Before Rebel Aces reached us I rarely saw A-wings at all. It was quite unanimous that there were better ways of spending points. I accepted the arguments as they made sense, but I still flew my Triple A-wing list as I found that to be fun and challenging. After running the same list for almost a year and a half Rebel Aces came like a heavenly gift. Now, people are arguing that they're STILL useless which I find to be a returning theme here. Imperial Aces? Apparently useless. Rebel Aces? Seems to be folks here who think there's still no difference. I'm starting to seriously believe that even if we had a fix for TIE Advanced people would still complain about them being useless.

Anyways, I'm hoping to show that A-wings can be quite efficient. I've put together 5 A-wing-only squadrons which I have been and will be trying out and recording information from, saving the opposing squadrons and stats and post here. I will keep the squadron details in this post and then make new posts for every time I've played. Let's see if people are right in their critique.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. I

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Arvel Crynyd

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/100p

Wins: 1

Draws: 0

Losses: 1

Win/Lose: 1.00

This was the first list that came to mind when they spoiled Jake and Proton Rockets. It's pretty much a straight upgrade from my old list which had the same concept.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. II

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Gemmer Sojan

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/100p

Wins: 2

Draws: 0

Losses: 1

Win/Lose: 2.00

Picking Gemmer over Arvel to squeeze in that VI to help against Soontir, Vader, Phantoms and Han.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. III

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Green Squadron Pilot

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/99p

Wins: 0

Draws: 0

Losses: 0

Win/Lose: 0.00

Going for the initiative. When arcdodging is important and reaching Range 1 safely is gold this might be good.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. IV

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Daredevil

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Green Squadron Pilot

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/100p

Wins: 0

Draws: 0

Losses: 0

Win/Lose: 0.00

U-turn Tycho says it all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. V

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Outmaneuver

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Green Squadron Pilot

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/100p

Wins: 0

Draws: 0

Losses: 0

Win/Lose: 0.00

Focus, Barrel Roll, Boost can be quite the killer when Jake carries Outmaneuver.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-wing Aces Mk. VI

Tycho Celchu

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Daredevil

- Proton Rockets

- Experimental Interface

Jake Farrell

- Push the Limit

- A-wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

Green Squadron Pilot

- Push the Limit

- Proton Rockets

- Stealth Device

/100p

Wins: 13

Draws: 0

Losses: 5

Win/Lose: 2.60

A-wing Aces Mk. I

Ran two games with this, one win, one loss. The loss was against the following:

Soontir Fel Push the Limit, Hull Upgrade

Turr Phennir, Veteran Instincts, Shield Upgrade

Omicron Group Pilot - Engine Upgrade Heavy Laser Cannon Gunner Tactician FCS

The OGP only got to shoot twice or so, but it was really annoying with that EU. I was forced to spend missiles on it mid game to get rid of it, but I couldn't do much against Soontir and Turr when they had higher PS than me and equally good arcdodging.

The win was against:

Soontir Fel Push the Limit, Targeting Computer, Stealth Device

Turr Phennir Veteran Instincts, Stealth Device

Mauler Mithel Veteran Instincts, Stealth Device

Academy Pilot - Stealth Device

Went a bit better against Soontir and Turr this time, caught them in some bad situations. Don't remember that much, but I think the AP was left for last.

A-wing Aces Mk. II

Started out with a loss against:

Kath Scarlet Marksmanship Tactician - Experimental Interface

Captain Oicunn Ruthlessness Rebel Captive Mara Jade Tactical Jammer Dauntless

I did a few mistakes, and was punished for it. Jake ended up with three stress tokens after one round, and got shot down in the following. Tycho ended up too close to a stressed Gemmer in the end game, Gemmer took one hit, Tycho took one and died, then Oicunn finished Gemmer off without me being able to do anything about it by ramming me. Oicunn had 3 Hull remaining and Kath had 4. So if I'd been able to clear one of them earlier with the rockets I would have had a much better chance. =/

Victory:

Soontir Fel Push the Limit, Targeting Computer,

Royal Guard Pilot Predator

Royal Guard Pilot Predator

Night Beast Targeting Computer

Pretty solid victory here. All my ships survived. Soontir ate Tycho's rocket and Night Beast ate Jake's in the first round of shooting, both going down. Then some knife fighting ensued with the RGPs, Gemmer took some hits and had to leave Tycho and Jake to it, and they did a fantastic job mopping up the rest. Gemmer still had his Rocket as well.

Victory:

Fel's Wrath

Lieutenant Lorrir

Alpha Squadron Pilot

Alpha Squadron Pilot

Alpha Squadron Pilot

Kinda surprised to face a list with no upgrades. Anyways, tried a new setup-strategy, placed all three ships together in one corner. My opponent made big sweeping moves, keeping the Alphas together like a search party while Fel's Wrath and Lorrir took a shortcut through the asteroids. The named Interceptors blew up first, shortly followed by one Alpha. The two remaining Alphas managed to chase down Tycho, but was then killed off by Jake and Gemmer. All rockets fired. :3

Added a new list to the lot now that Wave 5 is out.

