Hi, Guys!

Some have taken note of the squad I'd like to explain to you. It was played by me and Timo at the German Grand Championship and later again by Timo at the XTC and the European Championship. Thank you Mark - once again - for helping me translate the original article.

My hobby within the hobby is to build Scum squadrons - and to fly them. I love the abilities and effective tricks of this faction a lot. As usual I have picked ships that nobody seems to fly and started to build something. My goal was to create a coherent and efficient squad.

Latts Razzi

I had in X-Wing a couple of small revelations respectively surprises. Latts is in that regard is definitely in my top 3. Latts is in my opinion not only the best pilot for the ship but an efficiency beast in general. It doesn’t need a lot to unveil this beast: Unkar Plutt, 0-0-0 and Crackshot. That’s in total 67 points.

The focal point is Latts ability to spend a target lock at the beginning of the engagement phase to assign a tractor token to another ship in range 1. What sounds okay on paper becomes good as soon as you have the ship on the table and once you know how to utilize the ability it becomes awesome. I could fill pages telling about “those situations” where I used the ability, but it would be too much. Instead I rather would like to describe the possibilities you have with the ship. The focus is first and foremost small base ships, but those are also most of the time the predators.

The ability is a deterrent, especially for aces. You can tractor small ships past the freighter, away from it or on mines and obstacles. It is defensive as well as offensive: you avoid getting shot at and ensure that you can fire your shots. When the positioning of the opponent ship is not ideal, it will get a tractor token; other than like an ordinary attack it can’t be repelled. Other than with Ketsu Latts has a range 1 tractor bubble and you can trigger it rather often as it is difficult to predict which maneuver the YV-666 will fly. The 180° fire arc is already big, but with the possibility to move a ship into the arc if needed it feels even bigger. This way you can, for example negate the “life saving” barrell roll of an ace pilot. And everybody knows that a tractor token on a ship that you will focus fire on is quite handy. Same goes for big(er) ships. It is a big advantage to play with asteroids. Pushing your opponents on asteroids is the second most used possibility. You can also: move the ship on a mine, in Latts bulls eye, so you can trigger crack shot (this means you negate two possible evade results) or in range of your other two ships.

Crucial: You have to bring along Unkar to get the target lock even when you are overlapping/bumping. He will be a match-winning factor, as the target lock action can not be prevented. Unkar is mandatory.

Also, it is possible that you will land on an asteroid or gas cloud. If you overlap another ship while doing so, you still can get your target lock. Doing this is most of the time more advantageous than taking damage.

It becomes even more explosive with 0-0-0 as he not only puts pressure on your opponent, but also because he provides modifications either via calculate token for Latts or a reroll for Koshka Frost(when opponent decides to take the stress instead). With 4-LOM around the corner there is always a good chance for handing out double stress.

I can assure that it will be exhausting for your opponent to keep all this in mind. He will eventually do mistakes and this will generate a win-win-win situation.

In case you put the target lock on the ship you want it to for triggering the ability, you still can use it to re-roll your attack dice as normal. Along with the potential calculate token from 0-0-0 you are able to fully modify your attack.

All in all: Latts is the heart of the squadron and able to force a hardcore mind game upon your opponent.

Latts Razzi (59)
Crack Shot (1)
Unkar Plutt (2)
0-0-0 (5)
Total: 67

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

4-LOM

He synergizes well with 0-0-0. As described above, a carless pilot willing will take the stress from 0-0-0 to avoid the calculate token for Latts, only to get tractored into range 1 of 4-LOM to get dealt another stress token. Having two active sources for stress, you are able to keep a constant pressure on your opponent. Especially red maneuvers or the usage of linked actions will be punished by the third pilot (Koshka) in the squad.

With 4-LOM in the front and Latts right behind him they both can stop infinitely: 4-LOM stops, gets a stress. 4-LOM is flying a 1 straight and bumps into 4-LOM (removing a stress). At the end of the round 4-LOM hands over the stress to Latts and the fun starts again; yes you can give the stress also to friendly ships (something that tends to get overseen). With his 2-turn and 1-hard standard maneuvers he can collect stress (and a calculate token) which is sufficient to make him an effective pilot.

4-LOM is also the pilot that can avoid being double stressed by using Contraband Cybernetics best. When push comes to shove he can fly a red maneuver even though being stressed. This way he gets two actions (calculate + x) and can, when getting into range 1, pass along a stress.

Another positive side-effect is him being an initiative-3-ship, just like Latts and Koshka. And, don't forget, 4-LOM has the jam action which helps against enemy target locks or reinforced tokens.

4-LOM (49)
Crack Shot (1)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Total: 53

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Koshka Frost

With Latts and 4-LOM dealing stress (plus opponents flying red maneuvers and/or doing linked actions) you can utilize Koshka’s ability at a steady pace in your games, bolstering booth your offensive and defensive. Having the IG as crew gives you two calculate tokens, which is statistically more advantageous than a single focus token: you can use them both for either an attack or defense roll or split them, just as needed.

