At the start of the year, I set myself a goal: fly every ship in my collection. Stop harping on your favorites, Mr. Stuck-in-a-Rut, and try some different things! It’s a lofty goal, and one I’d set for myself before without success. The fact that I live in something of an X-Wing desert doesn’t help. Happily, life aligned itself to let me play just a leeeetle bit more—enough to get this done. (I’m sure it’s borderline impossible for others with larger collections or less playtime.)

This is a chronicle of things I did and lists I flew and games I played on this journey. I’m not going to rattle off every list I played this year. That’d be bonkers. Redundancy is not the goal. To some extent it’s unavoidable. (Paging Mr. Antilles on the white courtesy phone…) I still would rather minimize it. This goal is all about variety, after all. My writing should be, too.

Some of the lists below were written explicitly for the goal—and why not? Goals like these are about more than justifying the expense we plunk down on this game. (“Yes, I bought another one, because… reasons!”) They’re to take us out of our comfort zones and have us try things. Experimentation is fun, too. And if you fly a list without the expectation that it will do anything useful, you open yourself to pleasant surprises.

Note : these lists are presented first by faction, and then in the approximate order that I flew them. Points, in many cases, have changed since then. Don’t be surprised if some of these lists no longer fit. Also, my rule was that I have to fly all copies of a ship at once . If I have, say, six TIE Fighters, I have to fly a squad with six TIE Fighters. This proved easier with some ships than others…

REBEL LISTS

Bump City

Ten Nunb with Heavy Laser Cannon; Braylen Stramm with HLC; Arvel Crynyd with Intimidation, Marksmanship, Proton Rockets; Heff Tobber with Intimidation, Tactical Scrambler, Leia, Tactical Officer

Ships crossed off the list: 2x B-Wings, U-Wing

Before we really grasped just how amazing the Cassian-Braylen connection was, and before that combo was Hyperspace legal, people were trying many different flavors of Rebel Beef. This list was my homebrew.

Did I invest too heavily in bump-related tricks? Yeah, probably. Tactical Scrambler in particular was a nice idea in my head, but Heff drew so much aggro that in most games he was the first casualty. Against lists that had to go fast, I was able to force bumps and do shenanigans; against other slow Rebel squads, I gave away a lot of free range one shots. After flying the list casually with success against a variety of things, I went to a local tournament that was 90% Rebel beef and got shredded. (Mmm… shredded beef.)

Was the list fun? You bet. In my favorite game with Bump City, I snuck Heff in front of a Lambda and pinned it in place for literally the rest of the game. The Lambda never got off that location and never took an action again. It was hilarious.

I maintain that HLCs on B-Wings are worth it. Ten and Braylen carried me to a number of victories I absolutely didn’t earn. The PRockets were a bit of an extravagance, mostly because of how hit-and-miss they were. Lining up a bullseye on an Ini3 ship turned out to be hard. (The HLCs are different because they’re cheaper, B-Wings are more linear, and Heff could fix people in position to make it easy.) There were plenty of games where I didn’t launch them. When I did fire them, though, I LOVED that I was able to. One-shots are always fun. Incidentally, this is also why I went with Marksmanship over Predator—Marks helps the PRockets, Pred doesn’t.

Corran the Hero

Corran Horn with Proton Torpedoes, Juke, Fire Control System, R3 Astromech; Cassian Andor with Leia and Tactical Officer; Wedge Antilles

Ships crossed off the list: E-Wing

An experiment in trying to max out the ferocity of one ship. I suppose I could have gone with Jan instead of Wedge but that would have been a little too much, I think. The vulnerability of lists like this is that the more you load up on supporting pieces for your one cornerstone, the more you incentivize the enemy to focus on that cornerstone. I much prefer greater diffusion of threat, hence Wedge’s inclusion as a second option.

The design was to give recurring mods to Corran to ensure he could max out both his normal attack and his double-tap. It’s hard to set up that double-tap. On any turn I missed my chance, I was embracing inefficiency. I won the game I played with this, but it felt bad.

