My FLGS is hosting a local event. It's going to be a 3 week escalation league. Players start week one with 100 points, and add 50 points each week. The original list has to stay the same - no swapping upgrades, pilots or ships. All we get to do is add 50 points each week. The format add in some interesting built in limits to list building and what can be brought to the table - week 2 and 3 are probably not adding many high end aces because we only get to add 50 points, so high end aces are either going to be seen from the start, or may be added if someone intentionally keeps their list light but they'll be at a disadvantage for the week they aren't using the points. Either way, high end aces are going to be tough to fit in because even in week 1 there still needs to be at least 2 ships on the table.

This is going to be my first competitive X-wing event, so any tips or trick or advice on my list would be appreciated. Here's the list I'm planning on bringing.

Week 1:

Sheathipede - AP-5 with R4 astromech

Z-95 - Airen Cracken with Predator

Tie Fighter - Sabine Wren with Predator

I'm anticipating week 1 lists (possibly incorrectly) to fall into one of 3 categories - Ace + generic, 3-4 generics with minimal upgrades, 2-3 utility ships (a mix of unique pilots and generics, but no aces). With only 100 points available the first week, my thoughts are that aces, while powerful will underperform against lists that can field 3 or 4 ships because the aces will likely be limited to only 1 other wingman. I decided I wanted to get at least three ships on the board, but wanted to avoid generics if I could. That meant I'd be sacrificing firepower (they are all 2 attack dice) so I wanted pilots that had decent mobility or repositioning. I know none of the three ships I have week 1 are heavy hitters, and I might get eaten alive, but I'm hoping to gang up on targets and

Week 2:

Sheathipede - AP-5 with R4 astromech

Z-95 - Airen Cracken with Predator

Tie Fighter - Sabine Wren with Predator

U-Wing - Heff Tobber with Pivot Wing, Tactical Officer and Intimidation

The U-wing brings another coordinate to maximize action efficiency and also offsets my 2 attack dice ships by making blocked targets just a little bit squishier. It also brings some added firepower it can take a hit or two and keep going. Otherwise, my plan remains mostly the same as week 1. Use the three small fighters to gang up on targets with the U-wing blocking and taking shots of opportunity.

Week 3:

Sheathipede - AP-5 with R4 astromech

Z-95 - Airen Cracken with Predator

Tie Fighter - Sabine Wren with Predator

U-Wing - Heff Tobber with Pivot Wing, Tactical Officer and Intimidation

T-65 - Kullbee Sperado with S-foils and Predator

Week three I add in a heavier hitter (I haven't decided if I should reverse the order I add in the X-wing and the U-wing so any advice is welcome on that point). I chose Kullbee because he is capable of repositioning without losing his firepower, which I like because with two ships able to coordinate, he is likely to be able to pull off some good shots with modifiers. The other pilot I was considering was Thane, but I like the ability to reposition and then open S-foils.

So, that's my general plan. Like I said, it's my first competitive event. Advice and tips from more experienced players is welcome.

3 hours ago, Unit34 said:

Week 1:

Sheathipede - AP-5 with R4 astromech

Z-95 - Airen Cracken with Predator

Tie Fighter - Sabine Wren with Predator

I think you are on the right track, but firepower is very minimal here. Get some 3 dice ships in there:

Lieutenant Blount (30)

Sabine Wren (38)
Debris Gambit (2)

AP-5 (30)

Sabine is a nice ace, with a boost/barrel roll and evade before she gets an action. And blount adds a dice when a friendly is at range 1.

Round 2 just spend 48pts for Thane, or Biggs. So that in round 3...

Thane Kyrell (48)
Servomotor S-foils (0)

You get Wedge. Basically 14 red dice now with wedge 3, thane 3, sabine 3, blount 3*, ap 2.

Wedge Antilles (52)
Servomotor S-foils (0)

Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Another option is just go with Luke and Sabine naked in round 1. Round 2 add Blount, torps to Luke, and debris gambit to sabine. Then round 3 you have 59pts to add Supernatural to Luke plus 47pts of a ship you want like Garven Dreis, or Dutch, or a selfless Bwing.

Can you add upgrades to ships from week 1?

For example adding a crew to your sheathepede.

can you save points to add a pilot who costs more than 50 in your 3rd week?

if both answers are no, I have to say this format is not very rebel friendly as rebels have less cheap options compared to other factions, and the options they do have fall behind cheap options in other factions, like quadjumpers, tie strykers, or tie bombers.

