Agreed. His PS of 6 is what brings balance to Echo (like anakin to the force). We'll thought out so even VI only makes him 8.

You don't need a lot. Even if he gets the barrel roll in there, he would have to eyeball his maneuver and then hope he doesn't bump. Even then, if he stays in range at that time and god forbid decloaks and doesn't recloak then he's at close range with the attacker with possibly an extra attack dice and maybe you're down to only two defense dice (PS dependent).

There's a lot of open space between each of the positions. If you want to block 4 of his decloaking positions you need a lot of hardware flying around. Especially because 4 of the 6 can shift a little.

And that's if he decloaks of course, he might just decide to not decloak and take his maneuver if he sees his desirable options are blocked, possibly staying inside the cordon which is facing in different directions. Ready to open up on his blocker at almost touching distance. The next turn.

Total Phantom hate list: 2x gold squadron with ion turret, Biggs with R2-D2, Roark with Ion turret. Put biggs in the middle and move slowly forward, waiting for poor phantoms to come close

Echo should be able to maneuver so that he has shots without having Biggs in arc. I think Ion missiles and Flechettes are going to be the dearth of Phantoms. You can't decloak if you don't show a dial. No decloaking = no shooting and no flitting about.

Total Phantom hate list: 2x gold squadron with ion turret, Biggs with R2-D2, Roark with Ion turret. Put biggs in the middle and move slowly forward, waiting for poor phantoms to come close

ion turrets can be of some help, but you will always attack with 3 dices, and the phantom, with advanced cloacking will defend with 4...

and the phantom doen't need to use Veteran Instinct...

If you hit the phantom... is only luck, because it is not very probable...

And never see the light of day in the tournament scene...

Can I do what, kill a Phantom in 1.5 turns? It's pure luck of the draw. Half the time yes, I'm pretty sure I can obliterate a 4 HP ship in two turns or less, even with four evade dice. The Phantom is a ship with a high skill cap, but it's still very much a risk/reward proposition. Any time you field one, you're betting that you can fly it well enough to either keep it out of my arcs, or keep it cloaked, shooting, and successfully rolling evades all at the same time. The question is, are four red dice and that kind of mobility worth risking such an expensive, fragile ship? That's a question people are going to have to find out for themselves.

People tell me the same thing about Interceptors, that I'm foolish to use them, foolish to load so many points on someone like Soontir Fel, how easy they are to kill with Ion cannons… yet for all their boasting, I have a higher success rate (somewhere around 80 percent, or 1 loss for every 4 wins) success rate with them. So yes, I believe I am good enough to fly it well and keep it out of arcs or make sure it lines up such a solid shot on someone that they won't get to return fire. ever. I'm not going to get into a specific "my dad can beat up your dad" discussion with you because I don't know you or how good you are or how you play. But in general, yeah, I have absolutely no trouble with Y-Wing/Ion Turret builds because I evade like crazy and focus those wub wubs down. I can usually at least manage a double strafe with Soontir, and usually Carnor Jax to boot.

Now, this new fangled Phantom doesn't have quite the dial that the Interceptors do, but it also won't rely quite so much on stress, and its decloak is liable to lend it a similar air of "choose your engagement" mobility. Will I have my bad games? Certainly. Will I lose one in a single shot? Yeah, sure, probably a few times. Will I be able to pay skillfully enough to mitigate my weaknesses much more often than not? Yeah, most likely.

Total Phantom hate list: 2x gold squadron with ion turret, Biggs with R2-D2, Roark with Ion turret. Put biggs in the middle and move slowly forward, waiting for poor phantoms to come close

Wow. What a toughie. How could I beat that list? I know... by staying at range 3. Job done.

Total Phantom hate list: 2x gold squadron with ion turret, Biggs with R2-D2, Roark with Ion turret. Put biggs in the middle and move slowly forward, waiting for poor phantoms to come close

Wow. What a toughie. How could I beat that list? I know... by staying at range 3. Job done.

The Phantom can also one shot Biggs at R1. Depending on your build, the Phantom could then be re-cloaked with evade and focus token at the ready before the Golds even get a chance to fire back at the Phantom.

This IS the turret solution the Imperial players have been waiting for.

Total Phantom hate list: 2x gold squadron with ion turret, Biggs with R2-D2, Roark with Ion turret. Put biggs in the middle and move slowly forward, waiting for poor phantoms to come close

Wow. What a toughie. How could I beat that list? I know... by staying at range 3. Job done.

Yeah, the list would be a pain to go against if you were running 3 phantoms. But running 3 phantoms would be kind of silly I think. So I'm going to try to keep my Phantom at range 3 and out of Bigg's firing arc and with the other 60-65 points of ship I am going to ram them down your throat.

Removed for epic derpiness.

If you hit the phantom... is only luck, because it is not very probable...

Actually it is.

You have a 35% chance of landing one hit against a cloaked Phantom with 3 unmodified dice, if the phantom doesn't have a focus or evade token. You have a 12% chance to hit if it has one or the othet.

The odds go up quite a bit from there, if the attacker has a Focus or TL. So it's not like you're looking at a 1-1,000 shot here.

It's important to keep in mind that as long as it's cloaked, it can't shoot, so it's 4 attack dice might as well be 0.

As soon as it decloaks it becomes a lot easier to hit.

I think Navigator might be useful on the Phantom, if it gets blocked from Decloaking left and doing a right turn, it can decloak right and do a left turn.

That's not how Navigator works, you're thinking of Boba Fett's ability.

Navigator changes speed, not the arrow.

I think Navigator might be useful on the Phantom, if it gets blocked from Decloaking left and doing a right turn, it can decloak right and do a left turn.

That's not how Navigator works, you're thinking of Boba Fett's ability.

Navigator changes speed, not the arrow.

Oops. Epic derp. Removing comment now.

If you hit the phantom... is only luck, because it is not very probable...

Actually it is.

You have a 35% chance of landing one hit against a cloaked Phantom with 3 unmodified dice, if the phantom doesn't have a focus or evade token. You have a 12% chance to hit if it has one or the othet.

The odds go up quite a bit from there, if the attacker has a Focus or TL. So it's not like you're looking at a 1-1,000 shot here.

It's important to keep in mind that as long as it's cloaked, it can't shoot, so it's 4 attack dice might as well be 0.

As soon as it decloaks it becomes a lot easier to hit.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

If you hit the phantom... is only luck, because it is not very probable...

Actually it is.

You have a 35% chance of landing one hit against a cloaked Phantom with 3 unmodified dice, if the phantom doesn't have a focus or evade token. You have a 12% chance to hit if it has one or the othet.

The odds go up quite a bit from there, if the attacker has a Focus or TL. So it's not like you're looking at a 1-1,000 shot here.

It's important to keep in mind that as long as it's cloaked, it can't shoot, so it's 4 attack dice might as well be 0.

As soon as it decloaks it becomes a lot easier to hit.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

Beyond that, a bad manuever leading to a collision, and not being able to attack leaves the Phantom open. As does getting ionized while cloaked. The list goes on. There will be turns a Phantom cannot attack.

4 Def dice is always nice, especially with a Focus or Evade. But, as I've seen from Fel, that is no guarantee. The extra 1 HP will help prevent one shots, but a Phantom can still take a nasty hit.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

If it works out that you can use advance sensors to cloak and then immediately decloak I plan to run sigma or shadow squadrons with stygian particle accelerators. You get the boosted mobility and a free evade token and can fire every round. I am hoping that with just the decloak movement I can dodge arcs well enough to only have a single ship ever firing at a phantom.

I agree that whisper and echo will most likely always have advanced cloaking device though.

If you have, as the defender, forced the phantom to 'wait to attack the. Ext round' you're doing the next best thing than getting an attack yourself. You've than caused 40% of his force to not attack. Talk about breaking up focused fire! Allow you too to focus fire on what other academy pilots or who ever they have flitting around.

I understand that the dials can be shifted to squeeze a phantom into that side with bad guys waiting there, but should a smart phantom driver want to do that? As a phantom driver do you want to get in close to a force where they could have multiple attacks against you? For every one attack you may have, even at range one making it five dice for a max potential damage, the rebels could put more dice back on you in multiple attacks over muptiple platforms. The way to keep the phantom alive is staying out of firing arcs, period. But keeping the phantom alive and winning the match are different things. You could keep echo alive only to have the rest of your forced chipped away. Then where are you at when it's 3 or 4 on one.

I would like it to work, and I hope the meta migrates toward fewer, higher skilled pilots, just don't know if it will.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

There will be plenty of lists out there that can't find room for a 4 point upgrade. Also it's not like even with ACD it's never going to get shot at when it only has 2 evade dice.

But the point is, your statement about it being pure luck is simply untrue, even with 4 dice and a focus or evade the odds aren't that bad on getting a hit in.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

If it works out that you can use advance sensors to cloak and then immediately decloak I plan to run sigma or shadow squadrons with stygian particle accelerators. You get the boosted mobility and a free evade token and can fire every round. I am hoping that with just the decloak movement I can dodge arcs well enough to only have a single ship ever firing at a phantom.

I agree that whisper and echo will most likely always have advanced cloaking device though.

