Hey guys just putting my two cents in for the forums.

Turns out that the combo does work for phatoms quite well. Often you roll 1 or 2 hits (average) with a focus thrown in there. This makes it possible for almost all ships to evade expecially at range 3 or ships with a stealth device and/or a token.

In all the games I used this combo gunner has either destroyed the ship or allowed me to put damage on set ship.

I recommend only 3 ships have the upgrade however.

Sigma Squadron Pilot, as they shoot @ ps3 and need to put on damage as much as possible

Or

Whisper- Load whisper up with Advanced cloaking device, Vi, Gunner, FCS. It is a big point investment but you do get your weight in damage and a free focus/cloak after you attack. Once you have your TL you won't use gunner much until the targeted ship is dead but even still, you are able to reroll all of your first shot then gain the TL and gunner again, maximizing your damage potential.

Echo can be suited well if you run it right, use his ability and put an engine upgrade on him, making him almost impossible to figure out his final position. Give him VI (just to help), and gunner/fcs. This allows him to roll all over the board and use his action with boost. Shoot miss get your lock/second attack and you are good to go.

I don't recommend the middle tier guys simply because they are shooting in the middle of the pack at PS5. Give them SPA so they get that evade to use early or later in the shooting phase.

I rather fancy whisper with Recon Spec for enhanced defense. With FCS TL and focus for attack, gunner is rarely going to be needed.

The extra focus for defense might just be golden though.

Why would you even consider engine upgrade on a phantom? Advanced Cloaking is way better because its movement with the 2 template and gives you +2 green dice for the same cost!

I rather fancy whisper with Recon Spec for enhanced defense. With FCS TL and focus for attack, gunner is rarely going to be needed.

The extra focus for defense might just be golden though.

See I thought that as well, but Gunner really does kick in, even with 4/5 attack die sometimes you just want to negate that bad roll or good defense roll with a second shot.

Why would you even consider engine upgrade on a phantom? Advanced Cloaking is way better because its movement with the 2 template and gives you +2 green dice for the same cost!

Because once echo gets in a crazy position he can stay there, now that you have EU you can stay out of arc without the need of cloak, and if you do need it just cloak again. Echo has too low a PS to use a cloak like whisper does. Plus with this maneuver requirement it could be hard to stay on your target.

Why would you even consider engine upgrade on a phantom? Advanced Cloaking is way better because its movement with the 2 template and gives you +2 green dice for the same cost!

Because once echo gets in a crazy position he can stay there, now that you have EU you can stay out of arc without the need of cloak, and if you do need it just cloak again. Echo has too low a PS to use a cloak like whisper does. Plus with this maneuver requirement it could be hard to stay on your target.

The PS difference is only 1 pt...not that big a deal.

I haven't had any troubles keeping on target with Echo vs any sized ships and that's using Adv. cloak every single round. Granted I've only done some testing and haven't had any real matches, but still, I find Echo is the hardest of the phantoms to block/counter movement, so Advanced cloaking seems a no brainer to me...

Whisper- Load whisper up with Advanced cloaking device, Vi, Gunner, FCS. It is a big point investment but you do get your weight in damage and a free focus/cloak after you attack. Once you have your TL you won't use gunner much until the targeted ship is dead but even still, you are able to reroll all of your first shot then gain the TL and gunner again, maximizing your damage potential.

Thats nearly 50 points for a ship that can blow up in a single attack. No thanks.

Thanks for testing this and sharing the results. I'll definitely give it a try. It makes sense to me. I've had plenty of Range 1 Buzzsaw Shuttle shots roll all blanks or focus, only to turn the shot into something huge.

Consistent damage output will be dire to making the points into the Phantom worthwhile. Cloak or engine should be enough for arc dodging, etc.

Buzzsaw Phantoms work beautifully, but suffer more than the traditional variety against ships with 1-2 agility. Still, with 4 attack dice and a second (target-locked) attack if the first didn't hit, who needs offensive actions? The downside of this build is literally "I deal so much damage that I accidentally damage ships before I intended to", which is a Core Planet Problem if I ever heard one.

Hypermobile Phantoms work beautifully (Adv. Sensors to Cloak before your maneuver, so you can spend the resulting Cloak token before your maneuver, on top of the traditional B-Wing stuff, and that's BEFORE adding an Intelligence Agent or a Navigator to the mix). If they ever have a shot at you with a non-Falcon ship, you're flying it wrong.

Omnicloak 6000 Phantoms work beautifully, with either of the cloak-based Modifications alongside, say, a Saboteur (Still be able to do damage while unable to fire), or other shenanigan co-pilots.

Unhittable Phantoms work beautifully (Ever tried to shoot something with 4-7 agility dice when they've got a Sensor Jammer AND a Flight Instructor?)

To me, Phantoms are just incredible, until someone starts chucking Proton Bombs.

P ^roton B ^ombs _~~~~~

^~~~~~ B ecause D amage.

Whisper- Load whisper up with Advanced cloaking device, Vi, Gunner, FCS. It is a big point investment but you do get your weight in damage and a free focus/cloak after you attack. Once you have your TL you won't use gunner much until the targeted ship is dead but even still, you are able to reroll all of your first shot then gain the TL and gunner again, maximizing your damage potential.

Thats nearly 50 points for a ship that can blow up in a single attack. No thanks.

There is a counter to this, you can 1 shot an x-wing, a hwk, any of the TIE Fighter/Advanced/Interceptor. And you can strip the shields completely off of a falcon. The damage tadeoff is good as long as you get to actually shoot

Yeah but the 50 point Falcon still has 8 hull, while your expensive phantom is watching the rest of the game on the sidelines. I'm not saying don't run it, but its a hell of a gamble if you can't take out 50 points worth of stuff with your single Phantom.