WAVE IX - NEWS !!! ONLY !!!

Stay in Attack Formation

Announcing the Ninth Wave of X-Wing™ Starship Expansions

Set your course. Fly at the enemy. Take aim, and fire!

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of four new Wave IX starship expansions for X-Wing!

Even as Wave IX introduces a wealth of starfighters and pilots taken from The Force Awakens, Star Wars Rebels, and the new canon, it reinforces the game's emphasis on skillful maneuvering and the importance of catching your enemies squarely in your firing arc.

   ARC-170 Expansion Pack
   Special Forces TIE Expansion Pack
   Protectorate Starfighter Expansion Pack
   Shadow Caster Expansion Pack


From left to right: ARC-170, Special Forces TIE, Protectorate starfighter, and Shadow Caster

Between these four expansions, you will find zero turrets. Instead, you will find two auxiliary firing arcs, one mobile firing arc, and a starfighter with zero shields… whose pilots practice flying straight at their foes. And there is plenty more to this wave than just its ships. You will also meet Poe's mother, discover new First Order tech, welcome a handful of Mandalorians to the Scum faction, and gain the ability to fly Sabine Wren as a Scum bounty hunter.

ARC-170 Expansion Pack
The Rebel Alliance recovered, repaired, and retrofitted a handful of ARC-170 starfighters during the Galactic Civil War. Though somewhat antiquated, the ship was still a force to be reckoned with, featuring powerful cannons, heavy shielding, and a tail gunner.



The ARC-170 Expansion Pack introduces this starfighter to X-Wing as a somewhat sluggish vessel with six hull, three shields, and one agility. It flies well at slower speeds, but struggles at higher speeds, featuring six green maneuvers at speeds "1" and "2," even while four of its seven higher-speed maneuvers are red.

Meanwhile, as with all the ships in Wave IX, the ARC-170 rewards you for catching your foes within its firing arc, even if that arc is its auxiliary arc. Even though the ARC-170's primary weapon boasts an unmodified value of just "2," you can give it an Alliance Overhaul to boost its attacks from its primary firing arc by one die or to change one result to a whenever you perform an attack from its auxiliary firing arc.
Additionally, the expansion comes with four ship cards that introduce four new aces, including Poe Dameron's mother Shara Bey , who flew as Green Four during the Battle of Endor. Its nine new upgrades allow you to take advantage of the unique pairing of crew and astromech upgrade slots.



Special Forces TIE Expansion Pack

Only the First Order's most elite pilots were authorized to fly this specialized two-seater TIE craft. Outfitted with enhanced shields, weapons, and sensor systems, each Special Forces TIE fighter had a dual heavy laser turret mounted to the bottom of its fuselage. In conjunction with a warhead launcher, this turret made the fighter's weapons far more threatening than the standard TIE/fo fighter's and granted the ship an extra measure of defense against threats to its rear.



Although it looks almost identical to the TIE/fo fighter, the Special Forces TIE is an entirely different vessel, trading away a point of agility in favor of two extra points of shields, and boasting an entirely different maneuver dial.

Moreover, while both ships feature a primary attack value of "2," the comparison between the two ships' offensive capabilities quickly breaks down. First of all, the Special Forces TIE can equip a missile upgrade. Then, more importantly, the Special Forces TIE can equip the Special Ops Training Title for free. Like the Alliance Overhaul for the ARC-170, this upgrade allows you to add an attack die to any attack you make from your primary firing arc. On the other hand, if you choose to forsake the extra attack die, your Special Ops Training makes it possible for you to take shots from both your primary and auxiliary firing arcs in the same round.

To ensure that your squad benefits as much as possible from your Special Forces TIE and Special Ops Training, the Special Forces TIE Expansion Pack introduces four new pilots, including two unique aces, and five upgrades. Notably, since the Special Forces TIE features slots for both a systems and tech upgrades, you will find new cards for both these slots included in the pack.



