Rogue Squadron- Ghost-Fenn

Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at different squadrons you can fly in Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing miniatures game. We give you the squad, what expansion pack all of the upgrades come from and then give you the low down on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In

VCX-100 “Lothal Rebel” (Ghost Expansion) (55 pts) (PS 3)

None

Crew- Ezra Bridger (Ghost Expansion):When attacking, if you are stressed, you may change 1 of your results to a result.
Crew- Maul (Phantom II Expansion): When attacking, if you are not stressed, you may receive any number of stress tokens to reroll that many attack dice. After performing an attack that hits, you may remove 1 of your stress tokens.
System- Sensor Jammer (Lambda Shuttle/U-Wing/TIE Silencer Expansions): When defending, you may change 1 of the attacker’s Hit results into a Focus result. The attacker cannot reroll the die with the changed result.
Turret- Twin-Laser Turret (K-Wing/TIE Aggressor Expansions): Attack (3, range 2-3): Perform this attack twice (even against a ship outside your firing arc). Each time this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage. Then cancel all dice results.
Title– Ghost (Ghost Expansion): Equip the Phantom title card to a friendly Attack Shuttle and dock it to this ship. After you execute a maneuver, you may deploy it from your rear guides.
Modification- Engine Upgrade (Hound’s Tooth/Millenium Falcon Expansions): Your action bar gains the Boost action icon.

Attack Shuttle “Zeb Orrelios” (GhostExpansion) (18 pts) (PS 3)

When defending, you may cancel Hit results before Crit results.

Title- Phantom (Ghost Expansion): While you are docked, the Ghost can perform primary weapon attacks from its special firing arc, and, at the end of the Combat phase, it may perform an additional attack with an equipped Turret. If it performs this attack, it cannot attack again this round.

Sheathipede Shuttle “Fenn Rau” (Phantom II Expansion) (27 pts) (PS 8 or 10)

When an enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3 becomes the active ship during the Combat phase, if you are not stressed, you may receive 1 stress token. If you do, that ship cannot spend tokens to modify its dice when attacking this round.

Astromech- R2 Astromch (Y-Wing Expansion): You may treat all 1- and 2-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers.
Crew- HotShot Co-Pilot (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): When attacking with a primary weapon, the defender must spend 1 focus token if able. When defending, the attacker must spend 1 focus token if able.
Elite Pilot Talent- Veteran Instincts (Millenium Falcon/Slave-1/Shadowcaster/Sabine’s TIE Expansions): Increase your pilot skill value by 2.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Fenn Rau is all the rage these days. His ability to deny someone the ability to spend their tokens for one attack, combined with a high pilot skill, cheap price, a dual arc and a crew slot to carry a Hotshot Co-Pilot make him a real pain to fly against. I was originally going to fly him with Poe and Wedge or Wes (see this list in the future) but I decided to go with Ghost for a few reasons. One, this list is really good and making all the rounds. Two, the finale of Rebels is coming up so I really wanted to get Ghost on the table.

Fenn’s shenanigans come into full play in protecting the Ghost. With his ability to shoot first and strip a focus token from one attacker, Ghost gets full use out of its Sensor Jammer, saving one point of damage. He can then trigger his ability against another ship, again allowing Sensor Jammer to save at least one other point of damage. Coordinate then allows Ghost to take an evade as its action and boost at the end into the best position.

Meanwhile, Ghost lays down consistent and accurate damage. Four TLT shots, all modified in some way can be really hard to avoid. One a three dice roll, you’re likely to get Hit/Focus/Blank more times than not. Reroll the blank with Maul, receive a stress and turn the focus into a Crit with Ezra. For the second attack, you can still turn one focus to a Crit. Then, clear the stress with Maul and start again with the end of round attack. None of these attack mods are shut down by other Fenn’s, Black One‘s or Wes Jansons. And Ezra counters other Sensor Jammers.

This list is incredibly strong. I went 4-2 in a regional this past weekend. Had one bye and solidly won three games. Everyone, correctly, goes after Fenn first so he ends up acting like a Biggs. But he can use his ability to protect himself just as well as protect Ghost. Though, he can still die in one bad round if you’re not careful thanks to those fickle two green dice. But, every round that you’re not focus firing Ghost, she’s focus firing you.

My two losses each came down to one bad decision on my part compounded by incredibly bad luck. The first loss, I faced double Defender Omega Leader. My primary mistake was to turn in toward them when I should have turned away. This wouldn ‘t have won me the game but it would have prolonged the game significantly, potentially giving me the time I needed. My second mistake was not knowing that Zeb can’t fire the round if he deploys via Ghost dying. This also would not have made much difference in the outcome but I might have gotten enough MOV to make the cut. The bad luck came from subpar dice rolls against Omega Leader. It took many, many rounds of double TLT shots to finally kill her. I could have gone after the Defenders earlier and maybe gotten one off the board. But this guy had faced another Ghost list the round before and it had come down to Zeb vs Omega Leader and I didn’t want to repeat that. Even when I did shoot at the Defenders, it took four TLT shots (8 dice rolls) to finally do one damage.

My final game my mistake definitely cost me the game, I faced another Ghost-Fenn list, but this time Kanan with Sync Turret. I managed my range correctly most of the game, getting shots that he couldn’t reply too. I took out his Fenn first. But then, when we were both swinging around the board edges to reengage, I boosted when I shouldn’t have. This put me out of range, costing me four damage on him. When we reengaged, luck took me out. Six health remaining, I hard turn over a debris field in order to ensure I’ll be at range 2 so can still shoot him. I roll a crit on the debris damage which does Direct Hit. He rolls four natural hits on his rear arc attack. I die before shooting, Zeb deploys with a stress and no attack. Game over.

(Also to help alleviate my feelings of inadequacy I will note that the two guys who beat me ended up as the top two, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.)

Variations

You have one spare point if you wanted to throw a crew onto Zeb to use if you ever need to launch him. Hera is always a good choice. Or Intel Agent.

You could easily switch out the R2 Astromech for a Flight Assist Astromech. I went back and forth on which one of these to use. More green maneuvers makes it easier for Fenn to clear his stress. But having access to free boosts/barrel rolls can help ensure Fenn remains in the fight. During the tournament, there was exactly one time I wished I had FAA and one turn where I was glad I had R2. A majority of the time where it didn’t really matter.

You should also take Chopper on Zeb. He’s zero points so why not? I just plain forgot.