Rogue Squadron- Rise of the Wolfpack

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

3x Jumpmaster 5000 “Contracted Scout” (Punishing One Expansion) (33-34 pts)

None

Elite Pilot Talent– Deadeye (A-Wing/Inquisitor’s TIE Expansions): You may treat the Attack (target lock) header as Attack (focus). When an attack instructs you to spend a target lock, you may spend a focus token instead.
Modification- Guidance Chip (Punishing One/Inquisitor’s TIE Expansions)- Once per round, when attacking with a or secondary weapon, you may change 1 die result to a Hit result (or a Crit result if your primary weapon value is “3” or higher).
Salvaged Astromech- R4 Agromech (Most Wanted Expansion)- When attacking, after you spend a focus token, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (K-Wing/TIE Punisher Expansions)- When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped munition upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an munitions upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
Torpedo- Plasma Torpedo (K-Wing/TIE Punisher/Punishing One Expansions)- Attack (target lock) (4, Range 2-3: Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, after dealing damage, remove 1 shield token from the defender.
OR
Torpedo- Proton Torpedo (Core/X-wing/B-Wing/Y-Wing Expansions)- Attack (target lock) (4, Range 2-3: Spend your target lock and discard this card to perform this attack. You may change 1 of your Focus results to a Crit result.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Ever since the Jumpmaster reveal article this list has become the new hotness/boogey man of the X-wing community. Having now seen it play and win, with ease, a store championship I can agree this is a very potent combination. Ordinance is finally deadly in X-wing, though its takes a pretty elaborate and unique set of upgrades to pull it off, something only the Jumpmaster can do.

So what makes this ship such an effective torpedo carrier? First, it has an EPT. This allows it to take Deadeye so that it can fire its torpedoes at whatever target is in range, not just the one it has a TL on. This also mitigates the problem of low PS ships moving first and being out of range to take a Target Lock on the first engagement.

Second, R4 Agromech allows it to acquire a TL after spending the Focus token to fire the torpedo. That gives the ship the ability to modify its attack roll, something that ordnance generally lacks. Combined with Guidance Chip this means you have pretty good odds of getting all dice to hit.

Third, double torpedo slots allow you to take Extra Munitions so that you get two shots from your torpedoes for relatively cheap. That mitigates another munitions downside; one shot and done.

Fourth, survivability. At nine total hit points it takes several shots to kill one of these ships. Unlike other high health multiple torpedo slot ships (Y-Wings, K-Wings, TIE Punishers) it has two agility dice protecting it. While two dice isn’t much better than one in a lot of cases, it’s enough to slow down the attrition rate long enough for you to get your torpedoes off.

Fifth, it’s a cheap generic. At only twenty-five points you can take three of these in a list fully decked out. While that’s not quite a swarm it’s enough to get the list the label of Wolfpack (because the ships fire torpedoes and are shaped like a “U,” they are U-boats. I take no credit for these names).

Sixth, it has a great dial and a turret. This means even after the ordnance has gone off, it is still a tough ship to take down. The turret can help with arc dodgers and the dial makes predicting your maneuvering more difficult (unless you need to clear a stress, then it’s easy to know you’re going left).

All of these things come together into a perfect combination no other ship can match. Most of the ships that have double torpedo slots (K-Wings, Rebel Y-Wings, TIE Punishers) don’t even have EPT’s on their named pilots, much less the generics. The others (TIE Bombers, B-Wings) don’t have generics with an EPT. This prevents them from taking the U-boats best advantage, Deadeye.

We’ll probably be seeing a lot of these lists in the coming Regional season. Will they come to dominate? Hard to say. Purchasing three Jumpmasters is a bit expensive which will limit things some. It is also very easy to fly a Jumpmaster poorly. The asymetrical dial takes some getting used to, also. This isn’t a list that is going to make a weak player win. Plus it is still vulnerable to autothruster aces and swarms.

Additionally, some of the best players also take it as a personal challenge to fly anything that is not the meta dominating list. If everyone is flying a Wolfpack, you can be assured there will be people running other lists just to crush them. These players will still make the top cuts in big tournaments because they are good players.

Variations

The only real variation is to drop an Extra Munitions from one ship in order to get proton torpedoes on all three ships. You’re trading one torpedo for slightly more reliable torpedoes. It’s mostly a matter of personal taste.