So something I've been wanting to do is determine what Astromechs work best with unique pilots, I was hoping to brainstorm and come up with a list for each pilot. Once more salvaged astromechs and scum ships that can take them are released I'll do something similar for them. I'll start off with my ideas:

Tarn: R7, always R7 their synergy is supreme and makes for a cheap and effective ship choice

Luke: R2-D2, Luke is a defensive pilot and R2-D2 boosts this and helps increase his survivability

Biggs: R2-D2, R4-D6, R5-D8, R5-P9, R5 any sort of damage mitigation can help increase Biggs' usefulness and keep him alive longer to be effective.

Wedge: R2-F2 (this would prolly work even better with EI), R7-T1

Hobbie: R5-K6, R7, R7-T1

Garven: R5-P9, R2-D6 (with deadeye or calculation, even better used alongside the moldy crow, especially Kyle)

Corran: R2-D2, R2-F2

Dutch: R2, R7, R7-T1, R5-K6, R5

Horton: R2, R7, R5

Wes: R3-A2

I take Wedge with Predator and R5-P9. He often gets 3 hits naturally with the reroll(s), so the wasted focus is saved for defense or regeneration.

I take him with D2 Luke, so Luke can engage while Wedge regens, or vice versa.

Garven with P9 is useless, unless you're sending it back to Kyle, because otherwise the Focus will go nowhere.

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

K6 is OK on "Dutch". T1 is awesome on a number of pilots. K-turn Porkins, clear stress, boost/target lock into in unsuspecting victim. Or put T1 and PtL on Wedge to joust someone. Fly into T1 range, boost and Push for Focus for 4 dice + Focus + Target Lock AND the defender gets -1 agility.

Eh, I could see putting K6 or T1 on a Warthog Y. K6 will let you use your TL if you want on the primary attack, and if you get the successful roll you then get it for the second tap with the turret. And it's pretty fun to put T1 on a Y with Autoblaster Turret (title optional), especially when paired with Airen Cracken, Squad Leader, or Lando. Boost into range one and either arc dodge to the side if you're a turret user, or just right into their face if you're going for the double tap. Pull it off late enough, and it can even be a nice soft counter for the now omnipresent Soontir Fel. Focus with the Y's action, have Jan Ors in her HWK in your squad, then find a way to get that Y to use T1 after Fel does all his crazy PTL stuff...

What about Etahn?

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

K6 is OK on "Dutch". T1 is awesome on a number of pilots. K-turn Porkins, clear stress, boost/target lock into in unsuspecting victim. Or put T1 and PtL on Wedge to joust someone. Fly into T1 range, boost and Push for Focus for 4 dice + Focus + Target Lock AND the defender gets -1 agility.

K6 is Ok on Dutch 3/8 of the time.

T1 is awful on Porkins, as Porkins needs D8 to repair his Hull Damage.

Why put T1 on Wedge when you can put Predator on him? The times when you'll need to re-roll more than one dice is small when you're Focused. The Target lock is less useful as you can only re-roll against a TLed opponent, and you need to take Push in order to get the Focus. Push gives you stress, and good luck every getting anything in arc again while clearing stress in an X-wing.

R7 is great on Corran because he can also take an FCS, but I'm the only one that says so. Fire at the most dangerous ship and you are either going to have a defensive TL against it, or a boost to your second attack. And when you use the second attack, you leave the round with a defensive token already in place for your off-round. With PtL, you can have R7, focus and evade all stacked for an uber-turtled ship.

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

K6 is OK on "Dutch". T1 is awesome on a number of pilots. K-turn Porkins, clear stress, boost/target lock into in unsuspecting victim. Or put T1 and PtL on Wedge to joust someone. Fly into T1 range, boost and Push for Focus for 4 dice + Focus + Target Lock AND the defender gets -1 agility.

K6 is Ok on Dutch 3/8 of the time.

T1 is awful on Porkins, as Porkins needs D8 to repair his Hull Damage.

Why put T1 on Wedge when you can put Predator on him? The times when you'll need to re-roll more than one dice is small when you're Focused. The Target lock is less useful as you can only re-roll against a TLed opponent, and you need to take Push in order to get the Focus. Push gives you stress, and good luck every getting anything in arc again while clearing stress in an X-wing.

