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Having just recently purchased HotR, I was wondering about the best ways to build T-70s that don't involve a Regen Poe. Like with the regular X-Wing, I'm under the impression that the unique pilots are where its at and the generics are to be avoided.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Jess Pava 28 points
-M9G8
-Integrated Astromech

Jess seems alright in four-ship builds where she can stick close to Biggs and another ship. M9G8 is for the low PS advantage in acquiring target locks and for giving action efficiency to friendly ships. 28 points does feel a little pricy though.

"Blue Ace" 31 points
-R2D6
-Lone Wolf
-Primed Thrusters
-Integrated Astromech

Boost is one of the best actions in the game, and Blue Ace can boost like no other. Lone Wolf gives re-rolls to both defense and attack so Blue Ace can boost constantly, and Primed Thrusters lets him pull crazy maneuvers like boosting after a K-Turn or T-Roll. 31 points seems alright for him.

"Snap" Wexley 33 points
-Expert Handling
-Targeting Astromech
-Primed Thrusters
-Integrated Astromech

What's better than boost? Boost+Barrel Roll, that's what! Targeting Astromech gives more action efficiency on the inevitable red maneuvers that Primed Thrusters will let Snap exploit.


Nien Numb 34 points
-Wired
-Targeting Astromech
-Pattern Analyzer
-Integrated Astromech

Nien Numb seems like a real standout pilot for the T-70. Targeting Astromech and Pattern Analyzers are no-brainers considering his ability. Not sure about the EPT, so I went with Wired as insurance for when his ability doesn't trigger. Veteran Instincts also seems like a good candidate.

"Red Ace" 38 points
-Comm Relay
-R2D2
-Autothrusters

Red Ace is built for survivability. Unfortunately, this build costs as much as Poe but has no EPT and an arguably worse pilot ability, not to mention lower PS.

Ello Asty 34 points
-Predator
-R2 Astromech
-Integrated Astromech

I was unsure about the EPT for Ello Asty. Outmaneuver would work well with the white T-Roll shenanigans, but I figured Predator would give better action efficiency. R2 Astromech helps to mitigate stress by giving more green maneuvers.

What do you all think of these builds? Any other suggestions as to T-70 X-Wing builds?

There are two viable options for the T-70, coincidentally the two with the strongest built-in action economy:

1) Regen Poe. The classic, it's good for a reason.

2) Jess Pava in a formation list, preferably with R3-A2. Having all those re-rolls makes her very efficient for a modest cost, and a consistent 3-hit attack with stress control is a serious offensive threat.

None of the other T-70s are good. They're way too expensive for a ship with only two green dice, and taking anything but a regen droid on a 30+ point ship is a huge mistake.

I'm not even sure Poe is that hot, with the threat of HSCP these days.

 Peregrine wrote:
There are two viable options for the T-70, coincidentally the two with the strongest built-in action economy:

1) Regen Poe. The classic, it's good for a reason.

2) Jess Pava in a formation list, preferably with R3-A2. Having all those re-rolls makes her very efficient for a modest cost, and a consistent 3-hit attack with stress control is a serious offensive threat.

None of the other T-70s are good. They're way too expensive for a ship with only two green dice, and taking anything but a regen droid on a 30+ point ship is a huge mistake.

Regen Poe is also 38-40 points at the cheapest, 43-45 points if you're using PS9 Poe and Predator. Doesn't the cost savings warrant considering other T-70 pilots? 33-34 points could mean the difference between fitting in another ship or important upgrades. And it isn't as if the other T-70 pilots can't have action efficiency with the right builds.

The reason support ships often aren't great in the game is because they often don't contribute enough to the output of the list to warrant their points cost in a standard dogfight list.

Why would a sub par ship of any other sort not be subject to the same issues?

A ship either warrants its investment or it doesn't, saving a few points so you can squeeze another ship in doesn't work if the points saved mean you have a ship that is dead weight.

It's not just the action economy, though, it's also the squish factor, and the ship doesn't have great greens either.

 TheNewBlood wrote:
Doesn't the cost savings warrant considering other T-70 pilots?

Not really. The cost savings might warrant considering things besides the T-70, but none of those other builds you're proposing are worth taking. They're a bit cheaper than Poe, but have nowhere near the action economy and with only two green dice (and no regen) they're way too easy to kill. The only reason to consider the cheaper option is if you're stubbornly committed to the idea of taking T-70s, which is a bad place to start designing a list from if you want to win.

And it isn't as if the other T-70 pilots can't have action efficiency with the right builds.

