Police : Are you classified as human?

Korben Dallas : Negative, I am a meat popsicle.

So I'm finally going to officially unveil the list I've been practicing with for store championships. I've flown Rebels and Imperials thrice each at tournaments, so it was finally time to try out Scum. Since they came out, I've been wanting to fly what have come to be known as "Brobots". The most common variety lately is HLC/Crack Shot/Glitterstim on top of the usual FCS/Autothrusters. Well, I tried that can I wasn't very good at flying it. So I kept tweaking it until I arrived at the following, which fits my playstyle better and I'm actually pretty good with (when I'm not screwing up).

IG-88B/C (36)

+ Ion Cannon (3)

+ Autothrusters (2)

+ Fire-Control Systems (2)

+ Flechette Cannon (2)

+ Glitterstims (2)

+ Ion Bombs (2)

+ Adrenaline Rush (1)

+ IG-2000 (0)

Why in the world would a robot be taking adrenaline or glitterstim? Unless they were secretly organic beings... hence the Fifth Element reference for a squad name.

After doing a bit of testing on Vassal, I got the chance to take it to a store championship today. Two particular mistakes all day cost me a spot in the top 4 (22 players), but here are my matches:

Round 1 vs:
Boba/Kath each with Engine, K4, VI, Dampeners, and bombs (Proximity on Kath, Seismic on Boba)

We set up rocks and I put 2 of my 3 in my corners so I can easily get around them with 3-straights right off the bat. I do so down the right side, while he turns to come at me from the middle. I am able to start ionizing ships right away due to their 2 Agility, though I do start losing shields in return. Here's where I make mistake #1. I forget to drop an Ion Bomb after the opening joust, which would have put both Firesprays off the board in a couple turns. Instead, I have to use the Cannons and can only force Kath off. Boba manages to take down C, but B continues to control Boba's actions and movement until I win without taking any damage on B. 1-0.

Round 2 vs:

IG-88B/D in the HLC setup mentioned above.

Similar rock placement as game 1, also with 3 large rocks from my opponent to my 3 small rocks. We joust, with him naturally coming out ahead in the damage race. I'm 100% aware of this being the outcome against an HLC Brobot list, though, and I use the joust to set up control. C takes a beating, including a Weapons Failure crit which unfortunately leaves him with 2-dice Cannons for a few turns. However, once I start remembering to drop bombs and maintain control, I easily remove one IG then the other from the table. C luckily survives at 1 Hull. 2-0.

Round 3 vs:

IG-88A/B in the HLC setup mentioned above.

Like round 2, this is a matchup I know I can win once I establish control. However, I've seen my opponent fly Brobots a few times and he's very good. Our opening moves don't go quite as he planned, though. He faced parallel to his board edge, away from the corner I chose. Instead of chasing each other around the board, I do hard left turns first round to meet him somewhere. I go into the rocks first, which gives me the edge when I have clear space to fly into and he has to worry about obstacles. I end up ioning one of my IG's at the same time I get one of his, but it's OK because they are locked down with stress as well and end up not getting a lot of shots. The key moment was probably me barely missing a rock my opponent thought I would hit. Both my IG's survive with at least 1 shield, so he gets no points. He does, however, manage to do so well in his other games that he gets into the top 4 (only 24 MOV points separated us). 3-0

Round 4 vs:

4x Y-Wings, 4 with TLT, 3 with BTL-A4, one of those with R3-A2, the other 2 with R2's, and the last with no droid.

All small rocks this time! He starts parallel to his edge, which is fine with me. Rather than doing the same and meeting him in the corner where I might not be able to control range as well, I speed after him, because I will certainly catch him at some point. He K-turns to bring his arcs back toward me, but I am able to get a favorable exchange at range 3 of only 2 of them. I ion them both (one is the stress hog). I continue plinking away with Ions, forcing Y after Y onto the same rock in his corner. I only take a couple damage in return, though he manages to take only one damage from the rock after about 6 rolls. Then, mistake #2. We're in the corner of the board and depending on which order he moves his two ioned Y's, my IG-88C's 3-straight might not clear. So I dial in a 3 bank. And fly off the board by a millimeter. Bumping earlier threw my angle off and I narrowly misjudged it, though C was down to 3 Hull and I had already removed the stress hog. The remaining Y's haven't take much if any hull damage, and he has more than enough health left to eventually get through with all his guns (he was consistent with 2 hits per shot most of the game, but my defense matched most of the time). 3-1

Overall I'm extremely pleased with the list and extremely upset with myself. In either game 1 or 4, key decisions cost me just enough MOV points to knock me out of the cut.

The top 4 were my round 3 and 4 opponents, a 2KY stress list, and 2Y Poe. All matchups I felt good about, had I made it. Maybe next time.

Interesting build.

I think you left some bombs from your list.

Interesting build.

I think you left some bombs from your list.

Fixed. Thank you. It definitely surprised everyone who faced it. The element of surprise is a very good reason not to fly 'meta' lists.

Police : Are you classified as human?

Korben Dallas : Negative, I am a meat popsicle.

I had to like your post just for this!

