I normally run Red Squadrons in my lists, but I've been intrigued by Tarn. Tarn's ability is really nice (can take a free TL on an enemy that declares him the target of it's attack), and he's the same cost as a Red Squadron, but he goes from PS4 to PS3.

I'm worried that against a Rebel list with PS4 ships, Tarn will get shot at first, and will go down without a return shot. At least if a Red falls to another PS4 ship, he gets his return shot.

But in the testing I've done with him, Tarn is rarely shot at first, and I don't get it. If I had a PS4 list, and was going against a list with PS3 or PS2 ships, I would try to kill them in the first exchange before they ever got to fire.

Are people so fearful of his free TL that they aren't willing to take a shot at him? Or, are people just targeting the higher PS ships first?

What am I missing? And what are people's opinions on Tarn V a Red?

I think I'd agree with you. If the list was Red Red Red Tarn, and I had PS4+ ships, I might try to take Tarn out in the first engagement. But... if you have Biggs, or Wedge, or an AdvS Dagger, or Ibby... They're going to be the first target. And at that point, I can't 1hko Tarn, so I might take out the Reds instead since they don't get TL+F to attack back at me.

Tarn then would have to be picked off when a free TL doesn't matter. Either because he doesn't have a shot on the ship shooting him, or its end game and I can get a TL too because we're flying around without shots on each other.

I like Tarn. With the new astromech that grants EPT, you can use Veteran Instincts to bump him to PS5 @ 25 points (which puts him in line with Hobbie and Biggs).

I think the reason people are probably not shooting at Tarn first is that his ability only activates if you do shoot at him. The idea being that by not firing on him in the first rounds his ability goes to waste. They may not be confident that they can take him out in one round of shooting.

Of course what your opponents may not be realizing is that Tarn works really well as a closer, dueling with just one or two ships.

I like Tarn. With the new astromech that grants EPT, you can use Veteran Instincts to bump him to PS5 @ 25 points (which puts him in line with Hobbie and Biggs).

I've thought about doing that, and I'll probably try it at some point, but I personally think his PS3 is actually better than PS5. If people were shooting at him after he shot, he'd get a TL, but wouldn't get to spend it until next turn. And then he might not even want that TL.

Given, the flip side is that he can get dead before he gets to use said TL. I suppose he would be a good candidate for hull upgrade.

Note: I will still likely try him with VI at some point, but I don't think it'll work well.

For me, it's Tarn over Red every time. Either his ability makes him a priority target, in which case you basically get a 2-point discount on Biggs, or he's not a priority, in which case he's a really excellent closer (as Babaganoosh says).

Each ship has a level of target priority, which is essentially "how much do you want to shoot at that ship". Tarn Mison's ability strengthens your attack, but it only does so when he is shot at first. Your enemy doesn't want him to get a stronger attack, so they don't want to shoot him as much. This means that although his ability strengthens your attack, it is actually "defensive" in terms of target priority.

High target priority:

- High Firepower (3+)

- Offensive Upgrades (Secondary Weapons and Bombs)

- Low Agility (0-1)

- Low Hull/Shields (3-4)

- "Offensive" special abilities (like Wedge Antilles and "Howlrunner")

Low target priority

- Low Firepower (1)

- Defensive Upgrades (most Crew and Modifications)

- High Agility (3+)

- High Hull/Shields (7+)

- "Defensive" special abilities (like Luke Skywalker and "Dark Curse")

Since generic X-Wings have the same statistics, they present a similar threat, but without the drawback (to your opponent) of gaining a Target Lock when they are attacked, and so are more attractive targets.

I'd recommend running him alongside other ships that are more defensive as well. A-Wings (particularly Green Squadron Pilots, as they share his PS) would make good wingmen. As others have said, he's a decent endgame ship (when the enemy doesn't have other targets), and when the E-Wing is released the addition of a R7 Astromech will seriously boost his ability.

I like Tarn. With the new astromech that grants EPT, you can use Veteran Instincts to bump him to PS5 @ 25 points (which puts him in line with Hobbie and Biggs).

I've thought about doing that, and I'll probably try it at some point, but I personally think his PS3 is actually better than PS5. If people were shooting at him after he shot, he'd get a TL, but wouldn't get to spend it until next turn . And then he might not even want that TL.