Koshka is basically a more cost efficient version of Boba, you get the same bang for less bucks. This makes her a very attractive pilot. Also, I tend to use her as the end-game-allrounder. Sharing the initiative of 3 with all pilots gives her the possibility to bring some amazing (and surprising) overlap/bump- or position-swap-tactics to the table.

The icing on the cake is the possibility to deal auto damage with the two mines. Devices on the Firespray is an existing topic on its own. In this squad it’s the Proximity Mine. It will - along with Latts ability - cover Koshka’s back.

Koshka Frost (70)
Crack Shot (1)
IG-88D (3)
Proximity Mines (6)
Total: 80

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

General tactics

Asteroids

Bring along the biggest asteroids possible and put (assuming you are the first player) one of the big fellas in the middle. Place the others loosely around the center rock in a way that the opponent can’t make the field too tight. You should be able to maneuver through the field with your medium/big base ships without problems while having obstacles around you for some tractor action. In case your obstacles are the only asteroids, make sure that they are not placed just somewhere in a corner, those rocks are your friends and you want to keep them close!

Deployment:

4-LOM wants to stay close to Latts whereas Koshka rather wants to be alone. In case your opponent has a lot of beefy ships - they also tend to generate a lot of damage - try to deploy Latts and 4-LOM in the opposing corner. Both of them don’t want to joust. Latts could take a reinforce, but this would mean that 4-LOM would become target priority and you would have spent the Latts action for nothing. Even though they work well together you should see them as solo combatants nonetheless.

In case your opponent has beefy ships and can deploy after you put 4-LOM and Latts in the middle of the deployment zone. In both cases keep Koshka around 4-5 ranges away, so she can be next to them within the second round. She is the “kinda flanker” in the squad.

It really depends on the list composition of the opposing force with regards to HP and damage output. You never want to joust a swarm. Against aces you want to put Latts and 4-LOM in a corner (keep Latts behind 4-LOM) and Koshka nearby. In case you face a mixed squad you need to look out for the HP/damage-output-ratio and the maneuverability and initiative of the single ships.

Approach

This is the most difficult part of the game. My goal is to get close to aces. In case your opponent deploys a single ship on the opposite side you can assume that he wants to lure you. Good thing is that Latts will get the target lock without getting damage (from Unkar). You just have to be careful that the both more immobile ships (Latts and 4-LOM) have enough space for turning around without hitting an obstacle. And you have to keep an eye on the ranges in case your opponent brought secondary armament, same goes for aces who want to outflank you.

Ideally Latts approaches slightly diagonally. Due to the huge arc you can keep the ship in the game by flying turns; those hard 3 maneuvers will get you around rocks like a charm. When you go straight it might get tricky to turn around. In case you are in such a situation, try to bump: rather get the target locka and damage then the stress from stopping with the maneuver. As said Koshka is the “kinda” flanker. However, only use the boost when you are absolutely sure that you won’t get shot. The boost is only meant for reforming and for wide approaches - or a unrisky ruse.

Strategy

You want to take the most agile and most expensive ship out of the game first. That’s often easier said than done. 4-LOM is your cheapest ship and the one that can’t withstand a lot. Normally he will be taken as first target. Sometimes it’s Koshka as she seems to be more lucrative points wise. If you are able to remove the most dangerous ship with a total cost of more than 80 points (Koshka) before you lose one of your own ships you will win most of the time. If possible trade Latts - the heart of the list - or Koshka - the end game ship - for the best enemy ship; this could be even a fat Asajj or Rey (both really suffer from being tractored).

Taking out small base ships is fairly easy. Medium and big base ships whereas won’t get down in one or two rounds. Hence focus fire is very important. It’s all about gaining the upper hand. Ace players quite often feel safe and secure, even though they are aware of Latts ability and the mine. However, both tend to get forgotten quite often, respectively, it is not always possible to avoid them. It is normally enough to assign a tractor token to an ace to take it out of the game (after you have moved it on an obstacle or mine). Even experienced players don’t have that on the radar all of the time. Vader with 5HP gets down pretty fast when attacked by three ships (3 attack dice each) with crack shot while only have two green dice to defend himself. Also, there is a chance of extra damage due to the obstacle, either by rolling the ship onto an asteroid/debris field or when it flies off the round after. Ships like Soontir don’t like that at all. Most important in this regard is that you can “cancel” the repositioning of an arc dodger to bring him back into your arc.

When Latts and/or 4-LOM our out of the game, you should have killed at least the most dangerous ship of your opponent; ideally you have taken down another one as well. With Koshka total point cost of 80 you should be in the lead. She can deal with the remaining less dangerous ships on her own quite well.