If you're a gambling man, R3-A2 goes well with Porkins. Love to pair him with Eaden Vrill get the guaranteed stress on a target, let Vrill blast them, and Porkins can ditch the stress (at the risk of damage) to help him line up a target next turn. Easier to use than Tactician, and Hobbie's PS of 5 makes him less of a guarantee to be able to clear his stress (without shoehorning in Dutch... though a trio of Hobbie, Dutch, and Vrill sounds fun).

D8 is still the go-to for Porkins, but R3 can open up some interesting options for Porkins. Heck, I've thrown Opportunist on him before as well, letting Porkins cause stress then dish out some serious pain to the stressed ship. Pair him with Jan Ors and Porkins can fire out six modified dice and cause stress all in one go.

Though I also want to try R3 on a simple Y-Wing. If you can line it up you can ion+stress in a little joust, then just skirt alongside firing ions to the defenseless, perma-stressed ship. Or go with the title and throw out double stress (though then leaving the Y useless for a good while.)

Though I also want to try R3 on a simple Y-Wing. If you can line it up you can ion+stress in a little joust, then just skirt alongside firing ions to the defenseless, perma-stressed ship. Or go with the title and throw out double stress (though then leaving the Y useless for a good while.)

I've been flying a Gold w/ R3-A2 + ICT + Title for awhile now. And let me just say, he's never useless! Sure, he rarely gets actual damage through, but when you don't care about getting actions, it's amazing how aggressively you can play him to cause a road block. And by the time he has 6+ stress on him, even if you maneuver him wrong (which just takes 1 move btw), your opponent is going to chase him down because he's so **** freakin annoying! Best 25 points ever.

an odd pair for wedge. R2-F2 is a defensive upgrade while Wedge ability is offensive. They don't have any synergy or matches.

For Corran Horn R5-P9 will do better. After you doubile shot with Corran you are trying to get out of the fight and take a focus action for evasion if you don't get shot at you can use that token for recharging the sheilds and it is cheaper than R2-D2.

For biggs the whole thing is that biggs is going to die. So putting any point on him is a guarentee you won't have those points later in the game. R2-D2 is an expensive upgrade for astromech slots and not even he can stop all the shots from blowing up Biggs. IMHO you want 1 point upgrades such as R4-D6. The less you spend on biggs the better it is for your ships when biggs finally bites it.

Also what about the salvaged astromech. I know it isn't much since there are only 2 uniqu pilots that can take them.

When it comes to scum you don't get more symmetry than Drea with R4-B11.

Kavil with Argo mech makes for better blaster turret shots, or essentially anybody using blaster turret.

When it comes to scum you don't get more symmetry than Drea with R4-B11.

Kavil with Argo mech makes for better blaster turret shots, or essentially anybody using blaster turret.

I thought this would be great. Then I tried it; 1 and 2 straight for only green maneuvers didn't work out too swell.

I like Hobbie and R3-A2 they're a natural fit.

Bigg's with R2-F2 and Experimental Interface is nice. Played against a list that had that and tactical jammer. Took forever to kill Biggs.

an odd pair for wedge. R2-F2 is a defensive upgrade while Wedge ability is offensive. They don't have any synergy or matches.

For Corran Horn R5-P9 will do better. After you doubile shot with Corran you are trying to get out of the fight and take a focus action for evasion if you don't get shot at you can use that token for recharging the sheilds and it is cheaper than R2-D2.

For biggs the whole thing is that biggs is going to die. So putting any point on him is a guarentee you won't have those points later in the game. R2-D2 is an expensive upgrade for astromech slots and not even he can stop all the shots from blowing up Biggs. IMHO you want 1 point upgrades such as R4-D6. The less you spend on biggs the better it is for your ships when biggs finally bites it.

Also what about the salvaged astromech. I know it isn't much since there are only 2 unique pilots that can take them.

