(Aug 31, 2020 edit: With the non-Ensnare Nantexes seeing strong play right now, I have clarified in the title that this article only addresses the Ensnare Nantex, which is an entirely different ship. You may still find this article somewhat helpful.)
When a new strong card or list comes on the scene, you have a few options:
- Whine about it.
- Change your list to give you a better chance against it.
- Play the list yourself.
- Learn to play against it.
Whining can feel good (anger is addictive), but it's probably counterproductive to actually winning. Playing a counter is harder than it sounds. You'll face a variety of lists in a tournament. It won't do you any good to win the 1-2 games against the Nantex and lose every other game. Plus, with how few hard counters there are in X-Wing, you'll still have to fly well to beat the Nantex and there's a real chance you'll lose even a "favorable" matchup. I highly recommend playing a list you enjoy that gives you the best chance of winning, but playing the new strong list may not be the best option for everyone.
So that leaves figuring out how to play against the Nantex. It's important to realize the Nantex is not a gimmick ship. It's very strong and understanding how to play against it won't auto-win you the game, but it gives you a reasonable fighting chance that'll come down to the mind-games and dice.
1. Try out the Nantex
If you don't know what the Nantex can do or what to do against the Nantex, you're probably going to lose horribly. You need some reps with or against the Nantex. Playing the ship is a good way to figure out its weaknesses even if you don't plan on flying it yourself.
If you don't have CIS, you can proxy it with a similar dial. The TIE Advanced Prototype v1 dial is pretty close to the Nantex dial. Swap the 2 Tallon Rolls for 3 Sloops, the 4K for a 5K, and keep a reference of the real blue maneuvers handy. The E-Wing dial is also pretty close if you don't do the 1 straight and swap the 4K for a 5K. You can also play it on VASSAL.
2. Consider your obstacles
The obstacle choice against Nantex isn't obvious. They are maneuverable aces with repositioning that goes over obstacles and a turret that can be rotated for "free". It's tempting to see their tractor beam and take small rocks or gas clouds, but then there are no obstacles to restrict the Nantex's arc-dodging options. More importantly, gas clouds are great for Nantex because they have 3 agility and your shots against them need to count.
The best option against the Nantex is debris clouds. They can sit on them and shoot, but going over them prevents them from tractoring themselves on that turn. At this time, it's not clear whether a Nantex that tractor beams itself on a debris cloud rotates its turret or not. The stress will also limit their maneuvers next turn.
Otherwise, you can go with asteroids if you feel very confident about playing with them. You may not want to go with the largest rocks, but medium rocks may be an option that compromises between restricting the Nantex and restricting your own options.
3. Know their threat range
The 5-straight boost moves the Nantex half a base past Range 3. That means if you have a small ship that can go 1 straight around Range 5 of the Nantex, they can get a tractor beam if they rush in.
If the Nantex isn't facing your ship, its threat range is roughly Range 4 with a bank and about Range 3.5 with a turn.
This is a long threat range, but just because they have the option doesn't mean it's a good idea for them to go in. Know this is an option and you can guard against it.
4. Prepare to sacrifice a ship
In a neutral opening engagement, chances are good the Nantex squad will kill a ship. Once a ship gets tractored that first round, it'll probably take heavy focus fire and die. It's hard to stop this given the threat range of the Nantex.
If you can't get the perfect R2-R3 engage, accept a ship will get tractored and killed and make the best of it. Throw your least-important ship out to occupy space and protect your better ships from the Range 1 Ensnare. Put your other ships in position to take good shots at any Nantex that gets in range to tractor that sacrifice. If needed, block with the sacrifice ship to deny a token.
As an added benefit, throwing a ship farther forward can also give you a free shot if the Nantex decide to hang back for a turn. It might not get through their 3-agility and evade, but a lucky crit can really swing the game.
5. Hunt the Nantex with higher-initiative ships or with lots of ships
Making decisions with the Nantex when they move last is easy. When the Nantex has to move first, things get much harder. They can wreck ships they block, but it's more feasible for a higher-I ship to avoid their turret arc and the Ensnare. This also means a low-ship endgame is much more manageable if you have the higher-initiative ship.
As such, sending a solo ace to tango with lower-initiative Nantex is an option. Of course, beating Sun Fac this way is less feasible. Nantex lists can easily run a 9-point bid, or a 13-point bid if pressed. If you can't beat them in initiative, you'll have to beat them in numbers.
6. Keep multiple shots on target
The approach is where the Nantex is at its weakest. Their repositioning options are deadly up close, but it won't save them at an intermediate range. Their attacks are much weaker without Ensnare. The best-case scenario is to catch them at range 2-3 with multiple ships.
If you can't do that, make sure you at least have all your arcs pointed at the target. The Nantex are annoyingly tanky. On average, they take 4x single-modded 3-dice attacks to kill. You can't afford to split your firing arcs. Remember, each Nantex can only tractor one ship away. Point enough guns on them and they will take attacks and damage.
The Nantex get much stronger in a knife-fight. It can be hard to avoid getting tractored. In these cases, try to keep multiple shots on target. One ship will get tractor beamed out of action, but your other ships have to be ready to punish.
7. Play around their dead-zones
Playing around the Nantex's rear dead zone is not reliable. A 1-hard with a turret arc pointed to their side covers a lot of area that was previously behind them. However, when they have their turret arc pointed in a direction, they can't take a tractor token without turning their turret arc. Keep in mind the Nantex doesn't have to turn its turret arc, but the way their arc is currently pointed does make the them more predictable.
Another thing to keep in mind is this also applies for their engagement. The Nantex does not want their arc pointed in the direction they'll engage the turn before the engagement. This gives you the option to possibly surprise them and catch them with their turret the wrong way.
8. Blocking can be a good option
The Nantex doesn't need to fully complete their maneuver to take a tractor token and turn their arc. However, they do have 3 agility and benefit greatly from focus tokens. Blocking the Nantex denies them the tokens and makes them much easier to kill. Just remember to have another ship or two ready to shoot them.
Again, doing these things aren't a magic bullet to winning, but can make the Nantex matchup more reasonable. The Nantex is very strong and many lists probably have a bad matchup against them. With some practice and good flying, you might be able to survive a difficult Nantex matchup to advance, as long as you win your other matchups.
Playing a Counter
If you decide Nantex are concerning enough to play a counter, there are some lists that should have reasonable or good matchups against them. With the new rules change, medium-base ships require two tractor tokens to be tractored and large-base ships need 3 tokens. Unless they have that many tokens, none of the Nantex abilities work against them. That includes Gravitic Deflection and the Chertek and Sun Fac pilot abilities.
That said, you can't just throw out any medium- or large-base ships and expect them to work. For one thing, some lists bring multiple Nantex so they will still tractor your ships. For another, you have to win your other matchups or else you'll never even get a chance to match up against the winning Nantex players and ruin their day. You need to bring good ships, and not all medium- and large-base ships are good.
There are some strong lists that have medium- and large-base ships. Below are some lists I found on Listfortress that have had some good results:
- Quad U-Wings
- Double Decimators
- Republic ARCs (e.g. Sinker Swarm, Obi 3 ARCs, Obi Ric 2 ARCs)
- Kylo Tavson X
- Deci-Whisper
- Rey Poe (optionally with Talli or Finn?)
- 4-Ship Scum (Seevor, generic Kimogila, Sol Sixxa, 4-LOM)
- Boba X
- Ketsu OT X
Other big-base ships you can consider include:
- Rebel Han Solo
- Resistance Chewbacca (with Pods)
- TIE Reapers and TIE Punishers
- Asajj (but you probably want at least 2 more ships)
I haven't tested this, but swarms with 6+ ships may also have reasonable matchups against the Nantex. A formation can limit the options to pull a ship out of position and swarms should have enough guns to reliably kill any Nantex that lands in front of them. Options include:
- Sear Swarm
- Vulture Swarm
- Sinker Swarm
- TIE Swarms may not have enough guns, but it could work
Aces have a rough time getting tractored, but some ace lists can get a large enough bid (10+ or 14+) to move after Sun Fac. These lists may have a reasonable chance at dodging the turret arc and blowing up Sun Fac early. Options include:
- Guri Fenn
- SuperKylo Quickdraw
- Light Imperial Aces
Addendum: Possible Nerfhammer Targets
I don't think the Nantex will survive the next iteration of adjustments in its current state. As with anything, a sufficiently-large points adjustment will take the Nantex out of contention.
Annoyingly, the Nantex is much more effective against small-base ships than medium- and large-base ships. As I discussed earlier, these effects are very difficult to balance. The best thing would be to flatten the effectiveness of tractor against small-base ships and larger ships. This can be done by making tractor beam weaker in general. One local player suggested forcing a player to spend the tractor tokens to move a ship. An idea I had is to weaken the barrel roll option on small ships by only allow the middle option (no forward or backward barrel rolls) and the 1-straight template is placed vertically like a medium- or large-base barrel roll.
In any case, there probably won't be any more adjustments until Worlds is over. Good luck, and please beat some Nantex lists so they don't dominate the tournament! :)
