Trying to tweak and perfect my Hera Bumper build and would like some opinions. The only things set in stone is the Hera build itself and the fact Jan flies with her for the extra attack. It's the 3rd ship I'm not sure on.

VCX-100 Light Freighter - •Hera Syndulla - 88
•Hera Syndulla - Spectre-2 (76)
Intimidation (3)
•Saw Gerrera (8)
•“Zeb” Orrelios (1)
• Ghost (0)

HWK-290 Light Freighter - •Jan Ors - 60
•Jan Ors - Espionage Expert (42)
•Squad Leader (4)
Tactical Officer (2)
• Moldy Crow (12)

Jan occasionally has Juke and Jyn instead but wanted to try this option. All Hera needs is a Target Lock. Reinforce is nice if I can but TL is the one that maximises the damage.

It means I have 52 points spare.

Originally I was running Naked Wedge. His ability stacking with Intimidate was brutal but now I'm thinking Dutch for the lock. Either with just Protorps, or an Ion Cannon and a couple toys would fit.

Any other thoughts?

30 minutes ago, Sonikgav said:

Trying to tweak and perfect my Hera Bumper build and would like some opinions. The only things set in stone is the Hera build itself and the fact Jan flies with her for the extra attack. It's the 3rd ship I'm not sure on.

VCX-100 Light Freighter - •Hera Syndulla - 88
•Hera Syndulla - Spectre-2 (76)
Intimidation (3)
•Saw Gerrera (8)
•“Zeb” Orrelios (1)
• Ghost (0)

HWK-290 Light Freighter - •Jan Ors - 60
•Jan Ors - Espionage Expert (42)
•Squad Leader (4)
Tactical Officer (2)
• Moldy Crow (12)

Jan occasionally has Juke and Jyn instead but wanted to try this option. All Hera needs is a Target Lock. Reinforce is nice if I can but TL is the one that maximises the damage.

It means I have 52 points spare.

Originally I was running Naked Wedge. His ability stacking with Intimidate was brutal but now I'm thinking Dutch for the lock. Either with just Protorps, or an Ion Cannon and a couple toys would fit.

Any other thoughts?

I was looking at building a similar Hera, as a I love the idea of ramming people with her ability. If you do go with Dutch, a couple of those points might be well spent on a hull or shield upgrade for Hera, considering Saw.

Hera looks awesome. Saw is great on her, but I would consider changing him out for a Seasoned Navigator.

Here's a list I've been rolling to some effect:

Hera w/ Intimidation, Zeb, Title, & Seasoned Nav

Wedge w/ Predator, Proton Torps, R5-D8, Afterburners & Servos

AP-5 just naked.

Pretty fierce so far. I'm 5-1 with this list and I like it a lot.

I honestly found Navigator to be overkill. There were very few times he came in all that useful. Just fly Hera smart and you barely even need her Ability.

Navigator feels like you've been riding a bike for 10 years but still have the training wheels on.

Rolled this out a few times now with Naked Wedge. 3-1 so far and I'm noticing a few things.

1. Very little, barring a Defender etc survives a fully modded range 0 shot from Hera and if I thought it would, Wedge pummelling it first with -2 generally gets the job done.

2. No one seems to see the threat coming, focusing primarily on Wedge or Jan to negate her Ability.

3. Stress can be a pain, especially against evasive ships like Phantoms but not crippling.

4. Hera and Wedge both prefer Jan with Coordinate and both are just as valid options for her Ability and the Coordinate.

5. This list works best in close support of each other. Criss-crossing paths to stop pursuers and bump.

I had a thought, if you used Veteran Tail Gunner with a dorsal turret on this build would you be able to fire your main gun, then fire your turret also at your point blank target?

For fifty points you can take AP-5 with 3p0 and predator (can be upgraded with your 2 spare points). That gives you the clutch target lock if you need it, even after a K-turn, and on non-lock turns he is incredibly hard to kill with 3p0 and can consistently add damage with a re-roll/calculate. One of my favorite ships in the game right now.

Best,

I would push hard to get turret gunner and a dorsal in there, another modded attack at init 5 for 12 points is a bargain

1 minute ago, FriendofYoda said:

I would push hard to get turret gunner and a dorsal in there, another modded attack at init 5 for 12 points is a bargain

It's doable with Arvel as the 3rd ship. The thing is making sure you're keeping something in It's Arc as you can't use the Turret at Range 0.

On 10/17/2018 at 9:48 PM, Sonikgav said:

It means I have 52 points spare.

Originally I was running Naked Wedge. His ability stacking with Intimidate was brutal but now I'm thinking Dutch for the lock. Either with just Protorps, or an Ion Cannon and a couple toys would fit.

Any other thoughts?

Well, Thane Kyrell could also be decent. With Hera having a pretty likely chance to open up a Direct Hit, Thane's ability will likely be pretty effective on low dice mods, making it easier for Jan to focus her actions on Hera. Alas, Squad Leader is unique. Hrm. Could there be some other build for Jan Ors then? I can't see one easily. There just don't seem to be too many good upgrades to add to a Thane version over a Wedge version.

Testing Dutch seems good.

1 hour ago, generalchaos34 said:

I had a thought, if you used Veteran Tail Gunner with a dorsal turret on this build would you be able to fire your main gun, then fire your turret also at your point blank target?

