I had a hankering to see the brown bird in flight tonight. What makes for great synergy with this ugly buzzard of the focus farm?

Start with the obvious:

Kyle Katarn (21)

Moldy Crow (3)

Recon Specialist (3)

Blaster Turret (4)

=(31)

Now you have a slow-rolling focus token stacker. Can we boost its survivability and support capacities for when the shooting starts?

+

Engine Upgrade (4)

Squad Leader (2)

=(37)

Okay. So who best to benefit from being around the stench of this revolting vulture?

Dutch Vander? Together these two get to reinforce each other's native actions for continuous TL+F firing.

Jake Farrell? Definitely a top candidate for getting all those free foci.

Etahn A'baht? He can help that meager Blaster Turret be a little more potent.

Garven Dreis? Now a focus token hands off like a hot potato.

Blaster turret, engine upgrade, and squad leader are all methods to deplete, or at least not replenish, his focus stack and are hence all the opposite of synergy.

If you want a focus factory go ICT, moldy crow, rec spec. That way he can generate 2 a turn and count on giving one away and keeping the other to modify his dice. Also, once you start giving a support ship some teeth, it becomes a target. The higher a priority he is, the quicker he dies, and the less support he offers.

Whoever he's supporting should be more threatening than him.

You could always go crazy with the following:

Roark Garnet

+ ICT

Kyle Katarn

+ Swarm Tactics

+ Recon Specialist

+ Moldy Crow

+ Blaster Turret

Jan Ors

+ Swarm Tactics

+ Blaster Turret

All three named hawks, one 4-dice turret, some control with ion, all firing at PS 12. And the best of all: The above are only 88 points, so you can add a bandit for instance. Or you can add some mix of shield upgrades, maybe chewbacca, lando calrissian, or whatever you like.

I'd give you that Kyle + Recon + Crow + Blaster may not be a bad place to start for a ship that can provide support to other ships but which doesn't have to. Throwing Engine Upgrade or Squad Leader onto that is a horrible idea, SL more than EU, as those eat Kyle's action which you'd want to use for more tokens. Better bets would be something like Predator or even Determination for the EPT and probably the Hull Upgrade as the Modification.

Now if you want Kyle to start passing those Focus tokens around instead of using them himself they changing the Blaster to an Ion is a good start as it allows him to keep his supply while changing the threat dynamics. You're also going to want ships that can take advantage of having a Focus token handed to them and needing that to allow them to fire a Blaster Turret is NOT a good place to start. You want a ship that can be effective without support but which can do better without it instead of a ship that needs outside support to do its job.

I like Jan + Kyle (crew). She gets a stress every time she adds a die to someone and Kyle gives her a free focus token when she gets rid of a stress.

Kyle Katarn (21)

Predator (3)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Jan Ors (2)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Moldy Crow (3)

Dagger Squadron Pilot (24)

Advanced Sensors (3)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

Dagger Squadron Pilot (24)

Advanced Sensors (3)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Load up on focus tokens to start, getting closer pass them around, turning them into evades as needed.