So at the moment I'm experimenting with Kyle Katarn the ridiculous Focus Bank.

My current list is;

Kyle Katarn (37)

- TLT

- EU

- Recon

- Title

Poe (36)

- R5-P9

- AT

Jake (27)

- PTL

- Refit

- AT

Kyle collects those Focus chips like he's high-rolling in Vegas, Poe collects his own and once things get hairy, borrows one from Kyle. Jake does his boosty-barrel-roll thing just because he can. In theory, the whole thing looks great. Poe is untouchable at range 3 or against turrets, and Kyle the glass cannon just has to stay the hell away from everything.

What I'm finding most tricky about the list is that Jake, like all A-Wings, just doesn't do the damage. He's annoying, I'll grant that, but not enough to worry anyone yet. I have only played the list a few times, and still getting my head around the best strategies, but has anyone got some suggestions? Do I swap PTL for something that might cause some damage, like Outmaneuvre or Marksmanship, or dump Jake altogether for something a little harder (and perhaps not as 'synergistic')?

No expert at this but a couple of X-Wings spring to mind. Apologies if this is silly for some reason....

You could roll out Biggs w/ your choice of BB-8 or an R5 with a 1 point card elsewhere. Would help keep Kyle alive for a bit. Or Poe.

You could roll out Garvin w/ R5 who also delivers his Focus token to someone else when he uses it, either to Poe or Kyle.

So at the moment I'm experimenting with Kyle Katarn the ridiculous Focus Bank.

My current list is;

Kyle Katarn (37)

- TLT

- EU

- Recon

- Title

Poe (36)

- R5-P9

- AT

Jake (27)

- PTL

- Refit

- AT

Kyle collects those Focus chips like he's high-rolling in Vegas, Poe collects his own and once things get hairy, borrows one from Kyle. Jake does his boosty-barrel-roll thing just because he can. In theory, the whole thing looks great. Poe is untouchable at range 3 or against turrets, and Kyle the glass cannon just has to stay the hell away from everything.

What I'm finding most tricky about the list is that Jake, like all A-Wings, just doesn't do the damage. He's annoying, I'll grant that, but not enough to worry anyone yet. I have only played the list a few times, and still getting my head around the best strategies, but has anyone got some suggestions? Do I swap PTL for something that might cause some damage, like Outmaneuvre or Marksmanship, or dump Jake altogether for something a little harder (and perhaps not as 'synergistic')?

Played a list similar that has vi on jake and chewy on kyle instead and no EU on kyle (pointless if youre focusing) and crackshot on kyle....you MUST keep PTL and heres why:

you focus with kyle. then at beginning of combat give a focus to jake which you should have stored up from slow rolling at the beginning. then jake dows his free boost/barrel roll and PTLs off of that. this got me into a great situation or out of a bad countless times. Chewy helps with survivability and poe is awesome because he tends to get ignored and is a great closer

After messing around with this list for a bit, I far prefer dropping Jake's PTL to VI, giving VI to Poe, and then either Crack Shot or Determination on Kyle. Allows you to fly against the big boys and I have found that Jake doesn't miss PTL all that much.

Dive Jake into Range 1 of his targets (keeping him out of arcs) where he can actually do some damage. Allows Poe to actually use his TLs or boosts and still gain a Focus from Kyle. Kyle himself does his best to remain stress free but of course staying clear of being blocked is his priority as this list needs those Focus tokens to work and even just one round without it you can really feel it. So any ship that causes stress is your priority, followed by lower PS blockers, followed by their damage dealers (situation depending).

I'd drop the EU on Kyle to add some more points.

You want to focus as much as possible with him at any rate. And he is going to be a prime target to take out, investing more in him would be a waste of points, especially with his ability being so long range.

Calculation will help Jake push some crits through, and it's static so it doesn't interrupt your action economy. You could also go for VI.

In case you go up against Aces, I would probably replace Poe's Predator with VI, and then put something like Lone Wolf or the like on the HWK.

I've been trying to build Jan ors with kyle katarn and then garven dreis but haven't decided on another pilot yet or upgrades

I considered Garven, and dropping Recon from Kyle accordingly, but Garven's PS isn't high enough to pass Focus from Kyle to Poe. He'd need VI (from memory).

EU was initially on Kyle to try and keep up with the other two, but I found he didn't need it. Also tossing up the Recon for Chewie, and rolling up the board more slowly; Kyle can only throw out one Focus per turn anyway, and he's such a glass cannon. For once I'm almost considering a Shield Upgrade...

The plan was always to dive Jake in and be a nuisance while Poe provides some cover for the Bank and deals with heavier hitters. I took out Sycks with Ions using Jake early on in the last game I played, while they were trying to take Poe at range 3, and that paid off immensely. I suppose the alternative for Jake might be crack+calc?

Adapting to the OP's list, I removed the EU off of Kyle and replaced it with Lone Wolf, placed Calculation on Jake, and put VI on Poe.

LW didn't do me any favors on offense, but it definitely kept Kyle around for two turns longer than it would have been. It turned out to be exceedingly difficult and limiting to keep my other two ships within only Range 3, so much so that I stopped worrying about it one turn after the initial engagement. Jake barrel rolling and then PTL to immediately Boost based off the beginning of Combat Focus Token assigned by Kyle is hilarious if your opponent doesn't know that trick.

Kyle was my opponent's target. However by the time he was killed, Poe + Jake had explodified two of their four ships, and then both turned out to be pretty good closers, though I lost Jake right at the end.

Basically I think it's a good list, but I wouldn't recommend LW for Kyle.

Flew this week. Based on feedback, modified the origional list to this;

Kyle; Title, TLT, Determination, Recon

Poe; R5-P9, Autos, VI

Jake; Title, PTL, Calc, Refit, Autos

99pts total.

Flew against a totally kitted up Bossk (HLC, Fins, Greedo, Merc Tech, Title, the works) with Guri running alongside (again, kitted out as typical arc-dodging, knife-fighting Guri). They had the bid.

I got Jake in behind Bossk early (2nd turn), and tried a sow roll with Kyle, Poe providing a screen. My opponent knew what Poe was like, though, and went all guns blazing. Poe went down on the 4th turn to concentrated fire. After Jake pinged a bit at Guri from Bossk's shadow, Guri went down in the same turn as Poe, so I was happy with that.

We then played tag, circling around an asteroid, with Jake on Bossk's tail the entire way, occasionally bumping, and Kyle staying opposite the big bastard. Determination saved Kyle TWICE with the discard against Greedo's auto-crit shenanigans (I love that card now), but he eventually couldn't take much more. He went down on about the tenth turn, leaving Jake and a half-damaged Bossk on the table.

The rest of the game was Jake pinging calculation hits against Bossk's butt until he went down. There were a few bumps, just because of the lack of a 1 straight on the A-Wing once I was in range 1), but I got him eventually.

Then the Headhunter appeared. And it still had Bossk's god-damned ability.

6 pts of upgrade eventually smacked Jake out of the sky. God-damned Bossk in a Headhunter is no joke.

I call it a win, though, as it would have been in a tourney situation. Mostly I can't believe that Jake survived the entire game and that Kyle the glass cannon didn't explode first. He took the hits like a champ.