Wow, you are completely overestimating the value of Autothrusters.

It will not prevent getting one-shot. Let's say Whisper is firing at Fel at range 3; that's 4v5 attack/defense. If Whisper converts to all hits and Fel rolls all blanks, he still gets one-shot.

This is yet another drop in the bucket. RGP didn't save the Interceptor and it was the same attempt. I predict this will be like Munitions Failsafe. Cute and useful when it does crop up, but it just will not have a significant impact. The high PS is better at making the Interceptor viable.

If Fel has autothrusters, he's only dead if he didn't take an evade and doesn't have a hull, and that's focusing on an extremely rare chance (all hits no evades, no tokens). Please note that the same shot would kill another phantom (any 4 hits with 4 blanks), too, but they're still around and doing fine, even though there are now ships with 360 four dice attacks.

Have you played with or against them? This is different from the RGT since other upgrades that make them more survivable (hull, shield) are relatively balanced in terms of cost effectiveness. The autothrusters are cheaper and, in my experience, a viable choice when NOT facing turrets. When they are matched up against turrets, they are a steal.

I predict... More turret ships. With vader & gunner.

Shoots.

Oh 1 hit. Ok you evaded

VADER take a crit fool.

Gunner try again!

Lets use our target lock this time!

Now maybe I get some damage and...

DOES NOT MATTER VADER SEZ TAKE A CRIT FOOL!

(Vader is Mr T in my games)

Mwahahaha.

Unless I'm missing something?

Yep you can Vader twice with Gunner if you miss the first shot. But the Decivader is 43 points at a minimum. Personally I don't feel like self inflicting 4 damage a round on my ship that nearly is half the cost of my squad.

Its a decent counter to Autothrusting squints (sounds dirty), but against anything else you are in serious trouble.

I can see scum having little trouble with the interceptors; their motto is basically "101 ways to kill something", and with only 3 HP each they'll drop fast. I don't know how rebels will deal with them though, I'm thinking nera with 2x flechette torpedos and munitions failsafe. With the 360 vision you can get out of their arc on purpose and reliably miss thanks to their own autothrusters so you can keep on stressing them every turn.

EDIT: they can choose not to use the thrusters but if they let a damage through you burn their stealth device at least.

I have played with Autothrusters on Ints and new Vader with his toys and they are a significant improvement in both cases. They are not point and click win, you still have to fly with finesse, but I can assure you it does change there value in the game hugely.

You think that's scarier than Vader+Outmaneuver(or lone wolf or predator)+Engine upgrade+Advanced Targeting Computer?

If we see the Imperial large ship by May or June sure that will also have a similar affect as Sontir Fel. Until then you'd be a little premature in taking the Tie-Advance off the shelf.

Perhaps premature, but Auto-Thrusters aren't out yet either are they?

Kir Kanos. The truest badass imperial guard.

PTL being an auto include on an interceptor is a myth perpetrated by hack pilots who believe the abilities to reposition twice or turtle make them aces. Come fly in my asteroid field.

On Soontir I can give it to ya, but I'm sure you also doubt the beauty of mini echo, AKA Lt. Lorrir. Yeah yeah pilot skill blah blah... It's the meta, but EPT's don't make or break a great ship. Autothrusters revive the desire to know how to fly around your opponent, like this is meant to be played.

Kir Kanos is a badass in the comics but unfortunately that didn't translate to he game. His ability, without taking outside support, is worse than taking a focus for offense. It does add some flexibility to taking an evade action though.

PTL is more or less an auto-include for Interceptors not because it is a crutch for hacks but because it is possibly one of the best ways to spend three points in the game. PTL combined with the Interceptor's action bar is a powerful and flexible upgrade that allows the ship to perform much better with it than it can without. It's not just about turtling up and being able to boost and then barel-roll. Being able to dodge an arc and still being able to make a modified attack roll is a pretty big deal.

To get the most out of Interceptors you really do need PTL on them.

Kir Kanos. The truest badass imperial guard.

