In-depth Look TIE Reaper

As a larger, more intimidating version of the TIE/sk Striker, the TIE Reaper brings the same Adaptive Ailerons pre-activation move when not stressed, while having different upgrade slots and a larger base.

With an interesting Action bar showing Focus, Evade, [Red] Co-Ordinate, and Jam, the TIE Reaper is a useful ship with some great options for offense as well as support or control.

At Initiative 1, the Scarif Base Pilot continues to offer a non-limited pilot that can mix well with other non-limited pilots on an equal level depending on where you look.  The points are fairly reasonable for the ship frame and the available access to upgrades.

With 2 Crew upgrade slots available, the TIE Reaper can provide many different roles at Initiative 1 to bolster your forces or cause frustration for the opponent you face.

Vizier gives you an extra point of Initiative and a White Co-Ordinate after your Adaptive Ailerons manoeuvre, for the low cost of four extra points over a Scarif Base Pilot, and skipping your Perform Action Step of activation.  This opens some opportunities up nicely, with an acceptable cost, especially if you plan of bumping another sip with your dial manoeuvre, coupled with avoiding the Stress of the native Co-Ordinate action.  When used this way, if you are looking at crew options, those with passive benefits can be of great help here, as can Minister Tua, as, once the shields are gone, you can start shutting down your ailerons and Reinforcing for some added survivability.

Captain Feroph sits at a nice, current 47 points, with the ability to switch a blank or Focus result to an Evade as long as your opponent doesn’t have a Green token.  This brings the Jam action into play a bit more for the Reaper, perhaps adding in some ISB Slicers, to keep tokens around until the next round.   This could also open up Jamming Beams, dependant on the list build you have chosen.  While it means Captain Feroph may stuggle without offensive modifications, Agent Kallus, for example, could work nicely.

Sitting opposite in ability with Captain Feroph is Major Vermeil, switching a Blank or Focus result to a Hit when the target lacks a Green Token.  As with Captain Feroph, watch out for Focus, Evade, Calculate, and Reinforce, judicious use of Jam can, again, make triggering the ability far easier.  All this for only 49 (currently) points, and the TIE Reaper can be something that should be taken seriously as a threat.

The TIE Reaper dial isn’t awful, for a medium-based ship, and can lend itself nicely to a Talent like Elusive, while the larger base can make triggering Predator or Marksmanhip a little easier too.  Regarding other upgrades, there has been talk of Angled Deflectors being useful on a TIE Reaper, sacrificing a shield in return for being able to Reinforce, but, that can impact the triggering of abilities on the Limited pilots.

All in all, I do think the TIE Reaper is in a good place at the moment, when flown by somebody who can grapple with the Medium Base, as, even a year after release, is still somewhat difficult for the more casual players, myself included.

In-depth Look Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft

The Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft is a fast and somewhat nimble large-based ship, with two evade dice for defense as well. Not only that, but it also has Evade on the action bar.

Shadowport Hunter

The Shadowport Hunter gives you an Initiative 2 pilot in the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft. Since the first article was written, the Lancer has seen a points drop, which could make them more attractive in multiples when using the Shadowport Hunter. With their current load out being Crew, dual Illicit, Modification, and Title, there is some room to add upgrades, but, without the Talent slot, some could be of limited use.

That aside, the fact the majority of Large-based ships are struggling to survive the first or second engagement due to their lack of defenses, the Lancer balances between the slightly lower health and slightly better evasion aspect, add in the fact that, without the title, it has a forward arc as well as a turret, and with some decent flying, you should be able to minimise the blindspots for your opponent to take advantage of.

Sabine Wren

Sabine in the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft offers a decent ability at an Initiative of 3. Now, giving Sabine the Shadowcaster title, a Perceptive Copilot and Fearless still leaves room (currently) for two more Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft, one carrying Ketsu Onyo, to help keep Tractor tokens around. While fun, it’s not, perhaps, one of the most competitive lists around, but the Sabine build itself seems solid on paper, and gives full use of both her ability and the Shadowcaster title. There are plenty of options to allow Sabine to be the lead pilot in a squad, allowing her to soften a target for those following, or to clean up after higher Initiative pilots.

Asajj Ventress

Asajj Ventress is the only current Scum and VIllainy pilot with access to Force upgrades. Being a Large-based ship, that means Hate is the most expensive if you decide to equip it to her, however, equipping it does mean you can spend your Force more feely. Because of teh access to Force upgrades, Asajj is also the most expensive of the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft pilots, but, with her ability to strip green tokens or assign Stress, we can see why. One Crew upgrade you may want to equip to Asajj is 0-0-0, to gain a Calculate or assign a second stress, while for other ships in the squad you may want to check out those which work well against stressed ships.

Ketsu Onyo

Ketsu Onyo is, arguably, one of the best Scum and Villainy pilots, and has a Crew card that is equally useful to certain squad builds. When paired with the Shadowcaster Title, even Medium-based ships need to be concerned about their positioning when Ketsu Onyo is about.

