This set up just occurred to me and I can't find any reference to it. Is it as good as I think?

It lets you shoot something with an ion cannon and slap a stress token on it at the same time. You do have to be pointing at the target, because it needs to be in your arc for the mech to work. That's good. Right? I mean you can seriously mess people up with a stress+ion token combo.

It's not an expensive droid. I think it's in the "why the hell wouldn't you" category. Just wondering if I've missed something.

It's also pretty cool in first engagement to just stick a stress on a ship at r3. The y-wing probably wasn't going to do lots more with its shooting but stressing a ship so it can't k turn is often handy.

Any thoughts?

Looks sweet on paper. I've tried it twice with a Gold Squadron Y-Wing for the most economical version. Both games it was targeted and destroyed almost immediately. It had no way of protecting itself. Biggs seemed like a must. I never got a second shot off because of the low PS but I feel like a named Y-Wing would be an even bigger target. Biggs and/or Swarm Tactics might be the answer? Just realize that if your opponenet wants a Y-Wing dead it will happen. Its a good tactic but don't expect it to carry you.

Wedge Antilles (29)

Biggs Darklighter (25)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R3-A2 (2)

Total: 100

Even if you kill Biggs you still have to pick between killing Wedge and letting that Y-wing keep doing its thing. Depending on how feasible it is to keep pointing the Y-wing at things it could be a good distribution of threat and shouldn't completely fall apart if you lose a ship or two

I should point out that a Y-Wing is the worst platform to try and clear stress on. The radio was stolen on Tattoine, so they can't even listen to smooth jazz. Why do you think the body kit it missing?

Yes, it's an interesting idea. It works better on the Lambda, actually.

OGP + Ion Cannon + Tactician + Tactician + Engine Upgrade

Range 2 you attack with the Ion Cannon. If you miss they still get 2 stress. If you hit you also Ion then. Plus Engine Upgrade lets you be quite mobile.

I should point out that a Y-Wing is the worst platform to try and clear stress on.

True, but if you have a Turret then this isn't nearly as much of an issue. Paul Heaver recently got Top 4 at a 38 player tournament with Biggs, Blues with Sensors, and Gold + Ion + R3-A2. He talked about it at length in a battle report here:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/105625-pa-regional-report-top-4-finish/

That reminds me, R3-A2, a Y wing and an ion turret walk into this bar....

Though y-wings are my favorite ship to fly, I save the ion for special times. I choose primary weapon over ion if I can. Causes more damage. Try expose on a gold squadron pilot with Horton. You get to roll more attack dice, and opponents have to choose between attacking a zero agility gold squadron or Horton, who shoots at PS6 and gives goldie-locks...

The Y-Wing taking a stress to Ionize and Stress an opponent isn't a terrible thing, as you can clear your stress and re-ionize them the following turn, ad nauseum. You kinda make your Y-Wing a paralysis-boat this way. Would be interesting to try out in a Furball scenario.

Though y-wings are my favorite ship to fly, I save the ion for special times. I choose primary weapon over ion if I can. Causes more damage. Try expose on a gold squadron pilot with Horton. You get to roll more attack dice, and opponents have to choose between attacking a zero agility gold squadron or Horton, who shoots at PS6 and gives goldie-locks...

You can't put Expose on a Gold Squadron pilot. R2-D6 has to be on PS3 or higher, so it has to be Grey Squadron.

I should point out that a Y-Wing is the worst platform to try and clear stress on. The radio was stolen on Tattoine, so they can't even listen to smooth jazz. Why do you think the body kit it missing?

Yes, it's an interesting idea. It works better on the Lambda, actually.

OGP + Ion Cannon + Tactician + Tactician + Engine Upgrade

Range 2 you attack with the Ion Cannon. If you miss they still get 2 stress. If you hit you also Ion then. Plus Engine Upgrade lets you be quite mobile.

I second the "You never want to stress w Y-wing." motion. Y-wings don't really need to do a whole lot, but they DO need actions to make those ions hit every time. And since it is an astromech, you can't also take an R2 to clear the stress. Also, I would NEVER put a firing arc only upgrade on a ship if I intend to use it with a turret. You're taking away the main draw of the turret. Also, it won't be easy for the Y-wing to keep ships in its firing arc. Again, why turrets are the best thing for it.

I feel that combo is only decent on a Y-wing against other Rebel lists. You also limit yourself to only a few maneuvers when you stress yourself. Makes you an easy target for a bomb.

I don't think this combo is "Don't stress the Y-Wing!" zone. You'll shed your stress faster than the poor bastard you've ionized, after all.

I ran a list at regionals that was built around this.

Hobbie w/ R3-A2

Dutch w/ Ion Turret and R2

Blue Squadron x2

The ability to focus with Hobbie then pass him a TL from Dutch was awesome, especially after a K Turn as it cleared my stress right away. I would then stress my target and use my TL to immediately clear my stress. It worked so well one game I had 5 stress stacked on Chewie before he died.

I only managed to stack both stress and and ion token on the same target twice. Once my target died the same turn I locked it down, and once Dutch died before being able to ion the same target again.

Other than that I either missed or needed to do more than one damage so used Dutch's normal attack.

I Was thinking of putting the R3 and ICT on a Y-wing but after reading these comments I looked at the dial and and having second thoughts.

That reminds me, R3-A2, a Y wing and an ion turret walk into this bar....

... the barman says "Try out for our talent competition, first place gets to spend a day with the Tweelik cheerleading squad"

The Y wing says "That's OK, I'll pass, I'm dealing with too much stress as it is.... this isn't the same droid I walked into the bar with yesterday.... now that guy had talent!"

