I've tried a few builds (droid swarm, 3 ships, loaded Maul, Count Dooku w/ HP, etc...)... but I can't seem to find something that works consistently yet. Tonight, I decided to try something totally different. No idea how it will go. What do we think:

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 20
Trade Federation Drone - (20)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 26
Trade Federation Drone - (20)
•••Discord Missiles (6)

Belbullab-22 Starfighter - •General Grievous - 74
•General Grievous - Ambitious Cyborg (47)
Outmaneuver (6)
Impervium Plating (6)
•Soulless One (10)
•K2-B4 (5)

Sith Infiltrator - •Darth Maul - 80
•Darth Maul - Sith Assassin (65)
•Count Dooku (9)
Seismic Charges (3)
Hate (3)

Total: 200/200

Dooku is...not great on Force users. IMO, Maul needs Hate and PerCo to be at his peak. Losing the seismics then leaves room for ESC on the other drone

22 minutes ago, Greebwahn said:

Dooku is...not great on Force users. IMO, Maul needs Hate and PerCo to be at his peak. Losing the seismics then leaves room for ESC on the other drone

Hate+Dooku is basically reinforce

Only if you have all your charges. Not something I want to be happening

Have you tried 6 Separatist Droids with Energy-Shell Charges and some Init 1 blockers? They worked well for me.

1 hour ago, Greebwahn said:

Dooku is...not great on Force users. IMO, Maul needs Hate and PerCo to be at his peak. Losing the seismics then leaves room for ESC on the other drone

Yeah so right. The thing is I found Maul not to be very effective because if he's going against multiple targets to get multiple attacks, he's also taking multiple shots (close to impossible to "sneak" up on ships from the side with a large base that shoots only from the front arc). And when he takes multiple shots, he goes down real fast, with only 1 green die. I really want to make the Sith Infiltrator work, which is why I was trying HP with Dooku to get the extra green dice (it just goes through force tokens like crazy. It didn't work so well last night. Tonight I was thinking of trying this (one last chance for Dooku before I go back to Maul....before I give up on Seperatists😞

Belbullab-22 Starfighter - •General Grievous - 69
•General Grievous - Ambitious Cyborg (47)
Outmaneuver (6)
Impervium Plating (6)
•Soulless One (10)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 26
Trade Federation Drone - (20)
•••Discord Missiles (6)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 20
Trade Federation Drone - (20)

Sith Infiltrator - •Count Dooku - 85
•Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus (61)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Proximity Mines (6)
Hull Upgrade (3)
•Scimitar (4)
Heightened Perception (3)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

The only thing I might change for a second game is Proximity Mines & HU, to Proton Bombs and HLC instead. I like having HLC but Proximity mines help direct traffic, blocks K turns behind me and potentially hit hard if the trigger, vs one crit for proton bombs.

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

Have you tried 6 Separatist Droids with Energy-Shell Charges and some Init 1 blockers? They worked well for me.

I did try a mini-swarm, but I found they go down real fast. I was trying to find something else that works. I'm also very very pleased with General Grievous (even without Impervium Plating) so don't want to give him up, and love the way the Sith Infiltrator looks on the table and very much want to find a way to make it work. But I am slowly losing hope. Dooku would work but eats up Force tokens too quick, and Maul hits hard at the first pass...but it's a large base ship that can only shoot from the front. After the initial pass, I find I am always at a disadvantage. I'd be open to tips on flying it if others are finding success.

I found 7-8 ships quite good. There are enough Calc tokens to pass to those that need it. The I1 guy can block pretty well. Six ESC's can really rip apart the enemy. You can do a lot of damage at the beginning, but need to reload those ESC's to keep up the rate of fire. If you don't watch out, the hits will start whittling you down.

This has worked for me, but it was a casual game.

Maul: Hate, Scimitar, Grievous, Jamming Beam(It's Free)

5x Trade Fed Drones w/ Energy Shell Charges

The whole list just jousts. After a range 2-3 volley go for blocks with the Vultures and adjust Maul's position to take advantage of them. Hate keeps Maul's Force topped off, Grievous for 3 points is a steal, he procs at least twice a game for me. Scim is nice for the start of the game but being able to Jam can help the Vultures when Maul doesn't have a shot.

I've thought about dropping Maul to Dooku to get the DRK-1 droids on the board, but I haven't tried it yet. Maul's offense is pretty great with the double taps and I5 is nice to have.

I played a 3 ship list last night:

Maul - Hate

Dooku - Hate, Scimitar

Grievous - Soulless One, Impervium Plating

199 points

Faced two separate lists:

1. Anakin +7b / Obi wan + battle Meditation / 2 Homing missile I2 torrents (may be missing some upgrades): Maul ended up being the target, and was lost, but did some serious work, and Anakin died quickly. Won the game on points (all of anakin, half of Obiwan and 1 torrent), having lost Maul, and only 1 hull on Grievous. Impervium plating was gold - last round I was able to spend a charge and discard 1 ship crit, which kept me above half points. I took the single damage each time on the homing missiles on Maul (he took all 4 charges), but doing so replenished my force by 1 each time. So after the first round double tap, I was full force going into the next round.

2. Yion: this one was a game shortened by time before the store closed, but I sent Grievous up the board to flank, and separated Maul and Grievous to make the Ys make a choice. They chose Maul, and well... Got "mauled".... The double tap was brutal, and did work. Took 2 Ys down in two rounds, and half pointed a 3rd. Lost a few shields on Maul. I will note that my opponent did not slow play like he might for a full round, so take that grain of salt for what its worth. But splitting ships to flank / hammer and anvil the Ys seems to be the way to go here, if you can do it.

general observations (limited, and based on 2 games):

- the Bellbullab is a decent ship. the dial reminds me of the Fang fighter dial a bit, but the ship has shields and Grievous' ability is good when it triggers. The barrel roll-> red focus or boost-> red focus is a very nice action.

- Being able to cloak with Dooku after an attack hits (even though it is a red action) helps mitigate damage (3 dice at range 1-2; 4 at range 3; +1 if obstructed) is nasty fun, and replenishing force after taking a hit helps tank additional shots. The blues are decent enough that you can clear the stress easily enough. worst case, you keep it, and use force if the situation warrants.

- I don't expect the above list to be top tier, but I was very surprised at how well it worked. The dial on the scimitar is quite good, and the 5K can cover some major ground. I would worry about rebel beef, and want to have a full game against that and Yions. I wish the ship had a red boost, so I can throw engine upgrade, but that really might make it broken.

- Gas clouds are fun, and really help this list.

- Aces can still outfly this list, of course, but the large base firing arcs do cover a lot of ground

- the bid isn't as important in this list, so Marksmanship may be a nice talent for Grievous

- Dice variance of course will matter.

Overall, I will be sticking with this list for a while to coax out all the possibilities for it, but I am liking these 2 ships right now.

I found this list fun.

I think everyone is forgetting about general grievous. Not great but with only a having one defense dice on maul two or more hits will pass through easily. Also with all the vultures it should be easy to re-charge.

I could take or leave Dooku. I just haven’t found anything else I want to try. He works best to throw crits. But you can use him for defense to call out a blank. With hate you should be able to get to full “force” after every shot if they hit. Worked about half the time I used him. If nothing else, he helps recharge mauls force up at the end of the round.

Energy shell is under costed at 4 I feel. so spam it as long as you can. I love calculating into crits.

I read a person using munitions failsafe on the vultures. Could be decent, worth a try.

(65) Darth Maul [Sith Infiltrator]
(3) Hate
(3) General Grievous
(9) Count Dooku
(0) Jamming Beam
Points: 80

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 24

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 24

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 24

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 24

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 24

Total points: 200

Had a couple of games last night and still tinkering with it a bit.

A few observations:

Perco on Maul seems a bit superfluous. Fully loaded Grievous is a beast. Vultures die very easily. Gas clouds are very different to Rocks or Debris.

Might try this next game.

