The A-Wing has been greatly improved with second edition. The built in PTL boost feels great with so much green on the dial, the ship became cheaper, and the general dialing back of red dice means that it gets to live longer. So the question is, where does it fit in for rebels? Six with Homing Missiles seems like it could be a strong build, but so does Jake as a one of flanker. He's basically like a more defensive striker now, in function and cost. It seems like they're ability to stay alive and protect their points could be one of their strongest aspects in a competitive environment.

Where has the A-Wing been working in second ed. for you guys?

Blockers tend to block ?

8 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Blockers tend to block ?

Arvel 4 Days! The man is looking like a good cheap semi-offensive option with Intimidation and optional Prockets

Not tried it yet, but I don‘t see too much use outside of Arvel. And my favorite 1.0 pilot is Jake...

Arvel can move close, focus and then boost for the block. Adding a procket seems like a nobrainer, but it depends on your available points. Same with intimidation or predator.

Ps1 blockers. Arvel w/intimidation.

On a asteroid?

Its place is under the armored heel of the Empire!

I'm hoping with the A-Wing Rerelease we get some good PS 5 ace options.

Hera with her pilot ability in an A-Wing? The return of Tycho Celchu?

There could also be Lulo Lampar (already a R-Z2 A-wing Pilot) and Shara Bey In a rerelease.

I've only seen people down on Jake, but I think he's got a lot of utility on paper. Cheap flanker with great action economy (3-4 actions per turn on average), very natural synergy with Prockets, and some underrated potential as a support ship handing out 2 focus actions a turn. Though granted, that support role is going to take some solid flying to make happen regularly. But 40 points for 2 (focus-only) coordinates a turn sounds crazy good.

42 minutes ago, HanScottFirst said:

I'm hoping with the A-Wing Rerelease we get some good PS 5 ace options.

Hera with her pilot ability in an A-Wing? The return of Tycho Celchu?

I never knew how much I could want something until now. Hera on the A-Wing would be in every one of my rebel list. "Oh you blocked my two hard? Eh, I'll just go 5 straight instead"

A good flanker. 2 red dice aren't bad in 2.0. Trust me, I've been hit by enough long range Tie Fighter shots to know! No, it hasn't been with a re-roll. Just 2 dice straight up isn't bad.

1 hour ago, HanScottFirst said:

I'm hoping with the A-Wing Rerelease we get some good PS 5 ace options.

Hera with her pilot ability in an A-Wing? The return of Tycho Celchu?

Hera would be sweet. That's a lot of dial flexibility. Tycho... I guess. He seems less impressive in 2e without traditional PTL, if he kept the same old ability.

However, what I really want is some sort of A-Wing that gets some sort of conditional offensive boost, much like many TIE/lns have. They've got great tools to flank, but can't do much when they get there. Something really cool would be "after performing a primary weapon attack against a target in your Bullseye arc, restore 1 charge to an attached upgrade." So that could be a renewable Crack Shot, or some cool missile tricks over time.

//

As to what's already been released, I'm curious to try out various Composure tricks. Move or BR into close range, and fail a boost against the enemy ship to gain a focus. Target lock and then fail a boost into a friendly ship to have focus/lock for a missile (even if just a Homing Missile... your opponent will essentially be forced to pick the single damage).

22 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

However, what I really want is some sort of A-Wing that gets some sort of conditional offensive boost...

It's called a missile slot. Seriously, it helps out on the offense without having to be some sort of crazy bullseye arc nonsense. You just take missiles.

Jake with no upgrades can do some cool stuff. He can barrel roll + boost, give himself one focus action, and hand one focus action to another ship.

Rebel scum

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

It's called a missile slot. Seriously, it helps out on the offense without having to be some sort of crazy bullseye arc nonsense. You just take missiles.

Fair point. 1e thinking says Missiles on A-Wings are wicked overpriced (two points more than they would be on any other ship, since you can't take Chardaan), and were single charge items. 2e has a fairly-priced A-Wing, and missiles probably have enough charges to matter. Cluster has four charges, Concussion three.

That said, Pilots like Scourge Skutu and Mauler Mithel are Init 5 for 32 points, compared to the 26 of the Black Squadron Ace. That'd work out to about 42 points (32/26*34 = 41.8) for an Init 5 A-Wing with either an extra red die at Range 1 or in the Bullseye arc. Either of those would probably be quite solid. I wouldn't expect exact knockoff pilots, but you get my drift.

