Article 4: X-wing Basics 2, Vector Maps

Last time I talked about using imaginary “threat maps” to as a way to visualize the threat posed by a ship to various places on the board.  They key item to remember from that article is that every threat map is context dependent.  It depends on what tokens you have, what tokens the opponent has, what your goals are for the turn, and for the game.  However useful this idea of threat maps is, it’s really only a small part of the story.  Much like a knife isn’t much danger sitting on a table, a ship won’t pose a threat simply by existing.  It must be put somewhere where the threat map it generates can accomplish something to help you (or your opponent) win the game.  This is, of course, where the ship’s dial comes in.  The dial is what we’ll focus on today.

Let’s look again at the humble X-wing.  Figure 1 shows most of the places its dial could take it, along with the firing arcs from all those positions (this figure made possible by the greatness of the X-wing Vassal mod.  Check out xwvassal.info, thanks mu0n, you’re amazing).  We’ll call this a vector map, but it’s a rudimentary one, because it doesn’t take into account the Barrel Roll options (or the red moves).  Barrel Rolls increase the area that can be covered by the X-wing and its threat map, but they do drop the intensity of its threat map when they’re used, because the action used to Focus or Target Lock is now used to reposition. 

  Figure 1:  Basic Vector Map.

 Even this simple map from a fairly straightforward ship tells us a few interesting things to keep in mind for more complicated ships.  Look at the light green sections.  These are areas that are only covered by on specific move.  A 2-hard for the bottom right of the green sections, for example.  If you really don’t know where the opposing ship is going, setting your dial to land in this green region will reduce your odds of getting caught in its arc.  The yellow region is where an arc is covered by a single bearing.  The top left yellow portion, for example, is covered by a variety of straight moves.  These yellow sections are areas where you’ll be safe if you guess the bearing of the opposing ship correctly, but you’ll eat a shot if you’re wrong.  The orange regions are the worst.  These regions can be threatened by multiple bearings, which means that a huge range of moves can draw arc on these locations.  Don’t be here unless you have a very good reason to believe that neither of the threatening bearings will be selected by the opponent.  For the sake of simplicity, I’ve not categorized the vector map further, but understanding that there are further gradations within these three categories is important.  The takeaway point here is that if a ship can put its arc on a location with a lot of different moves, don't be there.

 Like the threat map discussed in the previous article, the vector map is affected by obstacles.  Take a look at Figure 2.  It looks at the same set of moves as Figure 1, but now we’ve got a big asteroid in the way, overlapping the 3-turn and the 2- and 3-bank. 

 Figure 2:  Vector Map with an nearby asteroid.

This does a couple of things.  The big effect is that the overlapping maneuvers cut off those firing arcs.  You’re no longer worried about positions that can only be threatened by the 3-turn or the faster banks.  Additionally, there are positions where the obstruction granted by the asteroid grants the additional defense die, reducing the risk associated with being there.  On top of the direct overlapping, the 1-bank is a dangerous move for the X-wing, as it necessitates a Barrel Roll to avoid passing over the asteroid the following turn.  These factors make that region threatened only by the 1-bank look pretty good. 

 There are more safe zones than this, though.  While the figures so far have had threat zones going straight up to the ship tile, this is not exactly true.  Excepting Arvel, Oicunn, or a ship equipped with Zeb crew, overlapping prevents a ship from shooting at its overlapped ship (and vice versa).  This can make the area very close to where you expect the opponent to be the safest of all places.  Aside from just the prospect of inducing an overlap, close positions are often safe from a wide variety of other maneuvers.  Look at Figure 3. 

 

Figure 3:  Improving survival through blocking.

The TIE Interceptor moves first, and reaches its position (green circle) before the X-wing moves.  There is exactly one maneuver the X-wing can take where it can fire at that Interceptor, the 1-bank.  If you think your opponent has a good reason to dial in that 1-bank, you might be out of luck, but the Interceptor is safe in any other of the positions shown.  Inducing overlaps can do more than keep a ship safe, however.  It can protect friendly ships as well.  At the very least, it robs the higher initiative ship of an action, which is always useful.  Additionally, it can protect allied ships from receiving any shots at all from the blocked ship.  Figure 4 shows two different positions occupied by a blocked and unblocked X-wing (the blocking TIE Interceptor is hiding in that green circle).  If unblocked, the ship’s arc threatens a certain region.  By being blocked, however the threatened region is shifted about 45 degrees (in this particular example).  This leaves an entire are open for the Interceptor’s allies to move into and be free of shots from the X-wing. 

Figure 4:  Changing firing arc angle through blocking.

                                                 

A dramatic and perhaps more relevant example (as of Oct 2018) is the vector map of Redline loaded with Proton Torpedoes.  Any of the white or blue moves he makes can result in a TL/Focus shot with a 4-dice proton torpedo at Range 2-3.  The position map looks a lot like the X-wing’s (although it bears to keep in mind the position coloring looks at the number of moves on a dial that threaten an area, not about the intensity of that threat).  Already a key difference arises, however.  The Punisher dial has just one white turn maneuver, the 2-turn.  If it wants to engage to its flank it either has to use that one maneuver or boost off of a bank turn, which reduces the average damage of the torpedo shot and takes the ship into a substantially different position than the 2-turn.  This provides the opponent of Redline with a key bit of knowledge:  the Punisher that wants to attack to its flank with maximum strength is stuck with one maneuver.  

Figure 5:  Redline's Vector Map.

That one maneuver can still threaten an enormous area, however, thanks to Redline’s ability to get a lock after any other action, he can Boost or Barrel Roll and still get a lock.  It’s not a double modified shot, but a Proton Torpedo with re-rolls is still a pretty stout attack.  It’s worth building an individual position map for all of the options available to just one maneuver (the 2-turn, in this case) (Fig. 6).  In addition to the vector map, we can also look at the threat map generated by Redline from that 2-turn (Fig. 7). 

Figure 6:  Vector Map of Redline from just the 2-turn.

Figure 7:  Threat Map of Redline from just the 2-turn.

Together, these maps give a pretty strong indication about where a ship really doesn’t want to be.  That central region, covered by orange in the position map and red in the threat map, is the place where a ship can be engaged with the widest number of repositioning options (useful information if there are obstacles or other pressures that make repositioning a desirable thing for Redline to do).  It’s also the region where Redline can deliver the highest quality attack.  In essence there is very little reason to expect a turn to give many dividends if you have a ship that parks itself there.  However, these maps also illuminate places where ships may operate with some expectation of safety.  The green areas of the position map are threatened by a single repositioning option.  If there is some factor, like an asteroid or another ship that punishes or prevents a reposition to that location, those spaces become fairly safe.  Likewise, if an asteroid provides cover from a torpedo shot powered only by the Target Lock reroll and the target ship has a token for defense, it might be considered an acceptable time to soak a Proton Torpedo shot.  

The size of the the areas that Redline can threaten with such high offense is surely one of reasons the ship has seen so much competitive play in the early months of X-wing 2.0.  

To leave you with a note of hope.  Remember the sure-thing safe zone of blocking.  Not only does it mean that Redline cannot fire at the blocking ship, it means his threat map goes from Figure 7, to Figure 8. 

Figure 8:  Threat Map of Redline blocked.

Thanks for reading.

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It’s a good thing everyone likes Trajectory Simulator instead of Advanced Sensors.