I have had a lot of success against HSF using the straightforward 2 Firesprays with HLC. I have run several variations of this, but in the end the fact that you can dish out more damage than the Falcon per turn and have enough Shields and Hull on them to live long enough to finish him is key. Of course, you have to get those shots or you lose, so Engine Upgrade has been critical in order to ensure that Han is always in a firing arc.

Still a very good list, but I believe the addition of two high-firepower fighters will reduce HSF pretty dramatically. I don't believe the APLs, Saboteurs, or Navigators are going to be worthwhile additions to the HSF list. In the end, HSF does well because it can consistently fire 3 dice for damage and has a lot of hull to absorb return fire. None of those cards improve what the HSF list does, and some just plain don't work. For example, APLs only work when somebody runs into the Falcon, but the strength of Han (or Lando) is he has a high PS. Which means he will almost never move first, dramatically reducing the effectiveness of APLs. Saboteur requires an action, when another of HSFs advantages is that the Falcon doesn't need to be overly concerned about avoiding collisions because he fires well regardless. Finally, Navigator is less useful as well just because again HSF doesn't need to worry overmuch about avoiding collisions.

@KineticOperator,

I worry about the TIE Swarm that has bombers in it. The problem is while the bombers focus on the YT-100 they are ignoring the X-wings. What are you running on the Firesprays? I've been facing those lists since the day after the Kessel Runs and haven't had too much problem taking them out. I've faced this list several times. Is it close to what you run?

Yes, very similar. I run various versions, depending, and have run that exact list a few times (I have only gone 50% with that list, 5-5 to be specific). Maybe they aren't running the lists well? I find that I can bring Han down in 3-4 turns, and 2 X-Wings vs. my remaining Firespray is usually a pretty easy win. I generally find gunner to be a waste, since it is very rare to actually miss, especially vs. a YT. 2 gunners is 10 points down the drain, I would be surprised if either gunner activates even once vs. a YT and 2 X-Wings.

Krassis (HLC, Seismic, Engine), Kath (PTL, Slave-1, Proton, Seismic, Engine) is my current favorite. Just play it conservatively, use Boosts to make it hard for the X-Wings to get shots and to keep the YT in firing arcs. Your first priority is to keep incoming damage to 1 or 2 per turn if possible while shooting with both Firesprays. Don't leave yourself exposed to anything you can avoid no matter how much it improves your offense, and don't use the PT on the first pass. Use it when Han turns to chase Krassis so that Crit doesn't get wasted on shields, at the very least it will use up Chewbacca, or use it at range 3 to get a quick kill vs. an X-Wing you otherwise couldn't finish off with one shot. The biggest advantage the Firesprays have is their big ship base + boost allows them to fly rings around the smaller ships and avoid their shots while making sure somebody ends up in that big rear arc, not their shields or health or firepower.

Certainly I don't have 100% success, the HSF list is too effective for any other list to have a major advantage against it. Still, I am 70% or so vs. HSF with variations of this list, which is the most success I have found so far. That being said, when running 2 x Firesprays I would rather face almost anything other than HSF. One or two bad turns and HSF will send me packing, whereas most other lists are less brutal.

The other list I have used with success vs. HSF is:

3 x Avenger Squadron

1 x Black Squadron (Draw their Fire, Shield Upgrade)

1 x Howlrunner (PTL)

The Black Squadron does a good job of spreading the damage around, keeping ships alive. It is especially effective vs. HSF because I often find myself with a hit and a crit vs. an Avenger, and I am able to spread the hits between the Avenger and the BS pilot and keep them both online. Howlrunner is a priority target, but she is evading and focused so she is able to mitigate incoming damage very well and shooting her leaves the ships with the actual firepower on the table with their focus tokens still available. Again, HSF has a tendency to go nuts every once in a while and start dishing out huge hits, but barring that you can often just take advantage of the fact that you have more dice to throw in order to win.

Picasso, you may want to try running Chewie with Expert handling and a Navigator. You will be surprised at how well you are able to get out of firing arcs this way. I of course ran it on a Firespray, but it was quite effective. By dishing points off of Han, you may be able to upgrade one of your X's to Wedge, although I haven't figured out the points exactly. I think last week I ran a chewie/wedge/prototype (or maybe Green) list with Expert Handling on both Wedge and Chewie. It did pretty well. Tinker, give it a shot, see what you think.

Hothie,

I think I'm going to give that a try. I think I'm going to swap out the YT-100 pilots. Lando with some A-wings and Chewie with some named pilots. I'm thinking Garvin and wedge?

i think TIE swarms are now going to be 6 ships, with a mixture of Squints and Eyeballs. I just don't see the Wave 1 7-TIE swarms being nearly as effective now. Although, I dfo want to play my Worlds squad at some point, maybe _if_ I win one of the regionals, I'll go to another Regional with my Worlds list and see how I do.

