X-Wing Academy Lesson #5 - Asteroids

Asteroid placements, like squad builds, should never be left to chance. You get to shape the battlefield in your favour so you might as well take advantage of it. There's no hard and fast rule when it comes to asteroid placements, well, at least I don't know any. But here's some tips to get you thinking:

Always take the largest rock. The player with the initiative will have advantage. Even if you don't know what to do with it, just take it. Who knows. You might have just ruin your opponent's asteroid placement strategy.

Open up a corner of the map by placing the rock at range 2 from one of the edges. This has several advantage. First, you can place your ships at said corner and do a 4 or 5-forward and no longer have to worry about it. Second, your opponent can no longer mess up that corner and gives you a spot to place your squad.

In fact, place all the rocks on all four corners if you want an open field. This can be a good strategy for Swarms or even squad list that favours jousting.

Create attack lanes. I used to fly a 4X list and split them into duos. Asteroids are placed to create a crossroad. One pair will fly head on while the other pair flanks, catching the enemy squad in the middle of the crossroad. This was my favourite strategy in Wave 1. Poor Justin was at the receiving end most of the time and almost stopped playing because of it *

Pack the asteroid closer if the opponent is playing big ships. Lure the fight close to asteroids. Big ships are clumsy and have a hard time moving through asteroid fields. Bounty Hunters, especially, since they need to maintain firing arc too.

Same strategy applies when playing against a Swarm. Its not easy keeping 6-7 ships in perfect formation. Use that to your advantage. 

Mess up one side of the board with impossible asteroid placements. And place your squad on the other side. This works well if you have initiative and a list that excels in jousting. **

Split the board down right the middle with asteroid. Fly your ships slowly and make the opponent come to you. Chances are he'll need to break formation or some of his ships are out of range or not in arc. 

Force your opponents to hit asteroids. Easier to pull off on big ships. If you see a big ship flying close to an asteroid and you suspect its going fly around it, park an Academy Pilot there first to force a bump and watch your opponent's face twist in extreme annoyance as his poor Falcon lands on the asteroid.

Emerge behind an asteroid guns blazing in a joust. The next turn when both of you K-turn, he needs to worry about hitting the asteroid, not you.

* Thankfully he didn't. He's now arguably the best player in the local X-Wing scene.

** I discovered this recently by accident. I tried it a couple of times but ended up losing most of my matches, so use this at your own risk.

Store Championship @ Sparta, Wangsa Maju.

This is a friendly reminder of tomorrow's Store Championship @ Sparta, Wangsa Maju. For those who 'didn't get the memo' don't fret you can still sign up on that day itself. The event is 2pm. Don't be late, guys.

Hope to see you guys there, especially fresh faces with fresh new squad build ideas. Getting tired of shooting Dark Curse + Stealth Device (you know who you are).

Don't worry too much about placing last. That's something for self-style X-Wing Guru (i.e. me) to stress over, not you. If you happen to play me, tell me what you think of the blog, what would you like to see, etc. Or just say that that you absolutely love the blog. It just might throw me off my game. Just might...

So, drop by, play X-Wing, meet new friends and most importantly, have fun.

X-Wing Academy Lesson #4 - Action Denial

Remember in a previous post we talked about the importance of taking action? How action can increase your attack output by 50% and defense output by 66? Guess what:

Yup. Morpheus said it. Let's look at the ways to do it.

Bumping

Take a moment and consider these builds:

Squad Points: 100

Outer Rim Smuggler (ORS) x2

Y-Wing + Ion Turret x2

Squad Points: 100

ORS + Anti-Pursuit Lasers (APL) x2

Rebel Operative (RO) + Ion Turret x2

At first glance, it doesn't look impressive. 4 ships but total damage output (assuming no range modifiers) is only a measly 6 dice. Maybe the APL might give it more teeth. Then again it might not.

But wait! Look carefully and pay attention to their Pilot Skill (PS) level. Still don't see it? Let me rephrase this: Take your own build and imagine playing against either of these and ask yourself who moves first?

