In my opinion, the introduction
of the third faction brought the X-wing Miniatures game up to that same great level.
The Scum faction looks, flies, and acts completely different from the other two
but it is balanced and locks perfectly into its place in the miniatures world. And
because of my desire to learn I dived right in; it was time to learn to fight
dirty.
To start out I want to briefly
talk about the other two factions. Don't get me wrong, the Imperial and Rebel
factions were perfectly balanced and autonomous before the introduction of Scum. Rebel ships are inherently more powerful, usually sporting high
attack dice while Imperials hold the advantage in number of ships. Imperial
starfighers are fast, nimble, and evasive but the Rebel ships always have shields
for protection. And to complement gameplay both sides have ample access to
synergy-based abilities to make their squads stronger when working together. Either
style has strengths and weaknesses and when mastered can be deadly. However, the whole system was thrown when the Pirates came to play. They don't go by the rules and always carry a
few tricks up their sleeves. Let's take a closer look at what the Scum &
Villainy Faction has to offer us for the X-wing game and find out if it's your
style of flying.
Anti-Synergy
First off, Pirates toss the concept
of squad flying out the window. These pilots are bloodthirsty and cutthroat.
Though they are looking for the win as a whole, that is only their secondary objective.
The number one priority is that they make it out alive and they don't care how
many of their squad mates die in the process. (Yeah, Kaa'to and Xizor, I'm
talking to you). Because of the type of ships and abilities available to Scum they
are much more efficient at solo flying and swarming. If you group in a
formation you may find that the extra protection your squad gets isn't worth
the restricted efficiency it enforces. FFG wrote about this in their article
on the new Kihraxz fighter. They said that these fighters would suffer if
forced to fly in formation. Instead they are much better at facing opponents
one on one. When flying your scum squad, consider breaking them off into
different vectors at the beginning thus forcing your opponent to split or get
surrounded.
Another strong strategy of the
Scum faction is to destroy the synergy of the opposing team. Scum Hawks are not
just annoying but downright nasty. Palob Godalhi strips an enemy ship of its
focus or evade token and takes it for himself. Or you can pick Trokil Mux, who
can force an enemy down to Pilot Skill 0 during the combat phase. Both of these
support abilities are quite strong and can allow the rest of your pirate ships to
overpower a flat-footed opponent.
The M3-A Interceptor also does a good job of breaking the enemy's synergy. The ship hasn't received much use because players see
them as expensive, inefficient Tie Fighters. But that is not their strength at
all. The M3's niche is in being the cheapest cannon ship in the game. Apply the
title card to the M3 and you have a Heavy Scyk which can equip a torpedo,
missile, or cannon. Torpedoes are expensive and the Heavy Scyk doesn't have the
second slot needed for Extra Munitions. And Headhunters, with their low cost
and natural missile upgrade, make far cheaper Missile Boats. So let's instead
focus on the cannon. A Heavy Scyk with an Ion or Flechette cannon can only do
one max damage a turn. But in exchange it can use the cannon the whole game and
give an ion or stress token every round. With just one of these you can
seriously mess up an enemy formation or synergy-type build. As I said before,
they are cheapest of their kind to make, coming it at a lower cost than even the
Ion Y-wing. As for the other types of cannons, feel free to experiment with
them but be careful, they are pretty expensive.
Illicit
Weaponry
When I first read the title of
these of upgrades I laughed. All is fair in love and war, right? If there was
some new type of black market weaponry I'm pretty sure the Empire or Rebels
wouldn't hesitate to get their hands on it. But I thought about the word illicit some more and what I realized made me cringe. These upgrades aren't
called illicit because they are illegal but instead because they are inhumane.
Even though the Empire was founded on the Dark Side of the force, and therefore
evil, at least they still had some honor about life. These illicits aren't what
any sane Imperial or Rebel General would choose to subject their soldiers too. Its
only the Scum of the galaxy that are willing to use them to gain the victory.
