"Stay on target..." - The Y Wing Starfighter

To pair with our initial X-wing and TIE posts, I thought I'd throw out the Y Wing post.  The cheapest original squadron on the Rebel side, it had a relatively easy approach.

The best Clone Wars tech 10 points can buy!

A lot of people look at the Y wing as Baby's First Squadron, and people just use them as a stepping stone to "better" (B-Wing) squadrons.  But these aren't just regular Luigi to the X-wing's Mario, the second player controller you give your little brother.  They're Mario 2 (Doki Doki Panic) Luigi! With extra high jumps and a weirder looking sprite for your guy (this metaphor has gotten away from me, haha).

See, he jumps super good

Two blue dice isnt much to write home about, but let's compare them to a TIE Bomber.  The Bomber has one more speed, and is one point cheaper.  That's all the benefits it gets, compared to a Y wing, in my (COMPLETELY UNBIASED) view.  The Y wing has one more hit point, which means it survives longer.  It gets 2 blue dice, which (albeit with Flight Controllers or Ruthless Strategists) can be enough to mulch your way through a lot of enemy squadrons, especially with a Toryn Farr reroll (with Flight Controllers and Toryn, you can effectively create a TIE fighter for 2 more points per squadron.  It then rolls Black bomber dice against ships, which, I'd take that trade in a heartbeat).  You can overwhelm any squadron with enough dice; you can't scatter 3 atttacks, no matter what.  That third attack is coming in, and it's gonna hurt that scatter ace (assuming you roll well, of course).  TIE Bombers really CAN'T/shouldn't be attacking opposing squadrons.  Y-wings, if pressed, CAN DO IT, but you should hopefully be bringing other squadrons along to take care of that.

Y Wings are primarily Bombers.  As we covered before, the primary role of your bombers is to hit enemy ships.  Every turn (except 1) that they're not hitting enemy ships is a turn they're not getting more value for you that they could be.  The ideal case is that you're somehow hitting ships with your Y wings on turns 2 through 6, but that's not always an actual thing that happens.  The more turns you have them hitting ships, though, the more turns you have them rolling black dice.  There's nothing more satisfying than watching someone have to decide if they really want to spend the Raider's Brace to reduce the Hit+Crit down to the more manageable one damage that MAY keep them alive.  Mmmm, tasty.

That cheapness is another benefit of the Y wing.  Speed 3 keeps them the same speed as your X-wings, so they can escort them into combat, let Intel and your fighters lock down the enemy squadrons, and then send the Y-wings on in.  ISDs die to concentrated squadron fire, just due to sheer overwhelming of the defense tokens.  When it has to choose to redirect 2 damage from one bomb to just not take it on the unshielded side, that's great usage for the Y-wing's cost.  Imagine doing that 3-4 times..... And big ships without shields are just floating rocks, waiting for death.

Snappie's Mom, has got it going on....

If we're going to talk Y-Wings and swamping your opponent, though, we need to mention Norra Wexley.  Thanks to the way damage resolution works, they have to choose their defense tokens before you resolve a critical effect.  If they aren't redirecting the damage away the side you're attacking, you can choose the extra shield damage and just start cracking into the hull that much sooner.  She's great with X-wings, Y-wings, Scurrgs, B-wings, probably even Lancers.... anything that rolls bomber dice!  The easiest path is to steer you towards squadrons that roll 2 bomber dice in order to have twice as many chances of guaranteeing the crit (like our friend Gold, below!)

Let me propose a scenario for you.  Norra and 3 Y-wings are attacking a Raider.  Norra goes first and thanks to Bomber Command Center, gets a hit and crit.  The Raider braces it down, but the crit still triggers and down goes its 2 side shields.  The remaining 3 Y-wings now can, with some good rolls and a lucky crit or two, deal the necessary 4 damage to kill the Raider.  That's a terrifying thing that ships need to be concerned about.  Or, even more terrifying, if the Y wings wipe out the shields on an ISD on 2-3 sides, the MC30 that follows up with all the black dice cant WAIT to hit an unshielded ship that has 2 useless redirects.  Norra is a FORCE multiplier, and she needs to be respected for what she can do for your squadrons.  Her nearby 2-3 other squadrons all getting help from Yavaris can WIPE an entire ISD's worth of shields, and then some.

Thank you for being a friend....

Gold Squadron is the new hotness.  It's basically a cheaper Scurrg without Grit and one less POSSIBLE damage on its anti-ship roll.  With the plethora of reroll options now, its a more guaranteed 2 damage.  I like it, and it combines really well with Precision Strike (give up the Hit dice you rolled, let the Crit dice or other Hit Dice go through for ANOTHER damage plus the 15 points).  Even against Mon Mothma, she can only make you reroll one.  And if you're firing on a flotilla, an accuracy and a hit are great together!

Sleepy time for everyone!

Dutch and Wedge were one of the great OG Wave II combos.  I still love using them together.  Shut down Maarek, use Wedge to kill him SUPER dead.  With Toryn Farr now it's even more of a pain as you have a very good chance of guaranteeing the hit from Dutch on almost anyone.  Even alone, he's a nice path to just turning off whatever squadron your opponent brought that you don't want firing (cough cough Ten Numb).

How to Use Them
Y-wings can get work done.  They're not as glamorous as B-wings, not as good against squadrons as X-wings, but for sheer points and ability, they can wreck big ship lives.  They're basic bombers, but their damage is significantly higher than you'd think for their cost, just rolling wave after wave of damage into ships.  Admirals on ISDs need to learn to fear the Wishbone...

The other one.  Man, these jokes are getting ruff.

If you're bringing other squadrons along (besides Y-wings, such as X-wings or YT2400s or something), use those to clear away whatever squadrons are screening your opponent's ships.  You brought along Y-wings to bomb your opponent's ships, so find a way to get them doing that as fast as possible.  However, if you get into an extended squadron-on-squadron fight, your 6 health can hopefully allow you to survive a lot more than you'd expect.  Just hit their squadrons back HARD to ensure you're not throwing points away.

If your opponent didn't bring squadrons, hit his ships with your squadrons.  Show him the might of squadron play!