All the Arcs (Heavy)

2x Warden Squadron Pilot with Barrage Rockets and Proton Bombs (one with Sabine Wren, one with Leia), 2x Gold Squadron Bomber with Ion Cannon Turret and Veteran Turret Gunner, hull upgrades to fill the points

Ships crossed off the list: 2x K-Wings, 2x Y-Wings

I know that quad Wardens were a thing for a while, and I know that quintuple Goldies were a thing for a while. My collection isn’t that extensive. So I went halfsies with both of those concepts and had the Y-Wings lead-block for the K-Wings, with arcs everywhere and bombs covering my caboose. The “heavy” subtitle is because I had been headsimming a few variations on the idea. One version put everyone on a diet to squeeze in Lt. Blount. More ships is good but I was afraid he’d just get in the way, so I flew the heavier variant.

I’ve gotta say, this sequence is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in this game: hitting a ship with a Proton Bomb, using Sabine to tractor it into the OTHER Proton Bomb, giving it an ion token, and watching it fly off the table. I cackled.

It was a tricky list to fly; it’s very vulnerable to focused fire and has no closer, and trying to get everyone turned around was hideous. It has its virtues, though. I love 2.0 Sabine almost to the same extent I disapproved of 1.0 Sabine. I wish there was a way to field a more limited bomb complement with Sabine that made sense. Maybe I’ll search for that when this project is done. I feel like the Rebels really need something with Tragedy Simulator… (Cut to crowds of people chorusing, “No, they really don’t.”)

Aggression

Wedge Antilles; Norra Wexley (ARC) with Leia; Hera Syndulla (VCX) with Saw Guerrera

Ships crossed off the list: VCX-100, ARC-170

A variation on a list that crashed one of the European system opens. This version was partly to get the ARC on the table and partly because I wanted something new-player friendly (I’ve been trying to initiate some local Star Wars fans into the game). With three visually impressive ships of different sizes and relatively few upgrades, I figured it would be approachable and not overwhelming. Alas, the locals ghosted on me and I lost the game to boot. (I was far too aggressive with Wedge and put him in a bad position, I blundered around with the VCX, and then the dice poured gasoline on me.) The version with Norra in the Y-Wing is undoubtedly better.

Stupid Swarm

2x Phoenix Squadron Pilots with Intimidation, 2x Bandit Squadron Pilots, Zeb (TIE Fighter), Wedge Antilles with Swarm Tactics

Ships crossed off the list: 2x A-Wings, 2x Z-95s, Rebel TIE

The Rebel TIE was the ship I had the least enthusiasm for flying. It’s just kinda… there, these days. It has no shenanigans and the pilot abilities are unimpressive, at a price point that makes Imperial pilots giggle inside their helmets.

I looooove A-Wings, though. The theory was, Rebels don’t have swarm tech like Howlrunner or Sinker, at least not on offense… but Intimidation serves a similar function, boosting the offense of every ship that shoots that target, with increased benefits the more ships pile on. It was a thought. It’s tricky, though, because every ship you commit to bumping takes away from your offensive potential. Plus, because each shot has limited offensive mods, the list is high variance. Perhaps aware of this, I included Wedge to ensure I could actually kill things.

It worked alright. Wedge did most of the heavy lifting. Building a list out of filler reminds you why those ships are filler. The swarm ships did do damage, but their primary value was in making it hard for my opponent to hack his way to Wedge. Admittedly that counts for a lot. Regardless, I don’t need to come back to this one.

Hard Counting

Garven Dreis (X-Wing) with Selfless, Biggs Darklighter with Hull Upgrade, Thane Kyrell with R3 Astromech, Hera Syndulla (Attack Shuttle) with Nien Nunb, Predator

Ships crossed off the list: 3x X-Wing, Attack Shuttle

I thought I’d need to field four X-Wings at once to complete this challenge. I own five X-Wings, after all. Somehow, though, I can only field three in 2.0. Whoops!

It was only after flying this list that I realized its commonalities with the Resistance list “3.5 Xs”. Both have three modestly-equipped X-Wings with a fourth, smaller ship to fill the points. Both are pretty jousty but with some tricks: damage spreading for the Rebels, maximum mods for the Resistance. Both are balanced in offense and defense, have middleweight initiatives, and obscure their closer well.

