For those who kept their eyes on the Worlds streams, you may have seen this list pop up a few times and even made its way to the top 8 matchup against our eventual world champion, Simeon Dellapina. I’ve had plenty of people ask me about the list anywhere from build decisions, to how to fly it, to matchups, etc. I figured to close out the 1st edition and easily my best year of competitive X-Wing, I would take the time to write this up as a type of closure for me heading into 2nd edition and maybe for those interested in trying it before 2nd edition comes out.
PSA: This will not have Bat Reps! I will describe certain situations in games for strategic reasons to explain the list and/or matchups, but this will not include battle reports (you’re welcome).
The List:
- Captain Nym (43)
o Veteran Instincts
o Havoc
o Genius
o Bomblet Generator
o Trajectory Simulator
o Autoblaster Turret
o Extra Munitions
o Harpoon Missiles
o Guidance Chips
- Ezra Bridger (23)
o Sabine Wren
o R3-A2
o Snap Shot
- Crimson Specialist (BOB) (34)
o Ordnance Silos
o Thermal Detonators
o Trajectory Simulator
o Deflective Plating
Early Days:
I’ll keep this part short. After winning the Indiana Regional with Ghost/Fenn, I wanted to move onto a new list leading all the way up to Worlds and everything in between. The stigma of winning with Ghost/Fenn was there and I was out to prove my abilities as a player of the game, not a player of a list. The next stop was the MI Regional at my home store which was a month away. I had noticed an archetype pop up a few times that utilized the B/SF Bomber and Nym with a varying 3rd ship. Anywhere from a HWK-290, to Sheathipede Shuttle, and a rebel TIE Fighter, it was something that had a crew to carry Sabine Wren. It gave me a reason to buy the B/SF Bomber in the first place and trying it out on Vassal had been successful so far. MI Regional and Adepticon System Open trial runs were overall successful enough for me to make a solid commitment to this squad for worlds. On top of that, I knew the chances of people going to worlds practicing against my list would be very minimal and I’d have the element of surprise on my side.
List Building Decisions:
Oddly enough the version of the list I started with is the same list I ended up with at Worlds. I was ready to make adjustments along the way, but as I played through my games, my decisions ended up getting proven correct. A few of the key decisions in list building the different versions of this list are; Nym’s turret/missile choices, Bob’s bomb choice, and the 3rd ship to hold Sabine Wren.
Ezra was always my preferred choice for carrying Sabine with R3-A2. It helps with controlling the field and a pretty safe spot for Sabine to ride in. Snap Shot was already known to work well on Strezra and I didn’t end up finding a better ept. Others had wondered about elusiveness when talking to me about this list, but I found as long as I positioned Ezra correct (will get into later), I’d get more use out of Snap Shot especially since elusiveness can’t be used when already stressed. Coordinate ended up becoming a larger reason to why I wanted Ezra as well to help Nym with action economy.
Other players would commonly try to make TLT fit on Nym, but I didn’t feel the need to have nor did I end up ever missing it. With trajectory simulator, you’re already best pointing your arc towards your opponent. So I went for alpha strike potential because I could only have so many turns the opposing ships can be stuck in Bob’s bomb net of fun. Harpoon Missile was an obvious choice along with extra munitions for a second Harpoon plus allowing for 1 free genius bomblet drop. I really wanted VI as well to outright beat the Expertise Quickdraws. Then the cheapest, but very effective Autoblaster Turret rounded out the decision on Nym’s load out.
Bob’s load out was pretty set in stone of at minimum Ordnance Silos, Deflective Plating, and Trajectory Simulator. It was just choice of bomb and a lot of that had to deal with what fit with the rest of the list. Now I was prepared to lose the extra munitions to move to Proton Bombs, BUT I believed that Thermal Detonators were an overall better bomb against the meta and less damaging to my ships if I wanted them to go off and not potentially devastate my own ships. Proton bombs can be really painful for some ships, but it’s random as to what card they draw and compared to splash stress, 1 guaranteed damage, plus 1 Sabine damage on my target of choice ends up doing way more in the long run. Especially the stress keeps opposing ships from running away often enough to keep them stuck inside Bob’s net. (See image below to truly understand how large Bob’s net really is).
