An in-depth look at the newest Large ship to enter X-Wing, the YV-666, also known as the Devil – uh, Hound’s – Tooth!
Continuing on from last time, we step over to the other half of the Scum’s releases this wave, their newest Large ship. Continuing the trend of most Scum/Rebel ships just being cannibalized and modified freighters, the YV-666 is perhaps the most obvious of that idea – it looks like a giant block of wood with some engines strapped to it. Such massive bulk doesn’t lend itself well to moving, but it is resilient and can carry a massive load of cargo. Or at least, you wouldn’t think it would be that maneuverable – but the specialized fins on the rear of the freighter allowed it to move along the vertical axis with surprising ease, making it one of the few ships in Star Wars to remember that space is three-dimensional. Sometimes, this setting makes my head hurt.
Of course, it’s Correlian. Are there any ships of this type that aren’t from Correlia?
The version used in the game is based on Bossk’s personalized YV-666, the Hound’s Tooth. Cannibalizing the storage space into a hanger and increasing the power of the engine, it becomes much more suited to combat use – the generic ship’s shields and hull density were already sufficient.
Anyway, with the ship’s backstory out of the way, let’s look at the important part for people that aren’t me – the stats. Once again, thanks to FFG for providing such clear pictures of the dials and cards for people with rubbish cameras like me.
Looking at the dial, we can already see that this thing is capable of going surprisingly fast, and suffers from the normal Large Ship weaknesses – no K-Turn, hard to pull off good turns at a low speed, and so on. Access to green banks at speed 1 is nice, and the Full Stop move is always, always appreciated. Case in point, one of my recent games:
Most opponents won’t proceed to screw up this badly, but once in a while when you trick them into thinking you’re doing something else it lines up something beautiful. While we’re talking about the ship’s dial, we need to bring up the YV-exclusive modification, Maneuvering Fins.
Oh, boy. For one point, you get access to something that can give you a great range of speed 2 or 3 options, and with the 180% firing arc sometimes changing to a bank is all you need. This is where the lack of sharp turns at range one really come into play, and…well…honestly, I’m not sure I like this in retrospect. I mean, the Hound has three crew slots, why not just take a Navigator? It serves a different role, but it’s similar enough and arguably a lot better, especially since you can switch from speed 4 to 1 or something similarly stupid.
Of course, you could take both, and…actually, I’m not sure of the timing here. I’m fairly certain it’s either or, but if you have both could you possibly rotate the dial to a higher speed sharp turn and then change it to a bank? Probably not, but it’s worth looking into if you know the rules better than me. But, yeah, overall it’s a good dial, and you’ve probably got the points to spare to splurge for the Fins, if nothing else. As far as the ship’s actions go…Focus and Target Lock. Nothing special here, move along. As for stats, it’s typical Large Ship fare – 3 attack, 1 agility. 6 of each Hit Point makes it a pretty bulky ship, though, even by Large standards – that’s two more shields than the Firespray, the other currently out ‘Large’ ship in the Scum fleet (I generally count IG as a different kind of ship, especially since you’re probably taking both).
Now let’s get to the individual pilots!
Generic large ships aren’t generally known as being great, the Mandalorian Mercenary being the exception. At PS2, you’re more than likely moving first and shooting last – which might be something of a boon on this ship. Flying into a key position over the course of a few turns to park yourself with a Full Stop and completely disrupt the enemy’s movement is a predictable plan, but it might just work. Besides, it’s still 12 health and 3 attack for 29 points – only one point more expensive than Talonbane Cobra, which is admittedly an unfair comparison.
With access to three Crew slots (including the great Scum-exclusive Crew members), an Illicit, a Missile that nobody cares about and a Cannon the YV-666 is pretty versatile. I’m not sure I’d waste points on a cannon on the generic, but you can splash points on Crew members like the great Outlaw Tech or, for laughs, Greedo.
For relatively cheap you can have a ship capable of pulling a Full Stop, disrupting enemy fire or with a bit of luck really screwing with the enemy movements the following turn as well with Ion Projector. Either option
At 33 points, you get a PS5 ship, which is already a decent step up from the Trandoshan Slaver. The ability itself is weird on a Large ship – they aren’t normally the ones that get the ‘support’ designation, although following the Scum trend it’s more of a debuff than a buff, similar to how the scum HWKs function differently from the Rebel HWKs. Generally, I really like this ability!
