Munition Alpha Strike: Nera Dutch Katarn

By Rakaydos, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Played a few games with this list... My personal target priority isnt the best because I'm new, but it did well against a Doomshuttle list and lost to a 3 ship list when I blew my alpha strike on a bare tie bomber instead of the firespray :/

Nera Danels 26

-Crew slot mod 1

-Nien Numb 1

-Advanced proton torpedos 6

-Extra Munitions 2

Dutch Vanders 23

-Ion Turret 5

-R2 Astromech 1

-Proton Torpedo 4

-Extra Munitions 2

Kyle Katarn 21

-Ion Turret 5

-Recon Specialist 3

With both Kyle and Dutch, Nera is basicall un-bumpable, able to run into a melee and drop an advanced torpedo on anyone she isnt personally touching. Even after one of the support ships bites it, she can use her action with the other one to drop her extra munition, making a serius bid to drop a "fat" craft in 2 turns. Backing her up is Dutch, who burns the target locks he's taking to fire longer ranged (if less devastating) torpedos, or being a backup ion turret against large base ships. Kyle is a primary ion turret focused on setting up targets for Nera, but being abe to share focus while keeping one himself makes him a powerful setup for either of his teammates.

Against a 2 ship list, the theory is to nuke the lower evasion one (or the easier one to pin down) with torpedos while locking it down with ion, then dealing with the oher with my survivors. Against swarms, the torpedos get spread around like candy, trying to pick off the high evasion targets with overkill weapons.

Any suggestions for this build? I understand that 3 ship builds are considered "newbie" because of the lack of durability- Do you think the munition load might be enough to even the odds?

3 ships builds are fine, and not considered "newbie"

to be honest, there really arent a lot of "newbie" builds. the most newbie thing you've got going here is munitions. there are very few instances where they are actually worth their cost. i see you have extra munitions to offset that a little. but lets drop all the torpedoes and extra munitions off of dutch. that gives you six points to play with.

first, add the moldy crow title to kyle. if you think having 2 focus is good, wait til you have 8. now he's a proper focus battery, with a control element for fun.

next, lets add the ept "deadeye" to nera. deadeye lets you spend focus tokens instead of target locks when you use ordnance. this gives you so many options. you can focus with nera, acquire a target lock from dutch, and another focus from kyle. spend one focus to launch, and you now have focus and target lock to deal your damage.

the best part is, deadeye gives you the flexibility to use the barrel roll, while still getting help from either of your squad mates.

the other change i might make it to give dutch the btl-a4 title, which will up your damage output significantly. you'll have to fly your face off to make it work, but your opponent should have a hard time figuring out who to kill first.

Well basically munitions are over costed, the extra munitions helps but still. They are good against large ships like you mentioned but I think your paying a lot of points to have a range 1 torpedo turret with nera. If it was me I may swap the torpedoes. Protons on nera and adv protons on Dutch. This gives nera a range 2-3 turret which will help against more manueverable ships and Dutch should be able to get a large ship in arc and range 1 but personally I would switch to reg protons for both saving you 2 points. Also getting rid of nien would then give you 3 extra points to put moldy crow on the hwk maximizing kyles benefit aka focus factory. Another thing hwks in general are hard to fly and generally the weak link although some can be quite powerful. Mainly because the mobility issue. Also this list suffers from lack of agility dice so 3+ attack dice ships and swarms will chew this up. IMO kyles ability is meh, for the same points you could have a yt2400 and 10 hp vs 5 adding more survivability and barrel rolling shenanigans. Just my 2 cents.

hwk's arent hard to fly, you just have to go nice and slow.

which pairs well with the slow y-wing, and the slow b-wing. especially, with nera and turrets. who cares which way you fly?

hwk's arent hard to fly, you just have to go nice and slow.

which pairs well with the slow y-wing, and the slow b-wing. especially, with nera and turrets. who cares which way you fly?

