I have been winning some games lately vs defensive combo wings simply by splitting fire. Particularly with Assaj and Kanan it works more reliably then I had expected. Maybe im just getting lucky dice...but my win rate against these two archetypes sky rocketed once i started doing it intentionally. Basic idea is to force Assaj to burn a stim or counter measures or take a "untimewalked" or "halftimewalked" shot. Meanwhile keeping pressure on the other ships in the list. If Assaj saves it you get to try and shoot through 2 dice from range 3 with no auto evade unless they take the evade action. Same concept applies to Kanan/Fenn, force Fenn to shutdown only one ship and send some shots into Kanan with mods . Then feel out from there if you can smoke fenn from out of arc in subsequent rounds. Works against new versions of ego but not nearly as well as it seems to against assaj and fenn. Still i think there is some logic to just splitting fire between Low and Ezra and if you do it right they both die around the same time.

Wrong about the things?

I mean, if you are seeing success with it, then I can't really say you're doing something wrong. There are risks to splitting fire, but also rewards. If you have the list and the skill where you think you can can gain enough of a reward to outweigh the risk, then go for it. Taking advantage of situations is all part of the game too.

I've found I split fire reasonably often. Sometimes it's for reasons you state (you don't care as much that Glitterstim neuters a single ship's attack). Sometimes my ships have different preferred targets due to matchup or positioning. Sometimes I want to prevent a ship from returning to the main fight, so I split a ship off to chase it down. There are plenty of good reasons to split fire.

14 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

I've found I split fire reasonably often. Sometimes it's for reasons you state (you don't care as much that Glitterstim neuters a single ship's attack). Sometimes my ships have different preferred targets due to matchup or positioning. Sometimes I want to prevent a ship from returning to the main fight, so I split a ship off to chase it down. There are plenty of good reasons to split fire.

I tend to run lots of 3 ship Imperial type deals which I think contributes to why it works.

Assaj in particular really seems to hate it since by the time the other ship is dead countermeasures and at least one glitterstim usually have been spent.

Probably doesn't work all that well in 2 ship v 2 ship matches though I guess.

I think it really depends on your set up, a list I am trying is mainly to strip tokens, give stress and ion etc. I think it works best if 2-3 of my enemies ships have ion/stress/no tokens, than one ship having a lot of it all. It really depends on what your up against though. Kanan/Fenn doesnt really care if Kanan has multiple stress. the 4 TLT shots will probably get some damage through, even with out mods.

There are a couple of archetypes that are just too maneuvrable for you to expect being able to focus fire, but obviously we aren't talking abouit that. Still, I found it to feel deeply uncomfortable to be forced to split, which makes me wonder if that works as a reasonably effective tool for the "mind-game" aspect of X-Wing.

I guess the reason why it's so uncomfortable for me is that splitting fire usually does not prevent my enemy to respond with focus fire. This means that defensive options suddenly become way more important, which doesn't gel with my playstyle.

It's a general rule to take shots off when you can get them (if unable to choose your targets at maximum efficiency) so I can see how you are winning games still. Whenever I fly new lists/ships, I am usually all over the board, so I take whatever shots I can get.

It depends on the target and the attacker - sometimes it may be worth it.

• Concentrate Fire
  • You want to cut your way through a stack of once-per-turn defensive tricks that will refresh if you don't get through them (evade & focus tokens, C-3PO)
  • You have a realistic chance of killing a ship, removing a threat.
  • You have mutually reinforcing attackers, like Tractor Beam TIE/D or TIE/sf with Fire Control System/Targeting Synchroniser
• Split Fire
  • You have effects triggered merely by the act of attacking (like tactician)
  • You want to bait your opponent into using once-per-game options like Glitterstim or First Order Vanguard
  • Your opponent has a pilot or ability which only requires a small amount of damage to shut down (Countdown) or which can easily be disrupted by being shot at (if you have Hotshot Copilot, for example).

Splitting fire is entirely valid except when used to take shots that will be regenerated. Then, well, you might as well if it's your only shot, but you're just going through the motions.

The best example of split fire being good these days is Quickdraw.

If you have only one ship that can fire at him, but he has no one in his arcs, strip those **** shields. You probably won't kill him and you may have a better target, but by god do you need as many shots on him without return fire as you can get.

I recently ran Corran/Fenn/Low and just kept my Fenn w/ HSCP annoying Poe by erasing his focus every round while my squad attacked other ships. This gave Poe the option to boost and erase locks but not have a focus, or take a focus but not erase locks with a boost. Win win for me.

If you can erase Poes shields in a single round early game, that can send him running for the hills to regen while you are now free to go to work on his other squad mates without his annoying black one around.

Splitting has its advantages in certain situations, but in general its just bad.

My rule of thumb is to focus fire whenever possible, and to maintain a strategic target under pressure, but - especially when playing arc-hunting ships like Defenders or whatever - to not do so to the exclusion of future positioning. If I need to break the attack for a turn to get a ship into the right spot/heading/whatever, I'll try to make sure it has an opportunity shot on something else.

Likewise, when running 3 or 4 ship lists I'm often happy to break a ship off from the main attack to keep pressure on an opponent so their ships can't focus fire mine . Distracting 25-35% of my firepower, if it removes 50% of theirs from the equation, is a very good deal; and one that's even better when you consider once-per-turn tokens and the like.

Essentially: Don't be afraid to split fire if it's more convinient... but do make sure you're still trying to pour damage onto a single target when you can and make sure you actually get that target dead.