2 FAT 2 CURIOUS - "More fun" rhymes with "Tor Phun"

The World Championships has basically consumed a quarter of my X-Wing year.  I wrapped up my participation in a little Star Wars: Legion league in between Christmas and New Year then from January 1st I had my gaming mind fixed on Chicago pretty much right up to the moment when I wrapped up my last game of Adepticon.

The blank slate of being able to do whatever I wanted and play whatever I wanted spread out before me like a glorious fresh canvas.  I could play any squad I wanted, any bad idea or janky combo that came to mind.  Hell, I didn't even have to play X-Wing I could go back to Legion (a cursory glance at Legion Worlds results told me it's not a good time to do that, unfortunately - me no likey Blizzard spam or Dark Troopers) or I could finally get the games of Bolt Action in that I'd promised to my dad.

But really, after a week of hardcore playing X-Wing at the end of three monrths of hardcore thinking about X-Wing all I really wanted to do was... uh... softcore playing X-Wing?  Is that a thing?  Is that the right turn of phrase?  

Yeah, jank.  That's what I'm talking about.

JANKING AIN'T EASY

I had a backlog of bad ideas built up over the first three months of the year, so for my first FLGS play session after Worlds I wanted to explore a bunch of them.  I wound up taking three lists each built around a different ace pilot that happened to begin with the letter R...

Opponents got a choice of Ric, Rush or Rau!

I had a Republic list built with the intention of getting Ric Olie into position to fire an Advanced Proton Torpedo with 6 red dice (the 5 plus his abillity adding one) with double mods from a nearby Synched Console.

I had a First Order list that used Concussion Bombs to damage Rush on the first turn and make him into an I6 super-ace.

And finally I had a long shot plan for a Debris Gambit on Fenn Rau, with Gamut Key supporting Fenn to stack both Focus and Evade then keep them into the next turn so he could survive that tricky approach turn.

One by one I put my janky aces onto the table and one by one I learned pretty much the same thing - they weren't worth the effort.

First to fall was Ric Olie, whose 6-dice APT plan fell apart before I even got the table when I actually read his ability properly and realised it only works on primary attacks.  The list was ok because all the other pieces were solid and I won my game with it, but the spark of trying to get a big hit off was gone and Ric swept around the table mostly ineffectively.

Fenn Rau managed to lose his engagement joust against Contrail, by which time he was now too far ahead of Gamut to get further coordinate support, and anyway he was stressed.  My glass cannon had to fly so defensively he achieved nothing before dying - the rest of the squad won me the game but Fenn himself was a bust.

The only one of my 'aces' who actually aced successfully was Rush and the bomb thing worked just fine.  But once you've made an I6 with 5HP and linked autothrusters you do kind of wonder why you didn't just play Soontir Fel to begin with and have, like, multiple talent slots and a good ability to actually achieve stuff with (and 4 squad points not tied into a bomber).  And the list still had DT and Scorch and an FO Bomber in so didn't feel like I'd changed the channel enough from my 6FO Worlds list.

Back to the drawing board.

2 FAT 2 CURIOUS

Although none of my aces had really worked the session hadn't been a total bust... I had liked all the other stuff I had in my Fenn Rau list, so for round two I decided to riff on that and see what I could get.

Stealing with pride, the list already featured the version of Q9-0 that Dimitris Stavlopoulos had almost won a Worlds Qualifier with last year and now to replace Fenn Rau's little Fang Fighter I added to it the Doctor Aphra build that had taken Jerremy Chalameau to 47tth at Worlds.  I really like both the builds here because of the synergies they have in their loadout so I want to stop and talk about them for a second because I think they're great examples of finding solid combos.

• Q9-0 (ST-70 Assault Ship) - IG-88D, Lando Calrissian, Heavy Laser Cannon, Electronic Baffle, Razorcrest, Contraband Cybernetics

Q9-0, IG-88D and Lando form a virtuous triangle of effects.  IG-88D is like a cheap Perceptive Copilot and gives you two Calculate tokens.  Lando crew can spend one of those calculate tokens to reroll 2 attack or defence dice so the fact that you've got two of them to spend means Q9-0 can be pretty well-modded on attack of defence with just a single action.  It also then chains into Q9-0's pilot ability to take a calculate action after he k-turns or t-rolls, meaning you can turn the Razorcrest around and STILL be double-modded.

Is that all?  Hell no!  You've got a whopping Heavy Laser Cannon bullseye arc to line up and benefit from those double mods with, and the Razorcrest title gives him a linked Evade-Barrel Roll action and, hey, isn't that Evade also a green token for Lando to spend on offensive dice mods if he has to barrel roll to line up the HLC shot?   Sure it's not double mods but mods are mods.

And Contraband Cybernetics and Electronic Baffle help you to manage those red moves and actions profitably.  It's a really nice little self-sufficient synergetic package of a ship for just 6pts.

• Doctor Aphra (YV-666 Freighter) - Rook Kast, Fenn Rau, Han Solo

Doctor Aphra's pilot ability isn't completely wasted but this is all about the virtuous triangle of the three crew options she's taking into battle with her.

