Star Wars: Imperial Tactics: Meta Ramble - October 2017

This episode will be a kind of interlude from the usual Pilot or Ship discussions.

Looking to start a tactics conversation about how to best deal with a wide variety of the archetypes that dominate the meta right now. While this is primarily from an Imperial perspective simply because thats what I play, other general thoughts and tactics across the board are welcome!

Just throwing out some of my own very incomplete and partial mental inventory here to get the discussion going.

Add your own thoughts or let me know if their is a key Meta list I am leaving out here. FSR2 or 4x Wookie Wagons for example

Interested in target priority and early game plans in particular.

Trip Jumps

- Stay out of at least 1 Torp Range and Arc

- Alpha one Jump Early

- Drag Through Rocks

- Try to stay on the edge where they want to Sloop right instead of left and use white turns instead of green to avoid K4 Security locks

- Pick your dial at random to confuse Intel Agents

- Ion Missiles & Conner Nets

- Kylo Blind 1 for 2 consecutive rounds ( Doesnt help much )

Miranda Biggs Low ( Kanan/Biggs 2.0)

- Get behind Lows 180 arc

- Alpha Biggs Early? Or save your alpha and missiles for Miranda Regen?

- Get in at Range 1 to avoid Miranda TLT, but not to much Range 1 because of Bombs.

- Approach from all Angles, fly the edge of the board early to try and set that up

- Splash Damage, ruthlessness, torps, bombs, etc

- More Bombs and TLT

Kanan Biggs (1.0)

- Who to use missiles on? Biggs or Kanan? I guess Biggs since every round he is on the board is one more round of TLT and 4 dice.

- Never get into range 1 rear or front

- Attack from the sides, use edge of board to flank and set that up. Middle of the board will destroy you.

- Go for a Kylo Blind on Kanan Round 1 with a separate alpha shot on Biggs? Does splitting fire make sense in this case? Probably no.

- Keep your tokens for defense if your in the front or rear arcs

- Ion

Nym + Dengar/Dash/Miranda

- Usual thing with Nym, alpha early or use Kylo to PS0/Blind

- Be higher pilot skill then Nym

- If Dengar is using Expertise stress mechanics help. If Dengar is using VI...I think Nym still is target #1?

- Stay out of Dengars Arc

- Decide what your list can handle defensively from Nym...bomblet damage ( you have high hp ) or TLT damage ( you have lots of modded green dice )...choose and avoid 1 and accept the other.

- If Nym flys away sometimes let him? Do not chase unless you know you have him on the ropes.

- Attack Nym from all angles to prevent him from arc dodging to easily

- Fly among rocks at your own peril, bombs are harder to avoid there unless the rocks some how help restrict Nyms boost and barrel roll options

- Save your Kylo Blinds for Dengar? And PS0 him if he has PS11?

- Get into range 1 on HLC dash

- Accept the TLT damage from Miranda while you try to kill Nym early?

Assaj + Manaroo + Fenn

- Stress if all have Mindlink

- Alpha Assaj or Fenn early?

- Do not joust with Fenn at Range 1

- Do not let them bait you with Fenn

- Bomb Fenn

- Captain Yorr the Assaj Stress

- Bump the Jump

4x TLT

- Avoid at least 1 Range 2-3 band per round

- Alpha One early

- Kylo Blind One early

- Thank them for the assist if they fly in a tight formation?

- Advanced Sensors Bump 1 and Shoot another

RAC/Kylo + Ace

- Burn down RAC asap

- Alpha their Ace early if they screw up the approach

- Guess initiative better if its Kylo v Kylo

- Multiple TLT & Ordinance

- Lead and Trap RAC in a corner

- Determination and Integrated Astro

- Chewie, Not Leebo

Trip Scrugg Alpha or Trip Imp Alpha

- Save your counter measures for the right moment

- Range Bait? Basically make them think your going to the spot they want you to for a perfect cruise shot, then dont and close next turn.

- Make them have to point at you through rocks. Use an ace or key target to bait into a bad place.

- Decide if Range 1 is "safer". It might be depending on whether or not they have guidance chips, bomblets, etc.

- Save your tokens for defense the round they are successful in setting up the cruise shots.

- Blind or Bump 1

- Out guess them, if you have a 4 or 5 and boost ship get up the board early and force them to adjust?

Super Dash + Turtle Poe

- Kill Dash first but dont get into a kite chase?

- Kylo Dash and end the game round 2

- Range 1 on Dash

- Do not Target Lock Poe unless you have a PS advantage

Imperial Stuff + Omega Leader

- Git Omega Leader

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Happy Turdsday to you too!

Cool list! While my FLGS has a strict rule about NOT flying the meta (you can use meta ships but they have to be paired with something very unique or old), this will be great for beating my brother, who loves the meta.

Love it.

When playing against Alpha Imps, take advantage of a scattered setup. Go fast to knock out one of the Aces quickly. Tomax or Imp #3 is rarely a late game threat.

Also, weathering one missile with Miranda allows you to get directly behind your opponent - and drop bombs.

1 minute ago, Celestial Lizards said:

Happy Turdsday to you too!

Cool list! While my FLGS has a strict rule about NOT flying the meta (you can use meta ships but they have to be paired with something very unique or old), this will be great for beating my brother, who loves the meta.

Maybe...most of what I list here is just a conversation starter since I am still in the early stages of even thinking about the game this way. It can be fun and I would encourage you to find another FLGS to alternate your X-Wing time with. Casual is fun, but trying to crack the Meta eggs can be fun to!

Many of these lists really have me confused about what to do against them. Its interesting to try and figure out but also can be difficult to identify a clear weakness or approach or target priority against the top Meta lists.

Of course the obvious answer in all cases is bring more bombs, turrets, and ordinance at a higher PS than your opponent! Just trying to go a little deeper than that.

2 minutes ago, Boom Owl said:

Of course the obvious answer in all cases is bring more ordinance at a higher PS than your opponent! Just trying to go a little deeper than that.

So...

Fly 3 GUNBOATS? (That's all I'm going to be flying for a month)

General rules:

• Miranda Doni
  • Do Not Chase Her. If you chase her she can use her bomblets to make up for any difference in damage output, whilst if you don't - unlike every other shield-regen irritant out there, she can't "break off to recover shields" because if she's not shooting she's not recovering shields. Either pursue and kill her or break off entirely so she doesn't get a shot.
• Dash Rendar
  • Spread out - make sure someone is heading to cut him off from where he'll be in a couple of turns' time. When he has people ahead and behind, that's when you'll kill him.
• Most boost/barrel roll types
  • Engage at range 2. At range 3, you've got to deal with their improved defence roll. At range 1 they can skip past your arc. Especially when you're closing with one another, don't go too fast.
• Cruise Missiles.
  • People obsess over getting the 5-dice cruise missile attack. It makes them quite predictable when they otherwise might not be!