After waiting over a year I can finally fly this list:

Skull Squadron Pilot (47)
Fearless (3)

Skull Squadron Pilot (47)
Fearless (3)

Skull Squadron Pilot (47)
Fearless (3)

Skull Squadron Pilot (47)
Fearless (3)
Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

It's simple but really effective. These guys can evaporate stuff really quickly. I think this list can really shine in Hyperspace because having initiative 4 is decent.

I played a couple of games so far and it went pretty well.

Yesterday I was able to play two games.

Game 1 against 3 X-Wings and Han (all naked)

I put two Fangs on each side of the board and went after the X-Wings first. It worked out well. Two Fangs were at r1 and one Fang at r3 of a single X-Wing which got initiative killed. I finished off all the X-Wings for one and a half Fang. The attack power really surprised me. 3 Fangs were able to finish off Han afterwards.

Game 2 against Kylo, Blackout and 2 FO Cadets

This one is tough because both Silencers are moving after my whole Squad. Aces are a bad matchup for this squad.
I deployed the Fangs together and found myself playing a totally different game than the first one I played this evening. I moved the Fangs around super cautious trying to create many zones where my opponent doesn't want to be. The first engagement didn't work out well. Two Fangs already suffered damage (one dropped down to half points). I changed my gameplan and went after the FO's, killing them in two rounds. Unfortunately two Fangs had only one remaining hullpoint. While killing both Fangs Kylo and Blackout suffered damage as well. What I found really interesting is that you pretty much deny those aces a range 1 engagement. With Fearless and Concordia Faceoff it's really scary attacking those Mandalorians head on. I used this for my advantage, forcing the aces to arc dodge and denying shots. As Kylo k-turned into r1 he became stardust. Blackout danced 20 minutes with two Fangs before he finally went down as well.

Aces are beatable but its super tough.

After those two games I fell in love with this list. It feels so good flying so aggressive. I also like that that it's so thrilling because Fangs can die in a heartbeat.

Fangs are the the ace ship for people who don't want to run away for half the game, and just want to get to fighting. Maybe that's not everyone, but for the right folks, yeah, these are a really fun ship. Many aces have to get out of arc. Fangs have another option: range 1 in front arc, and that's a big-enough area of space. Just makes the geometry of ace-like ships a lot easier when you can just punch someone in the face.

Haven't had a chance to put the FF on the table, but I'm keen to.

On my list of things to maybe take to the UKSO, so I played 4 games with it in a HS tourney today and went 1-3 😕

The 1 was some outrageous dice luck and somewhat fortunate positioning. Fearless and focus were often there, but mostly not needed, which gave us good protection on the greens as well. The numbers tipped very rapidly in one direction. The sheer alpha potential of them was pretty clear.

The 3 were all very close.

3 SF plus Kylo came down to the final odds decision and dice rolls. Whiffed the 1st strike a little, symptomatic of being unable to dive on things that can just turn away and 2 hit you forever. A flanking Kylo and rear arcs on target was his obvious winning strategy, it was hard to avoid falling into it and still come out on top. Went for Kylo after failing to wipe any SFs, maybe a mistake but see above. You want to break and come round again, chasing is generally bad. Makes guessing open trajectories really important, which is often just 50/50. Bit of dice variance could have swung it throughout. Good game.

5th Bro RAC, Maarek, Zertik and a TIE. Expected to get the better of this one but it slipped tantalisingly away. Jousting RAC turned slightly improbably against us. The big boy crit merchant then did the biz and whittled our action choices. Blocked him a bit and concentrated on getting rid of his friends, but all damage suffered tipped immediately into critical ofc. Blinded Pilot stacked on Weapons Failure both sucks and blows. Last roll of the game, a R3 shot into a fleeing RAC was 1 hit away from winning it with half points there. Annihilated Maarek 2nd engage with a block and 2 follow up shots, he was not a problem. Another good game, felt in control, but that turret and those crits are pretty horrible and any green failure is heavily punished. Big 4 straight is kinda fast.

