WAVE VIII - NEWS !!! ONLY !!!

Die neue Welle wurde auf der GenCon angekündigt!!


Wir dürfen uns freuen über:

Mist Hunter (Scum)

Punishing One (Scum)

Inquisitors TIE (Imperium)

Ghost (Rebellen)

Bilder und weitere Infos folgen!! Stay tuned!!

"Kid, I’m about to let everyone in on the secret."
     –Kanan Jarrus
Slip past Imperial blockades, blast out of the shadows, and spark a rebellion… Fantasy Flight Games is proud to welcome the Ghost and its crew to X-Wing™ as part of the game's eighth wave of starship expansions!
Full of fantastic secrets and surprising skills, as well as powerful technological tools, Wave VIII introduces five new starships divided between its four different expansions:

• The Rebellion's Ghost Expansion Pack introduces both the Ghost and the Phantom, along with pilots and crew representing the heroic protagonists of Star Wars Rebels.
  
• Meanwhile, the crew of the Ghost will have to contend with one of their greatest nemeses, as the Inquistor lends his strength, his skills, and his TIE Advanced prototype to the Imperial Navy with the Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack.
  
• The galaxy's Scum and Villainy get into the action, too, as they retain the services of the renowned bounty hunters Zuckuss, 4-LOM, and Dengar in the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack and Punishing One Expansion Pack.
  

What is there in Wave VIII that's worth getting excited about? How about thermal detonators, tractor beams, illicit cloaking devices, new systems upgrades, and zero-cost elite pilot talents? Plus, there's more than a dozen unique pilots, crew members, and ship titles with a rich variety of thematic abilities to make this one of the most flavorful waves of X-Wing yet!
Ghost Expansion Pack
“If all you do is fight for your own life than your life is worth nothing.”
     –Hera Syndulla
One of the best and most compelling things about X-Wing is that it's not just a great miniatures game; it's a Star Wars miniatures game that's loaded to the S-foils with the tension and drama of the Galactic Civil War. As you fly your ships, fire your lasers, and evade incoming shots, you're battling for the fates of billions of lives. It's up to you to restore freedom to the galaxy… or to stabilize Imperial rule throughout all its systems.
Soon, you'll be able to add even more of this drama to your games by sparking your own rebellion against the Galactic Empire with the Ghost Expansion Pack. Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, and the other heroes of Star Wars Rebels make their X-Wing debut, along with their two signature starships, the Ghost and Phantom!
The galaxy's most famous VCX-100 – and likely the hardest to detect – the Ghost is a massive, heavily armored, and heavily shielded Rebel vessel that just barely makes it into the game as a large-base ship for Standard Play. That's not to say that it doesn't still provide a huge impact; the Ghost Expansion Pack brings this pre-painted VCX-100 to life at 1/270 scale as a powerhouse hitter that packs a massive stat line of four attack, zero agility, ten hull, and six shields!
If that's not enough, the VCX-100 isn't even the only ship in the Ghost Expansion Pack. It's accompanied by its attack shuttle, which is, itself, a lethal, small-base starship with an attack value of three. With its forward laser cannons, systems upgrade, turret, and crew slot, the attack shuttle can easily make a valuable contribution to any Rebel squad. However, it's just as likely to enter play given the Phantom Title and docked with the Ghost . Paired together, these ships can pack as many surprises as any enemy squadron and stand toe-to-toe with the best of them.
In addition to its ships, the Ghost Expansion Pack contains eight ship cards, sixteen upgrades, two maneuver dials, a new mission, rules for deploying your docked Phantom, and all the tokens you need to bring your VCX-100 and attack shuttle to battle!
Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack
“There are some things far more frightening than death.”
     –The Inquisitor
Personally tasked by Darth Vader to hunt down and eliminate any surviving Jedi Knights, the Inquisitor was provided access to the best of all available Imperial technologies, including his own personal TIE Advanced prototype, which represented a groundbreaking improvement over the TIE fighter designs of its time.
Aptly suited to the Inquisitor's formidable skills and the seriousness of his mission, the TIE Advanced prototype featured faster engines, folding s-foils, and a missile launcher capable of firing XX-23 S-Thread Tracers to track prey across the galaxy.
The Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack brings this lethal starfighter to X-Wing as a carefully detailed and pre-painted miniature at 1/270 scale, along with four ship cards, including one for  The Inquisitor himself. Additionally, the Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack contains five upgrades, a maneuver dial, and all the tokens you need to launch into space and pursue your foes through the stars!
Mist Hunter Expansion Pack
The renowned Gand findsman Zuckuss and his signature G-1A starfighter arrive to X-Wing in the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack. A modified Byblos Drive Yards G-1A starfighter, the Mist Hunter offered Zuckuss and his droid partner, 4-LOM, all sorts of ways to surprise and capture their prey. The ship's specialized repulsor lift technology made it surprisingly versatile, and its armament included both a tractor beam and twin assault lasers.
In X-Wing, the Mist Hunter appears as a small-base ship with three attack, one agility, four hull, and four shields. Meanwhile, despite the fact that the ship's manufacturer, Byblos Drive Yards, earned a reputation for producing starships of questionable legality, the company kept its business moving with its willingness to perform modifications of questionable legality, and, of course, many of these appear among the expansion's nine upgrades, which include an illicit Cloaking Device and the vessel's Tractor Beam , an excellent and low-cost tool for squad leaders with keen tactical awareness.
Along with its pre-painted G-1A starfighter and nine upgrades, the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack introduces ship cards for both Zuckuss and 4-LOM, two non-unique ship cards, and all the tokens that you need to catch your foes in your Tractor Beam, no matter where they go!
Punishing One Expansion Pack
The Scum and Villainy faction gains its first large-base turret ship in the Punishing One Expansion Pack. The Punishing One was the signature vessel of the bounty hunter Dengar, a crass and battered Corellian. Despite his slovenly appearance, Dengar earned a reputation as one of the galaxy's most effective mercenaries, and he was one of the elite bounty hunters that Darth Vader recruited after the Battle of Hoth to look for the Millennium Falcon.
Similarly, the Punishing One was also much more than the lightly-armed and crescent-shaped JumpMaster 5000 that it seemed to be. Outfitted with an improved engine bay and upgraded weapons systems, which included torpedo launchers and an astromech gunner, the Punshing One, like its owner, traded away its flair in favor of blunt force.
The Punishing One Expansion Pack brings the JumpMaster 5000 to your table as a pre-painted, large-base, turret ship with an attack value of two, agility of two, five hull, and four shields. Notably, the ship features a unique, asymmetrical maneuver dial, and you can equip it with the Punishing One Title to boost its primary weapon's attack value to three.
Additionally, the Punishing One Expansion Pack contains fourteen upgrades and four ship cards, including one for the ship's most notorious pilot, Dengar . As a pilot, Dengar adds a new twist to your games by allowing you to return fire once per round against an enemy ship that attacks him from within his firing arc, and his ability gains further traction as several of the expansion's elite pilot talents, crew members, and Salvaged Astromech upgrades become more and more valuable with each additional attack that your ship can make.
Spark a Rebellion!
"We're fighting a bigger fight."
      –Hera Syndulla
Whether you fly with the crew of the Ghost, task the Inquisitor to hunt them down, or offer to claim them all as bounties, X-Wing Wave VIII provides the spark for a whole new set of possible squad builds, tactics, and strategies. Fight for something greater than survival. Fight for the fate of the galaxy…
The starship expansions of X-Wing Wave VIII are scheduled to arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2015!

