X-Wing/Tactics/The First Order

"The Republic is no more. Your fleet are Rebel scum and war criminals. Tell your precious princess there will be no terms, there will be no surrender... You and your friends are doomed. We will wipe your filth from the galaxy!" -General Armitage Hux

Wir müssen Subtilität ausrotten.

The Sequel Trilogy Empire. Described by JJ Abrams as "Nazis who escaped to Argentina and formed a new Nazi movement", they reformed after the huge clusterfuck post-Return Of The Jedi where "every idiot with a Star Destroyer decided he was the new Emperor". They fight The Resistance for control of the former Empire. Lead by Kylo Ren (Han Solo and Leia's school shooter son) and his Empire-worshipping cult (an Imperial Cult, if you will) which holds Darth Vader as a martyr, and Captain Phasma who has the military branch of The New Order in her control. General Hux is the new Grand Moff Tarkin. Their supreme leader is an unknown Force-wielder named "Snoke". Where Sheev took over the galaxy as the culmination of a 1000 year plan and fostered a working environment of cold ruthlessness, the /pol/tards of the First Order have no such concept of subtlety.

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  The faction in a nutshell.

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  Can give orders at the direct expense of those following said orders.

Why play The First Order?

When the Empire bit the dust, the First Order rose up to try and rebuild it from the ashes, and they seemed to have learned a thing or two from the Empire, even if 'not building super weapons with glaring weak points' was not one of them.

Pros

• Tech upgrades
• A decent mix of moderately priced ships, base fighter is somewhere between a TIE/Ln and an X wing.
• Fanatical Talent
• More unique tech upgrades then the Resistance.

Cons

• Very few options.
• Few Force users with only one force pilot
• Tend to stress their own guys out

Ships

TIE/fo Fighter

A more advanced TIE Fighter, the TIE/Fo is essentially a hardware and electronics upgrade of the original TIE/ln, the TIE/fo is the frontline fighter of the First Order as of Force Awakens, though the ship Finn and Poe stole is a different version, the TIE/sf.

TIE/fos are definitely interesting. Compared to the standard TIE, they get one shield, a targeting computer, and a Tech Upgrade slot. The inclusion of shields is out of necessity, as the First Order simply can't afford to throw endless lives at an enemy like the Galactic Empire could.

• Fanatical tends to be a good choice on any TIE/fo with a Talent slot, moreso with Hull Upgrade if you're willing to pay the premium.

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  Whether the life support has improved, or if the red stripes still indicate 20 confirmed kills, isn't clear.

Pilots

• Epsilon Squadron Cadet: The cheapest TIE/fo. Barring the differences between the TIE and the TIE/fo, its just the Academy Pilot.
• Lieutenant Rivas: A pilot on Starkiller Base who discovered evidence that Phasma lowered the shields and got their superweapon destroyed. Realizing she'd been had, the totally badass villainess tried to arrest him and failed, tried to snipe him and failed, stole a TIE/sf and tried to shoot down his TIE/fo and failed. She only managed to eventually kill him because somebody else captured him first and she pitted two primitive races to war against each other just in case you didn't already hate her enough. Anyway, when a ship Range 1-2 gets a red or orange token, Rivas can lock onto that ship. Works well alongside an Upsilon, and ironically, Captain Phasma.
• Zeta Squadron Pilot: An Obsidian Squadron Pilot, as above.
• TN-3465: Cute female TIE pilot who was convinced by Mega-Bitch Phasma that Rivas was the one who lowered Starkiller Base's shields and helped to hunt him down. Got blammed after overhearing Phasma's conversation with Rivas and learned the truth. When a nearby enemy ship is defending, she can suffer a crit to change one of the attacker's results to a crit.
• Omega Squadron Ace: As Black Squadron Pilot, as above. First of the pilots who can take the Elite upgrades.
• Null: Epsilon Ace, Initiative 0, no elite upgrade. Unremarkable, right? Pilot ability: "While you are not damaged, treat your initiative value as 7." Keeping in mind that the /fo has a native shield, you're essentially Init 7 until you take two damage. Great for bothering aces and stripping evade tokens before your own aces have to do their jobs.
• Longshot: Zeta Ace. Rolls an extra attack die at Range 3.
• Muse: Epsilon Leader. The FO's token Reasonable Marine who can remove a stress token from a Range 0-1 friendly at the start of Engagement. No Talent slot, presumably as an anti-cheese safeguard. Great to have along if you have General Hux in your squad.
• Scorch: Described by FFG as an Angry Marine who works himself up into dealing more damage. If you aren't stressed, you can take a stress token to roll a bonus die.
• Static: Omega Ace. By spending a Focus Token and a Target Lock, you can change all your dice to crits. Situational, but devastating in the right situation. Anything that gives him additional attack dice, like Trick Shot, is very desirable. Having a squadmate with Coordinate allows him to set his ability up essentially every round.
• Commander Malarus: FO Enforcer from the Poe Dameron comic series that I still haven't read. Starts the game with two non-recurring Surge tokens. Her ability is like the Glitterstim of 1E; take a stress at the start of Engagement to do a line of coke and flip all eye results on all of her rolls for that phase.
• Midnight: Omega Leader, aka "Holy shit, Initiative 6 on a TIE Fighter pilot." He has the ability that any enemy ship he target locks cannot modify dice while defending against him or attacking him. No rerolls, no focus, no adding results, and no spending results. Great for pissing off anybody using Rey, Finn, Rose, and Heroic.
  • Targeting Synchronizer can be a lulzy addition.

