A Look Back: Most Over-rated and Under-rated 1st edition ships

By Hoarder of Garlic Bread, in X-Wing

With the first edition wrapping up, it would be fun to look back at which ships may have been over-used or under-used. What I mean by "over-used" and "under-used" would not necessarily be meta distorting ships that are so OP that you have to take it (such as the old Jumpmaster and Dengaroo), but the ships that are either not quite as good or as bad as the masses would assume in their selections of them.

For me, they are:

Rebels: Over-used: K-Wing, as many hear how good Miranda is (at the hands of the very good players who flew her) and try to spam her. Even with C-3PO or with a trajecting Nym and Sabine on board, she is only 1 agi with a bad dial, no repositiong without disabling weapons, and her healing factor is entirely dependent on being within combat range. She was surely overpowered, but better players with lists that were at least semi-mobile could easily defeat a netlisting scrub with her. Anecdotally, I am more or less only an average player, but I am 8-2 against Miranda in a tournament setting (not because I am good, but because she is way, way, over-saturated).

Under-used: Z-95!!!!!! This glorious artifact of the Republic is definitely not impressive with no native repositioning, and its only notable slot is the missile that can fit with its price point. I could never use this ship effectively, and it was a perennially low-ranking ship on meta wing. But those who knew how to work it, by either creating missile kill-boxes, blocking, or using Airen Cracken as an alpha-attack/coordinate ship before his death--it can work wonders. In fact, every Blair Bunke game with 7 Z's is a treat (yes, he flies the scum z's, but without illicits, they are just the same ship).

Scum and Villainy: Over-used: Fenn Rau and other Protectorates. That title is so tasty, and Fenn's ability sounds so good and incredibly, as it allows one to joust with a fragile ship and come out victorious. Or at least, that is what it seems. In reality, this ship is very difficult to fly properly, and its main feature--flying into the face of the opponent--only further tempts the variance gods. Plus, bombs are the death of him without considering every single move at least 3 moves ahead of time throughout the game. Can Fenn be good? Yes, if you are a very good player.

Under-used: Scum lists tended to be the most diverse of any faction, but I was surprised at how the Kimogila was not taken up all that much. It has an intimidating jousting ability for scaring aces and token-stackers, can bristle with munitions or decide to only take one secondary with extra munitions or choose to reload, can take pain-bot or unhinged astromech, and its highest PS pilots have very good pilot abilities that can synergize with the 1pt title. Yes, it has less than a b-wing's health with only a b-wing's agility, but is more cost-efficient, has a much better dial, the illicit slot, and in all is a versatile ship that could be built to a squad's specific needs.

Empire: Over-used: TIE/SF fighter, for being in the same boat as the K-Wing (except Backdraft is actually good whilst Esege is pure garbage). Great players can make Quickdraw really sing with a very good ability on a shockingly high-PS chassis with absurdly diverse and powerful slots and a jokingly high cost-efficiency. But mediocre players don't consider arc-dodging or properly approaching with her, so that rather than taking 1 shot a turn and bleeding those shields to punch extra damage, all the shields and the some of the hull pop off in one round. Yes, advanced optics/comm relay and debris gambit can tank, sensor cluster was good back in the day, and expertise can save that focus for defense, but she has a big target painted onto her. A broken ship does not make an auto-win, unless we are talking about Ghost-Fenn.

Under-used: TIE Silencer. On the surface, it seems like a direct downgrade from the Phantom for having 1 fewer attack die and 1 fewer defense die as well as a lack of the evade action--all for extra cost. But the dial with advanced sensors on PS9 allowed it to be anywhere and thus dodge so many shots, it always had a base 3 agi regardless of what PS shot it, could fix being out-PS'd by ISYTDS, could take autothrusters, had an entire 2 shield and 4 hull, had a soft predator built into a position-rewarding title that could turn into a panic-button for an atrocious roll, and could even out-point Poe or kill Corran (if the bid does not push you past Corran points). It is much more forgiving than it seems to fly.

Moderately confused....title says Over-rated/Under-rated, but each paragraph starts with Over-used/Under-used, which are very different things....

