Played a game tonight, matchup as follows:

My list -

29 Wedge

6 Advanced Proton Torpedoes

23 Dutch

6 Advanced Proton Torpedoes

5 Ion Cannon Turret

21 Kyle Katarn

4 Blaster Turret

3 Moldy Crow

3 Recon Specialist

My Opponent -

33 Bounty hunter

6 Advanced Proton Torpedoes

4 Cluster Missiles

0 Slave 1

29 Darth Vader

4 Cluster Missiles

2 Swarm Tactics

22 Captain Jonus

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Long story short, I got handled. With only one or two minor exceptions, my opponent and I both played well and rolled well. On my side of the table, Kyle was giving out focus tokens like they were candy. I think in one turn alone he spent four of them all by himself - one to pass to Dutch, one to fire his Blaster Turret, one to alter attack dice, and one to alter defense dice. Kyle is definitely an amazing and worthwhile support option for the Rebels, and at 31 points fully loaded with a potential 3 attack dice at range 1-2, 2 agility, and 5 HP, it's not hard to think of him as a super X-Wing. Unfortunately for me, Advanced Proton Torpedoes were still fairly difficult to pull off, owing to the obvious difficulty in successfully moving into range 1. Basically, the stars had to align, but when they did it was glorious.

I think my opponent still had the better build, mainly because Captain Jonus is just an absolute hoss. For 22 points and no upgrades, you get one of the best support options in the game - arguably as good as Howlrunner with the right list. Re-rolling two dice on every secondary weapon attack is just nuts, especially with not one but TWO Cluster Missiles. Poor Dutch went down before he could get a second shot off. Since Jonus' pilot ability doesn't benefit himself, there's practically no reason to waste points on upgrades for him. Keep him alongside missile or HLC equipped ships, take potshots at targets of opportunity, and watch as your opponent completely ignores him. I made the mistake of focus-firing the Bounty Hunter, but by the time I realized my mistake, his ships had already used most of their payload. It was basically a lose-lose situation for me.

Lessons learned: Kyle is amazing, but Jonus is easily the standout pilot of wave 3. Put him in a list and see for yourself.

Sounds like I have thinking to do then. I love the empire, I just believed til now they were kinda on the losing side.

A lot of people are going to find out the hard way that the much anticipated B-Wing isn't all it's chalked up to be. The HWK being playable is actually a pleasant surprise, and I don't think anyone knows how to put the shuttle to use yet. But Jonus... heed my words, or wait until you're sitting across the table from him.

Don't be surprised when I say "I told you so."

Since I saw the card I said "Great Bomber Swarms." He is a support monster and makes Cluster missiles amazing. B-wings are good ships but fall quickly to intercepters and missiles.

Put Jonas with Trellix and Trellix gets 3 rerolls with an HLC, which means you can get a different crew card, of which there are some fine options, instead of using gunner.

I'm looking at this with Vader as the third ship..... Maybe with squad leader on Vader or Jonas, so the BH gets some real nasty actions in.

I completly agree, I love running a Firespray with HLC. This will make it all the sweeter!

Put Jonas with Trellix and Trellix gets 3 rerolls with an HLC, which means you can get a different crew card, of which there are some fine options, instead of using gunner.

I'm looking at this with Vader as the third ship..... Maybe with squad leader on Vader or Jonas, so the BH gets some real nasty actions in.

I think Saboteur would make for an interesting crew card, especially since you can't crit with HLC.

Sabateur is one of the ones I was thinking of :-)

Most players, if they're smart, will try to get in range 1 to negate your HLC. It also doesn't help that the Firespray lacks a 360 degree arc, unlike the Falcon. Bombs and ATPs are obviously great close range answers, but both are expensive and difficult to execute well. I think that's where Saboteur comes in handy - it's cheap, and it doesn't require an enemy ship to be within your arc.

Recon Specialist is the other one, for 2 focus a turn. 1 for attack and 1 for defence.

Jonus and howlrunner = primary targets.

I really liked Recon Specialist on Kyle. Even with two agility, which the HWK and the Firespray share, having that extra focus for defense gives you an immense amount of peace of mind.

Jonus and howlrunner = primary targets.

I think Jonus is going to fly under the radar until people see what he can do. Six hull is enough to make people think twice about focusing him early, since he poses a minimal threat on his own.

Most players, if they're smart, will try to get in range 1 to negate your HLC. It also doesn't help that the Firespray lacks a 360 degree arc, unlike the Falcon. Bombs and ATPs are obviously great close range answers, but both are expensive and difficult to execute well. I think that's where Saboteur comes in handy - it's cheap, and it doesn't require an enemy ship to be within your arc.

If people get into Range one on a Firespray, I'm still rolling 4 dice and now have the ability to get crits. If someone rushes my Firspray, I'll have 2 or 3 ships flanking them and will absolutly shread them. I've watched how players have used HLC, getting 2 shots of in 7 or 8 rounds. Not that hard to manauver slowly and fire blasts far away at range 3

Hey, if you can do that then great. That hasn't been my experience, unfortunately.