Ok thanks, so the talent expert handling is just useless, and Jake Farell is just a "must have" ...

One last question, can we use the abilities from pilots added after the creation of the campaign, like "Blue Ace" the T-70 pilot ?

That's what I'm planning for my X-Wing pilot. Right now I have BB-8/R2D2, Shield, PTL & Engine Upgrade at PS 4. At PS 5 I'm taking Blue Ace's ability. At PS 6 I transition to the T-70, replace the EU with Hull and take Integrated Astromech. At PS 7 I grab Jake's ability. However I'm not quite sure what I'm taking at 8 or 9.

Wed

Ok thanks, so the talent expert handling is just useless, and Jake Farell is just a "must have" ...
One last question, can we use the abilities from pilots added after the creation of the campaign, like "Blue Ace" the T-70 pilot ?

That's what I'm planning for my X-Wing pilot. Right now I have BB-8/R2D2, Shield, PTL & Engine Upgrade at PS 4. At PS 5 I'm taking Blue Ace's ability. At PS 6 I transition to the T-70, replace the EU with Hull and take Integrated Astromech. At PS 7 I grab Jake's ability. However I'm not quite sure what I'm taking at 8 or 9.

Blue Ace is pretty awesome and definitely on my list to take eventually. For the mod at PS 8, you could always just take another Shield Upgrade (the campaign rules allow this) or Extra Munitions if you have a Torpedo. At PS 9 for the last EPT, Wedge's ability to reduce enemy agility by 1 is pretty darn hard to pass up.

Ok thanks, so the talent expert handling is just useless, and Jake Farell is just a "must have" ...

One last question, can we use the abilities from pilots added after the creation of the campaign, like "Blue Ace" the T-70 pilot ?

Try expert handling with tycho's ability and experimental interface, and jake's ability. Awesomeness. You can also fit daredevil in there with push the limit. Ridiculous maneuverability.

My group has been playing this for a couple of weeks now, and it is amazing. Thanks so much!

A balance question :

Does the ability from "Jake Farell" level 7 grants you a free barrel roll or a free boost, EVEN if those actions are not listed in your action bar ???

Seems a bit OP for 7 points if you get it with a X-Wing for exemple, but ... need a clarification, thanks !

Now add recon specialist to a bwing or HWK, so cool.

edit: you have to have a pilot skill 7 before getting the ability, there are many good choices once you get that high.

Only PS5, but I'm grabbing hobbie on a T70 now for the ability to abuse the heck out of PTL. Not having to take r2-r6 and having a native boost makes it a lot more attractive than it was on an xwing.

Speaking of R2-D6, how does he work in the campaign? I think he's technically impossible to take. Not a huge loss not to be able to use one card.

You could technically take R2-D6 as your first upgrade at the start of the campaign when everyone is PS2 and doesn't have an EPT slot yet. Then you could buy an early EPT. Of course, as soon as you move up to PS 3 the droid becomes pointless and you would want to buy a different one.

Just played through Care Package with my brother and we breezed it - we took no damage and the Quantum Storm took more damage from the squadron of TIEs it ran over (two hits - straight to hull as per the campaign rules, as opposed to shields as per the official rules) and the asteroid it obliterated (crit - healed next turn by the repaid droid) than it did from enemy action (3 shield from one of the strike PTs). Those two TIEs gone and a lucky double-team of the Elite before it did anything (2x TLT hits and a 4-hit APT) contributed to making it seem easy, although we both were pretty lucky at getting things in arc/range too.

The only real issue we had rules-wise was... the GR-75 pilot card says it has a maximum of 4 energy, but the mission says it starts with 5, so we didn't know how to limit it. (In the end we didn't, and hit 7 or 8, but would've survived even if it hadn't had an energy at all - we repaired the 3 hits and recovered 3 shield in one action and that was it.) In retrospect that goes for the previous mission too - it has to charge to 7 energy for the hyperdrive, but it's capped at 4!

Also it's quite a lot of rules being introduced in one mission - it's the only mission with a moving huge ship, which means new AI rules, the extra targeting rules for this mission, and all of the epic rules and actions (some contradicting the campaign book) which we'd never used before.

Still brilliant fun and we're going to fly the last two missions now even though we won the campaign

You could technically take R2-D6 as your first upgrade at the start of the campaign when everyone is PS2 and doesn't have an EPT slot yet. Then you could buy an early EPT. Of course, as soon as you move up to PS 3 the droid becomes pointless and you would want to buy a different one.

PS2 can't equip r2-d6. No EPT and not PS2 or lower.

You could technically take R2-D6 as your first upgrade at the start of the campaign when everyone is PS2 and doesn't have an EPT slot yet. Then you could buy an early EPT. Of course, as soon as you move up to PS 3 the droid becomes pointless and you would want to buy a different one.

