Ok, like many I'm sure this weekend in the first tourney experience. I don't expect to win as I feel like there are some strong local players, and I've only been playing for about 2 months and all of them friendlies. But I've studied and think I'm ready. Now of course I'm having list indecision. The base is

Roark

+ion

Dagger

+FCS

Blue

+FCS

Garven

I like Roark for his buff (mostly on the blue) and his cheap ion. I like the ion because of the control they can inflict on interceptors and some rebel ships. But in looking at recent champs and placers, I don't see any HWK's and very few interceptors. Am I bringing the wrong ship to the fight? Is he the first target you'd take out?

I've played the above list very well in all my friendlies with the exception of one where I try to joust to Krasis and another BH while AP's nipped at my back. I flew poorly in that match but it gave me pause.

So to tinkering.

Garven gets an R3-A2 to help Roark lock ships down and maybe give himself a bigger target. This drops the dagger to a blue and my ps is now 12,6,4,2 (range depending) as opposed to 12,6,4,4. I like Garven as I'm still bumping my B's in up close dog fights and I can use his focus to pair with the FCS.

or

Drop Garven for Luke. PS goes to 12,8,4,2 which is better and Luke is hard to kill if he can survive till the end game. I lose the functionality of Garven passing focus, which I've grown accustome too. I'm subbing offense for defense in this build, and with a 4x ship build that doesn't have 4x ships throwing 3x dice can be a challenge I fear. I need to hit hard and fast.

I've read enough of these to know that I should fly whats familiar. I'm comfortable with Roark (again is he tourney viable?) and some B's and an X. Just trying to figure out the best combo.

Help....

Thanks for looking

edit: I wanted to add I do know that Roark's buff is only for the shooting phase. So all PS mentioned above is in reference to that.

I don't like the asymmetry of your generic B-Wings
I don't like that Roark doesn't have a Crew Member

Other than that, looks pretty good. XBB + Support ain't a bad archetype (though many would prefer XXBB)

I always target HWKs first. They die soooo easily. I've only had one game where it was a significant threat, and that was because it would keep rolling multiple perfect Blaster Turret shots with multiple critical hits without having to spend its other Focus token (Recon Spec).

hmmm. I could put an R2 on Garven and Nien Numb on Roark to give me more greens with those two. Bumps the Dagger to a Blue. I've had Roark targeted early to get the turret off the board so I need to do a better job of keeping him out of arcs and still in range. Turning that forward red 4 into a green one is huge for that I think. I just hope I'm not limiting my firepower for the sake of a PS buff and a turret. But I'm terrified of loose interceptors and would like to ruin the day of some Rebel ships. Might try a different X in there...

Your build has too much tech to work well. I try to limit your interactions. Rebels become synergy dependent and can suffer unless you are willing to not try and use their synergy, which you are then loosing the value of the squad you are building.

With Roark you don't need to upgrade a Blue to a Dagger. Putting Recon Specialist on Roark will make him much beefier. You'll need to drop Garvin to Biggs to pay for specialist, but that's not a bad thing. This list is a little more defensive in nature and is also more robust against synergies breaking down.

Roark + Ion Cannon Turret + Recon Specialist

Biggs

2x Blue + FCS

With Roark you don't need to upgrade a Blue to a Dagger. Putting Recon Specialist on Roark will make him much beefier. You'll need to drop Garvin to Biggs to pay for specialist, but that's not a bad thing. This list is a little more defensive in nature and is also more robust against synergies breaking down.

Roark + Ion Cannon Turret + Recon Specialist

Biggs

2x Blue + FCS

Then again, dropping Garven to Biggs might also open up room to beef Biggs and dropping the need for defensive focus on Roark by putting R5-P9 on Biggs.

With Roark you don't need to upgrade a Blue to a Dagger. Putting Recon Specialist on Roark will make him much beefier. You'll need to drop Garvin to Biggs to pay for specialist, but that's not a bad thing. This list is a little more defensive in nature and is also more robust against synergies breaking down.

