Took 6th at a local tournament today with ARC Angel and Stressmule. One game i actually went 100-0 because Norra and Biggs nuked their Biggs turn 1, and Braylen dumped stress and 3 damage on his Thane, so it was basically clean up from there. Norra downed his Tycho in one shot from the rear arc the next turn and when we finally met up with his Thane in 2-3 turns Norra and Biggs dumped all the damage we needed to kill him before he even got to shoot.

Game before that i quadruple stressed Soontir by turn 3, nuked him with Norra and brought Ryad and Quickdraw to 1 HP really fast, then cleaned them up with Norra and Braylen respectively next turn, winning 100-26.

I love ARCs so much.

I would have taken 3rd, but unfortunately i went up against 3 T-70s and a Y last game, and that's just too much attack die to win against. No heavy jousters like Scouts there that day, otherwise i would have gone up against a much more favorable list for me.

Sorry, Quick noobie questions here....

How can we double stress one enemy ship (same) with Braylen through R3-A2 and gunner? What would be the sequence?

Does the ability of Nora to add a focus die actually ''use'' the TL so it is gone (I am always confuse with the ''spend'') or it stays on the targetted ship afterwards?

Finally, if we attack with the Primary Arc, we cannot attack with the Aux one on the same turn right?

Thank you very much!

1) Declare target, add stress. Miss, gunner, repeat.

2)yes it does. 'Spend' is the key word.

3) Correct. Unless otherwise stated, you may only make one attack a turn, regardless of arcs. Tie SF title lets you, as would phantom/ghost. Corran can attack twice as well.

Gunner also allows you to attack the second time, and you can use whichever arc you want to do that.

Sorry, Quick noobie questions here....

How can we double stress one enemy ship (same) with Braylen through R3-A2 and gunner? What would be the sequence?

Does the ability of Nora to add a focus die actually ''use'' the TL so it is gone (I am always confuse with the ''spend'') or it stays on the targetted ship afterwards?

Finally, if we attack with the Primary Arc, we cannot attack with the Aux one on the same turn right?

Thank you very much!

The stress is triggered each time you declare an attack. So, you declare your first attack, give yourself and the target a stress token each, then carry on with the attack. If you miss with your first attack, gunner lets you perform a second attack. If you choose to declare the same target for your second attack then you can give them (and yourself) another stress token, so they have two, plus any they already had before you attacked them.

Spend means the token is removed.

Ordinarily you can only perform one attack per turn. Gunner allows a second attack if your first does not hit, in which case you can choose to shoot from a different arc (though it has to be your primary weapon).

Just got one yesterday, spent about 10 minutes just looking at the model. I forgot to even look at the cards! I can't wait to fly it!

Coming out from a great Vassal game vs Khyros and his Ghost-Biggs-Zeb build.

Dice gods were on my side, and rock-gods too, but i had a very good use of VT at least four times in the game, allowing to avoid enemy arcs or get shots when i was not supposed to.

So, for me, Vt over Engine with no doubt at all.

P.S. It was a pleasure to play against you, Khyr!

I usually have VT on Norra, though last couple games took EU, worked well for the match though I did miss VT which I like better!

I've gotten 5 games in with the ARC now. Loved the ship itself, and love the model, in-game though is kinda hit or miss.

It definetly benefits from biggs and/or r2d2, but I don't like playing with either of those so my results with the arc aren't bad but aren't great either.

Not sure I'd ever be able to build a competitive build around it, might be fun in epic though if I ever get into that.

I've gotten 5 games in with the ARC now. Loved the ship itself, and love the model, in-game though is kinda hit or miss.

It definetly benefits from biggs and/or r2d2, but I don't like playing with either of those so my results with the arc aren't bad but aren't great either.

Not sure I'd ever be able to build a competitive build around it, might be fun in epic though if I ever get into that.

I'd recommend looking into the stressmule then (Braylen with Gunner, R3-A2, title, sometimes VT/Thane with Tactician, R3-A2, title, VTs). It will have a bit of a Biggs effect without the restrictive nature of that ability and it is on the less expensive side. Combine it with Miranda and M9-G8 Tarn like this:

Miranda Doni (29)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

C-3PO (3)

Seismic Charges (2)

Braylen Stramm (25)

Gunner (5)

R3-A2 (2)

Vectored Thrusters (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Tarn Mison (23)

M9-G8 (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

and I imagine you are looking at a good time. You could also go for Poe as the core ship, but he doesn't synergize nearly as nicely with M9-G8 as Miranda does (since she can reroll twice a turn).

