Building Blocks: Lando Calrissian (Rebel) (W1)

It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get ships on the table, and I’ve been thinking that when I do, it’d be nice to return to one of my oldest squads: Dual Rebel Falcon. This was the list that I took to my first GenCon, and I did pretty well with it, barely not making the cut to make it to day 2. I was trying to come up with a version that may work in Second Edition, and while I ultimately failed, it gave me plenty of ideas for the chassis.
As for pilots, there are 4 options in the Rebel faction for the Modified YT-1300: Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and the Outer Rim Smuggler. The ORS weighs in at 78 points for an Initiative 1 version of the original fat turret, which is much improved from its 1.0 counterpart. Chewbacca’s ability has been drastically nerfed, only able to flip a single critical hit each turn, instead of every single one that he’s dealt, while costing an equivalent to his former self at 84 points (42 in 1.0.) Han Solo is the classic Initiative 6 Ace, who gains the ability to re-roll all dice while at Range 0-1 of an obstacle, and that re-roll not counting against his total allowed for the turn (meaning he can use his ability and a target lock or the Falcon title on the same roll.) However, for these talents, he pays a premium 92 points.
For the same 92 points, you can get the Initiative 5 Lando Calrissian. This may seem like a downgrade, especially since he doesn’t get the free re-rolls that the Falcon’s current owner is entitled to. However, he gets an ability potentially far more powerful: After he fully performs a blue maneuver, he grants any ship at Range 0-3 a free action. On the default dial, this means a 1-3 straight or a 2 bank will net Lando or a somewhat nearby ally a free action. Considering how much Fantasy Flight has worked to restrict free actions, improving Lando’s old ability (which formerly could not affect himself, was limited to Range 1, and had a worse dial to trigger it with) came as a pretty big surprise and makes him well worth his 92 points.

As for the chassis itself, the Modified YT-1300 has 8 upgrade slots, and stat values of 3 Attack (in a dual or “Bowtie” turret primary weapon,) 1 Agility, 8 Hull, and 5 Shields. It has the Focus, Lock, and Rotate actions in white, and a red Boost (a stressful version of the action most commonly added to the ship in First Edition via the original Engine Upgrade.) This large-based ship can 4-K, 3-Sloop, and has many other useful maneuvers in white (in addition to the aforementioned blue maneuvers.) The upgrade slots include a Talent (on everyone but the Smuggler,) 2 Crew, a Gunner, an Illicit, a Modification, a Gunner, and a Title. This combination of stats and upgrade slots makes the YT-1300 able to perform several key roles on your list.
The only available Title is the Millennium Falcon, which (for 6 points,) adds a white Evade action to the ship’s action bar, and provides an extra ability: While evading, the Falcon can re-roll 1 of its defense dice. This is a particularly useful ability when staring down a swarm, as it improves your odds of rolling a natural Evade result, saving your token for the next attack (and the next, and the next,) which also keeps the ability alive. Like the Boba Fett article before it, I intend to go over each other slot (except Missile) and cover some interesting options. These will be skewed to focus on our pilot of choice, Lando, though the insights may be useful on the other pilots as well.

Talent
Many of the talents that this ship could take are not very useful due to the Bowtie turret primary weapon, but a couple could be pretty neat. Though it’ll likely cost more than half your list, Selfless or Squad Leader can turn Lando into a viable support ship. Likewise, Lone Wolf and Trick Shot help him earn his points back a little better, each able to modify his single attack roll each turn. Lone Wolf, notably, also works on defense, helping to preserve your investment.

Crew
The Rebellion was notable for its wide variety of useful crew in 1.0, but that has drastically changed in 2.0: Most of the crew in this faction seem lackluster compared to options in the Imperial and Scum factions. Nien Nunb is virtually stapled to Lando, as he adds another 4 maneuvers (in the forms of 1-bank and 3-bank in either direction) that can be used to trigger Lando’s ability. Jyn Erso deserves special mention, as she can change the Focus action to reward you with an Evade token, allowing a title-carrying Falcon to have 2 evade tokens with which to trigger its ability. I had written out a lot more, but decided that this paragraph was going on long enough already, and each crew option has the ability to earn its place on this ship.

Modification
Unlike other ships I’ve built up before, the Falcon has only a single Agility die. This means that the defensive options Hull Upgrade, Shield Upgrade, and Stealth Device, are nearly as cheap as they can possibly be. While the Stealth Device would be a poor choice, either hit point increase is cheap enough to toss into most builds, though they won’t increase your half-point HP threshold. With its large base, the Falcon also makes an interesting platform for a Tactical Scrambler, especially if your build wants to get into the fight while a few fragile allies take shots from behind. Engine Upgrade is a great option to make your red Boost action white, keeping Lando stress free (though Nien does a pretty good job of that normally.)

Illicit
New to the ship in Second Edition, the Illicit slot adds very few interesting options to Lando’s toolkit. Contraband Cybernetics, while expensive, can be useful to ensure Bistan of Jyn Erso have something to work with, while the Deadman’s Switch has a pretty large reach on a large base. A Rigged Cargo Chute can help trigger Trick Shot if carried, and can be dropped by Lando while still taking a dice modifying action via Lando’s pilot ability.

