Up until last night, Kir Kanos was one of those pilots that I just sort of glazed past. Then for some reason I finally realized that he can actually do a bunch of damage for not a lot of points if he can get both an Evade and Focus. Not having an EPT, of course, makes that pretty tricky for Imperials. Almost all of the Action sharing abilities for Imperials are clunky or short ranged, making it not really worth it for a not-terribly durable gunship.

Of course Fleet Officer will be with us in the next wave. That will start making it pretty practical to get an Evade and Focus on Kanos. That means an average of 3.25 damage, which is HLC-like damage from a guy that costs 24 points. It wouldn't be worth it for him alone, probably, but Fleet Officer works for two ships. Kanos is cheap enough that you can fit a Fleet Officer platform in with another beatstick to make the most out of the extra actions.

Just some random ideas trying to feel this out:

Sigma Squadron Pilot, Fleet Officer 28

Rexler Brath, HLC, VI = 45

Kir Kanos, Stealth Device = 27

Total: 100

Sigma Squadron Pilot, Fleet Officer 28

Mauler Mithel 17

Backstabber 16

Night Beast 15

Kir Kanos 24

Total: 100

My thoughts exactly, he is going to see a lot more action methinks. I still enjoy running him now but he will be very deadly soon!

I still think it was a miss on FFG's part to not give Kanos and Lorrir EPT slots, especially when compared to the stuff in Rebel Aces (I don't think Lorrir's pilot ability should give him a stress token either).

That said, Fleet Officer is pretty much exactly what Kanos needs.

Bummer that the action can't be used on a ship with PtL. More examples of FFG screwing Imps.

Rebel aces has:

2 Bwings with EPT (Neera + Keyan)

1 Awing with EPT (Jake)

Imperial Aces has:

3 Interceptors with EPT (Royal Guard, Cowel and Jax)

To me thats even.

Not bad. I think you want somebody who doesn't sweat Stress to be carrying that Fleet Officer though. Or maybe Vader since he gets two actions.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend putting Fleet Officer on a Phantom.

I use Kir quite a lot with Howlrunner and Squad Leader, she just gives her action to Kir. Put howlrunner behind a row of interceptors and she isn't quite such a high priority target.

...if you are not wanting to use a shuttle or VT-49 in your build, then I would suggest using Squad Leader instead of Fleet Officer to allow Kanos to get both a focus and evade token.

edit: ninja'd

I still think it was a miss on FFG's part to not give Kanos and Lorrir EPT slots, especially when compared to the stuff in Rebel Aces (I don't think Lorrir's pilot ability should give him a stress token either).

That said, Fleet Officer is pretty much exactly what Kanos needs.

Bummer that the action can't be used on a ship with PtL. More examples of FFG screwing Imps.

This. I house rule Lorrir's ability to not cause a stress. Doesn't make him OP by any means, but makes him a pretty **** good squint. He's begging for VI too. A BSP tagging along with Lorrir, w/ wingman is a good way to keep him stress free though.

I think the best ship for the FO will be the Decimator. So we will have to wait to see which pilots were pair best with Kanos.

Rebel aces has:

2 Bwings with EPT (Neera + Keyan)

1 Awing with EPT (Jake)

Imperial Aces has:

3 Interceptors with EPT (Royal Guard, Cowel and Jax)

To me thats even.

Has nothing to do with being "even" and has everything to do with which pilots have an EPT.

Not bad. I think you want somebody who doesn't sweat Stress to be carrying that Fleet Officer though. Or maybe Vader since he gets two actions.

But it's a crew card. Vader couldn't have it, and I dunno which Imperial ships are good at shedding stress and can take crew cards. Maybe a Firespray?

Sigma is kind of a fragile Fleet Officer platform, given the TIE phantom's great dislike of stress. Probably better with a Lambda.

I might try something like this:

OGP + ST-321 + Weapon Engineer + Fleet Officer + Advanced Sensor

Col Vessery + Veteran Instinct + Proton Rockets (or Ion Cannon)

Kir Kanos + Shield Upgrade (or Hull upgrade and 1 point for initiative)

I threw the Sigma in there because it's cheap and maneuverable. With Fleet Officer, it probably stays cloaked longer than normal. Any number of platforms might be better.

I threw the Sigma in there because it's cheap and maneuverable.

The Lambda's cheaper and unlike the Sigma has more than 4 hull.

Your options are Lambda, Firespray, Phantom and Decimator. Decimator probably is too expensive, but Lambda and Firespray are good options.

I still think it was a miss on FFG's part to not give Kanos and Lorrir EPT slots, especially when compared to the stuff in Rebel Aces (I don't think Lorrir's pilot ability should give him a stress token either).

That said, Fleet Officer is pretty much exactly what Kanos needs.

Bummer that the action can't be used on a ship with PtL. More examples of FFG screwing Imps.

But the thing is, it CAN. Limitations being, it must always be your second action, and you receive two stress tokens for doing it this way. Hard to say if it is worth it in some situations, but maybe throw a Wingman in somewhere to lighten the load.