Han Solo lets you take a red Focus action when you engage.  When you perform a red action Rook Kast lets you also take a strain token.  If you've got a strain token she'll then let you turn a blank red dice into a hit, meaning that from a standing start of no mods your red focus action from Han sees you shipping maximum hits 85% of the time at R2-3 and still 75% of the time at R1.  And because you're not taking that strain token until you engage at I3 you've both got a good chance of not being shot while it's there AND there's no chance the opponent could shoot it out from under you and turn Rook's dice mod back off.  Oh, and Fenn Rau?  Well it turns out that he triggers with the same timing as Han Solo and so you can make him resolve second and immediately clear the stress that Han gives you for the red focus (if all his requirements are met).

So now you've got a YV-666 that takea a Reinforce action most turns and then double mods its attack anyway, usually for no cost.  That's pretty sweet.

Oh, and Fenn Rau crew also really helps out Q9-0 with all his k-turning and barrel rolling and Contrabanding?  Nice.

On top of those two excellent ship designs that I've blatantly poached from more creative Scum players than myself I added the Tor Phun that I enjoyed trying to out in my 'if I crap out at Worlds at least I can have fun playing this' Scum list: Mandalorian Optics for aggressive mods and Elusive to have my Fang be a bit less vulnerable to just exploding for no gain.  I've had a lot of phun with Tor Fun and I was happy to use him again.  Then to finish the list off the ever-present Durge.  Yeah, Scum Durge isn't a patch on CIS Durge but I still enjoy the challenge of lining up those lethal Proton Cannon shots.

So my final Scum list was...

    2 Fat 2 Curious

• Q9-0 (ST-70 Assault Ship) - IG-88D, Lando Calrissian, Heavy Laser Cannon, Electronic Baffle, Razorcrest, Contraband Cybernetics

• Doctor Aphra (YV-666 Freighter) - Rook Kast, Fenn Rau, Han Solo

• Tor Phun (Fang Fighter) - Elusive, Mandalorian Optics

• Durge (Rogue-Class) - Marksmanship, Lone Wolf, Proton Cannons

And even in Tor Phun and Durge theres's nice little interactions.  Like Mandalorian Optics assigns a Target Lock but isn't a TL action, so if Tor Phun destroys his target he can still take a TL action ahead of his bonus attack.  And if you can keep him out hunting on the flank so Lone Wolf is active it helps Durge to reroll those Proton Cannon shots, which something like Predator or Crack Shot can't do.  Line that bullseye up and it's like hitting jackpot on the slots and everything lights up - 4 dice, crits from Marksmanship and Proton Cannons and the opponent can't mod his dice from Dead To Rights.  Lets-a-go!

Oh.  And does Fenn Rau crew ALSO help out Tor Phun and Durge a lot with their linked red actions?

I gave this list a spin earlier this week and *loved* it (full disclosure, I didn't have Lone Wolf so that's value TBC right now).  I still find Fenn Rau crew to be a lot tougher to get to trigger than you'd actually expect but with all 4 ships looking for him at times he paid off his 4pts pretty quickly.  I dunno what it is with him, like each clause of his ability seems pretty plausible to pull off and yet there's so many of those little hoops to jump through that you wind up missing one of them a lot more often than you'd think.

But, yeah, other than never actually managing to Fenn Rau the strress off Aphra when Han gave it to her everything else worked.  Aphra's gun was super-reliable and I could definitely see myself deciding to go full Party Bus like it's 2016 and adding 4-LOM crew in place of Fenn Rau.  

Q9-0's HLC was ripping into things repeatedly. I got the Evade->Barrel Roll attack into Obi Wan Kenobi with Lando's offensive reroll at range 1.  I tallon-rolled into a double-modded HLC shot onto an ETA-Actis... it would all have been picture perfect if a Wounded Pilot crit hadn't double-stressed me on the t-roll and then the Razorcrest's crappy blue maneuvers finally kicked in to cramp my style.  

I even managed to get a bonus attack off with Tor Phun, who used Mandalorian Optics to lock and kill Obi Wan for the last bit of damage then Target Locked another ship for his second attack.

Oh yeah, and Durge was... Durge was ok.  Which is why I'm fiddling with his loadout to try Lone Wolf.  He's cheap, he did a job and he certainly wasn't *bad*... but I wanted more fireworks than I got.

I'll take it as a win.  I mean... I did win the game so technically it was a win, but I'm also going to take the listbuilding success and ensuing fun as a bigger win.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

So, that's it really.  I made a list and I liked it.  It was fun.  It was a nice change of pace to not be trying to murderkill everything with 6FO like I've been doing for the last three months.

And I also hope that in these ships you can find something you might want to try out yourself, because I know Scum players are always on the hunt for the next wacky combo of effects they can string together!

I didn't just play Aphra and Q9-0, there was also a CIS list with Pre Vizsla, but that's one that I want to try again before I'm sure I can recommend it.  There's definitely something good in Pre Vizsla's ability to throw extra attack dice, but I think unlike the Q9-0 and Aphra examples his loadout probably adds up to less than the sum of its parts rather than more.  There just aren't the crew options in CIS that Scum has, I think.  I'll keep tinkering, though, and maybe you'll be reading about that one soon after all.

Until then, Fly (a bit) Casual!

=====================================

PS. Have an X-Wing haiku...

Requirement: more fun

Hurt itself in confusion

A new friend, Tor Phun

Nice.