4 Blue Squadron B Wings, each with an extra seat and a Tactician is the best 100 point build in the game.

What actually counters this build? Only thing I can think of is a swarm. Anything else just gets bogged down in stress.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

Fat turrets lose out on boost once they get stressed, then they can just burn it down once they pile stress on it.

Dual Aggressors and PtL Soontir are super doomed.

Yeah, Tycho doesn't care about Tactician but once you've put 30+ points into an A Wing you've already lost.

Well, that's a tall order of assumptions.

The counter deals stress at all ranges:

Hobbie + R3-A2 (27)

Blue + Flechette (24) x3

Total: 99 points

Yeah I just don't take much of what you assert as overly serious at this point.

Sure it is a strong list but there are plenty of good players out there who will make it very difficult for you to get even one range two shot a turn. PS2 Bwing is very dodgeable.

Wouldn't 4x A4 Y-wings with Ion cannon turrets beat this?

Wouldn't 4x A4 Y-wings with Ion cannon turrets beat this?

Probably. Especially as they have points remaining for R2 or unhinged astromechs.

Any stress hurts b-wings

High attack values hurt b wings

Predetor hurts blue squadron

High ps will arc dodge

3 Tactician B-wings

1 Gold Squaddie w/Ion and R3-A2

I like this one better because of added flexibility of the Ion cannon turret giving you access to the ion + stress combo while also giving you a more flexible source of stress (R3-A2 works at every range)

Anyway, you want to know what really scares B-wings? two things:

1.) Ions. ******* hell does that 1 agility detest ionization.

2.) Defenders. Not kidding. Stress means little in the face of a white 4k, and their stat distribution makes them a fair bit hardier. The worst part? Defenders can take ions

Also, I ran into double Aggressors at the SC finals running two Tactician B-wings, Stress Luke, and a Prototype. So, the bad news is the Aggressors never let tactician trigger. The good news is the combination of Luke's R3-A2 and the giant displacement caused by large bases resulted in range one shots

It's a good list, I agree. Panic Attack (which adds a Y Wing + R3A2 + Ion Turret) is also good. That being said, the first few times I played against the 4 Bs + Tactician, Whisper WAS able to pull off the victory. Super hard for Soontir and PTL ships to beat though.

Also, as far as counters...

Tie Swarm comes to mind. It doesn't particularly care about stress since you HAVE to focus fire to kill the ties, so few ties get stressed. Also, 7 2 Dice guns is murder for the 1 Agility B Wings. 4 Bs has always had a rough time with the Swarm, and tactician doesn't add anything to help it in that matchup, so I would still define it as a counter.

Though there are certainly lots of good things multiple copies of tactician can help beat! Tactician is certainly one of my favorite cards for stacking on generic Bs and Bounty Hunters.

Wouldn't 4x A4 Y-wings with Ion cannon turrets beat this?

I'm still in the mind that 4X BTL-S3 with ions beat most things, just slowly.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

What decent player flying a phantom would be dumb enough to put it in range 2 of more than one of these?

Tycho doesn't care about Tactician but once you've put 30+ points into an A Wing you've already lost.

He starts at 24 points, though really starts at 27 with PTL. But if you load him up to 38 points, he would gladly take on 3 of your B wings by himself and win. Two aren't even likely to get a shot in on him. Tycho eats low PS non Turret ships alive, and those Prockets mean that you've lost your first ship in no time.

It's a good list, I agree. Panic Attack (which adds a Y Wing + R3A2 + Ion Turret) is also good.

I'm looking for an opportunity to try Panic Attack with an A4 Y-wing.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

What decent player flying a phantom would be dumb enough to put it in range 2 of more than one of these?

Surprisingly harder than you think if the Bs keep formation. There are not a lot of approaches that never allow it to be in the range 2 overlap.

And it's worse with the Panic Attack setup, as the 3 B-Wings are backed by a 360-degree Ion turret. If you get tagged by that (entirely possible, especially if the B-Wings force you to burn your focus tokens before the Y-Wing shoots), you are ionized, stressed, and forced to rely on 4 naked green dice to save you against focused, 3-4 dice attacks.