Inertial Dampeners: If you have ever read the Honor Harrington
series by David Weber you'll have experinced firsthand what happens to a human being
in a space ship that accelerates with broken Inertial Compensators. Ugh... Even
though some of the Physics are different between the Honor and Star Wars
universes, inertia plays a role in both. That is why it stresses a Shuttle to
do a 0 move and stay still. Up until this last year, the Shuttle was only ship
that could do that maneuver. But this changed when Pirate fleets started
rigging their ships with Inertial Dampeners. Now, once a game, a ship with an
Inertial Dampener can pull a stressful 0 move. This can get your ship away from
a chaser and also get you into better position to shoot. However, take note
that the upgrade says "dampen" and not "eliminate". I don't
even want to think about what kind of g-forces those pilots are experiencing
but I think it is safe to bet that it lowers their already short life
expectancy.
Glitterstim: Now this is an upgrade. Glitterstim was a spice
produced as a recreational drug but users found that it also provided temporary
psychic abilities. So of course, it found its way onto the battlefield. For only
two points, a pilot gets a one-shot item that changes all focuses that round
into hits and evades. And it doesn't even cost them their action! This can
change an initial jousting Scum swarm from becoming the victims to being the
killers. And it provides necessary survivability to Lone Wolf ships, adding
strength to the already power strategy of creating a pincer from all sides. But
glitterstim is dangerous. Sustained use of it atrophies the brain and people
almost always overdose on it. So be careful out there, spice users, there's a
reason FFG only lets you stim once a game!
Dead Man's Switch: If you've played any Star Wars FPS video game
then you have been lied to. Whether its Jedi Outcast, Battlefront, or Republic
Commando, the game makers give a wrong interpretation of the Thermal Detonator.
They present the weapon like a normal grenade that you toss at group of enemies
for a little bit of splash damage. But that is not the case! Thermal detonators
are actually the Holy Hand Grenade of the Star Wars universe. When Princess
Leia, disguised as a bounty hunter, threatened Jabba the Hutt with one it was a
real and legitimate threat. That one detonator would have vaporized EVERYONE in
the room if she had set it off.
So when you see a Pirate who has
upgraded his ship with the Dead Man's Switch, be very careful. The art on the
card shows a Gran pilot with two Thermal Detonators. 2 detonators for 2 points.
It turns a normal ship into a bomb that explodes when it dies and sprays the
shrapnel of its own hull at a blast radius of Range 1. ANY ship within that
radius receives a damage. Put this on an Aggressor and you have a large base
ship ready to get up close and personal. Or if you're really feeling sadistic
then rig exploseives to a pair of Binayre Pirate and force them to fly point
during an initial joust. They cost the same amount as Biggs with a droid and,
seriously, they'll be just as efficient at drawing fire.
Feedback Array: At first glance this card looks pretty bad. No one
wants to give up their attack and
ionize themselves. But there are 2 amazing things about this upgrade that one
must understand. The first is that it is a guaranteed hit, just like the Darth
Vader upgrade. But the second thing makes it even better than Vader in my mind:
it isn't limited to your firing arc. It may not be labeled as a turret upgrade
but the card allows you to attack any enemy at Range 1. That means Aggressors,
Headhunters, and other illicit ships can equip a guaranteed Range 1 turret for a
price. If you are willing to pay the price then it can be a powerful
tactic.
Teaching
an Old Y New Tricks
A fun thing that the Scum
faction does is take previous ships in the X-wing game and put a whole new
twist on them. The Most Wanted expansion pack is probably one of the best
bank-for-your-buck purchases you can make. Not only does it add 1 Scum Y-wing
and 2 Scum Headhunters to your fleet, it also provides the necessary cards and
dials to turn 1 Imperial Firespray, 1 Rebel Hawk, and 1 Rebel Y-wing into scum
ships as well. That's a max of 6 ships from one expansion! I've already
mentioned some of the changes that Scum Hawks and Headhunters bring to the
table. And there are plenty of good changes for the Firespray as well. But what
I really want to focus on is the big changes in the Y-wing.
