So I was thinking about how cool it would be to have two ion-equipped Y-wings and a B-wing with HLC and Advanced Sensors. The Y-wings are good at staying alive - not so much dishing out punishment though - and the B-wing would make for an excellent strike ship. I would also include an X-wing for dogfighting.

I was thinking of using the following build:

Gold Squadron Pilot + Ion Turret (23)

Gold Squadron Pilot + Ion Turret (23)

Blue Squadron Pilot + HLC + AS (32)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Total: 99pts

The Y-wings are decent fighters, mainly because everyone seems to ignore them for some reason, and the B-wing would provide some real firepower. It would also be a big target, so I would hang my Y-wings back and cover him with them in a delta formation. The X-wing would loiter around and come in if they needed him.

I can see a major shortcoming of this being the lack of PS. That can kill a squad real quick if my opponent manages to bring in high-PS pilots. But I can see this as being pretty effective against the TIE Swarm because that build usually relies on taking as manyAcademy pilots as possible. Another potential shortcoming is the lack of support that more expensive pilots would offer.

But I figure I can make this work, if I mind my maneuvering. The turrets will be good if I can land multiple hits on the same ship, and the B-wing has an advantage in firepower over the TIE Fighter and Interceptor.

What do you think?

That B-WIng is SCREAMING to be killed first.

A) It is your most damaging ship
B) It is your most expensive ship.
C) It goes down very easily to focused fire.

Once it's gone, you've got two Ys with Ions, and a Rookie X-Wing, so your damage is very effectively nullified.

What about replacing it with a pair of X-wings? Decent firepower, but now the defender must choose between them and the turret-equipped Y-wings.

The turrets will be good if I can land multiple hits on the same ship...

What do you think?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but multiple hits on the same ship from ion turrets would only be effective on large ships, correct? If the first ion turret hit on a small ship you would be better off using the next Y-wing's primary weapon, assuming a firing solution, wouldn't you? You cannot double-up ion hits on a small ship. So the only advantage with a 2nd ion turret hit on the same small ship is another single hit of damage.

The turrets will be good if I can land multiple hits on the same ship...

What do you think?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but multiple hits on the same ship from ion turrets would only be effective on large ships, correct? If the first ion turret hit on a small ship you would be better off using the next Y-wing's primary weapon, assuming a firing solution, wouldn't you? You cannot double-up ion hits on a small ship. So the only advantage with a 2nd ion turret hit on the same small ship is another single hit of damage.

I believe that is correct. Of course the advantage of the second Ion Turret is that it enables you to ionize one of those big ships in a single turn but it would also enable to you to ionize TWO enemy fighters each turn or double up to make sure you get the one you are after. If your Y-Wings can land Ion hits on a couple stressed Interceptors those squints are in for a world of problems.

I believe that is correct. Of course the advantage of the second Ion Turret is that it enables you to ionize one of those big ships in a single turn but it would also enable to you to ionize TWO enemy fighters each turn or double up to make sure you get the one you are after. If your Y-Wings can land Ion hits on a couple stressed Interceptors those squints are in for a world of problems.

Agreed. The advantage of an ion hit on two separate ships is evident. I did see the advantage of the 2nd ion attempt if the 1st failed on a priority target. The OP seemed to be thinking of some benefit to two ion hits on one target, so I wasn't sure if I was missing something.

I think Merlin has it pretty good - the main problem with the first list is that everyone will kill the B-wing first, so if you have 2 B-wings with the same upgrades and 2 Y-wings, you give them no clear target.

Honestly in a build like this i'd love to see 2 Y-wings with Ions and a Torp each, but sadly that doesn't leave much left for the B-wings (2 points). But then your opponent has a choice to either go for a Y-wing first and get chewed up by B-wings, or attack the B-wings first and get torped...

Hmm. Great points overall. I think the YYBB build sounds pretty good, with the FCS and ion cannons all around. I really wanted the punch of the HLC, but this should work as well.

One thing though; I thought ions were cumulative, so if I hit a small ship with two shots, he would receive two ion tokens.

I'm not looking it up but i'm pretty sure the Ion Procedure (as it were) tells you to remove all ion tokens after you make your white 1 move

Aye, doesnt matter how many ion tokens you have on your ship, you are only ioned for the next turn. Of course big ships need 2 ion tokens to be ioned for the next turn.

I actually just ran a similar setup this past weekend.

I had 2 B-Wings with Auto-blasters and a Y-Wing with Ion Turret, my partner was running a HWK-290 with 2 A-Wings. We were going up against Vader, a Lambda, a bomber, and two interceptors. The Y-Wing and 2 B-Wings did pretty well, especially when I was able to hit an interceptor with the ion cannon and finish him off with the auto-blasters from the B-Wing. Next time we play, I may try a Y-Wing, X-Wing, 2 B-Wing combo.

