So whats up with the dorsal turret? Do you see any use for it?

I'm not entirely sure with what setup it's worth it.

best I can imagine is scum mux/palob on the very cheap

can squeeze them in lists you couldn't have before, because blaster is godawful and needs recon + crow to even work properly

dorsal + cloak is still cheaper than TLT

Kavil.

I could see it being useful on Kavil, but on other pilots/ships I'd either go for an Autoblaster for a point less, or find 3 points for TLT. In very specific builds, I think blaster might still be better, specifically, Opportunist Palob.

I like it on Torkil, Palob and Kavil. The former two have abilities that encourage them to get close, and the latter wants a turret that does more than 1 damage when it fires. Nice and cheap too. Doesn't seem like such a bad investment on the Attack Shuttle either, but time will tell if it's better than the Autoblaster.

I think they couldve easily made them 2 points without being op. Its still only out to range 2 and then only 2 dice.

I mean i kinda can imagine them as a alternative for the autoblasters on the ghost to be able to throw 2 hits at RB2 targets with Accuracy Corrector.

I'm probably gonna use it for a backup on Drea once her torps are gone... if I don't like it I'll go back to Autoblaster.

Potential 6 damage on a BTL-A4 Y-Wing. Just saying.

It's half the price of a TLT and double the range of an ABT. Some players will probably like it for adding cheap flexibility, others will see it as an inferior choice. Personally, I like the option of a cheap turret but I will have to playtest it to see if it works well or not.

Going to have to try it out but i think i like it. On an aggressive bombing y-wing you are wanting to get up and in close.

I think HWKS will get use out of them. 22pts for Raork + Dorsel. Or 24pts for Katarn + Dorsel - not too bad to be tossing around focuses.

I think HWKS will get use out of them. 22pts for Raork + Dorsel. Or 24pts for Katarn + Dorsel - not too bad to be tossing around focuses.

I can see it as an alternative for TLT to make the supporters cost less, but whatever the range says HWKs aren't really made for close combat due to their squishiness. Also if you really wanna keep them cheap you cant use their nice crew slot on top of that. Probably it would fit better on the pilots with range 1-2 abilities.

I just played 34p and 35p Kyle in two tournaments with TLT and he was the main Target in most games. I'm not sure this would've changed if it was a RB1-2 Kyle that was a bit cheaper though. Im also not sure that i could make a huge use with the left over points. It probably wouldn't change my list to 4 ships (although it might be possible) and the other ships (Poe + Stresshog) were almost maxed out anyway.

People aren't going to pick it over the tlt often. It seems extremely balanced though. What the blaster turret should have been.

The dorsal turret is a nice way to remake the earlier blunder of the blaster turret, cheap and not to powerful since it's range limitation. It would of course be ok on kavil, like most turrets and also cheap to throw on the attack shuttle.

I do think this is a great adition y-wings, since if you load them up with torps and extra munitions they start to get expensive but they will need some threat once the torps are launched and earlier that was either the expensive ion or the limited range autoblaster.

The dorsal turrets fills this role perfectly but there are two downsides of course.

1. TLT's were wrongly designed with range 2-3 instead of 1-2 and now dominate the turret slot and makes torps even more useless by comparison so why even bother with torps on y-wings (unless you really wanted to)

2. ordnance is still not good enough, we might see a change after guidance ship but we have gotten both the failsafe and extra munitions and yet we don't see much more torps being used.

Short story I really like it, but i doubt it will do much in the wake of the tlt

It'll find it's niche one they fix TLT.

regardless of TLT, this would've been a niche not very good card

auto-blaster vastly outperforms it on the ghost (dat range) and I'd legit take blaster over it on a dedicated platform to get range 2 3-dice shots. 2-dice is just bad, at least not without OL/crackshot, and the only reason this card isn't utter trash is because it's priced well and can be taken on platforms with abilities so powerful that they more than compensate for the turret's lack of punch

regardless of TLT, this would've been a niche not very good card

And

auto-blaster vastly outperforms it on the ghost (dat range) and I'd legit take blaster over it on a dedicated platform to get range 2 3-dice shots. 2-dice is just bad, at least not without OL/crackshot, and the only reason this card isn't utter trash is because it's priced well and can be taken on platforms with abilities so powerful that they more than compensate for the turret's lack of punch

I'd have preferred if they'd actually fixed blaster turrets, but I'll take this even so.