Maul plus 6 Droids. Didn't joust, was tempted. Forced a wide Maul to flee. Pulled the droids into the rocks and tempted multiple angles.Then went all in on the returning Maul. Decent plan. Put him on 1hp with 1 totally blank attack roll. Same round, two successive entirely blank defence rolls from a focussed Fang, at R2 and 3, left me one down with a lot to do. Everything after that was much of a muchness, mostly scrum management. Trading badly on the first couple turns of green dice meant the game quickly went away from me, but it did still end close, which was nice. One Fang vs a steadily decreasing number of droids was good fun. Time extension please!

I don't exactly know where I stand on the squad. In Extended, I think it just has way too many bad match ups. In HS, that's not so bad, but they are still there. 2 Jumpmaster and Firespray lists also did well on the day, kinda surprisingly maybe, their footprint alone is hard work for the Fangs.

Where it seems to come unstuck for me, is more on the follow up, where it can be extremely hard to avoid R2 attacks, or alt arc R1, particularly with stress. The FF, (I like), may exacerbate this a little, everything is front loaded, which gives your opponent good agency, it suffers the counters harder. Add a chunk of green dice reliance to the equation and I find it hard to imagine it doing extremely well without a solid run of perfect flight, fortunate match ups and those very timely dice. Add those 3 things to the mix with a decent sized spade and it will crush though, I'm sure.

I'm going to move away from this particular squad, the main reason being that I just don't get the joust game. It's there where this squad can excel, and exactly the leg up it needs to cover the mid game R2 critical weakness. There's really nothing that trades well with these boys when they're where they want to be. I've had quite the giggle at some of the reactions to a lone Skull going face up against a vastly superior ship. That's probably the main point, they really aren't 4 aces at the most crucial times, when you're down to 2 v 2 and suchlike, it gets very situational. R1 jousters often prefer I1 as well. It's weird.

I enjoy flying it a great deal, but sometimes it feels very much like I'm just doing it wrong, because I don't really want to do it right.... It will smash a great many things clean off the table though, so if you can command those counter matches, you could be on easy street

Comparing to Fenn plus 3. I'm vaguely feeling that it's not as good overall. Fenn just papers over many of the cracks and gives your opponent harder choices. And now he can bid. It's a little more dice reliant, but maybe it has more flex. Because I6 bidness.

In a similar vein, I'm sort of feeling like a Firespray is necessary... But that's a different story.

Thanks for sharing @Cuz05.

6 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

The 3 were all very close.

So it could have gone the other way. I played a ton of Kylo + QD and was on the final table twice to lose both games by 10 points. Sometimes it's like that and I'm fine with it. Because of being unfocused I played horrible at the last tournament and still had close games...

So I think it's ok if you fail with a list and getting hammered sometimes because it's necessary to become better later on flying it. Playing Kylo+QD wasn't always a fun experience. I went 1-4 at the first tournament I played it but I learned a lot.

I'm saying this because I think that FFF is by far not a no brainer list to fly. It requires a ton of practice and failure to get the hang of it. David Kelley talked in one of his (really helpful) videos about his experience with Vader, Echo, Sai and how important it was to not win.

7 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

Comparing to Fenn plus 3. I'm vaguely feeling that it's not as good overall. Fenn just papers over many of the cracks and gives your opponent harder choices. And now he can bid. It's a little more dice reliant, but maybe it has more flex. Because I6 bidness.

You might be right. Having an ace is big. I need to try it.

6 hours ago, Ryuneke said:

Thanks for sharing @Cuz05.

So it could have gone the other way. I played a ton of Kylo + QD and was on the final table twice to lose both games by 10 points. Sometimes it's like that and I'm fine with it. Because of being unfocused I played horrible at the last tournament and still had close games...

So I think it's ok if you fail with a list and getting hammered sometimes because it's necessary to become better later on flying it. Playing Kylo+QD wasn't always a fun experience. I went 1-4 at the first tournament I played it but I learned a lot.

I'm saying this because I think that FFF is by far not a no brainer list to fly. It requires a ton of practice and failure to get the hang of it. David Kelley talked in one of his (really helpful) videos about his experience with Vader, Echo, Sai and how important it was to not win.

