I have my doubts. Giving up an attack to use it will be too high a price.

But, what I'm expecting to be horrendous are the Scrambler Missiles. There are so many Jams in the Kimo, I'm pretty sure that will throw them around like halloween candy...

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

I hadn't even thought about the prospect of jamming carrying on round after roudn with it. That's much more balanced.

My major issue with this is that it takes a huge amount of agency away from the opponent which would make it immensely frustrating to play against, not that it's especially OP.

I’m going to disagree. The effected player gets choice on what and when they burn off the tokens. I like jam tokens because they counter our run away token stacking and still let the other player interact with the mechanic... if I’m jammed I can pick my actions and plan when I’ll use which type of action... or just do repositioning actions instead of wasting actions without immediate use.

I’d rather see a range 2, 1 token version of this... but this would need some serious playtesting.

double post...

but I’d like to add that I’d like to see Imperials increasingly own jamming. It’s a good mechanic that is thematic to the lore.

ROFL! Lobokai, just have to say. I LOVE your Avatar! The Chaplain in DoW was one of my favourite units. Just kept clicking him to hear his booming, over-melodramatic lines! Hahaha. AWESOME!!! Chaplain in a Gunboat???? Whoa...

On 11/16/2017 at 5:43 PM, Alpha Xg1 said:

ROFL! Lobokai, just have to say. I LOVE your Avatar! The Chaplain in DoW was one of my favourite units. Just kept clicking him to hear his booming, over-melodramatic lines! Hahaha. AWESOME!!! Chaplain in a Gunboat???? Whoa...

A Black Gunboat with a chaplain skull worked in somewhere would be pretty ominous, IMO

any loadouts from the old PC game that we can’t reasonably mimic in X-Wing now?

2 hours ago, Lobokai said:

A Black Gunboat with a chaplain skull worked in somewhere would be pretty ominous, IMO

any loadouts from the old PC game that we can’t reasonably mimic in X-Wing now?

Space bomb/heavy rocket load out. It was a slow moving missile, with a big enough blast to be classified as a bomb. You had to release it close to target to get it to work. Was similar to dive bombing in ww-2. APT is pretty close to heavy rockets but the bombs did almost a third more damage.

I've flown the Nu Sq. Pilot as a support for my 4 TI strikers a few times now in the Vassal League. It's pretty tricky to fly. Here's the loadout:

Nu Sq. Pilot (XG-1 Assault Configuration, Tractor Beam, Adv. SLAM, Linked Batteries)

In one game, I beamed an opposing Y-wing, bringing it into range 1 of three of my strikers, and range 2 of the other one. That Y-wing died in a hurry.

I'm really liking the somewhat accurate Tractor Beam to set up shots for lower PS ships. The tough part for me is learning when to not SLAM on the approach. In another game, I SLAM'd my Gunboat to far into the action, and he got in the way of my TIE strikers.

I have one more match, and will probably take the Gunboat. I have a lot to learn, but I'm not placing in the league anyway, so it's as good a place as any to practice.

5 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:

Space bomb/heavy rocket load out. It was a slow moving missile, with a big enough blast to be classified as a bomb. You had to release it close to target to get it to work. Was similar to dive bombing in ww-2. APT is pretty close to heavy rockets but the bombs did almost a third more damage.

Be neat if there was a bomb token that you could release that moved forward with the 1 template every turn. Anything small or large ship hit by it is automatically destroyed and huge ships take 10 damage from it. It would probably end epic combat, but it would be fun to try to ion or tractor a smaller ship into it.

On 11/16/2017 at 4:42 PM, Hannes Solo said:

Well, it is pretty good against reinforcement. So it will see epic play and if reinforcement becomes more prevalent in 100/6 JB might become a necessity.

Jamming tokens do not interact with Reinforce tokens. Only focus, evade and blue target lock tokens.

On 11/16/2017 at 4:36 PM, Lobokai said:

double post...

but I’d like to add that I’d like to see Imperials increasingly own jamming. It’s a good mechanic that is thematic to the lore.

