Keyan Farlander

B-Wing/E2

C3PO

Elusiveness

Heavy Laser Cannon

Sensor Jammer

Jake Farrell

Chardaan Refit

A-Wing Test Pilot

Push the Limit

Veteran Instinct

Tarn Mison (Or Biggs, without Fletchette)

Fetchette Torpedoes

R2-D6

Decoy

This whole list is about making an unbeatable B-Wing and an uncatchable A-Wing. I have only tested it once (against a 4-ship Rebel list, against which my B-Wing came out unscratched and Jake proved his worth a dozen times over). While the opposing squadron is focusing fire on the B-Wing (and not getting through), Jake is flying around back and putting some damage into whatever Keyan hasn't yet destroyed.

I know it must sound silly to be putting 48 points in a B-Wing, but this B-Wing is an invisible tank. He can't be hit except by 3- or 4-hit dice (allowing only 1 or, at worst, 2 damage through in such an event), and all the while he can absorb it all and throw it right back. Opponents that roll 1 or 2 hits will never get through. Elusiveness allows me to take a stress to force a reroll on one of the hits/crits (not foolproof, but effective). With Sensor Jammer, I can also convert another hit into a Focus, so if the opponent is not taking Focus actions, he's SOL. Finally, C3PO tells me I'm getting 1 or 2 evades per round (depending on if I've taken a Focus token and if I roll a Focus result--rolling a Focus result trigger's C3PO's ability, getting me +1 evade--since I didn't roll an Evade--and I can spend my focus to convert that Focus result into my second evade). This ship's only been hit for one damage and only one time--and only because the opponent rolled 4 hits and I could muscle my way out of 3 of them.

And then, with the stress token I've taken using Elusiveness, the HLC comes along and blows a hole in the side of one of their ships, and I lose the stress and am ready for a more maneuverable next round of action.

What if Keyan would attack first, and not have the benefit of his Elusiveness's stress? That's where Decoy comes in. Nobody attacks Tarn because he doesn't seem like the threat; but Tarn gives Keyan the option to shoot later in the queue (allowing him to use Elusiveness and have a stress token to spend on his 4-die attack), while the underestimated Tarn can shoot earlier (and deliver stress or a killing blow).

Jake's ridiculous action economy keeps him alive on the edge of the skirmish, getting in behind opponents and messing with them while they're focused on the deadly B-Wing.

I think I would be legitimately concerned by Phantoms and TIE Interceptors (but this is what PS9 Jake is for). I would also fear other B-Wings with HLCs, although in a match I could probably tear them up first if they don't have evasive tricks like this invisible tank does. Fat Han doesn't stand a chance; he can only block up to 1 to 2 hits per round and can only attack once per round. The TIE Swarm doesn't stand a chance unless they have plenty of Focus tokens between them to counteract my Sensor Jammer. Defenders might be this ship's worst nightmare, and I haven't got a good solution for those except the time that Tarn's stress torpedo can buy me.

What else have I to fear? Maybe bombs, torps, and Darth Vader, but we don't see that much in my meta.

Hmmmm. I kinda dig it.

Hmm, so a focus result on defense activates a C3PO "zero" guess, so you get an extra evade, then use focus to get yet another. I like.

I usually do the Keyan/Opportunist combo, but the Elusiveness is intriguing.

I dunno man.

Jake is untouchable, but he doesnt hit that hard. He may be very hard to kill, but I wouldn't bother shooting him anyways.

Tarn isn't very good, and should be replaced for Biggs, especially if you have Kevin in your list.

Also, if you replace Tarn with Biggs, you can make Kevin more offensive, which is what he does best. Dead enemies can't kill you and all. I think he really needs PTL instead of elusiveness, and advanced sensors is definitely better than sensor jammer.

So what we can do is this

Kevin Farlander-ptl, hlc, advanced sensors

Jake-proton rockets, ptl, stealth device

Biggs

Biggs and Kevin roll up slow, playing sniper. Focus+target lock on 4 dice is pretty brutal, and if Biggs can follow up that is probably a dead fighter craft.

Jake can do his own thing, and with stealth+ptl is going to be hell to try and bust when he turtles up. But if you get in a good spot, you can dump the proton rockets into something, meaning that he is going to be a threat that cannot be ignored.

Knowing you have an a-wing on the flank, with the chance of putting out a 5 attack focus+target lock shot once, or the b-wing with biggs, your opponent will be forced to go after one or the other, letting the force they didn't focus on work from a more comfortable position.

My Scarlet Cowgirl list is facing a similar Keyan and this exact Jake plus Proton Rockets right now. I guess we're just learning to fly him, because I laid down 3 stress on Jake round 2 and that clipped his wings.

