NEW X-WING STUFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!
Today I'll be looking at all the new cards revealed by the new FFG article released today for the new Phoenix Cell Squadron pack!
I've already made a pair of articles on the other cards we've seen for these upcoming squadron packs, if you want to give them a read first click here!
Now let's dive straight in with the new pilots revealed for the A-Wing!
Wedge Antilles:
First is Wedge, and to be honest I'm both excited and a little disappointed. Wedge keeps a very similar ability to his X-Wing ability, this makes him an amazing A-Wing pilot. It makes the normally weaker 2 dice attacks from the A-Wing much more potent against aces and I know this from personal experience as I flew RZ-2's only yesterday and struggled to scratch an Eta-2 until a hail-Mary last shot! Although I'm sad they didn't go with a completely different ability, I am glad they let it only work in his front arc. This forces you to decide between becoming stressed and keeping your enemy in your front arc for a more effective attack, or rotating your cannons with the new Vectored Cannons configuration and keeping your actions!
I'm also happy they reduced his initiative to show how he grew as a pilot over his time in the Rebellion, as when he first joined he was still only an Imperial cadet (admittedly a skilled one though!).
Hobbie:
Next is Derek Klivian, better known as Hobbie! I was sad to see that Hobbie had not made it into the second edition from 1.0, however there where already a LARGE number of unique X-Wing pilots in the game so it was all good! I'm very happy to see him make it into the game as an A-Wing pilot as he defected to the Rebellion along with Wedge during the events of Rebels and flew for Phoenix Cell. It's also nice to see his 1.0 ability return in second edition, and I can already see some fun combinations with him, the new Hera or Dutch to allow him to shed his red tokens with ease!
Shara Bay
Now we get onto the loooong waited for A-Wing pilot Shara Bay! Poe's mum has been needed in the game for far too long and I was disappointed she didn't appear sooner in 1.0 in an A-Wing form, but I'm happy to see her now. Her retained ability of adding a focus result is very nice especially alongside Hera like the FFG article pointed out, letting her deal out much more powerful primary attacks compared to most other A-Wings (except L'ulo, which is fitting as he was a sort of mentor to both her and her son).
Again I wish she had a different ability to her Arc ability but as it works so well with the A-Wing (letting it become even more of a heavy hitter) I will give them a pass here!
Ahsoka Tano:
Wow. I did not expect Ahsoka, but I'm so very happy to have her in the Rebellion again!
Although we didn't see her ever pilot an A-Wing, I can imagine her jumping in one to defend Rebels when the Empire turns up even though she was meant to be hiding herself during this time. Her ability is an advanced version of her Delta-7 ability, letting her use the force to let her allies perform extra actions. Although she requires more force to do this ability, the increase of range and her third force token make this amazing!
I'd also love that they've given her an extra force and higher initiative to show her growth, as her Delta-7 ability is from when she was only a young Padawan on her first mission to lead clones into battle, and now she is arguably one of the strongest force users in the Galaxy!
B6 Blade Wing Prototype:
Moving on to the upgrades lets start with the B6 again!
I said in my second article on the squad packs that I was sad that we didn't get a B6 that could work in standard play, however, they showed me up by making two B6's (are they reading these? :D). This standard B6 only gives you access to a gunner slot, however that is still wonderful for the B-Wing as pointed out in both my second article and the FFG article gaining access to the weapon systems officer is amazing for B-Wing. It lets you perform a solid torpedo attack spending the lock then perform a cannon attack with the B-Wing's S-foils.
Hopeful:
I am a massive fan of faction-specific upgrades, I love the feel it gives each faction, and I'm glad they're starting to add more and more of them to the game with all three of these packs. Hopeful feels very similar to TA-175 for the Separatists, letting you gain a benefit for the loss of a ship. This makes those VIP targets in your lists even harder to kill without your opponent regretting it. Imagine a swarm of A-Wings with both this and selflessness protecting a powerful unique pilot that would otherwise be torn into and destroyed in one round.
Sabine Wren:
Sabine's new gunner ability seems to be a little weird and not what I expected for her. I was expecting a more lock-based ability as she was shown to be in control of the targeting of the B6's main beam weapon in Rebels. However, this ability seems very useful to help you quickly strip stress from friendly ships, letting her act as a strong centre for a swarm.
It also could be very useful to remove strain tokens from A-Wings how to want to use the Starbird Slash ability but would end up in their enemies arc.
Phoenix Squadron:
Lastly, we have Phoenix Squadron itself and the last thing I needed for all my predictions from my first article to come true! I love how this finally lets us have a large base ship as a squadron leader, and also lets either the Attack or Sheathipede-class Shuttles become a part of your wing easily to show the Ghosts role in Phoenix Squadron.
I'd like to know if we're going to get confirmation on what ships can join these wings as like with the Jedi Commander upgrade there is no text telling us what we can and can't let join our wing.
Conclusions:
These FFG articles are horrible for me because it's becoming harder and harder to not want this pack! I feel that all these new pilots and upgrades will revive the poor old RZ-1 who I've felt has struggled from the beginning of the second edition, and I'm excited to compare how they fly against the RZ-2's that have shown them up for too long.
Overall I think this pack and all the packs coming soon will be a lovely breath\ of fresh air for all these ships, renewing them and making them even more relevant in the game going forwards!
Thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.
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