Tycho Celchu

- PtL

- Test Pilot

- DD

- PR

- EI

Jake Farrell

- PtL

- Test Pilot

- VI

- PR

- SD

Green Sqdr

- PtL

- PR

- SD

/100p

Had an amazing game today where I faced off with:

Whisper

- VI

- ACD

Soontir

- PtL

Vader

- Adrenaline Rush

- PR

/100p

I knew this'd be a tough one from the start, especially for my Greenie who went down awfully quick. As I won the flip I decided he'd get the initiative so Jake would get to move last. I managed to get his PR off early in the game against Whisper who unfortunately were cloaked and just managed to avoid everything. Tycho had a short exchange with Soontir. Soontir shot first and got two hits, I could've evaded them with my focus, but I saved it for the PR, which turned out to be a good choice as Soontir went up in flames right away. Later with Jake at 1 Hull and Tycho without Shields it looked very grim as Vader and Whisper were unharmed. I managed to strip one Shield from Whisper who then got stuck in a corner. Decloak to one side led to an asteroid, the other side out of the map. So he decloaked forward and then took a sharp 1 turn. Unfortunately she landed about 2mm out and got removed. Vader had fired his PR on Tycho and only got 4 hits which Tycho somehow managed to avoid with focus+evade. The same round Whisper flew out Vader caught Tycho with a Direct Hit. So there I was, with an A-wing with 1 Hull versus an unharmed Vader. First I plinked off one shield, not much, but it was a start. Luckily for me I got to move after Vader and had access to both barrel roll and boost. We had a Range 1 exchange which I managed to survive and Vader screwed up his defense roll. I scored hit, hit, crit. Away with the last shield and in with a damage card and a Structural Damage, reducing his agility with one. So from here on I was hunting Vader who desperately tried to repair the damage. It took him somewhere in the vicinity of 6 turns until he got that hit result. Jake performed wonderfully in this fight and outmaneuvered Vader on many occasions, staying out of arc and getting to shoot. Eventually I pinned him down at Range 1 with TL+Focus and he was stressed from a k-turn. I believe the game took about two hours, but we both had a really fun time. Tycho didn't shine so much in this game as he had lower PS than everyone, but against PS 7 and less this list is a killer.

Got one game in with Aces Mk. VI tonight, practicing for upcoming Store Championships. Went up against this list:

Whisper

- VI

- Recon Specialist

- ACD

Chiraneau

- VI

- EU

- Moff Jerjerrod

- Ysanne Isard

- Intelligence Agent

/98p

For some reason my opponent chose to take the initiative, probably wanted to have Whisper shooting before Jake. I knew this was going to be tough as turrets are rough on A-wings and Phantoms are simply even better arc dodgers. This type of list is a nightmare for me (until Autothrusters arrive that is). I set up Tycho and the Greenie fairly close together, he set his Phantom pointing at one of the lanes in the asteroids to the left of my A-wings so I set Jake on the other side of that lane, he set RAC next to Whisper, dead center of the board. I had my A-wings converge on the middle of the board and turn in towards the center turn two. I saw that he was eager to get into the fight so I took a shot at moving up quite far. I boosted up my Green to look straight at RAC and boosted Tycho right to him. Whisper chose maneuver quite poorly as staying cloaked would land her on an asteroid, decloaking right would have her flying over an asteroid and decloaking left would leaver her without a shot and blocking RAC, so a decloak forward it was, which ended up overlapping my Green with Tycho glancing at her rear corner polishing his PR. Jake barrel rolled in and just barely made it to range 1 of Whisper, however still in arc. RAC wen straight forward and ended up in Range 1 of the Green. Actionless Whisper fired at Jake who evaded and then she cloaked. Here Jake made quite the retaliation, firing his PR and spending his focus resulted in 4 hits and 1 crit. Whisper rolled 3 blanks and 1 eye... Wohoo! Whisper is gone after the first exchange! That was a huge relief. The rear admiral had however dealt two damage to my Green who also popped his PR and spent his focus, resulting in all shields gone on the Decimator. Poor Tycho was just gazing out into empty space and the fireball that once was a Phantom.

Anyways, time to spread out and have a go at that decimator. Unfortunately my Green was short on options, either bumping the Decimator, taking a white maneuver sitting at what could be (and would've been) Range 1 from the Deci, that's a bad place to be without actions, so I hit the gas and clipped the asteroid, which resulted in a hit, poor Greenie can't catch a break.
Anyways we moved around a bit, I usually got a shot or two each round and he got one of Jake's shields. The Greenie survived surprisingly long with his last Hull point, flying around and getting pot shots every now and then. I was very successful in blocking him and keeping the pressure up. Tycho got to fire his PR, dealing another three damage, Jake got hit, loosing a shield and taking a crit, reducing his agility value by one, but he managed to repair it and block the Deci next round. I had him down to 4 Hull points left when he killed my Green, I dealt one damage to him. Next round he took out Jake, Tycho dealt another damage. So in the end it was Tycho with 1 Shield and 2 Hull against the Deci with 2 Hull. We had a Range 1 exchange, Tycho took a hit and a crit (oh good lord, please don't let it be a direct hit...) ..."Reduce your agility value by 1..." Oh yes, he survives! Tycho returned the favor rolling hit, crit, eye, focusing making it hit, hit, crit. He had Ysanne's evade but still took that hit and crit, and that was game. Very very close one, but Tycho pulled through in the end. I love my A-wings.

Very cool reports, thanks. I need to fly my A-Wings more for sure. Have you tried all 4 named ones?

Tycho (PTL, Chardaan)

Jake (PTL, Chardaan)

Arvel (PTL, Chardaan, Test Pilot)

Gemmer (PTL, Chardaan, Test Pilot)

99 points

Tried it once and didn't win but it was close. Not tournament material probably, but a fun list still.

I have yet to try 4 A-wings in a list. Right now I'm in the middle of Store Championship season and various game nights, so it'll have to wait a bit.

Ran a Store Championship yesterday, so I'll post another report later today. ^^

Ran a Store Tournament yesterday, went with Mk.VI which has become my standard list. We ran 3 swiss rounds and a top 4 cut with 1st and 2nd playing each other and 3rd and 4th playing.

Swiss round 1:

Went up against the same player I played against in the last post, for those too lazy to scroll up, here's the list again.

