I still don't see Shara as a crap pilot. I don't get why you don't think she's worthwhile, especially with Weapons Engineer.

Here's a question: do you think Esege is a crap pilot? I've seen some good lists with Esege and it's about the same principle.

Esege is not crap as much as absolute garbage

1 point less than miranda, despite the 2 PS difference, for an action dependent ability that actively removes mods from the ship which has a turret, possibly a TLT, and is therefore almost always in a position to use the mods it throws away instead of generating additional support (see Howlrunner, Dutch, Cracken etc.)

Esege is just a horrible design snafu. He's expensive (already a big no-no for dedicated support) and actively hinders himself to improve an ally which, again given his expenses, is not a good thing

Shara will not see much use, especially not with wep engineer (you want to focus fire single targets down, not spread fire across multiple threats to leave them alive to retaliate), at least definetly not because of her ability

the ARC's unique combination of crew + mech may or may not prove to be a saving grace (pray for Sabine bb-8!) but her ability is just horrible on the kind of ship she's on (ie a ship with very decent offenses that could be using the modifiers she's throwing away)

for an example of what she should've been, we turn to Manaroo. Manaroo also gives away all her mods like candy, but she can contribute to combat in other ways instead of simply being a horribly inefficient way to generate damage (namely, feedback array and blocking like a bastard). Manaroo is also far more flexible (no range limit!)

and that's the main distinguishing feature. Shara and Esege are horrible because they're expensive combat-capable ships that flit away the mods they should be using on themselves. Howlie/Cracken are cheaper AND they don't give away their modifiers while Dutch may be more expensive but he simply generates gain instead of loss. Finally, Manaroo doesn't care about losing her tokens because she can contribute to the fight in other ways.

note: I would use THE HELL out of Shara if her ability wasn't restricted to offensive triggers. R7 is a great little mech that's sadly limited by the ships he's available on, and Shara with weapon engineer would've been the perfect platform to enable him (because, instead of enabling VERY inefficient offense, she'd enable an incredibly powerful defense instead)

Sadly, her ability has to suck as much as possible, so it's offense only

Esege is not crap as much as absolute garbage

...

and that's the main distinguishing feature. Shara and Esege are horrible because they're expensive combat-capable ships that flit away the mods they should be using on themselves. Howlie/Cracken are cheaper AND they don't give away their modifiers while Dutch may be more expensive but he simply generates gain instead of loss.

OK...if you think Esege is garbage, then we won't see eye to eye on any of this.

Still....if you pair either of them with the crew that boosts their ability so they don't give away their abilities, it doesn't screw them. Recon Specialist on Esege works, just like Weapons Engineer on Shara.

if Weapons engineer stacked TLs like Redline, I would be inclined to agree 100%

he sadly does not.

best thing I thought of to compensate for her inefficient offense is the sabine + bb-8 combo, because then she's more focused on bombs (like Manaroo would be on feedback) than on her primary weapon. Pre-bomb roll into a perfect seismic and then a bank maneuver into a normal TL action for an ally to take advantage of might still be worth fielding (with VI to bump to pilot skill 8 and a small bid, the sabine + bb-8 portion alone would be enough to counter the Inquisitor, an incredibly powerful imperial ace)

either way, though, you don't need Shara for Norra

even in the event that you don't get perfect hits + focus, as long as you roll 2 just two hit/focus and you have focus + TL that's just Norra guaranteeing a third hit instead of having to roll for it

100% disagree with the assertion that Esege is garbage. I've been using Esege with RecSpec a lot recently, and there have been far more turns with focus tokens left over than there have where I've needed to spend those tokens (not counting advanced SLAM turns), meaning that using his pilot ability, even with another TLT nearby, is always an amazing thing for me.

I've even had turns where I've planned my manoeuvres around Esege's pilot ability - using advanced SLAM to get in to position to use his ability, then position Miranda so that I can take a TL action, spend a shield, and roll a 4 dice TL/Focus attack.