You might be right. Having an ace is big. I need to try it.

Thanks. And yeah, I took mostly positives from the day. I can see where practice will pay off pretty big for them, there's almost a whole area of play to the squad where I just don't sit comfortably. Some fairly simple answers to getting on top of that but it's not something I'm really looking to do atm.

That said, it's a fun and powerful squad, if nothing else hits me before MKO, I may still just take it and brush up on some rule of eleven

Is there another option other than Fearless? I dont think so. I have looked and nothing g helps the list consistently as fearless does.

4 hours ago, martini74 said:

Is there another option other than Fearless? I dont think so. I have looked and nothing g helps the list consistently as fearless does.

Not in Hyperspace imo. Predator or crack shot are working in extended.

I‘m considering Outmaneuver for Fenn with 3 Zealous Recruits.

52 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Not in Hyperspace imo. Predator or crack shot are working in extended.

I‘m considering Outmaneuver for Fenn with 3 Zealous Recruits.

Or consider dropping one of the zealots for an M3-A (Inaldra) w/Tractor beam. At I2 she'll shoot before the zealots, which is what you want her to do.

The beam should enhance the damage done by the zealots.

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2020 at 11:26 PM, Cuz05 said:

Comparing to Fenn plus 3. I'm vaguely feeling that it's not as good overall. Fenn just papers over many of the cracks and gives your opponent harder choices. And now he can bid. It's a little more dice reliant, but maybe it has more flex. Because I6 bidness.

I suspect - I may be wrong - that since Fenn is one of the only I6 pilots still in a hyperspace list, and certainly one of the only ones on a chassis as squirrelly as a Protectorate, that the bid can afford to be a lot lower.

I had a short conversation with Oli Pocknell about both lists (4 Skulls vs. Fenn + 3 Zealots) because I know he loves Fangs. He isn't sure what list works better, either. If you run 4 Skulls against lower initiative lists you'll probably gonna murder stuff quite fast. But you'll really struggling against aces.

I have two local tournaments coming up the next two weeks and I think I will give both lists a try.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I suspect - I may be wrong - that since Fenn is one of the only I6 pilots still in a hyperspace list, and certainly one of the only ones on a chassis as squirrelly as a Protectorate, that the bid can afford to be a lot lower.

Agreed. Fenn is one who doesn't gain massively from a bid in any case, with his single repo. Imo, he's mostly best as bully, rather than facing up enemy I6s. Outmanoeuvre leaves a 3pt bid, which seems fine to me. The bid will work well to guarantee your blockers can block.

Ahh once again we seem to be interested in the same kind of lists. AFter Quad Nantex I also have been drwan to the Quad Fangs. Yesterday I played one Match with 6411 (Fearless on Feen) and two with the fantastic FFF. Gotta say the FFF are so much fun and I they are very reliable as long as you don't face an ace.

The 6411 is not really worth it, 6111 is a lot better. I'm not sure tough if Fenn alone with a bid makes the list so much better than FFF.. Back to the testing games..

I was always afraid to fly Fangs because they’re so fragile, but I’ve been trying out new hyperspace lists and they’ve been surprising me. I only have two, so I’ve been using two Skulls with Fearless and Boba with Maul and Slave 1. I find it makes the other list choose between trying to take down the Fangs (while avoiding R1) or to go for Boba. Either way, the other half of the list can hammer down. Boba doesn’t really solve the ace problem too much more, but I’m not sure Scum has an answer?

(Also great looking ships as usual!)

3 hours ago, dadocollin said:

Boba doesn’t really solve the ace problem too much more, but I’m not sure Scum has an answer?

I've always found twin Sprays to be quite the anti-ace platform. Particularly with Emon's bombs.

In Extended, Jabbanetic Latts eats them alive. But there are obviously more tools there all around.

Fangs not called Fenn or Terry can struggle though. With the best Extended triple ace lists, the onus is really on them to fail against FFF. Not much room for error, they'll crash hard if you catch one and set the other 2 running.

The ace game is so very different in HS now, can't really call that one. I imagine trips is going to be a very rare archetype and perhaps small concern.

