Gavin and the Bs

By eljms, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Just thinking about how to exploit Autoblasters. Gavin's ability seems a good pairing ...

E-wing - •Gavin Darklighter - 61
•Gavin Darklighter - Bold Wingman (61)

A/SF-01 B-wing - Blade Squadron Veteran - 46
Blade Squadron Veteran - (43)
Marksmanship (1)
Autoblasters (2)

A/SF-01 B-wing - Blade Squadron Veteran - 46
Blade Squadron Veteran - (43)
Marksmanship (1)
Autoblasters (2)

A/SF-01 B-wing - Blade Squadron Veteran - 46
Blade Squadron Veteran - (43)
Marksmanship (1)
Autoblasters (2)

Total: 199/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

I mean, it's dependent upon getting out of arc shots with mid-Ini B-wings, a chassis not exactly known for its flanking. There are three of them, so maybe?

2 hours ago, ChahDresh said:

it's dependent upon getting out of arc shots with mid-Ini B-wings

Yeah - no idea how much the autoblasters shots will pay off in practice and will require table time to test. However, a few thoughts make me think it's worth a try:

  1. The condition is going to trigger against ships with no primary arc all the time (looking at you resistance a-wings!)
  2. You're not entirely dependent on autoblasters - a three dice primary attack (with some Gavin autocrits) is a fine option
  3. It's a beefy list in it's own right, with an initiative jump over other beef lists out there (republic arcs / GSTs)
  4. Aces better be careful against it. Low HP / high agility ships are going to hurt badly if they end up in a dubious spot.

1 hour ago, eljms said:

Yeah - no idea how much the autoblasters shots will pay off in practice and will require table time to test. However, a few thoughts make me think it's worth a try:

  1. The condition is going to trigger against ships with no primary arc all the time (looking at you resistance a-wings!)
  2. You're not entirely dependent on autoblasters - a three dice primary attack (with some Gavin autocrits) is a fine option
  3. It's a beefy list in it's own right, with an initiative jump over other beef lists out there (republic arcs / GSTs)
  4. Aces better be careful against it. Low HP / high agility ships are going to hurt badly if they end up in a dubious spot.

Resistance A’s still have front V arc... you can’t proc Autoblasters inside of it. All ships have a front V arc. Just some don’t have a front V arc weapon.

8 hours ago, JBFancourt said:

Resistance A’s still have front V arc... you can’t proc Autoblasters inside of it. All ships have a front V arc. Just some don’t have a front V arc weapon.

You're right - my bad.

Flanking with B-wings is going to be tough - their dials are awful. Oh well :)

4 minutes ago, eljms said:

You're right - my bad.

Flanking with B-wings is going to be tough - their dials are awful. Oh well :)

Honestly tho with 3 of them and the fact that they’re such good knife fighters it still might happen pretty regularly. They’re style of flanking isn’t going to be like an I6 Ace. But more like some of them being behind you in a big scrum.

Edited by JBFancourt

Yeah I don't think flanking with low-ini ships is necessarily that hard. It's not going to happen for every ship every turn, but if you put two ships on opposite sides of your opponent at least one of them is going to be out of arc, right? It's just a matter of whether the cost is worth it, given that you're not getting the effect all the time.

The reason I think it might work is Gavin. If B-Wings are both trying to get out of front-arc, as well as get bullseye for Marksmanship, that seems like it might be tricky. However, after the initial pass, I can easily imagine some folks being out of arc. With Gavin to provide the crit turns, firing with the 2-dice out-of-bullseye, out-of-arc Autoblasters might work.

I just wish I had an exact probabilistic sense of the effectiveness of a 2-dice attack with a crit-turn and Autoblasters, compared to 3-dice attack.

1 hour ago, theBitterFig said:

I just wish I had an exact probabilistic sense of the effectiveness of a 2-dice attack with a crit-turn and Autoblasters, compared to 3-dice attack.

I've been assuming that this will be good against high agility ships with low HP, where pushing damage through at all can be difficult. Generic Inquisitors, Jedi's (especially with Luminara & Padme around), Defenders. It feels like there's a bit of a trend towards ships that are super hard to damage.

Against low agility ships with lots of HP I'm not so sure. I think you'd only use the autoblasters if you had bullseye as you're going to push damage through anyway. It's not a lot of points you're investing in the cannon though, so even if it's only used some of the time it might be worth it.

Here's another iteration with a couple of named B-wings. Can E-wings do the deliberately failed linked TL action thing to get a composure focus?

E-wing - •Gavin Darklighter - 64
•Gavin Darklighter - Bold Wingman (61)
Composure (1)
R4 Astromech (2)

A/SF-01 B-wing - •Braylen Stramm - 54
•Braylen Stramm - Blade Leader (51)
Marksmanship (1)
Autoblasters (2)

A/SF-01 B-wing - •Ten Numb - 51
•Ten Numb - Blue Five (48)
Marksmanship (1)
Autoblasters (2)

Z-95-AF4 Headhunter - •Lieutenant Blount - 30
•Lieutenant Blount - Team Player (30)

Total: 199/200

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I liked the 3 Bs more .... partially, I admit, because I think it’d look good on the table 😜

On 8/2/2019 at 3:53 AM, JBFancourt said:

I liked the 3 Bs more .... partially, I admit, because I think it’d look good on the table 😜

agreed


Now you can field:

Gavin at 61

3x Blue Bwings with Stabfoils, Jamming and Autoblasters at 46

199 pts total.