I really don't know. I have beaten any 6 and less imperial "swarm" with HSF and quite consistently and convincingly. I lost either Han or the X-wings but at that point the game was won pretty much every time. But I have lost to 8 and 7 ship old-school swarms.

I agree that the new imperial lists with a mix of Interceptors and Fighters are overall better than the wave 1 style lists, but against HSF in special, I am not convinced this is the case

This is what I went with.

HSF WITH A-WING & X-WING

99 points

58 points

Han Solo

Marksmanship, Chewbacca, Gunner

24 points

Red Squadron Pilot

R2 Astromech

17 points

Prototype Pilot

HSF WITH A-WING SUPPORT

100 points

58 points

Han Solo

Marksmanship, Chewbacca, Gunner

23 points

Arvel Crynyd

19 points

Green Squadron Pilot

HAN SHOT FIRST

Picasso's Since November

100 points

58 points

Han Solo

Marksmanship, Gunner, Chewbacca

21 points

Rookie Pilot #2

21 points

Rookie Pilot #1

This league just wrapped up so I wanted to come back to this thread. I went 5-2-1. Taking second.

My draw was to a Wedge Han list, our Han's killed each other because I couldn't roll an evade all game. Honestly not one.

I lost two a two bounty hunter list when I was flying two A-wings instead of the two X-wings. Just not enough firepower.

I lost to my Cuz as well. He flew his disgusting five tie swarm and I did two damage to his last TIE and he did three to put my Han away. My Cuz won the league with only one loss. He flew great.

At my local game store I'm seeing people fly lots of B-wings. I've been flying a six tie swarm because of this and it has been holding up well. Also because of the amount of time I've spent flying HSF, I find that I can take HSF lists with the six tie swarm.

I really don't like the build with Han/Gunner. I find the reduancy too much and hardly used during a game.

Here is the han build I had made awhile back

Han Solo

Determination

Millenium Falcon Title

Chewbacca

Rookie with R2 and Proton

Rookie with R2

The squad balances out the firepower a little bit. Han is such an offensive beast that I felt it was more important to have my damage elsewhere. Hence the Proton. Han is also very susceptible to damage, hence the determination.

I'd also like to fluff in my squad I played at nationals

This particular squad tore apart HSF builds for a few reasons. 1) The interceptors become rather hard to hit with focus/evade tokens. 2) Han only gets to go after 1 per round, the other two x-wings are easy enough to move around.

3) I get my shot rerolls

I find that the defensive ability of this build is balanced equally with it's offensive potential.

@Macar

To each their own. Here is the logic around how I built this list. I know there are a lot of negative things to say about this list but I will say this, I built this list because I wanted to fly Han Solo. I'll also say I've yet to see someone fly it like I do. I'm not saying I win all the time but I win a lot with it. I do know if worlds was tomorrow I would be taking a HSF list or a seven tie swarm. My Cuz flye a seven Tie similar to the one you listed above. He won the above league flying it, shredding Han lists. That being said he lost to me this week and it wasn't close at all. To each their own.

http://swcommonground.com/2013/04/04/han-shoots-first-a-squad-by-ryan-picasso-krippendorf/

I'm curious as to how you would run this differently than an average player.

You would be surprised. A lot of people are. Like I said before, I've spotted people an extra TIE and pulled out the win.

Mind going into some detail or give a battle report when you have time?

I'm wondering how this might work wit a B-Wing or two. You can get more accurate firepower w/ b-wings with fire control systems and you get extra hit points. The down side is, you'd probably need to drop the marksmanship and / or the gunner from Han to really squeeze in the points.

It's a nasty list that I always hate to see across the table. I am curious how you're flying too and/or about your competition level; especially since you've been cryptic about how you are so different than everyone and that is your key to victory.

Does it disturb anyone else that, essentially, the only effective counter to a list featuring a decked out large ship is to use TWO large ships? The YT-1300 and the Firespray seem under-costed for what they can do in capable hands with carefully selected upgrades.

I don't want to talk much about the way I fly it. It's part of my strategy and I use that same strategy with other lists. If you find my regional report it might give you some insight. My gaming group does contain the current North American champion and another top 16 from GenCon. Honestly the competition in the Milwaukee area is tough. If you don't bring your A game every week you fall behind.

It can be countered with any list. It's about how you fly.

I don't want to talk much about the way I fly it. It's part of my strategy and I use that same strategy with other lists. If you find my regional report it might give you some insight. My gaming group does contain the current North American champion and another top 16 from GenCon. Honestly the competition in the Milwaukee area is tough. If you don't bring your A game every week you fall behind.

Here in Indy we have two top 16 winners so I know the feeling. (FFG Maneuver Templates FTW)

I will say that I'm sick of flying against multiple B-wings. Also Chewie and two B-wings.