Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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You know the drill. I list my hilariously bad squads and you experts tell me where I have failed. Any criticism is welcome! I haven't played this game nearly as much as I have liked and am really just doing this tourney to have a full day of playing it.
Lando--nien numb, Falcon title.
Biggs--R2D2
Blue Squadron pilot--advanced sensors
This one has a bit of synergy plus being pretty new having a ship that can fire 360 I "think" could help. Plus I like playing Biggs with R2.
These next two I was just thinking about pilot skill and how I'm rather inexperienced with flying in formation so having them all be the same is appealing to me.
First try was this:
Dagger squadron pilot--proton torp, ion cannon, advanced sensors
red squadron pilot--r2d2, proton torp, shield upgrade
red sqaudron pilot--proton torp, shield upgrade
I dunno, seems kinda heavy. So I went back and though of this:
Ibitisam--push the limit, advanced sensors
garven dreis--proton torp, shield upgrade
arvel crynd--concussion missiles, shield upgrade
Thoughts? Pointing and laughing? 
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Allen T
United States
Grand Rapids
Michigan
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Don't use arvel.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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Elaborate?
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Matthew Cordeiro
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
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I'm no expert, but I'll give you my 2 cents anyway because, well, you asked for it!
Flint Lockwood wrote: Lando--nien numb, Falcon title.
Biggs--R2D2
Blue Squadron pilot--advanced sensors
I'm not sure about R2-D2 on Biggs. He'll get shot down sooner rather than later, and to get value out of R2-D2, you need to do at least 2 green maneuvers before Biggs is destroyed. Otherwise, he's no better than just a straight-up shield upgrade, which has no maneuver stipulation for the same cost. It's doable, I suppose. I may be making something out of nothing.
Flint Lockwood wrote: These next two I was just thinking about pilot skill and how I'm rather inexperienced with flying in formation so having them all be the same is appealing to me.
First try was this:
Dagger squadron pilot--proton torp, ion cannon, advanced sensors
red squadron pilot--r2d2, proton torp, shield upgrade
red sqaudron pilot--proton torp, shield upgrade
That's a ton of upgrades. 3 small ships can be successful, but if one ship goes down early, you're sunk. I'd drop some upgrades to fit in another ship, and I'd start with the cannon and the torps (15 points). You could also save 6 points dropping from PS4 to PS2. That's 21 points - hey a Rookie Pilot!
Flint Lockwood wrote: Ibitisam--push the limit, advanced sensors
garven dreis--proton torp, shield upgrade
arvel crynd--concussion missiles, shield upgrade
This is the one I like the least. I can't wrap my head around how to efficiently use Ibtisam + PTL + Adv sensors. Do you want green maneuvers to use PTL or stay stressed for Ibtisam's ability? Arvel just isn't great, and a shield upgrade won't help. The A-wing's problem is offense, not defense.
Maybe pick a different PS to build around? Luke/Horton/Tycho at 8 or Chewie/Biggs/Dutch at 5?
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I don't have a Y-Wing but I agree with that being too many upgrades on that one build.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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cordeiro wrote:
Maybe pick a different PS to build around? Luke/Horton/Tycho at 8 or Chewie/Biggs/Dutch at 5?
So I don't have a Y-wing but maybe this?
Luke Skywalker---Squad leader, R5
Tycho--push the limit, assault missiles
ten numb--advanced sensors
99 points.
Or getting the Falcon back in the fray and, while they aren't all the same PS at least here the one is only one behind:
Chewie--Falcon Title
biggs--shield upgrade, R5
dagger squadron--advanced sensors
hmm, that seems kinda weak.
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Allen T
United States
Grand Rapids
Michigan
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If you want to stick to a single PS, which I think is generally a good idea anyways, I'd suggest it be either PS2 or PS4. More ships also provides redundancy, if you loose one ship in a 4 or 5 ship squad you are in better shaps than loosing one ship in a three ship squad.
And Arvel is just bad.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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monkeykins wrote: If you want to stick to a single PS, which I think is generally a good idea anyways, I'd suggest it be either PS2 or PS4. More ships also provides redundancy, if you loose one ship in a 4 or 5 ship squad you are in better shaps than loosing one ship in a three ship squad.
And Arvel is just bad.
Ok, then going to THE DARK SIDE...?
storm squadron pilot--assault missiles, shield upgrade
black squadron pilot--squad leader
black squadron--push the limit
black squadron--marksmanship
black squadron--marksmanship
I don't fly TIEs that often but this seems kinda fun. I miss the bit of synergy though. And I really wanted to play around with Advanced Sensors on a b-wing. Going Imperial though I could try out the Lambda for the first time with it....
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Robert M.
United States
Michigan
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Flint Lockwood wrote: Elaborate?
