Why are flechette cannons not part of more builds? They are cheap, do damage and stress. They can't stack stress like stressbot but they also don't have a negative affect. They aren't range dependent like tactician, but the stress from FC is contingent upon damage and not automatic like stressbot and tactician. I would think a FC equipped B wing with FCS would pair well with a stresshog to drown a target in stress, assuming the B has the higher PS.

Am I missing something?

Maybe something like this (a homage to Paul Heaver's championship list):

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Because they don't stack stress

That's literally THE reason

Only found them to be decent on generic defenders; hard counters aggressors something fierce

Because they don't stack stress

That's literally THE reason

Only found them to be decent on generic defenders; hard counters aggressors something fierce

Don't generic defenders already hard counter Aggressors? They do in my experience. Though I do agree that Flechette Cannons would move them up to "hard counter" territory.

Why go for flechettes when you can get lasers?!

Because they don't stack stress

That's literally THE reason

Only found them to be decent on generic defenders; hard counters aggressors something fierce

Don't generic defenders already hard counter Aggressors? They do in my experience. Though I do agree that Flechette Cannons would move them up to "hard counter" territory.

Had a casual against Mr 2nd place at regional and the Deltas CARRIED after I lost soonts like an idiot. Still can't believe they won

But they carry harder with it, because the poor aggressors can't turn

Because they don't stack stress

That's literally THE reason

Only found them to be decent on generic defenders; hard counters aggressors something fierce

Don't generic defenders already hard counter Aggressors? They do in my experience. Though I do agree that Flechette Cannons would move them up to "hard counter" territory.

My Defenders have never gotten anything but destroyed by Aggressors. Having Flechette cannons helped but with IG-88B and Predator they ate my poor Deltas up.

The other disadvantage that Flechette Cannons have when compared to R3-A2, Tactician, and Flechette Torpedoes is that the Flechette Cannons still need to hit.

I’ve been toying with this in the squad builder. It haven’t hit the table yet though so I have no idée about how it will perform.

Blue Squadron Pilot (27) x 2
B-Wing (22), Flechette Cannon (2), B-Wing/E2 (1), Tactician (2)

Gold Squadron Pilot (23) x 2
Y-Wing (18), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

I think it's because everything that you really want to stress hard is unreliable to hit with a single 3-dice attack and/or generates its own stress before you can hit it with Flechette Cannons.

Most cannons already come on 3att primary ships. You are giving up damage to maybe deal stress and 1 damage. Not a good trade even for 2pts.

If they had added something like "If the target of your attack has 1 or more stress tokens, do not cancel dice results" or "... deal 2 damage instead" then it would probably see play. You give up damage to do it, and you can't stack, not great, even for 2 pts.

When I take them, I'm usually paying 2 points to negate the range three bonus. Dealing stress is a nice benefit if it happens.