Player's training: step by step

Among countless debates about which ship is better, or which list is guaranteed win, what kind of synergy is best, there is a one point usually missed. How you as a pilot and player learn and progress in your skill. Again, and again people write their blogs, post comments or created videos telling you what you should do to win, but miss the essential element: Practise is a good thing, but its alone is not enough, you will benefit greatly if knew the size and destination of your learning curve, because if you don't you most likely to pick up several bits of information with no explanation or more important understanding of its usefulness.

Although, Starwolf does not claim all-knowing, there are some stages we could pin-point to focus your learning curve.  First of all you as player, and human being have to know how you learn new information and how long it takes you master certain things.

Learning:  
During World War II, US Air force conducted a a research on how pilots became efficient in air combat. Their study showed that in order to actually understand the situation around them, pilots must have endured 5 combat missions. First they had to survive high-speed-adrenaline nature of air combat, then they need a good awareness and gunnery skill, only then came in tactic of dogfight.

What it also showed, that regardless of training methods, only 40% of information given at one certain time was memorised and then only 20% was effectively put to a good use. Surprisingly, similar results were achieved by all major air forces. To bring some examples, most aces of WW2, like Hans Marsellie, Alexander Pokryshkin and others started their rise to acedom only after initial embarrassment and misfortunes. What this has to do with you playing an x-wing game?

First of all, whoever told you that playing a combat game is a relaxed and fun experience probably wanted to sell you something. X-wing, despite being simple in its mechanics, is utterly challenging. It forces you to analyse, predict, plan and create strategy to win. It's a great mental exercise, and it is fun when its comfortable and easy for you.

Secondly, the very same rules of 5 sorties and 40% learning are applicable to you as player. Which means that when you play and analyse games you gradually train and improve your skills.

Third: none gets to be the best without commitment, training and learning. So keep your friendly games fun, but use them as training for tournaments.

Lest look at the skill progression ladder.

1. Learn the controls: at this step you learning the basics of the game; how turn works, what actions can do, manoeuvres and collisions. Though it seems logical and simple it is the most important step because it is foundation of entire game. You must get it right and become natural with it, to free your mind power for other aspects of the game. Approximate learning time: 5 games 
2. Location! Location! Location!: at this step you learn that x-wing is all about the positioning of your ships, asteroids, deployment zones and formations. Once you mastered area control, you can predict where your and opponents ships will most likely move, how to take cover and place your ships into striking position. Learning Rule of 11, is most advantageous at this point. Once you are natural with this step, plotting the course fro your ships would become much easier, bumps and crashes almost non-existent. Approximate learning time: 10 games
3. Tactical advantages: this step is all about synergy of your list and piloting. skill bonuses, action economy, mutual support an focus fire, use of distance and positioning. In short every little bit that would get you a one shot kill against opponent and advantage during the turn. This is challenging as at this step you have a lot of ground to cover, including list building, synergy combos and piloting into precise position. Approximate learning time: 10 -15 games.  
4. Strategy and dirty tricks: at this step you plan your game for several turns ahead, you choose each and every engagement, learn how to take damage to retain combat abilities of your ship, learn and understand how to move centre of combat into position most preferable to you, maintain initiative each and every turn.  What is also important, you can play knowing psychological tricks and resist same pressure from the opponent. Approximate learning time: 15-20 games        

In conclusion, some notes and advise. Please note, that each and every time we say "learn" Starwolf means that certain skill have been studied, practised and internalised, so you do not need to ask yourself every time "what to do?" or "where to go?", you just know it based on your knowledge and experience. Approximate learning time is calculated on the basis that each following stage requires more effort to understand, as it is more complex.

Training missions: not only games against living opponents are useful, sometimes just allowing yourself to move ships on the board and make mistakes will teach you faster, as you can immediately see the outcome and can understand which the plans and action were not appropriate.

Take a break: in the beginning of this article Starwolf mentioned that only 40% of learnt material was remembered and only 20% effectively used. In order to increase that you need to do only two things: repeat your lessons and games and take a break so that your memory could internalise experience.

Practise makes a master.
Starwolf, out.
       

TIE Phantom updated decloaking explained

The biggest change in the game is current update on Decloaking.  So before we explore revised Phantom's tactics lets see how new decloaking works.

