Call for suggestions: What are you having fun with that we should try??

By Blail Blerg, in X-Wing

1 hour ago, Blail Blerg said:

Yeah, the Fringer doesn't seem worth it. a meme squad tho. And perfectly good if the Fringer goes down a bit.

Oh I'm well aware of the meme status of the squad, I did call the list "Remember The Good Times" after all :)

I deliberately went into Sunday with a fun list rather than a competitive in mind, as the current hyperspace list doesn't really suit my normal style of play (my ships of choice are the VCX100 and YV666).

Anyway, 5pt reduction on the YT2400 chassis?

17 minutes ago, Surak said:

Oh I'm well aware of the meme status of the squad, I did call the list "Remember The Good Times" after all :)

I deliberately went into Sunday with a fun list rather than a competitive in mind, as the current hyperspace list doesn't really suit my normal style of play (my ships of choice are the VCX100 and YV666).

Anyway, 5pt reduction on the YT2400 chassis?

Dunno. No table time with a fringer. Lend us your expertise.

12 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Dunno. No table time with a fringer. Lend us your expertise.

Well from my limited use of it (5 round at Milton Keynes) I'd say that as long as you can manage the range effectively the finger is a good distraction ship - it's 4 dice gun means that people don't want to ignore it, but they also feel like it's a bad call to use as much fire power as it takes to get through 10 health behind 2 (normally focused) green dice instead of shooting the rest of your list.

It's still over-costed, but we are getting closer

Ok, so what are people's thoughts on FO? Opinions/table exp collection time

I've played about 20 or so games now with FO in various iterations, mostly testing the tie/ba.

tie/ba - Very neat to fly, but it seems to be rather hard to keep these out of danger, especially vs anti-ace lists like 5SF with a lot of arcs. Even a bunch of ships, you get shot at quite a bit, and it seems like you're depending on green dice variance to keep you alive. In many games I've been literally counting on and begging un-focused green dice to keep me alive, which is something most of you know I absolutely do not recommend doing. (Thankfully my math is pretty good, but still, even 4 natural green dice vs 2 red dice is NOT smart). Holo feels good, but without upgrades, seems like just as easy to lose half points with like an Upsilon, and does only about the same level of damage as an upsilon (squirrel-y but mobile application of good 3 red dice vs battering ram 4 dice). Holo is pretty good with a bunch of other stuff, like 3 FOs or Upsilons or SFs. I like Vonreg more than Holo. I really want to try Ember, funny feeling it will be pretty good. I'm not sold on the Provocateurs yet. Many times, if you're being shot and shooting back, both strain and deplete wash out the benefits of new actions. It feels like only BR is really worth it. Daredevil is good on tie/bas due to the timing.

Upsilons - I tried these vs Arcs and other rear arc stuff, and in that case, its horrible to have a low Init like Thanisson, they fly past you and then you're really sad. I'd rather have higher Init vs stuff with rear arcs. I feel like Upsilons are arguably a bit overcosted, considering how fast they give up half points. Would be nice to see these go back down to 57-56. Maybe just like a one point decrease for some named pilots. Tavson is pretty good, I think fair but not bargain for 6 more points.
(Its pretty cool to see how much better rear arcs are in 2e than 1e, ex fire spray, arcs, SFs, lambdas - mostly cuz we don't get super modded defense anymore and these 2-3 die chip damages from the rear are worth good squad points.)

Silencers - I still really don't like these. I find the lower pilots action starved and don't push out enough damage in damage races. Kylo is the best, but you do really have to work hard to get his value back. I think FFG did a good job with Kylo's cost, it feels just right. Kylo's a potential powerhouse, but many games he's only ok due to not getting enough out of flying him. I don't really like Rush - too easy to deal a lot of damage to early on.

SFs - Feel like generic XWings... No good way to get out of trouble. Slow roll in, do damage. I really like LeHuse, the ability only happens maybe once a game (not great value), but the Init5 is nice for cheap. There's some synergy trouble with SFs - they don't really want to be getting the main brunt of the firepower. I think they need specific lists.

