Rogue Squadron- Hotshots and Aces Review

Now available for X-Wing is the first card-only expansion pack. This aspect is one of the opportunities to come out of 2.0 that I was most interested in. Not that they couldn’t have done this in 1.0 but for whatever reason, doing 2.0 allowed them to decide to make it an option. Now new pilots can be added for ships without requiring you to purchase a whole new ship. It would be nicer if this pack came in smaller, faction-only versions.  Single faction players would like to buy just their faction’s cards for cheaper than $20. Particularly if you’re a Rebel player and just want to get some more B-Wing S-foils. But it’s probably not economical for the pack to be released that way and $20 is not any more than a single small ship so we’ll roll with it.

Let’s take a look at the new pilots we’re getting.

Rebel Alliance:

• Gina Moonsong (A/SF-01 B-Wing) (I5)
  • At the start of the Engagement Phase, you must transfer 1 of your stress tokens to another friendly ship at range 0-2.
  • She’s great just for being I5. Rebels are missing I5’s in several ships.
  • Potential wingman
    • Ten or Braylen. Though, those two don’t exactly have difficulty getting their own stress.
    • Ezra is also an option as he likes to be stressed and doesn’t get stressed quite as easily as a B-Wing.
    • K-2S0 as he gets a calculate too.
    • Leia pilot nearby and Advanced Sensors. Take an action, take a red maneuver, get a Focus token. Pass the stress to someone else.
  • Also pairs nicely with A-Wings or anybody carrying an R4 Astromech if you’re just looking to ditch Gina’s stress.
• K-2SO (UT-60D U-Wing) (I3)
  • After you gain a stress token, gain 1 calculate token.
  • The biggest oversight of the U-Wing as K-2S0 flew it more than anyone else in Rogue One. Why he was added in this pack rather than in the conversion kit I’ll never know.
  • U-Wings like to stop suddenly. K-2S0 is perfect for that because he’ll still be modded.
  • Baze Malbus could give you multiple Focus tokens for the cost of a stress which then gives you a Calculate.
  • Also comes as a crew option:
    • Adds Calculate. Adds Jam. During the System Phase, you may choose a friendly ship at range 0-3. That ship gains 1 calculate token and 1 stress token.
    • Rebels didn’t have many Jam options before, now anything with a crew slot can serve that role.
    • K-2S0 also is also effectively PTL for any ship. And with no stress consequences if you plan accordingly and dial in a blue.
    • Pair K2 with Nien Nunb on Lando.  You can do two actions plus a Calculate every round you go blue, of which you’ll have quite a number of options.
• Leia Organa (Modified YT-1300) (I5)
  • After a friendly ship fully executes a red maneuver, if it is at range 0-3, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, that ship gains 1 focus token or recovers 1 Force.
  • Helps ships deal with taking tough maneuvers just like her crew version.
  • Works best just to help herself. She’s an I5 and is either taking an action and having a Force token or is losing her action after a red maneuver but still getting a Focus token.
  • The Force recovery option is rather weak. There are only two Force pilots with more than one Force; Luke and Kanan. Luke has no trouble recovering his Force. If you pair her with Kanan, then that’s probably the only two ships in your squad.
• Alexsandr Kallus (VCX-100) (I4)
  • While you defend, if the attacker modified any attack dice, you may roll 1 additional defense die.
  • Ghost with defense dice! At least when your opponent doesn’t roll natural hits.
  • Anything that causes your opponent to second guess decisions is a good thing. Do they want to spend that Lock or Focus or not?
  • Bring C-3P0 onboard and you can become incredibly tanky.
  • I want Empire Kallus to choose Rebel Kallus as his target. Just because.

Galactic Empire:

• Fifth Brother (TIE Advanced v1) (I4)
  • While you perform an attack, after the Neutralize Results step, if the attack hit, you may spend 2 Force to add 1 Crit result.
  • It’s nice to see Fifth Brother join the rest of the Inquistorous as a pilot. His ability feels appropriate for him as a brute.
  • Like Seventh Sister, he’ll probably be used more as an I4 with two Force than for his ability. They’re both nice abilities but you’re going to be wanting to spend that Force on so many potential things. Recovering back to two will be hard.
• “Vagabond” (TIE/sk Striker) (I2)
  • After you fully execute a maneuver using your Adaptive Ailerons, if you are not stressed you may drop 1 device.
  • Vagabond loves mines. They can’t be reloaded anyways so he doesn’t care that he doesn’t have a reload action.
  • If your opponent ended up in the wrong spot last turn you can force a mine to trigger immediately.
  • Important to note that you have to FULLY execute your aileron maneuver. No bumping and leaving a present for the person you bumped into (though, you could have just dropped the mine during the regular system phase in that case).
• Morna Kee (VT-49 Decimator) (I4)
  • During the End Phase, you may spend 1 Charge to flip 1 of your reinforce tokens to the other full arc instead of removing it.
  • Not sure where the attack is going to come from? You can end up reinforced front and back.
  • If you know you’ll be facing a swarm in one direction in a future turn, reinforce back. Use ability to flip it front. Next round,  reinforce front again. Three hits become one.
  • Important to note, you can still be flanked. Even if you have Reinforce front and Reinforce aft, if you’re flanked neither of them are doing anything.

