Whisper/Echo with ACD, or named Falcon with MF Title & C-3PO?

I'm going with the latter. I'm 2-0 against ACD, but 0-3 against MF with 3po.

ACD sucks, but at least if you gets some shots in you can hope for a bad defense roll. MF with 3po is just impossible to get through late in a game, even with good attacks it takes too long to bring it down.

You either go for the falcon first and hope the remaining escorts don't finish you off, or try to kill the escorts quick enough that you can still take on the falcon.

Both are fairly list dependent, to be honest.

Yeah. My good buddy Rexler Brath with his Predatory tendencies and Heavy Laser Cannon would greet both lists with a smile and a "Let's do this."

Neither? I really haven't seen either one be that big of a problem. Tough sure, but not a nightmare by any means.

If you are flying Phantoms and/or Interceptors, the Falcon list is trouble.

If you are flying a TIE swarm or a four rebel build the Phantom squad is way more scary.

Falcon hands down its high health coupled with the turret means unlike the phantom even the best round of combat will leave the falcon on the board and able to deal damage.

The falcon with evades and special modifications for its dice is just incredibly annoying. especially into the late game.

not unbeatable. just incredibly annoying. and much less thinking to do. basically a dial with every move white and a 360 turret. what.

The Falcon, because it also promotes slow-playing.

And by slow-playing I mean deliberately delaying the first exchange by deploying opposite and then moving slowly in the opposite direction of the incoming enemy squadron.

It is a valid strategy but it often shaves off 10-15 minutes of a game that is uphill to begin with AND is on a soft-timer from the very first round. (e.g. kill the falcon before you lose most of your force and cannot get past the double evade).

The Falcon, because it also promotes slow-playing.

And by slow-playing I mean deliberately delaying the first exchange by deploying opposite and then moving slowly in the opposite direction of the incoming enemy squadron.

It is a valid strategy but it often shaves off 10-15 minutes of a game that is uphill to begin with AND is on a soft-timer from the very first round. (e.g. kill the falcon before you lose most of your force and cannot get past the double evade).

Exactly.

Sillily... this game takes more than the usual time limit to finish. Which benefits the Falcon player.

Has anyone tried shooting down the escorts, then taking evades and running around the map all day?

I've tried it a few times but all the falcon player needs is catch up with one of your damaged ships and roll decently.

It can be done, but that - to me - falls into the same non-fun/not-in-the-spirit-of-the-game category.

Falcon dies to ships that can take it and dish it out. The Firespray and Defender can do this, HLC Defender in particular. If you have the PS advantage Interceptors can take a Falcon by staying at Range 3, if they don't have the PS advantage they're in trouble.

What I'm scared of is Wave 5's VT-49 + Phantom. Worst of both worlds.

not unbeatable. just incredibly annoying. and much less thinking to do. basically a dial with every move white and a 360 turret. what.

Believe me, that Falcon player is thinking hard. You can't dodge the arc of a Falcon but the Falcon both can and must dodge yours. It pays for that turret and thus has a total of three dice for over half its squad: you'd get more firepower out of a pair of TIE advanced x1s. Its advantage is that 25 point ships can't take its 50 point highness one on one, it's got to be focused down.

That Falcon has to be flying, arcdodging and spinning all over the place in true Star Wars style to keep those TIEs either close enough to swat or evade them for that round so it can take them down one by one. Shoot it three times every round and it'll be 50 points of space debris. The Falcon has to do some serious maneuvering to avoid dying in a hail of laser fire.

Unless you go for the escorts and ignore the giant tusked flying saucer. Then it can just saunter around the field casually picking off your TIEs without a care in the world.

I really love interceptors... But there are enough falcons at tournaments here to make me almost never fly one in a squad. Are there any interceptor builds that have a solid chance against Han and 3 Zs? Phantoms do not scare me, I play fire spray or defender either/or HLC in tourneys.

High pilot skill interceptors with outmanouver are not a bad start. Knocks C3P0 out of the equation.

Carnor Jax might work. The only problem is you don't really want to get that close to a falcon.

And Carnor is also better suited to use PTL, in my humble opinion.

