4 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Roark chain doesn't (his abilty says engage at I7). Swarm tactics chain off of an native I6 does though due Swarm Tactics stating treat as and not engage at.

thanks, I indeed confused it with Roark. Poe and 3 Greens (with Optics+Crackshot) fits, but I doubt it's any good.

There's more where this came from!

Other than list ideas. Can we discuss strategies with the new Awings? They offer something no other small ship can do, and that is move fast, 8 bases (5 straight + 1base, and boost for 1+1), while shooting behind them, I guess a TIE S/F with Afterburners could do it. This speed and rear arc was left to large and medium base ships. I think this opens up entirely new combat method that many ships cannot handle. Like the TIE S/F, they can go any direction when you are facing them head on. Unlike the TIE S/F they have a boost to adjust that arc 45 degrees after moving. They can swarm in jousting style, and then fan out without do a red move and create a kill box, something other swarms cannot do. In fact, facing another swarm, you can use the speed to fly by the opponents swarm and shoot out the butt, forcing them to kturn while you can continue shooting and getting mods.

This brings up trickshot EPT. Able to boost passed rocks for 3 red dice (4 for Lulo) seems like you could trigger it more often than going head on into a rock with traditional primary attacks, and in return get a 4th/5th green dice. These little suckers can be a pain to kill.

If that rear arc is utilized correctly, this ship can be very unpredictable. One of the things I always loved about playing Backdraft in 1st Edition.

What are the thoughts on Trickshot? How would you place rocks to maximize the obstruction while dealing with the speed to the Awings?

If flying a swarm of Awings, do you fan out or stick to traditional "box/pinwheel formation"?

Zari seems to not be getting any love, but she can crash right into a ship, focus, and turn her arc, forcing them to either fly by and letting her shoot, or get blocked doing a slow maneuver. This is great potential. Anyone been running her?

58 minutes ago, wurms said:

Zari seems to not be getting any love, but she can crash right into a ship, focus, and turn her arc, forcing them to either fly by and letting her shoot, or get blocked doing a slow maneuver. This is great potential. Anyone been running her?

Trying her tonight. I've got two A-wings so she's paired with L'ulo, Poe, and a Blue Squad Rookie.

2 hours ago, wurms said:

Other than list ideas. Can we discuss strategies with the new Awings?

Yes!

2 hours ago, wurms said:

If flying a swarm of Awings, do you fan out or stick to traditional "box/pinwheel formation"?

I always use the finger four/five by Jonathan Scott. The idea is to start together in a lose formation and then break into pairs of two after the first engagement. Depending on the opponent's list I break into these pairs as soon as I know where he's committing and attack from two different angles.

2 hours ago, wurms said:

What are the thoughts on Trickshot? How would you place rocks to maximize the obstruction while dealing with the speed to the Awings?

I keep reading that it is great, but in 8 games with 5 Awings every time, I only had 3 obstructed shots total. That's even less than my Heroic proccs. I have to admit that I didn't try to force it, but I'm also not sure that I want to.

2 hours ago, wurms said:

I think this opens up entirely new combat method that many ships cannot handle. Like the TIE S/F, they can go any direction when you are facing them head on. Unlike the TIE S/F they have a boost to adjust that arc 45 degrees after moving. They can swarm in jousting style, and then fan out without do a red move and create a kill box, something other swarms cannot do. In fact, facing another swarm, you can use the speed to fly by the opponents swarm and shoot out the butt , forcing them to kturn while you can continue shooting and getting mods.

That is now my new approach with the list: try to range control and take at most a range 3 shot, but of course try not to be in range. That is not as easy as you can't adjust with repositioning, but still try as well as possible. Then jump forward as close as you can, and fan out (for example, two ships make a 4 straight+boost left, the others boost right). Their ship(s) will either bump or move past you, being now in your modified rear arc and possibly in range 1. From that point move them in two teams and react. Possibly have one team shooting forward and the other out the rear arc.

The more I fly the new A-Wings, the more I'm finding that the pool of EPTs that are actually useful is very limited.

My current list is Heroic, Trick Shot, Lone Wolf (if running a solo A-Wing as a flanker) and Composure (for the ability to take a focus after failing a barrel roll and still link into a boost or rotate).

Swarm Tactics clearly still has it's niche, but otherwise the remainder seem poor choices at best.

I know people have been extolling the virtues of Predator and Crack Shot, but it's next to impossible to get these to trigger when 75% or more of your shots are out of the rear arc!

We clearly need more EPTs that are either specific to a rotating arc or are not restricted to a specific arc at all...

Maybe something crazy like Strafing Run (requires rotating arc to equip)... at the start of the engagement phase, if you fully executed a 4 or 5 speed manoeuvre, you may perform a bonus attack against a target in your rotating arc.

Now that'd be a lot of fun... 😛

I tend to agree. Most of the current talents favour forward firing aces. I'd like to see some more that work with rotating arcs as well as being better at lower iniatives.

Something like a Composure/Hate hybrid: "After defending, if the attack hit, you may perform a red focus action."

Or the same concept but with a turret: "After defending, you may perform a red rotate action."

I doubt these would be all that amazing on high initative, they would not work on double action aces, and they might give players a reason to give I3 SFs, A-Wings and Kihraxzs a go.

