Here is my current favorite XXX+ list that I fly last Saturday casual and went 2/3...

Pammich and the T-70s

(36) Pammich Nerro Goode [Resistance Transport]
(2) R4 Astromech
(6) Korr Sella
(4) Larma D'Acy
(3) Hull Upgrade
Points: 51

(44) Red Squadron Expert [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(1) Heroic
(4) Advanced Optics
Points: 49

(44) Red Squadron Expert [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(1) Heroic
(4) Advanced Optics
Points: 49

(44) Red Squadron Expert [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(1) Heroic
(4) Advanced Optics
Points: 49

Total points: 198

Pammich is the best... Nodin is a trap, and I'm not interested in Cova+Leia right now.

I flew this list last weekend and won a 19 person tournament with it:

Lieutenant Bastian (47)
BB Astromech (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Jessika Pava (51)
BB Astromech (3)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Expert (44)
Heroic (1)
BB Astromech (3)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Expert (44)
Heroic (1)
BB Astromech (3)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

I was toying around with different XXXX builds and settled last minute with the 4 BB Astromechs. The reason was that I feared to face a lot of jousting list with all the generics being so cheap. Against swarms the BBs could help me not getting blocked.
And the Astromechs really worked overtime for me. They helped me in every game and got me out of tight spots (missing a proximity mine, getting some blocks and most of all missing many blocks from my opponents). The 3 Ini 3 ships got me several initiative kills and Bastian got me some good blocks against other Ini 2 ships. I was surprised how good the astromechs were.

34 minutes ago, cybu said:

I was toying around with different XXXX builds and settled last minute with the 4 BB Astromechs. The reason was that I feared to face a lot of jousting list with all the generics being so cheap. Against swarms the BBs could help me not getting blocked.

I know the Fireball wasn't legal yet, but would you consider replacing a red squad expert with Kaz?

1 minute ago, GreenDragoon said:

I know the Fireball wasn't legal yet, but would you consider replacing a red squad expert with Kaz?

I haven't flown the Fireball yet (but I'm really looking forward to it. I might even try Farmers list with 6 Fireballs), so I can't really say. I guess Kaz would make a good flanker. But I'm not sure if the list really needs that. The 4 X-Wings can fly as a brick against the opponent and every ship can take some fire. Kaz would take a different role. I can see some matchups where Kaz might be an improvement to the list, but not many.
Also: Kaz with just Heroic and R5 would free up 3 points that I could spend on... no idea. Maybe upgrade a red to a black? Or give Jess the Black One Title for more shenanigans?
I will know more once I have my hands on the Fireball...

My team just won the Italian Team Championship (for the second year in a row!) and I went 7-1 with Cova Leia and 3 Black aces (winning the prize for best resistance player of the whole tournament).

Since it was a tournament following XTC rules, there was some degree of control on pairings and I managed to not play against almost any ace list and it was amazing.

Heroic ships just cheats the expected average of any joust, you just need to be able to force it at your condition and you are basically done and having all at ps 4 meant I was able to ps kill anything I faced.

My only loss was against a sep swarm with 3 discords who brilliantly refused my engage and forced me into the asteroid field

It was an extended event and I don't think I'll bring anything similar to non-team extended tournaments, but I'm highly considering switching an X with Kaz (he wasn't legal at ITC) and put hull upgrade on Cova (which is an amazing tank and probably the best ship of the whole faction) for HS

Congratulations @Sunitsa

So if I am not wrong, the XXX+ archetype since the points changes has:

1) Won the Missouriclorian II with Poe + XXX

2) Made the cut at LVO with Cova, Bastian, Pava, RSE

3) Made the cut with Cova, Bastian, Pava, Kaz and 4 Hull Upgrade RSE at the UK SoS

4) Won Italian Team Championship with Cova, 3 BSA

That's fine different version of the same archetype placing near or at the top at high level event.

So the next question is. Which one of these is the best in Extended?

Also if I may make a suggestion. Instead of Hull Upgrade on Cova consider R4. Leaves you a one point bid AND you can now make two ships perform red manouvers in crucial turns.

22 minutes ago, Flurpy said:

Also if I may make a suggestion. Instead of Hull Upgrade on Cova consider R4. Leaves you a one point bid AND you can now make two ships perform red manouvers in crucial turns.

I've used to play R4 on Cova while I was playing her with Rey, but without having a clear candidate for using purple coordinate or leia instead of cova, I think I'd rather have hull upgrade and raise Cova threshold.

At least it's worth a try, I already know what to expect from r4

23 minutes ago, Sunitsa said:

I've used to play R4 on Cova while I was playing her with Rey, but without having a clear candidate for using purple coordinate or leia instead of cova, I think I'd rather have hull upgrade and raise Cova threshold.

At least it's worth a try, I already know what to expect from r4

Yeah. I'm not sure, you might be right. I just had enough moments with my list where I had to decide to throw Cova under the bus to save another ship with Leia where doing a Hard One with Cova was an option so definitely felt like I was missing R4 much more than one more health since I noticed people either overcommit to Cova or undercommit. She's almost never on half health. Either dead or untouched.

+1 for R4 on Cova. If you can afford it, having the option to proc Cova's ability while using Leia on one of the X-wings (either to do a K/Tallon or just to clear stress with a normal white) can be huge.

12 hours ago, Flurpy said:

1) Won the Missouriclorian II with Poe + XXX

I really wouldn’t consider the Missouriclorian a high level event. I appreciate you trying to include me, though!

