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My List: Rebellion
Ten Numb w/ Mangler, VI, Shield Upgrade, Fire Control System
Airen Cracken w/ Cluster Missiles, VI
Bandit w/ Homing Missile
Bandit w/ Homing Missile


Their List: Imperials
Bounty Hunter w/ Engine Upgrade
Howlrunner w/ Decoy, something?
Soontir w/ Autothrusters, Push the Limit, something else

My strategy with my list:
-Ten Numb was brought as a general Imperial-Ace answer since if I were to fight against any they would be relying on evades and be susceptible to Crits. He also can do tight maneuvers to keep the enemy in arc.
-Airen Cracken and his gang is an action machine. The three Zeds fly up really slow. I know my Zeds cannot get Target Locks due to PS timing so they take a focus. Airen then flies up AFTER the enemy does and takes a target lock since he is in range. Airen fires first at a target and discards his card to attack twice. Each attack grants each of the two Zeds target locks of their own. When it is finally the Bandits' turn, they can freely fire focused/target-locked homing missiles into their targets.

Result:
Ten Numb was able to reliably sneak damage in to targets and resulted in a good cornerstone. The Zed Trio worked perfectly, Airen stripped Howlrunner to 1 and after 1 Bandit died before he could fire, the other killed Soontir in a single volley. It just became clean-up work for Ten Numb. I used Ten Numb in another list the same day and he again proved a fantastic flier. I need to pick myself up a B-Wing pack and a Syck Fighter for that mangler cannon.

I know that I was probably lucky to have Soontir find himself in front of my Zeds, but it was still cool to see the plan unfold how I had hoped.

Has anyone else had success with this "Cracken Brick"?

Get rid of the shield upgrade on the b-wing, it's not worth it because you only have one green die. Instead take advanced sensors and a crew slot, or an engine upgrade. Or you might even drop the mod slot completely and bump the z-95s up to PS 4 so they can kill generics before they return fire.

As for the strategy in general, I've tried it a few times. It can do some damage if you set it up right, but it's a glass cannon with a lot of potential failure points. Guidance chips will be a major buff in the near future, so proxy them if you can.

Yeah, the future holds stuff that can potentially make Airen Cracken obselete, namely: Thread Tracers on Lieutenant Blount or Guidance Chips. The build does blow if you miss with the homing missiles, but focus helps. If the enemy's ships are lucky that can also ruin your day, but I ended up flying the squadron very slow as I got used to flying a squadron together.

In the second game I played, different list but with Ten Numb, I did in fact drop the shield upgrade. I only added it because I couldn't find the "B1/E2" card to add Nien Nunb to the ship. In the second game I ran him with just VI, Mangler, FCS.

I'd prefer prefer Advanced Sensors on Keylan if I were to ever field him instead of Ten. FCS on Ten helps him on action economy, however since I have not used Advanced Sensors on Ten, I wouldn't know any better.

Advanced Sensors/Engine Upgrade is probably the best bet.

The way I see it, the 'point' of Ten Numb - at least, built this way - is to deliver one unblockable critical hit to a target, regardless of how many green dice, or what dice modifier shenanigans the defender has.

Which he does pretty well. The only requirement, therefore, is that he be able to keep the target in arc. Veteran instincts helps, as does a B-wing's good knife-fighting dial, but taking upgrades which support using your actions to reposition yourself rather than shoot better are probably good. Advanced Sensors and Engine Upgrade allow a pre- or post -maneuver barrel roll or boost, which multiplies several times over the potential final positions with the same fixed dial.

Cracken and ordnance-loaded Bandits can make a mess, but as noted it can go wrong. My one comment is that if using cluster missiles to generate two actions, it'd make sense to put cluster missiles on the other two as well - that way you can ram yourself in close and damn the torpedoes, rather than having to try and place them specifically in the range 2 bracket (range 3 and cracken can't shoot, range 1 and the bandits can't shoot).