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.

Named Pilots- Lando Calrissian

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.

Lando Calrissian (44)
Card Text: After you execute a green maneuver choose 1 other friendly ship at Range 1. That ship may perform 1 free action shown in its action bar.
Usage in game: Free Action passing YT-1300.
Breakdown: As I've mentioned before on messageboard posts and other articles here at TMB, Lando was the card that really jumped out at me when I opened my Falcon. A Free Action to any ship within Range 1 of that huge base any time I do a green? Sure! Why not? The fact that you get to make Colt .45 jokes the entire match is icing on one smooooooth-ass cake.

So normally, this is where I talk about all the nuances and whatnot of the card ability, but as Lando pretty much acts like Squad Leader, just without having to give up your own Action to perform it- instead making a green maneuver, it's more or less the same usage. This ability is especially nice as Lando is PR7, so if you've got some lower PR pilot that's important to your overall plan that took perhaps the wrong Action (namely a Target Lock instead of a Focus), Lando can help fix that problem or to simply allow for additional functionality giving a guy like Dutch a Focus instead of Dreis or his own Perform Action step and vice versa with Dries- giving him a Target Lock.

To put it another way, you may have read on some of the more math-centric sites about the statistical differences between Target Locking and Focusing and find yourself trying to decide which is better in your particular context. Well, with Lando around, it's pretty likely you won't have to make that decision with at least one of your ships. To put it yet another way, you know how awesome it is to be able to fire your primary, then Target Lock, then subsequently Focus those die results?

Ok, ok, so you get the idea.

This is pretty awesome- especially right off the bat, on the "initial pass" as people call it, being able to get a TL to launch any Missiles or Torpedoes you might be sitting on and also be able to Focus the subsequent results in the same turn. The key to making this work is remembering that the rules say you can acquire a new Target Lock even if you have a pre-existing one (you have to discard the previous TL when you acquire another one) and also that the FAQ says you can spend a Target Lock token and choose to not re-roll any dice at all. Really the only thing to keep in mind here, especially with a lower Pilot Skill pilot on your side TLing a higher Pilot Skill pilot on the other team is be sure that whoever you're TL-ing isn't going to get cheeky and Barrel Roll, Boost, or Turd Ferguson their way out of your arc before you get the chance to Attack them.

Available options get even better with A-Wings, Luke, Wedge, and X-Wings/ Y-Wings sporting the named Droids as they have the potential to have more available Actions via Droids or Elite Pilot Skills, so subsequently, more options. Just bear in mind two other things when you're building your list- Lando can't use this ability on himself and he can only give Action Bar Actions- if you've got Biggs with R2-F2 as the intended beneficiary, Biggs will need to activate R2-F2's ability with his Perform Action step then get a Focus or TL via the Free Action from Lando, not the other way around.

As for Crew, Nien Nunb is a no-brainer. The YT-1300 only has 4 green moves stock, Nien Nunb gives you two more for only 1 point. As for the other crew seat, for me it usually comes down to either Crew Member Chewbacca or Gunner. Crew Member Luke obviously works too, he's just a little too expensive for my tastes in a 100 point game on this ship.

The Falcon title is a must for only 1 point and as far as Modifications, I usually lean towards Shield Upgrade for Rebel ships. Again, you can make a case for any of them, but I think the strongest case can be made for Shield Upgrade. Being a 1 Agility ship, Stealth Device is of dubious long-term benefit and while a Boosting YT-1300 may sound like a great idea on paper, I've yet to see it work well enough to justify the point cost of Engine Upgrade. Not saying it can't, just saying I've not seen it.

As for Elite Pilot Skills, well, nothing really dovetails directly into Lando's ability- i.e there's no R2 Astromech or R2-D2 type option that gives you any more green maneuvers or makes your existing green maneuvers somehow better. I've experimented around with Squad Leader (I can pass two Actions per turn???) and Push The Limit (I'm doing greens anyway- why not Focus and Evade every turn to stay alive a little longer???). Depending on how much like running a somewhat complicated list, I think you can make either of those work to good effect- it just depends on how much in-game decision making you want to subject yourself to. Both would give more Action possibilities, but as I'm wont to say, the more decisions I have to really think about, the more likely I am to make a mistake. Don't let that keep you from trying it out, but a list involving those Elite Pilot Skills is something I'd definitely suggest you practice with a bit before just showing up to a tournament after writing your Lando + Squad Leader list an hour before then.

