I've run imps swarms of various arrangements and 3-ship rebel builds of Luke-Wedge-Biggs and the like, but after mulling over the meta in my area of probably seeing a lot of Imp swarm builds for the upcoming KRT and wanting to maybe try something different, I'm debating running:

Total Squad Points: 100

Group #1:
Garven + R2-D2 =30

Red Squadron Pilot =23

Group #2:

Dutch + R5 = 24

Red Squadron Pilot =23

The hope would be for Garven and Dutch to hand off focus and TL respectively to their Red Squad wingmen so that the Reds can (ideally) get TL + focus shots each turn. The midrange pilot skills put the groups moving after TIE scrubs for (easier TL selection) but shooting first.

I see the low overall pilot skills giving me problems with Swarm tactics and "TIE Stars" builds where I shoot later (thus the title of the post), but it is a four ship build that is x-wing heavy, so hopefully I could get some early kills in to break combos up and even the odds early. I'm not committed to the upgrades either, but with 5 points I didn't see one set of protons being a dependable option.

Thoughts? Anyone tried a group like this?

It's worked okay in my local group as long as the Imperials don't build for early position in the firing order.

But I would drop R2-D2 and the R5 astromech for an ion cannon on Dutch.

Yeah…way better option for the 5 points…I always put ions on y-wings and have no idea why I spaced that off…..

I also tried the three x-wing force and got destroyed by my wife's Imp force repeatedly. I then moved a similiar force and got my man card back.

Garven

Dutch with Ion Cannon R5-K6

2x rookie pilots

This is only 98 points which I am ok with because I like having initive. With everything working correctly I have 3 ships with focus and target lock and dutch gets his target lock. With a little practice if you move dutch last you can run him into your own ships so he does not have to move and can just sit in one spot and pump out target locks. If you sit him in Asteroids your oppenents will either ignore him and go after those without cover or push a bad position to get after dutch. R5-K6 has worked absolute wonders for me. Good luck with what you decide to run.

cbtmed101 said:

I'm hoping you mean that metaphorically, as if you ACTUALLY run him into stuff, he doesn't get his action, and so can not give target locks to anyone else either.

I like the idea of this squad, and in fact had to re-do my own 4 X-wing build earlier becuase of over-reliance on torps, and had come up with Garven/Dutch/2x red's myself, as well as Wedge(swarm)/Biggs/Red/Rook as an alternative with a different focus

Actually I wasn't. Wow I cant believed we missed the rule on ships overlapping. Thank you for mentioning something or we would have looked like idiots showing up to a tournament. Any way still a good list and remember that the ability for the rebel pilots is range 1-2 where benefits imperials give to each other is range 1, so you can use that to your advantage and spread your ships out more and hopefully spread out imperial swarm lists.

Have to be careful when facing with Imp players with Darth Vader and another Tie Advanced. If each of them carry missiles, they can focus their attack on Dutch due to its low Agility. Often I see that Dutch does not last more than the Third Round (often the first round is just about maneuvering without attacking).

brightknight_216 said:

Same idea, but I think most Imp players would just focus on Garvin. In total, both are around the same point value, but it is strategically better for the Imp player to utilize their concussion missles on taking out the 3AT/2AG ship than the 3AT/1AG (assuming Ion for 3AT). This leaves the other lower agility one remaining for clean up later in the game. Not to mention needing 3 less hits to take the lead early in the game.

Highball said:

I can see where you're coming from, but in a tournament where you're trying to rack up kills as fast as you can, unloading on the guy with the weakest defense will secure you some points early on, not to mention get rid of that pesky ion cannon [shudder].

Parakitor said:

Remember that using Darth Vadar will likely have TL and Focus when he shoots his missile. The likely outcome is 3-4 damage. With 3-5 other attackers on the team, the likely outcome would be to be able to complete the 1-2 damage remaining to kill on an X-Wing in one round rather the 4-5 needed to finish off a Y-Wing in one round. At range 3 (typical for the opening exchange) you are using 2 attack dice on TIEs and the likely damage is ~0.5 successful hits per attack.

Being able to destroy either type of ship is possible in one round, but if the goal is for a 1 round kill I think it is more likely to happen on an X-Wing and the added benefit of taking out the higher attacker is larger on a long term basis for the game.