Phantom

By Nyt, in X-Wing

I *really* want to know what Tactician does...

It does seem like they've left at least 1 card unspoiled in most of the reveals lately. A bunch of Droids were still unspoiled in the transport, and now Tactician.

And the E-wings dial. Because we know what all its cards do...

  • Stygium particle accelerator is an amazing buy at 2 points. If you use it once then you just spent 2 points instead of 3 or 4 for a hull / shield upgrade.

That modification is not limited to the TIE Phantom. Every ship may equip it. So I suppose we will see other ships with access to the cloak action.

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

Yup... Y wings will rule supreme in the new era! They can use their turret to actually be able to hit the phantom, and then the ionization will make impossible for them to decloak since they didn't reveal their dial... Which means that not only can they not do crazy stuff, but they can't shoot either! Taking an Ion shot is going to be the death of a phantom I feel. But, thankfully, if you go with a PS bid, then you should be able to get out of the way of the ICT almost every time since it's only R2, especially since you and BR 2, and then BR 1 more, for a total movement of 4, which is almost the full distance of R2, from BR alone! High PS is a requirement for a phantom then.

I wonder if Salm will start to see some play time?

Is it just me or did they really screw up the "possible locations" diagrams??

  • Stygium particle accelerator is an amazing buy at 2 points. If you use it once then you just spent 2 points instead of 3 or 4 for a hull / shield upgrade.
That modification is not limited to the TIE Phantom. Every ship may equip it. So I suppose we will see other ships with access to the cloak action.

Cue more Rogue Shadow speculation.

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

Yup... Y wings will rule supreme in the new era! They can use their turret to actually be able to hit the phantom, and then the ionization will make impossible for them to decloak since they didn't reveal their dial... Which means that not only can they not do crazy stuff, but they can't shoot either! Taking an Ion shot is going to be the death of a phantom I feel. But, thankfully, if you go with a PS bid, then you should be able to get out of the way of the ICT almost every time since it's only R2, especially since you and BR 2, and then BR 1 more, for a total movement of 4, which is almost the full distance of R2, from BR alone! High PS is a requirement for a phantom then.

I wonder if Salm will start to see some play time?

One can only hope.

Edited by WonderWAAAGH
  • Stygium particle accelerator is an amazing buy at 2 points. If you use it once then you just spent 2 points instead of 3 or 4 for a hull / shield upgrade.
That modification is not limited to the TIE Phantom. Every ship may equip it. So I suppose we will see other ships with access to the cloak action.

Is it just me or did they really screw up the "possible locations" diagrams??

Explain? Because I think you're worrying about the 2 Bank, and that's just fine.

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

This assumes however that you can hit the Phantom in the first place. That's 3 attack dice vs 4 defense dice. I'll have to look up the numbers later if both have focus.

Ion attack against a cloaked phantom: 3 red and 4 green dice.

Probability to hit:

3+F vs 4 59.8 %

3+F vs 4+F 27.0 %

3 vs 4 35.8 %

3 vs 4+F 12.4 %

3+F vs 4+E 28.3 %

3+F vs 4+F+E 7.2 %

3 vs 4+E 12.2 %

3 vs 4+F+E 2.6 %

Ion attacks have a good chance to miss.

Edited by dvor

Is it just me or did they really screw up the "possible locations" diagrams??

All the green, blue and purple boxes etc. in the first diagram show all the possible ending spots for all possible barrels rolls and maneuvers. They just didn't fill in all the possibilities with ship graphics because some would have overlapped, and probably would have overcluttered it.

Edited by Pygon

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

Not sure I follow. Decloaking isn't an action, and a 1-fwd maneuver's still a maneuver, isn't it?

Yup... Y wings will rule supreme in the new era!

I love Y-Wings, and they almost always have ion turrets on them. But lets look at the odds here.

You have a 3 dice range 1-2 attack vs 4 defense. You have around a 27% chance of landing a hit if the phantom uses a focus or evade.

So while Y-Wings have the best chance I don't think they'll be a hard counter to the Phantom.

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

Not sure I follow. Decloaking isn't an action, and a 1-fwd maneuver's still a maneuver, isn't it?

decloak.png

You don't reveal your maneuver dial when you have an Ion Token. Therefore this card text cannot trigger.

What I like most about the Phantom is that it drastically increases the value of ion weaponry in the upcoming meta. An ionized ship cannot decloak, and thus cannot shoot.

Not sure I follow. Decloaking isn't an action, and a 1-fwd maneuver's still a maneuver, isn't it?

Yup... Y wings will rule supreme in the new era!

I love Y-Wings, and they almost always have ion turrets on them. But lets look at the odds here.

You have a 3 dice range 1-2 attack vs 4 defense. You have around a 27% chance of landing a hit if the phantom uses a focus or evade.

So while Y-Wings have the best chance I don't think they'll be a hard counter to the Phantom.

Han Shoots first (or any YT-1300 with Gunner), however, might be.

Decloaking isn't an action, and a 1-fwd maneuver's still a maneuver, isn't it?

No, anytime the rules mention 'reveal your dial' then you can't do that if you're hit with a ion.

Yup... Y wings will rule supreme in the new era!

I love Y-Wings, and they almost always have ion turrets on them. But lets look at the odds here.

You have a 3 dice range 1-2 attack vs 4 defense. You have around a 27% chance of landing a hit if the phantom uses a focus or evade.

So while Y-Wings have the best chance I don't think they'll be a hard counter to the Phantom.

Han Shoots first (or any YT-1300 with Gunner), however, might be.

On another note. I've found my third favorite ship number. The Phantom comes with 42. So long and thanks for all the fish.

Edited by Aminar

Han Shoots first (or any YT-1300 with Gunner), however, might be.

Yeah but you're still looking at one attack vs a 2h 2s ship with 4 defense, and more importantly 4 attack. They're not quite the glass cannons that Interceptors are. They're less glass and more cannon.

Han Shoots first (or any YT-1300 with Gunner), however, might be.

Yeah but you're still looking at one attack vs a 2h 2s ship with 4 defense, and more importantly 4 attack. They're not quite the glass cannons that Interceptors are. They're less glass and more cannon.

Ish. They're still pretty glassy for the points. Just not as bad. But if they aren't cloaked when Han attacks they're in for some serious hurt.

Han Shoots first (or any YT-1300 with Gunner), however, might be.

Yeah but you're still looking at one attack vs a 2h 2s ship with 4 defense, and more importantly 4 attack. They're not quite the glass cannons that Interceptors are. They're less glass and more cannon.

Han will probably be shooting at 2 defense, they have to decloak to shoot, and we all know Han shoots first.

And so continues Han ruining the fun of imperial players.

Let's be fair, the odds of hitting a Phantom with "only" three dice does not diminish the value of ion weaponry; it diminishes the value of every ship. Up until now, the major disadvantage of an ion weapon was that it capped at only one damage. If the odds of hitting with a primary weapon are similarly low, you probably shouldn't hope to land more than one damage anyways. And let's not forget that ion weaponry is already being used, albeit in no great numbers. I always equip Dutch with an ICT, and I never fly him without Garven, Kyle, or Lando in tow. This may not be cause to suddenly include ion weapons in every list, but those already using them will find a dramatic increase in utility.

Edited by WonderWAAAGH

Also on separate note I remember certain people complaining because they are "fragile" however you put a hull upgrade on one and it becomes an xwing durability wise. Sure it cost 30 pts but a naked wedge costs 29 so for 1 point more your shooting 4 dice and gain the cloaking ability. Most people will put an astromech on wedge tho so he's usually costing around 32 or 33 pts from what I've experienced thus far so your actually coming out a little ahead unless you want pilot text abilities. Echo is 30 and plus a hull upgrade is right around where wedge would be with upgrades. Just my 2 cents, I see where people might think the phantom is glass cannon but personally I find that being not the case. Even naked it's still better than an awing, same stats as far as hull and shields except 2 more attack plus cloaking. I dunno I don't see it being as fragile as some people might think

****, Echo is going to be one slippery ship. I love it.

Also good to see the point costs of the Modifications. I like the costs of the Stygium Accelerator and the Advanced Cloaking Device. Gives you some extra room to trick out your Phantom. Bring on the PS bids.

Ion has always been useful; the Phantom does not appreciably up that by itself. What does up that is increased ways to deliver stress (most notably the uber-cheap and uber-effective Flechette Torpedo) that compounds the Ion effect. High PS Phantoms will be able to reliably maneuver past/away most Ion arcs/ranges via decloak/move/barrel rolls as well. Where it will be more effective, IMO, is deterring the Phantom from the 5-dice sniper shot into the tailpipe when an Ion may zap it right back and leave it vulnerable.

I agree Ions will be helpful. But the range two limitation will hurt against Phantoms. And it doesn't get bonuses at range 1.