What Do I Buy Next?
A lot of X-Wing Miniature players come to the forums and post something along the lines of, “I got the Core Set and I really like the game. What do I buy next?” With such a vague question comes a wide variety of responses.
There is no real straight answer, of course. The best actions to perform (pardon the pun) are to research each expansion and theorize what squads you can and want to play. That can be hard for new players. There are so many rules to learn and expansions to get lost in. Then you learn about the errata. Oh, that errata. It can change everything; especially for Imperial Phantom players.
What these players are really looking for, they don’t know how to phrase. They don’t know if they want to joust or arc dodge. They don’t know the jargon. Chances are they’ve only played the game as laid out in the Core set: Luke versus 2 Ties.
These are the players I want to lend assistance to.
Budget Builds: Imperial Edition: Single Expansion Squads
You’re new. You don’t know quite what you want. You don’t want to buy everything to find out. I get that. I’m married and spending money on X-Wing has been rough. My collection is still slowly building. With that said, in the interest of savings, let’s start with builds based on a budget.
Let’s see what we have to work with. Assuming that you have only a Core set, you have 2 Tie Fighters. The most expensive build you can make is Mauler with Marksmanship and Dark Curse coming in at 36 points. We have to come up with 64. Sounds like it’s going to hurt the wallet, right? Calm down. I know this may be your first time venturing from the core. I’ll be gentle. Also, these are in no particular order.
Imperial Budget Build 1:
What’s the cheapest 100 squad points that will still allow you to decimate the competition? In case I was too subtle for some, it’s the VT-49 Decimator. With a single ship, you can go up to 71 squad points. You can most certainly find this ship for $20, making this the most budgeted of Imperial builds.
The decimator is a tank. It’s a versatile tank. It can seriously intimidate your opponent with or without the Elite Talent. With 12 Hull and 4 Shields, it can take a lot of punishment. Unfortunately, with 0 Agility it will indeed take whatever punishment the dice deities deem deserving. With a 360 degree firing arc, it can dish out 3 attack dice to anyone in range. You can Target Lock or you can Focus for actions. Your dial seems slow but, as a large ship, you will be surprised how fast you can go.
So what can we do with this? Like I said, it’s versatile. You can go offensive or defensive with this behemoth.
Let’s look at an aggressive build. Remember, we only have Core and Decimator to build from.
Pilot: Rear Admiral Chiraneau is 46 points. That’s a lot of points for a ship with 0 Agility. I know what you’re thinking and it scared me too. However, the Admiral can be deadly. Having trouble deciding to Focus or not? The Admiral’s pilot ability allows you to automatically flip a single focus result to a Critical Hit. That’ll get those Rebel/Scum!
Elite Pilot Talent: I like Ruthlessness here. It’s only 3 points for a free hit to another ship at Range 1 of your target if you hit them. Keep in mind, this is not an option. If your TIEs are the only ships at Range 1, friendly fire will take effect. Fly smart. Keep this card in mind when selecting your targets. If your enemy has a ship with 1 Hull left, it can be a tempting target despite high agility. If there is a ship with a lower agility, you can hit them and Ruthlessly destroy the other ship in the process.
Bomb: We’re going to load up a Proton Bomb for 5 points. This is a twofold card. First, the Bomb itself is dropped 1 straight template behind you before you move without spending an action. After everyone moves, it bypasses shields and deals 1 face up damage card to any ship in Range 1 (Friendlies too, be careful.). It can obliterate anything with 2 Health if you are lucky enough to deal a Direct Hit Critical (which is actually 25% of the damage cards, not bad odds). Think hard before you drop it, make sure it’s going to do enough to lose the second part of having a bomb on board; the psychological fear it instills to keep enemy ships off your tail.
Crew: Mara Jade is an awesome character. And at 3 points, she’s an awesome crew member in this game. Can I take a moment to recommend reading the Thrawn trilogy? Canon or not, every Star Wars fan should read it. Anyway, Mara is going to stress all enemy ships at Range 1 at the end of combat. Denying your enemy red maneuvers and actions is huge. Stress is no one’s friend in this game. You have a lot of hull. Enemies need that Range 1 attack on you. Now they want to stay back. Mara…you’re great.
Crew: 4 Points gets you Ysanne Isard. Once you lose your shields and take your first damage card, you’re going to panic. Isard starts triggering the following turn, giving you a free Evade. With no agility, it’s how you’re going to stay alive that much longer. Use it on Critical Hits if you can but evading face down damage is better than saving it and wasting the token at the end of the round.
Crew: Jerjerrod is like any Moff as far as Darth Vader is concerned. Promotion in the Empire is usually gained due to the unfortunate demise of others. For 2 points you can avoid a Critical Hit if need be by discarding crew members, including Jerjerrod himself. The phrase, “For the Empire!” takes on a new meaning. Injured Pilot? That’s a really bad card. I’d save your crew to avoid death or for a Critical that is permanent.
Modification: This is an optional card. Tactical Jammer can help by making you a moving obstacle and help your Tie Fighters stay alive. Can be good, can be “meh”, can be useless. It may be more worth it to stay at 99 points without it and be more likely have Initiative.
