I played a game last night an used the fighter packs for the first time. So, I had one I each rebel squadron, and I have to say, I was not impressed with the b-wing. The lack of heavy and being speed 2 meant that the b-wings got caught by an interceptor squadron and tie fighter squadron and was obliterated in short order.

I think x-wings and y-wings are the way to go. Y-wings will be able to keep moving to the target while the x-wings (and maybe an a-wing squadron or two) can tangle with enemy fighters.

It seems that with b-wings you need to play the waiting game until your fleet engages at close range, and then pray that you have been able to wipe out the enemy squadrons before they manage to keep your b-wings from using their torpedoes.

Has anyone found success with b-wings? How ddid you achieve that success?

I have found B-Wings to be good. I use A-Wings to screen off the bulk of the Ties while I fly the B-Wings as an escort with the Mark II. Most the Ties will be dead before they break through to the B-Wings and then the B's and the Mark II smack the rest of them up.

After the Ties have been cleared out the B-Wings are ready for the late game bomb run.

But yes, the Y-Wings and X-Wings are still more versatile the the B-Wings, but I love the challenge.

The lack of heavy is a good thing. heavy is not an advantage. If you have heavy, you cannot "tie up" enemy squadrons, they can move right past you, so you are useless as a fighter screen.

I tend to think of b-wings like a wall of pikeman in medieval warfare. Put them somewhere you do not want enemy fighter to get past and they will stop any charges by enemy fighters or bombers. I don't try to attack enemy capital ships with them, but they also make good defenders for your own ships. when a gladiator comes calling, you can open up a can of b-wing on them. (or 2).

Others have described them as area denial pieces, and i think that is a good description of what they do best. Draw a distance one circle around them. this is where your opponent does not want to be.

Yoink101, I think you might have the Heavy keyword mixed up. If a ship with Heavy gets within distance 1 of an enemy squadron it still cant move or shoot at ships. However Heavy allows the enemy fighters to move if they want to. So I think its a bonus that the B-wings don't have heavy, since you could use one to tie up enemy squadrons if you had to and then make a bombing run with the others, the Y-wings just cant do this.

EDIT: and as I typed this up I was beaten to the punch by Darthfish. lol.

B-wings with Yarvis are a nasty combo if you plan ahead. It's tough to do though b wings are powerful

how to use rebel fighters

Step 1: bring rebel fighters

Step 2: bring Gallant Haven

Step 3: let the empire break themselves like the tide upon the jagged shore

Step 4: bomb some fools

didn't have much room to fiddle around with Bs since I'm using a double fattie list and most of the anti-ship duty is being carried out by Paragon, so so far only confirmed the theory with 6 x-wing squadrons. A more squadron dedicated build would probably make amazing use out of B-wings, which are basically the rebel's victory star destroyers i.t.o plowing through **** slowly but surely

Yoink101, I think you might have the Heavy keyword mixed up. If a ship with Heavy gets within distance 1 of an enemy squadron it still cant move or shoot at ships. However Heavy allows the enemy fighters to move if they want to. So I think its a bonus that the B-wings don't have heavy, since you could use one to tie up enemy squadrons if you had to and then make a bombing run with the others, the Y-wings just cant do this.

EDIT: and as I typed this up I was beaten to the punch by Darthfish. lol.

I did mix it up.

I still think the x-wing and y-wing mix is more straightforward because of the b-wing's somewhat prohibitive speed. I suppose that parking them where a star destroyer will probably end up can be pretty effective though. I'll give them another try.

I much prefer an Awing - Ywing mix.

A wings actually throw more blue dice than an xwing (if they are being shot at) and cost 3 points less. The Ywings have so much health that they don't care if they get shot at for a round or two.

Plus, I would rather like having my Awings go out and engage my opponents fighters and bombers. Xwing are too slow for that.

Bwings are way better in Hyperspace assault or Fleet Ambush, due to the advanced deployment.

What would be a good counter against interceptors?

I think with the Rebels a good mix is best.

Having a couple of each Squadron gives you the flexibility to react.

What would be a good counter against interceptors?

Capital ships? To me, it seems like TIE Interceptors are nasty enough (especially with Howlrunner) that I wouldn't want to tangle with them fighter-on-fighter.

My strategy for Rebel fighters is indeed the combo plate.

My A-wings engage the Imperial squads at range to TIE them up, while the X & Ys engage the ships. Once the A-wings die, the TIEs must engage the X-wing Escorts before the Y bombers. Hopefully the Ys survive long enough to do some serious damage. B-wings work well sitting on Objective tokens to dissuade Imperial ships coming too close. Especially the Outpost Objective.

What would be a good counter against interceptors?

Already put it up

Against anything but sheer overwhelming numbers or **** dice, you will win EVERY squadron battle that occurs in the haven bubble. Even six dice swarm ints won't beat your xwings.

Otherwise yeah, 3 health does not do well against a few anti squadron shots

EDIT: oh, and it seems any imperial list worth its salt will bring rhymer. Rhymer and bombers give imperials access to powerful long range weapons which the rebels have in spades but the empire currently lacks. This means you should never expect to see 4-5 interceptors in a game.

So, I'd say...around 9 A-wings would be a fair fight

Three important things I think B-Wing critics overlook for the flaws:

1, they can one-shot Interceptors and TIE Fighters.

