Ive always had a thought that manaroo, if built for offense, her ability is perfect defense, tossing locks away. Quickdraw and Inquisitor would only have their focus. Miranda cant shoot the 5 dice missile at her, etc. I flew her similar build below along with a mini Z missile swarm. All the fcs locks, missile locks, etc just got passed to the Zs.

It worked as I thought, leaving manaroo for last. Was fun but it wasnt "competitive" enough for me.

So, what if I took same concept, but passed to a ship that can tank with the best of them.

Pursuit Craft: •Asajj Ventress (52)
Counter-Measures (3)
•Shadow Caster (3)
Predator (3)
•Latts Razzi (2)
Glitterstim (2)
Glitterstim (2)

Jumpmaster 5000: •Manaroo (48)
Tactical Jammers (1)
•Punishing One (12)
Expertise (4)
•Dengar (3)
Rigged Cargo Chute (1)

Total: 100/100

Manaroo can now pass locks to asajj, who evades, countermeasures, and glitters, with three green dice and thanks to jammers, along with latts. Bonus is Asajj also works against expertise ships, shutting them down.

No lone wolf, cuz we want to be near manaroo, but jammers gives her an extra green die, so that makes up for it.

This almost forces people to attack Asajj first, which can take awhile to bring down. Increasing our squads offense.

There will obviously be things where this wont matter like deadeye missiles, and rey and wookiee commandos and thats fine. Both ships are built out to handle their own.

Thoughts suggestions? Scum needs "a new hope"

I have two thoughts. One is that Predator is a bit redundant if you're intending to pass Blue TLs with Manaroo. There's no obvious replacement, however. Asajj lives long enough that Crack Shot probably isn't that great (although the list does lack spike damage). Expertise is redundant with Glitterstim. Outmaneuver? Nah, although it could be sweet--Poe couldn't flee without getting smashed like a bowl of eggs. VI doesn't seem too important, but I guess you could toss a Miranda onto a rock if you're attacking first. I guess Push The Limit is technically an option.

My other thought is that perhaps loading Asajj with Glitterstim and Scavenger Crane, rather than two Glitterstim. Two or more Counter-Measures are also nice, and Manaroo can pass a focus sometimes, and will partly make up for the lack of double-Glitters. If doing that, I'd 100% stick with Predator, since you'd less often pass a Blue TL.

Predator is there because Manaroo will be focusing, more than target locking, cuz she needs defense if not passing tokens, and then if she is passing a focus to Asajj with Predator for damage output.

So...took this list for a test drive versus PTL + Adv Sensors Kylo, VI Vessery, PS1 Epsilon.

List worked exactly as I wanted.

I started Asajj in left corner, and Manaroo semi middle, about range 2.5 from Asajj. His Vesery and Eps in middle, kylo in far right corner.

I 4 straighted opening, then 1 banked Manaroo and Asajj toward each other for first engagement round. I knew I was going to be passing locks to asajj so I locked Vessery with Manaroo so Asajj has it when she needs it.

All the opponents target locks fell on Manaroo, who passed them to Asajj. All three enemy arcs went through Manaroo as well, so Asajj gets 1 extra green if they go after asajj and kylo at range 2 and vessery at range 3 (so I get 4 green dice), lol. I popped a glitterstim, muahahaha.

Opponent went for Manaroo instead. Kylo at range 1, rolled hit and two eyeballs and a blank, and spent his eyeball. Took two shields from manaroo. Vessery rolled eye,blank,blank on manaroo. Then asajj fired on Kylo and took a shield. Manaroo range 1 on Kylo 3 hits and a crit. Dodged 1. hit hit crit (console fire). Kylo has two hp left.

His epsilon blocked Manaroo next round, but I dont care, then asajj just rams into manaroo, I dont care. His vessery bumps manaroo. Lol.

So, I pop glitter again with Asajj and countermeasure Kylo's lock to force him to spend a focus token if he really wants to push damage through. Kylo fires at manaroo and plinks last shield. Vessery has to fire at asajj range 1, through manaroo, and does nothing against four greens (CM+Jammers) and glitterstim + latts active, lol. Asajj and Manaroo kill Kylo.

Kylo is dead, manaroo has shields gone, asajj untouched so far. Perfect.

A few rounds pass by and PS1 Eps keeps blocking Manaroo, but it doesnt matter as she gets full mods on Vessery who is attacking asajj (that is where the Epsilons lock is and will be until Manaroo and Asajj split up, lol). Asajj gets taken down to 2 or 3 hull remaining before Vessery is finished off.

I was setup next round to so asajj can evade, and manaroo pass a focus token, plus latts. Woulda been really hard to get those last two hull on asajj.

List worked nicely and is going in my playlist pile. I love how the list messes with target priority and can totally f*** any alpha strike list over.

Looks awesome! Love the thematic Manaroo. Great synergy between the two ships as well.

Definitely need to be wary of Deadeye or Tracer squads, but other than that there are few major weaknesses that you're likely to encounter. Your natural predators (hardcore arc-dodgers) generally get pushed out by other squads.

On 4/14/2018 at 7:23 AM, theBitterFig said:

I guess Push The Limit is technically an option.

@wurms , glad to hear the list worked out for you. I love me some Asajj paired with the Jumpmaster 5K. I've had a lot of success using PTL paired with Manaroo to great success. Being able to focus, evade, TL, Latts, and Countermeasures in one turn is hard for any opponent to have to deal with. Plus her dial makes it pretty easy to clear the stress. I would suggest dropping one of the Glitterstim for Scavenger Crane bc you are almost guaranteed to trigger it at least once during the match. Lady luck was on my side once and I was able to trigger it 3 times and never lost it (flew against a swarm)... morally destroyed my opponent. This seems like a great problem to have. Two great cards based on your play style.

I love RCC but have swapped it out from time to time with Anti-Pursuit Laser/Ion Projectors to clog up the lane. Intimidation has also come in handy for me paired with Shadow Caster and allows you to upgrade Tactical Jammer (if desired), keep RCC, and have a potential bid.

@MUrunner20 I will definately try out scav crane. I was debating between that and a second glit. When you pop that glitter though in the early rounds, your opponent just *sighs* cause its like a reinforce pretty much, lol. Though, popping multiple locks off has its benefit as well.

14 hours ago, wurms said:

I was debating between that and a second glit. When you pop that glitter though in the early rounds, your opponent just *sighs* cause its like a reinforce pretty much, lol. Though, popping multiple locks off has its benefit as well.

@wurms , I absolutely agree... I've flown Asajj with two Glitterstims and it's a lot of fun watching your opponent drop their head knowing they can't do much about it. I've also paired Asajj with the following fully loaded Contracted Scout:

Asajj Ventress (Pts = 52):

• Push the Limit
• Latts Razzi
• Glitterstim
• Scavenger Crane
• Countermeasures
• Shadow Caster

Contracted Scout (Pts = 47):

• Intimidation
• Dengar
• Scavenger Crane
• Countermeasures
• Punishing One

Total Squad Points: 99 pts

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Scum and Villainy&d=v4!s!219:18,190,128,215:44:12:;174:101,178,215:29:12:&sn=Contracted Asajj&obs=

This has been my favorite list lately and has done really well for me. Pairing Shadow Caster and Intimidation have been really fun especially when the Contracted Scout gets to move first. I may have to modify my list to reflect your Manaroo, it seems too fun not to fly.

Another game in vs Crimson Spec/Blue Ace/Snap. Nothing too difficult but gave me good practice flying away from bombs and controlling manaroo and asajj spacing. They attacked manaroo first and locks got sent to asajj, and asajj was able to just assign stress, limiting their moves and preventing kturns.

Shadow caster title was nice. I kept tractoring the little ships and manny took em down. Crimson never dropped a single bomb as I just kept my distance.

100-0

This is brilliant. Somehow, I never realized that Manaroo could pass opponent locks away. I do agree that PTL would be another option on Asajj, but it would be harder to keep formation. Expertise could work, maybe

I also like the idea of one crane instead of 2 glitter.

I also like the idea of one crane instead of 2 glitter.