Ships that need help

By Gungo, in X-Wing

So there are a few less popular ships. With the aces pack they gave a mediocre ship dual modification title that makes it a bit better. What ships do you think need help and what would u do to help them.

Tie adv x1- title card: tie avenger, tie adv with a PS 4+ only, extra elite pilot talent slot, cost: 0

Y-wing- title card: BTL-S3, y wings only, gets an extra crew slot, (and Horton needs an EPT), cost: 0

A-wing- title card: Mark II, a wing only, adds rear fire arc??? Cost:2

Holding off judgement on wave 3

Edited by Gungo

I don't really like any of these, mostly because all of these have their places.

The Tie Advanced is the most durable small-ship out there, particularly with Stealth Device and PTL. 3 evasion dice with focus, evasion, and barrel roll opportunities? Oh, AND 2 shields??? Yes please.

The Y-wing is hugely valuable with its ability to have a Turret AND a Droid, not to mention "Dutch" Vander is one of THE best pilots in the entire game. Horton pretty much has free target locks at R 2-3, which is nuts. Giving him a crewman slot for Gunner or, lord forbid, Luke Skywalker would be an overpowered mistake.

The A-wing is simply the most maneuverable ship in the game. Everything the Interceptor can do, the A-wing can do better, except barrel-roll. Yes, it has 1 less attack die, but it can target lock and carry a missile, so you can't really say it is less aggressive. Giving it a rear firing arc would make it a monstrosity.

So, yeah. I'd say they're well costed, and have their places. No need to fix, though I would love to see other pilots released for all 3.

Edited by DraconPyrothayan

I wouldn't say they are "bad" as most of them would require additional points be spent to use them but I do disagree with some of them.

For a tile for the Advanced I really fail to see how making on an "Avenger" would give an Elite Pilot skill. Restrict it to PL 4+ and now you've added it to one ship and given two others access to two such skills. When the Avenger is a variation on the original Advanced a title card should reflect some kind of improvement before adding other upgrades.

Now giving the A-Wing a "limited" range auxiliary rear arc may not be the worst thing but one out to range 3 is definitely too much. This is also something that will cost points as including it add function without any other cost.

Y-Wings really don't need help they work very well. I could see them getting a crew upgrade, but at the cost of the turret being locked to fire in the forward arc only.

A-Wings would benefit from barrel roll, but are fine as is.

The thing with Interceptors getting a boost card was that they didn't need it. Soontir and Turr are already really good, and Sabers w/PtL are great! They didn't need help.

I do agree that Tie Advanced do need help. Other than Vader they are a waste of points IMO.

Gungo, i agree with u, all these ships could use some help in terms of upgrades. they r all playable but can struggle to make squads at times. i use Y-Wings occasionally, tie-advanced's quite a bit but only the name pilots and i hardly ever use the A-Wing other than its push the limit upgrade which i often put on intercepters or wedge.

imo tie-bombers will see more play than tie-advanced ships due to the bombers cheap cost, even with shields and 3 agility the tie-advanced seems just a bit over-costed for my tastes.

Here is what id like to see:

  • more r2 units that r good
  • a title card for the a-wing (not sure what ability but maybe 'add barrel roll to your action bar')
  • more y-wing pilots with pilot talent slot
  • either more name pilots for tie-advanced (Costs: 22, 24, 25, 26 are all free, even one name pilot at 22 or 24 would be cool) or one tie-advanced pilot with a really insane/suitably costed ability like 'copy pilot ability of any friendly tie-fighter within range 1'.
Edited by The_Brown_Bomber

My deal with the A-wing is that it straddles the line between TIE Fighter and X-wing in a way that doesn't seem accurate. Sure it's not as powerful as an X-wing and manuverable like a TIE, but the current set up plays up the worst for both worlds. It's expensive like an X-wing, too much for a swarm to make it's 2 attack viable like with a TIE. It's manueverable like a TIE but the point cost prohibits you from fielding multiples effectively. At the end of the day this is a game. FFG has balanced the mechanics very well in this game while also being true to the spirit of SW space dogfighting it is based on. Unfortunately, the A-wing seems to land in the convergenve of mechanics that are logical but no longer reasonable. You'll never be able to justify a swarm of A-wings like TIEs. TIEs are meant to be cheap, mass produced. The A-wing was so supposed to be so notoriously hard to resupply that each ship was unique in the beginning. So keep the cost higher than a TIE. But now you have to find a way to make it a viable ship in and of itself.

Frankly, I'd rather the A-wing have 3 attack and 1 hull. Or 3 attack and 1 shield. Done. More of a bite, keeps the expense, but is stil a risk just shy of being a TIE. They're suposed to be so compact that a single hit can be catastrophic according to the SW guide to starships anyway. Now they have shields preventing crits but are still potentially fragile. This would play up the need to rely on manuverability without making a single ship pointless.

