Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31354887-20170628211724

We all love x-wings, many of us hold them as our favorite ship, and they are the namesake of the game. Though the meta has not smiled kindly upon the x-wings in a long time that hasn't stopped plenty of us from wanting to fly them even if only casually. I created this guide in case players who joined later wanted to give the venerable ships a try in a casual game, or for people who just wanted a quick reference to a decent build.

This guide is by no means the end-all be-all of x-wing builds. There is no defacto "perfect" build for a particular x-wing and ultimately no one can tell you what the best x-wing is, you have to find one that suits yourself and your playstyle. The builds presented for each pilot here are just the most commonly effective, and a good foundation to build upon, try them, modify them, and figure out what works best with you.

Additionally these builds focus solely on the individual pilots, while the point cost is generally kept reasonable these are made in mind of making the x-wing one of your squad's major players.

First up, the classics. The venerable T-65 has an amazing selection of pilots who's abilities on their own are incredibly good but who's point cost and the T-65's less than stellar stats have kept from being put on the board.

Wedge Antilles + R2-D2 + Outmaneuver + Vectored Thrusters 38 pts.

Wedge is the only PS 9 pilot for the T-65 giving him both an inherent edge on the other pilots and a bigger target painted on his back. His pilot ability means anyone defending from his attacks rolls one less agility, bad news for those shield-less tie fighters that rely on their green dice to live. Outmaneuver bolsters Wedge's ability even further allowing him to reduce the defender's agility by 2 if he catches them outside their firing arc. This will reduce even the most agile ships to 1 agility, and anything less may not get a chance to roll any dice at all. R2-D2 is a good match for Wedge and it will allow him to stay on the board a little longer when he inevitably becomes a target, while vectored thrusters will give him a little breathing room in terms of placement improving his chances of being able to utilize outmaneuver.

Wes Janson + M9-G8 + Veteran Instincts (or) Snap Shot + Integrated Astromech 33 pts. (with VI) or 34 pts. (with Snap Shot)

Janson is such a good shot that even when he fails to do damage he can still wreak havoc on the enemy. His ability allows him to pry a focus, evade, or blue target lock of his target after the attack is resolved. This results in many players spending their tokens on Wes' attack anyways because they know it will otherwise go to waste. At PS 8 Wes has a decent bit for first shot giving him a chance to strip a token before it ever gets used but Veteran Instincts can help Wes secure inititative by bumping him to PS 10 (if your strapped for points Adaptability can make him a respectable PS 9). If your not worried about initative then a excellent choice for Wes is snap shot, the opportunity for Wes to attack twice in a round means two potential chances to strip two tokens off a enemy and the low hit chance of snap shot means nothing to Wes when his ability triggers regardless. M9-G8 helps Wes cause further trouble by forcing whoever he has locked to re-roll one of their attack dice, a big thorn for anyone who has no focus and is forced to re-roll one of their hits into a blank or a eye. Integrated astromech is the standard modification for most T-65s that don't utilize a regen droid so when the time comes Wes can survive a little longer by sacrificing M9.

Luke Skywalker + R7 Astromech + Expertise + Integrated Astromech 34 pts.

This most iconic character in star wars, Luke's pilot ability is... a little underwhelming for such a good character. Nevertheless it is still incredibly useful for surviving, being able to change a single focus to an evade greatly boosts the life of the 2 agility T-65. This build works on cutting Luke's decision making down to just taking target locks while increasing both his offense and defense. Expertise will turn all of his attack focus results to hits, coupled with his pilot ability Luke will rarely want to take a focus, instead he can utilize his target lock to give him re-rolls on his attack or he can spend it when defending to force his attacker to re-roll possibly making them lose hits and preventing them from re-rolling bad results. Integrated astromech is par for the course and will let Luke ditch his generic droid to avoid a possibly nasty damage card.

Jek Porkins + R5-D8 (or) R3-A2 + Push The Limit + Hull Upgrade 35 pts. (with R5) or 34 pts. (with R3)

Porkins is a bit of a stresshog (pun intended) that relies on good rolls, or rather bad rolls as you want blanks, focuses, and crits to clear his stress. If you wish to air on the side of caution and to give Jek some increased survivability R5 can remove any facedown damage Jek deals to himself when clearing stress (as well as facedown damage done by the enemy) the downside of this being that it consumes a action to do so. If you feel that the Force is with you though you can forgo R5 and take R3-A2 instead, he consumes no action and lets Porkins stress whoever he has in his sights while stressing Porkins in the process, good rolls means Porkins can reliably stress a ship for a few rounds before he blows himself up ("I can hold it!"). With the chosen elite talent Porkins pushes the limit harder than any other pilot for the chance to get both a focus and a target lock in one round. If the points allow it he can be a powerful torpedo users, if you chose to take R5 he can also use his standard action to try and repair any facedown damage done in a previous round while still getting a focus or a TL. While Integrated Astromech might seem like the obvious choice for Porkins the hull upgrade will serve him far better (especially if R5 is equipped as he could potentially repair some damage that would have otherwise destroyed the ship in a later round). If you chose R3 though and are strapped for points, IA can make a suitable replacement.

