After seeing 4 HWKs on the board in that Firespray article, I had to give it a shot.

Your thoughts? =) Try and keep to HWKs for fun, though if adding something else would really benefit, it would be nice to see too. Thinking maybe Dutch Vander, but he might be a little too expensive.

I am a huge fan of trying to make the HWK work. I like the second list personally. I think predator combined with blaster turret is a nice combo. I actually think Kyle is the least useful of the pilots for this list (he isn't going to gift focus very often), but you want the ept and Jan is a bit too expensive. Roark really wants some swarm tactics mixed in to make him really worthwhile.

While I like tactician to combo with ion, I'm not sure the turret works all that well with it. But it is certainly is worth testing. Bringing HWKs to bear after the initial engagement is really hard, so activating Tactician might be hard.

I have really high hopes for the Jan and Kyle crew cards and can't wait to see them. I'm hoping that they really increase the viability of the HWK, not that it isn't viable now, but it could use some help.

I like Predator with Blaster and i would like to try a 4 HWK list one day

with the new up grades coming i thing it would be funny HWK with Outmaneuver behind a Shuttle Range 3 2 turns left Shuttle 2 hull point left HWK 1 hit Shuttle 0 evades last turn range 3 still HWK 1 hit Shuttle 0 evades cant think of a wors way to go

let us know how your lists go

The math on it is probably terrible, but 5xRO+Blaster technically outguns a 7-TIE swarm at R2 and 25HP is okay, especially since they're Evade 2 rather than one like Ys or Bs.

Or something like this, just an experiment to see if running all the pilots would work:

Jan+ST

Kyle+Blaster+RecSpec+Crow

Roark

RO+Blaster+Recspec

Might be better to put ST on Kyle so both turrets can be PS12, but then you end up at PS6 instead of 8 if Roark dies. Kyle's a bit loaded as-is, might drop the Crow title for ST on Kyle and Nien on Jan.

Personally I think Tactician is gonna work out well on the HWKs. Sure, they aren't super maneuverable, but once they are Ion'd, it ought to be really easy to stick at range 2. Add to that that with even one stress even if they fail to be Ion'd for one turn, they'll be fairly predictable with the stress.

I think without the moldy crow title your not really taking advantage of Kyle's ability, and therefore why spend the extra points on him

Kyle with blaster, recon, and or crow, with predator.

Jan with Ion, nien, engine, and outmaneuver.

Ahh wait. Tactician was nerfed by Han. It only works if its inthe forward arc....

Intriguing. I know it's not a 4 hwk list but if you used 3 hwk's with ions and one gold squadron with an ion and r3-a3 you could really through phantoms for a horrible loop.

I think without the moldy crow title your not really taking advantage of Kyle's ability, and therefore why spend the extra points on him

Good point, although I like the graceful degrade of 12-8-6PS it's probably useless in practice.

Jan+ST+Nien with Roark+Blaster+RS and 2x RO+Blaster+RS fits, though.

After seeing 4 HWKs on the board in that Firespray article, I had to give it a shot.

Your thoughts? =) Try and keep to HWKs for fun, though if adding something else would really benefit, it would be nice to see too. Thinking maybe Dutch Vander, but he might be a little too expensive.

Kyle Katarn (21)

Wingman (2)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Recon Specialist (3)

Rebel Operative (16)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tactician (2)

Rebel Operative (16)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tactician (2)

Rebel Operative (16)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tactician (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

In this one, I would think to try and just ion/stress the opponent to death. Literally get behind or next to them and do it over and over until they fall off the side of Space.

I feel like its better than the next list as it has no real good target (taking out kyle is fine, the rest of the ships still work just fine). Though, I am unsure of what I'd do against a swarm.

There is no need for firepower as its simply make it so that they never get to do anything ever again.

This version has some attack power and could be more effective against the swarm.

Kyle Katarn (21)

Predator (3)

Blaster Turret (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

Rebel Operative (16)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tactician (2)

Rebel Operative (16)

Blaster Turret (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

Rebel Operative (16)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tactician (2)

Total: 100

Recon Spec needed as Blaster Turret spends a focus to use.

Oh please oh please, let me face lists like these.

