New Spikey Bits' Writer Super Kaiju wrote this review article on the most interesting fighters from Star Wars, the A-Wing.
Opening this box shall review another decently painted Mini, 4 pilots, 2 pilot skills and 3 different missiles. You read that right, missiles. Now Rebels can use those lovely missiles the Imperials have been hogging the whole time!
This baby comes with a set of three, but since we've already talked about them in previous reviews or they already existed, we're just gonna skip them for now. I swear its not cause I'm horribly lazy, honest. But if you'd like to learn about some of the newer ones, check out the previous reviews on the Falcon or Slave 1.
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Looking at the pilots we have skill 1 Prototype Pilot, a skill 3 Green Squadron Pilot, a skill 6 Arvel Crynyd and a skill 8 Tycho Celchu.
New upgrades consist of Dead Eye and Push it to the Limit.
And finally we have a brand spanking new ability, Boost!
Wow, that was a quick preview, so lets get to it!
irst things first you'll notice one very interesting thing about these ships. They're cheap! Not Imperial Tie Fighter cheap, but for Rebels, we got ourselves some interesting builds. Can you say spam list? Once you get past the the point costs you can also take a look at their speeds. These puppies are fast. Only ship the Rebels have that can hit that 5 speed, and another awesome bit, all forward maneuvers are Green.
Makes doing stressful maneuvers less scary when you can just go forward as fast as you want and not care. Then after looking at the speeds and back to the cards, you'll see they have one hellva large action bar. Focus, Lock on, new Boost and Evade. Yup, Evade. Can you feel it? Then another quick glance will reveal something that'll make the stomach sink to some. That stat line. 2 shots, 3 agility, 2 hull points and 2 shields. Relax guys, that;s actually really good. These guys are kinda beefy Tie Fighters. But but two hull points! Silence!
The two shields make that missing hull point worth it. And 3 agility dice and Evade action. Sploosh. These ships are gonna change the list styles of Rebels once they're out. The ability to take missiles is enough, but all those goodies they can do makes them even better.
Speaking of goodies, awesome segway, lets look at those named guys. Arvel Crynyd is the kinda ship you wanna slam into other ships. The ability to shoot at targets touching you is insanely good, and if done right towards late game you can prevent any retaliation from enemies. Then you have Tycho Celchu. I quote "You may preform actions even while you have stress tokens". MIND! BLOWN! I dare you to tell me that is a bad ability, I DARE YOU! Having used him myself, that is insane. Excuse me while I do a U-turn behind you and still lock on, or focus, or evade, or blah blah do all sorts of shenanigans And the most expensive guy being only 26 points, for Rebels, that isn't bad.
Experience pilots cards this time around are pretty interesting. Push the Limit lets you do some massive damage allowing you to preform 2 actions instead of one. Put on a X-wing we got a Lock on and Focus. Double rerolls across the sky anyone? Downfall, you get stressed. But hey, throw that on Tycho Celchu and have a ball. Next is Deadeye. For those who love to spam missiles or photons will love this. Using Focus in turn of Target Locks is pretty nifty. Allowing you to have some kinda defense in needed before firing off some death cant be to bad right? Though I'll admit, it is slightly situational least in my opinion. But still not to bad at 1 point.Now lets take a moment to discuss the new action Boost. I mentioned this way back in the Falcon Review but didn't go into detail. Lets fix that shall we? Boost, as shown above, allows you to preform a small move action forward or a easy right of left. While not to bad, this ability is kind of like the Barrel Roll action. Not bad, but situational. Granted, if you play and kind of Scenarios that require a ship to move fast, you got yourself something that can do that with ease. And you can use it to get out of a firing arc, or to allow yourself to get into range. But outside of those certain situations, more then likely want to spam Evade or Focus.
I'd run these two different ways. One, as a spam heavy list running 5 of them in 100 point games. Downfall is they're only skill 1, but like the 'feared' eight Tie Fighter list, you'll have a ton of shots. But, that would be for poo and giggle games. I don't think it'll be to competitive. But on the other end, the ships themselves are pretty good. Personally I'd use Tycho Celchu a lot. 26 points really isn't to much for rebels, and a high pilot skill and a stupid ability make him well worth his points.
Welcome to X-Wing, enjoy your stay. Checkout our sweet video un-boxing for the legendary Slave One below, and be sure to read our other Star Wars Tactics Articles. -MBG