Also i could have been nicer about how i've been wording a lot of this. After how ever many years im still forgetting none of you have tone of voice and body language to go off of how i feel. So i'm sorry about that. I'm a bit bad at wording stuff.

Poe + R2-F2 + PtL + Autothrusters... very vulnerable to blocking as Poe always is, but he can tank some pretty crazy damage.

Tried that tonight vs. a TLT list and they could hardly scratch him.

Re: R2-F2, it's an 'action:' card so can be used with EI. And since EI is not limited to the EPT slot, every astromech ship, from gold squadron to Corran, can take this combo. Suddenly, you don't have to choose between focus or an extra green die, you can have both.

I gotta say, enjoying reading through all these discussions! Almost convinced me to buy the new core, but it would make my starviper feel bad! Bahahahah

I'd like to bring this thread back and talk about a short experience i had playing R5-P9 Poe. I was running Poe with the usual upgrades, just with R5-P9 instead of BB-8, and my opponent was running 2 Blue Squadron Pilots with... some upgrade, i forget. He was a new player, so we were taking less ships than normal, and he said he wanted to try out B-Wings.

Well, i honestly didn't expect to wipe the floor with the poor lad like i did. I was profusely apologizing every turn as i regen'd any shields that i lost, while Poe was consistantly doing 2 or more damage a turn, occasionally doing 4 damage at range 1, and dodging everything with AT and his ability, and keeping the token for shield regen, which topped him off every time my opponent tried to joust me with his B's and the resulting round of repositioning to do it again gave me 2 free turns of free shield regen.

I ended up winning with all my hitpoints left on Poe, big surprise there. In a full game it would have been significantly different, but then again, i would have had more than just Poe, as well. After thinking about Wedge with BB-8 for a while, and after using BB-8 a whole bunch, i was realizing that i was preferring to target lock on my PTL action to focus on the action after the maneuver, instead of just immediately boosting. Admittedly, i think BB-8 does still work better on a T-70 with the 3 forward green, but i am more than aware of the damage Wedge could do with that kind of repositioning ability. So when i get a chance i will try out a Poe/Wedge/Jake list with Poe taking R5-P9 and Wedge taking BB-8. I'm excited to see what kind of potential it has.

But were you using the T Roll? How did that factor in? Poes got much more shenanigans there than Wedge.

But were you using the T Roll? How did that factor in? Poes got much more shenanigans there than Wedge.

T Roll isn't as important as it's played up to be. It has it's uses, and there was one time where it would have been more advantageous to T Roll instead of the maneuver i did, but ultimately it's a red maneuver and Poe, no matter what build you choose, really doesn't like those. Integral to Poe is his ability to focus. If he performs a red, he can't focus. That's A Very Bad Thing for him. On a BB-8 build, it means no BR/TL/de-stress/focus shenanigans, and on R5-P9 Poe it means no shield regen that turn. It's good for surprising your enemy when they turn out of arc and dont expect you to be able to get them, or getting off a quick unmodded shot for a chance at some damage, but other than that... It's just another red maneuver.

But were you using the T Roll? How did that factor in? Poes got much more shenanigans there than Wedge.

The T-Roll is just a fancy K-Turn. Do you ever build around continuously using your K-Turns? Of course you don't. It's there if the situation calls for it, but it's a complete non-factor when list building.

And Poe might have more shenanigans, but Wedge has more firepower. You don't need to use shenanigans against something that's dead.

All fair points. Thats what I was figuring. T Roll is great, but I think it hamstrings Poe. Im inclined to throw in Garven (or Kyle, or Esege) whenever I run Poe, just for that focus battery. Gives Poe more options.

I think it's great that we have options! Both Poe seems to have merits on their own so we should thank the maker!!

Wedge + Poe + Jake would be such a sweet aggressive squad

Do you ever build around continuously using your K-Turns?

I did put together a squad like that once, actually. Haven't played it yet, but I do finally have two Firesprays, hmm...

2x Mandalorian Mercenary (35)

+ Predator (3)

+ Outlaw Tech (2)

N'Dru Suhlak (17)

+ Lone Wolf (2)

When you K-turn your Mercs, you get a Focus and Predator. When you clear stress with a green, you also get Focus and Predator. N'Dru fills in (plus 1 point initiative, though you could put Dampeners on somebody) and flanks wherever your K-turning Mercs aren't patrolling.

