I am very curious what the generic PS2 Hound's tooth will cost. The idea of triple tactician's with a 180^o arc is very intriguing.

I can't see mangler on Bossk. Restricts you to the smaller arc and not worth the points on a 3 dice ship in my opinion.

I am a bit concerned about what massed K's or Pyoonishers will do to Huge ships in epic.

Edit: C-3PO on K-wings?

The mangler is for Bossk's ability, which effectively turns it into a four damage cannon against lower agility targets at the cost of a crit (which, if bouncing off shields, really isn't a cost ). The alternative is something like calculation or marksmanship, but that eats up an ept and doesn't void the range 3 bonus. Not to say that one is worth more than another (especially not with the flexibility of both the EPT and the crew slot in S&V), but they'll have their distinct merits.

As for cost no means a reliable estimate given the weird point costs of certain ships (esp the firespray) and the weird +1 progressive of PS for the hound's tooth, but if we go by the 2 point increments the generic will end up clocking in at 29.

The question is how much FFG values that 180 degree arc. It certainly seems to be priced less than the Firespray's two 90 degree arcs, but there's the missing evade action, lesser PS (especially relevant because it is in predator range), and an unknown dial to consider.

Half of the wave is still unspoiled, we still have no idea what the new bombs/missiles do, what over half the pilots do/cost and what the new Twin Engine TIE mod, Ion Pr[?] Large-Ship mod and Twin Laser Turret do.

Imagine how horrible people's predictions of what the Wave 4 metagame would look like just based off the Wave 4 announcement article, where they hadn't revealed the text of Advanced Cloaking Device or the cloak action yet. It would be pretty hard to guess that the meta would be dominated by TIE Phantoms and Falcons based just on that article.

I think we can safely work under the assumption that there is no ACD-level shenanigans in wave 7 or the Raider. It's pretty clear they do quite a bit more playtesting now.

Well they did just release autothrusters in Wave 6, and neither Soontir Fel nor the IG88s would be doing as well as they are now without that card. A single tiny little modification can have a huge impact on the metagame. We have no idea if Twin-Ion Engines will do for the TIE Defender what autothrusters did for the Interceptor.

I will make a prediction though. As more ships and play styles are brought into the competitive fold with "killer app" upgrades like Extra Munitions and Autothrusters, and FFG continues to be willing to tweak ships that are oppressive to list diversity like the Phantom, we will continue to see a greater diversity in which lists are competitively viable.

to be double fair, though, thrusters were essentially to what was (still is) a very problematic interaction between turrets and the rest of the game, namely maneuver dependent ships that were having their maneuver completely invalidated

the Punisher's upgrade (or indeed any of the wave 7 upgrades) could blow the meta out of the water, but thrusters were set up from the beginning to bring the interceptor back

Range 3 Cluster Missiles hurt.

Especially w ruthlessness

to be double fair, though, thrusters were essentially to what was (still is) a very problematic interaction between turrets and the rest of the game, namely maneuver dependent ships that were having their maneuver completely invalidated

the Punisher's upgrade (or indeed any of the wave 7 upgrades) could blow the meta out of the water, but thrusters were set up from the beginning to bring the interceptor back

There was no mention of autothrusters in the announcement for Wave 6: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/8/16/scum-and-villainy/

We knew that Interceptors would be getting a buff eventually, but nobody knew until months later that Interceptor buff would be in Wave 6, the Autothrusters card was carefully hidden in the initial article so only the name was visible. For all we know, Twin Ion Engines could be the Autothrusters to the TIE Defender (which FFG has also promised us will be getting buff) and we won't know about it for months.

I'm just saying that nobody should come here thinking that anyone can predict what the meta will look like with just the info we currently have. Theorycrafting the new possibilities with what we have so far is great and lots of fun, but that's very different from predicting what the meta is going to look like.

I am personally excited to try the Bomber K-Wing with either Prox or Cluster Mines and Experimental Interface for ~33 points, aka the SLAM Dunker, alongside a rebel swarm, or just 2 of them loaded up with missiles and torpedoes the way I used to run Horton Salm.

We knew from GenCon interviews that there was an upgrade that would buff the interceptor in theStarViper. People guessed early on it was going to be the Autothrustersncard before we ever knew the full name or the text. So we actually kind of did know when that article dropped, sort of.

to be double fair, though, thrusters were essentially to what was (still is) a very problematic interaction between turrets and the rest of the game, namely maneuver dependent ships that were having their maneuver completely invalidated

the Punisher's upgrade (or indeed any of the wave 7 upgrades) could blow the meta out of the water, but thrusters were set up from the beginning to bring the interceptor back

There was no mention of autothrusters in the announcement for Wave 6: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/8/16/scum-and-villainy/

We knew that Interceptors would be getting a buff eventually, but nobody knew until months later that Interceptor buff would be in Wave 6, the Autothrusters card was carefully hidden in the initial article so only the name was visible. For all we know, Twin Ion Engines could be the Autothrusters to the TIE Defender (which FFG has also promised us will be getting buff) and we won't know about it for months.

I'm just saying that nobody should come here thinking that anyone can predict what the meta will look like with just the info we currently have. Theorycrafting the new possibilities with what we have so far is great and lots of fun, but that's very different from predicting what the meta is going to look like.

I am personally excited to try the Bomber K-Wing with either Prox or Cluster Mines and Experimental Interface for ~33 points, aka the SLAM Dunker, alongside a rebel swarm, or just 2 of them loaded up with missiles and torpedoes the way I used to run Horton Salm.

My optimistic side feels Wave 7 will blow things wide open, and people will be experimenting with ordinance, new ships, new combos, etc, and the meta will be in chaos as everything that beats something good loses to something else and so on and so forth, and every ship in the game will find a niche that makes each ship playable.

