So, I played a few games last night trying out the TLT on a couple scum builds and a rebel build, and then did some brainstorming and came up with what I expect is the list that throws the single largest amount of attack dice in a single round possible in the 100 point game at this time. It's expected damage is not that great, but with so many dice, the ability to overcome defensive capabilities allows that low damage to be very, very consistent. The biggest downside, naturally, will be survivability, with most meta squads able to remove one ship per round, possibly before it even fires, but where there's one, there more. I present, the Murder of Crows.

Rebel Operative (16)

-Twin Laser Turret (6)

Rebel Operative (16)

-Twin Laser Turret (6)

Rebel Operative (16)

-Twin Laser Turret (6)

Rebel Operative (16)

-Twin Laser Turret (6)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

A total of 9 attacks each round, 8 at 3 dice, 1 max damage, in any direction at range 2-3 of the HWKs, 1 at 2 dice range 1-3 from the Z. 5 of the 9 will likely be focused, and although it will ne nigh-impossible to lobby all of them at a single target, they can conceivably burn down nearly any small-base ship in a single volley. The 95 should operate as a blocker to keep the HWks out of range 1 from their opponents and their targets, allowing for maximum target spread. Again, obviously the weakness is the 5 HP behind 2 dice of each HWK and even less for the Z, but with so much damage, the beta strike from this list is fearsome.

Thoughts?

meh. I think it will be effective against people who can't figure out how to counter the twin laser turret. It may even counter a few 'fat turret' builds, even against decent players. However, I don't think its gonna out-gun more efficient (in action economy) twin laser lists, and autothrusters should allow interceptors, a-wings and aggressors to do just fine against it (provided the player isn't dumb). Also, lists like this are going to encourage more players to use swarms (which isn't a bad thing) because swarms can throw out as much damage and don't sweat the early loss of a single ship.

Its gonna be a pretty boring list to fly though, I would think. YMMV of course.

People worry about the twin lasers when they are on a durable Y-wing. Throwing them on a HWK-290 means the other player might be able to kill two of them in the first round of shooting.

Mixing in a Roark Garnet with the Y-wings might be nice. And then you wouldn't need to purchase 4 HWK-290s!

Any swarm should eat this list alive. You have a list full of the least durable ships in the game and they all have a hard damage cap too. Not a good combo.

The criticism here (as surmised by one of the posts above) is that the defense is lacking with the HWK list. They have two AGI each, so the key is exploiting that fact to your advantage.

There are a few ways to go about this that I believe are worth exploring. If you disagree with the defensive ship route, go look up the squad lists from last year's World Champion or this year's national champion. In fact, this year's national champion said on NOVA Squadron Radio when interviewed that the game is all about defense now. This doesn't mean that offense is that important, it just means that offense comes easily in most lists, so the defense is the side that needs to be bumped up.

Well then, DS5, what can we do to fix this?

What if you dropped the Z-95 (which is filler anyway) and a single HWK-290. This gives you 34 points to boost your defense a little. Let us see what our options might be.

One of the best things I believe you can put on a HWK is a Recon Specialist. Say you don't need them on offense because you just need one hit to go through, you have a double focus every turn for defense. This is demoralizing to any opponent trying to focus fire your ships down. This leaves you with only 25 points left. Scum happens to have an amazing pilot that boosts the defense of our HWKs and I believe she fits really well in this list. Serissu clocks in at 20 points, gives your close ships a defensive reroll and sports an EPT. The exact load out is up to your preference, but some options would be:

Swarm Tactics w/ Hull upgrade, Heavy Scyk Title + Ion Cannon, VI + Heavy Scyk Title + Flechette Cannon, PTL + Inertial Dampeners on two HWKs, or Hull Upgrade + Elusiveness

I know people generally do not prefer Serissu in this situation and she can quickly become the 'low hanging fruit' of the list to take out first, but if she hangs back and saves tokens purely for defense she can force your opponent to deal with the HWKs first. If they insist on taking her out first, then you can just make it difficult for them. Dealing with HWKs with double focus each turn AND a defensive reroll is going to be a headache for a lot of lists. The most difficult thing for her will be to slow down to the speed of the HWKs. It takes some expert flying, but I believe it is on the right track to make HWK TLTs a thing.

If you are playing Scum, then you have access to Bodyguard to protect Serissu.

