Rogue Squadron- Mandalorian Taxi Service

Welcome to Rogue Squadron, pilot! In this series, we will be looking at different squadrons you can fly in Atomic Mass 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

ST-70 Assault Ship “The Mandalorian” (7 pts) (I5)

• Pilot Ability 
  • While you defend or perform an attack, if you are in the Forward Arc at range 1-2 of 2 or more enemy ships, you may change 1 of your blank results to a Focus result.
• Ship Ability – None
• Loadout (28/28)
  • Cannon – Jamming Beam (0)
    • Attack (3), Forward Arc, Range 1-2
      • If this attack hits, all Hit/Crit results inflict jam tokens instead of damage.
  • Crew – Jabba the Hutt (11)
    • Charges 4
    • During the End Phase, you may choose 1 friendly ship at range 0-2 and spend 1 Charge. If you do, that ship recovers 1 Charge on 1 of its equipped Illicit upgrades.
  • Crew – Jabba the Hutt also
  • Gunner – None (-)
  • Illicit – Cloaking Device (3)
    • Charges: 2
    • Action: Spend 1 Charge to perform a Cloak action.
    • At the start of the Planning Phase, roll 1 attack die. On a Focus result, decloak or discard your cloak token.
  • Illicit – Babu Frik (5)
    • Charges: 3
    • Before you would gain a non-lock red or orange token, you may spend 1 Charge to place it on this card instead.
    • During the System Phase, if there are 1 or more tokens on this card, you must spend 1 Charge. If you cannot, remove those tokens and gain matching tokens.
  • Modification – Burnout Thrusters (6)
    • Adds SLAM Action
    • Charges: 1
    • After you perform a SLAM action, lose 1 Charge. Then you may gain 1 deplete token to remove 1 disarm token.
    • If your Charge is inactive, you cannot perform the SLAM action.
  • Talent – Cutthroat (2)
    • After another friendly ship at range 0-3 is destroyed, if that ship is limited or has the Cutthroat upgrade, you may remove 1 of your orange or red tokens, or recover 1 non-recurring Charge on your ship card or one of your equipped upgrade cards.
  • Talent – Marksmanship (1)
    • While you perform an attack, if the defender is in your Bullseye, you may change 1 Hit result to a Crit result.
  • Title – Razor Crest (0)
    • Adds Evade –> Barrel Roll
    • Setup: Place 1 non-limited Illicit upgrade facedown under this card.
    • During the System Phase, you may reveal that Illicit upgrade and equip it as if it were equipped at Setup (without paying its points cost).

Fang Fighter “Joy Rekkoff” (5 pts) (I4)

• Pilot Ability 
  • While you perform an attack, you may spend 1 Charge from an equipped Torpedo upgrade. If you do, the defender rolls 1 fewer defense die.
• Ship Ability – Concordia Faceoff
  • While you defend, if the attack range is 1 and you are in the attacker’s Forward Arc, change 1 result to an Evade result.
• Loadout (11/11)
  • Modification – Mandalorian Optics (5)
    • Charges: 2
    • During the System Phase, you may spend 1 Charge to acquire a lock on an object in your Forward Arc.
    • While you perform a primary attack, if you have a lock on the defender, ignore obstacles beyond range 0 obstructing the attack.
  • Talent – Cutthroat (2)
    • After another friendly ship at range 0-3 is destroyed, if that ship is limited or has the Cutthroat upgrade, you may remove 1 of your orange or red tokens, or recover 1 non-recurring Charge on your ship card or one of your equipped upgrade cards.
  • Torpedo – Ion Torpedo (4)
    • Charge: 2
    • Attack (Lock) 4, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 2-3
      • Spend 1 Charge. If this attack hits, spend 1 Crit or Hit result to cause the defender to suffer 1 Hit damage. All remaining Hit/Crit results inflict ion tokens instead of damage.

Fang Fighter “Mandalorian Royal Guard” (5 pts) (I4)

• Pilot Ability 
  • While a friendly non-small ship defends, if you are in the attack arc, you may gain 1 deplete and 1 strain token. If you do, the defender may change 1 result to an Evade result.
• Ship Ability – Concordia Faceoff
  • While you defend, if the attack range is 1 and you are in the attacker’s Forward Arc, change 1 result to an Evade result.
• Loadout (10/10)
  • Missile – Ion Missile (2)
    • Charge: 3
    • Attack (Lock) 3, Forward Arc, Munition, Range 2-3
      • Spend 1 Charge. If this attack hits, spend 1 Crit or Hit result to cause the defender to suffer 1 Hit damage. All remaining Hit/Crit results inflict ion tokens instead of damage.
  • Modification – Beskar Reinforced Plating (6)
    • Charges: 2
    • While you defend, if the attacker is in your Forward Arc, before you would be dealt a faceup damage card, you may spend 1 Charge to be dealt that card facedown instead, or spend 2 Charges to discard it instead.
  • Talent – Cutthroat (2)
    • After another friendly ship at range 0-3 is destroyed, if that ship is limited or has the Cutthroat upgrade, you may remove 1 of your orange or red tokens, or recover 1 non-recurring Charge on your ship card or one of your equipped upgrade cards.