13 hours ago, wurms said:

I think you are on the right track, but firepower is very minimal here. Get some 3 dice ships in there:

Lieutenant Blount (30)

Sabine Wren (38)
Debris Gambit (2)

AP-5 (30)

Sabine is a nice ace, with a boost/barrel roll and evade before she gets an action. And blount adds a dice when a friendly is at range 1.

Round 2 just spend 48pts for Thane, or Biggs. So that in round 3...

Thane Kyrell (48)
Servomotor S-foils (0)

You get Wedge. Basically 14 red dice now with wedge 3, thane 3, sabine 3, blount 3*, ap 2.

Wedge Antilles (52)
Servomotor S-foils (0)

Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Another option is just go with Luke and Sabine naked in round 1. Round 2 add Blount, torps to Luke, and debris gambit to sabine. Then round 3 you have 59pts to add Supernatural to Luke plus 47pts of a ship you want like Garven Dreis, or Dutch, or a selfless Bwing.

Lack of firepower was definitely an issue I saw in my early list. I was hoping that would be mitigated a little bit by having fewer ships on the board at the 100 point level, and passing action from Airen. But I really like your suggestion of adding in Lt Blount. He brings a little more punch and costs less than Airen which will help out later on, and I think it's likely easier to trigger his ability than Airen's consistently past the first engagement. I also really like attack shuttle Sabine, but didn't even consider her because it's one of the few ships I don't have the model for :(

I know Wedge and Thane are both considered top X-wing pilots - I definitely considered them, but in the end went with Kullbee because I really liked the way his pilot ability allowed me to coordinate him so he can get a reposition and a dice mod without losing firepower. It may not be top end competitive but I was trying to use pilots I don't normally fly. Is there a reason other than Wedge and Thane are really good not to take Kullbee? I've never flown him, but on paper he seems pretty strong, even if he's not quite at the level of Wedge/Thane/Luke.

You've given me some ideas though so I'm going to play around with adding in Blount for sure and see what I come up with.

12 hours ago, DakkaDakka12 said:

Can you add upgrades to ships from week 1?

For example adding a crew to your sheathepede.

can you save points to add a pilot who costs more than 50 in your 3rd week?

if both answers are no, I have to say this format is not very rebel friendly as rebels have less cheap options compared to other factions, and the options they do have fall behind cheap options in other factions, like quadjumpers, tie strykers, or tie bombers.

The only major restriction is that we cannot change anything that has already been used. Adding upgrades or new ships is fine. What we can't do is use "crack shot" week 1 and then "predator" week 2 on the same ship. As long as we don't change or take away anything we've already used, the only other restriction is the points cap; week 1 - up to 100, week 2 - up to 150, week 3 - up to 200. If we only use 140 points in week 2, we don't lose them and would be able to add up to 60 more points in week 3.

Ok, so I'm really liking the Attack Shuttle Sabine with Debris gambit (read, I may go find a ghost expansion to get the model....) as it allows a boost, barrel roll and evade each turn as long as I'm not stressed. Normally linked actions are red so dialing in a red maneuver wouldn't allow me to barrel roll/evade. However, with debris gambit, my red evade is now considered white. So, my question with that is, if AP-5 co-ordinates Sabine while she has a stress token, can she still pull off the barrel roll evade?

6 minutes ago, Unit34 said:

So, my question with that is, if AP-5 co-ordinates Sabine while she has a stress token, can she still pull off the barrel roll evade?

Yes. AP5 states:

While you coordinate, if you chose a ship with exactly 1 stress token, it can perform actions.

Sabine can perform actions while she has exactly 1 stress while being coordinated.

Ok, that just seemed REALLY good... just wanted to double check I wasn't missing something, lol.

I think I'm definitely going to be bringing Blount, and if I can get my hands on a Ghost/Attack shuttle expansion, swap out the Tie Fighter for Attack shuttle Sabine.

Crazy thought, and You might not have any interest in the ship, but could this just be the format where the Ghost(Hera) might be powerful?

