Okay. So, the title of this post might be just a little bit misleading. I’m certainly not capable of telling anyone everything they need to know about obstacles. But I can hopefully, at least, point you in the right direction if you’re lost. I’ve had several conversations with a few other players recently about the issue of obstacle placement. These people have had a fairly wide range of experience in playing X-Wing, from a couple of months of playing to a few years. But they have expressed a similar sentiment, and that is a general bewilderment about what exactly they should be doing with their asteroid and debris placement.

Unfortunately, while the basics of rock placement, much like the basics of X-Wing itself, are fairly simple and easy to grasp, the finer points will often evade you until you have spent a considerable amount of time thinking and planning through all of the possibilities. Three time world champion Paul Heaver wrote a series of articles for FFG that were all focused on what he referred to as “Turn Zero”, by which he meant the strategic decisions and actions you take from the time first player is decided up until you start planning your maneuvers for the first turn of the game. One of his articles focused primarily on asteroid placement. You can find that article here.

You’ll notice that the his suggestions for rock placement strategies are all rather vague. And there is a very good reason for that, I believe. The fact is that your strategy for placing rocks should probably be different for almost every game you play. As you are unlikely to face the same opponent running an unchanging list while you also play your same unchanging list over and over again, your rock placement should change, to varying degrees, almost every time you play a game. Your obstacle setup, at it’s most basic, will be a consideration of three separate factors:

1: The strengths and weaknesses of the ships in your list and how they function as a whole.

2: Your skill as a player and your play-style.

3: Your opponent’s goals and how best to thwart them.

The first two points are fairly straight forward, but still require a significant amount of thought and consideration beyond what some players might be used to. The third point is a level of proficiency that I rarely get to. Beyond that you find players who, like William Haigwood, will plan the specifics of where they want the initial engagement to take place and think through how the rock placement will play out at that point. William said on a recent Gold Squadron podcast that he likes to take Tobias Becket crew in his Drea swarm because it allows him to move a critical rock last minute. He said he places that rock with the first engagement in mind and plans to use his tug boats to tractor his opponent’s ships onto THAT specific rock. That’s a level of planning that I haven’t even come close to attaining.

“The strengths and weaknesses of the ships in your list and how they function as a whole.”

To go in depth about the first point, I’ll draw on a well established pairing of ships and talk about rock placement for Boba/Guri. Both the Firespray and the Starviper chassis’ are quite maneuverable, and both have re-positioning actions available to them. Which means that they are both better equipped to navigate through closely grouped obstacles than something like a Lambda Shuttle or an Auzituck Gunship. Couple that with Boba potentially having the talent Debris Gambit equipped, and you’ll quickly realize that this squad doesn’t particularly want the rocks spread out to the edges and corners of the board. Most engagements in X-Wing happen towards the center of the board, and Boba wants to be able to have obstacles close enough during combat to get his white evade. Being in the midst of a cluster of obstacles also cuts down on the number of ships that can get into a flanking position to be out of both the Firespray’s front and rear arcs. That being said though, while Guri is easily able to navigate through even densely clustered obstacles, they can very easily prevent her microthrusters barrel roll, which is essential to her ability to arc dodge. So the best basic obstacle set up for this pair tends to be having the obstacles clustered loosely in the middle of the board. I aim for around range two between the rocks. That is optimal placing to allow Boba to remain range one of an obstacle very easily, while also giving Guri the room she wants to arc dodge to her heart’s content.

In thinking about your rock placement, you’ll need to figure out first and foremost whether your squad functions best as independent ships or if they need to fly in some sort of formation. Decide if you need to create well defined turn lanes for a jousting list, or rock clusters for a highly mobile ace list, etc. Think through the strengths and weaknesses both of your individual ships, and of how they need to function as a whole. Then devise your basic obstacle placement strategy based on those factors.

“Your skill as a player and your playstyle.”

After working out a generalized strategy, you’ll want to personalize your plans a bit. For instance, in certain situations, the best way to be defensive and ensure that Guri doesn’t get shot is to be hyper aggressive with her. If she’s close in to the opposing ship, she has a much better chance to arc dodge and not even take a shot. So very often I will take the opportunity to place my first rock between range two and a half to three in one of my opponent’s corners. This prevents a rock from being placed in that corner at range two, and with that line of sight being cleared up a little more towards the center of the board, it seems to subconsciously encourage my opponent to set up that much closer to the center. Which in turn gives Guri the opportunity, if it seems advantageous to me, to race up that board edge and have more room to use her bendy barrel roll to arc dodge. That tactic is situational at best, but I like to set up in such a way as to leave the option open to me. This doesn’t change my general strategy at all. I simply work a few specifics like that into my rock placement while still creating a loose cluster of rocks towards the middle of the board.

As you play particular ships and lists, you’ll find that you will develop your own style of playing them. I don’t know of anyone who plays Starvipers in quite the same way I do. That isn’t to say that I’m right and others are wrong, only that I have a playstyle I enjoy and gravitate towards. And I try to take my personal preferences and playstyle into account when I’m placing my obstacles.

TIE Fighters don’t like rocks, Exhibit A.

The questions of which rocks to use, or whether to take asteroids or debris will also be answered by these first two considerations. Does your squad either contain stress mechanics or get an advantage from stressed ships, like 4-Lom or the Scum Falcon? Take debris. Is stress your list’s worst enemy? Take rocks. Do you have trick shot as a core mechanic? Take the biggest obstacles you can. Do you have quadjumpers? Take large rocks. Are always finding yourself landing on asteroids? Take the smallest ones you can. Or just keep taking the large ones and plan on losing games until it forces you to get better at plotting your maneuvers. (Which might be the better decision.) All of these questions are simple, but the proper answer can make all the difference in how well a squad performs for you, and you owe it to yourself to consider them.

“Your opponent’s goals and how best to thwart them.”

This is the place that I often completely fall apart in my obstacle strategy. I can normally put a decent game plan together for what my list wants, but I’m hard pressed to figure out on the fly what their list doesn’t want to see. That being said, there are some examples I can give that are pretty simple. If your opponent has Tie Defenders, they will want to go fast and four “k”. A lot. So do your best to not leave them nice, clear turning lanes. A Tie Fighter swarm hates to see rocks half way up the board at range two and a half in. It makes it really hard for them to turn in to engage. If your opponent brought Tug Boats and starts building a dense cluster of rocks, don’t help them do it. And certainly don’t engage them in the rocks. Unless I’m the opponent who’s running Tugs, then always engage in the rocks. It’ll be fine, I promise.

These guys will wreck your day one token at a time.

Above and beyond these considerations, there are opportunities to build visual cues for yourself into your rock placement. For instance, an obstacle placed at range two of the board edge can give you perfect information as to whether or not a small base four “k” will fit. If the front edge of your small base ship is in line with the edge of the obstacle closest to the board, or even further in towards the center, your four “k” will fit. You can also use your rock placement to give yourself customized visual clues for your list. For example, if you are running a Tie Phantom or even some Tug boats equipped with a cloaking device, you can measure out how far a decloak forward followed by a three straight will take you and lay two obstacles out that far apart on the board to help eliminate guess work, until you become more comfortable with the maneuver.

Another small point to consider is the orientation of the obstacles you place. If you place obstacles close to your opponent’s side of the mat, turning it so that its longer side is parallel to their board edge will work to restrict setup options a bit. Conversely, if you are placing obstacles on your side of the board, you can turn them perpendicular to your board edge to limit how much they restrict your options.

There are many aspects to Turn Zero to consider, and rock placement plays a vital part in it. Discovering what the best obstacle setup for your list is and how to best thwart your opponent’s with a good setup can give you the edge you need to win. With what looks like new obstacles coming in Wave 3 of Second Edition, obstacle placement is only going to get more complicated, and learning obstacle setup is only going to get more complicated. So get your basics down to best prepare yourself any future match!

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