So, I have a soft spot for "stealth" and cloaking ships and fighters, and I like the Phantoms... in theory.
How viable do you think they are in play? I haven't gotten to do much with mine, and I only have the one Imp 2 pack so far.
Are they something I can spam (for style and theme, mostly, but I'd like it to be minimally effective)? Sprinkle? Should I just avoid them? Will other people want them? Will they be fairly easy to trade for more?
I think Phantoms are best taken 1 or 2 at most. They operate like scalpels. You want to use your special movement to get disengaged or engage the target of your choice. If you use them to just throw into a fighter ball you're wasting their points and potential.
Whisper is extremely legit as a portion of your fighter wing. She can get to all kinds of places, which has great offensive and defensive applications on top of being a Scatter+Brace ace with 4 HP.
The generic Phantoms we're still figuring out. I think they can do all right but they need some method to keep them from being ganged up on and eliminated in an alpha strike, as Cloak's benefit pays off later in a dogfight where repositioning can allow you to save Phantoms that would've been in a bad spot next turn and/or concentrate your Phantoms on threats. I've been considering a 2 TIE Advanced + 4 Phantom setup to see if that would work but I haven't tested it yet. Otherwise, I think spamming them is going to have a bad end result but I cannot say this feeling is based on experience just yet.
They're also not bad against ships. Those two red dice average out to an average of 1 damage per Phantom but the results are extremely swingy (this Phantom did 3! that Phantom did nothing at all!). That's not the kind of thing one should use as a primary bomber but it does mean that later in the game your surviving Phantoms can harass ships, and Cloak can help you keep up with slower targets without needing Squadron commands too.
In my opinion phantoms can be used as a bomber force as long as they're protected by escorts. I still need to test this theory though.
Whats the source on Whisper being female?
Just curious, need to expand my SW knowledge. Clearly there is a puzzle piece missing.
Oh I also wanted to add one other thought:
Phantoms have the longest threat range in the game with Cloak + speed 4. Longer than Interceptors even (as 1+4 is longer than 5). They're also particularly good with the Vector title on a Gozanti
As you can Cloak+speed 5 at that point, which is an absurdly long threat range. You could use a pair of Phantoms this way to engage the far opposite ends of an Intel bomber blob with little trouble.
Whats the source on Whisper being female?
Just curious, need to expand my SW knowledge. Clearly there is a puzzle piece missing.
The source is the X-Wing Game itself, and rather, an FAQ/Errata
Officially, the Race and Gender of "Whisper" is unspecified. However, in explaining some of the nitty gritty rules minutia of their ability, Frank Brooks referred to "Whisper" with feminine extensions (Her, and She)...
That is all.
Whats the source on Whisper being female?
Just curious, need to expand my SW knowledge. Clearly there is a puzzle piece missing.
The source is the X-Wing Game itself, and rather, an FAQ/Errata
Officially, the Race and Gender of "Whisper" is unspecified. However, in explaining some of the nitty gritty rules minutia of their ability, Frank Brooks referred to "Whisper" with feminine extensions (Her, and She)...
That is all.
Uhhhhhh.. Okay then.
Uhhhhhh.. Okay then.
Wish I was kidding.
But I can find no other sources.
At all.
Which is not to say Frank brooks emails are absolute. They have made later emails and or press releases that have conflicted with emails from developers on pilot genders.
I think there was another mention of Whisper as he somewhere?
But I just use She.
The FFG Adventure "Strongholds of Resistance" is the potential only other place that it may be mentioned -a nd only if they were one of the adversaries to the party's RP adventure.
I can't find anything else.