Ok, I haven't slept,and by the time it was the final round I was dead tired.

The TO gave us the option to play the final game, or we could just pick and call it a day.

I had to play.

Anyway he chose rebels which left me the Imps.

By the last round I was making some bad mistakes. He had biggs,a rookie and one of each ship against my defender, shuttle and phantom.

Long story short. It came down to my phantom to his 4 ships.

That thing was awesome. Managed to get in some range 1 shots, took out biggs and rookie pilot,all while managing to stay out of his archs. He never knew where I was going to end up (along with myself at times)

Though if your using the advance cloak device, make sure you get a shot.

This is where I made a crucial mistake with the Phantom.

I decloaked without able to get a shot which left vulnerable as I was not able to cloak again till my next action.

It is a lot of points 35 total for echo, vi,and advanced cloa, but man this thing was deadly. In all honesty I didn't really care about flying the defender add much as the Phantom.

Everyone watching was quite impressed in the flying capabilities of the Phantom.

This ship can just about single handedly take on a rebel fleet imo.

So for those who haven't seen it until now, what did you think?

I haven't gotten to see it in action, we did our thing a bit differently. Top 4 made their picks first, and then the two lads at the final table got to use only one of the new ships (in this case it was Phantom and E-Wing) while i played my first ever round with my new Defender. However, I really really really can't wait for my preorder to come in so i can give it a try. I'm honestly not sure which named pilot I want to try more. Whisper for his might or Echo for his slippery-ness.

Im already planning on running BOTH named Phantoms with VI, Advanced Cloak alongside a Shuttle with Double Stress-giver crewmember fellas (extra points spread where i can. (Rebel Captive etc))

This ships Firepower along with its unpredictability is rediculous. Its almost a bad idea to fly in formation against this thing, You kinda have to spread out to cover as much as you can because once its behind you its very difficult to get it back in your sights. Only real shot is to just focus it down as fast as possible or stress it.

Well echo imo is awesome.

He really takes some practice,but just so many options.

Plus the 4 attack dice. Really gives your opponent simmering to fear.

Unpredictable,and pans a punch.

I definitely want a second. Have echo flank and whisper come from the side

Im already planning on running BOTH named Phantoms with VI, Advanced Cloak alongside a Shuttle with Double Stress-giver crewmember fellas (extra points spread where i can. (Rebel Captive etc))

This ships Firepower along with its unpredictability is rediculous. Its almost a bad idea to fly in formation against this thing, You kinda have to spread out to cover as much as you can because once its behind you its very difficult to get it back in your sights. Only real shot is to just focus it down as fast as possible or stress it.

Im already planning on running BOTH named Phantoms with VI, Advanced Cloak alongside a Shuttle with Double Stress-giver crewmember fellas (extra points spread where i can. (Rebel Captive etc))

This ships Firepower along with its unpredictability is rediculous. Its almost a bad idea to fly in formation against this thing, You kinda have to spread out to cover as much as you can because once its behind you its very difficult to get it back in your sights. Only real shot is to just focus it down as fast as possible or stress it.

I didnt encounter any but Turrets will be is main weakness

Yeah but thats a given. Turrets are a pain to any Squadron thats main style is out manoeuvre its opponents but the Phantom's 4 defence dice (plus Focus/Evade etc) should help with that a little.

Ya, unless your like me and roll 4-5 evade dice and get all blanks.

Times like that I want to throw dice through a wall

I got to play with Echo in the final round and I loved his ability. Although I am not sure if i was using his ability correctly as I was treating the 2 bank template like Lorrir's barrel roll ability and flipping the template forwards and backwards.

Either way I was super maneuverable and took down my opponents fleet down really quick leaving his e-wing to my delta, academy, howlrunner and echo.

I ended up losing Echo to being point blank with the E-wing and getting terrible roll from my five dice and then forgetting to use my advanced cloaking device. Blew him away with his four dice and my two hull remaining

All in all I did really enjoy playing Echo and the phantom and ended up taking that one home as my choice

Excellent choice

After it was all over I was really hoping first place wouldn't pick him lol.

Luckily for me he took the ewing

I had a horrible experience with echo. No prior practice with the phantom, and haven't really flown elite interceptors either. With the 2 bank moves I was having a hard time visualizing in my head where I'd end up for some reason. By the time I sort of figured it out I was dead without getting a shot off.

I played Whisper in the final round. Having the advanced cloaking device is the best upgrade for a phantom by far! I had the highest PS so she cloaked after attacking. And most of the time i was range 1 with no shots back because of the unpredictabilty. If I had better dice rolls (1 hit with 5 attack dice) I would've won easily. Winner took the ewing and I took the Phantom.

I played rebels in the final round (much to my chagrin). My Z-95 head hunter managed to land a range 3 shot through an asteroid at a cloaked Echo. I rolled 1 hit and he rolled all blanks and eye balls on 6 dice!

Seriously though, the Phantom is a game changer. I'm so glad I won one at the first event I went to.

I got to use the phantom with echo and dang he is good. However I had a hard time wrapping my head around his movement and that meant he lost his shields early without being able to shoot back. He didnt live many turns after that but the few shots he got off was seven shades of deadly. I lost and got second but my opponent wanted the E wing so I got the Phantom as second pick. Seriously, to be able to use a phantom properly you need to plan at least three moves ahead, preferably more.

Ya, unless your like me and roll 4-5 evade dice and get all blanks.

Times like that I want to throw dice through a wall

Take one, slow burn it in front of the others. Then show them what you want to come up on the dice.

At the Imdaar Alpha event I was at, the Phantom got shot down without ever getting a shot off.

I saw Whisper murder the opponent's squad. 2 B-wings, Etahn, and Blount. It was brutal to watch. There is going to be a period of adjustment to the Phantom. Sure, Turrets will be handy, but I think that you just need to scatter to have a variety of arcs to lock down a Phantom.

I ran Whisper with Vet instincts and Advanced Cloak.

Along with Shuttle, Advanced Sensors, Engine Upgrade, and Tactician(should have had FCS on Whisper.)

And Gamma Sqaud with the Ion turret.

I didn't play that hard, but Whisper was an absolute Beast.

My Opponent Ran Chewie with Han+something, Etahn with Advanced Sensors and Push, and the 4PS Z-95.

I think if Whisper hadn't made a few mistakes she could have taken his squad. My other two ships got Chewie down to 3 Hull and Whisper Ko'd him. But then I turned into the E-Wing, couldn't cloak or shoot, was down an agility thanks to a crit, and got Killed y a z-95.

I didn't especially care about the game, as he wanted the E-Wing and I wanted the Phantom, but he was going to take the Defender if the E-Wing lost him the match. Either way though, Whisper was an absolute beast. I'm afraid to see what Phantoms are going to do to the Meta...

Ya, phantoms are a game changer.

I wonder when they come out. It'll be fun flying circles around my buddies until these are released.

I've been trying to come up with a competitive build which includes echo, with either anther phantom /bounty hunter. Or interceptor. Then use ties as a filler

i took home a phantom tonight, i was at the top of my group of players and chose rebels to play with as i saw the tie defender as more of a hindrance to a winning list

and because i was running rebels i knew that i'd have to deal with either echo or whisper so i ended up going with Coran Horn with flechette torps, the pilot skill 4 z95 with an ion pulse missle and Han with veteran instincts to deal with a potential nasty threat of 9 whisper

i ended up going up against echo so the VI was unnecessary but my opponent only managed to to get a single shot off with echo as my coran horn also moved second and he ended up range 2 to han and range 1 to coran (he had initiative).. han stripped away his focus token and 2 sheilds with a nasty 3 hits and coran nuked him at range one

from there i had to take down the pilot skill 1 tie defender with HLC and 2 academy's

my han survived with 1 hp and Coran only had 2 sheilds lost by the end of the game

but my luck helped a lot as i had extremely hot dice except when i want to use my missles,torps, then i couldn't roll a single hit..lol

i look forward to playtesting this phantom

both my opponent and i were gunning for it as we're both imperial players but one of us had to come out on top

Ya, phantoms are a game changer.

I wonder when they come out. It'll be fun flying circles around my buddies until these are released.

I've been trying to come up with a competitive build which includes echo, with either anther phantom /bounty hunter. Or interceptor. Then use ties as a filler

How about a list to really give a headache to your opponent?

Echo+FCS+VI+ACD

Whisper+FCS+VI+ACD

Lt Lorrir

or a Troll team that I seriously consider to be the one I'll use to try the Phantom

Echo+FCS+VI+ACD

Lt Lorrir

Turr+PtL or Predator

Academy Pilot (to block)

Ya those are some good ideas

I was toying with having echo,whisper and a bh.

Feels like it's been forever since I've flown Imps. Been practicing for this tournament over a month now.

Can't wait to get done games in this week with my phantom.

In my final I made the mistake of going a swarm of cheap rebel ships PS1 A and E wings, ps2 pair of Bs and the z-95. I managed to take out the defender then after much chasing the PTL royal guard interceptor but Echo by himself killed my remaining 4 ships. Any time I had a shot at him it was at range 3 through an asteroid and he was stealthed after shooting with the stealth upgrade. 3 or 2 dice vs 6 is not good. He is a monster that is impossible to predict, only way to beat him is to have a PS9 pilot read for him or turrets preferably both.

I played with Echo in the AoIA final yesterday against a low PS, 5 ship Rebel swarm.

I lost my Defender and Royal Guard and it was down to Echo vs 3 ships: A full health Rookie and A-Wing and a 4 health Blue.

Granted it was an ideal match up to test him out but Echo dominated them without raising much of a sweat. I felt sorry for my opponent as he was rightly frustrated. Unless you have turrets, PS8+ or your opponent makes a mistake Echo felt like cheating. Final tally was Echo killed 4 ships by himself (a couple of shields down to the others).

I am stunned by how awesome this ship is with the right combo of upgrades.

The downside of Echo is that he is hard to play well and the learning curve appears steep. Combine that with the fact that play time will be greatly slowed until you get the hang of the 2 bank. A clever opponent might simply chase easier points and hope the buzzer rings while he has more points alive than you for a modified win.

I think Falcons, Ion Turrets and to a lesser extent PS8+ are now a must have if you want any chance against a well played Echo. It will be interesting to see how the tournament squad design changes as people come up with other ways to counter him as well.

If played well, Echo is the best pilot in the game.

Didn't realise you posted a couple of minutes before me Rob.. Strange coincidence!

That game sure was an eye opener.