3 Tactician Auzitucks? It'll never work! (also Daredevil Wulf)

[Brunas 7,019]

56 minutes ago, Dreadai said:

If I’m not sure which side to reinforce (or I know they can barrel roll out of the relevant arc) I opt to rear. That way they choose between unanswered attack against a reinforced section or an answered attack against an unreinforced section. Reinforcing front in that scenario gives them a simple choice. 

But yeah intel agent looks super useful, 

While I get your logic, if it's close or you're otherwise not sure, make sure you reinforce the fore.  Because of the way the reinforce reference works, the area for fore reinforce is massively bigger than the rear.  

 

On that same train of logic, if you reinforce the rear, and your opponent can get unanswered shots, do you really think they'll barrel roll/boost into arc to deny you an evade?

[Rich P 907]

I get what you are saying @Brunas but if I reinforce fore and they have a choice to barrel roll into rear, I still eat an unanswered, unreinforced shot. 

Maybe I’m Just scarred by how badly a well flown Dengar rinsed me when I was first playing the list. 

[Brunas 7,019]

Just now, Dreadai said:

I get what you are saying @Brunas but if I reinforce fore and they have a choice to barrel roll into rear, I still eat an unanswered, unreinforced shot. 

Maybe I’m Just scarred by how badly a well flown Dengar rinsed me when I was first playing the list. 

Right, the solution is to make sure they can't barrel roll into your aft! it's that easy... right?

[matt.sucharski 1,055]

When you're unsure, or when the enemy can repostion and decide whether they land in arc or out, I reinforce the rear. That way either I'm protected or I get a shot.

[Wazat 1,244]

On 11/24/2017 at 10:49 AM, Red42 said:

^So much this. When I was playing earlier in the week I'd reinforce until one wookiee was 3  or so damage in, then only reinforce on that ship and focus the other two. They either have to continue to focus on the damaged one or spread damage around (which is never a good strategy). Then your other two have double-modded shots which is super powerful.

I can see the merits in Expertise, don't get me wrong. The basic maths don't lie. It was only a small sample size, but it felt like I was pumping out a much higher volume of hits with this strategy than I would have been with just Expertise, or just reinforcing all the time on all 3 and relying on Predator.

Can't argue with the fact either that @Brunas made top 4 at the system open with Expertise, though. Intel Agent is a neat idea and maybe one I might explore next. There are definitely those couple of rounds a game against slippery enemies where you're not quite sure which side of the ship to re-inforce, and so that'd certainly be of value. Breach Specialist seems okay, but it's not giving me a huge amount of use so far. Again, admittedly a small sample size.

Honestly, I'm thinking the meta game may support flying Predator.  My reasoning is simple (and possibly flawed as a result, hah): at the local level, and globally with Brunas at the System Open, Expertise has made a large showing.  At least at the surface level, this favors playing stress builds like Rebel Captive, Asajj, Tactician (including other Triple Tuck fleets), etc.

By flying Predator, I'm anticipating and responding to the community reaction to Expertise.  I know my local community after Intermountain Cup very slightly lost its mind seeing the power of my triple tuck fleet, and they've been scheming ways to take it down ever since.  Plus there's a $50 bounty on my head for the first player that scores a kill against my fleet at Regionals. 

The saving grace of all of this is that said bounty and fear of expertise may cause players to make unwise choices... after all, a fleet specifically designed to take down triple tucks may not fare well against the general meta, so they may not get very far overall (or even ever face me).  I've proven during IMC and the practice games preceding it that I can take down a stress fleet with triple tucks, and it's possible that Rebel Captive and Asajj are going to be very poor in the new meta created by the new wave (as @gennataos mentioned).  We'll have to see.

I haven't been able to play triple tucks since IMC and the lack of practice worries me (no one wants to fight them during practice days), but I'm going to try to move some scheduling around and start attending Saturday tournaments so I can fly them and get some testing in.  I'd like to think a Predator Wulf fleet would do well.

