So I'm looking for some feedback on a list I was thinking of running when the Z-95's are released.

Airen Cracken - Veteran Instincts

Lieutenant Blount - Assault Missiles

Wedge - Expose

Biggs

I was mainly debating between Assault missiles and Ion Pulse, but I was also considering dropping Blount and Expose for 2 Bandit Squad. Let me know what you think.

Well no one has played Zs yet so its hard to give reliable feedback on their effectiveness.

Expose is generally regarded as being pants though.

The limitations of Expose are not exaggerated. However, Cracken may able to give it some value.

I've thought about similar lists, and like berusplants said- no one has played it, so who knows. It is interesting to see how their low points cost play into a 100 point squad.

I'm sure people are running wave 4 in vassel, but I haven't heard how they've faired yet.

The limitations of Expose are not exaggerated. However, Cracken may able to give it some value.

He's only slightly better with it than a Gunner'd ship. I'd rather have Marksmanship, which buffs both attacks, and better than Expose does anyway, and doesn't actively nerf your denese, and costs 1 point less.

The only time that Expose would be worth any points at all to me is if I want one of my ships to have fewer agility than it currently possesses. Can't think of any times that's been the case, so I'd say this is an un-comboable suck.

So I take it you're using the VI to boost Cracken so he can give an action to Wedge during combat who then takes Expose, having focused in the previous phase.

But Expose is Not A Good Thing ®. Even as a free action when you can tell wether or not wedge needs his agility.

If you drop Blount and his missiles, and give Biggs R5-P9 for some extra durability you have 19 points to play with.

That could get you a naked Roark to up somebodies PS to 12, enabling you to drop the VI from Cracken who only needs it to stay ahead of Wedge. Now, as long as Roark stays alive you can boost PS as needed, giving Biggs some more teeth for instance.

Just a bit more flexibility as you can now boost anybody should you decide that Cracken won't be giving his action to Wedge but to Biggs so Biggs can get a TL and a Focus.

You still have a point left, so you might take VI on Cracken still as insurance against Roark's demise, or opt for an R2 on Wedge, an Intelligence Agent on Roark or just plain old inititive bid.

The limitations of Expose are not exaggerated. However, Cracken may able to give it some value.

He's only slightly better with it than a Gunner'd ship. I'd rather have Marksmanship, which buffs both attacks, and better than Expose does anyway, and doesn't actively nerf your denese, and costs 1 point less.

The only time that Expose would be worth any points at all to me is if I want one of my ships to have fewer agility than it currently possesses. Can't think of any times that's been the case, so I'd say this is an un-comboable suck.

I don't think it's a great value, but it is more value than it previously had. Regarding your comments that there is no time you would sacrifice defense dice for offense, I disagree. There are often times when you aren't getting return fire (either because you are out of arcs or because you'll kill what can shoot you before it fires). In these cases I would drop all of my defense dice fire offense dice; just not at the expense of a better action.

With the above squad, Wedge take a TL or Focus, then after Cracken shoots Wedge can either take the other action, or if he's not getting shot at, he can get a bonus dice. For 4 points, doing this once is equal to having a proton torpedo. Doing it twice makes it a decent value. The Cracken benefits are still very viable even when not using Expose though.

To me, the problem is that it cost your EPS for a very situational event. In those right situations though, it has some value.

Let me explain my choice of Expose since that seems to be getting a lot of attention. The math I did showed that Focus + Expose = 74% chance to 3 or more damage. Focus(Marksmanship) + Target Lock is 84% chance to do 3 damage. The trade off is a roughly 23% reduction in evasion. The main thing is I can do either of those, depending on the situation. My math is not the super best and I really just muddled my way through it all, so if someone who is better at math than me would like to correct my numbers, please feel free.

The limitations of Expose are not exaggerated. However, Cracken may able to give it some value.

He's only slightly better with it than a Gunner'd ship. I'd rather have Marksmanship, which buffs both attacks, and better than Expose does anyway, and doesn't actively nerf your denese, and costs 1 point less.

The only time that Expose would be worth any points at all to me is if I want one of my ships to have fewer agility than it currently possesses. Can't think of any times that's been the case, so I'd say this is an un-comboable suck.

Marksmanship is great. I mainly didn't take it because I feel it is more of an anti-swarm ability. It does great against TIE's but doesn't really hold up so well against rebels(particularly the B-Wing). I fealt that Blount was really giving swarms enough headaches that marksmanship would be overkill. Against B-wings and large ships I felt that Expose's flexibility would be better.

Expose, as an action, is bad. Taking either focus or target lock will always result in more damage for any attack value greater than 2 (at 2 attack it's a wash except focus can be used defensively - so you're basically giving up extra defense for zero attack bonus).

