There is a reason Palob is really high on my priority target list. It's not because he sucks.

I can barely fly HWKs in my local group now, since they're automatically the primary target in my squad. Not because they're "easy points" but simply from them being so frakin' annoying for my opponents to fly against. I used Torkil so often, and so effectively, that his name became a verb. It doesn't need a kick-butt dial, because it's not a close-in fighter. I tend to have it at range, do a lot of 2-speed banks, and keep out of the fight all while supporting the other ships. The advent of the TLT certainly improved that capability, as now I'm not using Blaster Turret all the time.

Likewise I am glad my personal friends don't know how to stresshog, as i wouldn't be able to fly my Vader...

Stresshog goes poof in one turn when you lock down Poe to PS0 with Torkil (having planned your moves accordingly earlier in the round), then focus fire on the 'hawg with everything. No more stressbot. Next up, a Poe-sized explosion.

True story.

Roark, Cracken with Swarm Tactics and Blount with swarm and another Z, all with missiles is pretty decent. Having 3 ships shoot at PS12 with Cracken giving 2 actions with cluster missiles follwed by Blount with Assault Missiles and focus and a third attack makes for ond heck of an alpha strike. Roark can also shoot as a 12 via swarm tactics, he's never left to dangle in space. If you get someone not use to Roark's ability watch their face when you tell them you shoot first. Three times. With missiles and focus! Yeah, they're not happy.

Thd HWK is a support ship as mentioned above. It moves like a 3 legged rabbit and can die easy. It's not an A-10.

And this is why HWK's are bloody fine.

They are the cleric/druid to the Y-wings Paladin and syck's ranger.

I'm thinking of flying a naked Palob with just a stealth device, and just stay cloaked, dont shoot at all. Just use it as a support vessel

That's not likely to work very well. You got a 25% chance every round that you are cloaked of losing the cloaking device. It probably will be common for you to lose the cloaking device before you get to use his ability once.

The cloaking device will probably be much more useful for quickly getting Palob into range.

I thought you only had to roll each time you decloaked... Hmm then it won't work indeed...

And this is why HWK's are bloody fine.

They are the cleric/druid to the Y-wings Paladin and syck's ranger.

Hah. Nice analogy. I'd probably call the Syck the Bard though - you know, the class everyone seems to pretend is cool but no one really knows what or how exactly to use it...

I think Scott may be drawn by the F word.

I propose we use the term "adjustment" from now on, so as to avoid this type of situation.

Anyways, does the HWK 290 need an adjustment?

In this Authors humble opinion, yes. It's called Shield Upgrade and it costs 4 points as usual. Simply add it to your list, placing it directly on top of, or beside, the HWK pilot card. Another keen trick is to slide the upgrade card in behind the pilot card inside it's sleeve, if you've sleeved your cards. Using a Shield Upgrade like this can also help keep your play area tidy, which is paramount to the game - as we all know!

Another thing to consider is the humble Ion Cannon Turret. This card can be utilized in much the same way as a Shield Upgrade, being placed beside, on or behind ones HWK 290 pilot card.

Oh and there are some in-game effects of all that crap too, can't remember what it does though. Whenever I fly a HWK I'm too busy handing out free tokens, attack dice and PS boosts to really worry much about taking my Light Personnel Transport into the dogfight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ohk5Swy-04

From my absolute, and totally favourite bar none geeky film.

As far as HWKs are concerned, it depends on the context. You probably won't find HWKs in the most elite tier of builds, because they're not quite efficient enough on defense. (For an extra 2 points, the Y-wing gets about a 20% bump in durability.)

So if you're looking at a fix, a title or modification that grants an extra shield would do it from the brute-force perspective. As an alternative, something that offered a slight discount on crew would help emphasize what the HWK does well--there aren't many small ships with crew slots, and the HWK is a far cheaper option than a K-wing.

I also think you could get away with a free title that did something along the lines of R2 Astromech or Unhinged Astromech, or maybe lets you change a bank to a turn at the same speed. The HWK dial is one of its other liabilities, and making it good would go a long way to bring it to parity with the Y-wing.

But I don't think there's a good argument that a HWK in your list is a serious handicap. (Warpman is demonstrating some of the bad arguments for us.) It's like the T-65 without Integrated Astromech, really: you're probably not flying the generic version, but there are some really attractive pilot abilities in there. I think the Dorsal Turret will help by offering an inexpensive option for boosting their offense to an acceptable level, but even prior to TLT I saw a couple of impressively nasty Dash/Jan lists making the rounds.

I do think it's clear that the HWK (especially on the Rebel side) hasn't quite found its niche, and I think it's probably worth FFG taking a look at a fix at some point. But I don't think it's even in the game's top 5 problems.

I won a store championship with one and took it to worlds, ships fine

Scum HWK's are probably OK. Scum gets some fun pilot abilities and crew and a turret platform. Makes the HWK a unique and useful addition with no real competition.

Rebel HWK's are going to become very scarce when the Ghost and Attack Shuttle drop. I cannot come up with any convincing argument to take a HWK rather than a Y-wing for cheap turret carrier or Shuttle for crew shenanigans.

I don't really think it needs a fix, but Alex Davey mentioned he would like the Hawk to have 2 attack dice primary.