PTL being an auto include on an interceptor is a myth perpetrated by hack pilots who believe the abilities to reposition twice or turtle make them aces. Come fly in my asteroid field.

On Soontir I can give it to ya, but I'm sure you also doubt the beauty of mini echo, AKA Lt. Lorrir. Yeah yeah pilot skill blah blah... It's the meta, but EPT's don't make or break a great ship. Autothrusters revive the desire to know how to fly around your opponent, like this is meant to be played.

Kir Kanos is a badass in the comics but unfortunately that didn't translate to he game. His ability, without taking outside support, is worse than taking a focus for offense. It does add some flexibility to taking an evade action though.

PTL is more or less an auto-include for Interceptors not because it is a crutch for hacks but because it is possibly one of the best ways to spend three points in the game. PTL combined with the Interceptor's action bar is a powerful and flexible upgrade that allows the ship to perform much better with it than it can without. It's not just about turtling up and being able to boost and then barel-roll. Being able to dodge an arc and still being able to make a modified attack roll is a pretty big deal.

To get the most out of Interceptors you really do need PTL on them.

EDIT: Or you could sacrifice a little PS and bring a Saber with PTL and Autothrusters for the same price as Kir Kanos.

If Kanos could take an EPT, he'd be probably the 3rd best Squint behind Soontir and Turr.

I predict... More turret ships. With vader & gunner.

Shoots.

Oh 1 hit. Ok you evaded

VADER take a crit fool.

Gunner try again!

Lets use our target lock this time!

Now maybe I get some damage and...

DOES NOT MATTER VADER SEZ TAKE A CRIT FOOL!

(Vader is Mr T in my games)

Mwahahaha.

Unless I'm missing something?

Even in your prediction, that's 1/3rd of the current large turret ship population with an upgrade that only works particularly well on interceptors and maybe Starvipers, not so much on auto-thruster aggressors or the new bulky and actually worth using advances

Vader or no, I'd love to see the turret population culled for the betterment of the game

If Kanos could take an EPT, he'd be probably the 3rd best Squint behind Soontir and Turr.

With EPT slots almost all of the named Interceptors become interesting. That was a really big oversight on FFG's part. Especially, since there are two cheaper generics with EPTs.

Again, to be clear, I'm talking about taking a top tier wave 5 decimator build, and when wave 6 comes out and fel and the boys are freaking everywhere, and shooting them at PS10 doesn't help like it does against whipser, just dropping vader on the decimator in place of one other thing. NOT changing the build entirley or necessarily (but maybe) going all in with gunner. It's not all that different than rebel captive in the sense that it makes a huge impact in some games and very little in others. Hence the definition of a meta card. Vader should never be plan A on a decimator, but also consider that the interceptors will likely be even more vulnerable to him since they are all gonna want to abuse comboing thrusters with stealth instead of being as likely to have more hp with hull/shield upgrades. You know someone is gonna run a list with 9 hp. And that's when flogging you're 50 point ship WILL be worth it.

If Kanos could take an EPT, he'd be probably the 3rd best Squint behind Soontir and Turr.

With EPT slots almost all of the named Interceptors become interesting. That was a really big oversight on FFG's part. Especially, since there are two cheaper generics with EPTs.

Well, with Fel's Wrath, he's just bad, but with Kanos and Lorrir, I think they did this as sort of a balancing mechanism intentionally. Basically you pay roughly 30 pts for ptl interceptor with ability, or 25 for just ability or just ptl. I guess having both for 26 or 27 was pushing it. But with the phantom, it would've likely been fine since their ps is 5 and 6.

Tetran is another strange one that might as well not have EPT since his ability is so not what ptl interceptors do. He's OK with VI or adrenaline rush tho. But even if you use him as a ps7 with ptl and dont kturn, you might as well just play a RGP.