All of this is of course pretty general, but this is the experience I made. Two of your ships - no matter the combination - are still a top team. Even just one of them is good enough to make a difference.

Conclusion:

The amount of small but effective and cheap abilities/functions of the pilots make this squad so strong. In addition, due to those effects, you are able to cover all the firing arcs of your ships (don’t forget with Latts and Koshka you have more than just the 90° to the front)! Even though the abilities synergise well you still can use the ships on their own efficiently.

My win-loss ratio during the development of this squad was quite well (around 90% victories). I decided to take it to the German Nationals where I went 5:1 in swiss and to the second round in the top cut.

Even more impressive was the performance of my friend Timo who played the list at the German Nationals as well as the XTC and the European Championship. In all three tournaments he went 26:6, whereas three were top cut losses.

This Scum squad is coherent and efficient and performs really well in big tournaments (as mentioned in several Podcasts). What are you waiting for, give it a try!

interesting. will give it a thought.

2 hours ago, Dalli said:

Hi, Guys!

Some have taken note of the squad I'd like to explain to you. It was played by me and Timo at the German Grand Championship and later again by Timo at the XTC and the European Championship. Thank you Mark - once again - for helping me translate the original article.

My hobby within the hobby is to build Scum squadrons - and to fly them. I love the abilities and effective tricks of this faction a lot. As usual I have picked ships that nobody seems to fly and started to build something. My goal was to create a coherent and efficient squad.

Latts Razzi

I had in X-Wing a couple of small revelations respectively surprises. Latts is in that regard is definitely in my top 3. Latts is in my opinion not only the best pilot for the ship but an efficiency beast in general. It doesn’t need a lot to unveil this beast: Unkar Plutt, 0-0-0 and Crackshot. That’s in total 67 points.

The focal point is Latts ability to spend a target lock at the beginning of the engagement phase to assign a tractor token to another ship in range 1. What sounds okay on paper becomes good as soon as you have the ship on the table and once you know how to utilize the ability it becomes awesome. I could fill pages telling about “those situations” where I used the ability, but it would be too much. Instead I rather would like to describe the possibilities you have with the ship. The focus is first and foremost small base ships, but those are also most of the time the predators.

The ability is a deterrent, especially for aces. You can tractor small ships past the freighter, away from it or on mines and obstacles. It is defensive as well as offensive: you avoid getting shot at and ensure that you can fire your shots. When the positioning of the opponent ship is not ideal, it will get a tractor token; other than like an ordinary attack it can’t be repelled. Other than with Ketsu Latts has a range 1 tractor bubble and you can trigger it rather often as it is difficult to predict which maneuver the YV-666 will fly. The 180° fire arc is already big, but with the possibility to move a ship into the arc if needed it feels even bigger. This way you can, for example negate the “life saving” barrell roll of an ace pilot. And everybody knows that a tractor token on a ship that you will focus fire on is quite handy. Same goes for big(er) ships. It is a big advantage to play with asteroids. Pushing your opponents on asteroids is the second most used possibility. You can also: move the ship on a mine, in Latts bulls eye, so you can trigger crack shot (this means you negate two possible evade results) or in range of your other two ships.

Crucial: You have to bring along Unkar to get the target lock even when you are overlapping/bumping. He will be a match-winning factor, as the target lock action can not be prevented. Unkar is mandatory.

Also, it is possible that you will land on an asteroid or gas cloud. If you overlap another ship while doing so, you still can get your target lock. Doing this is most of the time more advantageous than taking damage.

It becomes even more explosive with 0-0-0 as he not only puts pressure on your opponent, but also because he provides modifications either via calculate token for Latts or a reroll for Koshka Frost(when opponent decides to take the stress instead). With 4-LOM around the corner there is always a good chance for handing out double stress.

I can assure that it will be exhausting for your opponent to keep all this in mind. He will eventually do mistakes and this will generate a win-win-win situation.

In case you put the target lock on the ship you want it to for triggering the ability, you still can use it to re-roll your attack dice as normal. Along with the potential calculate token from 0-0-0 you are able to fully modify your attack.

All in all: Latts is the heart of the squadron and able to force a hardcore mind game upon your opponent.

Latts Razzi (59)
Crack Shot (1)
Unkar Plutt (2)
0-0-0 (5)
Total: 67

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

4-LOM

He synergizes well with 0-0-0. As described above, a carless pilot willing will take the stress from 0-0-0 to avoid the calculate token for Latts, only to get tractored into range 1 of 4-LOM to get dealt another stress token. Having two active sources for stress, you are able to keep a constant pressure on your opponent. Especially red maneuvers or the usage of linked actions will be punished by the third pilot (Koshka) in the squad.

