Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20170917183108

Quick update:

3point2Company streamed some of the games on twitch here. I was only on camera for my final battle, here at 2:10:40. I was so tired I kept forgetting to roll in front of the dice camera (you can see me panicing and apologizing with the first few rolls, but my opponent just shrugged it off and said it's ok). The announcers were so tired they kept forgetting to switch to the dice cam anyway. :)

LasseKaa:

Scum Prototype has proven to be very solid. The PS War is a bane on a lot of lists, as are bombs. This wouldn't be a bad choice despite its weaknesses.

Discount Defenders, Cruising Bombers, and Suicide Squadron seem like risks. Experience with a list counts for a lot. Players who grab a top meta list for a tournament without learning it really well first, for example, tend to get eaten up by players fielding a less overtly powerful, but more practiced list. And experience will tell you a lot about the list's weaknesses, strengths, and overall viability. Give them a try and let us know how they work out!

But philisophically passing judgement, I'd say Discount Defenders has some potential as a damage soaker but I suspect you'll lose points a bit too easily. TIE Bombers are too easy to damage/crit to death one at a time, though you may pour enough damage on foes to vastly outpace their threat anyway...? Worth a test.

I think I like Cruising Bombers, at least conceptually, simply because the first or 2nd round of combat could let you devastate the enemy (depending on when you get your locks; probably 2nd round after a k-turn). But because you're lock-dependent, this will be extremely tricky. First pass will result in a dead or crippled bomber(s), and you'll have to carefully choose who to lock. If you're below the enemy's PS, then you'll probably be too close to fire that round, and thus will telegraph next round's target with your lock. If you try to focus-fire one target and happen to kill that target early, missiles don't get used on the other targets. Or that ship may just run, leaving you with useless locks and only your primary weapons + stress after the k-turn. If you spread your locks among 2+ ships, you may fall short of the lethal blow you need to knock ships off the table. Rather than Crack Shot, I suggest Deadeye. It solves so many of these problems: you're no longer crippled by your PS or telegraphing your target, and you can still fire with locks if needed.

Suicide Squadron sounds like a fun joke list. Someone yesterday flew a popcorn fleet with 3 or 4 Deadman Z-95s and I think a Bomblet Firespray, and had a fun time despite not ranking well.

ZZZZX is neat, and I like the good use of Jess in a murder swarm. Airen is also great, granting a lock or defensive focus when needed. I do think it's a vulnerable fleet though... if you don't smite Nym early, you're in for a brutal bombing run. If higher-PS foes kill Jess or Airen early, as you said, that really hurts the fleet. And your bandits suffer many of the same problems as Cruising Bombers. I dunno...

I agree with your assessment of Formation Flying Yes Please. It's brutal to small ships and/or swarms, but Dengar will cause it grief. That said, I don't feel Nym is terribly evil against it... Nym sucks at dodging or coping with tractor beams, and disrupting his path so he plows through or onto asteroids is a good way to take the edge off of his bombs and autoblaster (making it harder to get to you because he's missing actions or suddenly positioned awkwardly). That said, a good Nym is trouble for aces and has a fantastic ability to just insert himself into death range... and Dengar is always a big problem. Though... tractor beams cause him grief too, since he's only sitting on 9 HP and reducing his defense can allow your TIE/Ds to melt him fast.

Honestly the one ship that concerns me is the TIE Shuttle... I'd actually love a more damaging ship instead of a pure support, but maybe the locks and focuses are making your formation more effective overall? It does worry me though that your anti-formation fleet needs to fly in formation, which reduces its ability to exploit opportunities, avoid Nym bombs, flank Dengar, etc.

I hope all that rambling helps (and I hope my first impressions don't lead you astray -- I could be wrong). And maybe one of your untested fleets will rock the socks off the meta! ^_^  Keep us posted!