As part of a series I’ll be putting out on weeks where I don’t have two days of gaming to talk about, I want to talk instead about how I build lists, individual pilots, and combos between cards that other people might not necessarily think about. I wanted to start this series off with one of my favorite pilots from first edition, the bounty hunting legend who really has outgrown his small role in the movies, Boba Fett.

Fett drives around Slave I, a highly customized Firespray-31 Patrol Craft, originally meant for police work. He uses the integrated cells as holding spaces for his bounties, and rarely teams up with anyone to fill the co-pilot seat he occupied as a youngster. To represent his skill in combat, Fett’s pilot ability reads, “While you defend or perform an attack, you may reroll 1 of your dice for each enemy ship at range 0-1.” This rewards Boba for getting up close and personal with groups of enemies, vice hanging back and sniping like some other pilots may.

The chassis in-game is set on the new medium base size, making it more mobile but less intimidating than its 1.0 large base. It retained the dual firing arcs, throwing 3 red dice out either side, while defending with 2 greens. It also still has 4 shields and 6 hull, making it somewhat tankier than some other medium hulls. Action-wise, it allows it’s pilot to focus, lock, and boost as white actions, and the original evade was replaced by the new (and weakened) reinforce, as a red action.

Fett’s Firespray holds a whopping 8 upgrade slots, with each possible title adding another slot, for a grand total of 9. The cheapest way to fly him un-upgraded is at 80 points, but if we went for the most expensive, functional upgrade, he’d weigh in at a staggering 142 points (Outmaneuver, Ion Cannon, Proton Rockets, Maul, Conner Nets, Cloaking Device, Shield Upgrade, Slave I, and Proton Torpedoes.) Obviously, some other options could be chosen to make him more expensive, but that isn’t my goal with this article.

Instead, I want to build the best Boba I can for as few points as possible. I’ll start by going over his non-weapon slots and my favorite cards for each. I would go into detail about the bombs, missiles, and cannons (and with Slave I, torpedoes,) that Fett can take, but each lends itself to specific niche strategies that are not really in keeping with my goal, and have better carriers anyway (Emon for the devices, Krassis for pretty much everything else.)

Talent

The standard Talents Boba takes seem to be Fearless (change a result to a hit in a range 1 faceoff) or Debris Gambit (returns the evade action to the ship as a red action, and makes it white if you’re within range 1 of an obstacle.) There are, however, a couple of others I’d like to draw your attention to: Composure, when you fail an action, allows you to still get a dice modification. Trick Shot can work well on a team built around manipulating the board or adding crap to it, but generally won’t work well due to a lack of a barrel roll to dodge what you’re shooting through. Lone Wolf gives Fett another source for re-rolls, but on a medium base, you’re slightly more likely to end up close to your allies, turning it off on what are likely to be the critical turns. Finally, Swarm Tactics could be useful to if you’re using Boba as the leader for a flight of lower initiative guys, to let them shoot before otherwise being killed off by other aces.

Crew

Just because Boba Fett usually works alone, he isn’t opposed to bringing along some help. Most often, you’d see 0-0-0 (if there’s an enemy in range 0-1, it can gain a stress token to prevent you from otherwise gaining a free calculate token) or Perceptive Copilot (whenever you do a focus action, gain an additional focus token.) The familiar faces aren’t necessarily the only ones to bring along. Instead, consider: Seasoned Navigator, to let Fett end up a little closer or further from where he was going, at the cost of increasing the difficulty of the maneuver. L3-37, who can force your opponent to reroll all their attack dice once per game, and then after you lose your shields, she turns all your banks blue. IG-88D, who grants you a double-calculate action, and happens to work well with others (so long as they are also hive-minded assassin droids.) Maul (my personal favorite, despite his cost) grants Boba a force point, allowing him to modify through Blinded Pilot crits or after bumping, and can have it regenerate at the cost of a stress after taking damage.

Modification

The modification slot on the Firespray is usually run empty, and for good reason: there’s not a lot going on with this slot as of right now. Ablative Plating could be useful in a list where you know you’re bringing quite a few bombs, and nobody ever said no to +1 hull, though modifications seem to be fairly cost-prohibited right now. It is worth noting that with the Firespray’s even hull/shield spread, adding a Hull or Shield Upgrade also increases the amount of damage an opponent has to do to bring Fett to half points.

Illicit

Like modifications, the Illicit slot is usually left empty. I believe some interesting tricks could be gained by two of them. Cloaking Device, despite it’s quirks, can allow Fett to be somewhere nobody expects him to be, twice per game. For a once-per-game option of similar quality, Inertial Dampeners are significantly cheaper.

