A friend and I were discussing this - there are a few "standard" builds for Poe, all of which we can see the strength of in terms of how the upgrades synergise. What we're struggling to figure out is the beat way yo actually *use* Poe when he's on the table.

He seems to be neither a pure arc dodger nor a pure jouster, having elements of both. Is he best used to slow-roll? Flank? Do you move him up the side? Middle? Towards or away from the aces?

I think what we are struggling to see is the actual practicality of how he flies once you've decided on your build and put him on the table.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

The three games I've used him (twice with BB-8, once with R5-P9), I flanked the crap outa him: did some fancy maneuvers to snag my opponents, put some fast hurt on their key ships while BLue Ace and Wedge rolled up the other side and then hammered the furball like mad.

I'd also add my 2 cents that he is a flanker. Similar to Corran Horn in some ways - get in and do some damage and then get out to regen.

He is like Corran, a boom and zoom fighter. Ideally flank, fire and run ( especially if using R5-P9) - with the usual exceptions to the rule

He is like Corran, a boom and zoom fighter. Ideally flank, fire and run ( especially if using R5-P9) - with the usual exceptions to the rule

As I said - similar to Corran

Anyone a little underwhelmed by him at times? For a 37pt ship (R5-P9, AT, VI) I sometimes feel like he doesn't pull his weight. I think his damage potential is a little low.

I fly with R5-P9 myself, but have seen a lot of other folks using R2-D2, but I think in almost every case it is Poe's T-70 with some form of regeneration... May not hit hard, but is annoyingly survivable... And the Focus conversion for offence, defense and potentially shield regen is REALLY nice... All for a lot less than the E-Wing version I think... Solid choice, can do a lot, but of course I'd not suggest it try to do a toe to toe slugfest with a real heavy hitter if you can avoid it of course :-) I think of it as more of a broadsword/buckler combo than a Claymore... Hit and move, try not to get bogged down. Biggest bonus I find he works very well against the TLTs on the lower PS ships at least as I watched him take 3 down himself in our last local event...

Poe, Poe, Poe,

Any love for the other T70 pilots? I don't see much mention.

I use him as a flanker or a bodyguard for something more fragile. He tends to draw fire when sat in front of a swarm, and can avoid a good deal of it at Range 3. Paired with anything that looks bigger and scarier, and he's your annoying flanker. Paired with A-wings or other dodgers, he's got the chance to roll up while they distract.

Well, Blue Ace can be amusing and surprise some folks with it's odd maneuvers here and there... The basic Blue is not too bad I guess... But competes with the B-Wing for me... Maybe we'll see more use when the retail pack comes out? But Poe is just a lot better in my Squadrons I think overall...

I can see red ace being very good with Juke and Comms. Lose a shield, get an evade, store it for juke or spend it. Regen shield next turn with r2d2

I can see red ace being very good with Juke and Comms. Lose a shield, get an evade, store it for juke or spend it. Regen shield next turn with r2d2

Except Red Ace can't take Juke. At least not without that droid that gives a talent.

Err that's right. I've mixed up my red ace and red squadron builds

Poe, Poe, Poe,

Any love for the other T70 pilots? I don't see much mention.

As of now, since I only have one new core set, I only experienced with the unique pilots, Poe and Blue Ace. Poe as been as expected, wonderful. I personally prefer him with Lonewolf, R5-P9 and Autothrusters and with a hit and run strategy.

I also found Blue Ace very fun, his hard boost is very interesting to flank: do a bank or turn on one side then hard boost the other way. Since I want to exploit his boost as much as possible, I go with R2-D6 and either Predator or Lonewolf, depending on the rest of the team.

This weekend, I'll get my second new core set, so I'll start to experiment a little bit with the generics. One team that come to mind is 2 Veteran with PtL and R2 unit with 2 Green with Chaardan and PtL. Or 2 Veteran with PtL, R2 and Autothrusters and a 36 pts elite.... maybe Ten Numb with VI and Mangler.

But I believe we'll start to see a lot more generics once the expension pack come out with Integrated Astromech. 4 Novice with R2 and IA sounds very nice and I can't wait to try it. But I'm also interested to try 2 Novice with R2 and IA and 2 Blue Squadron with Tactician.... or Novice with IA and the targetting Astromech and 3 Prototypes... there is actually a lot of interesting combinaison of ship possible!... Then there is also Red Ace that will be awesome with Comms Relay, R2-D2 and Autothrusters.

The T-70 is looking to be one of my new favorite ship! I know I already love flying with Poe and Blue, so it can only get better!

