For a little while, I've had the thought that Jabba + Contraband Cybernetics might be an OK combination for a YV-666. Use Contraband to stall (or just to get an action after stalling), and Jabba refreshes it automatically at the end of the turn, so it's basically 5 charges of CC for 9 points.

I mentioned that this might not be bad on a Trandoshan Shaver, or Bossk (add BT-1 or Greedo to taste), but @Wazat suggested Han Gunner. Rules-wise, that'd work. Contraband Cybernetics lasts through the rest of the *round* not the phase, so Han can be piling on the red Focus actions. Per @gadwag I'm not sure Bossk is the right pilot for it anymore. I'd go with a basic Trandoshan, or perhaps Moralo Eval. Being able to fly off and replace the ship somewhere handy might be good. Latts also probably works, with still focus when she tractors someone, and stalling with CC will ensure you get an action to Lock with.

So anyhow, the basic build is thus:

Trandoshan Shaver (Jabba, Han, Contraband Cybernetics) 75

or

Moralo Eval (Jabba, Han, Contraband Cybernetics) 89

and right now, I'm trying to figure out what to fly with one of them.

//

First reasonable thought: decent Init 5s.

• Moralo (above) 89
• Old Terroch (Predator or Fearless) 58-59
  • Can upgrade to Fenn Rau, if using Trandoshan Shaver.
• Talonbane Cobra (Predator) 52

Another direction: stripped down Koshka and 4-LOM. Probably too stripped down, but maybe it'd work.

• Trandoshan (above) 75
• Koshka Frost (0-0-0) 75
• 4-LOM (--) 49

Any other thoughts?

Advanced Sensors 4-LOM & Old Terroch?

Fenn Rau & Serissu?

Ketsu Onyo & Seevor?

Kestu & Serissu?

Serissu & 2x Cartel Marauders?

A friend of mine ran that combo for a while in addition to Lando so he could reinforce and then spend the token at init 2 for essentially a TL. It was extremely tanky and stayed relevant in the fight for a lot longer than a regular YV. Definitely seemed to earn it’s points

This seems superfluous but: add Jamming Beam to the hound. It may never use it, but it's entirely free and there are scenarios where jamming the lock off a ship is more valuable than putting a damage or two on it.

I'm partial to Moralo. There's a lot of value to being able to fly off the table and come back where you like, whenever you need to bail or sharply reposition (e.g. get turned around without being shot up and outmaneuvered along the way). Favor flying along the edge and get foes to come to you. That gives your flying yule log a lot of options. But if points don't allow it, it's fine to give the points to your wingmen so they're more effective; don't want to invest too deep into one ship at their expense.

Advanced Sensor 4-LOM and Old Teroch seem solid. 4-LOM is very effective overall, and Terry is good at limiting double mods and defense tokens from many ships (just not force users).

Talonbane is strong but you still have to fly him very carefully; in my experience he's either immortal or tissue paper, down to planning and dice luck. There's some advantage to making them choose between your hound and Fenn, but the hound can't necessarily move to exploit opportunities as well as, say, Ketsu can. I'm not sure, you might have to give the idea some table time to see how it plays out in actual practice. But if you can play cagey with Fenn until they engage the hound, that means the hound dies before burning out, Fenn hopefully lives to late-game, and you've wiped out several of their ships on the way.

Probably not Serissu IMO; my experience is it's a delicate butterfly in a war zone, and your hound doesn't really combo with it. Maybe another ally would, but I've found a ship like Fenn, for example, doesn't like being bound at the hip to a less mobile aura ship.

Ketsu (especially with the title) would be a fine option, but expensive. Might be looking at a 2-ship list with either more upgrades, or a throw-away filler ship. And Ketsu's lost so much luster with recent errata. It would be so nice to drop their defense for that double-modded hound shot, but except against small ships, that's going to be tough now.

Another 2-ship option is Boba. He's mean and efficient, and he mixes reasonably well with how I imagine the hound wanting to play.

You might try Ion Kavil and/or Cluster Torani. Kavil will give you some sharp control with that 4- or 5-dice ion turret, possibly trapping a ship in arc for a beating for several rounds, or keeping ships from outmaneuvering your team so easily, etc. Torani is a fine autodamage & anti-swarm option, though not particularly meta.

Consider Guri as one of your mean 5s. She's happy to skirt until they engage, then knife-fight in the hound's arc.

Also consider the basic hound and 3 Cartel Maurauders (kihraxz) with some upgrades or 2 Cartel Executioners (kimogila) with predator. It's a decent amount of firepower and arcs.

I kinda... okay, it's not solid meta, but I like the idea of pairing the hound with Emon. That hound could benefit a lot from a mine layer shepherding enemies out of its blindspots and getting them where they need to be for murder. Emon is quite brilliant at this, and a decent attacker at that. Perhaps toss in Seevor. You lack aces but you have some decent control and coverage options. I think it'd be hard to fly against the meta compared to a more acey option, but mines can sometimes do amazing things...

2 hours ago, Wazat said:

Emon is quite brilliant at this, and a decent attacker at that.

If you're looking at emon, just take sol with bombadier instead. He's better at bombing and doesn't have a ludicrously high points cost. Seevor also shoots before sol, and you can probably afford both of them by the time you pay for moralo.

I think if you're going for a two ship build, boba or guri are the only ones that can hold their own well enough for Moralo to do his thing. Otherwise, you want to choose ships that can (a) run away if chased and/or (b) your enemy doesn't want to face head-on. That way your opponent has a bad time whichever side they pick - if they chase moralo he can flee, and if they chase your other ships they either flee or make life unpleasant somehow. Trajectory sim nym would achieve this, but on his own he's probably easy pickings.

While moralo has a very fun ability, it is unfortunately quite expensive and doesn't help much during the important part of the game. If you can fly the YV well, you should be able to force your enemies to deal with it, even if it's just a slaver. If you're running moralo you buy yourself another approach when they get behind you, but most aces will be able to get behind him again and you're back where you started. Particularly with the cyber jabba "han mah boogie" build, I would just take a slaver (and debris, since you effectively ignore it) and park somewhere useful, then herd my opponent with my other ships.

I'd like to experiment with deploying a Z from moralo after he shows up behind enemy lines. I don't think you can make ndru work well with this unless moralo leaves again right away. If you deploy moralo side ways, undock ndru from the rear with a 3 hard, and 3 hard moralo into, does that separate them far enough? I don't think it will, and ndru is mediocre anyway. If only you could dock graz on moralo to deploy behind the enemy...

I find it very difficult to look past the Latts/Unkar combo, which still works fairly well stripped down to that alone. BUT, I do love tinkering with the YV and Jabbanetics is much fun....

I've been messing around with Assaj too and have become a bit of a fan. In the interest of fun, while still being relatively Ok, I want try max damage Bossk as an alternative. Han Gunner.... is so pricey, Bossk can't afford him

You can wiggle this around with a Slaver to get him in, but it kinda changes the whole dynamic. I feel like the one double modded gun it brings is not really enough for the points. This plays off of both large base pilot abilities, making Assaj a little more attractive than Ketsu.

(74) Asajj Ventress [Lancer-class Pursuit Craft]
(5) 0-0-0
(3) Heightened Perception
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(3) Shadow Caster
Points: 88

(64) Bossk [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(2) BT-1
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(4) Trick Shot
Points: 79

(30) Sunny Bounder [M3-A Interceptor]
(2) Autoblasters
Points: 32

Total points: 199

Jabba doing double duty is nice.

Or something stupid, for triple duty.

(74) Asajj Ventress [Lancer-class Pursuit Craft]
(3) Heightened Perception
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(3) Shadow Caster
Points: 83

(54) Trandoshan Slaver [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
Points: 75

(37) Torkil Mux [HWK-290 Light Freighter]
(5) Cloaking Device
Points: 42

Total points: 200

Neither seem likely to deliver what you're looking for

I see your list would like to punch out some dmg, maybe this would be an idea:

https://raithos.github.io/?f=Scum and Villainy&d=v8ZsZ200Z153XWWW36WW83WWWY109XWWWWWY124XWW92WWY124XWW92WW&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

Bossk (64)
IG-88D (3)
Greedo (1)

Ship total: 68 Half Points: 34 Threshold: 6

4-LOM (49)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 5

Cartel Marauder (38)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Ship total: 41 Half Points: 21 Threshold: 3

Cartel Marauder (38)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Ship total: 41 Half Points: 21 Threshold: 3


Total: 199

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Scum and Villainy&d=v8ZsZ200Z153XWWW36WW83WWWY109XWWWWWY124XWW92WWY124XWW92WW&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

BTW, the core goal of the build is Jabba + Han + contraband on a YV-666, so the ship can just stress itself cross-eyed for 5 turns and enjoy double mods during that time. Han is granting focus every round, and contraband makes sure you can perform Han's action and your normal action (to lock or reinforce), and you can stop or perform other reds as needed. It's a 5-turn Jabba party!