Given, the flip side is that he can get dead before he gets to use said TL. I suppose he would be a good candidate for hull upgrade.

Note: I will still likely try him with VI at some point, but I don't think it'll work well.

That's a very fair point - it'll be interesting to see how he operates against different builds. I'm looking forward to trying him out with lots of the new toys, especially the R7 astromech.

He'll be a reason to run PS2 again

Edit: Although if you put the generic R7 on him, then I suppose even lower PS pilots have a reason to choose someone else.

I think the reason people are probably not shooting at Tarn first is that his ability only activates if you do shoot at him. The idea being that by not firing on him in the first rounds his ability goes to waste. They may not be confident that they can take him out in one round of shooting.

Of course what your opponents may not be realizing is that Tarn works really well as a closer, dueling with just one or two ships.

This will be even more true when the R7 astromech comes out, and he can use that target lock defensively. Against 1 or 2 ships his surviveability may be up there with Luke + R2-D2.

Note... R7 basically undoes your action.

Think of it this way... if you TL'd as your action (which many understand to provide a comparable increase in damage to the focus)... Every die gets rerolled... from the initial roll, R7 rerolls the hits+crits, while the attacker rerolls the blanks+focii. The net result is every die is rerolled. As such, the R7 cancelled out your TL.

And this equates to be the same thing if the attacker took a focus action (it just isn't as obvious). Although if the results were hit focus blank, I could see just rerolling the hit, forcing him to spend his F on offensive (assuming you're returning fire afterwards).

I think he's a nice departure from standard Rookies and Reds. He's more a psychological threat, but a good one in opening play when he's alongside ships that make him look like an easy target, as pointed out above. Defensive builds are looking more and more viable with the new stuff that's come out, so I actually rather like him for lists that can make your opponent think twice about who to attack.

Note... R7 basically undoes your action.

Think of it this way... if you TL'd as your action (which many understand to provide a comparable increase in damage to the focus)... Every die gets rerolled... from the initial roll, R7 rerolls the hits+crits, while the attacker rerolls the blanks+focii. The net result is every die is rerolled. As such, the R7 cancelled out your TL.

And this equates to be the same thing if the attacker took a focus action (it just isn't as obvious). Although if the results were hit focus blank, I could see just rerolling the hit, forcing him to spend his F on offensive (assuming you're returning fire afterwards).

I am perplexed by this. In this example, is the ship firing at Tarn also using a TL? If he is, then yeah, everything will get re-rolled but it's still not a waste--certainly not of an action. Tarn does that as a free response.

If the opponent has a focus, use your judgement. If they roll 1 focus, maybe let it slide so they burn it on the shot and don't have it for defense. If they roll multiple eyes, you'll probably want to force them to re-roll (unless you REALLY don't want them to have a defensive focus).

Anyway, which dice you make them re-roll is always a choice. There are a lot of factors in that choice, but it's never a waste of an action because it doesn't require an action

I was referring to R7 in general.

Scenario: Rookie w/ R7 is fighting a Red.

Rookie TLs as an action

Red TLs as an action

Red attacks Rookie

Rolls 3-4 dice

Rookie activates R7 and spends TL to have Red reroll hits + crits

Red spends TL to reroll blanks + focuses

Net result is neither TL increases/decreases attack percentage from the standard naked on naked attack.

Rookie attacks Red

no modifies

attack percentage is the same as naked/naked (since both are now naked).

The exception to this would be the 1/8 chance that you roll all hits / blanks... at that point one of the TL's will be unused and can be used on the next attack.

Ah gotcha. I agree then. Still worthwhile though. Because if the rookie doesn't use R7, he's taking modded dice to the face and might be dead or crippled on the return fire. Control the game when you can, I say, but obviously it depends on the initial roll.

But, yeah, R7 is definitely better on someone who's not using TL as an action. Mostly because TL is a difficult action to set up as a lower PS pilot. It would still be fine as a defensive measure if a baddie is on your tail.

At some point I'll have to take a look at whether it actually is more defensive than a Focus for defense though. My gut instinct is that it'll be pretty good on the Y wing, meh on the X, and worse than a focus on an E wing.

But with Tarn, it'll be great!

I was referring to R7 in general.

Scenario: Rookie w/ R7 is fighting a Red.