Whisper

- VI

- Recon Specialist

- ACD

Chiraneau

- VI

- EU

- Moff Jerjerrod

- Ysanne Isard

- Intelligence Agent

/98p

This time he was a lot more cautious with Whisper which I understood he'd be. My target was therefore RAC, I was hoping to catch him in a bad spot and get at least 2 PRs on him in the same round, but I never really got an opportunity. He basically looped around the map with RAC and went up slightly to the left of the centre from my perspective with Whisper and stayed there. My Greenie got a Range 1 exchange with Whisper. It cost him his shields, but it's worth it to toss 5 dice at that thing. So I did, and my roll..... 4 blanks and 1 hit. Couldn't even spend my focus on anything.

That set the tone for the rest of the game. I always rolled hit and blank on my regular shots, he pretty much always got 3-4 hits with TL and RACs ability. My A-wings held out very well though. With Focus-Evade they can handle themselves really well. Eventually my opponent heard wrong when they called out the time and thought we had just a few minutes left, when we in fact had over twenty minutes. So he ran off with Whisper out of fear of taking Tycho's PR as Jake had put his in RAC. I managed to focus RAC down to 3 Hull with Jake and Tycho with all PRs fired. In the last round Jake had taken a Blinded Pilot and Tycho had just lost a shield, so I sent Jake towards the Phantom to just get out of its arc and Tycho broke off from his persuit as he would at most get a Range 2 shot on the Decimator which would have 1 Evade token from Ysanne, so I would not be able to kill it and didn't want to die to Whisper, so she got a Range 3 shot which Tycho evaded.

Loss 28-0

By now I took the time to look around, and I realized that out of 10 people there, 7 had 360-turrets Range 1-3 and one guy had an HWK with ICT, so 8 lists with 360 firing arc and every imperial list had at least one Decimator (yes, one guy brought 2). *sigh*

Swiss Round 2:

Another two-ship list featuring a Decimator and a Firespray.

Rear Admiral Chiraneau

- Expose

- Experimental Interface

- Rebel Captive

Something I can't remember, 4p

Boba Fett

- VI

My target was obvious in this game. I simply do not want 5 dice at Range 1 thrown back at me when I shoot the PRs, so I figured Boba had to go. In the first three rounds he flew them side by side, with RAC furthest away from me. We started cutting through the asteroids when I turned up Tycho who ended up blocking Boba who wanted to turn back towards his own side. This resultet in my Green getting his PR off on Boba. I managed to keep away from the Decimator most of the time, so no real threat there. A few rounds later I chased Boba down into the corner while the Decimator continued to circle the asteroids, going in the wrong direction. Don't remember how, but he managed to focus down my little Green who never seem to be able to catch a break. Jake got his PR off in the rear of Boba and then turned to block him, allowing Tycho to set up his shot. Said and done, Tycho sent his PR, leaving Boba with 1 Hull left. The next round he managed to get past Jake and Tycho, ending up just millimeters ahead of Jake. Boba fired with no result, Jake shot back and rolled hit hit crit, which made it impossible for Boba to survive despite his 2 evade dice. At this point my opponent took drastic measures, he drove his stressed Decimator in a sharp turn across an asteroid. I had only fired at it once, so he was only lacking 1 shield. Tycho and Jake split up and ran off. Jake simply dashed away with a 5 straight, Tycho had to make way around the Decimator and through the asteroids to get away, and when time was out they were both safely across the playing field.

Victory 40-28

Swiss Round 3:

Yay, got to go up against the only other player without a turret. Btw, this turned into a real slugfest.

Etahn A'baht

- PtL

- R2 Astromech

- EU

4x Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit

With seven A-wings it was bound to be chaos. He set up in his right hand corner and I set up in mine. He was not too experienced it seemed as the first thing he did was to spread out his ships, but he turned them all into the middle the second round. I turned my Green in towards the middle while trying to go around with Jake and Tycho to snipe Etahn. In the second round we had a small Range 3 exchange which gave no results. The third round I managed to move my Green into an unoccupied spot in the cluster of A-wings. He was staring right at a Prototype and Etahn. He managed to avoid Etahn's shot with his evade token and then threw his PR at Etahn which along with his focus resulted in 3 hits, Etahn evaded 2 and lost 1 shield. Tycho and Jake got a bit too close and Jake bumped into Tycho, but they weren't in any immediate danger. I turned my ships around an asteroiod and the round after Jake managed to catch Etahn with his PR, rolled 4 hits and a crit and he rolled nothing. From then on it was just a matter of separating the A-wings one at a time and focusing them down. Tycho got his PR off dealing three damage to one A-wing, then as three of them k-turned in one direction and one into another I went after the lonely one who went down to Tycho and Jake's Range 1 shots. The next turn I turned around and finished off the damaged one. That was time. In the end I lost a shield on Tycho and a shield on the Green while he had two Prototypes remaining.

Victory 70-0

I actually managed the top 4 cut and got to play for 3rd place. The prize was the same for 3rd and 4th, but it was just for the sake of getting more than just the final play

Match for 3rd place

My opponent loves Falcons and so, the list was

Chewie

- Predator

- Luke Skywalker

- Falcon title

Cracken

- Swarm Tactics

2x Talas

I faced this list in a casual game earlier this week when I tried out a version of Super Dash and Jan Ors. I managed to lure away his Z-95s in that game and proceeded to do the same in this game. I started with all my ships fairly close together in my right hand corner and he put all ships in his right hand corner. I wanted to get around to catch Chewie in the rear where he can't flee from Tycho and Jake. So I rushed Jake and Tycho across the board and had my Green follow but he broke off and cut through the middle where he got a Range 1 shot on a Tala which missed completely. Two of the Zs shot at Tycho or Jake at Range 2 and missed. The Green turned and boosted into position hoping to block Chewie, but he made a faster move than I expected, but I still just barely had him in arc. Tycho caught up thanks to Daredevil, but Jake did not reach entirely, so he got to blast away Chewie's evade token and Tycho fired his PR, Chewie fired at Jake and managed to take two shields. The PR's made a total of 9 or 10 damage that round. The next, Jake caught up and launched his PR. That was more than the wookie could handle and he went down. After this I was a bit nervous for Jake who took two shots from the Zs, but managed to avoid both completely. Two rounds later Tycho put 2 hits and a crit on Cracken, making him PS0, while my opponent only got sporadic Range 3 shots which missed, so he conceded as we both were tired and wanted to go home.

