His ability is very interesting, I definitively think he has potential to be more present in squads.

"When an enemy ship at Range 1-3 receives at least 1 ion token, if you are not stressed, you may receive 1 stress token to cause that ship to suffer 1 damage."

Are there good solid squad ideas with him? I guess he will be first priority target, therefore important to consider when making a list.

Any ideas? Perhaps someone with wingman, or giving him ion cannon turret or twin laser turret beside other ships with ion cannons. Or better pair him with ships having conner nets, e.g Y-wings?

I've had thoughts along these lines. Definitely pair him with a munition dropping ship and a wingman. That nets you an extra damage when the explosion happens during or at end of activation so you get stress. Wingman removes that stress at start of combat. Dace then lands an ion turret hit for 2 damage and another stress.

2 damage from his ability in a turn is not to be sniffed at.

A HWK rocking stress and having to run on greens though...

Does his ability only activate once a round? Or can someone drop an ion bomb and do this....

Can use his ability as many times as you have opportunities. Problem is he has to be stress free to do it and using the ability gives him a stress. Hence the need to remove a stress with wingman.

Edit so yes ion bomb can trigger it. Clear the resulting stress with wingman then trigger a second time in combat phase or don't do so in order to keep the HWK stress free.

As long as he's not stressed it can be used any time an enemy ship gets an ion token. Timing issues probably prevent this from working more than twice a turn in practice.

Edit: we need a crew upgrade that turfs off stress to a friendly ship in range, like the opposite of Wingman.

Scum only of course.

Conner nets deal two damage (native damage + dace)

Food for thought

I used Dace in a casual game and he worked really well.

I have an idea to use him alongside some y-wings for extra opportunities to trigger his ability.

Dace w/ crack shot, ion turret, K4 droid & engine = 36

2 thugs w/ BTL-A4 & ion turret = 23 x 2

1 spacer w/ heavy scyk & flechette cannon = 18

Because 1 source of ion doesn't always hit, I think you need more than one. Crack shot means you can make Dace's shot count and engine is there because he will almost always be doing greens (natural synergy with K4) so extra mobility is nice to keep his ion in range or to keep his ass out of firing arcs.

The scyk hangs back and adds insult to injury with a stress token on whoever gets ionized...

Quick and dirty ion list for Dace.

4 connor nets with an autoblaster to follow up on the ace's paraisis, and Inteligence Agent/Ion Projector to really mess with a high agility ace.

Dace Bonearm (23)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Syndicate Thug (18)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Bomb Loadout (0)
Extra Munitions (2)
Conner Net (4)

Emon Azzameen (36)
Conner Net (4)
Intelligence Agent (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Ion Projector (2)
Slave I (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I flew against the 3 named S&V pilots Wednesday night and lost 2 of 3. Dace with ion and Palob and Mux with TLTs. That combo is brutal. Mux kills pilot skill, Dace does double damage with ion turret and Palob steals tokens. With Recon Spec on two of the HWKs along with one with the Moldy Crow title he had focus tokens out the ears.

The game I won was due to a beautifully executed (read 'lucky') ambush through the rocks that killed Mux outright and heavily damaged Palob. One shield lost to return fire.

Don't underestimate the power of 3 HWKs. They can be brutal. I don't think the Rebel equivalent is as devastatingly evil.

Using wingman to allow Dace to use his ability twice, once with bombs, is inspired! That never would've crossed my mind.

with mines, against someone lower PS than Dace, you dont even need wingman. Just have a Thug drop a connor net in someone's way, enemy ace flies through it, dace gets stressed for an extra damage, then dace does a green maneuver at PS8 or 10 to clear it.

with mines, against someone lower PS than Dace, you dont even need wingman. Just have a Thug drop a connor net in someone's way, enemy ace flies through it, dace gets stressed for an extra damage, then dace does a green maneuver at PS8 or 10 to clear it.

That's pure awesomeness.

Probably takes a lot of practice to drop it right though.

with mines, against someone lower PS than Dace, you dont even need wingman. Just have a Thug drop a connor net in someone's way, enemy ace flies through it, dace gets stressed for an extra damage, then dace does a green maneuver at PS8 or 10 to clear it.

Assuming of course that he wasn't stressed from the previous round...

I love Dace. 2-shotting MegaSilver's beloved Z-95s with an Ion Cannon repeatedly is very satisfying.

Playing off the ability to land 2-damage Conner Nets and get 2 damage from his own turret...

Dace Bonearm (23)

+ Ion Cannon Turret (5)

+ Moldy Crow (3)

2x Syndicate Thug (18)

+ Bomb Loadout (0)

+ Conner Net (4)

+ Autoblaster Turret (2)

+ Extra Munitions (2)

Kaa'To Leeachos (15)

+ Wingman (2)

Kaa'To is the cheapest Wingman available, and he also happens to have another start-of-combat ability. This can pair nicely with Moldy Crow to make sure he's always able to drop TL+F shots on unsuspecting foes. Lots of Conner Nets means lots of opportunity for +2 damage Dace turns, and Autoblasters make sure the Y-Wings have some bite. Especially good for chasing down ionized targets.

I'm an unabashed Dace Bonearm fan. Used him plenty and always looking for new ways to use him. Wave 7 introduced a couple of things that have made him even better:

Conner Nets

Ion Projectors

Both give you the opportunity to double tap his ability in a round. I guess Ion Bombs could, too, but it'd require the proper order of initiative to set it off, ion, stress, then wingman to clear the stress... too much to rely on.

Anyways, I personally love running Dace like this:

Dace Bonearm

Veteran Instincts

Ion Cannon Turret

K4 Security Droid

Engine Upgrade

ICT to help use his own ability, K4 because you're already perpetually doing green, and then EU to make him into an arc dodger. VI on there right now to help with said arc dodging, but I think a strong case can be made to throw Wired on him now... and maybe then drop the K4 to save points elsewhere.

And while the possibility of double tapping his ability is awesome, it isn't something you can consistently do and as such I don't find it wholly necessary. If you can get it once a turn, you're doing just fine. With that said, you need to guarantee it happens at least once a turn, which means you need to have a pair of ion generators in your squad... ideally permanent ones and not just nets/bombs/torpedoes/missiles. Kavil is a truly wonderful wingmate for Dace, as those four red dice will make it brutal to avoid getting ioned+Daced. Another nasty trick is to throw an Ion Projector out there... maybe on a Trandoshan Slaver. If you have the points, a Trandoshan Slaver with Intel Agent, Navigator, and Maneuvering Fins who can park himself right in the path of aces and render them quickly boned if that projector hits. It actually makes a solid case for Wired as well, since Dace would want to keep his PS in that mid-range to try and Lizard-Ram OR Conner Net at PS2, stress, clear with green, stress with ICT shot in combat as often as possible.

Dace also pairs naturally well with stress generators, and one of the few competitive uses I've found for Scyks is running them with Flechette Cannons along with Dace and Kavil rocking ICTs. You're deny actions, movement, and dealing surprisingly tough damage. It's nasty, though a TLT swarm can be problematic for it.

And, considering Dace's semi-perma stressed state... I think the Bossk crew may not be completely terrible on him either. Not my first choice, but it does make me think.

EDIT: Right, only one modification per ship!

dace plus some trandoshan slavers with ion projector..

:-D

I just HAVE to try.