Rookie TLs as an action

Red TLs as an action

Red attacks Rookie

Rolls 3-4 dice

Rookie activates R7 and spends TL to have Red reroll hits + crits

Red spends TL to reroll blanks + focuses

Net result is neither TL increases/decreases attack percentage from the standard naked on naked attack.

Rookie attacks Red

no modifies

attack percentage is the same as naked/naked (since both are now naked).

The exception to this would be the 1/8 chance that you roll all hits / blanks... at that point one of the TL's will be unused and can be used on the next attack.

I may be misunderstanding what you're saying but, in the Red's attack against the Rookie, don't forget that whichever attack dice the Rookie chooses to reroll, the Red cannot use his target lock to reroll those dice (since dice can only be rerolled once in a single attack; see page 12 of the rulebook).

I was referring to R7 in general.

Scenario: Rookie w/ R7 is fighting a Red.

Rookie TLs as an action

Red TLs as an action

Red attacks Rookie

Rolls 3-4 dice

Rookie activates R7 and spends TL to have Red reroll hits + crits

Red spends TL to reroll blanks + focuses

Net result is neither TL increases/decreases attack percentage from the standard naked on naked attack.

Rookie attacks Red

no modifies

attack percentage is the same as naked/naked (since both are now naked).

The exception to this would be the 1/8 chance that you roll all hits / blanks... at that point one of the TL's will be unused and can be used on the next attack.

I may be misunderstanding what you're saying but, in the Red's attack against the Rookie, don't forget that whichever attack dice the Rookie choose to reroll, the Red cannot use his target lock to reroll those dice (since dice can only be rerolled once in a single attack; see page 12 of the rulebook).

Yup.

Attack dice are rolled... for example purposes, lets say he rolled hit focus blank and has a TL.

R7 would then reroll the hit... lets say it turned up blank.

The attacker would spend the TL to reroll the focus and first blank. Lets say he got focus, hit

The net result is blank focus hit. Every die has been rerolled, and the probabilities of hits are the same as before either TL was spent.

The only time this is not the case is if the attacker rolls all blanks, then R7 won't kick in... or if the opponent rolls all hits, then R7 will reroll all of them and the attacker keeps his TL.

Also... I misspoke earlier. A Focus action is slightly better than a TL action when attacking a ship with R7.

With a focus, R7 will reroll 75% of the dice (with the remaining 25% blank). Each reroll has a 75% of rolling a hit. .75 * .75 = .5625

With a TL, R7 will reroll 50% of the dice, with a 50% chance of getting a hit. Then you will reroll the remaining 50% with a 50% chance to hit. .5 * .5 + .5 * .5 = .50

I was referring to R7 in general.

Scenario: Rookie w/ R7 is fighting a Red.

Rookie TLs as an action

Red TLs as an action

Red attacks Rookie

Rolls 3-4 dice

Rookie activates R7 and spends TL to have Red reroll hits + crits

Red spends TL to reroll blanks + focuses

Net result is neither TL increases/decreases attack percentage from the standard naked on naked attack.

Rookie attacks Red

no modifies

attack percentage is the same as naked/naked (since both are now naked).

The exception to this would be the 1/8 chance that you roll all hits / blanks... at that point one of the TL's will be unused and can be used on the next attack.

I may be misunderstanding what you're saying but, in the Red's attack against the Rookie, don't forget that whichever attack dice the Rookie choose to reroll, the Red cannot use his target lock to reroll those dice (since dice can only be rerolled once in a single attack; see page 12 of the rulebook).

Yup.

Attack dice are rolled... for example purposes, lets say he rolled hit focus blank and has a TL.

R7 would then reroll the hit... lets say it turned up blank.

The attacker would spend the TL to reroll the focus and first blank. Lets say he got focus, hit

The net result is blank focus hit. Every die has been rerolled, and the probabilities of hits are the same as before either TL was spent.

The only time this is not the case is if the attacker rolls all blanks, then R7 won't kick in... or if the opponent rolls all hits, then R7 will reroll all of them and the attacker keeps his TL.

Agree w/ this. So in this case, it's effective if the Rookie wants to play a more defensive game.

Could also be fun on Luke, as the reroll coupled w/ his mini-focus increases the benefical impact of lowering the expected value of oncoming attacks. Then again, it vies for the same spot as R2-D2.