Title

The Firespray is a relatively popular ship amongst the scum of the galaxy, with 3 of them becoming notorious enough to earn titles in the game of X-wing. Naturally, Boba’s own Slave I returns his 1.0 imperial ability to him, giving him increased flexibility of maneuver and adding a torpedo slot. The Andrasta gives him the reload action and another device slot, but short of trying to use Boba for something he isn’t, this title is best used on another pilot. Finally, Kath Scarlet’s Marauder is the go-to title for nearly every ‘Spray pilot right now, as it’s not only the cheapest, but comes with the best native ability (reroll a dice when attacking out of the back arc) AND adds the superb Gunner slot to the ship. This is so vital, in fact, that they get their own section.

Gunner (Marauder only)

There are SO many good gunners in the game, but most of them are not in the Scum faction. Commonly regarded the best gunner in the game, however, is Han Solo, allowing you to take a red focus action right before your own engagement phase. Greedo is an interesting choice if you’re confident in shooting first; for only a single point he will change a hit to a crit, IF his charge hasn’t been spent by an opponent first to do the same to you! BT-1 is another cheap option that allows you to change 1 hit to a crit for every stress your opponent has. Veteran Tail Gunner can allow Boba to shoot two different targets, with the hyper-restrictive caveat that they must be in his opposite firing arcs. Finally, Bossk, for his point cost and opportunity cost, may be a bit too expensive for what he does, but CAN allow you to get a second shot in against a dodgy ace that just blew their last token on your first attack.

So, now that we’ve talked upgrade slots, what combos can we put together with our picks? I’ve put together 4 pre-build Boba Fett lists, at various point costs, for everyone to try in their lists. One or two will seem familiar, but hopefully there’s some new insights to be gained through all this for the Firespray enthusiasts among us.

The “Token” Build This, by far, is the most popular version of Fett around. The hull upgrade is added mostly to make it harder to half-point, and this can be dropped if cost is an option. Debris Gambit, so long as you’re in the mix of the obstacle field, gives you the much vaunted Evade action without gaining stress. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Perceptive Co-Pilot combine to give you two focus tokens at the cost of a stress, at the beginning of Boba’s engagement. This can get you up to three green tokens per turn, more than most ships can manage, and the focus can come even if you bumped or crossed over an asteroid (though not a scrap token.) Another option to consider is using Composure over Debris Gambit, making it even more likely you’ll get your focus tokens, though you do lose the evade action as a result.

The Brawler Build

At the cheapest of my lists, and not using anything that you would otherwise want on a Customized YT-1300, this version of Fett is the perfect match for a Han Solo or Lando Calrissian 2 (or 3, counting the escape craft) ship build. The 1-2 punch of 0-0-0 and BT-1 mean that if you manage to close to range 1, your opponent can either give you a calculate token (handy if you boosted to get in range, or reinforced for defense) or accept not only their own stress token, but that there will be critical results coming their way! Fearless and Boba’s own ability continue to punish the opponent at range 1, with rerolls and extra attack die modification. Unfortunately, this build turns into an Initiative 5 generic pilot at range 2 or greater, meaning you really have to maximize his moderately high pilot skill advantage to close the gap.

Fettigator 2.0

I was initially VERY excited when I saw that Slave I granted Fett (or whoever, but… Fett) his old Imperial ability. Initiative 5 isn’t the highest in the game, but it is a very close second, and with a large amount if I5 pilots being flown, Fettigator’s maneuverability and unpredictability may come in handy. Like in first edition, both effects trigger simultaneously, allowing Boba to rotate to a different speed and opposite direction, letting him respond nearly perfectly to many situations. Lone Wolf allows him to do his own thing while flanking in, and the Cloaking Device adds extra unpredictability, letting him suddenly be far from where an opponent (or even you) may have expected him.

Aggro Fett

Boba Fett is often regarded as a cold, calculating hunter, not letting his temper get the best of him. Bossk, on the other hand, is anything but. In this set-up, Boba uses Bossk to ensure he gets a second try at a ship that may try to slip through his fingers, and L3-37 (once flipped) makes it easier to recover from the stress of dealing with an angry Trandoshan. Again, Lone Wolf (and L3’s once per game ability) help Fett get otherwise absent dice modifications, and a Hull Upgrade probably wouldn’t be a bad addition to this version to better protect a Fett that wants to be in the thick of things, as well as keep him alive longer to continue using L3-37’s Programming.

These, obviously, are just a few ways that the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter can be brought to the table. Each version above, as well as others not mentioned, can be tweaked in dozens of ways to suit individual play-styles.

Next time: Time to bring a scum list to a tournament!