Resistance XXX + ?: a fun entry point to Resistance

By GreenDragoon, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Just now, gennataos said:

No fair, you went and did that maths.

That does look disgusting. What about C-3P0 and optics? I really like that coordinate option. 

Hah, I had the bullet point already in there to make a snarky comment. My very first version had 3PO and optics. Problem is: I forgot that calculate tokens can't use optics! Seems I'm not the only one who forgets this all the time ^^

1 minute ago, GreenDragoon said:

Hah, I had the bullet point already in there to make a snarky comment. My very first version had 3PO and optics. Problem is: I forgot that calculate tokens can't use optics! Seems I'm not the only one who forgets this all the time ^^

Oh. ****. Yeah. Eff.

Just now, gennataos said:

Oh. ****. Yeah. Eff.

The 42pt Finn gets more than 0.5 expected damage more, and that's quite a lot. Your alternative gives the Xwings more maneuverability. I don't think one or the other is wrong. But perceptive+optics has a much harder hitting Finn.

So... matchup dependent? Or even dependent on the opponent and how familiar he is with the raw output of that list ? If your chance of putting 10 hits on the table is at 98% then it will probably do some damage. And hopefully they fall for the trap that is Finn - he has the least amount of HP and same agility! That makes him the obvious choice to shoot at.

I really like this list. My struggle with this is the variance in initiative and wanting to keep Snap behind someone.

I do think finn is a great, shower, alternative to the awing.

"3XP"

I like it.

I'd use Finn with PA and Heroic and leave it at 35 pts.

I'd even go crazy and replace Jess with Lulo and Have Nien And Ello...

3XP

(56) Ello Asty [T-70 X-wing]
(1) Heroic
Points: 57

(55) Nien Nunb [T-70 X-wing]
(1) Heroic
(5) Pattern Analyzer
(2) Black One
Points: 63

(43) L'ulo L'ampar [RZ-2 A-wing]
(1) Heroic
Points: 44

(29) Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
(1) Heroic
(5) Pattern Analyzer
Points: 35

Total points: 199

17 hours ago, gennataos said:

I think C-3P0 would be a better fit on Finn. Cheaper, gives coordinate and doesn't "feel" much worse than double focus (haven't mathed it out). I think I'd also drop Advanced Optics on him to make him super cheap, but tweaks can be tried there. I'd lean closer to this. This is my standard Snap, which I think is fantastic.

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

Lieutenant Bastian (48)
BB Astromech (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Temmin Wexley (54)
Composure (1)
R2 Astromech (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Finn (29)
Heroic (1)
C-3PO (6)
Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

edit - Man, that seems jousty as ****. Can even use Snap as a flanker with plenty of rerolls for Jess with Bastian and Finn nearby.

You to be careful, flying 4 ships with different initiatives in a 'block' to get Jess and Snaps ability. it can cause problems with ships getting in the way if each other, especially if you turn around

3 hours ago, Andyf1702 said:

You to be careful, flying 4 ships with different initiatives in a 'block' to get Jess and Snaps ability. it can cause problems with ships getting in the way if each other, especially if you turn around

That was always the case with this list though, and it worked quite well for some. So, not too much of a problem even though the player has to be aware of course!

4 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

That was always the case with this list though, and it worked quite well for some. So, not too much of a problem even though the player has to be aware of course!

Against a player that doesn't identify that weakness, it's quite easy.

A good player will get that list moving all over the place. It's possible to keep the set up okay for the initiatives, but it's not easy at all.

I’ve been experimenting with Finn + 3 T70s and it feels like there’s something here. I’m probably taking some variant of this to GenCon.

I’ve been keeping Finn cheap (either just Heroic or Heroic + C3PO). I like him better with C3PO for the calculate option on key turns, but you have to be careful since Finn without a Focus is quickly a dead Finn. You can fit him with 3 Black Squadron Aces and have points left for astros or other toys on the T70s. That coordinate to get an important double mod can be very good.

I’ve been planning to try the Snap/Jess/Bastian combo with him but haven’t put it on the table yet, glad to see others are theorycrafting in the same direction.

I really like the idea of Advanced Optics suggested by @GreenDragoon and will give it a try. That makes Finn a monster and may well be worth giving up the upgrades on the T70s.

Havent tried Finn yet. He seems like a pain the the *** to kill though.

Im running Nodin with r4, korra, and ion cannon along with jess, bastian with m9g8, and Lulo with heroic.

Bastian locks nodin while get a coordinate, focus, and reroll. With focus and reroll has 74% chance to roll three hits with an ion cannon. Game 1 iond vader, dead vader. Game 2, iond dutchess, dead dutchess. Definately worth it.

So I quite quickly adapted my original list to use Finn + heroic + c3po but I haven’t put it on the table yet.

Feel like having the coordinate helps keep the X-wing unpredictable.

Gonna have to give it a try soon.

