How is the ability to turn blank blank focus on 3 evade dice into 4 evade results not game breaking? If you're playing a list where your ships are invincible, you've broken the game. You've turned off the ability for your opponent to damage your ships,and he might as well not play because his attacks are all worthless

Good luck doing that more than once in a single round, or without any tokens, or in-arc and within range 3. The counter to that is multiple shots and/or blocking.

Blank-blank-focus without any tokens is, at best, two evades IF you still have Palp AND range 3 (EDIT: assuming Autothrusters). If you don't have range 3, and Palpy has already been used, you're SOL and taking damage.

Or, just focus down Palp's vehicle first. That can certainly be difficult, especially with 2 or 3 aces now looking at you and drooling as you're doing it, but it's not impossible. I've seen it done (haven't done it myself, but it can happen).

Not invincible.

Ah for **** sake, just fly double Phantoms already!

Back to reality: I've just skimmed through the regionals results thread to see what's winning. Are palp aces there? Sure. Are they dominant? Hell no. They've won maybe a quarter of regionals out there, despite the fact that during the u-boat surge they were the main counter. Other frequently winning lists include u-boats (pre-nerf), jumpmaster aces (post-nerf), brobots, crack swarms (both imperial nad rebel) and - surprisingly - quite a few unusual rebel lists. The most recent regional last weekend was won by a Red Ace, stresshog and minelayer K-wing with Sabine. Before, we had 2 regionals won by a combo of 2 T-65s and an E-wing (Wes, Biggs, Corran). I bet the players flying those lists faced multiple palp aces on their way to the top. They just brought the tools to deal with them - stress, token removal, damage that ignores green dice.

So much for totally-broken-no-brainz-needed aces hyperbole. For all it's faults, X-wing is still a game that allows a surprisingly large variety of list archetypes to succeed. Palp aces are certainly one of those successful lists but hardly the only one. You can whine that all of these are "power lists" (as if being powerful and efficient is somehow a flaw) but the sheer variety of winning squads is still impressive. Unless you expect a game where you can put together a few generic T-65s and win vs a carefully designed list built to achieve high efficiency. I don't think such a game would be much fun though. It would mean that the results are pretty random and list building skills are effectively meaningless.

Looks like the "direct counter" to Contracted Scouts is the Fang Fighter.

The new article points out how through pilot skill (and Adaptability) the Protectorate can block and fire upon a JM5k before it has a chance to shoot its ordinance.

Looks like the "direct counter" to Contracted Scouts is the Fang Fighter.

The new article points out how through pilot skill (and Adaptability) the Protectorate can block and fire upon a JM5k before it has a chance to shoot its ordinance.

Uh...Awings already did this and better (re for 5 less points)

So, that's a load of bunk

They mention old Terry as a hard counter, but that's extra bunk because Carnor didn't stop anyone and Palob also already exists

Looks like the "direct counter" to Contracted Scouts is the Fang Fighter.

The new article points out how through pilot skill (and Adaptability) the Protectorate can block and fire upon a JM5k before it has a chance to shoot its ordinance.

Uh...Awings already did this and better (re for 5 less points)

So, that's a load of bunk

They mention old Terry as a hard counter, but that's extra bunk because Carnor didn't stop anyone and Palob also already exists

I see your point but it's NOT so bunk when you get more Red dice to attack... than the A-wings.

(edit: added the a-wing part)