Tractor beam isnt getting much press right now. I havent played with it yet but im hearing some noise its very good. How are you using it? Iv seen it on crackbots and that looking interesting. It adds utility vs small ships but is situational. how good is it?

Extremely good vs small ships.

Relatively useless vs large ships.

Tractor carriers aren't the highest ps. So at times turrets even arc dodge them.

Totally worth the one point.

Totally **** design. This whole wave is just hard counters and overpowered crazy.

4x Blue, FCS, Tractor Beam is a bunch of fun. Unless you only face large ships. Barrel rolling multiple ships onto rocks is a blast.

I've been playing with it on Vessery in Vassal, and it's pretty great on Defenders.

Otherwise, as you note, it's a situational upgrade. Use it when you have multiple shots lined up that will outweigh the loss of one attack, or when you can prevent damage on a ship by tractoring a potential attacker into a rock. That sort of utility is worth a point. I've only used it on the Mist Hunter, but it shines there.

EDIT: and yeah, it's not great against large ships, especially Ghosts and Decimators.

Last night's Flight Night for Athena Games included some very interesting Tractor Beam uses. Take a look here:

https://www.twitch.tv/athenagamesuk/v/61803328

Narrated in part by my humble self

Only used it once, but it was fun and useful. Moving defenders onto rocks (possibly damaging them up to two times and denying them an attack) or moving into a closer range of your buddies/out of range of them attacking back and reducing the agility.

I think tractor beam isn't seeing much play right now because even if it is pretty good, whatever you can run it on right now isn't anywhere close to as effective as it will be on the Tie/Defenders. I see this happen a lot in X-wing. It is the same thing with the Uboats right now. Yes, ordnance has gotten a big boost, and likely is decently useful on a number of ships now, but because it is so extraordinarily powerful on UBoats, you hardly see it anywhere else.

Used it on Serissu. Actually pretty good. Pulled an opponents ship off of touching my Guri and onto a rock. Then it died.

I think tractor beam isn't seeing much play right now because even if it is pretty good, whatever you can run it on right now isn't anywhere close to as effective as it will be on the Tie/Defenders. I see this happen a lot in X-wing. It is the same thing with the Uboats right now. Yes, ordnance has gotten a big boost, and likely is decently useful on a number of ships now, but because it is so extraordinarily powerful on UBoats, you hardly see it anywhere else.

It is very worth the points on a palp shuttle.

It's a situational upgrade, but when the stars align, it can have a dramatic effect on a match. For 1 point, it's well worth it just for the psychological effect - the threat of being tractored will change how your opponent flies. I really like it against elusive aces - it allows you to pull those arc dodgers back into more arcs and pile on the damage or just force them to drive over rocks and take unblockable damage/stress and lose their precious actions. When those critical moments happen, it's good to have a way to boost the chances of landing the shot, so I like it on Mist Hunters.

Something like:

27 - Ruthless Freelancer w/ Mist Hunter, Tractor Beam, FCS, 4-LOM

With TL+focus and 4-LOM you have a solid chance to land the shot on even tokened up Imperial Aces. At PS3, they will have already shot, but you can still pull them into U-Boat arcs, onto rocks, into range 1 or just make them easier to hit with a swarm of Attack 2 ships.

My list...

Rebel Hunters - Vessery (98)

Darth Vader (34) - TIE Advanced

Adaptability (0), TIE/x1 (0), Engine Upgrade (4), Advanced Targeting Computer (5)

"Omega Leader" (26) - TIE/FO Fighter

Juke (2), Comm Relay (3)

Colonel Vessery (38) - TIE Defender

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

Used it a few times in casual games and on Vessery with TIE/D it is AMAZING ive pulled and pushed ships all over the place then by reducing AGILITY the double tap and Omega and Vader wrack up some serious damage!!!

I have flown against it and even without Defenders it is a PITA. Rolling you onto rocks is one trick but a canny opponent can also mess with your arcs or roll you into theirs. I think it will take some practice to get the most out of but expect to see them in quantity once Imperial Veterans land and they no longer cost your primary attack.

Have not used one myself yet, but have played against them a few times. I am now of the opinion that every time an opponent uses a tractor beam instead of shoot me is a win for me!

Best example is someone fired on my full health wampa with there tractor beam b-wing. He rolled 3 hits, i rolled 3 blanks (so my focus was uesless) he put me on a rock i rolled for 0 damage. My opponent was extremely happy until i pointed out that wampa would have been dead if he had just shot him with his primary, instead i lost 1 turn of shooting.... oh well. Sure its anecdotal, but to date i have never been sad to have my opponent opt to do 0 damage, might mess me up a turn but so far its been far better then being actually damage or killed by the shot.

Find 2 more points for an ion cannon if you want control imo. (far better control, and some damage)

On Defenders, I still prefer Ions, but TB is a great filler point for Palpmobiles. Even having the threat of it can change the way people approach.

It's pretty awesome on vessery removing agility really Is a force multiplier, on other ships I don't know.

Have not used one myself yet, but have played against them a few times. I am now of the opinion that every time an opponent uses a tractor beam instead of shoot me is a win for me!

Best example is someone fired on my full health wampa with there tractor beam b-wing. He rolled 3 hits, i rolled 3 blanks (so my focus was uesless) he put me on a rock i rolled for 0 damage. My opponent was extremely happy until i pointed out that wampa would have been dead if he had just shot him with his primary, instead i lost 1 turn of shooting.... oh well. Sure its anecdotal, but to date i have never been sad to have my opponent opt to do 0 damage, might mess me up a turn but so far its been far better then being actually damage or killed by the shot.

Find 2 more points for an ion cannon if you want control imo. (far better control, and some damage)

Maybe I haven't faced them in the hands of the right players/squads, but this is pretty much my perception, too. To really make them dangerous, you need high PS, which costs points, and it's a ship not doing damage. Even then, it's only really dangerous if you have 2+ other ships also on target, and to me, that smacks of being only great when everything is going your way. For my money, I'm Ion Cannons all the way. For an Ion Cannon to be terrifying, all it needs to do is hit a small ship. No maneuvers = easy shots next turn, and maybe no actions for the hit ship. It also does a damage itself, which is very useful. I am far more worried about Ion Cannons than Tractor Beams.

There's definitely some cool shenanigans that Vessery can pull with a Tractor, and at least he's got internal synergy by allowing that card to buff himself, but I think the Ion Cannon is still so much stronger.

I must say that it seems to be very cool and adds a very neat dynamic to the game. Funny thing is though, it was my son who figured it out (not me). This is a quote from a post I made in the "Battles Forum"

Anyways, I forgot to tell you guys & gals that my son beat his Dad twice over the weekend that my wife was away. One of the victories was very impressive on how he did it. He used a Tractor beam on my B-wing and had me do a barrel roll right to the edge of the map, so that I was like "Phew! Boy, it's a good thing I equipped my B-wing with Advanced Sensors!" so I could do a barrel roll back over before I did my movement - to only have him bring up his Firespray-31 and block me from doing that at which point I was like "Umm...how old are you???" Needless to say, I had no choice but to finish my maneuver and fly off the boundary to my B-wing's destruction (which still had one shield left and no damage).

[Edit - spelling error]

Used it twice now with Zuckuss and 4-LOM as co-pilot.

And it was worth it for the two games.

In one game I had a lot of fun smashing a Tie/fo onto a rock, which would otherwise had a shot at Zuckuss, and got a damage.

In the next turn my opponent made a k-turn an had Zuckuss in range 1 at his 6. But he rolled a crit as he flewed off the rock and got a Blinded Pilot, so he again coudn't shoot at Zuckuss.

Its really good and I like the way this upgrade card turned out as well as the new possibilities.

It's pretty awesome on vessery removing agility really Is a force multiplier, on other ships I don't know.

Look what you could do:

I've found it useful for pulling defensive or offensive tricks...

It can nullify c3p0

It can pull a tlt into range 1 or push it out of range 3

It can pull a target into multiple firing arcs, trading 1 shot with the beam ship for 2 or more shots with ships that would've been out of arc.

It can pull a more powerful shot onto a rock... Trade your scyk beam shot for a stress hot on a rock?

Push a ship into range for an ordnance shot.

The key seems to be in using it for a positive trade, losing your shot to lose an equal shot against you is not an advantage, losing your shot to prevent a much stronger shot, or barrage of shots, is a positive trade.

The other way round ("the lizard") :

I tractor-rolled an X-wing into range 1 and killed it brutally. It was fun!