I've never reached top 4 at a tournament before, so this was very exciting, and I can't wait for Scum to come and mess things up a bit so I won't be hit as hard by turrets when I have Autothrusters.

Loving these reports, keep it up I've been toying around with a-wings for a while and finally decided on a similar list to your Mk VI for a store championship today. Then this morning my scum arrived with their autothrusters so I quickly swapped them in on jake and the green leaving tycho as you have him. I manage to make the top 8 cut, which I was pretty pleased with, but got knocked out in the first round of elimination. The autothrusers were absolutely invaluable and I am now seriously considering putting a set on Tycho instead of the EI.

Now that S&V is out AT is a must on A-wings

Now that S&V is out AT is a must on A-wings

Indeed, got a Store Championship this Saturday that I'm bringing the Autothrusters to, with the 2 points I'm saving I'll put VI on the Green and have 1 point for initiative bid.

Loving these reports, keep it up I've been toying around with a-wings for a while and finally decided on a similar list to your Mk VI for a store championship today. Then this morning my scum arrived with their autothrusters so I quickly swapped them in on jake and the green leaving tycho as you have him. I manage to make the top 8 cut, which I was pretty pleased with, but got knocked out in the first round of elimination. The autothrusers were absolutely invaluable and I am now seriously considering putting a set on Tycho instead of the EI.

Glad you like them, I'm going to keep posting as much as I can.

100 Point

Green Squadron Pilot x5

-Chardaan Refit

-Predator

Ive had good luck with this build. Low pilot skill but very high probability of 2 hits every time with a focus.

98 Point

Gemmer Sojan

-Chardaan Refit

-Stealth Device

-A-Wing Test Pilot

-Predator

Green Squadron Pilot x3

-Veteran Instincts

-Chardaan Refit

-Stealth Device

-A-Wing Test Pilot

-Predator

One less ship on the board but higher pilot skill and now even harder to hit.

94 Point

Gemmer Sojan

-Chardaan Refit

-Autothrusters

-A-Wing Test Pilot

-Predator

Green Squadron Pilot x3

-Veteran Instincts

-Chardaan Refit

-Autothrusters

-A-Wing Test Pilot

-Predator

I haven't had the opportunity to put this on the table yet. They are still all 5 PS but now should be more survivable against turrets.

Just some other options to consider. I've done well with both of the top 2 lists.

I am desperate to try a full A-wing squad. The pilots and combinations you can make are probably the most fun in the game for me. You can fit the four named pilots into a list I believe and still have an ET for each (I think).

I used the ace pilots for the first time the other day and they absolutely obliterated a Decimator with the use of proton rockets (and the help of Kyle Kattarn in the HWK).

Yeah, you can go all four elite pilots, though you will be stuck with using Refits on everyone and then giving them one 3p EPT each which will land you on 99p, so if you'd like a VI on Jake or Tycho there'd be room for that as well.

I didn't read your post until a few days ago and on 21-Feb ran a similar list. I don't think they played as many rounds as they should have so I didn't make the cut with a 2-1 record.

Just played a great Store Championship at my local store (Olympic Cards and Comics) with a regular round 2-1-1, made the cut, and made the Top 4. Lost to the same build as in regular play but could have won if I hadn't "nudged" his ship (I didn't think I did but deferred). He ran IG-88B and D and only had 2 hull left on the B. If I didn't nudge he would have found another proton rockets giving him a hard time and then that "Gunner" ability would have left the table.

I did not face any turrets in Olympic and therefore besides Jake barrel rolling to range 3 on a couple of occasions barely even used autothrusters. I also did not face a Whisperer. The tourney I did turrets and Whisper and the high PS, Initiative worked very well. The game I lost then I did not focus on the Decimator first and worked on the support and that spelled my doom. At Olympia I also use PTL a lot which makes me predictable. My opening move is to go in slow head on, get a target lock. Find myself in range 1 to focus and PTL - Evade and unload the Proton Rockets.

(98/100)
==============================
A-Wing: Tycho Celchu (26 + 9)
- Push the Limit (3)
- A-Wing Test Pilot (0)
- Veteran Instincts (1)

- Autothrusters (2)
- Proton Rockets (3)

A-Wing: Jake Farrell (24 + 9)
- Push the Limit (3)
- A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

- Veteran Instincts (1)

- Autothrusters (2)
- Proton Rockets (3)

A-Wing: Gemmer Sojan (22 + 8)
- A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

- Push the Limit (3)
- Autothrusters (2)
- Proton Rockets (3)

Locals were surprised, been known as the B-Wing guy and they know I HATE A-Wings. However, this build is doing me well.

A-wings are a completely different story when you yourself is behind the wheel of one or more.

Congrats on making the cut.

As for the list you might notice my third list, which uses a Green sqdr instead of Gemmer and Stealth Devices (I posted it before S&V got out). It's otherwise the same. I tried putting Autothrusters on Jake and the Green in my sixth list for the SC this weekend, but it failed I'm afraid. I will post a report on that after I get off work.

Thanks. My first tourney list was very similar to your second list,but I read your post a week after I played in the first tournament. Great minds think alike? LOL. Sorry it didn't work well for you this weekend and I would like to hear your battle report (I never remember this stuff). But here I will try.

Game 1: Win: 79-0. Don't remember the details but something similar to

Y-Wing with Ion.

