A-Wings have been my favorite StarWars fighter spacecraft for a while now but I still commonly run into this problem in X-Wing minis that 2 attack dice really doesn't go very far. I still win games sometimes but it doesn't change the fact that I tend to feel at a steep disadvantage pretty much every time I play them. Especially when staring down a tie Phantom with double the attack dice.

Photon Rockets or Concussion missiles does often help soften up enemy squadrons enough for me to finish the job with 2 dice lasers but that's not particularly dependable. Many folks seem to think ordinance is a waste of points and they aren't far off.

With the Rebel Aces expansion, A-Wings got some fairly nice upgrades with A-Wing Test Pilot and Chardaan Refit allowing you to either devote more points to an A-Wing or cheapen them at the cost of missiles. And these are fine. They allow A-Wings to swarm almost as well as Z-95s and they allow some fun comboing with Elite pilot traits. But at the end of the day, if you don't go for chardaan refits, you can't escape the fact that you are spending 30 or more points on a ship that has only 2 attack dice. I spent an entire game once shooting Soontir Fel equipped with Stealth Device and Inertial dampeners with multiple A-Wings and never being able to land any damage. We eventually just called it a stalemate since my opponent wasn't able to get Tycho or Jake in his sights and I just could not damage him no matter how many 2 dice attacks I made.

Tie Advanced used to be in the same boat but recently got this fixed with the Tie/X1 title and Advanced Sensors and sound pretty powerful now. Well, we can't copy that can we?

I've proposed modifications involving swivel lasers before but I have a new idea I would like to submit to the community.

Swivel Lasers 1 pt

Modification, A-Wing Only

When attacking, reduce the defender's agility by 1 (to a minimum of zero)

Yes, I am suggesting giving A-Wings Wedge's ability. I feel it makes sense since swiveling lasers would reduce an enemy's ability to dodge attacks. It alleviate the problem of a low attack dice ship being unable to hit more agile enemies while not increasing the overall damage which will allow 3 attack dice ships to still feel special and it's an element of A-Wing lore that hasn't currently been explored in X-Wing.

So what does everyone else think? Good idea? Bad idea? Do A-Wings even need it help? Do you have an idea of your own? I'd like to know your opinions.

No wedge for you (especially not for that cheap)

Closest things we're getting are cracksjot and juke

With Test Pilot, awings are the best ships for those epts (can stack em with ptl )

I'm really not a fan of giving every ship every thematic thing it had in games, comics and books - it leads to poor game balance and power creep. So off the bat the idea of giving Wedge's pilot ability to all A-Wings is a no-no.

Secondly as a modification it would vie for the slot with Autothrusters, Stealth Device etc, so that's also not going to help the A-Wing in the long run.

Honestly the unique A-Wing pilots are good, and the generics are good blockers. Throw a pair of EPTs (Outmanoeuvre + PTL) onto a unique A-Wing and you have an amazing arc dodger.

If you really want the Swivel Cannons upgrade I'd suggest making it a Missile or Title upgrade:

1pt When attacking you may spend a Focus token to discard an Evade token from the defender.

It's thematic but not game breaking. It gives a slight boost to A-Wings that want to take on ships that can Evade (and most of those ships have a lot of green dice anyway) which is the area they suffer in. If its a missile slot it means your paying the premium of not taking Chardaan Refit AND the cost of the Swivel Cannons. If its a title slot then you don't get to take an extra EPT.

No wedge for you (especially not for that cheap)

Closest things we're getting are cracksjot and juke

With Test Pilot, awings are the best ships for those epts (can stack em with ptl )

Yeah, I didn't really think much on the price. Open to suggestion there of course. Why would you be opposed to such an upgrade?

I believe that the A-Wing guns were actually locked in position by the Ground Crew pre flight with some pilots giving preferences for the calibration of slightly lowered to enable easier strafing runs and others licking them rearward for recon missions or when carrying missiles.

I would like to see/find interesting an upgrade that lets you lock them to the rear but gives you extra munitions. Easy to implement now that we have munitions tokens and as easy as turning the base insert around. You then have a very interesting ship to fly that I think comes nowhere near to breaking the game.

Kris

I would never be opposed to knocking green dice out of the game, just that one point was absurdly undercoated

We have outmaneuver to provide a sort of benchmark for pricing

I just want to see A-wings with Slam. The guns were tacked on as an afterthought, anyway.

You can always use outmanouver as your second talent (not all pilots I know). Sadly is overpriced by like 1 point.

I think with proton rockets a-wings can really do some dmg despite sitting at 2 dice or my favourite concussion, Tycho and Jake also have some pretty nice tools to get into range 1 out of arc if you gear them right. You are giving up big guns for speed and manouvers and I thinks that is fair and the a-wing works IMO.

However in tournaments with 60-75 min matches they have some problems. I know a guy who play 3 a-wings in tournaments and he has become very good at flying them but it's hard to take down enough ships with so little firepower when the matches are timed, alltought proton rockets did help.

With chardan and double EPT's I don't think the a-wing needs a boost right know but longer game rounds would ofc be nice for them if we are talking tournaments. Gemmer sojan and Arvel crynyd don't see that much play but they can only get 1 EPT, but that is way better than some of the cool interceptor pilots like poor Kir kanos

I'd like to see the swivel guns as a modification (choice between an offensive build and a defensive build with AT), but I'd rather they grant a rear firing arc.

If the A-Wings had the rear firing arc, they'd be competitive as hell. Nimble small base that can fire in two directions? Hell yeah dude..!

I was hoping for a rear firing arc mod back in rebel aces. Refit is nice and all, but the rear arc would be very interesting. As it is, Tycho at least got a nice boost from the Wired EPT in the new core set.

A Mod that gives a 180 degree front arc might help.

Or a Mod that restricts the target from spending focus tokens on defense when defending from primary attacks.

Yeah, wider firing arc or a rear firing arc would be very cool but how would that work exactly? Would you get special ship tokens?

I was hoping for a rear firing arc mod back in rebel aces. Refit is nice and all, but the rear arc would be very interesting. As it is, Tycho at least got a nice boost from the Wired EPT in the new core set.

He'd have to ditch Push the Limit or Daredevil though....

Yeah, wider firing arc or a rear firing arc would be very cool but how would that work exactly? Would you get special ship tokens?

No need for a rear arc. Just measure backwards from the existing forward arc.

My friends and I tossed around the idea of a weak back arc for the A-wings, one attack dice out the back, two at range 1. It would take the torpedo slot and cost 0 points.