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
We’re going back almost a year for this next review. The Nimbus Class V-Wing dropped last fall right in the middle of several releases. It’s never been my favorite design so I’ve not had much motivation to play it. The ship fills in the nimble ship price gap between the V-19 and the Naboo fighter, right around 30 points. It feels fairly comparable to an A-Wing or TIE/FO, with solid two speed blues, two attack, three defense, and four health.
The unique features for the ship come in the form of a chassis ability and two configurations. This makes the V-Wing a craft that can fill a variety of different roles. Twin Ion Engines allows the V-Wings access to the TIE only upgrades. The first of these came in the V-Wing pack, though as of yet, there are not a lot of these to choose from. It is an interesting design space. From the two we have, they have already included other limiting factors (three agility) to ensure it can only be equipped on a few of the many TIE variants.
The two configurations allow the V-Wing to pretend to be a Y-Wing. Esk lets you turn your crits into ion damage every other turn. Of course, you need to decide to do this before you roll dice, so you may not roll any crits. This does pair nicely with Marksmanship or R7-A7 though. Both are ways to guarantee a crit to ensure you can ion if you hit. If you take R7-A7 and Outmaneuver, if you get behind them, you can almost guarantee an ion result.
Besh has two abilities. The first is an addition of a Payload slot, allowing your V-Wings to carry bombs. They can’t reload so you can take mines without feeling bad. The other ability essentially gives the ship a version of Advanced Optics. They can spend locks to turn blanks or focus results into a hit. With two attack dice, if you have a lock you’re often debating whether it’s worth spending it to reroll only a single die. Now it’s no debate. One miss, turn it into a hit. Two misses, reroll both.
Red Five Standing By
The V-Wing comes out of the box with four unique pilots and two generics across two ships. How do these pilots compare?
- Odd Ball (I5) – After you fully execute a red maneuver or perform a red action, if there is an enemy ship in your Bullseye, you may acquire a lock on that ship.
- No Republic ship would be complete without Odd Ball at the helm. I guess?
- Has he finally found his place? Those red 1-banks give you a good maneuver, that for the rest of the V-Wing pilots results results in no actions. It’s relatively easy to gauge if a 1-bank will land a ship in your bullseye if you’re moving first or have a good idea where your enemy plans to go.
- He likes the Besh configuration as it jives with his pilot ability.
- Ion Limiter Override also works well for him. Perform the red maneuver, then barrel roll to get bullseye and then also get a lock.
- Similarly, Precision Ion Engine gives him more options where he ends up at the end of a red, increasing the chance of triggering his free lock.
- Contrail (I5) – While you defend or perform an attack, if the bearing of your revealed maneuver is the same as the enemy ship’s, you may change 1 of the enemy ship’s Focus results to a blank result.
- Hey, another I5 that’s not Odd Ball! He can join Ric Ollie as the only other non-Jedi I5.
- The ability is quite nice and you’ll trigger it more than you’d think. If you have two ships turning toward each other, they’ll both likely be doing the same bearing.
- That it works on attack and defense is amazing. It makes him hit harder and better able to dodge incoming fire.
- Klick (I4) – While a ship that you have locked at range 1-3 defends or performs an attack, you may spend 1 Charge to prevent range bonuses from being applied.
- It is nice to find an ability that utilizes a pilot’s lock but doesn’t require him to spend the lock. Instead, Klick has a recoverable charge to use and he can keep his lock for lock things.
- It is worth noting, Klick would spend his charge before dice are rolled to prevent his opponent from getting the range three bonus die. He can then spend the lock on the attack.
- Another good candidate for Besh, as he’ll have the lock, best to have maximum utility for it.
- R3 is worth considering for him. While he can only use his ability once per turn, having multiple locks gives him more options and on when and how to use it. Range bonus dice don’t always come up so if you have locks on two ships, you might not need it for the ship he’s pursuing, but would be handy to use against a different ship that manages to land behind him at range one.
- Wilhuf Tarkin (I3) – During the System Phase, you may choose an object that you have locked at range 1-3. Another friendly ship at range 1-3 may acquire a lock on that object.
- Very similar feel to his Imperial crew version. Though, Tarkin never struck me as the pilot type.
- Handy for sharing locks amongst squadmates who have trouble acquiring them. Such as Eta-2 Jedi pilots who don’t want to spend a Force to get a lock.
- It’s important to point out, Tarkin will need to get a lock in one round, then not spend the lock in order for another ship to get a lock the following round. Handy for helping someone get regular double modded shots with the understanding Tarkin’s shots will be unmodded.
