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First game of X Wing this Saturday. Questions on potential list.

4K views 41 replies 8 participants last post by  Sethis 
#1 ·
So after many false starts due to one thing or another, this Sat will be my first game of X Wing. Having split two starter sets with a mate I will have available two X Wings and an E Wing I bought on impulse last week. I haven't even gotten a hold of the rule book or x wings yet, (he'll bring them along on Sat) so my mate threw a list together and mentioned something about having Luke Skywalker and and Biggs Darklighter in the x wings, plus the E Wing.

So, good list, bad list? I'm not too pushed as I always write off the first ten games of a new system as tutorials for learning the rules, but it's nice to have some advanced knowledge of what I'll be using. Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
I think for the first 5-10 games, like you said, it won't be about the lists but more the mechanics and gameplay and getting used to how individual ships function.

Learning the different movement, strengths and weaknesses of the ships comes naturally with learning the core mechanics of the game. You'll actually grasp the game in about 30 minutes easily.

I'm not a massive Rebel player but you'll find Biggs in a lot of lists as his ability means that he has to be targeted at range one rather than other rebel ships.

Luke's ability is that he can use one focus roll as an evade (a latent action that X Wing's don't have) Equip him with R2-D2 and he becomes quite beastly. X Wings are more durable than TIE Fighters and have shields but aren't as manoeuverable.

I have only used my E-Wing once and its a bit of a tank with some good named pilots and upgrades. Once you start flying the ships, you get a feel of how best to operate them, what their movement dials are like and what their limitations are.

But I guarantee one thing, you will love the game :)
 
#4 ·
Skywalker with Marksmanship and R2D2 is a pretty amazing ship. Luke gets the free 'shift a dice from focus to evade' as was mentioned, plus Marksmanship allows you to change one focus to a critical hit, and any other focus results to hits on the attack. R2D2 allows you to regenerate one shield for every green maneuver you make, a great moment when you shed stress, regain a shield, and fire on someone point blank that thought they had you. Now that I'm checking out Biggs though, it might be worth dropping R2 with him since if you can keep close quarters on Luke you'll be taking more shots thanks to hit pilot ability.

E-Wings I have no experience with, they look pretty boss though. Shields over Hull Points every day, and those are pretty nice action and upgrade bars.
 
#5 ·
The first thing you have to understand is X-wing is very different to a game like 40k. Although it may appear to be very simple and luck dependent, nothing is further from the truth. At it's core this game is about manoeuvring. Manoeuvre poorly and you'll miss opportunities to shoot and have uneven trades. Manoeuvre well and you'll push the burden of luck onto your opponent.

This early in your starfighter career, the main mistake people make is to deploy in a sort of scattered formation to cover the board. This is a mistake because ideally you want all of you squad to focus fire one enemy ship and destroy it quickly, to reduce your opponents offensive capability. So deploy your ships together and try to keep them near each other for at least the first pass and trade with the opponent. After that formations tend to fall apart a bit, which is ok. Obviously it's WAY more complicated than that, but for your first couple of games that's plenty.

Here's a decent tutorial on flying in formation.

Just some general tips:
-Focus-fire! Focus-fire! Focus-fire!
-Try not to hit asteroids or other ships.
-Disengaging with a hurt ship and re-entering the fight at a later stage is usually better than getting one more shot before exploding.
-For offence: target lock & focus > target lock > focus
-For defence: evade & focus > evade > focus
-Focus is good for low pilot skill ships that shoot last, if you don't use the focus on defence you have it for offence.

As to your squad, it's difficult to build a solid list with just the core set and one expansion. The problem is you won't have the 'ideal' upgrade cards that go with many of the ships, but luckily because your mate is getting into the game at the same time you're both in the same boat. If you're planning on 100pt games to begin with, som

45 Corran w/ Marksmanship + R2D2 + advanced sensors
27 Biggs w/ R7 astromech
27 Red w/ Proton torpedoes

Not the best list in the world, but still pretty decent. Biggs hangs out at the back of the pack and acts as extra HP for Corran and the Red. Marksmanship is OK on Corran because it works with both of his attacks, and R2D2 pair with agility 3 and the evade action makes Corran almost invincible in a 1v1 endgame dogfight.

Some essential reading. The four 'golden rules' at the beginning are particularly important.


Good luck dude!
 