Unlike Finn and his mini-tank thing, though, Hera joins the squad as a sort of pocket ace. Note to self: if you include in your list a ship you describe as “pocket ace”, take a non-zero initiative bid.

It was interesting that Hera could end up in so many different places, and she hit reasonably hard. The points, though, are very similar to Duchess—and that comp isn’t fair at all. I do love me some Duchess. (/end foreshadowing) Also, with the new rulings, Hera + Nien doesn’t work anymore, so there’s no upside left to mine here.

Import Convoy

Wedge Antilles; Heff Tober; Jan Ors with Moldy Crow; AP-5 with Leia Organa

Ships crossed off the list: HWK-290, Sheathipede

The last two ships I needed to finish the Rebels—and, lo and behold, this list pops up at the Team Championships in Poland! What were the odds?

The HWK and the Sheathipede probably make a good support combo for just about any hard-hitting ship. The thing is… the Rebels are actually limited in their supply of those. The more defensive nature of the faction means they’re often left gasping for offense.

This is why Wedge is here, there, and everywhere. He’s instant offense with minimal complications or vulnerabilities. Just point and shoot. Scarcity makes value. The Rebels can get defense and support from anywhere. When they really want to punch something, they call Wedge (and, to a lesser extent, Braylen). I guess I could have cashed in Wedge and Heff for a VCX instead, but that would have been clunky to fly.

I threw this game away. I was flying against a stronger jousting list that had me beat on efficiency. I needed to delay the engagement for one more round to control the range and force bumps with Heff. Instead, I undershot against a slow-rolling jousting opponent and lost Heff before he even fired—the same scenario that had caused me, six months earlier, to abandon Bump City. Apparently lessons-learned have a half-life. Or maybe I’m just bad.

One other random list I flew:

Focus Factory: Garven (X-Wing) with Selfless, Biggs with Hull Upgrade, Lt Blount, Esege Tuketu with PerCop and Barrage Rockets

The design is aesthetically pleasing with how the focus tokens ping around. I loved that Garven could grab a token from Esege and give it right back. Alas, it was very difficult to fly effectively. You want the Ini3 ships behind the Ini4 ships, including Esege’s medium base, while keeping the key ships in R1 of each other… good luck with that. I swear that Garven + Esege should be awesome, but I haven’t been able to come up with a way to really abuse it. /sadface

Next time: Imperials

A very good idea, looking forwards to seeing the other factions.

I too have been trying to fly everything - but not every model, since I have far too many copies of some ships. So far, I still haven't used:

Rebels: A-Wing, B-Wing, YT2400, Sheathipede, Z95 (although several scum Z95s have been to a tournament). My 3 Transports and one of my CR90s have been used.

Imp: all have been flown, yes including 2 Raiders and 2 Gozanti.

Scum: Firespray, Y-Wing (but many Rebel Y-wings were flown), Jumpmaster. C-ROC has been used.

Resistance: Transport & Pod.

FO: all flown.

Republic: Y-Wing.

Separatists: Hyena & Nantex still to use.

The fact that threads like this are now possible is a credit to 2.0.

Think I may have to start doing this...

I’ve been doing something similar.

It’s gotten a lot harder as I started buying into scum and republic, because I’m less enthusiastic about playing those, but I now have quite a large ship count nevertheless..,

I made it through the set before worlds. I’ve rebooted my “fly every model” from the beginning. I’ve only got a few things checked off though. Got to get out more.

Yeah 2.0 has been good for trying all sorts of ships. Though honestly some lists are pretty janky

4 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Yeah 2.0 has been good for trying all sorts of ships. Though honestly some lists are pretty janky

Heh.

"Janky" is my middle name. 💥 💥 💥

Yep, I've been doing this as well, posting in my local FB group when I finish each faction. I'm currently close to being done with Rebels, at which point I just have recent releases (N1, Republic Y, Nantex, etc) and most of Empire. Hoping to be done by the end of the year, but probably won't be. I'm also playing every upgrade. I have an Excel sheet to track it all.