Yet another mechanic that would be awesome for the imperial theme... I'm willing to bet a ship of your choosing that it won't become the new "imp thing".

Anybody wanna bet with me?

Well considering the Jamming mechanic is currently only available via a cannon and a missile, which can be used by all factions equally, no, no I don't.

3 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

Well considering the Jamming mechanic is currently only available via a cannon and a missile, which can be used by all factions equally, no, no I don't.

Well, the cannon can. We don't know about the missile yet.

21 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Well, the cannon can. We don't know about the missile yet.

Well, as far as I know the only faction-restricted weapon in the game is the oddly Rebel-And-Scum-Only Arc Caster, so I'd imagine it would be a fair guess?

Hot Shot Blaster

But ARC Caster sets a precedent - until we know for sure Scrambler Missiles are not restricted, we can't be sure they won't be.

Hot Shot Blaster isn't faction restricted, we're just waiting for the Empire to get it's first ship with access to Illicit slots!

5 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

Hot Shot Blaster isn't faction restricted, we're just waiting for the Empire to get it's first ship with access to Illicit slots!

True, true.

Do you see any reason why the Arc-Caster is forbidden to the Empire? Do you think it would be somehow broken in the gunboat?

5 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

Do you see any reason why the Arc-Caster is forbidden to the Empire? Do you think it would be somehow broken in the gunboat?

TIE/d defenders, plain and simple.

21 minutes ago, Astech said:

TIE/d defenders, plain and simple.

But would it be so broken? Its a Range one only weapon and it shuts down both attacks (primary and cannon) for the reload. TIE/ds can actually shoot quite consistently for an arc locked ship, thanks to their white K-turn. The Arc Caster is a pretty situational gun. But on a TIE/d there I can shoot my cannon every round without giving up my primary I do not want a situational gun. I want something that shoots every round and at all ranges. So if I could take an Arc on the TIE/d I would still rather take a Flechette Cannon.

On The XG1 however the flip condition would be trivial and slam-shooting would help with the positioning. Last but not least Vynder would love a WD-Token on demand. Actually I think that the Arc-Caster is prohibited for the empire cause of the gunboat. XG-1 makes the main downside of the AC trivial so the excluded the empire. However I wouldn't think that Arc-Casting Gunboats would be a broken NPE. This as well as the PRS has a bitter taste of 'empire can't have cool stuff' on it and looking at the real broken stuff gives the impression that the devs are overly carefull when it comes to the empire.

Plus the Gunboat can take two cannons, which means it can obviate the other major issue of the Arc Caster, which is its range 1 limitation. Arc/Flechette would be a solid loadout for cheap.

4 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

But would it be so broken? Its a Range one only weapon and it shuts down both attacks (primary and cannon) for the reload. TIE/ds can actually shoot quite consistently for an arc locked ship, thanks to their white K-turn. The Arc Caster is a pretty situational gun on a TIE/d there I can shoot my cannon every round without giving up my primary. I do not wan't a situational gun on my TIE/d I want something that shoots every round and at all ranges. If I could take an Arc on the TIE/d I would still rather take a Flechette Cannon.

On The XG1 however the flip condition would be trivial and slam-shooting would help with the positioning. Last but not least Vynder would love a WD-Token on demand. Actually I think that the Arc-Caster is prohibited for the empire cause of the gunboat. XG-1 makes the main downside of the AC trivial so the excluded the empire. However I wouldn't think that Arc-Casting Gunboats would be a broken NPE. This as well as the PRS has a bitter taste of 'empire can't have cool stuff' on it and looking at the real broken stuff gives the impression that the devs are overly carefull when it comes to the empire.

Well, it would let a group of ships that can't be killed in a turn unleash two 4-die attacks in a row each on a single ship. That's Dengar-level attacks from three ships a turn. In addition, Defenders have the dial for hit-and-run attacks, so the weapons disabled token is no problem.

