Round The Rugged Rocks The Ragged Rascals Ran

By Funkleton, in X-Wing

Posted at

Also known as the Kath Scarlett Booty Shuffle

Kath Scarlet (44) Firespray-31 (38), Expert Handling (2), K4 Security Droid (3), Inertial Dampeners (1)
Boba Fett (56) Firespray-31 (39), Push the Limit (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Recon Specialist (3), Slave-1 (0), Engine Upgrade (4)
The idea with this is to construct a nice dense central asteroid field (see Dracon's post here for some tips https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/137134-post-tournament-musings-re-scum/#entry1481103 ) ideally with a single asteroid away from the main bunch as close to one of your opponent's corners as possible - this will give him one very obvious corner to deploy in.
You've got a decent chance of deploying last, and with a dense central field, your opponent is likely to pick one side to deploy on - especially if you managed to get a corner rock in. - and if he deploys a flanker, more fool him.
Deploy Kath on the same side as your opponent, but a little more centrally - roughly a third of the way in about 1 ship base width from a direct line to the first rock - if that makes sense.
Boba goes on the opposite side about the width of 2 large ship bases from the edge - looking to blast straight forward unopposed and hard turn (or bank+boost) around the top as your oppponent heads for you down the opposite flank
Start by making a hard turn with Kath towards the centre of the rocks - then barrel roll in fairly tight to them.
You can then spend the game jinking and shuffling around the fringes of the central field using 1 straights or 1 left and right banks - followed by a BR back in toward the field, to keep the rocks and some of the corridors around the rocks covered by her rear arc while Boba goes FAST up and around the asteroids to get up close and personal with anyone in the open corridor around the edges.
It's an absolute scream to fly, and watching Kath move like that - and your opponents face when she does - is a thing of beauty.
It's not without it's challenges though - as you move away from your opponent then BR back, you often drift out of range to use K4 for a TL - so her attack is unmodified more often than I'd like - likewise you don't really want to double stress her by using EI to take an additional action for defense on top of Expert handling.
There's also a bit of a challenge when she reaches the end of a row of rocks and needs to come around by 90 degrees to reorient - sometimes you can get away without using EH in the turn before but more often than not you need to bite the bullet and take a hard 2 staying stressed for a turn.
But it's still some of the most fun I've had in a while - definitely recommend you try it, and there's bonus points for singing this while you do it:
Edited by Funkleton
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here's a quick mock up of Kath's moves to give you a better idea of what I'm on about

*Edit* just realised I put the corner asteroid on the wrong side - but I think you get the picture

iodits.jpg

Edited by Funkleton
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It's an interesting idea, and not many folks probably expect Kath to fly like a YT-2400. I'm still not sure I'd prefer it to Engine Upgrade, though. I'm used to that taking up my Mod slot on large-based ships, I'm not used to my EPT slot going to Expert Handling. Kath's at one of the fringe Piloting ranks, too, where VI becomes kind of tempting.

It's a cool idea, though, and I bet it IS kind of fun to fly. Thanks for the pic, too, just to clarify what you meant.

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It's an interesting idea, and not many folks probably expect Kath to fly like a YT-2400. I'm still not sure I'd prefer it to Engine Upgrade, though. I'm used to that taking up my Mod slot on large-based ships, I'm not used to my EPT slot going to Expert Handling. Kath's at one of the fringe Piloting ranks, too, where VI becomes kind of tempting.

It's a cool idea, though, and I bet it IS kind of fun to fly. Thanks for the pic, too, just to clarify what you meant.

Ssssh!!! don't mention doing this with an Outrider - it was supposed to be my little secret!

Kath with EU VI/PTL is great - probably the more versatile and straightforward of the two builds and I like it a lot - but this fits in with my general "you-want-me-come-and-get-me" style of play

I might see how it does with a couple of ion turret Y-wings next

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You sir, are a ******* wizerd. bending space time.

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One thing I have to question: If you can't BR (rebcap, tactician, etc), is there a simple way to get back into the pattern? Because it looks like you'd end up going too far forwards if you EVER lose the chance

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One thing I have to question: If you can't BR (rebcap, tactician, etc), is there a simple way to get back into the pattern? Because it looks like you'd end up going too far forwards if you EVER lose the chance

played against a couple of lists with rebcap this evening - most of the time it wasn't a problem because Boba shot first - his rerolls and EU allowed him to shrug it off

Otherwise it's the hardest fastest bank or turn you've got to give you some space and get away from the edge, straight 1-2, 1 bank to get you round the next corner. then back to the boogie.

