There's not enough board space devoted to Kaz, Yeager, and the Colossus family on these forums, so I thought I'd push in. I've watched all through Star Wars: Resistance, and despite the obvious appeal to a much younger Star Wars audience, I still enjoyed it, for the most part. But I really enjoy the hero ship - our good friend, the Fireball.

There's a lot to love about the Fireball model itself. The paint job is excellent - the attention to detail is amazing, even down to that little purple creature on the right side of the chassis (I forget the names of them, but they're basically pest animals aboard the Colossus, and delicacies to many of its citizens). It looks cool on the table. But mechanically, it's fascinating. The use of damage as a bonus is really intriguing design space, and the fact that all of the pilots have something really neat to do with it is evidence of a good level of thought about it. I am quite happy with the fact that the designers are really pushing their creativity since 2.0 hit the board. Of course, it helps that my 2.0 factions are also heavy into new design space, so I get to play with cool new toys fairly regularly.

Even more, though, I love building it out and playing it, even though I've only had a few games with it. It succeeds, like the Black One title, in making you feel like you're all of a sudden rocketing across the board in a racer - I think that some of those iconic visual experiences are really able to shine in card design now. I also think the SLAM mechanic fits more naturally on this thing than it does on the K-Wing, and it shows.

Anyone else HYPEd (Fazon) about the Fireball?

Fireball is a ton of fun. Slow durable net builder that can block or dive to range 1 from crazy areas of the board and escape/recycle flank after its taken a bit of dmg. The early/mid/late game flanks that these things can create are crazy. They always seem to have 1 more hull remaining even with suffering a damage during deployment. The ability to slam even without removing the weapons disabled is extremely powerful. Useful basically any turn though you dont have to use it since the dial is incredible to begin with. Gets even better with the illicit or adv slam. Though I will admit I have stayed away from upgrades for the most part just to get more ships on the table. Kaz at 40 does enough to not get 100% made irrelevant by RZ2As at similar or cheaper costs. A constant risk for anything FFG adds to resistance due to i5 Rz2A costs. At least if you already have Zizi in the list Kaz is worth a look. Yeager at 33 for i5 slam is a beast. The best piece for me so far though has been the i2s. 26 pts is incredible.

Poe + Zizi + Yeager + Colossus + Colossus is the most fun resistance list I have played besides Poe + 5 Colossus.

Its all I ever wanted for resistance. A small ship option to pair with T70s besides Pods Ports and Turrets.

On Fly Casual 7 Fireballs with deadmans switch is actually really fun. I highly doubt I'll ever own that many Fireballs to try it out on a table though.

16 minutes ago, Jaysnipesinc said:

On Fly Casual 7 Fireballs with deadmans switch is actually really fun. I highly doubt I'll ever own that many Fireballs to try it out on a table though.

I can't even get my mitts on 1 Fireball here in Canada. Even though I pre ordered from FLGS months ago. Dang Asmodee.

Kaz is great in Aces High. He'll almost always be rolling 3 dice. I've yet to come across one in a standard game, but Deadman's Mechanics sound great.

4 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

Kaz is great in Aces High. He'll almost always be rolling 3 dice. I've yet to come across one in a standard game, but Deadman's Mechanics sound great.

Fear not, we'll make it happen.

The Fireball is super cool. Many are focused on Kaz and Jarek, as I originally was, but now, like @Boom Owl , I see the I2 mechanic as kind of the star. It's a better torrent. From a competitive perspective, I have some misgivings about single-modded 2-die shots making up the majority of ones offense, but the fun factor is undeniable.

10 minutes ago, gennataos said:

Fear not, we'll make it happen.

The Fireball is super cool. Many are focused on Kaz and Jarek, as I originally was, but now, like @Boom Owl , I see the I2 mechanic as kind of the star. It's a better torrent. From a competitive perspective, I have some misgivings about single-modded 2-die shots making up the majority of ones offense, but the fun factor is undeniable.

I look forward to the match (and our characteristic wild dice variance).

Have you had a chance to run Deadman's Mechanics against droids yet? I hope and pray they are a suitable counter to them. Super-bumpy, DMS headsims to a decent counter to swarm and Boba/Fenn meta.

