I'm a casual X-Wing player and I love the idea of playing a squadron of 4 B-Wings (my favorite SW fighter), but I've never seen much success with them. (The first time I attempted it I went against two pre-nerf Phantoms, which was not fun at all...) Does anyone have any general advice for effective flying a squadron of 4 B-Wings? Thanks in advance!

4B can be very powerful, especially once you determine how you are going to fill out the remaining points (12 usually). The top two current options seem to be either Accuracy corrector on all 4, so that you can use their actions for either defensive focus or barrel rolling for extra maneuvering, OR a bandit Z-95 for additional shots/health/damage spreading/blocking. I personally am torn between the two options as I have had success with both. You could also put tactician on all of them for stress causing shenanigans, but that is a little harder to do with just B's.

Welcome to the forums. 4 B Wings can be competitive, and there's actually several different ways you can play them and have a good list, especially if you're not looking to generate a top tiered list.

First, 4 blues are 88 points, so there's only 12 points of upgrades to play with. If you want symmetrical B wings, that's 3 points each, enough for an ion cannon, advanced sensors, accuracy corrector or B2/E and Tactician. Another common way to spend those 12 points is to pair the 4 Bs with a Z95.

Ion Cannon - Provides board control and can be very useful against high agility targets, especially those that like to PTL

AdvS - Makes sure you almost always get an action, and allows you to be more maneuverable with your barrel roll

AC - Takes the dice out of the equation, and allows you to spend your action on barrel roll in order to line up a shot

Tactician - Another board control option, great if you can put 2+ stress on a single target

Z95 - Provides a 5th ship that can shoot and can be shot at

And obviously you can mix and match the 4 versions in any build to find a combo that might be better than 4 of the same type (might I suggest 2 ions, 2 Tacticians?). If they're not symmetrical, you could try putting Jan on one of them to provide an evade token to an injured B wing.

If you drop down to 2 point upgrades, the only ones worth even considering are Fire Control System and Flechette Cannon. The FC hasn't gotten a lot of love from other people as it can't double stress targets, and requires it to hit in order to trigger the stress, and only does 1 point of damage. So I wouldn't recommend running 4 of them, but a well placed stress can take an unit out of the match for several turns. FCS on the other hand is one of the most used and best valued upgrades, especially in this meta where 2 ship builds are dominate.

In either case, you're left with 4 points left, which could be adding one of the 3 point upgrades on (tactician + flechette CAN double stress fyi) one of the ships, or upgrading 2 to daggers, or putting FC and FCS on two of them.

But what if we were to go with 1 ace and then 3 naked blues? With 12 points to play with, you could use any of the 4 Aces. Ten leaves you with 3 points, which is enough for Calculation (to trigger his ability) and then FCS or FC - which will almost always get through since he forces the crit through.

Keyan gives you 5 points to play with. One of my favorite Keyan builds (but it doesn't do well in this meta) is AdvS and Stay on Target, which conveniently comes in at 5 points. If you're playing against lower PS ships, you set your dial to 2k every turn, use AdvS to TL, and then SoT to select the correct maneuver, which will then always be a red. But then you use the stress as a focus, and now you have a F+TL shot from a B wing that can completely react to enemy placement. Sadly, if they move after Keyan, he could be left facing the wrong way with no shot, and a stress, which means he's out of the fight for several turns. Others like him with PTL so he can self stress himself and get 3 actions. That leaves you with 2 remaining points for other upgrades.

Ibby leaves you with 6 points, and she can be one of the most defensive ships in the game in loaded correctly. Sadly, that takes more than 6 points. I've had great success (in earlier waves) running her with Sensor Jammer and PTL. That can be expanded now to SJ, PTL, and C3PO to make her even more difficult to kill. However, that requires the rest of the list to be a good blocking list to prevent the focus token from happening, and you dont' have enough points for that. Regardless, PTL is the easiest way to trigger her ability, and I'd either pair her with an Ion or Nien. The Ion so she can stay back at range and continue to deny the R3 bonus, and Nien to give her a green 3 and 4 to help clear some stress. Of course you could also put other 3 point upgrades on her, but I wouldn't recommend AdvS since she wants to be stressed to use her ability.