Fight a bigger battle


Build up your Resistance and First Order squadrons with the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack and TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack, coming soon to X-Wing™!
The Resistance’s T-70 X-wing and the First Order’s TIE/fo fighter just recently debuted in The Force Awakens™ Core Set, and they’re already flying missions, shooting down enemy fighters, and making their mark on the game. With their new stat lines, tech upgrade slots, and talented aces, these starfighters are rapidly helping to decide the fate of the galaxy, even before The Force Awakens arrives in theaters!
Soon, you’ll be able to add more of these ships to your fleet. We are proud to announce that the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack and TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack are being added to the game’s eighth wave of starship expansions!
Like the other expansions in Wave VIII, the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack and TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack introduce pre-painted miniature starfighters, faithfully sculpted at the game’s standard 1/270 scale, along with an assortment of new ship cards, upgrade cards, a maneuver dial, and all the tokens you need to fly your ships into battle.

T-70 X-Wing Expansion pack

Resistance pilots commonly find themselves outnumbered by the First Order. Accordingly, they know that in order to win their engagements – even just to survive – they’ll need to push themselves and their ships to the limits.
In addition to one detailed T-70 X-wing miniature, the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack comes with five upgrades and four ship cards, including two unique aces, to help push your Resistance forces to victory.
You’ll find an Astromech droid and an X-wing only modification that play to the X-wing’s strengths, and you’ll find a new elite pilot talent, Cool Hand , to help you emerge unscathed from your moments of weakness.
Most importantly, the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack allows you to field another Resistance X-wing in battle, and that helps you even the odds, especially when that X-wing is flown by a pilot as talented as “Red Ace.”
“Red Ace” possesses an uncanny ability to shrug off incoming fire. The first time he removes a shield token each round, he gains an evade token, making him a hard target for pairs of TIEs to pin down. Combined with the Integrated Astromech modification and the Classic Core Set’s R2-D2 upgrade, “Red Ace” can easily help you turn the tables against the forces of the First Order.

TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack

An extremely nimble starfighter, the First Order’s mass-produced TIE/fo offers a unique blend of durability, maneuverability, and advanced tech that its best pilots quickly learn to use to their advantage in combat.
You’ll find one of these ships available in the TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack as a carefully detailed and pre-painted miniature, along with six ship cards and two upgrades that allow your First Order pilots to employ cunning new tactics in battle.
Two of the expansion’s three unique aces feature the elite pilot talent slot, and that means they can equip the new Juke upgrade. For two squad points, this elite pilot talent enters X-Wing as one of a very limited number of cards that allow the attacker to modify the defender’s dice results.
“When attacking, if you have an evade token, you may change 1 of the defender’s  results to a  result.”
The drawback, of course, is that you have to hold an unspent evade token, and the rules state that you clear all of your ships’ evade tokens at the end of each round. Here, the TIE/fo fighter’s new tech upgrade, Comm Relay , offers a solution. For three squad points, this upgrade allows you to store a single evade token that you don’t need to remove at the end of the round. Thus, you can perform an evade action in the game’s first round as you close on your opponent’s Resistance forces, and save it to fuel your Juke.
What’s more, if your pilot fires early enough in combat, you can still use that evade token to save his ship from damage after he takes his shot. Accordingly, you’ll find there are few better at juking their opponents than “Omega Leader,” one of the expansion’s three unique aces, whose pilot skill value of eight ensures he almost always fires near the top of combat.

X-Wing past and present

Explore Bigger Battles in the Star Wars Galaxy, Past and Present

There are more ships in X-Wing than just those of the Resistance and First Order.

• You can pair your Resistance starships with those of the Rebel Alliance
  
• You can command your First Order pilots and starfighters into battle alongside the ships and pilots of the Galactic Empire.
  
• The galaxy's Scum and Villainy include a notorious blend of pirates, mercenaries, and bounty hunters.
  

When you build a squad, you choose one of these three groups and can use any of its ships, pilots, and upgrades.
With their new starfighters, pilots, and upgrades, the T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack and TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack will soon add new intensity to the battles already raging between the forces of the Resistance and the First Order.
As part of X-Wing Wave VIII, they will also expand and intensify all your X-Wing battles, including those fought between the forces of the Rebel Alliance, the Galactic Empire, and the galaxy’s Scum and Villainy.
The Force Awakens Core Set introduces rules for playing with your Resistance and First Order forces alongside the game’s three existing factions, and that means you can look forward to giving Luke Skywalker an Integrated Astromech, flying your swarm of TIE/fo fighters alongside “Howlrunner,” and shutting down focus tokens with Carnor Jax , only to Juke your opponents.
The Star Wars galaxy is a vast and wondrous place, and your X-Wing expansion packs afford you tremendous freedom to explore its space battles, past and present.
Along with all the rest of Wave VIII, T-70 X-wing Expansion Pack and TIE/fo Fighter Expansion Pack are scheduled to arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2015!

Lothal Rebels, Part One

A Preview of the Ghost Expansion Pack for X-Wing


"We have been called criminals, but we are not. We are rebels, fighting for the people, fighting for you." –Ezra Bridger

Lothal orphan. Mandalorian explosives expert. Lasat Honor Guard. Ill-tempered Astromech Droid. Twi'lek pilot. Jedi survivor. These are the crew of the Ghost and the protagonists of the hit show Star Wars Rebels, and they will soon arrive to your games of X-Wing™ in the Ghost Expansion Pack.

The first Standard Play expansion to incorporate materials from Star Wars Rebels, and one of the most keenly anticipated expansions in X-Wing Wave VIII, the Ghost Expansion Pack allows you to fly to battle with Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger, and the rest of Lothal Rebels. This fact, plus the fact that it introduces not just one, but two ships makes the Ghost Expansion Pack an excellent entry point for new players looking to experiment with tactics beyond the X-Wing Core Set or The Force Awakens™ Core Set.

Just as the crew of the Ghost most often conduct their missions against the Empire as an isolated Rebel cell, the Ghost Expansion Pack stands well on its own. Combined with your Core Set, this expansion provides everything you need to assemble a fun and competitive Rebel squadron. In fact, the Ghost Expansion Pack comes with so much material that we need two previews just to explore it all.



Today, though, we start by looking more closely at the expansion's two miniature starships, the VCX-100 light freighter and the attack shuttle!

Ghost and the Phantom

Foremost among all the components of the Ghost Expansion Pack are its two detailed miniature starships, both of which have been lovingly rendered at the same 1/270 scale used throughout all of X-Wing Standard Play.

