Seems that Kagi - Top Gun of the shuttle pilots - is seldom used.

Obviously Kagi is the Biggs of the Imperium - but more expensive and less useful?

Is he a underdog like Maarek or is he just underrated?

What upgrades should Kagi get in order to fulfill his duty best?

Anybody out there that used Kagi and succeeded?

How would you change Kagi if you could?

He has his moments, and I've certainly seen him used, but admittedly not as much as others. This is mostly because he's great for countering missile heavy fleets, and aside from TIE bomber flights, they don't turn up that often. This may change quite a bit once Z-95 packs show up, though...

• Kagi essentially draws target locks, and hence secondary weapons fire, onto himself.
• It's not foolproof, because it only applies where the enemy has a choice who he target locks (so it won't affect a Fire Control System, for example) but it's still **** good.
• The big advantage is that it's a board-wide effect, so - unlike Yorr or Jendon (or biggs), your super-agile interceptors don't have to give up their manouvrability and play hug-the-white-space-cow in order to benefit.
• I wouldn't use Kagi in a shuttle list. If the bulk of the fleet is shuttles, placing an automatic cross-hair on the most expensive one isn't really going to help, and besides which, Yorr's ability to tank stress from all those red manouvres probably helps more.
• Ultimately, he's a shuttle, so starting him on one flank with an engine upgrade and gunner is never going to be a bad buy; especially since you're lamping people at Pilot Skill 8.
• I would suggest a heavy laser rather than a fire control system, if you want further upgrades, though. Because you're drawing lots of missile fire, the sensor jammer is likely to work wonders as it's relatively hard to fire target lock weapons with focus as well.
• Since he's likely to force people to shoot at him, a Rebel Captive is not a bad option, either; if someone is forced to target lock him rather than another ship, then uses said target lock, they end up stressed and unable to perform actions until they shed said stress - which, on some heavier ships, can be quite difficult.
• If he's on the opposite flank to your fighters, then a missile-heavy force can either turn to engage him (and have your fighters drop in behind them) or turn to mix it up with the fighters (but be unable to target lock the buggers because any lock automatically snaps over to Kagi).

Kagi + Sensor Jammer may work on some Rebel squads as well as Bomber squads - but completely fail vs. a Tie Swarm.

Maybe Navigator + Engine Upgrade is the better choice for him - he moves late, so you can better place him.

This makes me wonder if Navigator can be used to lets say ... change a 2 straight to a stop? After all, a stop is still the same bearing?! - at least you don't chance the direction where you look at.

Sure that Fire Control System isn't affected by Kagi's effect?

I've ran Kagi w/ Sensor Jammer and Rebel Captive but as mentioned above unless your against rebels or bombers his useful goes downward since unless they are using missile/torpedo they will probably take the focus to get around his ability hence the sensor jammer which forces them to spend all their focuses otherwise lose a hit and that dice cannot be rerolled (target lock, Han's, Jonus, or Howlrunner's abilities)

but its a matter of how many points you wanna spend on the shuttle?

IMO, Kagi has too many counters, Fire control system, Deadeye, even Weapons Engineer soft counters it. And those are not uncommon on Ordnance squads, which are precisely what Kagi is supposedly to counter best.

In addition, when ships can take a single action, they prefer to take focus rather than Target Lock

This makes me wonder if Navigator can be used to lets say ... change a 2 straight to a stop? After all, a stop is still the same bearing?! - at least you don't chance the direction where you look at.

Sure that Fire Control System isn't affected by Kagi's effect?

Straight movement and Full Stop are considered different bearings, so you can't use navigator to switch between them.

Also, we are pretty sure that FCS isn't affected by Kagi.

You can find both answers in the FAQ, if i'm not mistaken.

Thanks for clearance.

Kagi + Jax could be an interesting combo. Kagi forces focus actions, Jax prevents their usage ...

But right now Kagi probably isn't worth his points.

Anybody tried the Flight Instructor instead of the Sensor Jammer?

Indeed, Jax might be the last chance for Kagi, but in that case, I suspect that people will still prefer to bring Yorr, which benefits interceptors much more than Kagi.

Specially when the Transport expansion shows up, loaded with those X-wings and upgrades especialized on interceptor serial-killing.

If Kagi at least had an ETP slot...

CREW UPGRADE CARD:

Sith Agent (unique, empire only):

Your upgrade bar gets an Elite Upgrade Training slot .

Cost: 1

So, here's my first go at a Kagi list in a while (without Carnor):

Captain Kagi (27)
Sensor Jammer (4)
Rebel Captive (3)
Gunner (5)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

"Howlrunner" (18)
Stealth Device (3)

Total: 100

This gives you a mini swarm. Kagi has Sensor Jammer, which should make life difficult for my opponent. Rebel Captive makes that worse. Engine Upgrade allows him to boost in and out of combat. Gunner allows him a second chance to hit. Howlrunner gives him a reroll with each Gunner attack (if she's in range) which acts as a soft FCS.

It's a lot of points of Kagi. I am tempted to drop the gunner and upgrade all the TIEs to Obsidian Squadron pilots, or one to a named pilot.

I just really don't understand the point of Kagi or how he would be a problem to fly against. If I'm running a Bomber list with lots of missiles/upgrades then I wouldn't mind having to lock onto him. You're basically forcing me to destroy the most expensive ship first, which I'm okay with.

And if I'm not flying a Bomber list, I never target lock anyways. I favor focus (every time I target lock I end up wishing I focused). Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see it. To me he's just a more expensive shuttle with a higher pilot skill.