PS2 can't equip r2-d6. No EPT and not PS2 or lower.

Aha, I didn't remember that restriction.

The only real issue we had rules-wise was... the GR-75 pilot card says it has a maximum of 4 energy, but the mission says it starts with 5, so we didn't know how to limit it. (In the end we didn't, and hit 7 or 8, but would've survived even if it hadn't had an energy at all - we repaired the 3 hits and recovered 3 shield in one action and that was it.) In retrospect that goes for the previous mission too - it has to charge to 7 energy for the hyperdrive, but it's capped at 4!

IIRC the GR-75 in both missions is equipped with a Title card that increases the energy cap, but I'm not sure by how much.

The only real issue we had rules-wise was... the GR-75 pilot card says it has a maximum of 4 energy, but the mission says it starts with 5, so we didn't know how to limit it. (In the end we didn't, and hit 7 or 8, but would've survived even if it hadn't had an energy at all - we repaired the 3 hits and recovered 3 shield in one action and that was it.) In retrospect that goes for the previous mission too - it has to charge to 7 energy for the hyperdrive, but it's capped at 4!

IIRC the GR-75 in both missions is equipped with a Title card that increases the energy cap, but I'm not sure by how much.

Ah yes - in Care Package it does have Quantum Storm , which increases the cap by 1 to the 5 it starts with... So we messed that up, but I'm pretty sure it didn't affect the outcome.

In Imperial Entanglement it's capped well short of the 7 it needs, but it's pretty obvious it's not using energy normally.

Never felt we had much chance on Capture Imperial Officer when we attempted our second go. Beat us twice now. Anybody who has beat it want to share tactics?

We tried a foolish attempt to dive into the teeth for a fast disable... Deserved that fail.

Last night I tried cutting in from the opposite side of the map from the rest of the squad to draw the shuttle into going the wrong way. Just totally overwhelmed by TIEs. Disabling the shuttle isn't too hard but clearing the region of Imperial fighters has not proved to be something we've even been close to doing.

A balance question :

Does the ability from "Jake Farell" level 7 grants you a free barrel roll or a free boost, EVEN if those actions are not listed in your action bar ???

Seems a bit OP for 7 points if you get it with a X-Wing for exemple, but ... need a clarification, thanks !

Yeah, my group discussed this during Alpha testing. I've considered rewording Jake's ability to "...perform a free barrel roll or boost on your action bar ", but we don't have a means to put barrel roll as a mod on ships so that kind of breaks the appeal of Jake in the first place.

Also, Expert Handling isn't actually that bad an EPT choice. Particularly against TIE Bombers/Advanceds/Defenders and occasionally Elites (especially if you have a higher-PS squad leader/veteran instincts to activate after them). The ability to remove a target lock that would otherwise cause you to suffer a fully-modified ordnance attack can be really powerful defensively.

Speaking of R2-D6, how does he work in the campaign? I think he's technically impossible to take. Not a huge loss not to be able to use one card.

I'm not terribly crushed by this, but in theory he could be tweaked just to allow an extra EPT slot. In general, I think Astromech slot > EPT #5 slot anyway.

The only real issue we had rules-wise was... the GR-75 pilot card says it has a maximum of 4 energy, but the mission says it starts with 5, so we didn't know how to limit it. (In the end we didn't, and hit 7 or 8, but would've survived even if it hadn't had an energy at all - we repaired the 3 hits and recovered 3 shield in one action and that was it.) In retrospect that goes for the previous mission too - it has to charge to 7 energy for the hyperdrive, but it's capped at 4!

IIRC the GR-75 in both missions is equipped with a Title card that increases the energy cap, but I'm not sure by how much.

Ah yes - in Care Package it does have Quantum Storm , which increases the cap by 1 to the 5 it starts with... So we messed that up, but I'm pretty sure it didn't affect the outcome.

In Imperial Entanglement it's capped well short of the 7 it needs, but it's pretty obvious it's not using energy normally.

All good here.

Never felt we had much chance on Capture Imperial Officer when we attempted our second go. Beat us twice now. Anybody who has beat it want to share tactics?

We tried a foolish attempt to dive into the teeth for a fast disable... Deserved that fail.

Last night I tried cutting in from the opposite side of the map from the rest of the squad to draw the shuttle into going the wrong way. Just totally overwhelmed by TIEs. Disabling the shuttle isn't too hard but clearing the region of Imperial fighters has not proved to be something we've even been close to doing.

When I have seen that mission won, it's usually the result of crushing the TIEs in the first turn or two, then concentrating fire on the shuttle for a turn. Deploying all Rebel ships in a tight formation on one side and trying to obliterate the escorts on Turn 1 by concentrating fire goes a long way.