Protectorate Starfighter Expansion Pack

Also known as the "Fang fighter," the Concord Dawn Protectorate starfighter was a fast and sleek Mandalorian vessel custom-built for fighter combat. Equipped with a hidden torpedo launcher and pivot wings that provided vector thrust control, the Protectorate starfighter lent itself well to its pilots' aggressive approaches. They leveraged their ship's unmatched agility and narrow attack profile to execute the deadly head-on charges of the Concordia Face Off maneuver.



Pulled from Star Wars Rebels and the pages of Star Wars: Kanan, the Protectorate starfighter enters X-Wing as one of the most potent—and most deceptively simple—vessels in the Scum and Villainy fleet. It boasts a healthy and aggressive stat line of three attack, three agility, and four hull, and it grants its pilots access to the focus, target lock, barrel roll, and boost actions.

But while the ship's range of actions and maneuver dial, combined with its lack of shields, suggest that it should be a classic arc-dodger in the vein of the A-wing and the TIE interceptor, its pilots, like Fenn Rau , tend to favor brash, head-on charges. Accordingly, among the expansion's six ship cards and two upgrades, you will find no fewer than four cards that reference "Range 1," and three that reward you for flying straight into your opponent's firing arc.



Shadow Caster Expansion Pack

The signature starship of the young and ambitious bounty hunter Ketsu Onyo, the Shadow Caster was agile and powerful, but lightly shielded, trading heavy ray shielding for speed. In addition to its laser cannons and swivel-mounted, pilot-operated turret, the craft was equipped with a powerful multi-directional tractor beam.



Both the Shadow Caster and Ketsu Onyo make their way from Star Wars Rebels to X-Wing with the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack. They arrive to the Scum and Villainy faction along with four ship cards and twelve upgrades that afford you myriad options for outfitting your Shadow Caster with different crew and illicit upgrade combinations.

Importantly, the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack also introduces some new rules and possibilities to your X-Wing battles. Instead of a full 360-degree turret, the expansion's Lancer-class pursuit craft comes with a mobile firing arc. Indicated by a token that lays over the ship's base, this mobile firing arc can occupy any of the four quadrants indicated on the ship's base, and a pilot can use the rotate arc action to move it to any other quadrant.

This affords the Shadow Caster some of the advantages of a turret even while preserving a distinctive—and more point-efficient—playstyle, and as you might expect, each of the expansion's three unique pilots can put this mobile firing arc to good use, including the new Scum version of Sabine Wren .

Additionally, the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack and its upgrades allow you to litter the battlefield with debris tokens, upgrade your Shadow Caster with the abilities of each IG-2000 in your squad, and force your opponents to suffer the lingering effect of tractor beam tokens that are not removed during the end phase. In other words, the expansion is going to ensure the Scum faction stays updated with all the most devious tricks.



Meet the Enemy Head-on!

Will Wave IX and its starship expansions prove to be the perfect balance of innovation and classic design? Only time will tell, but for now, we know that it promises to add plenty of excitement through its variety, even as it keeps your X-Wing dogfights squarely focused on the basic principles of maneuvering, aiming, and firing.

Auxiliary firing arcs. Mobile firing arcs. Ships that want to fly into their enemies' firing arcs. Ordnance and upgrades that can literally change the shape of the battlefield. New aces pulled from the expanded Star Wars canon. Wave IX is coming, and there is only one good way to meet it—head on.

Look for Wave IX and its expansions to arrive at retailers late in the third quarter of 2016. Until then, keep your eyes open for more previews and other X-Wing news!

Alliance Overhaul
A Preview of the ARC-170 Expansion Pack for X-Wing™




"If the cost of our struggle is the lives we fought to protect, the future we hoped to see, then what is it we were fighting for?"
     –Shara Bey
Ever since the release of the original X-Wing™ Core Set in 2012, the Rebel faction has relied heavily upon the synergies between its pilots, their unique abilities, and their upgrades. Pilots like Biggs Darklighter and Jan Ors have proven to be Rebel mainstays. Astromech Droids like R2-D2,   R5-P9,  and R3-A2 have held their ships together through many tumultuous battles. And ships like the Millennium Falcon have traditionally benefitted from the contributions of such talented crew members as Luke Skywalker,   Chewbacca,  and C-3PO.
In many ways, the ninth wave of X-Wing starship expansions is a return to basics. All its ships and nearly all of its named pilots appear in canonical materials. Its ships' mobile and auxiliary firing arcs refocus our attention on the importance of our maneuvers, even as they provide us with more options for lining up our shots. And we find the Rebel Alliance empowered by a wealth of new synergies between its pilots, their ships, their talents, and their upgrades.
Today, as we dive into the first of our Wave IX previews, we take a closer look at how all these basic elements come together in new forms in the ARC-170 Expansion Pack.

