Eh, I don't think the Phantom will be the nasty to be honest. Bring a pilot with PS 8 or better, even a 7 if you have initiative. You will get shots on him before he can recloak. Unless the Imperial wants to sink in more points to make him a PS9 with veteran instincts. Considering "Whisperer" start out at 32 points base, without any mods..that is just pure nasty to the list.

I find the Tie Defender to be a worse threat, honestly. As far as I know, it will be the first Imperial ship besides the Lamda Shuttle to get the Ion Cannon, plus missiles. Ion Pulse Missiles plus Iron Cannons could mean they could possibly ionize any Rebel ship for 3 turns. We won't see any Rebel ships doing THAT to anyone..I fear for the lists containing the Tie Defender.

Eh, I don't think the Phantom will be the nasty to be honest. Bring a pilot with PS 8 or better, even a 7 if you have initiative. You will get shots on him before he can recloak. Unless the Imperial wants to sink in more points to make him a PS9 with veteran instincts. Considering "Whisperer" start out at 32 points base, without any mods..that is just pure nasty to the list.

I find the Tie Defender to be a worse threat, honestly. As far as I know, it will be the first Imperial ship besides the Lamda Shuttle to get the Ion Cannon, plus missiles. Ion Pulse Missiles plus Iron Cannons could mean they could possibly ionize any Rebel ship for 3 turns. We won't see any Rebel ships doing THAT to anyone..I fear for the lists containing the Tie Defender.

Ion tokens don't work that way. After you move your 1 straight you remove ALL ion tokens from the ship. Benefit of 2 at once it's you can ion large bases with a single attack.

Eh, I don't think the Phantom will be the nasty to be honest. Bring a pilot with PS 8 or better, even a 7 if you have initiative. You will get shots on him before he can recloak. Unless the Imperial wants to sink in more points to make him a PS9 with veteran instincts. Considering "Whisperer" start out at 32 points base, without any mods..that is just pure nasty to the list.

I find the Tie Defender to be a worse threat, honestly. As far as I know, it will be the first Imperial ship besides the Lamda Shuttle to get the Ion Cannon, plus missiles. Ion Pulse Missiles plus Iron Cannons could mean they could possibly ionize any Rebel ship for 3 turns. We won't see any Rebel ships doing THAT to anyone..I fear for the lists containing the Tie Defender.

Ion tokens don't work that way. After you move your 1 straight you remove ALL ion tokens from the ship. Benefit of 2 at once it's you can ion large bases with a single attack.

Really? Well I stand corrected on that, I figured you could only get rid of one ion token per turn. Kind of like stress, unless you have some sort of ability.

Eh, I don't think the Phantom will be the nasty to be honest. Bring a pilot with PS 8 or better, even a 7 if you have initiative. You will get shots on him before he can recloak. Unless the Imperial wants to sink in more points to make him a PS9 with veteran instincts. Considering "Whisperer" start out at 32 points base, without any mods..that is just pure nasty to the list.

I find the Tie Defender to be a worse threat, honestly. As far as I know, it will be the first Imperial ship besides the Lamda Shuttle to get the Ion Cannon, plus missiles. Ion Pulse Missiles plus Iron Cannons could mean they could possibly ionize any Rebel ship for 3 turns. We won't see any Rebel ships doing THAT to anyone..I fear for the lists containing the Tie Defender.

If only we could get 2 elite talents on an Imperial like the A-Wing. Swarm tactics and veteran instincts on an 8-9 pilot. Have him stick with Whisper.

This, so much this. Stealth, advanced cloaking, and sensor jammer. Make anyone trying to hurt your phantom have to commit everything to have any kind of realistic chance of hurting it. Or they can ignore it and let the 4 attack eat their fleet slowly

I don't think you'll be able to combine SD and ACD. They're both modifications after all.

If you can find a way to put two mods on a Phantom, I'd take ACD and Stygium Particle Accelerator. "When you either decloak or perform a cloak action, you may perform a free evade action".

its the..uh...the imperial royal guard phantom title, yeah

frlz though, i just thought 'man thatll be awesome' without thinking about whether it was legal.

Now that its all spoiled, whisper with rebel captive and advanced cloaking is definitely going to see inclusion for me.

Now, to squint at the text and try to find new things out.

blah blah upgrades, blah blah new starfighters. nothing we dont already know from that text.

Eh, I don't think the Phantom will be the nasty to be honest. Bring a pilot with PS 8 or better, even a 7 if you have initiative. You will get shots on him before he can recloak. Unless the Imperial wants to sink in more points to make him a PS9 with veteran instincts. Considering "Whisperer" start out at 32 points base, without any mods..that is just pure nasty to the list.

