Rogue Squadron- Fishing for Crits

Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at different squadrons you can fly in Atomic Mass Games X-Wing miniatures game. We give you the squad and then give you the lowdown on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In

TIE/in Interceptor “Lieutenant Lorrir” (4 pts) (I3)

Pilot Ability
- While you barrel roll, you must use the 1 bank template instead of the 1 straight template.
Ship Ability – ~~Auto Thrusters~~
- ~~After you perform an action, you may perform a red Boost or red Barrel Roll action.~~
Loadout (10/10)
- Configuration – Sensitive Controls (0)
  - Replace your Autothrusters ship ability with the following:
  - Sensitive Controls: During the System Phase, you may perform a red Boost or red Barrel Roll action.
- Modification – Shield Upgrade (6)
  - Add one Shield.
- Modification – None (-)
- Modification – None (-)
- Talent – Trick Shot (4)
  - While you perform an attack that is obstructed by an obstacle, roll 1 additional attack die.

TIE Advanced x1 “Zertik Strom” (3 pts) (I3)

Pilot Ability
- During the End Phase, you may spend a lock you have on an enemy ship to expose 1 of that ship’s damage cards.
Ship Ability – Advanced Targeting Computer
- While you perform a primary attack against a defender you have locked, roll 1 additional attack die and change 1 Hit result to a Crit result.
Loadout (6/6)
- Missile – None (-)
- Modification – None (-)
- Sensor – Passive Sensors (5)
  - Charge: 1 (Reoccuring)
  - Action: Spend 1 Charge. You can only perform this action in your Perform Action step.
  - While your Charge is inactive, you cannot be coordinated. Before you engage, if your Charge is inactive, you may perform a Calculate or Lock action.
- Talent – Deadeye Shot (1)
  - While you perform a primary attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye Arc, you may spend 1 Hit result or change 1 Crit result to a Hit result. If you do, the defender exposes 1 of its damage cards.

TIE Advanced x1 “Maarek Stele” (5 pts) (I5)

Pilot Ability
- While you perform an attack, if the defender would be dealt a faceup damage card, instead draw 3 damage cards, choose 1, and discard the rest.
Ship Ability – Advanced Targeting Computer
- While you perform a primary attack against a defender you have locked, roll 1 additional attack die and change 1 Hit result to a Crit result.
Loadout (18/18)
- Missile – Cluster Missile (4)
  - Charge: 4
  - Attack (Lock) 3, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 1-2
    - Spend 1 Charge. After this attack, you may perform this attack as a bonus attack against a different target at range 0-1 of the defender, ignoring the Lock requirement.
- Modification – Hull Upgrade (4)
  - Add one Hull.
- Modification – Shield Upgrade (6)
  - Add one Shield.
- Sensor – Fire Control System (2)
  - While you perform an attack, if you have a lock on the defender, you may reroll 1 attack die. If you do, you cannot spend your lock during this attack.
- Talent – Deadeye Shot (1)
  - While you perform a primary attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye Arc, you may spend 1 Hit result or change 1 Crit result to a Hit result. If you do, the defender exposes 1 of its damage cards.
- Talent – Marksmanship (1)
  - While you perform an attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye, you may change 1 Hit result to a Crit result.

TIE/D Defender “Rexler Brath” (8 pts) (I5)

Pilot Ability
- After you perform an attack that hits, if you are evading, expose 1 of the defender’s damage cards.
Ship Ability – Full Throttle
- After you fully execute a speed 3-5 maneuver, you may perform an Evade action.
Loadout (13/13)
- Cannon – None (-)
- Configuration – None (-)
- Missile – Cluster Missile (4)
  - Charge: 4
  - Attack (Lock) 3, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 1-2
    - Spend 1 Charge. After this attack, you may perform this attack as a bonus attack against a different target at range 0-1 of the defender, ignoring the Lock requirement.
- Missile – None (-)
- Sensor – Fire Control System (2)
  - While you perform an attack, if you have a lock on the defender, you may reroll 1 attack die. If you do, you cannot spend your lock during this attack.
- Talent – Juke (7)
  - While you perform an attack, if you are evading, you may change 1 of the defender’s Evade results to a Focus result.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

My second X-wing 2.5 event turned out much larger than the first, 24 instead of 8. It was my local Apollo Squadron Spring Seasonal, a series of quarterly events throughout the year. For this first one, the organizers elected to go with just Chance Encounter to simplify the transition to the new rules. I would have preferred diving right into all of the scenarios but it also gave me an opportunity to try out something more offensive driven, rather than broad skill set.

