So today I ran 4 prototype a-wings trying to have an all a-wing squad and put assault missiles on each along with a stealth on each. Lets just say I shot all 4 of my assault missiles in round 2 all at the same ship and only one of them did damage and it was one point against a academy tie fighter. Now he had his other ships in a nice ball and I was happy to show him how the assault missiles worked. Well 1 damage to his academy tie and 1 damage to the other 4 ships and he laughed at me at the fact that this was supposed to be an awesome move. ................

So I sucked it up and kept trying to get them to work and in the end I was wiped to the ship while barely killing his howlrunner. He hit an asteroid for his final damage.

Thinking it was a fluke we went again and he killed two of my a wings before i even got to shoot one time.

Now what in the hell are you supposed to do to make these **** A-Wings useful. Now as a support ship with two rookie pilots they shined. Taking out 3 ties in one round because of the assault missiles. But a full squad is so shameful. What do you guys think.

A-Wings r the most difficult rebel ship to build a competitive squad around imo.

at most id play 2 but more likely one with a pilot ability like Push The Limit and missiles.

the best ive seen A-Wings used is as a flanking ship that uses its speed to get in behind the enemy and harry them. They have the manouverability to keep out of firing arcs by using boost but engaging the enemy head on or flying near a concentration of ships is asking for a quick death (not saying you did but just pointing out this is not the best way to use them).

i think they r designed to pick off already wounded ships or supporting an x-wing which is taking the brunt of the attacks at the time.

I use 3 GSP with Deadeye and missiles and then Tycho with Squad Leader (Since he is Green Leader). In the first round of action this should allow 1 A-wing to get a TL and Focus on an enemy ship.

Twice my 8 TIE swarm has fought the four A-Wings with Assault Missiles and twice it has won. You can watch that in the "TIE Swarm in FOUR Battles" video I posted.

A-Wings need support like the Rebel pilots that hand out Target Locks (Garvin and Dutch), give Focuses (Jan Orr), or give free actions (Lando). Then the A-Wing can Target Lock AND Focus and be that much more likely to hit.

I just played Tycho and Green squadron pilots (stealth, PTL, assault missiles) take down 4 Interceptors (stealth and vet instincts). I did not get any good salvos off with missiles either. They are not easy but are effective.

Assault missiles kinda suck since you are usually shooting them at ties with 3 evade dice and it has no bonus modifiers to it. Usually you have to wait a few rounds to gain a target lock, then you gotta turn around, then focus and hope they are still in any semblance of a formation. I just do not like them except to be chased down while other ships do the shooting.

Double was that a 3 ship build?

Assault missiles kinda suck since you are usually shooting them at ties with 3 evade dice and it has no bonus modifiers to it. Usually you have to wait a few rounds to gain a target lock, then you gotta turn around, then focus and hope they are still in any semblance of a formation. I just do not like them except to be chased down while other ships do the shooting.

The only reason you have to do so much maneuvering to get them off is because you had all low PS pilots. It is much easier to get a Lock and fire away with high PS pilots, because moving last matters for being able to acquire a lock. A common upgrade on lower PS pilots who can have it is Deadeye, since it eliminates this issue.

That all being said, your original scenario in the first post is pretty unlikely. 4 Attack dice vs 3 defense (even at rng 3) means you are pretty likely to do at least 1 damage on each of them, which would trigger their effect. Just bad luck really.

I find missiles by themselves to be a poor investment. The luck variance is simply too high. Like others have said, use them with pilots/squad builds that ensure that when you fire, you are doing it with TLs and focus (or other reroll/dice mod abilities). Vader with missiles is deadly. Rebel squads with Garven and Dutch also. Wave 3 is going to make all sorts of secondary weapons VERY interesting.

I think the mistake is in thinking you have to get off all the missiles all at once at the earliest opportunity. Saving them for later is risky, but is it riskier than leaving it all to chance?

I find missiles by themselves to be a poor investment. The luck variance is simply too high. Like others have said, use them with pilots/squad builds that ensure that when you fire, you are doing it with TLs and focus (or other reroll/dice mod abilities). Vader with missiles is deadly. Rebel squads with Garven and Dutch also. Wave 3 is going to make all sorts of secondary weapons VERY interesting.

I think the mistake is in thinking you have to get off all the missiles all at once at the earliest opportunity. Saving them for later is risky, but is it riskier than leaving it all to chance?

