Wednesday, 6 April 2022

3 interesting combos I like the look of:

Yep that's a combo alright.

I should stress these are not combos I have tried, rather they are just interesting interactions I like the look of and have added to my long list of things to try out.


Vizier, Hark, and Ciena:


Vizier lets you coordinate when you use your Ailerons, but you skip your action step. Hark gives you a focus action when you fully execute a red move (spoiler alert: the reaper has a ton!). I think Hark should be stapled to all reapers henceforth. 

The problem with the Reaper as a support ship is it's 3-dice go to waste if it coordinates. This lets you (white) coordinate and focus in the same turn to still have reliable shots with Vizier. 

Ciena is an upgrade I've been meaning to try out in scenarios to boost manoeuvrability, and this seems like the perfect ship to put her on to take advantage of Vizier's coordinates:

Vizier w/ Ciena, Hark, Shield.


Corus, Commander Poe, and Swarm Tactics:

Corus Kapellim: Known jerk.

This is a fairly obvious one. Corus steals a green token from an enemy at range 0-1, which is huge. It's a two action swing in your favour. Unlike Palob though, he does this when he engages at PS1 instead of doing it at the start of engagement (so likely spent by then). Enter Commander Poe with Swarm Tactics:


Poe pumps Corus up to PS6 to steal that token before your opponent can spend it (or will cause opponents to not focus/calculate). There's a lot of different builds you could do with these two. As an example you could have something like this:

Commander Poe w/ Swarm, Crackshot, R6D8, JamB, Servos.
Corus w/ IonT, R4 astro, ProtonB, Engine.

You get a decent Poe with Crackshot and a soft reroll to deal some damage. At 7HP with agility 2 He's decently tanky, and can become a squirrelly support ship if he gets focused early. Corus has an ion turret to increase his arc, and generally mess with your opponent's ability to do objectives. He can go fast and boost in with a free calculate, and possibly a lock from Poe's ability. Alternatively you could go with the Wartime config on Corus and take advantage of Targeting Synchronizer to setup some ordnance plays:

Commander Poe w/ Swarm, Ion Torps, Target Synch, Servos.
Corus w/ Adv Proton Torps, Ion Torps, Config.

Corus uses target synch to shoot his ion missiles. If he hits Poe just does a normal shot, if he misses, Poe can shoot an ion torp at the enemy. Next turn Corus rolls up and unloads his advanced protons at R1. He even has the reload action if you want to try and repeat it.

You have plenty of interesting options with these two, including switching to the 7-cost Poe to gain some Proton Torpedoes.


TN-3465, Static, and Autoblasters:

What combo could Static and TN-3465 make? Well it's more TN-3465 and the cannon slot Static brings (the only cannon slot in the First Order at the moment!). Static can bring autoblasters to combo with TN-3465's ability to easily generate crits:

It's no secret that autoblasters are really good in scenario play, since you're more likely to be able to flank opponents. This is especially true if you can combine it with an ability to easily generate crits like Malice, Marksman, or Greedo (Static has a talent slot for Marksmanship). For 6 squad-points you can slot these two ships into your First Order squad:

Static w/ Crackshot, Marksman, Autoblasters.
TN-3465 w/ Hull. 

I like the look of this combo, as it's made up of two ships I'd consider to be solid on their own. Even if you don't get any flank shots with Static (unlikely in scenario play), the ability to go up to 3 or 4 attack dice in bullseye is still very useful. Is this static better than just taking an ion cannon and predator? That's not the point! 

TN-3465 just makes your heavy hitters more consistent, and the damage he takes is less detrimental now that half points only matter in chance encounter. Losing a health on a 5HP TIE isn't a big deal if you do it in the right circumstances (trust me, I've played plenty of ruthless Soontir).


Conclusion:

As always X-wing is filled with lots of interesting little interactions to try out. If only I had the time to try them all!

3 comments:

  1. Way Way Way long ago, maybe second or third point change in second edition, I did something like this:
    Vizier - Ciena Ree
    Duchess - Outmanoeuvre Afterburners.
    Now... points were not brilliant for it back then, but it was still kind of funky.
    You could also have Kallus on Board, but Hark is probably the better call... I think that Ablative Plating might also bear consideration, given how nasty obstacles can be now and how easy it is to fly over them.

    If you want to break someone's head (likely yours, but probably also your opponent's when you actually do something), think of all of the crazy things that you can do with Duchess and a coordinated Ciena Barrel Roll.

    I don't think she is in a particularly good place, loadout-wise, but could be a good Objective grabber and, with a Ciena Barrel Roll, could be nearly untouchable if she grabs a cache in Salvage.
    You can realistically take 4 objectives first turn, and I think (with some Variations of opponent's initial objective placement and number of ships in your list) you might just be able to swipe the fifth.
    Not sure what else you would add with them, but Duchess would be the first place I start with Ciena Crew on the board.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I really like that idea. Duchess with Outmanoeuvre, and a Hull seems pretty good. I'll add it to my long list of things to try out.

      I was also thinking along the lines of:
      Fifth Brother w/ Marksman, Extreme Manoeuvres, Autoblasters.

      Between Ciena, Extreme Manoeuvres, he has plenty of ways to get into weird positions and push those AB crits through.

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    2. Oh.... yeah. That seems quite the crazy repositioner.

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