I'm not a play tester, merely a writer, and I think my article will be forthcoming very soon. I've only played against myself, as I'm not allowed to share, not even with my play group. But from what I've seen so far, I believe what I said to be true.

Missiles and proton torpedoes for the Imperials should be of use against the B wings or at least reduce their shields. Ion cannons could also be of great use against them as they have only forward facing weapons and may have a limited range of maneuvers. As always concentrated fire is the real answer.

The headline asks "Are B-Wing too awesome?" and there's actually guidance on how to answer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

That's funny genius.

I think that the B-wing looks fairly costed, and the TIE bomber looks good for the points too. My only concern about Wave 3 at the moment is that the HWK looks like bad value but I'm just speculating and am happy to wait until I've played a few games before drawing a conclusion.

1 agility is vastly underperforming compared to 2 agility. Under focused fire, the B-Wing is going down. Less so for a TIE Bomber, which has 2 dice of defense under each attack, which is huge.

Anyone who think the Millenium Falcon is seemingly invicible with all these 13 points of hull+shield hasn't seen some die by turn 3 (which is normally the second round in which combat occured) under massive concentrated fire.

You'd expect the TIE Bomber to perform like the X-wing when it comes to surviving damage, but I wonder if that 6HP and the ability to recognize crits is going to be the Bomber's liability. The X-Wing can ignore the first two hits but the Bomber takes everything.

I think it will hurt the bomber once it gets in close but remember, the bomber is made for missiles and torpedoes, it will most likely be flitting around range three until it runs out of ammo, meaning it will probably not take as much damage early on and weaken the enemy a lot more before it dives in. X-wing needs that slight boost because it's more of a brawler.

So we just had the B-Wing's dial revealed (or something). In light of this, what does it mean?

I think it means when making your awesome B-Wing list you need to choose between Awesome Ten or Ibtisam as your trump card to reverse-turn and attack cheeky enemy fighters trying to get behind you. Three B-Wings, each with autoblasters and sensor jammers, two of which are Blue squadron and the third is Ibtisam.

Close to range on turn 1-2, open fire. Plan Ibtisam to reverse-2 or hard left-right when you know enemy fighters/A-Wings/TIE-IN are right in front of you. B-Wings can K-turn with her too or fly off after other targets (like that closing Firesprary to bump him). Ibtisam moves and then gets to re-roll one of either die for the duration of the turn. If you give her Adrenaline rush, now she can barrel roll or choose target lock to nail the fighter that tried to get behind her, probably with 4 attack.

In fact K-turn 2 is pretty special itself since it closes the distance and lets you attack at a closer range in a K-turn joust than other fighters of the rebellion. Imagine a solid wall of B-Wings K-turning 2, blocking the big ship coming up behind them and slamming the K-turned fighters that were flying vanguard. Sure you're missing actions, but what's to miss when flying in a solid line and at range 1-2?

Does this mean the B-Wing is still potentially overpowered? Maybe, I guess I'd have to see it being played on the table top, but my thought is that the dial isn't as tragic as I thought it would be and it came with an unexpected surprise. The B-Wing is probably going to be used best as a heavy support ship with X-Wing/A-Wings as your vanguard, but Ibtisam's use of the red dials could help cover the rear for your B-Wing squadron.

In contrast the Shuttle has no surprises outside of the 0. There's no K-turn for it but that's fine, park at 0 and open up with your HLCs/Autoblasters at anything trying to escape your fighters. If the Rebels think they have an easy target, put a Rebel Captive, Flight instructor, and Sensor Jammer on it to make it an unpaltable target, even sitting at speed 0.

In response to the title... No.

However:

Autoblasters + Fire-Control System = "...seriously? Really?"

Even if you haven't attacked the target in the previous turn (needed for Fire-Control System to kick in), all you have to do is move into Range 1, use your action to focus/acquire a target lock, and then expect to put 1-2 damage on the defending ship (or 2-3 if you have both a focus and target lock to spend). So yes... really.