So what else works on Lando? Honestly, I think since he kind of already has a Elite Pilot Skill-type card ability, maybe no Skill at all. Maybe save the points you would have spent on an EPS for Lando and put them towards some Homing Missiles on an A-Wing you've got supporting you or upgrading another pilot in your list from generic to named, or B-list named to A-list named. If you simply must buy him something, maybe dish him Determination as again, the chances of you sustaining a critical and having to deal with it on a large ship are actually pretty good.

By his nature, Lando's kind of a support ship. He's going to get keyed on because of his ability and because he's in a YT-1300. If you've read about the Han Shoots First list (Han + 2 Rookie X-Wings, essentially), most folks say the key to beating that list is focusing on the X-Wings and try to weather the Han storm until they're dead. Any list with Lando is going to pretty much be the exact opposite- folks should go after him at all costs first, then go after your other ships the same way they used to go after Howlrunner first in Swarm lists for largely the same reason- once he's gone, everybody gets much worse very quickly. As his ability to effectively support hinges on making green maneuvers, many of which are straight line maneuvers, and the fact that benefiting ships have to be within Range 1, you, as his opponent, ought to be able to fairly effectively guess what's going to happen before it happens- whether or not they can do anything about it is another story entirely; Howlrunner has no shields and 3 Hull. Lando? A bit beefier, obviously.

So long story long, I think the key to making any Lando list work is tooling him more for defense than offense and flying him conservatively behind a couple of fighters that are really, super offensive oriented. If they can do some heavy hitting sooner rather than later, you're in good shape, but this is a Rebel list you're going to have to play like an Imperial a little bit- you need to make your hay in the early innings rather than wait around and fight a war of attrition going for a late stage victory like Rebel players usually do. If your fighters can pick targets that keep Lando's path clear of overlaps, you've got a good shot at things. I think you can make a case for including Arvel Crynyd in a Lando list as anti-blocking strategy as folks will be looking to block that big base that's making those fairly predictable green maneuvers just about every turn if you were seeking justification for bringing him along to a big game.

Named Pilots- Chewbacca

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.

Chewbacca (42)
Card Text: When you are dealt a faceup Damage card, immediately flip it facedown (without resolving its ability).
Usage in game: Critical Damage effect mitigation.
Breakdown: I've mentioned it several times on here previously, and I'm going to elaborate on the subject very soon in a Bikini Battle Basics article I've been working on here and there for the past few days, but I think as time passes folks are going to find that Critical Damage plays a much more significant role, both dealing and mitigating or minimizing, in X-Wing Miniatures in Wave 2 and beyond than it ever did in Wave 1.

Former Imperial players are largely drooling over Han Solo lists because of his card text and high Pilot Skill, while the stalwart Rebel players immediately went for Lando when they opened their Falcon boxes because of his Free Action passing ability. Chewbacca seems to have been largely overlooked, or at best, is being taken as a Draw Their Fire pin cushion for Han in some of the two ship lists I've been noticing here and there online.

Naturally, this makes me want to take a closer look at him and see if there's something we're missing out on as it seems he's kind of being ignored.

Examining his card text for any loopholes that would allow a Critical through, I'm not seeing any. It does exactly what you think it does- Chewbacca's not taking any face up cards when he's flying. Again, how big of a deal that is kind of depends on your stance about the importance of Criticals in general. Here's the thing though- no matter how you slice it, Chewbacca's effectiveness is not going to decrease at any point in the game from the first turn to the turn he's destroyed because of that card text. 

To put this another way, you know how a lot of people complain that Crits have the same effect on shields as hits? Well, Chewbacca takes that a step further and applies it to the hull too. Did that get your attention? Cool!

