight eight loadout points. He's got three crew slots and a gunner slot.
Speaker: So there's a lot of like you could still make a very dangerous, beefy support on. I've heard some people like talking about, you know, putting the hotshot gunner on Han and you still have this powerful I6 token stripping tool that can still, you know, be a just a hard hitting platform. Yeah, I never. I mean, hey, re-rolling all the time. It's just he's so much more defensive because the ability basically just pick up his dice at any any time he wants and just roll him again. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's a lot of a lot of nerfs, I would say. i want to go back to just an overview. I feel like the points team kind of to summarize is that they honed in a lot of power level with this change. they gave I think there was some conservative grace given to to some, like the IGs is a good example, right? They didn't go crazy, but they gave them two more levels. loadout. Yeah. um And then when you see the, those that they did kind of open the door for, they also dropped their loadout down by several points. So, you know, Kyo Venzi goes down to nine points, which to me, I mean, that's still kind of a lot for an A-Wing. Like I get it because it's Kyo Venzi, but I also loses seven loadout on the process just as a total. Right. I don't know how much really need for Kyo, but like, that's just an example that comes to mind, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. I think it just kind of takes away the ability to carry like a missile and something else to really make it like that devastating a piece. But yeah, I think this kind of goes with that theme where we see these like high initiative ships kind of getting a little bit like nerfed and these lower initiative ships that we used to see a little bit more come back.
Speaker: Yeah, Keioye though I think is exciting. I think he's going to they're going to see a lot more play at nine points though instead of 10. It's still a great support piece for rebels. The changes to a wings I think I've been the most excited about.
Speaker: The next one also being Wedge ah going down to nine loses six loadout in the process, but still makes Wedge a lot easier to put in in your list now. Yeah. Great. Great value. Really. I've always loved Yeah. um and is you know really good at hunting down those like three agility ships and so this one you know you can take a missile you don't need to but he's got you know the two talent slots so there's still a lot you can you can do with him what are your are you a vectored cannons guy andrew i am yeah yeah you are yeah i never have been i feel like i i should have given it more of a chance i love the link boost i i just feel like you're the kind of person who loves the link boost or you're not right
Speaker: I feel for me personally flying with the vectored cannons has just made me better at positioning and in flying. You also kind of have to really know when you want to use them because, yeah, you've got lots of situations where, you know, your vectored cannon is stuck in the wrong spot if you're not careful. But for, yeah, for, uh,
Speaker: For Wedge, though, like any of those lower initiative ships, I'm such a big fan of the vectored cannons. Yeah, I think I always like Steven Weiland. Shout out to Steven. You know, he he showed me the way with Sabine's vectored cannons, boost forward and then Mando optics. Mm hmm.
Speaker: you know, like be able to do the boost and then be in range for the target lock was super cool. Yeah. And vector cannons lets you do that. Right. So we want to jump over to empire. I mean, what any closing thoughts on rebels? I guess I'm being too, too quick with rebels. scott I got, I got one, one more captain Rex back down a point. Oh, look out folks. I mean, he was pretty good. He was incredible. That list. He's lost five loadout value, so we're not going to see snapshot wrecks. But his ability, his his own pilot ability, I think is still good enough where with those six points, you know, left over in your list, I think we're going to start seeing him back on the table because he's i an option that you're probably going to want to take more often than you'd be taking like Zeb. Yeah, poor Zeb.
Speaker: Hey, Zeb's had his moments. The most OP pilot in Chassie in the game. For sure, the rebel TIE fighter. Yeah, Rebels, I built a list. It was two Clan Ren volunteers who lost some loadouts, so they can't take Beskar and Mando Optics anymore, which is womp womp for me. But two Clan Rens, and then um I have...
Speaker: gavin dark lighter like kitted out with like ion torpedoes pattern analyzer elusive fire control system astromech and uh wedge the battle over endor wedge so it's like yeah it seems like a ah ah punchy four ship list yeah it seems fun you know yeah you know give it a shot don't know how really good it is but also i i have to remind myself that the power level of every other faction has also shifted yeah um so it's just one of those things yeah yeah I'm still a fan of those clan run commandos, even if they can't take as much as they can. They're still so fun to fly. They are. Yeah.
Speaker: So moving over to Galactic Empire, we have kind of our first change in the Alpha class Star Wing. Yeah. Hey, major vendor, the standard loadout major vendor is like really scary and very good and got cheaper.