On a Blue Squadron Pilot, that's only 27 points.

Meeting any single B-wing at Range 1 equipped like this - I think - should really scare the hay out of TIE Fighters/Interceptors and A-wings, especially if they did not choose evade as their action. I could even see TIE Advances and X-wings not being safe from this...

I meant to say that's 29 points for:

Blue Squadron + Autoblaster + Fire-Control System

So no, definitely not cheap (on par with Wedge Antilles in terms of cost). Still though, you don't even really need Fire-Control System, it just makes the B-wing better at this task.

One list I made and plan to playtest, emphasizes this concept:

Blue Squadron Pilot w/ Autoblaster

Blue Squadron Pilot w/ Autoblaster

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret

...comes out at 100 points exactly.

The glaring weaknesses of this list are ships with PS 2 and 1 evade die all-around.

However, it does have two Ion Cannon Turrets, two Autoblasters, two ships with 3 attack dice, and 32 total hull and shield points.

I've said it before and Ill say it again, a pure B-wing list is just gimmicky. Either the 3 HLC death bubble build, or 4 with ion cannons, it wont do too well against most things. Lack of action economy and maneuverability is going to get it killed more times than you would think. What the B-wing is, is an excellent support ship. I think a list type to really watch out for is going to be 2 blue squadrons with HLC and Chewbacca. Or 2 HLC B-wings and Wedge. Adding in a variety of ships increases your effectiveness exponentially.

I can't see a pure B-wing list being viable either. Just way too easy to outmaneuver those suckers. But I could be wrong completely and they end up dominating.

I actually like the B-Wing and Y-Wing combo to help with the manuvere issues

I can't see a pure B-wing list being viable either. Just way too easy to outmaneuver those suckers. But I could be wrong completely and they end up dominating.

Actually, I should elaborate.

Over in the 40k tourney community we refer to certain lists as rock-paper-scissors. The RPS lists rely on maximizing one advantage and praying you dont have the thing that counters them. So 3-4 Bs may do well against a 4 rookie pilot list, but itll lost hard to tie swarm, balanced builds, etc. So its just an ok list in that it can do certain things very well, but it sucks hard in other areas, and is crippled long term because of this.

One list I made and plan to playtest, emphasizes this concept:

Blue Squadron Pilot w/ Autoblaster

Blue Squadron Pilot w/ Autoblaster

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret

...comes out at 100 points exactly.

The glaring weaknesses of this list are ships with PS 2 and 1 evade die all-around.

However, it does have two Ion Cannon Turrets, two Autoblasters, two ships with 3 attack dice, and 32 total hull and shield points.

I'm going to have to give this one a try once I have my B-Wings.

I've said it before and Ill say it again, a pure B-wing list is just gimmicky. Either the 3 HLC death bubble build, or 4 with ion cannons, it wont do too well against most things. Lack of action economy and maneuverability is going to get it killed more times than you would think. What the B-wing is, is an excellent support ship. I think a list type to really watch out for is going to be 2 blue squadrons with HLC and Chewbacca. Or 2 HLC B-wings and Wedge. Adding in a variety of ships increases your effectiveness exponentially.

I don't agree, particularly with a pure B-wing list being 'just gimmicky'.

If the following is true about the B-wings maneuvers:

(source - http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/88543-leaked-dials-wave-3/)

1: forward (green), bank (green), turn (red)

2: forward (green), bank (white), turn(white), Kilogram turn

3: forward (white), bank (red)

4: forward (red)

When I compare it's dial with the Y-wing's:

1: forward (green), bank (white)

2: forward (green), bank (white), turn (white)

3: forward (green), bank (white), turn (red)

4: forward (red), Koiogran turn

The REAL difference I see? The B-wing's 3 bank (red), which may hinder its tactical options when it needs to get out of dodge. Other than that, they both have a 'turn (red)' and a '4 forward (red)' and a 'Koiogran turn'.