So at a minimum cost of 30 points, you get a free (large) barrel roll or boost every round, plus an evade token--but it's attached to a ship with the same durability as a Headhunter, and you'll never have a focus or target lock to modify your attacks. It could work, but it's going to be rough going if you can't dodge arcs with the decloak.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

If it works out that you can use advance sensors to cloak and then immediately decloak I plan to run sigma or shadow squadrons with stygian particle accelerators. You get the boosted mobility and a free evade token and can fire every round. I am hoping that with just the decloak movement I can dodge arcs well enough to only have a single ship ever firing at a phantom. (although a 40 point Phantom with Higher PS, with 5 Academies might be a safer bet...)

I agree that whisper and echo will most likely always have advanced cloaking device though.

So at a minimum cost of 30 points, you get a free (large) barrel roll or boost every round, plus an evade token--but it's attached to a ship with the same durability as a Headhunter, and you'll never have a focus or target lock to modify your attacks. It could work, but it's going to be rough going if you can't dodge arcs with the decloak.

No one will use tie-phantom without Advanced cloacking device...

So it will never be 0 attack dices...

If it works out that you can use advance sensors to cloak and then immediately decloak I plan to run sigma or shadow squadrons with stygian particle accelerators. You get the boosted mobility and a free evade token and can fire every round. I am hoping that with just the decloak movement I can dodge arcs well enough to only have a single ship ever firing at a phantom.

I agree that whisper and echo will most likely always have advanced cloaking device though.

So at a minimum cost of 30 points, you get a free (large) barrel roll or boost every round, plus an evade token--but it's attached to a ship with the same durability as a Headhunter, and you'll never have a focus or target lock to modify your attacks. It could work, but it's going to be rough going if you can't dodge arcs with the decloak.

I realize that if it turns out that I can't arc dodge well enough with it or I am just not good enough to pull it off I will change builds and tactics. I am hoping unpredictability will help. Aminar layed out the strategy pretty well. Though I personally will probably stay away from a phantom + mini swarm I have horrible luck running swarm.

Edit: On a somewhat different note. I imagine flying phantoms will have a similar goal to interceptors even if its done in a different fashion. Pick your shots and arc dodge, try and manage no shots or a single shot on your ship. There will be turns where you don't get a shot either because arc dodging leaves you no shot or because you want to stay cloaked but when running interceptors there are times that arc dodging leaves you with no shot as well. Having no shot isn't the end of the world unless you are getting shot. As for turrets Phantoms will deal have to deal with them the same way as an interceptor either stay out of range(not my method but its been mentioned) or obliterate said ship and with 4 dice instead of 3 on the attack it will be a little easier.

As for lists tailor made to destroy any one ship or list I think its a little silly and maybe a little vindictive. If you are playing casual and you know your opponent is only fielding a single ship type and you tailor your list to beat his that isn't exactly a friendly game unless they are better then you. In a tournament you will probably lose unless the list you built to counter dominates the meta. If you get lucky enough to pair against the one list your list is meant to beat and get the win it kind of sucks for the guy who was unlucky enough to play against you. That's my two cents for now.

Even in a turretless list the phantom won't be terribly hard to get in arc, Loose formations, try to get your in own ships in their squad mates arcs, and other methods of covering as much ground as possible. The phantom is fragile. It's health is not great and if it isn't cloaked due to say... wanting to shoot it has middling agility. That means focus fire isn't quite as needed as it is against other ships.

Other anti-phantom tactics, shoot at it when you can but never chase, two of an missile or torpedo combo to the face.

Turrets of course will still be great against it, even the humble blaster turret should do decent, 1.5 average damage on an attack against, even with cloaking what will be roughly 4/3 of an evade per unmodified defense, and it will probably be unmodified since their actions will mostly be spent cloaking.

It's funny how people are saying the Y-wings will die in two turns to Phantoms, that would require perfect rolls on the phantom's part and poor rolls on the y's part. But if the reverse happened the Y could down the phantom just as quickly with only primaries. Worse odds but if we are talking best case scenarios then it stands, and a Y, even kitted out with a ion turret and a torpedo, is much cheaper than a same skill band phantom, so the numbers game will go to them more often then not.

The phantom is incredible, but it's not unbeatable, it's not that scary all things considered, and once the dust settles those that can fly it well will love it and those that can't will consider it overhyped junk.

Just like every other ship.

No, no, no. All Imperial ships are overhyped junk, whereas Rebel ships are the bastion of powercreep. Or so I've learned from the forums.

I'm eager to try it out. The combinations of it's actions and available upgrades means there are some very, very interesting combos that can happen. I just wish we knew what Tactician does. And having had fun with Firesprays w/Heavy Laser Cannons, I look forward to using a ship with a base 4 Atk.

Well, this was the last preview article, "Release the Wave!"