I have been running the wedge, biggs, luke build with various astro mechs and EPT but seem to always be the bride's maid and never the bride at our local tournament (finished 2nd three weeks ina row).

im considering one of the following builds and would appreciate your insight:

Wedge=29

Biggs=25

Luke=28

Gold pilot=18

100

OR

X2 Gold + ion turret= 46

Wedge +R2 astro + PTL=33

rookie = 21

100

More ships and more guns are always good things. Maybe:

Biggs (25)

Wedge (29)

Gold Sq. Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret (23)

Blue Sq. Pilot (22)

That's 99 points, if my 9 a.m. math is right. It gives you three ships with 3 attack dice, it gives you your heavy-hitter in Wedge, your distraction in Biggs, your disruption with the Ion on the Y-Wing, and the now-eponymous B-Wing.

You might consider sending the B-Wing up one side of the board and the other three ships up the other side ... your opponent will have to decide which one to go after, and either way, he's gonna get flanked. If he splits up his force, maybe use the Y-Wing's Ion to help out the B-Wing from afar.

Any of those lists is decent. I like Danthrax's more - but I've never been one for running a naked Y wing. I know people have shown that it can be competitive, but I like the ion effect (and threat of ion) quite a bit. But I'm not sold on 2 ion turrets as it gimps your offensive.

Danthrax's list gives you that one Ion, 4 ships to attack, and if you use Biggs properly, you can really screw up ordnance and attacks. One of the tricks I've started using regarding Biggs is to not start him R1 of Wedge. This way, people go after Wedge on the first pass, which he *should* live through. Then you pull Biggs in, and Biggs lives through the second engagement. And then you can split them up again or keep them together since they could easily both be killed on the 3rd round (though they've hopefully done quite a bit of damage in the mean time). It sounds strange, but I think one of the tricks to using Biggs effectively is knowing when not to use him.

You could always try:

Wedge, Push the Limit

Garvin

Rookie

Rookie

You get a little bit of action passing, you can target lock and focus with wedge, and in general have a fat stack of firepower.

Unless the same person keeps beating you there is nothing wrong with 2nd all the time. It just proves you are a consistent performer who is probably better than everyone else BUT get the misfortune of running into a hot player each time.

Looking at the two squads in the OP I'd say the second using the Ion Turrets. Although there is still a clear target (WEDGE!) the other three ships are on pretty even footing and you could send them forward first to soften things up for Wedge.

Better question cubby, what squad is beating you? If possible who is flying it. It might not be the list but the way you fly it?

def go with squad 2, it would have a solid game against most builds - against imperial swarm lists (with lots of annoying tie-fighters) and against B-Wings (a popular ship for rebel players right now) those ion cannons will shine.

first place last week was vader (concussion and VI), soontir (VI PTL) and Turr (VI)

this insured he always shot first. it came down to wedge with one hull vs vader with 2 and his dice were better than mine. the week before that i cant remmeber precisely what he had but it involved kath and some named ties. the time before that was a tie swarm. three different players but i always got second. i am playing rebels because our local tournament has 8-10 people with only one other person playing rebels. so i figured what the heck.

first place last week was vader (concussion and VI), soontir (VI PTL) and Turr (VI)

this insured he always shot first. it came down to wedge with one hull vs vader with 2 and his dice were better than mine. the week before that i cant remmeber precisely what he had but it involved kath and some named ties. the time before that was a tie swarm. three different players but i always got second. i am playing rebels because our local tournament has 8-10 people with only one other person playing rebels. so i figured what the heck.

You might also consider trying other lists. Blue Thunder and Bloody Daggers come to mind and are quite capable. A Han Shoots First list or even double YT lists are both devastating against the list that won most recently.

first place last week was vader (concussion and VI), soontir (VI PTL) and Turr (VI)

this insured he always shot first. it came down to wedge with one hull vs vader with 2 and his dice were better than mine. the week before that i cant remmeber precisely what he had but it involved kath and some named ties. the time before that was a tie swarm. three different players but i always got second. i am playing rebels because our local tournament has 8-10 people with only one other person playing rebels. so i figured what the heck.

Sorry you aren't coming out on top but like I said, you seem like the one to beat with different person and squad getting lucky on a given week.

THoughts on this han shot first variant:

han + marksman+ gunner +chewy=58

gold squad pilot + ion turret + R2 astro=24

prototype pilot=17

total=99

Was thinking the y-wing is the pointman and stuns with Ion turret while all focus (rightly so) is on the YT. the Yt picks off limping ships and the a-wing flies around being an annoying gnat

You could also use your first list with an a wing instead of the gold sqaug (i would much rather have proto pilot than naked ywing) and put adrenaline rush on wedge for one free k turn to murder somebody. But if you really want to meta against the 3 big imperial pilots, or interceptors in general, and b wings really for that matter, stick with ions. 2 would most definetly not be a bad thing if that was really your goal, if you want to have an answer for those builds but be more balanced then just go for one. Also, i think more people should use raork as their ion turret wielder over a gold ywing for only 1 point more.

going with the roark idea:

gold squad + ion turret=23

roark + ion turret=24

wedge + PTL+R2=33

prototype + stealth=20

100

????????

or am i over thinking and just stay with

2X Gold + ion turret=46

Wedge + R2 + PTL=33

Rookie= 21

100

Go back to the Luke, Wedge, Biggs thing. I'm having trouble understanding the problem. I've run these three a ton since Worlds and I've won way way more games than lost. In fact I'm not running it at my LGS because I think I upset some people by how good the build is. What are you running on these three?

Also do you have three hawks? You could run lando with two rebel operatives with recon specialist and blaster turrets. Then just out fly those imp lists. Those blaster turrets can be a poor man's HAN SOLO if used right.

Who am I kidding? Han Solo is a poor man's Han Solo.

Since ive finished 2nd three times in a row i want to shake things up from my normal wdge/biggs/luke...also variance can be fun too.

ive settled on one of two builds (unlessconvinced otherwise....im still a rookie at this)

1. Wedge + swarm=31

Roark + Ion turret=24

Gold + ion turret= 23

Blue Squad=22

100

Idea being bounce Roark's ability off of the swarm tactics to have two shots at PS12

2. Roark +ion turret+nien=25

Gold + ion turret+ R2 astro=24

2X Rookie + porton torp=50

99

Idea being a very lethal round 1 with the torpedos. Lend Roark's ability after that to gain first shot with best firing position.

I still would like to know the wedge like Biggs build.

I do understand changing things up, I'm fling hwks with yts now. Any way I think both lists lack fire power. The ion turret will only do one damage a round. If possible you need to find a way to increase this. Also I don't know how you fly but you will need to avoid jousting at all costs.

Since ive finished 2nd three times in a row i want to shake things up from my normal wdge/biggs/luke...also variance can be fun too.

ive settled on one of two builds (unlessconvinced otherwise....im still a rookie at this)

1. Wedge + swarm=31

Roark + Ion turret=24

Gold + ion turret= 23

Blue Squad=22

100

Idea being bounce Roark's ability off of the swarm tactics to have two shots at PS12

2. Roark +ion turret+nien=25

Gold + ion turret+ R2 astro=24

2X Rookie + porton torp=50

99

Idea being a very lethal round 1 with the torpedos. Lend Roark's ability after that to gain first shot with best firing position.

I'd go with the first of these. But I wouldn't use Roark on Wedge. PS9 is likely to be shooting first anyways... That way, you can have 12, 9, 9, 4. And practically get all of your shots off before they shoot anything. It's a tempting build for me to try out at some point.

Ive tinkered around with minor adjustments but latest build was:

Biggs + r2f2+ stealth

Luke+ r2d2+ shield+Draw fire

wedge + PTL

Ive been looking at dual ion cannons because there are a lot of interceptors in the local tournament

Since ive finished 2nd three times in a row i want to shake things up from my normal wdge/biggs/luke...also variance can be fun too.

ive settled on one of two builds (unlessconvinced otherwise....im still a rookie at this)

1. Wedge + swarm=31

Roark + Ion turret=24

Gold + ion turret= 23

Blue Squad=22

100

Idea being bounce Roark's ability off of the swarm tactics to have two shots at PS12

2. Roark +ion turret+nien=25

Gold + ion turret+ R2 astro=24

2X Rookie + porton torp=50

99

Idea being a very lethal round 1 with the torpedos. Lend Roark's ability after that to gain first shot with best firing position.

