Dash Rendar - Squadron ideas?

By Schanez, in X-Wing Squad Lists

So my brother, whom I have dragged into X-Wing with a dubtious consent from his side... (He is totally into it by now, promise!) Has baught himself an YT-2400. And now we are tinkering with a list, that would make the most out of Dash Rendar and his ship. So I came here to ask, what do people fly with him? What would you see as valid? Here are a few ideas we had.

List 1:

  1. Dash Rendar (YT-2400) - "Outrider" title, Trick Shot, Bistan (Gunner) - 130 points total, 5 for half
  2. Green Squadron Pilot (A-Wing) - Predator, Marksmanship - 35 points total, 2 for half
  3. Green Squadron Pilot (A-Wing) - Predator, Marksmanship - 35 points total, 2 for half

List 2:

  1. Dash Rendar (YT-2400) - "Outrider" title, Trick Shot, Bistan (Gunner) - 130 points total, 5 for half
  2. Wedge Antilles (X-Wing) - Outmaneuver, R2-D2 Astromech, Servomotor S-Foils - 66 points tota, 3 for half

For list 1, swap Marksmanship for Crack Shot. It's just more effective.

For list 2, I'd trim Wedge a bit to get Perceptive Copilot on Dash. Bistan requires a focus, which means you won't be able to spend one on the first attack, without PerCo. I'd drop Outmaneuver, reduce R2-D2 to just a generic R2 (that's enough charges, probably), and maybe go either Crack Shot or Predator.

//

There's a potential alternate way to build Dash, I think. I haven't flown him much, but when I have, that Barrel Roll felt super important. Dude can't withstand too much incoming fire, so getting out-of-arc is important. But Dash's blues aren't great, so workng. Outrider can work if you're flying over the obstacles, but Outrider is wicked expensive, and I can't quite get the knack of it. I keep wondering if it'd be better to take Expert Handling or Kanan Jarrus instead. EH means the dial is always open, but rolling shuts down Bistan. Might pair well with Luke-Gunner, so you never miss an opportunity to shoot.

Kanan Jarrus still doesn't give Bistan double-taps on barrel roll turns, but he'll keep extra mods on the ship. Meanwhile, maybe Lone Wolf is worth considering. Dash lists are often going to be 2-ship lists, so geometrically it'll probably work out.

I keep thinking about something like Dash with Kanan and Lone Wolf (maybe also Bistan). Kanan keeps the dial open, and on turns where you don't need a white move to clear stress, you'll be able to roll and have double-mods. Only a single reroll and a single force, but still.

An example of such a list:

  • Luke Skywalker (R2-D2, Spare Parts Canister) 71 - Should be pretty hard to kill
  • Dash (Lone Wolf, Bistan, Kanan) 129 - All the mods, potential double-attacks, not as dependent on lining up obstructed shots and flying over debris clouds.
Edited by theBitterFig

Agree with @theBitterFig that Perceptive copilot is mandatory with Bistan. I also like Expert handling since a large base roll will always move you a full range band to or from your preferred target and doing so without stress keeps the dial open. The obvious counterpoint to that being that you can use the Outrider title to clear stress by just running across obstaclesWithout landing on them, it takes practice but can be effective.

Edited by nitrobenz
Note about Outrider

That said, I'm still tentative about Bistan double tap after having experienced the now illegal Han+Roark i7 single-target double tap. 😢 RIP

You can still Bistan Double tap two targets at i7. Another nice thing about this list is there's room for Jyn so you can focus+evade if you want to be more defensive.

(98) Dash Rendar [YT-2400 Light Freighter]
(8) Perceptive Copilot
(14) Bistan
(4) Trick Shot
(14) Outrider
Points: 138

(41) Roark Garnet [HWK-290 Light Freighter]
(2) Jyn Erso
(1) Crack Shot
(18) Moldy Crow
Points: 62

Total points: 200

Another route you can go is to max out dice on a single target with Jan Ors and Trick shot giving you 6 dice on a single attack.

(98) Dash Rendar [YT-2400 Light Freighter]
(8) Perceptive Copilot
(14) Bistan
(4) Trick Shot
(14) Outrider
Points: 138

(43) Jan Ors [HWK-290 Light Freighter]
(18) Moldy Crow
Points: 61

Total points: 199

Part of the reason I’ve not been putting Dash on the table in 2.0 is that I am unsure how to focus him.

Since his ability says “move” and not “maneuver” I assume it works with BRs. I like the synergy between this, Outrider, and Trick Shot, but all that coupled with Sensor Blindspot compels me to want to play with big bold sweeping moves through terrain where I would be looking to do BRs or turret turns more often...trying to capitalize off PerCo would influence me go for focus actions, thus limiting turret and BR shenanigans.

Saw actually looks fun on Dash. Sure, it is crazy to voluntarily take hits on your giant point sink ship, but flying as I described can yield plenty of 5-dice obstructed shots where switching 2-3 focus to crits could easily swing a game.
Anyone try Dash & Saw?

Before the first points change I was overcoming action shortage with Squad Leader on the HWK, but price increases took that out of the equation. Since then I have two alternate routes: one is to replace the HWK with Fen Rau Sheathipede with his native i6 coordinate providing the extra action this way doubles down on the "one ship" archetype since the 'pede is the purest support ship in the rebel fleet. The other route I'm interested in (but no table time) is taking Ezra + Maul on Dash which brings him to 124pts before other upgrades! But that's a pretty self sufficient Dash with a little extra force Regen it could be paired again with another support ship for lock & roll efficiency or the other ship could be an independent threat like Wedge.

Given that Maul pays off more when you take damage I don't know why I haven't given Saw more consideration in a similar capacity as @Pewpewpew BOOM suggested. That is a heck of a lot cheaper than two force users which leaves room for a bigger second threat or maybe even two other ships...