They are the rebels equivalent to a shuttle haha. They have no Kturn, and very little green which means it's gonna take awhile to turn the thing around meanwhile the ywing and bwing both can flip around and have more maneuvering choices. Yes they have a turret but if he's trying to use torpedoes he's gonna need all the mobility he can get and limiting himself to trying to pace himself with Kyle won't really help. Dutch and nera should be buddies IMO and Kyle should be floating on the fringes lazily passing focus and getting 3 defense dice from his range which will keep him alive longer in battle since he is only doing 1 damage a turn which isn't much. If he's going for munitions then he needs to unload those as quick as possible instead of taking his time following Kyle around. The hwk does pair better with the ywing like you said as in its closer to the same dial but with his set up and munitions I really think he should stick nera and Dutch together especially so Dutch can pass the TL to her.

Well basically munitions are over costed, the extra munitions helps but still. They are good against large ships like you mentioned but I think your paying a lot of points to have a range 1 torpedo turret with nera. If it was me I may swap the torpedoes. Protons on nera and adv protons on Dutch. This gives nera a range 2-3 turret which will help against more manueverable ships and Dutch should be able to get a large ship in arc and range 1 but personally I would switch to reg protons for both saving you 2 points. Also getting rid of nien would then give you 3 extra points to put moldy crow on the hwk maximizing kyles benefit aka focus factory. Another thing hwks in general are hard to fly and generally the weak link although some can be quite powerful. Mainly because the mobility issue. Also this list suffers from lack of agility dice so 3+ attack dice ships and swarms will chew this up. IMO kyles ability is meh, for the same points you could have a yt2400 and 10 hp vs 5 adding more survivability and barrel rolling shenanigans. Just my 2 cents.

Looking at Mouldy Crow, I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting for 3 points. Swarm resistance? It's not like Kyle can pass off 2 focus in the same turn...

I'm iffy on changing from Advanced torpedos to normal torpedos- dropping from 5 guarenteed hits to ~3 hits per torp for a 2 point cost reduction and a range boost seems iffy if your interested in dropping Bwings, Fat Hans, and RACs. Dutch has the longer range torpedo because he and Kyle slow-roll, giving the arc limited Ywing a larger target area. (I'm considering replacing dutch's torp with a flechette, though)

Well basically munitions are over costed, the extra munitions helps but still. They are good against large ships like you mentioned but I think your paying a lot of points to have a range 1 torpedo turret with nera. If it was me I may swap the torpedoes. Protons on nera and adv protons on Dutch. This gives nera a range 2-3 turret which will help against more manueverable ships and Dutch should be able to get a large ship in arc and range 1 but personally I would switch to reg protons for both saving you 2 points. Also getting rid of nien would then give you 3 extra points to put moldy crow on the hwk maximizing kyles benefit aka focus factory. Another thing hwks in general are hard to fly and generally the weak link although some can be quite powerful. Mainly because the mobility issue. Also this list suffers from lack of agility dice so 3+ attack dice ships and swarms will chew this up. IMO kyles ability is meh, for the same points you could have a yt2400 and 10 hp vs 5 adding more survivability and barrel rolling shenanigans. Just my 2 cents.

Looking at Mouldy Crow, I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting for 3 points. Swarm resistance? It's not like Kyle can pass off 2 focus in the same turn...

I'm iffy on changing from Advanced torpedos to normal torpedos- dropping from 5 guarenteed hits to ~3 hits per torp for a 2 point cost reduction and a range boost seems iffy if your interested in dropping Bwings, Fat Hans, and RACs. Dutch has the longer range torpedo because he and Kyle slow-roll, giving the arc limited Ywing a larger target area. (I'm considering replacing dutch's torp with a flechette, though)

Well if you want to keep the adv torpedo like I said I would put it on Dutch and put the reg torpedo on nera. Your paying more points for neras turret ability so you want to get the most use out of it and limiting her turret to only range 1 seems like your holding her back. Whenever I use her I make sure and give her something that can fire range 1-3 that way I'm able to take advantage of the points I spent to gain her ability. Otherwise what's your reasoning for taking nera? You could just as easily take a blue squadron and put adv Torps on them saving you more points. If your gonna take nera give her more than just a range 1 turret. As far as moldy crow goes, the moldy crow is letting you keep all your focus without removing. So say you have stored like 10 focus. Ok now you pass one, use one on offense, use 2 on defense from being fired at your down to 6. Believe me you can burn thru them pretty quick, and all those focus will be nice to have. Minimum you'll use 3 most likely every round, meaning your losing 1 per round since Rec spec only gives 2. This also frees you up to take TL when you want increasing the chances your ions will stick.

