B-Wing love

By Copperopolisman, in X-Wing Squad Lists

So I've always loved the b-wing but have found it to be in an odd place in the game. I'd love to use the named pilots, especially Keyan, but they seem to go down pretty **** fast, especially against something like the phantom. I want to stick at it though, so I'm looking for a little advice on creating a fairly generic list. Now, I don't do tournaments, so the meta isn't a huge issue for me, but still. Anyway, this is what I've got at the moment:

Keyan Farlander(b-wing)

- Advanced Sensors

- Stay on Target

- Flechette Torpedoes

Poe Dameron (x-wing PS8)

- Veteran Instincts

- BB-8

- Integrated Astromech

- Black One

- Flechette torpedoes

Blue Squadron (b-wing)

- Fire Control System

- b-wing e/2

- Tactician

So there's a focus on stress creation here, primarily due to phantoms (which my partner's son loves to use!). I generally barrel in my the b-wings, and have Poe flank. If I get a good alpha strike things look good, but the issue is that Keyan cops a lot of focus fire and can go down way too fast.

Any suggestions I what I could do with this list to improve it, or tips on b-wings in general?

Biggs.

Along with Biggs, I like Hera Syndulla as crew on Keyan and FCS. Drop Stay on Target (although it is fun) because PS7 is too low to use it effectively. VI is better, plus an initiative bid, so you can shoot Whisper and she can't know where Keyan is since every move is now open to him.

My favorite Farlander build is

Farlander: Advance Sensors, EU, PTL

It makes his moves unpredictable. You have the chance to barrel roll and boost before you reveal. Boost then k turn. Barrel roll k turn. Well you get the point. It's a bit expensive. But it is super fun to fly.

Biggs is a great support ship for B's. Gives the the extra turns needed to put damage through.

My favorite Farlander build is

Farlander: Advance Sensors, EU, PTL

It makes his moves unpredictable. You have the chance to barrel roll and boost before you reveal. Boost then k turn. Barrel roll k turn. Well you get the point. It's a bit expensive. But it is super fun to fly.

Biggs is a great support ship for B's. Gives the the extra turns needed to put damage through.

I've never been good enough at flying B-Wings to be sure of being in the right place to do green moves (or, with Keyan shooting to shed the stress). Plus there are so many red moves which you then can't use if you use PTL.

However, it might be worth trying anyway :) .

As an aside, my build for Keyan fits nicely in a list with Norra Wexley and Biggs.

Doesn't look like you have mods so maybe guidance chimps on Keyan to help your ordinance?

My latest B-wing list uses 1 Arc with Braylen Stramm equipped with M9G8 astromech and a Weapons Engineer. I fly it with 2 stock Blue Squadron Pilot B-wings and another B-wing with the B2 upgrade mod and Rey Crew.

Start out slowly to build as many focus tokens on Rey as possible before combat and use the Arc to TL your other 2 B-wings so they can focus plus reroll 1 die.

My favorite Keyan Build is super pricey but hits HARD:

Keyan Farlander

HLC

FCS

PTL

B-Wing E2

Gunner

47 total

You always use PTL if you don't pull a red so that he can use his pilot ability. FCS makes sure he always has a target lock after his first attack. HLC guarantees his first shot is ALWAYS 4 dice, and if the ship is agile and tokened up enough to get through that, Gunner (or Luke if you feel like splurging) kicks in and enables a 3 dice minimum second attack, which will also have a fresh target lock (thanks FCS). He is, of course, stuck to greens, but you can work around that if you have a ship supporting him with Kanan.

My favorite Farlander build is

Farlander: Advance Sensors, EU, PTL

It makes his moves unpredictable. You have the chance to barrel roll and boost before you reveal. Boost then k turn. Barrel roll k turn. Well you get the point. It's a bit expensive. But it is super fun to fly.

Biggs is a great support ship for B's. Gives the the extra turns needed to put damage through.

I've never been good enough at flying B-Wings to be sure of being in the right place to do green moves (or, with Keyan shooting to shed the stress). Plus there are so many red moves which you then can't use if you use PTL.

However, it might be worth trying anyway :) .

As an aside, my build for Keyan fits nicely in a list with Norra Wexley and Biggs.

That just takes time. Knowing when to barrel roll and do a 1 red turn to get a shot is tough. But it is amazing when it happens. Boosting and K-turning is amazing as well. Again happens with time. As far as the red moves go. Just remember to do one action before you do the red and you are safe. Just play around with moves at home to get an idea of where you will end up. I think you will enjoy how he flies.

There are just so many ships to try in so many combinations that I simply haven't used my B-Wings very often. :)

I fly a trip Bwing list a lot. It doesn't win to often. But it is super fun to fly. I do wish the Bwings were worth taking more pften. But adding Biggs in any squadron with them is helpful. Just wish they were a bit better on their own.

Still Farlander is fun to fly and so good if you can get him to work right. Getting stress and doing damage by removing it. Every turn until his death. Because let's face it. He will die.

My practice with Keyan is utilize his Stress which means build around no actions and ability to move w Stress!

Keyan Farlander

Lone Wolf (2)

Fire Control System (2)

B-Wing/E2 (1)

Hera Syndulla(1)

Optional HLC(4)

Hera will not only allow moves under stress but, with this build, will open up all your red moves since there is no plan to relieve stress. Never worry about not having stress when you want it for Keyans ability!

