X-Wing - tabletop wargame

[kjc733]

Ok, so not Star Trek but we don't really have anywhere else to put this. I have another thread called Attack Wing which I have been reviewing my numerous purchases. It has a cousin in the Star Wars universe called X-Wing, and in the January sales I folded and bought a set.
"But KJC" I hear you cry, "I thought you weren't much of a Star Wars fan?"
Answer - I'm not. But I have more friends that play X-Wing than Attack Wing (actually no friends play Attack Wing) and the Edition 1 core set was 50% off in the January sales. Also, Edition 2 has been released which is more expensive and means that Edition 1 stuff will slowly go the way of the dodo.

I'm not going to talk much about it at this point as I haven't really studied it in depth. I did however have another reason for buying the core set, and that's because I fell in love with a particular ship design and the only way I could justify buying it was to buy the core set as well.
That ship, now proudly sitting on my shelf next to a K'Tinga battlecruiser is the Imperial Raider Corvette. It's a big beastie, about a foot long, incredibly detailed, and while I'll almost certainly never play it it did come with a TIE Advanced which may see some use.

Anyway, for now just a pretty picture and the youtube link I posted in my Attack WIng thread showing how X-Wing is played.

 

[kjc733]

So, X-Wing. There are now three core sets, the original (red) edition, the refreshed (blue) version which came out with the new sequal films, and the new 2nd Edition set. The Red and Blue versions are compatible with each other, the 2nd Edition is completely new and essentially gives Fantasy Flight the ability to resell a game they've already been selling. The 1st Edition market is starting to dry up and prices are starting to reflect this (although 2nd Edition is more expensive, who'd have guessed...).

Because of this I decided I'd buy a few pieces.

I now have the core (red) 1st Edition set which consists of the bits you need to play the game, a single T-65 X-Wing and two TIE fighters. My corvette came with a TIE Advanced, meaning I had three Imperial ships and 1 Rebel ship. As I sort of liked the U-Wing from Rogue One I started looking at that and found that the Saws Renegades set included both a U-Wing and an X-Wing for less than the price of the U-Wing pack. In addition they come in black (and everything looks better in black) and it includes the conversion kit for 2nd Edition (basically, it seems to be quite good value for a ship pack, I don't know why they aren't difficult to find like some other packs).

The mechanics of the game are virtually identical to Attack Wing, however the whole game seems to be better quality and far more polished than Attack Wing.
Unlike Attack Wing, ships and Captains seem to be linked. So instead of having an X-Wing card and a Luke Skywalker captain, you instead get an X-Wing with Skywalker providing the skill. Each addon pack comes with a number of "captains" which means that you actually get several "hero ship" options and basic versions in each pack (but just one model). All ships of the same model have the same base scores (attack, evade, hull, shield) - which is different to Attack Wing where a non-hero ship usually has one fewer shield - but the "hero" provides an extra ability and (sometimes) the ability to add an Elite upgrade.
Ship upgrades come in a number of flavours: crew, missiles, torpedoes, droids etc etc. The upgrade cards are physically smaller than the ship cards which makes organisation a bit easier. When playing Attack Wing with full sized cards for every upgrade it did make space hard to manage - especially with three ships!

The Red Core Set comes with Luke Skywalker and R2D2 as notable "big" cards. The Imperials don't really stand out to me (but I'm not knowledgeable on Star Wars lore). The X-Wing ships have a higher point value than the TIEs, but they have a higher attack value and they have shields. the TIE fighters are slightly more agile but otherwise are inferior in all other respects. TIEs don't seem to be able to equip droids either. I think that the agility used to be how TIEs were supposed to survive in X-Wing, but going by the games I've watched it seems that bombs (not in the core set btw) are the new meta and if you don't have shields you get wiped out easily. So Imperial TIE fighters are probably pretty useless.

Regarding Saws Renegades: This comes with a number of boosts to the T65 X-Wing. Apparently with the release of the Blue set (with the X-Wings from the later films) the old X-Wings have fallen waaaay behind the curve (they have no native barrel roll or boost abilities). The pack also comes with a new droid which is cheap and seems useful for dogfighting (free boost/roll after moving). The U-Wing is considered a "Large Ship" and so comes on a bigger base. It is a support ship but has the same attack value and (in Attack Mode) agility as the X-Wing. In fact that's something I forgot, in this pack the X-Wings and U-Wings come with a "mode" card, they are either in Attack configuration or cruise/land configuration and the stats change slightly accordingly. The Renegades ships also have moving parts to reflect this.

Lets talk models. They are incredibly detailed and have a far better paint job than even the best of the Attack Wing ships. If you want some Star Wars ships to go on you desk then I suggest buying some X-Wing packs even if you don't want to play the game. I've attached some photos of the Rebel ships. I particularly like the U-Wing.

Unfortunately I had an OCD moment and ordered a number of Imperial ships, so I'll cover those when they arrive. I may also do a post on maneuvers (when I've got to grips with them) as there are a number of big differences over Attack Wing, even though they use the same basic principles and templates.

That's all for now. Oh, except here's a link to a Squad Builder which has a database of all (I think) ships and upgrades.
https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel Alliance&d=v4!s!&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

 

[kjc733]

So I fell off the wagon... hard! But it's not like I'm broke (although tomorrow is bill paying day...)
Time to talk TIEs. I think they are a ridiculous fashion accessory that serves no useful purpose and is a hazard in some working environments

I have six TIEs. If you look at the image you will see back left two TIE fighters which came with the core set. Top right is the TIE Defender. Bottom right is a TIE Aggressor. Bottom left is a pair of TIE Advanced. As you can see, the models for all of these ships are excellent. If you are a Star Wars ship fan and are looking for some nice models, even if you don't play the game, I would consider these. I love my U-Wing and may put it on display alongside the Raider. Just note that they are not huge, for scale the smaller plastic bases (X-Wing and TIEs) are about 4cm.

In general TIEs are good at agility and they are fast. However their firepower is somewhat limited and they break easily if hit. This is the exact opposite of the typical Rebel fighters. I have no idea about the Scum faction as I don't have any of those.

