Rogue Squadron: How to Destress about Stress part 2

Last week we began a look at how to deal with stress in the X-wing Miniatures game. We started by looking at what pilots, ships and upgrades were out there to help you cope with having stress. But, independent of these upgrades, how do you handle stress in game? What are some tactics you can employ? How do you address the various stress delivering mechanics in the game?

We’ll start today by looking at each of the game’s primary stress delivery mechanics and discussing ways to avoid triggering them. Then we’ll look at general tactics you can use when the inevitable happens and you fall victim to the dreaded double stress.

For a quick summary here are some of the most common ways you might get stress:

Self Inflicted
- Red maneuvers, your own upgrade cards or abilities
Debris Fields
- Flying through or into grants a stress
Critical Hit
- One card in both decks gives you a stress before being flipped over
Tactician (Crew)
- After you perform an attack against a ship inside your firing arc at Range 2, that ship receives 1 stress token.
R3-A2 (Astromech)
- When you declare the target of your attack, if the defender is inside your firing arc, you may receive 1 stress token to cause the defender to receive 1 stress token.
Flechette (Torpedo)
- After you perform this attack, the defender receives 1 stress token if its hull value is “4” or lower.
Flechette (Cannon)
- If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and, if the defender is not stressed, it also receives 1 stress token. Then cancel all dice results.
Kath Scarlett (Imperial Pilot)
- When attacking, the defender receives 1 stress token if he cancels at least 1 Crit result.
Rebel Captive (Imperial Crew)
- Once per round, the first ship that declares you as the target of an attack immediately receives 1 stress token
Mara Jade (Imperial Crew)
- At the end of the Combat phase, each enemy ship at Range 1 that does not have a stress token receives 1 stress token.
4-LOM (Scum Pilot)
- At the start of the End phase, you may assign 1 of your stress tokens to another ship at Range 1.

Much like the types of pilots and upgrade available to help you deal with stress, the tactics you’ll want to employ to avoid getting stress can be grouped into three categories.

Location, Location, Location

Many of the things that trigger stress on a ship require that ship to be in a particular location. Mara Jade (Crew) and 4-LOM (Pilot) both require you to have your ship within range one of theirs. Tactician requires range 2. R3-A2 requires you to be in arc. Debris fields require you to fly through them.

The key to avoiding all of these things is to fly around them. A ship with Tactician wants to keep you at range 2. If you hang back and go slow or fly in faster than expected you can avoid the stress. Likewise, dancing around at a distance from 4-LOM or Mara Jade will force them to come to you.

You can actually turn these things to an advantage. Your opponent included these cards because they want to use them. That gives you a vital clue to how you can expect your opponent to fly. If they have Mara, they want to close to range 1. Knowing this you can plan your move to counter it.

Exploit the Weakness

Outside of avoiding the required range for your opponent to drop stress on you there are other ways to exploit their weakness. R3-A2 has the built in downside of also stressing his own ship. Since this is typically installed in a BTL=A4 Y-Wing, he’s probably never going to clear that stress and also can’t fire outside of arc. Run in close with one of your ships that can handle stress better (such as a TIE Interceptor or A-wing with lots of green maneuvers), get a set of double stress and then clear it away. The Y-Wing won’t be turning around very fast and you can then get behind him.

4-LOM would be a great candidate for being hit by a tractor beam. If you can barrel roll him out of range one after he’s given himself a stress he’ll have to clear it himself. And the G-1A looks to have a fairly limited selection of greens. Depending on the circumstances that would be a time it might be worth giving up a chance to do damage.

The Flechette weapons are the easiest to exploit. Ensure their best target is one that they can’t stress. Sending in a large ship or something like a Y-Wing or TIE Bomber that will be safe from a torpedo. And if you’re already in the habit of stressing yourself then the cannon will never be a worry.

Accept the Cost

The final tactic for avoiding stress is more a frame of mind than a tactic. While stress can be problematic, in many cases it comes with a benefit. Taking a red maneuver might stress you but it also likely leaves you in a beneficial position. Better to K-turn and get a shot then take another maneuver that leaves you exposed. Similarly, flying through a debris field might stress you but it also probably put you in a better position.

All of the ways you can acquire self-inflicted stress are done so at a cost for some beneficial ability. Opportunist gives you a stress but you also get to roll an extra attack die. Push the Limits gives you a stress but then you can take double actions. These are all just the cost of doing business.

While the stress you take non-voluntarily isn’t as directly beneficial, it does usually also come with some upsides. Shooting at 4-LOM or a ship with Mara Jade at range 1 may result in your becoming stressed. But you also got a range one shot at them. That’s effectively the same as Opportunist, you’re trading a stress for a bonus attack die. The stress you’ll get from a ship with a Rebel Captive aboard isn’t as beneficial but it will only affect one ship. That gives you some manner of choice in which ship takes one for the team.

Coping with Being Double + Stressed

Now that we’ve discussed some tactics you can use to handle getting stressed what do we do when the inevitable happens? You’ve been savaged by a pair of Tactician K-wings and now have four stress piled on. You don’t have any handy wingmen nearby. There’s no quick fix to this load of stress. So what do you do?

There are two basic tactics to employ. Which one is best really depends on your situation; what ship you’re flying, what the board looks like, and how late in the game you are.

Option one is to run away. Get away from the fight and then spend the requisite number of turns clearing your stress. This is something to consider on fragile ships that really rely on actions to help them survive. Likewise, the more options they have for green maneuvers the better this can be employed. Something like an A-wing or Interceptor that has hard turns that are green can take two rounds and turn completely around while clearing their stress. That minimizes their time out of the fight.

For ships with less green maneuver options you’ll have to weigh where you might end up. For something like a Y-wing, you might have to spend two or more turns putzing forwarding to clear those stress and then have to spend another few turns reorienting back to the fight. The key to deciding if this is the best tactic is can you afford to lose a few rounds of shooting and will you, or your other ships, be able to survive long enough?

If the answer to that question is no then you probably want to take the other tactic; accept your fate. If a ship has two or more stress and isn’t good at shedding it then forgot about trying to. From that point forward your ship becomes a ship that has no actions and can’t take red maneuvers. But that doesn’t make it useless.

One of the best uses for a super stressed ship is as a blocker. It won’t get actions anyways so you don’t care about bumping. If you can deny your opponent an action it’s a net gain for you. Likewise, debris fields become almost meaningless. You don’t care about getting more stress and you only have a 12.5% chance of taking a damage so flying through them is a good tactic.

In a way, having a super stressed ship is kind of liberating. Your options are more limited so there are fewer things you need to decide. Ironically, this can actually help make the game less stressful for you, the Player, especially in long tournaments. The less you have to think about the longer your cognitive functions can keep pace.

Hopefully this series has given you some useful pointers and helped to you to destress about the games stress mechanic.