With 4-LOM in the front and Latts right behind him they both can stop infinitely: 4-LOM stops, gets a stress. 4-LOM is flying a 1 straight and bumps into 4-LOM (removing a stress). At the end of the round 4-LOM hands over the stress to Latts and the fun starts again; yes you can give the stress also to friendly ships (something that tends to get overseen). With his 2-turn and 1-hard standard maneuvers he can collect stress (and a calculate token) which is sufficient to make him an effective pilot.

4-LOM is also the pilot that can avoid being double stressed by using Contraband Cybernetics best. When push comes to shove he can fly a red maneuver even though being stressed. This way he gets two actions (calculate + x) and can, when getting into range 1, pass along a stress.

Another positive side-effect is him being an initiative-3-ship, just like Latts and Koshka. And, don't forget, 4-LOM has the jam action which helps against enemy target locks or reinforced tokens.

4-LOM (49)
Crack Shot (1)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Total: 53

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Koshka Frost

With Latts and 4-LOM dealing stress (plus opponents flying red maneuvers and/or doing linked actions) you can utilize Koshka’s ability at a steady pace in your games, bolstering booth your offensive and defensive. Having the IG as crew gives you two calculate tokens, which is statistically more advantageous than a single focus token: you can use them both for either an attack or defense roll or split them, just as needed.

Koshka is basically a more cost efficient version of Boba, you get the same bang for less bucks. This makes her a very attractive pilot. Also, I tend to use her as the end-game-allrounder. Sharing the initiative of 3 with all pilots gives her the possibility to bring some amazing (and surprising) overlap/bump- or position-swap-tactics to the table.

The icing on the cake is the possibility to deal auto damage with the two mines. Devices on the Firespray is an existing topic on its own. In this squad it’s the Proximity Mine. It will - along with Latts ability - cover Koshka’s back.

Koshka Frost (70)
Crack Shot (1)
IG-88D (3)
Proximity Mines (6)
Total: 80

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

General tactics

Asteroids

Bring along the biggest asteroids possible and put (assuming you are the first player) one of the big fellas in the middle. Place the others loosely around the center rock in a way that the opponent can’t make the field too tight. You should be able to maneuver through the field with your medium/big base ships without problems while having obstacles around you for some tractor action. In case your obstacles are the only asteroids, make sure that they are not placed just somewhere in a corner, those rocks are your friends and you want to keep them close!

Deployment:

4-LOM wants to stay close to Latts whereas Koshka rather wants to be alone. In case your opponent has a lot of beefy ships - they also tend to generate a lot of damage - try to deploy Latts and 4-LOM in the opposing corner. Both of them don’t want to joust. Latts could take a reinforce, but this would mean that 4-LOM would become target priority and you would have spent the Latts action for nothing. Even though they work well together you should see them as solo combatants nonetheless.

In case your opponent has beefy ships and can deploy after you put 4-LOM and Latts in the middle of the deployment zone. In both cases keep Koshka around 4-5 ranges away, so she can be next to them within the second round. She is the “kinda flanker” in the squad.

It really depends on the list composition of the opposing force with regards to HP and damage output. You never want to joust a swarm. Against aces you want to put Latts and 4-LOM in a corner (keep Latts behind 4-LOM) and Koshka nearby. In case you face a mixed squad you need to look out for the HP/damage-output-ratio and the maneuverability and initiative of the single ships.

Approach

This is the most difficult part of the game. My goal is to get close to aces. In case your opponent deploys a single ship on the opposite side you can assume that he wants to lure you. Good thing is that Latts will get the target lock without getting damage (from Unkar). You just have to be careful that the both more immobile ships (Latts and 4-LOM) have enough space for turning around without hitting an obstacle. And you have to keep an eye on the ranges in case your opponent brought secondary armament, same goes for aces who want to outflank you.

Ideally Latts approaches slightly diagonally. Due to the huge arc you can keep the ship in the game by flying turns; those hard 3 maneuvers will get you around rocks like a charm. When you go straight it might get tricky to turn around. In case you are in such a situation, try to bump: rather get the target locka and damage then the stress from stopping with the maneuver. As said Koshka is the “kinda” flanker. However, only use the boost when you are absolutely sure that you won’t get shot. The boost is only meant for reforming and for wide approaches - or a unrisky ruse.

Strategy

You want to take the most agile and most expensive ship out of the game first. That’s often easier said than done. 4-LOM is your cheapest ship and the one that can’t withstand a lot. Normally he will be taken as first target. Sometimes it’s Koshka as she seems to be more lucrative points wise. If you are able to remove the most dangerous ship with a total cost of more than 80 points (Koshka) before you lose one of your own ships you will win most of the time. If possible trade Latts - the heart of the list - or Koshka - the end game ship - for the best enemy ship; this could be even a fat Asajj or Rey (both really suffer from being tractored).

