Once in a while somebody will post something about how to do more than fall into the (potential) evil that is meta-think... so I like seeing that.

Hurray someone else is not falling in line with that path.

You be you. Though I don't always agree with you, your posts have never caused me emotional distress. I'm glad you're trying to brighten this corner of the internet.

Saw this thread and expected some sort of unconventional story.

The post started out promising. Palp aces aren't common. So everything that can beat scouts and Dengar is now available.

Read on, and see palp aces as one of OP's leading choices to run.

Then battle reports.

I agree with Joe's meme placement here. OP has an opportunity to bust the international meta due to the local variation, but is leaning toward emulating it, and potentially entrenching it in the area, instead.

We could maybe take this opportunity to promote ideas that can beat the various JumpMaster lists when palp aces aren't a major concern. Help him fight against meta-slavery. Or not.

Have not tested it, but still the r3a2 is not that appealing to me. I get why the guy at gencon stated that for those 1 or 2 times in a tournament it is really clutch but it seems the number of defenders are increasing and r3a2 is not gonna be that better.

I will try to test it with bb8 since keeping them in arc feels better to me, and an attack with wes removing focus if not used + miranda's homing missile should deal with almost any ace played imo.

For the palp aces me and a friend tried in a 3 round tournament palpshuttle with electronic baffle inquisitor and vessery, he won the 3 i won 2 out of 3. He is trying out some more and tweaking that list. Have to mention tho we didnt face any uboats.

R3A2 is a useful tool even if you don't use it. Just be sure to mention it now and again to remind your opponent it's there and waiting. That said, fly what works for you. Don't let me talk you into/out of something.

Unlike me... Convinced that my list was weak vs triple jump today and experimented with the dark side... And got tabled for it. Played bad. Very bad.

Saw this thread and expected some sort of unconventional story.

The post started out promising. Palp aces aren't common. So everything that can beat scouts and Dengar is now available.

Read on, and see palp aces as one of OP's leading choices to run.

Then battle reports.

I agree with Joe's meme placement here. OP has an opportunity to bust the international meta due to the local variation, but is leaning toward emulating it, and potentially entrenching it in the area, instead.

We could maybe take this opportunity to promote ideas that can beat the various JumpMaster lists when palp aces aren't a major concern. Help him fight against meta-slavery. Or not.

What, like, rebel lists?

Saw this thread and expected some sort of unconventional story.

The post started out promising. Palp aces aren't common. So everything that can beat scouts and Dengar is now available.

Read on, and see palp aces as one of OP's leading choices to run.

Then battle reports.

I agree with Joe's meme placement here. OP has an opportunity to bust the international meta due to the local variation, but is leaning toward emulating it, and potentially entrenching it in the area, instead.

We could maybe take this opportunity to promote ideas that can beat the various JumpMaster lists when palp aces aren't a major concern. Help him fight against meta-slavery. Or not.

The way the OP is worded, it seems to me fok12's main concern is his performance at the upcoming nationals, not the state of the game.

So how about we take this opportunity to help him choose the best list he can, instead of trying to sway him to 'meta', 'anti-meta' or whatever, since that doesn't seem to be what he wants ?

Saw this thread and expected some sort of unconventional story.

The post started out promising. Palp aces aren't common. So everything that can beat scouts and Dengar is now available.

Read on, and see palp aces as one of OP's leading choices to run.

Then battle reports.

I agree with Joe's meme placement here. OP has an opportunity to bust the international meta due to the local variation, but is leaning toward emulating it, and potentially entrenching it in the area, instead.

We could maybe take this opportunity to promote ideas that can beat the various JumpMaster lists when palp aces aren't a major concern. Help him fight against meta-slavery. Or not.

The way the OP is worded, it seems to me fok12's main concern is his performance at the upcoming nationals, not the state of the game.

So how about we take this opportunity to help him choose the best list he can, instead of trying to sway him to 'meta', 'anti-meta' or whatever, since that doesn't seem to be what he wants ?

A game should not require house rules to be playable. All of these people advocating for the OP to specifically not fly meta squadrons are wrong and they're hating the player, not the game. The game should just be fixed (or ideally not broken in the first place) such that the squads at the top of the meta are fun to use and don't ruin the game, you shouldn't expect players to fly inefficient crap because it's, 'fun'.

You can kind of just safely disregard everything that JBR7 posts, it's all just emoticons, emoticons of the ships, pictures of breakfast, and nonsensical responses to things such as, "Just remember that you LOVE STAR WARS ... Always.

Have FUN My Star Brother. "

Like what the **** does that even mean? Why can't any of his posts be actual content?

Saw this thread and expected some sort of unconventional story.

The post started out promising. Palp aces aren't common. So everything that can beat scouts and Dengar is now available.

Read on, and see palp aces as one of OP's leading choices to run.

Then battle reports.

I agree with Joe's meme placement here. OP has an opportunity to bust the international meta due to the local variation, but is leaning toward emulating it, and potentially entrenching it in the area, instead.

We could maybe take this opportunity to promote ideas that can beat the various JumpMaster lists when palp aces aren't a major concern. Help him fight against meta-slavery. Or not.

The way the OP is worded, it seems to me fok12's main concern is his performance at the upcoming nationals, not the state of the game.

So how about we take this opportunity to help him choose the best list he can, instead of trying to sway him to 'meta', 'anti-meta' or whatever, since that doesn't seem to be what he wants ?

A game should not require house rules to be playable. All of these people advocating for the OP to specifically not fly meta squadrons are wrong and they're hating the player, not the game. The game should just be fixed (or ideally not broken in the first place) such that the squads at the top of the meta are fun to use and don't ruin the game, you shouldn't expect players to fly inefficient crap because it's, 'fun'.

You can kind of just safely disregard everything that JBR7 posts, it's all just emoticons, emoticons of the ships, pictures of breakfast, and nonsensical responses to things such as, "Just remember that you LOVE STAR WARS ... Always.

Have FUN My Star Brother. "

Like what the **** does that even mean? Why can't any of his posts be actual content?

I'm only liking this because it made me laugh, I like having Joe around.

Have not tested it, but still the r3a2 is not that appealing to me. I get why the guy at gencon stated that for those 1 or 2 times in a tournament it is really clutch but it seems the number of defenders are increasing and r3a2 is not gonna be that better.

I will try to test it with bb8 since keeping them in arc feels better to me, and an attack with wes removing focus if not used + miranda's homing missile should deal with almost any ace played imo.

For the palp aces me and a friend tried in a 3 round tournament palpshuttle with electronic baffle inquisitor and vessery, he won the 3 i won 2 out of 3. He is trying out some more and tweaking that list. Have to mention tho we didnt face any uboats.

Like LagJanson said, R3-A2 adds a lot to an already annoying ship. If he ever gets you in arc, you are gonna lose tokens plus you are gonna get stressed, limiting you to greens. Also, if Wes ever gets behind a big ship like Shuttle or YV-666, I ensure no bumps since I can keep them stressed all the time, thus reducing the time I need to kill them.

Nice write up, look forward to hearing how the Rebel list gets on.

I know what you mean about brain fatugue Canor Jax is great but you have to concentrate on not making any mistakes( something I always fail to do)

The Dengaroo list is kinda boring but I think the Rebel list looks fun to play and could be competitive.

Two questions though, Will wave 9 be available? Might be tight to get Nora in and What's with all the Wedge action, is he popular in the Greek meta?

It is not certain yet whether Wave 9 will be available or not. My guess would be no, since it won't have been released officially yet, but everything goes here, so we will see . But if Wave 9 is allowed, I will definitely run Norra. She is durable, has regen and hits like a truck.

Wedge is quite popular in Greece. I don't really know why, but it seems the -1 agility sounds good to most .

Hey fok12, I've flown your Rebel list with Miranda, though instead of the bombs I went homing missiles and long range scanners. She'll hit like a freight train that first pass with a 5 red homing missile with full re-roll and focus. Janson cleared the opponent's token first, Miranda struck and if she didn't murder things Biggs would sometimes snag the kill. I'd actually fly her free of Biggs' leash to present my opponent with the choice of chasing her and letting the X-Wings slap him, or allowing Miranda to setup for another attack run.

