i know how to drop them in a vacuum, but together i'm not really sure how to deal with the duo. they just drop so much damage so fast.

What are you flying against them?

What are you flying against them?

here comes where my obvious problems are

guri, veteran instincts, autothrusters

syndicate thug, autoblaster turret, title, unhinged astro x2

binarye pilot x 2

VI is a waste on Guri... If you aren't at least PS 7, don't bother with VI.

I'd actually drop a Binary pirate for ICTs on the Thugs. They are a lot more effective than the ABT, especially if you are going to lock them forward.

Just Ion Wedge, then kill him. Ion Keyan, then kill him. Not too hard.

What do Keyan and Wedge have on them? That makes a pretty big difference about who you go after first and how you do it.

Two most feared pilots in the game: Howlrunner and Wedge. They illicit fear in their opponents that sometimes cause them to act irrational.

Focus everything on Wedge, he is the real threat of the pair. He gets to throw 3 or 4 dice to you defenseless thugs.

If Biggs is flying alongside them as he was in the recent match I played against those two, I think your best bet is to jam in there and try to block K and W while you work on Biggs. You might get some un-Biggsable shots on K and W in the process. That's a fight you probably want to have in the rocks in order to limit their movement options.

VI is a waste on Guri... If you aren't at least PS 7, don't bother with VI.

I'd actually drop a Binary pirate for ICTs on the Thugs. They are a lot more effective than the ABT, especially if you are going to lock them forward.

Just Ion Wedge, then kill him. Ion Keyan, then kill him. Not too hard.

I agree, I would amend your squad like this:

Rather than give you list building advice (your list is just fine, by the way, though I find AB turrets are very, very difficult to use with the A4 title), I will answer directly. Guri is your late game closer, do what you can to preserve her even at the cost of sacrificing the rest of your list.

You need to slam your 4 escorts into point blank range at the first opportunity, ideally with the Y-Wings perpendicular to the approach. Your Y-Wings are very good at surviving fire from Wedge and Wes, since they are dependent on neither green dice nor focus tokens to survive. Get close enough to let them use their turrets, and let the Pirates block the X-Wings to ruin their accuracy and you will do just fine.

If you can't get the Y-Wings in from the side, feel free to fly past with the Pirates and K-Turn the Y-Wings in front of them. You can trade fire with these guys if you're face to face (if they K-Turn as well), or you can have your Pirates shooting while your Y-Wings block if they don't. Once the Pirates have K-Turned and are adding their fire to the mix, you can use blocking to mess up their accuracy and almost certainly out damage the both of them. If not, your escorts are cheap enough that Guri should be able to mop up afterwards.

Just don't let him zero in on Guri on the initial pass. Make him choose whether to ignore your Thugs and Pirates or ignore Guri. If he goes after your escorts, Guri can engage without getting too badly mauled, and if he chases Guri you should be able to run her away while hammering him with your escorts.

Not only is Wedge the meaner of the two, but he's also the easier to kill.

If I used your exact list (I agree about VI, though. Maybe go with Calculation) then I would try to get at them at Range 3. You might want to look into the Rule of 11 video that helps you do that. Get your shots at R3 and fire all you have at Wedge. With that many ships, you should put some hurt on Wedge at R3. Then, just try to get another turn where you can put the hurt on Wedge without taking too much damage. I'd maybe go defensive on Guri in the early game. Go for some defense the first few turns and try not to get singled out.

What are you flying against them?

here comes where my obvious problems are

guri, veteran instincts, autothrusters

syndicate thug, autoblaster turret, title, unhinged astro x2

binarye pilot x 2

Like everyone else has said, drop the VI and the AB turret. AB turret with the title just seems like a waste. It's maybe an unavoidable 1-2 damage IF your low-PS pilots can get them into your firing arc at range 1. For 3 more points, the ICT adds roughly the same damge at up to range 2, plus adds control through the Ion token.

If you drop VI, the turrets, and a Binarye, you should have 18 points to play with. That would free you up to put Ion Turrets on both Thugs, and gives you 8 points to spend on Guri and the other Z-95.

Not only is Wedge the meaner of the two, but he's also the easier to kill.

If I used your exact list (I agree about VI, though. Maybe go with Calculation) then I would try to get at them at Range 3. You might want to look into the Rule of 11 video that helps you do that. Get your shots at R3 and fire all you have at Wedge. With that many ships, you should put some hurt on Wedge at R3. Then, just try to get another turn where you can put the hurt on Wedge without taking too much damage. I'd maybe go defensive on Guri in the early game. Go for some defense the first few turns and try not to get singled out.

