So by now, most people are familiar with Thug Lyfe and the things it brings to the table. For those who aren't, the basic gist is 4 PS 2 Y-wings with a turret, the BTL title, and a droid. The (as far as I can tell) original variant was Syndicate Thugs with Ion Cannon Turret, title, and R4 Agromech. This variant throws 8 total attacks each round if all ships are in range 1-2, and after they spend their focus, they gain a target lock on the defender. It makes for some serious punch.
I took this list to the St. Petersburg, FL regionals and ended up going 4 and 1 for the day, taking 11th place and netting myself some shield tokens. I had a really bad matchup in the second round to a list that, if I had killed the ship I got to two hit points, would still have landed me in the top 8. I'll get to that list in a second, but first, my notes on what the list does well.
Thug Lyfe is one of the best lists I've seen at taking a low agility, large-base ship and making it bleed. In two of my games, I faced at least one decimator. The first time, it was a double decimator build. Turn 2 I put 10 damage on Oicun in one round of fire, leaving him ioned and heading into a hornet's nest. Turn 4 I did the same to Chirpy, except facing the board edge with no way to escape the following turn. The second game my shot's didn't do as much damage, but in three turns total I took Chirpy from missing a single shield to completely off the board (total of 15 damage in 3 rounds.) When this list hornet nests, it does so less effectively than swarmier builds (not as many firing arcs to spread around) but each ship puts out so much potential damage (range 1 is 3 dice then the ion shot) and control (ion as the second attack after tokens are spent) that it really doesn't matter. Rounds 3 and 4 I ran into a 5 A-wing list, and a 4 TIE 1 Phantom list, respectively, and each round, though I was throwing 2 dice at 3 or 4 or 5 dice, it didn't matter, the overwhelming number of attacks managed to see me through.
The biggest issue I had with the list, thus far, was the dreaded Double IG matchup. In game 2, I managed to get IG-C down to 2 hull remaining, but by then I was down a Y, all 3 remaining had shields off and some hull damage, and C was in full on escape mode while a full health B with mangler tore me apart in 3 shots. I think I threw a total of 24 or more shots at IG C across 4 rounds, and couldn't kill him, and he was only ioned 1 turn. I wasn't maneuverable enough to successfully block him in except for the ion turn, and despite a good spread of debris fields, I couldn't get him stuck up with any stress.
The discussion I wanted to start with this thread was not how to tweak the list, but rather, the strategy behind it. I don't remember who the originator of the squad was, but kudos to them on the build, it works extremely well given proper matchups. How would you guys fly it in the face of IG2k, or triple interceptors? Their defensive capability just seems so overwhelming.