newbie list buid

By akodo1, in X-Wing

I have just a little bit of experience and while I have expanded my fleet there are plenty of cards I don't have access to. (I am hoping for some sort of card pack, I can't ever imagine buying enough Lambdas for advanced sensors for my B wings)

Here are some lists I created for my first tournament.

#1 1300 X X
Han Solo, Falcon Title, Gunner, Expert Handling
Rookie X-wing pilot with R2D2
Rookie X-wing pilot
I like the idea of flying slow having 360 degree fire and kind of circling in the center of the board, with the ability to do barrel rolls to get out of firing arcs and avoid asteroids
The X-wings aren't supercomplimnetary to that, but they are ships I have, and seem pretty good. R2 gives survivability. Would also consider swapping one out for a B-wing.
I have considered removing the Rookie without R2 and putting in Rebel Operative plus Ion Cannon, more 380 degree fun, but as it would probably be loitering behind Falcon, I worry about the 2 range. (Note no Y wings...yet)
I am looking at Han and wondering if Marksman is a better choice. I like the idea of rolling out of firing arcs and with the initial roll, a chance for Han to re-roll again, and the a chance for gunner to take a third swing, do I really need the extra punch of marksman? Then again, initial roll, Han's re-roll, and Gunner's third swing all potentially can benefit from marksman.
If I want to stick with a rolling falcon, would there be any benefit in going with a different pilot? Lando's ability seems like it could be really good if you had a carefully crafted partner ship, but not so much with some vanilla X wings it seems to me, but what do I know?
#2 X X X B
Garven Dreis (after using a focus, passes to close compatriot) with R2D2 for survivability reasons
Rookie X-wing with R5K6 (after using target lock, roll evade die to re-lock)
Rookie X-wing
Dagger Squadron with Fire Control
The idea here is to attempt to capitalize on target lock plus focus by maintaining locks and by sharing that focus, and still bring a lot of guns, shields, and hull to the table.
Is there a better 2 point option than going Dagger vs Blue? If one ship is going to be upgraded beyond tier 1 form, would downgrading Dagger to Blue and upgrading the Rookie with R5K6 to Red Squadron be better? I was actually thinking by going earlier in the turn with Rookie, he'd move in and get a lock before the opponent moves away.
Edited by akodo1

For the first squad you may want to pull R2D2 and sit Chewie down in the Falcon with Han. It's 4 points on your "big" target but its also two more hits AND can save you from a face-up card that could ruin your game. It's a classic defensive HSF to complement the offensive Marksmanship version.

Many of us have choice words for R5K6 and they aren't good. The ability is a bit to conditional and not all that reliable especially if you compare it to the FCS.

It seems like you've got a lot already figured out. Personally I think gunner is overkill with Han especially because you get a target lock as a free action which doesn't cost any points. I'm not saying it's not effective but chances are you'll get some damage thru and neither Han or gunners ability will kick in. I would rather swap the gunner out and put marskanship although marksmanship costs an action to do. Other than that your only rolling 9 attack dice with that first list and I can guarantee you Han will be the first target. You'll be seeing builds with somewhere between 12 and 14 dice thrown at you and the falcon is only defending with 1 plus your evade token if you took it that round but is a one time use. I like your second list better myself. Also as far as the falcon floating around in the middle of the board I can guarantee you that no one will let there be a giant blank spot in the middle of the board free of asteroids if your fielding a falcon haha. Just my opinions tho GL

#1 1300 X X
Han Solo, Falcon Title, Gunner, Expert Handling
Rookie X-wing pilot with R2D2
Rookie X-wing pilot

#2 X X X B
Garven Dreis (after using a focus, passes to close compatriot) with R2D2 for survivability reasons
Rookie X-wing with R5K6 (after using target lock, roll evade die to re-lock)
Rookie X-wing
Dagger Squadron with Fire Control

Both of these are interesting twists on solid archetypes. I have a few tweaks, though.

