Well the tractor beam you could think of it as a debuff but it is a debuff that takes the place of an attack and like an attack it could be evaded. If you get the token will it goes away at the end of the round. So if you take a look the tractor beam doesn't have a whole lot going for it. The only thing really is range 1-3 and it is cheap (1 point) but you wouldn't want to sacrifice a 3 dice attack for a 3 dice no damage attack.

So how to make it work, well as a debuff it only works if you have friends. So this concept I came up with is the pathfinder & pack, although pathfinder is not an appropriate term as it is more of a spotter really.But the list goes as such you take a high pilot skill ship with some good dice modification ability or upgrades (such as IG-88 B) and give it the tractor beam. Then you take a pack of 5 cheap 2 firepower ships (the more the better) such as academy pilots or Bynree Pirates and put them on the table. The pathfinder marks a target with a tractor beam token and all of a sudden a ship that normally could survive an onslaught of 2 dice attacks is now vulnerable. Or hit a YT-1300 or B-wing and shut down any chance of negating damage for a faster kill.

Downside is that the pathfinder is sort of the lynchpin and will have to expose themselves to mark targets. You can count on that being the first to go and then make efforts to mop up the pack. The best is to hopefully do enough damage and take out enough ships that the numerical superiority of the pack is enough to win the day.

Vessery with /D title flying with /fo miniswarm is gonna be rough. The Defender title means it's not giving up that 3 attack primary.

Vessery with /D title flying with /fo miniswarm is gonna be rough. The Defender title means. It giving up that 3 attack primary.

with the tie/D title you make the tractor beam shot, then shoot with the primary.

Having three TIE Defenders with Tractor Beams seems like a solid deal. Even if you're not downgrading their agility, stripping tokens is a welcome bonus.

Didn't we initially hear the same kind of things about TLT?

I think before you decide that it's broken, you see how it works with all the new stuff coming out.

It seems it will work best with the /D title on a fighter that has Outmaneuver, to help get you to land that first Tractor Beam shot to begin with. (Then you are taking your primary shot at -2 agility...one for the tractor beam and one for Outmaneuver...which SHOULD be enough of a boost to make it a highly damaging shot in a lot of cases. And noting, too, that while the Tractor Beam does no damage...it does "hit" the target, which is sufficient to pop a stealth device. So maybe that follow-up primary shot is at -3 agility from where you would otherwise have started...)

Of course, that's just based on what we know of the card. We still haven't seen half of it, so...there may be more to it that makes it a bit more effective. Not that I'm really expecting that to be the case, though. It feels like - from just what we know - that 1 pt would be a fair price for it, and it costs 1 pt, so...

As i see it you have two ways to go at this...

The Tie/D title making you not waste your Primary:

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
Tractor Beam (1)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
Ion Cannon (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
Ion Cannon (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)

Total: 100

This can totally put the hurt on anything, especially pesky Falcons that won't have C-3PO at their disposal with 0 Agility (sorry). The damage potential is 3+4+4 at ranges 2 and 3 with potentially -1 agility and 2 ion tokens on a target.

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Or you do it like Marine Suggests, somewhat like this with cheap ships firing after the "pathfinder"

Binayre Pirate (12)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)

Binayre Pirate (12)
Assault Missiles (5)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Cartel Spacer (14)
Tractor Beam (1)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Cartel Spacer (14)
Tractor Beam (1)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

This squad even has one more Pathfinder in Form of the Tracer Z-95 and an executioner with the Assault missiles. They mutually buff themselves sort of...

It's made for TIE/D Defenders. Just one in a list is like your entire squad gets a situational Outmanuever upgrade. TIE/D plus mini swarm could be potentially terrifying.

By way of example...

Rexler Brath - TIE/D, Lone Wolf, Tractor Beam

Academy Pilot x 5

Brath shoots at Dash Rendar with the Tractor Beam. Hits. Reduces Dash's agility by one.

Brath shoots again with his primary weapon, against Dash's reduced agility.

ALL FIVE ACADEMY TIES attack Dash, also against his reduced agility.

In this instance, the Tractor Beam may not have caused any direct damage itself, but it has potentially contributed towards up to six points of damage on Dash, due to reducing his agility against six separate attacks.

Now you tell me - is that worth one point?

But I think we also need to wait and see what the Mist Hunter brings to the table - since it was first announced with the G1-A Starfighter, I'm assuming that expansion will have a couple of potentially nifty combinations as well.

I think the tricky thing is that when you're giving up your attack for something that may very well miss the things you most want to hit with it(ships with a lot of modified green dice), it's tough to stomach, particularly with the need for it to shoot first.

I don't think it's unviable, but it's more limited than one might think. It's worth a point, though. That seems about right.

A tractor beam might be really interesting to put on Laetin Asheara. It makes him a priority target, but his ability can turn him into a total pain in the butt to kill. You also don't lose out on an important primary attack the way you would if you put a tractor beam on an IG88. Paired with a good swarm of more efficient ships, like Binayre pirates, he might be useful despite the inherent inefficiency of the Scyk.

If and when we get a Scyk fix, I fully expect this combo to see some table time.

Didn't we initially hear the same kind of things about TLT?

I think before you decide that it's broken, you see how it works with all the new stuff coming out.

TLT was already decided to be good before it was out. Anyone that said TLT would not be good is eating their own words. Still I don't understand how anyone would have thought that TLT would not make top meta.

Now this is not premature because when tractor beam first came out we did not know anything about tractor beam tokens and how they work. Well we do now, they reduce the agility by 1 and are discarded in the end phase. The fact that it is a 0 damage attack is something that makes it not too effective in the meta. Tractor beam alone will never work, that's why you need at least the title. But it works better with more ships firing at the defender after a tractor beam token is placed on them.

Is it bad? Well I don't think I would throw it in with the proton torpedoes and concussion missiles yet but this is not good by itself. Putting this on a Blue Squadron or OGP is worthless unless the rest of your list is 2 pilot skill or less. Plus any tractor beam attack from that list is already a 3 damage attack that is negated as tractor beams do 0 damage.

Is there a way to make this work well that is what the second part of my post is. But yeah it is not looking to hot.

Hey look i found another one. It's called:

MAD (Mutually Assisted Destruction)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Tractor Beam (1)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)

The Inquisitor (25)
Juke (2)
XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)
Autothrusters (2)
TIE/v1 (1)

Commander Alozen (25)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
TIE/x1 (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

If Alozen gets to R1, Vessery gets free TLS like candy.

If the Tracers hit or the inquisitor just TLS for good Juking, same thing.

If Vessery hits the Tractor beam because of this or before this, it's going to hurt when the others fire.

I don't think you can really judge this until we know the full card text. Only half the card is even visible at the moment.

It's made for TIE/D Defenders. Just one in a list is like your entire squad gets a situational Outmanuever upgrade. TIE/D plus mini swarm could be potentially terrifying.

But I think we also need to wait and see what the Mist Hunter brings to the table - since it was first announced with the G1-A Starfighter, I'm assuming that expansion will have a couple of potentially nifty combinations as well.

Zuckuss can throw 4 dice with it which should help land shots. He's got an EPT, Crew, System, and Illicit Slot to give him all sorts of option to make sure that he is modifying his attacks dice. He can take Crackshot, Juke, or Outmaneuver to help mitigate the extra defense die he grants. K4 or FCS will make sure that he's got a TL to modify his shots. VI lets him hit PS 9 if you need him to shoot before other aces. You'll probably end up spending 35-40 points on him to maximize his chances to land a tractor beam hit.

The big problem with anything that's not a Defender is that if you are spending many points on them, you are giving up a lot of damage potential to use the tractor beam instead. That same 36 point Zuckuss would be hammering ships with a 5 dice range one primary attack.

Who said it isn't good?

Bloody Daggers 2.0

2 x Dagger, Tractor Beam

2 x Red Squadron, R2, IA

Turn your X-Wings into miniWedges.

It'll be extremely effective on title defenders or any future ship with a cannon slot and only two attack dice that is cheap.

I think Ion Cannon/Turret usage has dropped off so much that people are forgetting just how easy it is to get a single uncancelled result onto a ship.

And it's 1pt. For ships with cannon slots that don't always take one (B-Wings come to mind), it's absolutely not a bad use of the points even if you don't run 100% duty cycle.

Reminder that you can field a blocker, prevent all of Soontir's actions, and put the hurt on 451°.

Doesn't the Mist Hunter have a rule card about double cannons? Firing off two tractor beams maybe?

Can we wait for the full rules card before we declare whether or not an upgrade is DOA?

I don't think you can really judge this until we know the full card text. Only half the card is even visible at the moment.

The card is visible it is just what does the tractor beam tokens do. Still judging on the card it is a 3 firepower cannon that does little or in this case no damage and historically they have never been that good with the only exception being the ion cannon.

Now sure the tractor beam token supplement card is only half visible but critical information is revealed such as what is done at each of the phases. In the combat phase it reduces the agility by 1 to a minimum of 0 and end all tokens are discarded. The only thing that could be hidden is probably clarification on what multiple tokens do or maybe how large ships are affected such as requiring two tokens which all disappear at the end phase.

Sure we don't know everything but there is more than enough to get a good picture of what is happening. I think this is going to be more of a niche card instead of a top strategy. It could be used as a whale harpoon killing B-wings and YT-1300 but not too well on Decimators or the upcoming VCX Ghost for obvious reasons.

Every build I think of Tractor Beam in, I think Ion Cannon is just worlds scarier if you have the points. The hard part of killing ships with swarms is getting them all in arc. Ion Cannon is the medicine.

Every build I think of Tractor Beam in, I think Ion Cannon is just worlds scarier if you have the points. The hard part of killing ships with swarms is getting them all in arc. Ion Cannon is the medicine.

The effect with an ion cannon is delayed, though; and not cumulative. Tractor beam is instantly effective and cumulative (which is probably only ever going to matter in multiple defender builds). Both are good swarm force multipliers, but I think these differences are significant enough to really distinguish the two.

Didn't we initially hear the same kind of things about TLT?

I think before you decide that it's broken, you see how it works with all the new stuff coming out.

TLT was already decided to be good before it was out. Anyone that said TLT would not be good is eating their own words. Still I don't understand how anyone would have thought that TLT would not make top meta.

Now this is not premature because when tractor beam first came out we did not know anything about tractor beam tokens and how they work. Well we do now, they reduce the agility by 1 and are discarded in the end phase. The fact that it is a 0 damage attack is something that makes it not too effective in the meta. Tractor beam alone will never work, that's why you need at least the title. But it works better with more ships firing at the defender after a tractor beam token is placed on them.

Is it bad? Well I don't think I would throw it in with the proton torpedoes and concussion missiles yet but this is not good by itself. Putting this on a Blue Squadron or OGP is worthless unless the rest of your list is 2 pilot skill or less. Plus any tractor beam attack from that list is already a 3 damage attack that is negated as tractor beams do 0 damage.

Is there a way to make this work well that is what the second part of my post is. But yeah it is not looking to hot.

It is true that the tractor beam is essentially a 0 damage attack. However, it can be a great force multiplier. I am not sure if the math will support this, but from a casual glance it would seem that the potential damage the rest of your list will be doing due to the defender's decreased agility would offset any damage lost from the tractor beam carrier.

Tractor Beam + Ruthlessness on Brath + TIE/D

Hit primary target and drop Tractor Beam token on them, splash 1 damage on to secondary target (possibly Focus use to turn Damage card to face up)

Fire primary weapon at primary target that now has 1 less Agility

Possible spend of Focus to turn any newly dealt Damage cards face-up to the Primary target