Taking out small base ships is fairly easy. Medium and big base ships whereas won’t get down in one or two rounds. Hence focus fire is very important. It’s all about gaining the upper hand. Ace players quite often feel safe and secure, even though they are aware of Latts ability and the mine. However, both tend to get forgotten quite often, respectively, it is not always possible to avoid them. It is normally enough to assign a tractor token to an ace to take it out of the game (after you have moved it on an obstacle or mine). Even experienced players don’t have that on the radar all of the time. Vader with 5HP gets down pretty fast when attacked by three ships (3 attack dice each) with crack shot while only have two green dice to defend himself. Also, there is a chance of extra damage due to the obstacle, either by rolling the ship onto an asteroid/debris field or when it flies off the round after. Ships like Soontir don’t like that at all. Most important in this regard is that you can “cancel” the repositioning of an arc dodger to bring him back into your arc.

When Latts and/or 4-LOM our out of the game, you should have killed at least the most dangerous ship of your opponent; ideally you have taken down another one as well. With Koshka total point cost of 80 you should be in the lead. She can deal with the remaining less dangerous ships on her own quite well.

All of this is of course pretty general, but this is the experience I made. Two of your ships - no matter the combination - are still a top team. Even just one of them is good enough to make a difference.

Conclusion:

The amount of small but effective and cheap abilities/functions of the pilots make this squad so strong. In addition, due to those effects, you are able to cover all the firing arcs of your ships (don’t forget with Latts and Koshka you have more than just the 90° to the front)! Even though the abilities synergise well you still can use the ships on their own efficiently.

My win-loss ratio during the development of this squad was quite well (around 90% victories). I decided to take it to the German Nationals where I went 5:1 in swiss and to the second round in the top cut.

Even more impressive was the performance of my friend Timo who played the list at the German Nationals as well as the XTC and the European Championship. In all three tournaments he went 26:6, whereas three were top cut losses.

This Scum squad is coherent and efficient and performs really well in big tournaments (as mentioned in several Podcasts). What are you waiting for, give it a try!

Nic writeup, thanks. I've given it a shot (with modifications from my side). I was very good. What I've changed:

Your Latts:

Latts Razzi (59)
Crack Shot (1)
Unkar Plutt (2)
0-0-0 (5)
Total: 67

My Latts:

Latts Razzi (59)
Lando Calrissian (8)
BT-1 (2)
0-0-0 (5)
Total: 74

I've dropped mines from Koshka to cover for Lando and BT-1. Additionally 4LOM with Cybernetics is brilliant My Latts gives a choice theater to give calculate (fodder for Lando) or Stress, so fodder for her and Koshka. I was very happy with it

49 minutes ago, BoskiChe said:

with modifications from my side.

It is best not to make any modifications to a list that has been perfected over weeks without playing it a few times. The upgrades all have their meaning, which was also described. To throw Unkar out alone is so wrong. 🤔 🤗

I was attracted to your Latts the moment I saw it. Most impressive!

So much so, I've been playing around with it at home and aim to bring it to a table very soon.

For my part, I'm trying her with Asajj and a 3rd ship. It won't be as honed and competitive as yours but it makes for some fun combos and there's a lot of wiggle room.

The inclusion of the Nashtah Pup interests me. On Fly Casual at least, it seems like it can add a lot in the end game. How much of an impact has it had for you? Is it something you would never dream of dropping, or is it simply one useful way to spend the 7pt?

For example, in one of my experiments, Contraband and Zuckuss crew on Asajj and BT-1 on Latts instead makes for some cruel tricks. But the Nashtah can maybe make a bigger difference once the YV explodes.

Edit. So I just noticed that you don't have it here. I swear I saw it in a version of this list.....

Yes, but the list need to suit the player I don't think that my changes were dramatic. I see the value of Unkar, but from my experience 0-0-0 needs to force a tough choice upon the opponent. Without real deterrent why not to allow to give 1 Calc to Latts, which is not the worst case (for the opponent). I see how parts are interacting and I like the idea. The thing that generally does not click enough for my is reliance on stress mechanic to produce results. Of course it can be done, but is not as reliable as ex. tractor beaming someone not using Tractor Beam gun (ex. Quadjumper, Shadowcaster Title, Unkar Plutt pilot, Latts Razi in Slaver).

Have You thought or tested Latts without stress mechanic? This could be interesting concept.

1 hour ago, BoskiChe said:

from my experience 0-0-0 needs to force a tough choice upon the opponent. Without real deterrent why not to allow to give 1 Calc to Latts, which is not the worst case (for the opponent).

I obviously can't answer this as well as Dalli, but from my own trials, the thing that Latts suffers from, when tractoring with the lock, is a complete lack of mods on offence.

Reducing someone's agility is not very useful if you're only rolling 1 hit and haven't been able to set up decent secondary attacks. So passive mods are like gold dust for her and 0-0-0 is the cheapest available option. I imagine there are very few people who will opt into the stress.

I've tried Ketsu crew, Maul and leaving the slot empty in favour of some other nonsense as well, but the passive mod from force or calc makes easily the biggest difference.

