Jamming Field is a niche, but potentially quite strong upgrade considered it's low cost.

Pros: can reduce incoming fire, especially strong vs multiple weak attacks, also affects counter attacks, decent area of effect

Cons: can obstruct your own attacks, requires a flotilla to run, opportunity cost (not taking another Fleet Support), requires flotilla to be in the thick of it

To get the most out of Jamming Field required carefully planning and maneuver, to limit obstruction of own squadrons and maximize obstruction of enemy shots.

Rebels, with their cheap flotillas had an easier time justifying it. BH was also a great boost for survivability, but the demand for this title was great. X-wings, with their Escort, high AS pool and no counter seems to benefit the most from such a tactic. I've had some success running some TIE Advanced in a JF, effectively boosting their hull, but it's not the greatest trick in the world.

Anyway. Enter SNIPE.

Does this make JF more attractive? Is it a good way of limiting that initial Snipe impact? To protect key squads from being overwhelmed? Or is Snipe still too rare for it to matter much?

Anyone been tinkering with JF post w5?

I tried JF twice in a row against a friend who decided to fly decimators all the way, six in total. I was running a modest screen of 4 A's plus Tycho and Shara Bey. I flew my Bright hope with the JF right into his decimator ball then engaging with most of my sqads.

It turned out to work pretty well since i was firing 2 blue dices and he could not use his single dice counter attack. Taking two black dices in return isnt that bad. By the end of round 4 all of my A's were down, only the aces were still carrying the fight, and 3 of his decimators were also out of the game thanks to my A's attacks, counters, and BH side arc. And here is when the scatter comes in really handy. Specially from Shara. I found out that flying Shara with JF is such a solid combo.

This game in particular was good for me because he simply could not target my scatter since decimators only rolls black dices. And the counter from Shara, even obstructed, is as good as two black dices when it comes to damage output. Probably JF would not be that good against TIE Interceptors for instance.

The fighters ecounter ended up with two of his decimator barely put, with 2 and 3 hull points left. All of my non-named A's dead and my Aces still fliying. Considering the fleet points (1x decimator = 2x A'a) it was an even exchange, but he couldt use any of those to ram my ships with those nasty blue dices, so in the end JF gave my screen way more survivability.

As for the Snipe, i dont think it would make such a difference since JF affects any attacking or deffending squadron within its range (1-2) and Snipe is considered an attack so if youre trying to snipe INTO the JF or OUT FROM the JF the result would be the same, taking one dice out of your pool.

I'm thinking defensively. JF limits snipe into the bubble. Then, since snipers don't engage, you're free to activate, move out and shoot, then the ship follows and reestablishes jamming.

Same as before, only easier, since snipers don't engage.

I still think JF was a missed opportunity for FFG. It hurts too much when I try to go on the offensive, even if I do move outside the bubble. If it would stack with obstruction, I might actually use it. Or obstruct ships attacking squads. But as it is...nope.

But what you are saying, move the snipe outside the bubble to take your shots, and then bring the ship up to cover it is interesting. I still think Snipe is too expensive to justify running more than 2 E-Wings. X-Wings just do a better job, and with Biggs it makes it even harder to kill them. And I really think Snipe should have been offered to Imps. Saber is great, but man do I want more than 1 snipe.

I think JF is stronger for Imps because their squads have less hull. 3v2 dice makes a big difference. Where as 3v2 or even 4v3 on Rebels doesn't matter. If you roll max on 3 dice, you still have to devote another full attack on it to kill it.

Maybe if you run Gallant Haven and JF with Jan and Biggs with YT-1300s, you can make a slow rolling ball of doom, but that seems expensive to justify.

Jamming field is a great upgrade for fighter builds, especially those you plan to activate through your floatillas. I ran a Rhymerball with a cluster of advanced and defenders. The rebels were using E-wings and while they did get to forgo the escort effect on the tie advanceds to attack the bombers, the attacks they launched against my bombers were almost completely ineffective. Squadrons throw so few dice, even just removing one per attack can change the paradigm of a match. Floatillas with JF are great for escorting bombers.

My favorite type of fleet, since the release of the ISD, has been the pulse tap Avenger combo. Using a Raider, Victory, or even a second Imperial to PT the enemy while Avenger dishes out a guaranteed minimum of 7 damage all the way up to 14. With gunnery teams and screed I have sank two full health liberties in a single round. That said, I'm finding removing the pulse tap ship and replacing it with 3 gozantis and bombers in combo with Avenger adds a very sweet level of stress to enemy decisions. They can either use their DF tokens to stop the bombers from dishing out little bits of hurt at a time, or, they can take that hurt and save the DF tokens for the avenger which hits hard every time. I run two of the gozantis with JF, and the one with bomber command uses tua and ECMs to stay in the fight longer.

http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=75137&key=c106ac1df9f152f707b16ff6e0a7f4ee

Love JF, I think it's a decent counter to snipe.

My thought has always been to use JF to cover my Imp ACES after their alpha strike, so maybe they don't just die in 1 turn of return fire after picking off the main enemy target (Rhymer, Jan, etc), allowing me to bring up my own intel the next turn and get a second "alpha" killing attack (on their reserve intel or whatever they are Bringing up/Keeping-back).

Hmm, maybe JFs with Phantoms is a thing?

2 minutes ago, Thraug said:

Hmm, maybe JFs with Phantoms is a thing?

Was just thinking this... Certainly makes moving into or out of both friendly and unfriendly fields much easier... Effectively increasing your 14 point squad's 4 hull value has to be a good thing... Having flotilla near the fight though when you could be relaying from a remote corner of the map is a consideration though....

2 hours ago, Thraug said:

Hmm, maybe JFs with Phantoms is a thing?

I'm loving this, conceptually. Gonna have to put it on the table.

Keep it coming...good ideas surfacing...

Run JF with a Blount swarm. Keep the Z-95s n Blount in the bubble. You will lose a red die, but that isn't a terribly bad thing to lose. But your opponent will lose blues or blacks, which means less reliable damage coming in. With Swarm and Blount, you can really make those 2 reds count. 3 rolls on a single red is really good, and you can run quite a bit of these suckers.

You do realize that JF can be turned off. Pg 8 (I think) under upgrades says that you don't have to use it. In fact it is worded so that you can turn it on when are attacked, turn it off when you attack back, then turn it back on if attacked again. It really is a good upgrade.

Just now, Commander Czym said:

You do realize that JF can be turned off. Pg 8 (I think) under upgrades says that you don't have to use it. In fact it is worded so that you can turn it on when are attacked, turn it off when you attack back, then turn it back on if attacked again. It really is a good upgrade.

This was subject of Debate

The Debate was ended when it was Eratta'd in the FAQ to be always on.

2 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

This was subject of Debate

The Debate was ended when it was Eratta'd in the FAQ to be always on.

And the source of 1/2 of my Gozantis.

Thanks, @Versch

20 hours ago, Thraug said:

Hmm, maybe JFs with Phantoms is a thing?

I was messing around with this concept as soon as I saw the cloak & it just didn't seem to pan out... Mostly due to the fact that they get shot, then move back into it after it's too late.

Maybe I was looking wrong.... Maybe get shot while in it, then cloak forward OUT OF IT for the next turn: shoot and move back into it?

23 minutes ago, SirDave said:

I was messing around with this concept as soon as I saw the cloak & it just didn't seem to pan out... Mostly due to the fact that they get shot, then move back into it after it's too late.

Maybe I was looking wrong.... Maybe get shot while in it, then cloak forward OUT OF IT for the next turn: shoot and move back into it?

Yes I think the timing and positioning can be difficult... You sort of have to wait in the field for squads to shoot you, then activate move out of the field shoot, then cloak back into the field....

I guess you could use it for a gozanti escorting a rhymer ball. The gozanti will keep the bombers inside its field untill it can give the squadron command to the rymer ball and push it out. All you need is a JM5k for intel to keep the bombers from being tied up jamming field makes anti-squadron fire not as effective, ignore the screen and punch through to the ships.

2 hours ago, Marinealver said:

I guess you could use it for a gozanti escorting a rhymer ball. The gozanti will keep the bombers inside its field untill it can give the squadron command to the rymer ball and push it out. All you need is a JM5k for intel to keep the bombers from being tied up jamming field makes anti-squadron fire not as effective, ignore the screen and punch through to the ships.

That is what I am planning on testing tomorrow marinealver, so I'll let you know what happens!

@Marinealver Oh god it was good. Until the flotilla got blown up by a passing assault frigate.

It's good, and for 2 points, it's worthwhile whacking on a flotilla you need for squadron pushing anyway. The problem is, it requires you to put the flotilla in a specific position, and potentially a very dangerous one. Worth a bit more exploring though.

1 hour ago, herod1204 said:

@Marinealver Oh god it was good. Until the flotilla got blown up by a passing assault frigate.

It's good, and for 2 points, it's worthwhile whacking on a flotilla you need for squadron pushing anyway. The problem is, it requires you to put the flotilla in a specific position, and potentially a very dangerous one. Worth a bit more exploring though.

In comes Tua and ECMs ;D

Nothing more frustrating than making an already hard to hit ship impossible to hit! Well, at least for one shot.

lol

1 hour ago, herod1204 said:

It's good, and for 2 points, it's worthwhile whacking on a flotilla you need for squadron pushing anyway. The problem is, it requires you to put the flotilla in a specific position, and potentially a very dangerous one. Worth a bit more exploring though.

Since you are going to plan on being close anyway, maybe tack on the little used Suppressor for extra fun?

2 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

In comes Tua and ECMs ;D

Nothing more frustrating than making an already hard to hit ship impossible to hit! Well, at least for one shot.

lol

But at that point, you are paying an extra 9 points for it, which is making it a little bit too expensive for my tastes. I'd rather keep Tua for a bigger and more expensive ship, or a lifeboat flottia to be honest.

1 hour ago, SirDave said:

Since you are going to plan on being close anyway, maybe tack on the little used Suppressor for extra fun?

Ooooo. That is a decent idea. It's a shame the Gozanti's don't have a more defensive title for this sort of role.

17 minutes ago, herod1204 said:

But at that point, you are paying an extra 9 points for it, which is making it a little bit too expensive for my tastes. I'd rather keep Tua for a bigger and more expensive ship, or a lifeboat flottia to be honest.

Ooooo. That is a decent idea. It's a shame the Gozanti's don't have a more defensive title for this sort of role.

(Un)surprisingly this kind of ship (Supressor/Tua/ECM/EHB/Jamming Field) was used in a fleet that ended up winning Boston regional.

Wow. 43 points... on a flotilla.

It just begs to be double-rammed by an ET CR90 while screaming "Who is the big boy on the block, huh?" "Say my name..."

18 hours ago, pt106 said:

(Un)surprisingly this kind of ship (Supressor/Tua/ECM/EHB/Jamming Field) was used in a fleet that ended up winning Boston regional.

I've only played with it once, and I'm not the greatest player, so read into the relatively rapid destruction of my jamming field gozanti as you will! I think I have a natural aversion to high cost flotillas, possibly due to my habit of running H9's to pop them more easily.

Just had a look at that Boston list, and my god it looks beyond my abilities to play! Problem is, that jamming field flotilla is part of my CC fleet, and I really want Tua elsewhere...