In this What Makes It Tick series on Star Wars X-Wing we have so far covered the absolute most basic elements of the game, but one of the questions that gets asked frequently in a collectable game like Star Wars X-Wing is “What Should I Buy First?” Or “What Order Should I Buy Things In”? So in this article I’m briefly going to talk about how to approach your collection and how to get the most bang for your buck.

We all live on a budget, this is the reality of life and so going out and spending a couple of thousand dollars on a massive X-Wing collection while a very attractive idea (aside from spending money of course) is outside of the realm of reality for most of us.

When approaching the game I think you really have to cater to both your budget and some basic aesthetic preferences. We could talk about the viability of Rebels vs. Imperials, and how that balances out and whether one is better than the other, but it’s a circular argument at best and one that probably would not get you any closer to deciding what you want to do. In the end, my recommendation is that you actually collect both Rebels and Imperials simultaneously. The reason is simple, understanding both sides is the only way to really understand the game fully and you can only reach that understanding by playing them both.

Each time you face an opponent running a list with ships that you only understand from reading about them rather than having played with them puts you at a major disadvantage, in particular early on when your just getting started. To really be on a level playing field in a match you need to have personal experience with the ships your flying against as well as the ones your actually flying.

The Core Set
The rule of thumb I think is to begin with two core sets and play plenty of lower point matches (75 points) with just X-Wings and Tie-Fighters, even going so far as practicing in solo games. This will help you get the rules of the game down and understand the two most fundamental and widely used ships in the game. X-Wings and Tie Fighters no matter what new things are released are always a solid staple of any list. These are the most stable and bang for your buck ships, you can never go wrong with putting either into a list.

Two core sets however is insufficient to really build a full 100 point list for either side. So you will need to supplement and again I suggest sticking with the core ships. I suggest your first expansion purchases to be 2 Tie Fighter expansions and 1 X-Wing expansion. This will allow you to create two very strong lists (and variations on that those two lists), one for the rebels and one for the Imperials. You will end up with 6 Tie Fighters and 3 X-Wings both of which make solid 100 point lists.

The First Round Of Expansions
Imperials collection tend to be more expensive to expand because you typically end up with more ships in any given list. There are however a couple of staples you can safely buy with confidence. Imperials list however tend to have less synergy than Rebel lists, so there is a measure of flexibility there.

Interceptors should be at the top of that list. They are one of the best ships in the game for Imperials, fast, maneuverable and while slightly more advanced to fly come with some very potent pilot powers. They will really introduce the fine art of movement far better than Tie Fighters and teach you more advanced tactics like flanking, using boosts and how to be effective at different ranges. More to the point however they complement Tie Fighter lists very well. I suggest buying them in pairs, you aren’t likely ever going to need more than 4, so buy 2 interceptor expansions initially and then pick up the Imperial Aces pack for the additional 2 interceptors. It’s not vital to get 4 right away, but getting the first two I would consider a necessary next step.

For the Rebels, you will tend to buy fewer ships and you will find when building lists you tend to build ships that work off each other rather than simply adding ships for individual solo powers.
Two me the two ships you absolutely need is 1 A Wing and 1 E-Wing. The most frustrating element of facing Imperial lists as a rebel is the speed and maneuverability of those lists and while Rebels are known more for their firepower and defense, the A-Wing and E-Wing are answers to the Interceptor and really good ones. You are unlikely to ever need more than one E-Wing but if you end up liking the A-Wings speed and maneuverability, rather than picking up a second A-Wing pick up the Rebel Aces pack to get that second A-Wing, which will simultaneously earn you a B-Wing (we’ll talk about that later). X, A and E wings combo really well, offer a wide range of strategies and are fun as hell to play.

Ships that can wait
For the Imperials the Tie Advanced while a great ship, requires considerable skill and is typically put in very unique higher challenge lists. It’s a ship you can buy when finances allow, but it doesn’t need to be a priority. Tie-Bombers fall into the same category, typically if you add a Tie-Bomber to the list, you’re going to end up creating a Tie-Bomber driven list, hence need more than one so they can wait for when you get more into the game and are ready to try out some new ships.