Chances are ORS will since he's only a PS1. Your opponents would have positioned his ORS and took his actions. Possibly, his Y-Wing might have done the same thing since its only PS2. Now, imagine yourself trying to fly your ships without bumping into any thing WHILE maintaining firing arc.

That's the beauty of these builds. ORS have such big bases that they take up a lot of real estates and with 2 being fielded, collision is bound to happen. The Y-Wings and ROs are there for ion to force your ships to move a 1-forward next turn and chances are there will be an ORS parked there first. If you're keen to learn more about these action denial builds, click here, here and here.

ORS's is not the only ship that's good at bumping. Any cheap PS1 or PS2 ships would do. In addition to ORS, the Rebels have Prototype Pilots while the Imperials have Academy Pilots (AP), In fact , bumping is what makes the humble AP so useful and part of the reasons why Swarms are so effective. 

In addition to action denial, bumping is a good way to control the movements of enemy ships. Figure your opponent is going to K-turn? Park an AP at the spot and have his ship facing the wrong way for at least 2 turns. If you want to be brutal, have all your ships pointing in the direction where's he's going to end up after bumping and blow it to pieces.

Ion Turret/ Cannon

Ion players will tell you that you could catch the enemy at a K-Turn and ion him. He'll never take an action ever again. Ion also have the added benefit of forcing enemy ships to make a 1-foward, thus knowing where it will end up and having your guns zeroed in on that area.

Carnor Jax

The new Imperial Ace carries one of the scariest pilots. Jax at range 1 nullifies focus and evades, an absolute nightmare for certain Imperial builds (Swarm and PTL Interceptors come to mind). 

Imperial Aces Guide & Squad Builds

The Imperial Aces are in Town!

The Imperial Aces Expansion Pack was released worldwide last week. In a rare display of efficiency, our Malaysian distributor actually managed to deliver it pretty quick rather than weeks later. If not mistaken, Sparta was the first to get their hands on these babies and given how long we’ve hold our collective breaths during the wait, all 5-6 sets flew off the shelf on day one. So kudos to the good people in Sparta for being responsive to players' needs and to my sparring partner Justin who bought one for me. Not sure if other shops are stocked but my guess is that’s all the stock there is in the first batch, so the rest of you guys are in for a looooooong wait. 

My box of Imperial Aces. Yet to unbox it :P

I’m sure most of you would have read about what’s in the Expansion. If you didn't you can check out the Card Browser function from this site. I’m not going to go through the contents one-by-one. You guys can check it out yourselves. I’m more interested in discussing strategies and squad builds.

Everyone is excited about Carnor Jax. There’s good reasons to it. His card ability works like a reverse area-of-effect Dark Curse. Clearly Jax would be devastating against a Swarm and most small Imperial ships but by no means that’s the only thing he is good against. His ability could still limit the option a Rebel player by forcing them to take a target lock even if a focus is more desirable. His ability works on anyone and everyone and I think we’re likely to see a huge shift in meta with Jax inspired Imperial builds being fielded in competitive plays and Rebel players adjusting builds and play styles to counter him.

With such offensive capabilities, Jax would naturally be on top of your opponent’s hit list. What’s the best way to protect him? You have an array of tools to achieve that. Push the Limit (PTL) to Interceptors is like honey to milk – it synergise well. At PS8 he would like have seen the ending positions of most ships and can barrel roll + boost his way either to stay out of arc (like most Interceptors do), or move into range 1 and activate his ability. In a pinch, he could turtle behind a focus +  evade action shell to minimise damage. If you have extra points to spare, you could throw in a Stealth Device to give him an extra green dice. Hull or Shield upgrade works well too. Season according to your own taste.

