After a really fun session last night, I wanted to recount some of the more insane moments and builds that we've seen happen. Our group is very near the end, so we have extremely high level builds and abilities.

A power combo that developed early in our group was the range one nuke.

Our highest PS x-wing has jakes ability, Nera's ability, predator, experimental interface, r7-t1, and advanced proton torpedoes.

He tends to shoot in, trigger r7-t1, free boost and a target lock on his intended target, skirt past them at range one, experimental interface a focus token, which lets Jake grant him a barrel roll if he needs it. Fires the advanced protons at whoever needs it the most, then predators any eyeballs he can, aiming to up the damage output to crits, knowing that the blanks will get converted to focus, which will then become hits.

He very seldomly misses.

We've been Dutch target lock chaining a bit in our group. that and I started recently using Garven Dreis since i'm the highest PS, and since I shoot first, I spend my target lock (given to me by another player) and my own focus, and then give it to the person that gave me the Target Lock.

I also have been running my Ywing loaded with bombs with Sabine Wren's pilot ability (which lets me ddrop a bomb or barrel/boost, and then drop a bomb - all before revealing my maneuver) then I actually move, and focus, triggering Jake Farrel's boost or barrel (again can only do the one I didnt use Sabine for) but I am doing both every turn and focusing...and not using PTL.

We also have a person in the group that uses engine upgrade, and his Bwing, ith ush the limit and Blue Ace (hard 1 boosts) to do some really odd things when combined wit Advanced Sensors, or waiting to do it after he moves normally.

While not a single moment, my Y-wing (loaded with proton bombs X2 + EM) when ever he is about to drop a bomb I have decided will broadcast in the open (so the Imps hear him) "HEY GUYS WATCH THIS!" He has gotten 2 of his 3 TIE Defender kills this way. His 3rd kill was a range 1 primary. Between his bombs and turret, he almost never does a primary. My comment when he shot down the Defender..."So that's what the trigger does!"

@knavelead. I have Jake Farrel on my Y-wing as well. Seeing a Y-wing Barrel roll has to be one of the most comical things we can do. Add R5-P9 and Poe (I'm PS9) and it's one of the best combos for a Y-wing.

And what is HOTAC?

And what is HOTAC?

Heroes of the Aturi Cluster. It's a fan made X-wing campaign that is really awesome. I've known people to swear off regular X-wing to only play this version of the game. It's incredibly fun. Each player gets only 1 ship and they play co-cooperatively against the Empire. The Empire has AI rules to fly them that are really well done. The missions are interesting and challenging. You get to level up your pilot to do really cool things.

"Warhead" is my Y-wing pilot with Predator, Nera's ability, Targeting Astromech, 2 x Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, and Guidance Chip. Oh, also a Shield Upgrade and TLT. My next ability will be Hobbie's ability to shed a stress when getting a TL.

So, I can do any red move....4 forward, 3 hard turn, or a K-turn....get a Stress....then a TL...then lose the stress. I fire my Torpedo 360. It's 4 red dice with Predator and Guidance Chip.

I try to focus on the scrubs to take them out as fast as possible. I am thinking of getting Ion Torpedoes to hit more of them at one time.

And what is HOTAC?

---> THIS <----- You can print everything you need for free BTW.

Be warned, once you play it, you might not want to play regular games again.

All our stand out moments tend to go against us...

Most memorable was my wife drawing off a swarm of TIEs in her Xwing to buy the rest of us time to reach the objective. She ended up totally drawing the entire swarm, and managed to avoid their arcs but then blew up when she clipped an asteroid the next turn. As usual, her ejection system failed and it was off to start a new pilot.

Spawning 6 Interceptors during the Disable Sensor Net mission, and running out of Interceptors to put on the table.

This was the final turn:

There are 3 Interceptors on the table you can't even see in this picture. We proxied my brand-new, unpainted TIE Avenger as the Elite Interceptor because it had Stealth Device, lol.

That X-Wing actually managed to jump to Hyperspace and escape. The other two Rebels left died on the previous turn.

We won two missions easily and got cocky. In the next mission, we had to defeat a certain number of enemies, so we flew elegantly right into three packed formations of TIE and died instantly. Rather ignominous end to a mission.

We are also close to the end of the campaign and have super (and in some cases silly) builds. I fly a B-Wing in tandem with his B-Wing. I started calling my B-Wing the "9's" (used to be Maverick) because sometimes that's how many attack dice I roll. It's really an Elite killer. I've shot down an Elite Bomber, Defender, and Advanced in one shot.

B-Wing "the 9's":

System: Sensor Jammer

Cannon: Heavy Laser

Crew: Han Solo

Mods: ENG, SHLD x2

EPT: Expose

EPT: Opportunist

EPT: Eaden Vrill

EPT: Miranda Doni

B-Wing "Goose":

System: Fire-Control

Cannon: Flechette

Crew: Navigator

Mods: ENG, SHLD x2

EPT: Dutch Vander

EPT: Lt. Blount

EPT: Wes jansen

EPT: Jan Ors

We fly in formation where possible, and Goose always shoots first. My action is to expose and to drop a shield for an extra attack dice with Miranda. He focuses. Attacks first with Flechette cannon, no need to roll (thanks Lt. Blount) but he does anyway for potential damage XP. Target gets a stress token. Wes Janson then says, please remove a focus or evade from your ship. Fire control system then says, please take a target lock. Dutch Vander then says, give a target lock to your buddy. Jan Ors says take a stress and give that mofo another dice!