People miss the main problem with autothrusters is it takes a ship that relys on mobility and arc dodging and makes your opponent limit your movements as you try to stay at range 3. Good luck on staying out of my firing arc when I have a pretty good idea of where you are going to be. And large base ships have a much larger primary firing arc to avoid. In the end you are just putting more points into a ship for more survivability while limiting your mobility. So when faced with ships like a fat falcon you will still lose the margin of victory fight because I just need to kill your interceptor that costs 1/3 of your list and you still have to kill a fat falcon that's over 1/2 of my list points.

The only way to beat a fat falcon in a tournament is to burn it down before it has time to regenerate. I don't see that happening from autothrusters but do with 4x advanced lists. And 4x advanced has issues with arc Dodgers and then the Rock Paper Scissors game begins. As turrets disappear from the meta whisper and Echo lists become more dominant. I do however see hybrid imperial lists using vadar, fel, or echo being extremely popular over the meta mid 2015.

Why are you assuming that they will be staying at Range 3? And how many of those used to flying Falcons/Outriders/Decimators are used to dogfighting? It's the issue I see with Iggy, dogfighting with Large bases isn't as easy as you would think, primarily because of how much faster large ships move.

People miss the main problem with autothrusters is it takes a ship that relys on mobility and arc dodging and makes your opponent limit your movements as you try to stay at range 3. Good luck on staying out of my firing arc when I have a pretty good idea of where you are going to be. In the end you are just putting more points into a ship for more survivability while limiting your mobility. So when faced with ships like a fat falcon you will still lose the margin of victory fight because I just need to kill your interceptor that costs 1/3 of your list and you still have to kill a fat falcon that's over 1/2 of my list points.

The only way to beat a fat falcon in a tournament is to burn it down before it has time to regenerate. I don't see that happening from autothrusters but do with 4x advanced lists. And 4x advanced has issues with arc Dodgers and then the Rock Paper Scissors game begins.

It's not because you're more resilient at range 3 that you need to stay there at all cost. Interceptors always been fine against anything except turrets. Autothruster for 2 points now allows them to stand their ground against them with the added bonus to help prevent the dreaded 1 shot kill at range 3 that we all felt victim to.

So, I'll continue to fly my Interceptors like I used to. But now, if my opponent decided to bring a turret (be it a Falcon, Decimator or simply a Ion Y-Wing) I'll be able to compete without relying too much on the dice. There is more and more ship that has a 360 firing arc, Autothrusters is a nice insurance against those ship. Not an auto-include, but something nice to have until the turret meta calm down.

People miss the main problem with autothrusters is it takes a ship that relys on mobility and arc dodging and makes your opponent limit your movements as you try to stay at range 3. Good luck on staying out of my firing arc when I have a pretty good idea of where you are going to be. In the end you are just putting more points into a ship for more survivability while limiting your mobility. So when faced with ships like a fat falcon you will still lose the margin of victory fight because I just need to kill your interceptor that costs 1/3 of your list and you still have to kill a fat falcon that's over 1/2 of my list points.

The only way to beat a fat falcon in a tournament is to burn it down before it has time to regenerate. I don't see that happening from autothrusters but do with 4x advanced lists. And 4x advanced has issues with arc Dodgers and then the Rock Paper Scissors game begins. As turrets disappear from the meta whisper and Echo lists become more dominant. I do however see hybrid imperial lists using vadar, fel, or echo being extremely popular over the meta mid 2015.

I don't particularly see Autothrusters being used in a manner that has people trying to keep their Interceptors at range 3 and fighting from there. Instead I see it as increased protection while closing to close range where an Interceptor can more effectively arc dodge and to protect against shots taken from range three by enemies other than the high priority targets that the Interceptor is dancing around.

From my own experience, outside of matches against fat turrets, it is the early exchanges while my Interceptors are closing in and can't really arc dodge that they are at the most risk. Nothing is more frustrating that having an Interceptor one shot at range 3 before it's able to contribute anything. Autothrusters helps to mitigate this.

Why are you assuming that they will be staying at Range 3? And how many of those used to flying Falcons/Outriders/Decimators are used to dogfighting? It's the issue I see with Iggy, dogfighting with Large bases isn't as easy as you would think, primarily because of how much faster large ships move.

