So, the Preybird got a rather dismissive mention in a recent thread with the implication that nobody wanted to see it in-game. The thread later turned into a bit of a discussion about redundancy, and ships that fill existing niches. I spoke up and mentioned that the Preybird could fill an entirely new niche, and this thread is about demonstrating how that would work.
First things first - how is it different? Well, the main thing that I have always liked about the Preybird is, according to the lore around the ship, it has both fore and aft concussion missile launchers - in other words, it can fire missiles forward at targets and backwards at pursuers. That seems to me like a really interesting ability - somewhat like the Firespray, but restricting that secondary arc to missiles rather than primary weapons. That would probably look something like this:
Obviously, my image editing isn't as good as FFG's and the exact design may have to be slightly different to make it clear and account for the issues around small base secondary arcs, but I think this gets the idea across. Incidentally, the use of the little icon for the secondary arc appears to be going on for the Ghost as well, so it's probably more or less how it'd be done in this case too, just the details of the image would change.
Anyway, the stats. This is what I thought the low PS generic ought to look like:
2 Attack because, despite the size of the fighter, it's offensive output isn't really that great, certainly less than an X Wing. And besides, it ought to be using missiles more often than not.
2 Evade because 1 just felt too low. This thing is beefy, but it's not quite Y-Wing or K Wing beefy, and it will probably need to have a decent number of points on it to make it useful. 1 agility would see it go down too easily.
6 hull. This one I struggled with - it's a lot, no question about it.
1 shield because that seems pretty common for Scum, and any more would have been too much. Again, this isn't a Y wing or a K Wing.
Now, the cost I came up with for all this was 15 points. Even to me, that seems low for this much health; at 15 points, you can put 6 of these naked on the board for a total 42 Hitpoints, behind two agility. However, you can also put 6 naked TIE Bombers on the table (they're only one shield worse off than Preybirds) at a higher PS, and bomber swarms weren't exactly dominating the meta at any point I'm aware of.
The bomber is actually a pretty good comparison - liek the Preybird, the bomber was designed to get most of its offensive punch through its ordnance, and while it it has a slightly less health, and costs about the same (Adjusted for PS), and a slightly weaker dial (see below), it also needed a boost through Imperial Veterans. I'm hoping to avoid that need with the Preybird, hence it being somewhat better than the bomber. Anyway, about that dial:
Pretty basic. No S-Loops or Talon Rolls, no green hards, though I think the green 1 and 2 banks are enough to make it competent as a digfighter, if not worldbeating. It's not really meant to be, and in fact, in most cases, probably wont need to be thanks to its secondary arc. It is important that it be able to clear stress though, since Target Locks are going to matter for an ordnance carrier.
The second level generic is priced very competitively compared to the Cavrilhu Pirate - the three points pay for the PS jump and you essentially get the EPT slot for free. I think it needs to be competitive to make people want to use it given that this is the kind of ship that will rapidly start to cost plenty of points (once you start stacking on ordnance).
Anyway, the named pilots:
Golov is designed to give the Preybird some native reposition ability. It's a somewhat two edged sword - if you have someone in your primary arc who you want to shoot at at range two (good for the majority of missile types) you can use it, but you probably wont want to. However, if you've got someone right behind you (or off to the side behind you) a boost might get them into range two or into your arc, setting up for a nice rear missile shot. While the baility is situational, I think it's also pretty nice.
Shada's ability relies on better flying, but is pretty potent if you get your arcs right. If you manage to get someone inside your rear firing arc and set up for a missile shot, you're going to be taking that shot with target lock and focus every time.
Now, every expansion needs upgrade cards, and this is no exception. The Preybird is a bulky fighter, so it would probably need to be a large blister,like the K Wing or Starviper, so, I'd expect to get a few more cards than typical in the smaller blisters. First off, all of these ordnance abilities are pretty underwhleming without the ordnance fixes FFG have been putting out lately, so that makes the inclusion of Guidance Chips a no brainer:
I'd also want to see some what to get Extra Munitions onto the ship, but without a torpedo slot, that's not going to happen. That doesn't mean we can't get the same effect however:
Raptor and Skyclaw were the two Preybirds used by Mazzic, so they're logical choices for titles, and using them as mirrors for Extra Munitions seemed the way to go. There's another point to consider here however: both titles are unique. So, while they're practically autoinclude for any Preybird build that includes missiles (and missiles are the whole reason the ship exists) that kind of limits you to two full strength Preybirds on the board at any one time. I thought that was interesting.
If Mazzic's fighters are in the game, I though Mazzic also needed to be included:
I like the idea behind this card because it's both applicable to the ship it comes with, but also really powerful in a few other scenarios. The advantages for the Preybird are obvious - any missiles firing out of your secondary arc have the potential to be pretty substantially buffed, but the place I think it would really shine would be on Moralo Eval on the YV-666. Combined with a Mangler cannon you'd get a scenario where you could turn a hit to a crit, turn that crit back to a hit, and then reroll all of your blanks, all without a target lock. If you're firing with a focus token, your odds of getting 3 hits go way, way up.
Then there are some basic existing cards that the ship could come with. Obvious possibilities include Concussion and Homing missiles, a copy of the Gunner crew card (it feels like that secondary arc would need a gunner, after all) and a cop of Glitterstim, because that's just the best Illicit upgrade. How would you use it though? This thing:
This is because I'm uncomfortable with scum ships not having the Illicit slot, but I'm also uncomfortable giving one to this ship because it's right on the edge of being too powerful for its point cost as it is (although I think the various caveats and the need to add ordnance to make full use of it balance that somewhat). Given the quality of some of the modification cards around at the moment (I'm mostly thinking of guidance chips and Autothrusters here) this could almost be a zero point upgrade, but I'm not sure of the effect that might have on some other ships. It would definitely be nice on the Scyk at 0 points, however.
So, what do people think? Would this be enough to make you interested in an obscure little ship from he EU? would the rear firing missiles get used, or, even with the recent fixes, are ordnance based ships still unlikley to see serious play. And is that PS1 too cheap at 15 points? Let me know what you think.
