I recently returned from Worlds where I ran a list that was surprising and terrifying. Many of my opponents had no idea how to fight the list or how it would fight. I received a number of requests to write an article on this list.
This list was conceived due to the recent change in the FAQ on the Proximity Mines. If you were not aware, previously the Proximity Mines would only go off after the movement template or final position of a ship overlapped the mine. If the Mine was dropped onto a ship, it would not go off until a ship moved over it. Now, however, the ruling was changed so that when a Prox Mine was dropped on a ship, it would immediately go off. If it overlapped multiple ships, the player dropping the mine gets to choose.
Now, I explored some of the implications of this is a previous article. http://teamcovenant.com/sablegryphon/2014/10/23/proximity-mines-explored/
List Development
Spurred by the article, I began experimentation with Proximity Mines. These devices work best on low PS ships, so they can move before the enemy and enable them to be dropped on a defenseless target. As such, they naturally fit on the Scimitar Squadron Pilot. At 16 points and PS2, this ship is ideal for carrying such weaponry, bringing its final cost to 19 points. This is also an interesting point value, as it fills a gap where the Imperials don't have a lot of options around that point cost. At 6 hull and 2 agility, the enemy is often discouraged from shooting at the target, simply because the effort required to get the ship off the board is often not worth the 19 points when there are other targets to be had.
I realized, however, that 5 of these bombers is 95 points. Those extra 5 points are difficult to spend. A couple flechettes would be possible. Further, as currently the Prox Mines only come in the Firespray, I would have to own 5 Firesprays to run it. But I did have four of them. So dropping one put me at 24 points, which is a siren call for me. Any time I see a 24 point hole in an Imperial list, that screams to me Doom Shuttle. Then I realized that it was an ideal companion.
TIE Bomber Basics
The dials on the Bombers are excellent, but quirky. They do not have a 1 hard and their 2 hard is red. But 3 hard is white, allowing them to make large, sweeping turns. Add to this their ability to barrel roll, and they effectively have a number of turn options. The green maneuvers are incredible for such a craft. 1-3 forward are green, allowing both a short maneuver to stay in engagement or stay out of range, or a fast 3 to clear stress and stay relevant in the fight. 2 banks are also green, allowing them to adjust their angle and still clear stress. Their best maneuver, however, is the 5-K.
Only two other ships in the game have a 5 Koiogran Turn. The A-Wing and the TIE Interceptor. Both of these ships rarely perform this maneuver. As both ships require actions to stay alive or stay relevant in the fight, red maneuvers are avoided. The sheer number of greens, as well as the ability to shift position with actions such as boost and barrel roll, mean these craft often have better options.
The TIE Bomber, on the other hand, isn't quite as agile. But they are durable, so one round of no actions is rarely likely to be fatal. Further, the 5-K is excellent at clearing blockers and melees. When there is a huge pileup of ships, the 5-K is often able to clear it and still bring guns to bear on the enemy. In this example, our Bomber performs a 5-K with a ghost where a 4-K would be.
The Prox Mines themselves are what make this list particularly nasty. The reason is that they add a whole new form of attack and movement that players are often unprepared. Usually, during the approach, most encounters generally go like this. There are a long range shots (sometimes just out of range or limited shots), then the ships slow down for close range shots. Then, the combatants either break away for position or K-Turn to continue the slugging match. However, the TIE Bomber with Prox Mine adds another option. Fly passed, getting good position for next turn, and spend their action to roll 3 unmodified attack dice against a ship.
I will be the first to admit that sometimes that roll is all blanks. More likely it's 1-2 damage the ship wouldn't have taken normally. Against a damaged ship or a fragile, evasive ship, that can be devastating. This is the crux that I explored in the Proximity Mine article referenced earlier.
Flying The List
The reception of this list at Worlds was one of bafflement and terror. My list has 34 HP total, most of that with 2 agility. It takes a lot of effort to remove any one ship from the board in a single round of shooting.
My standard deployment is the Doom Shuttle in one corner with the 4 Bombers in a box formation at some distance from the Alabaster Void Manatee, placed for best position based on asteroids. I rarely setup after my opponent placed any ships.
