OK, so this heading is deliberately provocative. In a game called X-Wing, you’d have thought the titular spacecraft would be the most balanced in the game. Not the most powerful, but can handle itself quite well. However, with the now wide array of ships available, this venerable mainstay of the Rebel squadrons looks very tired and just doesn’t perform well at all. The question is, why?
On paper, err, card, the stats look pretty decent. A standard Red Squadron Pilot gives you 3 attacks which you can’t complain about and a “standard” 2 defence dice. 3 Hull points and 2 shields is also pretty average for a Rebel starfighter. Throw in that they can equip a missile and an astromech, and its also got a fair few upgrade and multi purpose roles in your squadron. So what is wrong with all of this? Nothing so far, the issue is that even though it has the makings of a pretty good starship it has 3 flaws that make them sitting ducks and laserblast magnets that even their stats can’t help them with.
The first is the fact that you can only use Target Lock and Focus. Most starfighters give you 3 action icons to play with. Whilst the X-Wing gives you 1 offensive and 1 balanced action, it’s missing evade. That in itself may be understandable as compared to TIEs or A-Wings, they don’t jink around as much. This is also in line with the reason that they don’t have barrel roll or boost either, although you could argue that in the films, there’s quite a bit of barrel rolling with these babies (or at least spinning).
This leads into the second issue, the manoueverability of the ship. In the words of Douglas Adams, it “looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow”. It’s turner dial looks more like a bomber than a fighter. TIEs will dance around this ship merrily getting out of line of site whilst the X-Wing pulls a turn more accustomed to an articulated lorry. This is where giving them a barrel roll may have helped. Boost would have been too much as would evade. Formation flying is therefore more of a challenge and you’re guaranteed to see a few bumps between them if you fly too close.
However, the real issue is points cost. They are just too damned expensive. Sure, the game is geared to having more imperials than rebels on the field, as that is the nature of the game as TIEs are nowhere near as survivable when comparing their stats. It’s the evades, barrel rolls, movement dial and sheer number of them that the imperial player has to use. However, in a standard 100 point game, at most you will only ever be able to field 4 of them, and when you take named pilots or fatten them up with upgrades, you’ll be down to 3. Compare that to the 6 TIEs that the imperials could take, and you’re seriously out gunned, especially if your oppenent plays like STORM_BOLTER and fires absolutely everything at a single ship until it’s dead before moving onto the next (plus his god-like dice rolls).
But the most annoying thing of all? I feel like I’m betraying the alliance by not fielding them, because I tend to take A-Wings which are just far more balanced and enjoyable to play.
Veteran Gamers UK 