Agree w/ this. So in this case, it's effective if the Rookie wants to play a more defensive game.

Could also be fun on Luke, as the reroll coupled w/ his mini-focus increases the benefical impact of lowering the expected value of oncoming attacks. Then again, it vies for the same spot as R2-D2.

I'm wondering if R5-P9 is going to be better on Luke than R2-D2. Ignoring the round that Luke dies in, the only time he'll potentially need to spend his F for defense is if he rolled 3+ focuses and needed 2+ more evades. The first one is changed via his ability, the second one, unless it's preventing a crit, might as well just be used to regen a shield that can prevent a crit... meaning to come out ahead for spending the focus, he needs to roll 3+ eyes. And now he's not restricted to green maneuvers, though he is subject to action denial (unless you have a Garven/Kyle/Lando/PS9SL). It'll be interesting to try.

Globe beat me to it. If R7 forces rerolls of an attackers dice, those dice can't be rerolled again.

If Red rolls 3 hits, then the rookie spends his TL through R7 and forces Red to reroll his dice. Red then rerolls and gets 3 blanks, even if Red still has a TL, he can't modify those dice through a reroll of any kind, they've already been rerolled. Some secondary weapons allow changing blanks to hits, but that's really the only way to make those rerolled blanks anything but blanks.

The R7 droid will be one hell of a thing.

Agree w/ this. So in this case, it's effective if the Rookie wants to play a more defensive game.

Could also be fun on Luke, as the reroll coupled w/ his mini-focus increases the benefical impact of lowering the expected value of oncoming attacks. Then again, it vies for the same spot as R2-D2.

I'm wondering if R5-P9 is going to be better on Luke than R2-D2. Ignoring the round that Luke dies in, the only time he'll potentially need to spend his F for defense is if he rolled 3+ focuses and needed 2+ more evades. The first one is changed via his ability, the second one, unless it's preventing a crit, might as well just be used to regen a shield that can prevent a crit... meaning to come out ahead for spending the focus, he needs to roll 3+ eyes. And now he's not restricted to green maneuvers, though he is subject to action denial (unless you have a Garven/Kyle/Lando/PS9SL). It'll be interesting to try.

Garven + R2-D6 + Veteran Instincts is a nice complement to Luke + R5-P9, I think, and at 28 points he leaves you with room for a very nicely equipped E-wing, Cracken and a Rookie with 1 point left over (Draw Their Fire on Luke?), or 3 Bandits with 5 points left over.

Also... I misspoke earlier. A Focus action is slightly better than a TL action when attacking a ship with R7.

With a focus, R7 will reroll 75% of the dice (with the remaining 25% blank). Each reroll has a 75% of rolling a hit. .75 * .75 = .5625

With a TL, R7 will reroll 50% of the dice, with a 50% chance of getting a hit. Then you will reroll the remaining 50% with a 50% chance to hit. .5 * .5 + .5 * .5 = .50

This is where Wes Janson starts to come into his own. Combined with Tarn using an R7 droid, you can knock off that focus/TL token and force Tarn to become even tougher. You then use Tarn aggressively, putting him in situations where the enemy will want to shoot at him, but his natural defenses make him a bad choice whilst he gets to benefit from range one and two attacks.

Note... R7 basically undoes your action.

Think of it this way... if you TL'd as your action (which many understand to provide a comparable increase in damage to the focus)... Every die gets rerolled... from the initial roll, R7 rerolls the hits+crits, while the attacker rerolls the blanks+focii. The net result is every die is rerolled. As such, the R7 cancelled out your TL.

And this equates to be the same thing if the attacker took a focus action (it just isn't as obvious). Although if the results were hit focus blank, I could see just rerolling the hit, forcing him to spend his F on offensive (assuming you're returning fire afterwards).

Agreed - R7 will have some nice synergy with a few pilots like Tarn and Corran, I dreamed this up yesterday:

Corran Horn (32)

Fire Control System (2)

Marksmanship (3)

R7 Astromech (3)

Move and use Marksmanship action (marksmanship applies to all attacks in a turn, including the end phase). Attack, receive free TL. End phase, perform second attack with a TL and Marksmanship. If they survive, you get a SECOND Target lock! Which can be used defensively next turn!

Cons: Expensive.