13 hours ago, Sunitsa said:

At least it's worth a try, I already know what to expect from r4

would you take hull again?

4 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

would you take hull again?

I haven't tried hull yet.

However, this was the first serious tournament I played without R4 Cova and I think I did a 1 hard only once or twice, but both on the same game. I think having r4 might mislead you to make suboptimal manouvers just because you want to use it since you have it. I didn't really miss r4 this tournament, let's see how future tests will show

6 minutes ago, Sunitsa said:

I haven't tried hull yet.

However, this was the first serious tournament I played without R4 Cova and I think I did a 1 hard only once or twice, but both on the same game. I think having r4 might mislead you to make suboptimal manouvers just because you want to use it since you have it. I didn't really miss r4 this tournament, let's see how future tests will show

Ah, sorry, I misread. Somehow I thought you did, but you just planned to.

17 hours ago, Mistborn_Jedi said:

+1 for R4 on Cova. If you can afford it, having the option to proc Cova's ability while using Leia on one of the X-wings (either to do a K/Tallon or just to clear stress with a normal white) can be huge.

Or to Lock with Cova and have double-mods... A pretty expensive use of Leia, but sometimes a good use of it.

I managed to try Kaz a bit more and I was impressed than my first game.

His tendency of taking nasty crits on his very first attack might be related as it might also be the fact I played against mostly ps1 and 2 pilots.

What I like about Kaz is his ability to keep points and his first turn tankiness, but once he start getting damage he falls off pretty badly.

On hull upgrade or R4 on cova I'm still not set, I didn't find either to be particularly relevant anyway

I played the Fireball in like 10 games through two weeks and the only times it was not worth the points was when it costed more than 44-45 pts (fat Jarek or worthless SLAM shenanigans on Kaz).

In my experience no one wants to fire at him as it has 1 more green dice than the rest and normally theres another ship closer to the attacker.

The lack of shielding is bad, of course, but being able to heal ship crits and having 5(+2) hull for 44pts is a steal. And you are a 3/3 for half the game, at least.

@GreenDragoon you thinking about Hannover? I found flights/accommodation for 200 euros and now I'm debating it. Do we know if the Fireball will be legal.

Anyone else from the regulars going?

15 minutes ago, Flurpy said:

@GreenDragoon you thinking about Hannover? I found flights/accommodation for 200 euros and now I'm debating it. Do we know if the Fireball will be legal.

Anyone else from the regulars going?

I haven't decided yet. I will wait until wave 6 is confirmed to be legal. But some of my friends (including the one you played against) already booked, so I'm definitely on the "likely" side

21 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

I haven't decided yet. I will wait until wave 6 is confirmed to be legal. But some of my friends (including the one you played against) already booked, so I'm definitely on the "likely" side

Yeah Im at likely as well for now, waiting for some personal/professional stuff to resolve first.

For the Cova, Kaz, Jess, and Bastian build does anyone have any tips for droid swarms? I went up against two of them at a store championship and I had no idea what to do that I liked.

Jousting seems like a bad idea. All I1s make Kaz scared of taking any damage. Things can turn on a dime to turn towards any flankers quickly.

You've got slam to get out of dodge if they flip on Kaz - dial in moves that you think will drop you into range 3 of the swarm, on an angle, so that you can barrel roll, or slam back out of range if you get caught. And remember if they have swung their entire formation onto Kaz, your hyper powered jousting block is now behind them, killing their ships.

You should kill a droid a turn with Jess/Bastian, anything Cova adds is a bonus.if they are worrying about chasing down Kaz, I think you've won the game

Further tests on Kaz left me not convinced on his role in a beef list.

At 45 points he's as expansive as a ps 3 t70 who suffers crits much more and even worse becomes a z95 once halved.

I might be a bit biased by having taken nasty crits literally every time thought

2 hours ago, Sunitsa said:

Further tests on Kaz left me not convinced on his role in a beef list.

At 45 points he's as expansive as a ps 3 t70 who suffers crits much more and even worse becomes a z95 once halved.

I might be a bit biased by having taken nasty crits literally every time thought

Are you jousting with him, flanking with him, etc.? Do you find yourself slamming with him very often?

9 hours ago, gennataos said:

Are you jousting with him, flanking with him, etc.? Do you find yourself slamming with him very often?

Flanking as general plan which often becomes a joust at some point.

I don't slam often, usually only if I can disengage safely after taking damage and have the chance to discard a damage card with r5 to not being halved or to get back his ability.

Speaking of r5, being basically forced to do it as first action of the game doesn't suit well with his flanking potential since I often would have preferred to slam or barrel as first action.

I never used explosion with wings.

I have played against mostly not aces lists with plenty of generics ranging from ps 1 to 3 which often means a single unlucky attack is enough to either disable him forever or to keep him out of the game for a couple of turns

5 hours ago, Sunitsa said:

Flanking as general plan which often becomes a joust at some point.

I don't slam often, usually only if I can disengage safely after taking damage and have the chance to discard a damage card with r5 to not being halved or to get back his ability.

Speaking of r5, being basically forced to do it as first action of the game doesn't suit well with his flanking potential since I often would have preferred to slam or barrel as first action.

I never used explosion with wings.

I have played against mostly not aces lists with plenty of generics ranging from ps 1 to 3 which often means a single unlucky attack is enough to either disable him forever or to keep him out of the game for a couple of turns

Huh, not sure what to suggest. If they’re lower init, maybe dail in fast maneuvers which can slam to escape their arcs along with the rest of the squad in position to punish pursuing him?