Style 2
Classic
Last time we looked at a (my) preferred way of playing 1e X Wing, especially for a beginner or casual player. Next we will look at the polar opposite, “Classic” squad building.
Classic is basically full tournament squad construction, but limited to 60 points. It is slower to build, but fast and deadly to play. The limit of usually one good ship with an ace pilot and a side kick allows even new players to get their head around all of the upgrade options available and develop tactics to suit, but it avoids the much deeper, more complicated and powerful multi ship synergies that 100pt squads have.
It even allows the player a small swarm of 3-5 very basic light ships, all the way up to a single Large ship, but that is a riskier proposition. The “Fat Han” and similar Decimator option are still brutal, but have no support.
All options are on the table, meaning a single Ace pilot can easily top out at 45-50 points, with the assumption that you will use the best build possible. Squad building is fun, accessing all of the layers of synergy available, and all the work FFG put in to the later upgrades shows through. As Bare Bones highlights player piloting skill and basic ship character, Classic does the same differently by offering all of the options.
Some “Ace” repaints. These ships get the full treatment, but not all do.
A “Vaksai” Talonbane Cobra can Boost, Roll, increase Shields, discharge an EMP and Cloak, while firing Missiles with Deadeye or use Outmanoeuvre, but at 40 odd points, he only gets a low end “Blocker” wingman (Cartel Spacer Kihraxz or pimped out Z95).
60 points still allows for some cool synergies, especially with two middle of the road pilots teamed, a small swarm or a brute and a decoy.
All upgrades are relevant, but by limiting the number of points, super squads of 3 or 4 very tough ships (U-Boats* for example) are not possible. Do not get too attached to your killer squad, because one wrong move, a well thought out or luckily built opposition or even a poor string of rolls and it is all over. It helps defuse the over-competitiveness of some players, by just being too twitchy to trust.
Soontir being Soontir and unlucky Y Wing (unless they sport a twin laser turret). He only gets a single wing man once “fully loaded”.
Each player can try several combos a night, with some games being very short. The squad “pulled from the hat”, with each player playing both squads format, a great option.
Many of the builds are either based on known tournament winning combo’s or variations on a theme. No point in wasting time with bad set-ups, so research, research, research. Unlike Bare Bones, that is trying to capture the beautiful simplicity of the original core game, Classic lets you explore the full tournament squad building dynamic “lite”.
Not a likely situation in late 1e X Wing. The X Wing gained some good upgrade options in the last wave, but had little chance to prove itself.