4-LOM and Palob; a combination I’ve been playing almost exclusively (UKTC practice aside) since the release of 2.0. However, after watching multiple streams at the weekend, one thing has become abundantly apparent – the cat is out of the bag. I must have watched three or four different channels over the course of 48 hours, and in every single one, this pairing cropped up at least once, if not more.

So why are these two suddenly all the rage? These were not ships that were at all popular in the previous version of the game. Well for a start, they both have incredibly good abilities. Palob’s was always good even in 1.0, he was just a little limited by the ship he was on. Now the Hawk has received a significant buff he’s an absolute terror. The Moldy Crow title in particular is incredible – his ability may now be arc-locked but with the title adding a primary arc in addition (and a 3-dice attack from it at that) it is very easy for Palob to skirt the edges of an engagement and cover all possibilities. Case in point: I played several games last night, both of which were against lists that had multiple ships with Juke in them. In those two games, my opponents got to trigger Juke once. In total. What’s great is when you steal their evade token and then use it to dodge their attack, very much like rubbing salt in the wound. You can also build Palob to be quite tanky, with cards such as L3-37 and Debris Gambit being popular. A lot of people will stop taking green tokens around Palob and lock you instead. L3 counters that by forcing a re-roll if your opponent rolls hot on their initial roll, and seeing as their dice have now been re-rolled, they now can’t spend their lock either. Sure, it’s only a once-per game ability. But in a crucial turn it can have a massive influence, particularly if you have the offender in your primary arc for the return shot. And if your targets have no tokens, you will usually push more damage through onto them. Win-win.

4-LOM is a massive pain to deal with. Again he’s received a buff from 1.0, keeping his stress-passing ability and gaining an additional one. Complete a red move, get a calculate. It’s basically like having the old Outlaw Tech built into the ship, just with a slightly worse focus token. Combined with Advanced Sensors, you’re effectively getting two actions every time you perform a red move, which is usually bumped up to a third with the addition of 0-0-0. This is surely a card that will see a points increase in January, because a cost of 3 is ridiculously low for what it does. The addition of the medium base is also a boon for the ship. It now increases the footprint for 4-LOM’s stress passing and 0-0-0’s coverage, as well as making it an effective blocker. If you can block a ship whilst performing a red move you’re all set. Pass the stress to the enemy ship at the end of the round, opening your dial back up (often for a k-turn), whilst simultaneously narrowing your opponent’s options.

And that is the key here. This pairing are all about board control. They create a massive area of denial that is incredibly dangerous to enter, particularly with ships that rely on their tokens. Force users have it slightly easier as those can’t be stolen or denied by stress, so there is some relief there. But other ships, once inside that bubble, will struggle to get out again once all the abilities start triggering.

The only issue I have with this pairing is who to fly with them. Fortunately, they are cheap enough that you have plenty of options so you can take almost anyone that takes your fancy. Currently, I’m flying them like this:

4-LOM – Advanced Sensors, 0-0-0, Elusive, Mist Hunter. 65 points.

Palob – Debris Gambit, L3-37, Moldy Crow. 56 points.

That’s 121 points in total, leaving you 79 to play with. Fenn Rau, Guri, Han Solo, Captain Nym, these are all viable options in that spot. Or you could sprinkle a few generics in there, maybe some Quadjumpers (another ship seemingly undercosted at a mere 28 points. Bargain.). You could probably do a lean Boba Fett too if you stripped a few points here and there. You have a solid foundation in these two, and then you can just season to taste as per personal preference.

I’ve tried several different partners with them, and my own favourite so far is Guri. She seems to suit my style of play more than the others. I tried Fenn – but he’s very high risk/high reward and I found myself too scared to engage with him a lot of the time. Han was decent, though a little unreliable in terms of damage output. But again, this is just my tendencies influencing choice. Feel free to experiment for yourself. That’s the great thing about Second Edition; there doesn’t seem to be a ‘right’ answer, at least not yet. Go out there, have fun with your favourites. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Happy hunting!