I just wanted to quickly share a list I've been having great success with lately and is a lot of fun to fly. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to respond!
One of my favorite teams of ships to fly has become the combination of the Firespray and YV-666. There are good pilot options and a lot of flexibility, as well as a massive amount of in-arc coverage. Previously, my go-to build was Moralo Eval w/ HLC and supporting crew with a PTL Boba Fett w/ EU and Recon Specialist. The major issue I had with that list is that the massive hammer that is Moralo's 180-degree HLC is a *huge* initial target for good players, and a good enough alpha strike on him ensures that due to his middling pilot skill value of 6, he may only get one shot off before going kablooie. Fett is an end-game monster, but relying on PTL can make using him difficult, especially against arc-dodgers.
I have found a new solution, with which in my small local meta, I have yet to lose a single ship across 4 matches, 3 of which were against highly skilled players I have had trouble beating with the Boba/Moralo build in the past (as well as other lists). Below is my new discovery:
- Bossk (50 points) - Veteran Instincts, Engine Upgrade, Inertial Dampeners, Mangler Cannon, Dengar, Zuckuss, 4-LOM
- Kath Scarlet (48 points) - Push the Limit, Recon Specialist, Engine Upgrade
- Total Cost: 98 points
This list, like all YV-666 and Firespray lists, has really good attack values and a TON of hit points (this combo is 22 hit points - absolutely stellar for only two ships). It doesn't have much agility, but it has an insane amount of in-arc coverage (not turrets = Autothrusters only at range 3!!), and is thus not very difficult to properly position. Bossk can afford to either stay back with his cannon or rush in and around you, and if Kath whizzes past you, she can be hard to predict and dodge, and gets extra attack power to boot. The Zuckuss/4-LOM combo is well-known and respected, and only makes Bossk's ability hurt that much more when it triggers.
Given the right amount of space to work with and good foresight, Kath is a monster. If she has room in front of her, she can easily keep her target in either of her arcs. RecSpec and PTL allow her to turtle up against multiple attacks, EU gives her some repositioning. The extra attack die out of the back means she doesn't mind being chased, and because she'd rather have you behind her, she usually has plenty of space to maneuver to at least get several 4-die attacks off. However, I'm not married to this build, particularly the PTL/RecSpec combo. Over all the 4 games I've played with this list, I've rarely used PTL, and when I did I was usually left with unused tokens (and thus, wasted action and pointless stress). I think EU is a keeper, but possibly swapping out PTL for Predator for extra dice mods or even VI. I'm not sure the crew I'd use to replace RecSpec. I'd have plenty of options, that's for sure. Maybe a Tactician or K-4 (particularly if I go to VI for the EPT)
The star of the show, however, is easily Bossk. I am in love with this build and the options it gives me, particularly in damage output and action efficiency. Bossk's ability combined with Mangler means that (assuming primary arc shots) I can always generate the crit that I need to trigger the ability, and I've found myself getting 2 crits after the Mangler dice mod probably more often than chance dictates I should. Even if I can't keep the enemy in the primary arc, I can still utilize the YV-666's auxiliary arcs in a pinch. Dengar gives me an anti-ace stand-in for Predator, which, in the current meta, is bloody brilliant, and means I shouldn't ever need a target lock. This means my action is always either a boost or a focus. 4-LOM means I can negate the enemy's use of defense tokens, and, since Zuckuss allows me to force any number of defensive rerolls in exchange for some stress (which the YV can shrug off pretty **** well for a large base), basically means that almost no matter who the defender is, I can almost completely eliminate my opponent's defense defense dice and tokens, except for obvious exceptions like a focus-stacked HWK or a double-tokened Soontir. VI gives me that coveted PS9, and with a 2-point initiative bid, means I can easily either force to enemy ace to reposition before I move or just not bother and shoot first instead. The boost gives me some modest repositioning, as well as the ability to either quickly close a gap or to run away so I can turn back around.
Bossk is truly a force to be reckoned with in a way that Moralo's middling pilot skill and lack of an EPT slot just can't compete with. I regularly find my 3-die Mangler cannon attacks doing 4 damage. In two separate matches, I eliminated one of the enemies' top TIEs in the first shot of the game. Once, I slaughtered Howlrunner with 4 hits after negating her focus token and using my own Dengar/focus combo to ensure 2-hits, 1-crit, which, after forcing Howlrunner to reroll her one evade result after a range-3 focus-focus-evade result, turned into 4 hits and a dead Howlrunner, completely eliminating her swarm's offensive rerolls before they could even trigger once. Then, just today, I ended up with blank-crit-crit against Whisper (who had not fired yet, since I had the initiative, and was therefore uncloaked with only a focus token) who rolled blank-focus (focus token blocked with 4-LOM, of course), which Bossk turned into hit-hit-crit, which turned into a double damage crit and a dead Whisper.
Anybody have any other thoughts? I'm particularly open to suggestions about Kath's build.
Edited by SgtSmithy