Here is the breakdown of the two lists -

Kyle Katarn - Moldy Crow, Blaster Turret

Garven Dreis - Astro Droid

Red Squad Pilot

Rookie Pilot

___

99

Vader - Squad Leader, one other boost i forget

Howl Runner - Swarm

4 Academy Pilots

______

100

Few things I learned on this build. Kyle was the prime target for the Empire. I flew him mostly defensively keeping him far enough away and handing out focus tokens as quickly as possible. He flew Howl and Vader right into the mix too quickly to take out Kyle first. I was able to take out Howl Runner which made the game tough for the Empire.

Even though Vader shot first, I was able to do enough damage with Garven and my Red Squad pilot before all of those Academy Pilots could shoot. Kyle as a threat went down fast, but he was not as dangerous as the 3 X-wings. Garven was still able to give an extra focus token to the other X-wings.

I wanna thank Hothie for the article on taking 4 Pilot Skill ships. It really made a huge difference in this fight. Garven got beat up, but in the end I would have still had a Red Squad and Rookie firing before any of the left over Academy ships.

I definitely think the Squad lacked the firepower of a Rank 8-9 pilot, but I wanted 4 ships on the board.

Overall great game, thanks to Joe for playing late.

Looks like a solid Rebel line up. 3 X-wings is a lot of firepower if focused correctly. The trick will always be keeping the HWK out of danger long enough to be of use. Perhaps you could boost his defense a bit with a shield upgrade instead of the blaster turret if he's going to be flown defensively anyway.

there is a lot of subtle strategy in choosing ur pilot skill level that goes overlooked by most players imo.

an example of this is in the gencon 2013 x-wing finals between two tie swarm lists. One player opted for a mix of obsidian pilots and academy pilots as well as the usual suspects like howlrunner and dark curse, whereas the eventual winner went with more tie academy pilots to support his named pilots. the two things that change are who fires first but also who moves first. taking tie academy pilots in large numbers gives u the option of spamming the field with ships to block the higher level pilot skill ships before they move, the tradeoff is you might not get to fire if u get taken out first by shots from higher pilot sill pilots.