A Preview of the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack for X-Wing (TM)

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.

A 360-degree view of the YT-2400 light freighter.

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.

The above diagram illustrates the amount of forward and lateral movement the TIE interceptor can derive from a barrel roll.

By contrast, when the YT-2400 performs a barrel roll, the edge of its firing arc moves laterally one full range increment and can move nearly half a range increment forward.

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.

Flying the YT-2400 in Your Rebel Squad

Its tremendous maneuverability and its ability to fire a Heavy Laser Cannon in a 360-degree arc can make the YT-2400 a valuable addition to any Rebel squadron, but you’ll still need someone to pilot it.

With a pilot skill value of “7,” Dash Rendar is the most elite of the ship’s pilots, as well as its most notorious. His high pilot skill value allows him to move after most of his enemies will have already activated, and his unique pilot ability allows you him to fly right at an asteroid before taking a barrel roll to get away from it and line up a shot.

Moreover, Dash is the only pilot who can voluntarily barrel roll onto one of the new debris cloud tokens. Normally, you can’t perform a barrel roll if it would cause you to overlap an obstacle, but Dash’s unique ability allows him to ignore that rule, as well as the negative consequences pilots typically suffer for entering a debris cloud:

• He ignores the stress token the debris cloud normally assigns.
• He doesn’t need to roll an attack die. Normally, a player rolls one attack die and suffers one critical damage on a  result.

Even more importantly, a ship that is overlapping a debris cloud token during the Combat phase may still perform attacks, meaning that if Dash finds himself outnumbered and flies into a debris cloud to take advantage of the cover it provides, he’ll still be able to retaliate.

Like Dash, “Leebo” appears as both a pilot and as a crew member. A Cybot Galactica LE series repair droid, the pilot version of “Leebo” helps to ensure that your ship avoids the nastiest of critical hits. As a crew member, “Leebo” allows his ship to perform a free boost action in exchange for suffering one ion token. This is the first “ion cost” introduced on an upgrade, but at just two squad points, crew “Leebo” is half the price of an Engine Upgrade and frees up the slot for another modification, like Experimental Interface or Counter-measures, both of which also appear in the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack.

The third and final unique pilot in the YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack is Eaden Vrill, Dash Rendar’s former Nautolan co-pilot, and he rolls an extra die whenever he makes a primary weapon attack against a stressed opponent. Naturally, if you’re looking to include Eaden Vrill in your squad, you’ll want to add some means of stressing your opponents. You could wait for your opponent to Push the Limit or perform a Koiogran-turn, but it’s more likely than not that if you’re flying with Eaden Vrill, you’ll also want to equip some of your ships with Flechette Torpedoes.

Blast into Action!

Combined with its barrel roll, turret weapon, and upgrades, the YT-2400’s pilots look to make an immediate impact upon the game’s combats as soon as they drop out of hyperspace.

Keep your eyes open. The YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack is coming soon. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!

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