Ok like ive said in numerous posts i like making unorthodox lists using pilots people usually dont use or use in certain ways. Today i was looking at a Z95 rebel pilot: Lieutenant Blount.

His pilot ability says targets are hit by your attack even if they take no damage. At first i just ignored it since he has no cannon slot for Ion shenanigans n whatnot but then i realized two things...

This guy is a 17pt anti-stealth device on aces. Stealth device says "When you are hit by an attack..." well, even if they completely EVADE Blount's attack, they are "hit by an attack" and lose stealth. Considering basic Z95 shmucks usually end up in my list and hes not much more, thats pretty **** good to me.

So i dug a little more seeing if there was something else: Adv Homing Missiles. For 3pts, you automatically deal 1 faceup card. It reads "If this attack hits, deal one faceup card" well, it hit even if he completely evaded the attack so you cannot defend it. 3pts, not bad.

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers: Automatically give your buddies a targetlock.

Ion Pulse Missiles: "If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and receives 2 ion tokens" hey free auto ion plus damage!

Assault Missiles (bit expensive on him but it technically counts) targets bunched up? Even if the main target takes 0 damage, the others nearby do.

Downside? Its still a squishy Z95 and i cant find any shenanigans like this he can do more than once. Aside from taking out every stealth device in a game automatically assuming he lives long enough to get arc on all of them.

I might have to include him even completely bare boned just to tick off a certain acewing lover hehe. As we all know, once that stealth device is gone Soontir/Jax become a HELL of a lot easier to take down.

Yep. He's good for all those things. He is only PS 6, though, and might have a challenge getting the aces in arc.

The only thing I don't rate so much is the S-Thread tracers. I'm not a huge fan of them. He gives up his attack to give others a TL. It has uses, but I'm not keen on it.

I'd consider VI and Tracers for him. VI helps him deal with Aces and still leaves you with a PS8 attacker after his ordnance is spent. Tracers in a Z-Swarm can help you maximize your damage against the now-stealthless Soontir, or anything else that is now in the crosshairs of your focused and target-locked Zs.

Its a range3 thing. Ive done it on basic idiot z95s because 2die at range3 isnt going to do much anyway unless youre hitting a crap agi ship. Tracers usually let me do an initial strike really well because it frees everyone's action up, or gives a TL to someone that doesnt have it (which iirc all rebels have it anyway).

I just find it hilarious he automatically drains any stealth device and performs any "when this attack hits" on missiles. Dear god if this guy gets into a good ship hes going to be nasty with that move lol. Im kinda torn between the Ion missile or the Adv Homing. Ion Missile would guarantee i know exactly where my target is going but Adv Homing would deal a crit to someone that has a bunch of shields early and potentially screw them over (ive done that before w/o the auto hit against a 4/5 shield guy where they still had full shields and got reduced to PS0 lol)

You've pretty much summed up what Blount is best at.

The one other thing I'd look at Blount for is actually is EPT slot. He is 17 points which ties with a Refit GSP for the lowest cost EPT carrier the rebels have. Now the A-Wing has several advantages over the Z-95 but Blount does have a +3 PS advantage. I'd also say there are usually better things to do with the EPT slot on the GSP as the Z options are limited. While you may want him for an auto-hit missile (I prefer Ion Pulse) I often look at his EPT as something that can make him a support ship. Consider:

Draw Their Fire (1): In some ways you get a mini-Biggs.

Intimidation (2): Actually better on the GSP but if you can block aces with Blount you reduce their defense.

Squad Leader/Swarm Tactics: Only if you are running lower PS ships.

Wingman: Take some of the stress out of your other ships.

Although it doesn't help against PS 9+ Aces I'd rather have VI than Deadeye as you can keep the higher PS advantage while Deadeye will be one and done.

admittedly i thought about deadeye + ion missile but eh i'd rather VI. At PS8 unless im facing a pure PS8+ list and i move first, odds are im going to get a targetlock off anyway. Deadeye is mainly good for low PS because its difficult to TL at range 3 if you move first.

Intimidation is another thought, since i love bumperwing strats. I really need to get another one of those, only got 1.

Draw Their Fire is interesting but again i think VI would be better. Until he gets that missile off hes going to be a high priority, even higher if theres stealth devices around. Every ship i put that card on ends up being the main target anyway lol even if it was a basic shmuck. Kinda wish it was a mod card and not an EPT so i could slap it on a super cheap Outer Rim pilot

I actually wish he had a random torpedo slot. Ion Torpedo

Another missile that works off of him is Assault Missiles.

