I'm preparing for a local tournament and am considering bringing the following build. I've had some good luck with it of late but am curious if there are any 'gotchas' that I might not have thought of.

Kyle Katarn

Moldy Crow

Blaster Turret

Recon Specialist

Garven Dreis

Proton Torpedoes

R2 Astromech

Munitions Failsafe

Wedge Antilles

Proton Torpedoes

R2 Astromech

Munitions Failsafe

Decoy

The idea here being obviously passing around that focus. Kyle becomes a little less of an easy target with the blaster turret. Wedge lets Garven take the focus from Kyle and then pass it back to either Wedge or Kyle after he uses it. The R2 units will let the X-wings to have flexibility coming out of their k-turns to stay on target. In the event that Garven doesn't use his focus on attack, Wedge still doesn't need the focus as much because he lowers the enemy's evade dice by one.

It has potential, however, as some people around here will note, 3 ship builds aren't to strong. I'd probably take out the pro-torps, and dump munitions failsafes for a bandit squadron.

I'd have to drop the R2s as well. I'm ok with that as I've not found them to be critical to the success of this build anyway. Thanks for the tip. I can see where another ship would be beneficial particularly with Phantoms likely hitting the table at this tourney.

My pleasure, I'm not to good at synergizing, so someone like Vorpal or MJ will come around and say how my build is probably horrible, and they would probably be right, so if anyone else wants to chime in, be my guest. :D

I found that Garvin and Kyle work really well together. When Garvin spends a focus token, he can assign it onto Kyle and he gets to keep it because of the Moldy Crow. Another cool thing is R5-P9, the droid that lets you spend a focus to regenerate a shield. If you have garvin with this droid, he can spend a focus and his ability still applies, giving it to kyle. That means Kyle gives him a focus and he focuses himself, giving 2 to Kyle to keep, which actually increases your store of focus.

Blaster Turret may not be the way to go by the way. It exhausts your stack much much faster. I fought a list with this Kyle in it and was on him in 3 turns, bumping kyle to prevent him regenerating his meager stack of focus. His final ship was Biggs to prevent the other two from going down quickly.

Overall I rate this list 9/10 insane would fly. It sounds fun honestly, just needs some tweaking.

I would drop the torps and MF. Throw shield upgrade on Kyle and Wedge. Then give Wedge the R5-P9. Let Kyle and Garv stack Focus on Wedge to keep him alive. Looks pretty sound.

Even though it sounds wrong, I have found that munitions are a sub-optimal choice on ships with 3+ base attack dice. The point cost to increase your attack dice by 1 over the base Attack of the ship firing the ordinance for a 1-shot attack is just not worth it. There is also the need for both a Focus and a Target Lock (Target Lock to spend to use the ordinance and a Focus to make it hit hard) to get optimal results unless you have a way to get re-rolls or dice-changing effects without Target Lock and/or Focus.

The exceptions to this are the Flechette Torpedoes and possibly Assault Missiles. Flechettes are cheap and "work" even if they do no damage so they may be worth it and can be re-used with Munitions Failsafe. Assault Missiles are good for splash damage against swarms.

In short, Rebels, generally, don't gain a lot of benefit from torps or missiles but Imperials do because of their weak base Attack Dice of 2. For them a good alpha strike of missiles and/or torps may be a good way to gain the upper hand. In Epic play, a Bomber squad with Advanced Proton Torpedoes can devastate a huge ship in one pass.

I like pairing Biggs with Wedge so Wedge does not bear the brunt of every attack the enemy has until he is dead. Here is a list I like that uses the same ships you had with a few changes.

Wedge with R5-P9, Predator and a Hull Upgrade

Biggs with R2-D2 and a Shield Upgrade

Kyle Katarn with Ion Cannon Turret in the Moldy Crow

You slow-roll the squad into combat so Kyle can stockpile Focus tokens to hand out. Biggs flies casual and gets shot up while regenerating shields and taking shots when he can. Always take Focus and save it for defense. He is really annoying. Wedge always has a pseudo-Target Lock thanks to Predator so he always takes Focus to use on either offence or defense and is a good target for Kyle's passed Focus token to regrow shields.

I think the MF is useless. Presumably you're going to Decoy Garven on the opening turn, who will get a focus from Kyle because he took a TL as his action. He shoots his torp w/ F, giving him an average of 3 hits... Then passes a F to Wedge, who shoots at PS6 with the same combo. You're unlikely to need the MF since you're unlikely to hit with either of them, especially Wedge's.

With those two points remaining, you could go a lot of different directions, though PTL+R2 is always a well advised option.

The ship choices aren't bad and you have Kyle set up pretty well. I do need to agree with everyone else about the proton torpedoes, failsafes, and astromechs. You're not gaining much with the torpedoes over spending a TL to reroll dice and the failsafe just makes it that much more expensive. When it comes to R2s being used for "flexibility coming out of k-turns" know that some will say a good pilot will often do things that avoid needing k-turns and the stress that comes with them; when you do see R2 on X-Wings is when there is another stress source.

Except for the slight range increase why use Decoy instead of Swarm Tactics? I mean isn't shooting at 9,9,6 better than shooting at 9,6,6 as you don't gain much by waiting.

Thank you for the feedback folks. I really appreciate it. I see why the torps and failsafes are overkill and will definitely sub them out for some of the upgrades mentioned above.

