First Tournament with Resistance!

By Glyph, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Posted at

Hey guys!

This coming Sunday (26th) I have an Extended tournament. I sometimes enjoy exploring new factions with points/rules updates of many of the games I play so when I saw Resistance after the points update, I decided to give them a whirl. I've watched a boat-load of Resistance games (mostly the XTC in Poland) to get a feel of them and it further reinforced my decision.

I have two variants of a list I want to run by you and see what you think...any comments or suggestions are more than welcome, but first a small description of my local meta...or rather what I'm expecting to see at the tournament. We have a number of regulars at tournaments with about 3 or 4 playing Empire, 2 or 3 playing Republic, and the rest are one-ofs in Rebel, Separatists, First Order. There might be a Scum, but unlikely...and I'm near positive I'll be the only Resistance player. Barely anyone plays bids here. Even people with I5+ sometimes come with a 200pts list...mostly to squeeze every point they can from the list, but also because they know that everyone would be doing the same. Once in a while someone does come with a TINY bid (less than 5pts) but mostly because they couldn't find an appropriate upgrade to plug up that hole.

Below are the lists. The difference is that the latter dropped the 2 cannons off the Transport and Poe, the Black One title, and Crackshot off L'ulo to fit Rose on Finn.
Finn will be shooting last, so he's definitely going to be rolling dice to proc Rose. In my two games I had with him, I found myself having used his focus token on one attack only to roll focus and blank and unable to use Heroic, even if I added the blank from his ability. With Rose I can spend that focus to gain a lock on the attacker (normally a red action), add the blank from Finn, and re-roll the 2 blanks with Heroic. Also, Rose might cause certain situations (on attack or defence) where you just need to add a blank , rather than a focus , and avoid straining yourself.
It also makes Finn a more dangerous piece. The opponent will have to either focus on him, and be punished by Poe and L'ulo or, if he ignores him to take out Poe first, Finn punishes.

List 1 (200pts)

  • Nodin Chavdri [Resistance Transport]
    - R4 Astromech
    - Tractor Beam
    - Larma D'Acy
    - Korr Sella
  • Poe Dameron [T-70 X-wing]
    - Autoblasters
    - Integrated S-foils
    - Heroic
    - Black One
  • Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
    - Heroic
  • L'ulo L'ampar [RZ-2 A-wing]
    - Heroic
    - Crackshot

List 2 (200pts)

  • Nodin Chavdri [Resistance Transport]
    - R4 Astromech
    - Jamming Beam
    - Larma D'Acy
    - Korr Sella
  • Poe Dameron [T-70 X-wing]
    - Jamming Beam
    - Integrated S-foils
    - Heroic
  • Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
    - Heroic
    - Rose Tico
  • L'ulo L'ampar [RZ-2 A-wing]
    - Heroic
Posted at

I think Poe is too much for your other ships to carry

L'ulo with Heroic and Predator is prime A-Wing territory imo. An I5 A can get the Bullseye often enough to make it worth it

Nodin only needs Korr, R4, and an Ion Cannon and suddenly there's an offensively capably, potent support ship

Finn could really use PA on top of Heroic, if you ask me. Rose is a cool trick, but I think she should be lower priority

For your fourth, I'm inclined to say Nien with Heroic and PA, or ditch Heroic to be able to keep Rose on Finn

Posted at
4 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I think Poe is too much for your other ships to carry

I don't quite understand what you mean by that?

4 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

L'ulo with Heroic and Predator is prime A-Wing territory imo. An I5 A can get the Bullseye often enough to make it worth it

Will definitely see if I can squeeze this in!

4 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

Nodin only needs Korr, R4, and an Ion Cannon and suddenly there's an offensively capably, potent support ship

I'd like to fit in Larma D'Acy if possible. Her ability and dials encourages the use of red maneuvers, so I don't think dropping Larma is a good idea. I'd prefer a Tractor than Ion to be honest. Yes, no chance to do damage, but I can shoot before Finn and try and give a tractor token to reposition and impose a -1 green die for Finn's shot. Worst case scenario, I can push the ship in a bad position and force him to take a stress to rotate his ship.

