The first couple times I played, I was so annoyed at the TIE fighters seeming to always block me. So I'm going for Intimidation + Arvel Cryn D's ability. Try blocking me now, Imps! I also gave targeting, so if I know I'll get blocked, I can K-turn and still have attack dice modifiers, even if I don't complete the maneuver.

Probably nmot where you want to go (seeing as it includes new stuff) but a fun combo is:

ARC-170 (for the crew and astromech combo)

Jess Pava (Reroll all the things!)

Tarn Mison

Etahn (Maybe . . . at this point I'm really unsure, and it might be better to get two high level things)

Luke (you may also want Wes, Poe, or Shara, or Norra)

M9-G8

Weapons Engineer

You get to Target lock everything, and rerolls too. This build also generates an insane amount of XP the way we ruled it (M9-G8 rerolls for damage, then Etahn and M9-G8 to prevent damage.) Its real fun, but by no means what you have to do.

ohhhh... Luke's ability on an A-Wing... that sounds fun! I wish we could have modern pilot abilties in our run as well, because Jess Pava and Luke's ability on an A-wing would be so much win!

A-wings can really contribute, but they're terrible about gaining XP. You will fall behind if your group doesn't pool XP.

I have three builds that I love:

1. Heragator Bomber
Y-wing Frame. Double Proton Bombs (although bomblet generator is an alternative...), R2 Astromech, TLT (With BTL title). For the pilot abilities Predator (naturally...), Sabine, Hera and Captain Nym (when he comes out, but Wedge before that). Add Extra munitions, Engine upgrade, vectored thrusters and stealth device to round it out.

Basically, you reveal any 1- or 2-speed maneuver, boost or barrel roll, drop a crit-bomb, then execute any 1- or 2- speed maneuver on your dial. It's conceivable to kill 4 ships in a single turn (how is left as an exercise to the reader). This is also my choice for solo campaigns because, aside from being so hard to hit, its area damage is great against installations.

2. The Anti-Ace Tank
B-wing frame. Mangler Cannon, Sensor Jammer, Proton Torpedoes, Ion Torpedoes. Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips, Engine Upgrade Add Predator, PTL, VI and Ten Numb to round it out.

The late-game aces can be incredibly devastating, especially Defenders and Phantoms. I've found that a properly kitted out B-wing can ruin their day. 1 crit per turn is nice, consistent damage against aces, and VI normally puts you above their PS. Sensor Jammer + R2D2 can act in concert to soak up a whole squad's attack without taking any lasting damage, after your squad mates strip their focus tokens. Ion torpedoes truly wreck swarms or any kind.

3. The Classic
X-wing Frame. Proton Torpedoes, R2-D2. Guidance Chips, Stealth Device, Engine Upgrade, Autothrusters. Predator, Sabine, Jake and Wedge to round it out.

You get a super-maneuverable frame, with Focus + Boost + Barrel Roll every turn with Predator rerolls. Wedge is a powerful tool, and if you make it to range 1 of a TIE flight, you can kill one a turn very, very easily. Regeneration is also nice for the longer missions.

14 hours ago, Wiredin said:

I got shot down at the end of the last mission and lost R2D2 on my X-Wing. but I now have enough XP to get either an A or B and thinking pretty hard about going A-wing now that I lost my droid. I would be carrying over Predator and Shield Upgrade.

I'm pretty torn... I play A-wings all the time in 100/6 so I feel very comfortable with them and love darting around. I'm worried about XP gain tho as we are playing by the book for this play through and only stuff in v0.7 is available, we are also not pooling XP. The Y-Wings we have in our group are racking up the XP while the X-Wings were not doing so hot. I gained 10xp the last mission which is much higher than my average of 3-5xp a mission. I'm wondering if the A-Wing is worth it as I don't want to be left behind. I could buy back R2D2, up my PS to 4, and then go from there as well.

the A Wings suffer massively on damage output early doors, you will get 3-4 xp per mission where as your wing mates will get a lot more! My favorite combo is PTL, Etahn, Tycho, Ten then your choice. Basically one unblock-able crit per turn plus assists if your wing mates use Etahn's ability and blow stuff up. use EI and Expert Handling then you can double reposition per turn without worrying about stress (Tycho is Fun in that regard) or Rage for focus and even more stress and Vectored Thrusters.

They are fun but without the extra red they can be left behind in the damage race

The other option is a HLC, FCS B Wing with Tycho, Hera crew. used with etahn the HLC can still get a crit or two (the Die changes for HLC is after the first roll, any rerolls/changing die dont get affected by HLC's text)

I was last running an X-Wing with this build:

EPT's: Stay on Target, Push the Limit, Hobbie, Wedge

Mods: Shield Upgrade, Vectored Thrusters, Engine Upgrade, Autothrusters

Astromech: Targetting Astromech

Torps: Advanced Proton Torps

So what you do every turn is figure out what maneuver you want to do, and plan a different move of the same speed. Then when you activate, you change your move with stay on target which triggers Targetting Mech. The target lock you squire from the mech triggers Hobbie and you clear the stress from the move. Then you get to take your normal action, and use push the limit for a second action. Then when you attack, you always spend your lock to clear the stress from Push the Limit (Thank you Hobbie).

Last campaign I went for a support ship build. Fully maxed out it was a HWK-290 with:

Predator

Garven Dries ability

Miranda Doni's ability

Kannan Jarruss ability

Stealth Device

Shield upgrade x2

Vectored Thrusters

Recon Specialist

TLT

Scavenger Crane

Moldy Crow

You can build up a nice stack of tokens, spend them offensively or defensively and pass them to your team mates. Use scavenger crane to get your stealth device back if lost and regen shields. VT for range control and arc dodging. Great fun to play but hard to keep up with everyone at times.

