Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So far this year has not been good for me to play X-Wing between work and sick I think maybe 6-8 games I've played this year.

Old reliable: This is the one I have the most experience with.
100/100
Bossk — YV-666 Ship Total: 45
Veteran Instincts
Zuckuss
Dengar
Hotshot Co-pilot
Inertial Dampeners

Palob Godalhi — HWK-290 Ship Total: 28
Trick Shot
Twin Laser Turret
Inspiring Recruit
Inertial Dampeners

Torkil Mux — HWK-290 Ship Total: 27
Twin Laser Turret
Inspiring Recruit
Inertial Dampeners

Rebel PS 11
99/100
Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) — Sheathipede-class Shuttle Ship Total: 26
Veteran Instincts
Hotshot Co-pilot
R2 Astromech

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing Ship Total: 31
Veteran Instincts
Flight-Assist Astromech
Integrated Astromech

Poe Dameron (PS9) — T-70 X-Wing Ship Total: 42
Veteran Instincts
R2-D2
Advanced Optics
Autothrusters

Imperial Starwing
100/100
Major Vynder — Alpha-class Star Wing Ship Total: 43
Push the Limit
Advanced Proton Torpedoes
Harpoon Missiles
Advanced SLAM
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout

Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing Ship Total: 29 (*edit this is now 28)
Proton Torpedoes (*Edit this should be plasma torpedo)
Proton Rockets
Advanced SLAM
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout

Nu Squadron Pilot — Alpha-class Star Wing Ship Total: 29
Proton Torpedoes
Proton Rockets
Advanced SLAM
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout

I played the Rebel list. It is fragile, and doesn't deliver as much damage as one would think. And Wedge dies really, really fast.

Depends upon if this is purely for fun or for a tournament. Either way I would go Scum, but all three could use some tweaking if for tourney play.

 ingtaer wrote:
Depends upon if this is purely for fun or for a tournament. Either way I would go Scum, but all three could use some tweaking if for tourney play.

Doh! knew I was forgetting something, sometimes the most obvious information needed is so easily overlooked. Its for a local tournament, that if expectations should be minimum of enough people for 4 to 5 rounds. What tweaks would you make, the rebel one I wasn't ever happy with Fenn Rau?

Well for Fenn I would look at an FAA, because he really needs arc and moving at PS11 he can it a lot easier that way (and without using an action). But I think Stresszra is a better fit if you are not needing the coordinate. Poe could use the title as well. Overall though the Rebel list doesn't really inspire fear in me...

For the other two lists can you walk us through your thinking? The loadouts on the Nus is especially curious, wonder whether you would be better served by upgrading them to deadeye Rho with LRS.

However as always with tourneys flying what you know best is always good advice, familiarity is often better than taking upgrades one will forget to use!

Old reliable scum was made for pre-nerf X7 defenders, with only minor changes for when Zuckuss was changed, with both Hawks guarding Bossks flanks and that the range 2 bubble starts just on the other side of Bossk.

The Starwings well lets say the loadout is more about working in close quarters to opponents ships hence why I don't use LRS. The loadout is set to do the best I can for Vynder harpoon volley.The 2 Nus should only have the target lock and no focus when they fire. Nu 1 firing his plasma torpedo which I forgot to change when building the list, followed by Nu 2 firing proton torpedo to try to set off the condition. The next round is either a non slam focus setup for prockets or a speed 3 get out of dodge slam target lock run away for the Nus,

Starwing; I see what you are going for but it just seems a little off to me. Of course I dont know your meta but advanced slamming at PS2 and trying to knife fight seems like it could be a recipe for disaster. You will be out PSd by pretty much everything (unless you play against bandit swarm), so any ace type ship should be able to dodge your arc whilst any tank will just shrug off your largely unmodded shots. Harpoon Rhos come in a point cheaper and can fire fully modded shots, if you have messed up your approach or need to get out of danger then you still have SLAM.
Consider;
Rho Squadron Veteran (21)
Deadeye (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (2)

Rho Squadron Veteran (21)
Deadeye (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Long-Range Scanners (0)
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (2)

Major Vynder (26)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Harpoon Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (2)



Total: 89


View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Is ten points cheaper, will do a lot more damage at range 2-3, is more likely to set off the 'poons condition, has higher PS nativley (with 11 for Vynder so he can set up the shot better). Those eleven points can be used for other things (clusters maybe).

I am going to have to think about the Scum list some more...

The old Scum, I just feel like the Hwks are really squishy. If I'm willing to take a shot from Bossk, then I can almost guarantee a kill on the HWK of my choice, then reasonably I am behind Bossk.

I think Ingtaer has a good idea for a base list concerning the Imperials. Of the three, I would probably go for that one.

you had me at Scum HWK's, yep they are a tad squishy but their abilities really mess with your opponent (although maybe 4LOM over Zukuss, and then trade HCSP for Boba crew)

The HWK is my favorite Star Wars ship of all time. On some level, I think its release was the stab wound that has kept me playing this game at a distance. In some ways I feel like my interest has been slowly bleeding out ever since.

 LunarSol wrote:
The HWK is my favorite Star Wars ship of all time. On some level, I think its release was the stab wound that has kept me playing this game at a distance. In some ways I feel like my interest has been slowly bleeding out ever since.

Why is that HWks are excellent, cheapest TLT carrier and all bar one of the named pilots (looking at you Dace) are both good fun and good in game terms. They may not be top tier broken, but they all have utility.

Miradorm;

I played with you Scum list a couple of times on vassal and have been rattling it around in my brain but I have not come up with anything helpful. The issues I see are, as Mathieu, pointed out that the HWK is extremely squishy and doesn't have a good enough dial to stay clear, whilst if your oppo gets behind the YV it is game over... Harpoons proved to be bane of this list in one game whilst Dashranda just ate it in three turns. Both the named hawks needing to stay at range two proved their undoing as the list cant chew through a big based ship quick enough.
Other than that I am afraid I cant think of anything helpful, unless you want to radically change your list up (Torkil and a couple of Revenants is good fun).

Mux and 3 TLT Ys is a lot of fun. But it's probably mid-tier against really good players.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
The old Scum, I just feel like the Hwks are really squishy.

 ingtaer wrote:

The issues I see are, as Mathieu, pointed out that the HWK is extremely squishy and doesn't have a good enough dial to stay clear, whilst if your oppo gets behind the YV it is game over.

Mathematically you are both correct, yet all the time I've played that list Palob and Torkil have rarely died quickly. Where I play my HWKS and another persons his Z-95s they take far more to destroy then they honestly should, I know that sooner or later that luck will turn against me.

I've also been lucky with them because the people who come to the tournaments that travel a distance are apparently not used to flying against HWKs and over react to what Palob does and decide not to use focus at all on any ship they have or ignore what Torkils ability is, I've had someone fly Whisper into range 1 of Bossk and Palob but range 2 Torkil after I warned him to really avoid getting near Torkil at the start of the game.

Ironically I can tell you exactly how many times people have gotten behind Bossk and could exploit it, none. Either Bossk dies horribly, or they are an arc locked ship facing the wrong direction, now 1 time someone almost did it if I had kept my standard loadout of Inertial dampners he would have, but that tournament I actually tried Burn-Out Slam which is the one change I sometimes do to the list.

I've even did a fun build with Dace Maul alongside Palob that somewhat worked with dealing 4 damage a turn from those 2.ion turrets.

Well with a meta that ... unusual I guess any advice you get here wont mean a lot. So have fun! Have you decided on a list yet? Perhaps a couple of hawks and as many sycks as you can fit.

Burnout Slam on a YV-666 is a life saver.

 ingtaer wrote:
Well with a meta that ... unusual I guess any advice you get here wont mean a lot. So have fun! Have you decided on a list yet? Perhaps a couple of hawks and as many sycks as you can fit.

The local meta for me is I admit odd, but this tournament I've been told by the organizer has people from Memphis and I think Nashville travelling here, and I'm told Memphis group are a very competitive group so I have been considering the opinions given and opinions of local group since was able to get 2 games in this week. I think that I'll run starwing, but changing out all the torpedos for harpoons on Nus and prockets extra munitions on Major Vynder.

Could you work clusters instead of proton rockets? 6 red dice regardless is always welcome.

IMO the scum option is the best one. I don't know that it's a great list, but it's the one you have the most experience with and the others aren't so great that any increase in power is going to make up for the lack of practice.

The rebel list has two ok ships, but Wedge is just bad and brings the list down.

The gunboat list is just bad. Harpoon missiles are the only ordnance worth taking because they are so much more powerful, prockets are bad when they're only a 4-dice shot on a PS 2 ship, and Vynder is a massive point sink that will never live up to her point cost. Even a "light" Vynder with VI, ASLAM, OS-1 and a single piece of ordnance is a questionable investment. You just don't get enough shots, and you're massively overpaying for PS that doesn't matter in the current meta.