Roark + Ion Cannon Turret + Recon Specialist

Biggs

2x Blue + FCS

Then again, dropping Garven to Biggs might also open up room to beef Biggs and dropping the need for defensive focus on Roark by putting R5-P9 on Biggs.

Or better yet, a straight up Hull Upgrade. HU is a guaranteed 1 hit. Biggs is extremely unlikely to even HAVE a focus after getting shot at by an entire squad, so I think that R5-P9 is of questionable (at best) utility for him.

Edit: if you want to drop Recon Spec on Roark since you now have biggs, then you can also upgrade FCS to Advanced Sensors if that's more your playstyle. ADS is more consistent than FCS, IMO.

Roark with blaster and recon is a powerful ally to a rebel squad, hmmmmm, powerful ally.

Hmmm. I'm typically not a fan of Biggs as I see him as a meat shield that can't take his actions for anything other than defense. Rolling naked dice has always been dodgy for me. Again I'm new and haven't flown or had to face a superior, evading, hit soaking Biggs. I always want to run him with Garven (perhaps I have an obession) to keep passing him focus, either for rolls or to regen shields.

Recon could work, but it drops Garven and forcing me into a 25ish X-wing.

So the Luke option is not a hit? And the Garven R3-A2?

What about

Wes

+Swarm

Rebel Op

+Ion

2xBlue's

+FCS

Running Wes without any protection and without the superior PS could be very risky. But is his ability worth it? Focus fire on one ship would be devastating and that ion coming in afterwards would be nice.

In looking at Major Jugglers winning list there seems to be some Roarks (like 5), but never a top 4 finish. Am I trying to hard to fit in an Ion? Am I ahead of the curve or heading for a brick wall? I mean XXBB works and I have the pilots to run it. But I like those dang ions.

ugh. I should have stuck to my guns. Now I'm running all kinds of list in my head (dropping HWK for Y). Perhaps one of the tips for the first tourney advice thread "Dance with who brung ya"

Roark, ion, recon

Blue + FCS x 3

If you're absolutely married to the idea of ion in your list, you could do experiment with adding ion cannons on one or both of your B-Wings. I'd only recommend this if you have time to play-test, though.

I've run them before and, I'll be totally honest, probably 80% of the time I opted to use my primary weapon instead; there are other benefits of having a secondary weapon other than just the ion token, though. Trying to finish off that last point of hull from a TIE at range 3? Fire your ion cannon and deny him his extra agility die.

You already hit on the most important aspect of list building earlier on: familiarity and comfort is key. Play what you've had chance to test.

Talking about the HWK specifically - in my experience it's very fragile. The only time I've seen it stand up to a hail of fire is Kyle + Recon Spec after a few turns of focus banking. At that point he's still a 2 agility ship with a stack of maybe 5 focus, which isn't too shabby.

You'll do much better flying a list you know how to fly than with a list you think will be better but haven't tested out yet.

Go with the list that you know you can fly. And remember this, only do maneuvers that you are sure of. If it looks like it may work on a 2 turn but you aren't sure, do the 3 turn and be sure.

Lost my first tournament match by 2 turning and ending up on a rock and losing my shot, instead of 3 turning and being in the clear for sure.

So after some soul searching I've given up on Roark. His fragility just scared me. So the new list.

Dutch
+ ion
+ r2

Hobbie
+r3 a2

2x blues

More hp. Still has synergy. Still has an ion. The HWK and y fly similar and the r2 makes it better. Flew it abit the last couple days and digging it. If Dutch goes early I'll have trouble stacking hobbie with the stress bot, but he can still work.

Edit. Thank you all that contributed and looking out for a 'newb'

More hp. Still has synergy. Still has an ion. The HWK and y fly similar and the r2 makes it better. Flew it abit the last couple days and digging it. If Dutch goes early I'll have trouble stacking hobbie with the stress bot, but he can still work.

Hobbie works just fine without Dutch, so don't sweat it. Solid List. Good Luck!