yeah,
I made this squadron.
Eaden Vrill + Heavy Laser Cannon + Tactical Jammer(40)
ProtoType Pilot with Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot with Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot with Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot with Chardaan refit (15)



I flew it for the first time yesterday, my 1st time flying A-wings and 1st time flying a YT-2400!



It didn't work out very well!
the YT2400 moving after the A-wings ment it was difficult to get it between the A-wings and the enemy. Also flying straight at the mini tie swarm was a mistake I lost all shields and 2 hull in the opening exchange.

Being an 'asteroid' isn't very useful if the enemy are shooting at you!

What changes should I make to the YT2400? with only 40pts to spend?
How should I fly A-wings as a squadron or split them up?

Tips and Help please?

Panic...

Well, first off, a possibility is to change it around.

Vrill really has no benefit, you're hoping your opponent will stress himself to get lucky.

Drop him to the Fringer to free up two points. Still not enough to move before the A-Wings though.

Move them up to GSP's by dropping the HLC, which will leave you one point to play with.

Not a lot, but it's a start. Oh, drop in an Intelligence Agent on your Fringer so you know whether or not to Barrel Roll.

If you're dead-set on Tactical Jammer, you might reconsider the Heavy Laser Cannon. That would be good if you sent the A-wings up front to block, and you could keep Eaden at range 2-3 of the enemy.

Instead, I'd try something more defensive, like perhaps Lando. That leaves 4 points for something else either defensive or stress-inducing. The other thing you'll want to do is make sure Eaden is overlapped or overlaps opposing ships. They will NEVER shoot at your A-wings through Eaden if they have the choice of a range 1 shot.

EDIT: By the way, your squad looks beautiful.

yeah,
Thanks.
Planning on adding a blue stripe to most of my rebels super quick to do... gotta lighten up the blue a little.

ok
Dropping the Tactical Jammer and running the YT-2400 at the back makes sense.
Says shoot the A-wings or the further back YT-2400?

My first thoughts were a Wild F with weapons engineer or Leeboo crew as a cheap engine upgrade?

Lando is interesting and I think I could give him a go!
WildF HLC and lando (not reliable - but I quite like the fun gambling!)
4 prototypes with CR
100pts

Run the A-wings as a screen?

Panic...

I think id try and fit in Biggs somehow and put him behind your large ship at range 3 that way you can get better use out of your hlc. With the a-wings up front trying to get to range one for that extra offense dice. Noice paint job btw.

My question is this - what's the goal here?

yeah,
Dunno, I'd like to win games!
The squadron was built purely because I like the prototype A-wings paint scheme.
I traded away my red ones and I'm gonna paint blue stripes on some of my other rebel stuff...

A-wings will be the common element of my rebel squadrons for the next few months so I need to learn how to fly them.

Gonna paint a blue stripe on a B-wing next and try.
Keyan Farlander + Heavy Laser Cannon + Push the Limit (39)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
99pts.

Panic...

Here I was thinking the panic at the bottom of your post was an indication of your desperation. .

Firstly, outstanding idea with the stripe and triangle to match the A-wings.

On squad set up, maybe this would work.

19 Points
Green Squadron Pilot #1
Chardaan Refit, Expert Handling


19 Points
Green Squadron Pilot #2
Chardaan Refit, Expert Handling


19 points
Green Squadron Pilot #3
Chardaan Refit, Expert Handling


43 points
Wild Space Fringer
Heavy Laser Cannon, Lando Calrissian, Experimental Interface


It is one less ship, but it uses the Space Fringer to best effect, letting it stand off with the HLC, or for those turns it needs to gain position, it can use the turret. Lando and EI mean you can TL or Barrel Roll or Focus and the use EI for the Lando gamble. It also makes for an effective blocker.
Your A-wings gain the advantage of being able to barrel roll and with all the green on their dial, its not really an issue with stress.

This is the best looking squad I've flown against...I'm using that as the reason I beached (twice) and destroyed Echo!

I think if the A-Wings had come in as a fighter screen I would have lost more TIEs earlier on as they would have blocked my formation and given the YT free reign with it's HLC on them.

I'd love to give it a re-match sometime though once I have some more experience with the Phantom, and you've settled on this list?

Not sure Tactical Jammer is the way to go on this build. You've got five highly manoeuvrable ships, but using one of them as a screen seems a bit of a waste. That coupled with the fact that most people are going to be gunning for the YT-2400 if its a static target means you're not going to get much value from it. Drop it for the initiative.

