I have been thinking about running a bunch of A-wings with deadeye and assault missiles in my next tournament. I am primarily a Imperial player. But I really like A-wings.

I have read a lot of dislike fore ordnance in general, but Assault Missiles seem to get more hate than they deserve.

Sure they cost an extra point and don't upgrade a eye or a blank to a hit. But isn't that free splash damage worth it.

The biggest problem I have had with ordnance is that it is hard to get the TL with low PS pilots and my high PS pilots are already so expensive that I am resistant to add extra point to my high PS pilots.

Enter A-wings with Deadeye. Yeah, A-wings are the only ship that can take elite pilot talent upgrades and ordnance on generic pilots. (Dang I want dead eye on TIE BOMBERS) Not even Storm squadron pilots get EPT. (people have been looking for a small tweak to TIE Advanced to make them more playable. If you ask me give EPT to Storm Squadron). But I digress.

So A-wings with deadeye and assault missiles seem to be a great plan. I'm almost guaranteed to get the missiles off when I want them off. The only down side I can see is what if my missiles miss.

But they still have 4 attack dice and you don't get the extra agility dice at range 3. So I don't see that as much of a problem.

Has anyone else out there tried Assault missiles much? If you get them off, are they really that likely to miss?

They are the least likely to hit missile, and also the most expensive (so far). Their secondary effect is rad, but the cost/efficiency really isn't there.

But A-Wings are being surpassed as missile platforms by the Z-95 anyway. A Tala Squadron pilot w/ assault missiles and munitions failsafe is only 19, compared to the A-Wing's 25. Granted the A-Wing is more useful after missiles are away, but as a missile platform, the Z-95 is better. Or Blount w/ assault missiles and deadeye for 23 points. Still cheaper than the A-WIng and his assault missile is a guarantee--even if he rolls 4 blanks! With Rebel Aces on the horizon, A-Wings will be getting a 2 point reduction card if they don't take missiles.

They'll be free from the shackles of ordnance, and operate as the light skirmisher they were always meant to be!

It depends on what you are shooting at really, assault missiles can be expected to average 2 hits when used, granted the dice gods are fickle and love messing with us, but unless someone turtles up you should generally be able to get the one hit needed to activate the splash damage through, even a three agility ship will need to modify to be able to count on dodging it.

Of course, more than one assault missile is a significant chunk of your squad points in Standard play.

You have to have a way to reroll your attack with assault missiles. Even with focus you want to maximize your hits. That means putting extra points in your squad for one upgrade that you could use elsewhere. You are correct that assault missiles can do tremendous damage and are great for putting those extra hits on hard to hit TIES.

Assault missiles also make your opponent uncomfortable running in formation, making Biggs a normal x-wing or spreading out a swarm minimizing damage potential. If used correctly they can fit in the meta quite well.

Use Krassis who can take recon specialist and get a free Reroll on his attack. Or Vessery who can take deadeye, and get a free TL reroll after he uses his focus for attack.

In my experience, Assault Missiles are one of those things your opponent will not forget about. Unless they NEED to be locked in formation, they will purposefully ruin your chances of the missile getting a meaningful splash damage. Either that, or the ships will be so beefy the missile can be shrugged off.

Shooting one without any modifiers seems like a big risk for me...it could pay off, but with no way to modify it, you're rolling the fate dice.

With Rebel Aces on the horizon, A-Wings will be getting a 2 point reduction card if they don't take missiles.

Anyone realize this effectively means all missle on A-wings go up by 2 points, eliminating them as viable Missle Platforms?

So if you want to play them, play them NOW, you'll have no more excusses after next summer.

As you're mostly an Imperial player, I think you're going to miss your Interceptors.

I haven't had them miss... though usually I loose missile carrying ships before they can fire.

For some reason A-wings go down really fast for me. (I am well known for my sh*tty green dice results)

Let's put it this way: there's a reason they're not called Assault Hittles.

One of my biggest x-wing fails involved assault missiles.

I was playing imperials versus a wedge/luke/biggs build. I had Jonus with AM and PTL and was going for Biggs (Luke and Wedge WERE in range 1 of him for splash damage). I thought with the added focus I should hit him for sure. Well I rolled hit hit blank blank so the focus got no use, and then my opponent got some combination of 2 evades either naturally or with a focus.

If Assault missiles are integral to your strategy they will miss every **** time.

Assault Missiles are the least likely to hit, aside from occasionally Clusters, and soon Flechettes.

