Rogue Squadron- Don’t Get Burned

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 lowdown on how best to fly it. Strap in and get ready to fly.

All Wings Report In (Extended)

TIE/sf “Backdraft” (50 pts) (I4)

While you perform a Mobile Arc primary attack, if the defender is in your Rear Arc, roll 1 additional die.

Heavy Weapon Turret: You can rotate your Mobile Arc indicator only to your Front or Rear Arc. You must treat the Forward Arc requirement of your equipped Missile upgrades as Mobile Arc.

• Gunner- Special Forces Gunner: While you perform a primary Forward Arc attack, if your Mobile Arc is in your Forward Arc, you may roll 1 additional attack die. After you perform a primary Forward Arc attack, if your Mobile Arc is in your Rear arc, you may perform a bonus primary Mobile arc attack.
• Sensor- Passive Sensors: Charge 1. Action: Spend 1 Charge. You can only perform this action in your Perform Action step.  While your Charge is inactive, you cannot be coordinated. Before you engage, if your Charge is inactive, you may perform a Calculate or Lock action.

TIE/vn Silencer “Recoil” (58 pts) (I4)

While you are stressed, you may treat enemy ships in your Forward Arc at range 0-1 as being in your Bullseye Arc.

Autothrusters: After you perform an action, you may perform a red Boost or red Barrel Roll action.

• Talent- Marksmanship: While you perform an attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye Arc, you may change 1 Hit result to a Crit result.

TIE/ba “Ember” (52pts) (I4)

While you perform an attack, if there is a damaged ship friendly to the defender at range 0-1 of the defender, the defender cannot spend focus or calculate tokens. 

Fine-Tuned Thrusters: After you fully execute a maneuver, if you are not depleted or strained, you may gain 1 deplete or strain token to perform a Lock or Barrel Roll action.

• Tech- Advanced Optics: While you perform an attack, you may spend 1 focus token to change 1 of your blank results to a Hit result.

TIE/fo “Scorch” (39 pts) (I4)

While you perform a primary attack, if you are not stressed, you may gain 1 stress token to roll 1 additional attack die.

• Talent- Fanatical: While you perform a primary attack, if you are not shielded, you may change 1 Focus result to a Hit result.
• Tech- Advanced Optics: While you perform an attack, you may spend 1 focus token to change 1 of your blank results to a Hit result.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

This list gives a good sample of the First Order TIE variants. Each one flies differently which gives you a great opportunity to try them. This can be a boon, as its harder for your opponent to anticipate your moves but it’s also harder for you to plan. They are all I4 though so that gives you great options in how you activate them for movement and attacking.

Recoil is your most expensive piece but also the most slippery as he can double reposition in any order. Get him in close and he’s getting extra crits thanks to his ability and Marksmanship. Ember is almost as slippery and doesn’t have to stress himself in the process. He can also get double dice mods if he doesn’t need to alter his position. At I4, these guys will not have perfect board knowledge like an I5 or I6 so keep that in mind. Sometimes the extra offense can be worth going for if you feel confident in getting a shot.

Backdraft is your safety net. He can shoot front or back with three dice and can decide when he activates where his turret arc is facing thanks to Passive Sensors. He’s the easiest to shoot with only two agility but can go into positions the others can’t and still shoot back.

Scorch is your wildcard. No one wants to waste time shooting and FO when there are other options. But he can reliably get himself a three die attack and be very accurate with it or very accurate with just two thanks to Fanatical and Advanced Optics working together.

Variations

This list has a one point bid and almost all of the upgrades are non-essential (Special Forces Gunner and Marksmanship being the main exemptions).  But even those can change without major consequence.

Changing Embers Optics for Fanatic on Recoil, and possibly also himself, is one option worth considering. Ember, with two hull, doesn’t much care for Fanatic, but Recoiled with four can get good use out of it. Once his shields drop he can very easily get double dice mods.