Hello all,

Having just gotten back into the game after a year's absence, I did some looking, did some buying, and came up with a few realizations about my playstyle, and while it's fun for duffing around on the weekend, is it possible this is competitive? I've certainly been having a blast with it.

(Plus, I'm not sure if I've seen any mention of Fenn Rau running expertise.)

The Boombringer (99 points):

Emon Azzameen (58 total) Firespray-31 (36), Engine Upgrade (4), Andrasta Title (0), Flechette Cannon (2), Bomblet Generator (3), Proximity Mines (3), Proximity Mines (3), Cad Bane (2), Concussion missiles (4), Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Fenn Rau (41 total) Protectorate Starfighter (28), Autothrusters (2), Concord Dawn Protector (1), Expertise (4), Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

Emon just throws bombs every which way, and Cad Bane makes sure you get maximum bang for those bombs. The flechette cannons and slicer tools keep the front arc busy, can lock down maneuverability, and is a pretty big deterrent. Alternately, I've dropped the slicer tools and one of the Proxy Mines for a Proton Bomb. Being able to deploy one on the maneuver and one as an action have led to some devastating hits in the past.

Fenn Rau with Expertise loses the extra in-your-face attack of fearlessness, but statistically gains more hits from flipped focus results, and combined with advanced protorps? He can lock and fire in the same turn, making those advanced torps more like snap-shot weapons. No need to wait to get a focus next turn. If you can get him into the right position he hits like a colony drop.

One alternative that comes to mind is that if I strip out the engine upgrade, cannon, missiles, and slicer tools from the Andrasta, I can fit a stock Binayre Z-95 on the board. Though I'm not sure that's any kind of improvement...

Thoughts?

Emon Bombermeen is a pretty cool ship. I have only played him once with Ion bombs but I think he is going to be a beast with the bombs you gave him. You have a great double threat of "am I going to action bomb or reveal bomb"!
Expertise is also a great choice on Fenn Rau (since Emon doesn't have that coveted mindlink slot).

I think stripping out the fluff would be good for this list. If you drop the Advanced Proton Torps on Fenn (which basically just give him 1 extra die), and you drop Flechette, Concussion and Slicers on Emon, then you get 14 Points. Theoretically you will be using your action on Emon to focus, boost or drop an action bomb, so I don't think you'll be missing the cannon, slicers or missiles that much.

Best thing you could do with those points is probably get Light Scyk Sunny Bounder and an EMP device on Emon. If the enemy gets too close, just emp then drop bombs as they fly by!

If you don't have Sunny, it might be worth it to drop the engine upgrade and lower Fenn to PTL. Then you could get a Jakku Gunrunner with dead mans switch and tractor array, or N'Dru with Lone Wolf.

I see what you mean on Emon. I'm hesitant to drop the APT from Fenn, since he gets an almost guaranteed 6 hits there, between the torpedo ability and expertise. Being able to drop three TIES of damage on someone is just a bad day. Then again, stripping Emon down to the essence of "Bomb... Bomb... Bomb..." (Oh lords I just had a George Clooney Batman flashback, help me ^^; ) and getting N'Dru or Sunny in there... *thoughts and ponderings*

So are three ships kind of the lowest one can safely go, or is it more that I don't have enough shields and hull on the table?

I really like the look of this Emon build, he is a pilot that I don't think I have ever used, so this is something I think I will definitely try.

Would it be worth trying to get the scavenger crane on Emon as well, to try and get the Proximity/Proton bombs back?

Scavenger crane would be hilarious. I like that. I don't have one, but I like that!

18 hours ago, MrMyu said:

Being able to deploy one on the maneuver and one as an action have led to some devastating hits in the past.

You can't actually do this; you can only drop one bomb each turn.

1 hour ago, wfain said:

You can't actually do this; you can only drop one bomb each turn.

D'oh. Good to know. Thanks ^_^;;

3 hours ago, wfain said:

You can't actually do this; you can only drop one bomb each turn.

But its still a good threat! The enemy does not know what type of bomb your going to drop, and that makes Emon dangerous!

Maybe you should go cheap on a third ship and upgrade the prox mines to connors. Something like this?