1 minute ago, 5050Saint said:

I look forward to the match (and our characteristic wild dice variance).

Have you had a chance to run Deadman's Mechanics against droids yet? I hope and pray they are a suitable counter to them. Super-bumpy, DMS headsims to a decent counter to swarm and Boba/Fenn meta.

Not yet, I've yet to play against our lone CIS swarm player.

I put 2 of the I2s plus 4 A-wings (Zizi, Talli, Greer, Blue) on the table last week and it was great fun.

Planning to try Bastian, 2 Red T70s and 2 I2 Fireballs tomorrow night. Can't decide between Cybernetics and DMS on them though.

48 minutes ago, mcintma said:

I can't even get my mitts on 1 Fireball here in Canada. Even though I pre ordered from FLGS months ago. Dang Asmodee.

Unacceptable!

Unfortunately, Asmodee seems to have some distribution issues here.

2 hours ago, feltipern1 said:

There's not enough board space devoted to Kaz, Yeager, and the Colossus family on these forums, so I thought I'd push in. I've watched all through Star Wars: Resistance, and despite the obvious appeal to a much younger Star Wars audience, I still enjoyed it, for the most part. But I really enjoy the hero ship - our good friend, the Fireball.

I liked the series. The start of series 2 felt like it had rather too many 'filler' episodes, but the finale was very satisfying (even though I kind of wish the aces and the colossus were at Exegol).

29 minutes ago, 5050Saint said:

Have you had a chance to run Deadman's Mechanics against droids yet?

Deadman's Mechanics seem awesome. For that matter, if you're so inclined, 6 of them can pack advanced SLAM, deadman's switch, and BB astromechs

(okay, only in extended, but you can sub out for either R4 astromechs or coaxium in hyperspace instead).

BB Astromechs are laughably cheap for a cheap generic, and the ability to barrel roll/speed 1 bank/speed 1 turn/focus makes them ridiculously squirrelly.

27 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I liked the series. The start of series 2 felt like it had rather too many 'filler' episodes, but the finale was very satisfying (even though I kind of wish the aces and the colossus were at Exegol).

Who's to say they weren't!?

40 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

(even though I kind of wish the aces and the colossus were at Exegol).

Keep your eyes open, maybe someday we'll pick them out.
Though it would be nice to see a bit more of the Colossus for sure.

https://www.starwars.com/news/buckets-list-extra-the-escape-part-2-star-wars-resistance

6. Teaming Up with the Resistance.

So what happens next? “Well, one thing we do know is that among the 14,000 ships that arrive with Lando Calrissian over Exegol in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are the Fireball, Jarek Yeager’s racer, and Torra Doza’s ship,” says Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group. The ILM team created photo-real versions of these vessels to populate the movie’s space battle, which we’re excited to reveal here. (Also, keep your eyes peeled for a number of mining guild freighters from Star Wars Resistance in the epic clash!)

I would, if I could buy it. Still not available in Central Europe, it seems.

1 hour ago, RebelRogue said:

Keep your eyes open, maybe someday we'll pick them out.
Though it would be nice to see a bit more of the Colossus for sure.

https://www.starwars.com/news/buckets-list-extra-the-escape-part-2-star-wars-resistance

6. Teaming Up with the Resistance.

So what happens next? “Well, one thing we do know is that among the 14,000 ships that arrive with Lando Calrissian over Exegol in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are the Fireball, Jarek Yeager’s racer, and Torra Doza’s ship,” says Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group. The ILM team created photo-real versions of these vessels to populate the movie’s space battle, which we’re excited to reveal here. (Also, keep your eyes peeled for a number of mining guild freighters from Star Wars Resistance in the epic clash!)

I'd love to see at least Tora's ship make it to X-Wing.

41 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Deadman's Mechanics seem awesome. For that matter, if you're so inclined, 6 of them can pack advanced SLAM, deadman's switch, and BB astromechs

6 seems like fun, but excessive in a competitive list. 2-3 I think might be the sweet spot. Enough that you can run heavier hitters while utilizing the Mechanics. More than that, and I think you cripple yourself against other lists. 3 might be best as it will be a decent deterrent for droids, 5X, and Fangs.