The Bomber Y-wing: The first upgrade included is the bomb
conversion slot. You place it as a torpedo upgrade and it converts it into a
bomb slot. This brings a whole new role to the Y and can really catch people
off guard if they are not used to it. It is important to note that the card
says "Limited". This means that you cannot equip two bomb slots onto
a Y-wing. However, don't be discouraged because this can easily be overcome
with the Extra Munitions card. It doesn't allow you to have 2 different types of bombs, just double of the same. But the fun doesn't stop there. A Scum Y
bomber can equip Genius, a named
droid for a cheap 0 points. He allows your bomber to place a bomb after you
move instead of before. And if you want to go really crazy then attach an engine upgrade so
you can move, drop, and then boost away to not get hit by your own Proton Bomb.
This makes for a fun and fast Y-wing experience.
The Autoturret Y-wing: The Most Wanted pack also introduced the
Autoblaster Turret. We have seen this ability before as the cannon upgrade from
the B-wing. However when the Autocannon came out it was far too expensive and
didn't hit very hard. The latter problem was fixed in a FAQ rules update: evade
tokens are now considered a dice result and therefore cannot block an
Autoblaster attack. The other problem was fixed when FFG made the Autoturret
cost only 2 points. But wait a second, when you switch from an Autocannon to an
Autoturret you lose 1 attack dice but gain 3 squad points? That seems too good to be true.
And that is because it is. The
main reason why the Autoturret is so cheap is because it forces you to give up
your turret slot. Think about it. A Y-wing or Hawk's turret is its lifeblood.
Without it, neither ship would be worth their points on the battlefield. So
yes, an Autoturret is very cost efficient but its range serverly hinders its effectiveness. So you need to learn to fly an Autoturret Y-wing in the
right way. Consider the Y-wing bomber I previously mentioned. You
can use the engine upgrade to make sure you get into range 1 and always get a
shot. Or perhaps you want to use the pilot Kavil. His ability gives him an extra
dice outside his firing arc, giving him a deadly 3 dice Autoturret attack.
Experiment with it and see what works for you.
The Warthog Y-wing: The last Y upgrade you get is the Y-wing Title
Card. A BTL-A4 Y-wing, nicknamed the Warthog, costs an additional 0 points to
make. It turns your Y's turret upgrade into a double tap cannon. And although
the Rebellion has access to this upgrade as well, the Scum faction still holds
the monopoly on effective Warthogs because of their salvaged droids.
The first is the Unhinged
Astromech. Coming in at 1 point, it is the socially awkward cousin of the R2
Astromech. They both give more green maneuvers to a ship but they do it in
different ways. The R2 makes all 1 and 2 speeds green. This gives the Y-wing 6
more green moves and greatly reduces its weakness to stress. The Unhinged on
the other hand has a bit more of a punch to it. It changes all 3 speeds to
green which only gives the Y 5 more green moves. But at the same time it
changes the 3 speed turns from red to green. This frees up its movement dial
and makes the Y-wing much faster.
But what if you don't care about
movement? Another really strong option for the Warthog is the R4 Agromech. I
had no idea what that droid was and so I had to look it up. But just like the
name suggests the Agromech is a stinkin' farming droid! The company that makes
Astromechs for space travel also wanted to
get in on the agricultural business. So they made a few modifications and
started selling droids to farmers. Underground organizations caught onto this
and made a startling discovery: it was quite simple to reverse engineer the
changes to again make the droids space-ready. Furthermore, buying bulk
Agromechs instead of Astromechs prevented the local authorities from being
tipped off.
Because of this we have one of
the best combat droids in the X-wing game. When you spend an offensive focus
token you can acquire a target lock on the defender which you can immediately use in your second attack.. This gives your Warthog
the equivalent of a Fire Control system. The composion of this type of Y-wing actually paved way for a new viable build:
4 Warthogs with Ion turrets and R4 Agromechs. At range 1-2 this squad can dish out 8 modified attacks, giving between 12-16
damage as well as 4 ion tokens.
In summary, Pirates don't
fight in the traditional fashion and work hard to mess up their opponent's strategy. They like to operate solo and have their hands on a whole score of illicit
upgrades to give them the advantage. And finally they take new and
interesting twists on old ships to make them just as deadly as others on the battlefield.
So try out the Scum & Villainy faction and get your hands dirty. You might even
find yourself having some fun.
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