Hi all!

I'm new to X-Wing (though somewhat old to tabletop games) and looking to get more involved in the game and the community in general. I've played a couple of games and should be picking up the starter set and some other bits and pieces tomorrow.

I've been familiarising myself with the rules in the meantime, and have put together a list I think I like the feel of, but was wondering if I could get some feedback from the pros. I've played Tau in 40k for a while, and have a reasonable grasp of the concept of synergy when building a list and making sure everything works collaboratively.

List is as follows -

Kyle Katarn - 21

Moldy Crow - 3

Recon Specialist - 3

Veteran Instincts - 1

Shield Upgrade - 4

Ion Cannon - 5

- 37

Jake Farrell - 24

Test Pilot - 0

Deadeye - 1

Squad Leader - 2

Ion Pulse Missiles - 3

Munitions Failsafe - 1

- 31

Garven Dries - 26

R2-D6 - 1

Deadeye - 1

Flechette Torpedo - 2

Munitions Failsafe - 1

- 31

Total - 99

The basic idea I'm sure isn't new, but the concept is that Focus is never-ending and never really discarded. Kyle (at PS8 with VI) will theoretically always be able to assign a Focus token to either fighter pilot after turn two or three, so no-one should ever be without a focus token to spend on Deadeye Focus-Lock attacks. Jake (PS7) will be able to spend a Focus to attack and then boost/barrel roll, though I'm not sure how useful this will be given that I need to keep everything fairly close together to pass tokens around.

Garven (at PS6 and thus last in the combat phase) can, after spending a Focus token on whatever is necessary, can either re-assign a token back to Kyle, which will he can then spend next turn on something, generating another token to pass back to Garven again, or to Jake to do his fancy boost/barrel roll immediately, so if I need to get him out of arcs or range of low-PS Ties, I can do.

The combination of stress-causing Flechette Torpedoes and an Ion Cannon or Ion Pulse Missile should render anything nasty and close useless for a turn, as from what I understand, Stress can only be cleared by a Green move and Ion limits you to a 1-straight move, which is always white. This would hopefully allow me a free turn of shooting at this nasty Vader/Fel/whoever without particular fear of immediate reprisal.

Question though - Deadeye obviously causes 'Attack - Target Lock' to become 'Attack - Focus', allowing me to spend a Focus token rather than a target lock... Does hitting/missing/otherwise resolving this attack then remove the Target Lock from the enemy ship, or does it stay because I'm not, strictly speaking, resolving a Target Lock attack?

I'm also aware that in order to make full use of this list, I need to keep my three ships within Range 2 of each other, which is probably going to be a challenge.

Anyway... That's it! A long first post, I know. Any feedback or correction/guidance you guys have would be very much appreciated.

A point that doesn't have to do with strategy:

A few of the cards/models in your list aren't going to be available for some time, some later than others. Not a huge deal in friendly games, but if you're hoping to play in tourneys it's likely Jake Farrell won't be legal until after the tournament season and end of the year at best.

Overall, this list does have a lot of synergy, but even in terms of a three ship fighter list, it lacks in both firepower and resilience even with "unlimited" focus. I could go into more detail about that, but it really depends on whether your looking long term or want to focus on ships and cards that are out now.

I'm not so sure about the apparent "repeatedly miss" strategy I think I see with so many points put into Deadeye and Munitions Failure. It may "only" be five points but those are points that could go to other things. I guess I'll also point out that your missile strategy on Jake is costing you 7 points compared to running him without a secondary weapon.

Another part of me is wondering why you have VI on Kyle. I don't think moving him last is in your best interest as it gives the opponent more opportunity to block and when he only shoot for one damage that isn't much reason. Remember that his ability triggers at the start of combat and is in no way tied to his Pilot Skill.

I've thought Jake could be fun, even powerful, with Kyle (especially) or Garven but I don't believe this is the way to do it. I wonder what Squad Leader is doing on Jake when the only ship that can benefit is Garven which would let him take his second action; I'd rather have Jake take an action on his own then expect to piggyback tokens.

Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate your feedback and candour. As I said, this is my first squad, and I was fairly certain it was going to be a bit crap. I've always been more of a 'fluff' driven player rather than a hardcore competitive builder, which is one of the things that's got me keen on X-Wing rather than 40k (which is now dominated by optimised mono-build lists). It seems like X-Wing has the flexibility to be the kind of game where if you like something, you can make it work.

So, I like A-Wings, and I like Dark Forces, so Kyle Katarn by extension. Realistically, I'm probably going to spend a bit of money on this over the next little while. I'm in the UK, so not as much as some, because a lot of Wave 2 & 3 stuff just isn't really that available. There are some cards I can get on eBay (not sure how legit these are!) which I can use at my relatively friendly club until I have a list/squad build I'm happy with for more competitive/serious play. If there was a Kyle crew card that would be ideal, because I could stick him in a YT-1300, and then I'd have a really decent tank. However, that doesn't exist yet, so I'm kinda stuck with the HWK for now.

Given therefore that my ideal list would include Kyle and at least one A-Wing (preferably a named pilot like Tycho or Jake), I'm guessing I'd likely need something tough like a B/Y-Wing (or even an X-Wing), and probably another A-Wing for good measure. However, I'm struggling to put together a squad along these lines that seems to hit hard. Any suggestions?

You're really going to like when Aces comes out with the refit for the Awing. But, here's a suggestion for now that could get you started based on your parameters:

Kyle Katarn with recon specialist and ion cannon turret

Tycho with Push the Limit

Rookie Xwing x2

You still get Kyle tossing his focus to the Xwings and he set up enemy ships and control your backfield with the ion cannon. Tycho hits the flank and harasses the enemy in the backfield. He also doesn't need Kyle's focus as much, so he can float wherever.

Others might come up with a better list than I (like maybe naked Chewie instead of the rookies) but including both Kyle and a named Awing is a lot of points in two "utility" ships and limits the list. I think either of the options I suggested will be playable and competitive (not tourney winning competitive) but not frustrating either.

My version I put together last week:

Focus Factory

Kyle + ion + recon + moldy crow

Garvin

Rookie x2

I flank with kyle. Pass focus around from kyle>Garvin>rookie. Works nicely.

You may like the Ion Turret on Kyle/Recon/Crow but if there is a ship to run the Blaster Turret on it is that one. With the point you "save" I'd probably put Determination on Kyle to help make sure he keep on passing out the token and also because it may let him throw out some face-up damage cards.

I'll consider and try those changes. Thanks!