PS matters more then anything in the game especially if you have harps to launch. Vynder is really the only pilot worth flying if you only have one gunboat, and even then, the major weakness in rhoboats is they are so low on the PS chain most things can dodge them or just fly up and knock them out before they ever fire a shot. Vynder on the other hand can use slam to fly rings around things to get juicy shots. or run and reload.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
PS matters more then anything in the game especially if you have harps to launch. Vynder is really the only pilot worth flying if you only have one gunboat, and even then, the major weakness in rhoboats is they are so low on the PS chain most things can dodge them or just fly up and knock them out before they ever fire a shot. Vynder on the other hand can use slam to fly rings around things to get juicy shots. or run and reload.

Got to disagree here. The generics can be good because the generics are cheap. You're only paying 22 points for a gunboat with harpoons and LRS, that's going to beat anything else you can get for the cost. And if it doesn't always get the missile off on turn 1, no big deal, it's only a 22 point ship. Or for 28 points you can have a PS 2 generic with linked battery and HLC, a four-dice shot with focus and re-roll that doesn't need a reload action between shots. Rho vets cost a bit more and lose some pure efficiency but the EPTs add a ton of power, crack shot for more damage or deadeye to ensure that you get the missiles off.

Vynder isn't very good because she pays obscenely high points for PS that isn't terribly useful. Upgrading from a generic you pay +8 points for +5 PS, the highest point to PS ratio in the game. And that only gets you PS 7, which means you're committed to taking VI just to be relevant at all but still lose the PS war to the PS 10-11 ships. Meanwhile on defense you have decent green dice, but no evade and rare defensive focus (since you need to reload and TL to shoot anything) which means that anything that beats your PS 9 or has a turret is going to hit you and kill your expensive ace. A "light" Vynder isn't going to be utter trash and lose the game for you every time, but it's definitely a mid-tier option at best.

LRS is nice but you also tend to be telegraphing the shot. And ps 2 is easy to outmanuever. And fortunately ps 10-11 is rare and just as committed to vi. I'd be almost tempted to run Nus completely naked if I had to run them and use slam/ maybe advanced slam to block for something scary. But otherwise Vynder at 9 is almost an arc dodger, and decently tough. And with harps and clusters she has a tool for any job. For 35-39 points she's just a steal. Especially considering being able to slam, shoot, slam reload, and slam and shoot again. All with the benefit of being able to get around or away from all but the ps 10s and 11s out there. Deadeye Rhos are okay in pairs but that's only because one gets blown up while the can return fire.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
LRS is nice but you also tend to be telegraphing the shot. And ps 2 is easy to outmanuever.

Yes, but again, 22 points. Harpoon Nus are ridiculously efficient in raw stats, if they didn't have at least some drawbacks they'd break the game.

And fortunately ps 10-11 is rare and just as committed to vi.

Not in the current meta. Look at the dominant lists: Fenn at PS 11 (with coordinate to make one of your other ships effectively PS 11), Rey is PS 10 and has a turret even when she's not, Nym is PS 10, Quickdraw is PS 11, Vader is a threat if you're trying to counter enemy PS 11. The dominant lists right now eat Vynder.

But otherwise Vynder at 9 is almost an arc dodger, and decently tough.

She really isn't "decently tough". You have some HP but poor defense dice/tokens on a very expensive ship. Successful arc dodgers depend on having the ability to negate attacks they can't dodge, Vynder will take damage and die.

And with harps and clusters she has a tool for any job.

Clusters are a complete waste. You're sinking even more points into a ship with poor point efficiency and minimal ability to modify those two attacks. If a cluster missile shot is the best you can set up you're better off SLAMing away and trying again later.

For 35-39 points she's just a steal.

Not even close. Trust me, I love Vynder and tried to make her work. She's mid-tier at best, the kind of ship that won't always cost you the game in a casual environment but has no place in a competitive list.

Especially considering being able to slam, shoot, slam reload, and slam and shoot again.

The issue is that maneuvering space is not that easy to get. SLAM with no k-turn means going fast while pointed at the enemy, which means you usually get one good shot and then close in to range 1 before you can set up another one. IOW, you get one shot and then SLAM 3-speed maneuvers for a few turns while you reload and prepare for another shot. Shoot-reload-shoot on three consecutive turns is a highly optimistic sequence that almost never happens in real games against smart players.

Deadeye Rhos are okay in pairs but that's only because one gets blown up while the can return fire.

Even a single one is great. Killing it early requires concentrated fire, leaving the rest of your list untouched.

Peregrine wrote:

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
LRS is nice but you also tend to be telegraphing the shot. And ps 2 is easy to outmanuever.

Yes, but again, 22 points. Harpoon Nus are ridiculously efficient in raw stats, if they didn't have at least some drawbacks they'd break the game.

True it's cheap, but for 24 I can slam and still fire at the least. But the problem is unless you have 4 of them it's not worth it. There's not a scenario I can think of where having just one 22 point Nu is going to be doing much, other then a distraction...which 'in that case' you might have a point.

Not in the current meta. Look at the dominant lists: Fenn at PS 11 (with coordinate to make one of your other ships effectively PS 11), Rey is PS 10 and has a turret even when she's not, Nym is PS 10, Quickdraw is PS 11, Vader is a threat if you're trying to counter enemy PS 11. The dominant lists right now eat Vynder.

The boost is 11 but if it's the ghost it's going to take a tricky pilot to get out of your arc, and set up the tlt double tap. Ghost Fenn was scary, but I'm seeing people beat it regularly now to the point it's a super strong list but it's not unbeatable. As far as Rey goes. I've never seen her ran at 10, she's always, always got Expertise to take advantage of the brokenness of Kanan. PS 10 Nym? Yeah, you got a point there as well as Quick and Vader. But you only see Nym and Quick in serious lists. And both are points sinks. But those two are among the best pilots in the game anyway.

She really isn't "decently tough". You have some HP but poor defense dice/tokens on a very expensive ship. Successful arc dodgers depend on having the ability to negate attacks they can't dodge, Vynder will take damage and die.

Depends on what she's facing. But that's why I said 'almost' an arc dodger. Vynder can do what even Miranda can't and that's slam 'around' someone and still have a shot. You protect yourself by harpooning something BEFORE it can shoot you and slamming circles around them. Turrets are a different story but in the case of things like TLT I can use the slam to 'hug em'

Clusters are a complete waste. You're sinking even more points into a ship with poor point efficiency and minimal ability to modify those two attacks. If a cluster missile shot is the best you can set up you're better off SLAMing away and trying again later.

Totally disagree. Yes it's 9/10 times unmodified but it's 6 red dice MORE then you'd get otherwise. And in my experience it's better to toss the dice when you got the chance. Not to mention so many of the meta ships have 0-1 agility right now. 4 points that's a bargain to puts damage through.

Not even close. Trust me, I love Vynder and tried to make her work. She's mid-tier at best, the kind of ship that won't always cost you the game in a casual environment but has no place in a competitive list.

I've made her work everytime I've put her on the board. So maybe it's just flying style. The one time I lost her she got blocked up by my own bad move selection. And I've had some fun with her, Quick and Inquisitor. And of the three it's always Quis that burns.

The issue is that maneuvering space is not that easy to get. SLAM with no k-turn means going fast while pointed at the enemy, which means you usually get one good shot and then close in to range 1 before you can set up another one. IOW, you get one shot and then SLAM 3-speed maneuvers for a few turns while you reload and prepare for another shot. Shoot-reload-shoot on three consecutive turns is a highly optimistic sequence that almost never happens in real games against smart players.

Yeah but maneuvering space is something you can 'kinda' control at setup and obstacle placement, obviously bombs change that somewhat. But heck, Slam 2 speeds, turn in tight and get on thier tail. I've even caught people out of it by slamming 1 speeds to dink out of arc like a pseudo boost. Besides going fast while pointed at the enemy is the most fun way to play.

Even a single one is great. Killing it early requires concentrated fire, leaving the rest of your list untouched.

Again I disagree. If I'm running just one, It's Vynder or if I'm feeling frisky Karasbi with Cool Hand or Wired. You're SUPPOSED to concentrate fire and kill a target, focus on the next one, and kill it. Especially against two ship lists.

OK this was a really frustrating tournament to play this time, inclement weather preventing a lot of the people who had said they would come from showing up, and to top it off only scant few hours of sleep for me.

I had 2 losses and a bye, the losses don't bother me since would have been same outcome no matter what list I played, I must have really angered the dice gods.

