Like you understood tourney coming soon in a nearby city, and I have to decide on my list. As it is not my home turf I don't know local meta. From registration list I can tell most will be playing Empire (you have to state your side registring). Also local retailers sucks bigtime, so new waves are rare breed. (I send my stuff from MM, and might even get Rebel aces before tourney, but not counting on it, oversea shipping, customs, etc) Curently I'm on 3 different lists:

1. Synergy

Lots attack dice, lots of hit points to soak damage, and even few tricks in a sleeve. If I get rebel aces I can play version that changes 3x and Z to 2Bs and 2 As

3 Blatant Cheating (Falcon )

I don't think any of these lists have much chance against expertly flown lists that totally conform to meta.

Phantom builds will be a problem for you.

Fat Han will have an advantage against you.

Just an observation/opinion.

You didn't read my post, I said local retailers are terrible, so local meta is around wave 2-3 mostly, no C3PO, might be 1 phantom.

I think your second list is the strongest as is. But you need to know that you can't let any interceptors or phantoms get behind you.

I think if you drop the bandit on the third list and put ptl on Corran and Luke on Chewie it would be quite a bit better. Maybe better than that 2nd list.

Well, if you don't have any out of towners or peeps that order online you should be ok.

One player that does either of those things will ruin your day though...and it IS a tournament. I wouldn't count on not running into anything like that at a tournament...but whatevs.

I think his first list will have trouble with Han, but all 3 have the ability to deal with a phantom as long as he knows what he's doing(if you put Luke on Chewie).

I think his first list will have trouble with Han, but all 3 have the ability to deal with a phantom as long as he knows what he's doing(if you put Luke on Chewie).

List 2, arguably the strongest list, would get shredded by any proficient Whisper/Echo pilot....and that's a fact.

Nothing here has a decent counter to Phantoms. And despite what the OP claims about non conformity to the meta, any tourney to be taken seriously will have Phantoms on the set. It's been available for some time, and is grotesquely popular.

If he spreads arc and Roarks one of the X's who has a shot he can definitely get some damage through against most Whisper/Echo lists right away. Might even kill one. If he drops the bandit for some flechette's then I think he has a fair fight against Whisper or Echo. Whisper/Echo + Soontir would be a real problem though.

I only saw 3 phantoms at my last tourney and they were all on the same list.

I hear all the time about spreading out the arcs of fire....I've yet to see it used as a successful tactic in this game where you want to gang ships up on a single to take it out. Sounds like a good theory on a forum, I havent seen it work yet on a tabletop...more like it's easy for the ships to get seperated and really hard for them to concentrate fire.

Besides the fact that Roark is the obvious target here with nothing to stop a savvy Phantom player from taking him out first and early....then that Phantom shreds the rest of the squad easily them having basically no chance against the slippery ship.

I hear all the time about spreading out the arcs of fire....I've yet to see it used as a successful tactic in this game where you want to gang ships up on a single to take it out. Sounds like a good theory on a forum, I havent seen it work yet on a tabletop...more like it's easy for the ships to get seperated and really hard for them to concentrate fire.

Besides the fact that Roark is the obvious target here with nothing to stop a savvy Phantom player from taking him out first and early....then that Phantom shreds the rest of the squad easily them having basically no chance against the slippery ship.

Roark has Range 1-3 on his pilot ability, so he has a lot of running room (particularly if the OP attaches Nien Nunb, which I think he or she ought to do).

And of course you do want to gang up on a ship to take it down--preferably from a formation, so that you always have multiple arcs on whoever your target is for that turn--but that strategy doesn't work against Phantoms, so you have to adapt. I have absolutely killed Phantoms, and seen them killed, by patient fire from Rookies and Blue Squadron Pilots who fanned out their firing arcs to prevent the Phantom from dodging all of them.

I'm not saying it's the easiest strategy to use, or that I'd choose to fly the OP's second list against a Phantom, but it's definitely doable.

Wedge Antilles (32)

X-Wing (29), Predator (3)

Biggs Darklighter (28)

X-Wing (25), R2-F2 (3)

Kyle Katarn (28)

HWK-290 (21), Blaster Turret (4), Moldy Crow (3)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Keep Predator on Wedge, but definitely drop R2-F2 to give Kyle a Recon Specialist. Biggs with both R2-F2 and a focus token is strong, but R2-F2 is an upgrade that's most helpful when you're facing a lot of opposing shots, while Recon Specialist will be much more generally helpful. (Obviously it might be in your local meta, but if you don't know much about it I would plan for a general Wave 3-4 meta.)

