Republic Aces - How to?

By Ryuneke, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Flew one game with Daredevil Ric and baby-Anakin. Dang it feels good. Thanks, @wurms !

Want to Talon Roll? If you have space, consider a 3-hard and Daredevil instead, since you'll get the Full Throttle Evade.

Anakin's non-action Barrel Roll Shenanigans work while stressed.

But mostly in general, there's just a lot of times where it feels worthwhile to get the extra 45 degrees this turn rather than next turn. Sure, I could bank-boost and follow that up with a hard turn. But hard-boosting and following that up with a 3-bank instead bank-boosting has a really different impact on the game. There's an extra 45 degree swing on the firing arc immediately (often useful!) and the combinations of moves will cover different distances.

Edited by theBitterFig

Another tourament's upcoming this saturday. I'm torn between these two lists:

1) I played it around 10 times. It's a fun list. Sense is optional. Not sure about it.

Ric Olié (42)
Crack Shot (1)
R2 Astromech (4)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2-A6 (6)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (4)

Anakin Skywalker (62)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (20)

Total: 197

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

2) Never played but looks good on paper. Two 7B's with regen and Devil Olé. Buildings this list showed me how super expensive Anakin is compared to Plo and Obi...

Ric Olié (42)
Daredevil (3)
R2 Astromech (4)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 195

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Which one would you pick und why?

29 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Another tourament's upcoming this saturday. I'm torn between these two lists:

1) I played it around 10 times. It's a fun list. Sense is optional. Not sure about it.

Ric Olié (42)
Crack Shot (1)
R2 Astromech (4)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2-A6 (6)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (4)

Anakin Skywalker (62)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (20)

Total: 197

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

2) Never played but looks good on paper. Two 7B's with regen and Devil Olé. Buildings this list showed me how super expensive Anakin is compared to Plo and Obi...

Ric Olié (42)
Daredevil (3)
R2 Astromech (4)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 195

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Which one would you pick und why?

#1, because Anakin, but I'd probably run R2 Astromech instead of R2-A6. Personal preference.

So for tomorrow’s tournament I want to give list #2 a try because list #1 proofed it’s value...

Now what to do with the remaining points?

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 192

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Got 8 points to spend. (Has anyone tried Juke on Ric?)

Daredevil. Definitely daredevil.

Personally, I grow less and less fond of Ric using him. His conditional 3rd red is nice, but in my experience he really lacks a punch. I am now approaching lil'Anie as his native force charge and ability basically grant you an additional free action each turn.

Current setup:

Force Aces

(47) Obi-Wan Kenobi [Delta-7 Aethersprite]
(19) Delta-7B
(6) R2 Astromech
Points: 72

(45) Mace Windu [Delta-7 Aethersprite]
(18) Delta-7B
(6) R2 Astromech
(5) Sense
Points: 74

(41) Anakin Skywalker [Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter]
(4) R2 Astromech
(3) Daredevil
Points: 48

Total points: 194

Idea similar to that of @Ryuneke 's but I can't find myself satisfied with Plo's two force charges. Then again, I'm in a comfortable situation of my local meta shifting towards Ini4- beefy salads of various kinds. No real experience yet with this list though and I won't have any playtime for another two weeks, unfortunately.

What does the thread thinks about Spare parts canister? Seems good on a R2/7B, both usages seems viable. It got ruled that stress happens on drop right?

Edited by prauxim

I considered it as well. Yes, it’s basically a debris cloud.

11 minutes ago, prauxim said:

What does the thread thinks about Spare parts canister? Seems good on a R2/7B, both usages seems viable. It got ruled that stress happens on drop right?

Spare Parts Canister can be good, but it's also very slow. To get an extra shield, it means both an extra action, and an extra turn without attacks.

I've seldom been impressed with the Debris token, but I also never put much practice into it.

15 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Spare Parts Canister can be good, but it's also very slow. To get an extra shield, it means both an extra action, and an extra turn without attacks.

I've seldom been impressed with the Debris token, but I also never put much practice into it.

That’s my concern as well.

Maybe put something Ric like Daredevil...

Edited by Ryuneke
16 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Spare Parts Canister can be good, but it's also very slow. To get an extra shield, it means both an extra action, and an extra turn without attacks.

I've seldom been impressed with the Debris token, but I also never put much practice into it.

Hmm, might give it a try. If you are lock, then the break alone basically pays for the action, so basically a free debris, but I can see that being a toss up between useful/bad

As for the R2 recharge, I see that only for end game 1v1 matchps if the opportunity presents.

All said, could definitely be too marginal, but the concept seems neat/thematic

9 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

That’s my concern as well.

Maybe put something Ric like Daredevil...

Oh yeah, I was just talking in general, DD definitely goes in before SPC

15 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

That’s my concern as well.

