Hotshots & Aces II Rebel Overview

SWZ97 Hotshots & Aces II

“Looks like this is gonna be a really fun day, huh?” –Keo Venzeez™, Star Wars: Squadrons™

The Rebellion receives five additional pilots in the Hotshots and Aces II Reinforcement Pack for Star Wars™: X-Wing. From old favorites brought forward from the old edition to new pilots, they will add some new tactics and tricks to the faction.

One of the pilots, Keo Venzee, is Force sensitive, and brings a new twist to the Force mechanic: They have a single Force charge that doesn’t naturally regenerate. Instead, Venzee is an expert in sliding around the battlefield with their pilot ability. Keo must have no active Force charges to use their ability. If you managed to spend it on an earlier round, then you can perform a sideslip with any bank or turn, at the cost of making it more difficult, and recover your Force. As a result, Keo doesn’t like ending the turn with stress, since they will be performing a lot of white sideslips with 2 speed maneuvers. If Keo finds a way to spend their Force, they will be very annoying to pin down by an opponent. Keo wants to be in a squad that allows them to go off by themselves and slide around the field without other ships getting in their way.

Meanwhile, Corran Horn returns to the game in a T-65 X-wing. To best use Corran’s ability, you’ll want to target lock him with another friendly ship early in the game. Then, later, move that friendly lock from Corran to an opposing ship that Corran has locked and subsequently attacked. This will let you use lower initiative munition carriers to great effect, which has been difficult with low initiative torpedo carriers in the faction.

Another returning fan favorite is Tycho Celchu, who continues to operate under stressful situations. In this update, Tycho can still perform actions while he has 2 or fewer stress tokens. This means that, for example, he could do a Segnor’s Loop, gain a stress, focus, and then perform a red boost. He’ll have two stress at that point but is otherwise fine. Next turn, he can execute a white maneuver, and focus and boost again. At that point, he’ll have 3 stress and his ability turns off. But then do a blue maneuver and he’ll be back down to 2 stress. Note that this doesn’t let him execute red maneuvers while stressed, so don’t try to Segnor’s Loop twice in a row! Tycho loves to be in squads that bring debris clouds, as he’ll find them easier to fly over than other ships will.

Another fan favorite returning to X-Wing is Wes Janson. Much like his old version, Wes brings a long- range jam effect to the Rebel faction. This jam token is “free” in that you never have to spend an action to do it or do anything out of the ordinary. If there’s a ship with a torpedo pointed at a vulnerable wingmate, Wes can fire first and break the lock. He doesn’t even need to hit, so his S-foils can be closed, or he can be firing through an obstruction. Wes works best setting up shots for lower initiative friends, by forcing opponents to lose defensive tokens before harder-hitting shots follow. Wes also can use his ability after defending, which will force opponents to lose tokens they might otherwise want to save for a counterattack.

The final Rebel pilot is Davish “Pops” Krail. His ability is straightforward: most of the time you’ll use it to give himself a focus, and then take the target lock action. If you never get stressed, and never bump, he’s a powerhouse. However, your opponent does have some say in this, and his moves will be easy to predict. “Pops” can also, if you set up your turn correctly, give someone else a focus token. This lets the other ship use their actions for their own target lock or repositioning. “Pops” likes to team with ships that pack a punch, like Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles, for that reason.

That’s all of the Rebel 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!