I'm relatively new, but one of the few things I picked up early was Rebel Aces. Since then I've been surveying these boards, trying to fathom the possibilities of some of the pilots.
A lot of chatter has surrounded Keyan Farlander and his sweet pilot ability. But how best to generate the stress token that he then burns? Push the Limit is the default answer for many, but I'm not crazy about it. You're taking the target lock, obviously, and then either a barrel roll you don't necessarily need or a focus that you'll only be using (weakly) on defense. Others have suggested Stay on Target, and that seems a much better idea, especially since he's got a pretty good pilot skill. It also pretty much mandates Advanced Sensors, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Here's another notion: Opportunist. Now we're talking-- because you get the stress token at the time of your attack, you're free to take an appropriate action and still score the stress token at the right time. If we take a target lock, now we're shooting very accurately with a lot of dice. Add in a heavy laser cannon to push the theme and five hits are *likely* and four or five overwhelmingly likely (96%+).
Now hold on, you might say-- how can you be sure to proc Opportunist? How can you be sure your target of choice won't have a focus or evade?
Fly with Wes Jansen, that's how. He's naturally higher PS than Keyan, and his pilot ability (and, of course, his three-dice attack) can strip an opponent of his defenses, proccing Opportunist for stronger attacks *and* increasing the likelihood that those attacks will land.
But wait-- multi-ship combos are inherently dangerous! Lose a ship in the combo and you're in trouble! Well... sort of. We're not talking about flying HWKs here-- both Keyan and Wes are pretty nasty on their own. Still, the point is worth considering. Luckily, the rebels have the perfect protection for combos, and his name is Biggs. You know him, you love him, and he adds another three-dice attack on top of his combo-protecting pilot ability.
The basic Squad listing, then, looks like this:
Wes Jansen (29)
Keyan Farlander, Opportunist, Heavy Laser Cannon (40)
Biggs Darklighter (25)
You may have noticed that this only adds up to 92 points. Well... that's kind of what I'm asking about here. First, how to spend the last eight points here? And second, can we do so in a way that helps us with the list's weakness? See, I can foresee that the list might have serious trouble with arc dodgers, like Fel. It has the red dice to deal with the B-Y hordes that are common in my area (it can reasonably expect to burn down a B-Wing in a single salvo) and I like its chances against fat ships. In contrast, arc dodgers worry me, and I'm not sure there's an eight-point way to address that.
Sure, we could go with Veteran Instincts on Wes, but that still requires us to read our opponent, as he won't be able to reposition to maximize VI's utility. Predator seems immediately appealing, as it lets Wes focus for even more dakka, but that doesn't address the arc-dodger problem at all, it just feeds our appetite for offense.
Or am I just worrying too much about that sort of enemy? Is the solution to buff what the list does well already, and just hope that Biggs and fancy flying will let me survive until I get a clean shot?
Edit: changed points costs because I don't know these cards as well as I think I do.
Edited by ChahDresh