FOs - Ok, the stars of my lists. At 25 points, these are amazing. The dials are really exceptional (the 2 hard blue-moves). They don't give up points easily, they're great vs bulk lists. At Init1 two or three of them provide HUGE control of space via blocking and moving first. They're totally expendable, giving you full authority to just throw them where-ever you want, reducing in-game-worry. When they are ignored, 2-3 actually do rather good chip damage. 50pts for 2 does seem just a tiny hair less damage than the 58pt Upsilon. An equal trade / comparison, and I'd say the FOs do a better job controlling space (Hence why I think Upsilons can come down 1-2pts).
No table experience with the named pilots yet, been having too much fun with the simple I1 generic. It really is good and really is relaxing and fun to fly. Try them.

Edited by Blail Blerg
42 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

FOs - Ok, the stars of my lists. At 25 points, these are amazing. The dials are really exceptional (the 2 hard blue-moves). They don't give up points easily, they're great vs bulk lists. At Init1 two or three of them provide HUGE control of space via blocking and moving first. They're totally expendable, giving you full authority to just throw them where-ever you want, reducing in-game-worry. When they are ignored, 2-3 actually do rather good chip damage. 50pts for 2 does seem just a tiny hair less damage than the 58pt Upsilon. An equal trade / comparison, and I'd say the FOs do a better job controlling space (Hence why I think Upsilons can come down 1-2pts).
No table experience with the named pilots yet, been having too much fun with the simple I1 generic. It really is good and really is relaxing and fun to fly. Try them.

This has been my main takeaway over the last 6 months of bowing to the First Order. Even before the points change I had a lot of success with 6-7 Tie swarms.

Although I've flown purely Tie swarms in the past to solid success, they do suffer a bit from low red dice. It's why I'm convinced the Focho has a ceiling that it just can't break through, as opposed to droids which can fit upgrades to supplement their offense.

However, as filler? Absolutely fantastic.

My favorite squads in FO right now all start pretty much the same way: Fanatical Scorch and 2 Epsilons. The Epsilons fly together in the middle, Scorch flies by himself up a board edge, and the other 125 points fly up the other edge. Essentially, I have 3 wings now that my opponent can't ignore. If my opponent turns towards Scorch or the rest of my list, I can usually disengage with the target for a turn or two and set up positioning. If they joust the 2 Epsilons in the middle, They'll have to put in a disproportionate effort to kill them (It takes on average 8 2-die focused shots or 4 3-die focused shots to kill an epsilon).

1 hour ago, hargleblarg said:

This has been my main takeaway over the last 6 months of bowing to the First Order. Even before the points change I had a lot of success with 6-7 Tie swarms.

Although I've flown purely Tie swarms in the past to solid success, they do suffer a bit from low red dice. It's why I'm convinced the Focho has a ceiling that it just can't break through, as opposed to droids which can fit upgrades to supplement their offense.

However, as filler? Absolutely fantastic.

My favorite squads in FO right now all start pretty much the same way: Fanatical Scorch and 2 Epsilons. The Epsilons fly together in the middle, Scorch flies by himself up a board edge, and the other 125 points fly up the other edge. Essentially, I have 3 wings now that my opponent can't ignore. If my opponent turns towards Scorch or the rest of my list, I can usually disengage with the target for a turn or two and set up positioning. If they joust the 2 Epsilons in the middle, They'll have to put in a disproportionate effort to kill them (It takes on average 8 2-die focused shots or 4 3-die focused shots to kill an epsilon).

What is focho?

And do you really find scorch with fanatical worth the points?

Focho = eight (ocho) FO Fighter (Epsilons)

Edited by Mighty
1 hour ago, Blail Blerg said:

And do you really find scorch with fanatical worth the points?

Fanatical is fine if you have 2pts left over, but scorch is very good value

19 minutes ago, gadwag said:

Fanatical is fine if you have 2pts left over, but scorch is very good value

I guess considering Blount is 30 pts for 3 red 2 green you’re paying 3 more points for a 3rd green die. And a better dial.

Still doesn’t seem to excite me though.

4 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

I guess considering Blount is 30 pts for 3 red 2 green you’re paying 3 more points for a 3rd green die. And a better dial.

Still doesn’t seem to excite me though.

It's not an exciting ship, it's an efficient ship. In practice, it's a bit boring to fly - lots of 2 hard focus. It brings a solid bang for its buck on a durable chassis

5 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

I guess considering Blount is 30 pts for 3 red 2 green you’re paying 3 more points for a 3rd green die. And a better dial.

Still doesn’t seem to excite me though.

Blount is a conditional 3 red; you only get it if you're flying other ships into range 1 of your intended target. Scorch just has to be unstressed, which it can do easily with that amazing dial.

