I'm working on some possibilities for upcoming tournament builds, and was hoping folks here might have some suggestions on how to finish the setups. Trying to be aware of the state of the meta, I know the biggest things to watch out for are Assault Gunboats with Harpoons, NymRanda Bombs (which are still potent), and now, that new Fenn/Ghost+Zeb team. Right now, I think I'm pretty set on taking Poe and Fenn Rau at PS11, and just need to find that third wingmate for them. My current ideas:

• 67 points: Core Team
  • 26 points: Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) - Veteran Instincts, Flight-Assist Astromech, Hotshot Co-Pilot
  • 41 points: Poe Dameron (PS-9) - Veteran Instincts, Black One, BB-8, Advanced Optics, Autothrusters
    • (I've found that I really prefer the cheaper maneuverability options of BB-8, over the more costly R2-D2 regen)
• Options for 3rd member

• 30 points: Lowhhrick - Wookie Commandos, damage mitigation EPT:
  • Selflessness, to defend against one really nasty shot, OR
  • Draw Their Fire, to protect Poe/Fenn from an crits
• 31 points: Wedge Antilles - Veteran Instincts, Flight Assist Astromech, Integrated Astromech

• Total of 97-98 points

Both options leave me an initiative bid (2-3 points), and both have two punchy fighters plus Fenn as a support nuisance. Lowhhrick would give me more solid defense during the first few rounds of engagement, and he's arguably much tankier than Wedge, but shoots much later in the round, relegating him to cleanup duty. Wedge gives me three ships at PS11, along with an extremely potent offensive ability... but he's far more fragile.

Your thoughts?

Wedge with flight assist will also have an easier time keeping up with Fenn and Poe.

Fenn/Poe/Jess took 2nd place at Atlanta Regionals.

This is my current version:

•Fenn Rau (26) - Sheathipede-class Shuttle
Veteran Instincts (1), Hotshot Co-pilot (4), Flight-Assist Astromech (1), •Phantom II (0), Guidance Chips (0)

•Poe Dameron (39) - T-70 X-Wing
Intensity (2), •BB-8 (2), Primed Thrusters (1), •Black One (1), Autothrusters (2)

•Nien Nunb (35) - T-70 X-Wing
Snap Shot (2), •R3-A2 (2), Pattern Analyzer (2), Integrated Astromech (0)

Poe will have tokens aplenty, and PS11 Coordinate can get black one to proc for me.

the previous version I prefer is Rage/EI on Nien and Inspiring recruit on Fenn, so Nien can Rage at any range and still lose the stress. I keep getting bugged to try SS though so I begrudgingly made this.

While your list can punch holes in things, I am worried what you lose for that barrel roll (that can shed one TL grant you!).
You want to hold yourself on green maneuvers, but what you lose is a very good win condition (regen). With this list you need to kill things quick, because your list is not made to last, even with fenn.

But hey, if that's what you want.

I would actually consider Wes (same build as wedge), or Lowhrick over Wedge. I do not think you have the firepower to reliably kill a gunboat before it shoots you, and you might not want to do boost/BR just to shed TL's if you move yourself too far from your squad, or ruin your maneuvers next round.

Against harpoons, wes can help removing the last token, and works against dead-eye boats, unlike BB-8/B1.

Maybe Lowhrick with selflessness is the best bet (I do not think DTF is worth it with harpoons going rampant. You might remove a crit, only for the condition to trigger anyways).
His tricks is always consistent against whatever you face, unlike Wedge and Wes (Neither does much against the shuttle builds) but he is not as agile as the x-wing obviously.

I would want to choose Wedge. I love wedge, and Fenn and Poe themselves really aren't hard hitters. That would be the ballsy choice. Low would be the safe choice, because it becomes a very hard list to take down. That being said, I flew against Fenn/Low/Corran yesterday, and it went down, so, maybe you do need the offense.

I like that. Wedge is the ballsy choice. However, between Fenn and Poe, you do have alot of mod removal, so, even a fragile ship will last longer. And 3 PS11 attacks can do a lot of damage. Well, hopefully do anyway.

4 hours ago, Biggsy_boy said:

I like that. Wedge is the ballsy choice. However, between Fenn and Poe, you do have alot of mod removal, so, even a fragile ship will last longer. And 3 PS11 attacks can do a lot of damage. Well, hopefully do anyway.

This was exactly my thought. With three ships at PS11, unless I'm facing other super aces, I'm going to be shooting first... and if there are other 11s, I've hopefully dodged their arcs thanks to the initiative bid. My concern, of course, is that two X-Wings might not be enough damage to get the job done... it's definitely a long-game squad, and I can't get greedy, diving in for R1 shots (especially without R2-D2).

