Tonight we had our Wave VIII release event / Store Championship warm-up tournament. Six of us showed up, which is a really good showing for our area; Imperial Assault has taken a few X-wing players, and others have moved away. On the line were some leftover prizes from various Game Night kits, but the grand prize was a $16 gift card to be used towards any of the new ships.
Having purchased all of Wave VIII, I decided I should take a break from Imperial squads and try out the new scum and villainy ships. After much thought and some slight tweaking, I came up with the following squad featuring Zuckuss, 4-LOM (crew) and Dengar (crew).
Zuckuss (28)
-Mist Hunter (0)
-Tractor Beam (1)
-4-LOM (1)
-Electronic Baffle (1)
-Crackshot (1)
Palob Godalhi (20)
-Twin Laser Turret (6)
-Dengar (3)
-Expert Handling (2)
Contracted Scout (25)
-Deadeye (1)
-Extra Munitions (2)
-Proton Torpedoes (4)
-Munitions Failsafe (1)
-Outlaw Tech (2)
-R4 Agromech (2)
TOTAL 100
Okay, I know that right about now some of you are scratching your heads at the odd choices, so let me explain my reasoning. I played a scrimmage match (me vs. me) against Palp Aces with an earlier version of this squad and learned some valuable lessons. Guidance Chips were great on the Contracted Scout, but Soontir could still dodge an entire 4-hit shot. So I realized that Munitions Failsafe would allow me to fire Proton Torpedoes again and again until I finally got a crit to stick. In order to keep shots on Fel, I needed to be able to turn around and still have a focus, which is why Boba Fett got the boot (sorry Boba!) and Outlaw Tech came on board. Palob was another puzzle. I had originally tried out the Cloaking Device, but I knew it would just get me into trouble, so I ditched that idea. I toyed around with the idea of Dorsal Turret, but I needed to threaten the range 3 area, meaning it had to be Twin Laser Turret. I decided on Expert Handling to let Palob barrel roll out of range 1, but also to screw with my opponents' action choice: focus and let Palob take it, or target lock and let Palob shed it with Expert Handling. Zuckuss, I think, is a pretty straight-forward build.
Round 1:
Contracted Scout (25)
-Deadeye (1)
-Extra Munitions (2)
-Proton Torpedoes (4)
-Guidance Chips (0)
-?
-R4 Agromech (2)
Syndicate Thug (18)
-Twin Laser Turret (6)
-Unhinged Astromech (1)
Trandoshan Slaver (29)
-Boba Fett (1)
-Greedo (1)
-Gunner (5)
-Glitterstim (2)
97 points (I think it should be 99)
Can't remember all of it. Gunner never went off, but I'm pretty sure the Slaver had that. First round of firing was just our Scouts tapping on each other at range. My torps only managed 2 shields, and his primary weapon took off 1 shield. Highlight: Next round his Scout focuses to set up the Proton Torpedoes shot, but Palob was close enough to steal it at the start of combat. My opponent looked so defeated when that happened. Priceless! After that, Palob had a death sentence, so we capitalized on my opponent's single-mindedness by getting behind the Slaver to destroy it, followed by the enemy Scout. Zuckuss' ability was instrumental in pushing damage through on the YV-666. So good! Unfortunately, it went to time, so a modified win.
Round 2:
3x Blue Squadron Pilot (Accuracy Correctors)
Gold Sq. Pilot (Ion Cannon Turret, BB-8)
We foolishly jousted this squad, and the Jumpmaster got jumped - 1 hull left after the first round of firing. He K-turned the next round, using Outlaw Tech to allow him to launch his torp, but he had to waste it on the 1-hull B-wing because my other two ships couldn't finish it off. Then he died. I was about ready to give up at that point because 2 B-wings and an Ion Cannon Turret are tough. But once again, Palob forced strange action decisions with his ability to steal focus tokens and shed target locks thanks to Expert Handling. But it was Zuckuss who carried the team. B-wing #2 died in short order thanks to 5 attack dice at range 1 with a Target lock, and no focus for defense (I never actually used 4-LOM, but that's why he's there). Highlight: One time Zuckuss got hit by the ion cannon, but hey - Electronic Baffle! I was able to maneuver to destroy the Y-wing the next round. Palob had trouble with the last B-wing because it was at range 1, but Palob miraculously survived, and Zuckuss zoomed in to save the day!
Win
Round 3:
2x Blue Sq. Pilot (Mangler Cannon)
2x Gold Sq. Pilot (BTL-A4, Ion Cannon Turret)
...okay, so I guess B-wings are still a thing at my store? Whatever, I'll roll with it. But deep down I was scared. I didn't think I deserved to win that last one, and the BTL-A4 Ion Y's scared me. At the first engagement I tried a TL with Zuckuss to see if I had range to the closest Y-wing, but I was just shy. Highlight: One of the employees was checking out the game and I said, "Hey, watch this." I barrel rolled Zuckuss in front of an asteroid to get the Tractor Beam shot and successfully moved the Y-wing onto a rock so it couldn't shoot. My opponent's face fell, just like my first opponent. My other two ships shot that defenseless Y-wing, bringing it down to 2 hull left.Then he proclaimed, "That Tractor Beam has to go." Next round, Zuckuss was just a memory, but man, it was so worth it!
So now it was even worse than last time: 4 ships against my two, and I didn't even have Zuckuss to back me up. Well, the Scout put the second set of Torps to work on a B-wing, but the real hero of this match was Palob. Oh my goodness, he was amazing! Having stolen a focus token from a Y-wing the previous round (when Zuckuss and 4-LOM became one with the Force), my opponent had all his remaining ships target lock Palob Godalhi. Highlight: I performed a bank 1 with Palob and then barrel roll, which dodged two arcs, and I discarded the TL of the ship who had me in arc. Two TLT shots hit, no damage came back. At this point, my opponent was flustered and frustrated, and refused to take any actions but target lock for the rest of the match. He should have had everybody focus -- I can only take one token, after all -- but I was in his head at that point. He literally followed Palob for the rest of the match with my TLT and my Scout plinking away at him. Time was called when he had 1 B-wing against my two ships. Win!
And that's how I got a cool TIE fighter medallion and $16 in store credit, which I'll probably use towards the new Death Star II mat. Totally awesome!
Analysis
So, my squad was ALL WRONG for the squads I faced. Munitions Failsafe was worthless against so many low-agility pilots, and Guidance Chips would have helped push more damage through. Moreover, I should have saved a point on the Proton Torpedoes by using Plasma Torpedoes instead to take more shields off. Palob stole focus tokens or scared focus tokens away, meaning 4-LOM was a wasted squad point. For that matter, there were too many ships to sacrifice damage and use Tractor Beam shots when Zuckuss has such a good primary attack. Dengar on Palob was nice, but I never got to reroll more than one die because I faced only generics the whole night. And finally, Crackshot on Zuckuss really didn't mean much against one or two unmodified defense dice (at least not in the games I played). Still, a victory is a victory. I'm interested in playing this squad some more. It feels good to be a scoundrel every once in a while!