I am seeing people mention Snipe as a way to take down Intel without having to chew through Escorts, but I am not convinced that is actually going to be that effective.

Snipe doesn't let you ignore Escort. So you have to manage to be at Range 2 of the Intel squad, but also not at Range 1 of an Escort squad. It seems like it won't be much work to position your Intel so that Escort is still protecting it, at least as the engagement is starting. And E-Wings only Snipe 3. You are going to need 3 or more E-Wings sniping a Dengar to get him worrying.

Sniping might work better against Rebels as Jan has no Scatter and thus takes damage more consistently.

Snipe won't counter Intel.

snipe swarms will most likely be very good scalpel killers. killing key aces or targets like bombers by bypassing escort and the like

I think you'll need to Alpha Strike the Intel with a minimum of 4 Snipers to have a chance at killing it before being engaged by the Escorts. However if you have your own Intel, then the Snipers dance out of engagement with the Escorts and continue sniping their Intel.

I think the E-Wing is going to be an incredible asset to Rebel fleets.

It is a X-Wing that, for +2 points, gains 2 speed and trades Escort for Snipe 3.

So amazing!

I think the E-Wing is going to be an incredible asset to Rebel fleets.

It is a X-Wing that, for +2 points, gains 2 speed and trades Escort for Snipe 3.

So amazing!

It only gains 1 speed over an x-wing.

I think the E-Wing is going to be an incredible asset to Rebel fleets.

It is a X-Wing that, for +2 points, gains 2 speed and trades Escort for Snipe 3.

So amazing!

It only gains 1 speed over an x-wing.

Oops. You're right. I flipped the hull/speed dials in my head.

So +2 points to drop the annoying Escort trait, gain the awesome Snipe trait, and get +1 speed.

Still great!

I think the E-Wing is going to be an incredible asset to Rebel fleets.

It is a X-Wing that, for +2 points, gains 2 speed and trades Escort for Snipe 3.

So amazing!

It only gains 1 speed over an x-wing.

Oops. You're right. I flipped the hull/speed dials in my head.

So +2 points to drop the annoying Escort trait, gain the awesome Snipe trait, and get +1 speed.

Still great!

Oh yeah, still awesome. Definitely looking forward to running several of them.

Can we pick one of these to continue responding to and drop the other?

In the last couple days I've been busy trying to build fleets with the new stuff, and I've come to the conclusion that snipe won't be as much of a meta changer as we as a community thought it would.

First of all, the whole imperial navy only has 1 snipe squadron, at least for now. While I think he's the best snipe squadron around, he can't be this much of a threat alone. One can argue that some sort of combo is possible with IG 88 and Mithel or something, but instead of committing this much to targeting the escort protected squadron, I think I'd prefer a bunch of plain ties or something to push some damage around the other squadrons as well.

As for rebels, while they don't have the same limitation problem imperials have, they have a serious cost and effectiveness problem in that 15 points for 3 snipe dices seem a lot of investment for a not so impressive return. I'd say run 3+ or don't bother, and 3+ E wings is 45+ points.

Generally speaking, I'm not yet sold on all the Wave 5 squadrons: squadron list building suffers from the 33% points limitation, and they all cost sooo much (with the obvious exception of Z 95s) I haven't been able to fit them properly.

Snipe will very much be a benefit of rebels over imps i feel. Imps can use it to some degree as well for sure, but I would be more excited about it if I was a rebel player. that being said Imps will love it in the mirror.

Snipe will counter Rhymer.

Snipe killed Dumbledore.

I think we may have the order backwards in some ways. It seems to me that Snipe is a great tool for hitting Escort and Counter squads to clear them away from critical lanes of attack without directly engaging enemy squadrons. That way when the Snipe squadron is inevitably engaged, it can still reach out to a nearby priority target beyond its normal range.

For example, a great use for Snipe would be hitting an Escort squadron like an X-Wing while engaging with a closer X-Wing, locking down a local ship while opening a lane elsewhere to attack the Intel ship. This also keeps your own squadrons from clogging your approach lanes on slower squadrons like B-Wings.

snipe i feel is more usefull to reach out to the edge of the fight to pick off a low hp enemy that your engaging attacker fell short on killing while the ewings themselves engage to the front with more dice at other times

I'm looking at Snipe squadrons as being the ultimate kill-stealers. The rest of your squadrons will hate them as the Snipe squads are constantly hitting any opposing squadron that is nearly dead. Glory hogs basically.

... as long as someone is getting kills, they're doing infinitely better than my last forays into the Squadron game...

Massed E-wings will hard counter interceptor balls hard and it's not much of an investment compared to X-wings. As far as cheapish squadron defence goes I reckon E-wings and snipe punch well above their points cost.

Massed E-wings will hard counter interceptor balls hard

That's good, because interceptors are currently so good that they need a hard counter.

/Mega sarcasm

Snipe is probably going to be better blasting away Counter squadrons, since it's outside of the response range. I'd also expect Snipe to be used like small-scale artillery sitting behind an X-Wing battle line.

Best use out of Saber squadron is probably going to be partnered with Jendon for taking out key squadrons from long range.

Snipe is probably going to be better blasting away Counter squadrons, since it's outside of the response range. I'd also expect Snipe to be used like small-scale artillery sitting behind an X-Wing battle line.

This.

The way I'm planning on running my (one) E-Wing is as a second row squad helping to support my front row. Opponents trying to engage just one of my outside squads will still get shot at by the E-Wing in support. And if they decide to come any closer, well, this only makes the E-Wing even deadlier.