Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at the ships you can fly in Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing miniatures game. We’ll take a look at a chassis and what makes it unique along with some upgrades and squadron combos. Strap in and get ready to fly.
Lock S-Foils in Attack Position
For some reason this was my favorite ship to come out of the prequels. The N-1, the Venator, the LAAT are all high on my Star Wars list of cool ships. You’ll notice the Aethersprite was not on that list. Now, because of how much I’ve enjoyed it in X-wing, it’s grown on me. Sadly, the Eta-2 hasn’t had the same impact in X-wing as the Aethersprite has, but it also launched at a rather unfortunate time. Until the whole pandemic situation resolves and regular in-person X-wing resumes, and we all get to fly more, I can’t really say.
Ironically, one of the things that has me soft on the Eta-2 is a feature I felt could have been a 2.0 core feature; bonus attack die in the bullseye arc. Gaining more attack dice if your target is lined up in your bullseye makes more sense than a bonus die just for being at range 1. That could have been a feature that replaced the range one bonus or worked in conjunction with it. With a bonus die in bullseye, all of the two-die attack ships become a lot more deadly overall, but also less so if the range one bonus were removed. It’s much easier to get a swarm into range 1 than it is for a swarm to get a ship in their collective bullseye. But alas, this is not a feature of 2.0 so we’ll never know what kind of game that would have been.
The Eta-2 is a small and nimble fighter that brings a lot of features to the game beyond the combined bullseye/front arc. It features the first generic pilot with more than one Force. This keeps the floor of cost for this fighter fairly high given their weak health. They also feature the first purple maneuver. While being able to turn around and not gain stress is a nice ability, a 2-speed T-roll wouldn’t have been my first choice, I’ve always preferred the S-loop. Though, with a pre-maneuver barrel roll, followed by a T-roll, you end up fairly close to where you started but completely turned around at the cost of two Force.
Another feature of the Eta-2 are Intuitive Controls. System phase repositions are not as valuable as Advanced Sensors/Supernatural Reflexes pre-move repositions or double reposition options, à la Aethersprite/TIE Interceptor, but it can come in handy. Lining up shots directly behind obstacles are not a major concern as you can then barrel roll away before maneuvering. This is handy when facing droids who like to park themselves on rocks. It’s also helpful for throwing off opponents. They know you can do it, and they’ll know what you’re doing before they move, but after they’ve committed their dial.
One of the most interesting features for the Eta-2 though is the combination Force and Talent slots most of the named pilots have. We haven’t seen this combination before and it opens the doors to some interesting combos. Unfortunately, the sneakiest potential combo (Sense and Daredevil) doesn’t work because Intuitive Controls is a purple boost so Daredevil won’t work.
Finally, the Eta-2 brings one more thing to the table with the addition of the Hyperspace Rings. These are usable by Eta-2, Aethersprites and V-wings in Epic play so they won’t have an impact on most tournaments. But with the inclusion of the new cards from Fugitives and Collaborators allowing Scum to join any faction in Epic games, they suddenly became a lot more interesting. With all of the hints about structures, and AMG’s indication that there are still FFG products in the pipeline, and their desire to try out new forms of game play, there may be more Epic play in our future.
Red Five Standing By
The Eta-2 comes out of the box with five quality unique pilots and a single generic that is I4. How do these pilots compare?
- Anakin Skywalker (I6)– After you or a friendly Obi-Wan Kenobi ship at range 0-3 executes a maneuver, if there are more enemy ships than other friendly ships at range 0-1 of that ship, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, that ship removes 1 red token of your choice.
- The Eta-2 was introduced in an epic scene with Obi-Wan and Anakin flying together. That their two abilities play on that and buff each other is thematic gold.
- This keeps with the other versions of Anakin being good at removing stress. But it goes a step further in that he can clear other red tokens, such as strain or deplete. He does not have a lot of native ways to acquire those (only one red maneuver) but they do still happen.
- If he has Elusive, takes that red K-turn, recharge Elusive, ends at range one of an enemy, clears the stress, gets a die reroll.
- If you’re not flying Obi-wan, Lonewolf is a great talent for him as he already likes to be alone.
- Obi-wan Kenobi (I5)- After you or a friendly Anakin Skywalker at range 0-3 executes a maneuver, if there are more enemy ships than other friendly ships at range 0-1 of that ship, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, that ship gains 1 focus token.
- With the Evade action being white and the Lock action being purple, Obi-wan is predisposed to token stack for defense with a Focus + Evade. If you’re willing to spend two Force or the points for a Targeting Computer, he can also Focus + Lock. No stress double actions are always good.
- At I5, he will move before most Anakins, therefore it will be easier to trigger either ability on him than on Anakin.
- He works with any Anakin, including the I3 N-1 pilot. Excellent token stacking potential there.
