This week I played 4 games of X Wing… 2 in person and 2 via TTS. Over these, I have come to a few conclusions about containment and value, and once again changed my preferred list from the one I THOUGHT was really good last week to one that’s already 2 games in this week and doing… OK?
But that’s enough executive summary. Let’s get down to details:
At the end of last week, I had settled on what I thought was a Very Good List:
“Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
Fanatical (2)
Primed Thrusters (5)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Concussion Bombs (5)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
“Rush” – TIE/vn Silencer (13)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (7)
Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 3
“Muse” – TIE/fo Fighter (8)
Squad Leader (5)
Fire-Control System (2)
Automated Target Priority (1)
Precision Ion Engines (1) Precision Ion Engines (which he can’t use but you have to use every point, right?).
Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2
Kylo Ren (EoD) – TIE/vn Silencer (18)
Determination (EoD) (0)
Malice (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
Ship Cost: 18 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 9 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 50
The “trick” is to drop a concussion bomb on turn one near Rush and make him I6 in the first turn. This is easy enough to do, but means you effectively give your opponent 2.167 points immediately. Then the rest of the game is flying around shooting things.
In my first game back sunday week ago, I was flying against Larry Leach, who was both a new player and recovering from a virus. His list was:
Captain Jonus (SSP) – TIE/sa Bomber (10)
Feedback Ping (0)
Plasma Torpedoes (0)
Proton Bombs (0)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Tomax Bren – TIE/sa Bomber (10)
Enduring (3)
Ion Torpedoes (5)
Cluster Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Maarek Stele – TIE Advanced x1 (11)
Crack Shot (5)
Cluster Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2
Nu Squadron Pilot – Alpha-Class Star Wing (9)
Fire-Control System (2)
Xg-1 Assault Configuration (0)
Ion Cannon (6)
Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 3
“Pure Sabacc” – TIE/sk Striker (10)
Marksmanship (2)
Hull Upgrade (9)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 50
A non-meta Imperial list with lots of munitions, but not many way of getting double mods.
We were playing Assualt (which gave Larry the advantage with more ships). In essence, I did “the Trick” which gave me my I6 Rush and slow played to the middle of the board. Larry got his guys to the middle too and then we basically had a showdown… The Gunboat was destroyed before he could shoot giving me an early lead, but then Breach got a bit greedy and flew into the arcs of 3 ships getting vapourised. Over the next couple of turns, Kylo and Rush were able to eat their way through Tomax and Captain Jonus (the worst Jonus Brother) and Pure Sabaac unfortunately parked himself onto a rock losing his specialness. At the end of the game, Sabaac had 1 hull left and was ionised and Maarek Steel was in good shape but far behind all the ships.
Final score: 50-27 to me.
So I was feeling pretty good about my new list. Very good indeed! There’s something very powerful about MurderKylo and genuinely any list with 2x high initiative Silencers (probably the FO’s best ships!) is very cool indeed. That said, I made 1 change – Advanced Proton Torpedoes on Rush for Plasma Torpedoes, as they are decent against most shielded opponents.
Having suffered at the hands of Ian “X Wing Jesus” Wardle and a bunch of Defenders last week, I was delighted to be showing up to Thursday Night club again with a new list that felt… Right. .
Ian was flying:
Norra Wexley – ARC-170 Starfighter (13)
Ezra Bridger (9)
Veteran Tail Gunner (5)
Ablative Plating (2)
Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4
Braylen Stramm – A/SF-01 B-wing (12)
Enduring (3)
Fire-Control System (2)
Proton Cannons (5)
Stabilized S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (10/10) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4
Lowhhrick – Auzituck Gunship (12)
Enduring (3)
Kanan Jarrus (10)
Ship Cost: 12 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4
Magva Yarro – UT-60D U-wing (13)
Selfless (3)
Tactical Officer (3)
Ursa Wren (8)
Hotshot Tail Blaster (1)
Ablative Plating (2)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (17/17) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 50
So of all the lists in all the world, Ian brings one that basically shuts down lock-based munitions. Yay.
Just breaking this down:
- Magva stops you rerolling more than 1 dice when attacking
- Norra gets extra evade results when at Range 0-1 of anyone
- Lowrick can give an extra evade result in a pinch
- They nearly all have force
- Braylen does… Braylen things.
We played 2 games, and in both cases, it was very hard to pin down anything with Magva in range. In the first game I was able to do some nasty damage to Norra who flew too far away from the pack, but wasn’t able to finish the job. The combination of Lowrick, Magva, and my fairly rubbish dice in a clutch meant Ian won both games BUT by a much lower margin than last week (49-51 and 43-51), so there’s progress there.
