X-Wing: Named Pilots- Maarek Steele

Named Pilots- Maarek Steele

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

Card: Maarek Steele (27)
Card Text: When your attack deals a face up Damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 Damage cards, choose 1 to deal, and discard the others.
Ability is an Action?: No.
Excels at: Uh...
Quick Take: Stele is another one of those guys like Winged Gundark that looks better on paper than he seems to function in reality.

The first, and probably most significant knock against Stele is that he's only two points cheaper than Vader. Not to get completely sidetracked onto Vader, but briefly, for those two points, Vader has +2 Pilot Rank and a second Action every turn. That's a much better ROI any way you want to cut it. Whether Stele should be cheaper or Vader should be more expensive, my opinion is Stele should be cheaper, but whatever.

I want to love Maarek Stele. I want to be the guy who finally figures out the proper way to use Stele because dammit, I loved TIE Figther back in the day. After getting my first PC for Christmas in '96, I subsequently spent New Year's Eve playing TIE Fighter instead of partying on the streets of Austin, TX. While other twenty-somethings were out living it up on Sixth Street, I was getting Force Lighting tattoos, so don't misunderstand my intent here- I'm not just another internet Maarek hater. I just still can't figure him out.

All that said, if you can manage to trigger his card ability, it really can be pretty devastating to the victim.

Elite Skills/ Upgrades: Let's get this out of the way right off the bat- yes, I've tried Maarek + Cluster Missiles + Marksmanship. Yes, the combo works, but no, I didn't feel it was worth it's points as there's still quite a lot of variables in that equation when there are cheaper and more reliable combos out there for the Empire. Admittedly, that might be more the way I feel about Marksmanship in general than about Stele in particular, but it left me underwhelmed- especially so for a setup that's running a point over a full third of a standard tournament list. Your mileage may vary, but honestly, I'd be shocked if it did.

If you put a gun to my head and said, "Run Maarek in a Wave 1 list", after experimenting with some offensive builds (including the misisles + Marksmanship one above), I'd probably just strap some Clusters to him and stick him front and center on the TIE swarm pile in front of Howlrunner with not other upgrades or skills. I think this role plays to his strengths- he has a decently high Pilot Rank (but not really enough to justify an application of Swarm Tactics, in my opinion) and he has shields on his ship. His special ability is kind of nasty when/ if you can get it to go off, so a Rebel player can't just ignore him, but if he's putting shots onto Maarek, then he's not focusing on Howlrunner, which of course is the whole point.

Would I take something like that to a tournament? You know, I just might. I like doing non-standard stuff like that just to put my opponent on his back foot for a moment. That moment where he's going, "Hey- what's this guy figured out with Maarek?", might just be the moment he makes a mistake. I like to make my opponent think and make as many decisions as possible in my games because there's a good chance if you make a guy deviate from his normal game plan either by fielding a weird list or executing strange maneuvers, he's going to underthink or overthink and make a mistake. Of course, I'd much rather just go into a tournament situation with a good combination tacked onto Maarek, but again- I don't think that exists right now in Wave 1.

I really hope that some exotic combination of Wave 2 and Wave 1 stuff unlocks Maarek's true potential. I want to like the dude. I really, really do. I just really, really can't justify him right now.
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X-Wing: Named Pilots- Wedge Antilles

Named Pilots- Wedge Antilles

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

 
Card: Wedge Antilles (X-Wing) 29 Pts.
Card Text: When attacking, reduce the defender's agility value by 1 (to a minimum of 0).
Ability is an Action?: No.
Excels at: Attacking.
Quick Take: Wedge is expensive but boasts the highest pilot ranking on the Rebel side along with a special ability that helps his offensive output outcome. As many Imperial players will attempt to remove Wedge early from the game, it’s advisable to equip him with a droid to help him stay in the game longer. Any droid can help Wedge stay alive, but perhaps the best options for the average player would be R2-F2, R5-D8, or R2-D2. See their entries for more details.
Elite Skills/ Upgrades: Wedge with Swarm Tactics is a good combo as is Squad Leader. Both of these skills play off Wedge’s high pilot skills. If a player plans on having Wedge on a flank and too far away to effectively use Swarm Tactics or Squad Leader, the rest of the Elite Talents can all help keep him alive, but honestly, I don't know that you'd need them. A lone, roving Wedge is probably better served by a droid.