This formation allowed me to either rush or stall to determine what the opponent was up to depending on their list and how I felt they would approach the game. If I want to rush, I can move 4 forward or 3 bank with the Bombers and 3 forward or 2/3 bank with the Lambda. If a slow approach is desired, I can stop with the Ghostly Space Buffalo and do a 1-forward or 1-bank and barrel roll with the bombers. This puts my entire list in a loose formation from which I can deploy. This works to protect the White Star Cow by putting it behind my bombers regardless of their deployment.
In an ideal engagement, the first round my bombers are at range 2-3 with my Doom Shuttle at range 3 to only the front of their fleet. With 2-3 agility dice and a focus, whichever Bomber they choose to engage is likely to survive the first round of shooting, though it may be severely damaged and sporting some fascinating new crits.
The next round, most of my list will move slowly to prolong the engagement while the damaged ship has three options depending on the situation. It can perform a 5-K, getting behind the enemy for the next rounds. Ideal for ships that are moderately damaged and not sporting terrible crits. It can move to block, which is usually used against ships that are too far away to reliably get behind even with a 5-K. Or it can pick a target to fly beyond to drop its prox mine, hopefully doing damage or even destroying the ship.
The trick to this, as with most lists, is to force them to spread their fire. This is a more viable tactic with this list than most because of a quirk of list design. See, usually when a ship has been damaged, the opponent commonly starts to suffer target fixation. In this state, an enemy will doggedly pursue a wounded craft, sometimes to their detriment. However, I've noticed that once a Bomber has dropped their Prox Mine, they suddenly drop in priority.
Thus, often when I deploy the mine from a wounded bomber, especially if the ship is at longer range or facing away from their list, they will often start working on a new Bomber, trying to destroy one with the mines still on board. As wounded bombers are usually still quite dangerous, most of my firepower remains on the board for longer.
2014 World Championships
I flew this list in both Flight 1 and Flight 2. I flew against a lot of good opponents, many of whom now blur together in my mind, so I've forgotten who I face on which day and in which match. Let me know if you were one of my opponents and which match it was.
I didn't get pictures for all of my matches in Flight 2, though I wasn't flying as well that day. I went 4-2 both days, with my losses both days being Round 1 and 6. I'm going to talk about Flight 1 mostly, with a few highlights from Flight 2.
Round 1 was against Mishary. He was taking Soontir Fel, Howlrunner, and 4 Obsidian Squad Pilots. This was my first match of the day and I was still warming up and Mishary flew well. Here is the second round of engagement. The one damaged Bomber was flown forward to block some of his squad while one chased Soontir to discourage him from immediately flanking me. This was a very close match. He was cautious with Soontir and I never got a good chance to Mine him, so he survived and would cause most of my losses. When time was called, I had destroyed Howlrunner and 3 Obsidians for 57 points and I had lost the Doom Shuttle and 2 Bombers for 62 points. I had lost the second bomber in the last round of shooting, so it was an extremely close game.
Round 2 found me facing a Han list. Han Solo had 3P0, Recon Specialist, and something else. He was supported by a Gold with Ion Turret and a Rebel Operative with Ion Turret and Jan Ors. Here, he was using Recon Specialist to get a focus and evade on Han every turn, supported by 3P0. As Ion was dangerous to me, I knew I needed to take down the HWK first. We setup across from each other, but he immediately did a hard turn while I stalled. He attempted to pull me through the asteroids. However, sensing the trap and knowing the HWK couldn't K-Turn, I turned into the clear paths in the asteroids and pounced. The HWK went down quickly. Then I turned my attention to Han, pouring fire into it. I lost a Bomber and got Han down to 3 hull. As he was about to escape, I dropped a prox mine and my opponent rolled Hit Hit Crit, killing him. Then it was just a matter of hunting the Y-Wing down. He was flow extremely well, so it took me a while, but he could not get through the sheer amount of hull on my list. As a side note, because my first round against Mishary was so close, he was at the table next to me. I was the highest of the losses and he was the lowest of the wins.
Round 3 brought me against another bulky list. 3 OGPs (the two White ones having FCS) and Soontir. I knew how to fly against Lambdas and his Soontir was hesitant to eat Prox Mines and didn't engage much. It was a slog, as I blocked his shuttles and generally outguessed them to deny them shots and actions. By the end of the hard fought, brutal game I had lost two Bombers and had managed to kill both FCS Cows, putting me over the top by 2 points. Interestingly, this game also took place next to Mishary, as he remained one table ahead of me.
Round 4 was against Biggs, Luke, and Keyan. He setup in the opposite corner, hoping to draw me through the rocks. I am well versed in rock piloting, so this meant I was able to approach him from two directions, forming a pincer. Sadly, I don't remember most of this match, though I do remember the Listerine colored templates.
I know it didn't end well for my poor opponent. Mishary hadn't done as well and was now two table down from me. If I recall, he lost his fourth round putting him at 2-2 with poor MoV and dropped.
Round 5 was against 5 bandits and Luke with Engine Upgrade, VI, and R3-A2. On the first round of engagement, my fatigued opponent made a mistake and banked instead of going forward. This was ostensibly to provide good K-Turns but meant some of his list couldn't target the doom shuttle. Instead, he choose to attack a bomber. Luckily, after all his attacks, it was only moderately damaged. I proceeded on that round and the next to kill Luke and 2 Bandits. This game would not recover for him. I don't remember the final score, but it was a solid victory. I may have lost a bomber in the end.
Round 6 was my best chance to make the cut, but I was up against James McDonald/Sunny Ravencourt (if my memory serves correctly). While my opponent was terrified of my list, I knew it would be a hard fight. Across from me was a Doom Shuttle, Soontir + PTL, and a decked out Whisper. I knew I had to take out Whisper and my opponent was an excellent pilot. I was able to quickly take out his shuttle, but was only able to strip one shield off Whisper from my own Doom Shuttle. Then, I made the worst mistake of the tournament for me. I had boxed in Whisper. I had two bombers with Prox Mines facing her, but the Space Cow was in the way. I knew I needed to move the shuttle first, then I would be able to drop both prox mines. But I was fatigued and in a hurry and flipped the wrong dial, starting to move one of the bombers. I knew what I had done immediately. I was only able to get one mine off on Whisper, stripping the final shield. But it would not be enough. He would spend the rest of the match destroying me, though I still had a couple bombers on the board at the end. He played extremely well and I lost me best chance to advance. Still, I had a lot of fun and was happy with my performance.
I would play again in Flight 2 and also go 4-2 with higher points due to the lack of modified win, though with worse MoV. I wasn't flying as well the second day, but was still happy with my performance. One notable incident saved me on that day and holds a painful lesson. I was up against another Phantom build in Round 3. It did not go well, as my opponent was once again a good player. Whisper was down to 1 shield and 2 hull and I was down to one remaining Bomber. It had 4 hull left, but one of the damage cards was Weapon Malfunction, putting me at 1 attack dice. I managed to get my last prox mine off on Whisper and he rolls... Hit and Crit. There was still hope. He draws the crit and it is Stunned Pilot. Blast. Whisper is extremely hard to block. The next turn I make a sweeping turn to get back in the fight. Whisper then decloaks and reveals a move that slams her right into me. Stunned Pilot destroys her. A single pilot error is all it takes to kill Whisper and forgetting about a crit can be ones doom. I felt bad claiming that victory, knowing that it should have been a loss.
I would not make the cut either day. Saturday I went to play in the Winter League tournament. I would place ~7 th with 3-1. My overall record at the Worlds events was 11-5, which is a fantastic record in that environment. I did quite well and I am proud of my performance, especially with a creative list.
Conclusion
The list I took is quite effective. It's brutal and carries a bunch of tricks. It's weaker against Phantoms as I found out, but powerful against Fat Han builds and elite lists. It performs well against most common lists. I think it's an extremely viable list and one that should be feared, but takes skill to master the dials of both the Bomber and the Shuttle. The Prox Mines take finesse and skill to employ effectively, and can be a bit random. Still, one can expect 1-2 damage from their use during a time when the opponent is not expecting damage. This can destroy ships before they can even activate, for instance.
I faced all sorts of builds found the list solid, effective, and intimidating. Many opponents quailed when I told them what I was running. These were all experienced players, used to facing Phantoms and Falcons and Swarms and it was my list that gave them pause. If you want an interesting list that breaks from the norm, consider this or variations on it. Let me know if it works for you and if you find ways to improve the list.