1 hour ago, DexterOnone said:

I know people have been extolling the virtues of Predator and Crack Shot, but it's next to impossible to get these to trigger when 75% or more of your shots are out of the rear arc!

😛

Precisely why my #2 EPT choice is Intimidation.

2 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Precisely why my #2 EPT choice is Intimidation.

On 4?

I take it then the idea is similar to what I mentioned? Get close, force the bump if possible and use the others to shoot out the rear arc?

4 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

On 4?

I take it then the idea is similar to what I mentioned? Get close, force the bump if possible and use the others to shoot out the rear arc?

Depends on the squad, currently on 2 Greens with Lulo and Tallie. I think it suits them really well.

Youre already an unpredictable threat - are you turning in or scooting away - and Intimidation gives you another tool to threaten with.

Intimidation is a force multiplier - more shots = more benefit so a 5-man squad is a good place for it.

2 dice attacks may need a little extra help against some targets.

A-Wings are naturally great bumpers.

not played it yet, but in my bag for later today is Lulo, Tallie, Green, Green, Bastian. That seems a good squad to me.

15 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Precisely why my #2 EPT choice is Intimidation.

The only RZ-2 A-Wing I've seriously considered, and used, Intimidation on is Tallie... bumping is actually a good way to guarantee something is in her Bullseye arc to trigger her pilot ability, so she's giving her squad mates a bonus on attack as well as a defensive bonus for one of them!

24 minutes ago, SOTL said:

not  played it yet, but in my bag for later today is Lulo, Tallie, Green, Gre  en, Bastian. That seems a good squad to me.  

Huh, I'm curious about how that works out for you.

I'm not convinced of Awings without optics, and I rather have optics than intimidation. Usually one gets focused anyway, which means the other 3-4 can use their token for offense.

yea I love these little arrowheads!

Green Squadron Expert (34)
Heroic (1)
Crack Shot (1)

Greer Sonnel (36)
Heroic (1)
Crack Shot (1)

Zari Bangel (35)
Heroic (1)
Crack Shot (1)

Tallissan Lintra (35)
Heroic (1)
Crack Shot (1)

Jessika Pava (52)

Total: 200

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

this looks fun.

What's the win condition for these squads?

4 minutes ago, gennataos said:

What's the win condition for these squads?

Destroy enemy ships without getting destroyed yourself 😜

41 minutes ago, gennataos said:

What's the win condition for these squads?

Generally, destroy as much as possible. It might be just me, but I go for the 200-X.

More realistically though, you have 10 steps of 20 pts and need to figure out which of the opponent's ships to destroy without giving up too many of those 20s.

As an example, if going against a 55/58pt Quickdraw, I will need a full and a half or three half Awings to survive as I won't shoot her (unless out of arcs).
Against Rey Poe, focusing down Poe works as he dies in 2-3 turns of shots. However, Rey is crazy fast and makes it hard to keep the lead over time. With that in mind, going for the big gun which also dies in 3 turns seems more reasonable. The remaining 2-3 Awings can halfpoint Poe and then win on time as long as you have 60pts remaining.

I go for the 200-x anyway. But they are very good at running away, plus get shots even when chased. That's definitely something to use.

These things are sneaky. I feel like u can start with their arcs to the butt. Then u can 5 straight focus->boost and shoot out the butt. Or u bluff that and do a 2 straight focus-> rotate arc.

1 hour ago, gennataos said:

What's the win condition for these squads?

Pew pew?

Well, I ran rings around Wedge/Luke/Thane and Kylo/QD/Midnight. Didn't lose a ship in either game.

Love these A-Wings!

14 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Well, I ran rings around Wedge/Luke/Thane and Kylo/QD/Midnight. Didn't lose a ship in either game.

Love these A-Wings!

Nice! The one with Bastian?

How much did you destroy?

9 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Nice! The one with Bastian?

How much did you destroy?

Oh, cleaned up both games.

On 12/19/2018 at 12:11 PM, wurms said:

Zari seems to not be getting any love, but she can crash right into a ship, focus, and turn her arc, forcing them to either fly by and letting her shoot, or get blocked doing a slow maneuver. This is g  reat potential. Anyone been running her? 

I liked Zari quite a bit and I'll have some tough choices to make as to whether to keep her, go with Tallie or even drop down to a generic. I don't think she died in any of my 4 games last night and was able to consistently do work, including using the intimidation, but I also bumped her into my own ships and still get a focus for mods while still keeping me close enough to get a rear shot.

Overall, I ran Poe and a Blue with them and it was the most fun I've had flying since I was running QD and 2 silencers. L'ulo is like a a 40 point Backdraft.

8 minutes ago, AlexW said:

I liked Zari quite a bit and I'll have some tough choices to make as to whether to keep her, go with Tallie or even drop down to a generic. I don't think she died in any of my 4 games last night and was able to consistently do work, including using the intimidation, but I also bumped her into my own ships and still get a focus for mods while still keeping me close enough to get a rear shot.

Overall, I ran Poe and a Blue with them and it was the most fun I've had flying since I was running QD and 2 silencers. L'ulo is like a a 40 point Backdraft.

TBF Backdraft is only 41...

By now I'm rather fond of lone wolf on Lulo, together with Heroic. Allows him to be more flexible with that focus

3 minutes ago, SOTL said:

TBF Backdraft is only 41...

True, with no upgrades, though I think he wants to invest more in them than L'ulo.