EDITED: I saw it meant to be the "used" version.

Edited by RStan

Rebels: Overused: Millenium Falcon. I got so sick of seeing it and hearing about it, especially with C-3P0 (how many of you bought a Tantive IV specifically for one card? C'mon, be honest) not to mention until Autothrusters came in it made playing against it with arc dodgers an absolute nightmare. It's still going to be a contender in 2nd but at least it doesn't seem to be the same gauge of monster. Honorable mention to K-Wing for the same reasons.

Underused: E-Wings, the other forgotten ship from 4th Wave. I really, REALLY wanted to like this ship but the cost to slam it down on the board was never justifiable aside from pimping out Corran Horn, and the singular game I used Etahn A'baht in an Epic match. Knaves and Moons just never appeared, ever, and even my small local meta never made use of them and I can't blame them.

Imperials: Overused: TIE Phantoms. Broken from the moment they were put into the game. Too cheap for 4 attack dice, high pilot skill, good dial, stealth technology was just unbelievably good, Sensor upgrades were really powerful for a really long time and arguably still are for a very reasonable amount of points in addition to Echo and Whisper being nightmares. As much as they're relatively delicate you never had people complaining about them to the level of TIE Interceptors due to their shielding and hella punchy red dice.

Underused: TIE Advanced Prototype. Okay maybe this is a local meta thing, and I certainly liked it, I found overall the ship was kinda slept on. Aside from The Inquisitor basically having 3 attack at all times, which is... quant, I really liked Valen Rudor and thought he could use some more love. It just had the disadvantage of being a 2 dice attack ship with okay defence stats and only rocking a missile slot. It's dial is FUN though and it's fun for the odd time I actually play Imperials.

Scum: Overused: Toilet seats. 'Nuff said.

Underused: M3-A's: Again, might be a local meta thing but being overpriced out of the gate with mediocre stats in nearly every way didn't justify them as being the Scum Academy Pilot they needed when Z-95's had Binayre Pirates right there and ready to go. Sure, they were given a much needed boost but it was SO late into this games' lifespan that it still wasn't getting love. There were, and still are boxes of them in my local game store when everything else flies off the shelves and I can't help but feel bad for the little guys... until I field them and I get reminded why I don't use them.

Special mention to all the Epic ships. I liked Epic, but they just weren't given the love and stats to back up their deployment cost, though a naked Rebel Medium Transport was cheap at 30 points and a personal favorite of mine, but rarely utilized by others.

Edited by LeoHowler

Imperial:
Over: TIE x/7, but boy... what a ship!
Under: TIE Aggressor. Load it up with Missiles or turret or both. Great filler. Runner up: TIE Punisher, specifically Deathrain and Redline.

Scum:
Over: Jumpmaster--enough said.
Under: G-1A Starfighter a.k.a. the Misthunter. Basically a tricksy B-wing, but this ship never got it's day in the sun due to being released alongside ships that outshone it: T-70 X-Wing, TIE/fo Fighter, TIE Advanced Prototype, VCX-100 and the Jumpmaster 5000. Runner up: Quadjumper.

Rebel:
Over: VCX-100. Too easy to abuse.
Under: A 4 way tie for me:

  1. B/SF17 a solid ship. It was just too ugly for most folks.
  2. E-wing--thanks to Corran being the best E-wing to run and an expensive chassis, it was relegated to the back of the line.
  3. HWK-290. I love this ship but never got to see more than Jan or Kyle on the tables, and that was a rare day indeed.
  4. U-wing. This ship was lackluster from the beginning with it's poor turn-around mechanic and EPT limited to Cassian and Saw in the end, but it was too little too late. The Auzituk stole the U-wing's thunder as well.

Good ideas, but you missed the big one: the Quadjumper. It's a ship with such ridiculous utility for its cost that it would downright break the game if the meta wasn't entirely based on large ships. They take a huge mount of skill to get good work out of, but when you do they shine like no other support ship - even rebel Fenn.

7 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

B/SF17 a solid ship. It was just too ugly for most folks.

The one and only ship I never actually owned at any time. And I’ll never get it, as I am not buying Resistance in 2.0