I've been running a lot of 3 ship lists with Poe so I usually have to try to pull some trickery to get an early advantage. While it's tempting to flank with him, I feel like opponents will often turn to face him. They know Poe must be dealt with swiftly because his dice modifying and shield regenerating is too much in the end game.

So I like to dangle him tantalizingly within reach. Lure the opposing ships into a tight asteroid cluster. The ol' bait and switch as it were.

The short answer is I don't think there is a correct way to run him. It depends on the rest of your list and how best to abuse your opponent's list too.

Anyone a little underwhelmed by him at times? For a 37pt ship (R5-P9, AT, VI) I sometimes feel like he doesn't pull his weight. I think his damage potential is a little low.

I hear this... I am always tempted to compare Poe to Corran and in a comparison of similar loadouts I would always take the 5 point premium for Corran (ironically it's the green bank 2 that makes it for me). That said, you can probably guess my error: Poe is not Corran. The two might have similar multi-role capability, but not the same. Moreover, the cheaper VI Poe is probably the better use of points.

My last thought here is that overall, the T-70 currently suffers from the same major shortfall as the X-Wing{edit: E-wing}, that being a shortage of unique pilots/high PS aces. At least we can be sure of a couple more T-70s coming, can't wait to check that out.

I like Poe. I used him in a 32p scramble, no upgrades. Nuked the Phantom player 3 times and got Vader'd once. 3-1 in one Round is pretty good. The next day though we played another scramble and I got vaped hard. Failing two 3 dice attacks in a row will do that though.

I really like Poe with Bb8, but its really just icing sugar. At 31 points I think Poe is best when run vanilla. Any more spent on him is bordering on large ship turf. For me, Poe is best run in a classic Rebel synergy list with someone handing him goodies. I might be talking out my noob behind here but I'm gonna go ahead and say that Poe is destined for greatness as a vanilla pilot or as a 1p EPT slinger. His ability is very good, how many times have you kept a token because 1 blink wasnt worth giving up a token for? Lots, especially with an Ace who has to survive return fire.

I dunno. I think Poe is awesome. He fits into a number of roles. His NPT is deceptively good, and if you want he can be tooled up. Another way to go with him is as a Super Ace, loading him up you can potentially run Poe as half of a 2 ship list.

Really a homebrew country-time saying is what is in order here!

The Poe is in the Pilot.

Or how about:

Pick your Poe-son?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa U!

Come on this is comic gold....

I agree with everyone that keeping Poe cheap is key! I've been flying a 3 ship rebel list with great results;

• Poe w/ VI & R5-X3
• Wedge w/ PTL & BB-8 (My new favorite ship, this guy is the Soontir of rebels )
• Luke w/ VI & R2-D2

Poe has really become the new "must destroy at all cost" ship which allows Wedge to get into prime position to start taking out ships left and right. I've been using Poe for the bait & switch into a dense asteroid placement in the center with Luke & Wedge coming in on the flanks, I never really understood good asteroid placement until I started flying this list and R5-X3 allows Poe to get the heck out with ease.

Poe's lack of damage potential is the same as Soontir's (literally 3 dice + focus, except Poe can at least set-up TLs while Soonts is all about the stealth device)

you're putting your upgrades in something that just. won't. die. to close out the late game (or, in heaver's case, punch people in the gut while R3-a2 has them in a full nelson)

as for the T-70 at large, it's missing its individual expansion

Integrated does just as much for the T-70 as the T-65, and I've found that thrusters on the not-Poes simply doesn't cut it. Without the constant focus buff, it's simply not consistent enough to keep them alive for more than 2 rounds (and, tragically, they die even more quickly without it).

But with Targeting Astromech (fingers crossed for K4 ripoff) and Integrated, we'll probably be seeing more t-70s as they'll become far more reliable ships.

Imo, Red Ace is utter situational garbage but Red Veteran could be a threat with Targeting, Crackshot, and Integrated. Likewise, Blue Ace with Targeting could be a right pain in the ass that cannot be trivially ignored as he can now (just not enough damage).

So far, and with the upgrades available, Poe is the only reliable T-70 pilot in the game thanks to combination of EPT + Pilot ability. This is why you'll see only him until the individual expac hits stores.

As for Poe, the most fun build is hands-down PTL + bb-8. The amount of shenanigans are unreal.

The most effective build on a general scale, however, is Heaver's. Heaver's poe is a bit of a pillow-fist, but it's sturdy and reliable and not likely to succumb to sh*tty dice. The change from r5-p9 to R2-d2 keeps him from being easy prey to stress mechanics, mechanics which bb-8 and r5-p9 are, sadly, very vulnerable to