Pilot: Mauler, you probably know him by now. Nevertheless, I’ve gone into too much detail to stop now. As the only TIE we have that can equip an Elite Talent. He has the ability to attack with 4 dice at Range 1. That’s what those pesky X-Wings would do.
Elite Pilot Talent: Marksmanship is underpriced at 3 points. So, we’ll use that to our advantage and get into Range 1. Now instead of getting mere hits with our focus results, we can get a Critical as well.
Pilot: Players often believe dice are cursed. Let’s encourage that by dimming the lights. Dark Curse cannot be victim of Target Lock or Focus tokens. Even Han Solo can’t re roll against him.
TLDR; Why are you looking at a guide? It seems counter productive to scroll past it. Fine, here’s the short version.
Imperial player? Not a lot of cash?
Core + VT49 Decimator = (It’s cheap, it’s easy to fly.)
Chiraneau
-Ruthlessness
-Proton Bomb
-Mara Jade
-Ysanne Isard
-Jerjerodd
-Tactical Jammer, maybe
Mauler
-Marksmanship
Dark Curse
99-100 points
Flight Plan:
The name of the game here is aggression. Target Lock with the Decimator unless you saved one from last round. Go after lower agility ships first. They are easier to hit and usually carry the bigger guns. Ruthlessness will give you better results and your Critical Hits are easier to get in. Your TIEs should strafe across enemy lines, from behind and Range 1, ideally. If you keep the Decimator in front of the enemy ships, it’s too tempting of a target and the TIEs will likely be ignored. When the Decimator is near destroyed, pull it back and leave the TIEs in front. Your opponent will have to choose between taking the better shot or chasing the Decimator. Time the proton bomb right, and it’s going to be a lot easier.
Budget Build 2:
Boba Fett? Imperials can get Boba Fett? Where?
The Imperial Firespray-31 is considered by some to be fairly inadequate. However, I’m a firm believer that you can learn to fly any ship well enough to make it worth building. I would like to ease your gaze away from everyone’s favorite bounty hunter to another pilot. He doesn’t suit our needs the best. With other expansions, you can make him work. But we’re on a budget and for this build we are working with the Core Set and the Slave-1 pack.
Pilot: Kath Scarlett for the Imperials has a better pilot ability and can equip everything that bucket head can. For 38 points, she will stress out targets that avoid her Critical Hits. Stress is a big factor in this game. Even if you don’t hit this round, it will be easier to do so next round. So how do we maximize stress output? Read on, padawan.
Elite Pilot Talent: We’re bringing in Marksmanship to start. For 3 points, we can get a Critical Hit from a focus result as well as the remaining focus results into Hits. Critical chances went from 1/8 to 3/8 on each die, 6/8 if you’re looking at doing damage in general. So…now we need more dice.
Cannon: The Heavy Laser Cannon price is steep at 7. However, think of it as an extra die for any attack in front of us. At Range 1 we get a bonus with our primary weapon and now Range 2 and 3 also gives us an extra die. Yes, I realize if you roll a Critical Hit, you have to change it to a Hit but you have a better chance of rolling a focus result, which can be changed to a Critical Hit by Marksmanship. Loopholes! Even Target Lock allows you to keep a Critical from the rerolled dice. Not to mention it’s a choice, you don’t have to shoot with the cannon but it is 4 dice. No one wants to be shot at with 4 dice. They may try to get behind us, where the cannon can’t fire. Let’s take care of that.
Bomb: I like the Proximity Mine. It’s only 3 points and it stays in play until some unfortunate soul flies into it. It also rolls 3 attack dice, giving you the opportunity to really hit someone hard.
Crew: Alright, so we’re hitting hard up front. We can shoot behind. In case we miss, for 5 points we can add a Gunner and shoot again. It’s a primary weapon shot so no cannon but it doesn’t have to be the same target. With the Firespray, it doesn’t even have to be out of the same arc. No action required. Shoot the guy up front with the cannon. Darn, we missed but Marksman gave us a Critical so at least he’s stressed. Now we can shoot again, marksman still applies. Awesome!
Pilot: We’re going with Mauler for the Elite Talent and his ability to roll 4 dice at Range 1 for 17 points.
Elite Pilot Talent: Expose doesn’t get enough love. It’s an action that trades 1 less agility for 1 extra attack. With Mauler, we’re rolling 5 dice at Range 1. We can also choose to roll 4 Dice at any range. How do we survive taking this action?
Modification: Spending 3 points on Stealth Device is how we survive. We get an extra agility until we are hit by an attack.
Pilot: Dark Curse is a steal at 16. When he’s attacked, Target Lock and Focus are useless against him. Not to mention…
Modification: Another Stealth Device. Now he’s really hard to hit. If he loses it, he’s still just hard to hit.
TLDR; Really? Again? Next you’re going to tell me you don’t read iTunes agreements either and simply trust that Apple does not now have legal possession of your soul. Got you covered.
