X-Wing: Tournament lists for this weekend

Damn boy, look at that move.

Hey everyone!  Just a quick update on the tournament that I'm going to this weekend.  I think right now I've settled on two lists that I narrowed it down to after playtesting fiercely in the last couple of days.  The first list is the Rebels list with Poe leading Bs with Advanced Sensors and the naked Bandit.  I think I'll call that list DBZ-X or something.

Poe Dameron as Son Goku.

DBZ-X (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31
Push the Limit 3
BB-8 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 38

Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25

Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25

Bandit Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 12
Ship Total: 12

The second list that I'll be running is he Palpmobile with Soontir Fel and Darth Vader:

PS11 might be a little too much.

Space Pope (99)

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced 29
Veteran Instincts 1
Advanced Targeting Computer 1
Engine Upgrade 4
TIE/x1 0
Ship Total: 35

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27
Push the Limit 3
Autothrusters 2
Stealth Device 3
Royal Guard TIE 0
Ship Total: 35

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle 21
Emperor Palpatine 8
Ship Total: 29

Looking at the local, national and worldy meta, I would argue that these lists run into good and bad matchups as expected in a pretty balanced game.  Let's examine this a little bit further by looking at some of the really popular builds out there.  Using statistical analysis and metagame threads on the official X-Wing forum (local, regional and national reports), you can form a pretty good idea of what to expect when going into a tournament.

Here are some of the popular lists floating around:

• BBBBZ and other similar variants
• Fat Dash + Corran or 2 B-Wings
• Fat Chirpy + Fel
• Fat Han variants with either Zs or Jake
• BroBots B+C variants
• Unhinged TLT Thugs
• Obsidian Swarm or Fel + Obs mini-swarm
• Palpmobile with Vader and Fel

I think my DBZX list will do pretty decent against BBBBZ and most 2-ship variants because of the good balance between quality, bulk and firepower.  I think it will draw pretty hard matchups vs. TLT, Fel + Mini-swarm or Howl + Obsidian Swarm, and Palpmobile with Vader and Fel.  The problem with TLT is because of the B-Wings, which become a pretty hefty liability vs. sustained firepower of throwing out 8 rounds of dice per turn that burn 1 on average.  It's almost numerically not possible to roll that many evade dice so you're essentially looking at possibly ~6-8 damage per turn on a single B, which is enough to burn one down a turn if you're unlucky, or he gets lucky.  This is a 4th of your lists firepower and things only go downhill from there because both Poe and the Z do not have that much durability either.  Against this particular matchup, I think Poe will be sitting in the back with as much AT bonus and Focus as he can get.

I look at the heftier 2-ship builds as positive matchups because as long as I have the lower PS, I can potentially disrupt a lot of movement while being able to throw out dice.  Both Fel/Howl + Swarm will give me problems because PS3 will outbid everything I have except for Poe and will generally move better than me.  This is also why the elite Imperial build will cause problems for this list because of their superior maneuverability, dice manipulation and high PS.  When you have high PS ships that can arc dodge really well, those shields on Bs really wear out fast and with Vader/ATC/Emperor, you will take crits up the wazoo.

On the Imperial side, I think TLT will also pose a problem because of Vader.  He can stack Focus/Evade all he wants, but sooner or later he's going to eat it because of the lack of Autothrusters. Even Fel with AT will eventually lose his SD, so the main task will be to find a Y at Range 3 and take him down as soon as possible.  The Space Cow will probably hide in the corner and advance slowly as a faster advance will just present him as an easy target for the laser turrets.  I'm fairly confident against the other featured here as well, except for lists that will fly in tight formation, present low PS bids to block and disrupt your movement, while being able to throw a lot of dice at you.  If you really think about, almost everything will have a chance to block your ships so its almost best to just run away and take time to setup.  Getting blocked with Soontir or Vader is going to be bad times.  Since the Emperor can only help you once a turn, 90% of the time you will be saving that for defensive reasons while Vader and Fel can hopefully focus down one ship at a time.  The challenge there will be exactly how long they can stay alive with so many bodies looking to cockblock good firing opportunities every turn.

Overall, I would say that the elite Imperials list draws better matchups in the grand scheme of things, but is a lot less forgiving to bumps and grinds due to having to roll evade dice and being so action dependent.  This is one of the reasons why Bs with FCS see so much play still:  You can literally push them forward and let them roll dice.  Let me know what you guys think and what you guys have experienced in your local scene.

Oh! One more thing before I forget.  Check out this awesome trailer I put together last night.  My wife did the editing while I did the overall direction.  I'm probably going to use something like this in my Battlefront series as the intro.  Did you guys see who it was posted by?  It's real.  Really really real.

X-Wing: Some Rebel lists with Poe

I can be your hero baby.

