Welcome to Rogue Squadron! Historically this series has dealt primarily with presenting new squadrons for FFG’s Xwing miniatures game. But moving forward it will be branching out a little to cover other topics, though still primarily focused on X-wing. I’m Wayne Basta, editor-in-chief for the Gamer Nation blog and sometimes novelist. I’ll be your flight instructor for this adventure. So strap in and remember to fly casual.
Today we’re going to talk about ways to deal with Stress when playing X-wing. There are a lot of ways to receive stress in this game and some squadrons that are built specifically to deliver it en mass. We’ve covered a few of this on the blog before, most notably a Panic Attack and the Special K. Dealing out stress to your opponent can be a strong tactic and great way to control the board.
So how do you deal with getting stress? Most importantly, how do you deal with the dreaded double stress? There are a couple tactics we’ll explore in our second part but today we’re going to start with the pre-game by looking at what pilots, ships and upgrades you can take that handle stress well. Then next week we’ll take a look at specific game tactics.
Ships
Independent of pilots, there are a few ships that handle stress better than others. These are ships that, primarily, have a lot of green maneuvers to choose from so they can shed that stress. A few also just don’t have any red maneuvers meaning that even if they are stressed, they still have their full maneuver dial available to them. While they may not be able to shed stress, and are still denied actions, they don’t lose any maneuver options.
- TIE Interceptor
- TIE F/O
- A-Wing
- K-Wing
- Decimator
- Aggressor
Upgrades and Pilots
Next up we’ll look at what pilots and upgrades exist to help deal with stress. We’re going to break them down into three categories:
Shedding Stress
The main benefit of these cards is opening up your choices for how to get rid of the stress once you have it. These are great ones to have in circumstances when you want to deliberately stress yourself (such as using Push the Limits). You can control when you get the stress and these help you get rid of it the next round.
- Keyan Farlander (B-Wing)
- When attacking, you may remove 1 stress token to change all of your Focus results to Hit results.
- Hobbie Klivian (X-Wing)
- When you acquire or spend a target lock, you may remove 1 stress token from your ship.
- 4-Lom (G1-A)
- At the start of the End phase, you may assign 1 of your stress tokens to another ship at Range 1.
- Epsilon Leader (TIE/FO)
- At the start of the Combat phase, remove 1 stress token from each friendly ship at Range 1.
- Nien Nunb (Rebel Crew)
- You may treat all Straight maneuvers as green maneuvers.
- Kanan Jarrus (Rebel Crew)
- Once per round, after a friendly ship at Range 1-2 executes a white maneuver, you may remove 1 stress token from that ship.
- R2 Astromech (Astromech)
- You may treat all 1- and 2-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers.
- Twin Ion Engine MK II (Mod)
- You may treat all bank maneuvers as green maneuvers.
- Wingman (EPT)
- At the start of the Combat phase, remove 1 stress token from another friendly ship at Range 1.
Coping With Stress
Many of these cards, though not all, are quite useful when you’re getting stress from other sources. When a stresshog or a Tactician K-Wing drops double stress on you in a round, it doesn’t matter how good you are at shedding stress, you’ll still be spending two rounds doing it. These cards can help you in the meantime.
Ezra (both), Ibtisam, Wired, Predator, and Lonewolf allow you to keep modifying your dice results. Tycho, Soontir, Kyle, K4, Chopper, Cool Hand, FCS allow you to gain some token or action even while stressed which are great for when you find yourself double stressed. Targeting Astromech and Outlaw Tech have a more narrow use but help give you some action after taking a red maneuver. Hera is unique in that she doesn’t help you get actions but does keep your dial open.
- Soontir Fel (TIE Interceptor)
- When you receive a stress token, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship.
- Tycho Celchu (A-Wing)
- You may perform actions even while you have stress tokens.
- Ezra Bridger (Attack Shuttle)
- When defending, if you are stressed, you may change 2 of your Focus results to Evade results.
- Ibtisam (B-Wing)
- When attacking or defending, if you have at least 1 stress token, you may reroll 1 of your dice.
- Hera Syndulla (Rebel Crew)
- You may reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed.
- Kyle Katarn (Rebel Crew)
- After you remove a stress token from your ship, you may assign a focus token to your ship.
- Ezra Bridger (Rebel Crew)
- When attacking, if you are stressed, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Critical result.
- Chopper (Rebel Crew)
- You may perform actions even while you are stressed. After you perform an action while you are stressed, suffer 1 damage.