The "champ" might have missed a few things. A lot of popular builds rely on doing damage while completely ignoring defense rolls. And when you only have 5 hitpoints per ship, you are quite vulnerable to them.

If anything those irresponsible words will just lead to the reign of Deathrain.

I think it depends on what you consider "defense". Is, simply, having a lot of HP considered defense? Do you only consider things like Agility, dice modifications, tokens, and damage mitigation defense? What about dial and post-dial movement to arc dodge?

In my experience, this game is 75% offense and 25% defense. You have to be able to do damage to win because killing ships, usually, is the criterion on which your success or failure is measured. As a long time Imperial player I have a love/hate relationship with the TIE Fighter. By and large, the TIE Fighter is a great little ship. It has a good dial, it has 3 Agility, it has a post-dial movement option, and it is cheap. However, the 2 Attack stat is just not enough oomph to do consistent damage and they tend to die rather quickly.

If you are playing Scum, then you have access to Bodyguard to protect Serissu.

The "champ" might have missed a few things. A lot of popular builds rely on doing damage while completely ignoring defense rolls. And when you only have 5 hitpoints per ship, you are quite vulnerable to them.

If anything those irresponsible words will just lead to the reign of Deathrain.

Correct, they could Bodyguard Serissu, but then you need to upgrade one of the HWKs to a named with an EPT for this specific list, although that wouldn't be a bad idea with recon specialist and/or moldy crow title, it just changes the list a little bit.

Look at what Jeff did with his nationals list...he combined raw firepower with B-Wings and HLC Dash with the defensive rerolls of Lone Wolf and shield regeneration of R2-D2 crew. Rerolls on D with a 2 AGI ship should not be underestimated. Yes, the HWKs have 5 HP, but if you have multiple focus tokens and a defensive reroll, you could force HLC shots (from Dash+Outrider+HLC, for example) against you to go to three turns, instead of two, assuming max hits and evades each turn.

I think Jeff is on to something with focusing on defense now. And people have been doing this for a long time since Han + Engine + 3 z-95s was a thing. I consider anything to mitigate your frequency of taking return fire, or taking less damage overall playing into defense. Pure offense is going to be strait up jousting.

If the by 'completely ignore defense rolls' you mean proton bomb, autoblaster/turret, or advanced homing missiles, I agree. And yes Crack Shot is out there now, and Latts Razzi, but cards like Intimidation and Outmaneuver and Wedge have been around for awhile. Of course you want to try and negate their defense, but it takes a lot for a list to do so. You almost have to build around it to regularly work. With Decimators out, it is almost less appealing to peel away that defense. However, a lot of people just build lists for the raw stats. Most ships only get one attack per round, where as they can be shot multiple times per round. So if you want to get more overall shots you need to try and extend the life of your ship in one way or another.

I'm in agreement with Deepspace5. Recon Specialist brings both offensive and defensive power to your list.

x4 Rebel Operative w/ TLT, Recon specialist (100)

I'm in agreement with Deepspace5. Recon Specialist brings both offensive and defensive power to your list.

x4 Rebel Operative w/ TLT, Recon specialist (100)

My words drop the Bandit Squadron Pilot and pick up Recon Specialist

I had thought about that as an option, but with the HWKs un-arguably inferior dial, I figured I'd better have a blocker in there to provide some range-clearing for the actual guns in the list. If I drop it and go 4x HWK recon TLT, then after (or maybe even during) the first round of fire, there will be at least one HWK, probably more, that can't fire due to proximity to their target. It is then likely that my fire will then be split while my opponent burns down one HWK per turn

If you switch this to scum, you can equip feedback arrays.

IMO though, 4 TLT's is too much. You only need 2 to be scary.

I feel the Z-95 is still a bit much because it would be going up to block on its own when you want the HWKs to stay back or start turning away. It really comes down to how you fly the list, but I think the z-95 would just get focused down immediately. Multi-HWK-TLT lists need to get creative in how they fly to ensure they get as many shots as they can.

2 TLTs and 2 Ion Cannon Turrets. Then suddenly your opponent won't want to get in Range 1 anymore.

Plus I like the advice of switching over to Scum for adding Feedback Arrays to your TLT ships. However, you can't really afford to take more damage. But you can do all kinds of things with the 2 points freed up from downgrading TLTs to ICTs. Intertial Dampners or Glitterstim come to mind for survivability and/or keeping yourself at range.