Treatise on Starfighter Tactics

This blog is meant to be a resource for players of the X-Wing miniatures game, one that is regularly updated with articles about how to improve your technical and strategic X-Wing play. News about the game from FFG will also be featured, along with links to insightful articles and useful tools, interesting gameplay videos and battle reports, and insights into the game submitted by competitive minded players like yourself. Feel free to ask questions about the game or submit your own articles, and if you like what you see, please show your support by liking articles and following the blog.

[xwingtactics]

XW Ships

Someone asked for a summary (spreadsheet) of all ships cross-referenced with either/both 'action' and 'upgrade' ( http://xwingtactics.tumblr.com/post/153926741340/hello-have-you-encountered-a-summary )

Now, you have it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J_5uC63APkKSlSbkrSq_cfZqEg3IDM5zwsyPV2aLW0A/edit?usp=sharing

Cheers...

Tibi

[xwingtactics]

Hello. Have you encountered a summary (spreadsheet) of all ships cross-referenced with either/both 'action' and 'upgrade'? I've poked around and have yet to find it. Thank you for your work on this Tumblr.

Sorry, I have not, but that seems like it would be super useful. Even I have trouble keeping everything straight these days of what ship has what combination of upgrades and actions. 

[xwingtactics]

What do you think of the Special Forces TIE? I think it has some untapped potential (especially Backdraft with Special Ops Training), but I'm unsure of just how to make it work. Any thoughts of how to make it work?

I was actually in the middle of writing my latest article when you sent this question, sorry it took me so long to get it posted. 

[xwingtactics]

Exploring Wave 9: TIE/SF

12/1/16

The Special Forces TIE is something of a pariah among the wave 9 ships, and while I was initially impressed by the named pilots after playing against them early on in my return to the game, after playing with it in a few games (4 or 5) I sadly think that it’s current status may be deserved. I think joust-wise it’s a very solid ship relative to other efficient jousters in the game, but I think it’s suffering from something that is holding back a lot of other older ships that used to be competitive: it’s too generalized in a meta full of hyper specialized ships. It suffers from being average all around, its offense can’t really break through the hyper defensive ships, its defense can’t hold up against the hyper aggressive ships, and it’s not super cheap that it can easily fill a gap in a list as a blocker. The rear arc loses a lot of utility because 2-dice attacks just aren’t effective at all in this meta, and multiplying that by two with the title (sometimes) doesn’t really help since you can’t focus fire with both attacks. 

Some tips for building the SF

Keep it cheap - the SF has slightly less durability than a T-65 X-Wing with IA equipped. Try not to pump too many points into it. 33 points or less seems to be the sweet spot for me.  

Bring scarier endgame ships - A good way to keep your SF alive longer is to bring meaner and scarier ships with it that your opponent doesn't want to get stuck in the end game with like X7 Defenders, Carnor Jax, Omega Leader and Whisper. 

Stick to the named pilots - I think if you're going to fly the SF, the unique pilots are the way to go. 

Quickdraw

The ability to make multiple attacks in a single turn is quite powerful, and Quickdraw is fairly unique in being able to to attack during the activation phase, by using electronic baffle, possibly even before some ships have activated. While you can just wait for someone to attack you and trigger her ability, I've found that it's important to be able to control when the ability triggers, otherwise your opponent will only shoot at her on turns when she doesn't have any good attacks. Rage + Electronic Baffle is a great combo for Quickdraw, as Rage allows you to modify your dice over multiple attacks, and Baffle let’s you trigger Quickdraw’s ability when you want to and allows her to clear stress on the next turn, which is helped by MKII engines. All for a an affordable 32 points. 

The dream position for Quickdraw, only possible against large ships. I actually had this happen in a real life game once, like seeing a double-rainbow on a sunny day. 

The trick to using this build effectively is to be very conservative with when you choose to pop Rage and sacrifice a shield token. Usually I’ll only do it when I’m at range 1 of a target or can make 4 attacks, where I can get maximum value out of the re-rolls from Rage, or when Quickdraw is out of arc or my other ships are being targeted. Quickdraw is a strong early game ship, but ultimately her biggest drawback is that she’s really only ever going to use her ability once or twice, sometimes even never if your opponent’s got a really good blocking game. Again Quickdraw benefits from bringing ships that are really nasty in the mid to late game that will draw heat off of Quickdraw in the early game. 

Even with conservative play, Quickdraw usually ends up like this pretty quickly.

Backdraft

I was initially enamored with Quickdraw’s ability to attack during the activation phase, but I began to get frustrated with the expiration on Quickdraw’s ability that caused her to turn into a pumpkin after her shields were gone. Backdraft’s ability on the other hand have no time limit, and his greater consistency and longevity had a lot of potential to be even better than Quickdraw. It effectively turns that rear arc back into a real threat, even when he’s not at range 1. However, I couldn’t seem to find the right build that I liked. Other players were basically just slapping VI and FCS on him and calling it a build, but there wasn’t really enough synergy to elevate him above his base chassis. But with the release of HotR, I think we have the missing piece to make Backdraft into a really interesting ship.

With Pattern Analyzer and Collision Detector, Backdraft gains the ability to effectively ignore debris clouds for 2 points, aside from taking a stress at the end of his activation*. He can fly and barrel roll through them no problem, and doesn’t take damage from them. It also opens up his dial a lot more by giving him access to his red maneuvers without losing an action, specifically the 3-hard which is so useful on ships with a rear arc. 

Approaching at an angle, Backdraft ignores a nearby debris field to put himself into a spot where it’s very difficult for Poe to follow him without using a red maneuver.

A good tip that I’ve found when flying Backdraft is to approach your opponents ships at an angle, off center from them. This will make it easier on the following turn to use a hard turn and perhaps a barrel roll to bring your rear arc to bear while also making it harder for the opponent predict where you’re going to be. Place debris fields closer to the midline between both deployment zones so you can use them to cover your escape routes and make it harder for opponents to follow you. 

“Backdraft” 32

Predator 3

Collision Detector 0

Pattern Analyzer 2

Special Ops Training 0

“Whisper” 40

Veteran Instincts 1

Advanced Cloaking Device 4

Fire-Control System 2

Intelligence Agent 1

Omega Leader 26

Juke 2

Comm Relay 3

An example list featuring Backdraft. Note the presence of high priority targets that can punish opponents if they are ignored, thus taking the some heat off of Backdraft.

Final Thoughts

I think the TIE/SF would have done much better had it been given the crew slot that was cruelly denied to it by FFG. I think it's what is allowing the ARC-170 to succeed by being able to combo astromechs and crew while the SF is stuck with the much more limited options in system and tech. So many interesting combinations would have been possible, Tail Gunner with Backdraft, Tactician, Recon Specialist or Agent Kallus on Quickdraw, Advanced Sensors with Intelligence Agent, etc.  A better dial wouldn't have hurt either (red 3 hards and no 5 straight makes no sense for a ship whose speed impressed Poe). And maybe make the generics 1 point cheaper. No doubt FFG found the endless combinations afforded by a crew slot with systems and tech, especially with new releases, a bit daunting and felt they had to remove it, possibly to keep Imperial lists from gaining access to Rebel-like control elements. But there's little to be gained from lamenting hypothetical what-ifs.

The TIE SF is an otherwise solid ship that is currently being limited by its lack of combination options, lackluster durability, and overpriced 2-dice rear arc. It has strong abilities in its named pilots, but they are held back by the SF's lack of durability. The key to doing well with the ship I think lies in the abilities of the named pilots and the wingmates that they are paired with that can offer a higher target priority and thus reduce the SF’s lack of durability as a liability. 

[xwingtactics]

Nien Numb T-70 Shenanigans

10/29/16

Posted this on my local FB group, just an example of what is possible with the new T-70 pilot from HotR pack. Something to think about when building lists with the new expansion. 