Speaker: So there you go. And also, yeah, didn't really see play. So hopefully this will, this will bring it back on the table. Cause I still think that it's the one that has like the, the, the built, it has the proton torpedoes.
Speaker: Heavy plasma missiles spend one charge after his attack hits the defender loses shields to plasma torpedoes long range scanners you can target lock an object at any at any range during that action and an ion cannon so it's a car sob you as the pro torps and the saturation rockets but still very I think at 13 points could be seen more play.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I mean, that's what I hope because it kind of did feel like these SL cards. I mean, they were like good for the five minutes where their points were just like way too low in value. Yeah, I kind of feel for Major Vendor and Echo. i feel like they're the kind of the what's the understudies. Yeah, the stars of that release, right? Because Whisper is just, you know, Whisper firsthand how much you've played Whisper and I've played a lot of Whisper now. Ridiculous and honestly pretty unfair.
Speaker: For sure. Yeah, Karsabi. Karsabi is like the only alpha classic really gets the love. Yeah. And, ah you know, hey, custom vendors 11 with 19 loadout. So yeah cause you can still definitely kit out a pretty, pretty cheap and yet very good pilot ability. So good at objectives, too. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: I agree. um Otherwise, just kind of looking through Empire, you know, ah Darth Vader in the tie. He he goes down a point or yeah the build your own point. He gets a loadout value increase for the build your own custom Vader with ah two force sensor mod and missile.
Speaker: um one thing i'm kind of getting ahead of myself but one thing that i think is is it was controversial and that is going to affect a lot especially darth vader is the uh move for fire control system to go up to three points um you know we talk about the other upgrades that but that is a big a big change fcs has never been so expensive these interest rates are even affecting the game yeah targeting computer now two points um right right the biggest changes with these points are i believe are going to be the generic upgrades that that's going to be the the biggest meta shift that we'll see i think is through there yeah i i agree yeah what else stands out there's a few more changes for the defenders I was going to say the the big story of Empire is the defenders and the interceptors. Those are the ones who really get the biggest changes.
Speaker: And here we have, you know, Colonel Vessary gets three more loadout points. That's right's pretty good. All those good locks. Yeah. Countess Riyad goes down a point to 15. So she is now the same cost as just a Delta Squadron pilot as that I won. And this is where another kind of an I-4 buff. She does lose four loadout points. So she only has seven now.
Speaker: ah However, i think with Riyad, you know, the biggest thing you're looking for is just that maneuverability. On her ship. Raya is just so unpredictable with just like, you know, what I'm just going to I'm going to do any K turn. Right. 2K. Yeah. I hate the loadout, but I don't know if you need a ton. I just, you know, I'm not excited.
Speaker: Not excited about the loadout. It's a defender. Spark joy for 30 points. You could you could take two. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining. You could take three defenders and a tie fighter if you want to take Vader and Raya. That's pretty good. You could take Vader and Raya 37 points. And then there go. Major vendor 13 done.
Speaker: That's a list. I'm not sure how great that list is, but it is a list. you're probably not good but It's a certified list. And then Vault Scaris. Vault Scaris goes up a point. So we're losing. He's so bad.
Speaker: He's good. He gets to load out. yeah So I don't like that ability is such a bummer. Like I get it. I know what they were trying to do with it. Yeah. That whole like lose a charge, spend a charge, get action to get the charge back and then action to use the charge. And it's just it's just hard to plan around that.
Speaker: It is really difficult to use. Yeah. But in the right hand, it's very powerful. Just that one turn that you get to do two actions. But I think that I honestly think Vault Scaris goes up a point. So you can't take Vault Scaris and Countess Riot and then, you know, still have 20 points left over. That would be that's yeah that's kind of that'd be some nonsense. Yeah, for sure that's my if if if I had to guess, I think that's probably the reason why he goes up a point.
Speaker: Yeah, Karner, so, ah ah you know, you mentioned Karner Jax, but he goes up a point, so he gets nerfed, but he that's probably the largest loadout increase I've seen a pilot get is 12. So it's far, yeah. He gets 12-point loadout increase from 4 to 16. And gets to their mod slot, right? That's kind of ass kind of the big thing. Yeah, put a shield upgrade on him.
