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.
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.
Ten Numb (31)
Card Text: When attacking, one of your <unfilled explosion> results cannot be canceled by defense dice.Usage in game: Stickin' crits. Breakdown: So it's no secret my favorite ships from Wave 3 are the TIE Bomber and B-Wing. I always liked flying both of them in X-Wing Alliance and TIE Fighter on PC back in the day, so I'm kinda biased to start with, but nostalgic personal feelings aside, they're both solid ships. Add a pilot with a solid PS value (8) and a nice bit of card text into the mix, and you end up with our good pal Ten Numb.
He's awesome, no doubt about it, the only question you ought to have in mind really is whether or not he's actually worth a third of your available points.
B-Wings have a decent dial, good stats, and a fairly varied amount of upgrades and options available, so I think the decision for most people will boil down to how comfortable they are running a three ship list. I know you could probably generate a four ship list, but you'll probably not run Ten Numb totally naked, right? I mean, you could- his card text is pretty cool, but let's look a little closer and see what we can do with some of those aforementioned upgrades and stuff.
B-Wings already have a respectable Attack of 3, but keeping in mind Ten's card text, Proton Torpedoes seem like a no-brainer. Is it worth taking two loads of them? Advanced Proton Torpedoes are their usual nasty selves, and while they don't particularly mesh up with Ten Numb's card text, you are throwing 5 dice instead of 4, so there's one more die to possibly roll a critical. Is it worth it points-wise? For me? Nah- I'd stick with normal Torps, just looking at it in a vacuum like this.
That said, if you were to take an Elite Pilot Skill like say, Marksmanship? That might change things a bit. Expensive? Hells yeah. Ability to hurt something real bad? In spades, my friends. You don't have to take APTs to make it worthwhile though- Ten Numb's card text doesn't specify secondary weapons or anything, so you could even work it on just a regular old primary Attack roll.
As for other Elite Pilot Skills, Push The Limit is always a pretty good option to have up your sleeve for the flexibility it provides, but here doubly so to pull off a Target Lock and Focus (or TL and Marksmanship) in the same Activation Phase should a really golden opportunity present itself. It'd also be handy for comboing some other Action with a Barrel Roll should you find yourself on the wrong end of things. If you're more concerned about keeping Ten Numb alive with your Actions, perhaps letting upgrades and secondaries do your offensive work for you, Elusiveness isn't a bad idea, but Expert Handling could be fun to throw on there especially if your opponent loves to run Bombers, TIE Advanced with Missiles, or Colonel Jendon.
Taking an Ion Cannon for Ten Numb is kind of a waste with how Ion handles crit results, and while there is definitely an argument to be made, I think sticking a Heavy Laser Cannon on a ship that already has an Attack 3 weapon is kind of a waste and even more so with Numb's card text (EDIT: As Bikini Aficionado +TheForlornViking pointed out in the comments, a HLC actually isn't that much of a waste on Ten Numb- if you have a Target Lock, Marksmanship, or some other means available to re-roll your Attack roll, your second results stick regardless of the card text on HLC, and therefore would trigger Ten's card text should one of your re-roll results be an unfilled explosion symbol). The Autoblaster I think will get FAQed in the future, but right now, it's probably the only non-ordnance secondary weapon I'd consider for Numb. I don't know how exactly they'll choose to rule it, when they choose to rule it, but as for now, it would appear that rolling Ten Numb with an Autoblaster does not allow the defender to cancel any hits and one crit with his defense dice (if you rolled two crits, he could cancel the second one as +Davyd Atwood reminded me in the comments that only one of Ten's crits avoids the cancellation). Take that TIE Interceptors! Please note that other, non-dice related means of cancelling hits and/ or crits (namely Evade tokens) would still be effective here.
As B-Wings are currently the only Rebel ship that can use the new-fangled System Upgrades, I gotta mention those. Any of the three would be useful to Numb, but I like Fire Control System for the free Target Lock the best. Again though, it's easy to make a case for using a more defense-oriented System Upgrade like Sensor Jammer so you can go more offensive with Elite Pilot Skills or Secondary Weapon Systems or even Advanced Sensors and pull a Barrel Roll early in the Activation Phase if a ship unexpectedly gets behind you at an inopportune time.