At the end of that period it burns out with at least 5 stress, so it should try to get as much work done and hopefully take all the opponent's attacks during that time.

That's the idea we're playing with, and theBitterFig is wondering what else should go in the fleet to build around this core.

7 hours ago, Wazat said:

BTW, the core goal of the build is Jabba + Han + contraband on a YV-666, so the ship can just stress itself cross-eyed for 5 turns and enjoy double mods during that time. Han is granting focus every round, and contraband makes sure you can perform Han's action and your normal action (to lock or reinforce), and you can stop or perform other reds as needed. It's a 5-turn Jabba party!

At the end of that period it burns out with at least 5 stress, so it should try to get as much work done and hopefully take all the opponent's attacks during that time.

That's the idea we're playing with, and theBitterFig is wondering what else should go in the fleet to build around this core.

Playing around on Fly Casual a little, I was ending my charges of Jabba/Contraband at like 11 stress. Moralo Eval makes one **** of an anvil, if you can find the right hammer.

I was trying this out with a slaver with jabba/contra, Seevor, Unkar quadtug with PA, and Sol Sixxa with Prox Mines/Skilled Bombardier/dorsal.

It was pretty fun. Seems like there is some potential for a variety of different wingmates.

Tried this a couple times against the Sinker swarm, (ARC, 4 torrent, Ric). Tried to make them come through astroid field and break up formation. Didnt work well.

2nd game, lined up with Assaj and Bosk across from them. Speed 4 for both forward. Killed a torrent 1st round of engagement. Then the Bosk sit still action and Assaj 5K. Makes the swarm target one and not the other. It was a closer game.

New Squadron

(64) Bossk [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(1) Marksmanship
Points: 86

(74) Asajj Ventress [Lancer-class Pursuit Craft]
(5) 0-0-0
(3) Shadow Caster
Points: 82

(30) Captain Seevor [Modified TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

Total points: 198

Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt on one ship? My inner Nerd is screaming 😱

5 hours ago, martini74 said:

Tried this a couple times against the Sinker swarm, (ARC, 4 torrent, Ric). Tried to make them come through astroid field and break up formation. Didnt work well.

2nd game, lined up with Assaj and Bosk across from them. Speed 4 for both forward. Killed a torrent 1st round of engagement. Then the Bosk sit still action and Assaj 5K. Makes the swarm target one and not the other. It was a closer game.

New Squadron

(64) Bossk [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(1) Marksmanship
Points: 86

(74) Asajj Ventress [Lancer-class Pursuit Craft]
(5) 0-0-0
(3) Shadow Caster
Points: 82

(30) Captain Seevor [Modified TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

Total points: 198

Interesting. I like this list. I wonder how it would do if you swapped out Seevor and Bossk's Marsmanship for a Expert Handling N'Dru Suhlak flanker.

It wouldnt hurt. I think the 3rd ship is flexable.

11 hours ago, Ikka said:

Interesting. I like this list. I wonder how it would do if you swapped out Seevor and Bossk's Marsmanship for a Expert Handling N'Dru Suhlak flanker.

Hrm. Not really sure N'Dru is going to work. One of these brick YVs can kinda keep the entire battle close in around it (particularly if it's Moral Eval placing himself behind an opponent), and N'Dru doesn't necessarily seem right in a list which leads itself into a scrum.

I do find it a little sad that N'Dru has kinda dropped off the face of the galaxy. He was always an interesting little filler, and I never see him anymore. I guess Seevor can just fly with the rest of your stuff, and there's less risk of getting blown away when alone. Likewise, Lone Wolf N'Dru only gets one reroll, so he'd be a lot less tanky than he used to be.

what about the escape craft as 3rd ship? should help the tackiness of the YV-666 and also chip in a little damage here and there. I guess its a bit slow and if u go with Eval and reposition ur too far from support ship?

So I've been playing the YV666 since it came out in first edition, and it's always been a blast.

Here is my current list, currently 3-3 after it's first tournament

Double YV redux

(64) Bossk [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(5) 0-0-0
(12) Maul
(2) BT-1
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
Points: 86

(68) Moralo Eval [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
Points: 77

(29) Lando Calrissian [Escape Craft]
(6) Tactical Officer
Points: 35

Total points: 198

I think I'll try this- gives a bunch of possible rerolls to Frost with L3 coordinating Reinforce once in a while, as Bossk does his party bus thing.

