I think an easy fix for this is make it a title for Interceptors only, like the A wing. Something the lines of if you do not have an EPT slot, you gain EPT slot. Players then have to choose between an extra Mod slot or an EPT slot.

Wouldn't it be a little silly to not have the very Royal Guardy Kir Kanos not flying a Royal Guard TIE, though? I'd make it a mod. I've said it before, but this is the way you fix the Interceptor.

Dodgy Mod (modification, 1 point)

You may only equip this card if you have both the [barrel roll] and [boost] icons in your action bar. At the beginning of the combat phase, if you are not stressed, receive one evade token.

Now you suddenly have a reason not to use Push the Limit, opening up the EPT slot to experimentation, and this mod, as far as I can tell, has complete anti-synergi with Fel's ability, thereby improving every Interceptor except for him (though Lorrir and Cowall aren't huge fans either). I think it would also would be an interesting alternative to Autothrusters on Starvipers, potentially making at least Guri viable. Strong with the Adv. too, but again, doesn't work with PTL.

My only reservation would be that it might make the upcoming Fang Fighter too powerful, since it would fit its head on flying style better than Autothrusters.

Fel could still find ways to abuse that mod but it wouldnt be on his own. And you'd still see him purely because of PS9 anyway. People would start brining Yorr and a slightly cheaper Ace along side him so Yorr could soak the stress and double-evade that round.

Double evade is hilarious btw. Ive done it on my Awings with Jan Ors crew around. They Evade, PTL for Focus, Jan makes it another Evade lol. Did that to whichever of my 2 green squads were in a pinch and it almost always saved their bacon.

The main issue with interceptors other than Fel/Jax is the ship is so **** terrible for the cost that it takes Fel/Jax's high PS and crazy ability to make them viable. Theyre just as squishy as TIEs, banking on pure dice luck to survive and the only real edge they got over TIEs is boost. I dont consider the 3 red die an edge since they cost about twice a tie fighter.

i used the other pilots before i learned of the usual build for fel/jax and i usually ran into that issue every time: since they move mid-level theyre easily targeted, and odds are they wont survive 2 attacks in 1 round. Some of the other abilities are pretty good but its just so easy to remove that ship rofl.

Same issue with the other 3 TIE Adv nobody ever pays attention to: Lt Colzet, Commander Alozen, and Zertik Strom.

Lt Colzet technically has an issue where his ability conflicts with the tie/adv sensor. It triggers in the End Phase so he can get both but then you need to reacquire it, meaning he will never get his other actions and he has no EPT slot for PTL...aaaand he's PS3 lol. His ability is if you spend his targetlock in the End Phase he flips a random card faceup on the ship he was targeting. Personally that sounds mean as hell, as i love Stele for the crit shenanigans he can pull, but lack of an EPT and PS3 and DEMANDING he reacquires a TL every turn makes me not wanna touch this guy. You "could" give him fire control systems and he'd just acquire a TL for the hell of it and immediately burn it to flip a card, but then he has an issue where he might not even get an attack through due to crap dice lol

Commander Alozen is the opposite...kinda. If hes in range1 at the start of the combat phase, free targetlock! Meaning unlike normal tie/adv he can change targets on the **** fly and not sac' his action to do it. And he DOES have an ept...aaaaand PS5 ... fml

Zertik Strom is probably the bleh of the three. You dont get range benefits against him, which only against whoever that scum is that gets double range bonuses would actually be powerful enough to take him over the other special pilots.

The price difference between them and the usual trio of Vader, Stele, and Juno is so **** minor you just cant bring them lol. For pennies more you get a high PS and a vastly better skill.

FFG puts so little value on high PS and abilities...least in the older kits. The low PS guys even with an ability should be pretty **** cheap, because a low PS can hamper a ship's performance a LOT more than you'd think. Initially i thought i wanted low PS because i WANTED to move first so nobody could block me. Heh...i changed that mentality quiiiiiick.

Rebels have a way around the crap PS issue: Roark in his HWK makes a ship at range 1-3 PS12 in the combat phase. I even ran into a list where someone abused that by taking Swarm Tactics on 3 cheapo ships and daisy-chained it..that was rather annoying and interesting lol. He moved first AND shot first.

