We started a look at the redesign of the ships in X-Wing 2.0 by examining the Imperial fleet and Rebel fleets. We’ll close things out by taking a look at the Scum ships.
Scum
Firespray
One of the candidates for most improved, the Firespray certainly has gained a lot. It has traded its evade action for a reinforce action. While it is a red action, and reinforce isn’t as powerful as in 1.0, it will be quite useful against the return of the swarm. But the best action change is the addition of a white boost. Engine Upgrade was almost always added to a Firespray. You really needed it to make good use out of your dual arcs. Though, the ship is now on a medium base instead of a large so boosting isn’t as powerful as it used to be. This will make it an interesting beast to learn to fly again.
The best change though has to be the dial. The old dial kind of sucked. It does not gain a lot of blue maneuvers, only the three straight in fact, but it gains several very useful maneuvers; hard one turns and three-speed tallon rolls. Hard ones were something the ship always felt like it should be able to do but never could. Due to the dual arcs, the tallon roll works in some ways like having a barrel roll, as you can shift laterally in either direction while maintaining firing arc in the same direction.
Aggressor
With droids becoming their own special thing, IG-88 will play a bit differently. As droids, the Focus action has been replaced with Calculate on all versions of this ship. As a superior killing machine, IG has an Advanced Droid Brain and gets a second calculate token when he takes that action. In many ways, two calculate tokens are better than one focus. You can use one on defense and one on offense since many times you end up spending a focus token to change one result. You are out of luck when you roll triple focus though.
Aside from Calculate, the action bar did not change any. The ship lost a shield but gained a hull so it maintains eight overall health. The dial did not change much but it did gain a four straight. This actually makes only a minor difference as the ship also now on a medium base instead of a large which counters that a little. The max distance it can travel is still about eight base lengths.
We’re haven’t really been discussing pilots in this series, since we only know some, but we know all four IG’s. IG-88B and C saw no change. IG-88A no longer regenerates shields but instead becomes a support ship, able to pass Calculate tokens around to other droids. Any droids, not just IG’s so IG-88A can offer support for Gury or 4-LOM. IG-88D saw a minor change in that now he can turn a S-loop into a K-turn as well as using the three turns.
Fang (Protectorate) Fighter
This ship saw the biggest change of all; its name. And we’re going to throw this solidly in the positive category. Fang fighter sounds so much cooler.
As for the ship itself, the base stats and the dial have remained the same. It’s available actions has also remained the same, though it has gained the ability to link to a focus after barrel rolling or boosting. This is huge as its got a dial built for PTL and 1.0 almost always had that equipped. It’s not as versatile an arc dodger as a TIE Interceptor or an A-wing but its still pretty good.
It now also has the title of Concordia Faceoff built into the ship. And its an out and out much better version. Now, you just get an evade result if you’re in an attackers front arc at range one. They no longer have to be in your arc. Granted, it does not help against mobile arcs or rear arcs. And it doesn’t do anything if you roll three native evades.
G-1A
The G-1A is one of the only non-large ships without any native repositioning ability. It does still have access to barrel roll via the Mist Hunter title but that is unique. Its dial has also gotten a little worse. The four straight is now red, three straight is now white (instead of green/blue) and it has lost the 3 speed K-turn. It has gained a stop maneuver but that hardly seems fitting compensation.
As for actions, it has traded the evade action for the Jam action. While Evade is questionable on a one die ship under the new rules its not a huge loss. Jam gives it more of a support role but given that it is limited to range one and the dial generally discouraging speed, I’m not sure how effective it will be as a jam platform. The G-1A never really found a place in the meta and it kind of looks like that may still be the case. I’m afraid this might be the best candidate for most underserved by 2.0. It kind of still sucks.
HWK-290
While the Firespray improved a lot, the award for most improved goes to the HWK-290. Hands down. First, the dial has gained three maneuvers, hard 3 speed turns and a stop maneuver. Second, the 4-straight and 3- banks went from red to white. While all three new maneuvers are red, the three straight also went from white to blue. This gives your HWK a lot more maneuver options.
Next, the sad, sad one attack dice has finally been upgraded to two dice. It has also gone from a primary arc to the new turret arc. It’s only a single but that’s still a marked improvement.
Finally, the action bar has ballooned from just two to five, including Jam, Boost and being able to link Rotate Arc with Focus or Lock. Now, many of the actions are red and the available blue maneuvers are still quite limited. But, even still, this gives the HWK a lot more options available to it. And with the Moldy Crow title granting a 3 dice forward arc and the ability to store focus tokens, you can build your HWK for a lot of different roles.