Speaker: I can throw a shield upgrade. You can put extreme maneuvers. You can throw extreme maneuvers on them. If you want to make them defensive, you could put a you could put a shield upgrade and then like brilliant evasion if you want to yeah keep that force. But I feel like, you know, Carter,
Speaker: kind of like spending that force so i think i think that there's the a that adding that like mod spot slot you get a lot more flexibility like with this with this build you put uh yeah yeah empire you know i i think empire comes out in a good spot after this i would say yeah they're that's a overall a net win for them um more more choices empire definitely seemed to be the the faction that was struggling a little bit and they get i think a much needed boost yeah um we touched on scum a little bit already nothing there's really nothing else to report for for uh yeah we a couple load of thing yeah a couple loadout increases on the other interceptors turf in here gets you know too but i'm not sure if that's enough to push the poor turf in here yeah another there's just you got to the point now and i've you know this one thing with the design team they They continue to create amazing stuff, but at the same time, like there's just so many ships. that You get to the point now where things just will not get played because there's just going to be better options no matter what. they I mean, unless you just make things practically free. It's just the way the the the larger growing ecosystem that is the big ecosystem of x-wing yeah is you know and you know that doesn't mean that there there might be a future where you know turf veneer gets up i i will say sorry i did one thing i did gloss over turf veneer though does get an extra uh talent slot okay all right tur tur down for what we touched on scum a bit already um i don't know if there's anything else i don't think we need to spend as much time on scum but is there anything else that stood out to you we know who we talked about katsu the mandalorian the igs i know dengar went up a point as well um this is the standard loadout xwa dengar he went from 15 to 16 um and then yeah you get some m3as that get some love leighton gets extra loadout quinn jass gets extra loadout they both get four more loadout and the seeks kind of uh leighton's always been good because if you perform an attack that misses or and or an an opponent you know you're while you're defending if the attack miss you just stack evades
Speaker: you know anytime that happens yeah so it can be an annoying thing to deal with and now you get a ton of loadout with it yeah so kind of feel like makes it just a ah really hard to hit a support piece um so the star viper though prince zeor uh zeor eor eor eor i think of eor when i think of zeor i don't know that might be yeah i gets a loadout value increase so is now at 18 yeah i i think zzor is really interesting i'm actually surprised he hasn't gotten as much of a look yeah i think just other things may be excited people more but you know he has like he has like built-in notorious ability he's in a great chassis hes it not super low initiative he's i4 like people should give him another look
Speaker: I should give him another look, you know? I feel like that with most Star Vipers. Like they're always in the back of my mind is something to to build and and get on the table because they are just really fun. And then the other thing z ninety five is 95 is Kato Leachos.
Speaker: Yeah, loses two value points. I think that that might have just more to do with you so that you can't say like spam a secret missile list. Yeah. Yeah, probably because that could be pretty nasty.
Speaker: Yeah, so scum, you know, pretty I'd say I wouldn't say huge winners, but winners for sure. um Yeah, for for the points update as we can we move over to resistance who got got a bit of a hammer. Yeah, a little bit of a hammer came down little bit of our a tab. Yeah, especially in every list. Oh, I put I've flown more aftab and Kai than I've ever flown, i think in my life. This was the summer of of the Y-Wing for me. My favorite thing about X-Wing is there will be a pilot that no one's ever heard of.
Speaker: And then a points change. And then everyone hates that pilot. But they've never heard of him like a week ago. I feel like Aftab Ackbar was in that camp. Besides the recognizable Ackbar last name, you know, it's just it's it's always funny to me, you know? yeah. Right. It's it's always kind of a humorous. Went from obscurity to table scourge. Yeah. Yeah. Right. In a manner of like just a small tweak of the points update, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Tezza Tezza getting hit going up a point. getting more loadout. The introduction of one of the best turrets that the game has seen in a long time is yeah kind of what... It's great to have a third turret, man. To only have two turrets in the X-Wing for so long is just so wild to me, you know? I mean, but like we we were talking about on one of our previous episodes, designing turrets is one of the hardest spaces for the for the points team.
Speaker: The ability to change your arc is just so powerful. Yeah. And we kind of saw that. Yeah, and from from there, you know, speaking of little corrections, you get the RZ2 A-Wings, you get a couple more load off for Greer, Roneth goes down a point in pilot cost. yeah Nothing crazy there, just, you know, a couple, ah little little things on the margins that might actually allow people to add something to a list. Cy Thronali actually goes down two points in the T70, which is, you know, rarely do you see a two-point swing nowadays, but we do see a two-point swing. Cy losing 12 loadout, though. Cy is 10 points in the T70, which is dirt cheap, but only gets two loadout. But that is an X-Wing, a T70 X-Wing, three shields, four hole, great dial, just, you know, hardy and sturdy, reliable for 10 points. With an ability that's kind of comical, like, or kind of gimmicky, but also can be pretty good if you do fly over someone and get into Vayne. Here's the thing. It's kind of one of those. it was one of those things when I was flying it that it does happen sometimes. And when it does, you're like, oh, wait, I get an evade.
