How do you define broken though? Reducing the game to pure dice rolling isn't broken -- it will still be balanced, just less fun.

I don't mind a card like this for variety, but I think it should have been unique.

I define reducing the game to pure dice rolling, as being broken.

like... uh.. 40K?

I don't play 40K so no idea.

I just really think that this card should cost way more.

Farlander is the only pilot that has any real synergy with SOT, since he can use advanced sensors to keep his action and his special ability to clear the stress. But you have to remember that Farlander is a 30-35+ point ship with a single green die, which means that he will die and he'd better do something awesome while he's alive.

Hobbie (with R2-D6), Ibtisam and of course Soontir Fel all say hi. Their synergy isn't quite as amazing as Keyan's, but they're still less bothered by receiving stress.

Just thinking about it, in all of those examples I think I'd prefer Push The Limit anyway. Except Hobbie, I'd give Hobbie R3-A2.

I just really think that this card should cost way more.

It doesn't really cost 2 points, though; it costs 2 points plus a PS bid, including the usual caveat with PS bids that if you don't outbid your opponent you're wasting points.

It should still cost 20 points.

It should still cost 20 points.

hmm i think 2 is a good point cost to be honest. If it costs anymore it will see little to no use.

SoT has a drawback (stress); is situational; though it can be powerful if the stars align or paired with a decent combo (more than likely fairly costly in a 100 point game).

If it cost 4 points it would be down there with expose.. sigh... I bet expose would see the light of day again if it cost 2 points.

From reading the article Paul does mention about designing the card and how it would be sent off to play testing.

From the sounds of it this card is a final result through playtesting. I think it's safe to assume that this was not his original design of the card and after the play testing realized it needed to be tweaked.

Maybe limiting it to the same speed maneuver? Or making the manuever red.

If they decide to keep it only with the yt-2400 and not release it with other future ships that may help limit how often we see it.

I know I won't be running out and buy 3 yt-2400 just for extra copies of this card

I kind of feel where Paul is coming from. When looking at the tournament scene a majority (not all) of the lists were swarms with academy, or obsidian, blue, dagger, rookies.

Resulting more power in numbers.

Yes that is the imperial theme, but should 5-6 pilots right out of the academy be able to Defeat Luke and wedge?

For now we can speculate all we want but it had been play tested and FFG feels that the final result is balanced.

I can only assume while play testing with this made the elite pilots better, but not "I win " every game with it

It needs to be FAQ'd to NOT allow K-Turning, because when curved K-Turns come out it's going to make this card even more OP.

It should still cost 20 points.

It needs to be FAQ'd to NOT allow K-Turning, because when curved K-Turns come out it's going to make this card even more OP.

I think this makes boba fett better. His choice is as limited as his dial.

But to be able to use Nav and change from the red manuever to green is a little unclear. As it stands now that seems legal, but maybe they over looked it?

Then again if they have a competent team who does play test surely this came up. Didn't take long for us to figure this out. Surely they spent more than a day play testing it.

And curved kturn? I highly doubt that.

I was employing hyperbole, of course.

But look at it this way: almost everything new lately has been directly related to reducing the prevalence of swarms and generics in the meta and increasing the viability of named pilots.

I disagree. Predator / Outmaneuver work great on Black Squadron swarms.

The A-Wing test Pilot and Chaadran Refit are going to make A-Wing swarms awesome.

The Z-95!!!!!!!!

just to name a few changes that promote swarms.

Just to name a few. I think you are looking at the changes and seeing only the things that you want to see. Sure there are some balance changes that bring new light to a previously un-used named pilots, but this is just general balance tweaking, it's not suggesting that generics on on the decline.

Agreed and disagree; I think that a lot of recent updates massively improve 'elite' generic pilots (Black Squadron, Royal Guard, Green Squadron, etc) relative to their budget counterparts (Academy Pilots, Alpha Squadron, Prototype Pilot).

