Hey guys,

I read on here somewhere about using the ion effect to make your opponent fly their ships of the board, is that frowned upon?

I'm thinking of using my two Y's to do this this afternoon for no other reason than to be a bloody nuisance as I know it will wind my buddy Adam up!

Here is what I've put together so far.

Dutch with Ion turret(28)

Grey Squadron Pilot with Ion turret(25)

Arvel Crynyd(23)

Red Squadron Pilot(23)

99 points total

I'm thinking use the X to draw their fire whilst the Y's get in range. Adam won't fly in a tight formation so should be able to just ping ion at him whilst flying around him. I'll try to keep the X at R3 to keep him round whilst taking pot shots and use Arvel to block, taking his mind off the Y's.

Thoughts?

Make it an XXYY list, something like:

Garven

Dutch+ion

Rookie

Gold+ion

Garven and Dreiss work very well together, use that to your advantage.

Hey guys,

I read on here somewhere about using the ion effect to make your opponent fly their ships of the board, is that frowned upon?

As a tactic? No. It's time consuming to do in a joust though and better utilized against fighters that stray a liiiitle to close to the board's edge.

I'm thinking of using my two Y's to do this this afternoon for no other reason than to be a bloody nuisance as I know it will wind my buddy Adam up!

This, however, is frowned upon. You've just literally spelled out your entire motivation for using ion spam is to be annoying.

Hey guys,

I read on here somewhere about using the ion effect to make your opponent fly their ships of the board, is that frowned upon?

As a tactic? No. It's time consuming to do in a joust though and better utilized against fighters that stray a liiiitle to close to the board's edge.

I'm thinking of using my two Y's to do this this afternoon for no other reason than to be a bloody nuisance as I know it will wind my buddy Adam up!

This, however, is frowned upon. You've just literally spelled out your entire motivation for using ion spam is to be annoying.

I know for a fact that if he had the option he would take it every single time. He gets very single minded, hates losing and is an awful winner which makes me want to do it more!

If I ever entered a tournament or was doing anymore than casual play I would not touch this unless I was desperate, in fact I don't think I would use this tactic on anyone in casual play apart from him! He is a very good mate by the way so he would take it in jest....after a couple of days!

If you can't annoy your buddy, who can you annoy? .

Don't count on ioning someone off the board as being viable though.

If you are going to try and ion you opponent you should go with a dedicated ion squad.

Either the Shaw-y build:

Gold with ion turret and R3A2

Gold with ion turret and Flechette torpedoes x3

or

Gold with ion turret and R3A2

Blue with ion cannon x 3

The Shaw-y build allows you to lock up your opponent with stress and then ionizing them.

The Second list gives you a damage or an ion option.

Unless he has a transport (and looking at his sig, he doesn't), or is willing to proxy, flechettes and R3-A2 are out of his reach.

I know for a fact that if he had the option he would take it every single time. He gets very single minded, hates losing and is an awful winner which makes me want to do it more!

If I ever entered a tournament or was doing anymore than casual play I would not touch this unless I was desperate, in fact I don't think I would use this tactic on anyone in casual play apart from him! He is a very good mate by the way so he would take it in jest....after a couple of days!

Oh, well in that case a little taste of his own medicine can't hurt. Fire away!

Unless he has a transport (and looking at his sig, he doesn't), or is willing to proxy, flechettes and R3-A2 are out of his reach.

I didn't check fleet size.

I didn't check fleet size.

And judging by yours, it looks like it was a while since you had to worry about which upgrades were available to you. .

Unless he has a transport (and looking at his sig, he doesn't), or is willing to proxy, flechettes and R3-A2 are out of his reach.

I didn't check fleet size.

No worries bud, not sure why but I'm not a huge fan of proxies, I guess in my mind you either have the cards or you don't!

No worries bud, not sure why but I'm not a huge fan of proxies, I guess in my mind you either have the cards or you don't!

Plus it doesn't get you into trouble when playing with someone who doesn't allow for proxies.

But XXYY, that would be your safest bet.

@Cooper

Any chance on picking up a transport?

@Cooper

Any chance on picking up a transport?

It is highly doubtful unless I suddenly get a pay rise!

I've got a B-wing ordered for next week which will be my one ship for the month.

You're better off trying to ionize them onto asteroids. It doesn't require nearly as much effort, has the chance of doing damage, and effectively removes that ship from the fight for one round.

