Still, this thread has encouraged me to break out my A-wings.
+1.
I have the core of my squad with Kyle (Blaster+Recon+Title) & Ibi (AdS + EU). It needed a SD remover (Howl+SD/Soontir+PTL+SD) so at first the 3rd man was Wedge (PTL+R2), then Luke (VI+APT) and now I'll try Tycho (PTL+HM) as 3AGI + evade and/or boost seems a better way to stay alive (do more damage on the long run) and HM range is easier to manage.
It is really easy to spin the cardboard insert around to use as a small arc.
Copy/paste from 2 different threads now:
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I really like Awings but they feel just a bit too much. Here are some variants I like that spice it up a little.
A-wing- Rz-1 Interceptor: free, if you add no upgrades or missiles to this ship, reduce it's cost by 1.
A-wing- R22 Spearhead: free, add the crew upgrade to your upgrade bar
A-wing- Mark II: 1pt, your primary weapon firing arc is increased to 360 degrees.
A-wing- Green Leader (unique): free, you may take the boost action even if it would cause you to overlap.
Y-wing was close but just released too early. Hwk is a cheaper turret and the awing has missiles and is cheaper so here are a few variants:
Y-wing- BTL-S3: Free, add the crew upgrade to your upgrade bar. You lose the astromech slot.
Y-wing- BTL-A4, Longprobe: 1pt, add the systems upgrade to your upgrade bar. Add missile upgrade to your upgrade bar.
Y-wing- BTL-B: free, if you add no other upgrades/modifications to this ship, reduce it's cost by 1
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And some ywing ones I designed for campaign use too.
Interesting Rakky, but Mark II and Green Leader are undercosted. Also, you should add a bomber variant to the Y-Wing list, where you drop the two torpedoes for two bombs, but I like the idea of title card variants a lot.
Copy/paste from 2 different threads now:
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I really like Awings but they feel just a bit too much. Here are some variants I like that spice it up a little.
A-wing- Rz-1 Interceptor: free, if you add no upgrades or missiles to this ship, reduce it's cost by 1.
A-wing- R22 Spearhead: free, add the crew upgrade to your upgrade bar
A-wing- Mark II: 1pt, your primary weapon firing arc is increased to 360 degrees.
A-wing- Green Leader (unique): free, you may take the boost action even if it would cause you to overlap.
Y-wing was close but just released too early. Hwk is a cheaper turret and the awing has missiles and is cheaper so here are a few variants:
Y-wing- BTL-S3: Free, add the crew upgrade to your upgrade bar. You lose the astromech slot.
Y-wing- BTL-A4, Longprobe: 1pt, add the systems upgrade to your upgrade bar. Add missile upgrade to your upgrade bar.
Y-wing- BTL-B: free, if you add no other upgrades/modifications to this ship, reduce it's cost by 1
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And some ywing ones I designed for campaign use too.
Rz-1: So you think that all of the A-wings are probably 1 point overcosted. Interesting. I might agree, but I haven't done the number crunching. I'll withhold judgement for now.
R22: A Crew upgrade for the A-wing? Really? Is this reasonable at all from a lore or physics perspective? The ship is tiny, I really don't see how you are going to fit a Wookie in there...
... which, by the way, means you could have a ship for 21 points that is essentially 2/3/2/4. There is a reason that crew slots are only available for the bigger ships, the crew upgrades are generally quite good.
Mark II: I'm also afraid that's way undercosted. All the A-wings need to do is boost out of firing arcs, and they'll eventually whittle you down. It would make Interceptors even worse in the meta than they currently are. Not a fan.
Green Leader: Interesting, what's the back story for this one? It would be good on Arvel.
In regards to Y-wings, I think you are making a mistake if you think that the Y-Wings need to be globally buffed. There are already several competitive uses for PS2 Gold Squadron Pilots. One was in the Top 8 at Worlds (5 ship rebel swarm) and another was the Rebel Convey that did very well (top 4 I think) in the most recent Vassal Tournament. The only change I wold make to the Y-wings would be to add an EPT slot to the named pilots.
BTL-S3: Replacing the astromech with a crew slot? Again, Crew slots are very good, much better than an R2 slot. This is very unbalanced.
BTL-A4: Interesting, this probably isn't terribly unbalanced, but what's the justification for it?
BTL-B: The PS2 Y-Wing is fine at 18 points. This is unbalanced.
After reading this my a-wings are now coming out for a little bit of tie hunting
These are not perfect by any means, especially the ywings, I haven't modified since original posts and a lot of people don't like the using stuff.
But to the Awings:
All of these are based in lore even if they don't make sense (yay, Star Wars).
The crew slot and the arc points are the main ones that need some tinkering.
Rz-1, if you are taking a ship without using ANY upgrades/slots you should get a little something. I don't know that I think all awings are over costed by 1 but if you want to take 1-2 naked into battle (calling it a production line model doesn't work from lore) this gives you a very niche reduction.
Spearhead- thinking the crew slot needs to replace another upgrade, probably missiles. Based on the formula (PS = 1, att/def base 2 additional =6, hull base 3 additional= 3.5, sheild = 4) that awing with chewie crammed in the back is only at a 1pt discount. If he can't load up on a missile that's not terrible, if it was not unique it would be a problem.
Mark II- this is the one I was most iffy about. It is only a 2 attack ship that already can just boost out of arcs all day long. An entire squad with this and PTL might be too much but on a single ship it might be alright. Further analysis needed.