TIE/sf Fighter

The aforementioned upgrade to the TIE/FO, the /sf is the "Special Forces" variant of the First Order's TIE, roughly their equivalent to an Advanced but mass produced. It has better shields, more advanced systems, and packs more firepower which is controlled by a back-seat gunner who can operates additional weapon systems. In the game, this is represented by the TIE/sf possessing a turret that can point forward or backward, much like the RZ-2 A-Wing. Unlike the RZ-2, the TIE/sf shoots missiles from its turret. It can also rotate its turret after any other action without getting stressed. Despite Poe's comments "it can really move", the /SF is quite sluggish for a TIE, having lower speed and some more red maneuvers. It has 2 Agility instead of 3, but two more Shields over the /fo. In general, combined with the fact that it has an ordnance slot (missiles), and Systems and Tech upgrades it acts a lot more like a rebel heavy fighter than a TIE, which put off some Imperial players.

• Special Forces Gunner is a TIE/sf-only upgrade. If your turret is facing forward, you get an extra attack die on your primary attack. If your turret is facing backward, you can shoot front and then back. It's a bit pricey, but well worth it. In fact, you should never field a TIE/sf without a Special Forces Gunner. They excel against swarms.
• Juke can be fun, especially when attacking multiple targets in a round.

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  Because Force hates Empire.

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  Get shot down with a friend! Enlist today!

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Pilots

• Zeta Squadron Survivor: A generic veteran of Starkiller Base.
• Omega Specialist: The talented generic.
• "Backdraft": His ability adds a critical result to primary attacks made from the rear, making them a very nasty customer with some unusual flying style.
• Captain Phasma: (H&A) The Sequel Trilogy's Boba Fett: Over-hyped villain dies without doing anything cool or interesting outside of comics. She puts herself above others to such a degree that when she defends, you are required to let somebody else take one of the uncancelled hit/crit results in her stead. She's actually somewhat useful at distributing damage so your TIE/fos can get their Fanatical on.
• "Quickdraw": Some kind of SF ace. Was confirmed to be a woman in several preview articles. Her ability means once per round when she loses a shield, she can perform a primary weapon attack. While this ability can only trigger at most 3-4 times (with Shield Upgrade) it can be a pretty potent double-tap with the right upgrades.
• Lieutenant LeHuse: (H&A) Kylo Ren's wingmate that stepped up to the plate and shellacked the Resistance command bridge with Leia and Ackbar on it in TLJ. Init 5 and can spend a friendly ship's target lock to reroll his attack dice. Give him Cluster Missiles and you can set it up where he gets rerolls on both attacks. Another fun combo is sticking Targeting Synchronizer on an ally and having LeHuse go to town with your missile of choice.