Mini Swarm + Jax

Squad Points: 98

Carnor Jax + PTL

Howlrunner + Stealth Device

Academy Pilots (AP) x 4

One of the drawbacks of a typical 7-ship Swarm is that it takes a lot of focus and energy to maximise its potential simply because there is so many ships that you need to keep track. More so during competitive plays where you're expected to play 3-4 games in a row without breaks. So, this 6-ship build should be a piece of cake to manage for those who are used to flying the standard Swarm, like me.

You can have Howlrunner and the APs setup the usually Swarm formation and Jax fly separately. Ideally your opponent tries to take on the Swarm and Jax could boost/ barrel roll into range 1 combat while staying out of firing arc. Or perhaps you opponent choose to take out Jax first? Again you could boost/ barrel roll out of arc, if possible and failing which you could still hide behind a focus + evade action shell. Meanwhile, your Swarm attacks from behind.

There’s 2 squad points left and you could add in whatever upgrade that fancies you. You could throw in a Royal Guard upgrade + Targeting Computer on Jax. Or Swarm Tactics on Howlrunner to have an AP shoot first. For those who wants to have initiative, you can leave the squad at 98 points or put Determination or Adrenaline Rush on Howlrunner for a total squad points of 99.

Three Amigoes Reloaded

Squad Points: 100

Soontir Fell + PTL + Stealth Device + Royal Guard + Targeting Computer

Carnor Jax + PTL + Stealth Device + Royal Guard + Targeting Computer

Turr Phennir + PTL + Stealth

The original Three Amigoes (Vader + Fel + Phennir) could be re-engineered to a 3 interceptor squad list. Play it like you would with the original i.e. staying out of firing arc with boost/ barrel roll, because this list is squishy with only 9 hit points and one bad roll could ruin your day. Targeting Computer can be swapped out as I suspect you will not find the opportunity to use it often. Overall, not a list for rookies and even some seasoned players avoid it because it can be very unforgiving when you make a mistake.

Royal Guard Pilot (RGP) is my 2^nd favourite card in the Expansion. At PS 6 it shoots first ahead of all generic pilots and some named pilots. It cost 22 pts to field RGP, only 4 pts more vs Alpha (PS 1) and 1 pt more vs Saber (PS 4), making it a cheap way to gain an advantage in PS. More importantly, it can carry Elite Pilot Talent (EPT), allowing you to play PTL (I know PTL gets mentioned a lot but its really good on Interceptors).

Royal Guard Squadron

Squad Points: 100

RGP + PTL x 4

The original 4 interceptor list called "Saber Rattlers" (Phennir + 3 Sabres all with PTL) just got a major boost in Pilot Skill. At PS 6 there’s not a lot of pilots out there that you need to guess their final position, making it easier for you to boost/ barrel roll out of arc, while keeping enemy ships in your sight. Play style wise you probably don’t want to group them in a formation and keep getting in each others’ way. Best is to fly them individually or at most in twos. In the event that the enemy have you boxed in, do the usual focus + evade to mitigate damage.

It used to be financially expensive to play Saber Rattlers because you need to buy 4 interceptors and another 4 A-Wings just to get 4 PTLs (only available in the A-Wing Expansion Pack). Not anymore, since each box of Imperial Ace Expansion Pack comes with 2 PTLs, so that would cut down your cash outlay by half. One more reason to play this build, eh?

Vader's (Royal) Escort

Squad Points: 99

Omicron Group Pilot + Vader Crew + Intelligence Agent

RGP + PTL x2

AP x2

This modification of the existing Suicide Shuttle built just popped in my head while writing this post. The RGP complements well with the Suicide Shuttle because the hard-hitting interceptors get to shoot first and strip shields off rebel ships before Vader crushes them with his dark-side Force powers. APs gives the list more body and helps take heat off the RGPs. You could easily swap those APs for one more RGP if you want. 

I added Intelligence Agent in there mostly as a filler but it could be useful in predicting the movement of high PS enemy ships. Maybe a Saboteur or Anti Pursuit Laser would work better? I don’t know. Still needs testing.