I flew Jarek at the Ft Worth open last weekend, and it was one of only two Fireballs in the entire tournament (the other was Kaz).

List:

ZiZi with Heroic, Optics, Concussion Missiles

Tallie with Heroic, Optics, Ion Missiles

Nien Numb with Heroic, Title, S-Foils, Adv Proton Torp

Jarek with Heroic, R4, Adv. SLAM

Jarek was amazing. The 39 point build (Heroic, R4, Adv SLAM) is a steal. Sure, he's only got two dice, but nothing that moves before him will ever shoot him unless you allow it. I frequently allowed people to take potshots at him, to increase his value as bait, and about half my opponents took it.

For those who didn't take the bait, he just SLAMmed into range 1 and started pumping damage. For those who did, he ran away and drew all or part of their list out of position.

Adding 2 points for the title is probably worth it (pushing him to 41 points) if you have the space, but spending it on Coaxium might be better. Jarek lives or dies on his SLAMs, and "I can always SLAM" is probably REALLY good for him.

Overall I didn't do great, going 2-4. However, only one of my matches did I feel like I truly got out-flown. The other games were all REALLY close, with three of them literally coming down to the last dice roll.

In retrospect, the biggest problem was the APT on Nien. It both made me fly him poorly (putting him into danger to get that big shot) and made him a big target (most expensive AND has APTs? Shoot him!). If I were to fly this list some more, I'd go double Concussion and drop APTs on Nien. Then I'd put one of: Optics on Nien, Title on Jarek, Coaxium on Jarek.

I've only gotten one game with it so far using Kaz, but I like it a lot. Not a bad pilot card in the bunch. I2 generics at their price range are basically super Torrents, R1-J5 has interesting builds unique to it, Yeager is a super cheap I5, and Kaz's ability is basically "I have a 3/3 stats at all times" against aces.

Looking forward to using them more in the future. Nobody's brought up R1-J5, but I think that Crew slot has potential.

R1-J5 with C-3PO gives you a rather nimble blocker/support ship. Even when it isn't taking advantage of Red Coordinate + Calculate, it still gets double Calculate tokens. To top it off, it's cheaper than a Squad Leader RZ-2.

Quote

ignore this, forgot Kaz's Fireball doesn't let you grab Pilot damage cards...

R1-J5 with Korr Sella, Kaz's Fireball (grabbing Panicked Pilot), AdvSLAM and optionally CC gives you the SLAMiest Fireball, since R1-J5 can SLAM, grab an action from AdvSLAM before triggering Explosion with Wings, flip Panicked Pilot at no risk, and then just do a blue maneuver the next turn (which it'd have to do anyway after AdvSLAM) and wipe out the stack of Stress tokens. CC gets you a turn of unpredictability since you can avoid the obvious blue maneuver, stack even MORE stress and still obliterate the entire stack the next turn, with the option to pull stunts like double 4 straight or 3 turn + talon roll with your SLAM. Might be too expensive to be more than a gimmick but what a gimmick it is!

R1-J5 with Chewbacca arms R1 with a bit of free offense mods. I'm not completely sure how the timing works, but from what was figured in this thread , it seems like R1's "Explosion with Wings" triggers after Chewbacca, which arms Chewbacca right out of the gate.

R1-J5 with Han adds "gain additional evade tokens to every ship at range 0-1" to its white Evade action, which could make R1-J5 ridiculously tanky in a blocking role even against swarms.

R1-J5 with Rose is probably a touch too expensive for what she adds to J5, but it does basically give you a free Target Lock for every blank on a ship that can't grab locks without Targeting Computer.

R1-J5 with Amilyn Holdo doesn't look as good as C-3PO on J5, but Holdo is Hyperspace-legal and can support ships by absorbing locks, stress, ion tokens, etc.

Unfortunately the only builds that are Hyperspace legal are Korr and Holdo, so until the Resistance Falcon re-releases J5 probably won't see a lot of use there, unless my ridiculous Panicked J5 build turns out to be a menace in the right hands.

