Rogue Squadron- Rage Swarm

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

TIE Bomber “Tomax Bren” (Imperial Veterans Expansion) (27 pts) (PS 8)

Once per round, after you discard an Elite Pilot Talent Upgrade card, flip that card face up.

Elite Pilot Talent- Crack Shot (Kihraxz/Imperial Veterans/Hound’s Tooth Expansion): When attacking a ship inside your firing arc, at the start of the “Compare Results” step, you may discard this card to cancel 1 of the defender’s Evade results.
Crew- Inspiring Recruit (U-Wing Expansion): Once per round, when a friendly ship at Range 1-2 removes a stress token, it may remove 1 additional stress token.
Crew- Inspiring Recruit (U-Wing Expansion): Once per round, when a friendly ship at Range 1-2 removes a stress token, it may remove 1 additional stress token.
Title- TIE Shuttle (Imperial Veterans Expansion): Your upgrade bar loses all Bomb, Missile and Torpedo tupgrade icons and gains 2 Crew upgrade icons. You cannot equip a Crew Upgrade card that costs more than 4 squad points.

TIE F/O “Zeta Leader” (TIE F/O Expansion) (21 pts) (PS 7)

When attacking, if you are not stressed, you may receive 1 stress token to roll 1 additional die.

Elite Pilot Talent- Crack Shot (Kihraxz/Imperial Veterans/Hound’s Tooth Expansion): When attacking a ship inside your firing arc, at the start of the “Compare Results” step, you may discard this card to cancel 1 of the defender’s Evade results.

TIE Fighter “Scourge” (Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion) (17 pts) (PS 7)

When attacking a defender that has 1 or more Damage cards, roll 1 additional attack die.

Elite Pilot Talent- Trick Shot (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): When attacking, if the attack is obstructed, you may roll 1 additional attack die.

TIE F/O “Epilson Leader” (TFA Core) (19 pts) (PS 6)

At the start of the Combat phase, remove 1 stress token from each friendly ship at Range 1.

None

TIE Fighter “Youngster” (Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion) (17 pts) (PS 6)

Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Upgrade card.

Elite Pilot Talent- Rage (Punishing One Expansion): Action: Assign 1 focus token to your ship and receive 2 stress tokens. Until the end of the round, when attacking, you may reroll up to 3 attack dice.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

I put this list together when I came across Epsilon Leader again. Then I remembered Youngster and Rage and thought, these guys could work together. It might suck but we need to try it.

Youngster is a pilot that never really saw much use. Action EPT’s are pretty sparse (Marksmanship, Expert Handling Squad Leader, Rage, Daredevil, Expose). Of those, Squad Leader would be worthless to chain, Daredevil is not good on TIE Fighters, Expose is worthless. Marksmanship might have some use in a swarm and Expert Handling might be useful against a Harpoon heavy list (which aren’t uncommon these days). Aside from that, Rage is the only one that looks appealing if it weren’t for those two stress tokens.

But combine raging Youngster with Epsilon Leader and we have some synergy. Being able to remove a stress from every friendly ship at the start of the combat phase gives you lots of options. Friendly ships nearby can use Push the Limits with impunity or, in this case, Rage and only net one stress. Or, when further combined with a TIE Shuttle loaded with Inspiring Recruits, they can Rage and two ships can start combat with no stress. This is particularly useful for Zeta Leader because he can Rage, clear all his stress before combat, and use his ability to get a three dice attack complete with rerolls and a Focus token. Oh, and Crack Shot thanks to Youngster allowing you to have your EPT free and still Rage.

Is this a super competitive list? Almost definitely not. I went 2 and 2 in a local tournament. But it does mess with your opponent’s target priority. Does he kill Epsilon Leader and his stress clearing? Does he kill Tomax with his infinite Crackshot and recruits? Does she kill Youngster and the free Rage? Or the damage dealers, Zeta and Scourge?

Variations

I originally started out by putting Pattern Analyzer on Epsilon. He then effectively has white S-loops as he can S-loop, delay the stress to take an action and then clear the stress at the start of combat in order to do it next round. I ended up dropping Pattern Analyzer to make room for Scourge as another effective three dice attack ship but you could easily get it back by downgrading Scourge to a Black Squadron with Crack Shot.