Notably, rendering these ships at 1/270 scale makes the first of them, the VCX-100 freighter, a massive presence on the battlefield. The largest large-base ship currently in X-Wing, the VCX-100 is even larger than the Galactic Empire's VT-49 Decimator, and it dwarfs even some of the game's other large-base ships, like the YT-2400.


The VCX-100 from the Ghost Expansion Pack is so large that it uses a unique peg to connect to its base

This behemoth enters the game with four attack, zero agility, six shields, and a whopping ten hull. Then, its brute force can be further enhanced by a wide array of possible upgrades, including a system upgrade, turret, two torpedoes, and two crew slots. Finally, you can even equip your VCX-100 with the Ghost Title upgrade to field it in your games as though it were Hera Syndulla's signature vessel.

Named for her ability to evade Imperial sensors, the Ghost featured static jammers and baffled dampeners that meant it detected on many sensors as mere cosmic radiation. On multiple occassions, these modifications allowed Hera Syndulla and her crew to avoid getting caught in fights that they couldn't win; however, the Ghost and her crew saw their fair share of battle, as well. Accordingly, it was equipped with a nose turret gunner station underneath the cockpit and a 360-degree Dorsal Turret that was mounted midship.

The second ship in the Ghost Expansion Pack is the attack shuttle, a worthy addition to any Rebel squadron. The attack shuttle offers three attack, two agility, two shields, and two hull, as well as the focus, evade, and barrel roll actions. Notably, it is also the first Rebel ship for X-Wing Standard Play that comes without the acquire target lock action and the first to arrive without a non-unique pilot.



The attack shuttle from the Ghost Expansion Pack

Instead, the attack shuttle is reserved strictly for the crew of the Ghost, and you can even dock it to the Ghost when you give it the Phantom Title. In that case, the Phantom remains completely immune to enemy attacks until you choose to deploy it after the Ghost executes a maneuver.

By starting docked and then deploying in the heat of combat, the Phantom can slip into battle in the most surprising of fashions, especially if it's docked to the Ghost piloted by Hera Syndulla or another VCX-100 pilot with higher pilot skill than those on your opponent's ships.


The Phantom deploys from the Ghost to catch a pair of TIE fighters by surprise.

The Spark of Rebellion

"We started by wanting to fight the Empire. Somebody had to do something about the terror and injustice they're spreading across the galaxy." ―Kanan Jarrus

One ship cannot stop an Empire, not even a ship as powerful as the Ghost. But one ship can help spark a larger rebellion. And two ships, working together like the Ghost and the Phantom, can win many battles and many victories in the name of freedom.

In our next preview of the Ghost Expansion Pack, we'll look at how it brings each of the protagonists from Star Wars Rebels to life as both pilots and crew members. For now, though, it's enough to note that when you pair the expansion with either the X-Wing Core Set or The Force Awakens™ Core Set you can find any number of thematic ways to build a full, 100-point X-Wing squad based primarily around the Ghost and her crew.

One example is the squad depicted below, which pairs Hera Syndulla's Ghost with an X-wing flown by Biggs Darklighter .



- Hera Syndulla with Kanan Jarrus , "Zeb" Orrelios , Reinforced Deflectors , Dorsal Turret, and Ghost (50)
- Ezra Bridger with Phantom (20)
- Biggs Darklighter with R2-D2 (29)
Total Squad Points: 99



The Ghost is large, powerful, and versatile. However, it is not an agile ship, so this list pairs it with Biggs Darklighter, whose ability to draw fire away from friendly ships at Range "1" can reduce the amount of damage the Ghost suffers early in the game. That means you should be able to maneuver Hera Syndulla into attack position relatively unscathed, at which point you can either choose to deploy your Phantom or keep it docked in so that your Ghost retains the more versatile attack options that the Phantom grants it.

Eventually, thanks to the fact he'll draw almost all the early fire from your opponent's list, Biggs Darklighter is likely to be shot down. At that point, your Reinforced Deflectors help to mitigate the Ghost's poor defenses, as does "Zeb" Orrelios. While he doesn't directly add to your defenses, he allows you to take better advantage of Hera's unique ability to change her maneuvers, even should those maneuvers cause you to overlap an enemy ship. So long as you can keep that ship in your firing arc, "Zeb" allows you to attack, even when your ships are touching, and any upgrade or action that allows you to keep firing with your massive primary attack of four dice plays directly into the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense.

Fight the Empire

"We started by wanting to fight the Empire. Somebody had to do something about the terror and injustice they're spreading across the galaxy." ―Kanan Jarrus

One ship cannot stop an Empire, but one ship can still make an impact, especially when that ship is the Ghost and her crew is full of individuals as spirited and talented as Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and their companions. Just as these characters strike blow after blow against the Empire in Star Wars Rebels, they offer you myriad ways to battle the Empire in X-Wing. After all, all six of the show's protagonists appear as both pilots and crew upgrades.

In our next preview, we'll take another, closer look at these characters and how the Ghost Expansion Pack brings them to life in your games of X-Wing!

Lothal Rebels, Part Two

A Preview of the Ghost Expansion Pack for X-Wing™


"We have hope. Hope that things can get better. And they will." –Hera Syndulla

The largest of the Wave VIII expansion packs for X-Wing, the Ghost Expansion Pack allows you to head to battle with the Ghost , the Phantom , and the six different members of their crew. Last week, we began our previews of this loaded expansion pack with a look at its ships, the rules that let you dock the Phantom aboard the Ghost, and some of the ways that the two ships can be paired together in a full, 100-point Rebel squadron.

Today, we conclude our overview of the Ghost Expansion Pack with an exploration of the different ways it gives life to the six characters who crew the Ghost and Phantom—the six protagonists of the television show Star Wars Rebels.



Crewing the Ghost

“We're not exactly anything. We're a crew. A team. In some ways, a family.” –Sabine Wren

Led by the Jedi survivor Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, the Twi'lek owner and pilot of the Ghost, the Lothal Rebels (also known as "the Spectres") worked against the Empire primarily as a discrete Rebel cell. In addition to Kanan and Hera, they included explosives expert Sabine Wren, Astromech Droid "Chopper," Lasat rebel Garazeb Orrelios, and Lothal orphan Ezra Bridger.

The Ghost Expansion Pack brings all six Spectres to life in X-Wing, but not just once. All six of these characters appear as both pilots and crew upgrades, and both versions come with game abilities to match their unique talents and personalities.

"I thought I was a good pilot. But you—you're amazing." –Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla

First, you have Hera Syndulla , whom we saw as a pilot of the Ghost in our earlier preview. However, Hera is notable not only because she owns the Ghost, but because she is the only Spectre to appear not twice, but three times in the expansion – as a pilot for the VCX-100, a crew upgrade, and as a pilot for the attack shuttle.


An extremely capable pilot whose talents amazed even Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla was also quick to recognize and respond to threats. Accordingly, she brings the same, versatile pilot ability to both the VCX-100 and the attack shuttle:

"When you reveal a green or red maneuver, you may rotate your dial to another maneuver of the same difficulty."