Garven Dreis + R2-D6 + Veteran Instincts + Integrated Astromech 28 pts.

The leader of Red Squadron before his death at the battle of Yavin, Garven is a surprisingly low PS 6 and lacks a native elite talent (a problem several x-wing pilots have that should be rectified). His ability is decidedly support in nature making him a bit of an oddity among the T-65 pilots as well. After spending a focus token he may pass the spent token along to a nearby ally, to get the most out of his ability you want Garven to attack as soon as possible by boosting his PS to 8 using veteran instincts, the only way to do this though is through giving him R2-D6, even going through all that work just to pass a focus token to another friendly Garven remains an affordable 28 pts. leaving it an acceptable circus trick. Integrated Astromech is a given in this situation as Garven will retain his veteran instincts even after giving up his droid to remove a damage card.

Biggs Darklighter + R4-D6 + Integrated Astromech (or) Shield Upgrade 26 pts. (with IA) or 30 pts. (with shield upgrade)

Biggs, poor, poor Biggs. Despite lacking an elite talent and being a moderate PS 5 Biggs is one of the few T-65 pilots to still see common use and even then his only use is to go down in a blaze of glory. His pilot ability projects a range 1 bubble around him that protects all friendly ships from incoming fire, the trade off being that Biggs has to take the hit for them. Because of this Biggs will inevitably go down during a fight and it is a waste of points to place a regenning astromech on him like R2-D2 or R5-P9. Instead your best bet is to simply migitate the damage using R4 who can reduce every attack down to 2 damage while at the same time piling stress onto Biggs who will most likely be unable to clear it as he has to prioritize keeping up with the ships he wishes to protect. To truly extend Biggs' usefulness in the field integrated astromech can ditch R4 at the last moment to let Biggs perform his invaluable ability one last time or if you have the points a shield upgrade will deny one extra damage card from being piled onto Biggs while allowing him to use R4 to the very end.

"Hobbie" Klivian + Targeting Astromech + Vectored Thrusters (or) Engine Upgrade 29 pts. (with Thrusters) or 31 pts. (with Engine Upgrade)

At PS 5 Hobbie sits in the middle between true Aces and low level generics, despite this one little astromech makes him incredibly fun to fly. Hobbie can shed a stress off himself whenever he gains or spends a target lock, under normal conditions he couldn't take a action to acquire a target lock while stress limiting him to only using half of his ability. Targeting astromech changes that, allowing Hobbie to pull his 4 speed K-turn, acquire a target lock, clear his stress from the K-turn and still be left with his normal action. Since Hobbie is already getting a target lock for free normally his only other option would be to focus, while this isn't a bad option you can make Hobbie even more maneuverable by adding a barrel roll or a boost to his list of abilities allowing him to get into prime position for an attack (or to avoid being shot). I would highly recommend a torpedo on Hobbie if points allow it since he will easily have the chance to fire it off.

Tarn Mison + R7 Astromech (or) M9-G8 + Integraded Astromech 25 pts. (with R7) or 26 pts. (with M9)

The oft forgot Tarn, at only PS 3 he is the lowest named pilot for the T-65 but his ability can make him a tough one to crack when coupled with the right astromech. Due to the wording of Tarn's ability he aquires a target lock on his attacker before they roll any dice, this means that with a R7 equipped he will always have a target lock to spend on forcing his attacker to re-roll their dice (though unfortunately R7 is limited to being used once per round, Tarn's ability to aquire a target lock is not). If you expect Tarn to take a lot of fire, or if you want him to be able to support his allies when not being shot at you can exchange the R7 for M9-G8, again Tarn will always have a lock on his attacker and while M9 only forces one attack dice to be re-rolled it works on all attacks letting Tarn affect multiple ships that attack him. Regardless of choice Tarn is a affordable X-wing, taking up only a quarter of a 100 pt. squad for a survivable blocker.

That's it for the T-65 pilots, I'm leaving the generics out due to the fact that they have no pilot ability to synergize with and can really be build however you wish. I'll probably add the T-70s in a followup section. 