Hello again X-wing fans!

This week.. wait.. have you seen this?! 1000 subscribers! I never would have thought, five months ago, that I would end up with 1k subscribers before the end of the year. Amazing and all thanks to you guys and galls. Actually.. it's 99,5% guys according to my YouTube Analytics. Where all the women at?

Anyways: this week, as I was trying to say, we take a look at something completely different. Sigma Squadron Pilot with Enhanced Scopes and Intelligence Agent. A set of cards and a pilot that is hardly every used, a build that aims for a completely different way of thinking: move first and disrupt. It's not for everyone, but I wanted to try something radically different.

Thanks again for all the support and the positive feedback. Next week we take a look at another 100 point build and I'm going to work on a special video to commemorate my 1000th subscriber. Who knows where I'll be next year, right?

Follow me on twitter for channel news and general news on science I follow: www.twitter.com/mvanrooijenjr/

Hope to see you all next week and as always: fly casual!

As usual, I dig it. I ran dual shadows with Stygium, Fire Control, and Rec Spec. Good action economy but I agree with you, Enhanced Scopes makes for great blockers.

I might still keep the Rec Spec over the Intel Agent if I can fit them into the list.

Intel + Enhances Scopes + Stygium makes for a great combo. After KineticOperator used this, I gave it a try and have found it quite powerful. Running it alongside high PS ships like Whisper gives you a great blocker as well as a way to predict movements AND shoot first with Whisper. That is, it helps to mitigate the penalties when your opponent makes a higher PS bid.

If we're using this for blocking, would Intimidation be the best EPT or is there a better choice?

As usual, I dig it. I ran dual shadows with Stygium, Fire Control, and Rec Spec. Good action economy but I agree with you, Enhanced Scopes makes for great blockers.

I might still keep the Rec Spec over the Intel Agent if I can fit them into the list.

RecSpec is a better choice, but I wanted to keep this a bit thematic. I look at the IntelAgent as training-wheels, eventually they'll come off and I get something like RecSpec or Rebel Captive.

Intel + Enhances Scopes + Stygium makes for a great combo. After KineticOperator used this, I gave it a try and have found it quite powerful. Running it alongside high PS ships like Whisper gives you a great blocker as well as a way to predict movements AND shoot first with Whisper. That is, it helps to mitigate the penalties when your opponent makes a higher PS bid.

Yes, adding Stygium is a great one. What would your Whisper setup be?

If we're using this for blocking, would Intimidation be the best EPT or is there a better choice?

Sadly though, Shadow's and Sigma's can't take EPTs. You could put this on Whisper and run it with intimidation, but you'll need strong support that can capitalize on the penalty to agility, Whisper won't be shooting the target himself.

Gyah! I keep forgetting that the low PS pilots don't get EPTs >.<

The Six Sigma build protects itself primarily by being in contact with the opponents ships. It is much less about blocking, and more about forcing the opposing squadron to engage piecemeal. For example, facing a 3 ship rebel build the Sigma can pick a particular ship to block that allows the Sigma to engage another. In a 1-1, the evade provided by the Stygium Particle Accelerator is significantly more effective defensively than the 2 agility from being cloaked would be, and the 4 attack dice will provide a powerful punch. The ship that bumped the Sigma will not be able to shoot at it, effectively making the Sigma's agility infinite vs. that single ship. This means that you only need to "arc dodge" a single ship in order to create your ideal 1-1 matchup (1 bumped and cannot hit you, you are out of anothers arc, and you are engaging the last).

Intel Agent is important because you are looking to do so much more than simply block somebody when flying this ship. You need to set up a shot, have a clear lane for egress next turn (where you are most likely re-cloaking rather than shooting), and ideally either cause a chain-reaction bump that denies actions to their entire squadron or mess up their alignments so badly the ships are unable to coordinate fire effectively in following turns. Also, if you are running (as I did) another high-PS repositioning ship, the information provided by the Intel Agent can be used to trump the one ship whose PS is higher than any in your list. It also allows you to plan decloak for a second Sigma if that Sigma happens to be out of Range 2. Usually a look at a single piece will allow you to successfully predict the maneuvers of their entire squad, especially if they are using Howlrunner, Biggs, or some other formation effect.

Thanks for this and a special thanks to KineticOperator.

I've been really intrigued by the basic phantoms (tried a four Sigma list, which got burned badly, and with emore success a three Shadow list), and so found the Six Sigma really, really fascinating, but as a new player, it is really difficult to visualise how the concept of the scope and the agent works, so thanks for the insights.

The Six Sigma build protects itself primarily by being in contact with the opponents ships. It is much less about blocking, and more about forcing the opposing squadron to engage piecemeal. For example, facing a 3 ship rebel build the Sigma can pick a particular ship to block that allows the Sigma to engage another. In a 1-1, the evade provided by the Stygium Particle Accelerator is significantly more effective defensively than the 2 agility from being cloaked would be, and the 4 attack dice will provide a powerful punch. The ship that bumped the Sigma will not be able to shoot at it, effectively making the Sigma's agility infinite vs. that single ship. This means that you only need to "arc dodge" a single ship in order to create your ideal 1-1 matchup (1 bumped and cannot hit you, you are out of anothers arc, and you are engaging the last).

Intel Agent is important because you are looking to do so much more than simply block somebody when flying this ship. You need to set up a shot, have a clear lane for egress next turn (where you are most likely re-cloaking rather than shooting), and ideally either cause a chain-reaction bump that denies actions to their entire squadron or mess up their alignments so badly the ships are unable to coordinate fire effectively in following turns. Also, if you are running (as I did) another high-PS repositioning ship, the information provided by the Intel Agent can be used to trump the one ship whose PS is higher than any in your list. It also allows you to plan decloak for a second Sigma if that Sigma happens to be out of Range 2. Usually a look at a single piece will allow you to successfully predict the maneuvers of their entire squad, especially if they are using Howlrunner, Biggs, or some other formation effect.

Excellent explanation, wow! Thank you for this. Truly fascinating.

Thanks for this and a special thanks to KineticOperator.

I've been really intrigued by the basic phantoms (tried a four Sigma list, which got burned badly, and with emore success a three Shadow list), and so found the Six Sigma really, really fascinating, but as a new player, it is really difficult to visualise how the concept of the scope and the agent works, so thanks for the insights.

It is a very intriguing set up, the more I experiment with it the more I like it.

I used an Echo, Sigma, Sigma build for the first time tonight. It was daunting to think about at first, I was looking at a Wedge with Swarm, Wes, Rookie Triple-X opponent and I figured I'd just put them all together and then use Echo to branch off if the X's committed to my setup. They did, to a point. It's definitely scary when to and when not to decloak or go for the shot when it could go multiple ways. In the end I was able to leverage IA successfully a couple times to get good Echo vectors on targets outside of arc (I had initiative, so it was imperitive to check so I didn't get caught moving before his 8 and 9). In the end my opponent doesn't fly against Phantoms much and had some difficulty putting together his own strategy against them, but I started to see the potential even though my buddy probably won't let me fly it against him again.