Most importantly, Scorch can hold his own as a wing of 1. That's pretty impressive for 1/6th of your squad. Lets me set up as below and now there's nowhere my opponent can go to dodge shots.

Vnreg Holo Eps Eps Scorch

Edited by hargleblarg
spelling
11 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Silencers - I still really don't like these. I find the lower pilots action starved and don't push out enough damage in damage races. Kylo is the best, but you do really have to work hard to get his value back. I think FFG did a good job with Kylo's cost, it feels just right. Kylo's a potential powerhouse, but many games he's only ok due to not getting enough out of flying him. I don't really like Rush - too easy to deal a lot of damage to early on.

Silencers are the stand out stars of the First Order for me, and what Silencer I'm including in my list is usually the starting point for a lot of my list building.

The Great Options:

  • The First Order Test Pilot with Fanatical and Advanced Optics is an extremely effective way of getting heavily modified 3 dice attacks. They get more dangerous as they get damaged, and are nimble aces against anything I3 or lower, or fantastic blockers against anything with higher Initiative. They're a bargain at 62 points, and I've had a lot of success with two of these plus another ship, be it a naked Kylo, a heavily loaded Quickdraw (if you're looking at Extended), or Blackout. Alternatively, Fanatical Backdraft and Fanatical Scorch take you comfortably to 200 points, and gives you a solid four ship list all at I4.
  • Avenger is great when paired with a large number of other ships. I've been flying him with Fanatical alongside Rivas, two Epislon Squadron Cadets FOs, and two Zeta Squadron Survivor SFs to good effect (top 8 cut at a couple of Hyperspace Trials). It's a squad that's got real game against Vulture swarms in my experience, and can handle quite a lot of other stuff beside.
  • As you've said, Kylo is just a rock solid pilot - great base statline on the ship, good Initiative, 2 Force, and a very appealing points cost. There's a reason that a lot of First Order lists start with him and build from there. He doesn't need much in the way of upgrades, although I've found either Advanced Optics or Advanced Proton Torpedoes both really strong choices for him.

The Rest:

  • I really wish the Sienar-Jaemus Engineer was 50 points so you could get four in a list. Not having a Talent slot hurts them, as Fanatical is great on the Silencer chassis. However, they're extremely good blockers, and not easy to kill, particularly in a Hyperspace meta that has a lot of 2 dice attacks. If you want to put more points into them Advanced Optics is a very efficient choice, as you'll usually know if you've needed to spend that focus on defence by the time they're shooting. They might get notably better if you can fit in three plus a Xi-class Shuttle with Hux in 200 points once Wave 7 is out.
  • Recoil's ability is just too situational, and is notably worse in Hyperspace where Crack Shot and Predator are off the table. He's not bad, but you'd almost always be better off with a more interesting named pilot, or a First Order Test Pilot for a point less.
  • Rush seems great on paper, but getting him to a point where his ability is active and he's not already dead can be quite tricky. He'd be amazing if he had access to a Talent slot for Fanatical, but I understand why he doesn't have that.. :D Still, definately a pilot I want to play around with more, and in many ways the opposite of Null, going from being a blocker to an ace as he gets hurt.
  • Blackout is on the cusp of being really great, with a very strong pilot ability when you can get it to trigger. However, "only" being 13 points cheaper than Kylo usually means you see if you can find those points, as the Silencer is just so good with the Force. That said, an I5 Silencer really can't be underestimated, and again might be another option that's enhanced by the Xi-class Shuttle giving the First Order cheaper access to coordinate.
4 minutes ago, Jarval said:

*cool stuff

hey this is really neat, but my experiences are in many cases different from yours. Could you give us more of an idea what goes on in your games?

5 minutes ago, Jarval said:

Avenger is great when paired with a large number of other ships. I've been flying him with Fanatical alongside Rivas, two Epislon Squadron Cadets FOs, and two Zeta Squadron Survivor SFs to good effect (top 8 cut at a couple of Hyperspace Trials). It's a squad that's got real game against Vulture swarms in my experience, and can handle quite a lot of other stuff beside.

How does this list work? 6 ships? Is it just a bunch of good value?

I've heard of Blackout with Proud Tradition and Primed Thrusters flying through debris clouds, but it seems like, you're just begging for someone to use a focus somewhere and make your focuses red. It doesn't seem worth it for the setup/flight pattern nor the cost.