Blues + FCS + Weapons Engineer

Blues + FCS + Weapons Engineer

Bandit.

I don't remember too many details so please excuse me. I started off slow, he started off slow. It was really slow. Then I smashed two PRockets into a B-Wing taking it down (Target Lock previous action, then Focus and Evade). Also another one into a B-Wing and shredding it's shields. The Y-Wing IONized Jake and by the end of the game he had one hull. Took out the Y-Wing and the other B leaving the Z-95. One more round and he would have been toasted. Oh well. My first swarm-ish opponent.

Game 2: Modified Win: 72-65.

Red Squadron Pilot + R2 Astromech

Red Squadron Pilot + R2 Astromech

Red Squadron Pilot + R2 Astromech

Red Squadron Pilot + R2 Astromech

Could not have played worse and have worse dice. A little scared of his tight formation and hung in between some closely spaced rocks. After a while after on the ropes and losing I finally let loose some protons and whittled him down flying around like a mad-man. Forgot to barrel roll Jake. Lost Tycho and Gemmer. We finished the game after time and in two turns completed the job. He went onto the Top 8.

Game 3: Win: 100-0:

Soontir Fell

Carnor

Turr

Howlrunner

Don’t remember upgrades. Took the initiative with 98 points. Once again went in slow getting the Target Lock, then head on with a PTL focus and evade. Soontir and Turr went down quick with a PRocket each. Carnor survived with one hull. Finished the job after a few more rounds. Carnor took a while and then Howlrunner dropped quick.

Game 4: Lost 0-100:

G-88 B Aggressor + Predator + Advanced Sensors + Mangler Cannon + Autothrusters + Inertial Dampeners + IG-2000

G-88 D Aggressor + Predator + Advanced Sensors + Mangler Cannon + Autothrusters + Inertial Dampeners + IG-2000 + Sesmic Charge

I rolled in slow but he jammed me with his big guys with a boost and a move and I never used two of my Prockets. It was over quick. He really hated Jake and took him down first. I took the chances that he used all his focus to get 3 hits on me and I could have taken one shield and moved on but completed the evades. He rolled all 3 again. This happened for multiple rounds with both ships. That natural gunner really hurts. That is why I targeted the IG-88B first. In hindsight, I should have stayed on the outside and ran more making him chase me. But not even sure if that would have worked. He likes to focus as an action, add the predator roll he has good odds of hitting 3 every time. The Mangler was in full force and he would get to shoot it twice at me for each ship. I would meet him again in the Top 4.

Game 5: Top 8: Won 0-100:

Etahn Abaht E-wing + Fire Control System + R7 Astromech,

Bandit Squadron Pilot Z-95 Headhunter + Cluster Missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot Z-95 Headhunter + Cluster Missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot Z-95 Headhunter + Cluster Missiles

Bandit Squadron Pilot Z-95 Headhunter + Cluster Missile

He did a beautiful maneuver and lined all his guys up to launch all 4 cluster missiles. Therefore I left the E-Wing alone even though it was my top priority. I nailed two Bandits with Prockets leaving Jake out of view from the 4th and the third did not have target lock so I only hit with 3. With 2 evades I had to wait another day to take that Bandit down. With the PTL evade I was able to avoid any destruction leaving with one hull on Tycho. We then kept trading shots as I could not get any hits on the E-Wing and he kept taking me down as I rolled horrible defense. If not for the PTL with focus + evade and barrel rolling for range three using Autothrusters, I could have been in serious trouble. One of my more enjoyable games with only a few hull left on all my ships.

Game 6: Top 4: Lost 0-100

Same opponent as game 4. This time I played better but boy was his dice was hot just like the first game. With 2 Prockets with 5 hits each only took 4 damage. Then I started whittling his shields down and had him down to 4 hull on the IG88D and 2 on the IG88B. There was one "bump" where I thought I was clear but too close to call and that would have finished his IG88B. Then I would have had all 3 A-Wings to take down his IG88D at leisure as the gunner affect would have been gone....what ifs mean nothing. He took out Gemmer and then with only hull left Tycho went down and Jake soon after. It was a good fight.

I think with the two large ships having Advanced Sensors works for the most part especially with the poor maneuvering. . I think he was undefeated until the Championship. That build is a B-Wing Swarm with Y-Wing ION.

So, here's the write-up on my last tournament, a Store Championship with 19 contestants.

Went with Mk. VI with the adjustment of adding Autothrusters instead of Stealth Devices and giving the Green a VI with the spare points. So now the squad is worth 99p which helped giving me the choice of initiative.

First round

Ended up playing one of the TOs and we pretty much simultaneously said "Oh no". He's the guy that won Nordic last year and now he brought Han and 2 Greens.

Han Solo

- Predator

- Luke Skywalker

- C3PO

- Engine Upgrade

- Falcon Title

Green sqdr

- VI

- Refit

- Test Pilot

x2

(Yes, he had Test Pilot even though it didn't do anything, it was just for fun). His list was 100p so I decided to give him initiative to allow my Green to move after his and Jake to move after Han. We didn't get much done in the match. I realized after a while that I wouldn't be able to get Han at Range 1 and deliver the PRs, so I switched target and blasted the Greens. One of them had lost a shield and was vaporized by the PR. A round or two after that I lost my Green. Leaving me at a 10p disadvantage. Jake lost his shields and then took a crit from Han which left me a difficult choice, spend my focus token to save it and just go with a regular shot on the A-wing I had at Range 1, or risk drawing a Direct Hit or Munitions Failure, with the Direct Hit I'd still get to shoot, but Jake would be out, Munitions would mean I'd taken a hit for absolutely no reason. I decided to take the risk, he was 1 Shield short and only had an Evade token. And I drew Structural Damage. Then it was my turn to fire my PR. With the Focus I think I got 4 hits and a crit, he rolled 2 Evades and spent his token, lost his shield and took a crit. My wishes for a Direct Hit did not come true it was another Structural Damage. Jake stepped on it to get out of there, in the last round and I had a decision to make. Either I could send Tycho after the Green and hope that 1) Tycho would be able to get the Green in arc and 2) That he would survive to shoot. I think he was down to his Hull, and the difference was so small so I decided not to risk anything and ran off with him as well. After a game of plenty of evades we ended up going 28-18. So he got a Modified Win.

