So do you guys think the new Imperial Veterans buff to defenders is going to bring fat ships back into the meta? The triple Defender list is going to be good and that combined with Palp and two aces is going to scare away the TLT lists.

If Beam Defenders are going to be a thing, and I think they will be, then things like the Decimator and Ghost are going to be very tempting with their 0 agility. Fat Han might be afraid of the tractor tokens though...

Deci and Ghost certainly might, but Deci is pretty heavy in at least my local meta anyway, and Ghost is going to be the new hotness like wow as soon as it drops, so I'm not sure Imp Vets is going to do this so much as Ghost is going to.

And yeah, big ships that aren't already at 0 agi hate tractor tokens IME from trying them out since the card was first spoiled. Losing half your green dice is painful, losing all of them is crippling.

The Ghost is high on my priority list.

Might be a good time to dust off SableGryphon's ORS Blocker. Agility is inconsequential if you can't shoot at it anyway.

I think it's more likely we'll see more combo lists. Quad TLTs and triple K-Wings will pretty much auto-lose to a couple of TIE/Ds with Tractor Breams., but in return they'll hit pretty hard against any low agility large ship. In that sort of meta it's probably safer to run, say, Bossk/Han/Dash with a couple of generic TLT carriers as wingmates than either twin aces or quad TLTs. Soontir Fel and Chiraneu will most likely walk all over a triple Defender list, so I doubt those will be all that common either.

If fatties return we just have the techs replace beam emitters with ion cannons and escort them off the board.

Don't forget the other part of Imperial Veterans: Tie Bombers. With Guidance Chip and LRS, I think we will see ordnance in the meta. If you start to see fat turrets become a thing, you will definitely see alpha strike meta become prominent. Nothing like taking out a fat turret in a turn or two with about 4 or so Homing Missiles.

The Decimator is fewer than it was, but hasn't left the meta in my area the way the Falcon has. If Tractor Beam becomes popular, then large ships will become more attractive.

Don't forget the other part of Imperial Veterans: Tie Bombers. With Guidance Chip and LRS, I think we will see ordnance in the meta. If you start to see fat turrets become a thing, you will definitely see alpha strike meta become prominent. Nothing like taking out a fat turret in a turn or two with about 4 or so Homing Missiles.

The Bomber Shuttle I think is going to be the surprise of this. A lot of people seem to have sort of discounted it for basically being a worse (i.e. unable to take Palp or Gunner) Lambda, but for less-expensive support crew its very, very good. 19 points for a Scimitar with a Fleet Officer gives you more than enough room to tool two aces up to the gills and feed them each an extra focus every round, where the extra 5 points for the Lambda eats into the ace space and its wildly worse manoeuvrability really hurts the concept in play.

From experience.

E: also, Tomax Bren is going to be a terror.

Don't forget the other part of Imperial Veterans: Tie Bombers. With Guidance Chip and LRS, I think we will see ordnance in the meta. If you start to see fat turrets become a thing, you will definitely see alpha strike meta become prominent. Nothing like taking out a fat turret in a turn or two with about 4 or so Homing Missiles.

The Bomber Shuttle I think is going to be the surprise of this. A lot of people seem to have sort of discounted it for basically being a worse (i.e. unable to take Palp or Gunner) Lambda, but for less-expensive support crew its very, very good. 19 points for a Scimitar with a Fleet Officer gives you more than enough room to tool two aces up to the gills and feed them each an extra focus every round, where the extra 5 points for the Lambda eats into the ace space and its wildly worse manoeuvrability really hurts the concept in play.

From experience.

E: also, Tomax Bren is going to be a terror.

I agree that the Bomber Shuttle is good and will get some use. I also agree that Tomax Bren will be used often enough.

I do think that ordnance will be considered useful with either Guidance Chip or LRS and possibly Extra Munitions. Yes, some people will say it still isn't good, but others will try it and it will be worth it. I think some people might be surprised by that.

Might be a good time to dust off SableGryphon's ORS Blocker. Agility is inconsequential if you can't shoot at it anyway.

On Monday night X-Wing this week, there was a guy who worked a Wild Space Fringer as a blocker REALLY well.

Don't forget the other part of Imperial Veterans: Tie Bombers. With Guidance Chip and LRS, I think we will see ordnance in the meta. If you start to see fat turrets become a thing, you will definitely see alpha strike meta become prominent. Nothing like taking out a fat turret in a turn or two with about 4 or so Homing Missiles.

The Bomber Shuttle I think is going to be the surprise of this. A lot of people seem to have sort of discounted it for basically being a worse (i.e. unable to take Palp or Gunner) Lambda, but for less-expensive support crew its very, very good. 19 points for a Scimitar with a Fleet Officer gives you more than enough room to tool two aces up to the gills and feed them each an extra focus every round, where the extra 5 points for the Lambda eats into the ace space and its wildly worse manoeuvrability really hurts the concept in play.

From experience.

E: also, Tomax Bren is going to be a terror.

I agree that the Bomber Shuttle is good and will get some use. I also agree that Tomax Bren will be used often enough.

I do think that ordnance will be considered useful with either Guidance Chip or LRS and possibly Extra Munitions. Yes, some people will say it still isn't good, but others will try it and it will be worth it. I think some people might be surprised by that.

I think the Chimps are all the fix ordnance really needed at the moment (and Tractors are helpful too) but LRS is certainly going to help the low-PS bomber alpha strike.

I just think Chips have longer-term utility.

Prediction: The Ghost will never be as dominant as Han was. Decimators might see a slight surge, but they can now be countered quite well. Brobots might take a hit, they have been on top of the food chain for quite a while now.

I'm not convinced that going all Tractor Beams is the right way to go with Defenders. Ion Cannons are really great with the /D title as well.

I think the Chimps are all the fix ordnance really needed at the moment (and Tractors are helpful too) but LRS is certainly going to help the low-PS bomber alpha strike.

I just think Chips have longer-term utility.

It depends what ordnance you are running. Any ordnance that doesn't require you to spend the TL on it, LRS is superior if you can run it. Having TL + Focus is better than changing 1 blank to a hit. At worse you can use the focus for defense.

I'm not convinced that going all Tractor Beams is the right way to go with Defenders. Ion Cannons are really great with the /D title as well.

On VI Vessery or Brath Tractor Beam will be a lot more useful as the anybody PS 8 or lower can benefit from the agility debuff. Generics will still prefer the Ion Cannon. There isn't much point to running a Delta with TB unless the rest of your squad is all PS 1.

Might be a good time to dust off SableGryphon's ORS Blocker. Agility is inconsequential if you can't shoot at it anyway.

On Monday night X-Wing this week, there was a guy who worked a Wild Space Fringer as a blocker REALLY well.

My personal fave is Vrill with Lasers and Agent. Look at Fel's dial, barrel roll right in his face, smack him with the Lasers and shoot at that stressed ship over there.

Might be a good time to dust off SableGryphon's ORS Blocker. Agility is inconsequential if you can't shoot at it anyway.

I'm not convinced that going all Tractor Beams is the right way to go with Defenders. Ion Cannons are really great with the /D title as well.

I agree. I'm betting the lists that take off use a combination of one Tractor and 1 or more Ions.

I think the Chimps are all the fix ordnance really needed at the moment (and Tractors are helpful too) but LRS is certainly going to help the low-PS bomber alpha strike.

I just think Chips have longer-term utility.

It depends what ordnance you are running. Any ordnance that doesn't require you to spend the TL on it, LRS is superior if you can run it. Having TL + Focus is better than changing 1 blank to a hit. At worse you can use the focus for defense.

I'm not convinced that going all Tractor Beams is the right way to go with Defenders. Ion Cannons are really great with the /D title as well.

On VI Vessery or Brath Tractor Beam will be a lot more useful as the anybody PS 8 or lower can benefit from the agility debuff. Generics will still prefer the Ion Cannon. There isn't much point to running a Delta with TB unless the rest of your squad is all PS 1.

I think LRS is good for low PS ships, but Guidance is better for higher PS ships. Both are good and both have uses. I think Guidance will get used more often purely because it's possible to load it on more ships. Missile Z's become a thing with it.

I also agree that all Tractor Beams are NOT the way to go. You should do an Ion and a Tractor and that's probably enough.

I think if the ps3 jumpmaster is the right price it could be an amazing blocker against aces and a great piece against tlts with that ps3.

There's also the issue of defenders shredding large base ships even before they get a buff. After Corran they're the next best option for hunting Falcons and Decimators.

There's also the issue of defenders shredding large base ships even before they get a buff. After Corran they're the next best option for hunting Falcons and Decimators.

Single ship, sure, but I'd rather have 4 Tie Bombers with LRS and Homing Missiles to take down a fat turret.

I think if the ps3 jumpmaster is the right price it could be an amazing blocker against aces and a great piece against tlts with that ps3.

A mere blocker ?

No sir

Jumpy is a torp boat with deadeye + r4 + chips

You set up those large wide arcs at range 3 and fling 8 hits at vessery. Good luck surviving that when even two evades v plasmas rip off all his shields

Against soontir, though, you might want an int agent

There's also the issue of defenders shredding large base ships even before they get a buff. After Corran they're the next best option for hunting Falcons and Decimators.

Single ship, sure, but I'd rather have 4 Tie Bombers with LRS and Homing Missiles to take down a fat turret.

Alpha Strike also works against shield regenerating Rebels, too.

Still, I do want to run Dengar really bad. I never liked fat turrets before, but I want to run him.