On List 1 ( an archetype called Han Shoots First , by the way ) :

  1. The 4 points for R2-D2 are traditionally spent for added survivability on Han, in the form of a second crewmember. Our options are Chewbacca, C-3P0, Flight Instructor, and R2-D2 as non-action survivability crewmen. They offer: Discard Chewie and a crit to regen a Shield // Guess your evasion rolls for a free evade result once per round // Re-roll all focus-results on defense (or Blanks if the attacker is PS 2 or fewer) // risk turning a face-down hit into a crit to regen your last shield every round..

  2. Alternatively, if you're happy with your Han build, I'd want to split the 4 points evenly over the 2 X-Wings, for 23 points a piece. That's giving both of them an R7 Astromech, or a Flechette Torpedo, or promoting them both to Red Squadrons, or turning them into very effective versions of Y-Wings or HWKs (18 + Ion Cannon Turret for the first, or 16 + Tactician + ICT, or 16 + Recon + Blaster... et c).

  3. You could meld these suggestions together: Spend 1 point on improving each of the X-Wings (R2/R5 Astromech), and 1-2 points on improving Han (Nien Nunb, Mercenary Co-Pilot, Saboteur, Tactician. Some of these are substantially better than others). You can also spend the 1 Point/ X-Wing to turn them into B-Wings.

On list 2 :

  1. R5-K6 is pants. It's just terrible. Note that Fire-Control Systems costs the same amount, and is strictly better in every conceivable way. Splitting his points in half to give both Rookies a generic Astromech is a substantially better option (and keeps them identical, so you don't forget which one of them is upgraded.).

  2. After Garven's dead, your Dagger is priority no 2 to kill. You might consider a Sensor Jammer, putting your opponent in the position of "If I do not spend a focus on this attack, I deal less damage. That leaves me with no defensive actions at all if I want to hurt this thing, and I still deal less damage if I don't get an action."

  3. Also a consideration on your Dagger: Advanced Sensors. It's just...freaky good on B-Wings. Basically, nothing in the game can prevent your actions, you can barrel-roll out of the way of sure collisions, and gain a host of new maneuvers only possible by barrel-rolling first. And yes, this includes your Red Maneuvers. You could potentially use the 2 points from R5-K6 to get an Ion Cannon as well, or do one of my previous suggestions with it, and take the initiative bid at 99 points.
Edited by DraconPyrothayan

It seems like you've got a lot already figured out. Personally I think gunner is overkill with Han especially because you get a target lock as a free action which doesn't cost any points. I'm not saying it's not effective but chances are you'll get some damage thru and neither Han or gunners ability will kick in. I would rather swap the gunner out and put marskanship although marksmanship costs an action to do. ...

Gunner can be "overkill" on any ship (ok, maybe not a HWK but that's not the point) when your attacks are likely to hit (against 1 agility targets for example) but can be wonderful on hard to hit ships that can't afford to take any hits (Interceptor w/ Stealth Device.) I'll also point out that Han's ability is NOT a "free Target Lock" in almost every way; both let you reroll dice but Han MUST reroll all of them while TL lets you roll some and leave some and TL can be used for other things. In fact, when you use Gunner you can sometimes afford to take risks with Han's ability and reroll attacks hoping to do better but realizing you can "try again" if you don't.

I'll also mention that trying to add Marksmanship means cutting Expert Handling.

#2 X X X B
Garven Dreis (after using a focus, passes to close compatriot) with R2D2 for survivability reasons
Rookie X-wing with R5K6 (after using target lock, roll evade die to re-lock)
Rookie X-wing
Dagger Squadron with Fire Control
I use almost this same build and have had some luck, I use
Wedge (1 less defence dice)
Garvin (pass the focus)
Rookie X-wing
Dagger B-wing
No upgrades or mods, and they seem to do ok, although I've only played it 4-5 times.

Edited by Chaotic Hazard