Fantasy flight has repeatedly tried to give the competitive meta a good balancing. This year, obviously, they have succeeded if we look at worlds. For the first time in a long period, we have a really good mixture of lists in the top 8, 16 and even 32 of worlds.

After the nerfing of large ships via MoV, the balancing or should i say disappearing of PWTs via Autothrusters and the introduction of TLT, the shield recharging Rebel ships have become a real force on the table...

Corran Horn especially has been around in the meta for a pretty long time. But he seems more powerful than ever before.

I think with Wampa and Chaser we will get very useful new imperial toys. Wampa seems specially designed to counter shield recharging ships, especially Corran.

Wampa can kill Corran in 2 shots, regardless of distance, defensive actions or shield status, and unless corran took Hull upgrade, the loadout does not even matter. Sensor jammer included.

Okay it is very unreliable, but the sheer fact that a 14 point ship can kill a 50 point ship in 2 shots if it gets lucky has to be a game changer in the way Corran is played. Either you avoid Wampa or you need to kill him as a priority. Which gives free hand to other imperial ships.

Now i have said tgat Youngster is not that useful at the moment, but with marksmanship, he can pretty much guarantee a dead Corran in 2 turns. So that might be worth it. Also the two combined still cost a ton less than Corran alone.

The other combo is with Palpmobile for obvious reasons. In that case you just need to get the shots, somehow and its a guaranteed dead E-Wing!

You can also kill A-Wings pretty well like that or anyother low hull high shield ship. If it has good agility, even better because it l's useless in that case.

So is it just a coincidence? I would not think so. FFG seems to get quicker and quicker with their balancing adjustments and this is probably an example for this fact.

They thought things were FINE in wave5. =D *giddy snicker.

I'm sure if Corran players really want the insurance against Wampa, they will take a Hull Upgrade but why bother when you can EU Corran and arc dodge or get into double tap murder range? And you even addressed the fact that Wampa relies heavily on synergy with other combo pieces for consistency and/or luck. Corran also has a way higher PS and his offensive power can toast things before they become a threat in the coming turns.

Wampa is a cool trick, but I doubt that he'll be the Corran-bane of this meta.

It's not going to have much impact, if any on how much Corran is used. It either relies on luck, or expensive synergy and any half competitive list with a good pilot should be able to kill a single TIE fighter in one round.

On the other hand I've run Hull Upgrade on my Corran for months already so it doesn't affect me.

I really like how potentially dangerous and menacing Wampa has been designed.

You could just throw him in instead of an Academy ... hes only 2 points and you don't want to have your hull 2 ships in Wampas arc.

Expensive synergy? Yeah but if all your combo pieces are still cheaper than Corran alone it's not that bad.

I actually hardly ever saw anyone playing Hull upgrade on him either.

And arc dodging is easily possible, but at range 3 it's not really an option. If you change the way Corran is used or flown already have accomplished something too.

I really like how potentially dangerous and menacing Wampa has been designed.

You could just throw him in instead of an Academy ... hes only 2 points and you don't want to have your hull 2 ships in Wampas arc.

That's exactly the point. He is cheap but you can't ignore him, or he might just ruin your whole gameplan.

He is also a great combo with Scourge as you might notice.

Expensive synergy? Yeah but if all your combo pieces are still cheaper than Corran alone it's not that bad.

I actually hardly ever saw anyone playing Hull upgrade on him either.

And arc dodging is easily possible, but at range 3 it's not really an option. If you change the way Corran is used or flown already have accomplished something too.

Wampa + palp for guaranteed crit = 43 points --> about the same as Corran depending on build

Wampa + youngster with marksmanship = 32 points --> cheaper than Corran but only 3/8 chance per dice of getting a crit, ie not guaranteed

Still dies like a TIE fighter.

Fair point on Hull Upgrade, it wasn't too common but absolutely worked for me.

Yes he can achieve stuff by changing the way the opponent flies.

I'm not saying Wampa is a bad ship, just not game breaking or going to effect Corran in the meta. Wampa seems to be well designed and balanced and I look forward to flying him/her.

Yes fair enough. It's far from a guaranteed victory, but he is a big threat to ships with 2 hull with potential for huge value for 14 points.

He is most certainly not game breaking, thats not what i said, i am not so sure if he is not affecting Corran in the meta.

Corran is for example a ship that shuts down swarms very hard as he will arc dodge them and is pretty much unkillable for 2 attack ships.. But now it has a pretty good option against him, or even against Phantoms for that matter. Soontir also becomes hittable which is not bad either. He has no shields but a stealth device would get popped and at 2 HP maybe the rest of the squad can finish him off more easily.

Swamprunner Swarm

"Wampa" (14)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Squad Leader (2)

"Youngster" (15)

Marksmanship (3)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Idk, looks pretty **** legit as a swarm to me... It might be better to replace Squad leader with swarm tactics or Juke on Howlrunner.

I don't think Corran is set to arc dodge that hard, his dial doesn't quite make that possible.

