X-Wing: “Follower Build-a-List” #4 Battle Report

HOW IT WORKS

Every week, we ask our social media followers to suggest one ship each until a squad is built.  Then, I fly whatever you guys came up with and report back on how it performed.  This creates an interactive component with our social media followers (you control the content!) and also hopefully makes me a better player by learning to improvise with what I’ve been given.

The Facebook post goes up every Tuesday, the video breakdown goes up on or about Wednesday, and the blog post goes up over the weekend just in time to start the process all over again.

Make sure you are following our Facebook so you can get in on the fun!

THE LIST

For the second week in a row, we are getting Scummy!  The 100 point list is as follows:

Keith Holt returned for his third week in a row with this 51 point YV-666 build:

• “Bossk” – 35
• Veteran Instincts – 1
• K4 Security Droid – 3
• Homing Missles – 5
• Guidance Chips – 0
• Cad Bane – 2
• Cluster Mines – 4
• 4-LOM – 2

Remember to buckle up when Bossk is driving the Party Bus.

Next, the Champ, Mike Warren, provided us with a 35 point G-1A Starfighter:

• “Zuckuss” – 28
• Veteran Instincts – 1
• “Mist Hunter” – 0
• Tractor Beam – 1
• Dengar – 3
• Glitterstim – 2

Finally, newcomer Andrew Schlueter made the most of the remaining 14 points with a Z-95 Headhunter:

• Binayre Pirate – 12
• Feedback Array – 2

 

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths:

• Two ships with 9PS, so we can choose which activates first.  This should reduce bumping and lets Zuckuss shoot first with the Tractor Beam to reduce a target’s agility before Bossk lands a handful of hits.
• Bossk alone has 12hp, bringing the total list to 24hp.
• The YV-666 looks hilarious and doesn’t see a lot of play so it’s fun to see it on the table.

Weaknesses:

• This is a jousting list.  We don’t really have an arc dodger.  We don’t have any turrets and our widest arc is Bossk’s 180*.
• No “bid.”  The squad total is exactly 100 points so if we are met with similar pilot skills then there is a good chance that we may not get to shoot first.  9PS is a very popular pilot skill right now, most notably Dengar and Poe.
• More than half of our points are in one ship.  If Bossk goes down, we are looking at an almost certain loss or a win with a very small MOV.
• A lot of points invested into munitions.
• Bossk’s inability to turn around.

 

RESULTS

This week’s list got matched up against Palp Aces!  Since the Emporer’s nerf, Palp Aces have fallen in popularity.  However, the list is still dangerous.  The Imps took initiative.

The Z-95 set up on a map corner to see where the shuttle would set up.  Once the shuttle and Countess Ryad were placed, Bossk picked a board edge that he liked and Zuckuss took the lane in the asteroid field.  Finally, Soontir Fel also chose to take a jaunt through the asteroids.

After the initial movements, Ryad was caught off-guard by the YV-666’s speed and was just barely in range 3 of Bossk.  She took a missle to the face, her tokens were negated by the Homing Missles and 4-LOM, and sustained four total damage (three shields and a hull) bringing her down to just 2 hull remaining on the second turn of the game.  Thankfully, she was just out of range of the other Scum ships.  Ryad was only able to strip a mere two shields off of Bossk in retaliation.  Soontir, the shuttle, Zuckuss, and the Z-95 were all out of range of any opposing ships.

The shuttle turned in to lend some firing support while Ryad moved 5 straight to try to block Bossk’s movement and prevent him from taking another shot on her. Unfortunately for Ryad, Bossk anticipated her charge, reversed his thrusters, and came to a hard-stop. Bossk was looking at a possible range one shot “PS kill” (killing a ship before it gets a chance to fire that turn) on Ryad.  Soontir, presumably by accident, did Ryad a solid and actually presented himself as an even juicier target.  Zuckuss stripped the shield off of Soontir and Bossk was able to push through a Direct Hit for the kill.

However, Bossk had lost a few more shields from Soontir and Ryad was able to push through a ciritical hit of her own, Stunned Pilot, on Bossk. Bossk would need to be careful not to overlap another ship on the next turn.

The next turn, Ryad was able to 5K behind Bossk.  Between Ryad and the shuttle, they were able to kill Bossk, but not before he dealt a whopping 4 shields of damage to the shuttle.

Things were starting to look up for the imperials, but they were already down one ship and the other two were on their way out.

Zuckuss, perhaps overly eager to avenge his buddy and end the Countess’s reign, met the same fate: the 5K into range one.

The unlikely hero of this tragedy was the lone Z-95 pilot who managed to earn half-points on the shuttle and, over the course of several turns and maneuvers through the asteroid field, almost nearly killed Ryad a handful of times before he was vaporized. Unfortunately, the Emporer’s favor and the TIE/x7 title was too strong of an obstacle to overcome for the Z-95’s mere two red dice.

L 50-100

The full album of photos can be found here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYl_Ek-Hu9i/?taken-by=readytorole

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYl_HPuHPHJ/?taken-by=readytorole

 

TAKEAWAY

Bossk is a great ship on the initial joust, but once he gets flanked he’s pretty much dead meat.  At 51 points, Bossk’s death was a tough pill to swallow that early in the game.

Zuckuss tried his best to clean up, but he himself is an overpriced ship and, unlike TIE/D Defenders, cannot make use of his Tractor Beam and make a primary weapon attack at the same time. These points would have been better spent on a more mobile and potent mid-range ship like Fenn Rau or a better support ship like Serissu or Manaroo.

Surprisingly, the Z-95 was efficient.  This list could also see improvement by dropping the excessive munitions on Bossk and upgrading the Binayre Pirate to N’dru Suhlak or a Syndicate Thug equipped with Twin Laser Turret.

If I were going to fly a list like this again, I think I would try some combination of Fenn Rau, N’dru Suhlak, Manaroo, Old Teroch, or any of the other action-efficient Scum ships that can be equipped with Attanni Mindlink.

All in all, it was a fun and thematic list to fly but I don’t see this one breaking any records.

 

WRAP UP

Thank you to Keith, Mike, and Andrew for the list and, if you were too slow, be sure to shoot first at the Facebook cantina on Tuesday where we start the fun all over again!

Make sure to follow us on all of the different social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, the new Instagram and Patreon, and share this article with friends who you think might also enjoy the game.

 

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