I just stumbled across this and figured I'd share. If you take a look at the second line here:

The attack doesn't need to "hit" to stress the target. So if you miss they get stressed and with this:

You get to do it all over again on a later turn. 15 points will net you a properly equipped Bandit Headhunter and the thought of this combined with Gunner on say perhaps Mrs. Scarlett or a B-wing/E could really wreck action generation for your opponent and make them predictable in some cases.

Do you guys think this was intentional as a counter or just something that slipped through the cracks?

I seriously doubt it "slipped through the cracks" even if it wasn't directly intentional. Every time I see this combo with the intent of re-rolling hits to keep the missiles as perpetual stress generation, I can't help but think it's a lot of effort to do no damage.

Look, I stressed you 3 times in a row! Yay for missing!

Response:

Look, I killed one ship per turn of yours 3 turns in a row because you we're too busy spending points on not doing damage!

15 points isn't a horrific investment in for layering stress. I think it might have some merit.

This is a game that is all about doing damage. If you find an ability that works better when you don't do damage, be my guest. I really don't think this one will see any successful play, especially since just stressing a ship isn't that bad.

If you used it with gunner, then I can see you doing damage AND stressing the opponent. But still not a terrible combo... and it's cheap.

I just stumbled across this and figured I'd share. If you take a look at the second line here:

The attack doesn't need to "hit" to stress the target. So if you miss they get stressed and with this:

You get to do it all over again on a later turn. 15 points will net you a properly equipped Bandit Headhunter and the thought of this combined with Gunner on say perhaps Mrs. Scarlett or a B-wing/E could really wreck action generation for your opponent and make them predictable in some cases.

Do you guys think this was intentional as a counter or just something that slipped through the cracks?

Remember that Z-95s can't take Torpedoes, so you can't kit out a Bandit Squadron pilot with these anyway.

If you used it with gunner, then I can see you doing damage AND stressing the opponent. But still not a terrible combo... and it's cheap.

Only doable on a Slave 1 (has to Have the title) and the new Decimator but intriguing

It's a terrible combo. Hoping to fail is a dangerous path to go. Especially with Gunner. It's a 1 pt insurance on your missiles. You hope you don't have to use it, but glad you have it.

It's really not a terrible combo - it's only terrible if you actually plan to miss with it. Flechettes are good. Flechettes with a failsafe are better, and with a gunner (and possibly Tactician), you'll be happy to have the extra stress from the first attack.

But as people have been saying, stick to trying to make the first attack hit. Generally 2-3 damage and 1-2 stress is better than no damage and 4 stress.

I don't see where all the hate for stress is coming from.

While, yes, this game is all about the damage you deal, it's also got a hell of a lot to do with the actions you take before you roll for said damage.

Mathwing has proven again and again that unmodified attack rolls suck vs modified. And, well, same for defense. If you can keep your opponent from focusing or evading or TLing or whatevering then good on you. Lay down the hurt while they're busy trying to pull green maneuvers so they can continue to use their actions.

Having said all of that, it's probably not the best thing to focus COMPLETELY on trying to stress your opponent out without dealing damage, but if you can stress them out while simultaneously throwing red dice in their face, then I think you're doing it right.

This combo really sucks when aplies to you, but is too fun, greettings.

Well I never really intended on missing on purpose, more of an extra benefit if the dice frown upon you. Or for ruining Phantom's days. Combine with with an ion token for extra hilarity.

So you're throwing lots of stress-inducing explosions around, but you're not actually doing that much. It's happening in the combat phase, so actions are already done. The only plus is your opponent can't do a red maneuver next turn and is more likely to do a green to rid himself of the stress. Coupled with the fact that there's quite a few pilots and upgrades that apply handy bonuses to green maneuvering ships. The bad point is that he's still there to shoot at you. I'd go for inflicting damage over stress every time.

I don't understand the dislike for the combo either. I don't think it makes sense to intentionally not hit, but since they still get stressed even if no damage is dealt, those 3 points will be used over and over again.

It also gives the opponent an uncomfortable choice. Do they use focus or evade tokens to prevent the damage, only to continue to have stress tokens tossed around the table? Or do they choose to suffer the damage so the combo goes away?

the issue is that stress is not as limiting as say, ion, and on top of that, you are dealing 0 damage to the opponent, which means that you actually arent doing anything of significance in terms of trying to win the game. Even ion deals 1 point of damage!

The issue is when you start to plan on getting more than 1 stress out of it. Munitions Failsafe is fine insurance, but it isn't the key for stressing out the opponent. Don't even start with trying to combo with Gunner.

If there is anything I've learned when facing Gunner on a Falcon, is that you take the 1 damage when you can. That pretty much what Munitions Failsafe does. Because you never know what the dice gods will give you next time.

Hey guys, how about the B-Wing with this strategy and the new ability for crew? Throwing on a Gunner is totally an option for this.

the issue is that stress is not as limiting as say, ion, and on top of that, you are dealing 0 damage to the opponent, which means that you actually arent doing anything of significance in terms of trying to win the game. Even ion deals 1 point of damage!

I disagree. It is a back up if you DON'T do damage. The stress happens either way. Obviously, my first choice is to do damage with it, but if I don't, at least they're stressed and I can try again later. That is only a good thing.

I think some of the debate in this thread comes from some confusion over what has actually been said. When both these cards were first revealed, there were a couple of long discussions about the viability of using the combo to deliberately miss so that a ship could continue to use the ordnance and stress an enemy every turn. People were discussing using TLs to reroll their hits in order to ensure misses and stuff like that. I think several people in this thread are forming their replies as if the OP was continuing that line of thinking. Only problem is, the OP didn't really suggest anything of the sort. I don't think anyone is suggesting that the 2 cards aren't a good combo or don't work well together, but neither was anyone really suggesting (to begin with, in this thread, at least) that someone should actively try and miss just to be able to use the combo.

I don't see where all the hate for stress is coming from.

Mostly because one stress is a minor inconvenience, and most ships that can equip flechette's can deal damage far more consistently if they're not shooting torpedoes, much less 3 dice torpedoes.

Stress hasn't really shined in the meta because of how easy one stress a turn is to get rid off. Perhaps with the emergence of tactician we'll see stress play a bigger part (a shuttle with two tacticians can come in as low as 25 points and can hamstring most pilots for a turn). But flechette's deal only one stress, which means you'd need to spam them in order to stack stress. But with flechette being a torpedo, and thereby not really spamable since it can only fit on the more costly X- Y- and B-wings, it's not really a likely choice. The X- and B-wings do 3 damage stock and their targets locks would be better suited re-rolling those dice for more hits while the Y-wing would really be better suited at using its ion turret.