Miranda the Destroyer

By Gausebeck, in X-Wing Squad Lists

I didn't come up with this list, though I've tweaked it a bit.

Miranda Doni + Twin Laser Turret + Homing Missiles + Extra Munitions + C-3PO (45)

Jan Ors + Twin Laser Turret + Chewbacca (35)

Airen Cracken + Crack Shot (20)

With this combo, Miranda can make fully-modified Homing Missile attacks with 6 dice (average 5.6 hits) ignoring evade tokens. Everyone moves and focuses, then Airen Cracken's attack gives a target lock to Miranda (after all enemy movement, even PS 9+) and she can use the target lock plus focus on Homing Missiles with the base 4 dice, +1 for Miranda's ability, +1 from Jan Ors.

There are 8 points that can be moved around while keeping the combo, and I currently have them as C-3PO, Chewbacca, and Crack Shot. C-3PO makes for a great late-game Miranda, Chewbacca makes it hard to burn down Jan, and Crack Shot is always worthwhile.

I've been trying to think of what would be the best counter to this list. Any ideas?

If I might make a suggestion, in my experience with Miranda I've found that recon spec is generally better than C3P0, both offensively and defensively. I'd also recommend switching out airen's crackshot for VI to ensure he can't get sniped by pesky PS9 aces.

VI might be better on Cracken. You want to make sure that he gets to use his ability before dying and a higher PS will definitely help with that.

Sounds fun as is.

If I might make a suggestion, in my experience with Miranda I've found that recon spec is generally better than C3P0, both offensively and defensively. I'd also recommend switching out airen's crackshot for VI to ensure he can't get sniped by pesky PS9 aces.

Interesting on Recon Specialist. It's certainly better offensively (in that it can contribute to offense). On defense, I guess it depends on how many times you get attacked each turn. Assuming that with Recon Spec you always have focus for defense and that with C-3PO you never do (which is exaggerating the situation):

vs. 1 attack, C-3PO gives 1 evade vs. RS giving 5/8.

vs. 2 attacks, C-3PO gives 1 3/8 evades vs. RS giving 1 2/8.

vs. 3 attacks, C-3PO gives 1 6/8 evades vs. RS giving 1 7/8.

So RS pulls ahead once Miranda is taking 3+ attacks per turn. This is exaggerated in that we're assuming never vs. always having focus for defense, but it's not counting that focus becomes a bit more valuable when Miranda has 2 green dice at range 3. There's also the fact that C-3PO still works if Miranda bumps or SLAMs, and C-3PO gives you a chance to gamble on 2 evades from one green die if that's what you need to survive.

What kind of lists have you faced where C-3PO on Miranda didn't seem as valuable?

And VI on Cracken is probably a good idea. It would be nice to have everyone at PS 8 for maneuvering, but it's not a list that's likely to get very tangled with itself. The argument for Crack Shot would be vs. lower-PS enemies, where you're more likely to finish someone off (with combined fire) before they can return fire. Depends on what the list would like to be stronger against, but VI does seem like the safer bet.

Cracken to vi. Jan to wired and Nin numb. Saves you 2 points and Jan can get stressed rerolls plus clear stress with 4 forward, which imo will be life saving. I've been looking at this combo but haven't had the balls to run it. Tho I was running biggs Jan and Miranda with Han as I wouldnt have the focus from cracken.

If I might make a suggestion, in my experience with Miranda I've found that recon spec is generally better than C3P0, both offensively and defensively. I'd also recommend switching out airen's crackshot for VI to ensure he can't get sniped by pesky PS9 aces.

Interesting on Recon Specialist. It's certainly better offensively (in that it can contribute to offense). On defense, I guess it depends on how many times you get attacked each turn. Assuming that with Recon Spec you always have focus for defense and that with C-3PO you never do (which is exaggerating the situation):

vs. 1 attack, C-3PO gives 1 evade vs. RS giving 5/8.

vs. 2 attacks, C-3PO gives 1 3/8 evades vs. RS giving 1 2/8.

vs. 3 attacks, C-3PO gives 1 6/8 evades vs. RS giving 1 7/8.

So RS pulls ahead once Miranda is taking 3+ attacks per turn. This is exaggerated in that we're assuming never vs. always having focus for defense, but it's not counting that focus becomes a bit more valuable when Miranda has 2 green dice at range 3. There's also the fact that C-3PO still works if Miranda bumps or SLAMs, and C-3PO gives you a chance to gamble on 2 evades from one green die if that's what you need to survive.

What kind of lists have you faced where C-3PO on Miranda didn't seem as valuable?

I probably overstated the defensive benefit of recon a bit, it's excellent with the range 3 bonus, which Miranda is usually getting, but it's still not as good as C3P0. The main benefit however, is to increase Miranda's damage potential and 'punish' your opponent if they ignore her. The double focus also makes it easier to kill targets before they can shoot, which also helps defensively. Finally, double focus makes the TLT More reliable against agility 3+ targets, which a regular TLT struggles with.

I suppose it depends on how you run your Miranda, and what you pair her with as to whether you want C3P0 or recon spec. I run mine as a flanker that the enemy usually ignores, so the double focus is more useful than the auto evade.

Edited by CRCL

I've definitely want to run a variant of that list for a while now. I love the 6 dice shot. I wonder if you can actually drop Expanded Munitions. It is undoubtedly a good value, I'm just not sure how often you actually need to shoot it. One shot is enough to wreck something on the opening exchange, and it seems like after that you'll be turreting most of the time. I don't know, just an idea.

If you go the Wired/Nunb route on Jan (which I personally like), the dropped Extra Munitions would be enough for EU on Jan, making her way quicker and harder to pin down. If you want to keep Extra Munitions, I could see swapping out 3PO for Chewie on Miranda. It will actually give you better resistance to burst damage (something that Miranda is more vulnerable to), and gives you the option to take your emergency shield and turn it into an attack die when you really need to kill someone, but are pretty beat up yourself.

I agree that Wired and Nien Nunb is efficient on Jan. Not quite sure where to spend the two saved points, though. The idea of also dropping Extra Munitions to get EU on Jan is interesting. The first shot is certainly the most important -- maybe it's not actually that important to have a second shot.

Seismic Charges on Miranda is also an option, though I'm not sure how valuable it would be.

Could just save the 2 pts for the initiative bid. I feel like getting the shots off first would be important to this combo