All turrets, all the time

Grey squadron, R2 astro, proton torps, ion turret

Kyle Katarn, ion turret, recon specialist, moldy crow title

Outer rim smuggler, Chewie, falcon title card, engine upgrade.

Everybody flies together,Kyle Katarn passes out focus tokens judiciously, and the Y has torpedoes to help the light offense out. This is sitting at 98 points. Not sure where to put the last two.

It has good 360 firing but little else. You've already pointed out the major problem with the squad "light offense". It's a 3 ship build with two of them having a 2 dice attack and the last one with only 1. The Proton Torpedo will not be enough offense to over come the lack of attack dice.

I was hoping their total HP would led me some staying power.

Even with the larger number of hits to whittle you down, without delivering damage back they will win the attrition war.

Back to the drawing board. I just got an E-wing so I might lose ORS for Etahn.

I was hoping their total HP would led me some staying power.

Even with the larger number of hits to whittle you down, without delivering damage back they will win the attrition war.

Osoroshii is right: staying power in X-wing isn't really rewarded unless you can back it up with some firepower, and your list has fairly weak overall offense. I'd drop the torpedoes and the Y-wing's pilot-skill bid (i.e., run Gold instead of Gray), which frees up six more points; see what you can do with that.

When it comes to double ion lists, is it just better to run 2 Y's and forget about the HWK?

When it comes to double ion lists, is it just better to run 2 Y's and forget about the HWK?

Not necessarily. The big drag on your list, IMO, is the YT-1300--you're spending 36 points for a really durable 2 Attack turret, and I don't think that will pay off. When you add in the 2 free points and the 6 I mentioned upthread I think you can cut, that's 42 total you could be using to bump your overall offense more than the ORS can.

When it comes to double ion lists, is it just better to run 2 Y's and forget about the HWK?

Not necessarily. The big drag on your list, IMO, is the YT-1300--you're spending 36 points for a really durable 2 Attack turret, and I don't think that will pay off. When you add in the 2 free points and the 6 I mentioned upthread I think you can cut, that's 42 total you could be using to bump your overall offense more than the ORS can.

Your 36 point ORS:

PS 1

2 Attack Dice

1 Evade Die

6 Hull

4 Shields

3 Z-95s at 36 points:

PS 2

6 Attack Dice

6 Evade Dice

6 Hull

6 Shields

You get similar blocking power, albeit at PS 2, but it is a bit more flexible as you can split them up too. And way more dice and even more HP. You lose the turret but can spread the arcs of the Zs if you need to. You've got 2 other turrets to play with and that focus candy you plan to hand out will be better defensively on the Zs 2 dice compared to the ORS' 1 die.

I'm not the biggest fan of chucking just 2 attack dice at a go, but I'd rather do it 3 times than once.

The ORS can shine in a control list like yours, but I think you've got the wrong upgrades if you want to use it that way. Anti Pursuit Lasers is a popular choice.

Another thought is to put all those focus to use and try to fit a blaster turret on Kyle.

Now, let's say I'm married to the idea of turrets (I'm not, but hey, a theme is a theme)

Chewie is 42 points on the nose.

I also don't have the wide selection of ships everyone here seems to have.

Unfortunately I rate it a 1.5 out of 5.

Just not enough punch and really it can't too much abuse either. The HWK w/ Kyle is only slightly more durable than an X-wing and can be destroyed quickly. The Y-wing isn't as durable as it looks when its under focus fire, the one agility dice doesn't usually do much. The ORS is tanky with Chewie, but will wither under focused fire as well.

Chewie + a Rebel Operative w/ Ion + Gold w/ Ion is 86 points. That leaves you 14 points to work with. Plenty to completely trick out Chewie or give the Y-wing some ordnance. You could also upgrade Rebel Op to Roark or Gold to Gray.

Chewie + Determination + Falcon Title

Grey Squad. + Ion Cannon Turret

Kyle + Blaster Turret + Recon Spec. + Moldy Crow Title

100 pts

A determined Wookie can go a long way...

Now, let's say I'm married to the idea of turrets (I'm not, but hey, a theme is a theme)

Chewie is 42 points on the nose.

I also don't have the wide selection of ships everyone here seems to have.

Maybe this:

Back to the drawing board. I just got an E-wing so I might lose ORS for Etahn.

Now we're talking! In my opinion, Offensive minded upgrades and pilots carry more weight then defensive ones. It comes down to mind set really. If you build a defensive build, it's like you are expecting to lose already and are just trying to slow it down. When you build for Offenses you are building to win. Again, this is just my opinion.

I played a slight variation of this tonight.

Chewie, VI, falcon title (never came into use)

Gold squad, ion

Kyle Katarn, recon specialist, moldy crow title, ion

My opponent had Cracken, 2 Bs 2 Zs and an X.

I flew clockwise around asteroids but away from the opponent, letting Kyle build a stockpile of focus. Once we met at 12 o'clock, I lost all the Y shields, the hawks shields, and Chewie wasn't a factor. Then the most wonderful thing happened. We flew past each other, inside the asteroid field, and all my turrets came alive. Locking down ions while Kyle threw focus at anyone that needed it. Chewie nailing the B's as they struggled to turn. My Y made it near to the end, finally losing to Cracken, but he only had another Z left, so I locked them down.

I feel like I completely understood the game for the first time.

If you must use Turrets, use a pilot for the YT-1400 other than ORS. ORS has worse stats than the other pilots. Perhaps replace him with Chewie. Then, use 2 Y-Wing gold squadrons (HWKs are too weak to be used at this time). That'll total up to 78 points (if my math is right), allowing you 22 points for add-ons.

Personally, I like having the Falcon title on Chewie for a little added defense, but if you don't find yourself using it you could drop it to add Swarm Tactics to Katarn. Then you would have all three ships shooting in at 7-6-6. With the Z-95 pack, you could also put Wingman on Katarn to pull stress off of Chewie and the Gold. But I think Swarm Tactics is the better of those options.