Week 1

Hera Syndulla(vcx-100)

Zeb Crew

Total-77

z-95 bandit squadron

Total-23

week total-100

In week 1 I imagine it would be hard to put Hera to half points as her pilot ability plus Zeb makes her a bumper car who throws 5 dice at whoever she bumps and at 100 points ppl either have multiple firepower 2 ships or an ace+support list or a list with low initiative glass cannons like interceptors

Week 2

add to Hera

Nien Numb crew-5

Intimidation elite-3

also add

Sabine Wren(attack shuttle)

Debris gambit

Total- 40

week Total- 48

In week 2 when everyone has more of a list Hera hits her stride with 8 blue manauvers she can swap between at will after seeing where all the ships with lower initiative than her went(5) or even the reds if necessary and intimidation removes a defense die for anyone shooting whoever she bumps. Sabine is one of Rebel’s better pilots too and we even saved a few points for...

Week 3

Wedge Antillies

Servomotor s foils

Total- 52

If wedge shoots someone Hera is bumping they lose 2 defense die assuming Hera didn’t delete them already.

The only reason I suggest this is bc this format prevents the use of some super expensive monsters who could chew Hera like Boba or Dash.

Quadjumpers do nothing to Hera

In week 1 you can only afford 2 proton torp carriers and Hera can rush into range 1 with 4 forward large base. After gap closing her pilot ability should prevent proton usage as long as you avoid terrain correctly

if a super ace gets behind you, commit a 4k, but if they anticipate that and fly to a side you can cut them off by switching to a 1 hard or 3 hard.

I’m not trying to convince to fly a ship you may or may not be interested in so much as wondering if such a list set sounds somewhat viable, because the format you are in seems like in my eyes to be one where Hera can perform very well because alpha strike lists need too many components to perform well in this format and the big scary’s cost too many points to show up.

As far as non ghost thoughts, the Attack shuttle sabine is a very good deal for it’s price.

Kullbee over Thane is a bad idea

pilot ability of Thane allows you to expose crits, let me make an attack and expose that crit that causes more damage to finish off that ship, or let me pick this crit that reduces your offense to protect my crippled ship, etc

Also thane is initiative 5, Kullbee is only a 4 for the same price making thane have more survivability and offense for the same price.

wedge if you can afford him has amazing offense, and he is 1 of the VERY few initiative 6 pilots in the game, also he is one of the cheapest.

Kullbee’s ability only helps if the opponent already moved, otherwise you will be forced to use it defensively, and Thane or wedge can reposition after most of the enemy ships. Especially wedge as most of the other initiative 6 pilots are so expensive.

sorry to say that the jump from initiative 4 to initiative 5 is dramatic and initiative 6 is so rare you probably don’t even need a point bid for i6.

a few thoughts on what to expect and plan around in your tournament

quadjumpers are so cheap and efficient expect them

Palob+ title is only 50 points and you should expect him in 100% of scum lists in this tournament as there is no bigger meta pilot for scum

Phantoms are not too expensive

Redline is far too cheap to not show up here.

tie strykers- countdown is a very cheap pilot and is very durable.

Sorry for the wall of text, but those are some thoughts.

There's some really great tips in there! I appreciate it!

I know what you mean about the ghost probably doing well. I know 2e hasn't been great for large ships because they just can't take enough shots to keep up with multiple smaller ships and half points makes it easier to get enough points to win without completely killing them. The escalation format set up by the FLGS is really interesting and has some soft limits on some of the more expensive aces. It doesn't outright ban them, but the way it's designed makes it really hard to bring a decked out ace like Boba, Dash, or even Vader. With only 100 points to play with in round 1 it makes it hard to bring a lot of the really strong meta aces around and there's no way to add them in for round 2 or 3 with only 50 extra points in each round. It does make some builds with ships that haven't been doing well a little more viable.

I've never flown the ghost but bringing it in on round 1 might be funny. I'm honestly expecting a lot of round 1 lists to be like you said, multiple 2 attack ships or ace + support as a base to build off for round 2 and 3. It might be a lot of fun to just run over everyone's ships and hit them at range 0, lol.

I also see where you're coming from with your point on Kullbee vs Thane. That's too bad because I really like his ability. Maybe the points will be adjusted in his favor come the 28th because the jump up to I5 should cost something; either thane going up (probably more likely) or Kullbee going down would make sense.

I'm going to try and pick up a ghost expansion on Tuesday. I really like Sabine in the attack shuttle. She's a great mini ace, especially early on when we only have 100 points to play with but it looks like she'll hold her value through rounds 2 and 3 as well. I'm actually really excited to try her out.

And thanks for the tips on some of what to expect. I guessed Palob would show up and expected strikers and phantoms too. I actually had a work in progress imperial list I was considering for this with echo, pure sabaac, a reaper and another striker but I just haven't gotten it to a place I like yet. The hardest part about this tourney is coming up with a list that can sever two 50 point chunks and stay effective and then adding the points back in the right order.