Imps really dont have a way around crap PS unless they wanna bring Vader with SwarmTactics or Fel with it....and who the hell is going to use Fel without PTL lol.

Wampa with calculation seems good for 15 points.

Delta Squadron Pilot, X7

Delta Squadron Pilot, X7

Delta Squadron Pilot, X7

Backstabber

100

enjoy

If Kanos had access to an EPT he would be used a hell of a lot more.

Or Comms Relay...

Which I think could be a sneaky good title for Interceptors allowing them to take Tech upgrades. It really doesn't help Soontir since he'll still probably prefer the Royal Guard Title for ATs + SD. However, it could help the likes of Kanos or Lorrir.

Kir kanos loves the new toe shuttles. Oh a focus and a target lock for me in addition to my evade and no stress? Gee, thanks!!

If Kanos had access to an EPT he would be used a hell of a lot more.

makes me so **** sad

This is the one change i wish FFG would FAQ on all the pilot cards: "If a named pilot does not have an EPT slot naturally, consider it to be in the upgrade bar anyway" - i could see them omitting the ships that dont have it period (lambda, punisher, kwing, ghost) but tie/fight tie/fo tie/adv awing and xwings suffer immensely compared to their higher PS brethren purely because of no EPT...lower PS being a crutch but not the sale-point for not using them.

Some eptless pilots make sense. Lambas, for example, were introduced before the yt2409 large ship b-roll errata nixed the idiocy of EH falcons, so they came without epts

I kinda get the K too, though I'd love nothing more than PS 10 Miranda SLAMing and dropping guaranteed seismics on everything

And them some things make zero sense, and imp aces is basically the poster child thereof apart from the royal guard and cannot (Carnor; gotta auto correct but "Cannot Jax" is also a fitting name)

if the Lambda had EPT i would glue Expert Handling to that thing purely for the WTF? reaction out of people lol.

i still get that when i do it on a decimator.

EH oicuun with gunner + Vader; certainly not the worst investment you could make

Go see the current Vassal Reddit tournament to see why some ships should never have an EPT. A PS9 Hera is a shining example of the problem, the Expose Chopper was also troublesome.

Thats why i said omit the ships that dont have it period.

Ive tried putting Expose on a decimator quite a few times. Problem is i fear i'd be wasting my time if he doesnt atleast have a focus and i dont have experimental interface to slap on him. Thought about weapons engineer so i can TL one turn, fire at one guy normally, expose fire at the other next round.

Chiraneau would love 5die range1 attacks.

Rebels have so many crew that add tokens or enable you to do things you normally shouldnt. I dont get why imperial crew suck so bad outside 2-4 of them lol

Rebel crew mostly suck too

In fact, the only ones I see locally with any frequency are hera and Sabine (and Sabine is mostly my fault + one other devoted/insane K played)

Haven't even seen a c3po in ages.

Kanan showed up a few times before Dash (pilot) started getting stomped and he's gone now

Kk was on the same boat; r3a2 norra might bail him out though

Luke is overpriced gunner

Han is hella situational (FCs ghost basically)

I didn't even remember Lea existed

Dash has a niche but it's hellishly situational (ghost likes him; ghost likes a lot of crew actually)

Lando is green dice garbage,

no one discovered leebo's niche (large base low PS blockers; poor ORS just sucks too much maybe illicit yts with feedback will help)

Scum has the market cornered on quantity of quality crew esp concerning dice modification (k4, Dengar, zuckuss, 4lom; even bossk to a lesser extent)

For raw quality, though, palpatine just wins. Vader and rebel captive are also still incredible

Hmm, I was thinking up a commander format for Xwing. It could include:

150pts

One ship 7 ps and above as the "Commander"

One unique ship 3-6 ps as "the lieutenant" in the same ship as the commander.

Commander must equip "squad leader" as EPT, even if they don't have an EPT slot and may use it as a free action.

If the LT. Is in range 1 of the commander, they share PS.

Rest of the squad must be 3+ generics, they get -1 stress when in they end combat range 1 of the LT or Commander.

Then the mid range might get love, but there's no place in regular formats for them really.

I remember when Backstabber was considered one of the most efficient ships in the game.

