Named Pilots- Ibtisam

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts in this series will be available in the coming weeks. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Ibtisam (28)
Card Text: When attacking or defending, if you have at least one stress token, you may reroll one of your dice.
Usage in game: Stress to impress.
Breakdown: I can't really explain why other than it starts with an "I" and has about the same number of syllables (at least the way I say it- which is in all likelihood not the correct pronunciation), but as a lot of y'all have commented on enjoying my conversational writing style here on TheMetalBikini.com, if you want the full effect like you're hearing me say this stuff to you, you gotta say "Ibtisam" the way those cultists dudes or whatever said, "Imhotep" in The Mummy. Because that's totally how I say it. Not every single time, but most of the time, yeah.

That out of the way, ol' Ibtisam's really got it goin' on, doesn't she? Dig on that card text- got a Stress Token? You're in luck, pal- you get a free re-roll of a single die when attacking or defending. Pause on that for a second- not only can she use the re-roll on a red die or green die, she can use it on a red die and a green die. There's nothing limiting how often you can use Ibtisam's ability during the turn so long as you've got that Stress Token. Pretty nutty, huh?

Now, I'll fully admit I didn't grasp the awesomeness of this card in the B-Wing preview/ Wave 3 leaked cards article I wrote awhile back. I'd not fallen in love with the B-Wing yet and not having seen the dial, it was hard to get your head around how any of this stuff was really going to work in-game. That said, there was a commenter even back then that saw a potential that sailed right by me at the time.

That commenter was +Matt Bounds and he had this to say-

Surprised you didn't mention putting Advanced Sensors on Ibtisam. That way you still get your action, and THEN you can pull a red maneuver to stress her out. Seems like a hell of a good deal to me, especially if you use that action to barrel roll into a better firing position. There are some great mind games that could come out of this.
Heckuva a great idea, isn't it? If you don't remember and haven't clicked on the link, Advanced Sensors essentially changes the order in which you do stuff in the Activation Phase. Namely, you do your Perform Action step before you reveal your maneuver, so assuming you aren't already Stressed at that point (which hey- you may very well be if you're several turns into the game), you could get your Action for the round, reveal your red maneuver, get Stressed, and reap the re-roll from Ibtisam (remember you can only re-roll a die once). If that doesn't seem like it jives to you, take a look at Bikini Battle Basics- Multiple Actions, Same Actions. 

While you couldn't pull that combo off every single game turn (at least, I can't think of a way off the top of my head and have it be worthwhile), there's still some solid value in Ibtisam's card text in that you've likely always got some kind of re-roll or modification available to you. As y'all know, if you've Stressed yourself and therefore (likely) denied yourself your Perform Action step, you're usually flying naked with no re-rolls or dice mods available. If you're not Stressed and got to Perform Action, you probably have a Focus or a Target Lock or whatever and you've got the dice mods and/ or re-rolls available to you. Undoubtedly, you've noticed a pretty significant difference in your gross Attack and Defend results if you've got those re-rolls and mods available. With Ibtisam, you've always got a little something available- either the benefits from the Action you chose because you're not Stressed or the re-roll from being Stressed via her card text. I'm sure for those of y'all who have flown her, it goes without saying that always being able to re-roll that single Green die likely goes a long way to keeping her on the table. 

As for what works on Ibtisam, she's another one of those PS6 pilots who actually does have an Elite Pilot Skill available to her as well as the usual compliment of B-Wing options- 2 torpedo tubes, the funky raygun, and a system upgrade.

I think ideally you'd want to stay away from the Skills and upgrades that require an Action as you'll likely spend a lot of time Stressed out. Also stuff that lets you re-roll isn't going to be quite as effective, but if the re-roll is on multiple dice as opposed to just one or a particular negative result, you still want to look at it pretty hard. As usual, Push The Limit could be pretty useful here as well as stuff that keeps Ibtisam alive longer like Determination or Expert Handling. Be careful with Elusiveness- there's nothing saying you can't take it on her, but it can't be triggered if you're already holding a Stress Token. As is also usually the case, Daredevil could work here, but you're probably better off with PTL and if you want the Boost functionality, take Engine Upgrade along with it instead. 

As for guns, it's similar to what I said in the Ten Numb article. My own personal experience is that 7 points for a Heavy Laser Cannon on a B-Wing is a bit high for what it gets you, but Ions or Autoblaster could be fun. Depending on how much you want Ibtisam to ultimately cost you, Proton Torpedoes are a good fit for her with their sort of built-in, no Action required Focus-ish card text, but Advanced Proton Torpedoes probably aren't a great idea as you really do need at least a Focus to make them worthwhile and there's probably a good chance you'll be Stressed out when you need to fire them. 

Advanced Sensors are a pretty good idea for any B-Wing because of the flexibility they provide, but as mentioned in some of the other Wave 3 articles, none of the System Upgrades are bad, per se- some just work better for certain pilots than others. As Matt pointed out up above, it's hard to beat AS on Ibtisam, but Fire Control System is a good way to mitigate the fact that she probably won't have that Perform Action step a lot of the time, and Sensor Jammer could go that much further in increasing her survivability. Again, it really just depends on how much more you want to spend on her. 

Named Pilots- Major Rhymer

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 listbuilding- the rest of the posts in this series will be available in the coming weeks. For more info, click the "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Major Rhymer (26)
Card Text: When attacking with a secondary weapon, you may increase or decrease the weapon range by 1 to a limit of Range 1-3.
Usage in game: Shootin' off missiles like you're Kim Jong Il (God- why didn't I become a rapper?)
Breakdown: Secondary Weapon Systems, specifically missiles and torpedoes have kinda gotten a bum rap in X-Wing since their inception back in Wave 1. I think folks have finally come around now to their usefulness against big ships, but if you're one of those Luddites who still think that 4 or 5 (or even 6) points on a one-shot weapon is a waste, well, Major Rhymer probably ain't for you. I'm not going to waste a bunch of space in this article trying to talk you into the notion of Missiles or Torps- you either use them or don't, and at this point, it's probably unlikely anything I say is going to change your mind much (though going up against a list with multiple big ships might).

