If you play the Empire in Star Wars: X-Wing, then you’re very familiar with all the different shapes of TIEs. Where the Rebels have a whole alphabet soup of Starfighters and the scum of the galaxy seem to be working their way through a variety of geometric shapes, the Empire seems to have a thing for spaceships that look like really angry versions of the letter H.

So angry in fact, that one of the variants is called the Aggressor. The ship isn’t from the movies. It first appeared in a video game called Star Wars Galaxies. Which means it isn’t part of the new canon. However, given that the (canonical) TV show Star Wars Rebels loves all things space combat-related, it’s only a matter of time before we see this most furious of TIEs.

The model itself is a TIE with curved wings, making a more an angry grey bee. The top half of the back of the wings are cut of, and a platform juts out of the back, which is where it houses its turret.  It’s the only TIE with that sort of equipment, which means it can be equipped with all the cool turret based bonuses. The set comes with both a Synced Turret and Twin Laser Turret cards so you can either have rerolls or more chances to hit. The elite card is Intensity, which is a last-ditch manoeuvre card. Useful for close combat fighting.  We also get unguided rockets, which is an excellent way to dump lots of lots of rockets on vulnerable ships.

The manoeuvre dial is more of the same for TIEs – you’re going to be able to keep pace with most other Imperial ships, but not in a remarkable way. Despite the name, the Aggressor is a support ship; a drummer to the lead guitar that Interceptors or TIE Defenders provide. Though not a dull ship, it’s one that will only appear at tournament level in the most interesting of builds. For the rest of us, it’s a fun ship to add to a growing collection of TIEs.

STAR WARS: X-WING – TIE AGGRESSOR / DESIGNER: JASON LITTLE / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW