X-Wing Wave 8

Gen Con 2015 is in full swing and, as is the custom, Fantasy Flight Games’ Inflight Report outlined several upcoming releases. Not least was X-Wing Wave 8 and some of the ships might look familiar to you if you’ve been paying attention.

VCX-100 Ghost

If you’ve been watching the latest Star Wars animation Rebels (of which unfortunately I have only seen the pilot) you’ll recognise a few ships in this article and first is the VCX-100 freighter known as Ghost. It serves as the ship for the group of titular rebels, being their home, transport and star fighter.

Lore wise, the VCX-100 is a relatively new ship, having been designed specifically for the new TV show. Heavily armed and heavily armoured, the Ghost has more than a few tricks up its sleeve, but not all of its TV show abilities have been transcribed into the game.

Looking at the stat cards we have 16 damage to soak up (6 shields and 10 hull) and a massive 4 red dice on the attack. However, just like the Imperial Decimator the VCX-100 has a agility of 0, which means you’re going to have to absorb that damage.

The 360 laser cannon doesn’t appear to have made the translation, instead allowing a turret upgrade. Neither do the ghosts stealth abilities (it would be nice to have a Rebel stealth ship) but the Phantom has. The Phantom is a second ship that can be docked on to the Ghost, increasing the Ghosts firing arc and allowing a second attack. This can be used either as a second ship (meaning you get two ships in one box) or boost the main ship.

The Inquisitor’s TIE Advanced

 The second ship from Star Wars Rebels is the Inquisitor’s TIE Advanced prototype. Apart from this being the first TIE Advanced, there isn’t actually much special about the ship apart from its distinctive appearance and from the small glimpse of the stat cards it looks that it’s not too much different from the existing TIE Advanced.

Of course that’s only half the story, and pilot skills and upgrades tell the full story. The only pilot fully revealed at this point is The Inquisitor, who treats all primary attacks as range 1!

Mist Hunter

The Mist Hunter is a modified G-1A Starfighter, that was employed by the Empire to hunt down escaping Rebels after the battle of Hoth. Owned by the bounty hunter Zuckuss, who looks like a giant fly, Mist Hunter’s basic stats aren’t much to write home about, but where this ship shines is going to be its upgrades.

For starters Mist hunter is comes with an illicit cloaking device, meaning that we might be seeing a lot more cloaked ships on the scene.

The interesting item though is the new Tractor Beam upgrade. We don’t know what the tractor beam will do yet, but I should imagine it’s going to limit movement.

The Punishing One

Last of all, and something we guessed at a while ago, is the Punishing One. Bounty Hunter Dengar’s ship is going to be a large base ship with a 360 degree fire arc with similar in stats to the Outrider.

The Punishing One’s cool feature is its astromech gunner, which allows you to take a second shot as a reaction to enemy fire.

Gozanti Class Cruiser

The final ship, and not technically in wave eight I might add, is another Star Wars Rebels ship, The Imperial Assault Carrier.

Otherwise known as the Gozanti Class Crusier, this ship carries a number of TIE Fighters under its hull and with its hyperdrive it means it can get those TIEs where they need to be fast.

This is going to be one of the larger ships that can only be used in 200 point or more games, but alos comes with a host of new TIE Pilots and crew.

Wave 9?

The big news from Gen Con was that Fantasy Flight Games are working on games and models to tie in with Star Wars The Force Awakens. We aren’t allowed to see ny of them yet as they are being kept closely under wraps but they apparently have already been manufactured so when the latest film hits the cinemas we can buy the latest ships.