Additionally, the Rhyme Animal is going to be a points sink for you. There's pretty much no two ways about it. He's really only worth taking if you're going to load him up with some secondaries, and really, you're better off taking a double set of full tubes if you're going to roll him, y'know? Might as well make it worth it. If you're one of those people who don't like unbalanced points among your ships, The Young Cannibal is also probably not for you.

If you're cool with those first two paragraphs though, you can get some good mileage out of this dude.

First, as always, understand the card text. It's pretty straightforward this time, but humor me for a moment. Rhymer can increase or decrease a Secondary Weapon's range by 1, while staying in the 1-3 limit. Ok, great. So what secondaries can a Bomber sport? What are we really talking about here?

Missiles and Torps.

Notice I didn't say Bombs, just Missiles and Torps. Bombs aren't Secondary Weapons. Says so on the card that explains Bombs, but if you want the real reason it's because they don't say, "ATTACK: Blah, blah, blah" in their card text. 

That's not to say you can't use Bombs on Rhymer, just that his card text won't work with them. 

Moving on, ok, so are there any Missiles or Torps that get better or worse with Rhymer's card text? 

Well, first remember that the Bomber isn't an "or" kind of siutaiton unless you want it to be. All the bomber cards have two torpedo icons and two missile icons, so yeah, you can sport anywhere between zero and two Missiles and zero and two Torpedoes. Would it be expensive? Sure. Would it be absolutely terrifying to see Rhymer flying around with four full loaded tubes? Sho' 'nuff. 

I can't really think of a better way to do this right now, so I'm just going to break it down list style.

Advanced Proton Torpedoes- Expensive, but with Rhymer they become Range 1-2. Five Attack dice at Range 1 is scary enough, but Bombers aren't the most nimble of craft, so I always kind of look at it as something of a risk to bank on the idea of me getting into Range 1 with somebody- not to mention that Bombers don't have the shields to really survive close-combat and come out unscathed. Sure, they have the beefier hull, but with no shields to mitigate crits, I'm not nuts about the idea. Rhymer with APTs makes that much easier for me to get behind. Especially if you're running Jendon in the same list for free Target Locks or the other named TIE Bomber pilot Captain Jonus for the ability to re-roll two Attack dice. Again- is it cheap? No, but it does have the ability to one-shot an X-Wing at Range 2 which is pretty spectacular. Just remember you really do need to have a Target Lock and a Focus to make this worthwhile. Depending on your skill level (not to mention your opponent's), that might be easier said than done.

EDIT: Something I should have mentioned harder that was brought to my attention by +Jeff Wilder in the comments is using APTs along with Push The Limit on ol' Hard Rhymer. What can I say? I try to look at this stuff from multiple angles and skill levels, but sometimes the siren song of a warm bed makes me hit that "Publish" button a little sooner than I should have.

Of course, sometimes I just miss things too. I'd considered running APT with PTL on Rhymer, but it makes him a little too expensive for my tastes, so I'd never given it a shot. That said, I still should have mentioned it because it may not make him too expensive for your tastes, and it really does make him pretty scary. Just be careful of opponents ganging up on him to get him off the table. Rhymer's high PS is going to make that more difficult, but those of y'all who aren't aces with maneuvering just yet might want to watch it.

So kudos to Jeff- thanks for the heads up!

Proton Torpedoes- With the card text, you're gaining the ability to shoot them at an enemy at Range 1. Not exactly an idea I'd build an entire strategy around, but it does give you some flexibility if the opportunity presents itself and you don't think the Bomber's 3 dice (at Range 1) will do the job, but a fourth die would. Also nice as it has the little built-in "Focus-lite" ability to make one rolled eyeball a hit, which is nice as it (hopefully) allows you to save that Focus token for defense. As Rhymer can take Elite Pilot Skills, you can play the Marksmanship card here (literally) if you're so inclined. Personally, I'm not nuts about regular PTs on Rhymer as you're probably not really getting your money's worth out of his card text running a 2-3 Range weapon even with the "Focus-lite", but your mileage may vary- especially if your games tend to end up as big hairballs of ships running into each other in the middle of the map as it's a much safer bet than...

Assault Missles- The thing about Assault Missiles is that you can hurt your own ships with them. The fact that you only get to use Rhymer's card text by hitting yourself with the splash damage makes me say "Pass" on this card with this pilot.

Cluster Missiles- I've long caught flak over my advocation of Cluster Missiles, but a few people have read my articles and started to come around. Yes, your opponent has two changes to roll Defense dice, but again- against ships with only 1 Defense die, 6 Attack dice is going to hurt something. The fact that Rhymer can extend these two attacks out to Range 3 makes this as close to a must have in any list with the popularity of the YT-1300 in its various configurations. I mean, come on- with a fairly standard roll, you've got the opportunity to burn off a Falcon's shields entirely with one round of shooting from one ship. For 4 points. At Range 3. That's solid, y'all.

Concussion Missiles- Like their cousin Proton Torpedoes, Rhymer gets that fourth attack die at Range 1, which is only one more than he'd be normally getting. Is that and ability to change a rolled blank into a hit worth it for you? Only you really know, but if you're good enough to have a Target Lock and a Focus before the tubes empty, you're virtually assured of one hit result at least. Again, I think using 2-3 Ranged warheads with Rhymer is kind of a waste, but giving him a load of Concussions is probably not the silliest thing you could do that particular day.

