new scumbag lookin for advice from pro smugglers

By SPINAL, in X-Wing Squad Lists

hello fellow ruffians.

im new to x-wing but NOT to gaming in general. I play dragon-wing, as well as warmachine 40k and others. heres my query. I now own the 1st starter box, the falcon expan and the most wanted expan. im behind in a local league so I have some games to make up with some hard core players. ive never played any of them personaly but kno them well. so....what can I build that will at least keep me in the 50/50 range with the meta. im not looking to 'net list" or "visa game" my way to the finals .just not looking to scoop n pout every game n give the easy win!. plz be honest and upfront. I cant learn if u cant dish good n bad. end note I will have slave 1 in 2 weeks and will give me a month or two to game with it if a decent upgrade. thnx.

justyn"SPINAL"Crawford

I did say im new so ABRIEVIATIONS don't mean anything to me. plz use full descript so I can atleast follow along :)

Hello and welcome to the plastic addiction crew.

Now, if I understood correctly, what you have right now is:

  • (Old) Core Set
  • Millenium Falcon expansion pack
  • Most Wanted expansion pack
  • incoming Slave-I expansion pack

And you're looking to build something Scum, correct?

If I'm correct, I'm not gonna lie to you. You might stay a bit behind on your league for now.

Since your Slave-I isn't at hand right now, if you plan on gaming before having it, I'd highly suggest that you play Rebels for now.

Assuming you can borrow the Rebel pilot cards for your Z-95 ships from someone, this is what I recommend:

Han Solo (46):

  • Draw Their Fire (1)
  • Engine Upgrade (4)
  • Luke Skywalker (7)
  • Chewbacca (4)
  • Millenium Falcon (1)

Total: 63 pts

Biggs Darklighter (25)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Simple squad, simple tactic.

Biggs protects, Han shoots first and mitigates some of Biggs' damage, Z blocks and annoys.

Of course, Han is your MVP, make sure he stays alive against as few opponents as possible.

Now, after you get your Slave-I, you can start getting scummy. It won't be as effective as the above squad, which is fairly solid for beginners. In fact, you're gonna some more expansion packs for it to start paying off. My immediate advice would be 1 HWK-290 and 1 K-Wing expansions (for TLT and Extra Munitions) so you can start putting your turret ships to good use. But, with only a Slave-I and the Most Wanted, there's very little to do.

Just to get you started, I'd try this:

Boba Fett (39):

  • Veteran Instincts (1)
  • Engine Upgrade (4)
  • Gunner (5)

Total: 49 pts

Drea Renthal (22):

  • Proton Torpedoes (4)
  • Bomb Loadout (2)
  • Autoblaster Turret (2)
  • Seismic Charges (2)
  • R4-B11 (3)

Total: 35 pts

Binayre Pirate (12):

  • "Hot Shot" Blaster (3)

Total: 15 pts

Boba kept simple and effective, an excellent token burner and CQC fighter.

Drea torps from range, blasts from upclose. R4-B11 is made for her, makes avoiding her shots very difficult. Bomb for utility.

Z annoys, blocks and has a pseudo-turret. Good enough.

I toyed with the game up until scum came out, then I got serious. I'm a dedicated scum player. My very first build was Kavil, N'dru, and Guri. You can just about swap Guri for anyone. Once you pick up the Firespray you'll have lonewolf elite pilot talent. Lonewolf makes N'dru even better. You should already have assault missiles. Those may not be the absolute best missiles, but with N'dru, he's tossing five dice. Put hot shot blaster turret on him as well, that allows you to have some flexibility with piloting N'dru.

You can put unhinged astromech, blaster turret, and an elite pilot talent on Kavil. I use to use opportunist, but you don't have it. All of the elite pilot talents that I think synergize well (predator, push the limit, opportunist) you don't have yet. With opportunist he had a chance of throwing five damage dice.

Of the starter pack, I think those two Aces are a great place to start. Drea, as GenK pointed out, is fun. My personal goal is to stack as many stress on her as possible.