Also, as awesome as Keyan is, his ability can't shrug stress if he has no firing solution. I double stressed him and his dial kept him out of Arc

Also, as awesome as Keyan is, his ability can't shrug stress if he has no firing solution. I double stressed him and his dial kept him out of Arc

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I wondered if he and/or the heavy reliance the YTs have on actions is why we might see a shift to the regular inclusion of stress mechanics in lists.

I like having some mechanics to play with. Stress is one of the more readily available builds as an Imperial, and an increasing number of cards doll it out.

I figured b and a wings would laugh at stress. I guess they do, at first, but when Tactician/Gunner and Kath/Rebel Captive are serving up that many tokens, it is another matter entirely.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I wondered if he and/or the heavy reliance the YTs have on actions is why we might see a shift to the regular inclusion of stress mechanics in lists.

IMO it's the exact opposite. Falcons can get "actions" without taking actions from C-3P0/Luke/predator/etc, and only need an action for the title card. Losing that evade action every turn hurts, but not as badly as it hurts "conventional" ships. And doing greens is a lot less of a problem since the 360* turret keeps you from worrying about losing shots while trying to clear stress.

This whole list is about making an unbeatable B-Wing and an uncatchable A-Wing.

That's a nice theory, but Farlander is far from unbeatable. Elusiveness is a terrible card, since re-rolling a hit has a 75% chance (with focus) to just give you another hit. You'd be better off taking opportunist/PTL/etc and boosting your own firepower to kill stuff faster and reduce the incoming damage that way. Sensor jammer is worthless in a list with near-zero blocking or action denial. Your opponent will always have focus available (unless they decide to spend it on defense to negate your damage), so sensor jammer effectively costs you 4 points for no benefit. C-3P0 is your only meaningful defensive upgrade, and only works once per turn. Anyone that can concentrate firepower on Farlander is going to kill him very quickly, and then half your list is gone.

The TIE Swarm doesn't stand a chance unless they have plenty of Focus tokens between them to counteract my Sensor Jammer.

And this is just laughably wrong. TIE swarms are your worst nightmare with this kind of list. You have no action denial to keep them from focusing and turning off your sensor jammer, and your once per turn C-3P0 and elusiveness abilities are almost irrelevant against 5+ attacks every turn. You'll be lucky if Farlander manages to survive even a single turn against a TIE swarm, and then half your list is gone.

I've played against versions of overloaded Farlander quite a lot recently, including one that was almost identical to yours- I really don't rate it. Soontir + 5 ties ate it (I lost one TIE). Likewise Whisper + 2 interceptors. I haven't seen it against a Falcon list, because I don't usually run Falcons.

The one time I lost to an overloaded Farlander list, I was running an AAXXZ list for s&gs which I expected to lose with anyway. C3PO on a B is nowhere near as good as on a Falcon.

There are a couple things in the list in the OP that stand out to me as sub-par. Elusiveness still just isn't that great of an upgrade, especially on Farlander when you want to guarantee you're stressed before every shot (against lower PS opponent's you'd have to hang onto the stress from a previous round by doing a white maneuver, or do red maneuvers and make Elusiveness worthless).

Likewise, the loadout on Mison seems...odd. Flechettes are useful, sure, especially when you get free Target Locks, which means you can reasonably expect to fire them with Focus as well. The astromech and Decoy combo, though, seems like a less-than-ideal use of 3 points. Sure, Tarn can shoot at 9 and Farrell at 3, which is OK since Farrell might be dodging arcs. But it means keeping Farrell at Range 1-2 of Tarn, and tethering is not the best thing for an arc-dodging flanker.

Here's a tweak that comes to 99 points:

Keyan Farlander (29)

+ B-Wing/E2 (1)

+ Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

+ Sensor Jammer (4)

+ C-3PO (3)

+ Stay on Target (2)

Jake Farrell (24)

+ Chardaan Refit (-2)

+ A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

+ Predator (3)

+ Push the Limit (3)

Tarn Mison (23)
+ R7 Astromech

Farlander is of course still almost half your points, making him a giant target for the opponent. I will disagree with poster(s) above me, though, that Sensor Jammer and C-3PO are fine defensive upgrades. Obviously, C-3PO is not quite as good here as he is on a YT-1300, but netting one Evade is still as good as a Hull or Shield Upgrade. Sensor Jammer may not stop damage from someone who has Focus, but if they're forced to spend it on offense, they can't use it for defense, which means killing them that much faster (the reason a TIE swarm is still good against it is that even if you make all the TIEs spend their Focus [which is typically their default action anyway], you can only shoot one of them in return). As for self-stressing, Stay on Target seems like a better choice then Elusiveness. As long as you can pick a maneuver different than your original and can keep an enemy in your sights, you'll get a stress/Focus. You'll probably spend a lot of time at speed 2, because you can't turn your nifty 2 K-turn any redder. Of course, with a point to spare in the build, you could go with the ole standby Push the Limit as well.

