Ok, so I wanted to turn my creative attentions to a super common type of list. ... Or is it?

Biggs Darklighter (25)
R4-D6 (1)

"Hobbie" Kilvan (25)
Flechette Torpedoes (2)
R3-A2 (2)

Red Squadron Pilot (23)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
R2-D6 (1)
Draw Their Fire (1)

Total: 100

Here's how it works. The Y-Wing has a dial almost that of the X-Wing, so it can keep up. But it's goal is to soak damage. With Draw Their Fire, it sticks close and just soaks any crit that comes along. Meanwhile, they have to shoot at Biggs. Now, R4-D6 will allow him to cancel a lot of hits if they are shooting big guns, at the cost of stress. Still, it seriously ups his survivability when coupled with the Y-Wing drawing the crits off. Hobbie can easily double stress an opponent the first round, then clear his own stress. Finally, the Red Squadron acts as a low threat, high damage craft in support of the rest.

The alternate version of this, for when the E-Wing comes out, is:

Biggs Darklighter (25)
R4-D6 (1)

"Hobbie" Kilvan (25)
R3-A2 (2)

Tarn Mison (23)
R7 Astromech (2)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
R2-D6 (1)
Draw Their Fire (1)

Total: 100

Here, Hobbie loses his double stress ability, but you get Tarn with an R7, which is one excellent late game ship, allowing him to survive withering fire from a single ship.

Thoughts? I know it's a boring list, but I wanted to explore a more basic list and see what I could do with it.

Not only did you take a Grey Squadron Pilot, but you didn't put a Turret on that Y-wing! Crazy!

Yup, Sable's in the house.

Wave 4 version:

• I love both Hobbie and Tarn as you have them. They should both be clutch.
• R4-D6: I believe Khyros did the math on R4-D6, and it's "meh" on anything with 2+ agility. Otherwise Biggs is obviously amazing.
• 22 points for a damage soak sounds expensive though. I think I would rather have a Blue, although I get that you're looking at a PS bid here.

Edit: Ion synergizes really well with Hobbie's stress handout. For 23 points instead of 22 you can get a Gold + Ion. Dropping R4-D6 pays for it.

Not only did you take a Grey Squadron Pilot, but you didn't put a Turret on that Y-wing! Crazy!

Yup, Sable's in the house.

Wave 4 version:

• I love both Hobbie and Tarn as you have them. They should both be clutch.
• R4-D6: I believe Khyros did the math on R4-D6, and it's "meh" on anything with 2+ agility. Otherwise Biggs is obviously amazing.
• 22 points for a damage soak sounds expensive though. I think I would rather have a Blue, although I get that you're looking at a PS bid here.

The problem with switching the Grey for a Blue is you lose the Draw Their Fire ability, which I was banking on to keep Biggs alive another round. With the crits being soaked away and R4-D6 draining lucky hits from the heavy hitters, he should be a lot hardier than he would otherwise be. Further, because the Y-Wing doesn't have a turret, few players will target it, even though he's keeping the rest of my squad alive. If they DO target him, so much the better, as the X-Wings are going unshot. The goal is to have Hobbie/Tarn be the last ship alive on my side, if it should come to that.

I certainly take what you mean and you may well be right, but I wanted to give it a bit of a twist.

Though I seriously wish that you could look at a crit before pulling it with DTF. Because then I would happily put it on a Green Squadron A-Wing when Rebel Aces comes out. Think about it:

Green Squadron + Chardaan Refit + A-Wing Test Pilot + DTF + Determination

For 17 points, you fly behind your fleet and DTF on any pilot crits that get pulled. Then discard them. Totally worth the 17 points. Would have been awesome. Probably best they don't allow it.

Am I missing something? Grey Squadron Pilot doesn't have an EPT slot. How is it getting Draw Their Fire? In fact, no Y-Wings have an EPT slot...

R2-D6 lets you take an Elite Pilot Talent.

See... I knew I was missing something. Thanks.

I'm a fan of Tarn Mison but I'm not so sure about running him with Biggs. While Biggs is alive and in range one of Tarn, then Tarn's ability will not trigger as Biggs has to be the target.

I ran this list last night:

Tarn Mison + R5 Astro and Adv Protons.

Biggs + R2D2 and Hull upgrade.

Ibtisam + Opportunist and adv sensors.

Biggs took a lot of hits early on but R2D2 kept repairing shields so he actually hung around within range one of the others most of the time. The consequence was that Tarn never got to use his lock ability as he could not be targeted and thus was a bit of a glorified Red Sqn pilot. I can't see much use for him (well his ability) with Biggs.

I'm a fan of Tarn Mison but I'm not so sure about running him with Biggs. While Biggs is alive and in range one of Tarn, then Tarn's ability will not trigger as Biggs has to be the target.

