Looking for suggestions on a 100 point build for Rebels and Imps (my first attempt below)

Pilots
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Wedge Antilles (39)
Upgrades: R5-D8 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Marksmanship (3)

Biggs Darklighter (29) (Tank)
Upgrades: R2-D2 (4)

"Dutch" Vander (32)
Upgrades: Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

and for IMPS

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Vader Team
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Death Star Run
100 points

Pilots
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Dark Curse (16)

Night Beast (15)

Darth Vader (36)
Upgrades: Cluster Missiles (4), Marksmanship (3)

Backstabber (16)

Black Squadron Pilot (17)
Upgrades: Marksmanship (3)

Pelagius said:

Rebels:

I would do some swapping around with upgrades. R2-F2 is more effective than R2-D2 for Biggs, since he'll be taking fire from multiple targets each round, and that saves you a point.

Marksmanship is also probably not the best choice for Wedge; offensively it's not much better than Target Lock, and unlike Focus it doesn't have a defensive option. IMO Wedge works better with something like Expert Handling, which allows him to execute barrel rolls, or Swarm Tactics, which allows one of your other pilots to shoot before any other pilot except Vader or a mirror Wedge. Using one of those instead of Marksmanship frees up another point, which you can use for…

R5-K6 on Dutch. It sometimes allows him to maintain his own target lock, which is nice; even better, it allows him to hand out a second target lock to another nearby pilot. It works particularly well in conjuction with Swarm Tactics on Wedge.

***

Empire:

To start, Vader is an excellent pilot, and Marksmanship is better on him than on any other pilot currently in the game because he doesn't have to sacrifice his defense or maneuvering to pick up the benefit. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the Black Squadron Pilot, who doesn't get much more out of Marksmanship than he would out of Focus. So I would take those 17 points and turn them into something else.

Meanwhile, I'm genuinely on the fence about missiles on Vader. On the one hand, it provides you with a nicely devastating early strike that will at least pull the shields away from a Rebel pilot, and stands a good chance of wiping a TIE fighter off the board. On the other hand, the missile is preventing you from adding another whole TIE fighter to your list: if you take the Black Squadron and Night Beast out, plus 4 from the missiles, you can add in three Academy Pilots. That's not a recommendation, but it's worth thinking about whether that's a trade worth making.

Regardless of what you do with either list, make sure you test it in a couple of matches… I'm not an experienced wargamer, but my experience with other games says there's no substitute for sitting down at the table. Good luck!

Thank you. I shall test your suggestions tonight.

How about this:

EMPIRE

100 points

Pilots
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Dark Curse (16)

Darth Vader (32)
Upgrades: Marksmanship (3)

Backstabber (16)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

REBELLION

100 points

Pilots
------

Wedge Antilles (38)
Upgrades: R5-D8 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4), Swarm Tactics (2)

Biggs Darklighter (28)
Upgrades: R2-F2 (3)

"Dutch" Vander (34)
Upgrades: R5-K6 (2), Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

(one addition was R5D8 for Wedge )

thoughts?

Your Imperial list is almost the exact same as mine, but I gave Vader swarm tactics to allow an academy pilot shoot first, and upgraded backstabber to Mauler, who's lethal up close and personal.

I'm torn between using R5-D8 on Wedge, or swapping it for a generic Astromech in order to win the initiative at 98 points. I also think I would rather use Wedge's action to Focus to maximize damage with a Focus/Target Lock combo.

Alamoth said:

I think there's an argument for building short at 99, but particularly for the Rebels I wouldn't go any lower. There are just way too many interesting things to do with those points.

EDIT: To be clear, what I mean is that I'm mostly sold on the idea that gaining a better chance to win initiative is worth 1 point. That's the cost of a generic astromech or Determination, and I'm okay setting those aside.

But at 2 points, you're attempting to gain initiative (which really means breaking ties on pilot skill) by setting aside Swarm Tactics or Expert Handling or Squad Leader, and I just don't think it's worth giving one of those up.