I actually have an idea for a list with the seemingly never used salvaged astromechs: get a couple generic Warthog Ys and team them with Prince Xizor! Gave Xizor PTL and Advanced Sensors (might change that to Fire Control System) to guarantee he's as hard to hit and potentially annoying/deadly as possible, pair him with two Ion Warthogs with Shield Upgrades (could drop that to Hull if I wanted points elsewhere, I suppose... maybe upgrade them to Hired Guns over Syndicate Thugs) and the Salvaged Astromech. If the enemy tries to ignore Xizor, you can PTL to lock/focus targets and tear into them while they try to grind through the tankiest of all possible Y-Wings. If they gun for Xizor, they're dealing with a lot of defensive actions and any damage that goes through can be mitigated by passing it to Xizor's duo of blaster sponges. You can turn the first Direct Hit! they receive into a miss, or get a miss instead of dropping your ICT.

I'm honestly itching to give it a real try sometime. It should give the enemy a lot of health to chew through, and actually has a respectable amount of offensive capability to boot. Could also drop the title from the Ys and try a more control based approach, and make up for not having the Unhinged to help with maneuvering.

BUT:

23 total health

Ability to outright ignore two crits during the game (potentially saving you a total of four more HP)

Ions to send ships drifting for a turn with their guns pointing at empty space

Ship capable of doing the most damage will be incredibly difficult to kill early with good flying

When it comes to scum you don't get more symmetry than Drea with R4-B11.

Kavil with Argo mech makes for better blaster turret shots, or essentially anybody using blaster turret.

I thought this would be great. Then I tried it; 1 and 2 straight for only green maneuvers didn't work out too swell.

I like Hobbie and R3-A2 they're a natural fit.

Bigg's with R2-F2 and Experimental Interface is nice. Played against a list that had that and tactical jammer. Took forever to kill Biggs.

You are missing the point of R4-B11 on Drea. Drea doesn't stop getting target locks by adding stress. If you work it correctly you get infinite target locks to spend.

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

K6 is OK on "Dutch". T1 is awesome on a number of pilots. K-turn Porkins, clear stress, boost/target lock into in unsuspecting victim. Or put T1 and PtL on Wedge to joust someone. Fly into T1 range, boost and Push for Focus for 4 dice + Focus + Target Lock AND the defender gets -1 agility.

K6 is Ok on Dutch 3/8 of the time.

T1 is awful on Porkins, as Porkins needs D8 to repair his Hull Damage.

Why put T1 on Wedge when you can put Predator on him? The times when you'll need to re-roll more than one dice is small when you're Focused. The Target lock is less useful as you can only re-roll against a TLed opponent, and you need to take Push in order to get the Focus. Push gives you stress, and good luck every getting anything in arc again while clearing stress in an X-wing.

Because fun? TL is more useful, as you can re-roll all 3 or 4 dice, and besides, you just TL'd the guy you boosted toward. As far as stressed Wedge, if only there were some way he could boost out of arcs or something in that build...

Or you can be a killjoy and try to ban people from playing cards you find less than optimal in their own homes.

Objective discussions break down when "because fun" is introduced as an argument. You can pretty much argue that for anything due to the subjective nature of what is "fun", and nobody can really counter it without calling your subjective belief about fun into question.

The real kicker for me though was when you accused someone of trying to ban you from using a card in your own home. I'm very curious about what kind of logic could lead you to that conclusion, or if you were just being hyperbolic to make a point.

I don't want to see F2, K6, or T1 recommended under any circumstances.

K6 is OK on "Dutch". T1 is awesome on a number of pilots. K-turn Porkins, clear stress, boost/target lock into in unsuspecting victim. Or put T1 and PtL on Wedge to joust someone. Fly into T1 range, boost and Push for Focus for 4 dice + Focus + Target Lock AND the defender gets -1 agility.

K6 is Ok on Dutch 3/8 of the time.

T1 is awful on Porkins, as Porkins needs D8 to repair his Hull Damage.

Why put T1 on Wedge when you can put Predator on him? The times when you'll need to re-roll more than one dice is small when you're Focused. The Target lock is less useful as you can only re-roll against a TLed opponent, and you need to take Push in order to get the Focus. Push gives you stress, and good luck every getting anything in arc again while clearing stress in an X-wing.