The original TIE fighters are... not very good. They are cheap and made for swarming. The best pilot in the core set comes in at 17 points (contrasted to the cheapest X-Wing at 21 points!!) and the cheapest is 12 points. When you consider that a typical game is a 100pt squad that is potentially a lot of TIE Fighters on the board! They have 2 attack, 3 agility, 3 hull and no shields. These things die easy as they have no defence against critical hits. Ship actions are Focus, Barrel Roll and Evade, so they are built around avoiding hits rather than tanking them. They have no native upgrades, only elite pilot abilities.

The TIE Advanced is a better ship and is broadly equivalent to an X-Wing. The top of the line pilot is Darth Vader. He gets to perform two actions and costs 29 points. The cheapest TIE Advanced comes in at 21 points. Natively the TIE Advanced has 2 attack, 3 evade, 3 hull and 2 shields and it retains the Focus, Barrel Roll and Evade abilities. In addition it gains the Target Lock capability and has one missile slot. It maneuvers about the same as a basic TIE except it has 1 banks instead of 1 turns and it loses the 3 K-turn (come about for those familiar with Attack Wing). However... if you own the Imperial Corvette then it comes with an upgrade for the Advanced. This adds a TIE/x1 title card (basically named hero ships, like "Millennium Falcon" is a YT1300) which costs 0pts, adds a sensor slot and reduces the cost of that sensor upgrade by 4pts. The Corvette also brings an Advanced Targeting Computer which costs 5pts (or 1pt is using the title card) and if you have a Target Lock then you get a free critical hit so long as you don't spend the lock. So it's a 1pt way of upping the Advanced firepower to that of an X-Wing. As I had the upgrades from the Raider, I decided to buy a second Advanced (you get one with the Raider).

Next up is the TIE Aggressor. This looks like an Advanced with the backs of the wings sawn off and a turret stuck on the back. The most expensive one costs 22pts, the cheapest 17pts. These natively have 2 attack, 2 defence, 4 hull and 1 shield and they have Focus, Target Lock and Barrel Roll abilities. Looking at the maneuver dial they are slower than the rest of the TIEs, maxing out at speed 4 (instead of 5). In all the feel of this ship is that it is weighed down by its weapons... and that is because it natively has 1 turret slot and two missile slots. So lobbing missiles at range and firing turrets as they zoom on by is probably how to use this one.

Finally we have the TIE Defender, this is an expensive ship at 37pts max and 30pts minimum! But for that you get 3s across the board stats wise, Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll, a missile slot and a cannon slot. Looking at the dial it is an interceptor, it's slow speed turns (which it does have) are red, it is supposed to go straight and fast. Interestingly it's only K-turn is at speed 4 and is a white maneuver, so this is a speed right down there throats, zoom past, then flip 180 to do it again type of ship. Still, t is quite expensive and will make planning into a squad difficult.

Next time I'll do a breakdown of my Rebel ships (I now have 6 0f those too!), and then maybe start considering some squad builds.

 

[kjc733]

Time to talk X-Wings, specifically the T-65. I have three T-65s, one comes with the core set, one as the stand along T-65 pack and one came in the Saws Renegades pack alongside the black U-wing. As with the TIEs the models are very nice, especially when you consider the small size. Apart from the cannons (which flex slightly) they don't feel fragile in the slightest. The black T-65 from Saws Renegades is actually a newer model and the wings move - however as the mechanism is a little fidly I'll be leaving them closed.

The T-65 has 3 attack, 2 evade, 3 hull and 2 shields, meaning it is tankier than a TIE and has better default firepower. It comes with a Focus and Target Lock ability, again promoting firepower over the TIEs evasiveness. By default the X-Wing comes with a Torpedo slot and an Astromech slot.

The most expensive T-65 is Wedge Antilles with skill 9 at 29pts, this comes in the standalone pack. The cheapest is T-65 comes in at 21pts, so you could field a maximum of 4 in a normal game. Yes, Luke Skywalker is available as a pilot, he comes in the red core set, has skill 8 and costs 28pts. R2D2 also comes in the red core set and is one of the best Astromechs I've seen so far (shield regen) albeit a little pricy.

T-65s have a maximum of 4 speed, with banks and turns available at speeds 2 and 3. The only red on the dial is the 4 K-turn. It is a heavy fighter and so is slightly slower and less agile than a TIE, but has shields to make up for it.

Being one of the original two ships, this was probably enough of a difference at the beginning. However after so many waves of releases the T-65 has been badly power crept. The T-70 for example has a boost ability and a tech upgrade and is capable of performing a speed 3 Talon Roll (hard turn with a 90 degree rotation).

The Saws Renegades pack releases some additional upgrade cards to help improve the T-65. The big one is the Servomotor S-Foils card(of which there are 3 in the pack). This allows you to set the T-65 into Attack mode or Closed mode at the start of each round. When in Closed mode the T-65s Attack value is reduced to 2 but it gains a boost ability and adds some green to the dial. When in Attack mode the Attack value returns to 3, boost is replaced by Barrel Roll and you can perform a 3 Talon Roll. This makes the T-65 almost as good maneuver wise as the T70, but with a management overhead.

 

[kjc733]

The YT-1300 is what is known as a large ship belonging to the Rebel faction. It sits on a larger base and measures about 13cm long. There are actually two versions of this ship, the original was released very early in the games history and this version was released in the Heros of the Resistance set for the new movies. The models are probably the same with the exception of the sensor dish, round on the original and square on this one. As can be seen from the image it is again a very nice detailed model.

This version of the YT-1300 has 3 attack, 1 agility, 8 hull and 5 shield. My understanding is that the original version these stats varied depending on which pilot was chosen, but in this pack they are all the same. The ship natively has a Focus and a Target Lock and also comes with 2 crew slots and a missile slot. The highest cost is 46pts with Han Solo at skill 9. The cheapest generic version is 38pts at skill 3. Other pilots are Chewbacca (42pts 5 skill) and Rey (45pts 8 skill). The YT-1300 ability to shoot its primary weapon in all directions.

Maneuver wise its has a full suite of turns and banks up to speed 2 and a red K turn at speeds 3 and 4. Considering much is make of the Falcon's speed in the films I'm surprised it doesn't have a 5 straight. All in all, quite good for a big ship.

For 1pt you can name the ship Millennium Falcon, which allows you to turn 180 degrees after performing a 3 bank - this seems like a must have to me. For 0pts it also allows you to add a Smuggling Compartment, which allows the inclusion of an Elicit upgrade (typically only allowed for Scum faction ships) and a second modification upgrade - again this seems like a no brainer to me.