Edit: Forgot a couple other usable options. PZ-4CO is a cheaper Holdo that can also pass a Calculate but can't absorb red tokens, and Informant paired with SLAM and optionally AdvSLAM for barrel rolls could make J5 a thorn in a particular aces' side.

Edit 2: Forgot that Kaz's Fireball only lets you select Ship damage cards, so it can't take Panicked Pilot which would've made for fun Korr shenanigans. I guess you could try Novice Technician with Damaged Sensor Array instead? Gives you a 5/8 chance at the end of every turn to flip it over without spending an action and have another armed SLAM ready to go, and worst case scenario you still can repair manually.

8 minutes ago, Enigami said:

Looking forward to using them more in the future. Nobody's brought up R1-J5, but I think that Crew slot has potential.

I 100% didn't catch that there was a crew slot here. That 3PO build might have legs. He's just a couple points more than AP-5, who is a steal.

48 minutes ago, feltipern1 said:

I'd love to see at least Tora's ship make it to X-Wing.

I think it's fairly likely, at least if we go by the rule of card art.

She shows up on Kaz's pilot card, and its been the rare exception that a ship pictured in the background of a card doesn't eventually get it's own card.
(Mainly I think of the Toscan-ish thing on Gavin's E-wing card and the Imp LAAT/le...and the Purgill hehe. Has anybody tracked that data?)
But I could be totally wrong and just hopeful.

13 minutes ago, player3503606 said:

I 100% didn't catch that there was a crew slot here. That 3PO build might have legs. He's just a couple points more than AP-5, who is a steal.

I know, right? I completely overlooked it many times while working out Fireball lists. J5+3PO I agree will likely be the star for Extended. In Hyperspace, J5 is limited to inferior PZ and Holdo for support builds, Informant for a blocker build, Novice Technician + title for a risky SLAM spam while still attacking build, and Korr + CC + AdvSLAM for being able to do something crazy once a game (such a shame it can't grab Panicked Pilot), so I'm not sure how well it'll do there.

1 hour ago, player3503606 said:

I flew Jarek at the Ft Worth open last weekend, and it was one of only two Fireballs in the entire tournament (the other was Kaz).

List:

ZiZi with Heroic, Optics, Concussion Missiles

Tallie with Heroic, Optics, Ion Missiles

Nien Numb with Heroic, Title, S-Foils, Adv Proton Torp

Jarek with Heroic, R4, Adv. SLAM

Jarek was amazing. The 39 point build (Heroic, R4, Adv SLAM) is a steal. Sure, he's only got two dice, but nothing that moves before him will ever shoot him unless you allow it. I frequently allowed people to take potshots at him, to increase his value as bait, and about half my opponents took it.

For those who didn't take the bait, he just SLAMmed into range 1 and started pumping damage. For those who did, he ran away and drew all or part of their list out of position.

Adding 2 points for the title is probably worth it (pushing him to 41 points) if you have the space, but spending it on Coaxium might be better. Jarek lives or dies on his SLAMs, and "I can always SLAM" is probably REALLY good for him.

Overall I didn't do great, going 2-4. However, only one of my matches did I feel like I truly got out-flown. The other games were all REALLY close, with three of them literally coming down to the last dice roll.

In retrospect, the biggest problem was the APT on Nien. It both made me fly him poorly (putting him into danger to get that big shot) and made him a big target (most expensive AND has APTs? Shoot him!). If I were to fly this list some more, I'd go double Concussion and drop APTs on Nien. Then I'd put one of: Optics on Nien, Title on Jarek, Coaxium on Jarek.