For the Rebels I would say the Y-Wing can wait as well as added B-Wings (you might already have one from the rebel aces pack). Again, they are a bit more difficult to use and complicate list building a great deal. The Hwk-290 falls into the same category, but the nice thing about the Hwk-290 is that you really aren’t likely to ever get more than one and it’s a fantastic support ship with a wide range of rolls it can play in your list, if you can afford it I would get this one first as it will introduce all sorts of new list potential.

Big Ships
I think without question the Falcon and Slave I should make your list as soon as you get the opportunity, though I would consider the Slave I a bigger priority than a Falcon. This is less about you getting the opportunity to use them in lists (though they are lots of fun), but more about the fact that opponents are very likely to field these regularly and they are tricky to deal with, so you need that experience to face them with confidence.

Adding big ships to your collection will reveal a whole new level of complexity to the game though, maneuvering larger ships and fitting them into lists requires a deeper understanding of the game and can be overwhelming if you do it too early. Everyone is eager to drop one on the table, but be smart and learn the core game with the smaller ships before you test the waters with these guys. The Lamda Shuttle falls into this category as well, though I consider this ship more a luxury than a necessity for the Imperials. Difficult to maneuver and very specialized this ship can be a big point sink without much pay out unless you really know what you’re doing.

The New Stuff
There is a lot of new stuff and it just keeps coming, as a player entering the game at this point you are going to likely see ships on lists with effects and tricks that will make it difficult to keep up with.

For the Imperials the two really influential ships that you will see hitting the table more and more these days are the Tie-Defender and the Tie-Phantom. Both of these ships really change things in terms of list building for the Imperials. In many ways, it allows Imperial players to build list that look more like Rebel lists than Imperial lists with a greater degree of synergy, the use of specialty mechanics like stealth and of course something most Imperial ships don’t have, shields. You also have other large ships like the Lamnda Shuttle that adds a lot of utility and the new Decimator which is basically floating firepower. All of these ships have added a whole new meta level to the game making it more complex, but simultaneously (in my humble opinion) more fun. Given the opportunity though as a new player I would be more focused on the basics than trying to find uses for these more difficult to use ships.

The rebels have ships like the B-Wing, E-Wing and Y-Wing, but these ships don’t really change how the rebel players plays the game, but rather allow them to create lists that focus their synergies on specific strategies, of which there are many, but they don’t really introduce new mechanics. E-wing are very much like interceptors, but considerably better, in fact one could say if built certain ways they are even more maneuverable. The big new addition to watch out for is the YT-2400, this ship has the best of all worlds, maneuverable, lots of firepower, good defense. It’s just all around a really good ship and incredibly flexible for list building. You also have the Z wing, which is kind of an oddity in the set, though it’s worth saying some world champion players use them for their list so they are not to be ignored. They are cheap ships for the Rebels, though not really an answer to Tie-Fighters, think of them as cheap X-Wings. If you’re going to get any, get at least 3 or 4, it’s typically not worth having only 1 or 2 in a list.

Finally there is a whole new faction and this will once again change a great deal in the game. The new faction is definitively not a good place to start, it’s the latest and greatest and as such assumes a lot about the skill level of the players picking them up.

Going Beyond The Basics
I think when you get to a point where you have a base collection going, you will get to a point where you start to connect the dots and what ships can do and what ships you want to buy is going to become second nature. I personally love ships like the B-Wing and A-Wing on the rebel side and on the Imperial side I’m partial to fielding the Tie-Defender as a staple ship for any sort of list I’m building. You will develop preferences like that over time as you gain experience. The thing to keep in mind is how many of any given ship you need. The point cost of ships typically dictates this and while you will see lists that break the sort of presumed standard like for example I don’t think there is any reason to have two falcons, but in fact duel falcons is not an entirely uncommon list to field. Suffice to say you never need more copies of a ship than points would allow, so there is no point in having 9 Tie-Fighters since you will only at absolute maximum field 8 and at that level you’re not making any choices, your effectively buying 8 Tie’s to field a very specific list. To me this is not really worth doing. For example with Tie Fighters, the 6 you end up with initially is actually enough, you’re not likely to field lists with more than that and even if you did you would know that only from experience of first learning to fly with 6.

Just keep point cost in mind when expanding your list.

In terms of needs and flexibility a staple a rebel collection might look like this.

2 A Wings – Priority
2 B Wings
1 E Wing – Priority
2 Y Wings
1 Falcon
3 X wings – Priority
1 Hwk-390
3-4 Z Wings (very optional)

For the Imperials a staple list might look like this.

