Today I decided to take a crazy list that I'd brainstormed with a friend around the time when Wave 8 was released but never got around to playing until two days ago, which was my first match with it. The list is:

100 points

Guri with Virago, AT, AM (Attanni Mindlink) and FCS

Kaa'To with AM

Manaroo with AM, Punshing One, APL, R5-P8 and Dengar

The pilots were all chosen based on their ability to gain/pass/steal focus tokens, thus freeing up actions for TLs, barrel rolls, etc. A typical turn when getting into combat range looks something like this for the list:

Manaroo moves and focuses -> Guri and Kaa'To each acquire a focus

Guri moves and take a TL/BR/boost

Kaa'To moves and locks

At the start of the combat phase Kaa'To steals a focus from Manaroo, and Manaroo gains a focus from AM as she's at 0. Then Manaroo can use her ability to send her focus to Guri/Kaa'To and have it regenerate again. This gives me a total of 5 focus tokens, and if I would have done focus actions with Guri and Kaa'To and activated Guri's ability it's possible to get to 8 (though Manaroo will always be stuck at 1), but the best part is that I can bump everything and as long as I get 1 focus from somewhere (such as Guri's ability) I'll always have at least 5 total, because 1 = 5 in this list XD.

As I love silly combos and on Friday I found that it worked quite well against ace lists (between R5-P8 and my large base barrel roll and antipursuit lasers, no one ever went for her), I decided to try my luck at a 3-round tournament (around 20 people). Guri is also really good against swarms so I figured that my main weakness is probably U-Boats, but thankfully I didn't face any today.

Round 1: Cesar

Omega Squadron Pilot with Predator x2

Juno with x/1, ATC and VI

Inquisitor with VI, AT and v/1

He gave me the initiative, which was definitely a mistake as it was perfect for Manaroo's PS4 APL, and we set up on opposite corners. We ended up jousting in a wide diagonal lane between the asteroids and his terrible green dice lost him the two omegas by the end of the second combat turn. After rolling blanks and eyeballs with APL and R5-P8 a few times the hits started appearing and I managed to clear the table the turn that Manaroo took her first damage card.

Victory: 100-24

Round 2: Sergi

Soontir with PtL, TC, RGT and AT

Rudor with PtL, v/1, AT and PR

Inquisitor with PtL, v/1, AT and PR

Sergi opened up extremely carefully while trying to drag me through the asteroids, while my main concern was not being on the receiving end of those proton rockets, so I had to come into combat range very carefully and either be sure that he can't get closer than range 2, or force him to either overshoot/bump (preferably the latter). In the first combat turn Guri evaded a shot from Soontir, the Inquisitor danced out of Manaroo's arc and Guri and Rudor had range 3 shots on each other, with Kaa'To kind of behind Rudor at long range. No damage was done this turn, but on the following I placed Guri to block Soontir's leftward greens and Kaa'To blocked the 4-forward. I had them both TL Soontir and he bumped into Kaa'To, dying to a range 1 focus+TL shot from Guri, while the Inquisitor took off Guri's shield and Rudor fled to avoid the bump. I then looped my ships around but the Inquisitor sniped Kaa'To who blanked his greens and died. Manaroo took a range 3 shot from Rudor (R5-P8 popped a shield of his) and he evaded my attack. I then got Rudor to bump into Manaroo (one more damage) and a range 1 focus+TL shot from Guri finished him off. At this point it was a 2-on-1 and I eventually got the Inquisitor to bump once or twice and finished him off with Guri as well.

Moral of the match: catching a stressed TAP in a bump is extremely easy when all their green banks/turns can be blocked by a single large base.

Victory: 100-16

Round 3: Domin

OGP with Palpatine

Soontir with PtL, AT, RGT and SD

Inquisitor with PtL, AT, v/1 and PR

Domin is well aware that I like to block his aces (I almost always have lower-PS pilots than him) and was extremely careful to always turn away from the "obvious" maneuvers, but this often cost him his shot. I managed to get a block here and there but between his good greens and the Emperor there was no way to damage him and I lost Kaa'To in exchange for nothing. Eventually he brought the shuttle a little too close to the fray and I launched towards it while he was busy turning around with his aces. 7 attack dice later and his shuttle is shieldless, and on the following turn I killed it and managed to deal a damage to Soontir thanks to my APL. Without the Emperor's hand helping him out I managed to peel the shields off of the Inquisitor and nail Soontir with R5-P8. Finally they call last turn and Soontir runs off (at 1 hull but with his stealth device) and I have the Inquisitor in range of both of my ships and managed to burn him down thanks to a lousy defense roll on his part.

