EPISODE FIVE Part2 - TIE BREAKER

Hi Everyone. This week my scum cartel faced of against the full might of the empire. Lets take a look at what i was flying.

GAME ONE.
In game one My fleet found itself against dark forces. The emperor himself. Transported inside his lambda shuttle and escorted by Wampa, Omega leader and even Darth Vader himself. This was going to be tricky. N'dru took the right flank. With his barrage of cluster missiles set on Palpatine's shuttle all

he had to do was let the mandalorian mercs distract the TIE's for long enough. Sadly Darth Vader and Omega Leader were onto N'dru's plan and headed straight for him. N'dru just needed to survive one round of shooting, then he could break through towards the lambda. The TIE's fired upon N'dru reducing his shields to nothing, but he got away. Meanwhile the Mercs sent Wampa on a fools errand through an asteroid belt before swinging in and letting those tactician put the pressure onto Vader. N'dru ebbed forward, the lambda almost in range. But Omega Leader was chasing him down. barely in range, with no tokens,  but with a little help from palpatine. 2 Crits. It's ok 3 agility right.....nope. Nothing but blanks and N'dru is down. However the Mandalorians finished off Wampa and have Vader under control. Despite Lord Vaders panic attack, he still proved to be a very evasive pilot. Many more exchanges of laser fire later the Mercs finally managed to down Vader's TIE Advanced and then time was up. My Firespray jump into hyperspace. Leaving Omega Leader alone to escort Palpatine's Shuttle home. Victory to the Empire (but only by 11 points)



GAME TWO.
In game two we happened across a small rebel insurgency team Luke Skywalker with a Rookie pilot wing man, Supported by Ten Numb. Knowing Ten Numb's Mangler cannon would tear threw N'dru no problem we had to take this one easy. The asteroids were set up in a perfect jousting lane so the Mercs faced down Ten Numb and the Rookie pilot while N'dru took the flank and aimed for Skywalker. Both forces slowly inched forwards for a while, neither daring to get into range.

Until my force took the initiative and surged forwards. N'dru's clusters locked onto Luke. The X-wing fired upon N'dru but lone wolf and Glitterstims made sure he was safe. The missiles fired. A few good evades but the missiles were too strong. One dead Skywalker. You don't have to worry about R2-D2 regenerating shields when he's one turn killed. Ten Numb and his x-wing companion began to shred shields off of my firespray but Ten numb was no match for the Mercenaries head on. Only the Rookie X-wing remained who clearly had something to prove. Rolling nothing but evades it took me four more rounds to take him down, but eventually he was gone. Victory to the Scum.



GAME THREE.
In game three my force faced off against a TIE swarm. Two Tie Fo, One TIE Advanced, One classic academy pilot, Winged Gundark and Youngster. The enemy flew in tight formation with Youngster dishing out his Expose ability. Youngster had to die, and fast. Ndru took a flank once again while the Firespray planned to lure the swarm in among the asteroids. Smarter than I thought, the swarm headed strait for N'dru. The Merc's swung in to help but got a little too close. N'dru locked onto youngster. Sadly, his cluster missiles did zero damage rolling only two hits and Youngster rolling good evades.

N'dru didn't get long too contemplate his failure tho, as he was decimated by several TIEs moments later.
It was down to the Firespray. They focused on trying to kill one TIE a turn but there just wasn't enough shots to deal with their numbers. The Mercs killed a TIE Fo while the swarm was focused on N'dru. And then it became bump city central. The Mercenaries edged around the swarm while the imperials broke formation in attempts to get around the Firespray. Using those rear firing arks the Firespray hailed the TIE Advanced with lasers, but only scored a few glancing blows. Luckily the Swarm was scattered. Each turn the Firespray tried to focus on killing a ship, but just couldn't quite make it. All the while the TIE regrouped and picked away at the Mercenaries. It wasn't until time was called that I finally managed to finish off the TIE advanced and Winged Gundark. But it was too late. Victory to the Imperials (By 8 points!)

