I have been messing around with a lot of builds lately for Rebels and one of the ideas I keep coming back to is putting a lot of hull/shield points on the board.

With the B-wing coming in and the Blaster Turret upgrade I thought of this idea.

Flying Fortress

Han Solo (Falcon, Adrenaline Rush, Mercenary Co-Pilot)

Dagger Squadron (Proton Torpedoes)

Gold Squadron (Turret Blaster)

Total - 100

I will try this list out next week on game night but wanted to get thoughts on this build. The Y-wing with Turret Blaster and Falcon give me 2 ships with 360 range. The B-wing with torpedoes is also a beast.

You can even take Han Solo out and continue with more Y and B wings.

The build may not have a ton of mobility, but if it stays together and continues to shoot with 3 attack dice, it could end up surviving to win games.

Just a thought

The ships need to support each other, that is fun to do I think. When you go lone wolf you get ate up by the buzzing Ties or A-Wings.

"Stay In Formation."

Vader.

It is pretty much established how to play Han. Good options on him are Gunner, Marksmanship, Chewbacca, Millenium Falcon Title. There are other possibilities, but mercenary Copilot is not really good on him as it is only range 3 and xou just have way way better options to improve his shooting. Marksmanship goes miles more for you believe me! Especially as i am convinced that if there is any ship not needing adrenaline rush it is the YT-1300 just because essentially there is always something more intelligent to do than to K-Turn it. If you dont like Marksmanship, rather take swarm tactics or squad leader for 2 or even Determination if you dont take Chewie as crew, or veteran instincts to make him really go first... Or give adrenaline to your B-Wing. Not sure if Dagger squad has a medal anymore though but i think so...

Oh and while we're at it, why take Dagger squadron at all. The pilot skill is just not worth it for that many points and if you don't give him a skill anyway you are better served with Blue squadron for less points so you can give it or Han or the Y-Wing some equipment.

The Y-Wing is really fine but think about an R2 for getting rid of stress because you will absolutely need that action with a blaster turret, because no firing the blaster without focus you know? Also this might be a valid point to give Han Squad leader for the occasional Focus/Target lock on the Y-Wing that you will need to do any damage with the turret.

It is a good squad idea based on HSF but you need to make the ships support each other more, and they need to pose a threat for themselves (which the Y-Wing does not do and Han does suboptimally in your list).

Hope you like the feedback!

I have been messing around with a lot of builds lately for Rebels and one of the ideas I keep coming back to is putting a lot of hull/shield points on the board.

With the B-wing coming in and the Blaster Turret upgrade I thought of this idea.

Flying Fortress

Han Solo (Falcon, Adrenaline Rush, Mercenary Co-Pilot)

Dagger Squadron (Proton Torpedoes)

Gold Squadron (Turret Blaster)

Total - 100

I will try this list out next week on game night but wanted to get thoughts on this build. The Y-wing with Turret Blaster and Falcon give me 2 ships with 360 range. The B-wing with torpedoes is also a beast.

You can even take Han Solo out and continue with more Y and B wings.

The build may not have a ton of mobility, but if it stays together and continues to shoot with 3 attack dice, it could end up surviving to win games.

Just a thought

lol, I was expecting something B-17 related in this post.

Fortress Falcon:

Han with gunner

Chewie with gunner

Shield upgrades and draw their fire on chewie. Point the ships right at each other and do nothing but 1 forward maneuvers.

Fortress Falcon:

Han with gunner

Chewie with gunner

Shield upgrades and draw their fire on chewie. Point the ships right at each other and do nothing but 1 forward maneuvers.

Though legal (bordering the exploit line), I find it a fishy way to play, and I believe that it totally defeats the purpose of the game.

Fortress Falcon:

Han with gunner

Chewie with gunner

Shield upgrades and draw their fire on chewie. Point the ships right at each other and do nothing but 1 forward maneuvers.

What "optimum shots" are you going to be getting at two parked YT's? Apparently Backstabber can get his extra attack die more easily but I fail to see where you could get an advantageous "angle" on the YT with its turreted primary weapon. You may be able to maneuver so you can shoot at one YT while the other is just out of range but you'll still get shot back at.

I'm not saying I'd play bumper ships and park a pair of YT's into each other but aside from costing themselves actions which they probably could/should use I don't see any big drawbacks to the strategy.