Kihraxz
The Kihraxz has received a lot of positive upgrades with 2.0 Like the X-wing it has gained a white barrel roll bringing it into the realm of true starfighter. Also, like the X-wing it has gained an additional hull. And again, like the X-wing, its dial has seen some improvements.
Gone is the five K-turn, replace by two-speed T-rolls. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Five K’s were nice. It has also gained a blue three forward giving you an additional option for clearing stress.
What’s interesting, though, is there is no ship-based ability. It has been suggested the ship will retain its ability to take three modifications. But this ability isn’t nearly as useful as in 1.0. First, it can’t gain boost from Engine Upgrade and then take Autothrusters. So it’s unclear what three modifications it would even want. There are a few cool new ones but if its also not getting the cost reduction it probably won’t be worth stacking a bunch on there. But its possible it still has the Vaksai title and the devs have hinted upgrades might cost different amounts for different ships.
Kimogila
Coming so late to the game, the Kimogila has not seen a lot of changes. Its dial is identical. Its action bar only saw the barrel roll change to red, something that didn’t exist in 1.0. It has gained a hull though.
The ships special ability is effectively what the 1.0 bullseye arc does so it doesn’t lose any functionality there. Red barrel rolls and no linked actions do make getting ships in your bullseye arc a little more difficult. Unhinged Astromech and PTL were a decent upgrade combo.
Lancer
Effectively, the Lancer has not changed much. The dial remains the same. The action bar remains the same. Its traded a shield for a hull, which is pretty common in 2.0. But it has received one significant nerf.
The Lancers mobile arc has gone from three dice to two. This was something that wasn’t possible in 1.0 so cool that this functionally is being utilized to balance a ship out. That mobile arc plus forward arc could be really nasty to try and avoid. Hopefully, the ship sees a corresponding relative price reduction to account for that lost of firepower.
Jumpmaster
If the HWK is the winner for most improved, the Jumpmaster has to be the winner for biggest loser. Most ships that had a primary weapon turret gained a dual direction mobile arc. The Jumpmaster only gets a single arc. To make this suck more, the only way to change your mobile arc is via a red linked action. And to really add insult to injury, the barrel roll has become a red action too.
If those things aren’t bad enough the amazing dial has been hit with a massive nerfbat. It did need to be tweaked but this might have gone a little too far. Previously, the left hard 1 and 2 turns were green while the right were white, and the left s-loop was white and the right red. Now, everything’s been downgraded. The right turns are red and the left turns are only white. The left s-loop is now red and the right s-loop doesn’t even exist. This has made what was previously the best dial in the game into just a bad dial. I can see changing the s-loop or the turns. But both?
This loss of maneuverability is especially bad when you look at the titles and Dengar. Punishing One no longer gives you an extra attack dice under all circumstances, instead just if you are firing out of your forward arc. Meanwhile, Dengar still gets a bonus attack if someone shoots him in his forward arc. All of this combine to make the Jumpmaster a ship that essentially has a forward arc and a bad dial. The one good news is it might get torpedoes back.
M3-A Scyk Interceptor
Scyk’s never really had much of a place. In some ways they were the Scum version of the TIE Fighter. But they weren’t cheap enough or fast enough. And only two hull sucked. The rules errata for the Heavy Scyk title helped but was an example of the problems with rules errata. Now, that title is baked right into the ship. All Scyk’s come with three hull instead of a depressing two.
Additionally, the ability to equip either a cannon, torpedo or missile is also built in with the Weapon Hardpoint ability. This is kind of a weird one though. Since all upgrades a ship has access too are determined in the app, the fact that these are listed on the card feels unnecessary. The app is going to have to allow you only choose one anyways, why the text? If the Kihraxz does end up with three modification slots and its not written on the card why is the Scyk’s?
The ships dial saw only a small, but welcome, change. It can not go five straight. Seeing as it is classified as an interceptor, being able to go fast and intercept things makes a lot of sense.
Quadjumper
The Quadjumper has seen a few relatively minor changes. The most obvious, and most welcome, is the inclusion of Spacetug Tractor Array built into the ship. It sucked giving up the modification slot but it was the main reason to fly a Quadjumper. Tractoring people all over the place. The ability has also been tweaked a little to take advantage of the new Bullseye arc. If you have a ship inside it, it get’s two tractor tokens. Medium and large ships can also now be tractored if you are able to apply two or three tokens so this could be real helpful if you wanted to throw a medium ship onto a rock.
The action bar saw only a small tweak, the addition of a red evade action. I don’t really view this as particularly useful, as evading doesn’t seem like an action a Quadjumper would want to take often. But more actions are never bad.
