We're starting round 2 of our league. Round one gave us one named pilot and 75 points to build a squad with no other named pilot or large based ships.

Round two simply adds 25 points. We still can't use a second named pilot or a large base ship.

I won my round 1 match with this list:

Garven Dries + R2D2 + IA

Gold Sqd Pilot + R5-P9 + TLT

Green Sqd Pilot + A-Wing Test Pilot + Chardaan Refit + A Score To Settle + Crack Shot

I've got to keep Garven but can change other parts of the list. I've got 25 points to add to this list for the second round. I thought of adding:

Rebel Operative + Blaster Turret + Jan Ors + Moldy Crow

Garven worked great feeding the Y focus tokens for its shields. Thought Jan would be good at feeding the Garven or the Y evades to keep them alive longer.

So, what would you add and why?

I think that would be a great addition and support ship. Maybe drop the HWK title to beef up your A-Wing to go Snap Shot/Juke. Without TLT I don't see a huge need to stack tokens.

I would also highly recommend snap/juke. it's very deadly on an A-Wing and makes them go quite a bit further offensively.

25 minutes ago, jwilliamson12 said:

I think that would be a great addition and support ship. Maybe drop the HWK title to beef up your A-Wing to go Snap Shot/Juke. Without TLT I don't see a huge need to stack tokens.

10 minutes ago, Wiredin said:

I would also highly recommend snap/juke. it's very deadly on an A-Wing and makes them go quite a bit further offensively.

So, Snap shot just basically lets the A-wing attack during the Activation phase instead of the Combat phase as long as the target is in range 1 but then can't shoot during the combat phase? Basically, it's like having the highest pilot skill and just shooting first?

I had the HWK title to keep the focus tokens since the Blaster Turret eats Focus to fire.

nope, it allows a double tap!

Take an evade early in activation. enemy jumps into R1. gets snap shotted, you can Juke the evade they roll and since they don't have tokens to modify yet (as snap-shot happens before the enemy ship can take actions) you can usually get in a damage (2 if your lucky!). Then during the combat phase...you do it again! and chances are they lost that token to an earlier attack!

It's awesome and works so well on the A-Wings. even better if you have Jess Pava and swarm leader.

54 minutes ago, drail14me said:

I had the HWK title to keep the focus tokens since the Blaster Turret eats Focus to fire.

Yeah, I get how it helps with the blaster. That was just the first thing I saw that could be replaced with snap/Juke. Everything else is too critical. If you focus every round (which you'll most likely do) you should be fine.

B wing and fcs for 22 points . Just for the extra health to work through . And then go with snap shot/juke a -wing as above. I think you can squeeze all that in?

8 hours ago, Wiredin said:

nope, it allows a double tap!

Take an evade early in activation. enemy jumps into R1. gets snap shotted, you can Juke the evade they roll and since they don't have tokens to modify yet (as snap-shot happens before the enemy ship can take actions) you can usually get in a damage (2 if your lucky!). Then during the combat phase...you do it again! and chances are they lost that token to an earlier attack!

It's awesome and works so well on the A-Wings. even better if you have Jess Pava and swarm leader.

That is awesome. I was misreading the cards! Got that swapped out on the A-Wing!

7 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

Yeah, I get how it helps with the blaster. That was just the first thing I saw that could be replaced with snap/Juke. Everything else is too critical. If you focus every round (which you'll most likely do) you should be fine.

Thanks. I was worried about a bump or getting stressed and losing the turret for a turn or so. I'll just have to be careful!

5 hours ago, spamdex said:

B wing and fcs for 22 points . Just for the extra health to work through . And then go with snap shot/juke a -wing as above. I think you can squeeze all that in?

I like the idea of the B-wing for the health. That'd be a tough ship to have. Maybe use accuracy corrector for two hits? I like the health of the B-wing but love that other turret with the HWK. Think I've got to lean towards the HWK?

52 minutes ago, drail14me said:

That is awesome. I was misreading the cards! Got that swapped out on the A-Wing!

Thanks. I was worried about a bump or getting stressed and losing the turret for a turn or so. I'll just have to be careful!

I like the idea of the B-wing for the health. That'd be a tough ship to have. Maybe use accuracy corrector for two hits? I like the health of the B-wing but love that other turret with the HWK. Think I've got to lean towards the HWK?

The B-Wing would be super nice considering there are no large base ships allowed. I consider myself average in my community, and I took three B's and Biggs to a legacy tournament and went 4-1. I'd recommend FCS because at range one you have good chances to land 4 hits instead of settling for two. AC is consistent but limits potential. It's best paired with autoblaster turret.

