Because I've had games where Biggs should take 4 damage and instead only takes 2, which is much better than potentially flipping a crit down. It only preserves Biggs if you do flip down a direct hit and you can get rid of that by popping the droid - at that point it's no longer worth it as you can't prevent two damage and he only has 2 hull left.

In fact, I've had the droid stop 4 damage in one turn doing that - Biggs was left with hull and his astro rather than being, you know, dead.

Just won the inaugural crossroads classic with "Zack Attack in honor of panic attack " or biggs miranda braylen, i gave FGD like 3 shoutouts on the stream

I'm trying PTL Norra with Ezra. Teamed with Shara and TLT Dutch. The Shara/Dutch combo works well. At the moment Ive got protons on Norra, she's got a good alpha strike but it is a once off. They are all low agility ships which why the Biggs option is a stronger build. But am having fun with this one for now.

And the models are just superb.

decent success at a local tournie today, despite successful Stramm being nowhere to be seen

meet Failin Braylen:

still, he did his job admirably. Ran into no less than 3 Fenn Raus today, and gunner +r3-a2 was worth its weight in gold (which isn't a lot given it's a card, but still)

...actually yeah, today was 3 out of 4 rounds of Rau

Rau and Terry with Manaroo

Rau and Terry with Cobra

Rau with two torp scouts

:wacko:

Rau and two torp scouts sounds rough.

Rau and two torp scouts sounds rough.

idk

I've been personally unimpressed by Rau to a rather severe degree. He dies really quickly, especially without manaroo around to keep feeding him modifiers

I would've had a much tougher time of it if Rau were a party bus or a third scout for sure

I met him yesterday on Vassal with Old Terry and Manaroo.

He hits pretty hard but fell pretty easily under Norra's tail farts while multistressed by Braylen (who scored the final blow thanks to Gunner)

I came up against a Fenn twice yesterday. First time I managed to take him to one hull in the initial engagement. Thereafter, he spent the rest of the game rolling the exact evades required for every **** thing I threw at him, including ordnance.

Second facing against him, I managed to one-shot him with a homing missile at range 2, out of his arc; 3 hits and a crit, vs blanks.

As one of the guys described him, he puts out a lot of damage, then explodes horribly.

Here's the thing though, I managed to contain or kill him running a 4x Bomber list. Quickdraw with Rage/Baffle or anything with 3 dice and Snapshot is going to give him a really rough time. I think you just need to expect him to become a ball of flame by mid game.

As for ARCs, I'm quickly coming to the opinion that I need to buy a second and run them as a pair if I'm going to get any real use from them. I can't see much threat in a Norra/Biggs/___ or a Braylen/Biggs/___ right now. At least not until HotR drops. PS11 Poe might be a go-er.

Stress Braylen really pulled his weight for a 34 point PS3 yesterday.

Braylen Stramm

Alliance Overhaul

Gunner

R3-A2

Vectored Thrusters

Really enjoyed flying him. Fragile when focused down or when Biggs has gone but by then you've picked your target and they've two stress tokens (maybe 3 if it's a PTL ace) to deal with.

There was a lot of "He can do what?" "Oh. Oh..." over this build and his pilot ability yesterday.

I did get Failin' Braylen in one match though that I lost were I couldn't clear that stress for five rounds...

Moment of the day being a Hit, Hit Crit from Norra's aux arc with Tail Gunner on a Z-95. One defence dice, blank.

Two shields gone, double damage. No more Z-95.

Shara with M9-G8 and Weapons Engineer sounds good once HotR arrives. Wingman is an interesting idea - I was wondering what to do with her elite upgrade.

The other thought is a couple of Z-95s - more because I like the idea of a 'old ships' squad.

I'd really like to do a pure ARC-170 squad, but I'm not sure how to equip them.

Getting in an 'industry standard' Norra doesn't leave much to equip two other ARCs with.

The best layout I can think of is trying to use Thane as "sort-of-Biggs":

• Norra Wexley - Alliance Overhaul, Push The Limit, Tail Gunner, R2-D2, Vectored Thrusters
• Braylen Stramm - Alliance Overhaul, Tactician, R3-A2
• Thane Kyrell - Alliance Overhaul, Wingman, Tail Gunner, R2-D6

Shara with M9-G8 and Weapons Engineer sounds good once HotR arrives. Wingman is an interesting idea - I was wondering what to do with her elite upgrade.

The other thought is a couple of Z-95s - more because I like the idea of a 'old ships' squad.

Yeah, wingman worked for me.

For okd ships, you could squeeze kyle in a hwk in, which not only gives Norra focus, but also fits the 'old ship' escort idea

Played a game yesterday in my local league with Norra/Braylen/Biggs and have to say the ARCs work beautifully. Norra is an absolute monster both in terms of damage and survivability (she must have gotten her shields back 2 or 3 times over), and the control coverage Braylen offers is excellent.

Definitely going to be playing these some more!

Just a thought - I can see the obvious advantage of R3-A2 on Braylen, but has anyone tried him with anything else?

Just thinking of possibilities that would seem to have any synergy with his pilot ability:

• Kyle Katarn
• R2-D6/Opportunist
• Targeting Astromech
• R4-D6

I will accept FGD's theory (he has experience flying them and I don't) that 70-80% of fighting will be done with that crappy tail gun, unless I'm fighting something where I get a chance to break off and come around for another pass, and therefore in normal circumstances you've got a 2-dice attack with a free focus and that's it. That pretty much ties up with my experience with Firespray-31s' auxiliary arc (which is why Kath Scarlet is so scary, especially with tailgunner herself). Which means that tailgunner is probably a big deal if you want to use him as a combatant rather than a stress ship. Which is a shame, because in theory Kyle & Targeting Astromech would be rather amusing; K-turning giving you essentially a free target lock & focus (half the time).