I second the "You never want to stress w Y-wing." motion. Y-wings don't really need to do a whole lot, but they DO need actions to make those ions hit every time. And since it is an astromech, you can't also take an R2 to clear the stress. Also, I would NEVER put a firing arc only upgrade on a ship if I intend to use it with a turret. You're taking away the main draw of the turret. Also, it won't be easy for the Y-wing to keep ships in its firing arc. Again, why turrets are the best thing for it.

While normally this would be the case, it should be noted that the stress from the droid is taken during the combat phase, allowing the Y-wing to take a green maneuver the next round and never actually lose its action. Therefore you have options like ion a target, turn to face it directly, and then pursue it with green forwards with the intent of giving an ion and stress token each turn while firing with a focus or TL of your own. If you manage to point the Y-wing at its target from the very beginning you can start the process from there. Unfortunately you cannot choose to stress after confirming that the target was hit, but with the right build even a stressed Y-wing will not always be a priority target (with Biggs it may not even be a valid target at all).

Basically, for two points, you give your Y-wing this extra control option. You don't have to use it every time you attack, and it's cheap enough you don't have to build your squad around it. Something to play with at least before dismissing it outright.

I hate to throw a bucket of ice water on this idea, but R3-A2 requires the target to be in your firing arc, which may be really hard to pull off after the first pass, especially if you need to do green maneuvers to work off the stress generated in this combo.

Low firepower, but I was looking at Dutch w/ Ion, Hobbie w/ R3-A2, Airen Cracken, and Roark w/ Ion and Tactician. Can set up Ion + Stress after losing someone. Dutch can fire with primary if he wants. Hobbie can stress w/o stressing, Roark can make Hobbie go first, use his TL. Airen has him TL again and pass out another, allowing two people to Focus + TL, so the smaller number of dice may not always be so very bad. Might work against Rebels, would almost certainly fail against numbers, of course.

Edit: Can do better, of course, but I was trying to build a list w/ 4 named pilots, as well.

You don't need them in your arc after the first pass, as they'll be stuck without doing green maneuvers

I second the "You never want to stress w Y-wing." motion. Y-wings don't really need to do a whole lot, but they DO need actions to make those ions hit every time. And since it is an astromech, you can't also take an R2 to clear the stress. Also, I would NEVER put a firing arc only upgrade on a ship if I intend to use it with a turret. You're taking away the main draw of the turret. Also, it won't be easy for the Y-wing to keep ships in its firing arc. Again, why turrets are the best thing for it.

While normally this would be the case, it should be noted that the stress from the droid is taken during the combat phase, allowing the Y-wing to take a green maneuver the next round and never actually lose its action. Therefore you have options like ion a target, turn to face it directly, and then pursue it with green forwards with the intent of giving an ion and stress token each turn while firing with a focus or TL of your own. If you manage to point the Y-wing at its target from the very beginning you can start the process from there. Unfortunately you cannot choose to stress after confirming that the target was hit, but with the right build even a stressed Y-wing will not always be a priority target (with Biggs it may not even be a valid target at all).

Basically, for two points, you give your Y-wing this extra control option. You don't have to use it every time you attack, and it's cheap enough you don't have to build your squad around it. Something to play with at least before dismissing it outright.

This is basically my point. I was looking at the following:

Dagger with advanced senses x2

Rookie

Grey with ion turret

I realised I could have r3-a2 on a gold instead of the grey and that it didn't cost me much.

For this to be worth it, you don't really need to maintain it constantly. You can kill the target. I mean it's doing a 1 straight and no actions. Right? If you can't kill it just ignore it for a turn, during which it will drift, stay stressed and then still be unable to k-turn the turn after.

I do really like this on hobbie, since he can instantly de-stress. The lambda shuttle with tacticians is a great idea too.

That lambda build looks terrifying.

Also, if you have 2 stresses and you do a green maneuver, it only reduces 1 stress right?

That lambda build looks terrifying.

Also, if you have 2 stresses and you do a green maneuver, it only reduces 1 stress right?

Yup, unlike Ion, you only clear one stress at a time.

Tactician is strictly better than the droid, with no downside. Wow. That lambda will be harsh. Doesn't even cost much. 28 points, before you start bolting on other toys.

I would say limited to range 2 is a downside It's also much easier to point a fighter with an astromech at the enemy than it is for most ships with the crew slot, excluding the firespray. Different options for different builds

Yeah I've been looking more at how to make a list. It's true that the lambda can struggle to get stuff in arc more than once.

It's possibly worth combining ships to so the job better. B-wings with ion cannons and an x-wing with the droid, say. It could be:

Blue with fcs and ion cannon x2

Rookie with r3-a2

Another rookie.

2 points spare, so you could have advanced sensors instead of fcs if you prefer.

This lets you do the trick at range 3. Fire both blues, then fire the rookie at whatever got ioned. That's pretty nasty as a first engagement move.

I should point out that a Y-Wing is the worst platform to try and clear stress on. The radio was stolen on Tattoine, so they can't even listen to smooth jazz. Why do you think the body kit it missing?

Yes, it's an interesting idea. It works better on the Lambda, actually.

OGP + Ion Cannon + Tactician + Tactician + Engine Upgrade

Range 2 you attack with the Ion Cannon. If you miss they still get 2 stress. If you hit you also Ion then. Plus Engine Upgrade lets you be quite mobile.

Shuttlehippo for the win!