Hey guys,

I read on here somewhere about using the ion effect to make your opponent fly their ships of the board, is that frowned upon?

I'm thinking of using my two Y's to do this this afternoon for no other reason than to be a bloody nuisance as I know it will wind my buddy Adam up!

...

Thoughts?

You will find people who frown upon ANY strategy that isn't what they are playing or that they will easily defeat. After reading too many threads it sometimes seems the only "acceptable" strategy is to fly most you your squad at the enemy while he does the same. Maybe the flanker who's coming to join the party is acceptable but after that initial "Joust" you're supposed to turn around and just try shooting each other in a furball.

Using Ions to get another ship off the board is a perfectly valid idea although it can be hard to do at times. It's best used on an opponent who is pointed toward its nearest edge and where a single 1 straight can really hurt. If you want to promote this type of behavior you might try flying your Y-Wings up the side and if he comes at you then you just ion the ships and let them sail past you and off the board.

Ionizing someone off the board is a totally legit strategy. If your opponent puts himself in a position to let you do it, you should do it.

Ioning a ship off the board is 100% fine, but it is a lot harder to do in practice than it is in theory.

However, ioning a ship and then putting another ship in its way to block its actions and then hammering it with your other ships and maybe even more ion fire to keep it in place is quite doable, as is simply ioning the same ship over and over until it dies. If the ship happens to be heading toward an asteroid, so much the better.

I ran 2x gold squadron with ion turrets and 2x Blue Squadron with ion cannons and fire control systems at the Imdaar Alpha tournament (my first tournament) and it was incredibly successful and got me wins over players who are undoubtedly much more skilled than I am. The Y-wings in particular were the MVPs and won games after the supposedly higher threat B-wings were taken out early. I don't think you really need the ion cannons on the B-wings but they were fairly useful in the opening engagements at range 3 where the opposing ships would have otherwise gained an extra defense die, and the ion cannon + fire control combination can be very powerful when you get the chance to use it properly.

I'm confused why this would be frowned upon...this is a perfectly viable tactic, and a good counter for ships with a front firing arc with low agility (I'm looking at you B-wings). My rebuttal to any argument against it is, fine then, focus fire on the Y (or Y's) first and you won't have to deal with it.

Thanks for the reply guys!

Well I did play this afternoon and I did win but this tactic will have to wait for next time. My little bro joined in with some of his ships so it became a 150pt game where we fielded AAXXYY against 2 Squints, 1 Tie, 2 Bombers and a Firespray.

Adam conceded when his last remaining Squint was left against the 2 X's and 1 A. Once again Wedge was a hero taking out at least 3 of his ships, I do seem to get the rub of the green with my dice rolls.

I will take all your points onboard and keep in mind taking out ships that get too close to the edge. I need to get my head round the idea of blocking, it's next on the list.

Well I don't frown on it. If someone wants to play close to the edge, then they should be ioned and forced off of it! It's part of the game. I mainly take Ions to make them overlap and loose actions, but I have on many occasions used two ion cannon's to send a falcon or slave right off the board, the turn after.

It's perfect legal and a good strategy! Go for it!

This forces people to line up in the middle of the board instead of hug the edge.

I rather enjoy putting one ion token on a large ship and waiting till it is pointing towards an edge to give it a second so it flies off into oblivion!

it would be kind of hard to do since ion effect is only a 1 straight move. The damage they take with each hit will likely destroy them if not.

But sure if they are playing close to the board and you see that ionizing them can make them go off the board then why not. Only thing is that they really have to be facing the board in order to be effective.

To be honest I don't see how ionization would make them fly off the board because if they are in a position that a 1 straight will take them off the board then I don't see how any maneuver could keep them from leaving. Even with a 1 turn they would fly off the edge if they were that close.

ion spam is not a tactic of annoying it is a tactic of control. nothing better than to ion the lead fighter in close formation and cause several "overlaps" prevention those annoying target locks focus and evades.

Other forms of control are stress tokens such as R3-A2 or Rebel Captive and "Taunts" such as Bigs or Captian Kagi.

ion spam is not a tactic of annoying it is a tactic of control. nothing better than to ion the lead fighter in close formation and cause several "overlaps" prevention those annoying target locks focus and evades.

Try to aim for the second row in the formation to tear the whole formation apart as the first row moves at normal speed, the second at ion speed and the rest bumbles into the second.