Opportunist also seems like a possibility; he has a low enough PS that the other two should be able to take tokens off a target.

Braylen was part of the list that won the inaugural Cross Roads Classic yesterday in Indianapolis.

Braylen/Miranda/Biggs. 50 player tourney.

Just a thought - I can see the obvious advantage of R3-A2 on Braylen, but has anyone tried him with anything else?

Just thinking of possibilities that would seem to have any synergy with his pilot ability:

careful with that, though

it literally doesn't work "half" the time

by by "half" I mean "generally doesn't trigger once even after six rolls"

hence, Failin' Braylen

the wonderful thing about r3-a2 is that it works regardless of the ability, so he's always reliable

I do not understand, however, why FFG didn't just make the ability guaranteed. Even at that point, he'd just be a worse defender ("white 4k" but can't do it while stressed, can PTL and then clear on white maneuvers but still gets stressed after using it etc.)

well w.e, he's still a great pilot as is, just sad because those occasional times when you ditch stress from a red maneuver are just hilarious fun

Fair point. It just seems a shame just to pidgeonhole him as essentially just a stresshog with an auxiliary arc.

it literally doesn't work "half" the time

by by "half" I mean "generally doesn't trigger once even after six rolls"

Hence why I was wondering if Wingman Thane might be a good Third ARC - Half the time you get to destress Norra Wexley (a good thing) and 'half' the time (rounding up ) you can do Braylen's job for him when the dice come up tilt.

Wow! I'm so glad I read this thread. I was primarily excited about using my ARC-170 for HotAC and hadn't really thought too much about building a regular list with him. This thread has gotten me excited about it. I picked one up this weekend and think I'll get a chance to play this Thursday.

I like the idea of using Dash with Norra. I have only flown Dash twice in any game as I was anti Turret Wing back in the day. I don't know....I think I should try it out these days. It's not the annoying factor it used to be. I should probably use some of the ships I own and never fly.

I'm trying PTL Norra with Ezra.

Wow! That sounds like a good combo! PTL for the double action. Ezra turns the eyeball into a Crit. The only thing, though......if you are shooting out the rear. You get 1 free eyeball for firing out the rear with title and Norra gives you a free eyeball for the TL (if you don't use it) and Ezra can only change 1. Hmm....maybe Tailgunner is the better option?

Honestly, I think the 2 die primary already pigeonholed everyone not named "Norra Wexly" into the Stressmule role

There's good diversity within that role, though

Gunner Braylen flies far differntly to plasma chips tactician thane, for example

Wow! That sounds like a good combo! PTL for the double action. Ezra turns the eyeball into a Crit. The only thing, though......if you are shooting out the rear. You get 1 free eyeball for firing out the rear with title and Norra gives you a free eyeball for the TL (if you don't use it) and Ezra can only change 1. Hmm....maybe Tailgunner is the better option?

Honestly, I think the 2 die primary already pigeonholed everyone not named "Norra Wexly" into the Stressmule role

Which is why I think I'm mostly trying to figure out ways to amp up the 'opening pass' - torps, as you noted, are good, or to support actually K-turning occasionally to get those forward guns lined up.

I'm not saying it's going to work. But I do want to try a few random ideas.

I suspect expose is one to pair with Biggs again, but R2-D6/gunner/expose Biggs might be interesting. Bloody expensive, but not all that expensive compared to a Heavy Laser Cannon aggressor.

Hence why I was wondering if Wingman Thane might be a good Third ARC - Half the time you get to destress Norra Wexley (a good thing) and 'half' the time (rounding up ) you can do Braylen's job for him when the dice come up tilt.

Unless you mean R2-D6 thane, in which case...I don't know. Maybe worth it, but over Biggs?

I have been wondering about Torpedoes on these things. Too bad they don't have 2 so you can go with Extra Munitions.

Flechette Torp is really a good buy. It's only 2 pts, rolls 3 dice, and always stresses anyone with less than 5 hull. Oh, and doesn't give a range bonus.

I honestly have to say the ARC-170 has become my new favorite ship. We had a wave 9 release tournament in which I won flying Nora, Braylen & the Mustached Superhero Biggs. Seeing lots of aces neutered by Braylen was amazing for me and uber frustrating for my opponents. Love these ships and Fickle thanks for inspiring the zeal I have for them.

I have been wondering about Torpedoes on these things. Too bad they don't have 2 so you can go with Extra Munitions.

Flechette Torp is really a good buy. It's only 2 pts, rolls 3 dice, and always stresses anyone with less than 5 hull. Oh, and doesn't give a range bonus.

Thanks ability is basically deadeye

Combat phase so no low ps to promblems, no counter measures or black one, and you keep the focus you took during the action step

Torpscout Thane!

Yet to use mine. Was planning a game on saturday but my friend "forgot" (nah, gf probably talked him into something). All my other games have been SF related.

Though ive faced the ARC a few times. Cant really compliment them though because those few times were against someone that generally doesnt fly very well optimized lists.

Half tempted to try R3-A2, Flechette Torpedoes, Tactician just for the lulz of triple-stressing someone, but gunner/R3-A2 does seem more tempting due to being able to do it with the tail guns too.