[xwingtactics]

Exploring Wave 9: Stresshog 2.0

10/24/16

This will be a small series of articles highlighting some of the stronger individual ship builds that Wave 9 brings to the table to keep in mind when building your lists. I’ve found Wave 9 is proving to be a bit perplexing for a lot of players, and I hope to shine a light on what can be done with the new ships in a competitive setting. These are not going to be speculative or hypothetical builds, they will all be based either on high performing lists on List Juggler or from lists that I encounter online or in tournaments, so you can know these have real world results behind them. 

The recent change to the FAQ stripping U-Boats of their integral Deadeye has many Rebel players rejoicing for the possible return of the stresshog Y-Wing (a gold squadron pilot that combined R3-A2 with the BTL/A4 title and TLT to put 2 stress tokens on any ship it attacked at range 2-3), one of the strongest control tools in the Rebel toolbox before Wave 8. However there may now be a legitimate challenger for the stresshog title in form of ARC-170 pilot Braylen Stramm.

Being the first ship capable of bringing astromechs and crew, the ARC-170 is able to create the same double-stress effect by combining R3-A2 with Gunner, so long as your first attack deals no damage. And remember, you're not required to add an extra attack die from the title, so if you care about piling on stress more than dealing damage, you can always roll 2 dice on your first attack and then roll the full 3 on the second. And because Gunner doesn’t specify that you have attack the same target, you can spread stress around multiple ships, just like the Y-Wing can. With Gunner and R3-A2, the ARChog® clocks in at 32 points, 6 points over the minimum for a Y-Wing stresshog. Let's take a look and see what we're getting for that 6 points, and if it's worth considering the ARC-170 over the Y-Wing for the job, based on what I've seen in actual games with it.

The Y-Wing only has a front firing arc and loses access to TLT at range 1, and thus its 2nd stress token and much of its damage potential.Thanks to its auxiliary firing arc and the use of its primary weapon and Gunner, the ARC-170 maintains effectiveness at range at range 1 and has triple the AOE of the Y-Wing stresshog.

The ARC-170 brings several large improvements to the table. The big one is a huge AOE increase, or area of effectiveness, over the Y-Wing thanks to that rear arc and still being effective at range 1. This effectively triples the ARC-170s AOE over the Y-Wing, as you can see above, making it much more flexible in its target selection. The next improvement is that the ARChog actually has action economy thanks to Braylen's ability for a 50% chance of removing a stress after executing any maneuver and the much better selection of green maneuvers on its dial. The ARC-170 also has built-in dice modification thanks to the title, and can upgrade Gunner to Luke Skywalker for more. Because it's doing 2 3-dice attacks with a modifier instead of 3 weak unmodified attacks, and can still attack at range 1, the ARC-170 actively contributes to your lists damage output, whereas the stresshog Y-Wing struggles to deal any damage with its unmodified 2 dice primary attacks and TLT volleys against any enemies with more than 1 agility. And of course, the ARChog gets 1 more hull than the Y-Wing, making it slightly more durable.

The Y-Wing and ARC-170 dials are nearly identical, but the much better selection of green banks combined with Braylen’s ability to shed stress means its much likely to regain access to its action bar after the first engagement. 

I have been very impressed with the ARChog every time I've played with it for all the reasons listed above. After playing with the Y-Wing stresshog a few times in the current meta, I think it's definitely starting to show its age and limitations, even without U-boats to threaten it. It struggles to contribute to a list's damage output because of how mediocre its attacks are, and it feels less durable than it used to in the current hyperbolic red dice arms race X-Wing seems to be caught in, while also struggling with the same problem it's always had of staying in the fight. I think the ARChog is a great ship to build a list around, and you can also reduce its point cost to 29 by downgrading Gunner to Tactician, still giving you access to a single stress out the front or back and double stress at range 2, with slightly less damage consistency against higher agility ships. It seems based on my own experiments and tournament results around the world that the best ships to bring with are Biggs (as always it seems) and a shield regen ship like Miranda, Poe or Norra Wexley, another ARC-170 ship worth mentioning for her ability to take R2-D2 and C-3PO. Here's the current iteration of my ARChog list if your looking for an example.