Recovered, Repaired, and Retrofitted

The ARC-170 first appeared in Episode III and then again in the Clone Wars television series. Although the ship was somewhat antiquated by the time of the Galactic War, the Rebel Alliance nonetheless recovered, repaired, and retrofitted a handful of them, and they proved they were still a force to be reckoned with. Their powerful cannons, heavy shielding, and tail gunners allowed them to play a unique and valuable role in the Rebel fleet.
In X-Wing, the ARC-170 appears as a small-base ship with two attack, one agility, three shields, and six hull. Its ability to field a tail gunner is reflected both in its crew upgrade slot and its auxiliary firing arc—the first such arc to appear on a small-base ship.



Naturally, the ship's auxiliary firing arc affords you a measure of freedom in your selection of maneuvers. For example, you might line up a shot from your auxiliary arc by selecting a straight speed "3" maneuver instead of executing a red speed "4" Koiogran-turn, which would cause you to take a stress and lose your ability to perform an action.


However, the Alliance Overhaul Title upgrade ensures that the ARC-170's auxiliary firing arc enters the game as more than just a free firing arc. It also introduces a new decision point: do you aim to keep your foes in your primary firing arc and roll three attack dice, or do you allow them to slip into your auxiliary firing arc, hoping to convert a  result into a  ? The choice becomes more meaningful as you consider how to equip your ship. As an example, the new Tail Gunner crew upgrade goes a long way toward making shots from your auxiliary firing arc more attractive.
Meanwhile, the ship also features slots for torpedo and astromech upgrades. Finally, the expansion comes with four ship cards, each of which corresponds to a unique Rebel ace making his or her first appearance in X-Wing.

Meet the Pilots

Although they make their X-Wing debut in the cockpit of an ARC-170, the four pilots from the ARC-170 Expansion Pack all flew different ships when they first came to light in the newly canonized Star Wars short stories, comics, and novels.

Braylen Stramm first appeared in the short story, "Blade Squadron,"published in Star Wars Insider 149-150. A human who joined the Alliance after serving the Galactic Empire on Naboo, Braylen Stramm gained command of Blade Squadron after the Battle of Endor. In X-Wing, he flies his ARC-170 with all the cool of someone used to flying the much more challenging B-wing. After Braylen Stramm executes a maneuver, he can roll an attack die. On a  or  result, he can remove one stress from his ship.

Drawn from the pages of Lost Stars, Thane Kyrell was another former Imperial who defected and joined the Rebellion. As a member of Corona Squadron, he took part in the Battles of Hoth, Endor, and Jakku, mostly in the cockpit of an X-wing. He arrives to X-Wing as a pilot with a pilot skill value of "4" and the ability to perform a free action after an enemy within his firing arc at Range 1–3 attacks another friendly ship.

Talented A-wing ace Shara Bey comes to X-Wing from the Marvel comic, Star Wars: Shattered Empire. During the Battle of Endor, she flew with Green Squadron under the call sign Green Four. The Rebel victory there helped to turn the tide of the Galactic Civil War. Nonetheless the war was not yet over, and Shara Bey's continued service to the Rebel Alliance saw her fly missions with both Leia Organa and Jedi Luke Skywalker. In X-Wing, Shara Bey continues to serve the Rebel Alliance with her talents, offering the benefits of her target locks to any of her wingmates who might need them more.

