There is another thread that is talking about X-wing Strategy and how things have changed in the "meta" lately. The discussion talked about how all discussions seem to be about list building these days. There was talk of flying a list with 3 X-wings and a Y-wing. Specifically, it was Garven Dreis, Dutch, and 2 X-wings. It got me thinking.

When I first got into the game, everyone talked about how Imperials were broken and how hard it was to win with Rebels. This was back in Wave 1. I decided I wanted to fly Rebels as it seemed more the challenge. As I got others sucked in, everyone wanted to play the Rebels. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I ended up playing Imperials a lot. I ended up being pretty good at it and winning (or top 3) in a number of local tournaments. I loved the movement potential of the Tie Fighter and found they were just great to do things with. I could win even when it came down to a named pilot vs. an Academy as I was good at guessing where they would go and where to move.

The local scene dried up and I took a break for a year. Nowadays, my regular player loves the Imperials. So, I find myself looking at the Rebels more and more. Rebel Aces comes out and I am trying to get the Rebel Transport. I never got into the B-wing as everyone else did. The A-wing is OK, but I really like the idea of X-wings and a Y-wing. It's iconic and as an 8 year old in the drive-in, it's what I loved.

So, I want to try out a list like this. I want it to be serious and able to battle the worst there is out there. I have always loved the game in that you could always have some Red Squadrons win games if you were good enough. While I won't go with just Reds, I want to try Garven Dreis, Dutch, and 2 X-wings. I expect flying to be the key to doing well.

How should I fly a list like this? What do I need to watch out for? What are good tactics? I want this to be about manuevering, not list building, please.

You want to focus fire and kill something as quick as possible. Make sure to give out as many actions as you can. Dutch gives Garven a TL and garden gives an xwing focus and the other two take TL.

/not a pro, but I hope it helps

That does help, and I appreciate it.

In the past, it was a decent tactic to fly your X-wings and pairs and K-turn back and forth to hit the Tie Fighters in the middle of the scrum. I'm thinking I need something more than that now.

One idea I had was to maybe send in one pair in hot and heavy to fire at whomever I can. Then, as they peel off or K-turn, the next wing can come in and cover them. The idea is that surely someone will be wanting to get on those X-wings' flanks. Use them as a little bit of bait to get shots off with the other 2 ships. Well, try not to sacrifice them, but it can be hard to get people off your flanks.

Another option is more of a diamond formation with the Y-wing with Ion Turret at the rear of the formation.

X

X X

Y

Then you can use the K to flip around if they decide to try and stay at range 3 of the Ion or if you get a good Ion hit.

With the YT-2400 coming out and the Phantoms here, I feel that this type of a list shouldn't be flying in a close formation. It's too prone to be flanked overall and shot to pieces. It would need more flexibility and able to cover more fields of fire. How to do it effectively, without letting people get isolated, is the question.

I know you didn't want to talk list building, but before I get into strategy, I'm going to start there, because that is part of the strategy.

Filling in the blanks of the Garven, Dutch, X + X leaves us with 9 points, 5 of which should be for the Ion Cannon Turret. With the remaining 4 points, you can upgrade from a rookie to Tarn. Now, you have Dutch give Garven a TL, Garven gives the Rookie a Focus, and Tarn gets a TL when shot at... So you're left with all 3 X wings (potentially) shooting with TL+F. With the two remaining points, you could upgrade Tarn to PS5, or the Rookie to PS4... But I probably would add a Flechette Torpedo to the Rookie / Garven.

Now, as for flying them, it depends on what you're flying against. Know that Dutch is likely going to be the #1 target these days as too many fighters hate ions (B wings and Phantoms come to mind). He also has a great power, so why not kill him first. Sadly, you really do want to put him in R2 so he can use his ion. When its a generic (or HWK) ICT platform, I try to keep them at R4 for the opening round, but then you wouldn't get a TL to pass one off.

I would then pick out two ships - one that you can ion+stress (preferably a maneuverable target) and get out of its arc (if not the next turn, the following), making it useless for a round or two, and one which you want to blow up (preferably a high damage target). Have the Flechettes and Ion attack the former (this would be a reason for giving Garven the Flechettes - he can strip tokens before the Ion attack goes through), while the two other X wings focus on the 2nd target. I know I know... This is not focus fire and goes against the #1 rule of X wing... Bare with me for a moment.

