With the announcement of the Regional locations and dates, I find I have the opportunity to attend a few of them. So I am going to chronicle my thoughts and findings leading up to Regionals, and my participation in them.

I will start with my own Store Championship. Simonsays already wrote a battle report from his vantage point here:

Wave 6 released shortly before the tournament, and by the FFG rules, Wave 6 was legal, but the store owner decided that it was too soon to be fair to everyone, so he decided to make Wave 6 not legal for the tournament. I had been playing around with some Kath/Jax/Backstabber builds before then, but didn't really feel very comfortable in taking them to a tournament. So I went back to my World's build, where I made the top 32. I hadn't played it since World's, but it is a bit like riding a bicycle for me, so I felt comfortable getting it back out. I made it to the Top 4, where I played Victor. He was running Paul's World's build. I was ahead at time by 8 points, and I should have flown one of my hurt TIEs out of the way, but I didn't. And on his last roll of the game, with absolutely no modifiers whatsoever (Injured Pilot on Han, and he boosted for his action), he rolled hit, hit crit and destroyed my TIE to win by 5 points. I look back and think I should have won that one, and I would really have liked to have faced KineticOperator's 87 point dual phantom build for the title, but I didn't get the chance. I would have felt good going into a game with KO because of my work of evolving the shark to beat a phantom, seen here: but it wasn't meant to be.

So, having gotten the top 4 swag that I wanted, I decided to go to the Omaha Store Championship with a list that harkens back to my dual firespray times:

Kath with Expert Handling, K4, Ion Cannon, Inertial Dampeners
Emon Azzameen with Andrasta, Proximity mine, Proximity mine, Ion Cannon, Engine Upgrade, Flight Instructor

In my planning to run Emon, I had developed a move I call the "Slingshot", which I wrote an article about afterwards, seen here:

I ended up 3-2, but very easily could have been 0-5 or 4-1 because I had 4 very close games that could have gone either way.

Since then I have tried out a variety of lists. My Achmed build seems to be a popular one:

Emon with Prox X3, RecSpec, EI, Andrasta (51)
Syndicate Thug with Genius, Proton Bomb, Autoblaster turret, Bomb loadout (25) (Achmed)
Syndicate Thug with Unhinged Astromech, Autoblaster turret, bomb loadout, Prox mine (24)

I talked a bit about this build in the notes of my Slingshot article.

I also have tried out a Emon/IG88B build, and I may do some more research into that one a little later.

I have tried the Mando merc with Recspec/Bodyguard combo, and I wasn't much of a fan of that, at least in a dual firespray build.

I have tried out Scum Boba, and here are my thoughts on Boba in general, either Scum or Imperial: Boba can be a great Phantom counter if he is built as such. But if you're not running him as a Phantom counter, then run Kath. Both the Imperial and Scum versions of Kath are far better, IMO, than the respective Boba versions. And personally, I take Imperial Kath with VI, gunner, and Mangler over Boba as a Phantom counter anyway. And Scum Boba is really only great at Range 1, where he is still only rolling 2 defense dice, and against IG88's, he won't last long against those Aggressors at point blank range. So to me, Scum Boba's ability IS A TRAP! Sorry, don't know where that came from....

So with all of this in mind, I gravitate towards these 2 as the base of my squad:

Emon with Andrasta, Proximity Mine, Proximity Mine, Proton Bomb (47)
Kath with HLC (45)

This leaves 8 points for upgrades. My thoughts on these two like this:

Emon is just flat out fun to throw bombs at people. And with this being the age of Autothrusters and super hard to hit ships, bombs provide a means of doing damage that will get past high agility ships. And with Emon's ability and the Andrasta title, these bombs are the best to run and scariest to face off against. I need to work on knowing where the mines can be placed from each movement on the firespray dial, so that I can be better at dropping them exactly where I want them to be, even though I have had a lot of practice dropping bombs these past 2 years.

Kath with hlc is throwing 4 dice with every attack, and I think 4 dice attacks are what is necessary in order to get past the high agility autothruster ships that we are seeing now. And this is somewhat of a change for me, because I haven't been one to be high on hlc's, instead preferring to go forward and use my rear arc to get shots with actions rather than koiogran turning and using the hlc. But I am finding that the hlc can be very necessary at times. Consider this:

Kath is at Range 3 of your IG88 with Autothrusters. I'm rolling 4 dice at you whether I'm attacking you from the front arc or rear arc. From the rear arc, it's 4v4, but from the front arc it's 4v3, so I'm learning to use the hlc more effectively these past few games.

And I know that in the past I have been an advocate for a third ship in dual firespray builds, but again, that was before autothrusters. One 2-dice gun just isn't going to hit a 3 agility ship with AT/evade/focus, etc. And KineticOperator drove home the point to me that a third ship would just be MOV points for your opponent, which is why his 87 point list doesn't have an AP in it. And once that third ship dies, which is really all it does anyway, now your 2 pared-down firesprays are going to have a harder time catching up on MOV. So I have been looking at these 2 to be the base of my squad: a ship that can hit ships with deadly-accurate bombs, and a ship that rolls 4 or 5 dice with every attack.

Now, how do I go about spending the final 8 points? In the past few years, I have learned that firesprays that can't reposition through either barrel roll or engine are just really slow. So I have been flying repositioning firesprays for a very long time now. But I feel repositioning isn't necessary on Emon. Engine upgrade wouldn't get used on him until after all of his bombs are dropped anyway, and by then he's usually pretty heavily damaged or dead, so the Engine hasn't been worth the points on him for me so far.

Kath, however, is great with Expert Handling, as that is how I have been kitting her out for a long time. I also like having a Seismic on her, as people are too focused on Emon to worry about her seismic, so she usually does some good damage with it as well. That gets us to:

Kath with EH, HLC, Seismic (49).

That leaves 4 points for crew/illicit upgrades. I have been running Greedo/Determination on Kath and been enjoying that, especially with hlc, but he's too situational for my liking. I think I'm going to run K4 and Inertial Dampeners on Kath. That has been good for me so far, especially after barrel rolls, where I can clear the stress, get a free tl, and still do another barrel roll if needed.

So, that's my next loadout I'm going to try. I am also looking at Navigator on Emon, once I get better at knowing exactly where his bombs will be. I did like Flight Instructor on Emon when I ran him in Omaha, so that may be an option as well. But Inertial Dampeners is just really powerful, so it's tough to give that up.

I have also looked at Intel Agent, but that is really only good against higher PS ships. Against low PS squads, Intel Agent is worthless. But it is a consideration.

Good report! I will be heading to my first tourney next weekend having only picked up the game this past week.

Nice report and thanks for thinking out loud with your list building process. I've been experimenting with Imp and Scum Boba/Kath lately and slightly disagree that Kath is better in both cases. For Imperials, now with Mangler Cannon, I think Kath does have a slight edge, but Boba's misdirection at PS10 is still quite good to catch Phantoms. For Scum, it's also close, as Boba's ability, at R1, to reroll your defense die (especially if you have rec spec or at least a focus), is priceless (which is why everyone loves LW and some use Flight Instructor like in your case). Against turrets, yes, being in R1 means you get shot back at with more red dice, but for a phantom, if flown well, I've shot at the phantom out of their arc (with my rear arc of Boba) at R1 with the boost and the rerolls have helped a lot. The issue with Scum Kath at PS9 is that you either need an initiative bid of 98 points, or you most likely will have to move before the phantom, and a good phantom player will just decloak and shoot you in your blindspot anyways.

Ultimately, I love the scum Kath, but would probably never leave Boba at home as long as phantoms are a threat. I'm also really loving SableGryphon's idea of the autoblaster turret and tactician on PS10 Boba, it *really* wrecks a phantom/Soontir type ship. ;-)

I guess I've mostly been facing off vs dual or single IG lists, so I try to stay at range 2-3 if I can to try and stay alive a little longer. Fett at range 1 gets beaten up pretty badly, so I haven't been as impressed with him.

