I posted this yesterday as my 1st post, it never appeared/got approved, so I guess I will try again.

I am a pretty new player, early December, but I have tried to study all the tutorials and strategy guides to get up to speed. Obviously, as new waves come out, the meta changes, and agility and precision are obviously important, but I was wondering about the viability of the bull rush. Anyone ever tried playing the "End this game as soon as possible, high risk, high reward lists"? I am thinking loading for high damage over as short a period as possible.

I have not played around with it enough to have a set list yet, but the anchor would have to be Corran with some Adv Proton Torps for a 2nd attack. From there it would be either Y's or B's to fill out and hit hard? Perhaps even a Y to set up the hammer with the ion cannon then drop it when you know the prey will be immobilized for a turn? I have not been around long enough to know if it is viable, but it certainly seems like it could be a heck of a lot of fun if you don't mind a good shot at losing for the chance at just unloading and going all shock and awe.

Anyway, I will sit back and listen if anyone has thoughts or similar lists that have worked well.

Or, Lt Blount with Tracers, bunch of Bandits with Clusters.

Something like this?

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v3!s!75:20,36,34,60:-1:25:;9:0,-1,-1,163:21:-1:;9:0,-1,-1,163:21:-1:

Or, Lt Blount with Tracers, bunch of Bandits with Clusters.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v3!s!66:-1,143:-1:-1:;64:14:-1:7:;64:14:-1:7:;64:14:-1:7:;64:14:-1:7:;64:143:-1:7:

Yeah, that would bring the pain. Figured I would add a secondary Z with tracers for another target?

Jonus has a job now. He can carry thread tracers and EM. Bombers with ordnance of your choice and Guidance Chimps lookin' stronger than ever.

The decimator for the imperials seems to lend itself fairly well to shock and awe tactics. I've seen a couple of battle reports with it running Vader in the crew slot and quite often the Ruthlessness ept. Seems to put out a very large amount of damage very quickly, even if it is a bit self-destructive.

I don't have any more experience with the game than you do (I've been playing for about the same amount of time) and I play mostly rebels - I don't think I'd be able to supply a good example of a decimator list.

From a rebel perspective I've found Airen cracken to be quite useful in setting up an alpha strike. The free action he hands out on attacking is very handy for sneaking in a target lock before your other ships fire.

Put cluster missiles on cracken and he'll hand off two free actions because he attacks twice - that's two free target locks for other ships in your squad. What's even better is that you'll be getting these locks in the combat phase so whatever you lock onto won't have chance to get out of arc or range before you fire, and your dice will be better on the attack because you could spend your regular action on getting a focus token.

The only thing to watch is to make sure that cracken fires before the rest of your ships... But since he's PS8, that's not too difficult.

I second the Cracken love. I would give him clusters missiles also, and have two bandits right behind him with concussion missiles. They would have their focus from their initial actions, target lock with action from Crack and bring the pain.

The ultimate "end the game in twenty minutes one way or another" list has to be the Vader-Gunner-Decimator and Whisper list!

Rear Admiral Chiraneau + Veteran Instincts + Vader + Gunner + Engine Upgrade

Whisper + Veteran Instincts + Fire Control Systems + Advanced Cloaking Device

98pts for the initiative bid. Full throttle forward with the Decimator to shoot/force choke down the biggest threat in your opponents list. Whisper mops up the rest!

One problem with this tactic is that ordnance and high Attack ships tend not to do as much damage as you think they should due to the fickle nature of dice. As you pile on upgrades to make the damage more predictable, your ship count goes down, thus limiting the Attack ceiling of the list. Only the most fragile of ships (TIE, Z-Wing, Scyk) are susceptible to being one-shotted, and that does not happen all the time.

That being said, you can give this a shot:

Jonus with Thread Tracers, Thread Tracers, and Long Range Scanners

Scimitar Squad Pilot with Extra Munitions, Assault Missiles, Seismic Charges, and Chimps x3

Jonus Target Locks from Round 1, so he has a Focus and Target Lock to fire the Tracers. Assuming it hits something, the Scimitars gain Target Lock to augment the Focus they already have to fire the Assault Missiles with 2 Jonus re-rolls, a Focus, and an automatic Hit with Chimps. Everyone at Range 1 takes splash damage. Drop bombs on the pass. Hit the gas to disengage and K-Turn on the other side of the board. Repeat.