 

I'm still really partial to Breach Specialist too.  I love how brutally it trivialized I'll Show You The Dark Side, and more generally, I shed some Damaged Engines, Blinded Pilots, and other effects that would have seriously crippled me.  I actually chose to take more damage over taking certain crits because the tucks could take it, and BS's ability to let me choose was incredibly effective.  It's especially hot against two-ship fleets, which were reasonably popular at IMC.

[gennataos 5,873]

Over the weekend, I reinforced (sic) the need to fly triple wookies well with staggered, overlapping arcs.  I Jousted a Poe/Jess/Tarn list straight up, removed Tarn while losing one shield total, then....lost the game?  Yeah, I'm baffled, too.  My biggest was mistake was flying them all straight on, no staggered angles. 

I did try Intel Agent instead of Breach Specialist and didn't get much out of it.  It was only one game, but I'm probably going back to Breach if/when I play them again.  It could have saved me at least one crippling crit.

[FixingKitty 8]

Came in 2:nd yesterday in a local Q4 tournament with 14 players

 

(26) Wookiee Liberator
(2) Tactician
(1) Breach Specialist
(3) Predator

(26) Wookiee Liberator
(2) Tactician
(1) Breach Specialist
(3) Predator

(28) Lowhhrick
(3) C-3PO
(2) Tactician
(3) Predator

List total: 100 points

First game was up against Asajj and Dengar, both with Expertise. They did not use them very much 
Asajj had a pile of 6 stress token on her when she was taken off the table, Tactician can be really brutal!
Only lost 1 Liberator, mainly due to evading a rock, getting out of range from Lowhhrick and then having Dengar in the wrong arc from my reinforce

Second game was up against Quickdraw, Omega Leader and Captain Yorr
All I want to say here is that Omega Leader eats Wookiees for breakfast... Got Yorr out by turn 3, but then lost 1 Liberator and Lowhhrick quite quickly.
In the end I got all shields gone from Quickdraw and Omega Leader was down to 1 hull but a single Wookiee cannot keep up with those guys. Survived a with the last one at least.

Last game was up against.... Triple Wookiees! 
3 Liberators with Expertise, Tactician, 2 of them had Breach Specialist and 1 with C-3PO
The other player made the big mistake (after the roll) of choosing to move last, meaning I got to shoot first with my Liberators.
This meant I would shut down his Expertise more or less every round and I won the fight quite quickly with 100-32

Predator was just so much better in this matchup since I got to reroll even though I was stressed, shooting first meant Expertise shut down and Lowhhrick does what Lowhhrick does

Only think I might change I Breach Specialist, I think I used it once in 3 games, will try Intel Agent next time to get better setup reinforce.

[Wazat 1,244]

Nice job!  I'm delighted by the wookiee-on-wookiee violence.  It definitely favored your Predator.

The thing with Breach Specialist is, I've found tuck games can swing on the crits I receive.  I don't use them every game, but over the course of a tournament they make a huge difference.  They revert pending crippling losses back into solid victories.

Blinded Pilot and Engine Upgrade are a serious problem.  Stress at the wrong time can really mess you up, as can spending actions trying to discard bad crits instead of reinforcing or focusing.  In oh... about a third of my 8 matches at IMC, I was able to take more damage to chuck crits that would have lost me the match (or made it extremely tough and greatly hurt my MOV).

Having breach specs is like paying for really solid insurance for your risky business (of war!).  You won't use it all the time, but it saves you from bankruptcy (or a massive MOV swing) when you need it.  That's not the play style of all players, but it's worked really well for me.  Do try out Intel Agent and compare, but don't dismiss Breach Specialists just because their necessity didn't arise in 3 matches.  Over the long haul they're extremely good.

[Pleugim 50]

I've not played the wookiees near as much as others in this thread but I can say the matches I've lost with them have been heavily influenced by bad crits. If your hard turns become red or you get a really persistent damaged sensor array that's one sad (and totally doomed) wookiee.

 

[wurms 5,313]

I'd like to discuss tournament tactics with triple wookiees.