- Another candidate worth considering R3 astromech.
- Shadow Squadron Escort (I3) – None
- Your talented generic pilot. You’re paying two points for that talent and one step of initiative.
- Loyalist Volunteer (I2) – None
- Your cheap generic pilot. Slightly more expensive than a V-19 for one less health, one more defense, and a much better dial.
All Wings Report In
How many V-Wings do you need? You can field a squadron of up to seven of them, but they aren’t the best swarm ship. Six can be flown with a few upgrades giving you some potential there. But they’ll most likely be used as a pair thrown in to support another squad.
- Contrail (V-Wing)
- Precision Ion Engine
- R4 Astromech
- Alpha-3B “Besh”
- Ric Ollie (Royal Naboo N-1)
- Daredevil
- R2-C4
- Obi-wan Kenobi (Delta-7 Aethersprite)
- Calibrated Laser Targeting
- Aayla Secura (Eta-2 Interceptor)
- Intimidation
The Republic is so close to being able to afford five I5’s. Just two point reduction in any of them and it would work. But instead you can get four with lots of fancy upgrades. The upgrades themselves don’t matter too much here. Besh and R2-C4 help make Contrail and Ric more consistent damage wise. Aayla helps the squad on defense, and if she misjudges her approach and bumps rather than getting a range one shot, she helps the squad’s offense. Obi-wan synergizes with Aayla’s defense boost to help everyone make use of their extra focus result.
- 6x Shadow Squadron Escort
- Alpha-3E “Esk”
- Marksmanship
- R4-P
This list takes six V-Wings and aims to ion things at any opportunity. With Marksmanship and six of them, you have good odds getting something into your bullseye for a crit turned ion. R4-P is interchangeable with R4 Astromech but R4-P offers you more flexibility. You can turn all your speed 3’s blue when needed. It has limited charges but you don’t need to every round.
If you want to cut the upgrades, you can get seven Esk Loyalist Volunteers.
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- Klick (V-Wing)
- R3 Astromech
- Marksmanship
- Alpha-3E “Esk”
- Wilhuff Tarkin (V-Wing)
- R3 Astromech
- Marksmanship
- Alpha-3E “Esk”
- Obi-wan Kenobi (Eta-2 Interceptor)
- Patience
- Ion Cannon
- Anakin Skywalker (Eta-2 Interceptor)
- Sense
- Ion Cannon
- Klick (V-Wing)
Klick and Tarkin work together to help the two Jedi hit hard. Tarkin can give one of them double mods and Klick offers some protection from range 1 shots or help their range 3 shots hit. R3 Astromech helps them spread out the potential targets they can use their abilities on. The rest of the upgrades (23pts worth) are fairly flexible and can be tweaked to taste. Both Tarkin and Klick would get use out of Besh configuration but synergize with ion potential.
- 4x Loyalist Volunteers (V-Wing)
- Alpha-3B “Besh”
- Proximity Mines
- Warthog (LAAT)
- Wolfpack
- Ion Missile
You’re making use of the V-Wing’s speed to zip in and lay mines in strategic places. Unlike Y-Wings, these guys can go speed 5 and then boost, getting to prime positions quicker. Warthog chugs along behind, ready to provide fire support. With Wolfpack, he lets the V-Wings gain locks after getting attacked, which they can then use on their offense to modify a single blank or focus result using the Besh configuration. They can get rerolls with the LAAT ability as needed. The Ion Missiles are thrown in to give Warthog another arc to trigger Wolfpack from.
- Contrail (V-Wing)
- Outmaneuver
- R7-A7 Astromech
- Alpha-3E “Esk”
- Ric Ollie (Royal Naboo N-1)
- Daredevil
- R4-P
- 4x Gold Squadron Protector (V-19 Torrent)
- Dedicated
This is your classic four Dedicated GSP’s but instead of protecting two Jedi, they are protecting two mortals. Contrail and Ric Ollie fly out on the periphery. The GSP’s can be arrayed to limit your opponent’s maneuver choices and give them a tough choice. Go after the stupid but chunky and many V-19’s, go after the evading N-1, or the slippery Contrail. If you ignore Contrail, he’s going to get behind you and ion you, ensuring Ric will move faster next round. R7-A7 works well for him to get those Crits when he needs them. Ric has R4-P and Daredevil to help him go fast but still be able to turn toward the enemy.
Wayne Basta
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