Rogue Squadron- Phoenix Squadron (Epic)

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

CR-90 Corvette (Fore Section) (Tantive IV Expansion) (71 pts) (PS 4)

When attacking with your primary weapon, you may spend 1 energy to roll 1 additional attack die.

Title– Dodonna’s Pride (Tantive IV Expansion): When you perform a coordinate action, you may choose 2 friendly ships (instead of 1). Those ships may each perform 1 free action.
Hardpoint- Quad Laser Cannons (Imperial Raider/Tantive IV Expansions): Attack (Energy 2, range 1-2, 3 Attack): Spend 1 energy from this card to perform this attack. If this attack does not hit, you may immediately spend 1 energy from this card to perform this attack again.
Team- Sensor Team (Imperial Raider/Tantive IV Expansion): When acquiring a target lock, you may lock onto an enemy ship at Range 1-5 instead of 1-3.
Crew- Weapons Engineer (Lambda/Milleniun Falcon Expansion): You may maintain 2 target locks (only 1 per enemy ship). When you acquire a target lock, you may lock onto 2 different ships.
Cargo- Comm Booster (Imperial Raider/Tantive IV/Rebel Transport Expansion): Energy: Spend 1 energy to remove all stress tokens from a friendly ship at Range 1-3. Then assign 1 focus token to that ship.

CR-90 Corvette (Aft Section) (Tantive IV Expansion) (55 pts) (PS 4)

None

Modification– Optimizer Generators (Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion): Once per round, when you assign energy to an equipped Upgrade card, gain 2 energy.
Hardpoint- Quad Laser Cannons (Imperial Raider/Tantive IV Expansions): Attack (Energy 2, range 1-2, 3 Attack): Spend 1 energy from this card to perform this attack. If this attack does not hit, you may immediately spend 1 energy from this card to perform this attack again.
Crew- Shield Technician (Imperial Raider Expansion): When you perform a recover action, instead of spending all of your energy, you can choose any amount of energy to spend.
Cargo- Back-up Shield Generator (Imperial Raider/Tantive IV/Rebel Transport Expansion): At the end of each round, you may spend 1 energy to recover 1 shield (up to your shield value).

VCX-100 “Hera Syndulla” (Ghost Expansion) (51 pts) (PS 7)

When you reveal a green or red maneuver, you may rotate your dial to another maneuver of the same difficulty.

Title– Ghost (Ghost Expansion): Equip the Phantom title card to a friendly Attack Shuttle and dock it to this ship. After you execute a maneuver, you may deploy it from your rear guides.
Turret- Twin Laser Turret (K-Wing Expansion): Attack (3, Range 2-3): Perform this attack twice (even against a ship outside your firing arc). Each time this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage. Then cancel all dice results.
System- Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansions): After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Crew- Ezra Bridger (Ghost Expansion): When attacking, if you are stressed, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Critical result.
Crew- Chopper (Ghost Expansion): You may perform actions even while you are stressed. After you perform an action while you are stressed, suffer 1 damage.

Attack Shuttle “Sabine Wren” (Ghost Expansion) (32 pts) (PS 5)

Immediately before you reveal your maneuver, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.

Title – Phantom (Ghost Expansion): While you are docked, the Ghost can perform primary weapon attacks from its special firing arc, and, at the end of the Combat phase, it may perform an additional attack with an equipped Turret. If it performs this attack, it cannot attack again this round.
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.
Turret- Dorsal Turret (Ghost Expansion): Attack (2, Range 1-2): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc).If the target of this attack is at Range 1, roll 1 additional attack die.
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- Targeting Computer (Imperial Aces Expansion): Your action bar gains the Target Lock action icon.

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

You may perform actions even while you have stress tokens.

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- 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.
Elite Pilot Talent- Rage (Punishing One Expansion): Action: Assign 1 focus token to your ship and receive 2 stress tokens. Until the end of the round, when attacking, you may reroll up to 3 attack dice.
Missile- Chardaan Refit (Rebel Aces Expansion): This card has a negative squad point cost.
Modification- Vectored Thrusters (ARC-170 Expansion)- Your action bar gains the Barrell Roll action icon.

A-Wing “Jake Farrel” (A-Wing Expansion) (30 pts) (PS 8)

After you perform a focus action or are assigned a focus token, you may perform a free boost or barrel roll action.

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- 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.
Elite Pilot Talent- Adaptability (Mist Hunter Expansion): Dual card. Side A: Increase your pilot skill value by 1. Side B: Decrease your pilot skill value by 1.
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.

6x A-Wing “Green Squadron Pilot” (A-Wing Expansion) (22 pts) (PS 2-4)

None

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- 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.
Elite Pilot Talent- Adaptability (Mist Hunter Expansion): Dual card. Side A: Increase your pilot skill value by 1. Side B: Decrease your pilot skill value by 1.
Missile- Chardaan Refit (Rebel Aces Expansion): This card has a negative squad point cost.
Modification- Vectored Thrusters (ARC-170 Expansion)- Your action bar gains the Barrell Roll action icon.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

A friend and I decided to get a Epic game of X-wing on the table recently. It’s not something I’ve played very often but can be a lot of fun. My son wanted to play too so we went for Team Epic (hence the 400pt squadron). Since we’re all fans of Rebels, my son and I decided to play Phoenix Squadron against my friend’s Taskforce Hammer (two Gozantis with Agent Kallus onboard, the Inquisitor, and Darth Vader with various other TIEs flying support).

Coming up with the core of the fleet was easy; Ghost and Phantom decked out with as many crew as would work, plus as many A-wings as we could muster. Fortunately, between the two of us we only had eight A-wings so I didn’t feel obliged to take a full dozen naked Protoype Pilots. That would be more appropriate for the skill level of Phoenix Squadron though.

The game began with the A-wings beelining for a trio of TIE Bombers in order to take them down before they could get into missile range of the corvette. This went about as well for the A-wing as it normally does for Phoenix Squadron because I made the mistake of forgetting those Bombers had Assault Missiles. Thanks to Captain Jonus and a XX-23 Thread Tracer, two bombers managed to hit bringing one down and then all but two A-wings (who happened to be out of range) down to half health in the first salvo. Fortunately, the next round they all got range 1 so no more missile attacks and were, with the help of the range 5 attacks from the corvette, able to shred two of the bombers.

Meanwhile, Hera also underestimated ordnance. She took a 5 K-turn so she could unload into one of the Gozantis. Both them of got off Plasma torpedoes, stripping Ghost’s shields and dropped a swarm of TIE Fighters around it. After that Hera bugged out and survived long enough to erase a few TIE fighters before deploying Sabine in Phantom.

The corvette, Dodonna’s Pride went right up the middle offering support and giving it’s quad lasers as many targets as possible. Thanks to Weapons Engineer, the corvette was able to alternate between taking target locks and oordinating ships. The Comms Booster proved very effective for those stress loving A-wings and even managed to clear Tychos 9+ stress tokens one round .

At the end of a couple hours of play we had to wrap it up without a definitive conclusion. Ghost and several A-wings had been eliminated while taking out two Bombers, two Fighters and two Interceptors. None of the huge ships were really damaged (though there had been a few collisions resulting in some crits) but Sabine was about to get chewed up by Vader and the Inquisitor. It’s hard to say who won point wise; Ghost was expensive but so were those loaded up bombers.