Single ace plus stuff can be problematic though, if you cant get well on top of the stuff in the 1st/2nd engagement. With FFF, the tools are very much there to do that, depending on the flavour of stuff, so again, shouldn't be a major worry.

My concerns for them are almost exclusively pointed at ace plus alt arcs or large base plus alt arcs. The perfect storm of anti-Fang tech with an easy-bake winning strategy.

I just finished a game with Fenn + 3 Zealots. Played against three Ini 3 A‘s and Paige (Resistance Bomber). Fangs don’t like A-Wings because Concordia Faceoff doesn’t work and those guys can shoot out of the back. And bombs are bad, too.

I setup all fangs together facing along my board edge. As the A Wings deployed on the opposite side of the board I turned in for a joust, hoping to get rid of an A wing. Haven’t played on TTS for a long time I misjudged distances pretty bad why I had a bad engagement. Suffered damage on two fangs for only one shield on the A‘s. The A wings just overshoot me and killed one fang, I halved one A-Wing. After that turn I crawled myself back into the game, blocked an A Wing and Fenn being Fenn killing it. The second Fang exploded. 2 full health fangs against 2 half points A wings and a full Paige (who wasn’t a big part of the game). With a super lucky roll Fenn killed another A Wing while the other got shot by the recruit. Game!
I should have lost this one. Blocking A Wings is really tough and no Concordia Faceoff is even worse.
Playing 4 Skulls would have helped a lot because of the higher initiative. On the other hand Fenns power really made the difference in that game.

Thats such a pain of a list to deal with, either way. Mirrors much of my experience against a Resi mate. Perfect storm right there.

You're right that the Skulls would find that match easier, but otherwise, they have access to those I5s and Greer with a bid, so it can switch to different pain.

Fangs are going to have to deal with Rz-2s. I slightly prefer Fenn plus 3 for it. He can simply turn up and swing it in a heartbeat. He has done for me what he did for you

On the other hand, the Skulls can get a nice edge if they can take 1 or 2 off the table real quick. Particularly the names. There should be one they can pick on. The Recruits have a harder time doing that, relying much more on Fenn.

But Rz-2s are just a pig. Feels like you need the best of both 4 Fang lists...

I don't know how much this holds true in a general sense, everyone plays differentl, but I try approach his A Wings from an angle that massively shuts down their fly by. Straight jousting them is not ideal.

Preferably I have either board edge behind or bunched rocks kind of around me. I think obstacles may be better, but there's a random element there. The heaviest restrictions I can find, basically, with space I can use in front of me.

If they have to hard turn and/or boost away for shots, rather than bank past, (they certainly shouldn't cruise into your bubble), it can keep them where you can shoot them. Almost certainly not R1, but trading shots with them, rather than just eating them from behind, evens things out considerably. You can set up a blatantly positive mathematical trade this way, but it may be more luck than judgement. 3 red dice though....

It's then easier to get at least a couple ships round and in their face as they turn back in.

The A Wing player has all the agency, but Fangs don't need R1, they just really, really like it. he long distance game is ok if they don't have all their guns in range, and they will be scared of Fangs diving on them. Pushing too hard for R1 is pretty much a trap against most things tbh.

Don't know if any of that is possible when they have a Bomber chucking s**t at you. Charge into R1 of that thing and blow it straight up

I always felt the resistance a-wing are simply cheating at the game. Not the players, the ship by design.

5 hours ago, LUZ_TAK said:

I always felt the resistance a-wing are simply cheating at the game. Not the players, the ship by design.

I've tried flying 5A. It's somehow not actually that easy 😄

Playing at a 4 games tournament right now and want to give an update. I’m flying FFF

First game against the Torkil and Seevor menace. I played decent. Never got shot and dealt damage to seevor and Torkil. An unmodified range 3 shot from a khiraxz showed 2 Hits and 1 crit. I blanked on 4 dice, suffered a direct hit and lost a fang. It was 3 Fangs against 3 khirax. Last round: Two Fangs turned away, one turned in and halfed a khiraxz. Again: 3 naked dice against a 4 dice fang with a focus. He rolled 3 hits and I blanked again loosing the second fang. Still won the game by 5 points. But omg

Game 2 against Han, Wedge and a K Wing: Han was in an unfortunate position and suffered lots of damage at the opening engagement. I blocked him one round later. Fangs being Fangs annihilating Han and the k wing afterwards. Wedge got blocked and Fearless showed its power. This round showed me how good those Fangs can joust.