I think that's a mistake. I think you need to rush him to get blocks and increase firepower. The Thugs and Pirates are going to be 4 2 dice attacks, each opposed by a 3-dice defensive role. You want range 2 to be the first exchange, it's 4 green dice less that Wedge will have (5 if Guri is committed early also). That's 1-2 damage saved right there.

Ideally your first exchange of fire would be point blank. That will be tough to arrange, but effective if you can do so.

Both Y-Wings will almost certainly survive a range 1 exchange with Wedge and Farlander (right at 9/10 times, while saving a focus to shoot, even better if you focus to evade vs. Keyan). If your pirates also managed to block, the odds skyrocket. The same cannot be said of Wedge surviving the return fire (or Keyan for that matter if the Pirates are also shooting). If you add the two Pirates into the mix to mess with action economy and possibly even provide an extra shot, the odds of coming out on the losing side are very minimal. The X-Wing just can't repel firepower of that magnitude, the Y-Wing can.

as has been said, shoot Wedge

he's as scary as a phantom, but as durable as a Z-95 with a hull upgrade

Rather than give you list building advice (your list is just fine, by the way, though I find AB turrets are very, very difficult to use with the A4 title), I will answer directly. Guri is your late game closer, do what you can to preserve her even at the cost of sacrificing the rest of your list.

You need to slam your 4 escorts into point blank range at the first opportunity, ideally with the Y-Wings perpendicular to the approach. Your Y-Wings are very good at surviving fire from Wedge and Wes, since they are dependent on neither green dice nor focus tokens to survive. Get close enough to let them use their turrets, and let the Pirates block the X-Wings to ruin their accuracy and you will do just fine.

If you can't get the Y-Wings in from the side, feel free to fly past with the Pirates and K-Turn the Y-Wings in front of them. You can trade fire with these guys if you're face to face (if they K-Turn as well), or you can have your Pirates shooting while your Y-Wings block if they don't. Once the Pirates have K-Turned and are adding their fire to the mix, you can use blocking to mess up their accuracy and almost certainly out damage the both of them. If not, your escorts are cheap enough that Guri should be able to mop up afterwards.

Just don't let him zero in on Guri on the initial pass. Make him choose whether to ignore your Thugs and Pirates or ignore Guri. If he goes after your escorts, Guri can engage without getting too badly mauled, and if he chases Guri you should be able to run her away while hammering him with your escorts.

I just wanted to say, yay for actual tactics rather than zombie list building advice.

I've beaten @nikk whyte with this list three times, and he still hasn't learned. But really, though, he's a good player. You can see our most recent game here:

That Handsome Nick with StarViper vs Regular Comm…:

Some audio issues, and need to make sure my commentators can work the computer when I'm away or at the table. But you can get the basic idea.

My strategy with this list is typically the same. I'm strongest in the joust, but Keyan and wedge are valuable. I send the Zs in first, hoping they will take the first turn fire, as it happens here. That allows the hitters to lay a lot if damage on early while they are unthreatened.

Mistakes were made on both sides, but I love having these videos to review.

Thoughts on the match?

Mistakes were made on both sides, but I love having these videos to review.

Being able to review your game afterwards has to be a combination of wonderful and horribly painful. I'm going to have to try to convince my regular sparring partner to allow me to point a camera at our games.

for example, after watching the above tape, I noticed where I could have turned in to engage one turn later, and potentially turned the whole game around.

for example, after watching the above tape, I noticed where I could have turned in to engage one turn later, and potentially turned the whole game around.

I wish I had k turned wedge a turn earlier than I tried, so there'd have been no chance of derping it.

I didn't watch the video fully, so I can't comment on dice rolling or actions, but it looked like the main cause of your loss was your deployment and early movement. Both of your squads really want to joust. Your opponent kept his tightly focused together on the initial barrage. Yours was spread out from the beginning, and became scattered before initial contact and so it looked as though you weren't able to focus your fire too well.

Wedge is Squishy, Kill wedge first - don't spread your fire.

That's probably a lot of my problem, poor target priority. I've started flying these 5 ships formations in order to tackle all the big ships flying around 2 months ago, but now there are just less of them to shoot at, so these 4-5 ship lists I've been running are just mediocre.