Sometimes it can be hard to make lists that you think are fun to fly, or that perform well in the competitive scene. After being asked for help with list building by several people, I thought I’d put some thoughts down here in the hope that it can (maybe) help people enjoy a more fun X-Wing experience. Since competitive tastes can vary so much, I’ve kept this geared to the beginner Starfighter, but I’ve found that the ideas presented here are good building blocks for more competitive lists as well.
There are a couple of questions that can help get us started.
What kind of ships do you like the best? Really like X-Wings? Refuse to play as rebel scum? We all have *that* ship that just does it for us and playing it can be one of the greatest joys of this game.
What kind of ships do you like to fly? This is fundamentally different than the above question, and as you play the game more it will become a more important consideration. Do you prefer Hitters, Flankers, Tanks, Turrets or Mooks? (More on these later)
Is there a Pilot that you really like or think has *the* most awesome ability? Using that card can really provide a sense of unique ownership of a list. Even if it has been played before (and it has) it FEELS like it’s all yours. It also has the added benefit of getting you to remember your favorite pilot’s ability, as new players can sometimes get overwhelmed during the game and forget some of the minutiae.
For this instance let’s say that we like the Rebellion and we really think that Wedge is necessary to sate our blood thirst for TIE debris.
Once we have a general idea of what we think will be a fun list (Wedge+?) we can think about how the pieces fit and work together, and what might be a good compliment for our idea. I like to break the ships into the categories of: Hitter, Flanker, Tank, Turret and Mook. Sometimes these categories overlap, and sometimes a particular load out doesn’t conform exactly to these archetypes, but they are a great tool for keeping the big picture in mind.
Hitter: Pilots that can be considered Hitters include Wedge, Keyan, Brath and Kenkirk. Any ship with an HLC or Gunner/Luke can also be a Hitter. These guys do consistently high amounts of damage and are typically high on, if not the top of, your opponent’s threat list.
Flanker: These guys are fast and they (should) use it to outflank you. Fel, Whisper, Corran and Tycho are good examples, but really any Interceptor, Phantom, E-Wing or A-Wing qualifies. Use these ships to gain superior positioning and to lead enemy fighters away from other targets.
Tank: A Tank is a high hull and/or high shield ship like Y-wings and Tie Bombers. This may be the least glamourous, but possibly the most essential part of a list. If your list can’t take a punch then your chances of success can be significantly lowered. I would consider a Tank any ship that can absorb more than 5 hits. 3 (or less) is fragile, and 4-5 is in a grey area that with the right circumstances could be destroyed in one shot.
Turrets: Everyone’s fave, the turret ships have a 360 degree weapon. Falcons, Outriders and Decimators are examples that everyone knows, but don’t forget that the HWK and Y-wings can also carry turrets. There are also certain upgrades and Pilot Abilities that have a 360 degree firing arc, and can be handy in the right conditions.
Mooks: These guys are the rank and file. The 12-15 point ships that are more valuable as an actual ship rather than upgrades on other ships. The sheer amount of these ships that you can get on the board can be enough to shift the tide of battle in your favor, but their low Pilot Skill means that they suffer at the hands of higher PS ships and Predators. TIE Fighters and Z-95’s fill this role in most squads.
Now, a Hitter like Wedge will need some help to stay alive longer than one round of shooting, because a smart opponent will likely target him first. Consider taking a Flanker to have another target for your opponent to be concerned about. Consider a Tank with Draw Their Fire, or perhaps Biggs to help draw some heat from Wedge. Even another Hitter helps him stay alive by forcing hard choices from your opponent.
A Flanker like Fel needs something to occupy the attention of your opponent, or else getting into flanking position may be impossible. A mini-swarm of TIE’s or perhaps a turret can force the opponent to face the larger threat giving Fel the space to be the hit man he is.
A Tank is almost always better with another Tank buddy. The biggest advantage of the Tank is the low cost to high survivability ratio. So play two or three! If it takes three or four turns of fire to kill one ship, it leaves a lot of hits for later. Add a Turret or Hitter or Flanker and watch your opponent struggle with threat assessment. If they go after other aspects of your list then your poor slow tank may be what wins the game. Those of us that have seen a Y-wing one shot Soontir at range 3 behind an asteroid know that the overlooked enemy is the one that gets you.
Turrets are a popular choice for a reason. The 360 degree attack tends to shut down maneuverable ships. Combined with the fact that many Turrets are also Tanks and Hitters, you can see why they are fielded so often. But there is a fairly big drawback to them in that they cost out the nose. Chewie or a Fringer with Outrider+HLC start at 42, and a Patrol Leader is 40. So it takes up many ships worth of points before upgrades, but packs a wallop.
Mooks typically need support to really shine in a list, whether that’s a powerful hitter, a support role ship, or even more Mooks. The impact of another ship in the battle is not to be underestimated even if it ‘only’ has a 2 attack. Ask the fat falcon about taking 7 strength 2 shots in one turn. Of course the ‘best’ option for the all Mook squad just may be the force multiplier, i.e. Howlrunner, Etahn, and Sirissu. These pilots really make Mooks better than they should be, but are far from unstoppable. The main strength of the Mook is that they are often ignored for other targets, giving them the time needed to shoot multiple times and really contribute.
Taking the time to really think about these types of ships and to know what kind you are comfortable with will go a long way towards making you a better list builder. If you are good at a particular play style, the ships you use can really accentuate it. It is also a very handy thing to know the capabilities of your opponents’ ships…
For our list with Wedge, we’ll add Biggs to keep him blasting away for as long as we can. That puts us at 54 points. Let’s give ourselves a few Z-95’s to use as blockers and get some extra shots in. Bandits are 12 per but vulnerable to Predators. Let’s do 3 Talas at 13 apiece bringing us up to 93 points.
All of that marinating? Good. Now let’s take a look at upgrade cards.
Upgrades can be daunting for some because of all the options that they offer. While it’s true that there are a ton of different upgrades, some are definitely better than others. 95% of the time you don’t want to use all the possible upgrades on a given ship. Usually one or two is enough to justify the cost with production, but more is normally a point sink. Popular upgrade combos include Determination on Chewbacca, Marksmanship on Han or Corran, Push the Limit on any interceptor but especially Fel, Predator on anyone that has a 3 primary attack or more, R2D2(astro) on Luke’s X-Wing, C-3PO on a Falcon, and many others. But really, all of them shine in the right build and shouldn’t be overlooked. Knowing all of them and how they work is also a good way to get better fast.
A good rule of thumb is to try to make a list that doesn’t need any upgrades to be successful. Try to think of upgrades as the gravy, not the turkey. If your list absolutely needs an upgrade to work, then it doesn’t really work.
The seven points left in our list are more than enough to make good into better. We’ll add Predator and R2D2 to Wedge to give him a predictable three hits per shot and to (maybe) help him survive with shield regeneration. We add nothing to Biggs because he is probably going to die quickly, and the Tala’s are too fragile to justify the point cost of missiles in this squad.
So for our squad we have:
Wedge + Predator + R2D2 - 36
Biggs - 25
Tala Squadron Pilot (x3) - 39
Total-100 points
You may have noticed that my suggestions tend to have multiple archetypes in one squad. I have found that the flexibility it gives you is more fun and more competitive in most situations. However, there are some great squads that conform to a single archetype as well. Play around with it and get creative. Often, the winning list is the one that nobody has seen before.
Now it should go without saying that these are just some guidelines and are not the alpha and omega of list making. There are many possibilities in this game and most, if not all, are fun in the right conditions. I hope that this can help some newer players get going and really enjoy the list building aspect of this game.
