A-Wings tactics

By MoffZen, in Star Wars: Armada

I think if you go back and rewatch the Battle of Endor scene you'll see the A wings really do more noticeable damage to ships than any other fighter type. They pop a bridge deflector shield generator and then there's the (accidental) Kamikaze into the SSD's bridge.

A-Wing Special Ability: "Too late!"

While attacking a ship, this squadron can suffer two damage to cause the defending ship to suffer one damage on the defending hull zone.

A-Wings make great missiles!

Faceup damage I'd hope! Better make it Dodonna's Pride style and bypass shields.

The times that I have used A-Wings in this game have been a fairly positive experience. I would like to explore more list builds with them as I now have six squadrons of them :)

In your opinion, what made them work in the battles you've played ? Including list, objectives, who had initiative, etc.

I'm still trying to figure out their edge. I do understand that Tycho is quite the awesome A-Wing pilot and scatter is unique to the Rebellion. But bog standard A-Wing squadrons just feel terribly weak for the points...

Maybe their best use is with a massive activation, activating 3-4 at the same time from an AFMK2 and bank on inflicting enough damage early on to survive and finish off ennemies with Counter, or aim for the ships using their black dice (because you pay the same price on Tycho for that black dice).

Anyways, I'll play Tycho and an A-Wing squadron tomorrow, I'll tell you guys about it !

Edited by MoffZen

Do you guys think it is possible for A-Wings to engage an enemy Bomber Wing by turn 1 ? Or is it not even possible ?

I'd want to measure this out to check. Place some fighters at distance 5 from the edge (3 for ship, 2 extra for squad deployment) and another at 5 from the other edge. If they're in range to engage at speed five, then yes. (Which, I realize now, they'd have to be, since range five is about a foot and the table is three feet. So... Yes)

Yeah, I measured and the enemy fighters need to be just outside of range 1 from a ship deployed at range 3 in order to get engaged.

As a rule of thumb, I guess watching the opponent place his ship at range 5, as long as he deploys in front of his ship you can engage them. But I'm not sure it's super reliable.

____

So far, people seem to have had good experiences with 4 A-Wings. Do they really need numbers to make an impact or is there a small trick to make them work in smaller numbers ?

EDIT : Giving more thoughts about this, I've got a funny feeling that they *could* work in smaller numbers, but you'd need a way to ensure that they're activated before the opponent. Maybe through an initiative bid or something. Because if the opponent has the opportunity to activate his own fighters/bombers before your A-Wings, you're losing on the double tap :

1) If you plan to intercept, the fighters will probably already have moved in and you're going to lose on the counter even though the A-Wings will have regular attacks.

2) If you plan to be intercepted, they're going to lose the 3 blue dice of the regular attack.

So, from this, as long as I deploy my bombers just inside of range 4 from the board edge (1 from nearest ship) then I know they CAN'T be blitzed by a turn one squadron command from some snubfighters? These are exactly the sort of rules I like to set for myself to keep my deployment tight.

Yes except for the Ador Tallon trick which I hadn't thought of before and really want to use now. I haven't always like Tallon, but I think that just pushed him over the edge for me.

I tried a 300 point 9 A-Wing build, shown below, and it felt good when it worked and felt terrible when it didn't. When I was able to issue a Squadron command from 1 or both Assault Frigates it was powerful. But, as with most Squadron builds, once the squadrons separate from their carrier(s), or a carrier dies (and I haven't been able to keep either from happening) the squadrons spend their turn moving and rarely get to attack again, unless they get within medium range of 1 or more carriers. I'm finding being able to only move OR shoot in the Squadron phase, and only being able to activate squadrons within medium range, to pretty much make squadrons vastly inferior to ships of equal point value. I haven't been able to keep them fighting ships for more than 1 or 2 turns, something I need to work on but something I'm not sure is possible vs a good opponent.

300: AFx2 and 9 A-Wings (298 of 300 pts)
Flagship: (112 pts)

  • Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)
  • Garm Bel Iblis (25 pts)
  • Expanded Hangar Bay (5 pts)
  • Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

Fleet Ship 1: (87 pts)

  • Assault Frigate Mark II B(72 pts)
  • Expanded Hangar Bay (5 pts)
  • Enhanced Armament (10 pts)

Squadrons (99 of 100 pts):

  • 9x A-Wing Squadron (99 pts)

Objectives:

  • Advanced Gunnery
  • Fleet Ambush
  • Superior Positions
Edited by Thraug

I think your goal of keeping 9 A-wings fighting is a mistake. They are not the best anti-ship squadron out there and having 9 will really weaken you vs mostly ship lists. Furthermore, the A-wing really is designed to be shot out to tie up the opponents squadrons and then essentially be forgotten. If they get to do more than that its gravey.

Unless you are in a heavy bomber meta, I'd suggest switching over to mostly Y-wings. Keep them closer to your ships and to where your ships will be. Consider your squadrons to be medium range plus 1 weapons that can occasionally be one-shot out to a farther distance. But once you shoot them far out, they're in place for the game. If it's not a good place, don't send them out.

I enjoy sending A-WIngs to engage multiple squadrons. Even if they manage to kill it off fast, it would have done a lot of normal and counterattack damage in a short time.

The times that I have used A-Wings in this game have been a fairly positive experience. I would like to explore more list builds with them as I now have six squadrons of them :)

Correction: I now have eight

The times that I have used A-Wings in this game have been a fairly positive experience. I would like to explore more list builds with them as I now have six squadrons of them :)

In your opinion, what made them work in the battles you've played ? Including list, objectives, who had initiative, etc.

I'm still trying to figure out their edge. I do understand that Tycho is quite the awesome A-Wing pilot and scatter is unique to the Rebellion. But bog standard A-Wing squadrons just feel terribly weak for the points...

Maybe their best use is with a massive activation, activating 3-4 at the same time from an AFMK2 and bank on inflicting enough damage early on to survive and finish off ennemies with Counter, or aim for the ships using their black dice (because you pay the same price on Tycho for that black dice).

Anyways, I'll play Tycho and an A-Wing squadron tomorrow, I'll tell you guys about it !

In the games I played is A-Wings I don't know what it is but I always roll hot with them.. I find counter 2 I very nice. And can't forget they carry a black dice that is more reliable than it appears when making attacks on capital ships. And not to mention their speed.

They make great flankers and objective grabbers. Only downside is they have 4 hull