A Shadow Across the Galaxy
X-Wing™ Wave X Is Now Available
"Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms. The Sith. The Empire. Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us."
–Maz Kanata
The darkness has taken many forms. So has the light. And the battles between them have shaped the galaxy. Now a new shadow spreads across the stars, and the coming battles will once again determine the fates of countless lives…
All five X-Wing™ Wave X starship expansions are now available at retailers throughout the United States. Availability in other regions may vary.
The U-wing Expansion Pack and TIE Striker Expansion Pack have been in stores since just before the release of Rogue One, yet players are still discovering all the new tactics that their ships and upgrades can bring to the table. Racing full-tilt across the battlefield with Adaptive Ailerons . Intercepting your opponent's ships with the help of the Cassian Andor crew upgrade. Keeping your pilots cool and avoiding stress while relying upon their Expertise to shine in the heat of battle.
Still, for all that you can do with the U-wing Expansion Pack and TIE Striker Expansion Pack, they comprise only a fraction of Wave X and all that it represents for the direction of the game.
Now that the rest of Wave X is available, how will you use its ships and upgrades in your ongoing battles for the fate of the galaxy? Will your fling your opponent's fighters to and fro with your quadjumpers and their Spacetug Tractor Arrays ? Will you call upon Captain Rex to suppress enemy fire? Will you sneak Ahsoka Tano behind enemy lines in a Captured TIE ? Or will you oversee the rise of the First Order, sending Kylo Ren and General Hux into battle aboard an Upsilon-class shuttle?
Rise of the First Order
X-Wing is more than a game about miniature plastic ships. It's about entering the Star Wars universe and imagining yourself in the cockpit of one of its most powerful starfighters, flying to battle with your wingmates.
Likewise, Wave X is about more than its ships and upgrade cards. For starters, the Upsilon-class Shuttle Expansion Pack, Sabine's TIE Fighter Expansion Pack, and Quadjumper Expansion Pack all come with new condition cards that introduce powerful new effects—as well as the potential for dramatic new sequences of events. Poe Dameron may fire a shot at Kylo Ren's shuttle, only to be blinded by the power of the dark side. Or Captain Rex may risk his life laying down the Suppressive Fire that buys the Ghost and her crew enough time to finish off The Inquisitor and a trio of Imperial TIEs.
Beyond this, as a number of players have pointed out, Wave X brings the First Order to a new level of maturity. We can now play as the First Order and enjoy a variety of different squad builds because the Upsilon-class shuttle and the new Wave X upgrades permit a wide range of interactions with the TIE/fo and Special Forces TIE fighter. As a First Order player, you can run a swarm of TIE/fo fighters, a trio of powerful Special Forces TIE fighters, or a mix of fighters. Or you can use your Upsilon-class shuttle and First Order officers to coordinate the firepower of your other First Order ships, such as in the squad below.
- Kylo Ren with Adaptability , Fire-Control System , General Hux, Operations Specialist , and Targeting Synchronizer
- "Omega Ace" with Swarm Leader
- Epsilon Squadron Pilot
- Epsilon Squadron Pilot
Total Squad Points: 100
In this First Order-only squad, both Kylo Ren and "Omega Ace" are heavy hitters. Kylo Ren's Upsilon-class shuttle features a primary weapon of four dice that you can modify with Fire-Control System and General Hux's Fanatical Devotion , but he's not even the squad's primary threat—at least not in the early game.
While "Omega Ace" can siphon evade tokens from your Epsilon Squadron Pilots, he can make use of Swarm Leader to fire four dice—or five at Range "1"—all of which he can convert to critical hits simply by spending a focus and using the shuttle's Targeting Synchronizer to make use of Kylo Ren's target lock.
Of course, the real beauty of this list is that it's now just one of many First Order lists you can put together now that the Upsilon-class Shuttle Expansion Pack adds new dimensions to the faction's TIE/fo and Special Forces TIE fighters.
Learn More from Our Previews
What else does Wave X have to offer? A lot. Its starship expansions carry us as far forward as The Force Awakens, but they also stretch back to the era of Star Wars Rebels and the birth of the Rebel Alliance. We have ships from Rogue One and starship battles that would fit naturally into any age of the Star Wars universe.
- We explored the surprising addition of a TIE fighter to the Rebel Alliance, as well as all the surprising ways it can be outfitted, in "Suppressive Fire," our preview of the Sabine's TIE Fighter Expansion Pack.
- General Hux and his Fanatical Devotion to the First Order featured prominently in our preview of the Upsilon-class Shuttle Expansion Pack, "Fanatical Devotion."
- In "Fly Backward," we demonstrated a few of the many ways the Scum faction might use the quadjumper to throw its enemies into disarray.
- In "Valuable Intel," we caught up with Jyn Erso , Cassian Andor, and the other heroes from Rogue One that make their X-Wing debut with the U-wing Expansion Pack.
- The TIE Striker and its Adaptive Ailerons encourage all manner of high-speed hijinks, and we looked at some of them in our preview, "A Swift and Vigilant Defense," which also took a closer look at how the expansion's different aces all fly the ship differently.
- Finally, in "BoShek," three-time X-Wing World Champion Paul Heaver offered an introduction to the BoShek crew upgrade featured in the Quadjumper Expansion Pack.
Still, for all we've dug into these expansions and what they might have to offer, we're certain there's far more yet to be discovered. What will these expansions add to your casual games? How might they factor into the X-Wing tournament scene? Which of the new ships and upgrades best capture the spirit of the Star Wars universe? You can look through our community forums to see how other players have approached these questions, or you can simply decide for yourself by picking up the new expansions and flying their ships to battle.
Let Nothing Stand in Your Way
"Show me again, the power of the darkness, and I will let nothing stand in our way. Show me, Grandfather, and I will finish what you started."
–Kylo Ren
All five X-Wing Wave X starship expansions are now available at retailers. Let nothing stand between you and your next X-Wing battles. Pick up your copies today!