I've seen a few vague pays saying that Youngster can only share EPT's with an action, but that makes no sense based on the actual wording on the card. I see no reason why he can't share Snap Shot with a TIE swarm. What am I missing?

The fact that the card specifies "action"...

Snap Shot is not an action.

" Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Upgrade card. "

Performing actions is a very specific thing in x-wing, it doesn't just mean 'do the thing'.

That means Youngster can only share the 6 EPT cards that specifically say Action then? Expose would be the only one even worth considering, why even make that an ability then?

Marksmanship is another I've seen run.

36 minutes ago, Javelin said:

That means Youngster can only share the 6 EPT cards that specifically say Action then? Expose would be the only one even worth considering, why even make that an ability then?

Yes, he can only share those 6 right now, and no, Expose isn't worth it. Youngster just isn't very good from a competitive point of view as yet.

Rage can work if you also bring Epsilon Leader, but it's a bit too jank to be reliable.

Sometimes FFG swing and miss. WIth Youngster extant they really have to have a care for the power level of their action EPTs now.

32 minutes ago, Javelin said:

That means Youngster can only share the 6 EPT cards that specifically say Action then? Expose would be the only one even worth considering, why even make that an ability then?

If it could just share any ability it could easily become broken beyond compare. Why take Howlrunner if you could just take Youngster w/ Predator and possibly get more rerolls at at longer range and rerolls for Youngster as well? That may even be the simplest comparison.

Maybe we could ask a different question: why does Youngster even need an ability? I mean he is the cheapest PS 6 pilot available and he's got that EPT slot to play around with. There are time you fly it and don't care about trying to utilize his ability.

Maybe you think Expose and it's 4 points are the only thing to consider but I very much disagree. Unless a ship is getting mods from something else spending the action for another attack die isn't much different from just taking Focus (3x1/2=3/2 vs 2x3/4=3/2). I think some of the other choices could be more interesting:

• Rage: Ok, not one you'd probably want to use every round but it could still give those TIE Fighters a focus token and plenty of reroll potential.
• Expert Handling: A way for your ships to ditch TLs. May not get used much but may get used a lot more than you might think.
• Squad Leader: A UNIQUE upgrade that you're now letting a bunch of ships use. A higher PS ship doesn't need its Action for some reason it can now pass it down to a lower PS ship that might be in a great position to use that action.
• Daredevil: While the hard 1 turn as an action is sometimes useful you probably don't want to use this one without Boost in your action bar.
• Marksmanship: An upgrade you probably wouldn't use anyway although if you could get it without paying for it and you know you aren't going to need a Focus for Defense... still probably not.

Where I using Youngster and wanted to share my Action ability I'd just be looking at one of the cheapest ones. Remember that not only would the lower PS ships get the chance to use it but the higher PS TIE Fighters do as well so in a way you could be giving some of them two EPTs.

Now if you want the tricky discussion when it comes to Youngster consider the Experimental Interface on another ship. Youngster may let other ships use his Action EPT but that EPT is not equipped to those other ships so EI wouldn't see the EPT on Youngster.

Youngster can add Rage to a full 8-TIE swarm. That's nothing to sneeze at.

1 hour ago, Javelin said:

That means Youngster can only share the 6 EPT cards that specifically say Action then? Expose would be the only one even worth considering, why even make that an ability then?

Don't use Expose, it's terrible. It's never worth considering. Otherwise, you're right; he only works with those handful of upgrades. Youngster is just not that great. He can certainly be a lot of fun, though. Try him with Marksmanship or Rage and Epsilon Leader (I think that's the right one. The one that strips a stress from every ally at R1). Basically, it allows a lot of Mooks access to a few mediocre Elites, or allows you to combine some with the higher PS pilots.

From a cost point, Youngster's not that bad considering he adds a free action-based EPT to any TIE Fighter close enough to benefit. And at 15 points plus the EPT, that's still pretty cheap. Sure, some of those EPTs aren't really suited, but the objective was to create a slightly more dangerous formation of TIE Fighters for no extra cost per ship.

Objective achieved.

Thanks for the responses! You really cleared it up for me. Squad Leader might be fun to try on him.

1 hour ago, Javelin said:

Thanks for the responses! You really cleared it up for me. Squad Leader might be fun to try on him.

When using Squad Leader you need to remember its limitation as the Action gets passed to a lower PS ship. In some of the cases when you use Youngster with a bunch of ships at the same PS it really wouldn't do much good.

I suspect that Youngster is a ship waiting for the right upgrade to be released. As soon as the right EPT is released, Yougster should start seeing some table time.

On 1/28/2017 at 5:42 PM, thespaceinvader said:

Yes, he can only share those 6 right now, and no, Expose isn't worth it. Youngster just isn't very good from a competitive point of view as yet.

Rage can work if you also bring Epsilon Leader, but it's a bit too jank to be reliable.

Sometimes FFG swing and miss. WIth Youngster extant they really have to have a care for the power level of their action EPTs now.

I recently tried out a Tie Swarm with Rage on Youngster and Epsilon Leader to remove one of the stresses.

I like it. I'm going to make a few changes, but it's fun and makes those Ties much more dangerous. You can run it with 4 Crack Shot Black Squadron Pilots with Twin Ion Engines to give more green moves.