I was in a casual game last week, where I was playing a paratanni variant vs trip wookiees and there were 18 minutes left and only 2 shields were gone from two wookies (4 shields total). Meanwhile, a mindlinked scout was on 1 hull left and I ran away so it could focus for asajj. In a tourney, im down on points, and my opponent mentioned that he doesnt think I can finish off a wookiee before time expires and if it was a tournament he would probably just run and reinforce the rear instead of chasing my scout.

Which got me thinking:

Does slow play benefit or hurt em?

If you are up against Dash/friend and Dash spends 3 or 4 rounds banking Rey tokens, does that benefit trip wookies cause time is wasting and if you can kill Dash or friend and they only get 1 of your wookies, good for you. Or, are wookies offense weak, where this wasted time hurts you, and you should bumrush Dash to prevent token stacking?

My last tourney I flew two TLT PS1 scurrgs each with a cruise missile, and a party bus for the third ship. Versus Dash/Poe, I bumrushed Dash, killed him quick, and Poe couldnt do damage fast enough so I won on points. I then played Miranda/Poe and did same thing. Killed Miranda in round 2 or 3, then Poe couldnt do enough damage, so I won on points.

If I am flying wookiees and an opponent wants to spend 30 minutes flying around the board getting the perfect approach, should I just let him? 9 dice for final salvo is pretty sweet.

I've been messing around with double wookies + friend, and have a few games with trip wookiees, but nothing in a tournament setting.

 

[gennataos 5,873]

24 minutes ago, wurms said:

I'd like to discuss tournament tactics with triple wookiees.

I was in a casual game last week, where I was playing a paratanni variant vs trip wookiees and there were 18 minutes left and only 2 shields were gone from two wookies (4 shields total). Meanwhile, a mindlinked scout was on 1 hull left and I ran away so it could focus for asajj. In a tourney, im down on points, and my opponent mentioned that he doesnt think I can finish off a wookiee before time expires and if it was a tournament he would probably just run and reinforce the rear instead of chasing my scout.

Which got me thinking:

Does slow play benefit or hurt em?

If you are up against Dash/friend and Dash spends 3 or 4 rounds banking Rey tokens, does that benefit trip wookies cause time is wasting and if you can kill Dash or friend and they only get 1 of your wookies, good for you. Or, are wookies offense weak, where this wasted time hurts you, and you should bumrush Dash to prevent token stacking?

My last tourney I flew two TLT PS1 scurrgs each with a cruise missile, and a party bus for the third ship. Versus Dash/Poe, I bumrushed Dash, killed him quick, and Poe couldnt do damage fast enough so I won on points. I then played Miranda/Poe and did same thing. Killed Miranda in round 2 or 3, then Poe couldnt do enough damage, so I won on points.

If I am flying wookiees and an opponent wants to spend 30 minutes flying around the board getting the perfect approach, should I just let him? 9 dice for final salvo is pretty sweet.

I've been messing around with double wookies + friend, and have a few games with trip wookiees, but nothing in a tournament setting.

The less time spent shooting wookies, the better for them.  They're really not offensively weak, either, since most iterations have an offensive mod EPT.  

[Wazat 1,244]

The tourney planned for today was a bust because not enough people showed up, so instead the organizer and I had a nice casual WOOKIEE CIVIL WAR!!!!

I flew 3 wookies:

Wulf with Predator + Breach Specialist + Tactician

2x Wookiee Liberator with Predator + Breach + Tactician

 

He flew 4 wookies (actually 12 if you count the crew slots):

4x Kashyyyk Defender with Wookiee Commandos

 

I think Wookies are like the Klingons of Star Wars.  Chewbacca is Worf, as he's somewhat level-headed and socialized into human society, and the rest are just biding their time until they can burst out of isolation and prosecute all-out war on the entire galaxy.  This civil war is but a glimpse of things to come...

