Small 3-round tourney with Expertise Brobots.

By Hobbyist, in X-Wing Battle Reports

Had a 3- 60 minute rounds tourney as part of a 6-week league. We have this system where a loss is 1 league point, a win is 2, and we also have 'bounties' you could get once in the league. If you fly Imperial, if you defeat a poe or Rey, pilot or crew, you can claim it for an extra league point. I got that last time, so I want to get the scum one out of the way, since I don't really do much scum. the scum bounty is Captain Nym. defeat Nym, and get an extra point. Once scum is done, i'll try for the rebel bounty, which is kylo Ren.

The only scum I've flown competitively was VI brobots, and since PS8 won't be super helpful, I'd try to change it up.

99 pts
IG88-B (49)
Aggressor (36), Expertise (4), Fire-Control System (2), “Mangler” Cannon (4), Inertial Dampeners (1), IG-2000 (0), Autothrusters (2)
IG88-C (50)
Aggressor (36), Expertise (4), Fire-Control System (2), “Mangler” Cannon (4), Tractor beam (1), Inertial Dampeners (1), IG-2000 (0), Autothrusters (2)

Game 1

vs Lowrick, fenn, Miranda

I set up in the bottom right corner, with my usual brobot design, having c parallel to the edge of the board, facing the middle, with B facing forward directly in front of him. Although I never actually castle, it is nice to have the option, and sometimes people think I will, so it's occasionally possible to catch someone being a little lax. He deploys his ships in the middle, practically touching, with Miranda in the middle, fenn on the far side, and lowrick on the near side. I decide to target Lowrick first.

First turn, he comes forward about 2, I break forward up the side of the board, with an added boost for both. I think I did a 1 bank towards the outside with B, then a boost to straighten up, opening up some room for C to come up alongside, slightly behind. It's been a while since I flew brobots, and I think I may have done things differently otherwise. In this particular game, I didn't give myself enough breathing room between the bots, and ended up limiting my maneuvers, not great when you like to be at close range. I didn't completely blow the game, but it was really hard to put damage into lowrick, by the timehe was killed, My bots were pretty delicate, and he got half points on both, and since I wasn't able to finish the job on the sheathipede or Miranda, lost 49- 30-something.

Game 2

Vs Nymranda

Set up with my usual deployment, but in the left corner. He sets nym across from them, and Miranda on the far side of the middle, facing my side of the board. First turn, I send my guys down my board edge, boosting to angle toward the middle of the board. he turns along his edge with nym. Miranda slow rolls, I think. I decide to shoot down the board to try to get to nym as quickly as possible, not worrying too much about Miranda. Details about this game are a little fuzzy, I know I evaded two 5-die harpoon shots from Miranda. Most of the game was me trying to avoid getting a bomblet dropped or launched in my face. I ended up getting 3 damage from bombs, and the TLT's didn't bother my Autothruster bots too much. cant remember the exact outcome, but I won by killing both of his ships, I just can't remember what I had left! The real win was getting the scum bounty out of the way, so I can move on to Rebel, which is much more comfortable for me.

Game 3

vs Lothal rebel w/ ezra and maul, tlt, engine upgrade, docked shuttle, and fenn following behind.

I had been hearing horror stories about these ghost lists all night, and finally, here we are. Of course, it seems whenever I do fly Bro-bots, I fly against Bob Randall, who was particularly known for flying VI Brobots for a period of time. It's kind of disconcerting to know that every maneuver of the game will be remembered in painful detail, possibly repeated to the public in a podcast or such.

Either way, I started with normal deployment in my right corner. He was parallel to his edge in the opposite corner. the asteroids made a decent lane connecting my corner with the center of his side, and we ended up in the position where we were at either end, facing each other. The decision was, Am I Really going to joust here? I went for it, for 2 reasons. 1. If I turned away, I was afraid with EU, he could get shots on me anyway, that I couldn't answer. 2. I figured that I would try to run into the ghost, only drawing fire from Fenn, which I didn't care about, and with a little luck, I could get both arcs on Fenn.

