First off, I like writing weird squad lists, often to the complete disregard if it is competitive or not.

My New Year's resolution for X Wing in 2016 is to fly every pilot at least three times. While this is easy as pie for many pilots, for others it requires a lot of thought. In my efforts to get all of the unused pilots onto the table I have come up with some truly wacky combos and lists that I want to share with everyone.

My goal is to share a list and the results that I've had with it as well as some general thoughts about ships and matchups. I'm not worried about making super efficient upgrade choices, but rather the theme of the list. More importantly, I would love to hear what experiences other people have had with similar ship builds or lists!

The Daredevils (99 points)

Tycho Celchu (26)

Push the Limit (3)

A Wing Test Pilot (0)

Daredevil (3)

Autothrusters (2)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

32 points

Sabine Wren (21)

Push the Limit (3)

Kanan Jarrus (3)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Engine Upgrade (4)

33 points

Blue Ace (27)

R2D6 (1)

Daredevil (3)

Experimental Interface (3)

34 points

The idea behind this squad was just to make a list that was virtually impossible to pin down. Each ship has the ability to reposition twice, and Red Ace can actually perform a 270 degree turn! Dice modifications are hard to come by, but each ship is extremely fun to fly.

Nice start! I allready want to test that ^^

Played my first game last night against Blount, Nera, and 2 Blues with plasmas and EM. I lost, only killing Blount, but it was still a very satisfying game!

We deployed in opposite corners, with a tight blob of asteroids directly between us. Tycho raced down to the other side of the board, Sabine headed towards the roids, and Blue Ace went along my deployment edge to be the bait. My opponent flew past the rock in his deployment corner and banked in towards the middle, hoping to get shots on either Sabine or Blue Ace. Blue ace did a hard to to face down the board at the enemy in R3 of all of the Bs, but between his 90 degree boost to the left and daredevil, to the right he was out of arc and range of all of them. Sabine dodged all arcs and got a lucky shot onto Blount, hit hit crit, which Blount couldn't evade. The crit didn't kill him though. Tycho was now almost in my enemy's deployment area, and was ready to start peppering away at the flanks of the Bs, or kill Blount before he could fire the tracers. Unfortunately, a smart change of target from my opponent the next round saw Tycho blocked, and as we all know, a blocked A wing in the face of even a couple ships is dead, but I killed Blount before he fired his tracers. Over the next few rounds the B wings still managed to chew through my ships, primarily because Nera could fire 360, with a guidance chip.

I'm excited to play the squad again though! Sabine is just a blast to fly. Blue Ace still kinda sucks though, but I did like using him as bait... Hodor.

Why did you cost Daredevil as 4 on the Ace?

Ah, a typo, thanks.

Just played my second game with the list, this time against a Ghost with Autoblaster Turret and Accuracy Corrector. I made a bonehead Barrel Roll with Sabine into R1, and she died instantly. Then Blue Ace and Tycho plinked away at the ghost after killing Biggs for a while, but couldn't finish the job. Lesson Learned: Don't fly into Range 1 of an AC Ghost with ABT. Ever. Seriously honorable mention for Tycho and Blue though, they can really exploit the blind spots of the Ghost, and Firesprays as well.

Today I played three games with this week's troll list, and I think I'm going to retire it now...

Game 1:

Kenkirk w/ Isard, PtL, EU, Rebel Captive

2x AC Tempests

This player was relatively new, and new to VASSAL, so made a few piloting errors. Tried to bait with Blue Ace in the middle of the board, but the enemy went for Tycho. Tycho took a R1 shot from Kenkirk out of arc on T2, and barely escaped an all blank roll with an autothruster evade. I focused fire on one tempest, killed it because it hit a rock first turn and k turned the next, and then got to work on Kenkirk. Blue Ace took some heat, but barely survived on one hull. The tempest bumped and took some damage, and then died the turn after Kenkirk, about 3 turns later.

