I think blocking is still a major strength of the cheapish generic ship, although I think with increases in firepower, tougher blockers like A-wings and TIE/fos are more reliable than the old 12 pointers. A block does just as much to wreck Fel as a stack of stress.

Jukes of Hazard ... wish I had thought of that one.

This is an awesome thread. Anyone who is reading this who has skipped the other pages: stop. Go back. Read the whole thing, it's well worth your time.

I love the idea of Juke on Vader, but I've tried it and I don't like how it works with in conjunction ATC (and I've mentioned this elsewhere, too). At that point, you've got two cards demanding both Vader's actions for full potential of those cards, not including engine, of course.

Yeah, I felt action starved with Vader, Juke, ATC, EU. Feels odd saying that about Vader, but there it is.

I like the idea of this list (no testing yet, though):

Colonel Vessery (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Tractor Beam (1)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)

Valen Rudor (22)
Juke (2)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

The Inquisitor (25)
Juke (2)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Tractor with a TL, followed by 5x 3 red die attacks, one of which with a free TL, two with chimps, and four with juke. Somebody gonna get hurt real bad.

I'm picturing Scorpion in Mortal Kombat "GET OVER HERE!" for the kill.

This is an awesome thread. Anyone who is reading this who has skipped the other pages: stop. Go back. Read the whole thing, it's well worth your time.

I love the idea of Juke on Vader, but I've tried it and I don't like how it works with in conjunction ATC (and I've mentioned this elsewhere, too). At that point, you've got two cards demanding both Vader's actions for full potential of those cards, not including engine, of course.

Yeah, I felt action starved with Vader, Juke, ATC, EU. Feels odd saying that about Vader, but there it is.

I like the idea of this list (no testing yet, though):

Colonel Vessery (35)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Tractor Beam (1)

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/D (0)

Valen Rudor (22)

Juke (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE/v1 (1)

The Inquisitor (25)

Juke (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Tractor with a TL, followed by 5x 3 red die attacks, one of which with a free TL, two with chimps, and four with juke. Somebody gonna get hurt real bad.

I'm picturing Scorpion in Mortal Kombat "GET OVER HERE!" for the kill.

holy hell! that's dirty.

I'm considering writing a "Getting back in the saddle" article series about getting back into Xwing and my Successes and Failures along the way. Would that be at all interesting to anyone?

I flew Palob + Juke + ICT last night a few rounds and had a few observations:

1. At least in my local meta, Juke has a bit of a boogey-man status and other pilots are pretty sensitive to it being on the board. With the ICT it made Palob a primary target on the board and drew tons of aggro.

2. The result of Juke plus Palob also meant that my opponents never took focus or evade actions. This turned out to not be a good thing because all the TL's on the board really amped up the DPS which my list had no good way of countering.

My list:

- Palob + Juke + ICT

- Drea + TLT + R4-B11

- Latts + Gunner + Bossk + Tactician

With the Mist Hunter on the horizon I see a place for Zuckuss to fly with Palob but I'm not sure where to find the extra points. Perhaps losing Latts and replacing her with a Slaver would do it but I do like having all three ships moving and shooting at PS5.

This is a well said statement I've thought for a while. despite many options we still have that top ceiling to deal with.

The competitive meta has always existed at whatever the ceiling was at that time. The ceiling however keeps nudging upwards.

Between TLT and a variety of Aces that are relatively cost efficient, it's really pushing generic ships out of the meta. There are a number of Aces that have absolute cost efficiency about on par with the standard "gatekeeper" generic ships, but also have the "free" advantage of being higher PS, and on top of that having capabilities that aren't even directly factored into the brute force cost efficiency. (i.e. Soontir Fel arc dodging). When you have Aces that are essentially better in every respect to a vanilla generic Z-95 or B-wing, then of course you will see less generic ships. And the number of these kinds of Aces is increasing.

The downside to that is a player like me is a swarm style player. It's rough out there for a bunch of mooks.

We certainly have come nearly 180 degrees from Pre-Wave 4, where there was a lot of concern that named pilots, especially the high PS pilots, were not cost effective. We saw a World's where the top two lists consisted of named pilots but only due to the abilities they added to their squad (and maybe Backstabber), but none of them were going to win the game on their own.

I'm not going to go into terrible detail here, but I do not think the trend is solely attributable to effective high PS aces simply being good (though I do believe that as a Star Wars IP there was likely some impetus to make sure "characters" were an important part the game and the development steered things in that direction). I think that the TLT Y is a bigger factor in the disappearance of other generics than anything to do with the aces that MJ listed. He's explained this in better detail on the show and here but they are both A) good at killing the other generics and B) simply better than them. What those effective aces that he listed above as defining the meta have in common is that they are actually good at fighting TLTs. Biophysical raises a very valid point that generics bring control as blockers, but TLTs don't want to block and since they're good at killing other generics I think we've seen a decrease in the use of that tactic.