Victory: 63 - 16

With that final kill I managed to take first and get a fancy new challenge coin and an IG-88C card along with a few other goodies, which is always nice =).

So to close, I'll say that I had a blast flying the list (at least against aces, torpmasters would've been another story). Being able to redistribute and generate focus tokens at the start of the combat phase is amazing because you can see who's going to get focus fired and Manaroo can send tokens to that ship. At one point I had Guri with 3 focus tokens and a TL, spent 2 tokens on defense (lost her shield) and still had a fully modified attack. It's shockingly deceptive how sturdy even a Z-95 is when it has a stack of focus tokens to burn (as long as you don't blank too badly). My opponents probably should have tried to focus fire Manaroo more (as she never gets more than a single focus) but I tried to prevent that by sticking her right in the thick of things, which evidently worked out well for me.

Nice work! Good to see people experimenting with Attanni Mindlink. I find that people often underestimate the action economy that it generates.

How do you rate Manaroo overall? She's pretty much my favorite ship to fly at the moment. Did you ever wish you'd taken the Unhinged Astromech for the extra greens?

I thought that Manaroo was a bargain at 48 points. She's a huge deterrent against aces with R5-P8, and passing along red target locks is also amazing, particularly as I still start the combat phase with a focus thanks to Attanni. As for using unhinged, I almost never took stress or did red maneuvers because of Attanni so I wouldn't have had much of a use for it. I'd consider unhinged if I were running the K4 droid (perhaps with PtL) instead of Dengar crew, but as I already got all the rerolls I wanted from Dengar pretty much all of my shots were fully modified each turn anyway.

Have you considered going for a more only blocker Manaroo removing Title and changing crew for Intel Agent and feedback array, freeing up enough points to swap kaato for Palob AM TLT? Palob seems better since you still get the focus but deny one to opponents, Uboats is a relevant mention here, gives you a 360 consistent damage as easy to kill as kaato. And Manaroo becomes a beast against aces.

Glad to see another AM list doing well. I also manage to pull a win in the local Spring Kit with Palon, Kaato, Manaroo and a Black Sun Ace (Kihraxz) all having AM. The focus-combo is too fun to play.

i still don't agree with Palob with TLT

for my AM build i'm using him with blaster turret. sure you don't have a range 3 out of arc but you do more damage overall

The focus-combo is too fun to play.

Absolutely. The focus/TL swapping is super fun, it adds another layer of strategy to the game. I like how it forces you to think extremely carefully about movement and action options on each ship. I think it's made me into an overall better player, just because of how precise and attentive it forces me to be.

The focus-combo is too fun to play.

Absolutely. The focus/TL swapping is super fun, it adds another layer of strategy to the game. I like how it forces you to think extremely carefully about movement and action options on each ship. I think it's made me into an overall better player, just because of how precise and attentive it forces me to be.

I agree with this. Playing mindlinnk and how closely you have to work out your moves each turn to maximise your actions adds something to it. i'm not using manaroo in my main build yet but kavil palob and shuklak are definitely doing their rounds for me

I agree with this. Playing mindlinnk and how closely you have to work out your moves each turn to maximise your actions adds something to it. i'm not using manaroo in my main build yet but kavil palob and shuklak are definitely doing their rounds for me

What's your build for N'Dru? I could never come up with a way to Mindlink him.

Something like this maybe?

N'Dru: Mindlink, Cluster Missiles, Cloaking Device, Guidance Chips (24)

Kath Scarlet: Mindlink, 4-LOM, Engine Upgrade (44)

Manaroo: Mindlink, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech (32)

N'Dru uses the cloak to help him close to range 1-2. Manaroo passes him a lock/focus, so that he can fire both CM's with modifiers. Kath can take a boost each turn to line up her back arc, and she still gets a focus and can shut down an opposing ships token.

The focus-combo is too fun to play.

Absolutely. The focus/TL swapping is super fun, it adds another layer of strategy to the game. I like how it forces you to think extremely carefully about movement and action options on each ship. I think it's made me into an overall better player, just because of how precise and attentive it forces me to be.

I agree with this. Playing mindlinnk and how closely you have to work out your moves each turn to maximise your actions adds something to it. i'm not using manaroo in my main build yet but kavil palob and shuklak are definitely doing their rounds for me

Exactly. Since all but one of my squad are PS5, I need to consider very carefully who should move first this round. Only 1 ship can K-turn/S-Loop in a AM build, but luckily I got Manaroo and Palob who doesn't need to worry about turning most of the time.

My tournament list is similar, but my hwk pilot is Palob. And Manaroo is upgraded into a Bumpmaster.