Wedge + Poe + Jake would be such a sweet aggressive squad

Wedge Antilles — X-Wing 29

Push the Limit 3

BB-8 2

Integrated Astromech 0

Ship Total: 34

Jake Farrell — A-Wing 24

Push the Limit 3

Chardaan Refit -2

Juke 2

A-Wing Test Pilot 0

Ship Total: 27

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31

Push the Limit 3

R5-P9 3

Autothrusters 2

Ship Total: 39

You could also drop Poe's thrusters and Jake for Garven, Herobot, IA and VI (plus 1 pt initiative bid) to make sure Poe always has a focus.

Re: R2-F2, it's an 'action:' card so can be used with EI. And since EI is not limited to the EPT slot, every astromech ship, from gold squadron to Corran, can take this combo. Suddenly, you don't have to choose between focus or an extra green die, you can have both.

PTL is better in this case (I feel), since you can R2-F2 -> Focus and still have Auto-thrusters, which are really what make this build shine. Still not competitive/super efficient, but TLTs hate it almost as much as Fel.

Re: R2-F2, it's an 'action:' card so can be used with EI. And since EI is not limited to the EPT slot, every astromech ship, from gold squadron to Corran, can take this combo. Suddenly, you don't have to choose between focus or an extra green die, you can have both.

PTL is better in this case (I feel), since you can R2-F2 -> Focus and still have Auto-thrusters, which are really what make this build shine. Still not competitive/super efficient, but TLTs hate it almost as much as Fel.

Hmm. On a T-65, you could do that setup just replace Auto-thrusters with Stealth Device. 4 green focused dice... I like those odds!

Not as good against turrets as R2-F2/PTL/AT, but it's close.

Re: R2-F2, it's an 'action:' card so can be used with EI. And since EI is not limited to the EPT slot, every astromech ship, from gold squadron to Corran, can take this combo. Suddenly, you don't have to choose between focus or an extra green die, you can have both.

PTL is better in this case (I feel), since you can R2-F2 -> Focus and still have Auto-thrusters, which are really what make this build shine. Still not competitive/super efficient, but TLTs hate it almost as much as Fel.

Hmm. On a T-65, you could do that setup just replace Auto-thrusters with Stealth Device. 4 green focused dice... I like those odds!

Not as good against turrets as R2-F2/PTL/AT, but it's close.

no you don't

(green dice)

Re: R2-F2, it's an 'action:' card so can be used with EI. And since EI is not limited to the EPT slot, every astromech ship, from gold squadron to Corran, can take this combo. Suddenly, you don't have to choose between focus or an extra green die, you can have both.

PTL is better in this case (I feel), since you can R2-F2 -> Focus and still have Auto-thrusters, which are really what make this build shine. Still not competitive/super efficient, but TLTs hate it almost as much as Fel.

Hmm. On a T-65, you could do that setup just replace Auto-thrusters with Stealth Device. 4 green focused dice... I like those odds!

Not as good against turrets as R2-F2/PTL/AT, but it's close.

no you don't

(green dice)

4 green FOCUSED dice. Just the dice would suck.

Ok so i got my chance to play PTL/R5-P9 Poe, PTL/BB-8 Wedge, and PTL/Outmaneuver Jake. It just so happened to be against an Interceptor/Phantom list, and a 4 Advanced list(2x Tempest w/ Accuracy correcters and Cluster Missiles, Lt. Colzet w/ accuracy correcter, and Zertik Strom w/ accuracy correcter), so needless to say i got chewed up and spit out without even dragging a single kill with me. This is definitely an instance where positioning is going to benefit Poe more than the ability to regen a shield, since the TIEs regularly flew formation and could focus fire really easily. R5-P9 autothrusters is a very anti-TLT list, whereas PTL/BB-8 is an anti-swarm list where simply not being in their arc to not take damage is more important than being able to compensate for shield loss.

Not feeling the A-Wing, since it just couldnt do enough damage, even with outmaneuver, do really earn it's keep. It stayed alive forever as i figured it would, but it just took a game that should have been over quick and dragged it on, even though i lost anyways. I dont see the value in a ship that stays alive forever but doesn't get a kill the whole match. That, and Wedge died really quickly too. Against a TLT swarm, i would much rather take Luke than Wedge anyways.

So what i'm thinking is 2x Blue Squadron pilot w/ HLC and mercenary co-pilot, and Poe w/ BB-8 and PTL. I flew basically the same thing just with Etahn A'Baht instead and with R2 astro, and dismantled said Advanced list. I feel like Poe would be a better choice, as he is in general a more well-rounded choice. Etahn was mostly good for giving the HLCs a crit in addition to the copilot, whereas Poe will be more offensively and defensively rounded against many different lists.

HLC B-wings don't come cheap. You could get a Z-95 Headhunter for the price of those cannons alone.

