I've heard a lot of good things about Attanni Mindlink, but I myself am still not sure how to best make use of it, so I'm looking for some pointers on how to build and fly a set of mindlinked pilots.

Couple of things to know about mindlink:

- you essentially give up (most) of your ability to perform red maneuvers in exchange for insane action economy. If a mindlinked ship needs to K-turn, lots of thought needs to go into how the rest of your list is going to deal with the stress.

- order of ship activation if one of your ships is going to perform a red maneuver should be as follows: White maneuvers, red maneuvers, green maneuvers. This means that the white maneuver ships take their actions, the red maneuver ships give out stress, and the green maneuver ships clear said stress automatically and then take their actions.

- Mindlink is somewhat vulnerable to stress control lists, as they now stress your entire list at once. This being said, all of your stressed ships will still probably have a focus token on a given turn, because only one ship in your list needs to clear the stress to give everyone a focus.

- Both Guri and Palob are great with mindlink, as they can focus up your entire list action-free. 4-Lom can work as well, as his getting stress through mindlink can actually work to his advantage.

- Either Manaroo or Kaa'to can create extra focus tokens with mindlink. Manaroo is especially effective, as she can flip her focus token to another ship and generate another focus for herself as a result.

- Mindlink is effective on many generic EPT ships, as it boosts their efficiency greatly

- You can unfortunately never K-turn with more than one ship in a given turn.

Here are two example lists that make good use of mindlink.

List 1:

- Manaroo (Mindlink, K4, Unhinged, Feedback)

- Palob (Mindlink, Ion turret, illicit cloak)

- Guri (Mindlink, Title, Sensor Jammer, AT)

This list has ridiculous action economy, and can end up with 5 focus tokens without ever having taken the focus action. If need be, it can generate 8 focus tokens. Also, the hindrance to K-turns is barely noticed as two of the ships have a turret.

List 2:

- Palob (ABT, cloak, SPA, Mindlink, intel agent)

- Tansarii Point Veteran x3 (Title, Mangler, Mindlink)

This list gives a F+E stack to the Scyks almost every turn.

It's a decent, cheap upgrade, but the more Mindlinked pilots you can take, the merrier. For a 100 point game, that's probably going to be a maximum of four (with Black Sun Aces, Gand Findsmen, Tansarri Point Veterans or the upcoming Concord Dawn Aces likely to form the bulk of the list).

Ideally, you want a way to auto-generate Focus tokens - Palob is amazing for this, Guri is good as well. Outlaw Tech can be a useful addition on a Findsman.

It works well with lists where all your pilots are the same PS - (again the EPT generics above and Palob, Guri and Kaato all synergise well), so you can pick and choose movement and action orders. This is useful for both action economy and stress management.

Dual IG2000's can also benefit from Attanni Mindlink, but they also have a lot of options available to them in the EPT slot.

With careful planning you can ensure all your ships are almost always both Focused and Target Locked, making them insanely accurate in combat, and it also provides a degree of stress protection as only one of your ships needs to be able to take a Focus action (or acquire a token), and they all can benefit.

The main drawback for the list isn't stress management so much as it is turning. Only one ship is likely to be able to perform a red maneuver each turn, which means you need to be careful with set up, positioning and especially your movement order.

The ideal activation order when your ships are unstressed would be a white maneuvers first, then (one) red, then any green.

I've played around with mindlink a lot in recent months and honestly; the best teacher is experience! Fly some lists and figure out their strengths and weaknesses. Tweak those lists. Pew-pew everything to death! All the above info is pretty much what I'd say so not going to repeat it all

Here's a few samples to give you the idea though.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/522689/mindlink-bots

Basically; use the ole' bait and switch with this list. So much green on the dial stress is rarely and issue even when s-looping one of the Iggy's.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/538558/mindlink-v33

Very similar to the list Sabre 7 posted. This has so many triggers for mindlink. Palob stealing a token, Guri's free focus for an R1 enemy and Manaroo's token dumping. Sensor jammer encourages the enemy to focus (to push damage through on Guri) for Palob to steal it. You basically want to jam Guri down your opponents throat and skirt around with Palob and Manaroo or use Manaroo to set up blocks so Guri can go for the kill. Stress can limit you a little with this so you need to be careful on approach to anything stress dealing and rebel captive is an absolute horror to deal with. However it is very versatile against almost anything else.

