X-Wing: The M12-L Kimogila Fighter and the new Bullseye Firing Arc Mechanic (Wave XII (12))

In FFG’s latest article, “Bullseye!,” we finally get to see what the bullseye firing arc is all about.  Originally spoiled in early August at a Gen Con panel and then later teased on August 21, 2017 in FFG’s article “Bring on the Alpha Strike,” we now have a full preview of the Kimogila Fighter.  As always, I form my own reaction, scour the internet for the community’s reaction, and then smash it all together with a bit of humor for your information and enjoyment.  Let’s take a look!

 

WHAT’S NEW?

Built into the Kimogila chassis is the bullseye firing arc.  It’s a very simple yet powerful ability.  Veteran players should notice the similarities between the bullseye firing arc and the powerful pilot abilities of Old Teroch, Omega Leader, and/or Carnor Jax.

Unfortunately, what they didn’t tell us (#1) is how you measure the arc.  I’m hoping that common sense prevails here and we just stick the range ruler or a straight template into the front guides or “nubs” of the ship’s base.  The sizing appears to be the same.

Hopefully, the introduction of this new mechanic will both expand future design space as well as introduce “Aces” expansion packs that include something more than a title.  It would be neat if they could give some of the older, less-used ships a bullseye firing arc via new base tiles.

 

TITLE

The title is cheap and has synergy with the bullseye firing arc.  Nothing too exciting here.  It reminds me of similarly-priced upgrades like Rebel Captive and Kylo Ren’s Shuttle.  Hitting an attacking ship with a stress token should make it easier to figure out where they are going next round.  In turn, this makes it easier for you to line up your bullseye firing arc and start the process all over again.

 

PILOTS

For starters, there are two non-unique pilots, Cartel Brute and Cartel Something-That-Starts-With-E-That-Is-Probably-Enforcer.  We can see from the August article that the PS5 guy has an EPT, but apparently the name and cost of this guy was too much to ask for in this November article (#2).  I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of the year.  I sure hope that his name is Cartel Enforcer, because then you’ll be able to put the Enforcer title on a Cartel Enforcer.  And that’s dumb.

As mentioned in my Gunboat article, I am in Radio TCX‘s corner of trying to figure out how many of these can be crammed into one squad.  At a minimum of 22 points each, the answer is 4!

A squad of 4 Kimogilas comes in at 88 points, leaving you with 12 points to kit them out or to add a fifth ship: a Binayre Pirate.  A “4KZ” list might not actually be too bad.  That’s a lot of health.  Also, the more bullseye arcs you have pointed in the direction of something, the more likely it is that the target is at least in one of the arcs.  Just don’t cross the streams.

I recommend keeping the low PS/1 green die non-uniques cheap and leveraging their primary weapon value of 3 to obtain the free critical hit result from Guidance Chips when firing a missle or torpedo.

Take note that it is difficult to acquire a target lock on the opening engagement due to the non-uniques’ low PS, so I recommend using XX-23 Thread Tracers on the PS3 or Deadeye on the PS5 to fire the initial volley with your focus token instead.  If the PS5 guy is between 23-24 points, you can fit 3 in a list equipped with Deadeye, Guidance Chips, and your choice of missles.

Next up is the lesser ace, Dalan Oberos.  Despite being a relatively unknown bounty hunter who made his X-Wing TMG debut like four seconds ago in the Guns for Hire expansion pack, this guy now has more X-Wing TMG appearances than some main movie characters.  Originally piloting a Starviper, he must have either made enough dough to purchase a second ship or, err, found this one.  Whichever way he did it, he also increased his pilot skill (“PS”) from 6 to 7.  Equipping Dalan with Veteran Instincts (“VI”) brings him up to a respectable PS9.

An interesting build I came up with was Dalan with Deadeye and R4 Agromech.  He can launch his missles on the opening engagement with the focus token, apply the Harpooned! condition from Harpoon Missles, and acquire a free target lock from the astromech.  On the next turn, he can 4K behind the target and launch a second volley with the target lock that he obtained on the previous turn.

Finally, the top ace of the expansion is Torani Kulda.  Torani can be brought up to a commanding PS10 if you fill the elite pilot talent (“EPT”) upgrade slot with VI.  A combination of high pilot skill and a repositioning action should go a long way in lining up those bullseye shots.

Torani also has a pretty interesting ability, but it’s mostly a support ability that aids your other ships:

• Torani shoots.  If the the target is in the bullseye firing arc, the target cannot spend evade or focus tokens to modify its defense dice/results.
• After the shot, Torani’s ability kicks in and every ship in the bullseye arc, including the target, must choose to suffer 1 damage or remove its tokens.
• Now, the remainder of your squad can shoot at tokenless targets

This ability would have been pretty bad on a ship with low PS, because all tokens would have been spent by the time Torani gets to shoot.  Also, there’s nothing that prevents your opponent from discarding “all” 0 of its tokens instead of the damage, so don’t think you can score an extra point of damage on a tokenless target.  They can can choose to discard all of their tokens, even if there are none.

Finally, the damage dealt by Torani’s pilot ability isn’t a part of the “attack,” so it doesn’t trigger effects that trigger off of attacks.  That means it does trigger eveyone’s new favorite Kihraxz pilot, Captain Jostero.

 

DIAL

There isn’t much to talk about here.  Again, the recent article omits critical information that we received just two weeks prior in the Gunboat article: the Kimogila’s dial (#3).  In the teaser article, we were told that “[t]he M12-L Kimogila fighter has a hard time turning sharply, especially in close-quarters.”  You can say that again.  The latest article has confirmed what many suspected: “…all of the Kimogila’s Speed ‘1’ and ‘2’ turns are red…”  Well, that’s what you get for creating cheap and efficient upgrades like Unhinged Astromech.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it has any 3-speed maneuvers at all.

 

UPGRADES

Finally, the Kimogila fighter comes with a new Illicit upgrade: Contraband Cybernetics.  Piling up stress tokens is never good, but it’s cheap and popping this can get you out of a jam.  Try equipping it for free on a Vaksai-equipped Kihraxz or shuffling the stress off of 4-LOM and onto an opposing ship.

The expansion also includes the recently discussed Saturation Salvo and the familiar faces of Plasma Torpedoes and Dead Man’s Switch.  What we didn’t get (#4) were previews of two upgrades that aren’t contained in any other expansion: the 0-cost R5-TK salvaged astromech and Scrambler Missles.  As the game’s second 0-cost salvaged astromech, “REKT” could have an impact on the Y-Wing and Scurrg ships.

 

WRAP UP

Overall, despite FFG’s best efforts to preview-but-not-preview the Kimogila, it’s looking like a lazy camel that’s merely hauling a sweet new mechanic.  We’ll just have to wait until Christmas to find out if it’s worth flying these things.  For those keeping track at home, we still don’t have answers to the following:

• #1 How to measure the bullseye firing arc
• #2 The cost of Cartel-Probably-Enforcer
• #3 The dial
• #4 R3-TK and Scrambler Missles

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