100% disagree with the assertion that Esege is garbage. I've been using Esege with RecSpec a lot recently, and there have been far more turns with focus tokens left over than there have where I've needed to spend those tokens (not counting advanced SLAM turns), meaning that using his pilot ability, even with another TLT nearby, is always an amazing thing for me.

I've even had turns where I've planned my manoeuvres around Esege's pilot ability - using advanced SLAM to get in to position to use his ability, then position Miranda so that I can take a TL action, spend a shield, and roll a 4 dice TL/Focus attack.

And how many of those games have been in tournament?

Sorry, but competitively Esege and likely Shara as well has almost zero functionality. Ships that have to make a sacrifice to make other ships better, ESPECIALLY ships that cost as much as Esege and Shara do, are a complete waste of points.

Couldn't tell you exactly how many of the turns in the 15 games I played at Yavin (including the Regional on the Friday as well) had tokens left over - it's not something I counted, just something I remember happening, but it definitely happened. I realise how vague that sounds when I'm trying to make a point...

Or are you referring to the Miranda/Esege combo shot? In that case, at least twice during Yavin. Didn't need it more often than that because the bombs or the TLTs did their work.

Although not the MVP of the list, Esege is definitely a crucial part of it, since I chose to drop Miranda's RecSpec for Sabine.

For the record, the list took me to 2-4 during the Regional (awful, tired flying on the Friday is partly to blame for that), and 6-3 at Yavin itself.

Couldn't tell you exactly how many of the turns in the 15 games I played at Yavin (including the Regional on the Friday as well) had tokens left over - it's not something I counted, just something I remember happening, but it definitely happened. I realise how vague that sounds when I'm trying to make a point...

Or are you referring to the Miranda/Esege combo shot? In that case, at least twice during Yavin. Didn't need it more often than that because the bombs or the TLTs did their work.

Although not the MVP of the list, Esege is definitely a crucial part of it, since I chose to drop Miranda's RecSpec for Sabine.

For the record, the list took me to 2-4 during the Regional (awful, tired flying on the Friday is partly to blame for that), and 6-3 at Yavin itself.

Hmm. Spotty record, but.... surprising that it got you that far in Yavin. Were your victories spaced out? Did you lose a bunch at first then start winning? Kind of interested to know what happened here, because that just doesnt sound like a reliable list.

Yeah, 2-4 at the Regional before hand was almost entirely down to flying tired, so I viewed it as practice after game 3, in order to get the feel for flying the K-Wings again. I've almost entirely forgotten what I played against due to being so tired. xD

During Yavin itself, I won, lost, won, won, lost, won, won, won, lost. The games I lost, I lost because they were pretty hard counters to my list. K-Wings just cannot stand up to massive alpha damage or HLCs/4 dice primaries.

Reliable is precisely what the list is, which is why the list does so well vs Aces. Since Sabine arrived and I changed my flight tactics to work better with her, I've not lost to Aces at all, except at the Regional - again, stupid tired piloting.

My list is:

Miranda with TLT, muntions, Sabine, thermals, conner nets, advanced SLAM (48)

Esege with TLT, munitions, RecSpec, proton bombs, proxy mines, advanced SLAM (49)

In order, I played:

3 A-Wing aces + blocker Bandit.

N'Dru + blocker binayre + 2 torpscouts (lost)

PS11 Han + Miranda

Palp Aces

Dash + Lothal Rebel (lost)

Vader + Chiraneau

48th at the end of Day 1.

Wes + Garven + Red Sqn + Tala

<I forgot to photograph the list I beat here. I was super excited to maybe get top 32. As long as I didn't draw U-Boats, I was looking solid for a top 32 finish>

Triple U-Boats (lost)

Finished 47th overall. Out of 414 players, I'm happy with that, and it's higher than I placed at Nationals last year with Soontir/Chiraneau.

And how many of those games have been in tournament?

Sorry, but competitively Esege and likely Shara as well has almost zero functionality. Ships that have to make a sacrifice to make other ships better, ESPECIALLY ships that cost as much as Esege and Shara do, are a complete waste of points.

Why does it always have to be about tournaments, though?

Hello, fly her with a Z-95 missile swarm!

And how many of those games have been in tournament?

Sorry, but competitively Esege and likely Shara as well has almost zero functionality. Ships that have to make a sacrifice to make other ships better, ESPECIALLY ships that cost as much as Esege and Shara do, are a complete waste of points.

Why does it always have to be about tournaments, though?

Because balance matters significantly less in casual play than tournament play, thats why. Esege works in casual play because it doesnt really MATTER how efficient or good his ability is, you're just playing some casual games with your buds. People will run Lieutenant Lorrir and Fel's Wrath in casual play.

It's always about tournaments because whether you like it, or believe it, tournament play is the baseline for a craft or pilot's usability. Anything used in tournament is still functional in any other kind of play, but the same is not true the other way around.

X-Wing is a competitive game first, casual game second.

Hello, fly her with a Z-95 missile swarm!

I thought so too, but i doubt it'll work in reality. generic Zs have no access to EPTs, nor astromechs or crew or really anything except for chips. Shara makes this easier, yes, and in fact almost completely circumvents that. Shara takes care of the target lock, Zs can focus instead, and then chips for a reasonably high hit chance.

Here are the missiles that you dont need to spend target locks(which is important because otherwise Shara is pointless) to use:

Ion Pulse Missiles: Against a Jumpmaster list, this would do basically nothing. Pretty much completely worthless. You could Ion two in a turn if Shara has weapons engineer, but they'll still light you up that turn and kill Shara and your list is done at that point.

Adv. Homing MIssiles: Better. Definite potential to cripple a JM5k with up to 4 crits. focus + chips is a guaranteed 3 hits almost every time, which will auto-hit a JM5K. If any one of those crits is a direct hit, that's a dead JM5K. But that's banking on quite a bit. That, and it's range 2 only. If on the first round you dont get your ships within range 2, that's game. There is no possible way to win at that point.

Homing Missiles: Really, really expensive, it's ability isn't functional against basically any high-health targets, but is 4 dice instead of three. Unfortunately, therin lies the problem. With both other missiles, they trigger upon landing any single hit result. Here, the damage output is actually lower than Adv. Homing missiles, because of the natural evades a JM5K will roll. Has a low possibility to kill a JM5k in a turn. Even worse, running 4 talas with Homing missiles means you cannot afford a single point of upgrades on Shara, making her late game ability terrible.

That, and they're Z-95s. Once those missiles are gone, they're effectively worthless, and Shara's ability just became a 28+ point investment in something that isn't doing anything for you. You can kill one JM5k on turn one MAYBE with the Adv. Homing Missiles. After that, then what? You have no more missiles. U-Boats work because they have EM and a PWT and a good dial and a lot of HP.

So after messing around, i discovered a way to get up to 6 evade results on a roll(or even spread out over multiple attacks) with Norra Wexley.

Norra with R3(again just going off the assumption that you can get an evade token, as it does not seem based off of a maneuver), Lando Calrissian,and that Vector Thrusters upgrade for Barrel roll

Dutch Vander w/ R2-D6 w/ Wingman and TLT

Kyle Katarn w/ TLT, Jan Ors, and Crackshot

So Norra activates Lando. There is only 1 result that this works with, although with most of the results you'll STILL get 4 evades in one roll. That result is double evade.

Double Evade: R3 gives another, so 3 evades. Dutch has given a target lock. You can either choose to focus, or barrel roll here. Let's assume you focus. Combat phase; Kyle sends over a focus token, Jan turns it to an evade. Norra has 4 evade tokens, a focus token, and a target lock. If, on said defense roll, you get either a focus or an evade, it is possible to spend the target lock and a focus and the 4 evades for 6 evade results. Realistically speaking though, in this situation the focus and target lock are for attacking, while the evades will handle all the defense. But, if you're ever in a tight spot, and NEED to dodge everything the game could ever throw at you, it is possible to dodge 6 hit results at once with Norra Wexley.