I'm calling it right here, Disney.  Once the Empire and First Order are finally fully defeated, the wookies will realize there's nothing left to hold them back and they don't need their Resistance allies anymore.  The entire galaxy will fall under their dominion!

 

But as for this particular battle, I started out in the lower-left corner spaced out about 2.5 ships apart, with Wulf in the back and his Lib buddies forward in a shallow V formation.  My opponent placed his wookies in pairs, 2 in the center and 2 close to the left of the board (my left).  I sped forward and turned in for combat by round 2, with my 3 wookies engaging his 2 early on.  I did some minor damage to one of his, which evaded a lot of hits.  His dice were hotter than the sun though, and over this round and the next he poured a lot of damage on me, which was really alarming.  He was rolling 3, 4 hits/crits with each ship.  I had focused with Wulf to try to draw fire onto him and also in hopes of finishing off one of his wookies, but he took Wulf down to only 1 hull left.  In exchange I'd taken one of his much more disposable wookies down to 1 HP.  Tough gamble.

But over the next couple of rounds, my dice started to warm up just as his started to cool, and I also did a good job of keeping Wulf from taking too many shots.  So much of flying Tucks is directing shots onto the ships that can take it, and reinforcing/carefully positioning the ones that can't.  I managed this and thanks to a good chunk of luck, Wulf never died.  I even rammed him into a ship at one point to keep it from shooting him.

I finished off the heavily injured Kashyyyk, and slowly put damage into one other.  At first it looked like we were going to smoothly pass each other like 18th century ships of the line, broadsiding each other.  However, soon he accidentally bump-chained into my rear liberator and took a lot of damage because of it, and then split up his formation to try to get shots on me.  I ended up in much better positions for the next while, with my opponent getting few or no shots for about 3 rounds.  I was able to clean up pretty easily thanks to this, though his last wookiee was untouched so it took some time to grind down.

Conclusion

I personally think 3 wookies with the right upgrades are stronger than 4 wookies, but some people swear by 4 and I can understand why.  It's a metric crap-ton of hull to chew through with those reinforce tokens (my opponent had 3 damage cards left in his deck when the game ended), and 4 wookies have a chance of dealing a lot more damage than 3 in the right circumstances.  But with Tactician stressing them, Predator rerolling 2 dice, and Breach Specialist defending me against severe crits... these are a really strong boon that makes up reducing my team from 4 to 3.  More ships are also harder to manage, and you do not want your tucks bumping, especially bump-chaining.  It's really dangerous to fly them in anything but loose formations with lots of space.

BTW, my opponent hadn't flown this many wookiees before, and I suspect he'd do a ton better in future games.

I also did well with planning my maneuvers around obstacles, a skill I pride myself in, but I do need practice.  That's something you've gotta do on the table (and against an uncooperative opponent who will challenge you, like in this match); Vassal or solo practice just won't do!

 

Epilogue

"Sure, Wullffwarro was a tyrant who drank human blood and destroyed planets, but he built lots of hyperspace bypasses!"

[Bigstevo 13]

Hi I am currently running this list for a few weeks and have gone 5-0 with it during my games nights.

Lowhhrick
Predator
Guidance Chips
Tactician

C-3PO

Wookie Liberator
Expertise
Guidance Chips
Tactician

Wookie Liberator
Expertise
Guidance Chips
Tactician

I am looking to swap out expertise for pred on both liberators along witj breach specialist and drop C3P0 for Rey on lowhhrick to have a 1 point initative incase of a mirror match but with the new wave about to drop is there anything which could be tweaked to help against kylo? I think he may get a good showing from the new toys.

[Wazat 1,244]

20 hours ago, wurms said:

I'd like to discuss tournament tactics with triple wookiees.

I was in a casual game last week, where I was playing a paratanni variant vs trip wookiees and there were 18 minutes left and only 2 shields were gone from two wookies (4 shields total). Meanwhile, a mindlinked scout was on 1 hull left and I ran away so it could focus for asajj. In a tourney, im down on points, and my opponent mentioned that he doesnt think I can finish off a wookiee before time expires and if it was a tournament he would probably just run and reinforce the rear instead of chasing my scout.