#6 ·
#8 ·
Late to the party, that's me :laugh:

E-Wings are pretty expensive for what you get really. Although Corran Horn's ability is something nifty to pull out of your sleeve when you really need to blat something hard. Trouble is, you're limited by not being able to fire in the next turn.
Etahn is handy to have near your other ships due to being able to change one hit over to a critical. Plus, with that being his card ability it doesn't cost you the chance to take an action. Handy! :good:

In short regarding E-Wings, I'd take a named pilot as the prices for the Knave and Blackmoon Sqd pilots are a tad silly :)


Regarding X-Wings, I can't add anything else to what's been said. They are a good solid ship to have, and yeah, Biggs is very(!) handy to have! :good:
 
#10 ·
Awesome.

Squadron Builder is down so you just saved me from having to get all my fecking cards out to price a list I built off the top of my head at work earlier :good:
 
#12 ·
Ssh! Don't mention S&V, It takes ages to calm @Logaan down again.....
 
#13 · (Edited)
So, after many a false start and crossed wire, I finally got a proper game played this evening, my Rebels versus a Howlrunner tie swarm with Lambda(?) shuttle. Very fun game that even feature Luke going up against Darth Vader, and losing. Due to only having access to three ships, I had a very elite list, with Luke and Biggs Darklighter in X-Wings, and Corran Horn in an E-Wing. Luke and Biggs were ok, but Horn was the star. He killed two ties, including Howlrunner, and the shuttle before finally succumbing to the massed fire of the rest of the ties. My first conclusion is that I need a couple more ships in the list. There were just too many enemy ships to be able to concentrate the fire of my three. Looking forward to the next game.

My list, thrown together on the spot. Was not familiar enough with Biggs skill to keep him close to Luke or Corran, but it's about the learning for now.


Closing in for the kill.


The swirl of battle.


Father and son face off.
 
#14 ·
Those are some stellar looking Imperials - Bravo to your friend!

If you plan on playing purely rebel, I highly suggest to look into 3 ships.

B-Wings, Y-Wings, and Z-95s.

Shooty Tank, Defensive Tank, and utility player are the best ways to describe those three ships.

Generic X-wings (Red Squadron) are decent ships too, very jack of all trade-y.
 
#15 · (Edited)
With the new stuff out now I am not sure X wings are so brilliant, it is a lot of points for not so much health.

Y wings.... they have had a huge boost from the S&V expansion, as the BTL-A4 title makes them able to shoot twice per round. Otherwise they have issues.

B wings are popular, though the meta seems to be shifting. You can also look into the yt2400 or yt1300 now it has restocked, the turrets can be nice.

I am also coming to adore the HWK, though more as a scum ship. It is a cheap support ship that can take a turret and help manipulate the game.

If I were you I might try buying:
S&V most wanted, plus an imperial Y wing and imperial Z95, plus an HWK. This way you expand both your imperials and also make Scum playable for you, as all of those work for both fleets. Most Wanted has the Y wing title you would want for Rebel too, and you end up with three Z95s, with enough ship tokens to field two as rebel or three as scum.
 
#16 ·
With the new stuff out now I am not sure X wings are so brilliant, it is a lot of points for not so much health.
It's a sad fact of the game that the iconic X-wing, the ship the game is literally named after, has been left behind a bit compared to some of the other rebel ships.

The X-wing suffers from having too high a base cost, which makes the generic pilots who bring no tricks, extremely underwhelming. The named pilots are another story entirely; Tarn, Biggs, Luke, Wedge, Garven, Wes, all of these are great pilots if built correctly:

25 Tarn w/ R7
26 Biggs w/ R4D6
30 Garven w/ R2D6, Predator
38 Luke w/ R2D2, Lone Wolf, Engine
36 Wedge/Wes/Luke w/ R3A2, VI, Engine

The problem at the moment is the Rookie. The RSP is more a casualty of the current meta, but also shares the Rookies issues. At 21pts, the Rookie is just too expensive for what is essentially a glass cannon, with mediocre/poor manoeuvrability and only a few good upgrade options.

Presently, the only reason you'll see generic X-wings is the player using them: needed a cheap R3A2 platform, couldn't afford the 1pt to upgrade to a B-wing, or had a fluffy reason for taking X-wings instead.
 
#17 ·
Oh, I don't know.

My better amounts of success has been with a Gray Y, two Red X and Biggs :good:
 
#20 ·
Just to clarify, it's not just my kooky hypothesis that the X-wing isn't too great a ship at the moment. Some of the best players in the community, people like two-time worlds champion Paul Heaver, have brought up and discussed this topic multiple times over the years. The consensus is that the X-wing (particularly the generics) are overcosted by about 3 points. The developers have actually gone on record saying they're looking into a fix for the X-wing. They've done a great job of fixing the TIE advanced, so I can't wait to see what they have in store for the iconic X-wing.