So I would make a title:

Title: Combat Hawk

Hwk 290 Only

1 Pts

Add +1 to your primary attack Value

Fixed

I'd make that a 0 point title for two reasons.

Firstly, having that title means it won't be moldy crow.

Secondly, at 2 attack dice, for one point who would bother? Your turrets are better, and the new damage deck means no worries about losing your secondary.

Sounds like some of you have not heard of chewbacca crew.

I'd make that a 0 point title for two reasons.

Firstly, having that title means it won't be moldy crow.

Secondly, at 2 attack dice, for one point who would bother? Your turrets are better, and the new damage deck means no worries about losing your secondary.

But as a non-unique title, you're adding quite some firepower to your tlt HWK list. This fix would be quite important for better cover of the donut hole. So at least a point might be justified here.

I'd make that a 0 point title for two reasons.

Firstly, having that title means it won't be moldy crow.

Secondly, at 2 attack dice, for one point who would bother? Your turrets are better, and the new damage deck means no worries about losing your secondary.

But as a non-unique title, you're adding quite some firepower to your tlt HWK list. This fix would be quite important for better cover of the donut hole. So at least a point might be justified here.

This is exactly what I was thinking, 1 pt for +1 attack die, means at range 3 in your arc you can now actually threaten enemies and at range 1 you can really bring the hurt, if they are in your front arc. With the Dorsal Turret now costing 3 pts, perhaps it should be 0 pts. Either way the Hawk needs a 2 primary attack.

Just thought of this Illicit that I think the HWKs would love in Scum.

Tow-Cable
Illicit. 1pt.
"During the start of the Activation phase you may discard this card and choose one enemy ship within range 1. You may move directly after that ship and must match the move it preforms, even if it's not present on your dial. Then, both you and the enemy ship gain 1 stress token."

I'd say replace stress with ion but I LOVE IT!

Love the idea of firing a harpoon and dragging onto an enemy ship....

Harpooning leads to boardings!

Sounds like some of you have not heard of chewbacca crew.

Now you're looking at adding another 4 points on top of the 5-6 points you are spending on a turret and you're losing the use of your crew slot for anything else.

I don't think that the HWK is broken and in need of fixing, I just think it finds itself in the position of being expensive enough that it pushes out the ships that it is supposed to support. Scum HWKs are in a better spot because their flavor of support is something that they can also benefit from I think the named Imperial Shuttles have a lot of the same issues as the Rebel HWK. The support abilities are useful but you are giving up too much to bring them in most cases.

I'd make that a 0 point title for two reasons.

Firstly, having that title means it won't be moldy crow.

Secondly, at 2 attack dice, for one point who would bother? Your turrets are better, and the new damage deck means no worries about losing your secondary.

But as a non-unique title, you're adding quite some firepower to your tlt HWK list. This fix would be quite important for better cover of the donut hole. So at least a point might be justified here.

This is exactly what I was thinking, 1 pt for +1 attack die, means at range 3 in your arc you can now actually threaten enemies and at range 1 you can really bring the hurt, if they are in your front arc. With the Dorsal Turret now costing 3 pts, perhaps it should be 0 pts. Either way the Hawk needs a 2 primary attack.

The opportunity cost of this being a title should be enough. Getting the second point of attack is bringing the HWK to where it probably should have been for it's cost in the first place.

The E-Wing only has 1 functional build, that build is highly successful in any meta, and everyone says it needs a fix. The HWK only has 1 functional build at the present, the recspec tlt, and it has not seen much (if any) success in any meta. Following the same logic as the E-Wing, it is in greater need of a fix than the E-Wing. You can fly naked E-wings (they say it's good in epic), you can fly naked Lambda shuttles (wow! so efficient! much pew pew!), but dare anyone fly a naked HWK?

Same people who fly Naked Soontir or Vader without X1 I suppose...

So the TIE Interceptor needs a fix.

Same people who fly Naked Soontir or Vader without X1 I suppose...

So the TIE Interceptor needs a fix.

You mean Tempest and and Alpha Squadron.

..., but dare anyone fly a naked HWK?

If we're daring people to do things let's just go all out and issue the 6 HWK challenge. Even better yet, 6 HWKs vs. 6 HWKs It might possibly be the one match more boring to watch than a 4 TLT Y-Wings mirror match.

First time I used a hwk, I thought the same thing, "Wow, this thing is a dog!".

"Once again big mega-corp gets some of my money for a useless ship."

Then came back with Kyle "flinging focus" Katarn and moldy crew + Jake in the A-wing.

and had that "ah-ha!" moment, well more of an..."ohhhhh, that's what they meant for this thing!"

The Hwk is good, the hwk is wise.

The E-Wing only has 1 functional build, that build is highly successful in any meta, and everyone says it needs a fix. The HWK only has 1 functional build at the present, the recspec tlt, and it has not seen much (if any) success in any meta. Following the same logic as the E-Wing, it is in greater need of a fix than the E-Wing. You can fly naked E-wings (they say it's good in epic), you can fly naked Lambda shuttles (wow! so efficient! much pew pew!), but dare anyone fly a naked HWK?

I never quite understood that attitude towards fixes - squadrons of E-Wings don't really make sense, thematicaly, since they are supposed to be rare. Thats even more obvious with HWKs. As long as there is at least one viable build, a ship is fine in my book.