I much prefer her to Corran late game.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a K-Wing nut these days...

I like that idea. I included the Conner Nets for control and guaranteed damage, but Homing Missiles do sound tempting and with your build, I can keep R3-A2 on Wes. I will have to give it a go and see how it does. Apart from the missiles and LRS, what else would you put on her? There are 2 points leftover, so EMs to maybe get a second pass, or a crew?

You could further optimize your Imperial list by swapping Ryad for Vessery with the same loadout, swapping Carnor Jax for a 31 point Inquisitor, and adding FCS to the Palp Shuttle.

Well, Ryad is the more slippery variant while Vessery is the shooty one. As for Carnor, he is in to a) Help Ryad get Juke to work and b) Stop Dengar or U-boats to use focus. In the current state of the list, I would say Carnor is by far better than Inquisitor.

I get the AOE annoyance of r3a2, but most of the list nowadays dont care that much since a lot of the times they fly past wes or dont care about the stress like dengar or the partybus in which case if you are chasing it he is already in trouble. The guy from gencon, dont remember the name, mentioned he used r3a2 like twice in the tournament having multiple ocassions but he said he only really wanted it for those clutchy and rare situations.

That is why i am really wondering, with the increase of defenders who also dont really care that much about a stress, if it is better to use another robot that is gonna be more efficient overall.

At least i am goint to try it, because the argument you give does not really convince me. By the way, free chopper on Miranda should be included, 0 points on a nonused slot which could come handy in some rare situations.

It may come as a surprise to some, but Palp Aces is not very common.

There is nothing suprising for me. I told some time ago - Palp Aces are currently countered hard by many meta lists.

During my preparation for Polish National Championship 2016 I was exclusively playing Palp Aces - many times I lost tournament games due to hard counters. Because of that I decided to take Partybus and 2 x Toilet seats - that was good decision, I played only 5 battles with this list before event, yet I get into RO 32 out of 256 players. I ended up 5-1 in group phases and ALL lists that I encountered (with the exception of brobots) would be really hard match up for Palp Aces.

Contrary to opinions of some local armchair X-Wing experts Palp Aces got no easy time in current meta.

We know your opinion mate.

You could have just stayed out of this clearly-labelled thread.

Just remember that you LOVE STAR WARS ... Always.

Have FUN My Star Brother.

No wonder you have so many posts, it must be all full of image spam like that.

No wonder you have so many posts, it must be all full of image spam like that.

It is, don't get him started. Not sure why people call anyone out in this forum for playing the game the way they enjoy though, regardless of casual or competitive. Each person finds fun in their own setting, coming into a post and being a jerk like Joe did in this instance doesn't help. He's usually just the equivalent of a puppy with a keyboard, but sometimes hes a worse troll then PGS.

The biggest thing I wish is if I could disable only his images. I don't wanna block him, but sometimes on mobile, his spam is not helpful.

As for meta, once wave 9 comes out, palp aces are going to lose even more favor. Hopefully we will start seeing people take stuff to counter scouts and finally get over this constant bickering.... Ahhh who am I kidding, there will always be a sky is falling build.

What is this all about ?

Meh...? or Meh?

I came here to read the interesting topic. Instead there is just a bunch of guys citating and arguing against each other...

I get the AOE annoyance of r3a2, but most of the list nowadays dont care that much since a lot of the times they fly past wes or dont care about the stress like dengar or the partybus in which case if you are chasing it he is already in trouble. The guy from gencon, dont remember the name, mentioned he used r3a2 like twice in the tournament having multiple ocassions but he said he only really wanted it for those clutchy and rare situations.

That is why i am really wondering, with the increase of defenders who also dont really care that much about a stress, if it is better to use another robot that is gonna be more efficient overall.

At least i am goint to try it, because the argument you give does not really convince me. By the way, free chopper on Miranda should be included, 0 points on a nonused slot which could come handy in some rare situations.

