Played a vassal game last night vs Scott running a RAC Whisper list. I got a bug to try out some things that have never been seen before, especially not together.

Rexler with Ruthlessness, hlc, cluster missiles

Royal Guard Pilot

OGP with Fleet Officer and AdvS

AdvS and FO on the shuttle means I can give both Brath and RGP focus, then green to clear stress. That allows Rexler to use his ability, and essentially gives RGP ptl without the stress.

First combat round he takes range 3 shots at the RGP, who has focus and evade tokens and uses them both to take no damage. He still uses Vader to give me a weapons malfunction. My return fire sees brath hlc 4v0. I had to spend my focus for 4 hits, and whisper lost a shield due to ruthlessness. He evaded the RGP 2v1 shot, and the shuttle put a Minor Hull Breach on RAC, which won't matter at all unless he gets a damaged engine.

Next round I again use FO, shuttle lands on debris, so is stressed, RGP goes 5K to get into RACs way and get a shot on whisper, since she really only had 1 way to decloak. Brath goes 2 fwd, going from 1 debris to another. Whisper 2 bank in and evade, with all 3 of my ships pointing at whisper, and RAC hits the RGP as planned. I didn't want to take another Vader hit, so I figured blocking RAC would be the best option. RAC rolls one hit vs brath, which was evaded. Then whisper rolls 5v1 at my shuttle, 1 hit and 4 eyes, which my shuttle actually evaded so that whisper couldn't get her focus. Brath then naturally rolls 2h2c which took whisper down to 1, (shuttle took the ruthlessness hit cause RAC was just out of range). And the RGP naturally rolled 3 hits to finish off whisper.

We called it there cause RAC was at 9 hull vs my squad, which had only taken a Vader crit for damage. My dice were super hot due to vassal's streakiness, so I'm not sure how much to take from this game. It was interesting, though, because the squad worked like it should have.

Maybe drop the cluster missiles to get autothrusters on the RGP. With the last two points you could also put VI on him and an intel agent on the shuttle? Just a thought...

Well, the grand idea being to use ruthlessness with the cluster missile for an extra 2 damage to something, like in a Rebel swarm.

Well, the grand idea being to use ruthlessness with the cluster missile for an extra 2 damage to something, like in a Rebel swarm.

Right - I just mention it because of how quickly an interceptor (even with 2 actions) dies to gunner-like effects, especially on a turret

Vassal game again tonight against Scott running his Whisper RAC list. This time though, I ran Brobots A and B. With the recent winnings that have been going on with Brobots squads, i thought I might break them out again and see what I can do.

A with Adrenaline Rush, HLC, FCS, Title, AT, Inertial Dampeners
B with Lone Wolf, HLC, SJ, Title, AT

I went after RAC early so that he would be hesitant to use Vader against my shields. He never did use Vader this game, which is good because with only 16 hp, Vader tends to be a way to get hits through. A stayed after RAC while B went after Whisper. After some maneuvering and board positioning, RAc was down to 1 hull, but there was a turn where he had range 1 shots with both RAC and Whisper at A, and I think I only took 1 or 2 damage that round, getting A down to 3 hull left. A few turns later, I managed to block Whisper's movement with B while keeping A out of Whisper's arc. A tl shot later, and Whisper died, regening a shield on A, who needed it. Next round I blocked RAC with A and had a hlc shot with B, so we called it there.

There were times where I missed D's ability over A, but I'll stick with A for a while to see if I can make this new version of Yin yang work.

Round 3 vs Scott with my Aggressive Negotiations squad of A and B, as listed above.

He was running 4 tempest with Accuracy Corrector and Dark Curse. This was actually a good matchup, because his AC countered my SJ and I wasn't flying them far enough apart to get lone wolf for most of the game, so he got B down to 1 hull left. There were 2 big turns back to back mid game. He had 2 tempests at 1 hull left, and my dice whiffed on all of my attacks that round, so I didn't kill either of them, which would have given me a shield back to help keep B alive. He maaged to not kill B that round, and next round he K-turned a full health tempest off of the board, which swung the game back to my favor, because I was able to kill off both of the 1 hull tempests to regen shields on both of my IGs. So he had a full health tempest and DC. The tempest 4k onto debris, double stressing. I managed to put 4 hits on it one turn, then next turn finished it off to get B back to 1 hull and 2 shields. Then I rolled a crit on debris, but managed to take DC out anyway for the 100-0 win. DC was absolutely ineffective this game, rolling nothing but blanks and eyes on at least 3 attacks.

