Greetings,

So, new ships and cards are coming out at such an accelerated rate that it's hard to pin down the meta for this game at the moment. As I've been pondering the latest releases to figure out where I want to take my next squads, I've decided that stress is going to be big. It used to be that you never took stress unless you wanted to, but we are working on a dozen-ish cards that hand out stress to your enemies like candy. A big side effect of this is that ships which do well with stress will likely work better once the meta shakes out and the dust settles.

To that end, I have devised a list of rebels that simply do not care if you throw stress at them. (Sorry Mara).

Cool Hand Luke

(32) A-Wing - Tycho Celchu - PtL, Refit, Expert Handling, Hull Upgrade, Test Pilot

(36) X-Wing - Luke Skywalker - R2-D2, Shield Upgrade

(32) B-Wing - Keyan Farlander - PtL

So, a quick rundown of the choices:

Tycho, obviously does not care about stress. PtL is a natural fit on him, and Expert Handling goves him an ability (barrel roll) that he doesn't have with a drawback (stress) that he doesn't care about. AND it improves his defense by getting rid of target locks; which counters the increased use of target lock that we've seen lately.

Luke, gets his awesome defensive focus bonus with or without actions. Regenerates shields with or without action. And is incentivized to run green maneuvers anyway. The extra shield is just a bonus.

Farlander, gets better with stress. If no one has given him stress, he can PtL to generate it for himself. Not much to say here.

One other advantage inherent in this list is that it forces your opponent to make poor targeting decisions. Who do they focus first? You can't waste time attacking Tycho because Luke and Farlander will tear you apart. And you definitely dont want to leave Luke for last because he takes some serious focused fire to bring down. But you don't want Tycho last either. He will rarely be in arc of enough ships late game to bring him down. And finally, you don't want to leave Farlander for last; B-Wings excel at the one-on-one knife fight and if he's last, that means Farlander has had an entire game to deal damage with his ability and 3 attack and PtL.

What do you all think?

Any simple changes you'd make? (Drop shields for SD or something...)

Shoot.

Nice list! Only think I'd change is to try and get a Proton Rocket on Tycho.

Finding a Proton Rocket for Tycho would cost 5 points of this build.

Swap Farlander's PTL for elusiveness and drop both the refit and hull upgrade from Tycho, there's your proton rocket. Farlander can still end up stressed for defense, and tycho loses a little hull, but 5 dice PTL attack should vape something for your troubles.

As a side note, I like the original list more than my version of it, I was simply fitting a rocket into it as requested above

Swap Farlander's PTL for elusiveness and drop both the refit and hull upgrade from Tycho, there's your proton rocket. Farlander can still end up stressed for defense, and tycho loses a little hull, but 5 dice PTL attack should vape something for your troubles.

As a side note, I like the original list more than my version of it, I was simply fitting a rocket into it as requested above

That named a wing tycko first mind his stress as much but he doesn't ignore it completely. He still can't k turn if he is stressed, like every one else. I see people missing that a lot.

I wonder if you can fit Opportunist on Tycho somehow just to bump up his damage.

Who needs a K turn when you can 1 turn, boost, then BR...

I have a hard time giving opinions on pilots and upgrades that I have not tried because they wont be release for many months.

Perhaps try out something like:

REBEL SQUADRON (99 points)

1 • Tycho Celchu - Push The Limit (29)
2 • Luke Skywalker - R2-D2 (32)
3 • Ibtisam - Push The Limit - Heavy Laser Cannon (38)

Who needs a K turn when you can 1 turn, boost, then BR...

This list may not care a lot about stress, but it's not going to deal a lot of damage either. With only 3 ships and one with 2 attacks base, you will struggle to diminish your opponent firepower so I don't see this list doing well in a timed environment.

Keyan still dies like any blue squadron B-Wing and is the biggest damage dealer in the list so should be focused first,

I think most list should be able to take down a B-wing in the first close range clash.

Luke is much more predictable with no boost or barrel roll and an affinity for green moves so should be focused second.

After that it's going to be Tycho against what your opponent has left and I don't think it's going to go well.

This list may not care a lot about stress, but it's not going to deal a lot of damage either. With only 3 ships and one with 2 attacks base, you will struggle to diminish your opponent firepower so I don't see this list doing well in a timed environment.

Keyan still dies like any blue squadron B-Wing and is the biggest damage dealer in the list so should be focused first,

I think most list should be able to take down a B-wing in the first close range clash.

Luke is much more predictable with no boost or barrel roll and an affinity for green moves so should be focused second.

After that it's going to be Tycho against what your opponent has left and I don't think it's going to go well.

I wonder if you can fit Opportunist on Tycho somehow just to bump up his damage.

If you put Opportunist on Tycho you take away the fact that he doesn't care about stress, you might as well put Expose on him, paired with PTL

Looking at Icareane's remarks, how about this slightly altered build?

Good morning all. Thanks for the responses.

I agree that a missile would be nice on Tycho, but it's hard to justify with the two point missile tax from refit nowadays. How I hate that card.

As for Tycho not K-Turning. I don't think that will he a problem with all his mobility options. Furthermore, I chose EH over Daredevil because it gives us options we don't already have and boosts defense. Sure daredevil is slightly different from a normal boost, but the increase isn't worth the extra point and the opportunity cost.

Dagonet, I really like your list. I think taking off the shield upgrade is the right move because it is the weakest part of my list. I just didn't know what to trade it for. I strongly considered Predator on Tycho because I love the card and he could use a damage boost, but I do really like EH on him - I'll definitely have to try it though. On that note, I'm not sure I like EH on Luke because he cares a little bit more about stress. Maybe I'll drop the SU and EH to add Predator and Hull Upgrade to Tycho or something.