Maybe put something Ric like Daredevil...

Daredevil is something that I loved the instant I tried it on Ric.

Where is the ruling that says the stress happens on drop? In the current RR it only says the ships "overlaps" when it is dropped

The rules for obstacles say "if a ship overlaps while moving... [effects of various obstacles]"

Is picking the ship up and setting it back on the debris considered moving?

Edited by prauxim
Edit: Nvm, found answer: the rules for 'Device' say act as if moving when replacing ships on device
1 minute ago, prauxim said:

Where is the ruling that says the stress happens on drop? In the current RR it only says the ships "overlaps" when it is dropped

The rules for obstacles say "if a ship overlaps while moving... [effects of various obstacles]"

Is picking the ship up and setting it back on the debris considered moving?

I think this is one more where the rulings haven't been phrased exactly to the satisfaction of the community and the rules experts, but the Devs in Live Streams have been clear that they intend someone to get stress--from this or Rigged Cargo Chute. Not just that, but at least to me, the devs seemed rather annoyed that anyone thought it was an open question.

I tried 6 games/4 variations of 7B/7B/N, nothing clicked. Went back to trip I4 7B with Sense, feels a lot better. Just gotta work out the optimal upgrades now with the price increases.

So I took this list to a local tournament with 26 players yesterday:

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)
Daredevil (3)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 195

I finished with 3 wins and 2 loses. I had a bad day, wasn't really concentrated at all. I could have made it into top 3 if I had won the last game. Unfortunately I played the worst X Wing since a couple of months.

The list is strong, if you fly it well. Regen on all ships is the right tournament choice imo. Having all ships at I5 helps as well.

Pilots:

Plo: The weakest part in the list because he's lacking one force charge. Nethertheless his I5 is strong as well as his ability. I was able to make good use of it.

Obi: Strong because of 3 force.

Ric: The star of the list. Each one of my opponents hated him. Daredevil is an awesome upgrade for him because it increases his time on target massively. He's hard to catch, hard to kill and can deal a decent amount of damage (for under 50 points!)

Why I'm not flying this list anymore:

The german meta: Nearly everyone was preparing for the upcoming championship. In 4 of my 5 games I faced 4+ ships with a lot of hitpoints. Playing against such lists is really difficult because Jedi only have 2 green dice which is unfortunate against lots of arcs. It's also really hard to keep guns on one target without getting blocked or shot down.

2 green dice: I lost 2 Jedi in two attacks. Blanked out twice - dead Jedi. It's really hard flying against so much ships and keeping this guys alive long enough. That was so depressing!!

Despite that I enjoyed flying these three ships together. It's a good squad that can win tournaments.

7 hours ago, Ryuneke said:

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)
Daredevil (3)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 195

Trying to decide between that above or:

Anakin Skywalker (62)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (20)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (4)

Ric Olié (42)
Daredevil (3)
R2 Astromech (4)
Total: 199

Basically, do I want Anakin in a 7B enough to downgrade Obi to CLT.

Edited by XPav
On 7/30/2019 at 10:24 PM, theBitterFig said:

Flew one game with Daredevil Ric and baby-Anakin. Dang it feels good. Thanks, @wurms !

Want to Talon Roll? If you have space, consider a 3-hard and Daredevil instead, since you'll get the Full Throttle Evade.

Anakin's non-action Barrel Roll Shenanigans work while stressed.

But mostly in general, there's just a lot of times where it feels worthwhile to get the extra 45 degrees this turn rather than next turn. Sure, I could bank-boost and follow that up with a hard turn. But hard-boosting and following that up with a 3-bank instead bank-boosting has a really different impact on the game. There's an extra 45 degree swing on the firing arc immediately (often useful!) and the combinations of moves will cover different distances.

I realize I never posted the list to this thread. It's not very Ace-y, but I still like it:

  • Ric (Daredevil, Fire Control System, R2 Astromech) 51 - I could probably cut Ric's FCS.
  • Baby N-1 Anakin (Daredevil, Fire Control System, R2 Astromech) 50 - With the force and often only 2 red dice, the FCS seems a lot better here.
  • Gold Trooper V-19 (-) 25
  • Gold Trooper V-19 (-) 25
  • 104th ARC (R5 Astromech, Hull Upgrade) 49 - In the two games I've played with this ARC, I've never used R5, but I've also only ever taken 1 hull damage (and it was a critical). I feel like R5 serves as kind of a deterrent. Waste time attacking an ARC that'll essentially be 12 HP for 49 points? Not worth it. So it goes mostly uncontested. I might try cutting Hull Upgrade, but I like R5 there, to turn the 104th into that much more of a quagmire.