Bounty Hunter, Fleet Officer 36

Mauler Mithel 17

Backstabber 16

Kir Kanos 24

That leaves you 7 points for various upgrades. All 4 ships can get in close and mix it up with some serious attacks. The FO buffs whichever 2 ships have the best shots.

I'm interested in Fleet Officer, and the card certainly puts Kir Kanos on the map more than he was.

However, it could be argued that since FO assigns a focus to anyone, it's pretty much good all-around. So you could have two tokens on a PTL RG, one for offense and defense, making it more effective on offense and defense and making it much harder to kill than Kanos.

Rebel aces has:

2 Bwings with EPT (Neera + Keyan)

1 Awing with EPT (Jake)

Imperial Aces has:

3 Interceptors with EPT (Royal Guard, Cowel and Jax)

To me thats even.

Has nothing to do with being "even" and has everything to do with which pilots have an EPT.

And to top it off the Rebel Aces set comes with a 0 cost Title card that gives an EPT to an A-Wing, it can even have a second one if it already has an EPT already!

Not at all an even comparison, Both Kanos and Lorrir see virtually no play because of the lack of EPT, its sad but true that for an interceptor to be playable 99% of the time it needs to have PTL to survive long enough to justify the points invested in it.

I'm interested in Fleet Officer, and the card certainly puts Kir Kanos on the map more than he was.

However, it could be argued that since FO assigns a focus to anyone, it's pretty much good all-around. So you could have two tokens on a PTL RG, one for offense and defense, making it more effective on offense and defense and making it much harder to kill than Kanos.

I think this line of reasoning (support should make good things great, not make mediocre things good) is true for most things, but I think there's something special in the Kir Kanos situation. Per your example, a PTL Royal guard (costing a modest 1 point more) is a wholly different type of unit than Kir Kanos. Extra actions on the Royal Guard, barring the inclusion of a Targeting Computer, really only increase Defense. The extra action on Kir Kanos increases offense, you can put both actions into offense. Moreover, you can put both actions into offense really efficiently. Generally, stacking a TL and a Focus is nice, but the jump from 0-1 tokens (1.5 hits to 2.25 hits) is bigger than the jump from 1 to 2 tokens (2.25 hits to something like ~2.7 hits, I forget). With Kir Kanos, on the other hand, that unique ability is just 1 more hit. You go from 2.25 with Focus to 3.25 with Focus + converted Evade. That's HLC damage for 24 points on a PS6 platform.

If Kanos ends up being a target, he's still got 2 defensive tokens on him if he is being attacked by a high PS opponent, and you can always keep them if lower PS pilots are lined up on you.

I still think it was a miss on FFG's part to not give Kanos and Lorrir EPT slots, especially when compared to the stuff in Rebel Aces (I don't think Lorrir's pilot ability should give him a stress token either).

That said, Fleet Officer is pretty much exactly what Kanos needs.

Bummer that the action can't be used on a ship with PtL. More examples of FFG screwing Imps.

But the thing is, it CAN. Limitations being, it must always be your second action, and you receive two stress tokens for doing it this way. Hard to say if it is worth it in some situations, but maybe throw a Wingman in somewhere to lighten the load.

But PtL specifically states the free action must be one from your action bar. The Fleet Officer action won't be on your action so it has to be first.

I'm interested in Fleet Officer, and the card certainly puts Kir Kanos on the map more than he was.

However, it could be argued that since FO assigns a focus to anyone, it's pretty much good all-around. So you could have two tokens on a PTL RG, one for offense and defense, making it more effective on offense and defense and making it much harder to kill than Kanos.

I think this line of reasoning (support should make good things great, not make mediocre things good) is true for most things, but I think there's something special in the Kir Kanos situation. Per your example, a PTL Royal guard (costing a modest 1 point more) is a wholly different type of unit than Kir Kanos. Extra actions on the Royal Guard, barring the inclusion of a Targeting Computer, really only increase Defense. The extra action on Kir Kanos increases offense, you can put both actions into offense. Moreover, you can put both actions into offense really efficiently. Generally, stacking a TL and a Focus is nice, but the jump from 0-1 tokens (1.5 hits to 2.25 hits) is bigger than the jump from 1 to 2 tokens (2.25 hits to something like ~2.7 hits, I forget). With Kir Kanos, on the other hand, that unique ability is just 1 more hit. You go from 2.25 with Focus to 3.25 with Focus + converted Evade. That's HLC damage for 24 points on a PS6 platform.

If Kanos ends up being a target, he's still got 2 defensive tokens on him if he is being attacked by a high PS opponent, and you can always keep them if lower PS pilots are lined up on you.

I agree, the PTL RG is going to be supported by Fleet Officer just fine. It's just not the same thing as Kir Kanos. Kanos will be stressless, adding more maneuver options, and his two actions can both be combined offensively. He's a bigger gun, and he's slightly cheaper. It's all about what you need in a list.