EDIT: I wanted to throw this great idea in from the comments courtesy of +Nick Smale as it's a great use for a normally forgotten (at least by me) Modification and would likely catch a lot of folks unawares. I've had a lot of success with PtL, Advanced Sensors and Engine Upgrade. The choice to possibly boost and barrel roll either before or after you move, plus instantly shed the stress from PtL immediately after you've used it (assuming you've gone green) is insanely effective.
It wouldn't be cheap, but it's hard to argue with the effectiveness! I remember playing against some Interceptor lists where the ships kept on flying out of my firing arcs using Boosts and Barrel Rolls, now, I realize the B-Wing doesn't have the dial those ships do, but they also can't take Advanced Sensors and immediately shed the Stress token as Nick mentioned above by choosing a green maneuver. I'm just saying, the possibility of flying right out of lower PS pilots' arcs is still there if you're a veteran at maneuvering.
If stuff like that's still a little over your head though, I think one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get more mileage out of Numb is picking the rest of your squadron around the idea of using Ten as the heavy hitter he is. Biggs can help pull some of those shots away from him, Garven Dreis can hook him up with a Focus, Dutch Vander can kick him over a Target Lock all of which theoretically allows you to go overboard on offense or provide some help for that single green Defense die that Numb is stuck with.
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.
Captain Jonus (22)
Card Text: When another friendly ship at Range 1 attacks with a secondary weapon, it may reroll up to 2 Attack dice.Usage in game: His name is Jonus, and he's carryin' the wheel. Well, that and anybody else in your list sporting a secondary weapon probably. Breakdown: Hey, hey, hey. Hey guys. Remember back like a year ago when everybody was sporting TIE Swarms with Howlrunner? Remember that? Because she like gave everybody a reroll on their primary? Remember?
Ok, kinda same thing here, but it's with secondaries and two dice. Awesome, huh?
One slight difference in that line of thinking is Howlie was a pretty respectable PS 8, where Jonus is clocking in at 6, which isn't bad or anything, don't get me wrong, but you do have to focus a little more on who's going when with him than you did with Howlrunner.
Similarities do abound though, namely in that he can take Elite Pilot Skills and the fact that his own ability doesn't work on him.
As for the Elite Pilot Skills, if you've loaded up on wingmen with secondary weapons and plan on running a swarm or something similar, you can bet that Jonus is going to be a priority target for your opponent. Take a look at stuff that helps to keep him alive. Push The Limit is always a nice option to have up your sleeve in virtually any situation (especially if you've got Yorr [YOOORRRR!!!] floating around somewhere close by), or stuff like Elusiveness or Expert Handling.
If instead you're opting more for opportunistic fly-bys, lending the extra re-rolls to say, a Firespray with an Ion Cannon and upgrades tooled-up for close to medium range combat, maybe lean a little more towards offense or flexibility. Marksmanship works nicely with warhead loadouts as would something like Deadeye where you're putting more of a priority on getting near a ship with big guns you want to really hurt something bad rather than lining up a good target for Jonus.
All that said, I think there's something to be said for just going with the flow here and making Jonus something of a support craft for a couple of TIE Bomber wingmen. Dig this list I just made on Yet Another-
That's not terrible, if you ask me. It's tough to prioritize as an opponent because the stuff you likely want to ignore (the Scimitar Bombers) can put a pretty good hurt on you, while the guy you really want to go after (Jonus), is going to be protected by the rest of the list. I went ahead and stuck some warheads on Jonus largely because I wasn't sure how to spend those last four points. Your mileage of course, will vary but hopefully you can kinda see where I'm going with this. Heck, you could always stick a Shield Upgrade on him just for grins. If you're curious, I stuck the TIEs in there largely because there's not enough points to make a 5 Bomber list with Jonus and four other Bombers with some sort of missile or torpedo.
I do think that Night Beast and Backstabber would do well to keep folks on the other side of the table honest though, so they're not like total window dressing or whatever. I like them in this role because they're good enough named pilots they're tough to deal with and fairly self-sufficient, but not so expensive they make for an easy target priority decision for your opponent- those two combined are still only worth 32 points and we know how important it is to get 33 points, right?