Braylen Stramm [R3-A2, Luke Skywalker, Alliance Overhaul] (34)

Poe Dameron (PS8 Version) [R2-D2, Sensor Cluster, Predator, Integrated Astromech] (40)

Biggs Darklighter [R4-D6, Integrated Astromech] (26)

Edit: Since posting this article, I’ve gotten some good feedback on this list that pointed out that a more offensively oriented ship than Poe would synergize better from the control elements provided by Biggs and Braylen. I agreed with that and thought about what else could work into this list, and I borrowed an element from Malaysian nationals 3rd place finisher Rodric:

Miranda Doni [Autoblaster Turret, Extra Munitions, Homing Missiles, Weapons Engineer , Long Range Scanners] (41)

Braylen Stramm [R3-A2, Gunner, Alliance Overhaul] (32) 

Biggs Darklighter [R4-D6, Integrated Astromech] (26) 

Talk about a red dice arms race, now there’s an upgrade in firepower! Long range scanners + weapons engineer lets Miranda peg two possible targets on turn 1 for her Homing missiles no matter what pilot skill they are, allowing her to take a focus on the turn of the engagement. Then she can use her ability to spend a shield and make a 5 dice attack with target lock and focus that ignores evade tokens, while safely hiding in Biggs’ protective bubble. Another good option to consider if you want a similar level of offense with slightly more staying power:

Lothal Rebel [Fire-Control System, Autoblaster Turret, Hera Syndulla] (40) 

For those curious about the nickname Stresshog, coined by FFG user Major Juggler, this is the A-10 “Warthog”, a slow, heavily armored American fighter with a powerful rapid-firing gatling cannon that entered service in the 1970s and still sees operational use today, and was initially looked down on by Air Force fighter pilots. Its characteristics, history and appearance bear a resemblance to the BTL Y-Wing, and in my opinion to the ARC-170 as well.

Check back next week, I will be going over the Wave 9 ship that has both impressed and greatly surprised me with its performance on the tabletop, the TIE/sf fighter!

[xwingtactics]

Not Quitting

Got a couple of messages from people thinking I’m quitting the game, possibly because of a reader’s question that I answered on the blog.

Don’t worry, I’m not quitting X-Wing, I’ve just been very busy lately and haven’t had time to post anything. I am working on a couple of articles but I haven’t had time to finish them and bring them up to the quality that I like before I post them. 

[xwingtactics]

Since 100% of the money goes to charity, I wanted to send you a link to my ebay auction for my collection, maybe you know someone who wants it. it notably includes the A-wing crackswarm. I had some disagreements with some local players so I'm quitting the game. tumblr won't let me put the link here but it should be easy to find on ebay, the title is X-wing miniatures collection 30+ ships and the starting price is $250

Sorry, I couldn’t find your auction, good luck!

[xwingtactics]

FFG replaces Draws with “Final Salvo” dice roll

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/7/12/2016-july-rules-update/

Massive update to the tournament rules today, the big ones being that Draws are no longer a part of the tournament system, which means no more Intentional Draws (yay!) and are now going to be resolved by both players rolling red dice equal to the total primary attack value of all their remaining ships and determining the winner by comparing hits and crits results (what!?) and also no more Modified Wins (yay!).

[xwingtactics]

Veterans is slowly arriving in the UK, and it's arriving elsewhere soon. How do you think it will affect the jump-ace-swarm meta of the larger tournaments? Any builds you anticipate will have a large effect? Also, what is your opinion of Ryad? I'm not sure whether she's good enough to take in place of an inquisitor, or a vader.

