http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/auxiliary-arcs-rebellions-most.html

I'm falling for the ARC at present, and in this blog I look at the many different uses it's being put to!

You forgot to bring up Biggs, the Honorary ARC-170 Pilot, and Tail Gunner, one of the best ARC crews. Otherwise though, good article. I really like some of the example lists at the end, might try flying them sometime soon. Only severe issue i have with the article that must make me rate it a 1/10 is " ARCs may not be sexy" which is an objectively incorrect fact, they're probably one of the best models FFG has ever released.

Oh, right, R3-A2 Gunner Braylen already has a name: Stressmule.

Personally, i've seen incredible success lately with PTL/R2-D2/Tail Gunner/VT Norra, R4-D6/IA Biggs, and R3-A2/Gunner Braylen. I've won a few tournaments and when i don't, i place in the top 3 locally.

I went 7 wins, 0 losses in my last league running this list.

Norra Wexley
PTL, R2-D2, Tail Gunner, Vectored Thrusters, Title

Shara Bey
Adaptability, BB-8, Weapons Engineer, Title

Biggs Darklighter
R2-D6, Vet Instincts, Integrated

I had tried it before with Biggs running R4-D6, but I found that it was pretty rare I managed to block any damage, and the extra squad point to put him at PS7 alongside Norra and Shara made flying them in formation much easier and far more effective.

23 minutes ago, Razgriz25thinf said:

Personally, i've seen incredible success lately with PTL/R2-D2/Tail Gunner/VI Norra

Well sure, anyone can cheat and do well.

2 minutes ago, ObiWonka said:

Well sure, anyone can cheat and do well.

Nah he just uses ARC-wing test pilot as the title.

1 hour ago, ObiWonka said:

Well sure, anyone can cheat and do well.

Oops.

VT.

I meant VT.

My current fave Braylen build is:

Braylen

R3A2

Flichette Torps

Munitions Failsafe (yes!)

Baze Malbus

Title

Slings the stress around. And it's absolute gold to have the MF (how fitting) abuse proc round after round. Best used if you know you're facing high agility targets.

For the same amount of points as the stress/gunner braylen, I've been running him wiht r2-d6, rage, finn, title. for 32 points you get a pretty reliable 4 attack dice out of the front with rerolls and a focus. I used him to help me hunt down defenders before with cassian and Norra pre x7 nerf.

Well this article has opened my eyes to a lot of new possibilities with this ship. I would love to see the OP take on Imperial options at present, the blogs the easiest to read of any I've come across

14 hours ago, Garma89 said:

For the same amount of points as the stress/gunner braylen, I've been running him wiht r2-d6, rage, finn, title. for 32 points you get a pretty reliable 4 attack dice out of the front with rerolls and a focus. I used him to help me hunt down defenders before with cassian and Norra pre x7 nerf.

Ok but that combo only works 50% of the time. It's inconsistent. It also has absolutely nothing in the way of defense. So when you don't remove the additional stress, you're stuck with no mods, offensive or defensive. All that takes is an attack from Fenn Rau and one other ship and Braylen goes Poof. That's why you take Norra, who does the exact same thing, but has defensive mods, regen, high PS, and so on.

Besides, even pre-nerf X7s will notice the lack of a focus token. Everything else that isn't X7s hates stress control, too, since action efficiency is the hallmark of viability nowadays. Stressmule is usually better.

Good write-up. But: (1) It's Ballet Norra (or Ballerina Norra, depending; not Agility Norra, especially since "AGI" is an actual game stat she, uh, don't have). We've been using it in the Bay Area since the beginning. It's good to see it get more widespread attention and use. (2) It's even better with Engine Upgrade, if you can find the 4 points. (I recommend it.)

19 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/auxiliary-arcs-rebellions-most.html

I'm falling for the ARC at present, and in this blog I look at the many different uses it's being put to!

I have a question......why don't you suggest using Expertise on Norra Wexley? You don't need to PTL with her if all her Eyeballs are hits. In fact, if you grabbed a TL (because why would you Focus?) and don't need the re-roll, you could increase your overall hits for free with just one action! It seems that for 1 more point you can avoid the whole stress that is required to make PTL work.

10 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I have a question......why don't you suggest using Expertise on Norra Wexley? You don't need to PTL with her if all her Eyeballs are hits. In fact, if you grabbed a TL (because why would you Focus?) and don't need the re-roll, you could increase your overall hits for free with just one action! It seems that for 1 more point you can avoid the whole stress that is required to make PTL work.

Because you can't use Expertise to defend and the defensive use of her ability plays a big part in why she is so good. With BB-8 you don't have to worry about the stress much, with R2 you want to do greens a lot of the time anyways, so it really fits her well.

Not much to add except that I have also become rather fond of ARCs. Norra and Stressmule both work very well although I nearly always run them with Biggs for security.

