How would you use and abuse Maarek now with wave2?

Maarek's unique ability:

"When your attack deals a face up damage card to the defender instead draw 3 damage cards, choose 1 to deal, and discard the others"

1) what upgrades would allow his ability to be maximised? Marksmanship? Expose?

2) what missiles would be best to use on him? Concussion Missiles? Homing Missiles?

3) what supporting ships or supporting upgrades would help Maarek the most? Howlrunner? Tie-fighter support ships with Draw Their Fire?

Maarek + Marksmanship + Homing Missile

Back him up with Howlrunner or Vader + Squad Leader

I used him to deal a spectacular death-blow to a damaged Falcon in our last game. Got three hits from a short-range primary weapon shot. Two were crits. The damage cards I was able to select included the one that gives two points of hull damage and the one that deals a point of damage when the ship overlaps or hits an obstacle. Next turn, the Falcon ran over an unavoidable asteroid. Ka-boom, goodnight Han Solo. Five points of damage as a result of one shot.

Granted, that example is something of a statictical outlier, but it was still pretty **** cool. I can also Stele+assault missiles being a good way to put some serious hurt on big ships. Getting rid of a bazillion shields is still an issue.

Battle Damage said:

good points. ur right the trick is to get through their shields first and then switch to primary weapon.

i was thinking expose could be a nice way to get an extra attack dice. its sorta like having howlrunner there for those key attacks when u really wanna go offensive.

heres a squad im thinking of with Steele:

Maarek + Expose + Shield Upgrade + Concussion Missiles

Bounty Hunter + Heavy Laser Cannon + Mercenary Pilot + Concussion Missiles

Black Squadron Pilot + Draw Their Fire

fly in two wings, BS PIlot is wingman/body guard for Maarek. id consider dropping the extra shield from Maarek in favour of Engine upgrade for Bounty Hunter to help it stay at med-long range.

Yeah he's much more useful now that there's 3/8 ships with good hull instead of 1/4. Personally I'd go with cluster missles, I know most people aren't fond of them but since none of his "priority" ships have good agility it's a good way to maximise crit odds. Just a theory though. Have yet to playtest it.

Cluster Missiles and Marksmanship against a YT is deadly. 1 defense just doesn't cut it and most of the time you can get a couple of crits in. I would try and save my missiles for the finishing shot. Use your primary weapons to pick off shields, then finish with the cluster missiles. This may seem against the common use, but if you goal is to get crits then you have to wait until the shields are down or close to it before you fire. Cluster missiles aren't bad against Firespary either.

mrfroggies said:

I agree with you here. Maarek is really good with that combo. You have a great chance at choosing your damage against any unsheilded snub-fighter or best yet - the YT or Firespray. I even built a squad highlighting him. I've yet to play it, but I will soon.

Check out my Maarek Steele Squad

http://x-wing.voidstate.com/view/6847/maarek-steele-sledge-hammer

mrfroggies said:

I disagree about the finishing shot thing. In my mind what you want is to strip the shields quickly and then pile on the crits so that even if a given shot doesn't kill the yt it makes it less effecient. The other way makes it last the same number of turns but without the benifit of "debuffing" it.

I still haven't used him yet..Am I supposed to (A) look at all 3 and pick one to deal out [which makes sense] or (B) pick 3, not look, and deal it out…?

Sprolly G said:

Maarek Steele: When your attack deals a faceup Damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 Damage cards, choose 1 to deal, and discard the others.

From the Core Rulebook:

SUFFERING DAMAGE (p16)

Critical Damage

When a ship suffers damage, players deal the Damage card facedown and ignore the card's text. However, when a ship suffers critical damage, players deal the Damage card faceup.

Your question make a lot of sense. Do the cards come off the Damage Deck faceup? Clearly they are DEALT faceup. However, "drawing" and "dealing" are two different things, and that makes me reconsider the way I've played and seen Maarek Steele played.

I'm pretty sure it's draw three, look, and pick. Otherwise there would be zero benefit, one random damage card is as good as another if you can't tell what they'll do.

Vonpenguin said:

yes the damage is face up so it follows that the choice is made from 3 face up cards. otherwise as u say, there is not benefit of the ability at all.

im seeing Maarek as a decent countermeasure for enemy large ships. to make him worth playing u have to build a squad arround him that has enough firepower to strip the shields from large ships and then let his ability do the rest.

im seeing him being complemented by another ship with missiles or several ships with 3 attack power, perhaps a bounty hunter with HLC or two intercepters. in a way hes a more aggressive vader without the extra action.

to fully commit to his ability imo you should either run marksmanship, push the limit or expose on Maarek.

here is an untested squad:

Maarek + cluster missiles + push the limit (free target lock + focus action to abuse ability when attacking with primary weapon)

Bounty Hunter + HLC

Turr Phennir + Veteran Instincts

im seeing Maarek as a decent countermeasure for enemy large ships. to make him worth playing u have to build a squad arround him that has enough firepower to strip the shields from large ships and then let his ability do the rest.

im seeing him being complemented by another ship with missiles or several ships with 3 attack power, perhaps a bounty hunter with HLC or two intercepters. in a way hes a more aggressive vader without the extra action.

to fully commit to his ability imo you should either run marksmanship, push the limit or expose on Maarek.

here is an untested squad:

Maarek + cluster missiles + push the limit (free target lock + focus action to abuse ability when attacking with primary weapon)

Bounty Hunter + HLC

Turr Phennir + Veteran Instincts

In my opinion taking marksmanship is the only way to fully benefit from his ability, so I would suggest running him with something like this:

Maarek Stele + Cluster Missles + Marksmanship

Mauler Mithel + Veteran Instincts

Howlrunner + Veteran Instincts

Soontir Fel + Swarm Tactics

Now with wave three Captain Jonus couldn't hurt either.

I've been trying to run him with Expose. My squad set up is:

Maarek w/ expose and cluster missile

Vader w/ squad leader

Soontir w/ PTL and stealth

The list has played pretty well in the couple games I've used it. Though it is noteworthy that Vader and Soontir do a lot on their own and really can pull the list through without Maarek. I played a game where I lost him first turn and the other two still pulled out a win for me. Flip side of that is him blowing an x-wing out of the sky on turn two in one shot with the cluster missile and a focus. I took out the shields with the first shot and got a hit and one crit through in the second, a direct hit popped up and that was that for the x-wing.

Main strategy for the list though is for Maarek to expose and Vader to pass a target lock. 3 dice with rerolls gives a decent chance of a good number of hits and a crit.