Just got round to trying out a squad of nothing but Ywings, and it proved very effective! The squad was Horton with an R2 and 3 Gold Squadron Pilots, all four with Ion Cannon Turrets, of course. I was up against Vader, Soonter and Turr, Vader with Engine Upgrade and the Interceptors with Stealth. I lost one of the Gold Squadron Pilots, other than that it was pretty one sided, not a lot they could do when they were ioned most turns, and the Ywings don't need to worry about getting them in their firing arcs.

Hortons ability didn't come into play very much, so I might drop him and see what else I can get for the points, maybe more astromechs, or torpedoes to cover range 3.

It's possible that this this worked in large part because I had the numbers; against a tie swarm it might not go se well, although it might still work - making them collide, plus the single wound will be pretty significant to them. I think it would work best against Firesprays and Shuttles, one straight forward could be disastrous for them, so long as you keep out of the Firesprays arcs.

So there you go, Ywings certainly aren't useless! Was a fun game to play, too.

Four Gold Squadron Y-Wings each with an Ion Cannon and an AstroMech Droid are a strong build for 100 points.

Leaves you 4 points to put a Proton Torpedo on one of them, or to upgrade. I usually run my Golds with Dutch (R5D8) just because Dutch was Gold Leader. He works pretty well at maximizing shots early so you can get those Ion tokens out right away, even though he is always the first one down.

Wait, how did Horton's ability NOT come up? Either all your ion shots were at range 1, or you never rolled blanks. Horton should take focus and be able to land three hits with the ion cannon at range 2 every single turn precisely because of his ability. I advise you to reconsider dropping him.

I'm thinking either two or three of the named astromechs (not sure which, they all appeal) or two torpedoes.

I haven't looked at the wave three upgrades yet (saving it for when I get them), maybe some of them will be great on a Ywing

Wait, how did Horton's ability NOT come up? Either all your ion shots were at range 1, or you never rolled blanks. Horton should take focus and be able to land three hits with the ion cannon at range 2 every single turn precisely because of his ability. I advise you to reconsider dropping him.

Mostly cos it was tricky keeping him at range two, and when I did shooter range two I usually had a target lock and often a focus two, so his ability wasn't that great. Plus one time I re-rolled with his ability, got more blanks, re-rolled with target lock, still blanks, so that made me mad at him! You're probably right, I'm probably just not making the most of him. Totally forgot about his 1 and 2s being green (from his astromech) for a start, that might have made keeping him at range two easier.

A lot of people out there feel Y-Wings are flawed and your points would be better spent on an X-Wing, and they may be right. But I LOVE Y-Wings. For me they are a lot of fun to play, and can be a real nuisance to opponents. I have walked Vader several times right off the board with an ion turret. I only have two Y's but I really want to buy at least one more. I only play casual games, and haven't gotten into the tournament scene at all, but for my play style they are a lot of fun.

Plus one time I re-rolled with his ability, got more blanks, re-rolled with target lock, still blanks

On a side note "a die that has already been rerolled cannot be rerolled again during this attack."

I wish FFG would make a special edition of the Y-Wing (see what I did there?), and have the model with all of the cowlings still attached to the frame. That'd be pretty neat.

I wish FFG would make any kind of Y-wing again. I can't find them (or the Tie Advanced) anywhere...

I wouldn't say the Y-Wings were effective, I'd say the Imperial list you flew against was ineffective. Imperial Elite builds are risky because every ship is only three hit points, and it's counter-productive to the inherent imperial strategy of quantity over quality. That list has to rely on its stealth devices performing well enough into future turns and getting out of the firing arc of enemy fighters, which won't happen with a turret list.

If your list can survive against a 7-8 ship swarm, twin firesprays, or firesprays with a multi-ship escort, you might have something. Otherwise against your list I'd be moving my swarm in close formation, targeting the first Y-Wing, blowing it up, and moving on until you have no more fighters left. With so many TIEs to choose from you could Ion four of them, but three-four more would still fly unimpeded. Plus those ships that were ion'ed can still attack and perform actions once they've cleared anyway. Your Y-Wings only evade with 1 die, so you're not going to be shrugging off the avalanche of fire I'll be throwing at you.

4 Y-Wings has trouble against a 7 or 8 ship TIE swarm. Of course, pretty much every list in the game struggles against the TIE swarm so that is hardly a criticism.

Against Rebel builds, small ship count elite lists, or especially against a 2 firespray list the 4Y can really shine. I have clobbered twin firesprays repeatedly with this list, it is very easy to get one or often both firesprays ionized and have your Ys (at least the damaged ones) get out of their firing arcs, and it only takes a couple turns with the large ship base before they fly off the map.

The 4 Y list is hardly "first tier", but it is good enough to win a quite a few matchups.

