Hi,

it's been a little while now that I try to play a group of 4 or 5 A-wings. I like to fly them in formation, and I think I got quite the hang of it.

But I am still sort of blocked in the following situation :

Imagine my formation of 4 GSP goes against a high PS target, which is slower than them (any ship that has a 1 stright or bank). Then, at one point, my manoeuvering offers me a close shot at the ship from behind (part or all of the formation gets to shoot at range 1). Good for me. BUT... what if the enemy ship survives?

I see 2 options to keep firing at it, and none of those satisfies me :

- chase it with the lowest possible speed (2 straight or bank) : I bump the ship : I get a range 1 shot except for the leading ship, but without modifiers => not so good

- K-turn in front of it : as previously, range 1 shot is possible for me, still unmodified; this time the enemy has possibly no action because he gets to bump, but I have to get rid of the stress next round => not better


In this situation, what would you do ?

I've had good success flying GSPs in pairs. My advice would be to break off and make another pass. Staying right on their tail is great, but sometimes you're better off taking a "boom and zoom" approach.

If you are angled 45 degrees with respect to the ship that you're pursuing, successive 1 hard turns (alternating direction) are slower than its 1 forwards and will move you in the same direction.

If you bump it once, no problem; all of your subsequent 1 hard turns will not bump.

My thought: if you can sit behind him where he can't return fire yet allow you multiple shots I say stay behind him! Maybe you aren't getting the mods you want but you should be at R1 for 3 dice and eventually the target's Green dice are likely to fail.

What NOT to do is overshoot and jump out in front of him. If he bumps you then that there are no shots there anyway and with Stress there may not be any modifiers for you anyway yet because you're now in front if you can shoot then he can shoot as well. What's more is that next turn you're facing the wrong way which will make escape much easier for him.

The biggest problem I see people running into when flying 4+ ships is an unwillingness to split your ships up. The problem with close formation flying is that your ships get in each other's way! Its much easier to keep time on target if your ships are spread out and approach from different angles. It doesn't matter whether the target is faster or slower neither. Spreading out also makes it easier to block and avoid having multiple of your own ships get blocked. It just opens up so much more tactical flexibility, I'm surprised more people don't do it...

Because it's being suggested there is nothing wrong with splitting your four ships into a couple pair. Have one stick with the target while the other maneuvers for the better shot. What you may be looking for here is something called a Thatch Weave in general terms although it may have a more Star Wars related name as well.

I'd agree bumping him and having unmodified shots seems preferable to me.

Similar to the saying on these boards about how its better to dodge arcs completely vs mitigating shots at you I would say unmodified shots at someone who cant shoot back is better than no shots at all

A-Wings can't afford to bump. They live and die by their actions, whether that involves tokens or arc dodging. At PS 3 that really just leaves you with your actions. If you don't get your tokens, you might as well write off that A-Wing.

A-Wings can't afford to bump. They live and die by their actions, whether that involves tokens or arc dodging. At PS 3 that really just leaves you with your actions. If you don't get your tokens, you might as well write off that A-Wing.

If you don't get shot at then you don't die even if you haven't been getting in any actions.

Yeah, but most ships that run away like that are turrets, right? I mean, if it's Soontir we're talking about, can't you just land right in front of him? Slowest he can go is Straight 2, so he's not bumping and getting behind you. No, it's the big ships that are the killer in this situation. I agree that breaking off and maintaining actions is good. If the terrain allows it, break off in different directions, and then try to converge a couple rounds later.

1-turns and stops aside, Large ships will move at the same pace as your A-wings due to the increased displacement of their base. Of course, 1-turns are a common move for Aggressors and Yt-series freighters, so that's a concern.

Thach weave. Learn it. in 2d