Also, Brath is a Chewie killer as you are not dealing crits, you are flipping cards face up. Ouch.

Outmaneuver - the card every turret hater has been waiting for.

So does that trigger when you're outside of the forward firing arc?

I know in the FAQ for Backstabber it says his ability triggers when he is outside the "printed firing arc", but on the YT the 360 arrow representing the 360 arc is printed on the base too. Which do they mean?

I assume the same rules apply to Outmaneuver as well.

Outmaneuver - the card every turret hater has been waiting for.

So does that trigger when you're outside of the forward firing arc?

I know in the FAQ for Backstabber it says his ability triggers when he is outside the "printed firing arc", but on the YT the 360 arrow representing the 360 arc is printed on the base too. Which do they mean?

I assume the same rules apply to Outmaneuver as well.

If you read the rules that came with the Falcon, it says it's primary weapon can fire outside its firing arc. It's firing arc is limited, not 360.

Kinda feel like the ion cannon should be discounted on the already expensive Defender since it has it built in... but then I guess you'd have to do the same for the Y-wing ion turret.

When they said the Defender is "a straightforward dog-fighter", they meant it quite literally I guess - all it's green is forward and it's got that mythical white 4 K-turn.

That could be the first ship in the game which can be run by a simple script:

1. have three of them equally spaced in the middle section of the field, not facing any asteroids;

2. fly 5 straight and focus shoot, get shot a bunch;

3. K-turn, focus shoot, get shot;

4. K-turn, focus shoot, get shot some more, maybe lose a ship;

5. repeat ad-nauseam...

As much as I hate to say it, I don't like this ship much... and being an ugly Defender doesn't help either. The Phantom on the other hand is one majestic beast!!

I just noticed the silver lining:

The PS6 and PS8 pilots are the cheapest in the game relative to the base PS1 ship. You only pay 1 point for each PS point, and get the EPT and pilot skill to boot. Normally there is at least a +1 cost for getting a pilot ability and/or EPT.

The PS6 ability looks OK, it is a free action but its conditional. The PS8 ability is a little strange, I am not sold on it. You are generally going to be spending your [edit] focus when you perform the attack, to get more hits. With 3 dice you only have a 42.2% chance of rolling zero eyeballs. When rolling 4 dice that decreases to 31.6%. Ah, if only the Imperials had Kyle Katarn....

Autoblaster's going to be pretty nasty on Brath. It eliminates the autoblasters non-crit weakness, giving him three hits that can't be countered defence dice and get flipped face-up afterwards.

I think Outmaneuver makes TIE Interceptors better than anything in Imperial Aces.

Unfortunately it costs the same as PtL and uses the EPT slot, so your Interceptor will revert back to glass cannon status. I don't know that's a tradeoff that most people would be willing to make. But it is very interesting.

Really depends on what you plan to do or like to do with PTL. If you like being able to double up on attack buffs (e.g. PTL + Targeting Computer), or you like to split actions between attack and maneuvering or attack and defense, Outmaneuver and Predator are both interesting choices because both effectively replace an offensive action. If you particularly value maneuver/maneuver or defense/defense action choices, you'll still want PTL.

What I think we'll see happen, though, is that individual ships will acquire tactical roles based on their talent. So--completely spitballing here--I might run Fel+PTL+Shield+Stealth as a vanguard, designed to boost/evade or focus/evade at my front rank and attempt to weather the initial salvo. That ship then breaks off while Turr+Predator+Hull attacks my opponent's front rank and Jax+Outmaneuver+Targeting Computer+Hull comes in from the flank.

How are people feeling about the point costs?

I think the Defender is really going to struggle with stress, and I think they might have been a touch too conservative in costing it. It's nowhere near as bad as the Advanced, though: the named pilots are definitely worth some play time, and I can definitely see substituting the base generic + Ion Cannon in where I would usually put a Bounty Hunter--at least as long as B-wings rule the Rebel meta.

hmmm ... the Defender is the ultimate flying brick ...

maybe you'll want to equip an Engine Upgrade just for the sake to be able to alter your course

Has anyone figured out why there is an evade token in the pack? Did I miss something?

And then I see the munitions failsafe... Darn.

When they said the Defender is "a straightforward dog-fighter", they meant it quite literally I guess - all it's green is forward and it's got that mythical white 4 K-turn.

That could be the first ship in the game which can be run by a simple script:

1. have three of them equally spaced in the middle section of the field, not facing any asteroids;

2. fly 5 straight and focus shoot, get shot a bunch;

3. K-turn, focus shoot, get shot;

4. K-turn, focus shoot, get shot some more, maybe lose a ship;

5. repeat ad-nauseam...

As much as I hate to say it, I don't like this ship much... and being an ugly Defender doesn't help either. The Phantom on the other hand is one majestic beast!!

You may find that the enemy will not oblige....

I agree that if the enemy is prepared to 'joust' then the Defender pretty much wins hands-down; in a straight head-to-head it'll take pretty much anything one on one, especially with a cannon. However, it's going to have to turn sooner or later.

I just noticed the silver lining:

The PS6 and PS8 pilots are the cheapest in the game relative to the base PS1 ship. You only pay 1 point for each PS point, and get the EPT and pilot skill to boot. Normally there is at least a +1 cost for getting a pilot ability and/or EPT.