Homing Missiles- Another 2-3 Range card, but this one I like a little more than PTs or Concussions. No, you don't get a ton out of the card text as previously mentioned, however don't completely discount the whole, "Defender may not spend Evade tokens" thing with Homers. Fired at Range 1, you get 4 Attack dice, but your target can't Evade. Against a Rebel player? Well, he probably doesn't have Evade anyway, but if you're heading to a tournament where you're going to be facing both factions with the same list, Homing Missiles become more useful in Imp v Imp matches. Bear in mind, I still wouldn't call them game-changing or anything because many people don't Evade, but there is some potential there.

Like I said a few paragraphs back, Rhymer can take Elite Pilot Skills as apparently he's kind of a big deal. As you know, there are many too choose from and old chestnuts like Marksmanship and Veteran Instincts would be well played here. For me though, and knowing that I'm going to run this cat with as many Missiles and Torps as I can afford to run on him, I'm taking Deadeye every single time. The ability to bust off those warheads with just a Focus token? Sign me up, yo. This is really cool as Deadeye was kinda fair to middlin' prior to Rhymer if you ask me. I can't think of too many times I tried to use it outside of a shrug worthy decision to stick it on a Green Squadron A-Wing. Push The Limit would provide similar functionality and would be especially useful if you favor a warhead that works better with a Target Lock and a Focus, but it's a bit more points than just rolling Deadeye and you're probably already spending more on Rhymer than you'd like. Adrenaline Rush might be fun just to see the look on your buddy's face when you pull that 5 speed K-Turn, TL him, then blast him with something.

Named Pilots- Kath Scarlet

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 2 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "Ship List Articles" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Kath Scarlet (38)
Card Text: When attacking, the defender receives 1 stress token if he cancels at least 1 <crit> result.
Usage in game: Stress infliction
Breakdown: I'd really hoped FFG would holla back at me about a rules question I had regarding Kath Scarlet, which is why I'd put off writing about her until the very end of my Wave 2 breakdowns, but well, uh... we're at the very end of my Wave 2 breakdowns and unfortunately, ain't no holla back.

Anyhizzle, Kath Scarlet. Pretty popular selection right now if you're fielding a Firespray, and with good reason- decent Pilot Skill (7), cool and readily useful card ability, and some good Elite Pilot Skill synergy to boot. Oh, and after a quick read through of her entry on Wookiepedia, it appears she's pirate of some sort and also hot. Dunno about her firearms technique, but then I'm more of a shotgun guy anyway, so what do I know.

So first off- her card ability. We're talking about cancelling crits (local parlance) here, so we have to look at the Combat Phase to see what all is going on here. Step 6 is where we're going to focus our attention for a moment, as that's where you actually cancel the filled explosion symbol results and unfilled explosion symbol results with wavy arrow results. Long story short, if the defending ship successfully cancels any unfilled explosion results, they earn themselves a Stress Token. 

Doesn't matter if the attack actually ends up hitting (in the rule book sense) or not, if a critical (local parlance) result was cancelled, they're getting a Stress Token, and that's the only way they're getting a Stress Token from a Kath Scarlet attack. Having an uncancelled crit result hit a shield? No, doesn't count. Having an uncancelled crit result get pushed to another ship via Draw Their Fire? No, doesn't count. Having an uncancelled crit flipped face down by Chewbacca or discarded entirely by Determination? No, doesn't count.

See the pattern there? All of those examples are uncancelled crits. For the purposes of her card text, we're only worried about cancelled crits.

As her card says, "cancel", then that's what must happen for her to bestow a Stress Token- not mitigate, not lessened, dealt with, passed on, pissed on, pissed off, or whatever else. Cancel. As in by a green die, Evade token, etc. as described in Step 6. That's it.

Last bit about this- what if you manage to roll (or otherwise produce) two critical results (local parlance) and one of them is cancelled, but the other goes through? The target ship gets a Stress Token and takes Damage as with any other rolled unfilled explosion result. From there, it either eats a shield or flips face-up as usual.

Strangely enough, if you stop and think about it for a moment, Kath is way more likely to Stress out a ship with better Agility than one with worse Agility- remember that when you start cancelling Attack results, you start with filled explosion symbols and once you've cancelled all of those, you then start cancelling unfilled explosion symbols. Not saying it can't happen, but if you've got a selection of two different targets, the ship with the higher Agility is more likely to cancel a crit, and therefore invoke Stress. Of course, most of the higher Agility ships also have more green maneuvers, so it's kinda relative to make that your sole reasoning behind your Kath Scarlet target priority. Contextually though, you can look at it that way, and then if possible, look a step ahead and see how badly a green maneuver is going to screw either ship. I know, that's getting a little deep end, but sometimes the opponent's move is easier to guess than others.

As ideally you took Kath to Stress people out, you want to look at Elite Pilot Skills that are going to make that more likely to happen. I think it goes without saying that Marksmanship goes with Kath like the Beastie Boys and White Castle. Assuming you don't roll all hits (local parlance) and/ or blanks, you're going to end up with at least one crit (local parlance) when it's all said and done. Now, whether that gets cancelled and gives them a Stress token or goes on through as Damage and hopefully flips face up because it smacks their hull, either result is a good one there. If you aren't crazy about Marksmanship, but still wanted something that would dovetail with her card text, Expose could work- it gives you an extra die after all, which gives you better odds at rolling crits (local parlance). Past that, it's my usual take on the other Skills- PS 7 isn't really high enough to rely on Swarm Tactics, Firesprays don't have a ton of green maneuvers stock so the Skills that invoke Stress might be a bit risky, etc.

