You forgot one of the main tactical roles of the A-Wing: High speed recon. A-Wings had one of the best sensor packages of all Rebel fighters. When you combine this with their hyperspace capability, speed & manuverability, and low target profile compared to other fighters, The rebels had a near perfect recon platform. As you mentioned the X-Wing game, I will point out the several recon missions where the A-Wing was used specifically in that role.
It's a cool little starfighter! The early variant of the RZ-1 A-Wing was called the R-22 Spearhead and seen in the SW: Droids cartoon at times. If I remember correctly, Droids was originally set 25 years before ANH and even a B-Wing was seen in that show so those designs have been around for a long time (in the SW story universe). I'm guessing Droids is canon but Lucas has altered the timeline a bit, Droids now takes place 15 years before ANH so the A-Wing is nothing new.
I know I'm "old" but this was my fighter of choice in the X-Wing video games of the 90's. The A-Wing was the F-16 of the Star Wars universe, except, the F-16 is a multi-role fighter whereas the A-Wing was a sole space superiority fighter to counter the TIE fighters. The exception was your early entry of that dying A-Wing pilot crashing into the bridge of the Executor and (spoiler) ;)
For the Rush head on tactic I remember reading that real life interceptors did similar. It basically a boom and Zoom tactic. You fly in at full burner and launch missiles and jet out. You don't get bog down in a fight but just keep on burner before turning around at a safe-ish point and repeating. This does a few things, Disrupted enemy formations as the try to evade the missiles and cannon shot. Basically splitting them up. And cause some to try to lock on to the Ceptor. This leads them open to the dogfighters behind the interceptors to pounce on the enemy. Also if you have bombers this helps distract the enemy interceptors and fighters from them so they can do their thing.
I also don't like the new canon version stating that the rebels removed its shields in favor of speed. The rebels always had limited resources, personnel and did not considered their pilots expendable. Major blunder here -.-'. Ah Disney!
Then generators themselves are quite heavy. The idea is simple make the ship so hard to hit and so well armed that nothing can keep up or out damage. Sort of like the zero of ww2 or early jet fighters. Get in deal damage get out. No need for shields if you can't be hit
Meanwhile the Zero and early jets still got shot down rather often. If they could shrug off say, 1 burst of weapon fire, that is much better than trying to outmaneuver and outspeed several ships.
I also find that strange because A-Wings canonically had lousy shields anyway, but Rebellion and New Republic doctrine mean bad shields are better than no shields.
jonathan mirvish For the Eclipse he would need to make two videos. One for the old Eclipse with the Superlaser and one for the new canon Eclipse, which is just a normal Executor-Class SSD.
Great video! Now I wonder if you could also make a video for TIE/LN Fighter, a cannon fodder fighter that has so many disadvantages, to have any good tactics or strategy to fight against superior X-Wings and other Rebel fighters. I'm really curious now to how TIE/LN can be really executed properly that most shows don't really portray. I'm really fan of this types of videos.
I am also sad for the fate of the A-Wing. :( They realy basically put A-Wing into the position of the Z-95 and called it a day, because it looks cooler and doesn't confuse casuals. I can imagine how people would moan "Why does the X-Wing have only two wings?", "They ruined X-Wings" etc. For me A-Wing was that next step into specialisation of the Rebel Alliance. They got the multirole X-Wings, now they needed to get something that can support them and A-Wing was perfect for that. My favourite starfighter!
@@irish14sean it could in old cannon to just as stated many many times this was a bad idea as the ship could not keep its fire rate up for long as it would over heat. All opening the S-foils did was allow it to fire for longer. Incom thought did make the X-Wing with a regulator that stopped it from firing in the closed position it was removed by the Alliance because if jumped in combat those few shots before they could open there S-Foils could be the difference between life and death
The D-Canon (it will never by my official canon) A-Wings are also much larger than the RotJ A-Wings. there was barely any room to move inside the OT RZ. In Rebels, not only did they have cockpit room, they had 2-seater variants.
