The Briefing Room: Agent Terex

Welcome to the Dice and Cardboard Briefing Room, pilot! In this series I'll write about a pilot or upgrade that I've been experimenting with or enjoying.

SPOILER ALERT! This article will include spoilers from the Marvel Poe Dameron Comics. I highly recommend that you read the series, it's great!

As I mentioned in previous posts I have recently started exploring options in First Order more intentionally so the topic of today's Briefing Room deep dive will be the devious Agent Terex. Terex is a cool character with a great backstory that is reflected very thematically in his in-game design.

Terex (first name only) served the Empire as a Stormtrooper before joining the First Order. After the Empire's defeat at Jakku, he and a fellow trooper removed their armor to avoid capture and built a ship from battlefield debris to escape the planet and start a new life.

Terex and his companion traveled to Kaddak and worked with a group of local pirates to retrieve former Imperial ships and weapons from the factory at Rothana. During the operation Terex discovered Grand Moff Tarkin's former ship, the Carrion Spike (bring on that cloaking Carrion Spike huge ship expansion!), and used its weapons to kill the rest of the team after he heard them conspiring against him. He took the ship and a few pirates loyal to him and founded a criminal organization called the "Rancs." Scum and Villainy Terex a possibility?

At one point Terex was given a set of First Order Stormtrooper armor and, interested in this new successor to the Empire, he sought them out and offered to work for the First Order Security Bureau, becoming Agent Terex. In his new official capacity he soon encountered Poe Dameron and Black Squadron and began to relentlessly pursue them using both his First Order resources and his underworld contacts. His single-minded pursuit and unorthodox tactics drew the attention of Captain Phasma who felt that Terex was escalating the conflict too quickly and attracting too much attention. Phasma recalled Terex to First Order space and fitted him with cyborg implants that controlled his behavior and paired him with Commander Malarus, another fixture of X-Wing First Order squads.

Agent Terex is available to First Order players in X-Wing in two capacities: as a pilot of the Xi-Class Shuttle and as a Crew card for other Xi-Class pilots.

Agent Terex (pilot) is a viable option in the Xi-Class as, at time of writing, all Xi pilots cost the same 4 points. The downside is that if he's flying the shuttle you aren't able to use his crew card! The other issue is that, again at time of writing, he has the lowest Loadout Value and initiative of the named Xi pilots.

His ability, however, is pretty fun and not something you can get from many other pilots in the game. Representing his inclination to play dirty and leverage his underworld contacts in his work for the First Order, Terex can equip Illicit upgrades and then distribute them among the TIE/fo and TIE/sf fighters in your squad. I personally haven't found anything groundbreaking available with this ability, but it's a fun way to punch up a squad of TIEs and I'm sure there are good combos out there. Since you aren't able to carry Agent Terex crew then your crew slots are open and available for someone like Captain Phasma or, my favorite combo, Tactical Officer and Biohexacrypt Codes. This allows you to lock Major Vonreg or Kylo Ren at the beginning of the game and save that lock for a surprise Coordinate from across the board when you need it.

Agent Terex is a fun Xi-Class pilot but, value-wise, the Crew version is important enough that you generally don't want to waste Terex by making him fly the ship.

Agent Terex (Crew) is, by my estimation, possibly one of the best crew upgrades in the faction if not the game, and certainly one of the most thematic and fun. I'd strongly consider using him on the Xi-Class shuttle at just about any point cost.

In his face-up form, Agent Terex is the cool, calculating First Order Agent who remains one step ahead of Poe Dameron. You can pass the three calculate tokens one at a time to your ace pilot at range 0-3 any time they need to stack tokens for the turn or save one for the shuttle he's riding after they spend an action to Coordinate or Jam.

After Terex has used all of his calculate tokens (analagous to using up three warnings from Phasma), you flip the card and he gets his new implants. This is where the fun begins. In the Systems Phase you roll a die to determine if the implants keep Terex in line and in loyal service of the First Order (and gain a calculate token) or if he resists the mind control (and gives you a jam token). Don't worry, though, because if Terex manages to resist the implants he can take advantage of his madness and you can use your action to transfer that token to any ship at range 0-3. Range 3 Jam, anyone? Sure, there's definitely variance to deal with here but it's super thematic and a lot of fun. Jamming is good, too, especially with all signs pointing to a higher number of aces and munitions on the board.

And that's Terex! How do you like to use this fascinating character in-game?

Shoutout to Wookieepedia for details on the biography and to the X-Wing 2.0 Wiki for the card images.