Finally, there's Nera. I haven't played much with her, but you have 8 points to spend on her upgrades. Personally, I would want to put Deadeye, and a pair of torpedoes on her to make the most of her ability. A Flechette and Proton bring her to 6, plus deadeye for 7. At which point, I would consider Enhanced scopes, allowing her to move first to make sure she doesn't get blocked and can get her focus token.

Hope some of this helps give you some ideas on how to play the B wings. Note that there are plenty of good 4 point upgrades (C3PO, Lando, Engine) as well if you want to upgrade 3 of them and leave one naked.

Khyros basically said it all.

BBBB is a powerful archetype, and has been since the ship was introduced. Do not underestimate it

Build advice is fine and all, but you have to think about your strategy before playing.

The best players I've seen deploy their Bs in a line to spread firing arcs (as opposed to keeping them in a tight formation), and possibly avoid being focussed down themselves. Spread the Bs apart enough so they don't bump when banking or turning, but don't spread them so far apart you have trouble focusing fire. Advance Bs slowly and surely on their priority target and focus fire. If you advance slowly into the middle you should be able to react to squirrelly opponents more easily. Do your math on the approach to make sure you get at least two turns of focused fire before close-range dogfighting commences. You should hopefully be taking down one support ship (e.g. Z-95 or TIE) per turn once shooting starts.

Think hard before chasing large ships with engine upgrade - they'll pull you through asteroids, break up your formation, and make it hard for you to focus fire on anything.

Good luck against arc dodgers - you'll need to deploy your tactical skills at that point.

See if you can find some youtube videos of experienced 4B players. I recall seeing a good one, but I don't have the link.

I personally don't see much use for AC, and I hate dice spikes determining games so that says a lot. Main reason? 2 dice results will get slapped around by higher agility + evades, not to mention being essentially worthless at range 3.

One thing a few people seem to overlook about Bs is the sheer awesomeness of having barrel-roll. It's imo the best action in the game and has amazing utility on low PS. A lot of discussion around the action revolves around arc-dodging, ignoring its utility in setting up new approaches and in blocking.

So how do you get the barrel-roll to do all these things for BSPs? B/e mod + int agent. Not only can you arc-dodge and block, but you can even block yourself (love flying same PS builds, which let you determine your order of activation) if doing so would get you facing the right direction or impede the opponent.

Next is FCS. For 24 points, you get one of the strongest attacks in the game for the cheapest possible asking price. Having just the TL after rolling or k-turning or blocking yourself is sweet, but when you can set up those focus + TL shots your opponent is in for a world of hurt.

Bsp (FCS, b/e mod, Int Agent)

Bsp (FCS, b/e mod, Int Agent)

Bsp (FCS)

Bsp (FCS)

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

Also never chase large ships that can boost (you won't catch them, peroid). What you do is either

a.) swing immidiately towards the next available target

b.) if there is no other target, head to the center of the table. From there, you can take a much shorter route and either head off the ship, or pewpew it at long range where your firing arc widens. With at least 2 FCS + focus shots, you'll be trading favorably or at least on par with everything except hlc.

speaking of, when setting up obstacles, try to fashion an "arena" around the center. A B-wing's 2k was basically made for that little arena, where it can flip around without smacking into obstacles, and where enemies can't overshoot it easily (because there's a big fat rock in the way)

In theory, I like the BBBBZ build. I like having that extra ship for interferance/confusion. Basically, to screw with the other players strategy. I can't pull the trigger on buying two more B's to play that specific build yet.

I agree with FGD and Peppy Hare about barrel roll. I love that skill.

I personally don't see much use for AC, and I hate dice spikes determining games so that says a lot. Main reason? 2 dice results will get slapped around by higher agility + evades, not to mention being essentially worthless at range 3.

Expected Damage of a 3 attack ship with AC and no other offensive actions: 2.125

Expected Damage of a 3 attack ship without AC, but with a single offensive action: 2.25

However: I'm always railing about how Expected Damage paints an incomplete picture. Lemme give you the full breakdown, then.