I do like Blaster Turret with HWKs and Manaroo giving a bunch of tokens.

I think it's pretty decent on Kavil.

33 Kavil w/ Deadeye, Dorsal, PlasmaT, R4-agro, Chips.

Not a bad build. You get a decent alpha, and can then get in the scrum to take advantage of dorsal. Is it better than a TLT? Probably not, but we'll never know if we don't try it out.

Or you can just run him dirt cheap.

28 Kavil w/ Crackshot, Dorsal.

Mux/Palob also seem like solid options. Either as a cheap support ship, or a decent heavy hitter.

28 Mux w/ Dorsal, K4, MC.

37 Palob w/ Oppotunist, Dorsal, K4, MC, Engine.

Again I'm not sure it's better than blaster or TLT, but you never know.

Range 2 Turrets aren't even that high of a range on slow platforms. I think for 3 points it couldve easily been range 3 with 2 dice (although that probably would be too much on the ghost because of its system slot), because 2 dice really don't do that much on their own.

Most ppl say 3 points is cheap, but honestly i dont really think so. You always have to look at the platform and what it does as well. Can anyone remember how often you get outranged with a ion-turret Y-wing? Or how often you didn't get the ionization through even though you have 3 dice.

I think its mostly a backup weapon. So yeah if you want a "cheap" HWK pilot ability its an option, but dont expect it to do dmg. For just 3 points more however it does very consistent dmg on everything with 1-2 agility targets instead of almost nothing at all.

Kavil

I think it's pretty decent on Kavil.

33 Kavil w/ Deadeye, Dorsal, PlasmaT, R4-agro, Chips.

Not a bad build. You get a decent alpha, and can then get in the scrum to take advantage of dorsal. Is it better than a TLT? Probably not, but we'll never know if we don't try it out.

Or you can just run him dirt cheap.

28 Kavil w/ Crackshot, Dorsal.

Mux/Palob also seem like solid options. Either as a cheap support ship, or a decent heavy hitter.

28 Mux w/ Dorsal, K4, MC.

37 Palob w/ Oppotunist, Dorsal, K4, MC, Engine.

Again I'm not sure it's better than blaster or TLT, but you never know.

Having flown Opportunist Palob both with Blaster and Dorsal (the latter on Vassal a handful of times), Blaster wins on the build. Having 4 Dice at range 1-2 instead of 4 at R1 and 3 at R2 for the same cost of stress is way better on the former. Not to mention having the third die helps you hit targets that have ways to turtle up and prevent Opportunist from triggering even with Palob stealing a token (Recon Specialist, anyone one with PTL and Focus+Evade, Whisper post-shot, etc).

That being said, Dorsal can make the Opportunist build cheaper, running Palob w/Opportunist, K4, Dorsal for an even 30 points, though you could squeeze an Engine Upgrade in there for the same price as the 34 point (Title/Blaster) Opportunist build, which might alleviate some of the issues by allowing you to close to R1 more frequently. I'll be honest, I haven't put any EUs on HWKs and quite frankly if I'm gonna spend 4 points on a mod slot, I'd rather give it a Shield Upgrade for a tad more durability, but that's neither here nor there. As far as Opportunist Palob is concerned, he's only got one weapon in my book, and that's the Blaster Turret.

Essentially, if you're gonna give Palob a hammer, give him the biggest one you've got.

I'm currently eyeing it up for a super lightweight Torkil Mux. With a Dorsal Turret he's clocking in at 22 points, and given his ability I'm not expecting him to last long...

31 points for Kavil, Dorsal Turret, Predator and an Unhinged Astromech is looking quite tempting as well. I'm giving this list some serious thought.

As someone who still uses Ion > TLT on my stresshog, this will be my new go-to.

For the same points, I get a turret with the same range (1 less dice at range 2 than the Ion) and more damage output. AND I can carry a bomb like Siesmic, Ion or Thermal Det and have something to do when I'm stressed and facing the wrong way.

Really loving the idea of taking the Thermal Det for an extra point on my usual build. In front of me? STRESS! Range 1-2 in front of me? DOUBLE STRESS! Got behind me? DAMAGE AND STRESS!

Shall have to playtest and see come the end of the week.

Dorsal Turret + Moldy Crow costs the same a TLT. I think it will find a home on HWKs.