So far I had no success with X-Wing, which is very depressing considering because I have a rather long history of tabletops - mostly from warmachine. In warmachine there is another dice system, rolling multiple d6 per attack (mostly 2-3) which makes the results somewhat predictable since the laws of probabilty are…yeah, they are just that: a very cruel and humorous mistress but still.

So I'm used to looking at the number of dice I can roll and maximise on modifying them.

And I'm not sure this is the right course of action with X-Wing.

So please help me GET this. to illustrate, which sqadron do you think is better:

MOAR DICE

Wedge Antilles
- R2-F2
- Proton Torpedoes
- Stealth Device

Biggs Darklighte r
- R2-D2

Tycho Celchu
- Push the Limit
- Stealth Device

MOAR SHIELDS

Wedge Antilles
- Proton Torpedoes
- Swarm Tactics
- Shield Upgrade

Biggs Darklighter
- R5-D8
- Shield Upgrade

Tycho Celchu
- Push the Limit

In my limited opinion…I haven't played a lot, but I think more agility dice is better. When you lose shields they are gone. But you can keep using agility dice hit after hit.

The two don't compare directly, but generally shields are better. The caveat to that is the more health your ship starts with, the more valuable agility dice are, and the more agility dice you start with, the more valuable shields are. Stealth device throws this off because it goes away with one hit.

You need to understand that you will never roll "average". I will use a TIE fighter for example.

X-Wing rolls 3 dice. You "expect" to be hit 2 times, but considering focus you will take 3 hits (6/8*6/8*6/8) or 42% of the time. Of those times, you will take a crit fairly often as well, but we will ignore crits for now.

You "expect" to evade 2 times as well. With focus you have pretty good dodge, but you still have a 5% chance of failing entirely and having your ship destroyed instantly.

Why does this matter? Because if your TIE fighter goes pop, you never have a chance to roll any more dice in order to "even out" the odds. Another example.

That X-Wing rolls terribly and you take 0 hits. Guess how many evades you roll? 0. It doesn't matter how much agility you have, if you were figuring out an "average" number of evades you count this round as 0.

So, you are penalized when you roll below average, and receive no benefit when rolling above average. This depresses the numbers dramatically. Having a shield always helps, having extra agility dice does not. Losing a 3 point Stealth Device is extremely painful if some joker throws 2 dice at you from range 3 and you whiff on the agility roll. It happens, and fairly often. The point costs are about right (3 points for Stealth, 4 points for Shield Upgrade) on an Agility 3 ship, but on anything less you are better off "odds wise" with shields.

On the other hand, there are very few instances where an above average attack roll does not benefit you.

On an X-Wing or Y-Wing, the shield is better, and that multiplies if you also include R2-D2…

On a Tie, I prefer going with the stealth device.

derroehre said:

I prefer the first list but I would move the Stealth Device and R2-F2 from Wedge to Biggs due to his ability to draw fire away from other ships within range ! of him. This gives Biggs 4 Defence dice when he uses his action to activate the droid. I would then give Wedge R2-D2 and replace the Torpedo with a Shield Upgrade. With Tycho I would drop Push The Limit for Veteran Instincts and use the 2 points left over to get Swarm Tactics on Wedge so you can have 1 ship shooting at 10 (Tycho) and 2 ships shooting at 9 (Wedge & Biggs).

Honestly, while you're still working on learning the game, try more ships instead of my shields or defense, especially for rebels. In rebels, a 4 ship list gives you more hits, more lanes of fire, more attack dice, and losing one ship isn't nearly as hard on the rest of your game.

A classic wave one squadron is:

Garvin
Dutch, Ion Cannon, R2-D2
Rookie X-Wing
Rookie X-Wing

With target lock and a focus, your X-Wings will hit very reliably, and you'll be able to hand out extras of both with Garvin and Dutch. Dutch is pretty tanky with R2-D2 as long as you keep flying green 1 foward, and why wouldn't you with a 360 shot.

Or, to stick with the A wing you were using:

Wedge, R2 Unit, Push the Limits
Tycho, Push the Limits
Rookie X-Wing
Prototype A-Wing

Agility is the way to go in my opinion, except you have something on the other side (like Wedge Antilles, or even a Falcon with gunner) that can consistently damage you despite your agility, in which case raw durability is better. So it really depends on the enemy you are facing.

Before wave 2 imps were at an advantage because agility plus evade was godly, and there was only Wedge to remedy that basically. But in wave 2 you have stuff like homing missiles or gunner that has a good chance to still damage imperials even if they take the also new stealth device…

In your case i would lean towards agility. Besides to me the only rebel ships worth a stealth device are A-Wings or Biggs with an R2-F2. 2 Agility which is then 3 with stealth device and without the option of evading is simply not enough to stop you from taking that crucial first hit, after which the stealth device is gone…Remember, stealth Device is only bettr than a shield upgrade if you use your one more agility die at least twice to dodge a damage! In any other case you are better off with one more hitpoint.

If you want to play a shield upgrade, try Luke Skywalker with R2-D2. he can use his focus or target lock every turn and still dodge one hit on an eye roll. This defensive capacity and the shield upgrade often give R2 the chance to be useful versus just getting focused in one turn, while equally being an offensive threat.

Another candidate for shield upgrade is a Falcon with a Chewbacca as crew member. You basically give the ship 3 more hitpoints, and ignore a crit. This makes it even more frustrating for enemies to try and focus down a YT-1300. Add in an evade token from Millenium falcon upgrade every turn and the enemy will ask himself if he really wants to focus your Falcon first…

Endgame124 said:

What you propose is basically my wave 1 go-to squadron. I prefer R2 on an x-wing since it has more green manoeuvers, but honestly i had Dutch regenerate 5-6 shields in a game once before he went down (he went diagonally through the playfield, K-turned once when he was on the other side of the battle and then repeated it). All this while handing out target locks like its candy. basically my enemy shot down a falcon hitpointwise that game although it was not even out yet XD

My own preference is:

Stealth on ships with AG3. Rolling 4 dice backed up with Focus (and save that Focus for defense) is likely to keep you undamaged (and still stealthed) through a few attacks.

Shields on lower agility ships. Rookie X-wings with Shields are very nice.

In general a higher agility ship will survive longer but if you need a ship to last X rounds (to get off one shot secondaries for example) more shields and hull are safer. As far as shield upgrade vs stealth device, stealth is better for ships that already have high agility, since they are alreasy tough to hit the extra defense die is more likely to stick around long enough to be useful then on a low agility ship that will probably only get one or two rounds with it. Shield upgrade is best for ships with R2-D2, Chewie, or some other way to regen their shields, otherwise I think it's slightly overcosted for a single extra shield, only by a point but still more than it should be.

Never take Push the Limit off Tycho in favor of Veteran Instincts. Ever. Ever. If you can only afford 1 point for an upgrade on Tycho, choose anything else.

Leave Tycho as is,
Try giving Biggs R2-F2 and the stealth device.
Give Wedge R2D2, drop the torpedo and add an engine upgrade.

Shields and Agility dice are good to factor in, but the real goal should be to shoot more often than your opponent.