Rogue Review- Special Forces TIE

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

I had a review of the RZ-2 A-wing all written up for this month. Then FFG announced even more A-wing pilots coming out in October with the Resistance Ace pack. Plus Zizi changed by 1pt and Crackshot went up by 1pt which threw off a bunch of lists. This prompted a push back to November so we can review all the A-wings together. Instead, we’re moving on to the Resistance nemesis, the First Order and their advanced special forces TIE.

This TIE variant has the distinction of being the most well explored TIE on screen by virtue of its being flown by two hero characters. This gave us a good look at the inside and its capabilities. Though it doesn’t look any bigger than a regular TIE, it has room for two people, two guns, more powerful shields and a hyperdrive.  The trade off, in X-wing anyways, is less green dice and a more restrictive dial. This makes for decent balance.

The SF TIE has several aspects that make it unique. First, it has a forward arc and mobile arc which can only face front or back. In addition, the mobile arc is used for firing equipped missiles, making it one of the few ships that can fire missiles at you while it runs away. This combines with the other fairly unique feature, white linked actions (epic ships aside). After almost any action it takes, the SF TIE can rotate its arc indicator. This ability becomes very handy when paired with Passive Sensors.

Beyond the base card stats, the SF also has access to a unique Gunner upgrade. While pricey at 9pts, the SF Gunner is two upgrades in one. It has all the functionality of a Tail Gunner, allowing you to shoot twice if you have ships in front and behind. But, more importantly, it effectively gives you a three dice primary if you lock your arc forward.

Red Five Standing By

The TIE/sf comes out of the box with two unique pilots and two generics. Hot Shots and Aces brought two more unique pilots into the mix.  How do these pilots compare?

1. Quickdraw (I6)– After you lose a shield, you may spend 1 Charge. If you do, you may perform a bonus primary attack.
   1. The original “let’s see how we can bend the rules in order to shoot during the activation phase” ability.
   2. Due to the limit of one Bonus attack per round, this does not mix well with Special Forces Gunner and the rear arc. Both are bonus attacks so you couldn’t trigger SF gunner after the Quickdraw ability, even if you hadn’t done your regular attack yet.
   3. No one wants to shoot at Quickdraw to keep her from getting a free attack on them. She really hates getting flanked and losing shields when she has no targets.
   4. Electronic Baffle is worth considering as you can clear a stress and then get a bonus attack out of the mix. Shield upgrade is also valuable as it is one more potential bonus attack.
   5. Deuterium Power Cells feels like it would be perfect, but it’s fraught with danger. Because of the Disarm token, unless you’re well clear of being attacked, getting that shield back is also going to nullify your ability. Would suck to recover that shield and then lose it while you can’t shoot back. You should note that DPC has a secondary effect that allows you to spend a charge to not get a token, such as Disarm. You could spend two tokens to get a shield back and not be disarmed. But then it’s 9pts for a single extra attack. Worth it? Maybe.
2. Lieutenant LeHuse (I5)– While you perform an attack, you may spend another friendly ship’s lock on the defender to reroll any number of your results.
   1. This ability feels backwards. He is an I5, it’s easy for him to get locks. Why is he spending other ships’ locks? It’s sort of like a worse version of Colonel Vessery.
   2. But, that aside, it is a way to get double mods relatively easily. It’s sort of like giving every other ship in your squad the ability to coordinate him a Lock.
   3. He’s I5 and also slightly cheaper than the two I4’s so that’s worth noting.
3. Backdraft (I4)- While you perform a Mobile Arc primary attack, if the defender is in your Rear Arc, roll 1 additional die.
   1. Bonus dice are always nice.
   2. With SF Gunner he has 3 dice out of front or back.
4. Captain Phasma (I4)- While you defend, after the Neutralize Results step, another friendly ship at range 0-1 must suffer 1 Hit/Crit damage to cancel 1 matching result. 
   1. Pairs nicely with Quickdraw or Tavson. Transfer one damage to trigger Quickdraw’s attack or give Tavson an action.
   2. Pairs nicely with FO’s and Fanatical. Phasma spreads damage around to remove that shield and trigger Fanatical. Not so great on the SF’s for Fanatical due to the extra shields but they also have extra shields to absorb more damage.
   3. Not a great ally for aces as they don’t like damage being passed to them.
5. Omega Squadron Expert (I3)- None
   1. Nothing special here but Omega has a slight leg up over Zeta thanks to the initiative. They have a better chance to know when they need to rotate to the rear arc if they aren’t using Passive Sensors.
6. Zeta Squadron Survivor (I2)– None
   1. On the other hand, Zeta’s are cheaper than Omega’s and for a missile + passive swarm or filler, cheaper is better.

All Wings Report In

What’s the ideal number of TIE/sf’s to buy? One or Five. You can fly up to six of them but you’ll rarely actually want that. There are a couple five SF missile builds that are worth flying.  If you don’t want to drop $100 on that, one is probably your best bet for mixed squadron options. If you’re playing casual, the First Order conversion kit comes with five dials. If you have five TIE models of any type they’re all close enough for casual play.

