game plan:

step 1 = put decimator on the table

step 2 = use decimator to decimate

step 3 = be glad you didnt put vader in the decimator when you win with 1 hull point remaining

I don't know man: I get it that Vader on a Lambda can be pretty risky, but with a Deci that tough, I'm liking the idea. Besides, as stated above, you don't have to use him every turn. But you CAN shoot every turn (practically) with 360 degrees, giving you the OPPORTUNITY to give a crit on juicy hull points if the situation arises.

It maybe mathed to be statistically inferior to Focus or TL but it is an A:4 Turreted ship. And if support by a Squad Leader or a Fleet Officer on a different ship it can still Focus/TL. A Lot of the gripe people say about Expose's downside is that it has a double negative for it's effect. 1) Action 2) lowers Agility. On the VT49 it's only Action.

It maybe mathed to be statistically inferior to Focus or TL but it is an A:4 Turreted ship. And if support by a Squad Leader or a Fleet Officer on a different ship it can still Focus/TL. A Lot of the gripe people say about Expose's downside is that it has a double negative for it's effect. 1) Action 2) lowers Agility. On the VT49 it's only Action.

Take Opportunist. You've removed all negatives. And the ship has a Green 2-bank, so shedding stress can't be too bad.

Big Friendly Giant:

Decimator with:

Intel Agent

Fleet officer

Wingman EPT

Basically cramming upgrades that augment the rest of your fleet, this turns the Decimator into a support ship that helps your positioning, hands out focus and sucks up stress.

Could also take tactician or MJ to stress enemy ships.

Daredevil?? Why not expose? Has no down sides. It's agility is already 0

Cant use expose.. no agility to drop... so you cant have negative agility..

Daredevil?? Why not expose? Has no down sides. It's agility is already 0

Cant use expose.. no agility to drop... so you cant have negative agility..

"Until the end of the round, increase your primary weapon value by 1 and decrease your agility value by 1."

I don't think you need to be able to drop agility because it isn't presented as a cost (..reduce your agility by 1 to increase your primary weapon value by 1..).

Expose is still bad, but this is probably the best ship for it.

Daredevil?? Why not expose? Has no down sides. It's agility is already 0

Cant use expose.. no agility to drop... so you cant have negative agility..

The agility drop on expose is an effect not a cost. You don't have to lose the agility point to gain the bonus. In that case it stays at agility 0.

As for the math winging, sure focus does more on average, but the actual maximum damage is increased by expose, so it's not a total loss. Target lock from previous turns, granted a focus from somewhere, or even just revealed pilot all make expose at least somewhat viable.

Big Friendly Giant:

Decimator with:

Intel Agent

Fleet officer

Wingman EPT

Basically cramming upgrades that augment the rest of your fleet, this turns the Decimator into a support ship that helps your positioning, hands out focus and sucks up stress.

Could also take tactician or MJ to stress enemy ships.

I was thinking Jendon with weapons engi, fleet officer, St-321 basically has the ability to let of super attacks for allies every couple turns (a bomber squad would be awesome like this)

Daredevil?? Why not expose? Has no down sides. It's agility is already 0

Cant use expose.. no agility to drop... so you cant have negative agility..

I am pretty sure it will be FAQed you can use it, every other time in the game reducing a stat a minimum of 0 is applied, Wedge, structural damage and Outmaneuver Specify to a minimum of 0 so that would be the precedent I would go by.

Using your logic could also argue that neither Wedge nor a person with Outmaneuver could shoot at the VT since neither of the card's wording says the reduction is optional and if you can't reduce the agility value below their stated minimum of 0 they would not be able to perform their attacks

Chiraneau plus Predator. Reroll one or two dice, and turn an eyeball into a crit. Add Fleet Officer to pass focus tokens to the rest of your squad, because you won't really need them yourself.

Edit: Expose has already been math-winged to be less valuable than a Focus or Target Lock.

Chiraneau (46) + Predator (3) + Fleet Officer (3) = 52

48 pts left, just enough for 4 Academy Pilots ;P

But I'm guessing at least another card coming with it will be too good to pass so it will cost more than 52...

Current Crew that I see working with the Decimator:

Fleet Officer

Gunner

Weapons Engineer

Rebel Captive

Navigator

Mara Jade

Darth Vader

I'm thinking 2 decimators.

Chiraneau (46) + VI (1 counters phantoms) , Rebel captive (3), Tactician (2) - 52

Lowest skill (??) mara jade (3), vader (3), Tactician (2) - ?? + 8

32 hp. Lots of stress going out; if they go within range 1 for the extra damage they will pick up a stress if they didn't ptl in the first place, otherwise 2 tacticians will add stress as well as the captive. Turrets counter more manoeuvrable fighters. Both focus firing on a ship leaves the decivader the ability to finish it off if at low life.