Green Leader- Unique. Only one awing can take it, so powerful yes, broken no. Again, it's a 2 dice ship, uou could even go so far to say as touching ships are at range 0, so no +1. It is good with Arvel as I think it's the only way to make his ability worthwhile at all. From the Lore, Arvel crashed his awing into the Death Star after taking a critical hit. I think that is what the design team was going for when making his ability but it doesn't work well as is.
I still don't see how to fit a big walking carpet into the back seat... er.... does it even have a back seat?
Do you have citations for where the A-Wing had room for an extra crew member? I am having a hard time believing that until I see it! The ship is barely bigger than size of the Y-wing cockpit.
Maybe there is place left for an ewok?
Rakky, I think you could do the Mark II for 4 points and make it have a rear firing arc, since the cannons really only moved 360 as opposed to being able to move in all directions. That way it makes the player consider if they could really afford it, since it's the cost of most missiles, but also makes their disappointing primary lasers double useful.
nice to see A-Wings getn some love. I gifted one of the two i own to a friend who is just starting out - he has a total of 7 ships (AXX, 3 ties + 1 intercepter). Thats enough to play 70-80pt battles. im sure tycho will see quite a bit of play in his house.
Edited by The_Brown_BomberI still don't see how to fit a big walking carpet into the back seat... er.... does it even have a back seat?
Do you have citations for where the A-Wing had room for an extra crew member? I am having a hard time believing that until I see it! The ship is barely bigger than size of the Y-wing cockpit.
Don't remember exactly where I was researching. I know I started at Wookiepedia, then googled sources listed as citations there. But the titles themselves are all the variations.
I originally had the firing arc as just adding a rear arc. It's pretty easy to just spin the insert when needed. 4pts might be a bit much.
4pts for a rear firing arc is not bad but they will probably have to print a new base card for the A-Wing is this is the way they go.
I thought four points is reasonable since they're already really maneuverable craft already, so it basically doubles their effectiveness without letting them shoot missiles behind them. It also makes their cost reasonable, no matter which pilot or other loadouts you choose: Prototype = 21 as base, Green Squadron = 23 as base, etc. which is about on par with the rest of the Rebel fleet while still being upgraded.
4pts for a rear firing arc is not bad but they will probably have to print a new base card for the A-Wing is this is the way they go.
It's really easy to spin the cardboard insert when you need it.
True enough for homebrew, an official upgrade though would probably include new inserts for the four existing A-wing pilots though. Not a huge deal though, just put them where they'd put the six billionth target lock token.
Only 6 billion? We have at least 12
Oddly amused that I start pointing out that a PtL Green Squadron is better than a Rookie X-Wing, and following that I get posts talking about buffing the A-Wing....
Completely agree, Endgame, and it's very true. I love the A-Wing just fine, even if it does have inferior firepower to an X-Wing I like the sheer amount of options you have in a turn with PtL and that amazing maneuver dial. :3
Completely agree, Endgame, and it's very true. I love the A-Wing just fine, even if it does have inferior firepower to an X-Wing I like the sheer amount of options you have in a turn with PtL and that amazing maneuver dial. :3
The best part is, the firepower really isn't that much worse - in some cases it's even (you are able to boost in to range one, and focus when an X-Wing would be stuck at range 2) or its just a fraction of a hit worse (see table on page 3)!
I hated a-wings at first and its one of my favorite ships from the films so I took the plunge and got two with out ever seeing one played. It took me about 6 games over the course of 2 months but now I'm up to 3 a-wings and I've got to say Green Sqd + PTL is one of the funnest ships to play in the game! and if you've got the points add some homing missles on them and watch ships try (key word try) to flee in terror!!!!!!! A-WING FOR THE WIN!!!!
Yeah, I think the higher PS A-wings need some love, but PS1 and especially PS3 ships aren't terrible. The worse case scenario is when you get action blocked and can't activate PtL, then you're pretty much done. I haven't had a lot of play experience with A-wings, I'm sure some other people could comment on how they avoid getting ganged up on by TIE swarms.
Yeah, I think the higher PS A-wings need some love, but PS1 and especially PS3 ships aren't terrible. The worse case scenario is when you get action blocked and can't activate PtL, then you're pretty much done. I haven't had a lot of play experience with A-wings, I'm sure some other people could comment on how they avoid getting ganged up on by TIE swarms.
As long as you take out Howlrunner early, you can end up in an interesting dogfight where the enemy fighters feel like they are slapping you with wet noodles. Its also why I tend to bring along a Homing missiles or two - 2 homing missiles with Target Lock and Focus will take down Howlrunner before all the academies get a chance to shoot. You can then fly around using PtL for Focus and Evade, which gives you the offensive option but otherwise keeps you pretty safe from tie fighter fire. I've used various combinations of 2 Green Squadrons + Wedge (sometimes + a prototype) to pretty good effect, mixing the elusiveness and early missile punch of the A-Wings with the steady firepower of wedge.
i think one of the reasons many ppl shy away from the A-Wings is they try to throw them into the front line early in the game instead of maximizing the A-Wigs strength which is manouvre-ability and hit and run tactics. They r really the tie-advanced of the rebel fleet - 2 attack dice with shields boost instead of barrel roll. If a cheap upgrade (3 or less) was made to give them 3 attack dice, perhaps a stress token when it is used? This might balance its firepower enough for it to see more play.
I really like A-wings too. Any thoughts on what other ships fit well with A-wings? I run 200 point squads.
Newb here, just started playing this game and love it. I have at least 1 of everything now, but am considering another A-wing, which drew me to this thread (I think I'm sold). But I noticed mention of 200 points, 400 points...we have yet to break 100 points and it felt a bit cluttered at first on a 3x3 table. What size table do you play on for larger squads?