I was watching the World champion ship game again recently. I don't own 8 A-Wings, but i can see they are bloody effective.

A-Wings are a bit of a dirty allrounder, they have max move of 5 they have a reasonable anti squadron AND counter AND a black dice vs Ships which is the best you can do for a non bomber.

I like to take squadrons of my own but i can't see a better combo for the points and flexibility than A-Wing spam. The counter keyword means they are a headache for any other squadron type and if you win the squadron game they are fantastic for whittling down shields.

How do you deal with a swarm of them and still have an effective anti ship force? What is the A-Wings natural enemy? Is there a circle of squadron prey or just a food chain?

Intell and dont bother to shoot them.... better still if you have obscene swarm counters....

I was watching the World champion ship game again recently. I don't own 8 A-Wings, but i can see they are bloody effective.

A-Wings are a bit of a dirty allrounder, they have max move of 5 they have a reasonable anti squadron AND counter AND a black dice vs Ships which is the best you can do for a non bomber.

I like to take squadrons of my own but i can't see a better combo for the points and flexibility than A-Wing spam. The counter keyword means they are a headache for any other squadron type and if you win the squadron game they are fantastic for whittling down shields.

How do you deal with a swarm of them and still have an effective anti ship force? What is the A-Wings natural enemy? Is there a circle of squadron prey or just a food chain?

I recently played a lot of games with Ackbar, 3 Afs and 10 Awings.

They were underwhelming. They require too many commands, fare poorly against wave 2 AS from ships, and don't have the punch needed to deal with anti-squadron builds.

From the Imps. Use a combination of Raider I, Glad II, IG88, Bossk and sustainted point defence.

I have killed 5 AWings, (4 full health) in one activation with a Raider I. The Rebels cannot command enough AWings (unless they Yavaris for 3 and every shot hits and you don't have Motti and you walk into it like a chump) to kill a Raider in one activation. It can get ****** up but it will live. Rebels often get greedy with the speed 5 and throw them out of Ship Red Dice Battery range and move into it after they activate. Meaning you don't take follow up fire from the Carrier. If you present a small ship as bait they might pounce. Leave it isolated BUT within your squadron range.

It went:

*Squadron Command Bossk who kills one outright

*Two arcs fire, 2 double taps, 4 damage each (it gets crowded when you jam 8 Awings next to a Raider)

* One arc kills the one Bossk wounded Squadron phase last turn

* Impetuous kills one hit for 2 for another 2

With Ordnance Experts you have 88% chance to hit one both dice (i was told). Raider was alive on 2 hull, it flew away.

Or just use Bobba, Bossk, Vader, IG88 to power through them. AWings aren't as bad/good as they were Wave 1 due to stronger Hull Imp fighters and Double Point Defence. I will respect the **** out of Awing Flight Controllers though.

Had to change forces the last games and therefore sided with rebels. Man, you have an awfully lot less guys with rogue zipping around, and without med-range rhymer bombers you actually have to go all-in to make rebel squadrons work. I usually bring 2 A-wings (as I only own 2), but will probably get back to x-wings as my workhorse.

1) Speed 5 is nice to lock someone down , but 3/4 times I will be out of command range afterwards, and since most rebel squadrons go speed 3 those As will be on their own for a turn or two.

2) Counter is fun on interceptors as you can blow it up with howler rerolls and dengar. Rebels dont have those synergies, counter 2 is counter 2, no rerolls, no icing - means 1 average damage per retaliation. It is simply not enough in my book to gnaw down enemy squadrons over time.

3) The mediocre AS capability pairs odd with the great speed. Your speed screams intercept, but your AS is not helping to give your alpha strike that mean punch.

4) The abundant use of intel and escort means the enemy can just ignore As if he is not considering them as a threat. With wave 1, engagement was a thing to force people to shoot you, but with intel, people can just ignore As. Their AS is not enough of a threat to make my enemy wish to remove them at the first opportunity, no escort means he can shoot any more valued target at will. If only the A remains in the engagement, Dengar moves in and suddenly the A is all alone on the dancefloor.

The X on the other hand is a simple tool for a simple gamer (like me), 4 AS 5 Hp for 13 pts is sound. It is more geared towards my kind of anti-squadron duty, which is directly shooting stuff till its dead. Chances to one-shot interceptors or regular TIEs are quite okay and grow decent with flight controllers. Greater chances for at least one accuracy means greater chance of locking down that **** scatter die on some imperial aces. And with escort, you actually get a way to somewhat control which of your Xs is taking damage from enemy squadrons, to a degree. Once space superiority is achieved, the remaining Xs can gather with the more specialized bomber squadrons.

/Edit, did anybody try a YT-2400-heavy anti-squadron force? +1 Hp/+1Speed plus rogue for +3 points is a good deal in my eyes. Still not enough models to make them work as a mainstay dogfighting unit.

Anti-squadron from ships is your best bet against the A-Wings, especially 2 Dice AS barrage. Ruthless Strategist is another good bet because while you are sure to take 1 damage, you're sure not to take 2.

A-Wings are awesome against swarms and especially against squadron activations due to that triggering counter. I countered them just by not activating my squadrons and tying them up in the squadron phase.

I think A-Wings are still good but just not as a wave 2 swarm.

I like to mix it up a bit as I find that it gives you a bit of flexibility.

I usually take 3 X-Wings with Jan Ors for her brace tokens and Intel

And 2 A-Wings for their flexibility for getting around when needed.

80 points.

3 points more than 7 A-wings for 6 squadrons but they give you more survivability, and tactical flexibility.