DECLOAK REFERENCE CARD 

 DECLOAK REFERENCE CARD 
This card should read:

At the start of the Activation phase, after players have resolved all other abilities that trigger at the start of the Activation phase, each ship may spend a cloak token to decloak, starting with the ship with the lowest pilot skill (using initiative to break ties). When a ship decloaks, it must choose one of the following effects:

• Perform a barrel roll using the [ 2] manoeuvre template. 
• Perform a boost using the [ 2] manoeuvre template. 

Decloaking is not an action or a manoeuvre, and a ship can decloak while it has a stress token. A ship cannot decloak if it would overlap another ship or an obstacle token, or if the manoeuvre template would overlap an obstacle token. After all decloaking has been resolved, the Activation phase continues as


Lets look at how this update changes the mechanics of decloaking.

1. at the start of Activation phase players nominate which Phantom (in case of several ships) decloaks first. But only after all other abilities, such as Advanced sensors, have been applied. 
2. then ships decloak in ascending order, from lowest to highest Pilot skill, using "2" straight or bank template to reposition their ships. 
3. then other ships reveal their dials, perform their movements and take action in same order.
4. only when comes Phantom's step in accordance with PS, it will reveal its manoeuvre.
5. after movement is complete Phantom may take its actions.

In order to simplify the main change:
Previously Phantom was decloaking on its own step of initiative, now it must decloak to beginning of Activation phase. This is a significant change that degrades unpredictability, Phantoms main advantage. Now after decloaking, opponents will be able to predict Phantom's movement with relative ease, and act on it.
Though  it deprives Echo and Whisper their biggest advantage: being able to move last and outflank any ship with zero repercussions, there are way to maintain their superiority. Stay tuned for Phantom's tactics.

Starwolf, out. 

TIE Phantom review: origins, rules, upgrades

TIE Phantom is one of the ships of 4th wave for X-Wing miniatures games. At the moment of writing this post its couple of week away from release along with TIE Defender, E-wing and Z-95 Headhunter. I was lucky enough to acquire Phantom during Assault on Imdar event in my local gaming store.

Origins: TIE Phantom was featured in computer game Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, where Darth Vader was extremely annoyed at his egg-heads who kept testing this stealth fighter instead of delivering it under his command. Well, in events of that game (released in 1995 AD), the entire fleet of Phantoms along with cruiser Terror explodes in typical Star Wars manner.

Rules: Now lets have a good look at rules and card for this fighter. Box comes with two generic pilots flying Phantom: Sigma Squadron - Pilot Skill 3, Shadow Sq - PS 5, and two named pilots: "Echo" - PS 6 and Whisper" - PS 7. As you can see on a picture, Phantom has Firepower of 4, Agility 2, Hull 2 and Shields 2. Incredibly impressive firepower is delivered by five laser cannons, which makes this beast most dangerous opponent in Range 1 with its 5 dice to hit you. even with Agility 3 and guaranteed Evade, there is few ships able to leave without scratch. (unless your dice hate you)

Points: All this goodness comes at a steep point price, Sigma Sq: 25 pts, Shadow Sq: 27, Echo: 30, Whisper: 32. And we have not yet looked at upgrades!  

Manoeuvrability and cloaking: this is the best part of Phantom, its unique (until arrival of Jedi fighters and Stealth-Wing) ability to cloak and become invisible. Game mechanics works in following matter: you spend an action and place a fancy Cloaking token next to the ship. This adds +2 to Agility of the ship and stays until decloaked. The pay-off is that you cannot make an attacks while cloaked. However Decloaking IS NOT an action. Let me say that again: decloaking is not an action. Which means that that after you appear on the field you still can focus, barrel roll, evade or put target lock (if you have an upgrade, because Phantom does not have it as standard).

Decloaking is made before you reveal you manoeuvre. After you decloak ship must move ahead 2 or make a barrel roll of 2. Then you make a move depicted on a dial. I will talk about it later in tactics section, but just imagine the possibilities! Muhahaha! Phantom's manoeuvrability is close to TIE Interceptor, but without K-turn and direct ahead of 5. But with decloaking move of 2 it not a bad compensation at all.

