Lone wolf has incredible potential if you can get it to work and it's a relatively cheap upgrade. The problem I'm having is using it effectively, in a game where focused fire is so important I've got really used to formation flying. Positioning so it works as much as possible while still focusing a target is tough. I'm looking for advice on a few areas.

Starting position: I've experimented with a group in a corner and middle and opposite corners. Opposite corners seems to end up with each group being focused down and being at a disadvantage based on pure numbers despite lone wolf. Middle/Corner seems stronger for the reason above, it seems better to accept some loss of Lone Wolf to be able to focus fire. I'm kind of looking for a sanity check here that I'm not missing something.

Flying: I don't quite have it down on turrets but that seems much easier than more dogfighter types so looking for advice primarily on those. I'm trying it out on a lot of ships (Defender, Advance, Firespray, A-wings, Star Viper, Aggressor among others), the easiest time I've had triggering it was Firespray + mini swarm but that seemed really prone to the focus fire described attacks above. Really any tips on how to fly to balance focus fire with lone wolf would be great.

Recommended viewing: I've learnt a lot and got a lot of ideas by watching videos of players using specific pilots and upgrades but I can't really find anything good for Lone Wolf. Videos of Lone Wolf being put to good use would be very helpful!

Finally is Lone Wolf worth it? I'm willing to put in the effort to get the most out of it. But the with the potential loss to focus fire is the trade off with Lone Wolf too much for it to be worth while.

Any advice appreciated!

Luke+Lonewolf+R2F2+Stealth device if you want the lolz

Lone wolf can be an incredibly effective card for it's two points. It's also that cheap because of how difficult it can be to trigger.

Often by trying to get Lone Wolf to work for you at the start of the match you can absolutely put yourself at a disadvantage.

One way I like to use it, is to not count on it for the beginning of the match where, as you said, one needs concentrated firepower to knock out enemy ships. Instead put lone wolf on the ship you want to survive to the end game and do your best to keep it alive. Lone wolf really shines when you have fewer (or one, of course) ships left and can get it to trigger more often.

I found out this weekend, that when it's paired with sensor jammer at the end game on the last ship; it is an incredibly effective defense.

+1 Lone Wolf is an excellent endgame card. Your ace in the hole for that lone survivor (wolf). It is great on Luke, because of the synergy with his automatic defensive buff, but couple that with a shield upgrade and R2-D2 or R5-P9 and you have a tough ship to take down.

One way I like to use it, is to not count on it for the beginning of the match where, as you said, one needs concentrated firepower to knock out enemy ships. Instead put lone wolf on the ship you want to survive to the end game and do your best to keep it alive. Lone wolf really shines when you have fewer (or one, of course) ships left and can get it to trigger more often.

I seem to be able to get it to trigger fairly reliably on the first round of shooting but then end up with a pretty tight cluster for a while after. I kind of get the feeling that part of the trick to using it is having a more appealing target available.

One way I like to use it, is to not count on it for the beginning of the match where, as you said, one needs concentrated firepower to knock out enemy ships. Instead put lone wolf on the ship you want to survive to the end game and do your best to keep it alive. Lone wolf really shines when you have fewer (or one, of course) ships left and can get it to trigger more often.

I seem to be able to get it to trigger fairly reliably on the first round of shooting but then end up with a pretty tight cluster for a while after. I kind of get the feeling that part of the trick to using it is having a more appealing target available.

That can be tricky if LW is on your obvious end-game ship, but yes I would agree.

I've been running the pretty standard combo of N'dru + Lone Wolf for a filler Scum ship, and I have a few observations.

1. The difficulty in triggering Lone Wolf increases with the number of ships you have on the board. If you're running more than four ships, I'd actually suggest not taking it, and spending the points elsewhere. Conversely, the less ships you're running the easier it is to trigger. The easiest time I've had triggering Lone Wolf was when I flew a 2 Ship build of Echo and Kenkirk, and I had Kenkirk with LW, Rebel Captive, Isard, and Gunner. Pretty sure I had Lone Wolf every turn that game.

2. In all likelihood you will have to sacrifice LW for at least one turn if not several, in order to focus fire a priority target. Being able to read the flow of the battle and accurately anticipate where your opponents are going to be can help reduce the number of LW-less turns.

3. Setup is very key to how much use you get out of the ability. It appears you've already recognized that, though I'm curious if you've altered your ship facings to try and maximize it. For example, you could start N'dru in the left corner facing right, with the rest of your squad in the center also facing right, and slow roll him behind your main force as it sweeps into the obstacle field from the right side.

4. Lastly, it matters which pilot/ship you put the upgrade on. Someone who can reposition, particularly with barrel roll, can use their movement abilities to stay further away from the rest of the force. Alternatively, on someone with boost, you might be ability to speed up on a flank and get use out of it that way, though that's considerably more risky for the ship, since one flanker getting too ahead can get focused and destroyed fairly easily.

Hope that helps!

