The Death of a Bounty Hunter: A Lament

This is a guest post, written by my friend and fellow Arch Alliance member, Matt Cary. He is one
of the best X-Wing players I know, and has been a major force behind the relative lack of grammatical
errors in my posts. He asked a few weeks ago if he could write a guest post on a subject that is near
and dear to his heart, a lament about a ship he loves. So without any further ado, here is...

The Death of a Bounty Hunter: A Lament.

Here we are. Second edition. All signs points to Thisisgreat-sville. So much power creep has been dialed back and been future-proofed. Perfect knowledge bombs and reinforce have been caged. Twin Laser Turret got lost on the way to second edition. Vader and Luke are not only playable, but are worthy of building a list around. All is well.

All is well.

Well except for the Jumpmaster 5000.

A HISTORY OF ABUSE

With a few world championships wins where it was the only ship used on the winning lists, and plenty
of top table appearances and wins at nationals under its belt, the ship definitely earned its ire. When I
hear people say that they quit X-Wing, more than likely, it was because of this ship. Deadeye
Torp-boats are the most common complaint, but the Dengaroo follow up is fairly hated as well. The
only more maligned ship that I know of is the K-Wing, and that is really not the ship but just one
frustrating pilot. And believe me, I am not going to try to drum up sympathy for Miranda Doni.

But basking in X-Wing’s spotlight did not come without its drawbacks. The nerf bat smacked the
JM5K quite a few times in first edition. The first hit it took was an indirect volley: Deadeye now only
worked on small base ships, and the R4 Agromech couldn’t be used in conjunction with spending a
focus to do an attack. This curbed the use of Contracted Scouts as low pilot skill alpha strikers since
they couldn’t reliably get off torpedoes anymore. But amidst the ashes of that nerf, the phoenix of
Dengaroo arose. Manaroo would feed Dengar’s attack with buffs from her ability while Zuckuss ran
shotgun forcing anyone with good rolls to try again at the cost of giving Dengar a stress for each
reroll. Dengar’s stress train looked like Tycho Celchu on overdrive. Despite the nerfs, Dengaroo won
Worlds 2016, proving the ship still had more than enough strong points to get the job done.

With Dengaroo bullying every list around, another set of nerfs set aim on that list and fired a salvo.
Manaroo was now limited to range 1, and the third wheel that was Zuckuss could only be used if you
are not currently stressed now. It seems that particular marriage wasn’t to be. But despite the ship
turning into the Nerfherder 5000, a Dengar and Tel Trevura combination still won out at Worlds 2017.
Something drastic had to be done to stop this ship.

Finally, in late 2017 the blow was dealt. Two more nerfs. First, directed at Scum and Villainy in
general, Attani Mindlink was now limited to two ships. Second, the true nerf. The Jumpmaster is the
first and only ship of X-wing to have upgrade slots removed. It lost not one, but two torpedo slots, and
it lost the astromech slot. No more torpedo alpha strikes. No more Unhinged Astromech giving a
phenomenally green dial. The JM5K was dethroned. With the right upgrades Dengar was still usable,
and with some shenanigans, the Contracted Scout could still do work in the hands of a good pilot.
Tel and Manaroo largely disappeared. The chassis was still good with a great dial, but it took skill to
make it work. Most didn't bother putting in the time needed. The complaints stopped.

It was at this point that I started playing X-Wing. I flew Dengar with some success, and built a list I
could call my own with Dengar, Dalan Oberos in a Kimogila, and a Jakku Gunrunner. It was both
unconventional and fun, as Scum lists should be. I loved it and looked forward to it being a stronger
build in second edition without my only consistently troubling list, Nymranda, flying around. Dalan’s
ability took a hit, so he was going to be swapped out for some other ordinance carrier, but the
Gunrunner only got better. My only true lament was the building block for my list. The Jumpmaster
was now the Junkmaster. It now sits in the corner crying, wondering why no one has any sympathy to
spare for it.

WELCOME TO SECOND EDITION, YOU ARE THE HWK NOW

All those first edition nerfs were just a precursor. With second edition in the works for the last two
years of first edition, it seems the legacy of the ship was still being considered during its redesign.