I talked about it some in the Fett article, but I think Firesprays in general are better at longer range mainly because Imperial lists usually lack long range Attack potential and Firesprays can provide it in spades. As Kath's ability can be made to work in this capacity, that's kind of where I'm going with the rest of my suggested upgrades. Can you make her more medium or short ranged? Of course. A few tweaks here and there and I think she can become a very capable medium to short range combatant- again, I'm mainly doing this because long range Imperial Attack options are so few and far between and I think that's where the average TMB reader will probably find the most benefit, but your individual mileage may vary.

So, weapons first, Proton Torpedoes have a very lite Focus/ Marksmanship type functionality built-in to them allowing you to turn an eyeball result to an unfilled explosion result. Couple that up with Marksmanship, and you end up with two if you roll two eyeballs in addition to any other hits (local parlance) or crits (ditto) you might have rolled. Not bad, and has a good potential to invoke Stress and do Critical Damage, but what about the Heavy Laser Cannon? For only three more points than the Torps, you get a 4 Attack Secondary Weapon System you can fire every round instead of just once per game. Score, right? Yeah, but, keep in mind that the HLC has that card text that states you turn any unfilled explosion results to filled explosion results immediately after rolling your attack dice. Now, you can always add in the Mercenary Copilot crew member, in which case he'll turn one of those hits (local parlance) into a crit (local parlance) provided you can put yourself at Range 3 when you're doing your shooting. If you're wondering, yes- Marksmanship still conceivably helps you out here. The changing of the dice per HLC would happen before you modified them with Marksmanship, so any eyeballs would still change into 1 unfilled explosion result and the rest filled explosion results.

The Ion Cannon has some interesting potential with Kath Scarlet. I mentioned in the Ion Weapons Exlpained! article that the best possible use of an Ion Weapon right now is ionizing an already Stressed ship because it will ultimately deny them their Perform Action step in the next turn. Well, depending on how you roll, Kath Scarlet can conceivably produce the same outcome on any ship (ok- clarifying point, any non-Large ship) within range of her Ion Cannon, depending on how you roll, previously Stressed or not.

The long story short here is you need to produce at least two crits (local parlance) on the three shots the Ion Cannon affords her- one to get cancelled the other to activate the Ion Weapon card text. Not great odds stock, but with Marksmanship turning the first eyeball to a crit (local parlance) and Mercenary Copilot turning any hit into another crit (yup- local) at Range 3 (don't worry- the Firespray-mounted Ion Cannon, unlike the Y-Wing's Ion Cannon Turret is a Range 1-3 weapon)? Well, it gets much more likely.

The odds of pulling this off are of course dependent on what the target ship rolls for his Defense, but you've got decent odds of holding up the attack end of the bargain using both Marksmanship and Mercenary Copilot with your Ion shot. Pretty much anything besides 3 blanks is going to generate the requisite minimum 2 crits (local parlance) necessary to at least give you a chance at making this happen, one way or another.

Brief aside, if you're on the business end of this combo, this is another one of those weird situations like when a Falcon with Gunner or Crew Member Luke is shooting at you- stop and think for a moment before you automatically start spending Tokens or re-rolling dice or whatever.

In short, deciding to use a Focus or Evade token in response to a Kath Scarlet Ion Cannon attack is going to be very contextual. It's possible depending on what everyone rolled that cancelling one of her crits is actually going to leave you worse off than not cancelling it and saving your token. There are many possibilities and they're all different for each ship, but I'll give you one example of what I'm talking about.

• Kath Scarlet fires Ion Cannon at Range 3 with Marksmanship and Mercenary Copilot at an X-Wing with a Focus Token.
• Kath rolls two eyeballs and a filled explosion.
• Kath modifies dice roll, end result is 1 hit and 2 crits.
• X-Wing rolls two defense dice (no extras for Kath at Range 3- Ion Cannon is a Secondary Weapon) and gets one wavy arrow and one eyeball.

If the X-Wing spends that Focus token, he'd get an end result of 2 Evades. This would cancel Kath's hit first, one of her crits second- which would trigger a Stress Token for the X-Wing, then her uncancelled crit would trigger the Ion Weapon text which cancels the crit result, invokes 1 damage, and an Ion token on the X-Wing.

If the X-Wing doesn't spend the Focus token, he end results just the 1 Evade result, which cancels only Kath's hit result. Both of her crits are uncancelled, which triggers the Ion Card text, which then cancels both crits, invokes 1 damage, and produces an Ion Token on the X-Wing.

Again- the actual difference here is that in the first outcome, the X-Wing makes a 1 straight and has no Perform Action step next turn, while in the second outcome, he just makes the 1 straight.

Kind of a big difference, no?

(NOTE- if you hadn't already figured, this was my rules question to FFG- is this really supposed to work this way?)

All right, now that we have all that hoo ha out of the way, let's look at Crew Members, bearing in mind that unlike the Falcon, the Firespray is only a 2-seater and Kath's taking up one of those seats. I already ran through what Mercenary Copilot does, Weapons Engineer could make an HLC better against multiple targets allowing you to maintain more than one Target Lock at a time, and Gunner helps make sure if you did fire at something and whiff, you still get a chance to redeem yourself in the same Combat Phase. Just remember, if you're tooling Kath for long range fire support, Gunner activates your primary weapon, so while you were denying the defender the extra Defense die at Range 3 before, you're not now (if you're firing on the same target- again, nothing says you actually have to do that).

