Hey everyone,

I'm part of organized play up in my neck of the woods, and I've been playing a list that I've not seen anyone else play so far. I've had great, if unexpected, success with it. It comes out to exactly 100 points. I've only played 3 games with it, but all against very good players, and I have won with it each time.

The list looks like this:

1 X-wing: Biggs Darklighter + R2D2 + Shield Upgrade

1 HWK-290: Roark Garnet + Mercenary Copilot + Blaster Turret

2 A-wings: Prototype Pilots + Cluster Missiles.

I fly in a tight formation to start, with Biggs taking up the rear to reduce the inevitable bumps that would happen if Roark was behind Biggs.

The two major features of the list is the presence of Biggs to draw and absorb fire, and Roark hands out Pilot Skill 12 in the combat phase to the pilot that needs it order to get in shots even against the most skilled pilots in the game.

The primary goal is to keep the A-wings alive long enough so that they can acquire a target lock, and launch their cluster missiles early in the game to injure or even destroy one or two ships. Biggs is there to absorb fire, which the Shield upgrade and R2D2 give him extra resilience as the battle wears on. It is inevitable that Biggs will die, but hopefully he lives long enough for the other three ships to remain healthy into the endgame while attrition takes its toll.

The blaster turret on Roark often makes up for the lack of firepower in the HWK-290. The mercenary co-pilot so far has been a waste of points as Roark rarely fires his primaries at range 3. So far though, this list has been very successful, where I usually end the game with two ships surviving. Oddly enough, it is often the A-wings that survive the fight, using their superior maneuverability to position themselves to get 3 dice on the attack at close range. While I originally included them as simply ablative missile carriers, they usually end up surving to fire the final shots.

The only realy variant I can see with this list is to perhaps replace the mercenary copilot with a Saboteur (same point cost). While it is tempting to take the Ion turret, I've found the blaster turret to truthfully be more effective so far.

Anyway, feedback would be appreciated. I have had decent success with this so far (I've not lost yet). I have yet to try it against a TIE swarm list.

Cluster missiles suck. Concussion would serve you better.

Cluster missiles suck. Concussion would serve you better.

Jonus and my 3 Scimitars strongly disagree.

I was looking at a similar list, only daisy chaining Swarm Tactics on 3 Green Squad with a Prototype. The only problem I saw was the rather low attack dice total. You could do the Ion turret and Nien Numb on Roark, but I'm not sure how useful extra green maneuvers are to him as opposed to say Jan Ors.

Extra green maneuvers on Roark are pretty much useless, really. Sticking close to Biggs, in the games I've played, the pair move pretty slow generating greens for R2D2 while the A-wings buzz around like gnats. The reason why I've stuck with the cluster missiles rather than the concussion missiles is that much of the combat seems to take place at Range 1. However, concussion missiles almost guarantee at least one hit on an attack roll, and can be used in the opening approaches. Clusters on the other hand can drain focus tokens as well as wipe out shields on big slow ships early on.

Against low defense ships, clusters have so far proven effective. I may try concussions if I find myself going up against swarms... I find myself waffling a bit.

Nice list, but how can Roark ever shoot on Range 3? The primaery weapon has value one, that means zero on R3 and the turret shoots, afaik, just on Range one to two?

No, at range three you are still attack 1, just the defender is evade +1

R1 Attack+1

R2 no modifer

R3 Evade +1

Rofl.. ****, we played it completly wrong the whole time:

R1 Attack+1

R2 no modifer

R3 Attack-1

It one of those things, if everyone plays it that way, why would you go back and check.. There was something similar with Attack wing, it had one obscure rule different from X-Wing, but as most of the players played X-Wing first, no-one bothered to check for months.

I use a similar squad, though I personally prefer using Kyle Katarn on the HWK with a Recon Specialist and Moldy Crow title. This lets you generate lots of focus tokens which you can keep between turns and hand out to Biggs to help him dodge fire while he covers your other ships, or use with the blaster turret (since it requires a focus to shoot).