AC and no offensive action on 3 attack dice:

3 Damage : 12.5%

2 Damage : 87.5%

1 Damage : 00.0%

0 Damage : 00.0%

Offensive action and no AC on 3 attack dice:

3 Damage : 42.2%

2 Damage : 42.2%

1 Damage : 14.1%

0 Damage : 01.6%

With Both, on 3 attack dice:

3 Damage : 42.2%

2 Damage : 57.8%

1 Damage : 00.0%

0 Damage : 00.0%

So, yes. AC B-Wings struggle a bit more against ships with a high chance of mitigating 2 damage, like Baron Fel.

However, they outperform just the standard action against ships with a lower mitigation rate.

The reason I included the third bit is that the B-Wing only has 3 actions on its dial, and only Barrel-Roll is relevant defensively.

AC is better on the Star Viper than on the B-Wing, simply because the freedom from offensive actions leaves you with more substantive options for other purposes, which the B lacks.

So, yes. AC B-Wings struggle a bit more against ships with a high chance of mitigating 2 damage, like Baron Fel.

However, they outperform just the standard action against ships with a lower mitigation rate.

The reason I included the third bit is that the B-Wing only has 3 actions on its dial, and only Barrel-Roll is relevant defensively.

AC is better on the Star Viper than on the B-Wing, simply because the freedom from offensive actions leaves you with more substantive options for other purposes, which the B lacks.

Yup. AC really shines on ships that use can make good use of the action that is freed up by not taking an offensive target lock or focus action. It'll be great on the Advaced and the Starviper and E-Wing could probably make good use out of it as well.

My personal preference for pure BBBB fun is...

Keyan Farlander (29)

Stay On Target (2)

Advanced Sensors (3)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I personally don't see much use for AC, and I hate dice spikes determining games so that says a lot. Main reason? 2 dice results will get slapped around by higher agility + evades, not to mention being essentially worthless at range 3.

-snip-

go read it, it's good work

No wonder I'm so in love with FCS

given the current state of my local (and, apparently, the competitive) meta, AC is going to be at a constant disadvantage. It's nothing but Soontir; Cheri and Han; Filler or double aggressors/aggressor + boba over here.

The only thing that's reliably getting through that is the higher damage potential of FCS (esp if augmented with focus, because then the max results are nigh on guaranteed). Of course, the problem with focusing is you don't know if the enemy will be in arc of the fully modified attack...unless you have int agent

I similarly believe it's a sin to give a character viper AC (yuck!), mainly because I'm trusting them to tango with the things that generic pilots can't (like V.I FCS Xizor going up against the good baron, with maybe a little help from feedback )

that, and the fact that Guri and Xizor both have defensive (Guri's is more flexible) abilities + access to thrusters lets them act a bit more aggressively; Xizor in particular being able to get away with being nigh on suicidal cause his ability is so good

Then again, I don't use FCS on Guri (predator!)

Build advice is fine and all, but you have to think about your strategy before playing.

The best players I've seen deploy their Bs in a line to spread firing arcs (as opposed to keeping them in a tight formation), and possibly avoid being focussed down themselves. Spread the Bs apart enough so they don't bump when banking or turning, but don't spread them so far apart you have trouble focusing fire. Advance Bs slowly and surely on their priority target and focus fire. If you advance slowly into the middle you should be able to react to squirrelly opponents more easily. Do your math on the approach to make sure you get at least two turns of focused fire before close-range dogfighting commences. You should hopefully be taking down one support ship (e.g. Z-95 or TIE) per turn once shooting starts.

Think hard before chasing large ships with engine upgrade - they'll pull you through asteroids, break up your formation, and make it hard for you to focus fire on anything.

Good luck against arc dodgers - you'll need to deploy your tactical skills at that point.

See if you can find some youtube videos of experienced 4B players. I recall seeing a good one, but I don't have the link.

Thank you! I've been keeping them in a very tight formation. I'll switch things up in this way when I play next time!

I personally don't see much use for AC, and I hate dice spikes determining games so that says a lot. Main reason? 2 dice results will get slapped around by higher agility + evades, not to mention being essentially worthless at range 3.

One thing a few people seem to overlook about Bs is the sheer awesomeness of having barrel-roll. It's imo the best action in the game and has amazing utility on low PS. A lot of discussion around the action revolves around arc-dodging, ignoring its utility in setting up new approaches and in blocking.

