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Was messing around with some various lists and came up with this combo for an upcoming tournament. What do you think?

A wing (34pts)
-Tycho celchu
-a wing test pilot
-wired
-push the limit
-shield upgrade

E wing (38pts)
-Etahn A'baht
-lightening reflexes
-r2 astromech
-shield upgrade

Z95 headhunter (26pts)
-Lt. Blount
-marksmanship
-ion pulse missile
-hull upgrade

Comes to 98pts so I have a decent initiative bid. Any comments and critiques are welcome

Frost wrote:
Comes to 98pts so I have a decent initiative bid. Any comments and critiques are welcome

It's 96 points because you should have Chardaan Refit on Tycho since you have no missile equipped. Also, initiative doesn't really matter when your pilots are PS 8, 6, and 5; true aces will always move after you and generic swarms will always move before you.

All together though, this list is not strong at all (in a competitive setting at least). Drop Blount altogether and use those points for better and more useful stuff for the other ships. On Tycho, drop Shield Upgrade and give him Autothrusters and Chardaan Refit. That will save you enough points to bump Ethan up to Corran and give him better upgrades. This won't set the world on fire, but it's a lot more threatening:

Tycho Celchu (26)
Wired (1)
Chardaan Refit (-2)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)
A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Corran Horn (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
R2-D2 (4)
Shield Upgrade (4)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R2 Astromech (1)
BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder


You could also drop the Y-wing and make Corran even nastier and fill in the remaining points with an X-wing:
Tycho Celchu (26)
Wired (1)
Chardaan Refit (-2)
Push the Limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)
A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Corran Horn (35)
Push the Limit (3)
Fire-Control System (2)
R2-D2 (4)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Rookie Pilot (21)
R2 Astromech (1)

Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder

thoughts:

Broadly, you can peel off quite a few upgrades with no real loss of capability, which can allow you to upgrade pilots or even add in an extra ship...

A wing (34pts)
-Tycho celchu
-a wing test pilot
-wired
-push the limit
-shield upgrade

Push The Limit and Wired are a good pairing.

I would probably drop the Shield Upgrade to Autothrusters, though - you only need autothrusters to stop you getting hit once in a game for it to do just as much as the shield upgrade, and it's 2 points cheaper, and - potentially - better.

If not taking missiles, Chaardan Refit has no downside and a -2 point cost. Take it.

E wing (38pts)
-Etahn A'baht
-lightening reflexes
-r2 astromech
-shield upgrade

Lightning reflexes is okay - especially paired with the R2 astromech to get rid of the stress. Since you only need to lay Etahn's arc on target, it's a cool combination.

However, Etahn himself isn't great. He's a good pilot, but works supporting either a swarm or an epic list - the more shots, the more hit-to-crit changes. Putting him in a 2-3 ship list he may not pull his weight as his pilot skill is so-so for such an expensive fighter.

The shield upgrade is okay here. You're never going to make an E-wing an evasion machine without going full-on at it (R7 astromech, sensor jammer) but they're agile enough and tough enough to make good use of a shield upgrage, and Etahn's pilot skill isn't high enough to make real use of an engine upgrade.

Z95 headhunter (26pts)
-Lt. Blount
-marksmanship
-ion pulse missile
-hull upgrade

Um.
Blount with a specialist "if this attack hits" missile (assault, advanced homing, ion pulse, XX-23 s-thread) is a good call, but since he doesn't need to roll to hit......why marksmanship? He's probably shooting at Etahn's target anyway, so he doesn't need it once he's fired his missile either. Veteran Instincts will help get that missile launched earlier in the turn.



A wing (30pts)
-Tycho celchu
-a wing test pilot
-wired
-push the limit
-autothrusters
-chaardan refit

E wing (38pts)
-Etahn A'baht
-lightening reflexes
-r2 astromech
-shield upgrade

Z95 headhunter (24pts)
-Lt. Blount
-veteran instincts
-ion pulse missile
-hull upgrade


Saves you 6 points - enough to (for example) put any sensor system you like on Etahn.

Sweet, thank you for the quick responses! I totally forgot about the refit to drop 2 points.
@locarno24 I had marksmanship on Blount for after he has dumped the missile but I see your point about using veteran instincts.
@scootypuffjunior that's a good point, looking through other pilots that's people are likely to play the PS is right smack in the middle so I might as well use those points. Would you say that the title is worth it on an ion y-wing? Just seems like I'd be making my job harder by limiting my arc of fire with it.
It sounds like I had better get myself a star viper quick haha! I just thought the sure thing of having an extra shield would be nice to fall back on to. If possible I'd like to keep my pilots that I've already listed. I know that there are better combos out there but these 3 together seem like a fun one for me to try, that I could atleast do decent with some tweaking.