Miranda is one of the best places in the game to put chopper - a moderately high PS SLAM action is one of the better uses for a get-out-of-jail ability like Chopper, and she can regen the damage to boot.

Here are the two other games I have already played, this time trying out the Rebel builds, one with Corran and one with Norra.

Enjoy!

Rebels game 1 - Corran Horn list variant

Opponent's list:

Soontir Fel, PLT, AT

Darth Vader, Predator, TIE/x1, ATC

Major Rhymer, PTL, Advanced Proton Torps, GCs

My opponent's list was a weird one, one might say. He sacrifices mobility on Vader and survivability on Soontir to get Rhymer in, who is a one-trick pony. Sure he gets 4 guaranteed hits, 5 usually because rolling 5 blanks is too little of a chance, but he drops easily. Also, my list has pretty much a direct counter to his, as Wes could remove the TL of Rhymer so no shots, or even if he got to shoot, he would have to target Biggs, who takes maximum 2 damage per attack (unless he got a lot of crits). Oh, and to get it out of the way right now, I do not know what my opponents are bringing before deciding which list to try out, nor do they know which list I am bringing. Since I got this out of the way, time to go into the game.

I set up in the bottom left corner with everything, with Biggs in the back. My opponent sets up Rhymer going for the joust while Soontir and Vader take the middle to flank. I burn forward with everything, doing 4 straights with the x-wings and 5 straight plus barrel roll right for Corran. Rhymer does a 1 bank towards me while Soontir does a 2 turn to the left, towards Rhymer (something I did not expect, but works for me), and Vader goes as fast as possible to try and get into my flank before its too late. Next turn I bank in, towards the middle with the X-wings while Corran does a 3 turn to the right and grabs a TL on Rhymer, who had previously done a 3 forward and grabbed TL on Biggs, and PLT'd for focus. Soontir does a 4 forward and manages to bump Rhymer while Vader still tries to maneuver between the asteroids. As it turns out, a non EU Vader is quite hard to move around. Anyway, with Soontir bumping I had the opportunity to shoot him at R2 with everything but then I would be open to Rhymer shooting me with full mods. It would be onto Biggs, but if he rolled a couple crits, Biggs would be pretty much dead. So I take the safe approach and fire Wes and Corran at Rhymer, stripping his TL, stressing him with Wes and doing 3 damage total. Then Soontir and Rhymer fire at Biggs and do 2 damage total. I choose not to double tap, because I would have to roll 3 hits and he would have to save none, while focused. So onto next turn. I do 1 forwards with Biggs and Wes while Corran 1-banks right, towards the middle. Rhymer also did a 1 forward, Soontir 3K behind the X-wings but in front of Corran and Vader was finally in my flank, but too far away to do anything this turn. Combat phase I annihilate Rhymer with Wes and Corran. Biggs takes a crit from Soontir, which was a console fire, and I kill my droid to negate it. So, I figured that since next turn Corran would most likely have no shots, I chose to double tap onto Soontir who was at R1 of me. I roll 3 hits, grab the TL and Soontir rolls only 1 evade and takes two damage! That went much better than expected. So, next turn I cannot fire with Corran and Wes was stressed so he had to move forward. I 1-forwards Biggs, 1-bank Wes to the right and 2-bank Corran and barrel roll right to get into the safety bubble of Biggs. My opponent now has shots with both ships onto Biggs and takes him down. Next turn, I mess up my dials and do a 4K with Wes and a 3K with Corran but one of them would bump the other. If I caught my mistake, even after placing the dials, I would have moved Corran first to face the right way and do the double tap. However, I did not catch it, so I moved Wes first and then Corran, who bumped Wes so no turn for him. It is Wes vs Soontir at R1 and Vader at R2. So I target Soontir and I manage to roll 4 natural hits while my opponent rolls a blank on his defense dice, so I snag the kill on Soontir! I have to admit, that was extremely lucky on my part! Vader then attacks and takes off my shields. However, now it is two PS 10 pilots vs a lone Vader with no EU. As you can imagine, a few rounds later Corran manages to get a fully modded shot on Vader and kills him with the double tap.