I remember that old Star Wars game! Strange, at the time, I always thought the A-Wing was a bomber given it's missile payload, much like the B-1. Or as a tactical assault vehicle like the A-10 Thunderbolt II but the Y-wing was fit for that. But in both cases, Get in, drop the heavy munitions, get out!
I'm going to paint a target on my back & say that I like The Last Jedi, but I am still willing to be critical about it. One problem I have with the initial battle over D-Qar (& one I don't hear brought up enough) is that the A-Wings did not act like a proper screening force to protect the Star Fortress bombers, instead waiting until the enemy TIE's were amidst the bomber formation before engaging, getting in the way of the bombers' overlapping fields of fire. If Tallissan Lintra had been performing her role, more than a single bomber would have likely made it to the target & gotten away. But she died, so Poe got all the blame.
A and Y were my bread and butter units. If I could field against the enemy at 1:3 or 2:3 I was a powerhouse that couldn't be touched, they had lower shields but amazing speed, coupled with Y wing bomber/ion support I would wipe out any superior capital fleet. Better pilots, better equipment. So a screen of equal A, Y, and X. A's covering X's and engaging in any superior tie defenders while Y's and B's strike the lancers and gunboats leaving the empire the choice of either losing all it's capital ships or devoting more manpower to save 2/3rds of its fleet but be left with zero fighter coverage while I can maneuver with still maintaining a large enough x-wing force to hammer their remaining capitals down with impunity. End result, victory or the Empire always jumping to lightspeed after the first 1 or 2 capital losses.
How do you feel about its warhead capacity? In the X-Wing games, it had the same capacity as the Y-Wing, while also being much better suited against enemy fighters.
Great, but I like the info about the A-Wing to be a bit more detailed. What type of engine did it have? Where was the fighter manufactured? Those kinds of things.
Yeah, I prefer Legends on this. General Jan Dodonna figured that the trench run in the Battle of Yavin would have gone better if the Rebels had something faster and came up with the A-wing, which ultimately became an interceptor. I also think the Droids cartoon had A and B-wings in the timeline long before the the OT, probably for merchandising, but that was never very strong canon anyway.
the a wing was made before the tie interceptor in the EU which i like more, the tie interceptor was made to counter x wings but by the time it was out the a wing could dog fight it, not to mention the a wing had shields shittier i think than the x wing and y wing but still some protection.
WHAT they do have shield!? Agree I'm more legend even tho I have not read any legend book I like for the canon to have even a weak shield cuz Rebel always have shield
First of the idea that X-WING let alone the A-wing has ANY shielding in the original movies is pretty sketchy, feels like it was just tacked on after the fact by the EU . Also they changed its place in the timeline because realistic the A-wing is a far more logical fighter for the early rebellion then the X-Wing ever was.
Why would people screw with facts like whether or not A-Wings have shields? I hate this retconning so much. While we’re on the subject, fuck your B-Wing superlaser too. And while we’re on THAT subject, stop nerfing the B-Wing. It’s almost never mentioned without someone having to joke about how slow it supposedly is. Before THAT was retconned it was faster and more maneuverable than the Y-Wing. All I know is that it was probably the most survivable and powerful ship in the old flight sims, particularly when power was diverted from shields to engines. Shields were so strong, you could push the thing to 110-120 mglt, launch ordinance, and still turn and vape some TIEs.
Concussion missiles only though. Those are anti-fighter weapons, NOT anti-capital ship. So calling it a bomber is a bit like calling an F-16 a bomber because it carries sidewinders. Granted, it's a LOT of missiles, but they're still missiles designed for use against fighters...
All Rebel fighters had shields because, in stark contrast to the Empire, the Alliance actually cares about their pilot's survival. New canon is such a shitshow.
