With the new Han and Chewie pilot cards revealed I wanted to see what everyone was thinking about them. How do you plan on upgrading them and what kind of list would you build around each? In your mind how does the old compare to the new?

The new versions are definitely growing on me after being a little disappointed at first. Han's just seemed underwhelming and Chewie's appears to require a specific list to be built around him. I'm also generally not a fan of the 'one and done' type pilot abilities, and the old versions are much more useful in that respect. But after hearing talk about how others are planning on using Han, especially with Lone Wolf and Burnout SLAM, I think I might like the new Han better than the old version. The upside and downside for Han are similar in that a good pilot could do some great things with him, but it can also be countered by a good pilot who has planned to counter Han's ability. And there's a nice big 60 pt ship at stake for whoever can come out ahead in the set up of the game. I see Han doing well with a big hitter coming from the front and Han flanking on the side, forcing your opponent to make some decisions. Chewie still seems pretty limited but good if you can design a list around him, and I'm excited to hear what others are thinking. The cost of the Falcon limits design space, but I could see both pilots doing decently with Tala Squadron ordnance mini-swarms. I know we can come up with some good ideas here!

Chewie's ability is not once per turn, so you could (potentially) attack multiple times if your ships keep dying. Of course, if your ships keep dying you are not in the best of spots either plus you will probably run out of mods (Predator or Lone Wolf help that), but I guess Chewie mitigates the bad spot you are put in when losing a ship. Unless you attack outside of Range 1 at anything with autothrusters... Also, never put gunner on there.

About Han, his ability is very easy to counter-deploy against. Just spread everything out and there is no spot Han can go that is disadvantageous to you. Certain lists do not want to be spread thin of course, but most competitive lists do not care. Palp aces can be spread, Dengaroo does not care, just get the two corners and let Han deploy in the middle of you if he wants. Rebels with Biggs will have a small problem since you want everything clustered up, but when Han releases, the U-wing will also, so we will see if Biggs will still be necessary. plus nothing stops you from turning in to face Han, with your entire list, before his other ships are even close to coming into the fight. Also, anything with PS 10 or more absolutely destroys Han's ability. If he uses his ability to get into your deployment zone, great. Just place your PS 10+ pilots next to him, and behind him preferably, and there you go, dead Han. That forces him to either take the risk of just that, not use his ability, thus basically wasting points, or take VI to ensure the PS 11 set up. Then though, he will have no offensive EPT.

I think that I prefer the old Han, since he offers much greater damage output. As for Chewie, I am not sure yet. His ability seems great, but as the article suggests, sacrifice one of your own ships on an asteroid (with a 50% chance mind you) to get a shot at a Soontir before he tokens up is pretty irrelevant since he will probably have Palp available, plus he will most likely be out of your arc, so he gets ATs too. And if the asteroid gamble does not work? Then you have a ship on an asteroid, ready to die this turn, after Soontir tokens up, making Chewie's revenge shot still irrelevant.

I like how the cards are sort of mirrored versions of each other.

For new Chewie, I don't see deliberately sacrificing your own ships on asteroids etc as a viable strategy. Having said that, some ships inevitably have a limited shelf life so making some use of them when they go "pop" is not a bad idea. Biggs is almost an auto-include in many rebel lists anyway so why not capitalise on that?

Alternatively, Z95 missile swarms have been a concept for a while but have lacked punch once the ordnance is shot. Now the midgets can allow Chewie to double-tap when they get swatted. The following list seems to have some potential.

48 Chewie (42), C-3PO (3), Predator (3)

17 Tala (13), Concussion Missile (4), Guidance Chips (0)

17 Tala (13), Concussion Missile (4), Guidance Chips (0)

18 Blount (17), Thread Tracers (1)

About Han, his ability is very easy to counter-deploy against. Just spread everything out and there is no spot Han can go that is disadvantageous to you. Certain lists do not want to be spread thin of course, but most competitive lists do not care. Palp aces can be spread, Dengaroo does not care, just get the two corners and let Han deploy in the middle of you if he wants. Rebels with Biggs will have a small problem since you want everything clustered up, but when Han releases, the U-wing will also, so we will see if Biggs will still be necessary. plus nothing stops you from turning in to face Han, with your entire list, before his other ships are even close to coming into the fight. Also, anything with PS 10 or more absolutely destroys Han's ability. If he uses his ability to get into your deployment zone, great. Just place your PS 10+ pilots next to him, and behind him preferably, and there you go, dead Han. That forces him to either take the risk of just that, not use his ability, thus basically wasting points, or take VI to ensure the PS 11 set up. Then though, he will have no offensive EPT.

