Rebel design philosophy in 2.0 is toolbox ships, unlike empire, there every ship has its exact role, and Y-wing is best example. We already know Y-wings will have Torpedo, bomb, astromech, turret and gunner slots, and that is a lot, we also know all the cards rebel players will have access at launch of 2.0, so its time to get building, point costs will make those builds more or less good, but everything here will be legal.

1. You can take Gray squadron as simple fat low skill blocker, with barrel rolls its quite good at it, also you get more hitpoints per point compared to z-95, A-wings and rebel ties, other rebel blockers, of course those options give you more red dice, and with 2 ships instead of one can block more spaces. But if you want maximum staying power Y-wing is your go to guy.

2 You can use Y-wings as great support ships, Evaan without any upgrades is very solid, not only for his pilot ability, but also for what I call "pseudo Biggs" effect, it makes opponent shoot your fat cheapish Y-wing in place of your fragile but deadly ace, and getting that focus in new rebels is really easy, with so many other support options. Other great support Y-wing is Dutch with R3 astromech, so receiver of his ability can choose out of 2 targets, one of better enablers for alpha strike stile list.

3 Speaking of alpha strike, Y-wings make great platform for that, Gray squadron has enough hits to survive round of opponents shooting and still deliver his payload. Few grays with Proton torps+ some enabler, like Dutch, or something with coordinate is good framework for that list.

4. Ion or bomb delivery method. Self explanatory, you can mix and match this for your taste.

5. And last spot is for new creature of 2.0, Double tap ace. 1.0 had its share of those - Quicky, Coran, Ghost with Phantom, and they all were quite broken, now in second edition you can turn more of your ships into monsters like that. Y-wing also had that option in 1.0, and even with frame so truly outclassed it had its time in tournament sun. Now its coming back with help of Cards like Ezra and Veteran turret gunner. You take Nora, if you will use VTgunner add expert handling, if you will use Ezra add R4 astromech to help get rid of stress better, as you will be stressed a lot, add a turret, my heart goes to Ion one, as it still does some damage, rolls 4 dice at range 1, so you can Ion even Falcon in one shot (with luck) . If not taking Expert handling add other EPT (don't know 2.0 code for that slot) or some bombs.

What I love about this is every pilot having build there he can shine, well maybe except Gold squadron, but if he has EPT slot I can already see him used. Of course everything is in the point costs, and some of those builds could be way overpriced, but we'll see.

Lone Wolf R2 Evaan Verlane, Survivor of Yavin. Add Ezra gunner for the force evade, bombs to punish people for chasing you, and a turret if they dont force you to use R2.

I really like the new Y-Wing. I hope they achieve this with all "classic" fighters, like B-s, Bombers, A-s, Interceptors etc.

Cheapest Y with turret and proton bombs. Because blockers with crit bombs bother people and can force awkward breakaways rather than turnarounds.

Add expert handling and/or afterburners if cheap enough to maximize blocking options.

3 minutes ago, Shoulder of Orion said:

Cheapest Y with turret and proton bombs. Because blockers with crit bombs bother people and can force awkward breakaways rather than turnarounds.

Add expert handling and/or afterburners if cheap enough to maximize blocking options.

They probably don't have a mod slot, so no afterburners. EH is great on them tho.

yeah this is probably one of the few ships that makes sense to not have a mod slot.

Since we know a handful doesnt have it, we just dont know which.

Little concerned about Ys simply being ousted by X-wings if their turret/ordnance/bomb capabilities don't stack up to the mobility and presumed raw efficiency of the other classic starfighter

Which is to say, "I hope bombs and ion turrets are worth using"

2-dice primaries are FAR off better in 2.0 than in 1.0, but they're still not in the same ballpark as 3-dice primaries

Going to go out on a limb and hope that Ordnance Ys or Turret Ys will be the way to go, Gunner upgrades will probably be overpriced unless they're discounted on the Y (has to buy its own turret as is), and my Norra dreams probably belong in the pipe because she's probably super expensive

Double tap is going to be interesting from an efficiency standpoint - the lack of passive mods and difficulty getting multiple tokens means the efficiency of multiple shots drops far faster than it did in mk1 - but also maximizes the value of synergy abilities on mid range pilots like Garven and Dutch.