This list can definitely beat a Falcon. It can beat a Phantom, particularly if you're smart about Kyle's placement, but it but may struggle against a particularly good pilot--that is, someone who can surgically remove Biggs and Wedge from the list without taking a lot of damage in return.

Rookie Pilot (21)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Roark Garnet (24)

HWK-290 (19), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tala Squadron Pilot (13)

This is my least favorite list of the set; IMO, it's substantially weaker than the BBAAH version due to its lack of position control.

If you decide to run it, I'd switch in a Bandit for your Tala and use the spare point to assign Nien Nunb to Roark. I typically feel like he doesn't do much until the inevitable point in a game where I want my HWK to have the option of just running flat-out with that straight-4, and then I can't believe I left him off.

Chewbacca (44)

YT-1300 (42), Draw Their Fire (1), Millennium Falcon (1)

Corran Horn (44)

E-Wing (35), R2-D2 (4), Fire-Control System (2), Predator (3)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Well Falcon...Its kinda embarasing to play this, and I love my Coran with Adv.S PtL combo, but this list needs firepower.

Why is it embarrassing? This isn't exactly a list everyone's trying to run, after all (no Han, no Threepio, no triple-Z escort, etc.) In your place, though, I would consider revamping the list as a two-ship squad instead. Dropping the Bandit gives you the ability to play the Corran build you want along with a stronger Chewie build (i.e. add a Gunner or Luke).

Regardless of whether you take that advice, though, I wouldn't stack Predator + FCS: both are rerolls, so taking advantage of one sort of negates the other.

And even if it was a falcon list that everyone was running I wouldn't really be embarrassed. There are tons of people running Falcons and losing.

1. Synergy

Wedge Antilles (32)

X-Wing (29), Predator (3)

Biggs Darklighter (28)

X-Wing (25), R2-F2 (3)

Kyle Katarn (28)

HWK-290 (21), Blaster Turret (4), Moldy Crow (3)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

2. X-swarm

Rookie Pilot (21)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Roark Garnet (24)

HWK-290 (19), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Tala Squadron Pilot (13)

3 Blatant Cheating (Falcon )

Chewbacca (44)

YT-1300 (42), Draw Their Fire (1), Millennium Falcon (1)

Corran Horn (44)

E-Wing (35), R2-D2 (4), Fire-Control System (2), Predator (3)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Well Falcon...Its kinda embarasing to play this, and I love my Coran with Adv.S PtL combo, but this list needs firepower.

So who will leave the island after this council?

Squad #1: I'd be changing R2F2 on Biggs to Recon Specialist on Kyle and if you must have R2F2 then Wedge would need to lose Predator. Slow play all you like but Kyle just isn't going to "save" a big enough pile of Focus tokens to both pass one to Biggs each turn allowing him to utilize the droid and have one to fire the Blaster turret much less modify that attack if needed. I think this list is close but isn't something I'd play as listed.

Squad #2: A HWK with no teeth? No, it's just how you're listing things as you have Roark taking two lines while everyone else takes one. May just downgrade the Tala to a Bandit and give Roark some Crew; Nium could help him keep up.

Squad #3: Having FCS and Predator seems very redundant to me as you could only re-roll a given die once. I know you may be throwing enough that you need to use TL to modify all the ones you want but then Predator isn't doing much for you. Who's [crit] results are you going to have Chewie draw? It seems to me that Corran should be able to recharge lost shields via R2D2 which leave Chewie protecting the Bandit.

Played few games vs Phantoms, not well piloted Phantoms but phantoms. X-swarm list did quite well (you can block lots of routes of decloack with 5 ships, and if he lands in any of 4 arcs he is going to eat it) Really good opponent will evade everything, but opponent that good can win with Advanced too.

Sugestions to drop Bandit in X-swarm and Falcon lists in favor of more upgrades. If given choice between upgrades and more ships I will choose more ships. All the games with Z-95 showed me rebels have no better way to spend 12 points.

Biggs with R2-F2. he gets 2-3 shots a turn so R2-F2 gives you around 1 extra turn of life in my personal experience, and if you spend few first turns doing 1 forward and banking focus you can survive action denial a bit.

So jury vote goes toward X-swarm a bit, will see about it

Ok, tournament happened, did quite well (3 full wins, 1 modified, 1 loss because stupid mistake on my part, but more on that later) ended up third. Was using modified version of my blatant cheating list: