OKay, I'm still playing around with my B-Wing, X-Wing, & Y-Wing build and tweaking the team. This is the result of our 2nd local league matches.
TL/DR: I lost, but put a hurt down on the opposition. Some things worked well for me, but I ultimately lost due to poor maneuvering. Score was 160 to 200.
Also this is an AAR, and you won't get a blow by blow recap of the battle. Part of this is to organize my thoughts which might help someone else.
This week I flew the team with:
Ten Numb (B-Wing) with Outmaneuver, Fire Control Systems, Jamming Beam (only because its free), Adv Protons, & Shield Upgrade.
Wedge (X-Wing) with Swarm Tactics, R3, Proton Torpedoes, Shield Upgrade, & Servos.
Dutch (Y-Wing) with Swarm Tactics, Proton Torpedoes, & Proton Bombs.
Opposition was Kylo (TIE Silencer), Quickdraw (TIE/fo), and a Command Shuttle (I don't recall the pilot).
Build Notes : Shields are just helpful in keeping a ship in the board for an extra turn. So I stripped down the Y-Wing as Dutch's primary job is to put an additional target lock on the board for one of the other ships. Proton Bomb's aren't all that expensive and did help shape the battle a bit, but their blast is louder than their bite. The other thing that Dutch can do is to move in to block fast movers. I used him so that Ten could trail by about 1/2 an inch so that the opponent couldn't bump Ten.
I'm really still liking Outmaneuver on Ten. Ten keeps being overlooked by everyone and he has the tendency to sneak up behind people and stripping off one agility has helped him score extra hits. The jamming beam is still useless. If it was rolling maybe 5 dice, it might make a difference, but with the choice of a 3 Dice Attack or a 3 Dice Jam, the attack will (mostly) do the same result in spending defensive upgrades. However, the one exception might be the Reinforce token.
R3 was very nice for Wedge. Wedge did fire off both of his Torpedoes and being able to lock two ships up at any turn helped place torpedoes later on. In fact one of the decisive hits on Kylo was a long shot torpedo hit from Wedge.
Set up and Maneuvers :
I messed up with the setup completely this week but in doing so, I learned how to do "better."
My setup is a triangle with the Y-Wing and B-Wing flying in front and separated by 1 maneuver template. Wedge has been trailing behind and usually in the center. The objective is to keep Wedge close enough so that Swarm Tactics can kick in and permit all three ships to shoot first at initiative 6. It usually works out REALLY well in the merge.
But I'm having issues AFTER the merge as all three ships have different K-Turns & Talon Rolls, and I'm usually facing multiple staggered ships that don't make the immediate turn around feasible or make that turn a bad idea.
Here's the other important lesson from this week. The B-Wing needs to be set in the inside front corner with the Y-Wing flying on the outside front. Wedge should fly behind Dutch's Y-Wing.
WHY! (Sorry this might not translate well).
On a bank, the B & Y Wing can stay very close to each other by dialing in a bank maneuver one speed different from each other. (So if the B-Wing dials in a 2 Bank, the Y-Wing should Dial in a 3 Bank). And as long as you keep that rule, the B & Y Wing can fly in a tight formation all around the board (up to the merge).
On a TURN, the speed difference needs to be by 2. So the B-Wing will dial in a 1 turn (Red) while the Y-Wing can match that with a 3 turn (also Red). That allows the team to stay in formation with the B Wing & Y Wing staying side by side. And with Ten spending stress like a focus, he's less troubled by Red maneuvers. But this is not an ideal turn, and should be employed rarely. [The mistake that I made this week was that I put the B-Wing on the outside and the Y-Wing on the inside corner. And the B-Wing can't turn 3 and the Y-Wing can't do a 1 turn, which limited my options in maneuvering towards the merge.] [This also means that this formation can only turn in one direction. Make sure that direction is set up where the enemy is located!]
Fortunately for me (this week) the opponent didn't force me to do a turning formation and I was able to leisurely approach the merge.
Wedge can fly a bit more loosely but his job is to stay within 1 range of Dutch for the Swarm Tactics. Having Wedge start right behind Dutch means that during turns and banks, Wedge will naturally drift toward the B-Wing, but with him flying close to Dutch, that drift usually doesn't hurt the whole formation.
Target Acquisition & Merge
Okay, the plan is to line up a single target with three targeting locks AND then to fire three torpedoes at that single ship. You need to table something quickly with this team.
Previously, I had passing an additional target lock from Dutch to Wedge and was hoping to pick up an additional lock with R3, but I was misreading the R3 capabilities. Wedge should pick up his own locks.
The correct way to handle this is to pass the additional lock to Ten, who can then take his action to pick up a focus. (Or in his case a Focus w/ Red Barrel Roll which adds a stress{focus}). This last merge, I was trying to bracket a VERY maneuverable Kylo so had Ten barrel roll away from Dutch, with the plan to have Wedge race in to fill the gap.
My plan failed because Kylo (I5) zipped into Wedge's slot and kept Wedge from getting into range 1 of Dutch.
HOWEVER, I did surprise my opponent by locking up Quickdraw with all three ships and Quickdraw got tabled (per doctrine).
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Kylo Mocks. Y-Wing load out.
Yes, (and no surprise), Kylo spent most of the night arc dodging. At I5, vs I4's that works pretty well. Vs Wedge's I6, not so much.
My opponent however, got pretty good at just keeping Kylo WAY out of Wedge's arc, but by spreading out my team and fielding a very wide coverage for Kylo, I nearly killed him. Kylo ended the game with only one hull left. So close. The last turn had Kyle take a shot from Wedge (net: 2 hits and 2 evades). But I digress . . .
But here's my issue. I'm very happy with Wedge & Ten's load out, but I'm still trying to sort out the best loadout for Dutch.
The main reason that Dutch is on the board is to acquire and pass target locks.
Having a third Proton Torp for the merge is very nice and Dutch's torp is ultimately what helped table Quickdraw off in the merge.
Next week, I'll be stripping off the Proton Bombs, and Ten will get his Adv Torps upgraded to a regular Torpedo. I'm hoping to threaten three regular protons in the initial merge on a low initiative PS. And part of my issue was that Ten never got to shoot his Adv Proton. Everyone was very careful to stay way out of range 1 of Ten.
But my other question would be whether or not to drop Dutch's torp to an Advance Proton and then to add a turret. There were a couple of times that Dutch could have anticipated Kylo and having an additional arc would have helped him shoot at Kylo more often. The Y-Wing has a limited dial and being able to swing a turret around would have resulted in more shots at the opponent. And with the reload action, Dutch can (in theory) fire more than 1 Adv Proton per battle.
In short, I'm still playing around with Dutch's loadouts.
The last option to consider would be to pull off the torps from the Y-Wing altogether and to throw in the Veteran Turret Gunner with the Ion Turret. I had disappointing results with this loadout on week 1, but if I'd had a turret this week, Kylo might not have survived.