... Looking at Eaden's ability it would be great if you could add a Tactician but the points don't fit. I think with Eaden you need something else to cause the stress. Most opponents won't deliberately stress themselves. Unless you play against a lot of PtL Interceptors, that is!

... Oh and I love the fleet! Nicely themed.

I agree with Houndstooth. The Tactical Jammer is kind of a waste of points in this build because the YT-2400 is going to be what most people want to shoot at, if A-Wings get even harder to hit that almost ensures that Vrill is the thing that gets shot down first.

Not sure Tactical Jammer is the way to go on this build. You've got five highly manoeuvrable ships, but using one of them as a screen seems a bit of a waste. That coupled with the fact that most people are going to be gunning for the YT-2400 if its a static target means you're not going to get much value from it. Drop it for the initiative.

... Looking at Eaden's ability it would be great if you could add a Tactician but the points don't fit. I think with Eaden you need something else to cause the stress. Most opponents won't deliberately stress themselves. Unless you play against a lot of PtL Interceptors, that is!

This is why I was asking about the goal. In order to make sure of the Tactical Jammer, you're sacrificing the biggest strength of the Awings (maneuverability).

If the goal is to use Tactical Jammer, I might put it on a YT1300 and fly Bs or Xs around it.

I'm gona toss this squad out there might be fun to try if your set on keeping the 4a's and Yt. There are more cannons coming out with Scum that might give your Yt a more offensive bite. Can drop the tactician and Ion cannon for an auto blaster if your keen on the close range mess.

Fringer + Ion Cannon + Outrider + Tactician(40)
ProtoType Pilot + Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot + Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot + Chardaan refit (15)
ProtoType Pilot + Chardaan refit (15)

Use the Fringer to ion and stress a ship then swamp with a-wings

So pretty!

What about Vrill at range 1 with tact jam? Rebs have little in the way of stress induction but 4 buzzing As for the enemy to try to out fly and avoid being bumped by should foster some stress filled K turn reactions.

I actually like the idea of the squad and think its pretty viable.

You need to just drop the Tactical Jammer and try for an initiative bid at 99 points. Really TJ does nothing for you here as the 2400 is going to be target priority number 1. To fly this list properly you need for the A-wings to screen and jam up your opponents squad while you take long distance shots with the HLC. Utilize the Barrel Roll to keep distance while the As harass the enemy squad. Hopefully you can keep Vrill alive into the end game where you can use his maneuverability to force the opponent into K-turns where he can open up with his turret with 3-dice attacks.

Alternatively you can drop an A-wing and go with Dash + Outrider + HLC + PTL + EU. Dash will be hyper-mobile and allow himself to keep distance, while the 3 prototype pilots get in close and pick away at the enemy squad.

The squadron was built purely because I like the prototype A-wings paint scheme.

I traded away my red ones and I'm gonna paint blue stripes on some of my other rebel stuff...

Now that I have a bunch of these red A-Wings, I'm going to have to come up with some sort of alternative counter-build. Then we must red-vs-blue battle to the death. There can be only one.

Vrill Wing (98/100)

===================

YT-2400: Eaden Vrill (32 + 6)

+ Lando Calrissian (3)

+ Experimental Interface (3)

A-Wing: Prototype Pilot (17 + -2)

+ Chardaan Refit (-2)

A-Wing: Prototype Pilot (17 + -2)

+ Chardaan Refit (-2)

A-Wing: Prototype Pilot (17 + -2)

+ Chardaan Refit (-2)

A-Wing: Prototype Pilot (17 + -2)

+ Chardaan Refit (-2)

I'm not sure how the Tactical Jammer works with HLC. Tactical Jammer lets you give your other ships cover so you want to be close to the enemy, But a HLC works best far from enemy ships.

I noticed that you didn't put get the turret effect for the HLC, interesting choice. I think I would pay the extra 5 points, but I could see how others might not want to.

I think your issue with this list is that you just put some upgrades on your ships that sounded cool rather than put them on a ship so that you would fly it a specific way. Most upgrades are only cost effective if you can use them effectively, they aren't usually worth it just to throw on.

Here are some ideas for list that seem to be what you were going for.

YT-2400 + Tactical Jammers (possibly + R2D2)

Some B-wings.

