Y-wing: Workhorse of the Rebellion

The Y-wing was for a long time the workhorse of the Rebel Alliance. It was rugged if ungainly and could carry a heavy armament of proton torpedoes. It also possesses an ion turret which could be used to disable enemy craft. It had a two man crew, deflector shields and a hyperdrive which made it a highly effective raider. Pirates and mercenaries also operate the craft because of these abilities.

The Y-wing does not get much love in the X-wing miniatures game. It is not a sexy fighter like the X-wing nor is it as maneuverable as the A-wing and it doesn't have the resistance to crits that the B-wing does. It is tough and it can mount turrets. The original setup was for the Y-wing to mount Ion Cannon Turrets. This gave the Y-wing the ability to fire anywhere within range two of itself. This eliminated the downside for its less maneuverable dial compared to the X-wing. The Ion Cannon could only do one damage max but it could restrict your opponents maneuvering options.

The movement dial is not that bad with the only red maneuvers being 3 turns and a K-turn. With an R2 unit all your turns are green so it is easy to bleed off stress.


With the release of the Blaster Turret in the HWK-290 expansion this gave the Y-wing the ability to deal some significant damage at the same range as the Ion Cannon. The downside is that it requires a focus token to fire so you can't use it when you are stressed or if you bump into something and can't take your action. You still have your primary guns and with 2 attack dice they aren't terribad.

     


The X-wing game is a game of maneuver. If you can take the maneuver out of the equation and always be able to fire your weapons regardless of arc that counts for a lot. Fortress Falcon gives you two turrets that can re-roll attacks that don't hit and share damage. It has 6 attack dice and 26 hit points. On the flip side 4 Y-wings with blaster turrets and R2 units gives you more units, 12 attack dice and 32 hit points. So even with the falcon's gunners you still get the same number of attacks at minimum with the possibility of more since you get to fire regardless of whether the first attack misses.

You can cover more ground and threaten a larger area with 4 Y-wings than with two of any other ship. You could play traditionally and try to maneuver for close range shots with your primary guns which would give your 3 attack dice and if you fail or find yourself out of position then use your focus token to light them up with the blaster cannon.

Pirate List 100 points

Grey Squadron Y-wing 24 pts
Blaster Turret

Grey Squadron Y-wing 24 pts
Blaster Turret

Gold Squadron Y-wing 23 Points
R2 unit
Blaster Turret

Outer Rim Smuggler 29 pts
Anti-pursuit Lasers

With this list we have 3 x Y-Wings being supported by an Outer Rim Smuggler in a YT-1300. The list has a tone of Hit Points, all turrets, and some different pilots skills to allow for blocking. The ORS is used to block with its big base and take range one shots with its turret. If things bump into it they could take damage so Kamikaze his butt into everything, get in the way, be annoying. The Gold Y is used for the same thing get him in the way but don't ram anything just sit there and focus blaster everything until you die. The Grey Ys do the same thing so use them to focus fire lower PS guys before they get to shoot. The list gives you four tough ships with decent but flexible firepower. None of the ships is overtly dangerous so your opponent may have a hard time figuring out which one to focus down first since, unlike Wedge, no single ships screams "SHOOT ME NOW, SHOOT ME, SHOOT ME!

Target prioritization is important and in a generic list like this it is hard to determine which ship is the most dangerous. Because they are so generic the title of "most dangerous ship" on your side may change turn by turn. This may allow you to spread damage around all of your ships by making one ship each turn seem more of a threat than the others.

All in all I like the Y-wing an think that it is a very under-rated ship.