I have been giving some serious thought to the named rebel pilots and a good load out for them.

I had originally gone with the idea of an R2 unit for green moves and push the limit for a second action (with or without taking an Engine upgrade).

It seemed to be a no brainer, 2 actions a turn, easy to shed stress, BUT without an engine Upgrade all that left was Focus and Target Lock every round, with an Engine upgrade, still not a great choice, basically always Focus plus either Target Lock or Boost.

So I had a rethink and took out PtL and added Expert Handling. Now I can Focus, target Lock or Boost with action 1, then I can barrel roll and break a target lock on me with action 2.

I did some testing and the added manuverability and choice of actions, plus the bonus of breaking locks meant I could really keep my X-Wings out of even Interceptor firing arcs and if I did end in a firing arc I was able to position another fighter to fire on the opponents offending ship.

This obviously only works with Luke and Wedge.

I came up with this list.

Luke, Engine Upgrade, Expert Handling, R2 Astromech

Wedge, Engine Upgrade, Expert handling, R2 astromech

It then comes down to taste of either

Tycho, Push the Limit

or

Red Squadron Pilot, Engine Upgrade, R2 Astromech.

I am leaning towards Tycho for the Pilot Skill and manuvere over firepower.

Any thoughts?

Englishpete said:

How are you getting the second action without Squad Leader / Lando / Dutch / Garvin?

Expert handling gives a free barrel roll action, so 1st action is normal, then barrel roll.

Errata

Expert Handling

The text on this card is incorrect. It should read:

“Action: Perform a free barrel roll action. If you do

not have the <barrel roll> action icon, receive 1 stress token. You

may then remove 1 enemy target lock from your ship.”

Englishpete said:

But Expert Handling itself is an Action, so that is still a second action.

Understood it's an action, but it is free?

The fact it is an action, I believe, pertains to the fact that you cannot perform it in conditions when actions are disallowed, eg, when you are stressed, otherwise there would be no need to have errated this from the original wording.

'Perform a Free Barrel Roll Action' seems pertinent here.

All the other cards that have ACTION on them do not use the word FREE and neither did this card until the errata.

Looking from another viewpoint to support the theory, Turr Phennir allows you to perform a free Barrel Roll or Boost after an attack, however, if you are stressed, then you cannot do this as you cannot perform actions whilst stressed. This tends to imply that ACTION is used in the new wording of Expert Handling to cover these type of situations.

If this is not the case, it is a useless card. 2 points to break a target lock and gain a stress token, plus spend your action doing it is pointless.

The reason for the Expert Handling errata is that FFG didn't want you to be able to use Expert Handling and a regular Barrel Roll in the same round (via Vader's 2 actions, at the time of the errata). This errata was (presumably) the result of much heated discussion on the forums (see threads from the October-December timespan) over whether Vader could Barrel Roll then use Expert Handling (or vice versa) to barrel roll again, as the original text of the Expert Handling seemed to allow such a thing. Now that it specifically says "take a free barrel roll action", it's clear that you can't do both in the same round.

Using Expert Handling is an Action. It then grants a free Barrel Roll action, plus some extra stuff. Expert Handling doesn't just give you a free Barrel Roll every turn.

Expert Handling is not useless, however. Barrel Roll is an incredibly powerful action to have at your disposal, and being able to give it to ships that normally wouldn't have it is very useful. Try throwing Expert Handling on a YT-1300 or, even better, a Firespray. Their large bases make it an incredibly powerful manuever for manipulating range; especially the Firespray, who actually has to worry about firing arcs.

Thx Tawnos, great explanation. I think then, that dropping the Engine Upgrades in favor of shields and keeping Expert handling may be the way to go. It's not as good, but it is still potentially useful.

I can see the value on both the large ships, you could potentiall easily roll into range 1 or out to range 3 in one move, not to mention forward or backward gains.