As Wedge is such a bullet magnet, many people will team him up with Biggs Darklighter to a nearly automatic degree. If you equip Wedge with a droid that requires an action (R2-F2, etc.), consider flying him with Garven Dreis or Dutch Vander as they convey Focus and Target Locks respectively which should help mitigate the loss of Wedge's Action to trigger the droid's ability. Some creative use of Swarm Tactics on either of those pilots along with some available targets of opportunity and Wedge can even benefit from either of those tokens in his shooting phase. Crazy.

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X-Wing: Elite Pilot Skills- Swarm Tactics

Elite Pilot Skills- Swarm Tactics

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

Swarm Tactics (2)
Card Text: At the start of the Combat Phase, choose 1 ship at Range 1. Until the end of this phase, treat the chosen ship as if it’s pilot skill were equal to your pilot skill.
Usage in Game: To boost a ship/ pilot’s Pilot Rank to get some shots off earlier than he’d normally fire.
Action?: No.

It’s still kind of amazing to me that Swarm Tactics isn’t a “dotted” card, doesn’t require an Action, and is such a low-points card. Regardless of what faction you play, this is a card you should have on your best pilots, full stop. The ability to have a low Pilot Rank ship resolve its combat at a higher step is massive in this game and with the only real limitation being the target ship having to be within Range 1? Oh well.

Swarm Tactics isn’t without it’s more complicated applications either- it has been confirmed in the FAQ that multiple Swarm Tactics upgrades “chain” together. For example, Vader with Swarm Tactics flanked with two Black Squadron Pilots, one of whom has Swarm Tactics, effectively bestows Swarm Tactics to all three ships, and yes, all three ships resolve combat at Pilot Rank 9. Nasty Imperial players could use this chaining ability to create high Pilot Rank “bubbles” that move about as needed bestowing the higher Pilot Rank to ships who need it most. It would take some fairly precise moving and maneuvering, but imagine the previous example of Vader and the 2 Black Squadron Pilots, but now imagine they all possess Swarm Tactics and the wingmen are spread to the limits of Range 1 from Vader. That’s a pretty big area of Pilot Rank 9 effect.

While this bubble trick doesn’t work as well with Rebels, Swarm Tactics is still quite useful, even if you don't deploy in one big pile in the middle. Pair Luke with Swarm Tactics with a Rookie Pilot following closely enough behind to be within Range 1 of him, and you’ve got one heckuva 1-2 punch that’ll drop just about anyone but Vader before they have a chance to really react.

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X-Wing: Elite Pilot Skills- Marksmanship

Elite Pilot Skills- Marksmanship 

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

Marksmanship (3)
Card Text: When attacking this round, you may change one of your <eyeball> results to a <crit> and all of your other <eyeball> results to <hits>.
Usage in game: Similar to Focus, but automatically bestows a Crit result instead of just hits.
Action?: Yes

At a glance, this is basically paying 3 points for a Focus Action, but one of the eyeballs you rolled becomes a crit instead of just a hit. This is fairly significant in and of itself as crits can be pretty nasty and of course, often have an ongoing effect that really screws up the victim’s day. All that said, bear in mind that if you’re shooting at somebody who still has shields, this ability will do absolutely nothing for you a Focus wouldn’t as crits have no different effect than hits on shields.

Digging deeper, the use I see for Marksmanship is stacking with a Target Lock, where you can re-roll the results you want, regardless of what they are. Of course, as Marksmanship is an action, you’d need to have the TL from a previous round. If you’ve got one though, you could use Marksmanship with Proton Torpedoes and you’re practically assured of registering all hits and at least one crit. It’d also go nicely with Concussion Missiles as Marksmanship switches <eyeball> results and Concussion Missiles already has a built-in rule to change a <blank> result to a hit. Again though, kind of a waste on ships with shields left.