Ship Upgrades, it's pretty much the same things I said for Krassis Trelix- if you're planning on staying out at Range 3 because you've taken Mercenary Copilot to help fire your HLC or Ion Cannon, I'd lean towards Stealth Device because it's making your Firespray a 4 Agility ship against opponent's Primary weapons at Range 3, or if you're not crazy about that idea, Shield Upgrade is always nice on a ship that already has 4 shields. I think you can even make a case for Engine Upgrade here if you value having more movement options to try and keep you out at Range 3 over a somewhat temporary buff to your Agility or Shields, but keep in mind that it requires an Action and unless you've gotten an extra one from somebody, that's an Action you won't be able to use for Marksmanship or possibly something else as important.

Oh, nearly forgot Bombs. As the defender doesn't get an opportunity to cancel either of the bombs, neither is particularly better or worse on Kath's ship. In this instance, it's largely just personal preference and how many points you want to spend. I do think a Bomb on Kath is a good idea if you can swing it as you can be any opponent worth their salt is going to try and at least get into (and stay within) Range 2 of Kath, if not Range 1 to try and get the extra dice to damage her more. Having a Bomb you can drop on those people is always a nice option to have at your disposal.

NOTE: One last thing- I'm not at all interested in debating or hosting a debate about the Kath + Ion + Marksmanship + Mercenary Copilot thing. I'm really not. Let me say this again- I'm really, really, REALLY not interested.


As I've mentioned, I've submitted the situation for clarification, but unfortunately I've not heard back from FFG yet. I really, really hoped I would before Regionals started, but alas- didn't happen. You can bet when I do hear back from them, I'll come back and update the article one way or another right away, but until then, I'm going to say this gets played as I've outlined above- your mileage may vary.


If you want to argue about this rules interaction situation, head over to an X-Wing-centric rules forum and argue your little hearts out over there. I won't have a bunch of unproductive bickering cluttering up the comments of the hippest pilot bar in the galaxy. This is a site dedicated to being a treasure trove of all kinds of information pertaining to X-Wing Miniatures. If I wanted to host a message board where people argue over rules, I'd do that instead of this.

If you want to talk about the situation- as in have an actual two-way conversation where the involved parties are actually trying to communicate their stance as opposed to browbeating each other into submission, fine. Talk about how it works, why it works, why it might not work- that's totally and completely cool. The moment your comment gets snarky, pissy, or condescending though, it's gone. Just a heads up.

As a rule, I never delete anyone's comments for any reason other than duplicate posts or spam, but this is one time I'm going to break that rule if I feel I need to.

Thanks for understanding!

Named Pilots- Boba Fett

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 2 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "Ship List Articles" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Boba Fett (39)
Card Text: When you reveal a bank maneuver, you may rotate your dial to the other bank maneuver of the same speed.
Usage in game: Additional maneuverability options. Excuse to wear Mandalorian hoodie.
Breakdown: Boba Fett is another one of those X-Wing Miniatures pilots who doesn't get much love on the internets. 

While he's one of the most badass, capable, ruthless, and downright scary fictional fictional film villain dudes this side of Mickey Knox, Frank Booth, or Max Cady, many folks who play X-Wing Miniatures who are also big fans of the character find his card text ability lacking in general, and downright insulting compared to the other Slave I pilots Krassis Trelix and Kath Scarlet. 

So what's the problem?

Well, Fett's ability isn't exactly an obvious benefit the way either of those pilot's abilities are, and I'll be frank- I don't make good use of it yet myself, so don't think I'm like Caine from Kung Fu telling you to snatch the Firespray from my hand or something. I don't have the answer. I don't know that there even is an answer, to be completely honest. I mean, yeah, the ability has its uses, but I've yet to see it make a massive, game changing difference. It could though, I suppose, if you were to set things up juuuust right.

The ability to flip your bank maneuver to the other way can be handy, don't get me wrong. Fett being Pilot Skill 8 is going to move after just about everyone else on the table; by being able to choose the other direction after you've seen (most) everyone else make their moves can keep you from getting into overlaps with other ships or obstacles, or conversely, allows you to change your mind after dials start getting revealed to take advantage of an opponent who just overlapped a ship or obstacle. Could be you use the card ability to allow you to back out of what could have been a location where maybe you fell within some overlapping fire arcs or maybe a Range 1 situation, or perhaps puts you into a situation that's more beneficial to your particular weapons loadout- i.e. gets you into Range 1 with your primary or Cluster Missiles, or backs you off into Range 2 or 3 for the longer ranged Secondary Weapon Systems. A Firespray has bank maneuvers at speeds 1, 2, and 3, so if you were curious how many different maneuvers you could conceivably hedge your bets on with Fett, there ya go- it isn't like you don't have options.

I think the question boils down to is having that ability and one more level of Pilot Skill for an additional point worth giving up Kath Scarlet's ability, and as usual, I don't have an answer for you- all I can do is try to present whatever we're talking about in an objective light and pass along any interesting thoughts along the way. It always boils down to whether or not you can make it work in your list. 

In all likelihood though, it probably doesn't. At least not right now. Maybe in the future, but right now, you'd probably rather take Kath's more significant ability to inflict stress when the defender cancels a crit result and save the point. In the future though, once you've become adept at moving and maneuvering the Firespray, who knows? Maybe you play a couple of games keeping an eye out for instances where you could have used Fett's ability and eventually you give him a shot.

For the sake of debate though, let's say you're dead set on Fett right now- how should you kit him out?