How is the FGD's classic build performing against the three main threats of the moment: Dengaroo, Attani Gang and Defenders in your experience?

I found Defenders he hardest match up, expecially if Palp-boosted (hint: go for the shuttle! ), Dengaroo is a good match up while i did not face many attani builds, but i think that Braylen may be a big counter to them and Protectorate are at risk because they have to shoot Biggs and face the Arcs' wrath, so if you don't mess with initial engagement you should be ok.

Your opinion?

My biggest problem with ARCs is that besides Braylen they can't really operate aside from Biggs. That and Norra's ability never seems to be triggered enough because i find myself wanting to spend the lock to reroll 90% of the time. Personally i think Thane with Finn, R2-D2, VT, and the Title would hit harder more consistently (have to run with biggs of course to trigger ability). Not to say they are bad but i don't find them to be all that intimidating either.

you have to roll more than one blank for norra's ability to not be relevant, which is difficult to do when focus gives you 75% of rolling relevant results per die

if firing from the rear, it's just a guaranteed crit for a TL.

where it really shines, though, is the late game. Once you just get used to knowing that anything less than max damage won't hurt stuff like x7s, you can save it to essentially be immortal 1v1. The fact that she can leverage her ability defensively, exacerbating the defensive powers of regeneration, makes her far and away the best regen ARC

the biggest trap, however, is feeling you have to trigger her ability every round

with r2-d2 you're allowed to play the long game. Use VTs to block higher PS and PTL to set up a lock for a later round etc. Not getting shot is always better than getting shot

that's one thing I've noticed about other players using Norra against me, they very rarely do anything other than PTL and focus or execute slow rolls to attempt to trip up faster ships. Sometimes, they don't even have VTs

of course, that only ends one way

Finn is a huge waste of points on the ARC. Even on Rey, I've found him to not be terribly impressive and on Thane who can't even leverage his defensive blank result he's just a joke

I'm running Norra with 3PO, trusters, PTL, R2 and title alongside my Rey build. I find it works pretty well - if flown right it's either impossible to kill in the late game, or takes so much fire that Rey has free reign in the game.

It can struggle to push damage through if she's the only ship left, but hopefully I'm one on one, and then I'm usually more expensive and simply not dying.

I went to top 8 in our local regional with a 5-1 record in swiss and then 1-1 in the cut. Played against 3 defender/aces list and a dengaroo. She only died in the two games I lost and won me the dengaroo game, actually able to kill Dengar on her own.

That's a solid build.

A Norra/Shara/Keyan list went 5-0 at a store event yesterday in the UK. I came second to it, was the only list to beat me all day (and the only list to kill either of my ships lol)

Was Norra with Finn and mainly using Shara's TL to trigger her ability, and using her own TL (if she had one) to re-roll what was needed. Managed to get 6 red dice on my in our game, out of which he got 5 hits.

Shara had Rey, adaptability (+1) and some other bits. Keyan had Rage and Hera.

Everything was really effective and he flew it very well and managed to get his synergy going a lot. **** good list in the hands of a good player.

Brief revival of this thread for a word of encouragement to anyone looking to use ARCs competitively:

It's possible. It's possible and you can do it. Cause i did.

As you might know i've been training Norra/Braylen/Biggs since Wave 9 dropped, and i can safely say that it paid off. I got Second in a Store Tournament using it on Sunday.

It was 4 games of Swiss(no cut, which was a good call because the tournament ended at 11 PM without it anyways).

Game 1 i faced a Ketsu/Kath list, flown by the previous winner of the last 3 tournaments we've held. I took initiative, as i was confident that once Braylen stressed his ships, moving last would mean far less than shooting first. His first and only mistake was setting up his ships in jousting formation against mine. First Combat phase he did, in fact, take Biggs down to his last hull(even after IA), But i pulled all shields and put a damage on Ketsu along with double stressing her. Ketsu lasted two more turns, and even got tractor beams on Norra, in arc, at range 1....Twice. But because Ketsu was stressed to hell, he had nothing to modify, so when he rolled 1 hit, 2 focuses, and a blank the first time, even Norra's complete lack of dice was meaningless because i just regen'd next turn. The next time he had me, 3 focus results and a blank was all he got and Ketsu died a firey death that turn. All that was left by that point was a hella stressed Kath(with Expertise as the only means of mods, no less) and it was clean up from there. 100-26.

