Getting To Know: Captain Phasma and 'Friends'

Not every blog I write can be full of deep strategic insights (or, arguably, any of them) and this is certainly not.  Instead I'm going to start an infrequent series that looks at the background of some of the characters we see appearing as pilots in the X-Wing Miniatures Game, especially those that come from the more obscure parts of the Star Wars canon.

This time I want to cover off three First Order characters who all stem from one place - the short Captain Phasma series of comics.  In there we find out a bit more about Captain Phasma herself and we also meet both Lieutenant Rivas and pilot TN-3465.  I love these three because not only do I like the three pilots and use them a lot in my First Order squads, but I also think their abilities are fantastically well designed based on what they do in the comics.

There was only four episodes of these Captain Phasma comics and I want to make absolutely clear that you can't read them online for free at this website.  I certainly didn't read them at that website and you shouldn't do read them there either.

*** SPOILER ALERT - if you care deeply about not having the plot points from a minor side story of comics spoiled for you that were released 3 years ago then stop reading here! ***

IN THE COMICS

The Captain Phasma comics pick up Phasma's story right after we leave it in The Force Awakens.  Starkiller Base is under attack and Phasma has been abandoned in the trash compactor by Han and Finn after being forced at gunpoint to drop the bases shields.  After blasting her way out of the compactor Captain Phasma has a big problem, and it's not that the planet she's on is about to explode.  Phasma's problem is that her computer login has been flagged as the one that lowered the shields.  Phasma returns to the terminal she used to expunge the records, only to find that somebody has already accessed the terminal before her.

Somebody knows it was her login that lowered the shields.

Phasma has a new problem.  But she also has a solution - if she can catch the person who accessed the terminal and kill them she can cover her tracks AND pin the blame for lowering the shields on them.

That person is Lieutenant Rivas.

With Starkiller Base crumbling around her Captain Phasma chases Rivas outside only for him to steal a TIE Fighter and escape.  Phasma can't let him get away as he knows the truth about her failure so Phasma commandeers a nearby TIE/sf and orders the pilot to chase Lieutenant Rivas and follow him out into space.  This is where we meet our third X-Wing character, TN-3465.

Together, Phasma and TN-3465 escape from Starkiller Base seconds before it explodes and embark on the typical comic miniseries arc of perfectly straightforward things that should be able to get covered in 3 pages being strung out over 3 comics instead...

Phasma and TN-3465 chase Rivas through space but the guns on their TIE aren't functioning so they can't shoot him down and have to follow him to a nearby planet.  They land and find his TIE Fighter but he's already left.  They need to find disguises to meet the local villagers and find out that Rivas was captured by a group of alien sea monsters.  

They agree team up with the the villagers to help them kill the local sea monsters and be safe once and for all...  

...then Phasma lets the villagers all die because all she really needed was a distraction to get past the monsters to find and execute Lieutenant Rivas.

Which leaves Phasma with one last problem...

With the dirty work done Captain Phasma is now free to return to General Hux and explain her heroic efforts to track down and punish the traitor who allowed the Resistance to destroy Starkiller Base.

Hurrah, well done Captain Phasma.  Report to your section immediately for jelly and cake!

In The X-Wing Miniatures Game

So how are these three pilots represented in X-Wing?

We get Lieutenant Rivas - Inconvenient Witness 

Lieutenant Rivas has the pilot ability to get target locks on things that his friends target lock (assigning a target lock is gaining a red token).  This is very literally all that Rivas actually does in the comics - he uses a computer after somebody else uses it.  It's a nice neat thematic, if rather literal, card design based on the only piece of information we have about Sol Rivas - he used a computer once.

We also get TN-3465 - Loose End.

Like Lieutenant Rivas the young TN-3465 has an ability based around what happens in the comics.  Her friends can choose to deal her a damage in order to convert attacks into critical hits.  TN-3465 literally gets shot in the back by her own team to ensure they complete their mission.  Poor girl.

And finally, we get a pilot card of Captain Phasma - Scyre Survivor.

If there's one thing we've learned about Captain Phasma in this short story it's that she's a survivor who's fully prepared to let everyone around her take a fall if it's in her best interests.  We see that in game with her ability forcing her to hurt nearby friendly ships whenever she would take damage.  She's always going to be the last person to actually get hurt by anything that goes wrong, which is perfect thematic and 'fluffy' design.

All hail Captain Phasma.  All hail the First Order!