If the list works long-run, it works because nothing is worth attacking. The 12 HP ARC is only worth 49 points. The Gold Troopers Evade, and just die slower than they should. But meanwhile, you're hopefully taking out more than 25 points worth of stuff in that time frame. Ric and Anakin are both really solid, but both are also super cheap, about 50 points each. They're also ideally getting free Evades each turn, and regaining health, so it isn't too easy to make progress against them.

My own Rep ace foray has also become less acey. I struggled to understand 7B x2 + N-1.

Last night I ran Plo and Lumi with CLT, Ani with Col Det, Trick Shot and Plasma alongside a naked 104th at 196. Worked marvellously. The added bulk of the ARC brings an awful lot to the party, especially since you can treat it fairly sacrificially with the ace element being kind of suicidal to ignore.

The Ani build hits like an absolute truck. I need to work quite hard on my flying with him though. 1st game I sacrificed him early for absolutely nothing on a moronically misjudged boost, but the remaining 3 ships almost won me the game anyway. Stupid dice, lol.

2nd game went more or less flawlessly on the positioning. Anakin one shot Muse for the loss of a single shield off the ARC, hung out as bait. Following 2 turns should have seen the game won, but the dice disagreed, several R1 bullseye shots with lock and/or focus, plus a double modded Plasma and a R3 ARC shot, for minimal return fire netted me a grand total of 3 shields off his remaining 3 ships. Nevertheless, the next 2 turns returned to average and my opponent conceded, with a 1hp Blackout and a 5hp Quickdraw facing certain doom.

However, Ani blanked on a R3 2 dice attack and died, having eaten 3 dmg off a single Blackout trick shot the previous turn. This after a nonsense force roll into Talon, through a rock, that caught my opponent completely by surprise, the R3 shot oppotunity was pure chance, from a stressed TIE/fo. He completely skipped out on the Blackout, Quickdraw arcs that were aiming to catch him, lining up a nice R2 on QD himself, that he never got to take 😕

I really did fly Anakin too cavalier, looking to alpha with the Plasmas so the Jedi and ARC can clean up. Basically making him a 1st and 2nd strike then die factor. As the most expensive ship in the list by some distance, this is not ideal :D

The CLT Jedi, while prone to variance, deliver massively on their relatively low cost though. Up against I5, I5 and I6, there was quite a bit of gamble in lining them up, but if you can predict your opponent, they have the dial and action suite to get it done. Particularly with a choice of blockers.

It's a weird balance, lose the high cost ship in a key trade or 2, end game with the cheapest and most liable to crap out on green dice and get halved, (which they did, repeatedly). But I dunno, seems to work really well... apart from giving up way more MOV than the game state would suggest :D

Got next to no use out of Lumi's ability. My bad, I expect. Plan was to use her to support the ARC, but it didn't work out that way. Was much better using the ARC as a weird flanker, pretending to support it and switching. Bought room for Ani to do his thing. Then he grabs the attention, no one wants a 2nd double modded 4 die Plasma coming in. He then opens the door for the Jedi to start bullseye-ing and finishing things off, while the ARC plows in like a bulldozer.

Plo was glorious and his ability did a ton of work, making him incredibly useful even when disengaging.

Next time out, I'm going to swap Lumi for Saesee, seems like my kind of fun.

For ease of glance, it'll look like this.

(41) Anakin Skywalker [Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter]
(9) Plasma Torpedoes
(4) Trick Shot
(6) Collision Detector
Points: 60

(43) Saesee Tiin [Delta-7 Aethersprite]
(3) Calibrated Laser Targeting
Points: 46

(44) Plo Koon [Delta-7 Aethersprite]
(4) Calibrated Laser Targeting
Points: 48

(42) 104th Battalion Pilot [ARC-170 Starfighter]
Points: 42

Total points: 196

Edited by Cuz05

I tried the following list earlier this week and really liked it:

- Anakin (Delta-7B, R2 Astromech)
- Obi-Wan (Sense, Calibrated Laser Targeting)
- Ric Olié (Juke, R2 Astromech)
197 points

CLT on O-W is quite good obviously and if you can concentrate fire, Ric shoots last so Juke is gold. The bid is small, but Sense is helpful.

On 8/4/2019 at 6:55 AM, Ryuneke said:

So I took this list to a local tournament with 26 players yesterday:

Ric Olié (42)
R2 Astromech (4)
Daredevil (3)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (47)
Sense (5)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)

Plo Koon (44)
R2 Astromech (6)
Delta-7B (19)
Total: 195

That is very close to my list. I have CLT Anakin with R2A6 and brilliant evasion instead of Obi though. I need my i6 in a list.

