As the topic implies, I have a tournament coming up this weekend that doesn't allow large ships. I only own/fly rebels, so I was hoping to get some feedback on these two lists I'm considering:

List 1:

Jake Farrell - A Wing Test Pilot + Refit + PtL + Outmaneuver (28)

Ethan A'bahat - FCS + R7 (36)

3x Bandit Squadron (36)

Total: 100

Z's swarm with Ethan while the A Wing loops around for the flank. I like the idea of getting a lot of chances at crits with a swarm, but putting 28 points into an A Wing scares me a bit. If my Scum stuff comes in before Saturday I could also swap out R7 for Autothrusters on Jake, but that puts him at 30 points. I ran this list against a friend today who had a bunch of ion's a it was painful, but I think the list has potential.

List 2:

Ten Numb - FCS + Marksmanship (Swap Marksmanship for Mangler Cannon if Scum arrives) (36)

Ibitsam - Sensor Jammer + Ellusiveness + HLC (41)

Gemmer - Test Pilot - Refit - PtL (23)

Numb is obvious, Ibitsam is a PITA to kill and hits like a truck, and Gemmer plays the flanker role again. I could also take HLC off of Ibitsam and have 30 points to play with.

My biggest fear is that I'm going to run into a bunch of Phantoms at this tournament and I have no idea how to deal with them in either of these lists. Pretty low pilot skills makes it pretty easy for the Phantom to arc dodge.

Any suggestions?

First off, I think that's awesome that there are no big ships allowed! I do think they probably should've dis-allowed Phantoms, as well.

I admit that I'm not as experienced with my Rebels. You can always go for Nera w/ 2 Flechette Torps and Munitions Failsafe. Maybe Deadeye, as well.

You can always try to go for Etahn w/ Ten Numb as those crits will always get through.

I'll admit that I prefer to have 4+ ships in a list. I'll go with 2 elites, but then like to use some cheap generics. Not always, but usually. I guess I like the greater fault tolerance.

If you're going to see small ships only and if you fear running into phantoms, your best bet will be the Stress Wing

That's

Luke Skywalker/Wes Jenson

*V.I

*R3-A2

*Engine Upgrade

(total of 35 or 36 respectively)

Both work, but Wes is more suited to directly countering the boring and derivative big ship + small ship list by smacking target-locks and stuff off of half the enemy's ships. Luke is more flexible and his ability makes him a lot less prone to bouts of bad green dice (though they still happen...fickle buggers)

Otherwise, I'd personally go for the E'athn list. It seems more stable. If you're worried about an A-wing eating most of your points, I'd recommend a downgrade to the illustrious Predator Gemmer (the most annoying thing you can field this side of Biggs) which will free up enough points for PTL and R2-D2 on E'athn

no large ships is a great idea. getting back to the roots of the game is wonderful.

I would run a 3 b's list or a biggs list both are great lists and simple to play

All good ideas, thanks guys. I have no idea what I'll see at this, but the store championship I was at this past weekend seemed more like a Decimator/Phantom support group than anything else, so I figured Phantoms are a safe bet.

The way I see it there are three solutions to battle a phatom:

1. Turrets. Options here are HWK, Nera, and Y-Wings. I like Nera, but it seems like the Phant would just green maneuver and cloak again.
2. Higher Pilot Skill
3. Stress/Ion

I like the R3-A2 combo, but unfortunately I can't bring myself to buy the Transport. There are a number of astromechs/x-wing pilots I'm interested in, but it seems silly to pay that price for them. I considered tactician for stress as well, but then I realized it only comes in the Phantom expansion and I'll never find those by Saturday.

Etahn + Numb is a cool combo but darn that's expensive. Definitely somethng to consider though.

I really like downgrading Jake to Gemmer, and I never would have thought about Predator on him, but it's probably more useful than Outmaneuver since it's more reliable.

Another idea I had was to swap the A Wing out completely for Roark and slap Swarm Tactics on Etahn. That would give me a turret in Roark (blaster turret) AND two ships shooting at pilot skill 12. That hast the potential to deal with a Phantom rather quickly, and should be pretty effective against other lists as well.

ps 7 key farlander - push , engine, FCS

ps 6 isbitsim push , engine , FCS

ps2 dagger - Points I think FCS will fit not sure its on my battle scribe not with me at the moment 100 pts.

24 hull and shield , 3 attack each what ever they fire at gets target locked for re-rolls your two higher pilots when stressed get better and your sure to get stressed either by pushing all the time or your opponents tactians or rebel captive.

Sadly I don't have 3 B-Wings, but I'll admit, they do have a soft spot in my heart. Love me some B's

Taking some ideas from here and doing some more theory crafting I came up with this as an alternate.

