hey guys,

so m9-g8 represents some incredibly interesting game design, a far cry removed from the absolute restrictive garbage of r3 astro, but its actual impact in-game may leave a bit to be desired. After all, how much impact can a single die re-roll actually have?

well, the answer varies, but it is at least hilarious fun on our old friend, Tarn Mison. the dream with Mison is to TL a higher PS friendly at the beginning of the game and allow them to benefit from pseudo-predator before the enemy attacks, hopefully targeting Tarn and allowing his ability to use m9-g8 defensively before using the TL (which isn't spent) offensively.

most importantly, though, it gives Tarn something to do while the enemy is busy doing their utmost not to shoot him (supporting the squad) without unduly affecting his cost or his ability to be a scrappy little fighter

I proxied him with what I thought was a silly little build

Biggs (r4-6, integrated)

Tarn (m9-g8, integrated)

Miranda (TLT, homing, extras, thermals, 3po, LRS) [48!!!]

only two games in, but the little guy seems to have legs (figuratively, ofc) as his support allowed for a lost count of hits prevented and hits added to attacks. One especially important case came in the game versus 3 x7 defenders

now, people might say that TLTs already counter defenders...but they're only half right

bare minimum modifiers on your TLT doesn't do diddly to the defensive defender unless you're wildly lucky or have 8 rolls concentrating fire on one poor bugger

throw in m9-g8, though, and you have yourself a party! As Tarn was utterly ignored for the entirety of the game, the m9-g8 re-rolls were instrumental in securing hits through double modifiers (often moreso than Tarn's actual shots, which proved to be overall pretty piddly )

ignoring him also allowed Tarn to take thermals for the team!

so yeah,

m9-g8: good on TLTs; good on Tarn

some cautious initial optimism for what I've otherwise found to be a generally underwhelming expansion

hey guys,

so m9-g8 represents some incredibly interesting game design, a far cry removed from the absolute restrictive garbage of r3 astro, but its actual impact in-game may leave a bit to be desired. After all, how much impact can a single die re-roll actually have?

so yeah,

m9-g8: good on TLTs; good on Tarn

some cautious initial optimism for what I've otherwise found to be a generally underwhelming expansion

I didn't even know forum peeps were already saying M9-G8 was bad.

What next? Is the forum's next topic going to be about how terrible 'Predator' is? Cause Predator and M9-G8 have some major similarities.

The release article suggests running M9-G8 with Jess Pava and that combo will actually be halfway decent. Jess has a defensive/offensive ability just like Tarn.

Like you say, M9-G8 is at it's most powerful when buffing TLT shots. I'll be curious to determine how effective it is when used defensively. R7 and Elusiveness aren't exactly common so there isn't much past game experience to form an opinion from.

Your Miranda, Biggs, Tarn is a good test list. It gives me the idea to try...

Miranda TLT

Jess Pava M9-G8

Braylen Stramm R3-A2

You better find some optimism for HotR soon! HotR is solidly the 3rd best X-wing release of the year, and I'm including wave10 in the comparison.

1) Imperials Veterans

2) Protectorate Starfighter (Fenn Rau!)

3) HotR

4) Jumpmaster

Pattern Analyzer is must have

Jess Pava, Snap Wexley, Nien Nunb are the best T-70 pilots besides Poe

Rey with Finn & Kanan crew is the new Falcon

There isn't one card that is R3 astromech bad

Jess Pavaaaa. =3

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

Shara bey, weapon engineer, m9 g8 - target lock 2 allies to give them both predator at the start of the game, then when needed can lock your enemies to force them to re roll and then everyone in your list can use her target locks if needed, keep your own ships action economy quite high and get to force 2 of your opponents ships to re roll when you need it

Yeah with Shara, you can make attacking Biggs even more frustrating. Two ships get the attack nerf.

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

M9G8's best use will be on Thane with Weapons Engineer, would be my best guess. The actions-in-combat bit and the extra lock give him so much more flexibility with M9G8 than anyone else who'd want to use him.

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

Good points here but i believe that M9 adds more versatility.

With R7, the TL is not doing anything until you are attacked. It does nothing to help friendly ships at all. It is just focused on Tarn and usually he is not the biggest threat on the table so he is not focused on first.

M9 lets tarn make use of his extra time on the table by buffing friendlies and can still switch the TL to an enemy if he is attacked. Also M9 does not spend the TL so Tarn can use it in his own attack if necessary. Sure its only 1 dice rerolled rather than all of them but the extra utility makes up for that.

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

It also only works once per turn and doesn't have an upside if you don't get shot at. M9-G8 has his merits.

I am suprised you didn't try Thane first as the ARC-lover you are! Or did you and he just proved too much of an investment?

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

Good points here but i believe that M9 adds more versatility.

With R7, the TL is not doing anything until you are attacked. It does nothing to help friendly ships at all. It is just focused on Tarn and usually he is not the biggest threat on the table so he is not focused on first.

M9 lets tarn make use of his extra time on the table by buffing friendlies and can still switch the TL to an enemy if he is attacked. Also M9 does not spend the TL so Tarn can use it in his own attack if necessary. Sure its only 1 dice rerolled rather than all of them but the extra utility makes up for that.

I except that, but would M9 on Tarn not make him a target much sooner.

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

Good points here but i believe that M9 adds more versatility.

With R7, the TL is not doing anything until you are attacked. It does nothing to help friendly ships at all. It is just focused on Tarn and usually he is not the biggest threat on the table so he is not focused on first.

