So I just played a very good game with a new list... and was very impressed with the lists performance.

I killed the Admiral but it took longer then I liked because of Mara Jade prevented me from K-turning for the kill... it took about 2 turns to get far enough off the admiral after the initial pass to get my Y-wings around to polish him off. The turn the Admiral died my opponent killed Biggs and one of the Y-wings. Then it was roughly 6-7 turns of Soontir vs. one full health Y-wing and one wounded Y-wing and another 6-7 turns against just the healthy Y-wing after he finally picked off the wounded one. I eventually lost, as much from sheer exhaustion as anything else. It was a matter of who made the first lethal mistake and unfortunately it was me. It was a very tense but enjoyable game.

So some thoughts:

Y-wings with the BTL-A4 title really, really, really need either the R2 astromech or the Unhinged Astromech (depending on their faction).

A4 Y-wings can throw out a lot of damage but will normally take a lot of damage in the process.

Biggs is the perfect escort and thus far I think Rebels will make better use of the A4 title because of him.

And now for the question, how do I make the list better?

I only put the Hull upgrade on Biggs because I couldn't think of anything better at the time I made the list...

Since I've considered dropping the Hull Upgrade for R3-A2 on Biggs, dropping a Y-wing and the hull upgrade for R3-A2 on Hobbie Klivian, or dropping a Y-wing and the hull upgrade for Garvin Dreis. I'm not sold on any of those ideas but the first two seem better than the third idea.

Thoughts?

Looks interesting, but . . . why do the lists add up to 75 and 91 points? Am I just being a stupid, or is there something missing?

I would recommend slapping R3-A2 on the Y-Wing without the title. Stress? I has turret! Honey badger don't give a ****!

Alternatively, you could add bomb loadout and prox mines (or seismic) -- there's a lot of synergy between turrets, ion, and bombs. Know where your opponent is going, accelerate away (without needing to K-turn), and still get a shot. Not half bad.

Looks interesting, but . . . why do the lists add up to 75 and 91 points? Am I just being a stupid, or is there something missing?

I would recommend slapping R3-A2 on the Y-Wing without the title. Stress? I has turret! Honey badger don't give a ****!

Alternatively, you could add bomb loadout and prox mines (or seismic) -- there's a lot of synergy between turrets, ion, and bombs. Know where your opponent is going, accelerate away (without needing to K-turn), and still get a shot. Not half bad.

Sorry editor cut out some of the lists... but its fixed now. Anyways, I don't want to lose the damage potential associated with the A4 title, unless I'm swapping it for a 3 Attack dice ship.

Bombs are an interesting idea but with a list built around Biggs, I worry that I won't be able to get him out of the way of the turn I want to drop bombs.

I would recommend slapping R3-A2 on the Y-Wing without the title. Stress? I has turret! Honey badger don't give a ****!

R3-A2 only works on targets inside your arc. I may be missing some obvious reason why you would want your front ship to also apply stress, but I think it would be better with the title for the possible double-stress Phantom/Soontir to remove it from the game for 2 turns/for good.

I would recommend slapping R3-A2 on the Y-Wing without the title. Stress? I has turret! Honey badger don't give a ****!

R3-A2 only works on targets inside your arc. I may be missing some obvious reason why you would want your front ship to also apply stress, but I think it would be better with the title for the possible double-stress Phantom/Soontir to remove it from the game for 2 turns/for good.

If it's your only stress generator it's probably better on a hog, but with other elements I like the turret so you can keep stacking stress and getting attacks in

The more I think about the more I'm leaning toward dropping the Hull Upgrade and putting R3-A2 on Biggs.

It adds another control option to a list with 3 ion attacks and if I'm worried about clearing the stress, I don't have to use it.

Also that puts the list at 99 points total and makes it more likely to get the initiative if I need it.

I would recommend slapping R3-A2 on the Y-Wing without the title. Stress? I has turret! Honey badger don't give a ****!

R3-A2 only works on targets inside your arc. I may be missing some obvious reason why you would want your front ship to also apply stress, but I think it would be better with the title for the possible double-stress Phantom/Soontir to remove it from the game for 2 turns/for good.

The thinking there is that, even if you have to take a one- or two- straight and end up out of arc to clear the stress, you still get a shot the next round. But now that all the Y's are showing up with the title, I would agree that the lost damage output might not be worth the stress control.

I agree with putting R3-A2 on Biggs. The one drawback to that is that the "Biggs Maneuver" (or whatever) where he shoots off from the battle (if he's still alive) becomes pretty much impossible, since you can't K-Turn the next round.

I think your list is a good counter to the Decimator, but I'm not sure how well it would fair against more agile builds (phantom, IG, etc).

I think your list is a good counter to the Decimator, but I'm not sure how well it would fair against more agile builds (phantom, IG, etc).

Yeah, my experience has been that a pair of warthogs find a Decimator to be a tasty snack. So even if the rest of your list isn't terribly strong, you can expect a pretty successful game.

Also in my experience, the warthogs are pretty bad finishers against anything with a better dial (which is nearly everything), either barrel roll or boost (also nearly everything), and better PS (still nearly everything). So IMO Biggs actually works against the list, because you want those cheap, heavily armored 'hogs to be your opponent's first target, leaving your more agile/able finishers for the middle and end game.

Tycho 26

VI 1

PTL 3

Refit -2

28 points

This gives you a tough, bouncy little flanker that can hunt Phantoms and pile that stress forever.