All first edition primary weapon turrets justly received a nerf across the board, but the Jumpmaster is
the only one of those ships to be downgraded to a single turret arc. Thematically, that makes sense
as those other turreted ships have two turrets on them, but also thematically, the Jumpmaster has
forward facing cannons, so it would make more sense to have a similar setup to the Lancer-Class
Pursuit Craft. The JM5K takes a reasonable hit in that the barrel roll is one of the new red, stressful
actions. It’s a big ship; swinging that sucker around should take some gusto to get done.

The other significant change is the ship maneuver dial. In first edition, this was the one strength that
the chassis had going for it after all the other nerfs. It still, arguably, had a too good dial. Only two of
three turnaround maneuvers were red, and the green hards to the left were incredibly good. The
strength of the white sloop should not be understated as both the Kanan Sloop on The Force Awakens
Falcon and the K-turn on Defender can attest. But those days are gone now. Green (blue) hards for
clearing stress are out, and the white sloop has increased in speed and difficulty. The ship can move
faster now with 3 left bank and 3 straight both decreasing in difficulty to blue. The right side of the dial
is justifiably meh, both losing the right sloop altogether and increasing the turns to a stressful
maneuver. The dial needed to be toned down, but for a ship that should turn left pretty well, it only
turns left okay now. What is left leaves the ship fairly predictable.

The Jumpmaster does have one odd claim in 2E: it is one of only two turreted ships able to link a red
rotate off of an action, which is good. The bad news stapled to that is that unlike any other turret
currently, it can only rotate the turret off of that stressful action. Along with the poor dial, this really
limits what maneuvers any JM5K will do. The other ship that has the linked rotate action is the
HWK-290, but it also has a white rotate.

Any of these nerfs by themselves are not that bad. Much like the 1E HWK-290, it is a combo of a
bad dial, an ineffective attack, and poor actions that are going to hold it back. And it wouldn’t be
as evident if there wasn’t a ship coming out that fills the Jumpmaster’s role in nearly every aspect.

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!

Okay. Here is where I’m going to start whining. Brace yourself. Lando’s Falcon is superior to the
JM5K in nearly every way to the point of obsolescence. At launch, the Customized YT-1300 has
two more hull, one more arc, one more crew slot, and a gunner slot. It can also rotate its turret arc
and turn right without getting stressed while being decently to significantly cheaper to boot. Looking
at the pilots of the same initiative - L3-37 comes in five points cheaper than the Contracted Scout,
Lando comes in 11 points cheaper than Tel Trevura, and finally, Han Solo comes in 10 points cheaper
than Dengar. This could be merely because FFG is being cheeky and pricing the newest ship to be
cheap so we buy it. (If so, SHAME! SHAME!) But as it stands, you can run all of the named Falcon
pilots and the generic with four points to spare. If four Contracted Scouts in first edition was
ridiculous, that four Falcon list is so ludicrous it has gone plaid.

I’LL TAKE FAMOUS TITLES FOR $400, ALEX

“Well, the at least the Punishing One title has gotten cheaper,” you may say. To which I will reply
with the sexiest of statements, “I will prove you wrong with mathematics.” In second edition terms,
the old title is twenty-four points, a far sight above the new title at eight points. “Aha,” you say, “the
ew title is sixteen points cheaper, you imbecile.” First of all, rude. There is no need for name calling.
Jerk. Second, you’ll find that you are paying eight points for one additional die in one 90ish degree
arc. If you evaluate the original title, you find that you were paying six points in 2E currency for each
arc. So with the new title, you are paying two more points for a single arc. And, as a weird stipulation,
you only get that die when the turret arc is facing forward which kind of invalidates the turret-iness
of the turret if you want to utilize those eight points.

To highlight the title’s underwhelmingness, I will compare the Punishing One to a good title: the
Moldy Crow. Holy crap, FFG did it right on this title. The metered tokens stacking was a good
choice in the tuned down action economy of 2E. And adding that primary arc? Mmmmm, bellisimo!
It adds teeth to the ship, but also it compliments the abilities of nearly all the HWK-290 pilots in
both factions. All for the reasonable price of twelve points!

Now, compare that to the Punishing One. Twelve points for a three die primary that also can use
the turret in a different arc versus eight points for a one die buff in one arc that, if used, negates
the idea of a turret. Dengar would love the Moldy Crow title as both the primary and the token stack
of focuses compliment his ability. In contrast to the synergy of the HWK’s pilot abilities, the
Punishing One compliments only Dengar and only conditionally.