As for the dial, it did get a nice upgrade in the form of one banks. These were lacking in the 1.0 version which kind of sucked. They are still white, like all the other one speeds but at least you can do them after a reverse bank to end up right where you started. You can also now do a two speed reverse straight, rather than a one speed. This allows you to go two backwards and then two forward and clear your stress. You could flop back and forth between those two positions all game should you choose.
Scurrg H-6 Bomber
This ship has taken a fairly significant hit. For starters, it’s traded a shield for a hull. Only one though so that’s actually pretty decent. Still ten health and a pretty good four shields. Another relatively minor nerf comes from its barrel roll turning red. It didn’t tend to barrel roll that frequently and since it’s a bomber this makes thematic sense.
But the major changes come from its dial. On the relative plus side, it has traded its blue two banks for blue one banks. Generally, it is nicer being able to go slow when you want to turn and clear stress. However, its three straight is no longer blue so it really can’t go fast and clear stress anymore. It has also lost its five straight and its four straight is now red.
In a lot of ways, it’s very similar to a Y-wing now. Which is quite surprising given the way 2.0 has been striving to give each ship more individuality. The only differences now are it has three T-rolls instead of K-turns and one more shield and hull. Presumably, they will both still have turrets, torpedoes, bombs and possibly astromechs.
Starviper
One of the coolest things about the changes to the Starviper is the awesome banking barrel rolls are now baked into every ship automatically. Since the release of Guns for Hire, this upgrade has been stapled to all Starvipers (the -3 cost also helped). This was a really useful barrel roll to perform and made Starvipers fun and unique to fly.
The other major change is the ship is now more of an interceptor class as it always wanted to be. It has two additional blue maneuvers, 2 banks, and both reposition abilities now can be followed by red focus actions. This allows the ship to shift position and still get some dice rolls, and then have an easier time clearing the stress. While still a far cry from a TIE Interceptor in terms of reposition and blue maneuver options, it’s a nice step up from where it was in 1.0.
One final note, Guri has been outed as a droid in disguise. Instead of Focus actions, standard and linked, she has Calculate. But her ability still works the same, allowing her to get a focus token at range 0-1 of an enemy. This puts her in a pretty unique position of having access to both.
Y-Wing
The Y-Wing has seen a strong bit of improvements in 2.0 First, the big one, it now has blue one banks. The Y-Wing can finally change direction while clearing stress without having to devote its astromech slot to that! This is a very nice change. It’s a lumbering bomber so its dial felt appropriate beyond that oversight.
It has also gained a few new actions; barrel roll and reload. While both red, they are very useful additions to its role as a fighter/bomber. Position is king in this game so any ship that couldn’t barrel roll or boost in 1.0 was at a disadvantage. Being able to reload is a great feature too for a ship whose primary role is ordnance delivery.
YV-666
The plodding hulk of the YV-666 has seen a few important changes. Most notably it has been hit hard by the general shield nerf. It still maintains 12 overall health but it has lost three shields, going from an impressive six to an average three. Nine hull is nice but with the growing importance of crits, that’s a lot of chances to take a nasty one.
The action bar has seen a slight improvement though with the inclusion of Reinforce. Given the ships 180 degree arc, which it keeps, having reinforce always felt like an oversight. Which is exactly the kind of thing 2.0 is intended to address. The dial has seen no changes.
One thing I do want to point out is the new Hound’s Tooth title. Instead of allowing to free bonus Z-95 in the form of the Nashtah Pup to be deployed when you die, you can now dock any Z-95. The Nashtah Pup becomes its own special Z-95. This means you can go into battle carrying any Z-95 and drop it right into the middle of the fray. Not sure how good that would be but it sounds fun.
Z-95
Speaking of Z-95’s, we come to generic cannon fodder ship for Scum. The ship has seen a few small but beneficial changes. Most notably, it has gained a barrel roll. It is red but at least the ship can natively perform a reposition action. Vectored Thrusters felt like a waste of points on something that is supposed to be cheap. But not having any ability to reposition was a real limiting factor.
The dial has also seen a few minor improvements. The ship has gained a four K-turn in addition to his old three. Having two options is great, especially when you consider how many times a three K-turn just wasn’t far enough to clear something. Its three forward has also become blue allowing it to clear stress just a little easier.
Conclusion
So who are our biggest winners and losers? Well, looking past the HWK-290, which clearly gained a lot, the most improved ship would have to be the Firespray. It gained several actions and had a much-improved dial.
The biggest loser has to be the Jumpmaster. That dial is markedly worse than in 1.0. While the ship needed some reigning in the changes might have gone too far.
Wayne Basta
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