Based on what we know so far about wave 3 I am thinking a very viable build could be 3 basic B-Wings. Two with Ion Cannon, Shield Upgrade and the Weapons Sensor Upgrade that allows for retarget locking the ship you just fired at. The third B-Wing changes the Ion Cannon for a Heavy Laser Cannon.

That should be on or just under 100pts.

Blue squadron pilot

HLC

Fire control systems

Take three of those. Give one shield upgrade, the other stealth just for ***** and giggles. 12 dice at any range and the ability to do the barrel roll shuffle. 12 attack dice at a X-Wing? Ded is ded is ded. Same goes for just about everything else too. Swarms get destroyed, large ships get destroyed, Biggs gets crushed like a bug… There is lit the this squad can't deal with unless it is Wedge/Luke/Tycho all with expert handling and two of the three make it across the board.

three B-wings will great to try, and tough to go up against. with 1 shield upgrade, thats 25 points of damage to kill them all. I was going to pre-order only 2, but this has changed my mind. 3 it will be.

(Rebel Alliance): 99 Points

pitsch said:

Take advantage of the free target locks. For 2 points, it is almost a no brainer. Ditch the advanced proton torps and get fire control systems for all the ships. This leaves enough room for a shield upgrade and initiative on a 97 point list. Maybe one of the new ship upgrades will be 3 points or less that will make one a good meat shield or something.

I am very interested in the "Auto Blaster". It looks like you use an action to make an attack against a single ship, and similar to the Heavy Laser Crits are downgraded to regular hits. If that is the case, a 3 B-Wing list may have more than enough firepower to burn out any one or two ships they come across. How about this for a pure firepower list.

3 Blue Squadron B-Wings

Fire Control System, Proton Torpedoes, Auto-Blaster (Assuming it costs 5 points or less).

Move into range 3, use your action to fire the Auto-Blaster. This gives you a free Target Lock, which you then use to Fire your Proton Torpedoes. Those give you another free target lock.

Next turn, you move into range 1 and fire your Auto-Blaster with a TL running to help accuracy. It gives you a free TL, which you then use to make a second Primary attack with 4 dice using TL for accuracy. Total attack dice rolled for the 3 ship formation is (3+4+3+4) x 3 = 42 dice, supported by TLs and PT's focus-lite. Heaven help those guys who are depending on Han to stick around for awhile…

The amount of damage put out by 3 B-Wings set up like this would be staggering, and we are only talking about the first pass. This does assume the Auto-Blaster does what I think it does of course.

3 Blue squadron B-Wings with Heavy Laser Cannons and Fire Control comes out to around 93 points. I want to find out what the other pilots are and their points for the B-Wing to upgrade one of the three while keeping the HLC and FC.

Since I don't have a third Firespray what I might do is run two B-Wings with HLCs and two Rookie X-Wing pilots for an initial build.

No consideration for an Ion Cannon on one of them?

vyrago said:

With three heavy laser cannons, that is a max damage of 12 per turn. If you remove one and add an ion cannon, you reduce maximum damage per turn to 9.

I may throw a B-Wing w/ion to set up shots for a pair of GSP with push, or a pair of X-Wings, but with 3 B-Wings, you want to put as much damage out per turn as possible and 2 HLC with an ION doesn't do that.

I'd be worried about A-wings and Squints flying and boosting around you. Don't get me wrong I'd be worried about 3 B-Wings flying at me.

I think all these 1 agility ships will make the awings a little more viable in builds.

nimdabew said:

With 3 Auto-Blasters, it looks like a max damage of 21 per turn. Just saying.

Alternately, if you want 12 damage per turn, how about 4 Blue Squadron B-Wings, each with a fire control system. Maybe give one of them a Proton Torpedo with the leftover 4 points. Same damage output, more actions, hull, and shields.

KineticOperator said:

Only problem with that is that you are giving the enemy at least one extra defense die, probably more like three if it’s the empire, and possibly topping off at +8 defense die in the worst case (Extra B-wing targets a Fighter, advance, or interceptor with stealth device, and every target is at range 3). Add in the fact that you’d have to line up an additional firing arc and all your attacks would have a slightly lower chance to hit. I’m not saying it’s bad but there are downsides.

Personally I think the B-wing is going to be best as a long range artillery piece. Give it a cannon upgrade and a torp or two and let it cover the X and A-wings from edges.

I think the B-Wing could also be used as a close in tank against large ships. With its healthy shields and ability to barrell roll, it can survive long enough to deliver those advanced torps on low agility targets. It will come down to playing style.

vyrago said:

Haha no, I don't think much of Ion cannons or Ion tokens. I'd happily trade the pitiful 1 damage Ion token for 4 possible damage, even if none of them are crits. For anything other than a TIE Swarm I'd line up my shots on a single target and make sure it's dead before moving on to the next.

The only consideration I'd have for Ion cannnons is to perhaps trade out one of the B-Wings for a Y-Wing with an Ion cannon. I'd have that lead and set up the B-Wing shots by ionizing the fighter I wanted to blow up, and then hit it. It depends on what the higher skill B-Wings bring to the table or what other combinations I can give them to protect them or the Ion-dealing Y-Wing. But between this build and a 3 B-Wing list I have more desire to fly the 3-Ship B-Wing.

An alternate list I think I'll try are two Blue squad B-Wings with HLCs, and then two Rookie X-Wing pilots. This comes out to about 100 points and seems to be a pretty strong list. Lead with the X-Wings and let the B-Wings do some shots from behind.