However, they are the most damaging by far. Scoring even 1 damage hit from Assaults mean that you're going to be removing 4 ships' shields, or passing out 5 cards to a Tie Swarm, et c.

In the perfect-storm, a single Assault Missile can theoretically deal 13 damage. That's worth a 5 point bit of discardable attack.

(The perfect storm in question is a fleet with 7 Academies in range 1 of the Scimitar, who whiffed against 2 Hits and 2 Crits, which were both Direct Hits!).

Useful on Blount, useless everywhere else.

Useful on Blount, useless everywhere else.

I'd actually say they're the perfect ordnance for Vader as well since he gets to target lock and focus the shot.

I do seem to whiff with mine more often than not though.

Simply, everytime I fire them. Have yet to hit with the **** things.

Simply, everytime I fire them. Have yet to hit with the **** things.

Sounds like they are "overrated."

Simply, everytime I fire them. Have yet to hit with the **** things.

Sounds like they are "overrated."

Shots fired.

Been rocking this list to very good effect lately:

Jendon + ST321

Jonus + Swarm Tactics + AM

Scimitar + AM

Scimitar + AM

Basically slow roll as long as possible to dish out long range TLs from Jendon then hopefully at first engagement you get to fire 3 Assault missiles, all with focus and 2 with up to 2 die rerolled.

Nearly took out an entire swarm when I got 2 out of 3 missiles to hit, the last one actually hit 4 times but he rolled 4 natural evades, I still won that game though as all his guys only had 1 hp left.

Simply, everytime I fire them. Have yet to hit with the **** things.

Sounds like they are "overrated."

Shots fired.

But missed.

Simply, everytime I fire them. Have yet to hit with the **** things.

Sounds like they are "overrated."

Shots fired.

But missed.

To continue with the analogy: that's the benefit of having three green dice instead of only just one lol.

My flatmate's been flying four bombers with them. They're good en mass, because even if half hit that's still enough damage to be concerning.

It makes a nice mess of anyone trying to shelter under Biggs Darklighter or Howlrunner's "aura".

Try it. I think if you're going to use them, use them in bulk - and, as you noted, Green Squadron Pilots are the one block which can take deadeye and missiles at the same time. That said, named pilots shouldn't need it - at least, if you're taking Tycho Celchu he shouldn't need it.

Theoretically, an Assault Missile gets you two damage. Someone with three evade dice and an evade token will evade one more often than they won't (getting two-and-a-bit evades), but (as is always the way with tokens), the next assault missile should nail them. On targets with only two evade dice, you should be able to pummel targets most of the time if you have a clear shot.

Some odds of doing at least 1 damage:

- without focus or rerolls

defender naked/focused/with evade

agility 1 84% / 78% / 54%

agility 2 73% / 57% / 42%

agility 3 62% / 38% / 32%

- with focus

defender naked/focused/with evade

agility 1 98% / 97% / 87%

agility 2 93% / 87% / 76%

agility 3 87% / 70% / 63%

So best case scenario when you shot naked at a B-Wing that somehow has no focus, you have a one in six chance of missing. On the other hand if you shot naked at a focused Tie-F, you will hit less than 2 out of 5 times.

I have been thinking of running a green with PTL and an AM, 27 points but means he can get into position, TL, focus, and let loose. Almost tempted to take a second, but only got one of each ship so far.

Some odds of doing at least 1 damage:

- without focus or rerolls

defender naked/focused/with evade

agility 1 84% / 78% / 54%

agility 2 73% / 57% / 42%

agility 3 62% / 38% / 32%

- with focus

defender naked/focused/with evade

agility 1 98% / 97% / 87%

agility 2 93% / 87% / 76%

agility 3 87% / 70% / 63%

So best case scenario when you shot naked at a B-Wing that somehow has no focus, you have a one in six chance of missing. On the other hand if you shot naked at a focused Tie-F, you will hit less than 2 out of 5 times.

Wow that really magnifies my fail post. Based on your numbers I should have have between 87-93% chance of hitting (since I can't remember if my opponent had a focus or not).

^{Yup. A focussed attack die is about 75% of a hit - in theory. An unfocussed defence die is 37.5% of an evade -which is about half that. Plus you have twice as many attack dice as he has defence dice.}

^{That was lucky on his part - getting two evades on a single hit with an X-wing is **** good rolling.}

^{Theories are great things, I find. Shame they bear so little resemblance to reality. It's why I like concussion missiles. I know that however bad my rolls are, at least I land one bloody hit...}