You could consider putting Jan crew on your B-Wing, but I don't think that will give you points for Snap/Juke. Snap/Crackshot or trick shot can work though.

B wings are great at fighting range 1 and can just soak up the damage while your a wing is killing them with paper cuts ?

34 minutes ago, jwilliamson12 said:

The B-Wing would be super nice considering there are no large base ships allowed. I consider myself average in my community, and I took three B's and Biggs to a legacy tournament and went 4-1. I'd recommend FCS because at range one you have good chances to land 4 hits instead of settling for two. AC is consistent but limits potential. It's best paired with autoblaster turret.

You could consider putting Jan crew on your B-Wing, but I don't think that will give you points for Snap/Juke. Snap/Crackshot or trick shot can work though.

Here's what my opponent ran last week. I expect it to be similar with an added ship. He'll probably add a B-wing as he's an original trilogy purest.

Jek Porkins + R3-A2 + Marksmanship

Gray Sqd Pilot + Ion Turret

Green Sqd Pilot

I'm thinking I should focus fire on Jek first since he's only points. Might get luck and get him out quick. Then again, getting that Y-wing first would get rid of that Ion headache.

It's hard to say unless you see the set up but I'd go for the joust with garven, b wing and y wing . Using garvens ability to give either the b or y a focus. You'll shoot after hobbie but you'll also recover shields after the first pass. Which will mean you'll have the advantage on the 2nd pass .

Either use the a as a blocker or take it round to flank

I would put snapshot and juke on the Awing and for the remaining 22 points take one of the below suggestions. Depending on your playstyle

Green Sqd Pilot + A-Wing Test Pilot + Chardaan Refit + juke + -Sanpshot (21) - Two Awings with snapshot is harder to avoid then only one

Bwing Blue sq. (22) - lots of health and good firepower

HWK Rebel Op. TLT (22) - TLT is alot better offence than Blaster turret and do not take your focuses

7 hours ago, spamdex said:

B wing and fcs for 22 points . Just for the extra health to work through . And then go with snap shot/juke a -wing as above. I think you can squeeze all that in?

I tried to get the B wing and fcs in but it's 24 points. B- wing 22 points + FCS 2 points. I'd have to lose 2 points somewhere else and I don't see where I can. So, it's either a light B wing or the HWK + Jan Ors + Blaster Turret. Porkins and R3-A2 with their stress could negate that HWK blaster turret but at the same time, he might take some damage with that HWK as bait?

5 minutes ago, Everyday Ace said:

I would put snapshot and juke on the Awing and for the remaining 22 points take one of the below suggestions. Depending on your playstyle

Green Sqd Pilot + A-Wing Test Pilot + Chardaan Refit + juke + -Sanpshot (21) - Two Awings with snapshot is harder to avoid then only one

Bwing Blue sq. (22) - lots of health and good firepower

HWK Rebel Op. TLT (22) - TLT is alot better offence than Blaster turret and do not take your focuses

I really like that HWK with the TLT. It would be immune to the Porkins R3-A2 stress. I could take it and the Y and hold them back behind the X and A at range 3. My worry is him getting inside range 1 of the Y and HWK. That's why I had the Blaster Turret to cover range 1. However, if I kept them spaced apart at range 3 from each other then they could cover each other.

I'm gonna put this on the mat and test play it.

This is what I would do to carry on the flavour of what you have used before .

B-Wing: Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Fire Control System (2)

X-Wing: · Garven Dreis (26)

· R2-D2 (4)

Integrated Astromech (0)

A-Wing: Green Squadron Pilot (19)

Juke (2)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Snap Shot (2)

Y-Wing: Gold Squadron Pilot (18)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

R2 Astromech (1)

-- TOTAL ------- 100p. --

What about Dorsal instead of Blaster? If the Range bubble is your concern, Dorsal is cheaper, doesn't eat actions, and is just as effective at Range 1.

5 hours ago, Drakeheart said:

What about Dorsal instead of Blaster? If the Range bubble is your concern, Dorsal is cheaper, doesn't eat actions, and is just as effective at Range 1.

I do agree, Dorsal is a pretty good turret and my goto if TLT is not available. Very happy running it on Jan.

9 hours ago, Drakeheart said:

What about Dorsal instead of Blaster? If the Range bubble is your concern, Dorsal is cheaper, doesn't eat actions, and is just as effective at Range 1.

