So....everyone had to take a high PS to be able to defeat Phantoms (note: I get that they didn't really have to, but you know the general interweb groupthink). Phantoms were such a force that you had to have something to deal with them. Everyone had to get as high a PS as possible to beat the magic PS 9 of a VI Phantom. Ships like Prince Xizor were poo-pooed due to only having PS 7 and how pointless that would be in the current meta. If something wasn't PS 9 or better, it wasn't worth taking.

OK...now the new FAQ is out. Phantoms are "nerfed". Yes, Tuskan Raider wrote a great article about how they are still viable and good ships. The easy button has been taken off, though, and lots of people are going to stop using them. Will everyone? No, but I think a large percentage of Phantoms in tournament lists will no longer be the case. So....does this mean that the need for high PS is done with?

What will people now be running? Scum and Villainy is now out and there are other ships that people can fly. There are new toys to play with. Some people will drift towards these. Perhaps we will see a return to Swarms. Swarms are great against the big, turreted ships that is one of the other corners of the meta right now. I think we will see some more of those around.

Auto-ceptors are what I see as the next big thing. High PS Interceptors with AutoThrusters. "auto-cepters". Soontir Fel and all the other high PS ships will be able to dance arounds the board late in the turn and do crazy things. Well, they won't be as crazy since we have been used to seeing Phantoms do absurd things. Now, the auto-cepters will do impressive things. AutoThrusters will also help them against turrets. Turrets are the largest rock of the meta right now and everything to counter them is a good thing. I think most people will move from Phantom lists to autocepters.

Alright, high PS autocepters are a real pain and having a high PS will still be good, but is it as important as before to be able to beat these guys? Fat Han will be in the game until our civilization is wiped out. Will the number of Fat Hans be the same, though? There will be more Swarms. Autocepters will be a thing. Maybe even those 4 generic Phantoms? Will we see so many Fat Hans as before? Well, without partial points, it will happen, but I think we might see less Fat Hans around.

So....with fewer big, turreted ships and fewer Phantoms, but an explosion in autocepters....will it still be important to have a high PS? Arc dodgers will always want as high a PS as possible, but maybe....just maybe we will see less high PS?

What I hope happens is that we see a general restoring of the balance of the Force in this game. I am hoping that people taking lower PS ships that can guess where Autocepters are going to be (kind of) will still get shots and a good pilot will still be able to defeat them. I'm hoping that the days of instantly dismissing anyone with a PS less than 9 as viable is over. High PS won't be considered useless, but it won't be considered mandatory (in my hopes). This makes a grand balance to the game that will take a bit to shake out, but I think will happen.

Does anyone else thing this might be true? Are the PS Wars over?

I'm thinking the same thing. Instead of giving wedge VI, maybe predator or something else. Also, thinking this might help swarms become good again.

Loving this change.

It's probably too early to tell, but I was thinking along the same lines. Phantoms were driving the PS bidding war, and a good amount of their PS thunder is now stolen (although ACD is still very powerful and loves high PS). We may see a mid-tier PS rennaissance; I certainly hope we do. There are a lot of interesting pilots in that range that see little to no play, and if VI is not an autoinclude, as it had been for many top pilots, then we'll see more variety at the high end of the PS pool as their EPT is essentially unlocked again.

Again, too early to tell, but I'm crossing my fingers.

Look at it this way. Pre-Phantom, PS was devalued. Swarms, Biggs Walks the Dogs, Bloody Daggers, etc were meta defining and featured low to middling PS, typically generics. Post-Phantom, PS was overvalued, with PS 9, 10, 11 and initiative bids out of control to try corral Whisper and Echo. Maybe now it is actually balanced, with Aces having found their niche and still having high value while mid- to low-PS builds being viable again. It's a good place, I think.

Well the one guarantee'd counter to autoceptors is the good old Doominator, Being able to stick an opposing Soontir with at least 2 damage per round is as good as you can hope for (Vader on the 1st shot, and either you hit doing damage, or you miss and you get a second vader.)

I suppose autocepters are better than interthrusters.

Well the one guarantee'd counter to autoceptors is the good old Doominator, Being able to stick an opposing Soontir with at least 2 damage per round is as good as you can hope for (Vader on the 1st shot, and either you hit doing damage, or you miss and you get a second vader.)

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

I like the visual imagery of a PS War. I imagine poor PS 5 and 6 pilots strewn about the battlefields as thick black smoke and dire silent uncertainty hang overhead. A PS1 buries his/her head in their hands, as the commanders on both sides swear over swigs of strong whiskey that the fallen were only kids...

ack, nien!

