Hi all,

A friend of mine and I have been playing 150 point lists almost-weekly for roughly half a year now, and we've been loving it. I thought I would share my own personal, somewhat subjective observations for anyone that might be interested:

--Arc dodgers were *slightly* harder to play (more arcs to dodge).

--Turrets stayed about the same as at 100 points, if not getting *slightly* weaker.

--Losing a good ship early was *nowhere near* as critical, since you had more ships to recover with.

--Lists grew much more varied in terms of options, and we would be much more inclined to switch up ships in a list.

--Games roughly took only about 10 - 20% longer than 100-point games--if that.

--Swarms also seemed to stay at about the same strength: more ships in a swarm, but more ships shooting at them too.

--We did see a lot more upgrades used when we had 150 points to play with--but this last one could have just been our own playstyle preference.

--IndyPendant.

I'm fond of some 150pt action myself. My latest set-up is:

"Whisper" (32)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Navigator (3)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Colonel Jendon (26)

Fire-Control System (2)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Weapons Engineer (3)

Rebel Captive (3)

Engine Upgrade (4)

ST-321 (3)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 150

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I've had some good success with running Rex instead of the shuttle.

We usually play 150s, because you can squeeze in a few extra really awesome ships, and it becomes more about tactical thinking. Now there's more than a single primary threat on the board.. Ordnance becomes more useful (though still not terribly) because it can help knock out a heavy hitter that much quicker. Personally I'm fond of Nera/Deadeye/RecSpec/Apt/maybe another torp in 150s, because it's simple to get her within the range 1 bubble of something, and that'll gib quite a few different ships.

Assault missiles and Ion torps become more viable, too

You should up the board size accordingly. Go to 4.5x4.5 ish or something. Or 4x3 or 4x4

150 points allows you to play the Battle of Yavin .

Rebels -

Wedge, Luke, Porkins, Biggs and Garven with a few upgrades.

Imperials -

Vader, Backstabber, Mithel and 6 Black Squadron TIEs.

It's great fun.

About half my casual games tend to be 150pts.

They're usually played on 120x90 with 8 asteroids, but sometimes the regular 90x90 with 6 if lists weren't too big/we couldn't bother getting the larger surface.

List building differences above sound familiar: plenty of points for several big things, and still fit some smaller stuff in there as well. Sometimes simply add 4 Academy TIEs to a normal list (if it didn't include a bunch of them already). Or two Royal Guard with PtL. Commonly just chuck in a bunch of cool stuff - so much room. List building allows for more, but is also less challenging in that sense.

It's noticeable that things can die much more quickly as well. 50% extra ships, many more shots in a single turn.. B-Wings or even Falcons can drop quickly; arc-dodgers face some troubles and a single bump can be even more troublesome. Biggs may not last more than one turn. Evade tokens slightly less useful, R2D2 has trouble keeping up with the damage caused,focus tokens are more tricky to spend (when facing many attacks, is it worth changing that single eyeball to an evade, if quite possibly rolling 2+ of 'em on a following roll?). More chances to be blocked, but a bunch of high PS ships are likely to kill ships before they get to shoot (but then, there are still plenty left).

150 points allows you to play the Battle of Yavin .

Rebels -

Wedge, Luke, Porkins, Biggs and Garven with a few upgrades.

Imperials -

Vader, Backstabber, Mithel and 6 Black Squadron TIEs.

It's great fun.

Aren't Black Squadron Pilots redundant in this case? Everything the Rebels have is over PS5 so unless the BSPs have EPTs equipped they might as well be Academies. And if they were Academies, you could fit another TIE in.

And how could a Yavin list leave out Dark Curse? He was going to retire after that tour of duty!

I usually play 150 on a 4x4 board. It's a far better experience and games are more interesting and fun. More options and less emphasis on meta builds as there are more natural counters; more arcs and firepower and room to fit in craziness.

7x rookie Xs with 3 points for upgrades is a really fun list.

Aren't Black Squadron Pilots redundant in this case? Everything the Rebels have is over PS5 so unless the BSPs have EPTs equipped they might as well be Academies. And if they were Academies, you could fit another TIE in.

The point is more that the TIEs that flew from the Death Star were Black Squadron. Not everything needs to be the best possible use of points.

My point is that if every Rebel is a named X-wing (no Rookiees or Red Squadron Pilots) then Black Squadron Pilot and Academy Pilot are effectively identical unless the BSPs use their EPT slots, so you've put the Empire effectively at a 12 point disadvantage. That's not a case of optimisation, that's a whole TIE down. The Rebels have 150 and the Empire has in practice exactly the same squad at 138.

But the Empire is using the correct pilots rather than fudging the theme to get that extra TIE in. I'd take that Imperial list and fly it against the Rebel list any day of the week, and if I won it'd be all the sweeter for the fact I was at an effective disadvantage. We sometimes play a Death Star Escape scenario which you could say the same thing about:

Chewbacca (42)

Han Solo (2)

Luke Skywalker (7)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Millennium Falcon (1)

Total: 56

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Against:

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Total: 56

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

On a side note, it pleases me that the points work out exactly...

I find in 150 point games you basically get to choose a ship or two of your opponents to destroy with little hey can do about it ( due to volume of red dice available) whilst they do the same to you and then from turn 3-4 it just like a standard 100 point game