i dont think ive ever lost a Z95 in one shot unless i drew a crit card for double damage. Ever. 4 health behind 2 defense (ideally sitting really far back if hes trying to fire a missile) has pretty good odds to survive one shot.
Besides, even if i give him an ion missile/VI hes 21pts. If you focus him first and burn two of your ship's firing to do so, im not hurt because the other ships are unscathed. Z95s are wound buffers, if i can get a quick trick out of them then sweet if not o well.
Blount (Draw Their Fire, Tracers)
Biggs (R4-D6, Proton Torps, Guidance Chips)
3x Tala (Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips)
Positively blows any target away in the first round of shooting.
I've one-shot Fel, Corran, and Whisper using him with AHM. All players were very salty about that, but it's incredibly situational and not all that useful overall. He's fun in a casual list, but doesn't really have a place in anything competitive. He's going up against a GSP with PTL and AT for the cost/efficiency breaker if he's taking any kind of ordnance. Even naked, a prototype with AT is probably going to do more for you over the course of a game. While his ability to pop Stealth Devices is great, I just don't see them that often anymore to make it worthwhile.
I've brainstormed building a Rebel ordnance alpha strike list, and one of the variants I came up with relied on Blount. It's:
http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/509573/torps-mk-2
You need to get the target in Horton and Blount's arc, true, but then Blount gives TL's to Nera and Horton, Horton has his ability + focus + crackshot + chips for one hell of a shot; Nera only has focus + chips + Crackshot, but she doesn't care about catching the oponent in arc; In theory it should wipe any ace / most ships out of existance, and to top it all you have a Tala to generally annoy people.
I mean the problem with blount is twofold in my eyes. 1) He maxes at ps8 if you're running vi. 2) He's driving a z95. That's not a particularly limber or sneaky ship and given that he hits ps8 at the top it seems not unreasonable to expect him to die without shooting against what he's supposed to be hunting. Sure you can be happy your 21 point ship was the first thing an ace player killed but he's still dead and likely without doing his job if I had to guess unless your opponent just doesn't care.
It's a trick you can pull off a couple of times before everyone cops it and either dodges around his arc, or melts him with concentrated fire before he can get his shot off. AHM's range 2 restriction makes it very easy to stay out of danger.
Swams, Aces, U boats. Blount & Craken can get the job done
Airen Cracken (19)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Concussion Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
Lieutenant Blount (17)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Assault Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)
Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Extra Munitions (2)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
Gray Squadron Pilot (20)
Autoblaster Turret (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
opps wrong torps
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.
True - but you absolutely had to shoot him before he made that shot right?
He's basically a slightly cheaper, slightly squishier Biggs who has the added bonus of forcing some potentially unwanted deployment choices on your opponent (think CrackSwarm with Howlie)
Yes he's a one trick pony - but sometimes one trick is all you need
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.
True - but you absolutely had to shoot him before he made that shot right?
He's basically a slightly cheaper, slightly squishier Biggs who has the added bonus of forcing some potentially unwanted deployment choices on your opponent (think CrackSwarm with Howlie)
Yes he's a one trick pony - but sometimes one trick is all you need
Not biggs though is he i usually had to use only one ship to pop him not my entire attack phase.
And because he was central to the list by killing him i crippled the other guys synergy very early on.
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.
True - but you absolutely had to shoot him before he made that shot right?
He's basically a slightly cheaper, slightly squishier Biggs who has the added bonus of forcing some potentially unwanted deployment choices on your opponent (think CrackSwarm with Howlie)
Yes he's a one trick pony - but sometimes one trick is all you need
Actually that literally happened in my game yesterday.
Dengar PS9 had a choice: fire at my bumper-wing that was in his face ready to fire some nasty range1 goodness with Intimidation proc'd, or try and kill Blount before he could automatically get that Ion off, which would completely screw him over. He failed to kill Blount in time, got ion'd, and Keyan utterly destroyed him the following round as a result.
Long as he has that missile he is a VERY high priority target. Since i put VI on him to make him PS8, there wasnt much that could shoot him before he got his attack off. Literally didnt do anything else all game, but it got me a turn3 dengar kill so im happy lol
When i told my opponent my list/abilities he immediately locked on Blount with this "wait..wat?" expression lol. He was NOT liking the idea of unavoidable ion lol even if it was just 1 shot
Yeah, I've only lost Blount pre-alpha once, in the first round of the cut at the Atlanta regional. He isn't that hard to keep alive, or get the shot he wants.
Yeah, Imp players that don't know rebel pilots are in for a shock when facing Blount. Other pilot skills add a red, reduce a green or freeze and/or limit token use but Blount is radically different. He's not overly concerned with green dice depending on his loadout. He'd be OP with a higher PS rating or on a different ship. A PS 10 Blount with two missile slots and some post maneuver positioning ability would be nice. Very, very nice.
Problem with Blount is that he is a one trick pony, unless he is stripping off Stealth Devices. He can do that all game assuming he can survive the first attack.
To be fair, Imperial Ace lists seem to be flying Carnor alongside Soontir a lot these days to combat the U-boat menace meaning there will be more stealth devices than usual around to pop.
To be fair, Imperial Ace lists seem to be flying Carnor alongside Soontir a lot these days to combat the U-boat menace meaning there will be more stealth devices than usual around to pop.
Do they? I hadn't noticed. I haven't really flown an Interceptor since I started proxying Vets. Given it's about to hit for real, I think a lot of Interceptor, and therefore SD usage, is going to drop off.