Heh, isn't it funny how tribal knowledge can survive like that. Just think how much more nerfed tie swams would be that way. 1 Attack at R3.

I use a similar squad, though I personally prefer using Kyle Katarn on the HWK with a Recon Specialist and Moldy Crow title. This lets you generate lots of focus tokens which you can keep between turns and hand out to Biggs to help him dodge fire while he covers your other ships, or use with the blaster turret (since it requires a focus to shoot).

The reason I used Roark is his ability specifically to give any pilot within Range 3 a pilot skill of 12 during the combat phase. It means getting an important shot off before even the most serious of aces... especially cluster or concussion missiles from A-Wings that would otherwise get toasted quickly.

Please let us know how it fits against a TIE swarm.

Interesting list so far.

Following up to nimbadew's rather blunt assessment of Cluster Missiles vs. Concussion Missiles, I decided to do a bit of die rolling and see what comes up. To summarize, he's mostly right. Cluster Missiles aren't as effective as Concussion Missiles are. I think I may change that up in my list.

In my test rolls, I did both Cluster and Concussion missiles against successively more difficult targets, moving from Ag1 to Ag3, doing each where the defender is unfocused or focused. I chose not to use focus for any of the attack rolls for this, but I might later just to complete things. I rolled each combination 20 times, and averaged things out.

I did up this chart:

Ag1 nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 2.65 Hit, 0.65 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.95 Hit, 0.6 Crit

Ag1 focused

Concussion: Average: 1.9 Hit, 0.5 Crit

Cluster: Average: 2.05 Hit, 0.7 Crit

Ag 2 Nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 1.95 Hit (H+C), 0.75 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.7 Hit (H+C), 0.6 Crit

Ag 2 Focused

Concussion: Average: 1.5 (H+C), 0.5 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.05 (H+C), 0.35

Ag 3 nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 1.6 (H+C), 0.35 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1 (H+C), 0.3 Crit

Ag 3 Focused

Concussion: Average: 1.15 (H+C), 0.3 Crit

Cluster: Average: 0.85 (H+C), 0.2 Crit

Against Agility 1 targets that were not focused, Concussion missiles fared better, averaging just under 2.65 successful hits per volley, with an average of 0.65 yielding a crit result. Cluster Missiles averaged a fewer 1.95 hits, with a nearly identical crit yield of 0.6. They're comparable with a nod to the concussion missiles.

Against Agility 1 targets that DID use focus, this is the only place where Clusters fared better. Concussion Missiles effectiveness dropped to 1.9 Successful hits per launch, with 0.5 yielding crits. Clusters on the other hand, became MORE effective at 2.05 successful hits on average, with 0.7 yielding crits. The reason for this is that the focus token can be stripped away on the first volley, rendering it unusable on the second roll.

After this, the effectiveness of Clusters drops off rapidly. They are nearly ineffective against TIEs of any description. However, they are decent against low agility targets, and can yield higher overall damage, which is good for stripping off the thick shields they often have.

I think it really depends on what I am flying against, but I suspect I will use concussion missiles rather than clusters if I face TIE swarm with this list.

Following up to nimbadew's rather blunt assessment of Cluster Missiles vs. Concussion Missiles, I decided to do a bit of die rolling and see what comes up. To summarize, he's mostly right. Cluster Missiles aren't as effective as Concussion Missiles are. I think I may change that up in my list.

In my test rolls, I did both Cluster and Concussion missiles against successively more difficult targets, moving from Ag1 to Ag3, doing each where the defender is unfocused or focused. I chose not to use focus for any of the attack rolls for this, but I might later just to complete things. I rolled each combination 20 times, and averaged things out.

