Star Wars: X-Wing TIE Reaper Expansion Pack Preview

Fantasy Flight Games have announced details of their new TIE Reaper Expansion Pack for Star Wars: X-Wing miniature game.  This new pack will be released at the end of May and available to pre-order now from your local game shop and online at Amazon.

This expansion pack includes a highly-detailed TIE reaper miniature, along with upgrade cards and tokens.

Here are the details:

In many ways, the TIE reaper eschews many of the principles that have become hallmarks of Imperial fighter squadrons. Rather than relying on speed and maneuverability like so many of its TIE counterparts, the Reaper is a bulky fighter that, with only one agility, isn’t going to be avoiding many of the shots directed its way. Instead, the ship relies on its two shields, six hull, and unique action bar to survive the heavy enemy fire it will undoubtedly attract.

Despite its heavy hull, the TIE reaper can take the evade action, giving it a surprising amount of evasive power for a ship its size. Even more unusual is the Reaper’s ability to take the jam action. Not only does becoming jammed force an enemy ship to remove one of its focus, evade, or blue target lock tokens, the pilots included in the TIE Reaper Expansion Pack take full advantage of this ability. Captain Feroph, for example, gets a defensive bonus while jamming, adding an evade result when attacked by a jammed ship.

Additionally, a pilot such as Major Vermeil can also take advantage of the Reaper’s jamming capabilities to enhance their attacks. If Major Vermeil can use jam to remove the last focus or evade token from an enemy ship, he can change a blank or focus result to a hit when attacking that ship later in the round. But this isn’t the only way for you to use Vermeil’s ability. He can also be used as a Decoy, swapping pilot skills with someone like a Scarif Base Pilot, for example. Dramatically reducing his pilot skill for the Combat phase gives him a good chance of shooting last, hopefully after all your opponent’s focus and evade tokens have been spent.

The TIE reaper’s ability to jam certainly sets it apart from other ships, but that’s not the only thing that makes it special. Its unique maneuver dial also makes it capable of some unique flight patterns. With speed-one Segnor’s Loops and the ability to remain stationary, the Reaper is a perfect candidate to use its two crew slots to be Emperor Palpatine’s personal transport.

Additionally, if you decide to equip it with Advanced Ailerons, the Reaper becomes even more maneuverable. This free title allows you to treat your Reaper’s speed-three bank maneuvers as white maneuvers, letting it go even further without becoming stressed. However, this title also means that you must execute a speed-one forward or bank maneuver before you reveal your dial, so long as you’re not stressed. If you have a TIE reaper piloted by “Vizier” in your squadron, this can become a boon, with “Vizier” granting a focus or an evade token to the ship equipped with Advanced Ailerons.

While its unique capabilities certainly make the TIE reaper a unique ship, it is most well known as a transport. Its two crew upgrade slots lend it a good deal of customizability, opening up all sorts of possibilities for creative squad-building. One of the Reaper’s crew slots could be filled by a Tactical Officer, adding another rarely-seen icon to its action bar. Having a Tactical Officer on a Reaper gives it the Coordinate action, allowing the Reaper to choose a another friendly ship at Range 1-2 to perform a free action. If that ship is a TIE reaper with an ISB slicer aboard, it can then jam two ships instead of one.

In addition to rank-and-file crew members, the TIE reaper is also capable of carrying some of the Imperial elite such as Director Krennic. Always at the forefront of new Imperial weapons technology, Director Krennic can enhance two ships at once by assigning the Optimized Prototype condition to a friendly Imperial ship with three or fewer shields at the beginning of the game. Not only does this increase the target’s shield value, it allows you to spend one die result to remove a shield from the defender. What’s more, after the ship equipped with Optimized Prototype attacks with its primary weapon, if the ship with Director Krennic is at Range 1-2, it can acquire a free target lock on the defender.

Will you be adding this to your collection?