So the page has had a bit of a re-vamp. I’ve change the format as I get a few people asking about older articles and this makes them easier to find, so if you feel like reading back on over a year of tournaments, lists and memes of debatable quality then just click the home button.

In a “mid-week special” I’m going to take a break from talking about Boba Fett and Fenn Rau and look at some basics of playing the game. I think about X-Wing quite a bit, its safe to say that to write a blog week in week out some level of obsession is required. I came up with a list earlier this week that I thought might be interesting to take a look at it.

Scum aren’t doing particularly brilliantly at the moment, Rebels and Imperials are very much on top right now so I thought it would be a bit of fun to see if I can blend a couple of once very potent ships into something quite scary. This post is a pure bit of theorising but hopefully it’s useful for looking at list building from the starting point of “that’s a cool ship” until you pick up a fistful of dice in your first engagement on the table.

I going to go for a two ship large base Scum build, designed to carry threat but more importantly be durable.

Starting with the more obvious choice of the two ships in the list, the terror of A-Wings everywhere…

Ventress and I have a love/hate relationship. The character is one of my absolute favourites in the Clone Wars Series, her and Ahsoka make for probably two of the most interesting characters in the Star Wars Universe. She’s unbelievably good in the game too with her ability to give stress, and it’s natural and obvious synergy with Latts Razzi crew. She’s still very popular and is probably among the most commonly used ships in the faction. Just don’t make me remember what it was like trying to beat here with an A-Wing squadron with Push the Limit EPTs everywhere… it went, erm, badly.

Latts is an auto-include, and this two ship build is going to run with Attanni Mindlink as it’s Elite Pilot Talent of choice. In the name of resilience I’m taking countermeasures and a scavenger crane. It’s a combination seeing a lot of use with Rebels (both Rey and Dash). Engine upgrades on big ships are really good fun, but this list isn’t about re-positioning, it’s about setting your ships in place and making your opponent have a tough time as they come your way.

Between Mindlink giving a focus, the Lancer-Class having the ability to take an evade, countermeasures and Latts there is a LOT of damage mitigation on Assaj. She is super tanky, she’s even going to use her second illicit slot for a Glitterstim in case for any reason she can’t have that all important focus. Although if you want a bit more control with the list then a rigged cargo chute is also a strong option here too.

I’m teaming her up with a ship who has fallen by the wayside somewhat since a nerf hammer was used to repeatedly make her less effective than she originally was. Manaroo. Once the best ship in the game, she was rightfully nerfed a bit cause she was just unbelievably good.

Manaroo’s ability in a formation flown list is as good as it gets. She’s getting the same treatment as Ventress, countermeasures and a scavenger crane to keep her alive a bit better. K4 Security Droid is the obvious crew upgrade for the free target lock (which she can give to Ventress if there’s a better shot on) and the Punishing One Title so that she can carry an attacking threat, 3 dice turrets are somewhat strong in the game, always have been, always will be.

One of the oldest schools of thought of X-Wing list building is look after survival first then worry about other things next. And that is what this list does.

Assaj Ventress Manaroo Shadowcaster Punishing One Latts Razzi K4 Security Droid Attani Mindlink Attani Mindlink Countermeasures Countermeasures Scavenger Crane Scavenger Crane Glitterstim

The reason that it has a 2 point initiative bid is that: 1. there is nothing else to buy, and 2. having a bid means that you have a chance of dictating the numerous start of combat triggers that the list has. Now I’m probably not going to fly this thing in anger because it’s not my play-style but theorising and looking at things like this is a useful tool. Both ships have a huge range of shooting options, both ships have a 3 dice primary attack and should have modifications everywhere. Understanding how you might fly a certain archetype will help you beat it.

With that in mind I’m going to look at how it should work on the table.

Rocks

I’d go for small/mid rocks flying a list like this. The most important positions for the list are 1 and 2, they leave good cornering room for the two large base ships around the corner. When we look at the flight path options you’ll see why the middle of the board being busy isn’t too much of a problem.

Deployment

There are two default deployments here, with the low PS of the list (4 and 6) there is a very good chance this list deploys first. It’s worth pointing out that this is a patience list, not a charge in list. The anti-thesis of how I like to fly.

