Duchess, how you feeling him?

By Darkcloak, in X-Wing

I think we should all support Duchess in this difficult period of transition.

AFAIK, the only trans pilot in the game is "Red Ace". Their preferred pronouns are "they/them".

My problem with using "they/them" is that Red Ace has gender identity issues, not quantity identity issues.

no no, the english language has quantity identity issues

romantic languages have their third person pronoun **** together

As someone who just opened this thread today, I've felt much more robbed of my time and will to live by your objections (and continued rationalizations of them) than I did by a single Archer image.

That's fair, although the fact that you admit to being a fan of the show weakens the impact of what you state here (because of course a fan wouldn't feel 'robbed of time and will to live' by a relevant image), and it's not solely the single image from this thread that I mean - it was merely an example.

If you actually want the Duchess/Archer thing to die, the intelligent response is no response. Archer fans -- and I confess that I'm one of them -- have an overblown fondness for inappropriate humor that annoys people, so ... the math really isn't that hard to do.

Correct, and that is what I have been doing from the moment Duchess was revealed til this one - hoping it would die out on its own. Sadly, it hasn't, and so I felt it made sense to voice my objections when others did the same. This was, however, only after I'd written an entire post on the actual topic at hand without mentioning the issue once, so it isn't entirely uncalled for.

If fans of the show are the kind who enjoy annoying others, I think I can safely say I know everything I need to about it - nevertheless I do not plan to pursue the matter further in this thread, since I have made all the points I wanted to and doubt there will ever be anything other than contempt from 'the other side'

"Contempt" is far too strong an emotion to expect from people saying you should "lighten up."

I think we should all support Duchess in this difficult period of transition.

AFAIK, the only trans pilot in the game is "Red Ace". Their preferred pronouns are "they/them".

My problem with using "they/them" is that Red Ace has gender identity issues, not quantity identity issues.

Seriously, don't go there. Trans folks don't have identity "issues", and Merriam Webster lists "they/them" as a perfectly acceptable singular pronoun.

You don't want people to go there. Don't bring it up. Patton sums up my feelings on this whole thing (with liberal dose of adult language).

Edited by WWHSD

I think we should all support Duchess in this difficult period of transition.

AFAIK, the only trans pilot in the game is "Red Ace". Their preferred pronouns are "they/them".

My problem with using "they/them" is that Red Ace has gender identity issues, not quantity identity issues.

Seriously, don't go there. Trans folks don't have identity "issues", and Merriam Webster lists "they/them" as a perfectly acceptable singular pronoun.

You don't want people to go there. Don't bring it up. Patton sums up my feelings on this whole thing (with liberal dose of adult language).

Sorry for bringing it up!

[softly sings 'But for todaaaay I am a child, for today I am a booooooy,' as per the Antony & the Johnsons song...]

Wow. This thread is a whole lot of talking about Duchess with very little talking about Duchess.

Okay, first off, I'm going to refer to Duchess as a "him." This is because I like Archer, and thought the "alt art" card from this post was amusing enough that I even printed out copies on photo stock and handed them out to everyone I played at the Seattle Regionals. They were a big hit.

NOW, what do I think about Duchess? I like him enough that I took him as part of my list to that Regional, and went 4-2. I kept it lean (Adaptability, Frame, title) for a nice 25-point PS9 pocket ace. Being able to choose whether to use Ailerons gives you a lot of positional flexibility, which helps you with the arc-dodge. It reminds me a lot of the pre-nerf Phantoms in that way, but much more toned down.

The biggest weaknesses I found were the agility and vulnerability to stress. Against 2-attack ships, like Paratanni Manaroo, the LWF did almost nothing outside of range 1. It feels a lot like flying pre-AT Interceptors without PTL. The only real way to get around that is to ensure that the rest of the list is a bigger threat. Likewise, stress mechanics are brutal, especially if you get tagged with the Loose Stabilizer crit to turn your pre-dial boost into a red maneuver.

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

Edited by PhantomFO

What is this Archer thing you speak of, and what does archery have to do with any of this?

What is this Archer thing you speak of, and what does archery have to do with any of this?

Archer is the answer to the question, "What if Arrested Development was done as an R-rated spy cartoon?"

What is this Archer thing you speak of, and what does archery have to do with any of this?

You are not missing much.

What is this Archer thing you speak of, and what does archery have to do with any of this?

Try knowyourmeme .

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

Unless I was looking for something to inspire a "oh crap, shoot that one first" reaction, I think that I'd take Adaptability Duchess over VI Pure Sabacc every time. It might just be because I hate having to go fast (I hate not having 1 straights or banks on a ship).

Unless you are really lucky, Pure Sabacc probably is going to end up getting off one shot with his ability. If I could team him up with a bigger glass cannon I'd like him more, but it's hard to find a priority target that will beat out something with only 4 hull, no ability to stack tokens, no built-in defensive modifications, with 4 attack and 2.5 agility.

Edited by WWHSD

Has anyone tried 4 ps1s and a named?

I'm not sure anyone is quite mad enough to have picked up 5 to do that. I maxed at 3. I'm not making the same mistake I made with the TAP; just because you can swarm 5 of them, doesn't mean you should buy 5 at launch.