M9 lets tarn make use of his extra time on the table by buffing friendlies and can still switch the TL to an enemy if he is attacked. Also M9 does not spend the TL so Tarn can use it in his own attack if necessary. Sure its only 1 dice rerolled rather than all of them but the extra utility makes up for that.

I except that, but would M9 on Tarn not make him a target much sooner.

tarn with M9 and Integrated astromech is 26 points. Lots of space left over for something more threatening. Also unlike the premier rebel support piece(Biggs) once the TL is in place there are no range restrictions on the ability.

TL on turn one and then slow roll Tarn in. Let the more threatening portion of your list go first. If your opponent wants to try speeding through that to get to Tarn I say let them. Free shots for the rest of the list. in fact if your opponent focuses on Tarn you could also say you are getting the benefit of Biggs in there too.

Fickle, you fly the coolest lists! a Kwing and two T-65s? I wanna be like you when I grow up!

Interesting, M9-G8 on Tarn is a good idea, although I think R7 suits him better

I was thinking just this. Don't get me wrong I like M9-G8 and am looking forward to my HotR expansion but...

R7 Astromech is 1 pt less and you get to choose any or ALL attack dice and when people are throwing 4 or even 5 Reds it makes sense to combat that rather than keep your TL. (Tarn gets to reacquire a TL next time he's declared in an attacked)

M9-G8 is going to be fun with it's friendly ship shenanigans. I'm thinking if you stick it on someone who will only ever Focus, you get to carry a TL on a friendly from turn one all the way through until you die. Someone like Garven.

It also only works once per turn and doesn't have an upside if you don't get shot at. M9-G8 has his merits.

I am suprised you didn't try Thane first as the ARC-lover you are! Or did you and he just proved too much of an investment?

thane's pricey. You can fit him in with Biggs and Miranda running only homings LRS and extras or with standard norra (PTL, VTs, tailgunner, r2-d2 title etc.)

only problem then is thane's competing with r3-a2 gunner braylen and I do not believe the re-rolls can match stress i.t.o game winning effects

and I've been flying ARCs straight for over a month now

everyone needs a break; I'm only human

Fickle, that 1 straight template has seen a lot of fights, lol.

Fickle, that 1 straight template has seen a lot of fights, lol.

it's a veteran it is

it's both a maneuver, a barrel-roll, a boost AND a bomb

people will call out anything as bad. Pretty sure theres someone out there that thinks PTL is terrible because the stress is too much.

M9G8 isnt bad at all. Hes one of the main things im looking forward to in hotr for my rebel lists. Tarn specifically, since i already run him alot.

The problem with R7 on Tarn is it only works once. Yeah, he can (and i have multiple times) utterly shaft one ship's attack but if someone else has a shot on him he cant trigger R7 again that round. M9 may not be as potent, but it works on all attacks AND it lets him do something while hes being ignored, which tarn generally is ignored. Bonus: M9 doesnt spend the targetlock, R7 does. Its quite rare i'll keep the TL if i got R7 because unless you rolled a single hit on me its far better for me to burn it and force a reroll on 2+ dice than keep it for my own mods. And when i fly Tarn he finds his way in range1 a LOT because hes so dang hard to hit compared to everything else in the list, so thats 4 dice for me with a TL + Focus ftw

I fully intend to run Tarn a lot with M9 once i get it. Also some T70 goodness with the juicy techs.

I don't think it was ever a question that m9-g8 was going to be "good," but rather whether it would be "good enough."

A lot of crazy things out in the world of x-wing today, which is why though I've greatly enjoyed the new T-70 pilots (except Pava, havn't tried her out yet because she doesn't fit my favorite lists, but her ability just seems simple and solid regardless) they just havn't been able to pull their weight

every game has basically come down to Poe (ps 8; refuse to overpay for that ps 9 clone ) carrying while the other t-70s do what t-70s always do, i.e not enough damage for the damage they take in return.

Even the awesome shenanigans of SoT Nien only matter so much when full mods are bouncing off x7s but x7 shots aren't bouncing off of your 2 agility

which is sad, because he's fun as hell (Stay on Target, Targeting Astro, Pattern Analyzer; integrated)

so, back to m9-g8

On Tarn, I'd cautiously say he's good enough if you find room for him in your list

On Thane...eh competing with the stress mule is a very tall order in my book, though as always Thane has an incredible match-up against Dengaroo (combat phase TL dodges counter measures, combat phase re-positioning dodges dengar's intentional self-blocking) and m9-g8 Thane is no different, especially since it offers re-rolls independent of target-locks that dengaroo can countermeasure

Love it!

I like the idea of M9 on Tarn. I think it could possibly be even better that R7 for one reason. R7 is once per turn M9 is not. So you can use M9's ability on every attack coming at you unlike R7 which was only once.

I like the idea of M9 on Tarn. I think it could possibly be even better that R7 for one reason. R7 is once per turn M9 is not. So you can use M9's ability on every attack coming at you unlike R7 which was only once.

two reasons

reason #2 is it does something while Tarn is being ignored while r7 does not

I like the idea of M9 on Tarn. I think it could possibly be even better that R7 for one reason. R7 is once per turn M9 is not. So you can use M9's ability on every attack coming at you unlike R7 which was only once.

two reasons

reason #2 is it does something while Tarn is being ignored while r7 does not