Not to discount things too much but I'd say you pretty much ran into a dream match up. You playing four bricks that can attack in any direction and him playing three hornets. I imagine that once you started hitting with the ion turrets it was pretty much game over. When those TIEs need maneuverability to survive and you can take that away...

Y-Wings are the best

'ware their mighty torpedoes

Or forever rest

Man, it seems like the Imperial players are really bringing the hate. You don't have to win every match to love Y-wings, or any ship in this game, for that matter. Okay, I agree that it was like pitting Charizard against Bulbasaur, but it makes you feel good when you win. Especially with a ship that is not widely accepted.

I'm reminded of the scene from Cool Runnings where Derice pulls the picture of Buckinham palace out of the trash and puts it back on Yul Brenner's mirror. Doesn't matter what other people think, you've gotta chase your dreams!

P.S. I can understand the hate that Imperial players have for turret spam. But 7-8 TIE swarm is one of the strongest squads in the game, so you can't hold every list up to that bar.

Y-Wings are one of my favorite rebel fighters actually. But I'm still of the opinion they need improvements before I can see them as a good list choice.

I just don't like the Ion cannon. "Escort" tactics are well-liked by Ion players, but that an Ion'ed ship can still perform actions, fight, and evade unimpeded doesn't feel thematic to me. Ships with Boost and Barrel roll could still perform these actions and get out of the way of being shot at.

Moreover I'd trade almost anything to get more damage out of the turret weapon (The Blaster is welcome even if it requires constant focus). Protons are pathetic in most game situations, especially against evade-3 targets, and none of the pilots have elite pilot talents to give them greater flexibility. So you're really taking the Y-Wing only for the Ion cannon, and the Y-Wing deserves better than that.

I mean if Ion cannons hurt a target's agility dice, then a valid combination could be Ion-attacking a TIE fighter on the first turn and then the second hitting them with Protons. Boom! Ions would actually be dangerous instead of a minor nuisance that they seem to be. The 2-torpedo magazine could make this a repeat tactic and force the Empire players to take Y-Wings seriously. Moreover Y-Wings nerfs on enemy agility makes them tasty choices for lists already flying lethal fighters. Would certainly make an awesome counter to the TIE Swarms. At the same time Wedge wouldn't be obsolete because he can still do that without the attacks.

*Shrug* so I dunno. I just wish I could do more with the Y-Wing than being forced to take it with an Ion cannon to make it a credible weapon.

I've always had good luck with an all Y-wing build. But most importantly is that they are just plain fun.

My fondest Y-Wing memory is from the fabled game; X-Wing. Shields double front, remove power from weapons, ram head on into Tie fighters. Boom. Boom Boom. Boom.

I'm wondering when/if we'll ever see some kind of missile/torpedo magazine that would allow a ship to use that weapon WITHOUT having to discard it after use. In many ways the Heavy Laser Cannon has been seen as an endless supply of torpedoes so a precedent does exist for a secondary weapon that can be used over and over again.

With regards to the old X-Wing video game, I always liked shooting the TIEs with the Y-Wing. The laser cannons were so close together that if you fire-linked them and hit with one, you almost always hit with both. You could one-shot TIEs and Interceptors took two.

I also liked the mission where you have to disable the shuttles, then fly cover for the boarding shuttles. A star destroyer showed up ten or so klicks away, and if you could take out the waves of TIEs it launched fast enough you could close with it. Proton torpedoes to take out the shield domes, then ion cannon it to disable it (not realistic, I realize, but that what happened). Then just stop and park, crank up your laser cannon recharge rate and fire at it until it exploded.

Taking out an entire star destroyer with one Y-Wing. Priceless.

Pffft, I did that with just my hands in The Force Unleashed.

With regards to the old X-Wing video game, I always liked shooting the TIEs with the Y-Wing. The laser cannons were so close together that if you fire-linked them and hit with one, you almost always hit with both. You could one-shot TIEs and Interceptors took two.

I also liked the mission where you have to disable the shuttles, then fly cover for the boarding shuttles. A star destroyer showed up ten or so klicks away, and if you could take out the waves of TIEs it launched fast enough you could close with it. Proton torpedoes to take out the shield domes, then ion cannon it to disable it (not realistic, I realize, but that what happened). Then just stop and park, crank up your laser cannon recharge rate and fire at it until it exploded.

Taking out an entire star destroyer with one Y-Wing. Priceless.

I remember that mission. Always did the same thing too.

four y-wings vs two YT1300s

who wins?

I wish FFG would make a special edition of the Y-Wing (see what I did there?), and have the model with all of the cowlings still attached to the frame. That'd be pretty neat.

Clone Wars era? I love how they retconned that. The Incredible Cross Sections version was cool, too.

Dutch + Bwing with some ordinance = pretty sweet methinks.