Agreed. The EU universe is way better. Disney has nearly ruined Star Wars. Rebels has even ruined the B wing and the Alliance escort carrier. Enjoy the thoughtfulness and detail in these videos.
You forgot one of the main tactical roles of the A-Wing: High speed recon. A-Wings had one of the best sensor packages of all Rebel fighters. When you combine this with their hyperspace capability, speed & manuverability, and low target profile compared to other fighters, The rebels had a near perfect recon platform. As you mentioned the X-Wing game, I will point out the several recon missions where the A-Wing was used specifically in that role.
Daniel Haire ofc you are correct!
@Edward Damian No one cares about you two stalkers or your computer toys. Get lost.
From what I've read up on in legend the original A-wings laser cannons had a full 180 degree rotation to return fire at pursuers
It's a cool little starfighter! The early variant of the RZ-1 A-Wing was called the R-22 Spearhead and seen in the SW: Droids cartoon at times. If I remember correctly, Droids was originally set 25 years before ANH and even a B-Wing was seen in that show so those designs have been around for a long time (in the SW story universe). I'm guessing Droids is canon but Lucas has altered the timeline a bit, Droids now takes place 15 years before ANH so the A-Wing is nothing new.
Great vid!!! Love the A-wing!
I like this ship quite a bit, simple and to the point, no fluff.
I know I'm "old" but this was my fighter of choice in the X-Wing video games of the 90's. The A-Wing was the F-16 of the Star Wars universe, except, the F-16 is a multi-role fighter whereas the A-Wing was a sole space superiority fighter to counter the TIE fighters. The exception was your early entry of that dying A-Wing pilot crashing into the bridge of the Executor and (spoiler) ;)
I like to believe that the version in rebels was actually the R-22 Sperhead and the A-wings pnly came into use after the battle of Endor
me too
It is
Yes, those are now officially pre-A-Wing fighters on which the later actual A-Wing is based on.
ya that's the homemade prototype version right?
For the Rush head on tactic I remember reading that real life interceptors did similar.
It basically a boom and Zoom tactic. You fly in at full burner and launch missiles and jet out. You don't get bog down in a fight but just keep on burner before turning around at a safe-ish point and repeating.
This does a few things,
Disrupted enemy formations as the try to evade the missiles and cannon shot. Basically splitting them up.
And cause some to try to lock on to the Ceptor.
This leads them open to the dogfighters behind the interceptors to pounce on the enemy.
Also if you have bombers this helps distract the enemy interceptors and fighters from them so they can do their thing.
eric zaiz
The ME 262 was the first fighterplane that make Boom and Zoom tactics. Because of Higher Speed and lack of maneuverability.
The RZ-1 always was my favorite starfighter model since ROTJ, and really like the fleet-vs-fleet presentation. Love your content :D
however, A-Wings were effective Reconnaissance Craft as well as strike craft specifically designed to strike before the fighters could deploy.
This was awsome. The video was short, and to the point... just like an A-wing.
I also don't like the new canon version stating that the rebels removed its shields in favor of speed. The rebels always had limited resources, personnel and did not considered their pilots expendable. Major blunder here -.-'. Ah Disney!
Sistros It doesn't exactly make sense for them to remove an energy field to increase speed. What, does this non-solid weigh more than a lead brick?
Then generators themselves are quite heavy. The idea is simple make the ship so hard to hit and so well armed that nothing can keep up or out damage. Sort of like the zero of ww2 or early jet fighters. Get in deal damage get out. No need for shields if you can't be hit
Meanwhile the Zero and early jets still got shot down rather often. If they could shrug off say, 1 burst of weapon fire, that is much better than trying to outmaneuver and outspeed several ships.
not really, they changed the A-wing because it was a more logical fit for the early rebellion then the x-wing.
I also find that strange because A-Wings canonically had lousy shields anyway, but Rebellion and New Republic doctrine mean bad shields are better than no shields.
Love you starwars storys. Just found your chanal today and have allready seen av the vs storys. Love to see more in the future. ☺️
she is a great fighter, the battle wedge lives on
Thanks for all your hard work, it's appreciated! Happy holidays to you and yours.
Excellent job with the A-wing! Next time you should make a longer video about a fighter though. Your good at this.
do the tactics of the mandator 4, b wing, resurgent star destroyer and the eclipse
jonathan mirvish For the Eclipse he would need to make two videos. One for the old Eclipse with the Superlaser and one for the new canon Eclipse, which is just a normal Executor-Class SSD.
The 3D is freaking awesome. pls moar
B-WING NEXT PLZ!!!
Great video! Now I wonder if you could also make a video for TIE/LN Fighter, a cannon fodder fighter that has so many disadvantages, to have any good tactics or strategy to fight against superior X-Wings and other Rebel fighters. I'm really curious now to how TIE/LN can be really executed properly that most shows don't really portray. I'm really fan of this types of videos.
Great video 👍. Would you consider an analysis video of The Republic V-Wing ?
Awesome fighter/Interceptor.
I am also sad for the fate of the A-Wing. :( They realy basically put A-Wing into the position of the Z-95 and called it a day, because it looks cooler and doesn't confuse casuals. I can imagine how people would moan "Why does the X-Wing have only two wings?", "They ruined X-Wings" etc. For me A-Wing was that next step into specialisation of the Rebel Alliance. They got the multirole X-Wings, now they needed to get something that can support them and A-Wing was perfect for that. My favourite starfighter!
What about the fact the X-Wing in the new canon can fire with its S-Foils closed?
@@irish14sean it could in old cannon to just as stated many many times this was a bad idea as the ship could not keep its fire rate up for long as it would over heat. All opening the S-foils did was allow it to fire for longer. Incom thought did make the X-Wing with a regulator that stopped it from firing in the closed position it was removed by the Alliance because if jumped in combat those few shots before they could open there S-Foils could be the difference between life and death
The D-Canon (it will never by my official canon) A-Wings are also much larger than the RotJ A-Wings. there was barely any room to move inside the OT RZ. In Rebels, not only did they have cockpit room, they had 2-seater variants.
Good video. Will there be videoes about X-Wing and B-Wing?
I remember that old Star Wars game! Strange, at the time, I always thought the A-Wing was a bomber given it's missile payload, much like the B-1. Or as a tactical assault vehicle like the A-10 Thunderbolt II but the Y-wing was fit for that. But in both cases, Get in, drop the heavy munitions, get out!
Y-Wing: F-4 Phantom
X-Wing: F-15 Eagle
A-Wing: F-16 Falcon
I'm going to paint a target on my back & say that I like The Last Jedi, but I am still willing to be critical about it. One problem I have with the initial battle over D-Qar (& one I don't hear brought up enough) is that the A-Wings did not act like a proper screening force to protect the Star Fortress bombers, instead waiting until the enemy TIE's were amidst the bomber formation before engaging, getting in the way of the bombers' overlapping fields of fire. If Tallissan Lintra had been performing her role, more than a single bomber would have likely made it to the target & gotten away.
But she died, so Poe got all the blame.
Please do one on the B-Wing.
A and Y were my bread and butter units. If I could field against the enemy at 1:3 or 2:3 I was a powerhouse that couldn't be touched, they had lower shields but amazing speed, coupled with Y wing bomber/ion support I would wipe out any superior capital fleet. Better pilots, better equipment. So a screen of equal A, Y, and X. A's covering X's and engaging in any superior tie defenders while Y's and B's strike the lancers and gunboats leaving the empire the choice of either losing all it's capital ships or devoting more manpower to save 2/3rds of its fleet but be left with zero fighter coverage while I can maneuver with still maintaining a large enough x-wing force to hammer their remaining capitals down with impunity. End result, victory or the Empire always jumping to lightspeed after the first 1 or 2 capital losses.
X wing was a great game, very under represented now a days.
I think it’s time for a video on the droid tri fighter.
How do you feel about its warhead capacity? In the X-Wing games, it had the same capacity as the Y-Wing, while also being much better suited against enemy fighters.
Great, but I like the info about the A-Wing to be a bit more detailed. What type of engine did it have? Where was the fighter manufactured? Those kinds of things.
Can you do Star Wars vs halo ships?
Wasn't there an option to fully rotate the lasers to fire backwards? To cause whoever was on your 6 to bug out?
Yeah, I prefer Legends on this. General Jan Dodonna figured that the trench run in the Battle of Yavin would have gone better if the Rebels had something faster and came up with the A-wing, which ultimately became an interceptor. I also think the Droids cartoon had A and B-wings in the timeline long before the the OT, probably for merchandising, but that was never very strong canon anyway.
What about the Q-wing, though?
the a wing was made before the tie interceptor in the EU which i like more, the tie interceptor was made to counter x wings but by the time it was out the a wing could dog fight it, not to mention the a wing had shields shittier i think than the x wing and y wing but still some protection.
Ur takes on the X-wing?
It also helps it only the most skilled Pilots we're allowed to operate the A-wing. It is a very No Nonsense design.
Insane to not have sheilds in Canon or legends. Even if it does cost more or affect size .
Hey you should do a Y-Wing
I've always preferred the A-wing in the games.
I do like the A-wing.
I love this fighter its sexy. The old one I mean not the new one.
but you have 3d space. so you can fly up or down and avoid the bulk of the fleet, instead of flying behind a line
You could also use them as hipper fast torpedo boomers to fast to intercept and have x wings running intorfaers
WHAT they do have shield!?
Agree I'm more legend even tho I have not read any legend book
I like for the canon to have even a weak shield cuz Rebel always have shield
except in the movie they don't really act like they do.
First of the idea that X-WING let alone the A-wing has ANY shielding in the original movies is pretty sketchy, feels like it was just tacked on after the fact by the EU . Also they changed its place in the timeline because realistic the A-wing is a far more logical fighter for the early rebellion then the X-Wing ever was.
The A-wing was always my favorite in the old SW flight sims. Hate how bad they look in TLJ.
As with all rebel fighters except the Y-Wing, just move the guns closer together.
Why would people screw with facts like whether or not A-Wings have shields? I hate this retconning so much. While we’re on the subject, fuck your B-Wing superlaser too. And while we’re on THAT subject, stop nerfing the B-Wing. It’s almost never mentioned without someone having to joke about how slow it supposedly is. Before THAT was retconned it was faster and more maneuverable than the Y-Wing. All I know is that it was probably the most survivable and powerful ship in the old flight sims, particularly when power was diverted from shields to engines. Shields were so strong, you could push the thing to 110-120 mglt, launch ordinance, and still turn and vape some TIEs.
I love This fighter but you do Y-wing
once the Sith lord Darth Disney took over command of the SW 'verse, everything is screwed up.
12 missiles? It's more of a bomber than an interceptor. Even Y-wings can't carry so much.
Concussion missiles only though.
Those are anti-fighter weapons, NOT anti-capital ship.
So calling it a bomber is a bit like calling an F-16 a bomber because it carries sidewinders.
Granted, it's a LOT of missiles, but they're still missiles designed for use against fighters...
All Rebel fighters had shields because, in stark contrast to the Empire, the Alliance actually cares about their pilot's survival. New canon is such a shitshow.
This vid can be boiled down to WinMatar.
Oh helle
Agreed. The EU universe is way better. Disney has nearly ruined Star Wars. Rebels has even ruined the B wing and the Alliance escort carrier. Enjoy the thoughtfulness and detail in these videos.
No the Tri fighter is the best interpector
Rebels made the A wing suck. Slow, slow firing, made of paper