Hotshots & Aces II Imperial Overview

SWZ97 Hotshots & Aces II

You do not know what it takes to win a war, but I do.” –Grand Moff Tarkin™, Star Wars: The Clone Wars™

The Empire gets five additional pilots in the Hotshots and Aces II Reinforcements Pack for Star Wars™: X-Wing™. From new TIE/ Fighter pilots up to high initiative aces and Force users, these pilots will fill a variety of roles in your Imperial squads.

Magna Tolvan and Yrica Quell are two TIE/ln Fighter pilots that add additional pilot abilities and choices to your TIE swarms. Yrica gains a free target lock on a ship in her bullseye when she completes a maneuver. With her lower initiative, she can often line up a bullseye before a higher initiative ace moves, and then focus. Often, lowly TIE fighters can be ignored, but a shot with both lock and focus, especially if it’s at range one, is much more likely to hit. Yrica can draw fire from your more expensive aces this way. She can also get a free target lock and then perform a scenario action, giving her a modified shot while advancing your win conditions.

Magna is specialized in benefiting from stress. After performing a Koiogran turn or flying through a debris cloud, she gets double actions! One from gaining the stress token, and another during her Perform Action step. After gaining stress, she can also perform turns and get actions, when most TIE Fighters are stuck doing a 2 bank or flying straight. Many opponents will be surprised when the stressed TIE Fighter executes a 1 turn and then barrel rolls into a blocking position. When you fly Magna, you’ll want to bring debris clouds and execute stressful maneuvers as often as possible.

Second Sister joins the fight in a TIE/in Interceptor. Much like the other Dark Side Force users, she needs to spend multiple Force charges to use her ability, meaning she can’t save any for defense. Second Sister punishes the weak: any ship that she hits can end up taking all its damage as critical damage! We’ve all seen the fun damage chains you can get with Fuel Leak into another critical. Obviously, you want to use the ability after her target has run out of shields. Second Sister likes not being the most obvious target on the field, so pair her up with other ships that shoot before her to strip shields, and hopefully draw fire away from her so she can fully use her force. She pairs well with Darth Vader, Soontir Fel, or other powerful aces in the faction.

Juno Eclipse returns from previous editions of the game. In her new form, she’s a high initiative ace that can link a red boost to any action she takes. This includes scenario actions or fixing a critical effect. Most often, you’ll use her ability to target lock and boost into a closer range band. Juno is healthy and agile, so she can take some attacks from opposing ships while she lines up her shot. Just make sure to avoid getting blocked! Juno can run in any list as a mid-tier ace. She can be an excellent flanker to be an Outmaneuvering thorn in your opponent’s side. They can’t just have one ship pivot to destroy her and will have to commit multiple ships to focus on getting rid of Juno.

The final ship in the pack for Imperials is Flight Leader Ubbel. Piloting a TIE/rb Heavy, these ships have been struggling some to find a place in Imperial squads. Ubbel looks to fix that. With a high initiative and a great ability, Ubbel is a great piece to put in the middle of unshielded Imperial fodder. If you damage Ubbel? Ubbel shoots you back. If you damage the TIEs around Ubbel? Ubbel shoots you back. You don’t need to do a primary bonus attack, so add a Synced Laser Cannon to Ubbel. This Onyx Leader will fall to concentrated fire, but Ubbel will go out swinging. In a scenario where an opposing Wedge lines up to finally finish Ubbel off, don’t forget that Ubbel still gets the bonus shot after being destroyed.

Remember you only get one bonus attack per turn, so use it wisely! Ubbel works best with a swarm of TIEs, but really any ship without shields will do. If you aren’t taking damage, Ubbel doesn’t activate, but not taking damage often leads to victory anyway.

That’s all of the Imperial pilots coming in the Hotshots and Aces II Reinforcements Pack! Look for it at your local game store in November. Pre-order your copy at your local game store or through the webstore today!