Local tournament is coming up; standard 100-point affair. I am still dreaming of a competative A-Wing list. As I have complaned before, there is no good third named pilot to support Jake and Tycho. The latter two are set up in the usual way:

Jake: VI, AT, PTL, Prockets

Tycho: PTL, DD, EI, Prockets

71 points of fun. The the usual question comes: Now what?

You got Arvel and Gemmer if you want to keep it A-wing, or 29-points to bring something else.

You can build a decent Hawk or Y-wing for 29 points, but they will not be able to keep up.

You can get two el-cheapo Z's, or a loaded up Airen Cracken...better, but still cannot keep up. This is more of a problem for Santa Claus (Airen) as he cannot be tossing cookies about when Jake and Tycho have jeted to the other side of the table.

A meh X-wing maybe. Just a glorified Z 95, and there is no one in the sub 20-25 point range that lends more than just support...which does not work well in a sub-4 ship list IMO.

One point shy to two Prototypes, and buring up 11 points to upgrade a PS 3 Green Squadron pilot does not seem to make much sense to me.

So back to Arvel and Gemmer.

When I run Gemmer, I rarely get prokects off because at PS 5, it is hard to get to range 1 with a TL before getting zapped. His pilot ability makes him want to stay close to the fight, but PTL with only a boost makes him better at jousting. Jousting alone, with 2 red dice, has proven to not be real effective. He is needed in support of strafing turrets, so Lone Wolf does not consistantly work. Predator...rerolling 1 or 2 dice, when you only got 2, seems not helpful. I have been leaning towards Expose. A 4-point EPT sucks all of the allowance for a missle, but with Chardaan, you can get a shield upgrade. If you are already up one evade dice due to enemy proximity, you may have a chance to cash it in at the right moment.

Option B is Arvel. I really want to find a use for him. The problem is at PS 6, he does not work. If he were a 1, perfect. Even a 7 or 8 would be easier. The problem is that he needs to latch onto whatever he is shooting at, but you cannot boost to a bump. Moving in the middle of the pack means you need to try to plow into those who move before you, without getting sniped by the arc dodgers moving after you. However, I have discovered you CAN Daredevil to a bump. This leads to some funky approaches to get him to hook into someone, but I am getting beter at it. Again, the three point EPT and prockets, you loose autothrusters, but I find that I rarely am in position to use them with Arvel if I am able to hook into turrets effectively.

Anyone have any better ideas (not counting flying something else)?

Green Squad w/ Push, Concussion Missiles, and Autothrusters for 28 points. TL + F on Concussion is an almost guaranteed to do at least 3 hits. After that is spent it still stays alive with focus, evade, and autothrusters. Keep the last point for an initiative bid.

I picked concussion for a few reasons, but mainly because it is hard to keep R1 for prockets with a ship that has a low pilot skill. The concussion with PtL means that you will be able to fire with TL and F, and I guarantee that won't disappoint you. The ship can be used fairly independently from the others, and at PS 3 can arc-dodge the PS2 crowd, and with the A wing dial can block the elite crowd. Not a bad trade...

I think green is the way to go too. Other good missile choices include homing or ion pulse missile. Neither spend the TL to fire, so you can usually use the TL to ensure a good result and save your other token for defense (allowing you to fire it even when you know enemies will be shooting at you----with concusions, its usually better to go for the shot when out of arc so you don't have to worry about tokens for defense)

Having said that, its possible to run Arvel. He's actually good at bumping even at PS6, as long as you are pretty good at predicting enemy positions. Even better is when you can set up a nice dense asteroid field and have him troll around it, and anyone who wants to go through has to choose bumping into him or go over a rock (and if you are pretty certain someone will bump into him, pick a hard 1 turn which you won't be able to complete and thus stay bumped). Arvel really like intimidation for an EPT. If you have that card, it fits well with him (and helps out your other guys if they can focus fire). Autothrusters are not ideal on him, shield upgrade is probably better since he's in close most of the time. I think he's 23 or 24 base? Intimidation + shield = 29 or 30 (can't check atm). Its not bad although ultimately a green with missile is probably going to be a bit more useful more often...

K-Wing with Twin Laser Turret? If only.

ORS with Tactician?

not many good options, unfortunately.

Also, can you explain why not keeping up is such a bad thing? By turn 2 or 3, all ships are tangoing, even with a HWK, he'll have targets and it's presence will make the opponent have to decide what to hit first. Also an Ion cannon will help set up easy prey for Prockets.

This is just me theorizing. I haven't flown a list like that before, so I'm sure a little experience would change my mind.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/128189-a-wing-aces/

More recently, his Mark VII did very well at a Regionals. Can't find that thread though.

What about Nera with Predator? Gives you a chunky ship and she can hit pretty hard. You can do the 4 forward and not worry too much about losing an action as you have predator. I know you are completely ignoring her pilot ability, but its still a PS 5 B-wing with predator.

Or Blue Sqd. with HLC could work as well. It will probably draw some heat, and leave your A-wings to unload their prockets.