I have to say that although I originally thought the ARC was dead on arrival I've been pleasantly surprised. They're about the only small Rebel ship that lives long enough to pull it's weight right now, and Norra in particular has a killer pilot ability.

The rear arc is still sh*tty, though.

The rear arc is still sh*tty, though.

That's what Tail Gunner is there for.

I thought it was just one TL spend per turn and no more

You can spend a token once per opportunity. Spending a token to reroll dice, and spending a token to add extra results are two seperate game effects.

The problem is that you can't normally have multiple target locks - you can only take a target lock action once per turn, and can't sustain multiple locks on the same target - which is where Shara Bey comes in.

Expertise is a nice trick on Norra.

The rear arc is still sh*tty, though.

Tailgunner works wonders there, FGD isn't wrong to say that it is the go-to crew for Norra. There is a reason why Wedge has had a great reputation for much longer than any other non-Biggs/Wes T-65.

For stress Braylen with Gunner the aux-arc also is critical as he won't be able to turn around much and then also wants to miss. He often gives the defender the pest or cholera choice of "take a crit or get double stressed".

To me the auxiliary arc is the defining feature of the ship. In my first few games I flew Norra off the table because i was too greedy trying to keep shooting from it - still won them anyways, thats when i was sold on ARCs.

I just lost a very close game to Dengar-Bossk (Bossk gone, Dengar left with 2 hulls) due to partial bad luck (blinded Braylen in a critical moment of the game) and a couple of mistakes in the final turns (didn't use Norra's ability on defense, being rewarded with a direct hit, just to find that my perfect rear range 1 shot was just out or arc and the next turn chose a straight one instead of a two, that would have allowed me to barrel out of Dengar's arc instead of being blocked by a debris).

I think i should have gone for Dengar first, but Bossk was such an appealing target I could not resist... what would your gameplan be if you were me?

Half hull dengar and run the clock like a *****

And you want bossk dead first simply because he really hurts and is easier to kill/focus fire on

And thats it really. Dont be afraid to not even shoot dengar if youre winning on points because he does one/two damage max to norra without his ability; unlucky crits aside

If theres anything i learned playing norra, is that you use her ability defensively if you can. No point in getting greedy, unless you got Biggs around to dive back in or are otherwise sure engagement will be paused long enough to regen (so after youve shot past your opponent)

and ofcif youre just taking one damage r2d2 has you covered so save it

Yay, so it seems my gameplan was the right one and my mistakes costed me the win... well, you can't always win!

But i'm happy to see that Arcs get a chance also against Dengar & Bossk.

I'll be more focused next time and I'll get the win!

you can beat anything with ARCs

except Dash if he gives you initiative

you can just concede at that point

I met Dash only once, built in a sub-optimal configuration (rec spec, mangler, and something else i don't remember) and managed to pseudo joust him to death in a couple of turns.

Yesterday i lost a close game to Wes Wedge and Keyan, messing with target priority so my fault again.

Then i won pretty easlily vs Upsilon and four black squadron snapshot ties.

you can beat anything with ARCs

except Dash if he gives you initiative

you can just concede at that point

I thought you were flying with a stressmule? All you need is one opportunity to shoot Dash with him and he's toast. And make sure that if he dodges stressmule he gets into Norra's field of fire. Problem solved. Parattanni's far more challenging from my experience.

you can beat anything with ARCs

except Dash if he gives you initiative

you can just concede at that point

I thought you were flying with a stressmule? All you need is one opportunity to shoot Dash with him and he's toast. And make sure that if he dodges stressmule he gets into Norra's field of fire. Problem solved. Parattanni's far more challenging from my experience.

not that easy, because dash is fast as **** and can just fart off

while ARCs are molasses in tar

havn't had an issue v anything involving Rau, by contrast. He's a lot slower than a large base ship and doesn't have a turret

and ofc cannot flee over obstacles without consequence

you can beat anything with ARCs

except Dash if he gives you initiative

you can just concede at that point

That aside ARCs are very interesting beasts. They have enough hp to weather some fire (especially regen norra) and a decent amount of punch. They are kinda in that spot that they seem underwhelming and if you ignore them you will get slaughtered. Imo because of this they want to be the second most threatening thing on the table. Cause if you have another deadly ship running around drawing fire away ARCs can run unhindered. Which is where they shine offensively.

Well while casually flying a routine patrol over Bespin, Norra, Braylen and Keyan are pounced upon by four Tie Strikers.

By mid game it was going either way having had Norra focused down then they lost 'Duchess'. Some tricky flying left Braylen out of the picture as with Pure Sabacc and Countdown, Keyan dispatched one of them with four hits and unfortunate the Imperial Trainee flew wrong and left the board.

This was the Third encounter against this Striker list and the first where I swapped Braylen's Tail Gunner for Tactician which triggered all of once. One win one draw one loss.

Next came Ventress, 4-Lom and a new light M3-A (that one with the new title card coming with the Epic Scum ship) a slight change in the build from when I faced it last time.

The above Rebels came crashing into this lot with Braylen taking damage, and after a mess of ships 4-Lom went down with the M3-A jetting off for three turns trying to come about while stripping stress from Braylens R3A2. Ventress took him out but had trouble with stress from debris and took a couple turns bringing herself around but not before she had taken enough hits to almost shatter her hull.

Lucky for her both Keyan and Norra had her out of their arcs by meer millimeters, and due to having more stress her mobile arc was jammed away from the Rebel ships. Then time run out - we play all our games to tournament time. two wins against this list or at least variants of it.

I think Tactician was a waste only triggering it once over two games.