Ketsu Onyo happens to be my daughter’s favourite Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft, as well as favourite ship model too. She has been runing a fairly slim build of Ketsu, Fearless, and Shadowcaster. While she is yet to see any OP success, she has won at hme a few times against her older brother.

Personally, I do think the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft is one of the best looking ships in X-Wing, coupled with some of the most interesting named pilots available for Scum and Villainy.

With that in mind, have you had success with the Lancer? Got a solid build that is consistent during a particular section of the game, (early, mid, late)? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment and spark a discussion.

Event Types – What’s Attractive?

So, with Wave 2 firmly released now, even if there are still issues with the FFG App, we can see a large number of alternate formats for designing events, adding flavour to casual games, and generally fiddling with the methods of list building to constrain, limit, and eliminate some of the most popular ships and pilots around.  While not always a bad idea, sometimes, these limits can leave a format rather boring to try and engage with.  At least, in my opinion.

We have, as you can see:

• Extended
• Hyperspace
• No Glory
• Playing Favourites v2
• Battle of Yavin
• Season of Giving
• Evacuation of D’qar

Extended:

Long-time collectors, with conversion kits, can use almost every ship they possess, with every upgrade available for the new edition, and is constantly up to date with each new wave released.

Hyperspace:

Hyperspace gives you selected ships, pilots, and upgrades, all of which can be found in either the FFG Squad Builder app/website, or here in the Points PDF files at the bottom of the page.

No Glory:

No Glory gives you access to non-limited pilots only, basically, anything without a name.  This carries over into upgrades as well.  If it’s a character, then it won’t be present.

Playing Favourites v2:

Playing Favourites gives you a certain pilot for every ship, but, it appears to have unrestricted access to upgrades.

Battle of Yavin:

Battle of Yavin restricts you to those characters who appeared at the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope.  Which, for Scum and Villainy players, leaves them out in the cold with nothing.

Season of Giving:

Season of Giving, again, restricts you to certain pilots in, it looks like, all available ships for a given faction.  Crew upgrades appear to be restricted as well.

Evacuation of D’Qar:

the Evacuation of D’Qar, like Battle of Yavin, restricts you to factions and pilots seen during that scene in The Last Jedi.

So, we have a list of game-modes that are available to use.  I have an event at Ace in Colchester in January that has chosen the Playing Favourites v2 format.  So, I need to pick a faction and what I want to take with me.  200 points is the standard limit here, so, let’s take a look at my favourite ships to use, and whether any of my preferred pilots/upgrades are available.

Rebel Alliance:

T-65 X-Wing – Luke Skywalker, Heightened Perception, R3 Astromech, Munitions Failsafe, Servomotor S-Foils.  79 points.

Modified YT-1300 – Chewbacca, Selfless, Perceptive Copilot, Jyn Erso, Hull Upgrade, Hotshot Gunner, Millennium Falcon.  115 points.

Total: 194/200

Total Health: 20.

A two ship list hasn’t done as well as it used to since the new edition release, but, maybe this list has enough teeth to get the job done.  This is option 1, and the only Rebel list I feel comfortable is potentially flying, seeing as I am missing out on Wedge Antilies, Gavin Darklighter, and Jek Porkins.

Galactic Empire:

TIE/d Defender – Onyx Squadron Ace, Juke, Fire-Control System.  85 Points.

TIE Advanced x1 – Maarek Stele, Outmanoeuvre, Fire-Control System, Cluster Missiles.  64 Points.

TIE/sa Bomber – Captain Jonus, Trick Shot, Proton Torpedoes, Proton Bombs.  51 Points.

Total 200/200

Total Health 18.

Without a Phantom that can take a Talent upgrade, and the vanishing of Vader, the Galactic Empire seem to be at a huge disadvantage.  However, maybe Jonus can help bolster Maarek, while the Defender goes around doing its thing, and perhaps targeting ships after Maarek and Jonus have stripped their tokens.  One thing is fairly clear though, the Bomber will be the most vulnerable ship here, while the Defender and TIE Advanced x1 will have to slow themselves down a bit in order to keep the bomber effective.

I haven’t decided which list to take to Ace yet, but, maybe some ideas will come to me as to the effectiveness of each list.  I can’t say, honestly, that I was excited for the event once I saw the restrictions, but, maybe that will change as it approaches and I potentially get some more practice in.

What is your experience of using alternate formats?  Are you looking forward to the restrictions placed on the upcoming Hyperspace Trials?

As always, leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Quick Build Party 30/11/2018

So, after a fairly hectic day, I collected the wife from work, and, daughter in tow, I headed off to Colchester for the Ace Gaming Quick Build Party.  After plenty of umming and ahing, I decided to take my new Galactic Empire conversion kit for a spin, and looked at the myriad of available options, and quickly began to ignore builds for ships I don’t own yet.

As you can see, I had given myself a nice and varied selection of Imperial ships, however, health conditions prevented me from getting more than a single game in.  This means I have 2 lists left to try.  So, what did I take?

My highest Initiative ship, “Whisper” with Agent Kallus, Advanced Sensors, Juke, and Stealth Device.  “Whisper played an absolute blinder, even more so when I remembered to actually use Agent Kallus, instead of the Focus token, especially on a single Eye result… grumble, grumble, grumble.

