After going over the new squadrons that we have seen a pattern seemed to form

Imperials: for the most part the new Imp squadrons seem to be set to enhance the Rhymerball

whether by protecting it of enhancing its combat abilities.

Rebels: now the rebel seem to have be given two missions upgrades

1. the red Squadron synergy wedge+luke+biggs were they can bounce around damage for an effective anti-fighter or ship combo

2. while the other squadrons seem to be set to kill "Rhymerball"

After going over the new squadrons that we have seen a pattern seemed to form

Imperials: for the most part the new Imp squadrons seem to be set to enhance the Rhymerball

whether by protecting it of enhancing its combat abilities.

Rebels: now the rebel seem to have be given two missions upgrades

1. the red Squadron synergy wedge+luke+biggs were they can bounce around damage for an effective anti-fighter or ship combo

2. while the other squadrons seem to be set to kill "Rhymerball"

I don't see Captain Janus or Valen enhancing the Rhymerball at all, and to me those two look to be the best squadrons. Janus' ability requires distance 1 and Valen is more about shooting squadrons than ships.

After going over the new squadrons that we have seen a pattern seemed to form

Imperials: for the most part the new Imp squadrons seem to be set to enhance the Rhymerball

whether by protecting it of enhancing its combat abilities.

Rebels: now the rebel seem to have be given two missions upgrades

1. the red Squadron synergy wedge+luke+biggs were they can bounce around damage for an effective anti-fighter or ship combo

2. while the other squadrons seem to be set to kill "Rhymerball"

I don't see Captain Janus or Valen enhancing the Rhymerball at all, and to me those two look to be the best squadrons. Janus' ability requires distance 1 and Valen is more about shooting squadrons than ships.

Thats why I said for the most part

now

1. Gamma gives mobility and the ability to use the Ball even when engaged

exp. move Gamma from one side of the formation to the other with in 1 of rhymer to shoot

2. Saber allows you to target squadrons at 2 to keep them off the Ball

3. Black give you protection for the Ball at a smaller cost then Advances

4. Valen is more of a you engage my Ball I attack and you can't attack me back.

What I think is most awesome about is it they don't immediately synergise with a Rhymerball - in fact, you have to kind of shoehorn them into place with it...

You know what that does?

Lets you, as an Imperial Player, prioritise a Squadron setup that ISN'T a Rhymerball...

And that's great for Variety, any day!

What I think is most awesome about is it they don't immediately synergise with a Rhymerball - in fact, you have to kind of shoehorn them into place with it...

You know what that does?

Lets you, as an Imperial Player, prioritise a Squadron setup that ISN'T a Rhymerball...

And that's great for Variety, any day!

True

I was not saying thats all they do which is good for the game, but it does kind of indicate FFG is aware of the Rhymerball and approves of its uses.

The new Rebels seem to bare this out with their abilities to brake-up the Ball so were all good here

Ten Numb "the Ball Killer"

I don't understand how anything released for the Imperials specifically buffs the Rhymer ball. If anything, it seems like FFG is trying to diversify the Imperial squadron mini-meta to provide options that don't involve Rhymer. Lots of the upcoming squadrons (especially those with Snipe) for both sides seem to provide options specifically to pick apart balls of squadrons relying on a central ace.

What I think is most awesome about is it they don't immediately synergise with a Rhymerball - in fact, you have to kind of shoehorn them into place with it...

You know what that does?

Lets you, as an Imperial Player, prioritise a Squadron setup that ISN'T a Rhymerball...

And that's great for Variety, any day!

I was thinking Decimators and Firesprays with Rhymer. Because who doesn't love blue dice?

If FFG was trying to aid the potency of Rhymerball, they would be terrible game designers. Intentionally forcing the meta to revolve around a single strategy is a good way to kill a game.

The only squad that seems to even accidentally buff Rhymerball is Gamma.

Jonus is the highlight of the Imp side of the preview. His text is such that he has to take no advantage of Rhymer to use it.

Black squadron doesn't strike me as buffing Rhymer. It strikes me as a throwaway squad used to stop critical shots from Keyan or Rhymer (mirror match).

