The forum has had a low number of interesting threads lately and it’s Friday – I want to be entertained! J I don’t want to talk about Wave 5 stuff that isn’t out yet and I have no interest with the Scum at this point. I want to read/write about X-wing!

So, that got me thinking. Last night, I finally got to play Tarn Mison with R7. I have gotten the pilots from the Rebel Transport and I’ve been really excited about getting them. My main opponent, though, has been playing lots of Rebels and I’ve been trying out an Imperial build I like. So, I haven’t actually used many of these nifty new X-wing pilots yet. I’m wondering if anyone else out there has tried them and what they have experienced.

NOTE: I don’t want to read about Mathwing. No offense, but I’d love to hear stories from people who have actually flown these pilots in games. What did you fly? How’d it work out? Would you fly it again? If you just want to bash a particular pilot that you read and haven’t actually flown, save your comments for one of the other non-productive threads, please.

So, Tarn Mison w/ R7 was pretty good. It’s nice to have a cheap pilot that adds up to 25 pts with R7. Whenever shot at, you get a TL on that guy. R7 lets you (once per round) force the attacker to re-roll as many dice as you want by spending that TL. Man…..I had Backstabber right behind this guy and got 4 hits! I had to re-roll them down and only got one. He then dodged. I think this guy is pretty darn cool! He can really survive more than the average pilot. Sure, he fails to concentrated fire, but when your opponent has one big bruiser…or one big shot that turn, he can do well. Anyone else use him?

“Hobbie” Klivian – When you gain/spend a TL, you can lose a stress. Another low cost X-wing pilot, which is a great thing to me. If you put him in a list with Dutch and I think he can be a great asset. I’m not sure if you have to give him an astromech or anything. He’s pretty good on his own….as long as someone else is there to give him a TL! Is there anyone other than Dutch that he works with? Maybe an epic ship crew can give one out? Well, even just the PS 5 is nice.

Porkins w/ R5-D8 – Porkins is PS7 and only 26 pts, which is good, and he gets an EPT. So, even without ever using his ability, that’s not bad at all. What is his ability? He can not take a stress to roll a red damage die to take a face down damage card. Personally, when paired with R5-D8, he can shed those damage cards before his shields are down. So, it might not be as much of a danger as one might think. Also, R5 works on both eyeballs and evades, so that’s 5/8 chance of success. Also, FYI, that is his astromech from the movies, too. So, they do well together. “Yeah, but he takes an action away to use R5”, you might say. Well, what if you gave him PtL? He can use that action to try to reduce damage, and then still gain his action! He can even then re-roll the red die to remove that stress, even. Now, it’s a 50-50 chance of getting that hit. Wait…it’s only hits, not criticals. So, it’s only a 3/8 chance of getting it. That’s pretty good….and if my normal attack rolls are there, there is a good chance of me missing! While someone might say that you are spending an extra 6 pts to make Porkins work, I say that those upgrades don’t only work on Porkin’s ability. You can always PtL and not use his ability or use R5 on damage you gained through regular combat. So, I don’t see it as used “only to make him work”.

I have to admit that I am really warming up to this guy. Anyone use him? Hell, I think I want to just for fun reasons, but he’s really not bad. You can even just boost him to PS 9 with VI if you want to.

Wes Janson – Yeah, he’s the darling that everyone talked about using from this set. PS 8 and 29pts. After he shoots, he removes a focus, evade, or blue target lock from the target. He gets an EPT. He’s pretty cool, especially if there is one target that you want to take down. Being an X-wing, your target might need to shed that Focus….but then lose something else, too! Great for when your opponent just sets you up with someone and is all Focused and TL and all that to blast the heck out of you. Have many people used him? Any good stories? I can see that maybe his ability isn’t used as much as one might think. I guess it depends. Give him that PS 10 with VI and he can even make Vader drop his tokens!

Are there any good astromechs that people have used with these guys? Any good stories?

R3-a2 on a gold y with ion can be pretty nasty

That is pretty good! Imagine using Flachette Torpedoes, too! That would cause 2 Stress! Take that, Phantom!