Bossk (64)
Marksmanship (1)
Jabba the Hutt (6)
Han Solo (12)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)

Koshka Frost (70)
Marksmanship (1)
0-0-0 (5)
Marauder (6)
BT-1 (2)

L3-37 (26)
Crack Shot (1)
IG-88D (3)
Total: 200

On 10/12/2019 at 4:43 PM, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

what about the escape craft as 3rd ship? should help the tackiness of the YV-666 and also chip in a little damage here and there. I guess its a bit slow and if u go with Eval and reposition ur too far from support ship?

I'm always worried about enough punch with an escape craft in an otherwise 2-ship list. But the YV is double-mods, and whoever the support ship is helping is going to be too, I guess.

//

As to maximum silliness: throw Boba Fett crew on a second ship when pairing with Moralo Eval. Everything just goes anywhere.

Unfortunately Escape coordinate will work only partially with Cybernetics-parked YV666, as Cybernetics Contraband is turned on "before you activate". So you cannot coordinate stressed ship until it activates (ie no L3-37 - Bossk interaction)

Lando is Ini4 tho, so it might be solution.

1 hour ago, Oldpara said:

Unfortunately Escape coordinate will work only partially with Cybernetics-parked YV666, as Cybernetics Contraband is turned on "before you activate". So you cannot coordinate stressed ship until it activates (ie no L3-37 - Bossk interaction)

Lando is Ini4 tho, so it might be solution.

I can definitely confirm that initiative matching with Lando is the way to go.

in my list above Lando follows Bossk around like a little puppy, whilst Moralo actually fly's like the world's scariest flanker simply by teleporting off the table in turn 2/3 to appear behind the enemy list (or force them to split when they really would like to be focusing Bossk). Bossk survives a surprising amount of fire with Reinforce, Focus, and Maul, and can switch to a more attacking Reinforce, Lock, Maul on subsequent turns as needed. Moralo lacks double mods, but has a basically unlimited Contraband cybernetic with Jabba onboard, which makes his dial surprisingly open.

My boy crushed a decent Rep list of mine with the Asajj/Bossk list I posted above, which was a little surprising....

However, one of the league nights featured pilots tonight is Old T, so in the interests of science, I may give this a go-

(56) Old Teroch [Fang Fighter]
(3) Fearless
Points: 59

(54) Kad Solus [Fang Fighter]
(3) Elusive
Points: 57

(59) Latts Razzi [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(4) Trick Shot
Points: 84

Total points: 200

Really liking playing around with YV lists, haven't had it on the table in a while and I'm looking to put something up against a Upsilon w/sf buddies this week.

Super beefy Scum list with the YV-666:

Latts Razzi (59)
Jabba the Hutt (6)
Han Solo (12)
Contraband Cybernetics (3)
Shield Upgrade (4)

Lok Revenant (45)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)

Lok Revenant (45)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Total: 200

Alternatively, drop Latts for a Slaver without the shield upgrade and you have nine points left to play around with.

On 10/14/2019 at 7:49 AM, Cuz05 said:

(56) Old Teroch [Fang Fighter]
(3) Fearless
Points: 59

(54) Kad Solus [Fang Fighter]
(3) Elusive
Points: 57

(59) Latts Razzi [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(4) Trick Shot
Points: 84

Total points: 200

Finally got round to flying this, after league night was postponed a week.

Utter hilarity.

The YV build is stupendous and the 2 Fangs are obviously great to fly. Whole thing is a great, efficient combo, nothing wasted.

It probably isn't going to be a consistent winner, everything explodes pretty easily. Focussing he YV can burn it down so fast, or at least seriously limit the effectiveness of Latts lock action, forcing reinforces instead.

Both my opponents tonight went for the Fangs though, knowing what a terror Old T can be. He didn't last too long in either but did his thing, trading heavy with Rey and Wedge before disappearing.

Kad did well, his ability is fantastic combined with Elusive. His red dice sucked fairly hard though, or he would have done great work. Neither oppo particularly wanted to bother with him but could not avoid him easily.

However, focussing them allowed Latts to shine. Against Nien, Rey, Finn, she was last ship standing, on 1hp after an utter bloodbath. A proper party that was.

Against Wedge, Corran, AP5 she again burned all her charges and kept going, only succumbing after pulling a Hull Breach as her 1st damage card once out of actions and into the full stress pile. Boo.

Corrans R1 double tap for 5 hits and a Wedge follow up the turn after for a single crit did nasty things with the Breach. Took her from a comfy 10hp to none. Ended 2hp Wedge, R2 unit spent, and 4hp Corran vs full Kad at time.

