Hey guys! So another local gaming club has started on x-wing, and there is a whole group of us (i think numbering around 20 or so). I go to the sunday gaming with 6 of us and its going very well. At the moment we seem to be using 70pts (though next week another rebel player is joining the other side so Might be 105pts each side). For 100pts I am quite happy with my list:

Darth Vader with Homing Missiles, expose and stealth device

Dark Curse

Krassis Trelix with HLC

But for 70pts.... I need some help. I am playing empire only and have the following ships and all the cards associated with them (including rebel ships for cards)

Starter set

X-wing

B-wing

Tie advanced

Firespray

Anyone help me?

Well, I see it as either you can run the Firespray, or you don't. So lets look at those two variations. First, without the FS.

So, if we maximize the pilots, you're looking at Darth Vader, Mauler Mithel, and Dark Curse, for 62 points. To finalize those 8 points, we'll first look at EPT. Vader could make good use of Squad Leader for 2 points. Mauler Mithel could use Veteran Instincts, to put him at PS9. This leaves you 5 more points... The perfect amount to fit a missile in... I'm thinking Homing Missiles on Vader. That way, he can TL+F on the attack, pretty much ensuring 4 hits rolled, and between that and Mauler's follow up, you could very easily find your opponent missing an X wing before he attacks.

Now, lets take a look at using the Firespray. The base pilots for the 4 ships come out to be 78 points, so we'll have to cut one, I'm going to remove the TIE/x1 since it's not very strong as a non-unique unit. Now you're down to 57 points, leaving 13 for upgrades. You could upgrade to Krassis and give him a Heavy Laser Cannon, consuming 10 of those 13 points. And then I would put Seismic Charges for 2 more points. Now you have 1 point for an initiative bid, and two Academy Pilots that can be used to block the opponents. Meanwhile, Krassis hangs back and blasts them with his HLC, and when they get close, he drops the bomb and runs away.

Thanks, but at the same time we dont need an initiative bid, as we currently have the rebels with 1pt more than us and we are ok with that as a tradeoff for initiative. So would it be better to take proximity mines instead of seismic charges? or better to just use the upgrades and have krassis with HLC, academy and dark curse?

I wouldn't take the prox mine. But if you wanted to spend that last point, you could pull the seismic charge off, and upgrade one of the academies to Night Beast.

Or, if you didn't want an HLC, you could upgrade to Kath for 2 points, and then you should have 8 points left over to spend on Marksmanship and Gunner. This would yield a focus -> crit on both primary attack and gunner attack, which works out of the front and rear arc btw... And then her ability makes it such that they take the crit or take a stress, either way you win. They could even potentially take a stress from the first attack, and then have gunner kick in, and they'll take the crit anyways.

Why do you not like the proximity mine compared to seismic charge? I find the proximity mine to be rather fantastic from when I have tried it, and find it very hard to get a seismic charge off....

Well, the main thing is that it takes your action. And since you have to do it at the end of your movement, and you're a high PS, it's likely that it won't do anything until the next movement phase. Then there's the fact that it can actually end up doing nothing... it has a 50% chance of doing more than 1 damage to a ship, compared to the seismic that has a 100% chance to do 1 damage to EVERY ship in the area, and doesn't take your action, as such, you can shoot and do more damage with your shot as well.

The more you use it, the better you'll get with it. It's great in the second half of the game when people are chasing you down.

Wow, I didnt read that it didn't take up an action... so if its so much better why is it less points (the more i read it the more i believe you are right that its great)

No clue... But it explains why I've never seen proximity mines run by someone who's put up a fight, nevertheless won.

So the seismic charges are the only competitive bomb for firespray?

So how does this list look?:

Academy Pilot

Obsidian Pilot

Krassis with HLC+SC

Seems a lot of eggs in one basket with Krassis

Keep it as an Academy. That way they can move in either order, which is useful as far as causing and preventing collisions. And then just keep it at 69 points, even if the rebels can have 71, there's really nothing else to put on the list. I suppose you could drop the SC and put a Stealth Device on one of the Academies, but I don't know if I'd recommend that, it just reinforces that they want to shoot at Krassis. But it could make it hard to kill in the second half of the game.

My teammate is fielding vader, howlrunner and dark curse. And a friend said this list, but i think it would be utterly useless, but if you see any merit tell me:

Bounty Hunter with Ion Cannon

Maarek Stele with Expose and Stealth Device.

It's junk.

First off, the TIE/x1 is widely considered only worth fielding as Vader. Otherwise it's overcost and isn't worth flying. Secondly, Maarek Steele has a crappy power, especially considering how many ships have shields these days. And the fact that he doesn't have very much offensive firepower to get the crits through anyways. With that said, you would still want to put marksmanship on him to boost his chances of getting a crit.

Furthermore, Expose is pathetic. For 4 points, you lose your action, you lose an evade die, and you gain just 1 attack die. 2F dice roll 1.5 hits. 3 unfocused dice roll 1.5 hits. (averages)... 3F (considering R1) rolls 2.25 hits. 4 unfocused = 2 hits. Expose sucks. It gimps your offense, it gimps your defense, and costs you 4 points to do that. Never take expose (The only exception would be if you were running Ibby w/ Expose, Dutch to hand her a TL, and Garvin to hand her a focus (or someone with SL to pass an action).

Finally, as for the Ion cannon, while it itself can be useful especially at R3, this list is lacking fire power anyways, so sacrificing a primary weapon attack for it just hurts that all that much more.

Ok back to krassis and 2 tie list thanks!