1 hour ago, Cuz05 said:

The inclusion of the Nashtah Pup interests me. On Fly Casual at least, it seems like it can add a lot in the end game. How much of an impact has it had for you? Is it something you would never dream of dropping, or is it simply one useful way to spend the 7pt?

For example, in one of my experiments, Contraband and Zuckuss crew on Asajj and BT-1 on Latts instead makes for some cruel tricks. But the Nashtah can maybe make a bigger difference once the YV explodes.

The Nashtah Pup was meant for the endgame. It makes Latts ability stay in the game for a very long time. Once you understand how strong that is, you understand that desire. However, I looked at my games and Timo's and discover that the automatic-damage-mechanics and here and there an obstacle-like would have helped us more than a slumbering Nashtah. I don't miss him at all. Only with my heart, because it raises the coolness level of the list when it's there. But in the end the mine is especially good against aces and generally to do more damage. Especially because it fits well with the tractor. The squad plays out perfectly with it.

1 hour ago, BoskiChe said:

Yes, but the list need to suit the player I don't think that my changes were dramatic. I see the value of Unkar, but from my experience 0-0-0 needs to force a tough choice upon the opponent. Without real deterrent why not to allow to give 1 Calc to Latts, which is not the worst case (for the opponent). I see how parts are interacting and I like the idea. The thing that generally does not click enough for my is reliance on stress mechanic to produce results. Of course it can be done, but is not as reliable as ex. tractor beaming someone not using Tractor Beam gun (ex. Quadjumper, Shadowcaster Title, Unkar Plutt pilot, Latts Razi in Slaver).

For me 0-0-0 is a win-win in this list. To gain a calc is what I want. Because the action is almost always reserved for TL. So Latts gains her modifier. If not - Koshka become a modifier. I wanted to get the cheapest solution to gain modifications and at the same time support LOMs capability. And it does.

Unkar makes sure that Latts always work as well as possible. If you play against 2 Jedis and 2 Torrents and other Squads with block capacities - you will wish you had Unkar with you and that is just one example. Unkar is the most important upgrade card in the hole squad.

The squadron's like a dish. You can - but you shouldn't try to replace the meat in your burger with camembert cheese. 😀

4 minutes ago, Dalli said:

I don't miss him at all. Only with my heart, because it raises the coolness level of the list when it's there.

Haha, I am very feeling this. I plan to add a docking peg section to the back of the YV in order to facilitate this coolness.

It's a decent addition though, like you say, having that ability linked to a (not actually very) zippy small base in the end game is surprisingly threatening. It's preposterously easy to just shoot at and destroy though, if it wakes up, so a relatively risky investment.

1 minute ago, Cuz05 said:

It's a decent addition though, like you say, having that ability linked to a (not actually very) zippy small base in the end game is surprisingly threatening.

This small ship can take a Darth vader out of the game with its pure presence and it deal also damage. One out of three games he was useful.

The mine is it just every game.

I appreciate the write up and the follow up clarifications on the switch from the Nashtah Pup to the Prox Mines. I've personally found prox mines to be very underrated.

In terms of Latts action primarily being TL, do you figure if you find yourself in a position where you should reinforce, Latts just shouldn't have been in that position in the first place? Latts just needs to be in game states that allows her to take the lock without threat of a lot of unanswered damage I assume? Do you reinforce/focus only when you're out of lock range incase opposing ships surprisingly turn towards you?

13 minutes ago, RStan said:

I appreciate the write up and the follow up clarifications on the switch from the Nashtah Pup to the Prox Mines. I've personally found prox mines to be very underrated.

In terms of Latts action primarily being TL, do you figure if you find yourself in a position where you should reinforce, Latts just shouldn't have been in that position in the first place? Latts just needs to be in game states that allows her to take the lock without threat of a lot of unanswered damage I assume? Do you reinforce/focus only when you're out of lock range incase opposing ships surprisingly turn towards you?

When you are approaching, the reinforce can be valuable. E.g. against swarms. The same applies to Koshka. She can use her two dice and reinforce to tank an Energy Charge swarm without being destroyed. The great thing about Latts is that she like to overlap. Better the damage from Unkar than the damage from the ship which can't shoot because of the overlaping. You can put the TL on a ship that has already been activated. Because with such lists they often fly first. That's how it is simply they to choose a ship which you like to put away or on a obstacle. So the traktior becomes a close defence in about 70% and is worth as much as a reinforcement. And even if the opponent is activated after latts you can anticipate which ship can be cleared out of the way in the future.

Anyway, the tractor is also a defensive capability.

I would prefer this, but very similar:

I don't see crack shot useful on latts or 4LOM because the enemy will try to get out of arc. I put proton bombs on Frost because of the migitated efficiency of the prox mines. Instead, I put a second contraband on Latts to give her a chance to take a lock while doing a 0 maneuver.