Which got me thinking:

Does slow play benefit or hurt em?

If you are up against Dash/friend and Dash spends 3 or 4 rounds banking Rey tokens, does that benefit trip wookies cause time is wasting and if you can kill Dash or friend and they only get 1 of your wookies, good for you. Or, are wookies offense weak, where this wasted time hurts you, and you should bumrush Dash to prevent token stacking?

My last tourney I flew two TLT PS1 scurrgs each with a cruise missile, and a party bus for the third ship. Versus Dash/Poe, I bumrushed Dash, killed him quick, and Poe couldnt do damage fast enough so I won on points. I then played Miranda/Poe and did same thing. Killed Miranda in round 2 or 3, then Poe couldnt do enough damage, so I won on points.

If I am flying wookiees and an opponent wants to spend 30 minutes flying around the board getting the perfect approach, should I just let him? 9 dice for final salvo is pretty sweet.

I've been messing around with double wookies + friend, and have a few games with trip wookiees, but nothing in a tournament setting.

 

In my experience, wookiees are so good at enduring punishment thanks to high health and the reinforce action, that they're happy playing the waiting game.  They just don't need to, and probably shouldn't bother.  They're not as evil as Fair Ship Rebels, but some of the same ideas apply: they're bringing 9 or 12 dice to a final salvo, they don't easily give points away, and they'll usually gain a bunch of points before time anyway.  If you wait too long to start pouring damage on them, that favors them.  You may fail to get that last fatal damage in, and that survival benefits the wookiees tremendously because they don't grant half points, and they largely remain at maximum effectiveness until killed.

And the Expertise/Predator wookiees have solid offensive power.  Even 4-tuck lists can focus when they're not in immediate danger, allowing them to push out solid damage.  The advantage of the list is that it can absorb a lot of damage while they push a lot of damage onto the enemy, and this imbalance will either let them win on points or simply wipe the opponent off the table (resulting not in a scarce win, but a strong MOV).  I've never heard of triple tucks going to final salvo; they have an easy time finishing things before that.  Instead the opponent should be trying to focus-fire one of them to death, ideally after outmaneuvering it to get past its reinforce.

If one of my wookiees does end up seriously wounded, but survives, that too can be an advantage.  The opponent *needs* that kill, and may make very foolish maneuvers to try and pull it off.  That wookiee can speed away, reinforce rear, and lure the opponent's ships onto the killbox of the rest of the team.  Or I can reinforce and absorb as much damage as possible before death, while the rest of the team lights up the target with well-modified attacks.  If I do lose a wookiee, I've probably dealt sufficient damage in return that the opponent will be very weakened and/or behind on points.  And that's a happy advantage in a tournament.

Wookiees aren't magic, but they're tough.  Don't spin down the clock against them unless you have a specific plan to use that against them.

[Wazat 1,244]

4 hours ago, Bigstevo said:

Hi I am currently running this list for a few weeks and have gone 5-0 with it during my games nights.

Lowhhrick
Predator
Guidance Chips
Tactician

C-3PO

Wookie Liberator
Expertise
Guidance Chips
Tactician

Wookie Liberator
Expertise
Guidance Chips
Tactician

I am looking to swap out expertise for pred on both liberators along witj breach specialist and drop C3P0 for Rey on lowhhrick to have a 1 point initative incase of a mirror match but with the new wave about to drop is there anything which could be tweaked to help against kylo? I think he may get a good showing from the new toys.

Kylo's ability can be somewhat trivialized with Breach Specialist if you reinforce.  This was ruinous for my opponent in the final match of Intermountain Cup, since his strategy was built heavily around using Blinded Pilot to buy him two turns of no shots from a target while he killed it.

Determination could also be handy, as it not only trivializes Kylo but actively punishes him by reducing the damage you take.  If you are expecting a *lot* of Kylo fights, maybe consider it.  However, a tuck may have better uses for its elite slot otherwise... I'm not sure.  Even in a normal non-kylo fight, over the course of 6 hull there's a decent chance you'll pick up a pilot crit and get to discard it, but a more offensive EPT may be much more effective overall.