I did up this chart:

Ag1 nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 2.65 Hit, 0.65 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.95 Hit, 0.6 Crit

Ag1 focused

Concussion: Average: 1.9 Hit, 0.5 Crit

Cluster: Average: 2.05 Hit, 0.7 Crit

Ag 2 Nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 1.95 Hit (H+C), 0.75 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.7 Hit (H+C), 0.6 Crit

Ag 2 Focused

Concussion: Average: 1.5 (H+C), 0.5 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1.05 (H+C), 0.35

Ag 3 nonfocused

Concussion: Average: 1.6 (H+C), 0.35 Crit

Cluster: Average: 1 (H+C), 0.3 Crit

Ag 3 Focused

Concussion: Average: 1.15 (H+C), 0.3 Crit

Cluster: Average: 0.85 (H+C), 0.2 Crit

Against Agility 1 targets that were not focused, Concussion missiles fared better, averaging just under 2.65 successful hits per volley, with an average of 0.65 yielding a crit result. Cluster Missiles averaged a fewer 1.95 hits, with a nearly identical crit yield of 0.6. They're comparable with a nod to the concussion missiles.

Against Agility 1 targets that DID use focus, this is the only place where Clusters fared better. Concussion Missiles effectiveness dropped to 1.9 Successful hits per launch, with 0.5 yielding crits. Clusters on the other hand, became MORE effective at 2.05 successful hits on average, with 0.7 yielding crits. The reason for this is that the focus token can be stripped away on the first volley, rendering it unusable on the second roll.

After this, the effectiveness of Clusters drops off rapidly. They are nearly ineffective against TIEs of any description. However, they are decent against low agility targets, and can yield higher overall damage, which is good for stripping off the thick shields they often have.

I think it really depends on what I am flying against, but I suspect I will use concussion missiles rather than clusters if I face TIE swarm with this list.

You realize that the Focus can only apply to 1 of the Cluster's 2 attacks, right?

Clusters are, pretty much, only better when flying next to Jonus.

The above math does include the fact that focus is applied to defending against only one of the clusters 2 attacks, yes. The rolls still bear out this way.

Cluster missiles suck. Concussion would serve you better.

Jonus and my 3 Scimitars strongly disagree.

I was looking at a similar list, only daisy chaining Swarm Tactics on 3 Green Squad with a Prototype. The only problem I saw was the rather low attack dice total. You could do the Ion turret and Nien Numb on Roark, but I'm not sure how useful extra green maneuvers are to him as opposed to say Jan Ors.

Fail. Jonus gives a 2 dice re-roll per attack. Regular cluster missiles by themselves don't. There is no way to modify both attacks of cluster missiles unless you have marksmenship, 2 focus tokens, Jonus, or are flying Krassis. Cluster missiles by themselves suck.

Jonus + cluster missiles is fantastic! Cluster missiles suck.

Following up to nimbadew's rather blunt assessment of Cluster Missiles vs. Concussion Missiles, I decided to do a bit of die rolling and see what comes up. To summarize, he's mostly right. Cluster Missiles aren't as effective as Concussion Missiles are. I think I may change that up in my list.

To be fair, i have been seeing statistical anaylysis of different missiles and their average hit potential for months, if not over a year. I have been blunt because typing out everything like you did every time would destroy my finger tips.

You could theoretically use Cluster Missiles well with a Recon Specialist...

Following up to nimbadew's rather blunt assessment of Cluster Missiles vs. Concussion Missiles, I decided to do a bit of die rolling and see what comes up. To summarize, he's mostly right. Cluster Missiles aren't as effective as Concussion Missiles are. I think I may change that up in my list.

To be fair, i have been seeing statistical anaylysis of different missiles and their average hit potential for months, if not over a year. I have been blunt because typing out everything like you did every time would destroy my finger tips.

It's understandable. I was just curious, and since I happened to have the dice app on my iFashionaccessories, it was easy to do 20 dice rolls for each. It was informative, and confirmed your assessment. I'll be modifiying my list, especially coming up against a potential TIE swarm.