Kelvan said:

Hi Kelvan, the key to my squad is Biggs and Chewie with Draw their Fire. I run them all in range one of each other with Biggs in the middle. I usually stager them in an inverted V with Biggs in the back. I try to engage the key piece of the other squard first(Wedge, Howlrunner and Han if he is running y-wings). The main thing for my squad is that I don't have to deal with crits because Chewie is pulling them off Biggs which helps him last longer. In the regional I just played I only received 1 crit in 4 rounds. Also when I lose Biggs my squad still works wIth Wedge ST and Chewie draw their fire. If I can take out the other squads key piece or with a swarm 3 to 4 red shirts before Biggs dies I am in good shape. Also your opponent realises his squad has been gutted and has to change his play style, then he looks across the table and there is a health Wedge and Chewie staring back at him. It is a real fun squad to play if you can keep them in formation, which isn't easy.

Scrappy

And in playing against this squad, I knew he had to stay in formation, which is why I set the asteroids up for him to maneuver his squad through (first picture.) I knew maneuvering through the asteroids while still trying to maintain his range 1 cohesion wasn't going to be easy. That would be one of the downfalls to this squad. But it is a very effective squad, to be sure.

Nice job Hothie. Sounds like it was a rough event. The Wisconsin events keep getting canceled. SO I'm jealous that you guys have gotten to play some events.

Well, you'll just have to win the FFG one, then, huh?

Thanks for the insight scrappy, I gave it a try today and was very surprised at how it worked. I guess the idea is to get wedge into late game where he's great. From there use your 2 ps9 pilots to wreak havoc.

It's a lot of fun, now in my top rebel squads.

Hothie what sort of drawbacks did you find on that list?

for some reason i always double post… forum is too slow… sorry all.

Kelvan said:

Mine, or scrappy's?

Mine, it was a bear to face chewie and wedge squads all day long. Chewie doesn't take the crits that Kath dishes out, which countered the whole purpose of having kath in there. Um, the biggest challenge was keeping Howl within 1 of both firersprays, while still keeping good firing arcs and maintaining my actions. I did bad with that against Lynne, who had the 2 ions. That was also a worry for me, as I spent most of the game with at least 1 token on each firespray. I had to be extra careful about my maneuvering with an ion token, knowing that the next one could run me off of the board. Otherwise I think it did pretty well. Jim focused solely on the bounty hunter, and took it out sooner than everyone else did. I think I only got 1 shot off with it that game.

The turning around after the first pass took some doing, especially when Howl was still alive. I managed, though. i was still getting shots off in the rear arc, which was good. I'm glad I built the squad to focus solely on primary weapon, because I had as many rear arc shots as I did front ones, if not more.

With scrappy's list the only drawback is keeping them together through asteroids. If they stay together, though, it's a tough squad to beat.

Kelvan said:

That is why I named the squad Long Live Wedge, I thought it was appropriate. I am glad you like it. It is a very fun squad to play, I never liked playing the hit and run squads that go to time. I would just rather blast away and see who wins in a 45 minutes instead. Win or lose as long as I am having fun is all that matters.

Hothie, happy to hear about the list. Keeping the 3 together is a problem. I feel like the key to that list is the idea of bait. Any of those targets are things the enemy wants dead. The bounty hunter blocks and is a 3 attack ship, often in range 1. Kath is a gigantic pain and the source of most of the damage and Howlrunner is something that X wing players are taught to shoot on sight. It allows you to manage you hit points a little bit by offering targets you don't mind the enemy shooting at and when you think that the total hp of that list is 23 total, you have a lot of hits points compared to a lot of lists.

CommanderScrappy said:

Well There's a lot to be said of making it to late game and having good offesnsive pieces against the enemy. Wedge can do a lot of damage in that time. I guess this list is built around killing at PS9 getting 2 atatcks in. that 340degree arc can be really handy at killing the 1 person you don't want shooting at you.. Additionally Chewie never gets worse. There's a lot to be said about a 13hp ship that always fires 3 attack dice at any target at range 3 no matter what. I'm almost surprised at the lack of stealth device, engine upgrade, push the limit or gunner card… but it works because you can control the damage to chewie or biggs and let wedge do his thing uninterrupted.

boy errors all around in that post… never post on a phone.

I am a little late to the party. Can someone explain the gunner/marksmaship combo used with the YT1300 or any ship for that matter.

Posting from my phone. Forgive me. Marksmanship works better with gunner because it applies to all attacks that round, whereas focus only works on one attack. Marks works better than focus with Kath because of the crit.

Well, I play tested my FFG Regional build tonight. I lost, but it was 1 hp left for both of us at the end, so it could have gone either way. I'm fairly happy, especially for never having flown this list against anyone before. I'll play some more with it in the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll get better with it. See you there!

Played a new squad that I came up with yesterday. I'm 3-0 with it, against 2 chewie/wedge squads and a 4 Xwing squad, so I'm feeling better about it. I'll try to post a recap on May 4th, but it will be a busy time and a long day, so I may not be able to.

Played my new Chewie squad yesterday and it took out 4 souped up interceptors without any trouble. More runs against higher PS ships to test, but I think I've found my regional squad.

hothie said:

Does one of those wins against a Chewie/Wedge squad happen to have been the win against MY Chewie/Wedge squad on Vassal? Because if so…I like that list. Nice choice

Ibberben said:

It's a spanking list, and I didn't fly very artistically against it. It has a surprise or two to offer. I won't even go into the dice.