The Punishing One does have one additional caveat to help or hinder; it trades a crew slot for
an astromech slot. This could be seen as a positive, but with the current set of astromechs, I’d
rather take a crew in most cases. For the astromechs, the regen and repair options of R2’s and
R5’s are decent, and they open up an odd strategy for Tel to be destroyed, respawn away from
everyone and repair two more damage before engaging again. “Gonk” would accomplish a similar
effect for slightly cheaper cost than the title and the astromech. R3 is a decent choice for any
munitions carrier, and would shine on Dengar a bit as a revenge shot proton torpedo sounds scary.
R4 would be phenomenal for the Jumpmaster, returning most of the original dial back, but it is
small ship only, restricted to the Y-wing for the Scum faction. Genius does nothing. R5-TK is for
edge cases only. R5-P8 is in most cases is inferior than R3 but is costed higher. For both Manaroo
and Dengar, I’d rather have 0-0-0, IG88-D, or Perceptive Copilot.

All in all, it’s not a make it or break it nuance to the title, but it might be worth it on Dengar who
would be the one flying with the title anyway. Perhaps, as more astromechs come out, something
will slot in well.

I’M GONNA BE A PILOT, BEST IN THE GALAXY

I started to get mildly positive there, so let’s evaluate the individual pilots to bring me back to a sulk.

The Contracted Scout

Formerly known as the Bumpmaster, the Scout was wonderful at jamming up maneuvers with its
large base and barrel roll. But without all the trickiness of Anti-Pursuit Lasers, Ion Projector,
Intelligence Agent, or the Snap Shot/Operations Specialists combo, it will only just gum up the
works; A job better done, unsurprisingly, by its Falcon counterpart. At a six points cheaper, the
Freighter Captain’s I1 serves for better blocking. Additionally, you can fit four of the Captains in
with 16 points to spare, which the Scout can no longer do since it increased in cost by two points.
The loss of the talent slot also eliminates the potential of a Scout with Intimidation, as well.

The other role it served was as a Torp-boat. With the Scout’s low initiative and no access to the
2E equivalent to Deadeye, the force powered Instinctive Aim, the torpedo slot seems a bit useless.
It could potentially have slooped and done a second round torpedo shot, but as the white sloop no
longer exists, it is not an option. With no inbuilt ability akin to the E-Wing and no Colonel Jendon
permitting long range locks, I don’t see any reason to put a torpedo on one of these guys. My only
solution is Contraband Cybernetics to make a second engagement torpedo strike. But that is
another five points on top of the nine from Proton Torpedoes - fourteen points to make the ship
workable.

The continued loss of triple Scout Torp-boats is not really a loss since it was so off-putting in 1E,
but without either role as Bumpmaster or Torp-boat, I struggle to find a use for it.

Manaroo

This poor girl. If being married to the homely Dengar isn’t bad enough, she has been nerfed again.
One would think that the nerf to Manaroo’s ability in 1E was strong enough, but 2E comes around
and restricts the blue-skinned babe’s token tossing to only green tokens. No more throwing a target
lock onto someone out of arc which was a slightly harder task given the range 1 nerf anyway.

I find the continued range 0-1 restriction on her curious with so much token sharing available in 2E
that is greater than range 1. Kyle Katarn can sling a focus to anyone in arc. Esege Tekutu lets
anyone range 0-2 spend his focus. If Garven Dreis spends a focus he can pass it to anyone at
range 1-3. Benthic Two-Tubes can toss his focus to anyone at range 1-2. Without any way to
pass more than focus or calculate tokens (currently), the continued restriction to her ability
seems harsh when compared with these gentlemen’s abilities.

She costs two points more for whatever reason, too.

Tel Trevura

Tel is at the same price, and his ability is still just okay. His fake death now takes him out of the
action and places him at range one on his starting edge, which could be good, or it could be bad.
It will totally depend on the situation. As mentioned before, it would be entertaining to sacrifice
him early and then set him up as far away from the action as possible, and “gonk” him back up to
half health to get full points for him. Pure shenanigans that likely won’t happen, but worth at least
looking into.

Dengar

Dengar. How the mighty have fallen. When people talk about the I6 pilots in 2E, you aren’t brought
up at all. Not from spite, but because you have already been written off so much that people don’t
even remember you are I6. On a positive note, Dengar is cheaper by two points, but that is still
ten points more than Han. You could say that his ability might be ten points better than Han’s, but
that might be a stretch. While having the chance to get a second attack is always good, without
Manaroo or Attanni focus stack for him and without Expertise or K4 Security Droid supplying mods,
his ability has a good chance of hitting like a wet noodle. Torpedoes and R3 seem the best option
to make use of his ability, but that requires eight points for the title, three for the astromech, and a
t least six for the munition; you’re running 81 points just to be viable. Once he fires both torpedoes,
he is back to just a situational three die attack. R5-P8 is worth considering for modding his revenge
shots, but with only three charges, rerolling one die, and the chance of self-harm, I’d rather take
R3 for one less point.

When it comes down to it, Dengar can be built to function, but like the HWK-290 in 1E, it feels
like trying to make a broke ship work. I see no good reason not to take the powerhouse of I5 Guri
over I6 Dengar.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL / A MODEST PROPOSAL

I know inviting people to pity to the JM5K isn’t exactly a popular thought, but I am of the line of
thinking that every ship should be viable to fly, no matter what hard feelings it evokes. To not be a
complete curmudgeon with only complaints, I will put forward a proposal or two to bring the ship
up to par. I’d like to work within the bounds of not changing text on a card as much as possible, so
most of my proposals will try to work within that parameter.

My first suggestion to is the inclusion of the Targeting Astromech from 1E which acquires a lock
after a red maneuver. Since the astromech can only be on the unique Punishing One, it wouldn’t
enable three Scouts with proton torpedoes to sloop and “beta” strike, but would allow one JM5K
to do something with its poor dial. I suggest also adding the clause that has been showing up on
several 2E cards, “after you fully execute a red maneuver” to add more skill to it. The 1E astromech
wasn’t over powered, and with the exception of maybe on Luke “I’m super good now, anyway, as I
should be” Skywalker, I don’t see it being overpowered in 2E.

My second suggestion is also astromech based: the Unhinged Astromech. It was incredibly good on
Scum Y-wings in 1E, and completely broken on the Jumpmaster.in conjunction with K4 Security
Droid handing out target locks for every green maneuver. But with no K4, it wouldn’t be broken.
Have it reduce 3-speed maneuvers by one difficulty, and the JM5K only gets the 3-bank right
turned blue and the sloop turned white. It would need to be restricted to Scum as it would be
too good on an X-wing and fantastically good on an E-wing. A Havoc-titled Scurrg would get
some nifty white tallon-rolls, but without munitions, it wouldn’t be out of this world great. You
could also add a charge system to it to reduce its usefulness: either three charges non-recurring,
or two to three charge recurring, but you must spend all charges to reduce the difficulty of the
maneuver.

The third suggestion is by far the easiest and one of the best considerations of new edition. Adjust
the cost. Bring the Scout and Manaroo down at least two points to match their 1E cost. The nerf
to Manaroo’s ability warrants maybe even dropping another point beyond that. Tel and Dengar
may be costed decently, we’ll see, but when compared to the Falcon, they certainly look overpriced.

But if I was feeling frisky and wanted to get into the realm of altering cards, I would add a two-die
front arc at least. I would change the Punishing One title to make the turret three dice in whatever
direction, not just forward. And lastly, I would change Manaroo’s ability to range 1 and range 1-3 in
arc. It would expand her ability but keep it at least somewhat restricted.

MOVING FORWARD

So what do you think? Are you fine with this ship being condemned to the hell it came from, or did
I garner a little sympathy for the devil? Are there any simple fixes that you think are better? Do you
think it’s flyable as is, or is it the Junkmaster I make it out to be?

Whatever you think, I’ve decided that I’m going to give the blasted ship a shot even if no changes
are made. If second edition is a beautiful new landscape that we can all frolic in the laser blasts of,
I intend to frolic with the best of them and with the worst of them.

How to lose a game in six easy steps.

In X-Wing, we can lose games from a variety of causes. It could be from having a bad list, or getting a bad match up. It could be simply from being out-flown. Every once in a while it's because our dice betray us. But most often we do more to lose our games than our opponents have to do to win them. Here are six easy steps to losing a game.

