Hi all,

I'm pretty green still at Xwing and Entering a local tournament. Area doesn't really have a set meta to worry about and not the levels of play experience that other areas have. It's first tournament for the area and should be very friendly.

I expect to face one list with a Deci, I suspect piloted by Oicunn. One Phantom mini swarm, maybe a rebel BBXX, and either an Outrunner backed by ion Y's or all Y list. No idea what the other lists would be but at least 1 scum. Basically I don't expect to face all 2 ship turret and phantom lists and I wanted to go with something new that is versatile as I really could face anything regarding lists and skill from newb with random squad to skilled with refined tournament list. I'm not worried about running a super efficient list. Obviously better is well better but although there are prizes at stake which would be nice, I'm more concerned with having a good laugh.

Thinking of these 2 as the core of the squad;

Keyan with opportunist, FCS and Kyle crew

Wedge with R2D2 and Swarm Tactics.

The two aces would be backed up by either a Blue with Adv Sensors (99pt) or Roark with Ion and Jan Ors crew (100pt). Alternately buy a Y and run BXY variant.

Can't quite make my mind up.

Thinking is Wedge is there to do his thing. Hit like a brick and hope R2 can get him to late stage. Keyan feeds of opportunist or when needed the red of his dial to also hit hard. Kyle triggers off the stress removal to give some extra survivability. Swarm tactics on Wedge allows Keyan to hit early.

I originally settled on the blue to add some blocking and hp to the squad but I am sorely tempted by Roark allowing both aces to hit at ps12 and Jans crew ability giving that bit extra survivability.

Opponent can easily focus down Roark but he would be my cheapest ship and be hopefully hung back. The ion is 5 pts to give some. Control and again, encourage him to be targeted at long range. All to reduce the shots on my hitters early on. If they ignore Roark then I bring him in but hopefully out of arc and have the ion help the hitters position behind their target.

I dare say neither option is 'optimal' but with my goal being to have fun and learn to fly different ships and with my fairly new collection to chose from I just wanted a bit of input.

Actually thinking as an opponent, I'd probably just focus don Wedge in short order. Would Luke be better in this type of list? Slightly less damage output but more likely to survive the incoming fire and be a tougher choice between him and Keyan. Especially with Roark, PS wouldn't be an issue.

Kyle isn't terribly helpful on Keyan since you only have 1 Agility die, especially when you have to pay 1 point more for him.

Biggs would fit nicely here. Both his cost and his ability work with your list. I agree that Kyle isn't a great fit for Keyan and that the 4 points you are spending for him could be spent better somewhere else in your list. I don't know how much I like Swarm Tactics just to give Keyan a 1PS bump but it might work nicely with Biggs to ensure he gets a chance to shoot in the round that he inevitably dies.

That's partly why I thought of Roark with Jan. Bumps both hitters to 12 and the focus from Kyle becomes an evade instead?

Shooting at 12 means the stress-focus-evade would come before any incoming fire.

If faced with this who would people focus? keyan who is naturally fairly tough with the added evade or Wedge who can if need be bug out for a round or so to get shields back? With Roark and Jans ability both working at range 3 the squishy HWK would be harder to focus on as he can hold back out of the fight till the ion can be brought into effect out of arc?

I actually hadn't noticed how nicely Biggs fits into the points but when I face him in sow one else's squad I've tended to find he is quite easy to focus him down in short order. Wouldn't my opponent just have him as primary and drop him in 2 rounds at the most? Do I just need to be better at positioning Biggs so that the incoming fire has to be split up?

Pretty much any small base ship will go down to two rounds of focus fire. The advantage with Biggs is that you are getting to pick which ship you lose. You nailed it though, to really get the most out of Biggs you need to set up situations where you are forcing your opponent to split their fire but that you can still focus fire.

The using Roark w/Jan could be interesting and make for a fun list. I think your opponents targetting priority in that list will vary depending on what they are running but you'll probably see Wedge getting targetted first.

Well, if you're running Opportunist on Keyan, Wes Janson is the obvious third ship, since he can actually help set up situations where you'll be able to reliably use Opportunist.

A squad I've been running is Wedge with Predator and R2 (not D2), Wes Janson with Veteran's Instincts and an R2, and Keyan with Adv Sensors and Opportunist. Wes and Wedge are a pretty brutal 1-2 punch hitting at 10 and 9, stripping tokens and agility, and Keyan is usually able to batter through the ship with 4-5 dice, with essentially target-lock focus. It absolutely destroys a small-base ship, and the best part is if you set them up to joust, all three ships are pretty reliable after a k-turn, with Keyan able to use Adv sensors to target lock, then shoot with target-lock stress/focus again, wedge having predator and Wes stripping any tokens they might have picked up. It dies fast, but it kills pretty quick too. Lot of fun.

Some fun looking ideas there guys but my small collection is a limiting factor. No Prdator, no Wes, no generic R2 available.

Thanks for the input. Having thought about it, not sure I have the skill for the Roark plan and not keen on Biggs, so to keep it simple, I think it will be a Blue squad.

I really want to try the Roark idea but maybe in a non tournament game or two first.

I was at a store championship where someone ran keyan with stay on target and wedge with predator backed by two bandits. The list tore up darn near everything it saw, the zs ran interference for him and gave him a decent fire power boost.

I agree Biggs seems like a good fit here.

Regarding Keyan and Kyle with Opportunist, would you consider a switch to PTL and Jan Ors crew? Jan serves 2 purposes here - you can change Biggs focus to an evade each turn to hopefully keep the heat off your aces a couple turns longer then use PTL taking focus (switching to a guaranteed evade) and some other action to give Keyan a stress - helping both his offense and defense.

You can add Jake Farell (A-wing) with PTL and Autothrusters to your squad.

PTL works well with Keyan too (the way is to stress it).

R7-T1 on Wedge is quite nice.

It makes you a very versatile and arc dodger 3 ships Rebel squad.