THE REVIEW
As you can see two of my games were very close. If my opponents hadn't got half points for one of my Firespray being at 50% health then I would have won both of those games. But I guess those changes were made for a reason. The list seemed to work well, but i'm not sure I got the best examples of it, against two lists with lots of ships. I think this list would do a lot better against two ship builds or aces. The Firespray can stack stress onto any ace such as vader, poe and soontir while N'dru can either cripple a large ship or outright kill most aces. I think N'dru got unlucky in the first game, dying to Omega Leader and in the third it was my own fault for having the Mandalorian Merc's too close for his ability to activate. I don't think there's anything I would change about this list other than adding Guidance Chips to N'dru allowing his clusters to be more reliable. Despite mixed results, i really enjoyed flying this list and seeing N'dru do his thing and one shot Luke's X-wing was really nice. This build for N'dru makes up one third of my new tournament list so he will return on this blog sometime soon.


Over halfway through the league now, and wave 8 is coming two weeks from now. Meaning i should have what i need to show you my tournament list for the finale (fingers crossed). As always my commissions page is in the sidebar. Thank you for reading. Until next time.

Goodbye and Fly Casual

EPISODE FIVE - N'dru and Company

Hi everyone this week we fly my favourite character in the scum faction N'dru Suhlak and looks like he brought some friends. Let's take a look at the list.

N'dru Suhlak

N'dru my boy. I've been avoiding using him in my lists for the league as i was waiting for wave 8 to release so i can give him some guidance chips. Since it looks like wave 8 is still a few weeks away, i felt like saying sod it and brought my favourite little scoundrel anyway. Fully upgraded N'dru comes in at a very cheap 25 points with an incredible alpha strike ability. N'dru's job is to line up his cluster missile then wreck any ship in his sights. Lets take a look at how he does this. First his pilot ability gives you one additional attack die if there are no friendly ships at range 1-2. This effects each of the two cluster missile shots, allowing him to throw out 8 attack dice in a turn. The problem with cluster missiles is they have great potential damage, but very little reliability after you spend your target lock to fire them. This is where Glitter Stim comes in. You swoop in, target lock the thing you want to die then activate your

glitterstims. now you have 8 attack dice and all focus results become hits. Of course you're still likely to roll a blank or two. And that's where lone wolf comes in. Already wanting to be off on his own N'dru benefits hugely from Lone wolf.  The first missed shot from each cluster missile can be re-rolled and if it becomes anything but another blank its a hit from the stims. The final piece of the puzzle (sadly missing here) is guidance chips. The chips allow you to turn a blank result into a hit when firing missiles. So 8 attack dice. All focus results become hits. Blank results can be re-rolled and one can become a hit for free. N'dru is a monster. I've managed to kill the millennium falcon in two turns with N'dru and a pare of Kihraxz before. He is a little tricky to fly as he is always off on his own, so has no one covering his back most of the time. And at a respectable, but not amazing Pilot Skill 7 N'dru can take a lot of fire from aces before he can get hit missiles flying. This isn't too bad though with Lonewolf and Glitterstims he has 2 defence dice re-rolling one blank per attack and all focus results become evades. And once his payload as been delivered he can fly around on his own essentially becoming an X-wing with lone wolf. Not bad for 25 points ey.


Mandalorian Mercenary
Flying along side N'dru (but keeping their distance) are a pair of Firespray. The firespray are probably my favourite ship in all of x-wing. In the tournaments I've been to I've always brought three basic firespray and they are always amazing. With one of the best dials the Firespray can be very unpredictable and tho its green maneuvers are limiting its only red moves are its k-turns. With 10 total hull and 2 agility the firespray can be tricky to deal with, not to mention that it's one of the only large ships with the Evade action.