For my squad, i did use ID and AR this game. He did get a turn or 2 inside range 1 so i didn't have a gunner shot, but the hlc's were effective for every turn besides those, so I'm not going to give them up. Otherwise, yeah, Iliked it. A's ability was clutch in keeping B alive, no doubt there. I just need more practice keeping them apart so I can trigger Lone Wolf more often, I think.

What do you think of that list in general? The dark curse 4temp?

What do you think of that list in general? The dark curse 4temp?

DC is never really much of a threat, although the Brits are in love with him and fly him a lot over there. 4 Temp with AC is really consistent as far as damage goes, especially with sub par greens dice. Like I said, they nerfed my Sensor jammer and got B down to 1 hull left, so there may be something to it. You just have to make sure you keep people in your arcs, which is great after you Kturn, cause you still get 2 hits regardless of actions.

So, in thinking about the meta, and reading Andrew's article about the Interceptors coming back, I had a small epiphany. I posted on facebook, got a lot of responses, and Aaron Bonar came up with a squad to make it work. So I played 3 games yesterday with "The Dustbin."

Howlrunner with swarm tactics
Kir Kanos with Autothrusters
Fel's Wrath with Autothrusters
OGP with Fleet Officer, Advanced Sensors, tactical jammer

The thought being that 2 of my 3 ties will have focus and evade due to the fleet officer, extra agility due to tactical jammer, making them harder to hit. Plus howl can swarm the ogp to get a lot of good attacks in early. And if I face a high ps list, Fel's Wrath can still get a shot off when he dies.

First game on vassal against Whist13r running Etahn with 3 bandits and a proto. He flew the proto away from the others as bait, and I took it. I moved my group towards the proto, who quickly turned around to avoid fire while the main group flanked. this was my mistake, in that I should have just gone after the main group to begin with. Those Z's took longer to kill than they should have. I put 3 crits into his 2-hull ships, and none of the 3 were direct hits, keeping them alive longer than they should have been. In the end it came down to Fel's Wrath vs proto at 1 hull, Z at 1 hull, and full etahn, so I called it there. My greens had a penchant for rolling blanks while I was focused. I didn't use tactical jammer this game, and I flew the ogp away from the rest of the group once the combat started, so I wasn't as effective as I should have been. I lost that one.

Then the first game on the table against Kyle running his triple interceptor list. He has been running 3 high ps interceptors from months, and he placed 22 with a 4-2 record at the Denver regional with them. So he's pretty good with them. I managed to take carnor out first because i didn't want him to wreck my focus evade shenanigans with my ties. I was able to win 100-0, although the shuttle had 2 hull and each of my ties had 1 hull left, Howlrunner having 2 Structural damage cards on her. I think one of the main differences here is that he stressed his Interceptors to get double actions, whereas I wasn't, so I was much more free to use the entire dial, which was a big key. Again i didn't use tactical jammer.

Then the second game was against Nick running a Kath and 3 Zappers squad. His greens were amazing on his Z's, but i managed to burn them down before they could do much damage to me. Then it was my squad vs Kath. He flew kath into a corner, and I was able to block her with fel's Wrath and finish her off with Kir and Howl. Again I won 100-0, with howl at 1 hull left and the shuttle with 2 hull. Again I didn't use Tactical jammer.

So, I'm going to trade out tactical jammer for APL, because I always had someone running into my shuttle. It puts the list at 100 points, but that's fine. TJ is easy enough to avoid: people either went around it or just shot the shuttle outright, so I think I'm going to go with APL instead. But for the most part, the squad worked. Dual action Interceptors without the stress is so nice. And here's to bringing back Fel's Wrath!