The first is what I’d go for most of the time. You want Manaroo on the right, it provides her with the space to move and keep doing green moves around to get the free target lock from assaj.

You can see the plan here. It’s very simple, keep Ventress’s firing arc open, Manaroo’s turret to support her attacks. Every turn Ventress can have 2 focuses, an evade and a target lock… Manaroo has a focus. Your opponent should target Manaroo first, she is the key to the lists action economy, her ability to provide a focus token to Ventress means that Ventress is free to either evade or move her secondary arc. But to get to Manaroo they will have to go through Assaj, which is a daunting prospect as to get a range 2 or better shot on the Jumpmaster they have to park at range one of the Lancer.

This style of play is very much from the the Tom Reed school of thought. Tom took Ketsu and Ventress, both with a defensive Push the Limit build to the top 16 of Worlds and flew with his methodical, measured style of play, for such a fast ship the Lancer really does excel at going slowly.

The second deployment type you can look at is this one.

This one requires a little more maneuvering in the opening couple of turns but isn’t a bad set up, personally I’d always lean towards the first but if your opponent is anticipating it and has some low PS ships with big damage output (for example 3 Scurrgs) and sets up in the top right hand corner expecting a joust then this is a good option to throw them a bit.

Opening Engagements

Now there is no rule about how you should engage anything anytime, the keys for this list is to make sure that Ventress has all her available mods and Manaroo has that focus. If your opponent is getting close with big firepower then the countermeasures on Ventress is there to be used.

It’s worth remembering that if your opponent has target locked Manaroo and she has a lock herself, then Manaroo can use her countermeasures to remove their lock, before handing her target lock to Ventress. If Manaroo has been locked twice and your opponent is hoping they transfer to Ventress, then Manaroo and Ventress can both use their CMs and remove both locks because as the controlling player you dictate the order that actions are resolved in.

Target priorities are fairly simple here, if it can reduce your action economy kill it. If it can reduce your defensive capabilities then kill it. Ventress can tank almost anything provided nothing is getting in the way of her ability. Focus fire with both ships 9 times out of 10, let the Shadowcaster title do it’s thing and make Manaroos targets even more concerned over her turret.

Know Your Enemy

There are lists out there that are going to give this a hard time. Dash Poe should be able to range control it fairly easily and stop the stress/Latts kicking in, but there’s still plenty of damage output from the girls to make the boys wary, one mistake and either Poe or Dash could end up in a world of pain. It may even be worth heading for the centre of the board and going around in the middle rather than letting Dash do so. A key to winning that game would be getting Manaroo to block Dash and letting Assaj hammer him at range one.

The Ghost and Fenn is another one that will cause problems, but again the ghost is going to have a lot of red dice coming it’s way. Positioning so it can’t dodge out of Ventress’s stressful arc with the PS11 boost from Fenn is really important. That stress on the Ghost means that Maul and Exra are massively reduced in their efficiency, but Fenn should be worried about what damage he is going to take, because even if Manaroo acts as a blocker and uses her barrel roll to get in his way you can still have a double focussed Ventress pointing a big gun at him.

Palp Aces… don’t really want to have to pick an attack angle against this, the current popular version with Palp on Yorr, the Inquisitor and Quickdraw is a solid list. Getting rid of the Palp shuttle matters on two counts. One it keeps Quickdraws shield loss in the Imperial players control, two it reduces the effectiveness of Ventress ability as Yorr takes the stress. Finally while the Emperor is on the table there is practically no chance of even hurting the Inquisitor, so kill the freaking shuttle.

And we’re done…

This isn’t a conclusive way to fly this list, the key is keeping them close, but hopefully it’s looked at some tactics and ideas that are worth having a think on when putting together a list. There is nothing revolutionary here or that hasn’t been said before by significantly better players but sometimes the basics of the game: list building, rock deployment and an idea of a game plan are worth revisiting.

If anyone flies this list I’d love to hear how it goes, as I say it’s not one that I’ll be picking up anytime soon, but I’d be curious to see if it does what it should…

Next Time: Boba Fenn Return

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