So how do you get the barrel-roll to do all these things for BSPs? B/e mod + int agent. Not only can you arc-dodge and block, but you can even block yourself (love flying same PS builds, which let you determine your order of activation) if doing so would get you facing the right direction or impede the opponent.

Next is FCS. For 24 points, you get one of the strongest attacks in the game for the cheapest possible asking price. Having just the TL after rolling or k-turning or blocking yourself is sweet, but when you can set up those focus + TL shots your opponent is in for a world of hurt.

Bsp (FCS, b/e mod, Int Agent)

Bsp (FCS, b/e mod, Int Agent)

Bsp (FCS)

Bsp (FCS)

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

Also never chase large ships that can boost (you won't catch them, peroid). What you do is either

a.) swing immidiately towards the next available target

b.) if there is no other target, head to the center of the table. From there, you can take a much shorter route and either head off the ship, or pewpew it at long range where your firing arc widens. With at least 2 FCS + focus shots, you'll be trading favorably or at least on par with everything except hlc.

speaking of, when setting up obstacles, try to fashion an "arena" around the center. A B-wing's 2k was basically made for that little arena, where it can flip around without smacking into obstacles, and where enemies can't overshoot it easily (because there's a big fat rock in the way)

Thank you! More good "flying" advice. I haven't messed around with Intelligence Agent much. No time like the present!

Fly 4Y instead! :D

In all seriousness though, Khyros said it all.

for me its always do i want to go offensive and fly advanced sensors or FCS or do i want to use sensor jammer to help mitigate incoming damage?

for me its always do i want to go offensive and fly advanced sensors or FCS or do i want to use sensor jammer to help mitigate incoming damage?

Sensor Jammer is... weird.

If your opponent is spending their focus token offensively anyway, it's basically done nothing.

However, if they're relying on re-rolls from an FCS or a Predator (like, say, IG-88B), you truly annoy them

SJ by itself is meh

SJ w/C3po though...if only there were a character worth exploiting that combo with

there's Keyan, but if you're not flying sensors, you're doing it wrong

4 B wings with 2 optional ideal builds - 4 advanced sensors or 4 Fire Control Systems

or go with 4 b Wings and a Z-95.

Keep your B wings close but slightly staggered to cover each other or a wide area. Predict your opponents moves a bit and go with maximum dps of FCS or security of Advanced Sensors for extra maneuverability. Both work very well just depends on your style and what your up against. FCS for fat ships, for green dice heavy opponents go with advanced sensors.

B-wing are nice but here is the problem...

ARC DODGERS!!!

B-wings are good at running into a thick mess of a brawl and shooting right through it. Back in the days of Swarms and Biggs + 3 X-wings having a whole mess of overlapping ships in the middle were common and B-wings with advance sensors were able to fly right in and while everyone lose their actions due to overlapping B-wings would TL or focus and blast through the mess.

Then Wave 4 came along and the Phantom and the age of the tyrannical Arc-Dodgers showed up and systematically eradicated the once savage rule of TIE swarms. They ruled the land with cruelity and only enjoyment was gambeling as they threw lots to see which of the common folk will die. Neither Ser Biggs and his X-knights nor the Brotherhood of the B-wings could stood up to them as they would cowardly flee after everyone else had moved to make sure that no one had a shot at them. If a lowly Rookie or Bandit guessed right with a dial selection a quick de-cloak or barrelroll PTL boost would move the cowardly phantoms and interceptors out of the way. At first it seems like the conquest of the X-winged realm was neigh until a hero Ser Fat Han and his squire Dash Rendar the Outrider came along with their turreted mounts and saved the realm of X-wing! (did that just to poke funat all those that say Arc Dodgers is nothing but skill, not when there green dice roll 4 evades and their 4 red dice doesn't roll a single blank!)

But yeah there is just so many Arc dodgers and what is worse is they are also taking the form of Big ships. So with the 2 ship meta and Big Arc dodging ships I am afraid the 4 B-wings list will only be Teir 2 competitive, maybe a little to the top end but not too much where you see at Worlds.

B-wing are nice but here is the problem...

ARC DODGERS!!!

