Proof that the HWK is in a class of its own

By PhantomFO, in X-Wing

Just opened up my Most Wanted pack.

The components for the Y-Wing, Z-95 and Firespray dials all share the same two pieces of cardboard.

But the HWK? It gets its very own piece of cardboard (which it has to share with yet more shield and stress tokens).

There you have it: EMPIRICAL PROOF that the HWK is either so awesome that it gets its own piece of cardboard, or is so disrespected that even the other Scum dials don't want to associate with it.

this just in, nice guy HWK holds his friends tokens

and this Palob fellow even takes tokens from the bad guys only to give a boon right back to his buddies via Bodyguard

what a nice guy :)

only to give a boon right back to his buddies via Bodyguard

I hadn't considered that combo... Nice. :)

The biggest problem with the HWK is that with only 1 shield, you are likely to see critical hits, and if you get the one that forces you to lose your secondary weapon, you are pretty much dead in the water.

How nice that all that cardboard real estate wasn't misused for making more Z-95 dials...

The biggest problem with the HWK is that with only 1 shield, you are likely to see critical hits, and if you get the one that forces you to lose your secondary weapon, you are pretty much dead in the water.

Crits will be more of a thing with Ten Numb and the Mangler. I'm excited.

Edited by GroggyGolem

HWK is one of my favourite ships and finds its way into many of my lists.

The biggest problem with the HWK is that with only 1 shield, you are likely to see critical hits, and if you get the one that forces you to lose your secondary weapon, you are pretty much dead in the water.

That's still only a 2/33 chance of happening. Likely your HWK is going to be dead before it has a chance to worry about losing your turret.

The biggest problem with the HWK is that with only 1 shield, you are likely to see critical hits, and if you get the one that forces you to lose your secondary weapon, you are pretty much dead in the water.

You also have those awesome support abilities...which is why I take a hwk...so I would disagree about dead in them water...the hwk isn't a damage dealer...

But being a primarily imperial player....this whole crits can screw me argument does make me chuckle...

between munitions failure and injured pilot, I'm not sure which crit **** a hwk over more. I do know, however, that those are only 4 cards (and palob/dace have ept slots for determination :))

Edited by ficklegreendice

Yeah, I love that Dace build that paired him with Determination, Greedo and an Ion Turret. Going to have to give that one a try soon.

between munitions failure and injured pilot, I'm not sure which crit **** a hwk over more. I do know, however, that those are only 4 cards (and palob/dace have ept slots for determination :))

In a game not too long ago, I fielded Kyle Katarn and he took two crits in consecutive turns from a Doom Shuttle.

The first turn he suffered an Injured Pilot, second turn it was Munitions Failure...

Kyle still had one hull point left but my opponent decided to ignore him and try and kill my other ships.

So to answer your question: Both!

Ditto, on Determination at least for Kyle, Jan and Dace. Opportunist is just too tempting on Palob.

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

between munitions failure and injured pilot, I'm not sure which crit **** a hwk over more. I do know, however, that those are only 4 cards (and palob/dace have ept slots for determination :))

In a game not too long ago, I fielded Kyle Katarn and he took two crits in consecutive turns from a Doom Shuttle.

The first turn he suffered an Injured Pilot, second turn it was Munitions Failure...

Kyle still had one hull point left but my opponent decided to ignore him and try and kill my other ships.

So to answer your question: Both!

Ditto, on Determination at least for Kyle, Jan and Dace. Opportunist is just too tempting on Palob.

hmmm, Opportunist & security droid Palob...*Drool*

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

Or people will just gank him like they have ganked Roark&co in the past. HWKs are super fragile.

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

Or people will just gank him like they have ganked Roark&co in the past. HWKs are super fragile.

The idea is Torkil makes the target shoot dead last, meaning if you have enough firepower, the Phantom/Interceptor should die before it ever gets an attack off.

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

Or people will just gank him like they have ganked Roark&co in the past. HWKs are super fragile.

Roark bumps only a single ship (unless you invest in a Swarm Tactics chain). If that ships whiffs, or doesn't have the output to oneshot the bit threat, then yeah, Roark lists fail.

Torkil lets YOUR ENTIRE LIST fire before that big threat. Sure, you might take fire from the lesser threats, but you're far more likely to end up with multiple shots on a ship that hasn't fired yet.

The biggest problem with the HWK is that with only 1 shield, you are likely to see critical hits, and if you get the one that forces you to lose your secondary weapon, you are pretty much dead in the water.

This exact scenario cost me a tournament match once

it was down to my (borrowed) HWK with recon spec/blaster turret vs a single tie fighter with two hull

it was the worst thing.

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

Or people will just gank him like they have ganked Roark&co in the past. HWKs are super fragile.

Roark bumps only a single ship (unless you invest in a Swarm Tactics chain). If that ships whiffs, or doesn't have the output to oneshot the bit threat, then yeah, Roark lists fail.