If your group plays a Y-wing heavy squad that doesn't dish out big damage in an opening joust, that might also make the mission more difficult.

Also, I think the Turn 2 Elite TIE Advanced and/or Turn 4 enemies might be a little too much for this mission, especially if your squadron is still PS2-3 and don't have enough tricks to deal with them quickly.

Capture Officer is definitely tough. It feels possible, but luck-dependant. The closest I've come to winning in my three attempts was when I ignored the shuttle at first and aggressively went after the escorts. Unfortunately, the elite TIE Advanced managed to survive on one measly hull point long enough for my ships to get out of formation and waste multiple turns trying to finish him off. One die difference would have killed the Elite in my initial volley, and then the rest of the mission would have gone very differently.

Also, I think the Interceptors that show up on turn 11 present a design problem. If they show up on the far side of the board, the player just loses, no question. That creates a negative feeling of frustration when the mission is effectively lost despite two turns remaining.

Never felt we had much chance on Capture Imperial Officer when we attempted our second go. Beat us twice now. Anybody who has beat it want to share tactics?

We tried a foolish attempt to dive into the teeth for a fast disable... Deserved that fail.

Last night I tried cutting in from the opposite side of the map from the rest of the squad to draw the shuttle into going the wrong way. Just totally overwhelmed by TIEs. Disabling the shuttle isn't too hard but clearing the region of Imperial fighters has not proved to be something we've even been close to doing.

We beat it first round with a average PS of just under 4. First turn I ion torpedoed alpha squadron. They had turned 90 towards us and got to drift directly towards the board edge. Our Y's start wearing down the shuttle. The main thing is we separated the TIE escort from the shuttle. After drifting for another turn they never got back near it. The TA showed up by the shuttle and Y's. However I was pointed over there after ioning the TIEs and lined up a range 1 TL+F shot on him for 4 hits I think on turn 4 that killed him. We had to pause on shooting at the shuttle so we didn't trigger its's flee ai. Beta showed up and we worked on them while getting the shuttle to turn away from the empire edge. Then we reengaged the shuttle and disabled it turn 7. Unfortunately we didn't cleanup the last of beta on 7 and got gamma on turn 8, but at that point it was 4 on 2. Easy work.

We beat capture officer on the first go around. either we have been doing something wrong or we just got lucky. We hammered the shuttle first turn hard did enough damage to make it go on flee which screwed up the flight pattern of the ties and made them run into each other and we picked them off and then swung back on the shuttle. then focused on the tie adv elite. as he was the last one left we finished end of round 7.

Hey, I kept some xp in order to switch to the B-wing. I have 27 remaining.

I am still thinking about a good template, need 5 to buy the ship, so what's good for 22 points ? from previous missions I have already the 7 points Heavy Canon, the engine upgrade modification. I have "Push the Limit" elite talent. That's it.

We are planning the mission with the GR75 transport, but we don't have one, is that possible to run the mission without huge ship rules in mind or without the ship itself? with a paper shape maybe?

Thaks

I'd do the paper shape. It's not as pretty but it serves the purpose.

Yes I found the lenght and wide of the ship so I will try to make one with paper.

223mm x 80mm roughly

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/2244-size-and-scale-of-the-large-ships/

Nice link, thank you. My group only has one person with the transport and it ain't me. I think I'll be doing the same.

Hey guys, thanks for the input on the Capture mission. It sounds like mostly we need to concentrate fire a bit more and maybe focus more on the escorts early on.

We succeeded at Capture Officer on our first try. Perhaps it was that we were playing quite... berserker. We started by launching advanced proton torpedoes and advanced homing missile at the shuttle. That disabled it in one round of combat.

When the TIE Advanced came, one of my players in a T-70 X-Wing gave it a welcome with another Advanced Proton Torpedo, doubly modified. It blew up in one hit.

We succeeded at Capture Officer on our first try. Perhaps it was that we were playing quite... berserker. We started by launching advanced proton torpedoes and advanced homing missile at the shuttle. That disabled it in one round of combat.

When the TIE Advanced came, one of my players in a T-70 X-Wing gave it a welcome with another Advanced Proton Torpedo, doubly modified. It blew up in one hit.

I've seen this sort of stuff happen too, and it can be very effective

I think ultimately that Capture Officer (and most of the starter-level missons) are a bit too tough if you're fresh PS2 pilots but become much more doable once you hit PS3-4 with an EPT and some of the better ordnance. It's funny how the campaign format makes ordnance so much better.

Yeah, ordnance is certainly viable in campaign. I used advanced proton torpedoes several times effectively. Got them free from a mission bonus, then lost them last time as a mission fail penalty... Have not bought new ordinance yet, but I will be.

I think I may start some new pilots and fly solo at home a bit.