Wowza.

Okay, here are the full list of Elite Talents with the "Action" header.

Expert Handling

A surprisingly good option. For an action that Tie Fighters quite like to emulate, you get the free bonus of breaking the opponent's target-locks.

Even if you never actually use the action, your opponent is substantially less likely to Target Lock as their action, so you're still doing fairly well.

If an Assault Missile Alpha-Strike shows up in your metagame to counter your swarm, this will win you the game.

Squad Leader

Less useful than it appears, as you have to stepping-stone your way down, rather than shocking it through all of your Academy Pilots.

Daredevil

Well, you still get stress AND a chance at nuking yourself for 2/3 of your total health.... but it's still a superb movement action if you can dodge the downside.

Marksmanship

Ehh... Even in a world with the upgrade being otherwise free on my Academy Pilots, I still prefer the defensive focus. Crits are mostly irrelevant until shields are down, at which point Youngster has likely died.

Expose

Theoretically, the card this guy was made for.

An academy with this config and Howlrunner has 7/32 more expected damage out of a Focus token (though post-Howlrunner puts the two at dead even, with Expose giving the greater crit-chance and penetration).

Still, the Howlie + Expose has a 5/16 chance of rolling 3 damage, which the Tie Fighter cannot otherwise attain at R2+, and is necessary vs the Imperial 4-agility Overlords.

Basically, Youngster can take on the role of countering one of the two greatest counters: Assault Missile Alpha Strikes (through Expert Handling), and High-Agility Aces (through Expose).

Interesting tech, and one that will be interesting to test with every new Elite Talent with an Action header that enters the game.

How will y'all run him?

EH is a good counter to take if TIE Advanceds with ATC, or Vessery, are running wild in your local meta.

EH is probably more help against ATC and FCS than is anything else on low PS TIEs. Anything shooting ordnance at is probably at least PS2 (I think the exception is probably Scum Z-95s).

EH is also good vs Twin Laser Turrets, as they typically prefer target locking over any other action, due to the utter terribleness of the defensive Focus on said ships.

Expert Handling seems like the safer option, but Expose seems like a lot of fun.

Marksmanship seems pointless unless you're comboing with Wampa.

EH is also good vs Twin Laser Turrets, as they typically prefer target locking over any other action, due to the utter terribleness of the defensive Focus on said ships.

The shame of all the stuff in the recent releases is that it has SUCH potential...but really, really, sucks balls against TLTs.

GSP + R2D6 + Predator and Horton Salm, both with TLT = blech to flying a TIE swarm. (Heck, you've still got room for Wedge + BB8 + EU + PtL for fun with the AT crowd...)

I'm going to wait until they release some non-jank ACTION: epts to use with him

and remember, TLTs don't like seeing Ties not vice-versa

What about Ruthlessness? Having trouble with that pesky A-Wing, just dogpile on the B-Wing and watch the A-Wing fry...

What about Ruthlessness? Having trouble with that pesky A-Wing, just dogpile on the B-Wing and watch the A-Wing fry...

Unfortunately, Ruthlessness is not an action. Otherwise, you could slap Predator on him for 3 pts and he would be Howlrunner (maybe even slightly better vs PS2).

range 1-3 predator would equal significantly improved Howlrunner

range 1-3 predator would equal significantly improved Howlrunner

If she was equipped with predator then yes. But what pilot wouldn't?

I can't believe EH is a decent option again. Wow. Live long enough I might see deadeye be useful again. You know. Like those Y wings.

Wowza.

Okay, here are the full list of Elite Talents with the "Action" header.

Expert Handling

A surprisingly good option. For an action that Tie Fighters quite like to emulate, you get the free bonus of breaking the opponent's target-locks.

Even if you never actually use the action, your opponent is substantially less likely to Target Lock as their action, so you're still doing fairly well.

If an Assault Missile Alpha-Strike shows up in your metagame to counter your swarm, this will win you the game.

Squad Leader

Less useful than it appears, as you have to stepping-stone your way down, rather than shocking it through all of your Academy Pilots.

Daredevil

Well, you still get stress AND a chance at nuking yourself for 2/3 of your total health.... but it's still a superb movement action if you can dodge the downside.

Marksmanship

Ehh... Even in a world with the upgrade being otherwise free on my Academy Pilots, I still prefer the defensive focus. Crits are mostly irrelevant until shields are down, at which point Youngster has likely died.

Expose

Theoretically, the card this guy was made for.

An academy with this config and Howlrunner has 7/32 more expected damage out of a Focus token (though post-Howlrunner puts the two at dead even, with Expose giving the greater crit-chance and penetration).

Still, the Howlie + Expose has a 5/16 chance of rolling 3 damage, which the Tie Fighter cannot otherwise attain at R2+, and is necessary vs the Imperial 4-agility Overlords.

Basically, Youngster can take on the role of countering one of the two greatest counters: Assault Missile Alpha Strikes (through Expert Handling), and High-Agility Aces (through Expose).

Interesting tech, and one that will be interesting to test with every new Elite Talent with an Action header that enters the game.

How will y'all run him?

EH is useless if your PS is lower, because enemy takes his TL after you performed your actions.

Squad leader is still a "lose action, give an action" so pretty much useless outside Epic, where it can be used to bump punishers to boost-focus-BR and TL, if need be.

