I'm messing around with 4 X-wings. This is non-negotiable, so no one suggest swapping out something for a different ship. I'm planning on flying them a little spread out to make the best use of their dial that is somewhat faster than a B. I don't know if it will work, but I just want to play it. To put further restrictions on things, I'm not really interested in "Ace + 3 Rookies". I'd sort of like a spread of moderately capable ships. This is what I have so far, but I'm not really sure.

Tarn Mison, R7 Astromech = 25

Red Squadron Pilot, R2D6, Lone Wolf = 26

Red Squadron Pilot, Hull Upgrade, R3A2 = 28

Rookie Pilot 21

3/4ths of the squad is Predator resistant, and will shoot before most PS2 swarms. Tarn and the Lone Red can sort of be mini-closers. The Stress Red is probably the priority target, so he's got the Hull Upgrade. The Rookie is an extra gun. I figured there's a place for Biggs in here, or maybe Garven, and the obvious replacement is the Lone Red, but I kind of like the idea of having Tarn and the Lone Red become bigger jerks when the Stress Red is destroyed first. Maybe I drop the Stress Red to a Stress Rookie. Those 2 points + dropping a Hull Upgrade can make the naked Rookie into Biggs. That would make the target priority Biggs > Stress Rookie > Tarn = Lone Red, and either Tarn or Lone Red will punch above their weight class in the end game.

Tarn Mison, R7 Astromech = 25

Red Squardron Pilot, R2D6, Lone Wolf = 26

Rookie Pilot, R3A2 = 23

Biggs 25

1 point left. Any suggestions? R4B11 for HLC defense?

can't help but feel you might want to dabble in Luke to take on other rebel swarms. Higher ps or not, X-wings are brittle **** and they will get steamrolled by dedicated jousters. Luke is really the only one capable of taking on large numbers of minimally modified attacks, unless you're a wizard with biggs.

luke + Tarn w/r7 + 2 rookies comes out to 95. That's enough for a r3-a2 rookie (or luke) and then predator or r5-p9 (both on luke obv)

other than that, it gets an A-hyuck+

I agree with Fickle regarding luke: he's so good its hard to pass him up. Of course, I'm biased since he is my favourite x-wing pilot.

I've played quite a bit of 4X, mostly a long time ago, and my preferred list was 3 rookies protected by Luke w/ DTF, R2-D2 & engine. A pretty standard 4X build. Interestingly, turrets are not a major problem as long as you can keep them in arc. Even the fattest Han will melt to 12+ attack dice in the face. Other arc-dodgers and swarms are a big problem though. I think you should build your list around countering those threats first, although I guess since swarms are infrequent, you might get away with not worrying too much about them...

As to the list itself, even if you stick with the pilots you have, I'd consider getting R2-D2 in there somewhere. X-wings are squishy and the more damage mitigation you can squeeze in, the better. At least that's how I feel.

You could try:

Tarn w/ R7 = 25

Red w/ R3-A2 = 25

Rookie w/ R2-D2 = 25

Biggs = 25

Now what you can do is keep Red & Biggs close together and have Tarn & Rookie ranging outside of Biggs protection. Opponent will still probably ignore Tarn unless he can put all his shots on him (you probably want to make sure that doesn't happen) so that means Rookie will be a tempting target. As long as he doesn't take too much damage, he can swoop back into R1 of Biggs and regen his shields.

I think you mean R4-D6 instead of R4B11. Yeah, throw that on Biggs. If it keeps him alive 1 more round than its very much worth that 1 point. I like the 2nd list better I think. Biggs just throws a wrench in your opponents plans.

You guys are 100% on Luke. I was trying to keep all the X-wings pretty cheap, but Luke with minimal upgrades isn't too bad.

Tarn/R7 = 25

Rookie/R3A2 = 23

Rookie = 21

Luke/Lone Wolf = 30

1 point left for an R2? Maybe just Lone Wolf to Predator.

Jo Jo, you are correct, R4D6. I sometimes have trouble remembering all the droids, and am often too lazy to look them up each time.

I'm the same with regards to X-wings, love the iconic ship and am keen to find a competitive list that only consists of them. One of my more successful lists is;

BIGGS PS 5 (25)

-*R2-F3 (3)

-*Experimental Interface (3)

HOBBIE PS 5 (25)

-*R3-A2 (2)

ROOKIE PS 2 (21)

ROOKIE PS 2 (21)

The idea is to ensure that Biggs had R2-F2 and a focus every turn while Hobbie dishes out stress. For more action economy you can swap out a ROOKIE for Airen (if you squint enought a Z-95 kinda looks like an X-wing...) with Swarm tactics which allows for two PS 8 Attacks.

I also thought of this list, but haven't tried it yet;

BIGGS PS 5 (25)

HOBBIE PS 5 (25)

-*R3-A2 (2)

RED SQN PS 4 (23)

TARN PS 3 (23)

-R7 (1)

Hopefully Tarn will offer a bit more staying power to the list after Biggs is gone.