Using Advanced Homing Missiles though you're going to have a heck of a time getting an Ace in a range 2 shot.

admittedly i thought about deadeye + ion missile but eh i'd rather VI. At PS8 unless im facing a pure PS8+ list and i move first, odds are im going to get a targetlock off anyway. Deadeye is mainly good for low PS because its difficult to TL at range 3 if you move first.

Isn't having the tools to handle PS8+ ships a major part of job description for an anti-ace ship? Deadeye+IPM gives Soontir a nice big no-fly area. 4 points to guarantee that a ship in your arc at range 2 to 3 gets ionized, takes a damage, and lose any stealth device they've got isn't bad.

admittedly i thought about deadeye + ion missile but eh i'd rather VI. At PS8 unless im facing a pure PS8+ list and i move first, odds are im going to get a targetlock off anyway. Deadeye is mainly good for low PS because its difficult to TL at range 3 if you move first.

Isn't having the tools to handle PS8+ ships a major part of job description for an anti-ace ship? Deadeye+IPM gives Soontir a nice big no-fly area.

Truth. Hes already going to be trying to evade this guy's entire arc anyway because i will strip his stealth device at any range and not give a crap about his tokenstack or palpmobile.

VI would be more along the lines of dealing with nonaces. When you gear a list to specifically counter another list, if you dont face that list you usually get screwed over.

Plus, it lets him more than likely fire before the rest of my ships, so i can strip the stealth immediately. Rebels usually dont have PS9 these days unless its using VI/Adapt. Majority of their PS9's are lackluster or suffer from oldshipsyndrome.

Would Blount with Assault Missle make sense with the new Crackshot swarms and possibly a not very smart Ace player?

Ok like ive said in numerous posts i like making unorthodox lists using pilots people usually dont use or use in certain ways. Today i was looking at a Z95 rebel pilot: Lieutenant Blount.

His pilot ability says targets are hit by your attack even if they take no damage. At first i just ignored it since he has no cannon slot for Ion shenanigans n whatnot but then i realized two things...

This guy is a 17pt anti-stealth device on aces. Stealth device says "When you are hit by an attack..." well, even if they completely EVADE Blount's attack, they are "hit by an attack" and lose stealth. Considering basic Z95 shmucks usually end up in my list and hes not much more, thats pretty **** good to me.

So i dug a little more seeing if there was something else: Adv Homing Missiles. For 3pts, you automatically deal 1 faceup card. It reads "If this attack hits, deal one faceup card" well, it hit even if he completely evaded the attack so you cannot defend it. 3pts, not bad.

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers: Automatically give your buddies a targetlock.

Ion Pulse Missiles: "If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and receives 2 ion tokens" hey free auto ion plus damage!

Assault Missiles (bit expensive on him but it technically counts) targets bunched up? Even if the main target takes 0 damage, the others nearby do.

Downside? Its still a squishy Z95 and i cant find any shenanigans like this he can do more than once. Aside from taking out every stealth device in a game automatically assuming he lives long enough to get arc on all of them.

I might have to include him even completely bare boned just to tick off a certain acewing lover hehe. As we all know, once that stealth device is gone Soontir/Jax become a HELL of a lot easier to take down.

He is good, I prefer Ion pulse missiles on him for 3 points (plus deadeye). But the thing is, that for 5 points more you get a stress-hog dealing double stress per turn. For me, it's worth the 5 points extra.

admittedly i thought about deadeye + ion missile but eh i'd rather VI. At PS8 unless im facing a pure PS8+ list and i move first, odds are im going to get a targetlock off anyway. Deadeye is mainly good for low PS because its difficult to TL at range 3 if you move first.

Isn't having the tools to handle PS8+ ships a major part of job description for an anti-ace ship? Deadeye+IPM gives Soontir a nice big no-fly area.

Truth. Hes already going to be trying to evade this guy's entire arc anyway because i will strip his stealth device at any range and not give a crap about his tokenstack or palpmobile.

VI would be more along the lines of dealing with nonaces. When you gear a list to specifically counter another list, if you dont face that list you usually get screwed over.

Those sure thing IPMs are probably the most universally useful missile that Blount can take.

Assault Missiles being good depend on your opponent's list and how he positions them.

Advanced Homing Missiles are kind of lack luster against most non-ace ships, even against aces they aren't phenomenal. I think that they are stronger if your opponent is using the old damage deck.

Tracers can be great depending on the rest of your list.

IPM has auto-damage and can ionize even large base ships. No one really wants to get hit by one of those.

If he's just there to strip stealth device, keep him cheap and don't give him ordnance.