Because fun? TL is more useful, as you can re-roll all 3 or 4 dice, and besides, you just TL'd the guy you boosted toward. As far as stressed Wedge, if only there were some way he could boost out of arcs or something in that build...

Or you can be a killjoy and try to ban people from playing cards you find less than optimal in their own homes.

this just got weird.

for the record R2-D2 +Corran is proven to be great...I personally have regenerated 5+ shields from the little guy.

When it comes to scum you don't get more symmetry than Drea with R4-B11.

Kavil with Argo mech makes for better blaster turret shots, or essentially anybody using blaster turret.

I thought this would be great. Then I tried it; 1 and 2 straight for only green maneuvers didn't work out too swell.

I like Hobbie and R3-A2 they're a natural fit.

Bigg's with R2-F2 and Experimental Interface is nice. Played against a list that had that and tactical jammer. Took forever to kill Biggs.

You are missing the point of R4-B11 on Drea. Drea doesn't stop getting target locks by adding stress. If you work it correctly you get infinite target locks to spend.

I have wanted A4-B11 and Drea to work also. However, you have to be very careful that your target does not die before you acquire new target. This can be tricky because you have to decide whether to switch targets before you know if the current target is done for - either by spending TL to modify your dice or spending it to have your opponent reroll theirs. The opponent's final roll and outcome is not known, so Drea may have to switch her TL to another adversary before the first ship is removed in order not to lose her TL and have to deal with the mounting stack of stress.

Not impossible, but she may need to have a 'clean-up' crew on stand by to mop up a one HP baddy.

R5-D8 is fantastic on Porkins. If Porkins clears the stress, there is a 3/8 chance he takes damage. So, less than 50% he takes a hit. No matter what, he clears the stress. If he does take the hit, he can use that action to activate R5-D8 and get a 5/8 chance of clearing the damage. Overall, there is only an 11% Porkins will actually take damage after removing the stress. Remember the damage is dealt to him, so it goes through shields. This is actually a good thing with R5-D8 because you can keep trying to get rid of the damage (if you get it and if it isn't cleared straight away).

One of the things missed is that you remove the stress even if you just spend your action getting rid of damage. You could K-turn all day long with this combo.

When it comes to scum you don't get more symmetry than Drea with R4-B11.

Kavil with Argo mech makes for better blaster turret shots, or essentially anybody using blaster turret.

I thought this would be great. Then I tried it; 1 and 2 straight for only green maneuvers didn't work out too swell.

I like Hobbie and R3-A2 they're a natural fit.

Bigg's with R2-F2 and Experimental Interface is nice. Played against a list that had that and tactical jammer. Took forever to kill Biggs.

You are missing the point of R4-B11 on Drea. Drea doesn't stop getting target locks by adding stress. If you work it correctly you get infinite target locks to spend.

I have wanted A4-B11 and Drea to work also. However, you have to be very careful that your target does not die before you acquire new target. This can be tricky because you have to decide whether to switch targets before you know if the current target is done for - either by spending TL to modify your dice or spending it to have your opponent reroll theirs. The opponent's final roll and outcome is not known, so Drea may have to switch her TL to another adversary before the first ship is removed in order not to lose her TL and have to deal with the mounting stack of stress.

Not impossible, but she may need to have a 'clean-up' crew on stand by to mop up a one HP baddy.

Drea with R4-B11 can spend the TL even if they don't re-roll any of their green dice, then you can reacquire a TL on anyone with in range.

Anything that messes with TLs will be annoying for Drea. Countermeasures, Expert Handling, Wes Janson, to a lesser extent Jendon. Luckily most of these are rare these days.

Note that Drea is consistent with landing damage with Proton Torpedoes, but ICT will struggle mightily against anyone with Autothrusters. One of the only ways to get a hit through is if they roll all eyeballs with no focus available... Drea just isn't reliably throwing 3 hits with ICT, even with a TL. Kavil and/or any Y-wing with R4 Agromech can be better for landing ion tokens on Autothruster targets. TL/F to hit 3 times, or Kavil rolling 4 dice, will help.

Come to think of it, Palob might help if you're going for an ion control build. Suck the focus off a ship with Autothrusters, and it's a lot harder to dodge shots from the ICT.

