X-Wing: TIE Striker Preview
The TIE Striker gets a look from FFG – Imperials just got another mean aerial dog-fighter!
Fantasy Flight Games is back with another X-Wing preview and this time they are focusing on the new TIE Striker. Originally designed for atmospheric combat, it’s making a detour to SPACE for X-Wing – and it’s got some dirty tricks up it’s sleeves. But before we get to that, show me the Dial!
The Dial
The TIE Striker isn’t blazing fast but it’s got a lot of options for short range maneuvers. Once this ship gets in close it’s going to rough to avoid. It has quite a few “quick cuts” it can make and can nimbly flip around with a 2 K-Turn. Those 2 S-loops help as well! If this one gets behind you, the best bet might be to kick it into high gear and gun it…or is it?
The Pilots
Here we have a PS 1 Imperial Trainee. 17 points, not much to look at as far as upgrades either…But this ship is packing a 3 dice primary, 2 agility and 4 hull. On top of that, it’s action bar has a Focus, a Barrel Roll and an Evade. That 3 Dice primary and 4 hull make me think this ship could be a nice gunboat. But lets keep going…
This pilot has a really weird ability – but basically, if you aren’t stressed you can take a stress and a point of damage to ignore all the dice in the “compare results” step. What does that even mean? Well let’s say you’re going heads up with Large Ship like the Ghost or the Falcon. Normally, if you rolled poorly on the evades, you’re probably not going to last more than a round or two. However, with this ability, you can last at least 4 rounds of shooting (if you can clear stress) – all the while, you can dump your 3 dice primary right back at them.
Countdown is a 4-round brawler! You’re either going to take them out or you’re going to get KO’d, but someone is going down! (You could also slap on a Hull Upgrade for a little extra juice…)
Pure Sabacc has a strange name and a very deadly ability. As long as you haven’t taken a Damage card you roll 1 extra attack die. That means at range 2-3 you’re tossing out a 4 die primary. At range 1, you’ve just bumped that up to a 5 die primary…That’s scary for a lot of ships. If only there were more ways to add attack dice…(we’re getting there).
Duchess was previewed before and the pilot ability doesn’t make a ton of sense without seeing the Adaptive Ailerons card…So lets look at those upgrades!
Okay, a free “Boost” before you reveal your dial every turn just made this ship faster than the dial alluded too. Maybe you won’t be out running this ship. The down side is that it MUST execute that maneuver – which is why Duchess’ pilot ability makes sense. Suddenly that PS 8 Ace has just opened up some really interesting maneuver chains and can be highly adaptable to where enemy pilots might end up…
Okay – this one is going to see some use outside of the TIE Striker. Currently there are 4 other TIE ships that can take advantage of this card, the Special Forces TIE, TIE Bomber, TIE Phantom and TIE Punisher. Is this card a good fit for all of those ships? Maybe, maybe not. But allowing you to roll an additional defense die will only help your ship stay alive longer.
Remember when I wrote, “If only there were more ways to add attack dice…” well here we go. If you were/are a Swarm flyer this card should be really exciting to you. As long as your swarm has a way to generate Evades, you’ll be racking-up the attack dice. Pure Sabacc will have the ability to toss out a 7 die primary at range one! It takes 2 other ship to get there, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen a crazy combo like this.
I’d also like to point out that Swarm Leader isn’t unique to the Imperial players…that’s something Scum and Rebels (or Rebel Scum) can take advantage of, too.
If you’d like to read-up on more things the TIE Striker can do, go read the full preview article from FFG. It’s worth your time as this ship and it’s upgrades will be making an appearance at a table near you.
TIE Striker Expansion Pack
The sleek and agile TIE striker was developed primarily by Imperial forces stationed on planetary installations, where its adaptive ailerons and potent weaponry made it an excellent safeguard against Rebel incursions. The TIE striker and its adaptive ailerons come to life with the TIE Striker Expansion Pack for X-Wing™. It contains one highly detailed and pre-painted miniature TIE striker, along with six ship cards and three upgrades. These reflect the ship’s exceptional atmospheric maneuverability, as well as its use in Imperial swarm tactics.
When this thing gets into Striking Distance you better watch out…