7 hours ago, nitrobenz said:

Before the first points change I was overcoming action shortage with Squad Leader on the HWK, but price increases took that out of the equation. Since then I have two alternate routes: one is to replace the HWK with Fen Rau Sheathipede with his native i6 coordinate providing the extra action this way doubles down on the "one ship" archetype since the 'pede is the purest support ship in the rebel fleet. The other route I'm interested in (but no table time) is taking Ezra + Maul on Dash which brings him to 124pts before other upgrades! But that's a pretty self sufficient Dash with a little extra force Regen it could be paired again with another support ship for lock & roll efficiency or the other ship could be an independent threat like Wedge.

Given that Maul pays off more when you take damage I don't know why I haven't given Saw more consideration in a similar capacity as @Pewpewpew BOOM suggested. That is a heck of a lot cheaper than two force users which leaves room for a bigger second threat or maybe even two other ships...

I also rarely get table time, but I may try this out the next time I get a chance:

(98) Dash Rendar [YT-2400 Light Freighter]
(9) Saw Gerrera
(4) Trick Shot
(14) Outrider
Points: 125

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
(4) R2 Astromech
(0) Servomotor S-foils
(3) Brilliant Evasion
(6) Stealth Device
Points: 75

Total points: 200

Dash functions like a mounted archer (carrying a ballista) shooting on the run and taking a Saw hit when it matters. I built Luke to live. If ships can’t get at Dash and focus on Luke, hopefully he will last a while. If they ignore Luke for Dash, he can afford to fly pretty aggressively taking TLs and such.

And as a bonus both are I5 so you have flexible activation on the occasions that it matters.

This is my favorite one. Most consistently good dash I have found.

Dash Rendar — YT-2400 Light Freighter 98
Lone Wolf 5
Ezra Bridger 14
Jyn Erso 2
Ship Total: 119
Half Points: 60 Threshold: 5
Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62
Instinctive Aim 1
Proton Torpedoes 13
R2-D2 5
Servomotor S-Foils 0
Ship Total: 81
Half Points: 41 Threshold: 3
16 hours ago, Boom Owl said:

This is my favorite one. Most consistently good dash I have found.

Dash Rendar — YT-2400 Light Freighter 98
Lone Wolf 5
Ezra Bridger 14
Jyn Erso 2
Ship Total: 119
Half Points: 60 Threshold: 5
Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62
Instinctive Aim 1
Proton Torpedoes 13
R2-D2 5
Servomotor S-Foils 0
Ship Total: 81
Half Points: 41 Threshold: 3

I like it. Lone Wolf + Force feels really good on Dash, and Dash in general feels good paired with R2-D2 Luke (almost like 1e regen Poe). Meanwhile, Jyn Erso is a pretty handy crew. Those Evades on either Dash or Luke work pretty well.

Oh, I've got SO much to say about this that I've already tried and blogged about.

An awful lot of comes down to play style. For example you can put 2 i1 Z-95's in with Dash to act as blockers to deny actions and them smash them with Dash's big gun but I can't seem to.get blockers right and just end up with smashed up Z-95's.

Blasting Dash over obstacles comes very easy to me and removing red tokens while doing so can give some very nice bonuses (like removing the stress from a 4k or dropping an enemy lock).

As for who to pair him with, that's an ongoing journey for me.

So far I have tried on the table: Y-Wing Norra, Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, Arc Norra, Luke and Jake. Most with multiple games.

I've also simmed (on fly casual): Benthic, AP-5, Esege Tuketu and Wedge. I've not really liked any of these enough to put them on the table.

I would say that Dash (particularly with the title) is overcosted. Maybe I'm biased but I think a 5-8ish points drop of that combination opens up options for other things in a list which would help to boost his performances (which aren't great according to List Fortress stats).

I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to any of my blogs here so I'll err on the side of caution but if that's ok to do I can add that if you're interested.

Played this one a few times, I think it's pretty decently balanced. Corran is a good pairing with Dash and can hit-and-run pretty well while Dash tries to set up some shots through rocks to try to set up those 5 dice nukes.

E-wing - •Corran Horn - 76
•Corran Horn - Tenacious Investigator (66)
Marksmanship (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
•R2-D2 (7)

YT-2400 Light Freighter - •Dash Rendar - 124
•Dash Rendar - Hotshot Mercenary (98)
Trick Shot (4)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
•Bistan (14)

Total: 200/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

Haven't tried this one yet, but I also like the idea of this pairing. Norra can tank pretty well and run interference so Dash can keep at range and nuke.

ARC-170 Starfighter - •Norra Wexley - 74
•Norra Wexley - Gold Nine (55)
Expert Handling (4)
•C-3PO (8)
Hull Upgrade (3)
Veteran Tail Gunner (4)

YT-2400 Light Freighter - •Dash Rendar - 125
•Dash Rendar - Hotshot Mercenary (98)
•Lone Wolf (5)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
•Bistan (14)

Total: 199/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

12 hours ago, Skeether said:

ARC-170 Starfighter - •Norra Wexley - 74

•Norra Wexley - Gold Nine (55)
Expert Handling (4)
•C-3PO (8)
Hull Upgrade (3)
Veteran Tail Gunner (4)

YT-2400 Light Freighter - •Dash Rendar - 125
•Dash Rendar - Hotshot Mercenary (98)
•Lone Wolf (5)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
•Bistan (14)

I’ve been using something similar with R2-D2 crew, R5-D8 Astro, and hull on Norra and Outrider, Magva crew, and a shield on Dash. Not as much offense, but that Norra is very hard kill and a good blocker for Dash.