Looking at the reviews the older YT-1300 probably has better upgrades and pilots (and it has the correct dish!). The reason that I got this one was because it was about the same price and came with a Black One T-70 X-Wing, so it was better value for money on a per ship basis.

While Han Solo allows you to start with the YT-1300 almost anywhere on the map, Rey is the pilot that seem to be used in tournaments. This is because she can reroll up to 2 blank attack dice if the target is in the forward firing arc. In of itself this isn't a big deal, however the Finn crew card allows you to add a blank dice under the same conditions. This allows the YT-1300 to potentially hit with 4 dice. Finn is expensive though at 5pts, so a Rey/Finn combo makes 50pts which is half of the usual squad value. Personally I'm more of a fan of the 2pt Rey crew card which allows you to carry over Focus to the next round, which has some potentially great synergy with the U-Wing.

Overall assessment - this ship is the Rebels tank, it can go where it needs to, soak up damage, and there is no safe angle to attack it from. But it is a costly capability to have.

 

[kjc733]

The T-70 X-Wing, the replacement model from the new films. My version is from the Heros of the Resistance pack where it came along with the Falcon. It comes in Poe Dameron's Black One paint scheme and, as ever, the model and paint job is very detailed and very well done. Until getting this model I hadn't appreciated the subtle differences between the T70 and T65 - the split "inlets" are ridiculous, but the staggered wing gives it a more aggressive look than the classic T-65. T-70s also come in the blue starter set (i.e. the second 1st edition set) and as an individual pack.

The T-70 natively has 3 attack, 2 evade, 3 hull and 3 shields. It has a Focus, Target Lock and a Boost ability and has a Tech slot, an Astrodroid slot and a Torpedo slot. It differs from the classic T-65 (without the Saws Renegades mods) by having the extra shield, the Boost ability and the Tech slot.

This can be seen in the cost. Poe Dameron at skill 9 (I believe the starter set version is skill 8) comes in at 33pts, which is 4pts higher than the equivalent Wedge Antilles. The cheapest version is 24pts, which is 3pts more than the budget T-65.

The maneuver dial is pretty similar to the T-65 - straight speed 1 through 4, turns and banks at speeds 2 and 3 and a red K turn at speed 4. However the T-70 also gets the Talon roll at speed 3. All in all it is easy to see why people were starting to ignore T-65s. It is a shame that 2nd Edition came out so soon after the Saws Renegades pack as it would have been interesting to see if T-65s made a comeback to the tournaments.

There's not really much else to say, it seems to be a good all rounder. The T-70s come with the Integrated Astromech modification card (which can also be applied to T-65s), this allows you to discard your astromech instead of taking a damage card (R2 taking one for the team).

I have a friend who is really into his X-Wing - I knew he had a core set but I only found out Friday that he has 30 ships!!! One of the squadrons I am building will be a set of 3x T-65 rookies led by a T-70, it'll be interesting to see how they compare.

 

[kjc733]

The U-Wing. I liked this ship in Rogue One and the main reason I bought the Saws Renegades pack is because it had a U-Wing in black. Everything looks better in black. I've posted a picture before but here's another one. The level of detail is amazing and there is even weathering in the paint scheme. After careful consideration I've decided I actually prefer the ship in the swept back configuration, it gives it an elegant look, and lets face it, Star Wars is not known for making elegant designs.

Anyway. Attack value 3, base evade 1, Hull of 4 and Shield value of 4. Note that I said "base evade" - in attack mode it's actually evade 2, which makes it equivalent to a big T-65. Like the base T-65 it also has Focus and Target Lock. It doesn't get an astromech though (shame), it does get a System slot, a Torpedo slot, and two crew slots, making for a very flexible setup.

Looking at the points cost, again it's not disimilar to a T-65. The highest value in this pack is Saw Gerrera with skill 6 at 26pts. I believe the highest rating U-Wing is Cassian from the U-Wing pack (and he has a great anti-stress capability) - but I don't have that pack. The cheapest pilot is skill 1 at 22pts, if you really wanted to you could field four in a single squad.

Handling is not quite as good as a T-65, it is a bigger ship after all. Straights up to speed 4, banks at 1 through 3 and a speed 2 turn. No K turns or Talon Rolls, but that isn't surprising. The U-Wing's sole red maneuver is a 0 - it can stop. But it's party piece is that in Landing mode you can rotate 180 degrees at speed 0.

Reading around the forums and watching tournament replays I have seen a distinct lack of U-Wings, or people muttering disappointment with them - and I'm not sure why. Ok, it doesn't have a high end pilot, but for the cost of an x-wing you have 8 health and the same firepower. The pivot wing mechanic is a little disappointing as, unlike the X-Wing S-Foils which flip at the start of activation, the pivot wing flips after movement, which telegraphs your intention for the next round (unless you're bluffing...).

I'm stubborn, I'm going to figure out how to make this work. I've already spotted some synergy between the 24pt version (can assign one of your own focus tokens to a friendly) with Rey's crew ability (able to store up Focus tokens), and by not having high end pilots in the supporting U-Wing it means more points to spend on high end fighters.

I'm not getting obsessed... honest...

 

[Hellkite]

Nope it just your passion

 

[kjc733]

I've noticed that there are a number of multipacks which are designed to fix power creep issues that have arose over the lifetime of the game. This one is called Imperial Veterans and includes a red version of the TIE Defender and also a TIE Bomber.

I've talked about the TIE Defender before. It has 3 attack, 3 evade, 3 hull and 3 shield, plus a Focus, Target Lock and Barrel Roll, a Missile and a Cannon slot and a dial which provides green straights at speeds 2-5, white banks at speeds 1-3 and turns at 1-3, although the 1 and 2 turns are red. The 4 K turn is also a white! All in all it is one of the best fighters in the game... but it is incredibly expensive with the cheapest skill 1 pilot being 30pts. The other issue is that I'm not too impressed with the higher skilled pilots, as they basically allow you to pick critical damage types, which is nice but rather situational.

