So this weekend I participated in the Regional Tournament in Gatineau, my first real X-Wing tournament. I have a real problem in that I have this psychological need, bordering on physiological, to be different. To not be one of the 16+ people that all used 3 or 4 z-95s and Chewie or Han. I ended up placing 22nd out of 28. Which sucked. I partially ran into ungodly bad luck (in one game, Wedge and Luke landed 4 crits on Han in one turn, 3 were discarded by Determination and 1 by Chewbaca. I almost flipped the table) and my list didnt help with the staying power.

When the dice or damage decks werent being fickle, I squished my opponents. So there is some merit to the list, but meh, time to become like everyone else.

The list that won was one that I had been thinking of:

Han + Predator + Luke + C3P0 + Engine Upgrade + Falcon Title

Tala

Tala

Tala

Tala's to block, Han to manuever either out of arcs, or ram stuff to prevent them from shooting him.

So after finishing my lunch I was sitting there thinking. Whipped out my phone and pop open Squadron Builder. And then my originality gland flared up.

I came up with this, and I am not too sure if it would work similar to the above list.

Han + Predator + Luke + C3P0 + Engine Upgrade + Falcon Title + Ion Pulse Missile

ORS + Intelligence Agent + Navigator + Anti-Pursuit Lasers

The idea is to block with the ORS. The IA on board lets me see where the most important ship to block is turning, and the navigator sort of lets me try and block it. The Antipursit lasers will maybe add some damage.

Han does what he does, maybe firing the missile at the most important ship to ionize it and let the ORS get infront of it. Otherwise he evades arcs with engine upgrade or just evades with the title and rely on range + C3P0 + evades to weather incoming fire.

Any thoughts?

While keeping the core concept of your list intact, here's some tweaks I would make to it.

I love the Predator EPT, but I find that it's a little redundant with Han's ability. Sense you have engine and the falcon title on his ship, I would recommend PTL instead. I think that works better.

I like the Ion Pulse Missile, but I'm don't really like ordinance on the Falcon that much. I don't like to fly my Falcon right at my opponent but you sort of have to if you want to use your missile. I would move the missile from Han to the ORS. the goal with the smuggler is to fracture formations and maybe do some damage with APL. The Ion Missile can set you up for next turn. Ion someone, move up and block them next turn and maybe do some damage with the APLs.

I'm not a huge fan of Navigator. I've seen it work, but most times players just use the first move that they picked. It doesn't help enough Now if you switch Luke to a Gunner, you can add Gunner to the ORS. That's a card that you will get a ton of use out of.

Those are my thoughts on how I might adjust your list while keeping the core idea's in place.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I did not get to play against you Zoccola but we did have that practice round at Wizard's Tower on Wednesday.

I was a little surprised to see Grish's list make it so far. I also played against the build you had so much trouble with and I beat him in round 5. It was a surprising list but I treated it just like any other falcon list.

Our area meta loves the falcon so it is no big surprise that it comes up in many builds.

For your build I would suggest that you add tactician to Han so when your gunner kicks in you double stress your target. Or add it and a gunner to the ORS.

I don't like APL, and since you are looking at action denial (by blocking) you can also action block (via stress tokens).

I'll be at Wizard's on the 16th to work on any squad you want to work on.

Ya I ran Predator with Luke on Chewie and it was $#%&ing gross. With Han it would bring it to the next level. Plus with Luke, if I my intial attack is horrible, (say 1 hit and 2 blanks) I can either use Han's reroll or use predator to reroll the hit, probably activating Luke right away.

Ya im also hesitant about the Navigator and the missiles for the same reasons.

How about this:

Han + Predator + Luke + C3P0 + Engine Upgrade + Falcon Title

ORS + Recon Spec + Chewbaca + Anti-Pursuit Lasers

Chewie will give the ORS a bit more staying power (adding 2-3 hits worth) and the recon spec will be useful for attack and defense.

Heya Sergovan!

The APL is in there to make up for the loss of firepower of 3 zs. I've never used them so I am intrigued.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

Ya I ran Predator with Luke on Chewie and it was $#%&ing gross. With Han it would bring it to the next level. Plus with Luke, if I my intial attack is horrible, (say 1 hit and 2 blanks) I can either use Han's reroll or use predator to reroll the hit, probably activating Luke right away.

Ya im also hesitant about the Navigator and the missiles for the same reasons.

How about this:

Han + Predator + Luke + C3P0 + Engine Upgrade + Falcon Title

ORS + Recon Spec + Chewbaca + Anti-Pursuit Lasers

Chewie will give the ORS a bit more staying power (adding 2-3 hits worth) and the recon spec will be useful for attack and defense.

Heya Sergovan!

The APL is in there to make up for the loss of firepower of 3 zs. I've never used them so I am intrigued.

I would go with Tactician + Gunner over Recon + Chewbacca

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

Considering that a Predator Han won a regional, I'm inclined to think it's probably pretty strong.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

I'm not sure I agree about Predator being bad on Han. It's virtually a target lock at that point for free. Combine that with Gunner, 3PO, and the Falcon title and you have a really tanky really accurate falcon.

I don't think Predator is bad, on Han, but in his build I think that PTL is better. He has the Falcon title + engine. Now he has multiple actions that are very good. The more actions that you have the better PTL is.

The advantage of Predator is the flexibility it gives you. Remember that Han's ability forces you to reroll all dice. If you attack with four dice and only get one hit, you'll want to use Han's ability. If you get two or three hits, you'll be better off using the more limited Predator and keeping the rest.

Considering that a Predator Han won a regional, I'm inclined to think it's probably pretty strong.

I can see what your saying about Predator being strong. It does offer Han some flexibility for when to use his ability or Predator. I also like that this ability doesn't stress the falcon. I agree that it's a good choice. PTL offers some benefits that you can't do with Predator. It does cause stress, and in this "Stress" filled meta, maybe this isn't as good an option but when you 4 actions in your action bar it's hard to not consider PTL.

PTL vs Predator is a tough call for EPT. Same cost, both very strong. When you have 3+ actions, and a semi decent dial then I feel that PTL wins. If you don't have that many actions or have a poor dial then Predator is the winner. I love Predator on x-wings.