I tried Sabine with Maul the other day. It's decent synergy for a ship with so much green and on a pilot who's not Initiative 5+ and will therefore be shooting last, but the drop in mobile arc strength and the nerf to the title kill the ship as an offensive powerhouse or a control tool IMO. It's simply too hard to get consistent forward-arc shots on things with a big-base ship -- you move too fast. And the tool that helped with this in the past, Inertial Dampers, is now unusable on a Lancer once it's taken 2 damage.

I'll try Ketsu next but I'm not too hopeful.

I ran Ketsu, 2 jakku gunrunners and talonbane at a tournament and went undefeated into the final round. I miss played a lot the final game against the fellow that won the tournament but had a lot of success before then. . Talonbane floated around till something was in range to get all their agility wrecked by tractor tokens and then it flies in and drops 5 dice on something.

Gunrunners block and cause havoc and ketsu does what ketsu does, consistent damage on a beefy and fast ship that is very hard to block due to tractoring them out of the way.

The tractors make life a living **** for swarms, bumping and pushing them out of arc or out of howlrunner range. Ketsu getting a white evade with 2 dice lets her dictate where and when she engages fairly well for a big ship.

Just go into the match knowing that the ship does not have a rotating turret arc, its a forward only arc and accept that, through acceptance comes happiness.

27 minutes ago, redneckrampage said:

I ran Ketsu, 2 jakku gunrunners and talonbane at a tournament and went undefeated into the final round. I miss played a lot the final game against the fellow that won the tournament but had a lot of success before then. . Talonbane floated around till something was in range to get all their agility wrecked by tractor tokens and then it flies in and drops 5 dice on something.

Gunrunners block and cause havoc and ketsu does what ketsu does, consistent damage on a beefy and fast ship that is very hard to block due to tractoring them out of the way.

The tractors make life a living **** for swarms, bumping and pushing them out of arc or out of howlrunner range. Ketsu getting a white evade with 2 dice lets her dictate where and when she engages fairly well for a big ship.

Just go into the match knowing that the ship does not have a rotating turret arc, its a forward only arc and accept that, through acceptance comes happiness.

What was your list, and did you have the title?

My biggest concern is arc-dodgers. I haven't made a single 2.0 list yet that a TIE Defender couldn't solo, and I don't see how Ketsu will ever get a tractor token onto one.

What about Asajj with Maul for the extra force charge? Idea I've been wondering about.

I’ve run two different variations of Sabine/Asajj lists this has been my most successful.

Firespray -class Patrol Craft - •Boba Fett - 110
•Boba Fett - Notorious Bounty Hunter (80)
Debris Gambit (2)
Perceptive Copilot (10)
Contraband Cybernetics (5)
Shield Upgrade (6)
• Marauder (3)
•Han Solo (4)

Lancer -class Pursuit Craft - •Sabine Wren - 87
•Sabine Wren - Artistic Saboteur (68)
Fearless (3)
Perceptive Copilot (10)
Shield Upgrade (6)

Total: 197/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Ketsu with Title and Fearless is rather brutal. Idk about Asajj or Sabine

I've been flying this list I found to great success recently. It's a blast to fly and is fairly focused on stressing your opponents ships and benefiting from it.

Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter - •Han Solo - 82
•Han Solo - The Corellian Kid (54)
Trick Shot (1)
•0-0-0 (3)
•4-LOM (3)
Rigged Cargo Chute (4)
Engine Upgrade (9)
•Lando’s Millennium Falcon (6)
•BT-1 (2)

Lancer -class Pursuit Craft - •Asajj Ventress - 104
•Asajj Ventress - Force of Her Own (84)
•Latts Razzi (7)
Rigged Cargo Chute (4)
• Shadow Caster (6)
Heightened Perception (3)

Escape Craft - •Autopilot Drone - 12
•Autopilot Drone - Set to Blow

I've tried both Asajj (Sense, Latts) and Ketsu (Fearless, Maul, Shadow Caster), and I think I'm still looking for my sweet spot between the durability of Asajj and the firepower of Ketsu.

4 hours ago, redneckrampage said:

Just go into the match knowing that the ship does not have a rotating turret arc, its a forward only arc and accept that, through acceptance comes happiness.

I agree with OP that Ketsu in particular is a challenging ship to fly due to the speed of the dial and only using the front arc. At least Asajj can utilize her Rotate action.

15 hours ago, Quarrel said:

What was your list, and did you have the title?

My biggest concern is arc-dodgers. I haven't made a single 2.0 list yet that a TIE Defender couldn't solo, and I don't see how Ketsu will ever get a tractor token onto  one  .

Unless the defenders have adv sensors, Defenders are probably the easiest ship for Ketsu to kill. They only ever have maybe 2 good moves unless they dont want their evade. So block em, tractor them, and kill them. Bring Palob or Old Teroch (or both!) so if they dont do a 3-speed move, you still rip their focus away.