Rudor is another super efficient anti-squadron squadron like the other Imp aces.

Cienna Ree is another throw away squadron designed to buy as much time as possible with squads for minimum investment.

Saber squad is neat to me as it takes wierd play to use efficiently. It is either used for assassination of critical squads or to sit unengaged in the middle of a sprawling squad fight and pick off injured squads without squad commands.

None of these seem designed to buff Rhymerball. That is a very good thing

I agree with the sentiment that the design is pushing more variety. The Imperial specific designs are giving more credit to a fighter screen that can take out aces and just be a pain in the butt. Personally I think these squads make squadron lite, heavy ship lists able to compete against mass squadrons. Cienna, Rudor, Saber, Gamma, and Jones all buff more ship based strategies that can be a pain for a heavy bomber list to have to deal with. IG88, Rudor, Saber, and Mithel would make a deadly 4 squad setup that could snipe Jan, Dengar, or Rhymer and nueter a heavy bomber force. The wave 5 squads will further help with Snipe for the rebels, -and a lot of other options.

I wonder about Ciena as the top of bomber hunting. With every shot at her obstructed, she shuts down Imperial bomber lists. TIE Bombers cannot hurt her and cannot flee without intel or Chiraneau. Firesprays only throw one blue die at her. Only averaging 1 point every other shot.

Her and Rudor would stop and trash an Imp bomber screen by themselves if intel can be eliminated. So bring IG-88 and Saber to hit that Dengar/Jumpmaster.

I will be trying IG88/Rudor/Saber/Ree at the 63 or so points. I shall call it "Stop and Frisk."

At least until Defenders, but they are an unknown quantity yet.

After going over the new squadrons that we have seen a pattern seemed to form

Imperials: for the most part the new Imp squadrons seem to be set to enhance the Rhymerball

whether by protecting it of enhancing its combat abilities.

Rebels: now the rebel seem to have be given two missions upgrades

1. the red Squadron synergy wedge+luke+biggs were they can bounce around damage for an effective anti-fighter or ship combo

2. while the other squadrons seem to be set to kill "Rhymerball"

I don't see Captain Janus or Valen enhancing the Rhymerball at all, and to me those two look to be the best squadrons. Janus' ability requires distance 1 and Valen is more about shooting squadrons than ships.

Thats why I said for the most part

now

1. Gamma gives mobility and the ability to use the Ball even when engaged

exp. move Gamma from one side of the formation to the other with in 1 of rhymer to shoot

2. Saber allows you to target squadrons at 2 to keep them off the Ball

3. Black give you protection for the Ball at a smaller cost then Advances

4. Valen is more of a you engage my Ball I attack and you can't attack me back.

Other than Gamma though, none of these are bombers and there is still an upper limit on squadron sizes.

I wonder about Ciena as the top of bomber hunting. With every shot at her obstructed, she shuts down Imperial bomber lists. TIE Bombers cannot hurt her and cannot flee without intel or Chiraneau. Firesprays only throw one blue die at her. Only averaging 1 point every other shot.

Her and Rudor would stop and trash an Imp bomber screen by themselves if intel can be eliminated. So bring IG-88 and Saber to hit that Dengar/Jumpmaster.

I will be trying IG88/Rudor/Saber/Ree at the 63 or so points. I shall call it "Stop and Frisk."

At least until Defenders, but they are an unknown quantity yet.

Good points but Firesprays have 3 blue anti squad so they would chuck 2 at her.

Derp. Good catch

I wonder about Ciena as the top of bomber hunting. With every shot at her obstructed, she shuts down Imperial bomber lists. TIE Bombers cannot hurt her and cannot flee without intel or Chiraneau. Firesprays only throw one blue die at her. Only averaging 1 point every other shot.

Her and Rudor would stop and trash an Imp bomber screen by themselves if intel can be eliminated. So bring IG-88 and Saber to hit that Dengar/Jumpmaster.

I will be trying IG88/Rudor/Saber/Ree at the 63 or so points. I shall call it "Stop and Frisk."

At least until Defenders, but they are an unknown quantity yet.

