I'm a new player and I hear about blocking all the time. Can someone explain exactly what the term means and when you'd want to do it. What ships are good and why?

Blocking is when you want to intentionally fly your ship into the path of your enemy so that after they execute an maneuver they hit you, which prevents them from taking the perform action step or shooting at the ship you used to block it.

Blocking is where you move a low PS ship first and place it where you guess your opponent's higher PS ship will end up after it moves. If you guess right, your opponent will bump into your ship which will deny him his Actions for that round (as well as meaning neither ship can shoot each other).

Some very competitive ships depend heavily on their Actions to power their abilities (Poe Dameron, Soontir Fel, Contract Scout) so causing them to bump will severely impede their effectiveness. However it takes practice since you need to get to know the dials of the opposing ships in order to guess what moves your opponent is likely to make.

The lower PS a ship is the better it is at blocking. Academy Ties are the normal choice for the Empire. Scum and Rebels normally use cheap Z-95s while rebels can also use cheap A-wings in the same role. In general you need a ship to be cheap and fast with the lowest PS possible.

Note that the ship doing the blocking will get to perform its actions since it moves first which can be very useful in ensuring the blocker survives as long as possible. Certain upgrade cards like Intelligence Agent can make blocking easier since they allow you to look at the dial of opposing ships. While you can only do this after you have set your own dials, it is still useful as both the Tie and A-wing can use their Boost and/or Barrel Roll actions to adjust their final position so making it easier to block with them.

I'm a new player and I hear about blocking all the time. Can someone explain exactly what the term means and when you'd want to do it. What ships are good and why?

Blocking is deliberately predicting where to put your lower-PS ship to make enemy higher-skill get his final position obstructed

making him lose his Perform Action Step, and not finishing his move where intended.

and lets you control the vector of approach

You normally use low PS ships to do it, because they move and take their actions before the high PS ships do. The high PS ships often rely on actions to get the most out of their ship.

A arc dodger that can't barrel roll or boost, and can't evade is in big trouble.

I am a novice pilot, but have been utilizing blocking a bunch. Basically, it's a strategy to stop an enemy ship from performing actions and attacking which, if they can't shoot you but you (other than the blocker) can shoot them. As you probably know, the ship with the lowest pilot skill moves first. So, if you can move your lower PS ship so that its base touches the base of your ship when they move, you have taken that ship out of play for that round of action and attack. You can move into them, but you will roll and see if you get damage; better to let them roll and possibly take a hit. Be wary though, when you block a ship in the front of two deep formation, all the other ships behind it will get R1 shots off on your blocker.

Hahah, as I was typing, three better responses jumped in; nice guys, nice!

Some of the best blockers:

Prototype Pilot A Wings

Academy Pilot Tie Fighters

Intelligence agent on a contracted scout (look at where your opponent is moving, barrel roll after move to block)

Z-95

They all have super low pilot skill which is the most important (you move before opponent). The best of the best have barrel roll or boost for reponsitioning. Blocking is most effective when you force a bump and stop actions from being taken, for instance if you block Soontir Fel he will have 0 tokens and 3or4 agility, instead of two focusses and an evade with that same agility. Pump him full of lead with the other ships!

As for what's good, cheap low pilot skill with post-manoeuvre movement, particularly if you can mount crew and take Intelligence Agent. Ideally also, some way to deal damage to or otherwise inconvenience things that have bumped you.

Top tier blockers therefore are Academy and Prototype Pilots, Binayre Pirates, and Bandit Squadron Pilots. Cheap with post-dial movement, cheap with Feedback Array possible, and cheap respectively.

Then you go up to dedicated blockers like the Bumpmaster (Jumpmaster 5000 with Intel Agent is the core of it, but there are MANY options you can add such as Intimidation, Anti-Pursuit Lasers, Ion Projectors etc.

Also of note is the TIE Phantom and any scum ship with a Cloaking Device, wherein they can decloak to block, then move on their pilot skill afterwards.

But really, and ship can be a blocker if you fly it right - if you have a higher PS than your opponent, fly such that he has not good options for his movement next turn once you're done. If you have lower PS, just fly so he runs into you this turn.

Being bumped gets worse for you the more you rely on actions, and/or formations.

Its an anti-action tactic. You force a ship to ram into yours, which strips their action and depending on the move screws up their movement.

Its primarily used to prevent some action-dependant ships from getting their action so they can be taken down easier. Most notably Soontir Fel or Carnor Jax (Interceptor pilots).

Very common tactic, some people bring a 12-14pt shmuck pilot to literally just be a speedbump.

It's the 'big trick' with swarms of low PS ships. If I have 5+ academy pilots, I move before you and can (theoretically) spread them out in front of you, such that whatever move you've chosen, you won't be able to finish it.

That leaves you stuck somewhere other than where you were planning to be, with no focus token, at range 1 of a bunch of TIE fighters. Or "in trouble" as it's also known.