Upsilon Class Shuttle

Also known as the Emomobile or the Bat-Ren, Kylo Ren's Shuttle is the latest addition to the "Big triangle ship" collection. A close relative of the Lambda, the Upsilon has an upgrade in its statline, with four attack dice base, still one agility, and six each of shields and hull, making it tougher than the Lambda. It turns all Lambda actions white and tosses on a target lock for good measure. The only real disadvantage is the lack of a rear gun.

• The built-in Linked Battery lets you roll an extra attack die when firing from a secondary cannon.
• The shuttle has three crew slots.
  • General Hux is great alongside a swarm of TIE/fos with a lower initiative than the shuttle.
  • Captain Phasma can stress Range 0-1 enemies at the end of Engagement. Nice for clearing a path.
  • Snoke's giant holographic ass takes up two seats and charges you for both. He adds a Force point, which he can spend to flip an enemy's dial, regardless of range. He can do this twice if Kylo Ren is onboard.
  • Kylo can spend an action to stick I'll Show You the Dark Side on an enemy ship range 1-3.
• Two Tech slots.
  • Biohexacrypt Codes allow you to ignore range restrictions when coordinating or jamming a ship you've target locked. Pretty cool for jamming some poor chump across the map.

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  Possibly the best design from Force Awakens

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Pilots

• Starkiller Base Pilot: Initiative 2 generic.
• Petty Officer Thanisson: The flight controller in TFA who ratted on Finn and Poe for stealing a TIE/sf. Presumed dead when Finn asploded the control room. Once per round, when a ship in his firing arc range 0-2 gets a stress token, you can give them a tractor token.
  • Synergizes reasonably well with Captain Phasma.
• Lieutenant Dormitz: During setup, friendly ships can be placed anywhere in the play area in range 1-2 of you. Has some potential for combo with Hyperspace Tracking Data. Might be good for a turn 1 sucker punch list?
• Lieutenant Tavson: The shuttle pilot near the end of The Last Jedi who played things very safe regarding Kylo Ren's temper. When you suffer damage, you can spend a charge to perform an action, and has 2 recurring charges. Biohexacrypt Codes are a must. Can do some very weird things with the Coordinate and Hux, letting up to three ships boost all over the place during what is suppose to be your enemy's turn.
• Major Stridan: Friendly ships at range 2-3 count at range 0 or 1 for the purpose of your upgrade cards and actions. Makes the Upsilon into the ultimate support ship. Lets you coordinate at range 3, which makes Hux that much more effective.
• Captain Cardinal: An orphan rescued by the Imperial Remnant after the Battle of Jakku. As a result, he believed the First Order was a force for good. Later discovered that Phasma was the reason he was an orphan, tried to kill her, and got shanked for his trouble. He was primarily a Stormtrooper who trained cadets, but viewed fighting as a last resort, which all ties into his ability. He starts with two non-recurring surges, which are depleted when an enemy at range 0-3 is destroyed. While he still has at least 1 surge, lower initiative friendlies range 1-2 can reroll one eyeball result when attacking or defending.

TIE/vn Silencer

The next-generation hybrid fighter the combines aspects of the TIE Advanced, Interceptor, and Defender. It's shielded, zippy, and armed to the teeth. And expensive. A note of interest is that when the Silencer was first released in 1st Edition, FFG received faulty information from LucasFilms and the model was bigger than it should've been. It's not THAT much bigger than most small ships, but that didn't stop them from doubling the price tag. The 2nd Edition Silencer is supposed to be proportioned (and priced) correctly, so if you have a 1E and 2E model, you can have a Bigger Luke Theory meme squad. Honestly, it's just hilarious to have a bigger ship whipping around and flying circles around everyone else.

• Primed Thrusters can make for some pretty zany maneuvers (Like doing a K-Turn, then a boost, then a barrel roll) on any pilot, but is better delegated to lower Init pilots due to the cost.
• Deuterium Power Cells are a good upgrade to increase your survivability.

