X-Wing: Jabba the Hutt Preview
Jabba the Hutt is coming to X-Wing and he’s bringing ALL the illicit upgrades with him!
Jabba the Hutt is a notorious criminal gangster. His underworld empire extended beyond Tatooine as one of the most powerful crime lords in the entire Outer Rim. And now he’s bringing his criminal empire to X-Wing!
Jabba is part of the Scum and Villainy faction and one of their unique traits is that they have access to the illicit upgrade slot. Well, being the crime lord that he is, this Hutt is bringing the illegal goods with him and isn’t afraid to share the love with his squadron:
Basically, if you’re looking for a way to get the “Extra Munition” effect on your illicit slots, you want to bring the big slug with you. Now, you may also have noticed that he takes up two crew slots. Right now, only the C-ROC Cruiser and the YV-666 have the capacity to bring Jabba to the table. And for standard play, you’re limited to the YV-666 – but don’t let that stop you because he can be one heck of a force multiplier.
Getting The Most Bang For Your Buck
I think the best way to take advantage of Jabba is to bring lots of illicit upgrades that are either one use or require you to discard them. “Well duh, that’s what the card says” – yeah, but there are a few that really stand out:
I’ve talked about my issues with Glitterstim usage before. With Jabba on deck, he’s giving you a double dose of the good stuff! Now, if you can survive that initial joust round, you can swing back around and blast away with another Glitterstim bump. I know at least ONE fan of this strategy.
Up next, one card I think we’ll see get a lot of mileage out Jabba is “Hot Shot” Blaster:
It’s already a decent pick but the fact that Jabba is doubling it’s shooting potential you’re basically getting an extra 3 points per ship. One of the first lists that jumped to my mind was a swarm list with Binayre Pirates and Blasters. That’s a lot of extra fire power to toss around.
Now, those two upgrades are probably the most obvious. But here are a few others that you might not think of right off the top of your head:
Typically, if you roll that first focus you lose your cloaking device. But with Jabba on your side, you just discard the extra token and keep right on cloaking away!
Slamming on the brakes so your opponents fly right past – it’s a classic maneuver. And if doing it once with a ship is worth it, then so is doing it twice. Now, the downside is that this is only a single point upgrade, so it might not be worth it in terms of cost/benefit. However I do think there is some hidden value in the psychological effect (aka mind games) you can play on your opponent. They now have to consider a full stop maneuver when trying to figure out where you’re going, twice! Keeping that in your back pocket could throw your opponent off enough for you to get the drop on them – that alone might be worth the price.
A Hutt always collects his debts…
There are other illicit upgrades that I could mention but part of the fun is figuring all that stuff out for yourself. Are you going to go for the Binayre Brick and run Jabba in the YV-666 with a bunch of cheap Z-95s? Or are you going to go with a more nuanced approach and run a few ships with extra cloaking devices? Perhaps you’re like me and just want to throw a giant Glitterstim party! Just remember to bring the ol’Slug bug around to double your money…
What types of illicit shenanigans are you planning with Jabba in your Squad?