Big deal Resistance

(54) Temmin Wexley [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(1) Composure
Points: 55

(51) Jessika Pava [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(7) M9-G8
Points: 58

(48) Lieutenant Bastian [T-70 X-wing]
(0) Integrated S-foils
(2) Autoblasters
Points: 50

(29) Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
(6) C-3PO
(1) Heroic
Points: 36

Total points: 199

I was actually going to go with this list and use M9-G8 on Jess to target Finn.

It's not aces, but either of these guys can be fielded X4

Blue Squadron Rookie (45)

BB Astromech (1)

Integrated S-Foils (0)

Heavy Laser Cannon (4)

Ship total: 50 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4

Black Squadron Ace (T-70) (49)

Heroic (1)

Integrated S-Foils (0)

Ship total: 50 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4 Total: 100 View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Resistance&d=v8ZsZ200Z258X196WW175WWW10Y256X172WWW175WWW&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

Edited by Nyxen
4 hours ago, Nyxen said:

It's not aces, but either of these guys can be fielded X4

The question behind the original list was how to get 4 double modified 3dice attacks. 4X works (and quite well!) but it's something slightly different :)

@GreenDragoon , or anyone, what is your typical starting formation for Jess/Snap/Bastian?

2 hours ago, arctic_rogue said:

@GreenDragoon , or anyone, what is your typical starting formation for Jess/Snap/Bastian?

Bastian and Jess up front with Bastian on the inside line. Snap behind Jess onset on the outside line. Bastian is then free to block if needed and Jess is in-between the two usually.

I normally manoeuvre Snap one speed slower on the first move so have space for the engagement round incase I have to slow up the front or they are blocked.

3 hours ago, arctic_rogue said:

@GreenDragoon , or anyone, what is your typical starting formation for Jess/Snap/Bastian?

very similar to Tyhar's explanation.

Finn might change that a bit. I'm thinking of a diamond where Snap is the rear corner. But I haven't tried it yet.

I started out with Nien, Ello, Bastian and Vi Moradi, but I think shifting from Vi to Finn is a better choice. Granted dial peaking is good and Vi might still be a good choice, but Finn being the same initiative as Bastian along with more firepower is probably better. I've build Nien w/ PA SFoils, Ello w/ SFoils, Bastian w/ SFoils and Finn w/ Heroic & C3PO.

Edited by RStan

What's the deal with Composure on Snap Wexley? Are you trying to use it to get a focus token by failing his free boost and then do focus and have 2 tokens? Reading the card, I'm not sure what good it is. I'm fairly new to 2e and Resistance so please be nice lol.

Also, I didn't like Bastian so switched him for Joph and Tallie for Greer and was having some fun with Snap, Jess, Greer, and Joph

1 hour ago, cpdilloway said:

What's the deal with Composure on Snap Wexley? Are you trying to use it to get a focus token by failing his free boost and then do focus and have 2 tokens? Reading the card, I'm not sure what good it is. I'm fairly new to 2e and Resistance so please be nice lol.

Also, I didn't like Bastian so switched him for Joph and Tallie for Greer and was having some fun with Snap, Jess, Greer, and Joph

Yes, the idea with Composure is to fail the free boost. This frees you to grab a lock as your action. Doesn't work every turn, but it's sweet when it does. (You can't double Focus because you can't take the same action twice, and Composure explicitly says to take the Focus action.)

Bastian is nice; I like him much better than Joph. The trouble with Joph is that he incentivizes people not to shoot at him, simplifying the enemy's target priority, without being able to much punish them for ignoring him (any more than any other T70, that is). Bastian gets free locks when people take hull damage, and he shoots late in the order-- hopefully after your other ships have taken their shots and hurt stuff. It's nice. Now it sticks the enemy on the horns of dilemma: Snap is the most maneuverable so he's potentially the biggest one-on-one threat, Bastian isn't too bad as a closer and hurts in the meantime, Jess is the easiest to deal with in the late game but the most consistent damage-dealer in the early game. Who does your opponent shoot? Well, they're wrong. Replace one of those ships with Joph? "Okay, I just won't shoot him, I'll shoot Snap or Bastian instead, and if it gets to a one-on-one in the endgame his pilot ability is off regardless." It's one of those cases where what seems like an upgrade is, in actual gameplay, a downgrade.

So I tried the 42-point variant of Finn with Heroic, Optics, and PerCop. I was... pleasantly surprised. The difference in dial from the T-70s gives me pause-- one reason I love T-70s is because they can go fast at a moment's notice, but this leaves Finn in the space-dust. That said, he takes one of the greatest strengths of the Snap-Jess-Bastian list (scrambled enemy target priority) and emphasizes it. He makes the enemy want to shoot off the Focus tokens so the reply shots aren't harsh, but he's relatively durable as long as he has tokens. Because the pod's dial is so bad, if I'm the opponent I think I try to live with Finn and make him the endgame opponent, but that doesn't feel good either. In second edition, slapping on upgrades worth 50% of a ship's cost is usually the wrong answer, but I may have to reconsider for Finn.

