Yesterday I took 2 Blue Squadron B-wings both with HLC's and 2 Rookie X-wings with no upgrades against my friend who was flying Darth Vader, Yorr and the 2PS Tie Bomber. Vader had the missles that let you shoot twice (concussion?) and Engine Upgrade. Yorr had the Weapons Engineer and the Lambda title upgrade (st321?). The Tie Bomber had APT's and something else. I'm sure I missed an upgrade or two somewhere.

Anyway, I really didn't want him to get a chance to use the APT's with his bomber especially when Yorr was handing out TL's. I mostly ignored Vader at the beginning. I decided to cut off my run w/ 1 X and B that were TL'd, keeping them away from the Bomber and engaging the Lambda. The X and B not TL'd I flew straight at the Bomber. That was round 3 and I believe the Bomber was toast by the end of round 4. The Lambda had lost a couple shields by this time. I had the shields stripped off 1 B and 1 X w/ the X also having taken 1 hull damage. The other 2 were clean save for maybe 1 shield off the 2nd X.

At this point I primarily went after the Lambda taking shots at the slippery Vader when they presented themselves. I recall his missles attacks doing minor damage to me thanks to some solid rolls on my part. At this point we exchanged a lot of fire with both sides taking damage (except the 1 B that was still clean).

I ended up losing my 1st ship when I gambled on running through an asteroid in an attempt to set up a range 1 kill shot on the Lambda. I thought my template was going to overlap no matter what but after checking to see after the dial was revealed it turned out I could have snuck a 1 hard right in and dodged. Unfortunately my dice were still hot enough to take myself out. I managed to get to the Lambda and finally put it down but lost my 1st B wing at about the same point.

With a clean B-wing and a mostly intact X-wing remaining it wasn't too big of a challenge to finish off Vader. My opponent extended things for a bit w/ Vaders insane manueverability w/ the Engine Upgrade.

In conclusion I still have little faith in the Lambda (although the x4 variant could be trouble) and I'm still not even all that sure about the Bombers. I have also heard people talk about a resurgence of Vader coupled w/ the Wave 3 toys but after he launches his ordinance he simply cannot do enough damage to be a significant threat.

On the flip side I am loving the Blue Squadron w/ HLC. I'm rolling 4 dice every turn w/ each one and its been very effective for me. Adding 2 Rookies worked well. I'm going to keep experimenting with other variants but I haven't faced a local opponnent yet that has shut down my B-wings (but I'm sure I will face lists that can wreck them soon if I keep having a lot of success.

Sounds like a solid list. If you want to try true B-Wing power try 3 Dagger Squadrons with Fire Control and Heavy Laser Cannon. Do it soon though as folks will work out a counter to it soon enough.

Pete, counter done. beat the Bs with four different lists.

People just out fly them. That is all.

2X2B is certainly one of the top squads with the wave 3 meta. The real trick is to be able to kill something before it ever fires at you.

And that's not always an easy feat. But there are lots of squads that can beat it, but it will be a slugfest.

I've been flying four squints. When you shoot before two X two Bs and move after them you can place your fighters outside the firing arc of your opponents forces. Because of the low evade of the B-wing you can spend your action on being outside the B's arc and shoot with no focus. This theory also holds true for bombers. Also if you can't get out of the arc you take the evade and last a bit longer. I've said this several times the Interceptor is the best fighter in the game because of its ability to take whatever action it needs to make the best of its three evade and three attack dice.

Is the 2X2B a top build, you bet. Is it the best build? No. Are four squints the best build? No.

Comes back to how you fly.

I've been flying four squints. When you shoot before two X two Bs and move after them you can place your fighters outside the firing arc of your opponents forces. Because of the low evade of the B-wing you can spend your action on being outside the B's arc and shoot with no focus. This theory also holds true for bombers. Also if you can't get out of the arc you take the evade and last a bit longer. I've said this several times the Interceptor is the best fighter in the game because of its ability to take whatever action it needs to make the best of its three evade and three attack dice.

Is the 2X2B a top build, you bet. Is it the best build? No. Are four squints the best build? No.

Comes back to how you fly.

