Back Home

 I'll admit right from the start that I have always been a Star Wars fan. When "A New Hope" first came out, I was 6 years old, the perfect age to drive my parents crazy begging for every toy Kenner ever made. My days were made up of re-enacting scenes my friends and I memorized by heart. But the best thing about Star Wars were the starships. I bet I wasn't the only one out there that imagined their Schwinn Stingray was really an X-Wing Fighter, weaving around parked cars that were Star Destroyers in our mind's eye.

Now LucasArts has finally made that dream a reality with TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter......well, maybe not reality, but at least the Star Destroyers don't resemble '78 Malibus.

TIE Fighter is the perfect game for those of us who always leaned towards the darker side of the force. It puts you in the pilot's seat of the best starfighters in the Imperial Navy. The game takes you through a series of battle campaigns in the Outer Rim during the period between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In fact, the last few missions objectives are to attack Rebel conveys making their way to Endor. The gameplay is fast, the graphics are beautiful, and the storyline is a gem. How could it possibly get better than this?

How about X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter? XvT picks up where TIE Fighter left off; richer graphics, multiplayer support, and now a chance to fly for either side. Link up with some friends, choose your ships, and jump in. Xvt offers tons of flight options. Choose a mission and team up with or go against your friends. Or just enter the melee arena and blow each other to smithereens. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter has it all, except for some sort of storyline. If you want some sort of plot, spend the extra bucks and get the Balance of Power Campaign add-on pack.

LucasArts has also just recently announced the upcoming release of an X-Wing Collector's Series game pack. This series includes a newly revamped X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Flight School (XvT demo). The graphics on both games have been brought up to XvT standards, and are much better than the original 386/486 speed games.

Starfighters of X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter
- Rebel Alliance - - Imperial Navy -
Z-95 Headhunter - low hull/shield strength, weak performance, perfect for aces looking for a challenge or Rebels that are suicidal.
 TIE Fighter - quick, agile, but without shields. Use the maneuverability to your advantage.

X-Wing - excellent overall combination of shield strength/performance.
 TIE Interceptor - faster and even more maneuverable than the standard TIE, but still no shields.
A-Wing - fast and agile, perfect for hit and fade attacks. Rely on your speed more than your shields.
Advanced TIE - extremely fast, extremely agile, armed with missiles and shields. The choice of almost every Imperial backer.
Y-Wing - the Rebel's payload carrier. not too fast or agile, but has lots of missiles and ion cannons.
Assault Gunboat - not as graceful as the TIEs, but with lots of shield strength, ion cannons, and almost enough missiles to kill a capital ship by itself.
B-Wing (Balance of Power / X-Wing only) - The Alliance's new bombardier craft. Faster, more agile, and even stranger looking than the Y-Wing.

TIE Defender (TIE Fighter only) - The ultimate TIE design, however available in only limited production due to its expense to manufacture. Faster and more maneuverable than any TIE or Gunboat available.

  Missile Boat (Tie Fighter only) - faster and even more agile than the TIE Advanced, and carries about 40 advanced missiles or a split payload of missiles and proton torpedoes. The Imperial's Ultimate Killing Machine.
  TIE Bomber - no shields, no speed, only thing going for it is a large missile payload.
Weapons
Concussion Missiles - perfect against starfighters.

 Advanced Missiles - faster with more punch than standard concussion missiles.
Proton Torpedoes - designed against larger craft, too slow for starfighters.
Advanced Torpedoes - larger warhead with a longer homing time.
Heavy Rockets - a few of these will easily cripple medium capital ships

 Space Bombs - Take out Calamari Cruisers and Star Destroyers in the blink of an eye. Release close to target to
Mag Pulse - disables a starfighter's lasers for 20 seconds, or add 30 seconds per mag against capital ships. Perfect for disable/destroy in multiplayer or co-op games.
 

Beam Weapons
(Imperial craft only)		  
  Decoy - makes you invisible to radar. prevents sensors from detecting/locking onto your craft. However, worthless if you're within sight of an enemy craft.
  Tractor - prevents a ship from maneuvering out of the directional beam.
  Jamming - a directional beam that jams an enemies lasers and missiles preventing it from firing.
Countermeasures
(Rebel craft only)		  
  Chaff - scrambles a missiles homing device or tractor/jamming beam weapons.
  Flares - homes in on enemy missiles or other nearby craft.
   
Tips and Strategies

Here are just a few tips to keep you alive for a few more minutes in your craft. I have far more experience in Tie's than Rebel craft, so my tips are more Imperial orientated. Sorry Rebels. For more tips, be sure to visit my X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter links.

- Never fly straight and level. It's always harder to hit a randomly moving target. The more difficult it is to lock onto your ship, the longer you'll survive the fight.
- Flying head-to-head can be suicidal. I say "can be" because there is a chance you'll survive. First, make sure your shields are fully charged (TIE Fighters and Bombers shouldn't even try this stunt). Your aiming reticule turns green at about 1.0 klicks away, start firing before then. Once your laser warning light comes on, veer off course....unless you like the sound of lasers bashing away at your shields. You probably haven't gotten a kill, so maneuver around behind him and finish him off.
- Taking on a capital ship. Keep your distance whenever you can. If you can take it out by missiles, do so. You can easily obtain a missile lock well outside the range of its lasers. Use the comma key to target specific parts of the ship. Take out the warhead launchers first, then the gun turrets. Focus on a particular side of the ship for you to attack. If you need to finish it off with lasers. continually dodge and weave. Change vector whenever it begins firing. If possible, quickly skim along its surface, then move away in order to recharge your shields. Concentrate on a part of the ship without many lasers (hopefully you cleared off a spot when you had missiles.
- Learn defensive tactics. Decoy, jamming and tractor beams have a limited power cycle, and require the same energy used for the engine, shields, and lasers. Use them sparingly. Turn on the decoy beam at the last possible moment. Remember, if you turn it off, the missile will reacquire its lock. Jam the missile, maneuver around and take out the missile with lasers. If an opponent is trying to acquire a lock on you, flip the beam on, change direction, and then turn it off. Jamming beams are directional, you need to target the craft you want to jam. Use these in order to take on larger ships. If you or the craft change direction the beam will lose its lock. Tractor beams can be used to lock a ship in a particular path. I find these work especially well on A-Wings. Select missiles, get behind an enemy craft, a hit the tractor beam to keep them from moving out of lock. Once you acquire a lock, fire away and deactivate the beam.

XvT and Star Wars Links X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter / Star Wars Games
Lucas Arts Homepage - Home of Xvt, TF, X-Wing, Jedi Knight, Rebellion, and more Star Wars games than you can shake bantha stick at!
The Unofficial X-wing vs. TIE Fighter Home Page - Scorched Planet.
Stafighter Pilot's Technical Manual - contains a good listing of all the starfighters and starships you'll encounter.
The X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Outpost
Andrew's X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter Page
Indigo's Tie Fighter Page

3Dfx Interactive, Inc. - Get yourself a 3Dfx card and see what XvT really looks like.

Star Wars Sites
www.starwars.com - Official home of the Star Wars Trilogy as well as the upcoming prequels.
The Imperial DataBase - hundreds of Imperial related links.
A Hitch Hiker's Guide to StarWars
POFToo!!! - very cool photos of SW figures in action. Not for the collector who thinks action figures should be kept in their original unopened condition.
Star Wars Character Profiles - want the scoop on your fave character?
Hasbro Star Wars Site - check out the new Star Wars toys.
You know you're a Star Wars geek when...


One of my fave Star Wars character. Ok, so they say he died in the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi. But we all know better than that. Boba Fett is way to cool to die that cheesy. Thanks to the Star Wars novels and comic book industry, his life's been given an extension. Rumor has it that the Sarlacc had difficulty digesting Boba Fett and so he was able to escape....Here are a few spots with more info on the ultimate bounty hunter:
Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters - Boba Fett
Boba Fett Multimedia Vault - want Boba Fett info/sounds/pix? definitely go here.
The Boba Fett Fan Club
The Boba Fett page at the Bounty Hunters of the Star Wars Universe site.
Aden's Boba Fett page
SLAVE-1 - take a tour of Boba Fett's personal starship.
Bounty Hunter - info on Boba Fett as well as Bossk, Zuckuss, IG-88, Dengar and other famous Star Wars bounty hunters.

Got a killer Star Wars link? Send it Here
Back Home young Jedi