Often overlooked is Kavil with mindlink. A 4 dice TLT with double focus is pretty sure to punch damage through onto most aces soon enough. Pre-FAQ I was playing around with a KAvil w/mindlink, blaster turret and agromech list. Usually meant he had a 4 dice attack with TL & focus every turn however our FFG overlords sought to crush my dreams on this one. RIP blaster turret.

One more thing to note: formation flying doesn't work well with mindlink. You need room to manoeuvre and make sure no more than 1 ship each turn needs to pull a red move. I find keeping my ships spread out works well. Bait and switch, swarm and scatter or just set up kill boxes.

I'm very proud of that:

Aggressor: · IG-88C (36)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Fire Control System (2)

Autothrusters (2)

JumpMaster 5000: · Manaroo (27)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

· 4-LOM (1)

HWK-290: · Palob Godalhi (20)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

It's a token madness.

IG almost every turn with all tokens without stress, Manaroo sharing love with everybody, and Palob with his R1-2 denial bubble. I only have to manage k or s-looping with IG. It's my best take on single IG without Boba

I've been playing this pseudo-Dengaroo list that I think is pretty good:

48 Dengar w/ Mindlink, Zuckuss, OCR4, Title.

29 4-LOM w/ Mindlink, Title, Tractor.

23 Palob w/ Mindlink, ABT.

Dengar does Dengar things, Palob steals tokens to fuel mindlink and annoy enemies, and 4-LOM hands off stress that Dengar gives him.

I have not had too much of a chance to fly lists myself, but I have been paying attention to a lot of lists. Attanni Mindlink can really work for a wide variety of Scum ships. One thing that I like is how it really helps the Scyk and Kihraxz Fighter. I'm especially thinking about the Scyk, but you can get a Focus and an Evade every round, which seriously helps their survivability. I've played Tie Fighters w/ Fleet Officer and found even Academy Pilots can withstand a lot of shots when you get a Focus and Evade every turn. Another good thing about both of these ships is that they both have good turning dials. They can both do 1 hard turn, which can really help with not needing to K-turn.

One more thing to note: formation flying doesn't work well with mindlink. You need room to manoeuvre and make sure no more than 1 ship each turn needs to pull a red move. I find keeping my ships spread out works well. Bait and switch, swarm and scatter or just set up kill boxes.

I think this is important! If you fly formation, you find yourself all having to K-turn at the same time. Years of flying to get concentrated fire means people are used to flying in formation. You need to break that habit. It means you have to think more through each game and might wear you out at a tournament, but it's important.

I've been trying to test mindlink in a squad I've been flying since Wave 8 release. It's been through several iterations, here's the current one:

Aggressor: · IG-88B (36)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Autoblaster (5)

Thermal Detonators (3)

Fire Control System (2)

Autothrusters (2)

JumpMaster 5000: · Manaroo (27)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Recon Specialist (3)

· Punishing One (12)

Overclocked R4 (1)

I try to send in IG alone to the frey and keep Manaroo back. IGB can end up with 3 focus and evade so he becomes a pain to bring down and doesn't mind the bumps which usually spell doom for IGs.

With autoblaster you give the enemy extra incentive to not get too close. The Thermal detonators are a good control piece, even if you don't use them your opponents are aware of you possibly dropping them.

I recently switched to OCR4 on Manaroo because 2 focuses aren't enough for defense and a shot back with an expensive 3 dice turret. If my opponent is going after Manaroo I can usually keep clearing the stress from IG and refocusing both to keep the action economy up.

I don't know if I've reached my final iteration but I've played 3 matches with it and they were all winnable, but one match I made an awful move with IGB that got him killed too early. The other two matches went well with both Manaroo and IGB able to clean up after the other died.