Well, the game could have gone either way really, if I was not lucky during these two moments when I did 2 damage on Soontir with the second Corran attack and when I killed Soontir with naked dice, the game would have played out differently. As far as the Imperial list goes, I think that EU is a must on Vader as it gives him the much-needed mobility he needs.

Rebels game 2 - Norra Wexley list variant.

Opponent's list:

Wedge, Predator, BB-8, IA

2 Dagger B-wings, FCs, HLC

Same opponent and list as my Empire game 1. Let's see how this list does against a heavy hitter list like my opponent's.

I set up centrally, with Biggs and Norra next to each other and Wes in the back. My opponent places his ships top-right, with the Bs in front of Wedge. He opens with 4 straights on everything while I do 3 forwards with Biggs and Norra and a 3 turn right with Wes. I don't really remember why I chose to break formation (something you should never do, especially against double HLCs). So next turn my opponent obviously sends the Bs after Wes and Wedge banks it, towards my ships. Wes does a 1 forward to delay as much as possible so that Norra and Biggs can come to the rescue. So next turn I 3-turn left with Wes, going for the joust, mind you without Biggs support, on two B-wings with HLC and FCS who had TL'd me since his move got him in range even before I move Wes . I am able, though, to get both Biggs and Norra at R2 of one B-wing. Meanwhile Wedge is coming from the top, flanking Biggs and Norra. So in the combat phase I am able to bring one of the Bs down to one hull and stress it to avoid it K-turning next turn, and thankfully I also strip its TL. My opponent fires both Bs onto Wes and after his shots, I am sitting at two hull. Not a good spot, especially with Wedge coming form the top of the map who puts a damage onto Biggs. Next turn I bank in with Norra and Biggs and 3-bank left with Wes to get into the safety bubble of Biggs and to maybe buy myself some time and shots. Also, here I debate whether I want to go after Wedge with Norra, since he is in my rear arc, but I choose not to and only TL the damaged B-wing, to ensure the kill and leave myself unstressed for next turn. Wes fires at Wedge doing no damage but stripping his focus and Wedge must shoot Biggs, so Wes is safe, for now, and he does another damage to Biggs. Then Norra easily picks up the kill on the B-wing while the other B-wing has nothing in its arc. Next turn I simply 1-forward with Wes and hope I don't die while I also bank with Biggs and Norra to get into R1 of the other B-wing. I focus with Biggs and Focus-TL with Norra onto the B-wing. Wedge is still chasing my two ships. This turn he puts another two damage onto Biggs and forces me to use IA to avoid a direct hit, as I choose to keep my focus for offence. As it turns out, keeping the focus worked as Norra rolled the dreaded hit-hit-focus-focus and got another focus from her TL, for a total of 5 hits onto the B-wing, which loses all of its shields immediately. Then Biggs fires and scored 4 hits, after focus, so I snag the kill on the B-wing. Here I want to talk a bi about Norra. It was my first time using her but I can already see her potential. She is a very though ship which also hits like a truck, especially when she gets those 5 hits. Plus you cannot shoot her, because Biggs! Anyway, now it is my entire list versus my opponent's Wedge. Next turn I just keep moving forward with Biggs and Norra, letting him chase me. Indeed he does, and after Biggs does what he does best, I roll 3 hits with Norra's rear arc and because of Tailgunner Wedge only has 1 agility, so he takes 3 damage and IAs the crit. Next turn I just move Norra forward again and Wedge keeps chasing, so after his shot which takes down my shields, I am able to kill him with 3 hits from the read arc.

So, this game it was a huge gamble to let Wes fly alone, away from Biggs, and it nearly cost him his life. Well, strictly statistically speaking, 2 B-wings, one with TL, get a total of 5 hits (2 from the one without the TL and 3 from the other one) and Wes should get at least one evade or focus on 4 dice (2 and 2), so under no circumstance do they kill Wes. Of course, when did anyone say dice follow strict statistics? Right now, I am trying to reason for my mistake . I honestly don't know why I did that, but maybe I was trying to bait him into focusing on Wes and then killing him with Norra and Biggs from the side? Maybe? Anyway, in this particular instant it would make zero difference whether Wes died or not, because he did nothing for the rest of the game anyway. But generally speaking, you should never let him g in his own against heavy hitter ships.

