Rogue Squadron- Gen X

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

RZ-1 A-Wing “Derek ‘Hobbie’ Klivian” (2 pts) (I3)

Pilot Ability
- After you acquire or spend a lock, you may remove 1 red token from yourself.
Ship Ability – ~~Vectored Thrusters~~
- ~~After you perform an action, you may perform a red Boost action.~~
Loadout (0/0)
- Configuration – Vectored Cannons (0)
  - Gain a Single Turret indicator. Treat the arc requirement of your Front Arc primary attack as Turret Arc.
  - Replace your Vectored Thrusters ship ability with the following:
  - Vectored Cannons: During the System Phase, you may perform a red Boost or red Rotate action. You can rotate your Turret indicator only to your Front or Rear.
- Missile – None (0)
- Talent – None (-)

TIE/ln Fighter “Ezra Bridger” (3 pts) (I3)

Pilot Ability
- While you defend or perform an attack, if you are stressed, you may spend 1 Force to change up to 2 of your Focus results to Hit or Evade results.
Ship Ability – None
Loadout (8/8)
- Crew – K-2S0 (6)
  - Adds Calculate, Jam.
  - During the System Phase, you may choose a friendly ship at range 0-3. That ship gains 1 calculate token and 1 stress token.
- Modification – Precision Ion Engines (2)
  - Charges: 2.
  - Before you execute a speed 1-3 Koiogran Turn maneuver, you may spend 1 Charge to execute that maneuver as a Segnor’s Loop maneuver instead.
- Talent – None (0)

Z-95 AF-4 “Lieutenant Blount” (2 pts) (I4)

Pilot Ability
- While you perform a primary attack, if there is at least 1 other friendly ship at range 0-1 of the defender, you may roll 1 additional attack die.
Ship Ability – None
Loadout (0/0)

T-65 X-Wing “Luke Skywalker” (7 pts) (I5)

Pilot Ability
- After you become the defender (before dice are rolled), you may recover 1 Force.
Ship Ability – None
Loadout (23/28)
- Astromech – Chopper (2)
  - Action: Spend 1 non-recurring Charge from another equipped upgrade to recover 1 shield.
  - Action: Spend 2 shields to recover 1 non-recurring Charge on an equipped upgrade.
- Configuration – Servomotor S-Foils (0)
  - Closed:
    - Adds Boost, Focus –> Boost.
    - 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.
- Force – Foresight (5)
  - After an enemy ship executes a maneuver, you may spend 1 Force to perform this attack against it as a bonus attack.
  - Attack 2, Bullseye Arc, Munition, Range 1-3
    - You may change 1 Focus result to a Hit result; your dice cannot be modified otherwise.
- Modification – Afterburners (6)
  - Charges: 2.
  - After you fully execute a speed 3-5 maneuver, you may spend 1 Charge to perform a Boost action, even while stressed.
- Talent – Outmaneuver (6)
  - While you perform a Front Arc attack, if you are not in the defender’s firing arc, the defender rolls 1 fewer defense die.
- Torpedo – Ion Torpedo (4)
  - Charge: 2.
  - Attack (Lock) 4, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 2-3
    - Spend 1 Charge. If this attack hits, spend 1 Hit or Crit result to cause the defender to suffer 1 Hit damage. All remaining Hit/Crit results inflict ion tokens instead of damage.

T-65 X-Wing “Wedge Antilles” (6 pts) (I6)

Pilot Ability
- While you perform an attack, the defender rolls 1 fewer defense die.
Ship Ability – None
Loadout (20/20)
- Astromech – R4 Astromech (2)
  - Decrease the difficulty of your speed 1-2 basic maneuvers.
- Configuration – Servomotor S-Foils (0)
  - Closed:
    - Adds Boost, Focus –> Boost.
    - 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.
- Modification – Afterburners (6)
  - Charges: 2.
  - After you fully execute a speed 3-5 maneuver, you may spend 1 Charge to perform a Boost action, even while stressed.
- Talent – Outmaneuver (6)
  - While you perform a Front Arc attack, if you are not in the defender’s firing arc, the defender rolls 1 fewer defense die.
- Talent – Predator (2)
  - While you perform a primary attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye Arc, you may reroll 1 attack die.
- Torpedo – Ion Torpedo (4)
  - Charge: 2.
  - Attack (Lock) 4, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 2-3
    - Spend 1 Charge. If this attack hits, spend 1 Hit or Crit result to cause the defender to suffer 1 Hit damage. All remaining Hit/Crit results inflict ion tokens instead of damage.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

For my inaugural X-Wing 2.5 Squadron, I wanted something you couldn’t do, or couldn’t do well, in 2.0 and something familiar at the same time. You could squeeze these five ships into a squadron, with these pilots and still have one point available. To build this list itself would have costed 252 points but you couldn’t do it because several ships gained upgrade slots. With 2.5 and the introduction of Loadout Points, you can use these pilots AND give them a few upgrades to help them each shine.

I took this to my first 2.5 tournament and played in each of the new objectives, aside from Chance Encounter. That gave me a good sampling of the each scenario. They do feel a little samey but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Setup was slow and confusing in the first game, but was essentially the same for each of the others so went much faster. Most games lasted 5-7 rounds and ended before with a definitive winner. There were a few instances of people going to time though, so having a time limit will still be a necessity. I can’t imagine how long 12 rounds would take to play.

In general, having multiple ships with different functions worked out well. You need fast ships to tag those objectives early. And you need some punchers to be a threat to the enemy. Afterburners were the star of the show and I can see this becoming a staple of a lot of ships. The ability to fly at max speed, boost into range of an objective and then take an action is going to be very handy for Scramble the Transmissions and Salvage Mission. For those, A-Wings with Vectored Cannons functions much the same way so also came in handy.

Loadout Variations

Thanks to Loadout points, you can create a large number of variations on this exact group of pilots. Fly them with completely different loadouts each time. Instead of pointing out a few minor tweaks you could do to the squad to fit something else in, we’re only going to highlight notable other configurations for certain pilots.

Ezra never used his Precision Ion Engines. He was stressed all the time. I could have made more of an effort to clear his stress but it worked out well for him. He couldn’t turn around but he didn’t care all that much. Brilliant Evasion might be a better choice for those last two points. Then, when you aren’t overloaded with stress, he can still modify two defense die, which is the more likely instance of rolling two focus results. That would have allowed him to run up and tag an objective before beginning the stress overload and still have good defense.

Luke didn’t get much use out of Foresight but I think that was mostly on me. I forgot to keep checking if anyone landed in Bullseye. Chopper was a boon to Luke, keeping him alive. Luke can afford to lose an action to recover a shield. R2-D2 is tempting as well, and will be used next time I fly Luke, but Chopper with Ion Torps costs the same as a standard R2 unit and comes with no Weapon Disabled.

Wedge had no use for his Ion Torpedoes but I can see scenarios where they might have come in handy. But they and the R4 Astromech combined are 6 points and easy ones to shift around for something else. As much fun as Outmaneuver was (I killed an opposing Luke when he didn’t get to roll any defense dice) that comes with the above to be worth a Proton Torpedo. He made great use of Predator and Afterburners.