Fortress Falcon:

Han with gunner

Chewie with gunner

Shield upgrades and draw their fire on chewie. Point the ships right at each other and do nothing but 1 forward maneuvers.

I did that. It was brutal. Downed a Biggs with 3 x-wing list and a 4 x-wing with shields list. I call it "The Most Powerful Force in the Universe" build. Han gets Determination and gunner, Chewie gets DTF and gunner. A variation that is also killer is Han gets Swarm Tactics and Shield upgrade, Chewie gets DTF and Gunner.

With gunner you don't get dice manipulation, but if you get a bad roll you get to roll again. Chewie pulls Crits from Han (who everyone will want to shoot first) and it means that instead of splashing a 13 point ship, your really taking on a 26 point ship.

What makes it even trickier is after you do your head on run, your attacking squad still has to break to the left or right, which means it will not be able to fire well as you reset your firing arcs.

Fortress Falcon:

Han with gunner

Chewie with gunner

Shield upgrades and draw their fire on chewie. Point the ships right at each other and do nothing but 1 forward maneuvers.

With gunner you don't get dice manipulation, but if you get a bad roll you get to roll again. Chewie pulls Crits from Han (who everyone will want to shoot first) and it means that instead of splashing a 13 point ship, your really taking on a 26 point ship.

EDIT: Nevermind. I misunderstood. Disregard. I shouldn't post while drowsy.

Well... now I need a second YT-1300.

FF ought to limit large base ships to one each per army. Or make the second one cost more. I'm sure this idea will go over like a lead balloon.

The 360 shooting on the Falcon at full range and full firepower is just a little too easy. They could have given him 4 attacks to the front and only 2 to the 360 arc or something of that nature to incentivize actually maneuvering (for both players). Or make the forward arc shoot at range 3 but the 360 arc only shoot range 2. Perhaps the points would need to be adjusted as well with any changes. I like the Falcon as written, but I think it could have been improved to be more congruent with the basis for the game, namely maneuvering to get an advantage.

What "optimum shots" are you going to be getting at two parked YT's? Apparently Backstabber can get his extra attack die more easily but I fail to see where you could get an advantageous "angle" on the YT with its turreted primary weapon. You may be able to maneuver so you can shoot at one YT while the other is just out of range but you'll still get shot back at.

I'm not saying I'd play bumper ships and park a pair of YT's into each other but aside from costing themselves actions which they probably could/should use I don't see any big drawbacks to the strategy.

Just to give you an idea what i mean... You have a ship in pursuit of a YT. The YT can go left or right, denying the pursuer a shot in 50% of cases (it may go in the opposite direction) but being ableto shoot itself in nearly 100% of cases (if the pursuer does not bump into it). I don't understand how someone can just forfeit this advantage and all his actions if there is no necessity for it.

If you don't move you will most of the time just lose a straight shooout because you are agility 1. Yes you have 6 attacks per turn with gunner, but still most enemy lists can and will outdamage you through sheer number of attacks and potential dodges. This is even more true if you dont get any actions. Gunners are awesome but they are a lot better with Focus or TL. With Narksmanship they are just ridiculously good especially on Han. So you really need to dodge attack angles with YT's to have a decent chance to win. Maybe you won a few games playing bumpcars but i assure you if your enemy has a decent list and a general idea how to play the game you are toast.

Also the double YT is one of my favorite lists and i have played it nearly 100% identical to yours many times. Hell i even modified one of my falcons to make it look different from the other for this reason. I have bumped my ships intentionally only once but then i had a tactical reason to do so and was able to only get shot by one enemy that turn instead of 4.

FF ought to limit large base ships to one each per army. Or make the second one cost more. I'm sure this idea will go over like a lead balloon.

The 360 shooting on the Falcon at full range and full firepower is just a little too easy. They could have given him 4 attacks to the front and only 2 to the 360 arc or something of that nature to incentivize actually maneuvering (for both players). Or make the forward arc shoot at range 3 but the 360 arc only shoot range 2. Perhaps the points would need to be adjusted as well with any changes. I like the Falcon as written, but I think it could have been improved to be more congruent with the basis for the game, namely maneuvering to get an advantage.