Also now my Striker opponent who is intent on taking Norra out as quick as is now considering Keyan as the first target to kill.

That aside ARCs are very interesting beasts. They have enough hp to weather some fire (especially regen norra) and a decent amount of punch. They are kinda in that spot that they seem underwhelming and if you ignore them you will get slaughtered.

Imo because of this they want to be the second most threatening thing on the table . Cause if you have another deadl y ship running around drawing fire away ARCs can run unhindered. Which is where they shine offensively.

mainly because there's no way to introduce a bigger threat with 26 points, and I sure ain't toning down some of the most fun and definitely the most beautiful ships in the game

That aside ARCs are very interesting beasts. They have enough hp to weather some fire (especially regen norra) and a decent amount of punch. They are kinda in that spot that they seem underwhelming and if you ignore them you will get slaughtered.

Imo because of this they want to be the second most threatening thing on the table . Cause if you have another deadl y ship running around drawing fire away ARCs can run unhindered. Which is where they shine offensively.

mainly because there's no way to introduce a bigger threat with 26 points, and I sure ain't toning down some of the most fun and definitely the most beautiful ships in the game

Biggs is MVP for rebels.

I just got literally smashed by a good Parattani player.

And simply can't figure out how to beat this list: it can kill Biggs quickly, it laughs at Braylen's stress and can shut down Norra's ability just with Asaji or with a couple of turns of Fenn shooting at her.

So, what's the secret recipe? Going for Fenn at all cost? For Asaji as long as you have guns enough? Flip the table?

hit Fenn, because the ****** hurts, and learn to use stress as a way to limit maneuvers rather than action denial

Biggs should never be at range 1 of him, but you have r4-d6 just in case

don't PTL around asajj (remember range 1-2 and mobile arc only; list does not have gyro-whatevers), but don't forget your title and tailgunner/gunner mods if you don't get actions (also r2d2)

obstacles are your friends etc.

between gunner and r3-a2 I never found Fenn to be a problem under any circumstance. Even with mods, the guy can't hit ya if you're past him and he can't red maneuver/boost/roll

then you hit manny because good **** luck with asajj while manny is up

without? much easier

Yeah Fenn honestly dies mega quick, and once he's dead you've extended Biggs life-span that much longer. Manaroo gives all her tokens to Assaj so she's basically defenseless, so she drops in a round or two and without Manny what can Assaj really do to both Norra and Braylen that lets her win? A smart player is going to kill Braylen just to get that stressmule out of the way(cause remember stress=no mobile arc), and even that will take a minimum of 2 turns WITH LUCKY CRITS, 3 turns with normal damage variance, so you've got all kinds of time with Norra to hammer away. By the time it's just Norra and Assaj, Assaj will have too much damage to mount a successful counterattack.

That aside ARCs are very interesting beasts. They have enough hp to weather some fire (especially regen norra) and a decent amount of punch. They are kinda in that spot that they seem underwhelming and if you ignore them you will get slaughtered.

Imo because of this they want to be the second most threatening thing on the table . Cause if you have another deadl y ship running around drawing fire away ARCs can run unhindered. Which is where they shine offensively.

mainly because there's no way to introduce a bigger threat with 26 points, and I sure ain't toning down some of the most fun and definitely the most beautiful ships in the game

I've been running Braylen/Biggs/Norra last couple of weeks, have 4 wins out of 10 games but learning to use the list so expecting to lose (& learning a lot in the process).

list is; https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v4!s!207:58,21,69:41:25:;4:-1,77:-1:20:;204:27,-1,201,3:41:26:&sn=Annoying%20Barcing

Haven't played against Paratanni yet but have played against defenders and it seems to own them, played against a couple of Ketsu lists (one with Kath & one with Dengar) and removed both from the board easily.

Norra at PS9 with barrel roll is amazing (& could have won me a game if I'd have just gone for a 3 bank & barrel roll instead of the 2 bank regen) Rey crew allows me to get my TL & focus easily, just need to delay the start by slow crawling.

Braylen stresshog is a real beast in this list & the flechettes are there to make sure I can double (or triple if I miss) stress most ships, or if the opponent has no 4 or lower hull ships can be launched at R3 to cancel range bonus dice and get a decent chance at 3 hits.

Biggs just does Biggs things!

haven't taken it to any tournaments yet but have regionals this weekend so hopefully it treats me well!!

Norra without TG is an exercise in frustration, trust me

unless you run into vcxs I guess

I tried using VI Rey Norra and it just struck me as being Not As Good as PTL TG Norra. There isn't a PS war that dictates a need for VI anymore, so there's literally no reason to take it over PTL TG Norra.

I tried using VI Rey Norra and it just struck me as being Not As Good as PTL TG Norra. There isn't a PS war that dictates a need for VI anymore, so there's literally no reason to take it over PTL TG Norra.

I'm more inclined towards PTL/TG Norra as well but I can't deny there are substantial benefits of having her at PS9. There are still quite a few other PS9s flying around (Fenn, Quickdraw, occasional Whisper) and if you can get the choice of initiative these become so much easier to fly against. Not being stressed means that unless you want to regenerate you can perform just about any maneuver. Not being stressed really helps against Paratanni as well. Last but not least, it's 2 points cheaper so you can possibly fit something else in your list that you wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I found PTL/Kyle Katarn Norra as very flexible ship. You can have focus, TL and BR every turn.

Anyone tried running bombs on Norra? Sabine crew, Connor Net/Cluster Mines and Extra Munitions looks potentially quite good, along with the standard PTL, R2-D2 and Vectored Thrusters.