Say you're in a situation where you have a fat Han + Corran. Corran is likely to do more damage faster than Han and is much squishier, so my temptation is to kill him first. However, I frequently see the advice on the forums to take out the "tank" first. I'm just kind of curious as why?

Obviously this situation translates to many different builds, so I'd like to avoid specific builds/ships.

I think the reason why is if yout save the tank for last, your not at your full strength.

Making it harder to kill end game

I'm just kind of curious as why?

Main reason, is you want to be able to focus the maximum firepower you can on it. Each round you're going to take damage and each ship you lose means less damage you can do. Making it harder and harder to ill that tank.

Lets say you have 8 Tie Fighters, those 8 ships should do 10 damage per turn on avg. But if you're down to say 4, now you're looking at doing 5 damage per turn, and if the tank can evade 2 damage per turn you're down to 3.

That said, if you think you can take out something like Corran in a single turn, it may be worth it because you've cut the other guys damage in half, and still have most if not all your ships to focus on the tank.

I might face a very similar scenario tonight. A HLC Dash Outrider with Corran. I have a decent chance with my squad of taking out corran in the first round of attacks. At the same time I could hit Dash pretty hard instead and probably knock off a good chunk of his health. Not sure which one to go for. I think it will depend greatly on what actions my opponent takes. If a ship has no focus/evade for defense will probably go for that one.

I can see that, but it seems to be playing right into your opponents strategy. That will immediately put them at an advantage because you'll have to start on your back foot and create a new strategy on the fly.

Moving onto a slightly different scenario; what about a soft tank? Something like a bomber or a defender with the "dps" being present in the form of interceptors and phantoms. If you let the dps live to the end it's going to be a pain to try to finish off because of the maneuverability. I have a hunch on what I'd do, but I don't have a whole lot of experience so I'd like to hear what more veteran players would do.

The reason I see to take down the tank first is that they typically have C-3PO on them which can only be used once per turn. If you wait till late game and you only have 1 or 2 ships, that is a better chance for them. If you still have 3+ ships, there is more damage per turn going in.

If Corran is also on the board it gets iffy. I went against a Corran/Fat Han list at regionals and took down Han fairly quick. The problem was with Corran. He was able to turbo turtle each turn using PtL and then his green maneuver each turn activated R2-D2. He was down to 1 hit remaining 3 times that game. Again a case of trying to break a turtle with only 1 ship. It's crazy hard.

The idea of kill the tank first, like so much else in X-Wing is highly situational, and is going to depend a lot on your list and the other guys list.

If you're facing Fat Han with Z-95's as an escort, then Han needs to go first, because you can finish off the Z's later. But if it's Han and Corran, and Corran can turtle then it may be different, and you'd have to look at who will be the harder one to kill in the end game.

I guess a good way to look at it is what would you rather face in the end game, and kill the other stuff first.

As many have said, it depends on your list too, but imagine this scenario:

Corran turtles repeatedly and recharges with R2-D2, making you waste several damage against his dice, evade tokens, and free shields. You eventually clear him, but you've lost 2 out of 4 ships, or lost 1 and a second is nearly destroyed. Han shoots first, destroys your second ship. It might be difficult to focus him down with only 2 attacks, especially if he has the Title+C3PO and/or Chewbacca crew. With Han, most people kit him for offense AND defense, IE Title, C3PO, Gunner, Hull Upgrade. With 2 ships with 3 attack, you are rolling a MAX of 8 hits a turn at Range 1, that's if you are lucky, and he is negating at least 2, possibly a third. Han with Gunner can likely roll 3 or 4 hits, especially if he is focused or has Gunner. So, he is doing 3 damage, you are doing maybe six. It takes you at least 3 rounds to get through his 14 damage assuming you lose nothing (and ignoring criticals for purposes of the exercise). But, in those three rounds, Han is extremely likely to clear an X-wing and moderately likely to clear a B-wing if you are staying Range 1 of him. Then, you are doing a MAX of TWO per turn. It just becomes difficult to clear that many hit points when he absorbs a significant number automatically.

This may seem like a really specific scenario, but its the kind of scenario that Fat Falcons are designed to set up for themselves.

Best defense against Fat Falcons is A LOT of offense. You may find a similar issue with Corran with his higher agility, but it only takes one bad agility roll for Corran to cripple. Han doesn't have to rely on agility.

Rabid in most instances you are absolutely right (kill a Z or a A? Go for the Z). However, some pilots/ships have once per turn defensive abilities that become very hard to overcome when your squad has reduced firepower due to casualties. Examples are the Evade action, C3PO, R7 Astromechs and R2D2.