1. Don't pay any attention to your opponent’s list.

In a side event after my first major tournament, I flew against a guy who had just gotten knocked out in the top 8 match. He jumped into the side event and handed me a crushing 100 - 0 loss. Afterwards, I asked him where I had lost the game and semi-jokingly asked if I had lost it in the list building stage. I distinctly remember him saying, “No, your list is fine, and you played it really well. The problem is that you didn't play my list at all.” No matter how well you play your list's strengths, if you don't take into account your opponent's list, you will get wrecked by a strong player.

It is equally important to remember the state of your opponent’s list during the game. In a recent game against a local, Clint, who was flying the Trench Run Trio, Luke, Wedge, and Biggs, I lost any chance I might have had at pulling out a win when I forgot that it was Wedge, not Luke, who had fired both of his proton torpedoes. I parked a full health Guri at range two of Luke and limped away with just a couple of hull points left. It was a stupid mistake and I got suitably punished for it.

Read through your opponent's cards. You might think you know what the list is already, or what the cards say, but now in second edition, it's even more important when so much has changed. Know what your opponent is capable of. Also, the end phase shouldn't just be a time to clean up the board for you. Check their charges, look to see if they reloaded last turn. Is Vader back up to three force or is he just at one? These small things have huge gameplay consequence.

2. Butcher your obstacle set up.

I played a game recently with two high initiative StarVipers where I let (and even helped) my opponent set up a dense cluster of obstacles in the center of the board with all the biggest rocks. I then let him draw my two Vipers into that rock cluster for the engagement. It was very well played on his part and incredibly stupid on mine. These highly maneuverable aces depend on having the space they need to barrel roll and boost out of arcs, but don’t have the hit points for taking sustained fire. I brought the wrong obstacles, set them up in the wrong places, and then let my opponent dictate the terms of our engagement. Needless to say, the game did not go very smoothly for me. The last competitive list I'd grown accustomed to flying featured a Quadjumper and I depended on a dense rock formation to tractor beam my opponent's ships onto and through them. Not adjusting from that list to a list with a different play style was hugely detrimental, and if I had actually taken the time to think through set up options for the list I could have seen that and made adjustments accordingly.

Take the time to figure out your list's obstacles strengths. Does your list have bonuses for firing through obstacles from cards like Trick Shot, Scum Han Solo, or the Outrider title? Do you have tractor beam shenanigans? Take large rocks or debris. Do you benefits from opponents being stressed from upgrades like Lattz Razzi or Lando’s Falcon title? Take debris. If you don't benefit specifically from having large obstacles, I suggest taking small rocks, because Seismic Charges are a thing now.

3. Be careless with your dials and maneuvers.

I once parked a full health Fenn Rau on an asteroid directly in front of my opponent's entire list simply because I got ship left and right confused on my dial. A tokenless Fang Fighter sitting on an obstacle at range two of a three ship list is a dead Fang Fighter. It's important to check and double check your dials before you say that you are set. Even a simple maneuver can lose a game for you if you are careless. I've seen people accidentally assign the wrong maneuvers to the wrong ships because they reached for the wrong dial. The result can be ships flying off the board, K-turning right in front of a swarm, landing on the aforementioned rock. A myriad of avoidable disasters await you, even if it is as simple as being out of position for the next turn.

It's fairly easy to keep the dials of just two ships straight, but as ship counts increase again in second edition, it will become increasingly important to develop a consistent method of both placing your dials after you assign a maneuver and clearing the dials off the board after you execute that maneuver.

To prevent mixed up dials, I try to keep my dials on the ship cards that they correspond to in order to avoid that particular confusion. This has an added benefit in that it prevents you and your opponent from confusing whose dial is whose during the activation phase. There are no more awkward moments of sheepishly trying to explain why you have their dial in hand or trying to figure out a way to rectify the shattered game state after they accidentally see your high initiative ace's dial.

4. Forget your triggers.

I can't tell you how many times I forgot to assign a target lock after attacking with the old fire control system. And forgetting to advance sensors a target lock before your Segnor loop feels really bad when you realize you can't fire the proton torpedoes that you paid nine points for. I did that in a game last night, and those nine points went to waste. Again, this will be very important with second edition on our doorstep. All sorts of new triggers exist or have changed a little, and with systems phase now existing, you have to remember a whole new phase. Miss that phase and you could miss a pivotal decloak, bomb drop, or undocking that you might have planned your turn largely around.