100-0 win

Game 2:

Tarn Mison w/ R7

Blue Squadron Pilot

Stressbot Gold with TLT

Proto with refit

Bandit

I deployed Tycho at the bottom of my deployment area, across from the enemy fleet. Blue Ace deployed at top end, facing down towards Tycho, and Sabine ready to fly into the asteroid field. Turn 1 I do a hard 1 with Tycho, and then use DD and Boost to be within range 3 of the proto, facing towards the bottom of the board. They exchange for no damage, and Tycho does a 1 hard turn back to my board edge to try to split the enemy swarm. The enemy predicts a fast move and overtakes him. Next turn they K turn to try to catch him in arc, and Sabine comes flying out of the asteroid field to end up behind the enemy. Poor Blue Ace was the bait again, and after the first engagement was left with only 1 hull because he had to boost and daredevil to dodge arcs and try to get cover in the asteroid field. Over the next few turns I'm able to dodge arcs and use Sabines Autoblaster Turret to kill off his ships 1 by 1. When it is the Gold with 3hull, Tarn with 3 hull 1 shield, and the full health blue left against Tycho and Sabine my opponent conceded I did a lot of arc dodging and I'm sure it was nearly impossible to predict. Plus when he did get shots they were through rocks or R3 of Tycho, and he was able to dodge them all. Sad day for making an opponent quit.

Game 3:

Hired Gun with TLT and R4 Aggro

2x Scouts with R4aggro, Plasma torps, Rec Spec, and Chips

I made as tight of an asteroid field as I could by giving my opponent initiative. I slow rolled Blue Ace along my deployment edge close in the corner with the asteroid field, and raced Tycho up the far side. Sabine stayed central, crab walking to see which way to go. I jumped Tycho from outside of R3 to inside R1 of the Hired Gun, and took a couple range 2 shots from out of arc from the scouts, but avoided all damage and took the shields off of the Y. Sabine started shooting one of the scouts, and Tycho the other after one Slooped, and the other sloop was blocked. Both scouts were in the middle of the board, facing opposite directions. The next turn the one that was blocked slooped again, and the other did a 1 turn and BR to try to block Sabine. Blue ace comes out of the asteroids with a boost to get in R1 of the Y wing, Tycho gets on the side, r2 of one scout, and Sabine in R1 of the other. Sabine does a few shields, and the unmodified shot back at her does no damage, whiffs as well. Next turn I do a 2 turn with Blue ace, followed by his boost and Daredevil to get right in the flank of one of the scouts. Tycho stays behind the same scout with Daredevil, and takes a focus. Sabine comes next to the same scout, in range 1 with a focus as well. Tycho kills the Y wing, and both Sabine and Blue dump 4 dice attacks into the scout. Both rolls were natural Hit Hit Hit Crits, and I felt really bad for my opponent. His attacks back did one shield to Sabine. He then conceded, saying that my list was not fun to play against

So... The Daredevils are now 3-2, and I think they're going to be retired. I'm all about making wacky lists, but when people are not having fun it kind of ruins the game. Granted, the last opponent just wanted me to fly into his death zone, which wouldn't have been fun for me, so I call it even. Regardless, I met my goal for flying Blue Ace, and can now guiltlessly put him back into the box of shame and play something else. Sabine is an absolute monster, and the only game she didn't give my opponent a massive headache in was the game against the AC ABT Ghost. In all games I deployed the asteroids in a tight cluster on my side of the board, and started each ship flying down my deployment edge so I could choose where the fight would take place. Sabine always threaded her way through or around the rocks, and Tycho would speed past to flank. Blue Ace was a perfect meat shield, and often died first so the two aces could get to work. Sabine can solo lists of generics if she wants. Multiple TLTs would be rough, but other those she just eats up anything lower PS than her. I want to see how she would do against someone like Soontir, or VI Poe.

Hope people enjoy reading! Next weeks Trololol list will be Imperial! Spoiler, it's called the Furious Five

New week, and a new list! This week's list doesn't really have a specialty, but I love people's reactions when they fly against it! I thought of it as a reaction to this thread. To that end, it is nice being PS5 because I can activate ships in any order, and I can arc-dodge and block depending on the PS of my opponent.