Given Hera's relatively high pilot skill value of "7" and the many different red and green maneuvers on the VCX-100 and attack shuttle dials, her unique pilot ability presents you a fantastic measure of freedom to respond to other ships and their maneuvers.


The maneuver dials for the VCX-100 (left) and the attack shuttle (right)

As a pilot, Hera's ability is almost like a built-in Stay on Target , except that it's limited by the difficulty of her maneuvers, rather than their speed, and it doesn't cause her to take any stress unless the maneuver she elects to perform is actually red. Of course, as with Stay on Target, Hera needs to see her opponent's maneuver to be able to react to it. That means that, unless she counts an Intelligence Agent among her ship's crew, Hera Syndulla's ability is arguably a bit more powerful while she's piloting the attack shuttle, at which time she gains the opportunity to take the elite pilot talent Veteran Instincts .


When she realizes that the Speed "3" turn she had initially selected would cause her to collide with the Imperial player's Avenger Squadron Pilot , Hera Syndulla adjusts her maneuver on the fly, changing it to a Speed "1" turn, which allows her to claim a point-blank, Range "1" shot against the TIE interceptor.

Ironically, Hera Syndulla's unique pilot talent, though more powerful aboard the attack shuttle, is likely more important aboard her Ghost, especially if you can equip it with an Advanced Sensors upgrade. Although the VCX-100 features a special firing arc from which it can fire any torpedoes it equips, and although any VCX-100 can equip a turret weapon, the Ghost is most effective when it is flown to catch foes at Range "1" in its primary firing arc. At that point, its attacks of five dice are as devastating as anything in the game, and if you can take actions with the Advanced Sensors before maneuvering, you can further modify them with target locks or focus tokens or both.

Finally, the Hera Syndulla crew upgrade plays to her quick responsiveness and her resolve in a different fashion, but one that still allows her to make the most of the maneuver dial. For just one squad point, Hera Syndulla allows her ship to reveal and execute red and white maneuvers, even while stressed.


While Hera Syndulla is aboard the Ghost as a crew upgrade, it can surprise its opponents with a Speed "5" Koiogran-turn, even while stressed.

Because it ensures her ship's entire maneuver dial is always available and, as a result, makes it harder for your opponent to anticipate your maneuver, Hera's is a strong ability on its own, but it's even stronger when taken in combination with the stess-based abilities granted by some of her fellow Spectres.

Kanan Jarrus

"I lost my way for a long time, but now I have a chance to change things." –Kanan Jarrus



Outwardly cocky and quick to crack a joke, Kanan Jarrus makes his way to X-Wing as a crew card and as a pilot of the VCX-100. In both instances, Kanan's influence is primarily calming and protective.
As a crew member, Kanan Jarrus can enhance his ship as well as any other friendly ships within Range "1-2." Once per round, whenever such a ship executes a white maneuver, it can remove one stress token as though it had just completed a green maneuver.

Much like the Hera Syndulla crew upgrade, the Kanan Jarrus crew upgrade goes a long way toward opening the range of options to you on your maneuver dial. Unlike Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus doesn't expand your options by allowing you to reveal and execute maneuvers that you could not normally execute; after all, you can always reveal and execute white maneuvers. Instead, Kanan Jarrus opens your maneuver dial by allowing you to reveal white maneuvers on the turns you would normally need to reveal green maneuvers to clear your stress tokens and perform the actions you need.


Even though its pilot pushes a stressed Ghost through a white Speed "3" bank maneuver, Kanan Jarrus clears the stress, allowing its pilot to perform a focus maneuver to set up a better shot.

Aboard the VCX-100, Kanan Jarrus effectively transforms the ship's selection of four stress-relieving green maneuvers into a selection of twelve maneuvers that can clear your stress. But given the rules for squad-building in X-Wing, Kanan Jarrus is not limited to the VCX-100. He can assist aboard any starship with a crew slot, which means he could potentially fly with Han Solo aboard the Millennium Falcon and help Han fly a mixed series of white and green maneuvers, all while Han uses Push the Limit to gain extra actions at the cost of stress.

Of course, since Kanan Jarrus can assist any friendly ship within Range "1–2," you can also use him to free your other pilots to pursue riskier moves, confident in the fact that you will still have most of their dials available to them on the next round. For example, you would be hard pressed to deny Poe Dameron a focus action—and, therefore, his potent pilot ability—two turns in a row, but with Kanan Jarrus in your squad, you could push Poe Dameron through a Tallon Roll and still have all of Poe's white maneuvers available to him on the next round, provided Kanan's ship ends up at Range "1–2" of Poe's.

Meanwhile, as a pilot, Kanan Jarrus offers a different sort of reassurance to all those who ride with him aboard the same VCX-100. So long as he stays focused, Kanan can spend a focus token to reduce the number of attack dice fired at him by any one opponent at Range "1–2."

Aboard many of the game's other ships, Kanan's might not be a very useful ability since it demands that you to trade away the ability to use your focus token to modify your attack dice or defense dice. However, the VCX-100 has zero agility, so it doesn't roll defense dice against most enemy ships, and you can equip a Fire-Control System for just two squad points to acquire target locks and use them to modify your attack dice. Together, these facts give additional weight to Kanan's unique pilot ability, as does the fact that you could stack additional focus tokens by adding a Recon Specialist or two. While you can only trigger Kanan's ability once per enemy ship, you could spend as many as three focus tokens to reduce up to three different attacks by one attack die each.

The result is that Kanan Jarrus is likely to keep your VCX-100 intact in the heat of battle far longer than one might expect, and you can reinforce his utility by outfitting your VCX-100 with either a Sensor Jammer or the new Reinforced Deflectors.

Ezra Bridger

"I'm using everything I learned on the streets, and all that I'm starting to learn from Kanan about the Force, to make a far bigger difference than I could have made by myself." –Ezra Bridger



The youngest and most recent addition to the crew of the Ghost, Ezra Bridger arrives to X-Wing as a pilot of the attack shuttle and as a crew upgrade. In both instances, he excels in moments of great stress, as his abilities allow him to rise to the occassion.

- As a pilot of the attack shuttle, Ezra Bridger can convert up to two of his results to results whenever he is stressed and defending against an attack.
- As a crew upgrade, Ezra Bridger takes on a more aggressive role, allowing you to convert one of your results to a result whenever he's aboard a stressed ship.

Of course, both versions of Ezra Bridger play well with Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus.

Even when Ezra Bridger is stressed as the pilot of the attack shuttle, Hera Syndulla allows him to make full use of his maneuver dial, and while most pilots would normally race to remove their stress, Ezra Bridger is as safe while defending with stress as he is when he can perform actions. Simultaneously, you can equip Ezra Bridger with either Predator or the Wired elite pilot talent from The Force Awakens Core Set, in which case you can modify your dice on both the attack and on defense, all while flying about the battlefield with almost no regard to stress.