Posted at

I just mean that Poe is such a big investment that I think your squad loses out when trying to fit him in it

I really do think Ion Cannon with the possibility for damage is more significant than Tractoring. With the new update especially, a single source of Tractoring is essentially useless against anything other than small bases, which might evade the shot anyway, while an Ion Cannon can still do damage and stack up to the effect, even if it might not proc as much

As for Larma, the thing with her is that she totally shuts down Nodin's value. Say you start out with a move. You coordinate, take a stress, do your own action, take a second stress. You will be unable to pull a red, and with R4, most of your moves are now blue anyway, so you'll be stress-free and won't need Larma's ability. You would only be able to use it if you don't make full use of Nodin on a turn, which seems like mistake to me

Posted at
3 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I just mean that Poe is such a big investment that I think your squad loses out when trying to fit him in it.

I can see what you mean to a degree...13 points is 13 points, but he's an I6 X-wing with a net of 7HP that has 2 actions. He can use them to get double mods when wings are open and he's punching, or reposition himself with closed wings when things get a bit hot. I can see how Ello's lower cost and single , rather than three red maneuvers would be attractive, but you can only manage single mods. I mean having Heroic can help with rerolling nothing but blanks but it hardly compares to a Target Lock and a Focus Poe would have.

3 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I really do think Ion Cannon with the possibility for damage is more significant than Tractoring. With the new update especially, a single source of Tractoring is essentially useless against anything other than small bases, which might evade the shot anyway, while an Ion Cannon can still do damage and stack up to the effect, even if it might not proc as much.

Agreed. But after seeing it costs 6pts, I'm wondering if there's something I could better spend it on...it's a bit pricey.

3 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

As for Larma, the thing with her is that she totally shuts down Nodin's value. Say you start out with a move. You coordinate, take a stress, do your own action, take a second stress. You will be unable to pull a red, and with R4, most of your moves are now blue anyway, so you'll be stress-free and won't need Larma's ability. You would only be able to use it if you don't make full use of Nodin on a turn, which seems like mistake to me

Larma allows you to do all that coordinating shenanigans on 6 out of its 17 maneuvers (taking R4 into account)...3 of which really can mess with your opponents (0-stop, and 1-reverses). I like the option of being able to do the coordinate-shenanigans on whatever maneuver I do, rather than being tied to some maneuvers and the opponent thinking "Ah, if he wants to coordinate, he has to do either this, this, or this..." . If I had to pick Larma or an Ion Cannon, for example, I'd prefer Larma.

Two modified lists are:

List 3 (200pts)

  • Nodin Chavdri [Resistance Transport]
    - R4 Astromech
    - Larma D'Acy
    - Korr Sella
  • Poe Dameron [T-70 X-wing]
    - Jamming Beam
    - Integrated S-foils
    - Heroic
    - Black One
  • Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
    - Heroic
    - Advanced Optics
  • L'ulo L'ampar [RZ-2 A-wing]
    - Heroic
    - Predator

List 4 (197/8pts)

  • Nodin Chavdri [Resistance Transport]
    - R4 Astromech
    - Larma D'Acy
    - Korr Sella
  • Ello Asty [T-70 X-wing]
    - Autoblasters
    - Integrated S-foils
    - Heroic
    - Black One
  • Finn [Resistance Transport Pod]
    - Heroic
    - Perceptive Copilot/Rose Tico
    - Advanced Optics
  • L'ulo L'ampar [RZ-2 A-wing]
    - Heroic
    - Predator
Posted at

Well firstly, I said Nien, not Ello - Nien with PA can get the double mods like Poe, but has a far more open dial, and is way cheaper.