Here your YT-2400 is designed to tank for the rest of your squad. It flys out in front and draws fire away or provides cover for the B-wings. I switched your A-wings to B-wings because A-wings are pretty hard to kill as they are, but they don't have a ton of firepower. Despite being able to take twice as many hits before they die B-wings cost more and only have 1 agility dice making them more important to protect. They also excel at dishing out damage.

Dash Rendar + Outrider + HLC

A-wings with refit.

Now the role of your YT-2400 has been reversed. You want to keep it far away from enemy fire to maximize its own defense and the usefulness of the HLC. The A-wings become blockers. They are there to mess with enemy formations and deny ships their actions.

For the YT-2400, you have these choices as defensive crew slots:

-Recon specialist: 4 points, +1 focus token when taking an action, allows one for attack and one for defense

-Flight Instructor: 4 points, reroll a blank or eye defense dice, frees up actions

-Lando: 3 points, consumes an action to give you a random amount of focus's, evades, or nothing.

Personally, I like the first two options the best on the YT-2400, and Flight Instructor with lonewolf is funny!

yeah,
Listening to the suggestions about putting the YT-2400 at the back.
And dropping 1 A-wing to pay for some upgrades, At the moment I'd like to keep at least 3 A-wings.
So the list is somewhat similar to the first! also 50pt YT-2400 is stepping into fat Han is better territory...

Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)

Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)

Wild Space Fringer + Heavy Laser Cannon + Lando Calrissian + Outrider + Experimental Interface (48)

Gemmer Sojan + Chardaan Refit + A-Wing Test Pilot + Lone Wolf (22)

The Prototypes screen the YT-2400 with their 3 green dice.
YT target locks as an action and activates EI Lando.
Gemmer flanks and distracts.

in a ideal set up the opponent has the choice to shoot at the Range 1-2 A-wings with more green dice and probably an evade token?
Or shoot at the Range 2-3 YT2400 which is probably fairly turtled waiting for it's turn to fire.

Panic...

For the YT-2400, you have these choices as defensive crew slots:

-Recon specialist: 4 points, +1 focus token when taking an action, allows one for attack and one for defense

-Flight Instructor: 4 points, reroll a blank or eye defense dice, frees up actions

-Lando: 3 points, consumes an action to give you a random amount of focus's, evades, or nothing.

Personally, I like the first two options the best on the YT-2400, and Flight Instructor with lonewolf is funny!

Rec Spec is 3 points rather than 4. It consumes your action and gives you 2 focus.

Lando is also 3 points. Take Experimental Interface and this becomes free at the price of a stress token. You can get 2 evades, 2 focus, 1 of each, only 1 of either, and sure, nothing at all. You're still getting a target lock or barrel roll in addition to this risk.

Hmm, interesting list.

If I was given A-wings and an Outrider, I would build something like this:

-Green Squadron (+19)

-Refit (-2)

-PtL (+3)

20 points total. Can probably squeeze 3 of them in, leaving 40 points for the outrider.

Could be something like this damage build:

-Wild Space Fringer (+30)

-HLC (+7)

-Lando (+3)

Or this trolly "Cant touch this" Tank:

-Lebo (+34)

-Flight Instructor (+4)

-Lone Wolf (+2)

I don't use the outrider title, just too expensive for me. Anyways, this list allows 4 ships, all very maneuverable, and one of them is a large ship to boot.

For the YT-2400, you have these choices as defensive crew slots:

-Recon specialist: 4 points, +1 focus token when taking an action, allows one for attack and one for defense

-Flight Instructor: 4 points, reroll a blank or eye defense dice, frees up actions

-Lando: 3 points, consumes an action to give you a random amount of focus's, evades, or nothing.

Personally, I like the first two options the best on the YT-2400, and Flight Instructor with lonewolf is funny!

Rec Spec is 3 points rather than 4. It consumes your action and gives you 2 focus.

Lando is also 3 points. Take Experimental Interface and this becomes free at the price of a stress token. You can get 2 evades, 2 focus, 1 of each, only 1 of either, and sure, nothing at all. You're still getting a target lock or barrel roll in addition to this risk.

Free, but at the cost of 6 points, 2 PtL's I could put on the A-wings. But I see your point about the free action of evades or focuses. I think the evade is worth less than it is on the falcon, focus can actually help with those 2 agility.

Also I rolled 100 defense dice with lonewolf and Flight instructor, and for the same points cost, you get an evade result each time you roll, and its not uncommon to get 2 evades. It seems that it averages to 1.5 evades or something like that.