So, it’s nitty-gritty time. Let’s talk about some lists.
When 2.0 was first released I really struggled with finding a list that I liked. Some of my favourite 1.0 lists were not viable as competitive anymore. The YT-2400 was now super expensive (and less good) and the Auzituck Gunship was not so good due to the changes the with reinforce action. The Ghost had lost some health and now felt much more fragile (again compounded by the reinforce change). Also with the added feature of the Force for some pilots I felt drawn to try using some of those pilots to see how much better they were.
It was hard.
I kind of felt like I was trying to put together this really cool Lego set with all the bags open spread out all over the floor and no instructions. Where did I even begin.
My first few lists were various different versions of Alpha Strike (JARGON ALERT!) style lists with Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles and Dutch Vander with proton torpedoes for various options around that. I found quite quickly that this list really didn’t suit my play style. I felt like I knew all of the theory and how to use all the tricks but couldn’t seem to pull it off in an actual game on the table. After a few weeks of experimenting and tinkering I still wasn’t really sure what I liked. My FLGS (JARGON ALERT!) was now planning a five game League over the Christmas period and while it was fine to change lists from game to game I knew that I needed something settled in order to do my best.
After much faffing about I settled on a list with 2 initiative 1 A-Wings (with proton rockets) and 2 initiative 2 K-Wings loaded with stuff. The idea was to joust with the A wings, send off the prockets (JARGON ALERT!) and then use them as blockers, throw them in the mix and then have the K-Wings come in and hit as hard as they could. Barrage rockets and advanced proton torpedoes on the k wings (meant I would have full Range 1-3 options out of the front and having the mobile turret set left to right to give me a full 270 degree arc. I also threw on proton bombs just to dissuade opponents from chasing me.
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Skilled Bombardier (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 60 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Skilled Bombardier (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 60 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5
Phoenix Squadron Pilot (30)
Crack Shot (1)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship total: 38 Half Points: 19 Threshold: 2
Phoenix Squadron Pilot (30)
Crack Shot (1)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship total: 38 Half Points: 19 Threshold: 2
Total: 196
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
So having prepared everything in advance I turn up on the Wednesday and my first match up (at random, depending on who was there and available) was against the guy who I’ve never seen lose. Cool. I can’t remember the ins and outs of the game or even what he was flying what I remember is that I lost pretty soundly. The A-Wings died very quickly. The K-Wings used almost none of the ordnance before burning down. Not a great start. After the game and he asked me why I was using A-Wings (or rather, why I was jousting with them) until I explained what the plan was. After a bit more discussion and looking at what ships I had in my collection to choose from we concluded that for not much more cost than a basic A-Wing I could take an initiative 2 Y-Wing which had double the health and the same firepower (2 red dice) and then it may be better suited the way that I play the game. this would become the basis for the list I flew for the next 4 months.
I changed out the A-Wings and put in two Grey Squadron Bombers. I added Ion Cannon Turret and Veteran Turret Gunner as well as Proton Bombs. I kept the K-Wings almost the same, just dropping Skilled Bombardier to make space.
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 58 Half Points: 29 Threshold: 5
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 58 Half Points: 29 Threshold: 5
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Total: 214
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
The next League night came around. Again I can’t remember the list or actually even specifically who my opponent was but I won the game. In fact out of the next four games (making it 5 in total for our League) I won 3 and the one that I lost I actually lost from a winning position ( in short, we had one ship left each, I had a reasonably healthy K-Wing and my opponent had an almost dead Wedge in an X-wing, my opponent offered to concede but as there was time left and my son was still playing on another table I suggested we finish it out. Firstly I should have taken the win. Secondly once I decided to carry on I should have spent the next 20 minutes running away but instead I chose to take on the already half pointed wedge and proceeded to die. Lesson learnt).
The fun thing about this tournament is that we also had hidden agendas which had been compiled by the TO. We had no idea what they were while the league ran but after every game we had to provide a lot of detail about which ships were destroyed what the full list was how many crits had been dealt etc etc. At the end of the league we had a board with final positions based on wins and MoV and envelopes with the conditions and who got points for achieving them. We opened them one by one and moved names up and down the league as the conditions were revealed. It actually added quite a lot to the experience and definitely some tension! If I can get the information I’ll post it up in another blog some time (In case you’re interested I finished 4th before the conditions and ended up 7th!).
Christmas came and went and was quickly followed by the points change. Much stuff was nerfed (JARGON ALERT!) and some stuff was buffed (DOUBLE JARGON!!) I think it was an indication of how good your list was if it suddenly became more expensive. Mine became 8 points cheaper. Interesting. Immediately I added skilled bombardier back in to have a little flexibility to my ordnance but wasn’t quite sure what to do with the rest of the points (since a bid isn’t much use with an all initiative 2 squad!)
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Skilled Bombardier (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 60 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (6)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Skilled Bombardier (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 60 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Total: 218
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
Following on from the success of the league and the fact that we had some new players turning up to game night we ran another 5 game league. Over the course of this league I found that I wasn’t getting use out of the Skilled Bombardier or Advanced Proton Torpedoes and was hearing a lot about Leia crew being good now that she was only 2 points. After a little adjustment and as much testing and tinkering as I was able I had arrived at THE version of the list. I was happy that I was getting use out of every point spent and (despite the ‘boring 1 forward’ label) I enjoyed flying it.
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 60 Half Points: 30 Threshold: 5
Warden Squadron Pilot (39)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Leia Organa (6)
Proton Bombs (5)
Ship total: 58 Half Points: 29 Threshold: 5
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Gray Squadron Bomber (31)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Proton Bombs (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (8)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4
Total: 216
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
I was happy with the Y-Wing loadout with double tap attacks (well, at range 1-2 anyway) and ion control combined with proton bombs to make opponents think twice about getting in behind them. Having barrage rockets and proton bombs on the K-Wings while having the turret arcs set side to side gave them 360 degree threat while perceptive co-pilot gives a better chance of still having a focus to fire the rockets at initiative 2 and Leia crew means that the Y-Wings can pull a 4-K turn and still take actions. (FYI, in case you didn’t know, dishing out ion tokens in a close range joust, dropping a proton bomb and then pulling a white 4-K to stay on target is a nice move)
This is the list that I took to the UK 2019 System Open (which you can read about here) and continued to fly regularly until the July 2019 points change (when it got bumped up to 216 points!)
Since that update and my list now being toast I have had to come up with something new since I wasn’t able to find a combination of things to drop from this list and still be happy with it. I’ve written a blog about that process here.
I still find the concept of points being changeable very interesting. I definitely believe it’s a good thing because I think Version 1 had too many ships or other components that were automatically bad straight out of the pack and having adjustable points means that ships which are over costed (or under costed) can be re-balanced so you feel less like you’ve wasted your money on buying a particular ship.
Individually I felt pretty good after the first points change in January because my list was still viable and came down in points allowing me to do more with it. However after the July points change I don’t feel so good since that list is now unplayable and I feel like I have to go back to the drawing board. There are some great lists out there following the points change and I have tried a couple in Fly Casual but there’s nothing that I really seem to click with except for my rather ridiculous Dash Rendar list which I will post about some other time. If nothing else, variable points certainly keeps me on my toes and I guess is helping me to become a better list builder (it must be… right?!?)