Random thought: Seeing as tracers now make it trivial to give your bombers both a lock and a focus at the same time, could Advanced Proton Torpedoes become a more viable option?

I think so, APT with a focus is nearly a guaranteed 5 hits, but it's cost will either limit your choice of other ordnance to fill the 2-3 range band, or fewer Bombers in a list.

if by fat turrets you mean "any of the common ships taken in a 2-ship list"

fat turrets most of all, but not uniquely

if by fat turrets you mean "any of the common ships taken in a 2-ship list"

fat turrets most of all, but not uniquely

You can't rely on it hitting anything with more than 1 agility, is the only thing. You actually can't rely on it hitting a Falcon with Theepio and an Evade token either, come to think of it. Any list that hinges on one ship with a tracer enabling a bunch of other ordnance is going to be taking a pretty big gamble.

Unless Blount is firing it.

if by fat turrets you mean "any of the common ships taken in a 2-ship list"

fat turrets most of all, but not uniquely

You can't rely on it hitting anything with more than 1 agility, is the only thing. You actually can't rely on it hitting a Falcon with Theepio and an Evade token either, come to think of it. Any list that hinges on one ship with a tracer enabling a bunch of other ordnance is going to be taking a pretty big gamble.

Unless Blount is firing it.

if by fat turrets you mean "any of the common ships taken in a 2-ship list"

fat turrets most of all, but not uniquely

You can't rely on it hitting anything with more than 1 agility, is the only thing. You actually can't rely on it hitting a Falcon with Theepio and an Evade token either, come to think of it. Any list that hinges on one ship with a tracer enabling a bunch of other ordnance is going to be taking a pretty big gamble.

Unless Blount is firing it.

True enough.

Consider this:

It doesn't do damage. It CAN protect you from a mountain of target locks, but if you get three hits with it, it will hit anyway. Threepio/Evade nets you two evades, so you've either cancelled a bunch of target locks or been hit by the zero damage attack. If they don't have ordnance especially, I almost feel like it's better to use your guaranteed cancels against attacks that can be potentially highly damaging. I definitely see the utility if he has five ships with missiles and who have focused, but like I said, if he rolls 3 hits after modifying, I feel like it's best if you let it hit and cancel damaging hits.

if by fat turrets you mean "any of the common ships taken in a 2-ship list"

fat turrets most of all, but not uniquely

You can't rely on it hitting anything with more than 1 agility, is the only thing. You actually can't rely on it hitting a Falcon with Theepio and an Evade token either, come to think of it. Any list that hinges on one ship with a tracer enabling a bunch of other ordnance is going to be taking a pretty big gamble.

That's why I like them on a TIE bomber squad. Lots of arcs to dodge, and lots if backup tracers when they miss.

I'm really liking the idea of 3 Tempests and Vader, all with Tracers and ATC.

Also, Z-Swarm is instantly viable again, IMO, with and without Blount. Give every Z a Tracer. One of them uses its tracer each turn or every other turn, and you get focused and locked attacks from 7 ships. Only 2 dice, 3 at R1, but you're getting all hits all the time.

Consider this:

It doesn't do damage. It CAN protect you from a mountain of target locks, but if you get three hits with it, it will hit anyway. Threepio/Evade nets you two evades, so you've either cancelled a bunch of target locks or been hit by the zero damage attack. If they don't have ordnance especially, I almost feel like it's better to use your guaranteed cancels against attacks that can be potentially highly damaging. I definitely see the utility if he has five ships with missiles and who have focused, but like I said, if he rolls 3 hits after modifying, I feel like it's best if you let it hit and cancel damaging hits.

Blount with VI, XX-23 (19 points)

Bandit squadron with concussion missiles X5 (80 points)

focus with all the bandits, have Blount fire at PS 8, have the focus enhanced concussions have 4 hits even with a blank each. How's that for an alpha strike?

I think it is just what my Jonus Bomber squadron needs. Jonus leading three more Bombers looks great on paper, but it is hard to get those TL with low PS ships. Now Jonus+VI can basically get it for them and they can fire off their ordniance 2nd turn not to mention they can have a focus to boot.

Everyone is talking about Bombers, but i think of the Tie Advanced with ATC which needs a TL to work. So we could see actions used for defense or maneuvering while one ship provides the TLs

I'd put Crack Shot rather than VI on Jonus. Insurance against the green dice being lucky

I'd put Crack Shot rather than VI on Jonus. Insurance against the green dice being lucky

Definitely. VI doesn't get that build anything.

I think we're going to see increased take-up of Expert Handling.

I expect Expert Handling to be of little defence against the tracers.

Being an action, EH will almost always take place in the activation phase, whilst there are no target locks to lose. The target locks only come into existance during the combat phase, at which point the target will just have to suck it up for the turn.

Off the top of my head, the times EH would be of benefit are as follows:

- Airen Cracken is attacking after the tracer has been fired. He can then allow a friendly ship to activate EH during the combat phase. (Note that Cracken is PS8, so most of the time he will be firing before the tracer is fired.)

- The target locks from the tracer are being kept from round to round. This would probably mean that they aren't being used for an alpha strike strategy, so I'm guessing this might mess up the TIEAdv ATC spam list a little. The target would still need to weather a turn of ATC enhanced fire though, so it's probably already severely messed up at this point unless it's something like a Falcon or Decimator. So I suppose EH might start finding a home on the fat heavies if the meta corners them into it.

They are going to enable a meta shift that was already coming and that's a big deal. Crackshot, guidance chip (whatever it does), other ord buffs all add up to some viability. I don't know that lynchpinning it to make a list will work but some missiles and torps will see play because of this and hat alone would make it good enough. The fact that other things are possible with it is just icing...

I expect Expert Handling to be of little defence against the tracers.

Being an action, EH will almost always take place in the activation phase, whilst there are no target locks to lose. The target locks only come into existance during the combat phase, at which point the target will just have to suck it up for the turn.

Off the top of my head, the times EH would be of benefit are as follows:

- Airen Cracken is attacking after the tracer has been fired. He can then allow a friendly ship to activate EH during the combat phase. (Note that Cracken is PS8, so most of the time he will be firing before the tracer is fired.)

- The target locks from the tracer are being kept from round to round. This would probably mean that they aren't being used for an alpha strike strategy, so I'm guessing this might mess up the TIEAdv ATC spam list a little. The target would still need to weather a turn of ATC enhanced fire though, so it's probably already severely messed up at this point unless it's something like a Falcon or Decimator. So I suppose EH might start finding a home on the fat heavies if the meta corners them into it.

I was thinking you need a TL to fire the tracers, but you don't. That makes a big difference!

Yeah, so long as the ship with the racer fires first then there's no time to use EH.

Keep in mind Expert Handling only removes one target lock, not a stack of them.

It does give more options to dodge the arcs of the ships packing tracers, though.