Gemmer Sojan (23)

A-Wing Test Pilot

Chardaan Refit

Predator (I go back and forth between this and Outmanuever. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts)

Ten Numb (34)

Fire Control Systems

Veteran Instincts (This is the Phantom answer. Move last, shoot before they cloak)

Etahn A'baht (42)

R2-D2

Push the Limit

Advanced Sensors

Total: 99 Points

The Etahan combo will let me Focus/Evade before moving, then do a green to immediately clear the stress, which should help keep him alive longer.

I think it's between this and the Z-Swarm at this point, and I'm sure I'll change my mind many times between now and Saturday

No large ships rule just cries out for Golden Daggers surely?

predator gemmer for life!

(don't think of him as a PTL super pilot like Jakes or Soontir, he's more of a giant tie fighter)

I don't know about Ten Nub, though

Shooting before recloaks is nice, but it's going to be unmodified damage if he has to roll into position and he is not priced efficiently

Yeah I was trying really hard to get that combo in, but it's just so expensive. I've instead landed on:

You could also take /E2 upgrade on B-wing and then put on Tactician. That would let you double stress with her.

You can also use the stressbot from another source. Or a different way to stress out the Phantom.

Also, if you put a stress on a Phantom, it will have to do a green move next turn. That can really help you figure out where they are going to be. They only have 4 green moves. That's 2 bank, 2 straight, and 3 straight. They have to decloak left, right, or straight. Not too hard to figure out where from there. Or at least not too hard to set yourself up with a shot from someone else with a high PS.

If you are able to do it every turn, then they will have a hard time turning around, as well. There is only so much board space and only so much room a 2 bank will give you.

Wedge is also not a bad choice. Maybe even Wedge with Stay On Target. Go last and fire at the Phantom. If you can catch one uncloaked, that's only 1 evade die. Just know that Wedge will be a high priority target. Maybe hull upgrade? Or Shield with R2-D2?

No large ships rule just cries out for Golden Daggers surely?

Definitely not a bad option, but B's are even easier to arc dodge than other ships, so it's risky.

No large ships rule just cries out for Golden Daggers surely?

Definitely not a bad option, but B's are even easier to arc dodge than other ships, so it's risky.

not really

barrel-roll makes Bs far harder to arc-dodge because it's really easy to set up a wide variety of firing arcs/blocks or to reposition whereas a x/y/z only has its base movement unless you slap EU on it

Etahn seems ill-suited to a meta with no large ships.

I would run the following instead with the same ships:

Corran Horn - R2-D2, Veteran Instincts, Fire-Control System, Engine Upgrade

Jake Farrell - Refit, AWTP, Push the Limit, Outmaneuver

2x Tala Squadron Pilot

Now you have a counter to Whisper, Soontir and BBBBZ (kind of, you'll have to kill 2 B-Wings and keep Corran and Jake alive).

Etahn hasn't really worked out that well in the playtests I've been doing, so I tend to agree that he might not be well suited for this type of event. I also learned that I am god awful at flying A Wings. I have no idea why, but I just need more practice with them I guess. I've been setting them up off to the side of my main force and shooting down the side of the map to try and flank.

But once I get there one of two things happens: 1) The enemy turns to face him and blows him out of the sky (although perhaps that's his purpose), or 2) I get the flank and get so close that I end up bumping every turn when I'm trying to follow behind the enemy. Gemmer's low PS meant that I often went first and had to maneuver in front of the enemy ship to try and stay in range one after they moved. Any tips on flying A Wing flankers?

Assuming I decide to scrap the A Wing for now here are the two lists I'm currently considering:

List One:

Corran Horn (46) - R2-D2, FCS, VI, Engine Upgrade

Dagger Squadron (26) - FCS

Dagger Squadron (26) - FCS

With the last two points in this list I'm debating between Flechette Torpedoes on Corran as an anti-phantom mechanic or Int Agent on a Dagger to see where the phantom (or other high PS ship) is going. Corran is another one I have to figure out, because 46-48 points is a lot to invest in a ship that can go down very early.

List Two:

Dagger Squadron (33) - FCS, HLC

Dagger Squadron (33) - FCS, HLC

Ibitsam (34) - Ellusiveness, Sensor Jammer

Lots of firepower, and Ibitsam is a tanky little bugger.

I'd love to get A Wings to work (I have three of them now, so anxious to play with them), but I just haven't figured them out yet.

The other odd thing is the friend I was playtesting against was using a lot of ions, which seem to be a big weakness for B's. They're nearly impossible to avoid, and a Y wing or Hawk can just ion a B-wing into uselessness pretty easily.