Ryad & company

By MadMystic, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Hey guys, I'm starting with 2nd edition and trying to get used to new rules and opportunities to play old ships. This came to my mind, but I'm not sure, if the HLC works with Marksmanship and could the autothrusters be used while stressed?

TIE/D Defender - •Countess Ryad - 94
•Countess Ryad - Cutthroat Politico (86)
Marksmanship (1)
Fire-Control System (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (4)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 51
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)
Daredevil (3)
Afterburners (8)

TIE/in Interceptor - Saber Squadron Ace - 51
Saber Squadron Ace - (40)
Daredevil (3)
Afterburners (8)

Total: 196/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Edited by MadMystic

1. Marksmanship is eventually negated by Heavy Laser Cannon. You can turn a Hit to a Crit, but you'll have to turn any Crits back to Hits at the end of the Modify Attack Dice step. A really strong Elite upgrade to consider on TIE Defenders is Juke. You'll get an Evade action from Full Throttle, so it's really easy to use.

2. No, Autothrusters can't be used while stressed. Afterburner can allow you to perform a Boost while stressed, but you can't use that with Autothrusters to perform a Barrel Roll while stressed. If you aren't stressed after a Speed 3-5 move, you could boost with Afternurners, take a focus or evade action, then use Autothrusters for a Barrel Roll.

2.b. With Daredevil, you have to be performing a White Boost to trigger the effect, so it also can't really be used with Autothrusters (that specifies a Red Boost, so you can't do a 1-hard Boost as a second action, and you can't take an action after doing a Daredevil boost, since you'll be stressed). You could use Daredevil and Afterburners together, performing a red Hard-1 Boost after a speed 3-5 move when stressed. I don't necessarily recommend it, since you'll wind up with multiple stress tokens.

Personally, I don't really like the thought of Daredevil on Interceptors. The thing they do better than other ships is to either get both a Boost or Barrel Roll with a Focus or Evade token, or to perform both a Boost and a Barrel Roll. Daredevil only lets you do one action. It's a powerful single action, maybe it suits your playstyle, but for myself I just like two actions more. For myself, I think I'd go with Crack Shot. I don't personally feel TIE Interceptors don't have enough health or initiative to get the value out of Predator (statistically, it'll take multiple shots for Predator to equal the value of one Crack Shot), and I want to front-load any damage I have with such squishy ships.

Thanks for the advice!

I was not sure about the HLC, as far as I can remember there was some kind of card combo that allowed to do a crit with HLC in the 1st edition, unless I'm wrong..

I need to try both combination - with daredevil and without, just to find out which works better for me, but two actions are probably better, as I'm not as good with dices as just one red manouver could need...

I rather like the HLC on a Defender, with it being so cheap. However, Defenders are so expensive already that I feel you really have to use points carefully with them or the rest of your list suffers. To get good value out of it on them, you've got to be super good at lining up the bullseye. I'm not, so I don't take it :D

If I'm putting 1 Defender in a list, it's either naked or just Juke.

Ryad though, I really can't look past Advanced Sensors and Outmanoeuvre. She's 100pts of pure craziness. **** the cost.

Edited by Cuz05

Oh yes, pointing the bullseye is a matter of question, I'll see if it'd work for me and I'd have to build squadrons according to it ??

8 hours ago, MadMystic said:

Thanks for the advice!

I was not sure about the HLC, as far as I can remember there was some kind of card combo that allowed to do a crit with HLC in the 1st edition, unless I'm wrong..

I need to try both combination - with daredevil and without, just to find out which works better for me, but two actions are probably better, as I'm not as good with dices as just one red manouver could need...

Yeah, the wording of HLC changed.

In 1e, the effect which changed all crits to hits happened immediately after the initial dice reroll, and any time you modified your dice to crits it worked fine. In 2e, the HLC effect happens after the "Modify Attack Dice" step, so if you change anything into a Crit it changes back.

Speaking of changes, here's one I missed at first: Countess changes her blue-straights into *white* K-Turns. No more clearing stress and turning around. I'd initially gotten excited about the thought of Daredevil on Ryad, since I thought her K-Turns were still green/blue. It's for the best, however, that'd be nutty strong.

I keep meaning to put HLC on a Defender, but haven't yet, since it just didn't fit in the particular lists I was trying. I don't think I've every actually flown a Defender that wasn't a Delta so far... frequently 2x Delta + Palp Shuttle (white Coordinate is amazing). I've like FCS when I've ran it. Defenders usually have some fairly safe turns to grab locks, and Fire Control System lets them spend all their subsequent actions on position and defense, while still getting red dice mods.

5 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Defenders usually have some fairly safe turns to grab locks.

Teach me your ways, o wise one! 3 games I played this wknd with Rex and Ryad, I took not a single TL. Not. A. One. :'D

I have a buddy who is flying LW, Adv Sens Ryad and she's amazing. If she moved last she just wins and if not she's still almost impossible to kill 1v1

I think a Tua, Informant RAC is a great partner for her

13 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

Teach me your ways, o wise one! 3 games I played this wknd with Rex and Ryad, I took not a single TL. Not. A. One. :'D

Well, I'm pretty excited to try new defenders together with "normal" TIE's and Interceptors as partners. I didn't play defenders too much in 1e, as they were too obvious choice and everyone around me played them... so I'm curious if I'll be able to TL something :)

19 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Speaking of changes, here's one I missed at first: Countess changes her blue-straights into *white* K-Turns. No more clearing stress and turning around. I'd initially gotten excited about the thought of Daredevil on Ryad, since I thought her K-Turns were still green/blue. It's for the best, however, that'd be nutty strong

Good to know, it'll be more challenging to play her around...

On 10/14/2018 at 4:45 AM, theBitterFig said:

.If you aren't stressed after a Speed 3-5 move, you could boost with Afternurners, take a focus or evade action, then use Autothrusters for a Barrel Roll.

Anyway, just to make sure to not cheat - do I get it right, that boost with Afterburners is not considered as a normal action? I mean, they are giving me opportunity to do 3 actions?

13 hours ago, FriendofYoda said:

I have a buddy who is flying LW, Adv Sens Ryad and she's amazing. If she moved last she just wins and if not she's still almost impossible to kill 1v1

I think a Tua, Informant RAC is a great partner for her

One of my opponents at the wknd was a very good player. He had 2 Proxy Scimitars, Deathrain and SaiVader all trying to box and kill her for 4/5 turns, (my early huge gamble was a fail, lol). In the end, I had to kill her for him, by totally forgetting about a Seismic he dropped, having finally skidded out of all 4 arcs for the 1st time :D

If I'd dialled in 5k instead of 3k, I could've rolled away from it, taken unanswered shots and kept going.

He did pretty much everything right and made my choices so difficult but man, she is just super squirrelly with AS.

3 hours ago, MadMystic said:

Anyway, just to make sure to not cheat - do I get it right, that boost with Afterburners is not considered as a normal action? I mean, they are giving me opportunity to do 3 actions?

The Afterburners boost is not part of your "perform action step." If you aren't stressed, you still get your normal action in the perform action step, and can follow that with a red Barrel Roll from Autothrusters if you wish. It's still a boost action, and you wouldn't be able to boost again, though.

On 10/15/2018 at 3:31 PM, theBitterFig said:

The Afterburners boost is not part of your "perform action step." If you aren't stressed, you still get your normal action in the perform action step, and can follow that with a red Barrel Roll from Autothrusters if you wish. It's still a boost action, and you wouldn't be able to boost again, though.

Thanks!