Rogue Squadron - Stress Nonsense

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

Sheathipede Class Shuttle “Ezra Bridger” (Phantom II Expansion) (23 pts) (PS 5)

When defending, if you are stressed, you may change up to 2 of your Focus results to a Evade results.

Elite Pilot Talent- Wired (TFA Core/TIE s/f Expansion): When attacking or defending, if you are stressed, you may reroll 1 or more of your Focus results.
Astromech- R3-A2 (Rebel Transport): When you declare the target of your attack, if the defender is inside your firing arc, you may receive 1 stress token to cause the defender to receive 1 stress token.
Crew- Hera Syndulla (Ghost Expansion): You can reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed.
Modification- Pulse Ray Shield (C-ROC/Guns for Hire Expansions): During the End phase, you may receive 1 ion token to recover 1 shield (up to your shield value). You can equip this card only if your shield value is “1.”

ARC-170 “Braylen Stramm” (ARC-170 Expansion) (31 pts) (PS 3)

After you execute a maneuver, you may roll an attack die. On a Hit or Crit result, remove 1 stress token from your ship.

Astromech- R2-D2 (Original Core): After executing a green maneuver, you may recover 1 shield (up to your shield value).
Crew- Tactician (Auzituck/TIE Phantom Expansion): After you perform an attack against a ship inside your firing arc at Range 2, that ship receives 1 stress token.
Title- Alliance Overhaul (ARC-170 Expansion): When attacking with a primary weapon from your primary firing arc, you may roll 1 additional attack die. When attacking from your auxiliary firing arc, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Crit result.

Auzituck Gunship “Kashyyyk Defender” (Auzituck Gunship Expansion) (29 pts) (PS 1)

None.

Crew- C-3P0 (Rebel Transport): Once per round, before you roll 1 or more defense dice, you may guess aloud a number of Evade results. If you roll that many Evade results (before modifying dice), add 1 result.
Crew- Tactician (Auzituck/TIE Phantom Expansion): After you perform an attack against a ship inside your firing arc at Range 2, that ship receives 1 stress token.

Sheathipede Class Shuttle “AP-5” (Phantom II Expansion) (17 pts) (PS 1)

When you perform the coordinate action, after you choose a friendly ship and before it performs a free action, you may receive 2 stress tokens to remove 1 stress token from it.

Crew- Tactician (Auzituck/TIE Phantom Expansion): After you perform an attack against a ship inside your firing arc at Range 2, that ship receives 1 stress token.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

This is the other list I considered taking to Regionals. It combines the two things everyone loves about Rebels; regen and stress control. I ultimately went with a Thweek Scum aces list, which was probably for the better as I don’t think this would have made top 16. But this list can still be annoying to fly against, if less fun overall to fly itself.

All of your ships can deal out stress through multiple arcs. This makes it difficult for your opponent to outflank you. They come at the front, they eat four stress. They come from the side, the Wookiee can still shoot them. They come from behind, only three stress. But since you actually don’t want to keep this list in a tight formation for long, you can make it even harder on them with overlapping arcs.

Your Wookiee is your meat shield. With Reinforce and C-3P0 he is going to absorb two damage every round. That makes a two dice pot shot at him a waste of time. Your opponent needs to attack with multiple ships at a time to take him down.

Braylen is your minesweeper. He can blast forward to clear out any mines your opponent leaves behind and then just regen his shields back with R2-D2. If your opponent decides to take him out first, he at least has 9 health and can regen some. He also can be tricky to pin down. With his rear arc and his ability he has the potential to K-turn, clear the stress immediately and do it again. Or fly past his target and get a modified rear shot.

Ezra will probably be your opponent’s main target. The Sheathipede is pretty fragile but Ezra makes up for it somewhat with his ability. You will want to stress him early to ensure he has that defense available. With Wired and Hera he has his full dial available, can modify his offense dice somewhat and his defense dice reasonably well. But R3-A2 is a great annoyance as he delivers stress at any range.

AP-5 is really just filler. 17 points for a stress dealing, dual arc ship that can buff his allies.

The obvious weakness to this list is it really lacks offense. Two ships are only rolling two dice. And the other two aren’t getting great mods on their three dice attacks. You can shut ships down with stress but you won’t be hurting them very badly. You might make games go to time but, unless Ace-wing becomes a thing again, you’ll rarely win outright.

Variations

Ezra’s Pulse Ray Shield is the easiest thing to play around with. You could transfer it to AP-5. Or remove it, Hera, and Wired to upgrade the Wookiee to Lowhhrick. Or it and C-3P0 to get Lowhhrick. He would be a worthwhile upgrade to fit in though that does limit your lists independence somewhat.