Consider this a riff off the old battle cry of DC Comics' Blackhawks air combat team.

Some of my newest acquisitions are (finally!) a pair of actual A-Wing expansions, and a second HWK-290. So I thought, what kind of possibilities are there for two HWKs and two A-Wings?

Here's my first attempt:

[PS4] Roark Garnet (19)

Recon Specialist (3)

Blaster Turret (4)

[PS5] Gemmer Sojan (22)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

[PS6] Arvel Crynyd (23)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

[PS6] Kyle Katarn (21)

Moldy Crow (3)

Recon Specialist (3)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Determination (1)

Total = 100

I just gamed it out against a pair of fully bloated Imperials -- Captain Jonus and Bounty Hunter, loaded to the gills with expendable munitions -- and the Rebels won handily. Not exactly a quality opponent for my pet list. But I kind of liked the synergy I was seeing between Arvel ramming the large base ship and getting handed a focus token to enhance his resulting 3-dice attack.

Sticking with the requirement for a list consisting of 2x HWKs and 2x A-Wings, how could this squad get better?

Edit: I meant Arvel doing the ramming. Fixed now.

A. Swap the turrets. Sure Kyle may pass out Focus tokens instead of using them himself but at least the Crow can hang on to them and have one available if needed where the Recon Specialist could get blocked out of actions.

B. I'd rather spend 20 points on a PtL, Refit Green Squadron A-Wing (add VI for 21 points if PS is that important) than spend that much on either of the uniques you have named.

My thought would be:

Kyle + Blaster + Recon + Crow

Jake + Refit + PtL

Roark + Ion

Green + Refit + PtL

Gemmer can be a legitimate ship, but he really really wants predator. The difference it makes to his damage output is astounding, enough to make your opponent want to shoot him but at the same time not because he's packing 4 green dice (plus he's only 23 points, that's an ion Y-wing or a Red Squadron)

Arvel's a pale shadow of his RoTJ super-star-destroying self, sadly

I'd cannibalize him in a heartbeat to buff up the mini-phantom.

And yeah, Blaster needs to be on the moldy crow ship to guarantee your focus (and not make you worthless when you bump or get stressed) which isn't all bad (Roark --> phantom, say hello to 3 red dice before you've re-cloaked)

I don't really like Kyle though, his ability just doesn't seem as potent. Jan Ors, though, now there's a fearsome lady.

So

Jan (kyle, crow, blaster) [35]

Roark (recon, ion) [27]

Gemmer (predator, refit) [23]

Prototype (refit) [15]

alternatively swap crow + blaster to Roark and leave Jan with Kyle and Ion. Depends really on how much you hate phantoms.

Playing this squad some more, I'm definitely seeing the problem with Blaster Turret on Roark. It's real easy for him to lose his action, and as soon as he's been forced to leave formation, he's not getting passed the token from Kyle and I found him successfully getting a turret shot off only about half the time.

I've seen others on this board swearing by the wisdom of keeping Blaster Turret OFF Kyle, since it works against his skill, even with Rec Spec.

Overall, I'm finding it hard to justify Blaster Turret at all. At least with this quirky build.

The Blaster Turret does work against Kyle's ability but with Recon+Crow the idea is that it gives you options. Flying him with Garven can make things more interesting when Kyle can pass out a Focus token but get it back. When you have Kyle with the Blaster you do get to see the state of the board before deciding what you might like to do with any Focus tokens; sometimes using them to shoot the Blasters is the best option but other times giving the Focus to someone else may be better.

On the upside, Roark just finished off a Firespray with Lone Wolf with his primary weapon at range 2. I had to laugh.

Playing this squad some more, I'm definitely seeing the problem with Blaster Turret on Roark. It's real easy for him to lose his action, and as soon as he's been forced to leave formation, he's not getting passed the token from Kyle and I found him successfully getting a turret shot off only about half the time.

I've seen others on this board swearing by the wisdom of keeping Blaster Turret OFF Kyle, since it works against his skill, even with Rec Spec.

Overall, I'm finding it hard to justify Blaster Turret at all. At least with this quirky build.

outside of carnor jax, Moldy Crow on not Kyle or Kyle Katarn (crew) triggering off green maneuvers guarantee you get to fire the blaster, if you want to find a place for it