http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5153

Beat me to it!

Beat me to it!

Honestly, I was checking hoping for some new on Scum Firespray-31 pilots. I have a feeling that Scum Krasis and Kath will be refreshed for the better.

Hey, that's a picture of me flying "Beefcake" at Nationals (Howl + Swarm Tactics, Scimitar x5), in my Ogre Kickstarter shirt!

FIVE TIE ADVANCEDS???? This is madness

I'm dubious. Nothing in there about representing your list with Lego Minifigs.

The article says they are tie bombers not tie advance

The article says they are tie bombers not tie advance

ooops didn't look close enough....

So pilots that are PS 3-8 that don't have a squad buffing ability are useless?

That's what I took from the article.

Beat me to it!

Honestly, I was checking hoping for some new on Scum Firespray-31 pilots. I have a feeling that Scum Krasis and Kath will be refreshed for the better.

I'd expect that on Monday. They usually do a preview every two weeks until they've shown almost everything.

So pilots that are PS 3-8 that don't have a squad buffing ability are useless?

That's what I took from the article.

Not exactly, just that paying points mainly for a PS bid of 4-8 isn't nearly as good as it was this time last year. If you recall in Paul's article about his experience at Worlds last year, he specifically mentioned how he was most comfortable at PS 4-5, because the fast majority of ships being played were below that. Now, that is simply not the case. I think his point is that if there is a unique that you like and works well for you, play it, but there isn't currently a need to spend the extra points for the higher PS generic.

Interesting that, given that the game is more offense oriented, he builds his ships with defense first, then offense.

So pilots that are PS 3-8 that don't have a squad buffing ability are useless?

That's what I took from the article.

Not exactly, just that paying points mainly for a PS bid of 4-8 isn't nearly as good as it was this time last year. If you recall in Paul's article about his experience at Worlds last year, he specifically mentioned how he was most comfortable at PS 4-5, because the fast majority of ships being played were below that. Now, that is simply not the case. I think his point is that if there is a unique that you like and works well for you, play it, but there isn't currently a need to spend the extra points for the higher PS generic.

That's where I was going, yes. The middle tier uniques are often not worth the extra points in the current environment, since they'll be beaten on Pilot Skill by the high PS uniques that are all around, and are well over the Pilot Skill of the lower nonuniques that are played. PS 3 is good enough to beat most of the nonuniques, so you are paying (unique pilot's PS cost - a PS3ish version of the same ship) for the unique pilot ability.

For example, Garvin is 26 points, and Tarn is 23. Is Garvin's ability worth spending 3 points more than Tarn, when both beat the same PS1-2 ships, and the only PS 4-5 ships you expect to see are the occasional Biggs or Chewie? Often, the answer is no, unless Garvin's token passing is something you really need for your particular list.

So pilots that are PS 3-8 that don't have a squad buffing ability are useless?

That's what I took from the article.

Not exactly, just that paying points mainly for a PS bid of 4-8 isn't nearly as good as it was this time last year. If you recall in Paul's article about his experience at Worlds last year, he specifically mentioned how he was most comfortable at PS 4-5, because the fast majority of ships being played were below that. Now, that is simply not the case. I think his point is that if there is a unique that you like and works well for you, play it, but there isn't currently a need to spend the extra points for the higher PS generic.

That's where I was going, yes. The middle tier uniques are often not worth the extra points in the current environment, since they'll be beaten on Pilot Skill by the high PS uniques that are all around, and are well over the Pilot Skill of the lower nonuniques that are played. PS 3 is good enough to beat most of the nonuniques, so you are paying (unique pilot's PS cost - a PS3ish version of the same ship) for the unique pilot ability.

For example, Garvin is 26 points, and Tarn is 23. Is Garvin's ability worth spending 3 points more than Tarn, when both beat the same PS1-2 ships, and the only PS 4-5 ships you expect to see are the occasional Biggs or Chewie? Often, the answer is no, unless Garvin's token passing is something you really need for your particular list.

Yea, this is definitely something I'm only beginning to notice as I didn't have time to play for a few months. I came back and suddenly everyone is playing 7's and up. I'm seeing a lot more VI these days as well. It certainly impacted my list building as I want the shot at moving later on. For Rebels, I think Cracken with Squad Leader has become much more valuable as you now have the chance to get moves after the dust has settled in the activation phase.

@Paul:

Nice of you to don't give Fat Han advices.

