Hello all,

Here are 2.5 versions of the same list. The characteristics I am thinking about are: ease of understand, funness, and total sheer power from maneuverabilityPS or extra ship.

I have a few questions I want you to specifically consider:

Which list is most powerful?

- Is having a 3rd 2dice ship with boost better or the better positioning from Jake and Tycho for earlier Procket shots?

- Hull on Roark (or another upgrade) or 3 pts to upgrade Z to A?

For a first time player, which list is more fun?

Is the 3A list easier and funner to play against another casual list?

Or is the ease and power of having a ton of abilities from the 2As more fun?

I'm not considering dropping Swarm Tactics for now because that's the fun idea here. I also see it as theoretically as powerful giving everyone PS12 versus getting one or two copies of Predator or Outmaneuver.

I think this list has enough firepower to kill a Decimator + Phantom. Or Fat Han. Yes or no?

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Roark 3A -

I expect this to be the easier one for new players. Also expected more power from a maneuverable extra ship. It also looks like more fun to me.

Can chain to 3 ships, either all 3 As or the two Greens and back to Roark if close.

Also PS1 can be a blocker.

Roark 2A -

PS 7 and 8, more maneuverability. Tycho has full dial. Roark gets a little more protection.

Is there any other upgrade than Hull to consider? A crew? Jan Ors?

In my games, Roark can die very quickly if focused for a turn.

If Roark goes down in this list, the two As can still fight quite hard.

Having 2 Swarm Tactics gives more maneuvering options. I feel like taking one out for an offensive EPT might make it hard to really utilize. Also, I do like possibly passing it back to Roark to catch a Phantom himself. As I have no built in Phantom protection without that.

Roark 3A version 2:

Sacrifices Autothrusters. Do I need those to keep PS3 Awings alive until they can blast a Procket?

I also lose Hull on Roark.

I gain a Green with PTL and the ability to chain PS12 to all 4 ships.

not understanding moldy crow on roark with an ICT

. I love having chewbacca crew on the HWK. it basically mitigates 2 damage for 4 pts which is needed because roark will be targeted early and often in any of those lists

I worried about Roark being targetted down. Easy to kill in 1 turn, from live experience.

Moldy gives you ability to spend multiple focuses on defense in a single turn, or go offensive with a TL F ICT shot. Coupled with a swarm tactics PS12 pass back, Roark could easily ion out a Phantom himself.

hope i didnt/dont sound like a daft prick.

youll get one maybe two rounds of stored up foci...either due to being targeted or spending your store. without recon spec and/or blaster turret i think that 3 pts from moldy crow on a non-kyle HWK is better spent elsewhere IMO. with the the build as is Roark will always be the target and hit hard. you need to protect him as best you can with either damage mitigation, biggs, or providing a juicier target.

Gotta agree with cubby. I never understood why I was seeing Roark/Moldy Crow with no way to get extra tokens. Surely a Hull upgrade would be better than spending multiple turns saving up foci for the sole purpose of defending multiple attacks in the same turn. I like the third list best, though.

Well I considered that 3 points tends to be equal to an action or a damage or a hull.

In that sense, saving 2 or 3 focus tokens thus is cost efficient for the 3 points. Sadly, I agree with you on a feeling basis. Doesn't seem to add very much resilience to the ship.

However, I would expect that math-wise, that extra focus should become approximately worth a hit anyway over the course of 2 or 3 turns where you would have spent the focus already if you didnt have one. Esp, if you're chaining PS12 back to Roark. Thus, to me, Moldy in my head slightly more cost effective than directly adding a hull. To be honest, in real life and in my feelings, I don't think it adds much defense.

I'm debating how to add Chewbacca now. Or simply, work around it another way.

I fully expected Roark to be targeted first, which is why I placed defensive upgrades on him as the next priority.

I guess I never thought about it like that. It just seems so... inefficient.

Moldy crow? Or my calculation process?? Haaha.

I have a feeling an action is only worth about 2 points. And that moldy is worth about that much honestly.

