I’m not sure I agree. I recently flew Manaroo with IG-88D on board, and found her to be pretty useful as a buffer/blocker/pain-in-the-rump. What I think might be great is dropping the price a little and then adding either a gunner or a second crew slot, because you’d definitely spend points on filling that. But then the JM5K would get to bring a bit more capability, and would be kept from becoming OP by the wonky dial.

Le bump.

Got em. Missed the timing for my last game, but I’ve put some on bases. They definitely make the bases stick up a noticeable amount. They also still might slide more than I was hoping for. But, the proof will be in flying them. Hopefully soon...

It’s a bit sad that my attempt to find a usable Zuckuss build has meandered towards adding ever-more support crew for 4-LOM... but you’re right, that Starviper might be a good lil’ counterpoint to the rest of these goofballs. The list was great when I had 4 ships that could killbox and/or cover everyone’s backs all at once, but it lost a lot of its apparent flexibility when 4-LOM died and the game came down to everybody else trying to pin down Corran Horn. In the end, my victory probably owed more to luck than skill; I was rolling hot during the late game when I could actually get time on target. Having something legitimately able to dance would’ve been great. As for Zuckuss, I think I’m leaning more toward a pile-of-upgrades approach that would help with stress mitigation and increased mobility: Zuckuss (45) Trick Shot (2) Collision Detector (6) L3-37 (4) Contraband Cybernetics (5) Electronic Baffle (2) Total: 64 Trick Shot is there for the extra die when your flying brick is inevitably shooting through cover. Collision Detector is kind of like a pseudo-Qi’ra-plus-Advanced-Sensors, which (again ) helps when your flying brick can’t dodge a rock to save its life. L3-37 truly isn’t a power card, but she feels weirdly synergistic on the flying brick. Contraband is overpriced and will hopefully drop in the next points adjustment, but even so, it lets the flying brick go beast mode for a turn. And last but not least, EBaffle is there because I’ve wished it was there for two games now. #FeelsBadMan This is just theorycrafting/rambling, but I could see it having some legs as part of the right list (TBD). Also note that it doesn’t include Mist Hunter, because I’m still not sure Zuckuss would be able to get enough action economy going to take advantage of it—honestly, the dude probably wants to either TL or Focus on the off-chance that he actually gets an action for once. (I think I could count the number of such times from my last two games on one hand; if he wasn’t stressed, he was bumping.)

So I did end up having time to tweak it: 4-LOM (49) Elusive (3) Advanced Sensors (10) Qi’ra (2) Mist Hunter (2) Jamming Beam (0) Zuckuss (45) Lando Calrissian (8) Manaroo (47) IG-88D (4) Outer Rim Pioneer (28) Tactical Officer (2) Total: 200 View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0 And I’m glad I did. There was definitely a big chunk of the early-mid game where the Escape Craft’s white Coordinate was throwing happiness all over the place. Having everybody at the same initiative was fantastic, and the relatively low initiative let me set up blocks and killzones without worrying about my opponent’s interference. Manaroo with the two Calculates was frequently awesome—definitely worth it. Overall I was pleased with my two support ships, and I feel like they more than pulled their weight. Super 4-LOM was still an absolute beast this game. Qi’ra is so freaking worth the two points you spend on her. There were several turns toward the late game where I was parked on the back side of a rock that I locked, just sitting there doing red Stop maneuvers and laughing as I got an extra defense plus Elusive while throwing reds without giving my opponent an extra Evade. The only bad thing is that 4-LOM was my opponent’s #1 priority, so he was first to die. But holy CRAP did he distort the entire game. Zuckuss, sadly, might not have found his “final form” with Lando. He’s just such an unmaneuverable brick compared to 4-LOM. Having other people throw him tokens and stuff was great, though. But it seemed like on the turns when he was able to get a shot, I either had a target lock already or enough tokens from Manaroo that Lando didn’t matter. To be clear, Zuckuss and his extra die are still frickin’ brutal. But I kept wishing I’d swapped down to something like 0-0-0 + Electronic Baffle because I was always close to people, and sometimes I would’ve just about killed to ditch a stress. In the end, though, I won. And I kinda promised my buddy that I would stop running Super 4-LOM. But I might keep splashing Zuckuss into some lists for a while, because I’ve played him enough now to know he’s got potential.

Holy cow, you’re right. I don’t see why this wouldn’t work...

That’s a strong idea. I had a lot of fun with Seevor and his jamming shenanigans last game, though I can see how the ORP would amp-up the jank factor by letting Manaroo be more of a blocker/nuisance while keeping the combo alive. Having the coordinate in the mix might even make it feasible to switch Zuckuss down from Lando to a grab-bag of cheaper upgrades. I prepped my game box with this list last night, but I might poke at this some more if I get the chance.

