Ruthlessness

By DarkArk, in X-Wing Battle Reports

So I wanted to make a list based around this card, seeing as how it doesn't seem to be used that much. I figured I'd have to take two ships since three would have much greater chance of procing it on myself, and so I ended up with a Firespray+Defender list.

Boba Fett: Navigator, Ruthlessness, Shield Upgrade

Rexlar Brath: HLC, Ruthlessness, Shield Upgrade

Rexlar is more for his PS, I never did use his ability and I didn't expect to, allowing both of my ships to move in different orders if I want. I've lately discovered how invaluable this can be and now try and incorporate it into my lists. Defender was taken because it's a very tanky ship, and to boost my damage with HLC.

Boba was more of a one-off thing, I did it because I'd never used Fettigator before and wanted to try it. Shield upgrades were for extra tank, considering there's a real possibility of hurting myself.

I tested it at my local meetup yesterday against a Super Dash, with a Tarn+R7 and prototype escort. The joust went fairly well, I was well positioned and my opponent had his ships at range one of each other. I managed to take some shields off Dash and used ruthlessness to take Tarn's shields away. He did some reasonable damage to Boba in return.

This is where some bad luck and mistakes were made on my part. Fettigator is quite potent against Dash in terms of chasing him, and I did, missing range one by a literal millimeter. Very frustrating. What was worse was that Boba ended up with a damaged cockpit critical between Tarn and Dash, which took him out of the game. I also made a mistake of trying to kill Tarn with Rexlar, since he had no shields, but ended up losing a lot of damage to his combo. Learned something there. I did end up killing him, but two turns later than it should have been.

Anyway with Boba basically out of the game I danced with Dash some, and Rexlar ended up being destroyed not long after. Got Dash down to four health and stripped the prototype's shields.

I want to try this list again, since I think I got very unlucky with that damaged cockpit. I'm also considering getting rid of the extra shield on Fett, but I can't decide what to put in its place.

Edited by DarkArk

Nice battle report. If you are going to stick with Fett, I would suggest Engine Upgrade instead of Shield Upgrade. It helps you manipulate your bearing to put your front or rear arc on the target (especially the rear arc). At just 2 ships, swarms could give you troubles, so Seismic Charges could also be nice. They have the bonus of blending in well with your additional damage theme. They may not help so much against small builds with elite fighters, though. I've seen Proximity Mines work wonders, too.

I would love to hear more adventures in Ruthlessness. I'll share mine here, too, since I think the thread is appropriately named. I tried:

2x Royal Guard Pilot (Ruthlessness)

2x Royal Guard Pilot (Predator)

My opponent brought

Blue Sq. Pilot (Ion Cannon)

Blue Sq. Pilot (Ion Cannon, Fire-control System)

Gold Sq. Pilot (Ion Cannon Turret)

Gold Sq. Pilot (Ion Cannon Turret, R3-A2)

For funsies, I chose the Rebel Transport instead of my three asteroids. Little did I know how big a role that would play. Seeing Ruthlessness, he knew he couldn't stay together. He started clustered in the corner where the transport was, and feinted like he was going to split his Y-wings around one side and his B-wings around the other. I tried pin wheel formation and totally botched it on the 5-straight. I don't think that formation is for me. So anyway, first round of combat my interceptors are at the front of the transport, and we all have shots at his B-wings, but the Y's are out of range. We destroyed one B-wing before it got to fire, and the other one received 2 damage from Ruthlessness. Ion Cannons made a giant mess and we all kind of collided.

Ruthlessness just kept pumping out damage. We did 5 or 6 extra damage with Ruthlessness over the course of the game, and ended up with a Predator and Ruthlessness interceptor left.

Definitely looking forward to using this squad some more!

I've been trying to find a home for this card as well. I'm going to play with 6 BSP Ties (5 with Ruthlessness, 1 to take the lead, and hits for the team). I'm sure I'll wind up doing as much damage to my team as I do the enemy, but that's what Ties are for...right!?!

I've been running Ruthlessness on Oicunn for a variety of auto-damage options. add in Vader and it might be seriously deadly.

I've tried Ruthlessness on Darth Vader with Engine Upgrade and it has been quite effective! It gives Vader more damage output and makes thematic sense!