Defenders are definitely going to shake up the meta in the short term just because it’s new and shiny and so many players love the ship so much, but I don’t actually know if the Defender is going to make a long-term impact in the current meta. It’s become a powerful jouster, but it’s still just a jouster that doesn’t really have any tools against arc-dodgers. Juke and X7 is a cool combo, but that’s 34 points so you’re not bringing more than 2 of those in a list, which only leaves room for one other ship (Howlrunner?). The pilot skills on the generics are not great, 3 lets them tie with Scouts and Lothal Rebels and means they will get trumped by Crack Swarms and a lot of other swarm lists. Their high shield value also makes them more vulnerable to Plasma Torpedo strikes. In theory they just don’t match up very well against the top lists right now.

I think Bombers actually have a lot more going for them, a PS5 bomber with Deadeye, chips and either plasma or proton torpedoes for 25-26 points is very efficient and has the pilot skill to trump other swarm and ordnance lists. I think two Gamma Veterans with a Patrol Leader rocking Vader and Gunner to hunt aces is going to be a very strong list. The shuttle title also has a lot of possibilities, for example you could put it on Tomax Bren with Crackshot and let him bring some combination of Tactician, Rebel Captive, and Ysanne Isard to make him an interesting ace hunter. You can also just put Darth Vader and Rebel Captive on a Scimitar pilot and have a pretty effective little ace hunter right there. 

I’ve played one solo game so far with the Countess in place of Vader, and I’m not really sure either. I played her with Push the Limit, MKII Engines and X7 title for 36 points. She’s definitely a lot more durable than Vader with the extra shield and evade token, and also hits harder than Vader if he’s not running Predator. The big question is how much more valuable PS 9-11 is over PS 5, and I don’t actually thing Vader’s PS is all that useful since he doesn’t really have anything that he can punish other aces with. In the one game I played with her, she was a ton of fun, she’s quite the speeding brick. 

[xwingtactics]

[xwingtactics]

Could you possibly please give us a current acronym list?

Maybe the readers can comment with whatever ones they might know? Otherwise I might take a look at making something.

[xwingtactics]

Prelude to Regionals

I’ve been playing a lot of X-Wing lately. At least, a lot for someone that doesn’t currently own a computer (I have no excuse anymore). Multiple practice games on multiple nights a week, every tournament within an hour of me (I also don’t own a car, that one’s by choice). 

Let’s take a quick rundown of what the current “pillars of the meta” (Heaver P. 2013) are. 

Palp Aces

Triple Aces

Triple U-Boats

Double VCX w/ Biggs

Ghost(Kanan)+Phantom w/ Biggs

Super Dash(Kanan) + VCX

Brobots (or Bobabots)

PS 4 Crackshot swarm (TIEs & A-Wings)

I want to stress that this is not a definitive or objective evaluation of the metagame. Looking at recent Regionals results, I would have to say this current metagame is the most diverse and open that we have ever had. But the above list is what I have determined to be the main makeup of my own local metagame, with the most prevalent threats at the top of the list, based on my early tournament experiences and being fairly familiar with the tendencies of the people in my area after playing here for two years. This is my personal threat list that I have been using to guide my list selection. Out of this list, I know that the most popular at the top tables will be Aces, U-Boats and VCX lists. I especially want to be ready to beat aces lists.

Let’s start with the first list that presented itself to me as a contender, the W-Boats (double U-Boats, get it?) list that I went 6-0 with at my local Campaign-Against-Cancer tournament back in April. 

98

2x Contracted Scout (34)

Deadeye

Plasma Torpedoes

Extra Munitions

Overclocked R4

Guidance Chips

Feedback Array

2x Black Sun Soldier (15)

