Hello Capital Ship Fans!

Big week for X-Wing here in southeastern MA. Last night was a regular tourney at Battleground Games and Hobbies, and tomorrow is the Winter Championship. Last night’s tourney saw many people testing lists for Tomorrow night, and yours truly went home with First Place honors! Since I have a little free time tonight, I thought I’d share my list as well as some of my thoughts on it.

The List

EDIT: Something weird happened. Ignore Gunner in this list. Reviewing to figure out what happened. Sorry for the confusion folks!

Having looked at how Worlds ended this year, and taking a guess based on the local meta as to what I might see, I decided I wanted to play Fat Han without playing Rebels. Impossible? pretty much. So I turned to the next best thing, a fat Decimator. Ever since these puppies came out, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make them as competitive as possible, and had all but given up until I found a list on the X-Wing subreddit that threw Rebel Captive and Isard on. I felt a little stupid for not noticing the power of either of these cards on a Decimator before, and went straight to work optimizing the list to my playstyle.

Chiraneau is my favorite Decimator pilot, and although Kenkirk would be a better tank, I wanted both the high pilot skill and the improved firepower. Rebel Captive on a Decimator turns it into a Phantom’s worst nightmare, but I needed to be sure that any fire I threw at ANY high-agility ship would be effective. Between Chiraneau’s ability, Predator, and Gunner, I could be certain that I control the flow of attacks (even if I needed to re-roll a single hit out of four dice to ensure a Gunner roll), and Predator would also give me a boost against swarms, a pretty serious threat considering I was already putting 60 points into one ship. Engine upgrade on top gives the Decimator incredible mobility that can practically guarantee turn one shots, not to mention arc-dodging abilities and fast turning.

Satisfied with my Decimator, I played around with several additions to it, from a Firespray (hard to work in with 40 points) to a mini TIE swarm (too easy to focus down while ignoring the Decimator) to Bombers (not enough firepower). Finally, I settled on a Phantom, and not just any Phantom. People who know me know I adore Echo. She might not have the highest Pilot Skill bid, but she makes up for that in sheer maneuverability, and is the queen of arc-dodging. Her biggest fears are Turret ships (especially of high Pilot Skill), and higher-skill Phantoms. I figured Chiraneau could handle either, and Echo could come in for a final strike if necessary, and having only two ships meant that enemy ships didn’t have much choice in target: Chiraneau, or (If she was even in-arc) Echo.

Advanced Cloaking Device is almost a must-take on either named Phantom, and Sensor Jammer further improves defense. After that, I had only two points left to spend, which cut out Predator as an option. I decided to pick up Lone Wolf instead, since I doubted I’d be in close very often, and it would also help with defending, in case I had a bad roll (which I did. FIVE blanks on a defense roll crushes your spirit a little bit.).

Strategy and Report

My strategy was to press the enemy hard with Chiraneau, getting him within Range 1 and just letting lose, then sticking with a target until it was dead. Echo’s job would be to skirt the edge and pick her shots, possibly choose a vulnerable target (often a straggler) and chase it down as it helplessly tries to turn to face her. In practice, it seemed to work well, although Echo was fragged in games 1 and 3 of the tourney due in part to facing Turret ships.

During game one (facing a double Deci list), Echo took a shot from a Decimator at Range 3, to which I rolled Five green blanks, and sadly removed her from the field. Game two was versus a Two-A-Wing, Two-B-Wing list, led by Keyan Farlander (with plenty high enough Pilot Skill to threaten Echo). Thankfully, I managed to elude Keyan long enough for Chiraneau and Echo to jointly bring him down, and after that it was a lot of cleanup (my opponent made a few maneuver errors as well, landing on asteroids multiple times during the match trying to catch Echo).

Game three was against an almost-mirror list (Commander Kenkirk and Whisper), and both my opponent’s ships were shooting before Echo. I got Echo in for one attack on Kenkirk, but she took heavy damage in return and I puled her as far away from the fight as possible, until I thought I had a clear shot lined up to come back in safely (after I’d managed to land two Weapons Malfunctions on poor Kenkirk, effectively taking him out of the fight). Whisper rolled in to position and fired on Echo, and I immediately regretted trying to come back. Eventually, I managed to pound out Kenkirk (easier said than done!), and then had a little chase with Whisper, until he swung back and hit me hard. Thankfully, I didn’t take any Blinded results, and after two turns of shooting at a non-cloaking Whisper (thank you Rebel Captive!), I had the game.

Final Thoughts

Would I change anything on this list? I’ve spent the last 24 hours pondering this, as it could have dire effects on my results tomorrow. Echo’s low Skill hurt her in that last game and could easily hurt her again, but Lone Wolf was helping her consistency slightly. Chiraneau performed beautifully and I really can’t think of anything to improve him, barring maybe a 2-point Flechette to help break up those pesky swarms I might see. Right now, my most likely change is to drop Sensor Jammer and Lone Wolf, and pick up Fire-Control System, Recon Specialist, and Veteran Instincts. This would improve Skill, and improve attack reliability, at the (possible) cost of reduced defense capabilities, though that’s arguable. Either way, I’m excited to bring this list to the Winter Championship tourney tomorrow, and I’m very happy with it’s abilities. Until next time, play more games!

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