Fenn Rau (35)
Protectorate Starfighter (28), Expertise (4), Concord Dawn Protector (1), Autothrusters (2)

Emon Azzameen (50)
Firespray-31 (36), Bomblet Generator (3), Cad Bane (2), Burnout Slam (1), Andrasta (0), Conner Net (4), Proximity Mines (3), Conner Net (4)

Binayre Pirate (14)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Dead Man's Switch (2)

If you can you should totally buy a quadjumper for scavenger crane, then you could have unlimited connors! Otherwise Burnout Slam seems like a good choice. Can't drop a bomb till your next turn, but you can still shoot out your but!

5 minutes ago, AngryAlbatross said:

But its still a good threat! The enemy does not know what type of bomb your going to drop, and that makes Emon dangerous!

Maybe you should go cheap on a third ship and upgrade the prox mines to connors. Something like this?

Fenn Rau (35)
Protectorate Starfighter (28), Expertise (4), Concord Dawn Protector (1), Autothrusters (2)

Emon Azzameen (50)
Firespray-31 (36), Bomblet Generator (3), Cad Bane (2), Burnout Slam (1), Andrasta (0), Conner Net (4), Proximity Mines (3), Conner Net (4)

Binayre Pirate (14)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Dead Man's Switch (2)

If you can you should totally buy a quadjumper for scavenger crane, then you could have unlimited connors! Otherwise Burnout Slam seems like a good choice. Can't drop a bomb till your next turn, but you can still shoot out your but!

I think the count is a bit wrong there: Your idea has five bombs laid out, but I only get four. (Bomblet Generator takes up two bomb slots) I'm a little hesitant to double-up conner nets. Cad Bane seems a bit wasted on anything but direct damage. (Though I admit I may be wrong on that one.) Then again... bomblet generator, conner net, proxy mines, scavenger crane... hmmm... Little bit of everything. Almost like Dredd's Lawgiver.

So I feel like I'm on to something. Just not sure what. >_< It still hurts to take the APTs away from Fenn. But it's worth testing vs MrsMyu tonight.

So, after some poking and weighing options, consulting tea leaves, chicken entrails, two sets of dragon dice, one magic eight ball, and being banned from Teavana for life... I put together a little thing like this:

Impending Boom (99 points)

Fenn Rau (35)
Protectorate Starfighter (28), Expertise (4), Concord Dawn Protector (1), Autothrusters (2)

Emon Azzameen (50)
Firespray-31 (36), Bomblet Generator (3), Flechette Cannons (2), Cad Bane (2), Black Market Slicer Tools (1), Andrasta (0), Proximity Mines (3), Proximity Mines (3)

Binayre Pirate (14)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), EMP Device (2)

Alternate 1: Replace one of the mines with a conner net. (100 pts)

Alternate 2: Drop the cannons, slicer tools and one of the proxy mines from Andrasta and put in proton bombs. I'm sure it'll get modified again if/when I get a scavenger crane.

The whole thing is really a case of forcing choices against my opponent: Do they risk close approach to a piddly headhunter knowing it can zap them? Do they risk the Firespray and the stress token/slicing from the front, or the bombs as they pass? Where's Fenn Rau going? It feels very sleight of hand. Easy targets with EMP devices, or harder targets with bomb juggling, or that guy over there who can punch you in the face with a sledgehammer while you're thinking about the other two. Stressed/Ionized into a rock? Go flying off the table?

It depends on what you mean by 'competitive'. If it is one thing I have realized this season, it is that at low level tournament play (store championships and season kit tournaments) anything can be competitive if you are a good enough player. On the other hand, at high level play (where there are lots of good players), very few lists are competitive. This is especially true with the acceleration of power creep we see in Wave 11. Fenn Rau, who used to be among the top ships in the game, is already being pushed out of the meta.

If you want to have fun at a store championship, go for it. With enough practice, you might have a chance at placing well, and even winning.

If you want to win a nationals, go back to the drawing board. Firesprays are not top tier, especially not with Flechette cannons. A 41 point Fenn Rau is also not something I would recommend.

If you want to learn about firesprays it's worth googling the Yet Another X-wing Hipster blog, where Phil experiments with dual firesprays. They can be very good and he had a great (pre-Cad) Emon/Boba list which I probably would've lost to had he not accidentally flown a ship off the board.