Essentially, to be good at blocking, a ship needs to be:

• Moving early (PS0-4)
• Fast and manoeuvrable (boost/barrel roll for preference)
• Cheap
• Expendable

As noted above, Academy TIE fighter pilots and Prototype A-wing pilots are the kings of this trick, but there are others who do this well - Contracted Scouts (especially intelligence agents) and Z-95s, for example.

Scum Z-95s do this especially well since whilst they don't get a shot, they can still use Feedback Arrays. The "bugzapper swarm" is an infamous ace-killer.

TIE phantoms (cheap generic ones) with Enhanced Scopes & Intelligence Agents work well too.

Also, anyone with a special "if you hit me/are close to me" ability can work well too. Anti-Pursuit Lasers actively damage someone caught by your blocking move, whilst Intimidation reduces their agility for the ensuing laser party.

Hahah, as I was typing, three better responses jumped in; nice guys, nice!

I started to type up something but got side tracked with something else and knew if it took me more than 2-3 minutes to post I'd get 'ed.

That's one thing I love about this place, how quick people are to help and how generally helpful they can be.

Never forget that blocking is a glorious strategy for all your ships when possible. One of my favorites is using the big bad inquisitor to block a ps 9+ for Vader to get good shots on.

"Also of note is the TIE Phantom and any scum ship with a Cloaking Device, wherein they can decloak to block, then move on their pilot skill afterwards."

Nice detail on the blocking thread. Due to my lack of knowledge on the Phantom, can you give me the 411 on how this actually works during play?

Some fairly detailed responses already so I'll keep mine simple. Blocking is a form of control, like stress or ion. It restricts your opponents actions and also his movements. It's easy to block someone who wants to turn in for example, preventing them from changing the position of thier fire arc much and therefore, if done correctly, keeps them from targeting anyone not just the blocker. It's a costly stratergy as the blocker is usually a sacrificial lamb and if you mess it up be prepared to eat range 1 death.

Blocking is also a useful tool on yourself. If there's going to be no way to avoid bumping into a ship you want to fire at for example, you can move another of your ships in between yourself and the opponent so you bump into your own ships and can still fire on your intended target.

one thing I'd throw out there... For the tactic to be considered blocking you have to stop another ship from taking an action, which either means with a lower PS ship or because you have init and move first...

Otherwise it's just you running into the other guys ship.

Watch some of the Nathan Eide games from Worlds 2015 (that are not the final with Paul Heaver). Nathan does a fantastic job of using his Prototype A-Wing to block.

Nathan vs. Phillip Booth

Nathan vs. Blair Bunke

One under-appreciated facet of blocking is that it throws off ship angles.

If you set up with your bases parallel to the board edges, then (apart from small errors along the way) your ships can only rotate in increments of 45 degrees at the smallest.

If you block someone on a bank or turn maneuver, they will not be at the same angle as the rest of their ships.

I don't want to overgeneralize or make it seem like it's the greatest thing to ever happen to your opponent.

But as a for-instance, I've flown a Lambda shuttle a few times. And when it gets blocked doing a bank maneuver, that usually means for me that I'll be hitting a bunch of obstacles, because the angle's now all wrong and its next move will be a choice between going short into the rock I would have cleared if not for the block, or going long into the rock I wouldn't have had to worry about if not for the block.

It also makes it impossible to re-group a formation quite right.

one thing I'd throw out there... For the tactic to be considered blocking you have to stop another ship from taking an action, which either means with a lower PS ship or because you have init and move first...

Otherwise it's just you running into the other guys ship.

Back in January I was running a Palp Aces build against Rebel Regen, and I was actually quite happy to run into Miranda with Vader turn after turn while Soontir flew fast away, because I knew that I couldn't do enough damage with one ace so I needed to wait until both arcs were trained on her. So with one target touching her and the other way out of range, it turned her regen off.

Plus her turret would have totally gotten through Vader's meager AT-less defenses.

"Also of note is the TIE Phantom and any scum ship with a Cloaking Device, wherein they can decloak to block, then move on their pilot skill afterwards."

Nice detail on the blocking thread. Due to my lack of knowledge on the Phantom, can you give me the 411 on how this actually works during play?

The Cloak action gives you +2 defence dice in exchange for not being able to shoot, then once all the dials are down but before any are revealed, you decloak by doing a 2-speed barrel roll or boost, then move at your normal pilot skill. So you can potentially decloak into a lower-skill pilot's path, blocking them, then move away afterwards.

Most people don't, because decloaking is better used to allow the phantom to keep out of arcs and get better arcs itself, but it bears mentioning in the context of blocking anyway.

The advantage of a high PS ship is that you get to shoot first, but the advantage of a low PS ship is that you can block a high PS ship to where it doesn't get it's action.

I've used Xizor and 5 Z-95's to good effect with blocking. I like to spread out the Z's to try to cover all options of an opponent that's at R2-3. If I fan out, I'll usually get to cover a lot of potential options for my opponent. What happens is that it becomes a bit of a bounce fest. The ship bounces back to the first ship in it's path and has no actions. It then means that all my other Z-95's can fire at close range with a Focus to really do some damage.