And that's what I like about him: He will reward good flying instead of being a ship that anybody can take and expect to win regularily. Practice makes perfect.

People miss the main problem with autothrusters is it takes a ship that relys on mobility and arc dodging and makes your opponent limit your movements as you try to stay at range 3. Good luck on staying out of my firing arc when I have a pretty good idea of where you are going to be. And large base ships have a much larger primary firing arc to avoid. In the end you are just putting more points into a ship for more survivability while limiting your mobility. So when faced with ships like a fat falcon you will still lose the margin of victory fight because I just need to kill your interceptor that costs 1/3 of your list and you still have to kill a fat falcon that's over 1/2 of my list points.

The only way to beat a fat falcon in a tournament is to burn it down before it has time to regenerate. I don't see that happening from autothrusters but do with 4x advanced lists. And 4x advanced has issues with arc Dodgers and then the Rock Paper Scissors game begins. As turrets disappear from the meta whisper and Echo lists become more dominant. I do however see hybrid imperial lists using vadar, fel, or echo being extremely popular over the meta mid 2015.

I think you miss the point of Autothrusters. An Interceptor still wants to get out of arc, even with ATs. You aren't suddenly going to be able to joust with squints. However, it will help at range 3 when arc-dodging really isn't an option. Your interceptor won't suddenly explode when your opponent rolls a couple dice at it.

Even Fat Han will have a difficult time putting any consistent damage on an interceptor with ATs. Soontir will have at least 2 guaranteed evades against a Falcon each turn. That is including the automatic one you get with AT and the evade action.

Edit: **** super ninja'd

Edit: **** super ninja'd

Being slow doesn't make you wrong.

The interesting thing is, it will push Gunner back to the forefront for Falcons to use. And given how Autothrusters are optional, it can still really slow down the damage of a Falcon. Experience has shown that Falcons really don't like having their damage slowed down.

The interesting thing is, it will push Gunner back to the forefront for Falcons to use. And given how Autothrusters are optional, it can still really slow down the damage of a Falcon. Experience has shown that Falcons really don't like having their damage slowed down.

Bingo!

Either Falcons pick up gunners, which means that they lose one defensive option and can therefore be hit by other ships (including the Decimator which usually does not care about enemy gunners since it will be hit anyway) or Falcons must put in more work into maneuvering to keep an autothruster target in its firing arc. Either way, it will change the meta.

The interesting thing is, it will push Gunner back to the forefront for Falcons to use. And given how Autothrusters are optional, it can still really slow down the damage of a Falcon. Experience has shown that Falcons really don't like having their damage slowed down.

Bingo!

Either Falcons pick up gunners, which means that they lose one defensive option and can therefore be hit by other ships (including the Decimator which usually does not care about enemy gunners since it will be hit anyway) or Falcons must put in more work into maneuvering to keep an autothruster target in its firing arc. Either way, it will change the meta.

Outside of the list that won Worlds, I didn't think that taking two defensive crew options was very popular. At least not popular enough to be meta defining.

The interesting thing is, it will push Gunner back to the forefront for Falcons to use. And given how Autothrusters are optional, it can still really slow down the damage of a Falcon. Experience has shown that Falcons really don't like having their damage slowed down.

Bingo!

Either Falcons pick up gunners, which means that they lose one defensive option and can therefore be hit by other ships (including the Decimator which usually does not care about enemy gunners since it will be hit anyway) or Falcons must put in more work into maneuvering to keep an autothruster target in its firing arc. Either way, it will change the meta.

Outside of the list that won Worlds, I didn't think that taking two defensive crew options was very popular. At least not popular enough to be meta defining.

It is in my local meta

We had scores of Falcons (or double YT-1300s) configured with defensive options in our last tournaments. The autothruster will have a bigger impact in my area

Don't be churlish. I'm well aware of what his card says. I also know he can only lose one stress at a time and his survivability is very much depended on him getting an action.

But he gets his focus action when you give him that stress. If he shoots before you then woo for him.