Imperial Veterans provides some fixes. It provides a number of mid-tier pilots, one of which has a very useful ability to make any straight a K turn - and don't forget that all those straights are green!! So pulling K turns to remove stress is now a thing. The next thing it provides is two titles for the Defender. The first allows you to dump the cannon and missile slots for a reduction in cost of -2pts. It also allows you to to gain an evade token after pulling a 3, 4 or 5 maneuver. Think about the plot above, she costs 34pts, if I wanted a cannon and missile that's another 6pts which makes one fighter 40pts and only skill 5 - I'm probably not going to do that because it's a lot of points to sink into one target. So if I use this card the pilot instead just costs 32pts, and I get a free evade, far better value.

The alternative title costs 0pts but allows me to make a primary weapon attack immediately after making a cannon attack. This obviously is desirable and again makes the base ship cost more acceptable. I might take it in a single Defender line up, if I wanted multiple Defenders I'd take the other title.

The second ship is the TIE Bomber. Bombs are meta so I was interested to see what they were about. Bombs are tokens which you place behind your ship, depending on type the token size changes as does the damage output, type of damage and when it is placed. This pack only came with two types, both are mines so they detonate when someone runs over them, both are placed as an Action which means you put them down after you move (other types are before you move).

The TIE Bomber has attack 2, evade 2, hull 6 and no shields. It gets Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll (surprisingly). It can take two torpedo slots, two missile slots and a single bomb slot. The lowest skill pilot in this pack is skill 3 (and isn't a rookie pilot, it's actually one with an ability) and costs 17pts. The most expensive is skill 8 and costs 24pts.

Maneuver-wise there's no real surprises. straight 1-4, banks 1-3, turns 2-3 and a red 5 K turn. It's actually not too bad for a "lumbering" bomber.

My concern again comes from the amount of points you're willing to throw away on this. loading it to the gills with munitions will easily cost another 18pts and with no shields it is vulnerable to critical hits, especially as it will get focus fired if you load it up.

Pilot skill wise, both the top end and bottom end pilots are quite good. 3 skill pilot lets you drop your bomb either before moving or as a free action, and the 8 skill pilot lets you keep using an Elite talent if its supposed to be discarded. The question is, is it better for a bomber to move first or move last. If you want someone to run over your bombs this turn then you want to move first, but it's unlikely that you'd be in position to poke your backside at the enemy anyway. But if you want to launch torpedoes you need to get in range to have a target lock, but not so close that the torpedo can't arm. This will require some thought.

I'm now out of ships to talk about (unless I buy the cheap Imperial Aces pack I've been eyeing up...) so next time I'll probably start talking tactics and how X-Wing differs from Attack Wing.

EDIT - oops, I forgot to mention the TIE Bomber title card option. By discarding all of the weapon slots you can gain two crew slots. Unfortunately I don't really have much to put there at the moment, other than a Systems Operator which only affects friendly ships at Range 1. The only other Imperial crew I have is Emperor Palpatine, but it seems that he won't lower himself to riding on a converted bomber so I still have no chariot for him.

 

[kjc733]

Lets talk about how this all works.
In X-Wing and Attack Wing the game essentially breaks down into three phases each round:

1. Planning Phase - in this phase the player decides what maneuver each ship is going to do. This is done on a dial of available ship moves which shows which moves are red, white or green. Red moves add stress/aux power, green moves remove stress/aux power. All moves are planed and the players put their dials face down on the table so no one can see the other dials.

2. Activation Phase - in order of pilot skill (lowest to highest), the players reveal the maneuver dial and move the ship on the board. If it's a red move then they add a stress token to their ship, if green they remove a stress token. After the move, that ship can perform an Action. These actions can be the innate ship ability, a pilot ability, or a crew/console/tech/etc ability from the cards the player has assigned to that ship. If a ship has a stress token it cannot perform an action.

3. Combat Phase - this is done in order of pilot skill (highest to lowest). If your ship has another ship in weapons firing arc you may roll your attack dice. The defending ship rolls their defence dice. The results are compared and damage allocated. If the defending ship is destroyed they are removed from play - immediately if they have a lower target skill, they get to shoot if they have the same skill.

That's the game in a nutshell. Now lets talk Pilot Skill.
High pilot skill lets you move last and shoot first. However, all moves are pre-planned and (in general) cannot be changed. So actually does a high pilot skill actually matter?

The order of movement is important because you can block your opponents ship, preventing them from completing their move. This is called a "Bump." a ship that bumps into another ship cannot perform an action nor can it shoot at that ship. Large base ships (such as the Falcon and the Imperial shuttles) are often built with this in mind. It could be argued that these ships want to move first - and indeed some abilities allow you to change your pilot skill for a round.

In Attack Wing it doesn't tend to matter that much. Predicting an opponents movement is important (in both games) so as to get an opponent in firing arc, but combat doesn't occur until after every ship has moved anyway. The difference comes from the available Actions. In Attack Wing there are very few Actions which allow the modification of a ships position, Actions are generally geared towards dice modification or disabling an opponents actions. You either get into arc or you don't, so the game is all about reducing damage to you or increasing damage to your target. In X-Wing a lot of Actions allow maneuver options. Barrel Roll allows you to sidestep by one. Boost allows you to move forwards/bank by one. Various card combinations will allow you to add several moves together - "Snap" Wexley with BB-8 allows you to barrel roll before moving (BB-8 ability), make a 2 or 3 green straight (requirement for other moves), perform a Boost action (Wexley ability), then perform another action (which could be another Boost). Only the 2 or 3 straight had to be pre-planned, the rest of those moves were determined at the point of moving, which means that you want to see where as many of your opponent ships will be as possible. Wexley is Pilot Skill 6, so only about half of the ships may have moved, which makes this maneuver chain a bit less valuable.

Other Actions are offensive or defensive in nature and often affect dice rolls. In general these actions break into two categories:
1. Dice quantity - speaks for itself really, the more red dice you throw the more hits you may end up with. The more green you throw, the more evades you may throw.
2. Dice quality - this is a bit more complicated. Each red dice has 3 hits, 1 crit, 2 focus and 2 blanks. So you are able to cause damage 50% of the time for each dice. Each green dice has 3 evade, 2 focus and 3 blank. When defending, one evade result removes one hit/crit result. If you chose the Focus action it allows you to convert all of the Focus results on one of your attack roll OR one of your defence rolls - meaning you have the equivalent of 6 hit/crit on a red or 5 evade on a green. Or if you have a Target Lock then you can reroll any number of the attack dice in that attack. Other abilities will do similar things - Poe Dameran can convert one focus result without spending his Focus token. Han Solo (original) can reroll all of his attack dice. Rey can reroll two blank results if the target is in the primary firing arc - which is powerful if paired with Finn who adds a blank dice to the roll.