As a bonus, I managed to trigger R4-D6 on Biggs yesterday for the first time ever.

20 hours ago, joeshmoe554 said:

I went 7 wins, 0 losses in my last league running this list.

Norra Wexley
PTL, R2-D2, Tail Gunner, Vectored Thrusters, Title

Shara Bey
Adaptability, BB-8, Weapons Engineer, Title

Biggs Darklighter
R2-D6, Vet Instincts, Integrated

I had tried it before with Biggs running R4-D6, but I found that it was pretty rare I managed to block any damage, and the extra squad point to put him at PS7 alongside Norra and Shara made flying them in formation much easier and far more effective.

Thumbs up for 7-7-7

2 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

Because you can't use Expertise to defend and the defensive use of her ability plays a big part in why she is so good. With BB-8 you don't have to worry about the stress much, with R2 you want to do greens a lot of the time anyways, so it really fits her well.

Yes, but if you are using PTL for the TL and Focus on offensive attacks, you aren't saving it for defense, either.

Expertise IS played, but there's not really many benefits over PTL, especially when R2-D2 is aboard. Both are vulnerable to stress effects, both probably do green moves anyway, and Expertise costs a point more but is less versatile.

21 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/auxiliary-arcs-rebellions-most.html

I'm falling for the ARC at present, and in this blog I look at the many different uses it's being put to!

I had a good chuckle with the blue corner gold corner bit. Nice article.

I like your builds

gonna use them to tweak my favorite ARC list

Clone war (100)

Shara Bey (38) - ARC-170
Push The Limit (3), Tail Gunner (2), R2 Astromech (1), Alliance Overhaul (0), Engine Upgrade (4)

Norra Wexley (40) - ARC-170
Push The Limit (3), Lando Calrissian (3), R2 Astromech (1), Alliance Overhaul (0), Engine Upgrade (4)

Gold Squadron Pilot (22) - Y-Wing
Autoblaster Turret (2), R3-A2 (2)

8 hours ago, heychadwick said:

Yes, but if you are using PTL for the TL and Focus on offensive attacks, you aren't saving it for defense, either.

That is right, however one of Norras win-conditions is to be worth more than the opponents last 3 or less attack dice ship and just outtank them with 2 guaranteed damage cancels (R2 and her ability). Not exciting, but very effective.

This is what I am running on my double arcs at the moment :

ARC-170: · Norra Wexley (29)
Expertise (4)
· R5-P9 (3)
· Rey (2)
Alliance Overhaul (0)
ARC-170: · Shara Bey (28)
Adaptability (Increase) (0)
· R2-D2 (4)
· C-3PO (3)
Alliance Overhaul (0)
-- TOTAL ------- 73p. --

Last bunch of points can be used to put biggs or perhaps stress droid plus jess pava.

Using expertise plus r5p9 and rey combo has one benefit over r2d2 and ptl, norra is no longer restricted to green moves. That 2 hard white turn is so valuable to keep certain hyper maneuverable ships in arc. Additionally, even if you bump, norra can still get off her super combo as long as shara is nearby to supply the target lock; and ray's focus bank still let's you regen at the end of the turn.

Shara's Crew is flexible as well. Want more stress control? Switch c3p0 out for tactician.

I've had a lot of fun flying arcs.

I've played ARCs quite extensively in the last regionals season and managed to get to top 8 twice. A few thoughts after the season:

1. Norra can be focused down in a single turn of shooting - or 2 turns max, so she either needs Biggs or something so big and scary that ignoring it is a potentially fatal mistake (Rey works well enough).

2. If regen Norra survives until there's only one enemy ship left and that ship is cheaper than her, you've basically won the game. With her ability used defensively she's practically immortal vs a single attack that can be generated by ships cheaper than her.

3. On the other hand she's in trouble against (admittedly few) fighters more expensive than her. Not only do they typically have enough firepower to punch through her defence/regen, but they can usually avoid her easily enough and win on points.

4. Tail gunner is almost always the best crewman for ARCs - and for Norra in particular. Without him their rear firepower is lackluster which forces them to waste a lot of time turning around. With him they can shoot from the rear almost as good as in front. The sole exception is Norra. She actually shoots BETTER from the rear with TG because her ability triggers more often, which more than compensates for the discrepancy of value between the red and the green dice that are lost when firing from the rear. This also opens up her effective movement options considerably.

5. ARCs need to be paired with each other or with a ship that can shoot at 360 degrees. Otherwise they have a tendency to fly away from combat and take too long getting back in.

6. Thane with R3-A2, Plasma torps, GC and Biggs is a terrific alpha striker. The impact of plasma torps coupled with stress was usually enough to set up Ryad's demise by turn 2 even back in the days of good old unnerfed Commonweath defenders.