A vet gunner ion Y with two focus and a lock is going to damage and ionize things fairly reliably.

with only either of a focus or a lock, not so much.

Horton'Dutch enabled double-tap op!

Don't think it'll be super strong because we're still talking 2-dice primaries and a either a 2-die dorsal or an ion attack

You're probably universally better off with a proton torp if you get to fire it

58 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Horton'Dutch enabled double-tap op!

Don't think it'll be super strong because we're still talking 2-dice primaries and a either a 2-die dorsal or an ion attack

You're probably universally better off with a proton torp if you get to fire it

Range 1 Y-wings are much like 1.0 TIE/D-s however. Quite dangerous.

Do we know for sure that vet turret gunner allows a double tap if the turret is set to fwd?

This "toolbox ships" vs "specific-role-focused-variant" thing is an amusing idea, but when it comes down to actual tournaments ...

...you've got the list you brought, each ship slotted into a specific role (and 'generalist' isn't a useful role), and while the Rebels may have more options which ships they USE for a role...they are still limited to what their list has.

I dunno, it's probably not as big a deal in X-Wing as Armada - here it's always deathmatch, so in the end the only thing you care about is 'don't die and kill all the enemy'. Still, the ability to have a small 'sideboard' included in a list of upgrades you can selectively swap out when you come up against a list COMPLETELY mismatched against you would be nice. (Nothing major, just, say, an option to - for example - swap out a 'cheaper' astromech than the one you brought with your list during deployment. Usually you won't, but sometimes that might make a one-sided match better balanced. Or ordnance slots - maybe I pay for proton torps but have the option to swap in flechette torps? That kind of thing would be REALLLLLY handy...)

4 hours ago, Redblock said:

Quicky, Coran, Ghost with Phantom, and they all were quite broken

Not remotely. I never even saw Quicky fielded, the Ghost only became broken with Fenn shenanigans, and Coran was way too fragile and had a brief moment on the sun.

Other than that, great write-up on the much maligned Y Wing, thank you.

7 minutes ago, xanderf said:

This "toolbox ships" vs "specific-role-focused-variant" thing is an amusing idea, but when it comes down to actual tournaments ...

...you've got the list you brought, each ship slotted into a specific role (and 'generalist' isn't a useful role), and while the Rebels may have more options which ships they USE for a role...they are still limited to what their list has.

The "toolbox ships" vs "specific-role-focused-variant" thing might work in text, but what it really comes down to in actual games , is upgrade slots. Rebels still probably excel in those.

Compare the TIE Bomber and the Y-Wing

Both have bomb and ordnance slots and reload.

But the Y-wing has also a turret and a gunner slot.

So the Bomber might be better at carrying more munitions, or playing fancy with bombs, the Y-wing has more diversity in upgrade options. Like much more.

Even if the Y-wing doesn't have mod slots, unless Imperials regain TIE only mods, the Bombers can't do much with theirs.


With more upgrade slots (and just look at the large selection of rebel only gunners) Rebels won't have an issue of fielding specialized craft. At all.

I'm super keen to try out this new Y-wing. This ship wins 'most improved' in my book. I don't think it needed a heap of improvements, but I'm not complaining.

Ordnance is much more viable on Y-wings now. With the re-balance of the torp vs. missile scenario, built in extra munitions etc. I don't think those points will feel wasted like they did with 1.0

Separate from the new Y-wings torp and bomb capability. I'm already toying with some tasty looking unique pilot builds.

R3 Dutch looks great, with proton torps/Saturation Salvo combo, or with Ion Turret for fluff.

Norra Brawler with Expert Handling, R4, Dorsal Turret, and Vet Gunner, or alternatively Elusive, R4, Dorsal Turret and Ezra Gunner if you want to lean on the red barrel roll.