7 minutes ago, Jarval said:

The First Order Test Pilot with Fanatical and Advanced Optics is an extremely effective way of getting heavily modified 3 dice attacks.

At 62 points, its nearly 1/3 of the list. I see them dropping to half points very fast against the firepower of other normal/random lists. They don't have the action economy or enough focuses for even 1 attack incoming in, as they want to use it on attack already (before fanatical). And they can also be focus fired down, which means I'm less likely to be as gang-ho throwing them into something to get my real expensive ship into a good spot. 3 ship FO has been really tough for me: lower on the firepower totem pole than normal lists, so they get bullied a lot. Would rather have 2.5 plain FOties.

I've flown against a couple of different triple Silencer lists, Kylo +2 is often on a table near me. They can be very good. A big onus on the player, but they have tools to go where you need them to go and can be difficult to predict, with a set of strong options kept open.

Personally fear Blackout and Fanoptics x3 slightly more than Kylo. Those variously modded attacks make dents and keeps the dials freer. Kylo has to play a little more cagey to protect his higher cost. That can be leveraged somewhat.

I don't know how to use it myself ofc, but my squadmate tends to spread his deployment, which asks questions he can answer from the get-go.

17 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

hey this is really neat, but my experiences are in many cases different from yours. Could you give us more of an idea what goes on in your games?

It's a bit hard to generalise on this, as each of the pilots work in quite different ways to each other. I'll drill down into a bit more detail on each of the examples below, although I should stress that I've got notably more experience with some of the Silencer pilots than others. :)

17 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

How does this list work? 6 ships? Is it just a bunch of good value?

It's basically just raw efficiency, with a bit of added value on some of the ships. Rivas is getting a lock on a lot of turns (any time the opponent gets stressed, strained, depleted, or one of my other ships takes a lock) which really helps to make his attacks consistent. The Epsilon Cadet FOs are just there to be cheap bodies and I1 blockers. The SFs are surprisingly durable ships with a good chunk of shields and, importantly, front and rear arcs (as there's no reason to ever do anything other than set the mobile arc to the rear on them). Avenger is there to come in behind the rest of the formation and take advantage of any blocks the other ships set up for him.

If any of your ships die, then Avenger is quite possibly getting a double modified shot, and the Silencer's Autothrusters ability means you can barrel roll or boost (or even both) during the Engagement Phase if needed. In more than one game in the past, I've blocked someone with Avenger, then had one of my other ships die, and then been able to lock and barrel roll off the ship I blocked to get a Range 1 double modified shot. Also, if Avenger uses his action from a ship being destroyed to take a lock, Rivas usually gets a lock as well.

The mix of Initiatives is quite helpful as well - having I1s means you can block a lot of things (I've been able to block most of a Vulture swarm on more than one occasion), the I2 SFs mean that you can Initiative kill Vultures and other I1s while getting simultaneous fire with 5X and some other generic swarms, and Avenger at I3 means you can fly him like an ace against a lot of generics without paying a huge amount of points for it.

I've been flying this list a lot in both Hyperspace and Extended, and it's really done me well. I've made top 4 and top 8 at two Hyperspace trials with it, and went 4-2 at the UK System Open (and feel confident that I could have made that 5-1 with better choices :D ). The game I lost against Boba/Fenn was a very close run thing, and I only lost it by a couple of points. It's a rock solid squad, and one I'd really recommend people putting on the table if they get the chance.

17 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

I've heard of Blackout with Proud Tradition and Primed Thrusters flying through debris clouds, but it seems like, you're just begging for someone to use a focus somewhere and make your focuses red. It doesn't seem worth it for the setup/flight pattern nor the cost.

I think if I was going to run Blackout, I'd just run him with Fanatical and Advanced Optics - go for reliable consistent attack dice over leaning too hard into the Blackout gimick. This isn't to say that Blackout isn't good, but I've always treated his pilot ability as a "nice when you get it" type of thing rather that something to work to0 hard towards. Play him as an I5 Silencer that occasionally hits a bit harder than expected, and you can't go too far wrong. :)

17 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

At 62 points, its nearly 1/3 of the list. I see them dropping to half points very fast against the firepower of other normal/random lists. They don't have the action economy or enough focuses for even 1 attack incoming in, as they want to use it on attack already (before fanatical). And they can also be focus fired down, which means I'm less likely to be as gang-ho throwing them into something to get my real expensive ship into a good spot. 3 ship FO has been really tough for me: lower on the firepower totem pole than normal lists, so they get bullied a lot. Would rather have 2.5 plain FOties.