Advanced Proton Torpedoes (even if they behave more like heavy rockets from TIE Fighter) are kind of interesting but the most realistic ways to see them used are either on the approach (turn 1 target lock, turn 2 focus and fire), or when holding them in reserve and waiting for the chance during a dogfight. I'd have to see the dial but I don't know how realistically B-Wings will have the chance to use them if they can't get a good bearing on a choice target under the optimal conditions to shoot them. Y-Wings on the other hand? Might be that between the Adv Proton Torps and Blaster turrets Y-Wings have become useful again.

Vonpenguin said:

Sure at range 3 you would give up an extra defense die for each shot you took because you are using primaries. On the other hand, at range 1 you would gain 4 attack dice (4 dice x 4 B-Wings vs. 4 dice x 3 B-Wings).

The extra defense dice for shooting at new targets doesn't really matter. The only reason you would be targeting a new unit with your 4th B-Wing (giving them even more defense dice) is if your 3rd B-Wing managed to kill its target, in which case you are still better off taking that shot vs. the extra defense than just not having a 4th attack in the first place.

It is more or less a wash in terms of firepower, trading long range for short. Regardless, you gain 8 more hitpoints and an extra action every turn with an extra B-Wing, which is a pretty big deal.

But then again, HLC's are sexy.

People knock Ion cannons, but they can be useful situational weapons. The three best uses for them is firstly against targets with stress tokens on them, since the rule states a ship with an ion token moves ahead at white 1 during the actions phase. Therefore, they do not lose the stress token and cannot take any actions. Next, they can also be useful when used against a target nearing the board edge. Its not likely that a white 1 manuever will put them over, but very likely that next turn they will have a hard time staying on the board! A third use is similar to the last, but hitting a target thats already facing or nearing an asteroid. They'll have to worry about avoiding it or you might even manage to put them into overlap and deny them any action AND shooting. Remember, as Rebel players your odds of winning go up the longer the game lasts. Three B-wings would have great staying power and maybe tossing on an Ion Cannon isnt such a terrible idea. I intend to experiment with that. Maybe like this.

99 points

Blue Squadron Pilot (35)
B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Proton Torpedoes (4)

Blue Squadron Pilot (35)
B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Proton Torpedoes (4)

Blue Squadron Pilot (29)
B-Wing (22), Ion Cannon (3), Proton Torpedoes (4)

Yeah I can see an Ion Cannon B-Wing creeping into my other lists with the fire control system. This almost ensures a guaranteed 3 hits if you take focus and use the free target lock on the same ship. Controlling movement can change an entire game if the right conditions are met.

So, I'm a big fan of the B-wing and these builds and cannot wait to buy two more to field a trio myself. I was thinking though - for the Ion friendly sets - might I recommend a cheaper alternative? Throw in a Y-Wing to do that work instead, Gold Squadron Pilot (18) and Ion Cannon Turret (5)...same PS, cheaper (only 23 points), and a 360 degree target field (instead of 90 frontal) that's still range 1 and 2 (losing the range 3 does hurt, granted, but for the extra 270 degrees of firing arc I think its worth a serious consideration. Again, only if you want the ION option in play instead of the extra damage from a third B-wing.

I'm curious though, where are all the Heavy Laser Cannons coming from? Is everyone buying 2 (or 3) Slave I/Lambda expansion packs to field these card designs or is there another alternative?

I like Ion

Yes it will only give 1 point damage, but chanses are fairly ok that the target ship will dogde a few of the hits anyway.

It allso is "a little" cheaper.

If you want a hard hitter that will also be able to take some damage.

Use Ibitsam + HLC +System Jammer + Elusivenes.

Use Elusivenes to reroll dice and the Jammer to be near immortal;)

I am very interested in the "Auto Blaster". It looks like you use an action to make an attack against a single ship, and similar to the Heavy Laser Crits are downgraded to regular hits. If that is the case, a 3 B-Wing list may have more than enough firepower to burn out any one or two ships they come across. How about this for a pure firepower list.

3 Blue Squadron B-Wings

Fire Control System, Proton Torpedoes, Auto-Blaster (Assuming it costs 5 points or less).

Move into range 3, use your action to fire the Auto-Blaster. This gives you a free Target Lock, which you then use to Fire your Proton Torpedoes. Those give you another free target lock.

Next turn, you move into range 1 and fire your Auto-Blaster with a TL running to help accuracy. It gives you a free TL, which you then use to make a second Primary attack with 4 dice using TL for accuracy. Total attack dice rolled for the 3 ship formation is (3+4+3+4) x 3 = 42 dice, supported by TLs and PT's focus-lite. Heaven help those guys who are depending on Han to stick around for awhile…

The amount of damage put out by 3 B-Wings set up like this would be staggering, and we are only talking about the first pass. This does assume the Auto-Blaster does what I think it does of course.

Sorry mate, it doesn't.

It's a Range 1 attack, not an action.

You roll 3 dice instead of your usual 4 from your primary at that range, but have the benefit of dodging their defense dice, which makes it a bit too situational for its 5 point cost for most of our tastes.

I like this build:

3 x Dagger

+ FCS

+ HLC

= 99 points

Or this ion nightmare:

4 x Blue + ion cannon = 100 points

Thread Necromancy people. :-)

I'm curious though, where are all the Heavy Laser Cannons coming from? Is everyone buying 2 (or 3) Slave I/Lambda expansion packs to field these card designs or is there another alternative?

Slave I or Shuttle. It is not uncommon for people to have bought 2 or 3 firesprays, and with just one shuttle that gives you plenty of them to go around. Some people even own 3-4 shuttles just for the advanced sensors card, the heavy laser cannons come as a side bonus.

Personally I own 2 Firepsrays and 2 Shuttles, but not because I was pursuing any specific cards