Other Named Pilots

I'm less excited about other pilots. Sure, their abilities are good, but its not great. I'm looking for Great (that's a capital G). Lieutenant Lorrir's crazy barrel roll could pull off surprising moves while Kir Kanos's evade token is equivalent to a super focus (His evade increases attack/ defense by a factor of 1 vs a normal focus which increases attack/ defense by a factor of 0.75, assuming 3 dice rolls), but the lack of EPT puts me off. I like my interceptors with PTL. Period.

Don't even get me started on Tetran Cowell. An interceptor, as a rule of thumb, should never K-turn and risk being shot down without actions. You could easy do a hard turn and boost and would be facing 270 degree. After that, use PTL for evade token if you think you're going to get shot at. In my book, that's good enough.

Perhaps you can find better use for these guys. But for me, these folks goes straight into the 'Casual Play/ Fun Build' category. 

Counter Strategies

The meta is likely to shift with competitive builds fielding a lot more interceptors and you will want to have tools in place to deal with them effectively. For Rebels, Falcon + Gunner works well, since they can’t avoid your arc and a well placed shot would kill them outright. If the meta turns out to be very heavy in Jax, you could throw in Marksmanship to counter his ability and to dish out crits on these squishy interceptors.

B-Wings with Adv Sensors would be a match for PTL Interceptors at close combat but less effective against Jax since you can’t take focus. Lure them to fight near an asteroid and use advance sensors + barrel roll to dance around the rock. Even if RGP shoots first, it would be foolish for them to burn the focus on attack because when you shoot back with 4 dice, there’s a non-zero chance that your B-Wing can 1-shot the RGP.

For Imperials, Suicide Shuttle can be devastating if you have firing arc, dealing critical damage regardless whether you hit anything with your primary weapon. Buzzsaw shuttle (Shuttle + Gunner) could punch through action shells, but again if you have firing arc. Same goes for Bounty Hunter + Gunner but this build is a huge point sink.

Ironically, you could play Jax against... Jax. Nobody gets action and the better player (or dice rolls win) :P. Jokes aside, RGP has plenty of reasons to be afraid of Jax because they rely heavily on actions to stay alive.

Lacking the options above, your best bet is to force a bump and Interceptors without actions are sitting ducks. You need to get into your opponent’s head and figure out where his ships are likely to go, but get there first. I’m not going to say it’s easy but it can be done.

Rebel Aces Announcement

We interrupt our regular lessons with this special news flash: Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) just announced the upcoming release of the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack. You can click here for the announcement. 

Rebel Aces coming in 3Q14!

It was noted in the announcement that the Rebel Aces will arrive 3^rd quarter this year. Clearly, 2014 is the year for Rebels. There’s the Rebel Transport + New X-Wings, Tantive IV Corvette and now this? I know us Imperial players got the Imperial Aces earlier but still, give us a break, will you? :P

What are the Goodies?

So the new Rebel Aces Expansion Pack comes with one A-Wing and one B-wing, dazzled up with a new paint scheme. But more importantly, the Expansion Pack comes with 2 named pilots for each ship and a host of cool upgrades. Some of these cards were already revealed and boy, do they look juicy.

Looking at the new pilot cards, it seems FFG is taking the ‘signature’ of each ship and pushing it one step further. The already highly nimble A-Wing can now barrel roll with Jake Farrell, while the hard hitting B-Wing now packs a bigger punch with Keyan Farlander.

There’s so many ways to play Farrell. You can play him naked and get a free boost/ barrel roll every time you take a focus or you can put a Push the Limit (PTL) on him to focus + boost/ barrel roll + free action. That’s 3 actions mind you. Or you could go crazy by first doing the usual focus + boost/ barrel roll and then have Garven giving him another focus and then boost/ barrel roll again. That’s a total of 4 actions!

Farrell is not the only exciting thing happening for the A-Wing. A-Wing unique upgrade cards look great too. We’re likely to see a lot of Chardaan Refit on A-Wings given that it saves precious squad points and fits well in most A-Wing squad builds. 