Anakin and R2A6 can line up that bullseye easily, and prevents being blocked. Is quite Good versus Ric Olie as well. Can dial in a 3 straight and go up or down depending on meeting, or beating Ric speed or slowing down to dodge arc or line up that bullseye. Anakin with 3 greens and Plo nearby is REALLY REALLY hard to kill. Anakin gets in trouble he force evades, plo tosses him a focus token, and he has brilliant evasion as well.

I beat a sinker ric swarm. I got Ric to 1 health and a V19 to half. Had another v19 and sinker 1 hull from half. I only loss 1 shield on Plo (regened twice). Anakin got caught range 1 from a v19, and range 2 from another, both in sinker reroll spot. I force evaded, and had 2 force on anakin. Took zero damage.

Edited by wurms

This is a list I’m in early testing with, currently in league play I’m 2-1, twice going to points (1-1) and the third game absolutely swiping my opponents Soontir, Vader, and Whisper list off the board in 30 minutes.

Tonight Obi-Wan wasn’t damaged, let alone shot at and single handily removed Soontir and Vader.

Im still trying to find tune this:

1. Is Padme okay where she’s at in your opinion ... All 3 games she has been the 1st they chase

2. Anakin... I’m having difficulty having my Torps proc. So do I either downgrade them to Plasma Torps, or do I go FCS and no Torps?

My only thought here than is if I remove the Torps/PS why not just run both Anakin/Obi 7B? I like this list a lot looking for tweaks.

Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter - •Padmé Amidala - 57
•Padmé Amidala - Aggressive Negotiator (45)
Juke (7)
•R2-C4 (5)

Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter - •Anakin Skywalker - 60
•Anakin Skywalker - Hero of Naboo (41)
Daredevil (3)
Passive Sensors (3)
Proton Torpedoes (13)

Delta-7 Aethersprite - •Obi-Wan Kenobi - 79
•Obi-Wan Kenobi - Guardian of the Republic (47)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Sense (5)
Delta-7B (19)

Total: 196/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

4 hours ago, Cgriffith said:

This is a list I’m in early testing with, currently in league play I’m 2-1, twice going to points (1-1) and the third game absolutely swiping my opponents Soontir, Vader, and Whisper list off the board in 30 minutes.

Tonight Obi-Wan wasn’t damaged, let alone shot at and single handily removed Soontir and Vader.

Im still trying to find tune this:

1. Is Padme okay where she’s at in your opinion ... All 3 games she has been the 1st they chase

2. Anakin... I’m having difficulty having my Torps proc. So do I either downgrade them to Plasma Torps, or do I go FCS and no Torps?

My only thought here than is if I remove the Torps/PS why not just run both Anakin/Obi 7B? I like this list a lot looking for tweaks.

Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter - •Padmé Amidala - 57
•Padmé Amidala - Aggressive Negotiator (45)
Juke (7)
•R2-C4 (5)

Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter - •Anakin Skywalker - 60
•Anakin Skywalker - Hero of Naboo (41)
Daredevil (3)
Passive Sensors (3)
Proton Torpedoes (13)

Delta-7 Aethersprite - •Obi-Wan Kenobi - 79
•Obi-Wan Kenobi - Guardian of the Republic (47)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Sense (5)
Delta-7B (19)

Total: 196/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Can you use both juke and R2-C4 in the same attack? I didn't think so. Isn't that a bit redundant?

3 hours ago, xanatos135 said:

Can you use both juke and R2-C4 in the same attack? I didn't think so. Isn't that a bit redundant?

R2-C4's timing is well before Juke. If someone happened to have two Evade tokens, they could use both, but generally, no. R2-C4 would spend the Evade in the modify Attack dice step, then the defender rolls green dice, then you could maybe use Juke.

@Cgriffith

2 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

R2-C4's timing is well before Juke. If someone happened to have two Evade tokens, they could use both, but generally, no. R2-C4 would spend the Evade in the modify Attack dice step, then the defender rolls green dice, then you could maybe use Juke.

@Cgriffith

Yes, I'm aware of the timing window for both upgrades; I have both on for damage midigation (i.e. choices) One choice effects the opponents defense roll (Juke) the other R2-C4 effects mine. Again it's a choice when do I want the trigger to occur

As an example: Padme is at R1 of the defender rolls (blank, blank, focus) obviously Padme ability would trigger; then if I know I positioned myself correctly and am not within R3 of another shot etc. (not shot at all) then I could choose to use R2-C4 if I rolled hit, hit, focus and didn't have a focus token. (i.e. only did a 1-2 manuever, etc.) Options

@xanatos135 it brings a little bit of unpredictabilty to Padme I feel; do I use the evade for extra damage or do I use it for extra defense, at I4 I'm usually being shot first. If you roll 1 focus I feel sorry for you

Edited by Cgriffith
further clarification on why I have both. Is it different yes but has saved me once having the ability to choose