So as many of you know, Paul Heaver mentioned awhile back that the TLT stressbot ywing should be an auto include ship if you are playing rebels.

Up until this past week I hadn't played x-wing in over 2 months. I've gotten 4 games in on vassal during this time. Three of the 4 games were against rebel lists, and all 3 had the TLT stressbot ywing.

I hope this is not a trend starting. I realize it's a powerful ship for the points, but this game will get boring fast if you start seeing a certain ship for every faction's lists. I know Soontir is border line auto include for imperials already as well.

If it keeps showing up a ton I wonder if the stress bot will be nerfed to limit it to one use per round or something.

He's wrong about it being an auto-include, but it is certainly an effective and cost effective ship.

yknow for a lot of people, just having 2 non stress hogs is actaully pretty good too.

TLT Y though seems to be the auto include for a filler ship. or previously known as jousters. Cough.

So as many of you know, Paul Heaver mentioned awhile back that the TLT stressbot ywing should be an auto include ship if you are playing rebels.

Up until this past week I hadn't played x-wing in over 2 months. I've gotten 4 games in on vassal during this time. Three of the 4 games were against rebel lists, and all 3 had the TLT stressbot ywing.

I hope this is not a trend starting. I realize it's a powerful ship for the points, but this game will get boring fast if you start seeing a certain ship for every faction's lists. I know Soontir is border line auto include for imperials already as well.

If it keeps showing up a ton I wonder if the stress bot will be nerfed to limit it to one use per round or something.

Maybe if Soontir with Palpatine wasn't genuinely ******* invincible one wouldn't need the ability to put 2 stress on something.

When there is a nerf to Soontir and just doing a hard green 2 and doing 3 actions every turn, (5 if you count palp and Autothrusters) maybe then we can talk about nerfing the one god **** thing that can deal with Soontir.

Is Palp Aces not overpowered enough Imperial players? Have to nerf the stresshog now?

It's like waves on a beach .. There was a time when every Imp player had a TIE swarm, then every Rebel had a Fat Han, then every Imp had a Soontir, then every Rebel had a Stresshog, then every .. had a ..... so on and so forth.

I haven't seen any Howard Jackson like ships yet, even in the infamous 2 ship meta Fat Han was not an auto-include in every rebel list.

Soontir and Omega Leader for me. OL kind of feels like the Imperial stresshog, a really irritating, cheap troll ship that is vile if you face it one on one, so you really want to kill it early, and it screws your strategy up accordingly.

Palp Aces is literally 3 autoinclude ships

Isn't it just one? You can easily swap out Fel and Vader for Omega Leader and Whisper. Vessery, The Inquisitor and even Rudor (with Whisper) might be contenders soon.

Wait... Did para go from hating on turrets to hating on arc dodgers now? God, have we come full circle? Now I'm waiting for a really good straight up non repositioning or turret ship that gets popular so he can hate on that next.

As far as auto include ships go, there will always be a flavor of the month, in any competive style game. You can always beat it by learning it yourself and then finding its weaknesses. Usually the best way to beat anything. For now though, I do believe you will contiune to see high levels of TLTs, Stresshogs, Fels, and Poes.

Yeah which is why the nerf is all but inevitable ffg does not like auto includes.

Wait... Did para go from hating on turrets to hating on arc dodgers now? God, have we come full circle? Now I'm waiting for a really good straight up non repositioning or turret ship that gets popular so he can hate on that next.

It's been clear for a while that he hates X-wing in general. He thinks the game has gone downhill since the moment he picked it up.

As far as auto include ships go, there will always be a flavor of the month, in any competive style game. You can always beat it by learning it yourself and then finding its weaknesses. Usually the best way to beat anything. For now though, I do believe you will contiune to see high levels of TLTs, Stresshogs, Fels, and Poes.

I think, and have said for a while, that there's a huge groupthink problem in X-wing. A big group of players hangs out on the same 3-4 forums, listens to the same 3-4 podcasts, and builds the same handful of lists. At least partly as a result, when Pail Heaver says "stresshog is an auto-include," lots of people take it as gospel.

