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…