So, at the end of the combat, you have about a 50% of losing an X wing, you will more than likely be behind for the time being. But that's not a problem, the next turn, you should be able to get out of arc of the ion/stressed ship, removing it from combat, so the opponent won't be bringing additional fire power down on you. At this point, you'll want to preferably continue to ion the same target you did last time, keeping him out of the fight. If Dutch was their first target, this obviously won't be possible, but seeing as the target should still be stressed, you can safely bask in the knowledge he'll still be out of the fight next turn. With your X wings, you should be able to take out the target you injured the first turn.

Now you should for sure be down a fighter, and shields down on another. But you should be facing half the opposing squad (assuming you've continued to keep the ionized target out of the fight). You'll unlikely lose another unit this turn. But it's also likely the last time you can keep the ionized guy out of the fight, so if he is indeed a highly mobile unit, use this opportunity to take him out before he can start arc dodging (which due to your overall low-mid PS, would be relatively easy). Now the rest should just be clean up. 2.5 X wings vs. remaining 2 ships (assuming an initial 4 ship opponent). You should have the advantage, especially with Tarn's ability, which is a great closing tool.

As for formation flying, there's no real reason to fly in formation. I would recommend having Garven and Dutch more centered, and the Rookie and Tarn on the edges, allowing them to flank, but still be in range of a token from G/D. If you attack them on multiple fronts, it allows you to you hand off targets instead of K turning, which is very useful because the real #1 rule should deal with actions, and getting lots of them.

So, it all depends on ionizing the opponent? It can be bad if you miss with your ions, then.

Oh, yeah, Ions missing can kill you...

Anyway, I'd suggest giving them all generic R2 units to buff mobility options, and Dutch the ICT. Practice flying in close formation, and spread out, so you can adjust your strategy to your opponent's list.

So, it all depends on ionizing the opponent? It can be bad if you miss with your ions, then.

Ions are very powerful weapons that imo are vastly underrated right now. Just the threat of the ion can prevent PTL. And removing a gun from combat is almost as good as killing it, but much easier. And with rebel aces just hitting the meta, I expect to see a vast increase in B wings, especially Keyan. And while there will be plenty of PTL/opportunist Keyan builds, I expect to see lots of AdvS Keyan builds as well, which, imo, its vastly superior to the PTL one. With Dutch's TL, there's a very little chance of missing the ion attack against a B wing. But I digress, because it's not just a counter to B wings. Against 2 agility, you still have an 84% to hit (it's 93% against 1 agi)... Even against 3 agi, there's a 72% to hit. This is all assuming the opponent is tokenless... Which brings me to the weakness of Dutch in this build - he shoots second... So there's decent chance that the opponent still has tokens.

Note: an ion attack is next to useless if the opponent still gets to shoot at you the following turn, especially if he wasn't stressed and gets his action. So its vital that you take advantage of him floating straight to get behind him, which requires setup flying, especially with X wings which don't have boost / br to travel further.

There is another thread that is talking about X-wing Strategy and how things have changed in the "meta" lately. The discussion talked about how all discussions seem to be about list building these days. There was talk of flying a list with 3 X-wings and a Y-wing. Specifically, it was Garven Dreis, Dutch, and 2 X-wings. It got me thinking.

When I first got into the game, everyone talked about how Imperials were broken and how hard it was to win with Rebels. This was back in Wave 1. I decided I wanted to fly Rebels as it seemed more the challenge. As I got others sucked in, everyone wanted to play the Rebels. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I ended up playing Imperials a lot. I ended up being pretty good at it and winning (or top 3) in a number of local tournaments. I loved the movement potential of the Tie Fighter and found they were just great to do things with. I could win even when it came down to a named pilot vs. an Academy as I was good at guessing where they would go and where to move.