HWK-290 “Gamut Key” (3 pts) (I3)

• Pilot Ability 
  • Charges: 2 (reoccurring)
  • At the start of the End Phase, you may spend 2 Charges to choose yourself or a ship in your Turret Arc with 1 or more circular tokens. During the End Phase, circular tokens are not removed from that ship.
• Ship Ability – None
• Loadout (8/8)
  • Crew – IG-11 (6)
    • Adds Calculate action
    • Setup: Equip this side faceup.
      • Before you would be dealt a faceup damage card, you must place 1 fuse marker on this card and gain 1 calculate token instead. Then if there are 2 fuse markers on this card, flip it.
    • IG-11 (Anti-Capture Protocol)
      • During the End Phase, remove 1 fuse marker from this card. Then, if this card has no fuse markers on it, you are destroyed and each other ship at range 0-1 suffers 1 Crit damage.
      • Action: Place 1 fuse marker on this card.
  • Illicit – Deadman’s Switch (2)
    • After you are destroyed, each other ship at range 0-1 suffers 1 Hit damage.
  • Modification – None (-)
  • Modification – None (-)
  • Payload – None (-)
  • Talent – None (-)

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

My first thought when looking to get the Mandalorian onto the table was, damn, this dial sucks. Only having blues straight creates a very predictable dial. It has access to a lot of good maneuvers, but since they are red, you’re next maneuver is limited. How can you mitigate this problem? It doesn’t have an astromech slot or access to Nien Numb or Kanan Jarus crew. Then it hit me, Babu Frik! The little guy lets you avoid taking a red token and put off the pain until later. But he’s also an illicit upgrade. You know who can recover those? Jabba. The Razor Crest has two crew slots. This lets Mando take up to four red maneuvers throughout the game and suffer no consequences. He can then do it once more and have two turns before he gets slapped with five stress tokens. With games generally not going over eight turns, even if you did red maneuvers every round, you probably still wouldn’t have to face the consequences for your own actions before the games over.

Razor Crest title gives you a lot of flexibility on the table on top of everything. Getting to add a few illicit after knowing your opponent’s list AND what scenario you’re playing in gives you maximum flexibility. Think you’ll end need some more stress management, slot in Contraband Cybernetics. Facing a bunch of TIE Advanced X1’s, throw on a False Transponder to avoid the first Lock. Want to clog the lanes, being a Rigged Cargo Chute. Overtuned Modulators are also a good choice as they jive with Mando’s pilot ability and Jabba can recover the charge if he’s not giving Babu his fix.

What to fly with Mando was a big question. He’s 7points, which is a major chunk of any list. I first wanted to try his good friend, Boba Fett, but since Boba’s 10pts, that only left three. Scum’s 3points pilots kind of suck. Overseer Yushyn and Foreman Proach have useless abilities. All the Z-95’s suck, though Bossk at least is worth considering if you took Fett, for theming reason. The HWK’s give Gamut who isn’t bad but Dace has to have the most worthless ability in the game. Taking any of those threes with two expensive ships felt like a good way to lose.

Taking two Fang Fighters jives with the theme of Mandalorians. In particular, the Mandalorian Royal Guard is an especially valuable escort for Mando since he is a medium base. Either they shoot at the 5pt, three agility Fang, loaded with Beskar, or the 7pt Mando whose escort can ensure he evades one hit. Can make for some tough target priority. Gamut is built as a bomb just because it’s hilarious. IG-11 and Deadman’s Switch is a nasty combo. And it makes him potentially very resilient. Your opponent won’t want to shoot at him if there’s the potential for taking two damage back.

Mando will be your opponent’s primary target. Which he’s okay with because he has a fair number of tricks to survive or escape from a trap with Cloaking or SLAMing. The Royal Guard wants to stay relatively close to provide aid but can peel off to grab objectives. Joy is your knife in the back piece. She can hunt objectives or chase the most vulnerable enemy ship. Gamut wants to go where things will be popular and stay tucked in close to the largest group of enemy ships.

Loadout Variations

Mando has a ton of variations he could use. Even keeping the Jabba/Babu combo, he has twelve points to play with. Burnout Thrusters could become Shield Upgrade, Mandalorian Optics or Beskar Reinforced Plating. Boba Fett is a decent gunner option. Clan Training is an option but would be another source of stress to contend with. Expert Handling would be a good option to give yourself the option to barrel roll without stress. Or Debris Gambit to evade and barrel roll without stress while near obstacles. If you forgo Jabba/Babu, you’ll have to be more cautious about stress but it opens up a lot of crew combos. Force from Maul or Savage is handy.

Joy’s build makes the best use of her ability. Ion Torps to trigger her ability and Cutthroat to recover those charges for more uses later. Mandalorian Optics could become Hull Upgrade if you wanted more survivability. You can also double down on the dice reduction and switch Cutthroat and Optics for Outmaneuver. Finally, you could also just swap her out for a second Mandalorian Royal Guard if you prefer more defense for Mando than offense potential.

For the Royal Guard, Beskar is your best bet for his modification. It costs as much as shield but it does that role better. It negates a crit whenever you take one, not just if that’s the first damage you take. It’s worse if you never happen to take a crit. If you’re rather have Enduring, you’re better off with Shield or Hull.

Gamut has a lot of other build options rather than flying death trap. Payloads and crew are very versatile options. Cad Bane plus a bomb lets you mine the lanes.

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