X-Wing: YT-2400 Freighter Expansion

Weitere Infos zum neuen Schiff der Rebellen.

In the fifth wave of X-Wing™ expansions, the Rebellion gains access to a new large-base starship, the YT-2400. This fast and resilient light freighter comes with thirteen standard weapon emplacement points, making it an extremely customizable vessel, and an attractive option for smugglers, mercenaries, and others looking to fly a heavily armed “transport.”

In our earlier previews of the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack, we’ve looked at two of its upgrades, Stay on Target and Dash Rendar. Designed by the 2013 and 2012 World Champions, respectively, these upgrades grant your starships greater freedom to race across the battlefield and unleash fire upon enemy ships from advantageous positions.

In addition to these upgrades and the Dash Rendar ship card, which also permits novel movement in the Activation phase, the YT-2400 comes with the barrel roll action, making it the first large ship able to perform this action without an upgrade. Accordingly, in today’s preview, as we take a closer look at this versatile and resilient light freighter, we will focus on what its maneuverability may soon add to your games of X-Wing.

Das Schiff kann eine Fassrolle durchführen, die aber etwas anders abgehandelt wird als üblich:

Swerving Through Space

While several of the galaxy’s more talented pilots, like Han Solo, were already able to wrench their large-base starships through barrel rolls thanks to the elite pilot talent, Expert Handling, the YT-2400 makes the action available to all its pilots. Accordingly, the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack introduces the game’s first official rules for using the barrel roll maneuver with large-base ships.

When you perform a barrel roll with a large-base starship, instead of placing the narrow edge of the straight “1” template alongside it, you must line up the template’s long edge against the edge of your ship’s base.

This rule is also reflected in the game’s official FAQ (pdf, 6.5 MB), and while it limits the amount of forward, backward, and lateral movement that a barrel roll grants your large ships, you’ll find that the barrel roll continues to provide an extremely advantageous freedom of movement, especially when paired with pilots whose high pilot skill values allow them to barrel roll out of enemy firing arcs.

In fact, even with this official rule, the YT-2400 and other large-base ships continue to benefit more from the barrel roll – based upon total distance covered – than smaller fighters.

Außerdem gibt es neue Karten zu sehen, darunter drei Piloten:

Interessant könnte die Lone Wolf Karte sein:

While there are a number of advantages inherent to a barrel roll, several upgrades from the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack further enhance the action’s utility. For starters, Lone Wolf rewards you for distancing yourself from other friendly ships.

“When attacking or defending, if there are no friendly ships at Range 1–2, you may reroll 1 of your blank results.”

For a mere two squad building points, this elite pilot talent offers one free die reroll every time you attack or defend while you keep your distance from allied ships. Of course, a timely barrel roll or two can help you quickly get into position to activate this card’s effects, even if you begin by flying in formation earlier in the game.

Then, it’s worth noting that if one of your most powerful starships is flying all by itself, it’s likely to become a target. Once again, here, the barrel roll action comes in handy. After you see where your opponent’s starfighters are ending their maneuvers, you can roll out of their firing arcs, or even if you can’t roll out of their firing arcs, you may be able to roll to increase the range between your ships. And if you’re able to maintain your distance, other options become available to you.

The Outrider Title allows you to equip a turret-mounted cannon like the Heavy Laser Cannon. However, when you upgrade your YT-2400 with the Outrider Title, it can no longer perform primary weapon attacks, and maintaining at least one range increment between you and your foes becomes absolutely critical. Again, this is another situation in which the barrel roll shines.

X-Wing ist unter anderem bei unserem Partner Fantasy Warehouse erhältlich.

Der deutschen Vertrieb der Fantasy Flight Produkte liegt bei Heidelberger.

Quelle: Fantasy Flight Games