Another category of Action is what I call "support". These actions allow you to do other things, either to that ship or another ship. For example, Benthic Two Tubes allows you to place his Focus token on another ship at range 1-2. If you pair this with Poe Dameran/BB-8, he wants a Focus token but also being high skill wants to use his actions to maneuver into position. Benthic can do a Focus, pass it to Poe, who uses BB-8 and the T70s innate Boost action to get in position. He then uses that Focus to convert his attack roll (without spending the token), then spends the token defending. The problem with building around support ships is that if they get taken out then your shooter loses effectiveness.

One last consideration is what is called "the action economy." Every ship gets one free action after they move (unless they are stressed). One Action is good, more than one is better as it allows you to more easily chain abilities. So taking upgrades which provide free actions under certain conditions (such as BB-8s free barrel roll if a green move is revealed) is generally more useful than a special action which takes an actual Action to perform (e.g. R2F2 Action: Increase your agility value by 1 until the end of this game round) because that prevents you from doing any other action. Darth Vadar is a good pilot as his ability is to get two Actions. If you give him Squad Leader as his Elite ability then he can spend one of those actions to give another ship at range 1-2 a free action.

Lastly, lets talk survivability. A ship has a number of shield points and a number of hull points (e.g. T65 has 3 hull and 2 shields). Each hit result which isn't cancelled by an evade reduces your shields/hull by 1. Shields go first, then hull. For shields, the result is the same when receiving either a hit or a crit. When the shields are down however there is a big difference. Hits just remove a hull point, crits remove a hull point and deal a damage effect. For example:

Injured Pilot - All players must ignore your pilot ability and all of your Elite upgrade cards.
Damaged Engine - Treat all turn maneuvers as red maneuvers.
Minor Hull Breach - After executing a red maneuver, roll 1 attack die. On a hit result suffer 1 damage.
Direct Hit! - This card counts as 2 damage against your hull.

As can be seen, having shields is better than having hull. Some abilities allow you to regenerate shields (e.g. R2D2), and some allow you to increase you shield/hull values. So it is possible to make a "tank" build which is designed to outlast the enemy. This is usually the approach in Attack Wing (especially Federation ships) but there are abilities in X-Wing which can do the same.

But now you have the question about how to spread that survivability. Is it better to spend the 100pts you have available on 2 or 3 ships with high damage pools and a number of abilities, or to spread the health and points across a "swarm" of 5 or even 6 smaller, cheaper ships. That will depend on your ability to predict your opponents moves, what they bring to the table (bombs!!!) and how many sacrifices you made to RNGesus.

 

[kjc733]

We interrupt the planned broadcast for an intelligence flash.

A pack of Imperial Aces has been spotted in the local area. The TIE Interceptors either sport the all red markings of the Royal Guard or the red stripe of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing. This appears to be some sort of training or induction exercise as a number of the Saber Squadron pilots appeared to be of low skill (4) and cost 21pts. However Ace pilots Carnor Jax (skill 8, 26pts) and Tetron Cowall (skill 7, 24pts) were positively identified.

As you are aware, the TIE Interceptor is a fast and agile craft. As a reminder, it has the following ratings and capabilities: Attack 3, Evade 3, Hull 3, Shields 0 with Focus, Barrel Roll, Boost and Evade capabilities. There maneuver capability is excellent with straight speed of 2-5, banks 2-3, turns 1-3 and red K turns at speed 3 and 5. All speed 2 maneuvers are green as are the straights except 5.

While these ships are not natively capable of equipping any additional systems or weapons, in the hands of an ace they can be made to perform some astounding tricks - Cannor Jax for example is skilled enough to prevent enemies at Range 1 from performing or spending a focus or evade, while Tetran Cowall can alter any K turn to be at 1, 3, or 5 speed.

Observation of the exercises revealed two areas of concern. Firstly, the pilots seemed to be practicing a new Elite talent we believe to be nicknamed "Push the Limit." This allows the pilot to perform an action and then immediately perform a free action at the cost of one stress. This is concerning because the amount of green in the Interceptor maneuvering stats allow the stress to be easily cleared the next round. Intelligence believes this to be a costly 3pt skill.
The second area of concern is that the Royal Guard TIEs seemed to be capable of fitting two modifications instead of the usual one. This upgrade seemed to have no cost. In of itself this isn't too concerning, however the modifications being tested were a hull upgrade (+1 for 3pts) and a shield upgrade (+1 for 4pts), potentially allowing the Royal Guard TIE Interceptors to have 4 hull and 1 shield.

That is all.

 

[kjc733]

Remember when I said I didn't have the U-Wing pack... ehmmmm... well now I do Hey it was half price - don't judge the obsessive compulsive.
It's a U-Wing, I've talked over the stats before. Same model but with a different paint job, again with some nice weathering effects. This pack only contains X-Wing v1.0 stuff, unlike the Saws Renegades which also included v2.0.
Cheapest pilot is the Blue Sqn Pathfinder at 23pts for skill 2, so not as low as the Saws Renegades one. The highest is Cassian Andor, still only skill 6 but 27pts - so no winning dogfights here. Cassian lets you remove a stress token from a friendly ship at range 1-2 at the start of the Activation phase (i.e. before anyone moves), so useful if someone did some hard maneuvering last round. Bohdi Rook (skill 4, 25pts) lets a friendly ship perform a target lock on an enemy within range 3 of any other friendly ship - this would be big for torpedo builds but torps are not cheap. And Heff Tobber (nope, no idea who he/she is, skill 3, 24pts) gives you a free action when bumped - ideal if you plan to use U-Wings as blockers.
The pack comes with the squad from Rogue One, Cassian (crew) lets you guess an enemy dial and change yours if you get it right, Jyn has a means of sharing Focus tokens (but is an action) and Baze lets you shoot at a different target if you miss the first time.
It comes with some other nifty upgrades, Stealth Device increases agility by 1 until you are hit. Expertise is an elite talent (with two copies!) which allows you to change all Focus rolls to Hits if not stressed (remember, each red dice has 3 hits, 1 crit, 2 focus and 2 blanks so now it's a 6 out of 8 chance of hitting with each dice!) but it's a costly 4pt upgrade (for obvious reasons). And I finally get a cheap torpedo, Flechette torpedoes give a stress as well as damage, its only 3 red dice but it only costs 2pts.
I now need to start thinking about how to add this to my builds and next time I post (I'm NOT buying any more) I'll probably be discussing my build process.

