Luke grows a pair!

By blade_mercurial, in X-Wing

Alright, so I came up with this list while trying to give Luke some added offensive punch....but is it too much?

I doubt its very competitive since everything hinges on Luke (although he is tough to kill...)

Luke (XW) w/ R2D2, marksmanship & engine up. (39)

'Dutch' (YW) w/ R5 & ion turret (29)

Jan (HWK) w/ adrenaline rush, ion turret & nien nunb (32)

So obviously Jan & 'Dutch' make Luke considerably more badass, and if he doesn't need to boost for better positioning, he can use marksmanship to make his attack even more lethal.

I guess its viability (from a competitive standpoint) hinges entirely on how easily the opponent can take Luke off the board...

Luke's biggest strength is his ability to run. (Run Luke, run!).

That sounds like a pretty lethal luke. But I think the list relies on him way too much for firepower. Dutch or Jan needs to be given that turret, would go for Jan to make up for that chuddy little 1 firepower the HWK has.

Luke's a really tanky character, with the potential to throw loads of damage.
However, Marksmanship isn't the way to go here. Give him Push the Limit instead.

Marksmanship functions identically to an offensive Focus, saving that it turns one of his eyes into a Crit instead of a Hit.
It cannot benefit him defensively if he rolls no eyes, and it costs 3 points and an EPT slot, making the regular Focus significantly better (excepting for pilots who need to crit, like Kath Scarlet, or pilots who attack multiple times, like anyone with a Gunner).

However, with PTL, Luke's throwing a Target Lock and a Focus every turn (or one of the two with Boost). Both of those actions halve each attack die's ability to miss, so with both each die goes from a naked 1/2 chance of damage to a full 7/8 chance! Per die! Wowza!
Now, PTL's downfall is that it causes stress, which means that Luke will be relegated to doing a lot of green maneuvers...which he ALREADY wants to do with R2-D2's regenerating. Hooray for Synergy!

Now, including "Dutch" alongside PTL is a questionable idea: He can already do 2 of the 3 actions he'll be taking every turn, meaning that "Dutch" is, essentially, freeing him up to do an Engine-Upgrade based Boost for a Stress from PTL... I'd consider trading him for someone that deals more damage, in case Luke dies early.

After all, in this fleet, when Luke dies, you may as well surrender. Even though he's a tough bird to hit, he's literally all of your damage. Replacing "Dutch" with another smallship that throws 3 dice for attack is a great idea. (X-Wing, B-Wing, HWK + Blaster + Recon Spec, you get the drill).

(Devil's advocate mode: Activating)

Marksmanship is good on Luke, two focus results on his defense dice is the only time Luke will need to use a focus token defensively and that is probably the single least likely combination to get. As a defensive beast he needs an offensive boost or else his opponent will simply target the support ships and kill him once his attack enhancing, target ioning friends are out of the picture. PTL might be good but a nice crit can really ruin someone's day.

Even once Luke goes down Dutch and Jan are far from helpless even if they aren't offensive juggernauts. Dutch has an average attack that can be boosted to good by Jan, with their ions and assisting each other they can almost certainly keep two ships ioned a turn and avoid their arcs until Dutch gets a killshot. Especially if Luke softened them up before he went. The only list I see them truly struggling against is a swarm but the swarm is and always will be an odd duck. Account for it but it breaks most comparisons.

I did consider PtL of course, and have used it on luke w/engine upgrade in the past but as vonpenguin says, luke rarely gets much out of focus (if he doesn't need it on his attack he's unlikely to use it defensively) so I find TL & boost are the most commonly used actions. With dutch, PtL becomes almost pointless. The other problem with PtL is it makes manoeuvres more predictable since you need a green manoeuvre after to ditch the stress. Yes having R2 means going green frequently, but at least if I'm not stressed, the opponent can't be certain I will use a green move unless low on hull and so my moves are a bit less predictable.

Honestly, marksmanship is there because I can't see a better use of 3 pts, although ditching nien numb makes it 4 which could be used for a shield upgrade on dutch....

I'm not sure if another EPT on luke would work better in this case, but I'm not convinced PtL is the way to go here.

Honestly, marksmanship is there because I can't see a better use of 3 pts, although ditching nien numb makes it 4 which could be used for a shield upgrade on dutch....

I'm not sure if another EPT on luke would work better in this case, but I'm not convinced PtL is the way to go here.

Marksmanship and Luke are a match made in heaven. He doesn't need focus, so he can use his one action on this ability. I would ditch Nien Numb. He is only adding one green move for Jan. An Intelligence Agent would be more beneficial or drop the crew member entirely and upgrade Dutch's R5 to R5-K6 to better take advantage of his ability.