I like that list above, but I would definitly use Swarm Tactics on Howl. Usually I don't think it is worth it, but here you can gain quite a lot by having Wampa shoot early. Just imagine a Stealth Device being shut down on the first shot of the game, that is going to bolster the attack of the remaining swarm quite a bit! As long as Howlrunner is up the Academy Pilots can also use Marksmanship pretty nicely, since they won't need defense.

I really like how potentially dangerous and menacing Wampa has been designed.

You could just throw him in instead of an Academy ... hes only 2 points and you don't want to have your hull 2 ships in Wampas arc.

That's exactly the point. He is cheap but you can't ignore him, or he might just ruin your whole gameplan.

He is also a great combo with Scourge as you might notice.

Of course.

Wampa & Scourge+ST

as well as

Chaser & Night Beast+MKII

Just imagine a Stealth Device being shut down on the first shot of the game, that is going to bolster the attack of the remaining swarm quite a bit!

Sadly not. You've cancelled all Wampa's dice results, so the attack counts as having missed despite you taking damage. It's not an 'if the attack hits' ability, nor does it say you count as being hit by the attack.

It's in the same category as hitting someone with a seismic charge, or the splash damage from an assault missile or ruthlessness - you take damage, but it doesn't actually count as a hit, so stealth devices stay working.

Bummer. But still a neat ability!

::cough:: Maarek Stele with AHM ::cough::

Isn't Adv. Homing missile a better anti corran? I feel it's somewhat less of a gamble than the crit. wampa... Wampa is one of those that i'd just add, and if he scores it it's nice, but if not he's still there blamming away.

I think it's less a counter than it is a tool to make low HP, difficult to hit ships sweat a little bit. It's 14 points, so it won't be anazing, but in turn it's 14 points that can't really be ignored by certain ships.

Interesting side note, it's the third spoiled ship of the coming batch that ignores Autothrusters.

"Wampa" is a -soft- counter, if at all, I think.

yeah, in theory it is dangerous to corran, but in practice not really, as he ist faster gone than a wookie on "clipping day".

but it is a very nice mechanic, which I hope we see here and there to at least -soft counter- the regenodroids (unique, 1-2 per faction would be fine).

the "problem" is not corran, or r2d2, but the combo of those two. corran without or r2d2 somewhere else is not such a fuss.

but in combination, it is "a problem", as that leads to a "game-on-rails".. so, nice that something is done about it.

mostly though, it is there to give a 2dice ship a better chance to get through lots of tokens+green-dice; and simply because of that wampa may be a popular pilot in the future. I know I will field him

The "problem" with Wampa as a counter to Corran is that he's unreliable and easy to kill. If he's coupled with Youngster w/ Marksmanship, then he has a 61% of doing a face down damage, but is left without any defensive tokens. Which means that a Corran who can now be offensive against him can take 2 shots 3v3 (assuming Range 2), both with a modifier (assume F on the first shot, and TL on the second). Each one of those will do on average 1.22 damage, for 2.44 damage overall. Which is basically a dead TIE. So now you have a damage card on Corran, but he's still at full shields, and no way to put a second damage card through and kill him off.

That said, he's still a threat. Any list with a 2 hull ship is going to have to pay close attention to Wampa, which means that your cheap ship can easily become primary target #1, distracting from a better overall ship. But you can also augment his ability with AHM or PB... or dare I say it - Saboteur.

I think people will try Wampa, realize that he's ability is hard to proc, and he'll get thrown into the back of the book. Not only that, if your opponent is running Corran or a Whisper, he'll by first Tie to explode more often than not.

Anti-Shield tech has come a long way since Proton Bombs (which are still a good option, honestly).

Wampa's a unique case, though, as he's also a counter to Fel and company; those blokes who are almost impossible to hit.

He doesn't care if his dice would be canceled otherwise. He'll do it himself thrice, and your 35 point game-winner's dead.

If you can get Soontir in arc 3 times with the PS 4 Wampa, your opponent deserves to lose Soontir.

I think people will try Wampa, realize that he's ability is hard to proc, and he'll get thrown into the back of the book. Not only that, if your opponent is running Corran or a Whisper, he'll by first Tie to explode more often than not.

In which case Howlrunner lives, which I would consider a win. The trick is to run him next to more appealing targets.

I think people will try Wampa, realize that he's ability is hard to proc, and he'll get thrown into the back of the book. Not only that, if your opponent is running Corran or a Whisper, he'll by first Tie to explode more often than not.

Odds of him rolling a [KABLAM] naturally are appx 23.5%.

For two points more, you can go with a Target Lock, improving the odds to appx 41.4% (if you re-roll [booms]).

Whether you want to take that 2/5 chance of all-or-nothing is up to you vs a regenerator.

Whether you want to take that 2/5 chance of all-or-nothing is fairly obvious vs a 4 agility Ace.

16 points with a targeting computer... dammit Ninja'ed.