Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

EPT is just an abstraction, otherwise we'd have to conclude that every Green Squadron pilot who also happened to have testrd the A-wing is twice as Elite as Vader or Poe Dameron.

Didn't they nerf the good droid?

Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

I love the EPT on that ship. I wish more generics had 'em. Scouts really were the perfect storm of "Oh god, no!". They could have done one of about 11 things differently with it and still left it mostly the same, and avoided the U-Boat problem, but...oh well. After the R4 Agromech nerf, they're almost in line...kinda...mostly.

About 30 minutes after Contracted Scouts were spoiled I went to work figuring how what you could do with them and stumbled upon the "U-Boat", as it would later be named. I was amazed that three fit into a list. I had to double check the rulings for R4 Agromech. I went to post my amazing discovery to the forum to find out that a couple people had already beat me to it. This was within an hour of them being spoiled.

It's pretty amazing that triple U-Boats weren't caught and addressed during play testing. To err is human, ya?

Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

And how much play do you think Contracted Scouts without EPT would have seen? My bet is about as much as Outer Rim Smugger and Wild Space Fringer.

EPT is just an abstraction, otherwise we'd have to conclude that every Green Squadron pilot who also happened to have testrd the A-wing is twice as Elite as Vader or Poe Dameron.

I find it funny you think they're comparable. Not even close for the points cost. Also, those are rebel ships. Imps have the punisher. We all lose.

Didn't they nerf the good droid?

They nerfed one, but there's another salvaged astromech that achieves basically the same odds through different mechanics.

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

I would totally be up for a pack once a year with Card Fixes and some of the generic cards for the season to bulk it out. I mean who has enough of some of the brand new Bombs, Torps or Modifications.

As an imperial player I would love to have a 25pt PS 3 ship with a large base that can barrel roll, shoots 2 through a 360 arc with 4 shields and 5 hull that can take a number of upgrades. Wow. To think it needed EPT to be playable is laughable.

Yeah, waves have got to be design complete about 6 months before shipment to allow a 3 month production window and 2-3 months shipping and distribution. That means any hard counter would have a minimum lead time of 6 months if it got crammed in at the very end of a dev cycle, more likely 7-9 months.

Generally, they say there's about 18 months from when they start development to when we see it on the shelves. Which, yeah, is probably about 12 months of development + 6 months of production.

Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

I love the EPT on that ship. I wish more generics had 'em. Scouts really were the perfect storm of "Oh god, no!". They could have done one of about 11 things differently with it and still left it mostly the same, and avoided the U-Boat problem, but...oh well. After the R4 Agromech nerf, they're almost in line...kinda...mostly.

About 30 minutes after Contracted Scouts were spoiled I went to work figuring how what you could do with them and stumbled upon the "U-Boat", as it would later be named. I was amazed that three fit into a list. I had to double check the rulings for R4 Agromech. I went to post my amazing discovery to the forum to find out that a couple people had already beat me to it. This was within an hour of them being spoiled.

It's pretty amazing that triple U-Boats weren't caught and addressed during play testing. To err is human, ya?

this is kind of my point. they clearly DIDN'T test it. Not to any decent level that is. and thats what scares me.

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

Apparently there was once a Star Wars minis game that did this. Alex Davies played that game, and the constant changing of cardboard text made the game nearly unplayable. So that's why they try their hardest to never do that.

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

Apparently there was once a Star Wars minis game that did this. Alex Davies played that game, and the constant changing of cardboard text made the game nearly unplayable. So that's why they try their hardest to never do that.

Agreed they shouldn't do it often, but a single pack to rebalance the half dozen cards that really need it, 3 years into a game would not be so bad.

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

Apparently there was once a Star Wars minis game that did this. Alex Davies played that game, and the constant changing of cardboard text made the game nearly unplayable. So that's why they try their hardest to never do that.

Agreed they shouldn't do it often, but a single pack to rebalance the half dozen cards that really need it, 3 years into a game would not be so bad.

Decipher did this to fix a card in the Star Wars CCG in the 90's. You mailed in your copies and they shipped you back the replacements. It isn't a cheap proposition but they could do it if it was absolutely critical. Contracted scout is not quite that bad, if you could run 4 of them they would have had to fix it with reprints.

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

Apparently there was once a Star Wars minis game that did this. Alex Davies played that game, and the constant changing of cardboard text made the game nearly unplayable. So that's why they try their hardest to never do that.

Agreed they shouldn't do it often, but a single pack to rebalance the half dozen cards that really need it, 3 years into a game would not be so bad.

Decipher did this to fix a card in the Star Wars CCG in the 90's. You mailed in your copies and they shipped you back the replacements. It isn't a cheap proposition but they could do it if it was absolutely critical. Contracted scout is not quite that bad, if you could run 4 of them they would have had to fix it with reprints.

TBH stick in some rarer, often requested cards like Advanced Sensors, Fire Control System... or even alt art cards... and I don't think anyone would really complain about paying for a pack to fix the few issues they have up to now.

Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

I love the EPT on that ship. I wish more generics had 'em. Scouts really were the perfect storm of "Oh god, no!". They could have done one of about 11 things differently with it and still left it mostly the same, and avoided the U-Boat problem, but...oh well. After the R4 Agromech nerf, they're almost in line...kinda...mostly.

About 30 minutes after Contracted Scouts were spoiled I went to work figuring how what you could do with them and stumbled upon the "U-Boat", as it would later be named. I was amazed that three fit into a list. I had to double check the rulings for R4 Agromech. I went to post my amazing discovery to the forum to find out that a couple people had already beat me to it. This was within an hour of them being spoiled.

