As a veteran Echo pilot I will tell you the auto blaster turret swarm will not work. I'll stay at range 3 and snipe with focused shots. You will destroy my tie fighter swarm, but not before I've destroyed 2 of your Y's at which point you will never catch the phantom.

This has actually seen success on the tournament scene early in Wave 5, a player made it to the finals of a tournament in Australia using Ten Numb with VI, Autoblaster and Advanced Sensors as a Phantom Hunter and 5 Bandits as a min-swarm. Seemingly an anti-meta list against Phantoms and Han, he lost in the finals to World Champion runner-up Morgan's Phantom + Expose Decimator list, arguably due to Morgan's superior flying.

The match has been up on youtube for about a month now.

There are couple of problems with autoblasters both the turrets and the cannons.

First and the most obvious is the range. Range 1 is the smallest area in terms of range bands. You have to get so close that you risk bumping thus loosing the attack. Also if a phantom will let you get that close odds are you got 1 or 2 hull left and he wants to get you with the 5 attack dice shot first.

Second is the firepower. For the cannon upgrade it is only 3 firepower. For most ships that can carry cannon upgrades already have 3 primary firepower which at range 1 can roll 4 dice so in actuality it is only 2 firepower. As for the turret same thing. Although firing out of arc is a benefit at range 1 you are only getting 2 dice when your opponent is rolling 3 or 4 attack dice (5 if a phantom). So for the autoblaster turret it is akin to firepower 1.

A downside the cannon has although they fixed the turret was the point cost. The autoblasters on B-wings cost 5 points. For 2 more points you can get HLC or save a point and pick up ion cannons for the same firepower at longer ranges with a control affect. Now for the turret it is only 2 so they fixed that issue. Still with the firepower as explained in the previous post it is more of a downgrade for BTL-A4s. As for the HWK- it is a rule of thumb that any turret is better than no turret so if you have 2 points to spare this might be a good filler for Roark, Katan, Ors, lists.

Why are people so scared of phantoms, All you need is some Arvel in your life.

Arvel is Love, Arvel is life.

In seriousness, The only way to find out how well it would do is put it into practice.

I'm sick of hearing OH AN EXPERIENCED PLAYE... BLAH BLAH BLAH

Test it, Tweak it, Test it some more, make a sandwich, Sit down, Eat said sandwich, Enjoy said sandwich, Scrap list and run Arvel instead.

Sure everyone says they can stay out of range one of a autoblaster, and that's good for him, but if you've flown against a Phantom you should know where he's gonna go based on where you would go and capitalize on it. You know what an extremely effective way of dealing with phantoms is. Blocking, Block the crap out of that phantom. Oh i can't shoot you? well neither can you, good luck de cloaking.

The strength of the Phantom is it's fear it evokes in you green pilots.

So the question is, what do you want to run. Are you just looking for a list that can kill phantoms out right and take to tournaments to hunt them down and squash their hopes and dreams? or are you looking for a list that can take on other lists and can work well against phantoms? I would add Ions to 2 of the y wings to help the autoblaster get into range.

Edit - Lost half of what I wrote **** school Internet

I like that list. I may try that but swap the 5 Z95s for 3 Y-wings with autoblaster turrets

I've done alot of games proxying Autoblaster turrets on hwks and y-wings. Range 1 on low PS just hurts them so much. I haven't tried them on anything above PS6 so the jury is still out on that. But ships can do a very good job of avoiding that range 1 bubble like that plague especially if they can boos, barrel roll, or decloak.

I honestly wonder if it would been better being range 1-2 with 2 dice or still range 1 but 3 dice.

There are couple of problems with autoblasters both the turrets and the cannons.

First and the most obvious is the range. Range 1 is the smallest area in terms of range bands. You have to get so close that you risk bumping thus loosing the attack. Also if a phantom will let you get that close odds are you got 1 or 2 hull left and he wants to get you with the 5 attack dice shot first.

Second is the firepower. For the cannon upgrade it is only 3 firepower. For most ships that can carry cannon upgrades already have 3 primary firepower which at range 1 can roll 4 dice so in actuality it is only 2 firepower. As for the turret same thing. Although firing out of arc is a benefit at range 1 you are only getting 2 dice when your opponent is rolling 3 or 4 attack dice (5 if a phantom). So for the autoblaster turret it is akin to firepower 1.

A downside the cannon has although they fixed the turret was the point cost. The autoblasters on B-wings cost 5 points. For 2 more points you can get HLC or save a point and pick up ion cannons for the same firepower at longer ranges with a control affect. Now for the turret it is only 2 so they fixed that issue. Still with the firepower as explained in the previous post it is more of a downgrade for BTL-A4s. As for the HWK- it is a rule of thumb that any turret is better than no turret so if you have 2 points to spare this might be a good filler for Roark, Katan, Ors, lists.

Thissssssssss. I havent tested auto turrets yet, but auto cannons were DOA. 5 points for 3 dice at R1 means you're losing potential firepowe at the expense of accuracy. Which is fine if you know you're going up against elite Imperial lists or maybe a A wing swarm, but if you go up against large ships or most of the Rebel lineup you have 5 points of deadweight. If Autoblasters had been R1-2, OR 4 dice, OR 3 pts they'd be solid with just one of those changes imo, but as it stands i cant think they'll ever see any real use outside of gimmicky Ten or 2400-based lists.

i've been running autoblasters in builds since before wave 4 and had great success with them, personally I try to fit one in most of my competative lists. I get peoples concerns about the range and how the majority of ships which can fit it have 3 attack anyway but unavoidable damage is so good! I have killed Soontir Fel in one shot, took down Phantoms and A-Wings, ruined Tie swarms. Currently I run one in my Tie Defender list but have play tested Outrider Autoblaster quite a bit and it has been a phenomenal! The errata has only made them better

Good thoughts and advice.

I will try both of these lists out and see how they fare

List 1

Wild Space Finger (30)(PS2) - Outrider title (5), Autoblaster (5)

3 of: Y-wing Gold Squadron Pilot (18) (PS2) -Autoblaster Turret (2)

List 2

Ten Numb (31) (PS10) - Advanced Sensors (3), Veteran Instincts (1), Autoblaster (5)

3 of: Y-wing Gold Squadron Pilot (18) (PS2) -Autoblaster Turret (2)

Autoblasters and Stay on target with Keyan can be fun!

If only Major Rhymer could fly in a Defender. Or a HWK...

If only Major Rhymer could fly in a Defender. Or a HWK...

major rhymer in a yt-2400 plz