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
At first glance, the TIE Whisper looks like a ship that doesn’t need to exist. Kylo flew the TIE Silencer in TLJ and then, for no clear reason, he flies a TIE Whisper, in ROS. Fortunately, FFG didn’t decide to just make it the TIE Silencer 2.0 and instead made it a very unique craft.
Compared to the Silencer, the Whisper is cheaper but you lose a lot of base stats. Only two agility, three attack dice only in bullseye, one less hull. Instead of maneuverability from Autothrusters, the Whisper has the TIE/sf”s chassis ability, allowing it to fire missiles out of the front or back. This goes hand in hand with the ability to focus, boost or barrel roll into a white rotate. One advantage the SF has though, is a full front arc, allowing it to function as a dual arc ship. The Whisper only has a bullseye front arc, though this is a three die attack instead of two.
The ship doesn’t stand out until you look at its Configuration. Enhanced Jamming Suite makes the Whisper play differently than other ships. Jam becomes a central element of play. There aren’t a lot of ships that can jam, but even among those, jam is often a red action. But for the Whisper, Jam is not only white, but it is white after being a linked action. No longer do you need to choose between getting a die mod or denying your opponent a die mod. Focus and link to jam for both. Or boost into range one so you can be in range to jam. Ironically, with the emphasis on jamming, it makes the Silencer and Whisper want to swap names. The Whisper jams, ie silences, its targets.
Aside from the linked actions, the config also gives a secondary effect. If your attacker has no green tokens, or there is a jammed ship in the arc, you suddenly gain a third defense die. It is important to note, you don’t gather your defense die until after your attacker modifies theirs. So if they spend their focus, you get three defense dice. Additionally, you are allowed to jam yourself. Some of the named pilots make use of this, but importantly, it also guarantees there will be a jammed ship in the attack arc whenever you are attacked. Barrel roll/Boost to avoid some attacks and then jam yourself when facing a token stacker.
The Whisper comes packed with a new Tech, Sensor Scrambler, which allows you to start the game cloaked. This upgrade can also be taken on the Silencer. If you end up within range 3 of your opponent before decloaking, you’ll lose the cloak so it is only good for an initial approach. But that can be enough to get the drop on someone. With S-Loops and both 5 and 4 speed K-Turns, the Whisper has a slightly better chance to race in and get behind a target after decloaking.
Red Five Standing By
The TIE Whisper comes out of the box with four unique pilots and two generics across two ships. How do these pilots compare?
- Kylo Ren (I5) – Before an enemy ship in your Bullseye is dealt a facedown damage card, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, that damage card is dealt face up instead.
- Kylo Ren but with a different ability and one more Force.
- He is quite a bit cheaper than his Silencer version, despite having more Force.
- Pairs well with Foresight. When you get that free attack, you can push a crit through instead. A bit Force heavy to pull off.
- Though Malice comes with the Whisper, it makes a better upgrade on Silencer Kylo since his ability can ensure timely Pilot crits.
- Wrath (I5) – After you perform a Bullseye attack, if you have 1 or more non-lock red or orange tokens, you may perform a bonus attack against a different target.
- Built in double attacks are always nice.
- You’re already aiming for Bullseye attacks to get your third attack die, so it plays right into regular use.
- Jam tokens are orange, so if you end up with the chance to trigger your ability, you can jam yourself.
- That said, the orange/red token requirement on top of the bullseye does significantly hamper this ability triggering in a useful manner.
- Nightfall (I4) – After you fully execute a maneuver or perform a Boost action, each ship you moved through gains 2 jam tokens.
- This is a straightforward trigger. You have the template to show who you passed through making it easy to distribute those juicy jam tokens.
- 5-k turns are going to be popular for Nightfall.
- That the ability also triggers on Boost is interesting. While not impossible, how often do you have clearance to make a boost that passes through another ship?
- Whirlwind (I3) – Before you engage, you may remove any number of jam tokens, then you may gain 1 focus token for each enemy ship that has you in its Forward Arc.
- Zero is a number. Until there is a counter ruling, Whirlwind can remove zero jam tokens from himself to gain focus tokens.
- Just being in an enemy ship’s forward arc is huge, as that extends all the way to range 3.
- Multiple focus tokens loses some appeal at I3, as there is a fair chance he will have already been attacked. He has very few options for gaining bonus attacks with which to use them.
- He will function as a great defender against I1-I2 swarms.
- 709th Legion Ace (I3) – None
- Generic pilot without an ability but an extra talent slot.
- I4 is a great place for a generic to be.
