So I've been looking at a lot of "Rebel Swarm" builds, and I just don't think it will ever be as successful as a TIE swarm, but I was looking at the Lt. blount pilot card (his ability reads"When attacking, the defender is hit by the attack, even if it does not suffer any damage." So I thought about putting Assault Missiles on him! Maybe slap on a hull upgrade, and then he's at 25 points, which isn't too bad. But anyway, the Assault Missiles. Think about it: a swarm of TIEs flying at you, just let fly those missiles, and EVERY ship in range 1 automatically suffers 1 damage, not to mention whatever damage the attack does!

Thoughts on this?

Works well, but a skilled player will spread out his ties and you get minimal extra damage in.

The rest of your squad will still need to do a lot of work, but if you can capitalize on focusing on individual ties its worth it.

He also auto kills stealth devices and can auto ionise ships with the ion missile.

As someone who flies a lot of Ties I've been dreading him, yet haven't ever seen him used.

He's good, not just for TIE Fighter swarms, but for any list built around friendly units staying in range 1 of one another.

Rebel fighters with Biggs Darklighter is another good example, or bombers with Captain Jonus.

Yes, TIE fighters can split formation and still be effective. You don't have to have Howlrunner's reroll to hit things, after all. But regardless, if he's paid for the ability and isn't using it, you're in a better situation than if he is.

It's not 'the bane of' - 1 non-critical damage is not lethal, even to a TIE fighter - but it is painful. More importantly, as you noted, you can pack him into a squad without breaking the bank. If you face a lot of people who fly in tight formations, a couple of cheap fighters with assault missiles can do far more than their points worth of damage.

When flying rebels I always use blount with Ion Pulse Missles and Munitions failsafe. It' s a great counter for Swarms, Phantoms, and Huge Ships. Two ion on a phantom can really ruin it's day

I was under the impression that Blount and the munutions failsafe were mutually exclusive? Blount's rule is that his shot always hits - and the failsafe only kicks in if the shot misses.

Hedgehog is correct. Munitions failsafe is entirely pointless on Blount. And two ion tokens on a phantom have precisely the same effect as one ion token, ships clear all ion tokens as soon as they take the 1 white straight. The second token from ion missiles only matters against large ships.

When flying rebels I always use blount with Ion Pulse Missles and Munitions failsafe. It' s a great counter for Swarms, Phantoms, and Huge Ships. Two ion on a phantom can really ruin it's day

Munitions Failsafe is a waste of points on Blount. It only triggers if you miss and Blount can never miss.

Also, 2 Ions on a Phantom has an identical effect to one. When a small ship receives a single ion token it becomes "ionized". An ionized ship doesn't set a dial (so it will prevent a Phantom from decloaking) but instead the ship will move using the one straight template (which puts a Phantom in very predictable spot). After completing that move the ship will have all ion tokens removed from it. Large ships only become ionized after receiving two tokens and cannot remove a token until it has been ionized. Getting hit by ion weapons does suck for Phantoms but it doesn't matter how many tokens they get in a round the effect is still the same.

Well, let's just say there's a reason Ruthlessness is Imperial only.

Sorry! I typed the wrong thing since I was thinking about something else at the time. Not munitions failsafe, but engine upgrade. I usually keep him back until I know where my targets are going then I boost in an blast them.

As for the Ion effect I understand that, but this will work on swarms, phantoms and large ships. It can really put a crimp in someones plan.

None of this is new, nor has it proven as effective as it looks on paper in the overall scheme of things.

I can tell you it definitely makes the other player play a little differently then they planned.

But's it not over the top, I like it because of the versatility of the ship. I always try and build lists that can work in all circumstances. When we play at the store, we play king of the hill style, so 1 type of list may win, but will be smoked in the next game. It forces us to build all around take on all comers lists.

Believe it or not. I used bombers with Counter measures and Proton Missles last game, along with the doom shuttle. Lots of fun!

As a Empire player, I love it when my opponent takes Blount, and the more stuff they put on him the better. He will usually do very little over all and he is still a z95(2 evade, 4 hit point ship) so he will die pretty fast. The more points sucked up into him the better. And he is especially vulnerable on the turn he attempts to shoot his ordnance. He will have Target Locked, and therefore is even easier to focus down with High PS ships. I usually try to bait him to TL a tie fighter and then swoop in with my interceptors or Phantom(or both) and shoot him down before he shoots. It generally is not a problem for high PS ships. He is better on paper than actuality.

