First non demo game.

By Paul7926, in X-Wing Squad Lists

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Hi there

About to have my first real game tomorrow. I'm very limited on available models. I've just the New starter set, a Tie Advanced blister and a TIE/fo blister. That doesn't give me much choice so I've come up with this.

Maarek Stele — TIE Advanced 27 Juke 2 Concussion Missiles 4 Ship Total: 33
Omega Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 17 Ship Total: 17
"Omega Ace" — TIE/fo Fighter 20 Wired 1 Comm Relay 3 Ship Total: 24
"Omega Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 21 Squad Leader 2 Weapons Guidance 2 Ship Total: 25
With what I have can I do any better? Thanks.
Edited by Paul7926
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The best Omega Leader outfit is juke with Comm relay. I'd put those on him and outfit everything else with what you have left over. Also If it's your first game I'd recommend Vader if you can find the points. That's simply MHO as he's historically my favorite pilot in the game.

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Yeah, unfortunately you are fairly limited. For a beginning match with that available, here's what I would suggest:

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced 29

Squad Leader 2

Concussion Missiles 4

Ship Total: 35

"Omega Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 21

Juke 2

Comm Relay 3

Ship Total: 26

"Zeta Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 20

Wired 1

Weapons Guidance 2

Ship Total: 23

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

You will hopefully be able to see the difference between higher Pilot skill and lower Pilot skill and the implications on the game. Also gives you ordinance on Vader to see how those mechanics work. The upgrades try to synergize with abilities so you can get added benefit from both. Hopefully that will get your feet wet enough that you can move forward getting more ships and developing your own playstyle. Above everything else, have fun, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

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Thanks both for your input. I wasn't sure I'd get any because there really isn't much choice but you've both hit on the part I was totally unsure about and that is what upgrades to pair with what pilot. My two previous games were the first starter box demo and then a 50 point game with a list crafted for me so those decisions were already made.

I have to say putting Vadar on the table makes me very happy. I actually bought the TIE advanced with my starter box as playing Vadar was the main drive for me getting into the game. Still have memories of watching the first (released) film in the cinema as a 10 year old and thinking Vadar was way cooler than that Skywalker guy. It was a particularly bitter blow to do some research and find out that to make Vadar really good I needed cards from the Imperial Raider box!

I'm actually torn on a reasonable upgrade path. My heart says just get the Imperial Raider box and go 'Vadar for life' but my head says that with that outlay I could get other things (combination of Imperial Aces / TIE Interceptor / Howler and a basic TIE swarm for example) and have more choice. First world problems eh?

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The solution is simple: buy it all!!!

The title from the raider is good, but for fun games with friends, you'll be fine with the list you've selected.

I do like Vader but Stele is pretty cool too!

good luck and let us know when "mistakes were made"

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I'm pretty sure I'll end up with at least one of everything before long.


I did a short write up for my blog and I'm not sure if I can post links here so I've just copied it in full.


I played my first full 100 point game of X-Wing last night. I played against a fellow newcomer to the game and we had, in my opinion, one of the best games of toy soldiers I've had in a long time. It pretty much had everything from cinematic moments, occasional unbelievable dice rolls and the outcome was in the balance all along. We probably played a bit slow and almost certainly forgot the odd thing but on the whole there were no occasions where we were both staring at the rule book lost as to what should happen. That is pretty much my definition of a perfect game experience.


As will become customary if I do more of these reports I took the Imperial side. I will admit to having asked for a little list building help from the main FFG forum and I decided to go with the following.


Darth Vader (35)

TIE Advanced (29)

Concussion Missiles (4)

Squad Leader (2)


“Omega Leader” (26)

TIE/fo Fighter (21)

Comm Relay (3)

Juke (2)


“Zeta Leader” (23)

TIE/fo Fighter (20)

Weapons Guidance (2)

Wired (1)


Epsilon Squadron Pilot (15)


That actually works out to 99 points, gives me Vader, a couple of good pilots and, in true Hollywood style, some unknown extra who we all know isn't going to come out of this alive.


Facing off against me was nothing less than the Rebel 'Glamour boys' of Han and Luke in the Millennium Falcon and Poe in his T70 X-wing.


I can't recall the exact flow of the game, it went on for a long time. Essentially the TIE's went up the middle after the falcon with Vader on my far right flank avoiding Poe on my opponents far right flank. The sole reason I did this is that I wanted Vader to live long enough to actually fire his concussion missiles so I wanted to present a close threat to the Falcon to draw it's fire (Looking at you Epsilon Squadron Pilot) whilst Vader was free to turn in and fire before getting stuck into the dogfight.