Two games tonight in the Fel's Wrath Experiment. Tonight's squad:

OGP with Fleet Officer, AdvS, and Tactical jammer
Sigma with Stygium
Fel's Wrath with Autothrusters
Howl with Swarm Tactics

First game against Sean Esser running a dual Decimators squad of Oicunn and Kenkirk. I got my set up wrong and wasn't able to decloak the sigma into the group on round 2, so he was off by himself, and He put 2 gunner/vader shots into him to strip 2 shields. Meanwhile I was damaging oicunn. He finally Vadered the Sigma off of the board. Next round I finished off Oicunn. A few rounds later of focused fire and it was over. 100-27.

Next game was against Alex running a souped up Lando/Biggs/Proto squad, which is actually a pretty solid squad. Biggs with R2F2 and Stealth, and Lando with Jan giving him an Evade. But I managed to burn Biggs down second combat round while he focused on my shuttle. He did end up taking the shuttle out, but then I focused down lando, putting a Stunned Pilot on him and blocking him for the last 2 damage on him. He called it after that, with me only losing the shuttle. 100-28 win.

So, in 4 games on the table, I haven't lost with FW yet, and I haven't even lost FW, so I haven't used his ability yet. With this squad, I only used SPA on the first and second rounds, so I can drop that for a Tactician on the shuttle. FO still can give the sigma focus and evade, so he can still shoot, sometimes at PS8 with howl. Might try that variation next.

Two games tonight in the Fel's Wrath Experiment. Tonight's squad:

OGP with Fleet Officer, AdvS, and Tactical jammer

Sigma with Stygium

Fel's Wrath with Autothrusters

Howl with Swarm Tactics

First game against Sean Esser running a dual Decimators squad of Oicunn and Kenkirk. I got my set up wrong and wasn't able to decloak the sigma into the group on round 2, so he was off by himself, and He put 2 gunner/vader shots into him to strip 2 shields. Meanwhile I was damaging oicunn. He finally Vadered the Sigma off of the board. Next round I finished off Oicunn. A few rounds later of focused fire and it was over. 100-27.

Next game was against Alex running a souped up Lando/Biggs/Proto squad, which is actually a pretty solid squad. Biggs with R2F2 and Stealth, and Lando with Jan giving him an Evade. But I managed to burn Biggs down second combat round while he focused on my shuttle. He did end up taking the shuttle out, but then I focused down lando, putting a Stunned Pilot on him and blocking him for the last 2 damage on him. He called it after that, with me only losing the shuttle. 100-28 win.

So, in 4 games on the table, I haven't lost with FW yet, and I haven't even lost FW, so I haven't used his ability yet. With this squad, I only used SPA on the first and second rounds, so I can drop that for a Tactician on the shuttle. FO still can give the sigma focus and evade, so he can still shoot, sometimes at PS8 with howl. Might try that variation next.

Just curious, do you feel that people are avoiding shooting Fel's Wrath due to his ability and concentrating on other targets? I'm assuming that people are underestimating him a lot as they often underestimate Alphas (which I run a lot).

Two games tonight in the Fel's Wrath Experiment. Tonight's squad:

OGP with Fleet Officer, AdvS, and Tactical jammer

Sigma with Stygium

Fel's Wrath with Autothrusters

Howl with Swarm Tactics

First game against Sean Esser running a dual Decimators squad of Oicunn and Kenkirk. I got my set up wrong and wasn't able to decloak the sigma into the group on round 2, so he was off by himself, and He put 2 gunner/vader shots into him to strip 2 shields. Meanwhile I was damaging oicunn. He finally Vadered the Sigma off of the board. Next round I finished off Oicunn. A few rounds later of focused fire and it was over. 100-27.

Next game was against Alex running a souped up Lando/Biggs/Proto squad, which is actually a pretty solid squad. Biggs with R2F2 and Stealth, and Lando with Jan giving him an Evade. But I managed to burn Biggs down second combat round while he focused on my shuttle. He did end up taking the shuttle out, but then I focused down lando, putting a Stunned Pilot on him and blocking him for the last 2 damage on him. He called it after that, with me only losing the shuttle. 100-28 win.

