Dear X wing fans!

I want to fly a non-standard 4 ship rebel squad at the regionals. Not for a chance of winning, but hopefully somewhere in the middle ranks. As I unfortunately don’t have the time to playtest all of my ideas, I need your help: Please rank the below squadrons with regard to competitive play, so I can only test the most promising ones! Suggestions and discussion welcome. Thanks a lot

1. Reign of the Astromechs

Dutch + R7-T1 + Ion Turret
Hobbie + R3-A2
Tarn + R7 + Flechette
Prototype Pilot + Refit

Variant: Replace Tarn with Garven + R4-A6 (or R2)

Dutch, Hobbie and Tarn are about equally important targets for the opponent, list is still good when any of them is lost. Hopefully, the A-Wing makes up for some lack of agility. Including Garven for TL+focus on most ships is tempting, and R4-A6 is good against SuperDash or Whisper. However, I'm not sure if the added synergy can match the durability of Tarn plus the added Flechette Torpedo, which helps the (minor) Stress / Ion theme?

2. Operation Evasion

Keyan Farlander + Adv. Sens + PtL

Blue SP + Adv. Sens. + E2 + Jan Ors

Gold SP + R3-A2 + Ion Turret

Bandit

Variant: Replace Gold with 2 Bandits

B-Wings + possible Evade? Sign me up! Especially Keyan who gets an Evade + TL + ‘Focus’ if everything goes well. Evade is given to Keyan in the first round and to whoever the opponent has started focussing thereafter. Bandits do sound more competitive than the Gold SP, for the blocking and they even grant me one initiative point so I may be able to have Keyan fly after Dash. On the other hand, the Gold SP may get lucky with an Ion on Whisper or Stress on Dash, both of which are huge. Thoughts?

3. Rebel Aces

Jake Farrell + Refit + V.I. + Test Pilot + PtL

Keyan Farlander + Adv. Sens. + PtL

Hobbie + R3-A2

Bandit

Without E2, Keyan’s still an offensive beast but relatively easy to kill. At least we have Hobbie here, which is also a primary target normally, so one of them profits from the other being focused. A list with 4 roughly equal targets may be better though, as in the next suggestion:

4. Jake and the Gang

Jake Farrell + Refit + Vet. Instincts

Hobbie + R3-A2
Tarn + R7

Blue SP + Adv. S.

Variant: Replace BSP with 2 Bandits

Sadly no room for PtL on Jake here. But I’m not sure BSP is actually 10 pts worse than Keyan. Plus we have a Tarn here. Bandits may also be nice here for mini swarm feeling and initiative bid?

5. Classic Wes+Keyan

Wes Janson + VI

Keyan + HLC + Opportunist + FCS + E2 + Jan Ors

Biggs

Not really a non-standard one here, but one I’d like to try if you say it’s better than all of the above. Obvious synergy is obvious.

Your help is much appreciated

Okay, my 2 cents:

#1 - This is a pretty good list. Possibly the best of the bunch, imo.

#2 - I like that you put Jan on a different ship than Keyan's, however I'm not sure how useful the gold will be ultimately. The guaranteed stress is nice, but it can really hamper the effectiveness of your ion cannon...

#3 - Although this might be better than 4, I'm not sure if Jake helps that much here.

#4 - I think this is poor - Jake doesn't really add anything useful. Going with 2 bandits doesn't really help, imo.

#5 Not a bad list at all, but would be better if you could get R3A2 on Wes. I'd suggest dropping FCS, but Keyan kinda needs it. Could drop E2+Jan and put R3A2 on Wes and maybe R4-D6 on biggs?

I agree with Blade on #1 and #5 .I've been trying an un-coventional type Rebel list lately and been having alot of fun with it.

Dutch w/ Ion T, R2

2 x Gold both w/ Ion and R2

rookie xwing w/R3A2

100 pts

pretty good bunch against Deci's with phantoms

Good luck with your lists and welcome aboard FFG!

Thanks for the opinions guys!

Will definitely try 1 and 5 first then. R3-A2 on VI Wes is a great idea! Was looking for a way to put R4-D6 on Biggs anyway, and you're right, Jan Ors is the least crucial element to this list.

however I'm not sure how useful the gold will be ultimately. The guaranteed stress is nice, but it can really hamper the effectiveness of your ion cannon...

I don't see how R3-A2 hampers the effectiveness of the ion turret? If I get the opponent in front arc, the Y wing can stress AND ionize the opponent, right?

Shadowmax, that looks like a neat list too! Sadly, I only have 2 Y-Wings.

EDIT: Who do you prefer in list 1? Tarn or Garven?