That’s why I went with the Finn + Heroic + 3PO version and gave Jess M9G8.

Jess is good to lock Finn in the first round, allowing you to add the additional blank and mod or re-roll a rolled blank and add the focus result.

This also screws with target priority for the opponent as Jess becomes more of a problem, I find many smart opponents leaves her till the late game. If they do, you now have M9-G8 to help fuddle dice defensively, this is also true if Finn is taken out early game.

Additionally have the coordinate to dynamically alter vectors on the T-70’s gives you a lot more options and gives your opponent a headache to have to think about them.

Edited by Tyhar7

I tried Finn with Heroic/Optics/PerCop last night with Snap/Jess/Bastian.

The match was against Anakin/Mace/Ric. All speedy ships with repositioning, flown by an opponent that knows how to arc dodge. Getting good shots was going to be hard no matter what. For Finn it proved to be very difficult with his more limited dial. It felt like a very offensive build and getting value out of him required keeping guns on without stress. It was awesome to take a R3 shot, roll hit/focus, add a blank result and then spend the 2 Focus tokens for 3 hits. But it just didn't happen often enough against these squirrely aces.

Given the flood of Jedi in the meta right now, I'm concerned that this Finn load can't contribute consistently enough. I'm going to try the C3PO version tonight in a little 3 round tourney at the FLGS and see how flying him less aggressively to take advantage of the coordinate works.

Anyone have an experience/advice flying SJBF against aces?

I got 4 games in with this last night using the C3PO version of Finn, 1 before the tournament and 3 during it. Next up on XXXx journey is trying the M9G8 version.

TLDR:

  • 3-1 overall, 3-0 and 2nd place in the tourney.
  • Fun to fly and effective jouster.
  • Opponents: 1) RAC/Whisper (lost this one), 2) Rey/Poe, 3) Anakin/Ric/104th Battalion/Gold Squadron Trooper, 4) Serissu/Quinn Jast/Overseer Yushyn/Foreman Proach/2 Cartel Spacers
  • C3PO Finn is very flexible. I rarely used the Coordinate but it was a situational consideration throughout. Double Calculate is so good.
  • Don't forget your Jamming Beams! Against a Reinforced RAC it came in handy. Mistake I made at first was having the AutoBlasters on Snap when he should have been the one stripping the Reinforce. Fixed that for the rest of the games.
  • I still think AutoBlasters is worth the 2 points on a T70, but it was only a factor in 1 game.

PreTourney: RAC and Whisper. Toughest game and only loss. Got RAC down to 1-2 hull but couldn't finish him off before he started running with that 4 straight. By that time I didn't have enough guns left to handle Whisper. I started with AutoBlasters on Snap which quickly proved the wrong decision. You really want Bastian to have it to take the most advantage of the potential big shot late in the turn.

Tourney Game 1: Rey/Poe. Rey can't out-joust these 4, and combined with aggressive Poe play that left him vulnerable this one was over fast. It also featured perhaps the biggest dice variance (in my favor) that I've ever had. I felt bad for my opponent, who to his credit took it all in good stride.

Tourney Game 2: Anakin/Ric/104th Battalion/Gold Squadron Trooper. I struggled with Finn's effectiveness against an all-aces list earlier in the week, but with a more mixed list like this it wasn't an issue. Finn using his ability to take 2 shields off Anakin early forced him to disengage for 3 turns while I hammered the rest. Crucial turn was opponent guessing wrong on which way I would go, resulting in Ric bumping in place that gave me 2 modded shot into him. No more Ricky Bobby.

Tourney Game 3: Serissu/Quinn Jast/Overseer Yushyn/Foreman Proach/2 Cartel Spacers. The double tractors had me worried, so I kept the rocks spread out and slow rolled to get the engagement in an open area. Lesson here is don't head on joust against XXXx as it won't go well for you. I was basically deleting a ship each of the first 4 turns of engagement and he wasn't.

Lieutenant Bastian (48)
BB Astromech (2)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Autoblasters (2)
Ship total: 52 Half Points: 26 Threshold: 4

Jessika Pava (51)
R5 Astromech (4)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Jamming Beam (0)
Ship total: 55 Half Points: 28 Threshold: 4

Temmin Wexley (54)
Composure (1)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Jamming Beam (0)
Ship total: 55 Half Points: 28 Threshold: 4

Finn (29)
Heroic (1)
C-3PO (Resistance) (6)
Ship total: 36 Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2

Total: 198

Tried the 42pt Finn tonight. It was a blast, didn't lose a ship (also with some lucky dice) because Finn put down 2-3 evades against every shot.

Finn's optics killed one, and perceptive was the reason he didn't die as I had to spend them both on different attacks, once for 2 focus.

The list:

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

Lieutenant Bastian (48)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Temmin Wexley (54)
Composure (1)
Integrated S-Foils (0)

Finn (29)
Heroic (1)
Advanced Optics (4)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0