While 3 crew is nice. I kinda think beyond 2 is overkill especially paying for those slots on a ship whose base cost is nearing 50% of your points total without upgrades. It's not like the imperials have an abundance of amazing crew choices that work great together. However the yt2400 w hlc is simply amazing for points efficiency. I'm worried this ship isn't going to be all it's cracked up to be at least not until I see some better crew cards.

Noticed the PS4 Decimator has an Elite Pilot slot. Could make it the ship to play.

I'm not sure Tactician is a good choice of crew for the Decimator. If you are left with 2 points and don't know what to do with it, sure but, with both limitations of the crew ( target need to be in range 2 AND in the arc of fire), I don't think it will see a lot of use in games. Sure there will be occasions where you can trigger it, but it might actually make you choose the wrong target just so you can activate Tactician.

Fun facts:

1 words change meaning over time

2 focus is free, better than expose still, and doesn't cost 4 points

For those that don't know, the word "decimate" comes from a practice in the early Roman Republic whereby a group of soldiers were punished by being separated into groups of ten. Whichever one of the ten drew the short straw was executed by the other nine. Usually when people say "decimate," it would be more correct to say "devastate" or "annihilate."

I'd say the early Romans were idiots for doing that (let's shrink our own army by a tenth and give our soldiers a really good reason to desert, that'll work great!) but humanity still had that immense idiocy in its system all the way up to the First World War when the idiot British generals figured it would be a great idea to use up their ammunition en masse killing their own men. Still idiots, but not unique in it.

While 3 crew is nice. I kinda think beyond 2 is overkill especially paying for those slots on a ship whose base cost is nearing 50% of your points total without upgrades. It's not like the imperials have an abundance of amazing crew choices that work great together.

Not yet you mean. Mara and Fleet Officer already have some lovely "buff our allies, nerf our enemies" co-operation on their own, and there's still Issard and Jerjerod to be revealed.

Once the Imperial big ship gets here, combining Mara with Slicer Tools could get some critical damage in against important enemy ships.

A shuttle with both Fleet Officer and Mara could act as a great support unit to a flight of bombers, handing out focus tokens to the Bombers while hamstringing the opposing fighters when the fighting reaches close range.

Mara with a Rebel Captive is going to ensure at least one fighter will end up with two stress tokens during the game. Add an additional Tactician and you're making a stressmachine that hands out tokens the moment the enemy reaches range 2.

I'm not sure Tactician is a good choice of crew for the Decimator. If you are left with 2 points and don't know what to do with it, sure but, with both limitations of the crew ( target need to be in range 2 AND in the arc of fire), I don't think it will see a lot of use in games. Sure there will be occasions where you can trigger it, but it might actually make you choose the wrong target just so you can activate Tactician.

A mistake I often see people making with the shuttle is that they charge in the battle at maximum speed. But if you hang back with a shuttle, you can maximize your firing arc while the other ships are distracted by the fighters. Same thing could be done with the Decimator.

A Fleet Officer on a Jendon shuttle is setting up a 2 Bomber 1st turn Alpha Strike all by itself.

While 3 crew is nice. I kinda think beyond 2 is overkill especially paying for those slots on a ship whose base cost is nearing 50% of your points total without upgrades. It's not like the imperials have an abundance of amazing crew choices that work great together.

Not yet you mean. Mara and Fleet Officer already have some lovely "buff our allies, nerf our enemies" co-operation on their own, and there's still Issard and Jerjerod to be revealed.

Once the Imperial big ship gets here, combining Mara with Slicer Tools could get some critical damage in against important enemy ships.

A shuttle with both Fleet Officer and Mara could act as a great support unit to a flight of bombers, handing out focus tokens to the Bombers while hamstringing the opposing fighters when the fighting reaches close range.

Mara with a Rebel Captive is going to ensure at least one fighter will end up with two stress tokens during the game. Add an additional Tactician and you're making a stressmachine that hands out tokens the moment the enemy reaches range 2.

I'm not sure Tactician is a good choice of crew for the Decimator. If you are left with 2 points and don't know what to do with it, sure but, with both limitations of the crew ( target need to be in range 2 AND in the arc of fire), I don't think it will see a lot of use in games. Sure there will be occasions where you can trigger it, but it might actually make you choose the wrong target just so you can activate Tactician.

A mistake I often see people making with the shuttle is that they charge in the battle at maximum speed. But if you hang back with a shuttle, you can maximize your firing arc while the other ships are distracted by the fighters. Same thing could be done with the Decimator.

