DUTCH???

By ZiM946, in X-Wing Squad Lists

I've been following some of the recent store championship lists and I haven't seen anything regarding the use of Dutch. Is he not viable any longer even with R7-T1 and an auto blaster?

Chewie + Millenium Falcon + Predator

Garven Dreis

Dutch + BTL-4A + R7-T1 + Auto Blaster Turret

I love Dutch. I used to run him all the time. But I can't seem to find a good way to put him in a list anymore. If I'm using the title, then on Dutch I'm not going to want to use the stressbot since I want my action. Furthermore, I'm restricted to the Ion Cannon Turret as he doesn't want to focus to activate the blaster turret, and he really can't use the auto blaster and turret due to his mid range PS. So, I'd think that 28 points for Dutch w/ ICT and -A4 title would be the best way to kit him out. His astro slot should pretty much stay empty, with the possible 2 point exception of R5K6. But this won't be a competitive build as those typically try to reduce variability, not increase it. R2D2, R5P9, R2F2 and R5D8 don't synergize well because of the lack of greens or the requirement for another action (which if it was coupled with EI, then you're back to the lack of greens statement). R3A2 doesn't synergize due to he actually wants his action to give off a TL. R7 isn't too bad, but with 2 attacks, you probably will get better use out of the TL on offense than defense. And then R7-T1 isn't too bad either as it can give him the boost into R1, but I don't really think he really wants to be at R1. Plus being at PS6, it won't help out against most targets that are elusive anyways.

Without the title, there are much better ways to spend 28 points, which is why he hasn't been used much recently. I could potentially see using him with the AB, but then you're left putting R7T1 on him, and you're right back at 28 points. You don't want to put an EU on him since then you're not using his ability.

Personally speaking, I don't think any Y-wing is viable with BTL + autoblaster

remove the title and the Y-wing starts becoming pretty terrifying, though. It's just that limiting it to both range 1 and arc is incredibly overkill.

I also don't think that Auto Blaster is the turret for dutch. Remember, it only makes hits uncancelable, crits can still be canceled. This just means you're probably better off with the focus action overall since you're never getting crits off of focus rolls.

I have my own issues with Garven more than Dutch. I just don't find him to be particularly worth it and the X-wing as a ship really needs good pilot abilities to get it to outperform the B and new Y-wings. Finally, Chewie w/ Predator just seems redundant with Dutch. I know Dutch is probably there for Garven, but you don't want to include a named pilot ability that works only on one ship (and the squishiest ship in the squad to boot).

Imo, Dutch would be best with a simple ion cannon turret and using his ability of supporting friendlies to cover his own damage deficiency. You could make some pretty convincing lists with him and 3 B-wings or BTL Y-wings, provided you liked the play-style.

I could imagine a solid showing out of Ion Dutch, two Tactician B-wings, and one naked B-wing. You get the crippling stress + ion combination as well as some hard hitting 3-dice attacks, especially the one benefiting from Dutch's free target-lock. Plus, with 8 health each, you get one beefy bully of a squadron squadron :)

Now, if you want to get real fluffy, you can replace those 3 B-wings with 3 Gold Squaddies with BTL, Ions, and R2 astromechs. I personally think the Bs would work better because they have a more convincing range 3 attack and tactician stress is just brutal against the mobile ships that give Bs and Ys fits, but if you're a crazy fan of Ys I can see worse ways to bring them to the table :P

Edited by ficklegreendice