So where I'm from, my local X-wing league meets on Tuesday evenings for 3-4 hours of play. Unlike most Tuesdays where I normally bring a new idea to put to the test, a whole afternoon of doing mental theory-wing donuts and number-crunching led me to the conclusion that I had absolutely no idea what to do next.

Turned out that once I showed up to league, one of our regulars was looking to get some practice in for an upcoming tournament. I decided to run a 5-ship Rookie-Gold concept (one I made up literally while driving to league) against his builds, hoping that it would give him a more forgiving environment to practice maneuvering, target prioritizing, and decision-making as well as gauge his build's abilities to deal and endure damage in dogfights against basic, no-surprise test targets.

After winning every game we played with a 5-ship list that I thought would be awkward and non-optimal, I'm thinking I really underestimated the potential that a 5-ship Rebel build offers. A few things I like about this list design:

1) All the ships are PS2, which allows me to maneuver each fighter in any order I choose.

2) 34 shield and hull points does not simply "go quietly into the night."

3) Five separate targets, instead of four or three.

What surprised me was how good Gold Squadron Pilots are with just R2 Astromechs. And because the X-wings presented themselves as a larger threat at face value, the Y-wings were ignored and able to lay the hammer down without much retaliation.

So what I'm wondering is, does:

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ R2 Astromech

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ R2 Astromech

Gold Squadron Pilot w/ R2 Astromech

... seem like a Rebel build worth considering for the tournament scene?

y-wings wout ion cannon seems iffy to me. that 360 firing arc is very good and negates the somewhat sluggish movement dials of y-wings imo. hard to look past wedge + luke with shield upgrades and one with R2D2. they have more durability, fire early in the round and pack a punch (i like draw their fire on luke and Push the Limit on Wedge).

if ur set on running 3 y-wings id drop an x-wing and add 3 ion cannons and either upgrade the remaining rookie x-wing to dreis, luke or wedge garven dreis has the best synergy with the y-wings i guess and that would leave u a few points for upgrades as well.

You might be able to make it work with good piloting and the right match-ups.

I've won a couple of games experimenting with 5-ship Rebel builds.

The problem in a tournament setting is that even if you get favorable match-ups and pilot your squad perfectly, you are likely to go to time limit. The times I have played 5-ship rebels have been sort of long and tedious battles.

Another thought I had along the lines of a 5 X/Y-wing build was:

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

Gold Squadron Pilot

Gold Squadron Pilot

99/100 points

I like this one for having 3 X-wings instead of 2, but I prefer having R2 Astromechs on the Golds for the enhanced green maneuvers, and I think a 5-ship list like this needs to be at 99 points in order to secure initiative against other PS 2 lists like 4 Rookies w/ shield upgrades.

I realize I could swap out the Golds for Prototype Pilots, but losing 8 shield/hull points and the tactical benefits of identical pilot skill across the board doesn't seem like a winning proposition to me.

Just my opinion, but Y-wings aren't that sluggish. I like the R2s on them, but you could probably make do without. There have been a couple of games where I really wished Horton had R2 instead of R5, but we made it through. If you have bank 1, turn 2 and bank 3 I think you're set. It takes clever planning to Koiogran and then clear stress with a straight maneuver AND have a shot, but with five ships covering each other it should be doable.

At the Team Covenant Vassal tournament Tony ran "The Replacements":

3x Rookie Pilot + R2 Astromech

2x Prototype Pilot

He was a tough opponent! If he had won he would have made it to the top 8. I think I like Y-wings better because they can take a pounding. I'd say try the three X-wing version and see how you like it.

So I gave the 3 X-wing/2 Y-wing list a try yesterday afternoon. I had it square off against:

Chewbacca w/ Expert Handling, Millenium Falcon title card

Luke Skywalker w/ Swarm Tactics, R2-D2

Rookie Pilot

I had crap dice rolling this time around. However, I think what really gave my opponent the upper hand for most of the game was the fact that I had all 3 X-wings do K-turns that put his Rookie/Luke Skywalker behind me. This worked out well for me because I was trying to take out Chewy first, but I underestimated the amount of ground a named YT-1300 can cover when coupled with Expert Handling

On a side note, Chewbacca w/ Expert Handling is stupid good and quite annoying for 44 points.

Ultimately I lost the game because I was unable to coordinate my firepower effectively enough to drop targets ships in a timely fashion. That being said, I thought the 3 X-wing/2 Y-wing list did okay, and could've done better given better flying and more average dice rolls. This being said, I thnk I'm still a fan of Gold Squadron Pilot w/ R2 Astromech for the tactical outs it provides for after executing a red maneuver (which the Y-wing has no short supply of).

If you want to try a fun alternate, try fielding two gold sqdn pilots with ion cannons and two Outer Rim Smugglers. Sure, you don't have quite as much firepower, but you're sitting on 36 health and 4 360 degree firing arcs.

how about these 4 ship builds..

2x Rookie Pilot + R2 Atro + shield upgrade

2x Gold Squadron Pilot + R2 Astro + Ion Cannon

3x Rookie Pilot + shield upgrade

1x Gold Squadron Pilot + R2 Astro + Ion Cannon

low pilot skills but durable.

Don't play Y-Wings without ion cannons ever. The pretty much only viable Rebel "swarm" list I have ever seen was this one:

Rookie Pilot 21

Rookie Pilot 21

Gold Squadron pilot + R2 + Ion Cannon 24

Prototype Pilot 17

Prototype Pilot 17

It just will not work without the 17 points A-Wings for 5 ships. Trust me!