Speaking just in the perspective of my Stress Wing build, I'm still going to have Luke run exclusively with V.I and it's not just because the rest of the list is set in stone and at 100 points

here's how I still see it:

1.) Whisper is still getting her ACD 2 agility + focus if I don't stress her before she shoots. 2 agility + focus is far more manageable.

2.) Soontir Fell still prowls the galaxy, and I want to be able to guarantee a boost into stress in case he PTLs

Now, speaking from my scum perspective:

1.) the PS war was never something I wanted to enter when I have access to such amazing awesome **** such as auto-blaster turrets (PS 2), or feedback array (Ps 1-3), or Guri (ps 5) etc. so I'm just happy Whisper will be less difficult to deal with

I like the visual imagery of a PS War. I imagine poor PS 5 and 6 pilots strewn about the battlefields as thick black smoke and dire silent uncertainty hang overhead. A PS1 buries his/her head in their hands, as the commanders on both sides swear over swigs of strong whiskey that the fallen were only kids...

love it

but the PS 1 was actually in a good spot in the PS war because it was a great blocker and wasn't "wasting" points on a higher PS when everything else was 9-10. He/she would be more like a grizzled veteran with a flask of whiskey, a half chewed through cigar, and a permanent "not this **** again" scowl who was more than used with his/her comrades dying all around him and at peace with his/her looming, inescapable, inevitable death. After all, he/she has a job to do.

Well the one guarantee'd counter to autoceptors is the good old Doominator, Being able to stick an opposing Soontir with at least 2 damage per round is as good as you can hope for (Vader on the 1st shot, and either you hit doing damage, or you miss and you get a second vader.)

The DeciVader counters AutoSoontir and AutoSoontir counters everything else. Put them in the same squadron and what do you get?...

The DeciVader counters AutoSoontir and AutoSoontir counters everything else. Put them in the same squadron and what do you get?...

*hums* The facts of life...?

War, war never changes.

Well the one guarantee'd counter to autoceptors is the good old Doominator, Being able to stick an opposing Soontir with at least 2 damage per round is as good as you can hope for (Vader on the 1st shot, and either you hit doing damage, or you miss and you get a second vader.)

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

DeciVader is also better than Darthimator.

I remember Interceptors and they were a pain, but you could still take generic X-wings and have good guessing to beat them. So, while the Autocepters will now reign the meta, I think it's not going to be as bad.

The only thing I'm thinking about is maybe not taking my 4 Tie Bomber list to Regionals. Autocepters will be hard to kill with ordnance, even with the re-rolls from Jonus. They will also be able to get out of the path of bombs most of the time, too.

I think Phantoms pushed a lot of people into PS bids who did not want to go there. However, once there a lot of people (including myself) realized that there are a lot more benefits BESIDES nuking phantoms to bidding up to PS9-11. I don't think I'll easily give up on those benefits just because the Phantom menace has been somewhat reduced.

Well the one guarantee'd counter to autoceptors is the good old Doominator, Being able to stick an opposing Soontir with at least 2 damage per round is as good as you can hope for (Vader on the 1st shot, and either you hit doing damage, or you miss and you get a second vader.)

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

Doominator sounds too much like something invented by Doofenschmirtz to take care of that pesky platypus.

Hmmm,

I saw the title of this thread and thought it was some book I'd never read.

Cheers

Baaa

Double-tapper stressbot can finish ending the ps war with whisper out of the way.

I suppose autocepters are better than interthrusters.

Disagree

Anyway this may take the shackles off of swarms and HLC Dash a little bit. Phantoms could track Dash down pretty reliably before and he can protect his donut hole a bit better. I don't know if he likes IG-88s though, and Fel is definitely still a big threat to him. So maybe he doesn't come back full force after all.

Not as long as xboxs are still around. The war continues.

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

But then you lose the Doom Shuttle connection.

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

But then you lose the Doom Shuttle connection.

Then come up with a better name for the Doom Shuttle. If we have to have matching names I'd rather be matching the awesome one.

DeciVader is a better name than Doominator.

But then you lose the Doom Shuttle connection.

Then come up with a better name for the Doom Shuttle. If we have to have matching names I'd rather be matching the awesome one.

The Vader Express

the name is ironic

Not as long as xboxs are still around. The war continues.

Nahhh... the Jaguar64 won that long ago.

I suppose autocepters are better than interthrusters.

You keep your interthruster out of my autocepter... that's how babies get made. I think.

I think we are going to see a lot more Soontir Fel and friends.