Some buddies and I have been running the Heros of the Aturi Cluster missions for a few months now. We've had our ups (FLAWLESS VICTORY) and our downs (TOTAL SQUADRON WIPE) and I'm simply curious: How have other players tackled the games missions. Squadron composition, battle strategies, house rules ect. We've recently started a new game with 30 points starting to build/buy your ship, allowing for any non-Imperial ship and upgrades you can afford with that many points.

My friend and I are currently running HOTAC once a week (in a lunchtime at work as he works 1 day a week in my office) I've just changed ships and can no longer use all the stuff i bought for my X-wing with XP (switched to A Wing)

What we have proposed though is that we are having a Hangar where purchased upgrades can go and anyone can use them free of charge. The mods are only available for the ship that originally purchased them (i.e if an x wing bought engine upgrade then only x-wings can use it not y/b/hwk) this helps people coming late into it and means that we can kit out the x's etc with different astromechs depending on the mission and can tailor our ordnance load outs a bit (like swapping for Plasmas or Ions if needed)

Missions are picked the week before so we have some idea of the load out we need (and the chance to view and choose upgrades) and elites etc picked that day. if i had enough ships i'd run 2 each and scale the missions accordingly.

We had a fun idea to bring the T70, E and K wing into the game, T70 costs 10XP at PS 4, E and K cost 10 XP at PS8 but to account for new ship and learning the ropes you have to drop 2-3 ps levels. (noting ept/pilot abilities) and maybe dropping one EPT and Mod slot from the list to keep it fairly balanced. Will see how it gets on with that though.

I'm currently running solo, 4 ships. No house rules introduced as yet, and I'm still pretty early in the campaign. I'm running 2 x-wings and 2 Y-wings, and so far they've been well- suited for the missions I've played. Lost both X-wings in the first mission, but the eject rolls saved the pilots and XP, and the Y-wings still managed to pull out a victory. BTL-A4 seems very valuable, improving the chance of token stripping TIEs, and I'm thinking that I'll keep one equipped with its ion turret, and later upgrade the other from dorsal to TLT.

I don't have nearly enough TIEs for a 4 ship campaign, but I can make up the shortage with /fos, and the campaign is currently on hold awaiting my Rebel transport.

I've found Predator EPT is extremely valuable on any ship - two re-rolls on all TIE Fighters is very useful when there are so many. I've been running a Y-wing with TLT also loaded with a Proton bomb I had the pleasure of dropping on four TIEs last night . Squad mates are two T70 X-wings and a B-wing (upgraded from T65s and Y-wing). B-wing has chewed up three Lamdas. Ion torps very useful when you need to scan targets.

Key to survival is sticking together in a swarm or at least in pairs. Don't get cocky and think you can take anything on your own.

I've been rocking the Autoblaster Turret Y-wing and it's been fantastic. I've had two friends flying X-wings and it's been great because if they can draw TIEs, I can get into range 1 and deal decent damage.

You want high volume, quality attacks and synergy, things the rebels do well.

I have paired PTL, lando's pilot ability and keyan's pilot ability. On initial engagements, we can roll in together, Lando tosses an action, creates a huge wave of free actions for most of the squad. You're only as good as the ships next to you, so help when you can.

The more you play, the better you get. My buddies and I are playing, and a couple of us are on what is effectively our third playthrough (we played the first time mostly on Vassal).

Some things are pretty much Auto-Take. Predator, for example. There's just no replacement for it at lower levels. After that, you have lots of cool combinations you can make. But as a word of advice, any time you think you've got a cool combo, really do the math on it. There was a guy who put together a three EPT combo with Chopper, Arvel and Eaden Vrill that looked awesome on paper. When I did the math, it literally worked out to be equivalent, probability-wise, to just having Predator, but took 3 cards instead of 1. A lot of abilities aren't nearly as good as they seem (or nearly as good as they are in the regular game where pilots get no choice, so every ability is "good").

Sabine Wren's shuttle ability has been really popular in my group. It's great for Boosty/Barrely K-Turn X-Wings. Can help A-Wings too, with the ability to barrel roll backwards and deal with that "No 1 straight/bank" problem they have at close ranges.

Some groups limit Unique Items to 1 per group. I'm not really sure how I feel about that, since it really just kind of screws over the players who don't get the really powerful options (like R2D2 for example). YMMV.

Winning scenarios is about teamwork and survival. A lot of combos you get super excited about like Guidance Chimps and Extra Munitions might not be as good as just having Engine Upgrade so you can reposition and make it out of Range 1/Arc with your Y-Wing.

Balancing the other ships is a bit harder. The A and B Wing are lateral choices. You get a lot shootier with a B-Wing but you also become slower and less resilient compared to ships with astromechs that can regen shields. The A-Wing is faster, but more fragile, and it has a fairly expensive "tax" on it since you lose astros, torpedoes and engine upgrades. You have to weigh the pros and cons of switching ships.

Reverse of that, there's no reason to not take an E-Wing or T-70, which makes them somewhat hard to balance. The E-Wing is literally better than everything else by a country mile (or a regular or nautical mile, depending on what your favorite mile is). It's faster, it has an astromech, it has better actions, and you get to keep your torpedoes. If you use the E-Wing in HotAC, everyone will be an E-Wing because there's just no reason to be anything else unless you love bombs. There have been suggestions to make it a higher PS Upgrade, or to make it something like 15 Points as opposed to 5. Personally, my suggestion would be just to leave it out. Even with a higher point cost, the E-Wing is so powerful that it will dramatically reduce the difficulty level of the game.

The T-70s is a little less problematic, but it's still an auto-take. The suggestion that seems to work the best if you have somebody who just has to have split turbines, is to remove 2 modification slots from it (to account for Shield Upgrade and Engine Upgrade), so it only gets modification slots at PS6 and PS8. Then it gets the better dial and the Tech slot, but it's not just a Giant Freebie.

I'm currently running solo, 4 ships. No house rules introduced as yet, and I'm still pretty early in the campaign. I'm running 2 x-wings and 2 Y-wings, and so far they've been well- suited for the missions I've played. Lost both X-wings in the first mission, but the eject rolls saved the pilots and XP, and the Y-wings still managed to pull out a victory. BTL-A4 seems very valuable, improving the chance of token stripping TIEs, and I'm thinking that I'll keep one equipped with its ion turret, and later upgrade the other from dorsal to TLT.

I don't have nearly enough TIEs for a 4 ship campaign, but I can make up the shortage with /fos, and the campaign is currently on hold awaiting my Rebel transport.

same setup exactly.. 2 X's 2 Y's , 1 BTL-A4 w/ double laser, one with turret Ion.. upgraded one X to B and one X to T70..

things are going smoothly

On my second campaign and starting to run a third one for a new bunch of players. In my limited experience I've found that while some builds are better than others the key to consistently winning is not flying like you do in a 100 point death match.

Sometimes you'll need to fly stressed to protect the HWK. Other times you'll need to become the target to let a teammate break off and regain a shield or escape. The scenarios are varied enough that the formula for winning changes enough that a 'standard plan of attack' will get you killed.

What I've found to be effective is a 2X 2Y build. Auto Blaster Turret, BTL-A4, EU and Predator makes for a pretty decent Y build. Season with bombs.

Early X builds include Hull Upgrade, Out Maneuver and a regen astromech.

Torpedoes come in handy when facing the Decimator.

One final bit of advice. Sometimes you'll need to do the minimum to beat a scenario. Don't get greedy and try to snag more points. Our only loss came in the Nobody Home scenario. I think that's the one with the captured Lambda used as bait. We got greedy, tried to kill more AI for points and blew the win. Green horn mistake.