Just tried Brobots for the first time today in a winter tournament. Loved it and took first, but could definitely improve my play.

iG88B

VI

HLC

FCS

GStim

AT

IG88A

VI

Mangler

Adv Sensor

Ion Bomb

GStim

AT

I'm a big fan of the asymmetrical build, but it may not be optimal. IG88A was supposed to be the knife fighter and IG88B was supposed to be the artillery. Also IG88A didn't provide a lot of regen, but I did find myself Boosting tons with or without Adv Sensor so IG88C might be a better option for mitigating. VI helped against some lists, but Crackshot is an ever useful consideration.

Anyone have a particularly successful asymmetrical Brobots?

I'm not a bro bot player, but I just faced a list with proxies Tractor beam on each. He used it early game to tag Soontier, and then blasted him with the other bot. Didn't see it coming, but with Crack and Glitter he got a hit on me at range 3. Then he blasted me off the map with the other bot.

So yes, that minus one agility is nasty. Like I said, "I didn't see it coming at all"

Does this mean that Tractor may be a good thing on Bots?

Was it being played correctly? Tractor Beam is only 3 dice and doesn't affect the target unless you hit it. Soontir should be able to shrug that off easily, especially if he has Palpatine help.

I'm not a bro bot player, but I just faced a list with proxies Tractor beam on each. He used it early game to tag Soontier, and then blasted him with the other bot. Didn't see it coming, but with Crack and Glitter he got a hit on me at range 3. Then he blasted me off the map with the other bot.

So yes, that minus one agility is nasty. Like I said, "I didn't see it coming at all"

Does this mean that Tractor may be a good thing on Bots?

Was it being played correctly? Tractor Beam is only 3 dice and doesn't affect the target unless you hit it. Soontir should be able to shrug that off easily, especially if he has Palpatine help.

Until we see a new epic Sensor slot

there won't be Aggressors 2.0

because the whole Crab build revolves around the choice. FCS or AdvS

If anybody's interested, I took my Wired Brobots to a small tournament today.

What about B/C crack, hlc, fcs, autothrusters, and gliterstim? Thinking about this for store championship. Should be able to take out an ace in one turn (fel, corran).

My local meta is two TLTs, one ace rebels.

I had been planning on running imp aces/palpmobile, but stress kills them so fast, and we have tons of stressors. With brobots, they can still function with gliterstim and the B gunnery/fcs gimmicks to survive a turn or two stressed.

If anybody's interested, I took my Wired Brobots to a small tournament today.

IG-88B (36)

Wired (1)

Advanced Sensors (3)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

Seismic Charges (2)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Autothrusters (2)

IG-2000 (0)

IG-88C (36)

Wired (1)

Advanced Sensors (3)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Seismic Charges (2)

Autothrusters (2)

IG-2000 (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Unfortunately, it was not much of a test. On 22 green dice in the first game, I rolled one evade. This is including Wired re-rolls. 22 green rolls ... one evade. (This was a 1 in 2400 or so chance, for those interested. A couple of weeks ago I had a game in which I rolled 15 blanks -- blanks, not "non-evades" -- in 19 greens. That game was a 1 in 4100 or so game. (These games are witnessed, BTW ... this is not selective perception.)) I also rolled 50-percent blanks on my reds, again including Wired re-rolls. I started the game fading two 3-die shots, while Wired. Greens come blank-blank-blank. Blank-blank-blank. The last turn I played, IG-88B (2 HP left) was looking at dodging one Vader crit ... blank-blank-eyeball-reroll-eyeball-Direct Hit.

My will to live pretty much crushed, I conceded and dropped. It's ... very disheartening.

That said, even in this game I got enough "feel" for Wired -- how often it will be in effect, and so on -- I do think I may try a more gradual adjustment, and use Predator on IG-88C and Wired on IG-88B (or vice-versa, I havn't fully thought it out yet).

That story is disheartening. Time to invest in new dice, stat!

I use my 2014 and 2015 Regionals dice. I can't just abandon them ...

... can I?

I use my 2014 and 2015 Regionals dice. I can't just abandon them ...

... can I?

Yeah, I pawn those off for $ for more ships and just use stock dice. Been pretty good so far!

Anyways, Wired is an interesting choice and you're probably thinking that you'll see a good amount of stress due to the meta (stress bots), the S-loops and 4-Ks, and the 1-point EPT option for a much tamer Lone Wolf.

I'm wondering though, how about Lone Wolf on the B and run Wired on the C?

Lone Wolf I used to very good effect on C in my RoboFett run at Regionals, but I found it does not work well for me in Brobots. I am, as I wrote, possibly going to split Predator and Wired.

So is it the general concenus in the competitive community that Brobots is weaker than Boba/IG88B?

Yes.

Why is that? What has changed in the last 3 months that made it that way? New discoveries?

World's Results were pretty conclusive. The real difference is 2 green dice versus 3 green dice and autothrusters. Boba will just die if you want him to.

I want to take another second really quick to explore this statement.

On paper, Boba with 2 evades and no AT is like a glorified X-Wing in terms of defenses. The re-rolls he gets at Range 1 is good, and so is Tactician and spacing from Engine Upgrade and rear arcs, but then he's missing out on his pilot ability.

In this meta, I'm having a hard time justifying through math the strength of Boba Fett over another crab.

So is it the general concenus in the competitive community that Brobots is weaker than Boba/IG88B?

Yes.

Why is that? What has changed in the last 3 months that made it that way? New discoveries?

World's Results were pretty conclusive. The real difference is 2 green dice versus 3 green dice and autothrusters. Boba will just die if you want him to.

I want to take another second really quick to explore this statement.