4 hours ago, Eisai said:

I'm also playing every upgrade. I have an Excel sheet to track it all.

Oh, gosh, projects on projects! Someone asked me if I was flying every *pilot* for those ships and my face started twitching.

IMPERIAL LISTS

Carpet Bombing

Redline with Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles, Proton Bombs, Trajectory Simulator, Skilled Bombardier, Ablative Plating; Deathrain with Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Trajectory Simulator, Skilled Bombardier, Ablative Plating; Vizier with Ablative Plating, Tactical Officer

Ships crossed off the list: 2x TIE Punishers, TIE Reaper

It’s a mark of how much things have changed that this used to be a legal list. When 2.0 was released I ran this list with a bid ; as of the July points update it would cost 240 points (lol).

It could do a lot of fun things! Both Punishers could reposition like crazy and be all over the place without losing firepower. The list had a ginormous footprint with those three medium bases, which was both good and bad. I could launch a single- and a double-modified torpedo shot on turns everyone K-turned. I could (and often did!) fly through my own bombs with utter contempt. Vizier could coordinate before or after his regular move and could go as slow as, or faster than, the Punishers with little loss of function. Bombs everywhere, double-modded ordnance everywhere, mua-ha-ha, it was a gas. Yay for 22 charge tokens!

Because I was doubling- and tripling-down on particular engagement types, the list had weaknesses that made it more vulnerable than its current price suggests (240 points lol). It was terrific fun, though.

5-by-5

Maarek Steele with Marksmanship and Fire Control System, Duchess with Crack Shot, Howlrunner with Crack, Mauler Mithel with Crack, Scourge Skutu with Crack

Ships crossed off the list: TIE Advanced X1, TIE Striker

My personal favorite of all the lists I flew this year. Though (alas) not one I created myself, it scratches my itches something fierce. It’s a jousting list with some acey tricks. It’s a heterogeneous list that likes to fly in formation. It combines pieces everyone knows are good (Howlrunner) with pieces that are more obscure (Maarek? Scourge? ) to form something new and interesting. It also took me to a System Open cut and templates, which tickles me pink.

The list’s vulnerability is defense: most of the bodies are weak, there’s no Iden to bail you out, and Maarek’s need for locks means he’s often focus-less in key moments. The list compensates with lots of high-Ini dakka. Who needs defense when you can blow the enemy away before they shoot? The list also gives opponents target prioritization fits. Who you target first is more of a Rorschach test (who do you fear?) than anything.

I’ve recounted some but not all of my adventures with the list. Highlights: killing 4-LOM’s nine health with exactly two attacks; Howlrunner surviving a game; Duchess 1v1ing Fenn Rau and living to tell the tale; dragging down quad Phantoms by candlelight in a blur of bumps and red maneuvers; Maarek straight-up telling Poe “I don’t believe you”; and more.

When I crashed out of the cut in Atlanta, I felt bad because I felt that I had failed the list. I may be too emotionally involved with 5-by-5. Let’s move on.

Sloan Slaughterfest

3x Alpha Squadron Pilot, 2x Academy Pilot, Scarif Base Pilot w/ Admiral Sloan

Ships crossed off the list: 3x TIE Interceptor

It’s hard to fly multiple Interceptors these days. The fact that there’s only one high Initiative pilot is a shame. (Turr Phenir isn’t real.) (I don’t think Snap Shot makes him real, either.) This list got the job done, though! Sloan’s effect is nice in all circumstances, but I postulated it’s better when it’s boosting better attacks. Two Alphas are as many points as three Academies, though, and no more durable. Even if I lead with the Academies in the list I can’t compel the enemy to shoot them and not the much-scarier Alphas. The Alphas are better blockers, but they’re also the ships I want to preserve from blocking because I want their shots. Also, Sloan abuses low ship counts, but I would expect this list to suffer badly against mid-to-high count lists that also shoot before it, so flying it exposes you to bad matchup luck. My expectations were matched by experience: I wrecked a two-ship Rebel list, then had to scrape and scrabble for a win against a four-piece Scum salad. It was interesting, and different, but I don’t need it.