HLC B-wings don't come cheap. You could get a Z-95 Headhunter for the price of those cannons alone.

Alternatively i could have a ship with double the HP and double the attack damage, and, arguably, a better dial.

I am of course talking about a B-Wing. Z-95s have their place, but it's as far away from a squad designed to be agile and do as much damage as it can as they could possibly be. Poe is not designed to be run with a Z swarm. He cannot support 4 Z-95s the way other ships can.

So i trade a bunch of disposable points for 2 big, lumbering, heavy-hitters with lots of HP that likes long range engagements and supplements that with a ship that has the potential to run circles around a bunch of ships and be almost entirely self-sufficient. If they focus on Poe, the Bs rip them to shreds. If they focus on the Bs, Poe gets a bunch of really easy shots, and the Bs tank the damage and return fire. Zs dont have the attack, agility, HP, or dial to hold their own late-game like a B-Wing can.

So I got the chance to attend a 125 point tournament earlier this weekend and decided to put my money where my mouth is and fly BB-8 Wedge. I settled on this squad (which I stole wholesale from a 100 point squad ficklegreendice posted, so thank you, fickle):

Wedge Antilles (BB-8, Push the Limit) [34]

Jake Farrell (A-wing Test Pilot, Push the Limit, Veteran Instincts, Proton Rockets, Autothrusters) [33]

Jan Ors (Wired, Twin Laser Turret) [32]

Biggs Darklighter [25]

I normally wouldn't be caught dead flying something like this; it’s far too unbalanced, far too squishy, and far too all-or-nothing. But if you can’t fly weird stuff at tournaments with over 100 points, when can you?

Anyway, I flew against:

Whisper, Shuttle (Emperor), 2x TIE Fighter

Oicunn, Firespray, 2x TIE Fighter

Oicunn, Redline, Royal Guard

Miranda & Horton w/ TLTs, B-wing x2

The first game was a thing of beauty. The opponent had only left a single point open for initiative, and I won the roll and chose to shoot first. I went out of my way to use Wedge’s combo on each of the first three turns, tricking my opponent into thinking I was going to do it non-stop. He thus only accounted for Wedge changing angle by 45 degrees, so my hard-2 into Whisper caught him completely by surprise. Wedge got target lock, focus, and Jan into an uncloaked Whisper and summarily dismissed her from his presence. After that it was just clean up.

The second game I misplayed to an epic extent. I turned in too late, which meant asteroids got in my way. In turn, that prevented me from being able to focus fire effectively (at one stage all four enemy ships were damaged but not dead), and the worst mistake of all was using the PRocket on a TIE Fighter (which lived it). As my opponent made no such mistakes I went down hard. However, had I played better I believe I would have crushed him; Wedge singlehandedly dealt 13 damage during the game. Had I been able to focus that onto a single target I would have melted it.

The third game was a vindication of that belief. This time I didn’t let the asteroids get in the way, focused fire correctly, and saved the PRocket for the Decimator. The key, though, was using Jake to bait Redline into moving out of position, where he couldn’t help Oicunn as first Wedge and then Jake pounced on him. The Decimator died faster than I thought possible, and after that it was again just a matter of cleaning up.

The final game was one of those games where you are reminded that it sometimes doesn’t matter how well you play if the dice don’t like you. I managed to sneak Jake around behind the opponent’s formation and into range 1 of both Miranda and Horton just as the rest of the squad moved into range. Miranda simply ceased to exist, and Biggs chipped in to reduce a B-wing to half health, and on the second round I setup a beautiful self-bump that gave Wedge a range 1 shot on said B-wing with full modifiers and Jan Ors.

The moron gave me 1 hit and four blanks.

Wedge died that round (but only just; if Integrated Astromech was out I’d have gotten one more turn out of him and possibly could have clawed my way back), and the game was basically over. Had Wedge killed the B-wing as he was supposed to, it would have been Jake and Jan vs Horton and a B-wing, and I believe I would have been heavily favoured. As it was, I was forced to play so defensively that I couldn’t scrape out one last kill, and the game ended on time with Jake valiantly leading all three remaining enemies on a merry chase.

Despite going 2-2, I’m still more than happy with BB-8 Wedge. Yes, he can die quickly, but if you can get two or three rounds of shooting out of him he’ll make the opponent trade so heavily for him that you’ll still be ahead. Also, not flying him into asteroid thickets and focusing fire correctly helps a lot. Who knew?

The next time I play 100 points I’m going to try Wedge, Biggs and three Talas. On paper, I think it looks pretty good: solid amount of HP, lots of attack dice, multiple blockers, reactive repositioning, and high Pilot Skill. Should be fun.