Huh.

Still is, OP is a scrub.

Mid PS ships won't see play unless all the other high PS ships are already taken in the list. If you are going to go with a ship, why not go with the highest PS ship you can? For tournament play, you will need a way to deal with Soontir, Phantoms, and other high PS opponents. There is no logical reason to take a non-high PS ship if you can take a high PS ship.

That said, Backstabber and Dark Curse are awesome and should be considered. When have they become not used?

Kir Kanos would be used if he could take PTL as he would be able to modify his dice AND add a hit to the total. As it is now, he's best used in Epic where he is actually a decent choice.

im actually getting to be less and less of a vader crew fan. I used to put him on a decimator but every time i do that the decimator vaporizes not because im spamming vader but because i CAN spam it so he gets focus fired to hell and back lol. Since its a crit and not a faceup card i really dont wanna use it unless theres no shields. Rebel captive is pretty good though if you arent running Mara Jade.

Palp i wouldnt even consider a crew card. He can only be in 2 ships outside huge anyway and he usually forces that ship to play chicken instead of do their normal job. I consider him a ship on his own, not a crew lol.

And the reason for not taking the highest PS should be the difference between getting a couple key upgrades or even another cheap ship. But 3pts for +2 PS AND a great ability and in some cases an EPT slot...why is all that worth 3pts? The PS alone feels like it should be the 3pts, but the bonus EPT should make it even wider of a gap since EPT enables a LOT of shenanigans.

And pilot abilities dont feel like they have a price. Deathrain for instance, he's +2PS to the generic and has a really **** good pilot ability, costs 3pts more. Upgrade cards always cost more than printed perks, but i think its safe to assume 1ps = 1pt in this game for the most part. So 2pts = +2PS and 1pt = pilot ability in this case. If it was something simple like Chaser, sounds right, but an ability that changes the whole mentality of the ships' behavior like Deathrain's does for 1pt? what?

i mean its something thats kinda hard to price since its subject to meta for its value. I still feel like the abilities are just slapped on basically free of charge. No abilities should be dirt cheap, since a lot of the dice mod shenanigans out there are pilot ability based.

some abilities do indeed make no sense in pricing and FFG seems to flip-flop constantly on the whole points for PS thing

compare:

Dagger Squadron to Ibs (+4 points for +2 ps; wtf) and then Ibs to Nub (+3 for +2 PS). Spectacularly situational abilities getting charged through the nose

and then we go to Leebo, whose crap ability barely sees play, to Dash who sees play exclusively out of his entire ship-class and is DEFINED by his ability...+2 points for +2ps

yeah thats another example for sure.

Kinda wonder what would happen if they gave Dash a new ability and turned his ability into a freebie title (that still allowed the current title to be added in).

I have seen Wampa much more than Backstabber or Dark Curse lately, I agree they are decent for their cost, but they arn't as good as Wampa in my opinion. He fills the same role as a filler mini ace tie.

But I suppose if you are not willing to pay the $50 for the Gozanti, Dark Curse and Backstabber are the best options.

Still have a ton of other pilots that could use help though. Just because the first half of my argument was wrong doesn't mean the 2nd half isnt!

Mid PS ships won't see play unless all the other high PS ships are already taken in the list. If you are going to go with a ship, why not go with the highest PS ship you can? For tournament play, you will need a way to deal with Soontir, Phantoms, and other high PS opponents. There is no logical reason to take a non-high PS ship if you can take a high PS ship.

That said, Backstabber and Dark Curse are awesome and should be considered. When have they become not used?

Kir Kanos would be used if he could take PTL as he would be able to modify his dice AND add a hit to the total. As it is now, he's best used in Epic where he is actually a decent choice.

I have been an avid Backstabber user since I started the game. I've not used him recently because of Scouts. His slot in my list is actually being filled by a lower PS ship to use as a blocker against PS3 Scouts. Alternativelyn sometimes he gets replaced by Wampa, who is a similar sort of "I will jack you up if you don't pay attention to me" kind of ship. Wampa is 2 points cheaper, and better against aces. Backstabber has better PS and is better against everyone else.