It even makes the mid-tier ones slightly more appealing, if only because the PS3 squadrons avoid the worst brunt of stuff like predator and flight instructor for a point extra. Still don't expect to see Obsidian Squadron Pilots very often, though. One extra point for a cheap EPT caddy is just too good, even if you're only using it for Wingman or Draw Their Fire to support someone else....

So for poops and giggles my buddy and I just ran a game using this card and rebel aces. This card seems way to good to be true and frankly, after using it, it really is a very powerful card. I took kind of a silly list of the following:

Etahn with R2/AdvSen/Engine Upgrade/Stay on Target

Jake with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

Tycho with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

That is NOT a lot of firepower but I managed to dance around a 7 Tie Swarm with little difficulty. I ended up losing Jake but both Tycho and Etahn were able to stay out of the way of just about everything. What was really messed up was the combination of Outmaneuver which was one of my favorite cards on the A-Wing to begin with. Tycho was incredibly dangerous as he was ALWAYS able to get in the best possible firing position.

This card was letting my pilots easily react to my buddies movements. It felt like I was able to outsmart every move he tried to make. It started feeling like he couldn't even keep up with me.

Someone has probably already beaten me to questioning this, but how? Tycho ignores stress for actions, but he still can't get away with revealing a red maneuver. Stay on Target says when you reveal your dial, you can turn it to a different maneuver of the same speed, then treat it as red, so you're still revealing a red maneuver. Do that while stressed and you're getting the exact opposite of the best possible firing position, on top of no action.

And if you missed it in the article, R2 Astromech doesn't let you change SoT 1-2 reds to greens, so Etahn wasn't like as maneuverable as you were expecting either.

So for poops and giggles my buddy and I just ran a game using this card and rebel aces. This card seems way to good to be true and frankly, after using it, it really is a very powerful card. I took kind of a silly list of the following:

Etahn with R2/AdvSen/Engine Upgrade/Stay on Target

Jake with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

Tycho with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

That is NOT a lot of firepower but I managed to dance around a 7 Tie Swarm with little difficulty. I ended up losing Jake but both Tycho and Etahn were able to stay out of the way of just about everything. What was really messed up was the combination of Outmaneuver which was one of my favorite cards on the A-Wing to begin with. Tycho was incredibly dangerous as he was ALWAYS able to get in the best possible firing position.

This card was letting my pilots easily react to my buddies movements. It felt like I was able to outsmart every move he tried to make. It started feeling like he couldn't even keep up with me.

Someone has probably already beaten me to questioning this, but how? Tycho ignores stress for actions, but he still can't get away with revealing a red maneuver. Stay on Target says when you reveal your dial, you can turn it to a different maneuver of the same speed, then treat it as red, so you're still revealing a red maneuver. Do that while stressed and you're getting the exact opposite of the best possible firing position, on top of no action.

And if you missed it in the article, R2 Astromech doesn't let you change SoT 1-2 reds to greens, so Etahn wasn't like as maneuverable as you were expecting either.

If you run Tycho more like a regular PTL A-Wing or Squint (actually doing green maneuvers to clear stress) it still looks like it would be pretty powerful, since he still gets his action after using it.

How do you define broken though? Reducing the game to pure dice rolling isn't broken -- it will still be balanced, just less fun.

I don't mind a card like this for variety, but I think it should have been unique.

Guys and gals, this game isn't broken, and I doubt FFG will let one card take it there.

This is what I was referencing:

"game wrecking change to the game"

This does not wreck the game. People can choose to play without it, meaning that the game, as it currently stands, is un-wrecked and not (literally) broken.

If people choose to play with it against you, you MAY have a tougher battle BUT as many others have stated, you have the option to run EPS that they cannot.

To equate this card as a "game wrecking change" would be to compare it to a rules change in Monopoly that states "The Banker Always Wins on Turn 3." The game is, then, changed forcibly in such a manner that it is wrecked/broken.

