Epsilon Leader is the Imperial winner for me in this box. He can Segnors roll/red manuver for days and remove his own stress every time, setting him up for another red the next turn if needed. That said, I am really struggeling with the descision to buy one or two core sets. The 2 core fo/Ties + the single tie pack that will eventually be released, might be enough of these guys, as I am pretty sure the generic Ties (wich I have plenty off) is the superior swarm.

The t-70 with BB-8 just opens that bad boy up for so many possibilities, to become a strong arc dodger/ survivor/ damage dealer the Empire has no match for it in the new core.

Epsilon Leader is the Imperial winner for me in this box. He can Segnors roll/red manuver for days and remove his own stress every time...

/rapid Google

HOLY **** IT DOESN'T SAY *OTHER* FRIENDLY SHIPS MIND BLOWN

Epsilon Leader is the Imperial winner for me in this box. He can Segnors roll/red manuver for days and remove his own stress every time...

Whaaaaaaaa?/rapid GoogleHOLY **** IT DOESN'T SAY *OTHER* FRIENDLY SHIPS MIND BLOWN

With Juno and Maarek he will be golden though. They PTL for their TL and he is just giving out candy all the time. If he had an EPT he would be outright overpowered!

He might also work we with someone using Stay on Target. But his lack of EPT will probably prevent him staying close to that ship.

A shuttle constantly standing in place with Epsilon just K-turning all the time alongside it would also be funny enough!

The question is what imperial ships want to constantly stress themselves but in a way that he can stick to them!

^This

The very first thing that came to mind when I saw the F/o spoilers:
Maarek Stele — TIE Advanced 27
Push the Limit 3
Advanced Targeting Computer 1
TIE/x1 0
Ship Total: 31

Juno Eclipse — TIE Advanced 28
Push the Limit 3
Advanced Targeting Computer 1
TIE/x1 0
Ship Total: 32

"Epsilon Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 19
Ship Total: 19

Alpha Squadron Pilot — TIE Interceptor 18
Ship Total: 18

Shoot at the Alpha? great!

Shoot at Epsilon Leader? great!

Shoot at any of the other two, well, great!

Epsilon Leader is the Imperial winner for me in this box. He can Segnors roll/red manuver for days and remove his own stress every time...

Whaaaaaaaa?/rapid GoogleHOLY **** IT DOESN'T SAY *OTHER* FRIENDLY SHIPS MIND BLOWN

But you always sacrifice your actions because the stress is cleared at the start of the combat phase. So not as good as a white koiogran, but really worth it

Or since basically Epsilon Leader turns all your ships into Tie Defenders minus the action after the K-Turn, we might max up on cheap stuff and joust the living crap out of people! Potentially this would work better with standard Ties. Are they still the best jousting ship the empire has to offer on pure numbers?

"Epsilon Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 19

Ship Total: 19

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter 15

Ship Total: 15

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter18

Push the limit 3

Ship Total: 21

I even have another one. Here basically you need to be pretty good as a pilot because Epsilon wants to follow your Phantoms around. But it would make recloaking a lot easier after a red maneuver!

×

No Stress! (99)

"Epsilon Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 19

Engine Upgrade 4

Ship Total: 23

"Echo" — TIE Phantom 30

Veteran Instincts 1

Fire-Control System 2

Advanced Cloaking Device 4

Ship Total: 37

"Whisper" — TIE Phantom 32

Veteran Instincts 1

Fire-Control System 2

Advanced Cloaking Device 4

Ship Total: 39

The nastiest squad Ive seen for the TIE/fo (or Typhoo, Foo Fighter, or Eyepatch) is four omegas with push the limit, epsilon leader, and howlrunner with push the limit. That's some serious mutual support...

It's worth noting that 60 points of Epsilons actually have more health behind the same agility than 60 points to TIE fighters. Five TIE/lns have 15 hull, four TIE/fos have 12 hull and 4 shields for a total of 16.

Plus TIE/fos can go PTL with almost interceptor level freedom: all they lack is Boost.

The nastiest squad Ive seen for the TIE/fo (or Typhoo, Foo Fighter, or Eyepatch) is four omegas with push the limit, epsilon leader, and howlrunner with push the limit.

120 points. I think you mean 3 Omegas. This is a five ship squad.

Still, it look potent. Howlrunner replaces Target Lock, meaning each TIE (bar Epsilon) can Focus and Evade and keep their minilock. Problem is Howlrunner's TIE dial weakening your dial advantage if Epsilon dies. The upshot is PS advantage and the fact that the Omegas are still fully capable without Epsilon (they can go Interceptor flying on their excellent suite of greens) or Howlrunner (start target locking to keep their rerolls).

I'd be inclined to drop one Omega Sqd to a Black Sqd though, and upgrade an Omega to Omega Ace for that PWT mauling crit power. If I could find a way to sneak Decoy in there to make Ace go last, that'd be even better.

Some efficiency numbers.