So, I then fire. Regular attack dice: +3. Expose: +1. Opportunist (mostly happens save for phantoms and some interceptor situations): +1. Eaden Vrill: +1. Miranda Doni: +1. Jan Ors: +1. If in range 1: +1. That's 9 basic attack dice. The target lock from Goose (via Dutch) triggers Han Solo. So, everything but blanks will hit.

The expose reduces my agility, but we've become pretty successful at flying such that other ships are taking shots (an A-Wing and a Y-Wing, and of course the other B-Wing). The round ends with pretty much an insta-kill, and we both have a stress token. Next round we do green maneuvers, use Miranda Doni the opposite way, and then wash rinse repeat. The addition of engine upgrade gives us more positioning ability.

That's not exactly a crazy moment, but a crazy combination.

We did once have a squad mate in a Y-Wing trying to flee (we had failed the mission) and killed three interceptors and a fighter on the way out while not taking a single hit in the process (TLT, BTL-A4). He was already pretty beat up and is typically a terrible roller (hence not even bothering to try hyperspace). He bronzed those dice and put them on the mantle piece.

Spawned a Phantom right behind my X wing who had no shields.

Spawned a Phantom right behind my X wing who had no shields.

The exact words I would use in this forum are neither printable nor repeatable.

Spawned a Phantom right behind my X wing who had no shields.

Well that is depressing...I can see where this ended up like the Xwings in this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kp1XyxLUwJ4

Spawned a Phantom right behind my X wing who had no shields.

Hah! Finally it seems our team has better luck than others. We spawned a Phantom right in front of my tricked out Xwing on the Needle in a Haystack mission. Splashed it in one shot with a torpedo.

Interceptors though... Always appearing behind somebody at range one.

Last night was the "Secure the Holonet" mission. After a somewhat slow start we started killing Ties and ionizing the satellites. Lost one X-Wing and the other was in bad shape. Comes to turn 11, the HWK is ready to jump just needing one more token. A do or do not as turn 12 will see run out of table top. My partner drops a proton bomb trying to kill one of the two Ties chasing the HWK. I forgot they deal a face up card. The HWK gets to jump to hyperspace where as the bomb goes of killing the last X-Wing. Talk about a rookie move!

In the middle of a campaign now.

However last campaign I had this build for the last 3-4 missions.

Starviper

PS9

Boba Fett

Palob

Talonbane

Guri

3x Shield

Stealth Device

Hotshot Blaster

EM

Adv Sensors

Got shot at R3 by an Int. Rolled 2 hits. I proceeded to roll 6 blanks, use Boba for an enemy at R1 and rerolled into a blank.

I didn't die, but my whole group was laughing hysterically and I am forever known as "Boba Fetting" my rolls.

Hmm... I've seen a lot of fantastic moments in our group's HotAC campaign so far.

My buddy's B-Wing is the first thing that comes to mind:

Cannon - Heavy Laser Cannon

Torpedoes - Ion Torpedoes, Extra Munitions

System - Advanced Sensors

Mod - Engine Upgrade

Mod - Autothrusters

Mod - Shield Upgrade

Mod - E2

Crew - Hera

EPT - Predator

EPT - Push the Limit

EPT - Keyan Farlander

EPT - Tycho Celchu

He can boost and barrel roll before K-Turning with no negatives. Stress does not hinder his dial or limit his actions. And not only that, but stress boosts his offense. He's stopped using stress tokens, and instead keeps track with a dice typically used as a health counter for Magic the Gathering. Easily the most maneuverable ship I've seen, short of Echo.

As for individual moments, we've had a couple that come to mind.

The first was during the mission to capture the fueling depot. The Interceptors had appeared in an inconvenient location, but we thought we could outguess where they'd go and outmaneuver them. Sure enough, their maneuver was the least likely one for them to roll, and it totally through off our group's maneuvers, blocking one of our pilots and screwing up the rest of our formation. Between the incoming TIE Fighters, TIE Bombers, and the Interceptors, one of our X-Wings was taking 29 attack dice in a single round.

Needless to say, he did not make it through that mission.

Another great moment involving large amounts of ships was the largest Ion strike I've ever seen. I don't recall what mission it was, but two formations of enemy ships had run into each other, and the B-Wing above was able to ionize all 8 ships at once. It was beautiful.

And last but not least, in the mission to disable the sensor array, there was a moment where one of our X-Wings wouldn't have a shot on any enemy ships, but he did have a range 1 shot on a sensor. He figured, "Hey, I have Predator. It's got full health. I'll simply not spend the focus I took this turn, and if I roll one too many hits, use Predator to reroll it. I can disable a sensor and get an experience point this turn."

Rolled 4 natural crits. Cost the entire party xp. It was beautiful.