Oh, I don't know.

My better amounts of success has been with a Gray Y, two Red X and Biggs
Your list alone isn't everything in X-wing. It also depends on how well you list counters you opponent's and obviously how good a player you are. I suspect one or both of those factors are in your favour. :good:


About X-Wings; I'm not sure how 2 shield, 3 hull and 3 attacks is "glass cannon"?

They are not "amazing" by any stretch of the imagination, but they are NOT a glass cannon.
When I say glass cannon I don't just mean a ship that is easy to kill, what I mean is a ship that has an imbalance between it's offence and defence tilted towards the offence. The PS1 TIE interceptor is the classic example of this; it hits hard, but can't really take a hit.

It's true the X-wing has 5 HP, but the problem is you're only taking half of the equation into account. How tough a ship is when it's being shot at depends on two main things; it's HP as you say, but also the ship's agility. Having 3 HP remaining on an agility 1 ship is very different to having 3 HP remaining on an agility 3 ship. The agility 1 ship is in major trouble, whereas the agility 3 ship is still quite happy.

If you crunch the numbers the B-wing, the X-wing's chief competitor, takes on average a whole shot more to kill than the X-wing pretty much no matter the circumstances. That's massive. That can mean the ship gets in a whole extra shot, or escapes and forces the enemy to chase it, or a whole host of other things. Throw in the fact that the B-wing is more manoeuvrable, and has access to better upgrades, and it's no surprise why people prefer the B-wing to the X-wing.


TIE Fighters are glass cannons, the closest thing to a glass cannon for the rebels is the A-Wing, and thats just because they are ridiculously expensive with any missile armament. I would say that the Z-95 is less so, because it is so much cheaper that it doesn't feel like a bad loss when/if it dies.
Again, just because the TIE fighter is squishy, doesn't mean it's a glass cannon. The TIE fighter isn't very tough with it's 3 hull, even at agility 3, but it also doesn't hit all that hard with it's attack 2 gun, which is why it's fairly balanced between offence and defence. The Z-95 is in exactly the same boat, 4HP at agility 2 isn't very tough, but it's attack 2 gun also isn't particularly threatening. The A-wing is actually tilted towards the opposite end of the spectrum and ends up being a defensive ship (slightly tougher than the X-wing in fact) with a weakish attack.

Here's a question to illustrate the point that X-wings are glass cannons and Z-95's are not. You're playing against this list:

63 (3x) Rookie
36 (3x) Bandit

My question is this: which ships do you focus-fire down first, the X-wings, or the Headhunters? To keep it simple, just assume all of your ships are range 2 of all of his ships, and all of his ships target locked.


I find that X-Wings are run best in pairs, with two named pilots. I particularly enjoy Garven and Dutch playing off each other to grant focus and Target locks to both, and they play really nicely with a Kyle Hwk-290 or Jan crew member, or R5-K6 on Dutch. Wes or Wedge probably takes my number two spot after that.
Here a pair of X-wings I really like running together:
30 Garven w/ R2D6, Predator
25 Biggs

Garven always focuses, which paired with predator, gives him a focus and pseudo-target lock on offence. He then passes off his focus to Biggs who target locked, giving him a focus and target lock for offence too. Attack 3 ships that can get focus and target lock for offence are deadly (it's 3 hits ~80% of the time). Normally your opponent will realise that Garven is the threat here and try to focus-fire him down quick to rob you of that synergy, and because Garven's pretty squishy it's not hard for an enemy to take him out fairly fast. Biggs protects Garven (for a while) and allows him to buff your squad for longer than he would be able to on his own.

I like the combo so much I even have an all X-wing list that I feel is pretty competitive:

30 Garven w/ R2D6, Predator
26 Biggs w/ R4D6
23 Rookie w/ R3A2
21 Rookie

The only problem is it's a pretty squishy joist list (a well played Biggs can help mitigate that), and it has no direct way to counter Phantom (R4D6 and R3A2 help, but they're not 'proper' counters).
 
#18 ·
About X-Wings; I'm not sure how 2 shield, 3 hull and 3 attacks is "glass cannon"?

They are not "amazing" by any stretch of the imagination, but they are NOT a glass cannon.

----

TIE Fighters are glass cannons, the closest thing to a glass cannon for the rebels is the A-Wing, and thats just because they are ridiculously expensive with any missile armament. I would say that the Z-95 is less so, because it is so much cheaper that it doesn't feel like a bad loss when/if it dies.
 