Speaker: Yeah. wo It's a great feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Poe Dameron, custom Poe, black one Poe goes up a point yeah and gets ah goes up to 13 loadout. So for 15 points, only 13 loadout. um You can't like hit him out anymore the way that you could. Remember when you could put like nine upgrades on him? Oh, my God. i don't miss those days. Yeah. Hated those days. It's just like, I'm never going to shoot this guy. Right. Yeah. That was like, yeah, that was always kind of it. You're just like, well, all right. I guess I have to avoid this side of the board. Yeah. Yeah. Also, just with that slam, it's just like, I know he's going to he's going to get behind me or he's going to be somewhere else. Like, yeah, it's it's just, yeah, what's what's what's the frickin point? Yeah. You know, you know, XWA Poe also never really took off.
Speaker: I like him, but he he can't really ditch his stress. And yet he he has mechanics that want him to be stressed still. I think that's what makes it really awkward. Yeah. You know, he he has ways to to work around it, to like swap for a strain. It's pretty dangerous for a pilot. It's still pretty expensive. Yeah. And he's what's the the cost of that? Poe is that Poe is 16 points to he's more expensive than custom Poe.
Speaker: Yeah. Any other thoughts on resistance besides they they got worse because they were so good? That's that's what those are that's my summary. Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's really just kind of the Y wings that they get the biggest change. It's going to be interesting to see.
Speaker: Yeah, kind of what what resistance looks like after this. It does make the wartime load out, though. Y wings look more enticing again. It's like one more point. Yeah. And they the fact they split them off peacetime and wartime. Mm hmm.
Speaker: I think that was a good move. Yeah, I agree. I have bias aside. But yeah, first order, first order gets a couple of changes. Yeah. ah Let's see. Taking a quick look. Ember on the margins. couple extra loadout points. 10 to it gets from eight to 10 now.
Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty good. Midnight. lot Midnight. Yeah, midnight, though. Goes down a point. Minus 10 loadout, though. Loses a bunch of loadout. Talk about seeker missile annoyance.
Speaker: Oh, my God. Seeker missile midnight because you never spent the lock. Right. So it was basically like, yeah, you never spent the lock. So your your opponent could never modify their dice. You never modify every time. Yeah. Almost every time. Yeah. Right.
Speaker: Yeah. Midnight was honestly that was kind of the core like. F.O. One of the core F.O. pieces, because, yeah, just the secret missile combo was just so good.
Speaker: And but midnight, even at at, you know, going down to 10 points with the build your own, even if you can't take secret missiles, still really good. Yeah, I would play Midnight at 10. I think in a way you're not totally losing out. You still have nine load out. That's it's an I six that has a not decent great ability. Yeah. And you get you have a lot more options in the faction to static. It's two. That's another move on the margins. It doesn't mean like a ton. It's not world moving recoil in the silencer. It gets an extra two in the silencer. That's that's pretty decent. Now you're not just taking like a missile. Yeah, first order courier gets in the Zai shuttle and people are like who cares about the Zai shuttle? Well, the Zai shuttle in that bomber list is really effective, really powerful. You're taking three fighters and a Zai because it first order really needs that support ability. Absolutely. Yeah. and So loses three loadout, but it doesn't change in cost.
Speaker: No. And this and that's basically so you can take like the core components that you need to take on it, but you just don't get any extras. Yeah, FO. I mean, I don't i don't don't know if I have even have like a take. i mean, they got marginally better outside of Midnight is my take.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, and then also I think, you know, like the Zai shuttle is a little bit more fragile. And the Courier is slightly, um te to you know, tempered. yeah But yeah, we're not going to see too much of a change there. Yeah.
Speaker: How about Republic? Just a few changes for Republic as well. Republic gets a few changes. So slider going up a point, but gaining five loadout. I think that's kind of interesting. Yeah. So not at seven, not as much of, you know, like where you're really going to jam it in, but like yeah everything, but.
Speaker: That seems like you can do a little bit more, which is nice. I think the biggest change is going to be Anakin Skywalker and the 7B Aether Sprite going up to 17 points. And this just makes it a lot clunkier for you to fit all of the Jedis that you want into one list. Yeah. And I assume this is the 7B. This is the 7B. Yep. Yeah.
