So I just took down a small 8 man tourney with 4 B-Wings all with Fire control Systems, and one had a Mangler....100 points. Throughout the tourney I never lost more than 1 B-Wing a game and the first game against Super Dash I didn't even lose a single ship!

I had debated the night before whether the Bs would be better stripped down with an extra Z-95 thrown in ... But I am sold on the FCS, they made the Bs an absolute nightmare to deal with! But the Mangler was wasted points for the most part, as I tended to focus fire down ships in a turn or two the crits never really had an effect.

So I want to get some advice on what to do in its place... Was thinking of a B-Wing/E2 and a Tactician, puts me at 99 points for the intitiative bid.... Any other thoughts?

Well, you had better luck than I did.

I had BBBB(iggs) get ruined by a few truly awful throws against turrets and of course the 360 arc meant I would inevitably lose the game to more modifiers and shooting first

Well, BIggs was a waste of space, even with R4-D6 soaking up 3 Aggressor HLC shots (leaving the bs with enough time to murder them ) but he just didn't pull his weight.

The B-wing with the B/e intelligence agent, though...

so yeah, int agents or upgrades to dagger squadron (situational, but good predator protection) would be my main uses of four points. Flechette cannon can also be quite nice (long range + no FCS target-lock = not much damage expected on certain targets anyway, and the stress will make enemies far easier to keep in arc)

I think the flechette cannons would be a interesting idea plus no range two restrictions

I run 3 Dagger Squadron Bs with HLCs and FCSs and it is devastating. The big issue I had with 4 Bs was at range 3 with high evade ships (especially with Autothrusters) I couldnt punch through that much defense but with the HLCs I was always doing 4 dice (and many times 4 hits) and that made a huge difference. I typically lose one by round three at the latest but it doesnt matter by then because I have ripped through most of the ships I need to by then. I have yet to lose a match with them. The only thing that I havent faced yet and which I dread the most are the 4x Scum Syndicate Thugs.

I've run a similar build (2 B's w/FCS and HLC paired with Ten Numb w/VI, Mangler and FCS) to good effect... Mostly because I do not have the 4th B-Wing :-), but it is a pretty solid build. A bit "slow" for my personal tastes, but solid.

My son recently won a store champ and spring tourny with 4 B's with accuracy corrector.

Now that is an interesting build...

Yes it is. I came up with the build the night before the store championship. He was planning to run BBBBZ which he had been running quite successfully.

He is 10-2 with it. I thought about how to improve the BBBB build and came up with this. It allowed him to fly more aggressively without regard to red maneuvers as he would be dealing a minimum of 2 hits on each attack for each B that was pointing at something. It even gives you 2 hits on a blinded pilot crit as you cancel your dice anyway(it is in the FAQ now as well).

The SC had 20 players and he was 6th after swiss. Final build he faced was a totally loaded Scum Boba with 3 Z's.

FWIW, he used accuracy corrector over 30 times during the SC. Took the pressure off attack rolling and allowed him to concentrate on flying. I watched his top 8 games and he flew very well. He could focus unless he was at range 1 at which he target locked for obvious reasons. The focus token was used mainly for defence rolls unless it would get him full hits on his attack.

What we found with the BBBBZ build was that the Z would be taken down quite quickly anyway and it was an easy points grab by the opponent so he couldn't get a full 100-0 win(with full MOV).

Most of his games were 100-0 wins except for the Scum Boba championship game which came down to 1 of his B's with 4 shield, 3 hull against a single Z. Needless to say he finished it off without taking any further damage. The damage he had on it was from an assault missile attack from Boba early in the game anyway.

I never run rebel - my son has all the rebel ships. I run Imperial or Scum but I can't argue with 4B's. 32 HP to take them down and 3 attack on each(with guaranteed 2 hits with Accuracy Corrector) is nothing to sneeze at.

I'll be running 4 Tempest Tie Advanced with AC and shield upgrade once the Raider comes out. Guaranteed 2 hits with 3hull/3hield and 3 agility. Will be the Empires answer to the BBBB with AC build.