I think you haven't seen my image of my Strikers yet. Here you go:

pic3308140_lg.jpg

Yeah, I did fly them all at once, once. I was facing a Braylen Stresshog though, which severely limited their ability to weave through stuff - their dial gets much worse once they're stressed, and I couldn't bring them all to bear at once and only had a couple shots each round. With just Focus to modify, that didn't hit hard enough, and thus they have all the negatives of every swarm of singular ships: Multiplying their strength also multiplies their weaknesses.

Other than that, it was a lot of fun to fly all five of them. Their speed is immense when they can use their Ailerons.

Thanks for sharing@!

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

Unless I was looking for something to inspire a "oh crap, shoot that one first" reaction, I think that I'd take Adaptability Duchess over VI Pure Sabacc every time. It might just be because I hate having to go fast (I hate not having 1 straights or banks on a ship).

Unless you are really lucky, Pure Sabacc probably is going to end up getting off one shot with his ability. If I could team him up with a bigger glass cannon I'd like him more, but it's hard to find a priority target that will beat out something with only 4 hull, no ability to stack tokens, no built-in defensive modifications, with 4 attack and 2.5 agility.

The rest of my list consisted of Omega Leader with Juke/Comm Relay, Defender Stele with Juke/x7, and Wampa. Of those, Wampa is probably the lowest endgame threat, but his ability is powerful enough to attract a lot of hate from those who love stacking tokens.

The bigger concern for me is that switching Duchess for Sabacc leaves me vulnerable to getting arc-dodged by PS9 pilots, but Fenn Rau's really the only one still kicking around the meta.

I haven't flown them much but I tried playing with vi duchess and both swarm leader and lone wolf sabacc. Swarm leader just makes sabacc an even bigger target but lone wolf was pretty ok. I think if you're going pilot skill boost for duchess you go vi since that beats almost everything out there currently. I'm having trouble with their lack of modification currently but I want to try a couple of the ps4 with title, frame, and predator. Seems like a pretty ok 25 points but unclear.

I haven't flown them much but I tried playing with vi duchess and both swarm leader and lone wolf sabacc. Swarm leader just makes sabacc an even bigger target but lone wolf was pretty ok. I think if you're going pilot skill boost for duchess you go vi since that beats almost everything out there currently. I'm having trouble with their lack of modification currently but I want to try a couple of the ps4 with title, frame, and predator. Seems like a pretty ok 25 points but unclear.

I was happy with the way the PS4 with title, frame, and Wired played. I liked the the way that I could follow up an Adaptive Aileron maneuver combined with one of the red manuevers one round with a slow maneuver the next round and then repeat if needed. I found that it made my PS4 Striker hard to shake, even for higher PS arc dodgers.

Edited by WWHSD

I think we should all support Duchess in this difficult period of transition.

AFAIK, the only trans pilot in the game is "Red Ace". Their preferred pronouns are "they/them".

My problem with using "they/them" is that Red Ace has gender identity issues, not quantity identity issues.

Seriously, don't go there. Trans folks don't have identity "issues", and Merriam Webster lists "they/them" as a perfectly acceptable singular pronoun.

Or we could just...Keep that away from Star Wars.

And especially the forums.

It never ends well...

Please.

Wow. This thread is a whole lot of talking about Duchess with very little talking about Duchess.

Okay, first off, I'm going to refer to Duchess as a "him." This is because I like Archer, and thought the "alt art" card from this post was amusing enough that I even printed out copies on photo stock and handed them out to everyone I played at the Seattle Regionals. They were a big hit.

NOW, what do I think about Duchess? I like him enough that I took him as part of my list to that Regional, and went 4-2. I kept it lean (Adaptability, Frame, title) for a nice 25-point PS9 pocket ace. Being able to choose whether to use Ailerons gives you a lot of positional flexibility, which helps you with the arc-dodge. It reminds me a lot of the pre-nerf Phantoms in that way, but much more toned down.

The biggest weaknesses I found were the agility and vulnerability to stress. Against 2-attack ships, like Paratanni Manaroo, the LWF did almost nothing outside of range 1. It feels a lot like flying pre-AT Interceptors without PTL. The only real way to get around that is to ensure that the rest of the list is a bigger threat. Likewise, stress mechanics are brutal, especially if you get tagged with the Loose Stabilizer crit to turn your pre-dial boost into a red maneuver.

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

If you have a Dash heavy metal, bring Countdown.

I played him against my rebel friend who had HLC Dash and loved his face when I told him "Yeah, that 4 hits is only 1 damage."

Wow. This thread is a whole lot of talking about Duchess with very little talking about Duchess.

Okay, first off, I'm going to refer to Duchess as a "him." This is because I like Archer, and thought the "alt art" card from this post was amusing enough that I even printed out copies on photo stock and handed them out to everyone I played at the Seattle Regionals. They were a big hit.

NOW, what do I think about Duchess? I like him enough that I took him as part of my list to that Regional, and went 4-2. I kept it lean (Adaptability, Frame, title) for a nice 25-point PS9 pocket ace. Being able to choose whether to use Ailerons gives you a lot of positional flexibility, which helps you with the arc-dodge. It reminds me a lot of the pre-nerf Phantoms in that way, but much more toned down.

The biggest weaknesses I found were the agility and vulnerability to stress. Against 2-attack ships, like Paratanni Manaroo, the LWF did almost nothing outside of range 1. It feels a lot like flying pre-AT Interceptors without PTL. The only real way to get around that is to ensure that the rest of the list is a bigger threat. Likewise, stress mechanics are brutal, especially if you get tagged with the Loose Stabilizer crit to turn your pre-dial boost into a red maneuver.

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

If you have a Dash heavy metal, bring Countdown.

I played him against my rebel friend who had HLC Dash and loved his face when I told him "Yeah, that 4 hits is only 1 damage."

Also, my dice are treasonous and kept letting Duchess take exactly one damage from each attack.

Wow. This thread is a whole lot of talking about Duchess with very little talking about Duchess.

Okay, first off, I'm going to refer to Duchess as a "him." This is because I like Archer, and thought the "alt art" card from this post was amusing enough that I even printed out copies on photo stock and handed them out to everyone I played at the Seattle Regionals. They were a big hit.

NOW, what do I think about Duchess? I like him enough that I took him as part of my list to that Regional, and went 4-2. I kept it lean (Adaptability, Frame, title) for a nice 25-point PS9 pocket ace. Being able to choose whether to use Ailerons gives you a lot of positional flexibility, which helps you with the arc-dodge. It reminds me a lot of the pre-nerf Phantoms in that way, but much more toned down.

The biggest weaknesses I found were the agility and vulnerability to stress. Against 2-attack ships, like Paratanni Manaroo, the LWF did almost nothing outside of range 1. It feels a lot like flying pre-AT Interceptors without PTL. The only real way to get around that is to ensure that the rest of the list is a bigger threat. Likewise, stress mechanics are brutal, especially if you get tagged with the Loose Stabilizer crit to turn your pre-dial boost into a red maneuver.

I haven't flown the other Strikers yet, so I've yet to compare Duchess to the ones that mandate their boost. I plan to try my same Regionals list with VI Pure Sabacc instead of Duchess to see how it compares.

If you have a Dash heavy metal, bring Countdown.

I played him against my rebel friend who had HLC Dash and loved his face when I told him "Yeah, that 4 hits is only 1 damage."

Unfortunately, I'm in a TLT-heavy meta, which Countdown doesn't help with.

Also, my dice are treasonous and kept letting Duchess take exactly one damage from each attack.

TLT is laaaaaame.

Has anyone tried 4 ps1s and a named?

I'm not sure anyone is quite mad enough to have picked up 5 to do that. I maxed at 3. I'm not making the same mistake I made with the TAP; just because you can swarm 5 of them, doesn't mean you should buy 5 at launch.

I think you haven't seen my image of my Strikers yet. Here you go:

pic3308140_lg.jpg

Yeah, I did fly them all at once, once. I was facing a Braylen Stresshog though, which severely limited their ability to weave through stuff - their dial gets much worse once they're stressed, and I couldn't bring them all to bear at once and only had a couple shots each round. With just Focus to modify, that didn't hit hard enough, and thus they have all the negatives of every swarm of singular ships: Multiplying their strength also multiplies their weaknesses.

Other than that, it was a lot of fun to fly all five of them. Their speed is immense when they can use their Ailerons.

Glad to see I'm not the only madman!

Had a first try with them on Tuesday - it's oddly satisfying to use the ailerons to show adaptive ailerons maneuver (rolling left or right, both down for forwards, both up "spitting kitty" style for stressed).

They're good fun. They don't feel that much faster per se - at a dead run they're no faster than a TIE fighter - but their ability to do big sweeping turns is epic. Speed 1 bank, speed 3 bank is great for chasing down boosting pancakes that a normal fighter can't turn to keep up with.

The big thing I found myself doing was a trick I came across with Blue Ace - bank one way, then speed 1 turn the other. It's quite nice when chasing a ship that's got a higher PS than you.

EPTs:

  • Lone Wolf on Duchess sounds like a good call - will have to try that - anything to improve a TIE striker's green dice is probably worth it.
  • I definitely agree on VI for Pure Sabbac. Even more so than TIE phantoms, he needs to be shooting first if he can.
PWTs with Gunner will melt Countdown just the same as any other Striker.

Yes and no. The trick is to throw evade/focus tokens at the first shot; normally you have to be careful doing this - because if you throw your focus and evade tokens at shot #1 so it misses, shot #2 attacks you, you have no tokens, and you die.

In Countdown's case, it's the second shot, therefore, that you want to be using his ability on, so you can be confident that dodging the first one won't leave you in a worse position.

I think the three named pilots would be good with a support ship of some kind. I don't think they justify Palpatine, even if you could afford him, but a Lambda Shuttle or TIE shuttle with a Fleet Officer might be nice.

I think the biggest problem (with anyone who's not duchess) is getting used to what is essentially a speed 3 minimum speed!

Edited by Magnus Grendel