Kath Scarlett
-Marksmanship
-Heavy Laser Canon
-Proximity Mine
-Gunner
Mauler
-Expose
-Stealth Device
Dark Curse
-Stealth Device
99 points.
Flight Summary:
The name of the game here is angles. Kath has an auxiliary primary weapon firing arc behind her. You don’t have to chase people around. Use it to your advantage. Turn the opposite direction of the expected move now and then. When they turn the wrong way, you’ll still be able to fire. Be creative with the mine. Use it to guide the enemy into a crossfire. You don’t have to hang on to it to keep ships off your tail, that’s your secondary arc’s job. Dark Curse can be pretty free to cut off and block ships to get them hammered by Mauler with 5 dice at Range 1. No one want to shoot at Dark Curse, they want to hit your bruisers. Use that to your advantage.
Budget Build 3:
The Imperial Aces is the first expansion that I purchased. Not that it was the right way to go or that I’d do the same thing again but getting 2 ships was a strong pull for me. That being said your squad gets more into the swarm style than purchasing the larger ships. That means less upgrades but more raw power from stats. We’re also going to have to fly less casual and more purpose driven. We also gain the Boost action allowing us to get in even closer, dodge firing arcs, and get enemies into our own arc. If we so choose, we can even add a second modification to our Interceptors. Nice. This squad is made with just the Core and Imperial Aces.
Pilot: Carnor Jax is our premier pilot here. Focusing attack dice changes your hit percentage from 4/8 to 6/8 on each die rolled. Your defense dice also change from 3/8 to 5/8 chances to evade per die. The Force as well as simple statistics are with you when you Focus. Evade may not seem like much but adding an extra evade result to your dice pool can really save a ship from Hits or Critical Hits. When Carnor Jax gets in close, you shut both of those actions down for your opponent. Enemy ships at Range 1 of Carnor cannot take or spend focus and evade tokens. This helps your squad do some major damage.
Elite Pilot Talent: Carnor has four solid actions. The pivotal one being a well timed Boost to get into Range 1. If only he wasn’t limited to a single action each round. Push The Limit is some give and take but it opens up action combinations that can turn the tables in a single round. For the mere cost a stress token, Carnor can Barrel Roll out of an arc before Boosting in close. Another option is to simply Boost into Range 1 and Focus for a strong haymaker shot. It’s a powerful card that can turn any ship into a quasi-Vader.
Modification: We have to face the facts here. This build is about not getting shot. However, we will get shot. Carnor is not our only weapon but with more power and maneuverability than a TIE Fighter. He needs to survive. By now you’ve noticed how those Rebel/Scum get away from your early Critical Hits with Shields. Now we have a Shield Upgrade granting Carnor that same protection.
Pilot: We’ve got Carnor to disadvantage the enemy, now it’s time for Mithel Mauler to follow him as close as possible for those Range 1 shots. Mauler will roll 4 dice at Range 1 and be free to take aggressive actions as Carnor should be the enemies’ prime target. If you’re going to hit and run, you may as well hit hard.
Elite Pilot Talent: Marksmanship shines bolstering our attack dice as an Aggressive Focus. We don’t just want Hits, We want that juicy Critical Hit.
Pilot: Dark Curse is our bait. If someone is going to be in enemy firing arcs, it should be Curse. If Carnor isn’t in Range 1, the opposing ships can Focus their attacks. With Dark Curse it still won’t matter. Those poor scrap piles won’t even be able to Target Lock to reroll against Curse.
Modification: With such survivability already, Dark Curse gets worse for them bad guys when they have to do even more damage to kill him. But Curse is our bait, so we’ll temper him with a simple Hull Upgrade.
Pilot: Someone needs to take up the rear. Kir Kanos does it in style. When he’s in the backfield of Range 2 or Range 3 we can use our Evade action aggressively and add a Hit to our shot. That’s essentially the ability to shoot with the Range 1 bonus from downtown. Better yet, it’s an automatic Hit! Kanos isn’t the highest Pilot Skill on the block but it actually helps when we take an Evade action to see if we’re going to need it for defense.
Modification: This is our other ship we must keep alive. Solid damage from a far away, defensive position is vital if we start losing ships. Shield Upgrade for Kanos.
TLDR; Here we are. You, me, and an easy and brief summary of the build.
Carnor Jax
-Push The Limit
-Shield Upgrade
Mithel Mauler
-Marksmanship
Dark Curse
-Hull Upgrade
Kir Kanos
-Shield Upgrade
Flight Plan:
Evasion. Try to swing around firing arcs and come from the side or behind. Make use of Barrel Roll and Boost. None of the pilot abilities or upgrades require your ships to be close to each other so don’t be afraid to split up. Use Dark Curse for a bait ship as it will be the hardest to hit. Kanos will fire from the backfield. Mauler and Carnor will duck in close. You need to keep each ship alive as long as possible so if you have to decide taking a poor shot or getting out of the firing arc, it’s actually better to avoid damage. Commit only for those hard hitting rounds.
That's it for this edition. Keep watch off the starboard side for more.