Rogue Review- Fugitives and Collaborators

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

We wrap up our review of the three ship set releases with a look at Fugitives and Collaborators. This set is an odd choice, featuring two Y-wings and a HWK-290. Like the Imperial Skystrike, I considered not getting this because of an abundance of Y-wings in my collection. But the black HWK was too cool, along with some of the upgrades and new pilots.

Unlike the previous two boxes, this pack does not come with new configurations for the ship. Instead, the Y-Wing pilots are all, currently, equipped with Tech slots instead of Illicit and Modification slots. This adds a new dynamic for the Y-wings but nothing very game changing. Scum already had Tech slot access through the Quadjumper.

There are a few interesting new upgrades included. Jango Fett, Gamut Key, Zam Wesell, Protectorate Gleb and Boba Fett gunner all add interesting abilities to Scum. Though, only Gamut and Gleb are unique to this pack. If you have Jango’s Slave-1 you already have the rest.

The more interesting upgrade comes in the form of the new faction specific Talent; Cutthroat. This fits the theme of the faction well and has potential to be the best of the lot. Unlike the Rebels and Imperials, whose talents give them free actions if someone else dies, Cutthroat allows the ship to remove negative tokens or recover unrecoverable charges. There is far more game changing potential in those abilities than getting a free action. In a tight spot and an ally dies, clear your stress so you have more maneuver options. Tel Trevura becomes hilarious with the ability to recover his “come back to life” charge.

Beyond the regular game cards, the pack also has a few epic cards in the form of Bounties. Now, Scum ships can be included in other factions Epic squads. This adds a lot of flavor to list building. Most Scum pilots are for hire so being able to take them with other factions feels appropriate. The Empire can hire Boba Fett to hunt down the Millennium Falcon. Or Ketsu can fly with her Rebel friends.

Red Five Standing By

Fugitives and Collaborators comes out of the box with six unique pilots and two generics across two ships. How do these pilots compare?

1. Tapusk (I5) – HWK-290 – During the End Phase, before an enemy ship in your Mobile Arc recovers 1 recurring Charge or Force, you may spend 2 Charges. If you do, that ship does not recover that Charge or Force.
   • Force denial!
   • This is the scummiest of pilots and fits perfectly into the factions theme.
   • He’s cheap, especially for an I5. Gives you plenty of points to consider throwing Moldy Crow on so your opponent has to choose between your Mobile Arc and Force denial or your three die front arc.
2. Leema Kai (I5) – BTL-A4 Y-Wing – Before you engage, if you are not in any enemy ship’s Forward Arc, you may acquire a lock on an enemy ship in your Full Forward Arc.
   • Free actions are always nice. At I5 you have a non-zero chance of avoiding anyone forward arc, though with a Y-Wing you’re not an arc-dodger.
   • Expert Handling is worth considering so you can barrel roll to avoid arcs and then get a Lock when you engage.
   • With the free lock potential and the Tech slot, maybe could play a role with Targeting Synchronizer.
3. Arliz Hadrassian (I4) – BTL-A4 Y-Wing – While you perform a Forward Arc attack, if you are damaged, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Crit result. While you defend, if you are damaged, you must change 1 of your Focus results to a blank result.
   • This guy is all offense. Never getting to spend Focus to get an evade isn’t great but you’re only rolling one die most of the time anyways.
   • Combined with Advanced Optics, once he’s damaged, he’s got great offense. Almost guaranteed to get two hits, one of which is a crit often.
4. Padric (I3) – BTL-A4 Y-Wing – After a friendly device that you have locked detonates, each enemy ship at range 0-1 of that device gains 1 strain token.
   • Since dropping a device is not an action, Padric can easily drop during the System phase, move and lock his or another ship’s bomb.
   • His effect only affects enemies, so even if the bomb hits a friendly, the strain only goes to enemies.
5. Kanan Jarus (I3) – HWK-290 – While you or a ship in your Mobile Arc defends, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, the attacker rolls 1 fewer attack die.
   • Very similar to his VCX pilot ability but with an important distinction; it works on himself!
   • This makes him more survivable, which fits the theme of Kanan at this time as he’s on the run, only looking out for himself.
6. Gamut Key (I3) – HWK-290 – At the start of the End Phase, you may spend 2 Charges to choose yourself or a ship in your Mobile Arc with 1 or more circular tokens. During the End Phase, circular tokens are not removed from that ship.
   • This is another very scummy effect. Typically, you think of circular tokens as positives; focus, evade, calculate, reinforce. So letting an ally or yourself keep a token for the next round is helpful.
   • Orange tokens are also circular. This covers disarm, tractor, and jam. An enemy ship used an R2 astromech to recover a shield? Now it’s not firing for two rounds because that disarm is sticking around.
   • Note that the ability affects all circular tokens, so if they have a disarm and a leftover evade, they get to keep both.
7. Amaxine Warrior (I3) – BTL-A4 Y-Wing – None
   • This generic pilot trades the Illicit and Modification slot for a Tech slot.
   • Also costs one more point for one more initiative.
8. Jinata Security Officer (I2) – BTL-A4 Y-Wing – None
   • Similar to the Amaxine, trade Illicit and Modification for Tech.
   • Likewise, costs one more point for one more initiative than the Crymorah Good.
   • Same initiative as the Hired Gun, but one point less but lack the Talent slot.

