Playing against a buddy of mine who tends to go swarm heavy, but seems like he might move towards something Slave 1 related.... Thoughts?

Gold Y Wing w/r2 unit and blaster turret

Gold Y Wing w/r2 unit and blaster turret

Rookie x wing with r2 unit

Luke X wing with r2d2

Figure that with all those r2 units the y wings in particular will be really useful. Thoughts?

I don't like blaster turrets on a Gold. They have to use their focus to fire it, so you're looking at rolling an average of 1.5 hits. This results in average damage of .67 against 3 naked agi, .88 vs. 2 naked agi, and 1.17 vs. 1 naked agi. Compare this to the ion turret, who can be focused, and it si likely to do 1.22 / 1.53 / 1.88 damage... which obviously is restricted to 1 damage. It does show that it is more likely to do 1 damage though than a naked blaster attack. And the power of the ion token is huge. Not only does it disrupt swarms, but it makes the enemy think twice while maneuvering (because you can run them off the board, or park them on an asteroid), and it is an anti-PTL. Since they have to perform a white maneuver (everyone but R2 X/Y wings... which means luke+wedge) they maintain their stress. So they can't take an action. So they can't PTL. It's deadly against Fel... since he can't even get his focus for getting a stress, as he didn't receive a stress that turn.

So I would drop the R2s and blasters on the Golds to replace with Ions. I would think drop the R2 on the rookie to put you at 99 points, so you gain initiative against other PS2 squads. Which is crucial so you dont' get blocked. You don't have anyone with maneuver actions anyways, so it's not like knowing where people will be is useful.

I might consider swapping the R2D2 onto the rookie though. Luke is already rather defensive and will likely not be attacked right away. Putting R2D2 on the rookie will keep him around longer. In your current setup, he's clearly the #1 target. Moving R2D2 on to him makes the enemy's choice on who to focus on much harder. And hurts him even more if he decides to spread the love around.

Gold w/ ICT x2

Rookie w/ R2D2

Luke

Total: 99pts

I love y wings. Lots of hit points and the option for a turret. Unless you have a focus feeder like Kyle in the hawk or garvin as a wingman, I would go with ion turret. If you think he is bringing fett, I would strongly consider and advanced proton torp or perhaps 2 regular torps, one on each ship. Y wings are way underrated. Fett is PS 9' so there is negligible value in high pilots for you. (Except of course, you don't know what company fett will have with him). If you really want to bring a blaster turret, consider astromech changes or swapping Luke to get garvin, then keep him close by a ywing. Bear in mind that if you run ion turrets, you will have to hit him with 2 separate attacks to actually get the ion effect, though it can be highly effective against his wingmen. Since he likes to run swarms and likes fett, he might bring a handful of low ps ties along. In that case, let your higher skilled xwings. Like garvin and a red, deal with them while your Ys go for fett. You can cover the Ys with their own turrets and let the xwings pick off the ionized ties. Then lock fett up, try to focus and TL. Again garvin can help here, and punch some holes in that can. I have not done the math, but if you have a couple of spare points, consider stock r2 or r5 on each ywing, those these are not essential. Good luck. You'll love the ywings, they are the timex pick up truck of the Star Wars universe.

Try this,

Gold with ptorp, blaster

Gold with ptorp, ion

Garvin

Rookie

100 points. You will have to keep garvin close enough to your blaster if you really want to make that turret work for you, and when it comes time to shoot the torp, you can get a focus off garvin to help out. Note that this makes it hard to split your force and it does limit your movement somewhat. Garvin must always focus, for instance. This will give your blaster turret teeth, and your torps as well. The extended range of the standard torp will make it hard for a hyper mobile fett to get out of your front arc. I would go in slow until you get him locked, then go for it. Good luck.

R2 on the Y-Wing really helps its maneuverability but for turrets go with the Ion instead of the Blaster for any number of reasons. The blaster costs a point less to equip and could deal more damage and critical but it costs you a specific action to use, doesn't give the ion special effect which can be huge, and only COULD give you more damage.

I don't think I'd be using R2-D2 here if you're putting R2s on the Y-Wings. If you put it on Luke you're giving more reason to either ignore him or gang up on him so it isn't going to be much use.

Don't fall too head over heels for the Ion effect if he's bringing slave 1 - remember you've got to 'tag' a firespray twice for it to matter.

That said, it's still generally a better weapon even limited to one damage.

If you want Blaster Turrets use Rebel Operative with Recon Specialist and Blaster Turret otherwise use Y's with Ion Turret. They cost the same points. (no need for R2's on the Y's)

Two Ion Turrets will cause the Firespray problems even though it needs two hits to ion it. Don't forget if you ion it once that token is not removed until you ion it again and it suffers the effects.

I would drop R2D2 and Luke and get Wedge with PtL.

Thus you would have:

Gold Pilot with Ion Turret x 2 OR Rebel Operative with Recon Specialist and Blaster Turret

Wedge with R2 unit and PtL

Rookie Pilot.

100pts

Double Post Deleted

Don't fall too head over heels for the Ion effect if he's bringing slave 1 - remember you've got to 'tag' a firespray twice for it to matter.

That said, it's still generally a better weapon even limited to one damage.

I suspect that is why there are two Y-Wings in the squad. Blaster Turrets really aren't something I'd generally consider for a Y-Wing.

Blaster Turrets really aren't something I'd generally consider for a Y-Wing.

I agree, in theory they would be nice. 3 dice at R2 with a 360 arc. But without a way of getting 2 focus per turn, the blaster cannon just doesn't stack up to the ion cannon.

I ran blasters on a Y once. Once was enough to see they are much better with the ion. hopefully you can get some ions in and mess up the swarm movements and then work them over with the X

100pts

Luke

Garven

2x Gold Squadron Ywings w/ ion turret