So I've tweaked things a fair bit. Poe is out and I'm now bringing two b-wing aces and a generic u-wing:

Keyan Farlander

- Guidance Chip

- stay on Target

- Advanced Sensors

- Flechette torpedoes

Ten Numb

- Veteran Instincts

- B-wing/e2

- Tactician

- Fire Control System

Blue Squadron Pathfinder

- Pivot Wing

- Jan Ors

- Jyn Eros

So the theory is the u-wing can feed evade tokens to the b-wings and help keep them alive. Ten can hand out stress and crits on aces and Keyan can flank and push through the damage. The u-wing does enough damage to be a threat, too.

The drawbacks are a lack of meneuverability and arc dodging,except maybe Keyan. The u-wing can turn on a dime though, although taking stress.

I ran this list yesterday in a casual game with one of my co-workers:

B-Wing: Blue Sqd. Pilot, Plasma Torp., Proton Torp., Guidance Chips (29 points)

K-Wing: Warden Sqd. Pilot, TLT, Extra Munitions, Plasma Torp., Ion Pulse Misses, Conner Net, Guidance Chips (41 points)

A-Wing (2): Prototype Pilot, Chardaan Refit (15 points each = 30 points)

I had an A-Wing escort the K-Wing up the middle of the map and the other A-Wing with the B-Wing up the right. My Conner net ended up making the enemy K-Wing fly off the board while my A-Wings slowly chipped away at the enemy Millennium Falcon, but the final nail in the coffin was the B-Wing and it's proton torp.

My favourite b wing list: 4x blue squadron pilots, 1x bandit Squadron Pilot ;) works a charm!

If your primary concern is the phantom, it's worth noting that the highest PS they can get with Veteran Instincts is a 9. PS10 can really mess with them.

So, Ten Numb with Veteran Instincts is PS 10. I've barely played in the last two waves, so I don't know how he fares against the latest and greatest, but he was a prime phantom killer for me back in the day. I ran him with autoblasters and advanced sensors, and when I wanted to get super hard/expensive with him, I'd run him with E2 and Chewbacca.

The next one that works great is Nera Dantels with 2x Flechette Torpedoes, advanced sensors, and munitions failsafe. Season to taste with your choice of Elite Pilot talent. The stress from the flechette torpedoes forces the phantom into a green maneuver or they can't cloak. It doesn't matter as much against Echo because he's got so many places he can be when he de-cloaks.

Run Nera alongside Roark Garnett in a Hawk for that PS12 torpedo turret... that'll help you shoot before the Phantom. An ion turret on Roark is a great compliment as well because turrets don't care as much about where the phantom goes and if you can get an ion token on the phantom when he's stressed (from your flechette torpedoes, or an over-aggressive PTL), he won't be able to cloak again and becomes a sitting duck for your next turn.

One of my main opponents was a Phantom phanatic, and my list with Nera, Roark, and Ten Numb was so effectively tailored against the phantom, that I almost felt bad when he stopped running them.

The Roark-Nera stress torpedo turret build was one of the only effective ways to fight Phantoms without a PWT back in the bad old days before the Phantom nerf.

Still fun.

My favorite Nera these days is Deadeye, Protorps, EM, Guidance Chips. Add FCS if points allow, but that base comes in at 33 points and is basically a 4 dice turret for 2 turns that almost guarantees 2 crits per shot. FCS helps mitigate HSCP, which has become a thing recently.

A hard hitting Keyan build I've used in the past is Keyan, Rage, Advanced Sensors, HLC, E2, Jan Ors. Comes in at 43 points, but gives you 4 dice any range, Rage rerolls, pseudo focus with ability, and an evade token (Jan Ors on Rage focus), every turn you need it to. Rage, evade token, green move for one stress, shot for second stress.

B's have a lot of options available to them, and the basic Blue at 21 pts is still a pretty good ship. Have fun flying them, and keep us up to date on what works the best.

Thanks for the ideas! I just ordered another b-wing so that will put me to three, and I'll try a stresshog with them. I'm just looking forward to trying the various lists now!

Keyan, Rage, Collision Detector 30 points. Or add B-Wing/E2 and Inspiring Recruit for 32 points

I loved B-wings from the start though with one agility they fall out of the sky far to fast! Since the dawn of the ARC-170 I have managed to get an A-wing back in space, which to me says why not get B's back out there?

For the most part I fly 4 Blues with FCS, or three/four with cannons.

Last Epic outing saw four Dagger's, two with FCS and manglers and two with FCS and HLC's accompanied by an ARC in support of my CR90.

Almost time to bust them out again.

Roark is good BWing support. You can get 4x 25pt ships pretty well that will pack a punch and if you can sneak in a swarm leader to chain PS 12. Biggs fits in that price point well too. Roark assures he gets to shoot before death. Maybe even twice. Or maybe even three times!

Roark is good BWing support. You can get 4x 25pt ships pretty well that will pack a punch and if you can sneak in a swarm leader to chain PS 12. Biggs fits in that price point well too. Roark assures he gets to shoot before death. Maybe even twice. Or maybe even three times!

Swarm Tactics? I think you mean that one, as leader adds attack dice at the cost of evades. Chaining PS12 is a fun thing though.