The thing is, good players rarely joust and rarely k-turn, they are trying to attack from several sites. Because with k-turn you have disadvantages in the next turn (and you are predictable with Omega Leader). And you rarely do several k-turn in a row, usually you k-turn, then make slow green maneuvers etc. For this, the abbility of Omega Leader has low impact. Additionally, with Howlrunner you have to keep tight formation, Omega Leader is too much besides her.

So the t-70 isn't that far off but there's a fairly big difference between fo and ln.

Just as I foresaw through the skill.

A few new pieces have been added to the puzzle, with Comms Relay and Juke. Omega Leader is also going to be as annoying as Dark Curse.

A few new pieces have been added to the puzzle, with Comms Relay and Juke. Omega Leader is also going to be as annoying as Dark Curse.

Worse than DC (for your opponent)

Just lemme check something real quick..

Omega Leader is better vs a 2 ship list. Dark Curse is better against a swarm.

Christ I have the memory of a goldfish

Alright so he says "can't modify dice" not "can't modify dice results" so no ignoring c3po or evades

Still, he's the first fo I would put weapons guidance on

Got your hopes up you did, disappointment inevitable it was hmm.

Got your hopes up you did, disappointment inevitable it was hmm.

the irony is that Omega Leader counters thrusters

He is still only a TIE. He his hardly going to make Authothrusters a bad choice.

He is still only a TIE. He his hardly going to make Authothrusters a bad choice.

autothrusters will never be bad no matter how many counters they introduce

all it means is he might actually hit something at range 3

Now that they are going to be released side by side i'm more curious than ever about how the TAP and the FO will differentiate from each other.

Christ I have the memory of a goldfish

Alright so he says "can't modify dice" not "can't modify dice results" so no ignoring c3po or evades

Still, he's the first fo I would put weapons guidance on

Give him comm booster, and have a shuttle with jendon and weapons engineer passing out locks early, and have him bank an evade early on. Then use it in clutch situations

Now that they are going to be released side by side i'm more curious than ever about how the TAP and the FO will differentiate from each other.

Bet you the TAP will have the weaker dial; it'll depend on its double-action thing to keep its combat up and boost for mobility, while the FO is basically a barrel-rolling A-wing.

So... I'd pick no green turns, but possibly more green straights. What I'm really interested in is whether they succumb to the temptation to give it an S-loop or T-roll; doing so would be woeful. Then again, they did nail the Z-95 without temptation to give it all kinds of Crazy Stuff... so there's hope yet.

I think one of the keys to the FO tie is the tech upgrade they can all take. as the library of tech cards increases we may find the tie/fo becoming more and more useful, especially if tech remains as a TFA-era ship upgrade.

From what I have seen is the new set took the old core set ships gave it those new reversal maneuvers, 1 shield, 1 additional action and increased the point cost by 3. I can agree with everything except for the +3 point cost on the T-70.

Now going to those modifications that raise stats like hull upgrade or add actions like Millennium Falcon title I know that the pilot card squadron points is calculated the same way as modification upgrades. However comparing them to the old ships and upgrades can make a valid point. Now for the Target Lock upgrade that is 2 points and the shield upgrade is 4 points so making it 3 points does make some what sense as it cost more than the targeting computer for the target lock but less than the shield upgrade. So in a way you spend some points to get a discount shield upgrade and the targeting computer comes in free. That I can understand as it is sort of a lesser power creep. Now will it be any good? A 4 hit ships with 2 firepower at 15 points, I know I have seen that some where prototype pilot

But as for the T-70 this is straight up power creep. Both the Engine Upgrade and the Shield Upgrade each cost 4 points, and you can get both with the T-70 for only 3 points. Now if it were 4 points more than that is understandable but this is get a discount + a free upgrade. The T-70 got way more of a deal than the TIE-FO. Sorry imps, but just like in wave 7 you got shafted.

Are you insane? The TIE Punisher and all the pilot and upgrade cards that came with it are incredible.

So sums up T-65 < T-70 in efficiency where as the (classic) TIE-Fighter > TIE-Fighter FO in point efficiency. The Rebels got the better ship out of this. The best ship, no but definitely the better ship.

You really need to stop trying to compare T-70 to T-65. The T-65 is waiting on a balance patch; why not compare these TIE/FO's to pre-chardaan A-wings and declare the sky is falling for the rebels? Seriously, we need to wait for the patch to be able to say either way how the two ships stack up.

Back on topic: Really, I plan to fly these things like Prototypes - 2-3 as a sturdier filler for more powerful ships elsewhere, where straight up TIE swarmlet doesn't make as much sense. For instance, when you have 30pts spare, and not 36 - Vader, Soontir, & 2 FOs, anyone?

One thing of note is that they'll be able to help Vessery out a whole pile more - especially that ace of theirs. TL early on, let Vessery burn down their shields, and then slam home with extra crits on a later turn.

Fly alongside Vader, and there'll be painted targets galore.

For 30 points you could get a Royal Guard Interceptor with Push the Limit, Autothrusters, and Stealth device. Pilot skill 6.