Adv sensors is another story

I really enjoyed flying this list: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Scum and Villainy&d=v5!s!125:-1,47,-1,96,-1,-1:;89:133,-1,63,43,79,96,-1,152:;93:-1,-1,-1:&sn=Use the Force Cikatro Han&obs=

The name is from a previous version where instead of having Lando I had Jakku with Cloaking Device and Cikatro. That way I could pass a cloaking device to either Han or Asajj which could not break... pretty fun but those 6-dice shots from Han were just calling for more mods, so I elected for Lando.

You have to fly this list pretty cagey. Asajj can burn pretty fast, especially against lists that aren't leveraging their red linked actions. Like any 2-ship build it has its hard counters, but with Asajj living long enough to be annoying and dumping Rigged Cargo pretty reliably, it is possible to set up Han's dream 6-dice shots with crit conversions to boot! Asajj's stressing mechanic is still super reliable if you use your force sparingly and don't get caught in too many arcs.

21 hours ago, Quarrel said:

What was your list, and did you have the title?

My biggest concern is arc-dodgers. I haven't made a single 2.0 list yet that a TIE Defender couldn't solo, and I don't see how Ketsu will ever get a tractor token onto one.

Thats where the rest of the list comes in. In this new version of Xwing there are very little large ships that can solo a defender, that's the point of the defender. The jakku Gunrunners going first and handing out tractors really messes with people, especially aces who move last and Talonbane flanking with outmaneuver can cripple one very quickly if they are not carefull.

I've found the best bet for Ketsu and aces is try and position them where you can block them with your larger base and front arc. Normally they will go to shooting first, and be unable to shoot ketsu because of range 0, then you move them back with a side barrel roll, giving them reduced agility and eat a 4dice shot.

Here is a rough draft of an Asajj list. Just brainstorming at the moment

Lancer -class Pursuit Craft - •Asajj Ventress - 100
•Asajj Ventress - Force of Her Own (84)
•Maul (13)
Heightened Perception (3)

HWK-290 Light Freighter - •Palob Godalhi - 61
•Palob Godalhi - Tethan Resister (38)
Seismic Charges (3)
•Cloaking Device (5)
Engine Upgrade (3)
• Moldy Crow (12)

Z-95-AF4 Headhunter - •Kaa’to Leeachos - 34
•Kaa’to Leeachos - Imposing Marauder (29)
Expert Handling (2)
Homing Missiles (3)

Total: 195/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Paying extra points for Asajj's force output WITH maul is soooo many points. You could almost buy another z95 for that.

17 minutes ago, redneckrampage said:

Paying extra points for Asajj's force output WITH maul is soooo many points. You could almost buy another z95 for that.

True, I was looking at dropping Maul and Kaa'to and adding Old Terroch. More green token denial and possibly more punch? Something like this, maybe?

Asajj Ventress (84)
Heightened Perception (3)

Palob Godalhi (38)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Moldy Crow (12)

Old Teroch (56)
Fearless (3)

Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

23 minutes ago, redneckrampage said:

You could almost buy another z95 for that.

And who's gonna fly it, kid, you?

4 hours ago, redneckrampage said:

I've found the best bet for Ketsu and aces is try and position them where you can block them with your larger base and front arc. Normally they will go to shooting first, and be unable to shoot ketsu because of range 0, then you move them back with a side barrel roll, giving them reduced agility and eat a 4dice shot.

That doesn't work. Ketsu gives out the tractor token at the start of the Engagement Phase, not when she engages. If she moves an ace away to shoot it, it'll be able to shoot her first.

If I pair Ketsu with an I6 like Fenn or Han should I take the title off? They would attack before the title tractor would be applied.

13 hours ago, RogerWilco15 said:

If I pair Ketsu with an I6 like Fenn or Han should I take the title off? They would attack before the title tractor would be applied.

No, I had it misplayed it. The tractor token is at the start of the engagement phase, so the i6 Ace would benefit from the lost agility.

18 hours ago, RogerWilco15 said:

If I pair Ketsu with an I6 like Fenn or Han should I take the title off? They would attack before the title tractor would be applied.

If you need the points. Dont forget there are alot of ships lower PS, so you can still tractor them onto rocks so they cant shoot. Could be vital against jonus bombers, etc. Saving you an entire full mod attack back. And if an ace like soontir is caught in arc, they will be less willing to spend focus on offense so they dont get tractored onto a rock.

Anybody see 2x Lancer Crafts being viable? Mainly ask because I have an opportunity to get a cheap second one but having doubts I'd ever use them together.

I picked up an additional 2 Lancers at $7 each. So just for fun, I will run a generic 3 Lancer list 😁

im hopeful a fix is coming that gives the lancer linked action to its turret. even tho the actions are already printed on the pilot card there are ways FFG could implement changes to give the Lancer back its action economy with its turret without overpowering the ship eg. a zero point modification upgrade similar to S-Foils but lets you flip it to rotate your turret. lots of ways it could trigger too. at end phase and gain one stress would actually still be playable on the Lancer because of its awesome movement dial.