So, in 4 games on the table, I haven't lost with FW yet, and I haven't even lost FW, so I haven't used his ability yet. With this squad, I only used SPA on the first and second rounds, so I can drop that for a Tactician on the shuttle. FO still can give the sigma focus and evade, so he can still shoot, sometimes at PS8 with howl. Might try that variation next.

Just curious, do you feel that people are avoiding shooting Fel's Wrath due to his ability and concentrating on other targets? I'm assuming that people are underestimating him a lot as they often underestimate Alphas (which I run a lot).

Yeah, I think so. He's kind of like Tarn on that sense, in that people try to avoid him because they know he is going to get his shot off regardless. That and I give them the shuttle to shoot, so they can take range 2 at the shuttle or range 3 at FW with an extra die due to tactical jammer. Which is fine with me, because then I don't have to worry about turning the shuttle around.

And one small tweak to last nights squad made me lol.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/269068/phantom-wrath-2

This squad is just too funny to me.

How exactly does the Dustbin (or new version) squad work.

How are you shedding the fleet Officer's Stress? That list looks like a great fun off the wall list. Can you post a link to a vassal log for us newbs to watch?

thanks

-M

With advanced sensors, I use fleet officer. Give focus to howl and sigma. Take stress for it. Then shuttle performs a green maneuver, clears stress, rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, sigma moves and takes evade. FW moves and focus, howl moves and evade.

Start of combat howl can swarm either the sigma or the ogp depending on the squad I'm facing.

So, as my opponent, your target choices are:

A tokenless ogp with rebel captive

FW with AT, who will get to shoot back if you kill him

Sigma with focus and evade

Howl with focus and evade

And none of my ships are stressed.

The next few rounds I can still use FO, then k turn my ties and still have focus if I want to. Not having ptl on FW means he can use all of his maneuvers, and people generally don't want to shoot him cause they know he will shoot back if they kill him.

Vassal game against Azrael running Vader, RGP, Carnor, and Obsidian.

I ran my newest version of Phantom Wrath, as linked above.

We set up a big clear spot in the asteroids, so I flew into that to make it easioer to turn the shuttle. First combat round he got the shuttle down to 4 hull, and I got 2 hits on carnor. Next round he turns his squad away from mine, I AdvS TL Carnor with the shuttle, K-turn the Phantom in case he went fast, and kept Howl and FW to the shuttle's right. I burn down Carnor with the shuttle, but he fires back and puts 2 crits on the shuttle, Minor Hull and Minor Explosion (blank.) The Phantom is in good position to either block or get good shots, so I end up blocking the RGP over the next few rounds and finish it off. Meanwhile his Obsidian is his only ship with a shot, and finishes off the shuttle. Howl gets the Obsidian down to 1 hull and 2 stress tokens left (K-turn and Rebel captive). So he concedes, since he hadn't touched any of my TIEs to that point, and it was Vader and a 1 hull double-stressed Obsidian vs my Phantom, FW and Howl. Him turning away like he did meant after Carnor died, his Obsidian was the only ship to get a shot for the rest of the game, although he did still have a full health Vader left on the board, but he had shot his cluster missiles at the Shuttle, so he was just down to his primary weapon at that point.

Overall, I like the synergy of the squad. i think it's working for me.

Couple games to add. I played my Phantom Wrath squad against Andrew (a Regional Champion) running his Regional list of Carnor Jax and RAC.

This was actually a close game. I got to use Fel's Wrath's ability vs a 4 hull RAC, with a 4v0 shot, and got 1 hit. He got behind the shuttle and we called it there, so he won with RAC having 3 hull left. So, against a top tier Regional player running a top tier list, I'm surprised at how well the squad did. He obviously came fast at me to get behind the shuttle, limiting my shots, which is the right call. So I think if I run this I come up with a different opening which might work better against fast ships. But otherwise, it held its own pretty well.

