Probably nothing revolutionary, but here goes:

I've been running the following Norra build for a while and looking for a wingman/wingmen that made sense:

Norra Wexley- PTL, R2D2, C3PO, Allaince Overhaul

It's a fairly solid build as very few ships can beat it 1v1 and it transitions easily from tank mode easily mitigating 3-4 damage a turn into offensive mode, easily hitting for 3-4 damage a shot. The restriction to green maneuvers isn't ideal, but with 6 options and an auxilliary arc that's only marginally worse than the primary, it's still flexible enough. The problem with finding a wingman or wingmen is that her primary weakness is the initial joust. It's difficult to set up a joust where your opponent doesn't have a greater than normal chance of getting every ship to fire on Norra at once and with her dice modification mostly limited to a single target, this is...problematic.

This is where Rey comes in. She's pretty well suited to be a jouster if suitably kitted.

Rey- Finn, Recon Spec, Expertise, Engine Upgrade

the concept is pretty straightforward. Rey takes up the lead on the initial joust with Norra following behind and takes the double focus with the Recon Spec. With her innate re-roll and expertise, the attack roll is fully modified without the need for actions, so the Recce Spec's double focus is exclusively defensive. In practice, she's been able to trade damage favorably with 2 ships pretty much every time (even multi-attackers like Dengar or Quickdraw), 3 ships semi-consistently and even does somewhat well against 4 unless all 4 can get within range 2 or better. Even if the dice go poorly, the high base shields and hull means it's harder to go catastrophically. If the other player ignores Rey and tries to chase down Norra, Norra can basically just kite for a fairly ridiculous period of time and wait for Rey to start thinning the herd from behind.

It's not perfect and so far the biggest hindrance has been me. It's been a long time since I've regularly played large ships, so accurately guessing where a template will land them (and also pretty importantly what the arc orientation will be) is still something I'm far less good with especially in relation to plotting flight paths for Norra, but so far it's been doing pretty well. Putting in Kanan and the new Falcon title is something I've considered, but it presents two problems. Losing the second focus token hurts the ship in the initial joust a fair bit and that's the entire reason she's here. Second, I would still need to get points for the Falcon title somewhere and Engine Upgrades is far too useful after the initial joust for a large based turreted ship (sure I won't get most of my bonuses if they're out of arc, but I'm out of theirs it's basically a free shot). The list also presents an unintended dilemma. Rey usually takes minor damage on the initial joust and doesn't regenerate, but still has a lot of hp and her dial is very open. Norra, on the other hand, may be at full health, but is also going to be **** near impossible to kill if you're down to 1 ship (and in many cases is actually mathematically impossible to kill), so you might not be able to afford to leave her for last especially if the initial joust went poorly. Do you keep trying to take down a ship with 5 shields and 8 hull hoping that you'll have enough left to get Norra, or switch focus to the likely full health regenerator?

Anywho, more playtesting ensues!

I've been thinking about putting together a Rey/Norra list, and I've considered something similar. What stops me is that stress-dealing will shut this list down, hard.

46 minutes ago, gennataos said:

I've been thinking about putting together a Rey/Norra list, and I've considered something similar. What stops me is that stress-dealing will shut this list down, hard.

It really doesn't. Unless you're getting double stressed, it's mostly an inconvenience. In fights with Asaj, you can typically force her to be a good friend and remove your stress for you with Latts by beating her face in...or if she doesn't have Latts, just beating her face in can also solve the problem. BTLA4's with stressbot are problematic, but they don't affect the joust turn itself and shouldn't be maneuverable enough to consistently stay on target.

Recon Spec and Expertise don't make sense to me. Is that extra defensive focus REALLY going to make that much difference? In general, defensive focuses on a one-die ship are not great. How about the old evade MF title instead? Or swap C-3PO onto Rey and give Norra Kyle? Or even keep Kyle on Norra and take the title + Jan Ors on Rey? I might actually like that last option the most. Like C-3PO, you get a free evade on Norra per turn, only you don't need to waste your actual defence roll on it, and Rey can still take an evade from the title, too.

The main reason I can see for keeping Recon Spec around is to mitigate stress, but if you're sufficiently worried about stress than it's probably better to just not run Expertise to begin with.

3 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

It really doesn't. Unless you're getting double stressed, it's mostly an inconvenience. In fights with Asaj, you can typically force her to be a good friend and remove your stress for you with Latts by beating her face in...or if she doesn't have Latts, just beating her face in can also solve the problem. BTLA4's with stressbot are problematic, but they don't affect the joust turn itself and shouldn't be maneuverable enough to consistently stay on target.

Expertise Rey is very vulnerable to stress. Especially from Asajj, because the stress will both block Expertise AND give her a free evade. Norra is a little less bothered, but any ship with PtL is scared of being double stressed.

9 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

It really doesn't. Unless you're getting double stressed, it's mostly an inconvenience. In fights with Asaj, you can typically force her to be a good friend and remove your stress for you with Latts by beating her face in...or if she doesn't have Latts, just beating her face in can also solve the problem. BTLA4's with stressbot are problematic, but they don't affect the joust turn itself and shouldn't be maneuverable enough to consistently stay on target.

How is having your 4-point EPT shut down only an inconvenience to Rey? Norra is faced with the gamble of being double stressed and ending up with no actions the next turn, possibly double stressed forever, which would mean her death.

Norra - expertise, R2D2, Nien Numb, Alliance Overhaul, Shield Upgrade

Rey - Expertise, Finn, Kanan Jarus, Sloop title,

They both do a lot of damage and Norra is a nightmare to try and kill. I won a store event with that and have done pretty well at other stuff like 4:2 at a regionals.

12 hours ago, gennataos said:

I've been thinking about putting together a Rey/Norra list, and I've considered something similar. What stops me is that stress-dealing will shut this list down, hard.

Stress will stop expertise for sure but if you have them in arc then Rey & finn can still pump out a lot of damage.

1 hour ago, gennataos said:

How is having your 4-point EPT shut down only an inconvenience to Rey? Norra is faced with the gamble of being double stressed and ending up with no actions the next turn, possibly double stressed forever, which would mean her death.

It's only an inconvenience because Rey still has 2 focus from the Recce Spec and re-rolls and she's in a turreted ship with a solid dial. Also Norra is a big girl, even stressed she stills regens and C3PO's which will still make her take a while to kill and give Rey time.

Just remember your towel and don't panic