So as some of you may have read, new to x-wing, love the game. Ive play a hand full of games, and most of my holidays has been spent with limited internet (recently moved) so I'm currently hot spotting my Iphone.

All that aside, all I've been able to do after unpacking, is play with my x-wing cards and theory craft competitive lists, as well as throw in those occasional fun fluffy lists I may run from time to time.

Now, while I'm contemplating on how to improve some of the current lists I've harassed you guys with over the past couple of days, I decided to compare the HWK-290's movement dial to the Y-Wing and some other support/slow ships. In conclusion I'm left embarrassed by the fact that I even tried to use this... slug.

Its stats, movement dial, abilities and over point cost and potential - is absolutely dreadful.

Its 1 shield is terrible, I would always rather more shields then more hull points. Shields are more easy and safer to repair then hull points, and those critical hits are gonna wreck any extra attachments you gave it anyway.

Its gonna be nerfed a lot sooner then other ships with more shields.

The Y-Wing without taking BTL-A4 Y-Wing title upgrade is so much better. If you look at their "Ace" pilot, PS8 Jan Ors vs Horton Salm. They both can have 360° shooting.

However the Y-wing can equip droids to defend itself (r7 astromech or r2-d2) etc. etc.

The hawk, A crew upgrade. As if I'm going to invest in a crew upgrade on the hawk.

It does however have the elite pilot talent slot. The Y-wing does not. I don't see many EPT's that are going to benefit the HWK either defensively or offensively.

The PS8 Z-95 Headhunter, although slow, has a greater potential for damage and utility with his ace, PS8 Airen Cracken. He also comes in 6pts. cheaper already.

I could go on, but I'd love to hear others thoughts on the topic, and any corrections if I'm way off the mark here with my train of thought.

I don't think a head to head comparison is an accurate assessment. The Y is a strike ac while the HWK is a transport/support vehicle. Both have their uses and draw backs. One of my favorite pilots is Roark. Pair him with two pilots that can take EPTs, give them Swarm Tactics, and you have 3 pilots shooting as PS 12. Not too shabby. I've pared Roark with Cracken with cluster missiles, Blount with Assault missiles and another Z with another missile type. Cracken's ability allows another ship at R1 to take a free action after Cracken attacks. That means two pilots after the CM attack. Potentially giving a TL or focus before shooting. Blount's attacks always hit, even if they do no damage. He's great vs swarms! Or against a ship with Stealth Device. Since Roark's ability works at R1-3 the HWK can be somewhat protected.

The other named pilots, Jan and Kyle, are both set up for support also. Giving focus or changing a focus into an evade is a pretty strong ability.

The Y is a combat ac. The HWK a support ship. But if you do a search for Brohawks you'll find a 3 scum hawk build that will impress you. The scum pilots have different abilities from the rebels and are very deadly. Especially Mux and Dace. Take a look at the scum pilots, you'll like them.

The HWK is a support ships that I still feel makes more sense on a large base.

I love running the named Rebel 290 pilots, and I'm fond of a Rebel Op and ICT. I would love to get some more crew cards and mess around with it more, but I have to say I almost want another one too. If one Hwk with an Ion Turret is good, two must be even better!

Plus then you can do fun stuff like run Jan and Roark and you know you have to get more HwKs when you get the Most Wanted pack...

I get it it's a support ship, and as for a transport ship, that's means little in the context of the actual x-wing game. I get it, it's fluffy. That's fine. I'll definately check out the lists the previous posts have mentioned. But ion turrets? If that's all you want then stick it on the y-wings, it's cheaper and the y's are more mobile. Plus more tanky.

The HWK has a crew slot. If you're not using that, then you should bring a Y instead.

That does make sense, and of course you're going to fill the crew slot. Not many small ships, if any, can take a crew upgrade except the B-Wing with its upgrade for 1pt.

The problem, that I can see is, speaking purely from a min/max perspective. Is the fact that its poor stats and dial far outweigh any support bonuses it gives. Kyle katarn with moldy crow and recon specialist is a good combo with Poe and another ace.

But for the 33 points it costs to make that ship decent with perhaps an Ion Turret to help Poe and the ace dodge arcs, its quite expansive. That's 1/3 of your entire list. You could split that up and take a Z-95 and an A-Wing/Y-wing of some sort. More bodies on the board = more targets = more overall HP

Its just a sink in points. And I'm purely speaking from a rebel perspective, I haven't had a chance to look at the scum cards I have. I am to excited to build my rebel lists. All the imperial and scum ships/cards I leave for my friends to play around with, same with the upgrade cards, once I take what I need to build my list, they get whats left of my stack. But now that's off topic.

