Yeah. Big shields are a challenge for Numb. Watched a match last night where Leebo with determination shrugged off 2 crits (both pilot) so I was thinking HLC would give you the option in both these matchups.

I'm going to a small scale tourney in two weeks. Not to win but to meet locals who play X-wing and have fun. I plan to take some variation Ten Numb, Etahn A'baht squad. Starting point is:

Etahn E'baht -32

Calculation -1

R2D2 -4

Ten Numb -31

Calculation -1

Mangler Cannon -3

Advanced Sensors -3

B-wing/E2 -1

Merc Copilot -2

Airen Cracken -19

Wingman -2

The theme is for Super Numb to sit back at range 3 and rain down the crits. He's able to have focus and Target Lock each round thanks to Cracken. Still, to be a little more competitive I was thinking of exchanging merc copilot (your right he is highly situational) or Adv Sensors for HLC.

Look at Ten Numb's pilot ability again, all of those crit mechanics are overkill. Only 1 of your crits cannot be canceled by defense dice. If you end up with 3 crits and he cancels 2 of them all your upgrades to get the other 2 crits are worthless. I wouldn't really load up Ten Numb over 40 points. Even at 36 points with VI & Mangler he's getting really expensive for a B-wing. A B-wing is hardy with 5 shields and 3 hull, but they cannot mitigate damage all that well. 1 agility die doesn't do that much.

If you want some more ships maybe:

Ethan + DTF + R2-D2 + Adv. Sensors

Numb + VI + Mangler

2 x Bandits

This list will throw a lot of crits out.

Yea, another decent 4 ship list you might like to try:

Numb, "Mangler", VI

Blue, FCS

Greenie, Char Refit, PtL

Greenie, Char Refit, PtL

If they focus on B's, they have enough meat to hold while the A's slip behind them, if they chase the A's, have fun blasting with all those red dice

Yeah it is over the top. The thought of putting 3 crits on a Decimater gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. And he may be expensive but I'm not in it to be super competitive. Still, subbing out calculation for VI allows Numb to shoot before Han, Soontir and Whisper which there are bound to be squads (assuming they don't VI as well).

Although Coran looks more competitive, I want to keep the Etahn+ Numb combo. It makes sense in an Etahn squad to have as many ships as possible.

So the foundation is

Etahn E'baht -32
R2D2 -4

Ten Numb -31
Veteren Instincts-1
Mangler Cannon -3

Leaving 29 points

Would dearly love to put adv sensors on Numb

Leaving 26 points

2x talia Z-95 pilots?

Which is pretty much what Jo Jo has suggested.

No longer "Super Numb" but now "Effective Numb"?

But Cracken's ability....

You could always keep Calculation on Numb if you really wanted, and your 3rd ship could be Roark

Just declare whoever you want a PS 12

Roark with Intel agent and a TLT is 26 points, also letting you put your Sensors on Numb

That's not bad either Piznit. 'TLT' is what....'Twin Laser Turret'? Tourney is in 2 weeks so won't be available. I'd probably go with blaster turret to keep synergies with Etahn. Still, controlling where they go.... That's one of the things that makes this game great. So many ways to tweak your squad. I do like the 'I know where you're going' aspect. One varient I was toying with was putting intel agent on Numb and enhanced scopes on Etahn. Almost guarranting on keeping the enemy in the danger zone. Even if you have to use Etahn to block.

I will be able to play test varients this week end. Have conned some friends to get involved in the game. Won't be much competition but then, neither am I.

Yes TLT is twin laser turret. It's also 6 points so changing to blaster will free up more points

http://xwing-builder.co.uk

If you go here and use tools to list Numb squads. It's pretty much all been done before. Small variations. Though I challengesome of the win / loss ratios.

As long as you have Numb with VI and Mangler and you add anything other than X-wings or naked fringers/ORS you have a really solid list for the Fel meta. If you can make top cuts with anything you can make cuts with Ten Numb.

I've had fun with ptl Corran and a gold or loaded ptl Corran and a prototype A. Also 5 Z's is just really really good.

Yeah, VI +Mangler seem to be the norm. Definitely a Fell or Whisper Hunter. So when they hit the table Numb is going for them first.
Going for the 4 ship build, B, E, Z, Z. Question on the 2 Zeds. Bandit vs Talia. Is PS 4 worth anything over PS2? What PS 2 and 3 pilots are likely to hit the table that makes it worth taking the Talias?
Eaden Vrill, Fringer, okay yeah Bandit Zs, Blue Bs, Blackmoon Es, Gold Ys, Green As , Rebel Hwk, Rookie X, Blacksun Viper, Cartel M3s, Torkil Mux Hwk, Black Sun Z, Patrol Leader Deci, Obsidian Tie, Scimitar Bomber, Onyx Defender, Sigma Phantom, Omicron Shuttle, Bounty hunter Fire spray, Avenger intercepter.