Missile Swarm

• 5x Zeta Squadron Survivors
  • Concussion Missile/Mag Pulse Warhead
  • Passive Sensors
• 5x Zeta Squadron Survivors
  • Homing Missile
  • Munitions Failsafe
  • Passive Sensors
• 5x Omega Squadron Expert
  • Cluster Missile
  • Passive Sensors

TIE/sf with Passive Sensors and a missile can drive your opponent mad. You don’t care about where your mobile arc is facing because after triggering passive you can link to rotate it. If you have a target in either the front or rear arc you can fire a missile at them. The only question is, which missile do you want to take? Concussion and Mag Pulse are nice and the best annoyance potential. Cluster fits on the I3’s so you get a slight initiative boost. Homing works nicely with Munitions failsafe as your opponent has even more incentive to just take the one damage. Though, if you’re facing anything with a lot of health you don’t want them to do that.

I didn’t list Ion Missile because it’s not that great. If there is ever a three point Mod or Tech that adds something valuable then it rolls into consideration.

Phasma’s Phanatics (Hyperspace)

• Captain Phasma (TIE/sf)
  • Special Forces Gunner
  • Fanatical
  • Fire Control System/Passive Sensors
• 2x Omega Squadron Expert (TIE/sf)
  • Fanatical
  • Advanced Optics
• 2x Omega Squadron Ace (TIE/fo)
  • Fanatical
  • Advanced Optics

Fanatical and Optics make for a good combination. Once Fanatical is functional, you’ll get two hits on any die result except double blank. Throw Phasma in there as a three die threat to either do more damage or pass damage around to trigger Fanatical and your opponent has poor choices.

Phasma’s Phanatics 2 (Hyperspace)

• Captain Phasma (TIE/sf)
  • Special Forces Gunner
  • Fanatical or Passive Sensors or Fire Control System
• 5x Omega Squadron Ace (TIE/fo)
  • Fanatical

This is a variation on the above list that focuses on more bodies and easier triggering of Fanatical. You lose the Advanced Optics, and therefore some accuracy, as well as the rear arcs of the SF’s but gain an extra attack and more defense dice.

First Order Aces (Extended)

• Quickdraw (TIE/sf)
  • Special Forces Gunner
  • Deuterium Power Cells
• Major Vonreg (TIE/ba)
• Midnight (TIE/fo)
  • Advanced Optics
• Null (TIE/fo)
  • Advanced Optics

Four ships that start the game as I6 or above.  Vonreg is the only real “ace” but the others are no slouches. Null is the weak link as his I7 can go away easily but who wants to shoot at him when the others are scarier. This build, since we’re focusing on the SF, decks out Quickdraw but there are cheaper options. Dropping Deuterium gives you a lot to work with. Could just switch it to Shield Upgrade and have a bid if needed.  But Deuterium gives you lots of options for when and how you get those extra shields for extra shots.

Kylo’s Escort (Extended)

• Lieutenant LeHuse (TIE/sf)
  • Cluster Missiles
  • Fire Control System
  • Special Forces Gunner
• Kylo Ren (TIE/vn Silencer)
  • Hate
• Blackout (TIE/vn (Silencer)
  • Trickshot

Three I5 aces are difficult as a base combination. Kylo does Kylo things. Blackout gets behind things and punishes your opponent. LeHuse gets to spread damage around with Clusters. Fire a Cluster on his locked target and then fire again at a target his wingmates have locked and bam, double rerolls. Since they are all I5, he can fire last to ensure the primary ship had a chance to use its own lock if needed.

LeHuse Cluster (Extended)

• Lieutenant LeHuse (TIE/sf)
  • Cluster Missiles
  • Fire Control System
  • Targeting Synchronizer
• 4x Zeta Squadron Survivors
  • Cluster Missile
  • Passive Sensors

This is a variation on the LeHuse from the I5 list and the five missile bearing SF’s. LeHuse slots in for a generic SF. As long as one of the Zeta’s has a Lock on a target, LeHuse locks a different one near it. Fires Cluster, rerolls with FCS, fires again at the one locked by an ally and uses his ability to reroll using that lock (if needed). The ship that lost its lock uses Targeting Synchronizer to fire its own Cluster at the target LeHuse still has a lock on. Now, it’s trading the Zeta’s accuracy for LeHuse gaining accuracy. But since LeHuse is I4, he has a better chance of killing something before it shoots than the Zeta.

Don’t Get Burned (Hyperspace)

• Backdraft (TIE/sf)
  • Passive Sensors
  • Special Forces Gunner
• Recoil (TIE/vn)
  • Marksmanship
• Ember (TIE/ba)
  • Advanced Optics
• Scorch (TIE/fo)
  • Fanatical
  • Advanced Optics

This is a fun combo of I4’s spanning all the TIE variants flown by the First Order. They all have reasonable accuracy and all are effectively three attack dice. Backdraft can use Passive to shoot three out of front or back. Recoil gets to use Marksmanship anywhere in range 1, if he’s stressed which Silencers usually are. Ember prevents token spending and Scorch gets forgotten because he’s the lowly FO but can actually hit back.