Etahn is solid.

HLC Defenders are pretty tough too, as they can take quite a bit of ***** to kill with a 3 dice gun, especially at Range 3.

Without Rebel Captive, Phantoms are tough. Predator and Gunner can only get you so far.

Multiple B Wings is tough, since your squad choices leave you with minimal guns to take on all that hull and firepower.

Ion Control is pretty annoying.

As always, stress mechanics make it tough if you run PTL.

As a way to counter the Decimator's counters, the Phantom is pretty great to beat out the Swarm threat. However, the Phantom is mighty weak to Rebel Captive and other stress mechanics. Also, Ions arent bad at beating Phantoms. In general, id guess the Phantom + Decimator list's biggest weakness would be some Rebel Ion or Stress control list. Mirror matches become interesting, as any Decimator with Rebel Captive is almost unshootable by the Phantom.

I haven't yet seen a etahn or defender list that doesnt die to everything else in the mat though. so, im a little less worried about that. can someone show me a list?

Now, a Z packing some IPMissiles looks like it might be bad. stressors also still bad.

I agree about Etahn and Defender. However, with new ships and new meta, I DO expect to see some other ships come out to play more. I'd say Vessery + VI + Engine + HLC certainly has a place in this meta, Rexlar as well, heck, maybe Rexlar more if I can find support I like (some reason those 2 more pts just put Rex into a weird position). PS 8 and HLC for Dash, HLC gun or anti Phantom support for Phantoms. At least, I EXPECT to see them at least once a tourney, instead of 0 times each tourney. Defender + Decimator will see some love, for those that don't like Phantoms all that much.

I've tried some Vessery and to be honest, I'm not thrilled with his survivability. Sure you get one game where he dodges EVERYTHING. (Had that. Dodged something like 11 attacks 3 and 4 dice, only took off shields. ) then you get the other 5 games where he dies a miserable early death facing away from any arc dodging large ships.

Those 3 green dice suck. If you really think about it, a Defender lasts as long as 2 tie fighters.

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I tried to see if a cheap Decimator could work as a stop gap for other fancy ships we don't see often, but the problem is that both are too big. Cheapest Decimator is probably 43 pt Patrol + Vader. Vessery is 35.

Some Tie Bombers might be okay in a fun list, but not something normal mortals will be competitive with.

Triple BH could make things entertaining, 30 HP with 2 agility will be hard to chew through if you only have 2 ships attacking per turn, and auxiliary arcs makes flying a phantom more of a challenge

Have you played Phantoms vs BHs yet? Do you feel there is enough cover area to manage a Phantoms' maneuverability?

I have a hard time with anything lower PS vs Phantom.

Also, what about a Decimator with Gunner? And Phantoms do have 4 dice attacks. But yes, thats a lot of HP.

It was a while ago, but you do have quite a bit coverage, because of only having 2 agility I don't see gunners coming into play frequently unless you take a lot of evades and/or your opponent keeps whiffing rolls, so it would almost make those points useless

The BHs should be able to handle the Decimator. Hmm. Not bad. Against Whisper its hard but not impossible i'd think. I've not tried it much though. And interestingly, when I played with the BH it would get side smacked a lot. Interesting since it should have even more area coverage than a forward only ship.

I would try and arc dodge with the EU PTL Isard though.

And if you take evades on Whisper, 4 dice F and Evade should let you naturally block most 3 dice rolls. Eventually, yes, but you should at least have a chance.

Triple BH could make things entertaining, 30 HP with 2 agility will be hard to chew through if you only have 2 ships attacking per turn, and auxiliary arcs makes flying a phantom more of a challenge

I just won a small Wave 5 opening tournament a couple of hours ago. My last match up was against triple Bounty Hunters, who had managed to destroy an experienced opponent running Han+Luke+C3PO+Predator+Millennium Falcon title build with 3 Bandits. This Bounty Hunter player has been running this squad since Wave 2 at just about every major event we have. I managed to defeat him without losing a ship, and snagged 1st place, which is a huge accomplishment for me. Here's my list:

The crits hurt, including Blinded Pilot, but I just muscled through. Kenkirk managed to weasel his way off the asteroid he had been blocked onto, and had only 4 hull points left. My opponent had the unenviable task of choosing whether to scramble to try to take it down, or wait for him to come back around and tango with the TIEs for a bit. He chose the latter, which probably lost him the game. I think the key was having TIE fighters with staying power. The problem is that they still evaporate under the withering stare of Han+Luke crew. Anyway, in two of my games Kenkirk had only 2 hull points left, so it was very close!

I was also a bit miffed about Rebel Captive, as there wasn't a phantom in sight. The only time it made a difference was not in my favor, as I watched on helplessly while it fed the Keyan Farlander machine. So much hurt!

It is a little too soon to say about how the 2 new turreted ships have changed the meta. We all know with the surge of turreted ships arc dodgers will be scarce for some time until it wears off. However it is safe to say that none of the ships act like the fat falcon.

The YT-2400 acts like more of a arc dodging area control. So it works great against swarms which were the bane of turreted ships but tend to be more vulnerable to high firepower and high mobility ships like interceptor and phantoms.

The VT-49 has allot of health but no natural damage reduction other than the range 3 bonus and for that just throw in HLC or Ion Cannons and watch the VT-49 crumble. However with things like fleet officer and mara jade as well as stuff like captain ocien it is a close range turret so you want to not be at range 1 of this thing.

Okay, now let's see what lists people have that can beat Dash, Decimators, Fat Han, Phantoms, TIE swarms, Rebel swarms, and Biggs Walks the Daggs.

At the same tourney.

Okay, now let's see what lists people have that can beat Dash, Decimators, Fat Han, Phantoms, TIE swarms, Rebel swarms, and Biggs Walks the Daggs.

At the same tourney.

Luck od the draw and actual pilot skill, that is if all mentioned are considered viable in tournaments and provided people don't all just gravitate towards one or two lists like 2014.