So what's that mean? It means if you're flying against him, you're not going to get lucky and sting him with the "Take 2 Hull Damage" card- you really are going to have to eat through those 13 combined points (5 shields and 8 hull standard) to get rid of him. You won't give him some setback he can try to remove by wasting an Action, or permanently reduce his Pilot Skill or limit his movement or whatever. His ship and upgrades are all going to be in full effect until the bitter end. To me, that's worth something. He's still taking a face-down Damage card when he gets dinged with an uncancelled unfilled explosion symbol die result, but it's staying face down.

As scary as some of the Han lists are, once you burn through those 5 shields, you at least have a chance to put some Critical Damage on him and reduce his effectiveness; with Chewie, you don't.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that Chewie is a better selection than Han, but I am saying this isn't some no-brainer decision to never take Chewbacca in a competitive setting. How well the two pilots fare is going to depend a lot on your playstyle. Han's obviously going to make more of an offensive impact, Chewie's likely to benefit a player who isn't the greatest at keeping his ships alive.

So with that in mind, what are some good Elite Pilot Skills to consider here?

Well, let's first eliminate the ones that aren't so good- Determination is redundant still works on Chewie as Bikini Aficionado Buhallin brought to my attention in the Comments for this article- Determination gets rid of a face-up, Pilot-centric Damage card entirely, as in it doesn't even stick, it gets discarded, whereas Chewie's card text just turns it face down. Chewie's Pilot Skill 5 isn't really worth passing on via Swarm Tactics and probably won't benefit much via Squad Leader. Marksmanship has some potential as I think Chewbacca has staying power and survival pretty well nailed down and could do with a little more offensive punch, not to mention it gives you a pretty decent chance at scoring a Critical, which again- on a big ship is totally worth it. Expert Handling? I don't know, the meta kind of trends towards only Vader and the Slave I pilots being Imperials with Target Locks, although a barrel rolling Falcon does seem like a fun thing to try out in a friendly though. I'd suggest taking Nien Nunb as a Crew Member if you're doing that though- he's only 1 point and the Falcon only has 4 green maneuvers to mitigate Stress.

Draw Their Fire is probably the best pairing with Chewie's card text and works really, really well if you plan on having another ship in your list running Expose a lot or just taking heat in general, like a Biggs with R2-D2 or R2-F2 for example. It also pairs up pretty nicely with an X-Wing or Y-Wing using R5-D8- Chewie takes any Crits coming his way and if a regular Damage manages to stick, he can attempt to drop it via the droid's ability. Not bad.

As for the rest of the Wave 2 Elite Pilot Skills, I don't really rate Veteran Instincts on Chewie, but if you had an open EPS slot and only 1 point left, I wouldn't tell you to not take it- it's always better to go higher in the Combat Phase. Elusiveness I could go either way on- I think there are better EPS for Chewie for the same points, but as the YT-1300 only has one Defense die, it's difficult for me to take a complete hard-line opposition against it, not to mention the result can't get any worse- a hit is a hit, and a crit is a hit when it comes to Chewie, so you could always have your opponent re-roll something that's going to hurt and not worry about it hurting any worse, unlikely though the die result may be. Deadeye is kinda smart if you're going to take some missiles and kinda really dumb if you're not. Push The Limit is more likely to be useful to you with Nien Nunb and the Falcon title than if you're planning on running in any other configuration and is another one of those EPS that isn't the worst idea you've had all day, but is unlikely to be the best either. Daredevil is hard for me to justify on ships with 360 arcs, and well, at times is kinda hard to justify to begin with. 

I see very few YT-1300 named pilot lists that pack missiles for many different reasons, but unless you're just sold on the idea totally and completely, I'd say in this instance do what everyone else is doing and just rely on your stock primary attack weapon. Again, with Chewie's card text, you don't need to worry about it losing an attack die due to a face-up Damage card, and missiles aren't really that much better than it's stats. The one possible exception might be Assault Missiles if your local meta includes a lot of Howlrunner TIE Swarms still. TIE Swarms can be tough on a 3-ship build, even a 3-ship build including a YT-1300 and Assaults can help even up the odds a bit in the right circumstances.

