Fabulous 5’s

(36) Airen Cracken [Z-95-AF4 Headhunter]
(5) Cluster Missiles
Points: 41

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 62

(41) Norra Wexley [BTL-A4 Y-wing]
(6) Adv. Proton Torpedoes
(2) R4 Astromech
Points: 49

(48) Thane Kyrell [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 48

Total points: 200

The synergy with Airen; clusters can fire off twice and proc the action ability twice.

Another scenario: Norra fire off her torpedo, airen give her a free reload the same turn she shoot.

Thane will shoot when there is a damage card to flip. He can even fire off last because all are at initiative 5.

Run it in formation or split up if needed.

Haven't tried it yet... But it is a valid idea?

That's...that's brilliant

WAIT

Give Airen munitions failsafe! Literally endless supply of 2 actions a round!

You could fit that with any other (lower or same I) pilots. So your choices are fine

The Airen trick is pretty smart! But that's a lot of stress to deal with...

17 minutes ago, h0racio said:

The Airen trick is pretty smart! But that's a lot of stress to deal with...

I'd drop the adv pro torps and load up the R4s for stress management. Pro torps your really only getting 1 extra die if you have the lock

4 minutes ago, Glattyator said:

Pro torps your really only getting 1 extra die if you have the lock

I'm not quite sure I understand this; you're netting 2 extra attack dice relative to a BTL-A4's normal popguns.

20 hours ago, Minimono said:

Thane will shoot when there is a damage card to flip. He can even fire off last because all are at initiative 5.

The ability to chop and change activation and engagement order is a key advantage of squads with uniform initiative. Norra being able to bung her torpedo into a shieldless target is good for the same reason.

Luke doesn't really need bonus actions - you can throw force + target lock at any shot and get 'free' force to defend with whenever shot at, so he's pretty much standalone.

Thane and Norra will appreciate the bonus actions for focus/locked attacks.

I would definitely consider Munitions Failsafe, which means you need a spare 'point', and Norra's torpedoes are the best option to drop. That gives you an R4 for thane, Failsafe for Airen and Expert Handling for Norra (which is better than you think if you can use it to roll into range 1. That leaves a point for crack shot on Thane, predictive shot on luke, or any other 'I had a point left over' upgrades.

I disagree with those advocating to drop Norra's torpedoes. The ship and the squad desperately needs the offense. Without them, Norra isn't bringing anything to the list but bulk. I think a list of this design is basically optimized as-is. Let us know how it flies.

22 hours ago, Minimono said:

Fabulous 5’s

(36) Airen Cracken [Z-95-AF4 Headhunter]
(5) Cluster Missiles
Points: 41

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 62

(41) Norra Wexley [BTL-A4 Y-wing]
(6) Adv. Proton Torpedoes
(2) R4 Astromech
Points: 49

(48) Thane Kyrell [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 48

Total points: 200

The synergy with Airen; clusters can fire off twice and proc the action ability twice.

Another scenario: Norra fire off her torpedo, airen give her a free reload the same turn she shoot.

Thane will shoot when there is a damage card to flip. He can even fire off last because all are at initiative 5.

Run it in formation or split up if needed.

Haven't tried it yet... But it is a valid idea?

I absolutely love this.

I don't play competitively, so I'd add SNR to Luke with R5-D8 and Autothrusters. I'd also add some fun stuff to Thane.

I'd then challenge all comers. But even if I did play competitively, that list you have is great.

1 hour ago, ChahDresh said:

I disagree with those advocating to drop Norra's torpedoes. The ship and the squad desperately needs the offense. Without them, Norra isn't bringing anything to the list but bulk. I think a list of this design is basically optimized as-is. Let us know how it flies.

To be fair.... Totally thought it was Arc Nora not Ywing, was wondering why the list didn't fit lol

Not sure it's really competitive but worth testing. So why not push it further with 2 Y-Wings since Airen has two coordinates? Since the torpedoes are range 1 Norra will get her evade. Dutch is always great for making sure our 3 munition carriers can shoot (Horton is good too since he'll get re-rolls if he doesn't want to spend his lock). With R4s for a bluer dial. And by some sort of voodoo magic you're left with precisely 62pts for Luke!

I don’t know if I’m the only one to notice this, but when snap shot comes out in wave 5 wouldn’t his ability trigger off that attack? Effectively giving him one more “coordinate” per turn. To a max of 3 when using cluster missiles.

I can’t get over this Cracken cluster idea.. so I’m putting this on the table tomorrow night:

Red Squadron

(36) Airen Cracken [Z-95-AF4 Headhunter]
(5) Cluster Missiles
(1) Munitions Failsafe
Points: 42

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
(0) Servomotor S-foils
Points: 62

(48) Biggs Darklighter [T-65 X-wing]
(0) Servomotor S-foils
Points: 48

(43) Red Squadron Veteran [T-65 X-wing]
(0) Servomotor S-foils
(3) Selfless
Points: 46

Total points: 198

Cracken makes just makes it rain actions while all 3 x-wings are putting out focus locked shots. With Biggs and selfless it’s going to take some time to take down Cracken or Luke.