The thing that jumps out at me is you need kind of a lot of variables to be in conjunction contextually for this to work well enough to 1) make you take it over the more versatile Focus Action and 2) feel like you got your points worth. This is one of those cards I look at and wonder if it’s true value isn’t more apparent once Wave 2 has dropped. Otherwise, unless you’re just so much better at movement/ maneuvering than your opponent that you find yourself behind him all the time and wish you had a Focus action with more pop, I can’t see actually paying for Marksmanship over the free and available to every ship Focus.

That said, a case could be make for giving Skywalker Marksmanship as his special ability is kind of a Focus-lite that only works on defense.

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X-Wing:Secondary Weapon Systems- Proton Torpedoes

X-Wing:Secondary Weapon Systems- Proton Torpedoes

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

Proton Torpeodes (4)
Attack Dice: 4
Range: 2-3
Card Text: Spend your Target Lock and discard this card to perform this attack. You may change one of your <eyeball> results to a <crit>.
Usage: Doesn’t dovetail quite as nicely with Focusing as Concussion Missiles, but the built-in, one-die Focus to get a crit is a nice touch especially since you don't always have the luxury of waiting around a for another turn to pick up a Focus token to use along with the (pre-existing) Target Lock.

There’s a lot of debate (mostly anecdotal evidence vs. statistical math) on whether or not PTs are worth it. Here’s my take- if you value having a 4-dice attack at Range 3 (again- that the victim does not receive an extra Defense die for), then you should take some PTs. If you don’t, then you probably don’t need to bother.


I think the main reason so many people disregard PTs is because so many people use X-Wings, and X-Wings can get a 4 attack dice attack just by getting into Range 1 (which happens a lot because TIE fighters like to get into close combat), so you kind of look at PTs and say, “Why would I pay 4 points for that (not to mention it's a one-shot deal)?” Couple on the fact that everyone takes Ion Cannon Turrets on their Y-Wings (effectively giving them an Attack 3*) and you see why PTs don’t get much love- there’s just not much use for them in the Wave 1 stuff. If FFG had made them a Missile rather than a Torpedo (the symbols, I’m talking about here), I think they’d see more use, but as it is, contextually they don’t provide enough of a benefit for the points cost.

TL;DR- they aren't a bad card, but the only ships that can take them right now don't really need them.

That said, there is one pilot that I think not only do you always give PTs, but maybe the double load accessible only by a Y-Wing- Horton Salm. Salm has a special ability that dovetails so nicely with PTs, it’d be unfair if it wasn't so expensive. For the particulars on that, check out the article on Horton Salm.

As always thank you very much for visiting the site----------if you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them!----------You can help us out by joining us on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Scifiwargamers or Following us on twitter Here: @Marsekay-------If youre feeling VERY generous,by using the donate button or finally just browsing the site! ----------Thanks for visiting from the SciFiWargamers team.

X-Wing, Elite Pilot Skills- Squad Leader

Elite Pilot Skills- Squad Leader

 

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

Squad Leader (2)
Card Text: Choose a ship at Range 1-2 with a lower Pilot Rank than you. That ship may immediately perform a free action.
Usage in game: Ideally this card is given to a high ranking Pilot so as many ships as possible can benefit. Giving it to a Black Squadron TIE only really works if he’s surrounded by Academy TIEs, for example.
Action?: Yes. To use the Squad Leader Talent, it requires an action.
NOTE: This Elite Talent is dotted (is unique and cannot be replicated in squadron list).

There are two things you want to note right off the bat when it comes to Squad Leader- first, what a "free action" is, and secondly, this card effectively takes an Action from one ship and gives it to another as Squad Leader is itself, an Action.

