Is it just me, or did they change the range of his ability? I could swear that early pictures said it was at range 2-3, not 1-2. I say this because I think I remember thinking that with Mercenary Copilot you could get two crits at range 3. Anyone know for certain whether I'm right or wrong about this?

I remember him as being always range 1-2. When I first saw him, I thought: ''Cool, unlimited range 1 Proton Torpedoes on a turret that doesn't need a TL.''

But the best person who could answer your question, other than FFG, would be Voistate. Since he include all spoiled card pretty fast on his Squad Building site.

I remember him as being always 1-2 range too.

Perhaps you were thinking with Merc Copilot you could get a modified crit at any range.

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Is it just me, or did they change the range of his ability? I could swear that early pictures said it was at range 2-3, not 1-2. I say this because I think I remember thinking that with Mercenary Copilot you could get two crits at range 3. Anyone know for certain whether I'm right or wrong about this?

No, he was always Range 1-2. Were you thinking of Kir Kanos maybe? His ability is range 2-3 and involves adding hits.

I just must have misread it then, or maybe it's just because it was blurry at first. Thanks for clearing things up. If 4 people say it was always that way, than it's a good bet it was.

The thing that made me think it was the other way was having an idea for a build where you got bad stuff at any range if you were flying against it, and thinking "now i just need something for range 1." Settled on Mara Jade. Yay stress tokens!

Yay stress!

Oh man, is it just me or will the Phantom hate the Decimator, especially flown by Oicunn like this? Fly directly into him since you move first, give a damage. Possibly obstruct 1-2 decloak options or block his movement. Possibly cause more damage with APL. Deploy Proximity Mines to further screw with the Phantom using Dauntless. Obstruct attacks with Tactical Jammers. So many options that will hurt Phantoms a little more. Even if you're hurting him with only one damage from either the ram or the APLs, that's damage that didn't have to be rolled for, damage that the impressive evade dice never helped against.

Or you can just Gunner+Vader and kill him in two turns.

Or you can just Gunner+Vader and kill him in two turns.

Nah, I'd rather keep the Decimator around long enough to matter since it's half my squad.

Or you can just Gunner+Vader and kill him in two turns.

Nah, I'd rather keep the Decimator around long enough to matter since it's half my squad.

Of course that Phantom could be nearly half of your opponent's squadron as well. I'd also hope that the actual attack would get some damage through so you wouldn't need to use Vader 4 times/Phantom but even if you did, and somehow avoided damage from other sources, you could take out TWO Phantoms at the cost of one Decimator.

Or you can just Gunner+Vader and kill him in two turns.

Nah, I'd rather keep the Decimator around long enough to matter since it's half my squad.

Of course that Phantom could be nearly half of your opponent's squadron as well. I'd also hope that the actual attack would get some damage through so you wouldn't need to use Vader 4 times/Phantom but even if you did, and somehow avoided damage from other sources, you could take out TWO Phantoms at the cost of one Decimator.

Yes, please just handwave "avoid damage from other sources". Because a non-arcdodging, large base ship with 0 agility is the king of evading damage.

It also "hand waves" away the idea that with 3 attack dice the Decimator is never going to land any attacks on a Phantom. With Vader on board there's a somewhat reasonable chance that a Decimator could take out even a cloaked Phantom in a single round. Decimator attacks and Phantom defends with Vader following; assuming the attack missed there's still a decent chance attack number two does hit which will strip the Phantom's last shield meaning that second use of Vader could potentially dump a direct hit on the Phantom.

BOOM! The defender may now have taken 4 'hits' from Vader but you can see the Phantom disappear in a turn with just one attack die getting through.

It also "hand waves" away the idea that with 3 attack dice the Decimator is never going to land any attacks on a Phantom. With Vader on board there's a somewhat reasonable chance that a Decimator could take out even a cloaked Phantom in a single round. Decimator attacks and Phantom defends with Vader following; assuming the attack missed there's still a decent chance attack number two does hit which will strip the Phantom's last shield meaning that second use of Vader could potentially dump a direct hit on the Phantom.

BOOM! The defender may now have taken 4 'hits' from Vader but you can see the Phantom disappear in a turn with just one attack die getting through.

That doesn't matter for what you just said. And actually, yeah, I will hand wave the idea of 3 attack dice hitting a phantom because they're one of the most evasive ships in the game. Especially since most people who bother flying one fly a named pilot with VI and ACD. And 3 attack dice against 4-5 evade dice and likely some tokens actually does have a pretty good chance of failing to do damage. Most of the Phantom games I've played, it's taken between 0-1 damage. And it doesn't have to "never" land a hit. Because by burning through it's HP with Vader, you're doing a third of the job for the Phantom. Statistically, a 4 attack dice with a focus gets about 3 hits. Add to that the 2 from vader, and you've already lost 5 out of 16 HP. If you have to use Vader twice in round 1, that's 7 HP, or just shy of half. Even if you're both gouging at each other, your opponent is much more likely to come out ahead because it's a good chance they've got more ships than you. And it's a fair bet that in that turn, the Phantom was able to chose a spot where he couldn't be optimally shot at by the rest of your squad, which is not something that can be said of the Decimator.

Even if you're able to go toe-to-toe with the Phantom and kill it, chances are you've also lost so much HP as to not make it worth it.