Torkil lets YOUR ENTIRE LIST fire before that big threat. Sure, you might take fire from the lesser threats, but you're far more likely to end up with multiple shots on a ship that hasn't fired yet.

No sh$t Sherlock. I'm still willing to bet Torkil won't see much competetive play. He's a PS3 HWK, one of the least mobile ships, a Phantom can just dodge his r1-2 all day.

And even if he doesn't he can still dodge most/many of the other ship's arcs with less turrets seeing play once AT hit the meta. And really there is no reason Torkil should live more than 1-2 combat rounds, if he's your only Phantom counter that's not going to be enough if he knows what he's doing. In fact very few lists struggle to kill a 5hp/2ag target in 1 round.

Edited by Celes

HWKs are super fragile.

They have the same defense and HP's as a X-Wing.

a Phantom can just dodge his r1-2 all day.

That means that the Phantom may not be getting the shots you want, because it has to avoid that Range 2 circle around him or else suffer.

I don't think Torkil will see a ton of play, but with the right list, he could be hard to kill and be used primarily as a support piece.

Pair him up with say Emon or any other large ship, with Tactical Jammer, and Kaa'to with Body Guard, and you have a ship that is going to be very hard to kill if you play it right, because he'll be rolling 5 defense dice. 6 at anything outside his range 2 bubble.

Since he'll be hugging the Firespray that means it and Kaa'to are getting mostly range 3 shots as well, making them more survivable as well.

Edited by VanorDM

How nice that all that cardboard real estate wasn't misused for making more Z-95 dials...

I actually chuckled at that :D

This, and that you need faction specific maneuver dials for sanctioned tournaments...

Torkill Mux, with Ion Cannon Turret... and 5 Binayre pirates armed with hot shot blasters. This group can have phantoms for breakfast with no effort, probably before the Phantom can fire... And I am very happy. What the Phantom has done to the game I think is an abuse.

The HWK really isn't that fragile of a ship. Weird distribution aside, once you have a focus bank going with moldy crow, you basically become luke skywalker. Let me tell you, Luke can weather much more than his fair share of firepower.

Edited by ficklegreendice

Torkil Mux is going to change the way people bid on PS. I forsee Torkil+ICT becoming a thing to defeat Pantoms and High PS Interceptors. They can run, but they will die without shooting and probably from a ICT shot.

Or people will just gank him like they have ganked Roark&co in the past. HWKs are super fragile.

Roark bumps only a single ship (unless you invest in a Swarm Tactics chain). If that ships whiffs, or doesn't have the output to oneshot the bit threat, then yeah, Roark lists fail.

Torkil lets YOUR ENTIRE LIST fire before that big threat. Sure, you might take fire from the lesser threats, but you're far more likely to end up with multiple shots on a ship that hasn't fired yet.

No sh$t Sherlock. I'm still willing to bet Torkil won't see much competetive play. He's a PS3 HWK, one of the least mobile ships, a Phantom can just dodge his r1-2 all day.

And even if he doesn't he can still dodge most/many of the other ship's arcs with less turrets seeing play once AT hit the meta. And really there is no reason Torkil should live more than 1-2 combat rounds, if he's your only Phantom counter that's not going to be enough if he knows what he's doing. In fact very few lists struggle to kill a 5hp/2ag target in 1 round.

His PS could be 1 for all that it matters because he will still fire before whatever it is that he bumps to zero. Aside from not having a K-turn, the HWK can still perform enough maneuvers to stay in R1-2. Add an Engine Upgrade and Intel agent and guess who will not be surprised by your maneuver.

This aggressive defense of the Phantom's maneuverability seems fairly short sighted considering most only run Whisper competitively. Whisper's decloaks still leave the base facing forward with no change in bearing so guessing the decloak is not very hard. If a PS3 Pilot aims for the front of your base, chances are that Whisper will still be in R1-2 after all the maneuvers have been completed.

Torkil is kind of like taking the PS bid to the Extreme. For example by fielding only Binayre Pirates with Torkil, you are paying only for the points you need to get above PS 0 on the Pirates. 12. This also negates everything awesome for your enemy, like having VI, or ACD, or an offensive Focus. It also makes certain upgrades more effective for your teammates, such as Predator, than can push more damage to get through. With the majority of the best Scum pilots hanging out between 5-7, VI would be a waste, which is where our friend Torkil takes it to the house and delivers a slam dunk on the whole PS war or Pilots who depend on other pilots to fire first to get expanded effects. If you are not afraid of Torkil, you should be. Especially two-ship builds featuring Phantom/Decimator.

Yeah, anyone who thinks Torkil is the same as Roark has never seen it. Roark pushes one ship to 12. Big deal - that ship will probably still be alive after your 12 shoots, and will probably still get a shot off. Torkil turns one enemy to 0. That ship is unlikely to be alive after all of your PS1 pilots are finished with it. Even if it is alive, it's probably spent any focus tokens and may have a few crits hanging off its hull.