It's been a really fun way to approach lit building, but it's definitely made me think a little more than the average list I normally come up with.

Just be careful about multiple firepower 2 ships as in the long run they will contribute very little unless you get to range 1 and a single firepower 3 ship is superior to two firepower 2 ships in almost any range 2-3 situation.

I felt safe with the ghost list only because the pilot ability made her unpredictable/able to react to opponent movements AND zeb crew prevented an opponent from blocking her all game, if my opponent only has 1 threat I will block it and focus it down if possible.

If you want a 3 ship list I would suggest running something like

Lieutenant Blout

Sabine w/debris gambit

ap-5

at least with Blout you can have firepower 3 without requiring range 1

Unfortunately Rebels do not have many cheap firepower 3 ships unlike Empire, running a Rebel 3 ship starting is harder than Imperial or even scum because in scum quadjumpers can make firepower 2 ships just as effective as a firepower 3.

You mentioned you didn’t have the attack shuttle, what ships do you have just for brainstorming ideas.

U-wings aren’t bad

Y-wings are pretty good brawlers

Both shuttles are good

Hwk is amazing in both Rebels and Scum and personally all 3 Rebel pilots look good while Scum just has Palob and Torkil.

X-wings are probably the best Rebel ship overall as the only pilots I would avoid are Two tubes and Leevan.

Arc-170 is even alright with Norra or possibly a tank built Garven.

One thing you are wrong about is the amount of ships your opponents will have in week 1, the only way to fit 4 ships in 100 points is ties or z95’s and I would not expect either list.

Expect super ace+ generic or 3 ship generic or 2 aces. Running a 2 ship list for round 1 would not be horrible, but if you do just be wary of getting bumped and focus fire enemy targets.

Isn't escalation supposed to be 4 quick build points then when one ship dies, a ship build(s) of one more point than the destroyed?

Was just thinking about Empire escalation. They have some really good options. Expect to see tie bombers.

Week 1:

“Whisper” (52)
Juke (4)

Captain Jonus (36)
Barrage Rockets (6)

Total: 98

Week 2:

Rhymer with clusters and adv proton torps.

“Whisper” (52)
Juke (4)

Captain Jonus (36)
Barrage Rockets (6)

Major Rhymer (34)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Cluster Missiles (5)

Total: 143

Week 3:

Scimitar bomber and vader crew

“Whisper” (52)
Juke (4)
Darth Vader (14)

Captain Jonus (36)
Barrage Rockets (6)

Major Rhymer (34)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Cluster Missiles (5)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (28)
Barrage Rockets (6)

Total: 191

Yeah empire has some really good options that can slide in right at 50 points. And they have some really good options on the cheaper side to get a solid foundation. From empire lists I'm expecting to see bombers, strikers, probably phantoms and possibly interceptors. I feel like people either love or hate interceptors but the way this league is designed might make them strong mini aces. Possibly even sooner fel. I wouldn't be surprised to see lambdas or reapers as support ships either. Empire had some really strong crew options.

Vader on a phantom was my first thought when I was looking at bringing empire but I know it's a strong list and wanted to branch out a bit. I would not be surprised to see at least one list like that though.

I'm least familiar with scum, but expect to see Palob, y-wings and likely fang fighters.

Despite my love for the Ghost, my main faction is Scum.

if one were crazy enough you can fit Boba in this format because the escape craft has 1 really cheap pilot who self destructs in 3 turns causing a range 1 crit aoe.

Boba

marauder title

han gunner

Total-87

autopilot drone

Total-12

crazy list but sets up game 2 to be a 1 ship boss.

as far as this format Fang fighters are not likely as the price for a elite fang with fearless is 53 points. Maybe someone will run Fen Rau or Old Teroch(he steals tokens like palob) but I wouldn’t expect a fang squadron as using initiative 1 fangs is not great.

expect palob, quads, 4-lom/Zuckuss, maybe scum Han because he is very cheap, mining ties bc they are fresh and new, or maybe Guri.

Also sure someone will try a Drea(scum Y-wing pilot) swarm as scum has more swarm options than imperial now.

Scum has very few competitive options atm, but the options they have are very strong.

Start all units in one of the corners. I prefer the bottom left. Use as slow maneuvers possible to drag them in and have a few turns to get ready.