I am really beginning to like the idea of running 2 YT's and 2 Y-Wings. It's a boat load of hit points with turret fire all around. It can use the Y-Wings to cripple annoying ships and the YT's at range 1 can make good on firing. I'd just target lock with them every turn. Plus, I can use the YT's to jam up enemy ships.

Total Squad Points: 100

Pilot: Gold Squadron Pilot 1
Y-Wing (18)
Upgrades:

• Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Pilot: Gold Squadron Pilot 2
Y-Wing (18)
Upgrades:

• Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Pilot: Outer Rim Smuggler 1
YT-1300 (27)
Upgrades:

• No upgrades Selected

Pilot: Outer Rim Smuggler 2
YT-1300 (27)
Upgrades:

• No upgrades Selected

I would be pretty terrified if I went up against this squad. It pretty much negates the awesome maneuverability of many of the ships in this game. And the whopping hull points let you survive for a while.

Question: when you fly it, will you make use of the Y-wing's primary weapons? I always think I will, but tend to fall back on my ion cannons the whole game.

Englishpete said:

i really wish theyd made the smugler 3 atk dice or given it a canon turret/missiles capability, even if it cost a lil more im sure it would make more lists. i have NEVER seen anyone use it in any list in a tourney, this might change if wave3 brings some complementary upgrades for it. (a new modification that boosts attack?). imo smuggler is just lacking enough firepower to be playable. i wonder if it could be used a specialist blocker? it could be smuggler is just looking for the right support ships. not sure what those are yet. lets see what wave3 brings.

My opinion on the YT-1300 is that all of the ships should have had a base stat line just like the ORM but with a primary weapon value of 3. The title upgrade would give the +1 shield, +2 hull, and the evade action. It should make Han cost the same points overall, but you wouldn't have Han flying the MF and Chewie right next to him flying a similar ship (we all know that Chewie and Lando are both flying the Falcpn).I think they should have done something similar with Slave One since Bona Fetts ship should be better than the standard bounty hunter.

nimdabew said:

yeah i agrre. the top end facon is slightly better than the top end slave1. bobba fet isnt seen in many lists, perhaps an indication that he is overcosted? hans offensive pilot ability is soo much better than bobba's. not sure wave3 will help address these issues either.

As an Imperial player, I'm quite jealous that, with Wave 3 coming, the Rebels will have 3 ships capable of 360 degree fire (Y-Wing, YT-1300, and HWK-290) and the Imperials still have none. Hopefully, Wave 4 will give us Imperials the Skipray Blastboat, which did have a turret.

The_Brown_Bomber said:

i suppose the bounty hunter is quite alot better than the smuggler tho so its balanced when u look at it that way.

The_Brown_Bomber said:

Personally I think Bobba is much better than Han, PS of 8 vs 9 not withstanding. Han's ability is an all or nothing gambit that is only really usefull if you completly wiff on an attack while Bobba gives himself greater flexibility to dodge out of firing arcs or stay on someone's tail. While Bobba's lesser firespray comrades can certainly give him a run for his money Han's BFFs just completly destroy him in terms of general utility.

Also I don't think a 2 attack primary weapon turret is underpowered at all. Out of the 7 other ships in the game only three have 3 attack and the two attack ships still see plenty of action even if people like to bad mouth the advance and y.

Vonpenguin said:

imo bobbas mvmnt ability is rather situational depending on asteroids and enemy ship placements at the time. for this reason it would seem to me to be used less over the course of a game compared to hans ability which kicks in plenty of times and imo has a large impact on the game. when i first saw bobbas ability (probably like many people) i thought wow, thats amazing, but when u see how situational it is the gloss for me drops off it. when u look at regional lists posted on these forums you do see many (if any) squads rocking around with bobba fett anchoring them.

As for the Outer Rim Smuggler, 27 points can get you garven, biggs red squad or rookie x-wing, a lesser y-wing with an ion attached or any A-wing and you will have change for upgrades. The utility of all of those ships outshines the smuggler which cannot support a secondary weapon. Having a 2 attack dice ship isnt that bad but if it cant take an ion cannon or missiles or torps, what use is it?

The_Brown_Bomber said:

Nearly every power is situational. The only one I can think of that will kick in every single turn, without fail is Vader's. Maybe it's just that Bobba is better for people in my skill bracket of "Don't get within a mile of an official Tournement" who have less skill at guessing where the enemy is going to be and thus would use the swap more often.

But Outer Rim Smuggler can still take any two of weapons engineer, Mercenary co-pilot, Gunner, or Luke. Any and all of which will improve the chance of that 2 die hitting. And even without those, sure it can't take secondaries but it can fire 360 degrees. That means that it's probably getting a shot off every turn without fail and if anyone wanders too close it's doing three. What it lacks in raw power it makes up in volume. Not saying it's the best but it's not a wasted card.