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.
This post regarding Crew Members is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 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 "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Saboteur (2)
Card Text: Choose 1 enemy ship at Range 1 and roll 1 attack die. On a <filled explosion symbol> or <unfilled explosion symbol>, choose 1 random facedown Damage card assigned to that ship, flip it faceup, and resolve it.Usage in game: Crit assignment outside of the Combat Phase. Also LOLs. Action?: YesBreakdown: If ever there was a card in X-Wing Miniatures that made me want to affect a terrible French accent and twirl an invisible mustache with my finger tips, it's Saboteur.
For a measly two points, you have a 50% (there are four damaging faces on an Attack die- 3 filled explosion symbols and one unfilled) chance of turning somebody's hull damage into a critical so long as they're within Range 1. In the immortal words of that redheaded kid from Harry Potter, "That's bloody brilliant."
Think about this for a second- it may be because it's really late or it may be because my mind races with possibility while I think about this card, but in any case, there are some really interesting things to note about this particular Crew Upgrade that I'll now describe in a fairly stream-of-consciousness, rather unorganized fashion.
Note that unlike pretty much every other friggin' Crew Member card, this thing is an Action. That means for once, you're kind of almost better off sticking it on a low PS pilot. Also bear in mind that you'll have the chance to move into Range 1 with your target ship and trigger this business before a higher skilled enemy pilot has the opportunity to move away from you. That's pretty sweet. Just remember not to crash into stuff or otherwise cheat yourself out of your Perform Action step or it'll be kind of a waste. That kinda dovetails nicely with using it on a low PS pilot, assuming you can avoid hitting rocks of course, huh?
Also note this thing resolves in the Activation Phase. You have the potential to really ruin somebody's day with this card. As mentioned in the FAQ article, if you manage to flip up a damage card with a Stressful effect (Damaged Engine, Thrust Control Fire, etc.) and your opponent has selected a red maneuver, and hey- if he thought you were going to move into Range 1 of him, he very well may have done just that, you're going to finally get to bust out that "drive the other guy's ship" rule that nobody ever gets to use. Not only that, you might flip Munitions Failure (discard a secondary weapon), Weapons Malfunction (reduce primary attack by 1), Damaged Sensor Array (can't pick Actions from the Action Bar), or a host of other crappy, strategy ruining other cards.
I've talked ad nauseum on here about how important it is to inflict Critical Damage to neuter the capabilities of big ships. This card makes it that much easier to do. True, it still doesn't work on a Chewie Falcon, but on everyone else, it's totally going to suck for them if you can manage to get it off.
Speaking of which, what ships should be packing a Saboteur?
As is usually the case, a YT-1300 is a great choice- two seats of which only one is usually occupied makes Saboteur a small sacrifice, a big base makes getting into Range 1 that much simpler, and the 360 degree firing arc means you don't have to worry about which way you're pointing when you do get into Range 1. If you've been on the fence about how to roll an Outer Rim Smuggler, this just could be your answer.
The card comes with the HWK-290, but I'm not 100% behind the idea of putting him in there. I'm not saying it's a terrible idea, just that I'm not completely sold on the notion. On the one hand, lots of folks roll a cheap HWK as some sort of support, and not really combat capable. This can lead to your opponent just ignoring the ship entirely unless you're just absolutely master-class at making that whole support thing actually work. Putting a Saboteur in there lets you not only support your allied ships with Garnet, Katarn, or Ors card text, but also lets you put a pretty good dent in any enemy ship that happens to wander too closely to you. I also like the idea because it makes the setup much harder to outright ignore, especially when you're playing against low-count, high cost Imperial lists.
On the other hand though, the HWK-290 has a terrible dial, which assuming your opponent is about the same skill level as you, makes the idea of trying to actually get within Range 1 of him relatively difficult. It also has the small base which doesn't help, and the fact that we're using an Action to fire this thing off can make for some tough decision making if you're trying to fly to live with the light shields and aforementioned crap dial.
