By the Skin of my Teeth: Learning to Fly the Protectorate Starfighter
Welcome back everyone. Today, I’m going to reminisce a little about the Fang fighter. Let’s look back into the dusty sands of time to last year. Specifically the release of wave 9 and a very special ship. The Protectorate Starfighter.
Breaking down the Fang
When the Fang was first released I was very excited. It had three green dice, Four hull and most importantly hard green turns. Combine this with boost, barrel roll actions and three attack dice… let’s just say Christmas had seemed to come early.
Having been flying some form of A-wing or Interceptor since I started the game, this ship had me itching to get Push the Limit back out of my box and staple it straight to the nose of each and every Protectorate Starfighter I could get my hands on. With this in mind, I picked up one to see what it was like and began my journey.
Baby’s First Teeth
Getting the Fang out the box, I went straight for the PS 9 monstrosity that was Fenn Rau. His pilot skill alone marked him as something special and combined with his ability he’s terrifying.
The first list I tried made the most of this damage potential. Combining Fenn with everyone’s favorite Andrew, N’dru Shulak (sorry Mr Pattison) and party Bossk.
All three ships were pilot skill 9 and had the potential to do 14 damage in one turn! It was named Emergency Services.
The list was great but it had its pitfalls, one of which was an inability to turn around. Fenn was a great flanker but when he’s the last ship left he really struggles to get the better of a defender.
This was shown to me in masterful fashion by Simeon Dellapina flying triple Defenders at the UKTC. The Weekend Warlords were the only team to beat us on the day and took the win with them.
With Defenders becoming a cornerstone of the meta it was clear the list needed changing.
‘Tis the season: To regionals!
I needed to work past the Defender problem, so Andrew got the sack and in came Terry.
Old Teroch solved my pressing defender problem by alleviating the offending article of its tokens. Shortly before Fenn punched it in the face.
Sadly Bossk also had to be dropped down to a cheaper Trandoshan Slaver to fit on all the upgrades. This left me with my regional list for IQ Games.
IQ was… OK. I went 3–3 on the day which disappointed me but in hindsight also highlighted some more problems with the Fangs. They die FAST if you are not absolutely precise with your flying.
A Fang lives in two places. Range 3 with autothrusters active, or range 1 in arc with the Concord Dawn Protector Title giving you a free evade. It’s surprisingly easy to end up in between these two places, as I found to my peril.
Feeling a little frustrated with the Fangs I returned them to the box as there was a rebellion looming.
Heroes of the Resistance
I returned to my Rebel roots over the Christmas period. Testing out both the new Falcon and a pilot I had never got the hang of before, Corran Horn.
Picking up Corran after the Fangs felt strangely familiar. I was confused as to why flying an Interceptor had improved my use of a more straightforward jousting ship. Therein lay my problem.
I had been flying the Fang in the same way as I did an A-Wing. But without a 4 or 5 green move to use as an escape button it was a very different beast.
Maybe Mike Dennis had been right when he said push the limit may not be the best upgrade for the Fang (Drat). It was time to try something new.
Enter the bogeyman
Over the last few games I’d had with Rey and Corran I came across one list (flown by Ollie Wright, master painter) that well and truly thumped me. I just couldn’t focus fire any any one ship for enough time to kill it. Can you guess what it was?
Yes, the dreaded Paratanni. I felt a little deflated and confused as to why the list had beaten me and resolved to find out why and do something about it.
Engage the Neural Bridge
The thing about X-Wing is sometimes the best way to understand how to beat something is to fly it yourself. If you listen to the 186th Squadron Podcast then Alex Birt did exactly this when the JumpMaster 5000 was released. Then found he really liked flying it. I went through the same process with Attani Mindlink.
Having flown Dengaroo for a little while during the previous nationals season I’ve fallen out of love with the Manaroo. I dislike having a ship that can’t contribute that much to the fight sitting at the 30 point price mark. That meant that the Fangaroo (The 186th special coined by Ben Lee and Alex Birt) was out.
I wanted to keep flying the two named Fangs as a pair. Looking at the 38 points I had remaining, Asajj Ventress with Mindlink fit snugly into the hole. It also satisfied my curiosity for the Shadow Caster that had been sitting on my desk for the last six months.
Working out the Kinks
After flying the list a couple of times it really felt I was onto something. With no stress tokens, the Fang’s dial opened up and allowed it to be a much more flexible ship. This combined with the stress control from Asajj and the token stripping from Terry allowed me to go into almost any game with a good Chance at victory.
Having practiced with the list, it got its first proper test at the Dice Saloon casual tourney in January. This resulted in my first tournament win for a while and really boosted my confidence. You can watch the video here. Lee put up a great fight with his double casters!
After that the list got a road trip to Poland and I managed to come fifth in the swiss at one of their Regionals: astrong finish against some stiff competition. Unfortunately I met a sticky end in the first of the knockout rounds to some incredibly persistent Tie Fighters but I had a good time and my hosts were very friendly.
The final variation of the list was born after a couple of unfortunate match-ups in the Warboar regional. After getting systematically demolished by three hotshot builds including OJ Hemming’s hotshot Bossk and Push the Limit Fenn (Can you smell the irony?). It was clear I needed to do something about this particular match-up.
The finished article
For the final version of the list I decided to do something drastic. I removed the titles from both Fangs. As I talked about earlier, Fangs have two safe ranges. Well now I only had one… Hard mode engaged!
The payoff for this was allowing me to get Latts Razzi crew to ride shotgun for Asajj. This made most of my games harder and required a lot more care with the Fangs. But more importantly it made my hardest match-ups winnable.
I did briefly consider removing autothrusters from Terry, considering how often he ends up jousting at range one, but that was a bridge too far. Removing the titles meant I once again had to fly both Fangs in a similar style to my beloved A-Wings. Back to where I started I suppose.
Parting Shots
So there you have it. My complete journey with the Fangs. Using the finished version of the list I managed to hit top 8 at the Yavin System Open and finished third in swiss at the Firestorm Games Regional in Cardiff. Apart from needing to work on my success in cuts (3 for 3 first round knockouts…), a very good run so far. I’m also in the top 4 for the Team Covenant Open on Vassal at the time of writing.
It’s interesting to think about how long I’ve spent flying Fenn. Also about the idea of taking 10 000 hours to master something. While I have certainly not spent 10 000 hours flying the list, the two lists I have had the most success with are the ones I spent the most time flying. Both Jake and Han and Old Fenntress.
I’ve been of the opinion for a little while that practice makes perfect with any list but the tipping point for me has been about six months flying a ship to be really successful with it. Possibly just a casual observation but definitely some food for thought.
The future is Uncertain
Looking forward to the future and the European Championships, I’m going to need to make some list decisions. Am I going to stick to the Mindlink? Or am I going to switch back to the rebel jank that has been bubbling for a while? Who knows…
Regardless of which list I’m flying. I aim to enjoy it.
Fly casual all
Oli
