Hi,

I'm trying to get some use out of the A wing in a competitive list.

Chewbacca - YT-1300

MF title

Luke Skywalker

Draw their fire

EU

Gemmer Sojan - A wing

Chardann refit

Bandit Squadron - Z-95 x2

Not sure if it has enough impact if you know what I mean. I might drop Luke for Gunner and add A wing test pilot and Push the limit to Gemmer. I have also thought about dropping the Draw their Fire and swapping the Z's for Biggs but I like the option of more ships for blocking and focus fire.

Any advice is welcome.

I'm not sure what the point of Gemmer is in this squad. He's not really being useful here it seems to me. I would trade him out for a different a-wing.

Even a green squad w/ chardaan and your choice of Predator or Push the Limit would be slightly more useful, although it would be really nice to free up some points and stick proton rockets on him so he's actually capable of laying on some serious hurt (even if its just one shot).

If you did try to swap out Z's for Biggs, you really want to KEEP Draw their Fire on Chewie - helps Biggs out significantly (well, more often than not anyway).

Hmm I hear you, could swap for the green and drop EU of Chewie (might be worth the sacrifice) to get PR on it.

Chewbacca - YT-1300

MF title

Gunner

Draw their fire

Green pilot - A wing

Proton Rockets

Push the limit

A wing test pilot

Bandit Squadron - Z-95 x2

Or has that made it worse?

I'm not sure what the point of Gemmer is in this squad. He's not really being useful here it seems to me. I would trade him out for a different a-wing.

Even a green squad w/ chardaan and your choice of Predator or Push the Limit would be slightly more useful, although it would be really nice to free up some points and stick proton rockets on him so he's actually capable of laying on some serious hurt (even if its just one shot).

If you did try to swap out Z's for Biggs, you really want to KEEP Draw their Fire on Chewie - helps Biggs out significantly (well, more often than not anyway).

I dunno if its worse, but at this point, I'd be tempted to drop a z and dress Chewie up to the nines. Give him Predator, give back his engine upgrade & luke crew, and even add another useful crew (C3P0 comes to mind---or if you don't have him, anything else that boosts his survivability).

Alternatively, running 2 test pilots w/ proton rockets? So:

Chewie w/ Predator, Luke, C3P0, falcon title & engine upgrade = 60

2 a-wing test pilots w/ prockets = 20 x 2

I have been toying with a tricked out YT and an a-wing ace as well but with dash and jake.

Dash - ptl, mango, outrider, kyle

jake - autothrusters, test pilot, refit, outmaneuver, ptl

proto - refit, autothrusters

So dash is being dash and you have two incredibly-hard-to-hit pests zipping around the board. Jake can actually hit decently hard with outmaneuver as well. Getting him behind people isn't terribly difficult and YT's with c3p0 just hate him! Keep rocking the a-wings, they are making a comeback. I like jake or tycho for an a-wing ace though. gemmer is nice, but being at r1 for an a-wing means rockets and then get the hell out of dodge. R1 is pretty much where a-wings go to die. Don't trust the green dice, get as much mod on them as you can. R3 w/autothrusters and an evade token is where you live.

Gemmer does not want PTL, he's not JAke Farrel

Gemmer wants predator for the bigger offensive impact he can have. See, no one likes shooting at GEmer because he's never the ideal target, which gives you free reign to fly him like a maniac and get some powerful utility out of flying like you don't gve a ****

Interesting thoughts!

I currently only have the Rebel Aces A-Wing so might have to stick with Gemmer (Want to give him a shot) or go with greens and mix up chewie.

Always need more ships huh!

Gemmer seems to be perfect for Autothrusters. This gives him bonus defense at both 1 and 3 as well as against turrets. Dropping Chardaan, Autothrusters, Awing Test Pilot & Predator only costs 25 and Predator makes up for the fact that you will probably be using boost or evade rather than target lock for your action.

He may only hit with 2-3 dice, but good flying means he will skirt around doing that many times.

I'm personally not a big fan of Gemmer. The 20 point Green w/ PTL, and the 15 point Prototype are some of the best ships for the money if you ask me. Tycho and Jake can both get good use out Prockets, but I find the R1 restriction on the lower PS ships means they don't get the rockets off very often. They both have great abilities as well. Jake doesn't need any additional EPTs (though can make good use of them), while Tycho pretty much begs for PTL (and DD and EI).

Gemmer and Arvel suffer from being mid PS pilots on an agile ship. They pay the points to still be beaten out and not make use of the ship effectively (Gemmer arguably more so than Arvel since Arvel is at least PS6 and can tie IG-88 right now). Furthermore, both of their skills are a bit lack luster, especially when you consider you're paying 2 points for Gemmers (Green + VI = PS5 and 2 points cheaper).

If you want to couple them with a YT-1300, I've seen dual Greens w/ PTL make for a good compliment to go along with a Fat Han. Per usual, the opponent needs to go for Han first to push through his defenses. This allows your Greens to be annoying and block as well as get some good R1 shots in. And in the end game, they can turtle up with F+E, making them difficult to kill. You can also do a very similar thing with 3 Prototypes and a 55 point Chewy.

If you must run Gemmer, I've been wanting to try him coupled with Airen, with the thought being that he could boost (or you could even put EH on him) at PS10, in an effort to maximize his ability. In this case, I would also think about slapping a Procket on him. Now all of a sudden, he's a huge area of denial for all ships. As for what EPT to use, I would consider PTL (as any A wing should), Expert Handling, Predator, or Outmaneuver. If you went with PTL, you could boost + E/TL off of Airen ability, plus it's always a safe bet... If you went with EH, you could more effectively get into R1 or arc dodge completely*, and Predator / Outmaneuver are self explanatory. All of this is also true of the Green Squadron as well, but it could take Predator/Outmaneuver plus EH or PTL (I wouldn't recommend both though) for the same cost as Gemmer.