I used him the other day (because I had some points to use up and didn't want to keep my oponent waiting) and was rather lucky - my opponent used the Shuttle pilot who hands out target locks, and give him the title to take a target lock on anybody on the board! So I effectively completly nutralised that shuttle's ability!

I just really don't understand the point of Kagi or how he would be a problem to fly against. If I'm running a Bomber list with lots of missiles/upgrades then I wouldn't mind having to lock onto him. You're basically forcing me to destroy the most expensive ship first, which I'm okay with.

And if I'm not flying a Bomber list, I never target lock anyways. I favor focus (every time I target lock I end up wishing I focused). Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see it. To me he's just a more expensive shuttle with a higher pilot skill.

He's probably a better counter to an upcoming metagame rather than the current one — as Magnus Grendel said above, Z-95 missile spam is coming in Wave 4. There's also Flechette Torpedoes coming in the Rebel Transport and in Wave 4. They're cheap, which makes them useful.

Yeah, I'm kinda feel the same as everyone else does. He's basically only a counter to ordnance, which I'll be honest and say I'd rather shoot at a high agility ship than a shuttle. As a rebel, the increase from 3 to 4 dice against 1 agility isn't worth that much... Assuming I have a way of a TL+F, I'm only rolling .19 extra hits with my 4 dice ordnance. And even if we say R3 shot, average damage basically increases from 2.44 to 2.63... I just paid 4 points to do ... .21 damage. Bleh

On the flip side, if we take a look at a R3 shot against an interceptor with a focus for D, the F+TL regular attack only does .54 damage, while the F ordnance attack does 1.23 damage. So Kagi basically made me waste my ordnance, though one could argue to save the ordnance and shoot the interceptor later, though that also runs the risk of losing the ordnance in the tube. We'll see if he starts getting more play with the 2 point and 3 point stress/ion ordnance comes into play.

I will be trying Kagi with Carnor Jax once aces is available. If that fails miserably (which is likely I think), I will probably give up on him.

Wait for the big Imperial ships to come out, then field Kagi?

Alright, I'm here to drop the Kagi Countdown.

First off, I think he's under rated and under valued. Reasons being, yes, a tie swarm isn't highly effected by Kagi, he definatly works better vs Rebs and missle heavy lists. Now, I hear he has counters, sure he does however none I see all the time.

Deadeye, is basically throwing away your ept to not need a target lock, unless your an ord heavy ship its a one shot point sink, as well as the missle or torp in question, just my opinion there.

Fire control, yes can be an issue, but until wave 4 we just will see those vs other shuttles and b wings, when b's run advanced sensors more often then not and are more common. Weapons engineer, yet again a shuttle is one of the choices for it and in shuttle on shuttle I still think Kagi matches up well, though he is expensive. The Falcon, yet again I don't see him much there either, so unless your opponent knows your packing Kagi, I doubt these counters you'll see much. On that I'm going by what I've seen thus far.

Now it has been talked about, upgrades, of course, Engine upgrade should just come standard on shuttles, even Kagi, though if you really leave him open for the killing you could cut that out and save some points.

Sensor Jammer, always a good call, reason being, even if they have focus, and want to push that hit through they then have to spend it. As Kagi will shoot first, he may just use up one of those available focus straight away to defend vs him unless of course, they happen to shoot before, which probably wouldn't be a swarm then. Either way, target lock is still very good, and taking that away does leave some rolls victim to poor dice then if they just pick focus. It will usually save him at least a couple damage through the game, as well as using up focus that could be used on other things, like you can't deadeye if you use your focus to dodge his attack. You can't use the focus for that extra damage, if you used it to fire a one shot missile, etc. It isn't an overt power selection, but it is good I think.

Of course, as he shoots early gunner can be good as it is for any shuttle. He may even use it to strip a couple focus and save himself a couple hits if he doesn't hurt who he shoots at.

Rebel captive works of course, hand out some stress. I wouldn't say to use heavy laser cannon, as he's already pricey, and a target, so unless it offers some utility, I'd leave it off of him.

He just needs to be taken for a purpose, to tank, and eventually die, he is a clone after all. With a squad build that uses that, flying in to hit hard while Kagi is still alive to cover them, kill a ship or two before he goes down. As people have said, they may kill him first but remember, you want him to die first if at all. As one shuttle left at the end, is dead anyways more often then not. However he does have a point, I think he'll work well in that task, with Jax his BFF.

So for named pilot quick run down. I think Yorr is overall the best and most useful for his ability. He offers the most easy synergy though you need to stay near him to benefit however it is the second farthest reach of the shuttles for his special ability. Jendon, has to stay the closest and honestly, not too keen on his set up. It is even more focused then Kagis, and the ships I'd wish to give TL's to, I don't want to fly in formation with him for easy assault missile bait. If his ability went out to range 2, or 3 I'd change my mind. Kagi, needs a purpose in mind but doesn't need formation flying, just awareness of staying near the enemy enough to draw their Target locks. Which I think will prove more and more needed with the new torps and ion missiles.

I think he'll see new life in the growing meta. Though he's just over looked in the current. You can make him work, but his high point cost puts people off I feel. Without a purpose for him, your not wrong for feeling that way. However, take all his pros with his cons arm him for such and realize, its ok if he dies first, that is in fact his job, and you'll be well off. You can even use his high pilot skill to pick the best place to bother with the enemy squad and pick later flanker, or straight rush for your attack plan.

So go forth, use your Clone Trooper Kagi and execute order 66.