If you can, try to develop some physical habit to remind you of triggers, such as holding a token in your hand as I started doing to remember my FCS in first edition. Another simple tactic I’ve seen used is to write the trigger on your hand. That may be a bit extreme for casual play, but at a tournament, it may be thing that saves your game.

Unless you are at a top table, I highly recommend refusing any gracious offers by your opponent to take that action after you miss its trigger. Losing a ship to a simple mistake will do much more to help you remember the trigger than a complete lack of consequences for your sloppy play. Experience is, as they say, the best teacher.

5. Forget what ships have what critical hits.

Games can swing from a probable win to a loss with a single crit. And in second edition the crits are brutal. The good news is that most of them are repairable with a single action. The bad news is you have to remember to take that action. It's easy to forget that you have a face up console fire or a damaged sensor array.  But forgetting some of these crits can have disastrous consequences. If you spend much time watching streamed games you'll notice that many veteran players actually go so far as to place the critical damage card they want to remember on the board next to the ship it's affecting. I am terrible at remembering crits, and have lost games as a result.

At the same time, you also need to be mindful of your opponents criticals. In a recent game my opponent forgot that Guri had damaged engine and couldn't hard turn without stressing herself. As a result, he blocked the turn instead of the bank and Guri lived to fight on.

Use the tokens FFG provides; they were given to us for a reason. If you have to, put the card next to your ship. It might even be worth it to put down tokens for your opponent’s ships should they let you. As much as you don’t want to forget your crits, you don’t want your opponent to neglect the fact that they have blinded pilot or weapons failure, either.

6. Don't pay any attention to the time left in the game.

When time is called it doesn't matter in the slightest if both you and your opponent know that you would win the game if there were only one more round to play. The amount of time left in the game can be a vital piece of information. If you are behind and time is almost up, you might need to take some risks you normally wouldn't. Conversely, if you are ahead on points, your opponent might suddenly become more aggressive in their play style, and you should be aware of that possibility. Knowledge about the amount of time left in the game can be a pivotal weapon in your arsenal, and takes almost no effort.

Set your own timer, if that's what it takes. In a tournament, judges will be happy to give you a time update any time you ask. Just be careful that you don’t rush so much that you make silly mistakes in the final minutes of a game.

In every game of X-Wing there will be a winner and there will be a loser. I write this in the hope that it will help all of us play our best game, no matter the final score.

If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.

The Evolution of a List

I am not a master list builder. I have no Dengaroo, Parattanni, or Nymranda like monstrosities to my name. Despite that, I have had some success with lists that opponents would dismiss out of hand until their game had spun completely out of control. These lists were my own unique creations and I could genuinely call them my own. In the last few years of the lifespan of first edition X-Wing, however, if you wanted to be competitive but were building your own lists, generally speaking, you were probably wrong to do so. According to some X-Wing greats the "correct" way to select a squad was to look through the top five squads on metawing, pick the one you would hate playing the least, and practice it until you knew its ins and outs. And if you wanted to have a chance to win a large event, they were almost certainly correct. But I could never bring myself to do it.  

Now with Second Edition killing off First Edition, List Juggler, and, by extension, Metawing, we will no longer have immediate access to the mountain of data that previously allowed us to find optimized list archetypes with minimal list building effort. And unless FFG's app has a built in feature that compiles that data, those days might not be coming back. Even if the app does have such a function, it will be several months, possibly even half a year or more, before we acquire enough data to conclusively say what's "good" and what is "bad".  Since the "correct" method of finding a squad to play will not even an option for a while, it appears that the time of home brewed list building is at hand.

So how do you go about creating and then optimizing a list? First, build a list with ships that fit a play style that you enjoy. If you don't know what play style that is, then fly a little bit of everything until you do. Second, put it on the table. A lot. Then slowly, one ship or upgrade card at a time, switch things out until you have a complete squad that you are happy with. Third, play that list again and again against as many different opponents and match-ups as you possibly can.

On knowing your play style and creating a basic list:

I try out different ships and pilots until I find some element that I love. I've found that I enjoy nimble aces that can die instantly if I mess up, or live forever if I don't. I like to have an element to my lists that hits very hard, and I like some level of shenanigans. Because of that I gravitate primarily to a Scum aces archetype. When the Guns for Hire expansion got announced, I started proxying Thweek as soon as we had enough information to do so. At the time my list consisted of Thweek, Fenn Rau, and a cloaking Talonbane Cobra: nimble, hard hitting aces that could explode in a puff of smoke if I screwed up coupled with the goofy shenanigans of a decloaking, five K-ing Khiraxz fighter and the wonky barrel roll of the Starviper. The list was perfect for me. With the one little problem being that it wasn't really that great. I took it to this most recent Chicago regional at Pastimes Comics and Games with just shy of 160 participants and went 3-3 for the day

My regionals squad.

