X-Wing: VT-49 Decimator

I wanted to continue the discussion of the Decimator from the Deals and Steals thread. The start of the conversation:

Disgustipater wrote: My group has used the Decimator about half a dozen times and every time it goes down hard. Zero agility is really hard to overcome. I doubt I'll use mine much at all outside of huge games where I have to points to spare.

charlest wrote: I actually like the Decimator. Love ramming stuff with the one pilot.
Also, Decimator + Phantom lists seem to be pretty popular in the meta and very competitive. That may change with the Phantom nerf.

I don't follow the meta directly so I wasn't aware of this. I went and looked into it and decided to try it out for myself. After reading up on it, I realized that my poor experiences with the Decimator were all in large team games. This allowed the opposition to bring many more ships to bear against the Decimator than they normally would in a 100 point game, bringing it down pretty quickly. So last night I played a standard 100 point game. I faced a Scum list using Kath Scarlet with Outmaneuver and a K4 Security Droid , two Syndicate Thug Y-Wings with title and autoblasters , and a Binarye Pirate (Z-95). I pulled out a win and my opinion of the Decimator has gone up.

My list:

Rear Admiral Chiraneau
- Engine Upgrade
- Push The Limit
- Ysanne Isard
- Rebel Captive

Whisper
- Veteran Instincts
- Advanced Cloaking Device
- Fire Control System
- Intelligence Agent

This was also my first time flying a Phantom using the new decloaking rules. It was weird to adjust to, but my opponent's movements were pretty predicable, so I didn't get boxed in. It also helped that there weren't a lot of ships on the table to begin with. Intelligence Agent now has some actual usefulness with the Phantom, but as previously stated, I didn't really need to use it in this match.

Quick battle report:

My opponent started off on the flank and I raced up the middle of the board with the VT, which my friend was not expecting. I ended up in range 1 to the side of the headhunter and wiped it off the table in 1 shot. I was then able to pull around behind the rest of the force with Whisper and the Admiral and was able to take out the 2 Y-Wings over multiple turns. The Decimator was taking damage the whole time, with Kath's Outmaneuver upgrade robbing me of my range 3 bonus agility die.

The last few turns I got the Decimator behind Kath to follow her while taking shots. Her rear arc bonus attack die did me no favors. Luckily I was able to take her down with both my ships, with the Decimator having only a single hull point remaining.
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Even though I didn't use the ability much at all, triggering a boost with PtL after Ysanne's ability went off gave me a lot of options. Just having a boost action made the boat much more maneuverable. Rebel Captive helped reduce my damage due to my opponent's ships having multiple stress so not taking focus or target locks (except for that damn security droid).

In any case, I have a lot more respect for the Decimator; I think I just needed a little direction on a proper build. It also seems like it works best in 100 point games, which is not what I usually play unfortunately.

I'd be curious to hear about other people's experiences with it.

Glad it's working for you. To be clear, I follow the meta loosely on BGG but I'm not very experienced in competitive play. I play casually with my group and we do try to win, but we often times play less than optimal builds.

That looks like a fun list. I really like Rebel Captive in general.

I've had luck with the decimator and a mini-swarm of TIE fighters. If your opponet focuses all its fire on the decimator you can wear them down and still have 3 or 4 fresh ties to finish them off. IF they ignore the decimator and g oafter the TIEs the endgame leaves you with a 16 hull turret ship. In the epic games I've played the decimator goes down hard and fast.

it is funny, the decimator does pretty horribly in those places you'd expect it to do well, Epic games. like you said, too many guns.

but it has a ton of HP, and the meta until the release of scum was dominated by 2 ship builds. alot of HLC Dash (the lack of crits sucks hard against the decimator) or phantom + deci builds. that's slowly turning away, with scum release and the phantom re-balance. as more and more ships hit the field in 100 pt lists the viability of the decimator goes down. The decimator Phantom build was great because the phantom just destroyed swarms and decimator put out enough firepower to burn down most anything else.
the last local tournament i played in, my only loss (HLC Dash + Corran) was to a Rear Admiral + Whisper build. I just ran out of time and couldn't put enough damage down, especially since I was not hitting with crits. change that cannon to a mangler and the decimator takes alot more pain.

I love PTL + Ysard + engine upgrade.

Dauntless is a great title. take a green maneuver,Bump (Oicunn smash?) and still get your action and be stress free. Even better, take daredevil, use the daredevil movement with Oicunn after bumping and end up dealing two unavoidable damage.

lj1983 wrote: Dauntless is a great title. take a green maneuver and still get your action and be stress free.

Do you mean stress-free on the following turn?

I just looked it up; that's crazy that it works that way. Very good to know.