You know when you suddenly get inspiration and make a whole ship pack in a day?
Todays ship is the Zenuas 33 Umbaran starfighter one of the most unique starfighter in the Star Wars Galaxy, and another of the many Separatist members conurbations to the war effort.
So like Hardcase and that missile, lets get to the core of this thing:
"Live to fight another day, boys. Live to fight another day." Hardcase
The Lore:
Umbara, its people and its technology were unique on a galactic standard, so it makes sense that their main starfighter would also be unique. This difference in designs was born from the fact Umbara itself seemed to have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy until recently, letting them develop in drastically different directions, like the Chiss Ascendancy, as I discussed in my artical on the Clawcraft.
The Starfighter made use of both advanced Ray Shielding and Repulsorlifts, the first of which encased the pilot in a nearly impervious bubble, and the latter allowed this craft to rotate on the spot and execute tight and complex turns.
This combined with the advanced Electromagnetic Pulse Missiles made this an advanced and deadly ship that caused the Republic no end of problems during the Umbaran campaign.
The Overall Design:
As I said before, this ship is strange, so very strange with its ship ability and dial showing this. I made a handful of upgrades that where designed specifically for this ship, in a very similar fashion to the Nantex (but I promise mine won't fully brake the meta, I think...).
These upgrades and the pilot will put an enphasis on the Umbarans being known as the shadow people, with them being skilled at using cover and hiding until the time's right then striking from the shadows!
The Stats:
I said this would be weird, and here it is!
Quickly lets get past the normal, this is a relatively agile ship for evading fire, so two agility seems right, and it seems tough enough with it taking lots of glancing fire from ground units and being unaffected, so lets say four hull.
Its attacks though...
The three bullseye arc is similar to the Eta-2's bullseye, a more powerful version of the primary attack as it designed for precision fire.
The front arc though, is one attack die, so practically useless. I decided on this as it only has one rapid fire cannon, and although its powerful, we see it only really doing straight-line shots. Although I'm sure it can spread fire, it would be a lot less precise and easier to evade.
This ended up with the Umbaran Starfighter having the following stat line:
Front: 1
Bullseye: 3
Agility: 2
Hull: 4
The Actions:
These are relatively normal, with a focus, for obvious reasons, a red evade to show its unpredictable movement stile, but also showing that it's not too manoeuvrable. A lock for its missiles and because the Umbaran's tech its highly advanced, so I imagine adding a targeting computer is nothing to them. And finally a barrel roll to again show the unique manoeuvrability of this ship (and we see Hardcase do one without a care in the world).
The Ship Ability:
This is completely based around the Ray Shielded pilots seat, this shows the pilots near invulnerability to enemy attacks, letting you discard any critical pilot damage. The only down side is that there is only eight pilot damage cards in the deck, so its rare that it will be useful, but when it is, you'll be smug!
The Upgrades:
The upgrades for the Umbaran Starfighters are very sparse, with them all getting a talent, to show that all the pilots need to be skilled to fly these ships, the missile as we see these ships with missiles, and the tech.
"Wait", I hear you say, "a tech? Watcher you mad fool, those are for Sequel ships? "
Yes I know, but the Umbarans were considered to be very technologically advanced compared to the rest of the galaxy at the time of the Clone Wars, and I think even by the time of the Sequels they may have not caught up, so it makes some sense that the Umbaran's would have similar if not more advanced versions of the tech upgrades we have for that slot.
The Dial:
This is the weirdest part of this ship!
Similar to my Clawcraft design, I decided its ability to turn took priority over its speed, as I feel the few times we see them, they are relatively slow, not really out-pacing the Z-95s or even the Y-Wings around them.
So first thing I gave it was the sign of a truly manoeuvrable ship, the one blue turn! The second best move in the game (after the Defenders white K-Turn).
Next was a white stop, and although I know its risky to give a ship a white stop, if there was a ship to have one, it would be this ship!
Next was the first appearance of sideslip manoeuvres on a dial thanks to its advance repulsons.
And lastly is its zero stop turns, a move we've only seen on huge ship dials, but we know it works with standard ships thanks to the Pivot Wing config for the U-Wing.
Overall this give this ship a wide and confusing array of possible movements, especially combined with a barrel roll, that would give even the StarViper a run for its money!
The Pilots:
Tanu Phoore:
I cannot for the life of me remember if this is actual character or someone I made up when first created this on Instagram a long time ago... So assuming he's my own creation:
Tanu was the squadron leader of the Banshee Riders, a squad named for the ancients of Umbara who would risk their lives to tame and fly these predators into battle. His ability lets him make the most out of his high initiative, letting him move unpredictably by rotating so he can get his bullseye arc lined up on your enemy. This is especially useful as you can do it before any movement like a roll, so because of this I'd say points wise he's about 44-48 points.
Sorc Tormo:
A Umbaran crime lord during the time of the Empire, I decided it would make some sense if he was once a member for the Umbaran Military, who deserted after his peoples' defeat and set up a criminal empire with a handful of other Umbarans, using their superior tech.
I decided for his ability, Sorc should have a very self preservation based ability, as most crime lords prioritise their lives over anything else. To show this I game him an inverse of Maarek Stele, letting you pick your critical damage, normally a very helpful ability to avoid those pesky Direct Hits and Fuel Leaks, but its even better considering the Umbaran Starfighter's ship ability allowing you to discard pilot damage, meaning you could purposely choose those to negate the critical damage. Because of this I'd say he's about 36-40 points as being able to easily evade critical damage is a very strong ability!
Phanius Carsoo:
Phanius, named for an old Sith legend, was a capable and deadly pilot, who put victory over anything else, not caring if he harmed his allies in the process. However despite his ruthless nature, Phanius was more just as skilled at using the stealthy tactics of his piers, preferring to take cover behind other ships and obstacles and making surprise attacks from them.
I made Phanius' ability reflect this little bit of lore I made, letting him use any object on the board to spring deadly surprise attacks from.
Being able to potentially cause a damage to an enemy ship that your not even shooting is all well and good, but its less likely that you will get the situation where you can shoot an enemy ship obstructed by another enemy ship if your opponent is sensible!
Points wise, he'd be quite high with his potential to damage enemies, so about 38-42 points.
Night Striker:
I see Night Striker as an expert Umbaran hunter who fully embraced her peoples shadow people title, knowing how to make use of obstacles and other ships to hide herself from incoming attacks, then striking out when the time is right!
Her ability is actual my favourite in the pack despite being the lowest initiative. This is because of an upcoming upgrade, where I'll gush more about her then, but otherwise, being able to remove tokens like locks, stress and best of all deplete and disarm tokens make her absolutely deadly and hard to keep down, despite the low initiative value.
Because of this I'd say she's about 40-45 points!
The Generics:
We have two solid generics today, both with squadrons named after Umbara's Fauna, the Banshee Riders Ace and Vixus Squadron Pilot.
The Banshee Riders Ace, like with all the named pilots has access to two talent slots, this combined with its initiative four would make it about 31-35 points.
The Vixus Squadron Pilot is the worse of the two generics, with a lower initiative and being the only pilot in this pack to have one talent, so I'd say it's about 28-31 points.
The Upgrades:
The Shadow People:
This upgrade lets you take advantage of the Umbaran's natural ability to use their surrounding environment to sneak up on an opponent, only attacking when they have the advantage. Gaining a cloak token is an already strong ability, however combined with Tanu Phoore and especially Night Striker this is deadly, with the former being able to rotate before decloaking and the latter being able to decloak before attacking! Because of this though, it would be expensive at about 7-10 points.
Umbaran Gas:
The Umbarans used a cocktail of gases pumped into their soldier's and pilot's helmets to keep them alert and more deadly for longer periods than most soldiers, while also improving their reflexes in combat. So to mimic this I went with an upgrade that allows you to increase both your attack and defence strength, with a cost if you run out of the gas. Although this is very strong, a clever opponent could easily force your ship to become stressed every round with concentrated fire, locking off red manoeuvres from you, because of this I'd say its about 3-5 points.
Advanced Repulsor Controls:
This tech upgrade is designed almost specifically for the Umbaran Starfighter, however the Xi-class and Resistance Transport could also make some use of it (I restricted it to small and medium ships because of the the Upsilon and StarFortress). Letting you rotate after the stop means you can better react to your opponent's movements, and the benefit of being able to more tightly sideslip is also not to be underestimated. Because of this I'd say it is initiative locked with it being 3-4 points for initiative one and 1 point more for each initiative higher!
EM Pulse Launchers:
This is possibly the most interesting and powerful card in the pack. The Electromagnetic Pulse Launchers were the Umbaran's most powerful weapon, similar to torpedo and missiles, they where used on both their ground and air units. The missile itself is very powerful, letting you make a range 1-2 attack against a ship, then potentially damage ships close by to the attack.
However like we saw with Hardcase, be careful of being hit in your own blast radius! It can also be reloaded like with the Energy-Shell Charges, letting these be of infinite use even on ships without the reload action, however its weirdest and unique feature is the ability to flip the card and drop a Dropped Payload Mine. This is inspired by Hardcase's sacrifice, where he disconnected the missile pod and rammed
it into the Separatist's capital ship's core. This Mine has one massive advantage over most devices as you can drop it as an action so you know if it will hit a ship or not. It can also be triggered by landing it on an obstacle or remote, however if you do drop this mine to immediately detonate, there will be consequences as the explosion will reach you as well!
Points wise this thing is deadly so it will be by far the most expensive missile in the game at about 15-17 points.
The Example List:
Members Of The Confederacy
Night Striker (42)
The Shadow People (9)
Umbaran Gas (4)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Ship total: 61 Half Points: 31
General Grievous (44)
Outmaneuver (6)
Soulless One (6)
Ship total: 56 Half Points: 28
Sun Fac (45)
Ensnare (24)
Predator (2)
Ship total: 71 Half Points: 36
Total: 188
This list is a redo of an old favourite of mine when the Nantex first came out, however, replacing Chertek with Night Striker. This is my idea of a perfect ace list, three ships that are hard to predict with decent hit points and solid attacks.
While Sun is a relatively standard ace with a few tricks up his sleeve, Night Stalker is a little different with her low initiative, however, The Shadow People upgrade provides her with the ability to be one of the best aces in the game! Letting her decloak just before she attacks means she can keep her high agility while also still getting her attack off, with the added bonus of a decloak before she shoots! These combined with Umbaran Gas to give her dice modification lets her become deadly.
Grievous with outmanoeuvre maybe one of the most underestimated ships in X-Wing, the consistence of his ability and the Belbullab (or belly rub as my fiancée says) makes him deadly to all aces especially with pilots like Sun and Night Stalker to distract and reposition them! Soulless One also helps to make him incredibly hard to kill!
The three ships are all distinctly different types of aces, however this plays to your advantage as it means your opponent has to try to counter three types of aces instead of just one. This combined with the Nantex and Umbaran Starfighters unpredictable tractor beaming and manoeuvres means that it could be quite the head ache for your opponent to try to work out what you'll be doing each round, just don't let it confuse you as well!
Conclusion:
I like the Umbaran Starfighter in the same way as the Nantex, as it's a way to show how although the Separatists have a very standardized core of ships, their individual member worlds have their own very unique ships that that add to the faction.
This means that although the majority of the Separatists starfighters will be hive minded cheap droids, there will also be a good number of ships that don't fully fit into the Separatists mould.
And I think this is great, it keeps the faction fresh and entertaining, in a similar fashion to Scum!
As I said this pack is very similar to the Nantex in design, so no surprise I took a lot of inspiration from it, especially for its talents, the stats for the two ships being similar is more coincidence though.
Overall I love ships that have the ability to turn on a dime, the TIE Advanced V1 and TIE/Ba Interceptor are some good examples, but the Umbaran Starfighter, like my Chiss Clawcraft takes this to a new extreme, and I love it to no end!
I will say this is a sort of part one of three articals as I'm planning to make an artical on a card pack I'll call Hijackers And Turncoats, which will be a pack based around giving plot cards to pilots who flew stolen ships for their faction, or betrayed their faction but kept their ships. Three of those pilots will be Fives, Hardcase and Jesse in the Umbaran starfighter, but there will be some in the LAAT/le (one of the two options for my next ship pack) for the Rebels and a few other pilot cards and upgrades to expand the idea, so look out for that article in the next few weeks!
Otherwise, as normal feel free to use the cards in friendly games to show the rest of the X-Wing community that you can't predict a starfighter path if its pilot also doesn't know!
Thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.