If you get Focus Evade, you can still get 5 evade results. It's everything above, except trade an evade token for a focus token.

With Lando, focus results are definitely not what you want, but no matter what you're guaranteed 2 evade tokens, at least one focus token if you don't perform a focus action, and a target lock UNLESS you double blank on Lando, which is very unlikely.

Dutch will also clear Norra's stress from PTL during the combat phase, so that it can all be done again next turn without needing to do a green maneuver.

It's definitely very unpractical, but pretty funny seeing where you can take Norra. The absurdity of it is that this is a 1 agility ship that can dodge more stuff than a Phantom can. Seems like a very, very fun casual list though when you really wanna mess with someone.

"Why yes, i did just put 4 evade tokens, a focus token, and a target lock on this ship. I dare you to shoot at it."

Norra is definitely, no matter how you look at her, a late game monster. Her ability to survive what you throw at her is very impressive. Even after Kyle and Dutch are gone, they'll have torn just as big a hole in the enemy, and i doubt whatever's left will be able to kill her before she kills them. Remember, you can't just chase an ARC-170 and get away with it, it's got an aux arc. Staying on it's tail isn't free pot shots at it all day.

And how many of those games have been in tournament?

Sorry, but competitively Esege and likely Shara as well has almost zero functionality. Ships that have to make a sacrifice to make other ships better, ESPECIALLY ships that cost as much as Esege and Shara do, are a complete waste of points.

Why does it always have to be about tournaments, though?

Because balance matters significantly less in casual play than tournament play, thats why. Esege works in casual play because it doesnt really MATTER how efficient or good his ability is, you're just playing some casual games with your buds. People will run Lieutenant Lorrir and Fel's Wrath in casual play.

It's always about tournaments because whether you like it, or believe it, tournament play is the baseline for a craft or pilot's usability. Anything used in tournament is still functional in any other kind of play, but the same is not true the other way around.

X-Wing is a competitive game first, casual game second.

I'll disagree with this on a few fronts. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that tournament play is the crucible to test viability and efficiency of all ships. If something doesn't do well in a tournament, then it's inefficient. It might work in a Casual game where playing top tier is not important. You play "fun" (aka crappy) lists and it doesn't matter. If it works in Tournament, then it's good. If it doesn't, then it's just not worth it. Am I wrong on understanding your position?

If you are playing missions and/or epic games....it's different. What is good is different as the parameters change. You said, " Anything used in tournament is still functional in any other kind of play, but the same is not true the other way around. " This is easily disproven with Soontir Fel in epic games. He's usually a terrible investment due to the fact that there are so many ships out there, he can't arc dodge them at all. It's not hard to focus fire on Soontir and we all know he can't stand up to focused fire. Soontir is a terrible waste of points in epic.

Another point would be T-65 X-wings in epic. They are great ships for that. They have the speed that can only be beat by an A-wing, but the firepower of a B-wing. With Integrated Astromech, they are quite close to the jousting efficiency of a B-wing, but it helps more in green dice with long range epics giving more green dice. Also, they can carry torpedoes that are great for epic, even without Guidance Chip.

Looking at Esege, he's really useful for any mission where you have to protect someone. That person gets to grab the Focus Tokens from the K-wing. If you have Recon Spec, then it helps quite a bit. Just look at Mission 1: Political Escort and you can see how useful he can be for the shuttle. That's not the only one. There are a lot of places his skill would be useful....especially when you look at the new ARC-170 stuff coming in that gives you a free EYEBALL result.

I would say that balance matters in casual play, but if it's balanced in tournament, it's usually balanced in casual. To say that efficiency doesn't matter in casual games is not true. I play some pretty competitive "casual" games.