Round two

I went down a few tables to face the second best "loser". He ran

Oicunn

- Mara Jade

- Ysanne Isard

- Rebel Captive

4x Academy TIEs

All lower PS than me, love it. Mara Jade is useless, love it. Now as for the game, I'm not sure what my opponent was up to. He set the TIEs in formation to run beside the asteroids by a minimal margin, and the Decimator in the same corner. I set my Green just inside the asteroids that he ran his TIEs by, Tycho went further away and out on the edge I had Jake. This is what I never understood. The first round he went 5 straight with the TIEs nothing weird about it, what was weird was that he went 5 straight again the next round, putting him beside the asteroid that my Green was about to fly up to. So I boosted right and Focused with 2 TIEs in arc and Range 1. Tycho TL-Focused and Daredeviled in to just barely reaching Range 1 on the TIE closest to the Green. Jake was out on his own. All TIEs were focused, but that didn't help. Normally I want to save the PRs for the big ships, but when I get free shots at chaff that might otherwise block you you don't say no. Two rockets equals two dead TIEs. From then on there isn't too much to say. My opponent got frustrated over not hitting me while blaming bad rolls. In my opinion he didn't roll that bad, it was often that he got results like 2 hits and a crit with the Decimator, but I was always able to hide behind a Focus and an Evade, so that was the main reason he couldn't hit me. Though he did bump my Green twice and managed to damage hit it with an attack, down at one hull it looked grim for a moment with the green stuck in the corner. Luckily he got out and Jake put the final PR in a TIE and it went to time. I only did a few pot-shots at Oicunn and did take away his shields, but I had no interest in chasing him down with the two TIEs still alive. 36-0 to me.

Round three

Hopping up a notch I got to play Jonus Brothers. Predator on Jonus. Thankfully I know just how to play against that list. I set the asteroids to create a lane in the middle. He went for the lane and I set my Green opposite of them, Tycho on one side and Jake on the other. Typically the players I've faced have taken the bait, which this guy did as well. In the second turn he banked the Defenders towards Jake who flew past their arcs and boosted in to get one of them in arc, the green boosted in from the front and Tycho into their backs. I was surprised to get to shoot all the PRs in one round. One of the Defenders took two shields and the other went down completely. I left Jonus alone as he isn't particularly dangerous. After quite a bit of dogfighting I had dealt some damage to Jonus and almost had the Defender. Then I killed the Defender and brought Jonus down to 1 Hull. Tycho went after and mopped up. The game was over with 30 minutes to spare. 100-0 to me.

After the game I got the explanation to the first round of combat. My opponent hadn't played since Wave 4 got out, so he was unfamiliar with Rebel Aces and Wave 5. He misread the card and thought PRs were Range 2 which he then realized was the attack value.

Round four

I was at table 3 and could reach the Top 4 if I could win this game, the same was of course true for my opponent as well, so it was a battle for the end game. He flew

Prince Xizor

- VI

- Virago

- AS

- AT

Guri

- Predator

- AT

Black Sun Enforcer

- AT

Interesting, this was the first time I got to play against StarVipers, but I decided to give him initiative to give Jake the upper hand against Xizor and the Green a bonus against Guri. He started them all in formation in the middle. I had the Green in the middle, Tycho to the left and Jake on the right. In the initial moves he broke Xizor off to face Tycho while the others went into the middle to face the Green. I ran Jake as fast as I could behind the low-PS ships to aid against Xizor. Tycho got into a position where he could fire his missile, dealing 3 hits against Xizor. My Green took a bit of a beating in the middle and lost his shields, he turned out to get in the way of Xizor and Tycho turned inwards and got in between the other Vipers, getting a free shot on one of them, which unfirtunately dealt like 1 damage or so. Jake caught up with Xizor who was down to 2 Hull. I decided to fire the PR and my opponent questioned if I really wanted to do that since he was at 2 Hull. I didn't want to take any chances, he needed to go so I could focus on the other two which I could outmaneuver. From here on my dice rolls were absolute crap. I rolled 2 hits and 3 blanks with the PR. He evaded 1. Guri and the PS1 killed the Green who still had his PR. Tycho U-turned and managed to stand right beside the spot which Xizor slooped to. Jake followed and got a Range 1 shot which resulted in nothing. Xizor shot back at Jake, then my loyal Tycho blasted the prince into oblivion, an example which Guri and the PS1 followed and did so to Jake as well. Tycho did a like one damage to the other two but was quickly brought down by the remaining two fighters. I kept rolling blank, focus, evade and that became the death of my ships. Lost with 39-100.

I'm a bit disappointed with the result of the last game, but it wouldn't be a dice game if I always rolled decent or great results. The Autothrusters were a lot less helpful than SD would've been in my experience. With SD it feels like the ships are untouchable until 1 damage slips through and then they are bait, whilst with the Autothrusters I got slowly whittled down, which is not a game I like to play with my tiny little A-wings. So that's a no. I'm going back to the Stealth Devices.

I ended up in 8th place which is pretty good considering I went 2-2, and a bonus was that I had the second best MoV of all the players that went 2-2. So despite the fact that in my mind it didn't go too well, I still got a decent result.