4 Royal Guards with PTL. can be a stressful matchup for a Falcon player but it is by no means the be-all of counters.

The only thing I find frustrating to play against is an opponent with Analysis Paralysis. You know, the ones who can spend several minutes trying to sort out each ship's move, double checks the last two dials he put down, then changes one, then keeps trying to sort out who's doing what.

What ships you fly? Meh, I'll deal with that as they come at me.

Nether,

dice are my pick.

4 RGs + PtL against a Falcon is a game clock. You have 2 rounds to kill the Falcon (if it has C3PO, you will not kill it with just 1 RG) or it and the rest of the squad will eventually chew you up. You'd have to stay at range 3 and you can only do that for so long.

One bad roll on defense, and you now have a large hill to climb...

The combo I'm hating to fly against right now is Corran Horn with R2-D2, FCS, and PTL. Such a super turtle and **** near invincible late game.

The only thing I find frustrating to play against is an opponent with Analysis Paralysis. You know, the ones who can spend several minutes trying to sort out each ship's move, double checks the last two dials he put down, then changes one, then keeps trying to sort out who's doing what.

What ships you fly? Meh, I'll deal with that as they come at me.

As someone who suffers from this, I cannot apologize for it. It's just as annoying to see the other player get noticeably annoyed and try to rush me along. If you want me to hurry up, pestering me is only distracting me further, thus will make the rounds take longer.

Fly casual and don't be a jerk to those people, even in a tournament.

The only thing I find frustrating to play against is an opponent with Analysis Paralysis. You know, the ones who can spend several minutes trying to sort out each ship's move, double checks the last two dials he put down, then changes one, then keeps trying to sort out who's doing what.

What ships you fly? Meh, I'll deal with that as they come at me.

As someone who suffers from this, I cannot apologize for it. It's just as annoying to see the other player get noticeably annoyed and try to rush me along. If you want me to hurry up, pestering me is only distracting me further, thus will make the rounds take longer.

Fly casual and don't be a jerk to those people, even in a tournament.

I also have this problem. More in casual games. I try to force myself to go faster in a competitive game where there is a time limit. If I'm stuck I'll just go with the gut instinct and punish my gut with hot wings if it is wrong.

Falcon dies to ships that can take it and dish it out. The Firespray and Defender can do this, HLC Defender in particular. If you have the PS advantage Interceptors can take a Falcon by staying at Range 3, if they don't have the PS advantage they're in trouble.

What I'm scared of is Wave 5's VT-49 + Phantom. Worst of both worlds.

not unbeatable. just incredibly annoying. and much less thinking to do. basically a dial with every move white and a 360 turret. what.

Believe me, that Falcon player is thinking hard. You can't dodge the arc of a Falcon but the Falcon both can and must dodge yours. It pays for that turret and thus has a total of three dice for over half its squad: you'd get more firepower out of a pair of TIE advanced x1s. Its advantage is that 25 point ships can't take its 50 point highness one on one, it's got to be focused down.

That Falcon has to be flying, arcdodging and spinning all over the place in true Star Wars style to keep those TIEs either close enough to swat or evade them for that round so it can take them down one by one. Shoot it three times every round and it'll be 50 points of space debris. The Falcon has to do some serious maneuvering to avoid dying in a hail of laser fire.

Unless you go for the escorts and ignore the giant tusked flying saucer. Then it can just saunter around the field casually picking off your TIEs without a care in the world.

I'm trying not to be a rage QQ'er haha.

Yes of course the Falcon playing is thinking hard, but there's also the matter of all moves on the Falcon are basically white, nearly every option possible (which allows a really skilled player to make unusual moves and take advantage of that 360 turret easily), including all the 1 and 2 turns, and the falcon does not imperatively need actions so it has the simple choice of evade or boosting (which then allows for things close to the 3 turn).

Three shots every round is doable, but also hard at the same time. Thats also three round of unimpeded fire from the 3Z that usually accompany the list. This assumes that the falcon player hasnt been successful in dodging with its very good dial and later PS and post movement repositioning.

The double evade makes it nearly impossible to take down in the late game where the remainder force engages it because of the natural tendency to cancel around 2 attacks. If there are only 3 ships left, one might not have a shot, and the other two attacks are wasted, it means basically no damage every turn statistically. Also, then you can also bump with the large base of the falcon and deny shots when there are only 2 or 3 ships left also.