I had the chance to get my new Most Wanted ships on the table over the weekend, playing against my neighbor, who likes flying Imperial. Just a quick report.
Scum:
Palob Godalhi + Greedo
Kavil + Autoblaster Turret + Unhinged Astromech
Drea Renthal + Unhinged Astromech
N'dru Suhlak
Binayre Pirate
Imperial:
Maarek Steele + Expert Handling
Turr Phennir + Determination
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Proton Bombs
Five ships each, played on a slightly smaller than regulation table (2.5' x 3'), was a pretty cramped fight. I split my ships into two pairs on the left side (Y+Hwk, Y+Z) with Suhlak flanking on the far right edge. Imperials lined up with the interceptor and advanced across from Suhlak and the other three across from my main force. We both dashed toward the center of the board, with the interceptor and advanced hooking toward the middle. Kavil's boosted turret threw some damage out to the academy TIEs but he took some hits from focused fire. A couple rounds later, Kavil finally dropped, although both academy pilots have some damage.
By this point, it has become pretty tricky to keep N'dru away from friendly pilots, so no more bonus die. Greedo tossed crits on Phennir (pilot skill 0!), Academy Pilot (skip next shot!) and Palob (ignore pilot ability!). Most of the Scum ships lose their shields and gradually deal damage to the Imperials. One fateful round, both academy pilots and Phennir explode (Determination couldn't save him from a Ship crit), with the bomber heavily damaged. (Phennir was taken out by the friendly Proton Bomb- his was the only ship hit.) What had been a 5-4 fight swung far in my direction (4-2). The bomber went down, then my four remaining ships concentrated on Steele, taking him out in a couple rounds.
What I learned:
It's tough flying Ys and HWKs without turrets.
An Autoblaster Turret + Unhinged Astromech can see plenty of action.
Greedo is decent against unshielded TIEs but try not to lose your own shields (he might be better on a Firespray than a HWK).
N'dru Suhlak is a cheap 3 dice but only for the first 1/3 of the game or so. After that, it's going to take pretty fancy flying to keep him effective.
Expert Handling can shed target locks effectively, but it takes a while to get clear of 4 of them.
TIE Advanceds are tough to kill.
Maarek Steele takes a lot of work to trigger his special ability (didn't do so in this game).
Palob's ability is very cool (he stole quite a few tokens; although he didn't use many, stripping them or forcing my opponent to skip actions was very helpful).
Y-wings are tough.
Drea Renthal's ability came in handy a couple times, but the squad wasn't built to take advantage of it.
Beware of falling into the trap of thinking that the Unhinged Astromech's green moves are better than white moves. I zoomed around more recklessly because of it.
Don't underestimate the usefulness of a lone Z-95.