What have I missed?

I haven't really played this year, and I stopped following the forum some months back, right when S&V landed, of which I've got most wanted. Haven't been to my gaming club this year either, works been too busy.

I want to get back into it, even if its just the collecting side for now. I've decided to get a decimator as I play 99% imperial and I've finally buckled on a falcon, only because...well.....its the falcon and the new film is due.

I read through the first few pages of threads and it all seems a bit eclectic, no common theme.

Game still going strong?

Upcoming releases?

Recent releases? I've seen the gaming mat, anything else?

Has a meta settled on S&V?

Losing players to Armada? (Which I almost bought into instead of my decimator/falcon purchase)

Its the 1 hour playing time that sold the deal for me.

Wave 7 and the imperial epic are about to hit in August. Wave 7 is about bombers for the imperial and rebel factions. Scum is getting two solid ships with the Hounds Tooth filling out a shuttle-type role and the Kihraxz filling out an X-wing like role.

If you like imperials I would definitely recommend purchasing at least one Scum Starviper because it has an upgrade (AutoThrusters) that makes Interceptors very good again.

The Imperial Epic ship (The Raider) will have a TIE Advanced fix that will bring it into the meta

The game is still exploding. Regionals have been pretty large. Nationals and Worlds sold out really fast.

As far as the scum meta goes IG-88 is the main top tier list that they have right now, though I will expect that to change when the Hound's Tooth comes out.

What have I missed?

I haven't really played this year, and I stopped following the forum some months back, right when S&V landed, of which I've got most wanted. Haven't been to my gaming club this year either, works been too busy.

I want to get back into it, even if its just the collecting side for now. I've decided to get a decimator as I play 99% imperial and I've finally buckled on a falcon, only because...well.....its the falcon and the new film is due.

I read through the first few pages of threads and it all seems a bit eclectic, no common theme.

Game still going strong?

Upcoming releases?

Recent releases? I've seen the gaming mat, anything else?

Has a meta settled on S&V?

Losing players to Armada? (Which I almost bought into instead of my decimator/falcon purchase)

Its the 1 hour playing time that sold the deal for me.

1. Game seems pretty healthy, as KommanderKeldoth said. Obviously your mileage may vary depending on the region, but overall the game seems to still be building some steam.

2. August apparently will see the drop of the Imperial Raider epic ship (along with the TIE Advanced fix and the crazy good Emperor Palpatine card) along with Wave 7: Hound's Tooth, K-Wing, Khiraxz Fighter, TIE Punisher

3. Nothing really since the scum hit the scene.

4. Aye, scum meta seems to have settled. Dual IG-88s or Boba Fett+IG-88B is big, Prince Xizor with a mini-swarm of Headhunters is effective and not completely rare, and occasionally you'll see a smattering of mostly everything else (Palob Godahli, Guri, and scum Kath Scarlet all seem pretty popular, though not in any specific typical builds).

5. I know a few people that exclusively switched to Armada, but I think most X-Wing players who picked up Armada simply split their time between the two. I, for one, can't afford to play both so I'm sticking with the one I'm already invested in.

Really isn't much in the way of glaring "issues" at the moment. The meta is pretty diverse, though large based turreted ships are still the most popular (though they've slipped a bit in recent months). Soontir Fel has become omnipresent in the meta, since autothrusters make him obnoxiously hard to kill. I recommend giving him a whirl sometime just to see how good he is now. TIE Advanced is about to go from a basement dweller to one of the scariest ships on the table with the Raider's release, and the upcoming Extra Munitions card might help my beloved TIE Bombers become more effective.

Fun stuff upcoming, and you can see virtually anything pop up in competitive play from time to time. A handful of super popular builds, but you'll also see fun things like a bunch of Y-Wings or a trio of Scum HWKs making noise in tournaments.

Oh yeah I almost forgot!

The TIE Phantom's cloak ability got nerfed. Now you have to choose to decloak at the start of the activation phase before anyone moves. Makes it a lot easier to predict where they are going. It also forces the phantom to actually have to guess where they need to be pointing instead of just making it happen after they see everyone move.

Cheers guys, exactly the info I was looking for.

Phantom nerfed? Oh my, my poor whisper.

I liked the mention of Boba/IG88. I saw a few twin IG builds forming round about when I left but that didn't appeal to me. Since I love boba and regularly ran 2 Firesprays, and plan to do so in S&V, that option of a singular IG sounds great. Gives me a reason to pick up the Hounds Tooth as well. Just got to wait for Punishing One then

Thanks again.

I can feel my mojo stirring

Since you like the Fett take him for a spin. He's an extremely fun ship to fly.

Don't feel sorry for Whisper: she's still one of the best aces in the game. The nerf just brought her down to earth with the rest of the absolute top level, small base pilots, instead of being the hands down best in the game.

A lot of the less Whisper/Phantoms we're seeing has been purely psychological. I've seen em' flown with deadly ability post-nerf, and they're still a nasty threat to anyone on the other side of the table.

can confirm that the 4/4 profile is still the best of its kind in the game and right difficult to beat

trivial arc-dodging is a thing of the past (actually have to think ahead ), but unlike Soonts you can still bull-doze through some poor bastards with free target-lock, re-cloak, focus etc.