Crew Members are where you're really going to have to decide what you're up to with your ship. A Gunner or Luke Skywalker, Crew Member drastically increase your damage output chances, but word has definitely gotten around about taking a hit to save yourself from a wholesale re-roll, so I think the shine is coming off those guys a bit. Weapons Engineer, coupled up with either of those two guys allows for the trick I outline in the Weapons Engineer article, so if that sounds like fun to you, have at it. All that leaves us with is Nien Nunb, who gives you two more green maneuvers than you had before, which doesn't sound like much until somebody like me says, "You just added 50% more green maneuver options for 1 point" and Mercenary Copilot, who I think sees decidedly less use on a YT-1300 than he does a Firespray because you're way more likely to be flying a YT around at closer ranges.

Ship upgrades are the last thing to look at here, and while I said the Falcon title is a little underwhelming in it's application, I do think it's a must-have for survivability. Between Shield Upgrade, Stealth Device, and Engine Upgrade, the decision is tougher. Me personally, I don't really consider Stealth on a YT-1300 as you're paying 3 points to upgrade to 2 Defense dice and let's be real- that thing's getting shot off second turn, third turn tops. If you like the notion of Boosting a big ship, well Engine Upgrade's for you. I think you'll find the most use in Shield Upgrade, but that's just me.

Get ready, because here I go again with the "accessible" line, but Chewbacca isn't probably the most accessible YT-1300 pilot. For whatever reason, a lot of people look to the YT to be a big time Damage producer and Chewie's not likely to fill that bill, or at least not as easily as Han Solo. I do think he definitely has his place in a war of attrition, play to the time limit and earn a modified win kind of mindset, and for the points, you could tool him up fairly well and still have enough left over for a couple of Y-Wing pals as wingmen. Are you going to table your opponents? Nah, pretty unlikely that, but is every list going to have the Attack dice in numbers necessary to be able to reliably eat through that many shields and hull? Weeeellllll... you tell me- it's 29 points of hull and shields, right? With the potential for 33 (Shield Upgrades all around, my good man). With perhaps Draw Their Fire on there too? Sheesh. Take your pick from the following contextually pertinent movie quotes- "You're gonna need a bigger boat" or "Bring friends. A lot of 'em." Me personally, I'm going to go Cannonball Run on you every single time. I watched that movie like every day when I was a little kid, man. Holy mackerel.

Apologies for not coming correct on the funny today as much as usual. I only got about 2.5 hours of sleep last night being up with the youngest and for whatever reason, the brain is just on all business (which doesn't always happen that way, see also Exhibit A- Maneuvering as a Formation, Part 3). I came very close to just saying to hell with it and going to bed tonight, but decided I didn't want to break the string of updates I've got going just yet. As an act of comedy contrition, please allow me to present a Hanson Brothers greatest hits YouTube clip.

No, not those Hanson Brothers for Christ's sake- these Hanson Brothers.

And to answer your inevitable question, yes, that's the best time I've ever had being choked.

Named Pilots- Fel's Wrath

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.

Fel's Wrath (23)
Card Text: When the number of damage cards assigned to you equals or exceeds your hull value, you are not destroyed until the end of the combat phase.
Usage in game: "Nuh uh!" potential when somebody tells you, "You're dead!"
Breakdown: Fel's Wrath isn't getting much love from the internets right now, and to be perfectly straightforward, I don't think that's likely to change in the community at large as time passes. The question is- is that opinion justified or not?

Fel's Wrath is a bit like the Imperial version of Arvel Crynyd. I don't mean that in a literal, "their abilities are the same" sense obviously, more in regard to their place in people's lists, relative ease/ difficulty in their use, and their similarity to other pilots in the same ships. Both have a strange and unique ability that can't really be replicated by any upgrade or Elite Pilot Skill cards, but it's an ability that's pretty context-driven and doesn't really obviously benefit on paper to a massively game-changing degree. Also like Crynyd, he's in that rock and a hard place being a ship with mid-range Pilot Skill rating, but no access to Elite Pilot Talents. To make matters worse, the pilot immediately below him in the food chain, in this instance the Saber Squadron Pilots, can take Elite Pilot skills.

So that all sounds fairly negative, let's accentuate the positive for a bit.

First things first, as it's really the only thing he brings to the table besides a Pilot Skill of 5, which is nothing to write home about really, how significant is his card text?

