In the interest of discussing tactics I was hoping we could share our retired traps.

Faints and baits are to some extent part of every X-wing match. More lavish and premeditated traps are on the other hand, in my experience, a rather uncommon occurrence. This I guess probably comes down to the difficulty of fooling an opponent who knows all your potential tricks (available through pilots and upgrades). Still, I'm curious how you approach this part of X-wing strategy, if at all? I'll kick it off.

The only way I found to engineer a trap is the obvious one: By building a list with a pretty clear priority target and betting on my opponent to go after him. If the assumption holds true, my opponents moves becomes rather predictable, and to some extent under my control. Here is a list example.

• Blaster Turret
• R4 Agromech
• Veteran Instincts

• Ion Cannon Turret
• BTL-A4 Y-Wing

• Ion Cannon Turret
• BTL-A4 Y-Wing

Kavil is intended to be the priority target, with his 4 dice target locked attacks. With this list the "Trap" is rather obvious, but can still be hard to avoid. The list is intended to be slow played, with Kavil a little by himself, turning back towards his home edge when the opposing forces come close. Asteroids are placed near my side of the board in such a way as to to hinder my opponent from of breaking off once giving chase. If the Trap closes there are several benefits:

- Kavil does not mind being chased (extra die and little risk of blocks)

- I can line up shots rather easily, notwithstanding the limited dial of the Y-wing.

- There is a good chance something will get ioned of the board.

- After Kavil dies, I should hold a positional advantage (which will probably be needed).

I think the play is too obvious and conscious players will avoid getting trapped in the arcs of 3 warthogs close to a board edge just to get that priority kill, but it's the best I've got. So, have you successfully (or not) laid a Trap in X-wing? Any ideas come to mind with the coming mine and bombs?

I play this list a lot ... won 100 points to 0 the last 3 times i used it

I read Darkhorse's article on the Tie Bomber and fully embraced his ideas. The PS 2 Tie Bomber can get TL's and be effective. Fly them in formation and always try to have them just out of shooting range (watch the Rule off 11 video on Youtube). Next, you zip forward towards the enemy. You get TL's and hopefully they bump you. The only real danger is if they can focus fire and kill one Tie Bomber in one round. It's possible, but pretty hard. Next, you drop Seismic Charges in formation and do a 5 K-turn. It gets you far enough away from the bombs, yet still within range to most likely still fire your ordnance with the TL's.

In this one move, I had a Super Dash land on 4 Seismic Charges and then get hit by 2 missiles and die in one turn.

If people aren't used to it, the bomb drop and 5 k-turn is pretty nasty. People have usually forgotten about bombs completely. I hit a 5 Alpha Interceptor squad hard when he just forgot about bombs. I killed 3-4 of his list in one round. If you position it right, there are few opponents that will recognize the danger....and fewer ships that can actually get out of the blast radius of the 4 bombs. They hit a wide area.

Then again...the more you play people with this list, they more they expect it. People will remember Bombs soon enough and that will ruin this trick often.

You have heard of Emon's bomb slinging? He gets face to face an enemy at R3. He does a hard 3 turn and then drops a proximity at a hard 3. It usually lands on whomever was right in front of him before. Great way to hit Soontir Fel or such.

I read Darkhorse's article on the Tie Bomber and fully embraced his ideas. The PS 2 Tie Bomber can get TL's and be effective. Fly them in formation and always try to have them just out of shooting range (watch the Rule off 11 video on Youtube). Next, you zip forward towards the enemy. You get TL's and hopefully they bump you. The only real danger is if they can focus fire and kill one Tie Bomber in one round. It's possible, but pretty hard. Next, you drop Seismic Charges in formation and do a 5 K-turn. It gets you far enough away from the bombs, yet still within range to most likely still fire your ordnance with the TL's.

In this one move, I had a Super Dash land on 4 Seismic Charges and then get hit by 2 missiles and die in one turn.

If people aren't used to it, the bomb drop and 5 k-turn is pretty nasty. People have usually forgotten about bombs completely. I hit a 5 Alpha Interceptor squad hard when he just forgot about bombs. I killed 3-4 of his list in one round. If you position it right, there are few opponents that will recognize the danger....and fewer ships that can actually get out of the blast radius of the 4 bombs. They hit a wide area.

