While everyone is busy testing the Decimator and the YT-2400, I have been busy testing the upgrade cards instead on ships that I control well. Yesterday I had an interesting game and I thought that I would share it with you guys.

My forces: the Infamous 9

Vader (Rushtlessness, cluster missiles)

Soontir (push the limit, interceptor title, hull upgrade, targeting computer)

Turr (veteran instinct, hull upgrade)

Opponent:

Echo (veteran instinct, advanced cloaking device)

Academy pilot

Saber interceptor (push the limit)

Carnor (push the limit)

During the whole match, Turr went after Echo and danced behind him, the two of them locked in a deadly dance, but that's not the interesting part. The interesting part was what happened between Vader / Soontir vs the rest of my opponent's forces.

Round 1

My opponent moved in a block formation. Vader moved forward 4 while Soontir, flying along the edge of the map, moved 5, boosted and barrel rolled into range, earning a free shot on the saber squadron while being outside of its arc. One damage.

Round 2

All 3 ships turn to intercept Soontir, including Carnor, which is a problem. Soontir moves 2 forward, boosts and takes a target lock on Carnor, earning a focus with a stress (and being only in the saber's firing arc, but having no target of his own). Vader comes in next, target locking the Saber and focusing. During the attack phase, he fires the cluster missiles, consuming the target's tokens and scoring a critical hit which disables its push the limit. Ruthlessness kick in and Carnor suffers one damage. The saber fires on Soontir and scores 3 hits (thank god for that hull upgrade).

Round 3

All fighters turn to try and pursue Soontir, boosting to do so, but he moves out of all arcs, again without a taget of his own. Vader targets the Saber (now tokenless without push the limit). One damage done to it, destroying it. Rushtlessness kicks in again for another damage on Carnor.

Round 4

Carnor turns again, this time having Soontir in range for sure with an evade action on top. The tie fighter pulls a K-turn to try and target Soontir. Soontir moves away and pulls off a cocktail of tokens for defense. Vader shoots, but not at Carnor, target locking and focusing on the Tie fighter instead. One damage done to it, another on Carnor, who then blows up.

Following rounds

Turr and Soontir went after Echo while Vader pursued the tie fighter. All were destroyed in due time.

What was interesting

What was really interesting about Ruthlessness is that in a high maneuverability dogfight with more than one enemy ship, my opponent always had one ship without tokens which I could use as a vector for damaging my intended target (which had lots of tokens to defend himself).

Part of me really doubted the pertinence of putting more offensive points on Vader, a ship with only 2 attack dice (I usually control Vader more in a supporting role with squad leader). However, all you really need is for a single target to be at a defensive disadvantage and suddenly his 2 attack dice become 2 atttack + 1 damage (and with the native ability to target lock and focus, it's not that hard to score 2 damage consistently).

So yeah, if you see a ship with Ruthlessness ahead of you, don't take it lightly... unless if you're playing against me, in which case by all means, fly in formation. I'll be really happy

I flew against a devistator with that upgrade and it was terrible. One ship died to that upgrade and I lost another 2 to ramming. Moving to block was what I was trying to do, but when you forget you only have 1 hull left and you're about to take 1...ugh no bueno.

Good stuff man. Did you find Turr handled Echo pretty handily? Kinda tough to anticipate those movements myself.

I flew against a devistator with that upgrade and it was terrible. One ship died to that upgrade and I lost another 2 to ramming. Moving to block was what I was trying to do, but when you forget you only have 1 hull left and you're about to take 1...ugh no bueno.

Good stuff man. Did you find Turr handled Echo pretty handily? Kinda tough to anticipate those movements myself.

Careful movement allows either Turr or Soontir to deal with Echo quite easily as long as you don't have too many ships in your way (friendly or enemy).

With Turr, it's all about estimating where he'll be and see if you can boost to an area where after you shoot, you can barrel roll outside of his arc. Then you have an uncloaked Echo ready for next round, which plays heavily in your favor (or at least gives you a round to get him back in your arc). If you overshoot him, then it's, again, all about boosting past his firing arc.

A lot of people try to complete their fleet with academy pilots and that actually backfires when playing against phantoms because they can use them to recloak and regain that mobility edge for the following round. If you deny them that, however, you can screw them up big time. Ironically, the same piece of advice applies to Keyan (if he stresses himself and you get out of his firing arc, it goes downhill for him very fast).

Good points on all counts. What would you think about running Ruthlessness on a phantom? Their shear devastating attack at range 1 is nuts. Been toying with the idea of opportunist on a phantom, but then I can't recloak or decloak so i'm still not sold.

Good points on all counts. What would you think about running Ruthlessness on a phantom? Their shear devastating attack at range 1 is nuts. Been toying with the idea of opportunist on a phantom, but then I can't recloak or decloak so i'm still not sold.

Ruthlessness on a phantom... that means either Echo or Whisper, leaning strongly towards Echo (maybe with an intelligence agent to compensate for the lower PS or whisper with a advanced sensors on top (for even more unpredictable movements).

Quite frankly, that's uncharted territory for me, but worth exploring. I had been toying with an Echo / Chiraneau build, but the Ruthlessness was on Chiraneau (with Echo having an easy time dodging out of range 1 if need be).

I might try Ruthlessness on Turr. He doesn't really need PTL to get his boost barrel roll in. Could be another option besides PTL or VI.

I think I'll have to try your build. Ruthlessness + Cluster Missiles is cool, and being on Vader makes it sound even cooler. Turr is also my favorite Imperial pilot, and I love Soontir as well. Sounds like a lot of fun.