X-Wing: Scum Fang Fighter Fun
The Protectorate Starfighter is one mean ship – let’s play around with Scum’s new attack dog!
Hey BoLS Readers and X-Wing Aces. Now, I’ve already talked about the Protectorate Starfighter before. I just keep going back to this ship when I’m poking around with list builders however. Something about it just makes me want to run this ship for Scum. I’ve talked about the Ace Fenn Rau before and I’ve touched on Old Teroch in that previous article but now I want to put a real list together.
I was chatting with a friend this past week about this new ship and he mentioned something that I found odd – The Fang fighter is really the first ship to get their own custom Elite Pilot Talent.
He also notated that with the “Generic” Concord Dawn Ace who costs 23 points, Fearlessness and the title you’ve pretty much got a 100 point list.
The List: Concord Meat-and-Potatoes – 100 points
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 25 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 25 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 25 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 25 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
While this list certainly gives my Copy/Paste skills a test it’s not very exciting to me. I DO think it would be interesting to actually play due to the fact that the Fang Fighter has such a different dial. It doesn’t really maneuver well at speeds 1,4 and 5 but it’s got all sorts of tricks at speeds 2 and 3.
This ship might be a challenge to master during the actual “flying” part of the turn but it’s pretty much auto pilot when it comes to combat. It’s tossing out a respectable 3 dice at range 2-3 but it really shines when you get in close. If you can get someone foolish to joust with you then this ship will generate 4 attack dice at range 1 with an extra hit result due to fearless. And on the defensive side of things you’ll generate 3 agility dice and 1 evade result due to the title. Are these ships fragile? With only 4 hull, absolutely! But you’ve got to hit them first…and they bite back HARD.
So that’s one way to play this list but like I said, it’s a little bland for me. What do you do if you are up against someone with some tricks of their own? I mean, this list isn’t exactly hard to spot flying at you. If you’ve got some good arc dodgers you should tear it to shreds. So what can Scum players do? Well I guess that depends on how you want to play this ship. The way I see it you’ve really got two options: Swarm-lite or Escort Attacker.
The above list is what I’d call a Swarm-lite build. The reason is I, personally, consider a swarm to be more that 4 ships. TIE Swarms for example generally run 5-6 ships depending on how upgraded they want their “lynch-pin” Ace to be (if they decide to take an Ace). With 4 ships, you should give most lists at least a work-out. Double big ships will have a hard time avoiding your basic 3 dice primary and on your “attack run” turns it’s going to be rough for them to dodge all those shots. Swarm ships (like TIEs) typically don’t have a ton of firepower to take you down and theoretically you should be able to avoid their shots with your 3 agility + title bonus, with some luck of course!
Now if you wanted to spice up the list above with an Ace, I’d recommend Old Teroch:
I really like this ship because it’s such a meta breaker. If you get into that magical range 1 jousting match with a token heavy ship you’re going to ruin their day. Now, because of the points shift I’d also recommend dropping those Concord Aces down to Vets to free up some points, but basically you get the same list:
The List: Concord Meat-and-Potatoes w/flavor – 100 points
Old Teroch – Protectorate Starfighter – 28 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Veteran – Protectorate Starfighter – 24 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Veteran – Protectorate Starfighter – 24 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Concord Dawn Veteran – Protectorate Starfighter – 24 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
Yes, you lose out on some pilot skill but you’re basically running the exact same thing and you are out side of the “Predator” zone of Sub PS 2. If you’re going to run this as a Swarm-Lite build I think that’s about as far as you can go in terms of Aces and points. I’d love to run Fenn Rau, but then you’re stripping of upgrades of your other ships to move those points into Fenn and really it’s just not the same impact.
If you’re going to do that then what you’re really wanting to play is that second type of list: The Escort Attacker. Now, I’ve visited this concept before with my Scarface Corsair list. But the idea is you’re really focusing on taking 3 ships that can each hold their own but work best covering each other. Typically, you’ve got 1 really strong ship and a couple of “attack dogs” that help to create opportunities or swoop in to really mess ships up when the time is right.
It was the Scarface Corsairs because I based it around Kavil
Personally, I want to have 1 tough ship to be the anchor of the list. I like rolling with Kavil with the TLT because it’s consistent damage. Plus, he’s a big beefy target – he looks slow on paper so people tend to gun for him which is where the attack dogs come in for the kill.
But, things have changed a lot sense then. Scum has a ton of new ships and new toys to play with. Initially I wanted to build a list with a JumpMaster5000 because it’s a good ship. But I feel like that’s been done before… So let’s experiment! The goal should be a ship that is tough, can add some utility and might setup a really good shot for our Fang Fighters to swoop in and take advantage of.
With those ideas in mind I wanted a ship that would make other ships as easy to hit as possible. Here comes Latts Razzi to the rescue!
The YV-666 is tough, packs a punch and makes for a big target. Plus you can add the new(er) Tractor beam into the equation for some serious utility:
If you play your cards right you should be able to lower your target’s agility by 2 and also get them into a more beneficial situation for your Fang Fighters to bite. Initially, I wanted to run Old Teroch and/or Fenn in the list, but I built something that was a bit more generic that you fine folks can tweak to your heart’s desire.
The List: Latts Razzi, Bounty Hunting Time! – 99 Points
Latts Razzi – YV-666 – 45 Points
- Tractor Beam
- Weapons Engineer
- Ketsu Onyo
- Dengar
- Engine Upgrade
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 27 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
- Autothrusters
Concord Dawn Ace – Protectorate Starfighter – 27 points
- Fearlessness
- Concord Dawn Protector
- Autothrusters
I’ll talk about the Aces first since all we did was add Autothrusters. That should help them stay relatively unhurt before they can swoop in for maximum damage.
As for Latts Razzi, the Weapons Engineer is there simply for the extra Target Lock goodness – notice she doesn’t have a restriction of “once per turn,” just that you have a Target Lock on the target. Ketsu Onyo is there because Onyo helps the Tractor Beam effect stick for another round lowering the agility. You’re not spending your TL to get re-rolls so Dengar is there for the extra help and assists with making sure your Tractor beam sticks on named pilots. Engine Upgrade is there because…I like Engine Upgrade. I could drop that to get a fancier pilot but I think it’s a good option on the YV-666 just to help it keep up with the Protectorate Starfighters.
One other fun fact is that all 3 ships are also PS 5 meaning you can activate them in the order YOU want. That should help you get the most out of the Tractor Beam tokens.
I like the idea of running a big ship along side two Fang Fighters – I’m not 100% sure how it’s going to pan out but I want to give it a shot none-the-less. I think the 3 ship list is more interesting to run even if it is “less efficient” than a basic 4 ship copy/paste list. Whatever happens, I know I want to get at least two of these ships just because I really like the Protectorate Starfighter. It’s not able to get an 8 dice primary attack off, but it looks lot more fun to fly!
It’s cause they are Mandalorians. They just call to me!