Then I played a game today vs Svedric running a Jax with 2 Sigmas with Sensor jammer and SPA. I ran my IG88A and B squad from earlier. I was able to burn down jax in the frist combat round, which really hampered his squad. He did manage to get A down to 1 hull, but B was fairly untouched. He did well limiting my shots with his Intel Agents and decloaking to block me, but I was able to pick them off for the win. Made some mistakes that game, so I need to work on target priority with my A.

Two games on the table last night. I was running my IG A and B list. First game was against Kyle running a boba Kath list with hlc. I managed to block Kath, which then blocked boba, so I got 2 solid hlc shots into boba, taking him down to 3 hull. But then I saw the flaw in my plan. A had absolutely nowhere to go with 2 big firesprays in the way. Kath got past him and had a range 1 tl focus shot, while boba crashed. So A didn't get a shot, and B wasn't in a good position to shoot either due to a rock in the way. He was able to burn down A before he got another shot in, and Bs green dice failed in the end to 2 hlcs.

Then I played against a echo with 5AP squad. A's ability came in very useful this game, cause I was able to heal all of the damage he did. In the end it was 2 full hp IGs vs an ap with 2 hull left, so we called it there.

So, I dunno what to do this weekend in Milwaukee. I could run my brobots, which I think I can do well with, but they have limitations. Or I can bring out my Fel's Wrath list and surprise people. I would have to develop some different openings I think if I run my FW list.

Buck the trends and fly the oddball list.

Fel's Wrath list all the way. You continue to hold up a standard of blazing your own trail, I say keep it up! Good luck.

Vassal game tonight vs Azrael. I ran:

OGP with Fleet Officer and Advanced Sensors
Fel's Wrath
Carnor Jax with VI, RGP title, AT, hull
Mauler with VI

He ran a Jax, Mauler, Tetran Cowell, and Dark Curse build.

I was happy that all of his PS were higher than FW, so I was hoping to be able to pull off FW's ability during this game. He didn't have VI on either his Jax or Mauler, so I had 2 below him, and my other 2 above him PS-wise. I tried out a new set up, and I think it worked ok, because I was able to use Fleet Officer for most of the game with my shuttle, even though I took the shuttle on a parallel path across the board from the others, who were doing the fighting. So I didn't get a shot with my shuttle until late in the game, but he did get shots on both Mauler and DC, and he put the killing blow on DC. The dice were very swingy for both of us, usually either feast or famine. He called it after I killed DC and he only had his Mauler left with 1 hull remaining. All of my ships were still on the board for a 100-0 win.

I really like Jax at PS10, especially since I can still give him focus with my FO, so he gets the high PS and the double actions without all of that messy stress. (Side note, I was able to do an early 5K to get my Jax behind all of his guys, since I wasn't stressed from the turn before. Not having ptl truly opens up the interceptor dial.) Mauler at PS9 is occasionally good, but still that's better than howlrunner, so he is more of an offensive threat. I realized that Howl with Swarm tactics would really only get used once or twice with the shuttle early, then her ability and ST would likely be wasted, so I changed the squad up to a more free and offensive squad. And I gotta say, i really like it.

So to all of you who say Fel's Wrath is not worth taking, I say, fear my Wrath!

Vassal game tonight vs Ryan. I ran "The 7 Deadly Sins of X-wing"

Yorr with Fleet Officer and AdvS
Fel's Wrath
Mauler with VI
jax with VI and AT

He brought Hobbie with R3A2, ptl, shield, Dutch with Ion and BTL, Keyan with a tactician, ion, ptl

So I was glad to have Yorr this game, even though I only got to use FO a few times. Yorr was able to pull lots of stress off of my guys from R3, tactician, and K-turns. Ryan's greens were pretty bad. I was able to block Dutch a few times, blocking the trigger for Hobbie. I was able to pull keyan off the board after he fired only 2 shots. Hobbie went down a few rounds later to concentrated fire. Then it was dutch, who had a Damaged Cockpit, going down to a range 1 jax shot. So a 100-0 win, although he has only been playing a couple of weeks he said. But still, I was playing the ranges well, i think. I didn't take any damage first combat round. My greens were actually above average that game, I think, plus I had tokens. He damaged Yorr, and put 1 crit on FW (DSA), but that was it. Not bad for a first outing with this variant.