Farlander’s ability activates when he’s stressed. Easiest way? Give him a PTL. You can stack his ability with target lock to roll consistent 3-hit damages. Best part is you don’t even need to move a green to remove the stress. All you need to do is shoot.

The B-Wing also comes with its own unique upgrade allowing it to carry a crew. 5 shields and 3 hulls not enough? Add in Chewbacca. Fancy shooting twice? Have a Gunner ride shotgun. Or maybe you can field Kyle Katarn or Jan Ors, which will be included in the Expansion Pack.

Other Upgrade Cards

I’ve mentioned the importance of actions in a previous post. Moving first has its advantage. You get first dibs on real estate space and don’t have to guess where the opponent’s ship will be to avoid bumping into them. On the flip side, the opponent has to worry about them bumping into you. Sadly, it’s a system upgrade which means only the B-Wing and Lambda can use it for now and the E-Wing and Phantom once Wave 4 is released. If only it was a normal modification, I would totally play this on Han Solo + Anti Pursuit Lasers……

We still don’t know who are the 2 remaining named pilots and what their card text look like. Kyle Katarn (let me know if you can read the text from the picture above because I sure can’t) and Jan Ors crew cards are still a mystery. On top of that we’re getting more missile types. So stay tuned for more updates in the future!

X-Wing Academy Lesson #3 - Dice Rolls & Action

"Never tell me the odds" - Han Solo

Ever wondered how many hits, evades, focus & blanks are there on
each dice?

=====

The game is going your way. The opponent is left with only Dark Curse, trapped at the edge of the map hiding its cowardly presence behind an asteroid. You adjust your maneuver dials, flying your 4 Academy Pilots in duos, coming in from 2 different directions hoping to catch DC in a classic pincer maneuver. I have you now! Or so you thought.

DC shoots first and rolled 2 critical hits. You roll your defense dice - and blanked out. 1 of the face up damage was a direct hit, and your pathetic AP was blown to smithereens. That was unlucky, you thought, but no matter its still 3 against 1.

But Dark Curse's ability makes it difficult for you to hit him. What was suppose to be a quick victory turned out to be a lengthy and agonizing dogfight. You pray to the dice gods for a miracle but was met with silence. Your luck turned for the worse and one by one your APs fell, rolling consecutive blank dices. Few more rounds later, the last of your APs was blown away by a point blank shot.

===

Lady luck can be fickle. There are times your dice can do no wrong; Other times its so frustrating that you just want to chuck it into the fire. For the short tempered, towards your opponents' face. Or for the psychopaths, your opponents' face into the fire. 

That's the nature of the game. Dice injects a random element into the game and makes outcome unpredictable. Still, dice results might be beyond your control but you can seek to understand it, manage it and perhaps even use it to swing the tide of battle in your favour. Let's start of by looking at the dice:

Attack
4 hits (including 1 crit)
2 focus
2 blanks

Defense
3 evade
2 focus
3 blanks

An unmodified attack dice has 50% chance of scoring a hit, while an unmodified defense dice has 37.5% of scoring an evade. In other words, an unmodified attack dice has an attack strength of 0.5, while an unmodified defense dice has a defense strength of 0.375.

What are the odds of rolling 3 crits? 0.19%

"Your focus determines your reality" - Qui-Gon Jinn

Focus greatly enhances your results - attack strength increases to 0.75 while defense strength increases to 0.625. So, that's a 50% increase in attack strength and 67% increase in defense strength. Simple math would tell you that focus is more useful in defense. So yup, the next time you want to modify those focus into attack, perhaps its wiser to save it, in case you get shot at.

"Stay on target..." - Gold Five

TL works even better. While the attack strength is approximately the same as focus, TL helps mitigate bad dice rolls by allowing re-rolls for the blanks. If you didn't find it necessary to use it this round, you could save up the TL and stack it with a focus in the next round and almost guarantee a full hit. 

