Hello from Barcelona. I've played about 6 times so far against my business partner, he plays imperial with Soontir (Push the Limits)+ HowlRunner (Swarm Tactics) + Obsidyans + Academy Pilots and was crashing my squad until I fought with the following list:

LANDO

+MIllenium Falcon

+NIEN NUMB

+Veteran Incstints

WEDGE

+Determination

RED SQUAD PILOT

I love how this list plays out, specially that I shot first than Howlrunner with 2 of my ships and Red Squad pilot shots also first than Obsidyans and Academy pilots. I can set 3 target locks on Howlrunner and give the extra Millenium Falcon action to Wedge (focus) to avoid some damage. With some dice luck his second best ship goes down...

In order to keep Wedge alive longer and avoid bad critical damage cards Determination helps a lot.

At the end, I think the more ships the better (ordered A-wings arriving in a few days) and in 100 lists inflict as much damage on alpha strike is the key.

In your experience, will this list play agains other imperial squads? There is a local tournament in a few days and I'm not sure If I should go and give it a try...

TIA

I think you'd be surprised at how often the "more ships the better" ends up not being the case. Naturally, it depends on what ships you're talking about there, but a duo of two falcons can take an 8-tie swarm if you play them right (and get good rolls)

Against a known squad, (for example, your opponent always playing the same team) it's fairly easy to game against them and build to counter them, and I think this squad does that well. Wedge can easily one-shot Howlrunner himself with target lock and focus (again, if you roll well), and Lando can finish her off if need be or start working down Soontir. I can't think of an improvement that would help you against that specific build.

Against general builds, and for tournaments in general, I would likely drop the Red Squadron down to a Rookie and lose Vet Instincts on Lando and Determination on Wedge. That gives me 4 points to play with, which I would probably use to give Wedge either R2-D2 (for defense) or Push the Limit and a R2 Astromech. (This is assuming you have at least one of each ship. Push the Limit comes in your A-wings, so you'll have that soon anyway). Normally I'd go straight for the PTL/R2 combo, but Lando can give Wedge a free action, so it makes PTL less useful.

Either way, I'm glad you found a list that works for you!

Thanks E, good points all around, I'll definetly try to build a list with 4 ships and let you know how that goes !

I see Push the limits quite expensive unless you play with Soontir and after playing with Biggs a couple of times It "doesn't feel right' to play defense

PTL on Wedge is definitely offensive in nature, allowing for the TL + Focus attack, then R2 astro helps in clearing stress...R2 astro comes with the Y-wing though.

J hi, I see what you mean. I won't be flying Y-wings (I can't buy all the ships and Y-wings aren't that sexy to me) but I guess I can trade some card for a R2 astro. Thanks for the advice!

If you give Wedge PTL and a proton torp, then as soon as he's in range three he's launching a 4 dice attack with a focus. Next round he's likely going to be in range 1 and will land another 4 dice shot, but this time with a target lock for rerolls and a focus to change eye-balls to hits. The ability to reroll your few blank dice, and then change all the eyeballs to hits, makes every attack so ludicrously powerful. There are plenty of pilots this is also good for:

Tycho Celchu with PTL can just keep using double actions and not even worry about the stress it causes, because unless you want to K-turn him you never need to clear the stress.

Ibitsam with PTL can now re-roll one die on every defense she makes, and her attack roll, because she starts the combat round stressed. It also lets her barrel roll and still target lock/focus

Lando with PTL can take his own action, take a PTL action for stress, and then throw an action to an ally. That lets Lando TL/Focus for offense or (with the Falcon title) Focus/Evade for defense

You've already mentioned Soontir, but Turr Phennir also gets a good use out of PTL: He can use a single action during the action step, then after he shoots, he can boost/barrel roll from his pilot ability, which is "using an action" and triggers PTL, letting him do whatever action he hasn't done already this turn. That is super-crazy with an interceptor and it's maneuvering: Focus first (or evade vs Wedge) and get crazy far away after the shot with barrel roll/boost, or boost/barrel roll into range 1, then boost/barrel roll away and evade for defense, or (with the targeting computer mod) barrel roll into range 1, then boost out and TL for an upcoming turn... so many options

There are so many other reasons that PTL is my favorite, absolute favorite out of all the other pilot skills that exist, that I could probbly fill a topic with them rather than a single post. Luke with R2-F2 and PTL gets his +1 agility and still TL/Focuses. Vader also gets 3 actions with it. Han with Marksmanship and focus(/evade with Falcon title) for defense. It's nuts.

f**k, I really need to look at PTL all over again. Turr Phennir sounds like a formidable adversary. GRACIAS for your input, really appreciate it.