I entirely understand that feeling, but for those 62 points you're getting an I4 ship with a 3/3/4/2 statline, one of the best dials in the game, and access to both good repositional action efficiency and some of the most consistent attacks I've seen (once Fanatical kicks in). They really do feel like a bargain to me.

How you use them is very dependant on what you're facing, of course. Against I3 or lower, they're basically aces, and you can really leverage arc dodging and a hit and run playstyle. With 3 Agility, they're also reasonably resistant to most 2 dice attacks even without mods, although you don't want to rely too hard on that!

Against I5+, they do have a harder time, but just how manuverable the Silencer can be is really helpful. If you can get one to block (and they can cover a lot of ground), the other ships in your list can often capitalise well on that. And again, an Agility 3 ship with six health can soak a surprising amount of punishiment as long as you're not too rash with them.

They're definately not ships you can afford to throw away, but I've found they can get out of sticky situations that would just wipe a lot of other ships off the board with just a little luck.

@Jarval: I went 5-1 at the UK SoS with Avenger w/ 4 Zeta SFs with Optics (got savagely beaten in the first elimination round however). Avenger is a brilliant partner to a generic swarm, especially one which doesn't care if you are in front or behind it. He also can force some odd target priority calls, where your opponent has to weigh up taking less-optimal shots at Avenger over the Zetas, which can leave the Zetas with their sweet, sweet Focus tokens for their attacks.

Only downside is Fang Fighters, which is what my elimination round opponent was packing...

Edited by AceDogbert

@AceDogbert - Nicely done on the 5-1! :) Agreed that Fangs are very tricky to deal with, although the rear arcs on the SFs help a bit with that. Fangs get quite sad when they realise that Concordia Faceoff doesn't help there...

I'm really interested to give the Avenger plus quad Optic Zetas a try, that sounds like a lot of fun, and a huge amount of arc coverage. SFs have fantastic time on target, although I'm always a little slower than I should be when it comes to actually doing that s-loop to turn them around.

14 minutes ago, Jarval said:

@AceDogbert - Nicely done on the 5-1! :) Agreed that Fangs are very tricky to deal with, although the rear arcs on the SFs help a bit with that. Fangs get quite sad when they realise that Concordia Faceoff doesn't help there...

I'm really interested to give the Avenger plus quad Optic Zetas a try, that sounds like a lot of fun, and a huge amount of arc coverage. SFs have fantastic time on target, although I'm always a little slower than I should be when it comes to actually doing that s-loop to turn them around.

My opponent brought Fenn, two Zealous Recruits and Nom Lumb. The Recruits and Nom successfully prevented me flying past them to shoot backwards, and Fenn Rau laughed off my early attempts to damage him (four attacks in a round, only one hit and two eyeballs amongst them).

There is a joy in maintaining a block then slooping them all.

I'm likely to break the list out again once April rolls around, as I've got three Store Championship on consecutive weekends so will need something reliable (at least until I've secured the loot I want, at which point all bets are officially off).

Following up on my post about the Avenger swarm above (Fanatical Avenger, Lt. Rivas, two Zeta Squadron Surviors, two Epsilon Squadron Cadets), I won a 20ish player Store Championship with it over the weekend. I don't have the exact points I scored for each game, but I can give a rough indication of how much I won or lost by.

Round 1 - Fearless Fenn Rau plus three Zealous Recruits. I made some mistakes is my opening and lost a TIE/fo for no damage on any of the Fangs, but then managed to progressively wear them down over the remainder of the game. The TIE/sfs were a huge asset here, with their rear arcs denying Concordia Faceoff. Game went to time, but I'd taken out Fenn and one of the Recruits, and halved another without loosing too much in exchange. About a 60 point lead to me at the end of the game.

Round 2 - Five CLT Jedi Knights. My only loss of the day - he'd got enough of a bid to be able to move after all of my ships, and I was struggling to put damage through his Force-modified 3 Agility. I took out two Jedi, but I'd lost too much when time was called, and if I'm honest my opponent really was outflying me quite conclusively. I was behind by about 60ish points at the end of the match.

