So BBBBZ is a solid list and on that basis I'm considering four Blue Squad Novices all with 1pt Astromechs and the Integrated Astromech mod.

It's less hit points, fewer ships, and fewer red dice, but I feel like the addition of the 'mechs could give it an edge (or at least more interesting to play).

Has anyone tried this? Do people think it would be competitive? I'm looking into simple, no-frills tournament lists so my brain isn't fried by the end of Regionals.

7 hit points behind 2 agility is going to be more durable in most match-ups than the B-wings' 8 hit points behind 1 agility. The B-Wings have what amounts to an extra point of shield over the X-Wings but since the X-Wings get to pick which of their hull points to protect from taking a crit, that kind of evens out. I'm not sure if the added durability of the X-Wings is enough to offset the health of the Z-95.

A better selection of 1 point Astromech's would really help that list out.

Depends: How annoying can you be with a Z-95?

Thing's got a lot of ways to be irksome in the hands of an expert, and if you can use it that well, it makes up for the survivability difference.

If you can't, then the Xs are clearly superior.

You're not really ever going to get a better one point astro than r2, not with that dial anyway.

Seriously, trolls and turn greens just go too well together

Well, if TA had cost what it was worth, then it'd have competition

I had a try with it a couple of nights ago, as it happens. It lost to a whisper/rexler brath list, but that was due to my incompetence with both dials* and dice**.

The list itself felt remarkably sound for a simplistic copy/paste of generics. Having both Boost and Talon Rolls made them feel remarkably manoeuvrable for such heavy ships, and even arc dodgers struggle to avoid four arcs of fire.

The Talon Roll is amazing. It's very much the T-70's party piece and the number of times I used it verged on the ridiculous. It actually makes the R2 astromech more than just "I need an astromech to use the Integrated Astromech modification", too, because coming out of a talon roll into a hard '2' turn into a boost means that over two turns a T-70 can get its nose pointed just about any which way, and talon rolls left or right can often pull you out of an arc of fire.

Compared to B-wings, you're much less capable in a 'knife fight' - longer 'turn about' moves, no barrel roll, and defence slightly more biased to dice and hence susceptible to blocking - but in long, sweeping fights you're just as capable if not more so. You want to turn the game into a big swooping circle - Talon Roll and speed 2 'recover' moves let you spread out the damage between your different fighters, and a speed 4 straight or speed 3 bank plus a boost covers a lot of ground if you want a damaged ship to get the hell out of dodge.

The value of the extra z-95....I dunno. I think you can make up for it with smart play. In a swoopy range 2-3 engagement, your boost and extra green die should more than make up for it (plus it's harder to get blocked). Try not to go for a head-on joust, but come in at an angle.

Against the tournament staples.....it's not going to set the world on fire but it might work.

Versus Imperial aces, you're going to have to block or lay arcs in many possible positions. You're actually a lot faster than most normal 'swarm' lists, and can afford to take a few knocks, so against a shuttle with Palpatine, you should be able to mob it and take it out a lot more quickly than a normal list might - hopefully before the accompanying fighters can do too much to you.

Versus twin laser turrets - you should be fine. You won't dodge many shots, but you'll dodge enough to cut into the damage you take. More importantly, focused fire from four X-wings can drop a Y-wing pretty **** fast.

Versus big ships with turrets - you could be worse. You're going to take 1-2 damage on your shields rather than trigger gunner because you're not that agile and between shields and integrated astromech, Vader (crew) doesn't scare you too much. If you're prepared to take the occasional punch whilst boosting, you can move fast enough to keep up with Dash Rendar (of course his tendancy to dodge arcs is still annoying).

Versus jumpmasters - erm. They've got a higher PS, and a massive alpha strike. This is going to hurt a lot. The one thing I'll say is that if you've got a focus token, 2 green dice [should] produce 1 evade on a defense roll, and you've got Integrated Astromech for one damage card, so it should take all three torpedoes to kill an X-wing. At the same time, losing an X-wing in the opening salvo is pretty hideous. Try to flank, or hide in the rocks, I guess?

* Where the hell is the hard '1' turn.....oh....yeah....not TIE fighters. Clunk!

** Aha! Whisper! Range 1! unable to recloak! No, you press the triggers at this point. Bloody Sensor Jammers.

One of the members of the Sling Paint Gaming channel on YouTube has recorded a good few casual games with his 'Baby Blues'. It's the kids you described with each T70 having am r2 astromech.

I want to love this T-70 list, but like others I have the fear of having only PS2 in the current alpha strike meta.

I want a reason to own 5 T-70s (one is of course a custom paint for Poe D)!

Has anyone actually played 4 T70 vs Uboats? Doesn't the T-70's 4 forward plus boost give you a great shot at setting up blocks? A-wing are widely regarded as great blockers, but all they have over the T-70 when setting up that intial block is the 5 forward manouvre.

