“Some things in life are bad,

Nym can really make you mad,

Quickdraw just makes you want to swear and curse.

When your space ships feel brittle,

Tweak your list and give a whistle,

And this’ll help things turn out for the best”

It’s hardly a secret that I have a bit of an obsession with the Firespray 31, and that the Protectorate is a ship that has found itself deep in my affections. With all the changes of late, all the upgrades from Guns For Hire I couldn’t help but take a good look at these ships again and see what I can get out of them.

The Protectorates died a death when Nym first appeared. The combo of PS10, Accuracy Corrector Autoblaster, Genius and Bomblet Generator was utterly unmanageable for the 4 hull Fang. He just deleted a ship a turn with nothing much to be done about it. The Concord Dawn found another big issue in Miranda. Her ability to just jump over their heads and drop bombs was something they couldn’t handle. But the bitch in K-Wing and Nym are very different prospects since the FAQ.

The Change to Mindlink has impacted heavily on how my Protectorate lists of the past have worked, but that is less of an issue than the current Pilot Skill Wars that the game currently finds itself in. Be it my PS9 Kihraxz, Dave Sutcliffe’s very entertaining PS10 Rebels or Dale Cromwells PS11 Imperial Alpha Strikers it is evident that high Pilot Skill is at a premium right now. Kad Solus and Old Teroch, for all their being super fun to fly are just not going to cut it in the meta.

The Firespray was flattened by Kylo Crew on RAC, and the base pilot skills of Kath and Boba are no where near high enough to contend with the munitions race going on at the moment. The good news (from my perspective) is that RAC has been even more put out by the emergence of Harpoons, which means Kylo is less likely to be about in his favoured ship.

The other issue they have is that it looks like arc dodgers are finding a place in the game again (which is awesome) but with no built in re-positioning on a spray the get killed very fast by the likes of Jake, Soontir and Fenn. (as was seen at the Reading Original Trilogy tournament a few weeks back)

A couple of Scurrgs is a lot of health to chew through in a badly worked opening engagement, so that needs to managed effectively, and Talonbane and the Harpoon Brigade are just SO good at flattening things…

So, it’s time to sit down, binge watch the Punisher on Netflix and look at bringing these ships back into my world.

Boba Fett

He has to change. Fearlessness Boba is an absolute beast, but it limits him to Pilot Skill 8, and at the moment that isn’t going to cut it. So this iteration of Boba is going to jump on the Veteran instincts band wagon, I hate having to use it as the EPT when there are so many more entertaining things out there, but there is a balance between flying what you love and anticipating it losing, and flying what you love, and giving yourself a chance of winning.

At PS10 the engine upgrade becomes well worth having. I’ve gone on record before as saying that I don’t think the the Spray needs an engine, I’d go so far as to say when I was flying the twins I got better as a player without it, and did better without it. Engaging at range three then closing fast was something I got very good at with Boba and Kath. But that was because all the munitions in the world weren’t pointed right at me. Now the ability to get to range one to avoid those munitions is more important, so an engine upgrade becomes a somewhat essential addition.

Boba is taking Harpoons. They are the new hotness, they are shiny, they make things go boom. I debated taking K4 Security droid to further add to the missile element of the list, but with only one missile on Boba it felt gratuitous and move limiting… Especially when Dengar is available.

As ever Glitterstim is included, I can’t envisage the Spray without it. Boba at range one of multiple ships with stims and an evade token is one hell of a tank..

Begrudgingly I’m not taking Slave 1 as the title, which feels wrong and dirty. So no extra munitions, but Andrasta lets me take the Bomblet Generator. It’s shiny, useful and all together bust. I can’t believe it’s 3 points and you get it forever… I’m taking it cause it’s a massive deterrent to people parking behind me and the threat of it controls a good area of the table, if it does any damage then that’s great but I’m not counting on it.

With a bunch of points spare, but wanting a decent initiative bid I am throwing in an Ion Cannon. If there is a list of things that the likes of Miranda and Nym really aren’t fans of, Ion is probably number one the list. There is little they can do to dodge it and it will set them up to take much pain from the ordinance coming their way the following turn.

Fenn Rau

For months Fenn was the terror of the tables. He just wouldn’t die with a stack of focuses from Mindlink. Then Nym turned up and killed him.