One of the wingmates most likely to benefit from Shara Bey's target locks isNorra Wexley,  who entered the Star Wars universe as part of Chuck Wendig's Aftermath. A freighter pilot who joined the Rebel Alliance after her husband was arrested by stormtroopers, Norra Wexley was recruited into combat service by Commander Wedge Antilles ahead of the Battle of Endor. He convinced her that the Rebellion needed her piloting skills in the battle, and she ended up flying a Y-wing into the second Death Star, drawing fire away from General Calrissian and the Millennium Falcon. In X-Wing, her skills are reflected by her ability to convert a target lock into an extra  result, either while attacking or defending.

Team Tactics

By this point, you've likely noticed some of the potential synergies the different ARC-170 pilots enable. Still, the ship and the expansion promote myriad synergistic interactions that go far beyond its pilots' abilities.
First and foremost, with its unique pairing of crew and astromech slots, the ARC-170 invites you to revisit two whole categories of upgrades in new context.

• Will you outfit outfit Thane Kyrell's ARC-170 with the C-3PO crew upgrade and R2-D2 astromech, as well as some Vectored Thrusters, forcing your opponents to decide if they want to try to eat through his massive defenses or fire at his wingmates and give him extra actions, including the potential to reposition his ship in the middle of the Combat phase? Or would you find it a wiser investment to minimize your expenditure on his upgrades, equipping him with R4-D6 and Hera Syndulla for just two squad points, and relying upon the extra target locks provided by Shara Bey and her Weapons Engineer ?
  
  
• Equipped with R3-A2 and Kyle Katarn , Kyrell can potentially stress his opponents with every attack he makes and still fire his shots with both a target lock and a focus token in every Combat phase after the first.
  
  
• The possibilities are staggering. With Sabine Wren and BB-8 aboard, Norra Wexley could even  Experimental Interface whenever she reveals a green maneuver to perform a barrel roll, drop an Action bomb like theConner Net,  and then race ahead, finishing her green maneuver and clearing her stress, only to take her standard focus action.
  
  

Yet the potential combinations seem to arrive from every possible angle. And they only increase as you start to piece together the whole of your squad.
Fans in our community forums have already started to experiment with squad builds that emphasize the sheer number of attack dice Norra Wexley can direct toward a foe when outfitted with Alliance Overhaul, plus eitherOpportunist or Expose.  So outfitted, Norra can fly into Range "1" of an enemy ship and focus, before using her Experimental Interface to trigger her Expose. Or if she's just outside of Range "1," she can Expose and have her R7-T1 astromech boost her into Range "1" of her target. Counting the extra  result she gets by spending her target lock during her attack, she effectively attacks with seven dice. If the attack is made with an Advanced Proton Torpedo,  Norra can claim as many as eight attack dice. You may not win tournaments by equipping Norra Wexley to fire, effectively, eight red dice, but the effort is still easily worth an entertaining game or two.
Meanwhile, because it starts at just twenty-five squad points for Braylen Stramm, the ARC-170 is cost-efficient enough that you can easily fit two of them into a three-ship squad along with Biggs Darklighter.

• Norra Wexley with R3 Astromech,  Push the Limit, Kanan Jarrus,  Alliance Overhaul, and Vectored Thrusters(38)
  
  
• Shara Bey with R2-D2, Draw Their Fire,  Weapons Engineer, and Alliance Overhaul (36)
  
  
• Biggs Darklighter with R4-D6 and Integrated Astromech (26)
  
  

     Total Squad Points: 100
Such a squad would rely upon Biggs to cover for the ARC-170's low agility, and it would aim to keep Biggs in the battle for multiple passes by reducing the number of hits he takes via R4-D6 and Draw Their Fire, and by using Kanan Jarrus to free him of his stress even when he performs white maneuvers, allowing him to perform actions more often than one might expect. At the same time, Shara Bey and Norra Wexley take advantage of the ARC-170's strengths, working together to empower Norra's attacks and ensuring that the duo has a good range of tactical options available to them should Biggs eventually fall.

Coordinate Your Attack

How will you integrate the ARC-170, its pilots, and its upgrades into your Rebel squad once the ARC-170 Expansion Pack arrives at retailers along with the rest of Wave IX? Head to our community forums and share your thoughts.
Then, stay tuned for a look at the First Order's Special Forces TIE Expansion Pack!