Arvel is a good candidate for the least useful unique pilot in the game. His pilot ability would be useful if he moved earlier, so he could block enemy ships and still exchange fire. But his moderately high PS limits that strategy.
So mostly his pilot ability is either ignored, or used to ram lower-PS ships. But in that case he's rolling unmodified attack dice, which aren't very useful, and unmodified defense dice, which will get him killed in just 2-3 attacks.
Oh, and he has the misfortune of being strapped to an A-wing, which is slightly overpriced to start with, and he's missing the EPT slot that might have made paying 5 points for his PS slightly easier to swallow.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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No love for the A-Wing. Which is funny because FFG just posted an A-Wing strategy article.
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Matthew Cordeiro
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
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Flint Lockwood wrote: cordeiro wrote:
Maybe pick a different PS to build around? Luke/Horton/Tycho at 8 or Chewie/Biggs/Dutch at 5?
So I don't have a Y-wing but maybe this? Luke Skywalker---Squad leader, R5 Tycho--push the limit, assault missiles ten numb--advanced sensors 99 points.
Squad leader only works if you're passing the action to a lower PS, not the same PS. So, that's out. You like R2-D2, and I think you'll get a lot of use out of him on the more durable Luke than when you tried to put him on Biggs. So, drop squad leader and R5, add R2-D2 and you're at 100.
Another option to get the most out of Ten Numb's ability would be replace advanced sensors with marksmanship. Of course, many people think he's overpriced to begin with, so...
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What ships do you currently have? I posted a few squads on a different post for empire, but used interceptors and firespray. Tie fighters really benefit from howlrunner. Don't worry about upgrades so much. Usually an extra ships is much better. Some pilots or combos work very well with upgrades, but situation specific. Try something like
Howlrunner
Academy x4
OGP w/ vader and gunner
Swarm benefits from howlrunner. Suicide vader with gunner can be fun.
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Matthew Cordeiro
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
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Flint Lockwood wrote: Ok, then going to THE DARK SIDE...?
storm squadron pilot--assault missiles, shield upgrade
black squadron pilot--squad leader
black squadron--push the limit
black squadron--marksmanship
black squadron--marksmanship
Again, Squad Leader won't work when they're all the same PS.
If you're looking for a TIE with 6 HP to carry missiles, the bomber is 9 points cheaper than your TIE Advanced.
I don't like marksmanship on TIEs. It's an offense-only focus that turns one eyeball to a crit. The problem is that the standard focus can be used on offense or defense, and for a TIE, using it for defense is a very viable option. You typically see marksmanship on low agility, high PS ships where the focus is a waste if you use/save it for defense. Plus, if you want to use evade or barrel roll, then your marksmanship points are wasted.
Overall, it's just a ton of upgrades for ships that can get shot down easily.
If you're looking for a squad with a TIE Advanced and 4 TIEs (assuming you don't have/want more TIEs), maybe something like this would work:
Vader + concussion missiles
Howlrunner
Mauler Mithel
Backstabber
Dark Curse
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Jeff Wilder
Daly City
California
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As a newbie, YT + two ships is a very solid and forgiving squadron.
Chewbacca is my YT pilot of choice, but there's nothing wrong with Lando. I don't really like how you've kitted him out, though.
I know that Nien Nunb seems like he fits well with Lando's ability, but in practice you will rarely find Lando wanting to move 3- or 4-straight and able to dole out an action. (3-straight in a YT is the same distance as 4-straight in a B-wing, for instance, and when's the last time you went 4-straight in a B-wing?)
The YT wants something in exchange for taking the place of two other ships, and that something is "Gunner."
Lando + Gunner + Draw Their Fire (50)
Blue + AdvS (25)
Biggs (25)
This has several nice interactions:
(1) Lando helps keep Biggs offensively active, while still allowing Biggs to use his Focus for defense.
(2) It's easy to keep Biggs at a longer range band behind a YT-1300. The big guns of the Blue being free to be a range-band ahead is nice, too.
(3) While not Walking-Carpet-Ignores-Crits (his Native American name), the YT does have 5 shields, and if Lando sucks even one Biggs-bound crit onto the YT's shields using DTF, that could make a big difference.
EDIT: I should point out that there is a wrinkle to flying Biggs with Lando (that you won't see when flying Biggs with Chewbacca) ... namely, Biggs wants to be behind Lando, but Biggs has to move before Lando. This isn't insurmountable, but it can be tricky.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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This is all been very helpful. I feel like a dope still sticking Squad Leader on all of those. Thanks for the catch.
And now I remember why I wasn't going to try to do an Imperial squad: I don't have Howlrunner.
