The change in how decloaking works also changes the viability of pilots and upgrades that allow you to modify your movement during the action phase. Since the decloak movement has already been done before any movement, the area that the Phantom will end at has shrunk. This means that ships with the ability to modify their movement dial can now possible adjusted to be in a good position to shoot at the Phantom during combat phase.

Stay on Target may actually be more useful than just being on Keyan.

I'm not about SoT on the phantom: it had potential when you had Super Barrel Roll instead of Cloak, but now it's no more useful than it would be on any other ship: less so on a ship with a TIE fighter's dial I think.

Glad for the new fix, so happy in fact I went out and added one to my collection. Didn't feel like angering my gaming buddies with how it was before. They hate my interceptors as it is lol.

I've posted some video batreps of Phantoms before and after the change. It was a bit overpowered before, but that doesn't mean that it's now underpowered. It's just more in line with what it should've been in the first place. I still really enjoy using TIE Phantoms - it's just more challenging than it was before because you need to put a lot more thought into where your opponent is likely to move, as it should be in this game.

I've posted some video batreps of Phantoms before and after the change. It was a bit overpowered before, but that doesn't mean that it's now underpowered. It's just more in line with what it should've been in the first place. I still really enjoy using TIE Phantoms - it's just more challenging than it was before because you need to put a lot more thought into where your opponent is likely to move, as it should be in this game.

Where is the link to these batreps?

Yeah I've had a few matches with the new phantom rules and I'm kinda liking it. The 'area denial' offered by your decloak positions messes with your opponent's head. Particularly cool is the fact that the k-turn is actually strong on the phantom in certain cases. Had a match vs. 2 IGs and I anticipated that my opponent would want to go fast with his aggressor to avoid my most obvious decloak (to the right in this case), but if I had done that I would've had to barrel roll to get a shot and he would have an evade or focus for defense. So instead, I decloaked forward to block his position. He moves into my Whisper and loses his action (was stressed from s-loop) and then whisper k-turns behind him. R1 shot with TL vs 3 naked greens meant a ton of damage

I played a few matches with the nuPhantom yesterday (my first Phantom matches at all, so I figured I'd try the errataed version instead of ever getting a taste of the old style). My biggest problem was remembering everything. There was a lot to do after shooting (focus token, recloaking, target locking), and that wasn't too bad, but it was easy to get into the routine/pattern of setting dials, placing dials, and then revealing dials -- and blammo, forgetting to decloak in between there -- for me.

I was better about it in my second game, but it still took conscious effort to remember that one new out-of-order thing. I haven't played any other "at the start of the activation round" abilities before, but with a little practice I'm sure it'll get better.

As to the Phantom's actual performance, my games were too streaky to really make a call like that. In one I flew very boldly, swooped in fast and got into range 1 of an Ion Turret Kyle Katarn, but one-shotted him before ever being in any danger. After making that bold statement, I had thoroughly mediocre dice with Whisper but really hot dice with my mini-swarm, and the Phantom didn't really contribute (or need to). In the second game, I played it safe and stayed at longer ranges for the most part, but got killed in an unmodified hit-crit-crit (direct hit) attack from Han, while all my evade dice came up blank.

Streaky dice. Hard to make a decision about how nerfed, or not, the new ship was.

eagletsi111,

here is the link to a page with about six videos I posted using the new de-cloak rules:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZGNxEPkagKopStgorpyRw

This video below specifically shows a battle before the nerf and after:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2pzkTOFr0Q

It does return Boost Barrel to the largest possible readjust in the game, and that can be dealt with.

I feel like the skill demand of them has gone up though. Wouldn't be surprised to see a few threads claiming the "nerf" has killed it.

Ya, they're not dead, they're just much weaker against every already top tier build . Were phantoms a pain in the rear? Ya, but are you going to get rid of interceptors, EU on big ships, dash, (soon to be) tie adv vader, and ig-88? Low ps less manueverable ships are still not going to be top notch again after this. Much more than just the phantom has happened since the days of wave 3. And phantoms are actually better against low ps swarms since its harder to block decloaks a bit now. If you're playing nothing but ships that can't barrel roll/boost etc against phantoms, then the phantoms still play more or less the same.

the interceptor really has nothing on the pre-errata phantom other than Soontir being cheaper and now access to auto-thrusters

a blocked Soontir is a ****** Soontir, a blocked Whisper can still re-cloak, target-lock, and focus (even after the errata)

apart from the fat turret EU nonsense (and Aggressors are their own beast with their own glaring weaknesses mainly how their base size and single arc makes navigating obstacles difficult and even a single stress token gained while not performing a red maneuver wildly undesirable) , the phantoms errata easily brings it in line with the aforementioned arc-dodgers which now get more post maneuver movement (slapping EU on vader) but actually suffer when you manage to outfly them

Ya, they're not dead, they're just much weaker against every already top tier build . Were phantoms a pain in the rear? Ya, but are you going to get rid of interceptors, EU on big ships, dash, (soon to be) tie adv vader, and ig-88?

