X-Wing: Wave 3 FAQ Update Online
With Wave 3 occupying table starfields all over the universe, it was bound to be coming soon. So what’s changed with the new X-Wing Miniatures FAQ? Read on, y’all and I’ll hit you with 10 things you, you, you oughta know before your next match!
First, if you’re new to the X-Wing FAQ, realize that it’s comprehensive- that is, there’s only one FAQ you need to download and read to be caught up on everything. Since X-Wing was released, there’s been a FAQ for each wave (might have even been two FAQs for Wave 1- can’t remember), but you don’t have to go track down the old ones to make sure you’ve got the full skinny. They even do you a solid in that all the stuff in red is the stuff that’s recently been added, the stuff in black is left over questions from the previous waves.
The Tournament Rules were also updated, but primarily just to include the Wave 3 ships. Still though, if you’ve not read them, I highly recommend it if you plan on playing in a tournament setting as there are some rather sizable differences in the way the game works in a tournament versus just the regular, you versus your buddy dogfights.
Note there are more new rulings that what I’m talking about in the following list- I just figured Larry wouldn’t want me going on and on and on about every single one of them. Now on to the new stuff!
10. Q: Can a ship perform the same Upgrade card
action or Damage card action more than
once per round?
A: No. Having more than one copy of the same card
that requires an action to trigger its ability does
not allow you to perform that action more than
once per round.
Not to sound all uppity, but one thing I try to do on TMB.com is call attention to game terms that are also common terms by capitalizing them. I find if I talk about an action, not everybody notices the way they do when I talk about an Action.
Maybe you caught it in the above paragraph, maybe you glossed over it, but that reference to an Upgrade card Actions is indeed a capital A action. Hence why you can’t Perform that Action more than once per round with the same ship. Which consequently makes this next ruling easier to understand…
9. Q: If a ship has more than one copy of the
same card that does not require an action
to trigger its ability, can it trigger all of
those card abilities?
A: Yes. For example, when a ship equipped with two
Mercenary Copilots is attacking, it can change two
results to two results.
No Action, no problem- it triggers as often as is contextually appropriate.
8. Q: If a ship does not have a dial assigned to
it when it activates during the Activation
phase, can it resolve any effects that refer
to its maneuver dial?
A: No. For example, a HWK-290 with an ion token
cannot use the effect of Navigator to change the
speed of its maneuver.
This one was kind of a surprise to me because of the way FFG ruled on R2 Astromechs and Nien Nunb in the previous FAQ.
Long story short, if you get Ionized, you suffer a damage and you’re forced to pull a 1 Straight for your next maneuver and that’s called out on the Ion Weapons card as being a white maneuver (which is why you should always try to ion a Stressed ship whenever possible). Most folks assumed that white Ion maneuver took precedence over R2 Astro’s ability to let you pull all 1 and 2 speed maneuvers as greens or Nien Nunb’s ability that makes all straight maneuvers green, but lo and behold, the Wave 2 FAQ said they did indeed count as greens.
I guess because technically Navigator triggers on the reveal, they decided it wouldn’t work if you were Ionized as you’re not actually revealing a maneuver.
7. Q: If Boba Fett is equipped with Navigator,
can he rotate to any bank maneuver of any
speed available on his dial?
A: Yes.
Just in case you didn’t believe that Mr. Fett has his pick of five other maneuvers besides the one actually on his dial (so long as it’s a bank of some sort), now it’s official.
6. Q: If Saboteur causes a player’s ship with a
stress token to attempt to execute a red
maneuver, does that player’s opponent
get to choose the ship’s maneuver when it
activates during the Activation phase?
A: Yes.
There’s not a ton of instances where you get to drive somebody else’s ship for them as even the greenest rookie pilot read that bit in the rulebook about not picking a red maneuver when you’re Stressed and vowed to never, ever, ever, ever let it happen to them.
With Saboteur though, you get an extra chance to ruin somebody’s day!
5. If a ship with a stress token reveals a red
maneuver, can it use Adrenaline Rush?
A: Yes. Treat the maneuver as a white maneuver;
the opponent does not choose a maneuver for the
stressed ship.
Another one of these rulings that when carefully read, isn’t surprising at all, but it’s still good to see it spelled out in the FAQ.
Note however, the ship in question would still be Stressed after all that resolves as Stress Token + White Maneuver = Still Stressed. As such, they also wouldn’t get their Perform Action step.
4. If a ship attacks twice through some effect,
such as the Gunner upgrade, can the ship
use the ability of Darth Vader (the Upgrade
card) twice?
A: Yes, once after each attack
Careful reading again reveals there’s nothing nutty going on here. Vader, Crew Member’s card text states that it triggers after an attack. Not after an attack that hits or anything like that, just an attack. Gunner effectively allows two attacks (though only one can hit in the rulebook sense of the term, e.g. it actually lands damage on a ship’s hull and/ or shields).
3. Q: If a ship equipped with Darth Vader would be
destroyed by using Darth Vader’s ability, can
it use that ability?
A: Yes
Vader can choose to martyr himself for the cause (which totally makes sense by the way when you think about him brawlin’ with the Emperor at the end of Jedi). That’s scary. Especially when you realize that an Omicron pilot with Vader and a Gunner costs the same as Wedge Antilles.
2. Q: How does Veteran Instincts work with
other abilities that set a ship’s pilot skill
value to a new number?
A: Veteran Instincts increases a ship’s printed pilot
skill value; it does not increase further alterations
to that ship’s pilot skill value. For example, while
Black Squadron Pilot is equipped with Veteran
Instincts, his pilot skill value is “6.” If Darth Vader
(pilot skill value “9”) uses Swarm Tactics on that
Black Squadron Pilot, that Black Squadron Pilot now
has a pilot skill value of “9,” not “11.”
I included this one as it seems like a lot of folks play with Veteran Instincts. The example they give is kinda obvious, and sort of seems dismissively simple, but I could see people making a case for a situation where it’s Roark Garnet modifying oh, I don’t know, how about Lando Calrissian who has selected Veteran Instincts for his Elite Pilot Skill.
One way you figure it, you end up with 12, the other way you end up with 14. As there’s other instances in the game where the owning player picks the order card effects are applied in (a Heavy Laser Cannon’s card text being modified by Mercenary Copilot instead of the other way around, for example), I’m glad they cleared this up.
1. Q: If an effect “deals a damage card” (either
faceup or facedown), does the effect follow
the procedure for “Suffering Damage” on
page 16 of the core set rulebook?
A: No. For example, the effect of Proton Bombs deals
one faceup Damage card to each affected ship.
This effect should not be confused with producing
a result, thus this effect does not interact
with shields, cannot be canceled by evade tokens,
cannot be redirected by Draw Their Fire, etc.
I wanted to call this one out specifically because it’s another example of those language subtitles.
This ruling totally makes sense if you think about it and really read the card text. As they say above, the difference here is basically the difference between an auto-hit (or in this case, auto-crit) and an in-combat die result; namely, you can burn a shield on a die result, but straight up giving somebody a Damage card, faceup or otherwise? There’s not much you can do against that (without invoking one of the two flavors of Chewbacca), so it’s kind of a big deal, y’know?
If you want to get into X-Wing Miniatures but don’t know your Evades from your Target Locks, by all means, stop on by the hippest pilot bar in the galaxy- TheMetalBikini.com. We serve all kinds (yeah, even droids- they’re the best tippers), and have a whole bunch of articles from breakdown summaries of every single card released so far, to tactics articles, to our Bikini Battle Basics new player guides- all served up with a heapin’ helpin’ of my own personal brand of slang and humor. Can you dig it?
