In any game design, there are mechanics which provide a balance to the pieces in play. X-Wing has provided us one of these in the form of Pilot Skill Value. In this case moving last is intended to be of greater value for purposes of position in the battle space, however, as you may or may not have experienced, lower pilot skill values can be of great importance tactically.

Lower skilled pilots can be used in "blocking" tactics as discussed in various posts, and are purposely intended in some play lists. This is used to control the opponents movements, keeping them restricted by less critical ships while setting the opponent up for attacks with heavier hitting ships. This tactic is a real threat and cannot be over looked during the planning phase. It creates a dilemma for my opponent to choose between short movements, trying to keep me in his fire arc or shooting past me and only be able to possibly keep me in his/her sights with a koiogran turn.

The threat of me stopping short of the opponents ship, causing them to run into me ship, restricting their movement AND taking away their ability to perform an action this round can change the out come of that entire round. With all of this in mind I want to discuss that the two Rebel ships offering a piloting skill of 1, are the A-Wing Prototype Pilot and the YT-1300 Outer Rim Smuggler, and the Imperial faction's two ships, the Tie Fighter Academy Pilot and the Tie Interceptor Alpha Squadron Pilot.

For the purposes of blocking, the Imperial ships offer greater maneuverability and more importantly a cheaper ship, the Academy Pilot. Though the sheer size of the YT-1300 makes it an interesting ship for this tactic, it would seem to be a after thought to it's intended purpose in a play list. For less points two Academy Pilots could provide greater flexibility and, again, maneuverability. The Prototype and Alpha Squadron pilots each have their pros and cons and can be argued either way, but I am interested in your thoughts on this subject.

I actually took 3 Prototype pilots w/homing (or concussion) missiles and the outer rim smuggler with luke, and someother crewmember vs. 2 bounty hunters, loaded up. I ended up winning this match when I put a crit on one of the firesprays, dropping his PS to 0, then "forcing" his maneuver onto an asteroid, where he took his final damage. It didn't start off good, when I lost an awing with its missiles intact! Ultimately, the Firespray couldn't keep up with the Falcon in maneuvering.

~Ron

I agree that Academy Pilots seem to be made to block opponents because they are cheap and maneuverable. But it's important to keep in mind that you don't need to be Pilot Skill 1 to play the blocking game; you just need to be a lower skill than the ship you're trying to block. I once blocked an entire 3 ship squad of X-wings with a Firespray Bounty Hunter. I knew it was going to work, so I attempted to get my Academy Pilots barrel roll into positions outside of the X-wings' firing arcs. It mostly worked, though some TIEs were still in the arcs. At least the X-wings all lost their actions. Pretty sweet. And I did it with a PS 3 big ship. (Naturally, I dropped a seismic charge on the next round and did some serious damage!)