Afterwards, we talked about both lists. Ian was fairly convinced Braylen wasn’t pulling his weight and I was thinking Muse wasn’t pulling hers. In both cases, it was all about containment…
Muse is the cheapest co-ordinator FO can field. At 8 points with 9 loadout, she is well set up to take Squad Leader, and can also ditch the inevitable stress at the start of the engagement phase. However, 2 big issues:
- She only has 2 dice to attack with
- She is usually unmodded (or at best has a calculate token due to ATP).
This limits her effectiveness and also makes her a soft target (I mean… do you want to shoot at MurderKylo, or an unmodded ship that hasn’t probably shot yet!). In most games, even if she runs away, she is one of the first targets to go down because she lacks containment. Yes, she’s cheap, but her very rational for being in the list makes her easy prey.
In a similar way, Braylen loves being stressed, but this really limits his time on target. B-Wings don’t have the best dial (although in the best case could borrow the use of Kanan on Lowrick – although this means Low won’t have any mods) but that still limits what he can do (Blue or white moves and he then has to get stressed again to allow rerolls). Braylen is a solid piece but by doing what he’s supposed to do, his movement and time on target is very limited.
So let’s consider what a contained piece should have:
- Does their ability or chasis allow them to do something useful?
- Does their dial support what they are trying to do?
- Do they operate independently without needing to be around other ships?
- Can they get multiple mods or actions a turn?
- Are they cheap OR cost effective?
if the answer is “yes” to all of these, you probably have a self-contained ship.
For my list, both Muse and Breach are suspect: Muse for reasons given, and Breach because the dial is iffy and chances of double mods are limited (good selection of actions, but not all supportive of the pilot ability).
So I took another hard look at what ships in FO can do this and found the following:
Kylo Ren – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (15)
Instinctive Aim (2)
Brilliant Evasion (2)
Concussion Missiles (6)
Advanced Optics (5)
Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
Epsilon Squadron Cadet – TIE/fo Fighter (6)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (0/0) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
“Holo” – TIE/ba Interceptor (13)
Elusive (4)
Daredevil (4)
Mag-Pulse Warheads (7)
Ship Cost: 13 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 6 Damage Threshold: 2
Commander Malarus – TIE/fo Fighter (10)
Fire-Control System (2)
Cluster Missiles (5)
Afterburners (8)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2
Total: 50
Kylo is expensive but is very self-contained. He has passive mods with the force, he can jam, and this version has a very high probability of getting maximum attack dice on any attack if he has a focus due to Advanced Optics. A great start.
Commander Malarus is again a great choice as he can double mod (for 2 turns) and with Clusters can THEORETICALLY do 2 super-modded attacks.
Holo is again very handy. His ability is a double edged sword, since if you aren’t careful you could end up passing off a useful mod, but if you can find a low value donor, you can basically be double modded most of the game.
And Epsilon Squadron Cadets… hear me out here… they are really strong. I’m sure you can recall tales of TIE Fighters that just won’t die, and these guys are slightly tougher! The extra shield vs their Imperial / Scum cousins make them just that bit hardier and their dial is also so much better. Just as a bonus, they have native target lock. For 6 points (barely 1 point more than other Ties) they are really good value. They are so cheap they allow for a 5 ship list which. When you consider the other 3 ships are all I5 and pretty self contained (except Holo, but more on that later…), isn’t bad.
So another new list and 2 games to try it out this week!
The first game was my weekly NCX League game against DJ McNeillis, also flying FO.
He was flying:
Zeta 5 (EoD) – TIE/fo Fighter (9)
Determination (EoD) (0)
Pattern Analyzer (0)
Targeting Matrix (BoE) (0)
Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2
“Static” – TIE/fo Fighter (8)
Proud Tradition (2)
Pattern Analyzer (5)
Precision Ion Engines (1)
Ship Cost: 8 Loadout: (8/8) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2
Kylo Ren – TIE/wi Whisper Modified Interceptor (15)
Extreme Maneuvers (3)
Malice (5)
Concussion Missiles (6)
Biohexacrypt Codes (1)
Enhanced Jamming Suite (0)
Ship Cost: 15 Loadout: (15/15) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 2
Lieutenant Rivas – TIE/fo Fighter (7)
Fire-Control System (2)
Targeting Synchronizer (3)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 2
“Breach” – TIE/se Bomber (11)
Primed Thrusters (5)
Proton Torpedoes (14)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (19/19) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 50
So some very interesting ideas! The core of it was Lt Rivas… the cheeky TIE FO can acquire locks easily and share them via Targeting Synchronizer, allowing Breach and Kylo to fire rockets without much of a care. Zeta 5 is already famous for being “that Tie Fighter than can do 5 damage attacks” and Static is a cheap crit dealer. The only issue with it is that most of the list doesn’t reposition easily… but that’s still a fair bit of firepower on Breach and Kylo alone!