I find the Tie Defender to be a worse threat, honestly. As far as I know, it will be the first Imperial ship besides the Lamda Shuttle to get the Ion Cannon, plus missiles. Ion Pulse Missiles plus Iron Cannons could mean they could possibly ionize any Rebel ship for 3 turns. We won't see any Rebel ships doing THAT to anyone..I fear for the lists containing the Tie Defender.

If only we could get 2 elite talents on an Imperial like the A-Wing. Swarm tactics and veteran instincts on an 8-9 pilot. Have him stick with Whisper.

That was the answer to the Interceptors 2 mods.. simple enough. Would I like to get 2 EPT on an imperial pilot, sure.. but a squint with a shield and hull upgrade... not a bad trade, or shield and stealth device.. also nifty...

I am happy you are happy. I feel let down though that they went Star Treks route for cloaking. Just a dodge dice enhancment. I was looking forward to something much more unique =[

I highly doubt its just two dodge dice. Not only is it rather underwhelming (effective, but underwhelming), but the Phantom has two cards to explain the cloaking rules. That's a rather excessive amount of text for just the cloaking rules and "a cloaked craft has 2 additional agility."

I'm willing to bet it is only 2 extra dice but what the article doesn't tell u is the cloaking kills target lock and once cloaked you have dark curses ability built in!

I look forward to seeing Phantoms take on the swarm and all the Rebel weenie variations. Phantoms are going to eat up B-wings.

I look forward to seeing Phantoms take on the swarm and all the Rebel weenie variations. Phantoms are going to eat up B-wings.

Even if the Phantom couldn't do anything it still has 4 attacks standard.... That's huge! People need to let that sink in. We know that the phantom also has hard 1 turns which could mean its a very maneuverable fighter. Personally I bet real money it has the interceptor dial without the k turns... I don't know why lol. Just a feeling

I look forward to seeing Phantoms take on the swarm and all the Rebel weenie variations. Phantoms are going to eat up B-wings.

We can hope.. haha

I look forward to seeing Phantoms take on the swarm and all the Rebel weenie variations. Phantoms are going to eat up B-wings.

We can hope.. haha

You really don't need to hope. The BWing is all hit points and no defense. Never mind the phantom dealing with. I ran jax/ fel/turr today with targeting computers on fel and jax and they tore apart a b wing list! I knew that would be a good upgrade to Int but until I played them today I didn't realize How good.

I'm already in love with Whisper! So far Whisper/ VI &ACD. Really the systems upgrade and crew are going to be the icing on the cake. Turn one cloak and stay cloaked till you have a decent range 1 shot. Beginning of the turn DC and evade, attack and gain your free focus and cloak for free. Now your sitting good for defense till the next turn . Ideally your prolly going to want to run recon to gain an attack buff and a second agility dice buff for defense but we don't yet know what tactician does. The system upgrade slot is a wild card right now for me.

I look forward to seeing Phantoms take on the swarm and all the Rebel weenie variations. Phantoms are going to eat up B-wings.

We can hope.. haha

You really don't need to hope. The BWing is all hit points and no defense. Never mind the phantom dealing with. I ran jax/ fel/turr today with targeting computers on fel and jax and they tore apart a b wing list! I knew that would be a good upgrade to Int but until I played them today I didn't realize How good.

the interceptor is an amazing ship. its in that awkward rock-paper-scissors point where it can generally destroy anything else as long as it dog fights decently, until a turret or two come along. 3-4 interceptors vs x/bwings? my money is on the interceptors every time. 3-4 interceptors vs x/bwings lead by a named falcon? falcon wins.

Just realized: Whisper is like a combo Fel-Turr w/PtL + Advanced Cloak. He can decloak, take a focus, fire, get a focus token(it says gain a focus token, not perform a free focus action), cloak, and then either barrel roll or evade. Super expensive? Probably. Worth the look on your opponent's face when you pull it off? Totally.

Just realized: Whisper is like a combo Fel-Turr w/PtL + Advanced Cloak. He can decloak, take a focus, fire, get a focus token(it says gain a focus token, not perform a free focus action), cloak, and then either barrel roll or evade. Super expensive? Probably. Worth the look on your opponent's face when you pull it off? Totally.

yup, looking pretty good for the imps soon.. haha.. I'm thinking a list with whisper and fel and maybe turr could be fun if the points work out. or drop one of the 2 squints for a couple academy pukes and maybe see what that does.

Well, 4 defense dice without a focus or evade token isn't actually as good as 2 dice with an evade token, at least not until you start talking about focused fire. So the decision isn't as clear-cut as it seems: in order to get effective use out of the Advanced Cloaking Device, you'll need:

(1) Reasonably high PS, since anything that shoots before you do is going to catch you uncloaked.