Anchors

Seinar Specialist with Ion Cannon Turret and Veteran Turret Gunner, Nu Squadron Pilot with Ion Cannon, Soontir Fel with Predator, Major Vermeil with Darth Vader

Ships crossed off the list: TIE Aggressor, Gunboat (Alpha-class Star Wing)

Most of my lists I name beforehand. Not this one. This was a nameless list when I flew it. It earned its sobriquet afterwards because the Gunboat and the Aggressor were dragging me down so hard. Soontir and Vermeil did all the work. Nu and Seinar rolled dice to little effect and took up space. I’m not exaggerating: Soonts and Richard inflicted 20 out of the 21 damage I dealt in the game. Admittedly I didn’t fly the Aggressor and Gunboat very well, and didn’t put them in great places to succeed… but then again, I felt such little joy flying them I have no desire to learn how to fly them well.

Enforcers of Lothal

2x Delta Squadron Pilot, Grand Inquisitor with Sense, Cluster Missiles

I swear I came up with this list design before GenCon put the TAP on everyone’s radar, though my expectations were low and so I’d hesitated to get around to it. The Clusters were a semi-obligatory way to fill up points because, with Sense, I didn’t feel the need for a bid. An HLC on a Defender would probably be better but I prefer them identical. Maybe after I grab a second Autoblaster… or drop Clusters and Sense for double HLCs. Options!

Turns out that three agility ships with double defensive mods every turn are good! Who knew? Seriously, though, the trick is using your maneuvers to keep the enemy from concentrating fire so your tokens can do their jobs, because the moment you run out of them you can end up in lots of trouble. Also, the ultimate straight-line ship (the Defender) flies totally different from the squirrely, knife-fighting TAP. It was an interesting contrast. I may return to this. It’s been pointed out by others that Defenders’ greatest vulnerability is to blocks, but you can’t get blocked if you move first…

Aside: as someone who flew quite a bit of 1.0 Inquisitor, my instinct would have been to continuously do linked actions followed by one-turns—the default way to fly in an action-centric age. This would have been a mistake. The V1’s linked actions are reposition-plus-focus. Grand Inquisitor is as expensive as Soontir because he has the Force, and the Force makes focusing largely (not entirely) redundant. I’ve been set straight on how to fly these things: evade to token up if you’ll get shot, grab locks if you won’t, and reposition without linking whenever you can to keep the dial open because positioning is king. How novel! It’s an encapsulation of the 1.0 to 2.0 transition.

Palp Aces Neo

Omicron Group Pilot with Emperor Palpatine; Soontir Fel with Predator; Whisper with Passive Sensors, Fifth Brother, Stealth Device, Juke

Ships crossed off the list: Lambda-class Shuttle, TIE Phantom

I also called this “The Loudest Whisper” because of how much I loaded down that sucker. Using all your upgrade slots isn’t very 2.0, so I notice when it happens.

Confession: I never ran Palp Aces during their 1.0 heyday. At first it was because I was cheap, and eventually it was because I was stubborn and refused to do the thing other people were doing. Now that they’re not “a thing” (or at least not as much a thing) I consented to run them.

Sure enough, they’re good! Many props to the people who are able to keep their Lambdas both engaged and safe, because that is a tricky line to straddle. The aces, though, are really good, with the Lambda or without. Passive Sensors Whisper with Palp and Fifth Brother is a gas. He’s very consistent on offense, which in turns fuels his defense and repositioning. Stealth Device is a luxury pick. Juke gives me pause. Given the prevalence of Force users, and that I have only one Juke in the list, I wonder if I’m better served with Outmaneuver. Heh, when I start thinking about how to tinker with a list and optimize it, that’s a sign.

TIE Swarm

Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics, Iden Versio, Del Meeko with Swarm Tactics, Gideon Hask, Wampa, Academy Pilot

Ships crossed off the list: 6x TIE Fighter

Finally! After flying mini-swarms and pseudo-swarms I got to the oldie and goodie. It’s been flown by others, with greater skill and success than me. It’s a known good and you don’t need me to tell you that. It’s fun. It works. Try it. Enemy blunders in front of it? They’re meat. Think they’re tough enough to joust it but they’re below Ini4? Meat.