I will have to try this

If you flew 4-LOM in front of Latts you never need cybernetics.

And as I said - you have a traktor to bring ships in the bullseye. The Cracks are also extrem usefull to instandly whipe out small ships. You will need it. For exemple, you traktor a jedi in Bullseye -- of all the damage that's been done goes through. When you play with big ships, proton bombs can be a big problem for you. The thing about the mine is that in most cases you place it directly under the base of enemy ships. Bombs are better for erea controll - we dont need erea controll in this composition.They detonate directly after the active phase. I.e. you can't use the traktior to put the ships in the area anymore. Mines, however, can be used for this.

I wonder why the first impulse of almost all readers is to change a perfect list. 🤔

52 minutes ago, Dalli said:

I wonder why the first impulse of almost all readers is to change a perfect list. 🤔

My first impulse is to use but not copy

What I make will be much less perfect, but it will be mine!

It is architects of success, like yourself, that inspire architects of jank, like myself

4 hours ago, Dalli said:

The squadron's like a dish. You can - but you shouldn't try to replace the meat in your burger with camembert cheese. 😀

Why not? That sounds like an AMAZING sandwich. A nice bun or roll grilled in a pan with butter, add crisp lettuce and a slice of ripe tomato. Put in a nice piece of Camembert (I think ideally at room temperature), and I think it'd be really tasty. Certainly not a burger anymore, but I bet I'd enjoy it.

I'll trust you on the list, though.

Looks like fun, and I might have to try it out sometime.

Can confirm, Latts is great fun.

Back in November, I took Latts, Ketsu, and Unkar Plutt to a system open. They were great fun, but I never spotted that Unkar should be taken as crew. Instead, I went with the hilarity of having 5 ways to tractor ships in a 3-ship list.

(Since my dice were appalling all day, it's just as well that I could just focus on tractoring my opponents rather than winning games. Round 1 was my first and only Final Salvo - neither of us managed to score any points, with all the damage I dealt being due to my bombs and asteroids, whilst he only got 3 damage through on my ships at all. He did spend a lot of time perched on asteroids, but 2 Defenders plus Echo should do better!)

Given how good Ketsu is, I might have to see if she works well instead of Koshka, but I suspect that Dalli is correct and his list is perfect already.

19 hours ago, Gilarius said:

n how good Ketsu is, I might have to see if she works well instead of Koshka, but I suspect that Dalli is correct and his list is perfect already.

It's a tough tournament list. Which has a development behind it. I am curious how the next point adjustment will affect it.

That's still a while away, of course.

@Dalli looking at your list build, just playing around with the last 3 pts. First off, I don't have any issue with each ship having Crack Shot, it definitely is a solid option and could still be the best to use. Just curious if you've tried any of the things listed below in your testing or games with the build.

4LOM options: Elusive (Hull same value but no increase in hp threashold and can save more than 1 hull), Qi'ra (4LOM movement freedom), Tobias Beckett (move that obstacle where you want), Zuckuss (generate stress without doing a red and help push damage like Crack Shot) or Fearless (setup easier via tractor)

Latts Razzi options: Hull Upgrade (increases half pt hp threshold), Contraband Cybernetics (0 stop flexibility), or BT-1 (crits are bad yo, thanks 4LOM)

Koshka Frost option: Delayed Fuses (allows for more flexible mine drop with your medium/large ships) EDITED: I like this actually a lot the more I think about it instead of Crack Shot on Frost even if the other 2 Crack Shots are kept.

5 hours ago, RStan said:

Zuckuss

I've become quite the fan of Zuckuss crew lately. 2pt can be incredible value on a ship that can manage, or just not care too hard, about the stress.

Basically a variance prone Juke or rechargeable Crack Shot.

Obviously made for 4LOM, but part of what balances him there is the pilots strong desire to perform red moves, switching him off. On a ship that will often be doing blues or carrying passive mods, he seems a bit good.

Seems great for Latts but clearly, 0-0-0 and Unkar are inarguably strong here.

I certainly would have considered him though. A potentially similar benefit to 0-0-0, a single dice mod, and 3pt to spend elsewhere can go a long way. Autoblasters and Marksmanship for eg.

Edit. I played 1 real life game with Latts plus 0-0-0 and Unkar last night. It was a powerful lesson in the usefulness of the defensive lock.

Also, I need a 0-0-0 Lego figure. I didn't use him once. I did actually remember, once. After the window closed. And then not again.

Even 61pt Latts seems good.

