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So, i've only been playing a week but i'm off to a store championship, I currently have for rebels:
aces, falcon, dash, 2 x wings and an E wing.

and empire:
aces, decimator, phantom, 3 ties and an extra interceptor.

I'm looking for a list thet will be easy to use and quite forgiving, my goal is not to come dead last.

to that vein, I was thinking of running:

Han Solo, Falcon title card, Chewie and Gunner
and 2 rookies, for a total of 98 points

OR

Dash Rendar, The Outrider Title, HLC, Kyle Katarn, Push the Limit, and Engine Upgrade
and 2 rookies for a total of 100 points

I've tried the falcon list and i've won against 3 ties, howlrunner and a tooled up echo, but lost to wedge, biggs and 2 red squadron, so the question is, which list to run? (or try something completely different), and whats the best way to fly em?


I do have the option to buy more stuff, but stocks are quite limited in my area right now (i've bought all the aces, and there are no other falcons or B wings)

thanks

Well, with MOV being such a huge factor, the 2 ship build is pretty hot right now.
Try this one...
Chewbacca, MF Title, Veteran Instincts, Gunner, Tactician.
Corran Horn, Engine Upgrade, PTL, Advanced Sensors, R2D2.
Chewie lasts awhile since crits don't get flipped, Title helps him evade an extra hit, Gunner for when your opponent green dice are hot, Tactician because giving out stress is fun.
Horn is a great escort. Nice and slippery. Engine to add boost, PTL for extra actions, Sensors lets you do the actions first, the do a green move to clear stress, with R2 recovering a shield.
Another option would be to drop R2D2 from Horn and upgrade Chewie to Han. Then he has initiative 11 (VI) so he can shoot any Phantoms before they can shoot/recloak.
Don't forget, Han's reroll works with Gunner too. So you in effect have 4 chances to get a good round of shooting in.

The main problem with YT-1300 lists is that you really need C-3P0 to make them durable enough. With C-3P0 you're effectively adding 5/8 of a HP every turn and if you can get into an endgame situation with your big ship alive the damage reduction can make it literally impossible to kill (and very difficult with only 1-2 ships left). That's what allows you to get away with spending 50+ points on a single 3-dice gun that will never have focus or TL (since you're taking an evade every turn with the title card). You're conceding that you'll have low damage output and playing a long game where you live long enough to out-damage the glass cannon ships that would have died several turns earlier. Without C-3P0 you can't do that as easily, you need to kill things before your ship dies but you still have the same weak gun.

So, unless you're willing to buy a CR-90 for 1-2 cards you're probably better off with a HLC YT-2400 list. Dash stays alive through maneuverability and not getting shot at all instead of defensive upgrades and tanking. And the HLC with focus + TL is a big firepower increase, especially in a metagame with lots of low-agility ships that make gunner a waste. The only real downside to Dash lists is that they can demand a lot of player skill. You don't have the raw firepower and defense to joust if your maneuvering fails, and you have to be very careful to keep your target out of the donut hole. I'd use different escorts though, the rookies are vulnerable to getting focused on while Dash is running away and have no hope of winning an endgame situation against Whisper or other maneuvering-focused ships. The natural replacement is Corran, who is very popular for good reasons. His double tap ability makes your shots count when you get a good opportunity, and with R2-D2 you give your opponent a difficult choice between chasing Corran while Dash gets free HLC shots or focusing on Dash and letting Corran fly off to get all of his shields back. I like this list:

Dash with veteran instincts, HLC + title, recon specialist

Corran with fire control, push the limit, R2-D2, engine upgrade

Giving Dash PS 9 solves a lot of his problems with the donut hole by moving (and barrel rolling) after most ships have moved, forces Whisper to choose between moving first or taking HLC shots with no cloak, and opens up his full dial instead of limiting you to greens and forcing you to spend actions on maneuvering to make up for it. Meanwhile Corran covers your donut hole and is your best endgame ship, with engine upgrade allowing him to make 90* turns while still doing a green maneuver. And FCS makes your double tap hurt. Your Dash list is Dash with support, this one is Corran with Dash to deal with PS 9+ arc dodgers. It's a lot of fun, but it does make the skill problem of Dash lists in general even worse by adding a 5-HP ship that can die very quickly and cost you the game if you screw up.

Tactician because giving out stress is fun.

Tactician is terrible on turret ships because you're usually pointing away from your target and forcing them to chase you while you dodge their arc. It's not worth wasting a crew slot and points on an ability that might happen once per game if you're lucky.

Update, i've managed to pick up a tie advanced, an a wing and 2 b wings, dont know if that modifys anyones suggestions as it increases my card pool

Try for a Shuttle next, having Vader crew, and the Rebel Captive can open up some great list options for Imperial.

 Sirius42 wrote:
Update, i've managed to pick up a tie advanced, an a wing and 2 b wings, dont know if that modifys anyones suggestions as it increases my card pool

Not really. The TIE advanced sucks and should never go in a competitive list (at least until the new cards for it arrive), the a-wing expansion only adds Tycho (a decent but not amazing pilot), and the b-wing expansion adds no new (tournament-relevant) cards that you didn't already own. I guess you might get some multiple a/b-wing lists out of it, but IMO those don't pair well with the big turret ships.

I have an imperial list I like, just havn't had a chance to run it and its quite complicated to fly as far as I can tell. Imperial list is Soontir Fel, PTL, hull upgrade, Turr Phenir, royal guard tie with PTL and backstabber.

The advanced is for a list I have planned once they fix them, Vader, Fel and Echo or Whisper.

The B wings were for an alternate idea where I don't run big ships, or doing the falcon list with 2 blue squadrons instead of the 2 rookies.

Also how do folks feel about a tooled up farlander instead of a tooled Horn?

I won store Champs with Tooled Dash with Tala and Dagger.

 Sirius42 wrote:
Also how do folks feel about a tooled up farlander instead of a tooled Horn?

Not very good. Farlander's ability is awesome, but he suffers from a major problem: a b-wing is a ticking clock. It has lots of HP, but poor agility and no way to regain lost HP. Every shot aimed at a b-wing brings it a bit closer to death, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So a 40+ point Farlander will be awesome while he lives, but it's tough to get enough turns out of him to justify the high point cost. Corran works because the combination of high agility, stacking evade + defensive focus, and HP regeneration from R2-D2 keeps him on the table for a long time. I've had games where Corran takes 10+ damage and ends the game at full HP, while easily doing enough damage to justify 50 points.

Now, a fully-loaded Farlander can certainly be fun in a less-competitive environment so feel free to use him and pretend you're back in the good old days of the X-Wing PC game. But for competitive tournaments it's not even close, Corran is the only option.

So in the end I ran 2 b wings, and Han with gunner, VI and engine upgrade, did alright, won 2 outright, slight loss on one and outright lost 2, the lists I really lost to were a phantom, decimator list and a dash/lando list. A few things I picked up,

1) don't get caught in a traffic jam
2) B wings, while great, suck once you stress them
3) green dice suck.
Looking back, against the deci/phantom and the one I minor lost to, I can see where I went wrong, and learn from it, and how to beat it in future.

Unfortunately, I just can't even begin to fathom how i'd handle the Lando/Dash list with what i'd brought.