Speaker: and And he gets two additional loadout points up to 14. But, you know, so now you can't take like, Anakin the 7b and Obi-Wan in the 7b and a lat and you know you have to kind of settle for like maybe Barriss you can't take like Plo Koon yeah not for sure I mean that's that again just kind of tempering things a little bit yeah and it's like that one point really kind of makes Republic not half
Speaker: access to all of its toys. Ursa Ren in the gauntlet is one I want just really quickly call out because it's really strong with the ability to dismantle optics and then get a reinforce and then get another token and then if you're coordinated you get another token. like You can do like three or four actions but pretty pretty easily but she does get nerfed and go up a point.
Speaker: I think that's fair. um You know, I want to live in a world where gauntlets are getting played more often, but also like, you know, that there's a little bit more variety. And so Ursa was the ah the the newest standout. It's like, well, let's just play Ursa all the time. Yeah, I was like, she's no longer the auto include.
Speaker: And I'm happy because Bo-Katan Kryze is okay. And so it's nice to have her as an option too. Hawk on the margins gets a point more and load out in the lat.
Speaker: uh 212 though does lose two loadout which is significant it is not able to take the seventh fleet gunner anymore yeah exactly and that was because that was the biggest one of the biggest support pieces that republic lists were fielding so definitely a big nerf yeah um you know looking at the rest and then you just have tucker going down ah going down a yeah um loses a missile slot so no no diamond boron missiles for tucker Yeah, I think it's the only change where somebody lost a slot. Yeah, so far, that's all I've seen. Yeah, yeah a couple gained a slot, but that's the only time that someone one. Interesting for Tucker. yeah Yeah, the Tucker meta is no more. Well, I mean, but at eight points, it still could be worth a look. But yeah, separatist also gets a lot of changes. Imperium plating is now free.
Speaker: That's one of the biggest changes of the Beelzebub. Yeah, is imperium plating is now free. it So so up the what? I love that you call it the Beelzebub.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I always call the Beezlebub, but that's not the way it's not what it's called. It's the Belva Lab. Yeah. Yeah, I like Beezlebub better. Yeah, I mean, because it's been such a demon for me. Honestly, as someone who flies against a lot of separatists, I always just call it the Satan fighter.
Speaker: ah so But yeah, the the belly rub. the Bellab lab and I guess now I'll call the Beezlebub, the biblical demon that has plagued my nightmares. Where we have ah yeah Captain Seer, he goes down for loadout value though.
Speaker: Grievous though gets a little bit nerfed, goes up a point, but gains two two value to loadout value. And I think like, yeah, Watt Tambor, Feton, Ultra, Autopilot, and Sakokin Ace, they all lose four loadout value points. But I think that that is too. Yeah, Sakokins are popular.
Speaker: Yeah. For a while. Helped win that, kind of the our last conquest. They're good. Like, yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. I and and honestly, though, that negative four, I think that just makes up for the fact that now imperium plating is free. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, it's just such a staple. I think they just like they're like, I don't think it ah moves the deal much if we do this and do this at the same time. Why would you not take it? It. fixes the ship chassis anything else for cis so the droid tri fighters have i got some changes the biggest one dis uh l9 l9 b2 yeah the new one yeah the new one goes down a point so this is one of the ones where yeah we're giving some love to the new the new pilots does lose a loadout value but i think it being 10 points is gonna move the needle there and and make people kind of want to take it yes yeah yes you know it's interesting
Speaker: Yeah, they get some interesting stuff. One of the HMP droids, because we've been seeing a lot of lot of the donuts around, is the Andoran Oppressor goes up a point, so there'll be 10. So you can't really take like three of them in a list now.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like, you know, CIS has just done so well. Yeah. Since, ah you XWA. Yes. Came out, you know, they've they've really been floated to the top and this is stuck around up there.
Speaker: they They really have. I think CIS has been kind of one of the consistently good factions since XWA has formed. Yeah, oh yeah and yeah, no doubt about it, for sure. Yeah, lots of love.