The "free action" is simply a standard action available to you that doesn't count against the normal one action per round rule and takes place during a different part of the turn than the "Perform Action" step. As you're declaring this second free Action, you can't perform the same action again- it has to be a different Action than the one you have likely already declared. The cool thing though is since the timing is different, you can declare a free action if you've hit an asteroid or collided with somebody (dig the FAQ on this bit and the rulebook, specifically the Perform Action steps).

The giving away an Action so somebody else can have a free Action is fairly easy to get your head around, as is the obvious best Pilot to take this Elite Pilot Talent- Vader.

Squad Leader on the Rebel side only works on Wedge or Luke as they're the only pilots who can take Elite Pilot Talents. It works particularly well on a ship flying near Garven Dreis or Dutch Vander as those ships can give away Focuses and Target Locks respectively which often can mitigate the loss of the Action due to triggering Squad Leader. Just keep in mind, both of those pilots give their tokens away after they use them, so the recipient won’t get full use of those tokens if they’re at a higher Pilot Rank than Dreis or Vander (which they probably will be)*. Better than nothing, but don’t rely on it like it’s going to be the same as a Rebel Vader or something.

On the Imperial side, this card works best on Vader as again, it’s basically one ship trading it’s action to give another ship an action otherwise. With Vader having two actions, he can use Squad Leader and still have one action of his own to use. It can be decent on a TIE that's there more for support than offense though like Howlrunner for instance.

As always thank you very much for visiting the site----------if you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them!----------You can help us out by joining us on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Scifiwargamers or Following us on twitter Here: @Marsekay-------If youre feeling VERY generous,by using the donate button or finally just browsing the site! ----------Thanks for visiting from the SciFiWargamers team.

X-Wing, general concepts of listbuilding.

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

 

General Concepts of Listbuilding

General Concepts
As with most miniatures games, X-Wing uses a point system to rank the general effectiveness of pilots (and subsequently the ship they’re piloting) and the various upgrades available to them. Also like most miniatures games, the player immediately finds himself with a decision to make regarding the makeup of his flight roster- go for few ships worth more points or more ships worth less points?

How many ships?
Again- the most important skill to possess in X-Wing is being able to maneuver and move ships effectively, full stop. The best pilots and upgrades will not save you if you can’t get them into position to maximize effectiveness or have lost Actions because of collisions with asteroids or other ships. For this reason, I suggest to the new player to build lists in favor of more ships worth less points rather than fewer expensive ships. Simply put, there’s more room for error this way. Currently at 100 points, a Rebel player for example is either going to be fielding 3 highly tooled ships or 4 low to medium points ships with perhaps one high PR pilot. If a collision does occur from poor planning or a surprise move from the opponent, the player with only three ships has just lost 33% of his actions for the round, while the 4-ship player has only lost 25%.

The exception here would be the beginner Imperial player as he can mathematically field up to 8 TIEs in a standard 100 point game. Novice players would likely have great difficulty maneuvering all those ships in effective ways without colliding. Recall that X-Wing is played on a 3’ x 3’ surface; now imagine moving around 8 bases worth of TIEs and trying to maneuver them around each other in anything but straight lines. See what I mean?

I think the “sweet spot” for a 100 points Rebel squadron for anything but an advanced player is definitely four ships, and I strongly advise 4 X-Wings for new/ novice players. For an Imperial player, I’d suggest no more than 6 ships, 5 being preferable for the purposes of movement and maneuvering at least while still getting the feel for the game.

How many upgrades?
In the X-Wing Miniatures rule system, not all ships have the same upgrades available to them. In fact, some low-points/ low Pilot Rank ships have zero upgrades available to them while expensive pilots in the game often have a plethora of upgrades available to them in the form of Elite Talents in addition to the more standard ship upgrades.

I think the key to choosing upgrades largely stems from the player and his play style, but speaking in generalities, few ship upgrades (generally secondary weapon systems and droids) are more effective for their points than paying the points for a unique Named pilot over a generic pilot.