Tried out the list. I think I'd swap Crack Shot on Frost for Delayed Fuses so far. Both cards can be "game winning" types of cards, but the flexibility of dropping a prox mine on your own ship to delay it for the ship to move off for an enemy ship to then move through or on it is just adding another wrinkle to the list for the opponent to think about. It already came up in the first game I played and killed QD for me. Yes that's just one game, but I see Frost leveraging her rear arc more anyway to not only shoot but threaten with prox mines. Last two points still being Crack Shot on Latts & 4LOM or Qi'Ra on 4LOM are still up in the air for me. Zuckuss won't proc enough since 4LOM will be stressed more often to not use it and Tobias is not better than 2 Cracks or Qi'ra. BT-1 on Latts is a distant 3rd though still.

On 9/5/2019 at 12:06 AM, Dalli said:

If you flew 4-LOM in front of Latts you never need cybernetics.

And as I said - you have a traktor to bring ships in the bullseye. The Cracks are also extrem usefull to instandly whipe out small ships. You will need it. For exemple, you traktor a jedi in Bullseye -- of all the damage that's been done goes through. When you play with big ships, proton bombs can be a big problem for you. The thing about the mine is that in most cases you place it directly under the base of enemy ships. Bombs are better for erea controll - we dont need erea controll in this composition.They detonate directly after the active phase. I.e. you can't use the traktior to put the ships in the area anymore. Mines, however, can be used for this.

I wonder why the first impulse of almost all readers is to change a perfect list. 🤔

This list is far from perfect, I don't know if it's a meta thing in your area, but all the times I have used 4-LOM people are always happy to give me a calculate.

If you can get around Latts and 4-LOM you can negate their effect as both are difficult to turn around, 4-LOM has K turns, but as you said earlier, he can die real quick to focused attention.

You write a good description of tactics, but it's a perfect world scenario, with some decent asteroid placement it can screw that up.

I had tested several things in the evolution of the list. Among others also Zukuss on 4-LOM. Hull Upgrade and Elusive.

With Zukuss, it was annoying that you couldn't use it if I had flown a red maneuver myself before. But you do that quite often. Roll the defensive dice is not a big thing. If the opponent has a focus, then you only have a 3/8 chance on a deleted symbol. Zukuss had simply not prevailed in the test - despite that I was there patiently with him.

With Elusive there is the problem of the number of uses. On a ship with many green dice it pushes that again. But with 4-LOM and only one green it was like that, that I never used it more than 2 times. This was statistically hardly worthwhile and just weighed up a hull upgrade. That's why I got away from it. The hull upgrade might be an idea. But to sacrifice 3 cracks was out of the question for me. On average I consume 2 of the 3 cracks. I.e. I take the opponent 2 HP. The hull gives me 1 HP. I see a clear advantage with the cracks. Furthermore the crack forms a synergy with the tractor. As I already wrote, it is almost unbearable for the opponent to let his ship into one or two crack shots with tractors. That would mean 2 greens less. This threat by three Bullseye in the game must the opponent dodge and think through. He generates e.g. stress by linked actions because of repositioning. That's what I want. Partly he does that and still gets one. With a used Crackshot you have the hull upgrade in the reason again balanced out.

Of course you have the chance to get the point advantage in Latts Razzi, if you equip the hull. Because odd HP are always good. But I'm not convinced when I think of my situation with the crackshots.

The list is mercilessly maximized and perfect, not for nothing has it pushed through in some of the biggest tournaments that have taken place so far and in the most demanding meta in the world. #tinyeuropeanmeta

1 hour ago, Dalli said:

With Zukuss, it was annoying that you couldn't use it if I had flown a red maneuver myself before. But you do that quite often.

This is it exactly, there's some anti-synergy with 4-LOM, which impacts how you need to fly him.

I would have more inclined to test him on Latts, but with R1 engages very much desired, Crack and 0-0-0 likely provide a lot more. Albeit for 3x the cost- so a balanced choice either way, I imagine. If you have the extra points spare, you spend them for the greater effect.

Still, a 3/8 chance of cancelling an evade should give you at least an equal return to 2 Crack Shots, since it's so easy to proc it on multiple attacks. It's just that the lack of a 3rd crew slot denies you the very tangible benefits of Unkar or 0-0-0.

Something for a different list perhaps.

Highly off-topic now, Zuckuss on Asajj has seemed very effective. TL + 2 force + Zuckuss reroll makes for a pretty consistent R1-3 tractor, with the title. Or even just straight up damage into a target already Lattsed. (Plus Cybernetics for dealing with the stress in a difficult moment), (Plus plus Heightened Perception for making 2ag I5s and 6s sad... ).

2 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

topic now, Zuckuss on Asajj has seemed very effective. TL + 2 force + Zuckuss reroll makes for a pretty consistent R1-3 tractor, with the title. Or even just straight up damage into a target already Lattsed. (Plus Cybernetics for dealing with the stress in a difficult moment), (Plus plus Heightened Perception for making 2ag I5s and 6s sad... ).

Yeah, sure, that seems like a good compination. Especially since the caster can handle the stress very well.

But yes, that is possibly too much off topic. 🤣