The constant negativity on these forums about anything new that isn't obviously fantastic can get us all down, can't it?

Seems like as soon as FFG announce anything, there's about seven different topics about 'why x didn't fix y', 'k is so ugly it makes me want to stab my eyes out with a brooch' or 'Why did they release a instead of b?'

Lately everyone's been up in arms about ordnance, and how Extra Munitions hasn't 'fixed' it, like those lying designers promised!

But is it all that bad anymore? I wanted to do a rundown like this for a while, so why not now:

But first! There was some ordnance that was already seeing use , before we even saw this Wave.

• Proton Rockets!

Sure, it's only really good on Agility 3 ships with post maneuver actions (or just good piloting/dial), but on the right ships, you get a Five dice attack with Focus, and possibly a Target Lock if you fly it right.

However, the only ships that actually fills all the criteria is the A-wing, and it has to give up Chardaan Refit in order to take it, making the cost more like Five Points.

Ships that make the most of the Proton Rocket's Agility Bonus:

• A-wing
• TIE-Advanced
• TIE-Defender

Only Three Ships, but Three ships with viable ordnance options is better than none, eh? Positivity!

• Extra Munitions

Of course, the main thing everyone's talking about with this wave is the controversial Extra Munitions. Is this going to see use? Or is it going to be another Munitions Failsafe? Ultimately we won't know until Wave 7 is out.

Ships that can take Extra Munitions:

• B-wing
• K-wing
• Slave-1 (Title)
• TIE-Bomber
• TIE-Punisher
• VT-49
• Y-wing

That's 7(8)/25 ships on the game that can take advantage of the upgrade. Granted, the card only really shines when you have multiple types of ordnance, as it effectively doubles your total load-out, but even ships like the Y-wing, combined with the Bomb Loadout can take two Proton Bombs for 25 pts. This on a ship that couldn't even take bombs two months ago.

Extra Munitions also doesn't obsolete Munitions Failsafe, so for 3 points you get double ordnance that's only discarded when it hits. Arguably (probably, let's be honest) a bit too expensive, but ordnance should be an investment, not something you just slap on any old ship.

• System Upgrades

The System slot is a very useful slot for overcoming the main problem with ordnance: Action Economy. Essentially, if you need to use your Target lock Action to fire the weapons, you have no way of modifying the dice for the actual weapon.

Fire Control System gives you free Target Locks on whoever you attack, meaning you get to keep your action to Focus, improving your odds of doing damage. You do have to keep the Target Locked ship in arc for two successive turns however, and most ordnance has a range restriction.

Wave 6 gave us the Accuracy Corrector upgrade, which cancels all dice to give guaranteed 2 hits every attack. 'How is this useful?', you might cry, and with good reason. Most ordnance has 4 or 5 dice, and your average damage is higher than two hits!

Cluster Missiles.

Against Agility One targets (Falcons), you're getting a guaranteed 2-6 Damage, regardless of how bad you roll, or how well your opponent rolls. Against Agility Zero targets, you're doing 4-6 damage, requiring no dice modifiers, leaving your action for the Target Lock. This works best on the TIE Advanced, because the Corrector is free with your shiny new X1 Title.

Ships that can use Systems to improve their ordnance:

• B-wing
• E-wing
• StarViper (Title)
• TIE-Advanced (Title+The upgrade is FREE)
• TIE-Punisher

Remember, none of these cards 'fix' ordnance. There will never be an 'Autoinclude' that just obsoletes everything. What these various cards over the waves have done is give us options.

What I'm trying to do here is show you that no one card has 'fixed' ordnance, and hopefully no card ever will. But all these cards, some more than others, have nudged ordnance ever closer to viability. And personally, I think with everything here, there's got to be some combination that would make a decent list.

Also, here are the ships that can take ordnance that have no Prockets, no Systems and no Extra Munitions:

• Hound's Tooth
• Kihraxz
• M3-A (Title)
• Named Falcons
• X-wing
• YT-2400
• Z-95

Poor little X-wing.

IG doesnt have a torp slot

Thanks.

Np, wanted to commend you on the positive post too.

I agree. There are also multiple pilot abilities that are coming out or already released that help make them even more viable. My favorite new one is probably Drea Renthal. Now with Extra Munitions you can get a ship with two proton torpedoes and infinite amount of Target Locks at the cost of stress for (22+4+2+5) for 33 points. Double proton torps and ICT for when you have all that stress and just want to ping targets near you...yes it's at PS 5, but consider adding R4-B11 for 3 more points and now you have a ship that can just shred a target at range 2-3...