However, the person who noted the swarm as a bane to this build is right. It's your toughest matchup, as you're facing a host of cheap ships that flood you with range 1 attacks and don't care if you stress one or two of them during the attack.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

What decent player flying a phantom would be dumb enough to put it in range 2 of more than one of these?

This is a legit point, actually

I ran into Whisper at the third round of my SC and it was flown by basically the most intimidating player in the group (won the last four casual tournies and the last SC).

Now I was only running two Tacticians and one Luke (V.I, Engine, R3-A2, which means he should have a far easier time than any B-wing and only needs to get one shot to cripple whisper's de-cloak) and she got stressed once and lost a single shield.

The guy just completely embarrassed me with his flying

Fortunately, my plan to use obstructions to split Whisper off from the mini-swarm and keep her separated with the threat of stress worked pretty well It came down to 3 dead Academies to 1 dead Tactician B-wing in one of the tensest and closest fought games I have ever played

Food for thought, though, don't count on killing Whisper. Stress Luke was made to kill Whisper and he never got a shot off at her. Sometimes, you have to keep in mind the name of your gameplan (control) and realize that sometimes just the fear of stress is more effective than thinking you'll kill Whisper as if it was nothing

I will agree that Tacticians are da best evar, but only because a.) they're dice independent and b.) they give generics a very solid chance against phantoms, but they are no magic bullet.

4 Blue Squadron B Wings, each with an extra seat and a Tactician is the best 100 point build in the game.

What actually counters this build? Only thing I can think of is a swarm. Anything else just gets bogged down in stress.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

Fat turrets lose out on boost once they get stressed, then they can just burn it down once they pile stress on it.

Dual Aggressors and PtL Soontir are super doomed.

Yeah, Tycho doesn't care about Tactician but once you've put 30+ points into an A Wing you've already lost.

A few a wings with outmanoeuvre/ptl will just cheerfully fly rings around these guys and eat them up for lunch.

A phantom will NEVER be in range 2.

4 Blue Squadron B Wings, each with an extra seat and a Tactician is the best 100 point build in the game.

What actually counters this build? Only thing I can think of is a swarm. Anything else just gets bogged down in stress.

Phantom would die soon after getting double stressed.

Fat turrets lose out on boost once they get stressed, then they can just burn it down once they pile stress on it.

Dual Aggressors and PtL Soontir are super doomed.

Yeah, Tycho doesn't care about Tactician but once you've put 30+ points into an A Wing you've already lost.

A few a wings with outmanoeuvre/ptl will just cheerfully fly rings around these guys and eat them up for lunch.

I love, love, _love_ that this is true. In order to shine, A-Wings need to be going after low agility ships that don't have turrets. And... that's the exact opposite of what we've been seeing over the past 5 waves. But the resurgence of the B-Wing and the Y-Wing means that the A-Wing can see a comeback also. Heck! Anything that buffs the Z-95 means that the A-Wing should see a bit more use also- 2 attack vs 2 defense is a favorable matchup for the attacker.

A phantom will NEVER be in range 2.

Except behind you at range 2...

A phantom will NEVER be in range 2.

Depends on how the B-wings cover themselves. I won't say never.

Sorry, but it's really hard for me to totally buy it any time anyone says "PtL Soontir (is) super doomed." Against some of the auto-damage builds, sure, maybe. But against anyone that's rolling to hit? No. Sorry. Taking Soontir down is never a sure thing.

Ion cannon turrets will nuke B wings. Enjoy never having a shot again.

Also phantoms will be range 2 if you're a good low PS guesser.

I was thinking more Phantoms in range 1/behind /to the flank of first pair B-wing's puts them into range 2 of second pair. Not all formations are 'tight' formations. Of course this is simply theorycraft.

Sorry, but it's really hard for me to totally buy it any time anyone says "PtL Soontir (is) super doomed." Against some of the auto-damage builds, sure, maybe. But against anyone that's rolling to hit? No. Sorry. Taking Soontir down is never a sure thing.

well, that's the magic of tactician and R3-A2. No rolling

but I do agree, "super doomed" doesn't exist in this game. It's going to come down 100% to the players' strategy and tactics (turret luck excepted, ofc; you're not beating fat han with a prototype).

Tactician and R3-A2 offer us some incredibly potent tools against arc-dodgers, but if the game was won in the list-building stage...well, we wouldn't even play now would we ?