I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I want to.

I was playing the Mission 1 where you are escorting the shuttle across the board. I was always the attacker. I thought about bring a Scum list, but ended up playing Imperials with it. There were several times that it would've been useful.

In 2/3 games last night, my opponent fielded Biggs. If I had my Tractor Beam, I could've moved Biggs out of the way and fired at who I wanted to! I hear a lot of people are going with Ghost and Biggs, so this is not a bad option as it can get Biggs away from who you really want to shoot at. It might be a rude surprise, as well.

There were a number of ships that had combos and such to give to the Shuttle in range. Some had Ion Turrets. If I were able to move those HWKs out of range of the synergy bonus and also Ion Turret range, it would've been very helpful.

Also, being able to barrel roll the Shuttle a bit backwards would'be been a good thing to help slow it down. It would've also been great to reduce it's agility by 1.

Too many new things out and not enough time.

On Defenders with TIE/D title, it will be great, shoot with TB, either burn tokens or hit, then fire primary weapon. Primary weapon will either have 0 tokens to shoot through or a ship with at least -1 Agi, depending on how many TBs are locked onto it.

I think a cheap Scyk with it isn't bad. Or...if you are using Serrisu it's not too much more to throw it on her.

Have not used one myself yet, but have played against them a few times. I am now of the opinion that every time an opponent uses a tractor beam instead of shoot me is a win for me!

Best example is someone fired on my full health wampa with there tractor beam b-wing. He rolled 3 hits, i rolled 3 blanks (so my focus was uesless) he put me on a rock i rolled for 0 damage. My opponent was extremely happy until i pointed out that wampa would have been dead if he had just shot him with his primary, instead i lost 1 turn of shooting.... oh well. Sure its anecdotal, but to date i have never been sad to have my opponent opt to do 0 damage, might mess me up a turn but so far its been far better then being actually damage or killed by the shot.

Find 2 more points for an ion cannon if you want control imo. (far better control, and some damage)

Maybe I haven't faced them in the hands of the right players/squads, but this is pretty much my perception, too. To really make them dangerous, you need high PS, which costs points, and it's a ship not doing damage. Even then, it's only really dangerous if you have 2+ other ships also on target, and to me, that smacks of being only great when everything is going your way. For my money, I'm Ion Cannons all the way. For an Ion Cannon to be terrifying, all it needs to do is hit a small ship. No maneuvers = easy shots next turn, and maybe no actions for the hit ship. It also does a damage itself, which is very useful. I am far more worried about Ion Cannons than Tractor Beams.

There's definitely some cool shenanigans that Vessery can pull with a Tractor, and at least he's got internal synergy by allowing that card to buff himself, but I think the Ion Cannon is still so much stronger.

I read your opinions yesterday and I was appalled! The tractor beam is such a strong upgrade on the T/D Tie Defenders! But before writing how I didn't agree I decided to play a few games to try out the ion cannon first:

Vessery with T/D Ion,Cannon crack shot

Delta Tie Defender with T/D Ion Cannon

Delta Tie Defender with X/7

... and the list slaughtered everyone and everything 3 games in a row. The ion cannon combined with the T/D title is much much much stronger than anything I could have possibly imagined!

Based on a few weeks of testing, the tractor beam can cause some interesting situations, sometimes. The Ion Cannon can completely change the course of the game. In my first game, I was able to hit hard targets at range because I am rolling over and over again (5 separate attacks with only 3 ships). Mid game, it dawned on me that I have enough fire power to destroy an emperor shuttle in one turn if I pointed all the ships in the same direction, at range 1, the T/D Ion can do 1 dmg with the ion and then 4 with the regular shot for 5 total, that is more than a Heavy Laser Tie Defender! In another game, I was about to loose but was able to place one ion on a critical ship, getting it out of the game for a turn allowing me to take the initiative and turn the whole thing around.

In another game, I had Vessery roll in front of an asteroid to take two shots with no modifications at a Z-95 loaded with armaments and upgrades, then flew him over the rock at range one and blew it up with the help of a target lock from another defender (4 attacks total into the Z, it never had a chance) before it fired anything.

The control and damage output by the T/D Ion Cannon is so good it works well even one a regular level 1 Delta. I was completely wrong about how I perceived it would work, it is fantastic.