Balancing the decimator

By nikk whyte, in X-Wing

Given that the front line would be in base contact with your decimator, you'd have cut the swarm's firepower in half though.

Why are we assuming that the swarm player flies half their swarm into contact instead of looking at your list, immediately understanding that you're going to be trying to set up collisions, and spreading the swarm out a bit so that they don't fly half their ships into you?

Ram it straight into the swarm with Mara Jade on board to deal damage and stress everyone out.

That would certainly be the fastest way to get your 50+ point ship destroyed, but I'm not sure why you'd want to do that. You will rarely be able to touch multiple ships at once, so your strategy means you do a point of damage to a TIE or z-95 and then the range-1 return fire from the whole swarm removes your Decimator from the table before Mara gets a chance to do anything.

Given that the front line would be in base contact with your decimator, you'd have cut the swarm's firepower in half though.

Or run into it from the side, possibly with a boost. Careful aiming should get you to end up touching two or three. Then you'd shoot first so you aim at a TIE that can shoot at you to hopefully take out another.

If there is a way to upgrade your agility other than SD Flight Instructor could be very useful as well...

Given that the front line would be in base contact with your decimator, you'd have cut the swarm's firepower in half though.

Why are we assuming that the swarm player flies half their swarm into contact instead of looking at your list, immediately understanding that you're going to be trying to set up collisions, and spreading the swarm out a bit so that they don't fly half their ships into you?

Sure they can, but then ramming won't be your first choice and you'd adapt. You can't build a list designed to plow into swarms anyway as that would make it too weak against other lists.

Spreading out means easier to stay at least partially out of arc of the swarm.

i think marek steele might see some play against this thing with great sucess. his ability to pick n choose crits could allow for crippling it with ease

You're brilliant! I'm going to look into making him a Han-hunter...

I have been running Maarek with Opportunist and it works quite well but if you are going against low agility ships then marksmanship gives you a sure crit.

Guys... If you look closely at the Decimator cards and tokens that was shown in the preview, there is an evade token that will come in the pack! So surely either Isaard, Jerjerrod or a Decimator title will give an evade token! ;-)

Isn't it a bit early to talk about rebalancing? It isn't even out yet... Not to mention it should already be in production by now so it is a tad late to be critiquing the design before release.

We don't know it has no form of dodge we haven't seen every card it's coming with yet.

i think marek steele might see some play against this thing with great sucess. his ability to pick n choose crits could allow for crippling it with ease

You're brilliant! I'm going to look into making him a Han-hunter...

ive been contemplating that hes 2 points less than vader "still kind of steep" but that's an amazing ability put PTL on him to get the double action and an engine upgrade to make him match vaders mobility for arc dodging. may not be AS effective but still deadly atleast if you get some kind of crits. i think there's a missile that applies a crit? not sure though but wary of turrets unless you think you can work some decoy ;)

Yeah but you kinda need Marksmanship if you so much as want a chance at actually getting critical hits.

Or proton rockets.

Isn't it a bit early to talk about rebalancing? It isn't even out yet... Not to mention it should already be in production by now so it is a tad late to be critiquing the design before release.

Actually, I'm impressed some people waited this long.

Given that the front line would be in base contact with your decimator, you'd have cut the swarm's firepower in half though.

Why are we assuming that the swarm player flies half their swarm into contact instead of looking at your list, immediately understanding that you're going to be trying to set up collisions, and spreading the swarm out a bit so that they don't fly half their ships into you?

Yea, seems pretty obvious one of the front line TIEs will go just a bit faster to keep it off the rest of the swarm so they can murder it. Apparently, someone needs more practice flying against a solid swarm player.

Guys... If you look closely at the Decimator cards and tokens that was shown in the preview, there is an evade token that will come in the pack! So surely either Isaard, Jerjerrod or a Decimator title will give an evade token! ;-)

The TIE Defender was shown with an evade token in its preview but the final product featured two focus tokens instead, so it is possible that the Decimator may not actually come with an evade token.

Isn't it a bit early to talk about rebalancing? It isn't even out yet... Not to mention it should already be in production by now so it is a tad late to be critiquing the design before release.

Actually, I'm impressed some people waited this long.

Except, this wasn't a discussion on re-balancing.

I just pointed out how, from go, it's been balanced by its extreme vulberability to crits, especially from pilots and upgrades like Etahn and marksmanship.

I agree that the crits will be an issue, I see determination being a good upgrade for this ship, also a BSP with DTF. Though with the potential ramming and actions I really see this ship as a seek and destroy vessel. Make it move before interceptors or phantoms and deal auto damage, then shoot with a 360 arc after it has moved.

Against a swarm I see it falling fast due to 0 agility and the amount of shots a swarm gets. You will need a shuttle or something to ensure you kill a ship a turn after the auto damage soontir fel? Whisper? Boba Fett with Gunner?

With anti-pursuit lasers and the guy who rams people, swarm may not have as easy of a time as you think. The damage the guns do would almost be secondary to the bulk of the ship itself.

Given that the front line would be in base contact with your decimator, you'd have cut the swarm's firepower in half though.

Why are we assuming that the swarm player flies half their swarm into contact instead of looking at your list, immediately understanding that you're going to be trying to set up collisions, and spreading the swarm out a bit so that they don't fly half their ships into you?

Yea, seems pretty obvious one of the front line TIEs will go just a bit faster to keep it off the rest of the swarm so they can murder it. Apparently, someone needs more practice flying against a solid swarm player.

The knock-on effect of the TIEs being more cautious in the attack runs means less damage on the decimator.

The damge that the Decimator does is after it has done a maneuver that results in touching, not if another ship overlaps and touches it. Most likely do 1 point of damage to a target max befoer it gets focused fired down.

However, forcing overlaps will be a way to keep this thing alive. Engine upgrade with Daredevil will be a good combo for this craft. Move into position, DD to conect if you fall short, and shoot at any other target with 3 diced turret.

The damge that the Decimator does is after it has done a maneuver that results in touching, not if another ship overlaps and touches it. Most likely do 1 point of damage to a target max befoer it gets focused fired down.

However, forcing overlaps will be a way to keep this thing alive. Engine upgrade with Daredevil will be a good combo for this craft. Move into position, DD to conect if you fall short, and shoot at any other target with 3 diced turret.

Thing is, I'm going to take anti-pursuit lasers as well. Damage if you overlap them, damage if they overlap you.

Interesting thought on daredevil. I could see that working.

Isn't it a bit early to talk about rebalancing? It isn't even out yet... Not to mention it should already be in production by now so it is a tad late to be critiquing the design before release.

Actually, I'm impressed some people waited this long.

Except, this wasn't a discussion on re-balancing.

I just pointed out how, from go, it's been balanced by its extreme vulberability to crits, especially from pilots and upgrades like Etahn and marksmanship.

Apologies, but the title of your thread was "balancing" (a charged word that, to me, implies it isn't currently) and then you described it as a "paperweight" and didn't give any upsides. So, it seemed a case where someone already made up their mind about it as being a poor ship.

Isn't it a bit early to talk about rebalancing? It isn't even out yet... Not to mention it should already be in production by now so it is a tad late to be critiquing the design before release.

Actually, I'm impressed some people waited this long.

Except, this wasn't a discussion on re-balancing.

I just pointed out how, from go, it's been balanced by its extreme vulberability to crits, especially from pilots and upgrades like Etahn and marksmanship.

Apologies, but the title of your thread was "balancing" (a charged word that, to me, implies it isn't currently) and then you described it as a "paperweight" and didn't give any upsides. So, it seemed a case where someone already made up their mind about it as being a poor ship.

oh god no. I'm getting it day one. It's just gonna be a pain to fly with 5 hull left, my pilot skill at 0, all my turns being red and having no actions.

That's when you set them up the bomb.

Why are we assuming that the swarm player flies half their swarm into contact instead of looking at your list, immediately understanding that you're going to be trying to set up collisions, and spreading the swarm out a bit so that they don't fly half their ships into you?

I don't know, but people make the same mistake constantly when posting lists with 3+ assault missiles.