If, on the other hand, you choose to make Ezra Bridger a passenger aboard Hera Syndulla's Ghost or Phantom, he can boost her attack potential on the turns she decides to execute a red maneuver. This is particularly useful because Hera finds more options for her unique pilot talent among either ship's red maneuvers than among their green maneuvers, including the ever-useful Koiogran-turn. Moreover, if Hera uses Advanced Sensors to acquire a target lock before executing her maneuver, Ezra Bridger's presence aboard her ship means that her attack will be almost as fully modified as if she were to attack with both a target lock and a focus token. The fact that Ezra allows her to perform such a potent attack after executing a red maneuver is a testament to his utility.

On the other hand, if you allow Kanan Jarrus to crew Ezra Bridger's attack shuttle, you could also give Ezra the Push the Limit elite pilot talent to take full advantage of the ship's action bar each turn and maintain a constant defense. With Kanan Jarrus aboard his attack shuttle, Ezra Bridger can choose from twelve different maneuvers to clear the stress he takes from Push the Limit, instead of just four, and he can then use Push the Limit again to perform an evade action and then barrel roll out of another ship's firing arc. Or he could evade and grab a focus token to modify his attack. Either way, he can then activate his unique pilot ability and still derive the benefit of two different actions.

Sabine Wren

"The Empire wants to paint over everything with its boring shades of gray, black, and white. Sabine puts the color back." –Ezra Bridger


Mandalorian explosives expert Sabine Wren brings pilot and crew abilities to X-Wing that reflect two of her major interests—expressing herself creatively and blowing things up.
As a pilot of the attack shuttle, Sabine Wren flies by her own rules. Whenever she activates, immediately before she reveals her maneuver, Sabine Wren can perform a free boost or barrel roll action. Then, like any pilot, Sabine Wren can perform a normal action after she completes her maneuver. Still, the action advantage that her ability provides is just the beginning of its benefits; more importantly, it opens an additional action type and permits the execution of two key actions outside of the normal timing.

By permitting you to peform boost actions without the introduction of an Engine Upgrade , Sabine Wren's ability greatly expands upon the attack shuttle's already considerable maneuverability. Among other things, it allows her to turn her attack shuttle more sharply than her colleagues, especially since she performs her free boost before she executes her maneuver, meaning that she could boost and then perform a speed "1" turn in the same direction to turn her attack shuttle nearly one-hundred forty degrees.


Perhaps the greatest freedom that Sabine Wren gains from her ability, though, is the freedom to fly straight at asteroids and debris fields, knowing that she can simply perform a barrel roll before her next maneuver.


Meanwhile, as a crew upgrade, Sabine Wren adds a bomb slot and increases the damage potential of the bombs that her squadrons deploy. This can lead to the adoption of a number of different strategies, especially given the boost that bombs and other ordnance received with Wave VII, the economic advantages provided by the Extra Munitions upgrade, and the tactical flexibility provided by Conner Nets and Cluster Mines . By adding these abilities to a ship like the Ghost, Sabine Wren can keep your opponents off-guard. And if the eight squad points you spend on Sabine Wren, Conner Net, and Extra Munitions can force them to second-guess their maneuvers, that's a sound investment.

Finally, it's worth noting that although it only functions once per round, Sabine's crew ability enhances the damage dealt by all friendly bombs, not just those deployed from her ship.

"Zeb" Orrelios

"Zeb is the muscle of the group. He's great at smashing things, including things he doesn't mean to smash." –Ezra Bridger



A former member of the Lasan Honor Guard and a highly skilled combatant, Garazeb Orrelios witnessed the Empire's devastation of his homeworld first-hand and was, therefore, typically eager for any chance to beat up Stormtroopers or other Imperials. Zeb was big, brash, and quick to anger, but he was also full of compassion for his friends and others who suffered under Imperial rule.

In X-Wing, the crew version of "Zeb" Orrelios continues to carry the fight to the Empire, even when his ship is touching an opponent's.

"Enemy ships inside your firing arc that you are touching are not considered to be touching you when either you or they activate during the Combat phase."

Although his wording technically leads to double-sided situations, in which neither his ship nor the ship that he's targeting is considered to be touching the other during the Combat phase, partnering Zeb with a skillful pilot can make his ability a bit more one-sided and advantageous. For example, Hera Syndulla could adjust her maneuver to slam the Ghost into a Lambda-class Shuttle outside of its firing arc. Then, even though neither ship is considered to be touching the other, only the Ghost will be able to claim its shot.



Meanwhile, the second version of "Zeb" Orrelios plays off his history as a survivor. He was one of the few Lasat to survive the Empire's strike against his homeworld, and when he flies the attack shuttle, he can cancel his opponent's results before their results. While this may not prevent him from taking damage entirely, Zeb's ability goes a long way toward making him a more reliable contributor to your overall strategy. Even after his shields give out, he's less likely to suffer a critical hit that limits his maneuverability or that prevents him from attacking.

Perhaps, most importantly, even if he only rolls a single result while staring down an attacker who has rolled both a result and a result, Zeb's chances of avoiding a Direct Hit! and surviving the shot are still fully one-hundred percent.

"Chopper"

The sixth and final crew member of the Ghost is the cantankerous astromech droid C1-10P, commonly known as "Chopper." Ill-tempered and stubborn, Chopper was nonetheless loyal, heroic, and extremely capable. During his time aboard the Ghost, Chopper aided with everything from repairs and communications to gunnery.



Chopper's versatility comes to life in X-Wing largely through his crew card. As a crew upgrade, "Chopper" allows his ship to perform actions, even when it is stressed. However, his ability also comes at a cost; whenever you perform an action with his ship while it is stressed, "Chopper" forces it to suffer one damage. This means that Chopper's is an ability you won't want to use lightly, but when you decide it's worth using, Chopper's ability can easily prove the difference between life and death.

For example, it is relatively easy to imagine a situation in which your opponent has forced one or more stress tokens onto Dash Rendar's Outrider and then correctly anticipated Dash's maneuver in order to line up a shot from within Range "1" of Dash's Heavy Laser Cannon . It looks bad for Dash. Dash is at just two hull points remaining, and his enemy has a point-blank shot. Moreover, Dash has none. His enemy might even be piloting a ship that has already suffered a Direct Hit! Still, Dash is an easy kill… unless he can take an action to barrel roll out of Range "1" from the enemy ship.

This is where Chopper can turn the whole game on its head. Dash accepts a damage in order to take an action. He performs his barrel roll and gets the Outrider to Range "2" of his opponent, allowing him to take a shot with his Heavy Laser Cannon. The odds are good he now destroys his opponent's ship before it even has the chance to attack, and even if he doesn't, his opponent no longer rolls an extra die on the attack.



"Chopper" also plays on the idea of stress as a pilot, except that this time he creates stress among his opponents. At the start of the Combat phase, Chopper assigns one stress token to each enemy ship that his VCX-100 is touching. By doing so, he can limit their future options, and this can make Chopper an excellent pilot for any squadron that wants to block its opponent's flight lanes.

The Good Fight

The Ghost Expansion Pack brings more to X-Wing than its pre-painted miniatures, its maneuver dials, and its cards. It gives life to the protagonists of Star Wars Rebels, and it brings the show's heart and optimism to your gaming table.