The real strength of the Latts build was not so much in the ability to continually stall but in granting access to the full dial every turn and allowing her to smash through debris without a care. Keeping the hard turns as options is fantastic. Makes avoiding the 180 arc and R1 a real difficult thing to manage. She was just stupidly unpredictable and piling damage through with focus, lock and Trick Shot. Ability was fairly clutch on 2 or 3 occasions directly and almost constantly indirectly. I even reinforced a couple times, simply because I had no other action I needed to do before Han Gunnering.

The Fangs are mobile enough to swing and cover her rear or place themselves to make the not-R1-or-in-her-arc options equally bad places to be. Latts was just a phenomenal control piece for forcing those hard or impossible choices. Kad flipping red turns at will helps a lot with the cover too.

So it was very effective, if not upper echelons effective. Such a massive knife edge with the Fangs, they need average dice at the very least, there's no mitigation for bad at anything not R1.

(Even R1 when Marksman Blaster Nien bullseyes you from behind and rolls a natural crit.)

(Although, later, 1hp Kad turning 2 blank greens and an eye on a hit, crit R2 shot into 2 evades with focus and Elusive was pretty nice....)

It does seem to me to have plenty of room for finesse on the table. Covering Latts blind spots with the Fangs. Baiting with one ship or another into inescapable spots. I think it can all be done with a bit of practice and planning. Positioning of the Hound is a very critical thing, particularly after the 1st couple engages, certainly an art to the approach and timing there.

So. I loved it. Absolutely enormous fun. Both games were a riot for all of us and drew a lot of interest from the other few tables. That there also seems to be some actual, proper gameplay to be had from it is a brilliantly surprising bonus.

How about

(59) Latts Razzi [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
Points: 80

(48) Black Sun Assassin [Star Viper]
(1) Crack Shot
(10) Advanced Sensors
Points: 59

(48) Black Sun Assassin [Star Viper]
(1) Crack Shot
(10) Advanced Sensors
Points: 59

Total Points: 198

Between the tractor of latts and the unpredictable movement of the assassins you should be able to put up a fight.

All init 3, so probably struggle against some lists, but could still be fun.

*And can add a Tractor beam in case of medium and large ships.

3 hours ago, Bort said:

How about

(59) Latts Razzi [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
Points: 80

(48) Black Sun Assassin [Star Viper]
(1) Crack Shot
(10) Advanced Sensors
Points: 59

(48) Black Sun Assassin [Star Viper]
(1) Crack Shot
(10) Advanced Sensors
Points: 59

Total Points: 198

Funnily enough, I threw this together this morning, looking at alternatives.

(59) Latts Razzi [YV-666 Light Freighter]
(4) Heavy Laser Cannon
(6) Jabba the Hutt
(12) Han Solo
(3) Contraband Cybernetics
(4) Shield Upgrade
(4) Trick Shot
Points: 92

(48) Black Sun Assassin [StarViper-class Attack Platform]
(6) Outmaneuver
Points: 54

(48) Black Sun Assassin [StarViper-class Attack Platform]
(6) Outmaneuver
Points: 54

Total points: 200

92pt Latts ftw!

Honestly not at all sure about actually trying it, the Fangs bring so much to the party. This build requires you to put the Bus up front, which gets it melted. You'd have to reinforce rather than lock on certain turns when everything is at range in front of you, or the entire list will get nuked.

That makes Latts as pilot a little redundant, she needs to be a second prong, arriving as the enemy attempts to deal with the Fangs. That way her biz all comes together.

The Vipers would have to bait the opposing ships in, which may not end well for them, since you're giving your opponent a lot of agency in what they go for. I not convinced even Outmanouvre Vipers will do enough damage, if ignored while Latts burns. It won't take very long for that to happen.

A lighter build with AdvS on the Vipers did occur to me, but they aren't going to hit very hard at all then, and you wont be reactive with the Sensors at I3.

The Fangs are considerably more threatening and their aggressive style seems to fit well with dragging things away from the Bus and trading up, so it can then bully enough points off the board before dying/exhausting charges.

It may work with a healthy dose of stalling mind you. A completely different approach with no less knife edge to it. I may give it a run at home with my boy, see how it feels. Possibly a Slaver instead of Latts, with spare points going elsewhere, will bring a bit more balance.

Edit. Another point in the Fangs favour, which obviously didn't come up last night, they are pretty genuine aces. The list will struggle hard against numerous generics that just yolo the Bus. The Fangs should help a lot more than I3 Vipers in those circumstances.

One other variation. Dropping Trick Shot off Latts gets you Swarm Fenn, a Recruit and a 3pt bid. My other favourite Fang pair.