It didnt' work out that way, Fenn skirted the outside of the rocks, and the ghost boosted into a gap of the rocks to my right, and was just out of arc. After doing the obligatory 4 tlt dice rolls, on to the next round. Object is getting fenn in arc, and being in his, so he can't FAA out of it, and try to minimize the ghost's shots, hopefully just taking tlt. This did work over 2 rounds, but I was getting a bit beat up. After Fenn died, I split up, B was limping hard. C was about half health. By time, I had half health on the shuttle, I think I had one half-health bot left. lost on points.

Not a bad night, Although I only won 1 of three, (I normally go 2-1) my mov was better than normal, and my losses were pretty close. I also enjoyed all of my games, which is first priority.

I came into the game after the time of BroBots' dominion. I've always wanted to put them on the mat, and perhaps someday i will. But only casually, I see. So many folk who recall fondly their days of strength bemoan their current weakness to the meta. Thanks for reporting!

First off, I will say that Brobots are fun, and don't have many really hard counters in the meta. Right now, the popular PS levels will generally be above them, so VI is mostly useless. If you are practiced at the move-first mindset, I don't think they are bad options. The action economy is hard to beat. Autothrusters are amazing vs. tlt. I am not in practice with them, and have never been a master of this list, so my performance should not be indicative of their suitability to the meta. I'm a small-base ship guy. I like TIEs.

the one thing I find challenging on these ships is the lack of a 3 turn, though their otherwise excellent dial makes up for it, you just have to strategize your maneuvers.

My build was not optimal, expertise, though great, forced me to go from HLC to Mangler, which was ok, it just is nice to have higher damage potential. The fcs and the second shot usually are good enough, without the focus effect. Expertise also doesn't work while stressed, which wasn't a problem, just making expertise a little bit of a points sink, on top of everything else.

Again, though they might not have a 'dominance' in the meta, I don't think they are especially weak. The best thing you could do is figure out a really good opening approach strategy, which is always my weakest part of the game. And then tell me about it. Lol. I'm a mid-to-late gamer.

Overall, I recommend them, though they aren't the meta hotness, they are REALLY fun to fly, and give you a reliable chassis to work on, with action economy to spare. Just a bit of a learning curve. Good luck!

I lived through the IG-88's dominion, ionising ships and capturing my bounties alive for over a year before invariable changes forced me to look at other builds. Every so often I come back to them during casual nights in the hope of rekindling those days where the mere sight of them induced terror in my opponents!

I like reading posts like these because it shows that I'm not the only one trying things and sometimes, it gives me ideas. I think next week, our casual night, I will try this:

IG-88B: Aggressor (36), Expertise (4), Fire-Control System (2), “Mangler” Cannon (4), Glitterstim (2), IG-2000 (0), Autothrusters (2)

IG-88C: Aggressor (36), A score to settle (0), Fire-Control System (2), HLC (7), Glitterstim (2), IG-2000 (0), Autothrusters (2)

I prefer glitterstim for those panic moments where a mistake is made, but your comment about wanting an HLC made me think of HLC and a score to settle. Never used that one, but maybe in today's meta it might actually make sense.

What about this?

IG-88B (36)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Glitterstim (2)
Autothrusters (2)
IG-2000 (0)

IG-88C (36)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Glitterstim (2)
Autothrusters (2)
IG-2000 (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Edited by dragonorta
59 minutes ago, dragonorta said:

What about this?

IG-88B (36)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Glitterstim (2)
Autothrusters (2)
IG-2000 (0)

IG-88C (36)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Glitterstim (2)
Autothrusters (2)
IG-2000 (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I'd do this, but I might keep my Inertial Dampeners. They are extremely useful, though 'stims have their place. I just prefer reacting to 'oh crap' moments by maneuvers over dice mods, usually. I guess I could be convinced to use the drugs, though