As for three ship lists being ineffective, I'm not sure I agree. Didn't a Luke/Wedge/Biggs list win worlds last year? (Or was that two ago?). And that was at the height of the TIE swarm's dominance. Since then we've had several anti-swarm cards printed (including predator) and even if we aren't running those cards, they will still have an impact on the meta, shifting it to fewer ships on average.

The way I see it is: Swarms (5+ ships) generally crush 3 ship builds. But 3 ship builds tend to do very well against 4 ship flights. And I expect the swarms to be replaced with a lot of 4 ships (because Defender, Phantom, VT-49, Predator, etc...)

Is that not what you guys have experienced?

Do you try in a match???, how it's results???, greettings.

Didn't a Luke/Wedge/Biggs list win worlds last year?

World 2013 was Biggs, 2 daggers advS, rookie versus a 7 ties swarm and he won by a single hull point.

If you look at http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/105107-2014-regionals-results/page-16#entry1128592

You will see that 6+ tie swarms formed 35% of all builds in the first tiers/final cut. I don't think the swarm is going away, especially with the appearance of rebel swarms (chardaan refit and Z95).

Good morning all. Thanks for the responses.

I agree that a missile would be nice on Tycho, but it's hard to justify with the two point missile tax from refit nowadays. How I hate that card.

As for Tycho not K-Turning. I don't think that will he a problem with all his mobility options. Furthermore, I chose EH over Daredevil because it gives us options we don't already have and boosts defense. Sure daredevil is slightly different from a normal boost, but the increase isn't worth the extra point and the opportunity cost.

Dagonet, I really like your list. I think taking off the shield upgrade is the right move because it is the weakest part of my list. I just didn't know what to trade it for. I strongly considered Predator on Tycho because I love the card and he could use a damage boost, but I do really like EH on him - I'll definitely have to try it though. On that note, I'm not sure I like EH on Luke because he cares a little bit more about stress. Maybe I'll drop the SU and EH to add Predator and Hull Upgrade to Tycho or something.

As for three ship lists being ineffective, I'm not sure I agree. Didn't a Luke/Wedge/Biggs list win worlds last year? (Or was that two ago?). And that was at the height of the TIE swarm's dominance. Since then we've had several anti-swarm cards printed (including predator) and even if we aren't running those cards, they will still have an impact on the meta, shifting it to fewer ships on average.

The way I see it is: Swarms (5+ ships) generally crush 3 ship builds. But 3 ship builds tend to do very well against 4 ship flights. And I expect the swarms to be replaced with a lot of 4 ships (because Defender, Phantom, VT-49, Predator, etc...)

Is that not what you guys have experienced?

Yours, being pretty tanky in its own right, can maybe deal with 4xs depending on who their xs are. But you're still losing to a vat majority of lists that will focus down luke round 1 and then move to farlander rounds 2 and 3. You have 8 attack dice. It would take a miracle to focus down a B-wing in one round. Meanwhile most 3 small ship builds lose. A ship round one of combat and cannot recover.

Luke and a B-wing do set up a much tankier core though, and that's good.

Dagonet, I really like your list. I think taking off the shield upgrade is the right move because it is the weakest part of my list. I just didn't know what to trade it for. I strongly considered Predator on Tycho because I love the card and he could use a damage boost, but I do really like EH on him - I'll definitely have to try it though. On that note, I'm not sure I like EH on Luke because he cares a little bit more about stress. Maybe I'll drop the SU and EH to add Predator and Hull Upgrade to Tycho or something.

Well, you're going to stay on green maneuvers most of the time anyway to let R2-D2 work his magic. .

Putting Predator on Tycho gives more reliable damage output, which is what your initial list was lacking a bit. But yeah, there's room in the EPT's to shuffle around a bit and find the mix that works best for you.

Haven't tested it yet. Should be getting a game in with it tomorrow if all goes well.

I'll have to see how it plays out there on he battlefield.

As for the matchups, I guess I don't really see Luke going down in one turn to many lists. Two evade dice with a partial focus every attack is pretty tough. We'll see.

Haven't tested it yet. Should be getting a game in with it tomorrow if all goes well.

I'll have to see how it plays out there on he battlefield.

As for the matchups, I guess I don't really see Luke going down in one turn to many lists. Two evade dice with a partial focus every attack is pretty tough. We'll see.

So I got in a couple games with the original list, then I noticed the spoiled A-Wing from rebel aces - Gemmer Sojan.

So here is an alternate list of sorts: same basic concept though:

E-Wing - Corran - Marksmanship, R2-D2, Fire Control System

X-Wing - Luke - R5-P9

A-Wing - Gemmer - Chardaan Refit, Stealth Device, Test Pilot, Expert Handling.

That A-Wing is ridiculous. He can have up to seven evade dice. Idea here is that Corran goes as far out of the way as he can after using his double shot. Then the opponent is left targeting two seriously difficult ships. If they split their fire at all, the two Astromech units make them pay by regenerating shields.

Thoughts? Better than the original list?

I had been this whole week playing over and over the tres amigos (i lack many upgrades tho, so it is not completely optimal yet... i have a hard time buying a falcon which i know i won't use just for engine upgrades).

I would pick luke with upgrade engine instead of shield upgrade 9 out of 10 games i had played.

Otherwise i don't have much else to add. I don't see stress going to be that important, imho.