Infiltrator - Maul - Hate, Shield Upgrade, Freelance Slicer, Prox Mines

Belbullab - Grievous, Soulless, Elusive, Imp Plating

DFS-311 ESCs

TF Drone ESCs

Okay,

I finally had great success. This list worked against my opponent and was dominant (but there is a caveat which I will get to. Grievous shot up the board and was shooting from outside their arcs. Between the Discord Missles and Proximity mines, I was able to manage traffic and "corral" the opponent's defenders exactly where I wanted them. But the dominance came from the fact that my opponent was overly focused on avoiding the discord missiles. It's just 1 crit per turn if it hits, so I think this list might not be as dominant against other builds or someone just taking the hit from the discord, then shooting it off (or crashing into an asteroid). But the two games last night were won decisively.

Sith Infiltrator - •Count Dooku - 85
•Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus (61)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Proximity Mines (6)
Hull Upgrade (3)
•Scimitar (4)
Heightened Perception (3)

Belbullab-22 Starfighter - •General Grievous - 69
•General Grievous - Ambitious Cyborg (47)
Outmaneuver (6)
Impervium Plating (6)
•Soulless One (10)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 26
Trade Federation Drone - (20)
•••Discord Missiles (6)

Vulture-class Droid Fighter - Trade Federation Drone - 20
Trade Federation Drone - (20)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

• Maul - Hate, Chancellor Palpatine, General Grievous, Shield Upgrade
• Separatist Droid
• Separatist Droid
• Separatist Droid
• Separatist Droid
• Separatist Droid

I'm a big fan of Hate/Palp combination to stress everyone that shoots at Maul - its Rebel Captive on every attack, basically. Unless they kill you outright you can k-turn and they can't because you're stressed, and then your droids descend on them.

From a discussion elsewhere on the forum with @TheCeilican about the value of DFS-311 (Butterbot/Public nudity), I arrived at a list I think might have potential.

• Darth Maul with Hate
• Count Dooku with Hate and Scimitar title
• Captain Sear
• DFS-311

You can combo Sear and Butterbot for a free crack shot on anything in any bullseye, or just give the calculate to anyone who needs the mod (probably Maul).

Sear is actually quite efficient. Two points less than a generic x-wing for a comparable chassis (-1h), a different (but not strictly worse) dial and better linked actions. Has anyone tried to fit him into a swarm style squad to make use of his ability?

In my list above, if loading Maul is a mistake then most of his upgrades come of to turn one of the Separatists into Sear. He's ok, and definitely decent value for his cost.

One of my first thoughts would be pretty simple: Grevious as a solo flanker and as many red dice as you can get for the main jousting block:

General Grevious + Soulless One + Impervium + Outmaneuver (69)
Separatist Drone + ESC (26)
Separatist Drone + ESC (26)
Separatist Drone + ESC (26)
Separatist Drone + ESC (26)
Separatist Drone + ESC (26)
Total: 199

Does anyone have experience flying a fully-loaded Grevious like that? Seems pretty strong for the points but he doesn't have the init or repositioning to really fly like an ace, and he cares a lot about dodging arcs.

@Yearfire

I ran Sear the other night and love his ability. The list I ran was:

New Squadron

(39) Captain Sear [Belbullab-22 Starfighter]
(10) Kraken
(10) Soulless One
Points: 59

(26) Precise Hunter [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 30

(26) Precise Hunter [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 30

(26) Precise Hunter [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 30

(24) DFS-311 [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
(3) Grappling Struts
Points: 31

(20) Trade Federation Drone [Vulture-class Droid Fighter]
Points: 20

Total points: 200

Grappling Struts let 311 stop somewhere and keep acting like Oprah, Kraken let's Sear calculate himself to use his own ability at certain points. Everything is range 0-3 so you can space out a decent bit and get good use out of all of your abilities.

The thing about Maul and Dooku is, they are made to hit and run. Maul with Hate and Perco and Dooku with HP, Perco, and Scimitar both want to roll up, take a decent shot or two, spending a couple force charges, do it again the next turn, then run away for a couple turns. Keeping them in the fight continually is not the way to go