Short Batrep about games 3 & 4.

Game 3 was against Kylo, Scorch and 2 Sf's with Gunner. I split my forces and engaged from two different angles and put all guns on Kylo who lost two shields. That decision basically decided the game. It would have been way better to just kill Scorch in the first round of shooting instead of going after Kylo. I had 3 Fangs at range 1 of one Sf ready for the initiative kill. Unfortunately he survived with one hull left. Two Fangs died and the remaining two found themselfes facing 4 FO ships. I started playing super aggressive and was able to kill Kylo and the damaged Sf. Both Fangs had only 1 hull left and died in the end.

Game 4 was against XY's Separatist Swarm (Dooku and 6 Droids). I setup 2 Fangs on the left and the other two on the right side of the board. The two facing the swarm turned away while the other two approached carefully. The swarm k-turned trying to surprise the two flanking Fangs. In the same round the other Skulls turned back in and were able to kill a Drone. My gameplan was to kill the drones before killing Dooku. So I put my Fangs in the middle of the action killing Drones like there's no tomorrow. Fearless and Concordia is strong against Drones. I only lost half a Fang this match.

Major lessons:

- Even if it was an extended tournament, initiative 4 was really important and good. I basically had 4 aces in most of my games.
- You will lose games with this list because of one bad roll with green dice (see game 1)
- Flying in formation against higher initiative lists and splitting them up against lower ini ships was the right decision
- I dialed in straight maneuvers more often instead of banks when approaching to then boost or barrel roll. A good range control is key to this list
- Don't be afraid to bump or even self bump your ships. Concordia and Fearless are your best friends in this situations
- Fangs have a really high damage output (3.7 expected hits on range 1 with Focus/Fearless). So kill what you can and kill it fast. Especially lower initiative ships are struggling against such firepower. I lost my 3rd game because I shot at Kylo at range 2 and 3 instead of killing Scorch...
- the most important thing: This list is soooooo much fun. The most fun I had in X-Wing lately

Awesome read and battle reports, keep them coming.

Someone flew Fenn, two Skull Squadrons, and an M3-A that looked like a lot of fun. I’m thinking about switching the M3-A pilot he ran to one that’s HS legal. I like the bid here but also tempted to put Fearless on Fenn.

(68) Fenn Rau [Fang Fighter]
Points: 68

(47) Skull Squadron Pilot [Fang Fighter]
Points: 47

(47) Skull Squadron Pilot [Fang Fighter]
Points: 47

(31) Genesis Red [M3-A Interceptor]
(3) Autoblasters
Points: 34

Total points: 196

10 hours ago, kempokid said:

Someone flew Fenn, two Skull Squadrons, and an M3-A that looked like a lot of fun. I’m thinking about switching the M3-A pilot he ran to one that’s HS legal. I like the bid here but also tempted to put Fearless on Fenn.

(68) Fenn Rau [Fang Fighter]
Points: 68

(47) Skull Squadron Pilot [Fang Fighter]
Points: 47

(47) Skull Squadron Pilot [Fang Fighter]
Points: 47

(31) Genesis Red [M3-A Interceptor]
(3) Autoblasters
Points: 34

Total points: 196

Use an autoblaster spacer and give all 3 fangs fearless.

1 hour ago, Cerebrawl said:

Use an autoblaster spacer and give all 3 fangs fearless.

I was going for an all I4 approach (minis Fenn of course) but it is tempting to have them all run Fearless in lieu of Crackshot.

49 minutes ago, kempokid said:

I was going for an all I4 approach (minis Fenn of course) but it is tempting to have them all run Fearless in lieu of Crackshot.

It's also nice to have an i1 blocker that's also a threat if you turn your back on it.