   

Upgrades: TIE Phantom can take following upgrades: Elite Pilots skills (named pilots only), Crew, System Upgrades, as well as Modifications. There are no Titles for this ship at the moment of its release. Box comes with five of the upgrade cards: Recon Specialist - adds extra Focus token (3 pts), Fire-Control system - allows you to gain a Target Lock on a ship you just attacked (2 pts), Tactician - ship defending from your attack in Range 2 takes a stress token (2 pts),  Stygium Particle Accelerator -  allows free evade token if you perform Cloak or Decloak (2 pts) and Advanced Cloaking Device - enables you to perform free cloak action after you perform an attack (4 pts). 

All in all, TIE Phantom is an exceptional addition to the fleet of Empire, with its firepower and mobility it will make a great hunter. However there are some big question to which role this craft should be assigned in your squadron, as well as its high price and effective combat application.

I will explore this more in TIE Phantom Tactics. 

Starwolf out.

Target Priority and game strategy

While browsing through various x-wing related groups Starwolf came across an outcry of frustration from one of the local players: "after a devastating experience in my local gaming store tournament, I've decided to sell my collection. I simply do not possess the understanding of this game's strategy." Despite the obvious frustration (we shall discuss how to deal with frustration later on this blog), player have pinpointed his problem very well. But any strategy begins with its cornerstone: Target Priority.

Target Priority is briefly described in of Starwolves principles,  and although it seems simple, prioritising targets have several important layers. First of all choose what would be your goal during the game, apart from winning, of coarse. Have a look at opponents list and choose your main target. This could be one of those listed below:

1.The Biggest Threat: 
Ship(s) that have a biggest damage potential against your list. You should understand, that those ships may cause havoc if not destroyed quickly or denied their biggest advantage.

Usual suspects: TIE-Phantom, TIE-Interceptor, E-wing, Falcon, Doom shuttle and any ship with Gunner on board.  

2. The Juicy Target:
Look at the point cost and ask yourself is that ship worth more than half of the points of opponents list? If answer is "yes", then you are looking at Juicy Target. Good new is, that after Juicy Target is destroyed you are automatically in the lead, all you have to do now is lose less points that opponent. Victory and advancement in tournament ladder is defined by this. The bad news is that Juicy Target in most cases is the Biggest Threat and has most number of upgrades and hull.

Usual suspects: Falcon, Decimator, IG-88, Firespray.  

3. The Synergy Centre
To understand where lies opponents  Synergy centre is to find a key to his defeat. Synergies and Tactical advantages they give have been explored earlier. Here we shall concentrate on how to find that centre.

what do you mean I'm not a Wookie?!

Elite list, consisting of 2-3 ship with high Pilot Skill and lots of upgrades provide synergy by using their unique abilities and crew members. For example, Llando in YT-1300 provides a free action to a friendly ships in Range 1, or Dutch Vander giving a free Target Lock to any friendly ship in Range 1-2. Most Elite list have an expendable escort designed to either distract or deny opponents actions and abilities.  However, once the support ship has gone, or its ability neutralised by critical hit, the rest of the battle changes significantly in your favour. As one brave pilot have put it: "help yourselves everybody, there is no fighter escort."

Usual suspects: HWK-290 with Recon Specialist, Lambda with Intelligence agent or Fleet Officer, and or ST-321 title, any escort ship for Fat Han.  

look! there is Vader behind you! 

Specialist list, consisting of 3-5 ships, with several key upgrades and one or two elite pilot skills are most vulnerable and easiest to determine their synergy centre. First of all, Specialist rely on being in specific range of synergy provider. For example Howlrunner's ability and Swarm Tactics working in Range 1. Then there is maximum two Synergy providers due to points limitation. Determine which one is most important and eliminate them. For example HWK-290 is one of the best support ships for both Rebels and Scum, allows its owner to modify attackers Pilot Skill, provide extra focus and evade tokens, re-rolls, extra actions, and yet it is rarely defined as a significant threat, due to its low attack and agility. Imperials must rely on cards with special actions, since they have slightly less supporting abilities than other factions.

Usual suspects: HWK-290, Howlrunner with swarm tactics, Darth Vader with Squad Leader, IG-88 with gunner or boost ability. 

here they come!!