At a glance, not very. It's not something that actually keeps him alive any longer, doesn't add an Attack or a Defense die, or anything obviously quantifiable like that. It's something that let's him deal some damage when he shouldn't have had any business doing so. That's not a bad thing though, right? We're not incurring any phantom penalty for trying to use him in the way he's meant to, are we?

Nah. In fact, I think Fel's Wrath is another one of those strange pilots that has the ability to affect a veteran opponent more than a novice one. Most people who have played this game more than a few times have their head around the whole Pilot Skill order of operations to at least some degree. Part of the reason you take Wedge or Han or Vader is their high Pilot Skill, which of course means they're going to shoot before other folks, and if they happen to destroy their target, the target doesn't get to shoot back. For most players at this point, that's not an added benefit, it's an expectation. It's something to be relied upon, and it's possible is maybe taken a little for granted.

Now, there's not a veteran player out there who won't look across the table at the start of the game and think to themselves, "Oh- Fel's Wrath. Guy that shoots after he's dead. I better watch that." However, I'm going to bet you after four or five turns, he'll have forgotten about that and is probably just looking across the table at a PS 5 Interceptor because not enough people are playing Fel's Wrath to have forced him to think otherwise. Maybe he then Target Locks instead of Focuses because he's at Range 1 or maybe Fel's Wrath already has a Damage card or two, whatever. In any case, maybe he makes a teensy little mistake and forgets that while everybody knows that Han shoots first, Fel's Wrath always shoots. You catch him with his pants down and off one of those high Pilot Skill ships of his.

Sounds cool, right? So how do you make this work for you?

First, if possible, give your opponent difficult decisions involving Fel's Wrath- even though he won't be, a lot of people are going to look at shooting down Fel's Wrath as a waste of shooting because of his special ability. Pair him up with say, Turd Ferguson who's sporting a Stealth Device, for example. Which one do you shoot? Fel's Wrath is the softer target, but hells bells, even if you kill him, he's still gonna get to attack back. The smarter play from a Damage limiting standpoint would be to try and off Turd, but he's got 4 Defense dice because of the damn Stealth Device. As you probably want to be slightly more conservative with Turd to keep him from overlapping stuff, so he can always attack, so he can always pull his card text moves, play Fel more aggressively against enemy pilots with higher Pilot Skill.

As previously mentioned, you can't stick Elite Pilot Skills on him, but you could throw a Mod at him. As usual, I'd look at Stealth Device on him more closely than I would a Shield Upgrade, and of course Engine Upgrade is redundant. To be honest, I probably wouldn't bother with either though. As always, your mileage may vary. I realize I look at this in kind of a strange, and admittedly non-game tested way- I kind of want him to die to justify his points cost over a Saber. Not right off the bat of course, but at some point, I want him to take somebody with him when he goes.

Secondly, Fel's Wrath always needs to have a target in his arc. His ability does absolutely nada if he doesn't. Yeah, he's 2 points more than a Saber for only 1 more Pilot Skill, so the only real way to justify that cost is to have him definitely shoot somebody after he should be dead and gone. You need to be aggressive with Fel's Wrath, but not to the point where you're denying yourself Attacks because, well, that's the whole point- if you lose your Attack from overlapping an obstacle, overlapping your only valid target, or flying past target ships (especially ones with 360 arcs of fire), Fel's not worth taking.

Which briiiiiings us baaaaack to do, do, do, do, do.

I think to really make Fel's Wrath dependably work for you, you have to be very solid at maneuvering TIE Interceptors and I think that's why he's got kind of a bad reputation going right now- most people haven't played with the Wave 2 stuff to really have gotten proficient with maneuvering the ships yet. Fel's Wrath has some potential, but it's another one of those "not as accessible" ships I'm always talking about that aren't no-brainers to fly, but are still viable. He doesn't have the Elite Pilot Skills to fall back on and isn't a particularly good value for the points compared to the other Interceptors. I do think there's some potential use for him, and I do think as time passes he'll start to get a little love from the community, but the fact is, I don't know that he's really going to consistently end up in lists more than the Saber Squadron Interceptors and I can't imagine him ending up in lists more often than either of the other two named Interceptor pilots.