Unchanged from the Slaver, which hurts because it means there’s no EPT slot. Nothing else really to say here – the most important upgrades are the three Crew slots again, especially since you can grab the Weapon’s Engineer (vastly important on Latts) as well as some other good support for Target Lock-centric ships. Maybe its worth taking a one-of missile that doesn’t spend your target lock, like an Ion Pulse.
Using Weapons Engineer to consistently have two target locks on different ships – and the K4 security droid to make it possible for Latts to take a Focus token in the same turn, as the K4 triggers Weapon Engineer – Latts should focus on using Tactician to spread around stress for the rest of your fleet to more easily stack up and kill the enemy ships with their reduced agility and (hopefully) lack of action.
Similarly to the last one, you should focus on taking Green moves that allow you to obtain target locks and take a focus action in the same turn. You then blast them out of the sky with the HLC, reducing their agility to make that 4 dice hurt even more than it already should.
It’s only one point more for PS6 and what looks like an underwhelming ability when you read it, but honestly it’s very solid. I like the ship, overall, but the other two named pilots are certainly more entertaining.
STILL no EPT? What the hell? Bah, doesn’t matter – just take a cannon and laugh. This is one of the ships that would really benefit from Navigator+Maneuvering Fins working how I think they would together.
This only works if Fins+Navigator works as I think it does. If it does…well, you know you’re going right, you can sort out the specific angle and speed later. Mangler Cannon is always good for consistent criticals, and slightly better on more mobile ships like this build since it isn’t afraid of Range One. The Gunner is just to make sure you’re killing whatever Small ship you’re shooting at, and Outlaw Tech makes those Red-Two turns a bit easier to swallow.
You have an HLC and a Full Stop move. This should be fairly simple. Fly forwards as slowly as possible, turning to the side as necessary to just broadside them with the HLC, and have your other ships fly around as interceptors keeping them away from Range One. Greedo and Mercenary Copilot together mean that your HLC could potentially deal two critical hits despite its downside – something a lot more deadly with the new damage deck than the old one. Don’t forget that Greedo can sometimes backfire, though.
Okay, Bossk is really good, let’s just get that out the door now. While the transformation only happens AFTER you have already hit, that doesn’t stop the sheer volume of damage from being overwhelming in the right circumstances. PS7 for 35 points isn’t bad, either.
Thank the Force, it’s an Elite Pilot Talent. We’re saved. Other than that…eh, the same applies. I’m glad to finally see an EPT on this ship, though.
This may be a bit obvious, but in my defense, it’s a really easy ability to build around. The Mangler Cannon just makes sense, as it basically guarantees a critical hit is going to come through at some point or other. Greedo means that you can still abuse that lovely new damage deck, Gunner means that all of these points are going to translate into you HITTING something gosh darn it, while the Navigator/Fins combo is here because I’m still praying it works like that. Worst case, drop the Navigator for Outlaw Tech. Can’t go wrong with Outlaw Tech. Predator is there for the same reason as Gunner – you are GOING to kill something if it’s the last thing you do. Which it might be – this is going to attract a LOT of incoming fire.
Well, we had to do at least one build with the ship’s title, right? Bossk is the only named pilot really worth pulling this on (okay, MAYBE Latts Razzi) as his ability is the only one that stays fairly consistent. Because of the amount of points that Hound’s Tooth takes up, this version is slightly less killy than Critical Mayhem – but you can always match it if you want to be less stingy.
Mangler Cannon is basically an auto-include on Bossk, but this has one change – we’re bringing in Tactician. Using Navigator/Fins to stay at Range 2, you can lay down a lot of hurt with Bossk’s ability while also screwing with their dial so that his very limited escort can have an easier time hunting them down.
I found a different way to trigger Crits! Basically, by using Outlaw Tech, you can get a focus token on a red maneuver. Recon Specialist gives you two Focus tokens if you take the action. Calculation?
Exxxxcellent. By using Recon Specialist, you can still have enough focus left over to defend from enemy shots, or to turn the rest of your Focus Symbols into regular hits on top of the critical. It’s slightly cheaper points-wise, and as you can see makes the only version of Bossk below 50 points – so it’s well worth considering. If Navigator/Fins doesn’t work as intended, drop the Navigator for the K4 Security Droid – same points, more consistent hits thanks to the free target locks on a green move.
Which ship do you want to see next? How have your experiences with the Hound’s Tooth been? Leave a comment below!
Want to see more from me specifically? Starting next month, I’ll be manning my own blog at The Rambling DM, focusing mainly on RPG discussions and narrative battle reports, with two new articles every week!
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