I can’t take Mindlink in this list with Boba taking Veteran Instincts, which I think leaves me looking for other viable options.

Expertise is great, and means that he is always resolving focuses in attack, however it means only one action a turn, which is pretty much a focus for defense. The biggest plus with expertise is NO STRESS! which means keeping the hard one turn free, Fenn’s best move.

Push the Limit is THE classic EPT. Next to Veteran Instincts I’d wager it is probably the most used talent in the game. Maybe not in recent months but over the history of X-Wing it is likely the king. And with 6 green moves on the dial Fenn can handle a bit of stress once in a while.

I have plenty of points to play with so I am throwing in Proton Torpedoes, flipping a focus to a crit should hopefully trigger Boba’s Harpoon. Torps are not great next to all the missiles we have now that don’t spend locks. Compared to Cruise and Harpoons, Torpedoes need some loving. Conveniently it also increases his threat from range three considerably.

“That’s Nuts” (97)

Fenn Rau Boba Fett Push The Limit Veteran Instincts Concord Dawn Protector Andrasta Proton Torpedoes Harpoon Missiles Autothrusters Engine Upgrade Glitterstim Ion Cannon Dengar

I’m pretty sure this list isn’t the new hotness, it might not even get more than one or two flies out, but you gotta fly what you love, and I love these two ships. So I have to try it. The name “That’s Nuts” is thanks to Janus Avivson’s reaction to when he saw the list. Hopefully it’s not as nuts as he thinks.

No tournaments this weekend, instead an evening gaming with Nic Harris and Dom Flannigan of Firestorm Squadron. Nic took Nymanda to the top 32 of 2017 Nationals and is looking to revamp it post FAQ and Dom got to the cut at Yavin “the Paratanni show” 2017 with Paratanni. He is looking for something to fall in love with in the game again and trying out a few different things. Casual practice with competitive gamers always has a little bit of an edge.

The evening started with Nic and I putting down our lists. And we quickly learned that my list was very strong against his. There was nothing that Nic’s one agility ships could do against the salvo of munitions that hammered his ships. The ion cannon was the game winner here, 3 times in a row in less than an hour Nic found one of his ships floating helpless in space with a Firespray and a Protectorate closing in fast.

Dom arrived and put his list on the table, Harpoons all around, Nym, Jostero and a Black Sun Ace. Dom deployed Nym, possible a little to far away, seperately to the two Kihraxz, allowing Boba and Fenn to hammer Captain Jostero with everything they had. If Nym had been closer to the other two ships then the initial engagement may not have been so favourable.

Fenn died the following turn, as did the Black Sun Ace leaving Boba and Nym to hunt each other. However with Boba moving second Nym was unable dodge the bounty hunter and the Spray’s damage output proved too much for the Scurrg.

For the final pairing of the evening Dom pulled out a hard counter to see how that would affect the game. Tomax at PS10, Vader and QuickDraw at PS11, all with Harpoons. The initial engagement is key when there are two lists that want to shoot first and shoot hardest, a fight that my ships will always lose in this instance. The only chance for preserving a ship against a superior alpha strike is to get into range one as fast as possible. I was able to do this, and managed to get away from the initial engagement without any damage, and landed a direct hit on Tomax.

The game came down to a limping Boba vs a limping Vader, but with PS advantage Boba was always on an uphill struggle. With the last shot of the game Vader triggered the Harpoon nestling in the side of the Spray and Boba blew up. The explosion leaving Vader on one hull.

The Mandalorians did me proud over the games played, and I they have earned the right to another run out. Even losing with them didn’t feel bad, the odds were stacked against them and they so nearly overcame.

I’ve rarely had so many things in the game at the same time that I think are both viable and a joy to fly: Star Vipers, Kihraxz, The Falcon, A-Wings, Mandarlorians… I’m in such a happy spot right now. Come the next wave five new ships will change the game dramatically and so might my contentment! Maybe for the better maybe not.

With the bounty hunter themed prizes available at the System Opens I really want to have a good shot at getting some of those shiny things. As an optimist and dreamer I would love to get some Boba templates with Boba himself. I am almost entirely convinced this is an unrealistic prospect, but there a few months between now and then to have a good look. Next weekends double header at Ibuywargames and Warboar should be a good test, looks like strong fields at both events.

THE MANDALORIANS WILL RETURN!

If you’re looking for local tournaments head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.