The other night I had a really fun game with a friend. The ships I took were as follows:

Gold Squadron + Ion Turret

Gold Squadron + Ion Turret

Blue Squadron + Advanced Sensors + Ion Cannon

Garven Dreis

They were up against the following:

Tempest Squadron Pilot

Turr Phennir+Shield Upgrade

Alpha Squadron Pilot+Stealth Device

Night Beast

Black Squadron Pilot + Marksmanship

I set up with my Y-wings in front and B- and X-wing in back, in a tight box formation, and he set up with his ships spread evenly in the staging area.

This was a casual game, so both of us didn't pay too much attention to our ship selection, but my squad did surprisingly well! It was down to the wire, with my B-wing versus his BSP, both with two hull points remaining. In the end, he managed to get a great shot off and took out my B-wing.

I'm pleased with the squad setup, at least with the ship types, but I'd like to know how I could do better with it.

I want to know how to improve it. I'd like to keep the ship types the same, but I was wondering if different pilots or upgrades would make a difference. I'm thinking that Garven is the weak link, because his ability didn't do much. I focused every round, but I lost the ship fairly early.

Ok, my first thought is to even out the PS of this list at 4. This allows you to shoot before and move after many pilots. Particularly powerful on a B-Wing with Advanced Sensors. In that case, the squad would look something like this:

Dagger Squadron Pilot (24)
Advanced Sensors (3)

Red Squadron Pilot (23)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Total: 100

Y-Wings still have Ion turrets. You lose Garven's ability and the Ion Cannon on the B-Wing. However, the X-Wing (your most fragile craft) no longer draws the most aggro, which is important.

You could go down to a 2 PS list. That lets you add 8 points of upgrades. R2s on the Y-Wings would be a good first step. Maybe R2D2 on the X-Wing, but I think more R5. You could add an autoblaster. I think, though, I'd go this route:

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Advanced Sensors (3)

Rookie Pilot (21)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
R5 Astromech (1)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R2 Astromech (1)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R2 Astromech (1)

Total: 99

You could try 2x GSP+Ion and two Daggers+advs. This would give you a LOT more survivability and good punch that would go out before most swarms while still being able to use the Ys as blockers and ion disruptors.

Sable, those two builds look better already. The first one appeals the most. The higher pilot skills for all ships except the X-wing is better in my mind than upgrades, because what good does it do to have upgrades if you get blasted before you can use them?

You could try 2x GSP+Ion and two Daggers+advs. This would give you a LOT more survivability and good punch that would go out before most swarms while still being able to use the Ys as blockers and ion disruptors.

That is over 100pts. You can fit 2x Daggers with AdvS and 2 Ioned Golds at exactly 100.

If you drop the Grays to Golds in Sable's first example, you can have a 2nd Dagger with AdvS, which is a nasty ship to have in a close range fight.

I prefer to have my Y-wings at PS2 so I can run them in front of the enemy squad to cause collisions and cost them their actions. Then after they've taken a bunch of hits, they will be behind the battle on the next turn and likely pretty safe while my opponents try to focus fire down the B-wings.

So if we're talking about the same ship makeup, we're looking at XYYB. For now, lets look at running the Y's with ICT. At the base PS, that puts us at 89 points, leaving 11 for customization. Upgrading two pilots to named would cost a min of 9 points, and that would be for Dutch + Biggs. I don't really think Biggs has a place in this list, so if we rule him out, you could upgrade to Dutch + Garven, or Dutch + Ibby, or Garven + Ibby. The latter two take 11 points, and Ibby without anything on her isn't really that good. So the only dual named list to consider would be Dutch + Garven.

Garven

Dutch w/ Ion

Gold w/ Ion

Blue

That sounds pretty good to me. Have the gold do TL/F (your preference), Blue TL, Garven Focus, Dutch TL + Give Garven TL. Garven passes the F off to the Blue after he shoots with TL+F. Dutch and Gold both have a modifier for their ion cannon. Blue now has TL+F. Or if he had to barrel roll, he now has a F to modify his attack with. Doesn't sound too bad. Garven will probably be the first to go, but then you're still left with Dutch handing out TL to the Blue. And with the dual ion, you should be able to fly defensively to avoid at least some arcs.

But you said you weren't a big fan of Garven, so lets look at other possibilities. I'm not a huge fan of PS2 spam lists, and the PS4 variants have already been listed, so lets see what we could do with a single named pilot. With 11 points left, you could spend 6 to upgrade to ibby, but there's not enough left to make her hyper mobile of a defensive craft. You could give her PTL (and optional AdvS) to make her dangerous, but like Garven in your first list, she's unlikely to last long. And then you're left with 2 ions and a Blue, all at PS2.

So lets look at a defensive pilot, Luke. He's a pain to kill (50% more survivable than a standard X wing) and you have 4 points left to play with. You could give him Swarm tactics (+ R5 and init) so you could fire at 8,8,2,2... or R2-D2 to make him the last guy the enemy wants to go after... R2-D2 might be the better way to go, but since you're going to be moving at PS2, I'd prefer to have init to move first so I get my actions, and then can block the opponent, so I'd be more likely to go with Swarm. But you could also do Swarm + FCS on the Blue. That might not be a bad combo, and worth risking init for.

Luke w/ Swarm + R5

Gold w/ ICT

Gold w/ ICT

Blue

Those would be the two that come to my mind for XYYB lists that haven't already been listed. You could get more creative if you decided to drop the ICT, but I don't know if it's worth it on a 4 ship squad to do that.

Take a look at this build:
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/45914/3-ion

Here you have 3 ships with high SPs and all equipped with an Ion weapon (and 2 are turrets). The idea is to set up easy shots for you B-wing to get R1 shots on.

If you find you need a little more punch, or Jan is taking too much heat, go with this build:
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/44686/ptl-bwing

Here the Y-wing is replaced with Biggs to keep Jan damage free. The R2 unit keeps Biggs in a fight longer and his X-wing provides an additional 3 attack die ship. With this build you only have 1 ion turret, but more than one is unneeded for this build. You should be able to set up an enemy ship every round to concentrate fire on and quickly reduce your opponent's fleet.