Airen Cracken 19

VI 1

2x Engine Upgrade on 2 Warthogs

Basically you take a shot with Airen, then either grant a Focus/TL on someone that's in arc, or boost a Hog without shots (during the combat phase!) to bring someone into arc. You can also take some PS10 shots on Phantoms. One alternative is to take one of those engine upgrades and turn it into an Ion Pulse Missile, in which case you:

1.) TL someone with PS10 Cracken

2.) Fire IPM

3.) Know where your target is next turn

4.) Converge 3 Warthogs and a Z-95 on target next turn

5.) Use your imagination.

I think either one does more for you than Biggs.

"What Vorpal Said" (source: pretty much every thread ever)

Basically, the deal is that the Y-Wings in this list, while being it's "heavy hitters", are still actually the decoys. Because they are so terrifying, and can take such a beating. So you want the remainder of your list to be focused on flanking the enemy at higher pilot skill.

Something maybe more like:

Gold Squadron, BTL-A4, R2 Astromech, Ion Turret (24 pts) x 2

Jake Ferrell, Chardaan Refit, VI (23 pts)

Tyco Celchu, Chardaan Refit, A-Wing Test Pilot, PtL, Expert Handling (29 pts)

...can't fit autothrusters in that list, but don't really need to. Anything with a turret isn't going to be able to takes its eyes off of the warthogs...

Decoy might not be the right word. A decoy should be ignored, it's not the main threat. 3 Warthogs will mess you up badly if you ignore them. They aren't a decoy, they simply must be taken into account. That leaves other things free to do what they want.

Totally off-topic, but I just wanted to say I find the image of Biggs walking the hogs hilarious every time I see this thread title.

Especially if they're big ones bred on farms for meat. That's a good half ton of pork he's got to deal with, mustache or no.

Here's something I came up with:

Warthogs - 2x Gold, 1x Gray

1x Green Squadron with PTL, Autothrusters, and Lone Wolf

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/207806/fonzi-scheme#view=full

I think your list is a good counter to the Decimator, but I'm not sure how well it would fair against more agile builds (phantom, IG, etc).

Yeah, my experience has been that a pair of warthogs find a Decimator to be a tasty snack. So even if the rest of your list isn't terribly strong, you can expect a pretty successful game.

Also in my experience, the warthogs are pretty bad finishers against anything with a better dial (which is nearly everything), either barrel roll or boost (also nearly everything), and better PS (still nearly everything). So IMO Biggs actually works against the list, because you want those cheap, heavily armored 'hogs to be your opponent's first target, leaving your more agile/able finishers for the middle and end game.

I agree, when I'm making a list it's usually with the intent of using Warthogs to divert some attention away from my closer, not to set the Warthogs up as the closers.

having never flown it, it seems like it would fly like an etahn swarm

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

R2 Astromech (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

R2 Astromech (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Corran Horn (35)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

R2-D2 (4)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Total: 100

A better Biggs walks the hogs list:

Biggs

BTL-A4

BTL-A4

Jek Porkins

A better Biggs walks the hogs list:

Biggs

BTL-A4

BTL-A4

Jek Porkins

I see what you did there.

I think your list is a good counter to the Decimator, but I'm not sure how well it would fair against more agile builds (phantom, IG, etc).

Yeah, my experience has been that a pair of warthogs find a Decimator to be a tasty snack. So even if the rest of your list isn't terribly strong, you can expect a pretty successful game.

Also in my experience, the warthogs are pretty bad finishers against anything with a better dial (which is nearly everything), either barrel roll or boost (also nearly everything), and better PS (still nearly everything). So IMO Biggs actually works against the list, because you want those cheap, heavily armored 'hogs to be your opponent's first target, leaving your more agile/able finishers for the middle and end game.

The R2 Astromechs really make a huge difference. If it'd been a timed match I could have won fairly easily. I'd also have entered the endgame much stronger if I'd had more experience dealing with Mara Jade.

The game broke fairly evenly into 3 parts: full squad vs full squad, Soontir Fel vs 1 full health Hog + 1 half-health Hog and finally Soontir Fel vs 1 full health Hog.

I should also re-iterate (and explain) that I lost the game when I went against my better judgement and tried a hard 2 turn when I should have K-turned (for the millionth time), it was my mistake not the Y-wing's (improved) dial that cost me that game. My opponent (and friend) is the best interceptor player I've ever faced and that includes a trip to Worlds in November.

That's also the reason I'm swapping the Hull Upgrade for R3-A2... You don't even need to hit a PTL Interceptor or Phantom with Ol' Stressbot to mess up their game.

If I can discourage them from engaging in the early game, I'll be able to do better in the late game.

In casual games it doesn't matter much but in 75 min tournament play... I like my odds so far.

Taking that as a serious suggestion Tarn w/R7 and an R2 (or R3A2) on Biggs would be better.

On the other hand, I could just call one of the Hogs, "Piggy" now couldn't I? Wasn't Porkins a Y-wing pilot before Yavin or am I just remembering wrong?

A better Biggs walks the hogs list:

Biggs

BTL-A4

BTL-A4

Jek Porkins

Give porkins vi and R3a2 and you've actually got a well rounded list.

I think Biggs 2 Ys and Jake might be the way to go, keeps a great closer untouched for the late game

Depends on your local meta, but in my case R4-D6 is the droid for Biggs. We got highly modified/four dice attacks here for days...

Was toying around with a scum A4 list. Three thugs with ion, title, and unhinged. Serissu. Not sure what the best use of remaining points is. I put on stealth device and ion cannon because why not?

Was toying around with a scum A4 list. Three thugs with ion, title, and unhinged. Serissu. Not sure what the best use of remaining points is. I put on stealth device and ion cannon because why not?

Or how about Veteran Instincts and Flechette Cannon, to sprinkle a little stress on those ions?