Swarm list, consisting of 5-8 ships are surprisingly resilient to the loss of special abilities or upgrade cards, since there is so few of them. However, swarm lives and dies by its ability to concentrate fire of 4 or more ships on one target and grind it down with its weight of fire. The obvious response to that is flanking, in order to avoid at least some of the incoming fire. But the biggest game changer against the swarm is breaking its formation! This could be achieved by several tactics:

• controlled bump to deny actions and bonuses: Captain Oicunn, Intimidation, Rebel captive, anti-pursuit lasers.  
• use of weapons with splash damage: bombs, assault missiles, Mara Jade   
• area denial: proximity mines, blocking positions by your ships. 
• upgrades allowing to increase the damage per turn: Darth Vader (crew) and Ruthlessness      

Once swarm has lost its main advantage, opponent may concentrate on singular ships and slowly but surely overcome the numerical advantage.

Other important factor when fighting swarm is attacker's damage output per turn. On average, attacker must be able to destroy at least 1,5 TIE Fighter per round of shooting, in order to even the numbers by turn 4 and be able to either outlast or wipe out the majority of swarm.

Usual suspects: Howlrunner, Airen Craken, Prince Xizor. Any ship providing extra shots, re-rolls or higher PS.   

4. The Weak Spot
We all make mistakes or less than calculated decisions. However in tournaments this should cost your opponent a game, at least. When you looking for a weak spot, try to find

• combinations which are counter productive for your opponent. For example, Push the limit with Ysanne Isard on one ship is not a great combo as it denies one advantage while giving another. It could also be easily denied if target receives stress. 
• crippled ships: if opponent has got a ship with 1 hull left, it must become a Primary Target. While its on the board it is either denying you a victory points, or could be used as an expendable blocker. 
• tactical weaknesses and ways to exploit them. Blocking Phantoms decloaking lane is one of such examples.
• easy targets: any ship which is an easy kill must be yours, however do not get greedy and lose your primary target.     

So to summarise the layout of your Target Priorities: determine the Biggest Threat and Juicy Target, deny the Synergy centre and hit in Weak Spot.

Starwolf, out.

Synergy and Advantages.

In this post we are going to discuss Synergy as an essential part of your strategy and tactics during the game.
So what is Synergy? The word means "an interaction of two or more actors which results in combined effect greater than sum of its separate parts".  What it means in the world of x-wing miniatures game? Simply put, by creating right synergy with correct build and play style you gain a significant advantage over your opponent. 

focusing your attention is a
good example of Synergy

What advantages can you get in the game, in a first place? Lets me list some of the most common and important. 

1) Weight of fire: if you roll more attack dice than defender gets green dice, you have a clear advantage. 

2) Higher Initiative: if you shoot first, or at least on the same initiative as defender, you gain a chance to deal damage without taking damage yourself.    

3) Defencive bonus: with fragile or heavier ship taking less or avoiding damage altogether is a question of victory.  

4) Improved Damage per round: essential to any ship, as shown by double tap trick, or simple re-roll makes a difference in any game. 

5) Extra actions: a very broad term for getting two or more actions per tern.

Those are advantages you get when you build your list and provided you play for your advantages you get during the game. Now lets have a look at synergies which provide us with this goodness. 

Synergy 1: Focus your attacks

It really as simple as it reads, if your concentrate fire of two ships against one, then you are more likely to destroy that ship in one salvo of your guns. Though, there are some limitations, it still is a simplest way to take down one ship of similar size per turn. Two TIE Fighters firing at x-wing from Range 1, on  average will produce 3-4 hits, while x-wings will evade only 2 hits from two attackers.Thought it is not a guaranteed one shot kill, it is still a damage and potential critical. Easiest way to maintain that synergy is to keep your ships in formation, or in scissors position, where two or more ships are firing at one target from different angles.  Your main advantage here is Weight of Fire and Improved damage per round. 

• Some aspects of this synergy are tricky. Namely: controlled bump. If your manoeuvre dial does not allow you get into most favourable position, to place Target lock and Focus, place your ship in position where at least it will bump friendly ship, at this way puts opponent into your firing ark. Advanced sensors are the best cure for this difficulty, as it allows you to take your action before you reveal your dial.    