Maybe if Soontir with Palpatine wasn't genuinely ******* invincible one wouldn't need the ability to put 2 stress on something.

Or if the empire had heavily shielded, with lots of HP regenerating ships, they wouldn't need invincible low HP aces...

I think Paul has a good point as far as competitive Rebels were concerned....when he said it. Did we have any Wave VIII spoilers by that point? I'm not sure when he's supposed to have said that.

I think it's more that for 26 points (hardly a major investment as far as list synergy) you have a genuinely useful tool that threatens almost everything you're likely to face. You don't have to worry about matchups, you don't have to worry about hard counters, you just have a tool that works. I can't argue with that, or the return you're likely to see on that investment.

However, between Wave VIII and Imp Vets I feel like there's a lot of new stuff forthcoming that is not nearly as hampered by Stress as a mechanic and will be on competitive scene. Just look at 4-L0M or Manaroo or x7 Defenders. We're going to see them, and now the Stresshog isn't guaranteed ROI the way it was. Jumpmaster Torp Boats come to mind too, actually, and Y-Wings are rightfully frightened by ordnance.

Yeah... ordnance lists won't care about a stresshog at all. By the time you throw double stress on the target, they'll already have a torpedo heading in your direction.

eh

I love lil Stressy, but I don't put him in everything

then again, I only fly him and two Ks or 3 Xs nowadays. Once wave 8 hits, I won't have room for him because I'll have conner Ks flying around and annoying the hell outta people

Rebels have access to Stressy's polar opposite and direct counter, integrated astromech Biggs, who also costs 26 points

Palp Aces is literally 3 autoinclude ships

Isn't it just one? You can easily swap out Fel and Vader for Omega Leader and Whisper. Vessery, The Inquisitor and even Rudor (with Whisper) might be contenders soon.

so... i ran a list on Vassal and went 2-0 its a very unconventional palp aces and screws with target priority.

Kagi (40)

SJ

Palp

Tractor

OL (26)

Juke Comms

Jax (34)

PTL AT

SD

beat triple imp aces and 'maximum dangerzone' last night.

my really only auto-include is 26 point OL...if i have the points free i'll run 29. with SD or hull.

So as many of you know, Paul Heaver mentioned awhile back that the TLT stressbot ywing should be an auto include ship if you are playing rebels.

Up until this past week I hadn't played x-wing in over 2 months. I've gotten 4 games in on vassal during this time. Three of the 4 games were against rebel lists, and all 3 had the TLT stressbot ywing.

I hope this is not a trend starting. I realize it's a powerful ship for the points, but this game will get boring fast if you start seeing a certain ship for every faction's lists. I know Soontir is border line auto include for imperials already as well.

If it keeps showing up a ton I wonder if the stress bot will be nerfed to limit it to one use per round or something.

The stresshog is only an autoinclude because every single list you face has 1-2 invincible hyper action economy Acewings in it. Palp Aces is literally 3 autoinclude ships, and many Rebel lists are just VI regen Poe and 62/63 points of something else.

Maybe if Soontir with Palpatine wasn't genuinely ******* invincible one wouldn't need the ability to put 2 stress on something.

When there is a nerf to Soontir and just doing a hard green 2 and doing 3 actions every turn, (5 if you count palp and Autothrusters) maybe then we can talk about nerfing the one god **** thing that can deal with Soontir.

Is Palp Aces not overpowered enough Imperial players? Have to nerf the stresshog now?

conner im

Deathrain, baby!

Wait... Did para go from hating on turrets to hating on arc dodgers now? God, have we come full circle? Now I'm waiting for a really good straight up non repositioning or turret ship that gets popular so he can hate on that next.

It's been clear for a while that he hates X-wing in general. He thinks the game has gone downhill since the moment he picked it up.

As far as auto include ships go, there will always be a flavor of the month, in any competive style game. You can always beat it by learning it yourself and then finding its weaknesses. Usually the best way to beat anything. For now though, I do believe you will contiune to see high levels of TLTs, Stresshogs, Fels, and Poes.