The biggest weakness of the list to me is having to buy four copies of the T-70 blister to run it. Soon as their is another way to get IA, I might consider it.

But...but.... buying X-wing stuff is fun!

The biggest weakness of the list to me is having to buy four copies of the T-70 blister to run it. Soon as their is another way to get IA, I might consider it.

A lot of people have one in the core set. It's much like the comms relay/TIE/fo issue.

One of the members of the Sling Paint Gaming channel on YouTube has recorded a good few casual games with his 'Baby Blues'. It's the kids you described with each T70 having am r2 astromech.

I watched one of their games, too. As noted, it's an interesting list.

A lot of people have one in the core set. It's much like the comms relay/TIE/fo issue.

That's my issue right there. I have no interest in owning five of the ships just so that I can fly four of them.

I only have two copies of IA at the moment. I'm very intrigued by this list:

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Rebel 5 ship is kind of a sweet spot with me. PS4 to help against U-boats. Three fast boosters and a couple solid jousters. A-wing can either be PS4 to move and shoot together or drop down to PS2 if you want a super-blocker. Crack shot is for real. Going to try this soon.

I've flown it against a Dengar/Bossk list similar to the ones in the SlingPaint videos.

The T-70s burned down both ships pretty quickly. Focus fire from 12 dice will ruin most ship's days. I wound up winning with 2 undamaged T-70s.

I was almost always taking focus, not boosting, and not T-rolling so I'm wondering how 4 T-65s with R2 IA and plasma torps would do. I think probably better against big ships.

Not really an issue as only Omega L is worth relaying. Everyone else can be run just dandy with crackshot, sometimes ptl; sometimes predator/wired + WG (or crackshot). Juke + relay sadly just gets curbstomped by some very popular pilots

For t70s there's no reason to not have IA unless you're high enough PS to exploit thrusters

A lot of people have one in the core set. It's much like the comms relay/TIE/fo issue.

I had a try with it a couple of nights ago, as it happens. It lost to a whisper/rexler brath list, but that was due to my incompetence with both dials* and dice**.

The list itself felt remarkably sound for a simplistic copy/paste of generics. Having both Boost and Talon Rolls made them feel remarkably manoeuvrable for such heavy ships, and even arc dodgers struggle to avoid four arcs of fire.

The Talon Roll is amazing. It's very much the T-70's party piece and the number of times I used it verged on the ridiculous. It actually makes the R2 astromech more than just "I need an astromech to use the Integrated Astromech modification", too, because coming out of a talon roll into a hard '2' turn into a boost means that over two turns a T-70 can get its nose pointed just about any which way, and talon rolls left or right can often pull you out of an arc of fire.

Compared to B-wings, you're much less capable in a 'knife fight' - longer 'turn about' moves, no barrel roll, and defence slightly more biased to dice and hence susceptible to blocking - but in long, sweeping fights you're just as capable if not more so. You want to turn the game into a big swooping circle - Talon Roll and speed 2 'recover' moves let you spread out the damage between your different fighters, and a speed 4 straight or speed 3 bank plus a boost covers a lot of ground if you want a damaged ship to get the hell out of dodge.

The value of the extra z-95....I dunno. I think you can make up for it with smart play. In a swoopy range 2-3 engagement, your boost and extra green die should more than make up for it (plus it's harder to get blocked). Try not to go for a head-on joust, but come in at an angle.

Against the tournament staples.....it's not going to set the world on fire but it might work.

Versus Imperial aces, you're going to have to block or lay arcs in many possible positions. You're actually a lot faster than most normal 'swarm' lists, and can afford to take a few knocks, so against a shuttle with Palpatine, you should be able to mob it and take it out a lot more quickly than a normal list might - hopefully before the accompanying fighters can do too much to you.

Versus twin laser turrets - you should be fine. You won't dodge many shots, but you'll dodge enough to cut into the damage you take. More importantly, focused fire from four X-wings can drop a Y-wing pretty **** fast.

Versus big ships with turrets - you could be worse. You're going to take 1-2 damage on your shields rather than trigger gunner because you're not that agile and between shields and integrated astromech, Vader (crew) doesn't scare you too much. If you're prepared to take the occasional punch whilst boosting, you can move fast enough to keep up with Dash Rendar (of course his tendancy to dodge arcs is still annoying).

Versus jumpmasters - erm. They've got a higher PS, and a massive alpha strike. This is going to hurt a lot. The one thing I'll say is that if you've got a focus token, 2 green dice [should] produce 1 evade on a defense roll, and you've got Integrated Astromech for one damage card, so it should take all three torpedoes to kill an X-wing. At the same time, losing an X-wing in the opening salvo is pretty hideous. Try to flank, or hide in the rocks, I guess?