Plus why would you take a naked Y-Wing when you can have the same Firepower and pretty much same durability (3 agility plus evade) plus improved maneuverability with A-Wings for one point less.

On a side note, Chewbacca w/ Expert Handling is stupid good and quite annoying for 44 points.

Yeah, you should try it with Engine Upgrade. Boost on the big ships makes them really fast.

I've tried a few 5 A-Wing lists, but it really is tough to get any sort of synergy with 5 Rebels; tough lists to play.

I like 2 prototype pilots, 2 rookie pilots, and a GSP with an ion cannon. Gives you the crazy-maneuverable A-wings, the hard-hitting X-wings, and the space-tank of the Y with the turret to ionize speedy or dangerous fighters

I recently tried the 3 rookie Xwing/ 2 GSP Ywing list. I played 3 games and won all 3. Game one was against a HSF list, game 2 was against a 6 TIE swarm, and game 3 was against Slave-1 and a few elite TIEs. This rebel swarm list is plain hard to beat. Lots of attack dice, lots of health. Keep your ships close to each other for maximum firepower. I killed Han in 2 turns because I was able to roll lots of dice at him. Works very similar to a TIE swarm, really.

Speaking of rebel 5-ship builds, what does everyone think of a 3 GSP Y-wing/2 Blue squadron B-wing list? This list has 5 activations, a whopping 40 hull/shield points, and 12 attack dice. Slow and not very agile, but it would take forever to kill.

Outer Rim Smuggler w/ Falcon title & 4 Gold Squadron Ywings. 100pts, 42 hull&shield. Fun list and challenging to fly. I beat a 5 Avenger Interceptor list losing only 1 Ywing.

I found this list quite effective.

99pts to try to go for the initiative.

2x Prototype pilot A-wings

2x rookie pilot X-wings

1 Red Squadrom pilot.

Play it like a TIE Swarm with the A-wings racing up to bump your opponents ships (I find they're better than TIEs at this because of the boost).

The X-wings hang back and provide target locked firepower.

I think my favorite version of the "rebel swarm" is the one i considered for Gencon prior to wave 3: 2x Rookies, 2x Prototype, 1x Gold Squadron with Ion Cannon. I flew the thing as a big X starting out, with the Y in the middile, A wings in front on the sides and the X's behind them. With wave 3 I considered dropping a Rookie for a Blue Squadron, since the original list is only 99, but still am not sold on the B>X argument

Don't play Y-Wings without ion cannons ever. The pretty much only viable Rebel "swarm" list I have ever seen was this one:

Rookie Pilot 21

Rookie Pilot 21

Gold Squadron pilot + R2 + Ion Cannon 24

Prototype Pilot 17

Prototype Pilot 17

It just will not work without the 17 points A-Wings for 5 ships. Trust me!

Plus why would you take a naked Y-Wing when you can have the same Firepower and pretty much same durability (3 agility plus evade) plus improved maneuverability with A-Wings for one point less.

im totally going to try this out when my awings come on friday

If i can ever get my hands on one more A wing I'm going to try

5 prototypes w/ stealth.

Seems basic and you are at PS 1 but have 5 ships with 4 agility and the ability to focus / evade and have the best actions available from all of the rebel ships. I have no idea how this will play out, seems like it would be really annoying hunting them all down for your opponent and could be fun to play with.

On a side note, there is a semi large thread I started awhile back with some more possible builds for 5 ship lists. worth checking out if anyone is interested.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91692-rebel-swarm-lists/

For those who stated the Y-Wing is useless without a turret, I suggest you give them another try. The Y-Wing is a workhorse fighter and does quite well, ESPECIALLY because most players underestimated their value. That being said I wanted to bring up a 5 ship build not yet mentioned. I have not, however, had the chance to try this one yet.

3 Blue B-Wings

2 Prototype A-Wing

100 points on the dot, Fly it similar to other squad mentioned above A-Wings and blockers and the B-Wings are the firepower.

Manto

As an Imperial player, 5 ships is better than 4.
As a Rebel player, 4 good ships are better than 5 bad ones.

As both, I'd have to say the most imperial ship the rebels have is the A-wing, which is also the cheapest to be effective. The more of them you have in your swarm, the more imperially it will run.

However, I'd throw out 2 Gold Squadron pilots with Ion Cannon Turrets, 2 Prototype Pilots, and a Rebel Operative with a Blaster Turret. That's 100 points, even, and hilarious.

ABXY build is my current Rebel favorite-

Green + cluster + PTL

Blue + FCS

Rookie

Gold + Ion

Green is just silly, Blue and Rookie keep the pressure on, and gold is surprisingly good with the Green able to pick on stuff or Blue just slow rolling behind the ionized ship. A few points left over but not quite enough for a major upgrade.

5 ships xxyyb made it to top 8 at world with it.

5 ships xxyyb made it to top 8 at world with it.

iv played this build a few times and it gr8.

y wings at close range are very underrated.

I like this set up as well. It has remarkable durability and packs firepower.

Just tried an XXBAA squadron. The problem I found is the naked B is such tempting initial targets that if 2 or 3 ships go after it, doesn't matter how many shields and hull you got 1 agility just isn't enough!

The rebels did win, but I was never comfortable with it. Thinking a 4 with upgrades/mechs would be better.