47 minutes ago, player3719000 said:

I don’t know if I’m the only one to notice this, but when snap shot comes out in wave 5 wouldn’t his ability trigger off that attack? Effectively giving him one more “coordinate” per turn. To a max of 3 when using cluster missiles.

Cluster Missiles' second attack is a bonus attack, and I believe Snap Shot is also a bonus attack. IIRC you only get 1 bonus attack per turn, so I'm afraid you're still limited to 2 coordinates per turn.

Well gosh diggity darn. You are correct my friend. Thank you for staying on top of the rules.

21 minutes ago, player3719000 said:

Well gosh diggity darn. You are correct my friend. Thank you for staying on top of the rules.

It would give him another option to achieve that though.

That is what I was thinking as well. It would possibly allow the ship to clear the stress after performing the red action. Depending on the timing of the attack

I like the thought but I believe Wedge would be a better choice than Luke.

I’ve tried this option a couple of matches. Both wins. First match against a competitive player, second game against a fairly new player.

Fabulous 5’s

(36) Airen Cracken [Z-95-AF4 Headhunter]
(5) Cluster Missiles
Points: 41

(48) Thane Kyrell [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 48

(43) Jan Ors [HWK-290 Light Freighter]
(6) Leia Organa
Points: 49

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
Points: 62

Total points: 200

On 7/30/2019 at 8:58 PM, Greebwahn said:

Give Airen munitions failsafe! Literally endless supply of 2 actions a round!

You expect to get your charge back after you cancel the dice from your bonus attack, but not the first attack?

Good luck trying to convince your opponent or a judge about it.

Cluster missiles have 4 charges, 4 time for double bonus actions for Cracken. Seems plenty.

Pairing Cracken with Ten Numb might be good ina non init 5 list.

51 minutes ago, LUZ_TAK said:

You expect to get your charge back after you cancel the dice from your bonus attack, but not the first attack?

Good luck trying to convince your opponent or a judge about it.

The consensus in this rules forum thread seems to say its valid. I flew it in league play the other night and no one batted an eye. All they said was, "Dang that is janky."

I tried a version of Failsafe/Cluster Craken last week with 2 Proton Y's and Arvel with Intimidation, all with Swarm Tactics to shoot at I5 in any order I choose.

I went 1-2. (One loss because I forgot to use Intimiation when Arvel blocked Quickdraw in the first round of shooting. She ended the round on 1 hull and half way through the next round when I blocked an FO, my opponent realized he rolled too many dice for Quickdraw on all 4 attacks and offered to redo the rolls. I said my list, my mistake. Quickdraw survived to time and took out 2 of my ships after that.)

I had a ton of fun with the list but at the end of the day, the combo almost never worked after the fist pass, either because Craken was dead or the formation broke down due to the limited blue on the Y dial and could not stay in range for the extra actions and I was left with a 4 ship squad with all 2 primaries.

My next step was to try it with some X-Wings and these ideas look like a lot of fun.

22 hours ago, pickirk01 said:

The consensus in this rules forum thread seems to say its valid. I flew it in league play the other night and no one batted an eye. All they said was, "Dang that is janky."

I see... I still think it's both abusive and not in the spirit of the cards involved, but to each it's own.

I'm nevertheless interested in trying this soon:

Airen Cracken, cluster missiles, marksmanship (or munition failsafe)

AP5, Leia, Elusive, Chopper, extra shield

Ten Numb, FCS, autoblasters, marksmanship

Braylen Stramm, FCS, autoblasters, marksmanship

I’m really enjoying versions of these lists with init 5. It’s very convenient to be able to change the order of who moves and / or shoots first. I wish I had understood this trick earlier!!

3 hours ago, LUZ_TAK said:

I see... I still think it's both abusive and not in the spirit of the cards involved, but to each it's own.

I'm nevertheless interested in trying this soon:

Airen Cracken, cluster missiles, marksmanship (or munition failsafe)

AP5, Leia, Elusive, Chopper, extra shield

Ten Numb, FCS, autoblasters, marksmanship

Braylen Stramm, FCS, autoblasters, marksmanship

Interesting combination to have ten and braylen stressed that way.. and ap5 able to coordinate stressed b-wings!

4 hours ago, Minimono said:

Interesting combination to have ten and braylen stressed that way.. and ap5 able to coordinate stressed b-wings!

I was thinking about pairing them: Airen with Ten, that can manage more stress tokens than most, and AP5 with Braylen, that is better with just one stress token and AP5 can still coordinate him.

Second red maneuvre from Airen could fuel AP5 regen action, or more actions for Ten. I get the feeling you would only want to use it sparringly.

I' reconsidering moving some of the defense of AP-5 into Cracken. I find the idea of the two.droids flying toghether bickering while Leia tries to keep her cool hilarious... but I might have overdone it and left Cracken too easy a target.