All Wings Report In

Do you need to buy more than one Fugitives and Collaborators? Probably not. If you really like the new paint-jobs, sure. That HWK is pretty sweet looking. You might find yourself wanting more than three cutthroats (there’s one list below that uses four) but if that’s worth a whole pack for is up to you.

Scummy Scum

• Tapusk (HWK-290)
  • False Transponder Codes
  • Engine Upgrade
• Gamut Key (HWK-290)
  • False Transponder Codes
  • Engine Upgrade
  • Hondo Ohnaka
• Palob Godalhi (HWK-290)
  • False Transponder Codes
  • Engine Upgrade
• Torkil Mux (HWK-290)
  • False Transponder Codes
  • Engine Upgrade
• Captain Seevor (Mining Guild TIE)

You want to annoy your opponent? Well, here you go. Each ship has a different annoying ability to mess with your opponent. Tapusk is messing with charge or Force recovery. Palob’s stealing tokens. Torkil’s slapping your ace down to I0. Gamut’s making your keep those negative tokens you might get. And you’ll get a lot since every ship in this list can jam. Seevor every round when he shoots or gets shot. If your Locks any of the HWK’s their getting jammed with FTC. Or they’re getting a Lock and jamming you at the same time.

Now, is it good? It is four HWK’s with middling survivability. Engine Upgrade and their rotating arc give them option of being slippery at least.

Weapons Package

• Tapusk (HWK-290)
  • Engine Upgrade
  • Seismic Charges
  • Delayed Fuse
• Leema Kai (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Expert Handling
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Plasma Torpedo
  • Thermal Detonator
• Kavil (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Ion Cannon Turret
  • Thermal Detonator
  • Delayed Fuse
• Nym (Scurrg H-6 Bomber)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Thermal Detonator

This takes a set of high health, I5’s with mobile arcs and loads them with bombs that will go off when you want them too. Drop a wave of Thermal’s using the speed 1-2 templates, delay them until the next round and then do it again and see if your opponent can avoid them. Nym can hold one to defend himself with or just to keep it around for your opponent to coast into after being ioned by Kavil. Leema can get good accuracy with her attacks thanks to free locks. Kavil ions and rolls extra dice while Tapusk messes with charge or Force recovery.

There’s a couple variations you can do with this. If you don’t care about the plasma torpedo, you can give everyone skilled bombardier, or upgrade the dorsals to ion cannons. If you’d rather have protons, you can lose the fuses and turn Kavil’s turret into a dorsal.

The Good Guys

• • Han Solo (Customized YT-1300)
    • Lando’s Millenium Falcon
    • Qi’ra
    • Hondo Ohnaka
    • Trickshot
    • Rigged Cargo Chute
  • Sabine Wren (Lancer Class Pursuit Craft)
    • Shadow Caster
    • Ketsu Onyo
    • Rigged Cargo Chute
  • Kanan Jarrus (HWK-290)
    • Moldy Crow
    • Lando Calrissian
    • Engine Upgrade

There are now an abundance of “good” guys who are also scum. This makes for a fun list that feels very Rebellish without being.

Accurate 180

• 5x Jinata Security Officer (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Advanced Optics
  • R4 Astromech

OR

• 5x Amaxine Warriors (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Advanced Optics

OR

• Drea Renthal (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
• 4x Jinata Security Officer (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Advanced Optics

This list is all about health and accuracy. Five Y-Wings with a 180 degrees of arc coverage and good accuracy with their two dice thanks to Advanced Optics. They come in two varieties, I2 with R4 astromechs for more blue maneuvers, or I3 Amaxine Warriors for more initiative. There are a lot of five Y-Wing configurations and the tech slot just adds two new ones into the mix.

The Eternals

• Tel Trevura (Jumpmaster 5000)
  • Punishing One
  • Hull Upgrade
  • Cutthroat
• Moralo Eval (YV-666)
  • Hound’s Tooth
  • Cutthroat
• Nashtah Pup (Z-95)
• Bossk (Z-95)
  • Cutthroat
  • Stealth Device
• N’dru Suhlak (Z-95)
  • Cutthroat
  • Stealth Device

This isn’t a good list. But it is a very scummy list. The idea revolves around recharging Tel’s charge through the use of Cutthroat (which is why it’s included here despite not having a HWK or Y-wing in it). You send Tel in first, let him deal some damage and die. Then he comes back, you let someone else die, he gets the charge back. Then you let Tel die again. Rinse and repeat. If you are able to control when your ships die well enough, Tel could die six times before you lose. Meanwhile, Moralo can hug the edge of the board, shooting and fleeing as needed, getting his charges back when others die. Or the Z-95’s get their Stealth Device back.

Unfortunately, when Tel dies, he isn’t actually destroyed so he doesn’t trigger Cutthroat for the rest of the squad.

Heavy Bombers

• Leema Kai (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Thermal Detonator
  • Proton Torpedoes
• Arliz Hadrassian (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Proton Torpedoes
• Padric (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Seismic Charges
  • Genius
• Crymorah Goon (BTL-A4 Y-Wing)
  • Dorsal Turret
  • Seismic Charges
  • Proton Torpedoes

This list aims to make use of the Y-wings are weapon carriers. They all have turrets and bombs, with three of them also yielding proton torpedoes. With the spread of ships, and Genius, Padric has a good chance of having a bomb to lock onto in order to dish out some strain. Seismic work well here because the strain comes from the bomb token and the damage comes from the obstacle destroyed. This makes the threat range huge and makes your opponent choose between a strain or a damage. With those proton torpedoes, your Y-Wings will make good use of a strained ship and punch it hard.