Also, at 2 shields and 2 hull, phantoms don't like to see emon throwing bombs at them. He is just as good at killing phantoms as boba is, just in a much different way.

I guess I've mostly been facing off vs dual or single IG lists, so I try to stay at range 2-3 if I can to try and stay alive a little longer. Fett at range 1 gets beaten up pretty badly, so I haven't been as impressed with him.

Also, at 2 shields and 2 hull, phantoms don't like to see emon throwing bombs at them. He is just as good at killing phantoms as boba is, just in a much different way.

I'm still learning about the scum Boba, but definitely the key with him is to get to R1 somehow without too many guns pointed at him. Was able to do that a couple times against a mini-swarm, being out of their arcs thanks to the Engine, but still able to reroll up to 4 dice at the TIE I want to kill. Even when I completely messed up once and had 3 B/Zs pointed at me, the 3 rerolls on defense dice every time saved me from getting melted. I definitely don't want to chance that again, but it can only get better as I learn to fly Boba more.

I'm really eager to try Emon sometime. The bomb throwing just seems way too fun to pass up. Great "slingshot" article too. I'm going to be practicing that a little bit. The only downside to prox mines is the unmodified aspect of it. Watching that crazy match between Texx and Sozin on the Aces league (Outer Rim Smugglers video), Sozin had Texx pretty much dead with a full health Soontir, 2 hull Chiraneau, vs a 2 hull bomber. 2 of the 3 prox mines didn't connect much at all earlier, but this last one, hit hit crit. Soontir gone like that, and Chiraneau died next.

While exciting, I'm not sure if I have the stomach for that kind of uncertainty at large tournaments. Emon is probably going to be more casual game or small tournament type ship for me, haha.

Really interesting read on Firesprays in the new world of scum and I agree with many of your points and your preferred load out. One thought would be to replace the Seismic on Kath with a proximity mine. That will let her green move, take a lock, drop her mine and then shoot the mine target with 5 TL'd dice. It's not super hard to set up and is pretty much lethal to small ships and fairly crippling to large ones as well. Maybe something to try.

Have you thought of other forms of scum list, I know you are a particularly good maneuver player and I've been flying this with great success against all types of lists, including the dreaded BBBBZ and Panic Attack. Just something to give an alternate perspective to the Firesprays?

Predator, Autothrusters

Damage output is consistent and defense is very high. It is somewhat at the whim of a bad green dice roll, but it can take massive amounts of fire in the initial engagement then use great maneuvering to stay out of arcs whilst laying down damage.

It is very much a range 1 knife fighter list, but it excels at what it does.

I've been considering a hlc serissu and a mando merc with recspec and bodyguard as a defensive tank list. Might file that one for later.

Hothie,

A local player and myself have been running Kath. We'd gotten good results overall, but struggled in particular against high agility lists, including IG 88s until we swapped out K4 for Gunner. I'd highly recommend it as it keeps your dial much more open, especially if you are using your action for movement options like EU or EH. I played pretty poorly in our recent store Championship (I was trying way too hard for the rear shot) but was within one hull of going 3-1 and ended up at 2-2. The other player that ran Kath with gunner made the Top 8, and I think Top 4.

Just a thought, and I know it's expensive, but I found it a far better overall, both in terms of what I was able to do with Kath and the current meta.

That would mean giving up the hlc for maybe a mangler or flechette cannon. The trouble is, people try to stay in front of Kath, and rightly so. The hlc makes them pay for staying in front of her.

I could try out:

Kath with EH, gunner, seismic, flechette cannon (49)

Emon with prox X2, proton bomb, flight instructor (51)

Then I'm not paying much for a cannon that I won't likely use often, plus I get better damage potential in gunner, and better defense on emon to keep him alive long enough to use all of his bombs. Or I could drop the cannon entirely and put inertial dampeners on both. Might do that instead.

That would mean giving up the hlc for maybe a mangler or flechette cannon. The trouble is, people try to stay in front of Kath, and rightly so. The hlc makes them pay for staying in front of her.