The falcon is a strong ship but there are other very strong lists like Swarms, Triple Bounty hunters, 2 Firesprays plus Howlrunner aka hothies additional damage list, Frog squad and its variations and a lot of other lists. They can all beat double YT and any other large based ship list. I feared triple or quad shuttles might be overpowered but i doubt it now, we will see!

In any case i see no reason to change the YT or to prohibit using multiples of it, especially that i can hardly think of any competitive players that run it or let alone won tournaments with it (as opposed to HSF lists...)

If you don't move you will most of the time just lose a straight shooout because you are agility 1. Yes you have 6 attacks per turn with gunner, but still most enemy lists can and will outdamage you through sheer number if attacks and potential dodges. So you really need to dodge attack angles with YT's to have a decent chance to win.

Even if they remain still, the enemy is forced to maneuver sooner of later in order to turn around and make another pass. There you have your 'evade' attack angles period. However, the falcons keep shooting the whole time at anything in range.

If you don't move you will most of the time just lose a straight shooout because you are agility 1. Yes you have 6 attacks per turn with gunner, but still most enemy lists can and will outdamage you through sheer number if attacks and potential dodges. So you really need to dodge attack angles with YT's to have a decent chance to win.

Even if they remain still, the enemy is forced to maneuver sooner of later in order to turn around and make another pass. There you have your 'evade' attack angles period. However, the falcons keep shooting the whole time at anything in range.

Also if you can't dodge more angles by just using normal movement than by remaining static, then i am sorry but you're not playing well at all. I don't mean to offend you but it's just really easy to make unexpected manoeuvers with a YT. It has a 1 turn and even some fighters can't match that for ecample. Try Expert handling on it or an engine upgrade if that's not enough mobility for you.

There is no reason to bump YT's into each other except the occasional one turn surprise for an enemy not ecpecting it.

I'm not sure if you understood me.

Yes, the YT has excellent maneuverability, and you may be able to fool your opponent, how many times, once? two times in a match? In those times you won't take fire from the enemy ship, true.

But what I was saying, is that those 1 or 2 times of outmaneuvering your opponent, are equivalent in practice to the 1 or 2 times that the opponent is forced to maneuver away because he literally run out of room or angle to keep firing at the static YTs. Unless the opponent is also armed with turrets, or auxiliary firing arcs, he has no choice but to lose sight on the YTs if he wants to avoid fleeing the battlefield, colliding, or flying past the YTs.

You can dodge way way more than once or twice if you play it right. Also even after that it is difficult to get an angle again at the YT.

For example you go right he goes left. You get one turn of free shooting. But after that what can he do? K-Turn going out of range? Turn tight possibly bringing him parallel to your flight path, which is really bad against a YT? That would be 2 dodges in 2 turns mot the whole game. Now assuming he had more ships than you, you can use this to disengage from one ship to quickly kill another that's possibly now isolated. That is what you need to do with a YT divide and conquer basically. Because even YT's will eventually lose a firefight if you pour 8 and more shots into it per turn (that's half a swarm) or even 6 shots against 2 X-Wings or Interceptors. If dice roll rather statistically you can normally just not win this kind of fight even with a gunner!

Also again it is possible to not lose a turn of fire against static targets of you know how. Stay slightly sidewards in a 90 degree angle towards the closest YT. Then K-turn as far as possible the turn you would overshoot him. Then go a green manoeuver and repeat the process. And that's only one way to do it.

Of course it's more difficult if you bump your YT's in a corner but to do that is a difficulty for itself!

FF ought to limit large base ships to one each per army. Or make the second one cost more. I'm sure this idea will go over like a lead balloon.

Well I don't know if FFG will ever do that. We do however, in our casual gaming, only allow 1 large ship per side. But now that the Lambda is out we may have to rethink it... but probably not. We definitely don't use two YT-1300 or Firespray at the same time.

Again... Its just preference. I'd love to see campaign or mission rules that included a balanced force requirement. The number of base fighters you field (X-Wing and TIE/Ln) might/could determine how many other ships are allow.

i.e. 4 - X-Wings would allow 2 A-Wings and 2-B-Wings. A YT-1300 would by necessity be equal in number (not points) to several X-Wings.

Okay, not a flushed out idea, just off the top of my head but a start....

Maybe wave three will be more balanced and favor more diverse lists... it appears to, but I need to playtest more. I think the Falcon and Slave spam lists are good but perhaps no longer (if ever) overpowered.