1st edition X Wing Ship Review: T-65 X wing

On this blog I will be reviewing ships and pilots from the perspective of the latest wave released (wave 10 now), as well as providing sample builds for each pilot. To kick off this series I will be looking the staple star fighter of the Rebel Alliance: the T-65 X Wing.

Ship and Dial

 

The T-65 X wing introduced in wave one comes in with three attack, two agility, three hull and two shields. Additionally, like so many rebel ships, you get the focus and target lock action, not exciting but the inclusion of target lock helps you to set up better offense on those turns manoeuvring when you don’t have a shot and know you’re not going to get hit.

With a largely white dial the T-65 doesn’t look bad. Four green, ten white, and only one red you’ve got a 4 K-turn, green slow moves, and only missing 1 turn, 5 straight, and the newer manoeuvers like S-Loop and Talon Roll. The base model T-65 X wing is considered by many to be an underpowered chassis for good pilot abilities and often compared not with the T-70 X wing, but the rebel B wing. without spoiling too much about the B wing before I review it I’ll tell you that the T-65 has a significantly better dial and the 4 K-turn is particularly important because it allows you to turn around on the other side of large based ships fairly easily, survive a range one engagement with Bossk and he essentially won’t touch you if you’re careful.

Ship Specific Upgrades

Integrated Astromech- (0 points) “When you are dealt a damage card, you may discard 1 of your astromech upgrade cards to discard that damage card (without resolving its effect).” This was meant to be a fix to help the T-65 get some extra survivability. The integrated astromech upgrade is extremely points efficient as you get a discretionary bonus hull that you can spend to avoid death or critical effects you don’t like, all tacked onto the cost of your astromech droid that you already wanted anyways. For generic T-65s this is excellent.
Unfortunately this upgrade takes up the modification slot instead of a title slot, so you cannot also take guidance chips to modify your torpedo, and on higher PS pilots I would argue that Vectored thrusters would be more beneficial to get a reposition move for two points.

Pilots

Rookie Pilot your base T-65 X wing, at 21 points you can have a maximum of four in a 100 point game. With a one point astromech and integrated astromech you have a relatively sturdy ship with a good dial and a strong primary attack. Give them R2 astromech, integrated, and plasma torpedoes for a one off more powerful attack, and hopefully the staying power to use it, or just proton torpedoes and guidance chips for more dice modification and more critical damage dealt. I wouldn’t suggest dropping more than 25 points on a Rookie Pilot.

Available in the Original Core set, X wing expansion, and Rebel Transport expansion.

Tarn Mison has got to be my favorite T-65 X wing pilot, this can be attributed three reasons. First his low pilot skill allows him to function reasonably well to block other ships, second his point cost makes him attractive, my favorite build is only 26 points! Finally his ability pairs so well with M9-G8. You can target lock a high PS ally that could use an offensive reroll (VI Poe perhaps) on the first turn, and use your lock to modify their attacks. Additionally if anyone attacks Tarn he can switch the target lock to that enemy and use it to modify their dice, every time. You then are left with a target lock you can spend offensively to get some revenge.

Tarn becomes a pretty action efficient later in the game when more people shoot at him, and if you have him from rebel transport, but you don’t have heroes of the resistance you can go with R7 astromech. This droid lets you reroll as many of an opponents dice as you want by spending the lock, but only once per turn. Tarn with M9-G8 and integrated is a solid support ship for 26 points.

Where Tarn Mison is awesome for 23 points the Red Squadron Pilot is kind of meh. You’re paying two points over the base model for two pilot skill. The pilot skill bump helps you vs predator (which isn’t as common as it used to be), and if you want to activate on the same PS as other more experienced generics the PS 4 is important. Spending points just to play the pilot skill game is a risky investment, but on turns when you pop a pilot skill two or three and suffer no return fire because of it you might prefer to spend your points this way.

When spending points on pilot skill it is important to analyze the likelihood of what you will encounter. For example, with the nerfs to Manaroo, Zuckuss crew, and Tie X/7 defenders we could see less Manaroo in favour of contracted scouts, and more gold squadron pilots toting stress giving mechanics. Suddenly Red Squadron Pilot is looking pretty good!

Try any of the build options suggested above for the Rookie pilot.

Available in the Original Core set, X wing expansion, and Rebel Transport expansion.

Biggs Darklighter is the reason that you can go to a premier event and you notice T-65 X wings. While Biggs himself isn’t especially survivable or particularly hard-hitting he is respectable in both regards, especially in relation to his points cost (minimum 26 so that you can get an integrated astromech).

The real strength of Biggs is the power of information, unless the enemy has target lock dependant munitions, splash effect weapons (assault missiles, ion torpedoes) or creative use of range control or arcs you know that whoever Biggs is covering will get at least some time in the fight unmolested by enemy fire. This can be very valuable for offensive but fragile ships such as “Stress Hog” Y wings (BTL A4, TLT, R3-A2), ships that make themselves more vulnerable to attack (Miranda Doni), or just to act as a bunch of shield upgrades for a VCX 100 Ghost.

Since the March 2017 FAQ released by FFG I don’t know if the new worlds meta has shaken out but I believe that Biggs will be a big contributor (if you were thinking I should have purposely misspelled “big” take a few deep breaths before continuing).

Available in the original X wing core set.

“Hobbie” Klivian is the rebel alliance answer for tie defenders, on a budget. loaded up with a targeting astromech and integrated this guy can K turn 4, acquire a target lock, clear stress, take a focus, and do it all again the next turn. Alternatively for a more aggressive first strike, equip him with R7-T1 and experimental interface to get right in someone’s face, clearing your stress with the target lock you gain.