Game 2 was against 2 X7s and the Inquisitor. I started off focusing heavily on one of the Defenders, knowing that an End Game of Norra v. Inquisitor is way better than Norra v. X7, so i wanted to get them out of the way. Biggs lasted about 3 turns of combat iirc, and by the time he was dead, my opponent had already lost one of his Defenders. I couldnt get arc on the second Defender next 2 turns, so Norra and Braylen fired at Inqy and managed to heap stress and pull shields off him. Braylen eventually buckled to both Inqy and the Defender, but not before i pulled shields off of the Defender. The next turn Inqy died, and it was a full health Norra versus a shieldless Defender, definitely very good odds for me. Wasn't long before i did the Defender in for the victory, 100-60.

Game 3 was against a DashPoe list flown by a very good friend of mine. This explanation would be much longer than the first 2 so i'll boil it down to this: I committed to killing Poe, and by the time i did it was just Norra against Dash thanks to a few unlucky rolls. Didn't win but i did half damage to Dash so i pulled a respectable MOV out of it. All i know is that if i had killed Dash first than there would be no question, i would have won. but every time i play his list, i come away with a different picture of who to focus on at the start. Last time i played it, Poe was the MVP, so naturally i went after that. Big mistake on my part, but, eh, whatever. 70-100.

Game 4 was a very similar list to Game 2: 2 X7s, but with a Tomax shuttle with Cool Hand, Fleet Officer, and Systems Officer instead of the Inquisitor. Basically, every turn, in a perfect world, all ships has a focus, evade, and the defenders have target locks. And it seemed to work alright, until i killed a Defender on combat turn 2, heaped stress on Tomax, forced everyone to separate, and offed the second defender. The shots they did get to take that werent at Biggs, my opponent made the grave mistake of shooting at Norra and doing Pea damage that she easily regen'd. Kind of a brutal sweep. 100-26.

The right combination of ARCs into a cohesive list, along with the practice in using them, is incredibly viable. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. In fact, some at the tournament were watching my games and saying "Ya know, i remember when i first saw the stats and everything for the ARC and thinking, man, this thing is DOA. But hey, look at these things go."

So my main ARC build is usually ~

Norra, Nein Numb, R2D2, PtL, Vectored Thrusters, Alliance Overhaul

Braylan, Tail Gunner, R3A2, Alliance Overhaul

That leave's me 32 points, which for the first while I had been filling out with Jake Farrel in his A-wing, which is still far to undergunned!

The main problem is while not having all the latest toys I lack certain cards so making this list work is tricky.

I toyed with the idea of adding an X-wing (not Biggs, boring as) and nothing suited so I went with Keyan Farlander in his B-wing with Advanced Sensors.

Now B-wings as we all know can hit hard but can die within one turn but what the hey!

So far within two games I faced Scum, Ventress in her Shadowcaster, 4-Lom and a Z95, was a rough ride for Keyan dieing on the third turn though he did do some damage and the scum just couldn't save themselves against two near full health ARC's, a win.

In the second game I faced Imperial Strikers, Dutchess, Pure Sabacc, Countdown and Trainee Imperial pilot, having had to deal with these guys before I had been close in beating them with a triple Interceptor list. They came about and decided to play 'jousting' losing Pure Sabacc on the 2nd round of shooting (I think, maybe first round?) and dealing damage enough to Norra to take evasive actions, they did get her though but not before she took out countdown and Keyan finished of the Trainee pilot. Unfortunately Dutchess was a slippery fish and on a lucky hit caused Braylan to miss out with shooting via a crit, which then he was finished off! Keyan gave chase and delt 3 points of damage but just couldn't catch Dutchess before the time ran out. Concluded in a draw.

All in All they were good battles.

I've been tinkering around with this build:

Thane Kyrell

-Weapons Engineer

-M9-G8

-Alliance Overhaul

-Guidence Chips

-Plasma Torpedo

Pair him up with two high pilot skill X-wings(usually Wedge and Wes) and you have a fairly neat list. TL both your X-wings in the beginning of the game and they will have full mods when they shoot in the first round of combat. Then, when your opponent fires back you switch the 'locks to your opponents ships and reroll their dice. When it's Thane's turn he can launch his missile to finish the job. Taking it to a special tourney next weekend, I'll report on how it does.