6 Tie Fighters – Priority
4 Interceptors – Priority
3 Tie Bombers
1 Slave I – Priority
1 Lambda Shuttle
1 Defender
1 Phantom
1 Tie Advanced

Another thing I would suggest is that you continue a duel collection. It’s really a big advantage to have for the purposes of understanding the game and when you run a across a list that gives you problems you can examine it and run tests against it until you understand how to best deal with such a list.

I hope that was helpful advice for new comers, I’m certain there are going to be differences of opinion from experience players but to me the staple of the game, the foundation for learning to play it well is to field simple and efficient lists. The base way to learn that is to start with X-Wing and Tie-Fighters, fly them often until the game’s nuances become second nature. Learning how to fly other ships after that becomes much more natural and far easier, as those making hard decisions about what ships to expand your collection with.

Continuing on the basics of Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game, I thought I would focus this time on the intricacies of the combat mechanic, another thing I look back on my experience and say to myself, god I wish I knew that from day one.

The Dice
The X-Wing combat dice, red for attacks, green for defense, are no equal! Most gamers won’t spend too much time analyzing the dice of a game, but in the case of X-Wing it plays a pivotal, quite possibly the single most important piece of the puzzle in understanding what is and isn’t an advantage.

To put it in plain terms, if you have a ship with 3 attack dice, rolling against a ship with 3 defense dice, the defender is at a disadvantage. The reason is that by default 50% (2 hits and 2 crits) of the results on an attack die are hits, while only 37% (3 evades) of the results on a defense die are evades.

Duh! This is not everything there is to the puzzle. Going deeper into the mechanic you will note that most ships have the options of either evading, or focusing, which again, changes the odds, given things are equal (the same amount of dice) but the odds are still in the attackers favor. This is because an attack die with a focus token has 2 focus faces, so if you do the math, with 4 hits and 2 focuses on an 8 side, this means with focus you have a 75% chance of hitting.

The defense die however with a focus gets you to 66% (3 evades and 2 focuses faces on an 8 sided die). The advantage remains on the attack.

Now there is the evade action which effectively gives you 1 free success you can spend against one attack roll after you see the dice results. This however again, given things are equal (3 dice each) and assuming the attacker takes a focus while the defender takes an evade still leaves the attack at a slight advantage. In that, the attack also all but guaranteed to have at least 1 hit, so with the remaining two dice he has about an equal chance of getting as many hits as the defender can roll with 3 defense die at 37% percent.

I’m not going to get too deep into the statistics, but the point here is this. When playing X-Wing, the only good defense is an offense. Think of the green dice as a formality, to win you need to shoot and really what you want to do is shoot first.

Pilot Skill and Combat
This is where pilot skill really comes in. While movement takes place from lowest to highest skill which gives a small benefit to low skill pilots as they can effectively get in people’s way and cause overlaps, having a high pilot skill is everything because you shoot first.

Imagine a simple scenario. You have a low pilot skill X-Wing vs. a High Pilot X-Wing and let’s assume they are stationary. Since they are equal ships, simply facing each other, who will win? The player with the higher skill. The reason is that, shooting first will most likely result in a final round in which the higher pilot skill X-Wing will shoot and blow up the lower ship X-Wing before he gets a chance to shoot. Just ask Han Solo!

The final piece, shooting arcs
Since we know that the person shooting is at an advantage and shooting first exponentially increases that advantage, the end result is that the player who keeps his target in his sights and gets the most shots in a match is most likely to win the game. As such maneuverability of the ship and player skill in maneuvering his ships becomes really the defining final piece of the puzzle. Each piece is important, but only when they all come together is victory assured.

Conclusion
Combat in Star War X-Wing is a combination of working the statistical of the dice, really understanding what it means to roll X attack dice vs. Y defense dice. It comes down to pilot skill, a choice you make when you’re building your list. Finally maneuverability combined with smart player choices (player skill). For a novice player that is a lot to juggle at once, so where do you start?

The answer is you start with the things you can control.

We can control our understanding of the attack dice vs. the defense dice. Simply knowing that when you charging a Millennium Falcon and are about to roll an attack with 4 attack dice against his 1 defense dice that not only are you at a major advantage but likely to get 2-3 hit minimum will give you the confidence to make such a charge. You can almost ignore defense dice to a degree, they are statistically likely to fail their owner. So be aggressive, shoot, shoot and shoot.

