I’ve finally dragged myself away from my Armada obsession to make some more X-Wing! I promise I’m going to try to strike a balance between the two, I just have a habit of getting a little sucked down one direction…
Today’s ship is the Separatist Droch-class boarding ship. This was a terrifying and deadly sight for the Republic during the Clone Wars as you knew your ship was not only being attacked from outside but also soon inside too!
So before we get boarded, let’s get stuck in!
The Overall Design:
The Droch is a small, fast and somewhat nimble ship that is built for colliding with enemy ships. Because of this, I’ll be making it lean towards bumping and close-range combat.
I will say quickly I’ve done my best to make this work with the potential change of rules we’ve heard about (being able to perform attacks and focus/calculate action at range zero). Only one of these cards is useless if these rules come into play, but for the moment we’ll assume the rules will stay as they are.
The Stats:
This ship gave me a headache while working out its stats. In both legends and cannon, there is little detailed knowledge about this ship. I’ve assumed it has no shields and have given it a solid hull value of six, but its weapons stumped me.
The Wookipedia says it has four twin light laser cannon turrets, but I can’t see these anywhere on the actual ship! We can see small blasters on each of the spikes, but these don’t look to be able to rotate fully. I’ve settled with a good old two basic front attack so it doesn’t intersect with the HMP’s style too much.
This gives it the stat line of:
Front Arc: 2
Agility: 2
Hull: 6
The Actions:
As all the pilots are droids, this ship has access to the basic calculate action. Its other two actions are a boost to help it ram its opponent more effectively, especially with one of the cards in this pack, and a jam action to help it prevent the enemies escape pods calling for help before they are sliced open.
The Dial:
Although lacking too many turnaround manoeuvres, the Droch dial is rather good with it leaning towards faster manoeuvres, without sacrificing too many slower ones as well.
Combined with its boost, this ship could be rather fast and hard to evade.
The Upgrade Slots:
This ship can carry a small number of droids into battle, so I’ve given it a single crew slot and a configuration for the boarding spike it uses to get these droids onto the enemy ships.
Other than the almost standard modification slot that’s it!
Boarding Spike:
This configuration, like most configurations in X-Wing, makes this ship.
The boarding spike allows you to use this ship in two very different ways. While closed this ship is a deadly spear, being able to ram into opponents and cause horrific damage, if you’re going fast enough. The only issue is you need to not only crash into your opponent but also ensure they’ll stay there. This is easier if
you bring an escort of Vultures to block their movement, but skilled pilots should be able to predict where their opponent will end up.
While open this ship can catch enemy ships in its claws and try to hold them there. That’s too powerful for X-Wing, but instead, this card lets you increase the difficulty of manoeuvres, even red manoeuvres!
The only issue with this card is that you need your spike clear of any ships to open them.
The Pilots:
B3-Alpha-Nova:
The first pilot we have here is the most flexible of the pilots. Its ability to just flip its configuration at the beginning of the engagement phase means that you can make use of both sides of the configuration every round.
For example, you can have it open to increase the difficulty of a ship’s manoeuvre, then close them in time for you to be able to perform a piercing attack against them.
Thanks to its higher initiative this ship will be one of the few droids to get a talent slot.
B1-JT-628:
This is the pilot I made for my Armada Droch squadron. This droid is programmed to be an expert at boarding enemy ships.
Because of this, if they succeed at piercing an enemy ship with their boarding spike, they can stress that ship, or even make it spend a force or charge on an upgrade.
This could be horrifying if you catch a lower initiative munitions user and remove its munitions before it can attack you!
As this is still only a B1 Jet Trooper it won’t get a talent slot, but it’s still very effective.
CD-424:
This Commando Droid is possibly the most deadly of all the pilots here.
It’s the ability to reach further and grab enemy ships at range one with its spikes instead of just range zero means you don’t need to be as precise with your movements.
As this is a lower initiative ship it will help you catch those higher initiative aces. It also means you don’t need to constantly bump so you can get off actions more often than most of these pilots.
As a commando droid, I will say this pilot gets a talent slot, which is useful with their ability as you can more easily trigger upgrades like Intimidation.
The Generics:
As normal here are a pair of generics for the ship.
The Commando Droid’s better programming means they are skilled enough to get talent slots, whereas the B1 Jet Troopers are just as dumb and silly as their B1 Battle Droid brothers so no luck for them.
The Upgrades:
Collision Calculations:
This upgrade lets you constantly perform actions even if you bump. The cost is high with the rest of your actions being red, but for a ship that needs to bump often this card is a useful addition.
It would become a bit useless with the potential new bumping rules, however, my own playtesting with these potential rules suggests they’ll probably go with, you can perform a red focus/calculate after bumping, so this would be somewhat useful as the calculate would still be white.
Collision Calculations:
This gives your droids a worse version of Arvel Crynyd’s pilot ability, letting you damage yourself to get off a colliding boost. Although only situationally useful for most droids, the Droch wants to get close and its relatively tough hull means it can deal with the damage to take all the bonuses it gives it!
Asajj Ventress:
One of the Separatist’s best assets, Ventress was a deadly assassin that was able to infiltrate enemy ships and cause havoc to its crew, so it make sense for her to appear here on a ship that would help her fulfil her role.
Her ability is similar to her Lancer-class Pursuit Craft pilot ability, passing off stress. However, as this is when she was still Dooku’s pawn, she’s more unstable and just lashes out, so she doesn’t really have control of when she does it.
Savage Opress:
As Ventress’s replacement he was meant to fulfil a similar role to her so again it is fitting to have him here. His ability is very strong, with him being able to use his animalistic rage to absolutely destroy opponents who foolishly risk hurting him.
He can be made stronger if combined with another force sensitive, as they can teach him and guide his anger.
An interesting advantage he gives to the Droch is that you could purposely fly through an asteroid to damage yourself then perform a closed boarding spike attack against an unsuspecting ship before they can run away.
B1 Jet Trooper:
This upgrade lets you use the brutal tactics of the pod hunters during the Malevolence arc during the Clone Wars. It lets you use your Jet Troopers to cut open enemy ships you have at range zero. It's similar to the new Kylo Ren pilot ability, and although its a little situationally useful on other ships, it works well with the bump happy Droch.
The Example List:
General Grievous (44)
Outmaneuver (6)
Kalani (5)
Soulless One (6)
B3-Alpha-Nova (35)
Intimidation (3)
Collision Tactics (2)
Commando Droid Pilot (30)
Intimidation (3)
Commando Droid Pilot (30)
Intimidation (3)
Commando Droid Pilot (30)
Intimidation (3)
Total: 200
This list is relatively basic with Grievous leading four Droch into battle. Kalani is perfect for these ships as he activates when you line up your bullseye and that's what these ships need to work, so if all goes to plan you can get an intimidation attack with a calculate and lock from these ship.
Conclusion:
I’m sure this ship will eventually make its way into official X-Wing, but I think it will be a while until they reach it as there are many better known ships to do first.
But I think that’s a shame as this is a very interesting design that could be very useful in X-Wing for the Separatists.
I hope my version of this ship will bide you over until we actually get it in the game, so feel free to use this ship to board those Republic scum’s ships.
Thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.