Rogue Squadron- Pattern Enforcer

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 and then give you the lowdown on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In

Starviper Class Attack Platform “Black Sun Enforcer” (50 pts) (I2)

None

• Ship Ability – Microthrusters
  • While you perform a barrel roll, you must use the 1 bank template instead of the 1 straight template.
• Tech – Pattern Analyzer
  • While you fully execute a red maneuver, before the Check Difficulty step, you may perform 1 action.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

I managed to make it out to a local X-wing tournament this past weekend. This was a last hurrah before the coming major rule changes (which could have already dropped by now but probably haven’t). In anticipation of the ‘Black Box’ rule, everyone was encouraged to fly something that won’t be included in the new Standard format. As a lover of Starvipers, I decided to take them out for one last spin. I don’t expect we’ll see them for a long while, if ever.

The wacky barrel roll of Starvipers are a lot of fun to use. You can end up in some weird positions. Enforcers are only I2s, but that does afford them the opportunity to move before everyone else, so you can plan where you want to go during dials. I had not used Starvipers since the switch from a Sensor slot to a Tech slot and this was my first chance to try Pattern Analyzer. Curved barrel rolls after a S-loop really opens up some weird positions, though I didn’t make much use of it in my games. I didn’t want to double stress myself and the focus was far more useful.

I won my first two games fairly handily but got dumpster stomped in my third. Three attack, three defense and funky maneuvers made it hard for my opponents to pin me down and deal sufficient damage.  None of my ships made it through any games untouched but in those first two, most avoided getting to half. I faced a First Order Bomber + Tavson list and then another scum with Kavil and some M3-A’s.

Luck played a major role in across my three games. Against the scum list, he missed what would have been a vital tractor beam attack from Serissu. Had that landed, one ship would have ended up on a rock and unable to fire, which would have saved one of his other M3’s. But lucky is a fickle mistress. In my third game against Republic (Obi-wan, Plo, Luminara and Ric) I lost a Starviper in the first round when I misjudged just how far a three bank boost from me and a five straight boost from him would be. My starviper ended up eating two bullseye shots (which itself is rather unfathomable to have occurred at that range). I rolled one focus result (but hadn’t focused because I didn’t think I would need it) and seven blanks against his six hits. Boom. The rest of the game it never recovered. Not sure I could have pulled off a win even if I had survived, but it would have been an actual fight at least.

Variations

There are a few variations to four Starvipers I also considered. Four I3 Assassins fit with Automated Targeting Priority. Ultimately, I decided I3 wasn’t worth it. I4 maybe. Pattern Analyzer proved quite handy to have. You could also fit Guri and three Enforcers. I really considered that, as Guri would have been handy. It also would have been a good test of ROAD, as I faced a lot of I5’s but zero I2’s, so ROAD proved irrelevant. But I wanted to play with Pattern Analyzer so decided to stick with all I2’s.

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