Never tell me the odds: How do you make decisions in X -Wing?
When I am asked to describe The X-Wing Miniatures Game to a newbie, or a curious bystander. I always tell them that X-Wing is a creative blend of two more well known games, Chess and Poker. All set to the background of the Star Wars universe
Each piece in the game, be it X-Wing or Tie Fighter has it’s own set of movements it can perform. Some can move further than others and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Extremely similar to Chess, or any other game based around competition.
However, thrown into the mix is this wonderful/diabolical element of luck. Every time you attempt to wipe one of your opponents ships off the board, the dice have a say in the outcome. That is not to say that you can’t win with a sub par hand. Just like Poker, you can fight your way through the bad luck and through persistence and patience, keep creating opportunities for your forces to succeed. This mechanic adds a random element that helps us to keep playing the game over and over again. It can also create a fantastic narrative, where through sheer blind luck (or total skill), your one remaining fighter can take on a horde of enemy forces and emerge victorious.
I could draw more parallels between these two but that’s not why we’re here. No dear reader, today I’m going to talk to you about the decisions that *you * make while playing the game. You might even work out if your games of X-Wing are ruled by your head, or your heart.
Two Polarised Opinions
There are two schools of thought about the ‘best’ way to fly and build your lists in X-Wing. Some pilots will spend hours calculating the probabilities of different combat situations, or work out to the nearest millimetre their opening engagement and swarm formation.
Others will throw caution to the wind, eyeball that proton torpedo and let the force guide them to victory. Through either great spacial awareness, sheer blind luck or lots of practice they are able to work their way around an X-Wing board doing what ‘feels right’.
I like to refer to these two schools as head vs heart and I’m sure that most X-Wing is a healthy mix of the two. One of these normally wins out and I’m curious to see which you think is best, or just more your style.
Search Your Feelings
There are many high class X-Wing players who would classify themselves in the heart category. European Champion George Dellapina is incredibly good at the game. Put a dial for any ship in his hand and he should be able to work it out. Ryan Farmer of the Mynocks is a similar character. These pilots are able to look at a move from halfway across a table, say to themselves ‘yeah that’ll work’ and smile in satisfaction as they pull it off by the barest of millimetres. Often these plays are backed up by hours and hours of practice, but that makes them no less impressive.
Delving slightly further into it, this is what I would describe as more of the Poker aspect of the game. Trying to outwit your opponent, guessing what they will do and planning moves that counter this. Players that follow their heart can often seem unpredictable, but most of the time that can work to their advantage.
Send The Droid!
The other side of the coin is the master strategist. Be it the calculating Admiral Thrawn or the grumpy K-2S0, players that are willing to use their head will go into each game with a clear plan.
It is likely by the time they have got to the table and seen your list that they have already considered how to win against your particular build. Maybe even practised multiple times against it on their kitchen table and worked out the picture perfect starting moves that will give them the edge.
Many players that favour this style like their statistics and will be able to tell you which action will give you the best chance of your ship getting maximum symbols on it’s dice. If you listen hard when playing against them you can actually hear the cogs whirring in their mechanical craniums as they are contemplating the best course of action.
What about me?
My own play style very much takes the lead from my head. I like to work out the three or four best moves that my opponent is likely to do in any given situation. From there I plan the manoeuvrers for my ships based on minimising risk. This may seem like a long and drawn out process but I’ve gotten fairly good at it, although on certain turns you can see the steam coming out of my ears when I try to work out just where to move my ace without getting it blocked by one of seven Tie Fighters.
There is a little bit of heart that sneaks in to some of my games. Spotting my opponent really likes jousting with his ships? Bait him in because I think he’s going to do it again and punish him for it. You could argue that I’m basing this strategy on previous evidence, but sometimes in the engagement you just have to trust your gut.
Asking yourself the question, what would I do if I was in my opponents shoes, can get you out of an awful lot of scrapes when you have no evidence to work with.
Now It’s Your Turn…
Understanding how your brain works can and will help you to improve your play. Whether you need to add a bit of Yin to your Yang to sneak the win over your regular opponent. Or you work out how your adversary flies and catch him with his trousers down. Try out something new and you might surprise yourself.
So have a think. Which type of pilot are you?
A cold calculating master of formation flying? Or a hotshot ace that can fly anything and bullseye a wamp rat without even trying?
At the end of the day, it’s probably a bit of both.
Fly Casual all
Oli
Picture Credit: http://theawkwardyeti.com/