I've run it to good effect in a two-TIE Defender list, which should be the easiest list to run it in, and I still don't activate it all the time. If you don't split up your ships initially, you should think of Lone Wolf as a way to either draw aggro from the opponent and/or get a late-game bonus. Any AGI 3 ship with Lone Wolf gets really tough to put a lot of damage on, and so you can try and force the opponent to go after the Lone Wolf bearing ship so that ship isn't around at the end of the game. If they ignore the LW ship, then you get that bonus. It's a solid 2 points even in just that respect. If you have a squad that can flank effectively and can control range pretty well (usually involving barrel roll and good use of asteroids), then you can start flanked and get LW early also, although in this case, I still wouldn't expect to get it mid-game.

It also helps to have ships that are good at different ranges if you're trying to trigger Lone Wolf. You don't want Mauler Mithel to have Lone Wolf if the rest of your fleet is a bunch of Academy Pilots, because they all need to get in close. He might pair up well with HLC shuttles, however, although I've never actually tried it.

My current favorite Lone Wolf build is Colonel Vessery (TIE Defender) with Lone Wolf, HLC, and Stealth Device. 4 red and green dice means blanks are going to show up regularly. Lone Wolf with the Stealth Device on an AGI 3 target is incredibly difficult for 2-attack stuff to hit, and 3-attack stuff has trouble at long ranges. Vessery also has a great ability that keys off of friendly ships doing stuff, so people can kill his ability by killing his support. Lone Wolf gives him more end-game utility when his pilot ability won't be activating.

3. Setup is very key to how much use you get out of the ability. It appears you've already recognized that, though I'm curious if you've altered your ship facings to try and maximize it. For example, you could start N'dru in the left corner facing right, with the rest of your squad in the center also facing right, and slow roll him behind your main force as it sweeps into the obstacle field from the right side.

I've not really tried anything with facing. It's something I'm still learning but I'll definitely give this a shot.

I've used LoneWolf quite a lot on a Chewbacca build paried with Corran. LoneWolf is really a strong EPT. It can be almost as good as Predator on Offense, but it shines on Defense.

When I started playing the Chewie/Corran list I was trying too hard to keep LoneWolf active. I was sacrificing positioning just to ensure LoneWolf would stay active. My win rate was good, but not great. When I realized that it was not a good strategic decision to allow a 2 point upgrade to dictate everything about how I was flying, my win rate increased dramatically. You just have to play with it enough to know when to allow it to be shut off. Thinking a few turns ahead it important. Don't allow yourself to take a ship out of the fight for 2-3 turns simply to make sure LoneWolf stays active for the next turn.

I think it takes some practice to use optimally. It's not an easy EPT to maximize. Predator is easy, you just get to reroll offensive dice. Push the Limit is also easy, you take a stress and get a second action. LoneWolf is just a little tougher, it takes a little experience to know when you will need it active and when you won't.

Advice or strategy conversations will be helpful, but you just need seat time with it. And you need seat time with it the list you plan to run in on. It does work better in smaller list, and it excels on your end game ship, but I have seen people do well with it in 4 ship lists.

It is also easily my favorite EPT. It doesn't care if you are stressed or bumped. It will work as long as no one is close, and that is usually something you can control with practice.

The fewer ships you have, the greater the use for Lone Wolf.

My current favorite Lone Wolf build is Colonel Vessery (TIE Defender) with Lone Wolf, HLC, and Stealth Device. 4 red and green dice means blanks are going to show up regularly. Lone Wolf with the Stealth Device on an AGI 3 target is incredibly difficult for 2-attack stuff to hit, and 3-attack stuff has trouble at long ranges. Vessery also has a great ability that keys off of friendly ships doing stuff, so people can kill his ability by killing his support. Lone Wolf gives him more end-game utility when his pilot ability won't be activating.

Funnily enough, Vessery's late game is what pushed me to try Lone Wolf.

I never really liked any of my Vessery builds because he was so dependent on other people, until I finally did Lone Wolf and totally loved it. All of a sudden my opponents were in this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. I think he'd be solid with just Lone Wolf and nothing else, but the HLC and Stealth Device kind of take him to 11. The great thing is, he's got so much offense thanks to his pilot ability that you're not in desperate need of a Focus to pump the offense, so you can keep it and have that re-roll to help protect your Stealth Device.

A tactic that helped me get WAY more turns out of it: start your ships closer together. You have to focus fire in this game, so, naturally, your ships will eventually be pointed st the same ship and probably converge. I figured out that if I start my ships together and open the LW ship away,I get more turns where it's ability works, whereas if you start them apart you have less time before you have to converge.

With Lone Wolf, I almost always want to run that EPT in 2 ship lists. In fact: if I can't decide which ship to put Lone Wolf on, I've done it right.

I almost think that Lone Wolf and Ruthlessness should be run together- neither ship you're running those EPTs on ought to be near another friendly ship.

Lone Wolf is a trap. You signal to your opponent that you split your forces and invite him to gang up on one of the split parts.

Lone Wolf is right for you if you are willing to play a patient game and start with some "messy" deployment...

