Rogue Squadron- Magnificent Seven

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 Phantom “Whisper” (TIE Phantom Expansion) (41 pts) (PS 7)

After you perform an attack that hits, you may assign 1 focus to your ship.

Elite Pilot Talent- Outmaneuver (E-Wing/TIE Defender Expansions): When attacking a ship inside your firing arc, if you are not inside that ship’s firing arc, reduce its agility value by 1 (to a minimum of 0).
System- Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansions) – After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Modification- Advanced Cloaking Device (TIE Phantom Expansions) – After you perform an attack, you may perform a free cloak action.

TIE Advanced “Maarek Stele” (TIE Advanced Expansion) (32 pts) (PS 7)

When your attack deals a faceup Damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 Damage cards, choose 1 to deal, and discard the others.

Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-Wing/Imperial Aces Expansions): Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
Title- TIE/x1 (Imperial Raider Expansion): Your upgrade bar gains the upgrade icon. If you equip a upgrade, its squad point cost is reduced by 4 (to a minimum of 0).
System- Advanced Targeting Computer (Imperial Raider Expansion): When attacking with your primary weapon, if you have a target lock on the defender, you may add 1 Crit result to your roll. If you do, you cannot spend target locks during this attack.
Modification- Twin Ion Engine Mk II (TIE Punisher Expansion) – You may treat all bank maneuvers as green maneuvers.

TIE/FO “Omega Ace” (TFA Core) (27 pts) (PS 7)

When attacking, you may spend a focus token and a target lock you have on the defender to change all of your results to Crit results.

Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-Wing/Imperial Aces Expansions): Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
Modification- Shield Upgrade (Imperial Aces/Millenium Falcon Expansion) – Increase your shield value by 1.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

We’ve recently taken a look at lists focused on a particular Pilot Skill level. We looked at the Elite Eight and the Sinister Six. There’s an obvious gap there so today we’re going to look at PS 7. And for that, we have the Imperials. They have quite a number of elite pilots at seven so they were the perfect fit.

This list is an odd one. On one hand, it lacks firepower. Sure, it has the four dice of a Phantom but then two attack ships are what’s left. But it makes up for this with how hard it hits.

First, you have Whisper. She’s got the big guns, the big target on her back and is the most slippery. She’ll want to fire first to try and strip shields so that the other two can lay on the crits. Giving her Outmaneuver allows her to be really dangerous if she can arc dodge a ship.

Omega Ace is an interesting one with PTL. Normally getting a Focus and a Target Lock gives you good odds of getting your hits. But it’s still a chance that your reroll will come up blank. He has a nice insurance on that. He can spend those together to get maximum results with no chance of failure (aside from your target rolling a bunch of evades).

Maarek will struggle a little more on getting hits, since he wants to save his target lock for ATC but he will be a big threat when he hits. Adding a crit to every attack gives him a good chance to score a crit and use his ability for maximum effect. Being able to sort through the cards looking for the one that will hurt the most can be really devastating.

While not as flimsy as some three ship lists they are still made up of TIE’s. Green dice are unreliable so expect damage to add up quickly. They will also have some trouble taking down high agility, higher PS ships like Soontir Fel as he can still arc dodge them and it can be hard to get hits through four green dice with two attack.

Variations

This list has quite a lot of variations you can try. First off, dropping three points somewhere (such as losing Outmaneuver) to give Maarek an Advanced Homing Missile can be really mean. Since he won’t have to spend the TL to fire it, he can use it for rerolls to help ensure it hits. That gives him a good chance of being able to drop a Direct Hit for two damage right through some ship’s shields.

The shield upgrade on Omega is also a lot of points that could be traded for things elsewhere. Recon Specialist or Rebel Captive on Whisper is always nice. Likewise, throwing a Sensor Jammer on Whisper is always a good idea, especially with the threat of Twin Laser Turrets looming.

And, of course, you can always lose the PS 7 focus to give one or all of them Veteran Instincts for pilot skill 9. Whisper loves this one.