Not with Veteran Tail Gunner. Veteran Turret Gunner could, but only at Range 1-2 and not at Range 0. Zeb specifies that you can only make Primary attacks at Range 0. That'd be 12 points. 40 points left over, which seems like Sabine to me, with Debris Gambit or Composure. Blount seems like he'd be over-committing to the "ram" plan and Hera getting into Range 1 ASAP.

I don't think that'd be bad, but I feel like I'd rather go with a Wedge or Thane or Dutch.

Here's another thought: Kanan Jarrus crew somewhere. With Jan taking stress on meh blues, and Hera often liking to pull red moves (again with meh blues, but she does have her ability for helping with those), having access to stress removal on white moves could be handy.

Sabine is probably the best bet, with just Kanan, since she's got 3 red dice and can token stack, and is also fairly nimble.

Probably not as good as other discussed options.

5 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Well, Thane Kyrell could also be decent. With Hera having a pretty likely chance to open up a Direct Hit, Thane's ability will likely be pretty effective on low dice mods, making it easier for Jan to focus her actions on Hera. Alas, Squad Leader is unique. Hrm. Could there be some other build for Jan Ors then? I can't see one easily. There just don't seem to be too many good upgrades to add to a Thane version over a Wedge version.

Testing Dutch seems good.

Not with Veteran Tail Gunner. Veteran Turret Gunner could, but only at Range 1-2 and not at Range 0. Zeb specifies that you can only make Primary attacks at Range 0. That'd be 12 points. 40 points left over, which seems like Sabine to me, with Debris Gambit or Composure. Blount seems like he'd be over-committing to the "ram" plan and Hera getting into Range 1 ASAP.

I don't think that'd be bad, but I feel like I'd rather go with a Wedge or Thane or Dutch.

whoops! I meant turret not tail! Either way, at least its legal and it still may be a legitimate strategy. Id use AP5 and wedge and then use my free coordinate to make him boost with his wings closed so he could open them again before activating! You just have to hope you have another target hanging around at range 1-2, but im sure that wouldnt be too hard if you are keeping wedge close.

13 minutes ago, generalchaos34 said:

whoops! I meant turret not tail! Either way, at least its legal and it still may be a legitimate strategy. Id use AP5 and wedge and then use my free coordinate to make him boost with his wings closed so he could open them again before activating! You just have to hope you have another target hanging around at range 1-2, but im sure that wouldnt be too hard if you are keeping wedge close.

And skip Jan Ors? Personally, I wouldn't. The point of a massive Saw-powered Hera is ramping up the number of hits in a single attack.

A 6-dice attack against 1-agility with Focus does more damage (5 on average) than a 5 and 3 dice attack against a 2-agility target with a focus (4.72). Lock is presumed for the primary weapon attack but not the turret, and both attacks get a Saw "focus."

Meanwhile, AP-5 is going to do less damage on average than Jan Ors, who has a 3-dice primary with a focus early game, as opposed to 2 naked dice.

So as an update i've been running the above list with a Naked Wedge for a while now and competed in a recent comp.

Went 2-3 with one of those only being a split of half points (1hp) on a bomber and i feel that each of the losses was more due to my own ability as a pilot than the build. Mis-judging rocks and wasting multiple turns not being able to shoot at a horrendous level but once i got the hang of it the offensive power shines through. There's very little that wants to be anywhere near Hera when she goes off. 1 hit & 5 Crits vs a -1 AG Rexler was fun.

Wedge also surprised me. Even naked, as long as i don't go nuts stressing himself (though the T-Roll is godly good) he is perfectly capable with no upgrades. If Hera manages to set up her own Target Lock i find Jan coordinating him more often than Hera and with double mods he's lethal, especially if what he is shooting is already bumped by Hera.

I dunno if this is a good thing or not but i also noticed that people tend to give me initiative. Running at 200 points, so no bid, i kinda prefer moving first (and more importantly shooting first) against other 5's because again, Hera can actually remove them before they get a chance to shoot back. Because of this, despite a lot suggesting Nein Nunb instead of Saw, i find that i rarely use Hera's ability as it is and adding Nein or even Navigator feels like putting the training wheels back on. after you have learned to ride. Admittedly every once in a while turning the K-Turn into a hard 1 to bump someone who got too close is satisfying.

But yes, basically i think it has legs, though feel its gonna take way more practice for me to really get hold of it.

8 hours ago, Sonikgav said:

I dunno if this is a good thing or not but i also noticed that people tend to give me initiative. Running at 200 points, so no bid, i kinda prefer moving first (and more importantly shooting first) against other 5's because again, Hera can actually remove them before they get a chance to shoot back. Because of this, despite a lot suggesting Nein Nunb instead of Saw, i find that i rarely use Hera's ability as it is and adding Nein or even Navigator feels like putting the training wheels back on. after you have learned to ride. Admittedly every once in a while turning the K-Turn into a hard 1 to bump  someone who got too  close is satisfying.

Well yeah, if you have to move Hera first they have a chance to arc-dodge, is the reason. You don't want initiative if you have any reposition abilities on high-initiative pilots, you want them to be able to react to the enemy that moves first. Shooting first is only better if you have something to shoot at.

8 hours ago, SpiderMana said:

Well yeah, if you have to move Hera first they have a chance to arc-dodge, is the reason. You don't want initiative if you have any reposition abilities on high-initiative pilots, you want them to be able to react to the enemy that moves first. Shooting first is only better if you have something to shoot at.

Well yeah i know the theory, but it doesn't seem to have been an issue for me.