Round 3 - Foresight Vader, Duchess, and Rear Admiral Chiraneau with Novice Technician, Dauntless and a Hull Upgrade. Interesting game, with Chiraneau soaking several ships' worth of firepower at range 3 for only the loss of a single shield, but my opponenet was a little over cautious with Duchess and flew her into a corner in such a way that I could get all of my ships covering the places she could be the next turn. Taking out Duchess early took a lot of pressure off the rest of my list, which forced Vader to play hit and run a lot more than he would have liked. Sadly Chiraneau survived on 1 hull remaining (thanks to the Hull Upgrade) when time was called, but I was still ahead by about 50 points.

Round 4 - Boba and Koshka with an assortment of upgrades (the list that won the UK System Open, but not the same player). My opponent did a great opening against me and used the obstacles well to screen his ships from my shots, but my green dice cooperated enough to stop him from killing anything in the early game. I got both Firesprays to half for the loss of only one TIE/fo and half points on another and an SF, and then managed to keep the pressure on despite Koshka pulling off a very nice Rigged Cargo Chute plus Proton Bomb combo over two turns. I killed Boba shortly before time, putting me about 80ish points in the lead.

Top 8 - Cova, Kaz, and Poe. Poe and Kaz broke wide to flank into my list, and I let them to kill Cova over the course of a couple of turns of fire. Kaz got caught by Rivas (who's a fan of any ship that gets disarm tokens on the regular) and the rear arcs of my SFs, who put enough damage into him to effectively switch off his pilot ability for the rest of the game. 200-60ish to me.

Top 4 - Cova, Kaz, Black Squadron Ace, Red Squadron Expert. My opponent jousted into my TIEs, while Avenger feinted to go in with them, then peeled off to the side to tackle Kaz as he came through the clear path through obstacles in the centre of the board. As with the previous game, landing enough damage into Kaz early on meant I could ignore him for a bit while I tackled the rest of his list, with the Black Squadron Ace and Cova dying in rapid succession. The Red Squadron Expert lived notably longer than I wanted, but I mopped up him and Kaz to only minimal losses. 200-50ish to me.

Final - O-66 with TA-175, Grievous crew, and a Hull Upgrade plus 7 Trade Federation Drones. My opponent won the roll off for choice of first player (as we were tied for points), and chose to move first, which I knew was going to make my life difficult. I lost Rivas early on for minimal damage into O-66 and leaving a Vulture on 1 hull, then lost an SF and FO in rapid succession for a chunk of damage on O-66 and leaving another Vulture on 1 hull. I managed to trade my last SF for O-66, leaving me in the tough spot of Avenger and a half-pointed FO for all seven Vultures still on the board.

Then Avenger and Epsilon Squadron Cadet #2 both powered up. #2 managed to one-shot a Vulture at Range 1 thanks to a lucky crit, and Avenger took out one of the damaged Vultures with a long-range shot. #2 then refused to die for several turns, bumping into Vultures to deny shots while still having arcs on others, and (if I'm honest) getting some pretty lucky green dice into the mix. Avenger broke off and re-engaged while this was going on, and managed to spread a little more damage across the Vultures before #2 finally died. This left Avenger in a not great 5 on 1 situation, but some cautious positioning plus losing his last shield to switch Fanatical on meant he could start to do work and he took out two more Vultures over the course of several turns of frantic arc dodging. We then realised that three Vultures were 57 points, and Fanatical Avenger was 58 point, putting me 1 points (and 1 hull off half points) ahead. This changed the game dynamic a lot...

I tucked myself in behind one of the gas clouds my opponent had brought to soak some long range firepower, then used it to screen me from two of the Vultures while I went all in on a range 1 shot on another, which fortunately killed it. With my opponent only having two Vultures left and being down on points, it was pretty straightforward to mop up from there, netting me the win. An absolutely epic game, and one I thought I'd badly lost around turn 3.


It's a heck of a list, all told, and Avenger is a really key component of it. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it! :)

Edited by Jarval

A list I’ve had some fun in casual games is 3x Fearless Skulls, Nom Lomb with ion cannon and Dengar gunner.

cmon people, what else you exploring?

I know for a fact you're not all playing boba fett and droids. there's data for that

Edited by Blail Blerg

I'm still playing the Four Fearless Fangs. The list is a blast to fly but has some really, really bad matchups. I might take it to the german system open.

