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Hi guys!

Just looking for some advice on my current list build. I've decided to go with the following two ships:

X-Wing (32pts)
Biggs Darklighter
Shield Upgrade
R2-F2

Z-95 (25pts)
Airen Cracken
Cluster Missiles
Veteran Instincts
Munitions Failsafe

Now, the question is where to go from here. I had a chance to test these two ships out (along with a couple of other generic pilots) and decided that the biggest issue with them was that I had no way of doing K-turns without losing my incredibly important actions. I also found that while I kept the X-Wing and Z-95 close together I needed to use the other ships to counter any enemy ships trying to flank me, which moved those ships out of range 1. Once they were on their own they got decimated pretty quickly, so I was thinking that a good answer to this problem would be a B-Wing. The 2K-turn of the B-Wing coupled with Advanced Sensors would be a great addition to Biggs and Airen, while a shield upgrade and its combined value 8 shield and hull value makes it perfect for chasing down flanking ships.

So, for my B-wing I chose the following setup:

B-Wing (42 pts)
Neira Dantels
Marksmanship
Shield Upgrade
Advanced Sensors
Flechette Torpedoes x2
Ion Cannon

With this build I'd be at 99 pts total, but I was wondering if it really is such a good idea to spend nearly half of all my points on one ship. So, this is an alternate setup:

B-Wing (30 pts)
Dagger Squadron Pilot
Advanced Sensors
Hull Upgrade

This setup leaves me with 13 points. I can rack up an additional 5 points for a total of 18 points by dropping the Cluster Missiles and Munitions Failsafe from Cracken's setup. What do you think? Should I go for the Neira Dantels setup or the Dagger Squadron Pilot setup? If the latter, how should I spend the extra 13-18 points? (I could do a Gold Squadron Pilot in a Y-Wing for 18 points, with its combined hull\shield value of 8 it seems like a decent ship to use for hunting.)

Try both lists, then use the cheaper bwing, dropping the cluster missiles. Take a Z-95, taking a named pilot

 BigRedStandingBy wrote:
Try both lists, then use the cheaper bwing, dropping the cluster missiles. Take a Z-95, taking a named pilot

But the only other named Z-95 pilot is Lt Blount at 17 pts, which is not enough to add a secondary weapon that can make use of his skill?

That 42-point b-wing has way too many upgrades. Marksmanship is irrelevant, the shield upgrade is way too expensive on a 1-agility ship, and you'll probably never get to use the ion cannon since the b-wing is the obvious priority target and you're probably firing the torps first (and if you aren't take a generic with the ion cannon instead). Same with Biggs, you've spent 7 points on marginal defensive upgrades. The shield upgrade is still only a single HP, and the droid is often no better than just taking a focus action. Before buying upgrades you need a very clear idea of what they're doing, and how they're better than bringing another ship or replacing z-95s with "real" ships.

Now that the upgrade problem is dealt with you've still got a problem with a lack of focus in your strategy. You've invested half your points in Biggs, but that only makes sense if you're protecting a glass cannon like Wedge. In a list where Biggs is your biggest offensive threat he's just a PS 5 x-wing since your opponent is happy to shoot at him first. And you've got the Cracken + cluster missiles combo, but no real alpha strike to boost with it.

So, here's a better plan that keeps the theme of Biggs + b-wing ace:

Biggs

Nera Dantels + predator + advanced sensors + 2x proton torps

Blount + assault missile

Tala

The b-wing is your big gun with a 360* "turret" that consistently gets four hits (and frequently crits) and is still an advanced sensor + predator b-wing once the torps are gone, and by scaling down Biggs a bit you can bring an effective swarm counter (one of the biggest issues for an elite list) and include a 4th ship as a meatshield. Blount forces your opponent to spread out, making it harder to put focused fire on Biggs and making it a lot more likely that your knife fighter is successfully delivered into knife fighting range before the Biggs shield is gone. Alternatively, you could go all-in on the b-wings + Biggs strategy and take Farlander + advanced sensors + predator/stay on target/veteran instincts instead of the z-95s, but IMO that leaves you too vulnerable to lists that outnumber you.

 Peregrine wrote:
That 42-point b-wing has way too many upgrades.

Agreed, I dropped Nera Dantels altogether in favor of a generic B-Wing and a generic Y-Wing.

 Peregrine wrote:

Now that the upgrade problem is dealt with you've still got a problem with a lack of focus in your strategy. You've invested half your points in Biggs, but that only makes sense if you're protecting a glass cannon like Wedge.

The idea is to use Biggs as the shield. R2-F2 allows me to raise his agility value by one, the Shield Upgrade adds another shield. Both upgrades are there to make him harder to kill.
I picked Airen for his ability. First I gave him Veteran Instinct to give him a pilot skill of 10 to ensure that he will always attack very early\first. Then I'd use his ability to add an evade token or another green die to Biggs. (The cluster missiles were added to give Airen a little extra firepower, but I've dropped those and the Munitions Failsafe upgrade to spend the points elsewhere.)
I tried out this combo in a couple of games, my opponents were all very frustrated by the fact that they had to target Biggs which was initially impossible to kill.

Now, I say "initially" because I did wind up losing. The combo Biggs\Airen worked well, but it fell apart because I chose very bad supporting ships. I added Lt Blount with Ion Pulse Missiles and Munitions Failsafe, and, if I remember correctly, a generic A-Wing. Biggs\Airen need to remain within range 1 of each other, and that wasn't hard to do at all. But that meant that Lt. Blount and the A-Wing were left with countering flanking ships. If course, with both of them having hull\shield values at 2\2, they were killed fairly quickly when they were no longer in range 1 of Biggs.

The Biggs\Airen combo worked fine until Lt. Blount and the A-Wing were destroyed, and my opponents could start focusing all their firepower on Biggs.

So, my conclusion from my games is that the Biggs\Airen is a combo that works very well if they have good supporting ships that can take care of any flanking enemy ships. So I dropped Lt. Blount and the A-Wing and added a B-Wing Dagger Squadron Pilot with Hull Upgrade and Advanced Sensors, and a Y-Wing Gold Squadron Pilot. I picked those because they have a combined shield\hull value of 8 (Y-Wing)\9 (B-Wing), which should make them pretty hard to kill. To me they seem like excellent choices for counter-flanking\harassment ships.

I recognize that my biggest problem with this strategy is a lack of real firepower, but as a new player I think this seems like a decent place to start. I mean, it's not like I'll stop buying ships after I've picked these up. Anyway, what do you think?

By the way, what do you mean "spent half my points on Biggs"? As it stands I've put 32 points into his setup.