Played 3 games involving aces last night. 2 games against, and 1 with.

Carnor Jax turns out to be more annoying than I expected him to be. My opponent used him with Shield and Hull upgrades, and it made a surprisingly large difference in durability. He just poked around at range 1 of as much of my stuff as possible and was a serious disruption.

I ran this:

Carnor Jax, PtL, Stealth

Saber, Opportunist

Saber, Opportunist

Howlrunner

He Played

Blue + Advanced Sensors

Blue + Advanced Sensors

Blue + Advanced Sensors

Biggs

Carnor was all about Focus + Evade, to stay alive while hanging around as many of his clustered ships as possible. We both pushed up early (Jax going in much faster than the sabers and howlrunner), and with a strategic boost + barrel roll on turn 2, Carnor ended up in range 1 of all 4 enemy ships, behind the B-Wings and next to Biggs and my Sabers were at range 3. Carnor lit up Biggs with 3 hits / 2 damage (biggs did a damage back and knocked off the stealth device on Carnor) and the the sabers finished him off Biggs. I wasn't able to activate Opportunist due to a focus on biggs, but at least he couldn't spend it either for defense. The return fire from the B-Wings was ineffectual as they couldn't spend their focus tokens. The following turn my opponent ended up not being able to focus on advanced sensor moves, so he either had to barrel roll with advanced sensors, red maneuver, or hit a rock. He chose the barrel roll, and the others target locked one of the sabers. The sabers coasted in to range 1, while jax pulled a hard 2 to clear the stress and then boosted to get arc on one of the other Bs. The two sabers used opportunist at range one of one of the Bs that had used target lock, and combined with the reroll from howlrunner and focus tokens managed 9 hits between the 2 of them, which took out the B-Wing before it could fire.

The remainder of the game was pretty much clean up, though I did end up losing Jax before it was all said and done.

Sounds like it was a fun game!

I actually posted this before I mean to. I had a few take aways from a day gaming w/ Aces:

1) Jax is legit. I figured, prior to playing with / against him, that he wouldn't be at range 1 enough to make a game changing difference. Turns out he is a good way to make sure your opponent either has dead actions (taking focus and then ending up at Range 1 of Jax), or allow opportunist to shine.

2) Opportunist is better than I thought it would be, at least in the situation that I was running. 5 Dice at range 1 is awesome (knew that from Jan / APT) and just the threat of opportunist can keep someone from spending a focus token on defense. I'm undecided if its something I can cram 3 of in a list, but its worth exploring.

3) Lorrir is harder to keep in Arc than I would have expected with his special barrel roll. I under rated the ability on paper.

4) Royal Guard for 1 Shield and 1 Hull is actually not terrible for 7 points. Over the 2 games where I played against it, I had shots that would have knocked out a normal interceptor but instead it survived to shoot another round.

I am glad your experience with Jax was a good one.

Aces in general seems add significant strength to Interceptors and Jax's ability seemed like it could add a lot of survivability to many lists, particularly Interceptor builds.

I was looking forward to him and Lorrir the most.

Have they released Aces to the public now? I thought it wasn't till the 17th (Monday)

I think most people are just using proxies for the pilot and EPT upgrades right now.

Have they released Aces to the public now? I thought it wasn't till the 17th (Monday)

I'll be picking mine up in the next cpl of hours. I was told the 14th last week, and my lgs owner is sticking to that. I believe they are available all across Australia today (14th) as the official release date.

That's gotta hurt. 1st Spain gets there Force Packs before the US, and now Aussies get their Aces before the Americans. I seriously do feel for you guys. But I have to admit, it's nice to be NOT waiting an extra 2-4 weeks extra to have something, for once.

I will be picking up my Aces in Australia in a couple of hours when my FLGS opens. Just in time for a tournament on Sunday. It is good to not be the last to get a hold of things living in Aus for once.

Hey, after the way GW has been treating you guys, you deserve a break.

I will be picking up my Aces in Australia in a couple of hours when my FLGS opens. Just in time for a tournament on Sunday.

How does that help you? Imperial Aces is not tournament legal yet.

I will be picking up my Aces in Australia in a couple of hours when my FLGS opens. Just in time for a tournament on Sunday. It is good to not be the last to get a hold of things living in Aus for once.

They're not usable yet at tournaments. Not until FFG updates their tournament player pack.

This is not an Official tournament and the organiser has told all the players in the players pack that it will be legal if released before hand.

I don't really get the Jax/Opportunist combo. Jax is PS 8, which means he's going to move last. Anyone within range 1 of Jax will have moved well out of his range and taken their tokens by the time it's his turn. At that point, opportunist seems useless since everyone has already taken their tokens.

I suppose it helps constrain the maneuvers your opponent will choose, but at 4 points it seems expensive. I just picked up two sets of aces, so I guess I'll see how it plays out...

I actually posted this before I mean to. I had a few take aways from a day gaming w/ Aces:

1) Jax is legit. I figured, prior to playing with / against him, that he wouldn't be at range 1 enough to make a game changing difference. Turns out he is a good way to make sure your opponent either has dead actions (taking focus and then ending up at Range 1 of Jax), or allow opportunist to shine.

2) Opportunist is better than I thought it would be, at least in the situation that I was running. 5 Dice at range 1 is awesome (knew that from Jan / APT) and just the threat of opportunist can keep someone from spending a focus token on defense. I'm undecided if its something I can cram 3 of in a list, but its worth exploring.

3) Lorrir is harder to keep in Arc than I would have expected with his special barrel roll. I under rated the ability on paper.

4) Royal Guard for 1 Shield and 1 Hull is actually not terrible for 7 points. Over the 2 games where I played against it, I had shots that would have knocked out a normal interceptor but instead it survived to shoot another round.

I don't really get the Jax/Opportunist combo. Jax is PS 8, which means he's going to move last. Anyone within range 1 of Jax will have moved well out of his range and taken their tokens by the time it's his turn. At that point, opportunist seems useless since everyone has already taken their tokens.

I suppose it helps constrain the maneuvers your opponent will choose, but at 4 points it seems expensive. I just picked up two sets of aces, so I guess I'll see how it plays out...

I see what you're saying, but here's something to consider: If the Rebels pull away from Jax, and take a focus/evade for thir action, it's still likely that Jax will come in range of them and make those tokens unusable. So now the Rebels have a choice for their actions: they can either take tokens that they won't use but will protect them from Opportunist, or they can take actions they can use and be in danger of it.

Either way, they lose.