So I'm entering a small local tournament where there are points for having a thematic list...

I was contemplating going with one of the lists below;

1) Red Squadron

Garven Dreiss, R2 Astromech, IA - 27

Hobbie Klivian, Targeting Astromech, IA - 27

Tarn Mison, R7 Astromech, IA - 25

Rookie Pilot - 21

2) Assault on Starkiller Base

Poe Dameron (ps9), BB8, Black One, Intensity, Primed Thrusters, IA - 39

Snap Wexley, PTL, R2 Astromech, IA - 32

Jess Pava, M9-G8, IA - 28

I know they're not ultra-competitive, but my questions are;

1) Do they seem reasonably thematic?

2) Which do you think will fare least badly and why?

3) Any suggested improvements?

It's really hard to tell given the format...no telling what you'll face. Is there any sort of detrimental impact for people just bringing a meta list? Both of your lists are thematic, so I think you're good there. There's merit to both of your lists, although I think I like the first one, just because it has more guns (plus some decent action economy). I don't like Poe having only a 1-point bid in the second list. Despite the PS war waging right now, I like any PS9 to have at least a 3-point bid, but that's just me. You could get there by changing Jess' astromech and possibly going with Intensity on Snap over PtL.

I believe there are extra points for thematic lists, but I don't know how many relative to normal victory points.

I suspect there will be a few people who ignore the whole thematic thing and just turn up with a meta list, and that's fine, but I'd like to keep to the spirit of the event myself.

I was thinking the extra ship in the first list might mean I wasn't quite so screwed after the inevitable ps11 alpha strike/bombs that I'll probably face st some point!

I don't have a 2nd Intensity card, otherwise Snap would have that - so I'd have to downgrade M9-G8 on Jess to get a proper bid.

I'm not expecting to do brilliantly with either list, I'd just like to not be so bad that I get trounced every single game!