Tanky Ghost?

By Goseki1, in X-Wing Squad Lists

How come you don't often see tanky Ghost builds? One of my favourite Decimator builds is Kenkirk with Palpatine and Ysanne Issard which can just go and go so why not similar stuff with the Ghost? As a starter for 10 what about th e below? Reduces incoming damage in multiple ways, and options to build there. Is it because the Ghost without the Phantom is so limited in firing arcs, and with the Phantom is ludicrously expensive?

VCX-100: ยท Kanan Jarrus (38)

Reinforced Deflectors (3)

Recon Specialist (3)

Kanan's ability conflicts with the Reinforced Deflectors, an enemy rolling fewer dice is less likely to roll the 3 hits needed to trigger them. I normally run a tanky Kanan build with Biggs a cheap shuttle and a good turret with FCS.

52 Kanan (38), TLT (6), Rec Spec (3), Jan Ors (2), FCS (2), Tactical Jammer (1), Ghost Title (0)

18 Zeb (18), Phantom Title (0)

28 Biggs (25), M9-G8 (3), IA (0)

98 Total

FCS boosts the value of the Ghost's double-tap and allows you to effortlessly regain a lock after firing. 4 Dice to the face followed up but a TLT will burn through most defenses pretty quickly while opponents will be getting at least 2 red dice less back and may even have to split them between Kanan and Biggs. Biggs will get a bit of extra protection from the Tactical Jammer.

Jan Ors is there for Biggs as an Evade token will be more useful than a Focus if a tractor beam or Zuckuss starts reducing his agility. She is not essential and you have 2 points to spare so there is some scope to tinker here. Zeb is there purely to power the second shot and enable the rear arc on the Ghost. If you ever get to the point where you need to launch him, you are probably losing anyway. ;)

There are a couple of points spare so you can tinker with the upgrades if you like. Lando and EI will give you even more tokens although Kanan really doesn't like stress much. You could drop Biggs' droid to R4-D6 if you want a few more points too.

Cheers. I appreciate that Reinforced deflectors and Kanans abilities can cause some conflict but I figure a ship at range one that normally rolls 4 reds will be rolling 3. If they fully modify Dice to get three hits, the Ghost gains a shield, if they don't modify the Ghost only takes two damage. So it's a redundancy with some use? It'd work for HLCs shooting you at range 3 in that you get a shield back, and at range 2 severely reduce incoming damage.

The build you provided looks fun I'd not considered flying Biggs but that could work really well.

Between Biggs and Kanan, you get a lot of durability. The last game I run this was before the U-Boat nerf and my opponent ran 2 U-boats and a Mist Hunter but I managed to keep my Ghost alive all the way to the end and won.

Interestingly, Kanan-Biggs works really well against Dengaroo which seems to be flavour of the month so is definitely worth considering. ;)