Then again...the more you play people with this list, they more they expect it. People will remember Bombs soon enough and that will ruin this trick often.

You have heard of Emon's bomb slinging? He gets face to face an enemy at R3. He does a hard 3 turn and then drops a proximity at a hard 3. It usually lands on whomever was right in front of him before. Great way to hit Soontir Fel or such.

That bomber tactic is really neat. Never seen it before. I know the targetlock and bump move is commonly used in PWT vs PWT matches. The seismic charges, 5k and missiles really makes it a nice move. Thanks for sharing, will try.

Well, there was that one at Endor. I know a guy that was pretty enthusiastic about it when he found out.

I need to give full credit to Dark horse.

http://miniwarroom.blogspot.com/2014/11/darkhorses-strange-love-or-how-i.html

I used his ideas. By the time my Store Champ. happened, most of my friends had played this list and figured out the tricks. When I went to the event, no one had played it and I won every game, except vs Tie Phantoms.

I think a Y-wing with Ion Turret and Seismic Charge can be mean. Ionize them, then drop the bomb before you move.

I think bombs have been ignored for a long time, but people will look at them again with Wave 7. Even old bombs will find uses as people start to think about them. Bombs that drop before you move and those after are different, but both have their benefits.

This topic

I often will use a lower PS ship, especially if it has prockets, to force a Whisper/Fel into what appears to be a better position (and out of R1 of the prockets), just to have Corran setup to line up the R1 shot of Fel's final position. And then double tap. And then dead Fel. And I still have those prockets for later!

I played an A-wing squad with 4 protos and 2 GSP's. I had an opponent setup Soontir and Whisper on the same flank and Mauler all alone on the other flank. I setup in a line evenly spaced on my side. My 2 right side proto's shot up the right flank to engage Mauler, the GSP's were center and went slow to the center (to be ready to run and engage whomever came close) and the 2 left flank protos 1 right hard turned towards center table in my end to keep their distance from Whisper and Soontir (who ended up 4 straighting it down their side of the board to quickly engage).

Next turn I moved my 2 left flank proto's 2 straight, 2 GSP's moved 2 straight to center, and the 2 right flank proto's engaged and gave chase to Mauler.

Soontir turned in with a 2 bank and boost but couldn't get within range 3. I knew next turn he would be within weapons range of the protos so this is the trap I played:

-the 2 left flank protos 1 hard turned up table and then boosted left to cover bottom left flank zone(to force Soontir to overshoot their position or bump)

-The 2 GSP's hard turned 1 left towards the left flank and boosted and PTL for focus (covering center zone of the left flank)

-1 of the chasing proto's from chasing Mauler in my opponents zone 3 banked and boosted to cover top zone on the left flank.

I had a 5 ship kill box that Whisper flew right into (and Soontir overshot the protos he was chasing). I ended up getting some really lucky rolls and taking 2 shields and 1 hull off of Whisper and killing her next round. Mauler had 2 damage on him from the 2 proto's chasing him. I ended up losing one proto and then swarm blocking Soontir in the endgame.

I really like the A-wings for their boosting repositioning mobility and this match showed me just how good that boosting ability can be.

My fortressing tactic is very much a trap.

The idea is not to spend the entire engagement without moving. That's imprisoning one's self, and will lose the game.

Instead, I stay still long enough for the enemy to drift too close, at which point I will sprint into position, and engage at Range 1 when they're suddenly out of position.

It's fantastic

Sometimes I'll fly away from things and then K Turn before/just as they catch up and 'force' them into a joust.

Last time I did this though it was against Deci Fel. I spent too many turns feinting in the center in order to catch either fel or the deci alone. I did nab Fel but the full health Deci survived with a few health left after time was called.

My fortressing tactic is very much a trap.

The idea is not to spend the entire engagement without moving. That's imprisoning one's self, and will lose the game.

Instead, I stay still long enough for the enemy to drift too close, at which point I will sprint into position, and engage at Range 1 when they're suddenly out of position.

It's fantastic

Have you been having success with the invisible fortress yet? I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.