X-Wing 2.0 Design Review- Imperial Ship Redesigns

Recently, FFG did a live stream of the developers unboxing the conversion kits. While they didn’t spoil everything in the box, that would have taken forever, they did show off every ship. Most pilots remain a mystery but this does tell us what actions and maneuvers each ship will have. This gives us a lot of information about what to expect from each ship in second edition.

I originally wasn’t going to go through every ship, you can watch the unboxing or check out the giant doc maintained by Reddit, but by the end of this I had done all but one or two of them and it just felt incomplete. So, in the end, I just skipped the TIE Reaper since it isn’t out yet anyways.

Imperials

TIE Advanced V1

A couple of small changes to the V1 (former Prototype). The dial gained two speed T-Rolls giving you a few more turn around options. The action bar gained the Evade action and has linked barrel roll or boost into a focus. Overall this is kind of a nerf.

With the title gone you can no longer target lock and evade. This was a nice combo, giving you offense and defense together. It’s kind of surprising that this was not built into the ship as a chassis ability or a linked action. While it maintains it’s nice dial, it only has a few linked options. Though, taking a one-speed maneuver to clear a stress, then using boost/barrel roll to get into position and still get a focus could be nice.

However, it feels kind of lacking. Especially considering this ship will have generic Force using Inquistors who could use their Force tokens to change focus results. Being able to link into a target lock would be far more useful and with only two attack die, probably not overpowered.

TIE Advanced X1

We’ve talked about the TIE Advanced briefly before in one of our initial review articles. The ship has traded its Evade action for a linked Focus to barrel roll. It has also had the Advanced Targeting Computer baked right into the ship. Now, you get to roll an additional attack die when you have a ship locked and turn a hit to a crit. That’s not quite as powerful as adding a guaranteed crit, you could still roll blanks. But, critically (pun intended) it does not say you can not spend your target lock. Which is quite good.

The dial on the ship has seen some marked improvements. It now has a one forward maneuver to go along with the one banks. Still, no one turns but the two banks are now blue and it has gained three-speed T-rolls. Overall a much better dial.

TIE Aggressor

Not much has changed about the Aggressor. The dial is identical and the action bar is very similar. We won’t know upgrades until we get the app which could be quite different. Who knows if it will still sport missiles but it will almost definitely have a turret slot and therefore likely also gain a turret gunner slot. But that ever so slightly different action bar is what I want to highlight about this ship.

The barrel roll to a red evade opens the door for taking the new Debris Gambit talent. This talent allows you to turn red evades white if you are close to an obstacle. Fly your Aggressors close to some rocks, barrel roll to get a clear shot and then link for an evade all without gaining a stress. Not particularly overpowered as you will have no modifications on your attacks. But it could be quite useful for arc dodging some ships, or just avoiding running into a rock on your next movement, and gaining some defensive mods without limiting your next maneuver.

TIE Bomber

One of the candidates for most improved dial has to be the TIE Bomber. Gone are are the horrible two turn reds. These are now white. The Bomber also gained three speed K-turn. It’s not a great dial but it is no longer a terrible dial. It’s action bar also improved slightly with the ability to link to a target lock from a barrel roll and gained a red reload. Red isn’t great but it does set it apart from the Punisher.

The Bomber also gained a cool chassis ability. Nimble Bomber allows your Bombers to be, well, good at bombing things. All bombers can make use of the one-speed bank template when deploying bombs. This can be incredibly useful when trying to line up perfect placement, especially when using something like Conner Net (though it should be noted, Conner Net cannot be reloaded).

TIE Interceptor

You know how Push the Limits and Autothrusters are dead in 2.0? Well, the Interceptor kind of has both. Sort of. But not really. The unique ability for all Interceptors, Autothrusters, is the ability to take a red boost or barrel roll after any other action. This makes the Interceptor the only ship that can boost and barrel in any order. This means Interceptors continue to be slippery and great arc dodgers.

However, they can no longer token stack. Even Soontir only gets his free focus if he has a ship in his bullseye arc. So he could end up with a focus and evade if he flies well but not two focus and an evade. And no turning a blank into an evade with autothrusters anymore.

It has also been suggested that Interceptors will have access to two modification slots like they did with the Royal Guard title. But we’ll have to wait to see when the app launches. Not that they ever really took advantage of this ability before, outside of Stealth Device + Autothrusters. Due to their fragile three hull it was never really worth the points to add more upgrades. Perhaps, if the Interceptor is a bit cheaper it might be worth it.

TIE Defender

The TIE Defender came into X-wing as an overpriced dud. It rose to prominence with the release of the two titles. With 2.0, it is designed to be a true powerhouse.

The new Defender has embraced the way they were portrayed in Rebels, as a heavily shielded and elusive beast. With access to five actions, all white, the Defender has ample choices on what to do each turn. While it does not have any linked actions it does have the x7 title baked into all ships. That means when it goes fast, it will always have an evade alongside another action.

