Having played a few games of Imperials and getting my Fel fix for the month, I decided I wanted try to work on another list archetype. It’s been a bit since I’ve flown rebels, and I didn’t want to follow the meta, so I turned once again to my first 2.0 tournament list: Red Squadron.

The original list was Wedge, Biggs, and 2 Red Squadron Veterans, each with R4 Astromech and Servomotor S-foils, and Crackshot on those who could take it. With a 3 point bid, I had a small chance of forcing Fel, Fenn, Vader, and other Wedges to be proactive with their repositioning by forcing them to move first, but I wasn’t counting on it. Instead, I relied on the firepower of 4 2.0 X-Wings to carry me through, and they delivered, winning my first event without losing a ship. Biggs played a large part of that, spreading damage around on key attacks that let my Veterans do their jobs before going down. Looking at a change I could make, I wanted to double-down on his ability. Selfless is a Rebel only Talent that costs 3 points and grants the carrying ship a version of Biggs’ ability that only functions on crits. The list happens to have enough points to drop Crackshot from all pilots and put Selfless on both Veterans.

With 3 ships to pass damage around, it should be aggravatingly difficult to focus down a single target. The ability to draw crits away from a primary target will also hopefully neuter the Proton Torpedo heavy lists that I’ve been seeing as of late, as they either don’t convert their hits to crits, or they watch their crits get spread among my forces. I only got to play 1 game on Monday at Blue Sky with the modified list, but against Joe Moore running a group of seemingly random rebels, I knew I was in for a brawl. Joe is one of the friendliest players in the PNW (which is saying something, given our player-base,) and can usually be found flying large groups of rebel… things. That night, he brought a Warden Squadron Pilot flying a K-Wing, a Rebel Scout in a HWK, a Gray Squadron Bomber piloting a Y-Wing, and a B-Wing flown by a Blue Squadron Pilot. Each had their share of upgrades (at least 2 each, with a couple bombs, a turret, and some rockets to taste. I also have seen Joe flying this list on no less than 3 other occasions, though I haven’t faced it yet myself.

Obstacles were placed mostly in a clump on Joe’s left side, so after he set up on his right facing his left along his board edge, I set up on my own left and aimed to catch him as he turned the obstacle-laden corner. The plan mostly worked, though the 2nd turn of the game, I thought I may have had a shot against a caught-out B-Wing that ended up just pushing my guys closer to the initial engagement without yielding any thrown dice. The 3rd turn somewhat set the tone for the game, as 3 of my X-Wings tore into the Scout, stripping its shields and dealing a damage card in exchange for 1 crit on the forward Veteran, though his Selfless wing-man took it instead. Like the previous turn, the Warden was way too far from the action, but the other Rebel jankyard components all turned in to engage, with the HWK running for its life down the board. My lead Xs banked down to give chase as Wedge and the damaged Veteran simply moseyed along straight into the Y-Wing’s front (and turret) arc. Wedge and Biggs unloaded at the Range 1 B-Wing, and although Wedge took its shields, Biggs failed to put anything else on it. In the north, both Veterans absolutely demolished the Y-wing, stripping its shields and putting a Console Fire and Loose Stabilizer (if it does anything but go straight, it takes 1 damage) along with 2 other cards onto it. The Y-wing, for its part, brings the already damaged Veteran down to 2 hull remaining. The B-wing dealt 1 damage to Biggs. The Y-Wing reveals it’s devastating 3-forward and clears it’s console fire, but not before leaving behind a little present. Having completely forgotten that it had Seismic Charges, I put every single one of my ships at Range 1 of the large rock, which then explodes and Sabine has a field day. Wedge, who had 3-Trolled to his right, takes a second stress token, Biggs receives an ion token to complement his 4-k, the relatively undamaged (though now shieldless) Veteran is tractored to his right, and the limping Vet is stripped of his focus with a jam token. Oh, and everyone flying an X-Wing lost a shield. Shots are fired around the table, starting with Wedge removing the Rebel Scout from the game. Everyone else plows into the B-Wing, which lives the round after taking terrible damage from a single Veteran and dodging everything else. The K-Wing rolls poorly on its Barrage Rockets shot at the nearly dead Veteran, and my defense dice roll well enough that the wounded Red Vet takes no damage.

Both Veterans execute turning maneuvers to catch Joe’s squad out, while the B-Wing also 2-Ks. Wedge 2-banks into the chase and clears a stress, while Biggs… moves slowly forward 1. The K-Wing maneuvers to bring its Rockets to bear on my damaged ships. Wedge annihilates the wounded B-Wing, and the rest of my list puts a single damage onto the Y-Wing, not even killing it. The K-Wing does it’s part to help my team, rolling a single hit against the nearly dead Veteran that Biggs absorbs (though this puts him below half health.) The Y-Wing drops another seismic in an attempt to do any amount of damage before his death, which proves ineffective. Wedge pursues the Y, which now can not do anything but go straight or it dies, while the other 3 Xs turn on the still-full K. Biggs bumps the Warden, which then causes the damaged Veteran to bump as well. He FINALLY dies, but not before Wedge ends the Gray’s run of the table and both Vets put a whopping on the Warden, dropping it’s shields and giving it 2 damage cards. Attempting to do any damage at all (and spend all his ludicrous initial charge pool,) the K-Wing drops a Proton bomb and books it, stage right, in an attempt to clear datum. This sets Wedge’s K-turn up to hopefully deal the killing blow, and both Initiative 3 X-Wings end up with shots but within range of the bomb. Biggs takes a direct hit that nearly kills him, though the Veteran simply lost his second shield. Wedge fails to end the game, but Biggs succeeds, putting the K-Wing down. This was the first time using 4 X-Wings in 2.0 that I have lost a ship. The bombs somewhat took me by surprise; though only 2 connected, they did a total of 7 damage, and Sabine prevented 2 actions and stopped Biggs from re-engaging when I wanted him to. Had the Warden not been so far from the initial engagement, and out of the fight for 2 turns of combat, this may very well have been a completely different game.

I really like Wedge, and feel that (like most aces in Second Edition,) he can function extremely well when given little to nothing in his upgrade slots. His pilot ability is simply brutal in this new edition of reduced dice mods on defense, and simply dunks on anything with 1 agility (which Joe’s list had 3 of.) The X-Wing itself is proving to be a sturdy frame with far improved offence over it’s 1.0 counterpart, even at the end of first edition when Integrated Astromech and the points reductions had taken effect. This is definitely not the last you’ll see of Red Squadron, as I will be exploring this archetype again in the future. For now, let me know what you think of the list, and if you think having Selfless is worth not having an Initiative bid or Crackshot on anyone.

Next time: More building blocks! More X-Wings!