Just to address a couple of the questions that came up regarding my choices for a few of the upgrades:

Kyle has the blaster turret as an answer to my three ship build facing a Phantom, it feels to me like a cheap way to get the field of fire coverage of a fourth ship for far fewer points. I also felt the need for a turret with some teeth so that the HWK is less of a flanking target. I'm aware of the focus eating requirement of the blaster and don't intend to use it unless forced to do so or if Garv is able to pass a focus back to Kyle. By slow playing early, I generally have a good pool of focus ready.

Regarding decoy, you're right, it was purely a positioning play. I'm not sure what the meta looks like where I'm about to play and have some concerns that I may need to spread out a little if faced with Phantom builds. I'm probably over-compensating on this fear with decoy and the turret and should grab swarm tactics instead.

My pleasure, I'm not to good at synergizing, so someone like Vorpal or MJ will come around and say how my build is probably horrible, and they would probably be right, so if anyone else wants to chime in, be my guest. :D

Nah, it was the right call here.

The focus 'eating' of the blaster cannon can be offset a bit with 'mouldy crow' though as you can stack up a few before you're in range 1-2

Combine that with a 'pass off' from Garvin and it's not a worry till you're starting to do damage.

Thank you for all of the insight. This is what I've summarized the advice down to:

Kyle Katarn

Moldy Crow

Recon Specialist

Blaster Turret

Hull Upgrade

Wedge Antilles

Swarm Tactics

Shield Upgrade

R5-P9

Garven Dreis

2 points left over. Here, I'm thinking an astromech for Garven is my best bet. I'm thinking either R5-K6 or R7. Since Garven will likely be shooting at 9 with Wedge, he probably won't still have a target lock out there when he has to defend. So, R5-K6 is likely his best bet.

At least this thread with the HWK started with Kyle having the Crow and Recon Specialist along with the Blaster Turret. That is a good start and when Garven can pass tokens back to Kyle it gets even better. This is almost the one case where you can stay a Blaster Turret is better to have than an Ion Turret as Kyle generates extra tokens, can store tokens, and may even be passed tokens even if he gives some out and burns some shooting; it's not like that Blaster Turret is going to rely on outside ships just to be used.

With that latest build I'm wondering. You may have made Wedge more survivable but you've also made him an even bigger target and also a place where focus tokens go to die. I think I'd put R5P9 on Garven which can give him a Focus outlet even if he doesn't spend it for effect attacking or defending. I'd consider putting R7-T1 on Wedge as that gets him the option to TL someone who has him in their sights and then boost to either get out of the firing arc or perhaps close quickly for a powered up R1 shot.

I recommend staying away from R5-K6 as it is so highly conditional. It's another TL on the same ship but only 3/8 of the time. As for R7 that means having a TL on someone who is shooting at you yet if you are shooting first you may not have that TL.

My astromech suggestion may cost you the Shield Upgrade to Wedge. A possible 3 point upgrade to consider could be giving Kyle Predator. You're going to be take Focus actions with him exclusively so this "mini TL" will be a great help when it comes to firing the Blaster Turret and could help save Focus tokens for other uses.

I like it StevenO. Thank you.

It does put a bigger target on Kyle's back; but let's face it, he's the primary target here anyway.

Who's the biggest threat may be debatable when everyone has 3 dice attacks.

Wedge is seen as a threat as he also cuts the target's defense. Shooting at PS 9 and passing that to another ship makes him an even bigger threat.

Garven may be the "smallest" threat but it's still an X-Wing and as long as there is someone to pass a focus token to he can contribute to other ships. If you give him a way to regenerate shields you also need to worry about him in the end game unless you can deny his actions; taking Focus should mean he can dodge at least one [hit] each turn.

Kyle may be the biggest target as he has the most points but a hull upgrade and pile of focus tokens can also make him harder to kill. A Blaster Turret that can reroll attack dice makes any close approach a risk although an opponent could get lucky and knock him down if a crit knocks off the turret.

Excellent points StevenO. Thanks again.

As long as Wedge draws breath, he is always the biggest threat.

As long as Wedge draws breath, he is always the biggest threat.

Biggest individual threat maybe but that isn't always the same as "the ship that is the biggest threat to your game." To a Decimator I suspect Luke or Wes will actually be bigger "threats" than Wedge as there is no agility to reduce.

I feel like the first thing everyone tries to build once they open up their first HWK pack is Klye+mold crow+recon spec+blaster turret.

It seems to be exactly one of the things the designers intended when they gave us the HWK. But consider drop Recon Spec, Moldy crow and the blaster turret. Replace it with an ion turret.

How does it change? Well, you can shoot every turn (sometimes even this build doesn't have the focus to spend)

It costs less

Granted it can only do one damage per turn, but since it can fire every turn that seems a great trade off.

Oh yeah, if can ionize.

What about that great focus factory. Actually wihout the blaster turret eating up your focus, Kyle is still giving out a focus about every turn, unless he wants to keep it to spend on his shooting (something that was almost not even an option before)

I used to hate the HWK but then I realized I was over upgrading it. Just put an ion turret on it. If you want it to do something cool take one of the named pilots. They are awesome.

Nothing wrong with the ICT on a HWK. The Ion may cost a touch more but is easier to use even if it doesn't have the maximum damage potential of the Blaster; some will point out that if you have the Focus token to use with the ICT attack your average damage is pretty close, or even better, especially against high agility targets that are hard to hit.

Crow + Recon + Blaster may be seen as an "intended" outcome but it often is close to needed to make a Blaster turret actually work well. This is mostly a reflection on the focus hungry Blaster Turret which may cost a point less for more damage potential but is hard to use without a reliable source of Focus tokens. Blasters can work on HWK but anytime someone asks about putting one on a Y-Wing the nearly universal response is DON'T because of the extra support it takes to make it work.