Having seen what the new T-70 X-Wing can do, I'm really excited to try the newest Rebel Ace to join the meta.  When you think about how much better the T-70 is over the stock X-Wing, I don't know if you can ever go back to the old thing even with the droid discard for a pseudo shield.  It's really hard to say right now.  The T-70 comes with a better dial, the Tallon Roll, the Boost action, and an extra shield, I can't even begin to describe just how good this is over the 21 point Rookie Pilot in the T-65.  The Boost and Shield alone is a +8 point upgrade on the stock fighter, and the better maneuverability just puts this way over the top compared the upgrades to the TIE/fo.  By now, I'm not even surprised that FFG has a hard on for those poor poor Rebels, who with all their Fat Han/Dash builds, 3CPO and 22 point B-Wings, still desperately need the help.

Anyways, let's take a closer look at Poe.  Poe Dameron is a PS8 pilot with a pretty ridiculous pilot ability that reads: While attacking or defending, if you have a focus token, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Hit or Evade result.  This ability looks like Luke's ability on the defensive and a watered down version of Chiraneau.  With the Focus token requirement, there's simply no better Elite Pilot slot than Push the Limit for action efficiency.  You will almost always want a Focus in there at all times, even after boosting or triggering off of BB-8's barrel roll.  Speaking of which, it's important that you pay close attention to the wording on BB-8 and how it interacts with PTL.  BB-8 says that when you reveal a green maneuver, you may perform a free barrel roll action.  On this free action, you can then PTL off of it for say a Boost action, acquire the stress token, and then shed the stress once you actually execute the green maneuver.  Once that's done, you're free to take another action in your action phase, so you can Focus on top of it, potentially giving you 3 actions a turn, stress free.  Of course this is vulnerable to stuff like debris and what not, but that's why having both the ability to free barrel roll and boost is amazing.  Just keep in mind that you cannot use BB-8 if you're stressed at the beginning of your movement.  The ability triggers immediately upon reveal and you clear stress after you complete the green.

I don't know about you guys, but that is absolutely ridiculous.  The fact that you can have so much maneuverability and action efficiency on a 6 effective HP ship with 3 attack dice shooting at PS8 is beyond me.  Poe might be the best thing the Rebels have received in a long, long time in the small ship department.  At least for me and how I like to fly Rebels.

Let's examine some of the lists:

The new Rebel Aces.

678 (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31
Push the Limit 3
BB-8 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 38
 
Jake Farrell — A-Wing 24
Push the Limit 3
Chardaan Refit -2
Wired 1
Autothrusters 2
A-Wing Test Pilot 0
Ship Total: 28
 
Ibtisam — B-Wing 28
Push the Limit 3
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 34

The first list here is a play on my Imperial 789 (Turr, Juno, Fel) with the Rebel Aces 678.  Sure, the PS skill might be lower across the board, but you're flying with some pretty mean ships and some very capable pilots.  All of the pilots here have quite a few tricks up their sleeves when dealing with stress mechanics.  As touched upon earlier in the article, Poe has crazy maneuverability and action efficiency due to BB-8, PTL and having Boost on the T-70.  Just having a Focus on him also makes him an incredible damage dealer and he can always choose to spend it for burst damage or evades.  Jake Farrell is just super good for 28 points IMO.  He's also another pilot that can pull off crazy moves because of the A-Wings ridiculous dial, and his pilot ability allows him to really min-max his actions as well.  Autothrusters go on him for free while Wired allows him to keep on ticking since he should be stressed every round.  Lastly, we have Ibtisam.  She works best when she's stressed as it's almost like having a Lone Wolf that ignores range restrictions.  In addition, PTL with Advanced Sensors allows you to do some of the most ridiculous combos in the game.  Such examples include: Focus + TL before you move and 1 green to clear the stress, Barrel Roll + Focus before you move and hard 2 to keep the stress and power up Ibtisam, or even a simple Focus + 2 K-turn to activate Ibtisam's ability while flying green 1 next turn to PTL like normal.  There's a reason why people think B-Wings are ridiculous, and being able to pre-action due to Advanced Sensors before movement makes them one of the most unpredictable ships in the game.

This list I'm exceptionally proud of, for probably no good reason:

I don't think you're ready for this.

