39 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

5s is also a misleading title as there are but four of them

But those 4 are all 5s

Friend of mine had a lot of practice with this list, I never did beat it. However, I came exceedingly close at one event, boiling it down to the last dice roll. This even though I largely sacrificed half my list.

Boba, Swarm Teroch and a Zealous Recruit. The Fangs gave it a proper nosebleed. Like @ScummyRebel says, it did not want to joust. He took Boba on quite hesitantly with the Xs, trying to buy time for the flanking As to come help out. The Fangs caught the As side on and carnage ensued as they blew through and started brawling. I'd put Boba in a bad spot and lost him too cheaply though.

It's a good list but many things scare it. Hammer the X Wings relentlessly and beware the A Wings. Give due respect to Nien and Ello's red move shenanigans and you'll see them coming.

This list beat it pretty easy. Yeah, focus fire as much as you can. Don't let them focus fire back, or make it hard for them.

Z-95-AF4 Headhunter - •Airen Cracken - 43
•Airen Cracken - Intelligence Chief (36)
Trick Shot (2)
Cluster Missiles (5)

T-65 X-wing - •Garven Dreis - 49
•Garven Dreis - Red Leader (47)
Trick Shot (2)
Servomotor S-foils (Open) (0)

RZ-1 A-wing - •Jake Farrell - 44
•Jake Farrell - Sage Instructor (36)
Daredevil (3)
Cluster Missiles (5)

ARC-170 Starfighter - •Shara Bey - 64
•Shara Bey - Green Four (53)
•Magva Yarro (8)
R3 Astromech (3)

Total: 200/200

52 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

Boba, Swarm Teroch and a Zealous Recruit. The Fangs gave it a proper nosebleed

Yeah, hearing that list I think as a (former I guess) 5s player, my first goal would be kill the Fangs. Boba is terrifying, but he will be much harder to burn down. With the 5s list, if I can burn down the Fangs early, I have a degree of confidence my surviving 5s can handle Boba, or at least be worth more points in total by time. The answer is get rid of as many guns on me as possible, then be more dodgy and pick apart the biggest gun.

FWIW, my variation of 5s was:

Nien: heroic, s foils, Black One

Ello: heroic, s foils

Tallie: crack + trick shots

Lulo: crack + trick shots

194/200. I never lost a bid in my local area, as most folks were going 196 for aces or 199-200 for efficiency/beef/swarm style lists.

I have played the Resistance Fives list and while it is one of my more successful lists, plenty of opponents have had no trouble beating me. Played it in casual games at my LGS and in a Hyperspace tournament. I have only been playing X-Wing a few months and like most of my defeats, it comes down to my inexperience of flying the ships. Maybe if I had taken this list to a Hyperspace Qualifier I may have done better than the Rebel Beef list I took. Then again, I might have gotten my tail whipped again. The Resistance Fives, like any list, is only as good as the player flying that list.

Before the Game

Resistance 5s is a good all-rounder list, decent at both jousting and repositioning, but it is a master of neither. You need to work out what your list does better than the i5s and use that to your advantage.

Example 1: superior jousting. A TIE swarm simply out-jousts the resistance 5s. If your local 5s players fly all their ships together in a block, you can just fly right at them and wipe them off the map. Don't chase them through the asteroids - learn how to slow roll your swarm and make them come to you. Remember that the resistance ships have to move fast. I have been present at at least 3 games where resistance 5s were soundly outjousted - once against a TIE swarm, once against rebel beef, and once against imperial 5x5 (maarek with fcs and crack, howl, scourge, mauler, duchess all with crack).

Example 2: superior positioning. As others have mentioned, i6 aces can deal with the 5s by arc dodging them. Watch out for blocks from the 5s as you do, especially if you get in close. Lower initiative ships (such as generic TIEs, torrents, or vipers) can also block the 5s, which is a really handy tactic. Example ace squads to consider: Jedi+Torrents, Vader+Soontir+Scimitars with mines, triple imperial aces

If you think your list is worse at jousting and worse at positioning than the resistance 5s, think about what your list is good at. Does it have a trick it can leverage against them? What was your winning plan when you built the list? i5s is a fairly common meta list, so you should have them in mind when designing your squad.

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On the Table

Know the dials of the resistance 5s, and anticipate likely moves.

A-wings: these have a 5 straight, but are unlikely to use it when in formation with x-wings. If they barrel roll, they can't modify dice, and they can't barrel roll after a boost. They can only rotate arc as a linked action, which sometimes limits their options (eg. I need to focus for defense and boost out of r1, but if I do then my arc is pointing the wrong way). If you put pressure on them (but don't overcommit to the chase!) they have to make awkward choices. This is especially true of Lulo. A-wings also love to fly past your ships for r1 shots out the back. You may not be able to prevent this, but if you line up the angles right you can buy yourself 1-2 turns before the a-wing turns around and rejoins the fight.

X-Wings: these have a 1 straight, but are unlikely to use it while flying in formation with the a-wings. They can only barrel roll with closed wings. The main trick to watch here is for the stressless turnaround: a talon roll from ello and anything from nien that gets him r1 in arc (and remember he can boost too). Try and spot these turnarounds coming so you can block or dodge them.

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tl;dr figure out what your list does better than the 5s, watch for turnarounds/flybys, remember they love to boost but not roll

I played some variant of this (think it had black one on nien). Had Fenn, Boba and Lando in the escape craft.

I managed a very good engagement with Boba and Fenn. Lando coordinating a boost on Boba, followed with a tight turn around a rock must have been a surprise, placing Boba in between all enemy ships, blocking ello, while nien bumped ello. A 5 dice flank from Fenn and Boba with all the rerolls in the world took out nien in one round.

Played it patiently afterwards and could nearly save Lando, who went down in the last round for a 200-31 win (he should have run for the 200-0)