I have 2 core sets, TIE Advanced, another X-Wing, a B-Wing, a YT, A-Wing, and a Lambda Shuttle on the way.
So as tempting as that Lando and Gunner build looks I don't have Gunner...yet.
So maybe I go with Chewie?
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Jeff Wilder
Daly City
California
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Flint Lockwood wrote: So as tempting as that Lando and Gunner build looks I don't have Gunner...yet.
Unless your tournament is in Douche-ylvania, you can probably count on someone being willing to lend you Gunner. (FWIW, IMO the Firespray-31 is about three times more fun to fly than the YT.)
It's not impossible to make YTs work without a Gunner, but it's difficult.
EDIT: For a Chewier version of the same build, try:
Chewbacca + Gunner + DTF (48)
Biggs (25)
Dagger + AdvS (27)
You could also go:
Chewbacca + Gunner (47)
Biggs + R2-F2 (28)
Blue + AdvS (25)
The issue with the latter is that knowing when to use R2-F2 -- as opposed to a simple Focus -- is a little tricky. And when you do use R2-F2, you're very reliant on the green dice; the droid might save you three hits in a turn, but it might give you bupkis.
I like the first build better for a novice, and maybe even as an absolute.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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Jeff Wilder wrote:
Chewbacca + Gunner + DTF (48)
Biggs (25)
Dagger + AdvS (27)
Wookie party! This is definitely the front runner now that a friend is going to lend me the card. Thanks!
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Jeff Wilder
Daly City
California
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Flint Lockwood wrote: Wookie party! This is definitely the front runner now that a friend is going to lend me the card. Thanks!
I'll be pulling for you.
One quick note: until you have quite a few games under your belt, it can be surprisingly easy to forget to use DTF. Some opponents will actually remind you, and if you're playing one of these guys, you're playing a mensch. But since it's a permissive thing, and since it's a tournament, there's no requirement to remind you of DTF (and not doing so doesn't make a player a bad guy).
What I've found helpful when I use DTF is to actively look for crits and be happy when they come.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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Couldn't you do this? Am I missing something that using Gunner is better?
Chewie--DtF, Luke Skywalker
biggs
blue squadron-advanced sensors
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Jeff Wilder
Daly City
California
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I think that works fine. I've never really found Luke-as-Gunner to be worth the 2 points, is all. Bounty Hunters are pretty common, and the Dagger gives you the PS over them.
Honestly, I'd rather take the MF title and give Biggs an R2 Astromech over Luke (instead of Gunner). Or maybe just the MF title and the initiative bid.
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Jeff Dunford
Canada
Kemptville
Ontario
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Flint Lockwood wrote:
You know the drill. I list my hilariously bad squads and you experts tell me where I have failed. Any criticism is welcome! I haven't played this game nearly as much as I have liked and am really just doing this tourney to have a full day of playing it.
Lando--nien numb, Falcon title.
Biggs--R2D2
Blue Squadron pilot--advanced sensors
This one has a bit of synergy plus being pretty new having a ship that can fire 360 I "think" could help. Plus I like playing Biggs with R2.
I wouldn't change a thing about this list. Just make sure Biggs always gets his Focus (either as his own action or from Lando) and saves it for defense. Try not to get him too shot up; make it difficult for your opponent to get quality shots on him, even if it means moving him out of Range 1 of your other ships. They're beefy enough to survive a turn or two without Biggs' protection, and your opponent should know this and keep chasing Biggs anyway. If your opponent spreads some damage onto your other ships before Biggs goes down, especially if you get to recover some shields, that's a mini victory for your squad.
Meanwhile, get your B-wing into Range 1 and do as much damage as you can with it and Lando while Biggs lives.
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From personal experience, it is rare that a 3-ship Rebel build does well, even with a YT.
I personally like to keep it simple:
4x Rookie X-wings w/shield upgrades.
Or, I have recently been playing around with lists that have done pretty well so far, against both TIE swarms and big ships like YTs and Firesprays:
2x Blue Squadron B-wings w/fire control systems
2x Rookie X-wings w/ R2 unit and shield upgrades
OR
2x Dagger Squadron B-wings w/ Autoblasters
2x Rookie X-wings
(note that I don't own any advanced sensors, but they could easily be substituted in)
Four ships gives you flexibility, as well as added resilience. You're not too badly off if you lose one of the four, so its more forgiving. It requires a little bit more maneuvering, but then the occasional bad move will happen regardless. Losing the shooting of one ship when you have 3 more that can shoot, is better than losing shooting of one of your only 3 ships.
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Jim Goff
United States
Wisconsin
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Well, walked away with 3rd using this build:
Lando--Draw Their Fire, Gunner
Blue Squadron--Advanced sensors
Biggs
Thanks again, Jeff Wilder!
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