Also with a non-Biggs X-Wing. I decided to try playing Rebels for a change today, after over a year of basically doing Empire and nothing else. I got pretty used to flying the underdog ships when I was Imperial-only. I flew Darth Vader all the time before the Raider dropped, and once I got it, I quickly grew bored of Vader. Then I started flying Bombers and Defenders all the time, and actually getting pretty good with the Defenders. And then Veterans dropped, and I got bored of how easily I won with them. (Especially Deadeye/Guidance Chips Bombers. They're stupidly powerful.)
Now is probably a good time to mention that the local players near where I live don't really follow the meta, and pretty much all of the games I play are casual games. Never gone to a tournament, never faced Triple U-Boats or Quad TLT Y-Wings or any of that other meta-based nonsense. The only tough bit of the meta I've ever come across was RAC with Expose and EI flying alongside Soontir Fel when I first got into the game (Shortly before Most Wanted dropped).
Anywho, back on topic, now that my favorite ships to fly in my favorite faction have now grown dull to me because of how powerful they are in casual games, I've decided to take on the underdogs of a different faction! X-Wings and E-Wings are constantly being spouted as inefficient in this forum, unless they're Biggs or Corran Horn. So, flying in the face of that, I decided to try a list with Etahn A'baht and Garven Dreis, along with "Dutch" Vander.
Etahn A'baht - 32 points
- Juke - 2 points
- Sensor Jammer - 4 points
- R7 Astromech - 2 points
Total=40
"Dutch" Vander - 23 points
- Targeting Astromech - 2 points
- Proton Torpedoes - 4 points
- Extra Munitions - 2 points
- Guidance Chips - 0 points
Total=31
Garven Dreis - 26 points
- R2-D6 - 1 point
- Swarm Tactics - 2 points
Total=29
List total=100 points
The idea here is that Etahn evades every turn, while "Dutch" passes him a target lock and Garven passes him a focus, and also allows him to fire before "Dutch". Unfortunately, I only got to play one game, so I don't have a very big sample size of how well this strategy worked. Mostly because during that one game, "Dutch" spent most of the game being blocked, and by the time he could finally move, the other two were K-Turning to get back into the fight.
His list:
Talonbane Cobra - 28 points
- Lone Wolf - 2 points
- Assault Missles - 5 points
- Glitterstim - 2 points
- Stealth Device - 3 points
Total=40 points
IG-88C
- Push the Limit - 3 points
- Advanced Sensors - 3 points
- Ion Cannon - 3 points
- Heavy Laser Cannon - 4 points
- Connor Net - 4 points
- Inertial Dampeners - 1 point
- Stealth Device - 3 points
Total=60 points
As I said, not exactly meta-competitive material. But still a fairly punchy build, with a bit of ion control thrown in there for good measure. Since we were both at 100 points, we rolled for initiative, and I won, passing it to him. I set up Etahn in the right corner, and he set up IG-88C opposite him. I then set up Garven and "Dutch in formation with Etahn, with the space of a 1 straight template between them. (Speaking of, when you're placing your ships, are you allowed to measure the distance between them with the maneuver templates? My opponent was fine with it, since this was a casual game, but in case I ever go to a tournament, it might be handy to know.) He then placed Talonbane Cobra a bit more off to the center of the map, putting him on a partial flanking course and setting up the match for a somewhat simple joust.
First round, I did a 3 straight with Etahn, then barrel-rolled him so he'd be in front of Garven, closing up my formation. Garven then did a 1 straight, and "Dutch" did a 3 straight. So there was only about the space of a 1 straight between each of my ships. IG-88C did a 1 straight, then also boosted straight as well. Talonbane moved in with a 4 straight.
Next round, each of my ships performed 2 straights. This proved to be quite a mistake, though I'm not sure if my alternative plan would have worked out either. Etahn moved first and took an evade, followed by IG-88C using the Advanced Sensors to boost, banking inward, then S-loop to be about level with Ethan. Garven was able to complete his movement and take a focus, but he never got the chance to spend it, with IG-88C being just barely out of his arc. Worst of all, "Dutch" bumped IG-88C, meaning no action for him. Talonbane 3 banked toward the fight, meaning Etahn and Talonbane were the only two with shots, at each other. Shots were exchanged, Etahn lost a shield, Talonbane went unharmed.
Round 3, that's where things got interesting. I dialed in a 1 bank toward the left for each of my ships, guessing correctly that Talonbane was going to go relatively slow to try and close into range 1. What I wasn't expecting was for IG-88C to pop his inertial dampeners, halting "Dutch" from moving yet again. Now, both IG-88C and Talonbane Cobra had range 1 shots at Etahn. Talonbane spent his Glitterstims and managed to strip both remaining shields and forced me to spend my evade token on Etahn or risk destruction. IG-88C fired next, but thankfully his unmodified dice couldn't quite overcome Sensor Jammer. Garven Dreis fired next, managing to crack through Talonbane's stealth device and glitterstims and land a successful hit and Direct Hit, thanks to Etahn's ability. He also passed his focus token to Etahn, who succeeded in landing yet another crit on Talonbane. The second crit was mostly irrelevant, however. "Dutch" also fired off a potshot, but wasn't able to accomplish anything.
Round 4 kicked off, and Etahn K-turned behind Talonbane Cobra. IG-88C did a 1 straight to clear his stress, and also block both Garven Dreis and "Dutch" Vander, as well as Talonbane. Without any actions, Talonbane was a sitting duck. He managed to strip a shield from Garven, but then was immediately shot down by Garven in return. Etahn managed to land a single hit on IG-88C, killing the stealth device.
Round 5, I guessed poorly which direction IG-88C would be moving in, and 2 banked to clear stress, but also wound up facing the wrong direction. IG-88C did a 1 bank, yet again blocking "Dutch", while Garven Dreis K-turned. Garven's three dice chipped away at IG-88C's defenses, and the round went by without much really happening.
Round 6, Etahn was too close to the board edge to K-turn, and instead did a 2-hard toward me. In retrospect, I feel I went the wrong direction with him, but I was expecting IG-88C to S-loop, not run. However, run he did, and he used a 3 bank away from the battle, leaving his conner net directly in Vander's path. I tried to trigger it with Garven instead so that Dutch could target lock him, but Garven's maneuver just barely missed it. No shots were exchanged that turn.
The following rounds were fairly dull. Garven and Etahn tried to get their guns back in the right direction, as did IG-88C, while Dutch Vander just followed IG-88C and shot a couple proton torpedoes into him. With Guidance Chips and the soft focus of Proton Torpedoes, IG-88C died pretty fast.
So, that was my first time trying out the E-Wing, and despite hardly getting any of the Rebel synergy that I was aiming for, I still did shockingly well. My opponent and I both made a few mistakes, but I'm looking forward to trying this same build another time. I'm also thinking of trying a variant with Predator on Garven Dreis instead of Swarm Tactics, as Swarm Tactics doesn't seem like it'll come into play all that often. In exchange, I'm going to either bump down to a Plasma Torpedo, or I'm going to trade out the Torpedo and Extra Munitions for an Ion Cannon Turret and BTL-A4 title.
What do you guys think? Absolutely terrible list that I just got lucky with? Halfway decent? Aside from moving up to Corran Horn and dropping Biggs in there to replace Garven, what do you think are some ways I could improve it?
