Hello all. I'm a brand new X-Wing player, and I think the game is a blast. I started out by just buying the core set, a Phantom, and a YT1300. My son pretty much immediately took to the Phantom, so that leaves me to play either Rebel or Scum. I thought I might like rebel, but after seeing the destructive power of the Phantom, I'm not so sure. Is there a good build for Rebel or Scum that is more aggressive by nature? If so, what would be good next purchases? Thanks in advance for the help.

I'm fairly new myself, but I know that an X-wing piloted by Wedge is very aggressive! So are B-wings and YT2400 with heavy laser cannon. Overall Han in a falcon with a few generics with him also seems to be doing great on tournaments.


As for scum - in a thread I started someone gave me a fantastic scum list that's a blast to play both with and against:

Kath Scarlet(Firespray-31)

-Opportunist

-Greedo



Palob Godalhi(HWK-290)

-Opportunist

-Blaster Turret

-Outlaw Tech



Kaa'to Leeachos(Z-95)



Binayre Pirate(Z-95)

While Z-95's aren't that aggressive, they are still great harassers/blockers and Kaa'to along with Palob's focus stealing work wonders while Kath blows everything up in that Firespray. That list is fairly competitive too, given that it provides you with a great toolbox - a damage dealer (Kath piloting Firespray), a turret to hurt silly arc dodgers (Palob in HWK), a generic that will win games for you because everyone will ignore him yet he will get the best rolls ever (pirate) and a nice fighter that along with Palob's focus leech tends to turn into a nice support beatstick for Kath (Kaato in Z-95).

I was also tinkering around in the list squeezing in a few other upgrades that seemed nice such as Moldy Crow title for HWK to cumulate the focus and act as a battery for Kaato and his own turret/firing.

P.s. - check out the official FAQ - Phantom got a little nerfed, making it much, much harder to fly.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/3/26/updated-pilot-manuals/

there's a new entry that changes the way de-cloak is played, making it much harder to trivially abuse and forcing the phantom player to put in a lot more effort to maintain its deadly efficiency

now the rest depends on what you mean by "aggressive"

Rebels can be aggressive because they have the hammer that is the B-wing as well as several control mechanics (R3-A2 and tactician bs being my favorites) which cripple foes by piling on stress until you can steamroll over them

Scum can be aggressive because they don't give a ****.

Moldy Crow Palob doesn't give a ****. He has a bank of focus and will take yours, too.

Xizor doesn't give a ****. With advanced sensors he can bump and be basically invincible as long as you have a friendly to pawn damage off to

Guri doesn't give a ****. With predator, she can get re-rolls and focus even without her action.

feedback array Z-95s don't give a ****. bump em, be out of arc, have 3+ agility to their crappy 2 dice, be showered in defensive tokens, park them on asteroids, doesn't matter because their damage is guaranteed

and so on and so forth

not giving a **** is great because it lets you get nice and close with the enemy for a very nice advantage generally, you just have to learn the right times to do it (i.e not to a phantom that has target lock on you)

My brother ran a list similar to Klerych's up top, it was pretty amusing. The one thing I might change of that is dropping Leeachos for another generic Headhunter, so you can squeeze Inertial Dampeners onto Kath. Being able to fire off a second salvo at close range with her rear arc when you line up just right can be worth it if you time it right. Or you could keep him around, drop the Outlaw Tech from Palob, and use the two free points to put Wingman on Leeachos. That way, as long Leeachos is alive, Palob can be more liberal about white maneuvers while stressed. It'll make Palob a little more unpredictable in his movements and make him more likely to be able to have the stress-free requirement needed to utilize Opportunist every combat phase. Heck, you can do a red maneuver, have Leeachos stick close to him, and you still might be able to just steal a focus for your turret from someone else.

But really, Palob was built for Opportunist. You're guaranteeing there's always at least one ship around susceptible to it, and I love that.

Palob was not really built for opportunist. He can certainly use it, but it is far from auto-include when you're flying a HWk with a.) dat dial c.) dat statline and c.) the constant fear of munitions failure

Palob is more than justified in just his ability + a turret (because **** 1 dice primaries) and how horribly he **** over the opponent by just existing

I would think Rebels are the more aggressive faction to take. They generally have a lot of firepower in X-wings and B-wings. YT-1300 and YT-2400 are also good with the turrets vs the Phantom (and at high PS, too).

B-wings are quite aggressive since they have little choice but to take the shortest route possible to the enemy to compensate for their low speed (and their barrel-roll makes them quite good at navigating crowded obstructions, so they're great for setting up a ring of asteroids in the middle and holding it down), but Turrets are not

Turrets are high points, low offense in trade for their incredibly idiotic ability to ignore your opponent's maneuvering which means Turrets play less aggressive and more like space invaders (running along the board edge, pewpewing little specs of fighters) or like bloody cowards, depending on your point of view