 

[Rifraf]

Although I don't have anyone here to play with I enjoy reading your posts about his game. Keep up the good work.

 

[kjc733]

I have the same problem. I have a few friends that do but they're over 100 miles away. There is supposed to be an online version, I haven't really looked into it yet though.

A theory build. The game's called X-Wing so lets start there. I have three of them so lets try a triple T-65 build, that way I don't have to worry about different dials.

T-65s are fighters with 3 attack, 2 evade, 3 hull and 2 shield - so at the heavier end. Being fighters they don't have massive amounts of health (though 5 isn't bad) and so we want to dogfight and keep out of arc... which means high pilot skill.

I have three T-65s, so lets look at the top four pilots on my roster.

Wedge Antilles, cost 29, skill 9. When attacking, reduce the defender's agility value by 1 (to a minimum of "0"). So he sort of gets an attack dice quality boost.

Luke Skywalker, cost 28, skill 8. When defending, you may change 1 of your focus results to an evade result. So he gets a defence dice quality boost.

Kullbee Sperado, cost 26 skill 7. After you perform a boost or barrel roll action, you may flip your equipped "Servomotor S-foils" upgrade card. So his skill is only useful if I have the S-foils equipped.

Garvin Dreis, cost 26, skill 6. After spending a focus token, you may place that token on any other friendly ship at Range 1-2 (instead of discarding it). Which sounds useful except as the lowest skill he'll be shooting last, so none of the other pilots will benefit unless an even lower skill opponent shoots at them. He also doesn't get an Elite talent.

So, Wedge, Like and Kullbee it is, for a total of 83 points, leaving me 17 to play with. Each T-65 can perform a Focus and a Target Lock and has a modification slot, an astromech slot, a torpedo slot and an elite slot. Kullbee's ability is to use the S-Foils so lets start there.

Servomotor S-Foils - cost 0, takes up a modification slot. In Attack mode I gain a 3 K-Turn and barrel roll ability. In Closed mode I gain a boost ability, green 2 banks but drop down to 2 attack. I can flip the card at the start of the Activation Phase - i.e. after planning but before moving. Even if I just leave it in Attack mode it's a massive benefit. There are a few other modifications I can take, Shield Upgrades, Hull Upgrades, Stealth Device, all good choices but for 0pts S-Foils it is!

Now for Torpedoes. Single use weapons which require a target lock to use. Proton Torpedoes, 4pts, 4 dice but can turn a focus into a crit. Flechette Torpedoes, 2pts, 3 dice, puts a stress on the target regardless of the dice result. Are they worth it when the T-65 has 3 attack dice anyway? Or do I use the Renegade Refit which costs -2pts and reduces the cost of my elite talents by -1 and allows me to fit a second modification. SOLD, and I have three of them so that's -6pts. So I now have 23pts to play with.

Lets talk Astromechs. Wedge is our heavy hitter so we need to make sure he gets on target. Flight Assist Astromech looks like a good fit, costs 1pt, After you execute a maneuver, if you did not overlap a ship or obstacle and there are no enemy ships inside your firing arc at Range 1-3, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action. Unfortunately I only have one so we need to look elsewhere for the other pilots.

For Luke we'd obviously be tempted to use R2D2, cost 4pts, After executing a green maneuver, you may recover 1 shield (up to your shield value). However Luke already gets a defence boost so we may be better off saving R2 for Kullbee. Most of my other Astromechs are all about Target Locks, which are good for rerolls and Torpedoes (which I'm not packing). I do however have the 2pt BB-8, When you reveal a green maneuver, you may perform a free barrel roll action. May be useful for getting in and out of arc and given Luke is quite high skill he has a better chance of seeing where the opponents are. So that's another 7pts spent bringing us to 16pts remaining.

Now for Elite Talents. Until this week I would have said Predator with no hesitation. 3pts, When attacking, you may reroll 1 attack die. If the defender's pilot skill value is "2" or lower, you may instead reroll up to 2 attack dice. However I now have Push the Limit (3pt) and Expertise (4pt).
I have two sets of Expertise, When attacking, if you are not stressed, you may change all of your Focus results to Hit results - this is a massive increase to the hit chance (4/8 to 6/8 no Focus required!). On to Luke and Wedge it goes. For Kullbee I would be tempted to go with Predator, however given his lower pilot skill he could probably do with Push the Limit - Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token. So if necessary Kullbee can now perform two actions for the cost of a stress, which encourages him to do a green maneuver which allows R2D2 to regen a shield. Best of all Renegade Refit reduces the cost by 1, so actually this all only cost 8pts bringing us to 8pts remaining.

Lastly we now have a second modification slot to use. Munitions Failsafe and Targeting Computer are a waste of space as I already have a Target Lock and no torpedoes. Stealth Device costs 3pts, Increase your agility value by 1. If you are hit by an attack, discard this card. So it's an additional green dice, but all it takes is one lucky hit and it's gone. Hull upgrade costs 3pts, I can only afford two and it leaves me susceptible to critical hits. Shield Upgrade costs 4pts, so again I can only afford two. But it allows me to take two of my T-65s to 3 shields... but who...
Wedge hasn't got much in the way of defence bonuses so far, so he gets one. Luke has his own innate ability to help stay alive, while Kullbee is most vulnerable at skill 6. R2D2 can also make best use of that shield by regenerating it. I deliberately stepped over another possible modification - Integrated Astromech, cost 0pts. When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card. So if I give that to Luke then BB-8 can take one for the team.

So, that rounds out my triple T-65 X-Wing build at 100pts.

 

[kjc733]

Ever had one of those days when you bid on a number of things on ebay expecting to win none of them... and then end up winning them all? Well I had one of those days last week...

So, after buying some new decking, I stumbled on something which I thought would make a good Xmas present for my brother-in-law... and then something for my sister (won them both). Then I found a few x-wing things that looked interesting and bid on those as well... won all but the single crew card (which was the only one I thought I'd win!). So I know have the Force Awakens Core Set (complete with T70 X-WIng and two TIE F/Os), a Firesprey-31 (aka Slave 1) and a TIE Reaper (the TIE troop transport from Rogue One). Well I guess it gives me more options...