On paper, Boba with 2 evades and no AT is like a glorified X-Wing in terms of defenses. The re-rolls he gets at Range 1 is good, and so is Tactician and spacing from Engine Upgrade and rear arcs, but then he's missing out on his pilot ability.

In this meta, I'm having a hard time justifying through math the strength of Boba Fett over another crab.

Thanks, that makes more sense

Do you think there's a place for D over C in the current meta?

If you want stress shenanigans you want Adrenaline Rush. Flip around without stress or flip around while stressed. Wired ain't gonna do **** when you're stressed and being tailed (by a weaponized stress carrier).

I think there's a strong argument for A. Now that the meta isn't 100% 2 ship nonsense you actually benefit from it.

Now that we know exactly what tractor beams do? Can we expect to see them more on Aggressors now, for only 1 point the ability to move a ship is awesome!

Now that we know exactly what tractor beams do? Can we expect to see them more on Aggressors now, for only 1 point the ability to move a ship is awesome!

I think we will see them on Defender's definitely with the title, but not Aggressors. IGs need to be doing damage, not moving ships around.

Have anyone paid closer attention to the interactions between FCS vs. Advanced Sensors in respect to the meta?

Loosely speaking, if your meta is anything like mine which is..

Dash + Bs/Ys

4 YTLTs

Poe - Heaver's list variants

Any Rebel list with the stresshog
Imperial Aces + Palpshuttle

Chirpy + Whisper/Fel

Howl + Crackswarm

Howl + regular Swarm

Other Brobots

Adv Sensors:
Greater movement potential (boost, then move)

Greater defensive potential (movement and being able to action before being blocked)

Weaker vs. stress elements (action before movement is still an action)
2x Inertial Dampeners (for more movement potential and area denial, for one round)

FCS:
Fire consistency (big damage boost)
No movement or defensive bonuses

Not weak vs. stress elements (since the target lock requires no actions)

2x Glitterstim (huge burst in damage and defenses, for round one)

I think there's a strong argument for A. Now that the meta isn't 100% 2 ship nonsense you actually benefit from it.

Can you explain how regenerating shields (using IG-88A) is, in any respect, better than not taking damage (using evades generated by IG-88C). I've never really understood this, and I feel like I must be missing something.

For a data point, in my last four games using IG-88C, I've saved an average of 5.25 damage by way of evade tokens. I can't see how I could possibly match that with IG-88A.

I think there's a strong argument for A. Now that the meta isn't 100% 2 ship nonsense you actually benefit from it.

Can you explain how regenerating shields (using IG-88A) is, in any respect, better than not taking damage (using evades generated by IG-88C). I've never really understood this, and I feel like I must be missing something.

For a data point, in my last four games using IG-88C, I've saved an average of 5.25 damage by way of evade tokens. I can't see how I could possibly match that with IG-88A.

I suppose your argument is correct. However, IG-88A isn't dependent on being able to boost, so it has something going for it.

Also, with regen you can keep above half health MoV.

Your point has been taken and you win.

Now that we know exactly what tractor beams do? Can we expect to see them more on Aggressors now, for only 1 point the ability to move a ship is awesome!

I think we will see them on Defender's definitely with the title, but not Aggressors. IGs need to be doing damage, not moving ships around.

I ceded to your point there about just having another option as a secondary cannon. It's not needed, but it can do some good if you're able to set up for your other IG.

For those who use Advanced Sensors + Inertial Dampeners: when do you end up using the dampeners?

My first thought is that you'd use it on approach to exchange fire at range 3 instead of 1-2. But with Advanced Sensors, it seems like it will generally be better to get completely out of the way with something like Boost + S-Loop.

I think there's a strong argument for A. Now that the meta isn't 100% 2 ship nonsense you actually benefit from it.

Can you explain how regenerating shields (using IG-88A) is, in any respect, better than not taking damage (using evades generated by IG-88C). I've never really understood this, and I feel like I must be missing something.

For a data point, in my last four games using IG-88C, I've saved an average of 5.25 damage by way of evade tokens. I can't see how I could possibly match that with IG-88A.

I suppose your argument is correct. However, IG-88A isn't dependent on being able to boost, so it has something going for it.

Also, with regen you can keep above half health MoV.

Your point has been taken and you win.

I will toss in the fact that the highest placing Brobots list at worlds was in fact A/B. A is entirely action independent, which is worth something in a stressful meta. Paul after all used R2-D2 instead of R5-P9, too.

There is a local guy who swears by using crackshot on the two of them

Kind of expecting our resident crack-head to pipe in with "You run dual aggressors with Crackshot and Black Squad Pilots, no exceptions", lol

I've got a confession to make, Joe Rogan...I clip rocks.

For those who use Advanced Sensors + Inertial Dampeners: when do you end up using the dampeners?

My first thought is that you'd use it on approach to exchange fire at range 3 instead of 1-2. But with Advanced Sensors, it seems like it will generally be better to get completely out of the way with something like Boost + S-Loop.

the FULL STOP, BICHEEEZ™

is for unpredictable blocks of aces and staying in place when you know your enemy won't counter that or when you have the higher PS and see that your super-loop and even boost-loops are all blocked.

you take that boost\focus\TL\wahtever

reveal dial

and then put out middle finger and get gunning.

???

Reaction to enemy is super effective

but your PS sucks 6

I definitely expect to see Tractor Beams find their way into Dual Aggressor lists. While it's true that the TB doesn't do direct damage itself, the ability to put an opponents ship on a rock could be a very strong option at a given point in a match. Self-preservation is one of the keys to flying Bro Bots. Putting a ship on a rock and then having your fellow bot take a shot at a reduced agility ship could offset a bit of that non-damaging effect.

It's certainly situational and there would be matches you wouldn't want to use it at all but at just a single point per ship in an otherwise empty slot it can be a great trick to have up your sleeve if the right opportunity arises.