“Hobbie” Klivian – When you gain/spend a TL, you can lose a stress. Another low cost X-wing pilot, which is a great thing to me. If you put him in a list with Dutch and I think he can be a great asset. I’m not sure if you have to give him an astromech or anything. He’s pretty good on his own….as long as someone else is there to give him a TL! Is there anyone other than Dutch that he works with? Maybe an epic ship crew can give one out? Well, even just the PS 5 is nice.

Combine Hobbie with this little fella:

...and suddenly he's amazeballs.

“Hobbie” Klivian – When you gain/spend a TL, you can lose a stress. Another low cost X-wing pilot, which is a great thing to me. If you put him in a list with Dutch and I think he can be a great asset. I’m not sure if you have to give him an astromech or anything. He’s pretty good on his own….as long as someone else is there to give him a TL! Is there anyone other than Dutch that he works with? Maybe an epic ship crew can give one out? Well, even just the PS 5 is nice.

Combine Hobbie with this little fella:

...and suddenly he's amazeballs.

i use this (with a flechette torp for once per game double stress) in a list with Tarn + R7, Biggs and a Rookie. its a nice twist on the traditional 4 x-wing list. it isn't super strong but can take on most things.

The guy above me beat me to it.

Also, Wes with Keyan+Opportunist is great.

Here are my repsonses:

Tarn: yeah its cool. On the downside, I seem to always upgrade one of those hits to a crit when I use it, but that just bad luck.

Hobbie: Also great, I like him with R3-A2.

Porkins: Yeah I have used him. He is good. The thing to remember is that his skill costs you zero, so even if you do not use it, its still a PS7 pilot with an EPS for the same price as an PS6 X-Wing Pilot without an EPT. I used in a list of Luke & Swarm, Porkins & Swarm, Rookie Pilot X2. It was pretty nasty and nice to fly a list without many tricks.

Wes: I haven't used him yet. I have issues fitting in Wedge or him to a list, but thats not a statement against them, just personal preference for how I like to fill out my squads.

Hobbie + R3-A2 has pretty good synergy as well. I don't think as good as Tarn + R7, but if you can manage to get him pointing at a Phantom, he can be great.

I kind of think Porkins sucks. For the points I rather take Garvin. I don't like abilities that self-damage.

My favorite X-Wing to run is Porkins + PTL + R5-D8 + Engine Upgrade

I've had a lot of fun (and success) with him, often removing 5 damage a game, and twice going a whole game without self-inflicting at all.

Hobbie's amazing with stress effects. Went up against a Hobbie Opportunist once and was nearly shredded. Stresswise I do prefer him to Jek, who I've only used once.

Tarn and R7 is a great combo on paper but he doesn't get to use his ability much because he doesn't get shot. He suffers from the same problem as the TIE advanced: he's tough but not very threatening. He's a tough ship to kill but no more threatening than an X-wing. While he's meant to be amazing in the endgame it depends on what you're up against: he may be difficult to hit but up against a decent arc-dodger he's not going to get any shots of his own. The decision for the opponent is easy: leave him until last so that his pilot ability doesn't even come into play, kill his more threatening allies first and then outmaneuver him in the endgame. I can't help but feel Tarn would be better employed if you made him more aggressively threatening: make him a ship your opponent wants to kill quickly so you can get your free target locks in.

I love Tarn and R7, he's in nearly every list I have with X-Wings. Because for the points he's really hard to kill, and frankly R7 was nearly custom made for him. Because every time someone shoots at him he has a TL on them.

The fewer shots the other guy can take on him the better he becomes, so a tie swarm can kill him pretty quickly. But if the other guy is down to a single attacker left, he's very hard to kill.

The trick is knowing when to his use his ability, do you make that guy reroll the 2 <hits> from that tie, or maybe wait because the Defender might shoot him with a HLC.

But the thing that will happen, and make you curse the dice gods, is when you make that guy reroll 3 <hits> and he rolls 2 <crits> and a <focus> that he can turn into a hit.

make him a ship your opponent wants to kill quickly so you can get your free target locks in.