“Echo” did a fair amount of work this evening, though, there was a moment where a miscalculation on my part would have seen this great ship fly straight off my own edge of the table.  Must remember to watch that in the future.

Turr Phennir was the final member of my 8 Threat squad that I flew, intending to swap out throughout the evening.  Can’t, honestly, say that I was impressed, though, that might have been due to my flying.

For what I thought would be my first game out of three, I was facing the Rexlar Brath Defender Quick Build, 2 Planetary Sentinals with Conner Nets, and an Academy Pilot, flown by Phil.

During setup, I assigned Rexlar the Hunted condition from Agent Kallus, knowing that, when it came to it, was going to be difficult to push damage through on the 4 shield, 3 hull, 3 evade Defender.  I was also given First Player by my opponent, due to him wanting to see where I could go with “Whisper” before Rexlar manoeuvred.

They opening turns were somewhat of an eye-opener for me.  There’s nothing quite lite getting ships onto the table for seeing how things pan out.  The bendy decloak of “Echo” is rather fun, and can cover an enormous amount of table space, while the actual moves “Whisper” can make are fairly shocking too.

Turr Phennir was the first of my ships to go down, somewhat understandably considering the way I flew him.  He got greedy and tried to get stuck in before the Phantoms could support him.  The Phantoms then proceeded to dispose of the Strikers in a fairly workmanlike manner, taking full advantage of Juke on “Whisper” while “Echo” was fairly consistent due to the Perceptive Copilot.  No Conner Nets managed to get dropped due to my focus-firing them off the table.  Both Phantoms proceeded to lose their Stealth Devices along with a single shield, as the Academy Pilot went down.  That left me with two fairly healthy ships, against a full strength Defender.  I was moving first, but, also shooting first.  However, I could still see the many ways this could go wrong.

As we entered the end game, with time running down, I decided that I needed to try and bracket Rexlar as quickly as possible, otherwise I was going to lose my ships.  Finally, we ended up with “Whisper” Advacned Sensoring a Focus before a K-Turn, “Echo” getting a decent line into where Rexlar was at the time, in preparation for following next turn…  Rexlar revealed his dial into a 1 hard right, right into the firing arc of “Whisper” and a Range 2 of “Echo” and I couldn’t be happier.  “Whisper” did what “Whisper” does, and made use of Agent Kallus, while losing a single shield in return, and “Echo” makes the kill shot, securing the game in a rather surprising way for the pair of us.

I managed to secure all three challenges during that game, Spending 3 Charges, 2 Stealth Devices and a Lone Wolf, Destroy a Ship, that was the first Planetary Sentinal, and Play a game with a Threat Level of at least 5, as our Threat Levels were 8, that was covered.  So, 3 Large, metal Charge tokens as well as the trio of Quick Build cards featuring Iden Versio, a Skull Squadron Pilot, and Thane Kyrell.

Once the game was over, I was feeling the effects of the day as well as the mounting tension of the endgame from my match, and elected to sit a game out with a view to recovering some strength to play a final game.  However, it turned out that things weren’t going to go the way I needed them to, and had to leave early.

So, while disappointing in that I couldn’t continue the evening, this was the first event I managed to open with a win, and the game was full of emotion where I thought I had made a mistake, which would see me go down hard, to managing to recover well enough to correct quickly.

Phil was a great opponent, and I’d be more than happy to play him any time we chance to meet across the table.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of a Quick Build game, I highly recommend you do so, you can get some unexpected effects in your games, while using upgrades you may not usually consider.

In-depth Look Modified TIE/ln Fighter

The Modified TIE/ln Fighter, or, Mining Guild TIE is a new addition to the ranks of the Scum and Villainy.  At 24 points and with a Modification upgrade slot, the Mining Guild Sentry offers a great swarm option for the Scum and Villainy.  A great aspect of the Modified TIE/ln Fighter is the Notched Stabilisers ship ability, allowing you to ignore asteroids while moving.  A note of caution though, your opponents will attempt to outfox you by bringing debris clouds.

With the Focus, Evade, and Barrel Roll actions, there isn’t much difference between this and the basic TIE/ln fighter found in the Galactic Empire.

Despite thinking about swarming up, I’ve used a pair of Modified TIE/ln Fighters alongside Han Solo in Lando’s Millennium Falcon, and Outer Rim Pioneer, and 4-LOM to make best use of the obstacle field.  Even parking on top of asteroids will no longer be an issue while in Range 0-1 of the Pioneer.

The Mining Guild Surveyor clocks in at only 25 points for access to the Talent slot, and an extra point of Initiative.  This is another version that would swarm up well, especially packing Trick Shot.

With 6 Mining Guild Surveyors and an Outer Rim Pioneer, all armed with Trick Shot, carrying Tobias Beckett for last minute obstacle changes, seems like it will give a decent account of itself.

