Rogue Squadron- Xizor Swarm

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

Starviper “Prince Xizor” (StarViper Expansion) (40 pts)

When defending, a friendly ship at Range 1 may suffer 1 uncanceled hit or crit result instead of you.

Elite Pilot Talent- Push the Limits (A-Wing/Imperial Aces Expansion):Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.
Title- Virago (StarViper Expansions)- Your upgrade bar gains the System and Illicit upgrade icons. You cannot equip this card if your pilot skill value is “3” or lower.
System- Advanced Sensors (E-Wing/Lambda Shuttle Expansions)- Immediately before you reveal your maneuver, you may perform 1 free action. If you use this ability, you must skip your “Perform Action” step during this round.
Modification- Autothrusters (StarViper Expansion)- When defending, if you are beyond Range 2 or outside the attacker’s firing arc, you may change 1 of your blank results to an Evade result. You can equip this card only if you have the Boost action icon.

5x Z-95 “Binayre Pilots” (Most Wanted Expansion) (12 pts)

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Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

This list is a variation on a mini-swarm list. Typically, mini-swarms feature one beefed up ship and then 3-4 really cheap ships, Z-95’s or TIE Fighters. Their goal is to force your opponent to either deal with the beefed up elite ship, therefore letting a bunch of ships overwhelm them, or take out the swarm, letting the elite go unmolested until the late game where she can really shine.

With this list, you get a bigger swarm, five Z-95’s, and an elite ship that your opponent is strongly discouraged from attacking. An autothruster equipped StarViper is much harder to hit than a Z-95. When you add in Xizor’s ability to just pass damage away to his allies, firing on him becomes almost pointless.

Like most swarms, the goal for this list is to stay in formation and keep all your guns on your target. You want to bring as many ships to bear as you can because of your measily two attack. Short 1-2 straight or gentle 1 turns are your primary goal; as this will allow Xizor to use Advanced Sensors to PtL to Focus and Target Lock and then immediately clear the stress. This will give him a nice consistent powerful attack.

The biggest weakness from this list is the differences in the dial. StarVipers can’t K-turn, they can only use their S-loop. That means it’s really hard to turn around and stay in formation. You’ll have to rely on wide turns if you want to stay in formation. Asteroid placement can make all the difference. A good opponent will force you into a position where you either K-turn and break formation or get stuck with enemies on your back.

Variations

The biggest and most common variation on this list would be to reduce one of Xizor’s upgrades by one-two point in order to get one or two Black Sun Soldier pilots into one of the Z-95’s. If you want to fly five Binarye, you need three Most Wanted packs and no one needs that.

Alternatively, you can reduce the heaviness of the swarm by dropping an entire Z-95. That would give you 12 points with which to play. That could be Ion Pulse Missiles or Proton Rockets for each of the four remaining Z’s. Or Feedback Pulse (“bug zappers”) for each of them and then an Illicit upgrade for Xizor or bumping the Zs to Black Sun Soldiers. Or you could make one of the Zs into a 24point ship, leaving Xizor with only three escorts, but then you’re really getting into a much different list.