Offensively the Firespray has a solid 3 attack, but its main strength comes from its auxiliary rear firing arc. This becomes great when jousting as you can simply overshoot your opponents ships and blast them from behind without needing to worry about getting stressed. In this list both of my Mandolorian Mercs are carrying a Tactician. The tactician is always a great crew, but on a firespray almost becomes twice as useful as it can still give out stress from that rear ark. This is one of the advantages an auxiliary firing ark has over a 360 firing ark as well as the fact that Autothrusters don't activate in auxiliary ark. I also gave one of the mercs Crackshot. the basic mandalorian merc having Pilot Skill 5 and an elite pilot talent allows you to really build them in a lot of different ways. Veteran instinct gives you a solid Ps7 for 1 point. Crackshot can push damage through to evasive targets and you could even use Push the limits and a cannon to make a slow moving death turret. The firespray really is the poster boy of scum and villainy and rightly deserved. I have never regretted bringing a Firespray.

SYNERGY
with this list the plan is to set up the two firespray towards one of the table edges and N'dru towards the other. The firespray can take it easy trying to get into range 2 instead of zooming on in. once they have stacked some stress on the target N'dru can come on in and unleash his cluster missiles. The Tacticians will make my opponents moves more predictable and N'dru can cause that big hit. Once N'dru's target is taken out the Firespray should be able to Mop up what's left. Tacticians to your firespray its time to roll out.


I've heard people saying that Wave 8 is due to be released on the 17th of march so only two weeks away. If the rumors are true. I will hopefully be able to get a chance to talk about some of the new lists before the league is over. I really think wave 8 will make the scum faction complete. Largely because of the abundance of new crew cards. We will see. Hopefully sooner Than later. Either way i will try and do a Wave 8 special so i can talk about the new cards and some of the ways they can be used.
Thanks for reading. As always my commissions page is in the sidebar. Until next time

Goodbye and Fly Casual.

EPISODE ONE Part2 - SOMETIMES YOU ROLL BLANKS

HI everyone. So with round one of the league over lets talk about how the games went and how i feel about the list. First here's a quick reminder of what i was flying.

GAME ONE.In the first game i came up against Maarek Stele, Turr Phennir and Darth Vader. My force started off strong dispatching Turr Phennir on the second turn and then Maarek Stele on the third. Thats about where my good fortune ran out. from then on Darth Vader managed to avoid being hit for a long long time all the while nibbling away at Boba Fetts hull.  In the end, it ended up with Boba on one hull being closely chased down by Vader on one hull. Had vader managed to kill Boba, the dead mans switch would have activated and Boba would have his revenge. luckily Xizor's starviper managed to finally end the dark lords assault with a well places shot across an asteroid field and the game ended in a victory for the Scum.



GAME TWO.
The second game brought the deadly duo against Jake Farrell and Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. This game didn't go quite as well with Boba Fett greatly underestimating the Maneuverability of the falcon.
the Crime lords almost managed to swat away Jake Farrell and Boba's Ion Bombs forced the A-wing right onto an asteroid field but the falcon made sure he couldn't capitalist on this opportunity. I ended up loosing Boba to the combination of a Proton Rocket from the A-wing and Luke Skywalker making sure the Falcon got those hits in every turn. Xizor was left to fend for himself against a fragile a-wing and a barely scratched Falcon. A few laser blasts and a few bad evade rolls later Xizor was destroyed. A Victory for the Rebel Alliance


GAME THREE.
Game three looked eerily familiar. The Falcon was back but this time we wouldn't let him get away and it seems he has a new wingman, Poe Dameron. The game began with Boba and Xizor both streaming up to the falcon Boosting into position and Pushing the Limits to focus on there Target. Tho Dealing 3 damage to the falcon Boba took 4 damage strait away from poe and Hans firepower as he rolled nothing but blanks to evade. With Boba taking a bad initial hit the Duo decided to focus on the falcon. Boba Dropped his ion bombs and both Han and Poe fell for the trap. Sadly Poe Still managed to get a shot on prince Xizor. Evading at range 2, Through an asteroid, With stealth device, And focus.....5 Blanks. Sum one around here is definitely force sensitive and working against my dice. Both Han and Poe Drifted forwards desperately trying to reboot there systems from the ion assault. Han takes a Pot shot on Boba's firespray and somehow kills it. Xizor is left to fight off a damaged Falcon and Poe. Luckily, due to some hidden nefarious scheme Xizor forgot he had even implemented Poe managed to fly directly off of the table and into the far reaches of space. Back in with a chance Xizor swoops in on the falcon. Taking Prime position to blast solo out of the sky, Xizor fires and gets 3 solid hits. the falcon returns fire. 3 hits......3 blank evades.....xizor is gone.