The other good news is that with Farlander being such a target, Mison has that much more of a chance to make it to the endgame, where he and his trusty R7 are a match made in the Force-ghost afterlife (or whatever passes for heaven in the Star Wars universe). Farrell has Predator to give his two attack more bite, and it could just as easily be Outmaneuver for the same reason. Anyway, that's my take on the concept.

It's not that C3PO is useless on a B- he's still going to save probably a couple of damage over the course of the game. Same with sensor jammer.

The problem is you are spending as many points as you would on a falcon for around half the HP, no turret, no evade, a worse dial and less options.

Obviously, C-3PO is not quite as good here as he is on a YT-1300, but netting one Evade is still as good as a Hull or Shield Upgrade.

But to do it you need to survive an average of 2 turns of fire, something that is far from certain with a b-wing. And there's a reason why nobody puts hull/shield upgrades on b-wings, so to be a viable option C-3P0 needs to be significantly better than those rejected options.

Sensor Jammer may not stop damage from someone who has Focus, but if they're forced to spend it on offense, they can't use it for defense, which means killing them that much faster

This is theoretically a benefit, but in practice X-Wing is a game that overwhelmingly favors offense over defense, and most people are willing to spend focus on offense if they see any eyes in the dice results. A sensor jammer raises the probability of spending offensive focus from "pretty likely" to 100%, but is it really worth spending 4 points and giving up FCS/AS to get an upgrade that very often is literally a blank card?

As for self-stressing, Stay on Target seems like a better choice then Elusiveness.

IMO SOT is a questionable choice right now. The metagame favors high PS, and Farlander is only PS 7 without VI. This means you're moving before the scariest threats, so SOT is only useful if that random academy pilot does something incredibly unpredictable.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I wondered if he and/or the heavy reliance the YTs have on actions is why we might see a shift to the regular inclusion of stress mechanics in lists.

IMO it's the exact opposite. Falcons can get "actions" without taking actions from C-3P0/Luke/predator/etc, and only need an action for the title card. Losing that evade action every turn hurts, but not as badly as it hurts "conventional" ships. And doing greens is a lot less of a problem since the 360* turret keeps you from worrying about losing shots while trying to clear stress.

I don't disagree that there are particular builds (on Falcons) that won't be as affected as much, but stress makes any decent Falcon much more manageable and vulnerable. Denying them an evade in conjunction with 3PO and preventing them from moving out of arc with EU, are IMO, more significant on a 50+ point ship than on a 15-30 point ship. That Falcon needs to eek out as much efficiency as it can with those points.

However, I was more speaking about YTs in general since the new fear is Dash, for whom a key strategy will be action denial.

As soon as I find a way to put 'Decoy' on Tarn Mison... I'll give a try.

And doing greens is a lot less of a problem since the 360* turret keeps you from worrying about losing shots while trying to clear stress.

Half the trick with the Falcon though is keeping yourself out of focused fire.

As soon as I find a way to put 'Decoy' on Tarn Mison... I'll give a try.

R2-D6. Which he wrote on there.

As for self-stressing, Stay on Target seems like a better choice then Elusiveness.

SoT is on a boat somewhere though.

As soon as I find a way to put 'Decoy' on Tarn Mison... I'll give a try.

R2-D6. Which he wrote on there.

Ah, true, forgot the little pet... Must... sleep... more...

Id say, throw in Biggs instead of Tarn JUST so killing Keyan is even harder, haha.

Sounds fun to me.

I like the idea of a tanky Keyan. You could amp up his tankiness by having a good blocker. I don't want to butcher your idea too much, but adding an Awing proto or Awing green + intimidation could be helpful for him. Another good option is an ORS (or wild space fringer soon), maybe with intelligence agent and/or navigator (and/or tactical jammers soon).

This actually looks pretty fun.

I said in the other thread loading a b-wing up will end in tears, one green die won't keep the b-wing alive long enough to make it worth while, two turns of focused fire and you've lost near half your points.

He's a good pilot but you have to accept he's gonna be a focus and will most likely die first.

I said in the other thread loading a b-wing up will end in tears, one green die won't keep the b-wing alive long enough to make it worth while, two turns of focused fire and you've lost near half your points.

He's a good pilot but you have to accept he's gonna be a focus and will most likely die first.

Depends on how it's done. I've seen it happen to great effect before.

If the falcon the falcon with 13 hp goes down in 2-3 turns of focus fire you are betting on sensor jammer and elusiveness to net you 5 or more hp in 2-3 turns. I don't see it.

What I do see is that you can take nearly the same falcon load out out (no gunner) and upgrade your 3 escorts to provide enhanced offense (what you are lacking). Biggs, tarn, ptl+outmaneuver Jake are all solid options.