In an effort to keep trying out new things, I played a game today with Horton+ion+engine upgrade. I found the boost option to be handy, keeping him pretty mobile and getting me out of some firing arcs (since I moved close to last), while still giving me a shot with the ion.

Of course, it was only one game…anyone else taken a boosted Y-Wing out for a spin? If so, how did it go?

i havent.. but i love the idea.

I will try it soon.

It's fun, but I'm not looking for ways to make Horton cost more.

Yeah…I know it's pricy point-wise, but I'm not sure the boost action would be as effective with a lower skill pilot. I'll need to play with it some more, but for now it seems like a nice "clean-up" unit to knock that last point off of ties or capitalize on a stressed ship by slapping an ion token on it. That last bit of movement can easily make the difference between Range 3 and Range 2 for the ion cannon, and if I'm already in good position I always have the focus to tack on.

Good excuse to get in more games for play testing

Actually, my buddy played it just like you did!

Already, we are starting to figure out tactics and strategy that works well with other ships.

That Y-Wing basically made my Darth Vader useless, but… the downside is that with the heavy points, he may make team building a bit challenging.

That Ion weapon is so dangerous!

I do really like the idea of it on Horton despite the points, i think it can essentially replace a torp on him if you just want to maximize the ion effectiveness for the same points. You trade of the alpha strike but get alot more control over the board over the course of the game. Or you play cheap A-wings or something and spring for both While it may not be too difficult to always have SOMETHING in the sweet spot of 2 range to be able to use the cannon with his ability, being able to move from range 3 to 2 on that target you REALLY wanted with the ion cannon cause it's stressed or staring at an asteroid is AWESOME. Also, keeping a 2 range buffer at times to not get ripped to shreds by a couple ties AND have better odds at stunning one and leaving it in ur dust is pretty clutch too. Or just avoiding firing arcs altogether like any high skill pilot can do with boost/barrel roll like you said. I suppose you could make the argument that if ur at range 1 of the target ur gonna try to ion, you could just focus and have the same odds of rolling a hit as boosting to range 2 to get the reroll, and you may even get to miraculously use the focus for defense as the turn plays out, but maybe ending the turn where the boost leaves you is just as advantagous depending on where everyone else is (fire arcs asteroids etc.)

It just synergizes with his ability so much better than say Dutch for staying in that sweet spot, AND he happens to be the highest skill Y-wing. It might be OK on a generic cause its still not terribly expensive, but I'm not sure what you'd really get out of it since you'd prob rather target lock with ur action (actually that right there is reason enough to never use this on Dutch), and the low skill hurts.

Lol, and actually one more cool thing with it for any Y-wing but especially horton is when you do ion something, there is sometimes a tendency to try to stay on that target to keep it locked down (especially guys with stress tokens). Normally this makes the Y-wings moves failry predictable since you know where the tie is gonna be, but its kinda cool that instead of matching the TIE's 1 foward or w/e you could do like a 4 foward and then the boost would help you make it all the way to range 2 on the far side of him or something like that to make ur movement's less predictable.

I've been playing with the Shield upgrade on “Dutch” well he leads a Gold Squadron build to good effect but I may try the engine upgrade.