Maybe I'll try to get this on the table this weekend, but I'm thinking about evolving the list with some new upgrades.

The Tractor Beans could give some cheap added utility, possibly rolling something like a stress hog onto a rock so it can't do its shenanigans. Thermal Detonators are nice in that they provide damage (which this list can sometimes be lacking) in addition to control. And I can still pull off the Ion/Stress combo with the Detonators and the Ion Cannon.

Tough break, but excellent report. I'm a fan of bombs, and it's good to see them on the IG-2000. Also, you gave me courage to report on my second Store Championship in which mistakes cost me some wins. I'm generally good about being outplayed, but mistakes are harder for me to deal with - especially since I've been playing this game since day one!

So almost 2 years later and I just took this list (updated Tractor Bean/Thermal Detonators version) for another spin, to a 3-1 finish: 4th place of 12. I actually won all 3 of the games I played; I missed the first round of the tournament and took a loss since I was out with the wife. I lost half a Brobot game 1, then a full Brobot, then a Brobot and a half! I beat 7x Deadman Switch Z's, then Quickdraw/Omega/Vessery, then Vessery/Ryad/Glaive all with Crack Shot. These were the first 3 games I'd played in 3 months, and the first 3 competitive games in probably 3 times as long. Proof that Brobots will always be A Thing™. If you like Brobots, definitely give the 'control' version a fly.

A few details about the matches now that I have some time:

Game 1 vs 7 Z's. Was definitely unsure about facing so many ships the first game, especially when Deadman's Switch could be difficult to deal with (since the list relies on ion so much, the usual way to actually deal damage is to get into range 1 after something gets hit with the cannon). He started in a line parallel to his edge, turning half in and sending the other half wide to corral his enemy. One got ahead of the rest, though, so I was able to use the Aggressor's speed to double-team it, ioning it onto debris next turn where, shieldless, it took a Direct Damage crit. One was PS3 with Tracers/Chimps as well, which he was able to use to get five TL's on C in one round... however, I also foresaw the need for Glitterstim that round and survived without a scratch. In fact, the only damage I took all game was from Deadman's Switch, because the only time I rolled fewer than 2 Evades was the only roll Glitterstim (and my Evade token) mattered. I wasn't sure how Tractor Bean would work out, but after ioning one of the Z's with one 'bot, I was able to Tractor it with the other out of a return shot, so that was fun.

Game 2 vs Quickdraw/Omega Leader/Vessery. I knew I wanted Omega off the board first if possible, because it was likely I'd lose a 'bot and having him 1-on-1 would be difficult, even if it was B who was still alive. Luckily I both got initiative and my opponent set up OL center-most of all his ships. I had started one 'bot in each corner, turning away the one he set up across from. Like the previous game, I was able to double-team OL, knocking off his Stealth and ioning him in the first combat round. I proceeded to get OL down to 1 Hull, then his defense kicked in and he got away while I was forced to deal with Quickdraw. I timed my shots against QD when he had the fewest modifiers for his return fire, and made him switch targets from one Aggressor to the other, during which round my opponent forgot to switch TL's with FCS, hampering both QD and Vessery, so QD only got off one more unmodified shot. The next round I dropped double Detonators, hitting Vessery twice and QD once on a sloop, double-stressing both. I finally chased down OL, partly due to Damaged Engine slowing him down. QD went next but so did one Aggressor. Despite a poor Glitterstim round, that was more than enough to handle support-less Vessery.

Game 3 vs Vessery/Ryad/Glaive. I gave my opponent initiative here, which was obviously a huge help. I set both 'bots up together in the opposite corner, then split them up so I could use Glitterstim one at a time depending on who he focused on. He raced all 3 ships down one board edge which meant I was able to more or less double-team Ryad in the lead when they turned in. Tractor Bean came in handy for the second time here, in a very cool way. The first 'bot ionized Ryad, then once that was accomplished the second Tractored and rolled her in front of a rock, which she was forced to hit for the next 2 turns! My opponent did a good job focusing fire on B as best he could with the other 2, getting him down to 2 Hull. Fortunately, the next round he was able to sloop into the clear and make my opponent switch targets to C. Ryad survived her Console Fire and got back into the fight, but was PS-killed. Vessery was all but dead, but the Glaive was in good shape. I got Vessery and my opponent got C, but it was only a matter of time before an ion landed on the Glaive and I finished it off.

This list is a lot of fun, but can understandably be frustrating for the opponent. It is tricky to play, too. If you haven't established control and/or eliminated at least one ship by the time you've used all your one-shots, you're probably going to lose. Timing of Glitterstim, Adrenaline Rush, and Thermal Detonator is absolutely critical. One good thing is that once you've got control it becomes a little easier to fly!

I'm a huge advocate of Ion + Tractor cannons with Ion Bombs. Had quite a bit of success with this squad over the last few months.

I haven't given the PtL/AdvSens version a try, but then these were also the only games I've played in a long time. Glad to see someone else having success with control-bots, though!

On 11/20/2017 at 10:15 AM, ObiWonka said:

Glad to see someone else having success with control-bots, though!

As I was saying ... we did it, boys!