Synergy 2: Shield and bait 

While you playing the game it is useful to try to understand opponents strategy. To do so look at how he is distributing his attacks and actions. If he shoots at anything coming close to him, does not flank or denies your actions, there is a good chance that does not have a battle plan. In this case, you can place a heavy shielded ship with Tactical Jammer to provide an extra defence die for any of your ships behind. Combined with range bonuses and natural agility, you will increase chances of your survival. 

The aspect of the bait has got a name, of Biggs Darklighter. Not surprisingly one of the most used cards in Rebel lists, ties up entire opposing force to a one target leaving them exposed and vulnerable to flanking. He however is not alone, Empire has its version, named Captain Kagi. His ability reads: "When enemy ship acquires a Target Lock it must lock onto your ship if able". Though not as powerful as Biggs it still allows some distraction and  robs significant advantage from opponent.   

Closest is not the most dangerous one

The bait, may be executed by ordinary ships. The main objective of bait is to distract opponents fire from other ships  or place opponent into a position where the rest of your force can have a significant advantage. Also, bait could be played by weak ship with powerful weapon or ability, for example Doom Shuttle (Lambda shuttle + Darth Vader), which will attract attention as it is an easy target, thus allowing rest of your fleet a flanking bonus or free roam for as long as shuttle lives. 

• For example, attacker has two ships covering one area of the board. In Range 1 of attacker, they got a Decimator with no shields and Ysanne Isard on board, and in Range 2 cloaked Phantom with evade token. Phantom is a main threat for attacker's fleet, who has less than manoeuvrable ships, but Decimator have put himself into their gun sights, and has TL on one of the ships. Attacker calculates his options, 3 dice vs 4 evade dice + evade token twice, or same 3 attack dice vs one evade token. Then attacker chooses to shoot at Decimator and takes down only  4 hull points, loses one of his ships in return fire, and loses the game, as Phantom keeps outmanoeuvring and damaging his ships.    

      

Synergy 3: Hit hard and fast.

There is no point arguing about the importance of hight Pilot Skill. However due to points restrictions you cannot field many ships with PS higher than 7. In most cases you will be stuck with duo or trident of elite pilots. The five ships or more builds, must rely on Swarm Tactics as well as pilots abilities to provide that much needed first knock-out strike, on most dangerous for you target.

When using swarm tactics, you main advantages are High Initiative and Defensive bonus. 

•  Now that Swarm tactics and Kyle Katarn, technically allow Rebels to fire at least two ships at PS 12, but somehow this combo is not often used in tournament play.  Phantoms, in their elite configuration must also rely on their high PS in order to deliver killing blow and cloak back to avoid incoming fire. Higher PS also allows you certain freedom from Initiative routine, even if you lost an Initiative you still firing first. 

Synergy 4: Mutual support 

This synergy could be expanded to cover many aspects including those described earlier. Some practical examples and notes on what advantages mutual support gives you are explained below. 

it helps to have friendly support

• Cover blind spots: Meaning areas where it most likely to be attacked from must be covered with at least one ship to provide return fire. For example, Firespray is moving into a position which leaves its flank exposed to an enemy attack from the left. To counter that, a TIE Fighter performs a K-turn, and positions between attacker and Firespray. When attacked, TIE either dodges shots aimed for Firespray, or returns fire to attacker, denying him an unpunished attack.   
• Stay in formation: many abilities specify their effective range, and leaving that range without significant reason is pointless. Formation allows you to Focus your attacks, gain Weight of fire and Improve your damage per round. For example, Captain Jonus flying in Range 1 of other TIE-Bombers and Firespray with heavy laser cannon allows a free re-roll when using secondary weapons. 
• Use pilots abilities and Elite talents: thought it seem obvious, over and over you will come across players who do not know or forget under stress of combat skills of their pilots. However your main synergy is born from combination of Abilities, Elite Talents and upgrade cards. Some examples of this synergy:

• Wedge Antilles with Outmanoeuvre. His ability allows him to decrease ships agility by -1. With Outmanoeuvre he decreases it by -2. 

• Darth Vader with Marksmanship and Cluster Missiles. Having an ability to perform two actions, he may opt to use Marksmanship and Focus or Target Lock. With 6 dice on cluster missiles it provides at least 2 Critical and 2 normal hits.  

• Bobba Fett + Navigator. Allows you to change your bank movement into any bank in any direction.