How will you crew the Ghost and Phantom? Discuss your squad builds on our community forums. Then head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy of the Ghost Expansion Pack today!

Hunted by the Inquisitor
A Preview of the Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack for X-Wing™




"At last, a fight that might be worthy of my time."
    –The Inquisitor
Each wave of starship expansions for X-Wing™ is designed to expand the ranks of all three factions. So as our last previews focused on the Ghost Expansion Pack and what its ships and crew can offer your budding Rebel forces, it is only natural that we continue our Wave VIII previews with a look at the Imperial expansion pack that features one of the Lothal rebels' greatest adversaries, the Inquisitor.
Along with the Inquisitor's ship card, the Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack prominently features its deadly miniature TIE Advanced prototype, sculpted and pre-painted at the game's standard 1/270 scale. You will also find three more ship cards, five upgrades, a maneuver dial, and all the tokens you need to force your opponent to recognize the power of the dark side of the Force.

Relentless Pursuit

In Star Wars Rebels, no matter how many tricks and tactics Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus, and the Lothal rebels tried in order to elude the Empire, The Inquisitor always seemed to find them. Likewise, he enters X-Wing as a formidable pilot in a ship that is almost impossible to shake.
With a maneuver dial that is loaded with green speed "1" turns and banks and an action bar that features both the barrel roll and boost actions, the TIE Advanced prototype is about as capable of navigating the battlefield as any ship in the game. Talented pilots will be able to utilize this fantastic maneuverability to execute hairpin turns and keep their foes in sight, even as they race past. By executing a speed "1" turn and following it up with a boost, your TIE Advanced prototype pilot can claim a shot against a ship that tried to get behind his original position.


This suits The Inquisitor well, as he wants to keep his enemies within his sights. It does not matter if his target is at range "1" or range "3;" so long as he is firing with his ship's primary weapon, you treat the attack as though it were made at range "1," meaning that you add an extra die and your opponent does not gain an extra defense die for range, even at range "3."
Then, when you consider that the TIE Advanced prototype's action bar forsakes the evade action in favor of the acquire target lock action, and when you consider that the expansion comes with the XX-23 S-Thread Tracersupgrade, it becomes increasingly evident that this is a ship designed to hunt down your foes—not simply to survive them.
After all, this is a ship that was, at the time of its launch, technologically superior to just about every fighter around. Despite its meager two hull points, the TIE Advanced prototype outclasses nearly every other TIE variant with its two shields, and if it equips the TIE/v1 Title upgrade, its pilot gains the ability to perform evade actions—for free—after acquiring a target lock.



Of course, elite pilots like Valen Rudor can equip the elite pilot talent Push the Limit for even more actions. With Push the Limit, Valen Rudor could find himself unable to acquire a target lock on his foe, then decide to boost or barrel roll his fighter into Range "3" of an enemy starship. Then, as he is now in position, he could use Push the Limit to acquire a target lock and resolve his free evade action before he takes the stress from Push the Limit.
Alternatively, Valen Rudor could choose not to use Push the Limit during the Activation phase. In this case, Valen can stay free of stress until The Inquisitor or another pilot fires XX-23 S-Thread Tracers and grants him the chance to acquire a target lock. In turn, this allows him to perform an evade action and boost or barrel roll even after all of your opponent's ships have completed their maneuvers and performed all their actions.

Groundbreaking Technology

There is another groundbreaking innovation featured in the Inquisitor's TIE Expansion Pack that plays well with the TIE Advanced prototype, but plays just as well—if not better—with a host of different X-Wing ships. At zero squad points, the Guidance Chips modification costs you nothing more than the opportunity to equip an alternate modification, but it offers immediate and tangible dividends.
Once per round, when you perform an attack with a torpedo or missile, your Guidance Chips allow you to convert any one die result to a hit. Alternatively, if your ship features a primary attack value of "3" or higher, you can instead convert any one die result to a critical hit.
Naturally, as it makes your torpedo and missile volleys far more consistent, the Guidance Chips modification should prompt a re-evaluation of the game's ordnance. After all, by increasing their potency, the Guidance Chips modification favorably adjusts the whole economy of torpedoes and missiles, even as it encourages the development of squadrons capable of assailing their foes with almost impossibly accurate opening volleys.

• The Inquisitor with Push the Limit, Ion Pulse Missiles , Autothrusters, and TIE/v1 (34)
  
  
• Captain Jonus with XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, XX-23 S-Thread Tracers, and Guidance Chips (24)
  
  
• Sienar Test Pilot with Concussion Missiles , Guidance Chips, and TIE/v1 (21)
  
  
• Sienar Test Pilot with Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, and TIE/v1 (21)
  
  

               Total Squad Points: 100

Celebrate Imperial Might

First unveiled on Empire Day, the TIE Advanced prototype is a groundbreaking starfighter well worthy of Imperial celebrations, and even though it is the Galactic Empire's only starfighter in Wave VIII, you will find it is more than enough to encourage a wide variety of new Imperial squadrons, tactics, and strategies.
What will you do with the TIE Advanced prototype? It will not be long before you have your chance to fly it to battle, so be sure to head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today.
In the meantime, keep your eyes open for more Wave VIII previews and other X-Wing news!

12 January 2016 | X-Wing
Tricks, Traps, and Tractor Beams

A Preview of the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack for X-Wing™

Each wave of X-Wing™ expansion packs introduces new ships for each of the game's three factions—Rebel, Imperial, and Scum. In our earlier Wave VIII previews, we explored the Rebel and Imperial ships and pilots. Inspired by Star Wars Rebels and The Force Awakens, these ships and their pilots are bound to make their mark on the game's battles for the galaxy. But these are not the only ships that will soon be racing through the stars, nor the only ones promising to inspire fear among their enemies. Refusing to be outdone, the smugglers, pirates, and bounty hunters of the Scum faction will fire up the engines of their own new starships—two heavily customized vessels that are every bit as renowned and potent as those flown by their rivals.

Today, we continue our Wave VIII previews with an examination of the first of these two Scum ships, the Mist Hunter, the heavily customized G-1A starfighter belonging to the bounty hunter Zuckuss.



A Starfighter Full of Surprises

Zuckuss specially commissioned the design of the Mist Hunter to suit his needs as a Gand findsman and bounty hunter, enhancing it with advanced repulsorlift technology, twin assault lasers, a tractor beam, and the ammonia atmosphere that he needed to breathe. As a result, the Mist Hunter is likely the most alien and remarkable of all G-1A starfighters in the Star Wars galaxy.

In X-Wing, the G-1A starfighter heads to battle as a small-base ship with a big primary weapon, solid shields, and somewhat limited maneuverability. It boasts a primary weapon with an attack value of three, four shields, and four hull. To these, despite its advanced repulsorlift technology, the G-1A starfighter adds only one agility and features a maneuver dial heavily skewed toward red maneuvers. Of the G-1A starfigher's sixteen available maneuvers, more than one-third of them are red.