*Note, this is one of the reasons I don't like Gemmer... an A wing doesn't want to get shot at, and his ability only activates when you're getting shot at.

I've also used Gemmer and I'm also not a huge fan.

You should consider Jake Farrell as your hidden gem A-wing. Consider a Jake like this:

Jake Farrell + Autothrusters + Veteren Instincts + Chardaan Refit (25 Points).

What you get for this 25 points is just pure gold. You get a PS 9 A-Wing that can take a focus AND boost or barrel roll as needed. A-wings cannot barrel roll unless they have expert handling...so this ability is just amazing. For 5 more points you can fit the deadly proton rocket, which is really where jake shines. It synergizes with his ability extremely well. On top of that you can take the Test Pilot title and add PTL to make him even more deadly and defensive...all of this is on top of autothrusters!

I have seen Jake with multiple tournaments in my area and he was included in my store championship list where I ended up winning. Ultimately he is just an A-Wing and can die, so it's just a matter of what else your list brings to support him or let him do his thing.

Here are a few builds I would have you consider just to get some ideas going:

Jake Farrell + Autothrusters + Veteren Instincts + Chardaan Refit + Test Pilot Title + PtL/Outmaneuver(28)

Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS (24)

Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS (24)

Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS (24)

Jake Farrell + Autothrusters + Veteren Instincts + Chardaan Refit + Test Pilot Title + Lone Wolf (27)

Tarn Mison + R7 (25)

Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS (24)

Bandit Squadron Pilot x2 (24) (or another Blue + FCS)

Jake Farrell + Autothrusters + Veteren Instincts + Chardaan Refit + Test Pilot Title + Lone Wolf (27)

Bandit Squadron Pilot x2 (24)

Chewbacca + Predator + MF Title + C-3PO (49)

If you don't have C-3PO, consider using Dash instead of Chewbacca.

Jake Farrell + Autothrusters + Veteren Instincts + Proton Rocket + Test Pilot Title + Lone Wolf (32)

Dash Rendar + Outrider + Mangler Cannon + Push the Limit + Kyle Katarn + Engine Upgrade (55)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Init. bid (1)

Sorry for the long post. My point is that Jake is defintely a beast when you are considering A-Wings. He works differently than tycho and has a different kind of potential that Tycho doesn't have for the cost. He's a great Procket carrier if you can fit it into your list and because he can be configured effectively in different ways, he can fit into a variety of squads. It all depends on your play style and what you want to pair with him. I'm not a huge fan of large based ships for serious play, but if that's what you prefer you h ave some options.

You want to fly A-wings. Go big or go home. Forget these turrets.

Tycho Celchu (32 total)

- PtL

- A-Wing Test Pilot

- Expert Handling

- Chardaan Refit

- Experimental Interface

Jake Farrell (28 total)

- PtL

- A-Wing Test Pilot

- Veteran Instincts

- Chardaan Refit

- Autothrusters

Gemmer Sojan (25 total)

- Chardaan Refit

- Autothrusters

- A-Wing Test Pilot

- Predator

Prototype Pilot (15 total)

- Chardaan Refit

You're getting three actions from Jake and Tycho. Gemmer is an incredibly disliked pilot to hit and he can get close and predator it up. With this list, at the very least, you probably won't get completely destroyed as it takes forever to kill these guys.

But if you want more offense, just scratch the Prototype, and strap on proton rockets. That will be 3 5 dice rolls with focus and predator (for Gemmer).

Yeah, A-wings are difficult to focus fire on because of their high mobility (unless you are bringing big turrets to the party). And once you get focused you just make sure you evade and save focus for D each round while your other A's go to work.

I would take Thespis721's list with the proton rockets. A's don't have a lot of teeth these days without the Prockets, and with all that defense you could essentially just roll right up to one of your opponent's two ships (common builds these days) and blow it out of the water.

I also want to put a plug out there for A-Wings and Calculation. Green Squadron Pilots with PTL, Calculation and Prockets can pack a real punch against unshielded foes.

I actually prefer Stealth Device on Gemmer over ATs. With SD, you get 5-4-5 defense dice at the different range bands. It makes him not an attractive target to want to shoot. Of course your green dice can fail, but he's very hard for a Tie or Z to hit. Also, like him with predator as well.

So Gemmer + SD + Test pilot + Predator + Refit = 26 points

Kind of on the pricey side, but you get a very annoying fighter. If you do have the points you can load him with Prockets. That does make him pretty expensive.

a couple more things I want to toss out

1.) The A-wing is not a tie interceptor

2 shields and 2 hull is a world of difference over 3 hull, as is the lack of barrel roll on the action bar. The A-wing isn't particularly built on its speed (jakes excepted) as much as being an all around annoying thing to remove, and Gemmer capitalizes on this (though the cheapness of the Prototype can't be understated, since it makes it also makes it durable by making it incredibly difficult to justify shooting at).

2.) Abilities that only trigger when getting shot still give you value when you're not getting shot

Seems counter-productive at first glance, but here's the rub: if you just replace the wording of Gemmer's or Dark Curse's or Xizor's ability as "cannot be shot as long as there's literally anything else worth shooting to shoot at" they'd be ******* broken.

Well, basic psychology often makes these ships invincible because very few opponents are willing to throw dice their way when they're so defensively capable. This allows you to pull some particularly stupid stunts for very great gain, particularly in terms of blocking and firing off range 1 shots.

Never underestimate these ships because you figure you'll never get to use their abilities, because you may well be able to get more value out of them never triggering at all