Rebel Escalation, which endgame ship would you pick?

By BCooper85, in X-Wing

Hey guys,

So advice I received on escalation building so far is always start with your 'endgame' ship.

Taking this into account my first thought was to use one of the ships I've been having success with recently, Norra with PtL, Kyle, VT, title and R2-D2.

She can pack a punch, has lots of actions and regen is always nice and annoying :D

The problem though is that only leaves me with 19pts for my second ship (only found out the 2 ship rule after going on about how I was going to use VI Rey to start with).

Question 1: Is Norra a good choice for escalation (if there's any difference)?

Question 2: Do you have any other suggestions?

Question 3: Any thought on the second ship?

Thanks in advance, finding escalation list building a lot tougher than I originally thought!

Hey guys,

So advice I received on escalation building so far is always start with your 'endgame' ship.

Taking this into account my first thought was to use one of the ships I've been having success with recently, Norra with PtL, Kyle, VT, title and R2-D2.

She can pack a punch, has lots of actions and regen is always nice and annoying :D

The problem though is that only leaves me with 19pts for my second ship (only found out the 2 ship rule after going on about how I was going to use VI Rey to start with).

Question 1: Is Norra a good choice for escalation (if there's any difference)?

Question 2: Do you have any other suggestions?

Question 3: Any thought on the second ship?

Thanks in advance, finding escalation list building a lot tougher than I originally thought!

If you get rid of Kyle for Tail Gunner which is almost always the optimal ARC crew anyways, you'll at least snag an additional point for your second ship.

Personally, i've found that instead of starting with Norra, you start with Biggs and Braylen w/ R3-A2 + Gunner, then add Norra with PTL next, then in 120 finish Norra off with R2-D2, Tail Gunner, and VTs after that, and you throw in a Rookie Pilot with R2 and IA for the remaining 22 points. For 150 i usually just throw in a Red Squadron Vet w/ PTL, R2, IA for the full 30 points, but i'm exploring other options. Biggs unfortunately gives diminishing returns the higher up you go, so you REALLY need to be on point in the later matches, but he's still necessary, cause your ARCs will get nuked off the board turn 1 without him.

In the round of 60 and 90 though, It works really well, because most people are only running 2 or 3 ships respectively, so the firepower it takes to kill off Biggs quickly simply isnt there, and Braylen can just dump stress and damage with Gunner. You usually won't even lose Biggs. 90 round can be rough cause Norra can't regen and doesnt have tail gunner, but it's doable if you play smart. Round 120 definitely isn't bad but the possibility for bad matchups to arise is stronger, so you really gotta save your energy for the round of 120. 150, naturally, is chaotic as hell, so anything goes.

As far as the whole "take your endgame ship first", i wholeheartedly agree, it's just that... well, I'd usually rather have Braylen on the board than Norra. I love Norra, she's my favorite pilot, but Braylen just has so much potential to make or break the entire game. Norra with just PTL isn't at her full potential, but it's at least functional. You can't take Braylen without both R3-A2 and Gunner, and that costs 32 points...

Edited by Razgriz25thinf

Hey guys,

So advice I received on escalation building so far is always start with your 'endgame' ship.

Taking this into account my first thought was to use one of the ships I've been having success with recently, Norra with PtL, Kyle, VT, title and R2-D2.

She can pack a punch, has lots of actions and regen is always nice and annoying :D

The problem though is that only leaves me with 19pts for my second ship (only found out the 2 ship rule after going on about how I was going to use VI Rey to start with).

Question 1: Is Norra a good choice for escalation (if there's any difference)?

Question 2: Do you have any other suggestions?

Question 3: Any thought on the second ship?

Thanks in advance, finding escalation list building a lot tougher than I originally thought!

If you get rid of Kyle for Tail Gunner which is almost always the optimal ARC crew anyways, you'll at least snag an additional point for your second ship.

Personally, i've found that instead of starting with Norra, you start with Biggs and Braylen w/ R3-A2 + Gunner, then add Norra with PTL next, then in 120 finish Norra off with R2-D2, Tail Gunner, and VTs after that, and you throw in a Rookie Pilot with R2 and IA for the remaining 22 points. For 150 i usually just throw in a Red Squadron Vet w/ PTL, R2, IA for the full 30 points, but i'm exploring other options. Biggs unfortunately gives diminishing returns the higher up you go, so you REALLY need to be on point in the later matches, but he's still necessary, cause your ARCs will get nuked off the board turn 1 without him.

In the round of 60 and 90 though, It works really well, because most people are only running 2 or 3 ships respectively, so the firepower it takes to kill off Biggs quickly simply isnt there, and Braylen can just dump stress and damage with Gunner. You usually won't even lose Biggs. 90 round can be rough cause Norra can't regen and doesnt have tail gunner, but it's doable if you play smart. Round 120 definitely isn't bad but the possibility for bad matchups to arise is stronger, so you really gotta save your energy for the round of 120. 150, naturally, is chaotic as hell, so anything goes.

As far as the whole "take your endgame ship first", i wholeheartedly agree, it's just that... well, I'd usually rather have Braylen on the board than Norra. I love Norra, she's my favorite pilot, but Braylen just has so much potential to make or break the entire game. Norra with just PTL isn't at her full potential, but it's at least functional. You can't take Braylen without both R3-A2 and Gunner, and that costs 32 points...

Interesting idea thanks for posting, how about Jess Pava instead of the Red Sqd Vet?