Points sink was my point. Better viable options that can do the same thing.

The HWK has the 2nd worst dial in the game (Lambda shuttle winning the shittiest dial in a galaxy far, far away award).

It also is the only ship with 1 attack on its profile which of course is the worst (and FFG hasn't repeated that mistake again....yet).

Its action bar has focus + TL. Pretty standard for rebels, but not inspiring.

As mentioned, its durability is not impressive, overall slightly worse than a T-65 x-wing (which has been criticized for not being tanky enough for a jousting ship).

So its understandable that one might think its a piece of junk.

It does have a few things going for it, however, even if we are talking 'competitively'. A list can be more powerful than the sum of its parts, afterall.

So what can be done to get value out of this ship? There are different directions you can go, but basically you take it for the fact that it gives you access to other powerful cards. For example, there are a number of turrets that can be quite potent. Yes the y-wing can equip those too, but it costs 2 points more and cannot get crew cards to maximize your turret power.

For example, TLT + recon specialist on a rebel operative = 25 pts. A gold squad pilot with twin laser turret = 24 points, but can't get the double focus. Y-wing is slightly more durable, but that HWK build definitely puts out more reliable firepower, so they are pretty much on par.

The moldy crow title is actually quite a deal at 3 points. If you plan on making a fairly expensive, single support hawk, its not a bad idea to find room for it, particularly on Kyle (and has obvious synergy with recon spec, although Jan crew is really good on Kyle too, in fact, probably better for the considerable defensive boost)

Also, the named pilots have pretty useful abilities for rebels, particularly Roark & Jan. Roark's ability has become perhaps less important now that the phantom has been nerfed, but back when it was 'the ship to beat' PS12 was extremely valuable. Jan however remains quite potent.

Jan w/ twin laser turret + engine is a solid start of a very powerful support ship. Not only is her ability great, the fact that it extends to R3 of her means she does not have to fly predictibly in formation with her team. You can use engine to boost her out of harms way and still have a good chance of keeping her just in range of an ally to boost their attack. And +1 attack die is a pretty big deal. I've seen her used in conjunction with a big ship, like an HLC wielding YT-2400 (5 dice ignoring R3!) or even a YT1300 (han solo with 4 or 5 dice is nasty), but any 3 attack ship gets a solid boost in damage from her (if you don't believe me, take a look at the phantom and soon to arrive for rebels, the Ghost)

You can fill out her elite and crew slots to taste. Honestly, the choice should depend entirely on what ships she is flying with. If really high Pilot skill, Wired is excellent on her, especially if you can't or don't want recon spec (because you need a different crew member or not enough points).

For crew, there are a ton of options, Kanan Jarrus being an obvious boost to Jan's mobility, chewbacca being great for keeping her alive, and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but I'm on a phone and can't easily check at the moment...

The nice thing for the HWK is that its kind of easy for FFG to keep it relevant. Every time a new crew member or a new turret gets released, its like a 'soft' boost to the HWK's potential...

The HWK has the 2nd worst dial in the game (Lambda shuttle winning the shittiest dial in a galaxy far, far away award).

It also is the only ship with 1 attack on its profile which of course is the worst (and FFG hasn't repeated that mistake again....yet).

Its action bar has focus + TL. Pretty standard for rebels, but not inspiring.

As mentioned, its durability is not impressive, overall slightly worse than a T-65 x-wing (which has been criticized for not being tanky enough for a jousting ship).

So its understandable that one might think its a piece of junk.

It does have a few things going for it, however, even if we are talking 'competitively'. A list can be more powerful than the sum of its parts, afterall.

So what can be done to get value out of this ship? There are different directions you can go, but basically you take it for the fact that it gives you access to other powerful cards. For example, there are a number of turrets that can be quite potent. Yes the y-wing can equip those too, but it costs 2 points more and cannot get crew cards to maximize your turret power.

For example, TLT + recon specialist on a rebel operative = 25 pts. A gold squad pilot with twin laser turret = 24 points, but can't get the double focus. Y-wing is slightly more durable, but that HWK build definitely puts out more reliable firepower, so they are pretty much on par.

