HWK-290s

I had said I was going to move on to Intel, and today is that day.  Having just played in the Milwaukee Regionals, my mind is still feverishly thinking Armada (I can quit ANY TIME, haha!)

So let's talk Intel and support squadrons.

Jan Ors actually has a ship, you know.  She's not just a floating person in space.  Some people even actually USE these!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of the updated RRG from 12/1/20, Intel is defined as such:

With convenient Grit definition as well!

Intel is without a doubt the most important squadron component added in Wave II.  Hitching up my old man pants, waaaaaaaay back in Wave I, "no one" ran squadrons (i did, not as successfully as I do now, and the Worlds winner did too) because one TIE fighter or A-wing could get in there and lock down a mess of Y wings or X wings.  There was very little reason to invest 134 points into squadrons when 55 points of A-wings (one to throw in each turn, from 2-6), thrown individually at the blob of 134 turn by turn could lock it down and prevent them from doing anything.  Yes, you probably lost all 55 points, but by preventing that 134 point squadron blob from doing anything, it was basically a win.

So when the Rogues and Villains showed up, the HWKs and Jan were the most important "Villains."  (It's a long running joke in our meta.  Because the Firesprays/Boba Fett, IG/Aggressors, and YV-666s/Bossk all got Rogue (6 total), while only Han, Dash, and the YT2400s (3) got Rogue on the Rebel side..... to quote Aaron Burr from Hamilton "Now I'm the Villain in your history....")

Shots he's not throwing away: those at enemy commander ships, or those at Captain Jonus

So Intel gives out Grit, allowing your squadrons to leave.  All squadrons are at distance 1 of themself, so it can Grit away as needed.  It ALSO means that your Bombers (those Y-wings and B wings we had been talking about before!) can just speed right on their merry way towards hitting the enemy ships, and your fighters can hit their squadrons. One Intel squadron can allow your important bombers to not be held up by a near dead opponent, and games often can hinge on one turn or not of bombing.

I will go on record right now and state that should you be bringing a Rebel heavy squadron blob of any type and if you're not bringing some type of Intel, you likely should think about why you're doing such a thing.  Without Intel, you are entirely at the mercy of the enemy throwing squadrons at you in the arrangement they want and you being able to kill them early enough that your OTHER squadrons can then move and attack the ships you want them to.

Changing topics a bit, the 2 blue dice against squadrons are competent (but not great), and the Counter 2 attempts to make it so there's less of a reason to attack the Intel squadron.  Having played against it and used, though, the minute the Intel goes down, the squadron blob hits SIGNIFICANT problems. So how do you keep the Intel alive?  Escort squadrons.  We talk about squadron group composition in this series of posts, now that we've hit Intel.  You're really paying for the Intel ability, though, and the 2 blue dice are just icing on the Heavy cake.  Mmmm, heavy cake....

How does she cost 1 point LESS than Dengar but does so much more?

When we talk aces, Jan Ors is the one I've most often seen across the entire Rebel spectrum. Sometimes she might even be the only Rebel Ace in your squadron blob, and that can be enough (to continue my Hamilton jokes....)  Her ability to let anyone within 2 of her use her Brace tokens is AMAZING.  X-wings near her live significantly longer just through her ability, especially because any Accuracy results rolled against the X-wings dont prevent her from using her ability.  Her 3 blue dice can put a good dent in enemy squadrons.  With her and Rieekan, her ability lets her stick around until the end of the turn she dies on, so she can still help for a little while longer.  

Realistically, you should NOT take the basic HWK and should find the 7 points to just use Jan instead.  Sorry, basic guy.  Jan keeps your squadrons alive and gives out Grit, regular guy doesn't.  In a world where a maximum of 4 of your squadrons can have defense tokens, why not make sure 1 of them can share with the rest of the class?

He's all that.  I'm VERY proud of that joke.

Kanan, debuting in Rebellion in the Rim, is my favorite card in the box.  Straight up, no lie, most fun.  Giving me/the Rebels good Raid abilities is ACTUALLY fun and thematic and good.  I've hit ISDs before and gotten them mostly dead in one turn, but that's also slightly alive.  The worst thing is when that ISD either does a leave and navigates away, forcing me to chase it, or engineers and repairs away a bunch of that damage I wanted still on there.  Kanan basically says "No" to that plan.  With his ability and dice complement, I can almost guarantee you a minimum of 1 Raid token a turn (don't roll 2 accuracies).  Sometimes you luck into 2 of them with a Hit and a Crit (the Jyn Erso special!) and sometimes you just use one as Raid and the other as pure damage.  Sometimes you just need 2 damage.  In any case, he's shutting down one ship's ability to do a command or dial+token it every turn.  He's REAL fun against Thrawn, that's for sure.

Add in Cloak and Rogue and he can keep hopping on the station to heal up (twice a turn if he wants!).  He's squishy, but able to sneak out.  And he's REALLY FLIPPING ANNOYING.  If you ignore him, I'm just going to keep raiding that ship of yours and preventing you from using it fully (that Arquittens doesn't want to Nav or Concentrate Fire, right? Like, ever?).  If you try to kill him, you're likely going to need to invest way more than 19 points to do it, and I'm going to Cloak out as much as I can.  Raid is good, finally.  Combine him with Rex and go to town.

Try not to have him squadron fight, as he's not great at it, and he'd rather be Raiding ships.  Bring other friends who can fight for them to fight in his stead.

How to Use The HWKs/Jan
I've basically covered it above, but bring Jan Ors and let your squads escape and live with her brace tokens.  Don't bring the HWK anymore, its time is effectively done.