A Firespray can make good use of a Saboteur, but I think there are other better crew options for the named Firespray pilots. As previously mentioned, Navigator with Fett is just nasty, Scarlet has Gunner or Mercenary Copilot, Trelix the same. If there were two seats in a Firespray or some way of adding another Crew Member via some Modification or something, I'd absolutely recommend it for Fett in an instant, but there isn't so I won't. On a Bounty Hunter that you've tooled for more closeup work though? Sure, why not? Much like the Outer Rim Smuggler, if you've been looking for some way to throw one of those on the table and not be staggeringly vanilla or cheap about it, it'd be worth a go- big base, great maneuver dial, why not?
The Lambda falls somewhere in between Firespray and HWK-290 for me. It's a safer bet because of the two seats and big base, but you've got an even worse dial which makes getting into Range 1 theoretically tougher, but less reliance on Actions just to survive, so I think it comes out slightly ahead. Again, I think you go with Saboteur on a low PS flavor of Shuttle pilot like the Omicron or possibly Yorr (YOOOORRRRRR!) although me personally, I'd probably just stick with Omicron in a kind of suicide boat setup where I'm basically just going to make for the center of the board and hope for the best. And yes, pairing Saboteur up with Darth Vader is particularly bad form and I 100% stand behind the spoil-sporting nature of that idea as absolutely hilarious until it is done to me at which point I'll probably write some whiny post about this game is becoming too win-at-all-costs these days.
All that being said, you can make a case for sticking this on a high Pilot Skill pilot if you're good at maneuvering or guessing your opponent's maneuvers. Any pilot who can take Elite Pilot Skills and drive a crew worthy ship could make pretty amazing use of this card as perhaps the best thing about it (critical damage allocation outside the Combat Phase) still happens. True, your opponent will have probably already performed his maneuver and declared his Action, but it's still only two points with a pretty decent chance of affecting if not wrecking their Combat Phase.
It's also cool because there are those damage cards that say, "Action: roll a die and on a something result, flip this card face down." If you stick them with Saboteur after their Perform Action step because you've gone against the grain and used this on a high PS pilot, they have to live with that effect during the subsequent Combat Phase before they can get rid of it.
I think most folks will probably opt for more sure-thing type upgrades on those ships though and leave the chancy stuff like Saboteur to the lower PS guys though.
This post regarding Crew Members is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 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 "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Recon Specialist (3)
Card Text: When you perform a Focus Action, assign 1 additional Focus token to your ship.Usage in game: Maintaining your Focus, excuse for singing the old Doublemint gum ad (but please, substitute the word focus for pleasure), even considering taking a Blaster Turret on a HWK-290. Action?: NoBreakdown: This is one of those cards I kind of don't like talking about because pretty much everyone already knows the score. I feel like most of y'all come by the bar because of 1) Insightful or innovative uses of the cards, 2) You don't have your X-Wing stuff with you and you Google some card because you don't remember exactly how it's worded, and 3) Boredom.
The really straightforward upgrades like Recon Specialist kind of make 1 hard to do.
All that aside, let's go through the motions here just to keep everyone honest and so I can cross it off the list.
As you've no doubt noticed in your own games of X-Wing Miniatures and as I've said on here plenty of times, Focus is an extremely useful Action. If you started out playing the "lite" or "demo" version of the rules presented in the starter kit (basically the game but without Actions), you know how much more difficult it is down enemy ships without Focusing. Subsequently, if you play ships with only a Defend die or two, you know how hard it can be to stay alive when the red dice start flying. Focusing can make a huge difference in whether or not you do or take damage and as lots of folks will tell you, "When in doubt- Focus."
This is what makes Recon Specialist such a no-brainer. Focus is a great Action- usually the only real decision you have to make is whether to burn it on offense or defense. With Recon Specialist, you don't necessarily have to make that choice as you effectively generate two Focus tokens every time you perform the Focus Action.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa- stop the clock. Did you notice that little hiccup there? Every time you perform the Focus Action. Some folks kind of gloss over this bit, but it's important. Recon Specialist only kicks in when you Perform Action: Focus. What does that mean? If you've bonked into an asteroid or another ship? No Focus for you. If you've been gifted a Focus Token from Garven Dreis or Kyle Katarn? No (extra) Focus for you. It's only going to kick on if you actually Perform the Action.
