So I'm absolutely loving X-Wing at the moment, along with all of the 40k Warzone Team.
I was a tad envious of TIE Swarm lists and how amazing they looked on the table top, however I refuse to play Imperials! I played around with various Z-95 Headhunter Swarms and while they look great on paper, I just don't think they would perform as well as TIE Swarms. They would however, have a smidgen more durability and higher Pilot Skill but I wanted to have a bit more flavour than simply spamming Z95's.
I also needed to factor in that to deal with Phantoms and faster ships such as the A-Wing, E-Wing and TIE Interceptors, I needed to hand out stress tokens. To make stress tokens really effective you also need to throw in some Ion Token handouts, so this is what I came up with:
Z-95 Head Hunter - 21pts
- Airen Cracken
- Swarm Tactics
Z-95 Head Hunter - 22pts
- Lieutenant Blount
- Swarm Tactics
- Ion Pulse Missiles
Z-95 Head Hunter - 15pts
- Bandit Squadron Pilot
- Ion Pulse Missiles
Z-95 Head Hunter - 12pts
- Bandit Squadron Pilot
X-Wing - 30pts
- Hobbie Klivian
- R3-A2
- Flechette Torpedoes
- Munitions Failsafe
So the general gist of the list is that I can daisy chain Pilot Skill 8 from Cracken to Blount, and Blount to whoever I want. I could also just hand out Pilot Skill 8 and 6 individually, depending on what I'm up against. I fly in formation which also allows me to hand out actions from Cracken to whoever needs them, and also packs a punch if I do find myself in a joust.
The combination of Flechette Torpedoes and R3-A2 means that I'm handing out 2 stress tokens a turn, and if the shot misses, I can do it again, and again, and again. If Flechette actually does damage, I've handed you 2 stress tokens and if you don't deal with Hobbie, I can repeatedly hand out a single stress token. Normally I would take a stress token for handing one out with R3-A2, but thanks to Hobbie's pilot ability, as soon as I acquire or spend a target lock (which I need to do to launch the Flechette Torpedoes) I remove a stress token.
Combine stress tokens with Ion tokens and you have quite a little nifty combo. To remove a stress token you must do a green move. Ion forces to you make a One Speed forward WHITE move, which means if I pile the two on at the same time, it will take you three turns to get rid of all your stress tokens. Blount allows me to automatically hit with Ion, so I can be pretty confident that trick will work.
So what do you guys think? I've managed 3/3 wins with the above list and am considering taking this to the Nationals Event down in Canberra (or at least something similar). It's not the most durable list but it packs quite a bunch and has plenty of synergy without losing out on too much if an element of that synergy gets taken away. I can fly in formation for maximum efficiency but can also flank with Hobbie and split of into pairs when I see fit.
What squads have you guys been running? We'd love to hear what your favourite combinations are!
Alles gute,
TommyH