I could try out:

Kath with EH, gunner, seismic, flechette cannon (49)

Emon with prox X2, proton bomb, flight instructor (51)

Then I'm not paying much for a cannon that I won't likely use often, plus I get better damage potential in gunner, and better defense on emon to keep him alive long enough to use all of his bombs.

I thought finding the points might be tough in a two ship list and it makes sense to want to make them pay for being in front of you, but I'd give it a shot and see if it might make her a bit tougher for your opponent to face that way. I don't have the math, but I think Gunner would compare well to HLC if that's where the points come from. Neither of us ran her with a cannon as we felt the gunner was enough, but we were running lists with more ships (he had 4 pirate escorts and I had 2 Scyks with Manglers and a pirate)

Mangler+gunner is also nasty since your opponent often has to decide whether to hold onto a token to take a single crit or spend it and activate gunner.

Hothie,

A local player and myself have been running Kath. We'd gotten good results overall, but struggled in particular against high agility lists , including IG 88s until we swapped out K4 for Gunner. I'd highly recommend it as it keeps your dial much more open, especially if you are using your action for movement options like EU or EH. I played pretty poorly in our recent store Championship (I was trying way too hard for the rear shot) but was within one hull of going 3-1 and ended up at 2-2. The other player that ran Kath with gunner made the Top 8, and I think Top 4.

Just a thought, and I know it's expensive, but I found it a far better overall, both in terms of what I was able to do with Kath and the current meta.

you'll notice that the lists packs Proximity mines...one good shot from a mine kills most high agility ships. the fear this instills means they fly a little different when they know you can drop one of these puppies.

Hothie...thoughts on this list?

100 Points

Hothie...thoughts on this list?

Fat Ath

100 Points

46 points

Kath Scarlet

Firespray-31

Veteran Instincts, Heavy Laser Cannon

27 points

Syndicate Thug #1

Y-Wing

Bomb Loadout, Ion Cannon Turret, Unhinged Astromech, Proximity Mines

27 points

Syndicate Thug #2

Y-Wing

Bomb Loadout, Ion Cannon Turret, Unhinged Astromech, Proximity Mines

Seems fun if you can get the ions to hit. You should be able to drop the mines directly onto whoever is ioned. And Kath is rolling 4 dice with every shot to mitigate some of the loss of damage that Ions give you.

Hothie,

A local player and myself have been running Kath. We'd gotten good results overall, but struggled in particular against high agility lists , including IG 88s until we swapped out K4 for Gunner. I'd highly recommend it as it keeps your dial much more open, especially if you are using your action for movement options like EU or EH. I played pretty poorly in our recent store Championship (I was trying way too hard for the rear shot) but was within one hull of going 3-1 and ended up at 2-2. The other player that ran Kath with gunner made the Top 8, and I think Top 4.

Just a thought, and I know it's expensive, but I found it a far better overall, both in terms of what I was able to do with Kath and the current meta.

you'll notice that the lists packs Proximity mines...one good shot from a mine kills most high agility ships. the fear this instills means they fly a little different when they know you can drop one of these puppies.

They certainly can, but IG88s don't care that much for them.

just finished a vassal game with J Chav running double IG's. I managed to do 7 total damage to him, 4 of which from bombs. I'm not sure how much to take away from this game, though, because he rolled double his expected evades (exp 16.5, actual 29, plus 2 more from Autothrusters), and my attacks rolled a ton of blanks (exp 13.25, actual 21) I guess I just need to get better trying to be at range 1 more against IG B hlc's. I think I flew well, and hit with 3 out of my 4 bombs. The 4th I placed right in front of him, but not enough because he managed to bank away from it. IG's are great at hit and run, so focusing down one of them becomes difficult.

http://sozin.pythonanywhere.com/game?id=1926

I was running:
Kath with Expert Handling (EH), Gunner, Seismic, Inertial Dampeners (ID)
Emon with prox min X2, Proton Bomb, Andrasta, ID, Flight Instructor (FI)

I like Kath's loadout, as I used the EH often to get reposition and get rid of his TL's. I didn't end up using either ID, and FI wasn't as useful in this matchup. Two thoughts for changes:

Drop ID and FI on Emon for either:
1. Gunner
2. Engine and Intel Agent

I like both options for different reasons. It looks like I'll be playing on the table in a few hours, so we'll see.