Overseer Yushyn is the same points and Initiative as a Mining Guild Surveyor, but without access to the Talent slot.  However, being able to swap a Weapons Disabled token for a Stress token is rather large for ships that utilise the Reload action, being able to reload and then fire is rather useful.  Sure, you become stressed, but, many ships will be able to cope with that easily enough.

An interesting use for Overseer Yushyn could utilise pilots like Emon Azzameen and a pair of Crymorah Goons.  Multiple uses for their devices or ordinance for even more shenanigans, you can always swap out one of the Goons for Boba Crew on Emon and add in an Outer Rim Pinoeer.

Captain Seevor is fairly great if you can keep him out of the Bullseye arc of an enemy ship.  Being able to Jam a ship to rob it of its green token or Lock while it’s attacking you is fairly strong.  At 28 points, it’s not going to limit you too much on what else you spend your points on.

Adding Predator to Captain Seevor while providing more tempting targets can give you the edge, while Ketsu Onyo can pull ships into the position you want them in while dealing damage, and IG-88A makes for a great alternate target too.

Ahhav has been the butt of many jokes since reveal, but has a rather strong ability.  Under the right circumstances, Ahhav can put out 5 attack dice, and doesn’t require the opponent to have any particular tokens.  Being more effective than ships on a Medium or Large base give Ahhav a distinct advantage while there are other, more tempting targets available.

Adding Ahhav with Trick Shot to a list containing an Outer Rim Pioneer, Unkar Plutt and Bossk gives your opponent three different ships to target, allowing you to set up your ideal engagement.  The Hound’s Tooth is set up to be difficult to kill, while Unkar Plutt is there to pull the larger ships into position for Ahhav to get that ideal shot.

Foreman Proach has an interesting ability whereby he gains a Disarm token at the start of his engagement, and assigns a Tractor token to a ship at Range 1-2 in his Bullseye arc.  This can be great for denying an enemy a shot at him by pulling them onto an Asteroid, or even pushing them out of arc completely.

I do feel I might have made a mistake with building a list for Foreman Proach, thinking that Overseer Yushyn can change that Disarm to a Stress and still allow Proach to fire.  I’m not sure whether the Replacement Effects rule would trigger here.  That being said, there are more than enough Tractor tokens being thrown about by the list to give even Large based ships pause for thought.

So, there’s a look at the Modified TIE/ln Fighter used by the Mining Guild.  Rather an interesting ship, with a change to the dial over the TIE/ln FIghter, not quite as fast, and a bit more difficult to shed stress, but, able to ignore Asteroids while moving.  All in all, not a terrible ship at all, and adds a decent swarm option to the Scum and Villainy faction.

Got some other ideas on how to utilise this ship on the table?  Leave a comment and share your ideas.

Tacticia – To Swarm Or Not To Swarm – Part 3 Scum and Villainy

When it comes to swarming up, the Scum and Villainy have a fair few options themselves, usually from the larger organisations and cartels that aid in making up their faction.

Just like the Rebel Alliance, the Scum and Villainy have access to the humble Z-95-AF4 Headhunter

The Scum and Villainy can produce a swarm of 8 Binayre Pirates who, while being Initiative 1, can still produce a huge amount of fire power.  Many people discount the 2 attack dice at Range 2-3 that can be thrown, but, when you are rolling often, you are playing the odds that they will begin to run out of modifications and tricks to counter the sheer weight of fire they are suffering.  On the occasional roll, a 2 dice defense will usually do ok.  But, the more rolls you are forced to make, the harder it feels like you are going to actually evade anything.

You can drop 1 Z-95-AF4 Headhunter and upgrade the other 7 to Black Sun Soldiers with Crack Shot to intimidate your opponent even more.

The Cartel Spacer equipped with a Tractor Beam can make things incredibly difficult for even the nimblest ship.

The M3-A Interceptor gives you up to 6 ships while using the Cartel Spacer where the only variable is on how you want to arm them.  By going with Cannon upgrades, you are reducing your reliance on Target Locks (even though you should probably have one anyway), in order to get your attacks off.  The mixture demonstrated in the link enables your Ion Cannons to potentially begin firing at a target that has its agility reduced by a Tractor Beam.

The Jakku Gunrunner, in such numbers is extremely intimidating.

This brings us around to one of the cheapest ships you can field multiples of, with a fun ship ability, the Quadrijet Transfer Spacetug, or, Quadjumper.  Putting 7 Quadjumpers on the table is certainly goign to be an experience.  2 should be able to pull, push, or roll even a large-base ship into a difficult position, and, if you dare, even push them off the board, by leaving them with no other manoeuvre option, trusting your numbers to allow it to happen.  While they only have 2 offensive dice as standard, sheer weight of fire should prove out in the long term, even against Aces, as you have the opportunity to place them into difficult positions and potentially denying a shot.

I’m sure there are creative people out there who are rather interested in what else they could put together in a swarm for the Scum and Villainy faction.  Perhaps 5 BTL-A4 Y-Wings with turrets?  Whatever you manage to fly in a swarm situation, please, leave a comment and get involved.

