Got another match in with my Y-Wings tonight against an Imperial force at 100 points. Y-Wings loadout was:

Dutch - R5-K6, Double Torps, Ion Cannon

Gray Sq Pilot - R2-D2, Double Torps, Ion Cannon

Gold Sq Pilot - R5-D8, Double Torps

vs. The Imperials:

Howlrunner

2 TIE Advanced, Tempest Squadron - Cluster Missiles

2 TIE Black Squadron Pilots

We used a 3x3 board, and he wanted double asteroids so we set up 12 of our 3D asteroids.

Imps had Initiative

Closed the first two turns, Y-Wings moving slowly. I've really found I like sticking below 3 with the Y-Wings unless absolutely necessary or a really good opportunity presents itself. Stress tokens on Y-Wings are NOT good. Imps peeled off one Black Squadron to try to come in from the side. The other 4 came in together.

Did some decent damage with Torp volleys on the approach. No kills, but stripped some shields from the TIE Advanced ships and did some damage to one of the Black Squadron TIEs. As the Imps closed, one TIE Advanced bumped another TIE and missed his chance to lock for Cluster Missiles and the other was a Nervous Needa about his shields being down and used an Evade token instead of locking. HUGE mistake as he probably could have crippled a Y-Wing (though that isn't a given, I was untouched at that point) with a missile volley. Ion Cannons hit two Imps, one destroyed as the IC did the final point to it and the other was an Advanced that took a hull hit. No one delivered a Crit the entire game. My Gold Squadron pilot got lit up and lost his shields and took a point of hull damage. He pulled away the next round to let R5-D8 fix it. Meanwhile, Dutch and the Gray Squadron Pilot pulled a couple of nice turns and kept peppering the Imps with Ion Cannons (and Torps as targets of opportunity presented themselves).

We had agreed to play a 75 minute game to see how far we got and it ended in a victory for the Rebels. The Y-Wings had killed Howlrunner and 1 each of the Black Squadron and Tempest Squadron pilots and didn't lose a single Y-Wing (though Dutch had no shields and had taken 2 hull points and the Gold Pilot had no shields and had taken 1 hull point. Gray Squadron Pilot was unscathed). Win for Y-Wings!

Ion Cannons and Torps combo is freaking amazing. Especially with Dutch handing out Target Locks left and right. Allowed me to Focus with Gray and Gold, get Locks from Dutch (one from his action, a second possible when he spends one and uses R5-K6) before they shoot. Really nice to give a pounding on the approach with the Torps with both Lock and Focus. The use the Ion Cannons to either pop a damaged ship to kill it or just hit a couple of them to foul up their (and usually other TIEs) move next turn. The combo is fantastic. And it really frees up a lot of maneuvering tactics for the Y-Wings. Makes them able to cover each other amazingly well also. I think I used the primary weapons maybe two or three times the whole game. And was able to use all six Torps.

Can't wait to get more practice with these guys!

Jim

Great to see someone breaking some Ties with the Y-wings!

Lots of people here seem to think that they arent all that great… maybe they just arent using them right!

Thanks for the report.

The force is strong with this one…

Y-Wings can be useful when the enemy is playing Tie Advance, and can be fun to play for casual play.

In a competitive tournament setting of 100 points someone running 8 Tie Fighters really diminishes the points put into Ion Guns and torpedos, and the amount of firepower from the ties vs the Y-Wing low manuevering means a swarm of regular ties demolishes and all y-wing force.

That said I think the Y-Wings have their place, especially with an X-wing Wingman.

The only thing I noticed is that your at 104 points and your opponent was at 96 if my math is correct, that would of allowed him to drop the two black squadron ties for a trio of academy pilots or buy 8 points of upgrades or left you one torpedo short of what was fielded.

Other than that though well done nice to see again some Y-wings doing well.

I believe Y-wings are mostly useful against lower-skilled enemies. This is key because it allows them to get in range 3 and perform a target lock, while maintaining the enemy at range 3, thus getting the extra bonus defense die. If the enemy is a higher-skilled pilot, the Y-wing moves first, closes the distance to get a target lock (for proton torpedoes), but the enemy moves after that and closes the range further, potentially into range 1 of the Y-wing. That negates the chance to use the torpedoes and gives the enemy a bonus attack die. If you can't move last with the Y-wing, I feel it's a lot harder to set up a good opening proton torpedo volley. Against the six named TIE pilots, this is really hard to do, but against the 8-TIE swarm of Academy Pilots, a 3-Y-wing squad should stand a good chance of crippling and potentially killing 3 TIEs, knocking the resistance down to 5 (in the best case scenario) in the opening attack. With judicious use of R2-F2, R5-D8, and of course R2-D2, I think a squad of Y-wings could really give a TIE swarm some trouble. Oooo, now I really want to try this out! If only I had 1 more Y-wing …

winters_night said:

That was actually me copying "Double Torps" and not fixing it on the Gold Squadron Pilot…He only had one Torp Card.

I'm not sure about the Imps, the player told me they were 100 but I didn't check his math. I could also be off on exactly what he had.

Jim

As a normally Imperial player, I can honestly say I hate Ion Cannons… ;p