- K4 Security Droid (Scum Crew)
- After executing a green maneuver, you may acquire a target lock.
- Outlaw Tech (Scum Crew)
- After you execute a red maneuver, you may assign 1 focus token to your ship.
- Targeting Astromch (Astromech)
- After you execute a red maneuver, you may acquire a target lock.
- Cool Hand (EPT)
- When you receive a stress token, you may discard this card to assign 1 focus or evade token to your ship.
- Predator (EPT)
- When attacking, you may reroll 1 attack die. If the defender’s pilot skill value is “2” or lower, you may instead reroll up to 2 attack dice.
- Lonewolf (EPT)
- When attacking or defending, if there are no other friendly ships at Range 1-2, you may reroll 1 of your blank results.
- Wired (EPT)
- When attacking or defending, if you are stressed, you may reroll 1 or more of your Focus results.
- Fire Control Systems (System)
- After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Avoiding Stress
These cards help you avoid receiving stress entirely, which is what you ideally want to do in the first place. Unlike most of the others these cards almost all have a downside. They are either one time use, cause damage or are limited in range and function like Yorr. Doing damage to yourself is not something you really want to do very often but sometimes, getting rid of that stress can make the difference between a win and a loss.
- Jek Porkins (X-Wing)
- When you receive a stress token, you may remove it and roll 1 attack die. On a Hit result, deal 1 facedown Damage card to this ship.
- Captain Yorr (Lambda)
- When another friendly ship at Range 1-2 would receive a stress token, if you have 2 or fewer stress tokens, you may receive that token instead.
- Leia Organa (Rebel Crew)
- At the start of the Activation phase, you may discard this card to allow all friendly ships that reveal a red maneuver to treat that maneuver as a white maneuver until the end of the phase.
- Electronic Baffles (System)
- When you receive a stress token or an ion token, you may suffer 1 damage to discard that token.
- Adrenaline Rush (EPT)
- When you reveal a red maneuver, you may discard this card to treat that maneuver as a white maneuver until the end of the Activation phase.
Combinations
If you can ever combine some of these cards, particularly from the different categories, you can make very strong anti-stress ships. The best combination would be Hera (crew) on Tycho Celchu’s ship as stress would become completely meaningless. But alas, no crew slot on A-wings.
As for game legal combinations, some great ones are:
- Tycho + Wired
- He loves having stress so gaining, even limited, rerolls on defense is useful
- 4-LOM + Wired
- Since 4-LOM has a built-in way to shed his stress at the end of the round, having Wired would allow him to benefit during combat from rerolls and then get rid of it before the next round.
- Ibtisam or Keyan + Hera
- With this combo you never need to worry about actions. Both pilots can give you modifiers to your dice while stressed and Hera keeps the B-wings full dial open. Really, Hera on any B-wing is useful.
- Hobbie + Targeting Astromech
- Because of the timing on Hobbie’s ability, this droid is incredibly powerful for him. A K-turn allows him to move, get a stress, get target lock, remove the stress and then take his regular action. Unlike other ships who K-turn and get no actions, Hobbie will get two.
- Kanan + Targeting Astromech
- These two cards can’t be on the same ship but working in conjunction they are great. A ship can take a red manuever, get a target lock and then the next turn clear its stress with a wide range of maneuvers thanks to Kanan nearby.
- Kyle + Wingman
- Another combo that works on different ships. But if one ship has Kyle onboard and is escorted by a Wingman, when the wingman clears the stress Kyle gives him a Focus.
- Soontir Fel + Epsilon Leader
- Soontir loves using Push the Limits to take two actions and get stressed. With Epilson Leader nearby he can also be free to take any needed maneuver next turn. Because the TIE F/O and Interceptor dials are very similar they can keep formation fairly well.
- Outlaw Tech + 4-LOM
- There are plenty of red maneuvers on the G1-A that can trigger Outlaw Tech. With 4-LOM also giving away that stress if you can be close to someone you can then have your full dial available next turn.
- Lonewolf + Wired
- Since this is two EPTs it is only possible on an A-wing. And you’d be giving up PTL so you probably don’t want to do it. But, working together they can allow you to reroll any die result, blank or focus, every time which makes it fun to think about.
- Ezra (Pilot) + Kanan
- With Ezra, being stressed during combat helps you on defense. With Kanan onboard you can easily clear your stress next turn.
- Ezra (Pilot) + Hera
- Similar to the above, this one would combo nicely with Stay on Target. Then Ezra will always be stressed for his defense bonus and be able to very slippery when choosing maneuvers.
Wayne Basta
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