I ran this list last night:

Tarn Mison + R5 Astro and Adv Protons.

Biggs + R2D2 and Hull upgrade.

Ibtisam + Opportunist and adv sensors.

Biggs took a lot of hits early on but R2D2 kept repairing shields so he actually hung around within range one of the others most of the time. The consequence was that Tarn never got to use his lock ability as he could not be targeted and thus was a bit of a glorified Red Sqn pilot. I can't see much use for him (well his ability) with Biggs.

The use of his ability, when Biggs is around, is for late game. You are right, it's not going to be used until Biggs is dead. Then, with the R7, he can force you to reroll attack dice when you attack him, meaning he'll be tough to kill if you only have a couple ships left. Basically, he's my late game ship. Couple that with the reluctance of the enemy to shoot at him until Hobbie is dead and the Grey Squadron pilot soaking up damage the entire game, I think there's a good chance he'll be the last X-Wing alive, and my best hope for victory then.

You get to fly Tarn very aggressively, like one possessed. He should almost always be in range 1 getting 4 dice attacks. That's the benefit.

The only thing I question is the serious lack of firepower once Biggs goes down. By not having an ion turret, the Y-Wing is just a glorified meat shield.

I'm not a big fan on R4-D6 on anything but a Y wing, but I'm especially not a fan of it on Biggs. The chances of someone rolling 3 hits and 0 crits with 3 dice is relatively low. And it won't happen against swarms... And Biggs is typically at R3, so he would have to then roll 3 blanks in order for R4-D6 to cancel a single hit. I did do the math last week, and on 2agi, it was slightly worse (point for point) than a hull upgrade... on a 1 agi, it was slightly better.

I was extremely happy with how Hobbie + R3A2 + Flechette worked at regionals, it basically gave me 3 wins (though due to stupidity on my part I didn't pull off the 3rd win) out of 4, facing all sorts of different lists. I'd consider the torps mandatory though, a single stress is likely to do absolutely nothing since most people slow roll during the next turn anyways and would clear it and get another action. That said, an Ion Turret is an easy way to ensure that they stay stressed, so I would highly recommend putting one in your list somewhere.

It's likely that they have 2 stress at the end of turn 1, but no ion token (assume R3 engagement). So if they attempt to clear stress (which most will), they will still have 1 stress on a ship... at this point, you can stress a second ship, and ionize a 3rd (and hopefully the 4th is already dead). And then proceed to K turn behind all of them... now they can't shoot you at all, while you continue to get good shots on them... Or you can just keep it at two, and basically take one of his ships out of the game for good, while preventing a second one from ever taking actions, and allowing the 3rd to return fire. It's a very powerful combination.

Biggs Darklighter (25)

R4-D6 (1)

"Hobbie" Kilvan (25)

Flechette Torpedoes (2)

R3-A2 (2)

Red Squadron Pilot (23)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

R2-D6 (1)

Draw Their Fire (1)

Total: 100

Biggs Darklighter (25)

R4-D6 (1)

"Hobbie" Kilvan (25)

R3-A2 (2)

Tarn Mison (23)

R7 Astromech (2)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

R2-D6 (1)

Draw Their Fire (1)

Total: 100

Here is my take on the "force the end game" variant with Tarn. This assumes the R7 is 2 points.

Biggs (25)

Hobbie + R3-A2 (27)

Tarn + R7 (25)

Gold + Ion (23)

The Gold + Ion and Hobbie stress combo should be effective at drawing out combat, keeping enemy ships out of play.

Edit: Ninja'd, everything Khyros said! Basically, Ion Cannon Turrets just got buffed with the new stress dynamics, since you can force stress to stick.

Slightly worse than a hull upgrade for slightly less points seems worth it. The odds of 3 hits without crits isn't as low as the calcs make it seem when focus tokens are used. I like it on Biggs, because it somewhat guarantees he'll take 3 shots to take down, making him a hair more reliable. It's a mental math aid more than a functional piece.

The topic on R4-D6 in case anyone is interested:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/104770-r4-d6/

Hobbie will get even better with munitions failsafe. He can do double stress turn after turn until he inflicts some damage. Some savy opponents will choose not to modify so it goes away, but that works too

I'm going to riff off of the defensive chassis of this list and run this tonight:

Biggs Darklighter 25pts w/ R4-D6 1pts

Gray Squadron Pilot 20pts w/ R2-D6 1pts & Draw Their Fire 1pts

Dagger Squadron Pilot 24pts w/ Fire Control System 2 pts

Dagger Squadron Pilot 24pts w/ Fire Control System 2 pts

Thanks for the inspiration, SableGryphon!