I'm glad you delurked. Good write up. I am impressed you own three Hawks, I have two, but I find I prefer my Y-wings. Droids are better than crew.

My only complaint is that you didn't win one of the regionals because then none of the detractors would really have a leg to stand on. I always enjoy hearing of people doing well with ships that "suck"

Props to you for running a non-meta list! Great write-up as well

I expect you to get into the Regional top 8 results thread next season!

Good write up. Keep more of these type of things coming.

To the detractors I say there was never a claim that the Ion Operative was better or even equal to an Ion Y, only that it forced a different thought process in order to succeed. Success is in this case a measure of piloting, not list building.

This actually got me thinking of the Rebel Operative with a Ion and Tactician. There may be space for that build in certain lists.

I'm also very curious to see how the generic HWK options open up with TLT.

I thought about tacticians on the rebel operatives... but while I obviously shoot people in arc,, I also spend much of the game trying to avoid a direct joust. Plus, as ParaGoomba said, the extra points deny the Z-95, which is really is important and not just a 12 point throw-in. This flies like a swarm that wants to joust at angles to each other instead of head-on.

Props to you for running a non-meta list! Great write-up as well

I expect you to get into the Regional top 8 results thread next season!

Thank you! The night before San Diego, I was a moment's indecision away from bringing Dash/Chewie. I'm glad I didn't, I'm not sure if it would have helped me make the cut or hurt my performance, but top 8 in these events is tough. 5-1 and 10th is a tough road.

What are you thoughts on the scum hawks with kyraxz? Something like;

KIHRAXZ: Cartel Marauder (20)

KIHRAXZ: Cartel Marauder (20)

HWK-290: · Torkil Mux (19)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

· Greedo (1)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

HWK-290: · Palob Godalhi (20)

Predator (3)

Blaster Turret (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

· Moldy Crow (3)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Yup... Phoenix regionals round 3 you played a varient of panic attack.. You locked one of my Be on an astroid, flew my Y almost off th map before it blew up and easily controlled the rest of my board. I was able to kill 1 hawk. I went 4-2 with my other loss was a 50-51 loss. I was humbled by the power of the HWK. Great article and look forward to our next matchup.

This is fabulous.

Some days it's not meta-strength that's the key, it's what works for the list - as noted, that Bandit was worth downgrading the HWKs from Ys.

I suspect Dash is something of a hard counter to you, in many respects - he's got the PS and mobility to make sure you don't get your Range 2 shots that you so carefully need. He seems to be a counter to a lot of the more limited-mobility small ship builds; that he also packs enough versatility and firepower to be a meta-ship simultaneously is quite possibly part of why we're not seeing more swarmlets; a little like how Phantoms did it back in the days of old (if much less extreme, of course).

I am sorry that we didn't get to play in San Diego. This list looks fun, intimidating and meta bending. Well done!

Yup... Phoenix regionals round 3 you played a varient of panic attack.. You locked one of my Be on an astroid, flew my Y almost off th map before it blew up and easily controlled the rest of my board. I was able to kill 1 hawk. I went 4-2 with my other loss was a 50-51 loss. I was humbled by the power of the HWK. Great article and look forward to our next matchup.

I do remember this game. I also ended up 4-2 that day. I remember there was a discussion on whether I'd locked one or two ships on that asteroid, I always feel a little bad if I get behind B-wings and Y-wings as there is almost nothing they can do afterwords against 4 ion cannons.

First off, I love Palob and your build is solid, though I'm leaning more towards TLT over blaster cannons for almost everyone at this point. My issue with Palob tricked out is he is expensive. An expensive HWK is a big target, so there needs to be some greater cause for him other than just being awesome. (Sensor Jammer Guri is fun... opportunist is great, even on Palob with blaster).

That said, what i was playing was straight control, I had several games where I won where I didn't shoot the same ship twice in the same turn. What you're running is more about the damage output, and focus fire. There are some good HWK players who can do this, but my experience has been with HWKs as cheap control platforms.

That said, I'm so excited about TLT+Recon HWks for 25 points as damage platforms. I'm not sure about the list you posted, just as it is out of my realm of recent experience. It is similar to the list Trenden ran at the Denver regional with the 3 named HWKs and a Z-95, but you're dropping Dace and the Z for the 2 cartel marauders... so your firepower is higher, but your control is less. I'd lean more towards more control, going ion with Dace instead of blaster with Palob in order to get the control you need to make sure your cartel's are facing the enemy the majority of the time.

Just an opinion.

What are you thoughts on the scum hawks with kyraxz? Something like;

KIHRAXZ: Cartel Marauder (20)
KIHRAXZ: Cartel Marauder (20)
HWK-290: · Torkil Mux (19)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
· Greedo (1)
Inertial Dampeners (1)
HWK-290: · Palob Godalhi (20)
Predator (3)
Blaster Turret (4)
Recon Specialist (3)
· Moldy Crow (3)
Inertial Dampeners (1)

Very nice write up. A great deal of the insights you've discussed are also points I've wanted to focus on developing in my own play style. Things like planning moves ahead, attempting to control the area of action and drawing my opponent into performing in a way that is advantageous to me. I feel like when a person gets it right, a whole new level of satisfaction is reached. Kudos to you for taking on a potential handicap for the goal of developing a greater level of expertise. Kind of reminds me of old kung-fu movie training.

This exactly. This article was so much more than just the typical "here's the list I ran" and contained a ton of very good insights into the game itself. Thanks so much for the effort it took to put this together!

This is fabulous.

Some days it's not meta-strength that's the key, it's what works for the list - as noted, that Bandit was worth downgrading the HWKs from Ys.

I suspect Dash is something of a hard counter to you, in many respects - he's got the PS and mobility to make sure you don't get your Range 2 shots that you so carefully need. He seems to be a counter to a lot of the more limited-mobility small ship builds; that he also packs enough versatility and firepower to be a meta-ship simultaneously is quite possibly part of why we're not seeing more swarmlets; a little like how Phantoms did it back in the days of old (if much less extreme, of course).

Dash is absolutely my worst match up. I went 1-1 against Dash in regional play, and I beat Dash about a third of the time in practice. Dash/Corran I got to the point I could beat about half the time... A friend runs Dash with 3 A-wings and that beat me all but once. It was very tough.