Anyway, I agree that the tools are there, it is just up to use to use them. People will always complain because it doesn't seem as efficient as another ship or two, but the alpha strike should not be underestimated...or the Biggs effect, where you load out a ship so dangerously that they want to shoot that ship first...use that to your advantage or make them suffer the consequences.

Lol on Cluster Missiles guaranteeing 2-6 hits on 1 agility targets. A Fat Han could pretty much negate one of the attacks and you always can blank out on one of them. FCS + Cluster missiles is interesting, but It still only gives you modification to the 2nd attack. If someone is smart they'll save their evades/defense stuff for the 2nd one. With AC, its 4 damage at best...

Lol on Cluster Missiles guaranteeing 2-6 hits on 1 agility targets. A Fat Han could pretty much negate one of the attacks and you always can blank out on one of them. FCS + Cluster missiles is interesting, but It still only gives you modification to the 2nd attack. If someone is smart they'll save their evades/defense stuff for the 2nd one. With AC, its 4 damage at best...

I'm not sure what you mean. With Accuracy Corrector, you can roll, cancel, and add two hits. On a fully loaded Fat Han, while you're the first to fire, you do 2 damage minimum per attack. He Threepios one, evades the other. Next attack, you cancel and add two again. He rolls an evade. You still do one damage, guaranteed, against a fully loaded Fat Han, under worst possible conditions, with the worst luck.

Lol on Cluster Missiles guaranteeing 2-6 hits on 1 agility targets. A Fat Han could pretty much negate one of the attacks and you always can blank out on one of them. FCS + Cluster missiles is interesting, but It still only gives you modification to the 2nd attack. If someone is smart they'll save their evades/defense stuff for the 2nd one. With AC, its 4 damage at best...

Lol at your failed understanding of the concept. Lol. Lets talk about 3 bombers with extra/clusters/seismics and Jonus. You nulled 2 damage that first attack, have fun with the 5 other 3 dice attacks with two rerolls each and the single primary attack of Jonus then the bombs after. You wont be getting more then 3 more dodges against that barrage. Lol

But if the Falcon player has put himself into that position, he should lose. I understand the concept perfectly. Just the statement that AC + Cluster Missiles = 2-6 guaranteed hits against 1 agility targets is untrue. A more correct phrase would have been: against 1 agility target with no defensive upgrades or tokens.

But if the Falcon player has put himself into that position, he should lose.

If the falcon player has put himself into a position where he gets shot more then once, he loses. So why fall back on that excuse? Its not as terribly hard to line up a shot with some forethought.

Line up a shot no... but to line up a whole formation of Bombers at range 1-2 to unload Cluster Missiles into a single target... Yeah that's harder than it looks. Believe me I've tried. You think you got them then suddenly they book it out of dodge.

Line up a shot no... but to line up a whole formation of Bombers at range 1-2 to unload Cluster Missiles into a single target... Yeah that's harder than it looks. Believe me I've tried. You think you got them then suddenly they book it out of dodge.

Which is why, sometimes the smart thing to do is break one from formation for blocking. Amazing how that works.

Line up a shot no... but to line up a whole formation of Bombers at range 1-2 to unload Cluster Missiles into a single target... Yeah that's harder than it looks. Believe me I've tried. You think you got them then suddenly they book it out of dodge.

I think I'd just as soon pass on bombers, here.

Tempest Squadron + TIE/x1 title + Accuracy Corrector + Cluster Missiles = 25 pts.

Take four of those. You can use one for blocking easily enough, or just spread them out, or whatever - you are going to get three of them firing on the Falcon unless you REALLY mess something up, no matter what Han does. Assume he gets his action, somehow, and has that evade out there...that's still just one of the 6 waves of missile attacks that get blocked. 5 of the 6 end up doing 2 (minimum) or 3 hits each, the Falcon blocking only one of each of those attacks. That is minimum five damage into the Falcon, up to 10 damage, and that's assuming only 3 of your 4 fighters are in position to get a shot at it.

Line up a shot no... but to line up a whole formation of Bombers at range 1-2 to unload Cluster Missiles into a single target... Yeah that's harder than it looks. Believe me I've tried. You think you got them then suddenly they book it out of dodge.

Which is why, sometimes the smart thing to do is break one from formation for blocking. Amazing how that works.

If the solution was that simple and could be done somewhat reliably, I'd have to believe we'd see some lists doing it with success already.

Camman, it aint so bad for the lil' guys!