Even when a Ywing loses it's turret it still has a 2 ATT gun to at least possibly do damage. And if a Ywing is truly worried about losing it's turret, it can spend 2 points on a Flechette torpedo to use as insurance to discard the torpedo instead of the turret.

I think that perhaps the only other Crit as devastating as a Muni Failure on a HWK is Injured Pilot or Damaged Engine on Fel.

When you're building a list with a hwk make sure it's just extra gravy and not the whole thing the list is built around. If you think about it all of the hwk abilities help you kill another ship faster. Jan and face boost damage, Kyle and Palob help with dice mods, and roark and mux let you shoot before it.

When building your lists think about what it can beat easily without the Hawks help. Then think about what is really going to give you trouble. Your hwks job is to help you eliminate that 1 terrible ship and then hopefully your squad can handle the rest. If the hwk lives, great he makes the mopping up easier, if it dies then you should still have a balanced squad that gives you a chance.

I try not build lists where the hwk is the glue that makes it all work.

I love that so many folks seem to consider the HWK a support ship. I'm quite happy with everyone continually under-estimating it and leaving it low in the target priority.

You've never run Palob. He garners more hate than any pilot I've seen. Its hard to keep him alive and use his ability effectively.

I've run Palob for as long as I've been able to. He's a beast, especially when flying with someone like Kavil w/Opportunist on his wing.

The thing with Palob is that you don't use his ability as such, rather you allow his ability to dictate your opponents behavior. Same with Xizor and Laetin.

I would be okay with more turret options.

Something in-between the Autoblaster Turret and Blaster Turret. Maybe a Laser Turret: 2 dice at range 1-3 for 3 or 4 points?

Then you might see some Rebel Operative and Spice Runners in play

I love Rebel Operative. I won a Summer Tournament, came in second in a Spring Tournament, and third in a Store Championship with a list with Rebel Operative. Even killed a B-wing with my (range 1) primary at the Store Championship on Saturday.

Would you share your list? I would like to try it.

Multiple lists, but similar. The Summer tournament was Biggs, Cracken with VI, Keyan with PTL, and Rebel Op with Ion Turret and Jan Ors.

Other two tournaments were Keyan with PTL and Adv. Sensors, Rebel Op with Ion Turret and Jan Ors, and Rookie x2.

Battle report from Spring Tournament: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/138763-south-carolina-comicon-spring-tournament/

A title like that could probably have a bit of an associated cost, but not near as much as the ST-321 title; it's a bit overpriced for what it does.

Not with Jendon and a weapons engineer. Makes it the ultimate target painter...

The problem there is that Jendon with just the title and a Weapon's Engineer is a third of your points in a 100 point list. I just don't see a way to fit him into a list that makes him worth his points. That would likely change if FFG comes out with an ordnance fix that makes ordnance that requires a target lock a strong choice..

I just made top-4 at a Store Championship last weekend using Jendon, title, and FCS stacked with three Scimitars with Prox Mines and Concussion Missiles. It's not impossible, I used to bulls-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.

See here's the thing, everybody wants the HWK to be this offensively minded vessel but it just ain't. It's given one dice for a solid reason- that's so you protect it and keep it away from the enemy whilst buffing the rest of your squadron. But it also becomes a prime target because of the buffs it gives.

This can give a very tricky player a way to trap foes into getting in its turret range, and in the escort vessel's range. Always fly one ship directly beside the HWK. You want to expand that firing arc- and X-Wings always make good buffs to it. Hell if you want, blaster turret Y-Wings escorting Kyle with Recon Specialist wouldn't be so bad either.

The HWK is about trapping and expanding one's field of fire and offensive options abroad, not being a direct combat unit. It's that type of thinking, that makes it a very fitting ship for The Rebellion to have, Unconventional stuff.

What about just adding this upgrade to the game:

Improved Laser Battery

HWK-290 Only

Add 1 to the primary attack value of this ship

Turret - 0 points

Eats up your turret slot, and basically makes it a slightly faster/dodgier Y-wing with less hull. Now you've got a ship that still desperately needs support, but is not a lame duck.

What about just adding this upgrade to the game:

Improved Laser Battery

HWK-290 Only

Add 1 to the primary attack value of this ship

Turret - 0 points

Eats up your turret slot, and basically makes it a slightly faster/dodgier Y-wing with less hull. Now you've got a ship that still desperately needs support, but is not a lame duck.

Well, why do that when you can just put a myriad of different turrets on it?

Price. My entire point was you'd want to give it a gun that works (two dice is basic starfighter armament, with heavy fighters and quad guns at 3) so you don't have to run a turret on it and amp its cost. Not a problem in Epic, but in low point games like 100pt a HWK you took for its pilot ability can end up costing 35 points. Now if you want a battle HWK you can do that, it's an option, but running the HWK for its ability at pilot price isn't because the main gun might as well not be there, and then you've got a fifth to a quarter of your points in a ship that can't fight when every other ship in the game can. Even the GR-75 can run things over. A two dice primary wouldn't turn it into an offensive powerhouse and it sure wouldn't make Spice Runner or Rebel Operative something you'd want to swarm, but it would open up that cheaper HWK option.

I dunno'. I just use it as a big buffer and do all I can to make it immune to one-hit-kills. It's just not an outright combat unit.

Though, I'm also not convinced that 100 points is actually the best amount for a match these days. I'm more and more convinced that 125 point totals are just flat out better.

It's just not an outright combat unit.

A 2 dice primary turretless HWK is still not an outright combat unit.

My Two Cents: With input from other so far.

Title:

Hwk-290 Only

Storm Crow

0 Pts

This ship gains +1 to it's primary attack.

This is 0 points, but taking it prevents the Moldy Crow Title. So Yes you can have it, but you have to give up the MC to take it.

To me the great thing would be to have the HWK have 0 attack dice and make it much cheaper That would be awesome for support. You dont really use the attack 1 anyway and its only increasing its cost.