On 2/5/2018 at 10:28 PM, emeraldbeacon said:

This was exactly my thought. With three ships at PS11, unless I'm facing other super aces, I'm going to be shooting first... and if there are other 11s, I've hopefully dodged their arcs thanks to the initiative bid. My concern, of course, is that two X-Wings might not be enough damage to get the job done... it's definitely a long-game squad, and I can't get greedy, diving in for R1 shots (especially without R2-D2).

I guess the question is, how do you prefer to fly? Wedge is more offense, Low is more defense. Answer that question and you should have your answer.

1 hour ago, Biggsy_boy said:

I guess the question is, how do you prefer to fly? Wedge is more offense, Low is more defense. Answer that question and you should have your answer.

Does "recklessly" count as an option?

Wedge and find a 97 pt bid somewhere would be my vote. If Wedge's dice are hot you can melt alot of things. Its the most fun and effective version of this in my book besides serious upgrade cuts to fit Norra.

Basically this:

Poe is more of a hitter than he used to be these days, with how much easier it is to take TLs on him now. With Lowhhrick, I wonder if there's a better crew. Fenn Rau can easily toss over an action to allow him to focus on his own. Tactician would fit.

//

To a certain extent, I feel like brainstorming oddball choices for the 3rd ship:

(32) Norra Wexley: Rey, Flight Assist Astromech, Title. Toss on Trick Shot or Adaptability to taste. That'll move fairly well alongside Fenn, and can hit fairly hard, while probably being tankier than Wedge. She'd be better along an M9-G8 Fenn Rau, though.

(32) Horton Salm: TLT and a 1-point Astromech. I guess there'd be two droid packages. One is Chopper, with Bomb Loadout, Guidance Chips, and possibly title if that's your style. Simple, tanky, consistent. Another is Flight Assist Astromech and the title. That'd be an interesting amount of firepower, at a moderately high PS. Plus, since it'd be spread out over a number of attacks and rerolls without TL, I think it might hit pretty hard against a Kanan/Fenn. I think it'd be worth flying some casual night.

(29) Blue Squadron Pilot: HLC. A B-Wing will possibly have trouble keeping up, but HLC is still a potent threat. Adding either FCS for 2 points or 1 point for E2/Courier Droid to deploy at PS 8 might also be a good idea.

(31) Warden Squadron Pilot: Autoblaster Turret, EM, Harpoon Missile, Courier Droid, Long Range Scanners. This ship probably isn't bad. It's not as cheap as a Gunboat, but it's got 360 coverage.

I like Fenn with a lower PS ship, I enjoy moving early then coordinating an action later. This could be a good list for a bomber (or U wing with sabine), use it to block then drop an action bomb. Uwing, sabine, cluster mines and extra munitions comes in at 31, give you a few points for fun on the uwing. Or a bomber and silos with cluster, for 31.

Block at PS 1/2 and coordinate a bomb when it works at PS 11?

For me, Jess Pava was the best fit. Persistent dice mods on the offense and defense independent of tokens actually makes her a pretty strong gambit against enemy Fenn Raus and having a PS3 opens up blocking options that won't have with an all high PS build. She can also potentially get modded defense dice without spending tokens leaving her free to have functionally a focus and target lock every turn (rerolling 2 dice is pretty close to just having a target lock). It's also noteworthy that you can coordinate boosts on her giving her a PS 11 reposition option and allowing you to fly her as a pseudo PS11 ace that can also block. She's also fairly cheap even fully loaded which lets you take super Poe (PS 11, AO, AT, R2D2, B1) and PS 11 Fenn and still have some interesting options.

I've been running Poe (PS 11 regen), Fenn, Lowhhrick and it's very good against most lists.

It unfortunately has a very hard time against Ghost/Fenn which is a common list. If it's the Maul/Ezra version your Fenn has nothing to do but shoot and coordinate, hot-cop and his ability don't do anything. Meanwhile his Fenn can shut Poe down, while the hyper-efficient TLT overwhelms your defenses.

In a practice game last night, Poe was was tagged for 4 hits in the opening engagement and I never even rolled defense dice. Poe regenned twice, then got his focus stripped and tagged 4 more times and died.

My plan is to hope I only come across it once in a tournament and punt.

18 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Does "recklessly" count as an option?

Hah! yes. But that would make me say be defensive and fly Low.

13 hours ago, Biggsy_boy said:

Hah! yes. But that would make me say be defensive and fly Low.

That, and maybe swapping BB-8/Autothrusters for Artoo/Integrated. Same net point cost, less target lock stripping, more turret vulnerability, but regen is sooooooo nice. Paired with Lowhhrick's shielding, that would make the setup something like this:

• Poe (9): Vet Instincts, Black One, Adv Optics, R2-D2, Int Astro - 41 points
• Fenn: Vet Instincts, Flight Assist Astro, Hotshot Co-Pilot - 26 points
• Low: Draw Their Fire, Wookiee Commandos - 30 points
  • Total: 97 points