No, 3 ships are not really that bad right now [if you include a named YT-1300] . A list with three ships [that included a named YT1300] made top 8 at Worlds, and several [that included a named YT1300] made top 16. Yes, 4 Rebel ships are strong, but 3 ships can still be competitive [but apparently only if they include a named YT1300, if we go by the results from Worlds] .

There. Fixed that for you.

Re:

OP had multiple criteria. One was three ships. Another was having points to spend.

Yes, OP's original question has been satisfied if you listened to his original post. There were no competitive lists at Worlds 2013 that had only three ships with lots of points left over to spend on "shiny upgrades and named pilots".

That said, there are some upgrade-heavy rebel lists that are better than others. A very popular and still effective list is Wedge + Luke + Biggs, which generally uses something like this as a baseline:

95 points

Wedge + PtL + R2

Luke + Draw Their Fire + R2-D2 + Shield Upgrade

Biggs

Biggs gets shot at, Luke pulls critical damage off of the other two with Draw Their Fire and then regenerates a shield every round, and Wedge goes to town with Focus + TL with -1 defender dice.

Ninja B-Wings are another interesting squad that I haven't personally tried out yet, but would like to.

93 points

Dagger Squadron + Advanced Sensors + Engine Upgrade x3

Lets see, what other ones... 666 action group with Kyle, Dutch, and Garven. There are any number of different ways to build a 3 ship list around Jan Ors. Jan, Wedge, and Ten Numb is a good starting point. There are quite a few other other ones too. The trick is understanding the strategies to optimize them. Ships with upgrades are certainly more fun to play than pure swarms, that's for sure. Sometimes it works out gloriously too.

Might just take the 3 hwk option lol

so just got to do a lot more planning with 3 ships basically,but its still possible

Fly smart. If you can position yourself against a swarm, where only some of the ships can get you, you'll have an advantage. If the swarm engages you all at once, you are in deep.

No, 3 ships are not really that bad right now [if you include a named YT-1300] . A list with three ships [that included a named YT1300] made top 8 at Worlds, and several [that included a named YT1300] made top 16. Yes, 4 Rebel ships are strong, but 3 ships can still be competitive [but apparently only if they include a named YT1300, if we go by the results from Worlds] .

There. Fixed that for you.

There, I think we've satisfied OP's question(s) without having to resort to any superfluous "but..."s.

Re:

OP had multiple criteria. One was three ships. Another was having points to spend.

Yes, OP's original question has been satisfied if you listened to his original post. There were no competitive lists at Worlds 2013 that had only three ships with lots of points left over to spend on "shiny upgrades and named pilots".

That said, there are some upgrade-heavy rebel lists that are better than others. A very popular and still effective list is Wedge + Luke + Biggs, which generally uses something like this as a baseline:

95 points

Wedge + PtL + R2

Luke + Draw Their Fire + R2-D2 + Shield Upgrade

Biggs

Biggs gets shot at, Luke pulls critical damage off of the other two with Draw Their Fire and then regenerates a shield every round, and Wedge goes to town with Focus + TL with -1 defender dice.

Ninja B-Wings are another interesting squad that I haven't personally tried out yet, but would like to.

93 points

Dagger Squadron + Advanced Sensors + Engine Upgrade x3

Lets see, what other ones... 666 action group with Kyle, Dutch, and Garven. There are any number of different ways to build a 3 ship list around Jan Ors. Jan, Wedge, and Ten Numb is a good starting point. There are quite a few other other ones too. The trick is understanding the strategies to optimize them. Ships with upgrades are certainly more fun to play than pure swarms, that's for sure. Sometimes it works out gloriously too.

You're inventing criteria that never existed. OP said he prefers ships with upgrades and named pilots, but never specified how many points he wants to spend on either. To that end, I encouraged him in my very first response to have fun and go by his preferences. In response to his actual question, HSF (or any general YT build) is three ships with upgrades and at least one named pilot. Maybe there's something wrong with your $3,000 software, because it doesn't seem to understand that three is three.