Yeah, you can go all four elite pilots, though you will be stuck with using Refits on everyone and then giving them one 3p EPT each which will land you on 99p, so if you'd like a VI on Jake or Tycho there'd be room for that as well.

I tried exactly that last night funnily enough. Just a friendly against a pal who has just started out with Scum.

I had Jake with VI, Tycho with PTL and Daredevil, Gemer and Arvel with PTL also.

He used IG88B, a loaded up Headhunter and a Heavy Scyk.

I found the list extremely fun, I lost Tycho after a while, but he did kill the Scyk and the headhunter....the later of which had a deadmans switch (horrible way for Tycho to die).

The other three then chased the Aggressor for a while until he made his move....at which point I rammed Arvel down his throat who finished him with his special ability and a target lock (much to my satisfaction as I had been trying to use his ability all game). In this round he did manage to kill Jake, but the rules weren't quite clear whether he should have been allowed to attack or not.

Four very good pilot abilities that I managed to use all. Jake doesn't really need PTL because of his own mini PTL. I plan to run a squad of greens one day and allow them to have proton rockets as well (if possible).

Been a bit bad at updating lately, but I played in a game night about a week ago. 4 rounds of swiss, and I really had the pressure as this was the spring kit with the alternate art Tycho Celchu card. Simply put, I NEEDED it. I ran with the usual Mk.VI list with Stealth Devices as the Autothrusters did not really perform as well in the tournament I played with them. Though I had switched the PR on the Green sqdr. to an Ion Pulse as I know people like large ships.

Round 1

Faced a pretty new guy who I helped at a local play meeting the day before. He had tweaked the list he played a bit and ran 3 scum.

Kath Scarlet

- Assault Missiles

- HLC

- Seismic Charges

- Munitions Failsafe

Syndicate Thug

- Autoblaster Turret

- BTL-A4 Y-wing

- Unhinged Astromech

Serissu

- Swarm Tactics

- Stealth Device

/99p

He deployed the Y-wing in the corner and Kath next to it and Serissu right behind Kath. The Y-wing was not dangerous at all since it was on the outside of Kath, so it would have a very long turn to get into the middle where I wanted to face them. I don't recall everything from the fight. I flanked with Jake getting almost behind them, took an early shot from the rear of Kath which missed. Next round the combat was on and my Greenie took a bit of damage. Jake made his way to Range 1 of Kath and unleashed the pain. After the first engagement my Greenie had taken a bit of damage, Kath had taken a crit which caused her to ignore her pilot ability, so no more extra dice. He turned her into the middle and dropped the seismic charge which only dealt damage to Serissu as I evaded the bomb radius. The Green ran off to reposition and Jake had to go after the Y-wing to avoid the bomb. The Y-wing took quite some damage and couldn't get the Green in arc. I got him down to 1 Hull before Greenie got caught in both Kath's and the Y's arcs. Jake had a toasty Range 1 shot at the Y which could help saving the Green. Jake rolled blank, blank, focus. I was staring at the dice for a moment in disbelief before I spent the target lock in order to reroll all of them as I didn't have a focus. Rolled again aaaand, blank, focus, focus... Wounderful. Anyhow the Green survived Kath's blast and went on to defend against the Y as both my Green and his Y had taken the crit which reduces pilot skill to 0. He got 2 hits in and I rolled evade, blank, blank, so spending my focus wouldn't help. Thanks to simultaneous fire at least he got to fire his Ion Pulse Missile at Kath and got three hits with the TL and Focus, so Kath took a damage and got ioned. Tycho then put his PR in her scoring 4 hits, she rolled 2 blanks, but got an evade from Serissu's reroll, sadly enough. Jake vanquished the Y in the round after the Green's death. Tycho pursued Kath for two rounds, shooting at her to get that last hullpoint, but somehow he managed to roll just enough to survive all the time. So the game ended with Kath at one Hull, my Green down and his Y down. I lost with 7 points. It's a good MoV for a loss though.

Round 2

Now I got to face my previous opponent's buddy who has played for just as long as him. I actually helped him put together the list he ran the day before.

RAC

- Gunner

- Tactical Jammer

- Expose

Howlrunner

Turr Phennir

- VI

/100p

The Jammer was not my suggestion, he just wanted it to be able to protect Howlie a bit. I don't remember much of this game at all. All I remember is that Turr was left for last and Jake outdanced Turr and ended up killing him with a Range 1 primary. Victory 100-0.

Round 3

Met an old buddy who's played since the game hit the shelves and a core member of the club just as I. He loves interceptors and is the closest I've found to an imperial version of myself, though he hasn't really gotten all the kinks in his flying sorted out yet. He brought:

Soontir Fel

- PtL

- Autothrusters

Turr Phennir

- VI

- Autothrusters

Sigma sqdr

- Stygium Particle Accelerator

Academy Pilot

/99p

He gave me the initiative so he could move his Interceptors after all of my ships. He set his Sigma off to the side and the Interceptors in the middle. With a cheeky charge by Jake in the second round I managed to catch him off guard and place myself at Range 1 of Turr where he couldn't escape as Barrel Rolling was restricted by an asteroid and Soontir, and the Boost was blocked by Jake. He missed his shot and Jake's rocket instantly blew Turr out of the skies. With some fancy flying I managed to keep Soontir without targets most of the game, but not well enough as he and the Sigma did manage to bring down my Greenie. Tycho had dealt some damage to the Academy TIE and I needed to reposition to get a good shot at the Sigma with Tycho's rocket, so I did two things at once, moving Tycho and Jake into Range 1 behind the Academy who was fleeing around a rock in the outskirts. Jake promptly blew him up, leaving me just 12 points ahead. It's not much, but enough to get me 5 Victory points, but I tried to lure the Sigma in for a rocket and just after I had gotten Tycho to Range 1 time was called. Jake and Soontir didn't have any shots. Tycho launched his missile, scoring a total of 4 hits, he rolled 1 evade and didn't deal any damaged back. The match was mostly about maneuvering which tends to be the case when two arc-dodger lists face off.