I've been tinkering around with this build:

Thane Kyrell

-Weapons Engineer

-M9-G8

-Alliance Overhaul

-Guidence Chips

-Plasma Torpedo

Pair him up with two high pilot skill X-wings(usually Wedge and Wes) and you have a fairly neat list. TL both your X-wings in the beginning of the game and they will have full mods when they shoot in the first round of combat. Then, when your opponent fires back you switch the 'locks to your opponents ships and reroll their dice. When it's Thane's turn he can launch his missile to finish the job. Taking it to a special tourney next weekend, I'll report on how it does.

Shara Bey with a similar loadout (against higher PS enemies) allows you to mitigate damage and modify your Aces attacks with regular target locks.

my go to has generally been

braylen stramm

targeting astromech

kyle katarn

vectored thrusters

alliance overhaul (ofc)

slots into the list normally alongside two other three dice ships - most recently with a U-wing and the third either a t-70 or a b-wing, though the t70's manoeuvrability is desperately needed - and tends to be pretty self sufficient and never really the biggest threat compared to the nien numb i normally run him with and so he can get into position while the enemy goes hunting nien numb and before they know it there's a TL+focus three (or four) dice attack shooting at them after they've spent their tokens defending against the "more threatening" ships.

Norra Wexley (29)

Push the Limit (3)

Jyn Erso (2)

R5-P9 (3)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Heff Tobber (24)

Fire-Control System (2)

Inspiring Recruit (1)

Bistan (2)

Pivot Wing (0)

Braylen Stramm (25)

Luke Skywalker (7)

R3-A2 (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Good stress control in this list with dice modification as well. Heff and Braylen are a little soft I know but there's three ships you can't really ignore there. Norra just does her thing.

Thinking of stepping Luke down to Gunner and giving Norra VTs for a bit more flexibility. I found they were useless on Braylen as he usually had at least one token stuck to him. Inspiring Recruit I guess you could swap for Hera, or Bistan for Cassian/BoShek.

While we're sharing fun ARC builds:

"We Share Things"

what do you Arc pilots think of:

Braylen

crew: Kyle Katarn

astromech: R5-P9

title Alliance Overhaul

Mod: Vectored Thrusters.

Braylens own ability to clear stress which triggers Kyles ability to give him a focus and then.. if he's not stressed he can get two focus actions... one for R5-P9 shield regen and he's got a spare for his attack/defense dice/die.

what do you Arc pilots think of:

Braylen

crew: Kyle Katarn

astromech: R5-P9

title Alliance Overhaul

Mod: Vectored Thrusters.

Braylens own ability to clear stress which triggers Kyles ability to give him a focus and then.. if he's not stressed he can get two focus actions... one for R5-P9 shield regen and he's got a spare for his attack/defense dice/die.

why would you try to make a PS3 ARC-170 a regen ship when you can just take Norra...?

Besides

he's actually got to get stressed first, meaning you either need to execute a 4 straight, 4K, or 3 turn every other turn, meaning this only works reliably once every two turns. "But i'll just take something with him that stresses him!" cool you're now investing more points into an already bad regen ship when you could just take Norra

I mean that's basically the crux of it if you don't have the points for regen Norra don't bother taking Regen at all cause you can't afford it period.

A Norra/Shara/Keyan list went 5-0 at a store event yesterday in the UK. I came second to it, was the only list to beat me all day (and the only list to kill either of my ships lol)

Was Norra with Finn and mainly using Shara's TL to trigger her ability, and using her own TL (if she had one) to re-roll what was needed. Managed to get 6 red dice on my in our game, out of which he got 5 hits.

Shara had Rey, adaptability (+1) and some other bits. Keyan had Rage and Hera.

Everything was really effective and he flew it very well and managed to get his synergy going a lot. **** good list in the hands of a good player.

All at PS7? Quite clever that. I love Keyan and ARCs so this appeals to me. Good to hear it did well!

Can you spend two TLs in one attack? Didn't know that (well I know you can't re-roll a re-roll and everything but I thought it was just one TL spend per turn and no more).

I think this list comes out to 96 points; do you know the last 4? I put in Expertise on Norra which would work.