I love the HWK, and have flown them (with success) in tournaments. I think they are the most overlooked ship in the game. That being said... I would never fly more than one of them in a list. The HWK makes everything else better but itself. Another reason they do well for me is I force my opponent to leave it alone because of bigger offensive threats that surround the HWK.

Would running 4 HWKs with ion's be fun? Maybe, but 4 Y-wings would have a better shot at winning.

Oh please oh please, let me face lists like these.

You say that now, but I can picture your stressed, actionless ships gliding across the board 1-fwds at a time, with four bark birdies merrily sitting behind them, sanding down your soul one damage at a time.

Not to thread hijack, but while we are talking the HWK...

I recently got the HWK and I have a question for you HWKers, is flying Jan Ors worth it? For her point cost you can fly an X-wing or B-wing that gives you the same or more HP and 3 attack dice. Her ability is cool and has great range, but she incures stress and just having another ship with 3 attack seems like a better option then buffing 1 ship with another die.

Any thoughts on Jan or am I missing something?

@ Jo Jo... I'm of the opinion that Jan (and Kyle for that matter, but he's harder to argue) is not worth it. For 30 points (Jan + ICT) you're getting a high PS ion platform (base cost of 21pts for rebel op + ICT)... the high PS hurts the ion platform, so that's not an advantage... so you're paying 9 points (and a stress) to roll an extra die, assuming someone else is around to take it... Even with TL+F, basically guaranteeing an extra point of damage each turn, it's hard to justify the cost.

And after you add her, you're left with 7 points left to make a 4 ship list (after adding 3 rookies). This could be upgrading to PS4, with 1 point for something else... upgrading one of them from a rookie to a dagger, and adding advs with 1 point left over... Or for 7 points, you could grab Luke and leave the others as Rookies.

So basically, you're allowing your opponent to shoot first (average PS according to regionals thread is like 4.2), or you're going with 3 reds... your ion is next to useless against imp lists (they're either big based which diminishes its effectiveness, or 3agi, which is rather hard to hit with 3 dice while they still have tokens... either way, you'll ion something every other turn on average)... And then you're throwing 4-5 focused dice with a Red... which nets 3.00/3.75 hits with a single action...

For comparision... PTL on a good ship gives you 2 actions, still costs a stress, allows you to take a low PS ion, only costs 3 points, and yields 2.81 / 3.75 hits on a 3/4 dice attack... Sooo.... the one "advantage" is that you can choose who has the best shot each turn and maximize that shot, whereas PTL is only one on person (but can potentially allow you even better actions such as denying return fire)

Oh please oh please, let me face lists like these.

You say that now, but I can picture your stressed, actionless ships gliding across the board 1-fwds at a time, with four bark birdies merrily sitting behind them, sanding down your soul one damage at a time.

I faced a 2 HWK and 2 ORS list at AoIA. Everyone was consoling me and telling me how sorry they felt as I had an interceptor list and "should just give up now". I didn't really understand why. 1st turn of combat seen 1 dead HWK. 2nd seen the next. 2 turns for the first ORS and about 5 for the other and I was only down 50% of my list. Granted there was 2 rolls where he had 3 hits and I rolled 3 natural evades, but the HWK isn't resilient enough to last the first pass and still remain strong enough to ion walk, or do significant damage.

Oh please oh please, let me face lists like these.

You say that now, but I can picture your stressed, actionless ships gliding across the board 1-fwds at a time, with four bark birdies merrily sitting behind them, sanding down your soul one damage at a time.

I faced a 2 HWK and 2 ORS list at AoIA. Everyone was consoling me and telling me how sorry they felt as I had an interceptor list and "should just give up now". I didn't really understand why. 1st turn of combat seen 1 dead HWK. 2nd seen the next. 2 turns for the first ORS and about 5 for the other and I was only down 50% of my list. Granted there was 2 rolls where he had 3 hits and I rolled 3 natural evades, but the HWK isn't resilient enough to last the first pass and still remain strong enough to ion walk, or do significant damage.

For that matter, neither is a Y wing... I tried a few times the YYYY w/ ICTs for awhile, but by the third round, I was typically down to just 2 Ys. And while they could lock something down (potentially) the other guy was still at full strength and had other ships buzzing around killing my remaining Ys.