Also, if you have two actions damage expectation at 3ATK from F+TL is about .5 more than from +1ATK+(F or TL). That's not even considering the downside from losing an AGI.

Expose only starts to gain damage benefits when you have 3 actions. I think Opportunist is straight better and will probably be more effective more often (and doesn't require an action).

(www.xwingdice.com if you want to play with stuff yourself)

So I take it you're using the VI to boost Cracken so he can give an action to Wedge during combat who then takes Expose, having focused in the previous phase.

But Expose is Not A Good Thing ®. Even as a free action when you can tell wether or not wedge needs his agility.

If you drop Blount and his missiles, and give Biggs R5-P9 for some extra durability you have 19 points to play with.

That could get you a naked Roark to up somebodies PS to 12, enabling you to drop the VI from Cracken who only needs it to stay ahead of Wedge. Now, as long as Roark stays alive you can boost PS as needed, giving Biggs some more teeth for instance.

Just a bit more flexibility as you can now boost anybody should you decide that Cracken won't be giving his action to Wedge but to Biggs so Biggs can get a TL and a Focus.

You still have a point left, so you might take VI on Cracken still as insurance against Roark's demise, or opt for an R2 on Wedge, an Intelligence Agent on Roark or just plain old inititive bid.

My problem with Roark is that in my list he really isn't that flexible. If I want to give 2 actions to Biggs, I have to give the PS buff to either Cracken or Wedge. That's pretty much all he does is let me give PS 12 to Wedge who I don't feel really needs it for the most part.

Hello,

If you want to play with this list use this link :

http://fabpsb.free.fr/permalink.php?sq=r33m8r34g3r5m9r2

and click on the tranfer feature.

bye !

Expose, as an action, is bad. Taking either focus or target lock will always result in more damage for any attack value greater than 2 (at 2 attack it's a wash except focus can be used defensively - so you're basically giving up extra defense for zero attack bonus).

Also, if you have two actions damage expectation at 3ATK from F+TL is about .5 more than from +1ATK+(F or TL). That's not even considering the downside from losing an AGI.

Expose only starts to gain damage benefits when you have 3 actions. I think Opportunist is straight better and will probably be more effective more often (and doesn't require an action).

(www.xwingdice.com if you want to play with stuff yourself)

Thanks for the link mege, my math was wrong and it looks like everybody knew it but me.

My problem with Roark is that in my list he really isn't that flexible. If I want to give 2 actions to Biggs, I have to give the PS buff to either Cracken or Wedge. That's pretty much all he does is let me give PS 12 to Wedge who I don't feel really needs it for the most part.

But it's not always about the second action, sometimes it's about blasting at Soontir with Biggs before he shoots you, which should be rather unexpected. It's about making your opponent's life difficult because now he has to take into account that any ship might shoot before he does and that influences his maneuvering and actions, that's the beauty of Roark. Rule through the fear of force, rather than force itself.

Especially if you add VI to Cracken. Is Biggs going to get a lock to accompany his focus? Is Wedge going to add insult to injury by exposing himself and turn his enemy's green into a red for him? Or is any one of them going to open up full blast before you even realize what just happened?

Expose only starts to gain damage benefits when you have 3 actions. I think Opportunist is straight better and will probably be more effective more often (and doesn't require an action).

I'm intrigued though by the use of Expose as a free action during combat, which makes its use rather more like opportunist. You may choose to use it if you know that losing the agility won't harm you and in that case it'd be better than ending up with a stress token the next turn.

That might increase the usefulness of Expose in Epic games as well, come to think of it, with a transport coordinating when the board is known you might minimize risks.

My problem with Roark is that in my list he really isn't that flexible. If I want to give 2 actions to Biggs, I have to give the PS buff to either Cracken or Wedge. That's pretty much all he does is let me give PS 12 to Wedge who I don't feel really needs it for the most part.

But it's not always about the second action, sometimes it's about blasting at Soontir with Biggs before he shoots you, which should be rather unexpected. It's about making your opponent's life difficult because now he has to take into account that any ship might shoot before he does and that influences his maneuvering and actions, that's the beauty of Roark. Rule through the fear of force, rather than force itself.

Especially if you add VI to Cracken. Is Biggs going to get a lock to accompany his focus? Is Wedge going to add insult to injury by exposing himself and turn his enemy's green into a red for him? Or is any one of them going to open up full blast before you even realize what just happened?

You make good points, still I don't think he's worth what I lose with Blount and his Assault Missiles. I feel like he'll force my opponents to either break up their formations or have to decide who to kill first, Wedge or Blount. Granted that decision becomes a no brainer after Blount has fired his missiles. All that being said, Roark is not something I had considered before and is definitely worth some play testing to see how things go.