The much maligned Y-Wing has been the butt of jokes by fans and Star Wars novelists for years. It had everything to do with the fact that they were generally portrayed as a bit shit in the movies: fairly incapable of doing anything other than explode. And the design, with the extended – and seemingly decorative – support pylons did nothing to convey the robustness it’s supposed to possess.
There was an ill-advised attempt to make the Y-Wing cool by giving Anakin Skywalker one in the Clone Wars series, but as most people knew how the story ended it did little to gain either credibility. The fact is the Y-Wing is as tough as old boots and twice as ugly. A lethal combination of high-powered lasers, ion cannons and a hefty payload of torpedoes made them the workhorse of the Rebellion to the X-Wing’s warhorse.
So when it comes to the X-Wing Miniatures game the Y-Wing provides all those qualities. With 3 shields and 5 points of armour it’s incredibly tough. Which is just as well because they’re less manoeuvrable than the Millennium Falcon. But for the points you can almost forgive it. Even when you take Horton Salm at 25 points, and the Ion Cannon upgrade it still only weighs in 1 point more than Wedge Antilles. And that comes with Salm’s ability of re-rolling blank misses at range bands 2 & 3. Which is fantastic when combined with focus. Not that Dutch Vander’s special ability is sloppy. Being able to acquire a target lock then immediately assign a second target lock to a wingman is extremely good. Especially considering Y-Wings will rarely be operating alone.
If you’re feeling particularly cheeky you can equip the Y-Wing with two lots of torpedoes which does jack the same pilot up to 38 which is barely worth it but its lethality, coupled with resilience and the fact you’d never leave it on its own, means that it’s got a fair chance of surviving. However being forced to babysit a Y-Wing is rather a waste of potential for an X-Wing.
And because the Y-Wing is as agile as I am, with lots of red manoeuvres on its dial and a single point of agility you’ll be hard pressed to decide which astromech to choose – and you will want to take one – whether it’s treat all 1 & 2 movements as green or the ability to remove damage cards. So the Y-Wing can weigh in a t between 39 & 41 points. For 6 points more you can take the Millennium Falcon piloted by Han Solo (including the 1 point upgrade to make it specifically the Falcon). But credit where credit’s due, she’ll pack plenty of punch per model.
Ion Cannons, whilst expensive, are worth the points. Although they can do a single point of damage per hit, they prevent the targeted model from performing any manoeuvres next turn which makes them very easy to finish off with anything else at your disposal. The downside of Ion Cannons is, because they are a secondary weapon, you’ll be forced to choose between them and firing torpedoes. So Y-Wings working in tandem is where their strengths really come in. Between them they’ll be chewing through targets. Throw in the aforementioned characters and a heady astromech combination and all of a sudden two Y-Wings become a formidable, if expensive fighting force. And in bigger games I don’t actually think you could be without them. Especially if you’re going up against Slave 1, transports or the humongous Tantive IV/Corellian Corvette.
The model itself is actually pretty cool. The shit-kicker look that the pre-painted models have suits the Y-Wing far better than the X-Wing. The aforementioned workhorse label lends itself to a craft that just gets thrown into fight after fight with very little love going its way. Y-Wing aren’t as pretty as X-Wings. Y-Wing pilots don’t get the praise. They just suit up and ship out and hope to God they don’t get vaped in the process.
Fantasy Flight Games did a pretty good job adjusting the design so it was still faithful but not break every time you put it in a figure case. The ion turret is integrated into the canopy and the chin mounted lasers are much shorter than the original design but it works. Equally the pylons are thicker but I’ll take that. My brother had the Kenner toy growing up and not a one of those pylons survived not because we were careless but because it was too faithful a recreation.
I’m really pleasantly surprised by the Y-Wing. I wanted it out of a sense of completeness and thought it’d be a soft target to act as a lure but I’m a convert. The Y-Wing and it’s two named character cards are a valuable addition to a fleet. They’re tough, they pack a punch and whilst they’ll still get picked on, the right tactics can mean you can turn that to your advantage.
The Y-Wing Expansion Pack is available from Firestorm Games priced £10.79.