Well, none of the Elite Pilot Skills really scream synergy with Fett to me. I kinda think Expose could get some use here if you were good enough at moving and maneuvering to stay out of people's firing arcs with Fett's card ability, and an Attack 4 primary weapon at ranges 2-3, and of course 5 at Range 1 isn't anything to sneeze at. Long time readers will know I'm always a fan of Swarm Tactics on pilots with Pilot Skills on the high end of things, so that's a possibility as well. As a Firespray only has 4 green maneuvers, two of which are straights and of course no Nien Nunb option, you might want to stay away from any of the Stressful Elite Pilot Skills, but a debate could be made as the 1 bank maneuver is green for a Firespray and Fett could of course, flip that if necessary.

As Fett is perhaps a bit more easy to maneuver in smaller spaces, unlike Trelix and Scarlet, I'd lean towards tooling him for closer combat. Having a Firespray that actually flies in with her wingmen I think is something of an anomaly right now based upon battle reports and Regionals write-ups I've seen, so maybe consider an Elite Pilot Skills like Draw Their Fire to try and keep those TIE Fighters or Interceptors alive a little longer.

Going with this notion of making Fett your close to medium range role player, secondary weapon systems like Cluster Missiles or the Ion Cannon could find their home in your list, or even just going with the plain ol' primary Firespray weapon. Either of the bombs I think get easier to use too, under this close-range notion, and also because Fett's text allows you to react at the time you're making your move rather than having to necessarily stick with what you picked on your dial. Some folks dismiss the bombs because they don't do a ton of damage when they go off, but I still think there's something to be said for damaging a ship outside of the Combat Phase. As always, your mileage may vary.

Getting in close kind of negates the idea of using Mercenary Copilot as your crew member, but Gunner works just fine at any range, and Weapons Engineer could be beneficial as you could conceivably be more likely to get close to the ship you've TLed with Fett's ability if there are two of those ships out there flying around.

Ship upgrades, I could see Engine Upgrade being worth it on Fett because if you're good enough to make good use of his bank template flipping, you're probably also good enough to Boost a Firespray effectively. If you're not nuts about that idea, I'd lean more towards Shield Upgrade than Stealth Device if you're going with the idea of making Fett a medium to close range fighter. As for the Slave I title, I don't know man- I was stretching it pretty thin in that article just to find a use for it without working with the idea of a closer range fighter. Sure, it's an alpha strike, and lots of opponents won't expect it, but I still have a hard time saying, "Yes, have some", in this context.

I think Fett's one of those guys you'll see two types of people use regularly- dyed in the wool fanboys who simply must field him or risk feeling like sellouts and really advanced players who can make good use of his movement options. To put it another way, when you set up across the table from someone using Fett, it'll probably either make you roll your eyes or start to sweat a little bit. I doubt we see a lot of in-betweeners using Fett in competitive settings, but of course, only time will tell.

Named Pilots- Krassis Trelix

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 2 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "Ship List Articles" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Krassis Trelix (36)
Card Text: When attacking with a secondary weapon, you may reroll 1 attack die.
Usage in game: Long range fire support.
Breakdown: Prior to Wave 2 ships getting a lot of play, the Firespray wasn't getting much love. It's still that way now to a certain extent judging by some of the Regionals threads I've been reading which tells me a lot of X-Wing players aren't reading the internets. 

First, a Firespray ain't a bad boat to start off with. Sure, a lot has been said about it not being as durable as a YT-1300, and of course, it isn't. That said, an X-Wing isn't as durable as a Y-Wing either, but you seldom hear people make a similar argument about those ships, now do you? Yes, yes, there's more to this debate, I'm just addressing the main knock regarding Firesprays it seems most folks bring up.

Look- I think I've said it on here before, but perhaps not. In any case, here's the deal- Firesprays are not as easy to use as a YT-1300. That's it. It's ok though- that's why Firesprays cost less than YT-1300s.

Generalities aside, just like Muhammad Ali they called him Krassis, and he's a fairly rough customer. I think a lot of folks dismiss not only the Firespray in general, but also the pilots available not named Kath Scarlet. If you're playing in a Regional fairly soon, you just might be able to use this to your advantage.

Trelix has a pretty straightforward card ability in that he can reroll 1 attack die when firing a secondary weapon. To review, a secondary weapon is any card that says, "Attack:" in it's header. For a Firespray, that's any of the Missiles, Proton Torpedoes, the Ion Cannon or the Heavy Laser Cannon, but not the Bombs. So there's the weapon systems that Trelix can use his reroll with. Bear in mind too that as all of those weapons are Secondary Weapons, at Range 3, they do not provide the target with an extra Defense die like Primary Weapons do.

All right, so what's smart to pack on Trelix? Well, it depends a bit on what kind of role you envision him playing and what other upgrades you're planning on investing in.

Personally, I think the best use for Trelix is just what I said on the "Usage in game" entry- long range fire support. Imperial lists in general lack punch at distance, so their builds often revolve around strategies that support the idea of them closing on the enemy. A list featuring Trelix has no such shortcomings with his card ability and access to the HLC or Ion Cannon.

I'm trying to stall this out, but I just sort of can't any longer- the HLC is pretty brutal on Trelix. I talked about him using it kind of a lot in the HLC article, and while I don't want to just completely re-hash everything I said there, I do want to convey the notion that him using an HLC is going to be painful for whoever he's firing at, even without him using an Action or upgrade. This isn't to say the Ion Cannon isn't good on him too, I just think that having a secondary weapon that isn't one-shot, that gets 4 attack dice at Range 3, paired up with Trelix re-roll 1 die at will ability is too good to pass up. And for the record, no you can't take both the HLC and the Ion on a single Firespray.