.... But my pessimistic side sees only Hounds Tooth getting much competitive play, and the attempts to make the other ships/upgrade types usable falling short. One thing I have found about x-wing- If you're a large based ship, have lots and lots of upgrade slots, and can roll 3 or 4 attack dice... you're gonna be a problem for your opponent. The rest of this isn't as much a sure thing.

When did they say the Interceptor fix was going to be in the Starviper?

Gencon.

Well they never use the word fix, and that could be why people are disappointed with the new ordnance cards. They never said fix, they said this ships would getbsome attention. In theTeam covenant interview of Alex and frank, from gencon. Alex said there is an upgrade in the starviper that fans of the interceptor were going to drool over. This was BEFORE the article actually dropped but obviously after the ship announcements. Same weekend. So we knew it was coming as soon as we new about Scum

When did they say the Interceptor fix was going to be in the Starviper?

Redline with 3 new Tie/X1's will be tough to beat based on guaranteed hits alone, imo.

Rhymer is sadly extremely expensive and not that tanky: 3 or 4 attacks will do him in. 6 hull 2 agi is not much.

Yes, yes its finally time to discuss wave 7 meta.

Rebels get PUNISHED

Scum gets PUNISHED

Wes is going to have a field day with all the bomber love.

I think Cluster Mines will be a big thing. For 4 points, you get to drop 3 large templates on the table. That is going to block up a lot of table space. It will hurt the mobile ships (Outrider, Fat Han, Autoceptors) as well as Swarms. We don't know the damage, but it's probably going to be similar to Proximity Mines.

We don't know about the other ordnance. If Adv. Homing Missiles works like Autoblasters (no green dice) then you will see Rhymer on the table. Of course, he is really expensive. Will he overall be the goto, I'm not sure.

I highly doubt they will be as good as proximity mines. Likely, 1 potential damage per section.

I'd expect that you take one damage for each token you overlap, and then those tokens are removed leaving the untouched ones.

I'd expect that you take one damage for each token you overlap, and then those tokens are removed leaving the untouched ones.

I hope so hard that this is how they work. That sounds amazingly fun to play with. You could cross the T of a formation and leave a line in their best path of travel if you do it right, dropping 3 unstoppable damage on something.

PS2 K-Wing (approx. 20-23 pts)

—Advanced SLAM

—Bombardier

—Proximity Mines

—Cluster Mines

—Extra Munitions

Is about 32-35 points. Take two, SLAM up the sides of the board and Advanced SLAM to drop ALL THE MINES. Season to taste with remaining 30-36 points.

I'm so doing this the day I get my shipment.

I highly doubt they will be as good as proximity mines. Likely, 1 potential damage per section.

They would suck!

I hope cluster mines are more anti-big ship since proximity already screws over soontir level craft

maybe something like stacking damage (1 damage for the mine + 1 damage for each other mine hit that turn, so running over all 3 would result in 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 damage)

undoubtedly overpowered as ****, but at least it'd keep fatties off the table

I highly doubt they will be as good as proximity mines. Likely, 1 potential damage per section.

Unless they acknowledge that the existing mines aren't as great as they expected them to be. Maybe they are giving mines a boost? Well, I can wish.

Do you think it would be one auto damage? Or one damage die?

If it were only 1 damage die, then would you pay an extra point to make those damage dice spread out? I'm not sure it's worth it at that point. The templates cover more, but the damage it would do would be less....unless someone ploughs through them all. Would you pay 1 pt more to probably doing less damage?

Out of all the new shineys, I think the K-wing and Hound's Tooth are going to be the biggest impact. Personally, I thought the K looked dumb as hell in the previously shown comic pics, but Fantasy Flight made the model look pretty cool. I think Miranda's pilot ability looks pretty boss as well, and I can think of a number of cool combos to try on her.

Hound's Tooth has that 180 degree arc and the whole Nashta Pup thing going on, so I have a feeling that thing is going to be a bunch of fun to build a list around.

My feeling on the hound's tooth, judging by a look at the ship's base, is that it still has a main 90 degree firing arc, but can fire outside of arc for up to 180 degrees­. I'm glad that they are keeping turrets out of the Scum for now.

Cluster mines, the text reads that they detonate similarly to proximity mines. My guess is that all 3 templates are dropped simultanuously, but are triggered individually (perhaps one die per template hit). Combined with extra munitions, that means 6 templates to clog up the field for just 6 points (leaving you options to double another missile or torpedoe if you want). I'm expecting a new type of play where a pilot will "cut off" a section of the battlefield, forcing large base and highly maneuverable ships like the IG to break through the cluster mines to keep their options open.

Maybe something like perform a k-turn towards the enemy, pop off adrenaline rush to make the maneuver white and drop cluster mines. The next turn, fly along the enemy's original flight path (with the enemy pursuing) and drop the second set of cluster mines. If a player was perticularly sadistic and picked up a second cluster mine (also doubled), then that will mean up to 12 templates on the board for 10 points. This is going to create quite a mess of explosions, I like it

EDIT: the tie punisher also comes with enhanced scope to drop your PS to 0 during the movement phase... as though to complement the above strategy.

Maybe something like perform a k-turn towards the enemy, pop off adrenaline rush to make the maneuver white and drop cluster mines. The next turn, fly along the enemy's original flight path (with the enemy pursuing) and drop the second set of cluster mines. If a player was perticularly sadistic and picked up a second cluster mine (also doubled), then that will mean up to 12 templates on the board for 10 points. This is going to create quite a mess of explosions, I like it

That works out well for scum Kath. Pulling shenanigans like that with kath and 2 warthogs can decimate entire lists quickly