"If your enemy is superior, evade him" - Sun Tzu

Evade token increases your defense strength by 1 - in defense strength that's the equivalent of 3 dice. While taking a focus might give you more than 1 evade results ( i.e. 3 dice = focus, focus, evade), the evade token guarantees that you dodge 1 damage. Focus is only more favourable if you roll 4 defense dice or more.

TIE fighter's worse nightmare. The odds of rolling 3 blanks
is 5.27%. Not as low as you thought, yes?

So how do I do the math?

Using the example above, a AP rolling 2 attack dice has an attack strength of 1 (can't use focus on DC), while DC rolling 4 defense dice (extra dice for asteroid) has a defense strength of 1.5 (0.375 x 4). So its no surprise that you couldn't hit a thing. 

How about Wedge vs Soontir Fel + Push the Limit?

Soontir Fel can take an evade as his first action and use PTL to take a focus as his second action and when he receives a stress token, his ability allows him to receive another free focus, giving him a total of 2 focus and 1 evade. Assuming Wedge shoots first and  modifies his attack with a focus, his attack strength is 2.25, while Fel has a total defense strength of 2.25 (2 evade dice with focus gives you 1.25 and evade token gives you 1). Math says Wedge is unlikely to hit Fel.

Soontir shoots back with a focus modified attack strength of 2.25 vs Wedge's unmodified defense dice of 0.75 and should be able to deal between 1 - 2 damage. 

So I should attack when my attack strength is higher than the target's defense strength?

In general, yes. But don't forget actions are one-off bonus. You can still peel off the enemies' focus/ evade and bring it down with focus fire.

I prefer to look at percentage rather than expected hit rates...

Go here. 

I'm not really a math person...

Let me make it easy for you:

1. Don't lose your action. That means not bumping into things. I can't stress this enough. Revise lesson #2 if you have problems.
2. Focus works better on defense. You might want to consider saving it for later.
3. TL/ Evade is better than Focus, but Focus is more flexible.
4. Always focus fire on a single target. Even if you don't deal any damage in the first shot, chances are you can take away his focus/ evade, making subsequent shots easier.
5. TL with a high pilot skill (PS) ship and Focus with a low PS ship. High PS shoots first and if doesn't destroy the enemy follow up with the low PS ship. And if he does, low PS ship can shoot another target.
6. Mess up your opponents targeting priorities by taking evade on ships in range 2 and focus on ships in range 3.
7. When somebody messes up your targeting priorities, just shoot the closes enemy. Its just easier.
8. Try baiting your opponents to shoot  Dark Curse + Stealth Device behind an asteroid at range 3. Its hilariously (for you).
9. If possible, force your opponents to bump into you and lose action. Action denial & bumping warrants a lesson on its own.
10. Just because your attack strength is higher doesn't mean that you WILL hit something. Statistics and probability doesn't necessary translate into actual results. Dice are random after all.

Who should the B-Wing shoot first?
The range 2 TIE with evade or range 3 TIE with focus?

X-Wing Academy Lesson #2 - Formation Flying & Manuevers

Not all ships are meant to fly solo. Take the puny TIE fighters for instance, individually they are laughably weak but a TIE Swarm is a force to be reckon with. Especially when the Swarm comes with Howlrunner for attack dice re-rolls. And with ships facing in the same direction, a Swarm gangs up on 1 ship and kills it with focus fire. Same goes for Rebels, its always a good idea to have all your ships line up shots on a single target.

TIE Swarm flying in wide formation with Interceptor 
flanking the enemy.

Formation flying is easy. Really. Enough materials have been written on maneuvers that there isn't any reason for me to create my own. Here's some links to help you guys out:

Metal Bikini Formation Flying - Part 1 

Metal Bikini Formation Flying - Part 2

Metal Bikini Formation Flying - Part 3

Or visit the M'sian X-Wing Facebook page and look up the pdf file uploaded by Riznal here.