Feedback Array

The thing that sets this list apart for me is the four Feedback Arrays. U-Boat lists are considered to be strong against everything but weak against Aces and PS4 swarms. Ace lists are extremely popular in my local metagame, and I know that many of the top players here tend to favor ace lists. I want to be ready to beat multiple rounds of aces lists, and four feedback array has been amazing against aces players. This list retains it’s strong match-up against VCX lists thanks to plasma torpedoes as long as I am smart with my range control and blocking. I learned during the Cancer tournament that my toughest match-up was against other U-Boats lists, but I still managed to outfly both of my mirror matched opponents for a win. I have since downgraded the R4 agromechs to Overclocked R4s to have a 2 point initiative bid against other U-Boat lists, as I don’t want to see my Deadeye ripped off by Boba crew before I can shoot again. I think as long as I win the initiative bid against other U-Boat lists I should be okay against them. The list’s only real weakness is PS4 swarms, which aren’t really that popular other than a couple of people experimenting with Tala missile swarms. The list is pretty boring to play though, almost always utilizing the same setup, with the Scouts in front and the Zs in back, everyone on the right side of the board, turn 2 missile barage turn 3 bumpfest. I’ve only used the list one time since the Cancer tournament in a casual game, so my main concern with this list is a lack of practice. Even though the list is technically 8-0, it still feels fairly untested to me.

100

Howlrunner + Crackshot

x3 Black Squadron Pilot + Crackshot

x2 Omega Squadron Pilot + Crackshot

After the Cancer tournament, I saw the results of the Store Championships at the time rolling in, and I became a believer in the power of the swarm against a U-boat metagame. I bought a Khirax at my LGS and two more copies of Crackshot online so I could start flying the list that was putting so many players into their Store Championship top 4s. I knew that the list basically rolls over U-Boats, and had the tools to take down aces as well. I practiced a ton with the list, against both live opponents and practicing setup deployments and formations solo, and took it to several tournaments between April and now. I feel like I’ve gotten very strong with the list. I developed strategies for defeating aces lists that proved effective every time I deployed them, and was winning the vast majority of my games against the aces. The problem was that even though I felt like I was getting better and better with the list, it never seemed to get any easier to fly. Every game I played was an ordeal, making sure I used the correct strategy and setup deployment, making sure I activated my ships in the right order, making sure I had them all doing the right maneuvers to not crash into each other, all while also having to think about all the possible moves my opponent could make, whether it was so I could block them or to keep them from blocking. And even though I know how to beat aces lists with the swarm, that doesn’t make flying against them any less frustrating, since every kill requires an intense level of patience, In all of the tournaments I played with the list, at least one game in each I would lose because of a mistake I made that I hadn’t learned about yet. As a former Go player, I love all of the possibilities for structured learning and play that the TIE swarm offers, that’s really what this blog is about at its core. But Regionals is this weekend, and I don’t want to risk losing my shot because of a tiny mistake that I haven’t had the chance to learn yet, nor do I look forward to 5-8 rounds of not knowing . The swarm is definitely going to be a subject of study for me in this game, but I’m not confident enough that I’ve made and learned from every mistake to bring it to Regionals.

Soontir Fel

Push the Limit

Royal Guard TIE

Autothrusters

Stealth Device

Carnor Jax

Push the Limit

Royal Guard TIE

Autothrusters

Stealth Device

The Inquisitor

Push the Limit

V1 Title

Autothrusters

When I bought my Crackshots I also picked up a third copy of autothrusters so I could try out a triple aces lists. When I play it, the list feels completely natural to me, it’s sort of an effortless feeling to put my ships where I want them and dictate the pace of the match. But the aces mirror match-up is pretty much unwinnable since I am unwilling to drop anything for an initiative bid and I don't have enough offense here to punch through their defenses.

On the eve of the tournament, I've decided to go with the list that I've both had the most succes with and looks best on paper against the metagame, which is my bugzapper scouts list. I'm a bit worried that the list isn't quite as strong as its performance would suggest, but I guess we'll see what happens. I'm also a bit sad that Im not going to be playing rebels in a major tournament for the first time, but maybe in the future I'll have enough money to buy all the new toys that make them good in this metagame.

[xwingtactics]

A friend of mine recently got 2nd in a store championship with an original list, beating a number of 'tier 1' lists (palp aces, rebel stress and 3x scouts). His aim was throw people off their game with unconventional interactions and piloting. This is the list: Kath with Zuckuss, 4-Lom, and Manaroo with K4 and Unhinged astro. And the kicker: all ships with Attanni Mindlink. Token build on Manaroo and get bounced around by the pilot abilities and Attanni link. How good is surprise jank like this?

