With Wave 8 coming upon us soon (#wave8isalie), I wanted to take a look at one of my favorite upgrades coming out in it. It is the card, Boba Fett, a fan favorite bounty hunter from the films. If you follow the link, it will take you to a news posting on Fantasy Flight Games where Paul Heaver discusses the effects of the card. He should know some of its uses, he designed it.

That in and of itself is one of the coolest things that FFG does in its Organized Play. If you win its World Championship Tournament, you get to design a card. This is the card that Paul designed for his 2014 win, and it is one that I like.

For 1 point in your Squad List you can get rid of any upgrade that your opponent has. Seems overpowered. However I do not think that it is. It is restricted to Scum and Villainy faction ships that can hold a crew. That in and of itself take exclude it from the two most popular and effective Scum lists, BroBots and 4x TLT Y-Wings. Neither of those lists have a crew slot. Since having a crew slot is mandatory, let’s look at what ships would be able to use it.

These are the Firespray, a HWK-290, the YV-666, and the two new Scum ships in Wave 8, the Jumpmaster 5000 and the G1-A starfighter. Out of these, I do not think the Hawk is going to make a good platform for him as you have to do face-up damage to your target, and the most efficient turret (and you better be taking a turret on a Hawk) to use on a Hawk is the TLT which cannot crit. The only way it is able to do a face-up damage card is by using Greedo.

With only the 1 crew slot on a Hawk, this rules out taking both. Usually your Hawk is also a primary target because it is so flimsy as well so you do not want to have Boba on it and die without being able to use it.

You can also use Boba on the Firespray and I do think he will get some play on them. Particularly using Kath Scarlet as the pilot. She has enough health to stick around and be able to use him, and her pilot ability allows her to roll an additional attack die when attacking out of her rear arc. This will give her 5 possible attack dice at range 1 on an initial pass which gives a much better chance of getting a crit through.

This brings us to the YV-666. I do believe this is the ship that will be the best platform for Boba, and will be used much as the Lambda Shuttle is being used as simply a platform to get Emperor Palpatine on the playing board. Almost all of the pilots can be used for the YV as a driver for Boba, but my preferred will be the Trandoshan Slaver, running him as this:

Trandoshan Slaver — YV-666 29 “Mangler” Cannon 4 Boba Fett 1 Bossk 2 Gunner 5 Ship Total: 41

I go back and forth on using the Mangler Cannon or Gunner. If I am short on points, I might cut out the Mangler and keep the Gunner, or keep the Mangler and change Gunner to Greedo. I will need more playtesting on it, but I think my normal one will be without the Mangler and just relying on own natural crits (and possible spending a Target Lock to try and get a crit if need be on something important.

Both the new Wave 8 ships can carry Boba, and they might see some play. Especially if there is a spare point in a list and an open crew slot. However, I do think the best carrier for Boba is going to be the Trandoshan Slaver on a YV-666.

Now that we have discussed how to get Boba onto the playing field, now let’s discuss what you should be using him to get rid of. I believe most people will be using him to get rid of Emperor Palpatine if given the chance. I know I will since Palpatine can do so much for swinging the dice in his escort’s favor.

As mentioned by Paul, if you are up against Rebel regen, you can always use it to get rid of the regen droid. But what about if fighting another Scum list and they are using the Jumpmaster 500 and its title, Punishing One? With one face-up damage card, you just took away 12 points from their list and turned a ship that probably was in the 55+ point range into a 2 attack die ship. That is some bang for your buck.

If you are facing an Imperial Ace such as Soontir Fel, why not get rid of his Autothrusters? I know that by the time you have dealt a face-up damage to him, he is most likely on the way out anyway, but it sure does make taking down his last hull point or two easier. Same thing with attacking Vader, but instead of Autothrusters, you can take his Engine Upgrade or if he is still pushing damage out, the Advanced Targeting Computer.

Boba Fett as a one shot crew card is a great thematic addition to Scum. It fits within their playstyle of powerful, one shot abilities (such as their illicit upgrades, and is not overcosted for what it does. It can seem overpowered when you first look at it, but in practice I think the need to have a face-up damage card to be done on that turn by the ship carrying Boba, makes it a little difficult to put into play, but possible if you build around it. It is also just 1 point so it can be fit onto almost any list with a crew slot without too much of a hassle.

What do you think of the new Boba Fett and how will you use him in a list?