If you just want to use what you have I would adjust your squad one of two ways.

Han solo , falcon title

Wedge swarm tactics

Rookie

99pts gives you initiative over Soontir

Keep wedge at range 3 for first couple rounds of combat buffing rookie.

Or

Lando falcon , vet instincts

Wedge swarm

Rookie

98pts garrentee initiative and can give someone extra action.

Can put niem numb back in for 99pts.

S hi, I'll definetly consider going for lower than 100 to win initiative as I think shooting first it's a clear advantage.

The first list looks mighty and if I were imperial I woudn't be 100% sure which ship target first as both are very offensive yet I'm not that good at flying so I'm not sure I'll be able to manage swarm tactics while staying at range 3...

As for the second list I see flying rookies instead of Red Squadron it's a good alternative to my current list as winning initiative for now is a priority and the only drawback is Determination and Millenium Falcon which I can live without.

Thanks for sharing !

Hello again, I just got my A-WING expansion. I'm about to play against the same imperial squad and I'd like your input. Nothing new or super fancy except for maybe the name of the list:

Tiqui-Taca (Messi, Busquets, Neymar)

Wedge 29

Shields 4

Determination 1

Biggs 25

Shields 4

R2-F2 3

Tycho 26

Homing Missiles 5

PTL 3

34 + 32 + 34 seems balanced and hopefully R2-F2 gives an extra round to Biggs. The alternative is to switch R2-F2 for Determination (+2) on Biggs and add Droid R5 Astromech (-1) to Wedge as an extra precaution and end up with 99.

What are your thoughts about the list? In your experience, what's more effective to keep Biggs alive for longer ?

TIA

With Biggs in the game, make Wedge more offense based. Drop your shield and determination and go with PtL and an R2 unit. Biggs will soak up fire so get Wedge set up to trash the enemy while he can. At 99pts you'll probably get initiative as well.

Thanks E, just lost the game because Wedge didn't hit that much and I really liked Tycho + PTL so tomorrow I'll try with the changes you propose. Just curious, is there a competitve list with Wedge that doesn't include Biggs?

I'd differ slightly,

Strip biggs to just upgraded shields

Give wedge Swarm tactics (to make biggs shoot before he dies)
Then buy stuff for wedge and Tycho because biggs is gonna die!

ive played Chewbacca/Draw Their Fire/Gunner + Wedge/Swarm Tactics + Rookie Pilot before and its worked for me.

Thanks C + T for your input !

after two more defeats I just moved to a 4 ships fleet.

Cantera (Messi, Iniesta, Pedro, Tello)

Wedge 29

Luke 28

R2D2 4

Vet Instints 1

Rookie 21

Prototype Pilot 17

Luke has an amazing pilot ability and by using R2 every now and then he was able to kill Sontir (with some Proto help). Veteran Instints makes him shoot first every round. I'm Luke's new biggest fan !

I like how this list has two very strong ships capable by themselves to finish Howlrunner and Sontirr. One more ship, even if its a dumb Prototype pilot, makes the difference in finishing damaged ties...I also like the simplicity of not having many cards that require TL or Focus to trigger etc...it's just flying and shooting

So goodbye Biggs. And I'm afraid ain't possible to build a 4 squad list with two strong ships if the Falcon is present so goodbye Falcon.

The list needs more wins to certify it's usefulness but I'll be sticking with it for the time being, let you all know how well plays out !

I won a small tournament in the Uk ... just.
The list I used needs improvng but was something like.

Wedge

Biggs

Rookie

Ywing w/ion

Nower days I'd probably try to get a shield upgrade on Biggs. But this force works best as a unit ... Tie bombers mince such forces.

During the Kessel Run tournaments I came in third twice with Wedge with Swarm tactics, Biggs, a Red Squadron Pilot, and a Rookie Pilot. Wedge and normally the Rookie shoot first, Biggs keeps the heat off the lower skilled pilots so they can shoot against high-skill guys, and the Red out-shoots academies and other rookies. The squad was wave 1 exclusive, but still is viable in the new wave 3 meta.