7. ARCs don't deal with maneuverable high PS aces very well. Double protectorate lists are a serious problem if the other player knows what he's doing and is skilled enough to avoid both firing arcs. For that matter pre-nerf Parattanni was very hard as well.

8. ARCs struggle versus patient players who take potshots at range and slowly wear them down but otherwise refuse to commit to a straight shootout. If the ARC player falls behind on points it becomes very hard to come back because ARCs are just too slow to catch most ships if they don't want to be caught (point no. 3 applies here as well) Most of the admittedly few losses I had that were not against aces or Parattanni were because the opponent managed to gradually wear down all my ships except Norra (she's quite immune to that with R2D2) and then just kept running away until time ran out.

Numbers 3, 7 and 8 are why I gave up on ARCs eventually. They're great ships, highly resistant to bombing antics and very uncomfortable to many lists. Unfortunately they can get countered quite hard by some of the popular archetypes.

1 hour ago, Lightrock said:

I've played ARCs quite extensively in the last regionals season and managed to get to top 8 twice. A few thoughts after the season:

1. Norra can be focused down in a single turn of shooting - or 2 turns max, so she either needs Biggs or something so big and scary that ignoring it is a potentially fatal mistake (Rey works well enough).

2. If regen Norra survives until there's only one enemy ship left and that ship is cheaper than her, you've basically won the game. With her ability used defensively she's practically immortal vs a single attack that can be generated by ships cheaper than her.

3. On the other hand she's in trouble against (admittedly few) fighters more expensive than her. Not only do they typically have enough firepower to punch through her defence/regen, but they can usually avoid her easily enough and win on points.

4. Tail gunner is almost always the best crewman for ARCs - and for Norra in particular. Without him their rear firepower is lackluster which forces them to waste a lot of time turning around. With him they can shoot from the rear almost as good as in front. The sole exception is Norra. She actually shoots BETTER from the rear with TG because her ability triggers more often, which more than compensates for the discrepancy of value between the red and the green dice that are lost when firing from the rear. This also opens up her effective movement options considerably.

5. ARCs need to be paired with each other or with a ship that can shoot at 360 degrees. Otherwise they have a tendency to fly away from combat and take too long getting back in.

6. Thane with R3-A2, Plasma torps, GC and Biggs is a terrific alpha striker. The impact of plasma torps coupled with stress was usually enough to set up Ryad's demise by turn 2 even back in the days of good old unnerfed Commonweath defenders.

7. ARCs don't deal with maneuverable high PS aces very well. Double protectorate lists are a serious problem if the other player knows what he's doing and is skilled enough to avoid both firing arcs. For that matter pre-nerf Parattanni was very hard as well.

8. ARCs struggle versus patient players who take potshots at range and slowly wear them down but otherwise refuse to commit to a straight shootout. If the ARC player falls behind on points it becomes very hard to come back because ARCs are just too slow to catch most ships if they don't want to be caught (point no. 3 applies here as well) Most of the admittedly few losses I had that were not against aces or Parattanni were because the opponent managed to gradually wear down all my ships except Norra (she's quite immune to that with R2D2) and then just kept running away until time ran out.

Numbers 3, 7 and 8 are why I gave up on ARCs eventually. They're great ships, highly resistant to bombing antics and very uncomfortable to many lists. Unfortunately they can get countered quite hard by some of the popular archetypes.

Great post!

My personal list at the moment:

Gold 340 (100)

Norra Wexley (40) - ARC-170
Push The Limit (3), Kyle Katarn (3), R5-P9 (3), Alliance Overhaul (0), Vectored Thrusters (2)

Gold Squadron Pilot (26) - Y-Wing
Twin Laser Turret (6), R3-A2 (2), BTL-A4 Y-wing (0)

Thane Kyrell (34) - ARC-170
Rey (2), R2-D2 (4), Alliance Overhaul (0), Vectored Thrusters (2)

I can see myself trying Tail Gunner on Norra and switching Thane's VT for a Plasma/GC shot with the point I saved.

7 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

My personal list at the moment:

Gold 340 (100)

Norra Wexley (40) - ARC-170
Push The Limit (3), Kyle Katarn (3), R5-P9 (3), Alliance Overhaul (0), Vectored Thrusters (2)

Gold Squadron Pilot (26) - Y-Wing
Twin Laser Turret (6), R3-A2 (2), BTL-A4 Y-wing (0)

Thane Kyrell (34) - ARC-170
Rey (2), R2-D2 (4), Alliance Overhaul (0), Vectored Thrusters (2)

I can see myself trying Tail Gunner on Norra and switching Thane's VT for a Plasma/GC shot with the point I saved.

I think he has a good purpose feeding Norras regen, maybe Rey with her very similar ability would be a good stand in to shave off a point while keeping the regen working roughly the same way.

Edit: oh wait, I missed that that is what Thane has...well Tail Gunner could fit him very well, too.