I think, and have said for a while, that there's a huge groupthink problem in X-wing. A big group of players hangs out on the same 3-4 forums, listens to the same 3-4 podcasts, and builds the same handful of lists. At least partly as a result, when Pail Heaver says "stresshog is an auto-include," lots of people take it as gospel.

While Pauls 'Autoinclude' comment was probably hyperbole, you don't get to be 3 time world champion of something if you don't know what you're talking about. Dumping 2 stress on a target at range 2-3 is an exceptionally powerful ability, and I agree with Paul that you'd be hard pressed to find a better 26 points in a Rebel list.

The entire concept of certain ships being "auto-include" is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

There are good builds, great builds and amazing builds, but not of them are auto-includes unless you actually want to and intend to fly that particular ship.

A Stresshog is an amazing build, but if I want to fly Procket A-Wings it's not an auto-include.

Soontir Fel is an amazing build, but if I want to fly Palpmobile/Whisper he's not an auto-include.

The entire concept of certain ships being "auto-include" is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

There are good builds, great builds and amazing builds, but not of them are auto-includes unless you actually want to and intend to fly that particular ship.

A Stresshog is an amazing build, but if I want to fly Procket A-Wings it's not an auto-include.

Soontir Fel is an amazing build, but if I want to fly Palpmobile/Whisper he's not an auto-include.

And that's just it. Ships and list archetypes can be discussed quite separately! I love twists on meta builds that really mess with setup, approach, and/or target priority. Whisper/Omega Leader alongside Palpatine is a great example of that.

I think the spirit of Paul's comment is more in-line with building a list from scratch; if you're considering Rebels, there's a lot you can do if you start with the Stresshog and then build from there. Two FCS Lothal Rebel VCXs fit nicely alongside the Stresshog, but I could also swing completely around and try Poe and some buddies like Biggles. Lots of room while the benefits of the Stresshog aren't really diminished in either case.

Palp Aces is literally 3 autoinclude ships,

It's not even though, palp ace(s) is an archetype of palp in one of the two boats that can carry him and then a player's favorite imperial ace(s). There's 2 ship 3 ship and 4 ship lists I can think of off the top of my head and each has a variety of upgrades and ship choices.

It is kinda a self correcting pattern, it seems to me. EVERYONE will run one, until it stops working. Once people get better at keeping out of its way, or minimizing is effects, it will become less popular.

It is a potent counter to many of the popular lists out there, excepting itself, so I think we will continue to see it for a while.

Lately I have been flying Stress hog with ion, cannon, a typical Poe and Janson. Many of the ships now require some sort of token on the board to make their skills work or to fire ordnance. Janson at 10 with VI can fire first and remove a token thereby mitigating some of the skills pilots now have. OL now becomes just another FO to shoot at with my other ships, the threat of the stress hog is still there and Poe for the cleanup. Janson can really be helpful against 2 and 3 ship builds, against more it is a little more difficult, but generally in lists with more ships not as many will have the extra skills that are a major threat.

List

Poe, VI or Crackshot, R5P9, AT

Y-Wing, Title, Ion Cannon, R3A2

Janson, VI, R2D2, EU

Lately I have been flying Stress hog with ion, cannon

Yes, Stress + Ion can be more irritating than double stress and it does not require the Y-wing title meaning you still have your 360-degree turret.

Less damage and less range but more disruption, no range 1 doughnut hole and fewer cards.

"You keep using that Word (auto include), I do not think it means what you think it means."

The Princess Bride

A lot of people use "auto include" when they really should say "that element works well with a lot of popular lists these days". Is the stressbot a popular element that works? Most definitly. Is it constantly showing up in most lists in the top 4 of most tournaments? Well, not so much according to list juggler. I'm looking at tournament lists there and seeing a crazy amount of variety.

Maybe it will pop up a lot more during the regionals, but so far, I'm not too worried.