I agree in general, just pointing out that in his initial post he had a good chance of doing pretty serious damage to what sounded like a group of five TIEs, if not kill them outright given he had 4 missles. I personally am not a huge fan of Assault Missles since they seem very situational and if your opponent knows you have them he will typically deploy to minimize their effects.

I personally prefer the Homing variety when I take missiles, points allowing, since they tend to do much more because of not losing the lock when you fire and ignoring evade tokens. I think they are probably one of the best warheads in X-Wing, at least until the new stuff comes out.

I agree. I also agree that the damage done seems like unusually poor luck – but it's usually best to plan for that, in this game!

Double was that a 3 ship build?

Tycho

(2) GSP

-all with PTL, stealth, assault missiles.

We played a few games that day and I never got the big alpha strike off with the missiles, caught a few together but that was all. Cluster and homing missiles work better for me. Just once though i'd like to get 3 assault missile salvo off and wipe a swarm in one round. LOL.

I just don't like how missiles are 4-5 points and one time use and marksmanship is all day long. Elusiveness, draw their fire. I tend to like the upgrades that last all game instead. Homing missiles do seem cool since it allows you to expend your focus and they don't get their evade. Ill think about those a little more.

I am tempted to try out 5 newb Awing pilots for fun sometime.

The trouble wasn't the Awings, it was in the missiles you chose.

Assault Missiles make you spend your target lock to use them. If you don't ALSO have a focus to use (or some inherent re-roll ability), you're leaving the fate of the missile up to the dice gods. There are plenty of math-wingers out there that will say this is a losing proposition.

If you're running Awings with Missiles, I would recommend varying the payloads. Homing Missiles are 1 for 1 better than Assault Missiles because you can spend you target lock to re-roll of you need to. Cluster Missiles will work well for target locking while at Range 3, then next round getting a focus to use, likely at range 1.

Plus, with Homing, Cluster, or Concussion, you won't have to worry about damaging your own ships. I played a game against this squad, and a got into range 1 quickly, so my opponent was afraid to fire the missiles from his farther-away ships because he was worried about damaging his own ships.

So, I would suggest varying the payloads and see if that works better for you. Although, to be fair, trying to win with a squad of 4 Awings is going to be an uphill climb from the start.

..... Well 1 damage to his academy tie and 1 damage to the other 4 ships and he laughed at me at the fact that this was supposed to be an awesome move. ................

For the record, I didn't laugh.

A-wings and the assault missiles is definitely an uphill battle. It would still be sweet to see it carried off. (Next time I run my TIE swarm, watch who will roll 3 blanks, 3 times in a row).

I also dislike the missile cost when they are one shot wonders. I tend to favor homing and cluster missiles for actually scoring results.

A little bit OT but does it strike anyone else strange the A-wing cannot barrel roll?

I highly dislike the lack of barrel roll. I swear in episode 6 there was an A-Wing that did a barrel roll.

Whilst destroying the Executor?

Even more off topic but I've always been mad it wasnt the B-wings destroying it. You dont get to see them doing any fighting in the battle scenes in Return of the Jedi, and attacking Star Destroyers is what they were made to do.

Whilst destroying the Executor?

Even more off topic but I've always been mad it wasnt the B-wings destroying it. You dont get to see them doing any fighting in the battle scenes in Return of the Jedi, and attacking Star Destroyers is what they were made to do.

RotJ had a lot of "small things having a big impact" themes. If you watch the "making of" bonus features on several of the DVD sets the directors/producers say as much. I imagine the use of the A-Wing to take out the Executor was one of them.

It is kind of unfortunate that the B-Wing wasn't featured more prominently. I think its definitely one of the more interesting starships in the original trilogy.

The only reason the B-wing wasn't featured more in RotJ is because the bluescreen technology wasn't up to the challenge. They were plagued with problems getting the B-wings to show up at all from the front and rear, mostly due to the ship's overall blueish hue and its curved canopy. The scene where they lock S-foils in attack position was really more of a lucky break than anything (they said it had something to do with the lighting contrast). It's not that they didn't want to feature it. There was a whole scene planned where a group of them would fly in and blow up a starship, probably a Star Destroyer, with a huge number of torpedoes.

By contrast, the A-wing, while still having a huge bubble, is all beige and red, so it was much easier to composite.