I'd go with the first of these. But I wouldn't use Roark on Wedge. PS9 is likely to be shooting first anyways... That way, you can have 12, 9, 9, 4. And practically get all of your shots off before they shoot anything. It's a tempting build for me to try out at some point.

So Kyros do you think...

[wedge+swarm, Roaork + ion turret, gold +ion turret, blue] > [Wedge + PTL + R2, 2x gold + ion turret, rookie] ?

Ok the ion reasoning is sound. I'd go with one tho.

Your Lbw list, the way I run it is a bit different.

I find r2f2 and stealth to be too hit and miss. I run a shield upgrade instead and an r2 unit on wedge. Biggs lives a bit longer and I get three solid rounds of death out of wedge. Usually it is three dead ties.

Because you are going up against squints have you thought about an engine upgrade on wedge?

ive settled on one of two builds (unlessconvinced otherwise....im still a rookie at this)

1. Wedge + swarm=31

Roark + Ion turret=24

Gold + ion turret= 23

Blue Squad=22

100

Idea being bounce Roark's ability off of the swarm tactics to have two shots at PS12

2. Roark +ion turret+nien=25

Gold + ion turret+ R2 astro=24

2X Rookie + porton torp=50

99

Idea being a very lethal round 1 with the torpedos. Lend Roark's ability after that to gain first shot with best firing position.

In the first I'd agree with Khyros that you'd be better off using Roark on someone other than Wedge unless you are that desperate. Two PS 12 shots should go off before anyone else but even with 12,9,9 that is three shots that should be going off before almost everyone else.

With the second you may run into the "I can't fire the torpedo because I haven't got a lock" issue. A few ships move before Rookies do but many have been suggesting a move to higher PS ships which will have you moving and having no one in range to TL. Sad to say but I may prefer to put a Torpedo on the Y-Wing instead to give it a hard hitting range 3 attack.

Although he becomes very expensive a crazy option for Wedge is R2 + PtL + Engine Upgrade which can allow you to fight Interceptors at something closer to their maneuverability level.

So we had the weekly tournament earlier today and I took second...again

I ran roark with ion turret, y wing ion turret, wedge with swarm, and blue pilot

1st pairing was against an Awing, Bwing, Luke

Rd one I got 7 hits on his Awing and he dodged everyone of them. he got 5 hits on wedge who rolled nothing but blanks. So i lost wedge on round one. Still made a game of it and got a modified loss as time ranout.

2nd pairing i went up against a bounty hunter with missiles, Soontir with PTL and Vader with engine upgrade

Rd one his BH nicked an asteroid which proved to be fatal. My entire squad targeted it and loaded it with two ions and it had 3 hull remaining. next round it takes its 1 white forward and takes another damage. wedge kills it at range one. there wasnt any coming back as Soontir used PTL and i handcuffed him with the ion cannons.

so im one and one going into final pairing which by seeding was against an undefeated Han shoots first. he loaded up Han with 67 points and had Biggs with r2d2 and shield upgrade. he was able to plow through other squads but my ion turrets mad r2d2 useless and I took him out. however in his first pairing he skunked the opponent and won the tourney on points destroyed.

overall i was happy with the build. it was kind of nice to play somehting simple whereas everyone else was trying to synergize. It was also nice to break free from my usual wedge, biggs, luke squad.

maybe next time i will finally win won of these things and stop coming in second!

solid list. wedge would hav been the target early every game?

swarm on wedge gives ur squad some redundancy eg? plus firing at PS 12/12/4/2 is nice - that must have hit pretty hard most games id say.

depending on expected matchups maybe replacing the Y-Wing with another B-Wing is worth considering. the extra point left over could put an R2 Astromech on Wedge?