Speaker: ah One notable thing, though, Sunfak, up a point, is now 14. And I think that's more for like some of those three-ship lists, so you can't be taking two Infiltrators plus an I-6. Kind of goes along with this the theme, I'm feeling, of this points change, which is some of these I-6 ships, they're they're going up a point and to make it more appealing to be taking some of these lower-initiative ships. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. So yeah, so that's the big, the big difference with all of the ships. Yeah, upgrades. I mean, it's probably pretty quick for us to go through. There's really not many changes besides some obvious ones. Yeah. We got synced laser cannons i went went up a point, so now they're nine points. Yeah. um I was just going to say, that's that's that's something that's been seeing some consistent play for a while now. i know the rogues really like it, especially. i know the IGs love it because they're double calculating, and so they miss with their attack. They just turret attack with a synced laser cannon, so. hey ids get a couple of extra loadout and which actually just accommodates this that's exactly it so yep that's like honestly it uh yeah i would look at it as ids got one extra point of loadout because the extra one here is going to be taking these right for sure yeah yeah um and then seeker missiles went from 10 to 12 which is is for the best i don't think they're ever really going to go down much i think they're going float around the 12 point mark from yeah moving forward
Speaker: Yeah, the other the other big changes as well, targeting, computer targeting. So targeting matrix is one that I found a little annoying how cheap it was. So it does go up two points. Yeah. um It's a six now. And targeting computer goes up, as you called that earlier, to two.
Speaker: um And then we have a blind spot target goes down one. It gets a little cheaper, but FCS goes up. yeah three points that is that big implications uh fcs especially for the uh tie x1 like they're the biggest fan of the and and the e-wing are the two that come to mind that love fcs yeah it's gonna i mean for the ships that take fcs it's gonna make those builds like a little bit clunkier is interesting yeah yeah and then blt but going up one point just one to five Yeah, and then all the ships that really want to take it only have four loadout. So we're not going to see as much ah BLT spam that we've been seeing, which also I think is is a good thing. Probably for the best.
Speaker: I mean, i'm I'm all for swarms. I'm all for swarms, but also i'm not I don't like swarms that spam stuff.
Speaker: I'm not as big into that personally. don't know. I get it. It's tough out there for a swarm to not spam stuff. Yeah. They were like spamming burst laser turrets, for example. but Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, those, those are the points changes are just kind of overview from Andrew and I, um you know, go to x-wing dot life. You guys want to take a look at the breakdown of everything and also the patch notes that we had ah mentioned at the beginning at the top of our, ah our recording here.
Speaker: But yeah, overall, I mean, we'll kind of give our quick take. um I think this is a move on the margins in a lot of ways that actually makes some seismic ah kind of changes as well.
Speaker: um So it'll be, it It'll be interesting to see the thing that how people respond, you know, and and what they decide to build with because you might see less ships in a list it might seem more for ship lists. Yeah, outside of like CIS, but still plenty of room for the the larger, the the the bigger lists, swarmy lists.
Speaker: so Yeah. I think that we're going to, you know, see the initiative, the overall initiative come down a little bit. I think there's a lot more reasons to take some of these I-4 ships, which I'm really looking forward to. i always feel that the meta is kind of in a in a good spot when i three i four ships where where you want to have one or two of them in your list.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm excited to list build, excited to get stuff on the table. Shout out to the Points team for working very hard, having tons and tons of calls. I see their calls and how often they're active in the XWA server. They're always working hard to...
Speaker: ae keep the game in a place where things are are fresh and and can be a fun, exciting, new and and work our best to do their best balancing decisions that we can do. Oh, yeah. No, I have to imagine it's a ton of work. Yeah, it is.
Speaker: I'm I'm good if you want to if we want to do the outro, if you're if you're good, but unless there's anything else you wanted to talk about. Sure. ah No, not at this point, but it's been an absolute blast.
Speaker: And I'm happy that we finally got the time to sit down and do this. So thank you everyone for listening to this episode and continuing to support us here at 312.
Speaker: You can find the points update documents at the new and improved x-wing dot life. The link is in the description and the blast doors open is officially here.
Speaker: Get your tickets today for the final system open of the year in America. on January 23rd and 24th. It will be co-hosted by the 312 Squadron. The link also in the description.
Speaker: And if you aren't already following us on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, you should. The link's, once again, in the description. And 312 is excited to be producing exclusive alt art cards featuring new XWA pilots and upgrades for their patrons, some of which we talked about today. So consider supporting us on Patreon and get rewarded with some awesome swag.
Speaker: And then lastly, we are proud to be sponsored by Infinite Arenas. Head to Infinite Arenas to get your fix of X-Wing compatible components, including accessible card printing, physical game assets, and much more.
Speaker: That link, you know it, it's in the description. Once again, I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Nick Sperry. And hope you had a wonderful summer and bring on the fall. It's fall, y'all.
