Hi folks,

I'm new here and pretty new to X-wing as well. I've always been an outside the box thinker, always looking to do something different. With that in mind I've tried to make an all Y-wing force but I'm not sure about it. They seem to get a bad rap on here and among other players I've talked too. So, any advice for this newb. Any other Y-wing enthusiasts out there?

Thanks!

Well, I played against my first Y-Wing today and that 1 defense die was pretty lame. Even with all those shields and hull points, the thing was taken down too quickly by concentrated fire from 6 tie fighters.

Mind you, my opponent thought that he was going to shove the Y-Wing straight through the center and hope that the hull and shields would hold until it was behind the line. Perhaps my opponent was relying too much on that turret of his.

I run mine usually up the side, and get into the backfield as quick as possible, then run is along the back. It causes disruption more then anything, if my opponent turns to shoot then I hit with other ships and slow up to take shots, or I hit the ion cannon and slow the ships down. I think I have learned early, its unlike to last all that long. Use it while you got it and make the most of it while you do.

I run a 3 Y-Wing build and it does just fine. Loads of fun to play and I win more with it than I lose. And even the losses are usually fairly close. I've only been blown off the table (lost all 3, got no kills) once. Just ran it last night in our league and got a win and a loss.

Try them out, they're fun!

Jim

Thing to remember is the Y-Wing is not the main fighter. They're almost pure support. Disrupt with your Ion or gun boat it from a distance with your protons. Make good use of the unique pilots if you have them to snipe or hand out massive target locks. If you do that you'll be far enough back that the enemy will be taking the range 3 penalty anyway and the 1 agility wont hurt as much.

Like all ships Y-wings have their Pros and Cons

Pros- They can take a beating; they can take 8 total hits. That is almost three times what a TIE can take

They are cheap. If you are trying to put more ships in the field, gold squardon is the cheapest the rebels have.

Cons- They only have two attack dice, that is the same as a TIE, but it shure doesn't feel like much compared to the X-wings' three.

They only have 1-agility dice. This can make those 3 shield and 5 hull points dissapear really quickly.

They aren't really that manuverable. For example a hard 3 turn is a red manuver.

I left upgrades until last. Andy they are a huge deal with Y-wings. With two torpedo slots, a droid slot and a turret slot, you can quickly spend any points you saved, by taking the cheaper y-wing. Ion cannon turrets are really a good upgrade and some might conside them a no-brainer for the y-wing. As a fighter-bomer y-wings can also take 2 proton torpedoes.

My recomendation is that you either take the torpedoes or the Ion cannon. I think they just const too much with both.

So how do you use them.

1- 18 points is pretty cheap for 8 hits of damage to soak up. Y-wings are pretty easy to hurt, but they take time to kill. If your 18 point ship drew fire away rom Wedge for 2 turns, then they were points well spent.

2- With an Ion-cannon, I think this is the most popular way. enough has been said about this deployment and I agree with most of what has been said.

3- with 2 proton torpedoes. This is my least favorite way, 8 points is just a lot of points to spend on Upgrades that will be gone by the second turn. But each torpedo has a pretty good chance of killing a TIE and then your opponents numbers advantage might just have evaporated

4- Don't forget Dutch. I love having him feed Wedge target locks.

I got hosed out by a 3 Y Wing list a few weeks ago, the Ion cannons disrupting ships and a few proton torpedoes thrown in to cull out TIEs. The other guy did play better than me to be sure and I would do better against it now, but the three working together were tough.

Chris

Hrathen said:

I don't think the above listed pro does much in the face of the con of 1 agility die, but it may last a turn longer with luck. It's so hard to recommend a base model generic y-wing.

1 and 2. A 18 point Y-wing will never, ever draw fire away from Wedge. Ever. Spend the extra 5 points to get a ion cannon though… and it might. 18 points is relatively cheap, but it's not inexpensive for the rebels, sadly. If a player has 18 points left to play with while trying to make a 4 ship squad, that player should maybe rethink his strategy. That's just my opinion, though.