Good points but Firesprays have 3 blue anti squad so they would chuck 2 at her.

My bad. A derp moment. Still, the basic idea stands. She still hits back as hard or harder with Counter 2 / Swarm

I do think that Black Squadron helps rhymer balls: a 9 point escort? If even for one more round of survival for your intel source, that can be a big difference.

I also think Rudor pairs pretty well with ye olde' ball, as needing to get smacked with those tripple blacks while trying to whittle away the 5 hull bombers/advances is no small task.

Of course, those help any squadron strategy and not Rhymer specifically, but nonetheless they could help.

Man... I just realized Valen avoids counter, too.

What a smarmy bastard.

I see Imperial Generals looking at Rebel Aces with green eyes. I remember the IFF podcast complaining that there is no way to protect Vader because of Escort. Well Biggs can protect Escort, it looks like the Imperials wish they had Biggs.

As for squadrons Imperial has the best bomber formation the Rhymer ball. While Rebels have the best bomber escorts (HWKs and YT1300) I don't think Black Squadron makes up for the lack of escorts that Imperials have and Vallen Rudor is the exact opposite (You are sacrificing other squadrons to protect a single 3 hull swarm squadron) 4 Y-wings might not be as good as a rhymer ball but the escorts ensures they make it to their target where the Rhymer ball can easily be countered by a simple fighter screen.

I see valen going nice with howlrunner, a big tie swarm, and black squadron

Jonus+gsd2 demo will be fun

Saber squad and ig-88 should see some moldy hunting synergy

Ciena ree...anywhere sounds good.

Not a rebel player but the new aces are gonna be rough, considering they buff ace hunting dramatically.

You can still only take 134 pts in squads: that's a hard limit tight there.

So the real question is: do the new options make for even more daunting Rhymer builds, given that you have to take something out too?

Maybe.

I lean more towards the Dras stance: they just add greater variety.

And: make possible some non-Rhymer bomber shenanigans too.

Truly this is great.

Local guys were talking last night at we had a fun idea. The Y wings and TIE advanced weren't previewed because some of them have Relay and Strategic.

A relay TIE advanced makes a little bit of sense as that seems like a ship given to commanders and exceptional officers.

A strategic Ywing makes sense as people like Salm commanded Ywing fleets (3+) squads from their own fighter. I can buy that a 2 seater y wing had a comms guy to help coordinate battles.

I see valen going nice with howlrunner, a big tie swarm, and black squadron

Jonus+gsd2 demo will be fun

Saber squad and ig-88 should see some moldy hunting synergy

Ciena ree...anywhere sounds good.

Not a rebel player but the new aces are gonna be rough, considering they buff ace hunting dramatically.

The only problem with Imperial ace hunting is that all those squadrons will wither under AA fire. If I'm running rebel bombers, especially aces, I'm going to be thinking about taking an AFmk2 A with Gallant Haven

I see valen going nice with howlrunner, a big tie swarm, and black squadron

Jonus+gsd2 demo will be fun

Saber squad and ig-88 should see some moldy hunting synergy

Ciena ree...anywhere sounds good.

Not a rebel player but the new aces are gonna be rough, considering they buff ace hunting dramatically.

The only problem with Imperial ace hunting is that all those squadrons will wither under AA fire. If I'm running rebel bombers, especially aces, I'm going to be thinking about taking an AFmk2 A with Gallant Haven

Someone posted the TIE fighter Commandments. I forget who, and where they were...

I see valen going nice with howlrunner, a big tie swarm, and black squadron

Jonus+gsd2 demo will be fun

Saber squad and ig-88 should see some moldy hunting synergy

Ciena ree...anywhere sounds good.

Not a rebel player but the new aces are gonna be rough, considering they buff ace hunting dramatically.

The only problem with Imperial ace hunting is that all those squadrons will wither under AA fire. If I'm running rebel bombers, especially aces, I'm going to be thinking about taking an AFmk2 A with Gallant Haven

Someone posted the TIE fighter Commandments. I forget who, and where they were...

That was a while ago...

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/202721-tie-fighters-are-they-worth-it/#entry2056990