When we saw the explosion of Soontier Fel, why did we not see the rise of Tycho's A-Wing with the same upgrades? To my inexperienced eyes, it seems to me like Tycho would be better than Soontier.

What am I missing?

When we saw the explosion of Soontier Fel, why did we not see the rise of Tycho's A-Wing with the same upgrades? To my inexperienced eyes, it seems to me like Tycho would be better than Soontier.

What am I missing?

3 attack dice > 2.

1 red die

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

2 dice is just lame.

Edit: for an ace

Tycho isn't really the best comparison; Jake with VI & PTL is - they're both PS9, boost, barrel roll, and a Focus token each round (Albeit under slightly different triggers, the capability is there so we'll call it close enough).

So then why is Soontir more popular than Jake? Simply put, Jake is more defensive with those two shields and a spare hitpoint overall, while Soontir has the firepower in an extra red die.

For a mobile, moves-last arc dodging ship that primarily wants to stay alive by not being shot at, it turns out the extra red die is more valuable than the extra hitpoint.

Jake can make up many of his sins with Proton Rockets, of course, and is cheaper in general. This is called balance, but it seems that when buying an ace, people aren't usually too worried about cost... so Soontir it is.

2 dice is just lame.

Edit: for an ace

nah, it's kinda **** in general because it's so impossible to get through lucky green dice

this is why Crackshot is so awesome, it completely negates the Tie Fighter's incredibly noodle-armed offense by letting it punch crucial damage through high agility targets

soon, Juke will perform the same role for the FOs

A-wings can double up on PTL and either, but it will drop poor Jake to PS 7 He still has that procket of his, though

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal.

It's a huge thing actually. The reason why Ties and Z's work is because they're so cheap.

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

Play the game some more. You'll start to see just what a difference the jump from 2 red to 3 red makes.

to be a bit more concrete, let's take a simplistic hypothetical to illustrate the difference one potential damage can make

an Aggressor that takes 1 damage per turn will die in 8 turns

an Aggressor that takes 0 damage per turn will never die

due to the way stats are distributed in this game (Re attack v defense dice), the difference of 1 is deceptively massive

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

2 dice is fine for a ship that usually costs around 12-15 points, but for one that's 30+ points? That's generally not a great investment.

Extra attack dice are huge in this game- just look at the costs and penalties associated with all the EPTs that let you roll an extra attack die. And remember the more attack dice you add the more better they get, if that makes sense. Let me see if I can explain. Each attack die has such and such a chance of rolling a hit, but then they also have a chance of being blocked by an evade of the defense dice. For each additional attack die you add the chance that that die's hit will be evaded decreases and the hit will go through.

So yes, the difference between 2 and 3 dice is a big one. And at range one, it's even a bigger difference going from 3D to 4D.

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

Play the game some more. You'll start to see just what a difference the jump from 2 red to 3 red makes.

I plan on getting an A-Wing soon anyway just for PTL and the cluster missiles, so I'll find out shortly.

/Agree with pretty much everything said here. A-wings a fun, but their Tycho and Jake lack firepower. I've had several matches where it ends up my Jake vs. whatever double token ship the enemy has, and he just can't punch through, even with lucky rolls, where an interceptor would be able to.

Now the generics on the other hand, are cheap enough it's ok. The Prototypes are awesome blockers at PS1 with that great dial and boost. And the Green squads can take 2 Elite upgrades, and they can afford to bring crackshot or something else to help their firepower.

And as mentioned, Proton rockets kinda work, they are one of the few good ordnance upgrades in the game, and they're really only good on A-wings (they also effectively cost +2 points on A-wings, since you can't take Charaadan refit).

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

Play the game some more. You'll start to see just what a difference the jump from 2 red to 3 red makes.

I plan on getting an A-Wing soon anyway just for PTL and the cluster missiles, so I'll find out shortly.