Yavin Evaan with Lone Wolf (I like Elusive more so she can still use her ability on others), R5-D8, seems like a nice cheap tanky Y-wing. Add bombs, turrets etc to taste.

Horton is the only one I'm not really impressed by, but 3 out of 4 is pretty nice, especially compared to 1.0

6 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

Horton'Dutch enabled double-tap op!

Don't think it'll be super strong because we're still talking 2-dice primaries and a either a 2-die dorsal or an ion attack

You're probably universally better off with a proton torp if you get to fire it

It's stronger if you drop a proton bomb in front of the ionized ship.

4 Gold Squad Y-Wings with Ions and R2 astros was one of my favourite lists to run. Hoping I can run similar things in 2.0. ?

It's outrageous and unfair that we got book and comics characters while the most iconic Y-wing pilot, Davish "Stay On Target" Krail, is nowhere to be seen.

16 hours ago, Forgottenlore said:

Do we know for sure that vet turret gunner allows a double tap if the turret is set to fwd?

There's a possibility that it won't but they seem to be treating the turrets of the turret upgrade wholly separate from the fixed-arc weapons. I'm fairly sure it will work, though.

Even if it doesn't, it's not completely unreasonable to setup shots from both front and side with skilled flying.

Given that TLT isnt a thing anymore its not like its that big of a threat anyway.

It just enables some turret users to add a little extra punch than usual. Except for Dorsal Turret especially at R1, none of them can even do more than 1 damage anyway iirc

14 minutes ago, Ixidor said:

Even if it doesn't, it's not completely unreasonable to setup shots from both front and side with skilled flying.

Which is the one thing that has me thinking that maybe it doesn’t. If you can’t double tap out the front arc it encourages good flying on the part of the attacker to line up double arc shots, and on the part of the defender to fly in formation to deny the turret multiple shots by having all targets in the same arc. And skilled flying like that was the number one design goal for 2.0.

Think the TIE/SF when you think of doubletapping splitfires.

It rarely took that shot not just because it wasnt that great (except for Backdraft who literally didnt get affected by it's negative side) but because it generally meant you were surrounded, and probably gonna get hit multiple times.

If you can get that position without getting slammed from multiple angles you DESERVE that splitshot. You're gonna be hard pressed to get it and not leave yourself open to retaliation.
However the strenght of that vs the ywing doubletap forward arc is both shots are full strength attacks, the ywing will always have a 2die primary so it needs some baller dice to cause excessive damage. On average i suspect it'll do as much as any 3die ship, only causing a token application in exchange for slightly below average performance since the defense is effectively doubled against the ywing but not for the 3die primary

43 minutes ago, Ixidor said:

There's a possibility that it won't but they seem to be treating the turrets of the turret upgrade wholly separate from the fixed-arc weapons. I'm fairly sure it will work, though.

Even if it doesn't, it's not completely unreasonable to setup shots from both front and side with skilled flying.

If you look at the wording of vet turret gunner, it says "After you perform a primary attack, you may perform a bonus turret weapon attack using a turret weapon you did not already attack from this round" so it doesn't specify arcs as a qualification for firing therefore you can have a double shot out the front arc if the turret is facing forward.

21 minutes ago, HaranHaste said:

If you look at the wording of vet turret gunner, it says "After you perform a primary attack, you may perform a bonus turret weapon attack using a turret weapon you did not already attack from this round" so it doesn't specify arcs as a qualification for firing therefore you can have a double shot out the front arc if the turret is facing forward.

No, it says “...using a [mobile arc icon] you did not....”.

it all depends on how the rules are defining those icons and firing arcs in general.

It will probably work, I’m just concerned about fan expectations and the fact that it not working plays into a major design goal for 2.0

The reason people speculate its a thing is because Vet Gunner was revealed with the Falcon's dual arc. Vet Gunner is 100% useless unless it allows splitshotting on a Falcon, since its primary IS its turret.