Shields have become even rarer as the game is emphasizing crits more and 2.0 Defender is the only ship with more shields than it did in 1.0. Lots of ships traded shields for hull. Expect these ships to be really expensive to fly. You may not be able to get three in a list anymore.

TIE Phantom

One of the ships to receive a major nerf. First, the four dice attack is gone. Given that the YT-2400 got upgraded to a four dice from two it’s a little surprising that the Phantom got nerfed. It’s also getting a secondary nerf in that Fire Control System no longer gives free target locks. Instead, if you have a target lock you get to reroll a dice for free. So lacking the Lock action, Phantoms can’t even take it anymore.

The dial improved slightly with the addition of 1-speed banks. Those will come in handy when decloaking. Which leads us to a major improvement, the inclusion of a native ship ability. Now, all Phantoms have Stygium built right in so get free evades when decloaking. They will pair nicely with Juke. On top of that, if they don’t need to spend the evade on defense, they can use it to recloak during the end phase. Not as powerful as Advanced Cloaking Device, it does bring up the value of flying a Phantom other than Whisper. Especially if the price for a Phantom comes down significantly now that its lost that fourth attack die.

TIE Punisher

One of the forgotten ships in 1.o is the TIE Punisher. Released to a fill a role, heavy ordnance carrier, that didn’t need filling it never really saw much play. 2.0 has given the ship another chance. Price will be the big deciding factor for how useful the ship is but the changes revealed so far give some hope.

The dial didn’t see much change, mainly moving the red turns from the speed 2 to speed 3. It also gained a stop maneuver. This can be incredibly useful for setting up attack runs. During an approach, you can stop early and then follow up the next turn with a blue maneuver to bring yourself into range. If needed you can take advantage of the new combo of boost and link into a target lock in order to get your ordnance off.

The stop can also help you set up bombing runs. In the perfect position to blow up some obstacles but are there a round to early? Stop, drop the seismic charge the next round and run away. Reload native to the ship will also help it stick to its role as an ordnance carrier.

TIE Striker

Not a lot changed on the TIE Striker. Adaptive Ailerons are now baked into the ship making it a non-optional upgrade. And it has been suggested that they will have bomb slots like the visual dictionary suggests they have. With the changes to bombs being in the System/Device phase, before anyone moves, this won’t be quite as cool as it would have been in 1.0. But Ailerons will be great for getting away from your bombs.

What I really wanted to call attention to about the Striker is it now has a one speed K-turn. Now, with Ailerons, this will be equivalent to a three-speed S-loop or K-turn. But Duchess has the option to make an actual one speed K-turn, which is not something we saw on anyone outside of that one Interceptor pilot no one flew because he didn’t have an EPT. Duchess will also be able to Aileron even when stressed so if she 1-K’s she can still Aileron before taking her maneuver to clear stress.

Alpha Class Starwing

There really isn’t a lot to say about the gunboat. It has all the same actions and its dial is exactly the same. We don’t know anything about upgrades but we can assume they will be similar. This suggests that this ship was designed when they started planning 2.0.

Decimator

The Decimator has gone through an interesting change. With the loss of Engine Upgrade being available to give it Boost, one of the main Decimator tactics is gone. It did not lose any of its higher speed maneuvers, but it did gain hard one turns and its blue banks shifted down from speed two to speed one. All this combined gives it the feel of a slower ship than before.

Its array of actions has expanded to include Rotate Arc (necessity) but also Reinforce and a red Coordinate. This will help to make the ship a little tankier. You could also through a Tactical Officer onboard to make the red Coordinate white and become a strong support ship. Which kind of fits the ships feel as a front line anti-fight command and control ship.

Lambda Shuttle

While almost every other ship saw improvements to their dial, or at least changes, the Lambda is in the bizarre position of keeping its craptastic dial. In addition to maintaining its dial, it also lost its ability to target lock. The Devs mentioned that these were done very deliberately to represent the fact that the Lambda is a lumbering shuttle, not a frontline fighter.

But that doesn’t mean the Lambda didn’t get any love. In exchange for target lock, it gained Coordinate, Reinforce and Jam. This allows it to fill its role as a support ship in quite a variety of ways. Additionally, it finally acknowledged the fact that the ship has a very obvious cannon sticking out of its rear and now has a rear arc.

Conclusion

Who gained the most from 2.0? That’s hard to say as a lot of ships feel much improved. The TIE Advanced X1 and TIE Bomber certainly have much better dials and some nice baked in abilities. The Lambda shuttle gained a lot of new utility and a rear arc. Its dial didn’t change but I kind of like that. Overall, though, I’d have to say the TIE Defender wins. It has been doing well ever since the Veterans release. But is doubling down on those improvements. It has all five basic actions and its ability to get free evades is built into the ship. And it gained a shield when shields are becoming a luxury. This will be huge.

As for biggest loser, I’d have to say the TIE Phantom. Losing that fourth attack die and ability to have 1.0 FCS is a major power nerf. BUT, if its priced well, TIE Phantoms could become overall more common and worth flying so this might be a blessing in disguise.