Red or not, however, the fact is that those maneuvers still exist, and because the G-1A starfighter boasts the system upgrade slot, choosing those maneuvers does not necessarily prevent you from taking actions. You could simply load your G-1A starfighter with Advanced Sensors to perform your action before revealing your maneuver, or you could equip the Electronic Baffle upgrade at two fewer squad points and translate the stress into damage on the rounds you decide you absolutely need your action. In the process, your Electronic Baffle would also allow you to deny your opponent the control afforded by Ion Cannons and the piles of stress tokens tossed out by BTL-A4 Y-wings loaded with the R3-A2 Astromech Droid and a Twin Laser Turret .

Certainly, that denial would come at a heavy cost—in the form of damage assigned to your ship—but if it means the difference between being slowly battered to pieces over the course of multiple rounds or turning the tables on your foe by lining up a deadly kill shot, your ability to keep taking actions and using your ship's full dial may be worth as much as the ship itself.

In addition to its considerable stats and system upgrade slot, the G-1A starfighter also boasts the crew and illicit upgrade slots, which permit another host of tricks and surprises, and the Mist Hunter Title upgrade adds the barrel roll action to an action bar that already includes the focus, target lock, and evade actions.



The Findsman and the Thief

What do you get for pilots in the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack? For starters, you get not one, but two of the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunters. Both Zuckuss and his frequent companion 4-LOM appear as pilots within the expansion.

The owner of the Mist Hunter and one of the few select bounty hunters tasked by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, Zuckuss was a male Gand and a practitioner of the mystical findsman tradition. He was also Force-sensitive, and his connection to the Force, as well as his mystical findsman rituals, greatly enhanced Zuckuss's ability to locate people, places, things, and even events.

As a pilot, Zuckuss translates his familiarity with the Mist Hunter and his ability to track down his prey into a more powerful attack. When Zuckuss attacks, you may choose to add one attack die to his pool. If you do, your opponent gets to add an extra defense die to his pool. However, veteran players will recognize that the attack die is slightly more powerful than the defense die, and you can get further mileage from the extra die if you add it to your attack at a time when your dice are modified and your opponent has no focus or evade tokens with which to modify his rolls.



A former protocol droid turned thief and bounty hunter, 4-LOM was able to override his original programming due to a glitch in its logic. A frequent associate of Zuckuss, 4-LOM joined the Gand on the deck of the Executor when Darth Vader tasked them to locate and capture the Falcon. While their partnership owed much of its success to the Zuckuss's intuitive findsman talents, it also owed much to 4-LOM's ambitious and calculating nature.

In X-Wing, 4-LOM's unique pilot ability reflects his cold, mechanical nature. Stress does not apply to him quite in the same way it might apply to organic pilots, and he can pass one of his stress tokens to another ship at Range "1" at the beginning of the End phase. In this way, 4-LOM can utilize his G-1A starfighter's full dial every turn, provided he ends up at Range "1" of another ship, and if that other ship is an enemy ship, all the better.

As 4-LOM's crew member, Zuckuss can increase the effectiveness of the droid's attacks by allowing the droid to take stress in order to force the defender to reroll dice. Since 4-LOM can then potentially pass that stress off to his target, Zuckuss's aid therefore benefits the droid's attacks in two ways.



As a crew member lending his assistance to Zuckuss, 4-LOM helps the Gand get more punch from each of his attacks. During the "Modify Attack Dice" step of an attack, 4-LOM allows Zuckuss to receive an ion token to prevent his target from making use of one focus or evade token.

The partnership's Adaptability is further reflected by the introduction of a new Dual Card elite pilot talent. The first zero-cost elite pilot talent in X-Wing, Adaptability allows you to either add or subtract a point of pilot skill from any of your pilots with the elite pilot talent slot. The card's introduction as a zero-cost upgrade means that players everywhere will soon have an elite pilot talent upgrade that they can add to any squad for which they previously had no upgrade options in budget. Accordingly, it is bound to make appearances nearly everywhere, and you will find two copies of the upgrade in the expansion.



Tractor Beams

Finally, the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack introduces one of the most hotly anticipated cannon upgrades ever, the Tractor Beam.



The idea of the tractor beam has made an indelible mark on the Star Wars™ galaxy ever since the Millennium Falcon was pulled into the Death Star during A New Hope. Bringing the tractor beam to X-Wing, however, required a bit of finesse, as the game is largely about maneuvering, and it could be harmed by introducing effects that detract too heavily from that focus.

In the end, though, the Tractor Beam and the tractor beam token that it assigns to its target strike a nice balance between the weapon's iconic utility and its implementation into the game as a powerfully disruptive, temporary effect. When the Tractor Beam successfully hits a target, it deals no damage, but the target loses a point of agility for each tractor beam token assigned to it.

Of course, the Tractor Beam works best when it is employed against a smaller ships, and if you assign a tractor beam token to your opponent's small-base ship, you immediately get to choose one of the following effects:

Perform a barrel roll using the straight speed "1" maneuver template. You select the direction of the barrel roll and the final position of your opponent's ship.
Perform a boost using the straight speed "1" maneuver template.

Forcing your opponent's ship through this boost or barrel roll does not count as an action or a maneuver, and you can force the ship to overlap obstacles, meaning that if you catch your opponent's ship in the right spot, you can potentially deny it the chance to fire and perform actions in the following round. Moreover, you may get as many as two points of damage out of the collisions, depending on the results of your opponent's attack dice.



They Will Never See You Coming

With its Tractor Beam, its devious pilots, its Cloaking Device, and all the other tricks at its disposal, the Mist Hunter is far more than just another G-1A starfighter. It is a signature vessel wholly worthy of its two renowned bounty hunters and easily one of the trickiest ships the Scum faction has in its arsenal.

Make sure to get your copy of the Mist Hunter Expansion Pack. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!

10 February 2016 | X-Wing
Payback

A Preview of the Punishing One Expansion Pack for X-Wing

The eighth wave of starship expansions for X-Wing™ is now nearly here!

Over the course of our previews, we've taken a look at the Ghost, the Inquisitor's TIE Advanced prototype, and the Mist Hunter. We've also seen the T-70 X-wing and TIE/fo fighter, which were added to the wave after the announcement of The Force Awakens™ Core Set and then raced ahead of the rest of the wave's ships, releasing just before the new movie.

Today, we complete our exploration of the Wave VIII expansions with a look at its second Scum and Villainy starship, the large-base JumpMaster 5000 from the Punishing One Expansion Pack.

The Punishing One

Designed to scout new hyperspace routes and discover new systems, the JumpMaster 5000 was a crescent-shaped transport built to travel long distances. It was also known for its ease of maintenance and customization.

These latter points led the Corellian bounty hunter Dengar to choose the ship as his personal vessel, and his heavily modified Punishing One was a far cry from a base JumpMaster 5000, armed with a proton torpedo launcher and upgraded with a cutting-edge engine bay that gave it real punch in battles at sublight speed. Additionally, Dengar integrated an astromech droid into the ship to serve as a gunner, thus freeing himself to focus on flying.



