X-Wing Squad - A Nice Hat
A Nice Hat
(5) Cad Bane [Rogue-class Starfighter]
(4) Heavy Laser Cannon
(3) Overtuned Modulators
(5) Concussion Missiles
(2) Electronic Baffle
(2) Predator
Points: 5
(5) MagnaGuard Protector [Rogue-class Starfighter]
(5) Concussion Missiles
(10) Afterburners
Points: 5
(6) Sun Fac [Nantex-class Starfighter]
(10) Ensnare
(3) Crack Shot
(4) Gravitic Deflection
Points: 6
(4) Onderon Oppressor [HMP Droid Gunship]
(0) Repulsorlift Stabilizers
(3) Seismic Charges
(4) Energy-Shell Charges
Points: 4
Total points: 20
The notion behind the squad is simple: Cad Bane does Cad Bane things by tripling down on his bullseye arc. The MagnaGuard protects Sun Fac who does wonky ace things. The Onderon Oppressor...well, I just love the HMPs and can't quit them.
I am still learning the game, so I don't really have the ability to look at a ship and its dial and see possibilities on the gameboard. In fact, I haven't played X-Wing since Adepticon back in March (so I'm also pretty well overdue for it!), so when I saw that the Rogue Starfighter had been announced, I was excited about the pilot abilities, but didn't really see any possibilities straight off the bat. My buddy Josh said, "it's a weird little ship." Since he's my X-Wing sounding board and my usual opponent, I took that as a challenge for us to both work on figuring out how best to leverage it.
I've only gotten to fly this squad once before writing this post, but man, it's fun, if a bit predictable! It's no surprise that Cad wants to line up bullseyes all day, nor is it a surprise that the MagnaGuard assigns his Guarded condition to Sun Fac. And everyone expects that Sun Fac will attempt to tractor their ships into Cad's bullseye if Cad can't line up the shot on his own. The HMP isn't necessarily as easy to anticipate as to its target prioritization, so that's a point in my favor. But I think if I can learn how to fly this better, it might be one of those situations where an opponent knows what I'm trying to do, but that doesn't necessarily prevent me from doing it anyway.
When Josh and I played, he jumped out to an early lead. I had scored some objective points (we were playing Scramble the Transmissions), but I was sloppy with Sun Fac and he went down early. I hadn't set up properly and so I couldn't leverage the Guarded condition as much as I hoped. It's a really cool ability, but I'm certain I was counting on it too much. The MagnaGuard went down too just because it was in the vicinity of Sun Fac in the kill box Josh set up for me with his Rogues (Cad Bane, Boba Fett, and someone else). So at this point, I'm basically done. Except it turns out Cad Bane and the HMP can do some work even with their backs against the wall! I got a couple of kills and some more points. But with Boba Fett still getting off quality shots and my ships trying to get away, I just couldn't stop Josh from finishing off my squad.
I really like the Cad build I've got. I'm still figuring out how to line up my shots, so I don't know just how effective the bullseye strategy will be with this ship until I get better at flying it and lining up those shots. But at present, if I can line it up, it's a 4 dice attack wherein the defender cannot modify dice with green tokens and I can reroll an attack die. In the wake of the matchup, Josh suggested I drop Electronic Baffle so I could pick up Xanadu Blood and General Grievous. This will allow Cad to Cloak and be a little less predictable in where he'll land. And Grievous will double down on taking advantage of a nearby friendly ship blowing up. Overtuned Modulators was great fun and I'm happy to keep that upgrade! I ended up using the Concussion Missiles because I didn't have much in the way of better shots, but it works well enough. As I get better at flying the Rogue-class Starfighter, we'll see whether or not I keep that particular choice as a safety valve for when I can't line up a bullseye shot.
It's hard for me to say whether or not I like this loadout on the MagnaGuard Protector simply because I didn't fly well enough for it to do its job. I think I probably need to switch away from Concussion Missiles because it requires a Lock, but in order for Guarded to work, the Protector needs to be either Calculating or Evading. and I can't link from a Lock into a Calculate or Evade. But again: I didn't fly this ship well enough to really get a handle on what I want it to do besides protect Sun Fac. Speaking of whom, yeah, I love him, but I (surprise surprise!) need to keep improving how I fly him. I'm still not good enough at the game to reliably predict where he should land to do the Sun Fac-type stuff that got him nerfed so hard before 2.0 in the first place. He's a pretty standard loadout, so I won't spend much time explaining him.
And that takes us to the Onderon Oppressor. Again, I'm just a huge fan of the HMP Gunship. I think they're easy to underestimate because it can be tough to get a bead on the best way to leverage them. But using the Geonosian Prototypes with Ion Cannons was so much fun in my first *real* squad that I took to Adepticon that I think there's real promise in what it can do. I think, ideally, the Onderon Oppressor is either herding enemies toward Cad Bane or it's waiting for whatever gets past Cad to the other side. It's set up with both Energy-Shell Charges and Seismic Charges so that it's a threat regardless of which side my opponent has landed on.
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