Rogue Squadron - Shield Penetration

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

TIE Bomber “Major Rhymer” (TIE Bomber Expansion) (40 pts)

When attacking with a secondary weapon, you may increase or decrease the weapon range by 1 to a limit of Range 1-3.

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.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (TIE Punisher/K-Wing Expansion)- When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped munition Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
Missile- Advanced Homing Missile (TIE Punisher/K-Wing Expansions)- Attack (3, range 2): If this attack hits, deal 1 faceup Damage card to the defender. Then cancel all dice results.
Bomb- Proton Bomb (TIE Bomber/Decimator Expansions)- When this bomb token detonates, deal 1 faceup Damage card to each ship at Range 1 of the token. Then discard this token.
Modification- Twin Ion Engine Mk II (TIE Punisher Expansion)- You may treat all bank maneuvers as green maneuvers.

TIE Punisher “Redline” (Imperial Raider Expansion) (36 pts)

You may maintain 2 target locks on the same ship. When you acquire a target lock, you may acquire a second lock on that ship.

Torpedo- Plasma Torpedo (K-Wing/TIE Punisher Expansions)- Attack (4, range 2-3): If this attack hits, after dealing damage, remove 1 shield token from the defender.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (TIE Punisher/K-Wing Expansion)- When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped munition Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
System- Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansions)- After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.
Modification- Twin Ion Engine Mk II (TIE Punisher Expansion)- You may treat all bank maneuvers as green maneuvers.

TIE/fo “Omega Ace” (TIE Advanced Expansion) (24 pts)

When attacking, you may spend a focus token and a target lock you have on the defender to change all of your results to Critical results.

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.
Modification- Twin Ion Engine Mk II (TIE Punisher Expansion)- You may treat all bank maneuvers as green maneuvers.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

This list probably won’t hold up for long. Even with six hull, TIE Bombers don’t last long. The extra three shields on the Punisher don’t really give it much more life. But, they are Pilot Skill 7, so have a good chance to get all of their ordinance off before dying. And with that ordinance they can do some damage.

Unlike most squadrons, you might want to split your fire on the first approach. Major Rhymer wants to fire on something with two hull. If he hits, he’s dealing a Critical card through the shields. With luck, he’ll flip over a Direct Hit card and kill that two hull ship right away. E-Wings, A-Wings, Z-95’s – those are your primary targets. If anyone gets behind him, he leaves that lovely proton bomb as a present, giving out even more shield bypassing crits.

Meanwhile, Redline and Omega want to tag team someone. Redline fires off the Plasma torpedo, trying to strip all the shields. Then Omega fires with his guaranteed Crits and tries to finish them off.

With luck, you can get two rounds of ordinance firing from range before one of your ships buys it. That might be enough firepower to knock some ships out or to at least cripple some of the major players. Because once the ordinance is gone, you’ve got three ships with only two attack so you’re going to need to poke at them for awhile to kill anything.

Fortunately, despite this list consisting of mostly bombers it’s a surprisingly maneuverable list. PTL on Rhymer and Omega give them good actions and the TIE Mk II gives them a lot of green maneuvers to choose from.

Still, probably not a tournament winning list. It’s too easy for these guys to get out maneuvered by a PS 8/9 or to get focused fired to oblivion by a TLT or swarm. But, it could be a lot of fun to watch Rhymer just waste Corran Horn in the first salvo.

Variations

You could consider dropping the proton bomber before the fight for any other kind of bomb or giving out some additional ordinance. Another set of missiles for one of the bombers or bombs/mines on both of them instead of just on Rhymer. Protons are nice and fit the theme of Rhymer’s shield bypassing but they are pretty pricey. You could also spend those points to beef up Omega instead. Changing his TIE Mk II to a Shield or Hull upgrade will make him quite a bit more resilient.

A simple switch to consider is giving Redline a Munitions Failsafe instead of TIE Mk II. With his FCS and lack of PTL he doesn’t care as much about needing actions compared to his wingmen. With his double Target Locks he has a good chance of hitting with those Plasma Torpedoes so Failsafe isn’t very necessary.