A lot of people have responded about how many rebel pilots (and some imperial pilots) would be insane with an EPT (like Hera at PS 9). My intention in posting this discussion was not to question why all named pilots don't have ept's, just why some of them (with less powerful abilities) don't and how that could be fixed. Either with an ept or some other upgrade.
I am not sure how many Rebel pilots really need fixing since they have the ept droid and droids in general but buddyfett gave a good list of Imperial pilots that could use help.

This is cute, those are the good ones. The B team pilots, the ones that are almost good.

What about:

Col. Jendon
Alozen
Z Storm
Winged gundark
Night beast
Fel's wrath
Kanos
Cowell
Zeta ace

Etc.

Anyone use these pilots often? If not maybe they should get some fix.

Zeta Ace has an EPT slot. I've run him with PTL to be able to use his crazy roll and still focus, but he's too expensive that way for his piddly 2 dice attack.

I used to run Night Beast quite a lot. Usually he gets no upgrade and is pretty good for his points, but he's now overshadowed by Black Squadron with Crack Shot.

Lt Colzet technically has an issue where his ability conflicts with the tie/adv sensor. It triggers in the End Phase so he can get both but then you need to reacquire it, meaning he will never get his other actions and he has no EPT slot for PTL...aaaand he's PS3 lol. His ability is if you spend his targetlock in the End Phase he flips a random card faceup on the ship he was targeting. Personally that sounds mean as hell, as i love Stele for the crit shenanigans he can pull, but lack of an EPT and PS3 and DEMANDING he reacquires a TL every turn makes me not wanna touch this guy. You "could" give him fire control systems and he'd just acquire a TL for the hell of it and immediately burn it to flip a card, but then he has an issue where he might not even get an attack through due to crap dice lol

Commander Alozen is the opposite...kinda. If hes in range1 at the start of the combat phase, free targetlock! Meaning unlike normal tie/adv he can change targets on the **** fly and not sac' his action to do it. And he DOES have an ept...aaaaand PS5 ... fml

Zertik Strom is probably the bleh of the three. You dont get range benefits against him, which only against whoever that scum is that gets double range bonuses would actually be powerful enough to take him over the other special pilots.

Colzet is actually a very decent pilot. I used to fly him as a filler with Whisper and Soontir. It got me to the final of a mid-tier tournament actually. Not saying Colzet was the highlight of the list but still...

The key lies in using him with Accuracy Corrector rather than ATC. 2 hits per turn doesn't sound impressive but it is very consistent and he does not rely on actions to make his attacks effective. As a result you're free to K-turn, barrel roll or evade as much as you want and his offensive efficiency doesn't drop at all. At PS3 that makes him a great blocker/decoy, who can survive a lot, deny actions, draw fire away and slowly but surely deal consistent damage every turn. If there is no need to barrel roll and it doesn't seem like you'll be shot at this turn, you just lock something that is damaged or you expect might be damaged soon. It doesn't have to be the target you can shoot at. The target might not even remain within range 3 by the time you use it. if it's still alive by the end of the turn, you just flip a damage card. It makes Colzet relevant even against aces who can typically dodge his 2 attacks easily. Quite often you can land a hit or two on them but it's hard to finish them off when they start flying defensively. Can't really dodge being locked though and I recall at least a couple of situations when I managed to finish off an ace by flipping a Direct hit. Or at least cripple them with something nasty such as extra stress or the card that prevents them from using actions (can't remember the name).

It's also quite hilarious when the enemy ship only has one damage card such as Console Fire that can be flipped with an action or after a roll. Every time the enemy ship has managed to get get rid of it, you just flip it back. It's situational of course, but the very possibility of doing so makes Colzet annoying. As a result he draws far more attention than a 23 point ship should. My opponents would often be distracted from the aces at a time when they still had plenty of ships and probably the best opportunity to kill them.

As for Zertik, I have never flown him, but I've seen this ridiculous Zertik/Juno/Carnor build with Sensor Jammers and Prockets on the TIE/Advs. The player with this list did the one thing aces typically dislike with a passion: got right into the middle of a furball and dominated the enemy in close range firefights. He got surprisingly far too. Not sure how much of that efficiency was due to the sheer surprise factor but it seems that if you build your list around their skills, some of those mid-tier pilots can be more effective than they're given credit for.