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  The Silencer looks like a pretty cushy ride, given that Kylo can just hop in and fly around in his normal clothes.

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  Kylo inherited many things from his grandfather, like his love of the aileron roll.

Pilots

• Sienar-Jaemus Engineer: Init 1 generic. The best use for him is the aforementioned cheap Primed Thrusters.
• "Rush": (H&A) (FLY BY NIGHT) Initiative 2 pilot with no backstory. When he's damaged, he is treated as Initiative 6, making him essentially an inverse of Null.
• "Avenger": Initiative 3 pilot with no backstory. When a friendly is destroyed, he can perform an action, even while stressed. This action can link into Autothrusters, unless he's stressed, unless he has Primed Thrusters. Works great with TIE/fo swarms, or as a First Order Elite in Epic games.
• First Order Test Pilot: Elite generic, Init 4.
• "Recoil": Initiative 4 pilot with no backstory. Seeing a pattern? When he's stressed, enemy ships range 0-1 count as being inside his bullseye arc. Obviously, he needs a bullseye-centric Talent to count for anything. Or Prockets.
• "Blackout": A test pilot whose Wookieepedia page is a biography of the card art. When shooting through an obstacle, the defender rolls 2 fewer defense dice, but since your shooting through an obstacle they get +1 so it's actually -1, kinda complicated wording. The autothrusters are perfect for getting him in a position to do this, and the Trick Shot Talent lets him increase the attack further. Blackout isn't just powerful, he's pure fun to fly.
• Kylo Ren: Our favorite school shooting, father-killing, and SWOLLEST My Chemical Romance fan! When defending, he can spend 1 Force to stick I'll Show You the Dark Side on the attacker, but that's not why you're bringing him here. Being the only Force-using Silencer pilot, Kylo has access to the Supernatural Reflexes Force Talent, which can combine with the Silencer's Autothrusters to give ludicrous maneuverability. If you get stressed from boosting and barrel rolling before maneuvering, the dial is generous with blues and can shed it very promptly. Finally, when attacking, Advanced Optics allows him to spend a Focus token on a blank result while his Force deals with the eyeballs, making it damn near impossible to not hit.

TIE/ba Interceptor

A neat little ship from a cartoon nobody watched. Pretty similar to the TIE/in Interceptor of old, but with a tweaked ship ability, trades a hull for two shields, and has a built-in targeting computer. Also, every single pilot has a Talent slot. Nice.

• After fully executing a maneuver, the Fine-Tuned Thrusters ability allows you to target lock or barrel roll in exchange for your choice of a strain or deplete token.

Pilots

• First Order Provocateur: Init 3 generic.
• "Ember":Init 4 OC. When attacking, if the defender is Range 0-1 of a damaged buddy, he can't spend focus or calculate. Not a bad choice to fly against formations.
• "Holo": Init 5 OC. At the start of Engagement, he must transfer 1 token, good or bad, to a friendly ship Range 0-2. A bit of a loose cannon, but he sets up some pretty interesting tactical choices.
• Major Vonreg: The one guy who actually canonically flew this thing. During System Phase, he can inflict (but not transfer) a strain or deplete token to an enemy ship in his bullseye. Given that his Initiative of 6 lets him react after everybody else and can double-reposition after moving, he should be able to utilize his ability pretty reliably. Afterburners and/or Pattern Analyzer help keep the heat up after red maneuvers.

Xi-Class Light Shuttle

The ship that was used to escape Snoke's flagship in The Last Jedi. It was also in some comics. Compared to its big brother, the Upsilon, it's dodgier, has a pretty similar maneuver dial, and pretty much everything else is stripped down to some degree, though it can still jam enemies stress-free. So, it's a decent pick for bringing just one crew into a fight. Interestingly, the pack contains illicit upgrades, a true oddity for the faction. Expect to see Contraband Cybernetics and Cloaking Devices on these things.

Star Wars Miniature Games Tactical Guides
X-Wing:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Resistance, The First Order, Scum & Villainy, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Armada:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Legion:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Grand Army of the Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems,