Homers. Clusters. Concussion...the list goes on! When trying to compile a new rebel list I started looking at missiles. My initial plan was Chewbacca + 2 Prototype A-Wings + an X-wing BUT...chewey plus two 'super A's' sounds fun! Never used 'em, would like to give that manouverability a whirl!

Missiles seem like a great way to beef up an A's meagre firepower....but how do you use them to the best effect?

My initial thought gravitates towards cluster missiles with Marksmanship (since it affects both shots), but I have little experience of using either A-wings or missiles.

Does anyone have any experience or mathematicalised (yep, it's a word now) wisdom on how best to use missiles, especially on A-Wings?

Two Green Pilot's with Push the Limit and any type of Missile (comes in between 26-27 points each) is always usefull.

The ability to get both Target Lock and a focus and then firing the missiles in the same turn can be huge.

Give them both Assault MIssiles and play them along with Chewbacca and you have a real Swarm killer.

Two Green Pilot's with Push the Limit and any type of Missile (comes in between 26-27 points each) is always usefull.

The ability to get both Target Lock and a focus and then firing the missiles in the same turn can be huge.

Give them both Assault MIssiles and play them along with Chewbacca and you have a real Swarm killer.

Or Green with Deadeye and an Assault missile is just 25 points. These guys make for swarm busting little baddies.

Or Green with Deadeye and an Assault missile is just 25 points. These guys make for swarm busting little baddies.

Yep, but Push The Limit allows them to turtle with both Focus and Evade when needed.

It all comes down to what you want on Chewie.

Or Green with Deadeye and an Assault missile is just 25 points. These guys make for swarm busting little baddies.

Yep, but Push The Limit allows them to turtle with both Focus and Evade when needed.

It all comes down to what you want on Chewie.

Agreed. It also comes down to do you have the points to spare to invest 28 into an A-wing. Is this the best use of those points for your strategy and game plan? I love PtL on A-wings. I also like Stealth Devices on them. The A-wing is a fantastic ship that isn't used near enough IMHO.

I personally like Greens w/ PTL. They're great end game fighters, especially against Rookies/Blues/Academies, since they're a higher PS. They're largely ignored (as they should be) during the game, meaning its likely to be your last ship. As such, if you were to put missiles on an A wing, I would suggest either Green w/ PTL, or Tycho w/ PTL as the base ship.

I don't like deadeye in general because imo missiles should be fired with TL+F, otherwise why bother? With Cluster missiles, you'd be averaging 1.5 hits per attack, against .375 evade (assuming a low agi target best case)... so you'd be doing basically 2 damage. With Concussion, you'd average 3 hits, which isn't too bad and you could get away with that in a pinch. Assaults are an all or nothing thing, so you want to ensure they hit. Homing could also be okay since you'd average 3 hits (since you didn't have to spend the F to make the attack)... Meh, I suppose it could have it's place, but it's making your missile 1 point more expensive and consuming your EPT, you'd be better off more often than not with VI instead.

As for Marksmanship and Cluster, that is a decent idea, but you run the risk of being out of range for TL on the first engagement, getting the TL on the second engagement, and then finally shooting them on the 3rd round. And by then you may decide you want a different target. So, it doesn't really work out as well as it does in your head.

Edit: Double post for some reason.

Missiles tend to be considered overcosted for their effects, particularly as they require an action, an attack, and a discard to use. Same with Proton Torpedoes, and to a lesser extent, Proximity Mines.

The biggest trick to using missiles or really any upgrade is to have a plan on how to use them.

Other then wanting to spend that last point or two, you should have plans on how to use each and every upgrade you put on a ship. If you can't come up with a good plan for them, you are most likely better of using the points to upgrade the ships or getting a whole additional ship.

Take the 6 Z-95 with assault missile list. Something with Wave 4 that could be a lot of fun to try, in theory could destroy a Tie Swam with one alpha.

But how do you get that alpha to strike with the best possible chance of success? Do you have a way of getting the TL+Focus, do you hold off on the Alpha until you get it, or take a chance with only the TL?

Without a plan the points spent on the Assault Missiles is nothing more then a gamble.

Without a plan the points spent on the Assault Missiles is nothing more then a gamble.

Even WITH a plan they are a gamble, but this game rewards big risks with the possibility of big rewards. There is nothing better than starting off a game with almost every single one of your opponent's Ties having a point of hull damage. But when your first round Assault missile misses, 5 squad points went with it. That's why it's called a gamble.

@Vanor

Any suggestions in that regard? Would you take a named pilot to help with action? Garven or dutch with that TL astromech?

Ive been thinking about a missle list myself. The biggest problem is if your missiles don't win you the game, you don't have much of anything to fall back on.

Any suggestions in that regard?

I've had some success pairing up Lando with 2 A-Wings. Give him Squad Leader and he can let both A's TL and Focus in the same turn.

But the problem with missiles and torpedoes is that it's hard to get the 2 actions you need in a single turn to make them the most effective they can be.

Take a 6 Z-95 list, baring one of the unknown pilots giving out free TL to everyone or something like Jonus... I think your only real option is to either take the chance on getting good hits. That or TL'ing one round and trying to get into a place where you can launch missiles next turn with a focus.

None of that is easy though which is again the biggest problem with missiles. The only way to make sure you get your points out of them is TL+F, but few ships can pull that off in one turn without making them rather expensive. But trying to fire the stuff off on a latter turn can be a big risk.

The biggest problem is if your missiles don't win you the game, you don't have much of anything to fall back on.

That's the nice thing about Lando and Greens, it's a decent list even without the missiles.

Any suggestions in that regard?

I've had some success pairing up Lando with 2 A-Wings. Give him Squad Leader and he can let both A's TL and Focus in the same turn.

But the problem with missiles and torpedoes is that it's hard to get the 2 actions you need in a single turn to make them the most effective they can be.

You make a great point that every Rebel player needs to realize. The strength of the Rebel fleet is synergy. There are many ways the Rebels can hand out extra and free actions to one another. I personally LOVE Deadeye on A-wings, because it is so easy to pass around focus tokens with rebel ships. Kyle and Garven are two examples of this. Then there are other pilots or upgrade cards that hand out free actions. Deadeye (for 1 point) allows an A-wing to pick the target at the time of attack.

Example: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/44599/the-a-team