Three Z-95's with it should be enough. Not quite a swarm, but it should do the damage.
Combine it with someone like Ventress and you are sure to do some damage. If you are able to double stress Soontir, you might be able to do two damage in a turn.
Z-95's will still get to shoot that round, as well.
BMST will probably just make Hull Upgrade "a thing" with Soontir other then him taking Stealth or Targeting Computer. 1 Hull upgrade will cancel out a BMST hit, and give that Palp Aces player time to erase said BMST ship. Weakens Soontir a bit by him not having stealth, which I think is the point of the card, adapt or die. Inquisitor would have to forfeit Autothrusters for a hull upgrade, not sure if that is worth it.
BMST will be a good scare for PTL aces. Just like stresshog is. Something they need to eliminate asap. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to run Palp Aces, there should be threats out there for you other than a player trying to get four arcs on one ship.
BMST will probably just make Hull Upgrade "a thing" with Soontir other then him taking Stealth or Targeting Computer. 1 Hull upgrade will cancel out a BMST hit, and give that Palp Aces player time to erase said BMST ship.
That's if you only take it on one ship, sure. I would take it on more than one if I expected it to actually do anything vs. Soontir Fel.
Of course, even just the idea of taking something other than Stealth Device drastically helps the odds in taking Soontir Fel out.
BMST will probably just make Hull Upgrade "a thing" with Soontir other then him taking Stealth or Targeting Computer. 1 Hull upgrade will cancel out a BMST hit, and give that Palp Aces player time to erase said BMST ship.
That's if you only take it on one ship, sure. I would take it on more than one if I expected it to actually do anything vs. Soontir Fel.
Of course, even just the idea of taking something other than Stealth Device drastically helps the odds in taking Soontir Fel out.
And I think that is the intent of the card. Make aces think about other cards like hull upgrade incase of BMST, or else go with stealth or autothrusters, etc. Different choices for different lists. And then scum players will be taking BMST instead of feedback, dampners, glitter etc. changing the way their list plays just in case of PTL aces. 1pt and costs an action is a good choice. Some lists stand zero chance against Palp Aces. BMST gives them hope.
Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship!
The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir. Now, both aces, with Palp, are attacking tokenless ships. How easy are they gonna cut through those ships with Palp forcing that crit? Or imagine Dengaroo with Zuckuss, now he doesnt even have to have you reroll your eyeballs, because you have no focus since you used your action on BMST...and missed!!!
- Omega Leader is a TIE/fo. He's good against a single target but he's a 2 die ship.
- Whisper/Echo are non-reactive repositioners that can be outflown.
- Wampa is a PS4 TIE fighter. He's a counter to 2 hull ships rather than a damage dealer.
- Brath, Stele and Vessery fly TIE defenders which don't have the same evasive power so you can potentially focus them down.
- Vader lacks the durability of Soontir: he's much more of a true glass cannon.
Fine observations but you're missing the point: there are so many alternative options to PTL orientated ships for imperials that it'd be foolish to spam black market slicer tools in your list. This is the common palp aces list in my area:
Shuttle + palp
Wampa
Omega leader
Inquisitor or Jax
Now only one ship out of those 4 contains PTL which could easily be replaced by an X7 defender. in fact it's notable that I rarely see Fel at competitive tables.
- Omega Leader is a TIE/fo. He's good against a single target but he's a 2 die ship.
- Whisper/Echo are non-reactive repositioners that can be outflown.
- Wampa is a PS4 TIE fighter. He's a counter to 2 hull ships rather than a damage dealer.
- Brath, Stele and Vessery fly TIE defenders which don't have the same evasive power so you can potentially focus them down.
- Vader lacks the durability of Soontir: he's much more of a true glass cannon.
Fine observations but you're missing the point: there are so many alternative options to PTL orientated ships for imperials that it'd be foolish to spam black market slicer tools in your list. This is the common palp aces list in my area:
Shuttle + palp
Wampa
Omega leader
Inquisitor or Jax
Now only one ship out of those 4 contains PTL which could easily be replaced by an X7 defender. in fact it's notable that I rarely see Fel at competitive tables.
Fel has been chased out of the meta by the prevalence of things which deal 4 near-guaranteed hits, which is about the only thing he's scared of other than getting bumped. The range 2 band of a scout is big and it's not easy to dodge all three of them. He gets caught there, he's highly likely to get tagged, because of 4LOM crew. He gets tagged, he gets dead.
I'm a bit sad to see A-wings get caught in a strike against Imp Aces, since my favorite list consists of three of them. However they do fall in the same category, just far less used. Problematic as it may be with just two hull they do have better tools of dealing with BMSTs than the Imps. A-wings can pump out burst damage unlike any imperials, though with the general aversion towards secondary weapons that's not gonna be a general solution. It'll be challenging, but not impossible. I've seen worse.
I'm a bit sad to see A-wings get caught in a strike against Imp Aces, since my favorite list consists of three of them. However they do fall in the same category, just far less used. Problematic as it may be with just two hull they do have better tools of dealing with BMSTs than the Imps. A-wings can pump out burst damage unlike any imperials, though with the general aversion towards secondary weapons that's not gonna be a general solution. It'll be challenging, but not impossible. I've seen worse.