Particularly because it has an EPT on all of the uniques, as oppposed to the shuttle, which has no EPTs. With Expert Handling, you could move forward 1, and barrel roll backwards most of the distance you just advanced. OR, it might have a full stop, letting you plant that turret in an opportune spot for at least one turn at a time.

I'm not sure Tactician is a good choice of crew for the Decimator. If you are left with 2 points and don't know what to do with it, sure but, with both limitations of the crew ( target need to be in range 2 AND in the arc of fire), I don't think it will see a lot of use in games. Sure there will be occasions where you can trigger it, but it might actually make you choose the wrong target just so you can activate Tactician.

A mistake I often see people making with the shuttle is that they charge in the battle at maximum speed. But if you hang back with a shuttle, you can maximize your firing arc while the other ships are distracted by the fighters. Same thing could be done with the Decimator.

Oh it's not that it won't be easy to use it or won't see play, it's just that you pay for a 360 turret that is not compatible with tactician, so every turn you use tactician, you could have done the same with a ship without the turret, like the Lambda or the Firespray. So, I would prefer to use crew or upgrade that is fully compatible with your 360 arc, like gunner, Darth Vader or Mercenary copilot.

So, I would prefer to use crew or upgrade that is fully compatible with your 360 arc, like gunner, Darth Vader or Mercenary copilot.

I believe the Correct answer is D. all of the above

I don't think Vader will be all that good on the Decimator. It's paying a whole lot more points per hull/shield than the Shuttle is, and while some of that goes to increasing VAders usefullness(putting him on a turret) Dropping 2 Hull off this thing will rarely be worth the crit unless it is the killing blow. Especially given the ability on the PS8. Psuedo-Marksmanship is pretty beastly. I'd rather pay the points for that and keep my durability intact than run a Doominator(As cool as the name is)

If I were to use him (because quite frankly, Vader is not really my kind of upgrade) I would put Vader on the lowest PS VT-49, not the highest. I would also not use him on every shot, just when it counts. But, it could be useful to land a finishing blow or an unwanted critical. With the turret, it should be easy to have a shot on the sick prey trying to flee.

But Vader is not my personal cup of tea. I don't use him in a Shuttle and I don't think I will use him in a Decimator. I do believe it can be nasty though, especially against Interceptor or any other high agility/low hull ship.

If I were to use him (because quite frankly, Vader is not really my kind of upgrade) I would put Vader on the lowest PS VT-49, not the highest. I would also not use him on every shot, just when it counts. But, it could be useful to land a finishing blow or an unwanted critical. With the turret, it should be easy to have a shot on the sick prey trying to flee.

But Vader is not my personal cup of tea. I don't use him in a Shuttle and I don't think I will use him in a Decimator. I do believe it can be nasty though, especially against Interceptor or any other high agility/low hull ship.

I like the Vader card, it has a lot of uses, but the shuttle is the best place to use it. For 1/4th of your team you get a lot of danger and drawn fire(akin to Biggs but with twice as many hits.) For 40% of your team you already were drawing all the fire, losing all the tactical advantage.

If I were to use him (because quite frankly, Vader is not really my kind of upgrade) I would put Vader on the lowest PS VT-49, not the highest. I would also not use him on every shot, just when it counts. But, it could be useful to land a finishing blow or an unwanted critical. With the turret, it should be easy to have a shot on the sick prey trying to flee.

But Vader is not my personal cup of tea. I don't use him in a Shuttle and I don't think I will use him in a Decimator. I do believe it can be nasty though, especially against Interceptor or any other high agility/low hull ship.

Given the point cost difference and what Pilot skill can mean on a turret, I'd run the PS8 with Vet Insticts most of the time, just to know I can eat Phantoms alive. Vader doesn't do that nearly so well.

I like the Vader card, it has a lot of uses, but the shuttle is the best place to use it. For 1/4th of your team you get a lot of danger and drawn fire(akin to Biggs but with twice as many hits.) For 40% of your team you already were drawing all the fire, losing all the tactical advantage.

Ah, but imagine you get three hits on that Phantom. Being able to crush the last hit point out of that Phantom before it goes in for another 4/5 shots would be ever so satisfying.

I agree with you. Shuttle is better for Vader: cost half the price, 10 hit point instead of 16 so it's still pretty decent, and it will probably be left alone, unlike the Decimator that will have a big red target painted on it.

But, if one of my opponent decide to use it, I will not dismiss it as a bad choice and won't be glad to face it either, as it can give a lot of pain if use wisely. And we don't know yet the price of the Generic Pilot, maybe the cost is lower than we think.

Just for fun though: Chiraneau + VI + Vader... come and get it Phantoms! ;P