I've been thinking a lot about Palpatine lately and if I want to use him. I haven't actually obtained a Palpatine card yet, so I won't be using him anytime soon, but I have been thinking about future lists that I would want to run. I've flown a couple different lists over the past month and a half, lists with an Inquisitor or recently a Bounty Hunter Firespray or other ships, just toying around with different things and seeing what I like and what I can make work. One ship that is always in my lists is an Interceptor with Soontir in it (because I love Interceptors and LOVE Soontir Fel), and what I have flown the most often is Soontir, an OGP DoomShuttle with Vader>FCS>Gunner, and then a random other ship. Today I flew those two alongside Turr Phennir with Adaptability to add to his PS (no room for VI on him, so a free +1 to PS had to be good enough).

Long story short, I like flying Aces and I frequantly use a Shuttle with them. I have fond memories of assembling a Lambda model with a relative many years ago, I like the look of the Shuttle, and I like the Vader/Gunner combo and three attack dice. So I keep gravitating towards it.

I've been watching a lot of videos lately of various matches across the US and Canada and have begun searching for PalpAces videos to watch how people play them and watch how their opponents play against them, since that is the closest thing to the lists I have been running. One thing I have noticed in a lot of videos I have watched (10+ PalpAce videos in the last few days) is that he doesn't get used in too many rounds. The enemy hones in on the Shuttle with Palpatine, the commentators mention something along the lines of "There he goes after that Palpatine. It's a great idea to take him down quick and get him out of the fight," the Palp-player gets shot at and gets shots off from the Palp-mobile or his other ships, and doesn't use Palpatine.

I'm not making a declaration that he is underused, just that out of the matches I have personally viewed, I don't see him get used nearly as often as I would think he should be. A round in any match where the PS 2 Lambda is getting the last shot off in the round and doesn't "Palp" a die, or is getting shot by the last ships to fire and take some shield damage instead of "Palp-ing" a blank into an evade, seem like huge missed opportunities. But this is just what I feel like I keep seeing.

So I wanted to ask: Do you players who use Palpatine make sure that his ability isn't wasted in any round? Do you see a lot of people who are keeping up on using him? Does it seem like people hold back a lot on using him and then regret it later when they realize they should have been changing more dice instead of always keeping him in reserve for a better chance? Just looking for other people's anecdotes here. I've looked at some of the tournament results from the year and graphs showing how common he is but that doesn't tell me if he actually gets put to use or not. I've only been to one OP so far and no one was using him (I was using my Shuttle though and was asked multiple times "You running PalpAces?" "Nope, I don't have a Palpatine yet.").

Is it just some poor matches that I have watched?

Not sure why people won't use palp for lambda shots/defense if it's still available (missed opportunities? Get palp tokens! ), but in general his ability is meant to keep the aces alive (i.e. modify the green dice). So it's quite natural for players wanting to reserve palp for later uses when the aces are evading the return fire. Palp is only used aggresively when you either arc-dodged the opponent or want to make that particular shot counts.

Palp gets used pretty much every round IME. I've seen people use him on anything from rocks during the activation phase to the Lambda's final defence against a lowly Academy Pilot.

He's essentially dice variance insurance.

He should get used every round where dice are rolled, the occasional round where you roll all evades and hits with the dice maybe not, even then I think I remember one round of a game in the only time that has happened with me and I just turned a hit into a crit, so there is always a use. it is possible to save him for defence and not need him and have the lambda in a position where it can't fire, he can get wasted then for a round.

If the opponent is focused on the lambda then you should have 2 other good ships getting attacks on one of theirs to cause serious pain, so even then it not a total waste.

Every.

Single.

Round.

All.

Game.

Long.

It's completely understandable not using palp to buff up the attacks of your aces - especially if they're going to take return fire a little later in the turn. Even if it turns out (like it quite often does) that your aces didn't actually need the help.

So I can quite easily understand palp not getting used if the shuttle isn't engaged in combat.

However once the shuttle gets into the fight it'll be firing pretty much last, so unless you're getting perfect dice with the shuttle there's no reason to let palp go to waste (especially since with only one agility the shuttle needs to save as much damage as it can).

I always fly my palp shuttle aggressively (it's got 10 hp and a very solid 3 die attack!) so I don't really ever run out of opportunities to use palp. If I don't use him for a round that's atypical and I better have rolled very well naturally.

I see him used every turn. As stated before, he's generally reserved for the green dice on Aces. If they escape damage on their own, he's almost always used to turn one of the Shuttle's red dice into a crit as it usually fires last.

once per round sounds right

I always fly my palp shuttle aggressively (it's got 10 hp and a very solid 3 die attack!) so I don't really ever run out of opportunities to use palp. If I don't use him for a round that's atypical and I better have rolled very well naturally.

The same goes for me. The only time Palp doesn't get used is if I naturally evade all attacks and the shuttle doesn't have a shot. I usually fly it with Wampa, so I change Wampa's roll to a crit, if needed, to proc his ability.

The difficult thing about watching videos is that you miss die changes sometimes. Even the announcers will miss them because they are typically watching the action on a computer screen away from the table to ensure that they don't interrupt the players.

if you dont use it there is no point having it

if you dont use it there is no point having it

except you get to do this

I'm not making a declaration that he is underused, just that out of the matches I have personally viewed, I don't see him get used nearly as often as I would think he should be.

I am pretty sure that players use it in almost every round, you just probably miss it. It is often very hard to see what players are doing with the dice, so no surprise that even the announcers did not notice either.

The only time Palp wouldn't be used if if he's saved for defense only to not be needed. In my experience, he's used damned near every turn.

Also, every Palpaces player I've run into tells me they want me to focus on the shuttle. Unless you're sporting ordnance, you're going to need to take a couple of turns to take it out, meanwhile you have two Palp-capable aces ripping you a new one.

I've been running Inq/OL/Wampa/palpmobile for the last several months. Great maximization of Palp. If your aces are out of arc and need the shot help, great, if they needed it go survive, that's what it is there for, but if we get past that, Wampa loves the Emperor.

I am not an expert, but I have watched many a bout with Palp Aces and asked the players about strategies. It seems that most players use him for defense unless the Arc Dodgers have done their jobs and he can be used for an attack with the shuttle or with the low PS ship that has a shot but no opposing ship has a final play. As far as the shuttle being used as bait, I have heard from players that "good" opponents usually don't fall for the shuttle carrot and go after, let's say, the Inquisitor first (if he's on the board) or whichever Ace seems to be the most dangerous to their squad. Shuttles usually don't move much at all and keeping out of their arc is smart for the opposition. Yeah....Palp, I have one, but I am not yet to that level of Ace/Arc-dodging ability to fly him competitively yet. I do hope to get good at this historical meta juggernaut, so that I might be able to say, "yeah, I've flown those..." with a smug look and a pint in hand. (if that's the proper look)

Once per round.

the only way he doesnt get used is if you roll baller all game and keep holding it from changing a hit to a crit because you arent done rolling dice yet.

i usually dont palp the shuttle defense unless its going to negate enough to not deal a crit to my hull or i can cancel an effect/proc. Course i dont run him much anyway. i hate that ship