In-depth Look M3-A Interceptor

The, current, final ship for the Scum and Villainy faction, the M3-A Interceptor. At 29 points for an Initiative 1 Cartel Spacer with Focus, Evade, Lock, and Barrel Roll on the action bar and a single upgrade slot that allows you to equip a modification, it may not seem like you are getting a lot for the points. However, the M3-A Interceptor does allow you to choose to equip either a Cannon, Torpedo, or Missile upgrade, via the Weapon Hardpoint ship ability.

It’s worth noting that the Cannon slot has lost some of its potency now, due to granting a bonus for Range 3 for the defender, while balancing with a bonus for being at Range 1. The Missiles pretty much speak for themselves, while the Torpedoes are in a nice place, with a decent trade-off between points cost and usability.

While it may seem like a massive investment, running 5 Cartel Spacers with Munitions Failsafe and Proton Torpedoes will certainly give an opponent a moments pause when deciding how you approach you. Come in too slowly, and risk taking 5 torpedo shots, or come in fast, take the Locks, and possibly face being fired at with no return shot, as they turn hard behind the enemy ships.

Sunny Bounder is the first of the named pilots for the M3-A Interceptor, with a pilot ability that, once you are finished rolling your dice, or rerolling them during attack or defense, if you have matching results, you may add a further result that matches the rolled ones. Now, it’s worth noting here that you can execute this ability during any attack, regardless of weapon, at during defense, not either/or. For this, he costs 2 extra points over a Cartel Spacer.

Due to the somewhat fragile nature of the M3-A Interceptor, as a ship, I figured Sunny Bounder could do with some higher priority targets, while assisting them by blocking enemy ships, causing bumps, and taking opportunistic shots as often as possible. Both IG-88 Droids in their Aggressor Assault Fighters should fulfil that category, while also toting Tractor Beams, to reduce the agility of a ship, if they miss their primary targets, to soften a ship up for Sunny to finish off.

Inaldra allows you to suffer a standard Hit damage to reroll any number of dice when attacking or defending. This makes it slightly easier to attempt to push damage through on an opponent, or dodge much more incoming damage, but, at the cost of a quarter of your standard health. Double edged sword, especially against high dice attacks, where you could assist in your own destruction, but, if it helps you take an enemy ship out, regardless of the cost, it could be worth it.

Flying Inaldra alongside Torani Kulda and Ketsu Onyo gives you 2 ships with decent damage output to assist with possible pushing damage though in final rounds. The benefit of both the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft and Kimogila is that they can both take a beating, while still dish the hurt out, allowing the M3-A Interceptor to duck in at opportune moments.

The Tansarii Point Veteran is the first M3-A Interceptor pilot that can access the Talent upgrade slot, and is 4 points more expensive than the Cartel Spacer, with 2 extra Initiative points.

Running 5 Tansarii Point Veterans with Predator and Homing Missiles gives you a flexible squadron that can either deal consistent damage at medium to long range, or your opponent can gamble on avoiding all hits. Up close, you switch to Primary weapons, gives you rerolls you may otherwise not have, or wish to save for after a Kiogoran Turn ready to unleash a missile volley. You could substitute Predator with Fearless for enhanced offensive results and lower your Initiative bid.

Quinn Jast has a great pilot ability, for such a small, fragile ship. If you plan correctly, at the start of an engagement phase, you can reload either a Missile, Torpedo, or even your Talent, at the cost of a disarm token. Nice, and a pretty good trade off for when you are disengaging and preparing to come about to rejoin the fight. Distract the enemy well enough, and a pair of upgrades can be reloaded as you return to the fight.

In order to get the best out of Quinn Jast, I feel that Crack Shot and Advanced Proton Torpedoes are going to be almost a staple, with both being able to be reloaded, without costing an action, you should be hitting fairly hard whenever involved in an engagement. Providing backup are a pair of Cartel Marauders with Fearless, Proton Torpedoes, and R5 Astromechs, and an Outer Rim Pioneer with Trick Shot and a Tactical Officer, to provide an action boost to an ally.

Laetin A’shera allows you to gain an evade token after defending or attacking, as long as the attack missed. Now, the wording here is important, as this is after every defense or attack, because you are just being assigned a token, not performing the action.

Having Laetin A’shera leading a swarm of ships toting Juke and a Stealth Device should allow for more reliable survival, while working towards gaining those Evade tokens, allowing Laetin to trigger Juke. With Quinn Jast along to provide a hard-hitting attack option, 3 Cartel Spacers with Homing Missiles to either block higher Initiative pilots, or lay out firepower if they are ignored. An Autopilot Drone rounds out the list and provides area denial or assists in pushing damage through early on.

Genesis Red lets you remove all your Focus and Evade Tokens and steal the same number from a ship that you have acquired a lock on. This would then boost your capabilities while, at the same time, reducing the effectiveness of your target. Now, it appears you need a lot of Co-Ordinating to get this off effectively, and might not be completely worth the effort, but, it can make things interesting to try.

Update – I’m wrong on the token-stealing here, it’s just copying the tokens a defender has, at the cost of the tokens you had built up. therefore, if the defender only has focus tokens, that’s what you copy.