Twist the facts however you like, he asked if three ship builds are still viable. The answer is yes, no qualification required.

Are 3 ship rebel builds really that bad now?

Everyone seems to think 4 ship builds for rebels are the only way competitively?

I prefer to run 3 ships over 4 ( I like shiny upgrades and named pilots)

One of the ones I have had real luck with so far is to run:

Jan Ors

-Ion Cannon Turret

-Nien Numb

-Squad Leader

Biggs

-R2F2

-Stealth

Wedge

-R2 Unit

-Stealth

I tend to fly Jan like a jerk to really take advantage of the turret to avoid incoming fire, and she helps keep Biggs alive for an extra turn or two.

That being said I believe in order to fly a 3 ship list you need to get really good at maneuvering. The good part about this is I feel like if you start playing 3 ship builds (or even 2 ship builds), especially against its natural counter like swarm lists, it forces you to get really good at maneuvering to even stand a chance. Those skills will be valuable no matter what kind of list you play. Personally, I think 3 ship builds are fine as long as you aren't playing against 5+ ships, but that really depends on your regular opponents.

OP stated: "I prefer to run 3 ships over 4 ( I like shiny upgrades and named pilots)"

4 X-wings (a reasonable baseline) costs 84 points, leaving 16 for upgrades/pilots.

Therefore, he did IN FACT indicate that is looking for 3 ship rebel list ideas that are competitive and have more than ~16 points available to be spent on upgrades.

Then, removing any confusion about his original intent, he stated: "I sort of auto think large based ships such as the Falcon as two ships so dont count".

I don't see what the issue is here. I am trying to help the OP get some ideas, and have listed some specific squads. You keep repeating the same points, which have already been answered, and have been incredibly disrespectful, if not outright personally attacking, several times in this thread.

• "For a person so thoroughly left-brained as yourself, you're having an awfully difficult time with an obvious technical issue."
• "Three ships is three ships. You can do the math, I'll wager."
• "Maybe there's something wrong with your $3,000 software, because it doesn't seem to understand that three is three"

Please keep the conversation civil. It's not like I'm out to get you or anything. You have some great ideas on other threads, like Dark Curse w/ 2x Firespray, and figuring out that Opportunist on Fel is a really good way to utilize Opportunist. I was wrong on the Interceptor thread about your Opportunist post, not seeing that it was coupled with Fel, and I am happy to admit it.

For the sake of civility, I'll agree to disagree.

FYI, there shouldn't be anything insulting about being called left-brained. I may be condescending on occasion, but I try to keep the name calling to a minimum. That having been said, it's sometimes very easy to feel that you're staring down your nose at us with your calculations.

WonderWAAAGH: Quite frankly, the way you have been repeating your points (with which most of us disagree) has lead me to believe you are trolling.

That being said, I typically split my ship identities into various strata, named by how much of one you can typically run in a 100 point fleet. By this reckoning, A-Wings count as slightly more than 1/6 of a fleet, giving us the opportunity to run 3 of them alongside one named YT-1300 pilot. Verily, Chewbacca + Gunner + Expert Handling + 3x Prototype Pilots is feasible, but I'd hardly call it a 4 ship fleet in the same manner as one with 4 X-Wings.

WonderWAAAGH: Quite frankly, the way you have been repeating your points (with which most of us disagree) has lead me to believe you are trolling.

That being said, I typically split my ship identities into various strata, named by how much of one you can typically run in a 100 point fleet. By this reckoning, A-Wings count as slightly more than 1/6 of a fleet, giving us the opportunity to run 3 of them alongside one named YT-1300 pilot. Verily, Chewbacca + Gunner + Expert Handling + 3x Prototype Pilots is feasible, but I'd hardly call it a 4 ship fleet in the same manner as one with 4 X-Wings.

I literally just stopped arguing, why in God's name would you re-hash the subject?

Touche. Sorry, that made me laugh out loud.

All in good fun.