(2) A way to generate multiple actions, since you probably want one to buff your attack and at least one to buff your defense.

If you can't typically count on both of those, the Accelerator could be the safer buy.

Interestingly, point (1) makes the Phantom very meta-dependent: against something like Blue Thunder, even the cheapest generic Phantom can equip Advanced Cloaking Device + Recon Specialist and make its opponent's life short and painful. So the Phantom is going to be worth more against low-PS lists, and less against high-PS lists--which makes me wonder if really high-PS pilots could get a boost in popularity as Phantom insurance.

The need for a reasonably high pilot skill might actually see Veteran Instincts shine. And with Recon Specialist getting two focus tokens a turn shouldn't be much trouble. Advanced Cloaking Device + Veteran Instincts + recon specialist sounds like a decent combo on paper right now. Its not invincible, but should reduce the meta-dependancy a bit.

That was the answer to the Interceptors 2 mods.. simple enough. Would I like to get 2 EPT on an imperial pilot, sure.. but a squint with a shield and hull upgrade... not a bad trade, or shield and stealth device.. also nifty...

Shield and hull is very nifty and boosts survivability a ton. The shield especially has saved me from an early-turn crit on more than one occasion.

Just realized: Whisper is like a combo Fel-Turr w/PtL + Advanced Cloak. He can decloak, take a focus, fire, get a focus token(it says gain a focus token, not perform a free focus action), cloak, and then either barrel roll or evade. Super expensive? Probably. Worth the look on your opponent's face when you pull it off? Totally.

Of course if the dial doesn't have the greens of the TIE interceptor it's going to be a lot less impressive. You're paying 40+ points for it, so having it sit out a few turns while you take awkward greens is going to be really bad for your chances of winning.

I think the dial is going to be more like that of an Advanced or Bomber.

I should substantiate this a bit more. I think that the dial is not going to be like an interceptor's because you can't keep bringing out hypermobile ships and by restricting the number of greens you can keep the cloaking mechanism from being abused.

Just realized: Whisper is like a combo Fel-Turr w/PtL + Advanced Cloak. He can decloak, take a focus, fire, get a focus token(it says gain a focus token, not perform a free focus action), cloak, and then either barrel roll or evade. Super expensive? Probably. Worth the look on your opponent's face when you pull it off? Totally.

Depending on the upgrades but you can get 6 action per turn out of whisper. Lol

All in all, Phantoms are looking more interesting than I initially thought. Sure, Whisper is going to run at around 42 points easily but he'll be a very heavy hitter who's going to be a devil to catch.

Though, stress is going to be a very big thing the coming season.

The question is, if the a cloaked Phantom is HIT while cloaked. Does it lose the Cloaking Token, like the Stealth Device? If it does, then people can bring Lt. Blount and just slam the Phantom with regular shots at range 3 or Missiles. Regardless of dealing damage the shots will hit. Thus causing the Stealth Device if people pack that and the Cloaking Token to vanish.

You will need a someone knowing what they are doing, in order to have the Phantom take down B-wings. I say this because, if pilot the B-Wing to anticipates the movements of the cloaked Tie Phantom. They can position a B-wing with an Autoblaster in a prime position to shoot the Phantom. I think alot of Phantom pilots will try to shoot B-Wings at Range 1, which if they do so carelessly? A B-Wing will be able to get shots back with a Autoblaster. Meaning even with Stealth Device and Cloaking Token, the Autoblaster could rip into the Phantom. Provided the B-Wing doesn't mess the rolls up with a ton of Criticals, which it does....well fubar that B-Wing.

You could also top out an A-Wing with Deadeye, if they can't use Target Locks on the cloaked Phantom. Have a A-wing hug the Phantom in order to get shots on with with Cluster Missiles. Also giving it a decent chance of dealing some damage to the Phantom. If people also want to keep other fighters close to Whisperer while he is cloaked? They will need to watch out for Missile Spam from the Rebel ships using Assault Missiles. Using Lt.Blount or getting lucking hits in, if people hit the Phantom's escort with Assault Missiles. Then the Phantom who might be in Range 1 of the escort will take damage regardless of Cloaking Token or anything. Unless there are special rules to avoid this from the Cloaking action.

More food for thought on how to handle the Phantom, course alot of it relies on how people pilot it and what it's dial looks like. Plus leaving alot of stuff up to chance with the dice rolling, sadly.

Well, we know it has white 1 turns, so its dial can't be that bad.

I highly doubt the Cloaked token is removed if it is hit. Being cloaked has such a huge draw back, I can't see them making getting rid of it so easy.

I hope you are right on this, borg.

Really good point on auto blaster! Its nice to see the paper rock scissors aspects getting more fully developed.