The HWK-290 is one of four “Wave 3” expansion sets for the X-Wing miniatures game. There are some good reasons to add at least one or two HWK-290s to your Rebel fleet.
To start on a slightly less positive note, the main thing to keep in mind is that this is a support ship designed to help other ships in your squad. So, while the base stats are less than ideal (1 attack dice, 2 defense dice, 4 hull, and 1 shields, plus the focus and target lock actions), they have some nice special abilities and upgrades that still make them worthwhile (including a crew upgrade). Further, this is the first expanded universe ship that has been created for the game (and while it is an interesting choice, it would not have been my first choice of expanded universe ships… but, at least this really opens up the possibilities for future waves)
On a more positive note, is that it comes with 4 pilots (including 3 unique pilots with some very nice special abilities). Pilots include:
(1) Rebel Operative, a level 2 non-unique pilot that costs 16 points.
(2) Roark Garnet, a level 4 unique pilot that costs 19 points, who has a nice support special ability that reads, “At the start of the combat phase choose 1 other friendly ship at Range 1-3. Until the end of the phase, treat that pilot's pilot skill value as 12.” Currently, the highest pilot skill is 9 (or 11 if you use the Veteran Instincts elite pilot skill), so this effectively guarantees your ship will fire before anyone else.
(3) Kyle Katarn, a level 6 unique pilot that costs 21 points, with another nice support special ability that reads, “At the start of the Combat Phase, you may assign 1 of your focus tokens to another friendly ship at Range 1-3.”
(4) Jan Ors, a level 8 unique pilot that costs 25 points, and yet another nice support special ability that reads, “When another friendly ship at Range 1-3 is attacking, if you have no stress tokens, you may receive 1 stress token to allow that ship to roll 1 additional attack die.” This can really help another ship offensively, potentially rolling five attack dice under the right circumstances (this can be especially devastating if the attacking ship happens to have a focus and/or a target lock on the ship that is defending).
Another nice thing it adds to the game are 6 upgrade cards (several of which is exclusive to this expansion set at the time it was released): (1) Ion Cannon Turret -- a 5 point upgrade that also came with the Y-Wing; (2) Blaster Turret -- a new 4 point upgrade that can also be used on the Y-wing -- it allows you to spend a focus token to attack one ship at range 1-2 with three dice and a 360 degree firing ark; (3) Saboteur -- a new 2 point crew upgrade card (so it can also be used on the YT-1300, Firespray-31, or Lambda-Class Shuttle) that gives you a 50/50 chance of turning a random face down damage card on an enemy ship face up (i.e., from a regular hit to a critical hit); (4) Recon Specialist -- a 3 point crew upgrade (ditto) that lets you take two rather than one focus token when you perform a focus action; (5) Intelligence Agent -- a 1 point upgrade that lets you look at an opposing ship’s maneuver dial at the start of the activation phase; and (6) Moldy Crow -- a unique 3 point title upgrade that allows one HWK-290 (only) to keep unspent focus tokens from turn to turn.
As with all expansions, this one includes all tokens, dials, etc. that you need to use this ship in a game (though a copy of the base set is still needed to play).
Overall, I think this ship adds some nice twists to an already fun game (especially since so many of the upgrade cards can be used on other ships). I do not feel there is a need for an entire squad of them, but I did decide to buy two given the nice special abilities and upgrade cards it adds to the game.
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