I am not a competitive, skilled or "smart" player. But we play X wing quite often, and one 400-600 pts Epic once a week.

I was not very interested in this ship. Another hi tech single seat fighter. TAP, Advanced, Interceptor, Defender... But now I love Striker. Adaptive Ailerons. No upgrade can match this. Not simply one more option. A new way to enjoy the game. AA plus EU. Or Daredevil. Or...

The key is that with a high PS Striker you can select a straight move... 45 degree AA port turn, maneuver and then 45 degree port to turn 90 degree with a straight maneuver...or 45 starboard to catch your opponent unaware. I love this weird looking Tie.

I enjoy mostly OTS ships. But the Adaptive Ailerons mechanic is simply superb. Positive game experience. I do not know if this is is good or bad in points value or about sinergies.

I simply love this ship. And I must teach to learn how to fly this beast.

My TIE Striker experience?

10 out of 10. Would fly again.

I like the Striker.

But I would have designed Adaptive Aerilons to take (otherwise identical) effect at the end of the activation phase. I.e., give even low-PS generics a chance to react to higher-PS ships.

6 minutes ago, Jeff Wilder said:

I like the Striker.

But I would have designed Adaptive Aerilons to take (otherwise identical) effect at the end of the activation phase. I.e., give even low-PS generics a chance to react to higher-PS ships.

While the end of activation phase movement would be a useful trick, I think that it's not really that much different that just granting a free boost or barrel-roll (that you can't trigger PTL with). The pre-maneuver aspect of Adaptive Ailerons can cause much larger changes in the final position of the ship which is what I really enjoy about the using the Striker.

It's different in that it's not voluntary ... Duchess excepted. That makes it pretty interesting, tactically, as a higher-PS pilot has to take your three potential final positions into account.

It's not a huge power difference, but it's actually a pretty big difference tactically.

I do see what you mean, though. As a lover of AdvS Brobots, I get it. Maybe a future title to allow the option.

Im doing the same thing in my area with Sabaac i did with Backdraft. Initially not many (nobody for the SF) wanted to touch that ship purely because the 2agi makes it "paper" - Sabaac's ability lets him not need range1 to hit you hard so i can swing REALLY wide with him and still get awesome shots on low agi ships, even if im giving them range3 bonuses im still ahead because i can get multiple 4die shots before he can get a single decent shot against me.

The mandatory "boost" can be a pain but ive learned to work with it. NEVER try to do furball maneuvers to keep close range on someone, youre better off zipping off behind a rock somewhere and flip around.

Ive had a striker in every imp list since it came out and its never been a detriment to my list.

I'm enjoying running a few PS1 Strikers in casual games, as blockers and general jimmies-rustlers. You can get them places that your opponent just won't anticipate. Love 'em.

I love me my Strikers. Countdown especially. My FLGS has 5 in stock so i might pick up some more

I've being flying Sabaac a bit myself. Love the firepower and maneuverability. Swinging wide allows you to get behind and once behind he's a bugger to lose. I kept him cheap enough that I won't shed tears if it dies first.

that said... I feel like a rookie again as I've run over rocks twice in three games due to missed aileron estimates...

I absolutely love this ship. So much so that I took a dual striker/dual phantom list to a local regional and went 3-3 with it. I haven't messed with the named pilots yet, but those low PS ships are superb blockers (amazing when paired with intel) and can cover a lot more distance in a turn than you would think!

I was suprised at how difficult it was to get behind large ships. Those 2-sloops and 2-k won't clear a large base in a head-on bump.

2 hours ago, Jeff Wilder said:

I like the Striker.

But I would have designed Adaptive Aerilons to take (otherwise identical) effect at the end of the activation phase. I.e., give even low-PS generics a chance to react to higher-PS ships.

but then you can't block

but you can block yourself (After taking actions) and almost never get shot at

probably not the best design idea

eh if i were to change ailerons i would make it optional before or after maneuver. Still mandatory, but now it can behave like a normal boost. Dont forget because now that you can do it after moving you cant go "Ah crap forgot about the MUST" and back up real quick.

Also yeah hitting rocks with Strikers is brutal, especially if you get in one of those positions where a 1speed will juuuust clip the rock because now youre hitting it twice...

I've only had a couple of games with them, but they're the most fun I've had flying a ship in this game in a long, long time. It kept reminding me of when the Phantoms released initially, and Echo specifically; not insofaras them being rather overpowered, but in that it's an entirely new movement dynamic that really chugs the gears in your head to visualise and plan for.

Yes, they're a touch on the papery side with no shields and 2 native agility, but hell if it isn't fun to run all three named pilots and just zip around from multiple vectors.

I like Sebacc with Swarm Leader alongside either Defenders or Crackswarm. Strikers are very fragile though, and should never go for a joust (found this out the hard way, after my Duchess evaporated from a R1 Gury shot with Fearlessness).

Yeah I've finally got my mechahendrites on a couple and was pleased with my first flight I can see duchess getting a regular spot in my games.

I've been flying duchess as a flanker recently and I really enjoy the ship other than the propensity to blank out hard and die instantly but that's a statistical anomaly usually.

My current list is:

Duchess - lone wolf, lightened frame, ailerons (27)

Countess - ptl, x7, twin ion mk 2 (36)

Colonel Vessery - expertise, x7 (37)

Since the defenders are meaty enough to tank a lot of lists by themselves they just jam and the duchess can flit around the edges doing her thing and flying in the crazy ways only the striker can. Even better, if they push hard to hunt duchess down she's only 27 points and they've been distracted from the defender kill team, the main threat.

Believe it or not i got a ton of use out of Sabaac with EU instead of LF. Allowed me to swing around the outskirts much faster, turn like a SOB, and dunno how many arcs i managed to evade between EU and barrelroll (didnt use push).

"Boost" 1bank into a 2turn into a Boost 1bank turns around on a dime and can be used to swivel around rocks. Caught several people off guard with that.

It is punishing though if you boost and someone has a shot on you as unmodded 2die defense blows.

I bought 3 but haven't flown them all together. I did fly a couple with Echo and they "feel" like a pre-nerf Echo which is awesome! Going to have a bad shot? Adapt into a bump. Otherwise, adapt out of arc! I fly them like phantoms, usually a straight maneuver or hard turn, adapting for what I need at the time. Duchess with VI seems to be the best 24 points I've spent (I don't like lightened frame). The list I've most been flying/testing is:

39 - Starkiller Base Pilot/Electronic Baffle/Palpatine

37 - Vader/Prockets/Title/Adaptability/ATC/EU

24 - Duchess/VI/AA

Being able to coordinate a barrel roll to Duchess at PS2 is pretty neat and helps a ton when planning out maneuvers. This list is probably more of a regionals type, but I also haven't faced TLT's or anything quite like that. I find against other arcs that two PS10's just don't get shot at very much.

The most fun I've had is with Engine Upgrade on the Strikers, especially VI Duchess. 28 points of you-have-no-idea-where-I'm-going! I tried Sabacc with Swarm Leader, that was fun for one round before everything died and my red dice just sucked. I might revisit that again for the dice silliness.

I want to love the Striker so much. It's such a joy to fly.

But... Turrets.

Turrets with a donut hole (such as TLT and Dash with HLC) at least have a weakness the Striker can exploit. It won't be easy to stay in there but possible. PWTs though... Striker is dead. Countdown has better chances against a PWT but most PWTs today are also sporting Gunner with other nasty upgrades like Hot Shot Copilot or Vader crew who don't care about Countdown's damage mitigation for one shot.

I love the ship. They are such fun to fly.

I have been running Sabaac lately with lone wolf, AA, LWF. They are fragile unfortunately. But with LWF and the one wolf reroll it has proven to be a bit sustainable.

I'm getting a few games in with Sabaac running Ailerons, Mk2 Engines, and PTL for 26 points. I've been flanking with PTL off, then when I'm in a position I like, doing Focus/Evade (or BR as needed) to turn off Ailerons, letting him keep that huge gun on target longer. Turrets can be an issue, but hey, four dice gun at PS6 for 26 points.

my experience has been more like

and

2 hours ago, jonnyd said:

I bought 3 but haven't flown them all together. I did fly a couple with Echo and they "feel" like a pre-nerf Echo which is awesome! Going to have a bad shot? Adapt into a bump. Otherwise, adapt out of arc! I fly them like phantoms, usually a straight maneuver or hard turn, adapting for what I need at the time. Duchess with VI seems to be the best 24 points I've spent (I don't like lightened frame). The list I've most been flying/testing is:

39 - Starkiller Base Pilot/Electronic Baffle/Palpatine

37 - Vader/Prockets/Title/Adaptability/ATC/EU

24 - Duchess/VI/AA

Being able to coordinate a barrel roll to Duchess at PS2 is pretty neat and helps a ton when planning out maneuvers. This list is probably more of a regionals type, but I also haven't faced TLT's or anything quite like that. I find against other arcs that two PS10's just don't get shot at very much.

The most fun I've had is with Engine Upgrade on the Strikers, especially VI Duchess. 28 points of you-have-no-idea-where-I'm-going! I tried Sabacc with Swarm Leader, that was fun for one round before everything died and my red dice just sucked. I might revisit that again for the dice silliness.

The whole phantom comparison is probably why i somehow never had a problem flying these guys. I use Echo a lot, most favorite ship because of her really weird flight patterns. Dunno how many times the ability to change my planned maneuver on the fly saved my bacon with strikers (Oh he blocked my 1fwd into a 2k...ok well i can 1bank into a 2k still and be right beside him and out of arc!)

Huge sleeper hit. I love countdown and sabacc and the title.

had my first game with countdown the other day and I thought we was worth a lot more than duchess is. It took a ghost with dorsail turret 4 turns to bring countdown....down. and in that time I was able to shave off about 9 health from it. Had zero worry to try to arc dodge or anything fancy like that just took the evade action to help with the turret, sometimes took a 5 shot primary to the face which was 4 hits and a crit and just "i'll just take a damage and stress" after throwing my dice not caring for the results. TIE mk2 is a must have for him and he becomes great and cheap.