Round 4

Finally, my old nemesis. This guy loves the Falcon and if we both attend the same tournament it's highly likely that we will face each other. I've beaten him once with my A-wings, he ran a Fat Chewie then, this time it was Han and 3 Tala's. I've never beaten his Han build, but I have been close on occasion.

Han Solo

- Predator

- Luke Skywalker

- Chewbacca

3x Tala

/99p

I believe he took the initiative, probably in order to shoot away any Focus tokens lying around before I get a chance to use them for PRs. I go out pretty aggressively on Han, getting my TLs pretty early. I was hoping to get him with the Ion Pulse Missile to set him up for PRs, but he got too close and my Green went hard on his shields with his blasters instead, taking three of them away. I didn't get any good chances to fire the PRs at him early on, so I focused him with blasters and actually go him down to 4 Hull left with just the blasters. I think he was as surprised as I was about how quickly the damage poured in. Unfortunately my Green went down before he could do much else. Then Jake did what he does best, fired his rocket. Han took 5 hits and evaded nothing. Though he chose to spend Chebacca to discard a card and regen a shield, so he ended up with 1 remaining Hull. The next round both Jake and Tycho positioned themselves at Range 1 of Han to ensure his demise, and they didn't have to wait long. Jake blasted away the last bolt holding that scrapheap together. Han had managed to strip Tycho of his shields and went after him with the Talas. I'd like to see the Z-95 that can keep up with Psycho/U-turn Tycho though. I did not take a single hit for the remainder of the game and took one or two shields from the Talas, but nothing really happened afterwards. It was an enormous relief to see Han get removed. I finally beat him and he was previously undefeated in the tournament. I knew I was in a good spot in the rankings.

I ended up in second place. We were three players who had gone 3-1. It was pretty close though, the winner had 531 MoV, I had 513 and the guy I just defeated had 511. I really really wanted the Tycho card, since there is a reason I'm called Tycho by other players in the area. And I got it, along with the range ruler and my third game kit dice bag (which I still don't know what to use them for, I have a prefect box for my dice where they lie together with my laser). This is the best I've ever placed in a tournament, I was really hoping for 1st place though, but I guess I'll have to save that for regionals so I can win some acrylic dice instead.

Yeah, you can go all four elite pilots, though you will be stuck with using Refits on everyone and then giving them one 3p EPT each which will land you on 99p, so if you'd like a VI on Jake or Tycho there'd be room for that as well.

I tried exactly that last night funnily enough. Just a friendly against a pal who has just started out with Scum.

I had Jake with VI, Tycho with PTL and Daredevil, Gemer and Arvel with PTL also.

He used IG88B, a loaded up Headhunter and a Heavy Scyk.

I found the list extremely fun, I lost Tycho after a while, but he did kill the Scyk and the headhunter....the later of which had a deadmans switch (horrible way for Tycho to die).

The other three then chased the Aggressor for a while until he made his move....at which point I rammed Arvel down his throat who finished him with his special ability and a target lock (much to my satisfaction as I had been trying to use his ability all game). In this round he did manage to kill Jake, but the rules weren't quite clear whether he should have been allowed to attack or not.

Four very good pilot abilities that I managed to use all. Jake doesn't really need PTL because of his own mini PTL. I plan to run a squad of greens one day and allow them to have proton rockets as well (if possible).

PtL on Jake is fantastic. It turns him into TIE Interceptor 2.0. He can Barrel Roll and Boost and still end up with a Focus. He's incredibly slippery. Or you Focus, Boost into Range 1, grab a TL and fire the PR. It's incredibly easy to get the PRs where you want them with him. I've tried Outmaneuver as well, it works like a charm, but it's not useful in lists as dependent on survival as the ones I play.

I enjoyed reading your report. Thanks.

I am gearing up for a regional tourny and the lists seem to be double aggressors ( mostly b&c but d shows up too) of 4 blue squadron with a z kicker. I am trying the 4 ace pilots and i came up with http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/244798/captian-tycho-and-the-tyconauts had to sacrifice some decent upgrades on everyone to keep a psycho tycho built as is. some suggestions on tweaks would be nice.

tycho:

test pilot

ptl

dare devil

autothrusters

refit

jake:

refit

autothrusters

arvel:

test pilot

refit

intimidation

gemmer:

test pilot

refit

VI

main idea is to have arvel ram the ships and the rest focus on that ship but the ramming tactic is difficult to pull off

Personally I'd put the VI on Jake instead Gemmer to be able to deal with PS9 ships like Soontir and VI Turr. And on a streamlined list like this I don't think you should make one pilot stand out as much as Tycho is. He will be unstoppable while the rest will be fairly easy to catch in comparison. Tycho already has a big advantage as he always has access to his entire dial except for the k-turn. So I'd also drop DD from Tycho and add Outmaneuver of PtL to Jake.

I was a believer in that A-wings weren't able to be threatening enough when fighting against the usual meta.

Then I heard about this list:

4 Prototypes + Chardaan

2 Green squadron + PTL + Chardaan

That's 6 A-wings. And it chews things up like you wouldn't believe. In this 2-3 ship meta you can wolf pack tactic like nobodies business. You take your damaged ships and either block with them or swing them out of arc and engage at a later time. Target focus splitting is a real benefit to this list.

I have only 1 loss when playing it vs a Panic Attack list (B + E2 + Tactician x 3 and a Gold + Ion + R3-A2) where I lost on points in the last round (but only by 10 points so my opponent got a modified win only). I am 6 wins to 1 loss with it.

Don't say that, you're going to make me impulse buy another A-wing.