Custom Reinforcements Pack: Vanguard Squadron

Today is another of General Syndulla's many squadrons under her control in the years after Endor. Vanguard Squadron is seen as one of the two squads you fly under in the game Star Wars Squadrons, so some spoilers for the game ahead:

Vanguard is another squadron similar to Alphabet Squad, in the sense that they all fly different starfighters, however, unlike Alphabet, Vanguard works well together, able to fly competently together on missions without meltdowns or arguing (oh poor alphabet!).

They worked with General Syndulla and Lindon Javes to systematically take apart the Imperial Remnants in the year after the battle of Endor. They are best known for their protection of the Starhawk project, a massive capital ship designed to place the final killing blow to the Empire, keeping it safe as long as possible while under heavy assault until they decided to sacrifice the prototype to destroy a fleet of star destroyers.

Gunny:

Firstly is the squadron leader Kierah Koovah, better known as Gunny. This Mimbanese native fought against the separatists on Mimban with the 224th clone troopers, so she's been fighting the good fight for many years. She leads Vanguard Squad during the galactic civil war, being a kind and caring leader, chatting amongst them during missions as if she was just another pilot. She was also able to keep her squadron morale up even during the darkest times of the Starhawk project disaster. For her pilot ability, I decided to show both her leadership role and the in-game ability to resupply ships with the U-Wing. This lets her either trigger a reload of ships that couldn't normally reload, or repair damaged allies.

Repulsor Expert:

I love the U-Wings S-Foil card, it feels so thematic and lets the otherwise less manoeuvrable U-Wing work more efficiently. However, I feel that the more skilled of these pilots could take better advantage of their ships advanced repulsors, letting them slide along instead of just stopping and rotating when their wings are closed. This will help Gunny be more manoeuvrable, definitely not an ace, but able to try to keep opponents in her arc.

Vanguard Leader:

As the leader of Vanguard, Gunny disserves a wing leader card, letting her guide her squadron into battle. The ability tries to reflect the kindness and caring nature between Vanguard members letting them pass stress and red tokens between each other, reducing their worries while flying. I understand that the rules currently only allow small base ships to be within a wing, however I feel because a U-Wing can still fit within a wing it can be a part or lead the wing if the Command upgrade allows it.

Lindon Javes:

The ex-Imperial turned Rebel. Lindon is a good leader and pilot for the New Republic, with a good understanding of Imperial tactics and leaders making him an asset to the Starhawk project. For Lindon's ability I decided to show his role as a leader as well as his skill as a pilot by letting him increase the initiative value of his pilot while giving them access to a better coordinate action if they need it.

Ardo Barodai:

As Vanguards personal fleet intelligence officer, Ardo is skilled at preparing his squadrons for their mission. His ability allows the necessary pilots in the squadron to acquire a lock on your enemy in turn 0 so they are ready for their coming mission.

Zerelda Sage:

The skilled mechanic for the Temperance, keeping all the pilot's ships in top shape and ready for combat, and with how my ship normally came back in the game, she must be good!

Her ability reflects her strengths repairing ships, letting her repair your allies shields either during her action step, or when another ship is already repairing their ship.

Grace:

Second in command of Vanguard Squad, Gracalia Vatara Sienar, or Grace, is a daughter of the noble family Sienar, the creators of the Tie series of starfighters. However, unlike the rest of her family, Grace had a conscience. She estranged herself and joined the Rebellion to do some good in the galaxy. I decided to show her past and family by letting her equip TIE only upgrades as she would know more about the designs than most, allowing her to help update and modify her X-Wing to incorporate these components. I also let her have a natural advantage of attacking Ties as again she knew how they are made and how they fly, letting her be more effective against them.

Prototype Piercing Torpedoes:

An upgrade within the game that I've tried to bring into X-Wing. In Squadrons, they are described as being a Torpedo that sacrifices raw damage for the ability to pierce a capital ships shields. To show this I decided on an ability that allows your shot to pass through your opponents shield, only damming them slightly though, making this amazing against aces.

Dedicated Astromech:

As there are no named astromech in Squadrons I decided a nice generic Rebellion/Resistance astromech would be a good idea. The Dedicated Astromech is the beloved little buddy we all want in our lives, being so close to their pilots that they think along the same lines as them. However, they will also be willing to sacrifice themselves to keep their friend

alive so they can fight another day.

This allows you to gain a calculate token along with your focus to improving both your attack and defence, however,your astromech can sacrifice its self by spending its calculate and adding an evade result to keep you alive a little longer.

Keo:

Keo Venzee is another example of why A-Wing pilots are the best! A kind-hearted and caring person, who can make a joke and lift morale even in the middle of battle. Keo was an ex-racer who left after someone saved them from crime syndicates that were coming after them because of their wins. Because of this person, they had their eyes opened to the struggles of the Rebellion and decided to join. Keo is also force-sensitive although they deny it to the other members of the squadron, pretending its just a hunch. However they make predictions and have feelings about the future, just like the Jedi of old. Because of this, I decided to make their ability around their sense, making it a weaker version of the sense force upgrade. However they cannot recover their force due to being untrained, so spend it wisely!

Ace Racer:

A card I originally designed for Kaz and the Fireball to let them use their love for speed to their advantage in battle. However, because Keo is also an ex-racer this card feels fitting. This upgrade lets them push their A-Wing to the limits, making it even harder to catch or evade them!

Flying Through Hell:

This upgrade is made for those who like to take the risk of flying straight into enemy fire and rewards them when they make it out the other side alive. Letting you get off a bonus attack that could make all the difference. This is especially good on ships like A-Wings as their agility and shield can normally keep them alive long enough, if their green dice are kind.

Goliath Missiles:

Another upgrade that I've taken from the game. The Goliath Missiles are heavy missiles that cause massive damage to all ships in proximity to the defender, however much slower and easier to evade or shoot down. Because of their massive payload even if they were shot down, the explosion would be enough to damage the defender. To show this I've made the upgrade require the defender to evade the missile even more than normal to evade the risk of more damage to both you and their friends.

Frisk:

Feresk Tssat or Frisk is a Trandoshan who didn't fully fit in with his clan, so as soon as he could he learned to fly and left them behind. Frisk then became a smuggler, getting in trouble across the galaxy before joining up with the Rebellion as they were the only people who'd take him. For his ability, I decided on letting him either detonate friendly bombs as if they where mines when a ship passes over them, or stop friendly mines exploding when a ship moves over them. This makes him and his friend's munitions be a lot more flexible, letting them trigger at exactly the right moment to do the most damage.

Flexible Bombardier:

This is a card allowing you to more easily escape the explosion of your bombs, as we all know, cool guys don't look at explosions! It also lets you use this action to outmanoeuvre your opponents and make otherwise less manoeuvrable bombers like the Y-Wing a little more manoeuvrable. It also pairs well with Keo's ability letting you know if the barrel roll is needed and in which direction!

Automatic Turret Targeting:

This upgrade is a design I've thought about making for a while for the Y-Wing and other turret users, as if you are the only pilot in a ship, making an attack with a weapon out of your front arc would be more guesswork than actual precision so you would need a computer making the shots for you. This upgrade shows you letting your computer make the shots, so you can concentrate on flying and making attacks with your forward weapons. However because of this, like with Automated Target Priority, you don't have as much of a choice of who you can attack.

L-M4 Seeker Mines:

Another upgrade from the Squadrons, the seeker mines are pretty self-explanatory. Instead of just floating in space, they actively seek out their target after being launched. To show this I let these relocate after dropping, allowing your mine place itself in the perfect position to damage the enemy you need dead.

The damage this mine can cause is less powerful than most devices, however more consistent. It also has the added benefit of being able to strain ships nearby as they strain their ships to avoid the explosion of the mine.

Vanguard Five:

Our character during the Squadrons Rebellion storyline, and the final member of Vanguard. Although we don't have any real story for the Fives background as they are our character, we can make up the story for ourselves! This makes them almost like a Generic pilot, but with more skill. To show this I think that it should have access to two talent slots(or 3 for the A-Wing) and an ability that allows you to increase the charge value of your talent upgrades if you have an open talent slot. This acts as your extra talent being your pilot ability, allowing your ship to be even more unique and flexible to your liking.

Conclusion:

Vanguard is simultaneously the polar opposite and the same as Alphabet, being a cohesive team that works well together with little effort. They are a perfect group and good friends, making their ships much more effective by using their advantages to compensate for any failures the other starfighters may have.

I've tried to show this with their pilot abilities and upgrades as much as possible, while also trying to make sure they would easily work individually, and not depend too much on each other's abilities.

For the upgrades I tried to take inspiration from the game's upgrades, however, a surprising amount of these were already in X-Wing in one form or another making choices a little more limited.

As normal feel free to use them in friendly games to show the rest of the X-Wing community that the New Republic is here to stay and the Empire will fall!

Watcher Leader Out.