Tournament Prep: Phantom Flight School

So I have been practicing with the Phantom maneuver dial in preparation for the tournament Saturday. In an earlier article someone brought up the question as to why I put Veteran Instincts on my Echo. The biggest reason other than firing first potentially is that I want to maneuver last. I want to see where all of the other ships have moved to so that I can decide if I want to boost or barrel roll when I decloak. 

Even with a one hard bank the maneuverability of the Phantom is astounding.

The reason you want higher pilot skill is that you need to decide where you are going to try an end up when you maneuver. In the above two photos you see the same maneuver, a boost to the left, but with a barrel roll to opposite sides. Event the final barrel roll will put you, or lack of one, can potentially land you in three different positions to attack a target. This could mean the difference in being in arc at range one but out of their fire arc completely which is ideal in this ship.

 
A right barrel roll with the two bank template opens up even more options as to where to go. Barrel roll or not barrel roll? If so which side. Depends on who you are trying to shoot. As I am looking at these maneuvers I am thinking that Outmaneuver would be a great EPS to put on this guy as it will be easy to get into positions where you are out of their firing arc and it lowers their agility which makes your 5 dice at range one even more effective.

Flip the 2 bank around and even with the same maneuver on your dial you are in a completely different position.

Granted against turrets all of this maneuvering is mostly pointless unless you shoot before them with a good chance to destroy them that turn or you are working the Outmaneuver angle to reduce those turreted ships who already have a low agility value to zero or almost zero. This will virtually guarantee a hit or two, especially at close range.

Even though the Phantom's dial has K-turns in it with Echo you should never have to lose an action just to turn around and face the other way. With the plethora of options granted by Echo's ability you can turn around and focus that turn or plant an evade token if you think someone has a shot at you. Because if they shoot first you will only have TWO agility dice to defend with, so you might need that evade.

One of the things that I am doing to practice is just to throw a bunch of ships and asteroids on the board at random and then trying to maneuver around them or to line up good shots. This gives me a better idea of where certain maneuvers are likely to land me and how much the mandatory bank / barrel roll is likely to throw my chosen dial maneuver off. If you wan to get better at anything you need to practice with it. One of the hardest things about the X-wing game is just freaking flying your ship around the board without bumping into you own dudes. That is something you don't necessarily need another player for.

Just get out there and practice drivin the goofy thing.