XBBZ (100)

Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing 31
Push the Limit 3
BB-8 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 38
 
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25
 
Blue Squadron Pilot — B-Wing 22
Advanced Sensors 3
Ship Total: 25
 
Bandit Squadron Pilot — Z-95 Headhunter 12
Ship Total: 12

What can I say?  It just has a ton of staying power and strong elements all around.  The pilot skills are not very high at all, but you have 6+8+8+4 for 26 effective HP and 11 dice on the alpha, all of them on ships that can move like UFOs minus the poor Bandit.  Let's be quite honest here:  The Bandit is a great chump blocker and if ignored, can just tail someone and throw dice at them until some damage sneaks in.  The primary damage dealers here are the T-70 and the dual B-Wings, especially when you consider that they can move really well and still deliver results.  This list is also exceptional at jousting because you can always Focus + 2 K-turn on the initial turn while Poe himself dances around with the Tallon Roll.  The list delivers a lot of firepower, a lot of staying power and can very well be a tournament-winning list.  Is Poe better than two Bs from the popular BBBBZ list?  I think it all depends on how well you can fly him in this case.

Let me know what you think of the lists.  I think they'll work out great!

X-Wing: There has been an awakening

Back in the saddle.

Having spaced out for a couple of months on minis has actually given me a fresh perspective on the meta.  The big dog running around right now are Unhinged Y-Wings with Twin Laser Turrets apparently.  Nasty?  No doubt.  However, I'm not so worried when it comes to flying against the majority of the lists out there because I'm so used to Fat turret lists running up and down the field since Han Solo came out so many years ago.  No matter what changes really, I'm always flying the same thing.  The only difference comes in knowing when to strike and how to move; something that experienced Elite Interceptor pilots do very well.

Alright, let's talk about lists.  What do I want to throw out on the battlefield that seems like it'll bring some enjoyment into my life?  The classic 789 list that I used to fly was Turr, Jax and Fel.  Now that the Imperial Raider is out and the TIE/x1's gotten a new lease on life, I figure its time to change things up a bit.

The new 789 looks something like this:

The dream team is back!

789 (100)

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 35

 

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor 25

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 33

 

Juno Eclipse — TIE Advanced 28

Push the Limit 3

Advanced Targeting Computer 1

TIE/x1 0

Ship Total: 32

What you have here are two tried and true ships that always deliver with one new addition.  Juno Eclipse just has what it takes to make back her points.  Her dial makes it so that she's a great candidate for Push the Limit because of all the additional greens that she has to play with.  Sure, they're not the same hard turns as the Interceptor, but the adjustments to speed on the fly according to battlefield conditions, in addition to PTL'ing a barrel roll into something operational is exactly what you should be looking for.  When it comes to Imperial ships, the more action economy you have the better.  What I mean by this is really quite simple guys:  The more actions you have, the more you want to maximize on using as many of them per turn as possible.  The ATC already delivers consistent results on a Target Locked ship, so having the ability to PTL Focus/TL/Evade/barrel beats all other combinations IMO.  What you want is consistency, and so far to date, nothing delivers consistency to Imperial ships as much as the vaulted PTL.  Just remember guys:  The Elite 789 list is about being able to dance and manuver around the battlefield while setting up the winning scenario.  The winning scenario for an elite list means that you're putting out damage while receiving none in return.  If this means that you have to adjust speeds and just get out of firing arc with Juno, that's exactly what you do.  Getting out of arc and re-acquiring TL on a new target is a perfectly good strategy.  The same applies to the Interceptors here.  Never forget that the 5-straight and 4-green is there for you to re-position and re-engage in an more opportune fashion.

Bonus Round: You can also sub out Juno with Tetran Cowall with PTL, AT, RGT and SD for a perfect switch if you want to rock the 101st theme.  Having played around with Tetran some more, I'm really warming up to him; especially since his ability plays really nicely with Autothrusters.

Next on the list is another 3 ship list, but it plays completely different than the one above:

I have you now.

Vader (100)

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced 29

Lone Wolf 2

Advanced Targeting Computer 1

Engine Upgrade 4

TIE/x1 0

Ship Total: 36

 

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 27

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 35

 

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle 21

Emperor Palpatine 8

Ship Total: 29

With the Imperial Raider coming into the meta, two things have improved greatly:  The firepower expressed by the TIE/x1, and the Emperor riding in the stock Lambda; also known as the Palpmobile.  I've seen builds where Vader would switch out Lone Wolf for Calculation and that's a perfectly viable strategy as well, considering the fact that it can potentially deliver 4 criticals to someone in Range 1 is absurd.  The Emperor is there to fly slow and away from the rest of your party while acting as a giant magnet to draw in the flies.  That's when your tigers can use their superior maneuverability and speed to setup the kill shots while constantly using the Emperor's ability to turn engagements in your favor.  When you read the Emperor's ability, you should probably just replace the text with:  Turn 1 dice into a Crit or Evade in each one of your turns.  He's the Fateweaver of the Star Wars universe and that means his fat space cow shuttle should be dropping 1s all over the place just so he can squeeze out a few shots.  Depending on deployment, you might want to tuck him into a corner and just hard stop first turn while your other ships setup a wider flank.