THE REVIEW
In the end i won one game and lost two. Not a great result but i can't expect too much when i roll about 6 natural evades during the entire event including Boba's range one re-rolls. Xizor lost his Stealth device on the first attack every single game and in general just awful defensive rolling i couldn't do much about. With that said lets go over what i liked or would change about the list.

Boba Fett 

Boba seemed too be the focus of everyone's attacks in each game which meant he often got some good solid hits in every turn. The Recon Specialist came in handy in both attacking and defense and push the limit with Engine Upgrade really made Boba more maneuverable. The Mangler cannon rarely came into play with Boba firing at range three twice through out the event and often using his rear firing ark. Tho the Ion bomb hit Every Single game i found it difficult to take advantage of my stunned enemy. Deadman's Switch is mostly a tool to counter swarms in this list (non of wich i got to fight) but twice in the event it ended up hitting Xizor as well. I think were i to fly this list again the changes i would make to Boba are. Remove the Mangler Cannon and swap the Ion bombs out for Proton bombs. Proton Bombs will be a much bigger threat to the enemy. Seeing as i can get good hits with the bombs id rather they did some meaningful damage that just gave me a little control over my opponents movements as well as giving me a bomb that swarms would really fear. With a different approach to taking out swarms i would swap the dead mans switch for a hot shot blaster. Using push the limit makes my moves somewhat predictable and a few times my opponent managed to get right into Boba's blind spot. And the final change/addition i would make is to take some Advanced Homing Missiles, the Slave 1 title and some Extra Munitions. This gives me four chances to Cause Critical hits through my opponents shields. This build of boba is a little more scary to come up against. Tho he has no better defenses he has a lot of ways to cause Meaningful damage.

Prince Xizor

Xizor was very fun to fly and i really do love the starviper. However i feel i didn't get a proper chance to see Xizor in action with him rolling almost exclusively blank evade dice every game. His Stealth Device proved completely useless loosing it by the first attack everytime. Sumone also brought to my attention that if Xizor passes on his damage to Boba he has still been hit by the initial attack and therefor looses his stealth device. Not sure if due to the frustration of bad rolls or the fact i faced two falcons but i can't help but wish i had Autothrusters on him instead. Push the Limit was abit of a mixed bag. It allowed me to get into great positions and sometimes to combine with the advanced sensors and give me two actions and no stress. That said i don't think Push the Limit is the correct choice for the Starviper. With its only Green moves being 1-3 forwards and the 1 banks, it made Xizors movement very limited if i did end the turn with stress and also made the Advanced Sensors redundant. As an alternative to PTL i would consider the following. Predator - Predator would give Xizor a more reliable attack without using up the Systems Upgrade slot for fire control systems. Lone Wolf - Abit of an odd choice given Xizors ability but lone wolf would give him a re-roll for offence and defense once Boba is dead. This also allows Xizor and Boba to set up on opposite sides of the board and just utilize Xizors ability when they cross paths. Veterans Instincts - I know i said the Advantage of Xizor was that he came at Ps7 and i still had the Pilot Talent but in the meta of Ace Pilots Ps7 is just not good enough. with Ps9 Xizor would become a very reliable arc dodger especially if i can give my opponent the initiative. Combine the Advances Sensors to barrel roll or boost before movement and i could modify my flight path after seeing where my opponent has ended up. All of these are good alternatives for Xizor but personally i feel like Veterans Instincts is the way to go.