That said, I do think there are a couple of ways around that- if you're given a Free Action from some generous soul flying by with Squad Leader or from Lando, for example and you choose Focus, I think that'd work. Stuff that actually gives you a Free Action rather than a token, in other words. You just have to perform the Focus Action, of course.
There's no ship that can't benefit from having this as, once again, Focus is such a handy, Swiss Army Knife style Action, so trying to come up with some specifics where it's bad is difficult. That said, I think it works even better than usual in a couple of instances.
First and most obviously, Kyle Katarn. His card text allows him to assign one of his Focus tokens to a ship that's within Range 3 of him and also obviously, when coupled up with the Moldy Crow title, it gets even better. The other HWK pilots benefit not nearly as much, and it's perhaps not the best idea to throw Recon Specialist in with Jan Ors as Jan will probably spend a lot of her game stressed, which prevents you from being able to Perform Action, etc. etc. That said, with the Crow title, it'd likely go a long way keeping her alive if you can manage to lose the Stress long enough to Perform Action.
(And yes, I'm of the opinion that if you're going to use a Blaster Turret, you really should take a Recon Specialist. I know that it makes it expensive, but if you're already paying for a Blaster Turret, you've decided you want to try and actually use this ship as a fighter and not just a support ship, so once you've started going down that road, you might as well keep on going. If you don't, you're going to feel really silly the first time you lose your Perform Action step from a collision or because you simply forgot to pick Focus as your Action and now you can't shoot your fancy pants turret.)
On Falcons in general, I think it's handy because 1) most folks don't take more than a single Crew Member to begin with so there's usually an empty seat, and 2) it only has one defend die standard. If you can Focus that defend die, either twice on defense or once on offense and defense, so much the better. Works well with Han too as you know he's going to draw fire and he doesn't need it so much on offense with his card text. I think it makes Outer Rim Smuggler much more likely to live long enough to get some shots off too, what with being able to Focus twice on defense waiting for it to be his turn to throw around some red dice.
Firesprays it's a tougher decision as they're a one-seater, but with a pilot like Trelix who already has some attack buff in his card text, it makes downing him quite a bit tougher if he can choose to Focus two defend rolls with those two defend dice. Same thing for Scarlet and Fett, but I figure you're maybe using other Crew Members for them anyway. I do like it on Bounty Hunter for the same reason I liked it on Outer Rim Smuggler- much more likely to stay alive late in the Combat Phase if he can Focus two defend rolls.
I don't know that Recon Specialist works particularly well with any of the named Shuttle pilots- Jendon is ideally using Target Lock as his Action most rounds, Yorr is probably going to be Stressed much of the time like Jan, Yagi? Well, Yagi's not bad. I take it back- it actually works pretty well on him as he's probably going to be getting not only shot at, but shot at with Target Lock a lot. Packing a Recon Specialist would help keep him alive a little longer to work his magic.
Final note- this is a good card, don't get me wrong. That said, it's not a bulletproof vest, nor is it going to turn a ship into a force of destructive nature. It's highly unlikely this card is suddenly going to be the sole reason you win or lose games. Let me elaborate. When the Wave 2 stuff dropped, I made a list with Dreis, a Gold Squadron Y-Wing, and Lando with Nien Nunb. The idea was you could pass around Focus Tokens and Free Actions almost at will. It wasn't the dumbest idea I've ever had, but it wasn't quite as smart as I thought it was either. On paper, it seemed very, very capable. In reality, it fell a little flat.
Look at that spreadsheet- I had sooooo much more free time in my old position. Wow.
It's not a terrible list, I just seriously overestimated how well it would work. At the end of the day, you're only going to use a Focus if you roll an eyeball. While that's nothing to disregard, it's also nothing to get crazy worked-up over.