You still forget the R4-B11 ability. They have a 50% chance of losing any evade they rolled, and Drea is the best warthog pilot around. Usually they will get their focus stripped against the primary shot or another of your ships.

Drea R4-B11 ion turret warthog mode is a big part of how I won a local tournament. Two banana pirates with bug zappers, Torkil with a auto turret and recon specialist, N'dru with lone wolf and a bug zapper, and warthog Drea.

Drea is the big gun, but you have plenty of targets and blockers. Drea really shines when there are all of these blockers and it is a pretty tough all around list.

You still forget the R4-B11 ability. They have a 50% chance of losing any evade they rolled, and Drea is the best warthog pilot around. Usually they will get their focus stripped against the primary shot or another of your ships.

Drea R4-B11 ion turret warthog mode is a big part of how I won a local tournament. Two banana pirates with bug zappers, Torkil with a auto turret and recon specialist, N'dru with lone wolf and a bug zapper, and warthog Drea.

Drea is the big gun, but you have plenty of targets and blockers. Drea really shines when there are all of these blockers and it is a pretty tough all around list.

I didn't forget the ability; when they re-roll the successful green dice they don't automatically lose the result.

3/8 of the time they still get an evade, 2/8 of the time they still get a focus if they have a token, and if they have Autothrusters then they still turn 1 blank into an evade. That leaves just 3/8 chance of blanks coming up for each re-rolled die.

To hit someone like Soontir Fel, who almost always has multiple focus/evade tokens and Autothrusters (god forbid a Stealth Device), you often have to roll 3 hits and he has to roll triple blanks. Even with re-rolls in play that's not a common result.

Just for fun, I'll do some math. Odds to roll a blank when you must re-roll non-blanks is: 3/8 + 5/8*3/8 = 39/64. So you do roll blanks slightly more than half the time. Odds of rolling all 3 blanks with R4-B11 is 36^3 / 64^3 = 17.8%.

Cloaked Phantoms surprisingly aren't as hard to hit since they don't have evade tokens and/or Autothrusters to convert blanks to evades. You can often hit a Phantom that is rolling 2 blanks out of 4 green dice, which should be over 50%.

The real kicker for me though was when you accused someone of trying to ban you from using a card in your own home. I'm very curious about what kind of logic could lead you to that conclusion, or if you were just being hyperbolic to make a point.

Knew I should've gone with the winky face. You guys need to lighten up.

You still forget the R4-B11 ability. They have a 50% chance of losing any evade they rolled, and Drea is the best warthog pilot around. Usually they will get their focus stripped against the primary shot or another of your ships.

Drea R4-B11 ion turret warthog mode is a big part of how I won a local tournament. Two banana pirates with bug zappers, Torkil with a auto turret and recon specialist, N'dru with lone wolf and a bug zapper, and warthog Drea.

Drea is the big gun, but you have plenty of targets and blockers. Drea really shines when there are all of these blockers and it is a pretty tough all around list.

I didn't forget the ability; when they re-roll the successful green dice they don't automatically lose the result.

3/8 of the time they still get an evade, 2/8 of the time they still get a focus if they have a token, and if they have Autothrusters then they still turn 1 blank into an evade. That leaves just 3/8 chance of blanks coming up for each re-rolled die.

To hit someone like Soontir Fel, who almost always has multiple focus/evade tokens and Autothrusters (god forbid a Stealth Device), you often have to roll 3 hits and he has to roll triple blanks. Even with re-rolls in play that's not a common result.

Just for fun, I'll do some math. Odds to roll a blank when you must re-roll non-blanks is: 3/8 + 5/8*3/8 = 39/64. So you do roll blanks slightly more than half the time. Odds of rolling all 3 blanks with R4-B11 is 36^3 / 64^3 = 17.8%.

Cloaked Phantoms surprisingly aren't as hard to hit since they don't have evade tokens and/or Autothrusters to convert blanks to evades. You can often hit a Phantom that is rolling 2 blanks out of 4 green dice, which should be over 50%.

Autothrusters don't work against a warthog if you are shooting at them, but getting Soontir in arc isn't easy.