As it transpired, Breach go separated from the main pack to be brutally harassed and killed by Kylo and Malarus. However, one of my squaddies and Holo also got bushwhacked… but not before Static got taken off the board. My Kylo got halved and so did his, but in the last turn Zeta 5 clipped a rock and died.
Final score 58-44 to me, although that doesn’t really say how close it was – after I got an early lead, DJ did well to bring it back.
So a first win, but possible a little premature to start celebrating. Against 5 ships, the Cadets struggled a little and in one case died outright before they could shoot. But against 4 ships I was confident this would be fine. So on to the next game…
Late Sunday evening saw me fly vs the very excellent James Humphreys. This game was for TTS Top Gun league which I had yet to score on yet, so I really wanted a win. However, James is a very good player and we’ve flown against each other IRL a few times over the years. I was expecting him to fly FO, since that’s mostly what I’d seen him fly…
Except James flew something like this:
Lieutenant Karsabi – Alpha-Class Star Wing (10)
Marksmanship (2)
Fire-Control System (2)
Advanced SLAM (3)
Xg-1 Assault Configuration (0)
Ion Cannon (6)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (13/13) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Lieutenant Sai – Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle (10)
Fire-Control System (2)
Novice Technician (2)
Targeting Computer (1)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (5/5) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 5
Zertik Strom – TIE Advanced x1 (10)
Fire-Control System (2)
Hull Upgrade (9)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (11/11) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Commandant Goran – TIE/in Interceptor (10)
Elusive (4)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (4/4) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 1
“Vizier” – TIE Reaper (10)
Minister Tua (4)
Captain Hark (3)
Ablative Plating (2)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 4
Total: 50
(Note – I can’t remember the exact loadout for Vizier or Sai… but honestly, I don’t think it mattered).
There’s a lot to like about this list:
- All ships are 10 points
- All are self-contained, but can work better together.
- Although they are all low initiative, Goran is here, as dick-ish as ever.
- At least 3 are very fast if they want to be
- Lots of co-ordinate
So although it’s off meta, it’s a really strong list.
The mission was Scramble the Transmissions (which should have given me an advantage due to higher PS). However, I made a very crucial mistake in turn 0. I set up a wall of rocks on the right of the board to scare off the big ships and placed an objective in there. I then set 2 of my I5 ships up to lock it down and scare off Kasabi. By doing this, I effectively cut off 2 of my biggest ships from the main action on the left and overcommitted to chasing a ship that could (and did) SLAM away. Awkward!
I lost one Cadet cheaply and by a foolish mistake that half pointed Kylo on a rock (first time I’d done that in a while). A good recovery saw Goran get halved but NOT DIE to 2 attacks due to… Elusive. In a “you had to see it to believe it”, he initially self bumped a damage into the back of Vizier, leaving him tokenless, and then rolled 1 evade to my 3 hits… only to re-roll a second evade due to Elusive. That, in itself, is pretty rare. The next turn, he slooped (again, no mod) and Kylo rear shot a concussion missile for 1 hit. Goran rolled no evades, but having recharged his Elusive rolled it again… and converted!!! Never tell me the odds, I guess… As punishment, because Kylo rotated his arc and didn’t Jam Stromm, Stromm used his “burn the target lock to flip a damage card” on Kylo and found… Direct Hit killing him.
(In other news, if James is playing the lottery next week. Expect big news from him around Tuesday…)
Losing Kylo and the 2 Cadets was bad. In return, I killed Goran eventually, and halved Vizier, and Stromm. Ultimately, though, 2 vs 4 ships meant the objectives all swung towards James quickly and there’s only so much 2 ships can do.
Final score: 41-55 loss… not as bad as it could have been, but I learned an important lesson about containing the engagement – don’t overcommit to the lesser threat.
So once again, I leave the week in deficit, but with a smile on my face – all my losses were into the 40s this week, suggesting an improvement in something!
So what have we learned this week:
This week was brought to you by the word “Containment”
- When it comes to list construction, look for ships that can operate independently AND are good value.
- Again, a lesson from week 2 resurfaced: 10 points is probably the sweet spot to look at for ship costs, since there are lots of 10 point ship around that can do a lot for any list.
- Don’t overcommit to face off the lesser evil. Pick off the main targets first.
- Slap Elusive on everything… apparently.
More next week, where I will report on this new list more and promise (pinky swear) not to change list for at least a week!
X Wing Musings 
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