Sorry if me making so many posts is annoying people, if so please tell me to shut up, im just very new to this and enjoy it tonnes.

Ok, so I am using a store army vs a friends, here is what I am taking (no choice in this sadly):

Darth Vader+Squad Leader

Bounty Hunter+Assault Missiles+Heavy laser cannon

Academy Pilot

Academy Pilot

And my opponent is using for my first ever 100pts game:

Biggs Darklighter

Blue Squadron Pilot+Ion Cannon

Blue Squadron Pilot+Ion Cannon

Blue Squadron Pilot+Ion Cannon

Any help here on how to beat this rebel army is greatly appreciated, I think it might be a rather powerful build but I'm not sure...

I'd move the assault missiles over to vader. His ability to use two actions is awesome with missiles, you can target lock and focus in the same turn and aslong as your in range fire that missile on turn one's combat phase. I've had good luck with this strategy moving vader as close to the opposition as I can on turn one movment phase. Also that presents your opponent with a dilemma go after the bounty hunter with the HLC early or try to take out vader before he fires the missile. If I was playing you I would gun for the bounty hunter first since he's loaded with secondary weapons. just my 2 cents

Fair enough, shall do that. My plan was to take advantage of squad leader to give a free focus lock to the bounty hunter so he can fire the missiles straight away, make them work in tandem as it were. Do you think the squad I have been given is ok, or do you think it is vastly outclassed by the rebel fleet? I mean they haven't got autoblasters or HLC so they can't be that bad onl being able to do 1 damage max per turn each (At least that is what I understand on card. 3 dice but no matter how many are hits, even if the enemy rolls no evasion rolls, it only deals one damage in total and they gain an ion token and thats it).

You've got better damage than the rebels do. Just take out biggs as quickly as possible, and you should be fine.

so theres not much to worry about with the 3 b-wings?

You've got better damage than the rebels do. Just take out biggs as quickly as possible, and you should be fine.

The Bounty Hunter has the same primary damage output as the rebel fighters although the missile and HLC to give a 4 die option. After that you're looking at three fighters with 2 die attacks vs four fighters with 3 die attacks.

I'll remind you that using the Ion cannon is optional. Even if you get hit by those ion cannons they can take away the maneuverability advantage that you should have over the rebels. You should familiarize yourself with the ion rules because they certainly could mess you up royally. If a B-Wing gets behind a TIE things will not be good for the TIE Fighter. Fortunately the Firespray is a bit more "ion cannon resistant" as it takes two hits to ionize it and it can still fire out its back arc if needed.

Now it could be an interesting fight but the biggest question is going to come down to how well you can fly that Imperial squadron. If you can't out fly him 3/4 of your ships are outclassed.

I always treat b wings like large ships. I try to get multiple ships shooting at the same one for as long as I can. Bc if you take a few shots at b wing 1 then switch to b wing 2 and hit it once or twice then move to b wing 3 their large shield/hit point numbers can last a really long time. take out biggs first then try to focuse fire on a single b wing till its dead then move to the next

so biggs is more of a threat than the 3 ion b wings?

his ability is going to force you to attack him as long as you can shoot him. so if you have a b wing and biggs in your firing arc biggs forces you to shoot at him. so take him out so you don't have to worry about his ability

so biggs is more of a threat than the 3 ion b wings?

Biggs is no less a threat than a B-Wing is and while useful tools the ion cannons don't change that much. Everybody on the rebel team gets to roll a three dice primary attack so they are all equal in that sense. Biggs has fewer hull+shield points but defends with 2 dice instead of 1.

The biggest reason you're going to take Biggs out first is simply his pilot ability which basically says you MUST target him if you can instead of another near by target. Often this means Biggs is behind cover or a little further away so your attacks aren't as effective. You take him out so you can start making choices about who you're going to attack.

I'd move the assault missiles over to vader. His ability to use two actions is awesome with missiles, you can target lock and focus in the same turn and aslong as your in range fire that missile on turn one's combat phase. I've had good luck with this strategy moving vader as close to the opposition as I can on turn one movment phase. Also that presents your opponent with a dilemma go after the bounty hunter with the HLC early or try to take out vader before he fires the missile. If I was playing you I would gun for the bounty hunter first since he's loaded with secondary weapons. just my 2 cents

I agree. Move the assault missiles to vader.

As to flying this will depend on setup.

My thoughts.

You will place your academy pilots first so put them in one corner and wait to see where he puts the bwings. If he is using biggs then you know he will also place him somewhere close to the bwings when it is time.

If possible I would set up the bounty hunter facing the bwings and vader in opposite corner away from ties.

If your opponent is using Biggs he will struggle to deal with three fronts.

Slow roll the bounty hunter trying to maximise the number of times you use the hlc while the ties and vader race up the flanks.