It's important that Trelix has that re-roll deal going for him because unfortunately for him, he can't take Elite Pilot Skills. That said, he can, of course take a single Crew Member to hang around with him. As he's not a Rebel, you've only got three choices for your backseat driver- Weapons Engineer, Gunner, or Mercenary Copilot. If Trelix inflicting crits is important to you (that question's not a set-up, by the way- you might be planning on another ship in your list earning some crits instead), then Mercenary Copilot is a must. Gunner works ok, but remember that Gunner fires the primary weapon if the initial attack misses, which won't allow Trelix' card ability to go of. If you are planning on having Trelix floating around at Range 3 most of the game, Gunner might not be the most beneficial crew member in that role. Weapons Engineer can be useful, but you are sort of cannibalizing a die re-roll from Trelix Card text by taking him. It ain't the end of the world, I'm just saying with the Attack dice weighted towards hitting by their design, it might not really be necessary if you're planning on using the HLC. Of course, if you're looking at taking Missiles, then yeah, I'd definitely take a closer look.

Floating around the backfield lobbing in HLC shots sounds well and good, but what do you do when after a couple of matches and your regular opponent decides to ignore the rest of your list and makes a bee line straight at Trelix? Why, drop a bomb of course. Either would work, but Seismic Charges might be a little easier to get a result with as it's Range 1 from the bomb token and it also doesn't require an Action to drop. Especially nice as again, Trelix can't take stuff like Push The Limit to get an extra Action if he needs it and he's probably out of range of anyone else in your list carrying Squad Leader or something.

As for Mods, I think you can really honestly make a case for any of the three. I'm not a huge fan of boosting large ships, but if you're out at Range 3, from what's hopefully the center of the conflict, being able to re-position yourself can not only be pretty handy, but likely to actually work, so Engine Upgrade could be pretty useful. Stealth Device is probably going to be around for a good little while, especially if you play against Rebels that are of the opinion that one-shot Missile weapons aren't worth their points. At Range 3, with a Stealth Device against a primary weapon, a Firespray has an Agility of 4 until it gets hit (base Agility of 2 + 1 for Range 3 + 1 for the Stealth Device). Yeah, for reals. And you can still take an Evade Action on top of that. Last but not least, Shield Upgrade adds 5th layer of shielding, which again, if you spend the first half of your match out on the fringe at Range 3 ought to be quite nice for your survivability.

Trelix main shortcoming is his inability to take Elite Pilot Skills and his relatively low Pilot Skill. As the post-Wave 2 tournament meta is shifting towards fewer, more upgraded, higher PS, named pilots, especially on the Rebel side, it's not entirely unlikely that all of your opponent's ships would get to move after Trelix and shoot before him. I think this largely gets mitigated by the fact that he's probably far away from the action, but you won't be able to keep him at Range 3 forever (well, probably anyway), and eventually it's possible he may end up with a Wedge or Tycho right on top of him. This is where you need to remember that rear firing arc the Firesprays have for their primary weapon and as well as a bomb if you paid for one. Stay cool, fire as you run away, get the rest of your ships turned around and keyed on this nearby threat, and try and get yourself back out to Range 3. It's not easy and it will take some practice games to get the Firespray's maneuvering options down, but for the cost of Han Solo and Crew Member Luke, you can deck out a pretty nasty Krassis Trelix that'll be tougher to hit (rule book sense) and hit back harder from range. Is he PS9 with a 360 turret that practically never misses? No, but don't disregard him if he's in an experienced player's hands either.

Named Pilots- Han Solo

This post regarding Named Pilots is part of a larger article regarding Wave 2 listbuilding- the rest of the posts n this series will be available in the coming weeks as I'm revealing a post or two per day on the various topics in that larger article. For more info, click the "Ship List Articles" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.

Han Solo (46)
Card Text: When attacking, you may reroll all of your dice. If you choose to do so, you must reroll as many dice as possible.
Usage in game: Offense-oriented YT-1300 chassis.
Breakdown: So here's the guy we all wanted to be growing up. Oh sure, you probably wanted to be Luke when you were really little, but as you got a little older, you realized that the Force was no match for a good one-liner and a smirk. When you got a little older still, you realized how cool it was to be the guy who didn't kiss his sister, and maybe when you got even older, you banged on the dashboard of your car hoping it'd spring to life from a dead battery (which, it probably didn't, but oh man, if it would have).

It's safe to say that while all of the named YT-1300 pilots are popular, it comes as no surprise that the most popular one by far is He Who Shot First himself, Han Solo. He's a hit with the ladies because he understands foreign languages and is a bit of a rogue, has a gambling problem, but just to the point that it's more an endearing idiosyncratic personality flaw than an intervention-worthy problem, and hey- he's a white guy with a black friend, so he's literally as cool as you can possibly get.

Getting on with it, what's Han bring to the table? First, he's Pilot Skill 9 which of course is as high as you can go without investing in Veteran Instincts. It puts him right up there with Wedge, Vader, and Soontir Fel. So can you make Han shot first jokes the entire match if you've grabbed initative? Yes, by all means you can, but it's getting a teensy bit tired at this point because everyone's doing it. The dude has so many awesome quotes that can be made contextual with even a marginal amount of thought, so throw out some new ones, yo. Like how about when you grease one of your opponent's ships you instead hit 'em with, "Sorry about the mess?" That's cold-blooded right there.

His card text can be a little confusing at a glance (ha, yeah, apparently- as I had it wrong on my initial posting), so let's break it down- first notice that it just says, "When attacking...". No mention of a primary weapon or secondary, just "when attacking", so… that. Secondly, you may re-roll all of your dice; keyword there is may, not must- it's a decision on your part, not something you're forced into. Last bit- "if you choose to do so, you must re-roll as many dice as possible". That's the part that trips folks up (like me, heh)- what's that last part mean exactly and when does it kick in?

