Rogue Squadron - Can't Touch This

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

Starviper “Guri” (StarViper) (46 pts) (PS 5)

At the start of the Combat phase, if you are at Range 1 of an enemy ship, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship.

Elite Pilot Talent- Lone Wolf (YT-2400/Hound’s Tooth Expansion): When attacking or defending, if there are no other friendly ships at Range 1-2, you may reroll 1 of your blank results
Title- Virago (StarViper Expansion): Your upgrade bar gains the System and Illicit upgrade icons. You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill value is “3” or lower.
System- Sensor Jammer (Lambda Shuttle Expansion) – When defending, you may change 1 of the attacker’s Hit results into a Focus result. The attacker cannot reroll the die with the changed result.
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 Booster action icon.
Illicit- Inertial Dampeners (IG-2000/StarViper Expansions)- When you reveal your maneuver, you may discard this card to instead perform a white [0] maneuver. Then receive 1 stress token.
Torpedo- Advanced Proton Torpedo (B-Wing/TIE Bomber Expansions)- Attack (target lock, 5, range 1): Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack. You may change up to 3 of your blank results to Focus results

2x Y-Wing “Hired Gun” (Most Wanted Expansion) (27 pts) (PS 4)

None

Turret- Twin Laser Turret (K-Wing Expansions): Attack (3, range 2-3): Perform this attack twice (even against a ship outside your firing arc). Each time this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage. Then cancel all dice results.
Salvaged Astromech- Unhinged Astromech (Most Wanted Expansion): You may treat all 3-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Similar to our last build, this one makes good use out of the threat of Advanced Proton Torpedoes. No one wants to get hit by five dice that are almost guaranteed to hit for 3 or more. And Guri is the perfect APT platform since if she’s in range to use them, she’s guaranteed to have a Focus token to modify the attack. Assuming, of course, you’ve already gotten a target lock.

On the surface, this list shouldn’t work at all. While Guri is a good APT carrier, she’s crazy expensive and only PS 5. She won’t get to arc dodge the aces. But then, she doesn’t really need to. The StarViper has a pretty good dial and just the threat of being in range of her APTs will undermine your opponent’s decision making. For example, when I flew against this list, I could have been at range 1 of her with an untouched and turtled Soontir Fel, while she only has two hull left. Firing first, I would have a good odds of destroying her. But, just the risk of not killing her and then eating the APT, likely wiping Fel out with one blow, was enough to get me to arc dodge instead.

To add to her APT threat is the Sensor Jammer/Autothrusters/Lone Wolf combo. Working together, these can make her nigh untouchable. Especially verse Twin Laser Turrets. I saw this list fly against four TLT Y-Wings. All four ships fired, not a single hit went through. For multiple rounds. The sensor jammer turns a hit into a Focus and a TLT carrier only has a single Focus. So for one of the two attacks that’s one almost guaranteed miss (a triple Crit would be unaffected). Then Autothrusters likely kicks in since it’s against a turret, getting one almost guaranteed Evade. And you have Lone Wolf for a free reroll.

So what are the two Y-wings doing while Guri shrugs off rounds of fire? Staying far away. They want to make sure Guri can use Lone Wolf. And because they are equipped with TLT, they don’t mind. The unexpected twist here is that you don’t often see PS4 TLT Y-Wings. This allows them to fire first. Against another Y-wing that has already taken damage, they can remove it from the board before it gets to fire. This can come in handy quite a lot.

Variations

The simplest variation is to drop Glitterstim on Guri in exchange for an initiative bid. It’s a useful mod but against some lists you’d gain more from moving second. Other options include turning Lone Wolf into Predator so that you can use it on the attack every round, no matter where the Y-Wings are, though you’d lose it on defense. Push the Limits is a possibility as well but the StarVipers’ greens are limited and Guri already gets a free Focus if you can close.

You could trade Lone Wolf for R4 Agromechs on your two Y-Wings. This loses you some greens but they aren’t that important. Instead you gain the ability to modify both of your TLT attacks which has a lot of value.