The problem with the squints is they need you to be lucky. In a four round tournament? You're likely ok two times out of three. On the other hand, in a 5 - 7 round event? It gets a lot dicier.

I would agree that a lot of this game, when playing tournaments, is what you end up flying against. I don't want to take away from players that have won events. That is not where I am going with this. It is more of if I'm flying four squints, I'd rather face three ship or four ship rebel builds. If I'm flying HSF I'd rather face small tie builds and rebel lists without missies. A tourney list that stands up to 2x2B would be a Rebel list containing Wedge with boost, ptl. This gives you a way to get out of firing arcs or Focus and Target lock those low evade dice ships to devastating results.

With that being said I've seen players in the Milwaukee area fly Turr so well that their opponent never gets to shoot at him unless they use a turret. It is sick. This is also why I think that imperial Aces pack will break the balance that wave three brought to the game.

Also all of this is mute if wave three isn't legal by worlds.

I am liking two squints and a Firespray to counter the B-Wing and company squads. I flew the B's a fair bit to learn them, now I'm learning how best to kill them :-)

When the Aces are out we will see what 3 squints can really do.

Has anyone tried an ion cannon against the 2x2b lists?

I'm thinking you could ion the two Bs and keep them out of the game while your more agile ships attack the Xs.

The problem with ioning B's is that unless you can keep them ioned, they just pull that **** 2 flip and are on you again next turn.

Meanwhile, you are taking a beating from the other ships in the line up. 2 B's requires two ships dedicated to keeping them ioned.

My best answer to B's is, as you say, out fly them and pour fire into them.

Pete,

Do you think it could be done with one y and Kyle or Jan sporting the ion cannon in support of maybe and x and an A with a missile?

Missiles are devastating to Xs. Then add in the fire from an x and you should drop one X. The crow and the y should be able to ion the Bs because it is three dice to one. Also your x would be able to target lock and focus or shoot with an extra red dice because of the crow.

Yes, I think Jan is the way to go for the extra dice for your hammer shots. Ioning a B is fairly simple to do and the Y and Jan should keep 2 of them busy. I would like to see the A-Wing with missile as one of the other ships and probably the X as you say.

2X2B is certainly one of the top squads with the wave 3 meta. The real trick is to be able to kill something before it ever fires at you.

And that's not always an easy feat. But there are lots of squads that can beat it, but it will be a slugfest.

Happy to see you say that, is what I have been flying since Wave 3 hit. I really just wanted to have some HLCs and needed some wingmen, of which Xs are really great. I have had a great deal of success. I think the toughest match ups have been the 4 TIE\B list and 4 TIE\Ins. I think it can beat TIE\Bs if you are careful but I do consider TIE\Ins a bad match up in general. There are things you can do there, but their attack dice/maneuverability is a huge issue. Fortunately, any splashes thereof (ie 2Bs and 2Ints or somesuch) doesnt seem to have the same impact as the pure lists and I have usually handled those lists more easily by focusing the Ints first..

I expect you have tested this much more thoroughly though, so maybe I'm crazy.

Has anyone tried an ion cannon against the 2x2b lists?

I'm thinking you could ion the two Bs and keep them out of the game while your more agile ships attack the Xs.

I ran 2X with R2s and 2B with Ions against 2B with Ion and 2B with AS. I was the only one to use cannon and did so once, but I perhaps didn't even need to. We were all PS2, and with my opponent having initiative I was simply action blocked a lot and by stacking ships we were both in R1 of each other for 4v1s. Even with an Ion shot, if a B is using AdvSensors they will still be able to manipulate their movement enough with a Barrel Roll, I think.

I am probably going to drop the Ions and droids and add shields to the X's again since I've used the former upgrades maybe 3-4 times in as many games. I like the template below, but I just don't know what's optimal for the last eight points:

Rookie

Rookie

Blue w/ AS

Blue w/ AS

I've played with Shields on the Xs and shoving them upfront with good results. I've never felt like I needed Engines on the Bs since Barrel Roll usually gets me the results I want, but I'm not sure if they would be better on the Rookies over shields. Maybe even bump them all to PS4, but I think in my mirror match it was better to have initiative and it's still a gamble for initiative anyways if you are going against Sabers, etc--so those "PS points" could be a complete waste.