Having said all that, we are seeing some rather large turnout and an amazing variety of squads that are winning tourneys (including several generic ships that have all but been dismissed from the competitive meta before TLTs entered). While I used to give caveats to the store championships as being smaller and a very local meta, they are far more competitive and larger than ever (many have been larger than regionals). Some of that probably applies still, but I do think we're seeing a lot of talk that is acting as if the meta is more definitive than it actually is.

OMG I finally hit 1000 posts. How to I alter my forum title? Sozin says I have to go with Pirate Lord.

How do you edit your forum title?

OMG I finally hit 1000 posts. How to I alter my forum title? Sozin says I have to go with Pirate Lord.

How do you edit your forum title?

apparently you can't anymore... which is a huge bummer.

I'm considering writing a "Getting back in the saddle" article series about getting back into Xwing and my Successes and Failures along the way. Would that be at all interesting to anyone?

i'd be interested

I like the idea of this list (no testing yet, though):

Colonel Vessery (35)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Tractor Beam (1)

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/D (0)

Valen Rudor (22)

Juke (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE/v1 (1)

The Inquisitor (25)

Juke (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Guidance Chips (0)

TIE/v1 (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Tractor with a TL, followed by 5x 3 red die attacks, one of which with a free TL, two with chimps, and four with juke. Somebody gonna get hurt real bad.

Flew this (minus the tracers, I actually don't think they're any good in this list) in a Vassal League game the other night, vs. Vader, Jax, Omega Leader. I had a ton of missed opportunities, since between being the first time I'd flown it, and Jax and OL both causing hiccups to the pattern, I kept forgetting things.

Rudor turned out to be more fun than I thought he'd be, and was the only ship I lost after 15ish rounds of play. He died with his missiles still equipped, which was a mistake; I kept waiting for a shot that wasn't all Jaxed up, when I probably could have just launched them bare and killed Jax. Oh well.

Vessery snowballs pretty hard, because once the tractor hits, the target has a decent chance of not getting actions the next round, which makes it more likely that the tractor will hit again. I think that I had some misplays in always going for the Big Round, and trying to land tractor first. Instead, I should have been using Inqy+Juke to strip tokens (not spending the TL; Rudor was off playing with Jax), and then land the tractor.

Overall, a fun list. I'll certainly be flying it again, either online or in the plastic once Imp. Vets lands.

holy hell! that's dirty.

=D

Edit: forgot to add that I want to call the list the "double double tap." Vessery would make it a triple double, but he's not a TAP...

So, is vessery w/juke a good enough piece on its own?

Back in the Saddle should be a video montage of Ricky doing Rocky things: having smoke blown in his face, dodging laser fire, punching Jar Jar in the face, getting mad about being unable to call out range 3 from sight, smashing recklessly into asteroids, forgetting to decloak Whisper, etc, ending with a triumphant regional event where he beats an evil looking Kinetic Operator in the finals.

Does that mean next time a KO wins the Hotham Open, goes to London, and is beaten by a Russian so badly that his heart gives out? Ricky then has to fly to Russia, train by helping old Russian women learn X-wing, and beat the offender on his own territory?

For sure, and with have to be a brief interlude featuring Kelvan and KO in the hospital after the match, Kelvan's wife Arwen getting pregnant (father uncertain), a KO smear campaign, and a final thrilling rematch with Kelvan barely winning as the game goes to time, hoisting an Imperial Raider over his head, and shouting "Yo, Arwen, I did it!"

If only I could train by Montage.

No no no... you train the hard old fashioned way... if you're lucky, your bride gets to come visit and be concerned right before the big tourney. We, the viewers, get to see the Montage in all its glory with the great sound track. We, as Patreon Supporters, get to watch raw unedited footage!

Ok, so who do you want for your musical stylings to take you to greater glory?!? If we build the montage theme... they will come...

I mean, I feel like it has to be Eye of the Tiger.

I mean, I feel like it has to be Eye of the Tiger.

Rising up

​Back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man, and his will to survive

Its the

​Art of TIE Fighters...

I mean, I feel like it has to be Eye of the Tiger.

Rising up

​Back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man, and his will to survive

Its the

​Art of TIE Fighters...

Arc of Tie Fighters

I mean, I feel like it has to be Eye of the Tiger.

Rising up

​Back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man, and his will to survive

Its the

​Art of TIE Fighters...

Arc of Tie Fighters

You guys get me.

FYI I've found my Mick Goldmill, BlairBunke has agreed to retrain me up!

Lucky Dawg!

Lucky Dawg!

Indeed. Blair is probably one of the 3 best players alive at the moment.

3 Best?!? I distinctly remember you saying he was probably THE best player less than two weeks ago...

I say those things and to be fair you could seriously argue that fact. I likely would. However that's more my personality over facts. Saying any one person is the best is so difficult in Xwing. Especially considering all the extra noise of random dice.