Ibberben said:

I would guess it does. Good to see you. And to be fair, the win against you came down to 1 hp vs 1 hp, so that could have gone either way. Also the other Chewie/Wedge game came down to 1 hp vs 1 hp. And as Zig mentioned, the 4 Xwing game was ridiculous with the dice, so that may not be a fair assessment either. But I still like it, and think I'll stay with it for a few weeks.

Hothie, can you send me a private message. Want to tell you about how the regional here went. I ended up getting talked into it. Nothing I really want to put out here for people. Tried to send you one, but the FFG message thing just does not like me.

Don't be shy DIP. Whatever the experience, I'm sure we'd enjoy hearing about it.

Not what I was expecting. Too bad people are having negative experiences, but suppose that is inevitable in any tournament environment.

I understand why you are looking at a third or fourth ship, but since I was trying to hurry up and get started the other night and didn't want to dig out my small ships tray I ran a straight 2 Firespray list.

Boba Fett (HLC, Swarm Tactics, Gunner, Seismic Charge)

Bounty Hunter (HLC, Gunner)

I played a 6 TIE swarm first, usual suspects. I started towards the left side of the table, moved slowly and turned towards the center so that I met the TIEs at range 3 while they were in the asteroids. On the first combat turn, I killed a TIE (IIRC it was Mauler, Howlrunner was out of range). He was one of only 2 TIEs in range, and since my fire came in at PR 8 the other 2d attack vs. my 3 agl dice all by itself did 0 damage. On the second turn, I moved BH directly forward and focused, and by taking advantage of Fett's ability (I used a 3 turn) he was able to move him just to the side of the giant pileup the BH caused. I was able to get a 4 dice attack from the Bounty Hunter at Backstabber (range 1 primary), and Fett got a 4 dice attack against Backstabber as well (also range 1 primary, using the rear arc). WIth focus and Swarm Tactics for the Bounty Hunter plus Gunner, Fett also focused up and let it rip. Both shots took place at PR 8, and Backstabber died without ever providing a single reroll (Her 3d attack did 1 damage after evades). Since Fett was off to the side and the Bounty Hunter was in contact with one more (IIRC it was Night Beast), return fire was only 3 TIEs. It still hurt, but the Bounty Hunter had plenty of hull left after the shot.

Next turn, my BH was face to face with the swarm and Fett was off to the side, perpendicular to the mess with his back pointed at it. I gave the BH a 1 forward in order to intentionally gum up the works. He made all his moves, which were mostly turns towards Fett in order to get him in their sights. They wound up in a big mess because the BH didn't go anywhere and once his early ships got caught up on the BH the whole mess ended up sitting in a pile. Fett had a 2 bank chosen, dropped his mine and arced away. The mine hit 3 TIEs and the BH for a point. Ugly, ugly. The game basically ended that turn as a focused Fett again used his rear gun to deal the last 2 damage to Howlrunner, and the BH dealt 2 damage to 1 more.

I used Gunner a ton. It really helped when firing at TIEs while intentionally using BH as a road block, and they were tough targets. Although I only took one shot from each of the HLCs, the fact that they were so much more effective than the primaries would have been (4 dice, defender doesn't get extra agl die) it allowed me to even the odds up a quite a bit before we ever got started.

My second game was against a Han Shoots first variant with Wedge and an A-Wing. Again at range 3 on the first pass I was able to evaporate Wedge. I took 4 damage on Fett in return, but I considered it a good trade. The next turn, I closed to point blank, focused, and put 6 damage on the Falcon. Turn 3, I passed the Falcon and used range 1 rear primaries to put another 5 damage on the Falcon. The turn after that killed the Falcon, and shortly aftewards I took out the A wing. Fett managed to survive with 1 hull remaining.

On my last game I faced a 4 Interceptor squadron with Stealth. Gunner + HLC evaporated 1 Interceptor during that first range 3 pass, again. From then on it was basically a TIE a turn and the game ended with neither Firespray taking a single point of Hull damage.

What I found is that 2 shots with 4 dice at range 3, no extra agl dice and PR 8, with a reroll from Gunner and focused, lays an absolutely devastating hit out before your opponent is able to do much of anything. Return fire is against 2 firesprays that may or may not still have a focus and are rolling 3 agl dice. The HLCs give you an enormous advantage on that first pass, and after that hit your opponent is guaranteed to come into you top speed in order to prevent another turn of such lopsided shooting. Putting the BH with his low PS in front to crash into the pile and ensure they stop in a place where Fett can go to the side and effectively drop a mine/shoot out the back nets you a second turn of having an enormous upper hand. After that the game is pretty much yours to lose.

This is like a Han shoots first list, with 2 Han solos, an extra attack die on both, and both ships using Wedge's ability to deny 1 agility on that first turn. It was devastating, I am going to try it a few more times and see what happens. The seismic charge is a pretty cool "trick" you can use to bring a bunch of TIEs down into the very vulnerable position of having only 2 hull remaining, and it doesn't even cost you an action, much less an attack.

I meant to say Howlrunner in the previous, not Backstabber, but that should have been obvious. :-)