It's perhaps notable that the only ships left at the end of the Chaos Over Yavin 30 point FFA at UK Nationals were A wings, Defenders, Vaders, and the occasional squint, i.e. all the ships that can get focus/evade every turn. PTL A Wings are just as much of a problem from that perspective as all the others. They're just as hard to kill and as hard to pin down, but they don't hit as hard without Prockets.
Tycho, as noted above, is the really sucky case with BMST, and I really think his pilot ability deserves an erratum as a result to make it function the same but not get him instantly murdered by a slicer swarm if he uses it.
"You cannot be assigned stress tokens. You cannot perform red manoeuvres." Functionally the same for the majority of common Psycho Tycho builds (albeit, some weird ones involving the 'take a stress, if you do do a thing' wording don't work, but they generally require you to be unstressed anyway and suck for Tycho as a result), but means he's never stressed instead of always a viable target for slicers.
Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship!
The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir.
I don't really see unique pilots taking BMST. It's really going to be the generics that we see using it for the exact reason you mention. No unique wants to use their action for a chance.
But....that does mean that 3 Binayre Pirates w/ BMST are going to be great for it, though. They would be happy to give up their action to take a 50-50 shot at Soontir Fel. They still get to shoot that round, even. So, if it's Palp Aces, they can try to damage one of the PTL aces and still shoot at the Palp Shuttle. There are three of them, so the chance of getting at least one hit are pretty high. If there are more than 1 enemy in range with a stress, they might be able to do a couple of them. It won't be easy enough to take out 3 Z-95's while they get to try to damage you each round. Also, the rest of the list can try to use the Z-95's as bait if your opponent is really gunning for them. Three of them is only 39 points and leaves a lot of points left for effective tools.
If you aren't worried about arc dodgers all the time, the ships are still effective. They can be great blockers and still get 2 shots. It's 3 separate ships that you have to spread your fire out against. You can joust with them, as well. If you want to have them be more effective vs. U-boats, you can even bump them up to Black Sun Soldiers for a point.
I'm a bit sad to see A-wings get caught in a strike against Imp Aces, since my favorite list consists of three of them.
It's not all A-wings that get hit. Only the PTL A-wings. Just use a different EPT on them.
Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship!
The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir.
I don't really see unique pilots taking BMST.
Assaj will. 4LOM might.I don't really see unique pilots taking BMST.Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship! The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir.
Maybe IGs?
Would you use one of your prexious actions with an ig to risk use Black market slicer tools?
Would you not take glitterstim for that turb you need to stay alive?
Assaj will. 4LOM might.
I don't really see unique pilots taking BMST.Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship! The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir.
Maybe IGs?
mine will at least try if it fits into "their style".
I'm also inclined to say that I might on any unique pilot who has a point spare, but not two for Stim. It's at about the same level as Dampeners in terms of utility for a point.
I'm a bit sad to see A-wings get caught in a strike against Imp Aces, since my favorite list consists of three of them.
It's not all A-wings that get hit. Only the PTL A-wings. Just use a different EPT on them.
I have read the thread so there's no need for repetition. Just using a different ept creates a different list, which I don't really want since I enjoy my list the way it is. Personally I believe the answer lies in the piloting of that particular list rather than just switching out whatever might create a weak spot in certain encounters resulting in a lower par list overall. The point is I'm fine with the upgrade, I'm just afraid that A-wings are going to be even more rare in the future if BMST becomes a prevalent part of future scum lists.
I'm also inclined to say that I might on any unique pilot who has a point spare, but not two for Stim. It's at about the same level as Dampeners in terms of utility for a point.
honestly, most two ship lists that aren't brobots (and even brobots) seem to have issues hitting through palp ace level defenses if they can't get the shuttle
they'd probably have better chances on the BMST 50% than taking pot shots at super-tier or any other similarly defensive ace
As a cheap tool to help strip stealth device off certain aces or as a way to deal damage when you pretty much know you're going to just get arc dodged anyway I think this card will find a place amongst many ships with an illicit slot. It's not going to kill them all by itself but for 1 point it seems pretty legit.
It isnt an attack, so stealth device isnt destroyer by it.
Bummer! I'd still take this thing in the odd illicit slot. I don't think it's worth building a list around it like crack shot, as some people are talking about doing, although maybe it is depending on your local meta.
BMST will be in all my lists. There are plenty of times where I focus for the sake of it.
4-LOM with Title, Advanced Sensors, Experimental Interface, BMST. Fun fun fun! And still a crew slot....
Assaj will. 4LOM might.
I don't really see unique pilots taking BMST.Also, I think people are forgetting they have to give up an action for just an attempt at a damage. Are Uboats going to not focus for their deadeye for a 50/50 shot at Soontir? Are you really going to waste your action to damage a Green Awing? That is a great way to have a 2 attack ship actually put damage through to your tokenless ship! The card will be insurance, but if you dont use it properly, you are leaving your ship tokenless. Definitely a trade off. Lots of cards are not used because they take a precious action. You can have three ships with BMST, they all use their action and miss with BMST, maybe the third ship gets the 1 damage on Soontir.
Maybe IGs?
VI bots love BMST. Trust me.
Edited by JoeVandal49BMST opens up more list diversity for competitive level players, but it will by no stretch of the imagination chase Soontir out of the meta.
if only