Engagement Setup Tactics:
The overall goal of this list is to get Bob in the middle of the opposing player’s list and get them stuck with Bob while pouring on damage via Nym’s Harpoons and both types of bombs. To get there I would commonly attempt to have Nym creep up a board edge via 1 straight + Barrel rolls point to the other side of the board at my opponent while keeping Bob back waiting for the right time to commit him to a direction. Ezra would trail behind Nym ready to mainly coordinate focus tokens for max modded Harpoon Missiles while keeping Sabine safe. The key is to get Bob start making a mess the same turn as Nym delivering his alpha strike while keeping Ezra away from getting shot. That is what your first turn of engagement should ideally be.
The main thing in flying Bob you have to understand is if you want a bomb to be Trajectory Sim-ed somewhere next turn, you have to be pointing that way. It sounds obvious, but that’s why you have to be patient and be able to correctly predict where the opposing list is going so you can intercept their path with Thermal Detonators/Bob. Nym is there to help with those 50/50s to hold a bomb, but you got to “git gud” at positioning to be patient and predicting where your opponent’s list can/will go.
Nym’s ideal engagement allows him to perform a 1 straight while Trajectory Sim-ing a Bomblet while already having a focus form Ezra and perform a TL on the intended target. 1 Banks can work, but depending on your choice of wiggle room in both the ship position and bomb position, you can hit yourself or barely stay out of the bomb range 1 explosion. As the turns of engagement move to 2nd or 3rd round, Nym is likely in the fry and that’s where Autoblaster turret can begin to finish things off, if things are still alive. Auto damage helps not only against aces, but against the hyper defense stacking via Lowhhrick reinforce and C-3PO.
This Ezra, although with Snap Shot and R3-A2, is a very differently flown Ezra for this list. Most people are more used to seeing Strezras flying into the fray first next to Lowhhrick. My Ezra as mentioned before, is best staying back and coordinating Nym. Which really helps against Ezra/Lowhhrick/RegenAce lists because they are used to taking initiative against other Strezras, but utilizing my coordinate more than Snap Shot means my Nym has a very effective advanced sensors against a large part of the meta that can not only help dodge shots, but also hold Nym farther back via Barrel roll to allow Harpoon Missile #2 and position my Trajector-ed Bomblets even better. Along with that, around the 3rd turn of engagement, my opponent is probably wanting out of Bob’s net really bad which allows Ezra to either already be or move into the engagement area with snap shot to cover their disengage routes.
Meta Matchups:
100 pt Ace – This should be a high win percentage, which is one of the main reasons I stuck with this list. I expected a higher percentage of 100 pt aces to show up than Ghost/Fenns. Burn down Lowhhrick quick via both bombs with Sabine & harpoon(s), let the bombs plus harpoon splash damage kill Ezra and the ace gets caught staying stressed via Thermals and Strezra from afar. Bob oddly can add in a lot of extra damage via range 1 primary turret being 3 dice. Even without mods, the AGI 1 ships like Miranda (likely used C-3PO) and Lowhhrick (close to death), Bob will help add to the overall damage race. I banked on most 100 pt Ace players thinking they had enough defense to joust me anyway, and most of them made that mistake. Bob is too disruptive to that archetype to straight up joust/let bob intercept their flying path.
Ghost/Fenn – NOPE! I found my only win condition was to fortress in a corner, hope they stay and accept the fortress until about 25 minutes left in the game. Move out to kill Fenn in the last 2 rounds and not get Nym or Bob killed. Which is actually possible because you can’t half pt Nym and he’s 10 health while Bob at half health only gives my opponent 17 pts, still less than Fenn Rau. Or even better….matchup dodge (mission accomplished).
Palp Aces – Another high win percentage. The most common archetype of Palp aces is Expertise QD, Inq and Yorr. Yes Yorr can help against my stress, BUT I can straight up kill QD since Nym can see the entire board state before deciding to Trajectory along with moving always after QD to get the TL for Harpoon. On average QD is down to 1 or 2 health which means if it takes 1 more bomb damage, Sabine makes QD dead. Inq can’t straight up engage and has to wide flank or risk getting too close to bomb range. Yorr will eventually die to Bob just shooting him as Bob slowly (eventually) flies behind Yorr since Yorr gets overstressed and can’t 0 stop. Ezra is able to stay back to angle towards a flanking Inq to threaten stress or keep from QD escaping. If QD had VI, it was more of a game, but it wasn’t common.
NymRanda – This all depends on if my opponent is willing to just joust me. If they do, it actually favors me as long as I don’t let their Nym Trajectory my Nym. I go all in on Miranda and hope they accept the joust because they want to use the missiles they paid for. Without C-3PO I can kill Miranda by turn 2 and with stress and Bob’s turret, I can finish off Nym in the long run. The NymRanda’s best choice is actually just to kite the entire game slowly killing me with 2 TLTs.
