So after running dual firespray two ship builds for well over a year, and doing quite well with them, I had come to a peak with them. They are a very strong build, giving me way more wins than losses, and I'm constantly tweaking them with new waves of upgrades. That being said...for a two ship build, they are by far the "squishiest" I'd say. 20 hit points at 2 agility is decent, but not amazing, and you're usually not getting a ton of defensive actions like the falcon or fel for example.

So I decided to look into using mando mercs to save some points and add a third ship as a blocker/meat shield. I initially tried a 20 point mangler scyk, but that ended up being way too much of a glass cannon for the points. So I decided to add a Z-95 instead and give a few more points back to the mercs.

This is what I came up with:

Mando Merc - 35

Predator - 3

Feedback Array - 2

Tactician - 2

Mando Merc - 35

Predator - 3

Feedback Array - 2

Tactician - 2

Black Sun Pirate - 13

Hull Upgrade - 3

Total: 100

So far I'm 5-1 with the list, with the one loss due to really bad dice situations (not dice luck per se). Going from PS 8 & 7 to 5 isn't really that bad right now, as there aren't a lot of mid range pilots flying around. Many are in the 8-11 range, which are mostly higher than my old pilots anyways. The loss in abilities hurts, but gaining 7 extra points to use towards a third ship just might be worth it. Predator makes my attacks solid, while the tacticians and feedback arrays help control enemy ships, especially arc dodgers who get too close. The black sun with hull upgrade is nice to use as a blocker for 2-3 ships lists or just a meatshield to take damage away from the mercs. Since he is PS3, he shoots before the PS1&2 generics most squads have which is nice as well.

What do you think?

I think the 16 points on a PS 1 X-Wing (-1 attack die) is likelier to lose you the MoV than help you.

May I ask what your 2-ship build has been most recently?

agreed. that hull could get you kath or just another feedback plus initiative

So I ended up going 4-5-1 after that initial 5-1 start, for a total of 9-6-1. All but one of my wins were very solid, and my losses were all very close games except for maybe one, and the tie is a tie (only second time I've done that ever I think).

So I do agree that the 16 point black sun wasn't cutting it, but I was 100% set with the loadouts on the mercs, so I can't drop anything there. So that meant dropping the hull upgrade on the black, and if necessary also downgrading it to a binayre.

I debated adding a mangler, but figured it would just make that merc too big a target and probably only get used once. Plus I kind of like having the black sun at PS3 to be ahead of most other generics. So I decided instead to put an ion cannon on one of the mercs. I figured ahead of time it probably wouldn't get much use, and so far that's the case. I've played 4 games with this version and won all 4, however the ion cannon has only been shot twice total. Two games wasn't used at all, one game had little effect since it was against a big ship. The other game though the ion attack was a huge help to me for the following round so it payed for itself right there.

So I just finished my 25th game with the new ion cannon variation, and have gone 22-3 with it. My 3 losses were to a 4 ship awing build, a chirpy/fel build, and a super dash and tycho build.

Overall I'm very happy with this build. I do think the 3rd ship adds a lot. 4 extra hit points at 2 agility goes a long way since firesprays can be a bit squishy at times. Also the ion has definitely been the x factor in a few games, even though it's still only used about 0-1 times a game on average.

For biggest weaknesses, fat turrets would be up there, though most lists can say the same thing so I'm in the same boat. Brobots is tough as well, but beatable if I can get the stress on them and then hammer them up close. I can handle elite arc dodgers if there's one or two, but if the list is all that type it can be tough to kill them all before I'm dead.

Best of all is it's super unique, and far from the meta lists at the moment.

I only flew this once but did well with it

Two mercs with recon specialist and two Binayre pilots

Not a ton of upgrades, 4 ships, two blockers

Double focus on the big ones for that added protection.

But I can say I haven't flown duel firesprays much at all

Been flying mostly swarm type builds