Don't expect to be able to keep it up all game. at best you'll hold it for the opening rounds, then phase in and out as the opportunity and situation demands

Be prepared to stand and fight when you have to or when the opportunity presents itself - barrel rolling back into arc to wallop someone with 5 dice and a TL should never be passed up even if you're going to take some lumps in return

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I'm thinking of trying a similar tactic this evening with the following build:

Dash Rendar (50) YT-2400 Freighter (36), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Jan Ors (2), Outrider (5)
Lando Calrissian (50) YT-1300 (44), Expert Handling (2), Kyle Katarn (3), Millennium Falcon (1)
The idea is to keep Lando running the inside track around the asteroids - while Dash floats around the outside slightly behind Lando.
This might sound counter intuitive to Dash's ability and to stress Lando with EH Barrel Rolls - but there is a method to my madness.
As Lando jinks away from the the rocks then barrel rolls back in towards them (using the same kind of pattern I illustrated for Kath), he takes stress - the following turn he greens to clear the stress giving a free action to Dash, and takes a free focus for himself thanks to kyle - which he can either keep or flip to an evade courtesy of Jan. while Dash paces him around the outside taking focus + TL each turn.
Although they are flying pretty close, their equal PS allows you to mitigate lost actions from bumps by switching the activation order
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So, tried the Lando-Dash list and it is terrific fun as expected.

Went up against probably the best player in the club with a Kath ( PTL K4 EU and 2 seismics) and her Binayre Pirate Swarm (ZZZZ).

Totally wrong-footed him at the start by zipping away around the fringes with Lando taking the inside track and Dash on the outside.

This completely negated Kaths ability by forcing him to give chase and enticed him to position his Zs in anticipation of a Dash dash through the rocks which never came.

By the time he cottoned on to my game plan I'd knocked off 2 Zs and put 6 damage on Kath at the cost of 7 shield tokens. So he was forced to take risks through the rocks to get his Zs in front to block - it worked (as far as you can block a list that gives free focus to a ship that clears a stress takes a green, and hands a free action to his buddy when he does) but he paid a heavy price, losing his last 2 Zs in consecutive turns at the cost of 4 hull on Lando.

At that point I managed to pull a crushing defeat from the jaws of victory.

A range 3 shot through a rock on Lando with an Evade brought up a hit and 2 crits - Lando blanked, drew a direct hit and a minor explosion, rolled a hit and his last 4 hull points disappeared in front of my eyes.

Still, Dash still had a shield and 5 hull - all I have to do is fly conservatively and play the percentages right?

Wrong!

After having had a little (but not a lot) more than my fair share of luck with the dice in the early stages, I suddenly found myself unable to to make anything stick while my opponent chipped away at me- then I made my only serious piloting error of the game - got caught in Kaths rear arc and it was over.

Great game!

Great list!

Edited by Funkleton
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I'm resurrecting this 4 day old thread, cuz its a pretty awesome idea.

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Has anyone tried Kath with EU? Is EH or EU better?

How do you point your butt and beg someone to chase your derrière?

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Has anyone tried Kath with EU? Is EH or EU better?

How do you point your butt and beg someone to chase your derrière?

I've tried both - and they both work really well

Engine upgrade is probably the simpler approach and easier to fly, and has the advantage that it keeps you moving away from your opponent - which is exactly how you need to be flying Kath - and it doesn't add stress - but as you're often boosting from range 1 to range 2, or 2 to 3, it lowers your damage output

Expert handling offers arguably better arc dodging potential, and gives you the opportunity to barrel roll right back into range 1 for that 5 dice punch in the mouth that everyone loves so much, plus it's just so darned whacky that your opponent will never see it coming.

More difficult to fly but more fun and more rewarding when you can make it work.

Of course there's nothing to stop you from giving her both - it's a little pricey and there's no way to perform both actions in a single turn - which would be super-awesome if you could - but it would be extremely versatile.

Edited by Funkleton