I have been trying a list of 2 Starkiller Base Upsilon Pilots and a third ship (either Kylo, Blackout, or QD).

But flying against highly maneuverable ace style lists like the Resistance aces or triple Aethersprites is a tough ask with the Upsilons often not getting more than a single shot per game.

I'm trying to figure out how best to set up and approach vs these lists that can rather effortlessly get behind my bricks. These things are so much fun to play and I love the jam/coordinate nonsense you can pull off, and their firepower vs the mass generic lists going around right now is not insignificant.

Do I start vs aces with my Ups in opposite corners? Placed together? Start slow to see where they're going or try and pressure them early so they can't go for my more valuable third ship?

All help appreciated!

I’ve been flying variants on that list (2 UPS and a Striker) for a while now to great success. I have only 1 loss with the list out of 5 or so games. Here’s how I fly it:

I’ve done a variety of openings with them starting close to each other and bumping each other in order to stay out to starting them in opposite corners. Either way, you have 2 main goals with the approach: keep the fight in front of the UPSs and position them such that they can cover each other’s rear if an enemy ship does get behind them.

Usually this translates into going slow (stop, 1-straight, repeat) the first couple of turns so that when combat happens there isn’t much room for them to get behind the UPSs, but you have to react to the other player’s tactics, too. If you set up on separate corners then usually that means slow rolling with 1 UPS while driving in hard with the other so that when combat happens both of them have guns on targets.

The other thing I’ve done with great success is to use the Striker as bait. Most opponents will go after Blackout or Kylo first thinking that if they can take them out quickly then they can get behind the UPSs and chew away at them with relative ease. Use that to your advantage- drive the striker in hard like you are going to flank, and when they turn to engage him fly past with the striker and blast them with the UPSs. Don’t be afraid to give up shots with your striker if you have to. With an excellent dial and stat line the Striker is well suited to this task- even if you’re getting fired on you can normally last several turns before the Striker goes down- and usually the enemy is taking more damage from the UPSs than you are.

If the enemy does go after one of the UPSs first, use similar tactics. Obviously the UPS can’t dance around like the striker can, but you can use reinforce, stop maneuvers, and bumps to mitigate how much damage the UPS is taking- all while your striker and other UPS hammer the opponent.

41 minutes ago, FriendofYoda said:

I have been trying a list of 2 Starkiller Base Upsilon Pilots and a third ship (either Kylo, Blackout, or QD).

But flying against highly maneuverable ace style lists like the Resistance aces or triple Aethersprites is a tough ask with the Upsilons often not getting more than a single shot per game.

I'm trying to figure out how best to set up and approach vs these lists that can rather effortlessly get behind my bricks. These things are so much fun to play and I love the jam/coordinate nonsense you can pull off, and their firepower vs the mass generic lists going around right now is not insignificant.

Do I start vs aces with my Ups in opposite corners? Placed together? Start slow to see where they're going or try and pressure them early so they can't go for my more valuable third ship?

All help appreciated!

Great idea.

They're really good against generics right now too.

I usually found a single Ups to enjoy being dead center. As opposed to a Lambda which I still believe is best started on a corner.

With two, I'd place them at least R3 apart, maybe center and a side. The problem with corner and corner is that the opponent just flees from one of them for the first 4 turns, and you get easily 2 turns where they focus fire one of your ships.

I ran a lot of 2 Upsilon, and I ran a lot of Palp Aces.

Impressive use of a Striker in a faction that doesn’t have it @Herowannabe 😉

That said your prescription of a lead and a trail Ups is solid. If you can create a position where your opponent can choose to avoid shots, but get none in return, or take a shot but get hammered back, that’s the way to go. Use Kylo to draw them where you want them. As an opponent I would do exactly what you say, try and pin Kylo early, and ignore the bats until later. If you can place it so that the turn they chase Kylo your Upsilons dice into range? That is how you want it. They have a good dial for a shuttle, use those white 2 hard and 3 banks to your max advantage.

My goal would be to engage Kylo before the Upsilons get in range. So yours is naturally to either zoom past the engage, or get they Upsilons into range for the initial shots. A lead and a trail large base both executing 2 yards in the direction I’m going is hard to avoid.

I haven't played much with this archetype yet. In this video of the final table at the Cedar Rapids, IA Hyperspace Trial, Brad flies them in a rather elaborate pincer formation. I wonder if this is typical.

Here's what I flew:

Upsilon -class Shuttle - •Lieutenant Tavson - 67
•Lieutenant Tavson - Obedient Shuttle Pilot (62)
•Captain Phasma (5)

TIE/sf Fighter - •“Quickdraw” - 65
•“Quickdraw” - Defiant Duelist (45)
Fanatical (2)
Fire-Control System (2)
Shield Upgrade (6)
Special Forces Gunner (10)

Upsilon -class Shuttle - Starkiller Base Pilot - 68
Starkiller Base Pilot - (56)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Advanced Optics (4)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

I flew the shuttles in a train, with Tavson following the Starkiller Base Pilot. That way ships couldn't intentionally bump into the Upsilon, and then get behind it the next turn. I mean, they could, but they'd be facing another powerful shot from the Upsilon in the back. I flew Quickdraw cagey, bringing her on the flanks after the shuttles have generally made a mess of the opposing formation if it had one. I won against a 5x RZ-2 list, and Reistance bomber with L'ulo and Wexley. After some experimentation with the First Order, I think my big change would be dropping Shield Upgrade on Quickdraw to pick up Pattern Analyzer.

2 hours ago, millertime059 said:

Impressive  use of a Striker in a faction that doesn’t have it @Herowannabe 😉 

🤦🏻‍♂️

I mean Silencer, of course.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

I think    my big change would be dropping Shield Upgrade  on Quickdraw to pick up Pattern Analyzer.    

Pattern analyzer was made for the UPS. It’s stapled to them as far as I’m concerned. The ability to execute red maneuvers including stops and hard 1-turns, as well as fly over debris clouds, and not lose your action is glorious.

7 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

🤦🏻‍♂️

Pattern analyzer was made for the UPS. It’s stapled to them as far as I’m concerned. The ability to execute red maneuvers including stops and hard 1-turns, as well as fly over debris clouds, and not lose your action is glorious.

Fair. I just needed to cut points to make things fit. And I don't think Tavson needs Pattern Analyzer quite as much because of his ability to get actions during the engagement phase, so I usually bump him into some other ship to slow him down, rather than use the red stationary maneuver.

The other thing that helped in my games was that for whatever reason my opponents cooperated with me in leaving huge lanes between the obstacles. I thought for sure they'd try to gum up some part of the field and attack from there so my shuttles couldn't dare face them, but they cornered their rocks, too. *Shrug.* I don't know that my list would do well against a more dense cluster. The shuttles enjoy sweeping maneuvers to bring their arcs back around. That white 2 turn is glorious.