Sadly I can't recall the exact order of events but the TIE's did a good job of swarming all over the Falcon keeping at close range, there were a few 'bumps' that I could have avoided with better planning and surprisingly most of these were Vader himself. It was soon obvious that Epsilon Squadron Pilot had not read the full script. On at least one occasions he survived the full onslaught of both the Falcon and X-Wing by cheekily rolling three natural evades on the green dice. A feat that Vader would also emulate later in the game. The two leaders got shot up a bit and I believe the first casualty of the game was one of them failing to avoid an asteroid and blowing up. The Falcon was taking a lot of damage but it's a big ship to get rid of. I think the remaining leader got over excited and performed a K-turn to get behind the Falcon noticing way too late the asteroid in his path. He managed to roll a 'crit' and the damage deck was not kind to him blowing him up on the surface of the rock. I did however manage to destroy the Falcon that turn so things were close again.


At this point we were running very low on time so we both tried to speed things up. I took a huge risk with my remaining TIE which, following the example of his leaders, hit an asteroid and blew up. It appears that my TIE fighters are impervious to enemy fire due to my spectacular green dice rolling. My red dice however ensure that every bump with a rock results in fiery death for the pilots. So we are down to Vader against Poe with Vader getting some nice damage onto the Rebel leaving him on a single hull point. Vader himself is not unhurt and I think he had only 2 hull points left.


We simply ran out of time at this point. To his great credit my opponent immediately called the game an Imperial victory as he believed, on average, that Vader would take the last hull point from Poe before Poe could kill him. I'm not sure but had we used tournament scoring he may have won because I think Poe cost more points than Vader but I've not really looked into how tournament scoring works. Had it been a tournament I wouldn't have tried that last tight turn that resulted in the loss of my remaining TIE so it's maybe a mute point. Myself I prefer to call it a draw. With both Poe and Vader withdrawing from the fight to regroup and summon some more pilots to continue this another day. I'd argue that it's perhaps a moral victory for the Empire who lost a couple of good pilots in exchange for blowing up the Millennium falcon with both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker on-board. In fact they never lost a ship to enemy fire which is I'm sure how the Imperial propaganda machine will report the engagement.


On reflection I think I played OK. The odd 'bump' and asteroid collision were inevitable for only my third game and the first with 4 ships on the board who want to always be close to a single target. I don't think I got the best use out of my upgrade cards. I did use them when their conditions were met but I think I probably should have flown my ships in a way to ensure they came into effect more often than they did. The mighty Concussion Missiles were frankly disappointing for their costs but I literally had nothing better to use the points on.


So I can learn to 'fly' better and I can learn to 'plan' better but the game experience last night couldn't really have been much better.
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Darth vader for your first game is a very good idea he is very forgiving because of the 2 actions allows for barrel rolling then a normal action (till you get engine upgrade)

I would advise using 2 normal tie/fo just to get used to having low pilot skill ships and it helps getting used to pilot skill order and can teach you a lot about flying and then using one tie/fo ace.

it's not ideal but it's a better method for getting used to flying then immediately going for all aces as there are other skills and things to get used too.

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I have to say putting Vadar on the table makes me very happy. I actually bought the TIE advanced with my starter box as playing Vadar was the main drive for me getting into the game. Still have memories of watching the first (released) film in the cinema as a 10 year old and thinking Vadar was way cooler than that Skywalker guy. It was a particularly bitter blow to do some research and find out that to make Vadar really good I needed cards from the Imperial Raider box!

I'm actually torn on a reasonable upgrade path. My heart says just get the Imperial Raider box and go 'Vadar for life' but my head says that with that outlay I could get other things (combination of Imperial Aces / TIE Interceptor / Howler and a basic TIE swarm for example) and have more choice. First world problems eh?

I understand completely your thoughts on Vader; I saw the film on opening night in my hometown as my dad had been awaiting the release like crazy (I had no idea) and thought the same thing, as did most boys back in that time I think. Take your time building your gaming collection; but, being a Vader fan, the Raider will come to pass....it not only elevates Vader to where he should be (or below in my opinion, thinking about the weight of the character in the lore) but it makes the TIE Advanced a very viable ship under many pilots. As an entry level guy, I'd move toward an Interceptor first, as they're a cheaper next-step (although the best 'ceptor setup is the single (to get Fell) and then....in the near-ish future, the Aces pack).

Keep rolling those great greens! .....I mostly suck at it.

Edited by clanofwolves
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OK, confession time. I did leave the shop last night with a nice new TIE Interceptor!