I've been thinking, since the Protectorate spoiler, about using Mindlink with them. A friend of mine was trying to fit Fenn and Terry into the same list but I couldn't see anything he was using lasting longer than a salvo of torps, or a R1 Fel turn. A Manaroo Bumpmaster with R5P8, plus the usual AT and Title on the two fighters (and Mindlink on all, obviously) might actually have legs though. Lots of focus generation, and potentially lots of target locks. Whichever fighter looks like it's in a tough spot gets all of Manroo's tokens, so they can spend defensive focus with gay abandon. It also opens up that Tallon roll to one of them to be a bit more dangerous.

I've been using Bossk, Zuckuss, and Talonbane and it's been a blast. The idea was just to pump out as much damage as possible, so I took pilots with abilities that help me do that. I really like Mindlink squads because they give you that awesome action economy, but maneuvering with stress can be a real puzzle. It's a whole lot of fun.

Dengar + AM + PO + OcR4 + K4 = 50

2x Tansarii + AM + Title + Mangler = 48

Dengar with Mindlink baby, oh yeah!

This list could do some work. AM can work through stress stacks as well. M3s evade up and Dengar can feed them focus and K4 takes care of any accuracy issues since you'll be greening around a lot to clear the stress. If Dengar has to double stress with OcR4 then he can still be fed tokens via the M3s. You could even leave Dengar with a stress stack and not care thanks to K4 & OcR4. M3s, if left alone, can be a real problem and when they are token stacking they can be hard to put down and Manglers at R3 is a pretty solid hit too.

The Mindlink squad you want is: IG-88 B & D

Each with Mindlink, FCS, HLC, Feedback Array, Autothrusters, and IG-2000.

It works great. Always move Mindlink ships in a white -> red/risk of getting stress from debris -> green order.

For Epic play, I have been tossing around the idea of a Heavy Syck suicide squad, that is able to dump maximum torpedo damage on the first pass (1 ship focuses, the rest TL), then just go nuts. Haven't tried it yet.

Hahahahaha.... imagine an entire 300 point epic fleet of mind-linked ships!

That could be quite frightening. How many could we realistically fit in a 300 point squad? Ten?

It would be a logistical nightmare to play...

I have been running mindlinked Sycks since Wave 8 dropped. With the new "Fang" fighter I naturally looked at upgrading. Now looking at it, barring a stupendous dial, I am not sure it is an improvement. Consider the TPV Scyk with ML and mangler canon at 24 points. 3 red dice at any range without range effects, 3 HP, focus, BR, TL, and Evade. The standard plan is to focus and evade nearly every turn. Compare that the the PS 5 Fang with nothing but ML at 24 points. You gain an HP, but the attack dice are the same when you balance range one vs range 3 and you loose the crit. The real problem I see is that you trade the evade action for boost. That evade token is worth 1 HP each time you use it, not just once. You want autothrusters? Either drop to PS 3 or consider a 3-ship build instead of 4.

I cannot say for sure until see the dial, but I am thinking that the Scyks might be better for a ML swarm than the new Fangs. Of course, they suck at everything else, but that is not the context that I am evaluating them.

Hahahahaha.... imagine an entire 300 point epic fleet of mind-linked ships!

That could be quite frightening. How many could we realistically fit in a 300 point squad? Ten?

It would be a logistical nightmare to play...

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)

-Attanni Mindlink (1)

-Heavy "Scyk" Interceptor (2)

-Proton Torpedoes (4)

TOTAL: 24 points.

That means you could fit 12 of them in a list and have 12 points left over. You could spread some Stealth Devices, Shield Upgrades, or Hull upgrades around, or you could add a sacrificial Binayre blocker.

EDIT: Better yet! Use those 12 points to give 6 of your ships Advanced Proton Torpedoes while the other has regular Proton Torpedoes. Now you've got all ranges covered. Also, I think Advanced Proton Torpedoes work better with Mindlink than regular ones because your focus will do more (turning 3 blanks to eyes and turning those eyes to hits, rather than a free eye to hit for the torpedo and and a focus that might give you extra damage). Also, Guidance Chips is a must for this squad, so you can forget about the Shield/Hull Upgrades and Stealth Devices.