Heck, give them 3 attack, 4 evade, 1 hull, and 1 shield. Make the ship harder to hit but an easier kill, just so long as it gets out of this no man's land of being too expensive to swarm and too soft to field alone.

Edited by R22

I agree that the A-wing and tie advanced need help. I have personally never seen a tie advanced at tournament. Every a-wing squad lost horribly and y-wings are pretty decent if not expensive when upgraded. The elite pilots really needed pilot upgrades. Hence they rarely get played and why gold squadron pilot is far superior because of price.

I agree with r22 fully. Couldnt have said it better myself.

Edited by Wookie Hunter

I still would hate to see a Y wing title card that gives a generic "crew" slot. If it did then what would you think would be the best "crew" upgrade for it? The only one that makes sense is a gunner so you can fire your turret weapon and then have a primary attack (from the pilot). What I would strongly dislike is having a mess of Y wings with Saboteur, Mercenary Co Pilot etc... that just does not fit the intended "Weapons System Officer" role that the backseater has. My version of the Longprobe variant:

Longprobe Title (Y wing only) Replace the "Turret" icon with the "Cannon" icon and add the "Sensor" icon. May only select the Ion Cannon upgrade.

This basically loses the turret ion cannon's 360 degree fire arc but allows a forward facing ion cannon to be added. It specifically says the ion turret was kept but was locked in the forward firing position.

A wings are fine, yes a barrel roll could be cool but if you have to choose between a barrel roll and boost then the boost is more in keeping with the fast interceptor role and no ship really needs 5 actions... (I'm thinking of YOU TIE Defender!) The A wings are like a TIE fighter but are more "expensive" due to having shields and a hyperdrive... not really relevant in-game but appropriate. A 2 dice attack with TL and focus isn't all bad.

An A wing title card could allow for it to fire "outside of the primary fire arc with 1 Attack dice" to reflect some modified versions that could fire behind, obviously this would not be as effective as the standard 2 dice attack.

Edited by DB Draft

I wouldn't say they are "bad" as most of them would require additional points be spent to use them but I do disagree with some of them.

For a tile for the Advanced I really fail to see how making on an "Avenger" would give an Elite Pilot skill. Restrict it to PL 4+ and now you've added it to one ship and given two others access to two such skills. When the Avenger is a variation on the original Advanced a title card should reflect some kind of improvement before adding other upgrades.

Now giving the A-Wing a "limited" range auxiliary rear arc may not be the worst thing but one out to range 3 is definitely too much. This is also something that will cost points as including it add function without any other cost.

The a wing only had 1 real variant in the timeline used In mass production the mark II and it gave a system upgrade and turret lasers. I figured a rear arc 2atk laser added functionality without going full turret and keep the a wing role as maneuverable fighter and I agree this title needs a cost for the a wing, which doesn't need a whole lot.

The y wing had many varients long probe was the most common just as much as the single seater version. But what I think what is truly missing and I believe out of all three ships the y wing has the most use is just an EPT option and as more EPT get released the y wing becomes less flexible. Horton should of had an EPT. And whomever said adding luke sky walker as a 7 point upgrade would be overpowered on a y wing is silly that y wing would cost so much it's threat couldn't match how vulnerable it truly is after u added that many upgrades. It would be targeted early killed quickly and there just went half your squad. Overall there just isn't a crew card that adding a crew slot to a y wing would make it overpowered or broken. It just gives it more flexibility while increasing its cost and I don't see many people investing that many points.

Edited by Gungo

Tie advanced are pricey for what you get. They could fix that by adding in a PS 4 pilot with ability and meet the problem halfway.

Y wings could take a crew slot - at the expense of the droid slot. This can be done by a title card. However, I would add an upgrade that made protons cheaper/better to equip before a crew upgrade. If protons were 2 points, you would see them in every game. At 4 points they just cost too much for what they are. If you had an upgrade that allowed you to use your target lock for rerolls, if you had a droid equipped, I could see that fitting better into the Y wings role.

Interceptors are crazy. They already have the aces pack to juice them up.

The A wing, I was thinking of weapon system upgrade- Title A wing only : Immediately after placing forces, lose 1 shield to add 1 to attack value for the rest of the game. 4 points.

Overall I find each ship well balanced. Their roles are each well defined.

One simple upgrade that they should come out with is a general Weapon Systems upgrade modification. Add 1 to attack value- cost 5 points. Ships dogfighting with more attack dice you'll find games shortening up and the maneuvering strategy playing more of a role.

I would have to say adding attack dice as a general upgrade is not good for balance. The HLC is lethal and it only adds at range 2-3. Ors ability paired with it makes 5 dice and it tears up ships. The APT is range one because 5 dice are lethal. Attack balance is just fine on all fighters I would say.