Either way - Empire will strike back sooner or later

The middle tier uniques are often not worth the extra points in the current environment, since they'll be beaten on Pilot Skill by the high PS uniques that are all around, and are well over the Pilot Skill of the lower nonuniques that are played. PS 3 is good enough to beat most of the nonuniques, so you are paying (unique pilot's PS cost - a PS3ish version of the same ship) for the unique pilot ability.

For example, Garvin is 26 points, and Tarn is 23. Is Garvin's ability worth spending 3 points more than Tarn, when both beat the same PS1-2 ships, and the only PS 4-5 ships you expect to see are the occasional Biggs or Chewie? Often, the answer is no, unless Garvin's token passing is something you really need for your particular list.

As you pointed out in your article, the PS bid is all about out-bidding the ships directly below you by 1-2 points. It has been, still is, and always will be this way.

So I just looked up the Regionals stats, and saw that PS1/2 usage is almost the same for wave 3 and wave 4: the lowest PS ships constitute about a third of the points spent. So in that regard, as of the end of Regionals, the relative value in going from PS1/2 to PS3/4 has remain unchanged. However the distribution for the PS5-PS8 ships has radically changed, so I agree that the only reason to go for a PS5-PS8 pilot is for the ability. And I have not been tracking the Nationals stats yet, so it is possible that PS1/2 usage has gone down, making the PS3/4 bid less attractive.

Looking forward into wave 5 (I know, Worlds isn't even over yet), Phantom usage is dropping relative to its initial appearance in wave 4, so there will be less need for PS9 to counter Whisper and Echo. However, I think this will be offset by the need to counter PS7 58 Dash instead. So the minimum "elite" PS in the future will probably dither between PS8 and PS9, vs just being PS9 now.

So pilots that are PS 3-8 that don't have a squad buffing ability are useless?

That's what I took from the article.

He didn't say they are useless, but he said they might be useless. If you spend points for mid level PS you are making a crap shoot. If you play against a all high PS list those points are wasted.

I actually don't mind mid level PS lists, but I acknowledge them as "go before the swarm lists" I still am not a huge fan of PS 6 and 7, but 3-5 can be pretty cheap and put you before all those list that refused to spend points on PS.

Nice job Paul! See you next week!

Showed this article to some friends of mine who play like once every couple months. Hoping they find it helpful

Beat me to it!

Honestly, I was checking hoping for some new on Scum Firespray-31 pilots. I have a feeling that Scum Krasis and Kath will be refreshed for the better.

There is no Scum Krassis, they've got a new pilot for PS5.

Beat me to it!

Honestly, I was checking hoping for some new on Scum Firespray-31 pilots. I have a feeling that Scum Krasis and Kath will be refreshed for the better.

OT, there is no Scum Krassis, he remains loyal to the Empire.

BTW, I like the subtle nod to Vassal in the article.

I like the part where Paul mentionned not building a squad with ships sharing the same weakness. That's some pretty good advice. Just having ships with different maneuvering dials sometimes help keeping your fleet in order when the furball explodes.

I like dat guy!

I like the part where Paul mentionned not building a squad with ships sharing the same weakness. That's some pretty good advice. Just having ships with different maneuvering dials sometimes help keeping your fleet in order when the furball explodes.

I liked this point too. I like symmetry too much in my squads and often use ships that are too similar leaving myself with large deficiencies. It's a reminder that I need to mix and match a little more.

Honestly I'm not sure if this article is written to influence the meta or people's mind set at worlds. While there are some basic easy to pick up ideas based about ps that you would have been hiding under a rock not to know has been happening since the phantom got released.

My big question would be what squad is being referred to for the the world champ when talking about not taking ships with the same weakness. I must admit I don't know of his most recent list he has taken to a tournament, but the last I heard about was a falcon, bigs and headhunter list. Others have been rebel lists with no a wings. X wings b wings z95 and y wings although different, all have a very similar thread running through them and the falcon is still a low agility ship even with C3PO.

Mid ps does not even have to have a function like garvin to be useful in a squad, some pilots like farlander and ibtisam work great without adding to squad synergy and by this article you should wast your EPT on VI, INSTEAD of some other awesome EPT that goes well with there pilots skill.

If everyone goes down this route as the article suggests 1 it will be boring and 2 the guy who brings a squad in the middle ground who has got his flying tight and a squad just right will be easy to overlook ie the guy who played outside the meta won last year and spawned a list called bigs walks the dogs that changed the meta until the phantom came out.