There are a lot of different builds you can go. For the Y-wing, most people can't wait to get Nera Dantiel's ability. My first Y-wing was all ordnance based and called "Warhead". He was 4 x Proton Torpedoes with GC and Predator. I could shoot 360. Also, Targeting Astromech is really good for the Y-wing build like this. I could do K-turns and still fire a torpedo 360.....or the same with going 4 straight or a hard turn. I then went with TLT, which is a little crazy, but it's what I did. If you go TLT route, you also want to eventually get Expertise.

My current X-wing is pretty fun. I'm going with a BB-8 and PTL build....also with Engine Upgrade. The maneuverability is down right crazy and really strong.

We call it "Addicted to Speed" Sarco Planks ability from the Quadjumper. Slap that thing on anything that can move speed 5 and all of a sudden you're throwing ALOT of evade dice.

My B-Wing build...

Protons

Adv. Proton

HLC

Adv. Sensors

Sabine Wren (crew)

Cluster Mines

Extra Munitions

Guidance Chips

Shield Upgrade

PtL

EPT Sabine Wren

EPT Jake Farrell

EPT Keyan Farlander

Barrel Roll, Boost, Focus + Target Lock every single round, plus the ability to lay some Cluster Mines if needed.

Scum Ywing with R4B11, TLT, Drea Renthal/Laats Razi pilot abilities, and proton torpedos and EM.

Hi guys,

I wanted to share my first thought-through combo build for a x-wing in HotAC. At least I hope it's thought-through, but you be the judge of that.

The build revolves around Hobbie + PTL + Targeting Astro mech giving you a focussed, targetted attack each round even when doing red maneuvers, leaving you unstressed and providing you with an additional action e.g. to expose, boost or barrel on red maneuvers.

I called it the Shepard (not for the Mass Effect analogy but for being able to K-Turn around enemies always maxing his attack - much like a shepard dog would herd his flock in.

HOTAC Build - "Shepard" (HotAC Builder)

Combo Parts of the Build

• Astromech: Targeting Astromech (2 EP)
• Elite Skill 1: PTL (6 EP)
• Elite Skill 2: Pilot Skill "Hobbie" (5 EP)
• (Elite Skill 3: Stay on Target (4 EP))

Other Optional Elite Pilot Skills that work well in this build

• Integrated Astromech
• Expose / Predator /Wedge Antilles for more deadliness
• Sabine Wren for better movement control
• Etahn A'Baht for better team support capability
• Stay on Target increases adaptability to changed situations on the battle field and will also always trigger the targetting astromech. Might even be a candidate to fixedly integrate into the combo build, as red maneuvers are more favorably then green or white in that they provide the extra target lock.

Modification Options

• Engine Upgrade + 3 Shields for more defense and survivability
• Engine Upgrade + Guidance Chip + Extra Munition + Shield Upgrade for more damage (especially with advanced torpedoes)

Build Path

• Integrated Astromech (0 EP)
• Astromech: Targeting Astromech (2 EP)
• Torpedo: ...
• Mod 1: ...
• PS3 (6 EP)
• Elite Skill 1: PTL (6 EP)
• PS4 (8 EP)
• Mod 2: ...
• PS 5 (10 EP)
• Elite Skill 2: Pilot Skill "Hobbie" (5 EP)

--> Quickest Achieveable: 37 EP
--> Upgrade with "Advanced Torpedos" (6), Engine Upgrade (4), Targeting Chip (0) --> 47 EP

Working of the Build

** Normal or Green Maneuver **

Reveal Movement
Move
Focus
get second action from "PTL"
Acquire Target
Get Stress from "PTL"

Attack
Spend Target Lock (even if not re-rolling any dice to)
Remove Stress from "Hobbie" Pilot
Use Focus if necessary or keep it for defense
Resolve Attack

--> Sets you back in none-stressed, attack with target lock and focus
--> Doesn't work if you are stressed (and maneuver is not green) or maneuver is red

--> Needs "PTL" and "Hobbie"

** Red Maneuver **

Reveal Red Movement
Move
Get Stressed
Get Target Lock from "Targeting Astro Mech"
Remove Stress from Hobbie
Take Action (e.g. Focus)
(if necessary "PTL" for a second action, e.g. Boost or Barrel or expose and get stressed)
Attack with Focus and Target lock
Spend Target Lock to remove possible stress from PTL action

--> Needs Targeting Astro mech
--> Vectored Thruster or Engine Upgrade will help give additional options

** White Maneuver and starting the round stressed **

--> Combo breaks --> Weakness in this combo. Can be mended with Braylen Stremm PS3 (50% chance to remove stress after any maneuver) or Tycho Celchu PS8 (execute Actions when stressed). However there are not many HotAC missions where you will get stress from the enemy that you cannot remove from your ship before being forced to do a white maneuver.

Thoughts on Expertise instead of PTL
Practically the same combo can be achieved with expertise instead of PTL as it adds the focus action you might otherwise take from your PTL action. However Expertise cannot be used in defense as the focus token from the PTL combo could. Also PTL provides more flexibility to boost / expose when it would be beneficial especially for red maneuvers. Expertise is also more expensive by 2 XP in HotAC. It also doesn't work when you were not able to remove stress, exactly like the PTL combo. Therefore not a viable exchange as there is zero benefits.

Thoughts on Event Timing

I checked various sources to ensure the timing is right. For example stress is assigned due to a red maneuver before the targeting astro mech kicks in, which indeed allows Hobbie to remove stress from red maneuvers.

On the other hand Hobbie cannot remove stress from PTL as the stress is assigned after the "Target Lock" action. However target locks can be spent even if no dice are re-rolled (e.g. in case you have a perfect attack roll), so by spending the lock the PTL stress can be removed during attack.