THE SUMMARY
So here is my altered list.
It should play pretty much the same as before with Xizor and Boba sticking together but perhaps beeing a little less aggressive on the approach so Boba can fire off those Homing Missles. Now enemy's should be more afraid to get into Boba's blind spot, with him able to fire his Hot Shot Blaster as well as the Threat of barreling into a Proton Bomb the next turn. Xizor can now be fully focused on being an arch dodger. With a Ps high enough to outmaneuver most aces and Autothursters to keep him a little safer from bad rolls Xizor should be more survivable. The only real downside i see to this list is Boba comes to 62 points. Thats a hell of alot of points to put into one ship. Because of this the game with Boba will probably be a damage race. Make sure you can fire off those missiles, drop those bombs and cripple your enemy as quickly as possible.

With week one over, the league is just picking up steam and tho the dice may have not been on my side this is only the beginning. After all what villain ever succeeds the first time around.
My commissions page is in the bar to the right if you are interested in having any ships painted and please follow the blog for future posts.  Ill see you all on Wednesday with my next list so until then.

Good bye and Fly Casual.

EPISODE ONE - THE DEADLY DUO

Hello everyone. My name is Mike Arnold more commonly known as Mr Pidge. In the coming weeks i will be taking part in the X-Wing League at a local games shop by the name of Netherworld. Having never taken part in a league before i was excited for the chance to try out some new lists in a less competitive atmosphere than a tournament. The League will be running for nine weeks and each week i will be putting out two posts. One the day before the event (Thursday) explaining what list i plan on flying that week and one the day after reviewing how my games went, how good or bad the list was in use and what i would change if using it in the future. I'm hoping you enjoy reading these blogs and that they inspire you to maybe try some of these builds or to come up with new and improved versions. So lets get down to business.

SCUM AND VILLAINY 

In my limited experience of the competitive X-Wing scene
i have been disappointed to see that the scum and villainy faction
is rarely represented other than the usual IG-88 brobots flying around.
Due to this, and my love for the Scum i have decided every list i fly during the league will be from the Scum faction and none of my lists will contain more than one IG-2000. As the event is going to be lasting around two months i have high hopes that wave 8  will be released during its duration. (Oh the plans i have for that Misthunter)

without any further ado here is my list for week one.

THE DEADLY DUO
As its the Opening week i felt compelled to be flying the king of all Scum Boba Fett himself. Along side Boba i'm flying another Piece of Royal Villainy Prince Xizor. So lets take a look at the overall list.

Boba Fett
My personal Favorite build for Boba is: Push the Limit, Recon Specialist, Engine Upgrade, Dead Mans Switch. this build is to maximize on Scum Boba's ability of wanting to be at range one. The Engine Upgrade means Boba can zoom on into range one surprisingly quickly. Push the Limit allows Boba to do that boost (which i do very often) and still take action. Recon Specialist allows Boba to have two focus tokens per focus action giving him one to use for offence and still have one for defense. Combine all of these things with Boba's ability to re-roll dice when at range one you have a bulky offensive ship with reliable attack and defense, a decent dodging ability in the boost and great action economy with often having 2 focus tokens and an evade or target lock. The final piece that i think tops off this aggressive build is the Dead Mans Switch. This interesting little piece of Illicit tech Reads "When you are destroyed, each ship at range 1 suffers one damage." This is great on Boba as he always wants to be at range one of as many ships as possible. Not only can this Destroy a swarm that dared to be at range one of Boba It is also a small compensation for if Boba is Destroyed by an arch dodging ship that gets into his blind spot.(*cough*soontir*cough*) In this build i had around 8 points left over after i had put in the base of what i wanted so Boba has a few new toys. The Mangler Cannon allows Boba to deal better damage on his approach into the fray as well as push some definite critical hits in against bulky upgraded ships like Decimators and the Outrider. The Ion Bomb is also a nice addition to Boba Fett. With a Pilot Skill of eight, Bobba often gets to see where people are before he decides whether or not to drop the bomb. I have had a lot of Success in using this bomb against Elite lists who use push the limit to get reliable arks against Boba and then once there ioned that rear arc can fire away.