#19 ·
I find that X-Wings are run best in pairs, with two named pilots. I particularly enjoy Garven and Dutch playing off each other to grant focus and Target locks to both, and they play really nicely with a Kyle Hwk-290 or Jan crew member, or R5-K6 on Dutch. Wes or Wedge probably takes my number two spot after that.
 
#23 ·
@ChaosRedCorsairLord I think that we have differing opinions in regards to the X-Wing, could it be cheaper - yes but I think just LOWERING the base cost is the wrong choice (see fix for the TIE Advanced that you pointed out); I think just granting a Title card of "Rogue" Squadron" that simply allows a Lvl 4 pilot to have a medal option.

If you want to continue this conversation, I feel that the "X-Wing Math" thread would be a more appropriate spot - seeing how its "math-hammer" / balance-of-game related.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Maybe I'm dumb, well dumber than I thought, but doesn't everything go as such for a normal "turn"

Activate (decloak)
Reveal & move
Action
Shoot
clean up

Are they trying to say it goes like this instead?

Activate
Reveal & move
Action (decloak)
Shoot
clean up

----

Edit: Because currently I feel that nothing actually "changed" for the phantom, just that the language of the card was phrased a little bit better. Am I the only one who feels like this?
 
#28 ·
Are they trying to say it goes like this instead?
It would have to say something like 'during the activation phase but before preforming actions', no?

It really just looks like any pilot or upgrade card abilities get taken care of before any cloaked ships get the opportunity to do such a thing should such a conflict of order arise.
 
#29 ·
Previously you decloaked at your PS step.

Now you decloak at the beginning of the turn, before PS1 (or even 0).

It means that Phantom players no longer pick a decloak direction after seeing where all PS1-7 ships have moved to - for the named ones with VI at least. They must instead decloak before seeing any maneuvers, and rely on their pre-set dial to keep them out of trouble by dodging arcs and so on. It's a lot more tricky that way! However it does make them very flexible blockers if they have to be. Whether that's a desirable use for a 40+pt ship is dependent on the situation...
 
#34 ·
That's exactly it. The ship was due for a massive nerf, but there are a couple minor advantages as well. You can now decloak while ionised, and also your decloak options are a lot more difficult to block than before.

It's still a great ship, but now it actually takes quite a bit of skill to use, and is capable of making mistakes. For example, if your opponent decides to do a really unexpected manoeuvre before you could just alter your decloak to suit the situation, or just not decloak at all. Now because you commit to the decloak before your opponent moves, you can have no target to shoot at and hence no recloak via ACD. It mean you need to pick your decloaks carefully (you know like a stealth ship would do), rather than the current decloak every turn, shoot and recloak.
 
#31 ·
^ Barrel Roll is a great action, and my buddy's E-Wing is a terror. Trick is just the cost, as you pointed out. You could almost take three Bandit Pilots for just the base cost of Corran Horn, I guess it all just comes down to your play style. I don't see me choosing it over a YT-2400 any day of the week. That ship is supremely maneuverable for its base size.


@Sethis thanks for clearing that up....yet again! Sure is a big change for the Phantom. :drinks:
 
#32 ·
Generic E-Wings are horribly overpriced unfortunately, and while Corran can be very good (highest potential damage output in the game during 1 turn - 8 red dice with Target Locks and Focus) I tend to avoid them most of the time when building Rebel lists. Maybe because it's the fighter I know least about - they didn't feature very heavily in the EU the way B and A wings did, and they're not iconic like the Y and X.

If you're playing epic games though, Etahn is choice (and target!) number 1, no exceptions. Having a significant proportion of your ships getting Crits with every attack is no joke.
 
#33 ·
E-Wings can fuck right off at their current points cost :laugh:
 
#35 ·
Got a big this Saturday, and while I have enjoyed running the small elite list mentioned above, I decided I needed a couple more ships just for variety. We're also thinking of going to 150 pts for the game just so we can get more ships on the board to simulate a battle similar to the films. We have the whole day to kill, so there's no time scale to get the game done.
 

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#36 ·
A-Wings make me cry.....
 
#38 ·
My impression fo A wings is that when kitted to be fun they cost a lot for the red dice they roll. That said my mate ran Tycho with PTL and daredevil for a mini game and it was insane quite how far he travelled post maneuver.

However with chardan refit is only 15 pyts as a nippy flanker. I've nto played with A wings myself, but they seem... difficult.
 
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