But the longer he lasts the harder he becomes to kill. When you only have 1 or 2 things left shooting at him, his ability is a lot better then when you have a whole swarm of ties.

make him a ship your opponent wants to kill quickly so you can get your free target locks in.

But the longer he lasts the harder he becomes to kill. When you only have 1 or 2 things left shooting at him, his ability is a lot better then when you have a whole swarm of ties.

This. Leaving him for the end game when you have maybe 1 or 2 ships to face him might be a bad idea. If you don't roll well initially with your attack, you leave him with a TL + Focus. He can hit back very hard.

Hobbie + R3-A2 has pretty good synergy as well. I don't think as good as Tarn + R7, but if you can manage to get him pointing at a Phantom, he can be great.

I kind of think Porkins sucks. For the points I rather take Garvin. I don't like abilities that self-damage.

I think you don't even have to use his powers and he's a good pilot. He's got a high PS and an EPT for not as many points as the other guys. I know I said I didn't want to Mathwing, but the chances of him doing damage to himself is pretty small and using the astromech has an even better chance of removing it. I think of that one time when you K-turn and you're sitting pretty right behind that Phantom that hasn't shot yet....

Tarn and R7 is a great combo on paper but he doesn't get to use his ability much because he doesn't get shot. He suffers from the same problem as the TIE advanced: he's tough but not very threatening. He's a tough ship to kill but no more threatening than an X-wing. While he's meant to be amazing in the endgame it depends on what you're up against: he may be difficult to hit but up against a decent arc-dodger he's not going to get any shots of his own. The decision for the opponent is easy: leave him until last so that his pilot ability doesn't even come into play, kill his more threatening allies first and then outmaneuver him in the endgame. I can't help but feel Tarn would be better employed if you made him more aggressively threatening: make him a ship your opponent wants to kill quickly so you can get your free target locks in.

Do you and your opponents fly in formation all the time? Sometimes there isn't a choice to fire at someone other than Tarn and that's when this really kicks in. Also, I think the comparision to a Tie Advanced is really off as a generic X-wing has 3 red dice, which is considerable more firepower! I don't think a generic X-wing is a bad thing at all. He's also not much more points than it, anyways.

I tend to just fly like normal and there is usually a time when I've been outflown or my lower PS pilots will get a few shots across their bow. That's when I think this guy really does well. I wouldn't say I save him for later or purposidly get him shot at. I just fly things and sometimes he's the ship in the crosshairs.

Since Tarn killed a full health Bounty Hunter on his own in one of my games the guy is an absolute boss in my book.

Hobbie + R3A2 is also sweet, pairs well with Roark+ICT. Especially Phantoms hate that team.

Hobbie + R3-A2 obviously has really good synergy. Some good combos of Hobbie + R3-A2 with other pilots:

• Dutch Vander so Hobbie fires with TL+F and clears his stress.
• Eaden Vrill, so Vrill gets 3 base attack instead of 2.

On the latter, I have been dying to try out this build (still untested):

Hobbie + R3-A2

Biggs

Eaden Vrill + Tactical Jammer

Prototype + Refit

Biggs hides behind Eaden on the initial pass, so he gets 3 green dice. Hobbie, Biggs, and Eaden all get 3 dice attack, which isn't bad at all. The prototype does its thing as an annoying in-your-face blocker.

Eaden Vrill + Tactical Jammer

Who? Oh....I had to look that up to see it's a pilot not out yet.

Wes makes a great escort fighter. He really did a great job on Major Rhymer in a recent Hoth mission playthrough, he single handedly kept Rhymer from launching his advanced proton torpedos on one of the sub missions, just kept peeling the TL off. It was glorious.

I know a lot of people here only believe jousting and 100 point skirmishes exist. But, if you like Epic or mission play and you've got an escort mission, Wes is my goto X-Wing pilot. So perfect that he came with the transport.

Since Tarn killed a full health Bounty Hunter on his own in one of my games the guy is an absolute boss in my book.

Nice! I like to hear more stories like this. I bet he was pissed.

