Long time reader first time poster.

I picked up the game back at Christmas but have only played once or twice.

I'm a fan of the old Dark Forces video game and love the HWK.

A couple of rules questions:

1. When starting can I face my ships side ways instead of towards my opponent so long as they are within 1 range of my side? The rationale being I can build maybe 1 more round of focus before engaging if I'm not flying at my opponent. ie flying east to west instead of north to south for a round or two before turning.

2. I ran a sim game to test out my planned squad against 8 Academy pilots. I had Katarn with ion cannon, stealth. Wedge with R2F2, and Dutch with ion stealth and R2 D2.

The theory of passing targeg locks and focus to wedge sounded good. But in practice I found dutch really squishy. I'm thinking a stealth device on a ywing is a terrible idea becaue one hit and its gone and with a regular tie attack roll of 2 against the modified Y wing roll of only 2 the device didnt even last a round. At least with the moldy crow the sd lasted 3 or 4 rounds. Also, at 1 shield per green manuver, r2d2 just couldn't regenerate the shields fast enough against 4 ties focus firing in dutch. Katarn lasted longer. But Wedge was the real trooper.

How about this:

Wedge R2d2 ptl

katarn blaster turret moldy crow stealth

jan orrs ion turret stealth

btw typing with phone so I apologize for typos.

You can place your ships as you see fit, even backwards, as long you are inside your deployment zone.

Edit: Some scenario rules may force you to deploy in specific places / bearings.

When setting up your ships within range 1 of your table edge dont forget you must include the guides, if these overhang the edge of the table your ships have fleed on turn one.

You can place your ships as you see fit, even backwards

This makes me laugh... First turn all my ships fly off the edge of the map.

Well I was curious so I fired up Vassal and checked. If you can make a 1 Turn, you have enough room if you set up at the far end of range 1 to make that turn towards the edge but not go off.

I like using the crow as a focus boat. I agree Stealth device is better used on ships with existing high agility. You may want to consider running lower cost pilots against the swam. Expensive ships are juicy targets.