Rogue Squadron- Elusive Jedi

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

VCX-100 “Kanan Jarrus” (Ghost Expansion) (47 pts) (PS 5)

When an enemy ship at Range 1-2 is attacking, you may spend a focus token. If you do, the attacker rolls 1 fewer attack die.

Title– Ghost (Ghost Expansion): Equip the Phantom title card to a friendly Attack Shuttle and dock it to this ship. After you execute a maneuver, you may deploy it from your rear guides.
Modification- Tactical Jammer (VT-49 Expansion)- Your ship can obstruct enemy attacks.
Turret- Autoblaster Turret (Most Wanted Expansion)- Attack (2, range 1): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). Your Hit results cannot be canceled by defense dice. The defender may cancel Critical results before Hit results.
System- Accuracy Corrector (IG-2000/StarViper Expansions)- When attacking, during the “Modify Attack Dice” step, you may cancel all of your dice results. Then, you may add 2 Hit results to your roll. Your dice cannot be modified again during this attack.
Crew- Chopper (Ghost Expansion)- You may perform actions even while you are stressed. After you perform an action while you are stressed, suffer 1 damage.
Crew- Recon Specialist (HWK-290/TIE Phantom Expansion)– When you perform a focus action, assign 1 additional focus token to your ship.

Attack Shuttle “Ezra Bridger” (Ghost Expansion) (26 pts) (PS 4)

When defending, if you are stressed, you may change up to 2 of your Focus results to Evade results.

Title– Phantom (Ghost Expansion): While you are docked, the Ghost can perform primary weapon attacks from its special firing arc, and, at the end of the Combat phase, it may perform an additional attack with an equipped Turret. If it performs this attack, it cannot attack again this round.
Elite Pilot Talent- Elusiveness (Millenium Falcon/TIE Interceptor Expansion): When defending, you may receive 1 stress token to choose 1 attack die. The attacker must reroll that die. If you have at least 1 stress token, you cannot use this ability.
Turret– Dorsal Turret (Ghost Expansion): Attack (Range 1-2, 2 Dice): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). If the target of this attack is at Range 1, roll 1 additional attack die
Crew- Hera Syndulla (Ghost Expansion): You may reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed.

X-Wing “Biggs Darklighter” (Original Core Expansion) (27 pts) (PS 5)

Other friendly ships at Range 1 cannot be targeted by attacks if the attacker could target you instead

Astromech– R2-D6 (Rebel Transport Expansion): Your upgrade bar gains the EPT upgrade icon. You cannot equip this upgrade if you already have an EPT upgrade icon or if your pilot skill value is “2” or lower.
Elite Pilot Talent- Crackshot (Kihraxz/Hound’s Tooth Expansions)- When attacking a ship inside your firing arc, at the start of the “Compare Results” step, you may discard this card to cancel 1 of the defender’s Evade results.
Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 Expansion)- When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

I know what you’re thinking, this list has Elusiveness in it. WTF? I agree but stay with me.

First, we have Kanan whose pilot ability really shines as an assist to other ships in his squadron. This jives very well with Biggs, who wants people to shoot him. Now, instead of Kanan being a prime target, your opponent has to throw shots at Biggs while Kanan reduces their attack dice and, hopefully, obstructs, giving Biggs a bonus defense die. Positioning on this first engagement is really key.

Meanwhile, Ezra is docked until it’s most advantageous to deploy. If Kanan can get close enough to pull off Autoblaster, he stays linked and hits something for four unavoidable damage. If not, or you need the extra attack, Ezra deploys and becomes super annoying to kill. First time he is shot, he forces your opponent to reroll one of this hits (preferably a crit). That gives him a stress so that he can use his ability, increasing his evade chances. Hera is along to allow him to still make use of his hard 1’s or K-turn after doing this if the situation dictates.

What you end up with is your opponent has thrown several shots just to kill Biggs and now there is an untouched Ghost and an annoying to kill Phantom to deal with. Between Ghost‘s four dice and Biggs’ Crackshot you have a good chance of having killed or at least severely maimed one of your opponent’s ships. This helps give you a leg up to finish them off.

Variations

There are a lot of good variations you can make to this list and keep the core elements the same. There are several useful 1 point EPT’s you can give Biggs depending on preference. You can also switch out R2-D6 for R4-D6 to give Biggs a slight bit of extra survivability. That also gives you a 1 point initiative bid or allows you to drop Elusiveness from Ezra for any 3 point EPT, such as Push the Limits so he can stress himself and get Focus/Evade. Or Predator so he can remain stressed and keep getting rerolls. Or even trade in the Dorsal for a TLT.

You could also switch Ezra for Sabine with that point and Elusiveness + Hera for Push the Limits. Sabine is great with that combo (though she really likes to have Kanan onboard to give her a lot more options for clearing her PTL stress).

A crazy variation is to trade Hera, Ezra’s Dorsal turret, and switch Biggs’ droid in order to give Kanan Lando and an Experimental Interface. You gain the possibility of Kanan having four focus tokens to use or maybe an evade or two. It’s costly for a gamble but it’s a fun option.

Another option is to drop Hera and give Biggs R2-F2 so that he can always have three agility. This can be pretty helpful in keeping him alive in the first engagement, especially if you have multiple ordinance shots coming your way.

The easiest change to make is Kanan’s turret and system for a Dorsal and Fire Control System. Autoblaster/Accuracy Corrector is a great combo but limited range. It also isn’t that useful against low agility/high HP ships. It’s deadly against small ships, especially while Ezra is still docked. So it’s a trade off as to which is more useful.