Thank you both for your comments and improvements, I really appreciate them

I use Jake Farrel with AWing test pilot, push the limit, wired, shield upgrade and proton rocket. Get a free boost or barrel roll when focus and then target lock or evade, so worth it. The the bonus of stress with wired and then do green maneuvers and repeat works for me every time

IMO VI >>>>> wired. PS 7 gets you killed. PS 9 beats PTL Corran and ties you with Vader/Whisper/Fel. And getting to move second and avoid fire entirely is way better than being able to re-roll dice.

Also, if you really want to use Etahn: PTL, FCS, R2-D2, engine upgrade. It's a less-effective version of Corran because of the lower PS, but you get the ridiculous combination of green dice, focus + evade stacks, and R2-D2 to repair any damage you take. And honestly, dump the 2-dice ships if you're going to take Etahn. You need red dice to get those crits through and maximize the damage you get from Etahn's ability, so bring some b-wings. Something like this would be good:

Etahn - 45
PTL
FCS
R2-D2
EU

Blue b-wing - 27
FCS
Tactician

Blue b-wing - 27
FCS
Tactician

That's stress for maneuver control, plenty of damage, and a tanky end-game ship to finish off whatever is left when the b-wings go down.

 Peregrine wrote:
IMO VI >>>>> wired. PS 7 gets you killed. PS 9 beats PTL Corran and ties you with Vader/Whisper/Fel.

That's a good point, but Tycho is PS 8 which is respectable. Of course, PS 10 is even better but I guess it would depend on the OP's local meta.

Still, it's hard to say no to Veteran Instincts over Wired.

With regards to jake farrel I feel a bit confused from the text. It says "After you perform a focus action or are assigned a focus token, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action". Does that mean I could put PTL on him and boost, focus, barrel roll. And then in combat use the focus token on my dice and boost again? Or am I interpreting it wrong? If I'm already middle of the pack in terms of PS then is it really worth it to have VI set on a guy? I've never played with PS 9 guys before or ran an elite pilot list and the local guys at my store don't seem to play lists of that flavour. But I haven't been in the game long so I freely admit that this could all just be from ignorance (having not seen a powerhouse elite list in action before)

You may not perform the same action twice in any given turn. Equally, spending a focus token is not a focus action, a focus action is very specifically spending an action to assign a focus token to the ship.

However, you could boost, PTL to Focus, and use the Focus action and barrel roll, but once the stress from PTL is assigned (which won't be until after the free barrel roll as its a nested action) you won't be able to take further actions until the stress is removed, as a stress token stops you taking all actions, free or otherwise.

Alternatively, you could just use his regular action to focus, use the free action to boost or barrel roll and if later in the turn he were to be assigned another Focus token from another effect, he would be eligible to perform whichever of the two actions he hadn't previously executed (and PTL as a reaction to that action if so desired.)

Frost wrote:
With regards to jake farrel I feel a bit confused from the text. It says "After you perform a focus action or are assigned a focus token, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action". Does that mean I could put PTL on him and boost, focus, barrel roll. And then in combat use the focus token on my dice and boost again? Or am I interpreting it wrong?

You're very much interpreting it wrong. 'Performing a focus action' is not the same as using a focus token to modify your dice results, meaning using your focus token during combat doesn't trigger his ability. Yes, you could put Push the Limit on him and use that free action to trigger his pilot ability, but you can only perform each action once per turn. He does allow for some interesting combos though. If you have Kyle Katarn in in your squad, you can have Jake complete his maneuver, take a focus action and trigger his pilot ability to perform a boost or barrel roll. At the start of combat, Kyle can assign a focus toke to Jake, allowing him to trigger his pilot ability again and perform a boost or barrel roll action (whichever you had not previously performed). If you have Push the Limit on Jake, you can use that action to trigger PtL and take an evade or target lock and then receive a stress token. In all, you'll be able to perform four actions and end up with two focus tokes and an evade token.

You can pull similar shenanigans with Airen Cracken in your squad a well.

If I'm already middle of the pack in terms of PS then is it really worth it to have VI set on a guy? I've never played with PS 9 guys before or ran an elite pilot list and the local guys at my store don't seem to play lists of that flavour. But I haven't been in the game long so I freely admit that this could all just be from ignorance (having not seen a powerhouse elite list in action before)

PS 9+ is nice to have and both Tycho and Jake do well with Veteran Instincts equipped on them, especially since the title allows two Elite upgrades and VI is only one point.