2. They have health 5.

3. They have the bomber keyword and access to blue and black die.

Speed 2 is part of the balance to keep Y-Wings relevant, being the faster bomber. If they were speed 3 you'd be compromising on the B-wing's slowness instead of going to the Y-Wing for being faster. Otherwise B-Wings hit harder and actually pose a thread to attacking enemy TIEs.

What you're supposed to do with them is crowd them by your capital ships. If you have a slow advance of say, an Assault Frigate, you can have the B-wings leading the precession and pouncing on any starfighters or capital ships that get in front of them. They'd probably be good screens and escorts for the MC80s as well, if they are slow-moving.

If you time it right, a squadron activation with 3+ B-Wing squadrons nearby can be more devastating than an additional dice from concentrate fire. They can blow holes in shields before your capital ship opens fire, forcing your opponent to choose how to spend his/her defensive tokens when getting hit with three or more separate attacks from the same activation.

Unlike Y-Wings, your B-Wings can be pulling 3 points of damage when they attack capital ships, and if necessary you can send them in to pin down enemy starfighters before they get by you to your capital ship.

Y-Wings on the other hand you send on glorious far-ranging flank missions with a token Corvette or something. Y-Wings are useful for bombing, but B-Wings are combat swiss army knives. Just as long as you remember that, like a knife, you are only effective at close range.

I don't really see why B-wings are compared to Y-wings, their point cost is closer to an X-wing. But I don't think they compare well at all.

B-wings are slower, have weaker attacks, and are only as resilient as an X-wing. The ONLY advantage is they are much better at attacking ships. But I'd rather take the fighter with the reach to get there and the attack power to clear fighter screens.

Every strategy as far as deployment and tactical use that can be said for the B-wing can be equally applied to the X-wing.

And they're a point more too! I don't think I'll ever take them.

Except that B-wings hit harder than X-Wings do when attacking capitals? X-Wings can do at most two damage or one critical. B-Wings can hit up to three damage with two possible critical results (for whatever its worth). B-Wings can also trigger an accuracy with the black result hit-crit result thanks to the blue die. X-Wings and Y-Wings cannot do this.

B-Wings and Y-Wings compare because both have access to the potent black die result of a hit and critical. Red dice are going to give you two hits, but black die can deliver that extra critical. Again, the B-Wing has access to two die, which no other standard bomber in the game has.

The B-wing is supposed to do the role of both the X-Wing and Y-Wing at the expense of speed and not having -Escort-, but they aren't supposed to protect other fighters. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you run B-Wings flying next to any capital using any of the following cards: Gallant heaven, Yavaris, Flight controllers, Adar Tallon.

Interceptors will of course threaten your B-wings, but Interceptors threaten anyone smaller than a small capital ship anyway. Difference is, when you attack there's a chance you'll blow them away in one shot. Can't say the same the other way around.

Except that B-wings hit harder than X-Wings do when attacking capitals? X-Wings can do at most two damage or one critical. B-Wings can hit up to three damage with two possible critical results (for whatever its worth). B-Wings can also trigger an accuracy with the black result hit-crit result thanks to the blue die. X-Wings and Y-Wings cannot do this.

The ONLY advantage is they are much better at attacking ships. But I'd rather take the fighter with the reach to get there and the attack power to clear fighter screens.

The B-wing is supposed to do the role of both the X-Wing and Y-Wing at the expense of speed and not having -Escort-, but they aren't supposed to protect other fighters. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you run B-Wings flying next to any capital using any of the following cards: Gallant heaven, Yavaris, Flight controllers, Adar Tallon.

Every strategy as far as deployment and tactical use that can be said for the B-wing can be equally applied to the X-wing.

Interceptors will of course threaten your B-wings, but Interceptors threaten anyone smaller than a small capital ship anyway. Difference is, when you attack there's a chance you'll blow them away in one shot. Can't say the same the other way around.

Yeah but there's a better chance of an X-wing one-shotting an interceptor and it's just as impossible for the reverse here too.

That's kinda my point. Yes the B-wing does well against ships, but it is also way less likely to get to use that ability since it's so slow and with weak attacks. If B-wings are attacking a ship, it's because the opponent is screwing up, not because B-wings are good.

you don't want B-wings competing with your Xs

Xs compete with As for list space and Bs compete with Ys. Bs are basically dedicated bombers that aren't absolutely worthless against squadrons (they deal decent damage, but their cost per anti-squadron dice ratio is pretty dang inefficient)

The real question is, why do you take Squadrons?

I take a mixed bag, A's for anti-fighter and Y's for anti-ship and X's for Escort & Bomber. I take B's for Bomber and area denial and to scare those slow moving VSD's.

B-wings are much more effective, then what some posters are giving them credit for, against ships then X-wings. They average a full damage more per shot more then an X-wing, with significantly more chance to land a critical, and a much lower chance to wiff completely.

B-Wings are very different than other Squadrons and should be flown very differently. They are slow, we all know that, so use them accordingly. You are not rushing out to the ships to do a bomb run, you are escorting a Mark II or MC80 and waiting for the end game shots. The enemy ships will arrive to the middle of the board just in time to have these things smack them hard.

Don't expect them to work all alone though since they need support to keep them free from engagement when that VSD comes in range.

B-Wings are not flexible like other squadrons but they hit Capital Ships harder than any other Squadron. You play them right once and your opponents will respect them.

Honestly, the B-wing is the first fighter I target when I see it on the table. I do not want those things anywhere near my ships.