I do have pictures (taken with a new phone ) but my internet is
:exter: right now so they'll have to wait.

 

[kjc733]

In a shocking development BT have fixed my internet on the same day I complained about it
The world is going mad!!

So, back to the pictures (which I had to shrink as the camera is a monster)...
In the Rebel fleet we have to the rear:
1x YT-1300 (Millennium Falcon)
2x U-Wing
And in each fighter group we have:
1x T70 X-Wing leading
2x T-65 X-Wings

And in the Imperial Navy:
The left group consists of:
1x Firesprey-31 (Slave 1)
2x TIE Advanced
1x TIE Aggressor (left with wing cutouts and turret)
1x TIE Bomber

The right group consists of:
1x TIE Reaper
2x TIE F/O (First Order TIE fighters, in the back)
2x TIE Fighters (up front)

And the leading fighter group consists of:
2x TIE Defenders (with the triple wing arrangement)
2x TE Interceptors

Now to come up with some good Imperial squadrons...

 

[kjc733]

A friend has invited me to play X-Wing next week, and I realised I had forgot to talk about my latest additions to the Imperial fleet.

First up, one of the oldest Large Ships in the game - the Firespray-31. This is the ship type made famous as Boba Fett's Slave 1. 3 attack, 2 evade, 6 hull and 4 shields with Focus, Target Lock and Evade. The basic Bounty Hunter has 3 pilot skill, costs 33 points, and can equip a cannon, a bomb, a crew member and a missile. The top pilot is Boba Fett himself, at skill 8 and cost 39 points, and the ability to swap between left/right banks when moving. Looking at the dial it has green bank 1s, green forwards at 1 and 2. White forwards up to 4 and white banks and turns at speeds 2 and 3, with red K-turns at speeds 3 and 4.

The ship comes with one title card - Slave 1, which allows the fitment of a torpedo. It also comes with a number of other useful cards (it's a good source of missiles for starters).

The other big thing to note is that it has an auxiliary firing arc which is 90 degrees facing aft. This is another big difference between Attack Wing and X-Wing - in X-Wing the primary weapon can fire in the Aux arc but the secondary weapons can not. In Attack Wing it's the other way around, only secondary weapons can fire aft.

If I were to try and build with this ship I'd probably go with one of the intermediate pilots, Krassis Trelix (skill 5, cost 36) allows an attack die reroll when using secondary weapons, or Kath Scarlet (skill 7, cost 38) generates a stress on the defending ship if they cancel a critical hit.

All in all, I'd rate this as a good ship (despite power creep), albeit a touch costly. Ive yet to come up with any three-ship builds that include a Firesprey which I'd consider viable. This ship was released as an Imperial ship, however bonus cards were released with one of the big Scum and Villainy packs to allow the Firesprey to be used with that faction - but I don't have that pack.

The other ship I acquired is the TIE Reaper, which was one of the last released ships for X-Wing Version 1. For some reason this is considered a "small" ship, even though the model is bigger than a U-Wing which uses the large base. *shrugs*. The basic Reaper has 3 attack (on a shuttle!!!), 1 evade, 6 hull and 2 shields, with the Focus, Evade and Jam capabilities. It has two crew slots, has 1 pilot skill and costs 22 points. The top pilot is Major Vermeil who has 6 skill and costs 26 points. Honestly, I'm not that impressed with any of the pilot abilities.

The maneuver dial is a bit lackluster as well. It has green forwards from 1 to 3 and a green bank 2. It has white bank and turn 1, a red turn 2, and a red bank 3. It can however do a red S-Loop 1 and a red full stop (i.e. it doesn't have to move).

Not sounding great so far, but I mentioned a Jam ability earlier - perhaps that makes the ship worthwhile? In my opinion, not really. I don't see this ship trying to get up, close and personal. With a small base it's not brilliant for blocking and it's movement dial isn't good for close in dogfighting. Yet Jam only works at Range 1 (360 degree arc) or at Range 2 (only in forward firing arc). When a target is assigned a Jam token they have to spend a Focus, Evade or Target Lock to clear it (I think, the guide isn't particularly clear).

So far I'm not selling this ship particularly well - yet it'll probably become a big part of my Imperial builds (in fact, I'll probably be playing it next week).

Firstly, it can be equipped with Adaptive Ailerons. This is a mixed blessing as it allows you to make 3 banks white instead of red. However, before making your planned move you MUST always make a forward or bank 1 move. This can be used to make the ship faster and turn better but as it MUST be used while the ailerons are fitted care must be used to ensure you don't run into things.

The second big thing is the two crew slots (with no restrictions - the TIE Bomber shuttle has two slots but a restriction on the crew point cost). This is important as it means that Emperor Palpatine (which came with my Imperial Raider) finally has a ride as he costs 8 points and requires two crew slots (must have a fat ass for using the force instead of physically moving). Palpatine is huge (he got nerfed big time for competitive play) as once per round he may change any dice result on any friendly ship!!!

The final big thing is that the Reaper comes with Director Krennic. Krennic costs 5pts, takes only one crew slot, and is about as impressive as Palpatine. At the start of the game he assigns an "Optimised Prototype" status to any friendly ship. That ship gets to:
- Increase it's shield value by 1 (to compare, there is a shield modification costing 4pts that also raises the value by 1 - so Krennic has almost paid for himself already).
- When attacking with the primary weapon they can spend 1 die result to remove 1 shield from the defending ship (it doesn't say what die result, so you could spend a blank! Basically cancel a die for a single shield - every round!!)
- After an attack, the Krennic equipped ship gains a free target lock on the defender if it's within range 1-2 of the attacker!!!
Plus it can carry a second crew if you have the spare points!

So, the Reaper is potentially a very good support ship, is slightly tankier than most TIEs and has good guns.

As always, picture attached. The models (as I've come to expect) are very good. I've actually found that people on ebay are starting to sell X-Wing components separately instead of as complete packs, so if people want just the ships they can be picked up cheaper than buying each game expansion.

 

[kjc733]

I've long decided that I wanted to play TIE Defenders in an Imperial match - they are quite frankly the best small ship on the side of the Empire. The only question up till now has been what the third ship will be, and how to keep the cost down enough to make them useful.

