Triple Threat T-70s. I'm waffling. Gah!

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**Mathieu Raymond**

Ello Asty (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
R2-D2 (4)
Integrated Astromech (0)

"Blue Ace" (27)
BB-8 (2)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Poe Dameron (31)
Veteran Instincts (1)
R5-P9 (3)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My biggest beef is that I can't put Autothrusters on any of them. And I feel that I ought to be able to. I know Blue Ace's placement is good, but his timing due to his low PS is way off, so I was considering using him as a generics hunter.

If I let go of either Ello or Poe (I kinda like Ello Asty a lot, honestly), then I can replace them with a Red Squad Vet with the same astromech (or shuffle them) and have enough points for Autothrusters on everybody. I'm trying to get ready for the prevailing meta (which is sorely absent from my gaming environment, as I said previously, I only ever face small base Imperial ships. Rare range 3 shots, and never any turrets)

**jokerkd**

Ive been running those to aces (with the astros swapped) and a blue squad novice with varying success.
The blue noob with targeting astro and IA
Poe with r2d2, VI and AT
Ello with r5p9, VI and AT

Poe cant k-turn and regen in the same turn anyway, so r5p9 fits with ello who can k-turn, focus, regen, every turn

**Mathieu Raymond**

I personally feel that r5-p9 works well with Poe's ability. Although it does make his action a bit more predictable but he's free with his moves.

The noob is nice because you're not wasting an ept slot if you're tight on points.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Btw... how do you k-turn an focus on the same turn?

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Btw... how do you k-turn an focus on the same turn?

He probably meant T-rolls.

**jokerkd**

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Btw... how do you k-turn an focus on the same turn?
He probably meant T-rolls.

Yeah sorry. This

**locarno24**

Looks good aside from Ello. R2-D2 is nice, but ties you to green moves when regenerating shields - if someone's on Ello's case, the best thing to do is pull one of your lovely white tallon rolls, followed by a boost as required.

If you want to help with placement control, consider some flechette torpedoes in there; the ability to stress fighters with a shot - even if it misses - is very useful when you've got two fighters as manoeuvrable as Blue Ace and Asty; they can't use their talents reactively due to pilot skill, but if you can get the hang of outflying someone predictively, they can easily get wherever you want them to be.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

locarno24 wrote:
Looks good aside from Ello. R2-D2 is nice, but ties you to green moves when regenerating shields - if someone's on Ello's case, the best thing to do is pull one of your lovely white tallon rolls, followed by a boost as required.

If you want to help with placement control, consider some flechette torpedoes in there; the ability to stress fighters with a shot - even if it misses - is very useful when you've got two fighters as manoeuvrable as Blue Ace and Asty; they can't use their talents reactively due to pilot skill, but if you can get the hang of outflying someone predictively, they can easily get wherever you want them to be.

Sorry, but that's a terrible advice. The shield regeneration with R2-D2 is so much better than the potential to deal a stress once.

**Peregrine**

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Sorry, but that's a terrible advice. The shield regeneration with R2-D2 is so much better than the potential to deal a stress once.

This. There's an argument for putting R5-P9 on Ello and R2-D2 on Poe, but if you're not putting regen droids on any ace that can take one you're almost certainly making a mistake.

**Mathieu Raymond**

That still leaves me with too many points, though.

What if I only give a generic R2 and Autothrusters to Blue Ace, but the other two get Integrated Astromech in yet another bid to stave off damage? Does Blue Ace benefit more from BB-8 in final placement, or just a wider range of green maneuvers?

**jokerkd**

I would just play test your original list.
If you really want autothrusters, you'll need to drop blue ace to blue noob, but i wouldn't

It sounds like, in your local meta, IA is going to be just as effective as AT anyway

**Mathieu Raymond**

It is. Much more. But I'm trying to get ready for bigger things. If my friend's girlfriend covers for me at work this one saturday, then I might be able to attend a Store Champ in March.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Looks like I am ramping up my schedule to prepare for the tournament, after all. I'll be training my buddy's girlfriend to cover for me at work, and we'll be playing two games a week to really hammer out the kinks in our lists.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Played two games back to back with the list up top (I only used a generic R2 on Blue Ace to save 1 more point).

The list is solid, if you fly well. It can weather a few turns of abysmal dice rolling, and still come out on top.

First game I flew Blue Ace right into Fel and Phennir, which cost me my astromech, and then the ship the following turn. I was still able to patiently whittle each ship one at a time as opportunities arose. (He played triple aces, Fel/Phennir/Vader).

Second game, I was a bit more conservative with Blue Ace, and although some shields were lost, the regen on my ships meant I was always going to be alright.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Say... what would you guys think of replacing the generic R2 with r2-d6 and giving Blue Ace crack shot, to stick one on a slippery enemy/bump off a stealth device?

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Say... what would you guys think of replacing the generic R2 with r2-d6 and giving Blue Ace crack shot, to stick one on a slippery enemy/bump off a stealth device?

I'd say do it.

Crack Shot is one of those cards that doesn't seem awesome... until you used to push that extra damage card through at a critical time in the game.

**Mathieu Raymond**

I got destroyed by constant turns of bad rolling. By an Oicunn/Vessery combo, no less. Crack shot would have been awesome.

**Peregrine**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Say... what would you guys think of replacing the generic R2 with r2-d6 and giving Blue Ace crack shot, to stick one on a slippery enemy/bump off a stealth device?