The B-wing's strengths lie in it's movement options in 1 and 2 maneuvers, where the Y-wings are in 2 and 3 maneuvers.

Yes, the Y-wing gets a turret option where the B-wing has none - that's a big deal. However, the B-wing can barrel roll and it's currently the only stock rebel ship that can do so - that's a big deal, too. And while Ion Cannon Turrets are great on Y-wings, they should not be mistaken for a crutch.

What happens when your shieldless Y-wing is dealt a Muntions Failure and lose you ion cannon? What do you do? Roll over and play dead? No, of course not! You start flying that Y-wing like an X-wing, get back in the fight, and remember why you paid for common sense upgrades like R2 Astromech. For 2 points, a card like Fire Control System strike me as an upgrade that could shore up the B-wing's 'lack of action economy' you mentioned.

Until time/experience proves otherwise, I don't the argument 'pure B-wing lists aren't viable' holding much water...

However, I do very much agree that the B-wing would make an excellent support craft!

Honestly, I like having a 3 attack-dice ship with barrel roll a 1 turn option, even if its a red maneuver. Couldn't count the number of times past I've wanted to do a 1 turn or barrel roll in an X-wing. Now Rebels have a ship that can.

I can't see a pure B-wing list being viable either. Just way too easy to outmaneuver those suckers. But I could be wrong completely and they end up dominating.

Actually, I should elaborate.

Over in the 40k tourney community we refer to certain lists as rock-paper-scissors. The RPS lists rely on maximizing one advantage and praying you dont have the thing that counters them. So 3-4 Bs may do well against a 4 rookie pilot list, but itll lost hard to tie swarm, balanced builds, etc. So its just an ok list in that it can do certain things very well, but it sucks hard in other areas, and is crippled long term because of this.

Sorry Breaking The Law, just saw this after my last post.

I think I understand where you're coming from about the rock-paper-scissors list mentality (I play 40k too! :-D). I've seen it time and again in local 40k tourneys held where I come from.

I can definitely see your argument about putting expensive HLCs on low pilot skill B-wings as being a bad choice. That's a lot of points spent on limited situation upgrades that could practically get you a 4th ship in your list, that probably would be more effective in the long run.

But what about something like 4 B-wings with Fire-Control System? 24 points per ship. For 96 points that's 4 ships that have the ability to acquire free locks on defending ships provided they have a target to shoot at. No need for someone like Dutch Vander to hand out target locks, and you can acquire target locks via FCS even while stressed because is not a 'free action'. On a ship that has 3 attack dice and decent 1 and 2 maneuvers, that's not a bad deal, particularly when you're in the middle of a close-quarters cluster.

How's that bad against... anything we've seen so far? Where's the fail I'm missing?

Bleahh.. the 4 B-wings I'm talking about were Blue Squadron Pilots, sorry :-/

Posting fail.

Thoughts, there is a big discussion about X-Wing becoming and RPS games once everyone got familiar with Wave and and Han Shoots First (HSF) builds.

Now that Wave 3 has been announced what are your thoughts? (actually I should post this over at BBG since that's where the discussion was).

Once epic comes out we may be forced to take balanced forces. Something that I personally like. Cover, Support and mission critical ships, yeah!!!

I think B-wings will really shine when it comes to doing what the EU says they're designed to do in the first place: take out capital ships. In Epic-scale, they'll be the primary flight group when fighting the CR-90 and be very useful because of their torpedoes, and the heavy hull and Barrel Roll means they can survive long enough against capital ship guns to get the job done.

In ship-to-ship combat, I would probably limit myself to one B-wing with a mixture of A-wings and X-wings. This way I can keep the Interceptors off his tail while he deals out punishment using the nimble A-wing while the X-wing serves as the brawler, engaging TIE Fighters and Interceptors at medium range. Then once they pass the first wave of ships, the B-wing mops them up.