IG-88 is one of those builds where your success is pretty proportional to your skill, they're very hard to get right but are a nigh uncatchable wrecking ball of doom when in the hands of a very skillful player who knows them inside out. New Vader I think is overhyped. He's good (he's Darth gaddamn Vader) but as someone who's used him he's not the coming of the apocalypse. ATC is a more restrictive trigger than people realise, much like N'dru. PTL Dash isn't actually that common. The Mangler edition isn't nearly as potent as the HLC in terms of damage (3 dice to 4 dice is almost as big as 2 to 3) but the HLC has the Range 1 donut hole, and the Mangler doesn't get a bonus die at R1 so hostile ships are still encouraged to close in as much as possible. The TIE interceptor is and always will be as a good as its green dice.

People are eager to find a "new phantom" but all these ships either have exploitable weaknesses or normal firepower. The interceptor may now be a better reactionary ship than the phantom but it's still a 3/3/3/0 and the phantom's still a 4/4/2/2. These new "top tier" as people say may have some crazy tricks but they still have normal statlines. They can be outflown. The very best struggled to outfly the the Phanterceptor, the New Phantom I think is a better fit thematically and is a far more tactically interesting ship than the Phanterceptor ever was.

So what if you flew 7 TIE Fighters with 7 Targeting computers against post-Nerf whisper? You think that you could plop 7 target locks on it and swoop in on it now that it's actually somewhat possible to guess where it'll end up and cripple it? I know 2 dice vs 4 agility are bad odds, but a few range ones and some volume of fire might still be able to work.

Has anyone tried the post nerf Phantom against a swarm?

So what if you flew 7 TIE Fighters with 7 Targeting computers against post-Nerf whisper? You think that you could plop 7 target locks on it and swoop in on it now that it's actually somewhat possible to guess where it'll end up and cripple it? I know 2 dice vs 4 agility are bad odds, but a few range ones and some volume of fire might still be able to work.

Has anyone tried the post nerf Phantom against a swarm?

why would you ever fly 7 ties with TCs !? (only reason to drop to 7 is for Howlie and Stabber + either another named pilot, such as V.I Mauler, or a bunch of obsidians)

or is it just a hypothetical ?

Has anyone tried the post nerf Phantom against a swarm?

I can promise no one's tried it against that swarm.

Seven Academies with Targeting Computers, really?

It's a hypothetical. The idea is that instead of flying 8 z's, you get 7 TL capable TIEs. You lose one ship and but gain maneuverability.

I haven't actually been able to joust something in a while. Normally when I fly swarm I'm getting dragged through as many asteroids as possible, so keeping formation for howl's bonus is starting to feel like a liability. Being able to split up my swarm into two squads for pincers and not lose firepower seems more versatile.

I haven't actually flown it yet. When I play 8 z's against a 2 ship build generally I just plop 8 TL's on it in the first engagement and spend them as needed. Seems to work pretty well.

Also, I like to fly obnoxious spam lists. 4x sigma, 5x alphas with autorhrusters, 4x starviper, etc. So bear with me lol.

It's a hypothetical. The idea is that instead of flying 8 z's, you get 7 TL capable TIEs. You lose one ship and but gain maneuverability.

I haven't actually been able to joust something in a while. Normally when I fly swarm I'm getting dragged through as many asteroids as possible, so keeping formation for howl's bonus is starting to feel like a liability. Being able to split up my swarm into two squads for pincers and not lose firepower seems more versatile.

I haven't actually flown it yet. When I play 8 z's against a 2 ship build generally I just plop 8 TL's on it in the first engagement and spend them as needed. Seems to work pretty well.

Also, I like to fly obnoxious spam lists. 4x sigma, 5x alphas with autorhrusters, 4x starviper, etc. So bear with me lol.

but Ties have howlrunner

more seriously, the Z-95 needs focus less than the 3 health, 3 agility tie Fighter, so I don't think you'll be as free to fling target-locks willy-nilly (especially considering you're down a ship and not very efficient at 14 points a pop)

The problem with going focus for potential defense in a swarm is that all of your ships have to do it or else ones that didn't take a defensive action will just be targeted instead. So just plop TL's on it and get it over with, second combat round you focus for potential defense and the ability to combo it with your TL's on offense.

On turns that a TIE doesn't have a shot on anything, you can TL for later also. Seems when I'm flying TIE swarm and they all focus that after combat is over, I end up having a bunch of leftover focus tokens that have to be cleared, whereas with TL it is saved until you need it.

I mean you're always free to try, but at that point you might as well fly seven Scyks (lack of models pending, of course)