Working towards getting Genesis Red‘s ability off as completely as possible, you’ll find an Outer Rim Pioneer with a Tactical Officer and Trick Shot, Sabine Wren in Shadow Caster with Squad Leader and Tactical Officer, and a Black Sun Assassin with Trick Shot working together to draw an opponent in to range for a Cluster Missile shot from Genesis Red. With Sabine able to potentially tractor wounded ships around too, it should certainly be interesting to attempt.

Serissu allows friendly ships at range 0-1 to reroll a defensive dice. Simple, basic, and effectively gives every ship in range the Elusive Talent, even when they may not be able to take a talent.

Having Serissu at the center of a swarm gives it the survivability boost it needs to last long enough to bring weapons to bear. Hiding an Ion Missile amongst the Cartel Spacers gives you an option to control where a target ends up when it presents itself.

While it’s not the most survivable of frames, the M3-A Interceptor does have some pilots with interesting abilities that can be used to either assist allies or deny an opponent a boost. While not the most manoeuvrable of the Scum and Villainy ships, it’s possibly one of the most versatile. If more Cannon upgrades appear with later releases, it might be worth looking again at some of the options available.

Got some interesting lists that feature M3-A Builds, please, leave a comment and share your ideas.

In-depth Look Z-95 AF-4 Headhunter Scum Edition

The Binayre Pirate clocks in at 24 points sporting Initiative 1, Focus, Lock, and a red Barrel Roll for the action bar, straight 2s for the stats, and Missile, Illicit, and Modification for the upgrade bar.  I’ve slotted these particular ships in a few lists as filler or for cheap blockers and all round general annoyances.

A lot can be said for swarm flying, and, a squadron of Binayre Pirates are sure going to give a headache or two.  One bonus for the Pirates over, for example, TIE/ln Fighters is that they have an extra point of health and aren’t quite as vulnerable to Proton Bombs due to their shields.  A general observation when swarm flying would be to break down the block into two units of 4 ships, partially to make them easier to manoeuvre on the board, and partially to account for Aces getting in the midst of one block.

The Black Sun Soldier raises the stakes with an Initiative bump up to 3 and access to the Talent upgrade slot, all for the low price of 3 extra points.  These can fulfil many roles in a squad, from filling a gap while maintaining an Initiative advantage versus a swarm list, to pushing final damage through on a wounded ship.  So very versatile, and very deadly when used in the right way.

Building a squadron consisting on 2 Black Sun Soldiers with Crack Shot and Deadman’s Switch, 2 Black Sun Enforcers, all led by a Black Sun Ace with Crack Shot and Cluster Missiles gives you a fairly thematic list, with some decent manoeuvrability, some great output of fire, and a decent amount of defensive capability too.  After a couple of trials in FlyCasual, this list seems to handle even higher Initiative pilots fairly well, as long as you can stay out of their arc.  Difficult, but, not impossible.

Kaa’to Leeachos has a great pilot ability to give itself a boost when it comes to offense or defense, by taking a Focus or Evade token from an allied ship at the start of the engagement phase for itself at Range 0-2.  This could be from a ship with multiple tokens, or, a ship that is behind, acting as a battery before engaging itself.

Putting Kaa’to Leeachos in a squad with Palob Godalhi seems like a perfect match, as Palob can pinch an Evade Token before Kaa’to then pulls it over, or, Kaa’tos pulls over a spare Focus Token from Palob’s Perceptive Copilot.  With 2 Fearless Hired Guns, armed with Proton Torpedoes and Ion Cannon Turrets can cover plenty of space around them.

N’Dru Suhlak allows you to roll an extra die when you perform a Primary Weapon attack when there are no friendly ships at Range 0-2.  N’Dru looks like a great ‘bait’ ship, for when you want to pull ships away from the rest of your squadron, as there is a bonus involved for flying solo.

With N’Dru’s ability, it seems like the perfect Talent would be Lone Wolf, with a healthy dose of Contraband Cybernetics for that crunch moment where you may be stressed, and need that Kiogran Turn and Lock.  On the other side of the board, you could then have Boba and a Cartel Executioner doing what they do best and wreaking havoc if the bait is taken, or as a magnet which allows N’Dru to start the work.

The Nashtah Pup is the escape craft for the Hound’s Tooth YV-666 Light Freighter.  It can only deploy via Emergency Deployment and uses the pilot abilities and Initiative of the pilot that used Hound’s Tooth.  Now, it’s currently a little unclear whether the Critical Damage from Emergency Deployment is taken on a shield or straight to the hull.  At 6 points, it’s perfectly suited to having in most squads that run Hounds Tooth as it gives you an extra opportunity to continue using that pilot.

I included Nashtah Pup here because it is a Z-95-AF4 Headhunter, even if you can’t take it on its own.

Well, there’s the Scum and Villainy with their representation of the Z-95-AF4 Headhunter, and some ideas on how to use it.  As with many others, finding a use for the current modifications available, alongside the limited number of Illicit upgrades, there is sometimes a feeling of not quite getting the full use out of this ship, despite some of the benefits it can bring.