Game 1 vs VI Whisper, VI Echo, and Nu pilot 49 to 0 loss
First I like to say that my Nu starwings had zero issues getting TL and getting arcs on Echo. My Vynder and his Whisper ran into same issue of misjudging a move and placing us in the worse possible place, he misjudged the distance on a decloak and parked to close to a debris field but ended up in R1 of a Nu with TL on him just no focus, and Vynder I slammed ptl focus right in front of a debris field, and the follow up green maneuver I felt were to predictable and chose to bug out. That was the first of 2 mistakes I made, the other one was turn 2 and not thinking about my opponents ship having SLAM as well, outside of them nothing I did I would change my decision in hindsight. The dice gods did hate me and let me explain it. My opponent nicked the same debris field that Whisper hit earlier with Echo who after moving ended range 2 and Range 1 of my 2 Nu pilots. I fired harpoon at Echo rolled 4 blanks, spent TL and rerolled 4 blanks yea Range 1 Nu fire prockets roll 3 hits after modification, and those 3 were the best and only good shot by me entire game, opponent 2 natural evades . The entire game for me was like this for my shooting, I felt like I was playing a tie swarm, which ironically someone played and ended up almost making it into the cut. My green dice where even worse than red dice, Whisper shooting R3 through a asteroid against a weapon disabled Vynder with focus rolls the ever so lovely 5 blanks, I only remember rolling 2 evades and only because it saved a Nu from dieing and able to bug outta dodge to never be caught again by his terms. After time was called I had 2 Nu to fire on a 1 hull Echo who proceeds to hit crit 1 of them and no evades by me and the crit is blinded pilot and he cloaks Nu2 fire primary weapon and he evades the single hit, I ask him mind if I roll to see what might have happened if I didn't get blinded pilot and of course I roll 4 natural hits.

Game 2 vs AB Nym, Jostero, AB Torkil Mux loss 29 to 26
I had a dilemma with this game. Do I go for the win regardless of consequence, or win in such a way that I don't crush a young childs very happy mood. I chose the latter, so I strived to make it so if he won he truly earned it but if he lost he would be happy with a good played game. In this game my dice still hated me by rolling below average just not rock bottom rolls, 3 rounds of shooting with Harpoons to kill Torkil, apparently the dice gods ruling my FLGS really likes to keep Torkil alive all 3 of his opponents had issues trying to kill him. The reason not much said and that this is short is Nym and Jostero did very little all game, that the did little overall other than drop bombs that did more damage then anything on PS2 Nus.

Round 3 Bye then went to the cut.

Overall I was happy with how it felt to fly it, felt natural to my specific style of play, just wish that my dice would have at least rolled average.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
There's not a scenario I can think of where having just one 22 point Nu is going to be doing much, other then a distraction...which 'in that case' you might have a point.

Again, it's a 22 point ship. What other 22 point ship is doing more than the harpoon Nu? I think the problem here is you have unrealistic expectations for what a 22 point ship is capable of.

Totally disagree. Yes it's 9/10 times unmodified but it's 6 red dice MORE then you'd get otherwise. And in my experience it's better to toss the dice when you got the chance. Not to mention so many of the meta ships have 0-1 agility right now. 4 points that's a bargain to puts damage through.

You know what costs zero points and is better? 3-bank, SLAM a 3-bank, ASLAM to reload. You're paying 4 points more on a ship that is already struggling with point efficiency to get a mediocre shot in a situation where you should just SLAM away and set up for a better shot later.

And sure, the Ghost is a zero-agility ship. It also has an evade token and a sensor jammer, making your cluster missile shot almost worthless.

I've made her work everytime I've put her on the board. So maybe it's just flying style.

What is your meta like? Vynder works against lower-tier lists, it's only when you go up against the top-tier stuff that you have problems.

Yeah but maneuvering space is something you can 'kinda' control at setup and obstacle placement, obviously bombs change that somewhat. But heck, Slam 2 speeds, turn in tight and get on thier tail. I've even caught people out of it by slamming 1 speeds to dink out of arc like a pseudo boost. Besides going fast while pointed at the enemy is the most fun way to play.

It really isn't something you can control because the limiting factor is ship distance, not obstacles. Let's say you get your harpoon shot off from the ideal position, just barely inside range 3 with as much space as possible. That's 7.5 ship bases away. Your minimum move is 2 ship bases, 4 ship bases if you want to SLAM and get your defense dice. Your opponent is almost certainly turning towards you, so we'll assume they do the equivalent of a 1-straight and add another 2 ship bases. The minimum possible moves now give you a total of 6 ship bases worth of distance out of the 7.499999 you started with, which means you have 1.5 ship bases worth of maneuvering room for both players before you bump or overshoot. And to get there you have to fly very predictable slow maneuvers (otherwise you probably overshoot/bump), maximizing the chances that you end up in a range-1 exchange that you really don't want to face.