The Furious Fives

Winged Gundark (yes, the one and only, the best pilot in all of the galaxy) (15)

Night Beast: Twin Ion Engine (16)

Fel's Wrath (23)

Lt. Lorrir: Autothrusters (25)

"Sideslip" Zeta Ace: Push the limit (21)

100 points

So far I have played 2 games with this list, 1 win and one loss. Game 1 was against Wampa, Colzet, Alozen, and Strom. Alozen and Strom had sensor jammers and prockets, and Colzet had FCS and Cluster Missiles. Colzet was the hero of the game, flipping up 2 direct hits to kill Lorrir and Night Beast. I killed Wampa but lost all but Zeta Ace. Push the Limit kept Sideslip alive, and I finished off Colzet, but couldn't push the damage through on Alozen and Strom and died. Lesson Learned: Don't try to joust. Ever.

Game 2 was against Dengar with title, Push the Limit, Unhinged, Engine Upgrade, and K4, a Scout with the usual deadeye plasma torp kit of doom, and a z95. I forced the engagement to happen in/near a big asteroid field, and some lucky rolls on my part saw Fel's Wrath not die to the opening torp salvo. Winged Gundark was a hero, always seeming to get 2 hits on Dengar. Dengar's greens were pretty cold, and he was in arc of 2-3 ships almost every turn. I brought down Dengar only having lost Fel's Wrath without using his ability . My opponent then conceded, because I would keep arc dodging the low PS ships, and they didn't have the damage output to take down my 4 ships. I was surprised with the win, but concentrated firing arcs is the key to dropping any ship I guess.

Game 3 to come soon.

thanks for the game! thats a first for me flying against fel's wrath!

Well the last game of the Furious Fives was played last week, and was surgically taken apart by Manaroo, Kavil w/ Opportunist, Blaster, and R4aggro, and Palob with Blaster and Opportunist. I think I managed to do a grand total of 5 damage between all of his ships. My usual strategy is to rush within range 1 of an enemy ship with 3 or 4 ships of my own and blast it away, but Kavil hit like a ton of bricks, and one of my ships was always defenseless.

This week's Trololol is scum! I have never done Ion spam before, so I am excited to try this week's list out.

Ion Gonna Get Ya!

Dace Bonearm: Crackshot, Ion Cannon Turret (29)

Syndicate Thug: Ion Cannon Turret, Bomb Loadout, Extra Munitions, Ion Bomb (27)

Syndicate Thug: Ion Cannon Turret, Bomb Loadout, Extra Munitions, Ion Bomb (27)

Ka'ato Leachos: Wingman (17)

With ion bombs and wingman Dace can use his ability once in the activation phase, and again in the combat phase. I've never seen Dace on the table, but I'm hoping that with crackshot and his ability I will be able to force 2 damage onto a ship instead of one, and if that is a small based ship it will then be ioned! 25 total health will be a lot for ships to chew through, and I am going to take 3 large debris fields to stress and ion enemy ships into oblivion. If I win even one game with this list I will be thrilled, lol.

I got two games in with Ion Gonna Get Ya. Two losses, hahaha. First game was against OGP with Palp, Whisper, and Omega Leader, flown by a very competent pilot. It is fair to say that I never had a chance, lol. I tried to isolate Whisper early as he was stalling with OL and Palp, and I managed to do a damage (because my roll of [blank, hit] got through 5 green dice [i hope you're reading this fickle ;P]). However, next turn whisper decloaks away. She could come back in with a 4 straight or 3 bank, so I drop an Ion Bomb to be careful, but she stays back and OL and the shuttle come in and start laying the hurt on Dace. He drops soon after, and Ka'ato does as well. The 2 Thugs never stood a chance, 100-0 loss.

Lesson Learned: Palp aces with Whisper (sensor Jammer) and Omega Leader is lethal. Ships are tough to crack, and can really play the long game. For my boys, it may be worthwhile to hang Dace back a bit, so I can actually get the opportunity to use his ability before he dies, lol. The range limitation of the ICTs was disappointing as well, I lost a lot of shots by just a tiny distance. Oh well.

