Deathrain’s Guide on Git Gud

With my ship sent off to who knows where and no tournaments planned there ain’t much to do ‘cept flick my finger across my lips and make burbling noises. However, it would be unwise to stop playing entirely. Gotta find new ways to sharpen the mind for when battle calls once more.

*Davy Jones voice* Four Fours 199pts

Major Vynder with Ion Cannon, Xg-1 Assault Config, Advanced SLAM. 47pts

Echo with Juke, Fifth Brother. 64pts

Pure Sabacc with nothing. 44pts

Turr Phennir with less than nothing. 44pts

Lemme give you a breakdown on what’s on offer here. For starters, all ships are Initiative 4. This serves two purposes. 1. initiative 4 is the middle ground. When you go to events you will come across a wide variety of threats from high initiative arc-dodging aces to low initiative jousting swarms. Flying at I4 means you will have to adapt your strategy on the fly from round to round. Most lists have an idea of where they want to be in the turn order but you can’t have it your way every time. And 2. flying at the same initiative prevents you from blocking off your own escape routes and frees up your dial. Trust me it’ll save you the headache.

Second, we look at movement. All four ships have a different way of bouncing around the table. Sabacc boosts before he reveals his dial, Turr can double reposition even after he fires, Vynder can achieve light speed with SLAM, and Echo decloaks while drunk. X-Wings have lots of health, TIE Fighters have a 5 speed. That’s the way the game works. As an Imperial player you need to utilize speed to it’s maximum potential if you want to live. Hey, fighter pilot who just did a fly by my neighbourhood, thanks for the anxiety spike. Dick. Where was I? Ah yes.

So you have four I4 fast ships, now the tough bit is trying to make them work in concert. Sabacc is looking for a range 3 shot. Once you get that shot you get the hell outta there because the enemy ship is making a beeline straight for your position. Turr wants to tackle low Initiative ships head on then boost out of arc. If that isn’t an option you can still use that reposition to get in an awkward place that’ll shut down parts of the opponent’s dial. Echo should be as unpredictable as possible. First move that comes to mind will probably be in the other player’s head so try something more spicy. Vynder will be out there dishing out the ion tokens. If you catch a ship out you can have your fleet turn on it in a heartbeat.

Pick three of the biggest obstacles and make the triangle of doom in the center. This area is for baiting and escaping, treat it like your home and wipe your feet before you come in. Without a safe zone you may find yourself quickly overwhelmed. Place your ships with even spacing along your deployment zone. This gives very little information to an opponent who brought 5’s and 6’s. Wherever the opponent advances you want to keep your ships spread out, able to react to a surprise attack or support an ambush of your own. Ships in close proximity to asteroids can give away their next maneuver. If you can pinpoint where something is going then either block it or run. Don’t joust multiple guns as it’ll never work in your favour.

This squad is designed to pick apart an opponent’s list slowly and carefully. The build needs a review after ten or so rounds (only managed a few so far). Winning a big event is not the priority here, it’s meant to improve your game. Range control, baiting, disengaging, judging moving distance, bluffing, and guesswork. All these aspects and more need to be tip top if you have any hope of victory. It may not be the next best thing but I guarantee you it’ll make you a better pilot. It’s also bonkers level fun so there’s that.

If there’s an aspect of the game you struggle with put it down in the comments and a member of the community will be with you shortly.