Full of Surprises
A Preview of the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack for X-Wing


Change your firing arc, change the battlefield, and take your opponent by surprise with the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack for X-Wing!

Throughout our previews of the Wave IX expansions, we have focused on the different ways they refocus our attention on their ships' firing arcs and the need to select maneuvers that line up good shots. Yet, even as they reinforce the value of clever maneuvering, the ships and their upgrades also encourage new tactical decisions.

When you fly a Special Forces TIE fighter, for example, your best shot might not come from your primary firing arc but from your auxiliary arc. Or when you fly a Protectorate Starfighter, you might forego the easy arc-dodging in favor of the ultra-aggressive Concord Face Off maneuver.

These choices and concerns continue to intrigue us as we dive into our preview of the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack. With its new "mobile" firing arc, plus its pilots, upgrades, and all the tactics they permit, the Shadow Caster promises to be one of the Scum faction's trickiest, most flexible, and most impressive ships to-date.



The Mobile Firing Arc

The signature Lancer-class pursuit craft of Mandalorian bounty hunter Ketsu Onyo, the Shadow Caster was fast, powerful, and full of surprises. In addition to two forward laser cannons, the Shadow Caster sported a triple laser turret and a tractor beam projector.

While the ship's two forward laser cannons are reflected in its primary weapon value of "3," its triple laser turret could have been represented in the game by either a 360-degree firing arc, as with several other turreted ships like the Millennium Falcon and VT-49 Decimator. Or it could have been repesented by an auxiliary firing arc like the one belonging to the Special Forces TIE fighter, which represents its dual heavy laser turret. Instead, as you know, the Shadow Caster introduces the concept of the mobile firing arc.



Insofar as it allows you to fire outside of your primary firing arc, the mobile firing arc functions much like a 360-degree turret. However, it requires that you spend an action to adjust its rotation, allowing for that slight chance you could fail to catch your target within the arc. And for these reasons, the main difference between the mobile firing arc and a 360-degree turret is that your mobile firing arc requires you to make decisions.

But these decisions do not just demand your time. They offer you a new opportunity to plan for success; the Shadow Caster Title and each of the expansion's three unique pilots reward you for successfully catching your foes within your mobile firing arc.

Risk and Reward

Although the Shadow Caster clearly makes use of its tractor beam projector in Star Wars Rebels, the Lancer-class pursuit craft does not feature a cannon upgrade slot with which it could equip a Tractor Beam.  Instead, that technology is reflected by the Shadow Caster Title upgrade, which allows you to assign a tractor beam token to an enemy ship.

Admittedly, that enemy ship has to be within your mobile firing arc, it has to be at Range 1–2, and you have to hit it, but if you can meet all these conditions, you get all the benefits of landing a tractor beam token on your opponent's ship without the hassle of firing a cannon that deals zero damage.



Also, because the Shadow Caster is an upgrade, its can function in tandem with your choice of the expansion's three unique pilots: Ketsu Onyo,   Asajj Ventress,  or Sabine Wren.

Completely at home in her signature vessel, Ketsu Onyo can use her mobile firing arc to assign tractor beam tokens to her enemies, seemingly at will. At the start of the Combat phase, she can assign a tractor beam token to one enemy ship at Range "1" that is within both her primary firing arc and her mobile firing arc. The simplest way to do this is to have her set her mobile firing arc to overlap with her primary firing arc, but it is also possible to maneuver the Shadow Caster so that Ketsu Onyo can catch a foe so that her primary firing arc catches part of the ship and her mobile firing arc catches the rest.

Combined with the Shadow Caster Title upgrade, then, Ketsu Onyo can use her ship's tractor beam projector to completely nullify as many as two enemy attacks by slamming her foes onto nearby rocks, or by boosting them so they no longer have her within their firing arcs.


In the Shadow Caster, Ketsu Onyo is able to get the better of two Imperial pilots by using her tractor beam to prevent them both from firing at her.