Well, consulting the Bikini Battle Basics- The Combat Phase Explained!, we see that the third step, Modify Attack Dice is when Han's card text kicks in. We also know that according to the rule book, if we have multiple abilities available that modify dice (attack or defense either one), we can choose to apply them in the order we, the controlling player, wish.

Ok, long story long- what the hell does that mean exactly?

More or less, it boils down to if you choose to use Han’s card text, then you have to re-roll all of your attack dice. You don’t get to keep hits/ crits (local parlance) or hits/ crits and eyeballs (also local parlance) like you would with a Target Lock- if you choose to activate the Han ability, then you have to pick all the dice up and re-roll them all.

This is generally going to leave you with a two option scenario-

1) Attack isn’t great, so you decide to re-roll everything

2) Attack roll isn't great, but it's more beneficial to apply some other dice modifying mechanism, i.e. Focus, Marksmanship, etc. than re-roll everything. 

Now, all that being said, once you've activated Han's card text and re-rolled your dice, you can decide to apply Marksmanship, a Focus, etc. as per usual just as you would doing re-rolls with Target Lock. 

Makin' dollars to ya? Picking up what I'm laying down? Catchin' my drift? 

Cool. Now we'll talk about how Han's ability interacts with Gunner or Crew Member Luke.

First, this would be as good as time as any to remind you that once a die has been re-rolled, it can't be re-rolled a second time. Says so in the rule book. However, Gunner/ Luke don't really count as re-rolls from a rule book perspective.

Gunner and Luke have similar text when it comes to triggering. Basically, if your attack doesn't hit (rule book sense of the word), then their ability activates. So regardless of whether you went with option 1 or 2 above to try and improve a sub-standard Attack roll, if the target cancels all of your hits and crits (local parlance), Gunner/ Luke kicks on, you pick up all those dice, and make a primary attack (again, distinction here only in case you initially fired Missiles of some sort- works perfectly fine if you made a primary attack as your first attack). This is important- it was clarified to not be considered a re-roll, so you're totally cool using Gunner/ Luke and not violating that pesky "you can only re-roll a die once" rule- you're technically not re-rolling, you're making a primary attack.

Whew. Ok. So you roll your dice (all of them- no choosing a la Target Lock) as a primary weapon attack. What can you do with them now? Can you modify any of them?

Yes. If you kicked on Marksmanship, again- it's on the entire attacking round, so it would affect these kinds of rolls just like it did the initial roll.

If you burned a Focus token on your initial roll, then no, it won't still be in effect. Now, if you've managed to get your hands on a second Focus token, you can of course, use it to modify this roll. Same goes for Luke's built-in Focus-type ability.

Last, and perhaps your best option depending on what you actually rolled, Han's card text ability can re-roll these dice too. Recall his card text just stipulates "When attacking...", well you're attacking, aren't you? So re-roll those dice. Ha. Wondered why I was making such a big deal about that back at the beginning weren't you? Foreshadowing FTW.

Holy mackerel. Ok, now that we've got all that craziness out of the way, let's briefly talk about the remaining Elite Pilot Skills, Crew Members, and Mods.

First, Han needs to be built and played offensively in your list. That said, Marksmanship far outweighs all other Elite Pilot Skills, at least in my opinion. Like most stuff, I'm not saying other stuff can't work on him, but I think Marksmanship is far and away the best EPS he can take. It just meshes so well with his card text.

As for crew, I think you pencil in either Gunner or Luke for the first chair. I kind of waffle around on this, because there are times I look at this and think that it's overkill, especially if you're already pairing Han up with Marksmanship, but here's why I lean towards this recommendation- Han is going to be expensive once you finish tooling him up. He's definitely going to force you into a 3-ship list at 100 points, if not a 2-ship list. As such, he's got to pick up the offensive slack and be downing a ship every turn. Gunner/ Luke is going to help insure that happens.

For the second chair, Chewbacca is a great choice, not just thematically, but also because he's great at keeping the Falcon alive and as you're going to be taking big chunks out of your opponent and likely putting yourself in somewhat compromising situations, you'll use all the help you can get. A case can be made for Nien Nunb, but really with that 360 arc, you shouldn't be having to K-Turn all that often, and if you don't take any of the Stress invoking Wave 2 Elite Pilot Talents, you don't have a ton to worry about other than Kath Scarlet in the Stress department. If you're really scared that she's going to be a problem, just bear in mind you're flying a 1 Agility ship. The chances of you mitigating an unfilled explosion roll is pretty slim to begin with- I'd take my chances in this instance and leave the Sullustan at home with Lando.

As for Mods, I still like Shield Upgrade on YTs, I still don't like Stealth Device because you're flying a ship that's likely to be getting pounded on and is only 1 Agility to start with, and I still think that theoretically the Engine Upgrade could work, but you'll get a far easier return on Shield Upgrade than Engine Upgrade. It should go without saying that if you don't spring for the Falcon title, you're such a bad person.

Missiles you could take, but you're making an already expensive and upgraded ship even more expensive. If you're playing in games above 100 points, I'd say look seriously at packing some Missiles (any kind really) as Han's card text (and Marksmanship if you took it) works on Missiles too, but tournament standard I'd probably leave them at home.

There's probably more I want to say, but this article is crazy long already, so I'm going to call it a night with this final thought- Han is a great ship for anybody, but especially a player new to the game. The 360 arc and card text are very forgiving as is adding a few upgrade bells and whistles, and let's be honest, it's just about the most iconic ship in Star Wars if not the coolest looking model in X-Wing Miniatures. If you're trying to talk a friend into giving the game a shot or you're putting on a demo or something, for goodness' sake, bring Han along if you really want to sell the casual fan on how awesome this game is.