Is this a clear cut?

Wanna try out Soontir/Turr/Carnor.

You want him at Range 1, reliably, and you want him to survive, reliably - so his effect can turn the odds in your favour.

- VI lets you shoot before a Phantom and move last most of the time.

- PTL lets you turtle up and/or use his mobility options.

I'd say the choice is clear-cut.

Ptl.

Clear cut as far as I can see.

Do you want to explode?

Take vi

Do you want to live?

Take ptl.

PTL is pretty much an auto include on *any* interceptor im running (and A wings too).

I've found my 'electric eels' (cos they are slippery) int list quite good at the mo.

Its Tetran, Phenir and Soontir flying royal guard Ties.

All have PTL, Autothrusters and Stealth device.

as long as you're not daft enough to be at range 1 and in arc you're rolling 4 evade die a turn (til you're hit) and make sure you *always* take evade as one option (unless you're in a position you cannot have *any* incoming fire) as you statistically get one evade from 4 green die... then you add on your 'autothrusters' blank to evade swap and if you're really being hammered you can use up that token.

Thats two guaranteed and three *likely* evades and potentially five *possible* evades agains the first shot you have coming your way.

It does make them live a bit longer.

I used to take 'heavy interceptors' with shield and hull upgrades but stealth and autothrusters is cheaper and makes you incredibbly hard to hit as long as you dont fly like a chump.

Jax wants PTL and the health upgrades.

Agreed. Veteran instincts is nice, but since he's already PS8, it's not the end of the world to stop there.

By comparison, the flexibility/toughness a squint gets from PTL is huge.

And agreed, by the way, on shield/hull upgrades. Autothrusters is fine if you're planning on hanging back but if you're fielding the royal guard's finest you're not planning that.

Yeah i liked having 'tanky' ints but i have found that its much better not to take that damage at all than to be able to soak it up.

Evade token plus autothusters is potent enough defence (if you're being shot at a lot with an int list you've made a fundamental mistake), add in the stealth device and you're almost bullet proof from that first shot with a very good chance of getting by any others.

If you can take focus AND evade with PTL as you've not needed to boost and roll your defence is frankly amazing.

PTL for the OPs benefit is so good on any int as about half your dial is green so you're really not super predicatble while stressed as the only thing they know you cant do is a K turn. Even the whites are useful as you can make someone *think* you're going to be greening it to clear the stress but actually just rocket out 5 away from the fight, green turn the next round to clear it and come in all fresh faced from the side

Unless -- for whatever reason -- you haven't got the points for it, yeah, I think PtL is the clear winner here.

Opportunist?

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

You have three hit points you really want that evade and focus, SD and AT also go a long way to keeping you into the fight.

PTL every time. So much so that when my wingman didn't give all his ints PTL i gave him s%^# at the start of the mission.

What about Turr, he needs VI right?

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

When I play Jax, I find that most people tend to be out of range one of him and are able to take Focus and Evade actions. He usually stops people from spending the tokens more often that he prevents them from taking the actions. Unlike Palob, there isn't a good reason not to take an Evade or Focus action if you don't have anything better to do with your action. At worst you can't spend the token, but Jax could end up in a position that lets you spend the token.

What about Turr, he needs VI right?

Turr can go either way. VI makes him cheaper and has him going at PS9. PTL lets him take 2 actions after his shot instead of just the one.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

Check what you quoted. He's pointing out that since Carnor is a higher PS than a lot of other pilots they are often not in range one of him when they are taking their action.

Here's a thought: how about Lone Wolf?

Since his ability requires him to be up close and personal with the enemy (and preferably behind them), he might spend a lot of the game outside of range 2 of friendly ships.

I would agree with you, except that all interceptors really work best at range 1 where they can dodge arcs super effectively or at range 3 where they are almost impossible to hit. Running Carnor with another Interceptor would make it hard to keel them apart, since both of them want to be up close and personal.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

I know how his card reads, I'm just saying that maneuvering him to where they can't take the action in the first place (since he moves so early) is tricky, especially without PtL. Maybe I just suck with him, but in my experience it's tough to maneuver him in a way that leaves him halfway safe and gives him a decent shot and leaves him at range one of where my opponent's going to fly to when it's time to take their action and would leave him able to shed stress and do it all again the next round.

So, I mean, if Opportunist works for you, rock it. But for me, I just don't see it working well enough to replace PtL.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

I know how his card reads, I'm just saying that maneuvering him to where they can't take the action in the first place (since he moves so early) is tricky, especially without PtL. Maybe I just suck with him, but in my experience it's tough to maneuver him in a way that leaves him halfway safe and gives him a decent shot and leaves him at range one of where my opponent's going to fly to when it's time to take their action and would leave him able to shed stress and do it all again the next round.

So, I mean, if Opportunist works for you, rock it. But for me, I just don't see it working well enough to replace PtL.

By that logic, there's no reason to take anything other than Predator, PtL, and VI as they are universally useful.

So you've set up a bit of a strawman argument.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

I know how his card reads, I'm just saying that maneuvering him to where they can't take the action in the first place (since he moves so early) is tricky, especially without PtL. Maybe I just suck with him, but in my experience it's tough to maneuver him in a way that leaves him halfway safe and gives him a decent shot and leaves him at range one of where my opponent's going to fly to when it's time to take their action and would leave him able to shed stress and do it all again the next round.

So, I mean, if Opportunist works for you, rock it. But for me, I just don't see it working well enough to replace PtL.

By that logic, there's no reason to take anything other than Predator, PtL, and VI as they are universally useful.

So you've set up a bit of a strawman argument.

If that's what you took away from my post, I dunno what to tell ya, man.

Opportunist?

It's got some clear synergy, but I don't think it's as easy to pull off as folks might assume. Unless the enemy were within range one during their action phase, they can still have their Focus/Evade tokens, they just can't spend them. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to move Jax so that the enemy routinely can't take their Focus/Evade actions, and to shed stress on him after using Opportunist.

I think it's be easier to have Opportunist somewhere else in your squad than it is to put it on Jax himself.

Check the text again, they cannot take those actions. They can only get them via token assignment, like Fel or Garvin.

I know how his card reads, I'm just saying that maneuvering him to where they can't take the action in the first place (since he moves so early) is tricky, especially without PtL. Maybe I just suck with him, but in my experience it's tough to maneuver him in a way that leaves him halfway safe and gives him a decent shot and leaves him at range one of where my opponent's going to fly to when it's time to take their action and would leave him able to shed stress and do it all again the next round.

So, I mean, if Opportunist works for you, rock it. But for me, I just don't see it working well enough to replace PtL.

By that logic, there's no reason to take anything other than Predator, PtL, and VI as they are universally useful.

So you've set up a bit of a strawman argument.

That's part of the problem with a lot of EPTs. They just aren't good enough to be worth taking over one of those three in a lot of cases. On an Interceptor, and assuming that the Interceptor with PTL always takes Focus action,Opportunist is only going to be better than PTL if Focus is the action taken. Opportunist isn't going to be available to use every round and carries the same stress downside that PTL does. The only real upside to Opportunist is that it increases your maximum damage. It's harder to trigger and less flexible than PTL. Taking Opportunist makes your Interceptor less survivable and less maneuverable than a PTL Interceptor in almost every round of the game.

Carnor Jax being in a list can make it very hard to consistently use Opportunist, since targets are unable to spend tokens if they have them.