B-wings are good at running into a thick mess of a brawl and shooting right through it. Back in the days of Swarms and Biggs + 3 X-wings having a whole mess of overlapping ships in the middle were common and B-wings with advance sensors were able to fly right in and while everyone lose their actions due to overlapping B-wings would TL or focus and blast through the mess.

Then Wave 4 came along and the Phantom and the age of the tyrannical Arc-Dodgers showed up and systematically eradicated the once savage rule of TIE swarms. They ruled the land with cruelity and only enjoyment was gambeling as they threw lots to see which of the common folk will die. Neither Ser Biggs and his X-knights nor the Brotherhood of the B-wings could stood up to them as they would cowardly flee after everyone else had moved to make sure that no one had a shot at them. If a lowly Rookie or Bandit guessed right with a dial selection a quick de-cloak or barrelroll PTL boost would move the cowardly phantoms and interceptors out of the way. At first it seems like the conquest of the X-winged realm was neigh until a hero Ser Fat Han and his squire Dash Rendar the Outrider came along with their turreted mounts and saved the realm of X-wing! (did that just to poke funat all those that say Arc Dodgers is nothing but skill, not when there green dice roll 4 evades and their 4 red dice doesn't roll a single blank!)

But yeah there is just so many Arc dodgers and what is worse is they are also taking the form of Big ships. So with the 2 ship meta and Big Arc dodging ships I am afraid the 4 B-wings list will only be Teir 2 competitive, maybe a little to the top end but not too much where you see at Worlds.

I learned this lesson against a Deci/Phantom list. The Phantom picked each B-Wing off one by one. The only thing that kept me in the game for any length of time was the sheer number of hits my poor Bs could take. I don't plan on using a 4 B-Wing squad competitively - I just LOVE seeing four of 'em on the mat!!!

with proper play, int agent > arc-dodgers

and that includes Fat Han, who is also an arc-dodger that also can't be arc-dodged

Am I the only one who finds B-wings very difficult to fly without advanced sensors? It's pretty much an auto-include whenever I take a b-wing.

There's so much red on that dial (e.g. 1 sharp) and I'm always stressing myself. Advanced sensors helps a LOT in this case.

I flew 4X Blues with Advanced sensors and got 2nd and 3rd place at two store championships. I think it's a great beginner build. I personally took it because I wanted to have advanced sensors available to let me barrel roll out of my mistakes that I made and hopefully always have my action.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about how i would go up against the biggest builds, so as someone suggested previously, make sure you go in with a plan.

Also ion cannons will wreck you so watch out.

Am I the only one who finds B-wings very difficult to fly without advanced sensors? It's pretty much an auto-include whenever I take a b-wing.

There's so much red on that dial (e.g. 1 sharp) and I'm always stressing myself. Advanced sensors helps a LOT in this case.

I flew a ton of them when they came out and refused to buy more than 1 Shuttle so I got used to the dial without AS.

Honestly, the only red maneuver I consistently use with the B-Wing is the 2K. The 4 straight is generally unnecessary. The 1 turns can be nice to use but you normally don't "need" them.

If I'm using B-Wings it's normally at least two (sometimes 3). The only time I'm ever using a single B-Wing is if it's Keyan and he loves the red maneuvers anyway.

That being said if you have a couple of them you can run them together and slow roll into engagement making good use of the 1 straights and banks allowing you to keep ships in front of you.

Am I the only one who finds B-wings very difficult to fly without advanced sensors? It's pretty much an auto-include whenever I take a b-wing.

There's so much red on that dial (e.g. 1 sharp) and I'm always stressing myself. Advanced sensors helps a LOT in this case.

I flew a ton of them when they came out and refused to buy more than 1 Shuttle so I got used to the dial without AS.

Honestly, the only red maneuver I consistently use with the B-Wing is the 2K. The 4 straight is generally unnecessary. The 1 turns can be nice to use but you normally don't "need" them.

If I'm using B-Wings it's normally at least two (sometimes 3). The only time I'm ever using a single B-Wing is if it's Keyan and he loves the red maneuvers anyway.

That being said if you have a couple of them you can run them together and slow roll into engagement making good use of the 1 straights and banks allowing you to keep ships in front of you.