Long story long? Focus is like a condiment or a spice- it can drastically improve a dish, but you can't solely rely on it. Flying into battle with an X-Wing that has no access to Elite Pilot Skills, a Falcon that isn't flown by Han or Chewie, and a Gold Squadron Y-Wing ain't exactly a recipe for success against an opponent of equal measure, so by all means, use Recon Specialist, but don't expect drastically different results because you've now got two Focus tokens rather than
EDIT: After re-reading this, I feel like I ought to point out a couple of things to the newer players. Were this a Wave 1 or Wave 2 card, I probably would have done it without even thinking about it in the copy body, but we're further along now in our exploration of the rules and stuff with X-Wing Miniatures, so I kind of didn't think it was necessary, but now I kinda do. Not enough to go back and fill-in though, so if you're an old pro, you probably don't need to read any further.
When you spend a Focus token, you change all the dice showing the eyeball symbol to that wavy arrow symbol on defense( and when attacking, you change all the dice showing an eyeball to the filled explosion symbol). Once you've spent it though, it's of course gone, so the rest of that round, anybody attacking you is going to do so against your unmodified defense rolls, which naturally aren't as likely to be as effective as a Focused defense roll. So when I talk about being able to Focus twice on defense, what I'm saying is being able to use the Focus token on defense against two different attacks- not on two different dice against the same attack. Secondly, when I talk about getting to Focus with Squad Leader or from Lando, bear in mind- you're still bound by the no performing the same Action twice rule, so no, you're not going to somehow end up with four Focus tokens. I wrote an article about this no performing the same action twice deal awhile back- it's a Bikini Battle Basics called Multiple Actions, Same Actions Explained! If you're not quite sure how that stuff works, by all means, check it out.
This post regarding Crew Members is part of a larger article regarding Wave 3 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 "List Building Resources" tab at the top of the page or simply click here.
Rebel Captive (3)
Card Text: Galactic Empire Only Once per round, the first ship that declares you as the target of an attack immediately receives one stress token.Usage in game: I can't believe you f@#kin' shot me, Harley. Action?: NoBreakdown: I'm no games design guru by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, I'm not even a student of game design theory. I do like to troubleshoot though. I like trying to find patterns in seemingly random events (which makes me more than a touch paranoid at times) and understanding how things work. Had I been blessed with a bit more self discipline at a younger age, I might have tried to develop this interest into troubleshooting people as a psychologist instead of troubleshooting industrial equipment and processes, but I wasn't so I didn't, which is neither here nor there really, come to think of it.
That in mind, I do like to try to figure out why games designers create the rules and stuff they create in the games I play.
I don't know how many of y'all play Android: Netrunner, but one of the most fascinating things about that game to me is there are so many different strategies you can employ to try to win the game. I haven't played in awhile, but I used to run an NBN deck that, true to form, tried to do little else but Tag you up but good. Now, Tagging somebody alone doesn't really do much of anything, but coupled up with other cards, it can have some pretty significantly nasty effects. Basically, my line of thinking was that if you were spending all your clicks and credits buying off tags in fear of me dropping a Scorched Earth on your head or whatever, I might win regardless of whether or not I ever actually managed to get Scored Earth in my hand, er, my HQ, because you're wasting said clicks and credits on my tags rather than your cards.
Rebel Captive is interesting to me for kinda the same reason.
I've talked about Stress a lot on here in different articles, and much like a Tag in Netrunner, being Stressed in and of itself isn't really that big of a deal. You pull a green maneuver as soon as the opportunity presents itself and you're in good shape again. Captive says if somebody attacks you, again- we're not talking about somebody hits you or somebody damages you- just attacks you, they get a Stress Token for their trouble.
Not a big deal by itself, right? The attacker would get a Stress Token at a time when it pretty much couldn't matter less- the Combat Phase. They're going to likely have a chance to pull a green in their next Movement Phase, so you're not directly doing anything to them, really as it isn't like you roll less Attack or Defend dice because you're Stressed or whatever.
However, it can be the start of something bigger.
I've mentioned before on here that the best use of an Ion Weapon is on a ship with a Stress Token. The reason being? Ionized ships (unless they have R2 Astromech or Nien Nunb with them) have to do a 1 straight in their next Movement Phase which counts as a white maneuver. Since a white maneuver doesn't rid a ship of a Stress Token, that same ship doesn't get to pull their Perform Action step in the Activation Phase, which cheats them out of an Action, and as everyone knows, ships without Actions tend to get dealt with, and by dealt with I mean dealt wit.