Daredevil is a DERP action after the nerf. Useful for higher PS pilots, that aren't abumndant for TIE-lns

Marksmanship? Slightly better than your average focus for offense, DERP on defense

Expose? With howlie you get an average of 2 damages per attack. Not worth the time it seems :C

Really don't see this improving expose, like, at all. The three problems expose as always had are

The point cost

It uses your action, so no modifications without additional shenanigans

Reduces your agility

Expose on the decimator worked ok because the agility reduction was eliminated and the action cost was bypassed with experimental interface, leaving just a point cost for expose and EI together that was a fraction of the total ship cost.

Now with youngster, the point cost of putting it on every ship is reduced, but the other drawbacks are still left in full force. Ships that use expose don't get their regular action for modification and are more vulnerable.

Before, basically, expose made you pay points to put a crappy card on one of your ships. Now youngster allows you to pay the same point cost to put a crappy card on all your ships.

Really don't see this improving expose, like, at all. The three problems expose as always had are

The point cost

It uses your action, so no modifications without additional shenanigans

Reduces your agility

Expose on the decimator worked ok because the agility reduction was eliminated and the action cost was bypassed with experimental interface, leaving just a point cost for expose and EI together that was a fraction of the total ship cost.

Now with youngster, the point cost of putting it on every ship is reduced, but the other drawbacks are still left in full force. Ships that use expose don't get their regular action for modification and are more vulnerable.

Before, basically, expose made you pay points to put a crappy card on one of your ships. Now youngster allows you to pay the same point cost to put a crappy card on all your ships.

it creates a question for your opponent, an option for them to misplay. Do I shoot the turtled up Howlrunner or Youngster at range 3, or do I shoot one of the 3-4 exposed Academy Pilots that are at range 2? For 4 points I'll mess with my opponent's head any day.

I want expose to be good here, but I think marksmanship is the most solid.

I think I like Marksmanship okay on Youngster. It's not great, but you can have the Academies (or whatever yiur lowest PS ships are) in your list use it. This creates a nice decision fork where the other squad can fire at your more valuable, but defensively Focused named pilots, or your less valuable, undefended, crit-hurling APs. Additionally, it's useful supporting high PS stuff like Mauler. He'll know if he's in a good position to use Marksmanship or not.

Mauler, VI 18

Scourge, VI 18

Youngster, Marksmanship 18

Wampa 14

Backstabber 16

Throw in a couple Hull Upgrades and you have a pretty hard-hitting, formation-optional swarm. You could also get Howlrunner in there, or downgrade some stuff to get 6 ships.

In order of preference:

(1) EH. Good all the time against most lists, though of lesser value for lower PS TIEs

(2) Expose. Most useful for a lot of low PS TIEs against a small number of opposing ships -- a 2-3 shipd build can't shoot all the ships who drop their pants.

(3) Marksmanship. Combos well with Wampa and the high PS TIEs; useless for a low PS swarm where you want the Focus for defence.

(4)Squad Leader. Bit of a corner case; usually better to have your own actions.

(5) Daredevil. Suicide TIEs, anyone?

I can't believe EH is a decent option again. Wow. Live long enough I might see deadeye be useful again. You know. Like those Y wings.

Kaa'to + Deadeye + Concussion Missile

Kavil + Deadeye + R4 Agromech+ Proton Torpedo

Dengar + Deadeye + R4 Agromech + RecSpc + Torpedo of choice

Deadeye, while still an outlier, does have some uses

This Tie seems like it was made for a card yet to come out.

This Tie seems like it was made for a card yet to come out.

This.

This Tie seems like it was made for a card yet to come out.

There are still 2 cards in the Gozanti set that are not revealed and are not titles, as there are two each in the image. One or both of them could be a new toy for Youngster and his closest friends.

Marksmanship IMO for several reasons:

1. BeforeHowlrunner, it has the same if not better damage output when compared to Expose https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1537549.jpg - not sure about after Howlrunner
2. Expose costs you 1 more point and 1 agility in addition to the defensive Focus that Marksmanship costs you.
3. EH at low PS is pretty weak both for maneuvering and the fact that you can't EH immediately after a TL. And if you're not facing an ATC, there's a good chance your 17-point Youngster is 5 points wasted.

Marksmanship IMO for several reasons:

1. BeforeHowlrunner, it has the same if not better damage output when compared to Expose https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1537549.jpg - not sure about after Howlrunner
2. Expose costs you 1 more point and 1 agility in addition to the defensive Focus that Marksmanship costs you.
3. EH at low PS is pretty weak both for maneuvering and the fact that you can't EH immediately after a TL. And if you're not facing an ATC, there's a good chance your 17-point Youngster is 5 points wasted.

Marksmanship vs Focus is the problem, though.

Y'see, the damage of Marksmanship is identical to the focus token, unless your damage gets through the enemy shields.

If you're playing a TIE Swarm, the Focus' defensive use means that, for the few ships that your opponent attacks, you have increased survivability, and for the ships that your opponent does not, you have increased damage.

That is a large part of the reason why Focus is more valuable on low-PS ships than it is on the high-PS ships.

So, even though you're getting Marksmanship for no cost other than the action, it still isn't the best action to take most of the time.

Expose, however, nets you a higher damage ceiling, giving you a chance to punch through Fel or Whisper's defenses.

Having a slightly-better-than 1/4 chance to deal 3 damage is worth its weight in gold when your opponent is expected to ignore 2 damage per attack.

I could see Expose having a place supporting TIE/fos. They can carry a TL from a previous turn (as well as an Evade with Comm Relay) so the Expose action can potentially get them a lot of damage.

Youngster, Expose 19

Omega Squadron Pilot, PTL 20 x4 = 20