XG-1s, on the other hand, absolutely love HLCs. Arc Casters would be very good on them, but the HLC brings the kind of consistency they need.

28 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

But would it be so broken? Its a Range one only weapon and it shuts down both attacks (primary and cannon) for the reload. TIE/ds can actually shoot quite consistently for an arc locked ship, thanks to their white K-turn. The Arc Caster is a pretty situational gun. But on a TIE/d there I can shoot my cannon every round without giving up my primary I do not want a situational gun. I want something that shoots every round and at all ranges. So if I could take an Arc on the TIE/d I would still rather take a Flechette Cannon.

On The XG1 however the flip condition would be trivial and slam-shooting would help with the positioning. Last but not least Vynder would love a WD-Token on demand. Actually I think that the Arc-Caster is prohibited for the empire cause of the gunboat. XG-1 makes the main downside of the AC trivial so the excluded the empire. However I wouldn't think that Arc-Casting Gunboats would be a broken NPE. This as well as the PRS has a bitter taste of 'empire can't have cool stuff' on it and looking at the real broken stuff gives the impression that the devs are overly carefull when it comes to the empire.

Well, they kind of need to be a little cautious with the Empire. If they're not careful with the upgrades, the Sun Crusher could end up absolutely broken when it releases!

5 minutes ago, Astech said:

Well, it would let a group of ships that can't be killed in a turn unleash two 4-die attacks in a row each on a single ship. That's Dengar-level attacks from three ships a turn. In addition, Defenders have the dial for hit-and-run attacks, so the weapons disabled token is no problem.

XG-1s, on the other hand, absolutely love HLCs. Arc Casters would be very good on them, but the HLC brings the kind of consistency they need.

But a 3 ship build would all be generic low ps ships. That list would usually not be able to have a range one first engagement. So They take a round of just primaries at range 2 or 3 before they can unleash the arc. Also many ships can dodge the arc of a low ps ship at range 1 quite easily. If you get them off, that is an impressive double tap for sure, but I think its mor inconsistent then a normal range 3 1dmge cannon. And as it is not a viable alpha strike option I think it actually would be a list building trap.
Anyway, I wish FFG would have allowed it, looked if it is actually brokenand FAQed it out of the empire if it was instead shutting of all the fun stuff from the very start.

15 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

But a 3 ship build would all be generic low ps ships. That list would usually not be able to have a range one first engagement. So They take a round of just primaries at range 2 or 3 before they can unleash the arc. Also many ships can dodge the arc of a low ps ship at range 1 quite easily. If you get them off, that is an impressive double tap for sure, but I think its mor inconsistent then a normal range 3 1dmge cannon. And as it is not a viable alpha strike option I think it actually would be a list building trap.
Anyway, I wish FFG would have allowed it, looked if it is actually brokenand FAQed it out of the empire if it was instead shutting of all the fun stuff from the very start.

By the same token, a ship that can dodge a low PS Defender can just as easily dodge a low PS Gunboat. Vessery is a pretty clear choice for an ARC caster, and you can fit an ARC Delta and a Jamming Delta in with him, so you get at least middling PS, which is all the Defender ever needed. I feel like the damage spike meta is still going strong and many of the meta kings get up close and personal as a matter of course, which is perfect for the Defender.

FFG was being ridiculous by not allowing it, anyway. At the time, the JM5K was the undisputed king, and remained that way for a long time after the ARC caster's release. Even the most proken ARC caster build cannot compete with ships that are never in arc, like Nym, or who can dish out more damage than the 'Caster, like Denger (still!), or that guarantee 4-5 hits from range 3 like the Cruise/Harpoon Alpha.

2 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Well, they kind of need to be a little cautious with the Empire. If they're not careful with the upgrades, the Sun Crusher could end up absolutely broken when it releases!

I think FFG will balance the imperial suncrusher quite reasonably. 'Sabines stolen Suncrusher' however...