Yes it is. I came up with the build the night before the store championship. He was planning to run BBBBZ which he had been running quite successfully.

He is 10-2 with it. I thought about how to improve the BBBB build and came up with this. It allowed him to fly more aggressively without regard to red maneuvers as he would be dealing a minimum of 2 hits on each attack for each B that was pointing at something. It even gives you 2 hits on a blinded pilot crit as you cancel your dice anyway(it is in the FAQ now as well).

The SC had 20 players and he was 6th after swiss. Final build he faced was a totally loaded Scum Boba with 3 Z's.

FWIW, he used accuracy corrector over 30 times during the SC. Took the pressure off attack rolling and allowed him to concentrate on flying. I watched his top 8 games and he flew very well. He could focus unless he was at range 1 at which he target locked for obvious reasons. The focus token was used mainly for defence rolls unless it would get him full hits on his attack.

What we found with the BBBBZ build was that the Z would be taken down quite quickly anyway and it was an easy points grab by the opponent so he couldn't get a full 100-0 win(with full MOV).

Most of his games were 100-0 wins except for the Scum Boba championship game which came down to 1 of his B's with 4 shield, 3 hull against a single Z. Needless to say he finished it off without taking any further damage. The damage he had on it was from an assault missile attack from Boba early in the game anyway.

Did he fly against either the 4x Scum Syndicate Thugs with Ion Turrets/BTL/A4s or Interceptors? What did he lose to?

I am also wondering if Advanced Sensors would be better.

Both losses were in then SC.

There were several squads with phantoms and interceptors. That was the beauty of this as he could do white maneuvers after red and not worry about it. When he could, he would then do a green maneuver to either focus or TL. Without having to TL, the opponent had no idea who he was targetting until it came time to shoot. With the TL, you are broadcasting who you want to shoot and most times a high agility ship will get out of arc wasting the TL anyway.

He lost 1 game to a double IG build that had ptl and advanced sensors(B+C)

He lost the other game to a Boba/IG build. He faced this build in his first game of top8. I discussed strategy with him before this game and he wipes him out in 25 minutes. He mistakenly went after Boba the first game and with the range 1 rerolls, got wiped out himself. I told him to target the IG and when it was done, go after Boba staying at range 2-3. My strategy made short work of that build. 100-25.

Second game of top 8 was aginst a double decimator build. This game only lasted about 10 minutes. 100-0.

Final game was against a heavily loaded Scum Boba and 3 Z's. Again, he targetted Boba but kept him at range 2-3 and then when he moved in he pinched Boba in the corner. Final kill on Boba was a self inflicted landing on an asteroid and rolling a hit due to be blocked from escaping.

This game went about 60 minutes and was 100-75 for my son. His last remaining B had 4 shield and 3 hull left. The shield that was stripped was done so early on in the game due to an assault missile that damaged all of his B's at range 3 from Boba.

He got all kinds of compliments on his flying and game play during the day. He is 17 BTW.

My day started out horribly as I had a bad TO call against me - my opponent should have flown echo off the table but the TO allowed him to do a 1 hard instead of the 2 bank he had(he had navigator and the TO thought it meant side and not actual bearing like straight, bank or turn). After that I didn't care and just concentrated on how my son was doing. I had 4 ties and Kath Scarlett on the table at the time which would have been going against his lone Chiraneau. It should have been a 100-0 win for me but ended up being a 100-0 loss. Was very displeased with the ruling for obvious reasons and lost my desire to play well.

We've talked about the 4xBlue with AC in another forum. The math behind this build is inferior to other system upgrades. FCS is a proven winner. The reason you now see 4 naked Blues and a Z is the rise of the 60 minute round and only needing to win by 12 points for a full win. BBBBZ excels at outlasting.

If the time limit were to go back to 75 minutes, or the game you're playing does not have a time limit, you'll find that 4xBlue with FCS out performs the 4 naked Bs with a Z escort.

4 Bs with any system or crew upgrade will outperform the BBBBZ list in a longer format game and if the winner is only decided by total destruction.