Five squads, thirty-one ships, ninety-four red dice... and SPAM!

In my last blog I attempted a Thanos-style finger snap to sway FFG ahead of the November points changes.  I laid out why I felt like the raw efficiency of generic pilots, particular cheaper 3 agility fighters like the TIE/fo and M3-A Scyk, had warped the combat maths of X-Wing and disenfranchised huge swathes of the ships in the game.

I came up with a list of the ships that I wanted to see increase in cost by at least +1pt...

Vulture Droid

Hyena Bomber

M3-A Scyk

Fireball

TIE Aggressor

TIE Bomber

TIE Advanced v1

TIE/fo

Auzituck Gunship

T-70 X-Wing

Well, we now have the results of the November points change and how did it go?

Not so well.

Only one of those ships went up in points (the Auzituck Gunship) and that was counterbalanced by the fact that not only did the T-70 X-Wing actually go down by one point, but the Blue Squadron T-65 X-Wing went down by 2pts!  Rather than steer against generic efficiency swarms, FFG's last roll of the dice was to toss even more efficiency into the mix.  This is 'release the T-Rex to kill the Velociraptors' levels of strategic planning.

And also: XX-23 S-Thread Tracers cost 2 points.  Yeesh.  Way to double down on the problem, FFG

So if you're finally hitting the tipping point and deciding 'hey, if I can't beat generic efficiency so I might as well join them' then what would your squads look like?   Well, allow me to share some of the lists in my development folder...

Z-Z-Zealots

• Cavern Angels Zealot (T-65 X-Wing) - Servomotor S-Foils
• Cavern Angels Zealot (T-65 X-Wing) - Servomotor S-Foils
• Cavern Angels Zealot (T-65 X-Wing) - Servomotor S-Foils
• Cavern Angels Zealot (T-65 X-Wing) - Servomotor S-Foils
• Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-95) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
• Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-95) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
  (200pts)

18 red dice

32 hitpoints 

2.0 average agility

Although the Initiative 2 Blue Squadron Escort costs the same as the Initiative 1 Cavern Angel Zealots your using the I1 ship so that your Z-95s can fire their Thread Tracers before you unload, boosting the attack power of your X-Wings.

Bringing T-65 X-Wings down to 38 points puts them back into the spotlight.  I don't think they're quite low enough to cope with the best of the 3 Agility swarms but every little bit helps.  One of the reasons I think they're still not good enough is that most of this squad was possible before the November points change - you could fit four Cavern Angel Zealots at 39 points each for 156 points, leaving the 24 spare points you need for the pair of Z-95 Headhunters.  And it wasn't good enough.  What the little 4pt discount to the T-65s gets you is the pair of brand new Thread Tracers and that IS a significant improvement.  It turns you weakest 2 red dice ships into arguably the biggest 3 red dice threats that your opponent will focus on first, and that in turn sees your best ships as those that survive into midgame.

With Auzitucks going up in price this is probably the best Rebels have to offer post-November, and I'd guess it's also the most powerful raw efficiency list that's ever been available to the Rebel faction in either First or Second Edition!

Your Dials.  You Will Not Need Them

• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Missiles, XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, Bomblet Generator
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Missiles, XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, Bomblet Generator
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Missiles, Bomblet Generator, Delayed Fuses
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Torpedoes, Bomblet Generator, Delayed Fuses
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Torpedoes, Bomblet Generator, Delayed Fuses
• Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber) - Ion Torpedoes, Bomblet Generator, Delayed Fuses
  (200pts)

6 ships

21 red dice

36 hitpoints

2.0 average agility

6 bomb carriers

If you think I've been banging on about M3-A Scyks for a long time then you should see how long I've been championing the Scimitar Bomber!  27pts is incredibly cheap for how fast, tough and flexible the TIE Bomber chassis is, and this incarnation takes full advantage of the incredible price drops to secondary weapons in November - I believe this list cost 224pts using the old points for Ion weapons and Bomblet Generator (Bomblet Generator in particular is crazy at 2pts).

This could be a real Negative Play Experience to meet on the table as if the bombers manage to get hold of a ship with all their ion weapons you're left with no control over where your ships fly or the actions they do, and may not even get to roll green dice as the Bombers will roll you over a carpet of bombs until it's finally over.  It's such a slow and painful way to die you'll be begging to get digested by the almighty Sarlacc instead!

