Rogue Squadron- 181st Elite Interceptors

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 Interceptor “Soontir Fel”  (TIE Interceptor Expansion) (35 pts)

When you receive a stress token, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship.

• Title– Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces Expansion): You may equip up to 2 different Modification upgrades (instead of 1).You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill value is “4” or lower.
• Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-wing/Imperial Aces Expansion): Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
• Modification- Autothrusters (Starviper Expansion)- When defending, if you are beyond Range 2 or outside the attacker’s firing arc, you may change 1 of your blank results to an evade result. You can equip this card only if you have the boost action icon.
• Modification- Stealth Device (M3-A/Slave-1 Expansion)- Increase your agility value by 1. If you are hit by an attack, discard this card.

TIE Interceptor “Carnor Jax”  (Imperial Aces Expansion) (34 pts)

Enemy ships at Range 1 cannot perform focus or evade actions and cannot spend focus or evade tokens.

• Title– Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces Expansion): You may equip up to 2 different Modification upgrades (instead of 1).You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill value is “4” or lower.
• Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-wing/Imperial Aces Expansion): Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
• Modification- Autothrusters (Starviper Expansion)- When defending, if you are beyond Range 2 or outside the attacker’s firing arc, you may change 1 of your blank results to an evade result. You can equip this card only if you have the boost action icon.
• Modification- Stealth Device (M3-A/Slave-1 Expansion)- Increase your agility value by 1. If you are hit by an attack, discard this card.

TIE Interceptor “Turr Phennir”  (TIE Interceptor Expansion) (31 pts)

After you perform an attack, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.

• Title– Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces Expansion): You may equip up to 2 different Modification upgrades (instead of 1).You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill value is “4” or lower.
• Elite Pilot Talent- Veteran Instincts (Millenium Falcon/Slave-1 Expansion): Increase your pilot skill value by 2.
• Modification- Autothrusters (Starviper Expansion)- When defending, if you are beyond Range 2 or outside the attacker’s firing arc, you may change 1 of your blank results to an evade result. You can equip this card only if you have the boost action icon.
• Modification- Stealth Device (M3-A/Slave-1 Expansion)- Increase your agility value by 1. If you are hit by an attack, discard this card.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

This squadron is all about maneuverability. Interceptors have one of the best maneuver dials in the game and one of the best action bars; being one of only two ships to natively have both boost and barrel roll. With these three ships moving at Pilot Skill 8 and 9, you’ll get to use that repositioning to it’s fullest potential. Your goal with these ships is to slip around behind your opponent or approach them from an angle, and then boost and barrel roll out of their arcs. With the addition of Autothrusters, even if you are up against a turret ship, you’re going to be really hard to hit with that free evade.

Carnor Jax needs to get in close to trigger his ability and allow your other two ships an easier time shooting at targets that can’t spend focus or evade tokens. Fel should be taking a boost/barrel roll followed by using Push the Limits (PTL) to get an evade token and then a free focus token. Turr, lacking PTL, will be moving in for an attack and then arc dodging after he fires, hence the benefit of using VI to become a PS9. The nice thing here is that using his ability he can boost/barrel roll into a position that is out of your opponent’s arc without worrying about keeping them in your arc.

This squad’s biggest weakness is that it is squishy. Very, very squishy. Interceptors with autothrusters and stealth device can be really hard to hit. But when they do get hit they are notorious for dying quickly. After that first hit you’ll lose stealth device and as they lack shields, they will eat every crit that lands. Those crits can be killer, whether it’s a Direct Damage for two damage or a Damaged Cockpit dropping you to PS0–you could be alive but effectively neutered.

This is a really hard squad to fly well. While you can dish out some decent damage and be really hard to hit, especially from turrets, the odds are not in your favor if you face something like a double YT squad that is built defensively. Chewie is a pain for anyone to take down but even more so when he can wipe out a third of your squad with one lucky shot and there is no way for you to take him down in anything less than two rounds and most likely 3-5.

Variations

You could opt for hull upgrades instead of stealth devices. This would guarantee you an extra hitpoint, where stealth device could never trigger if you get hit on the first attack. You could also drop Turr in favor of a Royal Guard Pilot and give everyone shield upgrades. It’s nice to have that shield to save you from a Darth Vader (crew) but a RGP won’t have the repositioning advantage that Turr does.

Taking Tetran Cowall instead of Turr is also an option. It would free up one point for an initiative bid or to give one ship a shield upgrade. And since he would not have PTL you would then have an Interceptor that can K-turn at 1, 3 or 5. You don’t see a lot of Interceptors K-turning due to their love of PTL and this might throw off your opponent.

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Wayne Basta

Editor-in-Chief at d20 Radio

Wayne is the managing editor of d20 Radio's Gaming Blog. He also writes Sci-fi, . If you enjoy his work, you can support him on Patreon.

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