That used to be somewhat difficult to set up against the average player as you were more or less relying on them to Stress one of their own ships because Kath Scarlet was just about the only mechanic for Stressing somebody on the other side of the table without their consent. Now though, Rebel Captive adds a couple more ways.
So who do you stick him on? Well, he's a Crew Member, so it's gotta be a big ship. Secondly, he's Empire only, so we're down to a Firespray or a Shuttle.
Where it gets kinda tricky is this- you need him on a ship dangerous enough to make your opponent want to fire on it. It's gotta be dangerous enough that he's willing to accept the Stress Token as a trade-off for trying to get that ship off the board. Otherwise he'll just ignore the ship until it's the last one left on your side and probably not care much about the Stress when he does finally attack you.
Secondly, it's gotta be hearty enough to uh, well, not get taken off the board. As the Firespray and Shuttle are both fairly beefy ships to begin with, this isn't so hard, but you ought to look into some other upgrade that helps to reduce damage, damage effects, or raise your Defense value one way or another. You want them attacking you, yes- what you don't want is them massing firepower and turning you into dust or sticking you with some hideous face-up damage card in just a turn or two of shooting.
Lastly, you gotta have an Ion Weapon floating around in there somewhere so you can really make some hay when the sun shines and he's getting Stress Tokens for daring to attack your ship.
To give examples of ship, pilot, upgrade, and playstyle/ combat role combinations that maximize the ability of Rebel Captive would be kinda exhaustive, and as I'm already kinda exhausted, I'll trust that you guys that are interested in making this combo will figure it out for yourselves based on the above blueprint. There are a bunch of different ways you could make this work theoretically, but they'll all likely involve you and your meta more than anything, so your mileage is very much going to vary.
Off the top of my head, a list that includes a Kagi Shuttle with a Rebel Captive and a cheap Ion Cannon Firespray following closely seems like a good core to a list that could cause a lot of Rebel lists problems for several reasons. Or, if you wanted to save some points for a small wing of escort TIE Fighters, you could make that trailing Firespray an Ion Cannon packing Shuttle. If you have trouble flying Shuttles effectively like I do, consider sticking Anti-Pursuit Lasers on them, or just punt altogether and stick Rebel Captive in an Ion Firespray flown by Trelix and fly it next to Kath Scarlet also packing an Ion Cannon. See what I mean? There's a ton of possibilities here.
As for flying against a ship carrying a Rebel Captive? Pick your lamest ship that can legitimately attack and do it. Do you have a HWK-290 you're flying solely for support? There's your huckleberry right there- especially if it is at a higher Pilot Skill than the rest of your squadron because only the first ship to attack the bearer of Rebel Captive gets the Stress Token- not everybody who attacks. Jan Ors is seemingly tailor made for this kind of application.
Barring that, choose your attack ship carefully and try to find the one with a bunch of green maneuvers so you don't paint yourself into a corner getting rid of the token- A-Wings, YT-1300s with Nien Nunb, X-Wings or Y-Wings with R2 Astros, etc. Heck, the possibility of your opponent using Rebel Captive might just justify always including an R2 Astromech in one of those Rookie X-Wings you're always taking, Initiative be damned. Don't directly help if you're Stressed and Ionized both, of course, but for shedding Stress, any of those ships will do.
Is Rebel Captive for you? Well, again- it depends a lot on you and your opponents. If you're good enough to really make a guy pay for having a Stress Token- e.g. you are good at figuring out your opponent's maneuvers, you regularly run Ion Weapons, or your buddy relies heavily on K-Turns rather than effective maneuvering or is kinda bad at target priority, Rebel Captive will likely be totally worth the three points.
If not, maybe not so much.
Don't discredit the psychological effect though- somebody said in the comments on an article a week or two ago that running Fett with Navigator is nice for a lot of reasons, one of which he cuts down on the brain clutter you invoke trying to keep everybody's moves straight in your head during the Planning Phase. Rebel Captive can work against that and increase that clutter, so before you pass judgement on whether or not the card actually helped you win your match, keep in mind this card's effects may be much more subtle than you might observe if your opponent is flying differently the entire time trying to avoid the ship with RC on board.