Only if you spend more points on upgrades. What makes Poe and Jess work is that you have built-in strong action economy from their pilot abilities, which you can add to with their other upgrades. With the other ships you're stuck spending extra points just to bring them up to the level of naked Poe/Jess.

stele open winner this year had a jess pava t-70 in it with two arcs

Other than Jess in a few focussed lists I just can't see any of the others, Red is o\ay but too many points, Snap can dance just not as well Procket Jake, and even Jess faces the to Biggs or Not to Biggs question

Try putting nien numb with stay on target. You can almost guarantee you'll be able to strip the stress from his ability, and you won't need to guess where your opponent will be. Plus it will trigger targeting astro, so that's good too.

Mathieu Raymond wrote:I'm not even sure Poe is that hot, with the threat of HSCP these days.

HSCP hard counters Poe, yes, but Poe is still amazing vs any other list.

Mr ghoti wrote:Try putting nien numb with stay on target. You can almost guarantee you'll be able to strip the stress from his ability, and you won't need to guess where your opponent will be. Plus it will trigger targeting astro, so that's good too.

Problem is, this build is hard countered by anything PS 8+, as now your opponent simply flies past you and out of arc.

I'd say Jess Pava with R2-d6, swarm leader and a pair of a-wings (and Biggs) is a pretty good build... admittedly, it's building a list around the one pilot, but it's still a good build

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:

Mr ghoti wrote:Try putting nien numb with stay on target. You can almost guarantee you'll be able to strip the stress from his ability, and you won't need to guess where your opponent will be. Plus it will trigger targeting astro, so that's good too.

Problem is, this build is hard countered by anything PS 8+, as now your opponent simply flies past you and out of arc.

And even when it's working it's still a ship with average firepower and poor defense, which means "just shoot it and it dies" is an easy solution. That's the problem with rebel aces, you either put regen droids on them or they tend to suck.

One build that's worked okay near us:

Red Ace - R2D2, Coms Relay, Integrated Astromech
Jess Pava - M9G8, Integrated Astromech
Nien Numb - Snap Shot, R3A2, Pattern Analyser, Integrated Astromech

Plus either Hyperwave Comms Relay (on Jess) or Black One (on Nien)

Jess and Red Ace are pretty good tanks and mutually give one another and effective 'predator' buff.

Jess can still work well paired with Nien - giving you a reroll on snapshots - or use the forced reroll defensively (trying to stop criticals triggering kylo ren, for example, plus rerolling attack dice matters more for stressed targets).

Nien is a half-decent hunter of stress-vulnerable aces. Paired with pattern analyser he can pull of some silly tricks - talon roll, boost to range 1, never receive the stress - and he can snapshot with R3a2 and never stress himself, making him a threat advanced protoypes and interceptors have to be careful of.

The last point to spend..... Hyperwave comm relay is the simpler one - starting red ace with his evade and letting jess deploy at a useful ps6. Black one is less directly useful because the target locks you most need to kill are omega leader and vader, but if you can burn off the lock and then snapshot them when they move, they cant reestablish it.

Except you can't reroll on Snapshot, I think. Does that count as modifying dice? I don't know anymore. What is up, what is down? Am I right, am I wrong? My God, what have I done?

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Except you can't reroll on Snapshot, I think. Does that count as modifying dice? I don't know anymore. What is up, what is down? Am I right, am I wrong? My God, what have I done?

Normally no, I think its something to do with M9-G8 providing the re-roll

Mathieu Raymond wrote:I'm not even sure Poe is that hot, with the threat of HSCP these days.

HSCP is also 4 points, it's a really good crew card, but it's not like you'll deal with it constantly, although YMMV, I have personally never seen above around my local meta fly it once.

TheNewBlood wrote:. Doesn't the cost savings warrant considering other T-70 pilots?

Then you take Jess, cheap, and very effective. If Jess and Poe weren't so good, you would never see T-70s, they're expensive ships that aren't spectacular.

 FakeBritishPerson wrote:

Mathieu Raymond wrote:I'm not even sure Poe is that hot, with the threat of HSCP these days.

HSCP is also 4 points, it's a really good crew card, but it's not like you'll deal with it constantly, although YMMV, I have personally never seen above around my local meta fly it once.

It's a consistency thing. Sure, Poe can wreck face when fighting anyone who did not bring HSCP, but is destroyed by anyone who did. So, if you roll up to a tournament with Poe, you are gambling on nor fighting HSCP in any of your games. Even facing it once can seriously hurt your standings in the tourney. Given that HSCP+Gunner is how big ships break through token stacking, these are not great odds. So, Poe "Isn't that good" when it comes to tournament play because he is very inconsistent.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Except you can't reroll on Snapshot, I think. Does that count as modifying dice? I don't know anymore. What is up, what is down? Am I right, am I wrong? My God, what have I done?

Normally no, I think its something to do with M9-G8 providing the re-roll

Correct. Its the same as palpatine being able to modify another ship's defence roll against omega leader. If jess locks nien, he gets a reroll on his snap shot.