The PS6 ability looks OK, it is a free action but its conditional. The PS8 ability is a little strange, I am not sold on it. You are generally going to be spending your [edit] focus when you perform the attack, to get more hits. With 3 dice you only have a 42.2% chance of rolling zero eyeballs. When rolling 4 dice that decreases to 31.6%. Ah, if only the Imperials had Kyle Katarn....

Push the limit plus heavy laser cannon will hurt, though.

The PS6 ability looks OK, it is a free action but its conditional. The PS8 ability is a little strange, I am not sold on it. You are generally going to be spending your [edit] focus when you perform the attack, to get more hits. With 3 dice you only have a 42.2% chance of rolling zero eyeballs. When rolling 4 dice that decreases to 31.6%. Ah, if only the Imperials had Kyle Katarn....

That's where the new shiny Predator card comes in. It lets you reroll the dice to free up the token to turn the hits face-up.

^Bingo

You may find that the enemy will not oblige....

I agree that if the enemy is prepared to 'joust' then the Defender pretty much wins hands-down; in a straight head-to-head it'll take pretty much anything one on one, especially with a cannon. However, it's going to have to turn sooner or later.

Does it? The Defender doesn't need to get in R1. Especially not with Outmaneuver. It can just fly away, white k-turn and continue sniping at R3.

Very nice write-up. It is a bit pricey though.

... And

You may find that the enemy will not oblige....

I agree that if the enemy is prepared to 'joust' then the Defender pretty much wins hands-down; in a straight head-to-head it'll take pretty much anything one on one, especially with a cannon. However, it's going to have to turn sooner or later.

Does it? The Defender doesn't need to get in R1. Especially not with Outmaneuver. It can just fly away, white k-turn and continue sniping at R3.

... together with a HLC ... soo expensive ... but ... could be quite effective

but cutting an agility die isn't as good as rerolling a dice, making Predator strictly superior unless you have better ways to cause rerolls.

Ok, you're comparing Outmaneuver to Predator. I thought you were speaking of Outmaneuver vs a ship with a turret.

I think both are great, but the problem with Predator is you may only get 1 dice to reroll. The only ships with turrets that you'll get 2 dice with, are Gold Squad, Rebel Operative and Outer Rim Smuggler.

Now granted those are fairly popular choices but you do see a lot of gray squad or named YT pilots out there and for those Predator isn't quite as good.

Unfortunately it costs the same as PtL and uses the EPT slot, so your Interceptor will revert back to glass cannon status.

Two things...

1) It will revert back to the glass cannon, but the cannon will be a lot more effective, which makes the glass part easier to deal with.

2) With all the anti-stress stuff coming with the transport, CR-90 and wave 4, PTL is a lot less useful then it was, because you'll want to avoid stress more often. Which limits how often you can use PTL. That makes anything that improves the Interceptor without giving it stress a fairly good option IMO.

These are good points. Also: The Royal TIE title can give the Interceptor a couple more hit points to negate that glass cannon status.

The PS6 ability looks OK, it is a free action but its conditional. The PS8 ability is a little strange, I am not sold on it. You are generally going to be spending your [edit] focus when you perform the attack, to get more hits. With 3 dice you only have a 42.2% chance of rolling zero eyeballs. When rolling 4 dice that decreases to 31.6%. Ah, if only the Imperials had Kyle Katarn....

That's where the new shiny Predator card comes in. It lets you reroll the dice to free up the token to turn the hits face-up.

Keroko is on the money here: Predator is the equivalent of TL 84% of the time with 3 dice, and 74% of the time with 4 dice.

But moreover, I think you're burying the lede with that math. Even attacking with naked dice--which, I'd argue, any good Brath list will go out of its way to prevent--his ability means that with 3 dice you have a 42.2% chance of turning every hit result into a crit. That's going to be really, really nasty against Large ships (including Chewie, as noted upthread), due to those nice long hull tracks, and it's potentially devastating against something like a TIE Fighter. And it's not going to help with your first shot against a B-wing, but your second or third shot is going to suck for the poor guy. (Heh, heh.)

Nevermind

What is the Evade token for? There is no mention of it anywhere?

Also, you guys are saying that outmaneuver will hurt turrets. No sure I see why. Turrets have a 360 degree firing arc, so a Ywing with ION has a 360 degree firing arc, correct? If the card said, "Primary Firing Arc I could see it, but it doesn state that.

Wrong. Firing arc always and only means front arc. Even applies to falcons. Turrets allow you to fire outside your firing arc.

So~.......does this mean we now get a post describing how weak and useless the rebel ships are so much so that the Imperial ships are completely over powered?

Kidding aside, those pilots skills look amazing! I do wonder which will end up being used more predator or outmaneuver? Though I have to say the dial is not as impressive as I thought though it means it will be flown differently so until we actually play with them we won't know just how much of a hindrance it is or if it is one at all.

I love it. I just wish they had shown the Onyx Squadron pilot. I want to know if it has an Elite Talent. But I am happy with the two unique pilots. Rexler will have the possibility of just heaping crits on. Especially on the poor little Falcon. And Vessery is going to be awesome leading either bombers or Firespray/Shuttle.

And those elite talents are amazing. There is some boosts for your Interceptors. And others. A Jonus effect on the PS 1 and 2s? Take that swarm and weenie Rebel ships. Predator is a really, really good argument for spending the points on pilot skill. And Outmaneuver is some awesome, awesome turret hate. They already have trouble since they have low agility.

Not that I think it would be the most effective squad, but:

5x Green squad + refit + predator

would fire like a howl swarm.