- Red Fury Zealot (I2) – None
- Your cheapest generic pilot. Does come with a Talent slot, something most cheap generics lack.
- Currently, only three points behind the 709th, making them a better value.
- I2 mighty be handy for passing jams, as you’re more likely to move first so can ensure you end up in jam range.
All Wings Report In
How many TIE Whispers do you need? You can field a squadron of up to four of them, but to do that, you would need to purchase four Fury of the First Order boxes. While the squad packs are nice, this is the downside. Fortunately, you can make a fair number of good lists with just one.
Wrath of the Holographic Blackout
- Wrath (TIE/wi Whisper)
- Enhanced Jamming Suite
- Holo (TIE/ba Interceptor)
- Blackout (TIE/vn Silencer)
- Commander Malarus (TIE/fo Fighter)
This is a list of four I5’s that fit perfectly together at exactly 200 points. They can each function independently: Blackout and Holo, dancing around and avoiding arcs, Malarus ready with a Glitterstim when needed, and Wrath tossing jam everywhere. But they also offer some odd support. Holo must pass a token. He can give himself a strain and then transfer that to Wrath, who can now trigger his second attack. You wouldn’t want to do this with deplete, as the act of firing the Bullseye shot will clear the deplete, preventing him from getting his second attack.
- 3x Omega Squadron Expert (TIE/sf Fighter)
- Special Forces Gunner
- Juke
- Nightfall (TIE/wi Whisper)
- Enhanced Jamming Suite
- Juke
- Sensor Scrambler
Juke in mass quantities can cause a lot of heartache for an opponent. Juke in combination with free Jams even more so. Thanks to the dial on the Whisper, Nightfall can 5-k through a group of enemy ships, potentially passing out lots of double jam goodness. If you can cause some collisions, next turn he can five straight through them again, clear his stress, and fire out of his rear arc. When he can’t fly through them, he can always just use the jam action, though he won’t be able to also evade to use his juke.
If you prefer quantity over quality, you can also take four FO’s with Juke instead of three SF’s with their gunners.
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- Whirlwind (TIE/wi Whisper)
- Enhanced Jamming Suite
- Omega Squadron Expert (TIE/sf Fighter)
- Targeting Synchronizer
- Ion Missile
- Passive Sensors
- 3x First Order Cadet (TIE/se Bomber)
- Cluster Missile
- Automated Targeting Priority
- Whirlwind (TIE/wi Whisper)
This list takes a swarm of ships loaded with cluster missiles and aims to take on another swarm list. Whirlwind can get in close, jam your primary target. He’ll be a prime target himself, but he has some advantage. Against I3 and lower, either he wins the initiative race, and can arc dodge out of but a few arcs, or he loses and will engage first, triggering his ability to gain a bunch of focus tokens, offering him some protection. The SF hangs out in the back, using passive sensors to ensure a lock on someone, which he can share with the squad.
The bombers then can clean up, firing twice each. Once at either a jammed and/or intimidated target and then at a secondary. The SF fires last with his ion missile to either finish off the main target, or ion it as needed.
- Kylo Ren (TIE/wi Whisper)
- Enhanced Jamming Suite
- Foresight
- Marksmanship
- Sensor Scrambler
- Blackout (TIE /vn Silencer)
- Trickshot
- Sensor Scrambler
- Sensitive Controls
- Lieutenant Tavson (Upsilon Shuttle)
You have a list with a big gun, heavy ship to draw your opponents attention, and then two maneuverable flankers. With Sensor Scrambler, your flankers can get a good opening engagement. Blackout wants to hide behind obstacles, and with Sensitive Controls, he can park directly behind them without fear of flying over them next round. Kylo aims for Bullseye. If you fly into it, he fires a Foresight shot, and then flips a crit if a damage card lands. If he has you in when he engages, he Marksmanship’s a crit, plus maybe also uses his ability. He can also toss some jam around. All while Tavson can’t be just ignored with his twelve health and four die main gun.
- 4x 709th Legion Ace (TIE/wi Whisper)
- Enhanced Jamming Suite
- Sensor Scrambler
- Fanatical
- Marksmanship
You probably don’t want to buy four Fury of the First Order kits, but if you do, four 709th net you with a fair squad. They are I4’s, so they have good initiative for generics. They can all jam while also getting other actions. They can also shoot out their rear, giving them more maneuvering options. Bullseye will be their natural goal, giving them more attack dice and crit results, but they don’t need to be a slave to it. A range one shot against a jammed target can be effective. Starting cloaked allows you to set up a wide flank or a central group that flies in fast before breaking.
Wayne Basta
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