This card is situational, at best, IMHO. FFG does a good job of patrolling the balance of this game and I have faith that if this card proves to be interpreted in a way they deem unfair, they will errata its wording.

IF Stay on Target works with Navigator, which after the ruling on Advance Sensors - Cloak - Decloak, I'm not sure it will work as well as it should on paper. And even if it does, it really is not going to be a big deal. Such a combo seems wasted on Falcon, since as many have already claimed, already take the maneuvering factor out of the game. Phantoms sure as hell aren't giving up their Veteran Instincts. Is it really that useful for HWKs with their crappy dials, and need to be unstressed. I don't see it being too much more useful on Fettigator. And there is still a lot we don't know about the Outrider or Decimator to declare it's usefulness on them.

It is a powerful card. It gives a lot of the high pilot skill pilots options to combat blocking, which has been a complaint since day 1. Yet, it has to cost what it does in order to compete with the other very, very good talents.

The card itself is fine. Making the manuever red is an effective drawback. It really doesn balance the card.

I just think the combo with Navigator, which is already synergystically powerful on an obnoxious level(as it destroys a key facet of the game), needs to be made to give stress.

One could level the same complaint at the Falcon's turret

or at the TIE Phantom

yet, here we are.

They change it. The falcon obnoxiously so. The combo laughs at it and says, "Screw all your choices, they don't matter. That's too good. Not because it's broken as a good player will pick the right move anyway, but because it removes the need to make choices until later. The only choice is (Which number will I not be moving, 1 2 or 3. And that's too much. The Phantom is quite fun to play against. It adds prediction. The Falcon is so expensive for its firepower as to be balanced. But this. This is 5 points. The cost of Gunner, arguably the best upgrade in the game, and it is so much better. Yes it takes two upgrades, but I challenge you to find a better upgrade combo than this and Navigator for 5 points. It can't be done.

I get that it only goes on a limited number of pilots. But that makes it all the worse, as those ships have access to the bestbuse of 5 points in the game. You can't predict where Han Solo is going to go beyond, He will never be where you want him to be. Ever. He's already the most accurate pilot in the game. Now he's got almost as much after the fact arc dodging capability as Whisper and none of the fragility.

Bottom line is that it's necessary.

Nobody wants to fly against hordes of generic pilots anymore.

So the solution is to boil the game down to HeroHammer? Might as well play Clix, then. I'm not with that solution at all. Generics are supposed to be in the game because it's a strategy game about dog fighting...not a platform to LARP an encounter between Luke and Darth. At the end of the day, it takes more guts to fly generic pilots than to rely on the cutesy abilities of the named pilot du jour. Maybe the reason "no one" (as you assert) wants to face those generics is because those controlling players are just plain better at the game.

I was employing hyperbole, of course.

But look at it this way: almost everything new lately has been directly related to reducing the prevalence of swarms and generics in the meta and increasing the viability of named pilots

I really should read further down before replying

lol

That is a total misrepresentation of how the game has played out. In general, people have preferred generics in order to get more ships in a squad. Very rarely would people play all uniques.

Real quick, I know this is old news but I didn't get a chance to point out why I like SoT on Tycho. Lets break it down! First you have the humble A-Wing which is a downright beautiful ship. The downside of the A-Wing is that it is very fragile and it's damage is nothing to write home about. However the movement dial on it is beautiful, in my game where I tried out this card all I would do is set my dial to 2 (or 3 if I thought I might want that K-Turn) and then just move Tycho wherever would give him the best shot but also move him out of the way of any danger. After that I could boost to get into range one if needed. Now I hear all of you mention that SoT doesn't work on Tycho because if he has any stress he can't make a red maneuver. The thing I think you are all forgetting here is that he still gets to rock the A-Wing dial and he still gets to make his actions last.