Yet mathematically, it feels like it should be highly cost effective:

if you stock 2 (combat 3rd turn), it should be 6 points.

You also get quite a lot of variation of use:

it allows you to enter combat with TL F, which is promising damage.

or you can use multiple focuses a turn against a few attacks, which I reckon it takes about 3 to 4 attacks to finish off a HWK usually. Typically one strongly focused turn, or two or three of random focusing.

I'd probably take munitions fail-safe over auto-thrusters as although I have never tried them they are quite limited in their use, especially if you aim to get within range 1. Might as well make the rockets get the best chance possible.

Have you tried prockets before DB?

Basically my experience:

They're never worth it to fire with only F. Never. Ever. You'd rather risk dying with it than doing this. Well.. except for if you really will die against a Decimator. The rate is exactly 3.75, typically mitigated to 1 damage after green dice.

With TL and F they are worth their cost, coming out to 4.6875 average, meaning more of the time you will get 5 hits, becoming 2 or 3 damage easily.

Thus also, Prockets basically never quite totally misses, but doing 1 damage is usually unacceptable for 3 points. Munitions Failsafe thus never really helps out, as you usually hit.

In contrast 2 points of autothrusters means your R3 initial engagement is totally to your favor and that against turrets you have enough survivability to actually equalize Fat Han with only 2 As.

I have a different feeling about Prockets than Blail Blerg does. My order of preference for a second action when shooting the Prockets is 1) Boost into R1, 2) Evade if turret, 3) TL. You have a 63% of rolling at least 4 hits if you don't have TL, and a 90% of rolling 3 hits. Adding the TL brings it to a 97% of rolling at least 4, and a 72% of rolling all 5. Clearly having a TL will net you an average of 1 extra DAMAGE. Against a Decimator, this one extra damage is not worth sacrificing an evade token (I'd rather have 1 less damage against me than 1 more against him). Against a Phantom, this could be worth it, but the problem is they're going to more than likely have you in arc at R1, so they'll be throwing 5v3 as it is (and not spending their ordnance to do so)... So if you find that you've spent the focus (as you're likely to do) if you didn't kill it, then it'll more than likely kill you (5TL vs. 3 = 2.64 damage... Assuming the Phantom spent her action on E but has a TL via FCS, gunner optional).

But then there's the question of how often are you going to get into R1 when you're moving at PS3? I've found it very difficult to get R1 on higher PS targets. Against a phantom it's basically impossible. Against a Fat Turret, it's easier if you can predict his movement (which isn't too difficult) and either block with someone, or better yet - block the boost so both A wings get to shoot. Good luck against Dash though since he'll just BR + Boost or Boost + BR out of the way.

My flying style can be summed up in three famous quotes:

"Never tell me the odds!"

"**** the torpedoes!"

"There appears to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"

I think for a new player that is playing casual games your list with Roark and 3 Greens would be the best. You've got a lot of fiddly stuff going on with Roark, Swarm Tactics, PTL, and Proton Rockets. Having to also add in the complexity of Jake and Tycho seems like it would be a bit much for a newer player to take in. The higher number of ships also punishes them less for bumping or landing on an asteroid. Having identical builds on the three As should be helpful to a new player as well since they won't have to keep track of who can do what as much.

Honestly, I don't know that I love Roark in this list. The As really need to be moving later if you are worried about Phantoms and trying to get into range for the Proton Rockets. You could do something similar to your list with Roark, Jake, and Tycho using Horton as your Ion caddy and replacing Swarm Tactics with VI. You end up with 2 PS10s and a PS9 and don't have to worry about having to tether your As to a slow moving HWK. You also don't lose all of your PS when the HWK gets shot down.

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I think for a new player that is playing casual games your list with Roark and 3 Greens would be the best. You've got a lot of fiddly stuff going on with Roark, Swarm Tactics, PTL, and Proton Rockets. Having to also add in the complexity of Jake and Tycho seems like it would be a bit much for a newer player to take in. The higher number of ships also punishes them less for bumping or landing on an asteroid. Having identical builds on the three As should be helpful to a new player as well since they won't have to keep track of who can do what as much.