It's pretty amazing that triple U-Boats weren't caught and addressed during play testing. To err is human, ya?

Yeah, totally weird that a combination of ships would require that you buy more than one.. or two.. .of them. How very weird.

It's pretty amazing that triple U-Boats weren't caught and addressed during play testing. To err is human, ya?

They were noticed and intended, the devs just thought their performance would be in line because, as we've heard over and over again, they don't have a grounding in statistical analysis.

Oops.

As an imperial player I would love to have a 25pt PS 3 ship with a large base that can barrel roll, shoots 2 through a 360 arc with 4 shields and 5 hull that can take a number of upgrades. Wow. To think it needed EPT to be playable is laughable.

And as a Scum player I'd love: Palpatine, Defenders, Pocket Aces at 26 points, spammable ships with Cracksot at 15 points a pop, a14 point fighter whose ability is "on a crit I'll just deal you a damage, greens be damned', 3 dice PWTs, 4 attack ships. Your point is ?

Why an EPT-less contracted scout would not be playable: no EPT kills triple U-Boats (yay, one less competitive Scum list to worry about), so you'd likely take max 1 JM5k in a list. Now, why would you pick an EPT-less Scout at 25 when Manaroo is 27 (and has EPT and an epic pilot ability)?

Giving it the EPT was a mistake. Elite Pilot Talent...for a "Contracted Scout"? Meanwhile numerous unique pilots don't have an EPT?

And how much play do you think Contracted Scouts without EPT would have seen? My bet is about as much as Outer Rim Smugger and Wild Space Fringer.

EPT is just an abstraction, otherwise we'd have to conclude that every Green Squadron pilot who also happened to have testrd the A-wing is twice as Elite as Vader or Poe Dameron.

I find it funny you think they're comparable. Not even close for the points cost. Also, those are rebel ships. Imps have the punisher. We all lose.

Scum already loses more than Empire and Rebels on that front. We have the Scyk and the Special Needs K

Why an EPT-less contracted scout would not be playable: no EPT kills triple U-Boats (yay, one less competitive Scum list to worry about), so you'd likely take max 1 JM5k in a list. Now, why would you pick an EPT-less Scout at 25 when Manaroo is 27 (and has EPT and an epic pilot ability)?

For one point more than Manaroo, you get a great blocker with Feedback Array. You can go up to 30 points if you really want APL, but that's a luxury item.

If you don't think a 28 point ship that's an absolute nightmare for aces would be playable, well...

Why an EPT-less contracted scout would not be playable: no EPT kills triple U-Boats (yay, one less competitive Scum list to worry about), so you'd likely take max 1 JM5k in a list. Now, why would you pick an EPT-less Scout at 25 when Manaroo is 27 (and has EPT and an epic pilot ability)?

For one point more than Manaroo, you get a great blocker with Feedback Array. You can go up to 30 points if you really want APL, but that's a luxury item.

If you don't think a 28 point ship that's an absolute nightmare for aces would be playable, well...

Manaroo provides the same stuff vs. aces (+EPT Slot for Intimidation) + 1 free focus token when you don't need to barrel roll for one ship on your team for 2 points more. Unless we're in the very corner case you can't really afford those 2 points, why take scout over Manaroo again ?

Alex stated, in an interview after the Jumpmaster was released, that 'Deadeye was a card he never thought he'd have to worry about'.

Wave 9 would already have been designed by the time the 3x Scout + Deadeye combo was discovered to be a strong build.

Any counter to the Jumpmaster in wave 9 would be a counter to how the designers imagined the ship to be used. They missed the power of the deadeye combo therefore there is no counter to it. There may well be a counter to some other JM5k build that never got traction but who knows what that might be/have been.

I doubt they weren't aware of it. Deadeye came in the same wave in the Inquisitor s TIE.

If you're listing Intimidation as a selling point it's now four points more. But, yes, outside of exceptional cases like Dengaroo or pre-nerf double phantoms, two points actually do matter to most lists. Four points certainly matter to anything that's not Dengaroo. Sure, if you want to pay a premium for an even better blocker, that's an option, but it comes with a real cost.

So with the U-wing coming out, wouldn't now be a good time to retire the jumpmaster's missapplied, appellation?

So with the U-wing coming out, wouldn't now be a good time to retire the jumpmaster's missapplied, appelation?

before was a good time too

cool as history is, torpedo scout (torp scout) just makes more sense

especially because u-boats were apparently very slow, which isn't the jumpaster's speed at all

FFG could fix a lot in this game via actual hard changes to cards; they just choose not to. I get why, so they don't devalue existing stock, but I think the market for it and the reception for it would be greater than they expect.

Apparently there was once a Star Wars minis game that did this. Alex Davies played that game, and the constant changing of cardboard text made the game nearly unplayable. So that's why they try their hardest to never do that.

Agreed they shouldn't do it often, but a single pack to rebalance the half dozen cards that really need it, 3 years into a game would not be so bad.

And so we begin down the slow yet inevitable path called Star Wars: X-Wing 2.0

3 x B Dagger. Plasma Torpedo + Extra munition + Guidence Chip. FCS for target lock and Flechette cannon to stress out 1 Jumpmaster from firing 1 Torpedo in next round.

I think it takes at least two waves to correct a meta. Remember Wave 9 was announced before Wave 8 was out. So there really wan't a U-boat meta when Wave 9 was being developed. There was a TLT, and arc dodging meta and little to no swarm or jousting meta. So I think the developers wanted to bring back the jousting meta and Wave 9 was that focus.

Now if you are looking for a development counter to U-boats (besides the FAQ hitting them with the nerf bat) You will have to wait until Wave 10 or after.