The local scene dried up and I took a break for a year. Nowadays, my regular player loves the Imperials. So, I find myself looking at the Rebels more and more. Rebel Aces comes out and I am trying to get the Rebel Transport. I never got into the B-wing as everyone else did. The A-wing is OK, but I really like the idea of X-wings and a Y-wing. It's iconic and as an 8 year old in the drive-in, it's what I loved.

So, I want to try out a list like this. I want it to be serious and able to battle the worst there is out there. I have always loved the game in that you could always have some Red Squadrons win games if you were good enough. While I won't go with just Reds, I want to try Garven Dreis, Dutch, and 2 X-wings. I expect flying to be the key to doing well.

How should I fly a list like this? What do I need to watch out for? What are good tactics? I want this to be about manuevering, not list building, please.

Good, I'm not the only one who will get martyred for not liking the B-wing to much. The A-wing I would have to disagree with though, those things are cool.

Garven Dreis (26)
R2 Astromech (1)

Rookie Pilot (21)

Rookie Pilot (21)

"Dutch" Vander (23)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R7-T1 (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I don't know, Garven + Dutch and 2 Xs doesn't leave to many points to work with.

Dutch gets a boost + tl from R7, which triggers his ability, preferably to Garven so Garven shoots with F + TL, then passes F to Dutch so he also fires with F + TL. R2 astro is just there because I had 1 point left.

All good stuff. I have to admit that I love Dutch with R7-T1. I used him a couple of weeks ago for the first time and then realized how Y-wings are so much better in the current meta. It was the high number of Tie Fighters that really took them down. With R7-T1 you get the much needed boost with the TL.

As for A-wings, they are alright. I think there are a lot better options with my Rebel Aces I just got. I'll put it this way. I owned an A-wing before Rebel Aces where I didn't own a B-wing. In B-wing favor, I do have a build I have been using (with a friend's B) that uses Ten Numb that I like a lot.

The real key is going to be moving first and firing last. It's the whole low PS thing that I have a problem with. When you have some highly manueverable opponents that can move and fire to your disadvantage, it can be hard. I'm trying to learn how to fly X-wings so that I can get shots every trun against these opponents. Oh, I don't mean every ship gets a shot every turn, but enough ships are getting enough shots each turn that it works out for me. That's the whole issue that I need work with. Low PS pilots doing well. The ideal of the game is that these pilots have a chance with any list, if flown well enough. So, I need to learn how to fly well enough.

Oh, silly me... In my above post, I would never bother with Flechette Torpedoes... R3A2 all the way!

Yeah, I hope to be getting him soon.

So I am a huge fan of the Y-wing as well, I don't right now actually have any of my own, but I have borrow my buddy's and used them to great success. Late game, they are friggin money. I am curious if you'd be open to switching to 2 Y's and 2 X's. Still keeping the same named pilots (Garven and Dutch, which are a good combo for sure). I feel like the whole list hinges on Dutch ioning every turn, but if by some ill fated luck (I had my Y-wing trying to ion howlrunner and 4 shooting turns is a row, he rolled triple natural evades, with a token, so it does happen) you don't get that ion off on your target, you at least have a bit of insurance. Another thing the 2nd Y-wing brings is HP. Gaining 3 HP will help the longevity of the list. I wrote this up:

Dutch - Ion turret

Goldy - Ion turret

Garven

Rookie

And that leaves you with 2 points to play with on the top end. Maybe Flechette torps on Garven? That's all up to personal preference. My 2 cents, hope the perspective helped and if you're wanting to stick to XXXY, no worries at all.

I'd have to get a 2nd Y-wing. I'm tempted anyways due to wanting more R2 Astromechs. You know how many times I've made a list with two to just look and find only one in my deck?!?

I'd have to get a 2nd Y-wing. I'm tempted anyways due to wanting more R2 Astromechs. You know how many times I've made a list with two to just look and find only one in my deck?!?

Dooo eeet!!

I've got four Y-Wings, and will definitely be getting a fifth from Most Wanted (probably a sixth).

Another option:

Dutch w/ ICT

Garven

Tarn w/ R7 astromech

Rookie

Tarn is a great closer with the R7, he survives really well (so much so, I basically consider him a 25pt pilot). It still won't be a top tier list, but it's fun.