Blue Squadron Pilot (27)

B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Ion Cannon (3)

Blue Squadron Pilot (27)

B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Ion Cannon (3)

Gold Squadron Pilot (23)

Y-Wing (18), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Gold Squadron Pilot (23)

Y-Wing (18), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

----

Has the potential for complete Lockdown of your opponent if they have less ships then you do.

Merlin, I built the exact same list about 2 weeks ago. Only used it once, but my opponent was just livid at the amount of ions and health I had on the field. Granted, the low agility still falls to concentrated fire, and as mentioned by OP the PS leaves something to be desired, but 32 hp is beast no matter how you slice it.

Plus it's fun to say - "I'll be playing BY-BY tonight...."

If oyu like the gold with a turret and using bwings...this is a list i like:

Rookie pilot=21

Gold+ion turret=23

Blue squad+advanced sensors=25

Ibitsam+PTL=31

But i like this one better

Garven=26

Roark+ion Turret=24

2x Blue squad+AS=50

Personally I wouldn't run two Y-Wings, but here's the list I came up with.

• "Dutch" Vander (23)
• Grey Squadron Pilot w/Blaster Turret (24)
• Dagger Squadron Pilot - Advanced Sensors (27)
• Garven Dreis (26)

I <3 Dutch. And I <3 Ion Turrets. So almost all of my lists have him in it.

Dutch w/ Ion

Roark w/ Ion

Blue w/ AdvS

Blue

Total 99pts

You can do what you want with those last 4 points, Torp, Chewy, AdvS+init, FCSx2... I'd probably either going with Chewy or AdvS+Init.

You get 2 ion turrets, the enemy doesn't know who to attack (especially if you put the naked blue in front of the AdvS one, so he has a R2 shot on it vs. R3 on AdvS) as Dutch and Roark provide support but no damage output, and the two blues aren't particularly "threatening" by themselves. Dutch can hand out a nice TL, so if the naked blue bumps, or one of them needs to BR, then at least they still have a TL to modify their attack. Roark puts one of them at PS12, so you're shooting at 12, 6, 4, 2. With init, you shoot before the matching 4s and 2s. Herm... now I want to play this!

I <3 Dutch. And I <3 Ion Turrets. So almost all of my lists have him in it.

Dutch w/ Ion

Roark w/ Ion

Blue w/ AdvS

Blue

Total 99pts

You can do what you want with those last 4 points, Torp, Chewy, AdvS+init, FCSx2... I'd probably either going with Chewy or AdvS+Init.

You get 2 ion turrets, the enemy doesn't know who to attack (especially if you put the naked blue in front of the AdvS one, so he has a R2 shot on it vs. R3 on AdvS) as Dutch and Roark provide support but no damage output, and the two blues aren't particularly "threatening" by themselves. Dutch can hand out a nice TL, so if the naked blue bumps, or one of them needs to BR, then at least they still have a TL to modify their attack. Roark puts one of them at PS12, so you're shooting at 12, 6, 4, 2. With init, you shoot before the matching 4s and 2s. Herm... now I want to play this!

Grey+R2astro+blaster turret

Roark+ion turret

2X Blue squad+ AS

=99

I <3 Dutch. And I <3 Ion Turrets. So almost all of my lists have him in it.

Dutch w/ Ion

Roark w/ Ion

Blue w/ AdvS

Blue

Total 99pts

You can do what you want with those last 4 points, Torp, Chewy, AdvS+init, FCSx2... I'd probably either going with Chewy or AdvS+Init.

You get 2 ion turrets, the enemy doesn't know who to attack (especially if you put the naked blue in front of the AdvS one, so he has a R2 shot on it vs. R3 on AdvS) as Dutch and Roark provide support but no damage output, and the two blues aren't particularly "threatening" by themselves. Dutch can hand out a nice TL, so if the naked blue bumps, or one of them needs to BR, then at least they still have a TL to modify their attack. Roark puts one of them at PS12, so you're shooting at 12, 6, 4, 2. With init, you shoot before the matching 4s and 2s. Herm... now I want to play this!

Grey+R2astro+blaster turret

Roark+ion turret

2X Blue squad+ AS

=99

Why would you ever put a blaster turret on a Gray? Especially without Kyle to hand out a focus. That list would be much better as Gray + Ion. Though I would still question whether a second AdvS is with downgrading from Dutch to a Gray.

I'm just sitting here, waiting for someone to make a BABY fleet.

The one thing I would say is this: Interceptors would eat this list alive. B-Wings, Y-Wings and other single-dice evaders are their favorite foods. And even some of the cheapest Interceptor pilots move after and fire before, which are the optimal conditions for an Interceptor to operate under.

Use the Ionizer list and sub out 1Y-Wing for Arvel Crynd. He specializes in "wrecking" Large-Based ships. It's just a matter of keeping it Ionized and running Arvel into the back of it. Or block/ram from the sides.

Ta-Da! BABY build. Or ABBY if you're slightly dyslexic....