Honestly, I don't know that I love Roark in this list. The As really need to be moving later if you are worried about Phantoms and trying to get into range for the Proton Rockets. You could do something similar to your list with Roark, Jake, and Tycho using Horton as your Ion caddy and replacing Swarm Tactics with VI. You end up with 2 PS10s and a PS9 and don't have to worry about having to tether your As to a slow moving HWK. You also don't lose all of your PS when the HWK gets shot down.

Jake Farrell (24)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Proton Rockets (3)

Push the Limit (3)

Autothrusters (2)

A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Tycho Celchu (26)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Proton Rockets (3)

Push the Limit (3)

Autothrusters (2)

A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Horton Salm (25)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

R2-D6 (1)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I have a hunch this is more effective.

Horton should be about as durable as Roark with extra focuses to spend and I think he'll attract almost as much attention since he's the easiest thing you've got to kill and he's toting that Ion Turret. He's got a much better dial, is much better at range three than Roark is, and when your opponent takes him down your other ships aren't affected by the loss. Hopefully you can get Jake and Tycho into position to fire off their Proton Rockets before Horton gets burnt down.

For Ease of Use, Enjoyment, and Firepower I like the look of your 3rd list.

Although I might drop the ICT for a 3rd PRocket on the GSP.

Yes, Roark could be viewed as "dead weight" with it's weaker dial and paltry 1 attack. But it is also a force multiplier with it's PS Boosting.

I've got a list called "Rated R" featuring a naked Roark and 3 X-Wings. (yes, for those that know rating systems Triple-X should be categorized as 18A, 18+, or NC-17 not "R")

Basically it's a matter of pretending you're playing the Shuttle Mission. It makes you're opponent second guess their initial POA; Attack the Strike-Wing and deal with the support ship later OR Attack the support ship first and potentially leave themselves open to the Strike-Wing.

Roark's ability being R3 is a fairly large distance along the board. Also A-Wings are quick and nimble enough to close the distance. And the X-Wings I mentioned about are high powered enough to make up for their moderate speed and maneuverability.

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There's also a Tycho-Decoy trick that you can do but it is a drop in firepower since it uses refitted A-Wings. It also is lower on the Ease of Use scale.

---EDIT Added---

Rated-R

Roark Garnet — HWK-290 19
Nien Nunb 1

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing 29 (any Top4 X-Wings work, the key is EPT-Swarm)
Swarm Tactics 2

Biggs Darklighter — X-Wing 25
R2-D6 1
Swarm Tactics 2

Rookie Pilot — X-Wing 21

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Tycho-Decoy Trick (list currently unnamed.)

Roark Garnet — HWK-290 19
Autoblaster Turret 2
Intelligence Agent 1

Tycho Celchu — A-Wing 26
Push the Limit 3
Ion Pulse Missiles 3
Decoy 2
A-Wing Test Pilot 0

Green Squadron Pilot — A-Wing 19
Push the Limit 3
Chardaan Refit -2
Swarm Tactics 2
A-Wing Test Pilot 0

Green Squadron Pilot — A-Wing 19
Push the Limit 3
Chardaan Refit -2
Swarm Tactics 2
A-Wing Test Pilot 0

How the trick works is Tycho Decoy's his PS to Roark, Roark PS boosts a GSP, and the GSP's Chain-Swam to Tycho. This allows Roark to stay back and only need to be within R3 of one of the GSPs. Should Tycho be at R2 of Roark he can give him his PS8 to attack.

As a contingency plan when Roark dies, Tycho can assume his spot as PS Booster and float at R1-2 of a GSP. the Benefit of R1 is the return of his PS through Swarm, the benefit of R2 is that he potentially is in R3 of his attackers giving him +Range Bonus to agility.

Why not just take Swarm? The reason to take Decoy is it allows you to vary your tactics on the fly while netting the same effects as Swarm thanks to how the rest of the list is designed.

Also Jake could also be subbed for Tycho and it would give you enough points to either take a Second PRocket or an IPM for the A's or ICT for Roark.