Making her arrival to X-Wing from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show, Asajj Ventress offers a possible counter to the many different lists running aces with the Push the Limit elite pilot talent. Once per round, if she can catch one of their ships within her mobile firing arc and at Range 1–2, she assign it a stress token at the beginning of the Combat phase. This means that if your opponent's ace also used Push the Limit and took a stress, that pilot is now looking at two stress tokens and, most likely, zero actions in the next round.

As many veteran players know, the ace pilots that use Push the Limit tend to rely upon their actions to boost their attack and defense, and by stripping them of their ability to perform actions, Asajj Ventress leaves them woefully vulnerable to the rest of your squadron.

Finally, Sabine Wren can use her mobile firing arc to boost her defense. Whenever she defends against an enemy within her mobile firing arc and at Range 1–2, Sabine Wren gains an additional result that she can then modify by spending a focus token. This makes the Recon Specialist a natural addition to her crew, but if you wished, you could ignore the Recon Specialist in favor a dose or two of Glitterstim , each of which would allow her to convert all of her results to   or  results over the course of an entire Combat phase.

One of the reasons you might prefer to use Glitterstim to get the most utility from Sabine's extra result, rather than equip a Recon Specialist, is that the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack comes with a trio of extremely talented Scum faction only crew upgrades. Leaving Sabine's crew slot open for one of these new crew members means you might be able to use IG-88D to share the unique pilot ability of any friendly ship with the IG-2000 Title, use Latts Razzi to add a result to your defense by removing a stress token from the attacker's ship, or prevent your opponent from removing a tractor beam token from his or her ship by carrying Ketsu Onyo as a crew member.

Of course, the Ketsu Onyo crew member, all three pilots, and the Shadow Caster Title all come with Range restrictions that force you to race into close quarters combat as quickly as possible. This is where the risk comes in: if you fail to catch your foes in your mobile firing arc in order to trigger all your abilities, you set yourself up as a very tempting target with only two Agility and three Shields.

Alter the Field of Combat

Even as Wave IX expands our appreciation of the firing arc and how it lends weight to all your chosen maneuvers, it allows us to alter the very nature of the battlefield. Two of the wave's new upgrades, one of which appears in the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack, allow us to add and remove obstacles.

One of the upgrades from the Shadow Caster Expansion Pack is Rigged Cargo Chute.  This illicit upgrade allows you to take an Action to drop one cargo token, deploying it from your rear guides like a bomb. This token then functions identically to a debris cloud token, remaining in place for the remainder of the game… except that because you deploy it during the game, you can use it to choke off your enemy's ability to maneuver through a corridor between other obstacles. And because you can equip as many as two of these on the Shadow Caster, you can dramatically reshape the flight paths your opponent thought were open.


Ketsu Onyo throws Tycho Celchu off her tail by turning through a pair of asteroids and plugging the gap by deploying a cargo token.

Alternatively, Wave IX grants you the ability to open up new flight paths by blasting obstacles into smithereens with the Seismic Torpedo upgrade from the ARC-170 Expansion Pack. That torpedo allows you to spend an Action to explode an obstacle within Range 1–2 of your primary firing arc, potentially dealing damage to nearby enemy ships. Then, whether or not you damage your opponent's ships, you remove the obstacle from the table, and you can potentially fly your whole squadron straight through the gap—without penalty—in the next round.


Norra Wexley fires her Seismic Torpedo into an asteroid, exploding it into pieces that damage the hulls of two Academy Pilots.

Taken together, these effects add a whole new dimension to the way your battles play out, forcing you to consider your flight paths from even the moment you first position your ships on the table against a list that uses one or both of these upgrades.

Wave IX Is Coming!

With their focus on firing arcs and maneuvering, the Shadow Caster, Protectorate Starfighter, Special Forces TIE fighter, and ARC-170 strike the perfect balance between new tactical options and classic X-Wing gameplay. Better yet, all these Wave IX expansions will soon be on their way to retailers near you, so be sure to head to your favorite local gaming store to pre-order your copy today!

Von der GenCon gespoilerte Sachen, am wichtigsten die Räder zu den Schiffen:

ARC mit Rad:


Fang Fighter mit Rad:


ShadowCaster mit Rad und neuen Upgrades: