Rogue Squadron- Grievous' Royal Guard

Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at different squadrons you can fly in Atomic Mass Games X-Wing miniatures game. We give you the squad and then give you the lowdown on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In

Belbullab-22 Starfighter “General Grievous” (5 pts) (I4)

Pilot Ability
- While you perform a primary attack, if you are not in the defender’s firing arc, you may reroll up to 2 attack dice.
Ship Ability – None
Loadout (12/12)
- Missile – None (-)
- Modification – Impervium Plating (0)
  - Charges: 2
  - Before you would be dealt a faceup Ship damage card, you may spend 1 Charge to discard it instead.
- Modification – None (-)
- Talent – Outmaneuver (12)
  - While you perform a Front Arc attack, if you are not in the defender’s firing arc, the defender rolls 1 fewer defense die.
- Title – Soulless One (0)
  - Adds two Hull
  - While you defend, if the attacker is outside your firing arc, you may reroll 1 defense die.

Nantex-Clas Starfighter “Chertek” (5 pts) (I4)

Pilot Ability
- While you perform a primary attack, if the defender is tractored, you may reroll up to 2 attack dice.
Ship Ability – Pinpoint Tractor Array
- You cannot rotate your Turret Arc to your Rear Arc. After you fully execute a maneuver, you may gain 1 tractor token to perform a Rotate action.
Loadout (14/15)
- Talent – Gravitic Deflection (4)
  - While you defend, you may reroll 1 defense die for each tractored ship in the attack arc.
- Talent – Ensnare (10)
  - At the end of the Activation Phase, if you are tractored, you may choose 1 ship in your Turret arc at range 0-1. Transfer 1 tractor token to it.

2x Rogue Class Starfighter “Magnaguard Protector” (5 pts) (I4)

Pilot Ability
- Setup: After placing forces, assign the Guarded condition to 1 friendly ship other than the MagnaGuard Protector
  - Guarded – While you defend, if you are not in the attacker’s Bullseye, roll 1 additional defense die for each friendly calculating or evading MagnaGuard Protector in the attack arc.
Ship Ability – Networked Calculations
- While you defend or perform an attack, you may spend 1 calculate token from a friendly ship at range 0-1 to change 1 Focus result to an Evade or Hit result.
Loadout (18/18)
- Cannon – Synced Laser Cannons (8)
  - Attack (3), Front Arc, Range 2-3
    - If you are calculating, the defender does not apply the range bonus.
- Modification – Afterburners (10)
  - Charges: 2
  - After you fully execute a speed 3-5 maneuver, you may spend 1 Charge to perform a Boost action, even while stressed.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

General Grievous is surprisingly good in 2.5, given that he can take two excellent upgrades for zero loadout points. With the release of the Rogue Class Starfighter, Grievous can now fly with a loyal escort of Magnaguards. These two faithful droids can ramp Grievous up to a truly aggravating ship to destroy. Alternatively, you they can provide that protection to the truly squishy Chertek, allowing Grievous to go do his own thing.

With their Synced Laser Cannons, the Magnaguards can hang back, close enough to be in arc to provide their escort protection, but far enough away that they get a bonus defense die but deny it to their target. They’ll need to make good use of the one bank to slow roll since they don’t have a one forward. Since you have two of them, you can split them up to attack from two different angles to maximize the chances at least one of them is in the enemy’s arc.

Grievous or Chertek can work as a flanker but you are probably better off using Grievous. He has boost and barrel roll built in as actions and is fairly tough if he gets ganged up on. Letting the Magnaguards protect Chertek, lets him get in close to tractor targets, reducing their agility, and making the rest of the squad pummel it. Though, even with bonus dice, he can still melt with only four health.

Loadout Variations

You don’t have a large variety of options in the loadout on these ships. If you take the Synced Lasers on the Magnaguards, that leaves you Missile and Modification. You could go Shield Upgrade instead of Afterburners, but there are no two point missiles to spend those final two points on. It might be worth it though, as you do want these guys to be in arc, and an extra shield keeps them around longer. You could switch out the cannon for some ion action or a four dicer and take Electro-Chaff or Discord Missiles. Engine Upgrade is an option but then you don’t get to link from a calculate. Independent Calculations has that same problem.

Grievous seems tailor made for Outmaneuver. He could go Afterburners and Treachorous as an alternative.

Chertek has one build. You don’t fly a Nantex and not use Ensnare.