It's not a bad idea. Crack shot is really good. A guaranteed extra point of damage (assuming you live long enough to use it) is easily worth two points. It's probably better than the generic R2 since your only source of stress is k-turns.

**Mathieu Raymond**

And those deliciois tallon rolls. Other opponents of mine have been coaxed into training me to fight a bit of everything.

My wife has designed us a "team t-shirt". This is happening.

**locarno24**

And those deliciois tallon rolls.

Agreed. Tallons are amazing - especially with Ello.
Crack Shot isn't bad at all. I've been having a play around recently with the one-use cards - lighting reflexes, crack shot and adrenaline rush, and I've been surprised how nasty they can be.

When you think about it; a lot of games only really have half a dozen turns or so before it's more or less a forgone conclusion; an awesome one-use ability is arguably much more sensible than a persistant effect, especially for cheaper pilots.

Plus, crack shot is even more effective with a preponderance of stealth device-equipped squints. Blue Ace is surprisingly good at getting shots at higher PS pilots - he's just bad at getting good shots, because he'll have to boost to do it.

Crack shot helps make damage stick, especially if Ello and/or Poe have burned away tokens first.

Alternatively, R3-A2 might work - a hard turn lets you get a shot, and R3-A2 doesn't require you to actually hit to stress your target. It's not as good as a Y-wing, because you can't rack up multiple stress, but once a target gets out of a stresshog's arc the first time it almost never picks it up again because it has a stack of stress tokens the height of the flying stand and it turns like a cow.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Crack shot accounted for Howlrunner in both games I played tonight. You really have to use it as fast as you can, and then your astromech is just an extra shield. Which saved my better pilots an extra turn of fire in both games.

**Peregrine**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Crack shot accounted for Howlrunner in both games I played tonight. You really have to use it as fast as you can, and then your astromech is just an extra shield. Which saved my better pilots an extra turn of fire in both games.

Actually your astromech is an extra shield as soon as the ink is dry on your list. You don't lose your equipped EPT when you discard R2-D6 to integrated astromech.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Yes. I came across in English differently than in my head. Occasional slip up. I meant "Use it fast, or lose your ship with a 1 pt EPT on it," essentially. Because although it takes 7 damage to remove one of my ships from the game, it's amazing what 5 ships against will cover in terms of arcs. At least on the first pass.

**Nalydyn**

I like BB8 on Ello, it makes him really maneuverable he just darts all over the freakin place.

If you want a 3-T-70 list there's only one of a few options, I would go with this

BLue Novice+AT

Red Ace+Comm Relay+AT+R2D2

Poe Dameron+R5-P9+AT

It's an unfortunately expensive ship, so you're losing out on an EPT for Poe, but you have 2 AMAZING late game aces, and a pretty decent arc dodger/jouster with the Blue novice. Autothrusters are just so good, that I feel like taking a t70 without them is just a huge mistake.

**Mathieu Raymond**

I don't see your 2 late game aces? I see Poe, but a PS6 Red Ace is severely undercut by a lot of better PS Tie Fighters, let alone most worthwhile Tie Advs, squints and phantoms.

I found that moving and shooting before others (of course, with careful positioning) is more worthwhile than having an extra evade. YMMV, of course. But Ello gives me a PS9 ace with great position options. Less green dice, totally. But he still regens shields.

**Nalydyn**

Ya the extra mobility of Ello is nothing to sneeze at either. I just meant there's 2 ships that can regen, and Red Ace really is QUITE hard to kill man. I usually bait out missiles and stuff on him, then run him away if he's still alive. If you have a Jan Ors somewhere in your build the opponent has to eat through 2 evades every turn on him, I really don't fear TIEs at all with Red Ace. Interceptors a little more so, but they usually get blown up, I gun for them first thing. The only TIEs I've had problems with are Vader, Soontir, Omega Leader, and Carnor Jax. When you have multiple regen ships, it's all about keeping them both alive. Go in, do some damage, take a few shields, fly away and regen, rinse, repeat.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Err... you can't have more than a single evade when you have a Comms Relay. And if you don't, you're banking on being shot at twice in a single turn. I don't like those odds.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Ok, so after a really bad game where nothing went right, the giant furball in the middle left my ships actionless for too long, I'm thinking I have to either a)find the biggest elastic band ever to remind myself to fly around enemy formations (snap your wrist with it... it's an OCD thing I think) or b)switch my list to something that can decimate swarms a bit better.

I was thinking of this, with which I've had a measure of success:

Ello Asty (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
R5-P9 (3)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It's more of a point and click solution. There are few redundancies built in, I have to make sure I can get target locks with the Bs, and focus while flying on edges with Ello to gently double tap fragilized targets.

**Imaginos**

What about something like this? If you can get Ello outside of any enemy arc, you're rolling 5 dice at range 1. With recoverable shields.

100 points

Blue Squadron Novice (29) x 2
T-70 X-Wing (24), Targeting Astromech (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Ello Asty (42)
T-70 X-Wing (30), R2-D2 (4), Expose (4), Shield Upgrade (4)

**Mathieu Raymond**

He's too fragile at PS7. Way too many people move after him.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Tried Poe with R2-D2 and Ello with R5-P9. It frees Ello to do his favourite maneuver and still regen, while it keeps me reasonable with Poe's movements, which was my main problem. I kept bumping and bumping, because I'd never clear the field of the furball. Now, even if I don't, I still get a shield back.