[Blog] X-Wing Analytica: the Definition of an Ace

By GreenDragoon, in X-Wing

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10 minutes ago, Mistborn_Jedi said:

Personally I find practicing a few openings a critical part of prepping for a tourney.

Why do you find it critical? Can you walk us through that?

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Mostly it goes to what @GreenDragoon laid out about freeing up yourself up to focus on other things. In the short time between rounds where I'm moving between tables, looking at my opponents list, etc I'd rather not also have start from scratch on how to approach Turn 0 or the first few turns.

Ideally I settle on a list far enough in advance that I can theorycraft different approaches. What do I do if I have to deploy first? Where do I want to engage against expected common archetypes (aces or droid swarm or whatever)? What is the key obstacle placement that I want to make and what are the first set of moves I would do under those situations?

Once I have a handful of openings that I like, I write them down and then I practice them solo on the table so that I'll remember them and be comfortable with it and can reproduce the setup and initial moves from memory.

You can't anticipate everything, of course. But my experience is that doing this level of prep takes a lot of pressure off during the tourney and has lead to my most successful showings.

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On top of that, for me, an extra tournament specific benefit is that it forces me to think about the meta, both the most frequent matchups and the ones I need to consider most carefully. In that way, I combine openings with meta analysis. And refining the openings through testing also kinda forces me to test more targeted before events, if that makes sense.

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Vassal GIFs are one of my favorite things in all of X-Wing. They really speak for themselves which is great for this kinda stuff. Bat Rep was neat. Thanks for sharing.

Now to apologize in advance for some super boring uninteresting list building questions though...

Besides the fact that testing is fun why not just use Vader Grand Inq Soontir? It starts with 19-22 pts free and all of its matchups are the same or better. Lots of variations with big bids and ability to pick apart any swarm in the game. Better overall init to deal with ace matchups.

What does Fifth Bro offer here besides the opportunity to give Vader Precog with a bit more bid? Or I guess Soontir can get more upgrades out of it like you have done here.

Also while I understand the usefulness of FCS Vader for managing force, bumps, k turns and even with precog...Passive Sensors seems fairly key especially given Holo’s existence.

Just curious since I keep seeing Fifth Bro around and im confused about the move away from GI and the all powerful init number of 5.

Will admit that practicing with Fifth Bro might be good for point increase prep.

Edited by Boom Owl
Posted at
1 hour ago, Boom Owl said:

Vassal GIFs are one of my favorite things in all of X-Wing. They really speak for themselves which is great for this kinda stuff.

Right?! I really love it, I think @NaKoaLani and @dsul413 made me see the light. I tried painting the rough paths once, but gifs are so much better!

1 hour ago, Boom Owl said:

Now to apologize in advance for some super boring uninteresting list building questions though...

Besides the fact that testing is fun why not just use Vader Grand Inq Soontir?

No problem, I thought about writing one of those short list spotlights for that reason, but haven't done so yet. Different reasons for me, a bit mixed:

  • If I don't use 5th then Whisper seems like the better choice anyway;
  • I think Homiebro does really well against 3agility ships in general, and arcdodgers in particular;
  • I expect a ton of arcdodgers at SpaceJam in particular, and in extended events in general. Not in my local meta, funnily enough, where the SloaneSwarm is the much better metacall against all the beefy/jouster lists;
  • The difference to GI are the ability, the orange number - and a 10pt difference!
    • personally, I don't value the GI ability too much. For me, I have to be very cautious because he needs his force for defense. As far as I understand, he's the bait in VaderWhisperGI, and he has to be played as cagey bait, and I can't do that. 5th's ability can also help on primary attacks. That one turn where the range 1 attack hits and you just add a crit on top because you can - feels good. So ability wise, I don't see GI as vastly superior. Sure, the better ability, but in my hands it's closer than I expected.
    • orange number 5 or 4... I don't know. An i5 at 199-200 pts or an i4 is mainly a difference because of simultaneous fire. That's important, sure. But Homiebro is this hyper threat ship that draws a ton of attention. In a way, much better than GI, because his threat is amazing.
    • 10pt difference off the bat, or 2pt with homing+passives
    • Overall, i think the two ships on their own are much closer than expected
  • I have FCS Afterburner Vader and Outmaneuver TC Shield Soontir
    • Vader should take passives, I agree. Originally the list had predator or crackshot on Soontir for a 9-10pt bid. Then FCS seems like the correct choice because bids are not that deep - or much deeper. Looking at last Spacejam though, I do quite well with 195. And I disagree on precog because it makes Vader too expensive for me. My Vader is a sledgehammer and dies. I ram him in, he throws 4 red dice with crits, and after a few of those explodes. Of course precog might keep him alive for longer, but it's not how I want to use my Vader;
    • Soontir with TC is obvious. As I mentioned some while back, I just love outmaneuver. It has this extremely satisfying ring to it. And I have the points for shields because I don't take precog. That one shield is some nice padding! (e: I think outmaneuver might not be the optimal build, but it sure as **** is more fun to me. Plus, it builds just a tad more into the anti-3agility ship theme of the list)
  • Homiebro himself:
    • He's this hyper aggro ship. If he uses passives then your arcdodger has four choices:
      • dodge the arc - can mean no shot for your arcdodger, can mean a juicy shot for my arcdodgers
      • rush into range1 - dodge the homing missile arc, basically
      • destroy Homiebro and not shoot Vader or Soontir
      • accept the 2 damage
    • He's just horrible for any 3agility arcdodger on 2-3 hull. Fenn, Holo, GI, Soontir, CLT Jedi, A-wings, FO ties all just hand over half their points!

So I believe that this list still out-aces most of the other lists. Not quite as well as Whisper, but good enough. At the same time, it has a hard counter piece against other aces.

I hope that answers some of it?

e: also tagging @Jeff Wilder again because you guys talked/wondered about the build a bit on the latest episode

Edited by GreenDragoon
Posted at

One thing I find interesting is that, especially since the jan points change, I’m playing squads that don’t make target priority decisions. It’s coincided with a significant uptick in my success rate.

I wonder how much old target priority ways of thinking are holding people back?

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Every day with new dragoon content is a good day! ❤️

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Nantex nearly doubling your winrate when flown is a pretty troubling sign for the long term health of the list. Hopefully that comes down with people teching for it or the list 'filtering down' to the types of pilots unlikely to rush to adopt ships, but it is still a troubling number.

Nice to see Republic is doing pretty OK despite a lot of its toys going away. I was always skeptical of the idea that it didn't have any viable lists without 7B, when in reality their 'bones' are really strong and they have so many clearly viable strategies to choose from.

Posted at
On 9/20/2020 at 7:38 PM, dezzmont said:

Nantex nearly doubling your winrate when flown is a pretty troubling sign for the long term health of the list. Hopefully that comes down with people teching for it or the list 'filtering down' to the types of pilots unlikely to rush to adopt ships, but it is still a troubling number.

Nice to see Republic is doing pretty OK despite a lot of its toys going away. I was always skeptical of the idea that it didn't have any viable lists without 7B, when in reality their 'bones' are really strong and they have so many clearly viable strategies to choose from.

The new factions are better designed compared to the earlier factions, as they have learned from any previous design mistakes, and thus I think there are many more options in their arsenal.

Posted at
10 minutes ago, Porkchop Express said:

The new factions are better designed compared to the earlier factions, as they have learned from any previous design mistakes, and thus I think there are many more options in their arsenal.

Yeah. As a rebel player I definitely leer at Republic, which seems to be "Rebel but with actual design." They definitely boxed themselves way less into a corner and flubbed the 'iconics' way less.

That said, I don't think CIS has 'better design' than older factions. In fact I would say that with how strong network calculations is as a mechanic they are in a rough long term spot, as it basically makes every droid in the list essentially Essege, which is one of the strongest mod-sharing abilities in the game. The main thing I like about CIS is just how they made the droids fly 'droid-y.'