The moldy crow title is actually quite a deal at 3 points. If you plan on making a fairly expensive, single support hawk, its not a bad idea to find room for it, particularly on Kyle (and has obvious synergy with recon spec, although Jan crew is really good on Kyle too, in fact, probably better for the considerable defensive boost)

Also, the named pilots have pretty useful abilities for rebels, particularly Roark & Jan. Roark's ability has become perhaps less important now that the phantom has been nerfed, but back when it was 'the ship to beat' PS12 was extremely valuable. Jan however remains quite potent.

Jan w/ twin laser turret + engine is a solid start of a very powerful support ship. Not only is her ability great, the fact that it extends to R3 of her means she does not have to fly predictibly in formation with her team. You can use engine to boost her out of harms way and still have a good chance of keeping her just in range of an ally to boost their attack. And +1 attack die is a pretty big deal. I've seen her used in conjunction with a big ship, like an HLC wielding YT-2400 (5 dice ignoring R3!) or even a YT1300 (han solo with 4 or 5 dice is nasty), but any 3 attack ship gets a solid boost in damage from her (if you don't believe me, take a look at the phantom and soon to arrive for rebels, the Ghost)

You can fill out her elite and crew slots to taste. Honestly, the choice should depend entirely on what ships she is flying with. If really high Pilot skill, Wired is excellent on her, especially if you can't or don't want recon spec (because you need a different crew member or not enough points).

For crew, there are a ton of options, Kanan Jarrus being an obvious boost to Jan's mobility, chewbacca being great for keeping her alive, and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but I'm on a phone and can't easily check at the moment...

The nice thing for the HWK is that its kind of easy for FFG to keep it relevant. Every time a new crew member or a new turret gets released, its like a 'soft' boost to the HWK's potential...

Yeah I like this, You've agreed with what I've said and also added some constructive opinions to the thread for everyone to learn and enjoy.

I totally agree that her ability to take EPT and crew, plus the turret, which is 360° does keep her relatively sh*tty dial in some what of a decent state. Not being able to turn sharply wont matter for the turret.

I also do understand and agree that the HWK's named pilots can and do, force multiply the other ships in your list potentially.

There's obvious combo's that I've mentioned and that others have mentioned too.

I just don't see it as a go to combo at the moment. It seems an "Ace" with some chaff, and control seems to be the way to go in this present meta. keep the point costs, spread relatively even, that what when you inevitably lose a ship, its not gonna hurt as much.

When I was flying Poe/Jake/Kyle I switched from Recon Spec to Jan Ors and the effect was beautiful.

With Recon Spec, I loaded up the HWK with Focus tokens, but then with 1 shield and 4 hull and no dial, it died pretty much immediately with several focus still banked.

With Jan Ors, I started out slowly just like normal and took 3-4 rounds to build up the Focus bank just like normal, but then once the engagement started the HWK is able to switch over to Evade tokens. That makes a hell of a difference and even only passing out Focus tokens, I can usually keep the HWK alive and passing out tokens 2-4 rounds after engagement (as opposed to 1-2 with recon spec).

.... that said, I have still switched to the stresshog instead of the HWK.

I used this recently to great effect. If you use the Z-95s to block it almost spells the end for any small ship.

Keyan Farlander (29)

Stay On Target (2)

Advanced Sensors (3)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Tactician (2)

B-Wing/E2 (1)

Jan Ors (25)

Determination (1)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Intelligence Agent (1)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Roark and Torkil with just tlt and recon carry their own at just 28 points. Palob with a 1 point ept tlt and recon is only 30 points. I try to keep hawk under 30 as it only has so much survivality. Except for kyle with Jan swarm tactics tlt and moldy crow, paired well with a jammer bwing and roark.

I used this recently to great effect. If you use the Z-95s to block it almost spells the end for any small ship.

Keyan Farlander (29)

Stay On Target (2)

Advanced Sensors (3)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Tactician (2)

B-Wing/E2 (1)

Jan Ors (25)

Determination (1)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Intelligence Agent (1)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Roark and Torkil with just tlt and recon carry their own at just 28 points. Palob with a 1 point ept tlt and recon is only 30 points. I try to keep hawk under 30 as it only has so much survivality. Except for kyle with Jan swarm tactics tlt and moldy crow, paired well with a jammer bwing and roark.

Interesting lists and ideas, will have a look and see if I cant combine a few of these. Cheers!