Yes, I won the games I played with it. I flew directly at my opponents. I ate a ship a turn (MEAT!) until they broke, and the non-Howlrunner ships mopped up. It worked exactly as designed.

I prefer 5-by-5.

Beef Imperial

3x Scimitar Squadron Pilots with Barrage Rockets, 2x Academy Pilots, Duchess with Ruthless

Ships crossed off the list: 3x TIE Bombers

As usual, I was several months behind the New Hotness. I never flew spammed Barrage Bombers when they were at their most notorious, in part because I didn’t pick up a third Bomber for a while.

The idea was to use the Academies to fly interference for the Barrage Bombers and let the Bombers do most of the work, with Duchess there as a supplemental threat and pocket ace. Note to self: if you run a “pocket ace”, take a non-zero initiative bid. That ended up not mattering because my opponent was all Ini4 and below, but still.

It worked reasonably well. Barrage Bombers are cost-effective dakka, even without bullseying fools for rerolls. Ruthless worked, too, getting me a couple extra points of damage. The Bombers were beefy enough that I could ping them to little consequence to help out Duchess’ attacks. This helped maintain my offense (on a squad level) when the Bombers were too close to use Rockets. I also got into a spot of trouble underestimating the arcs of my opponent’s Auzitucks, which meant Duchess got roughed up a bit. I wonder if there might be something there—although the Auzituck is badly action-starved, having to choose between survivability and offense early in activation.

Algebraic Crits

Colonel Jendon with ST-321, Fire Control System; Ved Foslo with Fire Control System; Zertik Strom with Fire Control System; Maarek Steele with Marksmanship, Fire Control System, Proton Rockets

Ships crossed off the list: 3x TIE X1

I thought I was done! I finished Empire and moved on to other factions and was ready to put a bow on this thing! Then I bought a Raider for Epic purposes—totally forgetting that it came with an X1. Once I had two, I remembered this list from NOVA Open, at which point, well, I did the only responsible thing: I bought a third X1.

I’m indebted to Jendon for making this work as well as it does. As others have said, he makes marginal ships playable, and playable ships competitive. Because of this, some people have opined that Jendon should go up in points. Fie on that. You nerf things that are oppressive, things that make other choices “wrong”, things that kill diversity by being so much better that people have to fly those things (or the stuff that beats those things). Jendon does the opposite. He *promotes* build diversity. Thank you, Colonel Jendon!

The classic problem with the X1 is the dependence upon locks, which even Jendon can’t fully alleviate. It manifests most strongly when fighting mid-to-high ship count lists. A three-ship build struggles if one of its ships has to play super-coy for fear of being blown up. Four+ ship lists don’t care as much, and can leave behind or screen for the locked ship and force the X1s into hard choices. Being able to coordinate to swap locks is very clutch, and the PRockets help make Maarek scary to all targets and not just his locked victim.

These ships can be very tough if they’re able to focus consistently, critting all the time is nice, and their abilities kick in just often enough to matter. I like it. I like it a lot.

RESISTANCE LISTS

Vennie the Anvil

Vennie, C-3PO, Rey, Veteran Turret Gunner; Lt. Bastian with M9-G8; Ello Asty with Heroic

Ships crossed off the list: Starfortress

A variation of the “In-Vennie-cible” list that was floating around for a while. That version had bombs and L’ulo in place of Ello. I wasn’t able to get out of my own way with that one and I was criminally misusing the bombs, so I tried this instead.

Oh, I want to be better with this list than I was. I like a lot of the elements in it. I like the way it works together, and I like the way it should have answers for things. I love the interaction of Bastian with M9-G8 with a double-tapping ship. It should be so good! So far I’ve had only middling success with it. Large-based arc-bound ships are inherently clumsy and I’m clumsy with them. Mostly I blame myself. I’ll keep trying.

