Tricks for Fighitng Falcons

By Hrathen, in X-Wing

Since Falcons or Fat Han or what ever have been such a big topic, I thought I would give some pointers (that any list should be able to use) for how to fly against fully loaded Named YT-1300s.

1- Attack in mass or not at all. Your approach is soooo important. With a Falcon Title and C3PO upgrades a falcon can likely ignore the first two damage it will take per turn. Making it almost impossible to kill if you engage it in one on one. But as powerful as a falcon is against the first attack it takes each round, it is almost defenseless against the second, third, forth attacks it takes each round. Keep your ships together. If none of them have a shot and He doesn't have a shot back you are fine. If all of them have a shot and he has a shot back at you, you are fine. If the Falcon exchanges fire with only one or maybe two of yous ships on a given round the falcon is going to mess you up.

2- Save the token and take a damage. After the defensive upgrade gunner/Luke are the most important upgrade on a Named YT-1300 list. What this means is if you are going to be hit by the Falcon, but can stop the damage by spending a focus or a Evade, it is often to your best advantage to just take the damage and not let the Falcon Shoot you again. This is especially true if you are only going to take a single point of damage. Taking 1 point of damage instead of letting the falcon shoot again is usually a good idea.

3- Know how the falcon is likely to fly. Falcons Hate landing on Asteroids! A falcon has 1 very good attack, but it is only one. If it lands on an asteroid it loses that really good attack. It will also lose its evade action which is essentially one free damage. Falcon's don't like to be surrounded, They only want to attack part of your fleet at a time. Both of these factors mean they like to fly close to the edge. Also a good Falcon player will often fly away from your fleet, expecting some of your ships to follow it, but getting out of firing range of many of them. This is a game about flying. If you can make intelligent decisions based on where you think the falcon is going to fly you should be able to get advantages out of that.

To sum up. Defeating Falcons isn't so much about bringing Anti-Falcon Lists, but about using Anti-Falcon flying techniques.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no tricks whatsoever against falcons. Simply hammer it until it is dead.

you COULD try blocking it for action denial + pinning with lower PS swarms, BUT be warned that something like Chewy Predator Luke C3P0 doesnt need any actions at all to be extremely potent in terms of offense and defense.

you COULD try to build for massed ships, but 1 boost would send the falcon out of the reach of the majority of your TIE/Z95 fleet.

you COULD try for HLCs but if the falcon hammers you hard enough from out of arc you are dead

you COULD try to range 1 it, provided you fire first or somehow survive the 360deg 4 dice attack

you COULD try to range 3 it, provided you dont mind not being able to hit through C3P0 calling 1 + MF title evade

in short, there is really nothing you can do that would give you a real advantage over the falcon. Just admit that the ship is annoyingly powerful for its point cost, and hammer it until either it dies first or you die first.

if it helps, chasing it from behind works best, because you would be less likely to be forced into the maneuvering situation where you have to disengage and you get shot at from behind

also, there is no such thing as anti-falcon flying techniques, when honestly your opponent could take the maneuver sheet, roll d6s to randomize his maneuvers, and wreck utter havoc on your forces simply because. Been there, done that, tried it, omg really works, lose hope in the game, complain about it, rinse and repeat

Edited by Duraham

Rule #1 exception: outmaneuver on a powerful ship, like Rexler with heavy laser cannon, can allow for a single pilot to attack while the others focus elsewhere.

Rule #4: do not be afraid to disengage completely in order to respect rule #1.

Rule #5: in some instances, multiple stress can ruin a Falcon's day (especially if engine upgrade was part of the strategy to stay out of range).

F16!

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no tricks whatsoever against falcons. Simply hammer it until it is dead.

This, really. It's a war of attrition - you don't want the Falcon hanging around in the endgame, so you prioritise it and shoot it with everything you can, as soon as you can, until it's dead. HLC's, Cluster Missiles etc will all cause good damage, but generally ANY ship's attacks will be able to get some damage through.

Blocking it to deny actions helps, but in the main you want to take it out quickly. A loaded Falcon is usually at least 50% of a list, so as long as, you destroy it before it does too much damage to your own list, you'll have an end game advantage.

wars of attrition dont happen with this 1 piece of junk that magically becomes completely immune to Awing / TIE / z95 / Ywing / TIEadv / TIEbomber / ORS shooting at it under 1v1 situations.

Edited by Duraham

1v1 is assumed not. We shouldn't have a discussion if you don't know about that.

I've found that a larger single attack does more than a slightly large multi attack. Ex. Proton rockets have been highly cost effective compared to the HLC.

You need durability in your list to take 1 damages. If you haven't put that in you won't be happy.

Lots of attacks are good.

Trying to put them on the asteroid is pretty great. Losing their one good attack and evade token is excellent.