Planning to try a refinement if I can tomorrow: Captain Seevor (30) 4-LOM (49) Elusive (3) Advanced Sensors (10) Qi’ra (2) Mist Hunter (2) Jamming Beam (0) Zuckuss (45) Lando Calrissian (8) Manaroo (47) IG-88D (4) Total: 200 View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0 This came from looking for some way for poor Zuckuss to mod his dice while either being stressed or pulling reds. It also avoids the self-damage of Ebaffle. The Manaroo/IG88D/Lando chain is unadulterated flagrant jank, but if nothing else this should be amusing to try.

I was all set to buy a sacrificial mousepad before my next game, but this looks absolutely brilliant. I’ve gone ahead and ordered a set.

A couple weeks later, though, I feel more comfortable with the situation than I had been. I’ve found good homes for a lot of my extraneous 1.0 stuff, which helped me realize just how much I went overboard with purchases in 1.0. And that in turn made me realize how much of an unbalanced card game 1.0 really was. Why buy 1+ of everything when it’s not unlocking some super boss combo that you better fly if you don’t want to get #rekt? Honestly, 1.0 incentivized a lot of purchasing through its escalating balance wonkiness. In contrast, 2.0 seems pretty decently balanced even when you’re not flying wombo-combos. If you don’t have the wombo cards, you can’t fly the combos... but there’s plenty of other stuff that’s decent enough, so how big a deal is this really? I dunno. I’m still not thrilled about higher costs, but I think the bigger challenge is to reset the part of my brain that’s telling me I need to keep buying all the new stuff all the time to keep up. I think 2.0’s pricing and balance structure just isn’t geared that way, and it’s mostly just a matter of getting comfortable with that. Now I just get to fly dorky combos and fun stuff for the heck of it, and I probably don’t have to worry about getting utterly bulldozed unless my dice go cold and I start camping out on rocks.

This is literally me. I wasn’t offended by 2E and in fact welcomed the promised balance improvements. But for reasons I still don’t fully understand, I felt my fire for the game go out on the day I saw the 2E announcement. I’d enjoyed keeping up with new ships and combos but I didn’t feel the urge to buy the Saw’s or Reaper packs. Fast forward to the Republic being announced, and my ears perked up. Then when the N1 was announced, I dove back in like Minsc leading a charge of miniature giant space hamsters.

Possibly dumb question, asked in a spirit of genuine curiosity after playing a game out at a store and seeing this come up: Given that simul-striking is a thing in 2E, does bidding even matter anymore? Like... even if you kill my ship with your same-PS ship, it’ll still get to shoot at its initiative before it gets removed... right?

Many thanks, all! The cheapo mousepad option sounds about my speed; I think I’ll try that with some sacrificial bases and see how it goes. 💚

After flying against him a couple of times, I can state unequivocally: yes he is. (Oh and that’s a reasonable upgrade on him, too.) I bet list 1 works in part because of the different flight patterns and engagement approaches between the Ys and Bs. Blount is an animal, but he needs people to be close enough to the enemy to proc his ability—which is probably more the Bs’ ballgame.

A buddy and I were recently lamenting how easy it is to nudge and slide ships on accident, and brainstorming ways to make that less prone to happening. My buddy threw out an idea of filling the underside of the bases with silicone to add a little more weight and friction. We haven’t tried it yet, though. Before we go too far, I wanted to check in here. I’m sure you guys know what I mean about how much of a pain this can be. I was wondering if anyone’s found a solution that they’d be willing to share?

I definitely used the barrel roll. Maybe not all the time, but often enough to feel like it’s a valuable part of the mix. Jamming beam was more just to fill the slot. Never used it; never was tempted to. I did use the G-1A’s onboard Jam action a couple of times, though.

I flew a very satisfying 4-LOM today: 4-LOM (49) Elusive (3) Advanced Sensors (10) Qi’ra (2) Mist Hunter (2) Jamming Beam (0) Total: 66 It’s not terribly revolutionary, but Elusive and Qi’ra made a huge impact on his maneuverability and survivability. There were a handful of moments in the early game when I wished I had 0-0-0 on board, but Qi’ra was absolutely clutch when it got down to the endgame and I had to push the G-1A’s clunky chassis into a knife fight.

