Two and a half years into the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game, players are just now getting their hands on a third faction to fly: Scum and Villainy. What’s more, the player base of X-Wing has continuously grown over this time, and S&V is hitting store shelves right in the middle of 2015’s Store Championship season. This means that people are going to bring an entire new faction’s worth of ships to the table, in serious competition, more quickly than even a minor wave release would typically see.

Before you fall too deeply down the Scum & Villainy squad-building rabbit hole, take a look a few of these suggestions to get you started:

The Double IG-88

X-Wing’s dearly departed expanded universe provided us with several iterations of this assassin droid, so why not fly two at the same time? Don’t expect room for a third ship, though. The IG-2000 can be seriously tricked out, and you’ll need to do so in order to make full advantage of the shared IG-88 abilities.

Consider a well-rounded pairing of IG-88B and IG-88C. This gives each ship an ability to ensure they deal some damage every turn, while also giving them a bit of extra defense in the form of evade tokens. With only two ships, it’s important to guarantee their survival, while also sustaining pressure on your opponent.

With more than 50% of its dial showing green, the IG-2000 was built for Push the Limit in its EPT slot, although a compelling case can be made for Lone Wolf, given that three red and three green dice will provide plenty of opportunities to re-roll blanks. Throw in Advanced Sensors and Inertial Dampeners for added maneuverability, Mangler Cannons for offense, and Autothrusters for once last ounce of defense, and you’ll have 3 points leftover. Give one of the ships an Ion or Flechette cannon. The perfect opportunity to deal a stress or ion token might just tip a match in your favor.

ndru-suhlakThe Specialists

Scum and Villainy was designed as a faction that offered less synergy than your average Rebel or Imperial build. What better way to embrace that than with a Lone Wolf pilot? Fly a small squad of individually specialized ships led by N’Dru Sulhak in a Z-95. Built to fly solo, N’Dru gets an extra attack die at range 1-2 when flown solo, plus a die re-roll on both offense and defense with the Lone Wolf EPT.

Next up is a pair of M-3A Interceptors, with Serissu using Swarm Tactics to lend a pilot skill of 8 to a fellow low-skill interceptor carrying a Heavy Laser Cannon. Serissu also gives a defensive re-roll to the neighboring HLC carrier, ensuring that your glass cannon won’t shatter too early.

Round out the list with a very specialized Y-Wing: Drea Renthal and the R4-B11 astromech. The ability to re-obtain target locks, and use them to affect dice on both sides of the table, guarantees your Y-Wing will deal damage every turn.

With 11 points to spare, give yourself some extra defensive upgrades, or the ability to score a few cheap shots: a Hot Shot Blaster on N’Dru, or a Autoblaster on Drea.

The Vanilla

Swarms work, and that won’t change with Scum and Villainy. Consider 2 StarVipers flanked by 4 Z-95s, or up it to 3 StarVipers and only 2 Z-95s. If you want to add some spice to this vanilla list, stick with the 3 StarVipers, but support them with Torkil Mux in an HWK-290. His ability will reduce one enemy ship to skill zero, and bearing three Vipers down on Torkil’s victim can ensure you remove an expensive high-skill showpiece before it even gets to shoot. Extra points here can add an Ion Cannon Turret to the HWK, or defensive upgrades to the Vipers, since the HWK will likely go down quick anyway.

boba-fettThe Return of Fett

Boba Fett is back, and he’s much improved from his Imperial iteration. Now, Fett gets offensive and defensive rerolls for every enemy ship within range 1. Load him out with the maneuverability to get into that proper position: Stay on Target and Navigator allow Fett to chose any maneuver on the dial after most ships have already performed their movements. And if the right call is to simply do nothing? Have an Inertial Dampener handy to park your Firespray in space.

Coming up with the right complementary squad is the true challenge. Given Fett’s incredible maneuverability, you can load bombs onto your flankers with little risk. Otherwise, consider a mini-swarm of low point ships to clog up the battlefield and keep enemies in Fett’s sights.