Okay..... so. Copying a title from a Sablegryphon post sets high expectations.
Prepare to be disappointed.

Context:

The reason I'm posting is because I needed to figure out a list for a Systems Open, and because I'm confident in my abilities , I'm working on the assumption I'm going to be in the Hangar Bay tournament on Day 2, along with everyone else who likes ramming asteroids for fun, and owns a deck of 33 Direct Hit! cards and four blank green tetrahedrons.

The problem is that I need another squad which isn't an Imperial TIE swarm - can't be Imperial at all, for that matter. Talking to a friend about doing something random, I found thoughts drifting to HWK-260s.

There were a couple of occasions over the last year where pure HWKs have surprised people by doing well, and whilst Sablegryphon's article has a lot of good stuff in it, there have been some very nice upgrades come out over the last year which really suit the HWK-260, meaning a few more choices of option.

I'm going to assume that a proper 'Squawk Squad' is going to include the three unique scum HWK-260s, because they're all very good value for points and they get some critical options over their generic counterparts. I know that cheaper HWKs have some options that you can exploit by getting a 4th ship in, too.


So, what's changed. Well, the following new stuff turned up over the last year:

Pilots:

• None

So. No need to dissect the unique pilot's abilities - they haven't changed and Sablegryphon did that in the post linked above. If you're not using Dace's ability, you might want to consider dropping him to a Spice Runner - you end up 9 points up on the deal - but it also costs you an elite pilot talent slot. There's some argument for keeping Dace in even with no ion weapons to exploit the combos he can use.

Elite Pilot Talents:

• Adaptability
• Crack Shot
• Lightning Reflexes
• Attani Mindlink

Crack Shot is so-so, but if you have a spare point, it might get a hit through you wouldn't have done otherwise.

Adaptability strikes me as so-so. Veteran Instincts is only really worthwhile on Dace, and only if you've got a decent initiative bid. It still doesn't let you hang with the PS10 and PS11 crowd. Adaptability is nice since it's free if you've nothing better to buy. Annoyingly the HWKs are separated by 2 points of PS, though, so you won't be able to match PS and move in an order of your choice.

Lighting Reflexes - on the one hand, it's a one-use Koiogran Turn/Segnor's Loop. On the other.... the HWK is a ship uncompromisingly built around a turret slot, so is that a big deal? It might give you an option to get away from someone shadowing you at range 1.

Attani Mindlink - sharing stress and focus is a nice trick, especially since Palob gives you a way to get a focus token even when stressed himself.

Crew:

• Zuckuss
• 4-LOM
• Dengar
• Boba Fett
• Bossk
• Gonk

The new scum crew are amazing, and several of them suit a HWK to a 't'.

Dengar duplicates the effect of predator - arguably even better - but does so from a crew slot. With multiple attacks per turn, it's better than a K4 security droid and doesn't restrict your maneuvers.

4-LOM is less nice - a small ship doesn't like ionizing itself. Still, 'pinning' a focus token in place might make the difference between hitting and missing, and I guess you can afford to fly straight and level in a ship with a turret.

Zuckuss is really good IF you're prepared to never take actions again. If so, use him with a will and force a reroll on every evade result your opponent produces.

Boba Fett - not so hot for the HWK; you have no real way to get reliable criticals.

Bossk - as with Zuckuss, If you don't care about stress, he makes a second shot amazing. Sadly, fluffing one TLT shot to improve the odds of the second isn't great, but he is cheap.

Gonk - If you have a Moldy Crow in your squad, you're likely to spend turns 1-3 pootling around building up focus tokens. Gonk gives a second squad member something worthwhile to do during that time - action to recover a shield isn't amazing (as that action won't give you a focus for when you get shot at next, for example) but it's not bad either. Certainly it's cheap enough, and even with Experimental Interface thrown in it's not exactly bank-breaking.