OH MY GOSH I JUST PLAYED ONE OF THE TENSEST AND MOST AMAZING GAMES OF X-WING EVER — AND WON!! Here’s the list, which I’m now calling “4 F’s Given” due to the presence of 4-LOM not generally giving a darn about the board state going on around him, and the absence of 0-0-0. I played this against a Rebel “salad” consisting of AP-5/Leia, Braylen, Blount, Garven, and... someone in an A-Wing. Captain Seevor (30) Crack Shot (1) Talonbane Cobra (50) Predator (2) Zuckuss (45) Crack Shot (1) L3-37 (4) 4-LOM (49) Elusive (3) Advanced Sensors (10) Qi’ra (2) Mist Hunter (2) Jamming Beam (0) Total: 199 View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0 Sweet advice about L3-37, @Ysenhal! She’s a great fit for Zuck. Also I totally see how FCS would be limited in practice because the Zuck won’t be able to tail people; I never missed it and likely never would’ve used it if I had it. If I play this again—which I hope to—I might swap Zuckuss’ Crack Shot for an Electronic Baffle... or downgrade Talonbane’s Predator to Crack Shot for the same. I think Zuckuss really wants dat baffle since he doesn’t have 4-LOM’s offload ability. Oh and Qi’ra was absolutely 10/10 hilarious and useful on 4-LOM. I was kind of frustrated for the first half of the game because it didn’t seem like I was ever going to use her, but then it came down to my two G-1As trying to knife-fight in the endgame, and I was Qi’ra’ing all over the place. Would totally take her again. Also, Elusive is MADE for 4-LOM!

That sounds awesome. I’ve been having terrible luck with Scyks in 2E thus far, which makes me sad, since they seem fine on paper and I liked them in 1E. My first game with them they literally evaporated before they could do anything, and my second game was an exercise in frustration trying to line up bullseyes for HLCs (which never happened) (and then they evaporated too). Maybe it’s ion-or-nothing? I ran missiles on them in 1E but I’m still trying to wrap my head around what’s good and what isn’t in 2E.

(This was previously my main post, but I moved it downthread after clearing out my trade backlog in late 2019)

I very much hope you’re wrong, but I’ve begun to fear you might be right. Resistance also seems like a dead-end faction from a story perspective, as well; given the compressed timeline that TFA & TLJ seem to occupy, “The Resistance” seems likely to end up as: “Hey remember that time when the FO invaded and we scrambled some ships but we all died? Good times, bra. Good times.” At least the FO presumably had to build, equip, & train themselves over a long time, slowly agitating against the light from within the darkness. I could see potential there for expansion. But even if FO never get another ship, I think they’ll still be fun and characterful on the tabletop. (With apologies to Resistance fans... which I assume must be a thing?)

Welcome aboard, @wrecknerds85! My #1 thought is to buy what you like and have fun. However, that’s kind of what I did in 1E, and now I’ve got a crap-ton of ships for factions that I still haven’t converted over to 2E (and now—in some cases—I’m actively trying to divest). Point is, it’s easy to go overboard. I’d honestly advise starting small and mastering the ships you have before branching out into a ton of others. The Saw’s pack is a fine way to get a couple of ships & upgrades that seem to see a fair amount of use. And eBay can be your friend too, especially for single upgrades that appeared in a conversion kit.

Hey folks. As a fairly recent convert from 1E to 2E, I’m trying to make sure all my ship models see table time in 2E. So if I have 2 of a given ship, I try to get them both out there at the same time—otherwise why have 2? Lately I’ve felt the itch to fly my two G-1As. I’ve done some experimenting with one-off 4-LOM builds, and I’m happy with how he flies, so he’s a lock for my next list. But what about Zuckuss?! The Zuckster was one of my favorite pilots from 1E, but he doesn’t feel quite as strong this time out. Especially since there’s no way to give both G-1As barrel roll in 2E, and 4-LOM is clearly the guy you give it to if you can’t do both. Here’s an idea: Captain Seevor (30) Talonbane Cobra (50) Predator (2) Zuckuss (45) Fire-Control System (2) 0-0-0 (5) 4-LOM (49) Elusive (3) Advanced Sensors (10) Qi’ra (2) Mist Hunter (2) Jamming Beam (0) Total: 200 View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0 The basic idea is that Seevor provides another useful ability at initiative 3, while Awesomename McCoolguy provides a little bit of higher-init punch. 4-LOM is still probably the lynchpin; Elusive combos with his all-reds/all-the-time movement style, while Qi’ra opens up some shenanigans on turns when you know you’ll have to eat rock to get into an optimal position. Zuckuss feels weak in contrast, but I’m honestly not sure what else to give the guy. 0-0-0 is great on 4-LOM too, but on Zuck maybe it helps let him draw some of 4-LOM’s fire?

Shh, don’t give FFG ideas. I was all for the prequel ships but we’re already up to 7 factions... how on earth would people keep up with 2 more?! 😧

Hi guys. Got a modeling question for ya. I have a decent 40K background if that helps, but these are some fiddly bits indeed. I have a K-Wing and a HWK that have lost one or more of their tiny little sticking-out guns. I’d like to come up with some kind of replacement, because they look kinda stupid without them. At one point I had one of the guns among my modeling effects, but that was more than a year and a house-move ago; the others are just gone gone gone. I’ve also got an Upsilon shuttle with a front-gun that’s bent but not broken yet. I’d like to reinforce that before it fully breaks, or something.