I run it in this list which has gotten me a 2-1 Win-Lose-Ratio and which might give you an idea who I make it work for me:

Rexler Brath (37)
Lone Wolf (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Royal Guard Pilot (22)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)

Royal Guard Pilot (22)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

The idea and actual play is to deploy the Interceptors as the last the generics somewhere across the board from any kind of block, swarm or fortress facing in opposite directions, being able to 1/2-Turn or 3-K-Turn with their initial maneuver and then Boost+Barrel Roll (in any order´; if possible) into a pattern that will keep them maneuvering for a least two turns. Rexler meanwhile is deployed in the corner opposite to the enemy MVP, and uses his 1-banks and 2-straigh with the Barrel Roll to stall for two turn.

Once the enemy has comiited to crossing the board (think turn 3 or 4), you kick with all avalible speed to draw up a triangle from your original starting position, bringing the most distance you can between both pincers. This way you will essentially be doing nothing but flanking and your enemy is forced to choose against which flank to commit; Rexler appears to be the more obvious choice, being higher cost and less arc-dodgy, but turning to him will leave you open to the interceptors and unloading their primaries in your rear. Going against the Interceptors allows Rexler to maintain his minimal movement approach and firing the HLC every turn. Spliting the Squad leaves your enemy with too little firepower to overcome either flank fast enough to win the game with a single decisive move.

Its downside is that its vurnable to more aggressive and fast builds who will boost straight into you, simply because the faster your enemy comes at you the smaller the area will be in which you will fight the engagement and getting your own ships in R2 with another will become more common. Aggressors in particular are capable of doing just that.

Mangler Dash is a similar prospect as he dodges your arc-dodgers with impunity.

Not tested against the Phantom yet (where did all the Phantoms go )

Lone Wolf is a trap. You signal to your opponent that you split your forces and invite him to gang up on one of the split parts.

That's why it's difficult to use. You need to know when to keep your forces together. But, it's not a trap upgrade.

I'm using Lonewolf in my Chewbo list to great effect. I put predator on the MF with chewie, but Lone Wolf on Leebo.

The nice thing about it is that with Predator, you usually just roll one dice anyway, so you're not losing anything using Lone Wolf, except you get the benefit of having it for defensive rolls too. Plus, with the 2 defence dice, I'd rather have the potential for reroll there, rather than nothing. I can usually expect 2 evades with Lone Wolf kicking in, because I'll almost always take focus, and then when I roll I'll either get non blank results and and spend for the pair if needed, or I'll get a a non blank result on one die and a blank on the other which I'll reroll for the non blank result and spend for the pair if needed. It's pretty dependable, and with Leebo's ability it increases the survivability.

On Chewie, it doesn't come into play very often or effectively on defence. You usually take 3PO, so you can take the evade and use 3PO to guarantee two evades. That's enough. I'd rather have predator on him, because then you sometimes reroll 2 dice, and when you reroll it can be focus or blank results.

Jacob

I've been flying ndru recently and have found it a bit tricky to use right. The main problem I've seen is that if you telegraph where he's going too much your opponent will switch towards him and take him down before you can engage your squad.

The solution I stuck on was to deploy him in the same corner as the squad and them spread them out in different directions. then swing them in to the middle of the board.

Whichever target they choose to come after they fund the other in the flank.

The downside is that the two parts of the squad will eventually cross paths, but it will be worth losing the lone wolf bonus for a couple of turns while you bug out and come back at them.

Cheerio,

Ben

When I was running Whisper + Brath (and later tried Vessery in his place), I had Lone Wolf on the Defender. I would start them both in the same corner with whisper closest to the edge. It was very easy to bank in the defender + barrel roll to centre and fly towards the enemy through asteroids while whisper went straight down and turned into the enemy. When they engaged, they were always at least range 3 a part and thanks to Whisper's ability to decloak laterally, rarely got close enough to shut off lone wolf (I won't say it never happened, but definitely not very often).

My 2 cents to the OP:

Lone Wolf is pretty good for a flanking ship, but the benefits it offers are more of a multiplier to it's pilot & chassis than a straight-up upgrade. You need enough dice that the re-rolls are actually going to matter beyond what you can already do via Focus or TL, a dial that will support getting the flanker into position quickly and enough Pilot Skill to support a pursuit role for the ship (so, say 7+)

Named Interceptor pilots are an obvious choice then, as are the named Phantoms, the named B-Wing pilots (if accompanied by Adv. Sensors), any of the large base turret ships (as an added bonus, they don't even need the high PS) and you could perhaps make a case for the named A-Wings (the obvious drawback for the A-Wing is the attack value of 2, which is not going to reap as much benefit as you might like from Lone Wolf. It'll mostly be triggering on defense... and you'd probably be better off just using Autothrusters for the same price in that case).

As a few posters have mentioned, set-up is crucial for a list that wants to leverage the power of a flanker. I'll use Vassal as a visual aid to show you how I might deploy to try and take advantage of it (just bear in mind the caveat that I am by no means an expert pilot):