Rogue Squadron- Exposed Howlers

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 Fighter “Howlrunner” (TIE Fighter Expansion) (21 pts) (PS 8)

When another friendly ship at Range 1 is attacking with its primary weapon, it may reroll 1 attack die.

Modification- Stealth Device (Slave-1/M3-A Expansions): Increase your agility value by 1. If you are hit by an attack, discard this card.

TIE Fighter “Youngster” (Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion) (19 pts) (PS 6)

Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Upgrade card.

Elite Pilot Talent- Expose (Slave-1 Expansion): Action: Until the end of the round, increase your primary weapon value by 1 and decrease your agility value by 1.

5x TIE Fighter “Academy Pilot” (Original Core/TIE Fighter/Imperial Assault Carruer Expansions) (12 pts) (PS 1)

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Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

A few weeks ago we featured a pretty gimmicky list that centered around making use of the new Youngster TIE pilot to jack up the attack rolls of some other TIE fighters to an insane level. While amusing it was never going to be a very competitive list. This one, however, is definitely far more threatening.

It’s a variation on a classic Howlrunner TIE Swarm. Seven TIEs are nothing to sneeze at, especially with Howlrunner providing some rerolls. The addition of Youngster and Expose really ups the threat level. Now, instead of a bunch of two die attacks, you have a bunch of three die attacks. Previously, the maximum number of ships with three attack dice that could fit in a squadron was five (either TIE Interceptors or Kihraxz). Now you have the potential to wield seven.

Your opponent is going to be really unsure where to direct their first round of fire. Do they take out Howlrunner and her squadron rerolls or do they take out Youngster who is allowing the rest to roll three dice? For that reason, you will probably only ever trigger Expose on the five Academies so that Youngster and Howlrunner are more difficult to take down. Unless they can’t be shot, they are better off evading.

One nice thing about the list is that, should Howlrunner go first, you have a lot more freedom to spread your ships out after that. Youngster’s ability works range 1-3 so after the initial pass and Howlrunner’s demise you can fan out and go for blocks and trying to get behind your opponent without losing that benefit.

The drawback of this squad is twofold. If your opponent decides to ignore Howlrunner and Youngster and is flying something like a five ship Rebel set up, they have the potential to just melt a couple of your Academy Pilot’s who are only rolling two defense dice. A bad round could see all five vaporized before they ever get to fire. The second problem is that you are much more interested in getting actions that a standard swarm is. Without actions, you can’t Expose and are still just throwing two dice.

Variations

There isn’t a lot that can be changed about this list since there are so many ships eating up the points. The main thing to play around with is the Stealth Device. You could move it to Youngster instead or switch it out for an EPT on Howlrunner. Predator is a great one for giving Howlrunner a reroll (something she normally lacks). Determination also has the potential to boost her survivability. There is also a straight Hull Upgrade if you don’t want to trust the fickle green dice gods.