3. Yep. Proton torpedoes are definitely a gamble.

4. Dutch is the best Y-Wing pilot we have right now. I say he's better than Salm, because Salm uses the Y-Wing as a gunboat and Dutch uses the Y-Wing as a support craft. Once Salm uses his torps, he's not as useful unless you tossed a cannon on him(hopefully he doesn't have to be), but Dutch is useful throughout.

What I found is that the Y-wing needs a wingman. Pair him up with Biggs and R2-D2 and watch your opponent get pissed.

Ion cannons are almost an auto include. I like to fire it and let my X-wing allies tear them up. Protons are alright, except under General Salm, then they get much deadlier with his ability.

I have only fielded the Grey Squadron pilot once. They're not worth it to me. You spend 2 extra points for a little better pilot ability, which will only allow you to shoot before. Personally, I'd rather use that 2 points towards an astromech or buying ion cannons or maybe protons with a little extra.

Yeah, Grey Squadrons are only just as good as Black Squadron TIEs, IIRC, which I don't think is good enough to justify taking them. Both Dutch and Salm have really great abilities that make them very good candidates for lists to a much greater extent than an extra PS4 Ion Cannon, in my opinion.

Rooks Rules for Y-Wing Deployment:

1. Ion Turrets are not optional equipment.

2. R5 Astromechs are not optional equipment.

3. R2D2 is somehow never enough, or too much on a Y-Wing.(Also, see Rule #2.)

4. If your force includes only 1 Y-Wing, then it should also include Biggs Darklighter escorting it.

5. Proton Torpedoes are not optional equipment for Horton Salm. 1 is standard, but the other is filler.

6. The Force is with "Dutch" Vander and Garven Dreis, as long as they're within Range 1 of each other.

7. No matter your combination, Y-Wings suffer from separation anxiety, and by suffer, I mean die.

You really prefer R5s to R2s?

The R2's can help out but the Y Wing still handles like a Mac Truck. The R5's ability to grant the Y's immunity to crits will come up regularly with their 5 Hull.

magadizer said:

Easily. The turret really relieves the maneuvering dial more than an R2 for me.

CaptainRook said:

This. Free actions = Great actions. These two plus two lower skill ships with Swarm Tactics on Garvey means damage acceleration and lots of it.

I just picked up 2 more Y-wings, so I now have a set of three, and after reading up a bit I think I'm going to try this…..

Dutch Vader w/R2D2 and 2 Proton Torps
Gold Squadron w/R5, 2 Proton Torps and Ion Turret x2

99 points and I'm debating upping one of the R5 to an R5-K6….I'll see what happens

BigDogg said:

Two things:

1. This squad is hard to win with (to me) but a fun challenge. Others have reported good success on forums with a 3 Y-wing build, while some people laugh in the face of it. Personally, I think the lack of maneuvering makes it a challenging but not impossible build to use.

2. I love the idea of Dutch Vader: maybe he has a wooden helmet or practices lightsaber duelling with windmills or something.

Thanks for all the replies guys! Really good advice and insight there. I ordered two more Y-wings last night and I'm thinking of running this list.

Dutch w/Ion Cannon

Gold Squadron w/Ion Cannon x2

Rookie X-wing

This gives me a four ship build and I still have 5 points for a couple of droids or whatever. Any suggestions on what to do with the last 5 points?

Thanks!

May the force be with you.

magadizer said:

2 Torpedoes on any Y-Wing other than Horton is just a total waste. I've run Dutch, Horton and Gold together a few times with no losses of any of them. The maneuvering isn't that difficult, and made all that much easier that you don't have to juggle your firing arc with your opponent's, you only have to worry so much about dodging theirs.

Did anyone catch this?

eldiablito said:

I don't know about you, but I don't think any ship will do well under "concentrated fire from 6 tie fighters"…

I read it as 'I didn't employ my Y-Wing properly and maneuvered in such a way it got overwhelmed, so it must suck.' and moved on with my life. We can compare base stats all day long, but you'll never be able to account for the most important part of the game, which is maneuvering.

radioactivemouse said:

Y-Wings are great! It takes 6 tie fighters pooling all of their efforts to take one down quickly.