One problem I think with the meta is that the offical matches are timed. While I completly understand why that needs to happen it does force players to put a higher priority on raw killing power so that they get those full points. Defensive builds or builds based around pestering people with ion cannons will go to time too often to be "competitive". As a casual player this kind of bothers me since most people on the boards will at least do one or two tournements even if they aren't big in that part of the hobby and so over time it's really going to skew what FFG sees people wanting from wave to wave.

nimdabew said:

Yup, I think they way they set up those named pilots was a big mistake. The Han, Chewie, and Lando cards should all be titled on the card as Millenium Falcon, and with a dot of uniqueness beside the ship's name as well as the pilot's name so that you could only field one of the named ones. That trio does not have their own personal squadron of YT's!!!

hey guys, this isn't the star wars movies.. who really cares if you can fly multiple falcons with different pilots simultaneously? it's just a game after all

if you care that much then just don't fly them.. i've played my fair share of tabletop games and the Star Wars license was not the selling factor for me, the gameplay and relatively cheap cost was

Vonpenguin said:

You clearly have not seen Han with a Gunner in action. Yes, he is expensive but he is worth every point. He is basically guaranteed damage on whatever you want before it shoots. Boba is limited by the Firesprays manoeuvers and arcs. His pilot ability is okay, but nothing compared to Hans (Boba brings people to his firing arc but Han does not even need to, he has 360 degrees), and the lower skill Firesprays see more action than Boba does, sadly because their skills are better or just because they are plain cheaper. I have not yet seen a really competitive Boba build too, while i have seen a lot of competitive Han Solo builds (like Han shoots first or all its variations) Also the other pilots are far from being a better choice than Han. While Chewie is clearly awesone he does not put out the same damage Han can (you can use hans ability twice with a gunner if you fail to danage first attack) Lando is pretty much nice if you want synergy lists but extremely difficult to keep on range one with your smalker ships, and if you ever lise your other pilots his ability is useless.

As for the Smuggler, it is actually not bad for its cost, but you can get named pilots with useful pilot abilities in fighters for the same price. I still find the op's list pretty interesting, and a goid use for Smugglers. It has huge hitpoints and you just can not hide from it or oitmanoeuver it. Sadly it has zero firepower. Two dice are not bad on Y-Wings or even A-Wings, where you use your ion turret anyway or just want to deliver missiles, or on Tie Fighters that are cheap as hell and the mass makes up for it. But on a 27 point ship you need damage and 2 dice won't be enough even on a 360 mount. It is frustrating to see an expensive ship that a basic tie can just survive all day long against just by evading. Your odds of damaging a 3 agility ship with evade with 2 attack dice are slim to none really and 2 Academy ties will probably win a fight against a Smuggler anytime…

As for the 33 point Bounty hunter, it does not have that problem. You can have 3 of them, which is a very competitive list just by the damage output and basic stats they have. Large contrast to Smugglers which hardly find a niche in any list, and rightfully so!

ForceM said:

umm, this was the point i was trying to make… Hans is a wrecking ball, his ability is way better than Bobba Fetts (which is more situational). what makes the hand shoots first lists so hard to play against (and so consistent) is that they dish out consistent damage early on (esp with gunner or luke as crew)… han supported by two x-wings is alot of firepower. it takes 2-3 turns (or more) to get through all those shields and most of that hull. by that time u would have likely sustained losses which r hard to recover from… expect to lose at least one tie-fighter/tie-intercepter every turn if u r an imperial player.

imo Bobba Fett is overcosted for what you get. Far better to play a straight bounty hunter which has decent firepower even without gunner or HLC and its a real bargain at 33pts.

yes the smuggler has lots of shields and hull, but its 2 attack dice is just not good enough to play imo.

ive personally grown a little bored of the wave2 large ships and am going back to playing all fighters. i think they r more of a challenge to play esp when u dont have the benefir of a 360 degree firing arc.

Yes Brown i completely agree, i was not trying to say anything else than this, but Penguin said that Boba was even better than Han which i can't really agree to, nor that the smuggler is a very strong choice…

ForceM said:

Well like my sig says, I don't play that often so I don't get to try out these things. On a first glance, my gut tells me that Han's ability is useless, Rerolling the entire attack before you see the other persons defense is just too much of a gamble in my mind. If it works better in practice ok. Fett's on the other hand seems like something I would use constantly with the Firesprays dual fireing arcs to keep ahead of the positioning game. Again, I might be wrong, or it might just be the people I play with but those are the observations and feelings I get.

Never said it was "strong", just not weak. About average for a generic. Yeah I'd probably take a named pilot first for that cost in a vaccum but I can see lists (Like the one listed) where it would be a better choice.

dont sweat it VonP. this game is evolving all the time although it has peeked in terms of what squads have worked well in tournament play imo. the popularity (i hesitate to say dominance) of Han shoots first lists (han/swarm + two x-wings) has shown how good hans ability plays in actual games. its really good. he will usually have gunner or luke as backup (although its debatable that he even needs it).

heres how it plays.

1) han player rolls attack dice

2) if he rolls less than two hits he will usually opt to reroll all dice (thats the hans ability part)

3) defender rolls defense dice and lets say they evade all hits successfully

4) gunner/luke crew ability kicks in allowing a new attack!

5) if he rolls less than two hits he will likely reroll all dice

6) defense dice are roll (this time he will not have any focus or evade tokens to help)

by my count thats up to 5 rerolls… as you can see its kinda hard for him to miss and when im playing han i expect to destroy or badly damage an enemy ship every turn i fire. if you get caught at close range by hans, expect to take 3 damage, maybe 4.

add to hans ability the fact that he has 360 degree firing arc and hes deadly. can you see why he is so popular with rebel players now?