Included in a squad with bigger threats, or just Biggs, this guy can survive your initial clash versus tokened up enemies and get right into the mess of things where he really shines.

Available in the rebel transport expansion.

Red leader himself. Garven is a focus sharing ship, but a not an especially versatile one. In order to reliably share his focus you need to have enemies in arc, because you can’t guarantee that your opponent will shoot at him. If you need to bump him up in pilot skill to give his focus to someone like Rey or Poe you can equip him with R2-D6 and veteran instincts.

While Garven doesn’t have the strongest focus sharing ability, the chassis on which the ability is attached is better than an HWK or a Z-95, is still fairly cheap, and comes in at a respectable 6 pilot skill.

Available in the X wing expansion pack.

Jek Porkins, brain child of Watty Piper (If you’re a parent you might know what I mean, if not feel free to google it), and kind of a hidden gem in the rebel transport. I’m a big fan of Chopper crew card, because there are a lot of times that taking a one damage is worth the value of taking an action. X wings aren’t the kind of ship that always saves resources to try to dodge every hit, you want to hit hard and kill them before they kill you. Between how much damage potential you get from having a focus or target lock when you otherwise wouldn’t, or the damage you save from having a focus when you’re attacked can get your investment back.

Jek’s ability is better than Chopper, instead of taking a damage for sure, and taking an action without losing stress, Jek gets rid of the stress immediately if you choose, and you only have a 3/8 chance of taking a damage. Not only does he have a great ability, Jek is pilot skill seven for only 26 points. With an elite pilot talent and an astromech he is very customizable. Push the limit can be combined with various torpedoes to get a double actions for modifying attack, veteran instincts can bring him to pilot skill 9, status torpedoes like ion torpedo or flechette  can lead to k turning behind an effected enemy, and get some free shots against an opponent who can’t turn around on the same turn.

Available in the rebel transport expansion set.

If I’m the other red five, this is the red five that makes me “other”. Besides being a beloved character from some of our favorite movies (personal moment, I like all of the star wars movies) and a little clueless at times Luke is a pretty good pilot. Lets give him a pass on the clueless thing though, he’s still good even if he isn’t focused. Luke has a great ability to modify his defense always, he doesn’t need to have a focus waiting beside him, this works if he has no actions, and considering a T-65 is a two agility ship it’s not often that you need more than just this ability to mitigate damage. For this reason I think Luke>Poe, Poe just has the shiny new ship to give him a leg up (and lets be real, it’s a pretty sweet ride).

In the ye olde early days of X wing Luke was often run with draw their fire and R2-D2, and he acted like a bodyguard for his allies, mitigating damage done to his team if he wasn’t focused early. You can still do this, add integrated astromech, and he is like Biggs but instead of having information on your side you are presenting your opponent with more options, and the less time they spend thinking about their dials the better.

Alternatively, and I like this better, you can load him up and use Luke to flank. Lone Wolf, R2-D2, Vectored Thrusters. With a lone flanking ace like this Luke with good dice mods and shield regeneration you pose a serious threat, does your opponent ignore him early and leave him to the late game to try to deal with when their damage per turn is significantly reduced, or do they turn their backs away from your main force coming at them from the front? Having barrel roll from vectored thrusters really helps you leverage your high pilot skill 8, and the defence mods, and to a lesser extend offensive mods allows you to use it with little consequence, or to focus every turn and use on offense without having to worry.

Available in the original core set.

Wes Janson is as close to new hotness as a T-65 X wing can get. With a respectable pilot skill of 8 and an elite pilot talent he is just begging to be made a 10 with veteran instincts, with an ability like his, shooting first is a huge advantage (besides, you get to stick it to all those tie phantom players). The ability to strip tokens of many sorts from an opponent gives Wes a lot of tactical flexibility: Nervous about that range one Ghost that target locked you last turn? Goodbye target lock token; Is Poe with R5-P9 giving you headaches? Sayonara focus token; Completely flub your attack against a low hp X7 defender? Yeah you can get rid of that evade token please.

Wes is a great blend of ace and support ship, ready to slot into many squads. I like him with R2-D2, VI, and vectored thrusters. He can pair with a hotshot Han and strip tokens like no ones business, or with hard hitting ship like a VCX 100 or Wedge to lower an opponents defences first.

Available in the rebel transport expansion set.

Wedge Antilles, Rogue leader, THE guy. When Wedge was released every enemy imperial ship had three agility, and even rebels had at least one, this made his ability very strong. Today his ability is still relevant, but a gamble. If you’re facing a VCX 100 or a Decimator (both fairly common) you’re not going to get added value on those shots; however, versus the likes of Fenn Rau, The Inquisitor, or a Countess Ryad, lowering that agility can be the difference between being dead, and giving better than you get. Additionally, opportunist Wedge mixed with veteran instincts or adaptability Wes is a pretty sick combo.

His offensive potential aside Wedge comes in at the coveted natural pilot skill of 9. One of only a few per faction Wedge will usually move last and shoot first, with the addition of vectored thrusters, expert handling, engine upgrade, BB-8, or R7-T1 Wedge can be arc dodge while retaining the ability to equip various helpful elite pilot talents.

Available in the X wing expansion pack.

There you have it, I feel like I’ve given the T-65 a fair look and I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a shot in some of your own games. For myself I will be attending a tournament near the start of April and I’m considering using one myself. Expect a report to follow.

What builds do you like that include T-65 X wings? Where do you think it lies in the days of wave 10? Which Star Wars movies do you like and what is cool about each? Please answer in the comment section below.