Had a couple of battles last night that I did pretty well in. A good portion of the luck was due to what I think was poor choice on the part of my opponent, but I think the squadrons I put together were pretty snazzy as well, so here's my report.

First battle

I chose the following:

Wedge Antilles (29)

- R2 Astromech

- Push The Limit

Luke Skywalker

-R2-D2

-Veteran's Instincts

Biggs Darklighter

-R2-F2

-Stealth Device

Total: 97 pts

His choices were as follows:

Colonel Jendon (39)

-Fire Control System

-Darth Vader

-Saboteur

-Ion Cannon

-ST-321

Major Rhymer (48)

-Marksmanship

-Concussion Missile

-Cluster Missiles

-Advanced Torpedoes

-Proton Bomb

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 99 pts

Right away I knew this would be dead easy, and in fact when I saw how many upgrades he had on the TIE Bomber my immediate reaction was, "Dude, you spent half your points on the TIE Bomber?!" He still wanted to play it out even after I told him I would be willing to let him rebuild his squad, but he insisted on trying this. I the pointed out that he probably shouldn't spend quite so many points on the shuttle and go for something with better offensive firepower on the other TIE, or maybe even another Academy Pilot or Alpha Squadron Pilot, but he didn't want to do that either.

Naturally my first target was Rhymer. I swooped in with all my fighters, and even though Biggs was hit and lost a shield, I was able to perform a pretty decent first strike and eliminate a lot of the bomber's hull. Then I had to pass him and I knew I would likely catch that proton bomb, but I wanted to pop that Dupe before he could unload the rest of his ordinance, so while I managed to get a couple of nasty critical hits (one disabled the EPT and pilot skill of Wedge and the other gave Luke a console fire) I was able to hit him from behind and destroy him. The Academy Pilot went down easily, leaving the shuttle. Naturally he was pretty easy to knock down after I got behind him with all three X-wings.

The game was over in six or seven rounds. As I said, I attribute a lot of the luck I had in his poor choices, but the list I played felt really solid and I will be using it again. I know I can afford some more upgrades, but I really want to ensure that I never lose initiative with this list.

Second battle

This time things were a bit more even. He went with choices that he was more comfortable with, as he hasn't had any flight experience with Wave 3 ships, and I wanted to try the B-wing. I was going to go with a 3x Blue Squadron/HLC squad, but I accidentally broke the mount for one of the B's while trying to put it on the stand (stupid clumsy hands . . .). So I went with the following squadron:

Blue Squadron Pilot

-Heavy Laser Cannon

Blue Squadron Pilot

-Heavy Laser Cannon

Green Squadron Pilot

Green Squadron Pilot

-Push The Limit

Total: 99 pts

His choices were as follows:

Soontir Fel

-Marksmanship

Darth Vader

-Marksmanship

-Concussion Missiles

Backstabber

Mauler Mithel

Total: 99 pts

I wasn't sure which of the two big targets to fire at, but he made my choice easier for me by hanging back with Soontir in order to blast my left-hand A-wing and pushing Vader toward the main B-wing element. I concentrated fire on Vader and managed to score several hits, but miraculously he was still alive even after the A-wing fired, and I didn't even think I would need the A-wing. The dice just weren't with me.

After that I decided to let my A-wing handle Vader while the B's went after Soontir Fel. I got in a solid hit on him with one, but he had crashed into the other one so I couldn't hit him. After a couple more rounds of maneuvering I managed to kill both Soontir and Vader, but I lost both my B-wings soon after to the TIE Fighters (I shouldn't have let Mauler get so darn close . . .). Luckily my A-wings were totally able to out-maneuver them, and I managed to down both the TIE Fighters in three or four rounds.

I probably should have gone after Fel first with the B-wings, but I'll try to remember that next time.

Overall, I'd say I played pretty well, and made some good choices with the fighters, thanks in no small part to a lot of good strategies I'd read about here.

Good write-up! I have a couple of list modifications that I'd make to your fleet, if you'd like to hear them, but

With your first fleet, I'd trade Luke's VI for a Draw Their Fire. You can peel the crits off of Biggs, into the shields that R2-D2 will regenerate, giving you more turns of free attacks

With your second fleet, I'm not certain I like the A-Wings, particularly as you're not having them mirroring each other. You could sack them both for two Rookie Pilots at 100 points even, for instance.
(Note: Rebel Operative + Ion Cannon and Green Squadron + Squad Leader both also equal 21.)

Have you played at all with a "Hypermobile" B-Wing? Advanced Sensors + Engine Upgrades cost the same as an HLC, but give a massive amount of mobility options, giving you excellent unpredictability, not to mention the "Never Losing an Action to a Red Maneuver", "Angled Koiogran", "Never Colliding with Obstacles or Ships", "Dodging Firing Arcs Better Than an Interceptor", and "Always Being Able to Fire at Range 1" perks... Definitely something to try out with B-Wings

Thanks for the tips!

I thought about DTF on Luke, but I wanted to throw him off a bit by making Luke fire first. It really threw him off balance since he's used to Wedge performing actions and firing first. I'll probably use DTF next time.

The un-mirrored A-wings were done on purpose to draw him toward one of them, allowing me to predict his actions and follow up behind him with the other A-wing. I had expected to be having to defend the better of the two and use PTL to allow him to Evade and Focus at the same time. It worked better than expected too, since the better A-wing was ignored the first few rounds by Fel.

This is one of the first couple of times I've ever run the B-wing, so naturally, being a Rebel player almost exclusively, I completely forgot it had the Barrel Roll and never considered the hyper-mobile B-wing. I also favor firepower over maneuverability anyway, because it fits better with my playing style. But I think I'd like to try it sometime nonetheless.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Millennium Falsehood