Turrets:

• Dorsal Turret
• Twin Laser Turret

Dorsal Turret - move along. I still don't get what this is really for.

The Twin Laser Turret is the "why didn't you take this one" weapon these days. Good rate of fire, hard to dodge, and 360 arc of fire. Its weakness is the range 1 blind spot, but an illicit slot gives you options to mitigate this.

Illicits:

• Cloaking Device
• Glitterstim

The cloak is potentially nice. A cloaked HWK has agility 4 - much like a Phantom - and with Palob and/or the Moldy Crow, has a ridiculous amount of focus to call on. Worse yet if it's paired with either Flight Instructor or Lone Wolf for a defensive reroll. Most importantly, any of the three scumhawks can use their ability whilst cloaked (although Dace needs someone else with an ion cannon). In addition, even if it never gets shot at, the HWK gains a one-use jump in manoeuvrability - something it desperately needs.

Glitterstim is one-use, but with a twin laser turret, you've got two shots going out plus any number of shots coming in. Focus for all of them on one turn is **** good if you can't afford the Moldy Crow.

I'd probably work on taking either ion turrets (to use Dace's ability) or Twin Laser Turrets. The problem with the latter will always be the ease of dancing around the shots that aces like Vader, Soontir and The Inquisitor have, but there are ways around this with the new crew.

Dengar + Outmanoeuvre - You get two rerolls per shot, and reduce a target's agility by one. I'd pair this with an engine upgrade to help shift the (fairly sluggish) HWK. Useable either on Palob or Dace.

Predator + Zuckuss - using Zuckuss a lot means masses of stress so no actions. But Palob can snag focus tokens as he needs them and you've got your offensive dice modification coming free (especially with Torkil punching your target down to PS0).

Gonk + Experimental Interface - If you build up a few shield tokens initially, you've got a 'shield a turn' free regen, much like R2-D2 or R5-P9. You'll never turn a HWK into a tank, but it's still pretty tough for its cost, especially at long range.

Anyone else spotted any nice new ideas for HWKs?

Not too much new for the HWK. Lots of old stuff that is still good. Dengar is a good option.

I have a friend that loves Stealth Device on HWKS as he says it is unexpectedly good. It would work well with Cloaking, too. I think Palob would be best for this as his survivability is increased with stealing a token. Add in Moldy Crow for good measure and maybe Recon Specialist.

Dorsal turret isn't really for the HWK. It's for things like Y-wings with ordnance that want a cheap turret.

I don't think Gonk works with Moldy Crow as each takes an action. You will have to pick between one and the other. Also, the HWK only has one shield, so is it worth it?

I don't think Gonk works with Moldy Crow as each takes an action. You will have to pick between one and the other. Also, the HWK only has one shield, so is it worth it?

I didn't mean putting the Gonk on the Moldy Crow. But if you have a Moldy Crow HWK wanting to spend a few turns building up focus tokens, a second HWK flying alongside it can be building up shields in the Gonk at the same time. That way both ships get some benefit from a delay before engaging.

The Stealth Device HWK is a nice idea. Normally I wouldn't bother with an agility 2 ship, but if you use it with the Cloak as well, you're suddenly into TIE interceptor levels of un-hit-ability, especially if you've deprived your opponent of their focus token.

The list I was considering was:

• Dace Bonearm - Lone Wolf, Ion Cannon Turret, K4 Security Droid, Engine Upgrade
• Palob Godahli - Moldy Crow, Predator, Zuckuss, Twin Laser Turret
• Torkil Mux - Dengar, Twin Laser Turret, Feedback Array

Palob and Torkil are a pair of nasty-accurate twin lasers - especially Palob - whilst Dace provides close-in protection and a bit of an end-game threat if you don't go for him first.

Probably not the best plan, but might be fun to try.

I think with 3 HWKs, your damage output will be too low. My friend who did a 2 HWK list and did alright used Corran Horn as the 3rd ship due to damage output. I think you would need to go with someone else in the list. His idea was that you either went for the HWKs or the "other" ship. Whichever one you went for, the others would punish you.