Scum:

• Nom Lumb (JumpMaster 5000) (I1)
  • After you become the defender, if the attacker is not in your Turret Arc, you must rotate your Turret  indicator to a standard arc the attacker is in.
  • This guys ability overcomes one of the JM5K’s biggest flaws: inability to rotate their arcs without stress.
  • Being I1 it can be difficult choosing where to place the arc as everyone gets to move later and can easily dodge. But if you’re getting shot, you get to shoot back.  Though, your opponent can shoot you with a valuable ship and then a less valuable ship forcing you to only have the less valuable ship in arc.
  • Does this guy make Jumpmasters worth flying? With the point reduction and the addition of a cannon slot possibly.
• G4R-GOR V/M (M3-A Interceptor) (I0)
  • After you defend, each other ship at range 0 suffers 1 Crit damage.
  • This guy is nasty. He’s out first Initiative zero so you definitely get to move first to force a bump. Then no one wants to shoot you.
  • Definitely don’t want to fly him in a swarm. You’re going to have a bad time. Pair him with a bunch of flankers and have them surround your target at range.
  • Deadman’s Switch anyone?
• Bossk (Z-95-AF4 Headhunter) (I4)
  • While you perform a primary attack, after the Neutralize Results step, you may spend 1 Crit result to add 2 Hit results. 
  • This is Boosk just as if he were a 1.0 launched from a Hound’s Tooth.
  • It’s not a bad ability. But you still have to hit with two dice. And roll a crit.

Resistance:

• Paige Tico (MG-100 StarFortress) (I5)
  • After you drop a device, you may spend 1 Charge to drop an additional device.
  • Double bombs! Why drop one when you can drop two? This doesn’t make them more likely to hit anything but it makes it really scary when you do.
  • Specifically says Drop so no Trajectory Simulating two bombs. But you could drop one and trajectory simulator the bonus.
  • With Delayed Fuse you could trigger four bombs at once.
  • Also an I5 StarFortress is interesting.
• Ronith Blario (RZ-2 A-Wing) (I2)
  • While you defend or perform an attack, if the enemy ship is in another friendly ship’s Turret Arc, you may spend 1 focus token from that friendly ship to change 1 of your Focus results to an Evade or Hit result. 
  • At I2 allies will likely have either spent or had no use for their Focus tokens leaving you free to use them.
  • Fills in the I2 slot for RZ-2’s.
  • Zizi will be a good friend as she can recover her Focus after she uses it for Ronth to use later.
• Zizi Tlo (RZ-2 A-Wing) (I5)
  • After you defend or perform an attack, you may spend 1 Charge to gain 1 focus or evade token.
  • This is a phenomenal ability. Focus as your action. Use it for attack and then get one back to save for defense. Or if you don’t need to use it get an evade for extra defense. Or if you just want two Focus tokens.
  • Three I5 RZ-2 pilots? That feels unprecedented.

First Order:

• Captain Phasma (TIE/sf Fighter) (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. 
  • Reverse Biggs. Very thematic for Phasma. But how useful is that? Similar to Xizor and we all know how much play he sees.
  • If you can arc dodge with Quickdraw, yet keep him at range 1 of Phasma, it could be a way to trigger his ability.
• Lieutenant LeHuse (TIE/sf Fighter) (I5)
  • While you perform an attack, you may spend another friendly ship’s lock on the defender to reroll any number of your results. 
  • This is situationally useful if you want to switch targets from the ship you already have locked. Or if you want a double modded attack.
  • Would be far better on a lower initiative pilot. They have trouble getting locks and their higher Init wingmen wouldn’t need theirs anymore this round.
  • Maybe a place for Targeting Synchronizers? A wingman takes locks for LeHuse, allowing him to barrel roll or focus, and then still fire his ordinance with mods?
  • To bad no First Order ship has access to R3 astromech.
• “Rush” (TIE/vn Silencer) (I2)
  • While you are damaged, treat your initiative as 6.
  • Null’s oppositive number. Now you want to take a few damage to suddenly become an ace arc dodger.
  • Sadly Rush + Quickdraw + Midnight + Major Vonreg could result in four I6’s in a single squadron but is 1 point to expensive.