I have only flown against him once. I felt like his ability was good, that one time he fired his missile. It would also have been good if I had a stealth device, but other than that his ability doesn't do much. On top of that once you got off your assault missile or Ion Missile or whatever he is just an expensive Z-95. And Z-95's really aren't that great. 4 hits to kill and only 2 agility means they die pretty fast. 2 attack dice and no Howelrunner near by to buff them means they really struggle to get hits on 3 agility ships. They are good at only 1 thing being cheap.

TIE Fighters in comparison are good at three things 1- They have a pretty great dial, not top tear, but definitely second tear. 2- they have pretty good agility, which means that though you only need 3 hits to kill them, if you don't have an action or some other boost, you have a pretty good chance to miss them entirely. 3- They fly around Howelrunner. Sure any Imperial ship can do this, but if you want to swarm there is no better ship than Howelrunner to do it around and there is not better ship that the TIE to do it with.

Blount may always "hit" but that does NOT always cause damage to every ship when using Assault Missiles. Remember, an Assault Missile only causes 1 point of damage to OTHER ships within R1 of the target; if the target happens to negate all of the [hit] and [crit] results it will still avoid damage despite being 'hit' by an Assault Missile.

The way Blount can do automatic damage is with the Ion Pulse Missile. It's effect causes a point of damage when the attack hits in addition to the Ion tokens.

Blount has his uses but generally he's a one trick shot pony unless your opponent happens to be running Stealth Upgrades. I actually consider putting Draw Their Fire on him as the cheap rebel EPT carrier so he can maybe take some [crits] from more important ships after he's done his basic job.

On top of that once you got off your assault missile or Ion Missile or whatever he is just an expensive Z-95.

So? You know when you put Blount into your list that you're getting a one-shot weapon, just like any other missile/torp ship. You pay 10 points more than a naked bandit for the ability to either force your opponent to break up their formation and lose the advantage of focused fire or start the game with 1 HP gone on all of their ships (which decisively puts the math in your favor). And even once the missile is gone he's still a PS 6 ship with an EPT option. You probably wouldn't bring him just for the PS boost, but it's still a relevant advantage in a lot of games.

And Z-95's really aren't that great.

And you're indisputably wrong about this. Z-95s have better math than TIE fighters, and are the clear best choice for a generic "filler" ship in a rebel list.

None of this is new, nor has it proven as effective as it looks on paper in the overall scheme of things.

I think we'd have seen more Blount if the TiE swarm was still THE dominant list, but he's not as useful against Phantoms or Falcons.

IF you happen to have an Ion Pulse on Blount and can get a Phantom lined up he is incredibly useful. I know there are too many "ifs" there but when being able to hit and ionize a Phantom automatical is a beautiful thing when it happens.

Blount + Assault Missiles had the terrible misfortune of being release in the same wave as the Phantom, which did more damage to the swarm than any number of Blount-powered splash damage. That being said, hes fantastic when using him to deliver a Ion-Pulse, and in fact i prefer to give him deadeye, as his PS still leaves him vulnerable to the standard Range band ordinance issues vs high PS targets.

I use to fly him with AM but now I fly him with IPM mostly to make my opponet think more about him the one of my other ships that is about to move int range 1 and blow him away. If he is ignored I fire my IPM at the high value target and with good dice that ship is toast next round

Fun thoughts! Thanks for sharing

IF you happen to have an Ion Pulse on Blount and can get a Phantom lined up he is incredibly useful. I know there are too many "ifs" there but when being able to hit and ionize a Phantom automatical is a beautiful thing when it happens.

The thing is even if you don't line up a shot it makes the phantom player move differently. Any time you can have that of a phantom player it's a good thing

Bane of the "stealth device"!!!!

I used him to great effect over our summer escalation league. Flew him with chewy/craken/wes at the end and just loaded him out with ion pulse missiles. I kept him in the back of the formation and wouldn't use his pulse until i had either a shot where ion would put me in R1 with my other ships, or he moved up for a finishing blow on an important ship. In a standard 100 point game I don't think his cost is worth it, rather just field a Tala and use the points elsewhere.