I’ve been running 4LOM a lot recently, and whilst he’s not Objectively The Best (still Guri), he’s nonetheless absolutely amazing.
So in the spirit of being the change, here are some words of… well, at least experience, I can’t promise wisdom.
The spaceframe
The G1A is wildly improved over 1e. It is one of the very few to actually increase its HP, AND get a better dial (the 2k is usually more useful than the 3, and the stop is money), AND the title gives a full cannon slot rather than just Tractor beam. AND it got 3 2e points cheaper. The basic frame is solid, but with a dial THAT red on a medium base, it’s super predictable.
The robot bounty hunter
4LOM himself has similarly improved. His 1e ability - passing off his stress at the end of the round - remains, but he also gets a free calculate token for fully executing a red, including that wonderful new stop. A thing people often miss is that friendly ships are viable targets, which means that if you fly him mobbed up with someone - Palob is a good ally for this, his greens are OK and he doesn’t need to self stress often, very rarely needs his reds, and if he does end up double stressed he can carry mods - you can keep doing those reds even if you don’t hit r1 or your stress soak dies. And he's FIVE 2e points cheaper.
Builds
Cold hard bare metal - naked 4LOM is solid. He’s reasonably nimble, reasonably tough, and his ability gives him mods every round, albeit minimal, and he’s super cheap. He would fits with, e.g. Palob with Moldy Crow, and Boba with Perceptive, Han Gunner, Marauder, Debris Gambit with a couple of free points. Which is a whole lotta ship, and something I really should try.
Stress troll - adding 000 is a very cheap upgrade that improves him a lot. It’s essentially a catch 22, if you have any targets or are in any arcs, there’s no GOOD choice for your opponent unless they have Teroch’s ability and you have init. If they stress, you can double stress them, or potentially stress multiple enemies, either of which are nice, if they give you calc… well yay, you got calc. The build above would work, dropping Perceptive and adding 000, and you have a bunch more points to throw around, too, e.g. Lando on Palob (for that matter, Lando on LOM himself is not a bad shout).
Defence boosting - Elusive is a very obvious fit. You’ll usually have calcs, so with at least one, you’re getting up to a roughly 85% chance of evading, which is pretty solid, and if you fly right you should have it every round, which is a good return. It’s a solid, cheap upgrade for him.
Offence boosting - Intimidation should work very well, though I’ve yet to trial it. 4LOM is a superlative blocker, and frequently both fails to get shots AND fails to get shot, so Intimidation is a natural fit.
Advanced trolling - Advanced Sensors is a very strong upgrade here. It’s definitely expensive, but fly right and it basically means that the penalty of your red moves - costing you your main action - is entirely obviated. Your red moves now come with a free stress, as opposed to penalising you with one. Woo!
Advanced trolling 1.5: rolling and trolling - Mist Hunter. First point: this is just not worth it unless you have Advanced Sensors, you simply shouldn’t be doing non-reds enough to make it worth even 2 points. Second point: AS roll then a red move is close to peak LOMming; it can move you from outside R3 into prime blocking range in one go. This is a rare ship where adding a LOT of points in upgrades adds way more than it costs. Here's a couple of images showing a not unlikely scenario. 4 forward for the enemy LOM at the top, 1 bank for the friendly.
Full troll to the max - adding illicits and mods. Cloaking Device and Contraband Cybernetics are the obvious ones, the former both for the extra defence and for the extra manoeuvrability, the latter for very obvious reasons - one critical extra action can make a HUGE difference, albeit it’s less useful with AS. Electronic Baffle seems like a good choice, but you’d have to sacrifice HP and you REALLY don’t want to - and as noted above, if you have a friend, you don’t need it.
Other oddities - there are a number of other solid upgrades. Squad Leader gives you a useful way to stress without a red move. Debris gambit gives you more reliable defences, but conversely, costs an action. Collision Detector gives you a lot of unpredictability, and FCS some more mods. Discharge Vanes and Ion Cannon might be worth trying, especially the latter which can give you hyper reliable blocking.
So onto the real meat - tactics, both in his use, and in his countering.
The primary thing you’re trying to avoid, is engaging at r2-3. The ideal thing you’re wanting to accomplish is getting blocks in the first engagement, or flanking to engage without getting shot. The primary thing your enemy is trying to do is kill you before you get to range 1; if you spend even one round there and are alive at the end, you’re very likely not to die, because you’ll be able to stop and at least one of them won’t be able to turn round unless it’s a Defender.
The AS roll gets you at least a Medium base more reach, which gets you way more likely to get that range 1 first engagement.
From there, you can just troll away with AS roll 1 turns, AS lock K turns, or just straight up stopping in place, and keep passing off stress as long as you can keep the enemy in range 1. AS jamming is another great option, if you think your opponent is going to clear, or to block Jukers like Phantoms and Defenders from getting their Evades. This again goes very nicely with Palob, as you’re then able to claim ALL the tokens from one target which is SO much better than just grabbing on.
So, how to counter this magnificent monster?
It’s honestly pretty simple. Slow roll him, and kill him. He’s pretty easy to kill, he can’t get evades, he only has one die, and whilst he’s got enough shields to soak an entire Proton, which is a massive rarity, especially on a non-large base, hit him with two and he’ll be critted a lot. The prime thing you’re trying to avoid is letting him get range 1 in round 1, unless you’re absolutely sure you can kill him - because if you can’t, unless you have bombs or turrets, he’ll be behind you and staying there. Or blocking you. And you won’t know which.
And for the LOM player, how to counter THAT?
Cloaking Device is a good shout, the cloak gives you range 3 protection, and the decloak makes that block or even K turn behind MUCH more likely. But mostly, good flying. Use those opening rounds when you don’t need to red every round, to control range with Mist Hunter and stress passing, so that you can go for those blocks and make your opponent fall short of that range 2-3 alpha strike, or force them to miss mods on the engagement by having to reposition to get the shots.
In conclusion
4LOM isn't a damage monster and isn't a strong support card, he's a trol, through and through, and in large part, a trap card. SO I worry he's going to get pretty rapidly played out. But whilst he's not, he's very, very strong, and if he can draw focus from your other strong ships or endgame beasts, he's serving his purpose, especially if he's cheap.
So, what’s your experience of 4LOM, both playing and countering, and what about the rest of the Mist Hunter pilots? I’ve not played the others all that much myself.
Edited by thespaceinvader