Rogue Squadron- Black Flight

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 lowdown on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In (Extended)

UT-60D U-Wing “Benthic Two-Tubes” (56 pts) (I2)

After you perform a Focus action, you may transfer 1 of your focus tokens to a friendly ship at range 1-2.

Crew- Jyn Erso
- If a friendly ship at range 0-3 would gain a focus token, it may gain 1 evade token instead.
Crew- Perceptive Co-Pilot
- After you perform a Focus action, gain 1 focus token.
Configuration – Pivot Wings
- Closed: While you defend, roll 1 fewer defense die.
  - After you execute a [0 ] maneuver, you may rotate your ship 90º or 180º.
  - Before you activate, you may flip this card.
- Open: Before you activate, you may flip this card.

HWK-290 “Kyle Katarn” (55 pts) (I3)

At the start of the Engagement Phase, you may transfer 1 of your focus tokens to a friendly ship in your firing arc.

Crew- Perceptive Co-Pilot
- After you perform a Focus action, gain 1 focus token.
Title- Moldy Crow
- Gain a primary weapon with a value of “3.”
- During the End Phase, do not remove up to 2 focus tokens.

BTL-A4 Y-Wing “Dutch Vander” (42 pts) (I4)

After you perform the Lock action, you may choose 1 friendly ship at range 1-3. That ship may acquire a lock on the object you locked, ignoring range restrictions.

Turret – Dorsal Turret
- Adds Rotate Arc Action
- Mobile Arc Attack: 2
  - Range 1-2

T-65 X-Wing “Garven Dreis” (46 pts) (I4)

After you spend a focus token, you may choose 1 friendly ship at range 1-3. That ship gains 1 focus token.

Configuration – Servomotor S-Foils
- Closed:
  - Adds Boost, Boost-> Red Focus
  - While you perform a primary attack, roll 1 fewer attack die.
  - Before you activate, you may flip this card.
- Open: Before you activate, you may flip this card.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

I attended my first in-person X-Wing tournament in about 18 months recently. This store had started up a few months ago but between waiting to get vaccinated and then summer travel plans, this was the first I could make. Having not played in so long I was a bit nervous. There had been four releases since I last played, which is a lot of new cards and pilots. I had kept up in purchases, done list building and played with most of the new stuff, but only at home. It was a bit daunting. So, instead of messing with new stuff I decided to take something more familiar.

My very first X-wing tournament, way back in 2013 or 14 I took a HWK-290, some Y-Wings and X-Wings. I decided to go with something similar. I had also watched Rogue One and wanted to get a U-Wing on the table. Then I remembered all of these ships had now been released with a black paint scheme and the theme of Black Flight came to life. One of the things the Rebels excel at is synergy, these ships in particular. What could be more familiar and comfortable to put on the table for the first time than Rebel support?

With Benthic and Kyle, you have two ships that can generate two focus tokens, and pass one off to an ally each turn. With Jyn, you can also turn one of those into an evade token if needed. Dutch works similarly with locks. Benthic and Kyle pass focus to Dutch and Garven, who both lock, passing a lock back to either the HWK or the U-Wing, allows you to end up with three ships with double mods each turn. This allows them to hit above their weight class.

Jyn shores up the flight’s defenses. Either the bonus focus the two support ships generate or Garven’s used focus token can become evades as needed. This proved instrumental in a number of cases. All your ships have decent health, so slowing the degradation down with a couple evades can let you outlive your targets.

The turnout for the tournament was small, only seven of us, but I won two games, and only lost the third because I was so rusty I forgot how some cards worked. Garven decided to not spend his focus so he could use it on defense, but that allowed Asajj to use Shadow Cast on him, which put him on a debris field. He lost his arc on Asajj, who he had a lock on and should have been able to kill. He also rolled a crit and became ioned. Then flying over the debris field again the second round, he rolled another crit and blew himself up. I have the worst luck with those fields.

Variations

To keep the synergy going, there’s not much you could do with this list. You do have one spare point if there’s some upgrade you’d like to take. Hopeful could be thrown on one of them. Or drop Jyn to get it on three of your ships. But don’t do that. She’s worth more than Hopeful. You could switch out Garven for Edrio Two Tubes, who makes a good wingmate for Benthic. But then you lose an I4 and the ability to reuse a focus token.