Stealth Device and Cloaking would work best with the Moldy Crow title. That way you can have enough Foci to not get hit.

It would be a lot of points, but I could even see going with that set up and TLT. That way, when someone gets into your "donut hole", you can cloak up. Or....with an Ion Cannon....I can see cloaking up until you get within range. That way you aren't shot at most likely until you can get closer.

Wait....I did just think of one thing you didn't mention: Attanni Mindlink. Two have it and whenever one is assigned a Focus or a Stress, the other one gets it if they don't already have it. Normally, that's not so great, but....if the second person (with lower PS) has the Moldy Crow title....they can also do a Focus action and have two. They can bank the second one to have 2 a turn. OK....just going with Recon Specialist is probably better, but hey....it's something new.

I do admit that I like the idea of a Rebel HWK with Sabine crew. You get a bomb! Make sure you have another ship that can take Bombs, like a Y-wing or K-wing. Maybe go with Conner Nets for control, but also get the extra damage in there?

Wait....I did just think of one thing you didn't mention: Attanni Mindlink. Two have it and whenever one is assigned a Focus or a Stress, the other one gets it if they don't already have it. Normally, that's not so great, but....if the second person (with lower PS) has the Moldy Crow title....they can also do a Focus action and have two. They can bank the second one to have 2 a turn. OK....just going with Recon Specialist is probably better, but hey....it's something new.

I did, but only in passing. I think it's probably best on Scum Hawks, because Palob can give the whole squad a focus token as well as clearing a target.

I think with 3 HWKs, your damage output will be too low. My friend who did a 2 HWK list and did alright used Corran Horn as the 3rd ship due to damage output. I think you would need to go with someone else in the list. His idea was that you either went for the HWKs or the "other" ship. Whichever one you went for, the others would punish you.

I've seen two HWKs plus an ace do well - in this case it was a Sensor Jammer/Predator Guri with Palob and Torkil - if you're in range 2 of the HWKs or closer, Palob makes the Sensor Jammer a bugger to deal with, whilst Torkil makes Predator amazing.

The Rebel HWKs is a nice thought - I've not thought much about Jan and Kyle recently. I'm not sure how I'd use them in a squad per se - Jan's "have a red die" is always going to be cool, and both crew/pilot pairings work really well. I suspect they're much better throwing in a single HWK.

Putting Sabine in one is a nice idea. It's cheap enough that you could have a squad of three fairly well equipped bombers.

im also having problems with the fact that you can't down a contrcted scout in one turn, 9 hp, 8 dmg tlt.

Although, Palob can strip one from shooting a missile, and Torkil can make the other fire at PS0, you're still going to take about 6 damage from two missiles back, killing a hwk outright.

Maybe combine 2 or 3 hwks, with something else?

Guri, with advanced Proton Torps doing 5 + damage with crits? At PS5 after Palob.

I don't think you're ever going to be reliably do 9 damage with a HWK squad, though. I used to worry about one-pass-killing a B-wing with a TIE swarm - which is 8 damage past 1 agility. 9 damage past 2 is pushing it for pretty much any squad except another alpha strike squad.

Palob, as noted, can 'disarm' one torpedo - so it's going to be a case of "take one torpedo, disarm one, avoid arcs on one" - getting all three jump-masters to bear on a single target isn't too easy.

There are a couple of options which can help - Flight Instructor is a nice card with Torkil on the field. Lone Wolf is a possible but less useful as you want to keep the squad together.

Guri is one of the few ships who can use advanced proton torpedoes effectively, at the moment I'm trying to figure out a 'pure' HWK force - being a contrary so-and-so, if I take Starvipers, it's again likely to be a pure Starviper squad*.

* Which is easy enough to make torpedo-resistant - the trouble is then dealing with high PS aces.