Friday, September 21, 2018

X-Wing 2.0, first game in and first impressions...




X-Wing 2.0

Well, got in my first “official” game of X-Wing 2.0 now…  I played my Echo (TIE Phantom)/Soonter Fel (TIE Interceptor)/Brath (TIE Defender) against Bralen (B-Wing)/Ten Numb (B-Wing) and Gavin Darklighter (E-Wing).  It was a LOT of fun.  Since I have been playing “Ace” lists for quite a long time now, this list really felt familiar in many ways, but just solid really.  Fel was Arc dodging like he always has, and he was quite solid.  I should mention he certainly felt a LOT more fragile and I was quite aware of it.  He is just one Crit cascade away from dying, and without the token staking, Autothrusters and Palpatine crutches.  I WAS able to get Bullseye Arc more often than not (at least when I was lining up for a shot), and I could just say “I’m out” when I saw that the situation called for it.  And facing HLC/Crack Shot/built in dice mods I did NOT want to end up in the B-Wing’s Arc so doing the Klingon Saber Dance to stay alive and bleed them out.  Dodged Arcs mean that I am not getting shot, and I do not have to worry about the “oops, I died” effect.  So, I think the Interceptor is solid and Fel especially.  No modifications really, I had Outmaneuver on Fel knowing full well that IF I were to shoot, in almost every case I was going to be out of Arc.  It worked quite well. 

The Defender?  It was every bit as solid as I expected it would be.  I never did use the Pilot Ability, but the ship itself with ALL of the actions, great shields and 3 Agility?  Worth every point I spent.  Frankly he should have died, my Dice were hot and his were cold for most of the critical points of the game, but even had he died, he did a LOT of damage and even then he got the Defender down to one Hull.  The Criticals are BRUTAL.  But I also like the fact that the random element on turning them face down has gone away, basically spend an action and flip the card rather than the action + dice roll for the 50/50 shot to maybe turn it down.  He ate a Critical (Weapons Failure) and was able to K-Turn, turn it down to get in the good (but unmodified) shot into the E-Wing…  Well, Juke still allowed a modification so even that was not so bad…  I suspect I’ll be moving back to the Countess with her ability to do the crazy K-turns even though they are no longer Green.  That ability is just SO good, and frankly I flew so much with it in v 1 that I got pretty good at that, so…

The rock star of the list though was Echo in the Phantom.  I’ll start off by saying I think that ship needs to go up in points at the earliest opportunity.  They basically cost what the X-Wings do now, and are just SO much better, at least in the hands of someone who knows what to do with them.  Disclaimer, I flew a LOT of the TIE Phantoms in v 1.0 and actually learned the game flying against them in the darkest times J  So, I have a fair idea how they work and what you need to do with them.  Echo with the 2 Bank de-cloak is just stupidly maneuverable, and even if you DO get the block on her move, she still has her Evade so she can re-cloak at the end of the turn.  DID happen once as I suspect I got too predictable with the de-cloak, 1 turn to line up shots with Juke.  But even then, it just meant that the next Turn, I de-cloaked behind the ship and he never got another shot as I just chased him down and killed him.  As it happens I picked up a second Phantom in a bulk trade a while back and it never saw the table in v 1 because there was really only the one that was viable, but I suspect 2 are going to be quite good…  At least until they get their point cost adjusted up.  Will see I suppose if my experience with this ship is more an aberration.  But I strongly suspect that this will be some adjustments made to many ships including this one… 

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