Repaints by Blake McAfee.

On putting your list on the table a lot:

I played that list almost exclusively for several months before I felt conclusively that Talonbane was the weak link in that particular list. Perhaps, if I were simply a better player I might have found some way of making him work in the list, but despite sometimes getting to throw an absurd seven green dice (2 for his agility value, 2 for cloak, 1 for range 3, 1 for his ability at range 3, and 1 for an obstruction), he just died too quickly and too often. So I began the process of looking for something to replace him.

While you are searching for just the right element to include in your list, I highly recommend not trying a variation out just once or twice before dismissing it. You need to give it time to ensure that it's that particular combination that isn't working for you and not simply pilot error because you are trying out a ship or upgrade card you aren't very familiar with. I like to try out a variation of a list several times during the week at a local game store, then take it to a monthly kit tournament to see how it fares. Getting three or four games in back to back against a variety of opponents and list archetypes is a decent proving ground for a list. Throughout this entire process it is vital that you play against opponents whose skills as a player and as a list builder you respect. Get their opinions on what worked and what didn't. Accept criticism from them and think carefully through what they say. Try out their suggestions. Then do what you think is best for your squad.

I tried replacing Talonbane with a Bumpmaster for some low PS, large base blocking control, I tried out 4-LOM in a G1a Starfighter for some stress control. Eventually a friend suggested I try out a Quadjumper, and I came to love that little tugboat. After some experimentation, I settled on Unkar equipped with a cloaking device and Cikatro Vizago crew to swap in contraband cybernetics. Even though it wasn't a large base ship, it was a wonderful blocker, could space tug other ships onto obstacles, and had the added benefit of making my other ships hit even harder.

After flying that squad for a while I came to the conclusion that it was my beloved Fenn who was now the weakest part of my list. I had two ships that desperately wanted to be close quarters knife fighters, and Thweek was just flat out better. Post Attanni Mindlink nerf and in the high pilot skill meta, Fenn Rau just couldn't cut it anymore. He needed the action economy that PTL provided more than VI, but without VI, perfect knowledge action bombs and PS9+ harpoon missiles were far too dangerous. So I had to cut him out of the list, and I began the process once again of trying to find the third ship for my list. I went through a similar process to the one mention above, finally settling on Dalan Oberos in the Kimogila. He provided the longer range punch that my list was previously lacking, and created target priority issues for my opponent. If they ignore Dalan, he will punish them with harpoon after harpoon; ignore the tugboat and it will be throwing ships into rocks left and right; ignore Thweek and he becomes virtually untouchable in the end game.

The final product looked like this:

M12-L Kimogila Fighter: •Dalan Oberos (35)
Guidance Chips (0)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
R4 Agromech (2)
Inertial Dampeners (1)

Starviper: •Thweek (38)
Autothrusters (2)
Starviper Mk.II (-3)
•Virago (1)
Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)
Fire-Control System (2)
Glitterstim (2)

Quadjumper: •Unkar Plutt (23)
Spacetug Tractor Array (2)
•Cikatro Vizago (0)
Advanced Optics (2)
•Cloaking Device (2)

Total:  96/100

The final product.

Repaints by Matt Cary.

On playing your list again and again:

After you finally arrive at the place where your squad is finished, at least on paper, it's time to get a good handle on your obstacle placement, setup, and how to vary your strategy based on the various list archetypes you expect to encounter. I eventually developed four different setup options for my list based on what was placed across the table from me. I had a fairly generalized setup, a setup that allowed Unkar to get his initial actions, cloaking etc., before moving into a fortress, a setup for Nymranda or Firestorm Special, and a setup for facing a Ghost/Fenn build. (Admittedly this last setup was simply setting up for a joust, planning on killing Fenn during the first round of combat for some MOV points then dying spectacularly and quickly so I had time to go get something to eat. Not much of a plan, but it was something.) It's important to learn how to "play" your opponent’s list in addition to your own, and you will need to have at least a basic plan in place before your first dial is set.

If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.