Fun fact:  If you are flying the Hound’s Tooth YV-666 Light Freighter, you can actually dock any of these Z-95-AF-4 Headhunters, for some real fun shenanigans.  Maybe I’ll take a closer look at that over the weekend.  Thanks to Marty in the X-Wing Ready Room for the reminder!

How do you field yours?  What combinations do you feel have a decent usage?  Please, leave a comment, and share your ideas.

In-depth Look Quadrijet Transfer Spacetug

The Quadrijet Transfer Spacetug, or Quadjumper, weighs in at 28 points for an Initiative 1 Jakku Gunrunner with Focus, Red Evade, and Barrel Roll on the Action Bar, and Tech, Crew, Device, Illicit, and Modification upgrade slots.  The Quadjumper has the Spacetug Tractor Array ship ability which uses an action to assign either 1 Tractor Token to a ship at Range 1 in your Forward Firing Arc, or, 2 Tractor Tokens at Range 1 in your Bullseye Arc.

Being able to field 7 Jakku Gunrunners has been often talked about, and I have seen people saying it was a fun experience, pushing and pulling ships around regardless of their size, or, used solo to assist higher Initiative allies by assigning Tractor Tokens and reducing agility.  The example list shows how 6 with Proton Bombs can be interesting to fly, and still pack a punch.  Don’t expect too much out of them if facing high Initiative pilots, but, get them in the right place, and they will play havoc with formation flying.

Unkar Plutt makes a great blocker against higher Initiative pilots.  For him, it’s more a bonus as to whether he pulls off his Spacetug Tractor Array action as he loves to be bumping things for other pilots to target.  The more ships he’s bumping, then better as every ship ar Range 0, including Plutt himself, gains a Tractor Token.  Sure, it lowers his agility, but, it also rolls him out of the bump so he can fire and, if he’s bumping small based ships, can get them into the right position too.

When you add Ketsu Onyo to Unkar Plutt, you are telling an opponent that one of their ships isn’t going to be losing its Tractor Token(s) that round.  Sabine and a Perceptive Copilot in the Shadow Caster ups the ante on assigning Tractor Tokens, while at the same time boosting her survivability if she keeps attackers in her mobile firing arc.  Dalan Oberos round out this squadron with Proton Torpedoes against ships who have had their agility severely hampered.

Sarco Plank allows you to use the speed of your last manoeuvre as your agility.  Nice and simple.  Generally, though, only one you’ll want to use when you have performed a speed 3 manoeuvre.

While thinking about Serco Plank, I did look at experimenting with him carrying both Boba Fett and a Seismic Charge, just for the giggles of slapping an opponent who went for it in the planning phase, right in the face with an obstacle being destroyed.  However, in the end, I went with a naked Serco Plank and IG-88C and D in the IG-2000 with Fearless and Advanced Sensors.  The idea there being to play a game of “Get Over Here” with Plank pulling ships into range of the IGs while zipping off as fast as he can when he needs to disengage, which boosts his defenses.

Constable Zuvio is the only Quadjumper pilot with access to the Talent slot and has the Highest Initiative of 4.  A nice and simple pilot ability, when dropping a Device, you may launch it 1 Forward, rather than actually drop it behind you.

By using Constable Zuvio and Captain Nym, you can safely equip Cad Bane on the Quadjumper for a pre-activation boost, without setting off the Proximity Mine, while still leaving the opportunity for it to trigger once an enemy flies over it.  Nym with Fearless, Proton Bombs, Siesmic Charges, Havoc, Trajectory Simulator, and an R2 Astromech give you a decent amount of board control and some added survivability, while Torani Kulda flanks the opposition and comes in to use Outmanoeuvre with either his torpedoes or Primary Weapons, the R5 Astromech is there is give some added survivability.

While the Quadrijet Tranfer Spacetug has access to the Tech slot for upgrades, we currently don’t have any available.  However, depending on points cost, Primed Thrusters looks like it might partner well with this ship, as you can reverse, then barrel roll to either hide behind an obstacle, or attempt to dodge an arc.  Certainly an area to watch out for.  Some Tech upgrades will be available with the Wave 2 release either at the end of November or during December.

Got some other fun lists you think people should try out, no matter how outrageous they sound?  Leave a comment and share your wisdom or humour!

In-depth Look Fang Fighter

The Fang Fighter, formerly the Protectorate Starfighter, rocks in at a steep 44 points for an Initiative 1 Zealous Recruit with Focus, Lock, Barrel Roll > Focus, and Boost > Focus on the Action bar and just a solitary Torpedo upgrade.  However, the Fang Fighter has a ship ability which, in my opinion, is the reason for the inflated cost.  Concordia Faceoff allows you to change any defensive die result to an evade if you are in your opponent’s Forward Firing arc at Range 1.  Not to be confused with the Turret Arc facing forward.  With no shields, the Fang Fighter is very vulnerable to devices like Proximity Mines and Proton Bombs that deal automatic damage, with the prospect of further damage as well.

