if your primary purpose for running Phat Han is to beat Whisper then VI is the clear winner (and to be honest if your running Phat Han in a tournament this is most likely the case)

the main reason is cost, VI cost 1 point and also means you don't have to spend points on initiative bid, maxing out to 100 point lists.

Now to get the same effect with predator, your likely going to have to cough 2 maybe even 3 points on an initiative bid to outbid whisper pilots, on top of the additional cost of predator itself.

This basically means that Predator is going to "cost" you 5-6 points, which I think is too many, I would rather have VI and have another 4-5 points to spend on upgrades or bumping up another pilot etc.

You'd be surprised how many rebels spend as much time fighting each other as the establishment...

I'm all for the People's Front of the Rebel Alliance, not those splitters in the Rebel Alliance People's Front. And don't get me started on the Rebel Alliance Popular People's Front!

What about the Peoples Front of Alderaan?

But anyone who has a bump to PS 9 isn't necessarily going to shoot before Han - unless they win the Initiative bid.

The ones that really want to shoot before Han will go out of their way to win that bid. Phantom builds have been coming to tourneys as low as 97 points; as a Falcon player, your options are to either match them, or shrug and spend a point on VI to take the bid out of the equation.

I would have to say that shooting after whisper with gunner, and Han rerolls, isn't an impossible or untenable situation. And you move after with a boost, so its not as bad as people make it out to be. Being able to at least partially control when the phantom shoots at your 60 pt falcon can decide a game. (vi also does this, but my point is 4 agility isn't the end all be all. That's just a thing that bugs me with the sky is falling threads about phantoms.)

Shooting at him BEFORE he decloaks is inarguably more efficient though....

Also, as far as the meta goes...maybe the sky ISNT falling, but no other ship has influenced the meta so completely and as quickly as that little ship has.

If you want to play a competitive game, you HAVE to counter it in your list. It's not a choice, it has to be done. Echo and Whisper, expertly flown, are such a tremendous danger that you cannot take them lightly and expect to have a good showing on top tables.

It's unfortunate that this thread was supposed to be anti-falcon. The Falcon has always been with us b/c it's a good ship...but the Phantom coming on the scene just increased it's value in a squad.

If you're going to a tournament, it's Fat Falcon lists and Phantoms. After that....just fly.

Though I'm not likely to be required to use this specifically against a YT, I will be excited to give this a try.

Rexler Brath + HLC + Lone Wolf + Hull Upgrade

Black Squadron Pilot + Predator

Black Squadron Pilot + Predator

Black Squadron Pilot + Predator

The one point cheaper LW EPT makes this possible. Yay!

Never really saw the point of BSP with Predator when you can run Howl+ 3 Acad

Never really saw the point of BSP with Predator when you can run Howl+ 3 Acad

Because, unlike the Howl setup, the other three TIE Fighters don't lose half their offensive potential when one of them goes down. You also have a consistent PS across the board that, again, doesn't go away when one of the TIEs bite it.

Not to say that it's simply better than the Howl swarm, but there are advantages to it.

Two things that are kind of neglected in the VI discussion:

1) Moving second. VI on Han lets you shoot first AND move second, taking away a lot of the phantom's maneuverability advantage. Sure, you have a 360* turret, but you do have to worry about dodging return fire, range control, etc. If you take predator and an initiative bid you have to choose one or the other. If you want to shoot first you also have to move first, which lets the phantom set up the best possible position.

2) Simultaneous fire. With VI you shoot first, kill the phantom, and it goes away. With an initiative bid you still have to suffer a round of return fire before the phantom leaves the table. And when the phantom is rolling 4-5 attack dice against your 13 HP that is potentially the difference between having a Falcon with a decent amount of HP left to deal with the rest of their ships and a crippled (or dead!) Falcon that can't finish the job.

Never really saw the point of BSP with Predator when you can run Howl+ 3 Acad

Same re-roll or better, but higher PS and you aren't tied to a range-1 formation. The real question is why anyone would use predator BSPs when you can have alpha interceptors instead. Sure, you lose PS 4, but you have better firepower, a better dial, and a boost action.