As for Larma, the thing is that in order to get any value out of her on Nodin at all you have to spend a turn NOT coordinating so that you can pull a red the next turn. While you could pull a white while being double stressed and still get value from Larma, with R4, those whites are such minimal improvements over Nodin's blues that Larma is wasted points

Posted at
1 hour ago, Greebwahn said:

Well firstly, I said Nien, not Ello - Nien with PA can get the double mods like Poe, but has a far more open dial, and is way cheaper.

Well he only gets double mods/double actions if he dials in a red maneuver, whereas Poe can do it every single turn as long as he clears the stress. Also, the stress is only removed if you're in range one of an enemy ship...which won't be every time. With PA Nien is only 8pts cheaper than Poe. You're paying 8pts for a more reliable and more frequently usable ability and I6.

1 hour ago, Greebwahn said:

As for Larma, the thing is that in order to get any value out of her on Nodin at all you have to spend a turn NOT coordinating so that you can pull a red the next turn. While you could pull a white while being double stressed and still get value from Larma, with R4, those whites are such minimal improvements over Nodin's blues that Larma is wasted points

I'm also failing to see your reasoning behind this. I mean sure I can't do two reds in a row (then again, only a select few pilots can, anyway) or a red followed by a white (but with R4, that'll only be 3 our of the 17 maneuvres...the 3 straight and 1 turns). You're spending 4 points to do something you wouldn't be able to do anyways. I hardly see how that's wasted points.

Posted at

True, but going to Poe will generally lock you into blues. With Nien, you at least have the option of a flip without broadcasting it a turn in advance.

As for the Larma thing. So, let's say you are flying in on approach. It's time to use Nodin, so you coordinate a friend, taking 1 stress token, and then use Nodin's ability to focus, taking a 2nd stress token. Next turn, you cannot pull a red move. You could pull a blue, of which you have many with R4, and do the whole coordinate and focus thing over again. If you have Larma, you could pull a white...but only coordinate, not get a focus too. And the whites are a very limited dial expansion beyond the blues. Meanwhile, if you want to be able to coordinate after pulling a red, you would need to spend a turn not coordinating at all before doing so, which kinda telegraphs what you're planning on doing, and also wastes Nodin's potential. So, I think Larma is a waste of points because all she allows is for you to pull a white occasionally and still get off a coordinate, despite the fact that you don't need to use your whites when you have such good blues, or to telegraph in advance your plan to do a red and then get the shenanigans

Posted at

I flew something similar to list one a couple times. I prefer to lean into Nodin's nonsense:

Nodin Chavdri (36)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Ion Cannon (6)
Korr Sella (6)
Larma D'Acy (4)
R4 Astromech (2)

Ship total: 59 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 4

Finn (29)
Heroic (1)
Advanced Optics (4)
Perceptive Copilot (8)

Ship total: 42 Half Points: 21 Threshold: 2

Ello Asty (55)
Heroic (1)
Integrated S-Foils (0)
Black One (2)

Ship total: 58 Half Points: 29 Threshold: 4

Greer Sonnel (36)
Heroic (1)
Advanced Optics (4)

Ship total: 41 Half Points: 21 Threshold: 2


Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Resistance&d=v8ZsZ200Z352X206W11WW245W243W5WY350X172W186W54WY299X172WWW175WW171WY270X172WWW186&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

That's a fat Nodin and a fully loaded Finn. Bait the opposition to going for the transport. When they are in range, stop or back up with Nodin. Focus with pattern analyzer. Then because you have Larma, you can coordinate in perform action step. Coordinate Finn his focus. Then Nodin takes a target lock. Proceed to destroy whatever has been foolish enough to fly in front of you. Finn is basically stapled to the transport running escort duty.

Edited by missileaway
Posted at

I actually quite like that list. I played around with it

List 5 (199pts)

Alternatively, another where you drop Finn's upgrades to upgrade Ello to Poe:

List 6 (200pts)