X-Wing: Mistakes & Tactics

X-Wing & My Mistakes

Recently I played a game of X-Wing where I suffered a devastating loss, and I consider myself quite good at this game, despite still being new to it. I was up against a rebel team of ion turret Y-Wings, whilst I had 2 Push the Limit (PTL) A-Wings, 2 Assault Missile Z-95s and a T-70 X-Wing.

The rule for the game was no named characters, which I was more than happy with, but I made a huge mistake with my list build. I spent a total of 12 points in upgrades across what should have been 2 cheap and disposable ships. Those 12 points were largely wasted in this game as the Z-95s didn’t last very long, whereas the T-70 X-Wing with no upgrades lasted quite a while. If the T-70 had been upgraded with either R2-D2 or the PTL + R2 Astromech combo which use up 6 & 4 points respectively, it would have been a shining star in my list. The lesson here is not to waste points on ships you expect to die.

Next up was my manuevering, I have been practicing flying in formation recently, and I really took a risk to keep my A-Wings in formation. This resulted in my front A-Wing landing on an asteroid. It suffered 1 damage immediately and was unable to perform any actions, so it couldn’t hunker up with an Evade and Focus unlike my other A-Wing behind it. To make matters worse, my opponent loosed up the ion turrets on this vulnerable A-Wing, with forced it to move 1 forward back onto the asteroid next turn with no actions.

As you would expect the A-Wing didn’t last long after this, and my other A-Wing and T-70 X-Wing were forced to pick up the slack for the whole game. The lesson here is don’t risk flying vital ships onto asteroids (you can still go through them), and try to keep your distance from them when your opponent is spamming ion turrets.

Action Economy

Now, onto the tactic that has helped me through so many games, Action Economy. Above I mentioned Push the Limit, I love this card as it gives you a free action, albiet you get stressed, but if you have plenty of green manoeuvres (hello R2 Astromech) you can mitigate this. Actions are the life source in this game, they help you modify dice rolls, move out of the way or even do something annoying, and sometimes you need more than one action to stay alive.

There are alternatives, for example Fire Control System gives you free target locks after you shoot, so if you have plently of actions to choose from, you can take this and forget about performing target lock actions for the game.

An excellent ship that I enjoy using is the following;

Green Squadron Pilot 19pts

Push the Limit 3pts

Chardaan Refit -2pts

For 20 points you get a ship that can be near unkillable with focus & evade actions, or deadly at range 1 with Focus & Target Lock. Its fast and manoeuvrable and can quickly get away from pursuing ships. For 3 points you can boost its threat level with A-Wing Test Pilot & Outmanoeuvre. This allows you to remove an enemies evade dice if you come from outside their firing arc. At 23pts, you get a speedy ship with excellent action economy, speed, manoeuvrability and decent firepower.

Hope you found this all useful

PeakWargamer Aaron.