RACLo – Similar to NymRanda. Positioning will matter a lot and if they go for the joust I have a higher percentage chance to win. Make the right choice and kite me (like Paul from Austria did in Round 6 of day 1B did), and my chances go down. PS will matter a lot in this matchup too, but more specifically with the ace flying with RAC. Especially against Tyler Tippett and Dallas Parker’s versions, those missiles will really hurt at higher PS. Although I’ve still had mixed results against RACLo/Vader or QD, which likely means a lot of that depends on the player’s experience either with RACLo or against my list (which likely isn’t a lot).
Triple Wookiees – Generally a low win percentage. Too much consistent firepower for my ships to handle. I can burn one quick, but then one of my ships is also dead in a similar time span, even Bob. If they allow me to Thermal Detonator their expertise consistently enough though, I have a much better chance, but they just shouldn’t engage me if that’s possible.
4 Ship Rebel – Very similar to 100 pt ace except things die faster to bombs and no ship is worth more points than Nym. So even higher win percentage than against 100 pt ace.
Rey+ - She likes to joust using her arc’s ability and utilizes expertise. Being at lower PS than Nym and having expertise to drive her offense, the Thermals/Strezra are too much for her and will end up burning up very quickly. Generally a high win percentage even with consistent firepower. Problem in comparison to Triple Wookiees is it’s only from 2 ships, not 3.
Dash+ - Usually a bad matchup, but I have more final salvo dice! Fortress in the corner and force them to come to you and hope you get Bob in the way of Dash. Positioning Nym in a way that allows him to take a TL, to force the countermeasures use early on Dash and still allow Nym to be in range for Harpoons the next turn can also be achieved with Bob blocking up Dash. Besides that, likely a loss.
Asajj + - This can be a toss-up depending on who’s her partner(s). Asajj herself won’t have a good time herself is she lets Bob catch her for 2+ turns because of auto damage and stress. If it’s Asajj/Ketsu both with Countermeasures, they have the advantage because the Harpoon missile is part of the damage race, otherwise I should be okay. If it’s Asajj/Nym, who has initiative matters a lot, especially if opposing Nym has Ion bombs.
3BQD – Gunboats have the combination of too much health and too much firepower to kill fast enough to stop the damage they can output. On top of that the QD has VI too. Only chance is to range control where Bob stays just outside of range to shooting and next turn run in and mess up the Gunboats as much as possible without putting Nym in a bad position because he’s likely LRSed by the boats. Lower percentage chance to win.
Triple Arc Dependent Imp Aces – Because they care about their arc and are aces that care about their green dice, usually a high win percentage. Too much auto damage and area control for the Imp Aces to handle or even engage at all.
Imp Alpha – I haven’t had this matchup yet, but have head sim-ed similar to the 3BQD, but more winnable. It’s about range control and correct time to shove Bob into their QD or Vader along with keeping Nym mostly safe. The main reason why this is more winnable than 3BQD is that I can block their missile shooting ships and bomb damage will really hurt while the gunboats move before Bob and get all the actions they want in opening engagement. 50/50, mostly positioning dependent.
Streamed Games from 2018 Season:
MI Regional vs Tyler Shaw's Palp Aces
Worlds 1B vs Josh Pruden's Dash/Miranda PT1 vs Josh Pruden PT2
Worlds 1B vs Darwin Schafer's 100pt Poe
Worlds Top 16 vs Charles Holcomb's 4 Ship Rebel
Worlds Top 8 vs Simeon Dellapina's Brobots
I want to thank all my opponents on these streamed games for being on stream with me. All the games were very enjoyable and everyone was fun to play against. Also thank you to Dark Side Productions, XWing Junkies, Gold Squadron and FFG Live for having our games on their streams.
Epilogue:
Overall, I’m extremely happy with my performance utilizing this list and making my way into the Top 8 of Worlds. My final game against Simeon Dellapina was insane and was happy to go out against the eventual champion along with hearing that it was one of the best matches other players saw the whole event. There have been plenty of people that have helped me practice and discuss the list/strategies along the way. The OCX crew, my local squad (Lars Squad), the other local players at Eternal Games and Stomping Grounds, and Nicholas Tobin who discussed builds and the meta heading into the worlds (almost made me change my list to his list). I hope this was a good read for those who are still reading up to this point and here’s to 2nd Edition on the horizon!
