Rogue Review- Republic BTL-B Y-Wing Guide

Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at the ships you can fly in Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing miniatures game. We’ll take a look at a chassis and what makes it unique along with some upgrades and squadron combos. Strap in and get ready to fly.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

The 1.0 Y-wing lives again! The Republic version of the Y-wing returns to the craptastic dial of 1.0 along with the 5 hull and 3 shields set-up. But it comes with a new tougher looking model and a cool 2.0 chassis ability. These Y-wings are designed to be tough and their ability to turn crits into hits will make it hard to get natural crits through. Though, as the defender modifies first, any ability the attacker has to generate crits (Marksmanship, Proton Torpedoes, etc) will still get through. The extra shield will help too.

For the Republic faction, the Y-Wing brings turrets and bombs to the field, neither of which the faction had access to before. It even adds another crew carrier if you fly R2-D2. That aside, you do have to ask yourself, did we really need another Y-Wing? In this case, I think we can say yes as it brings a new model to the field. When the inevitable Resistance Y-Wing comes along then we’ll wonder what the point of it will be.

Red Five Standing By

The Republic Y-Wing comes out of the box with six unique pilots and two generics. That is one place the Republic in general sticks out. All of the ships have a fair variety of unique pilots. Unlike, say, the Rebels who lost a lot of their unique pilots in the conversion. How do these Y-Wing pilots stand out?

1. Matchstick (I4)- While you perform a primary or Mobile arc attack, you may reroll 1 attack die for each red token you have. 
   1. There’s a couple ways to take advantage of his ability. First, disincentive for your opponent to Lock him. If they do, he gets a reroll. Though, if they are higher init then him, they have a chance to spend it before he can take advantage of it.
   2. Second, is for the rest of the squad to Lock him early on. This gives him rerolls until they need to Lock enemy ships for themselves.
   3. Third, stress. Lots of ways to get  Y-Wing stressed. When he is, he gets rerolls.
2. Broadside (I3)- While you perform a Mobile Arc attack, if your Arc indicator is in your Side Arcs, you may change 1 blank result to a Focus result. 
   1. This may seem like an odd choice to put so high on the list. There are quite a few decent pilots of the Y-Wing.
   2. Price helps him out a lot. At only 3 more than the cheapest generic he doesn’t break the bank, even with the required turret.
   3. You’ll often shoot your mobile arc out the side already so his ability doesn’t require any special consideration.
3. Anakin Skywalker (I6)- After you fully execute a maneuver, if there is an enemy ship in your Forward Arc at range 0-1 or in your Bullseye Arc, you may spend 1 Force to remove 1 stress token.
   1. Everyone loves Anakin. So why isn’t Anakin number 1? I don’t think his ability is that amazing on a Y-Wing. Not for the price anyways.
   2. You don’t have CLT to synergize when aiming for Bullseye. Nor do you have Fine Tune Controls to help get ships into his Bullseye arc/range 1.
   3. His ability only works on maneuvers and does not have a Talent slot. If he barrel rolls it will generate a stress.
4. R2-D2  (I2)- At the start of the Engagement Phase, if there is an enemy ship in your Rear Arc, gain 1 calculate token.
   1. Free tokens are nice even if they won’t come often.
   2. Replace the Astromech slot with a Crew slot. There are not very many Republic-specific crew options yet but C-3P0 is a good companion for R2.
5. Goji (I2)-While a friendly ship at range 0-3 defends, it may roll 1 additional defense die for each friendly bomb or mine at 0-1 of it. 
   1. This ability is both “meh” and potentially broken. There’s no cap built into the card. There is a new maximum of six dice ever rolled though so that does serve as cap. This brought him down a few pegs.
   2. Delayed Fuse is his friend. This allows you to drop reloadable bombs to keep them around for a round to use your ability.
6. Red Squadron Bomber (I2)- None
   1. Efficient Y-Wings are always a consideration.
7. Shadow Squadron Veteran (I3)- None
   1. They have a talent slot which allows them to take Expert Handling. But if you’re flying generics you usually don’t want to spend the extra points for the I3 and a Talent.

All Wings Report In

What’s the ideal number of Y-Wings to buy? Two. They work best in at least pairs. You could make several some decent 4-5 Y-wing lists but then you’re neglecting all of the other Republic goodies. 

GoGoGoji

• Goji (Y-Wing)
  • Seismic Charge
  • Delayed Fuse
• 4x Red Squadron Bombers (Y-Wing)
  • Seismic Charge
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Delayed Fuse

This list is kind of dumb. If you can force a bump situation, you can drop five seismic charges and use the fuses to keep them from exploding. Now all your Y-Wings are rolling six defense dice. The Seismics aren’t a huge threat to yourself as if you drop them nowhere near rocks they do no damage. And they can be reloaded to use again later.

Alternatively, if you want to go in on Goji as support but at least pretend to be competitive, you could try Anakin’s Shield. This turns Goji and another Y-wing into pure support. They use 7th Fleet Gunner and bombs to buff Anakin’s offensive and defense. Anakin could get a four dice attack + CLT focus for 5 potential hits. Then roll five defense dice.

• Goji (Y-Wing)
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • Seventh Fleet Gunner
  • Seismic Charge
  • R2 Astromech
  • Delayed Fuse
• Red Squadron Bomber (Y-Wing)
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • Seventh Fleet Gunner
  • Seismic Charge
  • R2 Astromech
  • Delayed Fuse
• Anakin Skywalker (Aethersprite)
  • Calibrated Laser Targeting
  • R2 Astromech
  • Precognitive Reflexes

All the Stress

• Anakin Skywalker (Aethersprite)
  • Delta-7b
• Matchstick (Y-Wing)
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • Veteran Turret Gunner
  • R4-P17
• Broadside (Y-Wing
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • Ahsoka Tano
  • R4 Astromech

Matchstick gets to reroll attack dice for red tokens. Stress tokens are red. How about leaning into that? This is 1.0 levels of nonsense. Matchstick is never lacking for attack mods. Ahsoka gives him a focus action. It’s red. So now he had a reroll and a Focus. And he can keep doing that because Ahsoka’s focus action can be done while stressed. When he desperately needs to rotate that turret arc he has two uses of R4-P17 to allow him to get actions despite the stress.  Broadside meanwhile can’t be just ignored and Anakin is flitting around doing Anakin things. 

You could change out Anakin for Obi-wan to help Matchstick regenerate his Focus for both his attacks. You’d then have 15 more points to spend on upgrades for him.

Double Mods

• R2-D2 (Y-Wing)
  • C-3P0
  • Clone Commander Cody
  • Ion Cannon Turret
• Anakin Skywalker (Aethersprite)
  • Delta 7b
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Aethersprite)
  • Delta 7b

R2-D2 seem innocuous. Just a Y-Wing. But with Threepio he becomes  rather annoying to kill. But if you ignore him then every attack he’s either ioning you or dealing out strain you’ll have to deal with. This set up is cheap enough that you can fit Delta 7b Anakin and Obi-wan. That’s enough points you could fit R2 in quite a few lists as an annoying side piece.

Four by Five

• Oddball  (Y-Wing)
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • R4 Astromech
• Plo Koon (Aethersprite)
  • Calibrated Laser Targeting
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Aethersprite)
  • Calibrated Laser Targeting
• Ric Olie (Naboo Royal N-1 Fighter)
  • Daredevil
  • R2-C4

There has to be a way to make Oddball work. Right? He’s not really much better in a Y-Wing than an ARC or V-19. At least on his Y-Wing version his ability can trigger on a bump, which isn’t true for the others. This list exists solely as an excuse to try and fly him though. Four Init 5 pilots is good just for that fact, even though its all two dice attacks. 

There might be a place for him with Ahsoka  on another ship. Then he can get the red focus action before moving when you know you have someone in bullseye, get the lock as well then can move and clear the stress.

R2-I5

• Oddball  (Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • R4 Astromech
• R2-D2 (Y-Wing)
  • Ahsoka Tano
  • C-3P0
  • Dorsal Turret
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Aethersprite)
  • Calibrated Laser Targeting
• Ric Olie (Naboo Royal N-1 Fighter)