- Aayla Secura (I5)- While an enemy ship in your Forward Arc at range 0-1 performs an attack, the defender may change 1 blank result to a Focus result.
- Another I5 that’s not Oddball!
- Her ability does NOT require spending a Force. If she gets up close to a swarm it triggers on every attack.
- Pairs nicely with Aethersprite Obi-wan with the Focus regeneration.
- Shaak Ti (I4)- At the start of the End Phase, you may spend any number of Force to choose that many friendly ships at range 0-2. Each chosen ship does not remove 1 focus or evade token during this End Phase.
- An excellent support ability. The round before you engage, let two ships go in with double mods.
- Pair with some ordnance carriers for an excellent alpha strike.
- Yoda (I3)- After another friendly ship at range 0-3 spends 1 or more Force, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, that ship recovers 1 Force.
- Yoda is your support pilot for all of the Force starved Jedi. Unfortunately, he wants to spend Force just as much as they do.
- This would have been an ideal opportunity for double force regeneration but only two total Force. Or 4 base Force. Something worthy of Yoda’s raw Force potential.
- At I3 he doesn’t mesh well with the generics in the Eta-2 and the Aethersprite generic Jedi don’t need Force recovery as much.
- Jedi General (I4)- None
- I4 and two Force in a generic package? A lot of potential there.
- They are priced just high enough to prevent taking five of them. Probably smart.
All Wings Report In
What’s the ideal number of Eta-2’s to buy? Two. You’re going to want to fly Anakin and Obi-wan together. Don’t kid yourself. You could do four in a variety of configurations but it gets the best value in sets of one to three.
- Shaak Ti (Eta-2)
- Patience
- Anakin Skywalker (N-1)
- Proton Torpedo
- Padme Amidala (N-1)
- Proton Torpedo
- Luminara Unduli (Aethersprite)
- Calibrated Laser Targeting
This uses Shaak Ti to get the N-1’s a powerful alpha and defense. Turn before engagement she lets them both keep their focus tokens. They blast forward, get a free evade and then Lock. Focus, evade and lock all for the first engagement. Add in Padme’s ability and Luminara and the N-1’s should be very difficult to take down.
If you really want to magnify their punch, drop Luminara for something cheap and give Anakin and Padme Juke. Probably not worth the loss of a Jedi pilot but fun.
A Hyperspace legal version swapping in Matchstick for Luminara
- Yoda (Eta-2)
- Battle Meditation
- Patience
- Jamming Beam
- Ahsoka Tano (Aethersprite)
- Battle Meditation
- Calibrated Laser Targeting
- 2x Jedi Knight (Aethersprite)
- Delta-7B
Action stacking through battle meditation. Yoda and Ahsoka work together to give the heavy hitting Delta-7B’s double or triple actions. If anyone needs to take a red maneuver, Ahsoka gives them an action anyways, and then Yoda lets her recover her Force. Yoda can recover two Force per turn with Patience. He can fire an anemic primary attack or roll two dice on Jamming Beam, hoping to clear some tokens for the rest of the squad. Since they are all moving at I3 you can execute actions, maneuvers and attacks in the most advantageous order.
- Aayla Secura (Eta-2)
- Patience
- Intimidation
- Plo Koon (Aethersprite)
- Calibrated Laser Targeting
- Patience
- Ric Olié (N-1)
- Daredevil
- R4-P
- Contrail (V-wing)
- Ion Limiter Override
- Alpha 3B- “Besh”
- Precision Ion Engines
- Seismic Charge
The Republic finally has a good assortment of I5 pilots. This group focuses on independent maneuvering with some support. Aayla wants to get close to trigger her ability and if she bumps, she’s intimidating the target. Contrail has some maneuver options and a bomb to cause trouble with. Plo can help anyone hit with an unfortunate token out.
- Aayla Secura (Eta-2)
- Ion Cannon
- Obi-wan Kenobi (Eta-2)
- Ion Cannon
- Oddball (Y-wing)
- Ion Cannon
- R2 Astromech
- Ion Bombs
- Contrail (V-wing)
- Marksmanship
- Alpha 3E- “Esk”
- Precision Ion Engines
Everyone loves ion lists right? Right? Another batch of I5’s but this time with board control. Aayla and Obi-wan are dishing out range 1-3 ions. Oddball is more limited range but has ion bombs to fall back on. Contrail has the most limited ion effect but when he gets bullseye, his are fairly reliable.
Revenge of the Sith (Hyperspace)
- Anakin Skywalker (Eta-2)
- R2-D2
- Obi-wan Kenobi (Eta-2)
- 2x 104th Battalion Pilots (ARC-170)
Simple list straight out of episode 3. Anakin (with Artoo aboard) and Obi-wan charge forward with some ARC’s covering their six. There’s nothing fancy here. It relies and Obi-wan and Anakin’s abilities and two beefy ARC’s to absorb some damage.
Wayne Basta
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