Fun squad that I ran a few times:

• Palob: Mindlink TLT
• Kaa'to: Mindlink, Concussion Missile, Chips
• Gand Findsman: Mindlink, title, FCS
• Tansarii Point Vet: title, Mindlink, Mangler Cannon

It's not easy to fly, turning around is kind of a pain because you must plan ahead a couple of turns, but the list is tough and packs a punch. With Kaa'to and Palob both triggering you can get 10 actions a turn. Kaa'to is kind of scary and draws attention until he gets his missile off, then he is useful as a focus battery/blocker. Palob does Palob things and the TLT adds some consistent damage potential that can't be ignored. The Findsman is tough, especially after you already have a TL from FCS and he can take an Evade nearly every turn. He can be a pain to maneuver with all the red on the dial but I've appreciated the toughness the ship brings. Finally the TPV acts as a flanker/sniper, if left alone he can take TL to go with his Focus to make the shots really count. If he is targeted then Focus plus Evade makes him fairly tanky and you always have the option to barrel roll out of arc if possible.

It's not lighting any ones world on fire but it is points efficient for the action economy, attack dice, and toughness. The main draw back being the difficulty of flying it.

Can't wait to see the dial for Fangs. Sounds like they might be a good candidate for mindlinks

Hahahahaha.... imagine an entire 300 point epic fleet of mind-linked ships!

That could be quite frightening. How many could we realistically fit in a 300 point squad? Ten?

It would be a logistical nightmare to play...

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)

-Attanni Mindlink (1)

-Heavy "Scyk" Interceptor (2)

-Proton Torpedoes (4)

TOTAL: 24 points.

That means you could fit 12 of them in a list and have 12 points left over. You could spread some Stealth Devices, Shield Upgrades, or Hull upgrades around, or you could add a sacrificial Binayre blocker.

EDIT: Better yet! Use those 12 points to give 6 of your ships Advanced Proton Torpedoes while the other has regular Proton Torpedoes. Now you've got all ranges covered. Also, I think Advanced Proton Torpedoes work better with Mindlink than regular ones because your focus will do more (turning 3 blanks to eyes and turning those eyes to hits, rather than a free eye to hit for the torpedo and and a focus that might give you extra damage). Also, Guidance Chips is a must for this squad, so you can forget about the Shield/Hull Upgrades and Stealth Devices.

Yep. That's about what I'm thinking.

Lots of food for thought. I've no Jumpmaster, one Kihraxz and two Scyks though so this'll be an interesting one to build for.

Like others have said the top candidates for Attani are the ones that can produce a focus with no action: Palob, Guri, and Kaato (if you're on a budget, in my opinion). Link one of them with Manaroo and Manaroo can have 2 focus (3 with Recon Spec) to give to an ace like Fenn, Cobra, IG, or even a PTL Dengar. Palob/Guri still have their action to take, and Manaroo can just hang out in the back and pass out the tokens.

You said you don't have Manaroo so you can't do that list right now, but I would try a linked Guri. Guri destroys in the mid-low PS levels and this way you can get her the action without the stress from PTL.

My findings of running it are:

• The more you have pilots of the same PS, the more options you'll have to deal with stress. When I ran it with 4 ships at PS 5 I had almost no issues with it at all
• Don't have too many ships you want to take their own non-focus actions (around half works for me) so you have options of who will
• Don't rely on Palob and Guri generating their own every turn - relying on your opponent to make mistakes is never fun
• As has been mentioned, I wouldn't recommend flying in a pin wheel or anything. I much prefer staying loose with your ships - keep them spreadand engage the same target at the same time from multiple angles

Kaato can't produce a focus with no action: one of his allies has to produce a focus for him to steal unless there's a Crow about. Mindlink lets him double focus but he's not Palob.

Lots of food for thought. I've no Jumpmaster, one Kihraxz and two Scyks though so this'll be an interesting one to build for.

Without a Jumpmaster, how are you using Attanni Mindlink? Are you just looking for ideas before you get one? Are you using proxies? Are/Did you buy them individually from a second-hand seller?

I only have one Jumpmaster, but I bought two more Mindlink from ebay. I think it was worth it because I don't see myself picking up another Jumpmaster for another year or so. I think it was $7 with shipping to get my two.