YT-2400 Light Freighter Preview

SWZ103 YT-2400 Light Freighter

The YT-2400 expansion brings the updated Dash Rendar, “Leebo”, and the Outrider back to standard play!  Today, we’ll preview the new cards in the expansion and supply some suggestions about the kinds of lists that show off the capabilities of the YT-2400 and support it.

Starting with the Standard Loadout cards, players will notice that both the Scum and Rebel factions can include Dash or “Leebo” in their squads.  This is the only way to use Dash or “Leebo” in the Scum faction, as the regular ship card is locked to the Rebel faction.  The new YT-2400 is focused on long range combat and is weaker in close range engagements.  At range 0, it only rolls two attack dice!  It rolls three attack dice at ranges 1 and 2 but will prefer to shoot at range 3 with four attack dice.  Against ships without ways to modify their focus results, the Outrider title also will negate an evade by turning it into a focus when the shot is obstructed by an obstacle.  One particularly effective tactic with the YT-2400 is to keep its arcs focused to the sides and tries to pick off stragglers and ships running from the rest of your squad.

That doesn’t mean the Outrider can be approached safely from the front!  Their Seeker missiles, with a target lock and the ability to modify focus results baked into the missile itself, will often supply maximum hits against anyone looking to approach from that direction.  The ship also has a great dial. Players have to ask themselves every turn “Is Dash going 4 forward, or doing a 1 turn and barrel rolling?”. Chasing this ship is no simple task.

Beyond the changes to the ship itself, the two pilots are very different.  Dash is the more powerful (and expensive) pilot, with a high initiative, an ability to repair cards and still take a normal action, and abilities to take good tokens from destroyed friendly ships or pass off bad tokens to his “friends”.  With his pilot ability, Dash wants to avoid asteroids, but can fly through debris clouds or gas clouds with minimal setbacks, as long another friendly ship is nearby.  Another fun thing to remember with Dash is that when he takes a Direct Hit, it triggers “Leebo”. You can do a surprise barrel roll in the middle of combat!

Speaking of “Leebo”, if you can’t fit Dash in your squad, this droid can bring considerable value as a sniper.  He’s going to be easier to track down, due to his low initiative, but if you can find ways to make it difficult to approach him, “Leebo” can be deadlier than Dash.  “Leebo” almost always wants to perform the calculate action to get two tokens. Even if you don’t need both, he gets to convert one to a target lock at the end of the turn.  This sets “Leebo” up for strong double modified shots on subsequent turns, and makes him a threat that is not easily ignored.

The Rebellion gets access to Dash and “Leebo’s” customizable ship cards, which have different pilot abilities than the Standard Loadouts.  Dash’s Pilot ability lets him ignor obstacles during the engagement phase.  Usually, obstacles stop ships from firing, but not Dash.  He will ignore any obstruction bonus that the obstacle he’s overlapping would give to his target while benefitting from it on any return fire.  Note that the shot is still “obstructed by an obstacle” for Outrider’s bonus, but his target just doesn’t get the bonus die.  This lets Dash make more risky moves, knowing that nothing will stop him from shooting.  You might want to equip him with things like Ablative Plating and Trick Shot if you plan on using obstacles like this.

“Leebo’s” pilot ability makes him very tanky.  Much like any other YT-2400, he wants to stay at range.  Unlike Dash, he can’t use obstacles offensively, so you’ll want to use upgrades like Notorious or Rigged Cargo Chute on him to discourage opponents engaging him in the clear lanes he looks for.  Hopeful is also great on “Leebo”, as he has no way of natively doing either action it gives access to. “Leebo” has great staying power and can weather long games and still be effective in the final turns.

With the vast array of good Rebel crew and gunners, and access to illicits, the YT-2400 will has a lot of options in spending its loadout value!  If you want to center your squad around this ship, you’ll want to plan who is coming along to the fight carefully.  The YT-2400 is at its weakest when cornered, so one option is to play with ships that can defend it well.  In both the Rebel and Scum case, Fang Fighters are a good option for this strategy.  The YT-2400 doesn’t like ships to be at range 1 of it, and Fearless Fangs love having ships approach very close.  So, you can present your opponent with a difficult decision – Keep at range to negate Concordia Faceoff, and face 4-die offense from the Outrider, or come in close to enter the blind spot, and all the Fang abilities turn on!

Another option is to fill the board in between the YT-2400 and its opponents with ships that demand attention themselves.  For example, Doctor Aphra is happy to reinforce and absorb shots while standing in between Dash and your opponent.  She also has an ability to assign stress tokens to force your opponent to slow down and let Dash get away.  Bombers like YWings and ships with ion weapons can also control opposing approaches and leave them at the Outrider’s mercy.

The YT-2400 is a revamped version of a fan favorite, with interesting and unique abilities and restrictions.  Be careful not to get caught in a corner with it!

Order the YT-2400 Light Freighter Expansion Pack on the webstore or at your local game store today!