Don't get me wrong, the a-wing is great! I have 3 (and plan for a fourth). But its not as punchy as an interceptor. Here are some fun a-wing builds I've used:

Psycho Tycho: push the limit, test pilot title, daredevil, and experimental interface (missile recommended since this is not a cheap build, but chardaan can work too).

Jake, the ace killer: push the limit, test pilot, veteran instincts, autothrusters & proton rockets = 33 (take a healthy initiative bid and he will kill Soontir Fel with those proton rockets)

Punchy Green: push the limit, test pilot title, predator, chardaan refit & autothrusters = 25 (not great damage, but consistent, especially at range 1, but beware return fire!)

Flanker Green: push the limit, test pilot title, outmanoeuvre, chardaan refit & autothrusters = 25 (great for tailing large bases and dealing solid damage turn after turn)

Humble Proto: chardaan refit (autothrusters optional) = 15 (or 17). Great blocker.

I think another telling example of what attack dice are worth is Opportunist: a 4-point upgrade that let's you roll an extra die, but only if the opponent has no tokens. 4 points AND a restriction? That one die must be huge!

As an aside, I think Green Sq. Pilots with Predator and Opportunist could be loads of fun, but I haven't tried it yet. A-wings are really good at shedding stress. But maybe the above Outmaneuver build by blade_mercurial is a better investment, especially in this stress meta.

I flew Psycho Tycho to top 16 at gencon, with my only losses (twice) coming against the same guy that was basically a hard counter to my list. Tycho doesn't like two things - Turrets and PS9+. This guy was flying Han + Jake, vastly negating all of Tycho's worth.

Sadly, due to being PS8, he doesn't work in today's meta. He spends too many points on PS just to be outbid more often than not. If/when middling PS becomes a thing again, Tycho can dominate. Playing him though is unlike any other ship, and therefore takes dedication to get good with him, which is something that most players probably don't want to spend the time on.

The 2 attack stat isn't that big of a deal because if Tycho isn't at R1, you're not playing him right.

When we saw the explosion of Soontier Fel, why did we not see the rise of Tycho's A-Wing with the same upgrades? To my inexperienced eyes, it seems to me like Tycho would be better than Soontier.

What am I missing?

With the ability to get in close with a 4 dice attack, he also packs a punch that Awings don't match.

Jake being 7 points less foregoing prockets is his main appeal.

When we saw the explosion of Soontier Fel, why did we not see the rise of Tycho's A-Wing with the same upgrades? To my inexperienced eyes, it seems to me like Tycho would be better than Soontier.

What am I missing?

4 evades, autothruster, free focus, 3 attacks... boost+barel roll

One attack dice doesn't seem like that big of deal. The tie fighter, tie/fo, and Z-95 also only have two attack dice and I've done well with them.

Think of it as the Interceptor hitting 150% as hard as the A-Wing. Interceptors also have barrel rolls, which is huge.

Soontir also effectively gets three actions because of the free focus token, which puts him ahead of Tycho by one action per round assuming that both pilots are able to perform actions every round. Tycho can climb to those heights with Expert Handling, Experimental Interface, and Push the Limit but at that point he costs more than Fel with PTL does and his actions are a bit clunkier since Interface can only ever give him Barrel Rolls. It usually isn't too big a deal but Soontir has the option of two focus and one evade, or boost-roll-focus, and so on. Soontir hits harder, has more versatility, and can take Stealth Device and/or Autothrusters if he doesn't want to stay cheap.

Then again, Tycho literally covering his pilot card and upgrades in a mountain of stress tokens is hilarious and the fun value is definitely there with Psycho Tycho. He isn't as good as Soontir, but he's about as much fun to play.

When we saw the explosion of Soontier Fel, why did we not see the rise of Tycho's A-Wing with the same upgrades? To my inexperienced eyes, it seems to me like Tycho would be better than Soontier.

What am I missing?

Maybe that Empire cannot field turrets, had only one (until now) small base overcosted cannon carrier. Vader severely hampered until title came. Otherwise many 2dice att ships.

So want to pack some punch? Not that many options left....entry Soontir Fel.