And if you're looking at this and thinking "ah yes but those are Ion weapons not real guns, it won't work" I'd like to point out that this is actually just an upgrade to a list that Maxx Clergue already did well with at both the Ryloth Qualifier and then again at the final Coruscant Championship.  It's a proven archetype that has now received a significant power boost.

It's The ReSixtance!

• Merl Cobben (RZ-2 A-Wing) Intimidation
• Rose Tico (Transport Pod)
• Finn (Transport Pod)
• Colossus Station Mechanic (Fireball) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
• Blue Squadron Rookie (T-70 X-Wing) - Integrated S-Foils
• Blue Squadron Rookie (T-70 X-Wing) - Integrated S-Foils
  (200pts)

6 ships

16 red dice (including Finn's ability)

31 hitpoints

2.2 average agility

ReSixtance was one of my favourite lists that I landed on just before the Nantex took over the game in July.  That timing meant it didn't really leak out anywhere at the time but with the bugs safely nerfed this motley collection of Resistance pilots is safe to return to the table.  November offers a couple of important upgrades, most importantly Merl Cobben subs in for the generic RZ-2 A-Wing I was already using, while the discount to the Transport Pods allows me to crowbar in some Thread Tracers that flips the Fireball from being the last ship opponents care about to being one of their first priorities.

In truth the final upgrade points are a bit up in the air and Intimidation is only one way of running this list.  Other options I've run include dropping Intimidation to bring Vi Moradi in place of Rose Tico to give you an extra tool vs enemy aces, while Sith Taker's own Rich Polley has been playing it very successfully with Starbird Slash on Merl Cobben to bring in Heroic.  Compared to the other lists here this one is the most diverse in playstyle and also brings some powerful pilot abilities and extra trickery as well as a ton of brute force.

The Sick Scyk Six - Redux

• Zealous Recruit (Fang Fighter)
• Zealous Recruit (Fang Fighter)
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Ion Cannon
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Ion Cannon
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Tractor Beam
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
  (200pts)

6 ships

18 red dice

24 hitpoints

3.0 average agility

Really quick one here as this is a list everyone probably recognises as it's had plenty of time in the limelight since I first played it at the start of the year.  The November price increase jacked Tractor Beam up to 4pts but fortunately Thread Tracers are the perfect force-multiplication replacement to keep the squad ticking over.  Arguably this isn't just a sidestep to a nerf but also an improvement as there were certainly some matchups against larger base ships where the Tractor Beams lost their value but you'd still want target locks.  It's going to continue to be a fearsome squad, I think.

Piranha - Redux

• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Ion Cannon
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Ion Cannon
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Ion Cannon
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Tractor Beam
• Cartel Spacer (M3-A Scyk) - Tractor Beam
• Binayre Pirate (Z-95) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
• Binayre Pirate (Z-95) - XX-23 S-Thread Tracers
  (200pts)

7 ships

21 red dice

28 hitpoints

2.7 average agility

This is an update to the list that I played at the Hyperspace Trial just before the world ended for the pandemic.  It was an evolution of the Sick Scyk list that turned two Fang Fighters into three cheaper ships as I expected to play against a lot of Boba/Koshka squads.  It's also perfectly positioned to adapt slightly and pick up the Thread Tracers.  The real strength here is the sheer amount of control and force multiplication effects on the table.  The list casts a wide net and is extremely dangerous all the way out to Range 3, especially for small base ships.

To my mind this is a sister list to the original Sick Scyk Six for you to pivot between as best suits you and depending on the metagame you expect to see.  If Boba Fett is finally going away for a while then I'd be tempted to stick with the Fang Fighters, but this is also a powerful control squad that sort of straddles the Sick Scyk Six and TIE Bomber squad archetypes.

SPAM, EGG, SAUSAGE AND SPAM

So those are five squads I'm working on which all benefit from the discounts in November or the cheap Thread-Tracers, and which all represent steps up from the old generic efficiency power level that was already suppressing a lot of ships (we didn't touch on TIE Aggressor, Vulture Droids, Hyenas or Nantex which I think are also still all really good).  But not everyone like Spam so however miserable all that makes you if none of the above squads are your sort of thing, at least be comforted that you're not alone...

And hopefully before long the circus will move on.  FFG have had their turn running X-Wing and (in my view) have largely bungled it so the bar is set pretty low for AMG to do better once the game changes hands.  Maybe next time the points update will prompt a different Monty Python theme!