The best part of Han's new ability is it forces your opponent to make the decision of whether to spread out or draw Han into a trap, etc. Like you said if you want to ensure you don't get someone setting up after you, you need to take Veteran Instincts as your EPT. So whether or not you get the upper hand in the set up you're still left with essentially a 60 point PS 11 generic (no pilot ability) for the rest of the game. So there's a lot riding on how the set up turns out!

If you're up for some gimmicky fun, you can activate a turn 0 shot with Electronic Baffle or "Chopper" on one of Chewie's allies.

Well Chewie's card got bigger, for one.

I think TFA Chewie would be great with something like Blount and/or Biggs. One of the reasons Blount isn't used is because your opponent can simply vape him before he shoots.

I love new Han. Just add a gunner and your good to go.

Positioning in set up is huge. Anyone thinking its not is in for a unpleasant surprise.

Good to see them explore new mechanics such as set up for abilities. Loved the admiral ackbar idea on Nova squadron contest as well.

ChewieD is just a solid ship that is hard to kill but doesn't depend on the rest of your squadron to be anything special. Play a 50 point game and you're going to used ChewieD because you don't have the other ships to lose.

ChewieS is a ship you're probably going to build a squadron around but even then I do wonder about his utility as you'll want to make up the difference if the wook's ability is a feature instead of an added bonus.

Maybe you don't see Han all that much anyway but with all of the other ways to modify attack rolls how often are you using RRHan's ability anyway? If you've got Gunner you may take the risk but you've still potentially got things like Predator to give you limited rerolls. In some ways I think SUHan's ability is the more interesting one even if it only used one time at the start of the game. Just think about it, either SUHan alters their deployment plans or he gets the chance to move into some position very early. Maybe some ships do deploy all spread out but with SUHan you can deploy for viscious attacks starting round 1 which is hopefully going to disrupt their entire game as they haven't had time to form up on the opponent yet.

While it may not be likely would it be awesome if these were dual sided pilot cards and you could choose to use one or the other at the time of deployment?

Title is wrong

It is Rebel and resistance chewie/Han

Like I said before, this new/old bull is just confusing as it changes meaning when talking about old wave 2 Han or new ep 7 Han, who is old

Don't make this a trend plz, it'll save everyone a lot of annoyance

For the thread proper, I don't like fat pwts but I can respect intersting abilities aka oiucuun and dengar

Rebel Han/chewie have perhaps the most dull abilities in the game, or among them anyway

But res Han? Oh god I can't even begin to imagine how good or not good it is. Regardless of its effectiveness, it is a complete game changer

Res chewie just is too expensive and won't do enough damage to make good use of his admittedly intersting ability

new/old mentality will also be thrown out in the inevitable Scum Han (which will most likely be Young Han before the trilogy happens). Reb/Res Han or Chewie makes most sense to me.

Anyway

Rebel Han has just as much viability as before, if not more since now theres some new crew to toy with that replaces the usually hard-countered c3p0. Res Han i have no idea if hes going to be amazing or doa. The idea is insane, but its still the not-that-amazing fat PWT mentality going on so....might still be lousy.

I doubt Res Chewie will ever be taken seriously. You cant fit him with more than 1 ship thats actually a threat, so people will just kill him first. If you try to use him as a pseudo-Biggs effect, your other ships are either 1) Corran or some other solo ship, which case nobody will care because Chewie will only activate once anyway and Corran can be much deadlier or 2) 2-4 small frame ships with next to no gimicks, so they are largely useless other than triggering Chewie's rage. Which nobody would ever do, they'd just focus the real threat down.

New Chewie is great! Ive never really gotten much out of Chewie's old ability, and with a Z-95 swarm, Chewie gets an insane amount of attacks. Probably as good as Dengar in my opinion.

New Han is a bit odd. Don't get me wrong - positioning your ship anywhere is pretty cool. But after that, he's a really expensive ship with no further help from his pilot ability. Not bad, just not as efficient as a decimator, which gets the same attack, more hit points, and is six points cheaper.the one advantage - with veteran instincts, Han shoots first.