Star Wars Monday: X-Wing ep. 4

Welcome to another Star Wars WednesMonday Article!  My apologies for the tardiness. This week in X-Wing news, we’ll be briefly talking about the Debut of the C-ROC Expansion, Full Spoiler of the TIE Aggressor, Partial Spoiler of the Guns for Hire, my own personal recent Acquisitions, a Tournament Report, and top it off with some news that a Tournament Banned the Jumpmaster 5000.

Also, as a tip to reading my or other’s articles, don’t forget to install the X-Wing Companion Card Viewer.  Also, check out SirWilli’s Workship, which looks like a great way to safely store your X-Wing minis.  We have no affiliation with either service but we found them incredibly useful and deserving of a shout-out.

 

Debut of the C-ROC Expansion

Credit: /u/Moniker

Apparently some C-ROC expansions shipped out early if you ordered on Amazon.  Among the epic play-only upgrades (which do not concern us) are some crew members that can only be found in this expansion:

Jabba

As discussed in our second X-Wing article, the only ship that is currently capable of hauling Jabba’s massive body weight is the Hound’s Tooth.

Vizago

Azmorigan

and a slew of new Scyk pilots, including Genesis Red.

Finally, there are 5 copies of the Pulsed Ray Shield.  This upgrade is unique to the C-ROC as of right now, but will be released in the upcoming “Guns for Hire” expansion pack. Don’t buy the C-ROC just for these because chances are you’ll want the Scum Aces, too.

Credit: I forget so yell at me and I will edit.

 

Full Spoiler of the TIE Aggressor

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Credit: Gold Squadron Podcast

Fantasy Flight’s full spoiler can be found here.  In classic FFG style, the article originally contained an error when it recommended that you equip it with both Juke and Intensity. That is incorrect for two reasons.  First, that would require two elite pilot talent slots. Second, the ship doesn’t have an Evade action on its action bar to utilize Juke anyways! They have since fixed the article.

The expansion includes only 2 unique pilots and neither non-unique can take an elite pilot talent.  Having just started the game and being primarily an Imperial player, I am pumped about the expansion.  However, I’m a little unimpressed.  It seems like we are getting this ship as an apology moreso than something Imperials needed to get a boost in the competitive arena.  As you may know, Imperials have not had a ship with a turret slot until this expansion.  However, is a fragile turreted ship really the answer that Imperials needed?

I will say that it is nice for Lightweight Frame to come in something other than the TIE Striker, though.  Unfortunately, all that remains to be seen is the dial.  The upgrades are great, so the expansion is definitely worth it, but I fear without a knockout dial that the ship won’t see much use.  But then again I’ve been playing for like 3 months so WTF do I know?

 

Partial Spoiler of the Guns for Hire

Fantasy Flight Games also recently announced the Guns for Hire expansion pack.  Most notably, the pack includes two titles which reduce the costs of the underused Starviper and Kihraxz ships.

A lot of the buzz is “Was this really necessary?”  The short answer is: yes.  According to an analysis of Worlds 2017, despite the fact that Scum was over half of the meta, neither ship was seen at the top tables.  However, this short answer leads to a much longer series of questions:  In the wake of two back-to-back World Championships, did Scum need to get any better? Shouldn’t we be prioritizing trying to make the namesake of the game, T-65 X-Wings, more playable?  Where are all of the successful Imperial lists?

Credit: a Ready to Role paintshop.exe original

Acquisitions

Speaking of Scum, my collection continues to grow with the addition of the Jumpmaster 5000 and Protectorate Starfighter.  The Imperial collection was also bolstered by the acquisitions of the Upsilon Shuttle and the faction-defining TIE Interceptor.  I am now able to build a variety of squads using the following squads:

• Classic Red Core Set
• New Blue Core Set
• Imperial Veterans
• TIE/fo
• TIE Advanced
• Lambda Shuttle
• TIE Adv. Prototype
• TIE Defender
• TIE Interceptor
• Upsilon Shuttle
• Starviper
• Hound’s Tooth
• Mist Hunter
• M3-A Scyk Interceptor
• Protectorate Starfighter
• Jumpmaster 5000

 

Tournament Report

Prior to the tournament, I had what I would call a “rough week” at work.  Any other person would call it an absolute calamity.  Itching to just turns some dials and watch some ships explode, I took “Fly Casual” to the extreme.  I wanted to try out my recently acquired Lambda as well as try one last time with a missleboat.  Here is the goof-around list that I came up with:

• Colonel Vessery with Adaptability (Increase), Tractor Beam, and the TIE/D title to drop opposing ship’s agility – 36 points.
• Omnicron Group Pilot with Accuracy Corrector and Darth Vader, commonly referred to as the “Doom Shuttle,” to push damage through – 27 points.
• Redline stacked with an absolute smattering of upgrades: Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missles, Extra Munitions, and Guidance Chips – 37 points.

Total: 100 points exactly

Let’s see how this went…

 

Round One vs. Dengar & Tel Trevura

Fittingly, my first round opponent this week was my last round opponent two weeks ago. My opponent was hot off of a local store championship win while flying Justin Phua’s 2017 Worlds-winning list.

With the advantage of high pilot skill, my opponent was able to kill the Colonel before he could even fire the shot.  Unlike last time, I went for Dengar first.  The Doom Shuttle pushed damage through and Dengar fed it right back.  At one point, Darth Vader pushed a Stunned Pilot crit through onto Dengar.  For those who don’t know, Stunned Pilot causes damage to the ship if it overlaps another ship.  Dengar cleverly S-Looped behind the shuttle only to be HARD STOPPED to death by the Lambda’s AMAZING dial.  BOOM! 58 POINTS.

That left Lambda v. Tel.  Unsurprisingly, the Lambda was outmaneuvered and Tel escaped with one damage too many to earn half-points.

L 58-100

 

Round Two vs. Zuckuss, Kavil, & Fenn Rau

In this round, I was able to kill Zuckuss VERY EARLY.  However, I couldn’t kill anyone else.  Redline took a beating but escaped with one Hull.  Stupidly, I turned him back in and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  My opponent destroyed both the Lambda and Redline as time was called and I lost.

L 36-64

 

Round Three vs. PS10 RAC & Echo w/ Kylo crew

This match was a BLAST.  I had no idea the Decimator was so fast.  As I eagerly sped up to greet the 0-green-dice Decimator with the Doom Shuttle’s automatic 2-hits-and-a-crit I soon realized that RAC was in Range 1 of me.  Again, Vessery fell victim to his own speedy maneuver dial before shooting.  Redline fell shortly after, before even obtaining a target lock for which to use his missles.  That left an escaping RAC with two hull remaining and the Lambda cornered by a bloodthirsty Echo.

L 30-100

Speaking of Kylo crew, here’s a handy chart my meta was passing around:

 

Unsurprisingly, with three losses, I came in third-to-last!  Into the trashcan that list goes but HOLY CRAP was it a TON of fun and just what I needed!

 

Tournament Bans the Jumpmaster 5000

What do you think of this?

 

Takeaways

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