Gunner
With the exception of Scum’s Han Solo gunner and the Imperial’s 5th Brother, I would argue that the Rebellion has one of the best gunners in the game: Bistan. As long as you have a focus token, Bistan allows you to fire the same weapon, from the same arc, at a second ship after your initial primary weapon attack. This is unique among gunners, as most only allow you to use a different weapon, whereas Bistan doesn’t require much fancy flying to utilize. Han Solo is another effective gunner, boosting Lando to an Initiative 7 attack, which (when coupled with the high probability of his attack being double-modified,) can be a great way to secure a kill before a weakened foe gets to fire again.
Clearly, there are many more options that I didn’t choose to discuss. Most of the ones above may not seem powerful alone, but when combined =, can provide some pretty potent turns for our dual-action rogue. With that in mind, I have quite a few builds to look at, at a somewhat wide range of point values.

The “Gambler” Build
This is by far the cheapest way I’d run Lando, as it uses only 6 points of upgrades. There’s no title, which will make the ship a good bit less survivable, but dropping the points lower allows for more friends to fly along with him. Trick Shot is a pretty good cheap option to couple with this build’s preferred play-style: fly around the engagement outside of the rocks, sniping with the Bowtie set to the side arcs, while the rest of your forces engage the enemy in the obstacle field. Nien, as you’ll soon see, is always on board, allowing Lando to go as slow or as fast as necessary and still pull off his double-action silliness.

The “General” Build

General Calrissian was the title granted when he led the space assault on the Second Death Star, and he was entrusted with the command over the operation and the responsibility for his group’s success. This build allows Lando to ensure his teammates are always ready to do their part. Hotshot Gunner really shines here, stripping the defensive token off of someone like Guri, Whisper, or an enemy Falcon and allowing Lando’s squadron the opportunity to land more damage. Squad Leader and Lando’s own ability allow 2 friendly ships to take additional actions (at the cost of a stress on Lando and the use of his own action,) and Jyn can help otherwise defensively weak ships (like Y-Wings and B-Wings) survive by allowing allied ships to receive Evade tokens for their Focus actions.

The “Tank” Build
For a single additional point, Lando reverts to his selfish roots, using his talents to boost his own defenses rather than supporting his team. Lone Wolf allows a defensive re-roll, while Jyn Erso and the Falcon title can have Lando sitting pretty with 2 Evade tokens when the lasers start flying. If he isn’t worried about overwhelming numbers, Calrissian can still be an offensive nightmare with his dual-modified attack after Focusing and Locking a target.

The “Ace” Build
Getting into the higher point values, we start to see how Lando can be responsible for (and successful at) carrying his team to victory. This particular version of Lando aims to do what the 1.0 Fat Han did, preferring to boost out of arcs when he can, and token up for defense when he can’t. The Agile Gunner should help keep his aim on target, and Chewbacca helps protect his Hull Upgrade, flipping terrible crits that may otherwise result in the Falcon’s destruction. Homing Missiles help Lando bring the pain out of his forward arc against Aces that would otherwise dodge his normally sideways Bowtie, and can land a kill against anyone hoping to skim by on a single hit point.

The “Hyper” Build
At a massive 146 points, Lando has to use every trick at his disposal to try to defeat the enemy team single-handed. With Bistan and a Perceptive Co-Pilot, the General can fire against 2 enemy ships in arc and still use a Focus token on both attacks. Using his ability, Lando, can also have an Evade token for defense, allowing him to slightly better weather the surely incoming storm of fire. The Rigged Cargo Chute can be dropped on the fly-by turn, possibly even activating Trick Shot for improved offense against his targets. Finally, Cluster Missiles helps maintain his swarm-stomping potential out the front arc, trading Bistan’s Focus requirement for a Lock on his initial target. Unfortunately, this build leaves you with a mere 54 points to bring as the rest of your list, which means that Lando has to more than pull his weight to be successful.
Lando Calrissian in the Rebellion’s Modified TY-1300 is one of my favorite pilots in Second Edition. While he likely won’t be hitting the table for me soon (as I’m sticking with Imperials for the immediate future as preparation for the System Open Series,)  I can’t wait to try out a few of these builds. In fact, I think the first thing I’ll try is a list I came up with shortly before Second Edition’s release, the Second Death Star Assault squadron:
Lando gives up his Homing Missiles from the “Ace” build above to let Wedge to carry his much stronger Proton Torpedoes, which Lando allows to be dual-modified on the initial engagement with his pilot ability. Leaving either of these ships alive for the endgame is a losing proposition, as Wedge will likely be back to full health (thanks to R2-D2) and Lando can use his 2 actions to overpower whatever remains of your opponent’s list.

Lando Calrissian may not be the highest Initiative pilot in the Modified YT-1300, but his pilot ability and available upgrade slots combine to make him quite the force to be reckoned with. As always, leave a comment as to your thoughts on these builds, what you would do differently, and what you would fly these versions of the smoothest gambler in the galaxy.

Next time: Fel has more new friends!