By equipping 4 Zealous Recruits with Ion Torpedoes, you can stand a better chance of lining up shots for the next round by controlling where an opponent will be, even if they are higher Initiative.  If you want to avoid tempting Trajectory Simulator bomb launches, perhaps flying in formations of 2 to give you a decent start off will come in useful.  Bracket higher Initiative pilots on one side while hitting them from behind with a Torpedo volley, then allowing a wingman to fire Primary weapons to push some damage through.  It’s possibly not exactly cost effective, but, controlling an Ace is both extremely satisfying for an Initiative 1 pilot, but also incredibly frustrating.  If facing medium or large based ships, perhaps Ionising for teh next round with both ships in a wing will be the better call.

The Skull Squadron Pilot jacks up the cost of the Fang Fighter by 6 points to an even 50, for access to the Talent upgrade and a significant rise in Initiative from 1 to 4.  This makes the Skull Squadron Pilot a decent dogfighter against pilots of equal or lesser Initative and a threat to pilots of higher Initiative with Concordia Faceoff.  The largest threats being weapons that don’t use a standard Forward Arc such as turrets or Bullseye Arc weapons.

With a pair of Skull Squadron Pilots backed up by Drea Renthal either attacking a prime target or flanking to prepare for an engagement while N’Dru Suhlak works to draw enemy ships into position for the rest of the squadron to strike.  N’dru won’t suffer for flying solo though, as, getting in close an unloading weapons with the bonus die will be a great help.

Joy Rekkoff, at 52 points, gains the ability to spend a charge from a Torpedo upgrade to deny an opponent a defensive die.  Almost a built-in Outmanoeuvre, that works wherever Rekkoff is positioned, and could be the difference between a successful attack and a failed attack.

Flying Joy Rekkoff and 2 Skull Squadron Pilots alongside an Autopilot Drone is a glass-hammer style list, but, flown with thought and daring, it has the potential to perform extremely well.  The Autopilot Drone either acts as a Co-Ordinate point early on to get abilities off, or as area denial to force ships to engage on your terms.

Kad solus has a great ability for when he is up close to an opponent, taking 2 Focus Tokens after fully executing a red manoeuvre is a massive boost for the Fang Fighter.  That means dice mods for defense and, if there are any left, offense too.  Ideally, you should be in position to not take any fire, however, that’s not always possible.  Those Tallon Rolls and that Kiogoran Turn really give a beneit outside of their positioning options.

Running Kad Solus alongside Ketsu Onyo and Unkar Plutt gives you a list that allows for some level of controlling where an enemy will end up with Tractor Tokens being assigned under their respective circumstances while giving you the ability to joust with a Bomb on the return for rengagement.  With L3-37 on the Shadowcaster, you gain a huge amount of manoeuverability once you force an opponent to reroll an attack, while the Shadowcaster itself is assigning Tractor Tokens to opponents to either push them out of their firing opportunity, or wekening their defences for the others to capitalise on.

Old Teroch is another Fang Fighter pilot who loves jousting to remove benefits from the opposition.  Doesn’t matter what type of green tokens a ship has at the start of the Engagement Phase, if Old Teroch is in their Forward Firing Arc, they lose all those green tokens.  This helps against Reinforce, Focus, Evade, and Calculate.

Old Teroch with Fearless seems to be a must, as with most of the Fang Fighter pilots, therefore, fielding 3 with a Fearless Black Sun Soldier gives you a pretty hard-hitting squadron, and the Homing Missiles give you 2 opportunities to do at least a single point of damage, or more if your opponent wants to gamble.  Now, low agility ships will probably take the single damage each time, as they generally have high health, while the higher agility ships may usually opt to take the risk.  Which ever way it happens, there is an opportunity to concentrate fire so a target is usually shieldless by the time the missiles fire.

Fenn Rau, in teh Fang Fighter is the final pilot, and, I’m pretty sure, the last of the Initiative 6 pilots available, currently, for the Scum and Villainy.  Rau’s ability to roll an extra die at Range 1 for both attack and defense is huge as he is usually a rather large target, being Initiative 6.  Harder to hit up close, and hitting harder as well is a decent combination.

While considering the best uses for Fenn Rau I thought a single large hit would work in his favour with a volley of Advanced Proton Torpedoes giving you a 6 attack dice roll when fired.  If you’ve managed to pull it off correctly, you’ll have a fully modified shot with both Lock and Focus Tokens and turning a repeated blank to a hit with Fearless, while, thanks to Old Teroch, the target ship won’t have any tokens to assist in defense.  If Rau doesn’t finish a target off, Teroch or Solus should be able to.

The Fang Fighter is incredibly dangerous to an opponent, and, as the majority of expericed players will know this, be subjected to an insane amount of targeting.  This can be a massive bonus to you, despite its high cost.  If an enemy is constantly targeting a Fang Fighter, they aren’t shooting at the rest of your list, which may find it more difficult to evade fire.  The flip side is, if they focus on the rest of your list, you can really punsih them hard with pilot abilities coming into play.  It’s a glass cannon with a bite, that’s for sure.

Got some other useful advice or a list full of shenanigans?  Please, leave a comment and share your ideas.