[Red42 166]

Got another two games in with our local group last night with Wulf + 2 Liberators. Beat Miranda/Nym again, and then Kath/Asajj. Lost 1 ship in each game, which is still the most I've lost in any one matchup so far. Highlight was Kath and Wulffwarro killing each other with simultaneous fire to end the second game, with both scoring 4 hits and a crit on each other. Kath was only on one hull, and Wulff had only 2 or 3, so I just YOLO'd into range 1 of her rear arc and focused to end the game rather than dragging it out any longer.

Finally going to to take the list to a proper event this weekend (and possibly the following weekend) so we'll see then how it does in a more competitive environment, but so far so good.

[Bigstevo 13]

On 30/11/2017 at 7:27 PM, Red42 said:

Got another two games in with our local group last night with Wulf + 2 Liberators. Beat Miranda/Nym again, and then Kath/Asajj. Lost 1 ship in each game, which is still the most I've lost in any one matchup so far. Highlight was Kath and Wulffwarro killing each other with simultaneous fire to end the second game, with both scoring 4 hits and a crit on each other. Kath was only on one hull, and Wulff had only 2 or 3, so I just YOLO'd into range 1 of her rear arc and focused to end the game rather than dragging it out any longer.

Finally going to to take the list to a proper event this weekend (and possibly the following weekend) so we'll see then how it does in a more competitive environment, but so far so good.

What was your list build? How did you get on at your event?

[Red42 166]

Sadly I didn't get to play my list at the weekend; I did go to the event, which was a doubles event (randomly assigned partner, play against another pair each round though as two separate games), but what we didn't know until just beforehand was that we then had to use our partner's list all day. So I had to play Asajj, Guri and Thweek all day, and my partner actually played the wookiees. We both went 4-0 and won the event, with myself #1 overall individually, and him #2, by a difference of 8 MOV. So the wookiees still did well, I just didn't get to see a whole game for myself lol. IIRC, he only lost more than one Auzituck in one game, and that was against Dash/Nym - he took Dash early, but Nym was able to do a stack of damage with TLT/Accuracy Corrector. Still had one very healthy wookiee at the end though.

 

I've got another event this Sunday where I will actually get to play my list.  It's still Wulffwarro + 2 Liberators, all with Predator, Tactician, and Breach Specialist.

[wurms 5,313]

Took this to regionals, 4-2 (12th overall), close losses (final salvo). Battle report is up

Lowhhrick (28) w/ Adaptability (0), Rey (2), Hotshot Co-pilot (4)

Wookiee Liberator (26) w/ Predator (3), Tactician (2), Operations Specialist (3)

Wookiee Liberator (26) w/ Predator (3), Tactician (2), Inspiring Recruit (1)

 

Love the build and it has an answer to everything. HSCP tears apart Dash/Poetensity. Its hilarious beating that list so fast when testing the build. Thanks to everyone in this thread. You all inspired me to fly trip wookiees. It was fun!

[Red42 166]

Man, if only Hot Shot was 1 point less, I'd trade in my breach specialists for it. I suppose I could lose a tactician for a 1 point crew instead maybe...

[Wazat 1,244]

Intel agent can be useful if you're looking for a 1-cost crew, as it can inform your reinforce direction, and whether you should focus or reinforce.  I can also see Hera being handy, e.g. if you need to do a 5 straight to escape the death zone, or you have a Damaged Engine.

[Red42 166]

I didn't get to play AGAIN! Got snowed in this time and couldn't make it to the event. It's a conspiracy!

[Wazat 1,244]

Even the weather has aligned itself against triple tucks! 

[ImperialEmperor 24]

Tactician is limited?

[Wazat 1,244]

Yes, but not unique.  So you can have a tactician on each auzituck, but you can't put 2 tacticians on the same Auzituck, thank heaven.