• Kyle Katarn (crew member) + Recon Specialist:+ Push the limit and Jan Ors (crew member) on another ship: Kyle's ability allow you to assign a focus token after you remove stress from the ship. Then, Recon specialist gives you two focus token. Then Jan Ors allows you to replace one focus with evade token. You still may take any action, and Push the limit for another stress token.

• Colonel Jendon + ST321+ Weapons Engineer+ Colones Vessery. ST321 title allows you to acquire Target Lock on ship anywhere on the board, Weapons Engineer gives you two TL, then Jendon:s ability allows him to pass one blue TL to a ship in Range 1. Vessery automatically gains TL if someone else has a TL on his target.  

• Marek Steele + Marksmanship. Steele's ability allows you to deal 3 face up damage cards and choose one, every time you cause a critical hit. So Marksmanship comes in handy with guaranteed one critical. 

List of possible combinations is very long and practically endless. None of the combination does not give an ultimate solution to all variants of opponent's lists, neither it gives guaranteed superiority. What is does, it gives player an edge, and if used correctly, and with a bit of luck it helps you win. Most of the synergies mentioned above had an effect only on one or two ships, with exception of Swarm Tactics. But best synergies  those which work for you during the game, which affect you fleet as whole and deny advantages to the opponent are those you have practised.  

Starwolf out.

"Double Tap" trick, or how to maximize number of hits in attack.

"Double Tap" trick, in an essence is combination of Target Lock and Focus actions. I'd like to have a quick look at the math of this powerful combo and ways of getting it, especially for the Imperial players.

Lets look at attack dice for x-wing.  Each die is an d8 with following options and chances of rolling it:

1 Critical hit = 12,5% chance 

3 Hits = 37,5% chance

2 Focus = 25% chance

2 Blanks = 25% chance

Note that this math is for probability of roll on a die, NOT for a successful attack.

So with unmodified dice you would have a 50% chance of scoring single hit on one die. Focus action gives 25% and Target Lock should give you a re-roll in case of blank, thus improving your chances of scoring a hit. .

On average your starship would have 3 attack dice, either from standard weaponry or close range. When attacking you should have an average result of 1 hit, one focus and one blank on those 3 dice. Logical action for player would be to re-roll blank by spending Target Lock and then spend a focus token to modify them last result into a hit. In total you should get 3 hits. 

Biggest difficulty is getting both Target Lock and Focus on one ship, preferably during one turn. This easy to achieve with any Rebel ship, since all of them have both Target Lock and Focus as standard. When arriving into a Range 3 from enemy Rebel would place TL, fire some warning shots and wait until next turn, when target would be closer, (preferably in Range 1  for extra die), and will Focus for maximum damage output.   

Imperials, have a slightly different problem: very few expendable ships have Target lock action without upgrade. Namely: TIE-Bomber, TIE-Advanced, Lambda shuttle, Firespray-31, TIE-Defender and VT-49 Decimator. The most popular way to provide re-rolls was called Howlrunner, (her ability allows to re-roll one die for friendly ships in range 1, should you ask), and Captain Jonus (TIE-B) with same ability, but on 2 dice for secondary weapons. 

Another ways of "double taping" are: 

• "Push the limit" elite pilot skill on a ship with TL action. However negativity of stress limits its usefulness.   
• "Squad Leader" elite pilot skill. Darth Vader with Squad Leader can take 2 Action, and is one of the best synergy providers  in small Elite list.
• Colonel Jendon in Lambda, who can assign 1 of his blue TL to a friendly ship in range 1. However, Lambda's slow speed limits use of this ability of fast ships. 
• Fleet Officer, crew upgrade for Imperial only side, which allows to assign 2 focus tokens to two ships in ranges 1-2. Can be found in Decimator.  
• HWK-290 with Kyle Katarn as a pilot of Moldy Crow. Assigning focus tokens in range 1-3 and keeping them thanks to Moldy Crow should put him on top of kill-list of any Imperial squadron. 
• HWK-290 with Jan Ors as a pilot. Free re-rolls to a friendly ships in range 1-3, for the price of stress token on HWK-290 is a legalised cheating, аs well as a competition for first place in a must-die-first list. 

This is a relatively simple tactic, allows you to significantly improve your damage output in any game, especially against low-agility ships. Use it well, and fly casual.

Starwolf, out..