Hey guys,

What's the deal with cloaking? My younger bro uses Phantoms with advanced cloaking so is doing both every turn, that's broken right?

I'm sure I saw somewhere that FFG had nerfed it?

Advanced Cloaking Device or Advanced Sensors with the Cloak action?

The recent delineation in the FAQ about AS with Phantoms is that they cannot both Cloak and Decloak in the same phase, ie right before they reveal their maneuver dial.

With the Advanced Cloaking Device, it is possible to decloak, perform your maneuver, take an action, fire in the Combat phase, and then perform a Cloak action after attacking.

The deal is, it's fine. The "nerf" you are thinking of is that you cannot use the cloak action with Advanced Sensors, then immediately decloak.

Fair enough!

To me at least it seems a crazy amount of things you can do in one turn, maybe it's because I've only managed to kill one out of maybe 9/10 I've come up against.

You really should read up on both the Cloaking and Decloaking rules and the Advanced Cloaking Device upgrade card.

It's a tough and challenging new ship to fly against. You do need to take it into account when listbuilding and in your strategies.

The Phantom is hell to fly against. But, the trick (I hear) is to know its rules well, and then take actions that limit its ability to carry out those actions.

If you have an idea of in what direction the opponents wants to decloak; if you put a blocking ship there, he'll have to decloak in another direction, for which his dial selection may not be suitable; that or remain cloaked in a direction that he had not anticipated.

The Phantom is hell to fly against. But, the trick (I hear) is to know its rules well, and then take actions that limit its ability to carry out those actions.

If you have an idea of in what direction the opponents wants to decloak; if you put a blocking ship there, he'll have to decloak in another direction, for which his dial selection may not be suitable; that or remain cloaked in a direction that he had not anticipated.

That's really the only approach I've found against high Pilot Skill Phantoms so far! But, then, I love running low PS, so maybe it's me haha.

That said, I ran against a gentleman who put a Navigator in with a VI Whisper with ACD and it was a stellar combo to mitigate undesirable decloak moves. Expensive, but those four attack dice make up for it relatively quickly!

The Phantom is hell to fly against. But, the trick (I hear) is to know its rules well, and then take actions that limit its ability to carry out those actions.

If you have an idea of in what direction the opponents wants to decloak; if you put a blocking ship there, he'll have to decloak in another direction, for which his dial selection may not be suitable; that or remain cloaked in a direction that he had not anticipated.

That's really the only approach I've found against high Pilot Skill Phantoms so far! But, then, I love running low PS, so maybe it's me haha.

That said, I ran against a gentleman who put a Navigator in with a VI Whisper with ACD and it was a stellar combo to mitigate undesirable decloak moves. Expensive, but those four attack dice make up for it relatively quickly!

Navigator would work, but I think the main thing is to block the decloak maneuver. This is accomplished, by being ~2" in the Phantom's 12,3 and/or 9. (Of course, these do not apply to Echo.)

Of course you have to take care not to focus so much on the phantom the rest of the squad eats you.

The Phantom is hell to fly against. But, the trick (I hear) is to know its rules well, and then take actions that limit its ability to carry out those actions.

If you have an idea of in what direction the opponents wants to decloak; if you put a blocking ship there, he'll have to decloak in another direction, for which his dial selection may not be suitable; that or remain cloaked in a direction that he had not anticipated.

That's really the only approach I've found against high Pilot Skill Phantoms so far! But, then, I love running low PS, so maybe it's me haha.

That said, I ran against a gentleman who put a Navigator in with a VI Whisper with ACD and it was a stellar combo to mitigate undesirable decloak moves. Expensive, but those four attack dice make up for it relatively quickly!

Navigator would work, but I think the main thing is to block the decloak maneuver. This is accomplished, by being ~2" in the Phantom's 12,3 and/or 9. (Of course, these do not apply to Echo.)

Oh you're absolutely right, all you have to do is block the template and you've narrowed down the options by a third. They still work pretty well on Echo, because the templates take up a fair amount of space, but that might just be my experience.

Navigator was more useful for adapting the chosen maneuver to a new decloak direction. For example, swapping a 1-Turn to a 3-Turn to avoid someone else's arc or flee more effectively, that sort of thing.

Navigator was more useful for adapting the chosen maneuver to a new decloak direction. For example, swapping a 1-Turn to a 3-Turn to avoid someone else's arc or flee more effectively, that sort of thing.

Yes, it certainly would help, but it would at least help limit the options.

Navigator was more useful for adapting the chosen maneuver to a new decloak direction. For example, swapping a 1-Turn to a 3-Turn to avoid someone else's arc or flee more effectively, that sort of thing.

Yes, it certainly would help, but it would at least help limit the options.

Interrupting a Phantom's plans is almost the only way to take them down haha. Either that or the inherent disloyalty of green dice!

Yes, it certainly would help, but it would at least help limit the options.

Interrupting a Phantom's plans is almost the only way to take them down haha. Either that or the inherent disloyalty of green dice!

True that. I've still really got to put the interruption into effect in my games. Thus far I just throw as many red dice at it as possible, and put faith in the disloyalty of his greens.

However, I do think that oil pulse missiles and flechette torpedoes, both/either with munitions failsafes can go long way in the latter. That would REALLY put an interruption into his plans.

True that. I've still really got to put the interruption into effect in my games. Thus far I just throw as many red dice at it as possible, and put faith in the disloyalty of his greens.

However, I do think that oil pulse missiles and flechette torpedoes, both/either with munitions failsafes can go long way in the latter. That would REALLY put an interruption into his plans.

That is something I haven't gotten around to trying yet! I generally play Imperial, and haven't gotten around to trying a pair of Ion Pulse Missiles on some Bandits or Talas with Failsafes, which I think represents a really solid shot at either Phantoms or Falcons. I love Flechette Torps though, I can't get enough of the things. Three Bombers with Flechettes represent a solid wall, and just loading up somebody's plate with three stress tokens is pure evil. I love it!

I also love bombers. I want to use both Ion Pulse Missiles and Flechette torpedoes. Two ion tokens doesn't mean all that much extra, but a stress and an ion token would really ruin the Phantom's day. Plus, it means that it's at least half dead already.

I think it should be possible with enough focus and Jonus, and - if not - that's where the munitions failsafes come in.

I also love bombers. I want to use both Ion Pulse Missiles and Flechette torpedoes. Two ion tokens doesn't mean all that much extra, but a stress and an ion token would really ruin the Phantom's day. Plus, it means that it's at least half dead already.

I think it should be possible with enough focus and Jonus, and - if not - that's where the munitions failsafes come in.

Generally, any stress on a phantom *before* she shoots ruins her day (can't recloak using ACD). A stress on her after she cloaks isn't as bad, since she can pretty easily clear it when combined with the decloak action.

Ion and stress would be tough, but if she's cloaked, at least she has 4 agi dice to try to survive (and probably won't get ion-ed again).