It works for me at least.

@Smurfwedge : don't discount the power of 4 to 5 black dice thrown at your ships They're going to peck away at shields to set up some nasty attack.

@Smurfwedge : don't discount the power of 4 to 5 black dice thrown at your ships They're going to peck away at shields to set up some nasty attack.

Oh I'm 100% with you mate....I just think that dedicated anti-fighter squadrons will hurt them (yes Im looking at you howlrunner, dengar and interceptor wings....counter 4 is EVIL) and bomber wings with Intel will ignore them as they don't have a big enough alpha.......they are still good little fighters though and I like them, just not as a swarm

3 X-Wings, Jan and 2 A-Wings will still throw out 3 red bomber dice and 3 black non-bomber dice which is a decent trade off points wise against 7 straight black due to the survivability of the X-Wings with Jan

On another note MoffZen you stole my profile pic from the list....now it looks like I'm talking to myself

Although to be fair you have a lot more posts than me so its more likely I stole your idea....my bad

I find that Imps auto damage (fel, Mithil etc.) Work very well against a-wings

A few A-wings, mixed with other types, can still be good, but not just a cloud of them. Not anymore.

Had to change forces the last games and therefore sided with rebels. Man, you have an awfully lot less guys with rogue zipping around, and without med-range rhymer bombers you actually have to go all-in to make rebel squadrons work. I usually bring 2 A-wings (as I only own 2), but will probably get back to x-wings as my workhorse.

1) Speed 5 is nice to lock someone down , but 3/4 times I will be out of command range afterwards, and since most rebel squadrons go speed 3 those As will be on their own for a turn or two.

2) Counter is fun on interceptors as you can blow it up with howler rerolls and dengar. Rebels dont have those synergies, counter 2 is counter 2, no rerolls, no icing - means 1 average damage per retaliation. It is simply not enough in my book to gnaw down enemy squadrons over time.

3) The mediocre AS capability pairs odd with the great speed. Your speed screams intercept, but your AS is not helping to give your alpha strike that mean punch.

4) The abundant use of intel and escort means the enemy can just ignore As if he is not considering them as a threat. With wave 1, engagement was a thing to force people to shoot you, but with intel, people can just ignore As. Their AS is not enough of a threat to make my enemy wish to remove them at the first opportunity, no escort means he can shoot any more valued target at will. If only the A remains in the engagement, Dengar moves in and suddenly the A is all alone on the dancefloor.

The X on the other hand is a simple tool for a simple gamer (like me), 4 AS 5 Hp for 13 pts is sound. It is more geared towards my kind of anti-squadron duty, which is directly shooting stuff till its dead. Chances to one-shot interceptors or regular TIEs are quite okay and grow decent with flight controllers. Greater chances for at least one accuracy means greater chance of locking down that **** scatter die on some imperial aces. And with escort, you actually get a way to somewhat control which of your Xs is taking damage from enemy squadrons, to a degree. Once space superiority is achieved, the remaining Xs can gather with the more specialized bomber squadrons.

/Edit, did anybody try a YT-2400-heavy anti-squadron force? +1 Hp/+1Speed plus rogue for +3 points is a good deal in my eyes. Still not enough models to make them work as a mainstay dogfighting unit.

I have 8 YT-2400's. I haven't run all of them at once in a real game yet, but I have setup little squadron battles vs rhymer/jan balls to see how they fair as dedicated CAP. In short- they can ruin fireballs plenty easy (as killing dengar/vader isn't all that improbable on first strike and 4 firesprays are easy pickings after), but squadron builds that incorporate a lot of tie bombers or y-wings are just so dang tough, you'll be trying to blow them up the rest of the game (or you leave like 2 YT's to engage them and take the remnants to attack ships). The most annoying thing to fight remains the Imperial synergy ball (all the named Tie's), but that one is still so easily destroyed by AA fire I'd rather just switch the YT's to ship attack duty if I see one.

If I have squadron commands (i.e. Neb-B's and mc80's), I still prefer x-wings as attacking during the ship round on that first strike can really swing the whole superiority battle. It also helps that 8 X's come at a 24 point discount and can help you with precision strike (not to mention they synergize with Jan). One use of Intel that I find not a lot of other people doing is manipulating the furball- you can, for example, hit a bunch of fighters with your x's, and then move after shooting to retreat weakened units or even prevent non-rogue units from retaliating.

I was going to pair ye olde 2400 swarm with a MSU list (CR90/MC30c). The thought would be to use squad tokens for the alpha strike and then leave them be the rest of the game. Since I'm finishing painting up my imperial forces, however, my imperials have been seeing more table time.

I have had a good run of swatting them with Tie fighters with Howl runner hitting them 4 to 3 and taking them off the table when I get the jump on them. If they get the activation jump they have still been dead by the end of turn but I take more damage.

I find that Imps auto damage (fel, Mithil etc.) Work very well against a-wings

That's what I'm thinking also. Fel w/ Vader or an ADV (make them shoot to be shot at) w/ Howlrunner and Mithel nearby and possibly Dengar escorting a few bombers (Fett {slow though} / Rhymer?). There is the possibility of running them as one big ball or split the fighters off from the main group.

I like the A-wing but I feel that you have to be careful when you field them. They aren't as tough as other Rebel squadrons and with the introduction of wave two the Imperials now have access to plenty of ships that have more than one anti squadron die. Intel has also made the A-Wings job harder as they can't just dash out and lock up enemy squadron threats if they have a HWK-290 or Jumpmaster 5000 around. Even Grit makes things harder for the basic A-Wing.