4 games against Kyle (in 2.5 hours), netted this:

First game:
Kath with EH, ID, Gunner, Seismic

Emon with Prox X2, Proton bomb, Engine, Intel Agent

He ran Kath with ptl, hlc, seismic, recSpec
Mando merc with hlc, Wingman, seismic, and something else....

Lost that one cause I couldn't roll defense on my Kath. I did finish his Kath off with a prox mine. I still need to focus on getting range 1 to get away from the hlc's. I didn't use Intel agent at all, and engine was good.

Second game he switched to a Kath/IG88B build. I ended up winning that one, so he switched back to his first build.

Third game I changed mine up to this:

Kath with EH, Proton Bomb, gunner
Emon with ProxX2, Proton Bomb, Navigator

I lost that one. He was able to split my forces up, and he went after Emon. I did manage to take his merc out, but then it was down to kath with ptl vs kath with EH. I would BR to get rid of his TL, then he would just tl and focus again.

hen for game 4 I switched up to

Emon with ProxX2, Proton Bomb, FI

IG88B with HLC, Veteran Instincts, FCS, Autothrusters, ID

I won that one way too easily. He did 1 total damage to me, and he was flying over rocks a lot. I think I like the IG88B for better survivability over Kath. Plus, and this is the big key for me, I am better able to keep Emon and IG88B together for focusing down targets due to the Segnor's loop, and fcs and B's ability helps with the damage output. I might try this one out more and see what I think.

I like that last list Hothie. Maybe try IG88B with Mangler Cannon and Ion Cannon. It gives you some options and can keep IG-88's ability working even with the secondary weapon crit.

Just a thought.

Interesting builds...and good to see another dual firespray fan!

I myself have had great success with this scum build, going 55-11 with it overall (though only 2-2 at a SC unfortunately).

Boba + HLC + Predator + Tactician + Feedback

Kath + Mangler + Predator + Tactician

I'm not quite as negative on boba's ability as you are. I do agree you don't want to purposely in range 1 of multiple enemy ships, as the rerolls won't save you. But against one or two is doable. And of course it's always a nice insurance policy if you get stuck at range 1 when you weren't planning to.

I love cannons because of the range 3 bonus removal, as well as the fact I like to engage, kturn, and reengage.

Predator is a great upgrade, but I think is possibly even better on large ships because you're more likely to bump and lose actions then with smaller ships. Plus predator with a focus really gets good use out of the cannons.

Finally dual tacticians and a feedback array are great deterrents to mobile/ptl/phantom type ships that can harass you.

Just finished a vassal game with SableGryphon vs his Store Champion winning list. I ran:

Emon with ProxX2, Proton Bomb, Flight Instructor, ID
Kath with EH, Gunner, Seismic, ID

Yeah, I think I'm going to ditch Kath. She didn't do as much for me as she should have. The bombs were hitting his IG pretty well, but it wasn't enough. If I play on vassal tomorrow I will use my Emon/IG88B build, because I think I like that one better, although I have had 2 top players now tell me to run AdvS on IG instead of FCS, so I need to fiddle with the build a little. Maybe take off ID.

Just out of curiosity, why did you drop EI on Emon? I just started theory listing with Emon and thought that the combo with EI and the mines would be good. But since you have a lot of experience running the ship, I would like to know why it didn't work out in the end. Is it a question of price, or is it just not that useful?

Here are my thoughts on Experimental INterface:

1. It's 3 points in a list where every point should have a meaning. EI does have a meaning, but it is really only going to be used at most 3 times with the prox mines. It would allow me to focus on the turns where I drop my prox mines, which is good for defense. But I am going with Flight Instructor instead for defensive purposes as well. EI is a throw away after I use my mines, so it essentially makes the mines cost more to me.