For example, a Black Squadron TIE Fighter (14 pts) has access to the Elite Skills upgrades. Contextually (i.e. part of the 5-man TIE squadron I mentioned earlier as being optimal for a player still fairly new to the game), the most advantageous Elite Talent would probably be “Squad Leader” (2). This allows the Black Squadron TIE to bestow an additional Action upon a ship within range 1-2 as long as that ship has a lower Pilot Rating. Total cost with upgrade- 16 points.

Compare that ship to the named TIE Pilot “Backstabber.” Backstabber is for all intents and purposes a 16 points standard TIE Fighter, but Backstabber’s special rule states that if Backstabber is outside of his target’s firing arc, he rolls one additional attack die. With a TIE Fighter’s superior movement over every other ship in the game at this point, coupled with Backstabber’s relatively high Pilot Ranking (6 compared to Black Squadron’s 4), it’s highly likely if maneuvered effectively that Backstabber will be able to bring 3 attack dice to bear with regularity- the same as an X-Wing, and a whopping four attack dice if Backstabber can manage to get into range band 1 of his target while staying out of that ship’s firing arc.

Now, does that mean one should never, ever, ever take Black Squadron TIEs? Of course not. The unique named pilots may only appear in a player’s squadron one time- no multiple instances, so there are times where taking Black Squadron TIE is a great thing... it’s just going to most likely be after the player has already selected Backstabber and some of the other named TIE pilots.

For the Rebels, it plays out largely the same, but it’s much more difficult to kit out Rebel ships with much of anything in the way of upgrades because so few Rebel ships have access to Elite Talents. Really, there are only two upgrades- secondary weapon systems (of which there is exactly one usable by all Wave 1 Rebel fighters- Proton Torpedoes) and an Astromech droid. As Proton Torpedoes are of debatable effect  on X-Wings in this game (see below), that really only leaves the droid as a valid upgrade. Of the droids available, only four bestow effects that don’t require an Action- R2-D2, R5-K6, R2 Astromech, and R5 Astromech. This isn’t to say that having a droid whose special ability requires an action is a terrible idea, but nearly all of the named pilots have skills that are always in play and don’t require the player to use an Action. This of course is significant because any collision results in the loss of the player’s ability to take an Action for the round. I won’t get into the specifics of the droids here- I’ll leave that for the Rebel upgrades section.


So Which Do I Choose?
As with most miniatures game, the key to producing a successful list is to find the balance between the expensive few and the cheaper many. In X-Wing, this is artificially imposed by the rule that named pilots may only appear once in a player’s squadron as previously mentioned.

As for how many named pilots versus generics make the final cut into a player’s squadron, it depends on faction and how many ships make up the squadron along with a player’s own play style and tendencies. Taking a named pilot only benefits the owning player with a higher Pilot Ranking and a special ability not otherwise available to other builds of that ship- Luke in an X-Wing is exactly the same as anyone else in an X-Wing stats-wise; all X-Wings have 3 Attack, 2 Defense, 2 Shields, and 3 Hull regardless of who is driving. Tactically, the difference in points between Luke and Rookie X-Wing is Luke moving later in the movement phase (high pilot ranking) and picking his action after most everyone else has moved, shooting early in the shooting phase (high pilot ranking), and when he is attacked, he will change one “eyeball” result to an evade symbol (his special ability). Whether or not that’s worth the 7 points difference between Luke and a Rookie X-Wing pilot depends on the player, but most of the time and in most situations, it most certainly is worth it.


Understanding your upgrades/ special abilities
Realizing what effects a particular upgrade or pilot special ability yields in-game and how that assimilates into your play style is the most important aspect of list building in X-Wing. As there are no massively undercosted/ overcosted ships or options in the game, any build can be viable in the right hands, and conversely a list that the internet has fallen in love with can fall flat on its face if you run your ships into asteroids every turn.

As before, this article was written by Clint over at the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him.
 
As always thank you very much for visiting the site----------if you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them!----------You can help us out by joining us on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Scifiwargamers or Following us on twitter Here: @Marsekay-------If youre feeling VERY generous,by using the donate button or finally just browsing the site! ----------Thanks for visiting from the SciFiWargamers team.