The other list I am really enjoying atm is Blackout + 2 I4 Silencers (all with Fanatical and Optics). Moving 3 Silencers around feels amazing. The 7 point bid helps against most of the field. Against all those swarmy lists outside I want my aces to be hyper maneuverable what the Silencers are. The amazing dial helps to avoid blocks.

6 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

The other list I am really enjoying atm is Blackout + 2 I4 Silencers (all with Fanatical and Optics). Moving 3 Silencers around feels amazing. The 7 point bid helps against most of the field. Against all those swarmy lists outside I want my aces to be hyper maneuverable what the Silencers are. The amazing dial helps to avoid blocks.

Triple Silencer lists are amazingly fun to play. Deeply unforgiving if you make a mistake and lose one early, but they can do so much. Plus there's a lot to love in the combo of Fanatical and Optics. :D

I've been playing around with a couple of lists using Mag-Pulse Warheads recently, which are an upgrade I'm surprised we're not seeing more of.

Mag-Pulse Quickdraw and friends

“Quickdraw” (45)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (6)
Special Forces Gunner (10)
Fire-Control System (2)

Major Vonreg (57)

Kylo Ren (76)

Total: 196

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

This is a list with a very strong game against lists with four or fewer ships from my experience with it.

The Mag-Pulse Warheads mean that Quickdraw can really heavily reduce the damage output of one ship, notably improving the chances of triggering her ability more than once. Kylo is Kylo, and absolutely needs to be dealt with, which means Vonreg gets to take advantage of the fact that your opponent is probably prioritising the other two ships in the list.

Mag-Pulse Warheads also have some synergy with Kylo's I'll Show You The Dark Side condition, giving you a really reliable way of pushing a crit through if used at the right moment.

Leia, Luke, and Jake

Leia Organa (79)
Instinctive Aim (1)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (6)

Luke Skywalker (62)
Proton Torpedoes (13)
R3 Astromech (3)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Jake Farrell (36)
Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

A very slightly modified version of a list @Oli_186th featured on his stream, this is a list that feels like it had a lot of potential, although I've only put it on the table once so far.

Jake's a great bit of action efficiency, Proton Torpedoe Luke is pretty scary (with R3 giving him an extra lock for later), and the Mag-Pulse on Leia means that you can largely just set her mobile arcs to the side and not have to move them for the rest of the game.

Mag-Pulse is once again being used as something of a defensive upgrade here, reducing the amount of damage Leia is likely to take thanks to Jam and Deplete. You don't really want to have to use Instinctive Aim, but it does give you some options against lists with the bid or I6 pilots.

1 hour ago, Jarval said:

I've been playing around with a couple of lists using Mag-Pulse Warheads recently, which are an upgrade I'm surprised we're not seeing more of.

Mag-Pulse Quickdraw and friends

“Quickdraw” (45)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (6)
Special Forces Gunner (10)
Fire-Control System (2)

Major Vonreg (57)

Kylo Ren (76)

Total: 196

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

This is a list with a very strong game against lists with four or fewer ships from my experience with it.

The Mag-Pulse Warheads mean that Quickdraw can really heavily reduce the damage output of one ship, notably improving the chances of triggering her ability more than once. Kylo is Kylo, and absolutely needs to be dealt with, which means Vonreg gets to take advantage of the fact that your opponent is probably prioritising the other two ships in the list.

Mag-Pulse Warheads also have some synergy with Kylo's I'll Show You The Dark Side condition, giving you a really reliable way of pushing a crit through if used at the right moment.

Leia, Luke, and Jake

Leia Organa (79)
Instinctive Aim (1)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (6)

Luke Skywalker (62)
Proton Torpedoes (13)
R3 Astromech (3)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Jake Farrell (36)
Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

A very slightly modified version of a list @Oli_186th featured on his stream, this is a list that feels like it had a lot of potential, although I've only put it on the table once so far.

Jake's a great bit of action efficiency, Proton Torpedoe Luke is pretty scary (with R3 giving him an extra lock for later), and the Mag-Pulse on Leia means that you can largely just set her mobile arcs to the side and not have to move them for the rest of the game.

Mag-Pulse is once again being used as something of a defensive upgrade here, reducing the amount of damage Leia is likely to take thanks to Jam and Deplete. You don't really want to have to use Instinctive Aim, but it does give you some options against lists with the bid or I6 pilots.

I like this Leia option. I was trying to run her with a lot of frills and gills, and it was floundering like a fish in a foregone conclusion.

(Han seems like the better choice for that)