3.5 Xs (He’s a Big Deal!)

Finn with Perceptive Copilot, Heroic, and Advanced Optics; Lt. Bastian; Temmin Wexley with Composure; Jess Pava with BB Astromech

Ships crossed off the list: Transport Pod, 3x T-70s

A new version of a netlist I saw bouncing around. I’d flown the first version when it started popping up, which was before the Transport Pod came out. I ran it at first with Talli; other people used L’ulo. It had some fun things about it. I love the way the T-70s interact with each other for maximum efficiency. I didn’t like how the A-Wing felt with it, though, because the A-Wing didn’t want to stick with the other ships but didn’t seem to accomplish much on its own.

Enter the Big Deal himself, as smartly spotted by the FFG forum’s Green Dragoon. Upping a ship’s cost by 50% with upgrades is very 1.0-ish, but Finn was a throwback. Unlike the A-Wing, he can’t keep up with the T-70s when they’re going fast, but he *can* stick with them when they’re going slow, a more useful profile overall. This guy was shockingly effective on both offense and defense with his tokens, ability, and Heroic backstop. He was tough enough and punchy enough to hold his place in jousts. In fact, he was so effective (especially at that cost) that FFG had to re-word how strain works to rein him in.

He can still do work for you, though keeping his cost down is now the smarter play, especially when your opponent sees Finn coming. Still, try the full Optics build for lulz some time. You basically always get three hits. It’s hilarious.

SUDDENLY Rey!

Han Solo (Resistance) with GA-97, Lone Wolf, Engine Upgrade, Rey’s Millennium Falcon; Rey with Finn, Leia Organa

Ships crossed off the list: 2x YT-1300

Also known as “A Wild Rey Appears!” I ran a series of SUDDENLY lists, testing out Han with Rey, Han with Cat, and Han with Poe. You’ll notice the common element, I think: Han is here to carry GA-97 to create the SUDDENLY effect. He’s geared more for survivability, since he has to last multiple rounds alone while still presenting at least a nominal threat. This isn’t 1.0 where we can stack defensive upgrades, so we’re favoring stuff that enables his mobility.

Is outflying people with one large-base ship a reasonable goal? Uh… sorta! Because the goal of the first phase of the game is not to deal damage per se, but to draw the enemy into unfavorable positions, it can be done. Its viability is directly proportional to the enemy’s speed. You can string out and confound a Sinker swarm. Getting away from a couple of Jedi is a bigger ask.

The trick is to encourage the enemy to chase Han—to tease and tickle the enemy into pursuit—without letting them catch Han. A conservative opponent can elect not to chase, and there’s not much Han can do to punish this choice. One gently-modified three-dice range 3 shot just isn’t all that scary.

Rey’s problem remains that she’s a direct jouster with no way to avoid or mitigate damage. She hits like a truck, but gets eaten up with every exchange. Keeping her in reserve is one way to preserve her, but the problem returns the moment she hits the board. Of course, her offense is such that she can smear enemies very quickly once she’s engaged (which is another way to preserve her). You probably know this already, but Leia is awesome. She and Rey are always fighting over her Force point, but that ability is so very good. And not just for Rey: in several games, Han came out of his “alone time” stressed; Leia helped take care of it. As it were.

The Cat version was markedly inferior. I did manage to pull off the Cat +1 double-tap: a five-dice focused shot followed by a four-dice focused shot erased Torkil Mux in a blaze of laser fire, which was sweet. But if your opponent commits to killing Cat, they will succeed, and there’s not much Cat can do to stop this or slow it down. At least Rey can fly fast and boost to control the engagement, and shoot early enough to melt things; Cat can’t. Having a heavier Han was nice, but also necessary because of Cat’s limitations.

So the list has problems that probably keep it off of competitive tables. And yet… it’s fun! And different. I haven’t flown a list in X-Wing anything like it. That has value.

Plagiarism

Cova Nell with Heroic, Leia Organa; Greer Sonnell (sp?) with Advanced Optics, Heroic; Temmin Wexley with Composure; Finn with Perceptive Copilot, Heroic, and Pattern Analyzer

Ships crossed off the list: Resistance Transport, RZ-2 A-Wing

Blatantly cribbed from the Sacramento Hyperspace Trial-winning list, but it was cool so I’ll live with it. Finn has taken a bit of a hit with the recent rules reference refresh, which nerfed his ability. Still, he’s as durable as ever against the first attack, forcing the enemy to commit to killing him—not bad at his points cost. The rules refresh also confirmed that Cova-Leia works like we thought, which is nice.