My logic was that having a fifth ship would allow me to do a couple of things. It gives me variety which another TIE/fo wouldn't and means that if I put all 5 on the table I can use lower PS TIE/fo pilots to get used to moving a mini swarm. It also means I can go mad and try just 3 high PS 'aces' from time to time. Sure it's not really a 'swarm' without Howlrunner and more TIE's and they are not 'Aces' without some more of the popular upgrade cards and the Imp Aces box but it's hopefully enough to get some fun games in and start to learn where I want to be in terms of personal play style.

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Of course you needed that ship. Well done!

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Of course you needed that ship. Well done!

I think maybe we are both confusing 'need' and 'want' and using very slim logic to justify it to ourselves. Meh. I'm cool with that.

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Whilst on the topic of things I 'need'.....

First large based ship..... Shuttle or Decimator ????

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Whilst on the topic of things I 'need'.....

First large based ship..... Shuttle or Decimator ????

Depends on your current addiction and your fear of harder drugs.....

The Decimator is cool, fun and fairly whole as purchased; although it isn't a classic Star Wars ship, though it looks the part. However, the shuttle is an original trilogy staple and is cool and fun to fly; not to shabby in hitting either. But, the real weapon for the shuttle is the Emperor and he comes in the big $$ raider....but the raider also makes Vader a real killer. So???? You know the answer now, haha!

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Shuttle for Vader crew.

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Hmmm, this is all falling into place. I want to play Vader's TIE advanced with a decent loadout. This points me towards the Imperial Raider which is hard to justify UNTIL I also *need* it for the Lambda Shuttle as well. The shuttle also is an iconic ship of the original trilogy and has Vader as a crew member. The clues are all there. My path to the dark side seems to be well signposted.

I probably also need The millennium Falcon for the Engine upgrade but that does mean I can also just scrape a 100pt Rebel list with that and Poe from the second starter set.

That's sorted then. Feeble justification for large hobby expenditure complete.

Thanks guys.

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That's sorted then. Feeble justification for large hobby expenditure complete.

...and that's how the fight started...

Good news is, once you're out of the doghouse, you have some really good ships and upgrades to play with. Glad we could help another addict with his addiction. :)

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I think only a gamer can justify buying an expensive luxury item by buying another item to go with it! :)

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Just an FYI, you can always go to ebay and buy the title + advanced targeting computers for like $10-$12 combined. Saves you from buying the Raider if you are not planning on using Palpatine anytime soon. The extra money saved can get you more ships you need.

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Just an FYI, you can always go to ebay and buy the title + advanced targeting computers for like $10-$12 combined. Saves you from buying the Raider if you are not planning on using Palpatine anytime soon. The extra money saved can get you more ships you need.

Thanks. I did think about it but to be honest I will probably use most of that box eventually and if I do then buying the bits works out not much cheaper and I'll not end up with all of it. To be honest I'll probably end up with far more than I can ever use but such is my addiction to little plastic toys. :)

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And once you get the shuttle, you'll want to put Palpatine in it.

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And you want that Imperial Aces and StarViper to maximize Soontir Fel from the Interceptor expansion, so you get the Title, Push the Limit and Autothrusters

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Yeah, it's been quite cleverly put together so that you pretty much *need* all the stuff all the time. To be fair the game can easily be played without the top builds and is still a huge amount of fun.

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Yeah, it's been quite cleverly put together so that you pretty much *need* all the stuff all the time. To be fair the game can easily be played without the top builds and is still a huge amount of fun.

QFT

But a fully kitted Soontir is so much fun to play

Edited by Whippoorwills
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I agree. In all fairness to FFG, this is a hobby and a luxury so there is no room for complaint about the way it's bundled. Nobody has to buy it. It's a bit of shock to the new guy who maybe thought that buying a TIE Advanced was all they needed to play Vader at his best but it can still be used while you get the rest. The game is great fun if both people don't have the latest meta builds. I also think the game is pretty balanced as well. I think once a player has got a few models under their belt then the game is pretty cheap to keep up with. It's only an issue if, like me, you want it all and want it now. :)

was thinking about heading towards this for a laugh:

TRIPLE ACES 100 points

PILOTS Darth Vader (37)

TIE Advanced (29),

TIE/x1 (0),

Predator (3),

Engine Upgrade (4),

Advanced Targeting Computer (5)

Soontir Fel (32)

TIE Interceptor (27),

Push the Limit (3),

Autothrusters (2)

Carnor Jax (31)

TIE Interceptor (26),

Push the Limit (3),

Autothrusters (2)

Edited by Paul7926
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But a fully kitted Soontir is so much fun to play

Agreed! Besides Vader, he is my favorite......and they usually are wingmates when I'm allowed to play my Imps. I like lists similar to the Aces list you detailed above: nice! Once you get some hours flying under your belt (it's was not easy at first for me to fly arc-dodgers) it is fun amplified....

Edited by clanofwolves