The "surprise factor" has some value, but I think too many players overvalue it when evaluating and building a list. Lists become established or "meta" because they have a high level of efficiency for their points spent which makes them stronger than less efficient lists. Fundamentally, the "surprise factor" works by drawing out suboptimal plays from your opponent by confusing their strategic priorities which slightly reduces the points efficiency of their list, hopefully to a point lower than the efficiency that your list is operating at. More simply, your opponent's confusion and consequential mistakes theoretically gives you a slight edge to beat them (was that actually less wordy?). Keep in mind these mistakes are going to be small, your opponent isn't going start bumping their own ships or forgetting to attack just because they've never played against your list before, so any advantage you get from this is going to be minor. You need a few things to happen for it to work. 1. You need a list that still maintains some decent efficiency. A "bad list" is one that pays way too many points for not enough effectiveness, and "surprise" will not save a bad list because it won't be strong enough to capitalize on the small mistakes caused by the opponent's confusion. 2. The surprise list needs to have a lot of moving parts that make it difficult for the opponent to figure out what is going on and isolate a clear weak point in the list to target. Usually this either means a lot of synergies or obscure upgrades. 3. The person playing the surprise list needs to play perfectly or close to it to keep their efficiency as high as possible. It does no good to rely on the opponent mistakes if you are making mistakes too. I would say that a "surprise factor" should be seen as a potential bonus, but not as a primary goal of list building. Your primary goal should be maintaining a good level of efficiency, with a close secondary goal being to make sure you have tools against the most prevalent threats in the metagame. If you are designing or choosing a list primarily for its novelty, without paying attention to overall efficiency and metagaming, I think you are going to be disappointed more often than not. As for your friend, it's difficult to try to draw conclusions from one players tournament results without further context like number of players, match-ups, strategy, etc, but I would say a solid list and tight play probably deserve more credit for his success than the oddness of his list, and he might just be taking his own skill for granted when trying to explain his own success.

[xwingtactics]

hey, I like to read your posts, thanks. I was wondering if you think the list below could work vs triple jumpmasters (and whether it's competitive in general). I played it in a small tournament and got destroyed by the triple scouts, but it may have been my maneuvering. VCX, ABT, AC, gunner, tactician --- VCX, ABT, AC, luke, hera. 5 points left over (I had antipursuit lasers and hull upgrade, I am changing it to double APL for 1 point initiative bid).

I took out a x2 VCX Biggs list in a tournament with just 2 U-boats, your list without Biggs won't do any better against 3. The U-boats are just a natural counter to the VCX, unless you can set up right across the table from them, then it is possible to force an initial exchange at range 1 with the Rule of 11 (10 & 16).

[xwingtactics]

As a follow up question to the StarViper post earlier, do you think that the mobility offered by Advanced Sensors could ever outweigh the raw damage potential from the Fire Control System that you recommended?

Not really. The only time that would happen would be if your starviper just finished off a ship and then had to s-loop, advanced sensors would give you better offense there, otherwise FCS is always going to give you that added accuracy as long you keep shooting at the same ship (like you should be).

[xwingtactics]

Hello There! Could I ask for some feedback on my current list? I'm using Dengar with Lone Wolf, R5-P8, Glitterstim and the Punishing One title. Alongside this, I have IG-88B with Predator, Advanced Sensors, Mangler Cannon and Autothrusters. I'm torn whether to trade Lone Wolf and R5-P8 for Predator and K4 Security Droid and the Unhinged Astromech. what are your thoughts?

You definitely don't want Predator and K4 on the same ship, since the reroll ability is redundant. I would probably drop lone wolf, r5p8, and Glitterstim for engine upgrade and Predator so you can just avoid fire instead of trying to tank it. I haven't really figured out the best way to use the JumpMasters named pilots yet.