As much as I love scum, I think Gen K's advice is best for now, fly the falcon. Now, once you get the firespray, your could do something like this:

Firespray-31: · Kath Scarlet (38)

K4 Security Droid (3)

Y-Wing: · Kavil (24)

Blaster Turret (4)

Unhinged Astromech (1)

Z-95 Headhunter: · N'dru Suhlak (17)

· Lone Wolf (2)

Assault Missiles (5)

"Hot Shot" Blaster (3)

I haven't fully modded everything out because I'm not 100% on which epts come in the core, and some choices, like K4, may not be optimal.

This is fairly simple to fly. Each pilot is PS7, so order of activation is less of a concern. With the exception of N'dru, you keep things bare enough that you don't have to memorize 6 cards for each ship. It's real easy to forget you have a card. This helps take off that pressure. Each of these ships work independent of the other, so you don't have to remember any kind of synergy stuff either. Ship flies forward, ship shoots, ship done, move to next ship.

Just some thoughts. I can't tell you how competitive this list would be, but it'll make your learning curve easier.

Edited by janusgeminus

Janus he won't have Lone Wolf (comes in the Houndstooth). That being said as mentioned grab an HWK if you can it is a solid support ship. The Most wanted pack is a snazzy little starter for scum. Once you get your Firespray I'd recommend pairing it with the two Z-95's myself. The Y-wing and it's pilot options are solid, however the Z-95's Dial is almost the same as the X-wing's. This should help you while trying to learn to fly the Firespray since you don't already have a Y-wing.

Oh yeah, you're right. It comes in the YT-2400 not the firespray. Guess I should've confirmed first.

thanx. ima use the falcon list 2nite and go from there. is there a non scum must have for the collection just to have the autoinclude list cards ? ive seen some outrageous prices for aftermarket cards online and I mite as well have a mini to go with it lol. im also becoming a fan of Bossk and the flying jawa sandcrawler.....might need some advice soon. stay tuned

Do you mean if there are expansions that you must have when flying Scum, that don't belong to the Scum faction?

If so, the K-Wing is your highest priority.

After that, you should go after an A-Wing for Push The Limit, B-Wing for Fire-Control System and Lambda shuttle for Advanced Sensors and Sensor Jammer, if you ever plan on flying a Starviper or Aggressor.

so I have a gift from my wife coming 2night . a choice of a Ywing or the Hawk. which one and what the best build out with my most wanted pack ? my slave 1 weeks away as ive said but I do have the cards from core set 1 and the falcon. this will be full scum small vessels. were startn a campaign I think so I might be usin the same list for awhile so im lookin for all around, take it on the chin survivor as I don't have a lot of experience,and I don't kno what to expect ,and limited resources. ima build towards the above scum lists and I thank u all 4 the help. im totally doing the X-Wing crash course 101 here lol.

p.s. the community feedback here is already 1000x better than other game forums im on . awesome.

Out of the two ships, I'd pick the HWK-290. The pilot Palob is one of scum's best. For upgrades you're getting two new turrets for it and your Y-wing, as well as 3 (2 I often use) crew. Y-wing has proton torpedoes if you're thinking of heading toward Jumpmasters, but then they come with plasma anyway. Y-wing's also got 2 droids you can't use if you're dedicated to scum.

Whichever one you want to fly the most.

Absolutely, take the hawk. Palob and Torkil are two great pilots for scum.

HWK-290, no questions asked.

Its expansion pack benefits both Most Wanted per se and your Y-Wing, since you get two turrets (one for your HWK and the other for your Y)

With only what you have, you can fly these

Palob Godalhi (20):

  • Determination (1)
  • Ion Cannon Turret (5)
  • Greedo (1)

Total: 27 pts

or

  • Veteran Instincts (1)
  • Blaster Turret (4)
  • K4 Security Droid (3)
  • Engine Upgrade (4)
  • Moldy Crow (3)

Total: 35 pts