Can you improve on this?
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Z95 Alpha Strike
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100 points
Pilots
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Lieutenant Blount (20)
Z-95 Headhunter (17), XX-23 S-thread Tracers (1), Swarm Tactics (2)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (16) x 5
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Concussion Missiles (4)
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/290335/z95-alpha-strike#view=compact
Edited by voidstateHoming might do more damage.
Homing might do more damage.
I guess you could drop Swarm Tactics and replace 2 concussions with homing missiles...
Or maybe give them all Advanced Homing Missiles? That's 5 damage ignoring shields...
I'd be tempted to drop Swarm Tactics for Veteran Instincts, as you're relying on Blount attacking before he gets killed. Making him PS 8 will lower the number of ships that can shoot first and let's you bid against things like VI BroBots.
I do think concussion missiles may be better than homing for this case. You're looking to do a big alpha strike, and having that range 2 restriction of the adv homing missile could really hurt.
Can you improve on this?
================
Z95 Alpha Strike
================
100 points
Pilots
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Lieutenant Blount (20)
Z-95 Headhunter (17), XX-23 S-thread Tracers (1), Swarm Tactics (2)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (16) x 5
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Concussion Missiles (4)
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/290335/z95-alpha-strike#view=compact
Only wiggle-room I see is with Swarm Tactics.
Rest of it is beautiful and terrifying.
I'd be tempted to drop Swarm Tactics for Veteran Instincts, as you're relying on Blount attacking before he gets killed. Making him PS 8 will lower the number of ships that can shoot first and let's you bid against things like VI BroBots.
Agreed. VI gets you the PS bid that is, frankly, necessary.
It also gets you an Initiative bid, which will also get you the ability to blast off more often.
5 Concussion Missiles, both TL and Focus, nets you an Alpha Strike of 5 missiles, which has the following damage spread
4 Damage 73.8%
3 Damage 21.1%
2 Damage 4.7%
1 Damage 0.4%
0 Damage 0.0%
Expected Damage = 3.68, x5 attacks = 18.415 expected Damage.
VS Fat Han at his Tankiest, who has 3+3(x-1)/8 mitigation (where X is the number of enemy attacks), that's an expectation of dealing 13.9 damage, also known as Overkill.
5 Concussion Missiles, both TL and Focus, nets you an Alpha Strike of 5 missiles, which has the following damage spread
They have to use the TL to fire the missiles, they won't have it to modify the dice. Are those numbers right?
5 Concussion Missiles, both TL and Focus, nets you an Alpha Strike of 5 missiles, which has the following damage spread
They have to use the TL to fire the missiles, they won't have it to modify the dice. Are those numbers right?
Yep.
The Bandits fly up and focus. Blount fires a tracer missile (hitting automatically because of his pilot skill) and the resulting "ping" gives every other Z-95 a target lock. Now you've got 5 bandits with both a focus token and a target lock.
There is a risk, because if Han manages to shoot down Blount at PS9, what you've got are 5 overpriced Z-95s trying to fire their primary weapons at an undamaged YT-1300 at range 3. But a Z-95 isn't that fragile, so you should be fine barring some sort of horrible critical.
Advanced Homing Missiles and Cluster Missiles are both options, but if you're aiming for a 'first strike' list, I'd be leery of taking ordnance which isn't capable of Range 3.
Giving Blount Veteran Instincts is a good call. It gives you the means to get a lock on PS8 if you have initiative.
Non-advanced Homing Missiles are nice - it depends on how common evade token dependent fighters to you. Assault Missiles are nice too against a lot of opponents, but most of the time the simple damage boost of concussion weapons, and more importantly their lower cost, will do you more good.
After all, once the missile racks are empty, you've still got a flock of 6 Z-95s, which isn't a bad little swarm.
Thanks for the advice everyone. VI is a good call. Which leaves 1 point with which to upgrade one concussion missile to a homing missile (or assault missile if you want to deter escorts from flying too closely).
================ Z95 Alpha Strike ================
100 points
Pilots
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Lieutenant Blount (19)
Z-95 Headhunter (17), XX-23 S-thread Tracers (1), Veteran Instincts (1)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (17)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Homing Missiles (5)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (16) x 4
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Concussion Missiles (4)
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View: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/290335/z95-alpha-strike
I would keep the list at 99 points. Winning initiative so Blount can fire early is going to be very important against other PS8 ships.
I would keep the list at 99 points. Winning initiative so Blount can fire early is going to be very important against other PS8 ships.
Why? If he gets destroyed, he can still fire back (as per the simultaneous fire rules).
It might help him avoid being arc dodged, but he'll be flying in formation so the PS2 bandits will have telegraphed his eventual position and he has no barrel roll or boost to reposition.
vs
Because even if he still gets to attack he could still lose the ability to successfully fire his missiles - a critical could drop him to PS0, remove his Pilot Ability to auto-trigger the missile's effect, or remove the missiles entirely - or prevent him from firing (Janson's ability to remove tokens stripping him of the focus token he needs to fire them).
I like VI, but I was thinking of Deadeye. We live in a 2-ship meta currently, and they're usually higher than PS 8 anyway. Deadeye allows him to move just into range of where higher PS ships will be, and still get the ordnance off. If he survives, that is, which is where the higher PS might help against certain squads.
Deadeye is a good call, too.
The other advantage for Veteran Instincts is dependent on squad composition - if you have other elite-ish pilots then you can use blount to set up target locks for them too. There aren't actually that many PS7 ordnance bunnies though, and PS8+ pilots tend to have no trouble setting up their own target locks.
Deadeye is redundant as the tracers already require a focus instead of a target lock.