I wanted to get non-Darth Vader TIE Advanced onto the table. Zertik is a great value at 3 and Maarek gives you a lot of options at 5 with 18 Loadout. Their abilities complement each other and play with magnifying crits on your opponent. Maarek now also has two Talent slots, which allowed him to double down on crit hunting by taking both Deadeye Shot and Marksmanship. Whenever he gets Bullseye, he can turn a hit into a crit, then downgrade it back in order to flip a damage card on his target. Sadly, this didn’t come up very often, because more times than not, either my target had no damage cards before he shot, or died. But the Decimator I fought hated the combo.

For the remaining 12 points in this list I toyed around with a bunch of different ideas. I originally was going to double down on the Deadeye Shot/Marksmanship combo and bring four TIE Fighters, all with double talents. I don’t think that would have been a bad combo, and in scenario play, maybe better due to more bodies. But opted against it since we were only doing Chance Encounter and TIE’s pop easily.

Lorrir was another ship I love to fly but could never justify in 2.0. Now, he’s the same cost as most other TIE Interceptors but has the most Loadout out in the four point band. With his funky barrel rolls, and Sensitive Controls, Trick Shot was a good combo. He ended up dancing around the central objective most games, shooting targets through a rock but never having to fly through it since he could barrel roll in the system phase.

For the final 8 points, I had a choice between Vader, going all in on TIE Advanced, or Brath and going all in on crit hunting. Crits were the theme this time so Brath won. Also, he’s one of those that I never wanted to fly because I wanted to upgrade him but Defenders were already so expensive. Now he can take Juke and more and be a real terror.

Overall, the crit fishing worked out as well as you would expect, ie not that well. It’s a fun idea in list building but not very impactful. I think I triggered Maarek’s ability once on a ship that didn’t die in that same attack. Brath and Zertik triggered just about as often. But that didn’t mean they weren’t effective fighters. The tournament was four rounds and cut to top four. I ended up 3 and 1, and my only “loss” was to the eventual tournament winner and we actually tied. Since there were no clear floor rules yet, TO decided ties would just be an initiative roll off which I lost. My dice were not nice to me that game. In one round, rolled three blanks on both attack and defense. Any paint on either of those rolls and we wouldn’t have tied.

A fun tournament, and it was nice using underutilized pilots and not feeling I was hurting myself. Not sure how well this would do in the full spread of scenarios, since there are only four bodies, but it would have a fighting chance at least. Lorrir would be a great flanker and with Defender and the two Advanced splitting up to go bully the opponent over other objectives. The crit fishing would have an actual tactical purpose in at least one scenario.

Loadout Variations

For Lorrir, he’s in a unique spot of having ten loadout points (one of only three Interceptors with double digit loadouts), which would allow him to field both shield and hull upgrade, making him a 5 health Interceptor, something nobody expects. The most common complaint I got about him during the tournament wasn’t his funky barrel rolls, but that he didn’t die when my opponent hit him for three damage in one hit. Giving him another health on top of that would have been great. Trickshot and Sensitive Controls worked nicely though.

Zertik got a lot of use out of Passive Sensors. Being able to choose who to lock when you fire is very handy, especially for an I3. It does eat up most of his points though, and more than once I wished he’d had FCS and a hull upgrade instead. But then, he might not have had a lock to get the FCS reroll so your mileage will vary.

Maarek has the most points available in this list, so he has the most options. Afterburners are always a consideration for any ship these days, and it’s a straight swap with Shield Upgrade. Might be more useful in other scenario play. Proton Rockets are always worth considering on a ship that can afford them. Cluster Missiles work well on him though, as it’s one more chance for his ability to trigger. Might be harder to make use of when ships are spreadout more for scenarios. Ion Missiles are cheap if you want to gain some points for more expensive talents. Debris Gambit + Juke is an option for him, though that eats up most of your loadout.

For the Defender, if you didn’t want to Juke, or wanted to drop FCS and Cluster, he could have taken an Ion Cannon instead. Nothing like ioning an opponent. Though FCS is very hand for free rerolls.