Game 2 was against Echo, Omega Leader, and Carnor Jax. Another troll list! Echo had Stygium, Juke, and Sensor Jammer. A solid ship indeed, especially against my plebs. I managed to drop Echo's shields in the first exchange, and forced Carnor to boost to get a shot. He hammered Dace, but Dace Ion'd him for two damage back, but I spent my focus (I rolled hit, crit, focus) just to be sure, because he had a focus and AT active. He ended up only getting 2 evades, but I' not sure if I should have spent the focus or not. Echo shot me, did 2 hits, and I rolled two eyes. If I had my focus I would have stayed alive, done more damage next turn with Dace's ability, and taken more fire away from the other ships. Carnor was a bastard and rolled 3 natural evades to stay alive when I finally got him pinned with only a focus, and no Autothrusters, and I only managed to take 1 more hull off of Echo because of the sensor Jammer. My ships were taken down, one by one, and I lost with Echo and Carnor on one hull left. I hit with all 4 ion bombs, but it wasn't enough control to mitigate my opponent's strong ships. It felt good to have carnor stressed and ion'd 2 turns in a row, but I just couldn't get through those fickle green dice. This list would love a stress applying ship, like 4Lom with Zuckuss crew. Then the control would be REAL!

Lesson learned: Man, I hate Omega Leader! Hahaha, seriously, he is so resilient against 2-3 attack dice. I'm glad he can't equip a sensor jammer, too.

Question: Has anyone applied Crack Shot to Ion? Crack Shot is usually used to cause 1 damage instead of 0, Ion can only do 1 damage anyway, but with Dace it works out for 2. I like the combo a lot, but I'm wondering if anyone else has applied Crack Shot to adding control, rather than just damage?

2nd Question: I think bombing works best with jousting, and since I'm running Y wings, I'm debating whether or not to add in the BTL title and run the 4 ships just as one fat block. Dropping Ion bombs and K turning back behind the enemy. I also quite like the utility of having 360 degree firing with Ion as well though, because inevitably I will want to both bomb and shoot behind me. Maybe I will go 1 title 1 turret? Help me Obi Wan Keforumreaders, you're my only hope.

Played my last game with Ion Gonna Get Ya today. I lost again, but the list is fun to play with! I really like the control with turrets and bombs, but it is really hard to pull off before you die. Today's game was against 3 Gammas (1 with Plasma torps, 2 with proton and EM, all with chips) and the inquisitor, with AT, PtL, and Title. One Y Wing was killed before it could shoot, and the other was killed the next round, having only shot once. Dace and Ka'ato never stood a chance, but they were able to kill 2 bombers before going down. Dace can really terrorize low agi small based ships, and crackshot is a great upgrade for him because it gives one extra damage and control. He is only 29 points, too... Unfortunately 29 points can get you a lot of other things that are probably better, lol.

New week, and a new Trolololol list! Actually, this week I have 3 different approaches. I'm focused on making Nera Dantels smash face with opportunist and Advanced Proton Torpedoes.

Overkill? Yes. Way too situational? Yes. Chance to throw 6-7 dice? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

So, without further ado, here is the Nera build, identical in all three squads:

Nera Dantels (26)

Fire Control System (2)

Extra Munitions (2)

Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

Opportunist (4)

Total: 40

Help me pick which option for the remaining 60 points of the squad! Each list focuses on action denial, either through bumping, blocking, or stress, to get opportunist to trigger consistently for Nera.

Option 1:

Stresshog Gold w/ R3A2, TLT, BTL (26)

2x Tala w/ Ion Pulse Missiles, Munitions Failsafe (17 each)

I like MF because I really need those ion pulse missiles to hit, and if some jerk rolls 3 natural evades, there is nothing that guidance chips can do to help.

Option 2:

Stresshog Gold w/ R3A2, TLT, BTL (26)

If you have other trolly suggestions I would love to hear them!

I say run the StressHog/Tala List. The control will help you range in for that 6 die attack.