I reckon I'm better taking the 2 bandits and putting VI on Etahn. Taking him from 5 to 7 which I fell is a better jump. Or even leave it off for initiative bid. (Numb gets adv sensors)

Edited BAZZ to BEZZ

Oh, and I am slightly less concerned about Leebo with Determination as all the things that let Numb convert a hit to a crit say 'you MAY......'

Still nerfs the crit brigade but at least Leebo has to worry about normal hits.

Ah. Re: Talia vs Bandit... I forgot about the 'Predator' upgrade. So Talia it is.

Not to harp on too much but.....

I love The Numb for ignoring a forrest of green dice. So go ahead, Whisper, cloak yourself. In fact why don't you go cloak behind that asteroid over there at range 3. Cause I got me a Mangler cannon and your gonna swallow a crit!

YOUR WELCOME!

Introduced X-wing to some friends yesterday. All experienced gamers with one considered one of the top MTG players in the state. After a couple of games on intro rules I was able to get one game in with the Numb (against MTG guy). I decked him out with a common RAC +Soontir build and have the following observations:
: VI+Mangler on Numb owns Soontir. I almost got him off the board in one shot. He had stealth device but no hull or shield upgrade.
: Numbs defence is very weak. Got down to hull real quick. Might think of busting the talia Zs down bandits to help boost this in some way.
: Stressed Numb is bad. Mara Jade on the Decimater was merciless. Once we got into a bumping ball Numb was effectively out of the game. More on that in a sec.
: Etahn with 2 Zs is very strong aginst low agility ships. Once Numb was neutralised Etahn shined. The decimator took 4-5 crits in one round of shooting. He just got dumber and dumber. No direct hits but 'injured pilot' (lgnore pilot and eps abilities) was a big one. No more 'expose'. And stunned pilot (if you bump take a damage) eventually killed him because....
: Getting in the way of the Decimater was very effective. Kept him from shooting the weak Zs. Kept him where I wanted him. He had to stay stressed to take an action via "Dauntless". Basically action denial weakened this build alot. When I was putting it together (a build off the net) I was scared how strong it was. I immediately decided to go straight into the asteroid field. I guess it was a sign of my opponent's inexperience that he decided to go in as well. He got trapped between asteroids, 2 zs and Numb. He didn't move for 3 rounds but Numb was neutralized.

Bear in mind everyone playing is quite inexperienced so mistakes were made all over (the major one being we both forgot about 'Dauntless' title) but I think this build is good counter to the current Decimator builds. Next step to play against a real x-wing player. Made some contacts at regionals last week (I was a spectator). So gonna give them an SMS.

So here's the result:

Firstly, a super nice guy and a dedicated gamer. Look forward to more matches. He stopped buying X-Wing at around 'Rebel Aces'. So he did not have access to the newer ships or cards. I offered mine but he was cool with running the squad he fielded at regionals which was something like:

: Wedge

- Swarm Tactics

: Ibtisam

- Swarm Tactics

- Adv. Sensors

- HLC

: Blue Squadron Pilot

- HLC

I was running the BEZZ squad

Observations

: The thing that concerned me the most was Wedge. I wanted to keep Numb as far away from him as possible and VI allowed me to deploy that way. Because my opponent was using 'double swarm tactics' I knew he would try to keep them all together so it took a bit of guesswork out of the equation. So when he put his BSP smack in the middle of his zone, I put the 2 Talia Zs in front of Etahn as a 'V' formation facing straight ahead exactly opposite. When he put Wedge on the left I put Numb off to the right (maybe just on range 3 distance) angled in. So once again VI on Numb was invaluable.

: Apart from deployment, taking to 2 Talia Zs over Bandit Zs gave me no benefit (once again). Seriously thinking of making this change.

: Inching the V formation up worked well. Kept nearly all his squad in Etahn's arc. Maybe should've raced the Zs in to try and get into Range 1 of his Bs (for an extra red die on my side) but I didn't. So I could pick and choose my target to focus fire on. This was whatever Ten Numb hit when he came racing in from the right.

: When I say 'racing in from the right' I really mean 'crawling in'. With 'Mangler' as a secondary weapon, range is irrelevant. So trying to keep him as a range 3 sniper actually benefits him (well, not against HLC). So Mangler + VI is really solid and that's backed up by a lot of experience in this forum.

: You don't want him to get surrounded though. I had to keep thinking about the move after next. Could I cover him if he got into trouble. I can see swarms as a weakness for this build.

: Numb's a big target and draws the opponent's forces. Keeping him separate from the main group keeps them out of your opponent's arc as they move to engage. That can be a costly mistake. Puts Numb at risk though. Especially with 2 HLCs bearing down on him. At the very least it makes your opponent consider splitting his squad.

: Fire control system on Numb was great. Allows you to save that focus for defence if you need it. I was going to move that to Etahn but Numb needs all the defensive boost he can get.

: If you're rolling 2 red dice and you get 1 hit and you're at range 3, don't waste your target lock trying to get another. At least wait til you have a focus as well.

: Chained 'Swarm Tactics' works pretty well and caught me by surprise.

: Once I blew his BSP off the table it was 4 ships to 2. I valued Etahn's ability over his fire power. So I was not afraid to bump or land on asteroids to maximise ships in his firing arc. It was raining crits.

: Once again, a stressed Numb is bad. Took me a couple of rounds to get him back into firing position. Though I have to say my opponent was arc dodging with Ibtisam (his final ship) like a champion. Adv sensors is gold.

At the end I won with all ships left and Numb unscathed. My opponent made a movement error with Wedge in round 2 which took him out of play for 1-2 rounds. As he raced back to engage Numb he had to pass through a hail of fire from my main force and got critted off the table. He never got a shot on Numb. I think the result would have been very different if this didn't happen. Still, mission accomplished. Made an X-wing contact that's cool and lives ridiculously close.

Next step- More x-wing contacts tomorrow at a gaming event. Then a tournament in September.

In terms of making X-Wing contacts, today was a bit of a bust. In terms of seeing heaps of people playing all kinds of miniature games... wow! Terminator, Guild Ball, Doctor Who, Tron Ball (or something) the list goes on..

Played one guy from Melbourne (actually was promoting X-Wing as a game using rules that let people come and join or leave). Another great guy. No-one was taking part so he agreed to have a 100 point match. His 'scum' list (from memory)

Boba PS=8

Marksmanship

Cluster Missiles

Seismic Charge

HLC

Black Sun Zed PS=3

Cluster Missiles

Drea Renthal Y wing PS=5

Ion cannon

Unhinged astro (I think)

I have included the PS because this time the Talia pilots was a good choice, well they could both fire before his one Z maybe not totally pointless. VI on Numb... still good though.

He set his squad up in a group. I set my 'V' formation to the right and Numb about Range 3 to the left. Observations..

: He raced up but I inched up. Just licking range 3 at round 2 to get target locks and Numb firing off a volley.

: Keeping them separate is still good. In the end he went for Numb and eventually killed him too! During this, Etahn was able to build his shields back up via R2. At this stage it was Boba with 3 hull vs my Zed and full strength Etahn. Boba did not last another round. Another victory!

: This is a no brainer but... know your opponents dial. I thought I had Boba blocked and he pulls out a 4 straight, catching my V squad in his rear arc. "I did NOT know you could do that"

: Stressed Numb, once again, took him out of the fight for a round and out of range of any support.

: If you are going to use medium PS pilots, Make use of that to target lower PS enemy. Otherwise what's the point?

: The 'crit machine' is what won me the match. I was definitely outflown by my opponent. But every crit was tripping him up. Console fire, injured pilot... They were more hurdles and restrictions he had to overcome.

: The match lasted over 2 hours. My brain was fried. Hats off to tournament players going 6-8 hours.

Next step

Tournament in September.

Well, I am swapping out the Talia Zs for Bandits. Giving me 2 squad points to spend. The short list is:

: FCS on Etahn

Makes him even more of a threat. High usage but affects 1 ship only.

: Nunb crew on Numb

Gives Numb a mobility boost and helps shed his stress. Only 2 extra green moves but one of them was red. More points on Numb.

: Swarm tactics on Etahn

More useful than VI (?) But could just as easily be a waste of time. Benefits 2 ships.

: Draw Their Fire on Etahn

I would have to fly the squad differently for this to benefit Numb. Benefits 2 ships.

I'm leaning towards FCS on Etahn. Any thoughts?

Edit....

Well, I'm surprised.

I just reviewed the 32 lists at the local regional and by a big margin sticking with Talia pilots would have been the best squad choice (in terms of PS and predator mitigation).

Next best choice ( a far second) would have been 2 bandit Zeds and FCS on Etahn.

So I am locking Talia.

Well! entered my first Tourney today and naturally I took the Numb (BEZZ).

There were the deci builds, fat han and for the first time Tie advanced swarms. When people saw I was running Numb with Mangler, they were fearful and rightly so.

My first round was against Deci (RAC) with a defender.

I got rid of the defender pretty early (rained down the crits) and then focussed on the deci. Numb owns the Decimator like an unwanted pet! RAC just got dumber and dumber. Won the match 100-13 (lost one Z-95). I was stoked. In fact it was a Z-95 that delivered the killing blow. These guys proved pretty tough.