Lastly, we have something a little less conventional:

No pain, no gain.

Turr (100)

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor 25

Push the Limit 3

Autothrusters 2

Stealth Device 3

Royal Guard TIE 0

Ship Total: 33

 

"Zeta Ace" — TIE/fo Fighter 18

Push the Limit 3

Ship Total: 21

 

Zeta Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 16

Ship Total: 16

 

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

 

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

You can tell I'm really creative with the list names.  Seriously though, I'm saving points just so I can run PTL on Zeta and having Turr lead the pack instead of Fel.  TIE/fos are actually really good when you think about just how much they've gained for 3 points over your old TIE Fighter.  They gained a better dial, the ability to Segnor's Loop on left and right 2s, Target Lock, and gained a Shield upgrade (which costs 4 points by itself normally).  The Rebel counterpart gained similar traits, but since they're Rebel scum we'll skip them for this article and talk to them in the next.  Either way, I'm just excited to try out some of these new TIE/fos and see how they perform on the battlefield.  I could run the standard Fel-led Howlrunner + 3x TIE/fos, but I figure this is more exciting because you won't be tempted to stay together but rather use your extra maneuverability to hopefully outfly your opponents.  I swear, Zeta Ace has to be one of the best ships in the new set.  For 21 points with PTL, the ship can do some pretty crazy stuff considering he can choose to use either the 2 or the 1 when performing a barrel roll.  Compare that to Echo or Phantoms in general where you MUST use a certain template and you have all kinds of movement shenanigans for a bargain price.  The firepower is a little lower than most people would like with 2 dice each, but if they're not shooting at you while you're rolling more dice, it's only a matter of time.

Next article will feature a list that I've been working on for Rebels featuring Poe Dameron.  Stay tuned!

It's been a long time

Best score was 36-0 in a TIE Fighter.  Forgot to screenshot gg.

Hi guys, sorry it's been such a long time, but I've had the driest of spells in terms of minis games.  I think the whole Age of Sigmar stuff bummed me out to a point where I didn't want anything to do with Games Workshop for a while, but it turned out that it spilled over to all of my minis stuff.  Don't worry though, that's about to change big time in the next couple of weeks.

To start off, I'd like to say that I think I'll be switching over to playing X-Wing for quite some time.  I just think FFG does everything a hundred times better than GW and honestly, having played Netrunner, Warhammer Conquest and X-Wing, I must say that they are straight up better games.  Since I'm a gamer first and foremost, I'll be getting back into X-Wing in a big way.  I already have 3 of the new Force Awaken sets and I can't wait to get some of my new toys on the field.  As some of you guys might know, I'm an elite Interceptor player at heart.  That's how I started the hobby and that's the direction I want to continue in.  However, it's hard to beat having multiple TIE F/Os on the field because they're so damn good for the points.  Sure, some might think 15 points min is a little steep, but the improved dial and the extra shield for 3 more points is a damn good bargain.  The same could be said about the T-70, especially since it's pretty much a flat out better version of the T-65 but you gain the boost ability and a shield for almost no points over the stock T-65.

In terms of gaming, I've been playing a lot of computer games over the last couple of weeks.  I've gotten back into Wargame: Red Dragon, started playing World of Warships in my German Battleship Tirpitz, and recently finished playing 24 hours of the Star Wars Battlefront beta.  If you haven't played the beta, I'm sorry, but it's probably the best beta I've ever played.  The immersion is amazing; the size of the world, the feel of the battlefield, the sounds, the rich atmospherics, and the beautiful graphics is just sublime.  It's hard to describe it entirely, but its something I think every serious Star Wars fan or even gamer needs to get their hands on it when it comes out on November 17th.  I already pre-ordered the game not because I had a great time, but also because it was surprisingly smooth with very minor glitches and network issues.  Balance issues aside, the game is looking to be one hell of a game.  I literally spent 22 of those 24 hours in the cockpit of a TIE Fighter or X-Wing, and my KDR towards the end was insane.  I rarely died and had numerous games where I was 25+ kills to zero deaths.  Hold onto your seat boys, the ace of aces is coming to get you in Squadron Battles.  Oh, and if you want to talk about flying some more, just let me know in the comments and I'll explain the best I can!

Speaking of which, once Battlefront releases, I'm thinking about starting a gaming channel on Youtube.  I think it will have a lot of Battlefront stuff on it, but I'm also thinking about increasing the production value on some of the minis games that I play, namely X-Wing or whatever else I get my hands on.  My wife is a brilliant editor and she already said she can help me with the footage that I'll shoot during gaming.  That's pretty damn awesome.

Alright, that's all I got for now boys.  Stay cool and keep doing what you're doing, which is being awesome.