My planned Imperial Build:

TIE Reaper - Scarif Base Pilot - cost 22pts, skill 1.
Reasoning - I want to carry Director Krennic into the fray, it has shields so won't be utterly wasted by bombs, and has 3 attack if anyone ends up in front of it. Quite frankly it's a damage sink and if it gets destroyed it's not a critical blow.
Advanced Ailerons title (0pts) - it will hopefully allow it to keep up with the TIE Defenders.
Lightweight Frame modification (2pts) - adds a second evade dice to the Reaper if it gets shot at by more than one red die (almost a certainty).
Director Krennic (5pts) - so I can put Optimised prototype on one of the Defenders. If it gives the Reaper a Target Lock as well, so much the better.
TOTAL 29pts

TIE Defender - Countess Ryad - cost 34pts, skill 5.
Reasoning - While it is usually good practice have a high skill value, Defenders like to go far and if they move first they won't get blocked. They will, however, have the option of blocking other ships. Ryad's skill is that se can treat any forward move as a K-turn... and all forward moves on a Defender (2 through 5) are green moves, so de-stressing on a K-Turn is a thing!
TIE/x7 title (-2pts) - any move greater than 3 gets a free evade (and the ship has a base 3 evade anyway...). It removes the ability to carry cannons and missiles but I don't have the free points anyway. Plus, it reduces the cost of of the ship by 2, giving me more options.
Twin Ion Engine Mk II (1pt) - turns the 1 through 3 white banks green, so anything except a hard turn will now remove stress.
Optimised Prototype (from Krennic) - Adds a shield (making 4) and helps strip shields from targets.
Push The Limit elite talent (3pt) - allows a second action each round at the cost of a stress. However as Ryad with the Ion Engines has so much green on the dial, removing stress is easy.
TOTAL 36pts

TIE Defender - Glave Squadron Pilot - cost 34pts, skill 6
Reasoning - Mid level pilot that can take an Elite talent.
TIE/x7 title (-2pts) - as above
Stealth Device modification (3pts) - adds an extra defence dice (making 4), but only until you've been hit, at which point this modification is discarded.
Trick Shot elite talent (0pt) - because its the only 0pt skill I have so I may as well use it. Improves the odds of hitting when shooting through obstacles.
TOTAL 35pts

Comments:
Initially I went Stealth Device on both Defenders and didn't have the Tactical Officer or Ion Engines. This would have made both Defenders just as slippery, however the green straights sort of make the Defender predictable when stressed and as Ryad is already somewhat unpredictable I decided to make her more of a maneuver ship than a stealthy one. That said, the additional shield will give her an additional touch of survivibility given the loss of that extra green die.

Plans on usage - use the K-turns to get behind them while the Reaper shoots them in the face and takes the agro. No one likes Krennic anyway...

TIE/D is so tempting as it allows the use of the primary and secondary weapon in a single turn (ion them then blast them), but they're just too costly. So for now, double TIE/x7, and maybe I'll come up with a TIE/D build at a later date.

 

[kjc733]

A friend asked me if I could keep an eye out for a Ghost - and this week I managed to get hold of one. Second hand so already open so I may as well describe it.

The pack actually includes the VCX-100 and a shuttle, both from Star Wars Rebels (which I haven't seen). As always the models are really well done. The VCX is on a large base, but the stand for it isn't particularly good. It's got a tripod arrangement to support the ship structure, but only one is a peg, so it lies between flimsy and wobbly.

The base VCX-100 has 4 attack, 0 evade (!!!), 10 hull and 6 shields with a skill of 3. It comes with a Focus, Target Lock and Evade abilities. The ship has a metric tonne of slots open to it, one system, one turret, two torpedoes and two crew. But all this comes in at a costly 35pts. The top pilot is Hera Syndulla with skill 7 costing 40pts and an ability that allows you to alter the dial post reveal to another maneuver of the same difficulty (red or green). Unusually none of the plots can equip an elite talent - probably because it would be massively overpowered with the available slots. The VCX-100 is also slightly unusual in that it has an aft 90 degree arc from which it can fire torpedoes.

The Attack Shuttle lives up to its name, it has 3 attack, 2 evade, 2 hull and 2 shield and has Focus, Barrel Roll and Evade. It comes with a turret and a crew slot. The lowest value shuttle is actually a named card, Zeb Orrelios at 18pts and skill 3 and allows the cancelling of crits before hits (useful in staying in the fight. The top pilot is again Hera Syndulla at 22pts, 7 skill and with an elite talent and the same ability as the VCX-100.

The two ships come with a mix of pilots from the show, Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger , Kanan Jarrus and Chopper. These also double as crew cards (that's a lot of crew cards), plus there is an assortment of other stuff which is generally either good for the Ghost or just good overall (and bombs, lots of bombs).

Title cards are the Ghost and the Phantom, and they allow the Attack Shuttle to dock with the VCX-100 and perform a primary and a turret attack. Other cards of note are Hera who allows red maneuvers even when stressed; Sabine Wren, who allows you to have a bomb slot and ups the bomb damage a bit; and Chopper who allows the performing of an action while stressed for the cost of a damage.

While I'm not interested in the Ghost myself (too big and clumsy to store and use for my liking), I do have copies of both Sabine and Chopper as it allows for interesting options on ships that can carry crew. I have visions of the Falcon performing a sloop maneuver ending with its ass immediately in front of the enemy, Chopper clearing the stress, Sabine dropping a cluster mine as the action, and the enemy ship running over the mine. Cue evil laugh.

EDIT - forgot picture

 

[Shadow2Lead]

This is the only game I play locally. I strongly recommend getting the conversion kits for second edition, there are a variety of quality of life improvements (eg they made the maneuver dials red green color blind friendly), but even more importantly they moved the costs for everything off the cards to a PDF and free app allowing the developers to rebalance the game roughly every six months as well as do a points hot fix if they really mess it up. Second edition is currently far better balanced than first edition was.

 

[kjc733]

Yeah, it looks like they've made a lot of improvements. For me however it's not worth it as the people I play against all use 1st Ed and the cost of the 2nd Ed stuff is significantly higher than 1st Ed.

 

[Shadow2Lead]

Definitely makes sense to keep playing 1st Ed then, still a great game! The first edition ships are so cheap, like you've mentioned Ebay can be an insanely cheap source of first edition models, probably 1/2 my ships at this point are from Ebay.