These little buggers are hilarious to fly (although I can't wait for the day when they can barrel roll as well). Who else is flying them? What are your tips and tricks?

I've found that they are most effective when flown right up into your opponent's grill. Engage at r3 (or just beyond if they could snipe you) and then next turn dive in for r1 combat and/or a bump. As muh as possible, try to cycle damage around between your ships so that all are explosive.

One challenge is that you need to know where you want your Zs at least a turn or two in advance. With no repositioning, they are pretty slow, so you really have to think ahead if you want to avoid running over rocks. Anything imperial can easily fly circles around you, so watch out for that.

Currently my two deadman Zs are paired with deadman Jostero (with a harpoon missile) and nym with a harpoon, trajectory, bomblet and ion turret.

I've seen a friend do very well with a bugzapper swarm of feedback array Zs, but I've never seen multiple deadman's switch headhunters used. How have they been doing for you?

I can agree on a couple of points:

• Quite aside from any kamikaze option, 2-dice swarmers want to be at range 1. That extra dice means a huge amount, and with numbers, you get it over and over again.
• The Z is slow. For that matter, TIE fighters are surprisingly slow if you have to manoeuvre. One thing I love about strikers is their ability to do long, sweeping turns - you don't realise how much it slows you if you can't turn if you're moving at speed 3 or less.

TIE fighters can barrel roll after a 3 bank, which gives them a big edge in speed. I've found that I almost always have to open with a 4fwd from my Zs to get them into the fight. That said, anything imperial can very easily range control them and there's not much I can do about it.

Deadman's switch is awesome if you are fighting things with not much health (which is nice because the Zs usually can't hurt ships with 3 green). The counterplay for deadman is for your opponent to range-control and snipe the Zs from afar, but they don't always manage this (especially if it's their first time against my list). Up close and personal, the deadman switch can lead to no-win situations if your opponent is running low on HP. You just have to make sure you get your harpoon missiles fired quick so enemy ships start hurting.

Also, where possible, keep the Zs together. It increases their blocking potential and allows you to set up chain reactions if you need. I've found that losing a lone Z early can actually make a big difference later on to my ability to control the board.

10 hours ago, gadwag said:

Up close and personal, the deadman switch can lead to no-win situations if your opponent is running low on HP. You just have to make sure you get your harpoon missiles fired quick so enemy ships start hurting.  

Also, where possible, keep the Zs together. It increases their blocking potential and allows you to set up chain reactions if you need.

Harpoons and deadman's switch? Nice.

What's the squad?

You could get 3 deadman/harpoon and 3 tracer/harpoon pirates for a scary amount of blast damage.

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 8:18 AM, gadwag said:

Currently my two deadman Zs are paired with deadman Jostero (with a harpoon missile) and nym with a harpoon, trajectory, bomblet and ion turret.

Sorry...wasn't reading.

The real trick is getting your opponent to shoot a harpoon into a Z so you have a double-deadman