Next round was against the perfect ant-crit build. Fat Chewie with gunner, lone wolf and shizzle plus Leebo with determination, HLC in stuff. I knew I wouldn't win this so I decided that I had the best chance of killing Leebo. As long as I didn't change hits to crits. That's exactly what happened. The Zeds lasted the longest. I went down 50-100. This guy was good and went on to win.

Last round against Tie advanced swarm. accuracy correctors and advanced targeting computers plus Vader. This guy flew rings around me, had me blocked, bumping my own ships, hell Numb spent 2 turns with no actions nor attacks trapped on an asteroid. I flew bad, but he flew GOOD. Felt bad when I beat him. With Numb out of action Etahn with his two Zed wingmen were carrying the attack and did well until Etahn fell to a direct hit and then Numb to the same thing. Up until now I was lamenting not going with Bandit squadron pilots. Had seen no predators and the increased PS of Talias had no affect at all. But in this round they shone. After Numb and Vader the rest of my guys got to shoot before his. This was a game winner. I had some good green rolls but the Zeds won the game. I won 100-74 and ended coming 5th out of 13.

Observations

PWTs yeah... you need to bring your 'A' game.

Zeds with Etahn are really good.

Numb with Etahn is really good. A couple of times I was able to use my primary at range one with Etahn able to turn a hit to a crit. It gives you options (not reliant on Mangler) and your squad has ....breadth.

If you've got R2 on an E-wing it is going to get targetted big time.

Numb owns glass cannons and large hull ships.

Stressed Numb can be really bad. Have to think 2 moves ahead if you are going to stress him/her.

Sometimes you just have to plow through an asteroid to get THE shot. Just don't get blocked.

E-wings.... seem pretty solid. With R2 they are tough as nails.

Was playing with a friend who is very new to X-wing and gave him 'Super Numb' to fly. Ten Numb is scary and Etah with R2 and his Zed wingmen is hard to kill. Wasn't sure who to focus on first. Until Numb starts laying down the law. I remember thinking '****! I'm going to get a crit every single round and there's NOTHING I can do! Definetly need to focus fire on him first. Even that is difficult because you don't know where he is goin to start as he hits the table last. Then you get Etahn and his crit squad slamming into you from the side. Man, it's solid list. Competitive without being cheesy and a lot of fun to play.

I think TLTs will hurt Numb though so targeting priority for him should be

Anything with stealth device

TLTs

Anything with low shields

Just my thoughts.

Try this.

Was playing with a friend who is very new to X-wing and gave him 'Super Numb' to fly. Ten Numb is scary and Etah with R2 and his Zed wingmen is hard to kill. Wasn't sure who to focus on first. Until Numb starts laying down the law. I remember thinking '****! I'm going to get a crit every single round and there's NOTHING I can do! Definetly need to focus fire on him first. Even that is difficult because you don't know where he is goin to start as he hits the table last. Then you get Etahn and his crit squad slamming into you from the side. Man, it's solid list. Competitive without being cheesy and a lot of fun to play.

I think TLTs will hurt Numb though so targeting priority for him should be

Anything with stealth device

TLTs

Anything with low shields

Just my thoughts.

I agree. Ten Numb is back to being non-competitive. He is just too much of a liability with TLTs floating around. He'll be dead by the second round (maybe even the first if you are super unlucky) against a 4 TLT list. Just too many points to give to your opponent without much impact.

Kind of sad really.

Ten Numb wins again. My latest league match was against a guy whom I suspected was going to fly his Redline, Soontir, Jax squad. So I brought mt Numb squad. I even awapped the talias out for bandits and put FCS on Etahn. I was right and scraped in a win.

Still not convinced FCS on Etahn is better than Nien Nunb on Ten. Those extra green moves would have been so helpful but the extra points on the b-wing......

Sorry can't seem to paste the squad in.It's up above.

Next I play the #1 guy to guarantee a spot in the final 4. He's undefeated so far.

@arcana57 that's not bad.

But not having flown a k nor a-wing before, I would have to rack up some serious playtesting. Will try that out in casual play for sure.

Ten Numb (31)

Veteran Instincts (1)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

Jan Ors (2)

B-Wing/E2 (1)

I've tried using Ten with Jan, but in practice I end up wanting a target lock rather than a focus almost every round - which makes Jan useless for giving Ten an evade token. I tried it when I paired him with Dash+Recon Spec too, and in that situation I was doing a lot of focus/evade on Dash, so more useful in that circumstance. But I can't see the benefit of Jan in your combo. What is your intention for her here?

Personally I like a "skinny" Ten (just VI + Mangler) or sometimes with Tactician (but mainly that's just because I don't have the cards for Stresshog).