Hi Hothie,

I have been following this thread for a while with interest Thanks for the insights into your testing.

I am tinkering with a list that replaces 2 ships in your list for Rexler, I know earlier on you experimented with FO on decimator with Rexler.

I'm thinking Omicron or Yorr seem like the best platform for FO right now because theyre so cheap.

LIST#1

Rexler Brath + VI (38pts)

Carnor Jax + VI + Title + AT + Stealth Device (32pts)

Capt Yorr + Adv. Sensors + Fleet Officer (30pts)

100pts

Two PS 10 pilots. Yorr could be switched for OGP freeing up 3pts for hull upgrade on Rexler.

It feels like I need a long range cannon on Rexler for range 3 pressure.

LIST#2

Rexler Brath + Mangler Cannon (41pts)

Carnor Jax + VI + Title + AT + Stealth Device (32pts)

Omicron Group Pilot + Adv. Sensors + Fleet Officer (30pts)

100pts

PS10 Jax and PS8 Rexler. Mangler is good even without FO assisted free focus and will give more consistent damage at long range. Dropping VI from Rexler hurts. Mangler will also make Rexler the primary target (if he wasnt already).

I could go with HLC over mangler but that will mean dropping stealth device from Jax and seems like too many points invested in Rexler to me.

Interested in your thoughts about these two lists.

Well, what you have to realize is most games I get 1-3 shots out of the shuttle, and that's about it. He is primarily there for Fleet Officer, and with Yorr, can take the stress off of the others in a R3A2/Captive/Tactician meta. So my point being, with just Jax and Brath, you are primarily depending on those two ships for the bulk of your offense. Can they last long enough to be effective enough to get you a win? And of your two lists, I think I would go with the first one. Also keep in mind, I only got to use FO a few times last night when I ran Yorr because I faced a Tactician/R3A2 squad, so there will be games when you use Yorr more for the stress than for the free focus tokens. In which case he won't be able to use AdvS and FO anywhere near as much, so it's a fine line to walk. Try it out, though, and see what you think.

Well, what you have to realize is most games I get 1-3 shots out of the shuttle, and that's about it. He is primarily there for Fleet Officer, and with Yorr, can take the stress off of the others in a R3A2/Captive/Tactician meta. So my point being, with just Jax and Brath, you are primarily depending on those two ships for the bulk of your offense. Can they last long enough to be effective enough to get you a win? And of your two lists, I think I would go with the first one. Also keep in mind, I only got to use FO a few times last night when I ran Yorr because I faced a Tactician/R3A2 squad, so there will be games when you use Yorr more for the stress than for the free focus tokens. In which case he won't be able to use AdvS and FO anywhere near as much, so it's a fine line to walk. Try it out, though, and see what you think.

In the pancake dominated meta its tough to get through enough damage in a timed match. decimators and falcons pose serious problems. once Yorr is destroyed you face the prospect of chipping through large amounts of hull and if they have rebel captive ur action economy is wrecked or if they have C3-PO you are fighting an uphill battle with the clock ticking. I'll still keep tinkering with those lists. Thanks for the input. much appreciated.

At the Milwaukee regional. I'm running:

Fel's Wrath

Jax with vi and at

Mauler with vi

Yorr with Fleet Officer and advs

Round 1 vs Jeff. He ran Fel, Max, and rgp all with ptl, at, stealth.

I put a thrust control crit on Fel at range 3 (all blanks). Then next round finished him off with jax next round. I got his jax blocked in and kturned behind him and finished him off. His rgp went evasive and it almost went to time, but I finally got him, only losing yorr. 1-0, 170 mov

Round 2 vs James running Biggs with R2d2, rookie, and 2 blues with advs. I traded Mauler for Biggs, and next round I killed his rookie. He ended up damaging my ships, but I only lost mauler that game. 2-0, 352 mov.