I greatly enjoy Hobbie with R3 as several people have pointed out. You can also give him R2-D6 and he pairs well with either PtL or Opportunist! The cool thing is that you don't actually have to reroll dice when you spend a Target Lock, so you can destress him super easily with those abilities. If you're going to give him PtL, I also suggest either a torpedo or Engine Upgrade on him (or both!). Actually, he also pairs well with the two R7 units as well, in thinking further, so there are -lots- of ways to work his magic.

Janson is AWESOME. I really don't have too much to add when saying that, other than he works with lots and lots of different lists and pilots alongside him. I really like his ability.

Porkins! While I like him with R5-D8 I'm still having trouble thinking of precisely what to arm him with and how to use him in a really powerful squad. Using him is always kinda on the back burner, though I have nothing personal against him.

Tarn is a very effective X-Wing. He pairs well with R7 Astromech just fine, though I realized that you can only use the R7 droid ability once per turn, and that does hurt it. However, he has excellent action economy overall. You can realistically put any droid on him and it will work awesome. R5-P9 is also an interesting idea: you Focus as normal with him and use the Target Locks to make your attacks better, saving the Focus for defensive purposes, either in recovery or avoiding damage. R2-D2, R5-D8, and even R2-F2 aren't bad ideas either! Just remember that his ability isn't purely defensive, since you can use those Target Locks to make some fun torpedo attacks too.

Do you and your opponents fly in formation all the time? Sometimes there isn't a choice to fire at someone other than Tarn and that's when this really kicks in.

Barely ever: formations only appear in our games when abilities require them (Imperial command abilites and Rebel synergy abilities). However, unless the ships we're going after are hypermaneuverable it's fairly easy to get them in the crosshairs: we don't just spin dials at random and see what appears in our sights.

Also, I think the comparision to a Tie Advanced is really off as a generic X-wing has 3 red dice, which is considerable more firepower!

It's the same issue as the Advanced: it may not be as severe but it's still a case of a pretty average offence and maneuverability paired with a very high durability. In my experience people don't want to shoot Tarn, so they shoot someone else.

I don't think a generic X-wing is a bad thing at all. He's also not much more points than it, anyways.

He's not bad by any definition, especially as a basic pilot, but I've always paired him with R7 and his ability just doesn't seem to come into play for me. And no, a generic X-wing isn't bad, but it's 21 points too. Tarn + R7 is 25. If Tarn's ability comboed with R7 isn't coming into play until it's too late then what are you paying 4 points for? One point of pilot skill, that's what.

I tend to just fly like normal and there is usually a time when I've been outflown or my lower PS pilots will get a few shots across their bow. That's when I think this guy really does well. I wouldn't say I save him for later or purposidly get him shot at. I just fly things and sometimes he's the ship in the crosshairs.

It's the same principle that often discourages people from naked Wedge without defensive support: he's 29 points that'll die very fast. You want the threat your ships pose to roughly line up with their durability/arc dodging ability. A very powerful ship that's that not particularly hard to take down relative to the rest of the squad will be focused down very quickly. A durable ship that doesn't pose any significant threat in comparison to its allies will be mostly ignored.

Defensive abilites are there to discourage attacking a ship, but if there's no real reason to prioritise Tarn as a target that ability isn't doing much. Once again, comparison to TIE advanced. The x1 is almost as tough as a TIE defender but your opponent doesn't have any real reason to go for it. That's why I'm hoping FFG's upgrade for the Advanced is a much needed offensive upgrade.

If your Tarn R7 is getting shot at and that R7 is blocking damage then he's pulling his weight, but if like me he's not getting shot at then you've got a powerful defence you're not getting much use of and it might be worth looking at other upgrades for him that make use of his ability, or just flying him unupgraded.

Wes with R3-A2 is my Favorite combination from the Transpot pilots and Astromechs.

I have already talked at length about both Wes and R3-A2 so I won't go over it again here.