4 hours ago, Wiredin said:

I do agree, Dorsal is a pretty good turret and my goto if TLT is not available. Very happy running it on Jan.

Dorsal only saves me 1 point in my current config and I can't find where one point will help anywhere else. I'm war gaming against myself to see if the B-wing or the HWK is the better fit in the squad. My opponent postponed for a few days so I've got time to test a little more to check the synergy.

depends on your flying style. They are very different ships, the Hawk is primarily a support ship, its not really supposed to be an offensive threat. It's not a dog fighter, and makes a below average turret carrier due to the lackluster dial. The key to the Hawk is the pilot abilities, which it appears you can't take due to the format restriction (Jan is amazing, one of my favorite pilots in the game!). The B-Wing is a better "naked" chassis and with FCS or Adv.Sensors is a pretty awesome beast. In close range knife-fighting battles the B-Wing will be a lot of fun and can really rip up the enemy with a lot of different options.

Dorsal is so much better than blaster not requiring the focus token to fire. I know it's "only saving one point" but what else are you saving? a focus token and an action. That is worth way more than one point. If your opponent runs a stress mechanic they can shut down your Hawk making it impossible to fire...maybe for turns, allowing them to effectively ignore your hawk as it will not have actions and not be able to attack. Blaster turret is such a liability unless you have a guaranteed way to gain a focus FOR FREE.

Personally I would take the B-Wing.

12 hours ago, drail14me said:

Dorsal only saves me 1 point in my current config and I can't find where one point will help anywhere else. I'm war gaming against myself to see if the B-wing or the HWK is the better fit in the squad. My opponent postponed for a few days so I've got time to test a little more to check the synergy.

I think the idea behind Dorsal is you won't need the focus to use your turret. So, it makes dropping the title easier. Keep the one point open so you can take initiative. With all of you flying lower skilled pilots, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a point open.

1 hour ago, jwilliamson12 said:

I think the idea behind Dorsal is you won't need the focus to use your turret. So, it makes dropping the title easier. Keep the one point open so you can take initiative. With all of you flying lower skilled pilots, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a point open.

Good point! Pun intended!

After looking further. I could replace the HWK with another Y-wing with a Dorsal Turret for a total of 99 points. Could add an R2 astromech if needed to bring it up to a full 100 but that 99 for initiative would be good. That Y could take 3 more hits over the HWK.

1 hour ago, drail14me said:

After looking further. I could replace the HWK with another Y-wing with a Dorsal Turret for a total of 99 points. Could add an R2 astromech if needed to bring it up to a full 100 but that 99 for initiative would be good. That Y could take 3 more hits over the HWK.

Yeah, the Y-wing is more durable than the HWK, but in this case you'll be losing Jan. I'm not sure the three health* points saved to the Y-Wing is worth the evade you can hand out to your other ships using Garven/Jan combo. That'll be up to you.

On 6/5/2017 at 10:01 PM, jwilliamson12 said:

I think that would be a great addition and support ship. Maybe drop the HWK title to beef up your A-Wing to go Snap Shot/Juke. Without TLT I don't see a huge need to stack tokens.

Well, your Snap/Juke worked like a charm!! I played a casual game tonight with one of the members of our league. I was wanting to test the squad before my league match tomorrow night.

If I remember correctly, my opponent had:

Poe (PS9) + Black One + BB8 + Primed Thrusters + PTL + Autothrusters

Gray Sqd Y-wing + R2 Astromech + TLT

Blue Sqd Pilot B-wing + Advanced Sensors + Ion Cannon + Vectored Thrusters

I was able to run the table taking the B-wing first, with a couple of Snap/Jukes and some TLTs. Next went Poe, again, taking hits from Snap/Juke + some TLTs and some hits from the Dorsal Cannon. Got the Y last with hits coming from all my ships.

Garven never got hit. I had one hull damage to the A wing, lost shields on the HWK and had 4 hull damage to the Y but recovered back to two shields by the end of the game. My synergy with Garven, Jan Ors and the Y wing never really did much. Garven, due to the dice and a couple bumps, never got to pass a focus. Jan did pass on an evade once to the Y but that's it. The Y regained it's shields with it's on unused Focus tokens.

I was very happy with this list and can't wait for the league match tonight! Of course, a LOT of it had to do with the luck of the dice and I got lucky tonight! Was still a lot of fun though and I learned a lot from my opponent. He's a veteran player and passed on a wealth of information and strategy. I'll have to face him again in another couple rounds.

After my match tonight, I get to add another 25 points to the squad before next week's match. A second A-wing with Snap/Juke is tempting!