I generally recommend taking down the ship with the most HPs first. That has to be balanced against how many guns you are taking down.

However, with 3PO and MF its important to get as much guns on him as possible as quick as possible.

Here is an example with 3 dice attack at range two with focuses being spent against a Han + 3PO + MF title

4 3 dice attacks at range 2:

12*.75 = 9 hits - 1 (3po) - 1.125 evades (3 normal evade rolls) - 1 evade from MF = 5.875 average damage

or .55 damage/attack die

2 3 dice attacks at range 2:

6 * .75 = 4.5 hits - 1 (3po) - .375 evades (1 normal evade rolls) - 1 evade from MF = 2.125 average damage

or .35 damage/attack die

Not only does the amount of damage go down, but the efficiency of the attacks go down.

This is a result of 3PO and MF falcon title giving a flat bonus that stays constant no matter how many attacks are thrown at it. They would be overpowered if they applied to every attack, but as a result are extremely effective when your opponent is only throwing 1 or 2 attacks against you.

Most (but not all) of the defensive powers don't work this way. Luke, Ibtisam, R2-F2, Flight Instructor and Sensor Jammer equally penalizes opponents no matter how many attacks are coming.

(...)

Obviously this situation translates to many different builds, so I'd like to avoid specific builds/ships.

The bad news is that builds are part of the equation. The correct decision will be based on a squad's strenghts/weaknesses vs the opponent.

Example: if I have a pair of phantoms with Stygium particle accelerators, I'll go after Corran. The reason: with the evade token that you get when decloaking, you can partially control the damage that Han will do to you (hopefully minimize it to 1 or 2 per round). If, however, I have ships with outmaneuver, then why not target Han first? He just lost the benefit from C3PO if I maneuver correctly and his health will go down fast.

There's just no perfect answer.

Kill the tank, unless he is with super-Corran. Then super-Corran is secretly the tank. I am taking Han/Corran to a tourney this weekend and I sincerely hope everyone guns for Han for my sake!

So it seems like the general method of dealing with tanks really comes down to if they have a "once per round" ability or something that allows them to regenerate (I'll call them hard tanks.) Hard tanks need to be gunned down first because their benefits gain strength as incoming attacks decrease in effectiveness.

Tanks that don't have those, and instead rely on a large amount of health (I'll call them soft tanks) should be weighed based on how much firepower they have. A good instance would be a Defender vs a Bomber. Same health, but with the extra attack on the Defender they should be attacked first.

Very broad yes and definitely not written law, but it really helps a new guy build a basic strategy.

I recently faced Fat Han and Wedge. I was flying a 4 ship Reb list and felt like I needed to waste Wedge first. I got him off the board in the second round, but I lost a ship and my ability to damage Han was extremely weakened.

So it seems like the general method of dealing with tanks really comes down to if they have a "once per round" ability or something that allows them to regenerate (I'll call them hard tanks.) Hard tanks need to be gunned down first because their benefits gain strength as incoming attacks decrease in effectiveness.

Tanks that don't have those, and instead rely on a large amount of health (I'll call them soft tanks) should be weighed based on how much firepower they have. A good instance would be a Defender vs a Bomber. Same health, but with the extra attack on the Defender they should be attacked first.

Very broad yes and definitely not written law, but it really helps a new guy build a basic strategy.

I like how you summed that up, very well said.

Edit: Oh Bombers and Defenders don't have the same health. I use a method to determine Effective HPs which gives an accurate sense of the average number of red dice it will take to down someone. Its (Hull+Shields) * (Agility +1). A bomber has 18 EHPs. A Defender has 24 EPS. Ships with more green dice vary from the average more than ships with less agility dice. It also does not figure in TL, focus and evade. It also doesn't factor in shields. Its a thumbnail not a 100% accurate model.

Thanks everyone! I've got a game coming up that should put this stuff to the test, I'll let you know how it goes

Normally a Fat Han is the better target to focus first. You don't want to fight him in the End Game as, if you have a shot on him, he has a shot on you. You don't want that when you can't focus as much firepower as you normally would. Fat Han + Super Corran however is a totally different story. That will be up to you. If you pack some ordnance like a couple of proton torpedoes or some cluster/concussion/homing missiles then you can go after Han first, but what to do is pretty much up to your own build.

I think you can divide "Hard Tanks" into per-attack and per-turn defenses. 3PO, Ysanne Isard, Evade actions, etc., are all per-turn defenses. You need more raw power against them. Per-attack defenses are things with high AGI values or other bonuses that activate each time someone attacks (Luke is a good example). You need a large number of attack dice from a single source to effectively deal with these.