I've been playing for about 6 months and am looking to go to my first regional tournament. I've used the first list in a previous tournament (very small) and had satisfying results. However, I wonder if there are any tweeks that would make it better. Are the other builds close in play style to the first,or do they have drawbacks that I don't see?

99 Pts. Rebel "21 Gun Salute"

Leebo 2400

Determination

Outrider title

mangler cannon

shield upgrade

recon spec.

Bandit squadron x3

cluster missile

Recon spec was nice having tokens for att and def. The cluster missiles were either a big plus or did nothing as they are usually fired first round of engagement without any dice modification. Should I look at concussion missiles instead? Or drop Leebo's shield and upgrade to assault missiles?

99 Pts. Rebel

Leebo

Deadeye

mangler cannon

Concussion missiles

Recon Spec

Outrider title

Bandit Squadron x3

cluster missiles

I know this build leaves Leebo a little more exposed as determination matched very well with his pilot ability. But this gives him a very potent first shot. And again the bandit's clusters could be swapped for concussions.

99 Pts. S&V "Red Death"

Kath Scarlet

Deadeye

Recon Spec

Concussion Missiles

Hull upgrade

siesmic charges

Binayre Pirate x3

Cluster missiles

I haven't run this one yet, so learning to fly Kath will be much different than Leebo's turret, especially since I have no experience with bombs. Again, the extra hull could be dropped in order to upgrade the clusters to assault missiles. Or drop the hull or seismic charges in order to give Kath either predator or lone wolf.

(Eventually this build will be run without the hull upgrade and take the Slave-1 title with extra munitions.)

Thanks in advance for the critiques.

Well, I think hull would be better on Leebo than shields, for starters. But I would put HLC and engine instead, dropping a tala and putting in Jan Ors as well.

I must say, I like your first list the best. Leebo is an awesome pilot, and an Outrider is a fantastic ship. I would keep the Mangler, as any high PS ace will just get in the R1 donut hole of the HLC. The only thing I would change with this is putting Concussion missiles on the Z95s. Either that, or take one with IPM, one with Concussion(or Cluster, your choice) and one with Homing. Each missile has its own strengths, and can be used to great effect on the correct target.

I flew a Z95 missile swarm to the final table of the Tacoma regionals, and I have a lot of experience flying Zs with concussion missiles. A few rules that I follow with them are:

• Don't fire your missile until you have a focus token as well, unless you are certain that you are going to die before you will fire them.
• If you have TL+F, don't spend your focus on defense unless it prevents you from dying. A 1 health Z is fine as long as it did its 4 damage.
• Once a Z fires its missile, it is dead to you. Either fly it aggressively by taking a TL and move to block, or run away and force your opponent to chase it to get its points.
• Plan your approach carefully. If your first round of combat is not at range 3, your Z95s are going to be in trouble.
• Fly your Zs spread out as a true swarm to cover as much board as possible with missile threats. Overlapping arcs make for dead arc-dodgers.

For you, if you lose all three Zs, you're only down 48 points. From turn 1, target the ship that is worth more than that, and win on MOV. Those little Zs will be able to carry their weight against a fat ship easily, as long as they fire their missiles. If you don't table your opponent, you will probably be ahead on MOV.

Thanks and for the advice. In the past, I target locked in long range and then fired the naked clusters as they closed the distance in the same turn, and hoped for the best. Against low agility targets they did decently, but struggled against anything with agility 3. They have helped take out high priority targets early.

I played three games today using list 2 but had assault missiles on the Z's instead. I struggled trying to get the targets at range two to three while they chased me. And it seemed I was almost never able to also have a focus when I did get them in that range. Then they immediately closed the gap again. Out of the three games today, I only managed to get off three out of nine missiles, and none of them were able to be supported by a focus.

I find that they work well for me when I fly them in a closer formation together. Being able to block with the Z's usually helps my other z's get range one shots at a tokenless target. Perhaps it's my style of flying the Z's that's causing my missile difficulty. Despite the missile frustration, I've found that I really love flying those little ships. They are a lot tougher then people give them credit for.

Yeah, I definitely understand that frustration. Assault missiles are my least favorite missiles because they are expensive and have no dice modification. Have you tried homing missiles? They are just fine with only a TL, and can really make Soontir and his ilk sweat.

I have found that a big part of finding success with any missile swarm lies in asteroid placement. My opponents rarely set up across from me because my list was very strong at jousting, so more often than not my initial approach was diagonally through a thick asteroid field in the center of the map.

If you approach through the rocks, you can often do one quick pass through, taking focus actions with ships that are in front, and TLs with the ships in back, unless you're set up to block with the ships in front, in which case you will want to do the reverse. Try delaying your K turn, and do a 3 or 4 straight instead, and take a TL on the last turn you are going to be in range. The goal is to have a TL, but nobody in range when you k turn, that way when when you re-engage you will have TL and Focus. Also, breaking off of the engagement with the Zs is a great way to mess with your opponent and make him think twice about who to target, especially if your main ship is still getting shots off.

Hope it helps!