It all started on a Rebel alpha thread on the main board, my first thought was:

Miranda Doni (29)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)

Airen Cracken (19)
Crack Shot (1)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)

Wedge Antilles (29)
Crack Shot (1)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
BB-8 (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

That's some really powerful first salvo and Mirandas' abbility with autoblaster can really make Aces suffer. Wedge + BB-8 feels a bit more mobile but as a hardcore imperial being restricted to greens for a BR feels wrong.

In your experience, will it hit hard enough?

Back to the topic title, what if we downgrade to Plasma torps and reach for Corran as the Ace? same PS across the board and Juke + FCS looks promising.

Miranda Doni (29)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Extra Munitions (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Airen Cracken (19)
Crack Shot (1)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)

Corran Horn (35)
Juke (2)
Fire-Control System (2)

Total: 100

Is this iteration better or worse?

At some point I'm confident I'll try Jake Prockets as is cheaper and the spare points can be bombs on Miranda for moar fun...something like:

Miranda Doni (29)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Extra Munitions (2)
Sabine Wren (2)
Conner Net (4)
Guidance Chips (0)

Airen Cracken (19)
Crack Shot (1)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)

Jake Farrell (24)
Push the Limit (3)
Proton Rockets (3)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autothrusters (2)
A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Total: 100

Of the 3 options provided what would you fly ?

Unrelated rules question: can Miranda use Airen's action to slam/bump into a ship to avoid being shot at?

SLAM card says you cannot slam as a free action

also, Miranda makes a pretty poor ABT. TLTs are basically welded onto her, due to her regen ability only dropping a die from one of the two shots while her +1 die ability gives her 4 dice at range 1 with a turret, making any range painful (provided she has shields to spend, ofc, because regenerating at range 1 is not fun )

if you just want to lay down ordnance, you'd probably be better off with Horton. He doesn't seem as sexy (less dice) but you can bump him up to PS 10 with some pretty incredible self sufficient modifications on proton torpedoes. Doni, though, not only has problems orientating her arc (no K turn despite being a K-wing, go figure) but she actively makes herself an easier to kill target if you're using her ability to get 5 dice homing missiles.

Horton (25)

*protons (4)

*extras (2)

*r4-d6 [ept droid] (1)

**veteran instincts/crackshot (1)

*guidance chips (0)

[33]

which leaves room for ABT at 35

between him and cracken, you have 40 points to play with which you can drop on a "crackshot alpha" (just two crackshot thrusters adaptability a-wings), a late game re-generator such as Poe, or a combination of both using a one-shot Miranda (TLT homing chips) which would give you all 8s and 13 fully modified dice for a strike backed by 2 crackshots

The third build is OK. The crippling fault of these builds is that after the first round you have 2 ships. I wayyyy prefer Cracken with VI. And something I made popular locally for a bit was crackshot PTL Jake with a homing missile alongside Cracken. 35 points, and that Jake causes pure grief to aces. I disagree on the TLT Miranda. Auto turret Miranda with Bombs(only with bombs) is a reasonable alternative. Miranda with bombs and auto turret is more expensive.... Sadly.

In addition to the post previous, the Jake/Cracken build has worked incredibly well for me. It looks something like this:

Jake: PTL, Vet Instincts, Awing Title, Autothrusters, Homing Missiles (35 points)

Cracken: Vet Instincts, Stealth Device, Proton Torpedoes (26 points)

Normally I then run a Lone Wolf Poe with R2-D2 and Autothrusters, but that it up to you as there are still 39 points to play with. If you want a solid 45 points, you can remove the stealth device and proton torps from Cracken and his is still a viable second for Jake.

I have played these Cracken ++ squads in a bunch of configurations. The other sad truth is that you will have a fair number of bad matchups. So... You need to pick ships that can significantly over perform after their ordinance, or not die. Most of these squads can tee off on aces pretty well and have a solid baseline strat for Uboats. I find a slightly, and I mean slightly, sub par dice game vs some of the off the beaten path stuff... Even as simple as Dash, or Han... Can mean the absolute death of your squad. I think this archetype, 3 ship Cracken, is extremely similar to Corran. I have really enjoyed the grind with a similar squad concept: procket Jake & Gemmar, with torp VI Ten. Fun and very similar. That brobot match though, better bring your "A" game

I completely agree. This is true of most rebel builds right now though, as rebels appear to be the weakest of the three factions currently.