If the bounty hunter gets ioned, no worries it can just fire backwards as it drifts past them.

Thanks guys. The game happened today and I got thrashed rather badly. Mostly because of bad piloting but I hate ion cannons now. He sent the firespray of the table with ion cannon fire and biggs took out the two tie fighters before finally being defeated by the tie advanced, and by that time it was the tie advanced vs the 3 b-wings and they quite soundly hashed vader. Obviously neither of us were using a tournament style force as neither of these lists would last 3 minutes, but it was still very difficult. I have a lot to learn....

With that many Ion cannons you should have avoided pointing the Firespray off the board. I also hope you remembered that it takes TWO ionization tokens to ionize the Firespray so keeping it moving should have required all three B-Wings with two hitting it each round and on turning around for the next pass.

Yes I did remember that, and he concentrated the B-wings on the firespray, and I deployed the firespray on the far right and did a bank left and then he never left it alone and ignored the tie advanced and sent biggs after the tie fighters. I am facing his "tournament" army next week with the same stuff, any idea on how to take it on?:

Prototype Pilot+Cluster Missiles

Ten Numb+Fire-Control System+Autoblaster+Marksmenship

Ibtisam+Fire-Control System+Autoblaster+Push The Limit

Doesn't seem as scary to me really. An easy to kill A-wing with a one turn threat and only 2 B-wings. Seems a poor list at a glance. But all the same what do I do to face it?

A) STAY OUT OF RANGE 1. Those autoblasters are designed to eat tie fighters.
B) I'd ignore the prototype pilot. After launching the missiles, he is going to be a distraction, rather than a true source of damage.
C) Pick 1 B-wing, and kill it, before proceeding to the other. Combined fire melts things that only have 1 evasion die.

Remember: You can still use Evasion tokens against the Autoblaster, and all of your ships except Darth Vader move before they do, so you will always have your action (assuming you're stress free, and a good pilot), so if you are going to be in Range 1, dodge, or have them collide with your ships and therefore unable to shoot at your ship.

He said he sometimes swaps out the A-wing for an X-wing rookie pilot, so I spose that should factor in. Are A-wings that bad then? And you seem to be making it out that this list is more dangerous than the ion cannon list? It just seems like the first list with 1 less B-wing, can;t see that as being better. And so the best Idea is to concentrate all fire on one B-wing at a time?

The previous list couldn't 1-shot most of your ships. This one does so, easily.

Reall y? It's that scary at just 3 ships? So that will be an example of a tournament build?

Against Ten Nunb with an Autoblaster, you're going to be running ships with 0 agility dice, at range 1.
Ibtisam, when stressed, re-rolls offensively AND defensively.

...Yeah, they're both kind of awesome.

So although only 3 ships, there plain nasty and compliment each other well? And Ibtisam has PTL so she will almost always be stressed... good grief she will be nasty. And how does Ten Numb remove agility dice at range 1?

Basically none of the dice can be canceled unless they roll multiple crits.

Autoblaster damage is only stopped by evade tokens which is a worry for the empire.

Personally I fear this list more.

Am I to assume you will be using the same squad to face this as you did the other.

Do you have access to any other ships, upgrades etc cos I rembwr your earlier post about which ships to buy.

My first thought would be to fly rebels with shields against it or swarm it as it can oonly shoot at three ships a turn max.

Third option would be my vader and two bomber squad all shoot at ps9 huge alpha strike on one bwing with splash damage.

Assuming you are flying the same then focus fire on ten numb woyld be my choice.

Probably achieved by using the academies to bump my firespray into to keep at range.

Vader flying solo trying to attract the awing but taking focus evade most turns until the awings missiles are gone.

Then if possible target lock + focus assault misdiles on a bwing. The bwing is your best target cos of its one evade dice. Same is ttue with hlc especially as the firespray can take a hit.

Sadly I won't be purchasing anything until the 31st. And Yeah I am still using the store army sadly. Though with everyone saying how good a list it is, it might be one I might copy and buy 3 ships instead of the 1 small 1 large with the B-wing with HLC and 2 x-wing list I wrote.

When and where is the colchester tournament you mentioned you might attend.

Don't get a lot of free time so always looking for oprions to fit round my schedule.

In the end i dont think you will regret any purchase you make.

Personally I know its not one of your prime choices but wouldnt buy an advanced, vader is fun but limits your squad choices. Same could be said of the awing.

Good luck

I'm not buying the imperial list, it's a store list they lend for people who want to play the game. I was talking if I was going to purchase one list the A-wing and 2x geared up B-wings that people are afraid of seems a great idea? And either 4tk or Ace Comics, unsure which is going to go for it first. Both have told me they are planning something. 4tk did the trench run recently that was great.