This list’s margin for error is a lot smaller than I might have thought. The list isn’t as tough as it seems from its individual pieces. Cova and Finn depend highly on being in the right position to be as tough as advertised, and have limited means of fixing it if you get it wrong. I need more practice with RZ-2s; I keep inadvertently taking them out of the fight. That said, Greer is a terrific crutch for a clumsy RZ-2 pilot like me, since he can reverse his guns without consequence. This allows him to rapidly return to the fight and keep up the pestering. It might take him a minute to get in the damage he needs, which matters in a competitive setting, but it adds up. In an end-game scenario between him and, say, Braylen, I had absolute confidence that Greer could get it done.

I’d prefer Snap a little cheaper (that he’s as expensive as Ello is puzzling) but he’s such a good piece that, well, maybe he’s costed appropriately after all.

FIRST ORDER LISTS

Order: Test First

2x First Order Test Pilots with Advanced Optics and Fanatical, Lt Tavson with Captain Phasma and Biohexacrypt Codes

Ships crossed off the list: 2x TIE Silencers, Upsilon

Man, Silencers are fun to fly. I didn’t use the Codes, but a flyer on it for a single point seemed fair. Phasma, on the other hand, might have something to her. With both Resistance and Jedi relying on their ability to come out of crazy situations stress-free, Phasma with an Upsilon’s footprint seems like a useful way to limit them.

This feels like the core to something solid. I lost, but that was because I got bogged down in a scrum and clubbed to death. I flew badly, in other words, and failed to use the list’s strengths, as opposed to the list not having strengths. I think that some practice could turn this into something nasty. There’s some wriggle room to play with the Upsilon’s loadout, in particular. (Yes, I’m fully aware that good players use Quickdraw instead of Tavson in this sort of list. Hush.)

Kylo’s Cohort

Scorch; Longshot; Lt. Rivas; Kylo Ren with Supernatural Reflexes

Ships crossed off the list: 3x TIE /fo

Why do I have three /fos? I don’t have a great answer to that question. My typical rule is to never buy something unless I have a specific list idea I want to try. I broke that rule with the /fos for very 1.0 reasons. Now I have three /fos… two more than I need for most applications, but not enough to try to swarm with them.

So hey, let’s use them as a weaksauce jousting element to fill points and hope Supernatural Kylo can carry the squad! What could go wrong?

It turned out not to be as bad as all that. Partly this was because of my opponent (a double Jedi list with an insurmountable bid): weak as my jousting element might have been, it was still enough to browbeat aces. The extra shield the /fos have doesn’t sound like much, but it vastly reduces the odds of being one-shot, and the crit protection is highly valuable. I also found myself leaning heavily on the Sloops, a maneuver the TIE /ln just doesn’t have. Even with offense-inclined /fos, though, pushing damage was a slog.

Supernatural Reflexes were nice but probably an extravagance. They work at cross-purposes with the ship ability at times. I’m sure the card is gold in other matchups.

On 11/4/2019 at 6:03 AM, ChahDresh said:

Aside: as someone who flew quite a bit of 1.0 Inquisitor, my instinct would have been to continuously do linked actions followed by one-turns—the default way to fly in an action-centric age. This would have been a mistake. The V1’s linked actions are reposition-plus-focus. Grand Inquisitor is as expensive as Soontir because he has the Force, and the Force makes focusing largely (not entirely) redundant. I’ve been set straight on how to fly these things: evade to token up if you’ll get shot, grab locks if you won’t, and reposition without linking whenever you can to keep the dial open because positioning is king. How novel! It’s an encapsulation of the 1.0 to 2.0 transition.

I'm not entirely sure about this... If you're wanting to use his ability most turns (assuming you can't close to R1), focus is every bit as important as it would be. Unless you're really good at disengaging with him, which I've always struggled to do since he's such a knife-fighter. But I do certainly agree regarding the importance of keeping positioning options open.