You have it backward... im not buffing nera with torps, im buffing the torps with nera. Dutch (or blue) with advanced torps is too easy to block, as hes limited to a small wedge where he can get a shot off. Nera, on the other hand, can blow past her target and still drop the shipkiller, making her attack much harder to spoil.

I have considered dutch with the named R7 to boost into advanced torp range, doubling up on the shipkilling power, but it was too much point squeeze, so I had to back off to a regular torp, despite its reduced power. I might still be able to if I take away Dutchs turret- hes got enough of a target painted in him already that the turret is likely wasted.

Well honestly again munitions are usually a bad choice. So if it was me I would actually drop the protons and use flachettes. Cheaper and more range buuuttt I understand your going for large ship killers. Also nera can still be blocked fairly easily, I believe she's a PS 5 right? Which means fat han, dash, rear admiral all can still block you since they are 7-9 and sometimes more. So nera is still pretty vulnerable since she will be moving BEFORE all these common fat turrets. Also again your going to want to keep Kyle at range to give him the extra agility so he can buff your squad as long as possible however hwks in general are also not the best. I'm just giving you some things that I see that could be affecting your squad. So in summary

1.) munitions usually a bad idea

2.) fielding a hwk usually a bad idea (with some exceptions)

3.) the points your spending on munitions you could field another ship entirely

Again I know your going for a large ship killing squad but there are generally better ways. For instance 3 bwings with hlc and a z95 would be a consideration. Or hlc outrider with bwings supporting is another consideration. Both these would fair better. But if you want to keep the squad you have then seriously consider the points I laid out. Hopefully it helps.

1.) munitions usually a bad idea

2.) fielding a hwk usually a bad idea (with some exceptions)

3.) the points your spending on munitions you could field another ship entirely

Understood. Now I'm trying to make it work anyway. Repeating these points is simply not useful.

Extra Munitions is upposed to be the "munitions fix" coming with the Kwing and Predator- if it's impossiible to make a functional list using munitions even with it, FFG should know. The way it's set up, Extra Mutions have more effect the more expensive your munitions are, but (aside from bomb+missile) you can only drop one munition per round- the Advanced Torpedo is both the strongest weapon in the game per shot and ssomething you can drop in a few turns and be less of a target.

Kyle is here for his pilot ability synergizing with advanced proton torpedo use. His ion cannon also helps set up targets for the advanced torps.

Well here's the thing, you've got 3 ships, 2 of the 3 have an ion turret which won't be doing much damage and if your trying to take down large ships won't really affect them besides flying them into asteroids or off the board. Basically your opponent will most likely see nera as the high priority of your list. Focus fire her and finish her off in ide say 2 rounds of shooting. She will have a hard time getting into range 1 to use her torpedoes before she's focus fired. That leaves your ywing and hwk, your ywing has torpedoes but most likely that will be your opponents next target. Anyways the point is nera will most likely be the first one to go since she's the most dangerous and I would be maintaining distance from her and just focus firing. Imo you need an equal threat in your list to make it harder to choose who to go after first. Which is why I also said switch the protons to nera and adv to the ywing. That way their choices are, go after nera first with the reg torp and risk the ywing coming in and unloading the adv protons or go after the ywing first and risk nera being able to fire her turret. I just think giving nera adv torpedoes and her pilot ability makes her an easy first target choice. Once she's gone you won't have a whole lot of damage output, and ions won't be stopping the fattys from firing either only controlling where they go which could be good in some cases.