Firstly let me describe my collection so you can see where I'm coming from.

I'm fairly new to the game and I'm looking to build up a small collection of both rebels and imperials. I started with 2 starters, and being quite taken with tie swarm flying in the early games I bought myself the tie expansion. Then I decided to buy one of each faction, and largely based on limited availability at the time bought an A wing and a TIE advanced. Then, having flown and enjoyed the A wing I fancied getting something similar to add to my TIE swarm, so added the aces when they became available for a limited window.

Now I have enough ships and cards to put together a variety of imperial lists at 100 pts, my rebels list is always luke, tycho and Biggs. It's getting a bit dull.

So I need to expand my rebel options, but availability is limited. I think I can probably afford to add a couple more small ships, and have already decided to get an extra x wing, so that I've got access to the extra pilots if nothing else, but what to get for the second..?

The choice basically comes down to a HWK or y wing. These are all that seems to be left in the UK. I really fancy a b wing, and they seem the obvious choice, but you can't get hold of them without putting down a massive premium (usually 4-5 times retail price),so they're out. So which is more useful/powerful? Which is easier to fly in formation with x wings?

Cheerio,

Ben

Why not lay down £20 ish and go for the falcon, lots of good upgrades and worth the cash for the big ship!

I'd say the Falcon too. Some people don't like the turret or say it's boring to fly, but it's a classic ship and me and the boys always have fun when its on the table

It's also good for bumping those points up if you're struggling to hit 100.

Millennium falcon: easy and funny to play even in formation with the classic pair of x wings

Easy to get hold of too, availability of some ships is a royal pain in the arse, but the Falcons available pretty much everywhere. Y-wings I like very much too, maybe not a hugely competative choice to some but I've had great success and fun with my two.

Basically reading though the forums etc gave me a bias towards picking up certain ships, but having got them I bought ships that weren't considered top tier. But I've found every ship I played with has its merits and personally don't think any of them are a bad choice. To be honest just buy what you like the look of and then make it work for you in your lists.

Between the HWK and the Y-Wing, I'd go with the latter. Granted, I've only played a few games with the HWK but the Y-Wing has complimented my force very well for a long time. Dutch Vander is easily my most used named pilot. He's a very reliable, very direct, no-nonsense pilot.

I highly recommend springing for the R2 astromech as it doubles your number of green maneuvers. It's not incredibly important for most of the battle due to having a turret (no Y is complete without one), but for only 1 point, I've always enjoyed the ease of stress recovery.

The HWK is a little less obvious. With 2 agility dice and some very intriguing focus mechanics, it's more tenacious than its stats would suggest. On top of that, all 3 named pilots offer support to ships up to range 3. That's a very rare thing. Most support pilots are range 1, 2 at best. It's a support ship through and through, but its merit is in its subtlety.

Falcon, followed closely by ywing.

I'll echo the falcon sentiments if you can spare the coin. Han Shoots First will give you a very solid rebel list while you work on building up the rest of your rebel fleet. That said, if it comes down to either HWK or Y, I would probably lean just slightly toward the Y. Its a much more straight forward ship whereas the HWK is more of a support ship that will take a bit of getting used to. At least with the Y you can pretty much fire away with your turret and know that you are doing what its designed to do.

Both the Y wing and the HWK are fantastic ships. If you want a tank, get the Y wing. If you want to add more skills and diversity to your rebel lists, get the HWK. Bar-none, the HWK provides fantastic abilities on a really cheap platform. This will not only add a turret to your lists, but crew members as well. I think you'll want both, but if you're looking to mix things up a bit and play with something that will change the way you play the game....

...get the HWK.

So long as you do indeed get that X-Wing expansion (which includes Wedge!) I would agree with the Falcon as one of your top additions.

The HWK's can be fun with some of the named pilots and can allow you to shake things up more than the Y-Wing in terms of usable abilities. The unnamed Y pilots definitely see more play than the unnamed HWK pilot though.

If you feel like your lists are boring, the Hwk wil definitely spice things up. Every pilot does something uniquely different. You also get the Blaster Turret card which is pretty fun to slap on Y wings later in life.

If I had to rank ships to pick up next:

Falcon/Xwing (depending on availability)

Y wing/Hwk (depending on play style).

Thanks for the comments so far. My mate has the falcon so I already know what that flies like, and it's play style doesn't suit me. Not really intetested in any of the big ships to be honest. I like to put down a bunch of ships and fly them in formation. I really like the mini - swarm plus elites builds I can get out of my current imperials collection, and would like something similar, but sufficiently different to spice things up, with my rebels.

If I'd go for looks alone I'd definitely get the y wing of the two (or b Wing if I could get it), but I have to say the support options the hwk can give sound really interesting.

I'm starting to think I want one of each. I should get an xwing expansion first though, right?

Thanks again,

Ben

I'm starting to think I want one of each. I should get an xwing expansion first though, right?

I would say that if you're a bit tired of X-Wings, Wedge isn't going to add as much to you list building as a Y or HWK would.

Y wings are fun, but IMO you need multiples to make them really shine; I just played against 4 (all with ion turrets) and it was fairly nasty. As a single, Horton (reroll blanks at 2-3) with PT, ICT and a focus on him is fairly unpleasant. Coupled with the Moldy Crow focus factory and you can keep one ship at range 2-3 pretty much definitely ioned up, while the HWK with a blaster turret inflicts actual hurt.

Thanks for the comments so far. My mate has the falcon so I already know what that flies like, and it's play style doesn't suit me. Not really intetested in any of the big ships to be honest. I like to put down a bunch of ships and fly them in formation. I really like the mini - swarm plus elites builds I can get out of my current imperials collection, and would like something similar, but sufficiently different to spice things up, with my rebels.

If I'd go for looks alone I'd definitely get the y wing of the two (or b Wing if I could get it), but I have to say the support options the hwk can give sound really interesting.

I'm starting to think I want one of each. I should get an xwing expansion first though, right?

Thanks again,

Ben

Yes, I'd strongly suggest both, along with an X-Wing expansion too.

The X-Wing pack adds the R5 Astromech (flip one Ship face-up damage card to face-down at the end of the turn), which when added to a Y-Wing with it's massive hull points, greatly extends it's life expectancy. Wedge is also in the X-Wing pack and makes for a very hard hitting fighter. It's 1 squad point for the R5.

The Y-Wing pack also adds the very useful R2 Astromech which allows all 1- and 2-speed moves to be Green. Very useful thing for either the Y- or X-Wing and just 1 point too.

The HWK adds a lot of variability into your potential builds, from the basic Rebel Operative or any of the named pilots.

I would go with the X-Wing and the Y-Wing, then the HWK. Y-Wing will feel very different from imperials, which is a good change of pace. You can either do the basic grunt with ion turret, go for the standard Dutch TL support, or even try out a semi decked Horton for super proton torps. With the HWK, you'll need to have specific synergies in your list for it to do well, and this is easier with more experience.

Of course, I would buy all 3, but that's just me