As far as Norra goes, the rear arc is absolutely devastating. I love the ARC and if Wave 9 is allowed in the Nationals, I will definitely run her!

So that's it with the games I have already played. This Sunday I will probably post a couple more games, this time trying out Miranda, as suggested by some, and dropping R3-A2 on Wes for BB-8.

Played one more game, this time trying out the Miranda list variant. So, here it goes:

Enjoy!

Rebels game 3 - Miranda Doni list variant

Opponent's list:

Soontir Fel, PLT, Title, ATs, Stealth Device

Whisper, VI, FCS, ACD

Royal Guard TIE/In, VI, AT

So an Imperial Aces list not supported by Palp, rather substituting him for a Royal Guard TIE. We set up asteroids fairly clustered up in the middle and I place my ships in the left corner, with Biggs in front and Wes and Miranda in the back, while my opponent sets Soontir and the TIE/in centrally, and Whisper on my right. I open with 1 forwards to give time to myself for his ships to close in where I want them and not give them the opportunity to get behind me. I also grab a TL on Soontir with Miranda, since I am not that afraid of Whisper, as Wes fires before she cloaks and strips her offensive tokens. He turns with both his Interceptors and Whisper goes 2-forward and cloaks. Next turn I bank my formation towards him, planning to then turn it to face off with Soontir and the TIE/in, while Wes will be taking care of Whisper. My opponent does the predictable thing and turns his interceptors again, so he noes has no choice but to face me heads on next turn, or let me annihilate Whisper unopposed. Whisper does not decloak and turns in. So my plan is working just fine. Whisper decloaks forward and move another 2 forward. I turn Biggs and Miranda to face Soontir and the TIE/in while Wes goes to deal with Whisper, always staying at R1 of Biggs. Here, my opponent decided fro some reason to go slow with Soontir, only doing a 2 bank, also realizing that he could not escape Miranda's arc at that range, he turtles up, while the TIE/in moved fast with 4 forward and focuses up. So, Wes fires at Whisper while she is not cloaked and does 1 damage to her. Whisper and Soontir are then forced to fire at Biggs, and they both do 1 shield total after Biggs rolls 2 evades both times (one time it was a focus-focus). Then Miranda fires at Soontir at R2, with 5 dice and full mods. As expected, Miranda rolls 5 hits (with 1 crit) and Soontir, unable to use evades due to Homing missiles, rolls the expected of 1 evade and 1 focus, and is instantly taken off the board. the TIE/in then attacks Biggs and he takes 2 more damage, and then Biggs fires back at the TIE and deals a Direct hit crit to it. Not bad! Next turn, Whisper decloaks to her right (up, from my perspective) as there was a rock to her left and forward was not really an option. So I turn Biggs to get arc on her and do a 1-forward with Wes plus BB-8 to get her in arc, with a target lock on my end. Meanwhile, the TIE/in tires to run away but cannot get far without PTL and Miranda just slow rolls with 1-forward to keep range on her TLT. So, Wes fires and does 2 damage on Whisper and after she fires back, Biggs is down to a single hull and has to pop the droid to survive. Miranda fires at the damaged TIE/in and I opt to boost the TLT shot to 4 dice. Indeed it was a good call as I roll 4 hits, after focus, ensuring the kill on the TIE. Biggs then attacks Whisper but does no damage. So now it was down to a 1 hull Whisper against my entire list. Sure, Biggs was pretty much dead but I still had a full health Wes, who attacked before her ,and an almost full health Miranda. Anyway, I try to block Whisper with Biggs but I fail. However, for her to get me in arc she would have to barrel roll, leaving her open to Wes. Wes K-turns while Miranda tries to turn around and SLAMs for the extra distance. Wes fires, but as it is a R3 shot and I have no mods, I don't manage to kill Whisper. She then proceeds to murder Biggs. However, after a couple turns of repositioning, Miranda in close enough and we all know who well Phantoms fair out vs TLTs, so Miranda grabs the kill on Whisper.