Alternatively, instead of dumping points into this questionable situation, you just SLAM away and pick a better fight.

You're SUPPOSED to concentrate fire and kill a target, focus on the next one, and kill it. Especially against two ship lists.

Well yes, of course you are. But concentrating fire and killing a target doesn't mean you have to concentrate fire with identical ships. A single gunboat works just fine if that's how many points you have available. It's not like the rest of your list is going to be empty and unable to contribute.

 Peregrine wrote:

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
There's not a scenario I can think of where having just one 22 point Nu is going to be doing much, other then a distraction...which 'in that case' you might have a point.

Again, it's a 22 point ship. What other 22 point ship is doing more than the harpoon Nu? I think the problem here is you have unrealistic expectations for what a 22 point ship is capable of.

My expectations is get shots at my opponent and do damage as quickly as possible. For 22 points I can have Lt. Blount in a Z-95 with chips and harpoons at a decent ps if VIed or deadeye. Or for 16 points a harpoon & chips bare bones Z which is got just as good a chance to shoot as that Nu. At 23 points a TLT Tie Aggressor doesn't have to worry about arc. There's a plethora of cheap Tie Fighter and Tie F/O pilots that have neat abilities, or help the rest of the list out. 22 points is cheap, but if you aren't going to even have a chance to roll those 4 red dice it's not worth it.

You know what costs zero points and is better? 3-bank, SLAM a 3-bank, ASLAM to reload. You're paying 4 points more on a ship that is already struggling with point efficiency to get a mediocre shot in a situation where you should just SLAM away and set up for a better shot later.

And sure, the Ghost is a zero-agility ship. It also has an evade token and a sensor jammer, making your cluster missile shot almost worthless.

Not even, cause the longer that Ghost is on the table the longer it's putting 4 near automatic damage a turn on some other ship in your squad. Also evade token is only one, and sensor jammer can help. but if I'm putting even 3 damage from that 6 red dice, that's 3 more then I would have, if I slammed away and tried to reposition again.

What is your meta like? Vynder works against lower-tier lists, it's only when you go up against the top-tier stuff that you have problems.

Auzi swarms, Tie Ds, Decis, Ghosts, Baby Blues, Rey/Low, Ghost/Fenn, ARC170s, a lot of different things cause our group players generally doesn't play the same list twice.

It really isn't something you can control because the limiting factor is ship distance, not obstacles. Let's say you get your harpoon shot off from the ideal position, just barely inside range 3 with as much space as possible. That's 7.5 ship bases away. Your minimum move is 2 ship bases, 4 ship bases if you want to SLAM and get your defense dice. Your opponent is almost certainly turning towards you, so we'll assume they do the equivalent of a 1-straight and add another 2 ship bases. The minimum possible moves now give you a total of 6 ship bases worth of distance out of the 7.499999 you started with, which means you have 1.5 ship bases worth of maneuvering room for both players before you bump or overshoot. And to get there you have to fly very predictable slow maneuvers (otherwise you probably overshoot/bump), maximizing the chances that you end up in a range-1 exchange that you really don't want to face.

Alternatively, instead of dumping points into this questionable situation, you just SLAM away and pick a better fight.

At which point he's winning because you just took your ship out of the fight allowing him to pick on Vynder's squadmates. Or they expect you to slam away and maneuver to chase you and get shots into your rear. At that point, you might as well be a K-Wing. Ideally you fly right at them, harp them, continue right at them and if in a good spot cluster em' then next turn you can fly past them, slam and reload as you wheel around and so by turn 4 you got harps and clusters ready to go again. And ideally you're BEHIND them. So what if I took some hits, or even got some damage, as long as it's not a crippling crit, I'm in the best spot. The other ships in my squad are going to do their things as well

Well yes, of course you are. But concentrating fire and killing a target doesn't mean you have to concentrate fire with identical ships. A single gunboat works just fine if that's how many points you have available. It's not like the rest of your list is going to be empty and unable to contribute.

Right, I'm not saying the ships have to be identical, but low PS ships have to be around lots of other low ps ships so they can mitigate losses. If you got one PS2 and two PS 9-11s your opponent can dodge and make the PS2 look silly while he gets his teeth into your expensive aces. That's why you don't SEE people field one Nu. They field 3 and a support ship or just go all in with 4.