You can control the pilot skill of the ships you field. It’s tempting to take low pilot skill pilots because they are cheap point wise and allow you to field more ships, but the reality is that you are far better off with 3 X-Wings with high pilot skill pilots in the cockpit than you are with 4 low pilot skill X-Wings. Rolling 9 dice and shooting first, is far better than rolling 12 dice and shooting last because you are likely to lose a ship before it gets too shoot, so you’ll be rolling 9 dice anyway.

Finally maneuverability, now this one is tougher to control and really tougher to make a determination. What is maneuverable, what are we comparing it to. Clearly Tie Fighters are more maneuverable than X-Wings, but when it comes to maneuverability typically this means having the ability to keep ships in your firing arc by making tight turns, doing 180’s and keeping your ship in a position to fire. With X-Wings you have maneuvers like the 180 degree turn, you have sharp turns. It’s a maneuverable ship for all intense and purposes. Not as maneuverable as some other ships, but more than sufficient to keep ships in your firing arc. Avoid slower, hard to maneuver ships when you first start playing X-Wing, get familiar with the X-Wings, A-Wings, Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors first and avoid large ships like the falcon or Lambda shuttle until your more comfortable with the games nuances.

Now certainly there is a lot more to the game here, there are all sorts of ships and list with different variances and effects that can render some or all of these things like firepower and maneuverably useless, but again, we are talking about a starting strategy here. Something to base your starting plays at and giving yourself a fighting chance. As such, understand some of this information and apply it. Over time lights will start to turn on and you will gain the confidence needed to consider deeper levels of play.

I can tell you that when facing 3 X-Wings with high pilot skills and special effects, it doesn’t matter if you’re a new player or a veteran, that list is always strong and it is so because it filters through the most fundamental core elements of the game. It’s safe pick and you will win matches, in particular when facing opponents working without the basic information outlined in this article.

Kicking off a new article series, “What Makes It Tick”, these articles will be about the mechanics and strategies of selected games. Now I will say up front here that I’m hardly an expert of these topics, but there are many games that have subtle “facts” about them that, when I discovered, gave me that “AHA!” moment. That moment of clarity where strategy and approach start to make more sense, in particular if you are new to the game.

Today’s topic, the overwhelmingly popular Star Wars X-Wing!

More and more players are joining the ranks of Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game, which at this point is so big it’s practically a self-contained hobby itself. If your new and you can’t wait to start pushing miniatures around, you will very much benefit from this article which to experience players might be very obvious but god do I wish I knew these things on day one.

Measurements
A base of a standard ship is exactly the same size as a 1 increment movement and because movement is measured from front to back, when you move 1 increment, you actually end up touching with your front the distance of a 3 measurement ruler, effectively moving the distance of a 2 measurement ruler. The picture illustrates this better than words, but one of the most common problems you will have when starting with X-Wing is making distance judgements, knowing this simple little fact should help a great deal with visualization.

The Curves & Formation Flying
Formation flying is a pivotal element of the game, ships that move together and stay together can concentrate on the same targets, giving them an edge and making them far more lethal than out of formation, in particular during the initial stages of the game before chaos ensues. Understanding how the angles apply to movement in formation is critical to avoid self-inflicted overlapping between your own ship, a very basic, but critical skill for all X-Wing players.

The sharp turn is a 90 degree turn and the normal turn is 45 degree’s. This is an important concept to get down very early in the game, in particular how to blend different turns and sharp turns.

Note how in a 90 degree turn, while the position shifts, the ships remain in formation and do not bump each other. This is because both are the same range of 2 and both are perfect 90 degree angles.

Try to do the same thing with a 45 degree turn and the results are an overlap, a situation you never want to be in because it prevents your ships from taking an action and is largely self inflicted.

This is a very basic but important thing to understand.  Sharp turns can match speeds and you will always end up in formation, even with multiple ships of the same size, but with normal turns (45 degree’s) you can’t match speed, you need to alternate with lower speeds on the inside.  For example a 1 speed on the inside and 2 speed on the outside works fine.

There is so much more to this, but I think while extremely basic that information with a bit of experimentation for new players will definitely turn some lights on.  I may do more advanced stuff on angles and speeds for X-Wing in the future.