Rogue Squadron- Torpedo Barrage

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

Y-Wing “Dutch Vander” (Y-Wing Expansion) (32 pts) (PS 6)

After acquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship may immediately acquire a target lock.

Title– BTL-A4 (Most Wanted Expansion): You cannot attack ships outside your firing arc. After you perform a primary weapon attack, you may immediately perform an attack with a turret secondary weapon.
Turret- Autoblaster Turret (Most Wanted Expansion): Attack (2, Range 1): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). Your Hit results cannot be canceled by defense dice. The defender may cancel results Critical before Hit results.
Modification- Guidance Chip (Inquisitor’s TIE/Punishing One Expansion)- Once per round, when attacking with a torpedo or missile secondary weapon, you may change 1 die result to a Hit result (or a Critical result if your primary weapon value is “3” or higher).
Torpedo- Proton Torpedo (Many Expansion): Attack (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 Critical result.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (K-Wing/TIE Punisher): When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped Torpedo, Missile, and Bomb Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
Astromech- R2 Astromech (Y-Wing Expansion)– You may treat all 1- and 2-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers.

Y-Wing “Grey Squadron” (Y-Wing Expansion) (30 pts) (PS 4+2)

None.

Title– BTL-A4 (Most Wanted Expansion): You cannot attack ships outside your firing arc. After you perform a primary weapon attack, you may immediately perform an attack with a turret secondary weapon.
Turret- Autoblaster Turret (Most Wanted Expansion): Attack (2, Range 1): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). Your Hit results cannot be canceled by defense dice. The defender may cancel results Critical before Hit results.
Modification- Guidance Chip (Inquisitor’s TIE/Punishing One Expansion)- Once per round, when attacking with a torpedo or missile secondary weapon, you may change 1 die result to a Hit result (or a Critical result if your primary weapon value is “3” or higher).
Torpedo- Proton Torpedo (Many Expansion): Attack (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 Critical result.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (K-Wing/TIE Punisher): When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped Torpedo, Missile, and Bomb Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
Astromech- R2-D6 (Rebel Transport Expansion)– Your upgrade bar gains the Elite Pilot Talent upgrade icon. You cannot equip this upgrade if you already have an EPT upgrade icon or if your pilot skill value is “2” or lower.
Elite Pilot Talent- Veteran Instincts (Millenium Falcon/Slave-1)- Increase your pilot skill value by 2.

K-Wing “Esege Tuketu” (K-Wing Expansion) (38 pts) (PS 6)

When another friendly ship at Range 1-2 is attacking, it may treat your focus tokens as its own.

Modification- Guidance Chip (Inquisitor’s TIE/Punishing One Expansion)- Once per round, when attacking with a torpedo or missile secondary weapon, you may change 1 die result to a Hit result (or a Critical result if your primary weapon value is “3” or higher).
Torpedo- Proton Torpedo (Many Expansion): Attack (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 Critical result.
Torpedo- Extra Munitions (K-Wing/TIE Punisher): When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped Torpedo, Missile, and Bomb Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.
Missile- XX-23 Thread Tracer (Inquisitor’s TIE Expansion): Attack (3, range 1-3): Discard this card to perform this attack. If this attack hits, each friendly ship at Range 1-2 of you may acquire a target lock on the defender. Then cancel all dice results.
Crew- Recon Specialist (HWK-290/TIE Phantom Expansions): When you perform a focus action, assign 1 additional focus token to your ship.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Torpedoes away!

This list is all about jousting. You want to line up and head straight for your opponent and make him question whether he wants to be at range 3 or range 1 of you. Range 3, he’s eating three proton torpedoes. Range 1, he’s eating five attacks, two of which are autoblaster shots.

With the synergy between Esege and Dutch, your ships will have good options for modifying their attacks with both focus and target locks. The added bonus of the XX-23 really increases your options as well. Let’s say you have a higher pilot skill target that you can’t get into range for target lock. During the combat round, Esege fires the XX-23 granting Dutch, who is at range 2, a target lock. Then because Dutch acquired a target lock, he can give the Gray Squadron a target lock if he is withing range 2 of Dutch but not at range 2 of Esege.

Another potential use of the XX-23/Dutch combo is again Esege fires to give the rest of the squadron a target lock. Then, after Dutch gets his target lock he gives the free target lock to Esege who takes the lock on a completely different target. This sets him up for the next round to have a TL/Focus.

Like all synergy lists, this one falls apart if you spread your ships out. Range 1-2 on all the abilities helps as that is a pretty decent distance. You also don’t really need to worry about keeping the trio together after the second engagement. If you can get off two torpedo shots in a row in the first two rounds, odds are you’re in a pretty good position.

The other big weakness is the lack of any ability to reposition. This isn’t an arc dodging list but it also doesn’t have much that it can do to counter arc dodgers. If someone gets behind you Esege’s primary turret is the only one shooting. R2 will help Dutch with his terrible dial but Esege will be difficult to turn around and keep formation.

Variations

One easy variation for this list is to drop Veteran Instincts from the Gray Squadron. It can be beneficial to have all the ships the same Pilot Skill but it’s not a deal breaker. Giving him Crack Shot instead ups your damage potential on the alpha strike. Or you could just switch over to the R2 Astromech so his dial matches Dutch. If you do, there’s one point for an initiative bid or upgrading the XX-23 to something else.

In fact, there is a lot of ways you could load out Esege in terms of ordinance. Homing Missiles would be a good choice as would Concussion Missiles and some Flechette Torpedoes (or soon the new Seismic Torpedo). Fitting in a bomb can also be useful in deterring Ace’s from following you to closely. Giving him an autoblaster turret of his own would also be a good choice.