These are good stuffs. You'll never bump into your own ships again. Ever.

And to whoever wrote these, on behalf of all X-Wing players, I thank you for it.

Rebel formation with Biggs (below) furthest away 
from the enemy.

TIEs taking the rebel formation head-on with 
Interceptor flanking. Rebel sets up with Biggs 
furthest away to force Range 3 shots.

X-Wing Academy Lesson #1 - Squad Building Basics

Welcome Recruits!

This is the 1st of many x-wing lecture series. New players often find this game a bit overwhelming at first. They know the basic rules and mechanics but when it comes down to playing, they find it a bit daunting. Perhaps daunting enough to discourage them from fully enjoying the game.

And hence this lecture series, in hope that it'll helped to ease your progress through the learning curve. And more importantly, encourage you to play more often. Seriously, this game needs more players.

And, yes. You’re welcome.

Without further delay, shall we begin our lesson, Padawan?

X-Wing Academy Lesson #1 - Squad Building Basics

Squad building - easily the most important aspect of the game. Also the most difficult part of the game to get right. Often, squad builds that looks good on paper, gets completely obliterated on the playing mate. When that happens, we rarely figured out the squad is flawed. I don't know about you, but when I lose I always blame the dice. Not my fault. My dice sucked.

Anyway, how to build a strong squad, you asked? Short answer is balancing defence (yin) and offence (yang).  Still don’t get it? Don’t worry. We'll run thru some basic archetypes as case studies:

4 X-Wings (4X)

Every recruit should start out playing this. In fact, I did. It rolls 12 attack dice, has 8 shields and 12 hulls, making it 1 scary list to face in a head on joust. You don't need fancy maneuvering like a TIE. Just keep doing a 1 forward, helps keep enemies in front longer, maximize your 12 attack dice power before all the ships pile up in 1 big clutter. Since all 4 ships are the same, it has the added benefit of making formation flying easier.

The most popular 4X combo involves Wedge + Biggs + 2 Rookies. Wedge/Biggs staying in close formation so that enemies have no choice but to shoot Biggs, while Wedge obliterates them. Biggs is the yin while Wedge is the yang, achieving perfect offence/defence harmony. 

Standard manuever involves charging the enemy with 2 Rookies, while Wedge/Biggs flank them, or just fly 4 ships in 1 formation, face the enemy and keep doing the easy 1 forwards.

Choice of upgrades depends on preferences: Increase offensive power by equipping Wedge with Torps for a devastating 1 time attack, or Push the Limit (PtL) to roll consistent 3 hit dice with both Target Lock (TL) and Focus. For the defensive oriented, put R2-F2 or Stealth Device on Biggs to roll an extra green dice. Some prefer to put R2-D2 to recover shields, but that is only useful IF he survives all the damage thrown at him. 

2 X-Wings + 2 B-Wings (XXBB)

Another list that’s scary to joust against. Like the 4X it rolls 12 attack dice, but with increased survivability  - B-wings are tough to take down with 5 shields and 3 hulls. Doesn’t care if you shoot first, because it can survive to shoot you back.

"Blue Thunder" is a popular list which involves 2 Blues with Heavy Laser Cannon (HLC) + 2 basic Rookies. The stats looks impressive - 14 attack dice, 14 shields and 12 hulls. The list lives and dies by how well you fly your Bs. Keep them alive as possible and tank with your Rookies. Keep moving 1 forward to maximize those HLCs, and watch your enemy burn. Where’s the yinyang balance? The Blues, of course. It’s the hardest ship to kill in the list, but also hit the hardest - forcing your opponent to either take out the Rookies first but eat the HLCs, or try taking out the Blues but risk return fire, if it survives. Like the 4X list, it’s also a beginner friendly list.