In X-Wing, the JumpMaster 5000 appears as a lage-base, turret ship for the Scum faction. Its durable design translates to four shields and five hull, and it pairs this durability with fair attack and agility values of two dice each. Of course, Dengar's Punishing One is even more deadly, and the Punishing One arrives as a Title upgrade that boosts the ship's primary weapon by one for twelve squad points.

Those twelve squad points might seem a steep price to pay to gain one extra attack die, especially when you can find Twin Laser Turrets nearly everywhere you look for just six squad points. Still, you have to remember that those twelve squad points add to a primary weapon that can fire in a full 360-degree arc and that doesn't suffer from the same damage or range restrictions as a Twin Laser Turret.

Moreover, if you have Dengar flying his Punishing One and catch your foe in arc, you can double the value of your Punishing One upgrade when you fire both as the attacker and then after you defend against your opponent's attack. Before long, you will have your foes reconsidering whether or not they even want to fire at Dengar, and those twelve squad points that you spend on the Punishing One Title and the extra bit of offense it grants you will soon look like a tremendous bargain for your squad's single greatest defensive upgrade.

Of course, there are other ways to upgrade your JumpMaster 5000 than with the unique Punishing One upgrade. In fact, there are plenty of options. The ship is the first to pair the crew and Salvaged Astromech upgrade slots, and it boasts two torpedo slots, meaning that you can equip as many as two torpedoes or one set of torpedoes along with the Extra Munitions upgrade. Finally, it sports an illicit upgrade slot and the first asymmetrical maneuver dial in the game.

Clearly stronger to its left than to its right, the JumpMaster 5000 boasts far more green on its dial than red, but if you need to clear stress, your opponent is going to know that you will not turn right. This would be far more limiting if it were not for the white speed "2" Segnor's Loop that the JumpMaster can also take to its left. Sure, there may be occasions that your opponent will know that you are going to veer left, but you can still threaten to line up a Range "1" shot – in arc – against any rival foolish enough to follow you.

All told, its unique maneuver dial and many possible upgrade combinations make the JumpMaster 5000 one of the most interesting starships in the Scum faction's hangar bay, and how you choose to outfit and fly it will depend almost entirely upon how you intend to use it in your squad.



Flying the JumpMaster 5000

There is no softer way to put this… flying the JumpMaster 5000 can be tricky. It will likely require some advanced planning. Any turn that you intend to clear a stress token, you will need to go left or go straight. Your opponent will know this, too. You might think that the easy answer is to line up along the right side of the map and time your approach to turn left into your opponent, but what if you turn too early? What if your opponent survives that initial turn and gets out of arc with Autothrusters on your right side?

Because the JumpMaster 5000 is a turret ship, these concerns are mitigated slightly, but not always. Dengar, for one, wants to keep his opponents within his firing arc – not some of the time, but all of the time, and that requires some fancy flying with a ship that might not always lend itself to the cause. If you fly Dengar, you will likely find that correctly timing your Segnor's Loop maneuver will be a crucial component of your success.

Of course, these concerns will also trickle over to your choice of upgrades. As strong as elite pilot talents like Push the Limit and the new Rage may be, they will heap stress upon your JumpMaster that may make it predictable. Instead, you might equip upgrades like Lone Wolf or Predator to modify your dice, or you might take Adrenaline Rush to surprise your opponents with a white speed "4" Koiogran-turn or a Segnor's Loop to the right. The new Attanni Mindlink offers yet another option, one that is every bit as unusual and tricky as the JumpMaster 5000 itself; each time your Mindlinked pilot gains a focus or stress token, it grants that token to each other Mindlinked pilot without a similar token. At its best, it offers a cost-efficient way for multiple pilots to gain extra actions, but at its worst – if you misplay it – the Attanni Mindlink can saddle multiple ships with unwanted stress.



Similarly, you will find some interesting options within the existing Salvaged Astromech upgrades. For example, the Unhinged Astromech can transform all your speed "3" maneuvers into green maneuvers, affording you more maneuverability, or since Dengar can potentially fire twice in a round, he might appreciate the target lock that an R4 Agromech would grant him after he uses a focus token to modify his first attack. On the other hand, you could take advantage of the new Salvaged Astromech upgrades from the Punishing One Expansion Pack, including the shield-regenerating "Gonk" and R5-P8 , a Salvaged Astromech that plays well into Dengar's penchant for payback.

Notably, the JumpMaster 5000, with its Salvaged Astromech slot, does more than offer you the chance to equip a vengeful droid like R5-P8, it allows you to equip such a droid on the same ship as the Boba Fett crew upgrade designed by World Champion Paul Heaver. At this point, no other ship in the game pairs these two types of upgrades, and that means no other ship can pair a couple of upgrades that can potentially strip the Twin Laser Turret off a Y-wing or the Push the Limit elite pilot talent off Soontir Fel – all while simply defending against one of their attacks!

Finally, you could choose to pilot your JumpMaster 5000 with someone other than Dengar. In fact, given that that a Contracted Scout will enter your squad for only twenty-five squad points, you could theoretically choose as many as four someones to fly to battle in JumpMaster 5000s. However, given the utility of Dengar's unique talents and those of the expansion's other unique pilots, Manaroo and Tel Trevura , you will most likely see the JumpMaster 5000 fielded for quality over quantity.



These other pilots open a whole range of possibilities, but there are a couple of things worth noting at this time.

First of all, Tel Trevura is really good with a Hull Upgrade . Give him "Gonk," a Flight Instructor , a Hull Upgrade, and a defensive elite pilot talent like Lone Wolf, and Tel Trevura becomes extremely difficult to kill.



Meanwhile, while it may be easy to see how Manaroo can support other ships, it may be a little less obvious that her ability to transfer target lock tokens – all target lock tokens – to any other friendly ship on the table can, in effect, make her immune to missiles and torpedoes that require the expenditure of target locks. Naturally, it also makes it harder to hit her with fully modified attacks, and as a result, your opponent, wanting to avoid the headache of killing her, might focus fire elsewhere – even if doing so is the wrong play.



In either case, the choice to pilot your JumpMaster 5000 with someone other than Dengar may be a good one, only if it means that you can then take the Dengar crew upgrade. At three squad points, he is very nearly a crew upgrade version of the popular Predator elite pilot talent, meaning that you can have that upgrade's benefits and still take a different elite pilot talent. Moreover, the fact that the Dengar crew provides you access to dice rerolls means that you might not need your target locks so much to modify your dice, allowing you to spend your locks so that R4-B11 can force a reroll of your opponent's defense dice.



Jump into Battle

With the JumpMaster 5000, the Punishing One Title, and Dengar, plus all of its other options, the Punishing One Expansion Pack adds a whole new measure of idiosyncrasy to the Scum faction, already the most eccentric collection of starships and pilots in X-Wing. Will it see play in your battles? How will you use it? Who will fly it?

Share your thoughts on the Punishing One Expansion Pack and its new ship, pilots, and upgrades with the members of our community forums. And as always, keep your eyes open for more X-Wing news, including the release of Wave VIII!