Countdown/Hull Upgrade, Yorr Palp shuttle, two generic strikers. Still some room for upgrades or you can lose the hull to upgrade mooks to elites with Crack Shot. Thoughts? Almost Guarantees that they'll leave Countdown til last, because he can reduce up to three attacks with Yorr, and Yorr clears the stress for him. Or would you still not want to clear the scrubs and the shuttle first?

Because Sterling Archer's codename is Duchess, and why would you not love that? Cue the Kenny Loggins!

I have no problem referring to OL and Howl and others as she! It comes naturally!

Duchess is he every time in my brain! It's pretty silly, but I'm not gonna stop!

You mean, like a Rookie X-Wing pilot?

I am unaware of any rookie x-wing that costs 20 points, can take 1 face-down damage to the face regardless of the attack's potency, and a choice of k/sloops and speed one turn and are PS 5 (re: > TLTs and manaroo and tied ps with Ryad)

and barrel-roll

and has adaptive allerions, which is kinda a huge deal given how maneuverable and flexible it makes the ship (ie, gives it a prayer of catching manaroo)

you might actually see them played if they could do all that

I'm not arguing that Countdown will break the meta or something silly, he just seems decent

targeting him first would be a chump move because that's when his ability would actually be relevant.

I don't get how you can mean that. His ability incurs stress, so it can only be used once per turn. If he uses it, any other damage is getting through normally.

which is one really important things to remember about Countdown. In the grand scheme of his squad, he's not really important. It offers this unique opportunity to just recklessly chuck him at the enemy for maximum damage

This. It's like the TIE fighter and TIE/fo aces. Dark Curse isn't game-winning, he's just incredibly frustrating. But you can still put him in a situation where you need to deal with him.

A 3-dice attack with focus isn't going to shatter aces in one hit. But it's still good enough that it's likely to cause damage if it whomps someone who's already spent their once-a-turn tricks against his mates.

As Fickle says, if you consider him a PS5 interceptor with a hull upgrade and a free boost each turn, he's still a pretty good buy for 20 points (the same as a generic PS3), even if you never use his ability.

Plus, his ability means he doesn't really need his evade token, making him one of a choice of four cheap named pilots (Countdown, Dark Curse, Night Beast, Chaser) that Imperials can use to feed evade tokens to a Swarm Leader - the difference being that he can actually achieve something himself if your opponent takes out the swarm leader rather than the evade-less support ship.

So he's an upgrade to all the PS5 Interceptors I've been seeing make cut in tournaments, then?

If countdown had a EPT this ship would see tournament play for sure. Then you play a Decimator with vader... then you want to burn all of them.

Throwing Countdown at a HLC Dash is hilarious, however XD

That's pretty good, he's annoying to two ship builds. Aside from Dengaroo. Or any that play a Gunner. Or Corran.

So basically just Dash.

That's pretty good, he's annoying to two ship builds. Aside from Dengaroo. Or any that play a Gunner.

So basically just Dash.

if you're shooting dengaroo such that dengar can double-tap Countdown, or any other imperial pilot really, you done ****** up

and countdown's better than most at not caring about zuckuss

if you're shooting dengaroo such that dengar can double-tap Countdown, or any other imperial pilot really, you done ****** up

if you're shooting dengaroo such that dengar can double-tap Countdown, or any other imperial pilot really, you done ****** up

and countdown's better than most at not caring about zuckuss

That's fair. Triggering Dengar's ability should now be pretty well-established as being A Bad Thing and it's not really any worse for Countdown than it is for anything else.

if you're shooting dengaroo such that dengar can double-tap Countdown, or any other imperial pilot really, you done ****** up

and countdown's better than most at not caring about zuckuss

That's fair. Triggering Dengar's ability should now be pretty well-established as being A Bad Thing and it's not really any worse for Countdown than it is for anything else.

Wut?

Giving someone the chance to double tap you when you're the guy who can auto-survive 4 single taps over the course of four rounds... isn't worse for him than anyone else?

???

if you're shooting dengaroo such that dengar can double-tap Countdown, or any other imperial pilot really, you done ****** up

and countdown's better than most at not caring about zuckuss

That's fair. Triggering Dengar's ability should now be pretty well-established as being A Bad Thing and it's not really any worse for Countdown than it is for anything else.

Wut?

Giving someone the chance to double tap you when you're the guy who can auto-survive 4 single taps over the course of four rounds... isn't worse for him than anyone else?

???

Yeah. Pretty much exactly the same.

Exactly. Countdowns ability is situational, but can be brilliant.

It even works sort of against gunner - but in the reverse way to normal. Normally, when hit with a shot with gunner, you have to choose between spending tokens to avoid the shot and risking taking a far worse hit, or accepting one damage.

Countdown works in reverse - spend tokens to dodge the first, because if the second hit is bad you can always "countdown" it.