I have to say, I prefer Miranda over Corran, as she has more consistent regen, only needing her to attack, plus a two-dice TLT is still a threat to many ships, and she then has the second TLT shot to make up. Also, Homing Missiles boosted by Miranda's ability murder aces (or anything for that matter) horribly. I think I am leaning towards this variant of the Rebel list. However, I have recently read an announcement that Wave 9 will be officially released on September 22nd, and our Nationals are on September 25th, meaning that I could run Norra. And I think that in a case of Miranda or Norra, I would definitely pick Norra for many reasons. She has the same 5-dice damage output, but at R1 rather than R2-3, but Norra can also get 4 hits at R2-3 plus she has the rear arc and especially with Tail Gunner, it is very much better to fire off the rear arc rather than the forward one.

Anyway, time will tell if Wave 9 will be released on time.

Cheers.

Rhymer is terribly overpriced. This is distinct from him being worthless if anyone is crazy enough to pay for him.

Kill him first.

Glad you liked the list, fok12. Should be able to take any list provided you fly it with the right tactics. These change depending on your opposition.

Wave 9 might hit though and really mess with things. Nationals here this week so no wave nine for me...

One of the main problems with the stresshog is that once they get past you it's a huge problem.

With a gunner R3-A2 stresshog, your rear arc makes that less of a problem, the ARC-170 has a greener dial in general, and Braylen's ability will proc half the time. So your stresshog is going to get unstressed at a certain point. Obviously you don't plan your whole strategy around Braylen's ability happening, but if it does then great.

It's going to be more of a threat all game long than one the Palp Aces and/or Defender player can just bear for a single turn or two and then blast past.

The ARC-170 gunner stresshog is going to be a better third ship with a Regen Poe and Biggs than Wes or Wedge are.

I don't think the 6 point cost increase over the TLT Y-Wing Stresshog is an issue. 4 ship rebel lists are so dead from U-Boats/Palp Aces/general power creep that you're better off investing more into 3 ships anyways.

I'm definitely excited for the ARC-170. I love stress control cards but the stresshog is just too hard to use and doesn't even work that well against the things it's meant to counter. ARC-170 makes it much more of a threat.

RIP Danger Zone.

Disagree that four ship Rebels are dead... But there is certainly no easy road.

No easy button on the munitions alpha strike panel...

Edit: dang it. This time last year I was warning people to watch what the wished for on munitions. This was exactly what I was worried about. Hopefully the scene changes again soon. Thanks PGS for the reminder.

Disagree that four ship Rebels are dead... But there is certainly no easy road.

No easy button on the munitions alpha strike panel...

Edit: dang it. This time last year I was warning people to watch what the wished for on munitions. This was exactly what I was worried about. Hopefully the scene changes again soon. Thanks PGS for the reminder.

While U-Boats are a huge problem for 4 ship Rebels, they're just as screwed by Palp Aces. Your attacks do nothing to them.

I'm a big fan of Wes Janson in the current meta. He hard counters several ships, and his ability is pretty much always useful, and Biggs keeps your important ships from being alpha'd off the board before they can kill stuff.

As for the third ship; personally I'd go with Miranda over Corran or Norra. I've played all three, and they all alpha incredibly well, but a well flown Miranda applies constant pressure and is one of the best endgame ships there is. If you can master when/where to SLAM, she is godlike. I find the other two pilots to be too predictable in the current meta. I like this archetype:

32 Wes w/ VI, [bB8 or R3A2], IA.

42 Miranda w/ TLT, HomingM, [EM, Chopper, Chips or Jan, LRS].

26 Biggs w/ R4D6, IA.

There are 2 hard choices with this list. Do you take R3A2 on Wes for anti-ace tech, or do you take BB8, who is more of a generalist? I'd lean towards R3A2, as aces are still a big thing.

The second choice is do you take EM and fill out the crew with chopper, or take Jan Ors? Jan Ors makes Miranda nigh unkillable 1v1, and helps Biggs to tank more damage early on, but that extra 5-dice homing missile can be game changing if you can get it off... If.