I say you just kill him in the same way you used to kill him before everyone started taking Big Turreted Ships.

Besides that, there are more options. The number of ways you can stress someone has increased dramatically. Also, there are more Ion weapons. Special abilities like Vader crew or Ten Numb w/ Mangler Cannon are also useful.

I think it will only suck when you only play big turreted ships. Personally, I hope to see a lot less of them in tournaments soon.

I say you just kill him in the same way you used to kill him before everyone started taking Big Turreted Ships.

Besides that, there are more options. The number of ways you can stress someone has increased dramatically. Also, there are more Ion weapons. Special abilities like Vader crew or Ten Numb w/ Mangler Cannon are also useful.

I think it will only suck when you only play big turreted ships. Personally, I hope to see a lot less of them in tournaments soon.

You're going to see the same amount if not more decimators

I say you just kill him in the same way you used to kill him before everyone started taking Big Turreted Ships.

Besides that, there are more options. The number of ways you can stress someone has increased dramatically. Also, there are more Ion weapons. Special abilities like Vader crew or Ten Numb w/ Mangler Cannon are also useful.

I think it will only suck when you only play big turreted ships. Personally, I hope to see a lot less of them in tournaments soon.

You're going to see the same amount if not more decimators

And Decimators, specifically

I know the torpedo slot is about the last thing anyone expects to do anything useful, but there are two things to keep in mind

1.) Chiraneau w/VI is pilot skill 10

2.) flechette torps exist (as do tacticians), and Chiraneau can easily afford to play the long game to TL one turn and fire the next.

3.) EU exists and boost changes a ship's facing

it's basically the same exact philosophy behind Stress Wes but on a fat turret, and it's almost identical to the **** I've been seeing every day (VI gunner chiry w/engine alongside whisper again and again and again...). It's a **** ton less flexible (large ship, incredibly expensive, no k turns) but it's still a fattie with an extra 2 points tacked on.

Now, it's not all bad. If a turret actually has to care about its facing, I'm the happiest ******* person in all of X-wing. It means I actually get something to play around that isn't dice and I get to exploit it

Vader on that decimator doesn't care at all about arcs. Hell with gunner he wants you to miss. I will gladly take 4 damage to double crit fel.

The next big whine topics are going to be over Vader crew. People are gonna whine that they can't keep fel alive for more than 2 combat rounds and Vader with gunner is broken, op, and unfun.

A Dash outrider with H.L. and outmanuver with two or more Y-Wings or Hawks in formation with AB turrets would be scary. Bye bye AT craft.

Vader on that decimator doesn't care at all about arcs. Hell with gunner he wants you to miss. I will gladly take 4 damage to double crit fel.

The next big whine topics are going to be over Vader crew. People are gonna whine that they can't keep fel alive for more than 2 combat rounds and Vader with gunner is broken, op, and unfun.

They might, yeah. On the other hand, using Vader that way is pretty expensive in terms of hit points: even in the best possible situation, your 48-point Decimator is now left with no shields and no evade dice. Maybe you have Isard, too, which helps with the evade problem but still leaves you at the mercy of any random crit your opponent comes up with (and, incidentally, means your anti-Fel tech now costs more than half your list).

I'm not really worried about Vader-Gunner Decimators. Vader is sharply self-limiting in terms of his addition to your list's firepower.

Vader on that decimator doesn't care at all about arcs. Hell with gunner he wants you to miss. I will gladly take 4 damage to double crit fel.

The next big whine topics are going to be over Vader crew. People are gonna whine that they can't keep fel alive for more than 2 combat rounds and Vader with gunner is broken, op, and unfun.

They might, yeah. On the other hand, using Vader that way is pretty expensive in terms of hit points: even in the best possible situation, your 48-point Decimator is now left with no shields and no evade dice. Maybe you have Isard, too, which helps with the evade problem but still leaves you at the mercy of any random crit your opponent comes up with (and, incidentally, means your anti-Fel tech now costs more than half your list).

I'm not really worried about Vader-Gunner Decimators. Vader is sharply self-limiting in terms of his addition to your list's firepower.

I'd think that Vader would have already made that appearance if he was going to since phantoms already present a similar problem.

OP said excluding bonuses from range, but Autothrusters is a range 3 bonus, so are we counting range 3 or not?

If we're talking about range 2, then yes, stealth Soontir is no harder to hit than he was in Wave 2. You are unlikely to hit him with a single Focused attack, but once you start stripping off those green tokens he gets easier to hit, so you need to make at least 2 attacks against him every turn (hint FCS/RecSpec+gunner is awesome here for Lambdas, Firesprays and B-Wings), but once you get that first hit, he becomes easier to hit on subsequent attacks. If he arc-dodged some of your ships, then that means he can't use his focus token on offense if he wants to keep it on defense.