Another formidable list goes by the name of "Biggs walk the Dogs", which involves Biggs + 2 Daggers w/ Adv Sensors + 1 Rookie. Biggs keeps his “dogs” in a range 1 leash, soaking up damages. The Daggers would close in for range 1 shots and Adv Sensors would ensure they always have a target lock/ focus for added damage output. Biggs again is the yin while the Daggers are the yang. Strong list, this is, which, in fact made it to 2013 Worlds.

TIE Fighter Swarm 

Swarms are always a competition favourite. A Swarm usually fields 7 TIE fighters, overwhelming opponents with sheer numbers. Swarms were the top meta from the beginning and its standing hasn't changed in Wave 3. There's good reason. Just look at the stat - 14 attack dice and 21 hulls, and each TIE rolls 3 defence dice.

Any good swarm would run Howlrunner (the yang) as its main offensive power while keeping other ships in range 1 to benefit from her re-roll ability. To discourage your opponents to shoot Howly, throw in a Stealth Device (the yin) for an extra green dice and for your action ALWAYS take an evade token (yin, again). Once again, perfect yin/yang balance.

Falcon + 2X Escort

Falcon was the reigning meta in Wave 2 but were kicked out in the current B-Wing meta. Still, Falcon list deserves some attention. 

It comes in many flavours but the most powerful always involves Han Solo. Consider this list:

Han Solo + Marksmanship + Gunner + Chewbacca (crew)

Rookies x 2 

Also known as “Han Shoots First (HSF)” but should really be called "Han Shoots First and Never Miss". Consider the following scenario:

1. Han takes Marksmanship as an action and declares pesky Academy Pilot (AP) as target.
2. Han rolls only 1 hit. He didn’t like it and activates his ability to re-roll and gets 1 hit and 1 focus. Marksmanship changes Focus into a crit.
3. Pesky AP rolled 1 defence dice and uses evade token to avoid taking any damage.
4. Han activates Gunner to perform 2^nd attack and rolls 1 attack dice again. Didn’t like his rolls and activates his ability to re-roll, this time throwing 3 focus. Marksmanship kicks in again – total damage output is 2 hits and 1 crit.
5. Pesky AP rolls all blanks and dies.

See what Han just did there? In 1 combat round, he gets 4 shots! It’ll take some crazy dice rolls to dodge all that! And the Falcon has a 360 arc, making it easy for him to fly out of your arc but not out of his. And yin wise, the Falcon has 5 shields and 8 hulls, and Chewbacca further extends its longevity. 

Try take down HSF, will you?

Bounty Hunter (BH) + TIE Escort

BH are always difficult to deal with. They are like oversized x-wing with twice the amount of shields and hulls, making it almost as difficult to kill as a Falcon. Throw in some nimble TIEs and you’ll have a quite a formidable list.

Different folks fly different combination and the possibility is endless. My HSF list was crushed by a HLC Krassis + PtL Soontir Fel + 2 Academy Pilots during the 2013 Regionals*. Justin my long standing sparring partner did well in the 2013 Regionals with his list:

Kath Scarlet + PtL + Assault Missile

Howlrunner

Academy Pilot x 3

His modus operandi: Howlrunner + 3 AP sets up in a formation while Kath sets up elsewhere solo. Opponents who choose to attack Kath gets flanked by the TIEs and vice versa. Kath can use PtL to TL and Focus in 1 turn to launch missile (yang) or go into turtle mode by taking Evade + Focus (yin). Howlrunner gives re-rolls (yang) and always takes evade token (yin). See the yin/yang balance?

Endless Possibilties

What I discussed above is just the tip of the iceberg. The possibilities and combinations of ships, upgrades and abilities are truly endless. There's the highly maneuverable 4 Interceptors list, Missile Bombers list, A-Wing Swarm list, Twin Falcon/BH list, etc. Go ahead and take one of the template list above and give it a spin, or try experimenting a new list on your own. Whatever you choose to do, remember folks, Fly Casual.

* In my defence, I rolled around 15 blank dice in a roll. Blanks, mind you, not even a focus. If my math is correct, the odds were around 1 in 40 million.