An Example is this: I use SoT to move around behind a group of TIE Fighters and even though I take a stress I still get to take a focus. I roll to attack via all sorts of other tricks like range one, outmaneuver, and Etahn I blow up one of the TIEs. Next turn my opponent decides he is going to give me a bit of my own medicine by pulling K-Turns on the remaining TIEs while all I do is pull a straight 5 to bleed my stress and maybe even use boost to line up another target.

Lets be honest, for two points I can completely outfly almost anyone in the game barring those few pilots who are above PS8. I don't see an entire squadron taking this EPT but one or two pilots that can act as dedicated strikers are going to be INCREDIBLY dangerous. I have another game tonight where I am going to try it on Corran just because I am curious.

I think that if they allow it to work with navigator, and that lets you avoid the penalty of a red maneuver... The combo is questionable... Although honestly it doesn't do much for the YT's since they don't care nearly as much about arc as say an X-Wing does.

Most ships that do care can't use the SoT + Nav anyway, B-Wings being the only ship that can. But they have to pay for that crew slot so that changes things as well.

But this is hardly going to destroy the game.

The more I think about it, the more I like this card. Yet, I'm still going to get only one YT-2400. So unless it's included in other expansions eventually, I won't be able to equip all my high PS pilots with it. And I suspect we'll mostly see one per squad, maybe two occasionally but more than that, very rarely.

I am so loving the new card the champion designed it will be a drastic change of events in play thats for sure.

Now I also want an EPT called Almost There.

.

So for poops and giggles my buddy and I just ran a game using this card and rebel aces. This card seems way to good to be true and frankly, after using it, it really is a very powerful card. I took kind of a silly list of the following:

Etahn with R2/AdvSen/Engine Upgrade/Stay on Target

Jake with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

Tycho with Refit/Prototype/Outmaneuver/Stay on Target

That is NOT a lot of firepower but I managed to dance around a 7 Tie Swarm with little difficulty. I ended up losing Jake but both Tycho and Etahn were able to stay out of the way of just about everything. What was really messed up was the combination of Outmaneuver which was one of my favorite cards on the A-Wing to begin with. Tycho was incredibly dangerous as he was ALWAYS able to get in the best possible firing position.

This card was letting my pilots easily react to my buddies movements. It felt like I was able to outsmart every move he tried to make. It started feeling like he couldn't even keep up with me.

Someone has probably already beaten me to questioning this, but how? Tycho ignores stress for actions, but he still can't get away with revealing a red maneuver. Stay on Target says when you reveal your dial, you can turn it to a different maneuver of the same speed, then treat it as red, so you're still revealing a red maneuver. Do that while stressed and you're getting the exact opposite of the best possible firing position, on top of no action.

And if you missed it in the article, R2 Astromech doesn't let you change SoT 1-2 reds to greens, so Etahn wasn't like as maneuverable as you were expecting either.

If you run Tycho more like a regular PTL A-Wing or Squint (actually doing green maneuvers to clear stress) it still looks like it would be pretty powerful, since he still gets his action after using it.

Sure, but the same could be said of any ship that can take Advanced Sensors, and if you're flying Tycho like that you're sacrificing his main selling point.

Putting aside the Navigator combo, and honestly lets wait and see what FAQs have to say about how these two cards interact, the red maneuver aspect is a pretty big limiter on this ability. Yes, there are ways to mitigate stress(Keyan, Wingman, that one shuttle pilot...) but by and large, you get to pull this trick every other turn at best with most pilots, and in between you're taking a green to clear the stress. At the cost of, as many others have already said, not taking PtL, Predator, Outmaneuver, etc. Flying against it, you both know that your opponent has a chance to pull this, and that if they do they're going to be predictable their next turn if they want to act again.

2 points may be a bit low, but it does seem like it's going to be highly situational. Granted, in those situations it'll be powerful, but when you're not taking advantage of it you've sacrificed your access to a lot of other possible upgrades that can be useful every turn.

Now I also want an EPT called Almost There.

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