I thought I'd have a bit of fun at league last night and fly the U-Wing before it (possibly) gets buffed. League nights are fairly casual so I wasn't expecting to meet anything too nasty.
Heff Tobber: Electronic Baffle, "Leebo", Anti-pursuit lasers, Pivot Wing (29pts)
Wedge Antilles: Crack Shot, Plasma Torpedoes, BB-8, Guidance Chips (35pts)
Horton Salm: Twin Laser Turret, Proton Torpedoes, Chopper, BTL-A4 Y-Wing, Guidance Chips, Bomb Loadout (36pts)
100pts
The Wedge build is almost identical to the build used in the PS10 alpha-strike list. Wedge packs one heck of a punch but folds like a wet blanket, so I've loaded him out with disposable weaponry to do as much damage as possible while he's on the table. He's pretty fragile though, so integrated astro wouldn't be a bad shout on him (you could spend the points on something dumb like seismic torps and intel agent on heff).
Heff is great ok. Baffle is a huge help keeping him in the fight longer, with mods. The U-Wing is quite durable, but all that durability is wasted if you fly past the enemy and can't turn to get arc on them again. Instead, spend your HP sticking around and shooting (Hera and Ezra on a Blue Pathfinder is the less suicidal way of sitting still in the fight).
Horton is a champ, and just dishes out damage like there's no tomorrow. I've got the title on him because (a) it's fun trying to keep arc to get 3 shots in a turn and (b) people don't want to shoot him so he can regen the title away and activate turret mode. I actually only had the title off for about two turns across both games.
Game 1
Imperial Trainee: Adaptive Ailerons, Lightweight Frame (19pts) x4
Nu Squadron Pilot: XG-1 Assault Configuration, Tractor Beam, Linked Battery, XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (23pts)
We deployed in opposite corners. I put Heff on a 45 degree angle, with my aces next to him facing forward. My opponent set up in a pyramid-like formation with the gunboat in the centre at the back, flanked by two strikers, with two more strikers in front. I slow rolled to see where he'd go before committing to one side or the other of my corner asteroid. He came down the board edge and turned in, and I mirrored this with Heff and Horton, while wedge crab walked along my end of the board with BB-8 to try and flank. I ended up staring down a terrible amount of red dice, with Heff behind a rock and my aces just out of range of the gunboat. I blasted one of the strikers off the table with a Torp and BTL shot, and then Heff braced for impact. My opponent shot the U-wing since he had all his guns pointed at it and could fire the tracers, but some extremely lucky defence rolls meant I dodged the tracers and took only 3 damage. Personally I was very relieved, as I thought my opponent was just going to erase wedge that turn. Next turn the strikers slooped out from the centre, and foolish Horton flew into the middle of them. Wedge stayed behind with BB8 and Heff remained parked behind the rock, baffling away stress. My opponent kept shooting Heff, who refused to die, and I cleaned up another striker.
Over the next few turns, Heff remained in place and blasted away while Wedge and Horton chased down the rest of the swarm. Heff eventually left his hideyhole and took a hit from a rock, but wedge and Horton PS-killed the final striker before it could finish off the 1hp Heff.
Game 2
Guri: Mindlink, Autothrusters, Starviper Mk II (30pts)
Fenn Rau: Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Concord Dawn Protector (34pts)
Talonbane Cobra: Mindlink, Ion Dishchargers, Pulsed Ray Shield, Engine Upgrade, Autothrusters, Vaskai (34pts)
I love this Talonbane build. It's not necessarily the best, but it's a lot of fun.
My opponent gave me init. I slow rolled again to watch my opponent commit through the rocks, and then I dove Heff in to range 1, with a rock covering his flank, while the aces hung back. Wedge dropped Guri to 2hp with a plasma torp, and then Fenn and Talonbane blasted Heff, leaving Fenn tokenless and at range two of Horton. Horton had a lock on Guri, but she was range 1 of Heff in arc so I figured he could deal with her and instead took the shot on Fenn. Somehow only the primary shot landed, with both TLT shots rolling a single hit and focusses, but at least Fenn copped a weapons disabled (-1 red) crit. Heff then whiffed his attack, leaving Guri alive for the next round.
Next turn I bumped Heff on Guri, who slooped behind him. Horton a 4k, while Talonbane peeled off from the fight and Fenn flew past Horton to try (but fail) to fix his crit. Horton promptly torpedoed Guri to smithereens, while Wedged pinged some damage into one of the other aces.
Next turn I kept the stress on Horton, banking right for a shot on talonbane while Heff turned around with Leebo. I misjudged with Wedge though, bumping horton, so Fenn was able to arg dodge and destroy him and Wedge had no shot. As punishment, Heff scored another weapons disabled crit, reducing Fenn to a feeble two-dice primary. Talonbane used his ion dischargers to regen with no repercussions (such a cool synergy with his pilot ability and desire to be range 1).
There was a bit of faffing about over the next few turns as everyone tried to get arc. Fenn ended up flying over a rock and dying as he tried to escape my two ships, and talonbane ended up stuck behind Heff as Horton de-stressed and then pulled another 4k to try and get range. Talonbane took another hull damage from Horton and removed two shields in return, allowing Horton to finally remove his title - but I forgot and removed chips instead, then bumped next turn. With Heff on 1 or 2hp I fled instead of baffling, but talonbane had no trouble catching up and finishing Heff with a range 1 shot (engine upgrade is money on talonbane). Horton used the opportunity to regain his second shield, removing the title and dropping the Kihraxz to 1 hull with TLT. Talonbane turned in next turn to try and end in a blaze of glory, but it was all over as mighty Horton TLT'd him to death.
Edited by gadwag