Oh man, having charges relegated to the actual upgrade and NOT a slapdash solution like Extra Munitions is just the ******* best

Really makes 2-dice buggers relevant

Another thing to mention is I've found boost to be THE action of 2nd editition, as in "if you can't boost, you better be able to eat a swarm to the face". It's just so **** clutch for snaking around obstacles and firing arcs, breaking up formations of ships into manageable, bite-sized chunks

SLAM and Cloak provide similar functionality, but for rebels you're realiscally just looking at boost given the options available

And the Awing? Has boost!

So does Sabine (she's probably incredible at a measly 38 points) and Servomotor Xwings and Moldy Crow (better red than dead!)

4 hours ago, HanScottFirst said:

The return of Tycho Celchu?

Whats that? Rogue Squadron pilot in a x-wing finally? Sweeet!

Flanking or blocking is the overall answer.

Jake with Outmanoeuvre and Concussion Missiles is 52pts (I don't like prockets but if you do, that works too for 53pts) and a great flanker that can dish out decent damage whilst not likely to be 1 shot off the board like in 1e.

As you mentioned he does carry some support capability now, although I think that should be used as an auxiliary tactic and not his primary use in a squad.

Phoenix squadron blockers are as good as ever. Arvel adds some punch to his blocks. Green Squadrons with Juke and homing missiles seem like a nice cheap all rounder that can flank or block as needed.

You can pull off shenanigans with Composure, as well. Plan your maneuver in such a way that you know your boost will be blocked. Take a Target Lock action, use your free boost from Vectored Thrusters, and collect a free Focus token for "failing."

They'll be great once they re-release the 2.0 edition of the Awing/Bwing Aces "fix" pack!

/s

6 hours ago, HanScottFirst said:

I'm hoping with the A-Wing Rerelease we get some good PS 5 ace options.

Hera with her pilot ability in an A-Wing? The return of Tycho Celchu?

I would love to see Tycho Celchu make a return. His ability might need a soft rework, now that stress matters a little more, and token stacking is something that round after round is supposed to be harder. I'm just theorycrafting here, but I'm thinking something like this.

(Charges 2. Regen +1 per turn) Tycho Celchu: Caffeinated pilot ( I-5)

Ability: after receiving a stress token, you may spend 2 charge tokens to perform an on your action bar and may link stressed actions.

You could potentially still get to link into a boost after performing, and let's you Tycho it up, but not every round, sort of how like they have limited Vader to being a complete monster once every couple of rounds. Would be great for an "Oops" moment, because you are in an A-wing after all, but will really punish you on subsequent rounds, especially if you don't clear the double stress.

This of course may be way to restrictive. Perhaps they should just slap his 1.0 ability on his 2.0 ship and call it a day, because it's Tycho, and it's an A-wing?

I have been running a list with Marksmanship + Prockets Jake and Intimidation Arvel as flankers, in an attempt to Git Gud with zipping those lovely little A-wings around the board.

It's fun. And they actually work! Oh, 2e, you are the best.

Tycho's return would be great, as well as Hera in an A-wing (and every other Rebel fighter). As far as Tycho's ability, I think it's pretty obvious, he can perform linked actions with no stress. I use the KISS rule whenever possible.

The A-wing is in an interesting place. The TIE Interceptor has In4 generics that outclass the A-wing's Green Squadron and can even go toe to toe with Jake for maneuver warfare. New A-wing aces may add some higher initiatives, but so will the Interceptor expansion. Yes, Phoenix Squadron makes great blockers and Greenies can make solid fast attack missile boats, but Green Squadron will truly excel versus Academy Pilots. They may even do fairly well vs Scimitars. The A-wing is one of the very few naturally double-repositioning ships in the game. They lose to Squints (as well they should - Squints are pointy and pointy wins) and the Silencer is just silly (I love it, but I hate it - a Defender and Squint had a baby and it's too awesome). So, really, the A-wing is a great cheap ship hunter, but not an ace killer. Arvel is a great ace killing assistant, and if you can block head on then maybe he can burn down his target himself and Jake is an excellent support ship.

I like the A-win overall - in fact I was just building A-wing lists earlier today. It's weird realizing that it's not really the ace-hunter I want it to be, but then the game has become less about aces so it doesn't matter much anyway.