Rogue Squadron - Red Squadron

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

X-Wing “Hobbie Klivian” (Rebel Transport Expansion) (27 pts) (PS 5)

When you acquire or spend a target lock, you may remove 1 stress token from your ship.

Astromech- Targeting Astromech (T-70 Expansion): After you execute a red maneuver, you may acquire a target lock.
Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 Expansion): When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card.

X-Wing “Biggs Darklighter” (Original Core) (26 pts) (PS 5)

Other friendly ships at Range 1 cannot be targeted by attacks if the attacker could target you instead.

Astromech- R4-D6 (Rebel Transport Expansion): When you are hit by an attack and there are at least 3 uncanceled Hit results, you may choose to cancel those results until there are 2 remaining. For each result canceled this way, receive 1 stress token.
Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 Expansion): When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card.

X-Wing “Tarn Mison” (Rebel Transport Expansion) (25 pts) (PS 3)

When an enemy ship declares you as the target of an attack, you may acquire a target lock on that ship.

Astromech- R7 (E-Wing Expansion): Once per round when defending, if you have a target lock on the attacker, you may spend the target lock to choose any or all attack dice. The attacker must reroll the chosen dice.
Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 Expansion): When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card.

X-Wing “Rookie Pilot” (X-Wing/Core/Rebel Transports Expansion) (21 pts) (PS 2)

None

Astromech- R2 (Y-Wing Expansion): You may treat all 1- and 2-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers.
Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 Expansion): When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to discard that Damage card.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

X-Wings have returned to X-wing. The new Targeting Astromech and the Integrated Astromech from the T-70 expansion pack really makes the the X-wing a ship to once again consider taking. While not as fancy as the shiny new T-70’s, less shields and no boost, the original T-65’s are cheaper and have some awesome pilots.

This list is a classic four ship Rebel list with some of the new tricks up its sleeve. First, we have Biggs at the core, forcing your opponent’s hand on who they fire at first. With Integrated Astromech (IA) and R4-D6 he has a chance to survive more than one round of combat. Any heavy hits in the first engagement he can strip down to just two hits and to stay alive. Then he can sacrifice the droid to avoid one damage card, essentially serving as a free shield upgrade.

Next we have the heavy hitter for the group, Hobbie. His ability works great with the new Targeting Astromech (TA). He takes a K-turn, gets stressed, gets a free Target Lock from the droid and then his ability clears the stress. Now he can take his regular action and Focus. So instead of K-turning and getting no action, he K-turns and gets TL + Focus.

Once Biggs is down, Tarn will become the ship no one wants to shoot at. You shoot at him, he gets a free Target Lock on you. And once per round, he can then spend that to make you reroll your perfect attack. He might roll hits again but who wants to risk it? Shoot at the Rookie instead.

This list still suffers from the age old problem of X-wings; no ability to reposition. That makes them vulnerable to arc dodgers. And unlike their T-70 brethren they can’t take Autothrusters so turrets will still be annoying. But, with the essentially free shield that they get from IA they are now much tougher to deal with. And four ships with three attack always hurt.

Variations

There are a couple small changes you could make here, mostly with the droid distribution. You could just accept Biggs’ demise and strip his droid to give the Rookie and Tarn Targeting Astromechs of their own. That makes the formation K-turning a nice serious threat. You’d lose Biggs at least one attack earlier and Tarn would not be as survivable but you’d gain some offense.

You can also switch out the Rookie’s R2 unit for any of the other one point astromechs. R5’s have some value in clearing crits. R5-X3 could be fun for an unexpected attack through an asteroid field.