This is similar to the list I'm currently running. I've iterated once on it, which has turned up this:

RZ-2 A-wing - •Tallissan Lintra - 39
•Tallissan Lintra - Deadly Approach (36)
Daredevil (2)
Heroic (1)

RZ-2 A-wing - •Zizi Tlo - 48
•Zizi Tlo - Committed to the Cause (40)
Heroic (1)
Snap Shot (7)

Fireball - •Jarek Yeager - 47
•Jarek Yeager - Too Old for This (33)
Heroic (1)
•R1-J5 (6)
Coaxium Hyperfuel (2)
Advanced SLAM (3)
•Kaz’s Fireball (2)

T-70 X-wing - •Nien Nunb - 65
•Nien Nunb - Sarcastic Survivor (55)
Heroic (1)
Advanced SLAM (3)
• Black One (2)
Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)
Advanced Optics (4)

Total: 199/200

56 minutes ago, Enigami said:

I've only gotten one game with it so far using Kaz, but I like it a lot. Not a bad pilot card in the bunch. I2 generics at their price range are basically super Torrents, R1-J5 has interesting builds unique to it, Yeager is a super cheap I5, and Kaz's ability is basically "I have a 3/3 stats at all times" against aces.

Looking forward to using them more in the future. Nobody's brought up R1-J5, but I think that Crew slot has potential.

R1-J5 with C-3PO gives you a rather nimble blocker/support ship. Even when it isn't taking advantage of Red Coordinate + Calculate, it still gets double Calculate tokens. To top it off, it's cheaper than a Squad Leader RZ-2.

R1-J5 with Chewbacca arms R1 with a bit of free offense mods. I'm not completely sure how the timing works, but from what was figured in this thread , it seems like R1's "Explosion with Wings" triggers after Chewbacca, which arms Chewbacca right out of the gate.

R1-J5 with Han adds "gain additional evade tokens to every ship at range 0-1" to its white Evade action, which could make R1-J5 ridiculously tanky in a blocking role even against swarms.

R1-J5 with Rose is probably a touch too expensive for what she adds to J5, but it does basically give you a free Target Lock for every blank on a ship that can't grab locks without Targeting Computer.

R1-J5 with Amilyn Holdo doesn't look as good as C-3PO on J5, but Holdo is Hyperspace-legal and can support ships by absorbing locks, stress, ion tokens, etc.

Unfortunately the only builds that are Hyperspace legal are Korr and Holdo, so until the Resistance Falcon re-releases J5 probably won't see a lot of use there, unless my ridiculous Panicked J5 build turns out to be a menace in the right hands.

Edit: Forgot a couple other usable options. PZ-4CO is a cheaper Holdo that can also pass a Calculate but can't absorb red tokens, and Informant paired with SLAM and optionally AdvSLAM for barrel rolls could make J5 a thorn in a particular aces' side.

Edit 2: Forgot that Kaz's Fireball only lets you select Ship damage cards, so it can't take Panicked Pilot which would've made for fun Korr shenanigans. I guess you could try Novice Technician with Damaged Sensor Array instead? Gives you a 5/8 chance at the end of every turn to flip it over without spending an action and have another armed SLAM ready to go, and worst case scenario you still can repair manually.

I haven't even LOOKED at Bucket builds. These sound amazing! Thanks for sharing.

17 minutes ago, feltipern1 said:

This is similar to the list I'm currently running. I've iterated once on it, which has turned up this:

RZ-2 A-wing - •Tallissan Lintra - 39
•Tallissan Lintra - Deadly Approach (36)
Daredevil (2)
Heroic (1)

RZ-2 A-wing - •Zizi Tlo - 48
•Zizi Tlo - Committed to the Cause (40)
Heroic (1)
Snap Shot (7)

Fireball - •Jarek Yeager - 47
•Jarek Yeager - Too Old for This (33)
Heroic (1)
•R1-J5 (6)
Coaxium Hyperfuel (2)
Advanced SLAM (3)
•Kaz’s Fireball (2)

T-70 X-wing - •Nien Nunb - 65
•Nien Nunb - Sarcastic Survivor (55)
Heroic (1)
Advanced SLAM (3)
• Black One (2)
Integrated S-foils (Open) (0)
Advanced Optics (4)

Total: 199/200

I haven't even LOOKED at Bucket builds. These sound amazing! Thanks for sharing.

I've run a boatload of Resistance 5s. I'd be happy to participate in a thread on the archetype, and provide feedback.

Yeah, in the few chances I've had to sod it around, it's been a pretty fun little ship..! This wave has just been great overall.

Haven't flown it, but flew against it and it's a VERY cool ship I'll be building some lists around it in the near future.