Rogue Squadron- Raider Incoming!

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

Imperial Raider Corvette (Aft) (Raider Expansion) (78 pts)

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Crew- Weapons Engineer (Lambda Shuttle/Millenium Falcon Expansions): You may maintain 2 target locks (only 1 per enemy ship). When you acquire a target lock, you may lock onto 2 different ships
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.
Team- Sensor Team (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansions): When acquiring a target lock, you may lock onto an enemy ship at Range 1-5 instead of 1-3.
Team- Gunnery Team (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansions): Once per round, when attacking with a secondary weapon, you may spend 1 energy to change 1 of your blank results to a Hit result.
Hardpoint– Ion Cannon Battery (Imperial Raider Expansion): Attack (4 Die, Range 2-4) (energy): Spend 2 energy from this card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 critical damage and receives 1 ion token. Then cancel all dice results.
Hardpoint- Quad Laser Cannons (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansion): Attack (3 Die, Range 1-2) (Energy): 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.
Title- Instigator (Imperial Raider Expansion): After you perform a recover action, recover 1 additional shield.

Imperial Raider Corvette (Fore) (Raider Expansion) (65 pts)

Once per round, after you perform a primary weapon attack, you may spend 2 energy to perform another primary weapon attack.

Cargo- Backup Shield Generator (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansion): At the end of each round, you may spend 1 energy to recover 1 shield (up to your shield value).
Team- Engineering Team (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansions): During the Activation phase, when you reveal a straight maneuver, gain 1 additional energy during the “Gain Energy” step.
Hardpoint– Single Turbolaser (Imperial Raider/Corellian Corvette Expansion): Attack (4 Die, Range 3-5) (energy): Spend 2 energy from this card to perform this attack. The defender doubles his agility value against this attack. You may change 1 of your Focus results to a Hit result.

TIE Advanced “Darth Vader” (TIE Advanced Expansion) (37 pts)

During your “Perform Action” step, you may perform 2 actions.

Elite Pilot Talent- Predator (TIE Defender/Kihraxz Expansion): 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.
Title- TIE X1 (Imperial Raider Expansions)- Your upgrade bar gains the System 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- Engine Upgrade (Millenium Falcon/Hound’s Tooth Expansion)- Your action bar gains the Boost action icon.

TIE Advanced “Juno Eclipse” (Imperial Raider Expansion) (32 pts)

When you reveal your maneuver, you may increase or decrease its speed by 1 (to a minimum of 1).

Elite Pilot Talent- Predator (TIE Defender/Kihraxz Expansion): 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.
Title- TIE X1 (Imperial Raider Expansions)- Your upgrade bar gains the System 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.

TIE Defender “Colonel Vessery” (TIE Defender Expansion) (46 pts)

When attacking, immediately after you roll attack dice, you may acquire a target lock on the defender if it already has a red target lock token.

Cannon- Heavy Laser Cannon (YT-2400/Slave-1/Lambda Shuttle Expansions)- Attack (4 Dice, Range 2-3) Immediately after rolling your attack dice, you must change all of your Critical results to Hit results.
Modification- Shield Upgrade (Millenium Falcon/Imperial Aces Expansion)- Increase your shield value by 1.

2x TIE Advanced “Tempest Squadron” (TIE Advanced Expansion) (21 pts)

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Title- TIE X1 (Imperial Raider Expansions)- Your upgrade bar gains the System upgrade icon. If you equip an upgrade, its squad point cost is reduced by 4 (to a minimum of 0).
System- Accuracy Corrector (IG-2000/Starviper Expansion)- When attacking, during the “Modify Attack Dice” step, you may cancel all of your dice results. Then, you may add 2 Hit results to your roll. Your dice cannot be modified again during this attack.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

The Imperial Raider Corvette finally released to the public last week. The appeal for this expansion is equally mixed between the awesome ship itself, allowing Epic games to finally have a big ship on both sides of the table, and the long awaited fix to the TIE Advanced. So for my first outing with this ship I decided to field both.

The goal here was primarily to field the new ships. Tempest plus a free Accuracy Correctors makes for some real beefy little ships. Five hit points with three agility plus an Evade or Focus token used exclusively for defense makes them hard to hurt. And with their two red dice always generating two hits they’ll do as much damage as they possibly can. These guys will be great to send against your opponent’s Huge ship as they will do two guaranteed damage against the zero agility.

Vader and Juno with the Advanced Targeting Computer are your anti-fighter ships. At PS 8 and 9 they are moving last, making full use of Juno’s ability to change her speed and Vader’s two action to Boost/Barrel Roll. The ATC will throw out some good damage and Predator helps them mitigate the fact that they’ll never be spending the Target Lock to reroll dice.

Vessery fits in nicely with this build as his ability really comes to light in Epic play. With a Weapons Engineer giving the Raider two TL and Vader/Juno wanting to never spend theirs, Vessery will have plenty of targets to choose from and gain a free Target Lock for himself. His HLC is also great to make quick work of the enemy Huge ship.

Now, the Raider itself is a beast. With two attacks from its primary gun plus the single turbolaser in the fore section, it can fire three times, with two target locks, at range 3-4. If it can come right at the enemy Huge ship it will do some big damage. The Ion Cannon and Quad cannons on the aft section provide some good defense options for enemy fighters that will inevitably try and sneak around behind.

The combination of Shield Technician, Back-Up Shield Generator, and Instigator make it so you’ll often want to take the Recover action. You can gain one shield for zero energy just from Instigator. Then if you have energy left at the end of the round you can spend one for another shield.

In my epic game the Raider chewed through the Rebel Corvette. The limit of rang 4 for attacks hurt some as she took one round of fire without being able to retaliate. But she made up for it the second round by firing three times between your primary gun and the equipped single turbolaser. That combined with Vessery and the two Tempest Squad’s getting into range meant the aft section of the corvette went down in a single round, which pretty much crippled him.

Variations

The minor variations for this list are fairly small considering how many points we’re dealing with. Dropping a few upgrades off the Raider would allow you to throw an engine upgrade or hull upgrades on Juno or the Tempest squadrons. Or an EPT onto Vessery.

You could easily peel off a few upgrades from the big ship to instead gain a few more small ships. Stripping 12pts off to add an Academy TIE wouldn’t hurt too bad. Taking a few less points and the two Tempest could give you the potential for four Academy TIE’s really upping your total ships.