Hobbie is a good PS 5 sleeper. Because his ability sheds stress, he needs to have a way to generate target locks or spend them consistently. He works well paired with R5-K6 in an attempt to maintain the target lock after firing. The 2pt droid is obviously cheaper than 26pt Dutch, but the droid is not as reliable.

Porkins is great during casual play but his ability is more high risk than high reward. Stripping stress after a K-turn is not that awesome if it means taking hull damage. Use him for his EPT slot and PS 7 status. I usually ignore him.

Tarn is interesting with R7 because it works well enough to consider him over most other pilots in the same price range. He can be a danger for your opponent if they blank an attack roll and Tarn doesn't use R7. He is pretty good at getting torpedoes off, two of the three times I have seen Advanced Protons annihilate other ships, they were fired by a Tarn who had only taken a focus action and then got shot at range one by his target.

R5-P9 is great for not telegraphing your next maneuver to your opponent, unlike R2-D2. R5-P9 is worth trying out on Luke in lists where he draws fire from Biggs and doesn't need to spend his focus. I would rate R5-P9 as more efficient than the similarly priced R5-D8.

R2-D6 is great if only for a few reasons, putting determination on Biggs or Veteran Instincts on Garven and draw their fire on Gray Squad. Determination on Biggs is great, considering the pilot crits are discarded without even resolving them. It happens more often than some would think especially against Crit generating pilots and co-pilots.

I love the X-wing in particular and I hope for Astromechs that offer Abilities like FCS for the same price but are not dice dependent like R5-K6. I feel that experimental interface is going to make some of the more mediocre Astros more efficient.

Do you and your opponents fly in formation all the time? Sometimes there isn't a choice to fire at someone other than Tarn and that's when this really kicks in.

Barely ever: formations only appear in our games when abilities require them (Imperial command abilites and Rebel synergy abilities). However, unless the ships we're going after are hypermaneuverable it's fairly easy to get them in the crosshairs: we don't just spin dials at random and see what appears in our sights.

This made me crack up.

I don't feel that people play randomly, but I do think that being unpredictable helps win games. Maybe it's a matter of not having enough really experienced guys to play against lately.

I am thinking of running a list with 3-4 X-wings without a major elite guy, like Wedge. Maybe Dutch and maybe throwing in a Z-95 if get too expensive with some of the X-wings, but overall thinking about a list that doesn't necessarily have a major threat. This might help things out more if there isn't Wedge or someone with a big bullseye on their forehead.

I still feel that furballs can go or not go the way you expect and that sometimes you find yourself in unexpected situations. Sometimes Tarn is the only shot someone has.

Ever since reading the idea (I think on Team Covenant?), I've been wanting to run:

Hobbie w/ R7-T1 and experimental interface. Focus, Boost, and TL all with no stress (after shooting).

Porkins, I really like with PTL, Engine, and R2. Don't use his ability unless you're in a real bind or want to make a surprise K-turn. He's not something I'd consider super competitive, but he's fun to fly around with.

I've never run Wes, and would probably only use him in scenarios where I had to protect something for x number of rounds.

Tarn, well, I like Tarn Mison, but I think he's too good for the price. He's often the only x-wing I think of taking anymore. I wish the transport had come with a generic x-wing with an EPT.

I thought about a sort of 'live fast die young' Porkins build, designed to get as many stress tokens as I can, attempt to remove them all, and die gloriously (spilling diet pepsi on my control console and cratering into the Death Star).

So here is my Stressed Porkins:

Porkins-26

+R3A2-2

+Oppertunist-4

+Flechette torpedos-2

+Munitions failsafe-1

The plan here is to range 3 a phantom (or other ships that hate stress) with flechette and R3A2, remove the stress from R3, K-turn behind, remove stress, focus/TL for my action, then (hopefully) range 1 + oppertunist + focus to finish the guy off.

I'd probably stick him in a 3 ship elite build, paired with Wes/Wege and other high damage ships, and clearly I'd never use it in a tournament, as there are too many points on a guy who I am basically forcing to commit suicide, but everyone would be laughing when Porkins blows up a Phantom, takes no damage from enemy fire, yet still dies on turn 3 from 'Having a bit of trouble'.