Rogue Squadron- No Worries

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

B-Wing “Keyan Farlander” (Rebel Aces Expansion) (35 pts) (PS 7)

When attacking, you may remove 1 stress token to change all of your Focus results to Hit results.

Elite Pilot Talent- Stay on Target (YT-2400/Hound’s Tooth Expansions): When you reveal a maneuver, you may rotate your dial to another maneuver with the same speed. Treat that maneuver as a red maneuver.
Modification- B-wing/E2 (Rebel Aces Expansion): Your upgrade bar gains the Crew upgrade icon.
System- Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansion): After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Crew- Hera Syndulla (Ghost Expansion): You may reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed.

A-Wing “Tycho Celchu” (A-Wing Expansion) (30 pts) (PS 8)

You may perform actions even while you have stress tokens.

Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-Wing/Imperial Aces Expansion): 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- A-Wing Test Pilot (Rebel Aces Expansion): Your upgrade bar gains 1 Elite Pilot Talent upgrade icon. You cannot equip 2 of the same Upgrade cards. You cannot equip this if your pilot skill value is “1” or lower.
Elite Pilot Talent- Wired (TFA Core Set)- When attacking or defending, if you are stressed, you may reroll 1 or more of your Focus results.
Missile- Chardaan Refit (Rebel Aces Expansion)- This card has a negative squad point cost.
Modification- Autothrusters (Starviper Expansion): When defending, if you are beyond Range 2 or outside the attacker’s firing arc, you may change 1 of your blank results to an Evade result. You can equip this card only if you have the Boost action icon.

Attack Shuttle “Ezra Bridger” (Ghost Expansion) (35 pts) (PS 4)

When defending, if you are stressed, you may change 2 of your Focus results to Evade results.

Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-Wing/Imperial Aces Expansion): Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
Turret- Ion Cannon Turret (Y-Wing/HWK-290 Expansion): Attack (3, Range 1-2): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). If this attack hits the target ship, the ship suffers 1 damage and receives 1 ion token. Then cancel all dice results.
Crew- Kanan Jarrus (Ghost Expansion): Once per round, after a friendly ship at Range 1-2 executes a white maneuver, you may remove 1 stress token from that ship.
Modification- Shield Upgrade (Millenium Falcon/Imperial Aces Expansion): Increase your Shield value by 1.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Earlier today we began a discussion about the stress mechanic in X-wing. We looked at all the different mechanics available in game to help you cope with getting stress. This list is built with that in mind. It is nothing if not a list that just does not care about stress. If anything, it likes being stressed.

Tycho is the originally cool guy. One of the biggest downsides of stress is not being able to perform actions. But Tycho still can. And since he only has a single red maneuver on his dial, with stress he only loses one maneuver and suffers no other downsides. In fact, with Wired equipped he actually benefits with free rerolls.

Keyan also is a fan of having some stress. He can use that stress to turn his offensive Focus results into Hits. Combine that with a FCS for free target locks and he really doesn’t care about getting actions. He loses out on a defensive Focus, but with one defense die it’s not a big deal. And he loses out on Barrel Roll, which can be useful. But because he has a built in stress clearing mechanic, odds are he won’t keep stress around for very long.

In the event that he does, such as chasing an ace who arc dodges him leaving him stressed, he’s got Hera. Now all those red maneuvers on the B-wing dial aren’t a problem. Combined with Stay on Target, he’s free to change maneuvers to find the best one available after most other ships have already moved.

Now for Ezra, of the three, he’s the least happy to be drowning in stress because it costs him his hard three and hard one maneuvers. But he makes up for it with being pretty hard to hit thanks to his ability. Because this happens everytime someone shoots at him, he can hold up to concentrated swarm fire pretty good. He still has to worry about blanks but that’s better odds than usual. Combine with Kanan and he can still use most of his dial every turn and can easily clear that stress from round to round.

This list isn’t necessarily the greatest but it does have a lot of tools. Ezra’s turret can help deal with aces outflanking you. Each ship has access to a repositioning ability (even if Keyan might never get to use it). It handles swarm attacks fairly well (Tycho has Autothrusters and Wired and Ezra’s ability can all be used for every defense). It’s pretty much immune to stresshogs and Tactician.

Variations

Originally I forgot to include the Chardaan refit when I made this build. I had a Dorsal Turret equipped on Ezra and when I realized my mistake I wasn’t really sure what to do with those two points. I choose upgrading to an Ion Turret for the control utility but there are many choices. In total, you have about nine points (Shield and Ion Turret) you could easily play with on this build without losing it’s main focus.

You could drop the turret entirely on Ezra and go for Proton Rockets on Tycho. Give the A-wing a one time heavy shot. Alternatively, you could downgrade the shield upgrade to a hull upgrade and give Ezra a Twin Laser Turret. This is never a bad upgrade but since Ezra has a nice three dice primary attack, he’s better served using that for most attacks.

Keyan could take a Heavy Laser Cannon but then you’d have two points and no clear place to spend them. Ezra becomes a little squishier though. Changing out Tycho’s second EPT also gives you a lot of flexibility. Tycho loves Daredevil and if you went Dorsal Turret on Ezra or HLC on Keyan and nothing on Ezra it could work.