At range 3, no, you will not hit him with a single 3 dice Focused attack. A 3 dice attack with a focus has about a 0.31% chance of putting a damage on that Soontir if he has a focus and evade token, approximately 319 to 1. You would have to roll 3 hits with your attack, and Soontir would have roll 5 blanks for you to deal 1 damage to him. If Soontir is tokenless at range 3 with stealth device intact, you're odds become a little less astronomical, ~10 to 1 I think.

The key to beating Soontir is going to be blocking, stress upgrades, and uncancellable crits from things like Ten Numb and Darth Vader. Ten Numb with Vet Instincts, Tactician and Mangler Cannon will be a nice counter to both Phantoms and Soontir.

Vader on that decimator doesn't care at all about arcs. Hell with gunner he wants you to miss. I will gladly take 4 damage to double crit fel.

The next big whine topics are going to be over Vader crew. People are gonna whine that they can't keep fel alive for more than 2 combat rounds and Vader with gunner is broken, op, and unfun.

They might, yeah. On the other hand, using Vader that way is pretty expensive in terms of hit points: even in the best possible situation, your 48-point Decimator is now left with no shields and no evade dice. Maybe you have Isard, too, which helps with the evade problem but still leaves you at the mercy of any random crit your opponent comes up with (and, incidentally, means your anti-Fel tech now costs more than half your list).

I'm not really worried about Vader-Gunner Decimators. Vader is sharply self-limiting in terms of his addition to your list's firepower.

I'd think that Vader would have already made that appearance if he was going to since phantoms already present a similar problem.

The problem with Vader against Phantoms is that Phantoms have shields. Putting 2 crits on Soontir should either cripple or kill him, but activating Vader twice against a Phantom doesn't reduce it's effectiveness unless you have other Phantom counters in your list too.

That being said, I now totally want to try out Patrol Leader with Vader, Captive, Gunner and 4 Academy Pilots now that I finally own some TIE Fighters.

Even though it's a turret RAC with Gunner and Rebel Captive should put the hurt on. Pared with Ysanne (or Vader if you really want to go anti Soontir) is what we will see constantly.

Even though it's a turret RAC with Gunner and Rebel Captive should put the hurt on. Pared with Ysanne (or Vader if you really want to go anti Soontir) is what we will see constantly.

Unless Chiraneau has Fel in his firing arc, even a Gunner isn't going to cut through Fel's defenses. It will probably strip a token or two, though, which will help with follow-up shots.

Vader on that decimator doesn't care at all about arcs. Hell with gunner he wants you to miss. I will gladly take 4 damage to double crit fel.

The next big whine topics are going to be over Vader crew. People are gonna whine that they can't keep fel alive for more than 2 combat rounds and Vader with gunner is broken, op, and unfun.

nah, he's been tinkered with already, at least in my local group

a decimator that does 25% of the work for me is a decimator I don't mind facing

Decimator with EI and expose at range one will put a dent in fel, five red versus four green improves the odds.

Decimator with EI and expose at range one will put a dent in fel, five red versus four green improves the odds.

If Fel walks into range 1 against an Expose Decimator, he deserves to cop it. A smart Fel will hang at range 2 or 3 where the dice are equal or in his favour.

Block him to deny actions. Just like before, he'll be a dead Soontir.

That's the one thing that works very well on him that makes him a lot less scary than Phantoms...

There are several other things

1.) If Fell uses PTL, a card very integral to his overall strength, taking stress is crippling. A stressed phantom only really cares if you double stress it or stress it before it can fire. This makes pilots such as Nera many times more useful against him than against the Phantom.

2.) Fell simply has less dice (apart from SD, which falls off after the first hit) and less hull

3.) The 1 speed boost and roll make it not nearly as trivial to break from enemy firing arcs while still having a shot. Fell can arc dodge like a boss, but he has to be far closer to do it. A phantom's de-cloak + potential roll make it incredibly easy to arc dodge while still having a shot

4.) No system nor crew upgrades, which at the very least promise far less overall damage (no FCS, no gunner)

Still my problem is that Autothrusters will push turrets more and more out of the meta while the ship that is really overpowered... The Phantom then is going to reign supreme on the meta.

Therefore i don't like Autothrusters because they push the meta in a direction i absolutely detest!

Lieutenant Blount, IPM.