* Where the hell is the hard '1' turn.....oh....yeah....not TIE fighters. Clunk!

** Aha! Whisper! Range 1! unable to recloak! No, you press the triggers at this point. Bloody Sensor Jammers.

Fantastic commentary and insight. Thanks!

A lot of people have one in the core set. It's much like the comms relay/TIE/fo issue.

I actually didn't find that much of a problem to me. I still bought 4 TIE/fo packs after buying the core set so that I could test out a swarm of 6 TIE/fos, and also be able to play around with a Juke/Relay mini-swarm. Don't regret it in the slightest. I only ever lost a single game with the mini-swarm after playing 8 different match-ups.

a pretty fantastic analysis

Wow! Thanks so much for reviving this thread. Everyone's commentary has been really helpful and has rekindled my interest in this list.

Getting the 4th IA wasn't a problem for me, they seem to be readily available for trade or sale(not too cheap, though). The real issue (for me, at least) has been getting 2 more R2's as I think they only come in Wave 1 Y-Wings.

So both lists have 3 attack ships in the lower 20s range. Why not substitute one B or T-70 for an attack shuttle, to get some more jousting efficiency?

For example:

3 x Blue Squadron Pilot

Zeb Orrelios (Intelligence Agent)

Prototype Pilot (Chardaan Refit)

(This list solves a problem I had with BBBBZ: I'm not good with the Z. It appears to be more there to soak damage rather than block things, and I prefer a 2 attack ship to be an effective blocker. 3 agility + Evade at PS 1 can do that better.)

If you take one attack shuttle with some T-70s, you also need less IA cards.

Guess I need to buy 1 more t-70

Getting the 4th IA wasn't a problem for me, they seem to be readily available for trade or sale(not too cheap, though). The real issue (for me, at least) has been getting 2 more R2's as I think they only come in Wave 1 Y-Wings.

Also this. I was sooooo hoping that Targeting Astromech would be one point partly to solve this problem. Still salty that it ended up costing 2.... (sad panda)

Okay. I actually want to put some though behind this.

Assuming we're using 4 T70s with R2 Astromechs, how do you deploy and move initially against different squads?

The obvious big question is Jumpmasters - since they have higher pilot skill, you're setting up on an empty board. So it essentially boils down to do you set up

A - in one group or pairs

B - facing the enemy or along your own edge

C - in the centre or the corners

I know they set up last, and I know we need to avoid a joust. I don't have the exact maths - I could work it out on a spreadsheet but I'm not going to because (1) I cant be bothered and (2) I will take it as axiomatic that if the enemy has a better opening salvo, more total hit points and shoots first, a head-on pass is a stupid plan. I don't need a detailled statistical analysis of precisely how screwed I am, I need a different plan.

Setting up on one edge facing the enemy is therefore a bad idea - you'll be boxed in by the board edge.

I'm not sure what to do. Ultimately I guess the aim is to get in close before I get torpedoed to hell, and focus on Jumpmaster down as fast as possible, but I'm not sure how to do it.

I want to love this T-70 list, but like others I have the fear of having only PS2 in the current alpha strike meta.

I want a reason to own 5 T-70s (one is of course a custom paint for Poe D)!

Has anyone actually played 4 T70 vs Uboats? Doesn't the T-70's 4 forward plus boost give you a great shot at setting up blocks? A-wing are widely regarded as great blockers, but all they have over the T-70 when setting up that intial block is the 5 forward manouvre.

Funny thing but I think if Contracted scouts had lower pilot skill they would be TOTALLY BROKEN. At least at pilot skill 3 they could be bumped to block the focus token for the deadeye shot. Deadeye actually works the best at low pilot skill maneuvering.

The biggest weakness of the list to me is having to buy four copies of the T-70 blister to run it. Soon as their is another way to get IA, I might consider it.

You could replace one or two of those with a TFA core set. Now the TIE-FOs. Those are the ones you might need 4 of since they decided not to double up on comms relay ( Anyone want to trade for an electric baffle? )

Hmmm. Would holding back and trying to boost into range 1 or block on the initial pass work?

A T70 does have a speed 1 straight, which should help hang back for the first turn.

When I played Jumpmasters with TIE fighters, I did a straight 2 or 3 on the first round, then a straight 5 on the second - the front rank of TIEs ended up in under range 1. Theoretically, 4 T70s could bedeployed in a line abreast.

Assuming it works, though, I'm not sure what you do next. A 4 koiogran will clear the Jumpmasters in front, but they will segnor in response and fire another torp spread. With TIEs I can have survivors from the back rank turn with a hard 1 and barrerl roll into a block, but with speed 2 being an x-wings tightest turn, Im not sure there's room if youre at range 1.