Prince Xizor

The Starviper doesn't seem to get alot of love, mostly due to its high points cost. Recently ive been trying out Guri in another list and all i can say is i Love the Starviper. It gives me that amazing feeling you get when you completely outmaneuver your opponent and get that perfect shot lined up just right. The only Issue i'v had with Guri is that i need her Elite Pilot Talent slot for Veteran Instincts as its very hard to ark dodge with a Ps5 ship. Guri gains a free focus when at range 1 of an enemy which allows her to always stay in the fight but this time iv taken the prince himself. Xizor comes with a nice base Pilot Skill of seven (the same as Guri with Vi) but in my oppinion has a slightly worse ability. Xizor allows a friendly ship at range one to take a hit for you each time you get shot at. This is a very nice ability but doesn't go well with the idea of the viper being an aggressive arch dodger. However running him alongside Boba gives some interesting options. In this build i have given the Viper a combination of upgrades iv never used on it before. Advanced Sensors on the Starviper is a must for me. Tho firecontol System would make its attacks more consistent. Push the Limit is interesting on the viper and i feel this is what gives Xizor the edge over Guri. The combination of Barrel roll and Boost in the same turn gives you an incredible amount of maneuverability especially when you can top that off with a green move to get rid of the stress. And now we get to the eternal battle that goes on in my mind forever. Stealth Device or Auto Thrusters. Auto Thrusters are what i tend to run on Guri. Get out of ark and those ships that can shoot 360 really can't do much to you. Ps7 is solid but is pretty feeble among aces. The Stealth Device helps out against these aces alot. Being Agility 4 is Very nice even if it is only for a limited time. For Xizor i feel stealth device is the way to go, seeing as if he does get unlucky and take a hit he can often shed that damage onto another ship and not break the stealth device. The Glitterstim is another upgrade added because i had a few dangling points. Tho the Starviper isnt the best at relieving stress Glitter Stim is a nice OH BALLS card. On the turn where you've ended up jousting a swarm or just need to finish killing something of glitter stim gives you that edge.


SYNERGY
Now lets talk a little about the point of this list. Its to be super aggressive. just stay at Range one and blast some fools. Xizor and Boba should fly together on the approach. Both have a decent defensive ability with Xizor very unlikely to be hit and if he does he just passes that damage onto Bobba in order to keep his Stealth Device online. Meanwhile Bobba boosts on in using that Recon Specialist and Mangler Cannon to deal some damage while hopefully dodging whatever comes his way. Then the Engagement. Boba can take alot of things head on. Getting into range one when possible and using those 4 attack dice to deal the damage while Xizor flips around behind your foes and starts to blast away. If i can stay ontop of my opponents i should be able to deal damage very quickly. Timing when to not use Push the Limit will be a bit tricky as a Stressed Boba takes a while to turn around. Against bulky turrets i should have the advantage as i can stay at range one so the Twin Laser Turrets can be Countered and the Falcon can be kept close. Against Aces it should be interesting and my moves with Xizor will have to be very well planned out. And against a Swarm i think it will becomes a game of disruption using Xizor to try and split the pack while Boba blasts away and goes boom if all doesn't go to plan. 

Well there you have it the Deadly Duo. I'm looking forward to The League a lot and can't wait to try out these lists. I hope everyone enjoys these blogs and they get you thinking about some of the possibilities of the Scum and Villainy faction. For those interested i will put a link to Netherworld's Facebook Page below and id like you to show them some support. Also i paint all of my X-wing miniatures (As seen above) and each week i will be showing you my versions of the ships im using for the list. I have a link to my commissions Facebook Page listed below. If you are interested in having any X-Wing miniatures custom painted don't be afraid to drop me a Pm. Thats it for now folks. I will be back on Friday with a Review of week ones events so until then. 

Good Bye and Fly Casual


Netherworld Community Facebook Page
My Commissions Page