On the "mini-Biggs" idea using DTF you could also include a hull upgrade although now you're looking at 22 points (pre-missile) that only draws off [kabooms] although it is as tough as Biggs is before Biggs adds the IA and droids.

Would Blount with Assault Missle make sense with the new Crackshot swarms and possibly a not very smart Ace player?

Against not-so-smart players, maybe. Against smart Crackshot players, not really. One of the things that makes Crack swarms so strong is that they don't need to maintain tight formations to be effective.

you'd be better off doing 1pt more for shields unless your list prevents it. Its only crits he'd be drawing, you want that hitting shields not hull. One double damage card and hes basically used up all his DTF viability, even with hull upgrade, unless you'd rather kill him over the other ship take a crit (depending on the situation, i'd rather keep my dice sources)

Crackswarms arent dependent on formation fly. Formation fly is beneficial regardless of your strat but its not mandatory. Once he sees you have assault missiles hes going to scatter and try to pincer-strike you rather than joust.

meh

never felt this guy to be anything more than a horribly situational gimmick

I'll spend the extra points to get a conner K anyday. At least they get two conners, with a potential four damage ala sabine

I've had luck using Blount, Cracken and Roark with a Tala. Swarm Tactics on Cracken and Blount and Cluster Missiles on Cracken. Cracken's ability allows two friendlies at R1 to take actions after he shoots. They can pickup target locks or focus tokens as needed. Roark boosts to PS12 which is shared by Cracken, Blount and one other ship. It's a one trick pony but if your initial attack is strong you have a good chance to win against certain lists. Not very effective vs swarms as there are just too many bodies to deal with.

I've had luck using Blount, Cracken and Roark with a Tala. Swarm Tactics on Cracken and Blount and Cluster Missiles on Cracken. Cracken's ability allows two friendlies at R1 to take actions after he shoots. They can pickup target locks or focus tokens as needed. Roark boosts to PS12 which is shared by Cracken, Blount and one other ship. It's a one trick pony but if your initial attack is strong you have a good chance to win against certain lists. Not very effective vs swarms as there are just too many bodies to deal with.

ok at first i was like "two ships? huh?" then i noticed what you did there.

Thats sneaky. I like it lol.

I made the cut with a tracer Blount in the Atlanta regional. he's very good. At PS 8 he fires over the top of meta staples like u-boats, doesn't fear the inquisitor or omega leader or the new Vessery due to equal pilot skill.

Paired with a few other tala's and a grey squad Y, i really don't fear any list.

I've had luck using Blount, Cracken and Roark with a Tala. Swarm Tactics on Cracken and Blount and Cluster Missiles on Cracken. Cracken's ability allows two friendlies at R1 to take actions after he shoots. They can pickup target locks or focus tokens as needed. Roark boosts to PS12 which is shared by Cracken, Blount and one other ship. It's a one trick pony but if your initial attack is strong you have a good chance to win against certain lists. Not very effective vs swarms as there are just too many bodies to deal with.

ok at first i was like "two ships? huh?" then i noticed what you did there.

Thats sneaky. I like it lol.

A couple of months back I flew against an almost 'rabid' Imperial player. He's a nice guy but loves the Empire. Almost too much. Anyhow, his list was three PS9 aces and was sure he would make short work of a HWK and 3 Zs. Up to the point where dice were to be thrown. He sort of freaked when he found out he was shooting next to last! He got pretty bloody in the exchange but it wasn't an automatic win for me. Still, the look on his face would've been worth the loss!

Yep. He's good for all those things. He is only PS 6, though, and might have a challenge getting the aces in arc.

The only thing I don't rate so much is the S-Thread tracers. I'm not a huge fan of them. He gives up his attack to give others a TL. It has uses, but I'm not keen on it.

I was thinking of Blount with VI and S-Thread Tracers in the middle of a Crack Swarm in an Epic game. Even after he fires he is still a PS 8 pilot that can stir the pot.

He fires as soon as he is in range, turns to flank and takes long range shots at Interceptors stripping them of Stealth. The Empire would be forced to engage him which effectively reduces the fighter screen at least by a little.

If you have the chance to hit soontir first, you absolutely do it. Removing his ability to be an end-game piece is a huge win, and if they other player is going to give him to you, take him.

Blount's PS is too low to ever really be a threat i've lost count of the times i've one shot him before he ever got his ordnance off.

Blount's PS is too low to ever really be a threat i've lost count of the times i've one shot him before he ever got his ordnance off.

Even with VI?

I've 1-shotted a full health Ghost off the board with Blount's Ion Pulse Missiles before, and he's good if Soontir's around. But he is a little squishy and situational.