The Hawks are back

By balindamood, in X-Wing

Has anyone noticed that Hawks are starting to show up more frequently (Phoenix area foes not really count where they seem to be a thing)? At two recent local tournaments the Hawks, especially Rebel Hawks are suddenly well represented. There were three or four on 15 lists yesterday. You used to see maybe one on a Scum list per tournament.

It seems that the TLT has finally given them enough of fence that they balance their support role.

Just an observation, but I did not see that coming.

Edited by balindamood

What's cheaper, a hwk or a y wing? How many tlts can I shove into a list?

Back? Were they ever here?

Edited by jimmius

I think the HWK is kind of proving the point that sometimes all it takes to make a ship competitive is the right upgrade. Hopefully some of the more underplayed ships will be in a similar position in the not too distant future.

Cheers

Baaa

What's cheaper, a hwk or a y wing? How many tlts can I shove into a list?

hwk

the # of tlts remains the same (4, whether 24 per gold or 22 per hwk)

at a base level, the Y-wing's better dial (especially the white 3-bank and red 3-turn) and not utter uselessness at range 1 (2-die primary) + far more reliable defensive profile (8 health versus 2 green dice <_< ) make it by far the more reliable tlt carrier

thing is, Y-wing's don't get Roark/Kyle/Jan :)

They are being run as support around here. All the TLT swarms have been Y wings.

I don't think they were ever really gone. I just think people think of them the wrong way. They're just not damage dealers, and aren't really supposed to be.

Not that TLT is bad for them. No, it's great. Better than Blaster Turret by far. It's just that, it seems people simply do not value ships that have less than decent red die.

I think the HWK is kind of proving the point that sometimes all it takes to make a ship competitive is the right upgrade. Hopefully some of the more underplayed ships will be in a similar position in the not too distant future.

Cheers

Baaa

not to mention the right upgrade slot, you won't find TIE Bombers anywhere because they don't have a cannon or a turret slot. Those are the two most powerful upgrade slots right now. Come to think of it the meta is practically dominated by them.

not to mention the right upgrade slot, you won't find TIE Bombers anywhere because they don't have a cannon or a turret slot. Those are the two most powerful upgrade slots right now. Come to think of it the meta is practically dominated by them.

There are lot of ships out there that can't take either a cannon or turret and they aren't getting left on the shelf at home.

The more the game expands the more difficult it will be for FFG to balance older ships out and keep them fresh. And they'll eventually come to the point where they either phase out some ships because they're deemed unplayable, or start introducing a lot more fixes to keep new players buying and playing them.

The bombers one of my favourite ships, but it is pretty pants :(

Cheers

Baaa

Scum HWK never left. (grumbles about Autoblaster turret and never running out of focus tokens...)

I have always been kind of anti-meta and am not always the most competitive, but all of my squads I have been running since June have had at least one bomber or one hawk. Both good ships in the proper circumstances.

I had fun flying three scum hawks and a z ... Except against brobots...

Side note ... A haiku is 5/7/5 ... Am I reading that correctly?

Edited by JediRush24

What's cheaper, a hwk or a y wing? How many tlts can I shove into a list?

The HWKs are cheaper, but not enough to get a 5th TLT onto the table. So if you're going for an all TLT list, you might as well go with the Y-Wings for the extra durability.

Has anyone noticed that Hawks are starting to show up more frequently (Phoenix area foes not really count where they seem to be a thing)? At two recent local tournaments the Hawks, especially Rebel Hawks are suddenly well represented. There were three or four on 15 lists yesterday. You used to see maybe one on a Scum list per tournament.

It seems that the TLT has finally given them enough of fence that they balance their support role.

Just an observation, but I did not see that coming.

We live in Alaska dude, it's not just our meta that's a little inbred...

Back? You're supposing they left? I've been playing a HWK consistently since they were released. It was always amusing to me to take over a battle with a mere "support" ship.

Back? You're supposing they left? I've been playing a HWK consistently since they were released. It was always amusing to me to take over a battle with a mere "support" ship.

People underestimate it because its guns aren't worn on the hip.

It really is a fantastic feeling to utterly destroy somebody with a force multiplier like the HWK.

What's cheaper, a hwk or a y wing? How many tlts can I shove into a list?

The HWKs are cheaper, but not enough to get a 5th TLT onto the table. So if you're going for an all TLT list, you might as well go with the Y-Wings for the extra durability.

Base Y-wing swarm is 4 PS2 ships with TLT and either the R2 Astromech or Scum Unhinged Astromech for 100 pts.

You can add the BTL-A4 title for no cost to fix the turrets foward and fire TLT after your primary weapon rolling 2+3+3 (8) attack dice per turn.

Optionally, you could also drop the Astromechs and put on Bomb Loadouts to get 2 ships with Seismic Charge or Ion Bombs. OR get 1 ship with a Cluster Mine, Proximity Mine, or a Conner Net.

BTL-A4 seems a bad trade. You're giving up a lot of arc for a 2-die attack when your attacks were short of tokens to start with.

You can always take 3 y-wings and one named HWK with TLT, for balanced meal

The Eagles are coming! oohh wait, wrong game:p

The HWKs also come with a crew slot, which is very powerful - the Recon Specialist, for example, suits a ship with not bad agility and a TLT very well indeed.

not to mention the right upgrade slot, you won't find TIE Bombers anywhere because they don't have a cannon or a turret slot. Those are the two most powerful upgrade slots right now. Come to think of it the meta is practically dominated by them.

There are lot of ships out there that can't take either a cannon or turret and they aren't getting left on the shelf at home.

The bombers one of my favourite ships, but it is pretty pants :(

Edited by banjobenito

As someone who has always considered the HWK while list building, I can honestly say I'm very excited for the arrival of the TLT. It's not because it's a damage dealer, it's not because I can get 4 on Rebel Ops - it's because it synergizes with the (rebel) HWK abilities so much better than the Blaster or the Ion (or the poor auto blaster).

And what I mean by that is that it reaches R3. Jan, Kyle, and Roark all want to ideally be at R3 from their own friends, staying out of the fight completely. However, their abilities typically do not make up for the 25-30 points you lose if you don't put them in the fight at all. But they're fragile ships, easily killed. So before you had to keep them at R2 to trigger either turret and be useful, but this allowed the enemy to quickly pounce into R1 and slaughter the HWK. Now you can hang back at R3, buff your allies, and still get a meaningful attack (er 2 attacks!) in.

This makes it that much easier to be useful. Prior to W7, I was toying around with Jan equipped with ICT, Chewy, EU, and VI supported by Psycho Tycho and VI Jake. I went 6-0 with it prior to switching back to my usual Psycho Tycho + Corran list for Nationals. If I wasn't on a scum binge right now, I'd be playing around with similar builds but swapping out the ICT for the TLT.

my y's eat hwk's for breakfast

For those of you flying Y-Wings, are you doing it with the title card? Or with out the title card?