Having thought about it, the only real change that might be needed is a points tweak on advanced and A-Wings, but that's about it.

Other stuff should be for flavor, but keep current balance levels intact.

I feel like weapons on the A-wing should at least be more accurate somehow, possibly more deadly

A-wings were flown by elite pilots and they had the ability to pivot the lasers vertically for improved accuracy, plus a slew of sensor and system upgrades. A-wings are not a cheap, flimsy, mass-produced fighter like the TIE, which X-wing reflects in terms of cost and slightly higher survivability, but does not translate that well into actual combat effectiveness.

The game is built around rebel vs imperial, yet the A-wing is the only rebel ship that can't spit out enough dice to properly deal with the Imperial 3-agility fighters

The game is built around rebel vs imperial, yet the A-wing is the only rebel ship that can't spit out enough dice to properly deal with the Imperial 3-agility fighters

The Imperials have plenty of ships that aren't agility 3. Also anything that is true for the A-Wing firing at Ties is true in reverse. Attack 2 TIEs have an issue dealing damage to Agility 3 A-Wings.

I'm seeing more and more A-Wing lists being suggested as counters. So I'm wondering if the issue is less the A-Wing and more the tournament meta where Swarm lists were seen all the time. A-Wings are great against Bombers and they can follow a Lambda around all day, they are even not bad against Advanced or Firespray where they can boost into the side arc.

The other thing is they are missile boats and ordnance was considered poor before Wave 3, with Wave 3 boosting it and more low agility ships on the Imperial side of the table, I could see them being more useful than in Wave 2.

Edited by Rodent Mastermind

If the A-Wing needed an attack boost, how about a card called 'advanced targeting computer'

'You may change any primary weapon blank attack dice to focus symbols' you still need a focus to be effective and you are not stacking extra dice. 2 points maybe?

Makes you almost certain to get 2 hits, but doesn't break balance.

or an A wing title that let you roll an attack on a ship whose base overlapped your movement template before the actual attack step?

I've wondered if a "Weapon Upgrade" card could work if modelled after the Stealth Device (ie. whenan attack hits the ship the bonus goes away) and I've also wondered if just having it set the ship's primary attack to 3 dice would work.

Now the problem with having a weapon upgrade set a ships primary attack at 3 dice is that it is useless for a large number of ships (but then Engine Upgrade is useless to some ships) but it would be a pretty significant boost to one ship (the HWK) at present and possibly more in the future.

I've wondered if a "Weapon Upgrade" card could work if modelled after the Stealth Device (ie. whenan attack hits the ship the bonus goes away) and I've also wondered if just having it set the ship's primary attack to 3 dice would work.

Now the problem with having a weapon upgrade set a ships primary attack at 3 dice is that it is useless for a large number of ships (but then Engine Upgrade is useless to some ships) but it would be a pretty significant boost to one ship (the HWK) at present and possibly more in the future.

A striaght up boost to Firepower is pretty powerful, especially given the wording of abilities on several of the TIE pilots that don't have access to secondary weapons. I'd make it a little more conditional:

"Concealed Blasters"

Modification Upgrade

Firepower: 3

Range: 1-2

Attack: Attack one enemy ship in your firing arc.

Point Cost: 4

Follows the Range 1-2 pattern for weaker secondary weapons, so you can't use it for plinking or become an X-Wing at Range 1. Essentially a Blaster Turret restricted to the forward arc but that does not require a focus, and can be put on any ship. Doesn't actually change the primary weapon value, so you can't exploit the special ability wording of Howlrunner, Backstabber, Mauler Mithel.

I don't think adding attack dice via an upgrade to the A-wing is a good idea. Instead, I'd prefer new missile upgrades. Something like "heatseeking" missiles that get a powerful bonus if attacking from outside the opponent's firing arc. These missiles would fit well with the a-wing because of its maneuverability.

I don't think the awing needs that much help and right now there is a place for cheap 2 atk ships. No need to make every ship atk 3. Personally I think the a wing is suppose to be a cheap highly maneuverable ship w low atk. So a rear fire arc would fit, and increase the threat of the a wing. In lore as well the mark 2 a wing was an upgrade that allowed the primary las cannons to fire in reverse and added a system upgrade. Both of those might be to much, but the reverse fire would be cool.

I am sure a systems upgrade title card will be something an a-wing will get. Tell me those wouldnt make it better and ill call you crazy.

Awing just needs a tich! I love em (but am an imperial player).

Advanced are probably the least popular and least supported. I think giving them a few named pilots would be good. Another title card for them could be:

Prototype- choose advanced sensors, torpedoes, or bombs. You may add this upgrade to your upgrade bar.

tie advanced with a systems upgrade would also be awesome

Imagine a Tie Advanced or A-Wing with Sensor Jammer. **** that would be boss.