B Wings.

But really, I think the named pilots are the real strength of the ship currently, and there's not many points to play with if you want a couple of them in there, so it's tricky not to revert to xxxX (3 rookies and an ace).

personally don't see any way to get better than Luke + Tarn in an all X list

from what I experienced, the single greatest weakness of the ship is that it's a jouster that's incredibly frail. I've even used Wes with r3-a2 for a considerable amount of time, only to find that his squishy ass still got nuked when taking naked dice; even after slapping off target-locks/focus and stressing the target.

Back in the day when we didn't see 2-ship lists every **** time, I found that characters like Wedge were boss monster glass cannons. But now with all this chuncky crap clogging tables I find he just gets obliterated before contributing anything meaningful

So while I'd agree that the greatest (re: only real) strength of the X-wing is in its characters, I believe the current environment only really allows the more durable ones to shine

since this is a 4x list, best you can do is take the tanky ones as well as the generics imo

As for the list, I would personally opt for predator on Luke with that extra point. LW is legit, but you have four ships running around so it's unlikely that you'll be able to reliably trigger it unless everyone else is dead. It also sorta helps approximate the wedge effect, ie "how do you defend yourself from these ties? you kill 'em first that's how!"

I think you only use Biggs if you have a ship that NEEDS protecting. Perhaps the StressX qualifies. Ok, I guess if you keep him back so he's harder to hit but then contributes less to offense himself he may work but otherwise I'm just looking at a bunch of X-Wings that may be pretty interchangeable regarding what they can do to me.

My two 4X squads are these:

First one is my favorite. Very defensive.

Luke + Lone Wolf + R5-P9 (not taking R2D2 with Luke is a travesty, I know, but the ability is so similar that I fool myself thinking it is actually R2...)

Tarn + R7

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

The idea is quite simple. Flank with Luke and Tarn escort the rookies. Both Luke and Tarn can be hard to take down so your opponent will probably choose to either go for Luke or shoot the rookie down first. If they go for Luke, his natural defensive ability combined with Lonewolf and a focus token should allow him to survive the first round, especially now that there is so many 2-3 ship build. It is imperative to keep the focus token for defense, if you don't use it to improve a roll, you can regenerate a shield with it. Then next turn, if you still need to regenerate, you are not bound to be predictable and do a green (if you took R2D2) but can do any maneuver and do a focus action: go long and play defensive.

If they decide to go for the rookies, they'll probably take one down but that's okay, Tarn and Luke are both very good end-game ship. Rookies are there to take the fire while you also do some damage from your side. While they concentrate on the rookies, try to concentrate fire on the unit you don't want to face during the end-game, usually the arc-dodger, because X-Wing can't reposition.

Second one is somewhat more offensive and straight forward:

Wedge + Predator

Biggs + R4-D6

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

Fly in formation, maybe flank with a Rookie if you're feeling fancy. Biggs take the beating and soak some more 4 dice damage thanks to R4-D6, with so many HLC and 4-5 dice attack floating around, this droid is starting to be useful. Hopefully, until Biggs bites the dust, Wdge will have made enough damage to level the field.

...

Whatever you choose, I love flying 4 X-Wing. Since they can't reposition and are not considered top tier ship, I feel like playing the game at its purest form. No room for error, you need to guess correctly every move your opponent will make and set up traps, cause once those dial are down, you are fully commited. Your at the edge the whole game and never fully feel in control. I really like it!

personally don't see any way to get better than Luke + Tarn in an all X list

from what I experienced, the single greatest weakness of the ship is that it's a jouster that's incredibly frail. I've even used Wes with r3-a2 for a considerable amount of time, only to find that his squishy ass still got nuked when taking naked dice; even after slapping off target-locks/focus and stressing the target.

Back in the day when we didn't see 2-ship lists every **** time, I found that characters like Wedge were boss monster glass cannons. But now with all this chuncky crap clogging tables I find he just gets obliterated before contributing anything meaningful

So while I'd agree that the greatest (re: only real) strength of the X-wing is in its characters, I believe the current environment only really allows the more durable ones to shine

since this is a 4x list, best you can do is take the tanky ones as well as the generics imo

As for the list, I would personally opt for predator on Luke with that extra point. LW is legit, but you have four ships running around so it's unlikely that you'll be able to reliably trigger it unless everyone else is dead. It also sorta helps approximate the wedge effect, ie "how do you defend yourself from these ties? you kill 'em first that's how!"

I like the Xwing alot as an iconic fighter (especially in epic play) and I believe that no matter what combo of 4 X's we fly, we fly like mad bastards and pray for kind green ones...maybe sometime in the future, they'll come up with point reducing droid or title or somethin (we can only hope)...till then fly like hell !