2. It takes up the Modification slot, and I have been flying engine firesprays for so long, that there better be a great reason for me not to put engine on them. And I have been not liking how slow Emon is without engine in my testing.

3. And this is the most important reason, it stresses Emon. It locks me into green moves, which is often not what I want to do with him. I have never been a fan of stressing my own ships, especially firesprays, except with expert handling, and even then I am cognizant of the negative effects of stress when I do use EH. And then when you add the fact that Scum has very little available to them in the way of stress removal, it just makes it even worse to intentionally stress yourself just to be able to gain a focus token when you drop a mine.

So, those are my main thoughts against it at the moment. I know I could put EI and RecSpec on Emon, but now I'm paying 6 points, stressing myself, and running the risk of getting blocked, so not being able to use either.

In the long run, stress on Emon makes him predictable, and I do try not to be predictable when I fly firesprays.

Thanks for your analysis!

For IG's, I think B + FCS + Mangler is a good combo for consistent damage, even against high agility targets. So the HLC isn't necessary.

For non-B's, the HLC is great and if you have predator + advanced sensors, you don't even need B's ability most of the time. Either C & D give you some interesting options to make them more survivable, so I find they can work well with the HLC, especially if you can keep them at range 3 (autothrusters for you, no extra green die for target). Advanced Sensors are so good that I've been considering NOT running IG88B (he really likes the FCS combo). You should certainly consider C or D as well because with HLC, damage is not a problem, but you really want them to survive, and their native abilities help with that.

Played three games tonight with 88AD:

IG88A and D, both with HLC, VI, AT, AdvS, ID, IG2000 title

First game was against Shane, running a Eaden, Roark, Nera list, that wasn't a bad concept. Nera had Flechettes to stress targets for Eaden to capitalize upon. But my dice were just sickly hot, both offense and defense. I didn't end up needing A's ability, as he didn't hit me much. I took down Nera first, then focused on Eaden, then he conceded when it was just Roark left.

Second game was against Caleb running an IGB and C combo, with predator and Mangler cannons. Apparently I used up all of my good dice luck in my first game, because I had none this game. I also landed myself on a rock, which was a game-ending mistake for me on turn 2.

Third game was again against Caleb with the same combo. This time I flew much better. Dice weren't much better, but I did target lock, and spent them on every turn. I ended up winning that one, using A's ability to mitigate a crit.

Thoughts:
1. I think B and C are still the way to go when it comes to IG's. But at least I tried the other two.

2. In a 2-ship meta, A's ability didn't really make a difference, whereas B's ability would have been huge for me in game 2.

3. D's ability is nice, but again, not necessary, i think.

4. Advanced Sensors on IG's. I'm a fan.

So, if I run a dual Aggressor list, I think I run this:

IG88B with VI, FCS, HLC, title, ID, AT (49)
IG88C with VI, AdvS, HLC, title, ID, AT (50)

B's free gunner ability is big, especially combined with FCS. And C gives the fee evade when boosting, which makes them even harder to kill.

Instead of a HLC on B, have you thought about a Mangler and a Ion Cannon?

My experience with a gunner ability is that high agility ship, against who the ability might trigger, will do their best to just take one damage the first shot so that the second does not trigger. Since HLC has a harder time doing crits, you'll end up doing 1-2 damage. While the Mangler can do less damage (3 vs 4), one of those is a crit. Which means that your opponent (especially a guy like Fel) will do their best to avoid it completely, leaving them vulnerable for the second shot. Same goes for the Ion Cannon, if the target is a high agility ship with shields, the threat of being ioned next round is something they'll try their best to avoid, especially if they are currently stress. So against them, start with the Ion Cannon since 3 dice versus 3+F+E have very low chance to do more than 1 damage anyway, and depending on if they spent their tokens or not to dodge the first strike, attack with the Mangler the wide open ship.

I think this composition could give you some control and versatility that your list is currently lacking.