So by now many of you X Wing aficionados will have gotten your hands on the new Force Awakens Core Set and are gleefully making pew-pew noises with your new T-70 X Wings and First Order Tie Fighters.
However some of you may be wondering how to integrate this set into your already existing collection, and what this new set brings to the X Wing play experience. Today I will be analyzing the new Core Set and delving into how the cards included in this set can be used to revitalize some of the pilots and upgrades you may already have in your collection. At first glance the upgrade options provided in the new core set might seem anemic, 1 copy each of Proton Torpedoes, the new Wired Elite Pilot Talent, the new Tech upgrade Weapons Guidance and the new astromechs BB-8 and R5-X3, but I assure you what this set lacks in numbers it makes up for in quality.
First up is the old standard, Proton Torpedoes. Now while I do enjoy putting ordnance into my squadrons I feel that yet another analysis of the merits of Proton Torpedoes is unnecessary at this point, and we’ll move past it for now.
Weapon Guidance is next and while the new Tech upgrade slot is something I find extremely interesting, it also falls outside of the scope of this article since it can currently only be equipped on the ships found in the new core set. Once more Tech cards appear in later expansion I suspect we will see much more use for this card.
So now that I’ve told you what I won’t be talking about, how about we get to the meat of this article shall we? First up is the newest Elite Pilot talent Wired. This card is an excellent tool to have on hand. For starters it makes you much more unpredictable, and you don’t have to fear red maneuvers as much since you have the benefits of a partial re-roll. Now it’s not as powerful as Target Lock or Focus when attacking, but remember it also works when defending and it can trigger multiple times per round and as such you can weather some incoming fire. A Wing Pilots particularly love Wired, especially Tycho Celchu.
“Super Stressed Tycho”
Tycho Celchu (A Wing Expansion Pack) (30/35 pts)
- Title–A Wing Test Pilot (Rebel Aces Expansion Pack)
- Elite Pilot Talent–Push the Limit (A Wing/Imperial Aces Expansion Pack)
- Elite Pilot Talent–Wired (Force Awakens Core Set)
- Modification–Autothrusters (StarViper Expansion Pack)
- Missile– Chardaan Refit (Rebel Aces Expansion Pack) or Proton Rockets (Rebel Aces Expansion Pack)
This combination gives you one of the most slippery slipper ships imaginable. However, even taking the cheap route with the Chaardan Refit, this is an expensive ship and you may find yourself lacking in the damage department.
Now to change things up a bit you could always bring Jake Farrell with Push the Limit, A Wing Test Pilot, Wired, Autothrusters and Proton Rockets for a quite beefy 33 points. Unlike Tycho, you won’t have to keep track of your stress with a D20 and Jake has unprecedented maneuverability with his access to barrel roll with the A Wing. With Jake’s ability to go exactly where you need to I would strongly recommend bringing Proton Rockets in order to maximize your firepower at a critical point.
With the combination of Autothrusters, 3 Agility and your potential re-roll from Wired you have the ability to choose whether or not to use your Focus tokens on attack or save it for defense, allowing Wired to pick up some of the slack instead. Wired also interacts quite nicely with Autothrusters, since Autothrusters doesn’t trigger on Focus results the ability to re-roll can be a live saver when you roll the dreaded triple Focus when you’re not sitting on any tokens. Instead of bringing an ace like Jake or Tycho you can save some points and bring a Green Squadron Pilot instead, though you’ll have to decide if the trade-off is worth it for you or not.
Moving on from Wired we have R5-X3
Now R5-X3 is an interesting card, like all disposable cards it is quite cheap and has an interesting functionality. The ability to ignore obstacles for an entire round is quite interesting and can give you an unexpected edge in combat.
One of my favorite pilots in the game is Horton Salm, though like all Y Wings he suffers somewhat in the maneuverability department. R5-X3 allows Horton one round of excellent mobility where he can burn away from a combat over obstacles and still bring his turret mounted weapons to bear. With this in mind I’ve come up with a quirky list to make the most of this new found mobility.
“Nah Nah Nah Can’t Touch This” Squadron
Y-Wing – Horton Salm (Y-Wing Expansion Pack) (34 pts)
- Turret–Twin Laser Turret (K Wing Expansion Pack)
- Astromech– R5-X3 (Force Awakens Core Set)
- Torpedo–Bomb Loadout (Most Wanted Expansion)
- Bomb–Ion Bomb (K-Wing Expansion Pack)
YT 2400-Dash Rendar (YT 2400 Expansion Pack) (54 pts)
- Title–Outrider Title (YT 2400 Expansion Pack)
- Elite- Veteran Instincts (Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack)
- Cannon– Heavy Laser Cannon (YT-2400 Expansion Pack)
- Crew– Intelligence Agent (HWK 290 Expansion Pack)
- Modification– Engine Upgrade (Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack)
Z-95-Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-95 Headhunter Expansion Pack) (12 pts)
The Bomb Loadout and Ion Bombs are designed to gum up enemy pursuit during his mad dash across obstacles. Speaking of Mad Dashes, Horton needs a friend to fly with and who better than fellow rock skipping aficionado Dash Rendar with some toys. A Bandit squadron pilot rounds out the list and provides a bit more firepower and a low Pilot Skill blocker. This list is more than a bit kooky and I wouldn’t recommend it for tournament play but it could be a lot of fun to pull out for a friendly one-off game.
I particularly like the interaction of R5-X3 and Twin Laser Turret Y Wings but there’s no reason to not try this handy little droid on your X Wings or E-Wings from time to time in order to add a bit of nasty unpredictability to your squad.
Last up for the upgrade cards included in the box is everyone’s favorite little ball bearing, BB-8
I have to admit I’m a major fan of this little guy. Although he’s usable on X,Y and E wings, my favorite place for him is on good old Wedge Antilles.
X Wing- Wedge Antilles (X Wing Expansion Pack) (34 pts)
- Elite–Push the Limit (A Wing Expansion Pack)
- Astromech–BB-8 (Force Awakens Core Set)
Throw the ever useful Push the Limit on Wedge and you have a high pilot skill arc dodger with triple action economy (Reveal a green maneuver and Barrel Roll from BB-8, then Push the Limit for a Focus action and take a stress. Then complete your green maneuver. Then you check stress and remove your token since you just performed a green, leaving you free from stress in the Perform Action step). This isn’t a cheap option, but it is tons of pain for your opponent. You don’t have to put BB-8 on Wedge or any of the other X Wing aces. Etahn’s can make good use of the free Barrel Roll to keep targets in sight and throwing BB-8 is a pretty good idea for your Twin Laster Turret carrying Y Wings since that Barrel Roll can be invaluable for keeping opponents out of your Range 1 doughnut hole.
Although the new Core Set isn’t bursting with new upgrade cards, there are innumerable ways to utilize them to enhance your existing collection.
Brett Bambridge
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